Classroom Performance

"Look, Yuto. Does this eraser look familiar?"

That evening, in Amasawa Yuto's room, Yuki suddenly pulled an eraser from her pocket and showed it off to him.

Yuto stared at it. For a moment, he thought there was something wrong with the writing on the wrapper, and it took him a while to realize what it was.

"That's the kind the White Room instructors handed out for every exam."

In the White Room, everyone wore loose white clothes and had no personal belongings apart from toiletries and a change of clothes. Even the stationery they used for their daily lessons and exams was handed out by the instructors on the spot.

And this was the kind of eraser they used.

"Looks like the White Room's supplier has ties to this school, too. Though, since Chairman Sakayanagi was involved with both, maybe he arranged it."

Seeing a familiar item from the White Room after eight years, Yuto couldn't help but lose himself in the memory.

It was as if he'd gone back to the day Kiyotaka disappeared.

"By the way, Yuki, I didn't recognize it at first because the White Room changed locations after you left. Then, after it moved to the new facility, they stopped using this kind of eraser. So I hadn't seen one like this in eight or nine years. That's why it took me a moment."

"Hmph, excuses. I recognized it right away. In the end, you just didn't remember it well enough. Ah, your feelings have faded." Yuki toyed with the eraser, looking unusually cheerful.

This was what Yuki had really been like. Watching her, Yuto saw the girl she'd shown herself to be in the White Room.

After all, she was the kind of child who could strike up a conversation with someone there and smile happily.

After coming to this world, Yuto had to admit he'd underestimated the White Room. That place was a living hell.

Stay there long enough, and even the strongest emotions would be ground away.

It wasn't just Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, who had always been a superhumanly emotionless machine. Even Yuto, who had once been an ordinary person, had gradually begun to resemble him after spending fifteen years in the White Room.

His emotions had grown more muted, and he couldn't remember how long it had been since he'd last smiled.

Like the equivalent exchange of alchemy, he'd gained tremendous power but lost his emotions.

Perhaps he'd come to this school because, like the original Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, he wanted to find the feelings he'd lost.

He didn't know what would happen next in the story, but Yuto was sure it had to be about a coldhearted boy gradually being healed by others and finding redemption, right?

If so, perhaps he and Yuki could find redemption here, too.

Maybe that was why he and Yuki had come to this school.

Formal classes began the next day, and Yuto met the homeroom teachers for the various classes.

Since each teacher taught all four classes, their homeroom teacher, Mashima Tomoya, taught English to Classes A, B, C, and D.

There was also Sakagami Kazuma, the Class C homeroom teacher who taught chemistry, and Chabashira Sae, the Class D homeroom teacher who taught history.

The Class B homeroom teacher, Hoshinomiya Chie, didn't teach classes. She was the school nurse in the Infirmary.

Teacher Mashima was good at teaching and took his responsibility toward his students seriously.

Yuto had thought Chabashira Sae's laid-back attitude meant she'd phone in her classes, but she was unexpectedly diligent and taught quite well. Every now and then, she even cracked a little joke.

Of course, Class A had a very good learning environment. Even if Katsuragi hadn't suggested that everyone put their best foot forward, they would probably have paid attention anyway, since the class already had the highest average academic level of the four.

Everyone listened attentively in class. No one made a fuss or chatted.

Even Sakayanagi was taking notes diligently.

It seemed a teacher's enthusiasm for teaching could change depending on how cooperative the students were.

History hadn't been a priority in the White Room, so Amasawa Yuto had only learned the basics. He found some of the explanations pretty interesting.

Yuto found the science classes a little dull. He'd mastered the material back when he was six or seven, and now he had to listen to it all over again.

Especially since Teacher Sakagami taught in the standard serious, old-fashioned manner.

Class D was a different scene altogether. Some students slept, others chatted or secretly played on their phones or game consoles, and still others zoned out. There were even students with their feet up on their desks.

The teachers at the front of the room turned a blind eye. They carried on with their lectures as if nothing was wrong, even though probably only a few students were actually listening. They didn't reprimand anyone, and when class ended, they left without keeping the students behind.

Although Tsubaki Yuki had left the White Room at seven, she'd already mastered the basic knowledge taught over the three years of high school, so she was a little absent-minded during class.

And that noisy bunch of problem students—did they even realize they were disturbing everyone else? It didn't look like they did. Maybe she'd expected too much of their moral standards.

And there was Koenji, casually propping his feet on his desk in the middle of class and combing his hair in the mirror.

Wouldn't his hair fall out if he spent that long combing it? Even she lost quite a bit of hair when she washed her long hair every day.

Horikita Suzune, sitting beside her, took notes diligently even in that environment.

It was only the second day, but the class was already beginning to form small cliques.

First, among the boys, most of them kept to themselves. A few boys spent time around Yosuke Hirata, but there were even more girls around him.

Then there were Kanji Ike, Haruki Yamauchi, and Ken Sudō in the corner. The girls privately called them "The Idiot Trio." They were slovenly and noisy every day, the textbook example of underachievers.

As for the girls, they could basically be divided into three groups. The first was the largest, centered around Kushida Kikyo. The second was a small circle around Kei Karuizawa. The third consisted of outsiders like her and Horikita.

But she was different from Horikita. At least she maintained basic social ties with the girls. Horikita had completely cut herself off from the class.

In fact, Kushida Kikyo had asked her the day before if she had Horikita's contact information. Sorry, Kushida, but even though Tsubaki Yuki sat next to her, she didn't have Horikita's contact information either.

So far, Tsubaki Yuki had found four such outsiders: herself, Horikita Suzune, the country-bumpkin girl with red twin tails, Sakura Airi, and Hasebe Haruka, a blue-haired girl with a great figure.

Incidentally, the reason Kei Karuizawa had managed to form a small circle outside of Kushida Kikyo's group was that she'd announced she was dating Yosuke Hirata on the second day of school.

They hadn't known each other before, so Tsubaki wondered whether the two of them had really gotten to know each other before starting a relationship at lightning speed on the second day of school.

Still, people around them would probably think less of both of them. A quick, casual relationship made it seem like they didn't take feelings seriously.

The girls who also liked Yosuke Hirata and had lost their chance to be his girlfriend naturally resented Kei Karuizawa.

But Kei Karuizawa didn't seem to care. She seemed like a very assertive girl, which fit her gyaru image perfectly.

Sato Maya, Shinohara Satsuki, and Matsushita Chiaki, who were often with her, seemed to have the same gyaru look.