So There Were No Martial Arts?

One introduction after another followed, and at last it was Shangguan Che's turn.

Shangguan Che had just stood up to introduce himself when a loud noise interrupted him.

Bang—

The sound came from the tall, red-haired boy two seats to Shangguan Che's right.

"I'm not here to introduce myself like some little kid or make friends!"

Come on, man, couldn't you wait until I sat down to interrupt me? This is kind of awkward. Shangguan Che grumbled to himself as he sat back down.

"If this student doesn't want to introduce himself, I won't force him. I only thought it might help everyone get to know one another more quickly. There's nothing wrong with that." The sunny, boy-next-door type, Hirata, immediately tried to calm the red-haired boy's seemingly unprovoked—or perhaps downright bizarre—anger.

"It's not like introducing yourself is such a big deal," added a girl with honey-colored hair.

"Shut up. What's it got to do with you?"

The red-haired boy, already branded a delinquent, left the classroom under everyone's gaze. After he led the way, several more students followed, one after another.

Watching the girl on his left leave, Shangguan Che thought for a moment, then stood up.

"Is everyone ready? I'm going to introduce myself now."

"We're ready. Go ahead, introduce yourself," Hirata, the sunny boy, was once again the first to respond.

"All right. Hello, everyone. My name is Shangguan Che. I'm a homebody, so I don't really like going out to have fun. One thing about me is that I can speak five languages: Japanese, Chinese, French, English, and Russian. I look forward to getting along with you all."

Everyone wanted to seem impressive, didn't they?

At Shangguan Che's initiative, the introductions started up again. His target, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, hadn't left either, and it would soon be his turn to introduce himself.

Shangguan Che unconsciously clenched his fists and stared straight at him.

After listening to Ayanokoji's introduction,

Is Ayanokoji socially anxious? Shangguan Che wondered. Or is he just bad at socializing?

Before Shangguan Che could think any further, the sunny boy, Hirata, smoothly rescued Ayanokoji from the awkward silence and moved on to the next person.

Then Shangguan Che went with his classmates to the auditorium for the opening ceremony.

This isn't any different from the world I came from. School speeches are all the same. This is supposed to be a world with a chuunibyou spirit, so why is everything so ordinary?

Shangguan Che's thoughts came to a halt when the Student Council President, Horikita Manabu, said, "We value both academic and athletic achievement."

After giving it some thought, Shangguan Che was sure he'd ended up in a slice-of-life high school world. That meant he'd learned about the highest level of force in Japan. Was that control over a nuclear power plant explosion, or over the release of treated nuclear wastewater?

Once the opening ceremony was over, Shangguan Che went his separate way, just like everyone else.

Seeing that the four unread emails were still there, Shangguan Che decided he should get back to his dorm quickly and look at them somewhere private—in other words, somewhere no one else was around.

After taking his room key card and dormitory guide from the dorm supervisor, Shangguan Che arrived at his room, 404.

He thought the number suited him pretty well.

With a beep, Shangguan Che opened the door and went inside. The room was quite clean, with a bathroom, a bedroom, and a kitchen. Besides a bed, there were two desks in the bedroom.

Shangguan Che lay on the bed, rested his right arm over his eyes, and began checking the system emails.

The first one.

[You can increase your own attributes by spending points. Raising an attribute by one point costs 10,000 points if its current value is 6 or less. Raising it from 6 to 7 costs 100,000, and from 7 to 8 costs 1,000,000. The cost increases tenfold each time.]

[Name: Shangguan Che]

[Strength: 3]

[Speed: 5]

[Stamina: 4]

[Intelligence: 6] (Unrelated to IQ. This only affects things like speed of thought and memory.)

[Charm: 7] (Related to your initial affinity.)

Shangguan Che immediately sat up, took out his phone, and stared at his 100,000 points, deep in thought.

Three points in strength, one in speed, and two in stamina. A balanced build.

That would cost 60,000, leaving 40,000. Enough.

After deciding how to allocate the points, Shangguan Che lay back down.

The second one.

[Character Introduction]

[One of the people who needs help]

[Name: Sakura Airi (Blue)]

[Photos (Two)]

[You should have a general idea after seeing the two photos.

Talk to her more and become friends with Sakura. Help her study—proper academic subjects, that is.

Sakura Airi is friendly, so don't be timid. Go for it.

At the very least, become friends. Whether you become something more is up to the two of you.

In my opinion, the most reliable and likely way to help her is to study together for two years.

And finally, if you can't help this person, don't ever come back. I couldn't bear to face you. Remember, give it everything you've got.]

Looks like I'm pretty fixated on this person. I'll just do what I said, then.

The name was a different color from the previous one, so maybe the colors meant something. Hard to tell with so few examples. Let's see the next one.

[Character Introduction]

[One of the people who needs help]

[Name: Hirata Yosuke (Bright Gold)]

[Photo]

[I originally wanted to include two photos, but I can only fit one. You only get one chance to include two photos.

Become Hirata's closest friend.

Think about where our idea of closest friends came from. That's right: Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru. They may have gone their separate ways and ended up on opposite sides, but they were still lifelong friends.

We have to help him as much as we can, using your brains and your shamelessness.

You say you don't have any shamelessness? Then hurry up and develop some. As a transmigrator, you'll have a hard time surviving without it. Keep at it. I believe in you.

The reason you should keep helping Hirata is simple: "Those who gather firewood for others must not be left to freeze to death in the snow." He's a good person, and that's enough for me.

Go on, help him. Hirata has failed at doing the good things he wants to do. You have to teach him how. That's what I think would help him most.]

Guess I'll do it, even if it's a bit of a pain. Shangguan Che thought about the sunny boy he'd met that day, then sighed.

I'll keep an eye on Yosuke Hirata and see what his idea of doing good is. Friendship? Romance seems unlikely. Or maybe it's just looking after other people's feelings.

The last one.

[Character Introduction]

[One of the people who needs help]

[Name: Karuizawa Kei (White)]

[Photo]

[Put a stop to campus bullying. It starts with you, me, and everyone else.

Got it? Pay more attention to her. Keep an eye on her, and think about why the bullying happens and what might happen next. If you let her show her true self naturally one day, I'll consider that helping her.

Do your best. Try to draw a martial arts skill.]

After looking at the information on Karuizawa Kei and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Shangguan Che thought he understood why he'd felt uneasy despite thinking the ten-pull had gone pretty well. It turned out he had no martial arts skills.

Do the colors of their names represent how friendly I am toward them—that is, how much I like them? Is it as a reader or as a classmate? It should be as a classmate.

Who likes a guy best in a harem high school slice-of-life novel? Shangguan Che grumbled about the colors he'd assigned to the characters.