His body had truly memorized the responses, and was gradually undergoing step-by-step changes.
But the gym's Membership Card didn't seem to include three meals a day. Once the workout ended, an unmistakable hunger surged through him, and his body craved more energy to make the gains stick.
Asakusa Toru should have replenished that energy last night, but Advanced Nurturing didn't provide late-night meals. The cafeteria closed at nine, so he'd had no choice but to make do with something from the convenience store.
But convenience stores weren't exactly ideal for eating a lot. Whether you considered value for money or taste, they were lacking. And while his body craved energy, his stomach couldn't hold more than it could handle, so he'd settled for eating again this morning.
He'd probably be turning into a big eater for quite a while.
"Morning~"
"Good morning."
"Mhm, good morning, good morning."
As soon as he entered Class B, a strong sense of friendliness among classmates washed over him. Everyone was on good terms, warm and welcoming, and the atmosphere was so harmonious and sunny it hardly felt like a Japanese high school.
Without a care, Asakusa Toru raised a hand.
"Morning."
"Good mor—ning?" The short-haired brunette instinctively turned to greet him, but the greeting that had just risen to her throat wouldn't come out.
Because the Asakusa Toru she saw was someone she couldn't find any trace of in her memory.
Huh? Wait, who was he? Was he in our class?
Confusion welled up inside her.
The girl's brows furrowed slightly, and the petal-shaped hair clip swayed with the movement of her hair. No matter how hard she tried, Shiranami Chihiro couldn't find this guy anywhere in her memory.
Asakusa Toru didn't pay any attention to her strange reaction. He simply found his seat.
He sat down.
Perhaps because Shiranami Chihiro's reaction had been so obvious, the classmates around her couldn't help following her gaze and noticing Asakusa Toru.
Especially the seat where Asakusa Toru was sitting.
"Hey, look. Isn't that seat..."
"Didn't Hoshinomiya-sensei say he'd given up on enrolling...?"
"Did something happen, and he end up being a day late?"
"I think his name was... Asakusa, right?"
"Should we go say hi?"
"You go. I'm too nervous."
"But he didn't come yesterday, and nobody's talked to him today. He must be lonely..."
The classmates' chatter soon turned into a discussion about Asakusa Toru, their whispers making him the focus of their conversation.
Still, rather than speaking ill of him, they seemed more inclined to assume the best.
"Asakusa... Toru..." Ichinose Honami turned around and looked at him, lightly biting her lower lip. Her face was full of hesitation.
Should she go say hello? Ask why he'd been absent yesterday? Ask why he'd been with someone from Class C? Or maybe ask...
Just as Ichinose Honami hesitated, the door to Class B opened.
"Good morning, everyone. You all feeling energetic today? Haaah..." Hoshinomiya Chie walked slowly into the classroom, yawning.
Chapter 17: Horikita Suzune Was Looking for a Pseudo-human
"Ugh, you reek of booze! Sensei, you smell like alcohol!"
When their teacher entered the classroom, the students put aside their plans to greet Asakusa Toru and turned their attention to Hoshinomiya Chie.
Shiranami Chihiro, who was closest to her, made the same choice.
But the moment she turned around, the pungent smell hit her, and she couldn't help pinching her nose and crying out.
"It's fine, it'll be gone by noon." Hoshinomiya Chie waved a hand, completely at ease.
She'd already seemed a bit unreliable yesterday, but today... she seemed even more so.
"Anyway, class is starting. Everyone, get back to your seats," she said.
A student's duty was to study, and a student's daily life was to attend class.
But since it was their first official day of lessons, Hoshinomiya only went over some general guidance on their approach to studying.
Well, even if classes had officially started, it made little difference to Asakusa Toru.
He'd already mastered most of what they were covering, so it didn't really matter whether he paid attention.
Still, even if he didn't listen, there was nothing stopping him from staying in the classroom.
Whether he attended class or not didn't make much difference to Asakusa Toru. Even if he skipped school whenever he pleased, his efforts alone could only cost his class a few dozen Class Points at most.
But there was no need for that.
Advanced Nurturing was a closed campus. It had all kinds of facilities, but there wasn't much to do outside class anyway.
Besides, even if Class Points were better than nothing, they were tied to the money he received each month. If he could lose fewer points, he might as well.
More importantly, even if the students in Class B were mostly little angels, he could still draw everyone's ire by acting too brazenly. It'd be bad if he ended up as a sacrificial lamb and got expelled in a future Special Exam.
...He'd find a chance to hand over the information later.
That way, when Ryuen showed up and realized Class B still didn't know about the Special Exam, he wouldn't sell them the information all over again to recoup his losses while Asakusa was away.
Turning in the information a day late would at least let him justify the two million points to Ryuen.
With that thought, Asakusa Toru stopped dwelling on it and began reviewing the fight at the White Room last night.
Amasawa Ichika's attacks followed certain tendencies. Her opening move never changed, but she adjusted it constantly based on how he responded. Still, her attacks had an overall pattern.
There was something her attacks were communicating.
If he could understand it, perhaps he could improve not only his physical abilities but also his combat skills.
This was probably part of the "lesson."
As he recalled and thought through last night's battle, the bell soon rang.
"..."
Ichinose Honami had hesitated throughout the entire class, but at last she made up her mind.
She would talk to him. Only by taking the first step could anything come after.
She couldn't stand still.
But just as she got to her feet, Hoshinomiya Chie, who had announced the end of class, continued, "Oh, and Asakusa, come to the teachers' office with me."
"I think it'd be good for us to have a nice, long talk."
And so the courage Ichinose Honami had just worked up was interrupted once again.
Elsewhere, in Class 1-D.
Unlike Asakusa Toru, who'd slept soundly, Horikita Suzune hadn't slept well at all.
She'd already been unable to sleep for half the night. After searching to find out what a Pseudo-human was, she'd been even less able to sleep.
Did something like that exist in this world? And was one in her class?
If there really was one, then who was it?
With that thought in mind, the moment she took her seat after arriving in class, she couldn't help observing her classmates.
First was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who sat beside her.
He didn't look very bright, and he'd ridden the same bus as her on the first day. He claimed to be a loner, and since school began, he seemed to have spoken only to her.
...He didn't seem like a Pseudo-human.
Next was Kushida Kikyo, chatting comfortably with everyone from across the room.
She was highly sociable and could get along with anyone. She'd also been on the same bus as Horikita on the first day and had even encouraged people to give their seats to an old woman.
A Pseudo-human probably wouldn't be so good at dealing with people.
Then there was Hirata Yosuke, who seemed to be becoming the center of the class.
Before the opening ceremony yesterday, he'd brought the class together and gotten everyone talking, suggesting that they take turns introducing themselves. He was more or less the same kind of person as Kushida Kikyo.
He could be ruled out as a Pseudo-human.
As for the others...
To be honest, even though Hirata had suggested introductions yesterday, she hadn't gone along with it. She believed she didn't need unnecessary socializing, so after Sudo Kanji left, she'd left too.
As a result, she hadn't heard any of the other students' introductions.
Thinking about it now, even if she didn't need to socialize, there was no harm in simply listening and learning about the classmates she'd be with for the next three years.
...But she wouldn't regret it.
Even if she could do it all over again, Horikita Suzune would make the same choice.
Besides, the information people gave during self-introductions wasn't necessarily true. It was hard enough for people to judge themselves accurately, let alone tell others about themselves.
That's right. At a time like this, she only needed to rely on herself.
Horikita Suzune had confidence in her ability to observe people.
"Ah, I really wanna date Kushida!"
"She's so cute and charming, and she's gentle. Plus, she's got a big chest. The chest is the main thing. I bet it'd feel amazing to bury my face in there!"
"Hey, hey, Kushida's mine, so don't go fantasizing about her, okay?"
When Horikita Suzune turned around and swept her gaze over the people behind her, she clearly heard the voices of three boys who had, at some point, gathered into a little group.
They were voicing their desires without the slightest restraint, completely ignoring the disgusted looks of those around them and indulging their fantasies without a care.
Sudo Kanji, Ike Kanji, and... Yamauchi Haruki?
...Were there really people who'd so brazenly fantasize about a classmate?
Doubt rose in Horikita Suzune's heart.
Perhaps there was a Pseudo-human among those three.
Chapter 18: Two Scumbags
"Asakusa, you know why I called you here, right?"
Hoshinomiya Chie sat behind her desk, smiling as she looked up at Asakusa Toru, whom she'd summoned. After one class, most of the smell of alcohol had worn off.
"Eh? What could it be? I haven't the faintest idea," Asakusa Toru said without the slightest hesitation.
Of course, he knew why Hoshinomiya Chie had called him over.
It could only be his absence on the first day, or the reason he'd been hanging around with Class C.
But putting everything else aside, if he didn't have to consider the fact that she was a teacher, Asakusa Toru really didn't feel like dealing with this woman.
After all, in his impression, Hoshinomiya Chie had nothing that could be called "professional ethics."
Coming to class with the smell of alcohol still on her, without even having sobered up or taken a bath, wasn't because school had just started. Nor was it because something unexpected had happened in her personal life.
It was simply because she was like this all the time.
In both personality and nature, she was rotten to the core. The only thing she had going for her was her face. This was Hoshinomiya Chie, the homeroom teacher of Class B in their first year.
Speaking of Hoshinomiya Chie, she couldn't be mentioned without bringing up her close friend and bestie, Chabashira Sae. They'd once been classmates, and Chabashira had also attended Advanced Nurturing, where she was now the homeroom teacher of Class 1-D.
They really were best friends. Both of them were first-rate scumbags.
Before you continue