Considering all this, after recalling the plot of Classroom of the Elite, Asakusa Toru had finally decided to write that kind of entry.
He wanted to leave himself some room to maneuver, make sure there were spoilers without giving too much away, and see if he could provoke whoever read them.
He couldn't be sure exactly who had received the diaries, but if he tested them one by one in order, someone was bound to slip up.
As long as he figured out their identities, he could hit them with pointed spoilers. He didn't believe they could keep from showing an emotional reaction.
"But... Advanced Nurturing High School." Looking at the words in the diary after the current point in the plot, Asakusa Toru let out a quiet sigh. "Strangely, it feels exactly as expected."
As mentioned before, this was a giant crossover world.
There was the Shinomiya Group, the Koenji Group, the Toyokawa Group, and the Suzuki Group. Aside from the Speedwagon Foundation, it seemed like all the usual conglomerates were here.
There were the girl bands putting on live shows everywhere, Hoshino Ai, an idol who came along once in a hundred years, and a shut-in who'd been scared to death by a tractor.
Though he hadn't seen any signs of supernatural phenomena so far, characters from all kinds of works were here in full force.
The reason Asakusa Toru felt it was exactly as expected was simple.
He'd met them.
Whether it was the emotionless masterpiece, the sickly genius with a love-struck brain and white stockings, or the well-liked, kindhearted, curvy beauty—
He'd met them all.
He didn't know whether they remembered someone like him, but when he realized he'd be enrolling at Advanced Nurturing High School, and that his cheat ability was even connected to them, Asakusa Toru found, to his surprise, that he wasn't surprised at all.
"I hope this doesn't become a clue that exposes my identity." He shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.
Things had come this far. There was no way to go back and change anything. Thinking it over, while keeping one's identity secret was important for a diary-based power, as long as he was careful, even if his cover was blown, it would be a long time from now.
"What matters now..."
Was, of course, the reward.
The reward for his first diary entry.
[Today's entry is complete. This entry received an 'A' rating. Drawing reward...] [Draw successful. Congratulations, you have obtained the item 'Infinite Voice Recorder'.]
Black-and-white text appeared before his eyes, while a cold voice echoed in his ears. The voice slowly faded, and the words gradually disappeared.
Then, a seemingly ordinary voice recorder dropped out of thin air.
Chapter 3: I'm a Voice Recorder Master
"Infinite Voice Recorder?" At the name, Asakusa Toru's face took on an odd expression.
An A rating meant it probably wasn't a bad item, but... a "voice recorder"? Was that really intentional?
From what he knew, in the work Welcome to the Classroom of the Elite—hereafter referred to as Classroom of the Elite—a voice recorder was a ridiculously overpowered item. If you weren't prepared for it, it could take down almost anyone on the first try.
In a sense, Classroom of the Elite could even be called Classroom of the Voice Recorder Elite.
Incidentally, similar alternate titles included Classroom of the Strongest and Classroom of the Best Background.
Well, when you got down to it, Advanced Nurturing was basically a vocational school, so those nicknames weren't exactly wrong.
Still, no matter how you looked at it, getting handed a voice recorder right at the start was a little strange.
"...Whatever." Whether it was intentional or not, now that he'd received it as a reward, he wasn't about to turn it down, even if he left it to gather dust. He had plenty to say about the whole "voice recorder school" thing, but he had no reason to refuse to use one.
"Let's see what makes it worthy of an A-rated reward."
Holding the voice recorder that had dropped into his hand, Asakusa Toru studied its appearance carefully.
It looked like an ordinary voice recorder you could find anywhere: a black metal case, a large screen, and a few physical buttons. Just from its design, he couldn't see anything special about it.
So, its effects...
[Name: Infinite Voice Recorder] [Category: Item] [Effect: The voice recorder is always on. You can take it out from anywhere, anytime. You can freely select and split recordings from any point in the past, creating a new voice recorder containing the selected recording.] [Note: "Anything you say can and will be used as evidence in court!"]
The moment the thought came to him, information about the recorder in his hand appeared clearly before his eyes.
"That's interesting." Asakusa Toru raised an eyebrow, his face showing sudden understanding. "So 'infinite' refers to this kind of infinite."
Thank goodness "infinite" didn't refer to the recorder's brand.
Although the reward for completing each day's diary entry was drawn at random, it was still an A rating. It would've been ridiculous if he'd drawn a voice recorder before enrollment and then been unable to bring it to school.
With a recorder like this, he could use it on campus even if he received it before enrolling.
As for the question of where it came from... Come on, voice recorders were for threatening people. Surely no one would choose to hand one directly over to the school instead of using the recording to negotiate?
As for why he said that a normal recorder couldn't be brought into school...
A brief introduction to Advanced Nurturing was in order.
The vocational school Asakusa Toru had mentioned was said to have ties to the government. Officially, it was a training facility where the government selected and cultivated talent.
Tuition was free, and the school had a nearly 100% rate of advancement to higher education and employment. No matter what field you specialized in, you could achieve your goals with the school's support.
Well, at least that was what its publicity claimed.
There was also a promise that the school would cover all of its students' expenses for three years.
In exchange, once enrolled, students weren't allowed to leave campus without permission. They were also forbidden from contacting the outside world by phone or internet.
Naturally, bringing things from outside onto campus wasn't allowed either.
"Of course, that's just what they say in the promotional material." Asakusa Toru smiled and murmured to himself.
The students who got the benefits of a 100% advancement and employment rate and the school's support didn't include those who were expelled.
If the school expelled all the students who didn't meet its standards before graduation, then, naturally, it could claim that 100% of its students had been cultivated into talent.
"Luckily, whether it's a scam or not has nothing to do with me."
After all, for Asakusa Toru, not even the so-called government's support could compare to a single hair on the diary in his hands.
Since he had a cheat ability, of course he'd devote himself to developing it.
Who had time to get caught up in their vocational-school free-for-all?
"All I need to do is observe them up close, figure out who got a copy of the diary, and then give them targeted spoilers." He straightened up and stretched a little. Then he casually raised his hand and tossed the voice recorder toward the bed behind him.
It traced a perfect arc through the air, then bounced lightly on the bed before coming to rest.
Without going back to pick it up, Asakusa Toru casually reached into his pocket.
When the thought "voice recorder" surfaced in his mind, a new sensation quietly appeared in his palm.
He lifted his hand. A voice recorder identical to the one he'd just tossed appeared in it.
The recorder he'd thrown onto the bed remained right where it was.
Seeing this, the corners of Asakusa Toru's mouth curled slightly.
"What a Voice Recorder Treasury."
To be honest, a voice recorder had a bit of weight to it. As a projectile, with the right technique, it could do quite a bit of damage just from its weight, even without a particularly sharp or pointed casing.
Excellent. He'd decided. Until his next diary entry gave him a reward that boosted his physical strength, he'd practice throwing voice recorders.
They said even flowers and leaves could become deadly weapons in the right hands. What if I had an infinite supply of voice recorders?
"Pfft." For some reason, Asakusa Toru couldn't help laughing at the thought.
Other people fought with knives and fists. He'd whip ten voice recorders out from under his pant leg.
What a bizarre image.
"Then, besides being infinite... it can also split recordings?" Asakusa Toru ran his fingertip over the recorder and thought it over. He pressed the stop-recording button, then hit play.
The sole recording replayed every sound from the past few minutes: everything from his muttering to the quiet thud of the recorder hitting the bed.
"Huh, the recordings are shared even if it's not the same recorder?" A hint of surprise showed in his eyes as he moved his finger across the recorder's little screen. "And as for splitting..."
At the thought, an option that hadn't been displayed in the program appeared on the screen. Without him touching it, he seemed to be able to select any period of time from the present back into the past using only his mind, then split the recording.
What's more, once split, the recording would sound complete from the very beginning.
"So it's forcing me to become the Voice Recorder King..." Asakusa Toru looked at the recorder in his hand and smiled. "Though, I don't mind."
Who would complain about having too many cheat abilities?
Chapter 4: Kushida Kikyo Wants to Start Over
April. The first day of school.
Today, Advanced Nurturing was welcoming a new beginning. The first-year students would each make their way to school, ready to face the next three years of their lives in a closed-campus environment.
The shadows of middle school, the dark history of middle school, the persona they'd built in middle school—everything would be wiped clean in that moment. The boys and girls could all make a completely fresh start.
Whether it was a past spent being bullied or a true nature they didn't want anyone to see, all they had to do was move to a new environment, and they could start over.
That was what Kushida Kikyo had thought.
—Until she saw that diary.
It said this school was a vocational school.
It said the writer had kidnapped the past, present, and future of everyone who read it.
It said the writer was going to spoil things.
It said there was more than one Two-Faced Person at this school.
To be honest, even by this point, Kushida Kikyo's emotions hadn't wavered at all.
Anyone could say whatever they wanted. It was easy enough to trick people by writing down a few ambiguous words.
It was like horoscopes: all you had to do was give readers a few vague statements that seemed to apply to anyone, and they'd easily start thinking, "Ah, this person really understands me."
Two-Faced Person? Hah. Everyone had a public face and a private one, a true self they didn't want others to know about, an image they didn't want anyone to see. If you lowered the standard for calling someone two-faced just a little, Kushida Kikyo dared say everyone could be called a "Two-Faced Person."
She knew all too many people's real faces behind closed doors.
So Kushida Kikyo had dismissed it as nonsense.
Until the next passage appeared.
"Filled with crushing inferiority, craving absolute superiority, keeping malice buried deep inside—a flawed product, suffering, tormented, struggling."
She was shaken.
Her hand tightened around the diary page without her realizing it, her eyes fixed on the words "inferiority" and "superiority."
It was talking about her.
Without a shred of doubt, the moment she read those words, Kushida Kikyo knew the writer wasn't lying.
They knew her true nature all too well. They'd even seen through the most fundamental parts of her heart beneath it.
That was right: inferiority and superiority.
Her looks had once made her think she was talented, and being above average in everything had allowed her to surpass everyone around her when she was young.
But as she grew older, and the successive rounds of selection that came with advancing in school brought genuine "geniuses" before her, they easily shattered her pride.
A sense of inferiority welled up inside her.
Kushida Kikyo was the kind of person whose emotions were badly shaken whenever she lost to someone around her.
But if you compared every single thing with everyone else, then probably anyone would lose.
She wanted to have something that made her better than everyone else, something that would make people respect and admire her.
But studying was out of the question. Sports were out of the question.
She couldn't win.
There would always be someone naturally gifted, someone who could easily crush her efforts and leave her far behind.
So she chose "trust."
As long as she could earn other people's trust better than anyone else, she could gain a sense of superiority from it.
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