Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

This alone was the one 'talent' she was certain she could master, a skill that would never lose to anyone else.

...This was the true nature of Kushida Kikyo.

Beyond this, whether it was her superficial friendliness or the malice hidden within, everything was merely a form of self-expression derived from that core.

She was born for this.

"..."

However, trust has its limits, and accepting the trust of everyone comes at a price.

The heavy pressure piled up on her shoulders, leaving her gasping for air and forcing her to rely on anonymous message boards to recklessly reveal her true self in the safety of a digital void.

And so, her true colors were exposed.

Under the accusations of everyone in her class, Kushida Kikyo chose to strike back.

Faced with the malice of others, there was no reason not to fight back, right?

All she had to do was expose them; by leveraging the trust others placed in her, she could reveal the true faces they kept hidden deep inside, just as she had been revealed.

Then, they would inevitably attack one another of their own accord.

And then, her middle school life would come to an end.

...This was not what she wanted.

"I have to start over..." The memories that had been stirred up came to an abrupt halt. Kushida Kikyo took a deep breath, ignored the cold voice in her ear announcing that the reading was complete, and slammed the Diary shut: "I must start over."

High school was the best time to reshape her life, the turning point to erase everything from the past.

So, even if the Recorder of the Diary had issued a kidnapping declaration, and even if the Recorder had nearly pointed out her essence by name.

She still had to start over.

And so, heavy-hearted, Kushida Kikyo welcomed the day.

She changed into the uniform that had arrived along with her acceptance notification and boarded the bus route mapped out in the school's introductory materials.

Aside from a few passersby, the majority of the seats were occupied by teenagers wearing the same uniform as her, without exception.

"'It was I who chose this school'..." Almost as soon as she boarded the bus, the words she had seen in the Diary yesterday echoed in Kushida Kikyo's mind for no reason.

The Recorder of the Diary was a new student who, like her, would be enrolling in Advanced Nurturing today.

In other words, on this very bus, there might be someone who knew her true nature—someone capable of destroying the three years of high school life that lay ahead of her.

Who could it be?

The blonde man who looked like trouble? The ordinary girl in the back row with nothing special about her? The expressionless brown-haired boy? Or perhaps—

Gently raising her hand to grab the strap, Kushida Kikyo forced her expression to remain neutral, suppressing her emotions as much as possible.

This was something she had done countless times; it was a task she should have been accustomed to long ago.

But even so, she couldn't stop herself from sighing deeply in her heart.

"Ah, this is just terrible."

The expression beneath her mask twisted, and her already poor mood soured even further.

The reason was simple.

She saw someone she absolutely did not want to see.

A woman who had attended the same middle school as her.

'Horikita Suzune'.

Although the other girl was not in the same class as her, and perhaps did not know about her past or the incident she had caused in middle school.

But she would not gamble on that possibility.

She, and the Recorder of the Diary.

These two people were the greatest obstacles to her peaceful high school life.

Chapter 5: Pre-emptive Strike

Asakusa Toru woke up exceptionally early today.

This was certainly not because he was too excited about the new semester to sleep; he had long since stopped having high expectations for things like school.

Although he was indeed curious about which class he would be assigned to, that wasn't the point.

The point was the timing.

After receiving the reward of the Infinite Voice Recorder, a plan had formed in his mind.

A plan that only he, who could take out the recorder as soon as school started, could execute.

"First-Year Class B. Should I call this unexpected, or expected?" Arriving early at Advanced Nurturing and seeing his name listed under that class, Asakusa Toru raised an eyebrow.

He had awakened to his past-life memories quite early in this life, showing considerable brilliance from a young age; in the eyes of most, he was indeed worthy of being called a 'genius'.

After all, being an orphan who could support himself while keeping up with his studies, and even earning a generous income from copying light novels—no matter how you looked at it, he belonged in the ranks of geniuses.

His only flaws were, perhaps, being an orphan and lacking friends.

After all, in order to convert his dwindling advantages into tangible foundations as time marched on, he had almost no spare time to waste on socializing.

This world was a hodgepodge of various anime series fused together; although the developmental trends of most works were similar, it was hard to guarantee that no errors would occur.

If even the slightest discrepancy appeared in the information within his memory, his footsteps would be forced from leading to lagging.

If not for this, he wouldn't have chosen to copy light novels as a source of income; he would have already been making waves in the financial markets.

Well, although he said he was "copying" light novels, he didn't have the ability to perfectly replicate the stories; he was merely using the vivid and interesting ideas from his memory to write his own stories through trial and error.

However, it was precisely because of this that he understood the vast gap between himself and the overpowered geniuses in the actual stories.

That's right, I'm talking about that guy who wrote a work with over 14 million copies in circulation at the age of only fourteen.

Returning to the main topic, at this Advanced Nurturing school, students are sorted into four classes in descending order: A, B, C, and D.

On the surface, it seems like a normal class division, but in reality, it is an evaluation given by the school based on its own arbitrary considerations.

Class A is likely high-quality cattle, Class B should be considered mediocre cattle, Class C is for those who stir the pot, and Class D is for top-tier defective goods.

There might be differences in the specific descriptions, but Asakusa Toru felt that the essence was roughly the same.

By the way, the 100% college and employment rate mentioned earlier is a privilege enjoyed only by Class A.

Therefore, except for Class C, being assigned to any other class was within Asakusa Toru's expectations.

If one ignores his defects in negotiation and considers only abilities like academic performance, there is no doubt he could have been assigned to Class A.

Just like a certain well-connected person who clearly has major physical defects, if it were to prove that Sakayanagi Arisu was not chosen for Class A due to favoritism, it wasn't impossible for him to have been assigned to Class A as well.

Of course, it was only a possibility.

And if one takes his defects in negotiation into account, there is also a reference model: the young lady Horikita Suzune, who mistakes loneliness for aloofness and refuses to socialize, is his best example.

In other words, it wasn't impossible for him to be assigned to Class D.

But, in the end, he was assigned to Class B.

In other words, they don't think my defects are significant enough to be judged as "defective goods"? Asakusa Toru had his answer.

After confirming the class assignment, Asakusa Toru did not immediately head to the Class B classroom, nor did he follow the signs to the entrance ceremony venue.

Instead, after receiving his Personal Terminal, he followed the directions and found the classroom for First-Year Class C.

There were only a few people in the empty classroom; people who entered the school as soon as the Gate of Opening was unlocked, like Asakusa Toru, were already in the minority, let alone in Class C.

To be precise, there were only two people in Class C at this moment.

One was a girl with short blue hair and a healthy, athletic build, sitting in her seat looking bored.

The other was a girl with long, silver-gray hair, gentle and quiet, who seemed to be lost in thought.

If he remembered correctly, the former should be called Ibuki Mio, and the latter should be called Shiina Hiyori.

Without speaking up to alert them to his presence, Asakusa Toru walked into the First-Year Class C classroom in a very ordinary, nonchalant manner.

For first-year students, everyone's seat is predetermined; there is no such thing as first-come, first-served, and everyone can easily find their own seat.

By the same token, others can easily find someone else's seat.

Ryuen Kakeru's seat...

Ah, it's in the front.

Without much effort, Asakusa Toru found his target.

Ryuen Kakeru's seat.

In this school, which prides itself on meritocracy, students compete on a class-by-class basis to fight for the only employment guarantee promised by the school.

For this reason, the existence of a "leader" naturally arises.

Listen to the leadership of others, accept the instructions of others, and then, aim for the throne of Class A.

And among them, the student who would become the leader of Class C after this was "Ryuen Kakeru".

If Asakusa Toru had to label him, "unscrupulous" would definitely be at the top of the list; as for "violence" and "dictatorship," those were secondary.

Although his fundamental purpose for entering Advanced Nurturing was actually to write his daily diary better and more conveniently, and he didn't care at all about the rights of Class A, if he were to get entangled with this guy during class struggles... just thinking about it made him feel a bit disgusted.

Therefore, to avoid such a situation, he had to take the first step and grasp a handle that could seal off Ryuen Kakeru's actions.

Clearly, the best, most suitable, most convenient, and earliest handle he could obtain.

It was today, the day he would soon conquer the entire Class C.

The rule established through violence relies on the binding of interests to cut off accusations from the parties involved, and the cameras shielded by a keen sense of smell would leave no evidence.

But what if he were to leave behind an Infinite Voice Recorder that a first-year student shouldn't have been able to obtain at this time, as if he had foresight?

What would happen then?

Chapter 6: It Will Come in Handy

Previously, Asakusa Toru had tested the "Infinite" and "Split" effects of the Infinite Voice Recorder.

But beyond that, the Infinite Voice Recorder actually had one more effect.

It was the voice recorder itself.

The voice recorder he took out would not disappear.

Although it would lose the capacity for infinite recording and revert to a seemingly ordinary device, the recorder itself would not vanish just because he pulled out a new one.

In other words, even if he were expelled on the spot and started a voice recorder company, he could probably make a fortune by endlessly pulling out new recorders with zero material costs.

However, despite that, Asakusa Toru had no intention of doing something as foolish as stuffing recorders into Ryuen Kakeru's desk and waiting to retrieve them later as blackmail material.

While he truly didn't think someone with Ryuen Kakeru's personality would check his desk on the very first day of school, the retrieval process for the recorders alone would be a hassle.

After all, the 24-hour recording effect of the Infinite Voice Recorder only remained active on the most recent unit he possessed; any earlier recorders would simply become independent, ordinary devices.

Therefore, he never intended to retrieve the recorders from the start.

He also had no intention of avoiding Ibuki Mio and Shiina Hiyori, who were present, while silently planting the recorder into Ryuen Kakeru's seat.

"..." A refreshing breeze blew through the open window into the classroom, stirring the girl's slender strands of hair.

Shiina Hiyori seemed to suddenly snap back to reality, subconsciously turning her head to look at Asakusa Toru as he walked into the classroom.

"Ah." She let out a sound, but didn't say anything further, instead withdrawing her gaze once more.

Her exquisite, emotionless face made her look even more like a living doll, subtly sparking a desire to tease her.

Shiina Hiyori had no excess desire for social interaction.

Even though she and Ibuki Mio were the only two in the classroom before this, they hadn't engaged in a single bit of conversation.

Therefore, even though another classmate had arrived in the empty room, she didn't feel a ripple of interest.

Ibuki Mio, who had also been placed in Class C due to her own social deficiencies, held the same attitude. After being drawn by the sound to glance at Asakusa Toru as he approached Ryuen Kakeru's desk, she withdrew her gaze, boredly staring out the window at the growing number of new students in the distance.

"Eh..." Seeing their attitude, Asakusa Toru couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, revealing a hint of surprise.

No longer hesitating, he raised his hand and shoved the voice recorder into Ryuen Kakeru's desk.