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

At this point, even sleeping in class wouldn't result in a deduction of points.

"What's wrong?" A calm, "concerned" voice came from the left; it was the friendless guy sitting at the desk next to him.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

"Leave me alone." Without the slightest intention of lifting her head, Horikita Suzune said in a muffled voice.

"..."

Quite obediently, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka really did shut his mouth.

And so, the bell for class rang right on time.

Actually, this time slot was supposed to be for the routine morning meeting, but for some reason, a notice said it had been postponed to the third period. So, even though the students had many questions they wanted to grill Chabashira Sae with, they had no choice but to be patient and attend class obediently.

Considering that Chabashira had mentioned earlier that the behavioral assessment would affect their evaluations, the vast majority of students subconsciously restrained their behavior.

However, they quickly realized that the behavioral assessment was only a special exam for the first month.

Regardless, the exam was already over now.

Plus, to be honest, they also had the feeling that even if they didn't do anything, it probably wouldn't change much.

After all, people like the Yamauchi trio and Koenji Rokusuke continued to live as they pleased even when they knew it was an exam; seeing them so free made it hard for the others to keep restraining themselves.

Small, trivial noises came from Yamauchi's seat, while the teacher on the podium ignored his chatter and continued with the lesson.

"Hey, hey, how come Kushida isn't here today?" Even though he lowered his voice, it still came across clearly and noisily: "With Kushida not here, I don't even feel like taking this class anymore."

"It's so boring."

"Hey, hey, Kanji, let's play on the game console!"

Kushida Kikyo... absent?

Hearing this, Horikita Suzune lifted her head for the first time and looked toward Kushida Kikyo's seat.

The seat was empty, with only the textbooks and other miscellaneous items left over from last week still sitting there, uncollected.

...Is she sick?

Forget it, it doesn't matter; she has nothing to do with me anyway.

If anything, not having Kushida Kikyo hovering around to harass her actually made her feel more at ease.

This way, she could enjoy this feeling of despair, with her body feeling weak and cold.

Hurry up, hurry up, let the judgment that is destined to come, come quickly.

The bell for the end of class rang again, but Horikita Suzune simply buried her head back into her arms.

"..." The classroom became noisy once more.

The closer it got to the end, the more agonizing it felt.

Every minute and every second, Horikita Suzune's heart felt like it was being seared on a frying pan.

The diary had clearly warned her, the clues were clearly laid out before her eyes; whether it was the free daily necessities provided by the school store or the free vegetable set meals in the cafeteria, everything was telling her... in this school, there were people who didn't have a single cent in their pockets.

Yet, why?

"What a useless sister."

As if it were an auditory hallucination, for some reason, the cold voice of her brother, Horikita Manabu, seemed to echo in her ears.

And in the next instant, that voice quietly transformed into the voice of Kushida Kikyo:

"Stupid Horikita Suzune."

"A bunch of defective products." Scolding her with a sneer, it was the voice of Chabashira Sae again.

Am I... sick?

To actually have such auditory hallucinations.

A bit cowardly, she buried her head even deeper into her arms.

Although her arms couldn't cover both ears, if she tilted her head a certain way, she could at least cover one.

Actually, she should have looked up and retorted; she should have told everyone with full confidence that she was no longer the useless version of herself from the past.

But the fact was, she had failed.

She had no way to prove herself and could only let the defective products of Class D drag her down with them.

What should I do, Brother...

--You should download Genshin Impact immediately.

If he could read Horikita Suzune's mind, Asakusa Toru would probably have said that.

Unfortunately, he couldn't.

So, he could only take advantage of the break to sneak to the corridor outside Class D, slowly switching between several voice models he had already collected, and using Voice Transmission to whisper into the ear of Horikita Suzune, who was slumped over her desk, one sentence at a time.

While switching, he used Horikita Suzune to test how far this Voice Transmission could reach, whether the transmitted sound could turn corners, and whether having other objects blocking the path in between would make the sound quieter or stop the transmission entirely.

The reason he chose Horikita Suzune as his test subject was simply because she happened to be there.

After obtaining the ability last night, he used his own voice recorder to conduct a simple test. However, there was a significant discrepancy between mechanical audio recordings and the human ear. Plus, the Infinite Voice Recorder had such excellent pickup quality that relying on its data as an accurate representation would surely lead to problems.

It was like thinking a sound was very clear when it was actually as faint as a mosquito's buzz, or finding a volume that felt low to be deafeningly loud.

Of course, if he had sufficiently professional equipment, he might be able to measure decibels precisely... but the problem was that he didn't.

So, after much thought, he decided he might as well use Horikita Suzune as a guinea pig.

It would also be a convenient way to pass on a message for the Two-Faced Person.

Unfortunately, no matter how he used Voice Transmission, Horikita Suzune remained completely unresponsive, as if she were dead to the world.

...She has such good sleep quality.

I mean, we aren't even in class right now, are we? How can she be sleeping this soundly?

The test to determine whether Voice Transmission was effective based on Horikita Suzune's reaction was a failure; he would have to find another subject to test it on.

Actually, it wasn't impossible to test it on a classmate from Class B. After all, he hadn't been idle this past month; at the very least, by distributing the voice recorders, he had ruled out the vast majority of them as suspects for the diary copy.

But Voice Transmission was a bit of an esoteric trick, and he was afraid of causing too much of a stir if he didn't find someone "innocent" enough to test it on.

No matter how he looked at it, Horikita Suzune was the most suitable candidate.

She was pure enough.

Pure enough that Asakusa Toru suspected she might blurt out a curse at any moment.

However, since Horikita Suzune had fallen asleep, there was nothing he could do.

He didn't feel comfortable using anyone else; they weren't as pure and innocent as Horikita Suzune.

Lingering near Class D any longer would be too conspicuous. Although he was interested in watching the drama in Class D unfold, it wouldn't be worth exposing his identity for it.

...I'll go back and find some mosquito audio to create a voice-changing model.

"Ah, isn't this Asakusa-kun?" Just as Asakusa Toru was thinking about leaving, a brown-haired gal noticed his presence, raised her hand high, and walked straight toward him.

Sato Maya.

One of the quite active gals in Class D. Compared to a certain parasite who was forcibly adapting to the gal persona to start a new life, this girl was more of a representative of the Class D gals.

If he remembered correctly, Chabashira Sae's comment about her was that "she can build a friendship with anyone."

In that regard, she was in some ways even superior to Kushida.

Of course, a comment was just a comment, especially coming from that idiot Chabashira Sae.

But even so, it was clear she truly had the ability to mingle with others with ease.

Should he call it a good vibe? Or just natural?

After a few encounters, they had reached the point where they could chat casually.

"What are you doing in Class D?" She leaned against the wall beside Asakusa Toru quite naturally. "Here to push your voice recorders?"

"I told you before, no one is going to spend extra money on some voice recorder."

"Mobile terminals can record audio now, so why would anyone need a voice recorder?"

She remarked casually.

"...Although you say that, didn't you buy one?" Asakusa Toru paused mid-step and said offhandedly.

His sales pitch during the Club Orientation had been somewhat effective. Although Horikita Manabu was the only one who dared to buy a recorder on the spot, that little scene had indeed made him somewhat famous among the first-years.

So, after that, quite a few people who saw him would approach him out of curiosity to strike up a conversation.

Sato Maya was one of them.

As a result, she bought a voice recorder, exchanged contact information, and would greet him whenever they bumped into each other.

With a combo like that, what kind of little Chu Nan wouldn't be head over heels?

Fortunately, his heart was as hard as iron; he only cared about writing his diary.

...Of course, the main reason was that his brain was functioning normally.

Not every girl who approaches you is trying to confess, and not every greeting is a sign of interest.

His relationship with Sato Maya hadn't reached that level yet.

As of now, they were just 'friends.'

Friends who were in different classes but knew each other, and could occasionally exchange greetings so they wouldn't seem so isolated... right?

"Well..." She twirled her long hair casually, the strands winding around her fingertips before releasing again. "That's because I'm kind-hearted."

"Kind-hearted, sure..." Asakusa Toru's tone was subtle. "If good people were always rewarded, the world wouldn't be this simple."

Sato Maya was slightly surprised. "I get the feeling there's more to what you're saying."

She had actually just come over to chat about nothing in particular.

After all, social interaction relied on such meaningless chatter, but she hadn't expected him to come out with something that sounded like a profound reflection.

"There is indeed more to what I'm saying." Asakusa Toru nodded, glancing at the Yamauchi Group, who were still making a scene, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

He didn't know if good people were rewarded, but fools were certainly destined for a bad end.

"Tell me, how many of the people being dragged down with them do you think are actually innocent?" Having said that, he stopped paying attention to the Yamauchi Group, simply stretched his back, and waved his hand: "It's almost time for class, I'm heading off."

Asakusa Toru strolled away from Class D, leaving Sato Maya standing there, blinking in a daze as she watched his retreating figure.

"Dragged down... what is he talking about?" She didn't understand.

Asakusa Toru's arrival hadn't drawn the attention of anyone other than Sato, and besides him, there probably wouldn't be any other visitors to Class D...

Oh wait, there was one.

Kamuro Masumi had come to run an errand.

When the bell rang for the end of the second period, she stood at the doorway with a look of resignation on her face and said softly:

"...I'm looking for Wang Meiyu."

Without waiting for anyone in Class D to acknowledge her or grant her permission to enter, she walked straight toward Wang Meiyu's desk.

"Little Kikyo... are you okay..." Wang Meiyu whispered to herself, gazing worriedly at the empty seat of Kushida Kikyo not far away.

Just as she was lost in thought, the figure of Kamuro Masumi blocked her view.

"Eh?"

"U-um, what's wrong?" Startled, she looked up, feeling a bit flustered.

Wang Meiyu had assumed it was someone from her own class, but to her surprise, the person standing before her was a student from Class A.

"I remember she is..."

The one who was following behind Sakayanagi earlier...