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

Then, he sat down brazenly on the desk belonging to Ryuen Kakeru and tapped lightly on the chair in front of the seat, where Shiina Hiyori sat.

"Morning." Asakusa Toru raised his hand.

It was early, the sunlight was just right, and greeting someone at this moment was the most reasonable thing in the world.

...As if.

Shiina Hiyori turned her head in confusion, pondering and recalling the name of the classmate who should be in that seat:

"...Ryuen, classmate?"

"Not quite, Shiina Hiyori-san." Asakusa Toru flashed a smile: "I am not Ryuen."

"Let me formally introduce myself, First-Year Class B, Asakusa Toru."

He reached out his hand toward Hiyori.

"..." Shiina Hiyori gazed calmly at Asakusa Toru's smiling face, hesitated for a moment, but chose to shake the hand he had extended: "First-Year Class C, Shiina Hiyori."

"Um, Asakusa-san, this is Class C."

She wasn't particularly surprised that the other party could call her name; anyone could read her name just by looking at the nameplate on the desk. Just as she had initially mistaken him for Ryuen Kakeru, he had likely just caught a glimpse of the name on the table.

But, First-Year Class B?

"Ah, I know," Asakusa Toru said: "That's why I came."

The joined hands parted quickly. As naturally as could be, the moment his words fell, Asakusa Toru fished a Voice Recorder out of his sleeve.

He stuffed the Voice Recorder into Shiina Hiyori's palm as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Shiina-san, a quick interview: what is your take on this school?" The screen of the Voice Recorder lit up, clearly showing that it was recording; the device seemed to be capturing the words spoken at this moment without error.

...An interview?

Shiina Hiyori looked down at the running Voice Recorder in her hand, then looked up at Asakusa Toru before her.

"...A 100% employment rate?" She tilted her head, uttering an answer that anyone would likely give at such a moment.

"Is that all?"

"Full tuition waiver?" Faced with Asakusa Toru's follow-up, Shiina Hiyori blinked.

"...I see." Nodding, Asakusa Toru jumped off Ryuen Kakeru's desk: "Thank you for your answer. Consider that Voice Recorder a gift; it will come in handy."

The interview was just a whim, a test. If Shiina Hiyori were a reader of the Diary, perhaps she would be suspicious of the school's seemingly perfect propaganda due to the mention of "vocational school" in the Diary entries.

However, when Asakusa Toru heard Hiyori's answer, he quickly realized he had overthought it.

It wasn't that he had ruled out the possibility of Hiyori being a reader.

It was just that it would be a miracle to get any real answers by asking like that on the first day of school!

Well, anyway, his goal wasn't really to conduct an interview or find someone.

Shiina Hiyori was a bit hesitant, but she still offered a word of thanks:

"...Thank you?"

What a strange person.

But, will it come in handy... I wonder?

Staring at the Voice Recorder in her hand for a moment, Shiina Hiyori pressed the stop button, then tucked the device away.

Immediately after, she sat back in her seat and opened the Diary in her hands.

Vocational school, cheat, kidnapping, spoilers, Hide and Seek Game.

Words written in casual handwriting slowly unfolded in the Diary. As she turned the pages, the Diary revealed a blank page.

That's right, Shiina Hiyori is the holder of a Diary Copy.

What appeared to others as her spacing out was, in essence, her flipping through the pages of the Diary.

Any action that might lead others to suspect the existence of the Diary would be silently transformed into other movements.

This included Asakusa Toru, who had yet to win the Hide and Seek Game and successfully confirm the identity of the copy holder.

"...Still hasn't updated." Looking at the blank page in the Diary, Shiina Hiyori sighed softly in her heart.

Novels are interesting, and mystery novels are very interesting.

But even more interesting than those is the 'story' written by someone who claims to know their past, present, and future.

Chapter 7 Ibuki Mio feels baffled

Asakusa Toru knew nothing of Hiyori's reaction. After hopping off Ryuen Kakeru's desk, he turned and walked over to Ibuki Mio, who had actually been secretly watching him from behind.

"...What do you want?" Biting her lip, Ibuki Mio looked up, wearing a rather unpleasant expression.

In Asakusa Toru's eyes, Ibuki Mio's behavior was like that of a small animal, baring its fangs and putting on a show of force, deliberately trying to demonstrate that she wasn't someone to be trifled with.

Hmm, perhaps using "small animal" to describe her wasn't entirely accurate; after all, Ibuki Mio likely possessed a certain level of combat ability, so calling her a small animal might be a bit of an exaggeration.

But the general sentiment was close enough.

In Asakusa Toru's eyes, Ibuki's current behavior was much like a stray cat that longed for a new high school life but was too afraid to step into anyone else's social circle, only to regret being left alone in the end; yet, when someone finally reached out a hand, it would glare fiercely and reject them, repeating the same cycle.

Therefore, when dealing with an Ibuki Mio like this, one could not use the same easygoing approach as one would with Shiina Hiyori.

Instead—

"Take it, hush money." He grabbed Ibuki's hand quite decisively and shoved yet another Voice Recorder, which he had pulled from who knows where, into her palm.

Feeling the cold sensation of the metal placed in her hand, Ibuki Mio instinctively raised an eyebrow, wearing a look of utter confusion:

"Huh?"

Hush money? Whose mouth is he trying to hush? Mine?

Why would he need to hush me?

And besides, what exactly did this guy just shove into my hand?

Lowering her head, Ibuki Mio saw the full appearance of the object forced into her hand.

...A Voice Recorder???

...Why would he give me this?

A weirdo.

Lifting her head again, she looked at the gentle smile on the man's not-so-bad-looking face, and Ibuki Mio immediately reached a conclusion in her heart.

And, likely a weirdo with something wrong in his head.

"Though I doubt you'd say anything anyway, taking it won't do you any harm," Asakusa Toru smiled, casually patting Ibuki on the shoulder: "Free stuff, might as well take it, right?"

Having said that, he didn't bother checking Ibuki's reaction and walked straight out of the First-Year Class C classroom.

Asakusa Toru seemed to have left, but Ibuki Mio had nowhere to go.

After all, this was her classroom to begin with, and she had no reason to go anywhere else.

Clutching the Voice Recorder that had been forcibly shoved into her hand, Ibuki Mio's mind was a complete mess.

On the first day of school, someone from another class suddenly popped up, forcibly gave her a Voice Recorder, and called it hush money.

She didn't even know what mouth he was trying to hush; ah, if that's the case, does it count as being hushed? After all, she really didn't know anything.

...What kind of messy thoughts am I having?

No, I need to sort this out from the beginning.

I, Ibuki Mio, a student of First-Year Class C, arrived at the school, found my seat, and waited for the homeroom meeting after everyone arrived, followed by the entrance ceremony.

Before that, that woman named Shiina Hiyori arrived in the classroom before me, and she had no intention of greeting me.

...If she doesn't want to greet me, fine; she had no intention of chasing after people to be friends either.

Then, after that, that inexplicable man appeared.

He first sat in that seat belonging to someone named Ryu-something, then struck up a conversation with that Shiina as if they were old friends, and immediately followed it up with a self-introduction.

Honestly, until that moment, Ibuki had assumed he only came over to talk because he knew Shiina.

To her surprise, that guy didn't know Shiina at all, nor was he even a student of Class C.

So what on earth did he come here for?

And besides, if everyone is a first-year student, they should have all passed through security, right?

Other than the terminal provided and the school uniform issued in advance, wasn't everything else forbidden from being brought in?

So where on earth did this piece-of-junk Voice Recorder come from?

Ibuki Mio couldn't figure it out at all.

But, Asakusa Toru's final words were correct.

Free stuff, might as well take it.

Regardless of where it came from, since he gave it to her, she would keep it.

At Advanced Nurturing, a Voice Recorder is a very magical tool.

As long as you record key words with a Voice Recorder, you can take them out and use them as leverage.

Whether it's the sound of someone revealing a plan or the sound of them showing their true colors, with just one small Voice Recorder, you can turn the vast majority of problems into no problem at all.

Therefore, Asakusa Toru has a dream.

That is, to let everyone at Advanced Nurturing have a Voice Recorder of their own!

As if.

He was handing out copies of the Voice Recorder, after all.

As mentioned before, when he takes out a second Voice Recorder, the previous one becomes a 'seemingly ordinary' Voice Recorder.

But, seemingly ordinary also means extraordinary.

When the distance is close enough, the Voice Recorder in one's hand can choose to read all the recordings saved in the surrounding copies of the Voice Recorder.

Although simply handing out the voice recorders didn't guarantee he would capture the recordings he wanted.

But, what if it worked?

Of course, he hadn't distributed the copies of the voice recorders completely at random without consideration.

He had chosen targets who were well-known and potentially holders of a copy of the Diary.

Ibuki Mio and Shiina Hiyori.

Compared to random passersby, they were certainly more likely to have obtained a copy of the Diary.

Although the act of handing out voice recorders might carry a slight risk of exposure, as long as he didn't mention it in the Diary... who would ever guess?

"There are actually an unexpectedly large number of weirdos at this school."

One more person handing out voice recorders wouldn't make a difference, and one less wouldn't either.

"Don't you think?"

There was still some time before the official start of the school year, and considering that Ryuen Kakeru had a severe habit of being late, he had plenty of time to spare.

He could easily wander around the classrooms of the upperclassmen, pretending to scout for information he already knew to provide cover for how he had obtained the intel in advance.

Even though there probably wouldn't be any issues if he just used the information directly—after all, this was still a school, and he was living in an incredibly peaceful modern society.

But if he could avoid leaving any flaws, it was better to minimize them as much as possible.

"Hmph, hmph, hmph, hmph~"

Time ticked away, and after wandering aimlessly around the other grade levels and chatting with a few upperclassmen to put on a show of gathering intelligence under the security cameras, he was done.

Soon enough, Asakusa Toru returned once again to the vicinity of the First-Year Class C classroom.