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

Each and every one of those unmasked, insulting words felt like a blade carving into my heart, slice by slice, tearing open bloody wounds.

It's just too much!

What am I supposed to do? I'm just a weak, pathetic, and powerless child, a poor soul who can only hide behind a Diary and scribble down curses one stroke at a time.

The mere thought of everyone secretly badmouthing me behind my back makes me incredibly sad.

Tears the size of beans stream down my face, and no matter how many times I wipe them away, they just won't stop flowing from my eyes.

Actually, that's not what makes me the saddest; what makes me the saddest is... why is there so little happening at this crappy Advanced Nurturing?

I carefully flipped through the calendar today, and the more I looked, the more I realized... there's really nothing going on this month.

There wasn't much last month, and there isn't much this month either. Doesn't that mean I came to Advanced Nurturing for nothing?!

Do I have to lay low for another month?!

Then what am I supposed to do about my Diary?

No, I have to think of a way.

You guys just wait!]

"Daily reading completed. Reading points +1."

The diary entry for today ended there, and right on cue, that cold voice signifying the completion of the reading echoed in the ears of Horikita Suzune.

"Accumulated reading points: 31. The 'Comment' section has been unlocked."

"Current free comments remaining: 1"

Of course, there was also what today's diary entry mentioned... the comment section.

"So, I can actually leave comments?" A hint of surprise appeared in the eyes of Horikita Suzune.

She had always assumed that if she wanted to converse with the person behind the diary, she would have to find them, just as the other party had suggested.

She hadn't expected that she could leave comments, and that someone had already met the requirements to do so.

...Does this mean that if there are future features that require reading points to unlock, she will always be a day behind others because she didn't read on the first day?

No, rather than worrying about that, she should go check the comments.

Besides, the diary just said it, didn't it? I can also... post a comment, right?

Thinking of this, Horikita Suzune casually flipped toward the back of the diary.

A large stack of blank pages rustled past, finally stopping at the very last page.

There were only two new comments.

One was a black question mark covered in red annotations.

The other... was an incredibly long, red-and-black mix, an attack on everyone.

Both comments had a thumbs-up icon beneath them.

The former had 7 likes, while the latter had 5.

"..."

Holding the mindset of checking others' comments first, Horikita Suzune focused her gaze on the content and began to ponder slightly.

There wasn't much content in today's diary, nor were there many words that required deep thought; it seemed to be mainly a mockery of the 'Little Princess'.

Therefore, rather than trying to figure out if there was some deeper meaning behind the diary's text, Horikita Suzune preferred to look at the comments first.

The first one, the Little Princess's question mark, had no extra meaning; she skipped it.

The focus was likely on the second one.

A red-and-black mess of insults.

Even Horikita Suzune could easily understand that the red text came from the diary owner's annotations, and only the black text was likely the 'original intent' of the commenter.

Then, what was this 'Handprint Sister' trying to express with these words?

Vent her dissatisfaction with the school? No, she didn't insult the school; the text that expanded the scope of the insults to the entire school was in red.

If one were to pick out the black text alone, it would be easy to determine that those names... were all from Class D.

In other words, the other party was a student from Class D, just like her.

Disgusted by Yamauchi Haruki, disgusted by Ike Kanji, disgusted by Horikita Suzune...

"Stupid Horikita Suzune." As she whispered one of the black segments, Horikita Suzune suddenly remembered her 'auditory hallucination' from this morning.

The content was the same.

The insults directed at her, the words spoken by that voice, were identical to the comment on the diary right now.

And that voice... belonged to 'Kushida Kikyo'.

"So that's how it is." Softly, a flash of realization crossed the eyes of Horikita Suzune.

...She remembered.

She knew why Kushida Kikyo had been clinging to her since the start of school, insisting on becoming her friend.

I also understood who the student known as the "Two-Faced Person," who had once caused a major incident, was in the first entry of the diary.

It became even clearer why Kushida Kikyo was absent today.

The Two-Faced Person was Kushida Kikyo, the Handprint Sister was Kushida Kikyo, and the person from her middle school who had called her a bitch was also Kushida Kikyo.

Chapter 68: You Will Strive Unremittingly for This

[Today's entry complete. The evaluation for this entry is 'B'. Drawing rewards now.]

[Draw successful. Congratulations on obtaining the item 'Tenacity Headband'.]

The familiar settlement sound rang out, but this time, the reward did not appear in Asakusa Toru's hand in full view of everyone; instead, it silently caused his pocket to bulge slightly.

Asakusa Toru was not surprised by this at all; in fact, he nonchalantly took another spoonful of parfait.

He had tested it before: if he wrote in the diary and claimed rewards right under someone's nose, would the rewards granted by the diary still appear out of thin air in his hand as they usually did?

The answer was... not necessarily.

It might distort the perception of those around him to hand him the reward openly, or it might send a message to his Personal Terminal, telling him to pick up the goods himself from a shop in Keyaki Mall, or it might, as it did now, slip the reward into his possession silently.

So far, Asakusa Toru hadn't figured out much of a pattern.

The only pattern he could discern was that rewards with relatively high evaluations didn't require him to pick them up himself, while the ones he had to collect personally were mostly exquisite little pieces of trash with an 'E' evaluation.

...Some things he couldn't even be bothered to pick up just by hearing their names; not having them delivered directly was, in a way, saving him storage space in his dorm room.

Anyway, let's check the information as usual.

[Name: Tenacity Headband]

[Category: Item]

[Effect: Wear it and set a goal, and you will strive unremittingly for it.]

[Note: "Push yourself! Just one last time!"]

"Mmm..." With the ice cream still in his mouth, Asakusa Toru couldn't help but blink.

How should he put it?

It was a bit subtle.

If you asked whether this item was useful, it certainly was.

Not everyone was Horikita Suzune; many people found it difficult to force themselves to strive unremittingly at one thing. Even if they had great ambitions, they would quickly lose steam when it came time to actually do the work.

But with this headband, as long as he wore it, he could transform into a grinding god.

However, the problem was that he didn't want to grind.

I was born to slack off and fish in troubled waters, to just get by one day at a time. Why would I want to be a workaholic?

He had already had enough of being a workaholic in his past life. If he still had to be one in this life after getting the diary, wouldn't that mean his cheat was wasted?

If he wanted to be a workaholic, he would have taken a day off on the very first day he got the White Room membership card to accelerate his time and grind through a year's worth of training. He wouldn't have waited a month and still not finished using up a few months' worth of time.

Isn't it great to just write in the diary every day and draw rewards?

To hell with being a workaholic!

Therefore, for Asakusa Toru, although the effect of forced labor was worthy of its evaluation, he had already decided in his heart to let this thing gather dust.

...Unless he suddenly lost his mind and decided to start working hard.

Well, that's that.

Take it slow; sooner or later, my Divine Light Stick will appear.

"Is the matcha parfait good?" Just then, Ichinose Honami, with a smile on her face, tilted her head and asked him softly.

Asakusa Toru returned her smile:

"It's good."

Ah, I knew I forgot something.

A conclusion was quickly reached regarding the matter of Shiranami Chihiro.

Extracurricular tutoring.

There was no need to mention focus during class; that was something she had to rely on herself for. All they could do was set aside time outside of class to specifically tutor Shiranami Chihiro and Shibata Hayate.

Ichinose Honami wasn't too worried about the tutoring. Her, Asakusa Toru, and Kanzaki Ryuji's academic abilities weren't bad; at the very least, they were more than enough to tutor Shiranami Chihiro and Shibata Hayate.

Rather than calling it extracurricular tutoring, it was more like a regular gathering initiated to help friends they were close to become even better companions.

However, she had been thinking just now.

The direction Asakusa-kun had been looking at earlier... was that Sakayanagi Arisu?

Wang Meiyu's loud correction of her own sexual orientation just now had caused almost everyone to turn their gaze, but Asakusa Toru hadn't started watching Sakayanagi Arisu at that moment; his gaze had been drawn to her much earlier.

Admittedly, Sakayanagi Arisu's silver-white hair and the girl who followed her everywhere like a guard were easy to attract attention.

But she thought that Asakusa Toru probably wasn't paying attention to her for such reasons.

If it were her...

A delicate frame, a cane carried at her side, a body that required the support of others just to walk.

Ichinose Honami blinked, burying the doubts in her heart deep down.

Regardless, the fact that Sakayanagi Arisu was able to attend school within this fully enclosed institution, and even sit here drinking coffee, meant that her health was stable enough that she didn't need others to worry excessively.

She wouldn't worry, and likewise, she felt that a certain someone wouldn't be overly concerned either.

Asakusa Toru was indeed not worried about Sakayanagi Arisu at all.

Even though she had that sickly attribute, and even though it was said she could only walk with the help of a cane.

But really, if you said she had a heart condition, she was there drinking coffee every few days; if you said she didn't have a heart condition, she did indeed need that cane.

Moreover, despite having a heart condition, she hadn't run into any issues throughout her years at school, making it hard to tell if she was just managing it exceptionally well or if the whole thing was just a setting placed there to give her a debuff to attack speed and critical hits.

Rather than worrying about Sakayanagi Arisu, he was better off fretting over Konno Yuuki, who was still lying in a hospital bed, slowly dying.

...It made him furious.

Diseases like this, where no one was at fault but no one could be saved, were the most sickening things of all.

Lying on his dormitory bed, Asakusa Toru pulled out that headband.

The crimson silk headband was printed with the golden characters for "Strive." Although the design looked rather shoddy, the texture was unexpectedly high quality.

It was just... could a silk headband really stay on securely?

He didn't know, and regardless, he had no intention of using it.

"..."

Even so, he still couldn't help but think of the headband's description.