After a short wait, a bespectacled teacher who looked like anything but a good person walked past Asakusa Toru, turned, and entered Class C.
In other words, this man was Class C's homeroom teacher, Sakagami Kazuma.
The bell announcing the official start of school rang, and the hallway outside the classroom was left with Asakusa Toru as its sole occupant.
The timing seemed about right.
Then let's get started.
Listening in.
First Meeting
First-Year Class B.
"Looks like everyone's here..." Hoshinomiya Chie strolled into the classroom lazily. The homeroom teacher of First-Year Class B had planned to introduce herself and explain the details of Advanced Nurturing in her usual opening speech.
But she stopped halfway through.
A lively girl with beautiful golden-pink hair and a curvy figure had raised her hand high.
"Teacher... Asakusa Toru isn't here yet," she said.
"Huh? Someone's already late on the first day?" Hoshinomiya Chie was surprised. "But there's nothing we can do. I'll have to ask everyone to fill the late student in later."
After all, the Entrance Ceremony would be starting in about an hour. Considering they might need to leave time for questions afterward, she really couldn't have everyone wait for one late student.
"Anyway, let's get started~"
Hoshinomiya Chie clasped her hands together and beamed with an impossibly sweet smile.
"This school doesn't reshuffle its classes each year, which means little Chie will be spending the next three years with all of you."
"Except in special circumstances, the school forbids any contact with the outside world. Leaving school grounds without permission is also prohibited~"
"You should all have received your terminals, right? You can check your Private Points on them. Basically, one point is worth one yen at school, and points are deposited on the first of every month. You should have all received 100,000 points by now, right?"
"There's nothing you can't buy with points at this school. If it's on school grounds, you can buy it, whatever it is~"
Hoshinomiya Chie gave the students of Class B another rundown of the information about Advanced Nurturing they'd received before enrollment, along with some things they hadn't.
"All right, does anyone have anything else they'd like to ask? You can ask me anything," she said with a smile, her gaze sweeping across everyone in Class B.
Everyone seemed so normal.
I hope they stay that way.
"Um, teacher..." The first to raise her hand was still the girl with golden-pink hair.
If Hoshinomiya Chie remembered correctly, the girl's name was Ichinose Honami.
"If Asakusa doesn't come to school today..." Something unexpected happened.
She was asking about the absent student.
Hoshinomiya Chie answered without beating around the bush. "Then the school will consider him to have given up his place."
"Wow, but it really is surprising." She leaned against the lectern and propped her cheek up with one hand. "In all my years here, I've never seen a student absent on the first day."
"I never thought someone would really give up their place."
After all, though only Class A at this school enjoyed a 100% employment and college placement rate, students weren't supposed to know that before enrolling. In theory, nobody in this country should have been able to turn down such an offer.
And yet, it had happened.
A student in Class B had been absent on the first day of school.
"Give up his place..." Ichinose Honami lowered her raised hand, an unreadable emotion flickering in her eyes.
Oh, do they know each other?
Seeing Ichinose Honami's reaction, Hoshinomiya Chie felt a flicker of surprise.
Or was Ichinose simply saddened that they'd lost a classmate right after school had begun?
"Any other questions?" Hoshinomiya Chie put her guesses aside and straightened up. "If not, we'll call it here."
"I hope you all have a wonderful time at school~"
The students of First-Year Class B had received their homeroom teacher's well wishes. Their only absent classmate, whom their teacher considered to have given up his place, was currently listening in on another class.
The classrooms at Advanced Nurturing weren't badly soundproofed. At least, conversations didn't just spill out of them at random.
But the Voice Recorder in Asakusa Toru's hand had exceptional audio pickup. Even though Ryuen Kakeru had closed both the front and back doors beforehand, it still captured every sound inside the classroom clearly.
Violence, intimidation, and domination.
With homeroom teacher Sakagami Kazuma as a witness, Ryuen Kakeru had taken command of First-Year Class C without hesitation.
Well, maybe not quite without hesitation.
In any case, aside from a few people whom he couldn't easily break in such a short time and would need to tame gradually, everyone else had chosen to submit to Ryuen.
As for why he'd decided to rule through violence on the first day of school...
There were plenty of possible reasons.
Perhaps he'd keenly sensed the problems hidden within the rules explained by the homeroom teacher. Or perhaps his experience in middle school had led him to choose to rule the class in this completely closed-off school.
Whatever the reason, Ryuen Kakeru had done it.
Not only that, but he'd started ordering the others around without hesitation.
"Hey, Ishizaki, go bring our 'guest' outside in here," a voice rang out from the First-Year Class C classroom.
"Huh? Why should I listen to you?" The man Ryuen had called Ishizaki was still far from being tamed, and his voice was full of indignation.
"I said go, so go." Ryuen's voice brooked no argument. Under the pressure of his authority and the stares of everyone else in the class, Ishizaki had no choice but to head out through Class C's door, where he came face-to-face with Asakusa Toru.
His gaze darted left and right, and he almost immediately spotted Asakusa, who had clearly never planned to leave.
"Whoa, there really is someone here." Ishizaki Daichi clicked his tongue.
He shook his head and beckoned. "Come in."
And so, under the watchful eyes of everyone in First-Year Class C, Asakusa Toru entered their classroom once again.
Almost as soon as he stepped inside, a dark object shot toward him from Ryuen Kakeru's direction, like a concealed weapon.
"Don't just shove your stuff into someone else's locker."
Asakusa caught the Voice Recorder Ryuen had thrown with perfect accuracy. He glanced down at the seemingly wiped-clean recordings, smiled, then tossed it right back toward Ryuen.
"It's yours now," he said.
"Consider it a meeting gift. Keep it, or throw it away."
"Anyway, nice to meet you. I'm Asakusa Toru from First-Year Class B."
Ryuen Kakeru clutched the Voice Recorder he'd caught so tightly that his knuckles turned white, his eyes dark with anger. Asakusa's already upturned lips curved even higher.
Where'd He Get So Many Voice Recorders?
"There's no one else here." After escorting Asakusa into the Class C classroom, Ishizaki Daichi didn't follow him in. Instead, he searched outside for a while before slowly entering and closing the door behind him.
Looking at Asakusa, who showed no fear even when faced with the entire class, Ishizaki couldn't help clicking his tongue again.
"This guy really dared to come in alone."
"You've been watching from outside this whole time, so you should know what coming in means, right?" Ryuen put away the Voice Recorder, ending his game of tossing it back and forth, and slowly approached Asakusa. Then he reached out both hands, as though he meant to grab him by the throat.
"No one's going to stick up for you."
Just as he'd said, with the class under his violent rule, nobody would choose to step forward and serve as a witness out of a sense of justice.
The cameras installed in every classroom—the only things that might have served as evidence—had already been covered when he took control of the class.
Even if Asakusa had other Voice Recorders still recording, there was no way he could protect them from so many people.
So honestly, Ryuen couldn't for the life of him figure out what had given Asakusa the nerve to stand there alone.
"Hey, Sakagami-sensei, that's what your student says," Asakusa said with a smile, stepping back to dodge Ryuen's hands. He moved behind Sakagami Kazuma, using his body as a shield as he looked toward Ryuen. "Should I apologize right away and get down on my knees?"
"Huh?" Ryuen completely lost his composure at the sight.
You're asking our homeroom teacher for help?
Ha, you couldn't have picked a worse person.
After all, Sakagami Kazuma was the one who had hinted that Ryuen wouldn't get in trouble as long as he covered the cameras. He'd watched Ryuen use violence against his classmates without lifting a finger.
There was no reason for Sakagami to protect this guy, was there?
Looks like I was wrong. He's just an idiot who has no idea what he can handle!
That was what Ryuen thought, and he was already preparing to act on it.
He would tell Sakagami to move aside, show Asakusa that nobody could protect him, and make him understand what happened to those who provoked Ryuen.
That was what he'd intended to do.
"Ryuen." But unexpectedly, Sakagami Kazuma, who'd remained unmoved until then, called his name.
He said nothing else, but his meaning couldn't have been clearer.
Stop.
"You've got to be kidding, Sakagami." Ryuen raised an eyebrow, his tone utterly disrespectful. "You're telling me now that you're going to protect him?"
Even when addressing his own homeroom teacher, he showed no hint of respect.
"I'm not kidding." Sakagami Kazuma shook his head, his expression grim. "What happens inside the class and what's happening now are different."
He was a teacher.
As Class C's homeroom teacher, he could turn a blind eye to Ryuen's use of violence to unite the class, but ultimately, that was to ensure First-Year Class C had a leader.
But when a student from another class was involved, he couldn't do that.
He had to stop it. He had no choice.
"That's all?" Asakusa leaned out from beside Sakagami, smiling.
"..." Sakagami Kazuma glanced down at Asakusa beside him and took a deep breath. "But if you keep provoking him, I'll have to consider this a matter between students."
This guy seemed to have seen through the true nature of the school sooner and more clearly than anyone else.
New students had only the few hours between the school gates opening and the bell ringing to explore and understand the school.
So had he figured it all out in that short time?
First-Year Class B...
Looks like Hoshinomiya got herself a Joker.
"Sure, sure~" Asakusa nodded casually, his smile fading. "Anyway, getting back to the point—let's make a deal, Ryuen."
"Just you and me, of course."
It was only natural that Sakagami Kazuma would protect him. Things that happened within a class were one matter; things that happened outside it were another.
That wasn't absolute. If Sakagami Kazuma chose to show extreme favoritism, Asakusa would probably still get beaten up.
He wouldn't die, of course. He'd probably just take a pretty bad beating.
But if that happened...
Then he could wait until he'd stayed in the classroom writing his diary long enough to draw the rewards he needed, and kill them all one by one.
...No, that was a little too extreme.
This was a society governed by the rule of law. The rule of law.
"Why should I listen to you?" Whether or not he'd accept was another matter, but even if he was interested in Asakusa's so-called deal, Ryuen didn't think accepting it outright was a good decision.
Besides, he was being watched by the entire class right now.
Before you continue