During their student years, it wasn't unusual to set all kinds of bizarre conditions, pose all sorts of questions, and discuss what choices you'd make under those circumstances.
The most common questions were things like, "If you had money, what would you do first?" "If you were an adult, what would you do?" If, if, if—
Most of the time, questions like that were just thoughtless, spur-of-the-moment whims.
But sometimes, those questions were precisely a sign that you wanted to understand the other person better.
In other words, she likes me, so she asked me that question.
After a bout of brainstorming, Asakusa Toru arrived at a conclusion that even he found a little laughable.
What a horny creep. So pathetic.
It probably wasn't a matter of whether she liked him or not. Maybe it was because of his face, or maybe because he'd spent some time with Shiina Hiyori in the library. He thought she probably did have a little bit of a crush on him.
But a crush was just a crush. He naturally felt fond of every pretty girl, but that didn't mean he was in love with all of them.
...But, a message?
The moment he saw the word "message," Asakusa Toru remembered that he hadn't received one in several days.
Although he'd gotten two messages from Little Princess and Handprint Sister at the end of April, after that, the messaging feature seemed to vanish. It hadn't popped up at all.
He'd thought Horikita Suzune might consider sending him a message after she became friends with Kushida Kikyo that day, but she seemed to have forgotten the feature existed and hadn't done anything.
...Could Hiyori be asking because she planned to send me a message?
For some reason, the thought popped into Asakusa Toru's head.
But soon, he shook off the possibility.
"Message" wasn't a word exclusive to the Diary. It was far too late to start thinking about what to write in one now. Besides, would anyone really think of the person behind the Diary as a "favorite author"?
Whether they liked him or not was beside the point. Writing a diary didn't make him an author.
And if that really were the case, asking him in person what she should write in a message to him... felt a little strange.
Asakusa Toru smiled and stopped wondering why Shiina Hiyori had asked the question. Instead, he began to properly consider how he should answer it.
There was no need to think too hard about it. This wasn't an exam, after all.
But if there really were such an opportunity...
Asakusa Toru picked up his pen, wrote his answer on the paper, and handed it back to Hiyori.
"..."
Right on cue, the library door opened again. Ichinose Honami and Kanzaki Ryuji, who were both very late, arrived in succession and sat beside him and Shiranami Chihiro.
"How'd it go? How'd it go?" Ichinose whispered, checking in with Shiranami Chihiro.
Quietly, Shiranami Chihiro pushed her "spoils" toward Ichinose.
Ichinose's eyes skimmed over the workbook, and she couldn't help smiling. She leaned close to Shiranami Chihiro's ear and whispered:
"Oh, not bad."
"Great job, great job."
Ichinose's soft voice and breath brushed against Shiranami Chihiro's ear, and her earlobes instantly flushed red.
When the person you liked whispered into your ear like that, you had to react somehow. Otherwise, you'd be letting your feelings down.
G-good. I feel like I can work twice as hard now.
After giving Shiranami Chihiro some encouragement, Ichinose Honami slowly stood up and moved behind Asakusa Toru's chair. She gripped the back of it and leaned forward.
In the same way, she leaned close to his ear and murmured:
"Asakusa, you're doing great too~"
"..." Without a word, Asakusa Toru reached up and pushed her back into place.
Was she trying to comfort a little kid?
Anyway, with the exception of Shibata Hayate, who couldn't make it, the Ichinose Group had all arrived.
In truth, Shiranami Chihiro was the only one who needed to work harder, but having people around to create a studious atmosphere was important too.
When you looked up, tempted to slack off, and saw everyone around you still working hard, you'd inexplicably think, Maybe I should study a little longer after all.
"..."
Before long, the Ichinose Group settled into their studies. Aside from the sound of pages turning, the only thing they could hear was the scratch of pen tips against paper.
Shiina Hiyori had no intention of disturbing Asakusa Toru again. Instead, she gently unfolded the paper he'd casually handed back to her.
On the page, Asakusa Toru had written:
[I'd ask him what it felt like to French-kiss Herzog]
Shiina Hiyori: "...?"
...Which author was she asking about?
Chapter 81: Time to Grill Chabashira Sae
Book club, daily tasks, and the usual White Room training.
The uneventful days passed in the blink of an eye, and then May 8 arrived.
[Today's Diary Plot Index: C]
"Huh... I thought I'd have to wait until the end of the month." His eyebrows lifted as he looked at the glaring letter "C." Asakusa Toru was surprised as he sat in his dorm room.
As far as he could remember, nothing especially unusual happened at Advanced Nurturing during May.
There was the book club and recruiting for the book club, buying past exam papers, and then the final exams.
In short, it was the story arc where the ultimate masterpiece first showed what it could do.
But now... after all the spoilers he'd dropped and the changes he'd made to the original story, it was hard to say whether Ayanokoji Kiyotaka would still act to save Class D, or whether the students in Class D who were at risk of failing would need to buy past exam papers to get through the crisis.
There was one thing that probably wouldn't change, though.
That was Chabashira Sae giving the Class D students under her charge the wrong range of topics for the midterm exams.
At the thought, Asakusa Toru suddenly knew what he wanted to write about today.
—Time to grill Chabashira Sae.
But before putting pen to paper, he still had a few things to figure out.
For example, what original-story event today's rise in the Plot Index corresponded to.
After the study session, before the past exam papers...
May 8...
Could it be Handprint Sister's breakout moment?
It only took a little thought for Asakusa Toru to identify the key plot points.
The rooftop, her true nature, and the handprints.
She'd gone up to the rooftop to vent her stress by cursing someone out, only to forget to close the door and end up exposing her true self.
Faced with that disastrous situation, Kushida Kikyo chose to conceal the truth by grabbing someone's hand and pressing their fingerprints onto her own body. She planned to keep the clothes as evidence and threaten to accuse the other person of molesting her.
Put bluntly, it was a scene full of absurdities, but unexpectedly, it also made you feel like getting handprints all over someone.
...No wonder the Plot Index was C today.
It looked like the Plot Index wasn't ranked according to the characters' body types.
That made sense. If it were based on body type, then unless the plot involved Little Princess, it'd probably be hard for the index to reach A, given the average build of the girls at Advanced Nurturing.
"..."
That was a little insulting to Little Princess, but it was fine.
She was born with so little to offer, after all.
Asakusa Toru gently twirled his ballpoint pen in his hand and opened the Diary, but he still couldn't bring himself to write.
If he remembered correctly, Handprint Sister's breakout moment and the Horikita Siblings' reunion happened on the same day.
...No, he still couldn't figure out how the Plot Index was calculated.
And if the Plot Index only changed according to the original story, wouldn't that leave him with no room to influence it?
What a pain.
Never mind. For now, he'd just make the most of every opportunity when the Plot Index was above E.
Write in the Diary!
The ballpoint pen stopped twirling in his hand, and black ink seeped onto the page where its tip touched.
[Nothing happened today...
So let's expose one of Advanced Nurturing's top-tier homeroom teachers! (shouting)
(Clap)(Applause)
Everyone's been studying lately, lost in a sea of practice questions, so nothing interesting has happened.
It's even made me feel a little lazy.
That's not good. If everyone's focused on exams, can we really call this school a place where might makes right?!
Don't forget what we came here for!
There are so many god-men here, but we've gotten used to their existence way too quickly. We haven't made a point of writing them up in the Diary.
What do you call that? Forgetting your roots!
Anyway, today, the homeroom teachers are taking center stage.
As everyone knows, there are four first-year homeroom teachers at Advanced Nurturing.
Let's call them Square-faced Gentleman, Rotten Drunkard Lady, Unethical Teacher, and Stupid Teacher.
There's not much to say about Square-faced Gentleman. He's the most standard kind of teacher—so standard that he almost seems out of place. Perhaps because he thought he was too standard, he does have one connection to Rotten Drunkard Lady and Stupid Teacher: he was in the same class as them.
The real heavyweights are the other three.
Unethical Teacher is exactly what his name suggests. He doesn't show the slightest bit of professional ethics. He lets his students do whatever they want, turns a blind eye to their behavior, and is the worst offender when it comes to playing favorites.
The students who benefit from his favoritism probably like him a lot, but for students in the other classes, it's pretty unfair.
Fortunately, there's an even more unfair teacher at this school. Compared to the two other heavyweights, Unethical Teacher actually looks like he has a little professional ethics.
...Huh, I'm suddenly not feeling fired up.
No, I have to try a different approach.
"Ahem. Welcome to the Advanced Nurturing Teacher God-Man Ranking exposé! I'm your host, the Diary!"
The curtain falls! The exposé begins!
After the fourth- and third-ranked teachers, we've reached the second-ranked teacher—the rotten one!
Rotten Drunkard Lady!!!!
She's more like a slut than a teacher, and cares more about her best friend than about men. Though it looks like her mature, adult demeanor has won her plenty of favor among the students, she's someone Square-faced Gentleman refuses to see as a woman, no matter how you look at it.
She can only fool the kids.
I can't really comment on whether she sleeps around, but she does change male partners every day. Her private life is her own business, but if she's bold enough to do that, she can't complain when I criticize her.
But her private life isn't the only reason this woman ranks second on the Advanced Nurturing Teacher God-Man Ranking.
Having a bad personal life is one thing. You can avoid her if you keep your distance.
But unfortunately, this piece of trash is a teacher—and one who values her personal relationships more than anything else. She's even willing to sacrifice herself to trip up her best friend, abandoning her morals and doing whatever it takes to "cheat."
Anyway, if you run into Rotten Drunkard Lady, all I can do is wish you luck.
If you don't cross paths with her best friend, she'll probably just have a messy personal life, drink too much, bring the smell of alcohol to class, act nothing like a teacher, and do a poor job teaching.
There's absolutely, positively nothing to be afraid of.
But if you do cross paths with her best friend...
Then you'd better be prepared to get dragged into the mess with her.
Before you continue