Life's Surprises Lie in the Unpredictable

"Ryo should be someone who stands shoulder to shoulder with me, both in the past and in the future."

"But Ryo is currently in Class 1-C..."

Shiina Hiyori suddenly blurted out, "Perhaps other girls would be intimidated by Sakayanagi Arisu's imposing presence, but Hiyori's natural personality hasn't been affected at all." Seemingly oblivious to Sakayanagi Arisu's slightly annoyed look, she added, "..."

"My classmate."

Kitagawa Ryo began to seriously consider the possibility that Shiina Hiyori's classmate was all bark and no bite. Did all girls with silver-white hair possess this strange trait?

As expected of Sakayanagi Arisu, her years of experience in cultivating composure allowed her to maintain a dignified smile.

"Has Liang considered coming to our Class A?"

"Don't want."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head decisively. She dared to run to his room on the first day of school even though she wasn't in the same class as Sakayanagi Arisu. If she Sakayanagi Arisu... he didn't want to go through that dark and hopeless life again.

"Yeah?"

Sakayanagi Arisu nodded, seemingly unsurprised by Kitagawa Ryo's answer:

"It's fine if we're not in the same class, I still look forward to beating you in the class competition."

Unwittingly revealing another piece of information to Kitagawa Ryo, Sakayanagi Arisu confidently declared:

"The gap between Class A and Class C cannot be bridged by just one person."

"Of course, if Ryo wants to form an alliance between Class A and Class C, it'll be easy with the relationship between the two of us."

It was only the first day, but Sakayanagi Arisu already acted like the leader of Class A. However, Kitagawa Ryo didn't think she was exaggerating. Even Class A, with the best students, would be controlled by this petite girl. Just like Sakayanagi Arisu confidence in him, Kitagawa Ryo Sakayanagi Arisu the same trust in her.

"No."

Kitagawa Ryo retorted with equally unequivocal words, his firm tone even infecting Shiina Hiyori, who also tried her best to puff out her cheeks and stand next to Kitagawa Ryo with a fierce look. Unfortunately, the girl was a little rusty with this expression, and it didn't have any intimidating meaning at all; instead, it made her look even cuter.

"I'm also really looking forward to my match against Arisu."

"This isn't just for myself..."

Kitagawa Ryo was still giving a passionate speech when, unbeknownst to the students in both classes, the showdown between Class 1-A and Class 1-C had already begun on the first day of school.

Fraud, framing, gambling—a battle waged on the name of the class.

The root of everything can be traced back to --

"And it's also because I didn't get to eat the blueberry pie today!"

Kitagawa Ryo, filled with resentment, declared war.

Shiina Hiyori, also sensing the atmosphere, clapped her hands and let out small "oh oh" cheers.

Sakayanagi Arisu finally burst out laughing.

[Ken Sudō, a freshman in Class 1-D, may be suspended from school until the Midterm Exam for intentionally injuring someone; Class D may even have some Class Points deducted as a result.]

On the second day of the new semester, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-D received a notice from the school. In fact, even Chabashira herself was a little depressed. The existence of Class Points and their relationship with Private Points should have been announced on the first day of May, the second month of the new semester. Although she knew the quality of the students in Class D, she did not expect to see a freshman directly beating up three senior students on the very first day of school.

What's worse, his entire act was captured on roadside surveillance cameras, confirming that Ken Sudō was indeed the one who initiated the attack.

Although she suppressed the news and requested to defend herself, she only managed to buy herself three days. Through a private conversation with Sudo, Chabashira keenly noticed the name "Ryuen" who claimed to be a classmate in the incident. However, there was no student with that surname in Class 1-D. She checked the entire grade's roster and found a student named "Ryuen Kakeru" in Class 1-C. But after watching the convenience store's surveillance footage, she confirmed that the boy in the video who claimed to be "Ryuen Kakeru" was actually Kitagawa Ryo from Class 1-C.

"Tsk."

There was a strange human element to the whole thing. Chabashira hadn't expected that a student from Class 1-C would take action right at the start of the semester. This kind of competition between students was the main theme of the school. If there was no evidence to point out the other party's actions in this incident to lessen Sudo's guilt, Class 1-D would have no choice but to swallow their anger.

However, Chabashira herself, as the homeroom teacher, couldn't personally intervene, nor could she inform the whole class of this news beforehand. After thinking for a quarter of an hour, she stubbed out her cigarette, took out two sheets of paper from her hand, but after thinking for a moment, put one back, leaving only a single sheet of paper:

"Karuizawa Kei."

Although there were students with higher five-dimensional data, such as "Horikita Suzune", "Hirata Yosuke", and "Kushida Kikyo", and there was also a student like "Ayanokoji Kiyotaka" who scored 50 points in every subject of the Written Exam, who seemed to be hiding his strength, Chabashira still chose to have Karuizawa Kei privately negotiate with Kitagawa Ryo from Class 1-C.

There is no other reason.

Chabashira reviewed Karuizawa Kei's profile again: Academic Ability D-, Intelligence D-, Judgment C-, Athletic Ability D, Teamwork Ability E+. Beneath these unremarkable five-dimensional data points were records of some events from Karuizawa Kei's middle school years. Mixed in with these, another name appeared frequently: --

Kitagawa Ryo.

Chapter Six: The Surprises of Life Lie in the Unpredictability

On the second day of the new semester, Sudo from Class 1-D missed the morning classes. Although the homeroom teacher Chabashira Sae, gave the reason of "feeling unwell," the students in Class 1-D weren't too stupid. With Sudo's robust physique and his arrogant attitude on the first day of school, he didn't seem like the type to fall ill and be unable to attend class on the second day.

Although the fight yesterday was temporarily suppressed by Chabashira, rumors still lingered. The students in Class D were just getting to know each other at the beginning of the semester, Sudo Incident quickly became a topic of conversation during breaks. Even though Hirata Yosuke felt that it was inappropriate to discuss classmates in public, as long as that empty seat remained, speculation and teasing would continue to spread and grow wildly.

Furthermore, classroom discipline was more lax than anyone had imagined. The teachers, including the homeroom teacher Chabashira Sae, did not stop the students from sleeping, playing on their phones, or talking quietly. This indulgence undoubtedly provided fertile ground for everyone's discussions.

"Attention everyone, there's a club recruitment event this afternoon. If you're interested in joining a club or the Student Council, head to the Gymnasium."

Hirata Yosuke is still trying his best to stop the increasingly rampant rumors within the class.

"Yamauchi, didn't you say you were the ace pitcher in your baseball club back in middle school?"

Sitting in his seat, Kanji Ike turned to look at Yamauchi with a mischievous grin. Although his reputation among the girls had plummeted yesterday because of his frivolous self-introduction, he seemed completely unaware of this and continued to laugh and do as he pleased.

"Well, didn't I already say that I can't play baseball in the league because of an injury? Actually, thinking about it, it's a loss for the baseball club. They've lost such a key player like me for nothing."

He was met with a similar wink from Yamauchi Haruki. Although only a day had passed, the two had become quite close, sharing similar tastes.

"If a beautiful upperclassman invited me to join the club, I might just say yes."

Chi tossed her long hair, completely unaware that her words had drawn disgusted looks from the girls around her.

Sitting in the back Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was still trying to adjust his mindset to that of a normal high school student, but he still couldn't understand why Ike, who kept saying he wanted to be popular with girls, could always say things that would annoy girls.

"Hey, Horikita-- "

He turned his head and tried to strike up a conversation with the girl to his left.

"I'm not interested in clubs."

Horikita Suzune, who was sitting in her seat reading a book, didn't even look up.

"I haven't asked anything yet."

"So what do you want to say?"

"Horikita, aren't you in any clubs?"

Hearing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's somewhat stiff words, Horikita Suzune gave him an impatient, sharp look:

"Ayanokoji, are you mentally impaired? Or are you just an idiot? I told you from the beginning that I wasn't interested."

"Even if you're not interested, it doesn't mean you won't join a club, right?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka replied that probably 95 percent of the people in the world are doing jobs they have no interest in, but in order to survive, humans always have to make appropriate sacrifices.

"I'm actually planning to attend the briefing."

Sighing and lamenting, to this day, let alone friends, the only person he can barely communicate with is Horikita Suzune. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka is still striving to become an ordinary high school student.

Meanwhile, in the first half of the classroom, Karuizawa Kei was also worrying about the task that her homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, had suddenly assigned.

If it weren't for not wanting to offend the homeroom teacher right at the start of the semester and hoping that she might get some protection from the teacher if things went well, Karuizawa Kei wouldn't have planned to go to this Club Orientation. The gathering at the beginning of the semester is the first step in building interpersonal relationships, and if you're even slightly negligent, you might not be able to squeeze into the already established circle.

"Is Megumi also planning to attend this Club Orientation?"

Sato Maya was standing nearby.

"... Hmm, I was planning to go and listen to it."

"I'll miss the karaoke session after school today, which is a bit of a shame."

"Oh, it's nothing, as long as you guys have fun."

Karuizawa Kei maintained a stiff smile as she replied, while recalling the words that Chabashira Sae had spoken to her alone in the classroom during lunch break.

"The whole 'Class Points, Private Points, promotion' thing... it all feels so unreal."

After slowly packing her schoolbag, Karuizawa Kei's only reason for coming to this school was that she hoped to take this opportunity to start over and leave her past behind.

"Go find that guy from Class 1-C... what was his name again, Kitagawa-Ryo?"

Karuizawa Kei walked towards the First Gymnasium, pursing her lips as she tried to recall the task her homeroom teacher had assigned her.

I wonder if he's an easy person to talk to.

She kicked a small stone by the roadside:

"And why was I chosen? If we only consider interpersonal skills, Kushida should have been the first choice."

Karuizawa Kei only interacts within a small circle of girls, but there's also Kushida Kikyo in the class who claims to be friends with everyone. Her social circle and abilities should be far superior to hers.

Lost in thought, Karuizawa Kei finally arrived at the designated location for the Club Orientation.

"If you're interested in joining a club, you can try your luck this afternoon."

Unlike Class D, which was in disarray immediately after class, all the students in Class 1-C remained sitting upright in their seats. In fact, they had spent the entire day in class trying their best to appear as well-behaved students. The reason for this was some news that Kitagawa Ryo had announced before class this morning.

Through yesterday's casual conversation with Sakayanagi Arisu, and by negotiating with the second-year students using secretly filmed videos, Kitagawa Ryo has roughly figured out some of the school's basic rules: the relationship between Class Points and Private Points, the basic reward and punishment system, and promotion and competition.

In yesterday's fight between the second-year students and Sudo, which he instigated, the second-year students naturally insisted that Sudo had started the fight and injured them first. With the CCTV footage as evidence, the situation seemed very favorable; with a little more pressure, Sudo would have no choice but to pay a considerable amount of Private Points in compensation. However—

This is based on the premise that Sudo truly injured someone without cause.

In this incident, Sudo insisted that the other party had planned the attack first. Even this evidence could not erase Sudo's guilt for striking first, but it could at least reduce some of the punishment. The second-year students naturally did not want to see this situation, and directly refuted that Sudo had injured someone because of a verbal argument. After arguing all night, the key figures were finally identified as "Ryuen Kakeru" and "Ayanokoji Kiyotaka".

Although it was eventually discovered that the freshman's real name was Kitagawa Ryo, his identity was not important at all. What mattered was which side Kitagawa Ryo was on and the crucial recording in his possession. Both sides urgently needed to obtain the key evidence before the final arguments were over.

With one side in need and the other seeking, the first to come to him were naturally the senior students who had been working hard here for a year. However, Kitagawa Ryo himself negotiated very well, and easily obtained a lot of key information without making any promises.

"If you don't behave well in class, your points will decrease next month."

Kitagawa Ryo didn't give a specific explanation. Although he now knew some of the rules, he still needed time to figure them out. In any case, Class C was now under his control. Until his rule and decisions were broken, the members of Class C could only obey obediently out of fear of his violent methods.

Sakagami Kazuma was quite satisfied with the good classroom discipline. He had been teaching at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School for over twenty years, and this was the first time he had seen Class C behave so cooperatively on the second day of school. This made him even more hopeful for Kitagawa Ryo.

Therefore, after school, when the students of Class C saw Kitagawa Ryo walk naturally to the podium to take over the position of their homeroom teacher, they obediently waited for him to speak.

"I heard that there are good rewards for being elected as a full member of the club or winning a competition, so everyone should do their best."

But to everyone's surprise, Kitagawa Ryo left after just a couple of casual words, which finally allowed the students of Class C, who had been on edge all day, to breathe a sigh of relief.

Kitagawa Ryo was thinking about negotiating with Class D as he walked towards the Gymnasium, but he didn't expect that a row of people had already lined up beside him, including Ryuen Kakeru, Ishizaki Daichi, Shiina Hiyori, Yamada Albert, and Ibuki Mio, all following behind him, half a step behind.

"... Hey, the way you guys are lined up, it looks like a delinquent group going out."

Kitagawa Ryo turned around with his hands in his pockets and complained, "There are indeed quite a lot of delinquents in Class C. The ones next to me are already considered to be alright, but when they are lined up, they still look like a standard delinquent group. Just look at Yamada and Ryuen Kakeru's appearances. If they were standing there, they would look like street thug leaders."

No wonder people avoided me the whole way.

Kitagawa Ryo shrugged, unconcerned, and casually asked with his hands behind his head:

"What? You're interested in joining a club too?"

"I just want to gather information. After all, it's not easy to gather all the freshmen after the opening ceremony. Even if not everyone Club Orientation, at least half of the students should come."

Ryuen Kakeru picked up a blade of grass from somewhere and held it in his mouth. Ever since he heard Kitagawa Ryo talk about the class competition, he had been obsessed with gathering information about other classes.

"I'm just following you around, boss. If I get thirsty, I can run an errand to buy you some water or something."

Ishizaki Daichi was the one most involved in yesterday's Sudo Incident. Coupled with the rumors that were faintly circulating in Class D today, he roughly knew that his boss had casually made a freshman in Class D unable to attend class yesterday. A boss with such methods must be firmly holding onto his brother.

"Of course, I'll also try to see if I can join Basketball Club or something."

"It's alright, Ishizaki. You're so strong, getting into the company won't be a problem. Just keep working hard and become a full member soon."

Kitagawa Ryo patted him on the shoulder encouragingly, saying, "Ishizaki Daichi may not be the brightest, but he's obedient, and that's enough for him."

As for Yamada...

Kitagawa Ryo thought he was quite good as a strategic deterrent. Standing at two meters tall with a muscular physique, he would intimidate not only freshmen but even upperclassmen.

"Ahem, I'm here to keep an eye on whether you and Shiina are having any inappropriate relationship."

Seeing Kitagawa Ryo's gaze shift to her, Ibuki Mio reluctantly made up an excuse and even pulled Shiina Hiyori, who was silently leaning against Kitagawa Ryo, to take the blame.

In fact, Ibuki Mio was quite clear-headed. She and Ishizaki Daichi were the same type. She was good at taking action, but when it came to using her brain, after yesterday and today, she roughly understood that it was best to leave that to Kitagawa Ryo.

Kitagawa Ryo was taken aback by Ibuki Mio's words, but he shook his head with a smile and led his people into the First Gymnasium.

There were more people than I expected.

Originally, it was thought that only about half of the freshmen would come, but the atmosphere at the scene was even more enthusiastic than Ryuen Kakeru had imagined. Roughly estimated, there were at least a hundred freshmen present, gathered in circles of various sizes to discuss club matters.