A Mere Walking Colon? You're the One Getting the Better Deal

I see.

Being forcibly drafted to stand guard in the office for being late on the first day of school was apparently a precaution not mentioned in the student handbook.

Could there be some kind of information gap in the second round of interviews too...

Ayanokoji glanced at the man who had taken off like his feet were greased, whistling through the forest of school buildings like the wind, and grew more cautious.

After making a few preparations, he set the gears of his body in motion, assumed the most efficient stance to gather strength, and moments later launched himself like an intercontinental missile.

How annoying.

Please spare me from being forced to stand around in such a conspicuous place as the office on the first day of school...

Class D classroom.

The moment Bai Yu stepped through the classroom door, before he could even take in the room, he caught sight of someone arriving almost simultaneously behind him.

"Yo, Ayanokoji Kiyo-kun. Looks like we have the same destination."

He turned and gave him a greeting look, one that held surprise and delight, as well as a strange sense of reunion and subtle pleasure.

"Indeed... Also, my name is Ayanokoji."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka looked up at the class sign above them.

Class 1-D. Starting today, he would be attending school here.

"Alright, Ayanokoji," Bai Yu said with an understanding nod. "The gears of fate have brought us together here. As comrades stepping onto the battlefield together, I'll remember your name well."

Ayanokoji stared blankly at the spirited boy before him and silently grumbled, Then please, by all means, don't get my name right.

"Before the teacher arrives, let's introduce ourselves!"

"I'm in!"

"Hey, not bad."

"Good idea. We'll get acquainted much faster this way."

"Then I'll start us off..."

Voices rose from the classroom as someone volunteered to set the mood.

Still hesitating over what sort of entrance he should make, Bai Yu gathered his thoughts, straightened up slightly, switched to a bright and handsome smile, and stepped into the classroom while reminding the person beside him.

"Ayanokoji, first impressions are important in a group. They more or less determine your place in it from then on."

"Whether it's an actor taking the stage, a job interview, or a class introduction, are you prepared to leave a deep impression on strangers with your limited screen time?"

"I do understand that to some extent."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka answered casually.

Turning his head, he saw Bai Yu already striding into the room with his head held high and high spirits. He stopped overthinking it and followed.

"Everyone, my name is Hirata Yosuke. You can call me Yosuke if you don't mind. I enjoy all kinds of sports."

"I'm sincerely glad to be gathered here with all of you today..."

Bai Yu and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka leisurely passed in front of the podium one after another, their gazes meeting the boy currently introducing himself for a brief moment.

The other boy politely took a moment from his speech to nod at them. Bai Yu returned it with a smile, impeccable in every way.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka returned it with a wandering gaze, displaying his psychological discomfort in every possible way.

Everyone's attention was at the front, so why did they have to make a point of circling over here?

He was already regretting choosing to follow this person for convenience's sake.

Instead of blending into the background, he had immediately become conspicuous. His high school life seemed to be off to a rather regrettable start.

As he silently lamented, someone began meeting every gaze directed at him one by one—clashing with them, challenging them, and inviting interaction.

Some of those looks were polite and friendly. Others were not so polite.

As one of the very last people to arrive, they had entered openly through the front door without even trying to keep a low profile, taken a lap around the room like they were on patrol, and only then slowly made their way to their assigned seats. It did look a little like they were trying to draw attention.

Many people who were timid themselves yet hated seeing others stand out began secretly turning their gazes into sharp concealed weapons, hurling them like darts through pinprick-sized minds at these two classmates they had never met.

One of them avoided those looks like the plague, terrified of being pierced through by the rain of arrows and dying without a whole corpse.

Bai Yu, meanwhile, accepted every emotion with an open heart, his bearing as vast and magnificent as the mountains and rivers of the land.

Accepting all human goodwill—including all kinds of utterly vile and baseless hatred—was one of Bai Yu's great pleasures in life, as well as a path toward realizing his dreams.

Life was like a play, and creating drama often required learning all kinds of emotions, the more twisted and complex, the better.

Bai Yu regarded all those emotions as premium ingredients. Add the conflicts and plot development of drama as seasoning, and one could cook up the finest dish.

This Bai here possessed the purest dream of becoming a playwright!

"Then, I hope we can all get along well from now on. Next, please."

"Um, my name is Karuizawa Kei. Since school has just started, there's a lot I don't know about this school. I hope we can explore it together..."

Mm-hm, this introduction wasn't rigidly conventional. She added her own thoughts and personality, while coming across as friendly and easygoing.

I'd give it an eight.

"Um, hello everyone. My name is Kikyo Kushida, and my goal is to become friends with everyone here!"

Hoho, quite the declaration. Though every class really did have one or two social butterflies like this... She looked kind of familiar?

"Um, my name is Keisei Yukimura. I don't have any special talents. Usually, I just like playing chess and reading."

A little subtle? He had a feeling the Ayanokoji behind him would use the exact same template later.

As Bai Yu walked, he offered purely subjective critiques of the introductions sounding behind him.

"What an unpleasant coincidence."

A greeting that perhaps carried a hint of mockery suddenly rang out beside him, slightly interrupting his thoughts.

After looking at the newcomer's face, Bai Yu stopped, tossed his bag onto the seat conveniently located at his left, then turned with a polite smile. "On that point, we're completely in agreement."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka reluctantly placed his bag on the desk in front of Bai Yu, glanced around, then withdrew his gaze.

Hey, hey, what kind of hell joke was this? The people who didn't want to sit together had become desk mates, while he himself sat right in front of them.

He could only pray he would not get caught in their crossfire again.

As Ayanokoji silently repeated to himself that he was just background scenery, he looked toward the seat across from him. There was clearly another empty seat, but this school had assigned seats in advance... Could he perhaps tear off the nameplate on the corner of the desk?

While he was caught in inner turmoil, the war behind him had already begun. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka seemed to hear a gunshot.

"Heh."

The proud girl with waist-length black hair let out a cold laugh and properly turned her head toward them. Her bone-chilling expression bore a smile completely devoid of goodwill.

That clearly wasn't a smile. It was a cold weapon capable of piercing mortal flesh, leaving someone mangled and dead without a whole body!

The girl spoke. "Being in the same class as someone like you is my miscalculation. Perhaps I should never have chosen this school in the first place."

"I should have done my research carefully and investigated whether this school's admissions process was fair and impartial. It's hard to imagine that someone like you was admitted through legitimate channels."

"What you said is quite biased. It lacks logic and fails to respect objective facts, this... pretty but apparently intellectually challenged classmate?"

Bai Yu sat down, hung his bag from the hook, leaned back and stretched his limbs, then smiled. "If the school learned that I had helped an elderly person on the bus, they would only encourage and commend it, perhaps even promote it in the school newspaper. The two rounds of entrance examinations merely demonstrate how rigorous the school is in selecting talent. Being in the same class as me isn't your miscalculation—it's the school's mistake."

"If the school wants students to grow more, it should separate them by entrance scores like many high schools do. Let those at the bottom chase after those above them, while those at the top feel pressure. Only then can their potential be stimulated to the fullest."

"Letting you and me meet again here is clearly not very beneficial to your growth. And I can't feel any pressure either. In short, you're getting the better deal."

"I'm getting the better deal? I possess convictions that people like you lack."

The girl's expression turned cold. Crossing her arms to draw a clear line between them, she countered, "A brief observation is enough to show that the people around us are like aimless flies that do nothing but make noise. Surely you don't think you aren't one of them?"

Bai Yu said, "Flies are only noisy, but they never bite people. Flies can also be used to make medicine and hold important value in certain fields. A mere walking colon thinks it has the right to look down on flies?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka lowered his head and looked through the handbook, occasionally sending a furtive glance to the side. It seemed this war would not reach him for the time being.

But when would it end? Would he have to live in fear like this throughout all of high school?

"Next... Hmm, you over there."

Huh? Me again?

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka let out a faint breath and straightened up without any preparation, like a student who had stayed up playing games the night before an exam.

"Um..."