"Cough, cough..."
Mikage Touji coughed twice and hurriedly let go of Morishita Ran, who was nestled in his arms, radiating a chill and smelling faintly of peaches. He looked toward the classroom entrance.
The Ichinose Honami he knew and a stern-faced male student were standing outside, observing everything Class A did.
You Even Flirted with a Girl from the Class Next Door?
Such an obvious move clearly couldn't escape the notice of Class A's students. In just a moment, Katsuragi Kōhei quickly led a group over to meet them.
"So, should we go over and get involved?"
Hashimoto Masayoshi rolled his shoulders, eager for action. Kito Hayato silently stepped forward.
"You guys go. I'll sit this one out." Mikage Touji pushed up his nonexistent glasses. "I'm Class A's weirdo. A serious occasion like this obviously doesn't fit my persona."
Morishita Ran pursed her lips. That title should've belonged to her.
Mikage Touji took out his phone and called Hashimoto Masayoshi, telling him to put the phone in his jacket pocket.
"Besides, I'm happy with my life as it is. I don't want crowds of people watching me everywhere I go."
With the S System now public, it was inevitable that each class's key figures would draw attention. That much was clear from the blond upperclassman and upperclasswoman. The blond guy might look greasy, but he'd charmed a whole lot of girls in his second year.
That wasn't what Mikage Touji wanted. It wouldn't bring him any benefits, and it would severely limit his ability to use his powers.
"Behind-the-scenes masterminds in movies are always like this. Then they always mess up at a crucial moment and end up losing spectacularly to the protagonist."
Morishita Ran seized the chance to heckle him, continuing to fire rubber bands at him to get revenge for the bump he'd abruptly stopped short of earlier.
"..." Mikage Touji gave her a long, silent look. Seriously, we're on the same side...
"Got a problem? If so, give me a reason within one second." Morishita Ran pretended not to notice his hint and kept attacking him.
"This works, too. We don't have to reveal our true strength right away, and we can use Katsuragi to throw them off. Kito, let's go..."
Hashimoto Masayoshi approved of the plan and strode toward the group.
Mikage Touji took the opportunity to leave through another classroom door. Even in that brief moment, he'd noticed a few discreet glances coming his way.
When he'd been with Hashimoto and Kito, they could've explained it as him watching them. But if he were alone...
Mikage Touji couldn't be sure whether Ichinose Honami's sharp eye would catch on to anything.
Finding a secluded corner of the stairwell, Mikage Touji took out his earphones, planning to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Give me one."
A small, pale hand opened in front of Mikage Touji.
"Weren't you uninterested in the class competition?" Mikage Touji placed the other earbud in Morishita Ran's palm.
"I'm interested in solving mysteries." Morishita Ran declared in a flat tone.
"..." That really was the kind of thing she'd say.
Mikage Touji found a comfortable spot to lean against the wall and put on his earphones.
Morishita Ran glanced silently at the white cord dangling between them. She was just about the same height as Mikage Touji's chin. If she put the earbud in like this, they'd be connected...
It somehow reminded her of those supermarket deals where you bought one big item and got a small one bundled in for free.
"Mikage Touji!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Morishita Ran grabbed Mikage Touji by the clothes and dragged him over to the stairs, pointing at a step. "Sit there!"
"Huh?" Mikage Touji looked bewildered.
"Sit down." Morishita Ran went up on tiptoe and pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him to sit.
"Okay, okay, I'll sit." Mikage Touji had no intention of arguing with her and surrendered at lightning speed.
Looking down at Mikage Touji, seated on the stairs, Morishita Ran nodded with satisfaction, then sat down and put on her earbud.
"As you can see, this is the situation in Class A. Is there anything you think we should pay attention to?" Katsuragi Kōhei's steady voice came through.
Mikage Touji nodded in satisfaction. As expected, Katsuragi was reliable. If they'd refused from the outset or acted unfriendly in any way, it would only have made the girls suspicious.
"No, I'm just curious about what the atmosphere is like in the other first-year classes. And I thought I'd make some friends while I was at it." The energetic voice was unmistakably Ichinose Honami's.
"Ichinose, who could possibly have more friends than you? Do us a favor and spare the boys in our class. I don't want to see them all following you around every day like the guy beside you." Hashimoto Masayoshi sounded rather helpless as he tried to change the subject.
"You can't say that. There's no such thing as too many friends."
"If you don't mind, we have no reason to stop you. Just don't disturb the students in Class A."
Katsuragi Kōhei readily lifted the restrictions and let Ichinose Honami look around. He'd already informed the class a while ago that unless anyone deliberately leaked information, Ichinose wouldn't be able to learn anything useful with him keeping an eye on things.
"Then thanks, Katsuragi... Huh? Where's Mikage? I could've sworn I just saw him here."
"He... went to the bathroom." Kito Hayato spoke in a lower voice than usual. Most people wouldn't want to continue a conversation with him after hearing that voice.
"That's too bad. I wanted to say hi to Mikage. I think we get along pretty well." Ichinose sounded a little disappointed.
"That's not really necessary," Hashimoto Masayoshi teased. "He was having a great time with the girl behind him just now. He might not have had time for you even if you'd gone over."
Hashimoto, you're calling me out, aren't you? Mikage Touji felt his teeth itch.
Footsteps soon came through the earphones, followed by a few routine greetings. They exchanged pleasantries for a little while, but since the break wasn't long to begin with, they only chatted briefly. Ichinose Honami thanked them and left.
"How was it?"
Mikage Touji took off his earphones and turned to ask Morishita Ran.
"...You even flirted with a girl from the class next door?"
Mikage Touji nearly toppled over on the stairs. "That's not what I asked! And I wasn't flirting. We just happened to know each other, added each other as friends, and chatted a little."
Morishita Ran withdrew her scrutinizing gaze and handed the earphones back to Mikage Touji. "That guy standing beside Ichinose Honami didn't say a single word."
"You think Ichinose was just bait, and he was the one doing the real observing? If I remember right, his name was Kanzaki Ryuji."
"Yeah." Morishita Ran wound a rubber band around her fingers and shot it straight at Mikage Touji. "What's your answer?"
Mikage Touji caught the rubber band with one hand and sighed. "I'm afraid we lost from the very beginning."
"They probably visited Class C and Class D before coming to us. Class D is a complete mess. If they saw those two, everyone would probably swarm them. Class C is fighting over leadership. They're either trash-talking or brawling, so they wouldn't have time for them. Compared with Classes C and D, our class seems way too normal."
"It won't take them long to realize that the four classes were assigned based on student ability. It's not impossible they'll go on to figure out that the classes are competing with one another."
Maybe this was why Class B was second only to Class A. Or maybe Ichinose Honami's social skills were just ridiculously overpowered.
Monthly Quiz
Exams!
A nightmare for students, a teacher's trump card—the bane of all things, used to measure students' academic ability and rank them accordingly.
"We'll have our monthly quiz today. Students in the first row, pass the papers back."
Mashima Tomoya was as stern as ever. After entering the classroom and handing out a stack of test papers, he went to the podium and sat down.
Mikage Touji let out a silent cry in his heart. Had the day finally come?
Back then, he'd studied so hard he'd practically hung himself from the rafters and stabbed his thigh to stay awake, living a miserable life where he got up earlier than a chicken and went to bed later than a dog. He'd been on the verge of perfecting his skills, with his test-taking ability at its absolute peak.
But a month before the university entrance exams, that evil System-chan had sent him to another world with one move.
Back to my first year of high school!
How could there be such an awful system?!
It had even abandoned its host and run off. He couldn't even find anyone to take revenge on.
Whenever he thought about it, the flames of revenge in Mikage Touji's heart burned fiercely.
After receiving his test paper, Mikage Touji gave it a quick once-over. The five main subjects were all on a single paper, worth a total of one hundred points, with several questions for each subject.
He wrote his name on the paper and nodded in satisfaction. He thought his handwriting was pretty neat. Why did everyone keep saying it looked like a dog had crawled across the page?
First, he tackled the math and English questions he knew how to answer.
Those two subjects weren't all that different from the ones in his previous life. The principles were the same, and as long as he could read Japanese, a little extra studying was enough to keep up.
Next came social studies and science.
Social studies covered geography, history, and civics. He didn't know everything, especially since Japanese history was a complete mystery to him, but thanks to his general education, Mikage Touji could at least understand more than half of it.
Science covered the traditional subjects of physics, biology, and chemistry. The focus was a little different, but the material was mostly the same. In fact, Mikage Touji had an easier time with it than with the math.
Finally, there was Japanese Literature...
Mikage Touji picked up the test paper in front of him with an expressionless face.
Should he say Mashima-sensei had nothing better to do? Or praise his diligence? The paper he'd handed in last class had been graded and returned after just two periods.
Japanese Literature score: 9 points
Mikage Touji silently turned the side of the test paper with the Japanese Literature score facedown. He didn't want to look at it for now.
The test was worth one hundred points in total, with twenty points for each subject. He'd gotten nine in Japanese Literature. Converted to a percentage... that was 45.
I used to get more than that with my eyes closed, Mikage Touji thought resentfully.
Damn you, System-chan!
"This score... really suits you."
Morishita Ran held out her own test paper in front of Mikage Touji with both hands and mercilessly mocked him.
Japanese Literature score: 20 points
Mikage Touji felt exhausted and didn't want to talk to her.
Why did this girl get better scores than me when she played around every day?!
A small, snow-white hand sneaked onto his desk and snatched away Mikage Touji's test paper.
"Hmm..."
Shiraishi Asuka lightly touched her chin, slowly scanned Mikage Touji's paper, and smiled with bright eyes.
"This really doesn't seem like the kind of score Mikage would get. And this handwriting—it looks like an elementary school student's..."
Mikage Touji stared at Shiraishi Asuka in disbelief. "How could even you..."
What happened to love at first sight?
"Mikage, you're no good at classical Japanese. You didn't get a single point for it." Shiraishi Asuka looked at Mikage Touji's test paper and continued to share her thoughts.
Mikage Touji let out a long sigh. "Forgive me, I really can't understand those classical Japanese auxiliary verbs."
The twelve forms of "nu": zu? ne? nu? nuru...
"ba" could mean a condition, a cause, or a parallel action...
And classical Japanese was a combination of kanji and hiragana...
Put it all together, and it was basically Morse code encrypted with hiragana!
While taking the test, Mikage Touji had even wanted to throw down his paper and shout, "Can't you speak like a normal person?!"
"Then... would you like me to tutor you?" Shiraishi Asuka offered.
"Um... wouldn't that be a waste of your time?"
Mikage Touji was a little tempted. Getting only nine points in Japanese Literature was too humiliating. He had to wash away this disgrace!
"It wouldn't be. Because it's you..." Shiraishi Asuka gazed at Mikage Touji tenderly. For you... I wouldn't mind how long it took...
"When are you free, then?"
"Anytime, as long as you're free." Shiraishi Asuka's eyes curved into a smile.
"..."
"Shiraishi-san, your attacks are way too powerful..." Mikage Touji murmured.
"No, it's Mikage's attacks that are too powerful." Shiraishi Asuka gently corrected him.
At that moment, Mikage Touji could almost see a pair of wings slowly unfurling behind Shiraishi Asuka.
She's here—the great angel of Class A!
"Hey, Mikage, I heard you only got nine points in Japanese Literature?" Just then, Hashimoto Masayoshi came over and snapped Mikage Touji out of his daydream.
"How do you know about that, too?"
"It's not just me. I'm pretty sure half the class already knows." Hashimoto Masayoshi delivered another blow without changing his expression.
Before you continue