Classroom of the Elite, Oh No, I've Become a Stand-in

Since Kamuro Masumi was getting along well with her, leaving things as they were was fine; after all, Kamuro Masumi was far too much of a maverick, and she didn't have many friends even in Class A.

Of course, that was on the condition that she truly considered Kamuro Masumi a friend rather than just a source of amusement.

"Good buddy," Mikage Touji said with a look of pity, "I have to tell you one thing first..."

Three minutes later, Kamuro Masumi said in disbelief, "Are you saying that she told me this information on purpose?"

"It's a sure bet." Mikage Touji nodded affirmatively.

"She's been playing me for a fool this whole time?"

"Very likely."

"Is there any chance you're just imagining things?"

"Absolutely not."

With her face burning, Kamuro Masumi pulled out her phone, her teeth grinding as she prepared to settle the score with Sakayanagi Arisu.

"Hey, hey, wait!" Mikage Touji hurriedly reached out to press down on the finger she was about to use to dial. "You can't settle the score with her."

"Why not?"

"If you confront her, she'll immediately deduce that there's someone behind you. Even if you try to pin it on Katsuragi or Hashimoto, I have a feeling she'd be able to see right through it."

"So you're just going to let me sit here and say nothing?"

Mikage Touji widened his eyes. "Didn't you say you liked excitement? Isn't this exciting enough?"

This was the kind of plot often found in adult manga, the "useless husband" trope and the like.

"..."

"I guess that's true..." Kamuro Masumi realized belatedly, muttering a few words under her breath.

"So, good buddy, either you pretend you don't know and keep being friends with her, or you delete her and be done with it once and for all. Which one do you choose?"

"..."

Kamuro Masumi stared at Sakayanagi Arisu's profile picture on her phone. Her finger hovered unconsciously over the delete button, lingering in mid-air for a long time before she finally pulled it back and turned her head away. "Let's just leave it like this for now. I'll settle the score with her later."

Mikage Touji was shocked. Even after all this, she still wouldn't delete her?

"Um... good buddy," he leaned in close to Kamuro Masumi's ear and whispered, "You aren't a masochist, are you?"

"You're the masochist!" Another kick landed on Mikage Touji's thigh.

Kamuro Masumi looked at Sakayanagi Arisu's profile picture on the screen, her expression complex. "I just feel like she doesn't seem to have any friends in Class D, so it wouldn't be right to just leave her alone."

"You're too kind. She has a very twisted sense of humor, you know. And besides," Mikage Touji shook his head, saying with feigned heartbreak, "I don't have many friends in Class A either. I'm the renowned weirdo of Class A, why don't you care about me?"

"..."

Kamuro Masumi narrowed her eyes. "Do you think I'm blind? Save that talk for people from other classes."

"Ahem." Mikage Touji couldn't keep up the act. "Fine, since you like it that way..."

He didn't have high expectations for Kamuro Masumi; he just wanted to find something for her to do so she wouldn't go back to practicing her master-thief skills. As for the rest...

"Then suit yourself. Just remember not to let her notice anything. And if she does, don't say it was someone else's idea. And if she finds out it was someone else's idea, don't sell me out."

"Am I really that unreliable?" Kamuro Masumi said, flushed with anger.

"Of course not, I trust your abilities, good buddy." Mikage Touji denied it instantly.

Sakayanagi Arisu was probably still pretending to be a girl who had accidentally leaked information, which was perfect. He could maintain the status quo and keep getting free intel; either way, Mikage Touji wasn't losing anything.

However, Mikage Touji felt this situation wouldn't last long. After all, given Kamuro Masumi's personality of saying one thing while meaning another, once Sakayanagi Arisu played the victim, she would likely be able to read Kamuro Masumi like an open book.

After the tutoring session ended, Kamuro Masumi grabbed her bag and left. By the looks of it, she was going to try out that new type of "play."

"Shiraishi-san, aren't you coming?"

"What do you think?" Shiraishi Asuka had a faint smile on her lips, her gaze burning as she stared at him.

"Then let's go get something to eat in a bit. My treat—I made a little extra money recently." Mikage Touji happily extended the invitation.

"Sounds good." Shiraishi Asuka's eyes curved into crescents.

"Wait for me a second, I'm going to borrow a book to read."

"Mm."

He had almost finished Farewell, My Lovely from last time. His thoughts on it were hard to describe; it felt like he understood it, yet he also felt like he didn't. As expected, reading works that reflected a specific era was too difficult without a certain level of understanding of the local culture, so this time he planned to pick something simpler.

The Snowman...

The Maltese Falcon...

A Wild Sheep Chase...

His gaze wandered across the bookshelves as he walked.

On the bookshelf behind Mikage Touji, the evening sun slanted in through the high windows, sliced into beams of light by the overlapping spines of the books. A quiet girl with long silver hair was curiously observing Mikage Touji through the gaps in the shelves.

Several times, she wanted to open her mouth to call out to Mikage Touji, but in the end, the words she had prepared swirled in her throat, and she swallowed them back down.

Standing in place, hesitating several times while clutching the hem of her skirt, the young girl took a deep breath. Carrying the scent of ink unique to the library, she leaned her body slightly forward, her voice as light as a falling feather:

"Hello--"

Unexpectedly, Mikage Touji seemed completely immersed in the world of choosing a book. His fingers slid across a row of spines before finally stopping at The 13th Step. He pulled it out with satisfaction, turned around, and disappeared into the vast sea of books.

The girl watched the corner of the bookshelf where Mikage Touji had vanished, feeling a sense of loss. However, thinking of the book he had just chosen, she couldn't help but let a smile bloom.

What kind of person would be a fan of Takano Kazuaki's mystery novels?

Chapter 54 Have you heard my story?

Early in the morning, before classes had even begun, Mikage Touji was summoned to the teachers' office by Mashima Tomoya. A chill, characteristic of the early morning, permeated the room, mixed with the scent of old paper, ink, and a hint of disinfectant.

"Did you really not cheat?"

"I didn't."

"Did you really not buy past exam papers from upperclassmen, memorize the answers, and produce a perfect test paper just to shock the whole class?"

Mashima Tomoya, dressed in a suit, checked the handwriting on the test paper repeatedly. It was the same crooked, chicken-scratch mess as always, and he couldn't help but voice his doubts.

Mikage Touji wiped away the tears caused by a yawn and slammed his hands on the desk indignantly. "Hey! I'm a student in Class A, where academic ability is supreme. Do you think I'm the type to do something as despicable as cheating?"

"..."

Who was it that snuck over to ask him for the answers last month?

It wasn't that Mashima Tomoya didn't want to believe him, but this student had too many prior offenses. For instance, at the beginning of the semester, he had handed the class over to him while feeling satisfied at a ramen shop, only to turn around and hear the class discussing how to quickly pool one million points to buy the school rules.

Upon hearing this news, Mashima Tomoya had nearly cracked on the spot. As the homeroom teacher of Class A, how could he not know if his students had asked the school for answers?

Yet, the information he provided was always accurate, leaving him with no way to vent his frustration.

"Did you really do this yourself?" Mashima Tomoya hesitated for a long time before confirming with Mikage Touji once again.

"Can't you just believe that your student is a genius?"

Mikage Touji flew into a rage and immediately turned the tables. "Seeing your student get good grades, you don't feel proud but instead question me immediately. I'm shaking with anger. Is this world beyond saving? You claim to be a progressive new-age teacher with professional ethics, but it seems you're just a repressed, sadistic robot who can't accept new things."

Mashima Tomoya's face twitched. He pulled out a test paper and slapped it onto the desk, looking as if to say, "It's not that I don't believe you, I just want to see how good you really are."

"Whoa~ looks like you came prepared~"

Twenty minutes later, Mashima Tomoya capped his pen, his expression now one of relief.

"I always believed you could do it."

"Heh heh..."

"You can't blame me. When a student suddenly gets a 100, it's only right for a teacher to be appropriately suspicious."

"Tch! Just a moment ago you were—huh? Did you say what score I got?"

Emerging from the teachers' office again, having retrieved his test paper, Mikage Touji was already beaming with high spirits.

"Morning, Torishige-san, how did you know I got a 100 in Japanese Literature?"

"Eh?!"

"Yo! Momofuku-san, looking at you, have you heard the story of how I got a perfect score in Japanese Literature in three weeks?"

"Huh? Is, is that so..."

Following behind him, having also just left the teachers' office, Mashima Tomoya's stern expression was already on the verge of crumbling.

Before the bell for the first period on Monday had even rung, all the students of Class A were already present.

"Ahahaha!"

In the Class A classroom, as Mashima Tomoya pasted the poster with the students' names and scores onto the blackboard, an incredibly arrogant, gloating voice echoed throughout the room.

The entire class, including their homeroom teacher Mashima Tomoya, looked helplessly and resignedly at Mikage Touji, who was standing at his seat with his hands on his hips, laughing wildly.

Could someone tell them why it had to be this guy who got first place?

Many students in the class clutched their foreheads and sighed, questioning their existence as they stared listlessly at the white poster on the blackboard.

The test this time was quite simple; everyone had passed without a doubt, with the lowest score being above sixty, and there were even a few perfect scores. But the problem was...

They turned to look at Mikage Touji, who was holding his test paper and provocatively taunting Morishita Ran.

Losing to this guy made them look so dull, didn't it?

Kamuro Masumi's face darkened as she squeezed her workbook until it creaked, lines spreading from the edge of her thumb like lightning.

In this exam, her score in Japanese Literature was 80.

Compared to her previous score of nine, which would be 45 on a 100-point scale, it could be said that her progress was astonishing.

But why couldn't she feel happy?

Kamuro Masumi looked gloomily at the man who had once scored a nine in Japanese Literature with her, called her "bro," studied with her, and shared funny videos with her at night.

A pathetic, thick wall had already grown between them.

"Oh my, tsk tsk tsk."

Mikage Touji stroked his chin with one hand while keeping the other behind his back, pacing around Morishita Ran. He couldn't stop shaking his head as he looked at that cold, indifferent little face.

"Isn't this Morishita, the one who scored a 20? You've really fallen off in just a few days, haven't you? Let me see, Japanese Literature... 98..."

"Uh... that's only 8 points higher than what I got back then." Mikage Touji held the test paper between two fingers, waving it back and forth in front of Morishita Ran.

"Mikage Touji, don't you think you've been acting a bit too arrogant lately?"

"Silence! In this grade-obsessed Class A, a mere Morishita Ran who scored 98 cannot talk back to Mikage Touji who scored 100. I order you to go buy me a drink the moment class ends. I want it iced!"

"..."

Facing a Mikage Touji so puffed up he had forgotten the meaning of fear, Morishita Ran lowered her head. A chilling aura began to radiate from her, and just as she was about to lose control and deliver a righteous punishment to Mikage Touji, Mashima Tomoya spoke up.

"Alright, everyone back to your seats. I need to finish going over the content for this Midterm Exam before class starts."

"Hahaha-- gah?"

Caught in a position that was easy to attack but hard to defend, Mikage Touji's voice cut off as if he had been throttled.

"Mikage Touji~"

Morishita Ran drawled out the tail of his name in a tone completely unlike her usual indifferent self, flashing a radiant smile that Mikage Touji had never seen before.

"What kind of drink would you like? What do you want to eat for dinner? You can pick the restaurant, I'll pay, and after we eat, how about we go mountain climbing together?"

She quickly discovered a flaw in her otherwise perfect plan and muttered to herself, "Wait, there don't seem to be any mountains around here."

But that clearly couldn't stump the incredibly clever Morishita Ran, and she quickly regrouped.

"It's fine. After we eat, how about we go see the ocean together? There's a secluded cliff in the northwest corner where we can go on a trip to hell together."

"..."

"I was only joking just now. Can we call a truce?" Mikage Touji offered a smile that looked worse than crying.

"What do you think..."

Switching her expression instantly to one of cold indifference, Morishita Ran cruelly rejected Mikage Touji's request for a truce in a flat tone, and pulled out her long-prepared exclusive weapons—eraser shavings and a Pen Gun!

"First of all, I am very pleased that every student in our class has safely made it through this exam, and that our class's scores are the highest among the four classes."