The Tsundere You Still Chose to Give Up Your Seat

He carried a backpack that looked mostly empty, but in reality, it was stuffed with various candies, a sketchbook, and a laptop.

Soon, the bus heading to the academy arrived.

He chose a single seat by the window, put on his headphones, and watched the scenery fly by outside.

I still prefer sitting alone on the bus.

At this moment, Linmu looked out at the streets of Tokyo, which were excessively clean, with pedestrians walking in a hurry and everything in perfect order.

Figure out the layout as soon as I get to school, he calculated. Find a quiet place to slack off, avoid all activities that might lead to socialization, and keep a low profile for three years...

The bus stopped midway, and an elderly woman with white hair boarded.

She grabbed the handrail, scanning the carriage with a trembling gaze.

Her eyes landed on the two priority seats in the front—one of which was occupied by a boy wearing the same school uniform.

Koenji is using his bag to take up a seat.

The old woman walked over and stood beside him; he glanced up, then lowered his head again.

At this moment, Linmu watched as a girl holding the bus handrail in the front row stepped forward.

A two-faced person? Interesting.

She had short brown hair, a sweet appearance, and a gentle temperament.

She walked up to the boy, bowed slightly, and spoke in a polite and clear voice: "Um, excuse me, classmate, sorry to bother you."

"You're sitting in a priority seat for the elderly, sick, and disabled. This grandmother looks very tired already; would you mind giving up your seat?"

The boy looked up, his gaze lingering on the girl's face for two seconds before he let out a scoff.

His tone was languid and tinged with narcissism: "Beauty, this seat just has a 'priority' label; it's not legally required to give it up."

"Why should young people have to yield? Why would I waste my energy standing up for something so meaningless?"

The girl's brows furrowed slightly, but her expression remained gentle: "Giving up your seat is also a contribution to society."

"If it's inconvenient for you, I can help you keep an eye out for other empty seats."

"I have no interest in vague concepts like 'giving back to society'."

The boy shrugged, "If you want someone to give up a seat, find someone else, or wait for someone to get off. Don't try to moral-shame me."

The old woman felt a bit awkward and whispered: "It's alright, I'm fine just standing..."

Linmu watched quietly from the back row.

He understood clearly: from the perspective of law and rights, the boy was not wrong.

Priority seats are not exclusive seats; yielding is a moral expectation, not a legal obligation.

The girl was kind-hearted, but her approach was too blunt, which actually made the situation more likely to reach a stalemate—once the other party explicitly refused, further persuasion became a form of coercion.

However...

He watched the old woman's hand trembling as she gripped the handrail, and her knees seemed to be bothering her as well.

Forget it.

Linmu stood up, walked through the aisle to the old woman, and said in a calm voice: "Ma'am, please take my seat. It's a bit further back, but it's better than standing."

The old woman was stunned for a moment, then thanked him repeatedly: "Oh my, thank you, young man..."

"It's nothing." Linmu helped her to his seat, and once she was settled, he stood by the handrail near the back door.

The girl immediately followed him over, her face full of gratitude and her eyes sparkling:

"Thank you so much! My name is Kikyo Kushida, and I'm a freshman heading to Advanced Nurturing High School. Nice to meet you!"

Linmu nodded, his tone indifferent: "Linmu Fujimiya."

"Kushida-san, your heart is in the right place, but your approach just now was too reckless."

"Eh?" Kushida blinked.

"The other party had already clearly expressed that he didn't want to give up his seat. If you had kept pushing, it would have turned from a 'kind reminder' into 'moral shaming'."

Linmu fished a Fujiya lollipop out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth. "Besides, with the whole bus watching, he was put on the spot, making it even less likely for him to back down."

"Sometimes, instead of making a decision for someone else, it's better to just provide an alternative solution."

Kikyo Kushida nodded thoughtfully, then broke into a bright smile: "You're right! I was too impatient."

"Linmu-kun, you seem a bit cold, but I didn't expect you to be so thoughtful."

"I just hate trouble," Linmu said truthfully.

The two stood by the handrail at the back door, swaying slightly as the vehicle moved.

Kikyo Kushida was clearly an extrovert, and once she opened the floodgates, she couldn't stop talking:

"Where are you from, Linmu-kun?"

"Tokyo."

"Which middle school did you go to before?"

"A regular public middle school."

"Do you know anything about Advanced Nurturing High School? I heard it's a very special school with a completely closed-off campus..."

"Not really." Linmu answered curtly, though alarm bells rang softly in his mind—a closed-off campus? The term triggered some vague memories.

(Dead memories are attacking me.)

Kikyo Kushida seemed to notice his perfunctory attitude, but she wasn't annoyed, continuing with a beaming smile:

"I only heard it through the grapevine, too. But I'm really looking forward to studying with so many excellent classmates for the next three years!

I hope to make a lot of friends in high school—"

Her words were interrupted by Linmu's movement.

He pulled another lollipop from his pocket and held it out: "Want one?"

Kikyo Kushida paused, looking at the candy, then at Linmu's expressionless yet exceptionally handsome face.

White short hair, sharp, cold contours, yet he had a lollipop dangling from his mouth—it created a strange sense of contrast.

(Not even one ten-thousandth as handsome as the readers here.)

"Thank you." She took it and unwrapped the candy, popping it into her mouth. As the sweetness melted on her tongue, her chatter naturally decreased, though she occasionally cast glances at the boy beside her from the corner of her eye.

Linmu stood quietly, watching the scenery flash by outside the window.

Advanced Nurturing High School was built on an artificial island on the outskirts of Tokyo, and the bus was currently driving across the long bridge connecting the island to the mainland.

The azure sea shimmered under the sunlight, and the outlines of the school buildings were visible in the distance.

The sense of familiarity grew stronger.

But he still couldn't recall the specific details. He only vaguely felt that this school wasn't as simple as it appeared on the surface.

"By the way, Linmu-kun," Kikyo Kushida suddenly spoke up, her voice softer than before.

"The reason you gave up your seat earlier... was it because you thought that boy was wrong, or just because you wanted to help the old lady?"

Linmu turned his head, meeting her curious gaze.

"The latter," he said. "The boy who didn't give up his seat wasn't wrong; he just made a different choice.

I gave up my seat because I wanted to, not because I was obligated to."

Kikyo Kushida's eyes widened slightly, then she smiled even more gently: "You're really interesting." (Things are getting interesting now...)

Linmu didn't respond, simply pulling out another lollipop—this was his third one today.

Replenishing energy was one thing, but mostly, he just liked the feeling of sweetness in his mouth.

It helped him stay calm, acting as a disguised way to suppress his omnipresent telepathy.

(Explaining why Linmu doesn't read others' minds at will, nor does he receive their inner thoughts.)

If he didn't control it, the inner voices of everyone on the bus would flood into his brain.

That would be too noisy.

Twenty minutes later, the bus drove into the campus of Advanced Nurturing High School.

Linmu was the first to get off, his feet stepping onto the pristine stone path.

The cherry blossoms of early April had already begun to fall; the campus was filled with these trees, and the pink-white petals danced in the wind.

(Checked the data, the start of the school year is early April.)

He took a deep breath—and was interrupted by a cheerful voice behind him.

"Linmu-kun, wait for me!"

Kikyo Kushida jogged to catch up, the fabric across her chest swaying.

She came to a stop beside him and looked up at the main school building, her eyes sparkling:

"Let's go register together! I'm not very familiar with the registration process, and I think it'll be harder to make mistakes if we go together."

Linmu looked at this girl he had known for less than an hour, the lollipop in his mouth feeling a bit sweeter, though he sighed inwardly.

Damn it.

It seemed his plan to slack off was going to be interrupted on the very first day of school.

"Whatever," he said, turning and walking toward the main building.

Kikyo Kushida followed closely, maintaining a perfect distance—not appearing too intimate, yet not falling behind.

A smile hung on her lips, her gaze drifting toward Linmu's profile from time to time.

And Linmu Fujimiya, this reincarnator who possessed the full suite of Saiki Kusuo's abilities, had only one thought at this moment:

I hope the dorms have air conditioning. (My middle school dorm didn't have air conditioning.)

And, I hope the convenience store at this school sells a wide variety of candy.

As for the next three years of life?

If I can lie down, I'll lie down; if I can hide, I'll hide. Superpowers? Unless absolutely necessary, I will never use them.

He only wanted to draw some illustrations quietly, make a few desserts to taste, and eventually coast until graduation.

The ideal was quite nice.

But when he stepped into that magnificent school building and saw the words "Welcome New Students" scrolling across the electronic screen in the lobby, an inexplicable premonition quietly crept into his heart.

These three years, he feared, would not be as easy to slack off as he had hoped.

But at least for now, he didn't care, still keeping a lollipop in his mouth.

Right now, sweetness could solve many problems. If it couldn't, he would just have another one.