Make a bold guess, then carefully verify it.
If the numbers above their heads really were affection ratings, as I suspected, then a full score of 100 looked a lot like successfully winning over a beautiful girl in a dating sim.
If that was the case, then when a guy reached 100, would that mean...
Thinking of the state of a certain city in his previous life, Toru Hasegawa couldn't help shuddering.
The image was too horrifying. Just imagining it took all the effort he had.
He didn't want to be either the one or the zero.
"Anyway, it's not necessarily what I'm thinking."
Toru Hasegawa reassured himself. Even if these really were affection ratings, setting aside the guys, the girls posed a problem too.
Even with this blatantly obvious cheat that let him know whether his actions were right, he still doubted he could win girls over in the first place—
Because he had absolutely no experience.
Was he supposed to apply his dating sim experience to real life?
Where were the three choices I was supposed to pick from?
Besides, girls' affection wasn't that easy to earn... Points gained or lost and all that only applied to people who didn't care about you in the first place.
After thinking for a while, Toru Hasegawa snapped back to reality and realized he'd missed his last chance to get along with his classmates. Everyone had already stood up together and was preparing to head to the gymnasium for the entrance ceremony.
In Sakura Country, if you didn't make a few friends right from the start, you could easily end up isolated later on.
But he didn't think that was a good thing. Forming cliques and giving people the silent treatment was just lame.
Toru Hasegawa was a beat late getting up. After a chorus of rustling sounds, his own departure from his seat sounded rather conspicuously out of place.
But clearly, no one noticed. Most people were focused on Sakayanagi Arisu, who had trouble walking, and one girl offered to help her.
"Would you like me to help you up?"
"No, thank you for offering. I believe I still have enough strength to manage on my own."
As she spoke, the silver-haired girl picked up the cane leaning against the desk leg and used it to push herself upright.
Seeing that the other girl didn't want her help—and was indeed able to stand up on her own—the girl had no choice but to leave with her friend and follow the crowd.
Although Sakayanagi Arisu had attracted most people's attention at first, they couldn't really spend the whole day surrounding her. She soon found herself at the back of the class, though the group as a whole began to slow down to match her pace.
Unfortunately, Toru Hasegawa happened to be there too.
As another Class A student at the back of the line, Toru Hasegawa had a different reason for being there than Sakayanagi Arisu.
He was there because it was the only place where he wouldn't be trapped between groups of outgoing students, while she was simply having trouble walking.
"If I remember correctly... you're Hasegawa, right?"
On the way to the gymnasium, the two found themselves in a position where they could talk for a little while.
"That's right. Classmate Sakayanagi, have you memorized everyone's name already?"
Toru Hasegawa gave the girl beside him a small compliment. He was nearly invisible in class, and his presence had only risen slightly during the self-introductions. He hadn't expected her to get his surname exactly right.
After all, he'd only remembered the names of a few classmates who stood out. The girl before him, who gave off a strange, dreamlike air—as if she might disappear at any moment—was one of them.
"Just as you thought." Sakayanagi Arisu seemed pleased with his compliment. She narrowed her eyes slightly, then changed the subject. "But you remembered my name too, didn't you?"
Although they were addressing each other by their surnames for now, she was sure that her name, "Alice," as if from some mysterious wonderland, had already been etched into his mind.
She herself was quite fond of it.
"The reason we both remember each other's names... probably isn't quite the same..."
Toru Hasegawa awkwardly rubbed his chin. Seeing everyone around them in their school uniforms reminded him of a line—
The school uniform was the only matching outfit she and I ever wore...
No, why was he thinking of something so pointless right now?
"Heh..." Sakayanagi Arisu didn't dwell on the subject. Her next words immediately revealed why she'd approached him. "I'm quite interested in what you said about not liking 'flat-chested character types.' Could you explain in more detail?"
Looking at the faintly amused expression on Sakayanagi Arisu's face, Toru Hasegawa thought, This is bad.
She'd actually heard what he said to Kamuro Masumi...
And was she really that petty? It was true, after all!
"...Well... um... I can explain..."
After fumbling for a while, Toru Hasegawa managed to squeeze out a string of sounds that even he found confusing.
Could those sounds really be put together to form a sentence?
Fortunately, the gymnasium wasn't far from the school building, and the line they were in had already reached the entrance. With the generally quiet atmosphere around them, Toru Hasegawa found the perfect excuse to keep his mouth shut.
He was staying silent out of respect for the speaker!
Yeah! That was it!
After reassuring himself, Toru Hasegawa sat through the utterly boring entrance ceremony.
It was nothing more than some high-ranking person force-feeding the students below a load of motivational platitudes.
Toru Hasegawa had meant to put on an expression of deep emotion, as if he'd been inspired. But when he looked around and saw everyone looking half-asleep, he reined in his slightly over-the-top performance and decided to follow the crowd instead.
What he didn't know was that, while almost everyone else was paying little attention, two people had noticed his strange change of expression.
One of them was Sakayanagi Arisu.
Toru Hasegawa didn't notice the girl, who only came up to his chest, watching him. He was carefully checking the numbers above the heads of the people around him while the first-year students were gathered together.
Hmm, most of them were between 40 and 70. If these were affection ratings, those numbers were probably how people felt about strangers. Someone at 70 would be a lot friendlier than someone at 40. I'll test it out later.
"Wait, what's going on with these two?"
As if he'd seen something unbelievable, Toru Hasegawa's eyes widened.
[90/100]
???
At the front of the Class 1-B line, a girl with golden-pink hair had an exceptionally high number above her head.
< src="https://e1.kuangxiangit./uplos/chaptersnew/964/264132/250324/1742819014-100434764-113148748.jpg" alt='Honami Ichinose'>
It made him start to wonder whether his original guess was wrong—especially when he saw another person at the back of the Class 1-D line, just like him.
The boy's expression suited the mood perfectly. In other words, he was expressionless.
< src="https://e1.kuangxiangit./uplos/chaptersnew/964/264132/250324/1742819053-100434764-113148748.jpg" alt='Ayanokoji Kiyotaka'>
But what really caught Toru Hasegawa's attention wasn't the expression on his face. It was the number above his head—
[0/100]
Holy crap, what a heartless freak!
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