"How could you solve it like that?! If the teacher finds out, we're in trouble... Wait, no, hold on!"
As if he'd just thought of something, Keima Katsuragi picked up Elsie's terminal too. Her score report still showed her in last place.
"You only changed the score report on my terminal?"
"Uh-oh! Looks like I have to change everyone's!"
"That's not the point, you idiot!"
Volume One: Chapter Twelve: Tsundere: All Tsun, No Dere.
"Then I'll just go change the teacher's terminal!"
"Don't change anything!"
Keima Katsuragi was at a complete loss with Elsie.
That might have been fine in his original world, but this school was full of surveillance cameras. If someone saw Elsie using her supernatural powers, they'd be in trouble.
"I've been working hard to learn how to read and write here, too! Sigh! But this little quiz probably won't matter, right?"
"It probably won't. Teacher Chabashira said this quiz had nothing to do with the school; it was just something she'd come up with on the spur of the moment..."
"Yay!"
"...But we'll definitely have monthly tests, midterms, and finals later on. Our points might depend on those scores, and that could cause problems for us in our daily lives..."
"It's fine! Even without points, I can go catch some ingredients in Hell. We definitely won't starve! I'm actually pretty good at cooking!"
"I'm not sure how much I can trust that claim. Still, earning points isn't the main issue. If your grades are too poor, you might get expelled."
"E-expelled?"
Elsie froze, as though she were trying to understand what the word meant.
"If we get expelled, I imagine the two of us won't be able to finish our mission."
Keima replied.
"Nooo! God of Conquest!!! What should I do?!"
"Hey, hey, you're a demon. You're asking me to figure it out?"
"If we don't finish the mission, the world will be destroyed!!!!"
"Honestly, I wouldn't mind if this real world got destroyed—no, wait, that wouldn't work either. If the real world were destroyed, I wouldn't be able to play games."
"Exactly, exactly! God of Conquest! Let's do our best together!"
"Sigh... Let's go to the library later. At the very least, you need to learn some of the basics of this world... You're done eating, right? Let's go."
Keima Katsuragi sighed in resignation and prepared to leave with Elsie. At the same time, he pulled out his handheld console, ready to play as they walked.
Just then, a familiar figure stepped directly in front of them.
"Please wait."
Her voice was clear, yet forceful, as if she had no intention of giving Keima Katsuragi a chance to refuse.
Keima Katsuragi looked at her. It was Suzune Horikita.
Suzune Horikita wore a stern expression. Her eyes shone with intense seriousness as she fixed them on Keima Katsuragi.
"What is it?"
"Please, could you explain something to me?"
Suzune Horikita took out her terminal. Her score report for the day was displayed on the screen.
Her name was near the very top, too.
[First place: Suzune Horikita: 100 points]
"Oh, you got first place too!"
Elsie said, sounding surprised. Only then had she noticed that Suzune Horikita had also scored a perfect hundred.
"Explain... what?"
Keima Katsuragi scratched his head and looked at the girl in front of him, bewildered.
"How did you do it? How did you get a perfect score on the quiz?"
Suzune Horikita asked, frowning.
She had also gotten a perfect score in the end, but she knew she'd wasted a lot of time on the final question. She hadn't even been confident that her answer was correct.
Keima Katsuragi, meanwhile, had finished long before her. He'd even packed up before turning in his test.
Suzune Horikita knew perfectly well that Keima Katsuragi hadn't cheated.
But he'd been playing games the whole time.
She had no idea how he'd managed it.
More than the slight frustration she felt, she was curious.
"It's simple. You just write down the right answers, don't you?"
"That's not what I'm asking! The last question was on a completely different level from the others. The teacher barely covered it in class—"
"No, Teacher Chabashira mentioned it several times."
Keima Katsuragi no longer looked at Suzune Horikita. He lowered his head, focused on his handheld console, and started up his game.
"Four times in total. Teacher Chabashira just discussed that point alongside some other topics. You only had to separate out the relevant information."
Keima Katsuragi then repeated everything Sae Chabashira had said about it in class.
"What?"
Suzune Horikita's mouth fell slightly open as she listened to Keima Katsuragi, her face full of disbelief.
Even though she'd paid extremely close attention, she hadn't noticed Sae Chabashira bringing up any of those points in class.
What bothered Suzune Horikita most was that Keima Katsuragi actually remembered what the teacher had said.
Hadn't he been playing games the entire time?
Could it be...
Was Keima Katsuragi playing games while listening carefully to the lesson?
Was that even possible?
Suzune Horikita lowered her eyes without thinking and glanced at the screen of the handheld console in Keima Katsuragi's hands.
A two-dimensional girl wore a disgruntled expression and said something that seemed to carry a mocking edge.
"Looks like the character in your game doesn't like you."
"Heh. As expected, you're just someone living a pathetic life in the real world."
Keima Katsuragi raised his head slightly and glanced at Suzune Horikita with pity before looking back down.
"What?"
"That's called tsundere. She might seem cold and arrogant on the surface, and her words might usually have a bit of a sting, but once you touch her heart, her soft side comes out completely. Someone like you, who never plays games, couldn't possibly understand. You'd never see this kind of moe trait in the real world."
"Why would I need to understand something like that?"
Elsie couldn't get a word in, but her eyes kept shifting between Suzune Horikita and Keima Katsuragi.
"Wait. That kind of person who seems cold and arrogant on the surface and talks with a bit of a sting..."
It was the first time Elsie had heard the word tsundere, but her gaze slowly settled on Suzune Horikita.
"Horikita?"
"??? What?"
Seeing Elsie's innocent, curious gaze, Suzune Horikita seemed to realize something a moment too late.
Was her behavior... just like what Keima Katsuragi had described?
Tsundere?
How could that be?
How could such a strange word have anything to do with her?!
"I-I'm... not..."
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going."
Keima Katsuragi stared at the handheld console in his hands and walked past Suzune Horikita.
"Um, Horikita, we'll be going now!"
Elsie politely said goodbye to Suzune Horikita, then hurried after Keima Katsuragi, though she still glanced back at Suzune Horikita from time to time.
Suzune Horikita, meanwhile, remained rooted to the spot.
"W-what am I doing here..."
Volume One: Chapter Thirteen: Here She Is, the Literary Girl!
Meanwhile, in the teachers' office.
Sae Chabashira stared intently at Keima Katsuragi's test paper.
Every answer was practically perfect.
And he'd finished even faster than she'd expected.
"Had this guy already mastered the material beforehand, or... had he remembered everything I taught while playing games?"
Sae Chabashira murmured to herself, unable to help feeling curious.
If he'd studied the material beforehand, Sae Chabashira wouldn't have given the test in the first place.
Only the exams arranged by the school could affect these students.
Sae Chabashira had already given up on the students in Class D. She would have watched them sink little by little without lifting a finger.
But there were exceptions in this class.
Three students had been specially assigned to Class D, and even their backgrounds were difficult to investigate.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka...
And this Keima Katsuragi, whose academic ability was rated A+.
His intelligence and judgment were both at the highest level.
That alone would have been enough to earn him a place in Class A.
Why had he ended up in Class D...
Could it have something to do with his maverick nature and his near-mad love of games?
And then there was Keima Katsuragi's younger sister, Elsie. What was her deal?
Sae Chabashira frowned as she looked at Elsie's test paper.
Was what was written on it really human writing?
The letters were twisted and only a few were legible.
It was practically a curse from Hell.
And she'd turned her test in early?
A theory formed in Sae Chabashira's mind.
Could it be—
Had Elsie deliberately scored poorly?
As Keima Katsuragi's younger sister, she must have had some ability.
Had she realized that this quiz wasn't an exam and didn't matter, so she'd deliberately scribbled nonsense?
Interesting.
Perhaps the siblings had already figured out the secret of the school's S-System.
They, along with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, might become the secret weapons that would change Class D.
Before you continue