"Grrr~"
As soon as he got off the bus, Onizuka Tsukasa's stomach protested.
He had been in such a hurry this morning that he hadn't had time to eat. After asking around, he headed straight for the cafeteria.
It was still early for the school's scheduled assembly, so arriving ahead of time was pointless. Since he didn't know anyone, staying there would mean nothing but sitting around.
As someone who had enrolled from the most remote island, he was at least confident about that.
He pushed open the cafeteria doors, and a wave of warmth washed over him, mingled with the aromas of all kinds of food.
He headed straight for the serving counter. Looking at the menu, Onizuka Tsukasa frowned. Hmm... pork cutlet rice bowls, tuna sashimi... It's all so expensive!
He sighed softly and was about to choose something cheaper.
Just then, his eyes were drawn to a conspicuous sign: "Free Fruit and Vegetable Set Meal!"
Onizuka Tsukasa's eyes lit up. As long as it filled his stomach, that was good enough. Without hesitation, he walked up and decided to try the free set meal first.
Thinking back to the pat-down at the school gates, he couldn't help frowning. They had taken all his money, saying he wouldn't need it at school.
The school used its own independent currency system, which had left him feeling helpless for a while.
Onizuka Tsukasa had originally planned to borrow some money from an older student for a meal and pay him back once he had some, but it seemed he wouldn't need to go to that trouble after all.
Without hesitation, he used the student card issued at enrollment to buy the set meal, then carried his tray to a seat and began trying the free "fruit and vegetable set meal."
To his surprise, it wasn't hard to eat, though it still went down a little reluctantly.
Perhaps because it was free, the ingredients were combined simply and carelessly. It could just about fill him up, but that was all.
Onizuka Tsukasa chewed the lettuce in his mouth and absently poked at the carrot on his plate.
Just as he was about to finish eating, a few people strode past him arrogantly. After giving him a few particularly strange looks, they muttered something under their breath and walked away.
He could only make out a few scattered words. The most important were: Class D, trash, and Class Points. The rest were meaningless insults.
Onizuka Tsukasa wondered to himself if the free fruit and vegetable set meal had become something of a calling card for Class D at this school. It was true that he was in Class D, after all.
It clearly made no sense, but he didn't know why. He could only push his confusion to the back of his mind.
Time flew by. Seeing that the assembly time was approaching, he hurriedly returned his tray and made his way to class.
Class 1-D
By the time Onizuka Tsukasa entered the classroom, everyone was already seated. Just as he had expected, several groups had already gathered and were chatting happily.
Whether he arrived early or late, there would be no place for him among them. Onizuka Tsukasa was absolutely certain of that.
He looked around and easily found the seat with his nameplate on it.
Back row, by the window, the king's... Ahem.
Sitting in front of him was the contradictory boy he had seen on the bus. Interestingly, the girl beside him was the same cold beauty who had sat next to him on the bus.
Ah~ What a coincidence.
"Hello, I'm Onizuka Tsukasa. We met on the bus earlier, and I'm glad to run into you again in class."
"Introducing yourself out of nowhere? You're just like him." The icy girl was as sharp-tongued as ever. It seemed she was about to add another trait to her list.
The boy beside her, however, responded quite differently, speaking politely: "My name is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. Pleased to meet you!"
"No need to be so formal. We'll be classmates for three years, so just relax."
"Then, Onizuka, is it all right if I call you that?"
It was an utterly textbook response, as if he'd copied it straight out of 108 Ways to Greet Friends. Maybe it was just his imagination.
"Of course, Ayanokoji."
Just as he and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka fell into an awkward silence, with nothing to say, the icy, sharp-tongued girl beside them said to someone:
"Horikita Suzune."
"Hm?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka cut in. "That's her name."
Oh~ So she was a tsundere after all! Too bad tsunderes were out of fashion now!
"Nice to meet you, Horikita."
Onizuka tried to remain polite and keep himself from making a sarcastic comment. He had a feeling that if he laughed here, this girl would take revenge on him for at least three years.
"Are you thinking something rude?" Horikita Suzune turned around and stared at me.
"Not at all!"
I really wished she weren't so perceptive about things like this...
After that, they fell into another strange silence. Maybe those two would have gotten along just fine if he weren't there. Too bad he had barged in between them. Sorry about that, Ayanokoji.
Onizuka then began looking over the classroom and his classmates.
The facilities were excellent and advanced. It would have been strange if a school backed by the government hadn't managed that much. There was nothing surprising about it.
What was genuinely strange was the cameras installed all around the classroom. There was one in every corner. Wasn't that a bit much for a classroom?
Whatever. He'd just assume the school had plenty of funding. This sort of thing wasn't uncommon in corrupt Japan; they were always spending money on pointless things like this. It wasn't as if those politicians were paying out of their own pockets.
Besides the classroom facilities, his classmates also caught his attention. The gentle girl and the blond boy he had seen on the bus had both been assigned to Class D.
The blond boy had propped his feet up on the desk and taken a nail clipper out of his bag. He busied himself grooming his appearance, ignoring the noisy surroundings and doing his own thing.
He was certainly confident-almost too confident. People like him weren't well liked, but there was no need to guess whether he cared about that. He obviously didn't.
A large crowd surrounded the gentle girl. Since the school recruited nationwide, it was almost impossible that all these people had known one another since middle school and enrolled together.
That showed she was quite sociable-or rather, extremely sociable. So it was probably important to get along with her.
But Onizuka Tsukasa couldn't help feeling that something was off about her. As she talked with the others, she seemed to be releasing a faint hint of malice.
Having grown up immersed in that kind of atmosphere, Onizuka Tsukasa was extremely sensitive to such feelings. Pure, restrained malice. It seemed this classmate wasn't as simple as she looked.
A few minutes after he came back to himself, the bell signaling the start of class rang.
My life at Advanced Nurturing High School had officially begun, Onizuka Tsukasa thought.