Classroom of the Mediocre Supremacist

Next was the problem of Shiina Hiyori.

He couldn't keep his composure around her—that was a major issue.

There were probably two reasons. One was that she was an attractive woman, and his body, brimming with youthful energy in the throes of adolescence, was craving young, pretty girls. This was an unchangeable weakness he could only overcome through adaptation.

He'd tried using Sakayanagi Arisu to get used to it, but her personality was too domineering, and she wasn't even in his class. His connection with her wasn't actually that close, so the effect hadn't been great.

And, to be honest—something he couldn't let her know—his feelings toward that girl were at best protective. They hadn't escalated to anything special between a man and a woman. Plus, her feminine traits weren't very pronounced. Even through her, he still couldn't handle women like Ichinose Honami, whose secondary sexual characteristics were exceptionally developed.

So finding a suitable woman for training was necessary.

And Kushida Kikyo, whom he was about to meet, was an even better "material" than Sakayanagi Arisu:

Her secondary sexual characteristics were well-developed. Though not quite at Ichinose's 95F, she was already an above-average 85D—perfect for training.

She was a classmate in Class D, so they spent a lot of time together daily.

She had a desire to "become friends with everyone," giving plenty of excuses to get close. And judging by how close she was with Ichinose Honami today, her circle of "friends" was no longer limited to their class. In the future, she might even provide intel from other classes or upper years.

Most importantly, she was too obsessive about "becoming friends"—even when those "defective products" in Class D stared at her with predatory looks, she remained unfazed. That alone proved her abnormality. And people with obsessions like that were the easiest to guide and exploit.

Of course, it would be even better if her true nature didn't end up annoying him.

As for the second reason he couldn't keep his composure... maybe it was because he'd never seen someone so pure, so natural before!

In the past, he'd always steered clear of airheads. This time, forced to deal with one, he'd been stirred by "mortal feelings," and that was the first time he'd encountered someone so naturally innocent.

A girl who looked this pure and simple was exactly the type someone like him—a "rat in the gutter"—would yearn for.

But all of that was only true as long as he couldn't see through her "innocent" mask. Once he saw through it, he'd probably be able to stay calm immediately.

The problem was, he couldn't see through it!!!!

...Whatever. At least for now, she hadn't shown any malice. So he'd just wear that "kind and caring good book friend" mask he used this afternoon to deal with her—that way, if she really did have some hidden agenda, he'd still have room to maneuver.

As for cutting ties outright... honestly, based on his judgment of her surface personality, she'd probably come straight to his classroom to ask, looking at him with that pitiful kitten expression he currently couldn't resist. That would cause a huge headache, so that plan was a pass.

Next was Karuizawa Kei.

Tch. Her problem was even worse than Shiina Hiyori's: Shiina Hiyori's was just that he couldn't see through her, so it was tricky. Her problem was—he'd misjudged her!!!

No, seriously, everything was normal before he entered her room. So why couldn't he understand her actions once he was inside?

Suddenly "confessing" like that... scared him into thinking she was trying to use that incident to blackmail him into being her bodyguard.

Then she insisted he take possession of her, making him think it was some kind of youthful honey trap.

To avoid the worst-case scenario, he had to risk being threatened by someone else and conduct a thorough search—he couldn't guarantee whether someone was watching the possible surveillance footage in real time.

But later, he realized he'd just been overthinking it. Karuizawa Kei seemed to have genuinely confessed.

But after being misunderstood like that by him, she should have given up on him, right?

No, wait... then why did she later ask him to take photos and videos? Her phone was under his control at the time, and he'd searched everywhere. There shouldn't have been any third-party recording or audio. So what was she really after???

It couldn't really be that she was trying to "offer everything" to him, as she claimed, could it?

If that were true, and he wasn't the other party, he'd only say one thing to her: Girl, your "Earth One" save file is already a dead end. This player suggests you start a new account.

But if the target was him, then wasn't he getting a useful pawn? He'd gladly accept and make good use of her.

And in return, he'd train her into a "true strong person" who could survive alone in the "dark forest" of "society" without relying on anyone.

Thinking about it like that, he didn't seem like such a bad guy after all!

First Semester of First Year:

Chapter 28: Kushida Kikyo's True Face

At ten o'clock in the evening, Hoshino En waited for Kushida Kikyo, who arrived in a hurry.

She seemed very interested in his "9 compensation." When she came over, there was still a bit of sweat on her forehead, clearly having rushed over.

"Sorry, I was chatting with Xiaomei and the others earlier, and I almost forgot."

She stood in the hallway, leaning forward, hands clasped together in front of Hoshino En, looking very apologetic.

But this didn't faze Hoshino En: the sweat on her forehead might have been deliberately created to leave a good impression on him; the "chatting with the girls' group" part was also questionable, since her location had always been in the dormitory building—she might have been in her own room simulating tonight's "date." As for small gestures like "leaning forward," they couldn't disturb Hoshino En anymore—after being forced to see something more explosive this afternoon, his tolerance threshold had risen quite a bit.

"It's fine, it's fine. I wasn't really bothered."

Hoshino En welcomed her with a smile. After all, what was about to happen might temporarily break her down, so showing goodwill here first couldn't hurt.

"Anyway, come on in."

He invited Kushida Kikyo into the room.

"Ah... speaking of which, I think I forgot to prepare slippers for guests!"

Noticing that there were no extra slippers on the shoe rack at the entrance, Hoshino En slapped his forehead in "annoyance."

"Kushida-san, even though I invited you, could you bear with it this time?"

Hoshino En deliberately bowed his head in apology to Kushida Kikyo behind him, and as expected, she forgave him.

"It's fine, it's fine. After all, Hoshino-kun doesn't seem like the type to often entertain classmates. It's understandable to have oversights the first time. I can accept that."

With that, she took off her shoes and stepped onto the floor of Hoshino En's room in her black socks.

"And I can also tell that Hoshino-kun has cleaned up properly, so I don't mind this at all."

"Ah, it's really great that Kushida-san understands."

Seeing that she truly had no intention of pressing further, Hoshino En let out a visible sigh of relief on the surface.

He led the girl to the table, settled her into a chair, and poured her a glass of warm water.

"Since I'm not used to drinking beverages or coffee, I only have plain water here. Please forgive me."

"It's fine, it's fine."

She took a sip of water, then quickly looked back at Hoshino En, who was sitting on the bed, and asked, "Actually, Hoshino-kun, that incident yesterday didn't affect me much at all. You really don't need to worry about it."

This was the truth. In reality, because Sakayanagi Arisu had deliberately steered things yesterday, all the blame had been concentrated on Hoshino En. She, Kushida Kikyo, and Sakayanagi Arisu had all been packaged as pitiful victims deceived by a scumbag.

"Emm... that's part of it, but actually, I mainly wanted to apologize to you for this morning."

"This morning?"

"Yeah. Because I'd already judged that everyone in Class D probably isn't the type to be easily persuaded, I gave up on telling them the truth—compared to the benefits it would bring, the chance of them ganging up on me was higher."

"And I'm also an unpopular introvert. Once the whole group targets me, I might even lose the ground to stand on."

Watching Hoshino En start to show signs of getting emotional, Kushida Kikyo quickly cut in, "It's fine, it's fine. This morning I was too rough and didn't think about the consequences..."

Because she'd realized that due to those idiots' idiotic behavior, she'd lose tens of thousands of points next month, she'd gotten a bit anxious.

She should have waited until her position was more stable before reaping the credit. This morning, she'd been too hasty.

"Is that all Hoshino-kun wanted to say? You could have just chatted with me on my phone about this. No need to make it so formal."

Hearing this, Hoshino En shifted his tone.

"Actually, it's not just that. I thought you might be piling up a lot of stress, Kushida, so I wanted to provide a private space for you to vent."

"You're under a lot of pressure, aren't you? Don't you ever feel the urge to confide in someone?"

Hoshino En's sudden, blunt remark froze the smile on Kushida Kikyo's face.

"You... Hoshino-kun, what do you mean? I don't really get it..."

"Your smile looks pretty ugly. If you can't laugh, don't force yourself. I invited you here today because I wanted to be honest with you."

"Holding onto that formulaic smile won't do either of us any good."

Kushida Kikyo: "..."

The corners of her mouth drooped, and the sweet smile she'd deliberately squeezed out instantly turned into an expressionless, cold face.

"Did Horikita Suzune tell you something?"

"Horikita Suzune? I haven't spoken to her yet. But since you brought her up... does she know your true face?"

A sly smile spread across Hoshino En's face—an expression Kushida Kikyo was familiar with. She'd seen a similar smile on Sakayanagi Arisu's face yesterday afternoon.

"Let me guess: just knowing your true face wouldn't be enough to threaten you. After all, anyone with a bit of cunning should be able to see through your act. So you're on guard against her for another reason—your personality once brought you extremely severe consequences, and Horikita Suzune probably knows about that incident. That's why you're so wary of her, right?"

"Were you middle school classmates?"

Kushida Kikyo's cold mask cracked.

"You're really something else."

She completely dropped her facade, unladylikely downing the warm water in one gulp, then slammed the cup heavily onto the table. Crossing her arms and legs, she stared blankly at Hoshino En.

"So, what are you trying to do by telling me all this?"

"You don't think these baseless guesses can threaten me, do you?"

"Actually, it's not just that."

Seeing Kushida Kikyo waver, Hoshino En immediately felt this was in the bag.

A waver proved she wasn't as indifferent as she let on. She cared deeply about any bad reputation aimed at her; she was just putting up a bluff.

"Combined with your obsession with 'friends' and that act of treating everyone sincerely... back in middle school, you must have done something that blew up your relationships, right?"

The more someone lost something in the past, the more they crave it now—that's obsession.

Kushida Kikyo's pupils unconsciously contracted.

"But you wouldn't ruin your own reputation unless something threatened you even more, something worse than social death. For example... someone witnessed you venting stress by gossiping about others' secrets, confronted you publicly, and forced you into a corner. To shift the blame, you spilled everyone's hidden secrets, directly detonating the social network centered on you."

"That incident probably blew up huge and couldn't be contained. You avoided becoming the target of everyone's hatred, but you left behind a black mark as the 'instigator.'"

"With that black mark, Kodo Ikusei ignored your abilities and threw you into Class D, the trash heap."

"Otherwise, with your skills, you'd at least be Class B material."

Watching Kushida Kikyo gradually radiate killing intent toward him, Hoshino En said with a smile, "Kushida-san, did my guess hit the mark?"

Kushida Kikyo, sitting in her chair, said nothing.

First Semester of First Year:

Chapter 29: Press a Fingerprint? Sis, Are You Serious?

"You're way too much, you know that?"

"...While your words sound like you're praising me, isn't your expression a bit off?"

Watching Kushida Kikyo finally rouse herself from silence, Hoshino En suddenly felt a bad premonition creep in. ∵"ˇ∶′◇

Judging from her earlier reactions, his guess should have been correct—the Kushida Kikyo whose secret had been exposed ought to be furious by now!

But why, instead of the rage he had anticipated, was Kushida Kikyo actually smiling?!

To his astonishment, Kushida Kikyo, revealing a gentle smile, slowly rose from her chair, softly and tenderly approached Hoshino En, and sat beside him on the bed, her soft chest lightly pressing against his arm.

"What are you trying to do?!"

Hoshino En put on a flustered expression, but inwardly he resolved that no matter what she did next, he would treat her just as he had treated Karuizawa Kei afterward.

Since she hadn't gotten angry immediately, it meant she still had a goal of [not being able to burn bridges]. Combined with her sudden close approach... could she be trying to seduce him into making a mistake, then record evidence with her phone or something to counter him?

Hoshino En recalled that Kushida Kikyo's phone had been placed in her jacket pocket earlier, likely already recording, but that didn't rule out the possibility of a voice recorder.

A social butterfly like her, who made [true friends] with everyone and collected others' secrets to gain a [superior sense of superiority], would surely have a voice recorder ready to activate at any time.

He swept his peripheral gaze over the places Kushida Kikyo had been since entering. Though he couldn't discern anything now, she might have left micro cameras for surveillance—after all, if he were the one meeting someone, he would arrive early and set up hidden cameras for monitoring and recording just in case. She probably hadn't had time to prepare this time, but the moments when he went to pour water or looked away were long enough for her to set things up.

"It's nothing, just..."

Just like when she had asked other boys for help in class before, Kushida Kikyo grabbed Hoshino En's left hand with both of hers, firmly clasping it in her palms.

Then, she did something she would never do in the classroom.

—She took Hoshino En's left hand and pressed it heavily against her school uniform.

Hoshino En felt his palm touching something warm; the subtle sensation made him unconsciously tighten his grip slightly.

"Why are you suddenly squeezing so hard?!"

His action immediately triggered a reaction from the person involved, but Kushida Kikyo didn't push him away. Instead, she forcefully held his left hand in place, making it impossible for him to pull back even if he wanted to.

Seeing no way to withdraw, and following the principle of [no harm in taking advantage when it's free], Hoshino En simply let go of control over his left hand and indulged himself fully.

"Hey!!"