A Worthy Opponent

An unexpected yet unsurprising guest intruded upon the Chairman's office today.

"Thank you, Father, you're the best."

Sakayanagi Arisu took the documents and offered Sakayanagi Narimori a charming, sweet smile.

Her father was the Chairman of Advanced Nurturing, standing alongside the Principal as one of the school's two primary decision-makers.

If Sakayanagi Arisu wanted the file on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, all she had to do was act a little spoiled toward Sakayanagi Narimori.

Sakayanagi Narimori looked at his daughter, his eyes filled with pride: "I didn't expect you to notice him so quickly. Truly, you are my daughter."

His precious daughter had been exceptionally brilliant since childhood, but she was born with a physical defect; according to school rules, she should have been assigned to Class D, which represented "defects."

To get his daughter into Class A, he had spent a great deal of effort persuading the other high-level officials of the school.

Advanced Nurturing would place certain outstanding students into Class D, hoping that once they understood the sorting criteria, they would realize their own flaws and strive to overcome them.

Unlike the defects of other Class D students, Sakayanagi Arisu's defect was congenital and could not be compensated for through later effort.

Assigning her to Class D would only crush her self-confidence without providing any positive benefit.

No matter how strange Advanced Nurturing High School was, it was still a school, and it shouldn't deny a student simply because of a natural defect.

On the other hand, Sakayanagi Arisu's outstanding performance in other areas was more than enough to compensate for her physical limitations.

Sakayanagi Narimori could say with full confidence that he hadn't cheated.

He had simply followed the standard procedure to get his daughter into Class A.

As for whether an ordinary student could have the Chairman help them fight for fair treatment, one could only say that in this fair world, some people were always "more fair" than others.

Sakayanagi Arisu flipped through the file on Ayanokoji Kiyotaka in her hands, a meaningful smile curling the corners of her lips: "Actually, no. I wasn't the first person to discover him."

She recalled those words from Makoto Nishikado once more.

A childhood friend she hadn't seen in 8 years and 243 days.

The number of days was wrong, and she had only met Ayanokoji Kiyotaka once; the other party certainly didn't know her, so how could they be childhood friends?

But to know even such a thing—what exactly was Makoto Nishikado's background?

It was truly intriguing.

"Oh? Who was the first to discover him? Do you need that person's file?"

Sakayanagi Narimori was curious.

It was rare for a boy to capture his daughter's attention like this.

Sakayanagi Arisu closed the file and shook her head: "No, Father. I want to explore everything about that person on my own."

Her eyes sparkled with excitement; in this school, she had already found two geniuses she wanted to crush.

Compared to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's lack of social awareness, Makoto Nishikado interested her even more.

Investigating his secrets would surely be a very interesting experience.

"That student named Makoto Nishikado—his greatest talent is Go, and he has already reached a professional level."

Sakayanagi Narimori reminded her.

He knew this was the information Sakayanagi Arisu wanted most.

"Father, you aren't tracking and observing my actions, are you?"

Sakayanagi Arisu didn't understand how her father knew about Makoto Nishikado.

The only explanation was that Sakayanagi Narimori had been secretly observing all her movements.

That wouldn't do; even if he was her father, he had no right to monitor her freedom.

Seeing a flash of displeasure in his daughter's eyes, Sakayanagi Narimori quickly explained: "You misunderstand. I was just thinking that anyone who could catch my daughter's eye must be the most outstanding genius."

"The most outstanding?"

Sakayanagi Arisu's attention was diverted, and she became interested.

"Based on the school's current evaluations, looking only at individual performance, the person performing the best right now is Makoto Nishikado, so I just guessed."

Sakayanagi Narimori looked toward his desk.

Judging by the data collected over the past few days and looking at all indicators, Makoto Nishikado's performance was undoubtedly the strongest.

Even his clever daughter was a step behind Makoto Nishikado.

"Oh? Then I'm even more interested."

Sakayanagi Arisu smiled happily, as if a gamer had finally waited for the release of GTA6.

"Father, in that case, I shall take my leave now."

Sakayanagi Arisu gathered the documents and turned to leave the office.

She decided to go back and register a Go account to improve her skills as quickly as possible.

Then, she would challenge Makoto Nishikado to a match and crush him in his own area of expertise.

She craved a worthy opponent, and she hoped Makoto Nishikado would not disappoint her.

"This child is really something, always in such a rush."

Sakayanagi Narimori smiled with a mix of helplessness and doting affection.

In truth, as long as his precious daughter was happy, he was satisfied.

As for Makoto Nishikado, he was outstanding in his own right, possessing an extraordinary talent for Go.

Even though Sakayanagi Narimori had confidence in his daughter, he felt her chances of winning were slim.

"Arisu, regardless of whether you win or lose this battle, you will certainly gain something from it."

Sakayanagi Narimori looked at the documents before him, which detailed everything about Makoto Nishikado since he entered the school.

Makoto Nishikado was now a student of primary concern for Advanced Nurturing.

Even a minor detail, such as Yuki Himeno becoming his follower, had already been noted by the school administration.

"Between you and that Ayanokoji boy, who is more exceptional?"

As soon as this question popped into his mind, Sakayanagi Narimori shook his head.

He knew that an ordinary student could not compare to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

It wasn't that Makoto Nishikado wasn't excellent enough, but rather that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was simply too much of an anomaly.

"Even if you serve as a whetstone, do not lose your drive to improve."

Sakayanagi Narimori sighed.

He didn't know if he was saying this to Sakayanagi Arisu or to Makoto Nishikado.

That night, before going to bed, Makoto Nishikado went out for a thirty-minute night run.

Today was the fifth day since school started, and he had accumulated a little over three million emotion points in total.

Just tonight, he spent 2.7 million to purchase Hayato Shibata's athletic talent.

Within all of Class B, Hayato Shibata possessed the best athletic talent.

After redeeming his athletic talent, Makoto Nishikado's own physical stats and talent stacked, resulting in an ability worth over three million.

Now, Makoto Nishikado had become the person with the strongest athletic ability in Class B.

"The effect is immediate; it's truly exaggerated."

Makoto Nishikado stopped to catch his breath.

Usually, after running for this long, he would feel as if his legs no longer belonged to him.

But now, he had only just entered his rhythm.

If Hayato Shibata was this strong, then what level must Koenji Rokusuke and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka be at?

There were too many people with high physical prowess in Advanced Nurturing; how could they still claim this wasn't a school that prioritized physical strength?

Arriving at the vending machine, Makoto Nishikado intended to buy a drink.

Having just taken two sips, Makoto Nishikado noticed Horikita Suzune arrive on the first floor and leave in a hurry.

Perhaps because of the cover of night, she didn't even notice Makoto Nishikado.

"Going out at this hour?"

While curious, Makoto Nishikado thought of the plot from the original work.

To prevent Horikita Suzune from getting beaten, he followed her.

Is this plot point happening at this time? Has it been affected by me?

Makoto Nishikado hadn't expected Horikita Suzune to care so much about this matter.

During that club orientation, he had mentioned that Horikita Manabu was facing trouble in the Student Council.

He had assumed that after careful consideration, she would completely disbelieve him.

"No way, she didn't notice me?"

Makoto Nishikado followed right behind Horikita Suzune, not even bothering to hide.

But Horikita Suzune's mind was elsewhere; she didn't even notice she was being tailed.

Makoto Nishikado found it amusing and didn't call out to warn her; instead, he lowered his footsteps and followed Horikita Suzune all the way to her destination.

Just as expected, the person who could make Horikita Suzune come out specifically at night to meet was her brother, Horikita Manabu.

Horikita Manabu glanced at Makoto Nishikado, who was following behind and preparing to watch the show.

His movement was obvious, but unfortunately, Horikita Suzune still didn't notice.

Horikita Manabu let out a long sigh; he didn't tell Makoto Nishikado to leave, instead tacitly allowing him to watch.

"Suzune, I didn't expect you to actually follow me here."