Chapter 7 - May 1st
Ayanokoji's Pov:
At the moment I'm sitting on my bed, my classmates left not long ago, but they should be in their rooms by now. I quickly grab my cell phone and write something in our group chat, as it was something we apparently forgot to talk about, even though we theorized, and decided it was better next month.
" Guys, what should we do with clubs? We still don't know how important they are and we can't get into any because trying to do that would cause a lot of confusion, especially among veterans." I sent the message. If you're lucky they will read it. And after a few minutes an answer is sent.
"[I think the best thing is to really wait until next month as we had decided before to try to join one, as then we might end up learning about what clubs really are. knots with open arms.]" Light wrote.
"[Yes, our hands are tied now. What about the student council? I think at least one of us should try to get into it, as there's a good chance they have some degree of influence. And they probably get inside information about it. future exams.]" Not after a long time, Sora wrote. It seems like everyone is online and watching so they can write their opinions if necessary.
"[I agree. Having an E-Class student in the student council seems like something we need if we are to make up for the disadvantage we have compared to other Classes. Although the Items Ayanokoji brought provides us with this if we use it correctly, but we have to be careful that the other classes don't find out for as long as possible, more additional information is never too much.]" Ryuzaki added his line. In fact, the student council must have information too important for us to refuse, at the disadvantage we have. And we have to be careful when using the items.
"We can wait until next month to decide." Shiro wrote. I'm sure we all understand what she meant by that.
" That's probably the wisest decision. Much better than rushing it anyway," I wrote back. And then I decide to add something.
" The something I forgot to mention. It's about class D. For lunch I Miyuki and Victorique know a girl named Kikyo Kushida. From what I can tell, she is very popular because of his outgoing and cheerful attitude. She did not hesitate talking to or helping anyone, even those who are considered unpopular. Her goal is probably to make friends with as many people as possible, as she said the same thing to us. She also seems to have all the contact networks of her class, so I'm likely to assume there are plenty of others as well. She's going to end up having the biggest social network within the school." I decide to warn them about Kushida.
"[I also say to be a little careful with her. My intuition says she wears a mask]" Victorique added.
"[That's definitely good information. A vast social network is what our class lacks, as we've only known each other and none of us are particularly extroverted aside from Miyuki. She could turn out to be a dangerous entity, even more so if Victorique claims are actually true." Ryuzaki wrote, probably praising the new information given by Victorique and me.
" Well I guess that was all. See you tomorrow in the classroom" I said goodbye and I see everyone too.
xXx
"So finally let's get a glimpse of Kururugi in this class, huh?" Sora mentioned.
"That's right. I've been wondering about that too. And don't forget Ayanokoji. He also looks very athletic." Lelouch exclaimed looking at me suspiciously out of the corner of his eye.
"I'm actually curious too," Light said.
Arriving at class, Sora Light and Lelouch exchanged a small casual conversation while Shiro silently held Sora's hand. Mainly, they were talking about Kururugi and me, and Lelouch was now talking to Suzaku who is beside me. Light and Blank arriving together was certainly unusual, it had been a week since the opening ceremony.
Today we had swimming lessons, which meant that Class E's physical attributes would be assessed. Thinking about it, I wondered where I was classified in this Class really. My peers are aware of my mental capacity, and they must also think that I am a bit athletic. But everyone still doesn't know each other's true athletic prowess.
"Hey Sora, are you Shiro going to be alright?" I decided to talk to him.
"What do you mean?" Kururugi and Miyuki ask me at the same time. "Are you asking if they can swim or not?" Kururugi added.
"No. I've noticed that Sora and Shiro rely heavily on each other's presence to function for the past week, as they hold hands almost all the time. Swimming isn't really something you can do while you're connected to each other. ." I explained it to them.
"Nii and I are fine as long as we're in the same room." Shiro replied monotonously.
"That's a weakness you should really work on, no? What's the reason you guys depend so much on each other?" Lelouch asked. I'm also really curious about that.
"We...prefer not to talk about it." Sora said as he sat down.
What the hell could have happened to them to make them like this? I can see the darkness in your eyes. They are a bit similar to mine, apart from the fact that mine is much stronger. Something happened in their past to make them like that, to be so dependent on each other while carrying some heavy load.
"Alright, let's place the bets! Ryuzaki and Jabami, prepare a spreadsheet for us to use for the fastest and slowest swimmers! 1000 points to enter!" Sora declared, clearly changing the subject.
But really? If we're betting on the slower ones, I'm sure everyone will win.
We all gathered around his desk as he grabbed a tablet and opened a spreadsheet. The names of all Class E students were displayed, there were two columns of numbers, probably representing betting odds, accompanying those labeled ' fastest' and ' slowest' .
I quickly look at Shiro and Sora pitying them. More then I realize someone who had forgotten. Victorique. I could hear her mutter something about ' stupid class ' and ' I could be earning more sleeping' .
Now I'm really in doubt who between Shiro and Victorique is slower here... Sora and Lelouch will definitely be the slowest of the guys. Shiro and Victorique will be the slowest of the girls. But that lets us check out Jabami and Miyuki's athletic abilities a bit. Miyuki had said he was quite confident in his physical prowess, now is the time to prove it.
Technically Kururugi had the greatest chances of being the fastest swimmer, and the guys seemed in favor of that too, with the exception of Ryuzaki. Looks like he got a pretty good look at me here. If someone bet I was the slowest swimmer, and I actually am, that person would earn about 27,000 points. In other words, if someone bets that I am the fastest and I am, they would only win 780 points. Ryuzaki thought I was likely to be in the top two for the fastest time and almost guaranteed I wouldn't finish last.
Well, it doesn't take a genius for it to deduce that... I think looking at Sora and Lelouch, and then at Shiro and Victorique.
Seriously, how the hell didn't they bet on Sora or Lelouch as the slower one?
"Then I'll add a rule," Lelouch said and we all looked at him.
"Which is?" Sora asked.
"For the bets to be fair, no one can purposely slow down." He said. Is he thinking I would cut it down? These words seem to have been spoken directly to me. I would really do that a little bit, after all, what would they say when they saw me at full speed? Lelouch seems to want to evaluate me against his friend Kururugi for some reason...
"Are you worried someone might do this?" Sora asks thinking deeply before turning to me and saying. "Oh right. You heard Ayanokoji, not holding back!" What the hell? Are they teaming up against me? What have I done to them?
"I didn't plan on doing this anyway..." I say calmly. I can see them nodding their heads satisfied with this.
If I go with 60% I don't think they would notice that I'm slowing down. Or would they notice?
"First of all, did anyone bet on me as the fastest?" And the moment I ask this all the girls including Shiro raise their hands. I can see Miyuki with her hand raised like she's shy with her cheeks a little red. While Victorique was looking back completely ignoring me even more with her arm raised. Jabami is just showing his usual smile, while Shiro just has the same stoic face.
Honestly I was surprised when they all raised their hands at the same time. I can see that some of the boys were also surprised by this, Sora seemed to be looking at his sister in awe, and then kept asking if he could change the bet. More could not.
Looking back at the spreadsheet, I decided to place my bet on myself. Some of my colleagues raised eyebrows at this, but no one said anything. After all, all the girls in the class bet on me too.
xXx
"Let's get this over with," Sora sighed.
After lunch was over, it was finally time for swimming lesson. Sora, Shiro, Lelouch, and Victorique all had faces that made me think of a new soldier about to go to war for the first time, while the rest of us had neutral expressions as we made our way to the locker room. Victorique was the worst of them all, she looked like she was going to pass out from boredom right there while mumbling ' Stupid shit class ' over and over. I really felt sorry for her.
"See you at the pool." Kururugi said as he left. I actually thought he was a bit bold for simply looking unfazed while changing. But I came to the conclusion that it was the fact that he was in the army, so that must have been normal there, so I didn't say anything.
"This school is definitely luxurious. Even the city pools aren't as good as they are." Light said as he watched the pool. The water was clear and beautiful and, being inside the school, we didn't have to worry about the weather. The perfect environment.
A moment later, Sora came out of the locker room. He was, to be honest, a cowardly shipwreck. Her body shook and her eyes roamed the room in apparent terror. I had never seen him like this before.
"Sora-san, what's wrong?" Miyuki asked looking very worried. The rest of us were too. He did not answer.
About a few seconds later, Shiro came out of the women's locker room in a similar state. They both shivered and hid as best they could in this pool. When they turned around, they immediately lit up and ran to each other.
"Nii!"
"Shiro!"
They wrapped themselves in a tight hug and were literally crying with joy. Seriously, what the hell happened to make them look like this? To think that this is...
"To think it's that bad..." Ryuzaki practically completed my thoughts in a mutter. I'm actually a little worried about it.
"Hey, you two. You're really going to have to work on this. What are you going to do if there's a time when you can't be together, like some test that separates students based on gender?" Lelouch interrupted the brothers' meeting with a very real question. He already thought that they would likely have tests that would separate students based on gender.
"That's scary!" Sora protested.
"We're not telling you to stop relying on each other and we're not telling you to change the way your life has been. But... can't you at least try to get to the point where you can function a little independently? " Light asked them.
"I suppose...we can try to get to that point I think..." Sora said as he walked towards us.
"I think Shiro, should try hanging out with the girls in our Class. You see, Miyuki and Victorique would definitely get along with you, and I'm sure Jabami would too, if you ignore her craziness a bit after all, how you she likes games too, even if they are a different kind. You can try something out, can't you?" I said trying to sound as friendly as possible.
Shiro then turns to the girls who they just smile at. Victorique only gives a weak smile, clearly she's not used to it, and didn't expect me to point her out.
"I don't care, Shiro-san. I would really like to be your friend." Miyuki spoke with a friendly smile.
"Yeah, she's right Shiro-chan, just like Ayanokoji said, I wouldn't mind playing with you, no bets, just for us to have fun." Jabami spoke smiling. Huh? No bets? The moment she said that I can also see my classmates looking at her as if they were saying ' Who are you are you what you did to the real Jabami? '. But she just continued with her smile.
"Yeah...I don't care either." Victorique spoke quite shyly while looking away.
"Thanks girls, do you see Shiro? Not everyone is like the ones we met before. I think you should give it a try." Sora speaks smiling at his sister She just looks at him and nods her head before muttering at a very low volume.
"I'll...try," she said in a very cute voice looking down.
Everyone just smiles at it. And then I see Kururugi look at me before asking.
"Your physique is unexpectedly good Ayanokoji. You must have done some heavy training to get this body type right?" he spoke as everyone started looking at me. I see that Miyuki suddenly starts to blush, along with Victorique, I could hear her muttering something, but I couldn't decipher what it is. Jabami was just looking at me blatantly. Shiro is just looking normally.
"You sure have a sexy body Ayanokoji-kun," Jabami then comments out of nowhere. I can see Miyuki and Victorique turn to her quickly as she smiles with her hand over her mouth.
"You are unexpectedly bold aren't you?" Light comments with a raised eyebrow. She just looks at him before speaking.
"I'm just stating a fact."
"I understand..."
"Yes, I trained since I was little." I decided to answer Kururugi's question honestly.
"Look at this Sora, you better be careful, or else Shiro will also fall for Boyfriend-kun's charms and end up joining his harem." Lelouch comments laughing shamelessly.
"Hey, don't even say something like that!" Sora yelled back at him.
"Well... Ayanokoji is cute..." And then we all turned with surprised eyes to the person who said this.
Shiro...
"Ssssss-shiro...?" Sora exclaimed shaking non-stop, as if the world had come crashing down on him, he's holding Shiro by the shoulder with some small force, shaking her as he says his name. I can see the girls all looking at Shiro, completely taken aback, even Jabami's usual smile that didn't seem possible to be changed was replaced by a look with a completely puzzled expression looking at Shiro.
Lelouch and Kururugi are dumbfounded, while Light looked surprised, Ryuzaki just looked on with some curious surprise about it. Probably wondering how that cute girl was able to blatantly say that in front of everyone.
"I'm just kidding. Nii is way prettier." Shiro declares. And then I can see Sora stop shaking and sigh in exasperated relief as Shiro patted his head apologetically.
Joke? Since when does she tell jokes? I asked myself.
"Okay guys, line up!" And then a completely familiar voice is heard by all of us.
As soon as we rolled our eyes, we saw Ayame-sensei. This, for sure, quickly cast doubts on everyone. Why was she here and not the swimming teacher? Everyone is certainly wondering this.
"Sensei?" Miyuki caught her attention. "Yes?" Ayame-sensei said. "Is...shouldn't it be the swim teacher? Why are you here?" Miyuki asked the question we're all asking in our heads.
"Oh well, see, the swim teacher had a little...problem. So I'll be replacing him." Ayame-sensei said like he didn't want to get into the subject of what the problem is... well no one asked so I guess that's fine.
"I see..." was what most of us said.
I now stopped to analyze Ayame-sensei completely. She is wearing an all red bikini. She really looks pretty. Then I realize I'm looking a little too hard and see Ayame-sensei looking at me covering himself with his hands with red cheeks.
"I-Is there a problem?" she asks shyly. I felt eyes behind me, like they were going to kill me. I think the best way out here is to be honest. If I lie it will probably get worse.
"Oh, I just think you look really cute Ayame-sensei," I say honestly. And the moment I say this she... exploded.
"Eh? Ehhhhhhhhh? What!? What are you... saying?" She quickly starts asking several questions as her eyes swiveled and she got redder still waving her hands in front of her face.
"Hahahaha! So you're even hitting on sensei!? Hahaha," Lelouch comments laughing like a madman.
"I didn't know you were that bold, Ayanokoji," Light comments with a smirk.
"Ayame-sensei, you better be careful. Or else Ayanokoji will put you in his harem too!" Lelouch comments still chuckling.
"HUH!?" Ayame-sensei suddenly screams. I'm really feeling the temperature starting to get low here...
"Don't be slandering my Lelouch name. Don't give Ayame-sensei the wrong ideas," I say quickly. I can see Kururugi trying to stop his laughter.
This is problematic. Ayame-sensei looks like she's going to explode any moment she's so red. And I feel daggers in my back here. Out of the corners of my eyes I can see Miyuki standing there with a completely forced smile, like she's trying to keep the temperature from dropping. Victorique is clearly glaring at me. Jabami just looks amused about it all.
'
"Oh, so what are you trying to do huh?" I can hear Sora's mocking tone asking me, with clear irritation in her voice. Seriously what's the problem with this crazy class? Isn't there anyone normal here?
"I just stated a fact. Ayame-sensei is clearly pretty. Don't you agree with me? Or do you mean she looks ugly?" I spoke quickly.
"What? Of course not, how the hell could she if she wants to be ugly!?" Sora basically yelled pointing at Ayame-sensei making her redder even more. He's right, she sure as hell isn't ugly at all.
"Nii..." Shiro said looking at Sora in a frightening way.
"Shiro! I'm just telling the truth here, but of course she's not as pretty as you are! HAHAHA," Sora says quickly with a nervous laugh.
Ayame-sensei is probably someone who has received many offers. But is she single? I'm really curious.
"Ayame-sensei, are you single?" I ask curiously. And it seems to have been a bad idea. The temperature dropped completely, getting much colder than the previous two times.
"Kiyotaka-san... it's not good to try something with the teacher. We're the students here right...?" she asks with a dangerous smile. "Besides, you seem to have broken her." Shiro spoke pointing to her.
I quickly turn my eyes towards Sensei, and see that she is completely frozen.
"You say you're not hitting on her? So what's this Boyfriend-kun?" Lelouch asked completely amused, as if he was enjoying the show completely. He doesn't seem to be aware of Miyuki's aura...in fact, no one does. Is it just targeting me? That's not fair .
"I was just curious...nothing else. I mean, she's a very beautiful woman right?," and as I say this I can hear Ayame-sensei make a cute noise. "So I figured she probably would have already gotten a lot of proposals. I was just curious," I start talking in a panic, scared of Miyuki in front of me with her scary smile.
"Are you sure about this pervert?" Victorique asks in a clearly annoyed voice. I really don't understand why the hell they're angry.
I mean, even if I was hitting on the teacher, why would they care? I can't imagine why. Maybe it's the age? I doubt it, that's just a number, there are people who marry people who are 20 years apart. Or maybe it's because she's my teacher? Still, I saw on internet-sensei that there are cases of students who end up marrying the teachers in their class...
There's also the fact that she's quite hot.
"Absolutely," I stated quickly to avoid any confusion.
"Very well... I think we've wasted too much time already. Let's unfreeze Ayame-sensei, before our time in the pool is over." Sora spoke quickly. But I could still hear traces of irritation in his voice as he looked at me.
"I guess you're right." Ryuzaki spoke.
I will never really understand these women.
" Yes, let's unfreeze her." Lelouch declared.
X
When we unfreeze the teacher, we go do our swimming exercises that Ayame-sensei asked for.
One thing I noticed was that no one in our class seemed interested in the girls in our class, even though they were in swimsuits. Ayame-sensei is the only one in a bikini here. I wondered if it's because they didn't find them attractive. Or maybe they just weren't interested in girls.
Ayame-sensei asked us to swim about fifty meters. Victorique quickly raises his hands. And then Ayame-sensei motions for her to continue.
"If I can't swim, can I go to sleep?" she asked blatantly. I'm sure she can swim, just from her question. She clearly wants to get rid of it to rest.
"I'll teach you, after all swimming will serve you a lot in the future ," Ayame-sensei said. And the moment she says that, I can see Victorique's face of complete boredom being replaced by a deep, analytical look. The way she explained it...
Serve in the future? This is an elite school, so they must teach a little of everything that is found in various professions, after all, whoever graduates in class A, has a 100% guaranteed employment rate. Does this mean that in the future there will be a test that swimming will be fundamental? I'm sure Victorique is thinking about all this and then some.
I quickly enter the water. I realize it's not cold so her temperature must be controlled. I start swimming the 50 meters, then wait for everyone to finish.
"Did you guys see this? I went all the way!" Sora exclaimed, apparently proud of his performance.
He finished his swim just before Shiro and Victorique, and walked out of the pool with a triumphant smile. But Sora, you almost walked in dead, why are you proud of it?
"Well, it looks like everyone can swim so I'm going to separate you into genders. As there are only 4 girls, let's start with them. You're going to compete together, fifty meters," Ayame-sensei said smiling. Seriously, her attitude after the main area change completely changed. But I think I prefer it that way.
"C-compete?! Are you serious? Do you want to kill me Ayame-sensei!?" Sora exclaimed screaming at Sensei, who either didn't listen, or pretended not to.
"I'll give a special bonus for the 2 races of the genres. 5,000 points for each one that finishes first, isn't that good?" She spoke quickly.
The confident swimmers looked happy, while the less skillful ones like Sora, Shiro, Victorique and Lelouch moaned at it.
I never imagined that the school would award points. Perhaps this was Ayame-sensei's way of lighting a fire over the students. Very well played, I must say Ayame-sensei. Very well played.
The girls then were the first. Our class was only four. And I was sure Shiro and Victorique would be the last. So I was curious about Miyuki versus Jabami. I'm sure the rest seem to think so too.
My mind quickly wandered to something important when it was our turn.
Should I beat the world record?
No... I don't think I need to do this to beat Kururugi. 60% should be enough, and they won't think I was holding back. At least not all of them... my vision turns to the girl who goes swimming, with an unhappy face. Victorique. She is the person with the best eyes in our class. So she should probably be able to see...
The girls' race then begins, and as expected, Shiro and Victorique are in the back while Miyuki and Jabami are in the front. Miyuki seems to be faster than Jabami. And then their race comes to an end, we patiently wait for Victorique and Shiro to reach the end.
So the results of the girls' race went.
Shiba Miyuki: 25.78
Jabami Yumeko: 30.92
Victorique de Blois: 41.25
Shiro: 47.94
Looks like Miyuki is really pretty athletic huh. Victorique arrived before Shiro, but even so, it was very unfortunate. They're both really not made for physical activity. Jabami tried with good weather even.
"Okay Miyuki, you've earned the 5,000 points, I'll give it up as soon as the boys' race is over." Ayame-sensei said and Miyuki nodded.
And then it was our turn. My vision wandered to Kururugi, who was two lanes to my left. His physical ability was undoubtedly excellent, but I doubted he had much experience in swimming since he had been trained in the army. Because of that, I can probably win the race, even if I don't swim at my maximum speed. With that in mind, the race began and we dived.
I couldn't concentrate on all the students' positions while swimming, so I decided to go at a pace still considered objectively too fast, but not fast enough to seem unbelievable for a high school student. Okay, I really had no idea about the average swimming speed of a high school kid, so I adjusted my speed to an estimate.
As soon as I finished the run, I got out of the pool. After a few seconds, Kururugi reached the end of the pool and left. Everyone was still swimming, Light was in the lead, followed relatively closely by Ryuzaki while Lelouch and Sora had barely made it halfway.
"You're too fast, Ayanokoji, have you ever practiced swimming before?" Kururugi approached me and asked me.
"I did a little bit but never really trained I guess."
"His speed is impressive for someone untrained."
"Thanks, but I really can't be proud to be by your side."
After a few seconds everyone finished the race, and then Ayame-sensei presents the results.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: 20.92
Kururugi Suzaku: 24.39
Light Yagami: 26.15
Ryuzaki Rue: 29.77
Lelouch Lamperouge: 38.82
Sora: 43.07
After a few seconds of silence, Lelouch asked a question. "Hey, what's the fifty meter freestyle world record?"
"It's 20.91 seconds," Shiro responded like a search engine.
Is there anything Shiro doesn't know? But still I think I screwed up . I think looking at my time.
"You... almost broke the world record..." Sora exclaimed surprised that I was only 2 points short of breaking the world record. I can see that Ayame-sensei is also amazed by this.
"At least tell me swimming is your forte!" Sora exclaimed.
"Who knows," I just replied vaguely.
"That's awesome Kiyotaka-san!" Miyuki exclaimed with a smile.
"Tell me, Kiyotaka, was that intentional? Standing just 1 point below the world record..." Victorique suddenly exclaimed this. As I thought, she actually realized I was holding back, but her surprise is due to my score. The world record is 20.91. And I got 20.92. She must be thinking like crazy, probably not believing it was possible or that it was just a coincidence.
"That's impossible Victorique-chan. There's no way he can do such a thing. Right Ayanokoji?" Sora spoke. I just agreed with him before releasing a phrase of mine that I felt would become legendary, that I would use a lot going forward.
"Coincidences can be weird."
Everyone seemed to agree with me. Everyone except Victorique who was looking at me suspiciously. I just sighed at it. Looks like I ended up overreacting here.
xXx
As I walked towards the Palete Café, I ended up bumping into Kushida midway. I sighed, I really didn't want to get too close to her. I had the impression that it would be problematic. Kushida invited me in with her which I was a little skeptical about.
"You know Kushida, I think that would be inconvenient for me." I admitted scratching the back of my neck.
"Really? Why?"
"You're very popular with the boys at this school, Kushida. If I'm seen with you alone, it could get me in trouble." And by trouble I mean Miyuki . If she sees me alone with Kushida, I really think she's going to kill me.
"Do you really think so? I don't think it would be that unusual. You also caught the girls' attention, Ayanokoji-kun, even though no one really seems to know you. You're in the first year of the student ranking chart. Some even think you did it. playing that piano piece!" Kushida spoke the last part a little excitedly. Lucky there aren't many people around us here.
First year student ranking chart? What the fuck?
"Did it catch their attention? Me? Besides, what the hell sort of classification is it?"t
Apparently, we men had been scrutinized without even realizing it. Scary women . I wonder if those three voted for it too? Shiro I'm pretty sure not, after all, she doesn't seem like the type to care about that.
"Well, there are a lot of different rankings, you know? The hot guys rankings. The rich guys rankings, The die-deserving rankings. The biggest-" rankings.
"Okay, that's enough. I don't think I want to hear any more." I really hope this last one isn't what I'm thinking. If that's how the hell did they get this information?
"Don't worry. You took a respectable fourth place in the hot guys ranking. Congratulations! By the way, Satonaka-kun from Class A is in first place. Hirata-kun from my class, is in second. Lelouch-kun is the one Thirdly, I've never seen him before, but apparently he's handsome and also faced Ryuen in Class C, which made a lot of girls admire him. I feel like Hirata-kun gets a lot of points because of his looks and personality."
From what Kushira had said, this Hirata seemed to be very influential and viewed positively by the girls, I think Sora talked about him a little bit when he was explaining about Class D. It also seemed that Lelouch had caught the attention of the girls at school after he confronted Ryuen .
"Is it okay for me to be happy about this?" I asked.
"Of course. Oh, you also ranked very high in melancholy."
"Let's see..." I looked at Kushida's cell phone. There really were a lot of different ranking charts. I saw two rather disturbing ones she had talked about earlier entitled "Boys Who Should Die," and "Boys with the Biggest-" and I better skip that. I really want to know how the hell they got the information for that particular list. They couldn't have just kicked it right?
"Aren't you happy about it? You're sixth on this one."
"I think if I cared about popularity I would feel different, but I don't really feel anything." Besides, no girl had ever put a letter with a heart sticker in my purse. "So, does everyone participate in this?"
"Well, not everyone, but a lot of people do. I don't know the exact number of votes though. The comments are also anonymous. If I'm not mistaken there were 2 of them voting for one Kiyotaka, although I don't know who it is." Wait, what?
"Like?"
"Well, there were two or three comments voting for one Kiyotaka, but no one seemed to know who it was." Kushida confirmed. It couldn't be them, right?
"I understand..."
"You know this person?"
"Well yes, it's me. My full name is Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."
"Ehhhhhh!? is that you!?" She yelled in surprise, I can see people looking at us here. I signal her to stop screaming, she apologizes and looks embarrassed.
"I think you're probably at a disadvantage, Ayanokoji-kun. From my point of view, you're definitely attractive enough to be considered a very hot guy, but I don't think people would say you're as good-looking or similar as you are. Hirata-kun From what I've seen, you're not a big talker and you didn't do anything to stand out like Lelouch-kun either. There's something missing, some element of attractiveness you know? Unless you're really the person behind that piano ... you're?" she asked me a rather complicated question.
"Do you promise not to tell anyone? At least until the month is up?" I say looking at her.
"Yes."
"Very well, yes, I am the person behind the piano."
"Oh, so I was right, it really was you. But what song was that one you played? I don't remember hearing it before."
"That's because, that song was a song I created."
"Ohhhhh! That's amazing, Ayanokoji-kun. You created your own music, and play the piano like a master, maybe you want to be some musician?" she asked me an interesting question.
"Well I didn't really think about it, but I don't think so." I say honestly.
"Hey, Ayanokoji-kun. Did you have a girlfriend in high school?"
Well, that's impossible, I've never been to a school, apart from this one.
"Would it be bad if I said no?"
"So you hadn't? Ha ha ha, no. It's not bad."
"Rankings, huh? What would girls think if boys did something like that?"
"They would probably be considered worse than garbage."
His smile didn't really reach his eyes. Well, that was to be expected. If boys rated girls on cuteness, girls would vehemently object. There was definitely a double standard at play. But isn't that hypocritical? After all they have that list of who has the biggest- so I really can't understand girls. But if there was a cute competition between the girls, I was sure of something.
Shiro would completely win.
"He... Ayanokoji-kun," Kushida suddenly spoke up. "Yes?" I ask.
"You... are friends with Horikita-san right? She hasn't talked to anyone yet and I feel very sad when I see her alone, I want to become friends with Horikita-san. Can you help me?" she say... I sighed at that.
Well... let's test something.
" Kushida, how long do you intend to play this little game of yours? " I tell her in a totally different way than anything I've used so far. I see her eyes widen a little, breaking her psyche for a brief moment.
"W-what do you mean Ayanokoji-kun...?" she asks stuttering. Well, I already saw what I wanted.
"I'm talking about this little game of death. I mean, Horikita, she would probably be able to kill me here, after all, that's her personality." I quickly speak.
Kushida seems to recover her smile from before a little nervously.
"Ha ha ha, I see. That was it... you really scared me Ayanokoji-kun. Your voice came out in a very strong way..." she said.
"Sorry about that. Horikita, it really scares me," I lie shamelessly.
"So, that's a no huh...?"
"I didn't say that."
"So will you help me?" She exclaimed excitedly.
"I suppose so. Do you have any plans?
"Well, I thought you could help me think of something," she chuckled shyly and patted her head. If she was an ugly girl, I would have been totally turned off, but Kushida somehow made it pretty cute.
"Even if you say you want to be her friend, it's not that simple."
"You're probably right... Well, first I think we should try to make Horikita-san smile," said Kushida.
I think it's probably easier to make a blind man see again than make Horikita smile... No prejudice against blind people, of course, but still... this seems like an impossible mission for me.
"In any case, I think there is a problem."
"W-what problem!? What is it!?"
"I don't have Horikita's contact information and I don't think she will accept an invitation from you if she hasn't already."
"Eeh? You still don't have her contact information? But aren't you two friends?" she said.
She actually seems pretty obsessed with Horikita itself. Something tells me there's a lot more to that sheepskin.
"Unfortunately not. You saw it for yourself, right? She's cold as ice." I said, apologizing to Horikita in my head.
"However, if I can get her contact information, I'll be happy to help."
"Really? Thank you so much, Ayanokoji-kun!" Kushida perked up once more.
I probably ended up needlessly getting into more trouble. But I wonder...
How long will her mask last against me?
"Can I ask you something related to something other than Ayanokoji-kun?"
"Of course, at will."
"Do you know someone named Kururugi Suzaku?" She asked. "I met him on the bus on the way here, but since then I've hardly seen him and no one really seems to know him. There are other people that no one really seems to know, like you, Lelouch-kun and there was also a boy who got into our classroom for about a week, named Sora-kun, along with another one named Ryuzaki-kun that I haven't seen since. I hate to blow my own horn, but I have a pretty big social network, so I'm sure I should have heard talk about him and his friends, but I didn't hear anything. Do you know anything Ayanokoji-kun?"
So she's smarter than I initially thought, huh. Originally, I thought she was just a popular two-faced girl who was friendly to everyone in an ordinary way. But she is very perceptive and had noticed a strangeness that no one else has noticed until now. Perhaps she was only able to do this because of her vast number of friends?
"I don't know. What makes you think I know?" I tried my best to respond naturally.
"Well, like Lelouch-kun and the others, a lot of girls claimed to have seen you around, but no one really knows who you are friends with or even what class you are in. I have some friends in every class from the first one. year, I visited each classroom several times, but I never saw you in any of them."
Filth. I underestimated her. I really underestimated Kushida Kikyou. But this is good. After all, it can be useful.
It can definitely become my best tool.
She has a large group of friends every year, so information for her is not lacking. I just need to wait...
"Can't be, why didn't you just notice me? I have low presence after all." I decide to try to get out of this.
"It would be believable if it weren't for the fact that there are like 3 to 6 in the same situation as you. What class are you in Ayanokoji-kun?" this is problematic. No matter which class I say I'm in, Kushida must know at least 1 person in that class, and she will soon notice. I worked my brain to the limit trying to find an escape route.
"Well that-" I started, but she interrupted.
"You're Class 1-E, right?"
Well that is definitely shit. I really have no luck. I remembered Kururugi's introduction to her. He told me he was E-Class, so it was definitely easy to put it all together with a little effort.
All other classes must still be, for the most part, in the dark about almost everything that concerns the inner workings and workings of this school. So no one should have reason to think that the school has lied about the fact that there are only four classes, not even the most brilliant of students. Even if I was put in Class D, I don't think I would have been able to figure that out either. It was a very arbitrary deduction to make.
"Can you answer me Ayanokoji-kun? You're Class 1-E, aren't you?"
After sighing internally, I finally speak.
"That's right. I'm a Grade 1-E student," I admitted. "Does anyone else know about this?" I asked quickly.
"No, I'm the only one who knows. Tell me why Class E was never mentioned by anyone?" Kushida asked.
"The school decided not to mention it, so the students in my class also decided to keep it a secret for as long as possible, something about seeing other people's faces when they find out."
"But why exactly?"
"Just for fun, I suppose. Can you keep it a secret please?"
"No problem, I guess. There's no point telling anyone."
"Thank you, Kushida." I honestly thanked you.
"No problem. Does your Class have someone like someone from mine?" She put a hand to her chin thinking. Huh? like this?
"What do you mean? Who exactly?"
"Oh, it's Hotaro-kun, he's pretty lazy, but he seems to be pretty smart. He's pretty good-looking too. He ranked sixth in the hot guys ranking. And if I'm not mistaken he ranked high among the boys with the biggest -" Kushida spoke.
Did they take advantage of him while he was sleeping?
Seriously, this girl isn't ashamed to say it to my face like that?
Kushida and I started walking.
"Say, don't you feel a weird kind of bond of mutual trust between people who share a secret Ayanokoji-kun?"
"I don't know about that. I hope so."
"I see. Thank you," Kushida replied.
I really didn't know what she meant by that, so I opted for a safe answer.
xXx
I sighed as I looked out the window during the second period story. It had been three weeks since the entrance ceremony, and in that time, not much had happened. Apart from a few of course. One example is for example Shiro. She approached Victorique, Miyuki and Jabami. Although it's not at all considered epic, it was an improvement, after all, she went out with them from time to time, of course with Sora's presence near her. After all, she still couldn't get away from him. Well, they have time to fix it.
Looking around the room, I noticed not many really paying attention to our teacher, Chabashira-sensei. Except for Kururugi, Light and Victorique, each student was either looking at her listlessly or looking away absently. We weren't explicitly misbehaving, but we've certainly become relaxed in the past three weeks.
You can't blame us, I mean, apart from Kururugi, and maybe Jabami, I'm sure everyone else already knows all this that the teacher is explaining by heart. So why waste time writing this shit down when we already know? As I turned forward I couldn't help but look at this sensei.
She was pretty pretty even.
I quickly roll my eyes so my classmates don't notice. If they do, they'll likely think I'm looking at her ass . And I really don't want another harem joke being directed at me.
Initially, we had decided not to do anything that would put our class in jeopardy, but I think in a room full of geniuses you'd expect some of us to start getting bored with class. I was included in this myself, I found our classes tedious and I was sure that Blank and Lelouch felt the same way. I won't even mention Victorique almost asleep at his desk.
"Hey, Ayanokoji, want to have lunch with us?" Lelouch whispered beside me.
I became a little close to him in those short three-week periods. I found it easy to relate to him because we often share the same point of view and ideology.
"Of course. It's not like I have anything better to do anyway." I answered.
I can see out of the corner of my eye, Miyuki, Jabami, Victorique and Shiro holding hands with Sora walking out together. Looks like Sora really wants her sister to make girl friends like her. But still, they can't get out close to each other. Once they tried and... it was a disaster. It's better not to go into detail about it.
xXx
Our third period, we had science classes with Ayame-sensei. When the bell rang, Ayame-sensei entered our silent classroom, apparently in a more serious mood than usual. We were warned by this, after all, since she managed to change her teaching area, she had left her face completely serious, and now it seems that she is back with her.
"Today's lesson will be a little more serious than usual."
Ayame-sensei looked around as if expecting someone to speak, but everyone was just looking at her and waiting for her to continue. It seemed like the whole class was interested in everything she was about to say, which was pretty unusual now.
"It's the end of the month, so let's do a quick question and answer quiz. Pass them on your line."
She handed a stack of papers to me and I started walking the papers along the line handing them over until the last one caught.
"This test will be for future reference only, which means it won't be reflected in your report cards and there's no risk involved, not that I have any concerns about your class anyway. Obviously, cheating isn't allowed.
No risk involved, huh? Those cryptic words worry me a little, the way she said that our grades wouldn't be reflected in our report cards makes me think the grade might be reflected in some other way... the class points .
That's probably it. Our score on this test, along with our behavior during the month, should reflect how many points we will earn. Of course we know we're going to miss some, after all, we were taking it easy, and I, along with several others, relaxed a lot during that time. Even so, we shouldn't lose too many points.
Once the quiz started, I looked over the questions. There were four questions per subject, for a total of twenty. Each question was worth five points, totaling one hundred points. Most of the questions were remarkably easy, to the point of being almost a disappointment. In fact, the questions seemed to be about two levels lower than the college entrance exams. It seemed too easy.
However, when I reached the end of the test. The last three final questions were a much higher order of magnitude in terms of difficulty. The final math problem could not be solved without using the complex formulas.
These questions are not meant for first-year students to be able to solve. The final three questions were clearly of different quality than the others, so it was possible that they had been placed on the test by mistake. Even if the results weren't reflected in our grades. Looks like I was right after all.
These questions will determine the sum of our points, along with our classroom record.
I'm sure at least Victorique and Lelouch must have realized it too. Miyuki seems to be able to figure it out, the others I have no idea.
Well, I will just answer everything correctly. If I get 50% off like I did in the entrance exam, my colleagues will immediately find it strange. So let's go with 100%
Ayame-sensei monitored us. She slowly waltzed around the classroom, keeping her gaze serious but vigilant on the students to dissuade us from cheating, Seriously, Ayame-sensei, get back to your cute smile at once. I've gotten used to him already, so her going back to the serious part like the first day of class really made me uncomfortable.
I quickly finished my test with no problem whatsoever and continued to stare at him in boredom until the bell rang.
Even if it wasn't meant for 1st graders to get a perfect grade. Still, the test was too easy for me.
xXx
"It's a pleasure to see you here Horikita,"
"Hello Ayanokoji-kun," she answered me.
I was merely surprised by this. I thought she was going to say something like an unfortunate coincidence.
I decided to stop by the cafeteria after school and grab something to eat before heading back to my dorm. There I met Horikita, who was thinking deeply about what to get out of the vending machine.
"You look like you don't know what to buy," I said.
"I'm just wondering why anyone would buy juice like that," she said.
"Not everyone is so serious and strict about their expenses, you know. Some people just want to savor it," I say.
"Maybe you're right, but still, the price..."
"So what do you think?" I poked.
"If you're asking about the damn S-System, then I've already figured it out, even though it hadn't been alone," Huh? That got my attention.
"Well, I would really be surprised if you didn't turn everything on after those seniors say it almost to your face," I say in genuine surprise. "You said you didn't find out for yourself?" I asked, she seems to be a lot more sociable than before. Did she finally realize her 'flaw'?
"Yeah... as much as I don't like to admit it, he's someone pretty smart. Hotaro-kun, he helped me a little with this." Hotaro Oreki, huh? He really is interesting.
"I understand..."
"I should also thank your friend Jabami, her name if I'm not mistaken, right?" she asks and I nod my head in confirmation.
Seriously, I don't really know this Hotaro, but he really has my respect. He seems to have worked miracles with Horikita.
"Although I don't know where she is now, when I see her next time, in class, I'll be sure to say you're grateful to her," I said.
"I see...thanks, I think." Dammit... Hotaro Oreki, you seem like a worthy opponent. Did you turn her that way in just 1 month? This is too impressive. In this way, Horikita will become an enemy worth fighting.
"Although I hate that Sora-kun guy , for what he did in Class the first week..." Ah, Sora, you really threw the party in Class D, huh.
"He told us we were going to have a rude awakening this month," she said. Huh, so he tipped her off. I'm sure she didn't immediately notice when I said that, after all, I'll assume she had the same attitude before.
"But even so, my class is completely pathetic, really, it makes me wonder how those bugs got into this school," well, it was good while it lasted. It seems she only recognizes that Hotaro Oreki, and considers me at least worthy of dialogue. Well, like it or not, an advance is an advance.
I quickly press the milk button.
"Milk?" She questioned it for some reason.
"What's wrong with the milk?"
"Well, I thought guys like you would prefer energy drinks."
This girl really likes to make assumptions about people, doesn't she?
"You know, that kind of attitude will keep you from making friends," I asked wondering if she's really improved.
"Making friends? I already told you didn't I? I'm not interested in ' friends ', much less inferior individuals," she stated. "And you, I suppose you've accumulated a few more friends since the last time we spoke right?"
Is she bipolar? What's with this sudden personality change? Just when I thought she had gotten better *sigh*.
"I have some actually." I said. "And this Hotaro? You say you don't make friends, but you thanked him, what does that mean?"
"I said I don't need friends, but I never said anything about allies , as long as they're decent I can use them to help me up to Grade A, although I'm grateful to him, he still pisses me off. His lazy attitude it really sucks." she exclaimed. Use them to move up in class, huh?
She is definitely bipolar.
Although it grew a little, it was still very minimal. At least she admits she needs allies, but she wants people she recognizes. She has to understand, that if she doesn't unite the whole class, she doesn't stand a chance against any other Class, let alone ours.
xXx
On May 1st, the morning bell rang signaling the start of the classroom, Ayame-sensei calmly walked into the room, holding a rolled up poster. She had a cheerful expression, which made me relieved that she was back to normal, but still, her smile was a little harsher than usual.
"Alright, your morning class is about to start. Before we start, do any of my students have any questions? I'm sure there are some things you want to ask me, so feel free to talk, now is the time ok ?" She said, as if she knew we would have something to ask her.
Contrary to their expectations, however, none of us asked a question themselves. In fact most seemed more disinterested than anything with Victorique being the biggest of them all, with her head down on her desk as if she wanted to sleep.
"Seriously, does anyone have anything to ask?" Ayame-sensei asked, apparently surprised.
"If it 's about our points, sensei, we pretty much have discovered what was going on during the first day of school here. There is no reason to ask questions at this stage. We also learned about the future ' examinations ' and 'class war ', which will likely occur in the future." Light spoke on behalf of Class E.
Ayame-sensei looked genuinely surprised by this. She knew we were apparently unique talents, but she probably never expected us to discover the S system so quickly.
"A-Ah, right... Well, I guess that was to be expected from you. I'll move on to the main topic then." Ayame basically came back with his smile, taking the sternness out of him.
From the tube she was carrying, she took a rolled-up white poster and spread it out. She glued it to the blackboard with some magnets. All the previously apathetic students looked at the poster intrigued... the reason for this is probably something that could be considered surprising happened.
"Those are the results of each class, aren't they?" Miyuki exclaimed thinking. On the poster were Grades A through E were listed and accompanied by a column of numbers that reached a maximum of four digits. The poster said:
Classification of class points:
Class A - 940
Class B - 610
Class C - 420
Class D - 100
Class E - 290
From the way the ranking looked, it appeared that our conjecture about students being ranked from Grades A to D on the basis of their abilities was correct. It also means that the ' Class Points ' system was the missing piece of the puzzle for many I think. I had managed to deduce this a while ago. But what must have surprised everyone the most was the Class D score. Since as Ryuzaki and Sora described it, we expected them to lose all their points. But they still had a small sum of 100, meaning someone did something.
So he finally moved, huh?
"I see how it is now. Today, we received 29 .000 points instead of 100.00 we received during the first month. IN other words, each ' class point is equal to 100 points private." Sora quickly deduced.
"Sensei, I have a question." Kururugi said, raising his hand.
"Yes?" Ayame-sensei asked.
"This exact poster is being shown to all other classes, too right?"
"Yes, all the other classes are also seeing the same thing as you during class today." Ayame-sensei confirmed.
I also raised my hand.
"What is it, Ayanokoji? It's unusual for you to ask something." Ayame-sensei said a little surprised, I can see my classmates too. But that's a question they probably have in mind as well.
"I understand that we probably started the month with 1000 class points and that we lost some based on our assessment of merit during classes. Our class has behaved very well during them, no one has done anything to disrupt classes, with a few exceptions. I guess. Though, isn't that a little hard for us to miss about 700 tuition points? I mean, I know we got bored, but we didn't really hurt anything." I said.
"Well, about that, it's something that is unique in your class. As you are only ten students, each of you will be evaluated more severely to make up for the number of students you are missing." She said.
Well I think we all understand with just that. Our class is much smaller than the rest, our individual actions carry much more weight than if we were in a normal class of forty students. It doesn't help that Lelouch and Victorique almost sleep in class either.
"Can I ask you a question, Ayame-sensei?" Lelouch said.
"Go ahead."
"Very well. Earlier, Ayanokoji, you mentioned that we hadn't done anything to disrupt any of our classes. What did we do to make our assessment plummet?" That's a good question.
"Well, that's simple. There are surveillance cameras in every classroom that are used to track these things. Since this class is so small it's easier to tell whether or not you're paying attention and forget to take notes. "
"Is it really a problem if I don't take the business notes I already know how to do?" I ask suddenly. I'm sure Victorique and Lelouch are the ones who most want to know too, after all, they don't copy either.
"Yes, it definitely is. In society, you're expected to keep up appearances, among many other things. When you're in the workforce, even if you finish your job early, you still have to behave properly, that's a of the many things this system will help teach you."
Damn appearances...
This was definitely going to suck. We would have to work even though we already had exceptional skills. In fact, talent often comes with various negative traits such as ego, arrogance, and lack of respect or interest. This school aims to correct these flaws.
Much more looking at the classroom data, tomorrow we will probably make class D as we have more points than their class now. We had all discussed possible class switching and a long time ago, so there was no need to ask that.
"Now I'm going to move on to the next thing I'm forced to show you."
She started to glue another sheet to the blackboard. This one had all the names of the students in our Class on the left with a column of numbers on the right. Says the following:
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka - 100
Shiro - 100
Sora - 100
Shiba Miyuki - 100
Yagami Light - 100
Yumeko Jabami - 100
Ryuzaki Rue - 100
Lelouch Lamperouge - 100
Victorique de Blois - 100
Kururugi Suzaku - 90
"Those are the results of our questionnaire right?" Kururugi asked.
"Yes." she answered.
It seemed like our entire class got perfect high grades, except for Kururugi. Overall it seemed that Kururugi's physical abilities were the best in the class, and his academic prowess was in fact the worst.
Ayame-sensei pulled out a red marker and started drawing a red line below Kururugi's name.
"All of you passed for scoring above forty-nine, which means that even if this were a real exam, none of you would be expelled." She spoke calmly.
"Expelled...?" Kururugi asked worriedly.
"Yes, expelled. In this school, anyone who falls short of passing an exam is expelled instantly, no questions asked." Ayame-sensei said completely serious.
"There's no need to worry though, you all have excellent grades, so you should never run the risk of expulsion."
"I'm more concerned with how easily this school avoids expulsions rather than being tied to our grades, sensei. If they expelled us for just failing a test, then what else in the future could result in our expulsion?"
Kururugi pointed something decent. Although I'm not really caring about it right now. I feel like this school is going to get more and more fun. I think I can change.
I will trade the peaceful life for a fun one, but still, I can find happiness, right?
"You better stay vigilant." Ayame-sensei said without answering the question.
"Passing a forty-nine, huh... That's a pretty arbitrary number," Ryuzaki muttered.
"No, it's on purpose. It's exactly half the class average of 98.8, it's likely that 49.4 has been rounded down." Shiro and Victorique speak at the same time, then look at each other and smile. Looks like they've become pretty good friends this past month. I see Sora showing a big happy smile for her sister.
"So, we were right really, about having to compete against the other classes," Light said.
"It seems so. Our class only got 290,000 private points in total this month. Compared to Class A, which got 3,760,000 in total, we're at a complete disadvantage." Sora said a little discouraged.
"In fact, even the D class that only got 100 class points got around 400,000 points, which is higher than us." That was true.
"But that's a weird thing, don't you think? I could have sworn Class D would finish with 0 or close to 0 points this month after reviewing your classroom." Ryuzaki said thinking about why.
"Which means one of those two moved and warned the Class somehow, right?" Miyuki asked. She's talking about the 2 people Sora told to keep an eye on.
"Yes. And if I had to bet, it would be the lazy one. I still don't see the narcissistic blonde helping Class D. And since that boy seemed to be lazy, I doubt he openly gave the hands-kissed information to his class, he doesn't seem to be the type to take center stage along with the troubles to come. He must have done something behind the scenes to make his Class realize it before it got irreversible." Sora added.
"But this is starting to get quite fun isn't it?" Lelouch speaks with a smile.
"Actually...class D has surprised me now. I really hope it happens often, after all, the more opponents, the more fun it gets, right Shiro?" Sora asked his sister who just nodded.
"I can't deny that I'm looking forward as hell to Class competitions," I say suddenly drawing everyone's attention to me. They probably wouldn't expect me to say that.
"You too, Ayanokoji? But you already know, right?"
Sora smiled, to which I just nodded in agreement before I even spoke his typical phrase. I can feel my lips lift a little. Could I be smiling?
"The game has already started."