-29th December, 2018-

It was the day for the freshmen year enrollment into the Shuuchin High School. New high school students who had just been graduated from their middle school year would attend their respective classes to register themselves as an official students there. After that, they would go to any one of the three stationery shops within the school area to purchase their stationery, books, other study materials and the high school uniforms.

It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and most, if not all of the new students had already left for home after having themselves officially register their enrollments, though the enrollment would end at an hour later. Only at this time would this boy show himself up at the high school.

"Looks like I'm the only one left..." the boy mumbled, before entering the main school gate. The boy walked inside the school as one of the cleaners stared at him with curiosity regarding him. He too was aware of being stared at but he ignored and remained unperturbed, minding his own business and continuing his way. More and more of the school staffs who had come across him would also look at him with either shocked, confused or curious expression but he just went on, not sparing a single glance on anyone of them.

Reaching Class 1-B, the boy stepped inside and made himself known to the teacher, who was watching video on his phone when he saw the him entering the class. The teacher pulled out a paper to check the name list for the newly-enrolled students. He then came upon the name of the student who hadn't been registered yet for the attendance. He looked back at the boy standing in front of his desk, and announced, "Ishigami Yu, is that correct?"

"Hn," the boy nodded, confirming himself. Ishigami Yu was the very last student of his year to ever attend to register his official enrollment into the high school. He was wearing a black jacket and a beige pants, with a headphone resting on his neck. He had a chin-length dark bluish hair with a bang covering his left face, and wore a rather dull expression with dead-looking eyes, making him looked gloomy as a whole in spite of his handsome facial features.

"Alright, sit down on this chair here," Ishigami complied to the teacher's instruction and sat on the chair, facing him. The teacher handed out a document for him to sign his information for the enrollment. After finishing the document, he had to pay around two thousand yens to the teacher for all of his school materials, and then given a receipt as the teacher told Ishigami, "Go to one of these bookstores in our school to get your things."

Ishigami left without any reply to his sensei. After spending two minutes walking to the nearest bookstore, he finally reached one and entered the building. He was immediately greeted by the warm welcoming from the friendly cashier who was wearing the standard female Shuuchin uniform, with a bookstore employee's nametag which revealed her name as 'Koyasu Tsubame' that were hanging on the right side of her chest. Again, he did not respond and instead he merely gave her the receipt for his school materials.

After receiving the receipt, she proceeded to give Ishigami all of the books, school socks, the uniforms and some stationery.

"Here you go! That's all of the things you will need for your school," Tsubame said again with a hyperactive tone. Ishigami still refused to open his mouth, only looking at her with a cold expression. He proceeded to take the materials and prepared to leave the bookshop. After he had left, Tsubame looked at the direction he had headed, feeling worried.

xxx

-1st January, 2019-

Ishigami stared at himself in the mirror, wearing the Shuuchin High School's winter uniform as he checked if his uniform was intact.

"All set," Ishigami picked up his bag and wore the headphone around his neck, heading out of his bedroom and reached to sit on the dining table, putting his bag on the other empty chair.

"Ah, Yuu-kun, good morning!" His elder sister called as she saw Ishigami on the table while preparing breakfast.

"Morning, sis," Ishigami replied as he took out to play his mobile phone and wear the headphone over his ears. After a while, his sister prepared the dishes on the table as she sat next to him, "Stop playing for now, Yuu-kun. You gotta eat first."

"Okay, okay," Ishigami turned off and placed his phone on the table and took off the headphone, preparing to eat the dishes his sister had made. Ishigami Asuna, currently 26 years-old, was his elder sister and guardian, who he lived together in the apartment for a year now since Ishigami had left his parents' home for his sister's following a dispute between them. His sister was the only one who he had a friendly relationship with, and the one he was willing to spend his time having a conversation with, although they usually don't spend much time with each other due to her work. Nevertheless, he held a high respect for her, and she also cared for Yuu deeply as her younger brother.

"This is your first day in high school, so I hope you would study well for the academics and get along with everyone."

Yuu paused for a moment, before continuing to eat his breakfast. Asuna was obviously concerned with Yuu's usual deadpan and unresponsive manner, but she too knew the reasons behind his actions really well and decided to not talk any further into this. After finishing his plate, he murmured 'thanks for the food' as he clasped his hands together, then picking up his plates and went into the kitchen to wash them.

As he was about to leave for school, his sister went after him and handed him a bento box for lunch, "Yuu-kun, don't forget your lunch here."

"Thanks, sis. Appreciate it."

His sister gave him a kind smile after he thanked her. He was stopped again by his sister as he opened the front door, who abruptly advised him, "Don't let the past get to you, Yuu-kun. You have to know that you will have a bright future ahead that you have yet to see."

Yuu turned around to take a glance of her, then looked ahead again as he bluntly said, "There is no bright future for me in this world." He went out and gently closed the door behind him. The closest train station to his house was merely a five minutes walk away, but Yuu always had the habit to take the shortcuts in the alleyways to reach the station, which helped saved him two minutes of time in order to go to the station. After reaching the station, he stood and wait by the track for his train to arrive, where he encountered another Shuuchin student who was also waiting right next to him.

She noticed Yuu standing next to her but quickly looked away as she was flustered the moment she looked at him. The girl stood at roughly 160 cm tall. She had a brown eyes and long brown hair that is styled in loose pigtails, with bangs covering her forehead, and had a yellow armband on her left arm that distinguished herself as a member of the School Disciplinary Committee.

The girl had tried to initiate conversation with Ishigami. But when she saw him being too engrossed in playing his mobile game, she took it back and stayed quiet. The train arrived and they both went onboard. Ishigami and the girl found themselves standing in the train instead as all of the train seats were already taken by other passengers. Coincidentally, they stood right next to each other leaning near the train window. As the train holder were also already held by the others, Ishigami had to press his left hand against the window to support himself while he played games one-handed

and the girl had to lean against it with Ishigami being really close in front of her.

The position they had gotten themselves into embarrassed the girl, but Yu remained as calm as ever, only having his attention on the mobile game he played. The girl tilted her head slightly to see the game he was playing.

Oh... he also plays this game! she thought. Yuu was playing a role-playing, adventure visual novel game called 'Rascal Does Not Screw Around' that revolved around the player-created main character who was transferred into a new high school and would meet with many different students and teachers who they would progress their relationships with. In the game, it was possible to make a harem, or the player could isolate themselves from the rest, completely without friends or dates, depending on the player's choices as part of developing relationships with other characters. In Ishigami's case, he had developed his character who were only friends with two people, and from his experience in the game, had totally rejected multiple girls in the process. It was then did he gained the in-game achievements of 'Begone, THOT!!!'

"Y-you play this game too?" The girl asked timidly out of her desparation to break the awkward silence. Ishigami finally looked up to her, and put off his headphone as he asked, "Say again?"

"I mean... You also play this game, right?"

"Erm..." Ishigami nodded and continued playing, not bothered to reply her any further. She wasn't expecting this kind of disinterested response either, so she sighed off in disappointment. After moments of silence, she stated, "As a member of the School Disciplinary Committee, I will advise you to not play any mobile games once you had stepped foots inside the school area, you get it?"

"Don't take me as a fool, of course I know the school rules."

She was taken aback when he did the cold reply unexpectedly. He then continued, "I won't ever play once I entered the school, trust me."

Uso de aru. This boy is planning on finding a place to hide so that he could continue playing his video games in the school until classes. As the visual novel he's playing just came up with a few new missions for him, he must complete all of them in a short period of time in order to get the rewards for finishing them within the time limits. If not, he would miss the very chances of getting those valuable rewards that would greatly help in his game progress.

"Good for you. That is a relief to hear."

After their train had arrived at another station, the two of them exited the train to continue down their paths to school. Before each went on their separate ways to school, the girl asked Yu, "Your name is Ishigami Yu, right?"

"Yes, I am."

"The name's Iino Miko, and I'm a freshman student."

"Hm... Pretty nice to meet ya, Iino-san," Ishigami gave her a one last expressionless reply, then walked away to a different street.

Ishigami later arrived at the school gate. He stood there and watched the clock on top of the main building that displayed the time currently at 7 in the morning.

Based on the timetable, the assembly will start about half an hour later. So I'll still have time to play the game but first I need to find somewhere safe in the school to hide myself so that nobody would ever see me playing the game during the assembly.

xxx

It's now 7.30 AM, and all of the Suuchin High School students had gathered in the school gym hall. They first sang the national anthem, and then listened to the speeches delivered by a few teachers, the school principal, the Head of Disciplinary Committee and lastly the Student Council President. Throughout the course of the assembly, however, Ishigami Yu was nowhere to be seen.

As the member of the Disciplinary Committee, Iino would patrol around the gym hall with the other prefects to maintain the students' discipline during the period. She also noticed Ishigami's absence in the hall while she was patrolling, and to see if he really was the student of the high school, she requested the other prefect, "Kobachi-chan, can you give me the name list of all of the high school students?"

The prefect who went by the name Osaragi Kobachi was the one who possessed the book that contained all of the students' names and classes. Accepting her request, she lended Miko the book for her to find Ishigami's name to see if he really was the student of the high school, starting from the First Year. She quickly found Ishigami Yu's name on the Class 1-B list, and there she had realized that Ishigami was on the same class as her.

Miko approached one of her classmates and asked, "I am sorry but have you seen Ishigami Yu?"

"Ishigami Yu? Oh, I had seen him this morning but now I have no idea where he is..."

Miko tried again by asking the other classmate, and after asking for about five people and getting the same answers from each one of them, Miko was starting to feel nervous about his disappearance, and quickly rushed out of the hall in order to find him, with everyone looking at her in confusion. Kobachi went after Miko as she asked, "Where are you goind, Miko-chan?"

"There is one student who's missing, and we must find him right away!"

"Wait, who is missing?!"

"You didn't know? It is Ishigami Yu, the former actor who is attending this school! I can't see him anywhere in the hall so we have to search for him somewhere in the school!"

"What?! The one from the drama 'Never Say Goodbye To Tomorrow'?!"

"Yes, Kobachi-chan, it's him! Now we have to go and find him!"

Meanwhile Ishigami was sitting behind a large water tank at the rooftop as he played his mobile game. Earlier, he had sat under a tree in the school park, as there were people hanging out on the rooftop while the park was basically devoid of students. When the assembly started and students were going into the gym hall, he sneaked up and went to the rooftop as there were no more people around and hid behind the water tank there. The water tank on the rooftop offered a great hiding spot and was a lot safer than in the park, knowing that there would be patrols on the area to catch any student who skip classes. For any ordinary people, it would be nearly impossible to climb up onto the water tank as there were no ladder and the fact that the wall was pretty tall. But Ishigami was able to due to his experiences in parkour by briefly running his foots up to the wall first and then quickly climb up before he could fall.

While both Miko and Kobachi were frantically searching for Ishigami everywhere, Ishigami himself was having his time to enjoy playing his mobile game. As he looked at his watch again, he found out that the assembly was about to finish. Thus he stopped playing and jumped off from the water tank to return to his class.

Half an hour later, Kobachi and Miko decided to return to the gym hall as they gave up searching for Ishigami. When they returned, they appeared visibly exhausted, and were panting as they tried to catch their breath. Almost everyone in the hall, along with the presenter on stage turned to look at them awkwardly. One of the teachers approached and asked, "Where the hell had you guys been?!"

"We... we were... we were searching for a student named Ishigami Yu who was missing!"

"And did you find him?!"

"No, not yet..."

"Right, let's put that aside. We are going to sing our school anthem as the assembly is about to end!"

The teachers led them to their designated spots, and when the school anthem was starting to play, they stood straight up and began singing.

xxx

Just as he was on his way to the class, an elderly western man appeared in front of him and asked, "Oh, you aren't in the hall with the other students, hmm?"

"Umm... May I ask who you may be?"

"I am the Principal of the entire Shuuchin Academy, by the name of Adolphe Pescarolo from France, young man," the man introduced, with stern eyes directed toward Ishigami.

Holy shit, it's the freaking Principal! What should I do now...? I am caught, and I am in trouble! Ishigami's face turned pale the moment he learned of the Principal's identity. Due to being caught skipping the assembly by the Principal in person, he was too frightened that his entire body froze, even his fingers could not move, and his mind was getting more and more blank as he felt the Principal's intimidating aura creeping onto him.

"I... I... I was late, and so here I am... I was just about to go to my class and leave my bag there before going to the assembly..."

"Hmm... Well, young man. This time I'll forgive you, since today is your first day here in this high school."

Ishigami widened his eyes, completely in disbelief that the Principal had just forgiven him. He asked to confirm again, "So... Am I not punished this time?"

"No, young man. But only for this time. Next time when you are late for school, your offence would be recorded and you would receive scolding from either me or the Head of Disciplinary Committee. The punishment only gets worse the more you keep coming here late. I want you to remember that, alright?"

Sighing in relief, Ishigami bowed to the Principal, "Thank you so much, Principal! I promise you that I won't ever come here late again."

Maji de aru. The reason Ishigami chose to skip the assembly was because he had wanted to complete those missions mentioned in the game mentioned earlier. The next time he came to school, he would not come late again. Unless... if the situation called for him to make the necessary decision.

"Now just go back to your class. The assembly's ending soon."

Ishigami continued on his way to the class. As he was walking away, the Principal murmured, "Welcome to the Academy, Ishigami Yu..."

Of course he would know who he was. Ishigami Yu was a former celebrity who had been in the spotlight ever since he was just a child. Though he had quit acting and left the entertainment industry a year ago, he was still very well-known by many. This explained why many people he came across would stare at him, given his high popularity.

Ishigami reached and entered his class. He chose the empty table and sat on it, claiming ownership over the seat. There were no one in the class except for him, so he used the opportunity to take a nap for a while in the silent, almost empty classroom.

-Ten minutes later-

"Dang this Ishigami, I couldn't find him everywhere! Just where the hell did he go at a time like this?!"

"Relax, Miko-chan. I am sure that he was just being late for school..."

"Late?! Come on Kobachi-chan, I just saw him on the train and he was heading for the school. They even said they saw Ishigami before the assembly and all of the sudden he disappeared!"

The two members of the Disciplinary Committee continued arguing, with their classmates walking behind them taking with each other. That was, until they finally arrived at their class, did they see Ishigami Yu sleeping on his table in the class. The students did not enter the classroom and instead stood near the door, silently observing him sleeping on the table, except for Miko who decided to approach Ishigami menacingly.

"Miko-chan, wai-" Kobachi was about to call Miko when she realized her fury, and stopped halfway through, letting Miko to continue. As she got near him, Miko took a deep breath, and slowly raised her right hand.

"Wake up Ishigami! The class has started!" Miko yelled out and slammed the table, startling Ishigami as he jumped from his sleep so suddenly and let out a loud gasp. Realizing that it was her who woke him up, he rubbed his face and groaned, regaining his senses.

"Oh my lord, it really is the superstar Ishigami Yu!"

"Is that Ishigami?!"

"Wait, he's the real deal, right?!"

"Does Iino know him?"

Students were whispering each other in the background regarding Ishigami's presence, while Kobachi merely stood there watching the two of them. As Ishigami opened his eyes, he saw and immediately recognized Miko.

"Oh.. you are that girl from earlier."

Miko kept glaring at Ishigami as if she really wanted to murder him. Ishigami took note of this but instead of being intimidated, he was rather confused and asked, "Why are you giving me this look?"

"Where. The. Hell did you go during the assembly, Ishigami?" Miko asked in a slow-paced, but serious-to-death tone. Ishigami had wanted to lie Iino that he was late to school. But when he looked to the other students, he also recognized that some of them were the ones that had seen him earlier before the assembly, and thus took back the excuse. Immediately after, he thought of an excuse that could convince her in justification to his absence.

"Right after the assembly had started, I suddenly had a terrible diarrhea that I became friends with the toilet."

"You... what?!" Miko was clearly surprised by his answer. Although it was a lie, his straightforward excuse, combined with his dull expression was enough to convince her. Other students who had heard of his statement began bursting out of laughter due to his sense of humor, though they were also convinced that it was the truth.

"Ew... gross..." Miko remarked, covering her mouth with her hand in disgust. She then straightened up and said, "Well, at least you are fine for now..."

"Are you done? If so then please return to your own seat," Ishigami coldly asked Miko as he was starting to feel disturbed. Having been asked to leave in a manner like this, Miko obviously did not take this lightly and was growing irritated of Ishigami's rude demeanour. She angrily returned to her own seat, which was just right in front of him. The other students also went to do their own things as they waited for their homeroom teacher.

Kobachi approached Miko, and teased, "So, the famous Ishigami Yu had just told you to scram?"

"Forget it, Kobachi-chan! I am in no mood for this anymore!"

"Ah, Miko-chan, you poor girl..."

"Kobachi, goddammit!" Miko covered her face in a flush, also growing irritated of her best friend making fun of her.

TODAY'S RESULT:

Ishigami Yu's victory