I had always assumed that it would be bigger, but I'm a little bit disappointed. That's what she said. Seriously though for all the mythos that surrounded the school and its students. It was just another building to me, albeit well maintained and expensive in appearance.

I walked along a tiled pathway in the front lawn area. The spring air was crisp in a way that would soon be washed away by the muggy heat of summer in the city. Though I did notice some odd looks from others, ever since people in the old school had heard the news of Orimoto's rejection of me, the teasing and gazes that flitted away when I met them were many.

These circumstances had conditioned me to be hyper-aware of how others looked at me. A beautiful girl walked up to me, her pink hair bounced and her bright smile flashed.

"Hi, you're wearing the third year uniform and I don't know you. And I know everyone in my year to some degree or another, I'm Chika by the way. That's my first name; my last name is Fujiwara, I'm really excited to meet you. Welcome to Shuuchin." I blinked, and took a second to digest the deluge of words she had vomited out. She was just another nice girl, like Orimoto with their damn pretty smiles and friendly attitudes. Giving loners like me hope, well screw 'em.

"Hello Fujiwara. Nice to meet you, I am new and thanks for the warm welcome." Two could play at trying to out friendly each other.

"Wow, like no one transfers in for the last year of middle school. Is your family like super powerful?" Oh, so that was her ploy trying to make connections and climb up the ladder. I see, well time to repel this damn nice girl once and for all.

"Oh, no. My family is super ordinary, I got a purely academic offer." That wasn't the total truth but Shuuchin did appreciate my near top of the class results.

I had scored closer to 50% on the exams than 40. Which was basically considered a near perfect result. The way the Shuuchin education system operate was that students took exams which had extremely complex problems based on what they had been taught as well as things that they hadn't.

If you were taking the high school senior exam. Only about 25% was on things you were taught that year. The most advanced problems may feature questions similar to those in the international math tournament; or graduate-level studies, like behaviors of complex functions in infinite three-dimensional space.

The average student got about 250 each year +/- 10 points; the slackers got usually 180 each year +/- 5 points. Anything over 300 +/- 5 points was considered to be strong and getting over 350 was generally enough to land you in the top twenty of the year. Anything over 400 was enough to bring you into the School's top 20 students. Finally, if you scored over 425 points, that was generally considered the required benchmark to be in the Shuuchin Program's (all of the Middle and the High School/s) top ten. (Shuuchin had multiple Japanese middle school locations, Osaka, Tokyo, and Kyoto. But only one Japanese high school. The same system was applied in its sister high school in Paris (L'Académie Shuuchin).

"Oh so you must be super smart. You should meet my friend, she's also smart. Let's go. Also by the way you don't have your collar ironed down properly you should take it to a dry cleaner. Or do it yourself if you can't afford a dry cleaner." She dragged me along and kept on babbling which was actually an impressive feat of respiratory endurance. She would be a formidable athlete if she trained. I cocked an eyebrow as she spoke.

"Not that I'm looking down on you for not being rich if anything that's cool. It means that you worked hard, you should be proud of yourself." She rambled, trying to make sure that I didn't take offense.

I felt a warmth bloom in my chest, it had been so long since I had heard someone say that I should be proud of myself. Maybe, this nice girl wasn't so bad.

Or maybe she is. The friend that she had dragged me over to was sitting on a bench with folded legs, reading a book. Her ruby red eyes looked up and once again I found myself in front of Kaguya Shinomiya.

She set down her paperback and looked up at me. Even managing to make the simple action look condescending. "Hello Fujiwara, and Hikigaya." How the hell was someone friends with the ice queen? Or maybe Shinomiya let Fujiwara think that they were friends.

Why wasn't she at the Kyoto middle school, then again I knew why. Gan'aan was not a kind man and from what little I had observed a worse father.

"Hello, Shinomiya, it's nice to see you again." I greeted, tone neutral. Kaguya could be condescending but she wasn't inherently bad. The night we had met she had shared about the new direction that she wanted to lead the Shinomiya Conglomerate in. She had yelled about changing it to me when I called her out for all the immoral things her company had done.

That still didn't mean I enjoyed being around her. "Oh, you two know each other already. Do his parents work for you or something?" Fujiwara looked between the two of us. Eyes wide.

Kaguya didn't laugh, that would be unbecoming of a young heiress in public. However, she did crack a smirk. "It's really not my place to tell you, Fujiwara. Though I have no objections if Hikigaya chooses to volunteer the information"

I internally sighed. Well, now it's time to control the narrative. "It's not untrue that I'm here on the basis of academic scholarship, my professional connections with various powerful entities," I gestured with my head at Kaguya. "Did aid in my admission. Though, at least for a little, I'm hoping to keep that somewhat of a secret."

Fujiwara winked clumsily and held a finger to her lips. "Don't worry Hikigaya, this secret is safe with me."

Kaguya giggled, full-on sound and smile, and Chika pouted. "Dear Fujiwara has never been any good at keeping secrets."

I smiled like a wolf. "Well Fujiwara, I'm trusting you. Please don't let me down." The message on my pearly whites being don't screw me over or else. I didn't know what the or else would be, I didn't actually wish to see anyone hurt. But with the way I looked and the connections that I had, people assumed a different story.

Chika didn't seem to notice, airhead that she was, breezing past the implied threat. "Ah well since you're already acquainted, how about I introduce you to my other friends, Hikigaya."

She led me away from Shinomiya and towards an aggregate of kids in third-year uniforms gathered outside of a red brick, classical architecture-inspired building. "Hey guys." Chika greeted, smiling pleasantly.

She received greetings back but most attention seemed focused on me. "Chika, who is this?" A tall blonde with green eyes gestured to me.

Condescension was veiled behind her neutral tone, I guess looking down at people was just the thing to do here at Shuuchin.

Chika pointed to me the way that car salesman showed off their vehicles praising every good thing while brushing past the bad. "This is Hachiman Hikigaya, he's a transfer student. He got in on an academic scholarship so he's like super smart." I blushed, even after being called brilliant by others, it was usually an attempt to butter me up. To do so without wanting anything or knowing about what made me valuable, meant far more to me than the rest of it ever did. "Hikigaya, this is Chiasaki."

I smiled offering a small nod, very traditional of Japanese culture. Earlier I had noticed that students were exchanging the western greeting of handshakes. This odd behavior or perhaps even a minor faux pas, painted me as ignorant and out of my depth. Making it more likely for them to reveal their true colors.

They all noticed it too. Smiles cooling, postures slightly less friendly than before. Chiasaki smirked, call me Yoshiko, as in the Yoshiko conglomerate. By the way what company are you an heir of?" Some of her friends snickered already predicting my answer.

I put on an embarrassed face and said "None. I come from a very normal family, I'm only here because of my mind." None of which was a lie even if I chose not to give context.

To their credit, none of them tried to bully me or make fun of me, but what they did do was glance at their expensive watches and mumble about having somewhere to be. No waves were given or promises to get to know each other better. They didn't have any desire to know me better now that they knew that there was nothing that I could offer them.

I turned back to Fujiwara. "Nice friends."

"Forget them. If all they care about is so shallow who needs them." Fujiwara waved her hand dismissively. "This is a good test of their character."

"That's a positive attitude to have, but they iced me out, not you."

"At Shuuchin not respecting someone's introduction of another is akin to spitting in their face." She said, leading me to the classroom. "I'm in 3-A, the top class, and you definitely are too." She puffed her chest when she mentioned her placement and I looked away from the interesting sight.

I walked into the classroom and took a seat in the back. This room was so full of go-getters that most of them were congregated at the front of the class; an inverse of most educational facilities where those seats filled up last.

Fujiwara joined Shinomiya somewhere near the middle waving goodbye at me. Glances were thrown at me like the drizzle of rain, every few seconds I could feel one on me. The teacher took the front of the class and greeted us, I was at least impressed at how silent the room was. Her hair was up in a tight bun and her face had a severe frown.

"Hello class."

"Hello, Ma'am."

"As you can probably tell we have a new student." She pointed at me. "Now stand up and introduce yourself."

I stood up, I stayed slouched making myself look as ordinary and middle class as possible. "Hi, I'm Hachiman Hikigaya and I'm excited to get to know you all." I offered a stupid grin, they could tell it was fake and that was all the better. It made me seem like some normal kid nervous about a new school trying to fit in and seem friendly.

But then of course the teacher had to ruin my fun. "And Mr. Hikigaya's primary sponsor is" her eyebrows nearly went past her hairline "Gan'aan Shinomiya"

I felt their gazes. Shinomiya was trying to glare a hole through my head. While the rest of them watched me more warily. It was like ignoring a spider in the corner of your room until you realize that it has a red hourglass on its abdomen. Suddenly it's way more dangerous and you don't take your eyes off of it.

I was hoping to delay the inevitable but one couldn't control everything unfortunately.

I raised my hand, eager to escape the tense environment. "I assume that my need for time during class has been discussed with you."

She nodded. "Of course. As long as you pass the tests you're okay."

I smiled and stood up, taking my phone and walking out. There was definitely something satisfying about the way in which everyone else was made to sit there while I had free reign of the campus.

I walked along the empty halls enjoying the feeling of freedom that I had. I wandered through the school exploring based on the map of the school I had compiled in my mind by looking at satellite images taken.

Life at Shuuchin was fun, there didn't seem to be much that could go wrong.

~/~

Why had my father sent him here?

I needed answers, but Hikigaya was as slippery as they came. From only a few times meeting him, I already knew that much.

I had to attack him at an angle that he wasn't expecting. I guess I had to become his friend. The game was afoot and I was prepared to win even if it cost an arm and a leg.

(A/N): And So it begins, Shuuchin Year 1 arc has officially begun. Also a little Easter egg on why Hikigaya's internal monologue about Miura is especially condescending and rude. He's not as above it all as he believes. Also, younger Chika isn't curbing her more erratic behaviors hence the babbling.

Changed the testing system to make Shirogane's good grades more important. And also explain why Hachiman does excellently on the exam but doesn't do perfectly on them. Changed the middle to high school system because it seems like that would make more sense.

Hikigaya is a tad more vicious now, he's more immature and still hurting from what happened with Orimoto.

There's a small Casting Director (XXX game) reference hidden in this chapter.