Chapter 7: School Life in Class C

Chapter 7: School Life in Class C

Chapter 7:

School Life in Class C

S UNDAY HAD ARRIVED. Today I was meeting up with Yoshida and Shiraishi so that I could create deeper bonds of friendship with my new classmates. What’s more, Shiraishi was bringing one of her friends along, though I didn’t know who. Since we were scheduled to meet at ten thirty, I left my room about fifteen minutes ahead of time after I finished getting ready. The meeting place was right out in front of the dormitory. When I got down to the lobby and went outside, I saw Yoshida there already, looking restless.

“H-hey. You’re sure early, Ayanokouji,” said Yoshida.

“You more than me, Yoshida,” I replied.

“Well, that’s because I’m a gentleman. I wouldn’t dare make a girl wait.”

“Based on what you’re saying, it sounds like you’ve been waiting since very early in the morning then.”

“Of course not, no. Just since nine thirty or so.”

That was incredibly early, no matter how you sliced it. He had planned to wait for as long as an hour. It seemed like the amount of passion he had for a special someone was major. However, I was skeptical as to whether arriving an hour early would lead to an increase in likability. Deliberately going out of your way to make a show of your passion might just give off the impression of being too clingy.

Such was my first impression of his actions. Before, I probably wouldn’t have been able to interpret these kinds of things so smoothly. I realized that I had come to understand these ways of thinking through my relationship with Karuizawa. However, there were no perfectly correct answers when it came to love, and the difficulties lie in the fact that you need to assess the object of your affection and engage with them in the way they wanted you to.

“Do you like Shiraishi?” I asked.

From what I’d observed, I felt like he did, and so did Shiraishi, the object of his affections, herself. I didn’t think that I was mistaken, but I figured I’d try asking to be sure, just in case.

“Huh?! N-no way! What are you even sayin’ all of a sudden?!” exclaimed Yoshida.

I see. In his words, that meant that yes, he liked her. A disagreeable refusal meant he liked her, while an agreeable refusal would have meant that he didn’t like her. Things that normally wouldn’t happen could happen when it came to love. This was one of the easy-to-understand textbook examples of that.

“Well, that more or less confirms it,” I replied.

“W-wait a minute, don’t tell me that you…you like Shiraishi? Do you? Wait, shit! Did you break up with Karuizawa and transfer to our class so you could… Is that what’s going on?!” shouted Yoshida.

There was an incredible amount of self-serving interpretation going on here. Even though he said that he didn’t like her, the expression on his face indicated otherwise. In fact, he was openly showing animosity, but the person in question didn’t seem to notice it at all.

“Sorry, but I don’t have such feelings for her,” I replied.

“Y-you don’t have to lie, okay? It’s none of my business. If you want, I can even help you and Shiraishi get closer. That sound good?” Yoshida offered.

That was an incredibly forced show to make it look like he didn’t really care, even though obviously he did—quite a lot, in fact. He continued to dig his own grave, but there was no point in dragging this topic out any further.

“I’ll pass. I’d rather you tell me about the class. There are things I wanted to know about,” I replied.

“O-oh…man, look at you, trying to play it cool. No worries, though. Anyway, yeah, I’m sure you need to get to know the class since you just transferred. I’ll make a special effort to teach you, so just ask m—err, Hashimoto. Ask Hashimoto. He thinks highly of you and I’m sure he’ll talk your ear off about everything and anything.”

“There are some things that I can’t ask Hashimoto.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like an evaluation of Hashimoto’s current situation from the class’s perspective, and how the class feels about him. Those kinds of things.”

“An evaluation of Hashimoto, huh? Well, there’s more bad than good, that’s for sure. I think he’s been maneuvering cleverly, though.”

When Yoshida first started letting me know his thoughts, his gaze turned toward the lobby. At that instant, we heard a bright and cheerful voice.

“Good morning, Yosshii, Ayanokouji-kun!”

The person who appeared at the meeting place was…not Shiraishi, but for some reason, Nishikawa Ryouko. I had thought she might have just so happened to greet me as a friendly new classmate, but she stopped and stood in front of me.

“Let’s make it a great day today!” she exclaimed.

“Ugh, Nishikawa…” groaned Yoshida.

“Come on, you don’t need to make such a nasty face, do you?” she replied.

“Are you going to be coming along with Shiraishi, by any chance?” he asked.

“Well, yeah, of course. You didn’t seriously think that you could have a date with just Asuka all alone, now did you?” she asked in return.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be a date!” he shouted.

While that wasn’t to say there wasn’t any expectation in terms of deepening bonds of friendship and companionship, that apparently wasn’t enough for the direction Nishikawa wanted to take today’s outing in.

“Oh? Reaaally?” teased Nishikawa. “I heard that you were soooo eager to come along when you got invited out on the weekend, and you were probably expecting something special, weren’t you? Especially knowing you, Yosshii, you definitely were.”

“N-no! Th-that’s a total misunderstanding!” he protested.

As far as Yoshida was concerned, I could confidently say that that was the direction he was hoping things to go.

“Y’know, Yosshii, I’ve got some important advice for you, as a classmate,” said Nishikawa.

“Wh-what is it?” he asked.

“You had better give up on Asuka specifically. Oh, and this advice applies to you too, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Nishikawa. Then she drew in close and lowered the volume of her voice a little while scanning the area for Shiraishi.

“Asuka’s level of experience isn’t normal, if you know what I mean,” she added.

Level of experience? I actually didn’t know what in the world that was supposed to mean.

“Huh…? L-level of experience?” asked Yoshida.

Yoshida seemed to have the same questions I did, but he also seemed to have guessed something.

“You know what I’m talking about. Asuka, Slayer of a Hundred. I’m sure you’ve at least heard that nickname,” said Nishikawa.

“Are…you saying that the rumor is true, then…?” sputtered Yoshida.

“That’s right. This isn’t the kind of story that you can just make up,” said Nishikawa.

I didn’t really understand, but it did seem to greatly shock Yoshida. However, I couldn’t grasp what that nickname was supposed to mean.

“It’s not like making a hundred friends?” I asked.

“Huh? What are you talking about, one hundred friends?” asked Nishikawa.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Never mind,” I replied.

I knew it, that didn’t have anything to do with this…

Though it seemed like I was still unable to forget the rhythmic way that Morishita had said that bizarre line to me.

“‘Slayer of a Hundred’ is a nickname that she’s been given because she’s had that kind of relationship with a hundred boys. She’s cute, and she’s got a certain kind of sexiness to her, don’t you think?” said Nishikawa.

That kind of relationship… Nishikawa was being vague, but from the sounds of it, I guessed that most likely she meant a “deep” relationship.

“I dunno about that. Anyway, I’m not sure I fully understand it, but I generally get what you’re trying to say,” said Yoshida.

Apparently, my seat neighbor was far more of a specialist in matters of love than Yoshida was.

“Oh, so you think you can sweep Asuka off her feet, do ya?” asked Nishikawa.

“Look, I’m telling you, I’m not interested!” he shouted.

“Well, if that’s the case, I’ll just leave it at that. I guess that means you’re giving up on this rare opportunity. But…you know, if you get down on your knees and begged at least once, you just might get the chance to have sweet dreams, at least for just one night,” said Nishikawa.

“F-for real?” he sputtered.

“Ohhh? I thought you just said that you weren’t interested, though?” replied Nishikawa.

Apparently, this Nishikawa person was the type who liked to make fun of other people. If I were to compare her to another student, I would say that she seemed similar to Amasawa.

“If her nickname is ‘Slayer of a Hundred,’ does that mean if the count gets to two hundred people, her nickname will become ‘Slayer of Two Hundred’?” I asked.

When I asked Nishikawa that question, simply out of curiosity, her eyes widened in surprise.

“You know, despite how you look Ayanokouji-kun, you have some interesting ideas,” said Nishikawa.

“Really? I just ask when I feel I have questions though,” I replied.

“The answer to your question would probably be ‘no,’ I think,” said Nishikawa.

“I see. I suppose it’d be hard to keep everyone in the loop with the latest number,” I replied.

“That’s not what I meant, though… I’m saying, ‘a hundred’ gets the meaning across, right? It has that certain oomph ,” said Nishikawa.

“Oomph,” huh? So, she was saying that in romantic love, it’d give you an edge.

“Sigh…It’s still early in the morning and I’m already exhausted. I’m gonna sit down and wait,” said Yoshida as he walked over to the nearby bench, looking somewhat down in the dumps, perhaps since all his energy had been zapped away.

Nishikawa looked over at him with amusement and then turned her attention to me.

“Usually, when boys hear this about Asuka, they tend to react in one of two ways: Either they’re shocked, depressed, and disgusted by the ‘one hundred people’ thing, or, on the opposite end, they salivate over the chance to be number one hundred and one. I wonder which way Yosshii will turn out to be. You don’t seem to be leaning either way right now, Ayanokouji-kun, but how do you honestly feel about it?” she asked.

“I’d say it’s made me respect her, I suppose. It’s honestly amazing to have relationships like that with a hundred people your age,” I replied.

“Huh? You really think so? It feels like…you really do think that,” she replied.

“Isn’t a specialist in any field someone to be respected, no matter what it is? Sorry for bringing up my previous class, but I mean like, there’s Sudou with basketball, Onodera with swimming, and Inokashira with sewing…” I replied.

“Well, I don’t know about sewing, but I don’t think it’s exactly the same kind of ‘amazing’ you’re comparing it to,” Nishikawa paused. “…Anyway, Ayanokouji-kun, you really are an odd one, no matter how you think about it. You transferred into our class, which is below yours, for some reason or another.”

I had been honestly complimenting Shiraishi on her one hundred conquests, without any lies or falsehoods in my words, but for some reason, Nishikawa seemed to have gotten a little hung up on it. She had been smiling broadly this entire time since she had arrived, but as she pulled back, her expression changed to a slight grin.

“Hmm… Actually, wait, hold on a sec,” said Nishikawa. She pursed her lips in apparent frustration as she pondered something. “Hey. If you wanna know, lemme tell you something good, Ayanokouji-kun. I’ll tell only you.”

Nishikawa, wearing a broad smile once again—though it now seemed slightly mean-spirited—quietly drew closer to me and said, “Why is Asuka called ‘Slayer of a Hundred’? And why did she want to hang out with you ? To tell the truth, there’s a major reason for that.”

“A major reason?” I asked.

The delivery of her remarks this time was quite masterful, as it left me a little curious. I traced my memory back to the day of the opening ceremony. My seat was decided thanks to Morishita’s suggestion. The fact that Shiraishi Asuka was sitting beside me was just a coincidence. But if these two had had a hand in convincing Morishita to suggest what she did, then that would be a different story…

“Would you mind leaning in close? Especially since this is something I can’t let Yosshii hear,” said Nishikawa.

“Sure,” I replied.

Because of the height difference between us, I arched my back a little and hunched down so that I could position my ear near Nishikawa’s mouth.

“I think it’s because Asuka wants to make you number one hundred and one, Ayanokouji-kun. I believe she doesn’t have any romantic feelings for you, of course, she’s just playing with you. So? Doesn’t that make you happy?” she asked.

Nishikawa was telling me all this as if it were hot gossip, but whether or not it was true was highly questionable.

“What’s your intention behind telling me this?” I asked.

“Nothing really, just for fun. I simply like helping a guy and a girl get together to have some fun,” said Nishikawa.

“Sorry, but if that’s true, I’ll pass.”

“Wh-why?”

“If I did have something like that with Shiraishi, then it’s possible that that story could spread, either through you, Nishikawa, or through Shiraishi herself. Inevitably, our classmate Yoshida would hear about it eventually too. That would only be a hindrance in the days to come as I fight in Class C,” I replied.

When I answered with that, I put some distance between Nishikawa and myself. Still with her trademark smile, Nishikawa’s eyes narrowed a little in frustration over having me turn down her proposal.

“Maybe I need to change my view of you a little, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Nishikawa.

I thought that maybe Nishikawa was someone who would always tease the new guys like this, but the displeasure and hostility apparent in her retort told me otherwise.

“Good morning.”

As the appointed time of our meeting approached, the person in question, Shiraishi, emerged from the lobby.

“Morning, Asuka!” exclaimed Nishikawa.

Immediately after Shiraishi appeared, the emotions Nishikawa had been exhibiting dissipated, and she returned to being the cheerful girl from moments earlier. Yoshida too, who had been down in the dumps on the bench, immediately rushed over toward us as well. Nishikawa stood next to Shiraishi and offered another greeting.

“Once again, I’m looking forward to spending time with you today, Ayanokouji-kun. And you too, by the way, Yosshii,” said Nishikawa.

“I’m just a ‘by the way,’ huh?” huffed Yoshida.

It seemed like I might have a harder time figuring out the inner workings of this class than I had previously thought. With Nishikawa leading the way, we headed to the karaoke box in Keyaki Mall. In a private room with L-shaped seats, we sat down in the order of Shiraishi, Nishikawa, me, and then Yoshida, with Shiraishi furthest in the back.

“Well, then, shall we start singing right away?” Nishikawa asked.

Without even looking at the food menu, Nishikawa took the microphone and handed it over to Yoshida.

“Why am I gonna be the one singing? Don’t you usually start with the new guy in these sorts of situations?” stammered Yoshida.

“That kind of thing can be construed as harassment. First, you need to set an example, Yosshii,” said Nishikawa.

“I dunno about that. Besides, I don’t really like singing all that much,” said Yoshida.

Nishikawa got close to Yoshida, who was resistant to going along with things, and whispered something in his ear. Immediately afterward, Yoshida smacked both of his cheeks in an attempt to get himself fired up.

“Welp, guess I just gotta do it. Okay, I’ll sing a bit,” said Yoshida.

I could guess what sweet nothings Nishikawa had filled his head with, but at any rate, he appeared to be motivated now. As Yoshida’s chosen song began playing, Nishikawa demanded to switch places with me. When I did as I was told and switched with her, Shiraishi got up and closed the physical distance between us. We were so close that it was hard to tell whether the edges of our clothing were touching or not.

“I wanted to have a nice leisurely chat with you at least once, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Shiraishi.

“We sit next to each other, so couldn’t we do that any time?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t feel relaxed at school, I suppose,” Shiraishi replied.

Yoshida’s passionate singing, which wasn’t good by any stretch but full of emotion, echoed throughout the room. Nishikawa was singing and clapping along, doing her best to keep the excitement going.

“I’m not sure if you could call this environment a relaxing one though,” I replied.

When it came to guys and girls hanging out together, you would think there would be a minimum degree of personal space in place, but with Shiraishi, there was no such thing. We continued speaking while huddled close together. I supposed this must have been one of the techniques of Shiraishi, Slayer of a Hundred.

“Ryouko-san is my best friend,” said Shiraishi.

“Right. I had a hunch you two were close. It seems like you’re often spending time with Nishikawa, like on your days off and during lunch,” I replied.

Before long, the first song ended, and the karaoke room returned to silence.

“Hey, what’re you two doing over there, whispering all close together like that?!” shouted Yoshida.

“You have a lovely singing voice, Yoshida-kun. Please, give us an encore,” Shiraishi encouraged.

“Huh? R-really? Well, if you say so, I… Wait, hold on, you two are so close, I—” sputtered Yoshida.

“Okay, okay, Yosshii. Now then, let’s get onto the second song!” exclaimed Nishikawa as she forcibly sat down next to Yoshida, not letting him run away just as he was about to release the microphone.

“Since we’re in the same class now, how about we exchange contact info?” asked Shiraishi.

“Yeah, we should do that,” I replied.

We each took out our phones and exchanged info. Now we were able to call or message each other anytime.

“You can contact me whenever you like,” said Shiraishi.

I could sense Shiraishi’s friendliness, kindness, and consideration from the lack of distance between us and from her words. But was this truly what she meant to do, I wondered.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“I was simply curious about why you’re treating me so warmly. Most of the other students, like Shimazaki, seem to be watching me from a distance, even now,” I replied.

“We’re seat neighbors. And I think that it’s destiny that we just so happened to be all alone in the classroom that morning,” stated Shiraishi.

“I don’t think that’s big enough to call ‘destiny,’ though…” I replied.

“You may feel that way, Ayanokouji-kun, but that’s honestly how I interpreted it,” said Shiraishi.

When she said that, Shiraishi touched my hand, doing so in such a way to make sure that Yoshida couldn’t see.

“What nice hands. Your fingers are long, and your nails are beautiful,” Shiraishi said.

“Sorry, but let go of my hand. If Yoshida sees, he’ll misunderstand things,” I replied.

When I told her that, Shiraishi was a little surprised, but she slowly released my hand.

“You really are an interesting one, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Shiraishi.

It might have been better if I took her actions as unrelated to what Nishikawa had said about Shiraishi’s tendencies toward the opposite sex. At first glance, it seemed like she was trying to take things in that direction, but her eyes weren’t saying that at all. They were the eyes of someone looking at a deeply interesting test subject, and like a guinea pig in a small box. At the very least, that was how this situation felt to me.

7.1

A FTER TRANSFERRING CLASSES, my relationships with the others began to change, albeit slowly. However, there were also some things in my school life that remained the same—namely, classes. Generally speaking, during lessons, students were quiet and focused, spending most of their time alternatively staring at the monitor or their tablets. Only the person in charge of teaching the material was speaking; this sort of scene was similar no matter which class you belonged to.

The students seemed to be taking their lessons even more seriously with the special exam on the horizon. The contents of the lessons themselves aren’t worth detailing; they were just reviewing the materials and going over things they’d learned years ago in their academic journeys. In such unchanging times, if I had to point out a difference between this class and Horikita’s, it would be that this class was highly efficient in their studies and didn’t waste a single second.

At any rate, there were individual differences in learning ability, with some students being quick on the uptake and others not. Therefore, when students like Ike and Hondou had trouble keeping up, they didn’t hesitate to ask the teacher many questions. It wasn’t unusual for the class to be stopped frequently because of this. On the other hand, things progressed extremely smoothly for Class C, as the students were generally highly willing to learn, quick to pick up on concepts, and knew how to study. Because they had a firm foundation for learning in place, this created a virtuous cycle which led to the improvement of everyone’s academic performance.

Also, today was self-study, which was a time that students tended to skip or would, against their better judgment, let their minds wander. There wasn’t a teacher standing watch nearby, so I could hear some private conversations going on, but even so, most students were earnestly working on their assignments. Though Horikita’s class had matured quite a lot over these past two years, it wasn’t surprising that they hadn’t yet caught up with Class C in this regard, both with learning, and—

Hm? Something feels kind of off. Is it just my imagination?

Even though I tried, I couldn’t shake an odd feeling I had. Something was definitely strange…but what?

I’m not imagining things, am I?

While I was still in the middle of writing something on my tablet, stylus pen in hand, I stopped moving my hands. That was because I felt a very slight something on my head, over and over, repeatedly. It was almost undetectable. The first time I felt it, I thought it was probably just a draft playing tricks on me, but that wasn’t it. Clearly, repeatedly, and in unspecified places in my hair, there was some kind of sensation. I slowly turned around to look behind me in search of the cause.

“What?”

Morishita hissed her question at me, giving me a look that was almost like a glare. She had a stylus pen in her hand, just like me, and seemed to be working on her assignment.

“Uh, well…” I replied.

“Looking away from the board during class, even if it’s during self-study time, is something that a bad student would do. Please face forward and focus on your assignment properly,” said Morishita.

She responded with a fair argument that I couldn’t really argue with. Fortunately, the odd sensation in my hair had disappeared for some reason or another when I turned around to look back, so I figured that I maybe shouldn’t have concerned myself with it. I faced forward again and resumed working on my tablet. However…

Shortly after resuming my work, I felt that something was in my hair once again. The only possible cause that I could think of was none other than Morishita, as she was the one sitting directly behind me. This time, I turned around a little more quickly than before. When I did, Morishita made a face for a moment, like “ Oh no, he got me ,” before quickly clenching her left hand, hiding something in it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see what that something was, though.

“What an awful, perverted lowlife you are, staring at my face from point-blank range like this,” said Morishita.

“I’m not trying to pull anything. All I want to know is what are you doing to the back of my head,” I stated.

Feeling like I had no other choice, I decided to try asking her directly.

“I am not doing anything. I am taking class seriously,” she replied.

Morishita put on a show by prodding her tablet twice with her stylus pen, but it was obvious that her hand movements were unnatural. However, we were in the middle of class right now, and although it was a self-study session, I couldn’t just turn to look behind me as much as I wanted. Still, I didn’t have any doubt that she was doing something to me.

Morishita was trying to act as though nothing was going on, but the looks from other people around us said otherwise. And there was clearly someone looking at me with a compassionate and sympathetic gaze.

“Hey, Shiraishi?” I asked.

“Tee hee, what is it?” my seat neighbor responded with a chuckle, while covering her mouth with both hands, as though she couldn’t quite hold back her laughter.

“What’s Morishita doing?” I asked.

“Well, now, I am not quite sure myself, actually,” she replied.

Though I was perplexed by the obvious lie on her part, it left me with no other choice but to deal with this situation myself. I pretended to give up and faced forward again, immediately using my stylus pen to resume my self-study. Of course, Morishita would certainly figure out that I wasn’t looking super intently at my tablet, though. In all likelihood, she would see that I was trying to get my hands on some definitive evidence.

But that was more than enough, because I figured that Morishita would rather make the decision to stop her misdeeds than allow me to confirm that she was indeed up to something. In other words, it was my way of telling her, Hey, I’ll let you off the hook, so don’t do it anymore. I had thought that I would be able to concentrate at last, but those hopes were shattered in just a few brief seconds, since I felt that strange sensation at the back of my head again.

Did this mean that she had seen through my shallow plan? Even if I tried to turn around at high speed, there was a limit to how fast I could respond, during which my defenseless back would be exposed. It would be difficult for me to ascertain what she was clenching tightly in her left fist. Seriously though, what in the world was she doing? Suddenly, I saw Shiraishi’s fingertip around the edge of my line of sight and noticed that she was pointing at the floor.

I see…so, that was what she was doing, huh? Furthermore, Shiraishi was making some kind of motion with the index finger of her left hand, with a tap, tap , on her desk. My sense of discomfort lined up with her fingertip touching the desk, which meant that I could now make a move before that sense of discomfort occurred again. Shiraishi’s fingertip went up and then back down again. At that moment, I wheeled around.