The Ayanokouji Twins

Chapter 3.1: Nagumo Miyabi, Meeting a Winner

"It's always one of those two things with you."

"Well now you're exaggerating. I just have great focus."

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, about Lunch—"

Her question fades out of my ear as I notice a student come through the class doors. Brown-haired, decent height and build, stoic expression... after going over his appearance in an instant, I realize he isn't a senpai, nor is he in my year. Having memorized everyone's profiles, I can say that with confidence.

A first-year?

I'm tempted to go up and interrogate him, but I trim my expectations. It's only the second day, after all. It's way too early for the honeymoon phase to be over and for the Winners to start cropping up. He's most likely here for a mundane reason, like looking for relatives, just checking around, so on...

So, I return my focus to Nazuna while the first-year looks around for someone.

"— just going to Pallet is probably the best idea—"

"Yeah, could you repeat that? I didn't quite catch it."

"...You need your ears cleaned or something? Anyway, as I was saying—"

However, Nazuna never got to finish that sentence.

Because a voice rang out the class: not a strong nor loud voice, but one so clear, pointed and powerful that the words carried themselves across the room and touched the ears of everyone there, including me. A voice that, while not intrusive, demanded focus which, alongside the question asked, turned the heads of everyone in the class towards the entrance—

"How many Private Points will we receive per month?"

Without even realizing it, I turn my head to face the entrance. Nazuna does the same.

"Oh, uh—that is, uh..."

There, I see the first-year staring down one of my dumbass classmates with a gaze that, despite its apathy, seems to be effective at breaking composure. Well I can't say I'm not shaken. This quickly? It's only the second day, and someone's already digging.

My class seems to realize this as well, considering the first-year's become the focus of attention. And from the way his eyes glazed over our reactions, I'm guessing we've just reinforced whatever doubts he had about the School System.

"Well, uh—I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't know the first year's situation, so I can't really say—"

"Well that's curious, senpai. From the way our teacher worded her explanation, many of us assumed we would be getting 100,000 points per month. Is that not the case?"

"Um... well, like I said I don't know the situation—"

"What is there to know? If we are just receiving a static 100,000 points per month, what is there to know?"

"Uhh, well... I think they might've changed the system for the new first-years—"

"Then senpai, could you please tell me about your experience? What was the system like for you? And from what you know about the school, what do you think about them seemingly promising 100,000 points per month? I have a copy of our sensei's speech here, so could you look over her wording and tell me if anything seems off? Even if you claim a system has been changed for the first-years, there should still be rules that apply to all years, right? Also—"

Well, this isn't good.

The first-year has him completely overwhelmed. From the way I see it, junior's already deduced we can't answer anything, so he's just bombarding my poor classmate with questions to see if he can catch a slip-up. Well, that and various other things.