"Hey, hey! Do you want to check out a store with me on our way back? Let's do some shopping!" One girl cried.
"Sure. With this much, we can buy anything. I'm so glad o got into this school!" Another said.
Once the teacher was gone, the newly rich students began to grow restless.
"Everyone, can you please listen to me for a moment?"
Ichinose was standing up, addressing the entire class.
"Starting today, we're all going to be classmates. Therefore, I think it'd be a good idea for us to introduce ourselves and become friends as soon as possible. We still have some time until the entrance ceremony. What do you say?"
She'd just done something incredible. The majority of students were lost in thought, unable to speak up.
"Agreed! After all, we still don't know a thing about each other, not even our names," someone shouted.
After the ice had broken, the previously hesitant students began to speak.
"My names Ichinose Honami. I want to be friends with all of you, and everyone else in the school. I can't wait for us to get along."
Ichinose had effortlessly introduced herself to the rest of the class. She seemed exceptionally brave. Her level of popularity must've increased two, no, maybe four times. A few of the boys looked at her with hearts in their eyes! If someone like Ichinose became the class's linchpin, I wondered if he'd keep everyone honest and motivated until graduation.
Someone like her would probably end up dating the hottest boy in the year. That was how these things typically went.
We went through a few introductions. A few stuck out to me.
"I'm Shibata Sou. I'm passionate about sports, especially soccer! I can't wait to join the soccer club. I'm glad that we're classmates!" An average sized boy with blond hair said.
"Well then, I'm next, aren't I?"
Kanzaki stood up next to me.
"My name is Kanzaki Ryuuji. None of my friends from junior high made it to this school, so I'm all alone here. I'm glad to have got to know you here today," He said. A few of the girls looked at him in a weird way.
Damn, bitches be thirsting, much?
I realised that it was my turn now.
Clack! The chair rattled as I stood.
"Hi. My name is Ayanokouji Kiyone. I'm good at both sports and academics. I'm going to do my best to get along with all of you. It's nice to meet you." I said, smiling.
Ew, some of the boys were looking at me like they had been looking at Ichinose. Creepy.
Even though people said this place was tough, the entrance ceremony was the same as any other school's. Some important people offered words of thanks, and the ceremony concluded without incident. Then, it was noon. After we received some general information about the campus, the crowd dispersed.
70-80 percent of the students headed straight towards the dormitories. The remaining students quickly formed into groups. Some made their way to cafés, while the louder ones went out for karaoke.
I hung out with Ichinose, Kanzaki, and a girl from our class called Amikura Mako. We were walking along the street, when I noticed the girl Kushida, who had stood up for the old lady on the bus. She waved at me, and I waved back.
"Ayanokouji-san, do you know her?" Amikura asked.
"No, not really. We met on the bus this morning," I said.
Kushida came over to us.
"Hello, Ayanokouji-san. It's good to meet you again!" She said.
"Hi, Kushida-san. Yeah, how have you been?" I asked.
"I've been good. Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" She asked, giggling a little.
Ichinose, Kanzaki and Amikura introduced themselves. The group that Kushida was with, presumably made up of girls from her class 1-D, and our group joined together.
We hung out for a little while, but I decided to split. I decided to swing by the convenience store on my way back to the dormitory.
"My, what an unpleasant coincidence."
Entering the convenience store, I ran into the girl who stopped me on the way into school.
"Oh, hello there, um...sorry, I didn't catch your name...My name is Ayanokouni Kiyone. What's yours?" I asked.
"Why are you just introducing yourself like that?" She asked.
"Well, this is our second time meeting, so it would be good for us to exchange names." I explained.
She looked away.
"Horikita. My name is Horikita Suzune." She said, quietly.
"Nice to meet you Horikita! Anyway, did you need to buy something?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"Yes, just a few things. I came to get some necessities."
There was no shortage of things you needed when starting life in a dorm, especially for girls. Horikita took various necessities off the shelves and promptly threw them into the basket she was carrying. I'd thought most girls would choose higher quality items, but she only took the cheapest options.
A good choice, really. When your 100,000-yen allowance wasn't actually confirmed, it was imperative to spend points wisely. I did the same.
We both continued to shop in silence. I tried to spark a conversation, but I could never find the right time.
"Woah! There's even an amazing selection of noodle cups here! This school is super convenient!"
Two rather noisy male students stood before the instant foods. They tossed a veritable mountain of noodle cups into their basket and made their way to the cash register. Besides noodles, they'd stocked up on snacks and juice. A waste of points, really. Except the noodle cups.
"Noodle cups. They have so many kinds."
These were definitely one reason I'd come to the convenience store.
"Do you really like this kind of stuff? I can't imagine that it's healthy," Horikita said.
"I like them just fine, I guess.
I picked up a noodle cup and examined the price tag. It said 156 yen, but I couldn't tell if that was expensive or cheap. Even though the school had referred to its credit system as points, the prices were all listed in yen.
"Hey, what do you think? Is this price high or low?"
"Hmm. I'm not sure. Why, is there something curious about it?"
"No, I was just wondering."
The store's prices seemed reasonable. One point appeared to really equal one yen. Given that the average freshman's allowance was around 5,000 yen, the amount of money we'd received seemed impossibly large. Horikita, noting my odd behaviour, gave me a quizzical look. I grabbed a noodle cup to avoid suspicion.
"Wow, this is enormous. It's a G Cup, huh?"
Apparently that stood for "Giga Cup." Just looking at it made me feel full. On an unrelated note, Horikita's breasts were neither small nor huge. But they weren't as big as mine 😼.
"Ayanokouji-san. We're you thinking about something stupid just now?" She asked.
"Er. No?"
"I felt like you were acting strangely."
She could sense my inappropriate thoughts just by looking at me. She was a sharp one.
"I was just wondering whether or not I should buy this. What do you think?"
"Oh. Well, I suppose that's fine. Anyway, do you really think you should buy that? The school offers far healthier food options. Don't you think it's better to avoid eating junk?"
Like Horikita said, I had no reason to eat junk. However, since I had an irresistible urge, I took one package of regular-sized instant noodles with "FOO Yakisoba" written on it and tossed it into my cart. Her attention wandering, Horikita moved away from the food and began hunting for daily essentials. I planned to use witty jokes to score more points with her next.
"If you're looking for something a cut above the rest, how about this razor with five blades? I bet it'd do the job."
"Why in the world would I want to shave with that?"
I grinned smugly and pretended to shave an imaginary beard, but she didn't laugh. Far from it. Instead, she looked at me like I was dirt.
"Look at me," she said. "I don't have anything to shave. It on my chin, not under my armpits, and not down there."
I mumbled hesitantly, my spirit crushed. It looked like my jokes failed colossally with her.
"I have to say, I'm a little envious of your ability to babble inanely to someone you've only just met."
"Well, I feel like you've been saying stupid crap, too, and you only just me me."
Is that so? I've merely stated facts. Unlike you." She calmly tossed my words back at me, shutting me up. To be fair, I had said some random nonsense. The smooth, eloquent Horikita, on the other hand, was always well-spoken, no matter how you sliced it.
Horikita chose the cheapest face wash, as did I.
I'd said that I wanted to be her friend, but, apparently, she didn't feel the same. With that, our conversation abruptly stopped.
"Hey, what's up with this?"
While looking around the store, desperate for a new topic, I'd found something strange. Some toiletries and food had been tucked away in the corner of the convenience store. At first glance, they appeared to be the same as the other items, but there was one big difference.
"Free?"
Horikita apparently also thought it was strange, so she picked up one of the items. Daily necessities like toothbrushes and bandages had been stuffed into a clearance bin and labelled "Free." The nine was also marked with the proviso "three items per month." These were obviously different from the store's other goods.
"They must be emergency relief supplies for students who use up their points. This school is so incredibly lenient," I said.
I had to wonder how far their leniency extended, though.
"Hey, shut it! Just wait a sec! I'm looking for it right now!"
A sudden, loud voice drowned out the store's peaceful background music.
"Come on, hurry up. You have a line of people waiting on you!"
"Oh yeah? Well if they have any complaints, they can take it up with me!"
Apparently, trouble was brewing by the register. A dispute had broken out between two young men who were glaring at each other. One of them had dyed red hair, and a thoroughly ill-tempered look on his face. He had his hands full of noodle cups.
"What's going on here?" I asked.
"H-huh? Who are you?"
I had meant to appear friendly, but obviously the big boy didn't know how to react to a girl just coming up to him.
"My name's Ayanokouji. I'm in class 1-B. I just asked because it sounded like there was trouble."
At my explanation, the red-haired guy seemed to calm down a little, and lowered his voice. "O-oh, hi. I forgot my student ID card. Forgot that it pretty much acts as our money from now on, too."
I looked at his empty hands. He'd pulled the noodle cups away. He started to leave, probably heading back to the dorms, where he'd likely forgotten his card. To be honest, the fact that the student ID was necessary for payment hadn't yet sunk in for me, either.
"I can pay for you. I mean, it'd be annoying if you had to head all the way back to the dorms. I don't mind."
"That's true. You're right, it'd be absolutely annoying. Thank you, Ayanokouji-san."
The store wasn't particularly far from the dorms, but by the time he got back there would be a long line of students buying lunch.
"My name's Sudou," he said. "Thanks for helping me out. I owe you."
"Nice to meet you, Sudou-kun."
Sudou handed me his noodle cup, and I walked over to the hot water dispenser. After watching our short exchange, Horikita sighed, aghast.
"You're acting like a pushover right from the start. Do you intend to become his slave? Or perhaps, you like him in some other way..." she said.
"N-no, Horikita-san. I just wanted to help. No big deal."
"You don't seem to be afraid."
"Afraid? Why? Because he looks like a delinquent?" I asked.
"A normal person would try to keep someone like him at a distance."
"I guess, but he doesn't seem like a bad person to me. And you don't appear to be scared either, Horikita."
"It's mostly defenceless people who stay away from those types. If he acted violently, I could rebuff him. That's why I don't withdraw."
Horikita's words were always a little difficult to understand. To begin with, what did she mean by "rebuff"? Did she carry pepper spray to keep off perverts or something?
"Let's finish our shopping. We'll be a bother to the other students if we dawdle," she said.
Authors notes
2147 words
Only a few changes from the ln.
Ayanokouji helped out Sudou.
Not much else to say really
Hope you're all doing well and I hope you enjoyed.