After the entrance ceremony, I decided to wander around the campus and explore. I was still thinking about my conversation with Kaguya Shinomiya from earlier.
She wanted to know why I was here, and I told her a version of the truth.
I have no intention of making her my enemy here. Especially given that her being my enemy would be a pointless endeavor.
Nobody from the White Room can beat me. That much is certain.
I was walking around and ended up at the convenience store and decided to go inside. I was looking around and saw my seatmate shopping as well. She was the one reading Crime in Punishment before class. It's a fascinating book that debated whether killing someone can be justified, if it done for the sake of justice. It was one of the many books I read during my childhood.
I decided to try and ask for her name. After we got off the bus, she confronted me about why I didn't give up my seat. After that when we happened to sit next to each other in class I planned to ask for her name, but when Kaguya was shot down, I decided to try later.
Now seemed like a better time to try and make my first friend, hopefully I have better luck than Kaguya Shinomiya.
"Uh Hello. My name is Ayanokouji. I'm in the same class as you. It's nice to meet you."
"I can't believe you just did a self-introduction like that." She responded.
"Since this is the third time we have met and we do sit next to each other, I thought I proper introduction was in order. Would you introduce yourself."
"Do you mind if I refuse?"
"I mean I guess you can, but I'll have to call you "hey you" for the next three years if I don't know your name."
"Suzune Horikita."
"Nice to meet you, Horikita."
I think that exchange went well.
I continued to look around and noticed a table with items marked free.
"Strange" I thought out loud.
"This school is too indulging." Horikita commented. "It not only gives us 100,000 points a month to spend as we wish, but also still provides free items to students who manage to burn through all their points in a month."
I disagreed with her assessment. If I was correct, we wouldn't get 100,000 points each month, next month we may not get any. She seemed intelligent enough, so I decided to test her a little bit.
"Do you really think the school would just be this lenient? What would they gain by giving us so many points?
"Isn't it obvious?" Her response piqued my curiosity.
"It's to separate those who don't have any self-control from the rest of us. If some students get into bad spending habits, it could cause them problems down the line."
While I agreed with her line of thinking in a general sense, she had failed to consider any broader implications of my words. Oh well.
"Yeah, that makes sense. That must be why."
"I told you it was obvious." She said with a slight smirk.
"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to finish my shopping on my own."
I didn't want to annoy Horikita any further, so I decided to leave her be. As she walked away a heard a commotion from the register.
"Just hold on a sec, I'm looking for it now."
"Can you hurry up, there's a line waiting?"
"If any of them have a complaint they can take it up with me."
It was the red-haired boy from my class, the one who didn't introduce himself.
I figured this could be an opportunity to make a second friend. Did Horikita count as a friend? What was the threshold at which someone becomes a friend? I have no idea.
"Excuse me. What's going on here?" I interjected.
"Who the hell are you?"
I thought I was being friendly, but his reaction didn't display that. Let's try again.
"My name's Ayanokouji. I'm from your class. I just asked because it sounded like there was trouble."
At my explanation, the red-haired guy looked like he calmed down a little and lowered his voice.
"Oh. Yeah, I remember you. 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 put the noodle cups away. He started to leave, probably heading back to the dorms, where he'd likely forgotten his card. I decided to try and help.
"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 annoying. Thanks."
"My name's Sudou," he said. "Thanks for helping me out. I owe you." He said while extending his hand toward me.
"Nice to meet you, Sudou." I shook his hand. I wonder if that counts as making a friend.
Sudou began to walk toward the exit but quickly realized that I hadn't gotten anything for myself yet.
"Are you going to get something too?" He asked.
"I don't know. What do you recommend?"
He pointed out a specialty flavor of cup noodles. "You should try these if you haven't before."
"I haven't, I'll give them a try."
"I'll wait for you outside while you checkout then," Sudou said.
I got back in line to pay for my own cup noodles now. I think that went well. Do I have two friends now?
After I paid for my food, I walked outside to see Sudou arguing with some upperclassmen. I also noticed Kaguya and Shirogane looking on.
"Hey Sudou, what's going on?" I asked.
"These jerks are trying to kick me out, but I was here first. Got it."
The upperclassmen continued to provoke Sudou and I considered stepping in to diffuse the situation, but Shirogane looked like he would do so before I had to.
Before he could get involved one of the upperclassmen said something interesting.
"Oh, wow, scary. What class are you in? Wait, never mind. I think I know. You're in Class D, aren't you?"
So, his attitude told them he is a class D student. That adds a lot of context to my earlier observations. The cameras, the points, the difference between the classes' behavior all led to one conclusion. Students were sorted into classes A through D based on overall excellence. Given the presence of intelligent classmates like Horikita and idiots like Ike and Yamauchi I doubt excellence is judged by purely academic metrics.
While the "best" students were placed in class A the worst were in class D. However, this leads to new questions, like the people who stood out in each class. The girl with the cane from class A, the social girl from class B, and the long-haired boy from class C. Also, a few of my own classmates seemed better behaved than some members of class C. I would have to put some more thought into this to fully understand the system, but one thing was perfectly clear. We first years were not supposed to know about this.
That was something I could use.
"Oh, this one seems much more intelligent than that defective, let me guess you are in class A?"
When one of the upperclassmen said that I had my chance to crush them.
"Hey, senpai, what would how smart he is have to do with what class he's in?" I finally interjected.
I could see the fear in their eyes as they processed my words. That confirmed my thoughts that this was sensitive information.
"Oh. The fun's over, let's go," another one of them said.
"Alright, we'll let you off the hook for today. Let's go then."
As they walked away, I made sure to remember their faces. They were so trivial I wanted to make sure I couldn't accidentally forget them. Not that forgetting them would be possible for me anyway.
After I parted ways with Kaguya, Shirogane, and Sudou, I waited for everyone to head up toward the dorms. Then I began walking back toward Keyaki Mall. If those second years tried that with Sudou they would try again, since they weren't able to extort any points from him.
It was obvious that was their real goal. If he had hit them, they would have filed a complaint to the school if he didn't give them his points. Therefore, I think turnabout is fair play.
I was hoping to catch them before they headed back to their dorms. I'm glad I managed to head this way when I did because there they were laughing and walking this way.
I made sure nobody else was nearby as a approached.
"Excuse me senpais, can I have a moment."
"Hey, it's you, the class A student from before. What was your name again."
"I'm actually in class D senpai, but that's not what I wanted to talk about."
"Huh class D?"
"I was wondering if you are allowed to explain the class ranking system to me?"
I watched all three of their jaws drop at my question. This couldn't be going better.
"What ranking system are you talking about? We don't know anything about that, right guys?"
"I don't think so." I cut in. "I recorded your earlier comments about knowing why my friend was in class D. You called him defective. You also assumed I was in class A based on my calm and composed demeanor."
The more I spoke the more frightened they looked. That confirmed the likelihood of a severe punishment for revealing this information.
"I could take that recording to the school. It would be interesting to find out what the punishment for revealing this information is. Don't you guys think so?"
"No. Please don't do that. What do you want?"
"Why would I want anything? Although you were planning on scamming my classmate out of his points, right?"
"How did you.."
"That's what I thought. So fair is fair, I'll keep quiet about this if you three give me every point you have."
They were too stunned to answer right away, so I needed to give them a push in the right direction.
"This is a limited time offer, points are nice, but I sure am curious how the school would punish you. By the looks on your faces I bet it's serious."
"Ok. Ok. You win. We'll give you our points."
"Good choice. I should also mention that you guys should keep your mouths shut about this little deal of ours. If you don't, I might remember something I should mention to the school. Understand?"
"Yeah, we get it."
One by one they transferred their points to me. I paid attention to what they were doing and made sure to not mention I didn't know how point transfers worked yet since this would be my first one. As they each went to transfer their points, I could see their recent transactions. It looked like 3 students had fallen victim to their scheme, and they had distributed those points among themselves. Not that it mattered, that just meant more points for me now.
186,354 points
219,511 points
199,716 points
Altogether, 605,581 points if I did my math right.
Combined with my 99,602 points that made 705,183 points. I wonder if this is a record for the first day of school.
For the cost of two cup noodles at 199 points each, this had proven to be a rather lucrative endeavor. Although I was somewhat surprised with myself. Taking action like that is far riskier than I would have liked, and while the reward seems to have been worth it, I wonder why I was more reckless than I should have been.
Has her presence spurred me into action a little. I had originally planned to blend into the background, but seeing Kaguya Shinomiya here seems to have changed things. I want to know what changed her from the scared little girl I saw dragged out of the White Room. I want to know how she ended up so different from Yuki. The only thing that makes sense is that her interactions after leaving the White Room changed her.
If that really is the case, then my objective at this school has changed slightly. I no longer believe I will attain the same level of satisfaction from simply observing this school. I'm going to participate.
I'm certainly still not the kind of person who would take the spotlight, but I think the next three years are going to be very interesting indeed.
I wonder if this school can teach me something after all.
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Ayanokouji is making moves. I wanted to portray him in this early section without his "fake" personality. Having encountered Kaguya, a fellow White Room student here, his plans on how he will approach school life have changed. Having seen both Yuki and her after leaving the White Room his curiosity has been piqued. He wants to know why they recovered so differently. By sparking his curiosity Ayanokouji no longer feels satisfied just sitting idly by while everything is going on around him. Was this my way as the author to get him to be more active? Maybe. But it serves the story I plan on telling. Keep an eye out for more chapters coming soon. Please vote as well, it will help this story be seen by even more people.
Thank you everyone who is reading this, and I hope you have enjoyed the story so far.