"No way..."
"Are you serious?!"
"100,000 points?! We're rich!"
The classroom erupted in cheers of joy and confusion of the sheer amount of money irresponsibly set up as a monthly allowance for these clueless high school freshmen.
"That's correct," Chabashira added, waiting for the classroom to calm down before continuing her introductory speech. "And that's all I have for you today, any questions? No? Then I'll be on my way."
Having no reason to stick around, our lovely homeroom teacher took her exit, allowing us to spend all the time left until the entrance ceremony getting to know our new classmates.
"This school is too lenient," the girl who Satoru had recently made an enemy of muttered.
Leaning over to my much kinder seatmate, Matsushita, I questioned, "What was everyone shouting about? I kinda stopped listening half-way through because it sounded boring."
"Seriously?" She questioned, caught off guard by what I said, and I gave a nod in reply. "Chabashira-sensei explained that we are going to be getting 100,000 points each month, and 1 yen is equal to 1 point, therefore we're essentially getting 100,000 yen each month."
"Is that a large amount of money or something?"
Matsushita looked at me curiously, not understanding my line of thought, then remarked, "100,000 yen per month is 1/4 of the national average—that's an insane amount of money to give to a high schooler. Are you one of those rich kids with no financial awareness?"
"..."
Go on, I've already started the conversation for you. This is your time to shine pooki bear.
"to be honest," you say while intending to lie, "i was homeschooled before. my family didn't talk much about money, from what i could tell we've never struggled financially. though it's not like we lived in some grand and lavish mansions, only a modest four-story house."
That's doesn't sound very modest.
Modest shmodest.
"A four story house in japan is considered modest to you? That sounds exactly like what someone who was trying to hide that they're secretly filthy rich would mistakenly say."
"it was located in a rural area making it much cheaper than buying one in the city."
"You made that up just now, didn't you?"
Raising up my hands in defeat, I said, "alright, i give up. i won't be able to convince you that i'm not secretly rich anyway." Primarily thanks to the phantom person deliberately feeding that idea onto her. Now who on earth might you be talking about, I wonder?
"Probably not," she replied, with a short laugh.
As Matsushita and I continued our small talk, with Satoru chiming in ever so often so the conversation wouldn't dry up—please don't try to omit my hard carrying—the blonde-haired boy who had caused a scene on the bus earlier today seemingly finished combing his hair for the fourth time I've witnessed today and was the first to stand up to take his leave.
Chabashira never said we couldn't exit the classroom while we waited, thus there wasn't anything wrong with him stepping out early. I was more surprised that he was the first to attempt to vacate, but he ended up being stopped by Kushida when nearing the front door.
"Ah, hold on!" She quickly called out, attempting to prevent anyone from leaving too soon.
The tall, blonde boy listened, stopping at the point where the classroom ended and the hallway began, then turned back with a rich smile, "Yes? What is it that you want?"
"Um, well... I need to talk to everyone! Can you all please listen for a moment?" Easily grabbing our classes attention, she placed her hand over her chest, confidently stating, "There's still a lot of time left until the entrance ceremony starts, and I wanted to get to know everyone, so I thought we could all do introductions! Is everyone alright with that?"
Unsurprisingly, Kushida's overwhelming cuteness while expressing her want to get to know all of us won over the whole class instantly, leading to a unanimous agreement to do introductions.
The vote didn't factor in those who typically wouldn't vocalize their disapproval, so I glanced at my seatmate, expecting her to be the first out the door after that announcement, but she peculiarly remained in place, eyes still on the pamphlet the school provided.
Her choice to not leave the precise moment doing introductions were mentioned was out of character; she didn't strike me as someone who would be unaware of her surroundings.
"Hoho? Very well, I suppose I can bless you with the privilege of hearing my name before I depart. I am Koenji Rokusuke, rightful heir of the Koenji conglomerate and the one who will shape Japanese society. A pleasure to meet you, ladies."
Koenji's introduction was exactly what you might expect from my first impression of him, bold, indifferent, and directed entirely and only towards the girls. It garnered mixed reactions, mostly disgust or dislike, with a small minority of the girls looking ecstatic upon hearing he was rich.
Without waiting for an applause that would never come, or to hear anyone else's introduction, Koenji promptly exited the room, leaving the classroom in a sustained silence.
His kind of personality is moderately entertaining in fiction, but having to deal with him irl is definitely going to be a pain. What do you think chat?
Yeah, I can't see him being friends with anyone.
One could say the same about you.
Unlike Koenji, I'm planning to make an active effort to create friendships with my classmates.
"He has a really special introduction, ahaha..." Kushida awkwardly complimented, failing spectacularly to hide her discomfort, "Okie dokie! Let's move to the next person. I think it's best if we move row by row, so why don't we start from... ahhh... the back left corner!"
It appeared like Kushida was initially planning to choose the front-right corner student, but the girl sitting there gave her a frightened, pleading look, so she turned to the boy in the top-left desk—only to get a similar reaction.
If she had simply skipped the first person and returned later, it might've drawn more attention to them, so picking a different corner sounded like her best option. Obviously wasn't lol.
"I refuse," the girl, sitting at the desk with the nameplate "Horikita," bluntly stated.
Horikita's stern refusal didn't stir much of a reaction thanks to the two wordless denials before hers, though it was still relatively disliked by the class despite the lack of vocal complainants.
Whatever the case, it's good that she refused as it means that I won't be going next.
"Why not? Don't you want to get to know your classmates?" Of course, but starting without watching a few others introduce themselves first isn't going to do me any good.
"No. I'm not the least bit interested in 'getting to know my classmates.' If you had even half a brain cell in that empty head of yours, you would've picked up on that already and quit trying to talk to me."
"You're making it sound like I've been going out of my way to talk to you when you were the one who started our conversations both times."
"And both times I've made it very clear that I wasn't interested in any further communications."
"If you didn't want to talk any further, then you should've gotten up and left already. There's no reason for you to waste everyone's by sticking around like you intended to introduce yourself, then decline when Kushida asks you to go because you aren't interested in making any friends."
Perhaps it's pointless to try making you act respectfully toward hers, but at the very minimum, don't say anything that would incur the wrath of the rest of our classmates.
That's something I can adhere to.
"I hold no culpability, they should ha—"
"—So is Kushida's at fault then, for not wanting to pressure people who clearly didn't want to go first? Or the students themselves, for hesitating out of anxiety when they thought they might be chosen?"
"A combination of all three—you being the third. The fact that I didn't get up right away doesn't mean I had any intention of introducing myself. That's just your own erroneous assumption."
Her second, more elaborated response, instigated by Satoru, received a much colder reaction. All kinds of negative emotions were being thrown her way, confusion, animosity, annoyance, and more.
"Is she stupid? That's exactly what it means?"
"Guess we found the class ice princess."
"To be fair to her, I doubt she thought that back corner would go first. She might've been intending to leave at a better moment, and the guy kinda started their current argument yet is complaining about her wasting our time."
"He should shut up too."
Most people in her situation would've hesitated to alienate themselves, likely masking their true thoughts in order to blend in, but she could spit out her real, unfiltered opinions insouciantly.
Since Satoru had nothing else to say, I stayed quiet after he released possession, and after a little while she wordlessly rose from her seat, calmly walking out as if she genuinely did not care what anyone else thought.
If anyone else was planning to skip out on introductions, now would've been the ideal time to go, but perhaps due to Kushida's influence, or Horikita's lack of, only two other students got up.
Kushida and the dirty-blonde boy—who had been the only guy in that big group of girls gathered from the start—were the only ones who tried to ease the group's ambivalence, though it was too late. The girl's fate was set, she was basically guaranteed to be ostracized. Voluntary isolated*
Also, I thought you didn't believe in fate.
I don't, it's just a figure of speech.
I used to be that way—I grew up religious, then became an atheist after learning enough about my faith to recognize it was complete nonsense. Now I fully believe in a higher power, though I still don't think any of the existing religions came from god.
Getting reincarnated into the past body of someone you knew sounds like solid proof of a mythological being, I presume.
"Well if she doesn't wanna go first, I guess we can just skip to me," or you buttercup. Assuming you don't want to stay silent and annoy everybody after claiming you were gonna go first to start introductions.
It's absolutely critical you understand the importance of consent.
You gave your consent already?
All the other students are standing here as witness.
Please do not try to pull back your consent after you've regretted your decision and want to change your mind. Innocent people have had their lives ruined under similar incidents!
Backing out now would be social suicide; my only real option was to fully commit and ignore the very real risk of embarrassing myself by saying something weird. Ineluctably pushing out my chair, I slowly stood up, the overly expectant eyes of my classmates digging deep inside of me.
(edit)
Already struggling to formulate a thought, my heart began racing at a 70 miles an hour, I needed to calm down my breathing—your heartrate hasn't changed at all, and you aren't struggling to breathe either—just let me overthink in peace, please.
"...my name is kiyotaka ayanokouji. while i'm not the most social person, i hope to get along with you all. i don't have any particular skills or anything, though i enjoy reading in my free time."
Dang, I was looking forward to you using the amazing and absolutely foolproof template I recommended during the S-System explanation. It would've undoubtedly made you popular beyond your wildest dreams, but I suppose this will do.
I was too worried about the thoughts of my classmates that my eyes remained unfocused on anything... until I started hearing an applause. My eyes refocused slowly, adjusting as the tension drained from my shoulders. No one was laughing, no one was glaring, and I couldn't see any judgmental faces; just a few neutral looks.
It seemed like I'd gotten through it without complication, thankfully.
You sounded less emotional when you first heard my voice in your head and ruled out the idea that you were schizophrenic than you do right now. What's with the shitty acting?
Shortly thereafter, Matsushita stood up for her introduction—alright, sure, just ignore me then—and repeated much of what she'd already said to me. The applause that followed was noticeably louder than mine, probably because significantly more boys joined in.
Pink-haired girl's turn arrived after and she kept the loud applause streak going, her confident tone contrasting deeply with her nerdish appearance. I know, right? She sounded nothing like the image I had in mind.
"Can you introduce yourself next?" Kushida politely asked the broad-shouldered redhead.
He cleared his throat, more so out of nervousness than necessity, and said, "K-Ken Sudo—"
Before I knew it, our whole row was cleared out, and the next row started. At least him say the rest of his intro before you cut him off. There was no need to do him dirty like that.
"I'm Kanji Ike! I like manga, anime, and girls with short-hair. It's nice to meet you! If anyone's interested in romantic comedies, or if you're looking for a boyfriend, I'm available at any time!"
His introduction is easily the best, no competition.
Seeing as he's already earned the abhorrence of most girls, I'd argue the opposite.
"No ones going to come to you if they want a boyfriend, idiot." One of the girls with short hair commented, pretending to vomit at the mere thought of it.
"Obviously you would be exempt from that offer, uggo."
"THE HELL DIDJU SA—"
Precisely as the mood turned tense, the dirty-blonde boy jumped in, "Guys, girls, relax. We still need to finish doing introductions, remember?"
"Hirata-kun is right! it's not good to fight," Kushida emotionally added in support.
They both quickly agreed, albeit begrudgingly, to settle their differences and move on, though not without both sides muttering some not-so-nice words under their breaths.
The subsequent few introductions came and went, going through one ear and out the other.
"Heya~, my names Maya Sato! I'm not really into studying or any boring school stuff, but I totally love fashion design and—
"Uhm.. my name is Mei-Yu Wang. I would prefer if you just called me Mii-chan instead because—"
"Miyake Akito. I've been doing archery since middle-school and it's—"
They weren't bad by any means, some even got a better received reaction than mine did despite not going first, but nothing about them stood out, so I accidentally lost focus and drifted off.
I wonder if that's how people felt about my introduction.
Honestly, it was so boring I've forgotten what you had said already. I should've just taken the reins, then at least somebody would remember your name.
Better to be invisible than infamous.
Real shame.
"Hehe, my name is Haruki Yamauchi! Grandson of Hiroshi Yamauchi, or you probably know him as the former president of Nintendo! I have a whole lotta advanced skills and accomplishments, but I don't want to bore you spending all day talking, so just know that the original Wii U prototype was designed by yours truly. Nice to meet ya."
Woah.
If all that is true then his family might be even richer than Koenji's.
Totally, Nintendo is worth billions; it's safe to assume he's never had to struggle.
Much like Koenji's, his introduction received mixed reactions, although they were a little milder—perhaps his appearance wasn't all that appealing to our female classmates, or his earlier comments didn't match the stereotypical image one may have of a rich-kid.
"Then it's my turn, right?" Kushida angelically questioned, directly after the person next to her just finished introducing themselves. It's called a filler sentence, you should try using it some time. "My name is Kikyou Kushida! And um, none of my friends from middle-school were accepted into this school, so—this is kind of embarrassing but—I made a promise to myself that I would become friends with no less than 100 people! I'd love it if after introductions we could exchange contact information and then I can get to know everybody and become friends!"
Her introduction was given the loudest applause I had ever heard in my life; the reasoning was evident. Her word's were delivered with immense passion, the type you don't see often. She seemed like the type to trust easily, someone who'd open up her heart to people right away.
It wouldn't be shocking if she became the most well-liked girl in the entire school by tomorrow morning. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but I understand what you're trying to say.
After Kushida's magnum opus of an introduction—it wasn't that good bruh, get her dick out of your mouth. She's not gonna let you hit—my expectations for the ones to come next was subconsciously risen. I knew it would be fundamentally impossible to beat hers, gawk, gawk, gawk, but the chances, as slim as they may be, weren't zero. The blonde-haired ikeman appearing to be her biggest contender. Yours is too big Kikyou~, it went way too deep in my throat! Okay, I got it already. You can shut up now. Mmmph~, Haaa~ Haaaaa~ Haaaaaaaaah~! Gulp. Aaaah, look I swallowed, hehe. Am I a good boy~?
"I'm Yosuke Hirata. It's alright if you want to just call me Yosuke, I was used to being called that in middle-school. I'll play pretty much any sport imaginable, though if I had to stick to one, football's my choice. Nice to meet you all."
I wasn't sure what I was expecting really, but it certainly wasn't that.
Why? Did it come off more generic than you expected? Kushida's was too, and you couldn't get enough of that.
If you're labeling Kushida's introduction generic because it falls under the umbrella of what you imagine a nice girl sounds like, then that criticism applies to any kind of personality in existence.
Nah, you just don't get it because you were homeschooled, hers was generic as fuck. Even the stereotypical 100 friends thing you see in anime, can't get more orthodox than that.
Isn't that something you've only see in anime? I doubt it's a common occurrence.
Well, now that I think about, I've never actually heard that 100 friends thing in real life either. Maybe it really wasn't generic. Either or, it sounded generic, so who cares really.
More interestingly, what was unexpected about Hirata's introduction?
I was thinking about the classes reaction.
Nearly all the clapping came from girls, with little to no input from the boys.
Ah, nice catch.
A lot of the boys seem to be petty enough to hold a grudge over him for being able to talk to girls without any real difficulty. I figured Ike and Yamauchi were just the outliers, but maybe the state of Japan's youth is worse than I've previously imagined.
Whatever their reasoning is for disliking him, it's unlikely to effect his popularity with the girls. Guys like him usually end up as the classes central figure, drawing friends and attention from other classes, until he inevitably goes out with one of the cutest girls in school.
Sounds about right.
Barring Shinohara's, who had reignited tensions with Ike, setting up the stage for a second argument over his preceding boyfriend applications comment, the last few introductions passed without incident. Students sat in the front row sounded mildly shy or weren't very enthusiastic about introducing themselves, it came to no surprise that none stood out. I'm envious. Lmao.
"And with that, we're all done! I'd like to thank everybody for taking the time to introduce yourselves, especially when you weren't obligated to do so. It's really nice to get to hear a little about everybody," Kushida concluded her speech by performing a slight bow in appreciation.
She had a real gift with words, the class only got a short preview of her personality and, regardless of gender, have already fallen for her. Even I felt my heartstrings being pulled at.
"Oh right! I'm sure most of you already know, but I thought I'd say a little reminder. Orientation is starting soon, so we should all get ready to head over and get started." She added, before moving back to her desk, which had been surrounded by a group that wanted to walk with her,
Only a few minutes remained before orientation began, and with nothing of importance left to do in homeroom, our classmates quickly began preparing themselves. Matsushita got up and spared me a glance, making me think she was going to invite me to go with them, but didn't stop to say anything, swiftly walking towards her gyaru friends without so much as a word.
She probably just thought you wouldn't want to join a group of girls anyway.
Still, It wouldn't kill her to send an invite.
Then you send one.
No.
Hypocrite.
Fine, lets just dip. I don't feel like sending one out myself either.
Works for me.
Given no disagreement arising from my uncharacteristically complaint soulmate—I don't have an infinite social battery, of course I'd get tired of having to resolve your constant fuck ups—we managed to depart without hassle.
Or not.
"You're Ayanokouji-kun right? That's the wrong way," Hirata stated, somehow managing to spot me leaving in the opposite direction through the harem of girls surrounding him.
Barely making it out of the classroom, I turned around and replied, "Hm? Yeah, I'm aware. I just dropped something earlier and think I dropped it somewhere in that direction."
"I see. I won't stop you if it's something important enough to make you leave now. If you don't manage to make it back in time for orientation and are later confused, feel free to contact me."
"thanks, i appreciate it."
"For sure. See you later."
Then he waddled away, waddle waddle.
Then we waddled away, waddle waddle waddle.
Then he waddled away, waddle waddle.
'Til the very next day...
Bum bump bum bump bumpadump.
And the by the very next day I meant the electronics store.
What do you want from there?
A laptop.
We've managed to get by purely by borrowing your butler's phone, and the school provided phone is pretty cool, but still I've been bored as shiiiiiiiiiiit.
If you do that, we'll burn through our whole allowance on day one and end up living like we're homeless until next month.
That's cool and all bro, but I didn't ask for your fucking opinion.
Okay...
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this was supposed to come out like 2 weeks ago but this mmo i play gave out free membership after I've decided to not spend any more money on games = sat on 2.5k words for 2 weeks
hopefully im more consistant now lol
3.7k