Chapter 8 Act 2: Scene 2
pαndα,noνɐ1,сoМ While the two introduced themselves to the other, the school bell rang. At the same time, a brown-haired woman wearing formal attire had entered the classroom with a very serious look on her face.
She didn't bother looking at the students who were still fooling around and talking with their other classmates, but her presence was enough to send them in a panic. They quickly raced back to their seats as the woman stood in front.
"Good morning, students. My name is Chabashira Sae, and I'm the homeroom teacher for Class D," she introduced herself with a little bow. "I teach Japanese History. In this school, we don't change classrooms for each grade so we will be seeing each other a lot for the next three years. In that time, I hope to get to know all of you."
Kiyotaka listened to her words carefully. "So these people will be my permanent classmates, then. At least I've made one friend already, even if she's supposed to be a heroine. Making more than that... is going to be harder than it looks."
"Before we continue, I will distribute these student handbooks with more information about this school and its rules. Please read them carefully."
After saying those words, Chabashira then left a set of small books for the students on the front row, who all passed it to the person behind them and so on. After everyone had received their own copy, they read through some of it until their teacher began to speak again.
"Now, I will hand out your student ID cards. With these, you'll be able to access the facilities in the campus. You'll also be able to utilize the usage of 'points'. Using points, you can purchase goods from a store, buy clothes and other things at the mall, eat at a restaurant, and so on. In this school, anything can be purchased using points."
As she explained how the ID cards worked (much to the amazement of the students), the woman walked around the room and personally distributed them to their respective owners. Once Kiyotaka had received his, he picked it up and observed it closely.
"So this is what that ice cream vendor meant by 'points'..." he thought, remembering what the store clerk said earlier when he attempted to buy ice cream. "If we weren't given special privileges of having our food for free earlier, then we would have had no way of paying. The system must have altered reality in my favor so that we could buy food for free, because I refuse to believe that it was only a coincidence that we were the 100th customers of both stores. Now that I know what this dating simulator can do, it's not hard to imagine that it manipulated things to my advantage."
In hindsight, this was a very useful ability to have but then again, the system had a mind of its own and it obviously won't work just because he wanted it to.
"Points are automatically distributed into your account on the first day of every month. You should all have received 100,000 points already. Keep in mind that 1 point is equivalent to 1 yen, and be careful about the amount of points you spend. That is all," she finished explaining.
And with that, the classroom bursted into cheers, not even caring that their teacher was still there and could reprimand them for being noisy.
"We can buy anything with points?! Oh, I can't wait to get started!
"Me too! I wonder if I can buy myself a girlfriend as well..."
"Keep your fantasies to yourself, pervert!"
"Uh, mental note to stay away from that guy..."
"100,000 points every month? Sounds like a good deal to me!"
"Now, now, everyone, let's not get too hasty. We should wait for Chabashira-sensei to finish speaking first. I think she has more to say."
While everyone else was delighted at the concept of points as a currency, a certain individual kept quiet with his
"100,000 points as a monthly allowance, huh? Not a bad deal at all. It just feels weird that"
[Chabashira Sae: 'Dead-serious Teacher']
[Relationship Status: ?]
[Affection Points: 0/100]
[Heroine Summary: Sae is your beautiful homeroom teacher who will be watching over you and your class for the next three years. She is a very serious woman who has no time for personal relationships and is only focused on her job. However, this is only a mask to hide her vulnerable side because of her one weakness, which is her wish and desperation to reach Class-A. In the past, there was an incident involving her and her ex-boyfriend that ended up in her class losing their biggest chance to become the new Class-A. She now works as a teacher with the desire of accomplishing what she failed to do as a student, but she has a complete lack of faith in her current class, believing that all of them are nothing more than defects.]
While there were a number of things that shocked him upon seeing the woman's 'summary', most notably the fact that a fully-grown adult was considered a 'heroine' and will be a part of his romantic 'conquests' in the future (Really? The system was just having fun making his school life more chaotic than before now), Kiyotaka's attention was drawn to one particular line that involved the school itself.
"Her wish is to reach Class-A? Is there a hierarchy between classes?" he thought, slowly taking in this new information that was proving to be vital in knowing more about this school. "If that's the case and we're considered as Class-D, it also means that we're at the bottom when compared to the other classes of our grade."
While Kiyotaka was working to figure out what Chabashira's 'summary' was about, the teacher herself smirked at her students' excitement upon finding out what they could do with the points that they were given.
Oh, these sweet summer children... they were all the same.
"Shocked by the amount of points you're given? The school evaluates its students based on their attributes, and the amount of points you've received reflects your worth here. All of you have passed the entrance exams out of thousands of applicants, which already speaks of your potential. I may have advised you to spend your points wisely, but it's still up to you on how to use them," she explained further. Now then, the table is open for questions that you wish to ask me. I'll answer them as long as they are within the rules."
Only a single arm rose in the air after Sae asked if they had questions.
"Yes, Hirata?" she said, giving the floor to a handsome young man with blonde hair and brown eyes, who seemed to have gotten the attention of a lot of his female classmates right away.
"Sensei, is it possible for us to give our points to someone? In the case that one of us accidentally spends too much of his/her points that they are low on funds, there has to be a way to help them," he asked out of concern, which only served to win over the girls even more.
"That ikemen bastard..." A few of the less-than-average males thought to themselves out of jealousy.
Sae nodded. "Yes, you can do that if you wish. There is an application available that can help transfer points to other students whenever you want. You will learn more about that in the entrance ceremony later on."
A girl with blonde hair tied in a ponytail then spoke up, "Wait, what if the person that we're doing it with is only scamming us? He might end up taking more points than what the initial agreement was!"
Her statement was quick to invoke a sense of fear and panic among the class, her classmates unwilling to let their points be taken from them.
Sae nodded and even flashed a little smirk. "Good question, Karuizawa. To prevent yourself from being scammed during a negotiation regarding points, you may create a written contract with the signature of both parties that are involved. That way, the negotiation will be seen as official and whoever doesn't follow it will be punished. A third party can also act as a witness to make it more legitimate."
That was enough to calm the growing panic among several members of the class. In the end, everything that Chabashira explained to them was easy to understand and there seems to be nothing complicated about this 'point system'.
After all, it's simple. They receive a monthly allowance of 100,000 points, and it's up to them on how they spend it! Nothing more than that.
"Are those all your questions?" she asked, waiting for a good ten seconds if someone was going to ask something. When nobody did, Sae only nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well. I suppose I can now end homeroom. Don't forget to attend the entrance ceremony in an hour's time. All of you are required to be there. I'll see you all tomorrow for our first lesson."
As Chabashira left the classroom, Kiyotaka was in deep thought. "I wonder why she didn't tell us about the possible class hierarchy around here. If she wanted to reach Class-A through us, then she would ask for our cooperation, but she did nothing. It's either because she truly has no hope in a class full of 'defects', or it's that she can't, because she's not allowed to."
"Everyone, may I please gain your attention?"
The blonde-haired boy, Hirata, stood up the moment their teacher left and faced his classmates with a gentle smile on his face.
"Since we still have an hour before the entrance ceremony, I think now would be a perfect time for us to introduce ourselves to each other instead of doing other things. Since we will be classmates for the next few years, it's best if we get to know one another right away."
Kiyotaka rested his elbows on his desk and breathed into his hands. "Introducing ourselves... I suppose that's a normal occurrence within a classroom, but can I even do that without screwing up? The system helped me with Horikita and Kushida, but I doubt that the same will happen for the whole class."
"Since this is my idea, I'll introduce myself first," the handsome-looking boy continued. "My name is Hirata Yosuke. Feel free to call me by my first name if you want. I like to play sports, especially soccer. I look forward to working with all of you."
His introduction only seemed to make him even more likable and popular with a lot of his female classmates. Hirata seemed to be the type of person who you could depend on, and he would gladly devote his time to helping someone if they needed it.
After Hirata, the rest of the class followed and one by one, they began to introduce themselves.
"Hi! My name is Karuizawa Kei! I like going to the mall with friends and hanging out with them. Nice to meet'cha!"
"Hi, everyone! I'm Kushida Kikyo. I'd love to get to know all of you right away!"
"Sato Maya. I like fashion and going to the mall. Nice to meet you all!"
Kiyotaka observed the three girls closely as they spoke. He had a feeling that they will end up being heroines because it's a normal trope in dating simulators to include girls who are socialites. Well, Kushida is already a heroine (even though she was faking that kindness) and while he couldn't say the same for the other two, time can only tell.
God, he could only hope that not every girl in his class will become a 'heroine'...
"Yo. Name's Yamauchi Haruki. I was a star athlete in my old school and if you want, I can even teach you some pointers in studying!"
"Ladies, my name is Ike Kanji. If you ever want to go on a date, I'm available anytime!"
"A perfect existence such as myself has no need to introduce himself but since I am bored at the moment, I suppose I'll humor you. I am Koenji Rokusuke, the sole heir to the Koenji Conglomerate!"
While a majority of the class were keen on introducing themselves and putting up a good image to their classmates, there were also some who had no intention of introducing themselves for some reason.
"Tch. We're not children anymore to be doing this, so leave me out of this," said a red-haired boy who had the first buttons of his uniform undone and his tie loosened like a typical delinquent.
"Okay... if that's what you wish," Hirata sweat-dropped. "Let's continue with the next one, then."
"Uhm... I'm S-Sakura A-Airi. It's... n-nice to meet you all..."
"The system is definitely going to include her," Kiyotaka sighed. "Dating simulators are also fond of including at least one shy girl in the various routes that they offer."
Well, at least he can see this one coming ahead of time.
The class introductions went smoothly until the last row, when it was finally Horikita's turn. Being aware of her attitude and demeanor, Kiyotaka expected the girl to act arrogant and say that introducing herself is a waste of time but to his surprise, Horikita stood up and faced everyone else with a neutral expression.
Wait, was she actually going to do it?
"Horikita."
...and she sat back down afterwards. Never mind.
Regardless, she introduced herself to everyone, at the very least. Kiyotaka assumed that due to their earlier interactions, the girl was in a good mood and had no intention of being stingy just for the sake of it. Hm, if this continues, she might even become friendlier to the rest of the class eventually.
"T-Thank you for introducing yourself, Horikita-san..." said Hirata, completely unaware that even if she only said her family name, Suzune was already making a big leap in terms of opening up to other people.
"Guess it's finally my turn," Kiyotaka said in his thoughts as he stood up from his seat and looked at his classmates. "I'm Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. I'm not good at making friends, but I still hope to get along with everyone. I like reading books and practicing tea ceremony."
And with that, he sat back down. The young man wanted to say that he wasn't particularly good at anything, but he could already tell that if he did that, then Horikita wouldn't be pleased. She'd likely snap at him for lying about what he can do, or she'll be angry with him for leading her on the whole time. As a matter of fact, she would probably react like this...
"You are unbelievable! How could you lie to me?! I thought we were friends, Ayanokouji-kun?!" cried Suzune, who felt heartbroken that her first 'friend' was lying to her the whole time.
"Great. Now I'm getting this urge not to let that happen," he said to himself. The worst part was that a day hadn't even passed, yet he was already tired of dealing with this. "I'll get used to this... I hope."
"Thank you for that introduction, Ayanokouji-kun," Hirata smiled before turning to the rest of the class. "Now that we are more acquainted with each other, all we can do now is wait for the entrance ceremony."
Hirata sat back down after those words, which prompted everyone to return to what they were doing before Chabashira entered the room.
"That went well... somehow. I was actually expecting the worst," Kiyotaka thought. He was honestly expecting to choose from the three choices and let the system itself handle it, but it's a good thing that it didn't happen. That would have been a pain to deal with, especially if he had to say something embarrassing in front of everyone.
Now all that was left to do today was attend the entrance ceremony. Surely, it won't be as stressful as the events that have happened thus far, right?