Throughout the entire process, Sakayanagi Arisu was left completely dumbfounded.
She felt as though missiles had just exploded inside her head, leaving behind nothing but smoke and empty space.
The other students who had gotten off the same bus stood frozen in shock.
“Unbelievable.
I didn’t expect Shiki-kun to do something so incredibly rude.” Sakayanagi frowned slightly, showing a rare and obvious flash of displeasure.
Her soft, delicate hands patted down her perfectly neat uniform, though Tsugikuni Shiki had no idea what she was even trying to fix.
“Who told you to be so short?
You look like an elementary schooler.
I just did what I saw other adults do.” Shiki told the truth.
He didn’t have any bad intentions; he was just a bit dense.
(Did lifting Sakayanagi just now recreate that famous scene from The Lion King?) His mind wandered playfully.
“Is that so?
It seems our Panda-kun really lacks common sense.
Do you need me to properly train you?” Sakayanagi smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Her tone was clearly leaking a chilly, murderous intent.
“No need for training.
You might be a sadist, but I’m not a masochist.
Besides, being told I lack common sense by a sheltered young lady like you is actually pretty annoying,” Shiki said bluntly.
“Did I strike a nerve?”
“I’m just speaking my mind.”
Stepping up the stairs and passing through a gate made of natural stone, the view suddenly opened up before them.
“As expected of a school built on shady government and business deals.
It really looks top tier.” Shiki looked around, realizing the campus was ridiculously huge.
Even though he had read the exact numbers in the school brochure, seeing it in person was a completely different feeling.
In the distance, the buildings bathed in sunlight looked like giant mechs ready for launch.
Just from the outside, you could imagine how insane the high tech facilities inside must be.
Sakayanagi covered her mouth and giggled lightly.
“I think ‘government and corporate cooperation’ is a more fitting term, Shiki-kun.”
Shiki didn’t reply.
Trying to argue across the barrier of social classes was pointless.
A sad, thick wall had already formed between the two of them.
“Which class are you in, Shiki-kun?” Sakayanagi walked step by step, her cane tapping gently against the ground.
Walking was clearly a hassle with her bad legs, but she didn’t look funny doing it.
In fact, her calm and collected posture gave off an elegant, breezy vibe.
“Just to let you know, the school placed me in Class A.
What about you?”
Shiki tried hard to stop the corners of his mouth from curling up into a smile.
He said with fake regret, “What a shame.
I’m a student in Class D.
I guess we won’t be seeing each other much from now on.”
“That really is a shame.
I thought I could happily spend my high school days going to and from classes with Shiki-kun…” Sakayanagi shook her head slightly.
She looked so sad, you would think she had just lost a best friend.
Shiki didn’t buy it for a second.
“You just want another servant to boss around.
Don’t make it sound so nice.”
Having her true intentions exposed didn’t make Sakayanagi mad at all.
Instead, she let out a sweet, light laugh.
“What a harsh accusation.
I didn’t think that at all.
But Shiki-kun, you don’t need to worry…”
Shiki suddenly got a very bad feeling.
He heard Sakayanagi continue, “Once I handle a few things and find some friends, I’ll come to Class D to visit you.
So you won’t have to worry about being lonely.”
Crap!
“Well then, this is where we part ways.
See you later.” Reaching the road split, Sakayanagi gave a small bow, turned around, and slowly walked away.
(Sigh, my life is so hard!
I just hope everyone in this class is normal.)
Shiki shook his head and headed down the other hallway, walking toward the turning point of his life: Class D.
Some people are born at the finish line, enjoying the best things in life.
Other people are born as workhorses.
And he was undoubtedly the lowest workhorse of them all.
Compared to poor souls who started life on extreme hard mode, he was a little luckier—he was born on a drinking table in Ginza.
His mother was a somewhat famous hostess, and his father was the smooth talking top host at a host club.
You could say they were a match made in heaven.
That was his family background.
Logically, two people working in the nightlife industry shouldn’t have kids.
But his mom was a total weirdo.
She fell in love at first sight when she saw his dad at the host club.
Her love struck brain went crazy.
After a few nights together, she got pregnant, hid it from his dad, gave birth to him, and then essentially forced his dad to accept the result.
(TL:wild~)
The host, finding out he suddenly had a kid, was completely dumbfounded.
He tried to shake off this mess, but his mom clung to him like superglue.
She went to his club every day, causing a small scene every three days and a massive scene every five.
She practically forced the club owner to fire his top host just to stop her from scaring off the other customers.
Suddenly losing his job, dealing with a crazy stalker, and having a kid made the host completely numb.
To stop her from doing anything more extreme, he could only accept his terrible luck, pinch his nose, grit his teeth, and marry her.
However, their married life wasn’t happy at all.
After tying the knot, his weirdo mom banned the host from going back to his old job and refused to let him contact any of his old clients.
She didn’t do any work herself, either.
She just stayed home all day to keep a strict eye on her husband.
Even though they had some savings, the two of them were used to spending money like water, so they went broke fast.
With no money left, they couldn’t even afford baby formula.
It was a miracle Shiki didn’t starve to death as a baby, his will to live was just that strong.
In this world, money isn’t everything, but you absolutely cannot survive without it.
Seeing that they couldn’t even afford food, his completely broke mom finally had to loosen her grip on his dad.
The two of them went back to their old jobs, hoping to make a big comeback.
But maybe their luck had just run out, their performance was nowhere near what it used to be.
The money they made was just a fraction of their past earnings.
They didn’t have the skills to find normal jobs, so they could only live a life of eating one day and starving the next.
As the saying goes, poverty makes everything miserable.
After a few years of living in misery, his weirdo mom had a sudden realization.
She completely snapped out of it, and her love struck brain vanished.
Following the rule of “if you can’t fix it, run away,” she quietly left in the dead of night, leaving a father and son behind to continue serving their prison sentence of a life.
The host woke up the next day to find her gone, and he instantly understood everything.
Thinking about how his entire life was ruined by a psycho, he flew into a raging fit.
This rage naturally bled over onto Shiki.
Any time his dad was unhappy, he would beat him up.
His mental state was simply fantastic.
Shiki, who was beaten until he cried for his parents, wasn’t the type to just sit there and take abuse quietly.
By “accidentally” showing off his bruises, he caught the attention of his classmates and teachers, bringing the cops straight to his front door.
He pulled off a real “loving father, dutiful son” move and successfully got himself sent to an orphanage.
As for his old man, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was currently relaxing in a mental hospital.
(TL:Real shit)
Everyone has a bright future.
It seemed like Shiki’s life was finally getting on the right track.
However, the heavens love to mess with people for a reason.
After peacefully getting through elementary school and his second year of middle school, his life hit another massive turning point just as he started his third year.
That day, he was working a customer service job.
Maybe because they were around the same age, the manager sent over a new girl with long blue hair for him to train.
Even now, Shiki vividly remembered the first time he saw Togawa Sakiko.
Her cool face carried a polite smile.
She wore a white top, a gray plaid skirt, and white ankle socks with lace trim.
Her slightly wavy, sky blue hair was tied with two black ribbons.
Her entire presence completely clashed with the gritty work environment.
(TL:His previous experience was with the My Go girl btw)
Even if Shiki had never met Sakiko before, just by looking at her manners, her aura, and her weirdly formal way of speaking, he could guess she was a rich young lady.
Even though he had no idea why she had fallen so low as to work a parttime job, that clearly wasn’t any of his business.
However, he never expected that his life would completely turn upside down after meeting her.
On the way home, they accidentally discovered that they lived pretty close to each other.
Because of this, they bonded and started talking more.
And then, somehow, he mysteriously ended up meeting the other girls connected to her: Wakaba Mutsumi, Nagasaki Soyo, Shiina Taki, Takamatsu Tomori…
After going through a messy, complicated web of emotional drama, the runaway Togawa Sakiko returned to her family and became a rich young lady again.
He and that group of girls somehow became friends for life…
At least, that was what Shiki thought.
Until one day, something happened that completely ruined the peaceful life he knew.
It was a beautiful, sunny spring afternoon.
Shiki was invited over to Sakiko’s massive mansion.
Sitting on the soft cushions of the living room sofa, he stared blankly at a green potted plant on the counter, thinking about where he should work next.
Right beside him was Wakaba Mutsumi, who had also been invited.
She was staring at his side profile, so close she could see the fine peach fuzz on his cheek.
Then, this quiet, kuudere girl—who usually looked totally expressionless—made a bold move right inside the Toyokawa house.
Without making a sound, she leaned in and gave Shiki a kiss on the cheek.
(TL:Holy~)
Suddenly ambushed, Shiki froze.
His survival instincts from years of dealing with the outside world completely shut down.
He just turned his head in shock to look at her.
Her pretty face showed absolutely no emotion, as if what she just did was completely normal.
It actually made him think he was just hallucinating from working too much, so he brushed it off.
But he never could have imagined that this little scene would become an uncontrollable fuse, lighting a hidden powder keg…
Because right when Mutsumi quietly kissed him, Sakiko was standing just a short distance behind them, watching the whole thing clearly.
Her bright and beautiful face turned pale green.
She was grinding her teeth, her soft, delicate hands balled up into tight fists.
After that, to no one’s surprise, Shiki ended up locked in a basement.
He himself had no idea what was going on.
It wasn’t until Sakiko slowly walked in, flipping on a few bright lights to light up the room, that he finally learned the whole story.
(TL:Tough luck buddy)
Simply put, she was jealous.
Seeing all the girls swarming around him, she felt like she was the one who got there first—whether it was being his friend or the one who liked him.
Yet, her feelings got twisted up into a weird, tangled mess, making her incredibly depressed.
Her heart felt like it was sinking into a dark, bottomless ocean.
After seeing Mutsumi make a move, Sakiko just couldn’t hold it in anymore.
Using some mind blowing logic, she decided that since her friends weren’t playing fair, she would just lock Shiki up for the rest of his life.
That way, she could protect both her closest friends and the guy she liked.
Then she rambled on about how her weak past self was dead, and how she had now “become a god,” along with a bunch of other insane nonsense that left Shiki’s head full of question marks.
(I treated you as a friend, but you’re thirsting for my body?
Mutsumi took advantage of me, so why are you locking ME up?
I’m the victim here!
And what’s this crap about becoming a god…)
He didn’t know if Sakiko had actually become a god, but she definitely wasn’t a normal human anymore, that was for sure.
Seeing that Sakiko was fully entering her yandere phase, Shiki—who absolutely did not want to spend his life in a basement—had no choice but to act obedient and beg for mercy.
He used 100% of his energy to kiss up to her.
After three days of non stop acting, he finally found a chance to escape.
Too terrified to go home, he went straight to the gentle and kind hearted Nagasaki Soyo for help.
He hoped she would let him hide out for a few days so Sakiko could cool down.
After all, in his eyes, Soyo had always kept a sweet and caring image.
She was exactly like the mother he had always imagined having.
However, reality proved that this was just wishful thinking.
He had only escaped one hell just to walk straight into another.
As a traumatized Shiki explained everything that had happened, he completely missed the dark, plotting glint flashing in Soyo’s eyes.
And so, after being locked in another dark room, Shiki began to seriously wonder if he had done something deeply wrong in a past life.
Otherwise, why was he surrounded by one weirdo after another, each of them wanting to lock him up and play with him?
Luckily, practice makes perfect.
After he desperately cried out and called Soyo “Mommy”, Soyo completely froze, her cheeks turning bright red.
He took advantage of the situation, turned the tables, and ran away again.
(TL:kewk)
Calling a high school girl ‘Mommy’ just to escape—this is Tsugikuni Shiki’s iron will to survive!
Dammit!!
This time, he didn’t dare tell anyone else where he was, terrified that getting locked up a few more times would turn his life into a remake of The Shawshank Redemption.
After all, if even the super gentle Soyo could do something like that, then the clumsy penguin (Tomori), the stressed out black haired girl (Taki), and the deadpan cucumber girl (Mutsumi) were probably totally unhinged too.
They were all absolute weirdos.
Realizing he had nowhere left to hide in this massive world, he set his sights on the high school that kept its students locked inside for three full years.
He didn’t know if those girls would give up after three years, but he just had to survive one day at a time.
“Gah, I will survive!”
So, that was his situation.
Other people might have come to this school to study or because they believed the school’s shady promises, but Shiki came for literal survival and freedom.
Compared to his sheer level of resolve, the other students were totally weak.
Shiki didn’t care about the so called 100% employment rate.
He knew his grades were good enough to get by.
As long as the school actually kept one or two of its promises—like a politician throwing out a campaign slogan—he would be completely satisfied.
At the very least, they had to give him free food, right?
Otherwise, what would he eat?!
Of course, after surviving Sakiko and her weirdo friends, his mind had taken a huge hit.
It was supposed to be the first time he made friends for life, so why did things turn out like this?
He analyzed the data and came up with the following reasons:
Reason 1: Togawa Sakiko is a total weirdo.
Reason 2: Nagasaki Soyo is a total weirdo.
Reason 3: Wakaba Mutsumi is a total weirdo.
…
From this, he came to a firm conclusion: no matter how bad the environment is, as long as he was surrounded by normal people, everything would be fine.
Those weirdos were walking disasters, completely toxic.
Regular humans needed to stay far away from them.
Shiki felt full of hope for his future.
The world was so big, and Tokyo wasn’t small either.
No matter what, there was no way his new Class D would have any weirdos in it, right?
…And then…
“Hahaha, beautiful!
I am simply far too beautiful!”
“Let me tell you, back in middle school, I was the ace pitcher for the baseball team!
I completely shined in the national high school tournament.
Tons of scouts came to my school trying to recruit me, but sadly, I was too focused on my studies and had to politely turn them down.
But now that I’m in high school, I plan on getting back into form.
Do you guys want to go play some ball later?!”
“Hello everyone, I’m Kushida Kikyou.
I hope to become friends with everyone in the school.
Please take care of me.”
“Hey everyone, I’m currently recruiting a cute girlfriend.
If anyone is interested, come hit me up for my contact info!”
“I have no interest in you people grouping together to play make believe friends.
Don’t bother me.”
Tsugikuni Shiki: “…”
(TL:Thus the journey of super genius and super rage baiter, super mean tongue Shiki’s new life begin)