The final bell of the day echoed melodiously through the school building.
An hour later, the students of Class A had gradually filtered out of the classroom.
The dim, yellow light of the evening sun hit the room, dyeing it in shades of amber and pale gold.
Mikage Touji stood by the window, hands behind his back, staring with a calm expression at the various clubs on the distant sports field, pouring out their sweat and youth.
From a distance, the rhythmic sound of indoor shoes treading on the floor drifted over, growing closer at an unhurried pace.
But there was something about the rhythm…
was it excitement?
A standard, villain-esque cold smirk appeared on Mikage Touji’s lips.
‘Little Morishita, today I shall utterly shatter your toy-selling fantasies!’
The classroom door was slid open with a shua.
Sunlight fell upon Morishita Ai’s impassive face, casting a long shadow behind her.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
Mikage Touji pretended not to turn around, his voice drifting over like Dracule Mihawk waiting for Roronoa Zoro for a duel.
Morishita Ai glanced at Mikage Touji, who was hard at work striking a pose, and turned to leave.
“Then I’m going.
Mikage Touji admits defeat.
Ultraman is fake.”
Mikage Touji’s act crumbled in a single second.
He scrambled to wave her back.
“Wait, wait, don’t!
Who knew you wouldn’t pick up my bit?”
“Who knows such a clichéd bit?” Morishita Ai muttered under her breath.
Mikage Touji regrouped, assuming a serious expression.
“Now then, Morishita Ai, are you ready to embrace defeat?”
“The one who should embrace defeat is you!” Morishita Ai retorted, refusing to be outdone.
The air in Class A solidified in an instant.
Sparks of electricity seemed to swirl and collide between their eyes.
When gazes meet, a duel must begin!
In the distance, a crow flapped its wings and flew away, leaving behind a string of caws.
The moment the sound reached them, Mikage Touji struck first.
He slammed his hands onto the desk and looked directly at Morishita Ai.
“The rules are simple: whoever reveals more intel wins.
Rock-paper-scissors for the first turn.”
“Suits me perfectly.
Bring it on!” Morishita Ai said with total confidence.
“Three—” “Two—” “One—” “Rock, paper, scissors!”
Mikage Touji: Rock.
Morishita Ai: Scissors.
Mikage Touji burst into laughter, assumed a battle stance, and shouted: “My turn!
I attack first!
Advanced Nurturing divides students into four classes, A through D, based on their value.
Class A has the highest value, and Class D the lowest!”
Mikage Touji formed a hand seal, opening with a move: “Domain Expansion: Plasma Spark!” He charged straight at Morishita Ai.
Though the move seemed plain, it was the core of all combat; without an equal countermeasure, one could only be left at the opponent’s mercy.
“Too naive, Mikage Touji.
Morishita-sama knew intel of this level on the very first day.” Morishita Ai’s face remained emotionless as she appraised him with confidence.
“Furthermore, your intel seems incomplete…”
Her eyes narrowed, and she too slammed her hands on the desk.
“Only by graduating from Class A can one obtain everything promised by the school—that is, the 100% higher education and employment rate!”
Facing this aggressive assault, Morishita Ai refused to back down.
She formed a hand seal and countered with her own: “Domain Expansion: Dimensional Card Storm!”
Two great domains expanded within the classroom, colliding, squeezing, and grinding against each other with ear-piercing screeches.
Powerful energy surged through the room; desks were pushed outward from the center of the duo, breaking and disintegrating!
(In the shared chuunibyou imagination of two high schoolers, at least.)
“Not bad, Morishita Ai.
To think you’d realize that layer.”
Mikage Touji had expected this.
That move was a deliberate opening; if she couldn’t even handle that level, she wouldn’t be worthy of being his opponent!
“Points are the school’s evaluation of a student’s worth.
Furthermore, the school tests student value through surveillance cameras placed everywhere.
Academics, morals, physical ability, social skills, and thinking capacity—all of it is likely being monitored!” New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
Acknowledging his opponent’s strength, Mikage Touji stopped holding back.
He let out a long roar and threw a “Heavenly Emperor Punch,” piercing through the opponent’s domain and aiming straight for Morishita Ai’s face.
“Surveillance?
No wonder…” Morishita Ai murmured softly.
Mikage Touji’s move seemed to exceed her expectations.
Was she going to stop here?
“The school is currently conducting a month-long behavioral standard exam for the first years.
Points are deducted for every violation of student conduct!”
No!
At the critical moment, Morishita Ai summoned an “Anti-matter Mirror Knight” to block the blow head-on.
She immediately followed up with a “Dimensional Refraction” at Mikage Touji, completely flipping the scales of victory!
“N-Nani!” Mikage Touji panicked slightly.
“How do you know about that?
You shouldn’t have been able to scout that out!”
Mikage Touji shook his head violently, quickly calming down.
“Points can buy anything!
That is the ultimate clear condition of this school!
With 20 million, you can graduate directly from Class A!”
Facing such a dire threat, Mikage Touji had no escape.
He took the hit head-on and used all his energy to unleash his ultimate secret technique: “Shining Supernova Burst: Limit Flash!” He vowed to eliminate the enemy right here.
“Class Points are the system the school uses to evaluate the entire class.
Every month, the school deposits points into student accounts at a ratio of 1 to 100.
In other words, our class’s starting points are 1,000!”
Mikage Touji’s desperation was clear to Morishita Ai; she already had victory in her grasp.
Morishita Ai met him head-on with her own ultimate: “Dimensional Shockwave: Rainbow Big Bang!” This time, there was no surging energy—only a suffocating, deathly silence.
Space let out a crisp sound like cracking glass as pitch-black dimensional rifts opened throughout the classroom.
“…”
Mikage Touji’s mouth hung open.
He stood frozen in place like a giant who had lost his light and turned to stone.
“It seems I’ve won, Mikage Touji~”
Morishita Ai’s voice was filled with delight.
She followed up with the final blow.
“The students of Class D all possess a certain level of defect.
The school calls them ‘defective goods.'”
Facing the giant who had lost his power, Morishita Ai ruthlessly extended a move: “Great Severance: Cosmic Extinction.” It instantly cut through Mikage Touji’s hopes along with the boy himself.
Mikage…
—— Touji…
Killed!
What a thrilling battle!
“I win.”
Morishita Ai stood with one hand on her hip and the other making a peace sign, striking a victory pose.
“Mikage Touji, who stole my seat.”
“Impossible!”
Mikage Touji hammered the floor like a low-tier villain trying to struggle after a defeat.
“Refusing to admit defeat?
As expected of you, Mikage Touji.”
“Wait!”
Mikage Touji’s thoughts suddenly connected.
He looked up at Morishita Ai, who was basking in victory.
“Did you cheat?
Given that the senpais have a gag order, there’s no way you could know that the metric for class value is called ‘Class Points.’ At most, you’d know ‘something like that’ exists, just like I did.”
Mikage Touji grew more excited as he spoke.
“Speak!
Did you go and buy intel from the school?!”
“Now, now, Mikage Touji,” a rare smile appeared on Morishita Ai’s face.
“Do you know what the biggest difference between boys and girls is?”
“Don’t change the subject!
Please answer the question directly, Morishita-san!”
“I knew you were smart back on the bus.” Morishita Ai’s grudge was finally avenged. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
In a great mood, she paced around Mikage Touji with her hands behind her back.
“Even if I used the same methods as you, I’d be at your level at most.
From the start, I never planned to beat you that way.
Later, while I was eavesdropping in the cafe, I discovered something…”
A faint sense of unease bubbled up in Mikage Touji’s heart.
Morishita Ai circled back to the front of him, pulled out a voice recorder, and waved it playfully before his eyes, her voice uncontainable in its joy.
“The time girls spend in the restroom…
is longer than you boys~”
The moment he saw the recorder, Mikage Touji lost all color.
He turned into a pale stone statue.
“Hurry up and say it, Mikage Touji!
It was Morishita-sama’s victory!”
“No, wait!” Mikage Touji suddenly snapped back.
“There’s still a problem!” His gaze moved from Morishita Ai’s black tights to that face which hadn’t looked this happy since they met.
“I can write everything else off as good luck—happening to hear people mention the rules.”
“But—
How did you know the 1:100 ratio between Class Points and private points?
No matter how talkative those senpais are, they wouldn’t read out an unwritten rule that everyone knows as if it were an instruction manual.”
Conversations have to be relevant.
Intel like the behavioral exam might be slipped into small talk, but the Class Point ratio is something every upperclassman knows; there’s no reason to bring it up specifically.
“Did you buy intel from the school?
That’s cheating!
You said yourself that treasure is only interesting if you find it yourself!” Mikage Touji rose up again, exposing the plot to extinguish the Light.
“…” Morishita Ai fell silent.
“Please answer the question directly, Morishita-san.
Don’t let your eyes wander.
Don’t stand in front of me with your hands on your hips.
Keep your legs together and have a proper attitude.”
“A mere Mikage Touji…”
Morishita Ai expressed her disdain for his death-throes.
She turned her head and called toward the door:
“So, it’s fine if I say it, right?”
“Y-yes, it’s fine, as long as Morishita-san is willing,” a timid voice answered from behind the door.
‘There was a third person here?’
“You are…” Mikage Touji followed the sound.
“Yamamura-san?”
“Yes, Mikage-kun,” Yamamura Miki replied, lowering her head.
“My secret weapon for victory.” Morishita Ai circled behind Yamamura Miki, patted her shoulders with both hands, and pushed her forward.
“At the cafeteria, those senpais didn’t seem to notice her at all.
They opened their phones right in front of her, and as a result, she saw quite a few things.”
“…”
Mikage Touji’s lips trembled.
He wanted to loudly denounce this unfair behavior, but doing so would make him look like a sore loser.
‘That works too?’
He looked up at the amber ceiling in a daze.
‘Then what were the hardships I endured these past two days for?’
“Um…” Yamamura Miki walked to Mikage Touji’s side.
“Is Mikage-kun okay?”
“Leave him be.
He has fallen into hell…”
“No, wait!”
Mikage Touji still found a loophole.
“You said it yourself—treasure belongs to the first person who finds it.
The first person to find it was clearly Yamamura!”
“Did I say that?” Morishita Ai blinked.
“You change your face faster than flipping a page!”
Morishita Ai wasn’t ashamed; instead, she said with a hint of pride, “My mother told me that girls have to learn how to lie when they’re out in the world.”
“In any case…”
Their gazes met, and they spoke in unison:
“I won!
Ultraman (Kamen Rider) is fake!”