Chapter 1: A Thousand Autumns Below the Pine Tree

Waking up to find himself sitting behind a head of long, braided, black hair, Yukio Kobayashi rubbed his tired eyes and decided to look around.

"Did the commotion wake you up?"

Zeroing in on the source of the voice, the 15-year-old teenager looked to his left to find a cute, chestnut-brown-haired girl sitting beside him on the bus.

Feeling as though he recognised the blue-eyed face from somewhere, Yukio looked around to get a sense of his surroundings.

At the front of what appeared to be a regular bus, filled with red blazers, stood an angelic girl and an old lady. The pair appeared to be confronting a laid-back, yet confident, teenager, who was also adorned in a red blazer and green pants, with his nose held up high and eyes shut.

'Ah! So that's where I am.'

Yukio's eyes widened in recognition as thousands of words and dozens of scenes crossed his mind.

'Kikyou Kushida and Rokosuke Kouenji, huh. So the girl beside me is probably… Chiaki Matsushita.'

Noticing Yukio's surprise when looking at the attractive, beige-haired girl, and confusing it for something else, the girl sitting beside Yukio couldn't help but ask.

"Like what you see, mister? So much so that you didn't bother replying to me?"

Yukio abruptly turned back to the teenage girl beside, realising in his daze he had forgotten to reply, hastily formulated an adequate response.

"Hm, oh no. I just thought I recognised the girl from somewhere."

Yukio took a moment to study the girl beside him and wondered how much better Chiaki looked in person. The anime adaptation did not do her justice, though the light novels did come close.

In fact, he had noticed that every girl (and he had to begrudgingly admit, every guy as well) looked better compared to the anime counterpart. Though that did raise an important question-

'Who is… Yukio Kobayashi? And how is he… how am I, apparently, related to the classroom of the elite?'

Contemplating thoughts reminiscent of an individual with an identity crisis, Yukio looked down at himself, observing the same green pants and red blazer as the other students on the bus.

'So it seems I'm a student at that school, huh? And a 1st year to boot, given the fact that they would never let anyone out unsupervised.'

Putting thoughts on his identity aside, Yukio figured it would be best to continue his conversation with the girl beside him, so as not to seem any ruder than he already did.

Trying to put on his best smile, though which came out lop-sided, Yukio stuck out his hand in greeting.

"Hi… sorry for spacing out on you. Waking up from naps leaves me… dazed. I'm Yukio Kobayashi by the way. It's nice to meet you."

Yukio brought his left hand to the back of his head and rubbed it in mock apology, while nervously chuckling. He didn't want the first person he had met in this anime world to have a bad impression of him.

Chiaki looked intently at him for a long moment, before covering her mouth and giggling.

"That was a great way to defuse the tense atmosphere, Kobayashi-Kun. I feel a lot lighter already! I'm Chiaki Matsushita. I hope we can get along."

Yukio's outstretched hand was finally completed with the addition of a dainty and smooth hand. Looking towards the bonded hands, he noticed that his hand looked similar to how it did in his past life- as large and firm to complement his 5'11 frame.

"So Matsushita-san… what are they arguing about exactly?"

Yukio was aware of the iconic first scene where Kushida implored an individual to give up their seat for an old lady, but he had to maintain a front of ignorance since he had just woken up.

Also, it was a great way to continue the conversation with the girl beside him, and provide the chance to establish friendly relations- it didn't hurt that she was a beauty that gave off a cool vibe.

Chiaki turned back to the scene at the fore-end of the bus, before replying.

"It seems the girl was arguing for the priority seat to be handed over to the frail lady, but she's clashed with an… interesting personality, to say the least."

The black-haired girl with braids in front of Yukio snorted but kept to herself, as Yukio examined the side profile of Chiaki Matsushita.

Unfortunately, her bangs were swept to the right blocking the view of her eyes, but Yukio was still able to appreciate the girl he had only read about in light novels and watched in an anime.

"I probably would have given up my seat if we weren't all the way back here and I wasn't sitting beside the window." She looked back towards him and remarked, with all the traits of someone maintaining the persona of a background character.

Chiaki Matsushita was a pretty smart girl, but she kept her smarts to herself, to avoid standing out in the first year at least. The confrontation with Ayanokouji late in the first year was one of the first glimpses into the enigma that was this girl- who played with her friends aloof and received decent scores in the exams.

Now that he thought about it, it was a pretty clever attitude to have at the school that was Advanced Nurturing High. Standing out would mean more responsibilities and more pressure- especially from instances of expulsion and being schemed against by other classes.

It was an attitude he aimed to emulate, though he, for sure, would take advantage of the knowledge of the future he had. No one would waste such an opportunity to live a decent 3 years enjoying themselves and coasting through exams. Though, it's all about remaining in the background as much as possible. Once he was brought to the foreground once, problems would keep coming and coming at this troublesome institution.

On the topic of exams, Yukio noted that he was able to read the Japanese adverts on the bus. Something that would have been impossible in his last life given the fact that he was brought up in the west. This raised the question about the intricacies of what had happened to him- though it was something he was not yet ready to explore, especially when he had a conversation to continue with a character incarnate beside him.

"I'm sure someone will eventually give up their seat anyway. On that note, why did you take the bus today?"

Yukio's question was pretty direct, but he wasn't exactly accustomed to speaking to girls, being bred in an all-boys school for the past 7 years.

Chiaki, crossing her arms and with a glare of mock offence, asked back-

"And why can't I take the bus to school, Kobayashi-san? You don't like my presence?"

"No, no! That came off a bit direct. I meant to say… well, I was just curious, I guess." Yukio mentally punched himself in the face for being an idiot. It wouldn't do him any good to ruin his first relationship with someone in the school over bad word choice.

A stray thought flitted across his mind, which caused him to smile on the contrary, however. He could imagine if things did not go too well, he could cover his eyes with his bangs and turn the anime into an H. Though the thought was quickly replaced with scenes of the devious nature of the students at this particular school, and consequently, thoroughly expelled from his mind.

Not one to let others suffer, Chiaki eased his worries by giggling once again at Yukio's expense. She placed a finger on her chin and replied as though in thought-

"Hm… I guess I wanted to get a feel of the atmosphere before joining the school, I guess. You know, to get in the right mood."

Chiaki Matsushita was someone who maintained a normal facade in the first year, but Yukio knew she was hiding a shrewd side to herself. Additionally, she was of a wealthy upbringing, and while the reason she gave could definitely be viable, Yukio could place money on the fact that she had other reasons for wanting to take the bus to her new high school.

Not that it mattered much anyway, since the bus ride was less than an hour from the school.

"I understand. I would've said the same, but falling asleep on a bus to my new school doesn't seem to be… the most appropriate thing to do."

He rubbed the back of his head again while grinning this time, while Chiaki chuckled.

By this point, the problem at the front of the bus had settled, and silence had come over the passengers of the bus once again.

Understanding that Chiaki would probably want to keep the status quo and remain in the background, Yukio decided to cut the conversation early, leaving the enigma beside him with hopefully a good impression of himself.

"Well, Matsushita-san. I hope we meet again at the school once everything settled down. I hope I haven't left too bad of an impression."

"It was nice to meet you too, Kobayashi-Kun. Maybe we'll be sorted in the same class, who knows."

Chiaki then looked outside the windows to her left, while Yukio faced forward, accidentally meeting the eyes of the two-faced, Kushida Kikyou, who smiled cheerfully at him. He tried to send back a cheerful smile, but another of his lopsided creations was presented. He looked away in embarrassment after that.

He had to admit if he wasn't surrounded by all the beautiful people around him, desensitising him somewhat to her cute face, and had he not known about her devious nature, he'd jump like a moth to a flame into her clutches in his past life. I guess it was lucky that he had knowledge of the next 3 years of the Classroom of the Elite.

— — —

Chiaki looked in the glass, and stared at the reflection of everyone on the bus, before focusing on the reflection of the boy beside her.

'He's pretty cute, though quite awkward. It's a shame though. He doesn't seem to be the brightest pee in the pod. At least he had some tact to end the conversation when he did. Hypothetically, he could make quite a good smokescreen… maybe. Well, I wonder how we'll be sorted into classes. I guess we can think on that train of thought later.'

And with those thoughts, and the collective excitement and tension in the air from the to-be first-year Advanced Nurturing High students, the bus arrived at the gates to the treacherous school.