2 Creating Pleasant First Impressions

"You sure can tease," Matsushita shot back in composure. 

…For whatever reason, which he didn't know, Matsushita decided to hide her abilities. 

He didn't particularly care, though. Not at the moment.

When they stepped into the place together, Renka and Matsushita sorted out the things they wanted to buy quickly, with their respective 100,000 Yen. They were toiletries, groceries, and other small stuff that could be spotted.

Matsushita watched with interest. "You know how to cook, Kuroshio-kun?"

"The basics, yeah," Renka shrugged, looking back at her basket. "What about you?"

"Eh, isn't it obvious?"

Renka chuckled. "I guess so."

They browsed the convenience store before eventually stumbling upon something weird in one section of the store.

"Free…?" Matsushita mumbled, a confused tone in her voice.

Renka noticed it too, raising his eyebrows. 'Ah, this.' 

"Buying it for having spent 100,000 Yen doesn't sound realistic," saying so, he scoffed. "Being given 100,000 Yen is already ridiculous. I'm amazed they didn't raise any suspicions at all."

Matsushita regarded the boy with a look of cluelessness. "What makes you think so?"

Renka shook his head. "I know that not voicing any doubts at all, or at least displaying them after being given that much money is not the wise action."

He was still considering how he should engage with the school's unique system without being unnecessarily tied down, thereby limiting his enjoyment. 

He glanced to the side. Horikita, and Ayanokouji, who had been carrying on with the same business as them, seemingly interested in the topic Renka and Matsushita were discussing. Horikita soon averted her gaze, while Ayanokouji made a slight nod. '...Indeed, I should ruin the story.' That thought came to him at that time. 'I mean, it's just predictable if I didn't, right?'

Renka quickly walked to him, sending him a friendly gesture. "Yo, Ayanokouji."

Matsushita followed suit while wordlessly waving her hand.

"Kuroshio… You remember my name?" Ayanokouji's monotone tone was slightly surprised.

"Of course," Renka laughed. "I have a decent memory— actually, no. It's downright horrible. But your introduction was memorable…! How could I forget that?!"

"...Right," Ayanokouji shifted his gaze.

'...Sorry, mate. Not that I thought you were actually hurt by that.'

Renka was indeed poor at remembering names and even faces. Since the man in front of him was the main character in this world, he naturally knew a lot about him, though not all. 

With the fact that he had a terrible memory for names or faces, it would be strange for him to be familiar with him for no apparent reason. Fortunately, his same poor introduction can be used as enough of an excuse.

"She's your seatmate, isn't she?" Matsushita shot Horikita a questioning look.

"Yes," Ayanokouji replied curtly, quietly resuming his shopping.

Horikita didn't respond to Matsushita and continued to pick up her groceries. She did give Renka a slightly curious look. 

"Can you explain more about the free purchase matter?"

Renka raised his eyebrows in surprise. 'Huh…'

All of his assuming of her were never great. Truth be told, it was so bad that the thought of her being polite is straight out impossible. 'Guess I'm reading too much bashing fanfics…'

Nevertheless, he willingly answered, sighing. "It's unthinkable for someone spending all of the 100,000 Yen given 'every month'. That means the school doesn't need to bother giving free products to its students. Also, the school only gives the products per month, aren't they? Points are given at the beginning of each month. I was naturally thinking— if that's the case— there could be something that causes the students' points to decrease, enough that they're forced to buy free products each month."

Renka paused for a moment. "Since it was forced, it seems like the school intentionally hid how it happened, for whatever reason. After all, who would buy an obviously low-quality product on purpose? A minority would probably do that, but the majority would choose the standard ones, at least."

Looking at the three of them, Matsushita and Horikita both stunned in silence. Ayanokouji still wore that poker face of his. '...and my intrusive thoughts tell me to rip that expression off of his face.' 

"Why... Why would they do something like that?" asked Horikita, lowering her gaze slightly with a frown.

Renka laughed dryly. "I don't know. Considering this school is the 'best' in Japan, though, it's not surprising for their teaching methods to be different from the average school. We just don't know what yet."

Matsushita hung her head. Something about her expression said that she knew something.

"—wait a second, damn it!"

Renka spotted an angry redheaded man at the cash register. He always remembered him for his disapproving act of self-introduction in class.

"What's wrong...?" Matsushita also seemed distracted.

"I'll try to investigate," Ayanokouji went over to him without seeking approval.

The three of them watched Ayanokouji facing the trouble, which was simply Sudou forgetting to bring his phone to purchase a ramen.

The students were obliged to stay within the school, with very limited outside contact, so the school had come up with a unique system where payment was by points. 1 point was equal to 1 yen, and the students had been given 100,000 points in their phones, given by the school as well. It seemed that Sudou still wasn't used to using them, leading to the accident in front of them.

"...You sure were calm, Ayanokouji-kun."

"It wasn't anything special."

Matsushita and Ayanokouji's exchanges after that were cut short.

The redhead Sudou took a seat on a bench several meters away from the convenience store, waving his hand to Ayanokouji as soon as they walked out of the building. While the boy in question waved back, Renka arched his eyebrows. 'How exactly did he get into trouble with the upperclassmen?' He recalled them having a little bit of conflict with the redhead and leaving something resembling a clue regarding the school's unusual system. The problem was that he didn't know in detail how the situation before that arrived. 

"I'll be parting ways," Matsushita announced, and started to walk away.

Renka quickly put a stop to her attempt. "Matsushita, will you accompany me to the cafeteria when lunchtime comes?"

"Eh?" Matsushita halted, turning towards him with a surprised expression. "Um, sure. What for, though?"

Ignoring the fact that she didn't instantly think it was merely for lunch, Renka grinned. "You'll like it. It's a little bit connected to the school's mysterious system... Or whatever you want to call it."

"What do you wish to know?"

That was Horikita asking him. Ayanokouji glanced at her for a second, shrugged, and left for Sudou. "I'll be leaving ahead."

Renka shrugged at Horikita's question. "It's nothing special, like I said. I just wanted to check the price of the menu."

Horikita narrowed her eyes. "You're suspecting that there was also a free purchase in that place?"

"Yep. If my theory is correct, it should cover that as well."

Matsushita considered. "...That would make sense. Why not just do it now?"

"It won't be worth the time," Renka sighed. "Initially, I intend to ask a number of people from second or third years who might buy it, but considering it's only the beginning of the month, I doubt anyone will be buying them. Besides, it's possible that the second and third year class system is different from the first year, and even if it's the same, the school must have taken certain precautions."

Matsushita arched his eyebrows. "Does that mean you just want to eat with me?"

"Well, that's awfully confident of you."

Her cheeks turned red. "S-Shut up."

Renka simply grinned.

Horikita dug something out of her bag, pulling out a phone. "Kuroshio-kun, can you inform me of anything further you find out about this school system? You can message them via phone."

Still smiling, Renka hide his surprise and answered her with full of positivity. "Of course. I'll inform you of every important matter I learn without passing by."

They quickly exchanged contacts. 

When it's over, it happened.

"'First-year punk,' huh? You tryin' to make fun of me, huh?!"

Renka perked up, spotting Ayanokouji and Sudou facing three other students, all of them carrying the same purchase as Sudou.

He immediately held up his phone, ready to record them at any time. 'Hehe, the old fashion way.'

"You're awfully mouthy, considering we're second-year students. We already put our bags here, see?"

Renka pressed the record button as soon as they finished saying that.

"You got a lot of guts, asshole."

Sudou didn't back down.

"Oh, wow, scary. What class are you in? Wait, never mind. I think I know. You're in Class D, aren't you?"

"Yeah, so what?" Sudou snapped.

The upperclassmen students exchanged glances and burst into laughter.

"You heard that? He's in Class D! I knew it! It was a dead giveaway!"

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean? Hey!"

As Sudou barked at them, the boys grinned and stepped backwards.

"Aw, you poor things. Since you're 'defective,' we'll let you off the hook, just for today. Let's get going, guys."

"Hey, don't run away! Hey!" Sudou shouted.

"Yeah, yeah, keep on yapping. You guys'll be in hell soon enough anyway."

Matsushita widened her eyes.

Renka turned off the recording without their knowledge.

"You realize anything, Matsushita?"

She flinched.

Horikita didn't seem to understand anything. "What are you saying? That boy just has a petty temper, isn't he?"

He chuckled. "You're right, funnily enough, but that's not what I meant."

Sudou walked away from the scene with a curse, not caring about the spilled instant ramen on the bench. Ayanokouji glanced at the convenience store wall, sighed, and proceeded to clean up Sudou's mess. No one paid him any attention.

Renka continued. "...What I mean is, they seem to be saying that being a Class D student is a bad thing."

***

Leaving the clearly confused Horikita and Matsushita, Renka sat on a bench overlooking the ocean, tossing his cell phone in the air, caught it, and repeated the gesture over and over again.

'What should I do with this recording?'

As much as Renka wanted to bully those upperclassmen right now, he knew that it would be more trouble than joy, especially if he didn't put much thought into it and the end result would be a disaster.

He also had to think about the effect his actions would have on Class D. While he didn't care for them, it had the possibility of destroying his comfort for the future. That contradicted his purpose of having fun in this school.

Renka tilted his head. 'I might have to face Chabashira-sensei tomorrow, or right now, alone.' With little or no effort, he could not only cause the seniors to suffer, but also possibly attract the attention of someone interesting in the second year. Renka grinned. 'He also has Asahina-senpai, right? I want to get her.'

"...Oh? Someone got my regular seat, I see."

Renka shifted his attention.

A woman with long silver hair was grinning not far from his seat. '...Kiryuin Fuka?'

Renka smiled. "Regular seat? Then you must be a senpai. Should I offer it to you?"

"That won't be necessary," she waved her hand, taking the seat right beside him instead. "You're a first year, aren't you? What are you doing in a place like this?"

He said nothing for a few moments.

"...I was just thinking about the school's system."

Kiryuin seemed a little interested. "What's your name? And what class?"

Renka smiled awkwardly. "Kuroshio Renka. Unfortunately, I'm from Class D."

Kiryuin grinned mischievously. "Unfortunately, indeed. You know 'that'."

Renka shrugged. "While I know there's a thing that allows student points to decrease every month, that Class D is the worst possible case, I don't know what the thing is that causes the points to decrease, or how exactly Class D can be the worst."

"The fact that you know it is already impressive," Kiryuin denied his humble attempt. "The first day isn't over yet. I'm personally confused on how you could know all that, in fact."

Renka chuckled. "You could say I got a little bit of help... What's your name, by the way? And class too."

Kiryuin showcased her white teeth. "What? Are you trying to hook up with me?"

"Knowing a senpai as attractive as you is an honor. I would naturally like to get to know you better." Renka did not falter.