Vol. 1 Chapter 1.2 – Toyoashihara Chiihoaki Mizuho Academy

“Next, Funasaka Touma. Come in.”

When the call came from beyond the door, the male student who had been idly looking out the window stood up.

The courtyard, where the leaves and colors had begun to fall away, looked terribly cold.

On the chairs lined up along the window side of the hallway sat students waiting for their turns in the same way, along with the parents accompanying them.

One of the several important crossroads in life, a three-party interview that would serve as a guide for entering high school, was being held.

“Excuse me.”

Among the students being called in order according to the roster, he alone opened the door by himself and bowed to the homeroom teacher waiting inside.

The homeroom teacher, seated between file wagons packed with documents, lifted his face from the papers on the desk and let out a sigh.

“……No, sorry about this. It’s not your fault. Well, sit down.”

“……My apologies.”

There were two desks placed side by side in front of the homeroom teacher, and two chairs placed side by side. He sat alone in one of them.

It was not a three-party interview but a two-party interview.

“I tried calling a few times to confirm too, you know. Ah, you can relax. I’m not blaming you or anything.”

Touma managed to put on a troubled smile.

The homeroom teacher, who was always considerate of him in various ways, was someone Touma regarded as a trustworthy ally.

“My mother is unreachable. As for where she is or what she’s doing now……”

“What about your father? Has he still not come home?”

“Since I received the notice for the three-party interview……It isn’t unusual for him not to come home for several months.”

The homeroom teacher held back a sigh and only replied,『I see.』

Domestic discord, something that was not especially rare these days.

In a relationship where he was merely one of the students under his care, the teacher could not interfere much more than that.

At most, he could only offer considerate words like, 『Come talk to me if you’re having trouble with anything.』

They both understood that even if Touma actually did consult him, it was not as if the teacher could really do anything.

“For now, you’re planning to continue your education, right? No matter what path you take, it’s better to at least graduate from high school. There’s no doubt about that.”

“Yes. My father also told me to do whatever I want. But we don’t have much leeway, so public school would be preferable.”

It was a little awkward for a student and teacher to discuss financial burdens directly.

But it was an important issue.

The homeroom teacher nodded silently and lowered his gaze to the student profile spread out on the desk.

As long as he did not aim too high, he had the academic ability to target several public high schools.

In terms of his school record, he was somewhat of a problem child, but that was the result of guidance deliberately given by the homeroom teacher himself.

Leaving aside when he had first enrolled, now that he was in his third year, he looked like an ordinary student.

However, the teacher raised his face and looked at the student again.

He could not peer into what lay inside him.

Most likely, he would not be able to proceed down a proper path, one where he could lead an ordinary social life.

In both good and bad ways, he was the type who did not fit the word『ordinary』.

Even so, he was still one of his students and he certainly possessed the kind of earnest passion befitting a young person.

As a homeroom teacher, he could not help but feel sorry for the fact that Touma’s efforts were directed toward suppressing himself just so he could get through each day without incident.

It would be all right for him to be a little more positive.

At the very least, he wanted him to live with some kind of goal.

As a teacher, the role of guiding students was both his motivation and his starting point.

That was why, suddenly, he remembered a single application form he had never shown to anyone nor had he intended to recommend it to anyone.

“Hey, Funasaka. Through a personal connection of mine, there’s a recommendation slot for a slightly unusual school that doesn’t publicly recruit general applicants.”

＊　＊　＊

『Toyoashihara Academy』 stood at the foot of the Tateyama Mountain Range, nestled within untouched nature.

Having left his hometown alone, transferred between local train lines and finally arrived at the station, he stood there in a daze.

General applications for admission were not accepted, and everything was by recommendation only.

In one sense, it was an incredibly narrow gate, yet he had cleared it so easily it felt anticlimactic.

He had even put a bit of effort into studying for the entrance exam, but there had been no entrance examination at all, only document screening.

However, it seemed the school’s medical certificate could not be used, so it had been troublesome when he was made to go all the way to a hospital for a health checkup.

There were enough advantages to choosing this school outside the prefecture, one recommended by his homeroom teacher, and a fully boarding school at that.

First, there was no need to worry about tuition fees.

It was not a public school but a national high school, yet apparently the tuition was even cheaper.

As for the restriction of being fully boarding, for someone from outside the prefecture like him, it was a godsend.

When he asked his teacher about the school’s academic deviation level, he only received vague answers.

Even when he looked it up online himself, not even the school’s name came up.

He wondered if it was a newly established school that had only just been built but apparently it was also his homeroom teacher’s alma mater.

He regretted it a little, but by that time, the procedures had already gone ahead and the enrollment guidebook had arrived.

He was not especially bad at studying but if the level was too high, he thought it would be hard to keep up.

However, among the essentials of food, clothing and shelter, the fact that he would not have to struggle with food and shelter was appealing.

The living expenses his father deposited into his account were not the amount of a child’s allowance and ever since he became a middle schooler, he had never had trouble with food, clothing or shelter.

It was just that he had to prepare his meals, buy his clothes and handle the housework all by himself.

Because he had always thought that was natural and ordinary, he had probably never felt that it was painful or lonely.

When he realized that the everyday life he had accepted as just the way things were might actually be a little different, he somehow found himself thinking that he did not want to stay here.

That was why being a fully boarding school was a positive factor, and his sense of excitement was stronger.

His classmates seemed to think he was independent, but in reality, that was all there was to it.

Besides, his homeroom teacher had guaranteed that Toyoashihara Academy was a school with tradition.

He did think it sounded suspicious, but since his teacher had been able to advance into a university education program, it must have been a respectable educational institution.

His homeroom teacher had worn a slightly complicated expression but he had also said that both the advancement rate and employment rate were nearly one hundred percent.

But still, it was suspicious after all.

『You might be surprised at first, but well, you should be fine.』

He recalled that half-hearted encouragement.

When he exited 『Nakano Station』, a station name that sounded like it could exist here and there all over Japan, a shopping street spread out in front of the station.

Even when he asked the only stationmaster there for directions, the man merely smiled and shook his head.

There had been no other passengers besides him on the empty train but the stationmaster had probably been asked the same question by many incoming students before.

Once he passed through the station entrance, he could see the main gate of Toyoashihara Academy at the end of the shopping street.

It was a school so vast that it blended into the surrounding greenery, so large that he could not see the whole facility.

He had imagined a small, rundown school building in the countryside, so he was surprised.

The building, which clearly carried a sense of history, was perhaps what one would call Taisho Roman architectural style.

Rather than a school, it looked like a hotel. Rather than a hotel, it looked like an inn. Rather than an inn, it was a historical building one might expect to find at a traditional restaurant.

He could certainly understand why the stationmaster had smiled as if there was no need to answer.

What surprised him even more was the lineup of stores between the station and the school, whether it should be called the station-front shopping street or the student street shopping district.

There was a nationwide clothing chain store, a stylish boutique, a family restaurant like the one back in his hometown, a restaurant that looked privately owned, a coffee shop, a convenience store, a bookstore and a drugstore.

There was no place nearby that looked like a residential area, only the academy and the shopping street.

He found himself worrying whether they could actually make a profit by targeting only students.

And mixed naturally among the familiar stores were a blacksmith and an antique shop.

He had never seen a blacksmith before, but hearing the sound of something hard being struck from inside the shop and seeing smoke rising from the chimney left no room for doubt.

Was that faint smell pricking the back of his nose the scent of burning iron?

In the show windows of several stores, things like full-body plate armor and two-handed swords were displayed.

Could this possibly be what they called a cosplay shop?

His somewhat muscular homeroom teacher came to mind.

He had never dreamed that his teacher might be a cosplayer.

Surely one of the school’s seven mysteries, the cross-dressed macho man who danced at midnight, had been his homeroom teacher.

『A slightly unusual school』

『I see』, what an extremely meaningful metaphor.

It made sense that the name did not show up in internet searches.

Beauty lies in secrecy, an underground place where like-minded minority enthusiasts gathered.

A school where cosplayers gathered, and a national one at that.

Perhaps it would be better to use the softer expression of a theater-related school.

『You might be surprised at first.』He was certainly surprised by this.

『You should be fine.』In other words, his teacher had seen him as one of their kind.

Even if he yielded a hundred steps, it would be a lie to say he had absolutely no interest.

With a fresh start, he would try thinking positively about everything.

Looking more closely, in addition to Western-style full plate mail, there were also Japanese-style armor and helmets like the ones that appeared in historical dramas.

It seemed the blacksmiths were divided into Western-style and Japanese-style shops.

Two-handed swords, bastard swords, halberds, battle-axes, spiky iron balls.

Greatswords, short swords, naginata, and cross-shaped spears.

I think most boys would agree, but just seeing weapons makes you feel unreasonably excited.

On the way home from school after the rain, holding an umbrella and shouting,『Zero Styleee!』or something like that, was surely something everyone had done before.

Touma thinks he  ruined about ten umbrellas that way.

Readjusting the shoulder bag on his shoulder, he took a step toward the academy as if trying to avert his eyes from his steadily sinking excitement.

＊　＊　＊

At Toyoashihara Academy’s Third Boys’ Dormitory, commonly known as 『Black Cormorant Dorm』, things were somewhat noisy with the procedures for welcoming new students.

For new dorm residents, it was customary to send bulky luggage ahead by delivery service.

Within the campus, where outsiders were forbidden from entering, the task of carrying luggage fell to the senior dorm students.

Upperclassmen carrying heavy cardboard boxes that clearly seemed to contain manga magazines were clicking their tongues as they checked names and rooms, while also making arrangements to confiscate them at a later date.

The modern three-story wooden building was repaired as needed but it was an older-generation structure.

However, due in part to the circumstances of the facility it had originally been repurposed from, the building itself was sturdy enough to have survived numerous earthquakes in the past.

The Western-style lamps hanging from the hallway ceiling were antiques, but their light sources had been replaced with LEDs.

There were no elevators, and the floors creaked when one walked down the hallway.

Naturally, the rooms assigned to new students were on the top floor, the third floor.

Once the thick wooden doors lined up at even intervals were opened, they led into the private areas of the dorm residents.

Inside the fairly spacious rooms, two beds and two desks had been set up.

The rooms assigned to new students were, as a rule, shared rooms.

Once students became second-years, those with top grades could move into single rooms, and they could also use rooms on the first floor.

The rules differed slightly depending on the dorm, but basically, meritocracy held sway.

As part of the academy’s culture, strength was valued above all else.

Even the academy side, which held a position of management, actively encouraged meritocracy.

Since the school’s founding, the student dormitory system has been one of self-governing dormitories operated by the dorm residents themselves.

Located on the academy grounds where it was easy for watchful eyes to reach, the dorms were treated as places of learning that fostered group behavior and independence.

Inside one such room in Black Cormorant Dorm, a new dorm resident was fiddling with a tablet.

Sitting at one of the mahogany-like desks lined up by the window, he let out a resigned sigh.

As if the timing had been carefully chosen, the sound of a knock echoed from the door.

“I’m in hereee…… Wait, this ain’t the toilet.”

The door opened easily and he followed up with a self-retort.

“That’s where you’re supposed to jump in with,『That’s not right!』Come on, smooth communication needs a proper setup and retort, you know?”

“That is difficult for me.”

Touma answered seriously, with a serious expression.

『That does the most damage』said Seiichi, who had become his roommate, his smile twitching.

His first impression of Touma was that he was the serious, hardheaded type who did not understand jokes.

“However, if that is what ordinary communication requires, then I have no objection.”

“No, no, what period drama did you crawl out of, you samurai?”

To begin with, Touma was the quiet type and he had no experience with casual conversation between friends.

No, before that, he had no friends.

He himself understood that he was bad at speaking, and precisely because he understood that, he braced himself so he would absolutely not make a mistake.

Taking internet information about the tricks of conversation at face value, he straightened his posture and looked directly into the other person’s eyes, glaring.

It was not as if he was an introverted type, so exchanging conversation was fun. It was so fun that his excitement rose, and to avoid being rude, he lowered his tone of voice and erased his expression.

Because he believed that speaking casually would be rude when they were not yet close, his way of talking became strangely stiff.

Touma’s way of handling people was clearly wrong, so most people ended up frightened.

If his roommate Seiichi had not been the sociable type, it would have been at the level where he would have requested a room change on the very first day.

“Pretty nice, right? This is the newest version from Apple. But man, it really doesn’t connect after all.”

Seiichi threw the tablet in his hand onto the bed.

“I mean, what kind of countryside is this where you can’t even use a cellphone?”

“Yeah, it’s inconvenient.”

Touma, who had never owned a cellphone, much less a smartphone, lied with a straight face.

But in reality, the thing that shocked new students the most was being cut off from various communication networks.

They belonged to a generation for whom being connected to the network through mobile devices no matter where they were was a matter of course.

The dorms did have installed public telephones, and though restricted, wired internet access was possible as well.

It was not as though they were completely cut off from information from the outside world.

“There is a LAN port for internet connection next to the power outlet on the desk.”

“It’s filtered by the academy, so you can barely connect to anything. BBS is out and even searches for swimsuits don’t show up.”

“In other words, you want material for masturbation.”

“……No, come on, let’s dress that up a little more.”

Touma sat down on his own bed, looked up at the ceiling and then slowly opened his mouth.

“It isn’t that I have no understanding of masturbation. If you tell me beforehand, I will casually leave the room.”

“……Yeah. We’ll work out that kind of thing as we go.”

“Yeah.”

When Seiichi, who had a complicated look on his face, fell silent, the conversation stopped.

The air in the room grew tense under the pressure Touma gave off as he agonized,『A topic, I need a topic!』

Touma himself was desperate but because he was panicking, no words came out and his face remained expressionless.

“……Ah, fine, fine. Don’t get so murderous. I didn’t think you’d notice on the first day but I won’t make any moves from my side.”

Seiichi casually retrieved the live camera he had set up on the desk and exaggeratedly shrugged his shoulders.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. If you don’t say anything, Touma, then I won’t say anything either. Let’s both keep things vague and get along.”

At Seiichi’s wry smile as he raised both hands in a pose of surrender, Touma returned a smile of complete satisfaction.

At least, that was what he intended.

Honestly, he thought that his student dorm life, which had made him anxious and uneasy, had gotten off to a smooth start.

In particular, his roommate Seiichi was a very good guy.

They called each other by their given names rather than their surnames, so could they not already be called friends, no, even best friends?

Or rather, this academy apparently had a strange local rule, and as a rule, students were not supposed to introduce themselves by surname.

This was apparently part of the academy’s educational philosophy, meant to encourage independence as individuals without being bound by birth or status within the school.

The pamphlet had included a warning that it was dangerous for one’s true name to be known, but that made no sense.

If one thought of it as a way to naturally create a sense of closeness, it could also be called a wonderful rule.

This must be the difference from middle school, the way adults interact.

With his excitement still high, he woke before dawn and ended up staring for nearly an hour at Seiichi, who was asleep in the bed next to his.

Seiichi had been groaning in distress and sweating buckets, but should Touma have woken him up?

It seemed Seiichi had a bit of an issue with his tastes, but Touma was not so loose-lipped that he would spread his best friend’s secret around.

Touma was surprised to learn he was a hidden-camera maniac.

Though he could not imagine there being any point in secretly filming him.

No, to begin with, could secretly filming oneself even be called hidden-camera filming?

He must not discriminate against his best friend with prejudice. Let him try to imagine how a masturbator with a habit of secretly filming selfies feels.

Most likely, that guy was a Y◯Tuber.

A livestream titled something like 『Self-Generated Power in the Boys’ Dorm chu☆ Hidden-Camera Situation』.

Viewers would be glued to the screen by his bold shake hand, his sanity-doubting selection of wildly varied material, and his skilled techniques using all sorts of tools that had gone far beyond common sense.

Though Touma doubted he would get many views.

He does feel like he might attract a few hardcore believers, though.

He decided that, as his roommate, he would not get in his way and would watch over him with lukewarm eyes.

In that way, while steadily getting used to dorm life, Touma academy life finally began.

Dressed in his brand-new uniforms, he made his way to the entrance ceremony.

Apparently, most of Toyoashihara Academy’s school buildings were renovated structures originally built during the Taisho era.

The red-brick exterior had a nostalgic feel, resembling the Tokyo Station building.

The entrance ceremony held in the gymnasium was, more than anything else, marked by the principal’s very long speech.

In his greeting, he repeatedly said things like carrying the nation and being aware of our mission, giving off a rather right-leaning impression.

What he really wanted to say, he supposed, was that cosplay, no, the uniquely Japanese subculture behind it, was something they could proudly show to the world.

The class assignments had been announced in advance, so we moved smoothly to our classrooms.

As for the ratio of boys to girls, it felt like there were slightly more boys.

He carefully looked around at the students who would become his classmates from now on.

“Yo, Touma. You already look pissed off. Looking for someone to choke out?”

The Y◯Tuber who was in the same class as him threw out some incomprehensible joke.

So this was a setup.

It was probably an invitation for him to make a retort.

With Touma’s elbow bent at a ninety-degree angle and his wrist snapping sharply, he launched a horizontal chop into Seiichi’s chest.

“……That’s not right.”

“Geh, kah…… S-sorry, it was just a little joke.”

Seiichi, coughing on one knee, had tears in his eyes.

『I see』. His reaction was incredibly realistic.

It was so wonderful that the classroom, which had been lively with idle chatter, fell completely silent as if the air had frozen over.

Apparently, those moments when everyone suddenly falls silent are described in a fairy-tale-like way as an angel or fairy passing through.

“Go a little easier with your retorts. Are you training after all?”

“Yeah. I’m the indoor type.”

Touma had collected all kinds of trivia.

Until now, he had never had the timing to use it but during his lonely hours, he had trained himself so he could respond to all sorts of topics.

British wit jokes, ancient martial arts learned online, things like that. He was probably a master in any class.

He had staged stylish conversations in front of the mirror and practiced things like no-beat striking and knee-release in his room but it had taken him years to understand them.

Touma really did think he was clumsy.

The kinds of things everyone else could do naturally were things he had to practice desperately before he could acquire them.

That, too, was a kind of natural disposition.

In life, you can only play with the cards you are dealt. Those were the famous words of the beagle dog he revered as his life teacher.

“Well, I guess that’s how you want to put it. But apparently, things here are different from outside in all kinds of ways, so you’d better be careful.”

“Got it. I’ll be careful.”

In the end, with the atmosphere in the classroom still somewhat awkward, the sound of the clock tower bell announcing first period rang out.

＊　＊　＊

Our class was First Year, Hinoe Class. Hinoe¹

Not Hei Class, but Hinoe Class.Hei²

There were, astonishingly, twenty-four classes of new students.

If each class had forty students, then the one year group alone had about a thousand people, so I thought it was a massive school.

However, apparently the number of classes decreased as the years went up.

Touma grew worried that perhaps the dropout rate was high for a high school but to begin with, Toyoashihara Academy was not a high school. It was a college of technology.

Honestly, he had not even known such a thing as a college of technology existed until the teacher explained it to him.

Apparently they were famous for things like robot contests but this academy did not seem to enter those.

The biggest difference between high school and a college of technology was that the number of years of study became five.

In exchange, in addition to the general subjects studied at an ordinary high school, specialized subjects were added.

The image was something like high school plus vocational school.

Because there were many things to learn, studying there was stricter than at an ordinary high school and apparently the dropout rate was also high.

In return, if one could graduate, there would be no trouble finding employment or advancing to higher education, and most things were apparently settled through recommendations.

The problem was the contents of those specialized subjects.

Surely it was not something like mastering the way of cosplay.

Naturally, he had confirmed it with his middle school homeroom teacher too but the answer that came back was,『Any wish you like will be granted』.

Apparently, once he graduated safely, the academy would prepare the arrangements for whatever path he wanted to take.

The specialized subjects were supposedly trials for that purpose.

『So, do your best』he had said.

Touma had realized that he had dodged the answer to his question but I did not ask anything further.

Since he had nothing in particular he wanted to do and no vision for the future, this was the result of simply going with what he was recommended.

He had thought that he had seen through that part of him and recommended this school because it would leave various possibilities open.

But now, listening to the orientation guidance about the class content like this, he was filled with the feeling of wondering whether he had done something to earn his teacher’s grudge.

For now, he understood the general subjects like Japanese, geography and history, mathematics and foreign languages.

These were grouped together on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Touma did not understand the meaning of the『specialized subjects』assigned to the remaining Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Physical enhancement training, survival basics, introduction to labyrinths, cartography, exploration techniques, martial arts and various weapon combat techniques.

Swordsmanship, spearmanship, staff techniques, shield techniques and the like were taught in an elective lecture format.

Apparently, new students were first to receive a full round of basic training, then choose weapons suited to their own aptitude, except for those with prior experience.

He raised his face from the explanatory materials handed out to every classmate and moved only his eyes as he scanned the classroom.

No one was laughing.

Was this not supposed to be a desperate joke from the teacher?

No, they must have planted something in his materials specifically, then waited to see what kind of reaction he would give.

The homeroom teacher of First Year Hinoe Class was a young female teacher who looked as though she had just graduated from university.

With her hair tied tightly up and stylish glasses on, the teacher wore a serious expression.

Her face, more beautiful than cute, gradually began to look as if she was growing anxious because no reaction was coming back.

He wondered whether he should laugh.

He felt like his eyes met the teacher’s but for the time being, he put that on hold and lowered his gaze back to the pamphlet.

＊　＊　＊

The chime announcing the hour echoed throughout the campus.

The sound of a real bell, not a recorded playback, changed its tone depending on that day’s weather.

“Phew……”

Touma, who had been giving off a tense, intimidating pressure, let out a small breath and leaned back against his chair.

Seiichi felt sorry not only for himself but also for the classmates seated around Touma who remained looking down uncomfortably.

He felt like it could not be helped.

For Touma, this academy had probably been a place he had been sent into as enemy territory.

If he was too obvious about it, he would quickly become a target for purge, and Seiichi himself might no longer be able to fulfill his role, so he had given him a warning, but apparently it did not seem to have had much effect.

At the very least, he hoped Touma would not cause any trouble until the organization backing him could be confirmed.

Without warning, expressionless Touma made a beeline toward Seiichi, who had conveniently settled into the seat behind him.

For an instant, Seiichi’s face twitched, wondering if Touma was some kind of telepathy-related ability user, but then he reconsidered, thinking that if that were the case, Touma would have reacted when they met in the dorm.

“Seiichi.”

“W-what is it?”

While the students around them turned their faces away and pretended not to notice, Seiichi, whose back was damp with cold sweat, forced a stiff smile.

“Should I have laughed……?”

“Huh?”

“Should I have done her the courtesy of laughing? What do you think, Seiichi?”

He had only known Touma for a short time but he had begun to get somewhat used to his outrageous remarks.

At the same time, he increasingly felt that their conversations were not lining up.

“Well…… a smile’s better than a scowl, I guess.”

“So I was right.”

Touma lowered his gaze and furrowed his brow, giving off an overwhelming sense that they were, once again, not on the same page.

“I did something discourteous to Sensei.”

“Ah, you mean Midori-chan-sensei? She did seem a little on edge. I don’t think it was because Touma was glaring at her with eyes that said,『I’ll kill you』, though……”

He assumed that was probably about ninety percent of the reason.

The remaining part was likely nerves from meeting her new class for the first time.

Even recalling the investigation materials distributed beforehand, her evaluation had been that she was frank, approachable and leaned toward the students’ side.

Her specialized subject was Introduction to Labyrinths.

She was a graduate of the academy and a newly appointed teacher who had remained at the academy to complete the teaching course, so there was nothing suspicious about her background.

Teachers in charge of general subjects were easily replaceable, effectively kept on the academy’s leash.

Seiichi felt as if he had seen Touma’s angle of attack, reaching out from there.

It was an illusion.

“I suppose I should apologize……”

“No, wait. Today’s the first day. The teachers are probably busy with all kinds of things.”

He stopped Touma, who was about to briskly leave the classroom.

Not giving the other side time to lay groundwork and making snap decisions was Touma’s troublesome specialty in various senses.

“First of all, what did you even do? Today was your first time meeting Sensei, right? Or did you know Midori-chan was going to be our homeroom teacher?”

“No, Sensei probably did not know she would end up with me either. I was tactless.”

The riddle Seiichi had hidden in his words was crushed from a diagonal angle above with a little puchi.

As Seiichi pressed his temple against a slight headache, the orientation materials handed out to the whole class were smoothly presented in front of him.

“Hm? What about this? I got one too.”

“Look at this. I trampled all over Sensei’s consideration.”

His knobby fingertip, looking as if he had spent about three years striking a straw training post every day, pointed to the class curriculum timetable.

Without needing to use the speed-reading technique taught to him as one of his required skills, Seiichi could tell it was the same mass-copied printout he had received.

“Ah, the special dungeon practical training. Our class has it the earliest but apparently the procedures for the first time are already decided in various ways. I guess that part can’t be helped if the order isn’t fixed, right? It’s only a question of whether it’s early or late.”

While continuing the conversation casually, Seiichi took out his own pamphlet and, pretending to compare them, swapped the two.

He felt the need to inspect whether some invisible code, perhaps something like secret writing revealed by heat, had been hidden in it.

It was meaningless, though.

“But still. Isn’t it kind of impossible to suddenly go dungeon diving tomorrow without any lectures first?”

“It means we can get ahead of the other classes, right? Sounds good to me.”

“Ahaha, you sound confident…… Um, Seiichi-kun?”

At the voice cutting in from the seat beside him, Seiichi turned toward her with a friendly smile.

“You’re Mai, right?”

“You’re casual right away! Nice to meet you, Seiichi-kun, and……”

Resting her elbow on her desk, Mai returned a bright smile before her words caught in her throat.

Her charming face, with her medium-long hair tied half-up, twitched a little.

Ahead of her gaze, Touma stood with his arms crossed, staring expressionlessly at the printout.

“I finally realized it, but the secret to getting along with Touma is knowing how to ignore him in moderation.”

“Ah, haha……I did think there was some kind of violent-looking guy here but he’s not actually dangerous, right?”

“That is a difficult question.”

Seiichi, overflowing with the desire to ignore him entirely rather than merely in moderation, genuinely hesitated.

At present, he still had not finished evaluating his classmates, so he did not know who he should form friendly relations with.

For now, however, he decided to act charming as a possible move to shake Touma up.

“If you came to talk even knowing I might be a dangerous guy, then you’re trying to make a move, right?”

“Pretty much. From what I can see, you seem like the strongest one here. I was wondering whether you already had a party lined up.”

Mai’s gesture as she glanced up at him was calculated.

She clearly understood and used the effect it had on boys her age.

In other words, she came from an environment where she had no choice but to use it and was used to flattering men.

Seiichi deliberately made the destination of his gaze and interest obvious as he turned it toward Mai’s body.

Her blazer uniform was already worn loosely despite it being the first day and her legs peeked out from beneath her rolled-up short skirt.

『Not bad』. She seemed like someone he could enjoy himself with without much trouble.

“How about joining me and this girl, Shizuka-chan?”

“M-Mai-san……”

Mai, who noticed Seiichi’s appraising gaze but ignored it, pushed forward the female student who had been standing awkwardly behind her.

She was the literary type, with a plump chest, soft-looking arms and legs, and the kind of air that would suit being in a library.

To put it plainly, she seemed like the clumsy type.

Seiichi guessed that both of them were the type who had sold themselves to the academy from the very beginning, fully understanding what they were doing.

“She’s my roommate in the dorm. ……Yours is too, right?”

“Nice. Not bad.”

“All right, then it’s decided. Looking forward to working with you tomorrow!”

Mai smiled brightly and Seiichi nodded back with a smile of his own.

Since the most dangerous-looking group had formed a party, the atmosphere in the classroom relaxed slightly.

The rest of the classmates also began negotiating for their first party members.

The schedule for the day was to disperse freely once the meeting ended, so it was a fairly relaxed one.

“Hey, Touma. So that’s how it is. I decided it on my own, but that’s fine, right?”

“There is one fundamental question I have.”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

Touma, with a finger against his mouth and a distant look in his eyes, was looking out the window.

The courtyard looked down upon from the classroom.

A black-clad group was walking along the connecting corridor leading to the gymnasium.

“Ah, those are the Hana Class guys. Looks like they’re holding their entrance ceremony separately too.”

“Wow, so they really do wear gakuran and sailor uniforms, huh? The Special Class, I mean. gakuran³

The boys wore stand-collar gakuran uniforms, school caps pulled low and black Inverness capes over their shoulders.

The girls wore orthodox sailor uniforms on both top and bottom, with white ribbons tied at their chests.

The group, all in monotone black and white without any color, looked like a military unit with no idle chatter at all.

“Come to think of it, the seniors at the dorm also said about Hana Class,『Don’t look at them, don’t talk to them, don’t go near them』but why are they called Hana Class?”

“This is just something I heard from the seniors too but apparently, the Special Class here is only for the children of big shots. That’s been a tradition ever since the founding, and back then, they were what you’d call the nobility. The Zaibatsu. So, Hana Class.”

“I see, I see. Well, I like blazers better than sailor uniforms because they’re cuter.”

The Special Class students who came out of the gymnasium were fewer in number compared to the General Class.

The Special Class underwent background investigations by the academy’s investigation agency, and the number of students admitted changed greatly depending on the year.

Rather than taking applications for a fixed number of slots, the number of available seats was adjusted according to the applicants.

The differences between the Special Class and the General Class were not limited to uniforms. There were also several forms of discriminatory privilege.

The most obvious privilege, one that could be understood at a glance, was unrestricted permission to carry swords on campus.

The swords the Special Class students wore at their waists during the entrance ceremony were their own personal Japanese swords, brought in from outside.

“Still, katanas might be pretty cool.”

“Who knows. If you’re not used to swordplay, apparently a club is better. In fact, the first thing we’re apparently given is a cypress stick. What is this, some domestic RPG?”

Seiichi shrugged while looking at Mai’s bottom as she leaned out against the window frame.

“I’d like to get at least a steel sword already…… Wait, what’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Touma remained facing the window, looking up at the sky.

＊　＊　＊

He returned to the room alone ahead of the others, sat down on a chair and looked through his student handbook.

The welcome party for the new dorm residents was still going on in the first-floor dining hall, but he had been allowed to leave early.

This handbook, distributed to each student during the orientation guidance, was something called the latest electronic student handbook.

It was a thin card that could fit in a pocket, with a monitor on the front, while the back had the school emblem and academy name engraved in a stylish design.

They had been repeatedly warned to handle it carefully, since it was only temporarily loaned to them and not given as a gift.

Apparently, it was quite expensive.

He had always had poor compatibility with machines of this sort. He had once bought a smartphone, but it broke after three days.

Or rather, it had exploded on its own, but the manufacturer treated it as outside the scope of the repair warranty, so he had held off on buying another one.

Since then, he had never used any kind of mobile device but since it used a touch panel, he could somehow operate it by feel.

He skimmed through it from the beginning.

What displayed by default was personal information that also served as identification.

Besides his name, it mysteriously displayed things like 『Level』, 『EXP』 and 『Class』.

Even he thought that his face in the photo should look a little friendlier.

It seemed that when he got even slightly nervous, his expression disappeared, so commemorative photos usually ended up with this face.

When he flicked through the monitor, items such as the school song, academy history, school rules and regulations, student council organization, and facility usage rules were lined up.

Perhaps they had crammed in data indiscriminately thanks to the electronic handbook’s storage capacity, because it seemed like it contained enough to be a small dictionary.

Fortunately, it had a word search function, so he searched for 『party』.

『Maintain moderation and behave in a manner befitting students』. Fair enough.

『Alcohol is strictly forbidden』. He had the feeling it was currently being served in the first-floor dining hall, but well, fair enough.

Just in case, he also searched for『dungeon live』, but there were no matching entries.

Did you mean:『insufficient power』.

He stared at the handbook for a while, but for some reason, he felt like smoke had started coming out of it, so he put it away deep inside the desk.

Desktop computers were not a problem but laptop computers really did start smoking sometimes.

Apparently, he was fated to somehow end up with defective products.

After opening the drawer and confirming that the smoke had stopped, he returned to the welcome party venue.

TL: This is supposed to be a new chapter but I’ll combine it because it’s too short.

Interlude: In the Boys’ Dormitory Lavatory

“Your feet are unsteady. Could this be your first time drinking?”

“Y-yes. The seniors kept pouring me an insane amount……”

The lavatory on the first floor of Black Cormorant Dorm.

The banquet known as the welcome party continued late into the night.

In addition to the slightly more luxurious food than usual, contraband items brought in by the dorm seniors were also being served.

There were only students inside the dorm and it had turned into a lawless banquet.

“Man, seriously, I’m really glad I got into this dorm. The senpais are all nice too.”

“Yeah, yeah. This place is a very homey dorm, y’know~”

The senpai and kouhai lined up at the urinals along the wall simultaneously rocked their hips.

“This is my first time living in a dorm, so I’d be really happy if the senpais could teach me all kinds of stuff.”

Anyone would be pleased if they were relied on so honestly.

“By the way, are you a virgin?”

“Huh? Y-Yeah… I am though.”

“In that case, y’know. Wanna graduate from a bunch of other things too?”

The new dorm resident, his face turning red not from alcohol but embarrassment, had an arm wrapped around his shoulders.

“Well, you’re gonna graduate from being a virgin soon enough anyway. Better to get used to the academy’s way of doing things so you can handle yourself better.”

“U-Um, senpai?”

The kouhai unconsciously covered his butt and tensed up as he was led toward one of the toilet stalls.

Every single stall door lined up in a row was tightly shut.

The rattling noises coming from several of the stalls made the new resident’s face stiffen.

“S-Senpai, I’m not into guys though…”

“There, there, don’t be so scared.”

Gachari, the occupied stall door was suddenly opened.

Inside, a pair was having sex.

It wasn’t the male-on-male act he had feared but intercourse between a man and a woman.

“…Eh, huh?”

At the sight of live, bare sex for the first time in his life, the new dorm resident let out a strange noise and froze stiff.

The female student, facing away from them, had her protruding butt held by the male student whose pants were lowered to his knees.

The completely naked female student had her hands placed on the lid of the western-style toilet, while her butt was being smacked with loud pan! pan! pan! sounds.

Sticking out her tongue and raising her butt high, she writhed while panting『hah, hah…』like a dog.

“What the hell? We’re still using this stall, y’know?”

“Sorry, sorry. This newbie here’s apparently still a virgin who’s never done it with a girl before. So I thought I’d let him have a turn.”

“Heh, so he’s a shy guy, huh? Alright then, we’ll let him use her.”

The hips that had been thrusting while gripping the butt set right in front of him pulled away.

The penis that slipped out from inside her flesh remained fully erect, sticky strings trailing from the tip of its completely exposed glans.

The end of that viscous strand was connected to the female reproductive organ the new dorm resident had never seen before.

Between the valley of her buttocks, beneath the plump slit of flesh, below the tightened anus, was the opening of her genitals.

That was the woman’s hole used for sex, the place where the senpai’s fully throbbing penis had been thrust inside.

“Mmm~ He’s totally freaking out. Looks like he’d get pushed around easily, so maybe it’s better to let him pound her thoroughly.”

“He’s staring so hard it’s obvious he’s a virgin. Oi, don’t hold back, just shove it in however you want. Sex ain’t really that big of a deal.”

Without even thinking about embarrassment or how abnormal the whole situation was, the new dorm resident, now simply erect, reached out and touched the peachy buttocks.

“This brings back memories. Were we like this back then?”

“Maybe. Anyway, what should we do with this…oh.” 

Slender fingers reached out and wrapped around his erect penis, fumbling around it.

“What’s with that? Can’t satisfy this『prostitute』with a virgin penis or something?”

“Ah, amazing… so this is a pussy… I’m gonna cum, I’m cumming!”

“Congrats on losing your virginity. Alright then, how about going for another round without pulling out? You’ve totally still got stamina left, right?”

“Go ahead and screw as much as you want. But in return, if there are any hot girls in your class, let us know, alright? We’ll break ’em in real quick, and once we get bored of them, we’ll pass them over to you.”

The welcome party being held in a corner of the boys’ dorm was an easy-to-understand embodiment of this academy’s way of doing things.