Chapter 5: Gathering Intelligence (Patreon)

Chapter 5: Gathering Intel

...

Class D's presence was overwhelming, drawing frequent glances from all around.

Among them was a blond man so wrapped up in his own beauty that he ignored everyone else, a handsome mother-hen type with faintly green-tinted hair, a face that could've cracked the top five yet who kept an absurdly low profile like some undercover protagonist, a tall red-haired delinquent straight out of central casting, and one guy — looking like the finest handiwork some back-alley clinic ever produced — loudly discussing the figures of girls from other classes without even bothering to lower his voice...

Good or bad, they all drew the eye just the same.

Then there was a cute girl done up in gyaru style with loose socks, her blond hair pulled into a single side ponytail.

A pink-haired girl hunched in on herself with a faint air of loneliness, wearing glasses that seemed to dampen her looks, her legs a bit soft and plump.

An ice-queen type with long, straight black hair, her well-toned legs beautifully curved, made all the more tempting wrapped in black stockings.

A short-haired blonde, warm and easy to approach, curvy all over in a way that didn't look fifteen at all, her legs likewise full.

A blue-haired girl with long legs, a striking figure, and a mature air, radiating disgust at the stares of the boys around her.

In short, the girls' overall quality was off the charts.

There was also a domineering gyaru, a cheerful gyaru, a low-key gyaru, and girls like Mei-Yu Wang — out of a possible ten, every one of them scored at least a seven or eight...

"Why aren't I in Class D? No — never mind."

Satoru Ajimu pressed a hand to his chest, looking somewhat wistful.

Then again, on reflection — sure, Class D had been the protagonist's class in the original story, but their early situation had genuinely been a mess.

A total pit: no unity, no drive, and plenty of people who liked to hide their real strength.

Take one girl, for instance — her academics and physical stats would've been solid even in Class A, but she came from a well-off family with no particular ambitions. To make friends without standing out and getting excluded, she'd chosen to hide her abilities. That was how she'd ended up in Class D.

No wonder the original story kept having stat monsters pop up out of nowhere in Class D.

If the student council president giving the speech up front belonged to a year whose Class A was frankly worrying — barely average even next to other years — then this year's crop was something else entirely. Class D in particular felt like outright cheating.

Oh, and that blond man wrapped up in his own beauty — word was he'd landed in Class D because he'd been too arrogant with the examiner during his interview, and several of his scores got knocked down to a C rating.

Ajimu imagined himself as a Class D student and realized he'd never be able to carry the class. A few standout individuals just couldn't drag up a class whose overall quality was that poor.

He shook his head. Once the student council president finished his address, the students filed out of the gymnasium one after another.

Normally, seventy or eighty percent of them would head straight for the dorms.

The rest had already split into groups bound for cafes or karaoke, while Class A had long since settled on a policy of gathering intel.

Ajimu glanced at his phone. Baldy had called him directly.

"Ajimu, I'd like you to come with me to the student council this afternoon."

"This early?"

Today was the entrance ceremony — there were no classes at all in the afternoon, which was set aside for students to familiarize themselves with the school.

Advanced Nurturing High School covered several hundred thousand square meters, roughly the size of eighty soccer fields, so it would take some time just to walk around.

Besides, in the original story, this guy hadn't gone to the student council this early either.

In the original story, he'd only applied to the student council after consolidating the class to a certain degree. Both he and Class B's Ichinose had been turned down by the student council president, though Ichinose was later recruited into the council by Vice President Nagumo.

"The earlier, the better. Since the entrance ceremony was handled entirely by the student council, that tells us the council here has more authority than we'd assumed."

"Whether it's joining the council or getting intel we couldn't get elsewhere, a visit to the student council is worth it either way."

Ajimu was a little surprised, listening to Katsuragi.

While Ajimu had been busy checking out the girls, Katsuragi hadn't let his guard down for a second — he'd caught every single word of the student council president's speech and had already worked out the extent of the council's power.

"Got it. Let's say two o'clock, then."

Ajimu locked in the time.

"I'll leave it to you after that. I'm planning to take Totsuka and go confirm a few things with Teacher Mashima."

Katsuragi thought Ajimu had a uniquely sharp angle on things, and that he'd shifted his mindset faster than anyone else — bringing him along to the student council might turn up intel no one else would think to look for.

In truth, back in the gymnasium, Katsuragi hadn't been ignoring the other classes either.

From the mood in the room, he'd noticed that both Class B and Class D still carried the mindset of entering an ordinary high school, while only Class C gave off a nervous, on-edge air.

A class packed with more thugs and delinquents than most understood the logic of 'violence reigns supreme' better than anyone else.

And jujutsu sorcerer was clearly a profession built on exactly that principle.

Even so, not even they carried themselves the way Ajimu did — as if he already knew exactly what a jujutsu sorcerer would have to face. Class C's uneasiness was really just fear of the unknown.

"Guess I underestimated Katsuragi's perceptiveness after all."

He then headed for the convenience store, his little tail in tow.

Ajimu had originally planned to do what everyone else was doing — swing by the dorm first and then shop for daily necessities based on what he found there.

But that could wait until evening. For now, he wanted to scout out whether anything had changed with the goods at the convenience store.

"Guh-mm~"

Behind him, a lively, cute girl bounced along as if playing a game of shadow-tag, hopping forward a step at a time to keep up.

Ajimu didn't get it.

"Morishita, why are you following me again?"

"Because I'm the protagonist."

Ai Morishita answered without a shred of doubt.

"With me by your side, you get more screen time."

"Seriously?"

Watching Ai Morishita's utterly resolute expression, even Ajimu felt his conviction waver a little.

"No way. If anyone's the protagonist, it's me."

"Can't have that — you're too ugly. If there were an ugly-guy ranking, you'd probably lock down third or fourth place. Yeah, a few Class D guys could crack the top five too."

"Are your eyes broken!?"

Ajimu did have some awareness of his own looks, for what it was worth.

Among the first-years, he was confident he'd rank in the top three on any so-called handsome-guy list.

Facing his accusation, Ai Morishita put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest again.

Her proud pose was answer enough.

"..."

Ajimu momentarily lost the power of speech. He scratched his head, gave up on responding, and went to browse the convenience store with his little tail in tow.

"So cheap... and the expiration dates are totally fine too."

He'd noticed the price tags were half what they'd be outside, and the free section held even more items than he'd expected.

"Morishita..."

"What is it, Satoru Ajimu?"

His little tail, Ai Morishita, hurried over.

"You're a girl, so you'd know more about what girls need. Does the store carry the daily items you normally use? How does the price compare to what you usually pay?"

"Mm, mm — it's at least half what I used to pay, or even less."

Hearing that, Ai Morishita dashed off to the daily-goods section, checked the prices on things like sanitary pads especially, and hurried back.

"There's even some in the free section."

"Just as I thought."

Getting his answer, Ajimu's brow furrowed.

"Seems the school really wants us to save our points."

He pulled out his phone as he spoke, sending a message to the class group chat telling a few students to check out the cafeteria while it was still early.

"Just like us, digging up important intel again just like that."

Ai Morishita clapped Ajimu on the shoulder, instantly splitting the credit fifty-fifty.

"Sure, sure, we're splitting eighty-eight points together."

Ajimu didn't care about the credit.

"Let's buy a few things first and see how the points get spent. My treat."

"Then I want a big bottle of strawberry milk!" Ai Morishita said without hesitation.

"Try to save a little."

He grabbed a few things from the free section, took two boxes of strawberry milk off the shelf, and walked to the register.

"Could I get a receipt, please?"

"Of course," the woman behind the register replied earnestly.

In the original novel, the student ID had been a physical card; the anime changed it into a digital ID on the phone, so he paid directly with the digital ID.

Watching the points get deducted, Ajimu automatically ran the numbers in his head. As the employee handed him the receipt, he snapped a photo of it with his phone while passing a box of strawberry milk to Ai Morishita.

"Miss, could you tell me about the discount rates for each class?"

Out in the regular market, strawberry milk usually went for 100 to 150 yen a box, while the convenience store sold it for 50 to 75 points a box.

The one he'd grabbed was the 50-point box.

But what Ajimu actually ended up paying was 70 points.

Slurp~

Ai Morishita, straw already inserted, was already drinking her strawberry milk.

"Naturally," the employee said kindly. "Class A gets thirty percent off anything they buy, Class B gets twenty percent off, Class C gets ten percent off, and Class D pays full price — and by full price, I mean the current new price."

Hearing that, Ajimu couldn't help frowning.

This was another change absent from the original story. He worried Class A had been handed too many privileges that hadn't existed before — privileges that might well make it a target down the line.

Though he had no idea whether the usual inter-class competitions still existed at all...

"I wonder — would it count as a violation if Class A bought items on behalf of another class?"

Ajimu chose to probe a little further.

"Not at all."

Then Ajimu quickly typed a message into the class group chat.

Ajimu: Katsuragi, get in touch with the reps from Class B, C, and D — we can buy things for them at 25% off the regular price. Aren't you seeing Teacher Mashima anyway? Ask him whether that million points for adding specialized courses comes with any discount, and whether we're allowed to buy on other classes' behalf...

Katsuragi: Huh? That's...

Ajimu: No — once you've contacted the reps from Class B, C, and D, have Sakayanagi handle the negotiations. Our class only needs that five-percent margin from each of them; whatever else she manages to squeeze out on top is hers to keep.

Sakayanagi: Oh my, now this is interesting. I'll accept the negotiation job.

Sakayanagi: Though, Ajimu-kun — since you're ordering me around like this, I trust you'll do me the honor of having lunch with me at noon~

Ajimu: No problem.

Even though it was only Arisu Sakayanagi inviting Ajimu to lunch, it still stirred up quite a commotion in the class group chat.

"Hellooo~ Ajimu~ Could I talk to you for a moment?"

Just then, a girl called out to Ajimu as he was about to leave the store.

She had beautiful long hair in a golden-pink shade, her chest straining the blazer buttoned with just two buttons — yet her upright posture and forthright personality meant that before anyone could think to call her cute or pretty, they'd already been struck by how cool she looked.

She was Honami Ichinose of Class B.

"A-A monster... appeared!"

Ai Morishita seemed to have spotted something, her eyes going wide.

...though admittedly, that really was monster-level.

[Author's Note: PS: Looking forward to your comments — please support the story and add it to your favorites/collection!]