Chapter 74: Chapter 2: A Completely Different Person
A/N: Hello, everyone, sorry once again, that it took so long.
I never said it, but since the start of the euro's I'd always watch them in my free time, so I didn't have much time writing.
Had intended to release at Friday at best, but watched Germany vs Spain...
Yeah...
And I was a bit drunk since we lost and I had no intention of writing while being drunk...
Not that I could, really.
Anyhow, here goes the chapter.
Just one more thing, how much do you like this story so far?
Would be curious to hear that.
--
[Kurushima Pov]
Despite the very obvious explanation of Chabashira in the bus, a question was expected to come immediately once she was finished.
"I have a question!"
Ike, one of the many Dullard's in my class, excitedly raised his hand.
I was kind of curious what kind of stupid thing he'd ask, but it couldn't really bother me much.
"You said boys and girls will be separated but exactly how far apart will we be?"
I raised my eyebrow's slightly, that he'd ask such a question, while they had the entire time to ask Chabashira questions about things they didn't understand.
Instead it was something like this.
I normally wouldn't ignore this, but I already had read the material far ahead.
There were two buildings where the student would be accommodated. While in principle they were next to each other, the only time you'd meet the girls was on the cafeteria for lunch, for about an hour.
Aside from that, there was nothing set of meeting the other gender.
It was quite a relief, since just like an hour ago, many girls still liked me and thought they could use this as their opportunity to get close to me.
If I hadn't read the long manual already, I'd have definitely listened.
Especially, since I had no intention of meeting my... ex-girlfriend.
Whenever I'd see her... my heart would begin to beat crazily.
I also couldn't deny that I felt guilt, whenever I saw her...
Shaking my head internally, I stopped listening, since this was the only reason I did so. In case we would meet, which wasn't written in the manual and would be explained verbally I had to think of ways to avoid her.
Anyhow, as the sole reason I even decided to listen relinquished I ignored Ike and everyone else.
Although I couldn't help but notice his happy exclamation that boys and girls would be able to spend time at least one hour long.
Many people were getting into relationships or wanted to spend time with the person they loved, so it was a no wonder that Ike and other boys in general would be curious about this.
"If there aren't any more questions then I'll be ending this."
As she said this, I was close by on closing my eyes, until someone was interrupting again.
Of course I didn't expect this not to happen, but I felt quite annoyed by it, in some way.
While everyone else would see this as a special exam I had some more worries than them. I had to smuggle myself out at night today, and get myself a cellphone, at least.
To know about Chairman Sakayanagi's condition... this was of the most important matter for me, currently.
If he did wake up in a couple of days... I might have to purposely expel myself...
I couldn't really ignore this matter at all, even if I wished...
As for the matter of the phone old or new, it didn't really bother me much.
I could buy myself a new one, since I had few things I could exchange for quite the money.
I took some valuable things with me deliberately from my room, because of that.
Boringly, I looked at the front, seeing Hirata with a microphone on his hand, asking how we all could overcome this exam, easily.
His gaze meet mine and he smiled at me, but I looked at him as apathetic as before.
I could see the trouble written on his face since he most likely wanted to ask me for my opinion of overcoming this exam, but he chose not to.
I had no intention on explaining anything either. It's time that these idiot's do something on their own.
For so long... I had to help them constantly, so now it's time to change that.
These things I did in the past—They were all just things to keep my facade in check, but I no longer care about any of that.
It's time to show them the real me.
They'll be afraid of my new version, but what of it?
Why should I even be slightly bothered what these idiot's think about me?
If anything, I can finally put this whole charade off.
Leaning my head to the side, looking at the window, I noticed how beautiful the landscape was.
Much of it reminded me to Kyoto, my hometown.
I never was one to pay attention to the nature... but it didn't mean I liked it any less, just because I wasn't always observing it.
Before their death's... I was often at the mountains and spend time enjoying the nature as a small child but after their deaths that joy... I couldn't feel it anymore.
It's my first time, since long, going even to the mountains, again.
How ironic...
I wonder what I am feeling right now...
Suddenly, the voice of my homeroom teacher speaking interrupted me, telling some unnecessarily things again, that would prove to make my time here even more bothersome.
She should have stopped with her 'supposedly' advice to the class, but well... it seems like she's quite eager on reaching Class A and is ready to even explain it much further.
"For instance, let's say Ike made a mistake and he'll be expelled unless a million points are paid right away. Let's assume you've fallen into this predicament. And if a transfer isn't allowed right then and there and he'd be expelled unless he has a million private points on hand, what'll you do then? If you adopt the strategy of sharing equally amongst yourselves, you may be doing something you cannot take back."
"Besides, when that happens, there's no guarantee the other students will save you. Because it may yet be they themselves who fall into a predicament next. The only one capable of protecting you would be you yourself."
Once I heard this I couldn't help but notice some eyes falling on me. Of course it was only natural, but it was their fault for allocating these points to me to begin with.
She really did something quite bothersome...
But well... we're near Class A, and it's quite the important topic for her, apparently.
If it wasn't, why would she have threatened that bastard's son to begin with?
Without even stopping for a small breath, she continued, immediately.
She's quite persistent with reaching Class A, huh...?
Not that I really care much about it.
"The ones who work hard will be rewarded with success. That much is common knowledge in society. Once you enter society, someone benevolent enough to share their salary and bonuses with their friends would be a rare case even amongst the rare cases. Now that you know this, what you do from this point onwards is up to you," Chabashira said this, leading me to some kind of drama with my class again.
I thought I could rest and sleep the remaining time... but from the looks of it, they're thinking of using the Class Bank, as a safe means of preventing any expulsions in our class.
But I have no intention of using it for any of them, at all.
Immediately, Hirata spoke with the microphone in his hand again.
"Shall we put it to a majority vote then? It's not like we'll decide through that but rather, I'd like to know what everyone thinks after hearing that just now. Can the people who'd prefer to share evenly amongst ourselves during the special exam from now on please raise your hands? Of course, I don't mind even if you change your mind later."
After countless of seconds arm after arm was being raised up in the bus. The majority of the class, if not everyone had raised their arms, as expected, but mine, did not move even a single inch at all.
I remained calm and quiet.
"Kurushima-kun, can we expect that you'll contribute as well?"
Instead of Hirata whom I expected to ask me this question at first, Manabu-senpai's little sister was now asking me.
All the attention of the class immediately turned over to me, in the blink of an eye.
Once again the entire class was now paying all their attention to me, only wanting to hear my answer.
"I've no interest to contribute at all, Horikita. Is that enough of an answer for you? I thought my silence and my refusal of raising my arm was making this quite clear already."
"It did. But I'd like to know why."
"Why... huh...? You're making things really troublesome right now, but fine, whatever. I'll say it like this, in a very simple and clear manner so none of you misunderstand me."
I reluctantly stood up from my seat, facing every person with my class eye to eye.
"For me, all of you are worthless, leeching around, doing nothing, in essence. If any one of you can't even get past through such a simple exam as this, it's better to dispose of the people who fail right here and now."
"Dis...pose...?!" muttered Hirata, who looked at me now suddenly with an angry look.
Before anyone could even possibly react to it, Hirata rushed at me, shouting my name out loudly, "Kurushima!"
Just when he wanted to grab my collar, I intercepted his hand and twisted his wrist into a wrist lock. Hirata winced in pain, unable to move while I held his hand from behind.
"Let me be clear; I don't expect anything from any of you at all. You can continue to be leeches, without doing anything in the next special exams. That's fine for me. However, don't go acting like you did anything in the exams so far, because that's not the case."
"The one time I wasn't responsible for one of the special exams is the one where you failed miserably and made this class degrade to Class C. Acting like you've done anything special so far... what a joke..."
"This time... it's not about academics, so if any of you fail here, at such an easy exam, you're truly some worthless bunch of people."
"Kurushima!"
Just as Sudo shouted out my name loudly, trying to stand up, I glanced at him indifferently, and his sudden aggressive attitude was tamed and stopped by a single glance from me.
That expression of his, it's filled with full of shock, and even some amount of fear, right now.
Why wouldn't he?
Since no one of them witnessed me ever like this, they were behaving themselves quite normal around me. This is bound to change now, due to this, however.
"If you want to overwhelm an opponent make sure you're stronger than them. Otherwise, your attempt will be fruitless..."
"That's enough, Kurushima."
I heard another person calling my name, looking at the person that did so.
"Sensei."
I quickly released Hirata's hand that I was holding from behind in a wrist lock.
But he, immediately turned around, looking at me, with his raging eyes, eye to eye.
"This isn't over yet, Kurushima."
"It surely isn't, Hirata. It just started."
I looked at how Hirata clenched his fist, but he knew how fruitless it'd be.
He walked back towards his seat angrily, and yet, most of all, I did not care even the slightest bit of what any of these people could think about me.
"For a teacher that usually does the most minimal things for the class, you're strangely quite involved right now, Sensei," I remarked, turning to my homeroom teacher, looking at her right in the eye.
She knew what I was talking about.
The materials she was withholding per example, back then, for our tests in May.
In some way, it made things for me troublesome, too, since I had to teach many of these idiots the informations she was withholding about the test.
And similarly wise, I even got myself these test papers from an female upperclassmen from the third-year, but it was at that time, I got attentive on Ayanokoji, who got them, too, but made it look like as if Kushida was the savior of the class.
He wasn't sure if I'd be able to come to such conclusions so he ensured that the class would still come forward.
Quite bothersome...
Both her eyes and mine were in a lockdown for a small moment, her eyes looking at me sharply, but I quickly stopped since I had no reason to antagonize her any further and decided to sit myself down, looking outside the window.
--
Arriving slowly at our destined location everyone was tasked to give their phones to our homeroom teacher.
I didn't hesitate and followed along, putting both of these phones away in front of the authority in the plastic box.
I was the last one who went off the bus, so I expected Sensei to become talkative with me, but my glance told her apparently that I wasn't up for a conversation at all.
"Good luck..." she muttered surprisingly, but I had to slightly smile, ironically.
"I don't need any of that."
With my bag on my right hand I stepped as the last one of the bus, with everyone in front of me, suddenly stepping aside.
I had to admit, it was quite unlike a normal outdoor school. It was quite large, surprisingly.
I stepped aside, leaning myself against the bus, and slowly after, Sensei came out.
"Follow me."
Apparently nobody needed their luggage right now, since we would go to the gymnasium where everyone was, but well, it wasn't like it was forbidden, either.
In my case I could easily carry it with me since I had a bag, but in case of almost everybody else, it'd be a bit more bothersome, since they had suitcases.
Before long, both boys and girls were split up, and I, alongside the boys in my class headed towards an old-fashioned wooden building.
I guided myself for a bit around, until I was finished and waited in the gymnasium now.
Quickly, some of the boys from the other three classes entered, with them looking at me surprisingly.
It wasn't a matter to be not surprised either, since everyone from my class kept their distance from me, which was unusual, aside from Koenji, strangely.
"I've been meaning to ask you, but are you annoying me deliberately, Koenji? Don't think just because we're acquaintances I'll treat you any different."
"Fuu... I've no intention of annoying you, Kurushima. But I can't stand their quarreling away, so I chose to be at the place where I'm the least being interrupted by their quarrel."
"I see."
For some time Koenji used to refer me as Kurushima Boy, but he stopped, since the Sports Festival with it.
I couldn't really care why, but I admit, it strangely got my curiosity.
I had my own thoughts why that narcissist would do that, but hearing it from him will give me more clarity, as he's quite the oddball and might as well do it just for his personal amusement.
"Is there any specific reason you're addressing people rather unfriendly? And why did you stop addressing me as 'Kurushima Boy'?"
"Unfriendly? I wouldn't call it unfriendly, I'm merely stating facts. Although I didn't know that you quite liked that nickname, Kurushima. Should I call you like that again?"
I looked at him with indifferent eyes, not intending to make this something to joke over.
"I'm joking, please relax. And if you think you can intimidate me like the other's, I'm afraid that won't happen. But I believe that wasn't your intention to begin with. If it was, you wouldn't resort to just this I believe."
"Perhaps. Anyhow, your answer?"
"I believe you already know it, don't you?"
"I suppose I do. It's quite silly, but it's quite like you."
"You seem to know me very well. But who wouldn't want to know a perfect existence like me very well."
Koenji walked away, laughingly, and leaned himself somewhere near from me away, looking at himself in a pocket mirror he took with himself.
"What an oddball he is..."
I should have expected it, but he's addressing people whom he thinks being inferior as such.
I didn't expect to have gained that narcissist's acknowledgement but he must have changed his mind after the Sports Festival, probably.
I'm above him in terms of wealth I'd inherit and my abilities so far have been higher than his, so there's no singular reason for him to possibly look down on me at all unlike the other's.
Although...
Sometimes I wish I was normal, like anyone, else...
If my parent's weren't rich... my father would have never discovered out anything about Project White Room and my family would be still alive...
Family... huh...?
Aside from Aoki... I have no one else... anymore...
I'm becoming really nostalgic now, since I'm going to get myself a cellphone from the town that's one hour away from here and call him today, huh...?
I wonder what he'll think about me... once he knows what I did...
Surely nothing great...
--
After a couple of minutes later every single boy in our school year arrived and soon later, the boys from the second and third year arrived too.
Once everyone seemed to have arrived a man stepped up on the stage, as we all were facing him.
"I'll assume you've all received prior explanation in the bus regarding the contents of this exam and that you've digested it. As such, there will be no further explanation of it here. Now then, we'll be forming our small groups here so I'll have you set aside time for this. Each school year will hold a discussion in order to create six small groups. Furthermore, as for the formation of the large groups, it'll take place at 8 pm today. That's all. This is supplementary information but when it comes to partitioning the groups, irrespective of size, the school will not interfere. And we will not act as arbitrators either."
It was expected, but I couldn't care really much about it.
Some chatter suddenly began to break out in the entire gymnasium and as expected, Class A was following a strategy with the majority of their class being in one single group.
I looked at them slightly, as someone from the past Katsuragi Faction was spouting some things out making a declaration to every first year.
"As you can see, we Class A intend on forming a group with these members. And as you can see, right now we number 14. If one more person were to join us, we'd meet the prerequisite number. Now then, we're looking for people willing to join us."
He was someone called Matoba, no one of any great importance in their class if I remember myself well.
I just knew his name because I memorized every single on of them back then in the student council.
For someone so irrelevant he seems to have a great amount of pride, but it's no wonder since they're back at Class A, again.
However, it's more inclined that Sakayanagi has given him the leadership for the boys, since she wouldn't let Katsuragi take it at any cost again.
"Oi, oi. Why the hell are you guys getting ahead of yourselves? It's unfair if you're the only ones in it."
Sudo angrily glares at Matoba.
"Is it really that selfish of us? If we go with our proposal, each group will be composed of, at most, students from two classes. Even if we're 1st place, the bonus we'll get won't be that significant either. I don't feel like this is a greedy proposal that favors only Class A."
"N-No but I mean, it's unfair that there's 14 of you."
"That's not true. On the contrary, it's fair. The remaining three classes can create three groups consisting of 15. In other words, wouldn't it be fine if you form groups just like ours?"
"Is that so?"
"Yes. But it seems like your leader did a very bad job of explaining it to you. Perhaps until now, everything your class achieved was mere luck, after all, and he isn't as great as everyone likes to portray."
Smirkingly saying that, he looked at Sudo, and then thereafter, directly at me.
His eyes meet mine and with each second he stared in my eyes, he became more and more anxious and fearful by his expression.
His breathing became irregular, hardly being able on taking proper breaths at each second.
How pathetic...
Looking slightly away, I saw many people looking at me, now. They must have figured out as much as this, by now.
The reason why my classmates look uncomfortable, nervous, fearful and anxious when staring at me, similarly wise like the case that happened just now.
Suddenly, Katsuragi approached him from behind, touching his shoulder, bringing him to calm down with this single move.
"Motoba. Snap out of it."
"Yes..." he embarrassingly said, preventing any eye contact with me.
Katsuragi looked at me for a moment until he realized why he was having so much trouble, making sight with my eyes immediately.
But he quickly stopped and focused himself on something else.
It still doesn't erase any kind of shock he or anyone else here had, though.
He and the other's communicated with Hirata, who was in charge of almost every boy, as I had no intention of doing anything at all.
While they were doing their chit chat talking with Class A about who of the other classes joins their group and get's the so called special bonus of having highly capable people in the group and people that are not confident would definitely pass and earn points in this exam I just looked bored and opened my bag.
I took myself one layer of my homemade lunch boxes out, taking one of the sandwiches I made out, and took a bite of it, immediately.
"So delicious..."
Each one of the boys from all the three school years stared at me, but the one whom I looked at was my dear Senpai, Nagumo, who had a slight grin on his face, but then turned himself around to his group, again.
The teacher that was on stage suddenly came towards my direction.
"What are you doing?"
"Eating. Is that not clear already?"
"I'm capable of seeing that. Why are you not taking part of the discussion?"
"I've no interest in taking part in something so boring. Besides what's the point of discussing when I already know I'll easily pass this exam? It's just a waste of time."
"I see..."
"I thought you weren't going to get involved. So how come you're asking me questions like these? Was that a lie?"
"No... I've found it surprising that you're eating in this moment."
"Is it something forbidden?"
"That's not..."
"Well... then that makes it clear, doesn't it? Teacher's are humans, too, bound by their own curiosity," I inquired sarcastically, looking at him with a slight amused face.
The teacher seemed at a loss for words and walked away, leaving me to continue enjoying my sandwich.
I enjoyed my sandwich while everyone else continued to discuss several things about this exam and had come a bit farer than expected.
Once I was finished, I walked over to the group I was intending to reside at.
Just a small temporarily group I chose.
"It's not a problem, right..."
"Kanzaki?"
"You in our group... But that wasn't part of our discussion," he said, looking at Hirata.
"I'm doing whatever I like. There's no problem with it, right?"
"Technically... No. But wouldn't it be wiser to take those who are academically more bad than you or form a smaller group with elite students of your class for winning?"
Since they all were in unity of four groups with 15 people in it, the last two groups could be two groups with ten members each on it or one with 11 and one 9 members.
The risk naturally increases, but the chances are there, too.
However I didn't care about any of that at all, truthfully said.
"For sure. But I don't care about it. It's not a problem of your's either. Right? Besides, with me, your group will get an even higher average, most likely."
He looked me in the eyes deep down and could tell I was speaking the truth.
"That's true. I've no objection... and neither does anybody else here... I think," he said, turning himself around, looking at the other members in his group.
Even though I was currently like this, there was no denying what the group could achieve with me in it.
"Well... it's my pleasure."
The other groups formed themselves quickly too, and not soon after, we were finished.
In total, there were as expected, four 15 member groups, and two ten member groups.
Aside from Class A with 14 members from their class in the small group and Yamauchi from our class in it, the other 15 member groups are 12 member's from one of our respective classes each, and the three remaining people are split between Classes A, B, C, and D with one person from each class being there.
--
A/N: And this concludes the chapter.
Hopefully, you liked it.
Kurushima's change is quite visible, I'd say.
How do you like it?
How he behaves and so on?
Would be interesting to hear.
Anyway, share your thoughts with me about this chapter and the story in general.
Would be highly appreciated.
Anyhow, that's all.
Have a great day.
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