Makoto Naritu had always loved to study. He could sit down at his desk, open his textbooks and pick up a pencil at any time of day, in any mood, with no ceremony at all. He invariably ranked first. He received top marks on every exam, and the marks had stopped surprising anyone years ago.
A silent question rose out of that, the way it always did when he was tired. Why did he love studying so much?
His childhood answered it. Every time he got a question right, his mother would sit down next to him and say it out loud, to the room, to nobody: Makoto is a genius. He got a perfect score. Time and again, year after year, his mother praised him, and he kept going back to the desk for it.
So naturally he chose Asayoka High School for his high school entrance exam. Naritu was certain that if he got into the prefecture's best elite school, he would spend three years happily, diligently studying alongside peers as passionate about knowledge as he was.
That was how it was supposed to be.
But he failed the exam.
Instead, he ended up at the city's most notorious school for troubled teenagers, Shaon High School. Why did he fail, when everyone said he would pass without a problem? His parents were just as disappointed as he was. That day he had been standing at the subway station when his mother called, and afterwards his phone slipped out of his hand, hit the floor and shattered. Naritu thought he would never have imagined something like this could happen to him.
After that, his mother desperately went to every school in the city, begging them to admit him. She was rejected everywhere.
And so he found himself at Shaon Prefectural High School, first year, class two, inside a classroom.
After all, he thought, this is the only place that ever took me. A place where he was surrounded by nothing but marginalized kids.
At that moment a slipper flew across the room and hit one of the students. The bullies exchanged glances.
"Not a bad blow."
"Okay."
Naritu did not look up. He had decided, once and finally, to focus solely on improving his grades and getting into a prestigious college. That was the whole plan. There was no second part to it.
Then Ren decided to make things more challenging. Ken looked at him and asked, "Hey. What do you think about this?"
Ren started tapping his palm with the slipper. "Doesn't it irritate you when he shows off like that? Who studies here anyway?" Then he looked straight at Naritu, swung the slipper and said, "Who cares?"
The next second, Naritu turned his face away and pulled his head back sharply, and the slipper went past him into the wall.
"Damn. Missed."
Ken chuckled. "Is he next?"
Naritu sighed inwardly. I knew it. The situation is just terrible. He looked at his wristwatch. So, it's 4:15 now. There's no time to waste. Every second counts. He quickly packed his notebooks into his bag. It's time to act. Then he opened the exam preparation materials on his phone, the listening section, and let the voices fill his ears.
Behind the voices, the classroom went on.
"Dude, does he really not get why we're picking a fight?"
"Isn't this what's trendy?"
"And does being trendy make it interesting to him?"
There was nothing funny about this, Naritu thought. It was completely pointless. Putting fleeting pleasure above all else — that was how they thought, and that was exactly why he could not stand the atmosphere in here. The troubled teenagers were so noisy that he could not concentrate on his studies.
But strangely enough, even this place had turned out to be useful to him. If it were not for this school, he would have gone mad from despair. And he still had a chance to enter university. He would strive not only to pass the general examination but to receive a national recommendation as well. There was one thing he could not understand — how, even at a school like this, he had managed to earn grades sufficient for a recommendation. The university accepted students even from low-ranked schools. This opportunity was his last chance, and he held on to it with both hands.
Some time later he stopped in front of the Toi Preparatory School building and thought how glad he was to be able to come here.
Soon he found the right room. The students greeted him happily as he came in. He smiled, looking at the others, and thought, there are worthy conversationalists here.
Wednesday was the day he had preparatory classes. At that moment a girl came up to him and said hello. She had noticed that he was early again today.
It was Kaede Ranzuki. She was a first-year student at Asayoka High School, and Naritu thought of her as his best rival.
He smiled and greeted her. "Today's a great day."
She came closer. "Oh yeah — the seating arrangement changes today, right?"
At this preparatory school, the seating arrangement was determined after each mock exam. The students with the highest scores sat in the front left row, in order.
They looked at the first-semester rankings together.
"Right," Ranzuki said. Her seat was on the right side again.
Naritu sat down next to her. "But this time it was close."
Ranzuki reached for her bag. "He always says that. Oh, right. The mathematical research club presentation is tomorrow."
He looked at her bag and noticed the Asayoka Prefectural High School badge on it. The mathematical research club. So that's what they do at Asayoka. If everything had gone the way he wanted, he would be there.
"If it's you, Naritu, then I can trust you," Ranzuki said. "Will you help me practise my presentation?"
Naritu was surprised, and then he replied, "Yes, of course."
After that the door to the room opened. The teacher walked to the front and said, "Okay, everyone, take your seats. I have some announcements before the lecture starts, so listen carefully." He put his magazine down on the table and then added, "Lately, one of our students has been causing us trouble."
One of the students was surprised. "Trouble?"
"That's right. It looks like there was a violent incident."
Whispers ran around the classroom.
"Another disturbed teenager."
"Scary."
"I couldn't do that."
"He got into a fight with Shaon students again."
"No one should allow something like that," the teacher said. "Anyone who breaks the rules will be expelled immediately."
It can't be, Naritu thought. If anyone finds out I'm connected to the Shaon bullies, I'll be considered a troublemaker and expelled from the cram school.
"Horrible," Ranzuki said. Then she smiled, looking at him, and asked, "Naritu, you're from the same school, right? Are you okay?"
"Well, I'm not some pugnacious type, so everything will be fine." He scratched his head awkwardly and laughed lightly, and said again that he was okay.
As evening fell, Naritu left the school and sighed loudly. Even though Ranzuki said so, he thought, I'm not like them. He clenched his teeth in frustration. I have goals I need to achieve.
But that guy always starts fights, anywhere, any time. Sooner or later I'll get dragged in too. If that happens, I'll be expelled immediately. Will I even be able to get into university alone, in this situation? What am I supposed to do?