Chapter 4: God will Nourish the Peaceful Pine Tree

Rubbing his nose in embarrassment, Yukio quickly corrected his wandering thoughts.

'I was invited out rather, alongside both the girls. It's still my first time being invited by a girl which is pretty cool. But I guess I should have expected it, with the way she was bringing over all the students she met in class to me. Hm… I wonder if that makes me popular?'

Realising his thoughts were suspiciously sounding a lot like Ayanokouji's internal monologues, he decided to inform the girls of his plans.

"I would've liked to go, but I think I'll buy some groceries and settle into the dorm first. I'll probably come down to the mall later on. But thank you for inviting me!"

Turning down the offer presented to him on the first day went against his plans to form and be a part of friendship groups, but the teenager had realised the number of private points he owned would decrease drastically if he followed the two girls to the mall.

Additionally, his social battery had been drained, especially after the small incident with Kushida, and he needed a short break from interacting with girls.

'It doesn't hurt that I can probably catch Sudou and the older boys' confrontation scene in front of the grocery store too. That'll be fun.'

"Ne~ That's fine! If you find us at the mall later come join us, alright?"

Leaving the pair with a polite nod, Yukio pondered Chiaki's attitude towards him as he walked towards the mall.

'I mean… she's displaying all the traits of an older-sister type personality- introducing me to others and inviting me around. If I remember correctly she wasn't too fond of making new friends, so I'm probably part of her circle now. That is unless I mess up somehow. But I can't help but shake the feeling that there's more to her desire to maintain a relationship with me.'

While thinking confusing thoughts, Yukio arrived at the scene where Sudou was walking away from the laughing second years, leaving his cup noodles strewn across the floor, and Ayanokouji alone.

'Sheesh. He buys the cup of noodles for you and you proceed to leave him to clean the remains by himself. What an ass. Now I can truly appreciate the work Kiyotaka put in to cause such drastic character developments in the class D students.'

Approaching the mastermind of the novel, Yukio knelt beside him, helping the loner clean up the noodles.

"Hey, Ayanokouji-Kun, right? What happened here?"

Glancing at the newcomer, Yukio was pleased to note the look of recognition from the protagonist of the series- not that he doubted the boy's cognitive abilities in the first place.

"Kobayashi-Kun. Ah, nothing. Our classmate has a… low boiling point, so try to avoid angering him in the future."

Behind the expressionless face was a 4th generation masterpiece of a human, now struggling to make conversation with a boy in his class.

"Duly noted. Though I wonder how his interpersonal relationships will hold… especially since he looks like the type to join a sports team."

Ayanokouji gave me an inscrutable glance, before binning the rubbish, and getting ready to leave.

"I can imagine he'll probably be involved in further problems down the line. I'll be heading off now. It was nice to meet you Kobayashi-Kun."

With that, the boy left as Yukio reflected on his first conversation with the class D mastermind, thinking to himself that the conversation felt quite dry. Putting the thought aside, as he usually did with troublesome matters, he made his way into the store and bought as many free items as he could as well as the groceries to cook nutritious meals.

— — —

Handed the key card to room 403, a room on the same level as the protagonist's, Yukio made his way up the elevator and into the 200-square-foot room.

In the room was a clean kitchen, a single bed, a desk, a double wardrobe, and a nightstand.

'This… will need some massive personalisation.'

Having left his bag in the classroom, he was empty of luggage, so he went over to the kitchen and sorted his groceries, before cooking himself a delicious meal.

Cooking had never been an interest of his but as the firstborn child of a regular well-to-do family, his mother had decided to take his culinary lessons into her own hands.

She taught him how to cook many dishes ranging from pasta and kebabs to curries and even a loaf of bread. Only satisfied when the teenager was able to understand the different seasonings and spices, and know when to use them, she let up on his lessons. It was only a year later that he realised the reason behind his mother's frantic race to teach him self-sustenance skills.

Shelving away the grim memories, he ate his meal in serene silence.

'Ah… that hits the spot. Food is the way to a man…? Or was it food is the way to a man's heart? No, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach! And that's very true! I want to check out Pallet Cafe later on. Most of the interesting meetings happened in there.'

Finishing his meal and cleaning up, Yukio decided to take a rest to think about what the future would hold for him. He needed a few short-term goals besides making friends, especially ones that would help him survive at this special high school.

'I'll probably run dry these next few months in terms of private points. If I get sorted appropriately, the cruise ship test could be a nice 500,000pp injection into my account. So I've just got to survive until then.'

Thinking about the class point change that would occur, Yukio decided to leave the class to its ruin. There are highs only when one has experienced lows, and Yukio did not want to mess with Ayanokouji's plans for the class, let alone take over the job from him.

'To become friends with Ike and Yamauchi… I'd rather not. I've already dealt with the likes for the past 7 years, it's time for a change. I can see myself hanging with the Ayanokouji group, but since that forms down the line, I might just go for befriending Hirata. That guy is going to be mighty popular later on, and we do share similar interests in football. His messiah complex can be a bit frustrating, however.'

Thinking over his options, Yukio undressed to get in some exercise. Maintaining a good physique would do ways to bolster his confidence, and perform well at school. That hit two birds with one stone and so working out would be an essential part of his high school life.

— — —

Having worked out, showered, and unfortunately getting back into his school uniform, he made his way to the Keyaki mall. The entrance was quite busy with several groups of first and second years milling about.

Yukio walked right in, looking for a clothes shop to purchase some casual and relaxed wear, as well as a pair of shorts for his nightwear. He'd been recently into the cargo pants, hoodie and cap trend, and so bought the combination, as well as some jeans, shirts, Tees, and a pair of shoes. In his past life, the cargos and hoodie combo was having a resurgence, but here it was yet to be a trend, so he might have looked slightly out of place in the future, but since he was a foreigner, it could just be explained as a fashion trend abroad.

Arranging for it all to be delivered to his room, he walked over to the food court, hoping he might find the pair of girls hanging about. By some stroke of luck, he was able to find the pair, a good two hours after they had first got to the mall.

"Matsushita-san. Mori-san."

Turning their heads to him, Chiaki beamed while Nene politely nodded.

"Come sit here! What were you up to while we were shopping?"

Like that, the time passed. Though not without the odd exclamation here and there-

"You spent what?! 30,000 private points on the first day?"

With a disbelieving gaze, Yukio stared at Nene who lowered her head and meekly, but with a hint of mischief, nodded in confirmation. He couldn't comprehend how one could squander a third of their next 3 months of living expenses on the first day, but then he realised the pair, or at least Nene, were ignorant to the machinations of the school.

"Haa… well it is what it is. And you, Matsushita-san… how much did you spend?"

Slightly afraid of the answer he would get, expecting an exorbitant figure again, he was pleasantly surprised at the wisdom of the other girl at the table.

"Unlike Nene-Chan over here, I only spent a little under 5000pp buying the essentials."

Displaying a devious smile at her newfound friend's admonishment, Chiaki replied with a sensible figure, mirroring a figure similar to his own spending.

'Hm… Chiaki has been quite helpful this morning, and Nene is also quite fun to be around. Maybe I can drop them some hints about spending private points. I can see myself being part of their circle in the future, and no one wants to see a friend of theirs suffering. Oh… except Hirata of course.'

Dropping the snide dig in his own thoughts, and one which would only ever remain in his thoughts, Yukio thought about how to open a conversation about the private points.

"Hey, what did you guys think about Sensei's explanation about the private points? I feel like she was hiding something from us."

"Exactly! Isn't it a bit too comfortable to pass the entrance tests and be rewarded with so much pocket money every month? Hell, I have some pretty rich parents but even I never got that kind of pocket money before school. Did you have any idea about it, Yukio-Kun?"

Yukio was glad Chiaki was quick on the uptake, and so he turned to Nene- the one who had spent the most- with a serious look, while planning what information to spread.

— — —

Looking over at Yukio, Matsushita gave him a profound glance, while thinking to herself-

'Mentioning private points as soon as he learns of Nene splurging, huh? This boy knows something, doesn't he? I guess I'll just probe him and find out.'