The First Day of School

Tachibana Private High School, a new but prestigious high school in Tokyo that only accepted students with excellent academic or athletic records. Today, the school opened its doors to yet another batch of new, but capable students to its school. Although the school usually only accepted applications when they considered accepting students into the school, there is a rumour among students that there exists a scouting committee that oversees scouting students who have excellent records both academically as well as athletically.

In class 1-E, students were meeting their classmates for the first time as well as their homeroom teacher. However, few students were standing out more than the others. Takeshi Keigo, accepted to the school based on his record of his baseball achievements during his middle school days. He was already surrounded by a few boys and girls and bragging about his achievements and abilities to the group around him.

On the other side of the classroom, two girls were receiving a lot of attention from the boys compared to the other girls. The first girl in question was known as Saki Chihaya. Chihaya was a slightly taller-than-average girl with short, red hair and a beautiful face. She had a beautiful face with a slender body figure and had a slightly tomboyish attitude. She was accepted into the school through the athletics department where her basketball achievements in middle school were good enough to be accepted.

The other girl attracting attention was Chihiro Mai, who was sitting at the front corner of the class, who seemed to be having difficulties communicating whilst being surrounded by her male classmates. She had silky, long, dark purple hair with blue fades at the end that were slightly curled on its lower half. She was accepted into the school on account of her excellent academic record where she ranked second in the national middle school exams.

As the chatter among the new classmates continued, the front door slid open and a young, beautiful middle-aged woman entered the classroom. From the way she was formally dressed, one could tell that she was a teacher. Makinohara Shiki, a 27-year-old teacher who was just assigned as a homeroom teacher for the first time in her career. She had long, black hair and a strict look about her.

"Please be seated everyone. I am Makinohara Shiki, and I will be your homeroom teacher for this year. It will be my first time as a homeroom teacher so I hope we can be understanding towards each other. I will also be your teacher for chemistry."

"Firstly, I would like to take the attendance. After that, I shall have each of you come up and introduce yourselves one by one so that your classmates will know who you are. Am I understood?"

From the way she commanded herself, the students would never have guessed that it was her first time ever as a homeroom teacher. She did a pretty good job at it as far as first impressions went. She gave a friendly but strict approach towards the students so that they know they could approach her if they wanted to but not to cross any lines that could anger her.

"Hmm? I only count 28 of you in the class. Shouldn't there be 29 in the class? Well, never mind that, we will know when I call your names. First up is… Amane Kei?"

When she called the first name on the list, she got no response from the 28 students sat in front of her. She had pretty much guessed from the silence that Kei was the missing student.

'Hmm… could it be that student that the principal was telling me about earlier."

When she finished calling the 28 other names on the list, she proceeded to the icebreaking session where the students had to introduce themselves in front of the classroom. Since time was limited, she had them introduce in the format where they would introduce their names, their middle school, entrance qualifications, and likes and dislikes.

Students went up one by one to introduce themselves but the boys were only interested in two girls' introductions in particular, whereas the girls were only interested in Keigo's introduction. Although he was an arrogant boy, Keigo was still a relatively handsome boy and when paired with his baseball background, it would be safe to say that whe would be rather popular.

"M-my name is Chihiro Mai… I came from Touno Girl's Middle School… I applied through… the academics qualifications…"

"Likes and dislikes?"

"Umm… I like… sweet things… and… dislike bitter things…"

"Looks like you need to work on your confidence Chihiro-san. Well, you have a long time to do so, so I wish you luck. Now on to the next person." Shiki-sensei said as Mai returned to his seat.

"I am Takeshi Keigo, you can all call me Keigo if you want! I am from Ookubo High School, yes, THE Ookubo High School where I was the captain of the baseball club and won the championship in my final year. Naturally, I was accepted through the athletics division. I like girls and dislike people who act like they're better than everyone. Pleasure to meet you all, especially the girls!"

Keigo's introduction was more like a declaration that he was looking for a girl to date, or rather he was interested in being swooned by the girls. He thought that his confident would attract many suitors. However, it had the opposite effect as some of the girls gave a slightly disgusted look as if they were saying 'So self-centered!'

"I asked for a simple introduction, not your weird intent to start a harem. Next student please."

"My name is Saki Chihaya! Nice to meet everyone! I am from Fukutsuku Middle School in Osaka. I applied using my athletic records. Naturally, I like exercise but I dislike arrogant people. Nice to meet everyone!"

"Fukutsuku… Is that the famous middle school known for its students' academic excellence?!" Shiki-sensei asked with a sudden burst of curiosity.

"Heheh. Yep! But I am ashamed to say that my grades are average at best since sports is the only thing I'm pretty much good at."

Fukutsuku Middle School was known as an institution that churned out students who were excellent in their academics and their students always had a majority in the top 10 of the national middle school examinations. Any school would be happy to accept any students that came from that school.

The rest of the student introductions consisted of students who were trying to give off a cheerful and friendly vibe so that they would let others know that they are approachable. As the introductions had finally come to an end, there was still around 15 minutes left for the homeroom session. As Shiki-sensei wanted to use the extra time to explain the things she wanted to explain during the next class, the front door of the classroom slid opened where an expressionless boy entered the classroom.

The boy that had just entered the class had short, messy dark blue hair paired with his dark blue eyes and gave off a mysterious aura to the class. His facial features along with his tall height made him look slightly like a model. When he entered the classroom, he walked up to Shiki-sensei before giving her a bow.

"Forgive my lateness sensei, I had some problems with my enrolment papers and was in the office to sort it out."

"Mmm, I heard about you from the principal earlier. I shall excuse your lateness just this once. Now that you are here, can you introduce yourself to the class? Start off with your name, middle school, how you were accepted into the school, and then your likes and dislikes."

"Ahhh… Ummm…"

The boy looked reluctant to introduce himself when he heard the format that Shiki-sensei wanted him to introduce himself in.

"Don't you think he looks cute?"

"Is he an athlete? His body build looks like one."

"Less talkative and less willing to talk about himself compared to Keigo… +1 Point!"

As he was trying to come up with an excuse to not disclose all his personal details to the class, his female classmates were whispering among themselves whilst checking the new classmate out. When Keigo heard that last comment, something in him had triggered.

"Oy, it's just an introduction. Just get it over with. I don't think that anything you say will be as amazing as mine will be anyway so it's not worth hiding anyway."

'Heh, just you wait, I bet your qualifications aren't even that amazing to begin with. Once the girls compare your qualifications with mine, they will surely look at you like you're some sort of loser!"

As Keigo was trying his best to embarrass the him, the new student saw no way out of this predicament.

"Haah… Fine… My name is Amane Kei… I am from Fukutsuku Middle School in Osaka… I recently moved to Tokyo to study here… That is all about me…"

"Heeh~ Fukutsuku as well huh? Well, you left out the part about how you got into the school. Seeing as you're from Fukutsuku, did you enter using the academics department?"

"'As well'? Umm… yeah… let's go with that…"

Kei continued to show no expression to the class and Shiki-sensei whilst only giving vague answers to keep as much of his information private as he could. However, Shiki-sensei was still not satisfied with his answers.

"Hmmm~ Still not giving me everything, huh? May I know what was your results during the national middle school examinations?" Shiki-sensei asked with a small grin on her face.

"Umm… that's—"

"Keiiii-Chiiinnnnn! I can't believe we're in the same class!"

Just then, Kei was interrupted by Chihaya who was sitting in the back half of the class.

"Ohh? Do you know him, Chihaya?"

"Hmm? Ah yes! He's Amane Kei! He's amazing you know? He's the top student in the national middle school exams!"

When she said that, the class fell silent for a while before erupting. The girls were talking about how they were going to befriend Kei whereas the boys were staring daggers at Kei when they thought he already had an express pass to one of the class beauties.

"Heeh~ Not only do we have the second placed student in the national exam, but the first as well hmm? So, I take it that you applied using the academics department?"

"That's…"

"That's?"

Just when Kei was stuck in another bind, a knock came upon the classroom door before opening. A male teacher stuck half his body into the classroom.

"Shiki-sensei, may I borrow Amane-san for a moment?"

"Ah, Yanagi-sensei, by all means."

Kei was saved by Yanagi-sensei who called for him. When he left the classroom with Yanagi-sensei, his classmates were left even more curious as they wondered what it was all about and why he kept stumbling when Shiki-sensei asked about his qualifications.