Chapter 26

The first period is over. As expected, elementary school is too easy.

"Hi, I should call you... Makabe-kun, right?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Ah... um, I'm Kawai Miki, the class representative. If you need anything, you can ask me anytime."

[Would you like to see your potential partner rating?]

Goddammit. Stop with this nonsense already.

"Thank you, class rep," I nodded to the girl with glasses and ash-blonde hair.

Finally. She left me alone—or so I thought...

Tap! Tap!

Until someone poked my left shoulder.

"Hey, you."

I turned my head a little to find a girl with long black hair and purple eyes smiling cheekily at me.

[Would you like to see your potential partner rating?]

This floating screen won't stop pestering me about this dating quest. If I could break the fourth wall, I'd smash this annoying system that keeps asking me these ridiculous questions.

"Hm?"

I hummed in response to the girl's cheeky smile.

"What kind of response was that? Anyway, you've got a cool outfit. Where'd you get that tracksuit?"

Why was she so hyped about a tracksuit? I guess she's into fashion.

"Dunno..." I shrugged. "Someone bought it for me."

When my birthday rolled around in October, I got a lot of stuff from my wealthy friends.

And Hana, my sugar mom—ahem!—gave me a bunch of stuff like branded clothes, watches, shoes, and other stuff. Best mommy ever. She saved me a lot of time by buying things for me, like what I'm wearing now.

She grinned. "Really? That's cool. Can I call you Masamune?"

I hummed, then said, "No."

"Naoka-chan! Isn't that too soon? Asking to call him by his first name is embarrassing!"

"I'm not shy or anything," said the black-haired girl.

Kawai Miki, who sat in the front row on the right, was trying to warn her, but I noticed she was blushing for no reason. Wait—was I really that popular? After everything with Rita, who confessed she liked me, and later, after I saved Teresa, who also seemed different afterward... hm... well, I didn't realized it since I lived in different country.

Ah, I remember now. These two were supposed to be side characters I didn't like from the movie. The black-haired girl, whose name I forgot, was the one who would eventually bully the girl next to me. And Miki? She was the hypocrite who enjoyed watching others get bullied while avoiding the blame.

"I'm Ueno Naoka. You can call me Naoka if you want."

"I'm fine, thanks."

The black-haired girl stopped giggling after I politely told her to fuck off. But she seemed clueless and eager to figure out why I responded so plainly. Then, the class rep decided to join the conversation again.

"Makabe-kun, before you came here, where are you from?" Miki asked.

"Hey, Miki, isn't that obvious? He's too stylish to be from the countryside," Naoka said with a mocking laugh at Miki's question.

"Naoka-chan, that's so mean! There's nothing wrong with asking him."

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm from Chiba." I lied, deciding not to make a scene about being a transfer from England.

"Hehe! I knew it!—huh?! Is Chiba... countryside?"

"Uh-huh, I transferred from Chiba."

"No way! That's a lie."

Tap, tap. I turned to see Shoko smiling as she signed, {What were you guys talking about earlier?}

I smiled back. {They were asking where I'm from. I told them I transferred from Chiba.}

She lit up. {I see. Thank you for telling me.}

"Makabe-kun, don't tell me you know sign language?" The two girls looked at me, puzzled.

"Yeah, just a little."

"Whoa, that's so cool, Makabe-kun!" Miki said, amazed.

"So you're smart, too, huh? Hey, wanna teach me?" Naoka asked with a grin.

"Just learn it on YouTube."

"Uweeeh! So stingy."

"Alright, back to your desks, kids..." The teacher arrived for the next lesson.

Tap, tap.

I turned to the right. Shoko smiled and began signing, {What were you talking about with Ueno?}

{She was asking about sign language.}

Shoko smiled brightly. {I see! One of our classmates has also been trying to learn it recently.}

---

The next day at school, things seemed unusually peaceful.

During the third period, Arithmetic class. It was too easy, and to my surprise, Takeuchi was teaching math instead of PE. The school day continued uneventfully—

"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A loud noise erupted from the back of the room, and the classroom fell into silence. I glanced at Shoko, who seemed startled but kept her composure.

I turned slightly to see the source of the noise: a boy awkwardly backing away in his seat, clearly avoiding my gaze. I frowned.

"Oi, Ishida. We're in the middle of class."

Takeuchi spoke plainly, barely looking up from his book. What the hell? I swear, this guy's got no spine. And he's supposed to be a teacher? Is this where my tax money is going?

Most of the class tried to suppress their laughter.

"Sensei," I called out, and the class grew quiet.

"What is it, Makabe?" Takeuchi asked, adjusting his glasses with an air of annoyance.

I sighed. He was so irritating.

"We want to change our seats," I said.

He glanced at me before responding, "I see... That might be reasonable. We can do that next week."

"I refuse. Sitting here with a bully behind me is disturbing. It's affecting my ability to study and stressing me out."

"Young man, be patient. If I move you two, I'll have to rearrange everyone's seats, and that will waste our precious study time," he replied, clearly uninterested. From the moment I first saw him, I knew he didn't care about his job, and now he was treating Shoko's bullying like it was just a hassle.

"I see... So losing some hearing ability is less precious than our time? Is that what you're saying?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

Takeuchi frowned, annoyed.

"Don't mock me in my class, Makabe. The consequences could be severe."

The whole class seemed to tense up at his response. Pathetic.

"I'm confused about who's mocking who here. Wasn't it the idiot behind me who shouted during your class?"

I shot a side glance at the boy, and the entire class followed my lead. It seemed they were in agreement.

"I'm just saying.... shouting like that at Nishimiya could hurt her ears. I know she's deaf, but she can still hear some sounds to a certain degree. And it would be worse if she had hearing aids. Furthermore, that kind of behavior shouldn't be tolerated. I think Sensei should take this seriously, or this bully behind me will just escalate his behavior. He won't stop. And earlier, no one in the class even tried to stop him. They just giggled like a bunch of idiots. I'm sure parents wouldn't be happy to know the school is tolerating bullying."

To put it simply, do your fucking job. Shit, I felt like a lawyer speaking to idiotic judge. Even tthough I could see he understood every word I said.

"Fine," he sighed. "Hirose, Chiyoda, switch seats with Makabe and Nishimiya."

"Y-yes..." they responded groggily.

I turned to Shoko and told her we'd be moving to the front row.

"Alright then. Makabe..." Takeuchi said, "solve these problems."

Ah, I see, it's so obvious. So now he was annoyed and trying to pick on me.

"He's done for."

"Serves him right."

I could hear the whispers around me.

But solving arithmetic problems was way too easy. I stood up, walked to the chalkboard, and began solving it one by one. I finished all of them because he hadn't told me to stop. I stop as I filling up the entire board.

"Good... work," Takeuchi said grudgingly. "Alright everyone, take notes."

I walked back to my seat, noticing the class hurriedly taking notes.

Tap, tap.

I turned to see Shoko waving her hand. {Thank you. For standing up. For me,} she signed, I could see she was blushing as well.

I smiled slightly. {Easy. Earlier, it should be hurt, but how is your ear?}

She smiled meekly, signing, {I'm fine. It just startled me a little. Thank you for asking, Makabe.} Damn, I can't stand seeing that poor smile.

---

tomorrow, I won't be uploading and come back later so... please gimme power stones, thank you