Chapter Three

Kenji sat down on the bench near the vending machine, leaning back on the backrest as he sipped on his juice, while Ayanokoji sat next to him, popping open a can of coffee.

"So, how was your first day?"

Kenji asked, glancing over at his current beverage companion with an interested gaze, honestly curious if the first day was as boring for someone else as it was for him.

"It was fine, pretty normal."

What a peculiar choice of words, "Normal" huh? He guessed that it was pretty normal for anyone other than him, but he didn't dwell on that.

"So, Kenji-san, have you already started spending your points?"

Kenji looked up at the sky, pondering how to answer the question and masking it by sipping on his juice for a bit.

"Just the necessities and some clothes."

Ayanokoji hummed in response, giving him a once-over. He wore a black V-neck shirt with a green button-up above that with its sleeves brought up to his elbows, black jeans, and shoes.

Kenji leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and inspecting the box he was holding.

"Say, Ayanokoji, isn't it weird that we got a hundred thousand points at the start of the year?"

The man was like an impenetrable wall, not even getting a raised eyebrow at the question, instead, Kiyotaka sipped his own beverage before answering with a question of his own.

"What do you mean?"

What did he mean, indeed? Things weren't as they seemed, the school gave them a large amount of spending money, and told them that more money would be given to them by the first of next month.

The school was baiting them to use the points.

"It just seems suspicious, that's all, judging from what Sae-sensei said, it seems like we are being tested every day."

Musing out loud, Kenji took a sip from the box, fully aware of the piercing stare directed at the side of his head.

He knew something, if not, then he was at least suspicious. Kenji suppressed a smile, at least not everyone in his class was an idiot, the only thing left to see was the extent of what he could do.

Hopefully, others would not disappoint either.

"Well, enough of my blabbering, you have any hobbies?"

He leaned back, with his lips spreading into a smile as he looked at Ayanokoji, tilting his head slightly to project at least some dose of curiosity.

"I did Calligraphy and Piano in middle school, along with tea ceremony."

His companion looked down at his coffee, swirling around the liquid inside a little and looked back at him with a question of his own.

"What about you, Kenji-San, do you have any hobbies?"

Smirking slightly, he crumpled the box in his hand before throwing it away as he answered.

"I like puzzles, strategy games and some sports."

He did like puzzles and strategy games, and he played basketball, football and volleyball was the last one, he was looking into archery before he found out that there were no archery ranges anywhere near where he currently lived.

In the end, he threw out the archery idea, his throwing skills didn't need any improvements and military wasn't resorting to bows, as funny as that would be.

He'd much rather use a gun instead of a bow, maybe he would get the chance to practice after he left this place.

___

The second day of school, was more or less normal, like any other high school would be, probably, he never went to any other high schools before.

Kenji listened to Sae-Sensei, taking note of anything that was important, even though he knew these and would be useless in any other situation other than tests, damn tests.

Resting his head on one hand, he wrote with the other as the class went on, occasionally glancing at his fellow students. Most of them were... lousing around, most of them were texting, some sleeping, one was openly reading something from a tablet.

The teachers weren't even reprimanding them, just going on with their lessons like nothing was happening.

Honestly, this only proved his suspicions, except it also made more doubts arise in his mind.

As Sae-Sensei said, they would be judged by their worth, they probably wont' be judged individually but as a whole. Class-D was currently driving themselves to ruin, and it was only the second day. As soon as they noticed that teachers ignored their misbehavior, everyone just went off at the third lesson.

But he wouldn't be the one to tell them that, that would be stupid on his part, sure, it may stop the class from loosing points, but that's the only thing it's going to do. If they had no points for the second month, the motivation to study, which wasn't really present in most of the class, would be kindled.

Well, at least he hoped, he couldn't exactly look into the minds of these people and he couldn't see the future.

The bell rang, signaling the start of the lunch break and the students started scattering around.

(It's a shame for the class points, though, we originally had one hundred thousand class points, which is very unlikely, most probably it was either five, two or one thousand points with twenty, fifty and a hundred times multiplier.)

Kenji sighed and took out a bento he made inside his room yesterday and opened it up. Insides were simple, rice, meat and vegetables, it was basic and provided every bit of energy he would need for the day.

Not like he needed any more muscle.

"Hey, Kenji, wanna head to th- oh."

Turning his head, he saw Ayanokoji looking at his bento with his blank face, he probably wanted to invite him to the cafeteria.

Standing up, he put the lid back on the bento and picked it up, sliding the chair back inside the desk.

"Sure, let's go."