Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

It was a usual Saturday morning—as usual as it could get at this unconventional school. I had set an alarm on my phone, but it looked like my body had woken up a few minutes before it. The sun had yet to completely rise, causing the entire landscape of the schoolyard to be coloured in a velvety-purple shade. Looking out of the window, I stared out into the distance.

The last few days had been a little bit more of a hassle than I would\'ve liked. In the end, it was the nature of the Tachibana System. I hoped that there\'d finally be some downtime so I could sit back and relax.

In the end, all I wanted was to live a relatively normal school life.

Kimura was still fast asleep, curled up under the covers of his bed. I had nothing in particular to do, so I decided to just take a walk around. Despite how rushed the development of the facilities of National High School was, the school offered a very comforting atmosphere with clean, modern infrastructure and well-kept garden beds.

The door squeaked as I gently pulled it open.

Making my way down the halls of the dormitory, the ceiling lights automatically turned on, noticing my presence. It wasn\'t long before I found myself in the reception area. There was no one behind the counter, but I did notice a few other students walking around. They mostly looked like first-years.

As I went out onto the footpath, I was approached by a familiar girl.

"Ah, Ayato, it\'s been a while...~"

With light brown hair, slightly blushed cheeks and an awkward smile, Fujiharu looked up at me. She lacked the usual upbeat expression that she used to have. Still, she was neither unattractive nor even unpleasant. She seemed much more—normal.

"Hey, Fujiharu."

She was twiddling her thumbs.

"Good job on winning the finals."

"I didn\'t really win. It just happened, I guess."

Hasegawa\'s immediate forfeit was unexpected, even for me. I would\'ve thought that she\'d go for the more pragmatic approach and take the extra points. In the end, I gave Kimura 20,000 points and the immunity, leaving me with 20,000 extra points.

Fujiharu walked closer to me.

"Anyways, you\'re awake as early as you always are~"

She was referring to how I used to always arrive at school early. It was the first trait of mine that she ever recognised. Thinking back on it, I\'m reminded of her old tendency to make her seatmate fall in love with her. I wonder if she\'s still doing it. Well, I didn\'t wonder enough to be bothered asking.

The two of us walked down the path, making our way toward the commercial area.

"So, what are you planning on doing, Ayato?"

"I just wanted to take a walk around the school."

"Ah, you don\'t mind if I follow, do you?"

"I\'m fine with it."

As we strolled through the schoolyard, I noticed that Fujiharu was walking a few centimetres behind me. I guess her personality\'s changed since the incident at the aquarium. It was somewhat dark outside since it was too late for the lights to be on but too early, so the sun wasn\'t fully up.

I had a quick look at my bank balance.

-

Your Account

Current Points: 23,895

Owed: 27,780

Owing: 12,000

-

On the bright side, I had a pretty decent stockpile of points. However, I\'d have preferred to have just stayed more discrete at this school.

"Ayato, did you hear that they\'re building an arcade soon?"

"Is that so."

"I\'ve been waiting for something like this for a while!"

"I guess the school is lacking in entertainment."

"When it\'s finished, we should go there."

"I\'ll think about it."

"Eh..." Fujiharu pouted as she looked over at me. Talking with her, it was clear that she was much more reserved. I did like her more like this.

We eventually arrived at the commercial area of the school.

"Did you have something you wanted to buy?" she asked.

"Not really."

"Ah, well, I need to get some conditioner."

"The school gave us quite a bit at the beginning of the year, didn\'t they?"

"Saying something like that to a girl, I can\'t just use the standard school conditioner!"

"Oh."

The two of us made our way into the grocery/convenience store. There were a few students walking around, seemingly making lots of effort to check the prices of everything. I guess it was around the time when many students would be running low.

Following Fujiharu, we made walked over to the bathroom supplies section. After looking around for a little, Fujiharu picked out the most expensive conditioner.

"That\'s pretty expensive."

"Don\'t worry. I\'ve got plenty of points. You should see some of the other girls. They\'re not even in class A, yet they buy expensive cosmetics all the time."

"Really?"

"Yeah, now they\'re going around begging for more points. It\'s pretty unpleasant."

"Ah."

We made our way back over to the counter, and Fujiharu paid for the conditioner.

"Ayato, do you want to have breakfast at the cafe with me?"

"I usually make my own."

"Eh, well, I should\'ve expected that from you."

"Sorry."

"It\'s fine. I\'ll pay for your meal if you\'re trying to save points... I still haven\'t paid you back for the time you bought me fried chicken~. Come on!"

"Uh, I guess so."

"Yay~ let\'s go!"

I wasn\'t really sure if Fujiharu was still doing her old mission. I guess if she were paying for the meal, there\'d be no reason for me not to go.

For the third time, I found myself seated at a table in the small yet cosy cafe. A restaurant was nearing completion, so this cafe wouldn\'t be alone anymore.

Looking down at the menu, I had a look at some of the options. Fujiharu was pretty enthusiastic about this, so I decided to actually pick something to eat.

"I\'ll just have a coffee and the fried cauliflower."

"Ehe~ alright. I\'ll grab an orange juice and the eggs benedict."

The server made his way over to our table.