The day has finally come.
My heart is pounding. The next three years are going to determine the path of my life. Here we go!
The high school section entrance ceremony was held on a bright April day, sakura petals dancing in the breeze.
Since about a hundred new External Students will be joining us, it makes sense that I couldn’t spot her.
The representative of the current Suiran students was Tomoe-senpai, the Student Council President of the high school section, and it was him who gave the speech too.
As I was thinking about how cool he is, next up was Kaburagi, representing the new students.
Anyhow, eventually the ceremony ended and we headed to our classrooms as we looked at the sheet with our classes on them.
Doesn’t seem to be in my class at least.
As I continued looking through the list of first years… umm… Oh!
Takamichi Wakaba.
…Her name was really there.
Where is she? I wanna see her. I wanna see what Wakaba-chan looks like.
Can’t be helped. I’ll have plenty of other chances to see her. I’ll give up for now.
I decided to just give up and headed for my classroom.
When I entered my new classroom, the students were divided firmly into two camps: the new Externals who were sitting nervously by themselves, and the comfortable Internals who were happily chatting in groups of existing friends.
“Ah-, Reika-sama!”
“Reika-sama, gokigen’you. It appears that we’re in the same class this time!”
Starting with my own group, girls began to form a ring to welcome me.
“Gokigen’you, everybody. It overjoys me that we will be together this year. Please take care of me.”
“Gokigen’you, Reika-sama. I’m feeling terribly relieved to be in the same class as you.”
“Reika-sama, gokigen’you.”
Everyone started greeting me with a smile. A few Externals glanced my way. Some of them seemed familiar somehow, so I suppose they must be members of upper society. There aren’t that many scholarship places, so the rest of the Externals have to be from fairly high backgrounds or at least rich enough to pay tuition. The number of genuine commoners is surprisingly little. And Wakaba-chan is one of those few genuine commoners.
She must be getting hit by such a culture shock right now. This is just totally different from any school she’s been to, after all. I was shocked too when I entered the primary school section. But boy is she going to be even more shocked once they introduce the students to the facilities.
When our new homeroom teacher entered the class, everybody took a seat and we began our introductions.
“I am Kisshouin Reika. I sincerely hope that we shall get along this year.”
When it was my turn I gave what I thought was a fairly standard introduction, but for some reason a number of people started applauding me.
I know that you kids don’t mean anything bad, but please stop that!
I’m not bad news at all, okay~ I’m not scary at all, okay~ I’m not a threat at all, okay~
There were some other girls who seemed like they could do it, but Sensei just looked at me with these eyes that said, ‘Hey, you wouldn’t refuse, right? Hey, you’ll do it, right?’ so in the end I accepted. Ueh~ Must be hard on you, Sensei.
Deciding the people for the various other roles as well as a tour of the school would be taking place during tomorrow’s home room period, so with that, class ended and we were all excused.
In the end, I never got to see Wakaba-chan today.
At any rate, now that Wakaba-chan has entered school, I don’t have any time left to lose.
When I got home, over and over, I told Otousama,
“Fraud is bad.”
Otousama was playing dumb and said he had no idea what I was talking about, but I’m begging you here, just tell the truth.
Aaah, I’m not making any progress with Otousama. I have to talk to Oniisama instead!
The next morning, it was time for the various other responsibilities to be handed out.
Speaking of which, last year Little Monk mentioned something like,
“Enjou-kun handed out the roles to the External Students who were less familiar with the school,”
didn’t he. Should I copy him?
Anyway, I decided to take a stab at it.
“Those of you who have just entered, I encourage you as well to proactively volunteer.”
Still, not many of them raised their hands. Hmm~ Guess it can’t be helped.
In the end, most of the representatives were Internals, so I suppose I’ll just have to slowly get them to participate from now on.
After that was a tour of the school. Sensei and the class reps led everybody else in a row.
The next place on our tour was the cafeteria. Wow, it’s larger than the middle school one too. I wonder if the menu has increased too.
How did it go in middle school again? They just seemed to all know after a while.
After that, we continued touring here and there, and just as the tour was about to end, we finally arrived at the Student Council room.
“Oh! So it’s your class, Kisshouin-san. Come in, come in.”
When we entered, Tomoe-senpai and the rest of the members introduced themselves to us.
“Kisshouin-san, you’re class rep even though you’re a Pivoine? Geez, you should just go all the way and enter the Student Council already,”
said Tomoe-senpai with a cheerful smile.
“That would be impossible for me.”
“Yeah. I mean, you are still Pivoine, huh. Oh, you External kids, the Pivoine is a group that receives special treatment here at Suiran. For the details you can ask some of the Internals. Incidentally, that red flower badge that Kisshouin-san is wearing is proof of membership, so be careful about those who wear them.”
Tomoe-senpai, explanations are fine and all, but the way you said it sounded like you were warning them to be careful about me, you know!?
Look, aren’t all the External kids looking even more frightened of me now…
“If you have any problems at all, come talk to the Student Council. But well, I guess things should be fine since you have Kisshouin-san anyway. She’s great at looking after others. If there’s anything you don’t know, just ask her. She’s a really good girl.”
Kyau~un! Tomoe-senpaaai! I really do love you after allll!
After saying goodbye to the wonderful Tomoe-senpai and co., we were heading down the hallway as another class came from the opposite end.
──And for a moment, a familiar face passed by me.
Wakaba-chan!
The Wakaba-chan I spotted was just like the Wakaba-chan I knew.
Uwahhh, this is kinda moving.
After that, I kept turning around to look at her, and the new class rep started looking at me with worry. Oops, look at me, making mistakes so soon after entering. I’m nobody suspicious, okay~
Yesterday I only saw her name, but seeing her in person today moved me a little.
As expected, he probably was doing something shady because he escaped to the study and holed himself up in there. That why to be doubly sure, I stood in front of the door and said,
“The heavens are always watching, okay!”
when Oniisama came home and dragged me into the living room and got angry at me, saying,
“I’ve already checked the records for the last two years, and there’s nothing like that, so just stop with the weird worries already.”
Really, Oniisama? Can I trust you, Oniisama?
“Dad is getting depressed because his daughter keeps falsely suspecting him,”
he said, so I decided to reflect a little on wronging Otousama.
I understand. I’ll believe in you and Otousama then. We’re family after all.
But just to make sure, I’ll just make sure to remind him once in a while that the Heavens = Me.
Hey, it’s just to make sure, okay?