Chapter 2: The Battle for the Seat
Five minutes later, inside the Faculty Office.
Hiratsuka Shizuka looked at Yoru and Yotsuya Miko sitting across from her with a skeptical expression, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
"Just a sprained ankle, and he casually helped you out... Is it really that simple? Then why were you crying?"
Miko, having already wiped away her tears with a tissue, still looked a bit dazed and mentally absent. It wasn't until Shizuka repeated the question that she finally snapped back to reality and hurriedly replied.
"Um... it's because the sprain hurt so much. I didn't mean to make you misunderstand, Sensei."
"Really?"
Miko nodded vigorously like a chick pecking at rice.
"Yes, yes, it's true."
Miko wasn't stupid.
She figured if she told the truth, Hiratsuka Shizuka definitely wouldn't believe her.
Worse, she might even be labeled as a problem student with a weird personality.
Miko didn't want to leave such a strange impression on her teacher on the very first day of high school.
"If that's the case, you should head to the classroom. Or do you need someone to help you to the infirmary?"
Hearing this, Miko waved her hands frantically and forced a smile.
"Thank you for your concern, Sensei, but I'm pretty much fine now."
With that, she quickly stood up and hurried out of the office.
Watching Miko's retreating figure, a meaningful look flashed in Shizuka's eyes. Then, she turned her gaze to Yoru, who was still sitting in front of her. She sighed helplessly, massaging her temples, and picked up the peach wood dagger from the desk.
"What is this?"
Yoru replied with righteous confidence: "A decoration."
Shizuka frowned deeply, her slender fingers tapping the sharp tip of the wooden dagger.
"Setting aside the danger of this thing for a moment..."
She picked up the silver nail from the desk and waved it in front of Yoru's face.
"This is definitely contraband that shouldn't be brought into school, right? Besides, why are you carrying this around?"
"Self-defense."
"Defend against what? This is a school. Both this and the wooden dagger are confiscated."
Shizuka put the silver nail and the peach wood dagger into her drawer. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she handed the few protective charms with crooked, messy writing on them back to Yoru.
"This doesn't violate any rules, so take it back."
"Alright. Thanks, Sensei."
Yoru thought to himself: You confiscated the two useful items but gave back the useless charms.
Though he thought that, he still took the charms and carefully tucked them into his jacket.
After all, he still had to go find that old geezer at the shrine stall to get a refund.
"By the way..."
Shizuka hesitated but couldn't help asking out of curiosity.
"Are protective charms nowadays printed? Can that even be effective?"
Yoru nodded and replied nonchalantly.
"We have to keep up with the times. The ink used in the printer was blessed."
"Is that so?"
Shizuka nodded noncommittally and said earnestly.
"Then you should head back to the classroom too."
"Okay."
After Yoru left, another female teacher in the office spoke up. She was wearing a professional suit skirt paired with black stockings and high heels, had long sakura-pink hair, and looked very serious. She commented faintly:
"Shizuka, you are too lenient with students. Fooling around like this on the first day of school... what will happen in the long run?"
Shizuka took a sip of her coffee before waving her hand dismissively.
"It doesn't matter. Since neither student wanted to talk about it, let them be."
The pink-haired teacher then delivered a devastating verbal blow to Shizuka in a completely calm tone.
"You were just afraid that if you dug too deep and heard a clumsy romance story between a boy and a girl, you'd have a mental breakdown, weren't you?"
"You!"
Shizuka waved her fist in anger.
"You have the nerve to say that to me? Aren't you an older single woman too?"
"I am different from you."
The pink-haired teacher appeared very composed.
"I have long decided to dedicate my entire body and soul to the proper guidance of students. That is the duty of an educator."
Shizuka rolled her eyes and waved her hand.
"My philosophy is different from yours. Forget it, I'm not arguing with you."
As a colleague and close friend, she knew the other woman's personality all too well.
Kirisu Mafuyu was indeed a very responsible teacher, one who would guide students toward a path where they could fully utilize their talents, even if it went against the students' own wishes.
As for Hiratsuka Shizuka's teaching philosophy?
Grades were secondary. As long as they gained something during their three years of high school and grew into mentally and physically healthy individuals, that was enough.
Thinking of this, she opened her drawer with a complex expression and glanced inside.
"That kid's mental state... looks like I'll need to find time to give him some counseling."
Meanwhile.
When Yoru stepped into the classroom of Class 1-A, the students who had been chatting in small groups instantly fell silent.
"Is he in our class too?"
"He's kind of handsome."
"Should we go say hi and make friends?"
"No need to rush. We're in the same class, there will be plenty of chances later."
...
Yoru's appearance was outstanding, and combined with his height of over 180cm, his physical attributes were indeed excellent.
Miko, who had already chosen a seat and was sitting down, couldn't help but tremble when she saw him walk in.
Her reaction was normal.
The scene that had taken place in the clubroom had truly given Yotsuya Miko a little supernatural shock.
Evil spirits... are actually afraid of humans?
And Yoru, a human, can actually eat evil spirits?
Judging by the situation back then, it obviously wasn't his first time doing such a thing.
Miko's curiosity was hard to suppress, but with so many classmates in the room, she obviously couldn't go up and ask him about it right now.
Yoru scanned the classroom and saw many familiar faces.
That's right, he was an Isekai traveler.
This was a fused world composed of various slice-of-life anime.
Yoru had originally thought he could enjoy a peaceful daily life in this world, getting close to beautiful anime girls.
The good news: There are indeed beautiful girls.
The bad news: Yotsuya Miko is one of them, which means evil spirits have also been fused into the mix.
"So sleepy."
Yoru yawned and, without any hesitation, walked straight toward the seat in the back row, in the corner by the window.
Just as he placed his bag on the desk, a girl with long, straight black hair suddenly placed her slender, pale hand on the chair at the same time.
Their gazes collided in mid-air.
The girl's voice was cool and detached: "I chose this seat first."
Yoru didn't back down an inch, replying with a smile.
"My bag is already down."
"You can pick your bag back up."
"Then you can take your hand back off."
Seeing the two of them refusing to yield, a cute girl with a bun hairstyle, dressed somewhat like a gyaru, broke away from her conversation with some other girls. She walked up quickly and tried to mediate in a gentle tone.
"You two, it's just a seat. There's no need to fight, right?"
"That is where you are wrong."
Yoru looked at the girl with the bun hairstyle and spoke with profound seriousness.
"I see you completely fail to understand the sheer prestige of this seat."