(Dazai Crowley's POV)
Cerulean Academy, Present Day
The opening ceremony has now concluded.
—Thank god too.
After listening to the afterword and giving a final round of applause, we were directed to the side of the auditorium as previously instructed.
There we waited in long orderly lines to receive the additional items and pamphlets.
Most of the stuff I received was mainly a student ID card, an official copy of the school handbook and a couple of other things.
What was interesting however was the "Black Cards" the principal spoke of earlier.
In appearance though it looked similar to a phone with the school's company logo on the back.
Now as to what purpose it serves however, I'm not exactly sure. Of course I tried asking the lady at the desk about it before I did, but she merely told me I would have to ask my teacher about it.
Regardless, despite being unaware of its capabilities, we were still asked to prick our fingers and stamp a drop of our blood onto it.
Shortly after doing so, the object flashed on.
In fact, according to the lady at the desk, these "cards" supposedly serve the same function as an ordinary phone. But, from my perspective, that has yet to be discovered. Soon enough, a small menu appeared which later asked for some basic personal information like my name and the like.
After the person at the counter evaluated that the initial activation sequence proceeded smoothly, I was free to leave and finish the registration process on my own time.
Curious as to what this gadget was exactly, I walked out of the auditorium, where the rest of my friends were waiting for me outside.
"—The day has barely gotten started and there's already a lot for us to take in…"
The person first to break the silence was Roy.
"I agree, but it feels like the school also explained it to us in a way that's easy to understand as well. That is, if you take the time to process it all."
"Right. The main point right now is that we'll be attending one of four classes from here on out."
Those classes being Class A, Class B, Class C, and finally Class D. To be truthful though, I honestly find this class disposition to be rather weird. In normal schools, the amount of classrooms that there would be would be in the double digits.
—And yet here, there were only four.
Hmm…
"Speaking of which, we were supposed to find out what class we will be attending today, right? I didn't see anything of the sort though…"
That's true. Principal Garcello did say we would receive that information around the time we got these Black Cards and other things, but, despite that, nothing of the sort was revealed to us yet.
"It's probably on these phones that they gave us."
"Ah, I guess I better register first, huh."
According to the schedule on the school website prior to our arrival, it appears class will be starting later in the day due to the opening ceremony. In other words, there was plenty of time for us to get accustomed to these phones.
After spending a couple minutes answering a few quick questions, the phone searched for my information in the school's database before finally registering myself as its current owner.
—It really was just like a phone.
Just then, I received a flood of new notifications.
Although surprised, after scrolling them for a second, it was mostly just tabloids of information.
Though there was nothing that went too in-depth about itself, I did learn how I could find some of the information I was looking for. Shortly after closing out of the extra tabs, I tapped on the "Profile" icon and scrolled through it for a second.
There it is.
"So I'm in Class D, huh."
"Wait, you too? That's awesome!!"
Suddenly, Alice leapt with joy.
"Hey, would you look at that? I'm in Class D too."
Yamato flashed her phone with a bright smile.
Nice!
"And what about you, Roy?"
"....Looks like I'm Class D too."
"Seriously!?"
"That's awesome!!"
Yamato and Alice leapt with joy.
"Still, for the four of us to be in the same class this year. Must be one hell of a coincidence."
"Is it really a coincidence though?"
Skeptical, Roy threw me an accusatory look.
Hey, don't look at me like that.
"They said that they'd place us into one of the four classes based on your performance, right? Does that mean we all are on the same level?"
Well, as lovely as that may sound....
"—That doesn't sound right at all." Roy replied.
"Huh?"
"What do you mean?"
"Alice, recall the grades. Didn't you do terrible compared to Yamato?"
"Ack, don't remind me!!"
"Let's assume that Class D was a class for the lower test scores and Class A was for those who scored the highest. If so, then going off academics alone, then it really wouldn't make sense for the two of you to have landed in the same class."
"That's true…."
"Actually, no, Alice was on to something."
I suddenly intervened.
"Hmm?"
"Yes, Principal Garcello did indeed say we would be divided into the four classes based on "performance". However, he never specified our performance over the Entrance Exams or even academic ability in general."
"Wait, so you're saying he, or rather the school, judged us based on completely different criteria?"
"That's most likely it."
"But if that's not, what else could they have used? We didn't do anything else besides the Entrance Exams, right? And even then, it was pretty straightforward. Either you pass, or you don't."
As Alice began to ponder on the question for a second, Yamato arrived at a certain conclusion.
"Dazai, could it be—"
"Yeah, "that" part of the test could certainly be it. But we won't know for sure until we ask them ourselves. So let's not assume anything yet."
"True. Guess we got no other choice but to head to class and take it from there."
Leaving behind the matter for another time, the four of us followed the general direction of the other senior students into the main building.
—Before we did however, I sensed the presence of a certain person off in the distance.
I glanced around my surroundings for a moment, before looking up towards the nearby rooftop.
There, I noticed a certain person watching over us from afar.
My expression changed.
"It won't be long now..."
There was no need for me to say anything at this point. Our gaze was enough to do the talking.
"—Hey, Dazai? You coming?"
"Ah, sorry, sorry."
Ignoring the person on the rooftop, I return back to my friends.
* * * * * * * * * *
After wandering around for a second, we finally stopped by a room that was marked "Class D".
This was it, huh. Suddenly feeling a little tense, I took one deep breath in and slid the door open.
Seeing a group of four coming in through the door at once, it was unsurprising to see a few of the students glance at us for a moment. Those gazes however were thankfully short lived.
Getting accustomed to my new environment, I looked around my classroom.
"Seems like our teacher isn't here yet."
"So, what now? Do we just go sit down and wait?"
"That would probably be for the best."
"I believe there are no assigned seats in this school so we should be free to sit wherever."
"Ooh, ooh, then I want to sit next to the window!"
"I'm sitting all the way in the back. The further away I am from the teacher, the better."
And as expected of Roy, he chose to sit in some dark and lonely corner of the classroom.
Either way, it appears we won't be sitting together.
—And just when we got put into the same class too.
It's disappointing, but oh well.
I guess I'll just go sit elsewhere.
In that case…
"Hello, is this seat taken?"
"No, help yourself."
"Thank you."
I took a seat and sat my bag down on the floor.
"I should've figured you'd be here."
Heh.
"Did you miss me, Ester?"
"—Just a little."
How cute.
Ester Evernore. A white hair girl with purple eyes and bold eyelashes. She's a childhood friend.
"So what brings you around here?"
"Why bother asking? You should already know."
"This is about "him", isn't it?"
I neither affirmed nor denied that statement.
"And what about you? I doubt you came all the way out here for simply money or power."
"I only came here for a good education."
"—If you say so."
"I see you dragged Roy into this as well."
"Nothing gets past you, huh."
I didn't even bother to hide it at this point.
"You must truly find him useful."
"His talents are too good to go to waste."
"Even if he himself believes otherwise?"
"His only problem is that he's shackled by doubt. In that case, it's a matter of simply finding him a way to have some more confidence in himself."
"And I assume you have a way to do that?"
"I have a couple of ideas. But I can't put any of them into practice yet. I have to wait and see how things unfold first. Right now though, I'm focused on finding a way of getting Class D up to Class A."
"So you already discerned the "truth" about this school?"
"Eh, it's more like I'm just making assumptions."
Suddenly, I yawned.
"Somebody's sleepy."
"I didn't sleep much last night."
On top of that, the ceremony was quite boring.
Speaking of which, our teacher still isn't here yet. Hmm, I wonder what's keeping them so long.
—Ah, who cares....
I should just take another nap.
"Hey, Ester. Can you do me a favor?"
"I'll wake you up when our teacher gets here."
"Thanks."
With that said, I laid my head down on the table and drifted off to sleep.
A few minutes passed.
"Wait, is that…!?"
"Holy shit, it actually is her!!"
Oi, how's a guy supposed to sleep with all this commotion!?
"My, my. It seems I'm quite popular over here too. Kukuku~"
That voice….
I open my eyes.
But as soon as I laid my eyes on the figure down below, I immediately sat back up in surprise.
"—You got to be kidding me right now."
"You're up early. Did you get enough sleep?"
"No, and I don't think I ever will, now that I know "she's" here."
Although Ester didn't seem interested at first, upon hearing my reaction however, she turned and faced the situation down below.
As the girl from before slowly accepted the praise from her fans with a somewhat humble attitude, she began proceeding up the steps.
It wasn't until we finally came face to face.
That is, I should say, "yet again".
"Oh? So we meet again, —Dazai Crowley."
Suddenly, her facial expression changed a little. Underneath that smile lied nothing but malice.
Tch.
"—I'm sorry, but who are you again?"
"It's Esmes Montoya. And you do well to remember that name from now on, peasant."
This girl really needs to stop calling me that.
I sigh.
"I still think you have the wrong guy, ma'am."
After saying that, I turned my head in the other direction and close my eyes.
—Slam!
Esmes slapped her palm on my table.
"Don't act like you forgot already. After all, you remember what I said before, don't you!?"
Esmes came close to my ear and whispered in a sly yet menacing voice.
"I told you I'd be back. And now that I'm here, I plan to thoroughly humiliate you."
I didn't respond.
"Tch."
Thankfully, Esmes backed off and walked away.
It appears she has said everything she needed to say.
Once we were completely sure that she was gone, Ester checked up on me.
"Why didn't you say anything to her?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, she seemed pretty intent on threatening you, so I would have thought you would have said something to defend yourself."
"Well, anybody is capable of making threats."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"There's a difference between threatening somebody, and somebody being a threat."
"And where does that place Esmes?"
"Take a wild guess."
She chuckles.
But, just then, she got lost in thought.
"What's the matter?"
"I don't know. It just feels like you might be underestimating that woman."
"I dealt with her once, I can do it twice."
"Once?"
"....It's a long story."