It had been a month since Shirone was promoted, but it was his first time having a direct conversation with Yiruki.
It wasn't like he was purposefully avoiding him. It was because there were more days of Yiruki missing classes than attending them.
"Yo, Shirone Arian. Aren't you the genius who caught the academy's attention? I'm so honored I'm going to record this moment in my diary."
Just by his first words alone, Shirone could understand why his classmates tended to keep away from Yiruki.
"Hi, I'm Shirone. Please take good care of me."
"Kekeke, why is the genius asking for such things? Actually, I've been watching you ever since you were in Class 7. When you succeeded in the Deviate Form and also when you crossed the Bridge That Cannot Be Crossed. I was there."
Shirone had a look of surprise.
"You watched me?"
And that's when he noticed.
'This voice…'
The thin voice… It was the voice that encouraged him when his Spirit Zone was shaken by the students' criticisms back when he was in Class 7.
"Are you the one who cheered me on back then?"
"I wouldn't call it cheering. I was just frustrated, so I said something. And I also didn't like you being swayed by the kids."
Yiruki said it as if it was a small, troublesome thing to do, but Shirone was still grateful nonetheless.
"No, it was a huge help."
At that, Yiruki stared hard at Shirone.
"You are quite a boring kid, aren't you?"
"Huh?"
It was Shirone's first time hearing such a thing, and it strangely offended him.
That was when Nade butted in.
"Hey, hey Yiruki! He's still thanking you. It's rude to say that."
Yiruki twisted his head and turned around.
"Yeah? I was complimenting him. Anyway, do your best. Of course, things won't be easy. Class 5 harbors lots of obnoxious kids."
Then he walks away with a cackle.
"Hey, where are you going? Let's practice together."
"It's tiresome. I'd rather just sleep."
'The magic academy classes are tiresome?'
Shirone was left dumbfounded. Class 5 was an Intermediate class. He couldn't understand how such a student got all the way up here.
"He seems to have a little bit of a… Strange personality."
"Sorry, Shirone. He's not that bad after you really get to know him."
"But…"
"I know what you're thinking. We will be the only ones left tired if we try to pry. That guy's a genius too. The problem is that he's a different type of genius compared to you."
"Genius? Yiruki is a genius?"
"Ah! You probably don't know because you haven't been here for too long."
Nate told Shirone who Yiruki was. Contrary to the word genius, his grades were similar to that of Nade's, but none of his classmates looked down on him for it.
Yiruki was the epitome of a master-of-one human being. He was a genius who received zeros on all subjects that were influenced by emotions, like literature and art. But for subjects that required computational ability, he was a genius who would get full marks with his eyes closed.
At first, the instructors went nuts over Yiruki's talent and fought over who would be his homeroom instructor and be in charge of him.
However, because of his eccentric personality, most of them gave up and paid no more attention to him.
Nevertheless, talks about him possibly surpassing those in the Advanced class in terms of mathematics arose, and many instructors started to observe him in order to see if he would be promoted in the near future.
Though, if Shirone continued to raise all his subjects together, he would eventually overshadow Yiruki, who tended to cover up his weaknesses with his strongest strengths.
The field Yiruki performed best in was computational physics, which only a limited amount of people with special brain functions could do.
For example, calculating phenomena that occurred in extreme conditions such as absolute zero or high heat in the 100,000,000 degrees range or more using numerical figures.
A person with a brain capable of such calculations often had such a thing called the 'Savant Syndrome.'
The possessor of such a brain capable of mechanical calculations beyond the limits of human beings. That was who Yiruki was.
After hearing the explanation, Shirone had an absent-minded look.
If everything Nade said was true, then it was an amazing talent.
"Why is a person like him still in Class 5? No, even if he had no talent, scoring zero makes no sense. Even if he rolled a pencil and took a guess, he should have still gotten a few questions right."
Nade laughed.
"The thing is, he's always been like this. About a month ago…"
He told the story of Yiruki's theory test.
In the natural science section, he received perfect scores, but things were a whole lot different for the literature exam. His results were disappointing in the instructor's eyes.
It was a problem that had an excerpt from a poem called by a poet named Gilberto.
The last verse was "leaf that has fallen in zigzags", and the question asked the students to answer why the leaf fell that way. Most interpreted it as the poet expressing his fear of death… But that's not what Yiruki came up with.
[Answer] Since the speed of the fluid (in this case, gas) flowing on the surface of the leaf is met by different levels of air resistance, the leaf would move in the direction of the vector with the greatest sum of force exerted by the pressure. Equations using the standard model for the leaf are written below.
'Equations using the standard model for the leaf are written below…'
Below that, there was a formula that the one who was grading the test couldn't even understand. Instructors who knew Yiruki's personality simply thought it was just Yiruki being himself and passed over it. But Adelia, a literature instructor, could not tolerate it.
As a mother of three, she rushed into the classroom with her plump body. Then in front of Yiruki, she slammed the exam paper down and demanded an explanation.
"Yiruki! What is this?"
"The exam paper."
"Not that! Look at the answer you wrote! This is a literature test, not a math test!"
"Doesn't the distinction between mathematics and literature itself prove the unrealistic aspects of literature? And it also asks why the leaf fell the way it did. And I answered it."
Adelia's round face turned red like a tomato.
"How dare you brag like you know something. You're a student. It's still a few years too early for you to act like you're an expert. There are also deep and mysterious ideas in the world that you cannot grasp mathematically."
"Teacher, there's no such thing. If some part of the world is illogical, that would be scary. If such a thing were true, then there's a possibility that I might just turn into an orc right now. Who knows?"
"So you're saying everything is logical? Even poet Gilberto's verses?"
"Yes. That's why I wrote that answer."
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Adelia kept standing for a while, then pointed her finger and shouted.
"Then answer this. A thousand innocent people are at risk of dying. But you have the power to save everyone by killing one innocent person. What will you choose to do?"
"I'd let the thousand people die. Mathematically, the lives of one thousand people who are supposed to die, and the life of one who wasn't, don't follow the rules of equivalent exchange. The equation cannot be formed in the first place."
Adelia stomped the rising anger from deep within her.
She came up with something.
"Is there a god or not? Answer that!"
"There can be none."
His logical reply made Adelia even more virulent.
"Mom or dad? You can only pick one!"
"Both."
"Get out!"
Adelia's fingers trembled.
"Get out, you punk! You don't deserve to be in my class! Get out!"
A faculty meeting was held.
In the end, the instructors concluded that Yiruki's answer contained ridicule against the authority, so they dropped all his scores for the humanities subjects to 0.
"Wow, that's no joke."
Upon hearing Yiruki's story, Shirone couldn't believe he was 17 years old like himself.
Having the temperament to go against an instructor took courage.
"Haha! It really isn't. Anyways, he's that kind of a person. He's extremely hard to get along with."
"Now that I know his personality, I kind of get why he called me boring. But how is that a compliment?"
"Who knows? Maybe he saw something extraordinary in you. Anyway, that's why I purposely introduced you to him. In hopes that he might get along well with you."
Shirone got curious and wanted to know more about Yiruki. If he had known earlier, he would have talked more with him. With that, he searched around for Yiruki, but ended up widening his eyes in surprise.
"Eh? Nade, look over there."
Yiruki was walking towards the Image Zone with half-closed eyes. As he approached, the kids around took notice and backed off, not because they wanted to avoid him, but because they respected him since he was an upperclassman.
"Damn it! What is he thinking of doing now? Let's go and see."
Shirone ran after Nade.
One by one, other students started gathering to watch.
"Why is he like this again? Isn't he supposed to take his clothes off and lay down somewhere like he usually does?"
At their words, Shirone's eyes popped open. He was gonna take his clothes off while female students were watching?
Ignoring the audience's uneasiness, Yiruki opened up his Spirit Zone. A sphere with a diameter of 15 meters. It was on the small side, considering he was in Class 5.
"The Deviate Form?"
The moment Yiruki performed his Four Way Formation, his Spirit Zone broke away from his body and separated.
"Oho, that guy. It's been quite a bit since he last did that."
"Don't we have to stop him? That jerk was banned from using the Image Zone by Ms. Romie."
"Leave him be. Even if we tell him to stop, he won't listen."
At that moment, Yiruki's Spirit Zone began moving around a large area.
Amidst everyone's admiration, Yiruki saw Shirone in the audience. The edges of his lips curled up.
He flicked his finger and targets popped out from all directions and flew around him like birds.
Some students simply sighed as they knew it was forbidden for students to release targets arbitrarily, while some just enjoyed the spectacle.
"Wow…"
The Deviate form of the Spirit Zone pursued the targets.
Like the bouncing of a rubber ball, Yiruki freely bent the angle of his Zone and even its speed. It was impressive.
Shirone was genuinely surprised.
'That's amazing.'
Ethella, who was instructing Class 4, looked around the Image Zone once and started running.
"Huh? Yiruki! What are you doing right now?!"
Seemingly already having made up his mind, Yiruki hardened his eyes and flew his Spirit Zone to a target.
The moment the sphere swallowed up the target, light began to bubble like foam.
"That lunatic!"
By the time the students turned their backs on it, Yiruki's Detonation magic was completed.
"Atomic Bomb."
The wind pressure caused by the explosion pushed back the people around. Some students even fell on their butts.
"Keuk!"
When Shirone faced forward again, he saw Yiruki standing at the end of the Image Zone.
He had his hands intertwined behind his back and spoke with a blank face.
"See you next time, Shirone."
What did he mean by 'See you next time?'
'What was he thinking? What compelled him to do such a thing?'
Shirone couldn't understand him at all, but thankfully, one question was quickly resolved.
Ethella pinched Yiruki's ear and dragged him away.
"Yiruki! I told you last time that if you were to do something like that again, you would be punished!"
"Ow, ow! I held back so that the device wouldn't break. You know what happens when I make up my mind to blow something up."
"You…! You really don't reflect on your actions until the very end! You are on probation for a week starting today! Don't come to class!"
"Aak! That's too harsh!"
Yiruki shouted, but he continued not to acknowledge that he had done something wrong.
Rather, while he was being dragged away, he looked at Shirone and Nade and smirked.
"Ha! In the end, he did it again. Sorry, Shirone. I think I'll have to go."
Even after Nade chased after Yiruki, Shirone did not move from his position.
'Detonation magic.'
It was the most extreme way of handling energy.