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Once they reached the reception, the senior students affixed flowers to the lapels of Hijiri and Subaru (They also put one below Kou’s device on Hijiri’s shoulder), and then they were guided to the student meeting hall where the entrance ceremony was being conducted.

The ceremony concluded without incident, and then the twins went to the classroom assigned to them on the third floor, while remaining behind most of the other students.

“The principal’s speech was really short, huh.”
“Well, I guess he’ll be more liked if he doesn’t use up a lot of time.”
“Probably… I still think it was a good speech though, even if it was short.”

Each of them gave their opinions on it, and Kou repeated the principal’s words in his mind:

I’m not here to talk a lot.
As adults, all we can do is prepare an environment for you, the younger generation, to learn and study properly.
And I also want you to be able to discover on your own what knowledge you want to pursue, and what information will be essential to your lives.
Once you’ve found that, we’d be pleased if you could hound us with questions and gain everything you can from us, that’s why we’re here.

It really was nothing complicated or revolutionary, but somehow those words had lodged themselves deep inside Kou’s mind.

“Kou, you wanted to attend this school because of that principal too, right?”
“He was really cool, even for his age. His hair was silver though, is he a foreigner?”
“Hmm, I don’t know… I’m pretty sure his nationality is Japanese though.”

The principal’s accent had been that of a native Japanese person, but his hair and complexion were clearly different from Asian people.

“That’s not the only reason why you’re so interested in the principal, is it?”
“Mm… You know, he also worked together with our parents to develop the Neural Linkage Device… And apparently, he was the leader of the group.”

Kou said without much care, but the twins fell silent hearing that. Then when their brains finally processed what Kou had said, their eyes opened wide in shock.

“W-Wait, that’s him?!”
“Why have I never heard about that?”
“Mhm, I know. It was never made public, but my dad told me about it, and he was there, so I trust him.”
“I see… Well, at least your obsession with this school makes sense now.”
“You’ve always wanted to become a VR technology scientist like your dad after all.”
“Yeah hahah… Well, I still have no idea if I’ll ever be able to measure up to them.”

Kou laughed nervously hearing what his friends mentioned.

The principal they had met earlier was the genius who had completed research on the first Full Dive VR systems, and then spearheaded the development of NLDs, which had advanced the lifestyle of people by many decades.

While it was possible to take lessons on engineering or VR technology in various escalator schools, here in Morinomiya High, VR was the focus of everything, making it a sleeper choice for many who wanted to break into that field.

Kou also wanted to study there and become a prominent scientist just like his father, and that desire pushed him to choose Morinomiya High as his school.

“Oh, it’s here.”

As they talked about that, they arrived at their classroom.

“I’m glad all of us got put in the same classroom.”
“Well, they only have two classrooms in this faculty so it makes sense.”

There were multiple faculties in this school, one for regular studies, other for science, another for art, and so on. But due to the declining birth rates, there were few students in each of them.

The general studies faculty where Kou and the twins were had the most students, but that still only meant there were two classrooms.

All the other students had already arrived, so Kou’s group was the last one. After they crossed the door, an AR chart appeared, showing each of their seats. According to it, Kou’s seat was in the middle of the last row, then Subaru would be in front of him, and Hijiri to his right.

It seems they arranged the seats to help us too.

Kou really felt like that placement had been intentional from the school’s part, trying to make him and his friends more comfortable.

“Alright Kou, I’ll pick you up later.”

Saying that, Hijiri unfastened the device from her shoulder and placed it on a corner of his desk.

As soon as that happened the school was able to communicate wirelessly with the device, creating a virtual recreation of the classroom that was updated in real time thanks to many cameras set up around the room.

In that virtual space, Kou moved his avatar to pull his chair and sit down.

Somehow this makes me feel like an invisible man.

He could see everyone in the classroom, but the surrounding students could not see him. Then again, he was still using his in-game avatar Crim, so he did not want to be seen either.

All of those thoughts circled around his mind as he manipulated the AR terminal in front of him, checking his library for the required books for the class…and then the classroom’s door opened and a kind-looking lady who was starting to age entered.

She approached the virtual whiteboard, visible only in augmented reality (AR), and wrote her name on it. After doing so, she turned back to face the students.

“Alright everyone, congratulations on being accepted to our school. I’ll be your homeroom teacher, Asai Masako.”

Kou looked closely at her, burning her face and name into his mind, as she would be in charge of the classroom for an entire year. Meanwhile, the class continued moving on.

“Now I realize you might be tired of doing this every year, but since we’ll all be together for the rest of the year, let’s introduce ourselves!”

The moment she said that, Kou felt all the blood drain from his face.

Dammit, I completely forgot they do this!

Usually, there was such an event at the start of each year where everyone in a class introduced themselves. But that was the worst thing possible that could happen to Kou.

“Ah…”

He looked in shock at Hijiri, and she also looked at Kou with terrified eyes.

Everyone introduced themselves one after another, until it was finally Kou’s turn.

Kou was silent. Everyone turned to look at his seat, filled with curiosity about him. Kou felt even more pressure with all the attention on him, and left with no other choice, he tried talking, keeping his voice as low as he could.

“I’m…Mitsuki…Kou…”

He gave the least amount of information necessary, in the lowest voice he could muster. But since the classroom was dead silent before he spoke, everyone heard him perfectly well.

“That was…”

There was a strained squeal, probably from a girl, but it broke apart before completing a sentence.

“That was so cute! I didn’t know voices could be so cute!!”
“Huh, it’s a girl?!”

Gender equality had become a common trend in modern times, so usually classrooms had both boys and girls. But as soon as they heard Kou’s voice, which anyone would assume was that of a girl, everyone went into an uproar. Only Kou was filled with despair.

“Quiet! Everyone calm down!!”

The teacher quickly stepped in to regain order in the classroom, and everyone quickly composed themselves, as they were all superior students who had managed to be accepted into Morinomiya High.

“Ahem, so Mitsuki Kou is currently hospitalized and can’t attend classes in person, according to the information we got from Kou’s parents. That’s why Kou will be here virtually, and I hope everyone can get along and help out if necessary.”

When the teacher announced that, everyone quickly fell silent in the classroom.
Things were starting to feel gloomy, and some even started to say “Poor girl…”

“Ah, umm…it’s nothing life threatening… Don’t worry about it too much, alright..?”

Kou could not stand being in that position any longer, so he tried to lighten things up, but…

“She’s such a sweet girl…”
“You can always count on us if you need anything!”

Contrary to what Kou was hoping, everyone just did their best to shower him with support.

In the end, Kou was seen as a sickly girl who had gotten hospitalized just before she started high school, and was rather reserved and introverted. That was only exaggerated by the young minds of students in puberty, and Kou’s image was immediately cemented as something he had never wished for.

Meanwhile, Hijiri on the seat next to him was looking around nervously, unsure of what to do, while Subaru…he was slouched down on his desk, doing his best to not let others see how his shoulders shook as he tried not to laugh.

I’ll remember this, don’t think you’ll get off so easily.

Kou swore revenge seeing how much his childhood friend was enjoying his suffering.