Breezy winds. Singing birds. A little bit of sunshine. Yup, today’s weather is perfect. Just look at how the blue gates in front of me glimmer like the ocean’s waves.

  Aoba Academy.

  Located in the center of Shibuya, Tokyo, it is widely regarded as the most academically prestigious and successful school in all of Japan. With an incredible rate of 99% of students passing the national university entrance exam, it is certainly worthy of the undisputed title of “Elite among Elites”.

  Ah, I guess this is a bit of a weird introduction, right?

  But if you were in my shoes, then you’d know how I feel.

  Because, after all, this magnificent education establishment standing tall in front of me… fufu, who else is spending their next three years of high school there but yours truly?

  All right, gloating done for now. I guess I should start with my name first.

  Suzuki Tanaka, 15 years old. Height: average. Weight: average. Academics: average… or so you’d think, huh? Well, too bad! I may have been average before, but after passing Aoba Academy’s entrance exam, I can now proudly say that I also stand in the lines of geniuses! … Well, the average of those geniuses, but still.

  Look, it’s not my fault that I got stuck with this name that’s the definition of average! And the ironic thing is, that is the only thing not average about me!

  Anyway, I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but thanks to that, my whole life has been stuck with the word ‘average’. I’m not the sickly kid that overcame their health condition to follow their dream of going to school, nor am I the prodigy athlete that gets through by breaking all kinds of national records. Nope, I’m just average old me, managing to get where I am today thanks to good old-fashioned hard work.

  God, I don’t wanna do that ever again.

  Constant shifts of cram school. Beating my head with notes and textbooks, both metaphorically and literally. Sleepless nights running on nothing but coffee and energy drinks. Just thinking about it makes my hands shiver again… either that or I’m still in a sugar rush, but neither can be good.

  “Hic.”

  Never mind, it’s definitely a sugar rush. Perhaps some gastric distress. Maybe I’ll have that checked later, but that’s a problem for future me.

  And you know what? For this scenery emerging right here, right now? Totally worth it.

  The soothing blue of Aoba’s front gate, touched by the light pink of falling sakura, as well as the warm golden shine of the first rays of sunlight… I was right to come here early—I can look at this for hours.

  But that seems to be the end of my peaceful, solitary morning sanctuary, as I can hear the echoes of footsteps approaching. Heh, looks like I’m not the only one with the idea. The owner of these sounds is someone gentle for sure, seeing how soothing and light the steps actually are.

  Well, let’s see what other kindred spirit I will…

  Oh.

  I mean, it’s not like I’m disappointed or anything, but if it’s him, then I can definitely say that he’s not here to admire the scenery.

  “Hey, Umeno!” I wave my hand as his small, slightly slouching figure approaches me.

  “H… Hi, Suzuki-kun…” Umeno softly replies, barely moving his hand at all. In fact, his entire presence gives this… fluffy feeling, if I have to put it into words. But not the normal kind—the dark, droopy kind of fluff, if you get what I mean.

  “You’re up early today. It’s like… 7:30 A.M, I think?”

  “I was… uh… nervous…” Umeno scratches his head repeatedly while his face flushes like a ripe tomato and his feet keep rubbing onto each other.

  It’s not like I don’t expect this. Umeno is… how to say it… not the best when it comes to social interaction. His long-ish, almost kind of greasy, black hair, pale complexion, and eyebags are already plenty for others to avoid him. Throw in the “Aoba toll”—the deterioration of our health as we crammed ourselves—and that’s a recipe for disaster.

  “Well, good thing you’re here early!” I pat him hard on the shoulder. It’s times like this that I have to balance our presence, after all. “The morning air is great for you!”

  “Um… thanks…” Umeno lightly scratches his nose and lets out a laugh. “What about you, Suzuki-kun? What makes you come here so early?”

  “I’m glad you asked, my friend …” I wave my finger around, pausing a bit before pointing beyond the blue gates in front of us. “Why, because of Aoba’s traditional rankings, of course!”

  Contrary to my enthusiasm, Umeno doesn’t seem impressed at all. Well, it’s not like the guy’s easily impressed anyway.

  “... You mean… the ranking board that most high schools have?”

  “That may be true, but Aoba’s is special! For one, it’s completely public as soon as we enter, so everyone knows where they stand immediately…”

  “I’m pretty sure most schools’ rankings are public too…”

  “W-Well, the second thing is …”

  A creaking noise interrupts my speech about how the board is supposed to divide us into classes. But who cares about that anymore? The gate is open!

  “Come on Umeno, let’s go!”

  I grab onto Umeno’s wrist. Or at least, I was going to. But before I can do so, a sudden force pushes me from behind, causing me to lose my balance and trip over.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Ah, crap …”

  I exclaim, but it seems like I’m not meant to fall face-down on the concrete road. Nope, it seems like fate is even more of a cheeky bastard than I thought it was.

  Instead of just falling normally, my shoulder is suddenly pushed down even further, and the cold, hard road meets the full force of my butt instead of my face. And to add insult to injury, over my head flies a shadowy figure that vaguely resembles a person, meaning that whoever was the bastard that bumped into me a few seconds earlier (I assume; since that must be how I fell, right?), that’s also the guy, or girl, that pushed me down the road.

  “Heh.”

  Heh? Heh? They bumped into me, they pushed me, and they had the gall to just “heh”, without even turning around to laugh at my face? That’s it. There’s no way I’m letting them get away with it.

  “Hey! What’s the big idea, you…” I shout, shaking my fist for a fight. But strangely enough, as soon as I can pick myself up and yell such words, the figure that is supposed to be in front of me has already disappeared into thin air.

  “... What the heck?” I exclaim. At this point, I’m reminded that next to me is still a waiting Umeno, as the latter asks with a concerned voice:

  “Suzuki-kun, are you okay?”

  “Ah… Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Anyway, let’s check out the ranking board.”

  *

  Okay, what in the world just happened?

  I know that I took a bit later than usual because of that jerk that bumped into me, but how is there this big of a crowd in front of the board already? One moment, the school is practically empty, but literally just the next second and there are already around 40 or 50 of us? How am I supposed to look at the board?

  “Looks like we’re not seeing our rankings any time soon, huh…” Umeno lets out a disappointed sigh. And looking at the sea of people in front of me, I have no choice but to agree.

  “Yeah. Squeezing ourselves into that pile of sweat and skin is honestly not worth it,” I fake a shiver. “Let’s just go somewhere we can sit down, and…”

  “Yahooo!!! Hey there, fellow new kids!”

  What exactly is this day? First, some jerk bumped into me and used me as a cushion, then another rando just casually locks their arm around my neck like we’ve been best friends for years? Have some personal space, you!

  “Can you please …”

  “...”

  Cute!

  Wait wait wait wait wait.

  Something’s wrong here.

  Why is a girl wrapping her arm around my neck? And not just any girl, a super pretty one at that!

  That long, pink hair like a river of cherry blossoms! That cutesy fang she shows when she smiles! Her clear, amber eyes! And… ! Wait, no, stop, inner me! If you go any further, you’ll be branded as a pervert!

  “H-Hello, um…” Looking to my side, I can see Umeno suffering the same fate as the boy struggles to keep his composure. “Y-Your name is…”

  “Hi hi! I’m Michinari Kei! What’s yours?”

  “U-Umeno… Rei… Can you let go of us, Michinari-kun?”

  As shy as ever, Umeno, even when a guy…

  Wait, guy?

  “YOU’RE A GUY?”

  “Yup, that’s me! The one-and-only, whose beauty transcends genders, Michinari Kei!”

  Oh God let me take back everything I thought of just now. But damn it, why can’t I unsee the fact that he’s cute? Even the victory-sign-over-the-eye pose that he’s making, just like a magical girl! Curses!

  “Damn it!”

  “Uh… you okay, buddy?”

  You’re the last one I want checking out on me right now! Not when I have to slap myself out of your accursed charms!

  “Suzuki Tanaka, pleased to meet you!”

  “Haha, you’re funny!” The girl, I mean boy, now Michinari, chuckles. “But you shouldn’t close your eyes like that when greeting someone, you know.”

  “I am perfectly fine, thank you very much!”

  “Well, suit yourself then!” With what I presumed to be a big smile on his face, Michinari answers. “Anyway, I was going to check the ranking board, but looks like the crowd got the better of me, and that’s when I see you guys! It must be like fate, I tell you!”

  “Haha… yeah…” I let out an awkward laugh in response, steadily peeking my eyes open again. Umeno is similar to me from the looks of things, as he’s this close to collapsing at the spot… but for an entirely different reason, I assume.

  “And since fate has bound us together, let’s just skip the board and go straight to the entrance ceremony! Come on, Tacchan, Ucchan!”

  Both of us basically don’t have a choice. Contrary to his girly look, Michinari’s grip is no joke. The guy essentially drags us away from the board to the main hall, still in that weird deadlock pose that he put us in a few moments ago.

  When the three of us enter the stage where the ceremony for freshmen takes place, there are already quite a few seats taken. Looks like people have also finished checking out their ranks. But why do I feel like I forgot something important…

  “Attention, all freshmen,” the sound of the principal on the stage interrupts my train of thought. “Now, the representative shall begin their speech.”

  Hold on, we’re at this part already? Didn’t I just get in?

  “Hey, Tacchan,” Michinari suddenly whispers into my ear, sending goosebumps all over my body. “Who do you think it is?”

  “... Don’t tell me it’s you, right?” I try to make a joke. And true enough, the answer I receive is a shake of the head.

  “Haha, of course not. But think about it; I’m sure you’ve heard about them in middle school, haven’t you? The Monster Brothers, I mean.”

  I have heard about them, that part is correct. The Monster Brothers—a pair of twins renowned in Tokyo, maybe even Japan, for their almost inhuman capabilities. The older brother, Ryuuro, is touted as the one-in-a-lifetime genius of our generation, acing even the national university entrance exam in his second year of middle school, while the younger brother, Shiraku, broke several youth athletic records in that same timeframe. But never in my dreams would I imagine those two ending up in Aoba, even if it is the most prestigious school in Japan. After all, what good would a university-level mind and a God-given athletic body do in a high school-level academic facility?

  “Um… Hello, testing, testing…”

  Oh, it seems like the representative student is up already. Black hair, glasses, height… about average, no, a bit taller than average, it seems. But something’s… off about him.

  “Hello, students of Aoba. My name is Kuroshi Ryuuro, and first of all, it is my honor to be standing here in Aoba Academy…”

  Ryuuro? So that’s the once-in-a-generation genius… But, why do I feel like…

  “As the sakura blossoms fall…”

  Hold on.

  That voice.

  That high-pitched tone.

  “So it was you!”

  “You in the middle, don’t interrupt the speech!” The sound of a teacher echoes through the room.

  “Shoot! I’m sorry, I won’t do it again!”

  *

  “And that’s the end of our entrance ceremony,” after the scuffle I caused, it took a while for everything to settle down again, but the rest went on with little issue. I think I just made a horrible impression on my first day, though.

  “All students, please return to your respective classes for orientation,” the principal continues on the stage. He’s right; the day is still young, and I still have a chance to redeem myself!

  “Where is our class again?” Umeno, who stands up next to me, asks.

  “Oh, you follow your… rank…”

  I forgot about the ranks.

  This is gonna be a long year.