My room was a disaster zone—empty Cup Noodle containers, energy drink cans, and manga volumes scattered everywhere. The only light came from my monitor, where my Genshin Impact character was seconds away from beating a weekly boss. Just one more hit and I could finally get those artifacts I'd been farming for—

  Knock knock knock.

  "Not now!" I yelled, eyes locked on the screen. My mom had stopped trying to drag me out weeks ago, ever since I started barricading my door with my undry.

  The knocking turned into an impatient tap-tap-TAP.

  "I said I'm busy—"

  BAM.

  The door flew open, sending a pile of clothes crashing to the floor. Standing there was some girl in a perfect uniform, gsses glinting under my RGB lights. She looked at my room like it was a crime scene.

  "Kazuha Sato," she said, voice ft. "You've missed 23 csses this month. Your test scores are in the single digits. The teachers think you might actually be illiterate."

  I paused my game. "Uh...do I know you?"

  She stepped over a pile of clothes like they were toxic waste. "Akira Hayashi. Student council vice president. And your new tutor."

  I snorted. "Tutor? The st time I opened a textbook, Genshin didn't even have Sumeru yet."

  Akira pulled out her phone. "Principal's orders. Starting today, I'm fixing you." She looked at my setup—dual monitors, mechanical keyboard, the whole shrine to gaming. "Starting with this."

  Before I could react, she yanked my controller away.

  "Hey! I was in the middle of—"

  Click.

  She turned off my monitor.

  "MY DOMAIN RUN!" I nearly fell out of my chair. "Do you know how much resin I just wasted?!"

  Akira tossed a notebook at me. It said "STUDY SCHEDULE" in big, scary letters. "We're starting with math. Then English. Then we'll work on basic human functions like 'sleep' and 'hygiene.'" She poked a moldy ramen cup with her shoe.

  "You can't just barge in here and—"

  "I absolutely can." She adjusted her gsses. "Unless you want to repeat your second year?"

  I slumped in defeat.

  Three hours ter, my brain felt like mush. Akira had somehow turned my gaming desk into a study area, and was currently sitting on my bed (which she made, somehow) going through my failed tests.

  "Why are you even doing this?" I groaned, doodling a Raiden Shogun in my notebook margins. "Don't you have, like, college apps or something?"

  She didn't look up. "Because someone has to."

  "Or," I spun my pencil, "you get off on bullying NEETs."

  The pencil snapped in her hand.

  "Or," she said slowly, "I can't stand seeing people waste their potential." For a second, her usual icy stare softened. Just enough to make my stomach do this weird flip.

  I looked away first.

  "Whatever. Just don't touch my Honkai: Star Rail account. I've got a 50/50 coming up."

  Akira stood up, straightening her skirt. "7 AM tomorrow. We're doing science."

  "In your dreams."

  As she left, she tossed a protein bar at me. "Eat something that didn't come from a vending machine. You look like a zombie."

  The door closed. I stared at the protein bar, then at my reflection in the bck monitor screen.

  Wait...was that an insult or concern?

  I grabbed my controller and hit the power button.

  Nothing.

  "YOU UNPLUGGED MY PC?!"

  From the hallway, I could've sworn I heard a ugh.

  Fine. Game on. But tomorrow I'm changing the Wi-Fi password.