Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 5, Section 05: Opening Ceremony

The students lined up and followed their teacher toward the gymnasium.

Of all the teams, their three groups from the first year were the quietest and most orderly, a stark contrast to the noisy class next door.

The teacher in charge of the second class of the first grade was a woman. She looked young and not very tall. Some of the students looked more mature than her even with a bit of a beard. She spoke in a cutesy but fierce tone, which was not intimidating at all.

She was standing on tiptoe trying to maintain order, but her erratic voice was quickly drowned out by the laughter of the teenage students.

The result was that the team could only be barely kept together, like leading a flock of noisy, unruly ducks.

It wasn't until Ikeda appeared silently behind the female teacher like an iron tower that everyone fell silent, as if the noise had been paused.

The freshmen even unconsciously pulled in their stomachs and straightened their chests, and even slowed down their breathing—the duck was cooked.

"Phew, right, keep quiet, everyone stop whispering." The petite female teacher wiped the sweat from her forehead.

This was her first time being in charge of a class, and it wasn't going well. But thankfully, at least things calmed down.

The opening ceremony was nothing new; the principal looked to the present, reflected on the past, and looked to the future, addressing the students.
When the principal used the phrase "darlings of the new era" to describe the students in the audience for the third time, Dongshan Shen stared blankly at the ribbons in the hair of the girls in the front row, lost in thought.

Thinking about what new games the game system might refresh the day after tomorrow, I wonder if there will be any sequels to "Soul Swap".

After the principal, there were speeches from student representatives and so on. It was a struggle to get through the morning, and half of the morning was already over.

After taking some photos and receiving their textbooks, they finally returned to the classroom.

Although Shin Higashiyama's physique is now that of a sports student, he still showed a hint of fatigue the moment he sat down.

It's so mentally damaging.

What could be summarized in three sentences is instead taken up to two hours of explanation.

If he has the chance in the future, he will secretly sabotage every time he sees a leader giving a speech.

Inside the classroom, the students have now become more or less accustomed to Mr. Ikeda's presence, and during their free time, they at least dare to move around around.

"Lunch break is now starting. Afternoon classes will be scheduled according to the timetable. If you have time, get to know each other. We need to elect class officers during the morning meeting tomorrow. If you are interested in being the class representative, you can come to my office in advance."

"Ikeda said in a deep voice, glancing around at everyone," he said.

".yes!"

With Ikeda gone, all the students in Class 3 of Grade 1 finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the surrounding air pressure seemed to ease considerably.

"Do you want to be the class representative?" Chiba asked.

"No, I'm tired of it. Three years in middle school have exhausted my enthusiasm for management." Dongshan Shen served as class monitor for three years during his middle school years, and he was fed up with it.

In Japan, the mainstream school system is that elementary schools divide students into classes every two years, while middle and high schools divide students into classes every year.

However, this is not absolute. Komagome Academy, for example, adopts a three-year integrated system, which means that students are not divided into classes for three years of secondary school and three years of high school except for the purpose of advancing to higher education. So once you enter this system, you can basically forget about getting out of it.

However, the more important reason is that his cheat code hadn't arrived before, but now everything is different, and he's lost interest in playing house.

Even club activities might be phased out in two or three categories, leaving only the archery club. However, considering that the cheat code is related to games, the video game club might also need to be retained.

The reason he didn't want to leave the archery club was that he enjoyed the process of aiming at the target and then shooting through the crosshair.

It's normal for men to like to ejaculate something, right?

Chiba Shion's gaze shifted slightly, and after a few seconds of silence, she finally spoke.

"You seem to have changed a lot since spring break."

"Of course, I went from being a high school student to a high school student."

He calmly covered it up with a joke.

It must be said that Chiba's understanding of him was indeed quite profound. He could detect even the slightest abnormality, making him much more perceptive than his foolish younger brother.

A flicker of suspicion crossed Chiba's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure. If Higashiyama Shin hadn't possessed the Spirit-Nourishing Fire Eye, he probably wouldn't have noticed.

"Let's eat. I'm starving after standing here for so long."

Higashiyama Shin casually changed the subject, opened the lid of the bento box, and a delicious aroma wafted out, still tempting even without heat. He had assumed that Chiba Shion, who was staying at her father's place, would prepare bento boxes, so he only made ones for himself and his younger brother.

Fortunately, his bento box today contained easy-to-serve foods, such as braised lion's head meatballs, tempura shrimp, vegetables, karaage chicken nuggets, and vegetable salad, with a plum seaweed rice ball as the main dish.

"Thank you."

Chiba took the chopsticks, her eyes bright, and started eating after Higashiyama Shin picked up the first piece of chicken.

"Would you like a rice ball?"

"What does it taste like?"

"plum."

"No."

"What a carnivore! Eat more salad."

".good."

The two of them ate the same bento box in the classroom, oblivious to everyone around them, which drew whispers from those around them.

Are they a couple?

"Of course, otherwise why would they be so intimate?"

"That woman, is that Chiba Shion?"

"It's her! She's so beautiful."

"Do men like this? Am I the only one who thinks she's just average? She looks down on everyone with that condescending attitude, tsk."

"Ahhh, Higashiyama-kun, my Higashiyama-kun!"

The two ate at a leisurely pace, finishing off the food in their bento boxes with perfect teamwork, except for the salad.

Chiba frowned, the lettuce and cucumber making a crisp, juicy sound as she chewed, but her expression was as if she were taking a bitter, thick medicine, serious and tragic.

Gulu.

After finally swallowing it, she shivered almost imperceptibly, and breathed a long sigh of relief. She opened her small mouth towards Dongshan, half-revealing her little tongue, to show that she hadn't cheated and had swallowed it.

Higashiyama Shin wasn't surprised at all. This guy was born with a dislike for vegetarian food and wasn't even very interested in carbohydrate staples like noodles and rice. He used to do shameful things like hiding food in his mouth and then secretly spitting it out when Higashiyama wasn't looking. But thankfully, under Higashiyama's influence, he's finally become less picky about food.

"Will we be full?"

"Six-tenths full."

"Okay, but don't eat too much." Dongshan Shen has always had a big appetite, and this little bit is only enough to fill him up to about 40%. However, he usually doesn't eat too much; 70% is enough for him.

"it is good."

Shinichi Higashiyama picked up the lunchbox and headed towards the nearest restroom.

Chiba stared blankly as Higashiyama Shin's figure disappeared through the doorway. Only then, feeling the gentle breeze from the window, did she take a foreign novel out of her bag, open the bookmark slot, carefully put away the metal bookmark, and begin to read.

Several new classmates had originally intended to strike up a conversation with her when she was alone, but upon seeing this scene, they froze and awkwardly abandoned their plans.

"Seriously pretentious," someone muttered under their breath.

She and Shinichi Higashiyama are similar in some ways; they never took these people seriously.

Chiba's reading of foreign novels was also at her mother's request. She was required to read one English novel every month and write down her thoughts in English. If she didn't understand something, she was to learn it; if she couldn't learn it, she was to look it up.

Shin Higashiyama was greatly inspired by this and made a similar request to his younger brother, except that he only asked him to read Japanese novels.

At first, he needed to urge him on, but later he found that he would actually start looking for books to read on his own, and they were quite literary. Higashiyama Shin was very pleased.

He might have hidden qualities of a great educator.

As Dongshan approached the restroom with his lunchbox in hand, he saw his three delinquent classmates walking out with their hands in their pockets.

PS.
(Don't be misled by me. In reality, Komagome Academy only has two small classes; the rest are divided into classes in the second year of high school. The architecture, history, curriculum, and even the entire world of Komagome Academy in the novel are fictional. Please don't take it too seriously.)
(End of this chapter)