"No. Absolutely not. How can you be a genius?" Masao was distraught, his face a mask of dismay.
Nothing was more agonizing than watching a former fool—someone he'd always comfortably outshone—suddenly transform into a legendary prodigy. He refused to accept it.
The injustice was too much to bear. Why couldn't they all just remain average together? Wasn't the whole point for him to be the one making stealthy progress?
He snatched his textbook off the floor, flipping pages wildly until he found a random poem.
"Let's see you handle this one, then."
"Oh? What's this? You doubt me?" Jahy shrugged, a smirk playing on her lips.
Finally, she was reclaiming her dignity in front of Masao, and the feeling was intoxicating.
She took the book from his hands. It was a simple poem, just four lines long. Her eyes scanned the page for less than ten seconds before she tossed the textbook aside and recited the verses perfectly, without a single hitch.
"It's a fluke... It has to be! That one was too short!" Masao, desperate and in denial, scrambled for a heavier literary weapon. He selected a much more challenging poem: "Lament for a White-Haired Man."
"You're looking pathetic. Is it truly so difficult to acknowledge my superiority?" Seeing his crushed spirit filled Jahy with vindictive glee. "Very well. I shall make you concede defeat graciously."
Jahy never backed down from a challenge.
The poem was a lengthy classical piece, so she took a moment to read it through carefully. But that was all the time she needed.
After a single pass, she set the book down with finality.
"Peach and plum flowers east of… daughter cherishes her pretty face..."
She continued, her voice clear, through the entire hundred-plus word poem. There were no stumbles, no pauses to recall a line.
"Correct... and you didn't even stutter." Masao's heart sank into the abyss of despair.
'Oh, for heaven's sake, Jahy. You really are a genius.'
He wasn't the only one stunned. Even the unflappable Yukinoshita Yukino was visibly astonished.
Memorizing a short poem on the spot was one thing, but a complex ancient ballad like this? And reciting it perfectly after a single read was a feat beyond even her own capabilities.
"Well? Are you satisfied now? Wahahaha!" Jahy's triumphant laughter echoed in the room.
This was, without a doubt, the most satisfying moment she'd experienced since her arrival in the human world.
A sudden, crucial question cut through Masao's self-pity.
"Wait a minute. How do you even know all these characters?"
Jahy had read everything flawlessly, but she shouldn't have learned the human world's writing systems, especially Japanese kanji. Did the demon realm use the same script?
"Oh, that? There's a thing called a 'dictionary,' right?" Jahy said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I borrowed one today and memorized the whole thing."
Having resolved to get serious about her studies, she'd enlisted a classmate's help. They showed her how to use the dictionary, and in less than a day, she had committed its entire contents to memory.
There wasn't a single character left that could pose a problem for her.
She delivered this bombshell with casual nonchalance, and it was the final blow that shattered Masao's resistance.
Being so outclassed in the one area he'd felt secure deflated Masao like a leaky balloon.
Desperate to salvage a shred of his pride, he plunged back into his books with grim determination, grinding away for any scrap of progress.
But the chasm between hard work and innate genius was vast. As he expended immense mental effort to barely cram a few pages into his head, he could only watch Jahy with bitter envy for her eidetic memory.
—
Meanwhile, Yukinoshita continued Jahy's lessons. She quickly discovered that Jahy's talents weren't confined to just a perfect memory.
Her analytical mind was just as sharp; she grasped mathematical and scientific concepts almost instantly, mastering them after only a brief explanation.
Of course, Jahy was not infallible. Her weaknesses became glaringly apparent the moment they moved to reading comprehension.
Jahy, a being who lived entirely by her own whims and rules, was incapable of empathizing with others' perspectives.
Analyzing the subtle psychological motivations of characters in a story was an alien concept to her. She didn't just struggle with it; she lacked the fundamental framework for understanding basic human nature.
This wasn't a problem that could be solved by memorization alone. Even if Jahy could theoretically memorize every possible answer, Yukinoshita couldn't possibly teach them all.
This was a skill that would require slow and patient development over time.
For now, Yukinoshita focused on her primary objective: shoring up the foundational knowledge Jahy had missed.
Since Jahy was only in the third grade, the total amount of material wasn't overwhelming. Combined with her supernatural memory and Yukinoshita's meticulous lesson plan, they could cover it all in a matter of days.
—
Studying alone could be a chore, a battle against distraction. But with three of them together, a productive energy filled the room.
The shared focus made it easy to become immersed, and the collective effort boosted both their enthusiasm and productivity.
When the floor grew too hard, they relocated to the plush sofa, trading notes and explanations until another two hours had slipped by.
—
Yukinoshita finally lowered her pen, rubbing at her tired eyes and arching her back in a stretch. Even she was feeling the strain of the long study session.
She glanced through the large living room window and saw that the sky had deepened into twilight.
She rose gracefully from the floor, smoothing the wrinkles from her skirt.
"It's getting late," she announced. "I should be heading home."
Masao stood up as well. "I'll go walk you to your house."
"There's no need."
Just then, the front door of the Tanaka household swung open.
"I'm home!" two voices called out in succession.
Tanaka Kazumi, Masao's mother, stepped inside and paused, her eyes catching on a pair of unfamiliar women's shoes in the entryway.
"Masao?" she called out. "Do we have a guest?"
Hearing the commotion, the three youngsters emerged from the living room.
Seeing his parents, Masao made the introductions.
"Mom, Dad, this is my classmate, Yukinoshita Yukino. Yukinoshita, these are my parents."
Yukinoshita turned to the couple, offered a polite nod, and executed a perfect, formal bow.
"Good evening, Uncle, Auntie. Thank you for having me in your home today. I apologize for the intrusion."
Raised in a household where etiquette was paramount, her manners were impeccable, her posture and tone flawless.
Thud. Thud.
Two heavy bags of groceries hit the floor.
Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka stood frozen stupefied.
'It's an ojou-sama,' their minds screamed in unison.
The moment they laid eyes on Yukinoshita—so elegant, so dignified, and so strikingly beautiful that she seemed to have stepped out of a storybook—a part of them wondered if they had accidentally walked into the wrong house.
A quick, panicked glance at each other confirmed this was no shared hallucination. Instinct took over, and they both bowed in unison.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" they chorused, their voices tinged with a formality usually reserved for a principal or a bank manager.
They stared, mesmerized, at the vision of the refined girl standing in their entryway.
Their minds were a tangled whirlwind. One thought managed to blaze through the confusion: "This is a friend Masao brought home? Our Masao? How... how is that even possible?"
An awkward silence descended upon the entryway (genkan).
Sensing the tension thick enough to cut, Masao cleared his throat loudly.
He shot a pointed look at his parents—a silent plea. "The guest is still here. Pull yourselves together!"
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[email protected]/Raven_scroll (30+ Advance Chapters)