The next day, at the entrance of Sobu High School.
Several female students wearing Public Morals Committee armbands were stationed there to conduct inspections. Among them was a girl with waist-length jet-black hair. Her appearance was delicate and radiant, like a princess. Her slender yet aesthetically pleasing legs were tightly wrapped in black pantyhose. Aside from having a rather flat chest, she was indeed a beautiful girl.
As the student council president, Kuroyukihime, along with some members of the student council, was helping the Public Morals Committee with the inspections.
Even Raize's good friend, Shirogane, was helping out at the school gate. There was also a girl with beautiful light-purple long hair, refined features, and a curvy figure. Thigh-high black stockings clung tightly to her long legs as she assisted as a member of the student council.
The tear mole at the corner of her eye made the purple-haired girl appear even more charming. Compared to the cold, aloof, and unattainable Kuroyukihime, she possessed a different kind of allure, causing passersby who had been admiring Kuroyukihime to unconsciously shift part of their gaze toward her.
"Sorry, we need to check everyone's belongings. Please cooperate."
Akino Sakura, one of the student council members, spoke gracefully. She enjoyed extremely high popularity among the students, and even the teachers praised her endlessly.
This was also a necessary quality for someone competing for the position of student council president. Before awakening his past-life memories, Raize had kept his distance from Sakura. This woman made his instincts feel uneasy, and he genuinely did not want to get close to her.
After regaining his memories, that feeling only intensified. Sakura was the student council president from Oresuki, except that in this world, her excellence and nobility were completely overshadowed by the Princess Snow Black, Kuroyukihime.
According to information leaked by his good friend Shirogane, Sakura was also one of the candidates competing for the student council presidency. Although her abilities and looks were outstanding, she often "went against" Kuroyukihime.
That opposition meant comparison and competition. After all, whenever people thought of the student council, they first thought of the even more noble Kuroyukihime, and only then Sakura.
Perhaps it was a woman's competitive mindset that drove Sakura to want to prove she was more outstanding than Kuroyukihime.
There was also a piece of gossip from Shirogane: apparently, Sakura often mocked Kuroyukihime's relatively flat chest with her own ample curves, since that was the one point where she could surpass her.
"Throw away whatever you're holding right now!"
Akutsu Akuru glared coldly with emotionless eyes at the orange-haired twin-tailed girl behind him who was holding a book, signaling her to quickly get rid of the unhealthy item in her arms. After all, both the Public Morals Committee and student council members were present.
In Raize's eyes, as he slowly walked toward the school from afar, that orange-haired twin-tailed girl who radiated the aura of a wild animal looked as if the goddess of wisdom, Aqua, had possessed her.
After hearing Akutsu's words, she froze for a moment, then immediately hugged the self-drawn photo album tightly to her chest and said, "No way! This book can basically be considered another me!"
Akutsu's forehead veins bulged. What Hanabatake Yoshiko called "another me" was a fetish photo collection starring herself. Just imagining this woman striking seductive poses in front of him made him sick, let alone actually looking at it.
The female head of the Public Morals Committee at the school gate had sharp ears. After hearing Yoshiko, she frowned and shouted, "You two over there, what are you bringing into the school?"
After saying that, she nodded to those around her and personally walked toward the two of them.
"This?" Yoshiko looked down at the photo album in her arms, smiled innocently, and pointed at Akutsu beside her. "It's a gift I'm giving to Akuru!"
"Damn it! You bastard!"
Akutsu's face flushed with rage. Saying something like that in public—what the hell were you trying to do, you intellectually undeveloped female monkey!
The head of the Public Morals Committee glanced at the item in Yoshiko's arms and immediately knew what it was. Without mercy, she snatched it away and said sternly, "As the head of the Public Morals Committee, I'm confiscating this!"
"To brazenly bring such shameless material into school…"
She lowered her head to look at the photo album, her face slightly reddening. Then she looked at Akutsu with faintly flushed cheeks and said, "I didn't expect someone like you to openly disrupt school discipline."
She recognized Akutsu, a top student ranked near the top of the school. He was often a topic of discussion among female students.
She actually had a pretty good impression of him, and never expected that even someone like him would look at this kind of thing.
Then again, no matter how outstanding he was, he was still a boy.
"Damn it, Hanabatake Yoshiko!"
Being publicly reprimanded like this, Akutsu gritted his teeth and cursed that monkey who had never once failed to spike his blood pressure.
"Hey, are you even listening to me?!"
Looking at Akutsu being surrounded by onlookers, with the inseparable monkey queen Yoshiko at his side, whether it was the Raize of the past or the Raize of now, he felt nothing but pity and sympathy for Akutsu.
Being tangled up with a girl who constantly sent one's blood pressure soaring must be pure despair.
With Yoshiko around every single day, Akutsu probably never had a moment of peace.
Akutsu's gaze subconsciously met Raize's. They both saw the emotions in each other's eyes. He saw the undisguised pity in Raize's eyes and instantly interpreted it as "you really have it rough," making the pent-up frustration in his heart feel like it had finally found someone to confide in.
Look at that heart-wrenching gaze—Yotsuki-kun understands my pain!
Seeing that there was no one within four meters of Raize, Akutsu didn't find him lonely or pitiful. Instead, he felt a deep sense of envy.
I want some peace and quiet too!
Raize passed by the noisy area where Akutsu was. As he walked forward, the students blocking his path all changed expression and quickly made way, as if they were seeing a high-speed train barreling toward them.
This guy is dangerous—absolutely not someone you want to mess with!
This gangster-boss-style clearing of the way made everyone who had been drawn over by Yoshiko's noise turn their heads toward the expressionless Raize.
"Ah, it's that tough guy from yesterday—the one who punched a soccer ball apart with his bare hands!"
"This insane aura… are you sure he's not from the underworld?"
"He's actually pretty popular at school too, so why does no one dare get close to him?"
"That's a different thing altogether. Lions at the zoo are popular too, but other than the keepers, who dares approach them?"
"Damn, that analogy makes perfect sense. I get it now!"
The commotion was so loud that the student council and Public Morals Committee thought some big shot had arrived at Sobu High, only to see Raize walking over expressionlessly with his schoolbag.
Those who knew Raize stiffened and exchanged glances, silently signaling: you go check him.
Seeing the stiff expressions of the Public Morals Committee members, Shirogane sighed lightly in understanding and stepped forward himself.
"Good morning, Miyuki."
Raize knew exactly what he was there to do. Letting those timid people handle it probably wouldn't work anyway, so he directly handed over his schoolbag to Shirogane for inspection. Most of his important items were stored in his storage space anyway.
"You've gotten famous again."
Miyuki accepted it without ceremony and began checking. He scanned Raize up and down, noting his noticeably sturdier build. It was hard to imagine that his friend had really blown apart a soccer ball with one punch yesterday.
At school, he was one of the few who truly understood Raize. There were very few people who could get close to him and talk normally.
After returning the bag, Shirogane studied Raize again, stroked his chin, and nodded. "Looks like it really wasn't my imagination. Raize, you've changed from before."
"When you go through more things, everyone changes."
Raize smiled indifferently, then walked past him straight into the campus. Shirogane still had duties to attend to, so this wasn't the time for casual chatting.
During that time, he also received a curious and probing glance from a certain cold, noble Black Princess president.
After Miyuki returned to his post, Kuroyukihime softly asked him, "Shirogane-kun, that male student with such a grand presence just now is your friend, right?"
Although phrased as a question, there was no doubt in her tone—just a casual inquiry.
Naturally, Miyuki didn't dare be careless in response. He scratched the back of his head, organized his words, and said, "He's a friend I've grown up with. The president should know him too—he's the one who's always firmly seated at the very top of the academic rankings."
Yotsuki Raize… is it?
Kuroyukihime's academic performance was excellent as well, but her personal excellence wasn't limited to studies alone. Naturally, she knew the well-known figures at school. Ever since six people—including Shirogane—had occupied the top ranks, those six positions had hardly changed.
Yotsuki Raize, in particular, had remained firmly above the other five. Whenever those six were mentioned, his name inevitably came up.
Some time ago, rumors circulated on campus that Raize had been injured and hospitalized after a ghoul attack, which caused Kuroyukihime to pay a bit more attention to him.
After all, Raize had brought considerable honor to the school. Even the principal and Hiratsuka had visited him in the hospital.
Kuroyukihime had only seen Raize a few times at school. He was quite withdrawn, and aside from Shirogane, he didn't seem to have many friends.
Recalling the Raize from her memories and comparing him to the current Raize—colder and harder to approach—her woman's intuition told her that significant changes had occurred in this student.
---
Inside the Sobu High teachers' office.
Hiratsuka stared at the expressionless Raize with black lines all over her forehead. After stubbing out her cigarette, she said, "Raize, you really caused quite a stir."
Hearing this, Raize, who was being scrutinized by Hiratsuka and several other teachers, felt a bit speechless inside.
Especially with Kondo, the PE teacher not far away, looking at him like a pillar of talent—probably inspired by seeing his combat ability and thinking about training him, adding another achievement to his teaching career.
Raize didn't want trouble, nor did he want to cause Hiratsuka trouble, so he said, "Um… did I do something wrong?"
Sengoku Chihiro, sitting not far from Hiratsuka, smiled as she examined the handsome Raize with interest. Hiratsuka shook her phone with its screen lit up and said, "What happened yesterday has spread everywhere. The teachers' group chat all knows about it. That student, Tobe Kakeru, even took the day off."
"I didn't threaten him, and I didn't use violence on him!" Raize quickly clarified, thinking he was about to be accused.
"I know you didn't, but that student seems so frightened by you that he's thinking of transferring schools. Could you maybe communicate with him more amicably?"
Hiratsuka rubbed her temples, asking Raize for help. She could tell Raize hadn't cared about Tobe's possibly intentional action at all, but that kid was now too scared to even leave his house.
On top of that, Tobe's parents had contacted her, the homeroom teacher, asking about the situation. It was becoming a headache.
Hearing this, Raize showed a speechless expression and directly refused. "Just tell him I don't care. I'm not an unreasonable person. From start to finish, I never went out of my way to trouble him. And now you want me to go talk to him? What a coward."
He had no interest in doing pointless things. He didn't care about Tobe at all. A single warning glare had been more than enough. If the guy didn't know his place, he would naturally resort to harsher methods.
But for someone who would no longer bother him, he couldn't be bothered to waste energy interacting with him.
Asking him to go have a friendly talk with Tobe? To hell with that. Not holding his earlier actions against him was already generous enough.
"Alright, alright, I get what you mean. You didn't do anything wrong from beginning to end—you just broke a soccer ball." Hiratsuka understood Raize's stance. She knew it was impossible to get him to do this kind of thing, so she stopped wasting words and gestured for him to leave the office. She would find a way to handle it herself.
After Raize left, Chihiro dragged her chair over next to Hiratsuka and smiled at her troubled best friend. "That Raize is the good student from the rumors who survived a ghoul attack, right? He doesn't look like a bookworm at all."
Anyone at school could find out about Raize with a bit of effort. He'd been absent for a long time due to injuries from a ghoul attack—hardly something that needed to be hidden, given how often such incidents were reported in the news in Japan.
"You can say that to me, but don't go poking at people's scars in public," Hiratsuka said seriously, her tone complex. "Raize really didn't interact much with others before. Calling him a bookworm wasn't wrong. It's only natural that he'd change after experiencing something like that. Anyone would."
Hiratsuka hadn't asked when Raize had gained such strength for this very reason. Being attentive by nature, she didn't pry too deeply into her student's affairs.
"True enough…"
Chihiro thought about it and felt some sympathy for Raize. Since her best friend said so, she wouldn't thoughtlessly gossip about others' wounds.
That said, even if she didn't talk about scars, she could talk about other things. Thinking about Raize's overall qualities, she licked her lips and said, "If he were in the same grade as me, I'd probably go after him. His inside-and-out qualities are totally my type."
With looks scoring a ten, personality an eight, personal conditions a nine, and a full ten in giving a sense of security to her partner, an outstanding person like Raize would indeed make her heart flutter if they were the same age.
Hiratsuka naturally understood Raize far better than Chihiro did. Hearing her close friend suddenly say something so shocking, a look of vigilance appeared on her face as she stared at her and said, "I'm warning you, don't you dare lay a hand on my student. No matter how badly our matchmaking goes, you can't cross that bottom line!!"
We agreed we'd escape being single together, and now you're setting your sights on my student? That's going way too far!
I haven't even considered doing something so outrageous myself. How could it be your turn?
"I'm just making a comparison," Chihiro said indifferently. "If you ran into someone with such good inner and outer conditions, and everything lined up, I don't believe you wouldn't make a move."
By the end of her sentence, she shot Hiratsuka a mischievous grin, which made the latter's face flush red.
That was true. If she could stop being single, who would want to stay a leftover woman with you?
Watching students enjoy the sweet and bitter moments of youth in pairs around campus, while her family kept urging her to get married and find someone, was practically driving Hiratsuka to the brink.
I, Hiratsuka Shizuka, don't I deserve a sincere and beautiful romance too?!
Who decided that teachers who exist as background characters aren't allowed to find happiness? I, Hiratsuka Shizuka, refuse to accept that!!