The traffic signal cast a harsh, violent red glow over the crowded intersection. Warm exhaust fumes drifted from the idling cars, mixing with the damp scent of cooling asphalt. Albert kept his hands buried deep in his pockets, waiting for the light to change.
Then, a flash of pale color caught his eye.
Turning his head a fraction of an inch, he noticed a girl from his class standing just two feet away. Her hair was unmistakable, reflecting the streetlamp's glare like spun glass.
She was not moving. Her shoulders slumped forward heavily, pulling the dark fabric of her blazer tight across her back. Down by her feet, her heavy school bag sat completely abandoned on the dusty concrete next to her scuffed loafers.
I should say something.
The thought surfaced naturally.
She looks completely drained.
He opened his mouth, his throat tightening immediately as a cold sweat prickled the back of his neck. If he actually spoke to her, what would she do? She might glare at him again. She might just ignore him, treating him like empty space just as she had done all week. The social friction of initiating a conversation felt too heavy to carry.
He clamped his jaw shut. The silence was much safer.
A large group of Zenith Academy students pushed up to the edge of the curb, crowding the narrow space. Albert didn't recognize a single face among them. They seemed to belong to other sections.
They were incredibly loud.
"Hey, what was that exam all about?" a tall boy groaned, aggressively running a hand through his messy hair. "That was the hardest written exam I ever took."
Beside him, a girl with short hair vigorously nodded her head. "Yeah, that was too hard. How could anyone answer those? The first math question literally made my brain hurt."
"The school is too unfair," another boy grumbled, kicking a loose pebble into the gutter. "Those kind of questions seemed to be not in high school level. They expect us to be college professors or something."
"Forget it," a third boy interrupted, waving his hand dismissively. "Why don't we go to karaoke? We need to relax."
"Yeah, we're down," two other girls chimed in. They pulled out their phones, swiping the bright screens to find the nearest karaoke box.
Their loud laughter grated against the evening traffic. They had already accepted their poor scores and moved on to recreation.
Shifting his weight to his left foot, Albert glanced back at the girl.
She had not reacted to the loud group at all. Her head remained bowed. She just stared at the cracked pavement. With her mouth hanging slightly open and her eyes completely blank, she looked like a marble statue left out in the rain.
Then, a sharp electronic chirp pierced the air. The pedestrian light flipped from red to green.
The crowd surged forward immediately. The loud group of students marched across the white stripes, their voices fading into the low hum of the city. Albert stepped off the curb, letting the physical momentum of the crowd pull him along the crosswalk.
He reached the center of the street.
Something felt wrong so he looked over his shoulder.
The sidewalk was empty, except for one person.
The girl was still standing on the very edge of the curb. Her bag remained on the concrete. She stared blankly at the empty air in front of her, completely oblivious to the changing light and the flow of people.
Engines revved loudly. Cars on the perpendicular street began inching forward, waiting for the stragglers to clear the intersection.
She did not take a single step.
---
Three Days Later.
The rain had stopped, but the atmosphere in the central courtyard was freezing.
Thousands of students gathered in front of the Score Bulletin Board. A sea of blazers shifting nervously. The heat from their bodies created a visible mist that rose into the cold air.
Dominating the courtyard was the "Score Bulletin Board"—a 20-meter wide, 8K Micro-LED behemoth that hummed with enough voltage to light a small neighborhood. It wasn't just a screen; it was a monolith of judgment.
The display was segmented into three vertical zones: 1st Year, 2nd Year, and 3rd Year. The base of the wall was lined with NFC terminals where students could tap their ID cards to instantly highlight their coordinates in the data ocean.
"I can't look," Maya whispered, pressing her hands together.
She is standing close to Leo, using his height as a shield against the crowd.
Leo stood with his hands in his pockets, looking relaxed, but his jaw was tight.
"It's fine," Leo said, though he looked pale. "We did our best."
Around them, the crowd parted slightly. It wasn't intentional; it was the natural gravity of aesthetics. Leo, tall and athletic with a face that belonged on a magazine cover, and Maya, with her bright, girl-next-door radiance, created a "Visual V.I.P. Zone." Students glanced at them, whispering.
"Is that Sterling-kun?"
"Who's the girl? She's cute."
"Wait, who is the guy standing between them?"
Albert stood in the dead center of the spotlight, feeling the stares crawling over his skin like ants. He hunched his shoulders, wishing he could toggle his opacity to 0%.
I hate this. I am a smudge on a masterpiece. Standing next to them is like being the typo in a love letter. Please, just look at the screen.
"Attention," the P.A. system boomed. "First Assessment Rankings compiled. Displaying now."
The screen flickered. A collective gasp sucked the air out of the courtyard.
They saw the summit.
RANK 1: Tsukishiro Shiina - Total Score: 465/500
(Math: 93 | Science: 94 | English: 92 | Japanese: 93 | Social Studies: 93).
"465?" a senior student near them muttered, dropping his bag in shock. "That's... that's a new record. The 'Iron Wall' of 464 has stood for twenty years. Who is this girl?"
"I've seen that face before. She's the blonde who arrives at the Cafeteria at 1:10 PM then leaves at 1:25 PM.", another senior answered.
A profile picture appeared next to the name. She had soft blonde hair that curled elegantly halfway down her shoulders. Her eyes were large, crystalline blue, and sparkling with a kind of innocent, aristocratic charm. She looked stunning—the platonic ideal of a "Perfect Honor Student."
Within just two weeks, Tsukishiro Shiina had become a sensation among the boys on campus. The times 1:10 PM and 1:25 PM became famously known as the 'golden time.' This was because, at those precise moments, the boys at the Cafeteria were guaranteed to see her. Curiously, despite her popularity, no one ever approached and came near her; her mere presence seemed to intimidate them.
Albert stared at the screen. For a split second, his brain stopped thinking the numbers and started processing aesthetics.
Analysis:Visual Impact Critical. Subject: Tsukishiro Shiina. She isn't just pretty; she is rendered correctly. Golden ratio facial symmetry, flawless skin texture, a color palette that pops against the gray background. She triggers the same part of my brain that appreciates a limited-edition 1/7 scale figure or a 4K remaster. She is a high-resolution fantasy brought to life.
He felt a twinge of guilt, then immediately ran analysis in his head.
Correction: Guilt is unnecessary. The variables are independent. Tsukishiro Shiina is a Read-Only Asset—spectacular, distant, and purely for observation. Like a painting in a museum. I can admire the brushwork without wanting to steal the canvas. Maya is different. Maya is Root Access. She isn't just something I look at; she is the gravity that holds my entire universe together. I would buy Shina's figurine. I would die for Maya's smile. One is a hobby. The other is a lifeline. There is no conflict.
Conclusion:Acknowledging that Tsukishiro Shiina is attractive does not invalidate my feelings for Maya. One is a biological reaction to symmetry and 'Moe' factors; the other is soul-crushing unrequited love. The variables are independent.
Albert stood in the back, eyes narrowed.
465 points. An average of 93 per subject. Given the difficulty curve, she didn't miss random questions in the middle. She missed the first seven. She probably failed the Killer Questions (Q1) and other six Phd Level Questions for each subject. That means, she was able to solve or answer an average of three super hard Phd level questions which is not normal for a high school student. College Graduates and even people with Master's Degrees will fail to solve those. No doubt, she is a genius-tier.
Albert looked at the next name.
RANK 2: Tokugawa Shinichi → Total Score: 401 / 500
RANK 3: Shinozaki Arisa → Total Score: 400 / 500
"A sixty-four point gap," Leo whispered, staring at the numbers. "Tokugawa Shinichi was the National Mock Exam champion during Middle School. He scored 401. That's an elite score. But he's nearly seventy points behind her? That's not a rivalry. She's playing a completely different game."
Albert scanned down the list.
Rank 21: Himuro Leina Total Score: 382 / 500 (Math: 90 | Science: 88 | ...)
Himuro-san got a 90 in Math. She probably answered everything from Q11 to Q100 perfectly. She mastered the Graduate and High School levels. But she got a zero on Q1 through Q10. She couldn't touch the PhD section. She knows Tsukishiro Shiina beat her not on speed, but on the sheer scale of what her brain could handle.
---
Endnote of Chapter 25
Tsukishiro Shiina is the current 'Rank 1' out of 4,000 first year students. She broke the 'Iron Wall' record of 464 which stood for 20 years in the History of Zenith Academy.
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Logic Engine Log of Chapter 25
Constants:
*1:10 PM to 1:25 PM is called the 'Golden Time' by the boys across the campus of Zenith Academy, which guarantees to see Tsukishiro Shiina (月城至奈) in Cafeteria.