Chapter 12: In Tsundere, There is Only 'Tsun' and No 'Dere.'
"Then I'll just go and change the terminal on the teacher's side directly!"
"Don't change it!"
Katsuragi Keima was utterly speechless with Katsuragi Elsie.
If it were their original world, it might be fine, but this school was covered in surveillance cameras. If someone saw Elsie using her supernatural powers, it would be a disaster.
"I've already been working hard to learn the writing in this world! Sigh! But a little quiz like this shouldn't have any impact, right?"
"There shouldn't be. Chabashira-sensei said this test had nothing to do with the school authorities and was just something she came up with temporarily on her own..."
"Hooray!"
"...But, we will definitely have monthly exams, midterms, and finals in the future. Those exams might even be related to the points we receive, which would cause problems for our daily lives..."
"It's okay! Even if we have no points, I can go to Hell and catch some ingredients to bring back. We definitely won't starve to death! My cooking skills are actually quite good!"
"The truthfulness of your words is debatable. However, obtaining points isn't the key; the most important thing is that if your grades are too poor, you might be expelled."
"Ex—Expelled?"
Elsie froze, seemingly trying to grasp the meaning of that word.
"If we get expelled, I assume both of our missions will end in failure," Keima replied.
"Noooooo! Kami-nii-sama!!! What should I do?!"
"Hey, hey, hey, you're a demon. Are you asking me to find a way?"
"If the mission isn't completed, the world will be destroyed!!!!"
"A real world like this might as well be destroyed—no, wait, that won't work. If the real world is destroyed, I won't be able to play games either."
"Exactly, exactly! Kami-nii-sama! Let's work hard together!"
"Sigh... Let's head to the library later then. At least I need to let you know some of the common sense of this world... You've finished eating too, right? Let's go."
A somewhat helpless Keima prepared to lead Elsie away. At the same time, he pulled out his handheld console, preparing to play while walking.
But at that moment, a familiar figure directly blocked their path.
"Please wait a moment."
The voice was crisp but forceful, seemingly leaving Keima no room for refusal.
Keima looked at her; it was Horikita Suzune.
Horikita's expression was solemn, her eyes projecting an incredibly serious gaze that landed on Keima's face.
"What is it?"
"Please trouble yourself to give me a bit of an explanation."
Horikita took out her terminal, which clearly displayed today's grade sheet. Her name was also in a very high position.
[1st Place: Horikita Suzune: 100 points]
"Oh, you're also first place!" Elsie said with some surprise. She only just noticed that Horikita had also scored a hundred.
"Explain... what?"
Keima scratched his head, looking at the girl before him with a face of confusion.
"How exactly did you do it? To be able to get a perfect score on the test!"
Horikita questioned him with a furrowed brow.
Although she ultimately obtained a perfect score as well, Horikita knew very well that she had wasted a lot of time on the final question, and even at the very end, she couldn't guarantee her answer was correct.
Yet at that time, Keima had already finished; he had even packed his things before handing it in.
Horikita was well aware that Keima had absolutely not cheated. But he had clearly been playing games the entire time.
Horikita didn't know how Keima had managed to achieve this. More than a slight sense of being outdone, she felt curiosity.
"It's very simple. You just write down the correct answers, don't you?"
"That's not what I'm asking! The difficulty of the last question was on a completely different level from the ones before, and the teacher barely mentioned it during class—"
"No, Chabashira-sensei mentioned it several times."
Keima was no longer looking at Horikita. He lowered his head, focusing his attention on the handheld, and started a game.
"Four times in total. It's just that at the time, Chabashira-sensei put that knowledge point together with several others. You just needed to untangle that information."
Keima then repeated everything Chabashira-sensei had said during class.
"What?"
Horikita heard Keima's words, her mouth hanging open slightly, her face full of disbelief.
Even though she had listened incredibly attentively, she hadn't noticed at the time that Chabashira Sae had mentioned those things in class.
What bothered Horikita the most was that Keima actually remembered the content the teacher taught. Hadn't he been playing games from start to finish?
Could it be... Keima was playing games while simultaneously listening to the lesson seriously? Is that even possible?
Horikita subconsciously lowered her head, looking at the handheld screen in Keima's hands.
A 2D girl was on the screen with a defiant expression, saying something that seemed to have a mocking tone.
"It seems you are hated by the character in your game."
"Heh, as expected of someone who only lives in pathetic reality."
Keima looked up slightly, gave Horikita a glance filled with pity, and then lowered his head again.
"What?"
"This is called Tsundere. Although they look cold and arrogant on the surface and usually speak with thorns, once you touch their heart, that soft side will be completely revealed to you. A person like you who doesn't play games at all simply can't understand it. You'll never see a 'moe' attribute like this in the real world."
"Why should I understand such a thing?"
Elsie, standing to the side, couldn't cut into the conversation at all, but her gaze kept darting back and forth between Horikita and Keima.
"Wait a minute. That type that is cold and arrogant on the surface and speaks with a bit of a sting..."
It was the first time Elsie had heard the term Tsundere, but her gaze slowly began to focus on Horikita.
"Horikita-san?"
"??? What is it?"
Looking at Elsie's pure and curious gaze, Horikita seemed to realize something belatedly.
Had her behavior... overlapped with Keima's words?
'Tsundere?'
How is that possible? How could such a strange term have anything to do with me!
"I—I... am not..."
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going now."
Keima kept his eyes on his handheld and walked past Horikita.
"Um, well, Horikita-san, we'll be going now!"
Elsie politely waved to Horikita and then followed Keima's footsteps, though she still looked back at Horikita several times.
Horikita, meanwhile, stood in place, motionless.
"What... what even am I doing here..."