COTE : Oh No, I've Become the Substitute Chapter 44: So You've Finally Decided to Teach Me the Flame

Over the next few days, Fuyuji Mikage lived a peaceful yet fulfilling life.

During the day, he attended class and battled wits and courage with Morishita. At noon, he casually found sowhere to resolve the food problem, then wandered around the school. After school, he went to the library for tutoring with Shiraishi, occasionally showing concern for his brother's daily life. In the evening, if he still had leftover breadcrumbs, he'd go to the shore to feed Wild Pigeon. At night, he'd train his ability, exhaust his ntal energy, sleep straight through till dawn, and absolutely never carry fatigue into the next day.

Even Hoshinomiya-sensei said he was perfectly normal!

"Very impressive, Fuyuji-kun. At this rate, by tomorrow—no! By today, you could take the test and finish tutoring."

Inside the library, Shiraishi set down Fuyuji's practice booklet and tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

Beside them, Kamuro looked at her own practice booklet, where circles only slightly outnumbered checkmarks, then at Fuyuji's booklet, which had only a scant few checkmarks. Even she, who normally never cared about grades, felt an inexplicable sense of crisis rise in her heart.

"Why is it that even though we're studying together, your improvent speed is so much faster than mine?" Kamuro asked with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"Because Fuyuji-kun is amazing. He might even be a genius."

A small hand beneath the table quietly extended, covering the back of Fuyuji's hand. Slender fingers grazed and scratched intermittently, an itch reaching straight to the bottom of one's heart.

Fuyuji turned his head with a dark, brooding look and t those tranquil eyes.

[Hasn't your attack frequency been a little too high these past few days?]

[Has it?]

Fuyuji caught that restless little hand of Shiraishi's with his own, flipping his hand to grasp it.

[My HP bar is about to be emptied by you, you know!]

[...]

Fuyuji received no reply from the owner of those eyes, for she was currently in a fluster from having her hand suddenly seized.

Ripples spread through those clear, mirror-like eyes. Her large eyes fluttered rapidly. Her gaze began to flit about randomly around Fuyuji. One small hand remained obediently held in his grasp, only occasionally mustering the courage to struggle once, presenting a picture of wanting to leave yet unwilling to do so.

Not good! This old man's HP!

Once again heavily critted by Shiraishi's cuteness, Fuyuji released her small hand.

If this kept up, he was going to get knocked out for good by this woman's adorable appearance.

No. He needed to find sowhere to recover so HP and restore so sanity points.

Otherwise, he was going to beco a missing-nin from the Land of Light and convert to the Church of Shiraishi right on the spot.

"Genius? Impossible. I know exactly how much I'm worth."

Forcibly wrenching the topic back, Fuyuji flipped open the notebook given to him by Mashima, attempting to use the accumulated crystallization of human wisdom from ancient and modern tis to anchor his attention.

"But, I'd also like to know the answer to that." Fuyuji held the notebook with one hand, yet his eyeballs, as if their locks had been undone, kept drifting toward Shiraishi's side.

Shiraishi seed to notice this as well, and either intentionally or unintentionally, edged closer this way.

"Have you been sneaking in extra tutoring at ho?" Kamuro wore an expression that said, "Are you trying to out-study to death?"

"How is that possible? Don't I chat with you every single night?"

Realizing he couldn't divert his attention, Fuyuji decided to fight magic with magic, concentrating his focus on Kamuro next to him instead.

Clearly blessed with beautiful features, yet always putting on a face of disgust. Poke her just a little and a double dose of biting sarcasm would bounce right back. Yet, unexpectedly, she had a surprisingly good heart...

"That's true..." The corner of Kamuro's eye twitched as she recalled the bizarre little videos Fuyuji shared with her every night.

"My brother, have you really not considered getting into the University of Tokyo as a goal? Maybe this is exactly the effect of having a goal versus not having one."

"Are you trying to fool a ghost? This studying thing—I've been doing it since elentary school. I'm thoroughly sick of it! And, although I don't mind you calling by that appellation, could you not call that in a public place like this?"

Kamuro gave Fuyuji a sidelong glare, utterly scornful of studying.

Fuyuji's words piqued Shiraishi's curiosity. She leaned in closer and asked, "Is Fuyuji-kun's goal Todai?"

Strand after strand of that unique, girlish fragrance continuously crept into Fuyuji's nostrils, slapping his attention back like whipping a spinning top.

"No. Or rather, I don't actually know either." Fuyuji tightened his cheeks and gazed at the distant white clouds.

"Then what are Fuyuji-kun's plans for the future?" Shiraishi seed very interested in this aspect. "With Fuyuji-kun's ability, if you can graduate from Class A, you have a very high chance of receiving an exam-exemption acceptance letter from one of the Great Zaibatsu..."

Every year, the leaders who graduated from Class A at Advanced Nurturing High School could almost all receive exam-exemption acceptance letters from one of the Great Zaibatsu.

Fuyuji wasn't the leader of Class A—well... at least not in na—but it wasn't far off.

"No rush. There's a whole three years until graduation. In fact, I'm currently in a period of confusion right now. I don't even know what I want to do in the future. What about Shiraishi-san? At Shiraishi-san's current academic pace, you have a very high chance of getting wherever you want."

"?" Shiraishi fixed her gaze on Fuyuji, her eyes glimring. "Well... I don't know my future goal either... I probably won't know until later."

Fuyuji's heart gave a violent leap. The entire world seed to turn gray and pale, leaving only the single vivid color before his eyes.

"..."

His defenses thoroughly breached, he simply stopped dodging altogether. Bracing his heart, he directly reached out. With even more force than before, he once again grasped Shiraishi's small hand, enveloping her entire palm in his. His gaze burned intensely, fixed on her eyes, which had clearly plunged into fluster.

[Let's mutually assuredly destroy each other! Let's see whose HP empties first!]

[...]

Shiraishi did not reply. Her originally calm, drawn-out breathing, as gentle as flowing water, imdiately beca heavy. Her lips grew increasingly rosy. A strange atmosphere spread between the two, as if even the air around them had turned viscous.

In the end, her face flushed a translucent pink through its white, Shiraishi initiated a surrender request and proactively withdrew her body back to its original position.

"Fuyuji, what's that thing you're holding in your hand?"

Kamuro, who had been glaring at Fuyuji the entire ti, discovered a blind spot and miraculously pulled his attention back.

"Oh, this. The notebook Mashima-sensei gave ." Looking perfectly composed on the surface but actually already close to collapse, Fuyuji once again released Shiraishi's small hand.

"..."

"Didn't you say there was nothing?" Kamuro, irritated, inadvertently brought her originally lowered volu back to normal levels.

"Shh—!"

Fuyuji's fingers, flipping the notebook, stopped. He examined the yellowed notebook in his hand once more and said, as if suddenly seeing the light, "Oh, right. This thing exists too."

With his attention entirely focused on Shiraishi, he had actually forgotten this item was even there.

Co to think of it, this notebook had actually been this useful?

So you've finally decided to teach the Fla Mantra, you old fart?!

Shiraishi, who hadn't spoken a word since just now, ca back to her senses. She raised a hand and smoothed her disheveled light golden hair.

"Fuyuji-kun, do you mind if I take a look?"

Fuyuji closed the notebook and passed it over. No need for many words.

The White Gate, worthy of trust!

"That rigid Mashima Tomonari... to think he'd actually give you private, special tutoring. So, you really are the true class leader, aren't you?"

Kamuro clicked her tongue in displeasure. Over a month had passed; she could be said to know her horoom teacher by now. Put nicely, he was dutiful and responsible. Put bluntly, he dealt with matters strictly by the book.

And now, that sa Mashima actually took the initiative to give his personal notes to Fuyuji because he was worried he wouldn't pass the midterm. This clearly didn't match the class's established impression of him.

"It's true."

Shiraishi spoke while flipping through the notebook. "Recorded inside are problem-solving approaches for many uncommon exercises, even quite a few study thods."

Shiraishi had finally rembered that there was still soone else she needed to teach.

"If possible, could Fuyuji-kun make a copy for Kamuro-san? It should be helpful for her grades."

"Of course, no problem. Just as long as it doesn't get damaged."

He didn't care that much about this notebook itself. But after all, it was sothing Mashima had given him, the culmination of many years of his painstaking effort. Valuing gifts from others was common sense.

"My brother! Do you want it?" Fuyuji asked with a hint of teasing. "With this, maybe you could even consider Todai."

"Can you quit bringing up Todai?!"

Kamuro spoke through gritted teeth. She was already nearly immune to Fuyuji's "my brother." Couldn't he just co up with a slightly nicer-sounding appellation?!

After a difficult internal struggle, her expression cycling through uncertainty, Kamuro finally made up her mind. "Even though I'm not interested in studying right now, make a copy too."

Who knows, maybe one day she'd suddenly rise up. Then she could also take a shot at Fuyuji's arrogance.

Truth be told, she had been brooding over Fuyuji calling her "my brother" in broad public for quite so ti now.

The mont she imagined Fuyuji's humiliated expression before her, Kamuro felt energized.

"Then that's settled." Fuyuji picked up the notebook and handed it to Kamuro. "Leaving it with you. Just rember to return it after you make a backup."

"Got it." Kamuro accepted the notebook and placed it into her schoolbag. "I'll return it to you tomorrow."

After the matter was settled, Fuyuji sat in his seat, placed his pen under his nose, his gaze flitting about randomly. At the sa ti, he silently recited the Heart-Cleansing Mantra in his heart, allowing his sanity points, which had plumted to rock bottom, to slowly recover.

The Shiraishi Mama next to him seed to be in a critical HP state as well. She hadn't teased Fuyuji again since just now, simply sitting quietly in her spot.

Besides their group, there was one more group from Class A that had co to the library for tutoring. The rest were either at cafes or had found their own quiet places.

Worth ntioning was that these past two days, the library seed to have spawned fresh faces from Class C and Class D. It seed they too felt that continuing like this was rely sitting still waiting for death and had finally gotten organized, trying to improve their grades.

But that wasn't the main point. The main point was that he'd actually spotted the combo of Horikita Girl and Cha-Cha inside. This—this shouldn't be possible.

Could it be that in the few days he'd been away, their relationship had suddenly advanced by leaps and bounds?

Or had Cha-Cha finally discovered Horikita Girl's weak point and gotten her firmly under her thumb?

Fuyuji continued his wild train of thoughts, and then his pupils constricted.

The pen resting on his lip clattered onto the table with a smack, rolling a few tis across the surface with a rattle before stopping.

Morishita, leading Yamamura, was striding towards them with an air of swaggering, valiant might.

It seed that during these days he'd been in solitary training, the nefarious Morishita had finally lost her patience. Worried that his strength would surpass hers, she had co specially to sabotage his academic progress.

-----------------------------------------------------------

If you want to Support , you can Read 85 Advanced Chapters on : [email protected]/Yuni_TL

Every 100 PS = Bonus Chapter!