COTE : Oh No, I've Become the Substitute Chapter 6: A Student This Brazen Has Never Been Seen in All

The second day of school.

"Ah~choo!"

Fuyuji Mikage rubbed his nose and walked listlessly into the classroom.

There was still quite a while until class. About a dozen people had already arrived at the classroom early. So had even opened their textbooks to preview the day's lessons.

"Morning, Kito-san." Fuyuji Mikage casually greeted Kito Hayato, who was sitting in the front row.

"Morning..."

Kito Hayato seed slightly surprised that Fuyuji Mikage would greet him, but he quickly reacted and responded quietly. He had changed into a pair of white gloves today; who knows if he cycles through a set a day.

Passing by Kito Hayato, Fuyuji Mikage, eyes squinting, swayed unsteadily toward his own seat.

Last night, while Fuyuji Mikage was researching his ability, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him. He recalled the essential skill for training psychic power in old-school novels—ditation!

Legend had it this was a skill that could absorb the vital energies of heaven and earth to strengthen psychic power.

With such an incredible effect, Fuyuji Mikage absolutely had to plumb its depths. He directly began ditating on his bed according to an online tutorial.

Twenty minutes later, surrounded by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth...

Fuyuji Mikage fell asleep sitting upright.

And then he was blasted by cold wind the entire night.

Old superstition kills!

"Bang—!"

Fuyuji Mikage, his mind wandering in realms beyond, felt himself collide with a soft body. The clattering sound of books scattering followed, reaching his ears.

He'd bumped into soone!

Fuyuji Mikage opened his mouth to apologize, but unexpectedly, a voice tinged with slight panic sounded first:

"I'm sorry!"

Fuyuji Mikage: "?"

He opened his eyes. A girl with side-tied hair was frantically picking up her books.

"Um," Fuyuji Mikage crouched down and picked up a book, "Yamamura-san, I was the one who bumped into you, right?"

"Hiiee!" Having gathered her books, Yamamura Miki was startled. She lowered her head and weakly repeated, "I'm sorry."

"No no, what I an is, I wasn't looking where I was going and bumped into you. Why are you apologizing... Wait!" Fuyuji Mikage seed to recall sothing, his face turning fearful.

"Could it be, you were sent by that Morishita to sabotage , and you feel guilty about it, so you're apologizing?"

"N-no, that's not it. I don't know Morishita-san." Yamamura Miki hurriedly explained.

"Then why are you apologizing? Clearly, I should be the one apologizing to you, right?"

Yamamura Miki's voice dimd a little. "Because I... I've never really had any pr-presence, so—"

"So I'm sorry, I bumped into you. It's as simple as that." Fuyuji Mikage thrust the books in his hand back to her.

"Eh, n-no—" Yamamura Miki clutched the books with one hand while waving the other back and forth repeatedly.

"No what? Not apologizing after bumping into soone will just make things awkward when we interact later. That's that. Please take care of over the next three years. I'm heading off first."

Saying this, Fuyuji Mikage sidestepped the stunned Yamamura Miki standing frozen in place, walked to his own seat, and plopped down.

"Fuyuji-kun, you're quite kind."

Next to him, Shiraishi Asuka set down her pen, closed the notebook she had been writing in, and said with a calm smile.

"That girl, Yamamura, seems to have a sowhat low presence, so she's afraid of causing trouble for others. You forced her to accept it so directly precisely so that she wouldn't overthink it, didn't you?"

"Is that so?" Fuyuji Mikage replied casually, "I didn't really think of it that way."

His ability primarily acted on the ntal aspect and had an amplifying effect on the five senses, so he hadn't felt that Yamamura Miki had a low presence.

Hold on!

Fuyuji Mikage reconsidered. For him, with amplified perception, to actually bump into Yamamura Miki, that in itself was an issue.

"It probably is true. When she did her self-introduction yesterday, it seed like she didn't get much applause either, even though what she said was quite nice." Shiraishi Asuka continued.

During yesterday's self-introductions, as long as soone wasn't as scary as Kito Hayato or as absurdly abstract as Fuyuji Mikage, everyone else would more or less give so polite applause out of courtesy. Yet Yamamura Miki got very little, so maybe she really was not that noticeable.

"Speaking of which, Shiraishi-san, your perception is really sharp. I didn't even notice."

"Not at all," Shiraishi Asuka covered her mouth and said with a smile, "I just happened to see it."

"Mhm." Fuyuji Mikage responded softly.

The listless reply drew Shiraishi Asuka's attention. She showed a curious expression. "Fuyuji-kun seems not very energetic. Did you not sleep well last night?"

"You could say that."

Fuyuji Mikage closed his panda eyes and said faintly, "I'm not quite used to the school bed."

"Fufu." Shiraishi Asuka let out a light laugh. "Well then... how about taking a nap now? I'll wake you up when class is about to start, Fuyuji-kun."

"Thanks in advance, then."

Muttering a sound like sleep-talking, Fuyuji Mikage found a comfortable position, pressed his face against the desktop, and quickly fell asleep.

Seeing Fuyuji Mikage asleep, Shiraishi Asuka put her notebook back into her drawer, rested her chin on one hand, and quietly stared at his face.

By now, the sun had climbed above the horizon. The morning sunlight filtered softly through the glass window, falling upon the boy's face, coating him in a thin veil of light. Shiraishi Asuka found herself montarily lost in thought.

Are you... truly him?

Fuyuji Mikage had always believed the classroom to be the most perfect sleep aid sanctuary. Here, no matter how severe the insomnia symptoms, no matter how noisy the outside world, during a ten-minute break, one could absolutely fall asleep.

The facts proved Fuyuji Mikage correct.

When Shiraishi Asuka gently touched his arm and shook him awake, he was already fully revived.

The students in class were all present now, everyone taking out their textbooks to preview the day's content on their own.

Fuyuji Mikage looked on, the corner of his mouth twitching. He now sowhat understood why, among the four classes A, B, C, and D, theirs was ranked A and placed first. With such an intense try-hard atmosphere, if Class A were really placed last, he, Fuyuji Mikage, would wash his hair upside down.

Of course, there were still a few exceptions, such as Morishita Ai, chin in hand, with clouds seemingly drifting in her bluish-purple pupils, and Fuyuji Mikage, snoring away as if no one else were present...

Cough cough, that's not the point!

Fuyuji Mikage slapped his cheeks with both hands to perk himself up, his gaze shifting to the cara in the classroom.

Now ca the main event.

The school's evaluation of student value was, at the end of the day, only a hypothesis, without any evidence.

And finding evidence was actually quite simple—just prove that one aspect of the school's student value evaluation was real.

Scholastic ability could be asured through exams.

Physical ability could be asured through competitions.

But other aspects, if they truly were as he imagined, would have to be achieved through the caras.

Furthermore, during this process, teachers could not offer reminders; otherwise, the students' true level could not be tested.

So, under what circumstances would the students' true level be revealed?

Fuyuji Mikage had thought of the answer the previous night.

Under circumstances of high student freedom. In other words, when the school's discipline was highly lax.

Therefore...

Just observe the teachers' attitude towards students' classroom behavior. If they completely ignored it, it was clearly a sign that the school intended to test various student trics through the caras.

Thinking this far, Fuyuji Mikage, with renewed vigor, propped his textbook vertically on his desk, hid his face behind the book, and quietly observed the situation in class.

Co, let see the true face of this school.

Half an hour later...

Fuyuji Mikage yawned for the third ti, staring blankly at the class.

No, seriously, you've got to be kidding . In this huge Class A, forty people, all earnestly listening to the lecture, completely looking like they've caught a "study addiction." Shouldn't there be fixed NPCs like the back-row warrior?

...

Fuyuji Mikage yawned again, then as if rembering sothing, put his book down with a "slap."

No... speaking of back-row warriors, it seems there is one!

Fuyuji Mikage shifted his gaze to the podium. Mashima Tomonari was lecturing with a textbook in one hand.

"The Earth provides us with air, water, and..."

"Cough cough!"

Fuyuji Mikage coughed twice, and the attention of the entire class was imdiately drawn.

Mashima Tomonari paused slightly, put his hands behind his back, and continued his lecture.

"It gives us forests full of life and oceans so wide..."

So that's how it is...

Seeing this scene, Fuyuji Mikage's expression turned wild.

Under the watchful eyes of the whole class, Fuyuji Mikage tilted his chair back, rested his head on Morishita Ai's desk, and ignoring Morishita Ai's gradually chilling gaze, pressed on further—he lifted his legs and, with a "clunk," placed them on his own desk.

"We must protect our beautiful planet..."

Mashima Tomonari still had no reaction. He continued his lecture rigidly. In a corner no one saw, the corner of his mouth had already curved into a faint arc.

This bizarre scene, this strange atmosphere—without needing to be told, the students in class had already sensed that sothing was nine-tenths, if not fully, amiss.

Finally, Fuyuji Mikage simply stood up, ignored the entire class's stares, and walked straight out of the classroom.

Throughout this period, Mashima Tomonari showed no intention of stopping him and continued reciting the lesson the entire ti.

Five minutes later, having acquired a freebie bottle of mineral water, Fuyuji Mikage strode swaggeringly back into the classroom.

A portion of the students seed to have deduced sothing from Mashima-sensei's reaction and fixed their burning gazes in Fuyuji Mikage's direction.

...

Mashima Tomonari, for his part, maintained a businesslike deanor, ticulously teaching his lesson, as if the scene that had just unfolded had never happened at all.

Soon after, the dismissal bell rang punctually. Mashima Tomonari organized his teaching materials and left the classroom without a word.

The very next mont, the eyes of the entire class converged on the bottom left corner of the room. Led by Katsuragi Kohei and Hashimoto Masayoshi, students quickly gathered in this direction.

"Yo! Fuyuji-san," Hashimoto Masayoshi greeted him first, speaking in a rather enthusiastic tone, "that move just now, you were probing the school rules, weren't you? Would you mind sharing?"

"I have the sa thought." Katsuragi Kohei folded his arms and said in a deep voice, "Fuyuji-kun clearly knew that Mashima-sensei would have no reaction and therefore acted in such a manner. The intelligence you possess should be far beyond ours. If Fuyuji-kun is willing to share, that would be the best."

In Katsuragi Kohei's view, Fuyuji Mikage was soone who didn't resist social interaction but also wouldn't proactively approach others. If they didn't ask, Fuyuji Mikage might indeed not volunteer anything.

Fuyuji Mikage tilted his head back and gulped so mineral water, then looked at Hashimoto Masayoshi. "Hashimoto-san, you went to ask the upperclassn yesterday, right? What were their answers like?"

"Unfortunately," Hashimoto Masayoshi shrugged, "absolutely no clue. I put myself out there completely, alternately coaxing and pestering them. I even tried trading points, but they had no intention whatsoever. The answers they gave were also quite vague, like 'just do what you need to do properly' and such."

"I have so conjectures on my side, but no evidence, so I can't go any further." Katsuragi Kohei said.

"Is that so..." Fuyuji Mikage wasn't surprised. He said frankly, "In fact, I'm also only at the conjecture stage and need to verify things further."

"Do you need to do anything?" Kito Hayato volunteered.

"If it's support related to points, that's also possible. I believe classmates would be willing to contribute their points for this part." Katsuragi Kohei said.

"No need for that." Fuyuji Mikage said, "If the ti cos when it's necessary, I will make a request."

"Do you need manpower?" Hashimoto Masayoshi leaned his head closer. "For things like running errands, I'm more than happy to help out."

"That won't be necessary." Fuyuji Mikage glanced at Hashimoto Masayoshi with a peculiar look.

Why did he feel this guy was being excessively enthusiastic, almost to the point of currying favor?

Every ti he saw him, the slightly obsequious, oddly-accented voice from the anti-Japanese war dramas in his past life echoed in Fuyuji Mikage's ears: "Taijun~"

"Alright." Katsuragi Kohei nodded. "If you need actual help, feel free to call on in the class group anyti."

The break ti was extrely short. With the ringing of the class bell, the crowd surrounding Fuyuji Mikage dispersed.

"Quite the grandstander, Fuyuji Mikage." A voice devoid of discernible emotional fluctuations drifted from behind him.

This ti, Fuyuji Mikage didn't fall for it again. He leaned back, resting the back of his chair against Morishita Ai's desk.

"So, Morishita-san, are you ready to admit defeat?" Fuyuji Mikage lowered his voice.

Morishita Ai, having failed to trick Fuyuji Mikage, was sowhat regretful. "That's not necessarily certain. My plan is progressing in an orderly fashion. Such an arrogant posture, truly worthy of Fuyuji Mikage, who harbors great darkness within himself. Still, no matter, usually the type who starts celebrating at halfti ends up losing everything, stripped bare."

"Morishita-san, if I rember correctly, I'm the Ultraman who represents the light, right?"

"Hmm? But hasn't your light already run away? An Ultraman without light is an Alien Empera."

"Tch..." Fuyuji Mikage beca embarrassed and angry.

"That's exactly why I hate that scumbag who tricked away my light when I was eight years old!"

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