Kaguya-sama: Love is Cruel (COTE x Kaguya-sama)

Chapter 1.1

Third Person POV

"Score...Class Competition...Violence...Activities...Games...This school's rules are a little..."

"Miyuki...you're still reading your notes?"

At the back row of a bus, the Secretary, who's sitting besides a window, sounded her complaint.

It's been two days after Miyuki, Shinomiya and their friends are reunited. After that, with their new uniform worn, they finally headed towards Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, the school that inhibited the wonderful, dreamful journey that is they will spend their 3 years for.

And in anticipation to that exciting journey, Shirogane is...reading notes.

"Obviously," Shirogane answered, sitting besides her, whose eyes still darting through words after words at his notebook, though the pages remained an undecipherable sketches to Fujiwara.

"We can never be too careful. The school we're heading to is one of the most unique school in Japan, and even as it's directly subsidized by government, its reputation remains to be a little...controversial."

"Controversial? But isn't it all the more safer if it's under a government." asked Fujiwawa, a politician's daughter.

"Maybe you're right, but not on the webs."

"Website? Aren't those just the places of rumors, trashtalks and funs?"

"In this case, no." Shirogane rebutted, closing his notebook. "You should know, right? That all students entering the school must sign a contract before they entered?"

"Right, something about...'All the experiences and information that we knew during the period of our school-time their must remain confidential' or something?'"

"Not the exact wordings, but you're right," nodded Shirogane. "The school prohibited any information regarding it to be spread out to the public, whether by the students or closed ones of the parents. They went as far as to issue a lawful punishment to those that cross the line. Isn't that itself suspicious on its own?"

"Well, it's just a high school..." Fujiwara smiled while frowning. "I mean, like all the sunshine and rainbow and like...making friends and stuff...what can really happen?"

"That's what we originally believed," said Shinomiya, who's sitting besides Shirogane. "But we...or more specifically, president did some research on his computer. While news outlet, discussion forum and other social website do not relay any useful information, there are some rumors and keywords, in particular from angered parents, expulsed students and graduated seniors, conveyed that were unfit to describe a normal high-school."

"So I gathered all those keywords into a notebook and tried to decipher the information," continued Shirogane, lifting up his notebook before putting it back on his laps. "Safe to say, this school is a little...abnormal."

"And how though?"

"Mostly rumors and speculations, of course, but this school has a surprising amount of tolerance towards violence as a subject. Not only delinquents who had records are allowed to enter, but also punishments towards infightings are...relatively lenient, compared to other schools."

"Ha? Doesn't that just make it a rehabilitation center then?"

"Yes. A shame that this is not the end of it," continued Kaguya. "Class competition and hierarchy are also apparently emphasized in the school's policy. These would not be a problem...until we discovered the school's high expulsion rate."

"Expulsion rate?"

"More exactly, a statistic president and I concluded." Shinomiya cleared up the confusion. "On average, out of the 40 students in-class, only 18 students would remain to graduate."