Mission: Reincarnation into COTE

Vol. 1: Chapter 2.2 - As I Enter the Class

Entering the class, I saw that multiple students had already gathered around in groups. Karuizawa and her usual clique of Matsushita, Shinohara, and Mori were already talking to Hirata. Hirata did have a little exhausted face, probably because of the excess of attention given to him by the girls.

Poor him.

A few seats next to the group was Yukimura, who seemed to be annoyed at the noise the group was making. Behind him, a student was asleep. Judging by the hair color, it seemed to be Akito.

Kushida was already going around the class, busily running around and exchanging contact with every student. (A/N: I'm not sure when they got their phones exactly, so let's just say that they got it after the opening ceremony) Currently, she was talking to Hasebe, engaged in some kind of conversation that I was too far away to hear properly. Sitting right behind her was Airi, whose head was hung down, looking at the camera that she was currently holding.

Right at the back of the class sat Ike and Yamauchi who was already ogling at the girls' breasts.

Disgusting. I didn't really notice the actual severity of this when I was just a reader, going through the novel, but now that I was seeing this situation through my own real eyes, I could see why they were some of the most hated students in the class.

Two seats next to the pair sat Sudou, who did not seem to be paying attention to what was happening in class and was instead looking through his phone. Like how he was described in the novel, he seemed to be about six feet, which made him a few inches taller than me. He had a great physique; strong arms and steady legs, indicating that he trained almost everyday. It did seem like he was born to play basketball after all. The average height for Japanese male high schoolers was about 170cm, which Sudou overwhelmed quite literally.

The seat right next to the far back window seat was where Horikita was. She was still reading the book that she was carrying on the bus. In front of her was Koenji, who was examining himself using a hand mirror while straightening his hair with a brush.

To me, his hair already looked flawless. But hey, I wasn't the perfectionist that Koenji was.

However, looking through the class, I could see a lot of faces that I did not recognize from my memory. A lot of side characters that were present in the novel did not really have a face reveal, nor appeared throughout the series frequently. Characters like Inogashira, Miyamoto, Hondo... these were all faces that never appeared often, so it was really easy for me to forget about them entirely.

Well, memorizing their names weren't something that I needed to do right now. After all, there will be a self-introduction period soon enough.

Originally in the novel, Ayanokoji had gone straight to his seat after entering the class, before striking a seemingly useless conversation with Horikita. However, unlike the novel, I intended to not waste this precious time that I had before the first period starts. There were few people in class that I wanted to get to know. Namely, the future pillars of the class.

First on my priority was Karuizawa and Hirata. In the original novel, they probably had the most influence over the class, at least socially. Excluding Kushida, of course, but she was the problem child that I would get to later. While Karuizawa had total control over the girls, Hirata was the mediator between the girls and the boys of Class D. Forming connections with them early into the year would increase my influence on the class tremendously.

Next would be Kushida. Before her true identity got exposed in Year 2 of the series, she was perhaps the most influential figure within the class. Her way of dealing with people were immaculate and was friends with a lot of students in the school. While I knew that she wasn't trustworthy, it was still true that she wouldn't try to expel students so long as they did not know her secret. As long as she doesn't find out I know about her 'true' self, she will be a fine arsenal by my side.