Chapter 20:

Special Project (cont.) IV

Why I Write


Hello.

We were now in Mari’s room.

It’s not like my place was uninhabitable or anything like that, but compared to Mari’s, I might as well use that adjective to describe it.

The air smelled different—I would be hard-pressed to say that my own room had a scent (most places don’t, though authors would try to convince you otherwise), but this one had such a prevalent ‘kiddy shampoo’ smell it would be impossible not to mention it. On top of that fragrance, there were pink wallpapers put up, a fabric couch, flatscreen television, beanbags and even a bunch of chairs.

To put it simply, the inhabitants of this place were loaded.

“My roommate is a self-proclaimed homebody,” Mari explained. “That’s why she insisted on doing it up so nicely.”

A shut-in?

That had been my first thought, but shut-ins don’t decorate their living rooms. Still, it was odd that someone who lived in a boarding school would call themselves a homebody.

“Wow, you have a humidifier… and the trash bins even have plastic bags on them! Girls really are amazing, huh.”

“...What? I understand the humidifier, but the plastic bag part? Isn’t that normal?”

“Not really. Watanabe and I prefer not to line our bins. It’s a waste of time.”

“......”

The way Mari looked at me, you’d think I just admitted to being a lolicon or something—but all I did was mention my preferences for trash collection. Since the trash all goes into one big bag in the end, is it really necessary to have tiny ones for each bin?

“...The kitchen is over there. I’m going to shower.”

Please wash your hands before you cook, Mari added with that same expression.

I nodded.

Anyway, that exchange took place a long while ago.

I’m currently sitting at a dining table watching two places of omurice go cold.

I could still hear Mari’s shower running, weirdly enough. Either she started her shower late, or perhaps she just took a long time to wash up in general? I found that unlikely to be the explanation, since Mari never struck me as the type—and even Yukimura only took fifteen minutes for her bath. Then again, it wasn’t like Yukimura could be used as a yardstick for a ‘normal girl’, either… hmm.

Curious.

I walked over to the toilet to—

“Mmm… hnn… ah…”

As I got closer, something interrupted my train of thought.

“Hnmm… mhmm…”

“......”

It was just as loud as the running water.

“Ah… Ko—hnng!

...Was that… Mari… moaning?

……

…...

I walked back to the dining table.

It felt rather tense (for no reason) waiting for Mari, so I took my phone out to relax a little. The next period was about to begin—and so I needed to text my class rep about my whereabouts… except I didn’t have her contact information. I’d also left my tablet in the classroom, so contacting her through the STD App was off the cards.

Well, whatever.

It was time for thumb exercise.

I scrolled back and forth for a while before Mari came out of the bathroom.

“The food looks good,” she remarked.

Drying off her hair with a grey towel, she casually took a seat opposite me—dressed in a t-shirt plus hot pants (also known as short shorts).

“Thanks. Hahaha.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Not at all. Hahahahaha.”

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

“...Okay then. By the way, I’m curious as to how you seem so calm right now.”

“Heh. What do you mean?”

No really. What did she mean?

What was there to get worked up over?

The fact I'd almost heard her moan ‘Kohei’ through the bathroom door?

If she brought that up, I decided that I would slam my forehead against the table until I passed out.

“Well, first of all, I’m not sure how you can afford to skip class.”

Mari with the ‘first of all’ again. Whenever she needed to explain things in a conversation, she’d always default to signposting things as if she were writing an essay—truth be told, this made it easy to understand her, but it also felt patronising at times. Since I didn’t want to get (wo)mansplained to by someone I just caught… doing… actually, she was probably just in pain or something.

“Hahaha. It’s just 10,000 points. Not a big... wait a second.”

...10,000 points for half a day-off.

Yes, you could buy day-offs in Kitazawa High.

I had 200,000 points to spend over a 10-week long semester, so I’d basically blown through half of my weekly budget on today’s impulse decision alone.

“I see,” Mari nodded. “You simply aren’t using your brain, as usual—no wonder you can be so calm.”

“M-more like how are you so calm? You were acting weird this whole time!”

“I won’t deny that. But now that I’ve relieved myself, does it really matter? Teehee.

“......”

What the...

There was no way I could acknowledge what she’d just said… I had to leave this one to the doujin circles.

“Back to the original subject.” Resetting our conversation in typical Mari fashion, she continued as if she didn’t just try to rip off this story’s PG-13 tag. “Second of all, and this probably has to do with how nonchalant you’ve been treating Sakura Emi… but you’re not aware of the special project, are you?”

Special project.

Tokubetsu kikaku.

It was a phrase I’d heard Yukimura use before.

“...No, I’m not.”

“I figured,” she sighed. “At first, I thought you were being stupid, but it makes more sense that you’re just unaware.”

Standing up abruptly, Mari left for her room.

“Wait here, I’ll go get my second tablet.”

I waited for her to get out of earshot before mumbling. “...Second tablet, huh?”

Poverty aside, that mention of a ‘special project’ threw me off.

Now that I think about it, I hadn’t checked the STD System since my call with Yukimura. After that day of playing detective, I figured I wouldn’t deal with it unless absolutely necessary—lest I relapse and start obsessively e-stalking girls’ stats again. I also figured that if there was anything important, I’d hear about it from Mishima during homeroom.

Unfortunately, I didn’t account for getting thrown out of class by him for being a ‘public nuisance’. How much more biased could that old geezer get? He completely let Emi off the hook… sometimes, I wish I were a girl.

Well.

In any case, it was evident Mari was referring to something that popped up on that dodgily-named app. Why else would she need a school tablet?

“I’m back.”

Brandishing a grey tablet in her hands, she began to rudely push it off to me. Her attitude really seemed to change after relieving herself.

“Read this,” she commanded.

I had half a mind to say no, but there was something I’d been thinking of while Mari went on with her long shower.

I said, “I have an unrelated question to ask first.”

“Make it quick.”

“Did your roommate buy all of this furniture? I don’t remember you liking pink much… In fact, don’t you hate that colour?”

“Pretty much, yeah. I’d never agree to something so girlish if I were splitting the costs.”

So she’d spent 200,000 points on things that weren’t furniture, huh.

Sounded about par for the course for Mari.

“So your roommate must be rich, then.”

Another upper half student.

But then how did the pairings work? I got put with Watanabe. You could chalk it up to random allocation, but nothing about the school seemed random at this point.

“I’m pretty sure you know who she is. Mino Ruri, from your class.”

“Mino..? I don’t know who that is.”

It didn’t ring any bells. It was such a rare surname—if I’d heard her name before, I definitely would have remembered it.

And if she really were my classmate… she was definitely broke. Probably not the type of person I’d want to mix with.

“Of course you wouldn’t know who that is,” Mari scoffed. “She wouldn’t talk to someone like you.”

“...True.”

This had to be the influence of the Literature Club.

Rather than engaging with Mari (who for whatever reason seemed to have a mood swing after her shower), I decided to take a look at the tablet she’d been so rudely shoving into my face.

On its screen was the start menu of the STD System.

[STD Positive: Class 1-A, Tsujimoto Mari.]

...I never got used to that, by the way.

“Go to my Individual Profile, then go to Development Goals,” Mari instructed.

“Huh? Are you sure you want me to do that? Wouldn’t that be inconvenient for you?”

It felt like an invasion of her privacy.

D-Goals were individual tasks selected for students to accomplish in order to meet the school's academic requirements. In a system designed for students to jockey with each other for more allowance, Mari telling me what hers were could be a competitive disadvantage—if I really wanted to, I could obstruct her from completing her tasks. Then again, I had no idea what the format of the D-Goals consisted of, or if they were even active at this point, so this is all conjecture—but even so, it still felt like crossing a line.

Admittedly, a consensual crossing of lines… but still...

“Just do it. You’ll see what I mean.”

“Okay then…”

I did as she said. There was only one active D-Goal titled ‘Special Project’—probably the thing Mari was referring to when she said I was ‘unaware’.

[Special Project: Expires 26th April.]

There were two buttons next to the blurb. The first was ‘Forecast’, which confused me, and the second was titled ‘Explanation’. I begrudgingly tapped on the tutorial.

“You’ll understand everything after you read that,” Mari said. “About Sakura Emi. That’s not an exaggeration. In the meantime, thanks for the food!”

“Please enjoy.”

I had my doubts. Not about my cooking, but about Mari’s claim.

At the same time, the school had proven itself to be incredibly omniscient so far—so you know, maybe she was right. I looked down at the tablet to see a PDF document had popped up on the screen.

***

Friday, 19th April, 8:00am.

A Foreword From Our Director

Good morning, students!

Here at Kitazawa High School, it is customary that the first Development Goal of every semester is a common one. Before a person can improve on their individual strengths, it is our belief as an institution they must first learn the core concepts of teamwork, communication, and cooperation.

We call these level-wide exercises ‘Special Projects’. They exist outside the norm of your usual examinations, and no two Special Projects will ever be the same. This is inclusive of Kitazawa students both past and present, and therefore, the memories you will gain from this experience will be unique to your Kitazawa cohort. Please do not forget them.

In addition, while Special Projects may not be academic in nature, they are still important. Not just because of their role in improving you as a student, but also because the rewards for performing well in one can be significant. With this primer out of the way, we hope that you apply yourself dutifully to learn as much as you can!

Be STD Positive!

Best regards,
Mishima Akihiko
First Year Director

***

“Mari… this has legitimately told me nothing so far. It’s just Mishima-sensei writing a long-winded, pseudo-motivational letter with mediocre prose that ends off with ‘be STD Positive’. I feel like I just got molested.”

He even referred to himself as ‘we’.

“The next half has the answers you’re looking for. Stop trying to be a smartass and read on,” Mari said, her mouth half-full.

“Fine.”

I couldn’t see why a school project would be significant to me, or why it would affect Emi’s behaviour in any way—but I changed my mind once I read through the next portion of the PDF.

In actuality, I was living on a timer.

***

Special Project, Spring Semester: Popularity Contest

Basic Rules:
A mandatory poll will be held where students are to vote for up to four classmates according to the following criteria:

(1) Up to two (2) students who they feel have shown exemplary conduct, limited to 1 male and 1 female.

(2) Up to two (2) students who they feel have shown deplorable conduct, limited to 1 male and 1 female.

Students are required to name at least 2 classmates at the minimum, and are not allowed to name themselves. 

Naming less than 2 classmates by 11:59pm, Thursday, 25th April will result in a penalty of immediate expulsion.

1 exemplary vote will grant a score of (+1), while 1 deplorable vote will grant a score of (-1). 

At the end of the poll, scores will be tallied, and students will be awarded according to the Prizes section. The results of the Special Project will be released at 8am on Friday, 26th April.

Additional Rules:
Starting on Friday, 19th April, students will also be required to give a preliminary forecast of the students they intend to vote for. The results of these preliminary votes will be shared on the STD System App at 8:00am the next morning.

Not forecasting at least 2 classmates by 11:59pm on each day will result in a penalty of 100,000 points per missing vote.

For the duration of this Special Project, point transfers (incoming and outgoing) for first-year students will be temporarily halted.

Prizes:
1st: 200,000 points
2nd: 120,000 points
3rd: 60,000 points
4th to 10th: 20,000 points

31st to 37th: -20,000 points
38th: -60,000 points
39th: -120,000 points
40th: -200,000 points

If two students tie with the same score, the tie will be broken through the following:

(1) Most number of exemplary votes,

(2) Least number of deplorable votes,

(3) Aesthetics rating

There are also two special prizes:

Score of (+39): 1,000,000 points

Score of (-39): -1,000,000 points

If a student reaches 0 points as a result of this Special Project, they will be automatically expelled.