Chapter 16: Brilliant Stupidity【P1】

Daiki

Wow. Now this is… enormous?

Gigantic? Do we even have a word for this size?

I look around in every direction. “Are we going to a concert or something?”

This auditorium’s size easily outmatches any room I have ever seen. And there are how many of these?

The layout expertly forces focus onto a single focal point. A flat screen faces the tiered, stadium-style rows.

“Told you!” Masaki cups his face in his hands, grinning at the view. “You missed it at its best, when there was nobody in it!”

He points at the tiers filling with incoming students. “The curves of the seating become even more accentuated when—”

“I think I have heard enough of you and your new girlfriend. Let’s go down to find a seat. I don’t think we can see anything useful from all the way up here.”

“Are you crazy? Everyone knows the best spot in a movie theater is the top row, and middle position.”

I move down the steps. “I will be down when you need me.”

“Daiki, wait!” His footsteps hurry down after me to the lower tiers. “Don’t leave me all alone in here.”

Too easy.

Not too much traffic down here. Am I... they call it front-row tickets for a reason? At least there are free seats in the middle.

We sit a seat at the long curved counter on surprisingly luxurious cushioned seats. I unload my bag, placing colored pencils next to my notebook as if preparing for a multi-round interview.

Poorly tucked in the corner beside the screen, a towering crane-like system rests limp against the ground.

“Oh my… A mechanical arm!” Masaki shifts restlessly in his chair, pointing at the mechanism. “Electrically powered balancing system, motors in both top and bottom for all-axis movement, stainless steel chamber, oh! And a cup holder? Please tell me we are going to see that thing in action today!”

“Masaki, how do you know all this?”

“What!? Come on now, you must have heard of it.”

“Only via rumors. But it’s not like there is an entire page online about it. And definitely not something you believe until you… see it.”

“Daiki, people are stupid. Nobody ‘dreams up’ a multi-axis mechanically driven arm system. That is weird, even for me.”

“Guess that makes my expectations beaten, twice.”

I turn around in my chair. The room fills up as incoming students claim the remaining available seats. “Looks like we aren’t the only ones choosing Vance as our advisor.”

“We are but simple men. A gentle smile and the assurance of experience, and we all falter like a Ponzi scheme in its final stage.”

“Do you think we are already over the thousand-person threshold in here? How many seats does each row have…”

I try counting the rows and people in my head, but the shifting crowd makes me lose track.

Five hundred, at the very least…

Masaki also looks back, rapidly tapping his fingers on the table with each upward pass as if typing on a calculator.

“Eight hundred fifty-nine. Not counting the average rate of eight students on still coming in each minute.”

Show off.

Nene

Four hundred thirty... four hundred thirty-two…

Please. Stop here.

A student passes through the threshold. Another sigh comes out.

Somehow, surprises do not work when you already know the answer. Though I am not sure what the point is of me knowing how many students are in my homeroom class.

Four hundred seventy-seven.

Kirishima. You truly outdid yourself again.

My posture relaxes as I move to the MSU. I tap my staff ID card against the scanner, bringing the Mobile Speaking Unit to life.

The low, monotone whine from the motors sends me upward. A collective gasp echoes from the seats as they look up at the rising platform.

I walk on the chamber floor like a treadmill as the mechanism lifts me to the center of the giant screen.

More amazed murmurs break out, as if these people have never seen anything beyond a wooden wheel.

“Yes.” I wave my hand loosely down at them. “Let it all out. Enjoy your moment. The novelty wears off by the millionth time.”

My amplified voice echoes through the room from the overhead speakers. The crowd looks up even further, as if seeking their creator.

“Is this everyone?” I scan the crowd, skimming over their heads.

Eyes move toward the empty threshold.

“Good.”

A new record.

I press the button beside the lectern before me, making the door slowly close.

Tick.

The door jams. An umbrella sits stuck in its frame, prompting the mechanism to slide back open.

I feared this day would come. Not even a week of peace is allowed.

The umbrella vanishes.

Everyone stares in silence at the empty threshold—footsteps echo closer.

“Good morning,” Sayoko calls out, staring at me with a feigned innocent smile.

“Hey, hey, hey! Careful with the door... student!” I yell, but she breaks eye contact to scan the room for a free seat. “Not everything needs to feel the fury of your weapon!”

Jiro

The class stays silent as they look up at the teacher’s caught expression.

“I...” She swallows down her words. “Take a seat and be silent!”

She crouches slightly—the platform lowers.

“Students, welcome! Nene Kirishima is the name, your best friend to come!”

She steps forward, and the crane glides closer to a student in the front row.

“First-years...” She leans over the railing and sniffs the air near a girl. “Your breed always somehow smells the same.”

She rises onto her tiptoes—the platform climbs, and she moves toward a middle row.

“This week you will go through all the optional classes this school offers. You will choose six categories, apart from mandatory ones like mathematics.”

“And it so happens to be that—” Her attention scatters as she looks under the lectern in the chamber and fumbles with something. “—I am your advisor. But also the teacher of political science, which this homeroom class will conveniently transition into later, lucky you.”

She drops to one knee behind the lectern. Only the top of her head peeks over the edge. A faint gulp echoes over the speakers before she stands straight again. “Sorry, something fell. Where was...”

Is she… drinking?

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Discover what happens next in: Chapter 16: Brilliant Stupidity【P2】

Written by Limited_Infinity. Extras, official publishing platforms and updates are publicly available only on the Patreon page “_Limited_Infinity_”

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