Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Self-Test

SS.21 - Nishimura Ryuuko: A Place Next to Him

I've always been looking at him. Kikyou-chan is his best friend and the people from the Ayanokouji Group are his closest friends. Of course, since he was our class leader, Ayanokouji-kun was also very close with Class C's leader, Ichinose-san, who's arguably the most popular girl in our year apart from Kikyou-chan herself.

Ugh... Now that I've mentioned all of that, it sure sounded like he's someone unreachable. But fortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I'm actually a good friend of his.

Ah, but don't misunderstand. Ayanokouji-kun, much like Hirata-kun and Kikyou-chan, is quite close with everyone in the class, so it's not like I'm special or anything like that.

"It's weird, isn't it? I wonder why you were assigned in Class D, initially...?"

Hearing his voice calms me down. I'm sure I'm not the only girl who shares the same opinion. It's different from Hirata-kun's gentle voice or Kikuchi-kun's mature voice.

Ah, no good, no good. He's talking to me right now. I should at least respond with the same amount of awareness.

"Hmm... I'm not saying that I'm worthy of Class A or anything, but the term "defect" doesn't really do well to describe a lot of us..." I mused. "For example, there's Hirata-kun and Kikyou-chan. The only "defect" that I could think of is that they were too kind and caring."

Chiaki's only flaw would be her lackadaisical attitude. Mii-chan was smart, so her shyness should be the problem. Not only them... Sana, Misaki-chan, Ueno-kun, or even Makida-kun. They had no obvious attitude problems and their basic specs were fairly balanced with no glaring weaknesses.

And in terms of being a model student who's too kind and caring, one might argue that those traits describe Ichinose-san, too, who was initially assigned in Class B.

Ayanokouji-kun stared at me with his seemingly all-knowing eyes.

"You're probably right. Maybe Chabashira-sensei was just exaggerating with the whole "defect" thing," he replied.

"Well... There's Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun who aren't the best and most enthusiastic when it comes to studying, but that also goes for some students in the current Class D. And when it comes to me, I guess my so-called "defect" could be my weakness in athletics."

"I see. But that should be the case for most of the girls in our class-- though I can't really pinpoint how better the girls in other classes are. Just by looking at it from an outsider's perspective, the overall abilities are well-distributed."

In the grand scheme of things, I can see why they'd describe our class as inferior. Even if there were a lot of powerhouses in our class, the others were still better on paper. There were just too many students in our class who are weak in academics, athletics, or even both.

And worst of all, our class also possessed the largest number of immature students. Though of course, that's just my personal observation.

"Maybe it's temperament...?" I said.

"Well, if it's temperament alone, Horikita shouldn't be assigned in Class D. Her temperament is bad but effective at times. And people like you, Hirata, Kikyou, and Matsushita should be in Class A in terms of temperament," replied Ayanokouji-kun.

Ah-- I got complimented.

"W-Well, me aside, I do think that what you're saying is true... Horikita-san appeared arrogant during the early months and she's still quite stern in terms of nature, but that doesn't mean she's worse than those who are just straight out jerks."

And of course, the other three that he mentioned have extremely flexible temperaments.

And why would this school take that into account in the first place? I feel stupid for suggesting that answer now.