Vol. 1: Chapter 1 - Reincarnation is Not Always Pretty

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"Excuse me, but shouldn't you offer up your seat?"

Huh? Where am I?

"That's a crazy question lady. Why should I offer up my seat? There's no reason for me to do so."

That line sounds familiar...

"You're sitting in the priority seat. It is natural for you to offer up those seats to the elderly."

Hang on. This line, I've read it yesterday.

"It's true that I am a healthy young man who certainly wouldn't find standing inconvenient. However, I'd obviously expend more energy by doing so than I would be by sitting. I have no intention of doing such a pointless thing. Or are you suggesting that I should act livelier, I wonder?"

This was Koenji!

With an upstart, I opened my eyes and flung my head up. Looking around, I saw all the familiar scenery in front of me. Amongst the crowd of people were a couple of students wearing red uniforms that looked uncannily recognisable. Was... this a dream? Shaking my head, I saw a blue text box in front of me. On the box it said the words: 'Mission: Graduate from Class A or be stuck in this world forever'.

Class A? The COTE Class A? A dooming realization struck me: I was indeed in the Classroom of the Elite universe.

I poked around the textbox to see if there were any other information on there. But everytime I tried to touch it with my hands, it would go through, as if it was intangible.

Giving up trying to interact with the blue textbox, I looked around. I saw Koenji and the office lady continuing to argue. Behind them I saw a short, auburn haired girl came up.

Kushida. It was her. Ayanokoji sure did not lie when talking about her appearance. She was beautiful.

I turned my gaze around to the other side of the bus. There I recognized another girl. She did not pay attention to her surroundings as her crimson eyes focused onto a book. It was Horikita, reading 'Pride and Prejudice'... I would remember that for future information. For a second, she glanced away from her book and met my gaze. Before she could glare at me, I turned my head around.

This was the first scene in the novel. I remembered it as clear as day. Wasting no time, I began to clear my thoughts and started planning for what was to come ahead.

A quick look-around the bus showed me one thing in particular; I did not see Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. I was also sitting next to the window, which was originally where he was supposed to sit. This made me certain of one thing. Instead of Ayanokoji, it would be me replacing him as the protagonist of the story.

I sighed heavily before rethinking my predicament. Now that I was replacing Ayanokoji, a lot of things that would have originally happened in the story would not happen as a result. I also needed to know how much of 'me' were transferred into this universe. Who was the 'me' in this story? What was my past? Did my parents come to this world with me as well? In my backpack were just a notebook and pencil case. I had nothing that could give me a clue on who I actually was within this universe.

This complicated the matters quite a bit. If I did not know who I was, how was I supposed to act against the people who knew of my 'past'? One example was Chabashira. To get into this school, I must have submitted my middle school records and did an interview with the school. If I had poor marks in the report but suddenly got amazing marks in the school, it would obviously be suspicious.

I checked the window to see if my physical appearances have changed. My black hair, brown eyes, fair skin... overall, my physical appearances didn't seem changed. I did not feel different either.

One of the actions that I needed to take immediately was to find out who I really was, probably through accessing the school database and finding information about me. How should I do that though?

I really ran into an unforeseen problem. I had all the information about the story but nothing about who I was.

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Getting off the bus, I was amazed at the sight that was held before me. If COTE had a narrator that was not Ayanokoji, we probably would've had a long monologue on the appearance of the school. The school gate was already double the size of any middle school front gates that I have ever been to. Next to the gates were sakura trees, wind gently blowing towards me, gently scratching my cheeks.

Aaaah, I feel like an anime protagonist right now.

"Wait!"

Although the voice was unfamiliar, I knew who she was instantly. So this was how her voice really sounded like...

"You were looking at me. Why?"

Horikita narrowed her eyes towards me. Yes, I remembered how this interaction went.

I laughed softly, before starting. "It was not much. It was really noisy in the bus, you know. It was kind of surprising that you did not give up on your seat."

She narrowed her eyes even further before responding, "And? Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Not really, I believe that you shouldn't go poking around a sleeping dragon's snout, if you know what I mean."

"So you are saying that you dislike trouble? Then I don't think you and I are alike. I didn't give up my seat because I thought it would be pointless, that's all."

"Well, everyone's philosophy on things are different."

"Yes, I guess so. Goodbye." With that, she went right past me before entering the school.

I chuckled. Following her actions, I entered the school as well. 


Author's Notes

That was it for the first chapter! If you have any questions or thoughts about the chapter, don't be hesitant to leave a review!

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