What do you do when you've offended a teacher with your big mouth, been summoned to their office after school, and then completely blanked on it, leaving them waiting for nothing?
What do you do when you've stayed up all night gaming, only to realize upon stepping into school that your homework hasn't been touched by a single stroke of a pen?
To make matters worse, your teacher is the type who doesn't like to talk—she prefers to let her fists do the lecturing, even if she genuinely cares for her students. Now that you've slighted her, her "fist of love" could target you at any second. What is the plan?
Izuru's expression said it all: Don't panic, stay calm, and first, find a time machine. Ah, to hell with it!
"Um, hey, Hirano... quick question. A model student like you must have finished all the homework, right?"
Izuru scratched his cheek, looking at the beautiful girl with long black hair walking briskly ahead of him. He felt a mix of awkwardness and genuine shame.
"I see. So, aside from leaving Hiratsuka-sensei waiting in vain, you haven't even glanced at your assignments? For the top-ranked student and the Student Council President—the one tasked with leading the entire student body—you truly are one of a kind."
Yukino looked genuinely stunned. Her ice-cold features softened into an expression of sheer resignation, tinged with the irony of how someone as reckless as Izuru held the highest academic standing and authority in the school.
"So, what? Do you want to borrow my work to copy? Do you honestly think I'd just hand it over?"
"Well, if you don't want to, I won't force you. I'll just ask Kaguya later." Izuru replied listlessly.
Instantly, Yukino's body stiffened. The chill radiating from her spiked manifold as she came to a dead halt. She spun around and pierced him with a sharp glare.
"Are you implying that my academic standing is inferior to Shinomiya Kaguya's?"
{Why is it that every time her name comes up, you immediately flare up with this massive competitive streak? Is this the gravitational pull between Stand users, or just the natural repulsion of fellow Ice Queens? But, if that's the case...}
"Of course that's not what I meant. It's just that if you won't lend me yours, I'm forced to borrow from someone I'm reasonably close with. After all, she's on the same level as you." Izuru testing the waters.
"Even if our total points are identical, she and I are worlds apart. Among other things, my Biology grades far surpass hers."
Yukino let out a cold huff, her stubborn pride refusing to yield an inch.
"Besides, haven't you realized? You and Shinomiya are in different classes. The home assignments given are naturally quite different. If you copy her work, you'll just be transcribing the wrong tasks, and in the end, your effort will be for nothing."
It was a harsh reality. The education system in this country was vastly different from the one in Izuru's previous life before reincarnation. Here, after-school assignments were largely bespoke tasks meticulously designed by each individual teacher, rather than uniform workbooks or standardized worksheets.
So, even if the subjects were the same, the tasks assigned to each class—while similar in essence—had wildly different questions and content. If a student tried to copy homework from another class, they'd have to deal with the consequences themselves.
This was exactly Yukino's point. Izuru, used to a different educational model, was momentarily stunned before the realization sank in. But it didn't matter; his main goal wasn't just to copy, it was...
"Then I really have no choice, Hirano. Aside from Kaguya, I truly don't have any other friends I can borrow homework from."
Izuru spread his arms, the picture of defeat.
This caused Yukino, despite her frozen mask, to show a tiny glimmer of victory.
"Who said you didn't? Since we sit right across from each other, I suppose I can find it in my heart to lend you mine, just this once. Be sure to show some gratitude!"
{What is this? A tsundere? She's cute enough, but man, she is stiff.}
Izuru thought with a hint of annoyance, but internally, he was cheering.
Initially, Yukino had refused to lend him her work, but the moment Izuru mentioned Kaguya, she not only stopped him but changed her mind out of sheer spite. What did that tell him?
Moreover, the whole "sharing an umbrella in the rain" incident happened because Kaguya provoked Yukino, triggering her competitive spirit and creating that stroke of incredible luck.
The rivalry between women of similar charm was truly a force of nature. It allowed Izuru, caught in the middle of the crossfire, to reap massive benefits. Where he once feared a terrifying Shuraba, he now felt a surge of excitement. He secretly hoped this kind of competition would happen a few more times.
As for the tragic fate of protagonists like Itou Makoto, he chose to subconsciously erase that from his mind. On the other side, Yukino turned her face away again with a small, triumphant smile that seemed to say, "Everything is going according to plan." The fleeting beauty of the melting glacier went entirely unnoticed by Izuru.
Feeling like he had finally found Yukino's weak point, Izuru's mood soared. He walked with a confident stride and a broad grin, then, as if suddenly remembering something, he asked curiously:
"By the way, what exactly was our homework from yesterday?"
Yukino replied with a tone that carried a hint of mockery.
"An eight-hundred-word literature essay, a hundred-word English composition, five calculus problems, a summary of last semester's Biology material into concise notes, and a physics circuit diagram."
Instantly, Izuru felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head. His mood shattered, his posture slumped, and his confident smile warped into a pathetic expression of pure distress.
"That's... I'm just not going to do it. Dammit, that's too much! How can there be this much homework? If a normal student tried to do all that, they wouldn't finish in a single night. What happened to reducing the study load? Isn't the public school system in this country supposed to be a playground for kids? Why is it like this now?!"
Izuru struggled to accept this reality, while Yukino explained with what appeared to be genuine "kindness" on the surface.
"Naturally, that isn't the workload for a single night. It's the accumulation of material from throughout the day yesterday, plus the actual evening assignments. But for a strange student who spent the entire day daydreaming, it becomes a mountain of tasks that must be scaled in a single night—or moments before the first bell."
"Son of a..."