The woman's bright purple eyes scan the room, jumping quickly from student to student. She smiles widely at everyone she looks at.
She picked up a piece of chalk and drew a huge, cartoonish star on the blackboard next to her name.
"I'm Hoshinomiya Chie! I'm the homeroom teacher for Class B!" She points a finger at herself and winks. "You can call me Sensei. We're going to be together for three whole years, so let's be super good friends, okay?"
A few boys in the front row blush and nod their heads.
She acts more like an older sister than an instructor. Renjiro feels a headache building. This type of teacher usually requires a lot of emotional engagement from her students. Emotional engagement is exhausting to him.
"Okay, the boring entrance ceremony is going to start in the gymnasium in about an hour," Hoshinomiya says, waving her hand dismissively in the air. "But first, we have some fun stuff to go over! I need to give you guys the rulebooks and your special ID cards."
"Excuse me, Sensei," the boy says. His voice cuts through the excited chatter, calm but incredibly firm. "Did you say three years? Standard high schools shuffle class rosters every spring. Are you saying our class placement is permanent?"
Hoshinomiya blinks. Then, she claps her hands together and giggles loudly.
"Bingo! What's your name, smart guy?"
"Kanzaki Ryuji."
"Well, Kanzaki-kun, you are totally right! At this school, we do not change classrooms for each grade. You guys are stuck with me, and each other, until graduation day!"
A low murmur ripples through the room. Several students exchange surprised looks. The bubbly atmosphere thickens just a fraction as the weight of that statement settles in.
She picks up a thick stack of printed booklets from the podium. She walks to the front desks of each row and drops a few booklets down.
"Pass these back, please! Make sure everyone gets one."
A boy with short, neatly parted hair takes the stack and hands it backward. The booklets travel down the row until one lands flat on Renjiro's desk. The cover features the crest of Advanced Nurturing High School.
"This school is a little different from normal high schools," Hoshinomiya explains. She walks back to the podium, swaying her hips slightly. "Actually, it's a lot different! You guys are totally cut off from the outside world now. No leaving the campus. No calling your friends back home. Even talking to your parents is prohibited. Isn't that crazy?"
She smiles brightly, completely contradicting the heavy, restrictive nature of the rules she just read.
"But don't worry!" she continues, placing both hands flat on her cheeks. "It's not a prison! It's more like a super fun island getaway! We have a movie theater, a giant shopping mall, cafes, and karaoke rooms! The campus is huge. You can buy anything you want here. Literally anything."
Renjiro opens the booklet. He flips to the third page.
"So, how do you buy things if you can't leave?" Hoshinomiya asks the quiet room. She reaches into her suit pocket and pulls out a small, rectangular piece of plastic. She holds it up high so the light catches it. "With this! Your student ID card!"
She walks back down the rows and hands out the cards individually. She stops at Mako's desk.
"Here you go!" Hoshinomiya smiles and handed Mako a card. "You have really pretty hair, by the way!"
"Thank you, sensei!" Mako beams, taking the plastic card.
Hoshinomiya turns to Renjiro. She looks down at him, her bright eyes locking onto his bored expression. She holds his ID card out between her index and middle fingers.
"And for you, sleepyhead," she says. She leans in just a little closer, smelling faintly of sweet perfume, and drops a playful wink. "Try to keep your eyes open, okay?"