The girls’ round table conference concluded with its initial findings.
Shigure, Sakuya, and Rie were assigned to tutor Shion in mathematics, Japanese language, and English, respectively. Meanwhile, Ayane, as Shion’s younger sister and closest confidante, was to continue her role as Shion’s comprehensive tutor across all subjects.
Shion watched, utterly speechless, as the other girls, including her own sister, finalized the division of her tutoring assignments.
The sensation was akin to a group of girls meticulously slicing a cake, each debating who deserved a larger share and who a smaller one.
Yet, in this entire affair, Shion found herself not even a mere bystander; she was the cake itself, destined only to be consumed, deprived of any say in how her fate would unfold.
As for the last participant, Nanami, she had not yet been assigned a task. After all, Nanami’s own academic performance was hardly stellar, making it prudent to entrust Shion’s tutoring to the more academically inclined girls.
Her contribution, however…
She merely needed to offer her potato chips to Shion.
“Why am I still reviewing here? I want to go back to the shrine to eat!” Shion, whose tutoring rights had just been brutally divided, was now pinned to the table, with three or four exercise books—Japanese, math, and English—spread before her. She didn’t even know which one to look at first.
The evening sun was already sinking low in the western sky. Ordinarily, by this hour, she would have been at the shrine, a cleaver in hand, deftly preparing the evening meal’s ingredients on the cutting board.
“If only Big Sister would let me take full charge of her academic guidance, then everything would be fine,” Ayane remarked, perched on a nearby table. She casually plucked a potato chip from Nanami’s bag and popped it into her mouth, her words still laced with a lingering resentment.
Nanami, who typically projected an aura of serene detachment, now seemed to have forged an unexpected alliance with Ayane.
Noticing her current bag of chips was nearly empty, Nanami mysteriously produced another from an unknown recess, ripped open the packaging, and set it squarely between herself and Ayane.
Ayane, without hesitation, grabbed a chip and began to munch, only to nearly spit it out the moment it touched her tongue. “Kazama-san, why do these potato chips taste so incredibly odd?! Surely they haven’t spoiled, have they?”
“Ah… mint cream flavor. It’s a new release,” Nanami clarified, glancing at the packaging.
‘Mint cream flavor, of course. That’s precisely the kind of snack Nanami would choose. Oh, how I wish I could have some, damn it!’ Shion, currently grappling with her exercises, felt a profound sense of despair, almost on the verge of tears.
She yearned to plunge her hand into that bag of chips, to snatch a generous handful, even though she knew the flavor would likely be… distinctly Nanami-esque in its peculiarity.
Meanwhile, the tutoring trio—Rie, Sakuya, and Shigure—exuded an atmosphere so palpably confrontational that one could likely sense it from the very doorway of Class A’s classroom.
“Japanese language scores can improve quite rapidly. You only need to recall a few key points. For instance, if you’re asked about the author’s expressed emotions, simply state it’s their longing for home. It’s always a safe bet to write that down, after all,” Sakuya instructed, holding the Japanese language textbook and meticulously outlining each point for Shion.
“Wait, but this article is a scientific text!” Shion exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock as she stared at the reading passage in her hand. “While I might genuinely be an airhead, surely this kind of writing isn’t meant to convey an author’s emotions, is it?”
“Ah… I was referring to narrative essays…” Sakuya began to clarify, but Rie swiftly interjected, sidling up beside them. In her hand, she clutched an English textbook, and at some point, she had donned a pair of small, red-framed spectacles.
“Shion-san, once you master the techniques for English comprehension, your scores will soar rapidly. See, here, pay close attention to the correlation between the question stem and the text…” Rie asserted, subtly nudging Sakuya aside from her position directly in front of Shion. Sakuya, who often found herself winded merely climbing the shrine stairs, was no match for Rie’s superior physical prowess, a fact frequently demonstrated during physical education classes.
Sakuya shot Rie a fierce glare, which was, however, met with complete indifference from the latter.
Shion, having no other recourse, redirected her attention to the English comprehension passage. However, she promptly raised her hand, posing a fundamental question: “What exactly is a question stem?”
Rie gasped, a sharp intake of breath, as her mind momentarily froze, an absolute blank. ‘Could a question of this nature truly emanate from a human high school student?’ she wondered in disbelief.
“It’s simply the question itself, presented within the problem,” Rie explained, maintaining a remarkable degree of patience.
“Oh~” Shion uttered, feigning a sudden burst of understanding. She then promptly raised her hand once more, asking, “And what if I… completely fail to comprehend the text at all?”
“Well then…” Rie found herself momentarily at a loss for words, but quickly devised a strategy. “In that case… you simply locate the paragraph in the article that closely resembles the question stem, where the words are identical, and then identify the missing terms. That should suffice.”
“Oh, alright, I’ll give it a try,” Shion replied, immediately beginning to scrutinize the questions. “This word is… s, p, e, c…” She had to painstakingly spell out each word letter by letter; presented with a complete word, she would likely be utterly incapable of locating it at a glance.
‘This was hopeless. This student was truly beyond human comprehension.’ Rie valiantly suppressed the urge to rub her temples in exasperation.
“Shion-san, should you grow weary of the English problems, perhaps you could turn your attention to mathematics,” Shigure whispered, settling beside Shion rather than vying for Rie’s spot.
“While it certainly presents its own challenges, merely a bit of thought can lead you to the solution. Shion-san, you’re wonderfully bright and intelligent; I’m certain you can tackle it!” Shigure murmured, offering quiet encouragement beside Shion.
Truly, Shigure was an angel, yet at this moment, Shion lacked even the slightest inclination to open her mathematics textbook. This aversion had nothing to do with Shigure; it was purely due to the subject itself—mathematics! The very discipline that challenged the utmost limits of human comprehension!
Shion, on the verge of tears and utterly bereft, could only manage a nod, signaling her acknowledgment.
Despite her valiant effort to open the mathematics exercise book, she had barely glanced at its pages for a second before the sight of the myriad numbers and symbols prompted her to snap the book shut once more.
This book, she concluded, was clearly not meant for human eyes.
Unbeknownst to Shion, from Rie’s perspective, she was currently exhibiting traits that bordered on the non-human.
“Perhaps…” Shion suddenly interjected, raising her hand. “What if you each took a different day…? My small brain simply cannot absorb this much information!”
The girls exchanged glances, a silent acknowledgment passing between them.
Indeed, Shion’s suggestion struck them as remarkably sensible. Should they persist in their current contentious approach, Shion’s brain would likely suffer a permanent shutdown long before the actual exams.
Rie subtly signaled to the other girls with a knowing glance, prompting them to reconvene around the table for a second round table conference.
It was truly remarkable to witness such seamless coordination among girls who, mere moments before, had appeared utterly at odds.
“Very well, then let us allocate Shion-san’s tutoring schedule!” Rie declared, and with her pronouncement, the second round table conference commenced.
Shion had, by this point, completely collapsed onto the table, her spirit utterly vanquished. Tonight, it seemed, she wouldn’t be returning home even after the sun had fully set.