It was the beginning of April, when the cherry blossoms looked like they were about to burst into bloom at any moment.

To attend the entrance ceremony, Kurato cut through the gentle spring sky at high speed, slicing it with a sharp spaaat.

On Kurato’s back, two large iron shields were mounted and in front of him, multiple windbreak acrylic plates were set up.

It was part of a technique he’d used during the competition at the overnight learning program.

By doing this, even if he hit 100 km/h with his own body, he could still keep flying.

Below him, the neatly divided and well-maintained scenery of the Special Zone flowed past.

Kurato had already been traveling for nearly an hour after leaving his home outside the Special Zone.

Of that, more than thirty minutes had been spent at the Special Zone checkpoint.

At the checkpoint, he should have been able to pass just by showing the pass the school had given him in advance, but maybe because it was his first time, they also demanded his student ID and the guard even contacted the school.

Only after all that did they finally confirm his identity and trust the pass, letting him through safely.

When Kurato first arrived at the checkpoint, the guard’s intimidation was intense, shouting “Stop!” at Kurato for flying in.

With one hand thrust out at Kurato, the guard even made a gesture like he was about to fire…

The pressure was so strong Kurato vowed that next time, once he got near the checkpoint, he’d switch from flight style to skateboard style.

But there had been terrorism a few years ago, so it couldn’t be helped.

In the first place, the reason Kurato was flying to school at all was because of Yanagi-san.

If Kurato went to live in the Special Zone, he would inevitably have to part ways with Yanagi-san, or rather, he would have to dismiss her.

Someday that would happen, but until Yanagi-san found work, Kurato intended to commute from his current home.

Yanagi-san herself also had an extremely strong preference about that…

However, the distance from his home to Sakurajō Academy was far and factoring in the checkpoint, commuting by car was impossible.

Especially on weekday mornings, the checkpoint caused huge traffic jams and it was said it could take over an hour just to get through.

On the other hand, the pedestrian reception area was almost never crowded and if you were C-rank or above, the procedures were simple, so you could pass smoothly.

Hearing that, Kurato flew.

This way, even including the checkpoint, he could keep commuting time under an hour.

On top of that, it doubled as ability training, so it was killing two birds with one stone.

That’s what he thought as he flew along comfortably, but since the checkpoint took longer than expected, he was now flying at full speed.

Was this really the fastest possible checkpoint time, or was it just because today was his first time?

‘Please let it be the latter…’

Kurato couldn’t help wishing that.

The school came into view.

Even from above, the vast cluster of pure white buildings looked like a castle from any angle.

Kurato even worried unnecessarily that there might be anti-air interception cannons installed somewhere.

To avoid being seen flying by school staff, Kurato landed quite a distance before the academy grounds and switched to skateboard style.

Abilities that allowed flight were limited, so if he charged straight in like this, he’d draw attention he didn’t need.

It was a precaution to avoid becoming a topic of conversation even before enrollment.

‘Oh, there are people who look like students chatting in front of the gate.’

“Good morning~”

The group in front of him wore the same pure white blazers as Kurato, so Kurato greeted them assuming they were Sakurajō students.

Upperclassmen, or maybe classmates.

Either way, greeting people involved mattered.

“Oh, good mor—”

The girl who turned around changed from a smile to a slightly suspicious expression the moment she saw Kurato and after watching Kurato pass by in skateboard style, she stared after him with a shocked face.

Even after he passed, she kept sending him glances and the girls around her did too.

‘Was a skateboard bad at a young-ladies’ school? Or was it his outfit?’

Kurato looked down at his own appearance.

He wore the school’s designated white uniform and a barely blue tie neatly in place.

The tie color was supposedly free, but Yasutsuna-senpai had taught him the school’s unspoken rules in advance, so Kurato chose a blue-toned tie exactly as advised.

That rule was about tie and ribbon colors being separated by rank.

Apparently, C-rank was (unofficially) blue and B-rank was green.

The seniors Kurato saw during the exam had red and white ribbons, but that was special.

Red was only allowed for students ranked within the top 20 in the school and a red ribbon with white embroidery could only be worn by those within the top 7.

Incidentally, Yasutsuna-senpai had red with silver embroidery, which was proof of second place.

What color is A-rank?

Exactly red.

This school had about twenty A-rank students total and with A-rank magic power, everyone sat at the very top of the rankings.

In other words, A-rank equals within the top 20 rankings.

That’s why A-rank ribbons were red.

Kurato still didn’t really understand what the school ranking system even was, but in any case, he was grateful to Yasutsuna-senpai for the invaluable experience of fighting alongside a powerhouse school.

In Kurato’s previous life’s school, things like indoor shoes or gym uniforms were often color-coded, but that only distinguished grades.

This world, however, made rank, meaning individual ability, extremely explicit.

It wasn’t just discrimination by rank or ability type, it was distinction by strength, so you could call it meritocracy.

But making it something you could judge visually might be one of the reasons students, especially boys, felt intimidated and withdrew.

‘This might be another wall that needed improving. Wait, no, this isn’t the time to drift into that.’

He needed to figure out why he got those weird looks.

While Kurato was wrestling with himself in his head, he arrived in front of his classroom.

A black plate reading 1-8, bordered with a gold frame, was embedded into a pillar.

It looked kind of like a politician’s office.

This was Kurato’s assigned classroom.

Raito was in Class 1 and Keita was in Class 7, so they were all split up.

Keita was relatively close, so maybe they’d end up together in combined classes like PE.

Kurato opened the classroom’s grand double doors.

The heavy, luxury doors that felt like they belonged to a principal’s office opened smoothly without making a sound, revealing a spacious, white classroom overflowing with a high-class atmosphere.

It was a classroom he’d entered during the exam too, but now that he could look around calmly, it felt less like a school and more like a famous art museum or an opera house.

Of course, it couldn’t even be compared to his previous life or Momoyama Elementary School.

Inside, beautiful white desks were arranged six across and five down.

During the exam, they used long desks, but normally they used individual desks.

Near the entrance, two girl students were already seated and chatting.

“Good morning.”

Kurato lowered his head slightly and greeted them.

They both had blue ribbons.

“Ah, um… morn—”

“…and then, right,”

One returned a greeting in a voice so faint it almost vanished, while the other looked at Kurato with a suspicious expression, said nothing and returned to her conversation.

‘This feels kind of nostalgic.’

As Kurato walked into the classroom, he remembered the classroom from half a year after entering elementary school and smiled a little.

The inside and outside of the Special Zone aren’t that different.

That’s what Kurato thought, but—

“Oh, good morning, Sato-kun!”

“Good morning, Suzuki-kun!”

The moment other boys entered, the girls near the front fired off greetings one after another.

It seemed Kurato was the only one who didn’t get greeted.

The other kids, especially the boys, were being greeted brightly by the girls.

Nonstop.

From every direction.

‘Th-this is kind of intense…’

As Kurato stood there dumbfounded, the boys in the middle of it went, “Y-yeah…”

“Uh-huh…”

They gave responses so curt you couldn’t even tell if it counted as a greeting, then hurried through the storm of greetings.

Sure, it was a surprising scene.

But something about them felt off.

It might have been Kurato’s imagination, but it almost looked like they were avoiding the girls.

‘Maybe they were extremely shy around strangers. If so, would they really be okay in school life going forward?’

Worried, Kurato approached them anyway and spoke up.

“Good morning.”

He’d been doing this since elementary school.

Even if he got ignored sometimes, he wouldn’t get discouraged.

Kurato predicted they’d make annoyed faces if he spoke to them.

But—

“Ah, good morning. I’m Sato Tomoya. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Suzuki Tatsuro. I wasn’t in the interview, so… what elementary school? Also, are you D-rank?”

In response to Kurato’s greeting, their stiff expressions relaxed and they greeted him casually.

Not only that, they held out their hands to Kurato and even shook hands.

‘Huh? They’re not shy at all, they’re outgoing. And they’re really nice kids. So what was that earlier behavior about?’

Kurato felt confused, but returned the favor since they’d introduced themselves.

“I’m Makishima Kurato. Nice to meet you too. I’m from an elementary school outside the Special Zone, but I’m C-rank, you know? There was a mix-up and I took the written exam before the interview.”

“Wait, seriously!? Does that mean you solved the test? You did the arithmetic too? And you still passed!?”

Sato-kun looked completely shocked.

Kurato nodded modestly.

“I mean, I think I passed because the practical exam afterward went well. Since there were problems in arithmetic I couldn’t solve from the start.”

Kurato had heard from Yasutsuna-senpai, to the point he wanted to die of embarrassment, how exceptionally good his practical exam had been.

She even reported it to the principal so enthusiastically it made Kurato want to hide his face.

As Kurato was digging up that bitter memory, Suzuki-kun suddenly stepped right up in front of him and started fiddling with Kurato’s tie between his thumb and forefinger.

“Also, isn’t this tie color kind of dark? Why are you wearing a D tie when you’re C?”

Suzuki-kun’s tie was definitely blue, a vivid sky blue.

Sato-kun’s was a bright light blue too.

Compared to those, Kurato’s did look darker.

‘No, it wasn’t black. It was dark blue.’

Kurato had actually wanted to buy a black tie and if anything, he wanted to unify everything he wore in black.

Black was a special color to Kurato, to Kuroto (his previous life name).

It was a color that drew out the power he’d been given by his boss to its fullest.

In this world, he still couldn’t use that power, but habits soaked into his heart didn’t change easily and wearing black soothed him.

So when he bought it, he chose a color that was barely within the blue category while still being close to black.

But judging by their reactions, it seemed like this had become a problem.

“I like dark colors, so I chose it, but I guess I overdid it. By the way, what color is D?”

When Kurato asked, Suzuki-kun pointed to a spot in the classroom.

There, a boy who had just entered was walking while glancing around nervously.

His tie was a navy so dark it was enviably close to black.

“D is that, navy. It absolutely can’t look blue, that’s the D color. So Makishima-kun, you gotta change the color or it’s bad. If you want, I’ll give you one of mine, it’s cheap anyway.”

“Thanks, but I’m okay.”

Suzuki-kun started rummaging through his bag, so Kurato politely declined.

This was punishment for prioritizing his own preferences.

He couldn’t burden Suzuki-kun, who he’d just met.

Even so—

“Do I really have to change it? Would teachers or seniors get mad?”

Kurato still couldn’t make the decision to give up a blackish color.

Sato-kun looked up diagonally as he thought.

“Not sure. Teachers should be fine, I think. The school rules say ties and ribbons should be colors that aren’t flashy.”

“But seniors will be bad. Especially girls, like, see?”

Suzuki-kun pointed again.

In that direction, a D-rank boy who greeted a girl student was being answered coldly and was trudging over this way.

“Like, D-rank isn’t even invited. Seniors might scold you for being confusing.”

‘It seemed D-rank was treated poorly in this Special Zone.’

While saying that, Suzuki-kun beckoned the D-rank boy over.

The boy’s face changed and he hurried over at a jog.

Suzuki-kun raised a hand casually.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Suzuki Tatsuro.”

“I’m Makishima Kurato.”

“I’m Sato Tomoya. Nice to meet you.”

With Suzuki-kun’s upbeat greeting, Kurato and Sato-kun followed along.

Seeing that, the D-rank boy, who’d looked pale and stiff, also smiled and bowed his head.

“I’m Yoshidome Hiroto. Nice to meet you.”

As he introduced himself, the teacher immediately appeared in the classroom and projected the correct seating arrangement.

Class 8 had 31 students total.

Apparently, 5 boys and 26 girls.

The number of girls was overwhelmingly large, but this was the Special Zone.

In the Special Zone, the number of men was overwhelmingly small.

Since C-rank and above men were only about 5 percent of the population.

On the other hand, women who were C-rank and above were close to 40 percent.

A simple calculation made it a 1:8 ratio.

This school still had relatively more boys, so it was better than most.

Because of that… maybe.

The projected seating arrangement placed all the boys spread out, evenly spaced around the classroom.

With the gender ratio this distorted, the boys must feel out of place.

And since women’s abilities were powerful to begin with and they were also outnumbered, it was easy to imagine a miserable ending where boys were used however the girls pleased.

Kurato concluded that he should treat girls with friendliness.

Even while Kurato was thinking, the students were already moving to their projected seats.

Kurato moved too.

Second seat from the right in the front row.

The front row was sometimes a surprisingly good blind spot where the teacher’s eyes didn’t linger too much.

Once everyone finished moving, the teacher offered celebratory words and told them they would immediately head to the school assembly, so they began moving in a rush.

Kurato stood up to move too, when someone poked his back from behind.

‘Was it Suzuki-kun and the others?’

Kurato turned around and there was a girl smiling and waving.

Ah—

“Nishikaze-san, you passed!”

The girl he’d given candy to at the exam venue was standing there.

Kurato got happy and raised his voice without thinking, but the girls around them didn’t seem to care at all and quickly slipped past Kurato.

‘D-rank isn’t invited. Their attitude made that painfully clear.’

But Nishikaze-san in front of him kept smiling even after seeing Kurato’s tie color.

“You passed too. I heard the D-rank boy slots are super tiny, so that’s amazing! Um… Makishima-kun? Nice to meet you.”

“Yes, nice to meet you too, Nishikaze-san.”

While they talked a little, everyone in the class had already left the room.

For now, Kurato and Nishikaze-san followed after them.

The school assembly was held in a large building called the Memorial Ceremony Building.

In a wide, open venue like an arena, many attendees were already lined up and the new students sat in chairs arranged in the center.

People who looked like current students watched from the second-floor stands.

On the stage at the front, the principal and important guests gave speeches and finally, a girl with blonde drill curls called the new student representative delivered a graceful congratulatory address and the ceremony ended.

As they returned to their classrooms, Kurato spotted Raito near the front, so he raised a hand lightly and called out.

“Oh, Raito! Long time—”

But Raito glanced back at him for an instant, immediately lowered his eyes and went somewhere else.

The blonde drill curls from earlier chased after him as if clinging to him.

Kurato couldn’t have mistaken him.

Their eyes met clearly, even if only for a moment.

If anything, it even felt like Raito was avoiding Kurato.

‘Why? What happened over the past half year?’

With a reaction from Raito unlike anything before, Kurato felt an uneasy foreboding in his chest.

* * *

[TL: If you like this series please either leave a review or message me on discord in some way the amount of people buying premium chapters is leaving me on the fence as to whether I should continue.]

Memo

・Are men in the Special Zone shy? ← Or is that only around women?

・Tie colors…
D: Navy
C: Blue
B: Green
A ‘Top 20 in the rankings’: Red
Top 7: Red with white
2nd place: Red with silver
1st place: Red with gold

・Population of the Special Zone…
Men: about 5% of the population
Women: about 40% of the population
→ The gender ratio is 1:8 (among Sakurajō students, it’s 1:5)

・Nishikaze Momoka… a C-rank Aerokinesis user. Like other Aero-types, she believes she excels at long-range attacks.