"My name is Ren Suzuki, from Kyoto."
With a refreshing and sunny smile, Ren Suzuki introduced himself.
"I don't really have any special talents, but I do have a lot of hobbies like singing, dancing, and playing sports. I hope we can all get along from now on."
Confident, charismatic, interesting, approachable.
With his flawless "popular guy persona," Ren instantly secured his position as one of the "top-class students" in the social hierarchy.
And in stark contrast
"M-my name is… Hitori Gotoh… M-my special skill… my special skill is…"
A hunched posture, eyes hidden by long bangs, a strangely airy voice, and a steadily weakening tone.
Just one sentence was enough to instantly freeze the atmosphere in the entire classroom.
The classmates, who were already disinterested in her, immediately averted their gazes, with some even starting to chat among themselves.
But Ren, who had been carefully observing the girl, noticed a detail that everyone else had missed.
Throughout her faltering self-introduction, she had repeatedly opened and closed her mouth, as if she desperately wanted to say something more but couldn't bring herself to voice it.
Under the gradually cooling gazes of her classmates, she eventually sat down with a dejected look and buried her head in her arms, pretending to sleep.
"..."
Seeing this, Ren withdrew his gaze and began piecing together everything he had observed about this girl.
First, based on her reaction when he greeted her earlier and her disastrous self-introduction, it was clear she was a textbook case of social anxiety.
Additionally, her outdated pink tracksuit and long bangs that completely covered her eyes indicated an absolutely hopeless sense of fashion and self-presentation.
Even so, at the end of her self-introduction, she had displayed a very strong desire to express something.
...
She carefully observed the feedback from others during her self-introduction, and her disappointment and sadness at her failure were plainly visible.
Undoubtedly socially anxious, but with a clear and desperate desire to communicate with the outside world.
Her affection level shot up 40% just from a simple greeting, and her attempt to shut herself off by pretending to sleep was clumsy at best.
All these details clicked together in Ren's mind and formed a vivid and comprehensive personal evaluation.
(She has social anxiety, but she also wants to be seen.)
(She longs to change her current situation, but she doesn't know how.)
(She lacks courage and confidence, and she doesn't have the ability or determination to push herself forward.)
The more he summarized, the clearer the long-buried memories in his mind became.
Ren set aside his mental notes and came to a temporary conclusion.
From a conquering perspective, this type of girl was notoriously difficult to approach.
Because of her clear emotional needs and lonely, helpless circumstances, she would easily develop emotional dependence on others.
However, due to her extreme lack of confidence and poor communication skills, her tendency to retreat would be several times stronger than that of ordinary people. If approached recklessly, it would only trigger her "mental alarm" and have the opposite effect.
In simple terms, the first step in conquering this type of girl was to find a way to approach her without setting off her alarms.
"An ordinary high school student would definitely be completely at a loss dealing with a girl like this."
Ren arranged his textbooks on the desk according to the class schedule. Then, reaching for the book needed for the first period, he murmured to himself,
"Unfortunately for her, this isn't my first time."
Glancing at the clearly displayed [40%] on the affection gauge, Ren straightened his posture and calmly waited for the first class to begin, just like any ordinary high school student.
Meanwhile, from beneath her bangs, Hitori Gotoh, who had been pretending to sleep the whole time, subtly turned her head and peeked at the boy sitting next to her through a barely visible gap in her hair.
...
Since all the "setting details" perfectly matched the real world, Ren quickly adapted to his identity as a "first-year high school student."
Not only that, but as someone with life experience, Ren effortlessly displayed maturity and composure far beyond his peers. Even though it was only the first day, he had already become the most popular student in the class.
"Hey, Ren! Want to go to karaoke after school?"
An upbeat male student made the suggestion.
"To celebrate our first day of high school?"
"Great idea!"
"Agreed!"
"I want to go to karaoke with Ren too!"
This was one of the most common social phenomena in school life.
The naturally sociable popular students, and those who longed to join their circles.
Though their motives differed, they inevitably formed small groups known as "cliques."
As the initial cliques formed, the rest of the students naturally clustered around them based on social instincts and learned behaviors. The "ranking" of the central figures in each group directly determined the "status" of the clique.
And right now, Ren was unquestionably the core of the class.
It might sound arrogant, but at this moment in Class 1-D, Ren was the most influential figure outside of the teachers.
And this was precisely the situation Ren had hoped to create.
"Ah, though I really would love to hang out with everyone… but think about it today is the first day of school. Our parents are probably really concerned about how things went, right?"
Ren smiled at the classmates gathered around him.
"To put their minds at ease, I think it's best if we go home early today and report back to them. Once they fully trust us, we'll have much more freedom to do what we like."
"...Oh, that makes a lot of sense."
"Yeah, you're right. If we want to have more fun in the future, it's better to go home and check in today."
Whether out of respect for Ren's status in the class or genuine agreement with his reasoning, everyone readily accepted his suggestion.
Through the gaps in the crowd, Ren keenly noticed something else while they were discussing after-school plans, Hitori Gotoh, still pretending to sleep, had intentionally revealed her ear.
Just as he suspected.
In this way, having tactfully convinced his overly eager new classmates, Ren successfully secured his free time after school.
There wasn't anything urgent he needed to do, but Ren still wanted to quickly familiarize himself with his living environment and this world's settings.
He still didn't know exactly what Keima Katsuragi expected as the final result.
But since Keima had granted him this much freedom, acting according to his own judgment… should be fine, right?
As he watched Hitori Gotoh quietly pack her bag, Ren thought to himself.