Second

If there was one thing that was better in reality than in anime and manga, it would be grades. Specifically, it would be how we are told our grades.

Although, to be fair, it was an inevitable outcome for a medium that values visual action over plain text. Rather than a boring list of grades, school animes with a focus on grades will often attempt more grandiose means of conveying to the readers just how outstanding the main characters' grades are.

There could be a difference in uniform between the students with high grades and the students with low grades.

There could be a hot-blooded teacher animatedly yelling out how amazing the best student is, in a misguided attempt to encourage the rest of the students to study harder.

There could even be a familiar summoning system where your summons have your test scores listed right above their heads, in plain sight for all to see. [1]

At the end of the day, the grades of the students are shamelessly displayed to the public regardless of their wills, making them into targets for envy, scorn, and ridicule.

In that sense, reality was far better.

While I couldn't deny the existence of institutions that shamelessly announce their students' academic results, I could at least be proud of the fact that Sobu High School was a school that properly respected its students' privacy. Rather than some public noticeboard containing a list of all students and their grades, students were informed of their grades via proper report cards, personally handed out by a teacher to ensure that no other student could peek inside.

And while such report cards contained information about your rank compared to other students in the same year, they did not tell you which students you needed to overtake to get a better rank. In an ideal world, this would have encouraged students to better themselves rather than sabotage the students ahead of them.

Unfortunately, reality was far from ideal. Despite being on the opposite end of the classroom, I could distinctly hear the carefree voices of the popular cliques, broadcasting their results so loudly that the entire class could hear. Or in Tobe's case, the entire year.

And as much as I would have liked to say this was simply some sort of mental illness afflicting Tobe and company, such events were currently occurring all over the school. All of the consideration and effort Sobu High School had put into protecting the privacy of its students was currently being squandered by the very students in question.

Thanks to that, the identities of the top ranking students were always compromised. Everyone knew that the competition-obsessed Yukinoshita had gotten first place on every test in every subject since she entered the school. And even a loner like me was pretty certain that that riajuu Hayama was keeping a firm grip on second.

Then again, the identity of the 3rd ranked student for the language ability tests was always a mystery among the students in my year, so perhaps the system was actually working. As such, with every intention of continuing to uphold this system, I held my unopened report card close to my chest and quietly left the classroom.

...

Just to be clear, it wasn't as though I was ashamed of my grades or anything!

I just didn't think I could bear the annoyance if someone like Tobe caught wind of how well I did. Depending on how things went down, I could be subjected to either hours of endless bragging, or hours of endless begging to be tutored. Neither of those sounded like something I could put up with, especially since it was Tobe.

Thus I first walked to my usual spot, around the corner of the corridor, in a place that none of my classmates could see.

In truth, I wanted to move even further away, but Yuigahama would probably become upset if I headed to the Service Club without her.

Opening my report card, the first thing I checked was my weaker subjects. Even if those subjects weren't essential for my future plans, failing too many of them could put me on probation like Yuigahama. That would be exceptionally dangerous. Yuigahama was fine because she was an only child, but what would happen to Komachi if her brother got expelled from the high school that she had worked so hard to finally get into?

For Komachi's sake, I had to ensure my continued attendance at Sobu High. That way I could continue to help her out with any assignments that the teachers were too lazy to change over the years.

Fortunately, it seemed that my cramming had paid off. With a passing grade listed in each of these subjects, I was now in no danger of being put on probation.

Filled with relief, I was about to close my report card again when something strange caught my eye.

[ Language Ability Rank: ]

[ Second in the Year ]

...

S-Se-Second!?

I stared at my report card in shock and disbelief.

Second place? In the year? Not in the class?

I moved my fingers over the printed letters, confirming that it was not some layer of dirt that was actually covering the word 'Third'.

...

I...

I was now second.

Ever since I entered Sobu High School, I had been stuck at third. Stuck under that infuriating riajuu who somehow maintained his second place position despite spending all of his time socializing and enjoying his superficial youth rather than actually studying.

And now... finally... at long last... I had managed to overcome him.

My eyes began to grow hot.

No, rather than hot, there was a mysterious feeling in my eyes that I couldn't describe in words.

Eh? Was I always the type of person who cared this much about grades?

Don't tell me I was currently crying tears of joy or something...

Worrying about that, I quickly lifted up my head and closed my report card. I used my hands to rub the sides of my face, but they were dry.

Which was good because there was a familiar hair bun had just entered my vision, and that hair bun was now bouncing about just a little bit ahead of where I was standing. As its owner continued to move about erratically as if she was looking for someone, two other round objects of hers began to bounce about as well.

Seriously, what was this girl doing?

"Oi, Yuigahama."

"Ah! Yes?"

Hearing her name suddenly called, Yuigahama stopped jumping about and moved towards the source of the voice, stopping right in front of me. Thankfully, while the distance between us had decreased, so had the kinetic energy of the bouncing objects. Thus I was able to maintain my peace of mind.

"Let's go." I muttered while averting my gaze, moving my legs towards the Service Club Room.

But strangely, Yuigahama didn't follow me.

"Eh? Err... sorry, who might you be?"

Huh?

As expected, after hearing such a strange question, I had no choice but to turn around and face her.

"What are you talking about? It's me, me!" I responded in panic while sounding like a telephone scam.

Please don't tell me my passive skill Stealth Hikki had leveled up again. If even my follow club members could not recognize my face anymore, I might start to seriously consider a career in espionage.

Yuigahama let out a small "H-Hmm?" while leaning in closer to take a better look at my face.

C-Close!

This girl seriously had no sense of personal space. Yet I couldn't back off since I had to confirm the status of my Stealth Hikki skill.

Finally, Yuigahama's eyes grew wide in realization.

"H-Hikki?!" she yelled while jumping back and creating space between us. "What happened to your eyes?!"

"Eh?" Now that she mentioned it, that strange feeling in my eyes was still there. I had confirmed that no tears were leaking out or anything, but perhaps there were tears pooling in them or something? And because of that layer of tears my eyes looked strange to Yuigahama?

Hmm...? Wait, shouldn't my vision be blurry if that was the case? But rather than blurry, my vision actually seemed clearer than ever.

In that case, what was the problem?

Since I couldn't actually see my own eyes without a mirror, it was best to ask the person who could actually see them.

"What's wrong with my eyes?"

"N-No! Nothing! Err... erm... how do I put this... erm... your eyes just seem... very normal all of a sudden. Like other people's eyes..."

I waited patiently while Yuigahama continued to stammer out an incoherent response. Very 'normal'? What was that even supposed to mean?

"...Usually your eyes are more narrow, like a criminal or something... so I didn't recognize you," she finished while showing an apologetic smile.

"Ah. That so?"

Normally I would be quite offended by her insensitive comments, but my report card had put me in a magnanimous mood so I let them slide.

"Come on, let's go," I muttered once more as I resumed walking towards the Service Club Room. "Yukinoshita is waiting," I added in an attempt to persuade Yuigahama to drop the topic and follow this time.

Just as planned, Yuigahama went "ah that's right!" and quickly began walking beside me. Except she didn't drop the topic.

While brazenly staring at my face, marveling at my apparently 'normal' eyes, Yuigahama continued the conversation.

"Ne... Hikki. You not only look different, you're also acting kinda weird, you know? Did something happen?"

"Hmm? Ah ah. It's just this," I responded while handing her my report card. Explaining was a bit of a pain, so it was easier if she just saw it herself.

Yuigahama received my report card with a small look of surprise. "Eh? Is it fine if I see this?"

"Sure?" I answered with a small look of annoyance. Why else would I hand it to her?

"O-Oh. I just thought that Hikki didn't want anyone to see his grades... If that wasn't the case you could have just looked at them in class like everyone else..."

"No no, I do want to hide my grades from the others," Especially from annoying people like Tobe. "I just figured it was fine if it was you- Ah."

As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised I had phrased them badly.

"E-Eh?!" Yuigahama immediately began to blush, and realizing that, she quickly opened the report card and buried her head in it while continuing to talk. "Is- is that so? H-Hehh..."

...Not good.

This girl had definitely made some weird misunderstanding just now.

The reason Yuigahama was a safe person to show my grades to was because she already had Yukinoshita, the number one in our year, tutoring her. So even if I had better grades than her, there was no risk that she would ask me for tutoring. And if my grades were worse... well let's face it. It was Yuigahama, so that wasn't possible. Thus Yuigahama was an absolutely safe choice.

Among my classmates, the only ones I would be willing to show my grades to were her and Totsuka. But Totsuka was dangerous in a different sense. If Totsuka ever displayed the slightest interest in my grades, forget my report card, I don't think I would be able to stop myself from showing him my test papers even while I was still writing them.

But if I told Yuigahama my reasoning, she would probably hit me. And while her tiny fists came nowhere close to the level of destruction I was used to receiving from Hiratsuka-sensei, I wasn't a masochist who enjoyed being hit.

So I stayed silent.

...

Well, what she was thinking probably wasn't completely wrong...

Author's Note: Taking a break from the Stay-Over series. It's not over, I'm just a bit burned out from writing that recent piece of 'drama'. The reviews were strangely positive though, so I guess it was worth it lol... Anyway, here's introducing a new side-series: "Second"!

Originally, this was planned as a much longer one-shot, combining the ideas of multiple one-shots that revolve around the word "Second". But well, writing long chapters kinda burns me out, which would kinda defeat the purpose of writing side-series while recovering from burn-out. So yeah, this will be a short series of short chapters, maybe about 2 to 4 chapters max.

[1] "Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu" anime.