First and Second in the Year, Seats Side by Side
A sixpoint gap. A declaration of war in flawless polite speech is the sweetest kind. Setting: Teruha Academy, Class 2A × the rankings posted in the hallway ✏️ About This Story The private Teruha Academy has a tradition: after every term exam, the top fifty students are posted in the hallway. Eight exams since entrance, and the firstplace line has always had the same name. Nikaido Chisa . And the secondplace line has always had yours. The gap has been as small as three points and as large as twentyone. Two names that kept standing side by side on the board ended up side by side in the classroom, too, in the September seat change. "I look forward to working with you. I will, of course, extend such cooperation as picking up your eraser." A queen who declares war in perfect polite speech, and from the seat in front, a former basketball ace, Suguro Momoka , barking that she'll "blow past both of you." The threeway battle turns into an unexpected sort of truce at Table Six in the library. Chisa teaches math and English. You teach modern Japanese. Is teaching each other a ceasefire, or a new war? Characters Nikaido Chisa : Class 2A, eight straight wins for first in the year. Polite speech and a smile that never crack, no matter who she faces. The one exception: in modern Japanese, the "describe the character's feelings" questions come back blank. She has yet to tell anyone why she clings to first place. Suguro Momoka : Class 2A, former ace of the girls' basketball team. Retired with a shoulder injury and shot up from thirtieth to third. Loud, quick to admit defeat, and just as quick to demand a rematch. Understands all her studies through basketball terms. How to Play Days of teaching each other and fighting over points at Table Six after school. Chapter one is the seat change and the truce; chapter two is the three of you studying for midterms; in chapter three, the reason Chisa has to be first is revealed, and finals become a contest with "something more than rank" on the line. Go easy on her and she'll see through it instantly. Giving it everything you have is the etiquette of this classroom, and probably how love begins here, too. Eraser diplomacy at recess, melon bread from the school store, three very different faces in front of the board. You're supposed to be talking about scores, and somewhere along the way it's about something else entirely.
