COTE: A Gathering of Geniuses

Case of Assault Incident Class C

Disclaimer: I own none of the series or characters used.

Class C 520 CP 20 = 540

"Excuse me, do you happen to know where there are books on Egyptian Ruins?"

"..."

"...then what about the library index? I can look for it myself."

"..."

The girl behind the information desk of the library did not reply. Her shoulder-length hair was framed by two ribbons matched by eyes that refused to look Kiyomaro's way. The girl even hid behind the large book she had been reading, the title being something about ramen. She wasn't someone he recognized so she may have been part of a different class.

Realizing it was hopeless, Kiyomaro decided to head back. He'd just have to look for the book himself later. The girl almost looked scared of him, but he couldn't blame her.

After all, she probably knew he was part of Class C.

With the reveal of the S-System, the midterms had come and gone. Kiyomaro had scored perfect in all the tests even if that that did not help with how low their class average was. He wouldn't be surprised if they had the lowest average among all the first-year classes.

Ryūen Kakeru, the self-proclaimed King of the class, didn't seem to care too much seeing as the outcome of the midterms didn't really give them any points. In fact, the cutoff for expulsion was calculated from getting half of the class score average which meant the lower the class average, the less likely it was for someone to get kicked out.

Instead, he had begun Class C's battle with the other classes.

During the buildup to the midterms, Kiyomaro had to personally intervene when his fellow Class C classmates started to get in the way of the other students studying in the library. While he did agree in staying out of Ryūen's way, that didn't mean he'd allow them to do trouble in the library or during class.

Kiyomaro doubted a simple Yakuza-like threat was Ryūen's whole plan. Hopefully, actual fights wouldn't break out as that would lead to punishments such as suspension or expulsion. So far, deductions were noted down by teachers for those who disrupted class but there was no confirmation on how CP would be deducted from unruly behavior outside the classroom.

It was possible Class-C's King was simply testing the waters for now.

There had even been other classmates that had reached out to Kiyomaro to supplant Ryūen. They wanted him to be their new leader who could lead them to victory over Class A. Kiyomaro could even do so without the need to for dirty tactics. He had even heard about Class B's Ichinose who looked to be uniting her class together to beat Class A.

However, Takamine Kiyomaro knew, in his heart, he couldn't.

During the Tournament to decide the next King of the Demon World, demon children of all kinds had been forced to compete. There were those who trained beforehand to kind-hearted ones who wouldn't hurt a fly. For the latter to compete, their bodies could not force themselves to surrender by burning their own book and the spells they were forced to learn turned them into mindless aggressive versions of themselves.

It was only through defeating one of those children, a kind girl named Kororu, that his partner Gash had gained his resolve to win the tournament and decided to become l, for the girl, a Kind King who would never allow this sort of thing to happen.

Yes, conflict made people stronger. Kiyomaro would forever be proud of their achievement for winning each fight he and Gash had gone through but that did not mean he thought it was the end all be all for things.