No matter how beautiful, smart, athletic, and personable Yoshino Shizuka is, compared to Semi Madoka, she is only ever second best. Shizuka's only solace is her first placed ranking in an mmorpg she plays, until one day someone overthrows her on the...
Despite his recent achievement of attaining a perfect score in every subject during their last examination period, Semi Madoka was not happy in the least.
Although attaining a perfect score meant that he was currently the top ranked student amongst the first years, he had unknowingly pursed his lips when he saw the neatly printed "1" next to his name on the ranking boards.
With results this impressive, he knew that it would be difficult to remain inconspicuous at this new school.
What Madoka did not expect was that his fellow schoolmates' and teachers' clamouring would be so incessant that he would eventually have to skip class–two weeks after the scores had been posted–just so he could finally have a quiet moment to himself. Time, it seemed only further intensified everyone's interest in his academic prowess instead of diminishing it.
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As he laid in the nurse's office with his hand resting on his forehead, his thoughts drifted back to the day of their exams when he had committed the initial slip up that led to this undesirable outcome.
On that accursed morning, his eyes had been watery, his nose had been runny, and his throat had been itchy; however, he had stubbornly insisted that he was not sick. Being sick meant being vulnerable but the teenage Madoka was not someone whom could admit to weakness and thus, he had been in denial about having something as little as a cold.
If his uncle had been home he would have gotten his silly nephew medicine and stuffed him back into bed but unfortunately, his uncle had been away because of a work commitment. Thus, with a packed bag and staggering steps, Madoka dragged his unhealthy body to school.
By the time the first set of exam papers reached his hands, his brain felt like it had been wrapped in cotton. There was a strange haziness to his surroundings that made him feel like he was floating even when his feet were planted on the ground. While his vision was not fuzzy and he could make out the words on the pages, he did not give much thought to his responses. He simply answered every question with the first answer that sprang to mind at an unusual rhythm.
If it had been anyone else in that situation their grades would have likely dropped but for Madoka, it was the opposite.
In fact, the rise in his grades was inevitable. With him not making efforts to hide his real abilities, how could his ranking not improve?
His memory had always been exceptional. Not only did he only need to glance at material once before the information was instantly processed and stored in his mind, his listening skills were also scarily astonishing. He could repeat any teacher's lessons verbatim, a year after they had been taught, and after that he could still summarize them with a high rate of accuracy.
