COTE - Collection of Stories

This is my first time on a bus, and I can't say I'm disappointed.

The birds are singing, the sun is shining, the cool air blew through the buses open window, blowing through my hair as I watched the unfamiliar buildings pass me by.

Though the ride was relatively short, the seats were comfy enough, and the other occupants all kept silent, looking at their mobile devices, or like me, absentmindedly looking out the windows. There was nothing to complain about.

The bus slowly halted near the entrance of my new high-school.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High-School.

Quite the mouthful.

I don't know who exactly thought that would be a good name for one of the, if not the most, prestigious schools in the whole-wide world, but clearly they must not be a very good chef.

Standing up from my seat at the back of the vehicle, I waited in line to depart as I followed the rest of the students in identical uniforms exit the bus. 

Before long, the other students had moved ahead, leaving me behind. I didn't mind, though—I wanted to look around a little, perhaps admire the scenery before heading to the entrance ceremony. That's why I'd taken an earlier bus.

I couldn't stop thinking about how ridiculous this place was. It was a school that was built on a floating island, with free tuition, and somehow they let me in, even with my likely mediocre score on the entrance exam.

We were dropped off right by the auditorium, that's where the entrance ceremony was taking place. Though there were 10 minutes to spare before it started, so I decided to take a quick lap around the sports field. 

I almost missed it, but as I began my stroll, I caught a glimpse of dark in the corner of my eye. I turned my head, and there it was—what looked like a tiny burnt roll of paper left in the grass.

(art)

Although I'd love to think about all the possibilities that could explain how it caught on fire and why it's rolled up like that, I still wanted to look around while I could

Although I'd love to think about all the possibilities that could explain how it caught on fire and why it's rolled up like that, I still wanted to look around while I could. I moved on, taking a quick walk past at what I assumed was the Keyaki Mall, then the library, the gym, and finally the outdoor swimming pool. 

All of them were way bigger than what you'd expect at a normal school, and most don't even have a pool. Is this heaven?

Having finished my brief exploration, I turned and travelled back to the auditorium.

Most of the students seemed to have made it inside already, and are waiting by their respective classes. I hurried to mine, standing awkwardly at the back, too nervous to even attempt at making any small talk without preparation.

And after a few minutes of me standing alone silently, the entrance ceremony started.

As you might expect, it was mind-numbingly boring.

It started with the principal and the students thanking each other over and over, forcing us to stand around for what felt like an eternity, listening to their pointless words. The principal then began his speech, welcoming and congratulating us for being accepted, but by the time he had said the word "hello" I had already stopped listening. 

There were far more important things on my mind.

The entrance ceremony is the start of one of the major trails for students who wish to enjoy the rest of their school life. For the first few days after the entrance ceremony, students must make friends, If someone fails at this task, it is said that a miserable few years awaits them.

If you ignore the fact that I had no friends, my childhood was completely normal in every way.

I ate, I slept, I studied, and that went on repeat for as long as I could remember.

That's the life you have when you're both homeschooled and an introvert.

Making friends isn't easy when you have no experience and lack the courage to approach others. What am I even supposed to do? I did some research before coming here, but none of the advice really applied to my situation.

At least, that was the case until today.

One of the easiest, most unproblematic ways to make friends for an introverted loner like myself, is a place or setting where you can meet with the same persons regularly. In other words a school, or in this situation specifically my classroom, is the perfect definition of such a place.

If I want to achieve a fulfilling high-school life, then it would only make sense make some friends, establish some decent human relationships, and perhaps, maybe sometime in the far future, get a boyfriend as well. Though, it'd be best to think about the latter part later.

Similar to how an actor might imagine their scene before filming, I visualized myself walking into the classroom, hoping it would help me attempt at making friends.

The first scenario that came to find was bursting into the classroom, and excitedly talking to person to person, but that option was crossed out almost as quickly as it had been thought up. 

There were too many uncertainties and potential problems with that approach. For instance, what do regular high schoolers even talk about? How am I supposed to start conversations like that when I can't even talk to people normally?

Even though I could already imagine all the terrible outcomes spurring from my initial idea, I decided to go ahead and play it out anyway.

"ey! wassup y'all! my names ayanokouji kiyomi, yo!" In my mind, I saw myself shouting right after forcefully opening the classroom door.

"What did she just say?" One of my imaginary classmates said, his face disgusted.

"Yo? What fucking year do you think is bitch?" Another one of my imaginary classmates spoke, her face equally disgusted.

"Oh? I think I know! This chick is, a stupid, friendless, homeschooled, loser, who thinks she can try and reinvent herself in high-school!" The last person shouted, making an accurate summing up my past and current circumstances.

"noooooooooo!" I yelled, having been immediately exposed.

Afterward, I would've been relentlessly bullied for the next three years, watching my dream of an enjoyable high school experience burn to the ground...

Ok, maybe that was a little exaggerated. But I certainly wouldn't be making any real friendships if I instantly embarrass myself.

The next scenario that came to mind was waiting for others to approach me instead. After all, I'm a cute girl, so I figured there'd be plenty of people who'd want to be friends with me.

Then again, that came with its own set of problems too. I've been told more than once that I can be difficult to approach, though I don't really get why. I don't think I look particularly scary or anything. Matsuo suggested that some people naturally give off an intimidating aura. If that's the case, chances are most people might just ignore me. And if anyone does talk to me, it'll probably just be boys trying to flirt. That's not exactly the kind of friendships I'm trying to make.

As I was about to imagine the second scenario play out, the students around me had began to leave the auditorium. The entrance ceremony had ended, and I've ran out of time to practice making friends.

Not wanting to stand out, I followed the two students who had arrived after me into my classroom, Class 1-C. Upon entering, I immediately saw nameplates on each seat. Seems like we have assigned seating. It was a little disappointing not getting to pick where I sat, but not too surprising. After a quick scan of the room, I found my seat at the back, nearby the back exit.

The rest of my class filed in after me, moving in small groups with whoever they'd spoken to during the entrance ceremony, or by themselves if they hadn't talked to anyone yet. My seatmate happened to be herself as well, so I decided I should try to introduce myself to her.

"he—"

"Shut the fuck up." The girl, last name Ibuki, cut me off as soon as I opened my mouth.

"ah — o-ok."

Welp, that ended poorly.

I hadn't even finished saying the full word by the time she'd told me to shut the fuck up. 

Was it something I'd done? Did I need to do something first before I could attempt to introduce myself? I'm sure she doesn't have any sort of grudge against me, I don't recall having ever seen or even interacted with her before today. Well, whatever her reasoning is probably doesn't matter. I doubt we will end up becoming friends with such a poor first impression.

I took another look around the classroom, taking a headcount of everyone inside, to see if I my other seatmate, with the last name Manabe, was still on her way. There were fourty students in the room, matching the fourty seats in the classroom, confirming that everybody was in here, and that my other seatmate was likely one of the few standing together in groups. That's no good. If they're already making a friend group, it might already be too late for me to integrate myself in it. And that was quickly confirmed when I heard the name Manabe, coming from a group of three typical looking gyaru girls that were laughing and joking together happily.

This is so sad, my second chance of making a friends gone in an instant. 

Technically, assuming they didn't already know each other beforehand, I could try to introduce myself to their group, force my way inside it but honestly, I don't think I'd fit in with them anyway. It's definitely not just because I don't have enough courage, mhmm yep, that's it.

My options for friendships were rapidly dwindling, I knew I had to act quickly if I didn't want to be left alone for the rest of my high-school life. The chair in front of my seat was empty, again indicating they were one of the students in a preexisting group, meaning that I would have to get up and talk to someone if I wanted to become friends with anyone. Apparently someone else had the same idea as me, a boy with shoulder length purple hair, wearing a black dress shirt, was also looking around the classroom, and we locked eyes with each other.

I had considered going up and talking to him, but half a second after we made eye contact he gave me the most devious smirk I'd ever seen in entire my life. It became clear to me, that when he was looking around the classroom, he was in no way looking to make friendships. I'd locked eyes with a delinquent. I looked away instantly and started pondering about what happened.

Don't delinquents attack you for looking at them the wrong way? Am I gonna get beat up after school? What do I do? Should I apologize? Or is it already too late? Is my fate signed? Maybe if I'm lucky he'll forgot about it and I can live my days peacefully. 

Actually, if I think about it another way, the smirk he gave off wasn't a 'I'll fucking murder you for looking at me' smirk, but something else I couldn't quite understand the meaning of.

Before I could continue overthinking my situation, the front door slid open, and in walked a malnourished man in a suit who looked to be in his late 30's or 40's. On first impression he seemed to be the type of teacher that hates his life, and because of his terrible relationship with his wife and kids, he takes out his frustrations on his poor students. 

That might of been a bit too mean of an accusation actually, so I apologized to him in my mind.

He stopped at the podium, placing his binder on top of it, clearing his throat, and waiting for everyone to be seated, before he talked. "Hello, everyone." He said, his voice sounding as dead as he looked. "My name is Kazuma Sakagami, you can just call me Sakagami-sensei, or Mr. Sakagami. I teach mathematics, and will be you're homeroom teacher for the next three years, as this school does not change classes. You've already passed through the entrance ceremony, so I'll just be explaining to you the special rules of this school and you can just read the matriculation guide, then you'll be free to go to your dorm rooms." 

His voice changed very slightly as he pronounced special rules, and then he took out a stack of papers from his binder, and divided them into smaller amounts to be passed down from the front rows

"At this school, the special rules placed require all students to remain on campus for the next three years, and you are forbidden from contacting anyone outside the school. That means you cannot contact any family either without the schools permission, though I'm sure you'd already know that if you put any research at all before applying. To make up for this, we have many different business and free facilities open so that you won't suffer from the restrictions. Karaoke's, cafe's, theater rooms, whatever you can think of that isn't too obscure we have." He stated, grabbing a set of ID cards that were stuffed inside of his pocket. "These are your ID cards, they work the similar to a credit card in that you would swipe them on card reading machines to make purchases, and it lets you buy absolutely anything on campus. However, we don't use real money, rather you get points automatically credited on the first day of every month, all of you should already have 100,000 points deposited into your card. Also, 1 point is worth 1 yen. I think anymore explanation would be unnecessary."

About half the class burst into cheers of excitement and disbelief when Sakagami revealed the exchange rate of points to yen. The idea of receiving that much money every month was almost too good to believe.

The papers given referred to this as the S System which essentially replaced real money for points.

"Surprised by the amount of points given? This school measures the ability of each student. Everyone who passed the entrance exam has shown some level of worth just by getting in, the allowance is a reflection of your skills. After graduation all the points are taken back, so there's no point in saving them up, use them however you see fit. Oh, and one final thing before I forget, do keep in mind that the school is very strict on anybody that is found to have broken any rules."

Sakagami had finished his speech, and looked around the room.

"It seems like nobody has any questions, so I'll be taking my leave now. Have a good day."

Once again, the class suddenly got loud as our teacher left the room. They were understandably excited over the news and size of our allowance.

"This school isn't as strict as I thought it would be."

I was talking to myself out loud and naturally got no response.

Since the teacher had left, and we clearly we're dismissed around ten students exited the room, including both my blue-haired seatmate, and the delinquent I locked eyes with.

I, however, choose to wait a round a few minutes. Futilely waiting for someone to begin doing introductions at an attempt to make some new friends. 

And that group introduction would never come as we did not have an overly social classmate. 

In place of my favored introduction scenario, I had supposedly gotten noticed by the group of gyaru's who were looking at me from the front left corner of the classroom. Instead of coming over, the group just whispered and giggled while glancing in my direction. Which led me to believe they weren't planning to invite me to their friend group, so I stood up without making eye contact and walked alone to my dorm

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Ch 1 End.

If you couldn't tell from the title, this isn't a one-shot but rather several fast paced stories all put under one fic.

I may of made this just because i wanted to draw kiyomi, while also improving my speed drawing skill.

i was looking for some good female ayanokouji fics, but they're mid and/or discontinued, with the one that was fairly good being axed before anything happened. that's another reason for this.

Also I was supposed to be working on my reaction fic, but I ended up taking a break for like a week, then I started drawing again for a few days, then back to writing. so there's still barely any progress on my reaction fic, i'm even gonna be rewriting part of the script, plus for my mha x cote fic has no progress for the next chapter. the upload date is so fucked lol.

if u got any questions ask away

lmk how u feel about this idea too

ill prob start putting word counters at the bottom now too 

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