Seeing the gleam of gold in Saya's eyes, Rei immediately became alert, and the two strands of ahoge hair on top of her head trembled.
Although Rei knew that her best friend had taken an interest in Ryuji, she still introduced him to her, "This is Ryuji Ken from Class A of the second year, an international student. It was thanks to Ryuji-kun's help just now that I'm okay."
"An international student?"
Upon hearing Rei's introduction, Saya looked completely surprised.
She had thought that Ryuji was a senior who already knew Rei. If Rei hadn't introduced him, she would have almost called him "senpai".
"What's wrong with being an international student?" Seeing Saya's expression, Ryuji looked displeased.
What's wrong with being an international student!? Did I eat your family's rice!?
Faced with Ryuji's displeasure, Saya immediately crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, "Hmph, since you just helped Rei-chan, I'll allow you to call me Saya-san."
"Mm, mm, Saya-chan."
"You!"
Saya showed her little canine teeth as she looked at Ryuji, her entire being radiating tsundere vibes.
Seeing Saya put on the airs of a tsundere young lady bestowing favor as she interacted with Ryuji, Rei suddenly felt that her earlier vigilance had been unnecessary.
Although the Miyamoto family and the Takagi family had no particular connection, their mothers had an extremely good relationship, which led to the two of them playing together since childhood and eventually becoming close best friends.
Rei knew Saya's personality well—simply put, she was a rational tsundere.
Thinking of this, Rei felt relieved. There was no way Saya could get ahead of her.
Meanwhile, Hisashi and Takashi, who had been treated like background characters, suddenly felt a bit awkward. Watching the three chatting happily, both felt somewhat jealous, but since there were still some students nearby, they didn't have the guts to cause trouble and obediently left.
Ring ring ring ring!
The three of them didn't exchange contact information and part ways until the bell for the last class rang.
When exchanging phone numbers, Saya had a completely unwilling look on her face, but her hand movements holding the phone were not hesitant at all.
She was the very definition of saying one thing but doing another.
With a soft laugh, Ryuji walked through the hallway of the school building as if no one else was around.
As for attending class, Ryuji had no interest in sitting idle in a classroom for dozens of minutes.
The passing teachers each went to their respective classes to teach, and not one of them paid attention to Ryuji walking alone in the hallway.
That is, until he encountered a female teacher, and Ryuji was called out to.
"Student, which class are you in? Class has already started, why are you still in the hallway?"
Words tinged with reproach and severity came from behind him.
Ryuji turned around and immediately saw a female teacher wearing a conservative white Lolita uniform, with long dark brown hair and frameless glasses.
What surprised Ryuji was that although the female teacher's appearance didn't quite match up to the female leads like Saeko and Rei, it wasn't bad either. Especially with that stern temperament and mature figure that was only second to Shizuka—she was definitely a fully ripened mature woman.
Kyoko Hayashi was secretly surprised when she saw the male student's appearance.
After all, throughout the entire country, handsome guys weren't tall, and tall guys weren't handsome. Although there were some who were both handsome and tall, those were far too rare.
And the male student before her was the one with the best physique and appearance among all the males Kyoko Hayashi had ever seen, so her voice unconsciously became gentler.
"Student, it's class time now. You need to return to class."
Realizing that her tone was too gentle, Kyoko Hayashi's cheeks couldn't help but turn slightly red.
A touch of bashfulness is most alluring. Although the female teacher's looks didn't match the female leads, that mature temperament and shy demeanor like a young girl still made Ryuji's heart flutter a bit.
Ryuji immediately decided that when the apocalypse broke out tomorrow, he would definitely take this female teacher with him.
Ryuji nodded to the female teacher, randomly pulled open the back door of a classroom, and walked in under the surprised gazes of the teacher and students.
Seeing an empty seat in the back row by the window, Ryuji immediately went over and sat down.
The surrounding students looked completely bewildered.
"Who is this? I don't remember having this classmate in our class, and he's sitting in Tanaka-san's seat who's out sick?"
A girl with long black hair tied in braids and a pretty face looked at Ryuji by the window with confusion.
"I don't know either. Maybe he's a new transfer student? But he's really handsome."
Sitting next to the black-haired girl, a girl with short dark brown hair in a bun looked at Ryuji with an infatuated expression.
"Mizuki-san, I thought you and Tsugawa-san were a couple? How come you're interested in a guy?"
"Of course I love Toshimi the most, but that doesn't stop me from looking at handsome guys, right Toshimi?"
Called out by her female classmate, Misuzu immediately explained, then looked toward Toshimi who had spoken first, as if seeking approval.
"Y-yes…"
Seeing Misuzu's explanation and Toshimi, that female classmate still had some doubts.
Ryuji glanced at the chatting group and took quite a while to recognize the two.
"So it's the plastic best friends who only had one scene in the anime."
These two girls, although their appearances didn't match the female leads, were still beauties. Ryuji immediately counted them among the personnel for the world special mission.
Since he could find two suitable candidates just by randomly entering one classroom, what about the other classrooms?
Ryuji immediately planned to take a look at every classroom.
"I hope this school alone can satisfy the number of people needed for the world special mission."
Of course, among the personnel for this world special mission, there would absolutely not be anyone other than females.
Ryuji then stood up and left the classroom under the once again surprised gazes of the teacher and students.
…
"Shizuka, Saeko, Rei, Saya, Kyoko Hayashi (the female teacher from before, who is also a dean of students, learned from the staff display board), Misuzu, Toshimi…"
After wandering around the school building, activity rooms with students in class, and the playground, Ryuji discovered that aside from the personal individuals he must take, there were only about ten suitable personnel, still seventy-some people short of the hundred needed for the world special mission.
The number was a bit low. After all, Fujimi Academy was the top private high school in this city of Bed-master City; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many children of the powerful and wealthy attending here.
As for Takashi, Hisashi, and Kohta Hirano, although rescuing them and ensuring they survived seven days safely would earn 1,500 reincarnation points, Ryuji had no intention of taking this reward.
Ryuji planned to establish a shelter afterward, and aside from himself, would not allow any non-female creatures to join.
"This damned possessiveness of mine…"
Grumbling to himself, Ryuji leaned against the wall and began thinking about how to gather this group of beautiful girls tomorrow.
Although in the original story, the main characters gathered together without anyone being in danger, from his earlier interactions with Rei and the others, Ryuji could tell that the story didn't seem to be following the original plot.
Rei had become best friends with Saya, and instead treated Takashi and Hisashi as ordinary classmates.
Perhaps it was because Saya had been comforting her all along that Rei's fragile heart hadn't been won over by Hisashi's courtship.
Then, did that mean the childhood promise between Rei and Takashi also no longer existed?
"Whatever, I just need to do things my way."
Shaking off the thoughts in his mind, Ryuji continued thinking of a solution.
Suddenly, Ryuji remembered that just a few steps past the principal's office was the broadcasting room—he could use the broadcast system to have that group of beautiful girls report to the principal's office.
"The principal seems to be away these past few days, so that'll work."
If that didn't work out, Ryuji could still ask Saeko for help, having her go to the teachers and get them to call those beautiful girls to gather at the kendo club.
"It would be more reliable to get Saeko-senpai's help."
After all, Saeko had quite a reputation at this school, and with the fame of the Busujima Dojo, even the powerful and wealthy of this city would show her respect, let alone at the private Fujimi Academy where the elite were enrolled.
Although Saya was the young lady of the Takagi family and he could ask her for help, her reputation at school wasn't as great as Saeko's, and her family's influence wasn't as strong as the Busujima family, which was renowned throughout all of Japan—she might not be able to mobilize everyone.
Plus, their relationship wasn't close enough yet to go along with this kind of scheme, so Ryuji immediately dismissed the idea of asking Saya for help.
If Saya knew that Ryuji thought their relationship wasn't that good, she'd probably puff out her cheeks and stomp her feet in anger.
In Saya's phone, there were only her mother's number, her home number, and Rei's number. Among males whose numbers she'd saved, Ryuji was the only one.
As for Saya's father, she'd barely seen him since she could remember, and had long stopped regarding that man as a father.
Saya sat blankly by the window in the classroom, Ryuji's face appearing in her mind from time to time, her thoughts drifting.
As for listening to the lesson, being a genius, she had long since memorized all the textbooks for the three years of high school. Coming to class was merely a requirement from her family.
In a corner of the classroom, a short, chubby, ugly guy with glasses secretly observed Saya, thinking to himself, 'If only I could become Takagi-san's boyfriend, how wonderful that would be.'
Yet he had no idea that the object of his secret crush was spacing out while thinking about the international student she'd just met today.
…
Ryuji checked the time and found it was only 2:30 in the afternoon—still half an hour until school let out.
"Where should I go for the next half hour?"
"I wonder if Saeko-senpai is still at the kendo club."
Arriving at the kendo club, he found Saeko was still inside.
However, at this moment, Saeko had switched back to her own wooden sword and was swinging it in place.
"Looks like she's digesting the earlier match. I'd better not disturb her."
Once Saeko finished absorbing the experience, her fifth-dan kendo level would definitely advance a stage, possibly even reaching seventh dan.
Ryuji's arrival made no sound, and even after Ryuji left, Saeko hadn't noticed.
Since there was nowhere to kill time, Ryuji decided to leave the school.
Going through the main gate now would definitely get him stopped, so Ryuji chose to climb over the wall instead.
The two-meter-high iron fence couldn't stop Ryuji at all—he leaped over it lightly.
After landing, Ryuji realized that Fujimi Academy was built on a hilltop.
From here to the city center, though the straight-line distance was only one kilometer, the road down the mountain would take three to four kilometers.
However, with Ryuji's current speed and stamina, it would only take a few minutes.
Passing by a convenience store, Ryuji suddenly remembered the most important thing for the apocalypse—food.
Turning his head to look at the convenience store that had been neglected for so long, Ryuji slowly walked over.