Tokyo: Oreimo

Chapter 29 School Opening Test (Thanks to readers "Rebellious Gwen" and "Number Ending 6733" for their monthly votes)

The winter break came to an end amidst Ling Nai's wailing.

A week has passed since the monthly bonus.

Ryosuke spends his days working on the NAME of "Cardcaptor Sakura" and his evenings tutoring his younger sister.

Life was fulfilling, and time flew by quite quickly.

Before we knew it, the day of the start of school had arrived.

January 6, Sunday, sunny.

The Gao siblings left home one after the other and went to school to fulfill their respective 'jobs'.

Ryosuke strolled along the street in front of Chiba First High School.

As the best key high school in the county, it has a location and environment that match its positioning, with two neat rows of sycamore trees planted on both sides of the school gate.

It is the time of transition between winter and spring, with bare branches sprouting new buds, creating a pleasant scene.

Upon entering the classroom, most students were chatting with their peers, exchanging interesting stories and experiences from their winter break.

Ryosuke sat down at the end of the row by the window, hung his backpack on the back of the seat, and looked at the seats in front of him, which were still empty.

"Oh my, it's been a long time, Takashiro."

The person speaking was his seatmate, named Kimura Akihiko, a dark-skinned boy who was a member of the school basketball team and had an outgoing and active personality.

"haven't seen you for a long time."

Ryosuke politely replied. Their relationship wasn't particularly close, but it wasn't bad either; they were the type to greet each other when walking down the street.

"You're still as cold as ever."

Kimura said with a grin.

Ryosuke smiled, not taking the other person's teasing to heart.

Although his physical age remains that of a high school student, his memory makes him feel out of place among his peers at school.

The dark-skinned boy chatted with Ryosuke for a few more minutes before ending the conversation when the school bell rang.

The homeroom teacher walked into the classroom, and the atmosphere inside immediately quieted down.

The elderly man, over forty years old and wearing thick glasses, placed a thick stack of papers on the podium.

"Everyone, the holiday is over. We will now begin the pre-school test."

.....

Takashiro Ryou sat at her desk as the exam papers were passed down from the front row, feeling a little nervous.

"What? There's a test on the first day of school?"

She was completely unprepared for this.

Ruri Aragaki sat in the back seat, smiling as she watched her sisters pass down the exam papers with pleading looks in their eyes.

"Isn't this obvious? There are only six months left before you have to go to high school, so Ling Nai needs to work hard!"

"Didn't your elder brother mentor you? Now is the perfect time to put your skills to the test!"

"Damn it, I don't even know if it will work. The questions that guy gave me were so hard, and he always said I was stupid."

Recalling the tutoring session she had last week, Takashiro Ryou felt utterly miserable.

Compared to the initial stage, the difficulty of the questions in the new stage has increased significantly, and she could barely finish the questions in two hours.

The result was riddled with errors, earning him a sharp taunt from Ryosuke.

Unfortunately, she couldn't refute it and could only endure it.

The test began, and Ruri Aragaki stopped talking to her, so Ayano could only focus her attention on the test paper.

"Huh?"

The girl covered her mouth in disbelief.

what happened?

Originally, this kind of pre-school test was quite difficult for her, but now that she actually looked at the questions on the test paper, they seemed very familiar.

"I think I can do it?"

Time ticked by, and Takashiro Ryouno's pen moved swiftly across the paper.

The girl let out a long sigh of relief as the handwriting filled the entire exam paper, feeling a sense of exhilaration.

"Easy!"

Takashiro Ryouno looked at the exam paper and smiled confidently.

What? Is that all?

It's much simpler than the two-stage problem that guy provided!

"Gao Cheng, you didn't slack off during the holiday, did you? Did you catch up on your studies?"

A low voice suddenly came from beside me.

Ling Nai turned her head and saw that her homeroom teacher had been standing next to her at some point.

"I suppose so."

She nodded hesitantly.

Ryosuke's tutoring, which lasts two hours a day, can be considered a form of make-up class.

The homeroom teacher smiled with satisfaction and walked back to the podium.

Takashiro Ryono was checking the correctness of the questions until the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class.

Because during the first phase of tutoring by Ryosuke, I would make mistakes on questions due to carelessness for several days, and he would provoke and criticize me, which led to this habit.

"How did the exam go, Ling Nai?"

During break, Ruri Aragaki struck up a conversation.

"It should be pretty good."

"Really?"

A confident look appeared on Ling Nai's face.

"I checked it from beginning to end. The questions for this preschool test were quite simple, so there's absolutely no problem!"

A puzzled expression appeared on Ruri Aragaki's face.

Simple? Not really.

She has always been among the top students in her class and has a keen sensitivity to the difficulty level of exam questions.

The difficulty level of this preschool test was moderate, but it was by no means easy.

Did my older brother's academic tutoring work?

Is there really that much progress in just over ten days of vacation?

If that's the case, Ling Nai might actually be able to get into Chiba First High School?

Ruri Aragaki thought to herself.

She wanted to ask more questions and compare the answers with her sisters, but Ling Nai interrupted her.

"Oh, let's not talk about the exam anymore."

Takashiro Ryouno quickly snapped out of the testing atmosphere and began chatting enthusiastically about girlish gossip.

...

The results of the pre-school test were distributed before school ended.

Ryosuke unsurprisingly got a perfect score and stuffed the test paper into his bag, along with the Cardcaptor Sakura NAME notebook.

High school courses were relatively easy for him; he had already self-studied a significant portion of them and could manage to multitask in class.

When he returned home from school, Takashiro Isao had already come home from get off work and was chatting with his mother, Mieko, looking extremely happy.

He was holding a test paper in his hand, on which two red numbers were clearly written—92.

"Ryosuke is back."

Before he could even say hello, Takashiro Isao waved to him and pointed to the exam paper, expressing his gratitude.

"This is the first time Ling Nai has achieved such good results. It must be because of your tutoring. We really owe you a lot."

The old father praised Ryosuke extensively for this.

His mother, Mieko, winked at him, her eyes filled with undisguised smugness.

Ryosuke took Ayano's test paper from Takashiro Isao's hand, skimmed through the questions, and put the paper back on the table.

"This is what I should do. I promised my father, didn't I?"

"I didn't expect it to work so quickly. I'll have to entrust Ling Naike to you now."

Takashiro Isao was overjoyed, feeling much more energetic than before.

The joy of a daughter who is a poor student suddenly bringing home such a high score on a test can only be understood by a true father.

Ryosuke smiled, said a few more modest words, and returned to his room.

As she opened the door, she happened to run into Takashiro Ryouno, who had changed into casual clothes, coming out of the room.

The girl stood tall and proud in the aisle, her posture like that of a cat with its tail held high, so proud she seemed to have lost her bearings.

Ryosuke ignored her and went back to his room.

"What? Don't you have anything to say to me?"

Takashiro Ryou followed closely behind and barged into his room.

Ryosuke gave her a strange look.

"Is there a problem?"