Chapter 37: Atomic Clone
The snow kept falling, coating Sakura High’s courtyard in a blanket of white that looked way too peaceful for what was about to go down inside. It was exam season. Students shuffled through the gates like zombies heading to their doom, their breath forming little clouds in the cold air as they muttered prayers to whatever gods might be listening.
Haruto kicked at a clump of snow on his way to the main building, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. The guy looked like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world – maybe on a beach in Okinawa, or locked in his room playing video games, hell, even cleaning toilets would probably seem more appealing right now. Behind him, Jun was practically bouncing with nervous energy, clutching his pencil case like it was some kind of holy relic.
"Dude, I’m so screwed," Jun whispered as they climbed the stairs to their classroom. "I barely studied for math. I spent all night trying to cram formulas into my brain, but it’s like trying to pour water into a bucket with holes in it."
Haruto just grunted in response. The thing about Haruto was that he wasn’t actually stupid – far from it. The guy had this weird natural ability to understand complex stuff when he actually bothered to pay attention. Problem was, he never bothered. While other students were burning the midnight oil, reviewing notes and solving practice problems, Haruto was usually sprawled on his bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about everything except schoolwork.
It wasn’t that he didn’t care about his future or anything dramatic like that. It was more like... why stress about something that felt so artificial? All these tests and grades and rankings – it felt like playing someone else’s game by someone else’s rules. Haruto had always been the type to march to his own beat, even if that beat was completely out of sync with what everyone expected from a high school student.
They pushed through the classroom door and the atmosphere hit them like a wall. Everyone was hunched over their desks, frantically flipping through notes or staring blankly at textbooks with the thousand-yard stare of soldiers who’d seen too much combat. The room smelled like stress sweat and desperation, with just a hint of the cherry blossom air freshener someone had probably sprayed to try and make the place feel less like a torture chamber.
Haruto slumped into his seat by the window and immediately started gazing out at the falling snow. Each flake seemed to drift down with perfect purpose, following some invisible pattern that probably made more sense than anything they were about to be tested on. Jun sat down next to him, still clutching that pencil case, and started arranging his supplies with the precision of a surgeon preparing for a critical operation.
"Five minutes until exam time," their homeroom teacher announced, and the collective groan from the class sounded like air being let out of a balloon. "Remember, no talking, no phones, no cheating. You have two hours to complete the mathematics examination."
Mathematics. Of course it had to be math. Haruto actually didn’t mind math when he thought about it philosophically – there was something pure about numbers, something honest. Numbers didn’t lie or pretend to be something they weren’t. But the way they taught math in school, all those rigid formulas and step-by-step procedures, it felt like they were sucking all the life out of something that should be beautiful.
The test papers landed on his desk with a soft thud, and Haruto flipped it over with all the enthusiasm of someone opening a bill from the tax office. The first problem stared back at him: