It's a matter of principle

It's a matter of principle

A small provincial school for boys with the picturesque name "Funbari" was never much different from all the usual high schools. The only thing this educational institution could boast of was its unusual profile. The school specialized in e-sports, although only ten years ago it trained Olympic champions in athletic all-around. Probably, it was because of the rare main discipline that students from all over the world flocked here. In just one class, where the famous overgrown Rio studied, whose dream was to get a hundred points in all subjects on the certificate, a considerable number of guys from distant countries gathered. Trey Usui, also Horo-Horo for friends or Horror for all other passers-by. This guy came from distant Antarctica to improve his skills in playing first-person shooters. Lyserg Dietel. An Englishman with excellent manners, a British accent and aristocratic features. He was a professional gamer who had won two awards in the team battle in real-time strategies. Johann Faust VIII. German by origin. He loved computer games since childhood. He played day and night without going outside, which is why he had a pale complexion, dark circles under his eyes due to overwork and hidden aggression towards others. Just like Trey, he preferred shooters, but in the horror genre. And the Chinese Ren Tao. The heir to a noble and very rich family. It was still unclear what this "almost prince" forgot in a provincial Japanese school. He was not interested in video games and e-Sports in general. Although his family was one of the main sponsors of international competitions. Ren transferred to Funbari three months before graduation. He rarely attended classes, since at the tender age of seventeen he was already a successful businessman and future head of a conglomerate controlled by his family. There were plenty of exchange students here, which made school life bright and very diverse. “Excellent essay, Ren,” the Japanese literature teacher and part-time class teacher Amidamaru-sensei addressed the Chinese student, holding a thick, stitched document in his hands. “I really liked the style in which you described the essence of your work.” “Thank you, sensei.” In fact, it was almost impossible to get praise from the literature teacher. All the other students in the class looked at Ren with an indescribable bouquet of emotions on their faces: some with admiration, and some with undisguised envy. Sensei rubbed his chin thoughtfully, running his eyes over the last pages of the essay. “The only thing is, I couldn’t make out the code on the last two pages. I racked my brains all night over what was written here.” Tao looked at the teacher in confusion, completely at a loss as to what code he was talking about. “I didn’t write any codes in my paper, sensei,” he admitted. “ The topic was “The Problem of Searching for Truth, Conflict and Its Peculiarities in Works of Japanese Literature.” The man looked at the foreign student in surprise, in whom he saw enormous potential. The guy was a straight-A student and had a very sharp mind. “Then, please explain what is written here?” With these words, sensei put an extended paper on the desk, where on the last few pages there was some kind of incomprehensible writing: some symbols and numbers mixed with hieroglyphs and Latin letters. Tao was speechless for a second from cultural shock. He definitely didn’t write such nonsense in his paper. How did this “code” even end up here?! But Ren Tao wouldn't be Ren Tao if his mind hadn't analyzed the situation in a flash and found the source of the problem. The next second, lightning bolts shot from the Chinese guy’s golden eyes at Yoh Asakura, who was sitting nearby. The half-asleep Yoh even straightened up from the terrible feeling. He looked around and came across the hot lava in his classmate's eyes. For some reason, Yoh immediately understood why they were so angry with him. He smiled amiably, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. “Ren, I'm sorry, I lost the charger for my headphones that day.” The classroom became so quiet that you could hear a fly buzzing in the neighboring classroom. And also, like the lava in Tao's eyes was starting to boil. Asakura shuddered at the sight of such a terrible look. He had to tell how it all happened. Ren and Yoh shared a room in the dorm. When Ren finished typing his paper, he saved the file, prepared everything for printing, and took a ten-minute break. He left the computer on when he left the room. At that time, Yoh, who was lying on his bed with his headphones on, suddenly lost his battery, and his listening to his favorite music was over. He reached put for the charger that usually lay on his desk, but it was not there. Hoping to find a source of energy for his headphones, Asakura began rummaging through the nightstand. Finding nothing, he continued searching on Ren's desk. Resting his hand on the keyboard, Yoh carefully looked for a wire on the tabletop. Then he decided to look in the drawers in his classmate's nightstand. Supporting his body with his hand, which had been resting on the keyboard the entire time, Yoh accidentally hit the corner and almost fell. It was good that he had managed to grab the keyboard, and it was good that Ren had a wired one. But during the fall, Asakura managed to notice the tip of the charger lying behind the table. He stretched across the entire tabletop to get the desired cable, almost leaning his entire body on the unfortunate keyboard. When the goal was achieved, and the charger was finally in his hands, Yoh noticed the question "Save changes to the document?" on the monitor. Thinking that Ren must have not made a save before leaving, Yoh kindly saved the changes to the text file and happily headed to his bed, where, having connected the headphones to the power source, he continued listening to his favorite music. Ren returned a minute later and set the file to print. After listening to all this, Tao clenched his jaw in irritation. “ I was wondering why the essay looked longer than planned.” “Sorry, sorry!” Yoh folded his palms in front of him in a pleading pose. “I didn't mean to. By the way, I accidentally broke your charger too. I stepped on it when I got out of bed.” “Asakura! Who even gave you permission to take my things without asking?!” the Chinese aristocrat roared, clearly intending to shake all the nonsense out of his classmate. “Okay, guys, calm down,” the teacher intervened, gesturing for Tao to sit down. “This whole story is, of course, very funny at first glance, but Yoh,” the man approached the music lover's desk and looked sternly at him, “ I didn't sleep all night because of your antics. I thought the paper had a continuation in the form of a hidden message. And this nonsense was your doing!” “ Sorry, sorry!” Asakura began to bow. “ Apologies won't help here,” the sensei stated. “ You'll have to write three papers on the assigned topics.” “ Sensei-e-e-e!” rivers of tears flowed from the eyes of the unfortunate student. “And you'll also buy me a new charger,” Tao added ominously. “You can buy it yourself, Ren. You're rich,” Asakura groaned doomedly. Tao only grinned meaningfully, and somehow even majestically, crossed his arms on his chest, flashing a bright gleam of golden eyes at his classmate. “It's a matter of principle.”