Chapter 2 : Two Teachers; A Special Exam of Destiny

THE NEXT MORNING, I was assigned to be the manager of a maid café.

As Chabashira-sensei entered the room, the students immediately noticed something was off when they saw her face.

This time, however, the word "special exam" probably didn't come to mind first. The main reason for this is that they probably thought that the next exam would be the sports festival. And then, after that, the culture festival.

"Before the sports festival in October, you will have to undergo a new special exam."

The students were a little upset. This time last year, everybody was already preparing for the sports festival, and there were no other special exams, but this year is different.

"I've just got through the gruelling deserted island exam and now I've got to take another special exam..."

As is becoming the norm, Ike's frustration leaking out was the first thing that could be heard. For Ike, who had overcome the fear of being expelled from the school to go out with Shinohara Satsuki, it must be a daunting prospect. No matter how well you get to know each other or how close you become, as a result of special examinations, sudden expulsions could happen. Students with low overall OAA performances are undoubtedly at particular risk of this.

"What the hell guys. We'll just have to get through a few extra exams before we get to the sports festival." Sudō, who has absolute confidence in his athleticism, pumps his fist.

"Please don't get carried away Sudō-kun."

"Oh." Immediately, Horikita's warning made Sudō a little sullen, and he fell silent.

What a good master-servant relationship development- I mean, friendship.

"If we're being honest, there are few cases of special exams at this time of year. In fact, there is no special exam for the first-year or third-year students."

"Does that mean that only us second years will have to face a special exam before the sports festival?" Satō asked, leaning back in her chair.

Chabashira-sensei nodded with no objection.

"The school is giving you the recognition you deserve; you second years have performed very well."

"Isn't that strange? You're giving us a special exam because you've evaluated us positively?"

"It's true that special exams come with risks that you need to be wary of. Some students may lose class points, private points, or even be expelled.

However, on the other hand, they also provide you many opportunities to live a more fulfilling school life. The more special exams you undergo, the more chances you have of being promoted to Class A, which we believe is the most important thing."

It's true that it's extremely difficult to earn class points in your everyday life. If anything, the period when special exams are not being held is a time where class points can only be lowered. Whether it be the deserted island exam or something else, it is only when special exams are held that we get the chance to move up to a higher class.

"Happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin. So the risk is the benefit, right?"

Horikita, who listened from beside Chabashira-sensei, calmly accepted the situation.

"That's how it is."

"There's nothing to be afraid of. We're definitely closing in on Class A now. We've got a chance to escape from the three-way battle for Class B, which is currently underway."

The more opportunities you have, the better. That's a sentiment we all share when it comes to moving up.

"That's true... And complaining isn't going to stop the special exams."

Horikita's words were met with approval by Satō and the rest of the class.

Although still incomplete, Horikita's growth as a pillar of support has certainly had a positive influence on her classmates. Inwardly, I think Chabashira-sensei is also happy, but she doesn't show it on her face. She's never been one to show her sweet side, but this time I feel like she is showing it more than ever.

"You'll be taking part in what's known as the 'Unanimous Voting Exam'."

The monitors light up and the explanation begins with customary visuals.

"This special exam is very simple. As such, I will be taking questions from you if you have any concerns at any time. The special exam will be held tomorrow, and as you can probably guess from the name, it will consist of a series of multiple-choice votes which you will have to repeat as a class until you reach a unanimous decision."

"Tomorrow? That's quite sudden."

There was no time to prepare. Of course, there is no advantage or disadvantage, as every class shares equal conditions, but Class C, which had just started to settle down, began to buzz again.

"As I said before, this test is simple. There is no need to spend a lot of time discussing it beforehand, so the school sees no problem in doing it tomorrow."

Repeat the vote in class until it is unanimous.

With that alone, there certainly didn't appear to be any complexity in it.

"So you're saying that we aren't competing against another class this time?"

More importantly, Yōsuke immediately asked for clarification on this point.

"Yes. You will not be competing against students from other classes, as this is a special exam that will only be conducted within each class. On the day of the exam, the school will give you five questions to complete. The questions are the same for all classes, so there is no imbalance."

This is not surprising, as the difficulty level would vary from class to class if the questions varied.

"I'll get right to it and provide you with an example to help you understand."

[Example:]

You lose 5 class points, but all your classmates gain 10,000 private points.

You can vote for or against.

The question was displayed on the monitor. The content was simple and straightforward, as advertised.

"Hmm? What's this? Well... we'll lose 5 class points, but gain 10,000

private points instead... What kind of question is this? Is it a gain? Is it a loss?"

Shinohara said aloud, folding her fingers and trying to calculate the gain and loss in her head.

It wasn't surprising that a number of unexpected questions came up.

Even if it was just an example, I was expecting more of a choice. Each class point equates to 100 private points. That means that the value of 5 class points is 500 private points. At first glance, the 10,000 private points are by far more valuable.

However, the class points themselves will continue to have value. In one month, 5 class points are only worth 500 private points, but over the course of a year, just 5 class points become 6,000 private points. If we consider the time remaining until graduation, there will be 18 months where we receive private points between October of the second year and March of the third year. This means that 5 class points can be thought of as 9000

private points.

You can either gain 10,000 private points immediately, or you can gradually earn them until graduation and gain a total of 9,000 private points.

The former is slightly more profitable in terms of private points alone.

But it's not that simple.

If we chose to lose five class points here, and missed out on Class A at the end of the race by that margin, we would have made the worst possible choice here, and would look back on it that way.

Of course, the odds of five points being the difference between Class A and Class B are slim-to-none, so it may well be that it is better to take the 10,000 private points.

In the end, there are advantages and disadvantages no matter which perspective you take.

"In response to this question, thirty-nine people will vote from the options presented to them in full anonymity. A hundred questions are as good as one answer, so let's give it a go. I know many of you have questions, but I want you to try it out without any discussion. You can vote for or against from your tablets."

The tablet screens of the students in the class, including mine, are switched by Chabashira-sensei.

The tablet presented the contents of the question, and I could select either for or against. It was the most unusual special exam we've had. I decided to give it some serious thought.

Private points have no direct effect on class points. If you vote for, all your classmates will get 10,000 points, which is a straightforward bonus.

However, by doing so, you lose 5 class points, and while it's only 5, points are points.

In this case, we need to consider how we think in terms of human nature.

It's not a question of whether it is better to gain 10,000 private points or to preserve 5 class points, but the other way around. It is a question of which choice will save you from regret.

I decided to vote 'for' and see what the result would be, because I didn't think it was a good idea to have the vote be unanimous the first time.

Soon after, the vote was complete, and Chabashira-sensei looked up from her tablet.

"Okay, now that everyone has voted, I'd like to display the results as soon as possible."

With that said, the result was displayed on the monitor.

• [Results of the first round of voting:]

3 in favour, 36 opposed.

I knew that there would be more opposition, but it was by a greater margin than I had imagined.

"Oh, what? You'll get more for 10,000 private points than you'll get for 5 class points, right? Did I do the math wrong? Why is it so much the other way around?"

Ike, who seemed to have voted in favour of the proposal, looked around at his classmates and asked curiously.

"It's true that the 10,000 private points are more valuable than the 5

class points. However, class points are essential to achieve Class A. If the difference is only 1,000 points, why bother to reduce your precious class points?"

Here is a theoretical explanation of why Horikita, who seems to have voted against it.

"In the unlikely event that a difference of five class points makes the difference between winning and losing, you wouldn't be able to stop regretting it."

Like me, many students are worried about the "just in case" risk. It is also important to remember that three other classes will be taking on the same challenge. If the three classes are unanimous in their choice of class points, this class will be the only one to take a step backwards. Of course, it would be a different story if we could make use of the 10,000 private points we would have gained.

"Each of you has your own opinion, but let's hear it. There are 36 votes against, which is a huge margin, but it's not unanimous, so we'll have to do this again. In the actual exam, there will be a fixed 10-minute interval before the next vote. During this interval, you will be allowed to talk freely, as you are now, and sometimes leave your seats and exchange views, but for now we will skip this. Let the voting begin again."

The aim of this test is to make the vote unanimous.

If the vote is not unanimous, it is invalid, and a 10-minute interval is enforced.

Even if we could reach a consensus quickly, we would lose a lot of time.

Due to the way this special exam was structured, it was safe to assume that there will probably be a time limit.

If the disagreement continues, there would be a possibility that the time runs out…

So, for the second round, the only thing to do is to vote against it, without even thinking about it.

If you pitch against it, you can bring it to unanimity.

That's why I decided to vote "yes" for the second time.

I thought that this would give my classmates a better understanding of this special exam.

• [Result of the second round of voting:]

2 in favour, 37 opposed.

"Oh, hey, hey, hey, who's still voting yes after what you just said?"

"I'm sorry, it's me, Sudō-kun. I tried to avoid being unanimous. It seems that there is someone else who had the same idea as me, but..."

She didn't look at me, but I think she was referring to me.

"This is the result of the second vote. The vote was almost completely against, but there were still two votes in favour. In this case, there will be a further interval of 10 minutes before voting resumes. The test is to reach a final unanimous vote of 39 in favour or 39 against. Of course, whatever is chosen in this way will actually be adopted. In this case, if the vote is 39 in favour, you will all receive 10,000 private points, but you will lose 5 class points. On the other hand, if 39 votes are cast against the proposal, the proposal becomes invalid and has no effect whatsoever."

This means that the challenge will end without anyone gaining or losing any points.

"It's not unanimous, but to save time we'll move on to the next example."

[Example:]

1 million private points to one person in the class. (In the event of a unanimous vote in favour, the pupil who will be awarded points will be voted on.)

You can vote for or against.

"You may think it's an example, but in the real exam, we forbid private conversations before the first vote. In other words, you have to genuinely face the question and vote first."

So it's not until before the second vote that we discuss what we thought about the question.

• [Results of the first round of voting:]

39 in favour, 0 opposed.

The obvious result is displayed: even if only one of the 39 students gets private points, there is almost no reason to choose the latter. Even if you are disappointed that you don't get them, it will be difficult to achieve unanimity in opposition.

"If the question is to select a particular individual, the first step is the same as in the first example: to get a unanimous vote in favour or against. If the vote is unanimously against, the question ends, but if the vote is unanimous in favour, the question does not end, but goes one step further.

After an interval, you will be asked to discuss who you would nominate. The tablet will show the names of all your classmates except yourself."

The screen on the tablet was forced to switch and, sure enough, all names other than my own were laid out.

However, it is not in alphabetical order, but in an irregular order, with a mixture of boys and girls.

"To ensure anonymity, the position of each student's name will be changed each time a vote is taken. This is also the case for options such as

yes or no, which are also randomly changed. This is to prevent people from spying on the students next to them and guessing which one they voted for from the position of where their finger tapped the screen."

She continued to explain the rules further, telling us that it will be impossible to know what other people have voted for.

"Once the discussion is underway, each student can vote at their own pace, simply by tapping on the student they wish to nominate. At the end of the 10 minutes, the student who has received the majority of the votes will be considered as the 'specific student'. Suppose Ike is chosen by a majority of votes."

"Oh, it's me? Yes!"

"The right to vote is temporarily removed from Ike, the person in question, and the vote is cast by the other 38 people."

A majority of students is naturally close to unanimous. I suppose that's how recommendations work.

A new round of voting on questions that go one step further began, and we cast our votes.

[Example:]

Ike Kanji is awarded 1 million private points.

You can vote for or against.

• [Results of the 2nd round of voting:]

0 in favour, 38 opposed.

"What? Wait, why hasn't anyone voted in favour of this!"

"No ones gonna give you a million private points." Sudō spoke for all of us in the class when he said what we must all be thinking.

"In the event of a unanimous vote against awarding the points to Ike, it will be passed that "no points will be awarded to Ike", but that only removes Ike from the list of options and leaves the one million points up in the air. So, from the remaining 38 students, we will select another student to continue the question. However, if they are unable to reach a unanimous decision on who

to award the points to before time runs out, the test will fail. Furthermore, please note that the one million points will not be awarded to anyone."

"What? Does that mean my chances of getting them are now zero?"

"That's the way it is. You wouldn't have been removed from the list if there had been even one vote in favour, though. We also invite candidates to stand. If they do so during the interval, they will be accepted as the 'specific student' on a first come, first served basis. However, only one candidate will be allowed per question."

"So what happens if we don't get a majority of nomination votes for a particular student in 10 minutes, or if there are no candidates? I'm sure those cases could be considered."

"In that case, they will be randomly selected from within the class."

They don't wait for time or an question , they seem to force someone to start the voting.

"When it comes to choosing an individual, I think you might be wasting your time."

That's right. It's like having more options for the number of people in your class. However, I don't think it will be easy to decide on a randomly selected student.

"Let's all keep our heads up. This special exam may turn out to be harder than we thought..."

Not all issues can be solved by talking about them.

There is a good chance that we will be forced to make choices that will never be able to be compromised on.

No, otherwise it would have no meaning as a special examination.

"I'll give you one more example at the end. This time, we'll have you do it in a real-life format to its completion."

[Example:]

It has been decided to build an additional facility in the Keyaki Mall. Which of the following would you prefer?

- Restaurants

- General shops

- Recreational facilities

- Medical facilities

In contrast to the previous examples, this time the poll consists of four options rather than for or against.

I thought it was just a yes or no vote, but apparently that's not the case.

It seems that the choices made here will actually be implemented, but if this were not an example, would it really mean that the facility will be built?

"When a question is passed in favour, etc., its content is actually approved. However, there is a special way of doing this for questions that affect the whole school. In such a case, the unanimous choice is simply the one chosen by the class. If this class is unanimous on the restaurant option, but the other three classes are unanimous on the entertainment option, then the additional entertainment option with three votes will be chosen."

The meaning of what Chabashira-sensei was saying was probably clear to all. There are two types of questions: those that take immediate effect and those that are presented as a class vote. Either way, it will have to be carefully discussed and unanimously agreed upon.

Private conversations are not allowed before the first vote, so choose your options intuitively

• [Results of the first round of voting:]

• 20 for restaurants.

• 4 for general shops.

• 15 for recreational facilities.

• 0 for medical facilities.

"As it was not unanimous, we will have a 10-minute interval."

This is where the interval comes in for the first time.

A ten-minute countdown began on the monitor behind the podium.

This will continue until the time runs out and the next voting time is enforced.

Students are free to leave their seats and formulate their arguments as they wish, whether they speak out loud or whisper to someone in particular. I observed and waited to see what happens. Ten minutes passed without anyone giving any particular instructions, just chatting away as they pleased.

"Just before the end of the interval, you will be asked to return to your seat and prepare to vote. You will be given a maximum of 60 seconds to vote.

If everyone votes quickly, we will move on to announcing the results without waiting for the time limit."

Unlike the compulsory 10-minute interval, it seems that the voting time can be shortened with some ingenuity.

"Students who do not complete their vote within 60 seconds will be penalised with an overtime penalty. Any student who allows 90 seconds overtime in total to elapse before completing the five questions will be expelled."

This is the school's way of making sure that students vote. If there is a student who refuses to vote, they will be forced to leave the school.

Even if you delayed every time you voted, you would lose valuable time if you didn't finish your vote within 58 or 59 seconds, so it is unlikely that any student would bother to do so.

The second round of voting took place, and the results were displayed.

• [Results of the second round of voting:]

• 23 for restaurants

• 2 for grocery shops

• 14 votes for entertainment facilities

• 0 votes for medical facilities

As there was no talk of a consensus of opinion, the result was the same as the first one.

Unless it's an obvious decision, it's not easy to bring it to unanimity on the first vote.

And it is not so difficult to get 39 votes for a particular option once we have reached a consensus.

But that's only if the questions are all as we expect.

Depending on the content, there will be some things that will require considerable discussion.

"This concludes the example, but you get the gist. In order to pass this special test, you must unanimously complete five questions within five hours.

If you fail to complete all of the questions in the five hours, you will be penalised very heavily. The penalty loss is 300 class points."

"Three hundred?!"

So it's a special exam that is an absolute necessity to clear.

"But if you can finish it in time, you get 50 class points."

The rewards and penalties seem unbalanced, but they are reasonable when you consider the difficulty of the test.

"There's no need to panic. We don't have to fight with anyone this time, we just have to be united in our views. We can re-run the vote as many times as time permits, with an interval in between."

"You can now see roughly the outline of this special exam. You will see a summary of the rules. Those of you who feel the need to save it may take a screenshot to use as reference."

[Overview of the Unanimous Voting exam]

[Rules explanation]

• All classmates have to vote on a set of options in response to a question posed by the school.

(There are a total of five questions with a maximum of four options.)

• Unless one of the choices is unanimous, the same question will be repeated.

• If you run out of time in the middle of a question, it will not be approved at all, regardless of the progress of the question.

• Unanimously approved proposals are actually adopted, regardless of whether the class passes or fails the special examination.

• Earn 50 class points for completing all questions.

• If you do not complete all questions within 5 hours you will lose 300

class points.

[Special examination process]

• You will be presented with a challenge and you will cast your first vote (within 60 seconds).

• If there is unanimous agreement, move on to the next question (1). If it is not unanimous, go to (3).

• 10-minute interval, during which time students are free to move about and discuss within the classroom.

• 60 seconds voting time (you can't discuss, only vote.) (Students who do not complete their vote within 60 seconds will receive an overtime penalty.)

(If the accumulated penalty exceeds 90 seconds, the student will be expelled.)

• If the results are unanimous, proceed to the next question and go to (1).

If unanimous agreement is not reached, return to (3).

Repeat the process, and when you have completed the five questions, the special test will be completed. If you fail, you will be penalised. Losing 300 class points here could mean losing your ticket to Class A. This is not an exaggeration.

If the other three classes all clear the exam and we don't, that would open up a 350-point gap to the others.

We can talk about it as much as we like, but the main obstacle is that it is a completely anonymous vote in which it is impossible to know who voted for what.

You can vote in favour and still claim to have voted against.

"We teachers do not know what kind of questions will be asked of you.

Some of you may be optimistic, but I would advise you not to be complacent.

In addition, it is strictly forbidden to make any agreements with other students that bind them to vote for a particular option in this exam. It is also forbidden to exchange money with other students to bind them to a particular choice. This applies equally to your own class as it does to other classes."

So you're not allowed to force people to bind their choices?

They may be able to unite and consolidate their votes to a certain extent, but they can't create guarantees.

If there is a contract that says you can only vote for option 1, then there could be one person who has signed such a contract, and that could make the test dysfunctional.

That alone would make it possible to carry out vicious attacks against other classes.

"Thorough monitoring of the rules will be carried out by the school. If it is found that a third party outside the class has been involved and is able to continue to make unilateral choices, there will be no mercy and expulsion for anyone involved. Please be prepared for this. I also assure you that if anyone is approached about any wrongdoing, they should report it immediately to the school and we will do our best to resolve it."

If time runs out on the special exam, which is a prerequisite for clearing the exam, the school will undoubtedly carry out an investigation.

The mere mention of it would probably incur a heavy penalty, so even people like Ryūen would be unlikely to make any overt moves.

Until the start of the special examinations, it is advisable to refrain from getting involved with students from other classes.

"In addition, during this special examination, the effectiveness of protection points will be temporarily disabled. The reason for this is that it is impossible to have a fair exam if only one student is protected. If the holder of a protection point is expelled in any way, the protection point cannot be used to reverse the expulsion. However, the expulsion can be avoided if the individual or the class as a whole pays 20 million private points."

There is currently no sum of private points within this class that can do that. This means that students who are expelled are certain to be expelled.

Does this mean that protection points, which can nullify expulsion once, are sometimes restricted? If it were a special test against another class, the temporary invalidation of the protection points could lead to complaints.

In this case, however, it is an in-class issue. In that sense, it is not surprising that this special rule applies. It would be no wonder if he complained, but Kōenji didn't seem bothered by this.

"During the special examination, all communication devices such as mobile phones will be collected. This is because of the possibility of interference from external sources. In the unlikely event that you are found to be carrying a concealed device... well you can already assume what would happen."

Now that we knew that expulsion, among other various rules were involved, we started to form an idea of how this exam might go.