1 Professional Cheating Club

I'm just your everyday high school student, lonely, depressing, and unnoticeable but somehow I was able to attend the most privileged school in the entire world, Hosei Academy.

For the elite among the elite, this school is ranked number one in the heart of Tokyo for only producing prodigies that raise to be a superstar. The legendary basketball player Mitchell Johnson, a painter with mysterious arts Vang Goph and brutal boxing champion Michael Tye. How did I, a normal boy with a normal IQ pass the gruesome exams, trials, and studies; well by only one way. I cheated. By all means necessary, by any means necessary.

"Okay you have two hours to finish this exam ... you may start now!" When those words from Mr. Johnsen crossed the room, all the students put their heads down together scribbling their pens. No wasted movement in any of the actions from these examinees, each scratching their pages profusely in hopes of getting one of the top hundred spots in the year. Anyone who didn't reach the average of the top one hundred had a chance of being culled from this school. That was the cruel punishment delivered to anyone from Hosei Academy no matter how smart or intelligent you may be, it all ends up fruitless in the face of your competition.

There stood in the middle of the classroom stood one boy relaxed in his chair just rocking back and forth from it. It had been a whole twenty minutes into the exam and he still hadn't written anything just waiting for the right time to seize another person's answer. His name was Makoto Domo with medium lengthen black hair running over his ears and eyes.

His real persona, the appearance of a professional cheater arose when he slipped his glasses onto his face. This was the time where he would achieve his extraordinary ability to copy another student's answers.

In the reflection of his glasses, he glanced at a barely visible mirror that shone directly at another student's paper. Pulling out a little gadget from his bag, he extended a multi-pen device so he could write his answer at double speed using two pens at once. This was the survival mechanism that had been employed by Makoto to tread his way through the rigorous journey of high school. Cheating, copying, stealing, all his methods of deception to cover up his lack of academic ability.

The victim he was copying from was the one and only Jaz the 1st ranked individual out of any of the first year at Hosei. She had majestic black glistening hair in the night wrapped up in a nice ponytail.

"Damn it, why did I have to develop a crush on such a typical high school girl. She's way out of my league for me." Those were the thoughts that Makoto developed as he had been cheating off the work of this girl since the beginning of the year. Slowly he had fallen in love with her professional ways of being prepared for the next test ahead. Her title in the school was called the fortune-teller because for some reason she was able to foresee every topic that was going to be covered on the test no matter how minor.

Jaz Brett was always the first done so while Makoto couldn't finish copying her answers he could always get above a 60% in the test, and those results were good enough to survive in the top hundred. That's because these tests were brutally hard assessing levels at the university level for 14-year-olds.

"STOP WRITING! THAT'S ENOUGH TEST OVER." Multiple students groaned all at the same time across the classroom and some even grasped their heads in despair. Makoto had barely just finished half of the test from Jaz before the test was over and he sighed a breath of relief.

"Shit man, I'm gonna fail! This can't be, I really can't afford to fail right now. It's only the first year." Makoto just looked at all of these desperate people, begging for more time from the teacher to complete their work.

"Please, sir! you have to give me some more time. I can't do two hundred quadratic questions in two hours." One of the boys sitting next to Makoto was on his knees looking directly into his teacher's eyes tears running down his face as sobbed. Begging for any kind of forgiveness the boy could only resort to desperation.

*Sigh* The teacher went towards the kid's face before a "BAM!" he flung his foot right into the cheekbone of the boy launching him to adjacent chairs and tables adjacent to him.

"DON'T GIVE ME EXCUSES! YOU SHOULD HAVE STUDIED HARDER IF YOU WANTED TO PASS!"

Scoffing at the rubbish he just heard, the teacher just grabbed the rest of the test papers and headed out of the room. The boy just sat with a blank face and crying in the middle of the classroom as the bell for the end of school signalled and every student just passed him on the floor alone.

"I'm just gonna go home no point getting myself into trouble." Grabbing his bag in a rush he hustled out of the room only bumping into a desk

"Oh sorry," Makoto whispered.

There was Jaz, sitting there cheerfully gossiping with her friends but stopped to look at the boy as they both maintained eye contact with each other before Makoto just glanced away under the thick layer of hair over his eyes and headed out the classroom.

*Snicker* "What an interesting boy."

"Mom I'm home." Makoto took his shoes off the doorway as he started to head upstairs with his strap bag across his shoulder.

Hearing the boil of the kettle Makoto entered the humble little Golden Café shop, a little shack in a scheduled alleyway in the streets of Tokyo. It was a rundown shop with splinter potential all across the floor and also weak timber walls and floors that creaked at the slight of any human life.

This was the home where Makoto lived his entire life, this one café that acted as a place for his home and his mother's job. His family was poor, after being plunged into massive debt from his father; this had burdened his mother after his passing because of his unseeingly never-ending gambling addiction. That was where Makoto had developed his ease of cheating, not so many crimes but the ability of sleight of hand, that magicians possessed. He would maneuver across any debt collectors that would approach them, and slide into their pockets for money.

Luckily an offer to come to Hosei arisen and there came not just a scholarship but payments for family expenses as long as you maintained within the top one-hundred of the student. If a child was able to ever graduate from Hosei, there would arise a lifetime of security guaranteed. That was Makoto's goal, to graduate from Hosei by any means necessary, by all means necessary.

"Hi, Honey how was school today? Did you pass the test?" His mother was a single woman in her forty's with blonde but messy hair as she hadn't had a proper haircut in years. She had an apron on still serving some regular customers but had a giant smile plastered over her face.

"Yeah it was fine, it okay like usual. I'll come and help prepare some dinner when I come back down mom!" Makoto relaxed his grin giving something more genuine after acting like a nobody at school.

Now sitting at the dinner table, Makoto's mother was cooking up some nice coffee alongside a bowl of egg-fried rice, her signature dish. The dish looked fantastic as the heat radiated helped intensify a flavourful aroma as every rice grain seemed to be perfectly cooked. Makoto clasped his hand for thanks of the food and dug his mouth into

"At least you're always around the 80th out of all the students in the first year so that's great honey. Keep studying hard."

"Yeah, do not worry about it mom I will. It's no problem."

The two sat in silence for a little bit just proceeding to eat their rice amongst themselves.

"Um .... hey Makoto dear. Are you okay with going to that Hosei school? My customers have been telling me that the school has some deep dark secrets that no one knows about. How about you drop out and we can figure something else out?"

"No I want to go, mom. I promise anyways that I will make money for us.

"Thank you Makoto dear. You are my pride and joy." She beamed a beautiful smile under all the sweat and tears, despite being massively in debt she still had the will to continue on no matter what. To keep going on no matter what happens to you, that's how she lived her life.

"Huh, where are my glasses?" Tapping his pockets and his body for the pair of vision-enhancing items and led to the one conclusion that he left it at school. "Crap, that's evidence of my cheating as well so I got to get those glasses back." Quickly standing up he rushed out the café door leaving the building with his mother yelling back towards him.

"What's wrong dear, are you not hungry?"

"Sorry Mom I got to go back to school and get something so I'll be back soon."

It was dark at Hosei but the school was open for twenty-four hours, seven days a week, to facilitate any of the needs of the student. Even this late, students were staying up for the next exams which were just tomorrow. When he walked into his classroom at the end of class 1-C he noticed someone still there with some of the faint dim lights illuminating on their body.

"Hey, you're the guy who cheated in the test today. You've been looking at my work since the beginning of the year." Jaz was there and she held the glasses, the evidence of his dirty action today. She was giving a condescending smirk over her usual composed figure but instead of her friendly composed with shy attitude today it looked more sly and cunning.

"This is cool, some built-in recorders and a mini camera on the roof of the building. I could sell these out to the school and you would get expelled eas-."

"Yeah go ahead if you want to." Makoto shrugged his shoulders just accepting her threats.

"Huh? Don't you care about your future in this school? I've searched up in the school records that you're family is in massive debt. One million dollars, for a fact, that's nothing to scoff at." The girl's demands came out as arrogant and almost desperate as her face started to puff up in agitation.

Makoto started to walk up right in front of her face, giving a smirk behind his mask

"Yeah it's important to me. But even if you expel me I'll just find another way to make money, even if I have to resort to crimes because-" Suddenly his glasses appeared right back on his face, "I'm a professional cheater and I don't need any school to help. Because no matter what happens, I'll do anything to help my mother live a peaceful life."

"Hm ... Makoto wasn't it? I am one of the members of the student council, responsible for dealing with all the inquiries on Hosei matters. I could use someone like you to help me overthrow the council you know? You have a keen sense of trickery that's able to thrive at this school."

"Don't sweat yourself. I have no intention to join the student council."

"How about you just follow me." Makoto gulped, and as he followed her, he noticed her pulling out her wallet as she shuffled through those papers like nothing. They weren't ordinary notes either, they were the highest currency notes in her wallet, and if there weren't tens but even hundreds of those notes in the wallet.

Walking straight towards the staff room, Jaz proceeded to walk to Mr Johnsen's desk still in a grumpy mood after the proceeding of the previous

"Hello sir, may I please have the answers to tomorrow's quiz?"

"Huh! Excuse me!"

"It is as I said, I would like the answers for tomorrow's quiz."

"WHAT ARE YOU ASKING SUCH A STUPID QUESTION FOR?" Aggressively Mr. Johnsen rose his voice breaking the ear drums of every person around them.

Slowness, she slipped an envelope under a teacher's desk as the. Politeness irrupted from the grumpy old Mr. Johnsen and he started to pamper with compliment soon enough. "Here you go sweetie go ahead, it's all yours to take. Thank you so much for your service."

Makoto just jaw dropped saw how easily the paper in her hand could act as another. That was her cheating speciality, her ability to throw cash to make things go her way.. Was it cheap? Yes. Was it effective? Most definitely.

"I'm the heir to the Brett family, one of the top five wealthiest families in all of Japan and my position is that of a queen so I would like you to help me and in exchange I'll give you this stack of notes. She pulled on an even thicker bundle of notes she used to bribe Mr Johnsen.

"Deception and trickery That's how I survive at this school. That's how the top one hundred students maintain the position. That is the essence of Hosei Academy. Join me and my conquest to overthrow the student council and I'll give you this money straight up, and there's more where that came from. So are you in or out?" She flicked her ponytail with pure arrogance as she smirked at the boy seemingly looking down at his methods.

"So why do you want to overthrow the council anyways."

"Currently, the person who is the student council president is Lucas Amador. He's the son of the principal of Hosei and he's received the top marks as a student ever since he was five which is unheard of in this school. That's why if I can overthrow his mark, the Brett family will be able to rule over as the wealthiest family in all of Japan. So how about you and I start the PCC or for short the professional cheating club?"

Next, Makoto started to contemplate the conditions about this offer and he paused to take a deep breath before finally responding

"Hmm, well if you put it that way I guess I have no choice but to accept huh?"

And that day a deal was made between two, "cheater" to overthrow the first ranked student in Hosei.