Volume 12 - Chapter 2: A New Stage

(Introduction)

After a long and yet somehow short spring break had come to an end, the day of the opening ceremony finally arrived. We moved out of our old, familiar first-year classroom and relocated to a new one for second-years. At a glance, the desk and chairs seemed to be the same, but for whatever reason, the room gave off a different feeling. The first thing that awaited us as we arrived in this new classroom was a message 'displayed' on the blackboard.

[Sit down in the same seat you used last year and wait for further instructions.]

Last year, the blackboard was one that the teachers would write on with chalk.

However, the blackboard before me was a blackboard, yet not at the same time.

Put simply, it had been replaced by a large monitor.

The school had probably chosen to install it this year, judging from the fact that it was shining with a radiance that made it seem like it had just come out of the box.

The students who arrived in the classroom after me also seemed rather surprised when they saw the monitor. Either way, I made my way to where I sat last year, the window seat in the very back of the room, and sat down as instructed.

Later on after this, the opening ceremony would be held in the gymnasium.

After that, the homeroom teachers would spend the next two hours or so briefing us on this year's schedule and other important details before dismissing us sometime before noon.

The students still seemed to be a little out of it since spring break had only just ended. Friends who hadn't met up with each other over the break began excitedly talking about all sorts of things like what they had been doing over the holidays.

"Yo."

I was leisurely surfing the internet on my phone when I heard a voice call out to me.

It was my classmate Miyake Akito, a member of a small group I had become good friends with.

"I've been a little worried about you cuz you didn't really hang out with the group all that much over spring break."

What Akito said was true. I hadn't interacted with the Ayanokōji group over the break almost at all.

Or rather, I had been so occupied with other matters that I ended up neglecting them.

"Don't get me wrong, there's no rule stating you've gotta hang out with us, but even Haruka was kinda worried, and on top of that, Airi really seemed like she was thinking about you a lot."

Akito was essentially advising me to keep the feelings of the girls in our group in mind.

"My bad. I'll hang out with you guys more often moving forward."

"That sounds good to me. I was feeling pretty lonely without you too, you know."

I felt sorta uneasy hearing a friend tell me something like that, but it wasn't exactly a bad feeling.

It didn't seem like Akito planned on staying for very long, as he casually raised his hand and went back to his own seat.

As he did, I found myself thinking about how I had found myself a truly good friend.

After all, he had gone out of his way to give me some good-natured advice like that.

Once he was back at his seat, I didn't feel like playing around on my phone anymore, so I decided to listen in on what some of my classmates were talking about.

The topic had shifted from what people had done during spring break to the newly enrolled students.

Tomorrow was the school's entrance ceremony where the incoming first-year students would enter the school.

Last year, our Class D had taken the school's good treatment for granted and had the rug pulled out from under us shortly after enrollment, but that was the natural consequence for our actions at the time.

We had been given 1000 class points when we first came here. In other words, we had been given the equivalent of 100,000 yen every month. Spirits were high as students burnt up their points, recklessly buying whatever they wanted under the impression that they'd receive the same amount at the start of every month. Meanwhile, being tardy or not even showing up to class happened more and more, and a fair number of students had fallen into the habit of talking with their friends or dozing off during lectures.

On the other hand, the diligent students were so focused on themselves that they didn't pay any attention to the behavior of those around them.

These diligent students probably had several reasons for why they didn't speak up about it, but the main reason was probably the fact that the school let the problem children do whatever they pleased. After all, if the teachers weren't doing anything about it, why should they?

However, you could say that all of this had been nothing more than the first 'special exam' the school had in store for us.

The school was seeing whether or not we would realize that this was different from the compulsory education we went through during elementary and middle school.

Testing us as high school students, trying to find out whether or not we were capable of doing what we needed to be doing without being told.

And our superb Class D was presented with the lowest possible assessment the special exam could've given us.

The following month, on the first of May, our class points dropped down to zero, sending our monthly allowance of private points plummeting down to a wonderful zero as well.

For the rest of the year, Class D went through one trial after the next, but after falling to the very bottom once, our class slowly began piecing itself back together, maturing and growing closer in the process. At one point, we had even managed to rise up to Class C, but after the results of the end-of-term exam, we were unfortunately relegated back down to Class D. That being said, we still managed to recover an overall total of 275 class points over the course of the year. There's still a huge gap between our class and Class A, but in order to reach the top, it comes down to just how much we're able to close that gap over the course of this next year.

"G'mornin'~"

The lively voice of a girl filled the room. Immediately afterward, the female students who were already in the classroom responded one after another, gathering around the girl in question. It was Karuizawa Kei, the leading figure of the girls in the class. The number of girls gathered around her kept increasing, and just like that, they started talking about the same things they had already discussed with each other not too long ago.

It was only just the other day that I began dating Kei.

As of right now, the only other person who knew about that was Kei herself.

As I thought back on what had happened while I listened in on their discussions, a surprised voice more akin to a scream spread throughout the classroom. I looked over to see what was going on, and immediately noticed what had caused the commotion.

You could say that it was a reasonable reaction after seeing the appearance of the girl who had quietly entered the classroom.

Without acknowledging the attention she was getting, the female student simply went over to her seat. That is, the seat right next to mine.

Her once long, beautiful black hair was now short, not even reaching down to her shoulders.

She had chosen to cut her hair after reconciling with Horikita Manabu, her older brother, and bidding farewell to her former self.

I personally wasn't surprised because I had already known about it beforehand, but if this was the first time I had seen it, I would've probably reacted just like the people around her.

"S-Suzune…? Wha… What's up with your hair!?"

The one who shouted this out was none other than Sudō Ken, a male student who had fallen in love with Horikita.

He had broken away from the chat he was having with one of his buddies and rushed over to us.

He was accompanied by one other person, a girl who also seemed bewildered over Horikita's sudden change in appearance.

"Horikita-san, that is… quite the drastic makeover. I'm surprised."

Said girl was Kushida Kikyō, one of our classmates who had attended the same middle school as Horikita.

ILLUSTRATION :

"Is it really so strange that I chose to get a haircut?"

Horikita glared not only at Sudō, but also at the many students who were staring at her.

"N-no, rather than strange, it's more, surprising, ya know…? It like, makes you seem like a totally different person… Uhm, that's not to say it makes you look bad or anything. Short hair actually looks really good on you. W-wouldn't you agree, Kushida?"

Although it gave a strong impression, for Sudō, things like the length of Horikita's hair were trivial.

In fact, he readily welcomed his crush's new look, emphasizing that he really approved of it.

On the other hand, the one Sudō had sought agreement from, Kushida, was unable to hide her bewildered expression.

"I think… so? Yeah. I think it really suits you, but… did something happen?"

It didn't seem like Kushida wanted to share her full thoughts on the topic, as she shifted the conversation toward finding out why Horikita had cut her hair.

"Whattaya mean by 'did something happen'!?"

Before Horikita could answer, Sudō eagerly butted in with a question of his own.

"Like… maybe she had her heartbroken, or something?"

"H-h-h-heartbroken!?"

"If I had to say, I suppose I'd call it my way of showing my resolve."

Horikita replied in no time at all, dispelling any further speculation that she had done this out of heartache.

"T-that makes sense. There's no way you'd be dealing with an unrequited love or anything, right? Right?"

Despite saying that, Sudō seemed to be breaking out in a cold sweat.

"This year, as a second-year student, I'll be fighting to bring Class D to the top. I wanted to do what I could in order to make that happen."

"Ah, I see. Well… I guess I'll do the opposite and try growing my hair out."

Kushida sounded cute and innocent, but somehow, I was able to pick up on the true meaning behind her words.

She felt disgusted that her hair was now the same length as the person she hated. I didn't think anybody would take what she said seriously, but it was possible that she might actually grow it out. I couldn't help but imagine the raging emotions hidden inside her words.

"If you're satisfied, could you both return to your seats?"

Horikita prompted them to leave. After all, she didn't want to have people gawking over how long or short her hair was.

Although her haircut had made waves with those around her, Horikita seemed somewhat unhappy about all the attention she was getting for it.

She was in a bad mood, but fortunately, the bell rang shortly afterward, bringing an end to the ongoing chatter.

(Introduction End)

(Part 1)

Several days had passed since the opening ceremony. The weekend came and went, and it was Monday once again.

A peaceful school life. A daily routine constantly repeating itself over and over again.

The start of the new school year brought about many changes, the most notable of which being that the blackboards had become digital and that all of our textbooks had been replaced with electronic tablets. I looked down at the brand new tablet that the school had distributed the week before.

All supplementary class materials were also now on these tablets, truly highlighting just how popularized electronic books had become these days.

Each student had been given one of their own, and high-speed charging ports had been freshly installed at the back of the classroom. Portable battery chargers had also been made available to us whenever we needed, just in case our tablets were to run out of power during class. While, as a general rule, we weren't allowed to bring our tablets back to the dorms with us, we could always transfer any data we needed over the school's wireless network and use that at home instead.

The cumbersome number of textbooks we used to have was now stored within one 12-inch tablet. Not only did it make it easy to utilize visual aids like graphics or photographs, but it also had support for more globalized uses, allowing us to seamlessly communicate with foreigners during our English classes.

For a school overseen by the government, it seemed rather behind the curve when it came to introducing these changes.

At the same time, it was hard to say whether or not these changes had been the right thing to do.

The value of these changes would greatly depend on whether or not the students needed them in order to integrate with society later on down the line.

This year, the scope of our studies would naturally be more difficult than it was during our first year. I had no frame of reference to compare this to, but it seemed reasonable enough to assume that this school was at least above average in terms of difficulty. I found myself wondering if Sudō, Ike, and some of the other students would be able to keep up on their own. In order to prevent any of them from being expelled, they'd need more support than ever before.

All in all, most of the major changes had to do with the digitalization of the education system, but if I had to name something else, it would probably be how we could now choose where we wanted to sit through the use of private points. I moved from my old window seat to the desk right next to the hallway at the back of the room. The seats next to the hallway generally weren't very popular because of all of the traffic, but that wasn't really something I cared about.

And, while I was running into the new first-year students more often over the course of my day to day life, I wasn't involved in any club activities, so I hadn't actually spoken with any of them yet. Last year, the first time I properly spoke with one of the upperclassmen was when I needed to collect old exam questions for a special exam, so it wasn't exactly strange that they hadn't spoken with me yet.

In short, the first several days of the new school year had been pretty quiet.

"Everyone's here, right?"

Our homeroom teacher, Chabashira, walked in the classroom only seconds after the bell rang.

As morning homeroom began, she took her place behind the teaching podium with an extremely serious look on her face.

This, coupled with the fact that there were no regular classes scheduled for both first and second period today, meant that it was safe to assume something was about to happen.

Our brief, peaceful break was about to come to an end.

"Sensei, is there a special exam?"

Ike asked a question before Chabashira even had a chance to open her mouth.

From the look of it, he had probably spoken because of restlessness, not as some sort of joke.

Chabashira understood this as well, so she didn't reprimand him for speaking out of turn.

In the past, every time a new special exam reared its head, most of our classmates would feel consumed by anxiety and suspense.

But now, special exams felt more like hurdles we had to get over on our road to the top.

The class's mindset had begun to change, to face toward the future.

"I understand that you're concerned, but there's something I'm gonna need all of you to do before I get to answering that. Something very important for the rest of your life here at this school."

Chabashira took out her phone and held it up for us as she spoke.

"Everyone, take out your phones and place them on your desks. If you didn't bring it with you, you'll have to go back to your dorm and get it, but… I doubt any of you forgot."

Nowadays, cellular phones have become one of life's necessities. You could probably even say that it was the number one most important thing to have on you at all times.

Before long, 39 phones had been placed on the desks. After quickly checking to make sure nobody had forgotten theirs, Chabashira continued speaking.

"So, the first thing you all need to do is navigate to the school's homepage and install a new application. It should be available to download any second now. The official name of the app is 'Over All Ability', but once it's finished installing it'll show up as just 'OAA' on your phone."

The blackboard switched over to a different screen, where a captioned live-action video demonstration began to play.

You could say that this was one of the various conveniences that had been brought to us thanks to the new technology.

After following along with the explanation given to us in the video and successfully installing the app, an icon of what appeared to be an illustration of the school together with the letters 'OAA' showed up on my phone's home screen.

"Put your phones down after you've finished installing the app. Raise your hand if there's something you don't understand."

The installation process was extremely simple. Everyone here was experienced with using their cell phones, so everything progressed without a hitch.

"You're not the only ones doing this either. Right now, every student in the school is installing it. From here on out, this app will be a very useful tool for you here at Advanced Nurturing High School. Well, seeing is believing as they say, so go ahead and get it running."

I pressed the icon on my home screen to launch the app, but my phone's camera came up instead.

"Just take a picture of your student ID card with your camera and it'll take care of the initial setup process."

Following along with her instructions, I took a picture of my ID card. The app then scanned the card for various pieces of information like my ID number and portrait photograph and continued with the login process.

"At this point, each of you should have your own personal account. Moving forward, you won't need to login anymore, as your account is linked directly to your phone, so please be careful not to lose it."

After finally logging into the app, several different menus showed up.

"This app holds the personal data of all students across every school year. For example, if you press on the menu for Class 2-D, your names will be displayed in alphabetical order. Go ahead and try it."

The school pictures and full names of all 39 of us were listed in alphabetical order on the screen, just like she said they'd be.

"You're free to look at any profile you want, but you should probably take a look at your own first."

I tapped on my own name as Chabashira suggested.

I expected to be met with basic information like my date of birth, but that wasn't the case at all.

Instead, I was presented with data I had never seen before.

Class 2-D - Ayanokōji Kiyotaka

First-Year Evaluation

Academic Ability: C (51)

Physical Ability: C+ (60)

Adaptability: D+ (37)

Social Contribution: C+ (60)

Overall Ability: C (51)

"S-sensei, my scores look like they've been converted into video game stats!?"

"That's right. The school calculated those ratings for each of you based on your accomplishments up until the end of your first year. Of course, you also aren't the only ones who can access this information; It's possible for students of any class or school year to access whoever's info they want. The system was adopted because we believe it'll be an important tool for the future of your education."

In other words, the purpose of this OAA app was to provide a numerical evaluation of everybody's abilities. On the side, it also seemed like it could be used to send public messages to every student in the school.

There was a question mark icon on the top right corner of the screen that, upon being pressed, presented me with a detailed description of each of the different categories on my profile.

Academic Ability: Primarily calculated based on your written exam scores conducted throughout the school year.

Physical Ability: Calculated based on your performance in physical education classes, club activities, special exams, and other physical endeavors.

Adaptability: Calculated based on your capacity to adapt to the world around you. This includes, but is not limited to, whether or not you consistently demonstrate the ability to think on your feet, your communication skills, the size of your social circle, and whether or not you act in a way befitting of your social standing amongst said circle.

Social Contribution: Calculated based on a variety of factors, such as your general attitude during class, your attendance record, the presence of any potentially problematic behavior, or your contribution to the school through programs like the student council.

Overall Ability: A student's comprehensive ability is derived from each of the four values calculated above. However, the effect Social Contribution has on the overall score is reduced by half compared to the other three values.

※ Formula for how Overall Ability is calculated:

(Academic Ability + Physical Ability + Adaptability + (Social Contribution * 0.5)) ÷ 350 * 100 (Rounded)

I see. With evaluation criteria like this, I could understand why my Adaptability rating was lower than the others.

After all, the size of my social circle and my communication skills weren't very high by any standard.

My ratings for the other categories were reasonable, given that they were calculated based on various things that I did on a day-to-day basis.

Alongside the information for my first year, there were additional pages for my second and third-year information, but those were currently blank.

"Right now, only the ratings for your first year are displayed, but from today onward, new ratings will be reflected on the second-year page as they become available. They'll be updated on the first day of each month, the same day private points are distributed. As an example, Sudō, your current Academic Ability rating is an E, but if you were to get full marks on the next written exam, you'd receive an A+ for Academic Ability on your second-year page."

This meant that our second-year ratings would be evaluated separately from our first-year ratings. Furthermore, the ratings for each year would always be held on record. Even if Sudō were to get full marks on April's first written exam and get an A+ rating, if he were to take a zero on the next exam, he'd end up with a C rating, or something along those lines. And after a full year of that, our average rating would be what's left in the end.

One of the most noteworthy features of this app was that it allowed us to check up on not only our own class, but every other class as well. Before this, I couldn't find out about students I had never interacted with without personally going out and gathering information, but now, with just a glance at the app, I could find out anyone's name, face, and what kind of ratings they had gotten, regardless of whether they were in my school year or not. Incidentally, the data for the first-year students seemed to be based on information from back in their third year of middle school along with the results of their entrance exam. This meant that Academic Ability, Physical Ability, and Social Contribution ratings aside, it was possible that their Adaptability ratings may not be very reliable.

It was a useful grade checking tool… Or, no, there had to be more to it than that.

The app was obviously meant to play an important role of some sort.

"There are probably some students here who aren't satisfied with their ratings and feel frustrated with how they'll be kept on record like this. But to those students, I can only say that you're the ones who spent the last year acting as you did."

The closer one's important ratings like Academic Ability and Physical Ability were to an E, the more disgraced one would feel as a student.

"However, your first-year ratings are a thing of the past, and they won't have any influence on the evaluations you'll be getting as a second-year. In other words, it's important that those of you who received unsatisfactory results take advantage of this opportunity to improve yourselves. The school expects that being able to visualize your progress will help promote growth like that."

Since the app holds a record of personal ratings that anybody can look at, many students would probably start putting in effort in order to make themselves look as good as possible. This would probably have some sort of promotional effect on getting better ratings like Chabashira said it would, but…

"Sensei, why is Social Contribution the only one that's factored in differently than the other three categories?"

This question came from Hirata Yōsuke, who had been wondering about why the Social Contribution category had less than half of the influence on Overall Ability compared to the other three.

"Academic Ability, Physical ability, and Adaptability. The school considers these three categories to be extremely important. Social Contribution, on the other hand, is a little different. Social Contribution is based on morals and manners. It's an assessment of what you look like as a student in a general sense, considering things like the tone and attitude you take with your teachers, the presence of absences or tardies on your attendance record, whether or not you're willing to abide by various rules, and even the influence of your voice and the accuracy of your words. It covers the type of common-sense abilities that you can't afford not to have, so the impact it has on Overall Ability is lower as a result."

Unlike the first three categories, where you couldn't just improve dramatically overnight, you had the ability to greatly improve Social Contribution-related skills any time you wanted just by changing your mindset and the way you went about doing things. That was the difference.

"This app considers everyone equally. It doesn't matter what class you're in or where you are amongst your peers, the app evaluates you just the same. As it is now, you could say that those of you with high ratings in the Overall Ability category have done something worthy of praise as individuals."

In the app, the students were listed in alphabetical order, but it also seemed to be equipped with a sorting function.

And thanks to that, there was no need for me to look through each student in Class 2-D one by one to find out who had the highest Overall Ability rating.

Upon testing out the sorting feature, I found that Yōsuke was the one to take that spot.

Class 2-D - Hirata Yōsuke

First-Year Evaluation

Academic Ability: B+ (76)

Physical Ability: B+ (79)

Adaptability: B (75)

Social Contribution: A- (85)

Overall Ability: B+ (78)

Yōsuke's excellence was obvious after just one look at his numbers. His ratings were objectively high-level all across the board. If he hadn't exposed his weakness at the end of the first-year, his scores might've been even higher.

On the other hand, when sorted in descending order, Ike was the one to take the top spot with an Overall Ability score of 37.

Right below Ike was the name Sakura Airi, with the same Overall Ability score of 37.

Sudō, somebody that many students had expected to take the lowest place on the rankings, was actually placed several places above that.

Class 2-D - Sudō Ken

First-Year Evaluation

Academic Ability: E+ (20)

Physical Ability: A+ (96)

Adaptability: D+ (40)

Social Contribution: E+ (19)

Overall Ability: C (47)

His Academic Ability and Social Contribution ratings were both profoundly low, given his bad behavior last year. However, his rating for Physical Ability was more than enough to compensate for that, saving him from the bottom of the list. Upon further inspection, I found that, out of every student in the second year, he was the only one who had gotten A+ in the Physical Ability category.

Sudō had grown both academically and mentally when compared to when he first came to this school, and his ratings would probably only continue to get better as time went on.

"On another note, while this doesn't directly have anything to do with Class D, there are special exceptions in place for second-year students. Class 2-A's Sakayanagi Arisu's Physical Ability rating will take on the same value as the student with the lowest Physical Ability rating in the school year."

Sakayanagi Arisu had been physically handicapped from birth.

She had to use a cane to get around, even while walking.

In other words, physical activity wasn't something she was capable of, even if she wanted to.

Having said that, the Physical Ability category couldn't just be removed from the calculation for her overall score. So in that sense, having her take up the same score as the lowest placed student seemed like a reasonable compromise.

At any rate, this tool for visualizing abilities was probably an integral part of Nagumo's proposed individualist meritocracy.

"I'm sure this app will distinguish itself as an important tool, not only for changing your mindsets and improving yourselves, but also for interacting with others since you'll now have a medium to quickly familiarize yourselves with the names and faces of students regardless of what school year they're in. However… I also think there's more to it than that. This is just my own personal speculation, but… maybe a year from now, students who fail to keep their Overall Ability rating above a certain threshold will be given some kind of penalty of sorts."

"Penalty… You're not saying, like, expulsion, are you Sensei…?"

"It's possible. But, as I said, this is just speculation. It's not a cold hard fact or anything. But the closer your Overall Ability rating is to an E, the more dangerous of a position you're in. It's best you keep that in mind."

For the time being, Ike and Airi were ranked at the bottom, with both of their Overall Ability ratings close to an E.

If they spent this next year doing the same things they did last year, they'd be in hot water.

"Some of you are also probably dissatisfied with how the school's assessment may not line up with what you think you should've gotten, but keep in mind that this is just how the school sees you as of right now. If you're dissatisfied, then you've got this next year to prove us wrong. After all, the school isn't infallible."

"B-but Sensei, how are we supposed to do that!?"

Ike frantically raised his hand as he asked, having realized that he was at the bottom of the ranks.

"Well, as an example, the accuracy of the Physical Ability rating depends on whether or not a student takes part in club activities. If you're confident in your abilities, it might be a good idea to join a club."

Chabashira was saying that students who showed their abilities to the school would generally end up getting better results. That being said, it still depended on the individual. If a student were to appeal to the school in a bad way, it could end up coming back to bite them.

"It's like we're fighting on our own."

Horikita's quiet muttering didn't go unheard by Chabashira.

To Horikita, it probably felt like the introduction of this app did away with the notion of class-focused competition she had come to expect during her first year here.

And she probably wasn't the only person who felt this way either.

"You're both right and wrong, Horikita. The school approved and implemented a proposal by the current student council president, Nagumo Miyabi, and that is the very system we're introducing this year."

So Nagumo's dream of creating a system where individuals are evaluated based on their own merits was finally being realized. The reason why he wasn't very active last year must've been because he was busy pouring his time and resources into making this app.

"But, the fact that the school's emphasis lies on working together as a class still hasn't changed. Keep that in mind as you work hard to improve yourselves every day."

With the apps installed and the following explanation finished, the first period came to an end. As soon as the break between periods started, everyone's eyes were immediately glued to the screen of their cell phones. Not only did they want to see their own ratings, they also wanted to know how their classmates and the rest of the school were doing.

"I ain't happy with how they're treatin' me like I've got less common sense than Kōenji!"

Sudō complained loudly as he scowled at Kōenji, completely fixated on the ratings of the app.

I eavesdropped on his conversation (though, he was speaking so loudly it was hard not to hear him) while looking to confirm what he was saying on the app.

Class 2-D - Kōenji Rokusuke

First-Year Evaluation

Academic Ability: B (71)

Physical Ability: B+（78）

Adaptability: D- (24)

Social Contribution: D- (25)

Overall Ability: C (53)

Kōenji had received high ratings in both Academic Ability and Physical Ability, which made sense given that he had demonstrated a certain degree of proficiency during our standard classes and tests.

"What're you on about? Your Physical Ability rating is like, way higher than his anyway."

Ike, who didn't have any particularly outstanding ratings of his own, enviously complained right back to Sudō.

"That's cuz Kōenji isn't taking this shit seriously. It's hard to come to terms with."

Kōenji's physical abilities were extraordinarily high, just like Sudō said. His potential was on the same level as Sudō's or maybe even greater, but, he wasn't a member of any club and his participation during PE classes was largely dependent on his mood, so there was no way to tell for sure. Unless he's personally invested, he was one to just suddenly give up on something or skip out on doing it altogether. It wasn't even all that uncommon for him to not even lift a finger in the first place either. Sudō, on the other hand, tackled physical problems head-on and always pounded out top-class results, no matter what task he's been faced with. Even though their physical abilities may be similar, it was obvious why there was such a great difference in the ratings they had been given.

That being said, the category Sudō was upset about was the Social Contribution category.

That is, the category that had to do with morals and manners.

In that regard, Kōenji, the one being singled out and criticized, was just as much of a problem child as Sudō.

It seemed that Sudō couldn't stand the fact that his Social Contribution rating was the lower of the two of them, even though that was only just barely the case.

It's not like I couldn't understand why Sudō wanted to complain, but…

The reason why Kōenji's Social Contribution rating was higher than Sudō's was probably because he hadn't had as many opportunities to cause problems for the class or the school. Given the suspensions and violent behavior Sudō exhibited last year, the fact that he was below Kōenji wasn't all that surprising.

Even though Kōenji himself could hear everything Sudō said, he paid no heed to any of it.

He also hadn't bothered with using the OAA app any more than necessary, unlike those around him who were completely engrossed with it.

Over the course of the last year, Kōenji was probably the one who had changed the least.

In any case, thanks to this app, we were now able to quantify the results of our first year at this school.

And, there were both advantages and disadvantages for us as a result.

For example, the existence of the Overall Ability category had created a provisional competency ranking of sorts.

Now, if a troublesome special exam were to take place again, the class probably wouldn't even need to discuss who the expulsion candidates would be. The students with the lowest overall scores would be the ones in the hot seat.

Deep down, Airi, who was ranked at the very bottom together with Ike, probably wasn't very happy about that either.

(Part 1 End)

(Part 2)

With the introduction of the OAA app still on everyone's minds, the second period began.

And yet, the class was probably more concerned that Chabashira would officially start getting into 'that' now.

Unsurprisingly, this prediction had been spot-on.

"Now, I'll give you guys an overview of the next special exam."

With that, Chabashira broached the subject, almost as if she was starting off a normal, everyday lesson.

"The first special exam you'll be taking this year will incorporate new experiences that you've never come across before, just like with the introduction of the app."

Was this Tsukishiro's doing, or was Nagumo the one behind it? Either way, the school seemed to be going through some major changes.

"The bottom line is that the exam will take the form of a written test where you second-years will be partnering up with the newly admitted first-years."

"Partnered with… the first-years…?"

We had only rarely ever done something that skipped across the different school years before.

There were exceptions to this such as the training camp, but the established trend was for classes of the same year to compete against each other.

Had the barrier between school years been broken due to the introduction of the OAA app?

"This special exam will primarily focus on your test-taking and communication skills."

Test-taking skills and communication skills.

Two concepts that, at first glance, didn't seem to have anything to do with each other.

"The importance of test-taking skills needs no further explanation. However, before now, this school has never had any in-depth interaction between students of different school years other than during things like athletics festivals or training camps. Therefore, the school determined that your communication skills have fallen by the wayside."

"B-but we'll still be competing with others in our own school year, right? Something feels suspicious about this."

The idea of getting heavily involved with the first-years seemed to make Ike a bit frustrated.

"It's not like I don't understand where you're coming from, but try and think about it objectively for a second. In your first year after entering the workforce, the people you come in contact with won't be fresh graduates like you. Some will be in their second year at the job, while others will be veterans touting 20 or 30 years, and you'll be competing with them all the same. Despite the huge gap in experience, they very well might become rivals for you."

"That's… well, I guess I can imagine that."

"While the world as a whole is slowly shifting over to a meritocracy, many Japanese companies are still bound up in the concepts of seniority and lifetime employment. For those of you who felt that it would be uncomfortable to interact with your upper or underclassmen when you heard about this special exam, I suggest that you reconsider. Put in a way that's easy for you to understand, let's consider the concept of grade skipping. Grade skipping is a fairly commonplace occurrence in other countries like America, Britain, and Germany. In those countries, it isn't all that rare for small, young children to study together with high school or college students. Can any of you imagine or even accept the idea of an elementary school student studying together with you here, in this classroom?"

At Chabashira's inclination, the class began to visualize the scenario. A scenario that they almost certainly weren't able to comprehend. They must have felt that it was strange or even impossible.

It's true that there were hardly any cases of students skipping grade levels in Japan. Although specific conditions had to be met, most people were probably unaware that it was even possible. In Japan, the concept doesn't really align with the status quo where the education system is relatively linear. But, that doesn't necessarily mean that Japan wasn't willing to consider the concept in and of itself. For example, the White Room didn't conform to this structure of education, so I could understand this fairly well.

However, I was certain that this wasn't all there was to what Chabashira was saying.

It wasn't just about imitating what other countries are doing. It's also essential for Japan to adopt an education style suited to the Japanese climate. Chabashira was most likely aware of this herself, but had no choice but to give this explanation to us as instructed by the higher-ups.

"In the future, there will probably be more cases where you'll compete against the first and third-year students. However, this particular exam is about helping you build cooperative relationships, so do well to keep that in mind."

I found myself wondering if this was the reason why the special exam required both test-taking and communication skills. Some students seemed to be unable to wrap their heads around what the rules would be like, as they looked visibly confused at this point.

"The easiest way to get all of you to understand would be to remind you of one of the special exams you went through last year. You can think of this exam as an improved version of the Paper Shuffle exam, where you were partnered up from among your classmates."

Paper Shuffle.

It was a special exam where we partnered up with a classmate and tackled a written exam together.

Essentially, this meant that we'd be partnering up with one of the first-years this time instead of partnering up with a classmate.

Even though that seemed to be the only difference, it was quite a large one.

"You're free to partner up with anyone you want from the first-year students. The testing period will last until the end of the month, which is about two weeks from now. You'll have plenty of time to both carefully choose your partner and focus on your studies."

With a special exam like this, it made sense why they had us install the OAA app.

The first-years wouldn't be familiar with the names and faces of the upperclassmen.

And naturally, the second-years wouldn't be familiar with the names and faces of the underclassmen either.

During the Paper Shuffle exam last year, we were able to freely choose our partners after coming up with some workarounds thanks to the fact that the exam's partnering system was handled from within the class.

In other words, students who weren't very good at studying were able to just rely on someone else to survive the exam. However, the exam this time around would be different. Partnerships would be made on the premise that both sides would be looking for excellent students to pair up with. Moreover, instead of partnering up with our peers, we'd be partnering up with underclassmen we had little to no relationship with. The circumstances we were facing now in our second year were different from our first.

Above all else, it takes a fair amount of time to build up a trusting relationship from scratch.

Without the app, it would almost certainly be impossible to establish a meaningful relationship in just two weeks' time.

But thanks to OAA, some shortcuts could be taken since you could just match someone's face to their name in the app.

Furthermore, since the app also provides you with a rough idea of a prospective student's academic abilities, it'd be easy to use it as a reference when making your decision on who to partner up with.

"You'll be tested on five subjects on the day of the exam. Each subject will be worth 100 points, for a total of 500 points. Now for the most important part… this time, you'll be evaluated based on two different standards. The first being your results as a class, and the second being your results as an individual."

Chabashira tapped on the screen of the blackboard, bringing up the details for the special exam that she had just talked about.

Class Rewards (Split Based on School Year):

The inter-class competition will be based on the average score of each class in your school year. This will be derived from the combined scores of each person in the class added together with their respective partners.

Each class will be rewarded with either 50, 30, 10, or 0 class points, based on how their overall average score compares to the other classes in their school year.

Individual Rewards:

You will be graded based on the combined score of you and your partner.

The top five pairings will each receive a special reward of 100,000 private points.

The top 30% of pairings will each receive 10,000 private points.

In the event a pairing's combined score fails to exceed 500 points, the second-year student will be expelled from the school and the first-year student will not receive any private points for the next three months, regardless of how many class points they might have.

Additionally, any student judged to have deliberately marked questions incorrectly or otherwise found to have manipulated or lowered their scores will be expelled regardless of their school year. Similarly, in the event a third party is found to have forced a student to lower his or her score, said third party will be expelled from the school as well.

"You should already be somewhat aware of this, but in this exam, the students with high Academic Ability ratings will be sought after first."

If OAA didn't exist, nobody would've been able to find out the true abilities of the other students. But now, with the advent of the app, that information was exposed for all to see. The lower your Academic Ability rating was, the harder it'd be to find a partner.

In all likelihood, the students who seemed weaker academically would get left in the dust.

Smart students would naturally join up with a smart partner and aim for the top rewards. Academically insecure students would also seek out intelligent partners in order to survive. The students with weak academic abilities would inevitably partner up together and, in the end, probably fall below the 500 point baseline. In which case, the harsh reality is that second-year students would then be expelled from the school.

The second-year students understood how the school worked and had developed lasting friendships with many of the people in their class.

Even if they didn't go after the top rewards, they would probably still move to help support their classmates.

The first-year students, however, hadn't had the chance to get very close to their class yet. As a result, the concept of somebody that they're not very close friends with having to go without private points for three months probably wouldn't seem like a very big deal. It would be just like at the beginning of last year when most of Class D was fine with abandoning Sudō… No, it would be even more extreme than that.

"Partnerships will be formed once both sides agree to it, and you can finalize the process by confirming it on the app. You're allowed to form your partnerships whenever you want after this, but once you've confirmed who you're going to pair up with, you won't be allowed to change to someone else."

With that being said, it would be difficult to make an immediate decision unless your partner's academic abilities were insanely high.

A careless decision could lead to regret later on.

The monitor on the blackboard updated, presenting us with information on choosing partners.

Rules and Regulations for Choosing a Partner:

Once per day, you are allowed to send a partnership application to a prospective student through OAA. (If the other party does not accept, the application will be reset after 24 hours.)

If the other party accepts your application, the partnership will be finalized and you won't be allowed to cancel it thereafter.

※ The only exceptions being extenuating, unavoidable circumstances such as expulsion or serious illness.

Once a partnership has been finalized, the information displayed on the OAA app will be updated at 8:00 AM the next morning and no new applications to either student will be accepted.

※ The details about who a person has chosen to partner up with won't be listed on their profile.

Due to these restrictions, one couldn't just send out a large number of applications at random. And, even if you sent an application to somebody, you wouldn't know if they ended up partnering up with another student on that same day until 8:00 AM the next morning, meaning that it was possible for you to waste an application entirely.

To be fair, I don't know if anyone would actually accept an application from a student they didn't know all that well anyway.

It's possible that these rules were implemented to help obscure who partnered up with whom. After all, if the information was updated as soon as a pair formed, it'd be rather easy to analyze the overall strength of each class.

"Sensei! There's no way that one of the first-years is gonna wanna pair up with me! Is an idiot like me really supposta rely on communication skills in order to get through this!?"

Ike's lament was understandable.

Unless all of the good partner options were taken already, the probability that somebody would actually want to pair up with someone with a poor Academic Ability rating was very low.

Or at least, that's how it should be as long as nothing shady happens.

"Don't worry. It has been set up so that, no matter how many of you are unable to find partners, nobody will be left without one. This is because, in the event that you don't pair up with somebody, a partner will be randomly selected for you at 8:00 AM on the day of the exam."

Upon hearing that there were protective measures in place, Ike breathed out a sigh of relief.

"That being said, those who aren't able to find themselves a partner before the deadline shouldn't expect the same level of treatment as those who do. Therefore, pairs formed past the deadline will be subject to a 5% penalty to their overall score."

This short reprieve lasted only a second, as the class collectively groaned the moment Chabashira mentioned the penalty.

While you'd still be allowed to take the exam, you'd be put at a fairly painful disadvantage.

"Sensei, there have been three expulsions amongst the second-year students so far. Won't the first-year students have three people left over?"

Upon hearing Yōsuke's trivial question, Chabashira replied indifferently.

"The three extra students will have their exam scores doubled to make up for their missing partner. However, they'll also be subject to the very same 5% penalty, so there probably won't be very many of them who would want to face the exam alone."

Essentially, one person would be playing out both roles. It seemed that the three first-year students leftover at the end wouldn't have anything to worry about as long as their academic abilities were good enough.

Either way, I couldn't afford to be worrying about just Ike and Sudō during this special exam.

After all, this was going to be an exceedingly difficult special exam for me as well.

The reason it was going to be so difficult was the rule where, if my partner and I didn't score over 500 points, I'd be expelled from the school. Put another way, this meant that my partner absolutely had to score at least 1 point in order to clear the special exam. Even if I were to get full marks in each of the five subjects, if my partner scored a 0, my expulsion would be set in stone.

Under normal circumstances, this would be an extremely pointed, dangerous rule. Because the first-year students aren't at risk of expulsion, if they purposefully took a low score and threw the exam, this rule meant that the second-year student would be unreasonably forced out of the school… However, in order to prevent that from happening, the school had come up with another rule.

[Any student judged to have deliberately marked questions incorrectly or otherwise found to have manipulated or lowered their scores will be expelled regardless of their school year. Similarly, in the event a third party is found to have forced a student to lower his or her score, said third party will be expelled from the school as well.]

This rule was probably an extremely indispensable factor behind the legitimization of this special exam.

It was designed to protect against unfair behavior such as threatening the other party that you'd cut corners or demanding for them to hand over private points. It made it impossible to blatantly misbehave during the exam. In a sense, it meant that the average student would be more robustly protected by the rules.

However, even though the rule would usually be more than enough, it still fell short of ensuring anything.

Because─ for the White Room student, it was a completely different story.

The White Room student was setting up on the premise of being expelled later anyway, so this rule wasn't a deterrent to them at all.

If they successfully managed to pair up with me, they'd most likely end up taking a 0 without even the slightest hesitation.

In other words, if I chose the White Room student as my partner, I'd be done for. Even though the special exam only just started, I already had at least a 1 in 160 chance of being expelled.

Typically, there'd at least be a rule stating something like: 'In the event one student is expelled from the school due to dishonest conduct, the other will be treated as though they passed the exam without any further penalty.' However, based on everything I had heard so far, there was no way of guaranteeing that.

The reason why nobody bothered to ask about it is because everyone was under the same self-serving assumption, convinced that nobody would dare do something that would deliberately get themself expelled. No, that wasn't the only reason.

In the unlikely event that somebody actually did, the school itself would probably deal with it quickly.

After all, the school most likely felt that it would be far too harsh to expel a student who simply got caught up in their partner's unfair behavior. However, if I was the one who ended up getting caught up in it, that man would probably force me out of the school without batting an eye.

He'd say it was my fault for partnering up with somebody who didn't take the exam seriously.

He had set up a small loophole in the rules so that he could react flexibly depending on the student in question.

The image of that man, Tsukishiro, rose up in the back of my mind. I had no doubt that he was the one who had concocted these rules.

There was no way he wouldn't take advantage of this opportunity. If I was too slow at finding a partner, the regular students would start getting chosen one after another and my chances of ending up with the White Room student would go up.

It'd be nice if I could act quickly and pair up with somebody that doesn't seem like they came from the White Room, but according to the OAA app, my Academic Ability rating was a C. I didn't have the luxury of being able to choose whoever I wanted.

Having said that, even if I wanted to choose someone with an extremely low Academic Ability rating, my C rating wouldn't be enough to dispel their worries about the exam, so they probably wouldn't be willing to partner up with me.

In which case, the logical conclusion was to find a partner with a rating similar to mine that I wouldn't have any issues pairing up with, but it's possible that my opponent was already lying in wait in anticipation of that.

Even though we had only just been told the rules, it was already clear that this exam would be more challenging than any other special exam we had taken before.

"Sensei. How difficult are the exam questions going to be?"

With the raise of her hand, Horikita asked Chabashira a crucial question that most of the class was probably wondering about.

"To tell you the truth, there are many extremely difficult questions on the exam. It'll definitely be one of the most challenging exams you've taken so far. But… that's only the case if you're looking to get a high score on it. The exam has been designed so that even students with an E rating in Academic Ability can score at least 150 points without any prior preparation. With a couple days of studying under your belt, 200 points should be more than manageable. This is only a rough estimate, but─"

Chabashira cut off mid-sentence as she displayed a table of estimated scores for the exam split up by Academic Ability rating.

E Rating - Between 150 and 200 Points

D Rating - Between 200 and 250 Points

C Rating - Between 250 and 300 Points

B Rating - Around 350 Points

A Rating - Around 400 Points

"If you study properly, you should be able to get a score close to those shown here. However, don't forget that if you're conceited and neglect your studies, you may end up with a lower score than this."

Chabashira was saying that we shouldn't just blindly trust the scores being shown to us on the monitor.

"In addition, as you can see from the part of the table that says that students with an A rating are expected to score around 400 points overall, it's unlikely that anyone will score over 90 points in each subject, let alone get a perfect score."

This was probably what she was talking about back when she said it would be one of the most challenging exams we had taken so far.

In any case, this simply meant that, if two students with E ratings were to pair up with each other, the second-year student would be at risk of facing expulsion.

"That should be everything for the overview of the special exam you'll be taking in April. Get ready to buckle down and do your best."

At this point, Chabashira began to explain the scope of topics that'd be covered in the test for each subject.

According to her, as long as we went back over the material we learned last year, we should be fine for the most part.

(Part 2 End)

(Part 3)

Once the break between classes began, many students inevitably went and gathered around Yōsuke.

Upon seeing that, Horikita quickly got up from her seat and joined them.

I decided to listen in on their conversation as well, for the time being.

"W-w-w-what should I do, Hirata!? My Academic Ability rating is an E! I'm screwed!"

With his head in his hands, Ike begged Yōsuke for help.

Yōsuke looked out over the whole class as he tried to calm Ike down.

"Let's calm down first, and then we'll settle on a course of action."

"Yes, there's no need to panic in the slightest."

"B-but!!"

"This certainly won't be an easy exam, that's for sure. A second-year student with an E rating in Academic Ability needs to pair up with a first-year student with at least a B to ensure they'll score above 500. But, conversely, this exam should be fairly low-stakes as long as they pair up with somebody with at least a B rating."

She made it seem like the condition required to overcome the exam wasn't very complicated, perhaps to calm him down.

"Furthermore, we've gone through similar exams together as a class over our last year here. If we coordinate and study as best we can like we've done in the past, it shouldn't be impossible for you to score over 250 or 300 points."

"Yes. It's exactly as Horikita-san says. If we work together, we should all be able to get through the exam safely."

Yōsuke echoed Horikita's standpoint and the people around them gradually started to calm down.

"The important part of all of this is that you don't partner up with someone without thinking it through first. Even if you think it's urgent, you shouldn't rush the process unless a first-year student with at least a B rating is willing to pair up with you."

It was true that, if you got ahead of yourself and partnered up with someone early on, your decision would be set in stone for the rest of the exam.

You had to make sure that you and your partner would definitely score above the 500 point baseline.

"As for those of you with a B+ rating or higher, I'd like for you to take a good objective look at the situation. It might be important for us to reserve a certain number of our more skilled students in order to save everyone. At any rate, regardless of whether you're good at studying or not, if something comes up please consult either Hirata-kun or me."

Horikita only asked them for the bare minimum: to avoid making a panicked decision. The honor students such as Keisei and Mii-chan nodded along without hesitation, indicating their willingness to cooperate. Horikita could've taken on the responsibility of sorting out the negotiations for everyone in the class, but that would've made it more difficult for the partner-making process to run smoothly. There would be lots of competition for every prospective partner, so every second would be essential.

"For now, I'm going to try and negotiate with the first-years who joined the soccer club. It seems like some of them are good at studying, so I'm thinking we might be able to get them to partner with us."

After Horikita finished talking, Yōsuke proposed his own idea to her. It was a good strategy to approach problems with more numbers.

"Can I count on you for that? It'd be reassuring to have your support."

Nevertheless, club activities were outside of Horikita's zone of influence. Yōsuke smiled kindly and nodded.

"Additionally, I think we should consider holding a hearing for the students with Academic Ability ratings below a C-, just in case."

"That's a good decision. Let's work together to help everyone find partners."

Explaining the plan of action to the entire class at such an early stage would probably make all the difference. Not only would the weaker students receive helpful feedback, they'd also feel assured that nobody would be abandoning them.

"Horikita-san, just one more thing. Some─"

"Some of the students who have ratings above a C aren't very good at communicating. I'll also follow up with those of us who'd struggle to find partners for reasons other than poor academics."

Their thoughts were so in tune that they understood each other without even needing to discuss it in detail.

Only a few words were needed for the two of them to be in perfect sync with each other.

"Thank you. That'd be very helpful."

Horikita and Yōsuke continued their conversation without any hiccups, sorting out the situation into a form that they were both satisfied with.

At one point, they used to butt heads with each other, but now they worked unbelievably well together.

It wasn't just that Horikita had become more amiable, Yōsuke's flexible way of thinking had also played a part in it.

"By the way, Sudō-kun, what about the basketball club? A few first-year students must've joined by now as well, right?"

Horikita inquired of Sudō, who was utterly devoted to his club.

However, Sudō seemed somewhat uncomfortable as he looked away.

"Y-yeah. But…"

"But?"

"Club started a few days ago and all, but, well, we've kinda gone full-on Spartan on 'em… or how should I say it? We've been pretty harsh on 'em, ya know?"

"You mean you've been intimidating them?"

"Well, I guess it might be like that. Basketball can be pretty hardcore, aight?"

The point was that he might've already gotten himself into a position where his underclassmen didn't like him.

Of course, this was all because of how seriously he took basketball.

Underclassmen had a tendency to be very divided on seniors who are strict during practice.

"Alright. Just focus on your studies and don't worry yourself too much about the special exam."

"O-ok."

It would be counterproductive if Sudō tried to do something and messed it up, so Horikita gave him a firm warning to focus on something else instead.

(Part 3 End)

(Part 4)

Later on, during the lunch break, Horikita called me out to the hallway after I finished eating.

"I want to talk about something that isn't suitable for the classroom. By talking out here, we'll know if someone is listening in on us."

"So? Does it have to do with the new special exam?"

"Yes. Chabashira-sensei said that this new special exam will be considerably difficult. It'll be problematic for the academically weaker students, but it's an ideal setting for our competition."

She must've intended to get our personal business out of the way first, so she started with that.

During the spring break, Horikita and I had promised something to each other. Namely, that we'd compete to see who got the higher score in one subject of a written exam. If I won, Horikita would join the Student Council, and if she won, I'd use, without reservation, the abilities I'd been hiding this past year for the benefit of our class. They had announced that even students with an A rating in Academic Ability would struggle to get more than 90 points. With an exam that difficult, we wouldn't botch the competition with a draw because both of us got perfect scores.

"I trust you have no complaints?"

She wanted to confirm that I had no objections to settling it with the next written exam.

"Of course."

As there was no point in dragging it out any longer, I naturally agreed with her.

"That's great. Then, let's move on to the next topic."

Satisfied with the reaffirmation of our agreement, she took out her phone.

Then, she launched the OAA app we had installed just this morning.

"I looked up the number of students in the first year with Academic Ability ratings of a B or higher. There are 17 in Class A, 13 in B, 13 in C, and 11 in D."

54 in total. A reasonable percentage, you could say.

"There are 4 students in our class that have an E rating in Academic Ability. Make that 12 if you include those with D ratings. There should be more than enough firepower available amongst all the first-years to cover for them."

"The question then becomes, how many of the first-year honor students can we draw to our side?"

Even though there were 54 of them, they would inevitably be hotly contested. The slightest opening could lead to all of them getting snatched away from us.

"Yes. The class that ends up with the most of those 54 students will naturally have an advantage. On the other hand, the class that ends up with the students with a D+ or lower will be at a disadvantage."

The app they just introduced to us was packed with extremely useful functionality.

The class that made the best use of it would probably have the best chance of coming out on top.

"Sakayanagi-san, Ryūen-kun, and even Ichinose-san. Odds are that they'll all make their first move today."

Of all the leaders, Class A's Sakayanagi would probably go on the attack straight away.

Thanks to the fact that her class had the fewest number of students who weren't confident in their academic abilities, the only thing she had to do was entice the smarter first-year students over to her side. The overall stability of Class A was easy to see with just a glance at the app, even for the new students. If they worked together, they could rake in the rewards for the top scorers all in one go.

Meanwhile, that simply wasn't an option we had available to us.

"First and foremost, we need to prioritize helping our classmates with Ds or Es get paired up with higher ranking students."

Horikita nodded lightly in agreement.

"I won't say it's perfect or anything, but I tried making a list for who we should prioritize finding partners for. Either way, I think we need to start by taking care of Sudō-kun first."

"Hold on. It's true that Sudō was given an E in Academic Ability, but is that really the case?"

Sudō's grades were so horrendous when he first enrolled here that he had received an E rating as a result.

However, in the latter half of his first year, his academic performance slowly began to improve.

In other words, his current abilities were probably better than what was reflected for him by the school.

"Right… He's certainly grown by leaps and bounds compared to how he was before. Even during spring break, he spent his time studying in order to make up for the stuff he missed earlier in the year."

"Were you tutoring him the entire time?"

"Of course not. I don't have the time to keep him company every day. He's already learned how to study by himself to a certain extent. I just checked in on his progress every so often and gave him feedback on how he was doing."

"Hoh…?"

I thought Sudō was only studying due to Horikita, but this was an honestly admirable development.

"To be honest, Sudō-kun is at a slightly higher level in my book… When I compare him to other students, I feel like he's between a D and D+."

Of course, this was nothing more than optimistic speculation.

However, as someone who knew just how Sudō was a year ago, he had indeed matured quite a lot.

"If I'm not mistaken, Sudō used to panic a lot more when he heard about a new special exam. I'd expected him to be upset this time, but he was pretty composed instead."

Then again, he did make quite a fuss about losing to Kōenji in the Social Contribution category.

"You think his Academic Ability ratings are above a D, and yet you placed him above Ike in priority on your list?"

"His personality and outward appearance had a large role to play in that. What he said this morning about how he's heavy-handed with the newbies in the basketball club had a part to play in it too."

Apparently, it seemed like she wasn't being partial to Sudō after all. She had reached this conclusion after properly analyzing all the factors.

"If you were a first-year student who knew nothing about any of the second-years… who would you find it easier to pair with, Ike-kun or Sudō-kun? Considering that, on the surface, they both have the same rating."

"Well, it would have to be Ike."

The combination of Sudō's tall stature, red hair, and harsh tone of voice gave off a terrifying impression.

If I had to pair up with someone at their academic level, I'd prefer to go with Ike, who was easier to deal with.

"Nevermind finding a partner that would compensate for his lack of academic skills, it'd probably be difficult to find him a willing partner in the first place."

This was the exact reason why she chose him as the student she wanted to sort everything out for first.

"Got it. If possible, we want to get him paired up with a first-year with at least a B- in Academic Ability, right?"

"Yes. I think he'll definitely make it through that way. I'd like to get moving as soon as possible, so will you help?"

"Help? I don't think there's anything I can do, though."

"Just stay by my side and tell me what you think. Having someone I can trust close by would be great."

"So, you're saying that you trust me?"

"I trust you the most out of our classmates who act independently."

With the way she phrased it, I couldn't tell if she trusted me much or not…

"Or, perhaps sparing even a single minute from your studies makes you worried about losing your match with me?"

Her provocation was rather counterproductive.

It was like she had given me a perfect excuse to avoid helping her. All I had to do was say that I was worried and study in my room.

"I'm very worried about─"

Just as I was about to gratefully take advantage of that excuse, my cell phone vibrated.

It was because Ichinose Honami, the leader of Class 2-B, had posted a message in the global chat the school had provided for us in the app. The message was─

[I have been given permission to host a meet-and-greet for the first and second-year students in the gym today from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. If you can spare the time, please feel free to join!]

This message was undoubtedly a lifesaver for the students who had been racking their brains about how to make contact with the first-years.

"As expected of Ichinose-san. She acted with due consideration for everyone, not just her own class."

Although it's unclear just how many students would attend, it'd be safe to assume that there would be a decent turnout.

It was more than possible that some people might establish partnerships on the spot.

However, instead of joy, a hint of frustration could be seen on Horikita's face.

Perhaps she had been planning a similar strategy.

"What's wrong? The special exam only just started, you know."

"Yes, you're right. It seems like our first order of business has been decided for us."

By that, she must mean participating in this meet-and-greet after school.

And before I knew it, I was being roped into helping her out.

Well, I suppose it's not that bad if I'm just keeping her company…

It seemed Horikita knew exactly what I was thinking, as she looked me in the eyes like she was testing me.

"Alright, I'll go."

"Oh? You're actually going to lend a hand? I thought you've been avoiding me lately, but… you've become awfully cooperative, haven't you?"

Brazenly imposing on me like this despite being aware that I've been avoiding her was really quite the feat.

"I was just thinking of taking a closer look and seeing what kind of strategy you come up with."

"I see. It was premature of me to say you'd be cooperative."

Even so, Horikita seemed to be willing to accept this, relatively satisfied with me coming as a compromise. This was all just as front, however, as this was an exam where I had no other choice but to take action myself in order to survive. Acting together with Horikita simply made a bunch of things easier.

"In which case, you can just treat what I say next as though I'm talking to myself. While it's true that our primary goal here is to get students like Sudō-kun and Ike-kun over the finish line, competition between outstanding students is one of the fundamental principles of this special exam. So naturally, we have to pay close attention to the movements of Ryūen-kun and Sakayanagi-san… That is to say, we have to pay close attention to their strategies."

Although what she was saying was obvious, the Horikita of the past wouldn't have thought it through to this point.

She would've focused solely on helping Sudō and the rest of her class survive, neglecting to pay any attention to her enemies' strategies.

This time, however, she was being very cautious from the start.

"Of course, at this point, there's no way to know what kind of tricks those two will pull. That being said, I believe private points will play a key role in their strategies."

Private points, or in other words, money. Horikita believed that, in this school, the power of private points spoke for itself. For the time being, there was no common factor connecting the first and second-year students. This meant that using private points would be the best way to quickly settle discussions with them.

"I don't know how much financial power Class A and Class C have right now, but if it turns into a competition over the excellent students, they might very well take up the strategy of just buying them outright."

"Right. Private points will be the easiest thing to understand as far as the first-year students are concerned."

Anybody could imagine the process of taking private points and exchanging them for the assistance of students with study skills. Though, if you irresponsibly used piles of money to fight this battle, you'd probably run out of private points in the blink of an eye. This was especially true for us in Class D as we had a sluggish financial situation for the past year. It was incredibly obvious that the amount of private points we had, our financial power, was significantly lower than that of the other classes.

"Under normal circumstances, we should invest our funds to secure a fixed number of students for ourselves as well."

The reason I said this was because, fundamentally, the only way to fight money is with more money. We had to play the money game, asking ourselves who can stack the bills higher.

However, the fact that Horikita seemed frustrated about the message Ichinose posted in the global chat earlier must mean…

"Let's start by scouting out the meet-and-greet. I can take action if the opportunity presents itself, but I have no intention to rush things. Are you fine with that?"

It seemed like she still hadn't settled on a course of action herself, as she didn't say anything further than that.

"As an aside, Ayanokōji-kun. Can I safely assume that you'll find yourself a partner on your own?"

"Would you find me one if I asked you to?"

"Objectively speaking, your Academic Ability rating is a C, so it pretty much doesn't matter who you pair up with. It should be easy enough for me to take care of while I'm at it, though."

"Well then, I'll reach out to you if I'm in trouble."

If a first-year student decides to pair with Horikita or Yōsuke, I could rule out the possibility of them being from the White Room. It wouldn't be impossible for me to reach out just before the pairing is finalized and switch places with them. However, if my opponent knew all about this ahead of time, it was also possible that they might predict that I'd choose to do that if I'm in trouble. Since I'd have to watch out for them outmaneuvering me, it'd be hard to say that this would definitively keep me in the clear. Furthermore, the first-year student who decided to pair up with Horikita or Yōsuke wouldn't be very happy with having me replace them, so they probably wouldn't accept the change very easily either.

"It'd be better if you didn't take your time with it. It's not like there's nothing to be worried about. The 5% penalty for running out of time won't come cheap."

"That's true."

While I didn't intend to take too long with it, I was concerned about the student who had come from the White Room.

There wasn't a doubt in my mind that they had blended in with the first-year students.

(Chapter 2 End)