Chapter 19:

The instant those words left his mouth, the class erupted into conversation, the teacher, for the most part, had been expecting this to happen and let it happen. Ace noticed that two students did not seem surprised at his statement, and surprise surprise, they were Amy and Sophia. They had probably been told already to expect him in their year group, but Ace wondered how much they knew about his situation. Samantha had tried to keep his illness a secret as much as she could, and for the most part, it worked, but some of the more influential people in the world probably knew about it, leaks were unavoidable after all, it was just a matter of making use of them to your advantage.

The teacher asked for silence, and for the most part, people stopped talking, even if there were a few mutters here and there. "Ok, so the next task on the list is the selection of the class president. If you wish to ask for candidacy, please step forward." At this, Amy stepped forward, even if anyone else did wish to be the President, no one was well-suited to the role except for Ace and Sophie, so now that people knew she was not going to go for the candidacy, it was a matter of whether Ace would as well. However, before anything could be said, Amy stepped forward and said: "As I am sure you are aware, only a few other people could rival me in their suiting for the post, one of them will not ask for it.", at this, she looked at Sophie, and Sophie nodded in response. "However, there is one more person, Ace, if you so wish,I will step down and let you be President, on the grounds that you take me on as an advisor."

Ace was not surprised, he had expected something like this to happen and already had a solution. "Do not worry, I have no plans on stepping forward and all my support will be with the person that is elected, in fact, if you so wish, I will become your advisor if you were to be selected." At this point, the President had already been elected, but as part of the routine, the teacher asked again, "If anyone else wishes for the post, step forward, otherwise, the post will go to Amy." And in this way, the most peaceful elections to ever happen in a first-year class were carried out, and for the most part, the students were happy with the outcome.

"Next on the list, we will give you availability to check the rankings, you will only be able to see your own, but I will give you time for a discussion. As most of you have already figured out from our student lineup, this class is Rank 1 in homeroom. Nevertheless, do not believe you are safe, some of you are placed in rank 2 classes, and the only reason why you are here is due to your family's influence. However, after this week, that will be over, you will have to show that you belong to this class. Every week, there will be changes to the class placements, but your rankings are updated to the nearest hour. If you think you will not be able to keep up with the frenetic pace, drop out.", Miss Judge stared at the class, sweeping her gaze over her students.

"Now, you will be wondering, why would I want to rank up? And that is a fair question, all of you have everything you would ever want, however, there is something you need. The higher your placement at the end of the year in regards to the whole year group, the more LAP points you will receive, as you well know, these will help you gain entry to the most prestigious private institutions for advanced learning, where money and influence just doesn't cut it." At this, students looked starry-eyed at the teacher, being able to gain these points from the start of the year would be a huge boon to them, and would most definitely make their families happy. They now fervently wished to check their rankings, but without pause, Miss Judge continued: "And last but not least, behavioural commentary, I am sure that none of you plan on using any problems, but do know that depending on the offence, various punishments could be doled out, from deduction of Ranking Points to the suspension of your club activities for you as an individual." This was big, lower-ranking meant fewer LAPs and not being able to participate in activities may cause you to be kicked out, and someone kicked out would probably have a hard time getting into another club. "Now that all is finished, you will be able to check your placements and due to the promptness of your selection of President, you will have the rest of the day as free time. Have a good day.", and with that, she left.

The class began talking excitedly, but the main action being carried out was checking the rankings. Ace looked at his:

Classroom: Rank 1

Year Group: Rank 1

It wasn't much of a surprise but he had hoped that someone would rank higher than him, that would make things interesting. As soon as he finished, he got up from his seat and walked towards Amy's desk, everyone turned silent, "Congratulations on the candidacy, you will have my full support for anything that you need." And with his practised grin, he left.

Amy POV

Amy now had a light blush on her cheeks and she knew it, Ace was by far the best looking out of the whole class, and he had directly declared his support for her. This was very good for her, their cooperation could dominate the first year and probably rival some of the onset of the second year. She now just had to keep up her ranking, she had no doubt Ace was rank one, and her rank 2 would also have to be maintained, if anyone else was to gain it, it would look bad for her.

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Ace wandered around the halls, looking at as much of the school as he could, until he finally headed to the School Grounds, he had been walking for a good half an hour, and he assumed his classmates had already gone there, and would be meandering around, attempting to find the club that would suit their needs. He walked to the grounds, and walked around, looking at the various stalls. The biggest and most decorated were the biggest and most popular, but he found that some clubs were not there, he asked one of the Seniors, and he responded that some would be holding practises during the following weeks, and if you wished to try out, you would have to meet their standards. Some others were not here as they had no need to make any advertisement, students would wish to join up regardless.

Ace asked were the martial arts club was and the student laughed, "It's not the martial arts club, a few years ago, all the various clubs that focused on fighting, but taught various disciplines, joined into one big club, it is now called the Fight Club, and in order to enter, you will have to beat a member, however, if you do beat that member, he will be kicked out of the club, and will have to beat another to join again. It works on a ranking base system, so you must fight the last one, in this way, they are able to always have high standards. It is almost impossible for a freshman to win a fight, so they have various programs that are available to all those that are interested in preparation for next year, when it will be more realistic for them to rank up."

Ace now became interested and asked for directions, they were located in one of the biggest gymnasiums, it was all covered with tatami, and to his surprise, despite the large number of people there, it smelt fine. He then remembered the gym's smell and laughed internally, yeah, it smelt more than fine. He looked up and noticed the large humidifiers, and assumed they and the open windows were the reasons for the good smell.

He walked up to the stands, and noticed quite a few people were there, but not all in school uniform. He asked around and found out that students did not have school today, it was only the freshman and those that were directly helping out that were in school, however, some seemed to enjoy watching the fights and so came to school to pass the day watching the people in the club partake in fights.