Chapter 1 : Graduation Ceremony

March 24th. The graduation ceremony

To the third years, not only was this an event that marked the end of their high school life, but it also marked the beginning of another journey they will be embarking on.

To the students enrolled here, this was merely just another event. However-

To me, it was something worth watching.

I was rather curious about the results of the battle between the elder Horikita and Nagumo.

I was still unaware of what happened in their final battle that had lasted until the very end… was the elder Horikita able to graduate from Class A? Or had Nagumo's intervention stopped him?

Although it should have been revealed to me yesterday, I had something that needed to be done, so I didn't leave my room.

So the results would be revealed todayinstead.

I was also interested in what a graduation ceremony would feel like.

Whether it was the graduation ceremony or the closing ceremony, experiencing something for the first time would naturally be exciting.

With it almost being time for school, I locked the door to my room and headed out.

"Good morning."

Keisei, who was in the elevator with me, greeted me, and I responded quietly. Because there were students from the other classes with us, we didn't talk about anything important.

Just like that, we quietly walked out of our dorm lobby.

"We worked so hard to get promoted to Class C only to get pushed back to where we started… At least we didn't suffer as much damage as I thought we would."

Keisei's murmurs quickly dissipated into the bright and cloudless sky.

Class C's failure in the final special exam of the year will have demoted us back to Class D.

Although many of the students were affected by the loss, our opponent was, fortunately, Class A, so it was to be expected.

As I held the protection points, it meant that I was the commander during the exam as well, burdened with the duties of being a moderator.

And so everyone would believe that there was no helping our loss and that if we had already tried our best, then it was already good enough.

Even though we had been demoted back to Class D, the difference in our scores was encouraging.

These were the class points in late March:

▪︎1131 Points for Sakayanagi's Class A

▪︎550 Points for Ichinose's Class B

▪︎347 Points for Horikta's Class C

▪︎508 Points for Ryuuen's Class D

These class rankings would only last until the end of this March.

Class Points were determined and confirmed at the start of each month, and only then would the class rankings change.

As a result, we're still technically Class C.

But following Ryuuen's rise back to Class C, their Class Points are virtually the same as Class B's.

If everything stayed the same as it was now, the class rankings would definitely change.

But we couldn't forget that at this school, the existing class points could change every month due to the different situations that occur.

Ichinose's class had a lot of diligent students, but Ryuuen's class, even if they could be complimented on their achievements, couldn't be labelled as first-rate students.

And due to the different lifestyles each class led, the points that each class received would be different.

The students of Class B might be worried about that possibility.

But even so, the fact that Ichinose maintained Class B's ranking throughout the year could offer them peace of mind as well.

That being said, the difference between Class B and Ryuuen's Class was a mere 42 points.

After the next special exam, there was a high chance that Ryuuen's class would take Class B's spot.

Looking from that perspective, it seemed like the Class D that I belonged to was way behind everyone else.

However, we couldn't forget the situation with the class points of each class in April and May last year.

Last April, all the classes started at 1000 class points. Back then, the overwhelming advantage of Class A and the inferiority of Class D did not exist.

Thinking back now, that was the best time to establish our position.

Unfortunately, Class D lost all our class points within a month.

The rankings back then…

Sakayanagi's Class A 940 points

Ichinose's Class B 650 points

Ryuuen's Class C 490 points

Horikita's Class D 0 points

As a result, the cumulative class points for the entire grade had fallen. It was the start of the competition between the classes, and who won and who lost in them.

Think of it this way. Our class gained a total of 347 points in the entire year.

Affected by factors such as our attitude, tardiness, absence, etc., the class points might still decrease at the end of the month.

But overall, we still gained at least 330 to 340 points.

That's my point. Our class was the fastest in the entire grade when it came to gaining class points throughout the year, even overwhelmingly exceeding Class A's, the runner up, number. Class A had only received an increase of 191 class points.

Thinking back to spring of last year, when we dropped to 0 points in an instant, we already did quite well in catching up.

However, when we become second years, the class had to become more proactive as a whole.

That was the only way in which we could close the gap with the upper ranking classes.

With Horikita and Hirata's leadership, as well as the growth of the other members of our class, the overall capabilities of our class will increase as a whole.

If we could accomplish this, competing with students in the upper classes would become a reality.

After noticing that there was no one around, Keisei seemed like he wanted to say something.

"Don't worry about it. Most of the students don't blame you."

Maybe Keisei felt that I was troubled due to our defeat. I certainly did not care about it, but I noticed something in Keisei's words.

"Most?"

Within these comforting words was a hole right in the middle of it.

In other words, there were still a minority of students who were dissatisfied with me.

"This… is not a perfect situation. They're not saying that you were a bad commander, but they felt as if there could have been a better, more competent person as the commander."

In a sense, this was also a form of blame. Humans were irrational creatures. Even if it had agreed on something before, to take a different stance afterwards was not at all uncommon.

There would be people who thought that the reason we lost to Class A was because of the gap in skill between the commanders, which was understandable.

"Even if someone accuses you, remember you have the upper hand. You were our only choice for commander since you were the only one with protection points…"

Kei told me this after considering the possibility of students confronting me in the future.

"Although most people would agree with that, there's also the example of Ryuuen."

After I said that, Keisei smiled bitterly, and shook his head.

"That bastard is pretty special. I reckon that his recklessness is just a facade. It was because of his unexpected rise, as he didn't have any protection points, that led to Class B's fall, suffering a crushing defeat."

From the surface, it seemed like Keisei's words were all true.

But in reality, it wasn't. This was all part of Ryuuen's calculated strategy, all for the sake of winning.

The unexpected appearance was only a part of his setup.

"…Kiyotaka, I need to ask you something."

Just after those words were spoken, Keisei continued.

"When I suddenly decided to try and get involved with Katsuragi to win him over, why didn't you report me?"

In order to beat Class A at the end of year exam, Keisei proposed to Horikita that we try to win Katsuragi over to our side since he was defeated by Sakayangi… But Horikita rejected this due to the high risk of failure and the difficulty of the task.

Despite what Horikita said, Keisei couldn't accept it. This led him to try and convince Katsuragi alone, which resulted in failure.

Despite his failure, this did not have much of an impact in the grand scheme of things.

Although Katsuragi was unwilling to cooperate, the actual damage suffered was also negligible.

"The damage we suffered wasn't that significant, so isn't it fine?"

For Keisei, that wasn't important.

I knew this, but I said something comforting anyway.

"That's because Katsuragi doesn't like to resort to underhanded tactics. If he were someone like Sakayanagi or Ryuuen, we would be subject to even more devastating attacks."

Keisei, who felt deeply responsible due to the failure to forcefully get Katsuragi on our side, was worried about a future that did not happen.

It sounded like Keisei told Horikita about trying to win over Katsuragi himself.

"Ah. I mentioned this to Horikita. I think I should be responsible for this"

He acknowledged his failures bluntly, with a tone of bitterness.

"Kiyotaka, are you confident that Katsuragi won't betray Class A?"

He then asked me directly.

"No. Katsuragi may indeed change sides. Won't he?"

"Maybe…"

As for whether the possibility of it happening was 50% or 1%, this wasn't the time to consider.

"I didn't report it to Horikita because I forgot to. Back then, all my worries were about my position as the commander tower and having to bear the responsibility of being one. If you think of it like that, I hold responsibility too. If your plan had succeeded and won over Katsuragi, I would've taken some blame for not being able to communicate well with Horikita and the rest of the class. We're in this together."

After both sides admitted guilt, we could put this case to rest.

"Even so, I felt that I was too naive. If I had considered the risks, I wouldn't have even tried to win Katsuragi over."

Even if we couldn't erase the past, we could use it to reflect on our actions in the future.

"If it were about being too naive, I would be guilty too. Because I didn't say anything at the time."

"I feel better, hearing you say that."

During that exam, many students were passively participating. However, Keisei tried to do everything he could to lead our class to victory.

"And don't you understand what happened then? A strategy like that would've been difficult to pull off anyways."

You could learn a lot from mistakes.

As for whether he could make his plans work, that depended on him.

"Yeah, I was so focused on winning that I couldn't see anything else. Now that I've calmed down, I feel ashamed."

He muttered to himself as he reflected on his actions.

Appeasing to Katsuragi was indeed a naive idea, but the fact that he thought of such a plan and tried to accomplish it on his own was something worth praising.

"So what did Horikita tell you?"

"Horikita didn't blame me, but it was obvious that if I failed, I would've harmed the class as a whole. Not only that, but she also said that next time I had an idea, I had to tell her about it. She also advised me not to rush anything."

It seemed like Horikita made a similar evaluation.

People grew from constant failure. If you merely look at the results before reprimanding someone, then you couldn't be a leader.

Of course, if someone continually fails without learning from their mistakes, then they will be abandoned sooner or later.

"Bluntly speaking, I'm not sure how Horikita still holds the spot as the class's leader. Sure, she's smart, and she's good at sports, but no matter what she says, she still has this condescending attitude towards people. It's hard for people to accept that."

I couldn't deny the point he made. At least I couldn't now.

She wasn't the same type of leader as Hirata or Ichinose.

When alliances were established, enemies were bound to be created.

"But… I'm the same too. I believe that athletics isn't necessary and look down on people who aren't smart. We're the same, me and Horikita."

Just after school started, Keisei tended to look down on students with poor grades.

That was because he believed that as a student, academic performance meant everything, for better or worse.

"The Keisei right now and the Keisei a year ago is completely different. You've changed a lot over the past year."

"Ahhh, the fact that I'm thinking like this now is incredible. Although academics are still the most important, I've come to understand that athletics, the ability to communicate, as well as friendship, are also all necessary. Horikita is also slowly changing. She's more reliable now than ever before, and that makes it easier to trust her."

Keisei didn't really trust anyone outside of the Ayanokouji group. Nevertheless, he still expressed affirmation towards the aspects of Horikita that were worth praising. That allowed me to firmly believe that what he was saying was from the heart.

"That might be the case."

I agreed with what he said.

The kind of student Horikita was had slowly been revealed after a year. Ever since the class vote, she had gradually become more accepted by our classmates. The main reason was not because of her abilities as a leader and tactician, but because the great wall in her heart was slowly starting to crumble. As long as that wall stood, she would consider students apart from herself to be nothing more than a burden, abandoning them without the slightest hesitation. In that way, she was similar to Keisei.

"Of course, I'm not going to obey Horikita blindly. If I believe that she'd made some sort of mistake with her judgement, then I won't hesitate to object and call her out on it. Is doing that wrong?"

Keisei replied after organising his thoughts.

Things that are true ought to be believed, and things that create doubt ought to be doubted.

"No, that's completely correct. That's how the class operated from the beginning."

No matter how reliable she was, she was still just a high school girl.

She would make mistakes from time to time as well.

Now, if any of the students pointed out those mistakes, it was still something worth feeling positive about.

We can work together as a class to solve our problems, as equals.

Due to the authoritarian rule of Sakayanagi and Ryuuen with their respective classes, that approach wasn't an option to them.

It can be said that our class was slowly turning into something similar to how Ichinose's class operated.

Afterwards, we'll need to use our strength to close the gap.