Chapter 4 Part IV

"I'll go get another cup of coffee."

"Ooh, me too!"

It had been more than 30 minutes since Yukimura had started to confirm the results of their exams in Pallet. He hasn't looked up from the papers yet, and it looks like it was going to take a while longer for him to decide on a plan.

Hasebe and Miyake went to the cashier with their empty cups. Pallet had a policy where your second cup would be half price, although only valid on the same day. Pallet sold coffee that was cheap, tasty, and generally impeccable. It seems to be growing in popularity among first-year students. Hasebe and Miyake were already preparing to drink their third cups, but Yukimura, who was absorbed in his work, hadn't even finished the second half of his first. His attention was completed absorbed by the textbooks, notes, and test papers, considering how to make the best progress for the study group.

"That looks like a lot of work."

"That's because I've effectively never taught people how to study. I used to teach an idiot how to stay cram until late at night back in middle school, but I couldn't stand doing that. He didn't have any of the fundamentals, and wasn't able to concentrate on the material very well."

Yukimura set his pen on the table and looked up at the ceiling as if recalling that time.

"Now I can't forget the time that I wasted. I thought it was stupid to teach people how to study. During the first semester, when you and Horikita held a study group to stop those idiots from failing, I was laughing at you in my heart. The same goes for the group made by Hirata. Doesn't it just seem like a waste of time? Someone who doesn't study is almost always someone who hates doing it in the first place. I put in a day or two of effort to get rid of failing grades, so if they just go back to how things were before they're just wasting my time."

Rather than being abusive, Yukimura seemed to be muttering his honest thoughts.

"Then, why did you decide to teach us this time?"

It's difficult to compare the cramming that Yukimura taught to the final exams. If you don't study thoroughly, you shouldn't expect to overcome the difficulty. Yukimura is under a lot of pressure. In the event that Hasebe and Miyake get expelled, he would probably choose to shoulder the responsibility himself. If it got to that point, he would look past the fact that it was their own responsibility and start to regret that he could have taught them better. That's the type of person that Yukimura is.

"I was useless during the sports festival. What I had determined to be unnecessary had caught up with me. The only difference here is whether the school prioritizes athletics or academics."

Ike, Yamauchi, Sudō, and other students who wouldn't study. Yukimura who wouldn't exercise. Despite their differences, since he had judged that the school determines these things to be of equal importance, he had come to this conclusion.

"In this school, it's not enough to just study. It's not enough to just exercise. Even if we were to combine the two, it still wouldn't be enough. Even people like Horikita or Hirata, who are well-versed in both, can't survive this alone. Intuition, inspiration, and common sense. Ultimately, we will be called upon to display these indispensable qualities of human society. There's no way we could do it purely on our own. It's necessary to unite as a team and stick together. That's the only way."

Yukimura should have suffered all kinds of hardships to get into this school by now.

"So I decided to help. I want to contribute what I can to the class."

And that, of course, would be holding a study group.

"It's also because I had noticed that I had these selfish feelings about studying. I was reminded of my selfish mother when I thought of this, so I re-examined myself... No, this story is unnecessary. You can forget it."

Yukimura, who had returned from his thoughts, interrupted himself and took his gaze off the ceiling.

"Perhaps if I had to tutor Ike, I would have more problems. Miyake and Hasebe both have the ability to work hard and be serious about their schoolwork, so it's much easier. Also, since they are good at science, this shouldn't be too hard. I don't know how much I'll be able to help, but I can expect them to at least have some sizable improvements."

What forward-thinking... No, would it be better to take this as his response to the two of them? Even though he was just listening silently, he could see that Miyake and Hasebe both had a good attitude toward reading. They both had a pretty good viewpoint and ability to understand the material. Because of this, Yukimura earnestly wanted to do his best for them.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

Hasebe and Miyake also hadn't returned yet.

It seemed like there would be some time before the start of the study session, so I gave this excuse to leave the table as well. This was because I had been feeling the gazes of not only Ishizaki, but also of somebody else.

Although I couldn't see it clearly, someone had been discretely trying to peek over here. Yukimura didn't look at me as I left at all, so I moved directly to their seat. I don't think that they had noticed me, so I walked up directly while hiding my presence.

"What are you doing all on your own, Sakura?"

"Hyaa!?"

Sakura jumped a little in her seat and looked up fearfully.

"Uh… A coincidence, really, Ayanokōji-kun!"

"Oh, so it's a coincidence?"

"A coincidence, yes!"

"Haven't you been looking back at us from time to time?"

"That was… that... I-I'm sorry…"

Since Sakura didn't have the confidence to carry out the lie from the beginning, she immediately confessed.

"It doesn't seem like you necessarily have anything to tell me, or do you?"

So there was no need for her to come here. If it was urgent, she would have called or sent an email.

She didn't have any errands or business here, and she's not the type who would ask someone else, so looking at it this way…

"Do you want to join the study group too?"

"Wha, why, w-why!?"

"Well, the reason is rather simple. I can see your study materials inside your bag."

It's not necessary to take all of your notebooks with you whenever you go somewhere, but a study group would be a different story.

There are a lot of students here who were studying on their own, but Sakura would never choose to study in a place like this.

"Oh no..."

She panicked a bit and attempted to close her bag, but it was too late. That reaction itself was just like saying yes.

"If you don't mind our study group, would you like to join us? I'll ask the others."

"B-but I… I've hardly ever spoken to any of them…"

Sakura couldn't get close to our table because she wasn't good at coming in contact with other people. I understood this much even though she didn't say it.

"You've come this far on your own? If it's the Sakura that I know, you wouldn't have even been able to take the chance to come to Pallet and risked the chance of meeting people."

It's no easy task to lurk alone in a place that is filled with both large and small groups of people. The idea of escaping and heading back should have crossed her mind several times already.

Despite that, she still managed to remain here, which shows Sakura's current state of mind.

"It's up to you to decide what to do. It's better not to consider just my opinion on this. You have to consider how Yukimura, Hasebe, and Miyake would think and feel about it as well."

Sakura may be discouraged by these words.

She might resent me and think: 'He doesn't want to take a stance on it and accept me.'

However, Sakura's passive attitude has its good parts and bad parts.

Since it's a matter of her progress as a person, keeping my distance and waiting to see what she chooses to do on her own is the best policy.

Of course, I have a reason to think this.

Despite being in a group now, the threshold for communication with Yukimura and the others seems to be lower than with the other classmates. I feel like that in my own way. Sakura must also have a similar feeling.

"Just think about what you want to do. We'll be staying here for the next hour and studying."

Although it seems a little cold, I left Sakura after saying only those words. Even though the cafe was crowded, if I was to spend too much time next to Sakura's seat, I would soon be spotted by Hasebe.

I casually returned to my seat. Yukimura only glanced at me and said nothing in particular.

After waiting for about 2 minutes, we were approached by the others.

"What a long wait. So, have you finished going over everything yet?"

"I'm almost done."

Yukimura sped up his pace.

"Oh yeah! That's right Ayanokōji-kun, I wanted to ask you something. Okay?"

"Stop it, Hasebe."

Miyake stops Hasebe from trying to ask something.

"Oh come on. Like, it's not a big deal if anyone else hears."

"That's not the issue. Consider the time and place, you know?"

"It's after school, and this is the school cafe, so right now is really the perfect time to start on the subject, right?"

After Miyake saw that Hasebe had no intention of backing down, he shook his head as if to give in.

What on earth is she trying to ask me?

"Ayanokōji-kun, are you going out with Horikita-san?"

"I am not."

"An immediate response? Should I say that answer sounds pretty rehearsed? To me, it seems pretty suspicious indeed."

"I've already been asked by various people before. Horikita and I don't always work together."

"That may be true. But they say that rumors about love are only half false, you know."

A girl like Hasebe who prefers to alone seems to also be seriously interested in the topic of romance.

A sensible guy in this situation wouldn't forget to check with Hasebe to see if she has a boyfriend.

Of course, there's no way that I was going to do it (it simply isn't possible), so the topic ended with that.

"Okay!"

Yukimura suddenly raised his head in full force. It seemed that he had finally finished his revision.

"Somehow, I feel like I was able to grasp where exactly the two of you are having difficulties. This is the detailed plan I would like to focus on moving forward."

He announces this and passes over the various notes he had written to Miyake.

"I tried to come up with some liberal arts questions. I'll also have Hasebe answer them too, so don't answer them directly in my notebook. Write them on your own. The time limit is ten minutes for all ten questions."

Miyake took out his notebook without any complaints about the impromptu questions. Since he understood that this was in order for him to produce the best results he obeyed the instructions. After ten minutes of struggling, he passed the questions over to Hasebe like a baton. The purpose of these questions was to conduct a more in-depth investigation of their weaknesses.

Then, after a total of 20 minutes of exams, Yukimura immediately began writing out their scores on his notebook.

"Honestly, you guys..."

Yukimura finished grading the impromptu exams, and with a dumbfounded sigh, presented them with their scores.

They mutually got three answers correct, six incorrect, and the last one was half correct.

Their exams were the same, but it was surprising that they managed to get the exact same questions right and wrong.

"You're not only good at the same subjects, but you each have the same tendency of memorizing information."

"Awesome! Doesn't it feel almost like our destinies are intertwined, Miyatchi?"

"I don't feel it."

"Ah, as always your responses are dull. But, isn't this kinda a problem?"

Hasebe returned to her senses and began to feel anxious, but in fact, the opposite was true.

"It would be better to say that this situation is perfectly fine. It will only take half as much effort to solve."

If their learning ability and tendencies are almost exactly the same, as Yukimura says, the burden should become rather light.

The number of people who need to be taught can essentially be considered to be just one person.

Of course, because they are so similar, there should also be a couple of trivial differences, but when those situations come up, as long as they follow their instructions, it should carry on smoothly.

"Do you feel like this will be easy?"

"It depends on how much effort you put in from now on. These questions were some of the less difficult ones, but your grades were still a bit disturbing. I think it's necessary for us to gather like this a bit regularly… In short, we will need to study more. Counting backward from the day of the final exam, I'd like to have seven or eight opportunities to gather. A certain amount of time between each meeting will be preferable so you can do a bit of self-studying as well. Are you three alright with this? Miyake should also have problems with club activities."

"As we get closer to the final exam, the number of club activities will cool down a bit, but let me ask to be sure."

Yukimura nodded to this natural request. Then there was Hasebe.

"Ah, let me know one thing before I answer you, okay? Is this kinda what it will be like to study normally? I don't like, like studying, but when it comes to reviewing this and that, I think I can still do it on my own. Is there any benefit to studying in a group like this? Yeah, I know that having a smart person teach me will increase the efficiency, and I came here because of Miyatchi's advice, but I'm still kinda dubious about it all."

"You don't seem to be dubious about only my teachings."

Yukimura noticed the overtone of Hasebe's response, which explained the policy.

"I'm not going to be holding a regular study group. This is because while the questions for past exams were written by the school, this time around they're going to be written by other classes. The school's problems are usually targeted at assisting to move on to university and are standardized to content that is either basic or relatively easy to study for. To put it simply, it's a matter of course. On the other hand, the fact that questions will be written by other students is an unknown. It's difficult to formulate tendencies and countermeasures for it. This is why after considering this, it's necessary to study for these exams."

Miyake was convinced with Yukimura's explanation.

"That's right. Class C is definitely going to give us very tricky questions."

"Ah, well, it's not entirely impossible to formulate tendencies and countermeasures. It might seem unthinkable to come up with the problems Class C will have for us, but what if we think of the individual who will come up with them? As far as I can predict, I think the question-writer will be 'Kaneda'."

Although I'm not completely familiar with the name, it's not one I've never heard before.

"He's that disgusting creepy-looking guy with the glasses, right?"

"I'm not too sure if I agree with that, but that's probably the guy. He's the best student in Class C."

If the Yukimura's information is correct, it would be appropriate to assume that the students who have done well in their studies would be the ones writing their questions.

"Ah, but if the problem's turn out to be really distorted, it may also be one that was written by Ryūen or Ishizaki, right?"

"That's impossible. Even if there is a trap question, it's impossible to come up with one without first having a firm background in the subject. Try to imagine it yourself. Do you think you can come up with a social studies question that can't be solved easily?"

"...No, not at all. I can't even think of a topic in the first place."

"Same thing here. What kind of social studies questions will be put on the test?"

"That's the way it is. Even if you think about it, your mind will only flash over the obvious content. Difficult problems and trap questions aren't something you'd be able to easily create even if you wanted to. If you look at the textbook and aim for the difficult parts of the content, the school will probably end up rejecting the question since the problem wasn't set up correctly."

His conjecture made a good point. However, it was just a little too weak to instill confidence.

"Is it up to the school to ultimately decide if a question is acceptable or not?"

I gave a slight interjection into Yukimura's story.

"If so, do we need to know the clear standard which the school determines a question to be acceptable?"

"That's true. If we knew that, we wouldn't have to work as hard."

"I think it's possible to figure out. In short, if Class D prepares a number of highly selective questions, and gives them to the school for review, would it not be possible to come to a clear answer to the question based off which questions get accepted?"

"Ah, that's right. That's actually a really good idea."

"You're pretty sharp, Ayanokōji-kun."

"In this case, we seem to have to submit these questions as early as possible in order to identify the benchmarks that the school has. I'll try to think about a few questions myself, but will Horikita or Hirata be willing to help as well?"

"I don't know… we're totally split up from them now, so the details are unclear."

"That's troubling. You're the only one of us who can keep in touch with them."

Miyake and Hasebe also nod almost simultaneously.

"I get it. I'll see what I can do… but don't expect too much from me."

Do both Horikita and Yukimura plan to use me as a convenient middleman for them?

"Yeah, I see."

Hasebe's doubts seemed to have been settled, and there was a smile on her face.

"Well, I don't do any club activities, so let's decide how to do this based on what works for Miyatchi, okay?"

By saying so, she gave up all the decision-making rights.

When Miyake heard this, he looked at Hasebe in surprise.

"I thought Hasebe was still going to refuse. How unusual, you don't usually want to get involved with guys."

"It seems like it would be kinda bad if I didn't join in the study group. It would be my own fault if I was going to like, drop out of school, but I don't want to get Miyatchi involved, alright?"

She appeared to have agreed for the sake of her friend Miyake instead of for her own.

"Well, that should be it for today. I plan to hold the first study session the day after tomorrow."

Yukimura summed up the first session. Did he plan on going over the topic trends and formulate countermeasures today and tomorrow?

After that, even as we announced that we were finished and left Pallet, Sakura still didn't come over to talk to us.