In First Year Class D, Chabashira Sae entered the classroom carrying the quiz papers.
Heh... So now they were finally trying to act like good students? Too late!
She couldn't help noticing the changes in Class D's lessons over the past few days.
Still, Chabashira found it strange. If someone from Class D had made a move, why had they chosen such an awkward time?
As Class D's homeroom teacher, Chabashira never spoke with her students during April, nor did she reveal anything that might benefit the class.
That was because her usual teaching policy for Class D was to ignore them for the first month, then stomp on them hard at the start of the next!
That was how she established her authority as their homeroom teacher, making it easier to lead this gathering of Defective Products toward improvement in the future.
So Chabashira had no idea that Tennoji Kaede of Class C had carefully chosen the timing before selling Class D the nearly expired information.
And now, Class D was about to take another crushing blow!
"We're starting a pop quiz now," Chabashira Sae said coldly.
"What! We have a test now? Saechie, why didn't you warn us?"
"Does that mean we're going to get expelled!?"
Kanji Ike suddenly wailed loudly.
Most of the students with poor grades in Class D, who had only heard a few days earlier that failing an exam meant expulsion, looked horrified and muttered blankly.
Chabashira Sae was surprised, too. Class D already knew that failing an exam meant expulsion?
In previous years, one of her favorite things to do in early May was put on a big show in front of a crumbling Class D.
Now she couldn't put on that act?
For a moment, Chabashira hesitated over whether she should tell these desperate Defective Products the truth:
This quiz wasn't actually an official assessment, and it would have no impact on the class's future...
But in the end, Chabashira chose to keep quiet about the truth she had originally planned to reveal.
At this school, as long as students didn't ask, it wasn't a big deal for teachers to say less.
Of course, a normal teacher wouldn't do that, since a class's performance was closely tied to its homeroom teacher.
But unfortunately, because of things in her past, Chabashira had always been someone with ideas of her own.
Right now, she even wanted to praise Ayanokoji Kiyotaka for his cleverness.
In Chabashira's view, Ayanokoji had told Class D that failing an exam meant expulsion at such an awkward time because he wanted to motivate everyone to give their all on this quiz!
In fact, if they did well on this quiz and nobody failed, that would indeed benefit them when their Class Points were assessed next month!
So if Chabashira told everyone in Class D the truth now, they would only let out a huge sigh of relief, and end up taking the test casually instead.
But now?
She didn't have to say a thing, and Class D would work hard on the quiz. They might even preserve more of their Class Points. What was there not to like?
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka: ...? What's with that look, Teacher Chabashira?
So she really did know me.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was secretly on guard. The odds that Chabashira Sae was an assassin from the White Room were low, but she might have gotten hold of information about his past somewhere... He had to find a way to deal with that potential threat.
And so, Class D spent the quiz trying to outsmart an imaginary opponent.
Then, amid the students' agonized and despairing wait, Judgment Day arrived.
Advanced Nurturing High School, May 1, first period: Class Meeting.
The morning sky was gray and hazy, as though veiled by a gauzy curtain waiting for someone to tear it open.
After that nightmarish quiz, the atmosphere in Class D's classroom had fallen into a deathly silence, like stagnant water.
How many points could they expect to get? Would they fail?
Estimating your own score was practically a passive skill for any student.
Chabashira Sae entered the classroom carrying a large tube of rolled-up papers.
"Eek!" Someone let out a quiet scream.
Horikita looked grim. Even now, she believed that several students in Class D were about to be expelled and that their points would surely take a huge hit.
It couldn't be helped. The information Tennoji Kaede had provided was highly misleading, and Class D was missing crucial details. Aside from a few people, no one could figure out what was really going on.
Panel Superman, leader of Class D, and Handsome Ranking nominee—Hirata Yousuke.
At that moment, Hirata's expression was horribly contorted, like an active volcano about to erupt.
After hearing Horikita announce the expulsion rules beforehand, he had secretly been relieved that they'd found out early. He hadn't expected a surprise quiz to come out of nowhere just a few days later.
Hirata knew full well how poor some of his classmates' academic skills were.
But this had been so sudden!
This school was completely unreasonable!
Didn't he even have a single second to help everyone improve their grades?
I was too presumptuous... It's only been a month... Could it be... Is the class going to...
Unable to breathe, Hirata thought of what might happen next.
But some Class D students, convinced they would never be expelled, couldn't hold back any longer. "Kuroya Supreme Godwork!" they shouted.
"Saechie, are you on your period or something? Haha..."
Yamauchi Haruki paid no attention to the mood in the classroom and kept asking questions:
"Why haven't this month's points been transferred yet? Horikita said they'd go down, but surely they wouldn't drop all the way to zero, right?"
Quite a few classmates looked at him, their expressions hard to read.
"Hey, what are you all looking at me like that for? Did I say something wrong?"
Yamauchi was confused. Had he remembered the point deductions incorrectly?
Now that he thought about it, something did seem a little off...
"Yamauchi, you're pretty funny. Can't you even remember how many points you have left?" Chabashira continued to sneer. "This month's points have already been transferred to all of you. But it seems you're not happy with the amount? Heh, or do you just not care?"
"By the way, some of you might be leaving this school today. That's what you're all worried about, isn't it?"
Hirata instinctively raised his head, his gaze unsteady.
"Eighty-nine cases of tardiness and absence combined, and 365 instances of private conversations during class. Quite a record last month. You all understand by now what these behaviors will cost you, don't you?"
Chabashira looked down at them. Almost no one dared meet her eyes.
"What are you all talking about?" Yamauchi Haruki demanded.
"Still haven't remembered, Yamauchi?"
"This month, the number of points transferred to all of you was... 100! Ha ha ha!"
Chabashira Sae really did laugh at that score. It would've been less painful if it had just dropped to zero!
"I've taught Class D for years, and I've never seen such an amusing score! Still, 100 really isn't much~ No wonder you didn't notice right away, Yamauchi."
"Huh? Only 100! Ten thousand can just turn into 100? What did you all do last month? Somebody tell me!" Yamauchi shouted, glaring at everyone around him.
Nearby, Kouenji Rokusuke could no longer hold back and snorted with laughter.
He had no interest in points. Put simply, they were just like money—nothing but a string of numbers, and not a patch on his beauty.
But the monkey beside him called "Yamauchi Haruki" was genuinely amusing, as if he were the complete opposite of Kouenji himself.
At the blackboard in Class D, Chabashira Sae unfolded a poster showing the changes in each class's points.
Then she began explaining the special "Class Points" system.
The poster clearly showed each class's Class Points for May:
Class A 1000→940
Class B 1000→650
Class C 1000→590
Class D 1000→1
Before you continue