Night.
A private karaoke room.
"Shinroku-senpai, I think now is the best time to launch the plan. If we wait until graduation is near to start collecting points, many people will convert their points into cash. By then, there'll be no way for the entire year group to gather 20 million Personal Points."
After Dokuho Kouya finished explaining his reasoning, he fell silent, leaving time to think to the third-year Class C senpai sitting on the sofa beside him.
Shinroku Sato considered it for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "You have a point. While third-year students still can't exchange their points for cash, gathering everyone's points together as much as possible should let us raise the 20 million needed to transfer classes."
"But," Shinroku Sato, the leader of third-year Class C, changed tack, "just because I think you have a point doesn't mean I agree with the point-collection plan."
"Since you already know about the Special Exams, I'll be frank. There's still a year to go, and nobody knows what kind of Special Exams we'll face next. Even our Class C could turn things around through a Special Exam."
Shinroku Sato's expression turned serious. "It's too early to give up now."
If they won a large number of Class Points in one of the upcoming Special Exams, then Class C would still have a chance to rise to Class A.
"Shinroku-senpai, do you believe what you just said?" Dokuho Kouya couldn't help finding it amusing.
"Are you looking down on us?" Shinroku Sato furrowed his brow, his expression darkening.
"If I remember correctly, your year's competition is between Classes A and B, and between Classes C and D, isn't it? You can barely beat Class B, let alone Class A, which is much stronger."
Dokuho Kouya leaned back on the sofa and spoke casually. "Even if there really is a Special Exam with a huge reward later, only Class A or Class B will win it. Your Class C won't even get a look in."
Through the International Chess Club and the Shogi Club, Dokuho Kouya had obtained the contact information of every third-year class leader. He had ultimately decided to speak with the leader of Class C first.
Class C's standing was neither here nor there. It was somewhat stronger than Class D, which was considered defective, but the gap between it and Classes A and B was enormous.
In the competition for Class A, Class C could at best be a mere also-ran. No matter how hard they tried, they had no chance of rising any higher.
"That kind of thing, we haven't tried..." Shinroku Sato started to argue, but when the words came to his lips, he found he couldn't quite bring himself to finish.
Tried?
They had already tried plenty of times.
But when they faced Class A, led by Manabu Horikita, they were completely powerless and suffered a crushing defeat.
Even Class B often beat them in Special Exams.
Just as Dokuho Kouya had said, Class C could only compete with Class D. They had no way to challenge Classes A and B.
"Shinroku-senpai, you just mentioned giving up. I don't think this is giving up," Dokuho Kouya said. "It's just insurance for one last gamble."
When he explained the situation to the third-year Class C leader sitting across from him, he had already told him why the previous senpais had failed: they had converted their points into cash, losing their chance to make one last gamble.
"It'd be one thing if you hadn't thought of it, but now that I've told you about this method..." Dokuho Kouya paused, then continued, "when graduation comes, you'll definitely spend it regretting your decision."
"Why didn't we try pooling our points back then? If we'd gathered enough for a class transfer, I might have been able to graduate as a Class A student."
"That regret might stay with you for the rest of your life."
Influenced by the school, most students at Advanced Nurturing had become almost obsessed with graduating from Class A.
If they had a chance to graduate from Class A but didn't try for it, they really might regret it for decades.
Just like Sae Chabashira and Chie Hoshinomiya, who had once studied at this school. Since they hadn't graduated from Class A and their classes had fallen apart, the two of them had been dwelling on it for more than ten years.
"Insurance for one last gamble?" Shinroku Sato frowned.
Just as Dokuho had said, it would be one thing if they hadn't heard about pooling points to transfer classes. But now they had, and the idea was bound to take root in their minds.
In the end, if they didn't have enough points to make one last attempt, they would definitely regret it.
An ordinary person might have been persuaded by now.
But as a class leader, Shinroku Sato had more to consider. "Kouya, you must realize we might not hand our points over to you to look after, right?"
The contract he had been given required anyone joining the plan to hand some of their Personal Points over to Dokuho Kouya for safekeeping. Once they had gathered enough points to transfer classes, a computer would select someone at random. After they chose who would transfer, they would have Kouya make the final payment.
Although Dokuho Kouya had promised in the contract that he would never misuse the points and would voluntarily withdraw if he did, Shinroku Sato didn't think they needed to entrust their points to a first-year student.
"Then who does Shinroku-senpai want to entrust them to?"
Dokuho Kouya's expression remained calm. He rested his fingers lightly on the sofa. "If we carry out the plan, the points from your Class C alone won't be enough. We'll have to bring in Classes B and D too. But you're competitors in the same year, so you can't trust each other."
The school's teachers were no help either.
They could ask them to act as guarantors.
But if they asked them to safeguard 20 million Personal Points, they would only refuse.
"Manabu Horikita from third-year Class A." Shinroku Sato smiled bitterly, looking resigned. "You might think I'm being stupid, but Manabu Horikita keeps his promises. If we entrust the points to him, he'd never keep the money for himself."
"I think the leaders of Classes B and D would agree too."
That really was pretty stupid.
Dokuho Kouya silently grumbled to himself.
"Has Shinroku-senpai forgotten that the Student Council can interfere with the school's rules?" Dokuho Kouya said. "The Manabu Horikita you mentioned isn't just the leader of third-year Class A. He's also this school's Student Council President."
"If he found out about the plan, he might use his authority as Student Council President to ban it."
"No, that's impossible!" Shinroku Sato hurriedly shook his head. "There's no way the rule allowing students to transfer classes for 20 million could be changed that easily."
If they did that, the school would just be admitting it couldn't handle the competition and making a fool of itself!
"But the school could ban this way of obtaining a huge amount of Personal Points through a lottery."
Dokuho Kouya offered his opinion. "If I were the Student Council President, I definitely wouldn't accept that I had to work hard for three years to graduate from Class A while someone else could get into Class A just by being lucky."
"Even if he didn't say it to our faces, he might secretly suggest that the school ban this kind of thing."
"Shinroku-senpai, are you sure you want to tell the Student Council President about this?"
Before you continue