Gradual Awareness

As the bell rang for class, Sato stopped chatting with me and returned to her seat, though she seemed a bit reluctant to leave.

Horikita buried herself in her studies, as if nothing could disturb her.

Soon, Chabashira walked in, her heels clicking against the floor. She set down her books, braced her hands on the podium, and scanned the classroom.

The class, which had been somewhat noisy, fell silent immediately; even the rowdiest trio of idiots straightened their posture.

"Ahem, I'm going to pass out the test papers for the end-of-month quiz. Pass them toward the back."

"Don't worry, this end-of-month quiz won't be reflected on your report cards. Even if you get a zero, it doesn't matter, so just relax." Chabashira wore an inscrutable smile.

"Really, Chabashira-sensei? It won't affect us no matter what we score?" Ike Kanji confirmed once more.

"Yes, that's right."

Upon hearing this, the tension that had just built up in the classroom vanished in an instant. While the students didn't whisper to each other, most of them looked quite happy.

The test paper soon reached my hands. I scanned it casually. "The questions at the beginning are at a third-year middle school level, but the big problems at the end are difficult even for high school standards."

Haha, is Kodo Ikusei playing this kind of game? Are they trying to filter out math geniuses?

I looked up and saw that everyone else seemed to be answering with ease, so I lowered my head and began to work.

The bell rang again, signaling the end of the exam. After handing in my paper, Sato came over to invite me to the cafeteria.

"Ayanokoji-kun, how did you do on the Japanese and math tests this morning?"

"Haha, I feel pretty good. I'll probably average around seventy points." I estimated; in truth, this was the result of me intentionally controlling my score.

"Wow, that's amazing! I could do the first few questions, but the ones at the end looked like astronomical figures to me. I didn't understand them at all."

"If you'd like, after the quiz is over, I could tutor you if I have time. How does that sound?" I said softly.

"Really? That would be great!" Sato's eyes lit up, her face full of pleasant surprise.

Early the next morning, the date turned to May 1st.

"Chabashira-sensei, what's going on? Why haven't my points for this month been deposited yet?" Ike and Yamauchi approached, looking aggressive, as if interrogating Chabashira the moment she entered the classroom.

"Yeah, it's not just them. None of our points have arrived. How are we supposed to live?" shouted Sudo Ken, the delinquent-looking redhead.

"Oh my, I still have so many cosmetics to buy, and bags too," Kei Karuizawa chimed in.

Seeing the entire class staring at her with desperate eyes, Chabashira finally spoke, though her expression was blank and her voice cold. "You really are a bunch of idiots. Haven't you realized it yet?"

"Sensei, what do you mean by that?" Ike asked, sounding irritated and dropping the honorific.

"Hahahaha, so that's it, teacher. I understand. You're right, they really are a bunch of idiots, pigs." Koenji laughed loudly, his feet propped up on his desk.

As soon as Koenji finished speaking, the entire class's attention shifted to him, and the students glared at him with hostility.

"Hey, what do you mean by that, you bastard? If you know something, don't just sit there yapping," Sudo Ken said, pointing at Koenji with clear annoyance.

Koenji didn't react to any of this; he simply used a hand mirror to admire his own beauty or took out a nail clipper to trim his nails.

"Sensei, please just tell us. Why weren't the points for this month deposited?" At this point, Hirata Yosuke finally stood up.

Watching this scene, I felt thoughtful. A month into the school year, this class had already formed cliques.

Broadly speaking, there were two major groups centered around Hirata and Kei, along with several smaller, scattered groups. The influence of Kushida Kikyo was undeniable; everyone had a good relationship with her, except for Horikita.

"Since the start of the school year, you have been late 92 times, absent 37 times, and caught fidgeting in class 325 times."

"When school started, every class was given 1,000 class points. The class points at the beginning of the month multiplied by 100 equals the amount of points each student in that class should receive."

"Because of your various behaviors, our class points have dropped to zero, which is why you received no points. Your points will only return once the class points become a positive number again."

"Also, there is a midterm exam at the end of this month. If you fail any subject, you will be expelled."

After saying this, Chabashira left the classroom, leaving the students in a state of disarray.

"Ayanokoji, how many points do you have left?" Horikita asked me.

I didn't speak, but instead showed her the information on my phone's point page.

Horikita smiled slightly after seeing it. "You still have over eighty thousand left. It seems you didn't waste your money on useless things last month."

"How much do you have left? It should be more than mine, right?"

Horikita then showed me her points; she had over ninety thousand left, having barely spent anything.

It seems that the suspension of point distribution is of no consequence to people like me and Horikita, but for those students who suddenly received such a large sum of money and went wild, spending every last point, this is no different from pulling the rug out from under them.

Normally, it would be unthinkable for a high school student to receive 100,000 yen every month, but there is nothing inherently wrong with spending money freely.

The key issue is that the bad behavior since the start of the term caused the class points to hit zero, and now the personal points are gone too. The downside of such lavish spending has been exposed; those without savings will likely have to live a low-standard life for a long time to come.

"How is this possible? Are you kidding me?" With a loud roar, one student finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Yamauchi, don't be like that. Calm down," Ike and Sudo tried to comfort him.

When it came down to it, Yamauchi was the biggest fool of the trio, with questionable intelligence. Ike and Sudo still had ten or twenty thousand points left, but Yamauchi only had a few hundred.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere among the girls was equally frozen. "Kei, what should I do? I spent a lot of money last month, and now I only have a few thousand left."

"I have even less than you. Let's try borrowing some from others and pay them back once we get points later," Kei said to Sato, suggesting a solution.

The two of them began begging for points. Of course, there weren't many girls left with a sufficient balance, so they didn't manage to borrow much, but it was better than nothing.

Finally, I saw Karuizawa approach Hirata, clinging to his arm and acting coquettishly, "Hirata-kun, lend me some points, I'll pay you back later."

"Mm, of course, Karuizawa-san. Is ten thousand points alright?"

Karuizawa smiled and accepted the points.

Then I saw Sato come over to my side. She seemed a bit shy, unable to meet my eyes, her hands tugging at the hem of her skirt.

"Ayanokoji-kun, could you lend me some points? I will definitely pay you back later, please believe me."

I reached out and patted her head, "Of course, we're quite close after all. Would twenty thousand points be enough?"

"Mm, Ayanokoji-kun, you're so kind."

After transferring the points to Sato, she chatted with me for a while longer, mostly about how the midterm exams were coming up and asking me to find time to tutor her.

I had already promised to do this, so I immediately assured her that I would help her study properly. Sato then returned to her own group, looking satisfied, though her gaze still drifted toward me every now and then.