After playing a game with Ayanokoji yesterday, Ying was surprised to find that the system's recovery had been canceled.
Could it be? From now on, whenever there was a recovery, all he had to do was get in touch with Ayanokoji? He had no idea how it worked, but at least he didn't have to keep pretending anymore! Ying cheered inwardly.
After asking Ayanokoji about Class D yesterday, Ying learned that most of its students were acting as usual. But he still couldn't put his mind at ease. So from then on, he went to Class D almost every lunchtime to observe them. He couldn't make head nor tail of what was going on, though, and he didn't do anything...
At last, the end of the month arrived. Hoshinomiya-sensei came wobbling into the classroom with a stack of exam papers in her arms. "All right, everyone, uh! Since it's the end of the month, the school's arranged a surprise quiz. Don't stress too much; just do your best. It'll be a little easier than the entrance exam. Uh!" Hoshinomiya-sensei handed the papers to the students in the front row of each group and had them pass them back. It looked like she'd been drinking too much again yesterday.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, will this quiz affect our Class Points?" Ichinose stood up and asked.
"Oh, I'm not sure about that. But maybe someone knows." As she spoke, Hoshinomiya-sensei glanced Ying's way a couple of times.
Ying: ?? I have no idea!?
Most of the class complained about how sudden the test was, while a few of the stronger students looked eager to take it.
"Are you confident about this quiz?" Kanzaki turned around and asked Ying.
Ying folded his arms and smiled faintly. "A monthly exam? Anyone with hands can do it."
Seeing Ying act like that, Kanzaki had a sudden bad feeling. "I'd like to say I'll look forward to seeing how you do, but please be careful."
Kanzaki turned back around and waited for the test to begin.
Ying: How dare this little Kanzaki doubt the skills of a White Room student? Just wait until our score sheets come back. My perfect score in every subject will scare you to death.
After the test ended, Kanzaki turned around and asked, "How did it go?"
"I've got this. What about you?"
"Not bad."
After that, Ying and the others went to the school cafeteria together.
"Is it because the month's almost over? So many students are eating the mountain-vegetable set meal," Hamaguchi said, looking at the long line at the counter.
"Yeah. We know Class Points determine our Personal Points, but even if we don't have many Personal Points, we should still have enough to get by, right?" Shibata chimed in.
"Hey, look! There's even a first-year over there." Hamaguchi suddenly pointed at a student in line, looking shocked.
"Huh? Seriously? Maybe that person just really likes the mountain-vegetable set meal," Beppu said, staring at the student in astonishment.
"So we don't end up in the same situation, let's all work hard." Ying headed for the counter serving the extravagant deluxe student set meal. It stood in stark contrast to the other counters—almost no one was there.
Class B's students: ...
"Must be nice to have money! Damn it!" Hamaguchi grumbled as he ate an ordinary student set meal.
"As long as we don't have to eat the mountain-vegetable set meal, that's enough. Frugality is a virtue, too." Kanzaki spoke calmly and shot Ying a sarcastic glance.
Ying: I've got money, so I can be extravagant. What about it? Australian lobster +3
"But now that you mention it, after a whole month, we still haven't figured out the school's grading criteria?" Kanzaki changed the subject.
"Yeah. The information Hoshinomiya-sensei gave us was useful, but it still wasn't enough." Hamaguchi irritably slumped over the table.
"Ying, have you figured anything out?" Shibata asked.
"Hm? You guys didn't know!?" Ying asked in shock, his mouth stuffed with a huge chicken leg.
"You knew!?" everyone cried in unison.
"Cough..." Ying quickly swallowed the chicken leg, almost choking on it. He hurriedly took a couple of sips of water and patted himself on the back.
Once he'd recovered, he quickly asked, "Wait, you guys didn't know?"
"No, we're the ones who should be asking! You knew and didn't tell us? You deserve a beating!" Hamaguchi exclaimed, shaking Ying by the shoulders. Ying nearly threw up the chicken leg he'd just eaten.
Ying gave Hamaguchi a resentful look, then said, "That's my fault. I thought I'd already told you. Actually, the scoring criteria for the first month are..." He went on to explain the rules for deductions during the first month in detail. Everyone looked shocked at first, then understood.
"So that's how it works! But everyone in Class B listens pretty attentively in class, so we probably don't need to worry," Hamaguchi said.
Everyone nodded. Ever since Class B had learned about the class assignment rules, they'd started taking their studies seriously and working hard, listening attentively in class.
After all, by normal logic, when classes competed against each other at school, it came down to grades.
When Ying realized that they didn't actually know the deduction rules, he couldn't help thinking: So they really had no idea what the deduction rules were. Then Class D doesn't know either? So I wasted my whole week.
Ying clutched his head and wailed...
Seeing him like that, Shibata comforted him. "Ying, you don't have to blame yourself. None of us are upset with you."
Ying: ?
The bell rang to announce the first day of classes in May. Ying sat with his arms folded, convinced he was going to seem incredibly mysterious today. Since he knew how the story would unfold, whenever anyone greeted him, he'd say, "Something big is going to happen today."
Most people thought Ying was acting weird again. A few, though, thought he might have food poisoning.
Suddenly, Ying's eyes lit up. "It's here!"
Hoshinomiya-sensei walked into the classroom holding a poster tube. She looked happier than she had on any other day. Seeing her in such a good mood, the whole class was startled: Had their teacher really not been drinking yesterday!?
"Everyone, it's time for our morning assembly. Please be quiet~."
Once the classroom had settled down, Hoshinomiya-sensei continued, "Have any of you noticed something? Would anyone like to say?"
Ichinose raised her hand.
"All right, Ichinose~."
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, the points deposited this month went from 100,000 to 90,000. Does that mean our Class Points have changed? Why did they go down?" Ichinose stood up and asked, frowning slightly.
"As expected of Ichinose~. I'm sure everyone's already received this month's points. Just as Ichinose guessed, our Class Points have gone down. I'll explain all about that in a little while. For now, let's announce last month's test results."
Hoshinomiya-sensei then pinned a sheet of paper to the blackboard. It was last month's test score sheet.
"First, congratulations to everyone in Class B. Except for one student, everyone got a passing grade. And ten of you scored an average of over 90 across all subjects!"
Kanzaki was stunned when he saw Ying's results.
"Byakuya, what happened to your scores?"
Ying folded his arms, taking in the astonished looks everyone was giving him.
"Well, Kanzaki? Surprised?" Ying grinned.
"I am. Why did you get zero in every subject? Did you hand in blank papers?"
"What are you talking... about?" Ying slowly looked up at the blackboard, then froze. His name was at the bottom of the score sheet for every subject, and every score was a zero.
"Why...?" Ying was baffled. He'd solved every question and filled in all the answers on the answer sheet. So why had he gotten zero?
"Oh, the student who failed forgot to attach his barcode. I just checked his paper, and he actually passed. Class B, you're all amazing!" Seeing everyone's confusion about Ying's score, Hoshinomiya-sensei explained.
Ying: We had to attach barcodes for this test!?
Then he reached into his desk and pulled out a barcode envelope. His own barcode was still inside.
Ying: ...
Before you continue