My name was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and I was currently an ordinary student at Kouiku University. Just moments ago, our homeroom teacher, Chabashira-sensei, had announced some heartbreaking news. Three students in our class—Sudo, Ike, and Yamauchi—had failed the midterm math exam and were going to be expelled.
"Sensei... could you let me see the answer sheets for Sudo and the others?"
"I knew someone would object, but even if you look at them, you won't find any grading mistakes!"
Chabashira-sensei seemed to have brought their answer sheets with her in advance. She handed them to Hirata.
Hirata immediately began checking the answer sheets, but soon his expression turned grim.
It seemed there really hadn't been any grading mistakes, just as the teacher had said.
"That concludes the class meeting. Sudo, Ike, Yamauchi, come to the teachers' office after school. That's all."
Chabashira-sensei coldly announced that the three would be expelled. All three lowered their heads, murmuring, "Why did this happen?" They seemed to deeply regret their actions now.
"...Chabashira-sensei, could I ask you a few more questions?"
After that, Horikita asked Chabashira-sensei about the class average. In truth, she and I both knew there was only the slimmest chance it would help. In the end, just as we'd expected, it got us nowhere.
I slowly stood up.
"W-Where are you going, Ayanokoji?" Horikita asked.
"To the bathroom."
With that, I left the classroom and hurried toward the teachers' office. But when I reached the first floor, I saw Chabashira-sensei standing in the hallway, gazing out the window. It was as though she'd been waiting for me.
"Is that you, Ayanokoji? What is it? Class is about to start."
"The school's rules can be overturned, can't they?"
"Unfortunately, Sudo and the others have to accept their expulsion. At this point, there's no overturning it. Give up."
As expected, there was always more to Chabashira-sensei's words than met the eye.
"At this point, there's no overturning it. In other words, there's still a way to do it, right?"
"Ayanokoji, I personally think highly of you. Getting hold of the past exam questions was one correct answer. Your ability to reason your way to that step is what I value most, so I'll praise you openly. Well done."
It seemed my actions had been exposed more thoroughly than I'd imagined.
I took my Student Terminal out of my pocket.
"What are you planning to do?"
"Please sell me the points Sudo and the others need to pass math."
Chabashira-sensei's eyes widened. Then she burst out laughing.
"Ha ha ha! So you noticed, too? But you can't afford to buy that many points all at once."
"Then how much would one point cost?"
"Let me think... If you can pay 100,000 points for one point right now, I might be willing to sell."
"Sensei, you're really mean."
Since the start of the school year, we'd only had 100,000 points, and they weren't even particularly useful. At 100,000 points per mark, Sudo and the others would need 600,000 points in total to avoid expulsion.
In other words, no student could have 600,000 points on hand.
"—I'll help figure something out, too."
A voice came from behind me. When I turned around, I saw Horikita standing there.
"Horikita..."
"Heh heh, you really are an interesting pair. But how are you going to come up with 600,000 points? Right now, right here?" Chabashira-sensei asked with a smile.
It really was impossible. Chabashira-sensei had probably never intended to let us save Sudo and the others in the first place, given the outrageous price she'd named. If we were short by only one point, Horikita and I might be able to pool our points and just barely manage it. No, in that case, Chabashira-sensei would probably demand a million points per mark or something.
Unless money fell from the sky, there was no way we could scrape together that many points.
"Horikita, let's give up."
I urged Horikita to stop struggling in vain and think carefully about the best way to reach Class A without Sudo and the others.
"Would you like some help?"
Just then, a student who had no business being there appeared. If I remembered correctly, she was Ichinose from Class B.
"Oh, I came to take a look on Byakuya's suggestion, and I didn't expect to stumble across such an interesting scene," Ichinose said with a smile.
"Byakuya..." I murmured, wondering why his name had come up here.
When Chabashira-sensei saw Ichinose arrive, her expression clearly showed her displeasure.
"What, students from other classes want to interfere with Class D's affairs now? Are you going to give Class D 600,000 points so nobody gets expelled?"
"That's right. I came here to offer my help," Ichinose replied calmly.
Everyone present was taken aback.
"What? You're really willing to give us 600,000 points? No, do you even have that many?" Horikita demanded.
"Of course." As she spoke, Ichinose took out her Student Terminal, which displayed a balance of 4,000,000 student points.
"What do you want? No—what does Class B want?"
I asked her.
After all, money didn't fall from the sky. If she was doing this, she had to want something in return.
"Hmm... You could call it a loan. Once Class D has some points, you can pay them back. But..." Ichinose paused, then looked at Horikita and me.
I knew the important part was coming.
"You'll have to pay back an extra 100,000 points each month."
Horikita fell into thought.
Class D currently had 10 points. The school deposited 1,000 points each month, and with 40 people in the class, that came to 40,000 points in total. If our class points didn't change from here on, this really would amount to a high-interest loan.
If Class D stayed at the bottom forever and couldn't pay her back, wouldn't her 600,000 points be as good as thrown away?
She must have known something we didn't. Unless there was some way to make a major change to our class points in the future, like there had been in the first month.
If that was the case, agreeing to her offer might actually be a great choice. After all, we didn't even know how many points would be deducted for expelling one person, let alone three.
Horikita glanced at me, asking for my opinion. I simply nodded slightly.
After that, Ichinose paid the 600,000 points for us. Sudo and the others no longer had to be expelled, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong—that someone had been manipulating everything all along.
It's too late now. There's no point.
For some reason, the words Byakuya had said before the midterm exam suddenly came to mind.
Could they have been a kind of hint? A hint that the exam papers had already been tampered with?
I remembered that Byakuya had tutored Sudo and the others in math and physics.
And the subjects with tampered exam papers had been math and physics. Could that really be a coincidence? Clearly, it probably wasn't.
If he'd planned all of this, then Ichinose's arrival made sense, too.
Byakuya, what are you really...?
Before you continue