Please Lend Me Some Money

The guy had left Kushida Kikyo speechless, as if he had her by the throat.

Who didn't like prying into other people's private lives? She loved it. She loved having people trust her, confide their weaknesses to her, and tell her everything no one else knew.

That kind of wholehearted, unguarded trust was absolutely intoxicating.

"...I just wanted everyone to trust what Horikita says more." Kushida Kikyo lowered her head dejectedly.

She looked disappointed, regretful, and sad, as if she genuinely cared about Horikita Suzune and everyone else in the class.

Horikita Suzune said coldly, "There's no need to worry about this when Chabashira-sensei is here."

Whether Horikita believed her or not didn't matter. The other students had bought it.

Not only did they believe her, they turned on Horikita Suzune instead.

"Kushida was only trying to help. Don't you think you're being a little harsh, Horikita?"

"Exactly. Kikyo cares so much about you, and this is how you treat her?"

"You're so ungrateful."

"Everyone..." Kushida Kikyo first looked happy to have their support, but her expression soon turned sad. "Please don't attack Horikita on my behalf. I'm sure she didn't mean it that way..."

She couldn't betray the support of others, but she also couldn't let Horikita Suzune become her complete enemy.

"...Well, if that's what little Kushida says."

"You should thank Kikyo for being so forgiving, you know?"

For some reason, perhaps because he hadn't seen Horikita Suzune retaliate, the guy raised his chin triumphantly, sure he'd won.

"..." Horikita Suzune sighed silently. "In any case, we're already falling behind."

"If we don't want to keep falling further behind in the class competition, we need to buy the accurate rules for this Special Exam."

They might be able to catch up after falling behind once, but if they fell much further, she couldn't guarantee anything.

And there was also the "Nepo Baby" who, according to the Diary, had been planted in Class A.

Nepo Babies were terrifying wherever you went.

They disregarded the rules of fairness and used the powerful hands behind them to manipulate the results as they pleased.

Horikita Suzune firmly believed in her own abilities, but she wasn't confident she could match the powerful hands of those in charge.

Unless Class D produced undeniable results and made the school stop manipulating things behind the scenes.

Or they could join the group with connections by using the unquestionable rule that allowed students to transfer classes for twenty million points.

...If she remembered correctly, her older brother was in Class A.

"Pay up. Five thousand each." Horikita Suzune stopped letting her mind wander and rapped her knuckles on the podium. "If you don't trust me, you can transfer the points to Kushida or Hirata, and have them give them to the teacher."

It was only the third day. Surely there wasn't anyone who couldn't even come up with five thousand points?

"..."

"..."

"N-no, no, no, no, no, no. I have no idea what you're talking about, but you've just decided all this on your own, and I'm not paying!" After a brief silence, Yamauchi Haruki was the first to jump up and protest. "Why do we have to pay today when we'll get a hundred thousand points tomorrow?"

"And this whole thing about falling behind is just your opinion, Horikita. Why are you suddenly making this about class competition?"

"Yeah, I'm not paying either. If you think we're falling behind, Horikita, why don't you pay by yourself? We'll get another hundred thousand next month anyway," Ike chimed in from the side.

With those two leading the way, the classmates who had already been hesitating over the difference between two hundred thousand and a hundred thousand points suddenly stopped hesitating.

"That's right, we can lend you the money."

"It's the same if you buy it tomorrow."

"Why's the teacher asking students for money in the first place?"

The same words and opinions that had come up once before filled Class 1-D all over again.

Please Lend Me Money

Despair.

Utter, complete despair.

One noisy voice after another poured into her ears, but at that moment, Horikita Suzune felt nothing but a chill run through her body.

Had she really been judged to be on the same level as a bunch of people like this?

...If she was guilty of something, she wished they'd punish her for it instead of throwing her into a garbage heap like this.

Was transferring classes for twenty million points really her only option?

No, she couldn't give up just like that.

Her older brother's complicated expression from yesterday flashed through Horikita Suzune's mind. The more she recalled it, the more complicated it seemed, and a glint of resolve flashed in her eyes once again.

Her heart thudded as she looked over the "classmates" below her, stirring up a tempest of emotions inside her.

"Please lend me the money." She bowed deeply.

It was more humiliating than she'd expected, but surprisingly, it didn't feel as awful.

Perhaps listening to their discussion bit by bit had gradually lowered her standards.

Horikita Suzune merely bit down hard on her lip and waited quietly for their response.

"..."

"..."

Horikita Suzune bowed her head, and then she silenced every voice in Class D.

Mocking words, impatient words, scornful eyes, calm gazes.

Everyone fell silent.

Except Koenji.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Horikita girl, you're more interesting than I expected." He laughed heartily, as if thoroughly entertained, and flashed a bright smile. "In that case, I'll lend you five thousand points!"

No one paid any attention to Koenji's words. Everyone in the class already knew he was a weirdo.

So although Koenji broke the silence, once he quieted down, the class sank back into a deathly silence.

That lasted until Hirata Yosuke took a deep breath and turned around.

"...You're all going too far." Hirata Yosuke's voice suddenly turned low. "Horikita's only trying to help the class."

His fists had clenched without him noticing, his nails on the verge of digging into his palms.

If this continued, he would probably lose his temper.

The gyaru beside him sensed it and quickly spoke up to defuse the tension.

"Hirata's right. You guys are being too harsh. Horikita's doing this for the class. Besides, it's only two hundred thousand. We get a hundred thousand every month, so there's no need to worry."

With her taking the lead, the others quickly changed their tune.

"Y-yeah, sorry, Horikita. We really did go too far."

"Come on, lift your head. We'd have paid even if you hadn't done that."

But even though the mood in the class seemed to be improving, there were still discordant voices.

"B-but it'll only cost a hundred thousand tomorrow..." Kanji Ike muttered under his breath.

His voice was quiet, but still clearly audible in the classroom.

Hirata Yosuke turned around and looked up at him.

"Hmm?"

The pressure suddenly surged, and Kanji Ike fell silent, shrinking back.

He didn't want to stick his neck out.

"Tch, acting like such a good guy." Kanji Ike had backed down, but Yamauchi Haruki still muttered indignantly under his breath.

He was probably only doing it because acting like a good guy made girls like him, right?

Even though the two of them had plenty of complaints, the outcome wouldn't change.

The students in the class transferred five thousand points each to Hirata. They were extremely reluctant, but in the end, Yamauchi and Ike paid too.

After paying, they moved close to Ken Sudō, who hadn't said much since earlier.

"Hey, Ken, why didn't you back us up?"

"If you'd just spoken up, what could Hirata have done?"

"..." For once, Ken Sudō wasn't as short-tempered as he'd been over the past few days. He merely waved them away with a gloomy expression. "Shut up. They can do whatever they want. It has nothing to do with me."

"I'm in a bad mood right now."

Yesterday, he'd joined the Basketball Club.

He'd thought that even if his life and studies were a complete mess, basketball alone could give him a reason to keep going.

There was no way he could lose at basketball.

So he joined the Basketball Club.

Then the club captain turned on the screen in the clubroom and pointed to the people on it as he spoke to the new members.

"Our goal is to defeat the Generation of Miracles."

He'd heard that name before, but he'd never looked into it. His family situation already had him on edge, and since Ken Sudō devoted himself to basketball, he didn't care about anything else.

Besides, he believed there was no way he could lose at basketball, so there was no need to learn about the Generation of Miracles.

But perhaps the captain wanted to crush their pride, or maybe he wanted them to recognize the gap between them.

The captain played a video of the Generation of Miracles in a game.

...It was the first time he'd realized basketball could be played like that.

What was this? What was he watching? Were they even human? Could human beings really do that?

This was awful.

Did that mean there wasn't a single Skill he could show off anymore?!

After tossing and turning all night, Ken Sudō was still in an awful mood.

"Jeez..." Yamauchi and Ike's faces fell.

They couldn't count on Ken Sudō, and they were even less likely to oppose anything themselves. They were annoyed about losing five thousand points, but when they remembered that another hundred thousand would come in next month, they didn't feel quite so bad.

Bored out of their minds, they sat at their desks and watched the evil teacher on the podium smile as she collected two hundred thousand points.

"Good. I've received the points." Chabashira Sae nodded. "As promised, I'll now tell you the contents of the first month's Special Exam."

"The Behavioral Norms Exam."

"As the name suggests, it tests students' most basic behavioral norms. You'll lose points for violating the standards of normal student behavior, from being late or leaving early to using your phone or daydreaming in class."

"By my rough estimate... you've probably already lost nearly a hundred points, haven't you?" Chabashira Sae tilted her head. "No, perhaps even more."

"Your behavior over the past two days has certainly exceeded my expectations. If not for today, I might even have thought you'd become the worst Class D in Advanced Nurturing High School's history."

It was only the third day. There had only been a little over two days in total, and that didn't even count the first day, when they hadn't had classes.

Just the violations she'd seen herself were enough to cost them over a hundred points. Since she could only see Class D during her own lessons and couldn't count the deductions caught by the cameras, it was hard to imagine what the results would look like by the end of the first month.

"The Behavioral Norms Exam..."

"Being late or leaving early will cost points..."

"We've already lost over a hundred points..."

The students in the class froze, murmuring and digesting Chabashira Sae's words.

Then almost everyone turned, without thinking, to look toward Yamauchi and the other two.

If they remembered correctly... hadn't those three been late and left early every day over the past two days?

"Hey, hey, hey, why are you looking at me? This has nothing to do with me! It's the teacher's fault. If she knew this was an exam, why didn't she tell us right from the start?!" Feeling the silent pressure of his classmates, Yamauchi Haruki couldn't help striking back first. "Besides, doesn't Koenji never pay attention in class either?!"