Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

It was as if this guy had grabbed Kushida Kikyo by the throat, leaving her unable to make a sound.

Who doesn't love prying into other people's secrets? She loved it too much—she loved having others place their trust in her, loved having them pour out their weaknesses to her, and loved having them tell her everything that no one else knew.

This kind of wholehearted, defenseless trust was truly intoxicating.

"...I just wanted everyone to believe what Horikita-san says more." Kushida Kikyo lowered her head in disappointment.

Disappointment, regret, sadness—it was as if she were genuinely concerned for Horikita Suzune and everyone else in the class.

Horikita Suzune said coldly, "With Chabashira-sensei here, there is no need to worry about such problems."

Whether Horikita believed her or not didn't matter, but regardless, the other students did.

Not only did they believe her, but they also turned around and targeted Horikita Suzune.

"Kushida-san is being kind, Horikita, aren't you being a bit too much?"

"Yeah, yeah, Kikyo is so worried about her, yet she still has this attitude."

"How ungrateful."

"Everyone..." Kushida Kikyo first showed a happy expression as if she had been helped, but that expression quickly turned to sadness: "Don't attack Horikita-san for my sake, I believe she didn't actually mean it that way..."

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

"...Since Kushida-san said so."

"You should thank Kikyo for her tolerance, you know?"

For some reason, perhaps because they hadn't seen Horikita Suzune fight back, the guys who felt they had won raised their heads proudly.

"..." Horikita Suzune sighed silently: "In any case, we are already falling behind."

"If we don't want to fall further behind in the class competition, we need to buy the accurate rules for this special exam."

Falling behind by one step might be recoverable, but if they fell any further, she wouldn't be able to guarantee anything.

Not to mention, the Diary also mentioned a 'connected individual' who had been shoved into Class A.

No matter where you go, those with connections are always terrifying.

Because they ignore fair rules and use the hands behind the scenes to manipulate the results at will.

Horikita Suzune certainly believed in her own abilities, but she didn't have the confidence to rival the hand of power.

Unless Class 1-D could produce undeniable results to force the school to withdraw the hand manipulating things from behind the scenes.

Or, rely on the twenty million point transfer rule—a rule that couldn't be questioned—to integrate into the group with connections.

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

"Pay up, five thousand per person." Stopping her wandering thoughts, Horikita Suzune tapped the desk at the front of the room and said decisively: "If you don't trust me, you can transfer it to Kushida or Hirata and have them hand it to the teacher instead."

It was only the third day; surely no one couldn't even scrape together five thousand points, right?

"..."

"..."

"No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't know what kind of nonsense you're talking about or why you're deciding things on your own, but I'm not paying, okay?" After a brief silence, the first to jump up and shout was Yamauchi Haruki: "We'll get one hundred thousand points in just one more day, so why do we have to pay this money today?"

"And all this talk about falling behind is just your own opinion, Horikita, right? Why has it suddenly become a class competition?"

"Yeah, yeah, I won't pay either. If you think we're falling behind, why don't you just pay it yourself, Horikita? We're getting one hundred thousand next month anyway, aren't we?" Ike chimed in from the side.

With these two taking the lead, the students who had been wavering between the difference of two hundred thousand and one hundred thousand points stopped hesitating.

"That's right, that's right, we can lend it to you."

"Buying it tomorrow is the same thing."

"And why is the teacher asking students for money in the first place?"

The same words that had appeared once before, the same viewpoints, once again filled Class 1-D.

Chapter 40: Please Lend Me Money

Despair.

Utter, complete despair.

One noisy voice after another poured into her ears, yet at this moment, Horikita Suzune only felt a chill run through her entire body.

Was she actually being evaluated as being on the same level as this group of people?

...If she had committed a sin, please punish her, rather than throwing her into a trash heap like this.

Could it be that there was really only the path of twenty million points to transfer classes?

No, she couldn't give up just yet.

The complex expression her brother had worn yesterday, which seemed even more complicated the more she recalled it, flashed through Horikita Suzune's mind, and a trace of determination flashed in her eyes once more.

Her heart pounded, and she scanned the 'classmates' below who were making her emotions churn uncontrollably.

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

It was more humiliating than she had imagined, yet unexpectedly, it didn't feel as painful as she thought it would.

Perhaps it was because, as she listened to their discussion bit by bit, she had gradually lowered her own bottom line.

Horikita Suzune simply bit down hard on her lip, waiting quietly for their response.

"..."

"..."

Horikita Suzune bent at the waist, and in doing so, she silenced every sound in Class D.

The mocking words, the urging remarks, the sarcastic glares, the calm gazes.

Everyone fell silent.

Except for Koenji.

"Hahahaha, hahahaha, Horikita-girl, you are even more interesting than I imagined." He laughed loudly, as if he had been thoroughly entertained, and flashed a brilliant smile: "Since that's the case, I'll lend you five thousand points!"

No one paid any mind to Koenji's words; the class had long known he was an eccentric.

Therefore, although Koenji had broken the silence, once his voice faded, the class returned to a deathly stillness.

Until Hirata Yosuke took a deep breath and turned around.

"...You guys have gone too far." Hirata Yosuke's voice suddenly turned heavy: "Horikita-san was clearly thinking of the class as well."

His fists were clenched tight without him realizing it, his fingernails threatening to dig into his palms.

If things continued like this, he would likely lose his temper.

Sensing this, the gyaru beside him quickly spoke up to ease the tension:

"Hirata-kun is right, you guys shouldn't be so harsh. Horikita-san did it for the class, and besides, it's only two hundred thousand. We get one hundred thousand every month, so there's no need to worry so much."

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

"Yeah, yeah, sorry Horikita-san, we really went too far."

"Lift your head up, we would have chipped in even without you doing that."

However, although the atmosphere in the class seemed to be softening, discordant voices still remained.

"B-but, we only need one hundred thousand by tomorrow..." Ike Kanji muttered in a low voice.

Even though his voice was quiet, it was still clearly audible in the classroom.

Consequently, Hirata Yosuke turned his head and looked toward him:

"Hmm?"

The pressure spiked, and Ike Kanji immediately stopped talking, shrinking his head into his shoulders.

He had no desire to be the nail that stuck out.

"Tch, acting like a saint." Ike Kanji might have backed down, but Yamauchi Haruki still spat out a low, resentful remark.

It was probably just because acting like a good guy made the girls like him, right?

However, even though the two of them had their complaints, the outcome would not change.

The students in the class transferred five thousand points to Hirata one after another; although they were very reluctant, Yamauchi and Ike eventually paid up as well.

After paying, they huddled up next to Sudo Ken, who hadn't said a word since a moment ago:

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

"If you had just said something, what does Hirata even matter?"

"..." Sudo Ken, uncharacteristically abandoning his usual irritability from the past few days, waved his hand with a dark expression: "Shut up, let them do whatever they want, it has nothing to do with me anyway."

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

Yesterday, he had joined the basketball club.

He had thought that even if his life and studies were a total mess, as long as he had basketball, he would have a reason to keep living.

Basketball was the only thing he wouldn't lose to anyone in.

So, he joined the basketball club.

Then, the captain of the basketball club turned on the screen in the club room, pointed at the people on the display, and said to the new members:

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

He had heard the name before, but he had never looked into it deeply. His family situation was already making him irritable enough, and Sudo Ken, focused entirely on basketball, had no interest in caring about anything else.

Besides, he firmly believed that he wouldn't lose to anyone in basketball, so naturally, there was no need to learn about any Generation of Miracles.

But, perhaps to shatter their pride, or perhaps to make them realize the gap between them.

The captain played the game footage of the Generation of Miracles.

...For the first time, he realized that basketball could be played like that.

What is this? What even is this? Are they still human? Is that something a human being is capable of doing?

It was awful.

In that case, wouldn't he be left without a single skill he could actually show off?!

After tossing and turning all night, Sudo Ken remained incredibly agitated.

"Eh..." Yamauchi and Ike's faces fell instantly.

Unable to count on Sudo Ken, they were even less likely to take the initiative to object to anything. Although they had some complaints about their wallets shrinking by five thousand points, they weren't all that unhappy once they thought about the one hundred thousand points they would receive next month.

Just feeling bored, they sat at their desks and watched the unscrupulous teacher on the podium smile as she collected the two hundred thousand points.

"Very good, I have received the points." Chabashira Sae nodded. "Now, as promised, I will tell you the content of the first month's special exam."

"The 'Code of Conduct Exam'."

"As the name suggests, it evaluates the most basic code of conduct for students. From arriving late or leaving early to playing on your phone or slacking off during class, any action that violates the standard student code of conduct will result in point deductions."

"Roughly estimated... you have probably already been deducted nearly a hundred points or more, right?" Chabashira Sae tilted her head. "No, perhaps even more."

"After all, your actions over these past two days have truly exceeded my imagination. If it weren't for today, I might have even suspected that you would become the worst Class D in the history of Advanced Nurturing."

Today was the third day, meaning at most only two days had passed, and that was even excluding the first day when there were no classes.

Just estimating based on the violations she could see, they could have already been deducted over a hundred points. Considering she could only see Class D during her own classes and not the deductions from surveillance, it was hard to imagine what the result would be after the first month ended.

"Code of Conduct Exam..."

"Arriving late or leaving early will result in deductions..."

"Already deducted over a hundred points..."

The students in the class were stunned, murmuring and chewing over what Chabashira Sae had said.

Then, almost everyone subconsciously turned their heads to look at the location of the trio including Yamauchi.

If they remembered correctly... it seemed like the three of them had been arriving late and leaving early every single day for the past two days... right?

"Hey, hey, hey, why are you looking at me? It has nothing to do with me, okay? It's all the teacher's fault! If she knew it was an exam, why didn't she tell us from the very beginning?!" Feeling the silent pressure from his classmates, Yamauchi Haruki couldn't help but 'strike back' first. "Besides, isn't that guy Koenji also someone who never listens in class?!"