Classroom of the Elite: Now That Their Intel Has Been Updated, They Always Want to Win Me Over!

(But she was unexpectedly devious.)

(Just as Ayanokouji had said, I really was her true target.)

Compared to the vague promise of a date, eighty thousand Private Points were clearly more tangible.

"Kushida," Shimizu Akira said slowly after thinking it over, "are you worried I'll go back on my word afterward and leak your plan?"

Without waiting for a reply, he continued on his own. "But have you thought about it? You're so popular in class. Even if I told people, who would believe me?"

"...Shimizu, you really, really won't tell anyone the truth? Could you turn around, look me in the eyes, and say that again?" The girl's voice came from behind him, tinged with timidity and unease.

"Fine." Shimizu Akira sighed helplessly, thinking that this classmate was far too insecure.

The moment he turned around, Kushida Kikyou suddenly reached out with both hands, gripped his left hand tightly, and pressed it against her chest without hesitation.

"Hm? What are you...?" Shimizu Akira froze for a moment. The softness against his palm made him immediately understand what she was trying to do.

What was she doing? Deliberately giving him a treat?

"You really are something, Shimizu!" An innocent smile appeared on Kushida Kikyou's face. "You got the pressure just right. That shouldn't leave any fingerprints, right?"

"Could you curl your fingers in, use a little force, and squeeze three or four times?"

"Are you sure?"

"Mm, I'm sure. Go ahead and touch as much as you like, Shimizu."

"...Fine. Since you insist."

Shimizu Akira did exactly as she asked.

"Mhm..." The tips of Kushida's ears instantly turned crimson, but she forced herself to smile. "Shimizu... You really don't hold back, do you? But you're very obedient. I don't dislike that about you."

She suddenly leaned close, her citrus-scented hair brushing Shimizu Akira's cheek. "Now your fingerprints are on my clothes, too~ I'll protect this outfit carefully with plastic wrap. If you don't want the police to invite you in for a chat, then today's private conversation between the two of us at the café... has to stay a secret, okay?"

Shimizu Akira stood frozen in place, watching her slowly disappear into the distance. Only after a long while did he come back to his senses. "What kind of threat is that supposed to be...?"

He pulled out the phone from his pocket, its recording screen still lit. The glow illuminated his twitching mouth. "With the whole thing recorded... You basically just gave me a free treat, didn't you?"

That was right. He had recorded everything.

After all, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka had gone out of his way to warn him, and he had already been wary of her to begin with.

So the recording had been running from the moment their private conversation began.

(Who exactly got whose dirt on whom?)

Kushida Kikyou transferred the eighty thousand points over soon afterward.

Shimizu Akira raised an eyebrow as he stared at the deposit notification on his phone.

(Where did she get that much money? Could she have borrowed it from other classmates?)

But since he had the points, he didn't care to investigate.

As for the so-called "dirt" she had on him, the recording proved that she had initiated everything from start to finish. It had nothing to do with him.

Come to think of it, could fingerprints on clothing really count as evidence?

Late at night, Shimizu Akira lay on his back in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

(Wait...)

He suddenly furrowed his brows as an inexplicable sense of déjà vu washed over him.

(Hadn't this kind of transaction happened way too often lately?)

His memories flashed by like scenes from a movie: Karuizawa Kei's awkward, blushing expression as she transferred the money; Horikita Suzune's sharp gaze as she paid with a cold expression; Sakayanagi Arisu's graceful manner as she transferred the points with an amused smile... And now, Kushida Kikyou.

(That's four...)

Shimizu Akira sat bolt upright and suddenly laughed in the dark. "Could it be that I'm unexpectedly talented at business? Is the fifth one about to sign up?"

His sleepiness vanished. He rolled over, grabbed the phone from his bedside, and deftly switched to the alternate account he rarely used.

The words "Read" glared at him from the screen. His message to Ryuen Kakeru of Class C had sunk without a trace; Ryuen hadn't even deigned to reply with a punctuation mark.

Ichinose Honami of Class B had been even more direct. The last message in their chat was a polite but firm refusal.

"Ugh..." He couldn't help rubbing his thumb across the screen and pulling a self-deprecating smile.

So the whole "deals with pretty girls always work out" thing had just been wishful thinking on his part.

In Ichinose Honami's dorm room in the upper dormitory area.

Ichinose Honami held her phone, lightly brushing her fingertips over the screen. After hesitating for a long while, she finally sent a message to the class group chat.

Ichinose Honami: Everyone, please be extra careful to follow the school's everyday conduct rules lately! (.o?-)?

Shibata Sou: Got it! Don't worry, Class Representative. I've already reminded everyone!?

Kanzaki Ryuji: Understood. We'll also be careful not to disclose any information to the other classes.

Shiranami Chihiro: We'll make sure to follow what you say, Ichinose! (?o?o)??

Shibata Sou: By the way, how did you find out about this inside information, Class Representative? You suddenly called everyone together for a meeting during lunch today. You startled everyone in Class B! (⊙_⊙)

Ichinose Honami: Ahaha... Actually, a senior from Class 2-D came to me and offered to make a deal~ But I can't say who it was (^_^;)

Kanzaki Ryuji: I understand. This does involve someone's privacy. Ichinose, even though we each contributed ten thousand points this time, please thank that senior on our behalf.

Ichinose Honami: Mm-hmm, I'll contact her right away! (?o?o?)?

Ichinose Honami let out a quiet breath of relief. Fortunately, she had added the other girl's contact information when they met at noon.

She opened her contacts, found the person saved as "Yamamura-senpai," hesitated briefly, then sent her a message.

Ichinose Honami: Yamamura-senpai, thank you so much for this! Without your warning, Class B might have been at a disadvantage in our very first month of school... (＞人＜;)

Yamamura-senpai: Don't thank me. I was asked to do it. If anything, thanks to you, I made a pretty good number of points, too.

Ichinose Honami: Huh? You were asked to do it...? May I ask who asked you?

Yamamura-senpai: Sorry, I can't tell you. The other person doesn't want you to know, either. Besides... It'd be better if we stopped contacting each other. I don't want to get on the vice president's radar.

Ichinose Honami: Huh?! The vice presi—

Yamamura-senpai: Anyway, let's block each other! Next time we meet, pretend you don't know me!

As soon as the message was sent, the other person's profile picture quickly turned gray.

Ichinose Honami stared blankly at the screen, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. For a moment, she couldn't react.

—Asked to do it?

In other words, someone else had really been the one to warn Class B?

064 What? Are we the only ones in Class C still in the dark?

At eight thirty in the evening, the teachers' office was still brightly lit.

Mashima Tomoya was still poring over an English dictionary.

As the homeroom teacher of Class A, he usually came across as somewhat distant to his students, making a point of keeping a suitable distance from each of them.

But those who knew him understood that this seemingly aloof teacher cared deeply about his students.

Before taking on a new class, he always spent three days carefully studying every student's file, all so he could understand each child's strengths more quickly.

And when it came to lesson preparation, he set aside at least three hours every day to ensure the quality of each class.

If they were choosing the most dedicated first-year teacher, then without any foul play, Mashima was undeniably the best.

Mashima turned another page of his lesson plan. Noticing that his thermos was empty, he got up to fetch some hot water.

The moment he turned around, he froze.

The teachers' office, which should have been empty, was now full of people.

Hoshinomiya Chie from Class B was grading papers with her head bowed. Sakagami Kazuma from Class C was leaning back in his chair, twirling a pen in his hand. Most surprising of all, Chabashira Sae from Class D was sitting at her desk, tapping her fingers against it in a steady rhythm.

Mashima instinctively glanced at the clock on the wall.

At this time of night, he should have been the only one in the office.

He occasionally ran into Sakagami, but it was rare for everyone to be there like this.

His gaze lingered on Sakagami for a few seconds longer.

As colleagues, they maintained superficial courtesy, but they had never managed to become close.

Mashima had never been able to accept Sakagami's habit of blindly taking his students' side, regardless of right and wrong. No matter what his students had done, this homeroom teacher always stood by them, even resorting to unsavory tactics behind the scenes.

Still, Mashima had to admit that Sakagami put the interests of his class first.

Perhaps that stubborn loyalty came from a teacher's sense of duty. Or perhaps he was simply keeping his eye on the substantial class advancement bonus at the end of the year.

Whatever the reason, it didn't really matter. The results were good, and that was enough.

As for the other two, Hoshinomiya Chie and Chabashira Sae were old acquaintances of his.

They had all been in the same year in high school, though they had been in different classes.

After all these twists and turns, they had ended up working at the same school again. It was a sort of fate, he supposed.

However, speaking frankly as a friend, Mashima Tomoya couldn't bring himself to call either of them a dedicated teacher.

Hoshinomiya Chie's private life was practically hedonistic.

She went through boyfriends faster than the school changed its timetable. Mashima didn't want to criticize her personal choices, but the problem was that she even slipped out for drinks on weekdays, then showed up to class the next day reeking of alcohol, with heavy bags under her eyes.

There was no way she could teach students properly like that.

Chabashira Sae, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.

She was cold by nature, and aside from the unrequited romance she had in high school, she hadn't dated anyone in all these years.

Mashima guessed that the cigarette she always carried had driven off most of her potential suitors. After all, not every man could tolerate the lingering smell of tobacco on his partner.

As for her attitude toward teaching? She was even more perfunctory than Hoshinomiya.

She arrived just in time for class and left the instant it was over. The class she taught had never once been promoted.

Rather than a teacher, she was more like an office ghost who simply clocked in and out on time.

That said, when it came to their actual abilities, they weren't really any worse at teaching than he was.

Otherwise, how could they have kept their jobs under Advanced Nurturing High School's strict hiring standards?

Mashima still remembered that, when they had first started working there, Chabashira Sae had been a meticulous teacher. Her lesson plans had been neat and detailed, and she had never missed an after-school tutoring session.

But after "that incident," Hoshinomiya Chie had become like a shark that had caught the scent of blood, constantly targeting her.

As the two classes fought behind the scenes, their performance kept declining until they were at the bottom of their year.

Meanwhile, Mashima had reaped the benefits by sheer chance, remaining homeroom teacher of Class A for several years in a row.

But whenever he saw the names of students who had been eliminated on the class lists, he was reminded that in this bloodless war, the real victims had never been the teachers at the lectern. They were the innocent children in the classroom.

He had actually spoken to them privately several times to try to persuade them.

But Chabashira had consistently come in last in the annual evaluations, and in the end she had been assigned to teach Class D.

As time passed, the once-meticulous Chabashira had eventually been worn down into the person she was now, merely muddling through.

And Hoshinomiya... she hadn't been like this at first, either.

He remembered that when she had first started working there, she used to grade assignments seriously late into the night. It was only after Chabashira had given up completely that she started letting herself go, too.

The untouched lesson plans in her office drawer and the increasingly strong scent of perfume silently spoke of a sort of self-abandonment.

Mashima understood that, if they looked into what had happened back then, Chabashira really had been in the wrong.

So now, when he saw the dark circles Hoshinomiya tried to conceal with mascara, he couldn't bring himself to criticize her.

As long as their classes weren't competing, the two of them still went drinking together on weekends.

But the moment class rankings entered the picture... those deliberately buried grievances suddenly mattered more than the final exam results.

To get back to the point, he hadn't seen either of them take things seriously like this in a long time.

Still, it was too late to start trying now.

"Class A will still be mine at the end of this month." Mashima Tomoya said it with complete seriousness. "Those kids discovered the hidden rules just a few days after school started, and the class has lost no more than eighty Class Points since then."