Classroom of the Elite, Starting with a Zero, I'm Just Going to Lay Flat Since I Know the Plot

Well then.

Now that Kushida Kikyou was taking the initiative to greet him, even introducing herself the moment she noticed his gaze...

Nakano Yuu suddenly realized, was he being treated as a roundabout way to achieve her goals? Hmm, the original protagonist didn't make it into the school, but... in Kushida's eyes, had he actually been filling the original protagonist's role all along?

And if he were to fill that role, wouldn't that mean he had to lead Class D...

No, no, no.

Class D, this class, was beyond saving; it was impossible.

As if he had just had a nightmare, fear leaked from Nakano-kun's eyes.

His expression was incredibly genuine, without a hint of acting. Everything he projected conveyed the message of don't you dare come over here.

However.

Meow, meow, meow???

This made Kushida Kikyou inexplicably feel that there was something wrong with this student.

Because she was clearly giving a sweet self-introduction, and her popularity and appearance should, by all logic, make boys feel favorably toward her. So what the hell was with Nakano Yuu looking at her with fear?

Could it be that... Horikita Suzune had actually already told him about her dark history?

Was that why he felt terrified of her?

Damn it!

The expression on Kushida-san's face almost couldn't hold. However, she still maintained her sweet smile.

"Well then, I won't disturb your... date."

Saying this, she raised her hand again, waving lightly at Nakano Yuu and Horikita Suzune, her tone becoming playful.

But.

She was frustrated to find that after saying that, neither Horikita Suzune nor Nakano Yuu refuted it.

In other words, were they tacitly accepting this relationship?

If that was the kind of relationship they had, then it was indeed possible that Horikita Suzune had informed Nakano Yuu about her dark history.

Damn, damn, damn.

If things went on like this, wouldn't she have to silence not just Horikita Suzune, but also Nakano Yuu in order to make a fresh start at this school?

Likely thinking of something distressing, Kushida-san left in a foul mood.

"..." Horikita Suzune.

When Kushida's figure was no longer in sight, Horikita Suzune suddenly spoke up.

"I don't really like Kushida," she said. "I just feel like she isn't very real."

Is that so?

That was an impressive intuition.

That Kushida had a dual personality and was a hypocritical "white lotus" was something already well-known to readers, and her dark history from middle school was essentially that she acted gentle toward everyone on the surface, while secretly venting her frustrations about those students on a blog.

In other words, she was two-faced.

And since such things were eventually exposed, the students who trusted her in class had their mentalities shattered, causing the class to collapse.

After all.

Who could have imagined that a trusted friend was disparaging them in her heart? Who could have imagined that the angel who smiled at you—even though you were like a goblin—was actually calling you a goblin in her mind?

So, Horikita was right to dislike Kushida.

Although Horikita lacked various emotions, her sixth sense was incredibly accurate.

But Horikita-san, it's not good to judge people solely based on your own preferences.

Just like him; as long as someone could help him collect 20 million points so he could quickly escape the nightmare that was Class D, they were a good classmate to him.

However, because of Kushida-san's interference, Nakano Yuu actually found a topic he could discuss with Horikita-san.

With that, at around 8:40 PM, when even the students in the shopping district were gradually thinning out, Nakano Yuu finally prepared to head back with Horikita-san.

Only.

"Do you have to check your phone that many times along the way?" Horikita Suzune said.

Horikita-san, who claimed to have good stamina and athletic ability, was carrying shopping bags in both hands.

One of them was hers, and the other was Nakano-kun's.

After all, since he was hiring her for the job, it was only natural that she be the one carrying the bags now.

But on the way back, Horikita Suzune felt that Nakano Yuu's actions were very strange. He was walking slowly, checking his phone incessantly, and then, he even led her away from the main road to walk through a secluded alley.

In the end, he actually sat down on a bench next to a vending machine that didn't have any security cameras.

Even though she was the one who had been carrying the bags the whole time, the person who looked exhausted and was taking a break... was actually him!

"I'm checking the other party's location, and I imagine they are doing the same," Nakano Yuu said.

Horikita Suzune couldn't understand this statement at all.

However, she did see Nakano Yuu looking at his GPS, specifically at the location of the person he had saved as "Brother" earlier.

"I called my brother over," Nakano Yuu said. "And he should be arriving nearby right about now."

?

"Your brother?" Horikita asked. She was actually a bit curious: what kind of older brother would actually leak information to Nakano Yuu in advance?

As she thought this.

"I don't recall having a younger brother," a cold, clear male voice rang out.

Almost the moment she heard this voice, Horikita Suzune's back stiffened.

It was the reaction of a cat seeing a tiger; the bag she was holding in her hand loosened, ready to slip and fall.

"Hey, my mug!"

The bag contained his personal items, including a fragile object—a mug with a puppy pattern on it. He quite liked it, and since it was the only one of its kind, he wouldn't be able to find a replacement if it broke here.

Just like that.

Nakano Yuu moved with lightning speed to steady her, his left hand gripping Horikita Suzune's right wrist while his right hand caught the shopping bag.

The bag didn't hit the ground, so his mug was saved.

"..." Horikita Manabu.

Horikita Manabu just stared silently at their joined hands.

"Thud." Nakano Yuu set the shopping bag aside.

"Well, but you are Horikita-san's brother, aren't you?" Nakano Yuu said. "So I didn't think there was any problem with saving you as 'Brother' in my contacts."

"After all, Horikita-san's contact list probably only has the homeroom teacher's number, and that was only saved unilaterally on the first day of school," Nakano Yuu said.

These words seemed a bit excessive, but Horikita Suzune didn't refute them at all.

If Horikita-san was usually like a hedgehog with its quills constantly flared, she now looked as if she had been suppressed.

What kind of suppression? Was it a bloodline suppression?

In the original story, this younger sister admired her excellent brother and wanted to become as capable as him.

She had even come to this school because her brother was here, which was why she had enrolled.

She wanted to earn her brother's recognition.

But.

The outdated news she had received a few days ago, along with the information revealed today that everyone knew, showed that her brother remained excellent—an outstanding student council president—while she had been assigned to Class D and labeled a useless younger sister with a trash evaluation.

Perhaps Horikita Suzune hadn't even figured out how or when she would face her brother.

But.

To be caught by her brother so abruptly, so suddenly, like this.

"Suzune," Horikita Manabu said, pushing up his glasses with a serious expression. "You actually followed me here."

"Brother—" Horikita's younger sister was truly acting like a little sister now.

"Your sister is currently a first-year student in Class D, which is to say, a student in the class evaluated as trash. As the student council president, you probably know that our Class D's evaluation score is 0. We lost all our points in the very first month; we are the most ridiculous Class D in history," Nakano Yuu said.

"Even if that is the case, you are also a student of Class D, aren't you?" Horikita Manabu's voice was cold.

"I'm different," Nakano Yuu said. "The reason I was assigned to Class D is that I didn't take the written exam or the interview at all. Because of that deficiency, I was placed in Class D."

"You didn't... take the interview, or even the written exam?" Horikita Suzune was somewhat surprised.

"Heh." Horikita Manabu didn't latch onto that topic. As the student council president of this school and a third-year senior, he knew quite a few inside stories and secrets.

Every year, one or two thousand students apply to this school, but only 160 are permitted to enter. Why is that?

If it were a talent search, then trash students like those in Class C or D would certainly not be able to enroll. Therefore, the student body is actually pre-selected.

Nakano Yuu's performance undoubtedly indicated that he was aware of this.

Nakano Yuu had sent him a message a few days ago containing a transfer record. Although he had censored it, he had only blurred the "Horikita" part of the sender's name, and Horikita Manabu had still recognized it as his own sister.

As student council president, he had actually recorded the names of all the new students when they enrolled.

Naturally, he had noticed the information about his sister's enrollment.

But there hadn't been any major fluctuations for nearly a month, and then suddenly, he received information that his sister had transferred money to someone else—and it was a one-time transfer of 80,000 points.

Given that it was the end of the month and she still had 80,000 points, it wasn't hard to guess that this was the savings his sister had been scraping together, only for those saved points to be taken away entirely.

He had actually arrived a few minutes ago and had heard the conversation between his sister and this Nakano-kun.

Nakano Yuu had his number saved in his phone under the name "Brother," yet his sister hadn't recognized it at all.

This meant that the information about them being siblings had not been leaked by his sister.

Then it must be that this person obtained it from somewhere unknown.

"It seems the incident two days ago where Class A of the first year was assaulted was your doing," Horikita Manabu said. "You directly caused Class A to lose a significant amount of points."

"That is truly a false accusation; the harassment of Class A by Class C was not my doing," Nakano Yuu replied. "However, Ryuuen from Class C did indeed purchase information from me."

"I have also been observing the strange aspects of this school, which led me to form some ideas," Nakano Yuu answered, looking honest.

Horikita Manabu already understood.

Nakano Yuu likely knew the true nature of this school in advance, though his source of information remained unknown. But since he knew this information beforehand, why didn't he apply it to his own class? If he had seized the opportunity, he might have been able to pull off an upset within the very first month.

The result was revealed today.

The announcement of the first evaluation scores for the freshmen showed Class D of the first year at 0 points.

In just one month, they had been deducted all the way down to 0.

As the student council president, he had obtained even more important information when he met with the Chairman: Class D hadn't truly been deducted from 1000 down to 0, but rather, the bottom line was simply 0.

He remembered the expression on the Chairman's face at the time.

"This year's Class D of the first year is truly beyond expectations."

It was indeed beyond expectations.

Even if one person is very strong, dragging along so many classmates who are completely incompetent simply doesn't work.

Clearly, this junior student Nakano had already grasped this principle.

"Since I have come here, speak your mind; I don't have much time," Horikita Manabu said coldly.

Nakano Yuu had sent him a total of three images.

The first was a screenshot of his younger sister transferring 82,400 points to him.

The second was a screenshot of him transferring 2,400 points back to his sister.

The third was a screenshot of his own student ID, showing a private point balance of 380,000.