Meeting Sakayanagi Arisu! The Ex-Girlfriend's Advance! Part 1

But wasn't it a little too late to be thinking about forming one now?

Still, Nakano-kun entered the number and joined the group.

According to Hirata, we were supposed to grade the test of the person sitting next to us, so he also needed to report Horikita Suzune's scores.

Physics: 92, math: 93, chemistry: 93, biology: 90, English: 91.

Out of a hundred points, her scores were certainly good.

"..." Horikita.

Horikita had already gotten Nakano-kun's test papers, but when she turned to look at him, her gaze had grown piercing.

Had she realized that he'd graded her without even opening the answers Hirata had uploaded?

No.

Horikita had noticed some blank answers on his test papers.

More precisely, there were a few blank answers on each test. If the questions had been too difficult for him to be sure of the answers, then leaving them blank would have made sense. But he hadn't even answered the easy ones, so he must have left them blank on purpose.

She quickly calculated his scores.

The result of the first test came in.

Physics: 96.

He'd left four questions blank, which meant he'd gotten everything he answered right.

So he really had chosen to leave some questions blank at random.

There were fifteen minutes before the next class, so Horikita Suzune quickly checked his test papers.

Then she filled in the scores.

Physics: 96, math: 95, chemistry: 97, biology: 93, English: 96.

Perhaps she'd finally realized that her academic ability wasn't really anything to brag about.

Her seatmate, Nakano-kun, could casually crush her.

[This is a pretty interesting test.]

While everyone took advantage of the break to quickly check the scores of the students sitting beside them, Kushida heard the voice of her underclassman Amasawa in her mind.

[But now you'll be able to get full marks in every subject, Kushida-senpai.]

"..." Kushida.

Kushida didn't feel like saying anything, but she couldn't deny that she'd succumbed to the academic temptation offered by her genius underclassman.

There were five subjects in total. Out of the answers her genius underclassman had given her, she'd deliberately gotten only six questions wrong, so her score would be somewhere between 98 and 100.

Anyone would take a second look at a score like that.

And for a top student, this was also a chance to make a good impression. After all, this was where their strengths lay. It would be a shame not to show them off, wouldn't it?

So even when the chance came to make a good impression in front of the class, Kushida couldn't resist the temptation.

But...

"This guy's grades are this good, too?"

As Kushida checked Wang Meiyu's English test and found that she'd gotten a perfect score, she also noticed the scores that had already been filled in.

Nakano Yuu: physics 96, math 95, chemistry 97, biology 93, English 96.

Those scores were incredibly high—numbers she wouldn't have dreamed of getting without her underclassman's cheat sheet.

[Nakano-senpai probably doesn't want to stand out too much. He could get full marks in everything.]

[His academic ability is no worse than ours here in the White Room.] That was how her underclassman Amasawa had described him.

"..." Kushida.

Really?

But he'd already stood out with scores in the nineties across the board.

To be honest, Kushida strongly resisted the future her underclassman had told her about. She didn't want to develop that kind of relationship with Nakano Yuu, and she certainly didn't want to be forced to drop out in such a humiliating way.

But...

Now that she'd noticed his good qualities, she had to admit his looks weren't bad. If they ranked the boys, he could make the top five. And now it turned out he was an honor student, too?

He was even better than an ordinary honor student like Yukimura. Maybe... perhaps he wasn't such a bad choice after all.

No, no, no.

Kushida quickly came to her senses.

She wanted to make a whole bunch of friends at school and make the most of her social skills. She didn't need a romance, much less to let herself be conquered by a man so easily.

"So how did the handprint incident during this test happen, anyway?"

Kushida couldn't let the matter go.

According to her wicked underclassman, her unhappy future had begun with that handprint.

If she hadn't left her handprint, she wouldn't have become closer to Nakano Yuu, and things wouldn't have developed into that... situation where she had no choice but to drop out.

[I don't know that part. In the future, Kushida-senpai was vague about it, too.]

I see.

Then as long as she confirmed that it would happen this month and avoided it completely, she'd be safe.

She gently clenched her fist.

Kushida wanted to change the future!

No—she had to change it. She had to!

The students were still enthusiastic. By the time the second class ended at the latest, everyone in the class had finished updating the scores.

For students with good academic ability, this was a chance to show off their skills.

And for students with poor academic ability... it was a chance to latch onto someone who could help them.

Of course.

"I'll consider arranging a study group, with students averaging above 80 points helping the others study," Hirata's mom said in the class group chat.

But not many students volunteered.

Because...

Just as Yukimura had said at the start, he didn't really want to tutor the students who were bad at studying. They needed to catch up on the basics, and top students would be better off using that time to improve themselves.

Helping poor students with basic material wouldn't give them any experience.

And as for the poor students...

"Sure, Hirata, but let's do it a little later. It's only the beginning of the month, and the exam isn't until the twenty-fifth."

"Exactly. We can catch up later. Let's not do it now."

Their scores were already only around 20 or 30 points, meaning they could easily fail, but these students weren't worried at all.

"This midterm exam can earn us up to 100 points in class evaluation."

"So what do we need to do to get the full 100 points in class evaluation?"

Nakano-kun's seatmate, Horikita Suzune, had already entered exam-prep mode.

Horikita Suzune agreed with Hirata's plan for a study group, but she was also thinking about how to prepare for the exam.

But...

Why did she think this class could get the maximum of 100 points in class evaluation?

Chapter 26: Meeting Sakayanagi Arisu! The Ex-Girlfriend's Advance! Part 1

The maximum possible score for this midterm exam was 100 points in class evaluation. Since there was a maximum, there had to be a standard for earning it.

And that standard wasn't something the students of Class D, most of whom were already poor students and had been gathered in the class group chat, could reasonably hope to meet.

"I wonder if we should go ask Chabashira-sensei. She doesn't seem to have told everyone how to earn the maximum points," Horikita Suzune said.

She already had an idea, but she was looking at Nakano-kun as she spoke.

In other words, Horikita had decided to go with his opinion?

But...

You want to go ask Chabashira?

Hadn't you noticed? Chabashira had deliberately brought in the written tests from the time of enrollment today. If Hirata had arranged it, making so many copies of the tests would have cost quite a bit.

Hirata was out of money. If he needed it, he'd have openly asked the class group chat for donations or sought contributions from students who seemed to have some money, but none of that had happened.

So Chabashira-sensei must have paid for it herself.

That meant this "checking" of everyone's scores was Chabashira Sae's idea.

And what did that mean? It could certainly be understood as an exam designed for Nakano Yuu, whose personal evaluation was unusual. Chabashira was setting a trap to investigate him, hoping to find someone to lead Class D.

But there was something else she hadn't done.

Horikita's question wasn't unreasonable. Telling students the scoring criteria was something a homeroom teacher was supposed to do.

But Chabashira hadn't.

Or perhaps she'd done so deliberately, waiting for a student to come ask her.

If you took the initiative, that would show that you cared about the class and its interests.

And if you really did go to her, then the two of you would be on the same page, working toward the goal of moving up a class.

But that wasn't a good thing.

Other than fulfilling Chabashira-sensei's long-held dream of making it to Class A, moving up a class wouldn't help them.

Because even if they really did make it, they wouldn't be able to hold on to their place.

"I don't think there's any need," Nakano-kun said. "If the teacher hasn't told us, that means our class wouldn't be able to get the points even if we knew. So are you doubting Chabashira-sensei's judgment?"

Uh...

Horikita Suzune froze for a moment.

Then she suddenly thought about the state of the class. It was true that the teacher knew the class best.

So perhaps the teacher hadn't told them because she'd completely given up on the class. And if the class had no hope at all, it would be foolish to struggle.

She nodded in agreement, then continued reading.

After misleading Horikita, Nakano Yuu continued thinking.

Chabashira's actions were a little strange. For example, if today's written test had been just to assess him, making the entire class take it again was going too far.

It was like grabbing a peacefully sleeping kitten and making it go back to sleep. Absolutely heartless.

So could her actions also be understood as a way of sending a message?

She'd taken the tests everyone had already done and handed them out again for another quiz.

In the original story, there was a shortcut for this midterm exam: the test papers were the same ones used the previous year. The goal was probably to let the students experience what made this school different. Simply sticking to the rules wouldn't work; they had to think more carefully.

That was what the school wanted to teach the students.

Once they knew this, all they had to do was buy the papers from upperclassmen to pass the exam smoothly.

And that was information the teachers would know.

So Chabashira's actions really were worth paying attention to.

As for how to earn the maximum of 100 points in class evaluation, it was probably related to the class average. For example, the class might need to achieve a certain average score and have no one drop out.

And if they got their hands on the previous year's test papers, they'd have a way to pass the exam.