Splitting the Money!

Nakano seemed extremely honest.

"You know we held a study session yesterday, and Sudo's fundamentals are really weak. I told him to pick out some middle school textbooks to read, but he left partway through. After the group tutoring session ended, I checked his GPS location and found that he wasn't in the library. I thought he was slacking off, so I followed him."

"His fundamentals are so weak that if he doesn't study more, he's very likely to be expelled."

Nakano Yuu said.

As he spoke, he noticed the light in Chabashira's eyes seemed to fade.

He had said that he'd told Sudo to study. It sounded like the right thing to say.

But in Chabashira's eyes, it meant he hadn't understood the true purpose of this midterm exam, nor grasped the significance of her breaking the rules to give them old exam questions.

So had she really been wrong?

Nakano wasn't the person she'd believed could turn Class D's losing streak around.

"Nakano Yuu, are you certain that what you've said is true?"

"If you're giving false testimony, you'll be punished as well," Chabashira said.

"That's right. I really am a witness," Nakano Yuu said. "I even remember what Sudo said at the time. He said, 'What a waste of time. I might as well go back and read a couple more pages. I already took leave from the club anyway.'"

"Yeah, that's right!"

Sudo, who had been in a foul mood at the front of the class, had already left his seat and hurried over to Nakano Yuu's desk.

"That's exactly what I said yesterday." Sudo rushed over, nearly grabbing Nakano's arm. The reason it was only nearly was that Nakano had already taken a step back as Sudo lunged toward him.

"Calm down, calm down," Nakano Yuu said.

"That's right. Now I have a witness, so I was acting in self-defense!" Sudo said, suddenly sounding much more confident.

"No, you were fighting each other," Nakano Yuu said.

?

The students in the class seemed puzzled.

"What I saw was the two of you fighting," Nakano Yuu said. "It looked like a mutual fight."

"No, that's not—" Sudo wanted to say that Class C had started it and he'd only defended himself after they hit him.

"Actually, a mutual fight might work," Hirata said suddenly. "The punishments Chabashira-sensei mentioned earlier included suspension or expulsion, as well as a deduction in class points."

"So if it was a mutual fight, both sides were at fault and both would be punished."

"But Class D's class points have already fallen to zero, while Class C still has points to lose."

"So this definitely wouldn't be a good outcome for them."

"As long as we let them know our class has an eyewitness, Class C will withdraw their complaint against Sudo."

"Then neither side will be punished or suspended," Hirata said. "Sudo will be able to keep attending class as usual without any problems."

Hmm.

That made sense.

The students nodded at Hirata's plan.

Heh.

Koenji pulled out a comb and began styling his hair.

Horikita remained silent.

Nakano continued playing the role of the eyewitness. He'd passed the information along, but Hirata had supplied the reasoning and drawn everyone's attention.

And then.

This mild approach had also been Hirata's decision. That showed he wasn't suited for the job.

Sigh.

Chabashira sighed softly.

If someone wanted to climb higher, they would naturally look for every opportunity to close the gap between their class points and those of the other classes. If they established that it had been a mutual fight, they could make Class C lose some points first. It was an opportunity, but Hirata hadn't taken it. He'd chosen to make sure Sudo wasn't punished, letting that opportunity slip away.

In other words, Hirata didn't fit the profile of a Class D student who wanted to climb higher.

And the only outcome Nakano Yuu's suggestion of a mutual fight could achieve was this one.

So whether or not he'd seen through the true purpose of this midterm written exam, he'd already made his position clear.

This was his answer to her.

He had no desire to move up a class. Even with such an easy opportunity to make Class C lose points, he hadn't chosen to press the advantage.

At first, she'd wanted to confirm Nakano Yuu's intentions, and had even kept guessing what he might be thinking.

But now.

Chabashira began to despair over the situation. He had completely rejected her.

She'd thought the class's current circumstances might present an opportunity—a chance to rise from the ashes—but the person she'd set her hopes on had no desire to climb higher.

It was a heartbreaking realization.

Chabashira was silent, about to close her eyes in disappointment.

But then, she quickly thought of something.

What if someone could push him into action?

Though he strongly resisted taking charge of the class and getting involved, what if someone could make him act?

Chabashira began to think.

But her gaze kept returning to Nakano. She looked him over again and again.

She realized that he seemed to have no weaknesses.

The only small flaw—that he lacked written and interview scores—had disappeared when her intervention led Hirata to test him again. His score had probably already been recorded. So the flaw was gone.

It seemed impossible to get a handle on him.

The mature Chabashira was troubled, while the not-yet-mature Horikita Suzune turned to look at him with a puzzled expression.

That was right.

She was Horikita Suzune, and she'd been sitting beside this guy for over a month. He'd even tricked her out of 80,000 points within five minutes of striking up a conversation, claiming he was selling her information that was about to expire.

And now, he'd volunteered to tell everyone that he was a witness to Sudo's fight.

According to Sudo, he might really have been there to see it.

By rights, this was valuable information. Yet he'd just given it to the class for free.

Something was off.

In other words.

Nakano Yuu might have had some other motive.

And she wasn't the only one thinking that.

[There's something strange about Nakano-senpai. It doesn't seem like his style. Based on what I know about him, he's probably up to something.]

Kushida's strategist, her junior Amasawa from the future, was suspicious too.

"What do you mean? Hasn't the matter been settled?"

[It looks settled, but your Class D has also lost an opportunity to climb higher. If you establish that it was a mutual fight, Class C will lose points too, which would help your chances of moving up.]

"Oh."

But Kushida seemed completely uninterested.

Kushida didn't care what class she'd been placed in or whether the class took off. She'd come here simply to start over.

And now she had the help of a genius junior, so her life should be even more brilliant.

But.

"I don't want to hear anything about Nakano Yuu right now."

"There are less than twenty days until the midterms," Kushida thought.

That was right.

Little Kushida was focused on her own affairs.

According to Amasawa, her disastrous expulsion was set in motion at the midterm exams, when Pandora's box was opened.

During the midterms, Nakano Yuu would make her press her fingerprint onto something—and she'd do it willingly.

She couldn't accept that.

She also thought Nakano Yuu was dangerous. If he was dangerous and she couldn't take him on, she could at least stay away from him, couldn't she?

That was why she'd been keeping her distance from him lately.

If she kept paying attention to him, wouldn't she just be walking straight into his trap?

Kushida Kikyou wanted to protect herself.

Meanwhile.

After receiving the news, Ryuen Kakeru of Class C decided to go corner that guy, Nakano Yuu, at lunchtime.

At noon.

Nakano arrived at the cafeteria right on time and started ordering his meal.

Horikita was different. She generally didn't come here for lunch and brought her own bento.

The school's living conditions were excellent. Each student had a small, twenty-three-square-meter room. It was tiny, but had everything: a small balcony, a small bathroom, a little washing machine, and even a kitchenette equipped with a gas line. It was natural gas, which meant...

So that was it.

The school actually encouraged students to be self-sufficient and make their own bentos.

After all, the school didn't want to train students who could only study or play sports. Ideally, they'd have a wider range of skills.

And male protagonists in some cross-dressing games were often good at cooking, too.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with Nakano. What he cared about was that, despite having sat beside Horikita for so long, she would sometimes calmly take out her bento during lunch break and eat by herself.

That was right.

By herself.

There was nothing wrong with that.

And it wasn't as though Nakano had kept staring because he wanted to eat it. He was just curious about how good her cooking was, that was all.

So, with nothing unusual happening today, and Horikita choosing to eat her bento alone again, Nakano Yuu decided to go to the cafeteria.

After all, he was so broke that all he had left was points. If a problem could be solved by spending money, then it wasn't a problem.

He chose to eat in the second-floor cafeteria. The other students in his class were probably downstairs, lining up for the free meal.

The free meal.

As the name suggested, it was cheap food provided as assistance, so it was naturally different from the regular meals people paid for.

Vegetables, no oil, bad texture, terrible taste.

It was fine once in a while, but Nakano Yuu wasn't willing to make himself suffer.

As he thought this.

"Is this all you're going to eat?" Nakano Yuu asked.

Across the table sat a girl with two huge pink pigtails and a pair of plain glasses.