Horikita Suzune's Sixth Sense Is as Sharp as Ever!

Nakano Yuu had already spotted Sakayanagi Arisu.

They were on the second floor of the cafeteria, a public area, with large shopping mall escalators connecting the floors.

Sakayanagi Arisu was now descending from the third floor to the second.

As if sensing Nakano Yuu watching her, Sakayanagi glanced down and noticed him too.

Their eyes seemed to meet in midair.

But Classmate Sakayanagi simply blinked, then struck up a conversation with the upperclassman standing nearby.

"Thank you for treating me to lunch, Nagumo-senpai," Sakayanagi said.

"No need to thank me. I'm very generous toward cute, pretty girls. Besides, you earned it yourself," said the blond boy whom she had called Nagumo-senpai.

He usually ate on the third floor. The prices there were higher, but it was the kind of place where students with plenty of points could afford to eat.

After all, the food was expensive, so the service was better too.

He had noticed a girl with long purple hair ordering two meals by herself and grown curious. She was a new face, and she was pretty, so he had swiped his Student ID Card and treated her to lunch.

Only then had he realized she was with an exceptionally cute girl.

If the purple-haired girl with the hair clip had caught his eye, then the adorable silver-haired girl with her had stolen his heart.

That was right.

She was a type he had never encountered before. By his standards, she was the cutest girl in the entire school.

Her name was Sakayanagi Arisu.

She was in Class 1-A, so she was a cute little junior from one of the top classes.

So when he saw that she had finished eating and was leaving, Nagumo followed her, even though he hadn't finished his own meal.

"Speaking of which, Nagumo-senpai is impressive. You have plenty of points, successfully moved up a class, and even took charge of an entire year," Sakayanagi said.

"You first-years already know about that?" Nagumo Miyabi wasn't angry, despite her bringing up something that wasn't meant to be made public so easily.

"Well, that just means the second-years all acknowledge my abilities." Nagumo's face held a confident smile.

"But you're still just playing around, and even as Class A, you haven't managed to pull away from Class B. That's a little disappointing," Nagumo Miyabi said. "As your senior, I can tell you that the best thing to do is build up a lead in points quickly through the early exams."

So he was sharing his experience as an upperclassman?

Sakayanagi Arisu merely smiled politely.

Kamuro, who was walking beside her without saying anything, had already realized that Sakayanagi had completely lost interest in talking to Nagumo.

The elevator continued on, and Sakayanagi and the others headed toward the first floor. Soon, they were out of sight from the second floor.

"That guy's so full of himself," Ryuuen said, seemingly unimpressed by Nagumo-senpai.

"Don't worry," Nakano Yuu said, unexpectedly reassuring Ryuuen.

"That guy's next," he said.

"..." Ryuuen.

What did he mean, that guy's next? Especially the word "next"—it meant someone had already been dealt with.

And wasn't he himself one of those people?

Ryuuen immediately realized that Nagumo Miyabi of Class 2-A had become Nakano Yuu's next target.

Nakano Yuu really was planning to go after Nagumo Miyabi.

After all, what did it mean to unite an entire year? Taken literally, it meant the other guy was incredibly strong.

He had completely achieved the school's ideal of meritocracy.

But if the school only wanted to choose the strongest class from the beginning, why would it keep arranging Special Exams every month for three years?

Clearly, the school wanted students to grow through each Special Exam, learning how to respond and think.

The school set the exam questions, so the students were generally developing as the school intended.

But Nagumo had taken control of the entire year while still in his first year, collected the year's points, and then fixed the class rankings in place. The students no longer took the Special Exams in any meaningful way.

That meant the students no longer had to think.

He had cut off the potential of the students in that year for the next two years.

So Nagumo's downfall later in the original story was entirely deserved.

He was picking a fight with the school. Starting a rebellion while living off the school's resources wasn't exactly wise.

What was worth considering, though, was that Sakayanagi Arisu had been the one to bring up Nagumo's control of the year.

There was no way to tell whether she had seen him and said it on purpose.

Was she unhappy with Nagumo pestering her?

Did she want him to deal with Nagumo?

Or did she already know he was short on points? Otherwise, she wouldn't have sold the Student Council secretary position directly to Katsuragi. Maybe she was trying to help by letting him know who had money right now?

"Boring," Ryuuen said.

Then he prepared to leave with his underlings.

But—

"Wait. You haven't paid yet!" Nakano Yuu stopped him. "Ryuuen, you don't want your class to lose points over this, do you?"

Shit.

Ryuuen knew he couldn't get out of it.

"Then let's split it fifty-fifty," Ryuuen said. "My guys got hurt too."

Although the injuries had mainly come from him beating them up, they were still injuries.

"Then all I can say is that I won't sell the video to anyone else. But I won't delete it," Nakano Yuu said.

"..." Ryuuen. "At most, I'll give you sixty percent."

"Besides me, there's also an ally of mine who witnessed what happened. I have to negotiate on his behalf too," Nakano Yuu said.

"Seventy-thirty. That's the most I'm willing to give," Ryuuen said.

"Do you really think you can casually buy fifty or a hundred points toward your class evaluation with a mere 500,000 points?" Nakano said. "What's more, even if you're punished for making a false accusation, if you use underhanded methods afterward and get reported, you'll have a record with the Student Council and face severe punishment."

"Ryuuen, are you sure you want to see that happen?"

Did he want that to happen?

Of course not. He was planning to use underhanded methods to deal with the exams. If he had a record, then one report would be enough to ruin him.

Damn it.

So Ryuuen left the cafeteria in a foul mood, without earning a single point. Afterward, perhaps because he found the second-floor cafeteria disgusting, he didn't go back up there for a month.

The Sudo assault incident ultimately came to an end with both classes reaching an agreement and Class C withdrawing its complaint.

But the midterm exams went on.

Chapter 41: Horikita Suzune's Sixth Sense Is Still as Accurate as Ever!

The midterm exams continued.

Class D's plan for the exams was simple: they would keep holding study sessions.

In the atmosphere of having no choice but to study, people soon stopped bringing up the Sudo fight.

Over those ten days, Nakano Yuu had also settled down and begun carrying out his duties as a top-student tutor. During the tutoring sessions now, he no longer sent all the other students away and left only himself and Sakura.

There was no need for the two of them to be alone anymore, since he had already achieved his goal.

He had earned Sakura's favor, gotten a selfie from her, and even received hands-on instruction in photography.

He had also given Sakura 100,000 points from the extra money he'd gotten from Ryuuen's Class A. He'd given her so much partly because she had taken him to the science building, which was the only reason he had happened to trigger the Sudo fight incident.

Sakura had also shared five of her private, secret hideouts that no one else ever visited.

Finally, after spending all this time together, Nakano's photography skills had improved.

For example, right now.

"Horikita!" Nakano Yuu arrived in class early one morning and saw that Horikita Suzune was already there. He immediately pulled out his camera from his schoolbag.

It was a black camera.

Unlike Sakura's pink camera, Nakano's looked much more impressive.

The price spoke for itself.

The most expensive electronic device anyone in the class had bought was the computer Sotomura had purchased for 80,000 points.

When Sakura first enrolled, her spending limit had also been just 100,000 points, and the camera she bought had cost only 50,000.

The one in Nakano Yuu's hands, though, had cost 188,000.

"What?" Horikita turned at the sound of his voice, and a click came from right in front of her.

He had taken her picture.

"..." Horikita.

Horikita seemed a little displeased.

"Your angry expression works too," Nakano Yuu said.

Then he snapped another picture.

"...What are you trying to do?" Horikita seemed even more displeased now.

"I've just been learning photography these past few days. And you know I don't really have any friends, so it's hard to find people to photograph." Nakano Yuu sounded sincere.

"So..." Horikita Suzune's attitude seemed to soften a little. "You want to treat me as a friend?"

"Of course not," Nakano Yuu answered instantly.

"..." Horikita.

"So why are you taking pictures of me?" Maybe it was just his imagination, but Horikita seemed to have gotten more hostile.

"Because you're beautiful, of course," Nakano Yuu said.

"..." Horikita.

Horikita knew she was very attractive. She knew that students in her class and students she passed on the way would often look at her.

But she wasn't interested in any of that.

So she always responded coldly. The one time she hadn't, the boy in front of her had tricked her out of 80,000 points in five minutes, leaving her questioning her whole life.

Nakano Yuu had probably learned to use that camera from Sakura.

Horikita Suzune sat in the last row, with Nakano Yuu to her left and Sakura Airi to her right. Although Sakura didn't often show it, Horikita had seen her take a camera out of her schoolbag by accident once or twice.

And since those two had been in the same tutoring group lately, it was only natural for Nakano Yuu to discover that Sakura knew how to use a camera and even become interested in photography himself.

But—

"How about I give you 1,000 points for each photo?" Nakano Yuu said.

"..." Horikita.

Was she really that kind of person? Or was he really that kind of person? He was actually trying to win her over with money. But Horikita knew he really was that kind of person.

Still, Horikita Suzune's eyebrows twitched, and she seemed a little hesitant.

Could it be that Horikita had actually been defeated by points?