Horikita Suzune Is Shaken!

It was May 18. The midterms would be held over two days, May 25 and 26, with five subjects on the exam.

There was only a week left until the exams.

"I'm suddenly starting to feel nervous."

The students' moods were beginning to change.

After all, the exams were just around the corner.

"Beep, beep!"

As one student entered the classroom, he took out his phone and glanced at it again. Then, with a calm expression, he continued inside.

He quickly made his way to his seat and started chatting with the pretty, black-haired girl with foxlike eyes sitting beside him.

"Chairman!"

The school was a well-established institution, with a total of 488 cameras spread throughout the campus. The staff carefully monitored the screens showing the students.

The classrooms were the scenes they watched most often.

By all accounts, it was a quiet day. But one of the staff members finally couldn't hold back.

Horikita Suzune Is Wavering!

"This student is strange."

The staff member reported to his superior.

"He's only a first-year, but he's accumulating points at an incredible rate. His Private Points account has already reached three million."

As a well-established school, it monitored the students' development and considered whether they should receive special attention—in other words, whether they showed promise.

That was why it installed cameras to observe the students and monitored their Private Points accounts in real time.

"That student..."

The Chairman watched Nakano Yuu on the screen and smiled. "There's nothing strange about anything he does."

But even the Chairman, who thought nothing Nakano did was strange, was finally left astonished that evening.

"His Private Points have already reached five million!"

The staff cried out in shock, but by then, the cameras could no longer find Nakano.

A few minutes later...

"His Private Points have reached 7.28 million!"

The staff gasped again.

"..."

The Chairman also found himself looking up at the ceiling, stunned.

Because that was just too absurd!

But to Nakano, it wasn't absurd at all.

Nakano had deliberately gone to the Student Council the day before to report Nagumo-senpai. It hadn't been a spur-of-the-moment decision; he'd been laying the groundwork.

Today was the day he could officially take the fight to Nagumo-senpai.

So he'd arrived in the classroom first thing in the morning.

"You're here early today."

It was rare for Horikita to speak to him first.

He probably was the only one who enjoyed that privilege.

Speaking of which, this was something Nakano found strange. Wasn't Kushida supposed to go and wait outside Horikita's door every day, looking pitiful as she tried to win Horikita over and become friends?

But...

Nope.

When he'd asked Horikita a few days ago, he'd found out that Kushida hadn't done that in quite some time.

She wasn't just ignoring him—she wasn't paying Horikita any attention, either.

"Come to think of it, Kushida's been rather distant with you lately, too."

Nakano Yuu remarked.

"Maybe she's busy with her responsibilities in the study group."

Horikita Suzune answered calmly.

That was true.

As one of the top students in class, Kushida was also responsible for the study group.

And that was another point that differed completely from the original story. At the very least, Nakano didn't think Kushida's grades could possibly be that good.

Kushida's scores had already been posted in the class group chat.

Math: 99, physics: 99, chemistry: 95, biology: 97, English: 100.

As soon as Kushida's results came out, Nakano's own "entrance exam scores," which he'd submitted to the class group chat, were immediately knocked off the top spot.

Kushida was now first. Nakano was second.

He'd deliberately slacked off, sure, but he still felt dissatisfied about somehow ending up in second place.

People said that strength could overcome any technique.

And anyone who reached the top of the class academically couldn't be lacking in intelligence. But when it came to Kushida, Nakano really didn't think she could get scores like these.

In the original story, Kushida's academic ability had only been slightly below excellent. She couldn't score 90 or above.

So there was something strange about Kushida Kikyou.

But Kushida wasn't the main character today. Nakano didn't have time to worry about her right now.

And Horikita, you're pretty sneaky, too.

You said Kushida might be busy with the study group, which meant you hadn't denied that you thought she'd keep clinging to you.

And you probably knew why Kushida, who'd attended the same middle school as you, had deliberately gotten close to you.

"Speaking of the study group..."

Horikita Suzune suddenly turned slightly toward him.

"Was what we did this morning really going to work?"

Was it really going to work?

A little over an hour earlier, Horikita and Nakano had left the dormitory one after the other, pretending they were heading to the track for an early morning run.

Then they'd gone straight to the second-year students' shoe lockers and stuffed them with past exam papers for the second-year midterms.

"You can relax."

Nakano Yuu replied.

"Because the text's already come in."

As he spoke, Nakano took out his phone and showed Horikita the messages.

The sender was a new addition to Nakano Yuu's contacts, but Nakano had apparently been ignoring him until now.

Miyabi Nagumo: This is Miyabi Nagumo.

Miyabi Nagumo: Nakano-kun, have you run into any trouble lately? If you're worried you can't handle it, come to me.

Miyabi Nagumo: By the way, does that girl Suzune have any hobbies or interests?

Mm-hmm.

Nakano Yuu hadn't replied to any of the three messages, but Horikita Suzune knew they were from Nagumo-senpai.

That proved Nagumo-senpai really wasn't a good person. He'd only pretended to add Nakano Yuu as a friend; what he really wanted was information about her.

"..."

Horikita.

Thinking about it, Horikita felt that Nakano Yuu's claim last night—that Nagumo-senpai was trying to set her up with a "breakup fee"—seemed quite plausible.

Someone like him deserved to have his money taken.

But after the three messages that no one had bothered to answer, Nagumo had sent another one a few minutes ago.

[Dammit! You really want me dead! You're determined to go against me, aren't you?!]

—Miyabi Nagumo

Clearly, compared to his earlier politeness, Miyabi Nagumo was furious now.

And he really was furious.

After handing over nearly all his points the day before, he'd been in a terrible mood. But even in a bad mood, he still had to go to class.

So Nagumo had arrived at the school building early that morning. But when he reached the shoe lockers, he noticed that the students around him looked a little strange.

Some of the students who'd opened their lockers were holding exam papers.

That was right.

Exam papers.

They were past exams. There was nothing unusual about that; everyone was taking advantage of the opportunity to get their hands on them and prepare for the test.

They hadn't just gotten the key to passing the exam—by buying papers from upperclassmen—but had also gotten them for free.

After Nagumo took control of the entire year, the school's Special Exams became open-book affairs. He alone decided how the four classes would handle them, how they'd place, and how to get the greatest possible rewards in points and class evaluation scores from the school.

For this exam, as long as no students in any class dropped out and the class average was at least 80, each class would receive 100 points in class evaluation.

There were 400 students in the second year.

That meant they could get 400 points straight from the school, which would then generate corresponding monthly living allowances. It was fantastic.

So Nagumo treated this exam as a chance to hand out benefits.

With less than a week left until the exam, it was only natural that students had started memorizing the papers.

But taking out the exam papers so openly was still a little brazen.

Nagumo didn't think the second-years under his rule would be stupid enough to do that.

As he was thinking this...

"Nagumo!"

One of Nagumo's lackeys in class came rushing over, holding a paper of his own. It was a math exam.

[Ikusei High School, Second Year, First Semester Midterm Math Exam]

A list of questions followed beneath the title.

Nagumo recognized the paper. It was an old version of the upcoming midterm.

But...

Why was this guy carrying around an exam paper he'd bought from an upperclassman, too?

"Nagumo, when I came over to the shoe lockers, I found this paper inside mine."

The student explained.

Nagumo furrowed his brows slightly.

He suddenly began to suspect that the students around him holding exam papers weren't acting recklessly after all.

As he was thinking this, the student ahead of him—a girl in his class, Asahina Nazuna—opened her shoe locker.

Besides being in the same class as Nagumo, Asahina was also his childhood friend. He was quite proud that they'd been able to enter this school together, work hard together, and successfully move up a year together.

And since she was the childhood friend of a handsome guy like him, Asahina was naturally quite beautiful.

She had long, pretty orange hair, a sunflower hair clip, and a tall, slender figure.