"Huh?"
Just then, Asahina exclaimed in surprise.
Nagumo followed her gaze and saw a test paper in Asahina's shoe locker.
In other words, every student who had come there had discovered a test paper in their shoe locker.
"Interesting."
But faced with this scene, one student was clearly taking pleasure in it.
She was a tall girl from Class 2-B, with beautiful long silver hair and a flamboyant personality and presence. This was Kiryuin Fuuka. Her academic and physical abilities were both exceptional; her only flaw was that she didn't fit in. Although she was a formidable fighter, she never made an effort for her class. In fact, she had withdrawn from the Sports Festival last term.
To Nagumo, she was powerful and belonged to a rival class, but she had never targeted him.
So as long as she didn't provoke him, Nagumo wouldn't target her either.
Nagumo steadied himself and opened his shoe locker.
As expected.
A test paper was sitting on top of his indoor shoes.
Unlike the papers in Asahina's locker and the other students' lockers, the one in his was for chemistry.
There was also a piece of paper tucked inside it.
The words on it had been printed.
[50,000 points per student]
That was all it said.
Nagumo immediately looked up and glanced around, but unfortunately, there were no cameras here.
"Nagumo, what do we do?"
"Wait, who's behind this prank?"
Some students had quickly noticed the strange situation. But since they didn't think it was a big deal yet, they assumed it was a prank.
But was it really a prank?
"..."
Nagumo.
Nagumo quickly looked toward someone he thought might be behind it, such as Kiriyama Ikuto.
Kiriyama's class had been overtaken by theirs last year. Although Nagumo had been trying to corrupt him, Kiriyama had tried to kick him while he was down at the Student Council meeting yesterday. So Kiriyama might have done something like this.
But.
Kiriyama had also come over to the shoe lockers. There was a test paper in his locker, too, and when he saw it, his face turned green.
Clearly.
Kiriyama wasn't behind this.
And Nagumo didn't think Kiriyama was capable of masterminding something like this anyway. In truth, he already had someone in mind.
For example, Nakano, the first-year from Class 1-D who had hit him with three consecutive attacks yesterday.
Now this note offering 50,000 points per student had been placed only in his shoe locker. It was clearly aimed at him.
Damn it!
After all, Miyabi Nagumo wasn't stupid. He had managed to control the entire second year, and this test leak wasn't some so-called prank. He had more or less figured it out.
His first-year underclassman from Class 1-D, Nakano Yuu, wasn't the kind of guy who could be bought off with the million-plus points he'd offered yesterday.
This guy's real target was this.
Of course. He was the kind of person who could buy a test paper and immediately resell it to students in Class C in his year, and who could get the secretary position promised by the President and immediately sell it to Katsuragi in his year. Now that he knew the second-years' Special Exam was based on old questions, there was no way he'd do nothing.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
So.
That was how Nakano-kun received the message from his upperclassman, Miyabi Nagumo.
Messages from Nagumo-senpai quickly started pouring in.
[Nagumo: You've really outdone yourself. You're going after the second-years this hard? Are you trying to take us down by leaking the test?]
[Nagumo: It's definitely an effective strategy! But there's no way we'll just give in!]
Nagumo also sent a screenshot. It showed second-year students in the shoe locker area discovering test papers in their lockers.
Nakano-kun said nothing.
"Aren't you going to reply?"
Horikita asked.
She had noticed that the messages from Nagumo-senpai were getting a little hysterical.
And hysterical was putting it mildly. Miyabi Nagumo had probably finally realized that Nakano-kun hadn't gone to the Student Council office yesterday to do what he'd claimed. He'd gone to get a better understanding of Nagumo's situation.
He really didn't want to let Nagumo live!
"You have to remember what we did this morning. If we reply now and he takes a screenshot, he can use it to pin the blame on us."
"That's why the papers had to be distributed somewhere without cameras."
"Information warfare is important at this school, and so is staying alert."
Nakano Yuu explained.
"Look, there are test papers in the photos Nagumo sent, and the words 'XX subject test' are clearly visible. So if I admit to anything, he can pin all the blame on me, even the leak."
"..."
Horikita.
So the two sides had already started negotiating?
That was something she'd never been involved in before.
Besides, she'd realized her guard around Nakano-kun seemed to have dropped. Otherwise, she wouldn't have let him hold her hand and tap the back of it three times earlier.
And then Karuizawa had seen them and gotten the wrong idea that they were dating.
As she thought about it—
Thump.
Horikita noticed that the eraser on her desk had flown off from her movement. Since Nakano Yuu's desk was so close, it went flying straight toward it.
"Hey, you're really careless."
As he spoke, Nakano Yuu caught the eraser Horikita-san had sent flying, then held it out to her in his right hand.
The gesture was just like the one she had made before.
Nakano Yuu held the eraser and handed it to Horikita.
Now Nakano-kun had made the same gesture she had made before. Did that mean she could tap the back of his hand three times, too?
"..."
Horikita thought.
"..."
Horikita froze.
"..."
Horikita fell silent.
"Horikita?"
Nakano Yuu noticed that Horikita seemed distracted.
"It's nothing."
Horikita hurriedly came back to herself.
She'd just found herself wondering whether she should hold Nakano-kun's hand, too, to confirm what she was thinking.
She really couldn't spend too much time around a girl like Karuizawa, who was so lovestruck, or she'd end up getting influenced herself.
Besides, she knew this was no time to be worrying about that kind of thing.
Nakano Yuu's plan was called the Test Paper Leakage Plan.
He didn't actually intend to leak the test. He wanted money.
The second-years already knew this exam would use old questions, so they'd bought the papers in advance and hadn't put any effort into studying. If the papers were leaked and the school made a new test, the second-years—especially the lower classes, 2-C and 2-D, which were packed with poor students—would be completely unprepared.
So this could be used to threaten the lower classes in the second year.
And since Nagumo controlled the second-years and was collecting points from all of them, he held the deciding vote—and the responsibility.
So the intervention targeting the second-years could be turned into an attack aimed directly at Miyabi Nagumo.
Make Nagumo choose: pay up, or let things get as bad as possible.
Meanwhile.
At the other end of the classroom, near the podium.
"You'll have to study hard after school today, too, all right?"
Kushida-san was talking to the members of her tutoring group.
Naturally, although she was smiling and chatting with the others, she had long since mastered the art of doing two things at once.
[Although you've decided to study for this exam, I think there might be a shortcut.]
[For example, when you spoke with a student from Class A yesterday, they said this exam would be easy to handle.]
[Class A's academic ability is high, but this is still the first exam since enrollment. No one could handle it that casually. The way they put it, it was as though they already knew what was on the test.]
[And it's not just the students in Class A. The students in Class C are relaxed, too. They don't look like they're studying seriously at all. One of the students who went shopping with you the day before yesterday was from Class C, right? Their grades aren't good, yet they were leisurely out having fun. That obviously doesn't add up.]
[And Ichinose-senpai from Class B said that you could ask her if you ran into any difficulties, right? Why do you think she'd say that? Her academic ability isn't low, but with my help cheating on your behalf, you've already become the top student in Class D, Kushida-senpai. So how can she, whose grades look a little worse than yours, be so confident in saying that?]
No wonder Kushida-san had A-level social skills and a wide circle of friends. She had picked up on how students in other classes were handling the exam.
Amasawa, her little cheat-code assistant, had also sent her an analysis.
"So the other classes already have a way to handle the exam?"
"And all of A, B, and C have one? We're the only ones in Class D who don't!?"
Kushida furrowed her brow, finally realizing there was a problem.
Although Kushida-san had the help of a wicked genius underclassman from two years in the future and could now pass herself off as a genius, she also wanted to earn the goodwill of as many students around her as possible.
That way, she could learn their secrets.
After all, the Kushida Empire had taken so much effort to build. She definitely didn't want it to fall apart so soon.
And now, what was this wicked genius underclassman saying?
"You mean every other class has a plan for this exam, and we're the only ones... the only ones in Class D who don't?"
Although Kushida was talking to her underclassman in her mind, she was so shocked she nearly blurted it out loud.
[That's how things look based on the current situation in the other three classes.]
Amasawa continued her analysis.
[But it's not that Class D has absolutely no preparations. And Kushida-senpai knows this: Nakano-senpai and Horikita-senpai are also in charge of tutoring.]
[But Nakano-senpai seems to be tutoring only Sakura, while he's leaving the other students to study junior high school material on their own.]
Before you continue