And Horikita-senpai was even more direct. She had Karuizawa and the others start catching up from their middle school material. Some of the upperclassmen's academic abilities really were astonishing, but this approach ignored the material that would be on the exam soon and paid no attention at all to how far the students had progressed. I didn't think it was that simple.
Not that simple?
Horikita and Nakano Yuu's approach was like laying a foundation for their group members, but the material they were reviewing had nothing to do with the current exam syllabus. If they took the exam like that, things were bound to go wrong.
And neither of them was worried? Worried that their group members might fail, and that the class would lose faith in them?
Should I call them cold-hearted? Or... did they simply not care whether their group members got expelled? Their group members' circumstances had nothing to do with them.
At least, Kushida didn't think Horikita would do something like that.
Because she'd already noticed that Karuizawa was in Horikita's group, and Horikita seemed to take good care of her.
The reason she said that was because Karuizawa had borrowed money from her to make copies of the middle school notes Horikita had put together.
So, since Horikita was willing to organize middle school material and notes for students for free, she wouldn't coldly leave Karuizawa and the others to fend for themselves.
That left only one explanation.
The reason Nakano Yuu and Horikita dared to do this was... that they'd already figured out how to get even the students who were bad at studying a passing grade on this exam?
Kushida's analysis was already very close to the truth.
That's right.
If this school's rule was that ability came first, and you could buy anything with points—if you couldn't buy something, it was only because you didn't have enough points—then even the written exam papers for this test could be bought, right?
"So that's what this is?"
Kushida seemed furious.
Damn it!
So Horikita and Nakano Yuu had gone and made plans without her? How could those two do this to her!
Of course.
Kushida had been thinking about keeping her distance from the two of them, too. Amasawa-senpai thought Horikita wasn't much of a threat to her, while the most dangerous person was Nakano Yuu.
Although she'd been avoiding him like that, she felt their relationship was still pretty good.
After all, they'd added each other as friends. And she'd even introduced him to Kamuro from Class A.
And yet Nakano Yuu had a plan for dealing with this exam and had completely left her out of it, without telling her?
[Kushida-senpai, calm down. You're acting like you've completely lost it.]
"..."
Kushida.
Right.
Kushida quickly forced herself to calm down.
There was no point losing it now.
But still.
She couldn't help feeling annoyed.
[I figure these written exam papers can be bought, and they probably won't cost much. Otherwise, Classes A, B, and C couldn't have gotten them so easily. And if they were expensive, the students in the other classes would've felt the strain in their day-to-day lives.]
[But from the way you usually interact with them, that doesn't seem to be the case, so the papers probably aren't expensive.]
Then Amasawa-senpai's devilish words rang out in Kushida's mind again.
"Then how many points do I have right now...?"
Kushida opened her Student ID Card.
[Name: Kushida Kikyou.
Student ID: ST1045666068.
Class: Class 1-D.
Gender: Female.
Private Points: 1,995.]
All right.
Ever since she'd lent points to Karuizawa and the others, she had less than 2,000 points left.
But that wasn't all she had. She actually still had 5,000 Private Points. She'd seen upperclassmen buying them while out shopping with her friends in the shopping district. They bought anonymous point cards, a kind of point-storage device. Each card had a QR code that could be scanned to deposit or withdraw points, with no limit on the number of uses or the amount.
So she'd kept that in mind and bought one of those anonymous point cards, then scanned 5,000 points onto it. Now, those 5,000 points were her last reserve.
But.
"If I'm buying exam papers, even with those 5,000 points, it still won't be enough, right?"
Kushida said.
[It'll probably cost at least thirty or forty thousand, since there are papers for five subjects.]
Amasawa Kyou-senpai apparently thought so, too.
[So you may have to borrow money, Kushida-senpai.]
Amasawa-senpai added.
But where was Kushida supposed to borrow money? Everyone in Class D was broke, and most of the students had even less than she did. And if she went to students from other classes—if she went to students from other classes...
"If I buy the papers from students in other classes, I'll have to pay for them and borrow money, too. But if I can get students from other classes to just give me the papers..."
Kushida thought she was popular, and she got along well with some students from other classes. She knew some juicy secrets they couldn't tell anyone else.
So maybe they'd give her the papers.
But.
[Do you think getting exam papers is something to be proud of, senpai? The students in other classes probably got them through their class representatives. If this was a class plan, do you think they'd just hand them to you? Would they accept being punished afterward?]
[Take Class C, for example. Do you think Ryuen Kakeru would forgive someone who leaked the papers?]
Amasawa-senpai poured a bucket of cold water over Kushida's hopes.
Right.
Her social skills were great, and she'd built friendships with some students and learned their secrets.
But those relationships weren't something she could use up and then forget about. And they were in different classes, so class rivalry would inevitably be a factor. There was no way they'd risk betraying their class just to give her the papers. Even if they were willing, if they got caught and punished, she'd only be hurting them.
So.
Didn't that mean she had no way out?
Kushida began to fret.
[Actually, Kushida-senpai, you have one other option. You just haven't thought of it yet.]
"What is it?"
Kushida had stopped talking to her classmates and had quietly returned to her seat. To the others, it looked like she was getting ready for class.
But in her mind, she continued talking with Amasawa-senpai.
[It's simple. It's hard to get the papers from students in other classes, but you can easily get them from students in your own class.]
Amasawa-senpai said.
"..."
Kushida.
Kushida thought Amasawa-senpai might as well have said nothing.
Because if their class had the papers, and her classmates had the papers, then that meant Nakano Yuu and Horikita had them, right?
What kind of lousy suggestion was this from Amasawa Ichika, that nasty junior?
Was she telling Kushida to compromise with Horikita?
And then to suck up to Nakano Yuu?
Even if her group members failed and blamed her, she still couldn't accept having to bow her head to Horikita Suzune.
As for Nakano Yuu, she naturally wouldn't... naturally wouldn't... Hmm?
Kushida was furious inside, but suddenly, an idea occurred to her.
"Didn't you say before that the chance for me and Nakano Yuu to develop a relationship beyond friendship would come during this midterm exam period?"
Kushida said.
[That's right. But unfortunately, asking me for more information won't help, because you didn't tell me back then.]
[So this is your own fault. You brought this on yourself.]
—Amasawa Ichika
"..."
Kushida.
"No, I've been wondering why I'd have been shameless enough to make Nakano Yuu stamp his hand."
"Normally, if you hadn't interfered, would I have asked him to do that? Obviously not. I have a sense of shame."
"So could that be why? It definitely wasn't because I wanted to get the exam papers and was willing to sell my body."
"No way! No way! Absolutely not!"
Kushida spoke with conviction. But her thoughts told a different story.
Would she really do that?
Maybe she actually would.
Horikita and Nakano Yuu had gotten the papers, but they hadn't shared them with the class. If they released the papers to the students, they'd win the favor of most of the class, maybe even almost everyone.
And Kushida could never turn down a chance to win people over.
So.
If Amasawa Ichika, her junior from the future, hadn't interfered, maybe she really would have compromised to get the papers.
Even if that meant... even if that meant letting Nakano Yuu stamp his hand to give him what he wanted.
And the reason she'd make that concession was that she didn't have money.
No money, but she wanted the papers. So wasn't there only... one way to get them?
"..."
Kushida.
She suddenly felt like she'd solved the mystery.
It was like knowing the answer and working backward to figure out the process. But now that she'd worked it out, Kushida could barely keep her expression under control.
[Looks like, if I hadn't interfered, Kushida-senpai would've figured out the truth about getting her hand stamped.]
[But I feel like something's not quite right.]
—Amasawa Ichika
As someone sharing a body with Kushida right now, Amasawa-senpai had seen Kushida's reasoning: working backward from what she knew had happened to figure out how it had happened.
But she still felt that things weren't quite that simple.
Somewhere along the way, something seemed off.
Still, she'd borrowed the other girl's body, and she was also worried that Kushida-senpai was so easy to fool. If she botched things now, she might get expelled before the year was out, which wouldn't be good for her, either.
So Amasawa-senpai would do what she could to help.
And so she gave Kushida a chance to play ostrich for now.
[If you want to get the papers, you may have no choice but to ask Nakano-senpai for them and let him stamp your hand. But since they seem willing to give the papers to their own group members, maybe you should wait a little longer, Kushida-senpai.]
What did she mean, wait a little longer? Wait until Nakano Yuu and Horikita Suzune shared the papers with their group members?
Then she'd only have to get the papers from one of those group members. That would make things much easier, since she knew at least three students in the two study groups whose secrets she could use as leverage.
And since they were classmates and friends, sharing the papers with her wouldn't be too much to ask, right?
Before you continue