Not long after they sat down, Matsushita noticed the two people sitting in the corner and nudged Karuizawa and the others.
"Look, aren't those two from our class?"
"Horikita and Takeda, right?" Mori Nene said. "They're alone together this late... Could they be—on a date?"
"Oh," Karuizawa replied perfunctorily, looking uninterested.
Matsushita Chiaki could only ask Kikyo instead.
"Come to think of it, Kushida, aren't you really close to that guy Takeda? Are those two together?"
"Uh... well..." Kikyo looked unsure what to say.
Mori Nene joked, "Could it be—you're jealous?"
"Huh? Of course not." Kikyo shook her head and hurried to explain. "Takeda-kun and I are just ordinary friends. Besides, I'm not interested in dating, so how could I be jealous of Horikita-san?"
"Is that so?" Matsushita Chiaki accepted her answer for the moment, but added, "Want to go say hi? We can just ask them."
"Maybe we shouldn't," Kikyo said. "If they really are on a date, it wouldn't be nice to interrupt them."
"Okay," Matsushita Chiaki said. "Then how about asking tomorrow? I'm pretty curious. I can't believe even the Ice Queen would date someone. Kushida, I'm counting on you~"
"Mm." Kikyo lowered her head and answered softly.
"Alright, everyone, order whatever you want to drink."
"Hey, you're not paying for us," Mori Nene teased.
"I'll pass. You guys order," Karuizawa said.
She'd already spent all her money and couldn't afford a drink. Fortunately, tomorrow was the first of the month, so she'd get another 100,000 points.
What she hadn't expected was that next month's points would be zero.
Chapter 18: Welcome to, Uh?
It was the first day of May, and they had class.
Their homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, looked even more serious than usual.
Just as he'd expected, Ike asked the question.
"Teacher, you wouldn't happen to have missed your period, would you?"
That was about as offensive to a woman as asking a man:
"Can't get it up?"
How short.
Chabashira ignored him and said, "We'll begin the morning assembly. But before we do, is there anything you'd like to ask? If something's bothering you, now's the time."
A student immediately raised his hand.
"Um... I checked this morning and noticed my points hadn't been deposited. Didn't you say we'd receive them on the first of every month? I was really worried because I couldn't buy juice this morning."
"Hondo, I already explained this, didn't I? That's right. The points are deposited on the first of every month. And there's no doubt that they were deposited this month."
"Huh? But... the points weren't deposited, were they?"
Chabashira fell silent for a moment, then said, "...You really are a bunch of foolish students."
That was right. Foolish.
Eito silently nodded along from his seat.
Chabashira's voice turned unusually stern, completely unlike the teacher who usually didn't care about anything and let them do as they pleased.
"Takeda, tell them why they didn't receive any points."
Eito had been looking forward to the show, but suddenly he was the one being called on. He stood up, deeply reluctant.
A rebellious thought stirred in his mind.
"The reason is that Chabashira-sensei took them all for herself."
His words caused an uproar.
"Teacher, is that true?"
"Please give our points back!"
"I'll never say you missed your period again. I'm sorry!"
"Quiet!" Chabashira's cold voice echoed through the classroom. The students fell silent, though they still looked disgruntled.
"Ninety-eight late arrivals and absences in total. You talked to each other or used your phones during class 391 times. You did all that in just one month. At this school, your class's performance is reflected in your points. As a result, you lost all 100,000 points you should have received. That's all there is to it. I explained this directly on the day of the entrance ceremony, didn't I? This school judges students by their abilities. And this time, your evaluation was 'zero.' That's all."
"You've only just started your first year of high school. Did you really think you could spend 100,000 points every month without any restrictions? And at a school established by the Japanese government to educate talented people? Even a little common sense would tell you that's impossible. Why did you keep ignoring your questions?"
The students spent the rest of the time asking all sorts of questions, such as:
"Teacher, why didn't you tell us sooner?"
And questions about the details of how points were added and deducted.
This came as a huge blow to the students in Class D.
The worst part was that their seemingly wonderful school life had vanished. What were they supposed to do without money?
There was still some good news, though.
For example, the free items at the supermarket that were limited to one per month, and the free mountain-vegetable meal in the cafeteria.
The school had anticipated that something like this might happen, so it had prepared a way for them to avoid going hungry even without money.
For Eito, the lack of points didn't matter. He was different from those sheltered girls. As long as something filled his stomach, he'd eat it. No matter how awful it tasted, he could still stomach it as long as it wasn't poisonous.
He did have a way to earn personal points, but this long-unfamiliar experience of being poor felt rather fresh, so he decided to give it a try.
There was another piece of good news.
Their points had dropped to zero this month. If they couldn't increase their class points, they'd still have zero next month. Each class had started with 1,000 class points, which were converted into personal points at a ratio of 1:100, giving them the original 100,000. One point was worth one yen.
Now that their points had hit zero, they no longer had to worry about losing any more class points. They could use their phones as much as they liked.
Chabashira then took out a poster showing the current points for each class:
Class A: 940
Class B: 650
Class C: 490
Class D: 0
"Are you beginning to understand why you were placed in Class D? This school assigns classes according to the students' abilities. The most outstanding students are placed in Class A, and the useless ones are placed in Class D. This system is quite common at large cram schools, too. Simply put, Class D is the last stronghold for the bottom of the barrel. In short, you're all the worst defective products. This is exactly the kind of fate a defective product would have."
"But even among the Class D students of previous years, you're the first class to lose every last point in just one month. I'm almost impressed you managed to reach this level. Amazing, amazing."
On the surface, the class had lost all its points because of the students' behavior, but Eito knew that Chabashira had done it on purpose.
Most of the deductions had been for breaking classroom rules. If Chabashira had told them sooner, they wouldn't have lost so many points.
As for her claim that they didn't need to be taught not to slack off in class or arrive late or leave early because they should have learned it already, that was even more ridiculous.
Not needing to be taught was the result of being conditioned. People were naturally independent, and they changed in response to different environments.
Many great artists and thinkers weren't the sort to obediently follow orders. A lot of them were wildly unpredictable. Creativity came from the unexpected, not from following the rules.
What they needed was knowledge, and a way to acquire it—not superficial displays of good behavior.
Eito also understood Chabashira's intentions.
It was what people called a phoenix rising from the ashes. If Chabashira had warned them in advance that breaking the rules would cost points, their score would probably be around 400 now. That wouldn't be much different from Class D in previous years. These students would go on to slack off just like their predecessors, and eventually graduate from Class D.
Only people who had experienced despair could grow. Chabashira had expectations for them. Of course, the main reason she was willing to do this was that she had her eye on several talented students in the class.
Horikita, for example. Ayanokoji, Hirata, and Kikyo, too.
Humans were creatures who needed leaders, like Napoleon and Hitler.
Without a leader who represented their beliefs, a group would fall apart like a heap of loose sand.
At the moment, the student who came closest to being a leader was Hirata Yosuke, and he was, at best, just a nice guy.
Eito could tell he really was a good person from the fact that he'd agreed to pretend to be Karuizawa's boyfriend without asking for anything in return.
But he didn't have what it took to lead Class D. He lacked decisiveness, resilience, and a little intelligence, too. If he'd noticed the problems in Class D sooner, they wouldn't have lost all their points.
"...So does that mean everyone else is going to look down on us from now on?"
Sudo kicked the leg of his desk with a bang. If the classes were ranked according to ability, then being placed in Class D meant everyone saw them as the class full of idiots. It was only natural for him to feel inferior.
The redhead had already lost his temper during the self-introductions on the first day. He hadn't wanted to go through the hassle of introducing himself, so he'd yelled at Hirata and walked out. This time, he was just as short-tempered.
"Class points aren't linked only to the amount deposited each month. They also directly affect your class ranking," Chabashira said.
In other words, if they earned 500 points, they could move up to Class C, and the current Class C would drop to Class D.
Chabashira then took out another sheet of paper.
"These are the results of your last quiz. It's delightful to have a class full of elites. What exactly did you learn in middle school?"
Setting aside a few students near the top, most of the class had scored around sixty. Leaving aside Sudo's baffling fourteen points, the next lowest was Ike's twenty-four. The average was around sixty-five.
"That's wonderful. If this had been a real exam, seven of you would have been expelled before the school year had even started."
"E-Expelled? What does that mean?"
"What? Didn't I tell you? At this school, if you fail even one subject on a midterm or final exam, you're expelled. For this test, everyone who scored below thirty-two points would have been expelled. You really are foolish."
She really hadn't told them.
The failing score was 32. Eito glanced at the results. It was half the average, which meant that as long as they avoided any especially low scores, they could all pass.
"Looks like Teacher was right. This class really is full of idiots."
Koenji had his legs propped up on his desk as usual, filing his nails.
And he had every right to be arrogant. He'd scored over ninety in several subjects, tying for first place.
Chabashira continued to berate them without mercy, and also told them about the nature of the school: it was a place where ability reigned supreme.
Finally, she said, "Takeda, Ayanokoji, you two come to my office."
Her words caused quite a stir.
"Maybe they're in trouble."
"Thank goodness it's not me."
Ignoring Ayanokoji, they wanted to see how many points Eito had scored.
They eventually found his score in the middle of the list.
"Hey, he got sixty-six in every subject. What does this sixty-six mean?"
They didn't understand what the score meant. Wang Meiyu, still seated at her desk, couldn't help laughing aloud.
Chapter 19: Suzune's Girlish Bedroom
As soon as the teacher left, the classroom descended into chaos. Fortunately, Hirata was there to help calm everyone down, but things still weren't looking good.
However, none of it had anything to do with Eito, because he and Ayanokoji had already gone to the teachers' office.
Chabashira Sae was sitting in front of them.
"Are you two friends?"
Before you continue