Did You Miss Me?

"Actually, this Special Exam was just a very simple math problem, especially for the student who wanted to get the first place award in the grade."

"After ruling out the possibility that someone might be foolish enough to pay a million Private Points to exchange for extra votes with the school, the number of praise votes and Criticism Vote for each class is a fixed value. Therefore, in this zero-sum game, all you have to do is increase your own score and decrease the opponent's score."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nodded in agreement, looking directly into Kitagawa Ryo's eyes and readily admitting it:

"That's true, but in the early stages of preparation for this Special Exam, Kitagawa, you really created an atmosphere that gave me a chance, and at one point I almost believed it myself."

From the moment the rules for this Special Exam were revealed, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had already been rapidly calculating the maximum score Kitagawa Ryo might receive. Assuming that all the internal praise votes from the students in Class 1-A were given to him, and all the external praise votes from Class 1-B were also given to him, then without counting Criticism Vote, Kitagawa Ryo could get a total of 34 plus 39, for a total of 73 praise votes.

Since Class 1-B outwardly displayed a completely closed-off attitude and refused to cooperate with any other class in this Special Exam, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could only target Class A from within. The Maezono clique's task was to use the guise of self-preservation to cast praise votes for each other, thus naturally reducing Kitagawa Ryo's praise vote. If they could also fill in a few more Criticism Vote for Kitagawa Ryo, his score would drop even further.

In addition, Miyabi Nagumo also holds all thirty-nine Criticism Vote from Class 1-C. In fact, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka has already prepared to contact the other party privately after everything is ready and ask him to fill in all the Criticism Vote with Kitagawa Ryo's name. In this way, Kitagawa Ryo's score will drop to the level of twenty-something.

Next, we will deal with all other possible variables one by one.

All the praise and Criticism Vote from Class 1-D were bought with Private Points. This served two purposes: firstly, it made Katsuragi Kohei owe them a favor, and secondly, it indirectly prevented Kitagawa Ryo from buying votes from Class D to boost his own score.

In truth, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka never imagined he could become the top student in his grade, even though he really needed those Protection Point.

This is still a simple math problem.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo might be burdened with Criticism Vote from an entire class of Miyabi Nagumo, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, after reading the page about Ayanokoji Kiyotaka Karuizawa Kei in Kitagawa Ryo's encyclopedia of love, was very clear about one fact: all the Criticism Vote from Class 1-B were very likely to be directed by Karuizawa Kei to be cast on him.

Increase your own score and decrease your opponent's score.

Both he and Kitagawa Ryo were actually using this simplest yet most direct method.

But as time went on, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gradually realized that even this most ideal scenario was absolutely impossible to achieve.

The biggest problem first arose with Miyabi Nagumo. By the time Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was about to go and make a deal with her, Amasawa Ichika from Class 1-A had already beaten him to it. Before he could even figure out what was going on, he had already learned from Amasawa's impatient reply that he was prepared to cast all the Criticism Vote on Class 1-A Maezono.

In fact, this can be considered a strange twist of fate.

Because he was so focused on avoiding a direct confrontation with Ayanokoji Atsuomi during the Cultural Festival, using Kitagawa Ryo and Yuki as cover, and only managed a brief meeting with him at the very end, he missed the most direct way to discover Miyabi Nagumo's current psychological state. Furthermore, because Ayanokoji Atsuomi casually lied about his identity, Nagumo was indirectly prevented from discovering Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's possible identity in the same way she discovered that Amasawa Ichika was the biological daughter of some important figure.

Then, the problem arose with the contract signed between Katsuragi Kohei and Ryuen Kakeru of Class 1-D. That simple yet effective wording trap directly revitalized the transaction between Class 1-A and Class D, causing the praise votes for Class D that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka thought would never come to Kitagawa Ryo's head to still end up in Class A.

Finally, there's Kitagawa Ryo's counter-strategy against his moves, namely the incident involving Chabashira Sae.

From Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's perspective, in fact, by the last few days before the end of the semester, the ticket types for each First Year class had already been decided.

In Class 1-A, the praise vote goes to Totsuka Yahiko, Criticism Vote goes to Manabe Shiho; in Class 1-B, the praise vote goes to Kitagawa Ryo, Criticism Vote goes to themselves; in Class 1-C, the Criticism Vote goes to Maezono; Class 1-D, the praise vote goes to Kitagawa Ryo, and the Criticism Vote goes to Totsuka Yahiko.

Among all the neatly arranged votes, only the votes praising their class, Class 1-C, were in complete disarray.

Katsuragi Kohei and his clique voted for Ryuen because of their contract with Ryuen. However, there were still nearly thirty students left, and Katsuragi Kohei couldn't expose his deal with Ryuen Kakeru regarding Totsuka Yahiko. Therefore, he could only let the students of Class C vote for themselves, and all these votes became scattered votes controlled by the students of Class C.

Kitagawa Ryo collected these loose tickets in just two moves.

Firstly, it was thanks to the assistance of Chabashira Sae Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's previous suspicions about those one-on-one conversations with the students of Class C were indeed instigated by Kitagawa Ryo.

In conversations with some of the girls in Class C, Chabashira Sae once again plays the victim, falsely claiming that Kitagawa Ryo threatened her during the investigation and that she colluded with him. That is, if Chabashira Sae does not accept his demands, he will take the opportunity to tell the school that Chabashira Sae, as the class teacher, has indeed engaged in inappropriate and misleading behavior towards him that is not in line with the role of a teacher.

As we all know, in serious social issues like teacher-student relationships, the public will hold the teacher accountable more severely. After all, it can all boil down to, "It's one thing for the child to be immature, but you, an adult, are also immature?" In the case of the whistleblower, who is also from Class C and has a bad relationship with the person involved, Kitagawa Ryo, and there is no evidence of collusion to slander the teacher, Chabashira Sae will naturally find herself in a situation where she cannot defend herself, and she may even be dismissed directly.

It was precisely because of this that Chabashira Sae had no choice but to accept Kitagawa Ryo's request once again. He would stand up and prove his innocence in their relationship, but the price was that Chabashira Sae needed to get at least ten praise votes for him in the class.

Aside from Kitagawa Ryo's reputation in Class C being negatively impacted once again, this rhetoric was undoubtedly quite successful. Just like during the Cultural Festival, students tend to subconsciously trust what their homeroom teacher says, especially since the logic behind it was quite sound.

After tricking the girls out of their praise votes through Chabashira Sae, Kitagawa Ryo once again set his sights on the boys in Class C.

"By the way, in that Investment and Finance Classroom this morning, someone suddenly placed a bet of three million Private Points under your name, betting that you would definitely fall to the bottom three in the grade. Was that also something you placed yourself, Kitagawa?"

In response to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's question, Kitagawa Ryo simply smiled and nodded slightly.

"It's just a transfer from one hand to the other, but I should be able to swindle a few praise votes from your Class C. After all, quite a few people immediately followed my lead and bet against me after I placed my bet. I bet some of them are from Class C."

"Perhaps. Just like you said, it's a scheme where you pass money from one hand to the other. If you manage to scam even one card, it's a sure-fire way to make a profit, since buying from the school would cost a million Private Points per card."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka simply nodded in agreement. He had initially considered using this betting game to target Kitagawa Ryo, but he immediately abandoned the idea. Even if he were to throw in Private Points to manipulate public opinion, the funds he had would not be as substantial as those of Kitagawa Ryo.

"I have to say, you really won this time. By the time the results are announced tomorrow, you should have almost a hundred points."

"... No."

Kitagawa Ryo simply shook his head at this, then turned to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and pointed out his biggest mistake in this Special Exam with a smile:

"You're always too rational, so after deducing all my plans and calculating that you couldn't possibly surpass me in scores no matter what, you naturally gave up quickly, right?"

"But actually, the praise votes from Class 1-B and Class 1-D were never all for me, as you might think. I had them fill in the names of every student in Class A."

After hearing Kitagawa Ryo's statement, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's pupils subconsciously contracted slightly in surprise:

"What?"

As for Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, he still finds it difficult to understand Kitagawa Ryo's seemingly unnecessary behavior. After all, rationally speaking, it's tantamount to giving up dozens of praise votes that were within easy reach, and it's not impossible that he might even miss out on first place because of these differences.

"Don't be so surprised. This is a kind of manipulative tactic, but it's Honami who will act in my place."

In his and Ichinose Honami's plan, it would be Honami's turn to appear and reveal his "good intentions" at this point, so that most of the students in the class would be willing to vote for him.

As he spoke, Kitagawa Ryo leaned back comfortably against the back of the bench, gazing absently at the setting sun gradually sinking on the horizon. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka also appeared lost in thought.

After today's debriefing with Kitagawa Ryo, he gradually realized a crucial problem he lacked in order to defeat his opponent: interpersonal relationships.

Karuizawa Kei would make Class 1-B a potential vote bank for Kitagawa Ryo; Ryuen Kakeru from Class 1-D would be willing to join forces with him to set up such a scheme against Class C; and Ichinose Honami from Class 1-A would run around for the other party's plan, acting out this perfect victim drama with Kitagawa Ryo. All of this was due to their relationship with Kitagawa Ryo.

This was undoubtedly a contest of communication and intelligence, but apart from Class A, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had no chance to extend his reach into other classes, and even his control over his own class was a complete mess. Even with the Private Points he obtained from the third-year students, the effect was still somewhat mediocre.

But that doesn't matter. In the White Room, he was never the one who picked up new things and knowledge the fastest, but rather the one who learned the fastest.

There was a long silence between them before Ayanokoji Kiyotaka finally spoke first:

"If they transfer to Class B, we'll be direct competitors. Actually, from a talent perspective, I don't think Class B is as good as Class A right now; in fact, they're far more mediocre."

"Indeed, but it's uncertain if I'll go."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo put his arms behind his head, turned his head, and gave Ayanokoji Kiyotaka a wry smile:

"But that's not why I went to Class B."

"Then why?"

"... Are you Kanzaki or Ayanokoji?"

"I did read his notebook."

"Then why did you ask?"

"I just wanted to confirm, like the end of a chapter, I can only turn the page with satisfaction after I've read it all."

"What kind of ridiculous metaphor is this?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka simply smiled but did not reply. Through his conversation with Kitagawa Ryo, he had already found a second target to observe in the other's list.

Ichinose Honami.

The fact that the other party was willing to help Kitagawa Ryo implement this class transfer plan suggests that, aside from the extremely slim possibility that she was also kept in the dark by Kitagawa Ryo, it is more likely that Ichinose Honami had already made the corresponding preparations.

She and Kitagawa Ryo will be parachuted into Class 1-B.

Well, how should I put it?

Thinking about this, even the legendary observer Ayanokoji, who had seen countless storms, was unusually eager to get started.

The results of the Special Exam for this Class Vote were announced as scheduled the following day.

The highest scorer in the grade is Kitagawa Ryo.

Last place: Maezono Chiyo.

Second to last place: Manabe Shiho.

Third from last: Totsuka Yahiko.

According to the rules, all three students were expelled from school.

But compared to another major piece of news, their dropping out of school seemed to go unnoticed.

On the last day of the second semester of the first year, after all the First Year students had finished their Final Exam, the first instance of using Twenty Million Personal Points to transfer students in the history of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School was finally born.

Karuizawa Kei from Class 1-B spent Twenty Million Personal Points.

Kitagawa Ryo, from Class 1-A, has officially transferred to Class 1-B.

Chapter 375: Did you miss me?

In fact, for the school administration of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, this was the first time they had seen a student achieve this rule, which had never been accomplished by a student since the school's founding. They had originally expected that second-year student Miyabi Nagumo would be the first to try this, but they did not expect that First Year student would be able to accumulate a full 20 million Private Points by the end of the second semester of the first year, and not only did he not use them on himself, but he also asked to transfer students from other classes to his class.

Faced with this unprecedented situation and the lack of relevant countermeasures, the teacher in charge of the Academic Affairs Office immediately reported the matter to the Acting Chairman, Tsukishiro. After all, the school's rule was that "a class transfer could be achieved with Twenty Million Personal Points," but whether students from other classes could be transferred was indeed a somewhat ambiguous derivative issue, belonging to the category that could be both justified and rejected.

However, Tsukishiro himself did not show any negative attitude towards this matter. After inventing the new concept of Protection Point, the Acting Chairman was currently researching a new reward item called 'Transfer Ticket'. Therefore, he readily gave Karuizawa Kei's proposal the green light, believing that her behavior was in accordance with school rules and approved it.

And so, following a pinned announcement from the school on the forum, after the second semester's Final Exam, Kitagawa Ryo's name appeared on the roster of Class 1-B, officially leaving Class 1-A and becoming a member of Class B.

Then, more details and inside stories about this class transfer and Special Exam were revealed and dug up one by one on the forum. The first thing that was successfully proven was Ichinose Honami's statement. Karuizawa Kei from Class 1-B and Ryuen Kakeru from Class D publicly revealed the contents of their contracts with Kitagawa Ryo, which proved that Kitagawa Ryo himself did indeed use his own money and his maneuvering to get praise votes from Class B and Class D for all the students in Class A.

It was precisely because of this that Class 1-A became the class with the most students scoring positive (i. e., receiving more praise votes than Criticism Vote) in this special Class Vote Special Exam. Most of the students received a reward of 10,000 Private Points from the school. However, in the current situation, the sound of these Private Points arriving seemed somewhat jarring and ironic.

The script that Ichinose Honami crafted for Kitagawa Ryo was quite perfect. From the perspective of most of the students in Class 1-A, Kitagawa Ryo's action logic in this Special Exam was to first make normal arrangements and negotiate with other classes, just like in previous Special Exam. Then, because he noticed the dissatisfaction and activities of Maezono and others in his class, he did not ignore their opinions or simply expose them as the class Leader. Instead, he seriously considered the opinions of these marginal students in his class. After understanding their concerns about being mistakenly harmed, he chose to change his initial plan. He used his Private Points and the possibility of missing out on the first place award in the grade to make a deal with Class B and Class D. He didn't even plan to make this public, letting the students in Class A cast their praise and Criticism Vote according to their own ideas.

Sudo Ken Sudō and his group are the second-hand insurance prepared by Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami. His task in this play is to bring up the Midterm Exam incident from last semester, to make the whole class believe that Kitagawa Ryo really is the kind of person who does such good deeds anonymously, and to further increase the credibility of this rhetoric.

Finally, it was a natural ending with Class 1-B.

Just as Karuizawa Kei said, she and Kanzaki Ryuji had been preparing for Kitagawa Ryo's transfer for a long time. Karuizawa Kei was even a little concerned that others might think things were too coincidental. How could Class 1-B just happen to have exactly 20 million yen after receiving Kitagawa Ryo's ticket money? Therefore, she arranged for Hoshinomiya Chie to step in.

Although it seems like she didn't need to make any arrangements, the moment Kitagawa Ryo transferred to the class, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-B couldn't wait to share the message she had been editing for a long time on the forum. She enthusiastically welcomed Kitagawa Ryo to the warm family of Class 1-B, and her smug attitude easily made people think that this guy must have sponsored a lot of Private Points in this matter.

Of course, although most students were fooled by the transfer strategy disguised as Special Exam, the students of Class A, who couldn't accept the fact that Kitagawa Ryo was leaving, still flocked to try to salvage the situation. All sorts of phone calls and text messages flooded Kitagawa Ryo's phone almost immediately.

Fortunately, on the first day after transferring classes, which was the second day after the start of winter break, Kitagawa Ryo successfully left Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School under the pretext of the Drama Club going out to participate in a competition, thus avoiding the first wave of the storm.

But even so, there are always some people who can't escape it.

As usual, boys and girls left the school in separate cars. Unlike Kitagawa Ryo, who had become quite familiar with the supervising teacher Sima Kexian on one car, the atmosphere on the other girls' car was tense and subtly tense.

Amasawa Ichika is currently staring intently at Karuizawa Kei, who is in turn exchanging glances with Karuizawa Kei without giving an inch. Fortunately, Ichinose Honami Sakura Airi, who is caught in the middle and has a good relationship with all of them, is trying her best to use her skills as a former idol to keep the atmosphere lively and smooth things over. Otherwise, it feels like the three of them might start pulling each other's hair in the car at any moment.

Still seemingly resentful and annoyed that she was distracted by Sakayanagi Arisu and Kitagawa Ryo during the Special Exam and failed to notice the class transfer in time, Amasawa Ichika clearly expressed her dissatisfaction with Karuizawa Kei and Ichinose Honami after leaving school. She wasn't stupid; after reviewing the events briefly, she quickly realized that the latter, and even Sakayanagi Arisu, had played a role in fueling the situation.

"It's just a class transfer, is there any need to get so worked up?"

Perhaps feeling a little bothered by Amasawa Ichika's direct gaze, even Ichinose Honami, who was still wondering when Karuizawa Kei would also suddenly appear in their class, had no choice but to turn her head and say something to Amasawa Ichika with a bit of helplessness.

"If you think it's unnecessary, then Karuizawa, there's no need for you to transfer Ryo over there, is there?"

"Hmm, that makes sense. But since Amasawa isn't satisfied with my answer, why not try turning Ryo back? Or ask Ichinose next to you; she just happens to have Twenty Million Personal Points, doesn't she?"

After easily drawing Amasawa Ichika's attention back to Ichinose Honami, Karuizawa Kei leaned over and whispered a few words to Sakura Airi, who was sitting next to her.

Because she already knew from Karuizawa Kei about Kitagawa Ryo's desire to transfer to her class during the Sports Festival, Sakura Airi wasn't surprised when it actually happened. After all, her relationship with Karuizawa Kei was actually better than that with Shiina Hiyori. Although she was indeed a little disappointed that her friend's wish had come true, she was mostly happy for Karuizawa Kei.

Seeing that Amasawa Ichika's anger had been ignited by Karuizawa Kei and was now spreading to her side, Ichinose Honami decided not to hide anything any longer and simply stated her intentions:

"I'll be transferring to Class B too."

Although she really wanted to chime in with "Me too," Amasawa Ichika definitely couldn't come up with those 20 million Private Points right now. Kitagawa Ryo's transfer was already decided, so all she could do was lean back a little dejectedly, looking quite miserable.

As the school vehicle left the artificial island where the Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School campus is located and entered downtown Tokyo, the lively festive atmosphere of the streets quickly seeped in through the transparent car windows.

Today is Christmas Eve, December 24th, and tomorrow is Christmas Day, December 25th.

This year's snow season has also coincided perfectly with the timing. Starting last night, Tokyo welcomed its first snowfall of the winter. Although the amount of snowfall was not enough to accumulate significantly overnight, the clearly visible snowflakes falling from the sky still added a more dreamy atmosphere to the upcoming Hiyori and the end of the year.

The windows of various shops along the street displayed the words "Merry Christmas" in English. Shop assistants dressed in Christmas costumes greeted customers at the door. Kitagawa Ryo, who was somewhat engrossed in watching, subconsciously reached out and rolled down the car window a few times. A few snowflakes and a gust of cold wind hit him, making him feel refreshed and unconsciously raise the corners of his mouth.

For him now, everything at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, including the class transfer, is irrelevant.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that he hasn't seen his sister for quite a long time. After all, she has been receiving treatment abroad for several years, and he himself has enrolled in Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, making it quite inconvenient to make video calls on a regular basis.

Actually, after realizing that the white cat that had been by his side for so long was also Hotaru, Kitagawa Ryo went through a period of confusion, but he quickly recovered.

In his eyes, both the cat and the person were his sisters. The former was his sister in his previous life who was destined to die from illness, while the latter was his sister whose Fate he had changed, who regained her health, and started a new future. There was no difference between them, and he had no preference for either of them. They were both his most important family members.

Speaking of which, before leaving school today, Kitagawa Ryo celebrated his cat's birthday in advance and also asked him with great curiosity about his cat's opinion on the other Hotaru who exists in reality.

The answer he received was quite subtle, because the last words his cat typed on the computer keyboard were the somewhat inexplicable phrase "a self with a greater chance of fulfilling its wishes." After typing these words, the cat quickly slipped back to its little nest, only to emerge again and wave its cat fists at him as Kitagawa Ryo packed his bags and left the room.

As they leisurely reminisced about Ying and her, about half an hour later, the car finally arrived at the hotel where they were going to stay. Supervising teacher Sima Kexian got out of the car first and prepared to help the Drama Club students carry their luggage upstairs.

But in the blink of an eye, Kitagawa Ryo, who had been standing next to him just moments before, had vanished. Sima Kexian frowned and quickly scanned his surroundings, soon spotting Kitagawa Ryo at the hotel reception. The man seemed to be communicating with a staff member there, then took the phone that was handed to him, as if making a call to someone.

This is strictly prohibited under the rules of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. Even students who go out to compete must minimize or avoid all contact with the outside world under the supervision of accompanying teachers.