Special Exams Are Over / Transfer Him to Our Class Before Summer Break

"That's really going too far."

Actually, there was a second half to the sentence, "So I've always had Ryo come to my side," but Horikita Suzune thought about it and decided not to say it.

"Sigh, I was actually looking forward to this summer's Uninhabited Island Special Exam. Suzune, confess honestly, last year you and Ryo's group were in that desolate place without any surveillance, weren't you...?"

"Stop, that's really not true. Every night, Ryo slept in a separate tent. The three of us girls slept in one tent together. If anyone sneaked out at night, everyone next to us would know. Besides, at that time, Honami and Arisu didn't seem to have any such thoughts."

Yuki simply rolled her eyes at Horikita Suzune's comment.

"Your group wasn't the only one on that island. Anyway, I suspect that Ichika most likely made his move around that time."

After saying that, she sighed again with a melancholy expression:

"As a result, when it's my turn to enroll this year, the large-scale Special Exam during the summer might not be held on the Uninhabited Island anymore."

However, soon, Xue unconsciously recalled the series of dreams she had that day, the most daring scenes that still made her blush and her heart race to this day. It seemed that they were all in a bustling metropolis, with the neon-lit Tokyo Tower in the background and fireworks bursting in the sky overhead.

Hmm... that seems pretty good?

Inside the infirmary, Ichinose Honami returned after failing to stop Chabashira Sae, only to find her younger sister still sitting there chatting animatedly with Kitagawa Ryo, while the school nurse Hoshinomiya Chie, was relaxedly scrolling through her phone, letting Kitagawa Ryo do his 'talk therapy'.

Actually Ichinose Maki was injured, and she should have been accompanied by a club member or teacher who came with her. However, since there was a local older sister at ANHS who was someone she knew very well, Honami simply brought her younger sister to the infirmary.

However, Ichinose Maki was indeed fine. She just stumbled a bit when crossing the finish line and scraped her knee. She felt that she could walk normally when she left school in the afternoon. She took the opportunity to have a good chat with Kitagawa Ryo about what had happened in the past year since she enrolled.

"Speaking of which, Maki is injured and can't play this afternoon, would you like to come with us to Keyaki Mall?"

As if suddenly remembering something, Ichinose Honami made this suggestion to her younger sister.

Although today is the day of the Special Exam for First Year, it is essentially just First Year Special Exam for first-year students. Therefore, the shops in the Keyaki Mall are still open as usual. After all, for second and third-year students and faculty, today is a holiday.

However, these places are not open to students from other schools, or rather, teachers from other schools do not take students to these places on their own initiative. Ichinose Maki happened to be absent due to injury, which gave her this opportunity.

"Keyaki Mall? A place to buy things?"

"Yes, it's a pretty big department store; you can basically buy anything there."

As she spoke, Ichinose Honami subtly nudged Kitagawa Ryo's elbow again. The latter quickly understood and took the opportunity to go to a corner while pouring water. After doing a few things on his phone, he came back.

"However, the purchases inside use ANHS's unique Private Points. To put it simply, one Private Points is roughly equal to one yen, and as for you, sister... you currently have this many Private Points."

After spending Twenty Million Personal Points to transfer classes at the end of last year, and after accumulating for five months, Ichinose Honami's Private Points have returned to nearly two million. Adding to this the more than three million Private Points Kitagawa Ryo just transferred to her to bolster her image, the large sums in her account now left Ichinose Maki somewhat dazzled.

"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million... five million! My sister already has five million yen?"

For students from other schools, Private Points are essentially Japanese yen, so Ichinose Honami didn't care much. After all, that was the effect she wanted in the first place. She smiled when she heard this, thinking that if her sister knew that she had just spent 20 million yen on water five months ago just to hear the sound of Kitagawa Ryo, she probably wouldn't be able to think straight now.

"... Now I finally understand how my sister convinced Mom. Mom couldn't earn that amount in years, let alone save that much money."

"Private Points and yen are not entirely equivalent, so you can't compare them directly. But for Maki, if she sees something she likes this afternoon, she can just tell her sister."

Just as Ichinose Honami finally found an opportunity to show off in front of her sister and to offer some comfort to the family on the verge of collapse in another timeline because of a hair clip, Kitagawa Ryo received a text message from Horikita Suzune, informing him about the Student Council exam and her and Yuki's speculations.

Is it possible that this Summer Large-Scale Special Exam will be held not on the Uninhabited Island but in a city?

Furthermore, there is a high probability that Special Exam, Unanimous Vote, will be included beforehand.

Naturally, Chabashira Sae, who had just left with Hotaru, and then subconsciously glanced at Hoshinomiya Chie, who was sitting there playing on her phone Kitagawa Ryo also lowered his eyes and smiled slightly.

That's quite a coincidence.

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Chapter 54: The Special Exam Ends

Since the Drama Club had already finished their Special Exam for the day, Kitagawa Ryo called them all over after dinner. After the group gathered, they leisurely headed to the Keyaki Mall.

Although the Keyaki Mall was a place that Kitagawa Ryo and his fellow second-year students had visited countless times, to the point of being somewhat boring, it was still quite impressive for the students who were visiting for the first time. The luxurious decor, the variety of stores, and the completeness of the goods sold all fulfilled their expectations of such a large-scale shopping center.

Even Kitagawa Ryo felt that this place was more effective for Ichinose Maki's rehabilitation than the infirmary. In no time, she and Hotaru could be seen moving freely between various shops.

Although the two spent quite some time browsing through various shops and occasionally showed obvious interest in certain items, most of the time they didn't actually take them off the shelf. Instead, they stared hesitantly at the price tag, clearly conflicted.

Even though they had just seen that string of zeros on Ichinose Honami's phone account, it would still be difficult for junior high school students like them to buy those five-figure items without any psychological burden.

In a way, this could be considered as "I really have a cow." Ichinose Maki nor Hotaru grew up in an environment where extravagance was common. However, after Ichinose Honami herself stepped forward again to say that it was no problem, they chose to accept this kindness and began to try to put some small items that they really wanted into their shopping basket.

Horikita Suzune once told Kitagawa Ryo that she thought girls liked shopping because they could enjoy the real feeling of living in the world during the process, but what he saw now was more like the simple joy brought by consumption.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Ryo turned back to ask the First Year students who had only been enrolled at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School for less than two months about their thoughts and actions.

Because each class was aware of the relationship between Class Points and Private Points at the beginning of the semester and consciously restrained their behavior, the First Year did not fall into the predicament that the second-year students faced, where Class D's Class Points were reduced to zero after one month of enrollment and Class C had very few left. Even Xue's Class 1-D retained a considerable portion of the initial Class Points.

However, precisely because of this, the freshmen's spending was not forced to decline. In addition, many freshmen tasted the benefits of partnering with second-year students in the April exam and received a portion of Private Points as a reward. Therefore, First Year freshmen were undoubtedly living a much more comfortable life than their second-year counterparts.

It could even be said that it is precisely because each class retains a large number of Class Points that this year's freshmen are more confident and bold in their spending. After all, as long as those hundreds of Class Points are still there, it means that they can still receive tens of thousands of Private Points on the first of next month. Unlike some second-year students who, even though they did not know the relationship between Class Points and Private Points, still felt uneasy and actively controlled their spending at the beginning of last year, they did not have the idea of saving money.

"Actually, 100,000 Private Points a month seems like a lot, but personally, I feel that compared to other high schools, the environment at ANHS High School makes it very easy for people to fall into this kind of shopping spree. At least, many students in my class are like that."

Although she didn't know why Kitagawa Ryo suddenly asked them about this, Nanase Tsubasa still frankly shared her thoughts:

"First of all, the supervision from parents is suddenly gone. This is the drawback of a completely closed management model. Many college students who get into university easily lose the self-discipline they have developed over the past ten years under such circumstances, let alone high school students."

"Then there's the Keyaki Mall. Considering pedestrian traffic and safety, it's generally impossible for a shopping center of this size to be located next to a regular high school. So when I was in junior high, if I wanted to go shopping with my friends at a big shopping center, I could only do so on weekends or holidays. But here at ANHS, it's just a short walk from the school building after school."

"Finally, there's the issue of online payments. The numbers in your account just don't feel as real as cash in your hand, especially when it comes to spending. You just have to click and pay."

Kitagawa Ryo basically nodded in agreement with Nanase Tsubasa's views.

The rampant consumerism among students at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School did not originate during the tenure of Acting Chairman Tsukishiro; the latter merely intentionally pushed it towards a more extreme direction. After all, Sakayanagi Narimori was not a perfect person who could consider everything thoroughly, and ANHS's system was inherently prone to fostering this phenomenon.

Considering the series of measures taken by Sakayanagi Narimori after his return as the Chairman the board of directors of the ANHS, including the swift passage of the resolution submitted by Student Council Horikita Suzune to shut down the "Investment and Finance Classroom" shop, Kitagawa Ryo could understand Sakayanagi Narimori's recent sweeping reforms in this Club Special Exam.

That is why he was absolutely certain that the other party had also seen this problem among the students.

Thinking back to what Horikita Suzune had told her at noon today about the Summer Large-Scale Special Exam, Kitagawa Ryo felt that she had vaguely grasped the thread of the matter.

If that's really the case.

The location for this Summer Large-Scale Special Exam must indeed be within a city.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was pondering the Special Exam, Hotaru, having finished shopping, came running up to him again, waved her hand in front of his thoughtful face, and asked as if she had suddenly remembered something:

"By the way, did brother bring Ying back?"

"Not yet, but that's what Ying wanted too. She said I just need to spend quality time with you today."

"Hehe... Oh, is that so? Then brother, buy me a drink, I'm a little thirsty."

"Okay, let's go to that coffee shop next door. I heard it's a very famous brand."

"Yes, there's one near our school, but it's the most expensive one."

If your allowance isn't enough, I can give you more.

"No need for that, but like Sister Honami said, today is an exception, so please don't be shy."

Following Hotaru, they entered this branch of what was said to be a huge corporation from outside the region, located in the Keyaki Mall in ANHS. Although they had been here many times before with Horikita Suzune and other girls, Kitagawa Ryo paid extra attention to the prices, probably because he had just been thinking about spending and pricing.

Just as Hotaru said, because these shops are all about high-end products, each cup is not cheap, especially for junior high and high school students. Considering that the minimum hourly wage for student part-time jobs in Tokyo is about 1,100 yen, it is definitely not a price that they can afford to drink every day.

However, the situation was different at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. When Kitagawa Ryo and Hotaru entered, the coffee shop was already packed with customers. Even students who didn't need to work could easily enjoy the shop's services.

"Brother, come and pay the balance--"

"They've arrived."

He placed the phone against the machine, and with a "ding," the balance, which had decreased by only a tiny amount compared to the enormous account, reappeared in Kitagawa Ryo's eyes, leaving him somewhat dazed.

In fact, not only the other students at ANHS, but also himself, and Ichinose Honami who acted in front of his sister today, have all undergone some kind of psychological transformation.

However, Kitagawa Ryo also believes that even if they leave the environment of ANHS and return their Private Points to the real realm of Japanese yen, he and Ichinose Honami will be able to quickly adjust their mindset and move forward as always.

Rather, it is in this respect that people are truly distinguished.

And this is very likely the question that ANHS School set for its students in this Summer Special Exam.

The afternoon flew by in the midst of joyful shopping. Considering the location of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, students from other schools had to allow extra time for their return journey. So, around 4 p. m., Ichinose Maki and Hotaru received a signal from the school to gather. Each carrying large bags and small packages, they returned to the school bus parked at the entrance of ANHS High School, ending their day trip ANHS.

After saying goodbye to her two younger sisters, Kitagawa Ryo also received a statement from the ANHS School regarding the results of the special First Year Special Exam.

As expected, over 60% of the clubs failed in this Special Exam. However, thanks to the strong performance of the Basketball Club and Soccer Clubs, the latter even managed to win in a penalty shootout after a last-minute equalizer, which boosted the morale of ANHS. As a result, the forum was mostly positive, since these two clubs were the largest in terms of membership.

However, this good fortune did not extend to Kitagawa Ryo's circle of girls this time. After congratulating Ken Sudō Hirata Yosuke, as well as other familiar friends from the Basketball Club and Soccer Club, Kitagawa Ryo began to take stock of the girls' side.

His Drama Club suffered a defeat this time, Shiina Hiyori's Tea Ceremony Club also lost cleanly. The only good news was that the Student Council withstood the pressure and was deemed to have passed the review by the school, successfully completing the assessment.

During the time Kitagawa Ryo spent shopping for groceries with Horikita Suzune before dinner, he asked her about the Student Council's assessment for the day, especially the new information that would be released in the afternoon.

Since she happened to be with Horikita Suzune, and was also a participant in this Special Exam Student Council exam, Yuki also took the initiative to come along, expanding today's grocery shopping team to a three-person group.

To be honest, it does look a bit odd to have three people pushing a shopping cart, unless one of them is a child and happens to be sitting on the designated shelf inside the cart. Anyway, Horikita Suzune is currently staring at that part of the shopping cart and thinking about this strange thing.

"The topics for the afternoon were switched. I was given Unanimous Vote for everyone, while Suzune was given Summer Large-Scale Special Exam. However, the format was different. I was given a case study to analyze, while Suzune was directly involved in the design process."

"Perhaps the school intentionally differentiated the difficulty level for first and second graders."

"Yes, that's what I think too."

As she spoke, Xue picked and chose a head of lettuce from the shelf next to her and put it in her shopping cart. In the simulation she had experienced, she had lived alone for a long time and had basic life skills. She usually cooked for herself in her dormitory.

"The case I was given was Special Exam that was conducted with Unanimous Vote. The last question on that exam was a choice between one student dropping out and the Class Points, which ultimately seemed to have caused quite a few negative consequences."

"... It sounds a bit like that Special Exam where both homeroom teachers, Chabashira and Hoshinomiya, Unanimous Vote."

After briefly explaining the events involving Chabashira Sae and Hoshinomiya Chie from back then to Yuki, Yuki herself stroked her chin in agreement:

"Indeed, the more I listen, the more it sounds like that year's class."

"The negative impact of that year's class was so severe that the school even converted double dorm rooms into single rooms. They turned classmates into enemies, and this situation continues to this day, ten years later."

"Yes, the school must have noticed this, which is why they asked us to try to avoid such consequences and make the Unanimous Special Exam more relaxed. That's what I suggested myself."

"If the school adopts this approach, this Unanimous Special Exam should be different from previous ones; there won't be any more multiple-choice questions that challenge human nature?"

Horikita Suzune finally snapped out of her reverie and shook her head in disagreement with Yuki's opinion:

"Not necessarily, because our situation is completely different from that of our two homeroom teachers back then. They were facing their last Special Exam before graduation in their third year, and the gap between them and Class A was extremely small, which is why they were so conflicted and resentful. So even if it were the same questions, it wouldn't create nearly as much pressure for us First Year. What do you think, Ryo?"

"My words..."

"I really hope it can be reissued in exactly the same style."

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Chapter 54: Transferring him to another class before summer vacation

Speaking of which, apart from the initial period when I first enrolled last year, this is the first time that Room 408 has been without Hotaru.

After putting away the cat food he habitually took out, Kitagawa Ryo lay on the bed and took out his phone, preparing to send a message to Chabashira Sae to inquire about her situation. In some ways, he resembled a parent worried about their child who hadn't come home all night.

Although there were quite a few girls at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School who had taken care of Hotaru for him for a few days, such as Horikita Suzune, Sakayanagi Arisu, and Asahina Nazuna, Kitagawa Ryo was still a little uneasy about Chabashira Sae.

Thinking back, his ill-fated relationship with the other party began with the large-scale Special Exam on the Uninhabited Island last summer. At that time, he flipped the high and mighty Class 1-A to Class D, completely shattering all of Chabashira Sae's psychological defenses and removing the fig leaf that the other party had been covering up for the past few years.

A homeroom teacher who could lead Class A to a dramatic reversal and down to Class D is actually dreaming of leading Class D to Class A.

If Chabashira Sae could console herself with the issues of student quality and overall strength in the past, then that Uninhabited Island Special Exam was undoubtedly the heaviest blow. Lifting someone up high and then slamming them down is definitely more memorable than being thrown off the roadside from the start.

Even though the sunk costs of the past have accumulated to an unbearable weight over a decade of her youth, if Chabashira Sae could openly admit her failure and leave the environment of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, Kitagawa Ryo might actually feel that she could start a new life.

But the reality is that the other party saw him as their last lifeline and, in a way that was almost self-deceptive, once again changed their mindset.

Looking back now, the reason he chose to use a counter-strategy and leverage the opponent's strength was essentially because his relationship with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was unclear. The two of them were relentlessly attacking each other, and Kitagawa Ryo couldn't resist the temptation to bring the other's homeroom teacher under his control.

It was precisely because of this that, for a long time after the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, Kitagawa Ryo and Chabashira Sae were in frequent contact, and he also clashed with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka over her spy identity.

However, as his relationship with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka improved and they maintained an unspoken understanding, Chabashira Sae's role became increasingly awkward, and the frequency of contact between Kitagawa Ryo and her also decreased.

Especially after he officially transferred to Hoshinomiya Chie's class, this homeroom teacher, who had a past grudge against Chabashira Sae, kept a close watch on him, stirring up trouble in various ways, and even actually had a no-holds-barred fight with Chabashira Sae Kitagawa Ryo.

In fact, Kitagawa Ryo himself was well aware that even though he took the initiative to tell Chabashira Sae about Hotaru on Valentine's Day, he was still essentially trying to keep her calm for the time being. In a sense, it was a classic PUA tactic, still dangling the carrot of class transfer in front of her nose.

But it's just a carrot that you can only look at but never eat.

After all, even if Kitagawa Ryo were to transfer classes again, his next destination would only be Shiina Hiyori's place.

Thinking of this, the text message he had just typed was left unsent, remaining quietly in the message box. Kitagawa Ryo tossed his phone aside, closed his eyes, and began to ponder the meaning behind Hotaru's actions and Chabashira Sae herself.

About thirty minutes later, just as Kitagawa Ryo was about to get up to go to the bathroom to take a shower, his phone, which was next to him, suddenly vibrated. Someone had sent him a message.