"Everyone, return to your seats. I have some good news for you."
Their homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, hurried into the classroom and began the meeting.
"Does this mean no one was expelled in the midterms?"
"That's great! All that hard work studying paid off."
Sudo and Ike began celebrating loudly. They had put a lot of effort into this exam.
"There's one more thing. The Paper Shuffle Special Exam will be held soon. It's a traditional first-year exam. Every year, one or two groups are expelled, and most of them are from Class D. It sounds scary, but it's nothing for Class D as it is now."
After Chabashira finished speaking, the class broke into a stir. Nagami was the exception, since he was already on the Student Council. The exam's planning and implementation had to be approved by the Student Council first, so he'd already learned all the various rules.
As for why the students in Class D hadn't been told, it was because the rules this time were so simple and straightforward that there was no need to get a head start.
Chabashira began writing the special exam rules on the blackboard.
Paper Shuffle, translated literally, meant "shuffle the papers."
1. Each class will set questions for its opponent. There will be eight subjects, with 50 questions per subject.
2. No questions may go beyond the scope of the textbooks. The subject teachers will review them.
3. Once the match is confirmed, the opposing classes will be bound together. The winning class may take 50 class points from the losing class.
4. The class with the higher total score across all subjects wins.
5. If the classes have different numbers of students, the smaller class may designate individual scores from the larger class to be excluded until the numbers are equal.
6. Students will be bound together in pairs. If a pair's average score is failing, both students must be expelled.
"About rule six, here's an example. If one student gets full marks and the other gets zero on everything, they still won't be expelled."
Chabashira said.
"This is a real benefit the school is giving you. Compared with previous exams, this one is much more lenient. I'll send you the exam topics by email later. Make sure you read them carefully."
"If students with good grades are paired with students with poor grades, then as long as your grades aren't too bad, you definitely won't be expelled."
"I want to team up with Kikyo!"
Ike threw his arm in the air. Thinking about teaming up with Kushida, he couldn't help humming with delight.
"Karuizawa, you'll definitely team up with Hirata, right?"
Sato chimed in.
"Huh, me...?"
Karuizawa hesitated over whether to team up with her fake boyfriend and fell into thought.
"Kagami, want to team up?"
"Oh, Kikyo. Neither of us gets bad grades, right? Wouldn't we contribute more to the class if we teamed up with someone who gets poor grades?"
Kushida spoke up as they headed to the Student Council.
"Pfft. They can do whatever they want. I'd be happier teaming up with Kagami. Taking care of a baby is exhausting. I'm not a kindergarten teacher."
Kushida smiled faintly, voicing her thoughts without hiding them.
"Oh! Not bad. I like the way you think. It feels like I've found a kindred spirit."
Rather than taking the moral high ground and criticizing Kushida, Nagami expressed his approval, which made her even more pleased.
"Haven't we always been good friends? Can we talk for a while today?"
Seeing the expectant look in Kushida's eyes, Nagami reluctantly agreed.
Along the track, some students jogged by, their steps light and their earphone cords swaying gently to the rhythm. Others headed home in pairs or threes, their bags slung over their shoulders as they strolled and chatted about manga or their plans after class.
Some simply sat quietly in the stands, gazing toward the distant mountains. The last rays of the setting sun softened their profiles, as though they were lost in thought.
The carefree spirit and slight confusion unique to youth shone through. Everyone was expressing the passion and freedom of their youth in their own way.
"Youth really is wonderful!"
Nagami sighed as he and Kushida strolled along the outermost lane, taking care not to block the students who were training.
Kushida glanced at Nagami again and again, as if working up to something. Her lips parted and closed, but she never said a word.
"What's wrong, little Kikyo? This isn't a good place to confess. There are too many people around."
"Pfft, what stupid thing is Kagami talking about? Do you think everyone likes Tokyo host-club guys? Only the lowest-tier women, the failures of the female competition who've fallen so low they have to pay at host clubs just to get a man's attention, would like you. If I ever got desperate enough to make you my boyfriend, I'd be better off dancing at a nightclub, showing off my huge boobs, and hooking a rich guy."
"Whoa, that's savage."
(Why does it feel like Kushida's awakened a new kink?)
"It's all Kagami's fault. I've forgotten what I was going to say."
"Let me think..."
Kushida's memories returned to middle school, to that shameful dark past—a day that had shattered the entire class.
"I've always been popular, ever since middle school. With my cute looks and gentle personality, lots of people quickly fell for me. Seniors and juniors alike confessed to me one after another."
"At first, I didn't think anything was wrong. I thought my life was wonderful. So I made more and more friends, and learned all kinds of secrets."
"Ah, ah, Kagami, can you imagine? I found out this secret: an ordinary friend had become a mistress without even knowing it, but I knew that another good friend was the actual girlfriend. I knew both their secrets. They'd only told me, and I'd sworn to keep them absolutely secret."
"Then, one day... the classmate who was dating several people at once confessed to me. Hahahahaha!"
"Kagami, can you imagine how that felt? Being confessed to by a maggot from a cesspit."
"I nearly threw up right there. I forced myself to suppress my disgust and turned him down. I couldn't even stomach dinner that night."
"I wanted so badly to tell someone, but I couldn't. I was afraid everyone would find out that I couldn't keep a secret. Whether they were girls or boys, none of their dark pasts would be safe anymore."
"Accusations and insults came at me from every direction. I wasn't wrong. In the end, that day finally came."
Nagami watched Kushida in silence, listening attentively with the faintest smile on his lips. He couldn't help thinking of a saying: "Only novels need logic. Reality doesn't."
(Interesting. Truly interesting.)
"I had no one to confide in in real life, so I could only post about that classmate's awful behavior on my blog, along with what other people in the class had done."
"After I finished venting, I felt a lot lighter. It was all I could do at the time. Don't you think I was right, Kagami?"
Kushida looked at Nagami, but he continued to smile silently.
"Until that day, when my classmate found my blog and confronted me in class, asking what those posts were about."
"Everyone found out about me in front of the whole class. They said I was a vicious woman."
"I was only telling the truth, but no one understood me. One by one, they blamed me for not keeping their secrets safe."
"I'd tried so hard, and they turned a blind eye to it. What a bunch of complete scum!"
"I told everyone what they'd done. Best friends stealing each other's men, brothers exposing each other's dark pasts. After I told them everything, no one cared that I'd kept their secrets. Insults, violence, betrayal—the atmosphere in the class sank to freezing point. In the end, everyone took leave, myself included."
"Kagami, do you think I was wrong?"
Kushida slowly turned her head. Her once-clear, bright eyes had turned red! Tears slowly trickled from them.
Her bloodshot eyes stared straight at Nagami, filled with indescribable anger and resentment, pleading for understanding and comfort.
"Of course you were wrong, little Kikyo!"
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