Little Mouse

The first month after arriving at Ikushiro passed in an atmosphere of enjoying the good life,

but for Class D, today was anything but good—

"Zero!!"

"Class D's current class points are zero!"

Class D's homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae, was exceedingly cold and harsh in tone. She bluntly called Class D a collection of defective products, the first class in history to receive zero points.

The hot-tempered Sudo Ken kicked a desk and left the classroom. Class D, having been thoroughly berated, was unhappy as well, but what could they do? Quite a few freaks had been assigned to this class—either genuine geniuses or complete idiots.

And there truly were many problem students, so naturally they would not be assigned to Class D.

Rather than sighing here, they should think about what to do about the midterms three weeks from now.

Students who failed the midterm or final exams would be expelled!

Compared to Class D's volcano of negativity, Class A was far more harmonious.

Tomoya Mashima stood at the podium and announced the changes in class points for all four classes. (cl was the abbreviation for class points.)

Class A: 1000cl—1067cl

Class B: 1000cl—650cl

Class C: 1000cl—490cl

Class D: 1000cl—0cl

A cheer rose from Class A as their points were announced, like prisoners escaping from jail after being steeped in tension.

For the past month, they had been shrouded in fear of being "eliminated," terrified that one careless mistake might lead to expulsion.

In truth, this was only because they did not understand the school's rules and feared the unknown.

Once Mashima-sensei explained more of the school rules, that anxiety finally faded—

"So only people who fail get expelled."

"But the passing criteria are really unusual. They're based on the class average. With Class A's passing line, I'm afraid quite a few people in the other three classes won't make it."

"Exactly, exactly."

The students of Class A immediately felt a sense of pride.

A large number of classmates even planned to organize a karaoke outing to relax. The straightforward Shibata Kaede came over and invited Sakamoto to join them.

"Sakamoto, why don't you come to karaoke with us? Everyone in class really hopes you'll come too."

Sakamoto spoke with interest. "You're inviting me? You don't resent me for making you all spend this past month in such a stifling atmosphere?"

"Of course not, how could we? Everyone in class is grateful that you sacrificed yourself to motivate us."

He glanced around the classroom. Quite a few girls were covertly looking his way as they chatted, while many boys who heard the conversation turned around and nodded in agreement.

"Since my classmates are inviting me so sincerely, I'll gladly accept."

At dinnertime, Sakamoto Shunichi and Hashimoto walked down a secluded path on campus.

Hashimoto carried a bag of fresh vegetables they had just bought from the supermarket, following behind Sakamoto with an expectant expression.

Sakamoto's cooking skills were excellent. Not only was he good at pastries and desserts, but he was also highly skilled at preparing ordinary dishes.

Yesterday's classic mapo tofu had been unbelievably delicious. Hashimoto had wolfed down three huge bowls of rice in one go, praising it without end.

Chef Sakamoto was quite pleased with this.

"By the way, Sakamoto, how come you don't seem short on points at all? You bought so many strange things yesterday."

"I usually don't pay much attention to point expenditures. It just so happened that two second-year seniors voluntarily gave me one hundred thousand points."

Sakamoto opened his phone. The S System panel displayed 180,000 personal points. Those two seniors were naturally Yamada and Saito. The moment Sakamoto left the Chess Club that day, the two had surrounded him in the hallway.

They fervently begged him to accept the points, saying things like being able to watch such a wonderful chess match made even a month of vegetable meals worthwhile. Since the two insisted so strongly, Sakamoto accepted in order to quickly escape that strange situation.

"Are there really such strange people?" Hashimoto was somewhat doubtful, though he could roughly guess that, given Sakamoto's background, he could easily exchange money for points.

"By the way, how did the investigation I asked you to conduct go?"

At that, Hashimoto answered seriously.

"I've investigated Classes B, C, and D."

Hashimoto explained the intelligence he had gathered through observation and inquiries with students from the other classes. It was fairly detailed information about notable figures in each class.

For instance, Class B had a female leader with exceptional charisma. The class had integrated rapidly and soon become tightly united. Class C, meanwhile, had a tyrant who was said to have used violence a few days ago to subdue the others in the class.

As for Class D, it had performed terribly. Although it had some highly renowned individuals, the class as a whole remained disorderly. Tardiness, skipping class, zoning out—such behavior was too numerous to count, and their class points had already fallen to zero.

That was the intelligence Hashimoto had gathered after spending a great deal of time investigating. Since school had only just begun, the classes knew little about one another. The fact that Hashimoto had uncovered so much information also showed just how outstanding his initiative and abilities were.

Sakamoto nodded.

"How did the investigation into that Class D student I specifically mentioned go?"

"Oh, that Horikita? I carefully followed her for a while and found that she tended to keep to herself. She was cold and barely interacted with anyone. There was a boy who kept following her around, though. How should I put it? It seemed like she only spoke to that boy."

Hashimoto scratched his head.

"What did you think of that boy?"

"Oh, I think his name was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. He seemed kind of gloomy and expressionless."

"You know Class D is called a gathering place for defective products, right?"

"Yeah."

"That means the vast majority of them have all kinds of problems. The more glamorous they appear on the outside, the more rotten they are within."

"By that logic, is that Horikita actually the student with the biggest problem in Class D? Her score on last week's quiz was even quite a bit higher than mine, yet she was assigned to Class D."

Hashimoto put on a thoughtful expression.

Sakamoto suddenly curled his lips into a faint smile.

He raised his head and looked toward the sky. The pale sunlight reflected off the silver watch on his wrist, creating a blinding glare that shone into a hidden corner.

"The setting sun is beautiful. It's just a pity there's a little mouse."

Hashimoto immediately understood the implication and turned toward the light.

"Clatter."

The sound of a phone bouncing off the ground was especially piercing in the quiet area.

Sakamoto looked toward the figure hiding around the corner and slowly started walking forward.

Hashimoto, meanwhile, quietly moved closer.