The Three Stooges of Class D Make Their Move

Class B classroom,

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Hashimoto handed the sealed answers to Ichinose Honami. Ichinose politely accepted them and replied,

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"I'll be going now."

"Hashimoto, there's something I don't understand. Why did Class A sell the answers to Class B first? Doesn't that undermine your advantage?"

Ichinose wore a puzzled expression.

"Oh, it doesn't really matter. Since there are answers, every class should have a copy. That's basically the same as nobody having them."

Hashimoto spread his hands.

Having received her answer, Ichinose did not press the matter further. She smiled, waved, and watched Hashimoto leave.

"Just like Ayanokoji said."

Ichinose held the answers she had purchased for ten thousand points.

She did not know whether this dispute would turn out well or badly, but she would do her best to protect every student in Class B.

"Class A, Class B, Class C."

Hashimoto counted the classes he had visited as he walked.

Other than Class A, which had received the test papers for free, Classes B and C had each spent ten thousand points.

Next was Class D. Given Class D's current situation, they would definitely buy the answers.

This whole thing had been rather easy.

With his hands behind his head, Hashimoto hummed a tune through his nose as he walked into Class D's classroom.

"Hashimoto, if you came to sell answers, there's no need."

Horikita from Class D stepped forward first, blocking Hashimoto and bluntly rejecting the words he had yet to say.

Since news of the answers had first spread through the other three classes, Horikita had also learned of it.

Originally, according to her thinking, she should have bought the answers with her own money to keep the Three Idiots from dragging Class D down.

However, Ayanokoji, who had won yesterday's competition, told her that if someone came to sell answers tomorrow, she should not buy them.

"That may not be true, Horikita. I think some students in bad situations won't give up this opportunity. Can you represent the entire class?"

Horikita frowned slightly. She truly had no way to represent the entire class by herself.

It was lunchtime, and quite a few Class D students had left the classroom. The Three Idiots were absent as well, so Horikita could not ask so many people for their opinions at once.

"I can represent the whole class."

The speaker was Hirata Yosuke, who had just appeared by the door.

"Horikita's position does no harm to Class D." Hirata expressed his support for Horikita.

As the most popular student in Class D, the mildest-tempered person, and a great guy who always considered others, Hirata had extremely high personal credibility.

Hashimoto had no way to force the students of Class D to buy the answers.

Still, he spread his hands.

"There's no problem with me staying here for a while, right?"

Half of the lunch break had already passed.

The students would return to the classroom soon.

At that point, he would only need to reveal the existence of the answers a little. Without him saying a word, the Three Stooges of Class D would make their move.

Horikita had clearly realized that.

She wanted Hashimoto to leave before the students of Class D returned.

She would forcefully persuade him to leave on the grounds that he was not a Class D student.

"Hashimoto, you're not a student of Class D. It isn't appropriate for you to stay here."

"Does the school have a rule saying I can't stay in another class?"

"No."

"Then I'll stay here."

"You'll disturb the other students."

"I'll just stand to the side and watch."

"You..."

Horikita rose to her feet, but Hirata held her back and whispered quietly,

"Ayanokoji has already gotten the answers."

Horikita finally calmed down.

"Hashimoto, you may stay here until class begins. Please do as you like."

"Hey, do you really not want the answers?"

Hashimoto realized that something was wrong. He could not hear the quiet conversation between the two.

"No need."

"It's fine."

Sakamoto appeared behind Hashimoto.

His eyes first glanced toward a certain seat. Only after failing to spot its owner did he withdraw his gaze and pat Hashimoto on the shoulder.

"Let's wait here for a while."

A grave expression appeared on Horikita's face.

This guy gave off an utterly inscrutable air.

For now, the other party had not made any move, so Horikita could only wait and see.

Soon, lively sounds came from outside the classroom.

It was Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudo from Class D.

They entered the classroom chatting and laughing, only to find the cool-faced Horikita and Sakamoto on the other side. Any normal person could tell that something was off about this scene.

But our Yamauchi-daicho was a little tactless.

He immediately cracked a joke.

"Hey, hey, you guys aren't secretly doing something in the classroom, are you?"

"If you don't need your mouth, I can help you shut it."

Horikita's expression stunned Yamauchi-daicho into silence.

Only then did the three realize that the atmosphere was somewhat off.

"We just came to see our schoolmates. After all, we attend the same school. If you're interested, take a look at this."

Sakamoto changed the subject and took a set of answers from the bag in Hashimoto's hand.

"These are the midterm exam answers left behind by upperclassmen from the previous year."

The moment the word "answers" came out, the Three Stooges immediately caught the scent and showed interest.

Seeing that things were going wrong, Hirata hurriedly tried to stop them.

But the Three Stooges did not care about that. They reached out and began discussing it with Hashimoto.

"Sakamoto, and Hashimoto too?"

Kushida appeared at the classroom door, with Ayanokoji behind her.

"Ah, Little Kushida."

Yamauchi happily spoke up when he saw Kushida, then remembered what he was about to do and became somewhat hesitant.

"The Class A students have the midterm exam answers, so we were planning to..."

"Don't do this."

Hirata interrupted Yamauchi.

"Huh? Hirata, even if you're popular in class, you can't stop us from trying to pass the exam."

Yamauchi replied in an unfriendly tone.

"No, that's not what I mean."

"If that's not what you mean, then don't stop us."

Ike continued negotiating with Hashimoto on the other side.

Upon hearing that it cost ten thousand yen, the trio, already broke before the month had even ended, scratched their heads in distress.

Sharp-eyed Ike had actually noticed Ayanokoji standing behind Kushida long ago.

Jealousy lodged in his throat, neither rising nor falling, making him feel awful.

Suddenly, Ike's eyes lit up.

"Ayanokoji, didn't you win the swimming competition a few days ago? You've got ten thousand yen right now, so lend it to us."

The moment he said that, the other two Stooges' eyes lit up as well, and they crowded around Ayanokoji.

"Ayanokoji, I'm begging you as a brother. Save my exam."

"I'll definitely pay you back next month."

The two Stooges grabbed Ayanokoji by the shoulders and shook him back and forth.

"Stop panicking. Our class already has the answers."

Hirata, the nice guy, could not help speaking up.

This time, the Three Idiots froze. Then they released Ayanokoji and looked at Hirata.

"You should've said so earlier. Then we wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble."