It seemed like a common situation: there were two children in the family, the older one was exceptionally talented, and the younger one had developed an inferiority complex.
"Your performance right now is terrible. Absolutely terrible," Chabashira said. "There's a lot I can't tell you, but I can still point you in the right direction."
"If you don't want to be expelled, then prove your abilities."
"At the very least, you haven't proven anything yet." Chabashira's tone seemed to soften, giving Horikita a chance to relax a little.
"What?" Horikita looked at Chabashira.
Chabashira took another drag from her cigarette.
What she was doing now was technically a violation of the rules. As a teacher, she wasn't supposed to encourage students to explore the school's rules and figure out how to deal with them.
Chapter 35: Miss Sakayanagi Has No Idea What It's Like to Be Broke, Does She?
Chabashira knew full well that she was breaking the rules.
But she had no other choice.
Classes A, B, and C all had higher evaluation scores than in previous years. So even with Koenji and Ayanokoji as two potential assets in her class, it would be difficult to help it climb the ranks.
In particular, she couldn't be sure whether Ayanokoji or Koenji was willing to help the class rise.
After all, neither of them had shown much of their ability so far, and both had been involved, to varying degrees, in the class's loss of points.
So she could only start by trying to choose students who were easy to motivate and wanted to climb the ranks.
Horikita Suzune was the obvious choice.
The Student Council President's younger sister being placed in Class D was humiliating. Horikita's overall grades also seemed quite good. If not for her flaws, she would have been placed in Class A. But those flaws had left her stuck in Class D.
Despite them, she was still far more capable than the average Class D student.
So Chabashira was betting on Horikita.
And by encouraging her like this, she was clearly breaking the rules.
After her talk with Horikita, she would have to go to the Chairman's Office.
She'd probably have half a year's salary deducted.
But if she could create a situation where all four classes had a chance to compete and improve, the school wouldn't refuse.
Otherwise, Class D, with no competitive prospects, might as well be expelled outright to save money.
After all...
How could Class D have already lost all its points after just one month, dropped to zero, and fallen so far behind that there was no chance of climbing back up?
Several thoughts ran through Chabashira's mind as Horikita watched her attentively, though with some nervousness.
Chabashira felt a little guilty.
But it was also true that Horikita had been placed in Class D and branded a defective failure. If she could grow from this, it would benefit her too.
So Chabashira said in a low voice,
"The deadline is the end of this month, through the first of next month."
"The normal approach would be to observe the school and look for anything unusual about it."
"Then you'd find a way to deal with it."
"But you might not be able to do that."
"So when you hit an obstacle, you can try looking at things from another angle."
Was she accounting for the possibility that Horikita might hit a wall because she wasn't capable enough?
Horikita listened to her teacher's advice, but she was also a little dissatisfied.
She'd just been told that she was bringing shame to her brother, and then she'd received a very low evaluation.
She wanted to prove her ability.
Still, she continued listening.
"Class 1-C's Shirogane Miyuki. You could say his performance has been excellent. He's earned praise from both the school and the Student Council," Chabashira said. "If you have no idea where to start, you could consider following him."
Chabashira paused, then added, "Learn from him."
Learn from him.
"..."
For Horikita, who was usually alone and had always trusted herself, that was a complicated suggestion.
Besides...
Chabashira had given her a direction to follow, and Horikita felt she could still get something out of it.
So she decided to start by gathering information about the school.
The deadline was the end of the month. Half a month had already passed, which left her with another half. But she thought that if she looked deeper and thought it through, she could find the answer.
Meanwhile,
"That's a great lunch. You're quite good at cooking too, Shirogane."
On the third day, Shirogane came to the cafeteria at lunchtime.
The cafeteria had three floors. The third floor was the most luxurious, but the food there was expensive, and it also had private rooms that cost extra. Only well-off upperclassmen or staff could usually afford them.
So ordinary students went to the first floor.
But...
As soon as Shirogane took out the lunch he'd made himself, someone came over to talk to him.
It was Sakayanagi Arisu, who held a cane in her left hand.
Classmate Sakayanagi looked especially cute today, too.
But ever since she'd gotten Kamuro under her thumb, Kamuro was often the only one left by her side. When Shirogane saw her in the Shopping District, he no longer saw her surrounded by admirers.
Still, he didn't think she'd lost influence. Her supporters simply no longer needed to make such a show of their loyalty.
"I'm just trying to save money," Shirogane said. "So it'd be a shame not to bring out the full flavor of the ingredients."
"Oh."
Sakayanagi merely nodded.
She came from an extremely wealthy family and was an only child. She'd never experienced hardship, much less had to worry about saving money. So Shirogane's habit of studying hard and cooking to save money struck her as novel.
But Sakayanagi hadn't come over just to ask him for one of his octopus balls.
"You've been observing the Class A students these past few days, haven't you, Shirogane?" Sakayanagi said. "Some of them have already reported it to me."
"I don't have enough points to buy the student directory," Shirogane said frankly.
"So you've been standing outside our Class A classroom and taking pictures of every student who passes by?" Sakayanagi said with a smile. "And you even made a point of avoiding me."
Chapter 36: Class A Divides—Katsuragi Faction vs. Sakayanagi Faction!
Uh.
That was quite a way to put it, Classmate Sakayanagi.
He hadn't deliberately avoided anyone. He'd simply taken a photo whenever he saw a student come out of Class A.
He just hadn't happened to catch Classmate Sakayanagi there, so naturally he hadn't taken a picture of her.
Shirogane had only started doing this yesterday afternoon.
If he wanted information on students from other classes, he could do what Classmate Sakayanagi had done and print out the student directory.
The directory listed each student's class, contact information, name, and photograph.
But it cost points.
And although Classmate Sakayanagi had printed the information, she didn't seem like someone who'd willingly share it. So Shirogane had chosen the most basic method.
If he couldn't tell which student belonged to which class, he could simply wait outside that class's classroom.
After class, students came out of the classroom, which made it a simple way to confirm which class they belonged to.
And if he couldn't get any other information about them, he could take their pictures first, then find someone who knew them and fill in the gaps.
Originally, Shirogane's targets had been Class D students, so he should have been doing all this with them.
But after learning that Classmate Shiina was on good terms with Class D's Kushida, Shirogane had started to consider another possibility.
Recently, a rumor had spread through Class C that Class D had a little angel with golden hair.
Apparently, Kushida from Class D was willing to interact with and talk to the girls in their class.
Some students weren't popular at all, and some even had a terrible reputation, yet Kushida was still willing to befriend them. She treated boys and girls alike, like a little angel.
She also genuinely helped everyone with their problems. It was really moving.
As a result, Kushida had become very popular in her class.
She even said things like, "My name is Kushida Kikyo. My goal is to become friends with everyone at school. I want to make lots of memories, so I hope you'll all hang out with me."
Shirogane didn't know what she was after, but she seemed determined to meet and get to know every student, one by one.
It was frightening.
Was she gathering information on the students in his class too? At the rate she was going, she'd probably do more than get to know her own classmates. She might even learn all about the students in Class C.
And according to what he'd heard from Classmate Shiina, Kushida wanted to be friends with him too, and had asked her to pass that message along.
Shirogane had asked to meet after school, and Kushida had agreed.
So as soon as he heard the news, Shirogane went straight to the Class A classroom and waited for its students.
Since Kushida was so good at socializing, she could help him identify the students from Class A.
After class, he went to the Class A classroom and took pictures of the students coming out into the hallway.
He'd thought he was being pretty discreet. So he'd already been noticed?
"Since you've noticed what I'm doing, I'll stop taking pictures next time," Shirogane said. "Or do you want me to hand over the ones I've taken?"
"No," Sakayanagi replied. "I'm not trying to stop you. My people reported it to me, but I think you're simply taking action."
"For instance, you don't have enough points to print the student directory through the Student Council, so you came up with this hands-on approach."
"Can I take that to mean you're determined to climb the ranks?" Sakayanagi said with a smile.
Uh.
She was scary.
She'd completely seen through what he was doing.
And she'd even seen through his intention to help Class C climb the ranks. After all, if he weren't interested in competing with the other classes, he wouldn't be gathering information about their students.
He'd thought Sakayanagi had just happened to pass by, but she'd come to declare war.
Now his lunch was going to taste worse.
Shirogane also realized there was something he needed to confirm.
While taking pictures of Class A's students, he'd noticed something strange. Class A seemed to be divided.
The desks in their classroom were arranged differently from those in the other classes. In other classrooms, the desks were evenly spaced and concentrated in the upper-middle part of the room.
But the desks and chairs in Class A were split into two groups, one on the upper left and one on the upper right, leaving a large space in the middle.
It was as if the class had been divided.
Could he take that to mean Class A was split?
"Classmate Sakayanagi, it seems you haven't secured the authority to speak for all of Class A," Shirogane said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't let me take pictures of your classmates so freely."
"Heh, it seems you've noticed. You're talking about Katsuragi-kun, I assume. Some of my classmates support me, but others want to support Katsuragi's more conservative approach."
"They seem to want to hold on to their points once this month is over," Sakayanagi said.
That confirmed it. Although Sakayanagi Arisu was the boss of Class A, she hadn't completely taken control of the class. In fact, a faction with views opposed to hers had formed.
They could call it the Katsuragi Faction.
Before you continue