Hey, you don't want to be expelled, do you?

Inside the rectangular classroom.

Chabashira Sae stood on the podium, looking at the students who were slow to speak with a cold expression.

The playful look she often wore had vanished, replaced by a grave seriousness, with a hint of regret etched between her brows.

Class D, it really was still Class D.

Discarded scraps could never be pieced together into a complete item.

At one moment, she actually found it laughable that she had once held fantasies about this class making progress.

What was the source of such unrealistic delusions?

She subconsciously glanced at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who sat at the back looking completely unwilling to act, and in the next second, her heart suddenly became clear.

So that was it; she had almost forgotten.

The biggest defect in this class was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.

Rain began to fall silently.

A gray hue blanketed the entire Advanced Nurturing High School.

The Class D classroom was completely submerged in an atmosphere of extreme oppression.

"Wh... why? Didn't they say everyone passed? Why is someone still being expelled?"

"Yeah, is there some kind of mistake?"

"I've really had enough. What kind of trash school is this? Is their 'hundred percent employment rate' just achieved by driving everyone away?"

"..."

It took a long time for the students in the class to finally react to the cruelty of reality and begin to question the situation.

They were truly, genuinely at risk of being expelled.

"Teacher, can you tell us the specific reason? I don't want to lose a classmate for no reason."

Hirata Yosuke spoke to the teacher on the podium with a serious expression.

"Exactly, saying we cheated or something..."

Kushida originally wanted to chime in and support him, but her voice lost its conviction the moment she spoke.

Indeed, while their actions couldn't be called direct cheating, they had been skating on the very edge of the rules; they had no ground to challenge the school's ruling.

She looked at the person who was about to be expelled.

At this moment, Ike had his mouth slightly agape, his expression frozen at some point, staring at his own name on the blackboard, unable to say a word.

"Ike Kanji used a mobile phone to cheat during this midterm exam. According to school rules, anyone who uses a mobile phone during an exam without special circumstances is considered to be cheating, and the penalty for cheating is immediate expulsion."

"Well? Do you have any objections to the school's verdict?"

Chabashira's icy voice reached their ears. Everyone's eyes widened slightly, their guilt turning into a measure of confusion.

Some cast suspicious glances at the silent Ike, while others secretly breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts. Only Hirata continued to argue with a serious face.

"There must be some mistake..."

"Teacher, please verify this again. How could Ike..."

However, in the next second, the moment he saw Ike Kanji's reaction, he began to doubt his own thoughts.

The boy with the side-parted hair sat blankly in his seat, his head lowered, his hands trembling slightly, his expression one of existential despair.

He might be expelled today.

Recalling the situation during the exam, his fists gradually tightened.

For some reason, his phone kept vibrating, disrupting all his thoughts!

The answers he had stayed up all night memorizing yesterday were rapidly fleeing his mind amidst the constant buzzing.

Who on earth was it, at a time like this?

The teacher isn't here right now, so it should be fine to just open it and set it to silent, right?

The growing irritability caused him to lose his composure, and he forgot about the existence of the surveillance cameras.

Just like that, the moment he secretly took out his phone, the camera in the back captured the scene and sent it to the faculty, as if everything were perfectly logical...

"Ike..." Hirata looked at the usually lively, mischievous boy who had now become silent, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

"Ike Kanji, go back and pack your luggage. Come to the office this afternoon to process your expulsion."

Chabashira left behind a cold reminder, then walked out of the classroom step by step. As she left, she cast her gaze toward the corner once more, as if still holding a sliver of expectation.

The bell rang, and the people around him crowded in.

"Ike, is it true? Did you cheat on the exam?"

"Kanji, why did you use your phone?"

"Is there some kind of misunderstanding? Didn't we have..."

Whether it was due to the emotional atmosphere or something else, Ike felt these words were grating. It was as if their inquiries were not born out of concern, but rather curiosity—a kind of hypocrisy, like someone who had successfully passed a test comforting a teammate who had been eliminated in front of the cameras.

He simply packed his things and left the classroom in silence, his head hanging low the entire time.

"Could he have really cheated? There was no need for that at all."

"Exactly, what was he thinking? It's something that could have been solved just by spending a little more time..."

"Stop spouting nonsense! How could Ike possibly... tch."

Sudo was agitated, but he quickly realized he had no reason to be angry at others. He could only curl his lip to suppress his fury before walking out of the classroom.

Ayanokoji, who had been sitting in the back row observing in silence the entire time, followed him out without a sound.

No one even noticed.

In a secluded corner of the school building.

Ike leaned against the wall, a single tear tracing a path down the corner of his eye.

He was unwilling to accept this; he truly could not accept it.

But the moment their homeroom teacher, Chabashira, stated the reason for his expulsion, he knew that no matter how he tried to defend himself, it would be useless.

As a bottom-tier student with grades near the very bottom of the school, having been caught on camera pulling out his phone during the exam and then achieving a score far above the danger line, every reason he gave would only become an excuse—a second pair of hands pushing him into the abyss of expulsion.

Silence was perhaps the best choice he had right now.

After a wave of sorrow, he gradually began to face reality.

Just as he was thinking about how to return and make a cool farewell, a boy with a dejected expression walked toward him.

"Ayanokoji... why are you here?"

"No, wait, how did you know I was hiding here?"

Heh, is there anything your brother Ayanokoji doesn't know?

Ayanokoji did not answer his question directly.

With his eyelids drooping low, he spoke slowly to the boy in front of him:

"Ike, you don't want to graduate from this school so soon, do you?"