Taking Advantage of the Situation, Then Buying Time

Hearing those words, Ike stared blankly at the boy before him, looking confused.

Of course I want to stay! Why wouldn't I, if I could?

That was what he thought, but he still wanted to leave his classmates of just over two months with a good memory of him. Smiling, he said:

"Of course I don't want to, but there's nothing I can do. It's already happened..."

As he spoke, his face clouded with dejection again.

Ayanokoji narrowed his eyes. Why was this guy giving up so soon?

I was planning to bail you out.

He suddenly remembered Ike's plea for help during their last swimming class. It seemed just as fitting today.

"Give me more than twenty thousand points each month, and I'll take care of this for you."

Ayanokoji spoke without mercy, taking advantage of Ike's predicament with a hint of overbearing confidence.

What a scumbag!

"Huh?"

Ike cried out. It wasn't that he cared about those nonexistent points—he didn't even have five thousand right now. He was simply so startled by Ayanokoji's sudden claim that he blurted it out.

"Ayanokoji... are you okay?"

"I know you're trying to comfort me, but joking around at a time like this isn't funny."

Ike complained, managing to squeeze out a smile.

"I'm not joking. Take out your phone and give it to me."

Looking at Ayanokoji's cold, expressionless face, Ike thought he saw a hint of seriousness there. He swallowed, pulled his phone from his pocket, and handed it over.

"You really didn't cheat, right?"

Ayanokoji checked the information on the phone as he asked in a calm voice.

"Of course not. I stayed up all night memorizing the answers. I put my heart and soul into it. And even I'm not dumb enough not to know what taking out my phone during an exam means."

Ayanokoji was at a loss for words. And yet you couldn't help taking it out anyway.

He knew there had been an extenuating circumstance.

After scrolling through the phone for a while, he stopped at an anonymous number. Ayanokoji's eyes flickered as if he'd found the answer he was looking for.

The next second, he repeated himself, deliberately emphasizing his words: "So, what do you say? Do you accept? Give me more than twenty thousand points each month, and I'll make sure you can stay."

"You have no other choice."

Ike stared at him blankly for two seconds. In Ayanokoji's hollow eyes, he seemed to glimpse a trace of determination. Then, for some reason, a conviction suddenly took root in his heart:

This time, Ayanokoji really would save him!

"I accept. As long as I can stay, I'll do it!"

Kanji Ike finally gave him a firm answer.

Ayanokoji nodded in satisfaction and turned to take care of business, but paused to add one more thing:

"You have to keep this secret. If word gets out, there'll be no reason for you to stay at this school."

At the sound of that icy voice, Ike watched Ayanokoji's retreating back and felt a chill run through him. A few drops of cold sweat trickled down his back.

"I... I understand."

Ike's voice trembled slightly, like a wronged young wife.

Ayanokoji felt a little sick, so he hurriedly left the scene.

He left just in time to keep his lunch down.

On the rooftop of the school building.

Chabashira Sae stood before the wire fence, gazing solemnly at the view outside as rings of smoke drifted above her head.

A while later, Ayanokoji arrived.

Hearing his footsteps, Chabashira didn't turn around. She merely said in an even tone, "Go on. What did you want to talk to me about up here?"

Chabashira-sensei, don't tell me you don't know there aren't any cameras up here?

Looking at the haughty teacher in black stockings, Ayanokoji suddenly imagined a curious scenario. Fortunately, his self-control was strong.

Otherwise, he'd have made sure she regretted it.

"Teacher, I remember you said earlier that using a phone during an exam without special circumstances would be treated as cheating. Is that right?"

"Heh."

Chabashira gave a cold laugh before answering slowly, "That's right. Are you saying Ike had a special reason for doing it?"

"Yes," Ayanokoji replied evenly.

"Then let me make this clearer." Chabashira Sae blew out a ring of smoke and continued, "Special circumstances are only the starting point. Even if Ike took out his phone because of an extenuating circumstance, unless he can prove he didn't look at anything on it, he can't prove he didn't cheat. In other words..."

"Whether he cheated isn't up to him. It depends on how the school chooses to view the matter, right?"

Ayanokoji cut in, his tone as calm as ever.

Under normal circumstances, whoever made a claim had to prove it. For example, if A accused B of murder, A had to provide evidence that B had killed someone, rather than making B prove his innocence.

But that only applied when A and B were on equal footing. The school and Ike weren't. Whether Ike could stay depended entirely on how the school assessed his value.

In other words, if Ike were an honor student—or even just an average student—the school would take his potential into account and give more thought to expelling him.

But unfortunately, he was a hopeless student, at the very bottom of the pecking order in this meritocratic school.

So even if he'd been forced to take out his phone by outside circumstances, the school still had every reason to find him guilty.

All it had to say was that he had no value worth keeping.

It sounded absurd, but in this meritocratic school, where survival of the fittest and the weak being preyed upon by the strong were the guiding principles, it was the truth.

And in the future, many more students would be eliminated for failing to demonstrate sufficient ability.

Ayanokoji understood this perfectly. What mattered in this exam wasn't why Ike had taken out his phone. What mattered was the school's opinion.

"Oh? Even knowing all that, you still want to protect him?"

Chabashira's tone softened slightly, as if she were beginning to find the matter interesting.

"Chabashira, I remember you saying that points could buy anything. Right?"

Ayanokoji didn't even bother calling her teacher.

"? That's right. Do you have something in mind?"

"I want to buy a deadline—a period of time to delay Kanji Ike's expulsion."

Ayanokoji spoke with unwavering resolve.

"Oh? Heh, interesting..."

The corners of Chabashira Sae's mouth slowly lifted. She grew more and more interested in the boy's actions.

She slowly turned around. "You want to use that time to change the school's assessment of Ike's value as a student, and thereby change the fact that he's going to be expelled?"

Ayanokoji silently nodded, as if to tell her she'd guessed what he was thinking.

But only he knew whether that was really the case.

"If the school's rules are set in stone, then buying time with points should be allowed too, right?"

"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, you really do keep surprising me." Chabashira finally gave a faint smile, then slowly named a sum. "Five hundred thousand private points. I'll request that he be allowed to remain at school under observation for three months."

At her words, Ayanokoji's brow twitched and his pupils widened slightly. His usual calm vanished, replaced by a trace of shock:

Five hundred thousand?!

Damn it!