The Beginning of the End

"Are these the current Class Points for each grade?" Sagara looked at the documents in his hand.

The current Class Points for the first years are:

Class A: 1010

Class B: 760

Class C: 670

Class D: 50

Following this midterm exam, the Class Points for each grade have seen a certain degree of growth.

Class A's position remains far in the lead; thinking that such a standard exam could have any real impact on Class A is nothing more than a pipe dream.

Second Year:

Class A: 1450

Class B: 860

Class C: 450

Class D: 220

Third Year:

Class A: 1520

Class B: 980

Class C: 420

Class D: 180

If one were to say that the first-year Class A only holds an advantage, then looking at the points of the upperclassmen makes it clear: in this school, the strong remain strong, and the gap between classes will only continue to widen.

Furthermore...

"Among the upperclassmen, only the top two classes still have any hope of competing for the position of Class A." Sagara was not surprised by this. Fundamentals are the most important thing at any time; it is no surprise that the latter two classes, lacking sufficiently solid strength, would end up in this situation.

After posting the documents on the school bulletin board, his task was temporarily finished.

As he left, a bald student who looked incredibly serious and a small white-haired girl leaning on a cane were walking toward him.

Katsuragi Kohei and Sakayanagi Arisu from the first-year Class A? Various thoughts flashed through his mind, but his pace did not change in the slightest as he walked straight toward his classroom.

"Is that Sagara Zoya from the first-year Class C?" Sakayanagi turned her head to look at Sagara's retreating back, her eyes filled with an inexplicable meaning.

"A celebration party?" Upon arriving at the classroom, Sagara looked at Ishizaki with some surprise. It wasn't that he was surprised by the idea of a celebration—after all, they had worked hard to pass the midterm exams, so there was no harm in them wanting to celebrate.

"Didn't you already hold one yesterday?"

"Because you were busy yesterday, Sagara-aniki, we postponed it," Ishizaki said, scratching his head with a simple, honest expression. "After all, the exam went so smoothly because of the preparations you made in advance. If you weren't there, the celebration wouldn't have any meaning."

Because he had a Student Council meeting yesterday and also had to be on duty with President Horikita, he had sent a message to the class in advance saying he couldn't make it and told them to have fun.

"..." Sagara was silent for a moment, then gave a faint smile.

"Alright, I understand."

Perhaps the people in this class weren't the brightest, but they weren't bad either.

At night, in a KTV room.

"To celebrate passing the exam, cheers!"

A group of students in school uniforms holding juice boxes mimicked the way adults toast, looking somewhat comical.

"Cheers!"

"Ah, what a pity. It would be better if we could swap this for beer." Ishizaki smacked his lips while drinking his juice; without alcohol, it felt too bland.

Well, even if the law stipulates that minors cannot drink alcohol, as delinquents, it would be perfectly reasonable to do something illegal, right?

"Yeah, we should have invited Sakagami-sensei to come along if we had known." Many in the class echoed the sentiment.

"Even if you could invite him, it wouldn't work." Sagara shook his head. "We have class tomorrow. Be careful not to drink too much and fail to get up in the morning. Don't say I didn't warn you if you get your points deducted."

"Don't be such a buzzkill when we're out having fun." Manabe Shiho, the leader of the gyaru group in the class, acted coquettishly, trying to use the momentum to sit in the seat next to Sagara.

"Sagara-kun, could you pass me the tissues?" Shiina leaned over and reached toward the table, accidentally blocking the seat to Sagara's left.

"Here." Sagara picked up the tissue box from the table and handed it over. Shiina took it and took the opportunity to sit directly in the seat to Sagara's left.

Seeing this, Manabe could only retreat in frustration.

The boys in the class didn't have much interest in singing, especially Ishizaki and his group. The delinquents in the class gathered together and started playing drinking games with juice instead of alcohol... well, Ibuki was mixed in with them as well.

The girls, however, quite enjoyed it; the microphones were almost always in their hands.

"Aren't you going to try, Shiina?" Sagara asked, looking at her. Her voice was lovely, so she should be a good singer.

"I'm not very good at singing." Shiina shook her head, her mood slightly dampened.

She had never had many friends in the past, let alone gone out to sing with them. She wasn't very confident in her own singing voice, and since this was her first time at a karaoke bar with friends, she didn't want to leave behind any bad memories, much less make a poor impression on them.

"I see." Sawahara could more or less guess the reason and quickly changed the subject. "Speaking of which, that book you mentioned last time, Shiina..."

As soon as the conversation turned to books, Shiina immediately perked up.

Although it was a bit strange to talk about reading at a karaoke bar, as long as the people in the class were happy, nothing else really mattered.

This Thursday was the day for the third-year special exam. Under normal circumstances, this exam should have ended with a victory for Class A of the Third Year, as the gap between them had been quite obvious for the past two years.

However, this world is never short of surprises.

Class A's points remained unchanged, Class B's points increased by 300, Class C's points decreased by 200, and Class D's points decreased by 100.

This was the exam result Sawahara received, and this shift in points made one thing clear to him.

"The impact of special exams on Class Points in this school is truly significant."

In just a single exam, Class B of the Third Year had closed the gap with Class A by 300 points. If there were just one more special exam where a major mistake occurred, an upset would be inevitable.

Sawahara now had a much clearer understanding of the special exams at this school.

As for why Class A of the Third Year suffered such a Waterloo, Sawahara asked Tachibana, and the mere mention of it made her feel quite angry.

"Because Class B suddenly came into a large sum of Private Points, and they used those points to win this special exam."

For Tachibana to describe it as a large sum, there was only one person in this school who could possibly provide it: the Student Council Vice President, Miyabi Nagumo.

"Is that guy insane? Spending points on something like this—doesn't he worry about them running into trouble during the next special exam?"

Of course there wouldn't be any trouble, because the second years had already been completely brought under his control.

After becoming a member of the Student Council, Sawahara had collected some intelligence on this Vice President Nagumo. He only gathered two pieces of information: aside from the one mentioned above, the other was that the man's private life was rather promiscuous.

I can completely figure out the reason he has his eyes on Ichinose.

However, since the other party was willing to interfere in the third-year exams, he would have to be on his guard.

"Tachibana-senpai, could you tell me about the clubs?"