Night Falls

May 1.

It was a day that filled Class 1-D with both anticipation and dread.

Shinjo was yawning as he approached the classroom, and before he even stepped inside, he heard the room buzzing with conversation. Most of it was along the lines of, "Have your points come in yet?"

Or, "Just wait a little longer. Maybe it's not time yet."

As he looked at his naive classmates, a hint of sympathy and pity flashed through Shinjo's eyes. Poor kids. Their wonderful everyday lives were about to be buried...

"Shinjo, have your points come in yet?"

Karuizawa was the one who spoke to him. She was already a big spender, so she was more eager than anyone to get her 100,000 points at the start of the month.

Shinjo instinctively opened his mouth, but he had no intention of making himself the bad guy. Teacher Chabashira would explain it soon enough, anyway.

"No, not yet."

"I see... Then I guess it's not time yet. Maybe the teacher in charge of the transfers hasn't started work."

"Maybe."

A little while later, Sae Chabashira walked in from the hallway, carrying a poster tube.

Her expression was even colder and more severe than usual, as though Ike's joke about her being out of sorts had actually hit the mark.

She calmly placed what she was carrying on the lectern, swept a cold glance over her students, and let her eyes linger a little longer on Shinjo before slowly speaking.

"Next, we'll hold a class meeting. But before we begin, I imagine you have some questions for me."

Sure enough, several students immediately raised their hands.

"Teacher, um, I checked this morning and saw that my points hadn't been deposited. Weren't we supposed to get them on the first of every month? I almost couldn't buy a drink this morning!"

"That's right. The points are indeed deposited on the first of every month. This month is no exception, of course."

"Huh? B-but I really haven't received any points! Neither have the others!"

Yamauchi and Ike exchanged glances, clearly unable to understand what Teacher Chabashira meant.

"Heh heh heh... You really are a bunch of idiots."

Her icy voice came from the lectern, thick with anger and disappointment, but also with a hint of schadenfreude.

Teacher Chabashira wasn't as friendly as the other teachers, but she had never criticized her troublesome students before. So the class was clearly stunned when she suddenly called them idiots.

"Idiots... What does that mean...?"

"Your points, as I've already said, have indeed been deposited. I'm not joking, you didn't hear me wrong, and the school couldn't have forgotten to deposit them. Understand?"

Teacher Chabashira seemed to enjoy playing the riddle-teller, relishing the sight of her students slowly sinking into despair as if they were falling into an icy abyss.

Though perhaps they had brought it on themselves.

Putting Chabashira herself aside, even a genuinely good teacher would be driven to distraction by the likes of Class D, wouldn't they?

"But even if you say that... I still don't understand..."

The student clearly wanted to say more, but Sae Chabashira ignored him and turned to Katsuya Shinjo.

"Shinjo, you know what's going on, don't you?"

Fortunately, she hadn't pointed out that Shinjo had figured it out long ago. Otherwise, the entire class would have turned against him.

At Teacher Chabashira's question, everyone turned their eyes toward Katsuya Shinjo.

Why do you always have to make a big deal out of something so simple? You could just say it yourself, but instead you drag me into it...

After complaining about Sae Chabashira in his head, Shinjo sighed and stated the truth as calmly as he could.

"You mean the points we earned this month were zero, right?"

As if to add to the drama, Koenji immediately burst into laughter and arrogantly propped both legs up on his desk.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! So that's what it is!"

Katsuya Shinjo shot him a look. The guy really knew how to play dumb.

"Wait! Weren't we supposed to get 100,000 points every month? Why is it zero?!"

"Hondo, I know this is hard to accept. I don't want to accept it myself. But if you think back carefully, on the first day Teacher Chabashira said that points would be deposited on the first of every month, and that this month everyone would receive the same amount: 100,000 points."

"She never said we would get 100,000 points every month."

It seemed she'd found someone to speak for her. Teacher Chabashira's expression finally changed, though it was only from icy coldness to open contempt.

"I gave you so many hints, but hardly any of you picked up on them. That's why I say you're a bunch of idiots!"

Clearly, the students of Class D weren't going to accept the truth quietly. So Hirata, as one of the class's central figures, stood up.

"Teacher, please tell us why our points are zero. Otherwise, we can't accept this!"

Chabashira was prepared for a question like that.

"You were late or absent a total of 98 times. You were distracted or played on your phones in class over 400 times. Do I need to say more? As students, you've behaved like this, and you still blame the school for giving you a score of zero?"

"Wait, but you never told us the points could change, and you never explained these deductions!"

Hirata tried to make one last stand, but Sae Chabashira responded with another cold laugh.

"As students, didn't you learn in elementary or middle school how to respect classroom rules and study properly?!"

"You've only just started your first year of high school. Did you really think you'd receive 100,000 points every month without any restrictions? Let me tell you: this is a school established by the government to cultivate outstanding talent! It's not a paradise for good-for-nothings and freeloaders!"

"Uh..."

The classroom fell into deathly silence. They truly hadn't considered any of this, but if they thought about it, they'd all heard the old saying that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

So every face was marked with resentment and regret. Even Hirata stood frozen in place, unable to say another word.

Though she'd gotten the reaction she wanted, Chabashira still didn't seem satisfied.

"Oh, right. I have some good news for you... Even if you decide not to be late this month, or decide to study hard, that won't increase the points you've already lost. Simply put, the personal points you receive next month will still be zero."

This really was good news, at least as far as Shinjo was concerned. The lowest score they could get was zero, so this month he could be late and skip class as much as he pleased.