The Fourth Chapter: Nagumo Started Making His Move

And so.

Ever since he'd gone clothes shopping with Hiyori that day, Kujo had been thinking about his own fashion sense.

"So, Kujo, have you really reached the point where you're asking me for fashion advice?"

Ayanokoji pointed at himself and asked in his usual flat tone.

Faced with Ayanokoji's utterly calm voice, Kujo felt he must have gone crazy.

He'd actually asked someone like Ayanokoji a question like that. He must have been crazy.

Hearing their conversation, Koenji, who had been fixing his hair beside them, smiled brightly as if he'd finally found his moment to shine.

"No matter what they wear, those who aren't beautiful can never hide their ugliness."

Kujo sighed at that.

Thank goodness he hadn't trotted out that whole "Emperor's New Clothes" line.

What kind of lousy friends had he made?

Kujo was hurt that he couldn't fit into the world of young people, but had instead found his way into two bizarre worlds.

What hurt even more was that he could actually understand and agree with what they were saying.

That only made him feel worse.

Suddenly.

A message alert chimed on Kujo's phone.

It was the special ringtone that played whenever he received a message from Ichinose.

A cello playing a classical piece.

She was asking about the midterm exam.

Kujo unlocked his phone and started typing a reply.

Ayanokoji had grown thick-skinned enough to openly peek at what Kujo was doing.

Kujo didn't even have a privacy screen, so Ayanokoji managed to read the message.

Then Ayanokoji asked him:

"Have you come up with any particular ideas for this midterm exam?"

In response to his curiosity, Kujo casually shared exam information that ordinary students couldn't know:

"The subjects are the same as on the entrance exam, and the difficulty is about the same—what you learned before enrolling, plus the first month of classes. But there's a way to prepare: the midterm exam papers are the same as they were in previous years."

In other words, not only were the questions on this midterm identical to the ones upperclassmen had taken as first-years, but the questions might even be in the same order.

Ayanokoji nodded to show he understood.

That meant they could buy copies of the upcoming academic tests directly from the upperclassmen.

But knowing this trick didn't mean this year's first-years would get through the exam without a hitch.

That was because the Class Points of all four first-year classes were unusually high.

There had probably never been another group of first-years in the school's history that could compare to this year's.

Chabashira had said all that.

Ayanokoji remembered it clearly.

And thanks to Ryuen's maneuvering, the school and Student Council had now taken notice of Koenji earning points among the third-years.

It seemed the third-years had already begun taking basic precautions against the first-years.

It was hard to tell what the second-years would do, but they probably wouldn't think this year's first-years were easy to deal with, either.

Besides, even if the upperclassmen didn't take any special action, who could guarantee that the exam papers they bought from them were real?

If they bought three different papers from three upperclassmen, which one would be the real one?

There was no way to know.

For all they knew, all three could be fake.

Lately, Ayanokoji had been thinking about all sorts of things like that whenever he was bored.

He knew he'd probably been completely corrupted by Kujo.

His thoughts always seemed to veer off in unexpected directions.

The exam was still boring as ever, but if a normal student would think things through like this, Ayanokoji felt he could try being a normal student, too.

Meanwhile.

Unlike Ayanokoji, Kujo didn't have a rich inner monologue.

At that moment, he was thinking about what clothes to buy for Hiyori.

It mattered more to him than the boring midterm exam.

Compared to Kujo and Ayanokoji, Koenji had no interest at all in such a dull exam.

No matter how difficult the questions were, even without the original paper, Koenji's academic ability was enough to get him into the top ten in his year.

The only reason he might not come in first was that the test included subjective questions.

The answers he wrote, full of his own personal flair, always differed slightly from the model answers.

Just as Ayanokoji had guessed.

Nagumo was making his move.

He was preparing to target this year's first-years in the upcoming midterm exam.

Using the Student Council's influence and his position as the second-year leader, Nagumo took advantage of every convenience available to collect the past year's exam papers from the second-years—in other words, the papers they had taken as first-years.

The method was simple.

The school had ordered the papers collected, so the second-years had to hand them in.

But not everyone followed Nagumo's instructions without question.

Out of more than a hundred students, a few claimed they "didn't know where the papers were."

Nagumo knew what they were up to. He wrote down their names, then let them do as they pleased.

Real or fake.

Who could tell?

Nagumo's plan was to use his Student Council position as a convenient shield, right out in the open.

He would collect the papers and show the first-years the second-years' current attitude.

Want points for the midterm exam?

Want to make sure no one in your year gets expelled?

Then trade points for them.

Any student who failed this midterm exam would be advised by the school to withdraw.

If a student in a class was expelled, that class would lose a certain number of Class Points.

The passing score was half the class average.

In other words, if you scored 50 in every subject on a hundred-point test, you'd be safe.

But if even one student scored below the passing mark in just one subject, someone in your year would be expelled.

Only Nagumo, who currently had most of the second-years under his control, could pull off a strategy like this.

Student Council.

Ichinose had also noticed Nagumo's actions.

After all, he wasn't trying to hide them at all.

It was an open strategy.

But her attention was focused on the student files in front of her.

The Student Council had plenty of routine work.

There was always more work to do.

Once one task was finished, another was waiting.

In fact, doing one task well each day was more important than finishing two in a day.

That would earn her a better evaluation from her upperclassmen and reduce her workload.

When it came to future Special Exams and evaluations of students in each year, the Student Council was always flooded with suggestions from students and opinions from all sorts of outside sources.

They were responsible for coordinating issues students encountered at school, compiling and organizing information, coming up with proposals, and reporting them to the school's higher-ups so they could make decisions.

Ichinose was currently responsible for calculating club budgets, compiling the first-year students' information, and waiting for Secretary Tachibana to teach her how to organize it all.

But the work she'd actually been assigned leaned more toward face-to-face coordination. At first, they'd wanted to make use of her excellent social skills to help the Student Council.

But at some point, all sorts of tasks that weren't hers to begin with had piled up on her.

Remembering Kujo's advice to work toward becoming Student Council President, Ichinose kept striving in that direction.

Break time.

[Nagumo Miyabi is collecting the second-years' old exam papers. Some second-years have kept the originals.]

In a single sentence, Ichinose shared the information she'd gathered with Kujo.

Her phone vibrated almost immediately.

Kujo was incredibly fast at replying.

She took a look. He'd sent her the rules for the midterm exam and a plan for dealing with it.

[Anyone who fails the midterm exam will be expelled.]

Seeing the word "expelled," Ichinose quickly grew alert.

This was an extremely important exam.

Earning Class Points wasn't important. What mattered was making sure none of her classmates were expelled.

Ichinose quickly came up with a plan and typed a reply at top speed:

[Then I'll organize group tutoring sessions with the Class C and Class D students.]

It was exactly the sort of suggestion Ichinose would make.

As a student from a higher-ranked class, she could provide academic help to Classes C and D. That would surely be the most effective way to get through the exam.

The collaboration could also earn Ichinose plenty of support from students in all three classes.

It would lay the groundwork for friendship between the classes in future exams.

Kujo quickly typed back.

[You can ask the teachers to tutor you, too. You've got plenty of points right now, don't you?]

[Yeah. Who should I approach in Class C and Class D?]

[For Class D, talk to Kushida first, then Horikita. Remember: Kushida first, then Horikita. Tell Kushida there's a way to get through the midterm and ask her to get everyone to work together. Then tell Horikita that her older brother once brought an entire year together for group tutoring.]

[But President Horikita didn't do that, did he?]

[Just say it.]

[What about Class C?]

[I'll go talk to Ryuen.]

[Okay~ Thanks for the effort.]

A complete plan for a joint Class B, Class C, and Class D study group quickly took shape in Ichinose's mind.

[Where do you think would be a good place for the study sessions?]

[The library. You can ask Hiyori to talk to the librarian.]

[And one more thing.]

After that.

Ichinose asked him about almost every problem she'd run into lately.

Unlike usual, Kujo answered almost everything.

After all, Ichinose's role in this exam was extremely important.

It was an exam that required trust between them.

Finally.

[Meet me at karaoke tomorrow.]

[Okay.]

Looking at Kujo's instructions, Ichinose felt a little excited.

[Come alone. I'll bring Hiyori with me.]

Ichinose tapped the screen twice.

[Okay]