Shiina gradually began to take an interest in Kujo.
Whenever he made one of his rare appearances in the Class C classroom, Shiina would quietly watch his every move.
After a while, she noticed a pattern: Kujo really did seem to like showing up in the classroom during the last period of the day.
And his profile was seriously gorgeous.
Shiina couldn't help sneaking glances at him.
After school.
Kujo left the classroom.
Shiina began tidying her desk and packing her bag.
But unlike usual, this time she unexpectedly received a text invitation from Teacher Sakagami.
It seemed that every Class C student was supposed to go.
At the entrance to the karaoke place.
Shiina checked the name of the establishment over and over before finally pushing open the door and going inside.
The colorful lights inside shifted and changed.
If she hadn't seen everyone coming and going in the same uniform as hers, Shiina probably would never have connected the place before her with the fourth day of her peaceful school life.
Following the room number in the teacher's message, Shiina asked about the floor and the general location as she headed in the right direction.
On the way.
She unexpectedly heard from a staff member that a student had just asked about working part-time at the school to earn points.
The staff member had replied that there were currently no official rules allowing students to take part in work outside school, and that students should simply enjoy their school lives.
Shiina hadn't meant to eavesdrop.
But the information she happened to hear struck her as odd.
Had it been an upperclassman asking? Or a first-year?
And why would someone want to work part-time?
The upperclassmen should have been able to accumulate quite a few points.
So the person who asked must have been a first-year, right?
But would a first-year want to work part-time at a karaoke place?
Just as Shiina was nearly at the top of the stairs—
"Crash!"
A loud sound of breaking glass suddenly came from a room nearby, followed by the rumble of something heavy toppling over.
Before long, Shiina saw several boys from her class, whom she vaguely recognized, frantically running out of the room where the noise had come from.
So close.
I have to hide.
As they came closer to where she stood by the stairs, Shiina hurriedly pressed her back against the nearest wall, crouched down, and covered herself with her arms.
"Thud, thud, thud."
Had they gone?
Was it over?
Only after the boys had run off and there were no more suspicious sounds did Shiina clutch her chest, brace herself against the wall, and slowly try to stand.
Shiina tried to get her thoughts in order.
But before she could recover, a staff member came running up the stairs.
Shiina quickly realized that someone from her class might have caused serious trouble.
Had the students who ran off gone to get help from the staff?
Fighting was against the school rules, wasn't it?
What happened when someone broke the rules at this school?
"Um, wait. Could you help me?"
Shiina reached out to stop the staff member, but she couldn't seem to raise her voice.
Perhaps deep down, even Shiina felt that doing this might not really be the best thing for her class.
The staff member didn't hear Hiyori, but saw the girl reaching out. He hurriedly stopped and asked what she needed help with.
"My classmates just accidentally fell. They might be a little hurt. Could you help us find a first-aid kit?"
Shiina felt as if her tongue had tied itself in knots, and her cheeks burned. She had never lied so clumsily before. Every word came out haltingly, betraying her guilt.
Fortunately, the staff member immediately nodded at her request and hurried downstairs to get the first-aid kit.
Shiina didn't dare waste a moment. Bracing herself against the wall, she stumbled toward the room where the loud noise had come from.
The door was ajar, and dim light spilled out along with an oppressive atmosphere.
Holding her breath, she gently pushed the door open a crack.
Two boys with their backs to the door were bullying a red-haired boy lying on the sofa.
Anyone seeing this scene for the first time would probably have felt that way.
But the two boys standing weren't unhurt, either.
So it didn't look like they were ganging up on someone. It seemed that the three of them had been in a serious fight inside the room.
Shiina quickly recalled the names of the three boys in the room.
The thin, tall boy standing there was Ishizaki Daichi. His head was bleeding, but he kept taunting the red-haired boy.
The other one, who was tall and stout, was Yamada Albert. The sunglasses he usually wore lay not far from Shiina's feet, their lenses completely shattered.
As for the red-haired boy on the sofa, his name was Ryuen Kakeru.
He looked just as disheveled, his clothes rumpled and a bruise seemingly forming at the corner of his mouth. Yet neither Ishizaki nor Albert had let their guard down. Their tense postures kept the air thick with danger.
At that moment, Shiina heard Ryuen speak from the sofa:
"Still couldn't convince you this time? Fine. Tomorrow, then. Don't look at me like that. You think when I say tomorrow, I mean tomorrow? Maybe I mean the day after."
Shiina couldn't understand what he meant at all.
But she hated the atmosphere in the room.
Before Shiina could react, however, Ryuen got there first. He turned toward the doorway and challenged her directly:
"Hey, you over there. Looks like someone's hurt over here, doesn't it? You called someone over. Were you planning to make a big deal out of what happened?"
Ryuen was obviously demanding to know why Shiina had stuck her nose into their business. But now that she was facing him, she wasn't afraid, nor did she back down. She simply met his gaze in silence.
If someone in her class was hurt, they needed to ask for help.
If someone in her class was fighting, then trying to reduce the school's negative impression of their classmates certainly wasn't wrong.
At the time, Shiina had decided she could either ignore what was happening or stop the staff member.
Stopping him.
That was what Shiina had thought was the best choice at the time.
"Not going to answer? Your eyes have already answered for you. Good girls are such a pain. Whatever. I've already talked to every one of those idiots in Class C. You're the last one, so I'll be straight with you."
Ryuen sat up and launched into a lengthy explanation, facing Shiina.
"You've heard the rumors going around the school lately, right? That's why you acted the way you did just now. This school has Class Points. If we don't pretend to be good students, then with those ridiculously boring classes and rules, we might get a notice from the school punishing us."
Shiina nodded.
Of course she had heard the rumors.
In fact, lately, rumors like that had been all over the school's social media platforms.
Most of them described secret rules that might exist at the school. They had spread widely among the students, and even Shiina, who had few friends and rarely browsed the internet, had heard about them.
Seeing her nod, Ryuen laughed with satisfaction, his voice full of the arrogance of someone who thought he was in control of everything.
"I had Manabe from our class spread those rumors. To be precise, some gloomy kid in the class suggested it to me. I thought it sounded interesting, so I did it."
Gloomy?
Shiina couldn't help thinking of Kujo's profile. In her memory, Kujo always seemed to have something weighing on his mind.
"You might not know this, but I've got a lot of information now. For example, the school gives students a pretty wide berth when it comes to freedom of speech. Unless the facts are seriously distorted, the school won't step in."
That meant the school had tacitly approved of Class Points and the behavioral evaluation during the first month. The school really did have rules that made the classes compete against one another.
And the school rules the teachers had explained to them during the opening period were all linguistic traps.
Shiina nodded again. She understood what Ryuen meant, and her reaction earned his praise.
"You catch on fast, and you're a quick learner. I won't waste any more time. Since the rule at this school is that only students who graduate from Class A get to choose their own paths, then my rule is that I'll lead Class C—no, if possible, as long as everyone's willing to accept my rule, there's no reason the entire year can't move up to Class A."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an almost insane ambition and absolute confidence.
But it was impossible for the entire year to graduate from Class A.
The students at Advanced Nurturing High School received 100,000 Personal Points each month. For students like them, who were still studying and had no stable source of income, it was a huge sum.
However, according to the rumors, transferring classes cost at least 20 million Personal Points per person.
Class C had forty students. Even if they saved every point for a month without spending any, they could only amass four million Personal Points.
That came to just 48 million Personal Points in a year, and a little over 100 million in three years.
That was still nowhere near the 800 million points the forty students in the class would need to transfer to Class A and graduate.
And that was without even considering the possibility of all 160 students in the year graduating from Class A.
Shiina kept telling herself not to think about it anymore. There were more important things to deal with right now.
So she summoned what little courage she had left. Her voice trembled almost imperceptibly, but she did her best to stay calm.
"Ryuen, shouldn't you clean this place up first? The staff member will be here soon."
Ryuen acted as if he'd heard a joke and waved dismissively. The students who had seemed to run away from the room had actually been sent out by him to intercept the staff.
Ryuen had originally wanted to bribe the staff member Shiina had stopped with points, just to be safe.
Now, he couldn't be bothered.
"Since you care so much about what's going on here, I'll take that to mean you're in."
As he spoke, Ryuen tossed the phone from the sofa toward Shiina and added:
"That belongs to the guy on my left. Add his account later. I'll send you plenty of instructions through it from now on. Whether you go along with them is up to you."
Seeing that, Ishizaki reflexively felt his pocket, then widened his eyes.
Isn't that my phone?!
"Ryuen! You bastard—"
Ryuen shot him a glance, and Ishizaki's voice caught in his throat.
Ryuen wanted Shiina to join his plan.
If Advanced Nurturing High School was a school where students could choose their own careers after graduating from Class A, then Ryuen would lead everyone who obeyed him from Class C up to Class A.
Depending on how things went, he even had the confidence and ambition to "make the entire year graduate from Class A."
As for those who wouldn't obey him, Ryuen would use violence to force them into submission.
Shiina wanted no part of this.
She did her best to look unafraid, and asked Ryuen with a girl's anger in her voice:
"Does Teacher Sakagami approve of what you're doing?"
Ryuen seemed to have heard the most boring question imaginable. He scoffed, leaning back with an arrogant air.
"Who knows? At the end of the day, Sakagami's just a teacher. We're not his appendages. I'm acting for my own sake. Wouldn't it be fun to slap the school in the face by letting this bunch of idiots in Class C graduate from Class A?"
Shiina couldn't understand the thinking of someone who liked using violence and threats as weapons. She also didn't think there was anything fun about going against the school.
And she would never try to understand it in her life.
Before you continue