Yamauchi Haruki Makes His Move

Yamauchi Haruki had spent two whole days hiding from Horikita, Ayanokoji, Hirata, and Kikyo, who were trying to corner him.

At that moment, he was keeping an eye on his surroundings beside a vending machine.

After making sure nobody was around, Yamauchi started cursing again.

What was all that about class pride? Moving up to Class A? Working hard together?

Those people had gone and put those words in his mouth.

Why should he have to work so hard?

There was no tuition at this school, and they gave you tens of thousands of points every month. There were so many beautiful girls, too. Who cared about what happened after graduation?

Whatever happened after graduation could wait until then.

Why work so hard now?

Did they really think getting into Class A would make them better than everyone else?

What a joke.

Yamauchi just didn't want to get expelled.

But he absolutely refused to spend every day suffering through his studies.

The more he thought about it, the more he remembered what had happened during midterms, and the more miserable he felt.

All day, it was memorizing, classes, memorizing, classes.

Class ended, and then there was more class.

Who could stand living like that?

Weren't exams the kind of thing you could pass by reviewing your notes for a few days beforehand?

If you guys hadn't worked yourselves so hard and raised the average, would Kanji and Ken and I have needed to try?

Wouldn't it have been fine if everyone had done a little worse?

Couldn't you just have lowered the average?

Why did everyone have to get a perfect score?

Huh?

Can someone tell me why?

You could pass the exam just by memorizing the answers.

There were people who did even worse than me.

Why single me out?

Why?

Watching Hirata knock on his room door again,

Yamauchi, who had been ready for this, hurried out of the other boy's line of sight and ran for the stairs.

And then there was that damn Hirata.

He'd been on my case since the very first month.

They were all picking on me.

To avoid Hirata's pursuit, Yamauchi chose the stairs instead of the elevator.

He didn't want people passing by to tip them off,

so he even made a point of leaving messages with the friendlier students, asking them not to sell him out.

Then Ayanokoji appeared on the escape route he'd planned.

Yamauchi was stunned.

As it turned out, everyone was a traitor.

Yamauchi cursed everyone who'd given those villains his whereabouts, his heart full of malice.

In the end, Yamauchi was forced to return to the study group organized by the Class D students.

Ken Sudō and Kanji Ike were there with him.

As for the people teaching them, they were Hirata, whom he'd already grown sick of, along with Horikita and Ayanokoji.

What about Kikyo?

Where was Kikyo?

All six of them had gathered in Ayanokoji's room.

With no way out, Yamauchi opened his workbook and joined his friends in pretending to study.

He could just scribble down random answers, right?

He just had to get through this boring time.

"This is material you should have learned back in middle school."

Horikita sighed, then continued:

"Do none of you have any desire to get into Class A?"

Horikita had excellent grades and was very pretty, so there was no question she was qualified to tutor Class D's underachievers.

But as she tutored them, she made no effort to hide her despair at how poor Yamauchi and the others were at studying.

Even a clay figurine had a temper.

Being told in front of everyone that he was incompetent had finally gotten to Yamauchi.

He immediately turned to Horikita Suzune and said:

"Maybe our grades aren't as good as yours, Horikita, but we must have other strengths, right? It's not like we're completely useless, like you make us sound."

Horikita Suzune had never actually said anything like that.

But Yamauchi claimed she had.

His two buddies believed him.

Sudō nodded. He was great at basketball, with outstanding athletic ability.

In all of Class D, Sudō was one of the best athletes.

Ike, sitting nearby, said nothing.

Yamauchi didn't know if he was about to turn traitor too, so he nudged him with his elbow.

Ike had apparently learned how to play along, because he put on a false air of sincerity and said:

"Ah, I was still thinking about how to solve this problem."

Yamauchi couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and said:

"We want to have our own lives, too. We don't want to study every single day. Don't you have lives of your own? Don't you play games? Date? Watch TV? Is it really just study, study, study every day?"

Horikita bluntly called Yamauchi out.

After all, during regular classes, Yamauchi always pretended to take notes in a notebook. In reality, he was either checking out the girls in class or thinking about what to do after school.

Yamauchi didn't feel the least bit guilty about it.

He immediately started complaining that Horikita had been aggressive and disrespectful toward them ever since they walked in, even though they were only slightly worse at studying than the others.

Watching Yamauchi make his case, Sudō seemed to be persuaded. He threw down the notebook in his hand and shouted:

"I quit studying!"

Ike finally caught on and joined his trio, saying:

"Horikita, you may be an excellent student, but from the start, you've just been telling us all the ways we're no good and don't measure up. How are we supposed to study when you act like that?"

Seeing the tension in the room rise, Hirata hurried to his feet and tried to play peacemaker.

Horikita still seemed to have more to say, but the instant she was about to speak, she felt a chill run down her back.

Horikita Suzune knew that feeling.

She took her studies seriously, but she'd never neglected physical training or martial arts.

That was why she had a keen instinct for sudden danger.

Horikita Suzune turned around.

All she saw was Ayanokoji, sitting behind her with a blank expression as he flipped through his Japanese textbook.

Was it just her imagination?

Hadn't Ayanokoji been a little too relaxed this whole time?

Horikita no longer felt like scolding the three underachievers in front of her. Instead, she turned her attention to Ayanokoji, who'd been doing nothing all along:

"Don't you have anything to say?"

Ayanokoji turned the book around and pointed at the original sentence in the passage, as well as the question Horikita had just gone over.

She'd gotten one of the questions wrong.

Ayanokoji didn't even say anything; he just conveyed that with a gesture.

He could hardly have been more considerate of Horikita Suzune's feelings.

Horikita frowned.

"Then why didn't you point it out earlier?"

The reason was simple.

Because Horikita, you were terrifying when you were scolding them.

But Horikita clearly hadn't understood what Ayanokoji meant this time.

When she realized she might have explained something incorrectly, Horikita took Ayanokoji's book and carefully checked everything she'd covered so far.

As a person, Horikita lacked the social skills to get along with others.

But as a student—or as an after-school tutor for these underachievers in Class D—she was unquestionably responsible.

For these midterms, Horikita Suzune had also been in charge of advanced tutoring for several of the top students in class, including Wang Meiyu and Yukimura Teruhiko. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that her academic ability was above the average level of Class A.

Wasn't she just what you'd expect from the student council president's little sister?

Seeing Ayanokoji still spacing out, Horikita sighed and turned back. Once she realized her mistake, she apologized to Sudō and the other two.

She really had been too impatient, and she'd even explained such a simple question incorrectly.

Making a careless mistake on one question was one thing.

But she couldn't stand having explained it wrong, too. Horikita wouldn't tolerate herself making such a basic error.

So she apologized.

Sudō and Ike, sitting across from Horikita Suzune, were both stunned by the sudden apology.

This girl was apologizing?

Seriously?

Their anger hadn't had a chance to come out, but seeing Horikita Suzune sincerely trying to correct her mistake, the two fell silent.

At a time like this, getting angry again would just make them look like they were pushing their luck.

Sudō clicked his tongue, picked up the notebook from the floor, and sat back down.

What had gotten to Sudō most was that the moment he'd stood up, Hirata had immediately moved to keep pace with him.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that if he'd really tried anything, Hirata would have stopped him instantly.

Hirata didn't look like someone to mess with.

Sudō wasn't afraid of anyone, but seeing Hirata and Horikita sincerely trying to help him softened the heart he'd hardened after years of being looked down on and blamed by others in middle school.

If he left this school, he wouldn't even be able to realize his childhood dream of playing basketball.

After all, before he entered this school, not one other school had been willing to take him.

With bad grades and no connections, he would never have had a chance to join this country's basketball team.

Hirata had said something like that during the first month.

Under Hirata's encouraging gaze, Sudō turned away and spoke to the air:

"No, I was wrong too."

Seeing Sudō apologize, Ike followed suit:

"Me too."

It was as if everything had gone back to how it was at the beginning.

Watching it all, Yamauchi thought back to Horikita Suzune and Ayanokoji whispering to each other. His resentment only grew.

Why did they have to study obediently every day?

And why could Ayanokoji become the class leader?

Why was he so close to cute girls like Kushida and Horikita?

Why?

Why?

What did Ayanokoji have that he didn't?

He was just a stone-faced guy.

As the study group got underway again, Yamauchi's resentment toward Class D deepened once more.

A few days later.

Yamauchi continued living his life on the run around campus.

But this time, things were different.

He met someone who could be described as both cute and mature.

The Class B homeroom teacher, Hoshinomiya Chie.

"Your name's Yamauchi, right?"

Yamauchi stood at attention.

He knew her.

She was the Class B homeroom teacher and the health class teacher.

She was an older woman with a cute face and a great figure.

She was exactly Yamauchi's type.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Hoshinomiya-sensei?!"

Hoshinomiya took Yamauchi by the arm, and that single gesture instantly broke down his defenses.

His male instincts kept urging Yamauchi on.

"That's right. There's something I really, really need Yamauchi's help with."

Yamauchi and Hoshinomiya talked for a long, long time.

To put it simply—

Class C was about to surpass Class B.

As a teacher in Class B, Hoshinomiya wanted to do her part for the class.

As it happened, she had plenty of secret information about Class C students.

If Yamauchi could help her spread that information, Class C would surely start investigating every other class, showing their delinquent side.

If Class C made a move, they'd end up losing Class Points, and there might even be an expulsion.

Then, not only could Class D rise to Class C, but Class B could also widen the gap between itself and Class C.

Wasn't this a win-win strategy for Classes B and D?

Yamauchi thought it was great.

This plan was unbeatable!

He might even become famous overnight!

If he could bring Class C down, wouldn't everyone in his class stop looking down on him?

Wouldn't that make Horikita and Kikyo-chan see him in a new light?

Imagining the girls in his class secretly falling for him in the future,

Yamauchi drooled as he agreed to Hoshinomiya's request.

Still, Yamauchi wasn't a complete idiot.

Before leaving, Yamauchi asked Hoshinomiya:

"Does the school have some kind of technology that can identify anonymous posters?"

Hoshinomiya covered her mouth and giggled.

"Doesn't Yamauchi trust me? Have you forgotten the rumors about the school during the first month?"

He'd been so confused.

Right.

If the school had that kind of technology,

why had it let students spread rumors about the school's rules during the first month?

Yamauchi felt like he was on top of the world again.