"Shinomiya, could I talk to you for a moment? After school, I'd like to discuss what we should do to earn more points. I'd like you and Horikita to join us. What do you think?"
"Why are you only asking me?"
"Because if you come, Horikita will definitely agree to join us too, right? Everyone thinks Horikita is more likely to listen to you."
Maybe because Horikita had helped Ju Ji with his speech last time, everyone in the class had gotten a strange impression. Horikita would listen to him? How could that possibly be true?
"Why?... No, Horikita doesn't look like the kind of person who'd listen to me."
"You haven't even asked me. How can you be sure I won't?"
Horikita seemed to have heard something amusing, and a dazzling smile spread across her face. If I had to guess, it meant she was angry.
"Really?... Then, Horikita, can I touch your—Ow! I told you she wouldn't listen to me!"
"Um... Shinomiya, could you try making a more reasonable request? That's my advice. You should know when to stop joking. But... you two really are as close as the rumors say."
"Rumors? What rumors?"
"If you're interested, I'll tell you all about them later. So, will you join us?"
I had to admit, Hirata was surprisingly patient and good-natured. Anyone else would have lost patience by now. But he was still wearing a calm smile, as if he were perfectly happy to spend his time on something like this.
"Suzune, what do you think?"
"Ju Ji, you can decide. I'll listen to you, won't I?"
So Suzune still couldn't let that go, huh? The old Suzune would have refused without hesitation. She really had changed quite a bit, even if she still wasn't very willing to make friends.
"Then let's go. I also have some information to share. But I have one condition, Hirata: invite everyone in the class. We can discuss it right here in the classroom after school. That way, we won't waste too much of everyone's time."
"So Shinomiya already has some idea what to do? I'll go tell everyone the good news!"
"Hey..."
Hirata looked delighted, as if he'd just heard the best news in the world, and hurried off. It was as though we'd already found a reliable way to earn Class Points. Maybe that was the effect of our recent promotion to Class C.
"Not bad. Hirata trusts you so much. Does that mean you've made another friend?"
"What are you talking about? Hirata has always been friends with everyone in the class."
That was right. In Ju Ji's friendship system, Hirata's affection had always been 50, which put him at the friend level. For the record, after Suzune acknowledged that the two of them were friends, her affection had risen to 60 (close friend).
Now, aside from Kikyo and Ike, she had the highest affection score. Ike's affection was 70 (intimate friend). For some reason, his score had risen especially fast, even though Ju Ji hadn't done anything. At one point, Ju Ji had even wondered if Ike was gay. The biggest surprise was Sudo: his affection had reached 55 (somewhere between an ordinary friend and a close friend).
The other classmates were doing worse, with most of them hovering around 40. Even so, they'd brought Ju Ji a huge amount of Friendship Points. He now had more than 6,000, enough that he wouldn't have to worry about running low anytime soon. But now that their affection had reached this level, it was getting harder to harvest Friendship Points from his Class C classmates. He'd have to find a way to expand his operation.
Time flew by as we studied, and before we knew it, school was over. This time, no one needed Kikyo or Hirata to persuade them; nobody in the class made a move to leave their seat. It seemed they'd already been told about the meeting.
"I'll be counting on you to back me up again, Suzune."
"No problem. We're friends, aren't we? Besides, this will help me too."
Horikita Suzune could be quite charming at times, like she was now. Her confident smile was dazzling, and paired with her stunning looks, it was downright lethal. It only appeared for a moment now and then, though. Fortunately, thanks to Kikyo, Ju Ji had built up a considerable resistance to it. He wouldn't get captivated by her.
"Ahem... Welcome, everyone, and thanks again for taking the time to join this discussion. [Thanks to everyone's hard work, we made it through our first month's points crisis. But this is only the beginning.
"We learned from Teacher Chabashira that only students who make it to Class A are guaranteed employment and further education after graduation. So how can we earn a large number of points? I have a theory...]"
"A theory? Come on, Shinomiya, stop pretending. You're the chairman's illegitimate son, aren't you? Just tell us the answer!"
"Exactly!"
"Don't worry, we'll listen carefully."
"Now that I take a closer look, Shinomiya's pretty handsome too, isn't he?"
"Maybe being a chuunibyou isn't so bad after all."
The benefits outweighed the drawbacks, but it was obvious that the class had started trusting him blindly. That wasn't good in the long run. There was a saying: "Don't build someone up just to tear them down." If a person was raised to a level they didn't deserve, then the moment they failed, everyone would abandon them. And he wasn't as capable as they thought. He was only standing on the shoulders of giants.
That was just the advantage that came from knowing the story. The moment something deviated from the original plot, he'd be like a headless fly, completely lost. That was probably already starting to happen, so he had to take precautions.
"[Don't listen to those rumors, everyone. This really is just a theory. In the first month, Class A pulled far ahead of us. If the school really wants us to compete, it won't let things stay this way. There must be some event that gives us a chance to earn a large number of points. The most likely possibility is the final exams.]"
"The final exams? Can we really manage that with our grades?"
"Are we going to drop back to Class D again?"
"Everyone, let's hear Hirata out first, okay? He must have a plan."
"Exactly. If Ju Ji is this calm, we should trust him."
It seemed most of the students in Class C were well aware of their own academic abilities. That was only natural: fewer than a quarter of them had scored above 60 on the last quiz.
Of course they'd panic after hearing that the final exams were the key. Fortunately, we had two social powerhouses on our side: Hirata and Kikyo...
Before you continue