27. Fish in the River

Yagami Shizuka wrote an "R" on the blackboard and explained, "It means that, on top of the S System, we establish another system centered on the class as a whole, with the class taking the lead."

You should be able to see what I mean. Simply put, it's a system of rewards and penalties, much like a mechanism where everyone supervises one another's conduct.

Think about it. If, during an exam, students who put in the effort were rewarded with a certain number of points, wouldn't that motivate everyone to work harder?

As for those who say they don't have enough points, as long as they put in a little extra effort and contribute to the class, they won't have to worry about running short."

Everyone's eyes lit up.

It was true. If this system existed, more students would stop hiding their abilities and sitting around doing nothing.

Even students like Kiryuin and Koenji would take part.

Horikita Suzune had never known how to make use of Koenji. She just couldn't wrap her head around it. He didn't want to contribute to the class, so why not let him work for his own sake instead?

"I have another question. Why does it have to be Sakayanagi Arisu and you? Why can't we hand our points over to the class representative? I can't trust you or Sakayanagi Arisu." One student spoke up in opposition.

Here it was. This was the real problem.

The main reason the class couldn't quickly unite was a lack of trust.

"I can't make everyone believe what I say. Everyone has their own opinions, supporters, and admirers.

"I admit that I like Sakayanagi Arisu, so of course I'll speak in her favor.

"But the real reason is that I trust her and believe she's the only one who can truly lead us.

"If we keep arguing like this, we'll never stop discussing it.

"If you want to argue, I'm game. Come up here and argue with me right now. The loser can leave.

"Anyone who wants to argue, come on up."

The room fell silent again.

He continued, "I might not be able to out-argue you, since I'm not a scoundrel. But I'm extremely patient. I could stand here for three days and three nights without a problem. Don't believe me? Come up and try."

The room was utterly silent.

And you still claimed you weren't a scoundrel? Who would ever agree to compete with you?

There were no holes in Yagami Shizuka's argument. It wasn't as if they could whip up a rebuttal in an instant, either.

Aside from the Katsuragi Faction and the Sakayanagi Faction, there was no third power in the class.

If anyone did come up, Yagami Shizuka had no intention of debating them properly.

He'd made himself clear. This would just be a battle of wits, and whoever was more shameless would win.

"Since no one's coming up, let me tell you another fact." Yagami Shizuka wrote two lines on either side of the blackboard and said, "You have two choices.

"One is to spend three years enjoying yourselves without a care in the world.

"The other is to graduate from Class A and fight for your futures.

"You should be able to tell which one matters more. If we were in another class with no hope of reaching Class A, that would be one thing. But we started out in Class A.

"We have an overwhelming advantage.

"If we fall because we can't unite, will you be satisfied?

"Pooling our points isn't for him or me. It's for you. There's no avoiding it."

His resounding words rang like an alarm in everyone's hearts.

It was impossible to say they didn't want to graduate from Class A.

But not everyone was like Koenji, who would simply return home and inherit the family business after graduation.

"I have one more very important thing to say. It concerns our first Special Exam." Yagami Shizuka suddenly changed the subject. "I need 500,000 points. If I have that amount, I can help the class earn at least 100 Class Points. We'll definitely come out ahead.

"Here's another question: is the information I provided worth 500,000 points? Could you treat it as a personal reward for me? After all, I helped you keep nearly a thousand Class Points.

"I'm asking to borrow 500,000 points from everyone now. If you think my information isn't worth that much, I can pay it back little by little.

"Those who are willing to lend me points can deduct that amount from their contribution next month."

His speech moved quite a few students.

Many hadn't even realized the topic had shifted from the proposal to pool points to a different issue.

If Yagami Shizuka's next proposal succeeded, the previous one would become impossible to change.

"What are you talking about? How could your information not be worth 500,000? It's worth at least a million."

"Exactly. Giving you 500,000 as a reward is perfectly reasonable."

Though they were moved and had plenty to say, not one of them was willing to lend him any points.

At that moment, it was time for the student Yagami Shizuka had arranged to step forward. "I'll put in 50,000 first. I'll transfer it now."

Morishita Ai, seated at the very back, walked up and transferred 50,000 points to Yagami Shizuka.

Her bold move immediately energized the class.

"That was a great speech."

Katsuragi Kohei stood up. "The R System is absolutely necessary. We need to unite against outside forces, and pooling points is the right thing to do. I fully support Shizuka's plan. I'll put in 50,000 too."

He walked up to the podium and transferred the points to Yagami Shizuka.

Afterward, Yagami Shizuka showed the transaction to everyone.

"I can put in 50,000 too."

"Me too."

Katsuragi Kohei's followers quickly followed suit, stepping forward to transfer points to Yagami Shizuka.

"Shizuka is truly a role model for our class. I can't just sit back and do nothing." Shiraishi Asuka stood up and, under everyone's watchful eyes, transferred points to Yagami Shizuka as well.

Afterward, she turned to face the class. "I hate people who promote individualism and have no sense of collective pride. If you're not willing to work together, don't talk to me from now on."

Her words had a powerful impact. The boys who had a crush on her couldn't pretend they hadn't heard.

At that point, even the students who were still hesitating had far fewer reservations.

Sakayanagi Arisu stood up. With everyone watching, it was difficult for her to move, but she made her way to the podium and smiled. "I think you're more suited to be the class leader than I am."

"Is that so? Well, I'm not interested." Yagami Shizuka waved her off.

Sakayanagi Arisu transferred 100,000 points to him.

Next, Kamuro Masumi and Hashimoto Masayoshi went up as well.

That brought the total to 450,000. But 50,000 of it had originally belonged to Yagami Shizuka, and Sakayanagi Arisu had counted it as her own contribution.

The last person needed to reach the target was Yamamura Miki, who bravely stepped forward. She was the quiet beauty sitting in the first seat of the second row.

In other words, she sat right in front of Yagami Shizuka.

Without saying a word, she stood up and transferred 50,000 points.

"Thank you. Thank you all for your support." Yagami Shizuka bowed gratefully.

"If no one has any objections, we'll start pooling our points at the beginning of next month."

Yagami Shizuka was in a very good mood after obtaining a large number of points without breaking a sweat.

"What if some people don't want to pool their points?" Kamuro Masumi spoke up on Sakayanagi Arisu's behalf.

That was the key question, and the reason Yagami Shizuka had held the Seven Star Gathering in the first place.

"Good question." Yagami Shizuka gathered his thoughts. "We can't demand or force anyone to pool their points. If they don't want to, there's nothing I can do.

"However, I have to make this clear first. If you don't care about the collective good and your points aren't in the pool, then if you ever face expulsion, we won't save you.

"I already explained the purpose of pooling points. If you don't join, the R System won't be available to you. You might even be given priority when it comes to expulsion. That isn't up to me. The school made these rules to weed out useless people.

"If you're useless to the class, then it's only natural to be eliminated. And if you haven't joined the group, no one will want to spend a fortune to save you. There'd be no point.

"I hope as many people as possible will join, but there will always be some who disagree.

"Here's what we'll do..."

He looked toward Morishita Ai at the back. "Morishita, could you help keep track of the sign-ups? Anyone who wants to join can register with her.

"We'll set up a class group chat in a little while. If you want to sign up, you can message her on your phone, too.

"Morishita will keep track of the names here..."

Yagami Shizuka walked to the far end of the blackboard and wrote two tally marks. "There are forty of us in the class. We only need eight sets of tally marks to include everyone."

After that, things got much simpler. It was time to create the group chat and add people.

Hashimoto Masayoshi was put in charge of that.

The class had now achieved a preliminary unity.

However, bringing everyone together wasn't that simple.

By the next morning, only eleven people had joined. There was almost no change.

Morishita Ai: What do we do? Your plan isn't working!

Yagami Shizuka: Don't worry. Go up and add two more sets of tally marks first.

Morishita Ai: Huh? Isn't that faking it?

Yagami Shizuka: Heh. You just don't understand human nature.

Once more than half the class had joined, the hesitant students would have no choice but to side with the majority.

No one wanted to be isolated.

No matter how unwilling they were to acknowledge the collective, if they found themselves isolated, they'd have no choice but to join.

And the tally marks on the blackboard would push them from hesitation to certainty.

Not long after Morishita Ai added two more sets of tally marks, two people contacted her.

Morishita Ai was overjoyed. So it really worked.

Yagami Shizuka advised her to add a few more marks, creating the illusion that many people wanted to join.

"Come on, can you hurry up? Having you come one at a time is such a waste of time. I'm exhausted from running back and forth." Morishita Ai went up and drew two more marks.

Even Yagami Shizuka had to admire her acting.

Only her acting could perfectly sell Yagami Shizuka's little scheme, which was why he'd put her in charge of sign-ups.

She could stare at a sheet of paper and mutter, "Another one. Maybe I'll go up and add some more marks when a few more people sign up."

"Some people are so dishonest. They say they don't want to join, but they've already signed up. Aren't you embarrassed?"

"You could learn a thing or two from Yamamura."

In just one morning, the tally marks on the blackboard increased to six sets, though only twenty-six people had actually joined.

Morishita Ai was a little worried that some people wouldn't join no matter what.

After all, joining meant handing over their points. To get them back, they'd have to earn them through their own efforts.

It was like handing over a slice of your own cake in exchange for a share of the class cake.

Anyone thinking rationally would consider it a bad deal.

Those were also the people least willing to contribute to the class.

Then there was the issue of trust. Plenty of people didn't trust anyone. These students had rarely been deceived, and if they spent some time out in society, they'd stop trusting anyone so easily.

The human heart was hard to fathom. The smarter someone was, the more likely they were to do something foolish.

Yagami Shizuka posted a message in the Seven Star Gathering group chat.

Yagami Shizuka: Morishita, make a list of everyone who hasn't joined by tomorrow afternoon and send it to me. If everyone joins, send me the names of the last few people who signed up too.

Morishita Ai: Got it!

Shiraishi Asuka: What's the point of writing down their names? If you want to talk to them, Hashimoto and I can help.

Yagami Shizuka: I'll leave it to you two, then. But I think the last few people will definitely be troublemakers, so we need to keep an eye on them. If we ever get a list of students facing expulsion, let's start at the bottom of this list and work our way up.

Yagami Shizuka: I doubt they'll object, since I've already made myself perfectly clear.

Yagami Shizuka: That way, if anyone faces expulsion, we won't have to spend points to save them. Those few can take the fall first.

It was only a few lines, and they seemed casual and pointless.

But Nishikawa Ryoko saw them and immediately told a few people she knew, "Look, see? I'm in their group chat. They said they're keeping a list of anyone who doesn't want to join. Even if you do join, if you wait too long, the people at the bottom will be the first to get eliminated."

The speaker might not have meant much by it, but the listeners took it to heart.

They didn't have time to hesitate. Seeing so many tally marks on the blackboard, they knew they'd end up at the bottom if they didn't hurry.

This was...

Yagami Shizuka's words had been ruthless and cruel, but that was simply how this school worked.

Either unite, or go it alone and get expelled.

Fortunately, there was no one like Koenji in this class.

Of course, if you had Koenji's abilities, no one would want to expel you for working alone.

But you had to have those abilities first.

Nishikawa Ryoko was the kind of person who gravitated toward any interesting conversation. Whenever she saw people chatting, she couldn't help but join in.

She was extremely sociable in class and could get along with anyone.

Gossip was part of the everyday fun for girls.

She also kept up with current events, and her stamina was beyond what you'd expect. She was practically a news reporter for a new era.

Some people acted lazy and took nothing seriously when asked to do something.

But if you made them angry and then told them not to do it, they might suddenly find the energy to do the work of a dozen people.

At the Seven Star Gathering, she'd been slighted, and the thought had rankled. Now she was very pleased to spread the news.

It was the final straw.

In only ten minutes, she'd spread the message far and wide. It was astonishingly fast.

The class grew noisier with discussion.

The pressure of the situation gradually made many people give up resisting.

The tide had turned. By the end of the afternoon, all eight sets of tally marks had been filled in.

That was impressively swift.

Sakayanagi Arisu carefully reviewed the whole game, turning it over and over in her mind. She, too, began to understand how he'd carried it out.

She guessed that if she'd been the one making these moves, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly. She didn't understand these people yet, or the abilities of those around her.

"So these are the fish you mentioned? Fish swimming in circles, so confused they end up in the net."

"No, no. This isn't a net. It's a fish trap.

"A net is too crude, and it costs money. First, I dig a pool at the edge of the river, then I muddy the water. Fish don't like swimming blind, so they all head toward my trap. I've even designed a clever mechanism that lets them in but not out, so they can't escape.

"It's that simple. This is both their only way out and their trap."