"Let me reveal a part of reality to you..." Breathing in the fragrance coming from her, and seeing the disbelief in Suzune Horikita's eyes, Toru Hasegawa felt genuine pleasure. "Haven't you figured it out yet? The true nature of this school?"
"Make yourself clearer," Suzune Horikita said coldly, though her tone was no longer as forceful as before.
Toru Hasegawa wasn't the least bit annoyed by her attitude. Instead, he smiled. "I see. Are you the kind of person who can't understand something without hearing a clear explanation? Then I'll be kind enough to explain it in terms anyone can understand."
"This school measures students by their abilities. Didn't your Class D homeroom teacher tell you that at the start of the year?"
Paying no attention to her reaction, Toru Hasegawa poured out everything he had to say.
"What the homeroom teacher said, the free meals in the cafeteria, the free daily necessities in the convenience store, the free bottled water in the vending machines... We all saw and heard the same things, but you didn't find any of it suspicious? No wonder you were placed in Class D."
"Ah, you're probably wondering why I'm emphasizing Class D so much. Then let me tell you the truth. This school does, at least on the surface, assign students to classes based on ability. Class A is the best, and Class D is the worst. Can you understand that now, Miss Horikita, who was placed in Class D? By the way, your brother was placed in Class A from the very beginning."
It was information anyone could learn by asking around. As Manabu Horikita's younger sister, Suzune Horikita couldn't possibly be unaware of that fact.
Toru Hasegawa casually revealed something that should have been a closely guarded secret during their first month at school. He wasn't subject to the same restrictions as the upperclassmen, so it didn't matter. Even if she tried to use the information to threaten him, it would be absurd.
"What exactly are you trying to achieve by telling me all this?" Suzune Horikita took a deep breath. Her mind raced to process the information she had just received, and her hands unconsciously clenched until her fingertips turned faintly white.
Because Toru Hasegawa had explained things in "terms anyone could understand," just as he'd promised, Suzune Horikita quickly grasped the reality.
The school had judged her to be one of its worst students, on the same level as classmates like Kanji Ike and Ken Sudō.
"Well, for now, I'd like to hear what you deduce from this." Toru Hasegawa didn't answer her question, but instead asked her one of his own.
"I'm very dissatisfied with the fact that the school arbitrarily dumped me in Class D. Are you satisfied now?"
"...Pfft—hahahahahaha!"
After a brief silence, Toru Hasegawa burst into loud laughter. If this place weren't so deserted, everyone nearby would have heard him.
He genuinely felt that Manabu Horikita should be the one here instead of him, but now he had no choice but to see it through. After all, he'd already taken the money.
"You really are... You really... Did you actually understand what I said?" After he finished laughing, Toru Hasegawa asked, "I just said the classes were assigned based on 'surface-level ability.' Are you the type who's been hiding your true abilities?"
Suzune Horikita fell silent. She had given her all on both the entrance exam and the interview, so there was no question of her having hidden her abilities.
But that only made her feel more frustrated.
Why? Why had she been assigned to Class D? She was clearly unhappy with the result.
"So you're only capable of this much? After hearing what I said, you're still fixated on being in Class D. You're a little slow on the uptake." Toru Hasegawa continued with a laugh.
Suzune Horikita pursed her lips, turning over the information she'd just received again and again. At last, she sighed helplessly. "What are you trying to say?"
"Then let me give you another piece of the puzzle," Toru Hasegawa said. "At the beginning, everyone started on equal footing. That was true even for Class D."
The school probably never imagined something like this would happen. Toru Hasegawa was unhesitatingly telling a student from another class the valuable information his class had uncovered, even though the payment Manabu Horikita had offered was already worth more than the information itself.
"...So the school is evaluating us right now?" Suzune Horikita was startled by the conclusion she'd reached.
If everyone started on equal footing, then any difference in the results would make the school lose face.
But if that was true, then Class D's current situation was perilous.
Tardiness, absences, brazen chatting and phone use during class...
Things like that had happened countless times over the past week. Suzune Horikita felt utterly hopeless just thinking about it, and it had never even occurred to her to stop them.
She'd thought the state of her class had nothing to do with her. As long as she got into this school, everything would be fine.
"Looks like you finally get it. Good thing I spelled it out for you."
"Is it really all right to tell me such valuable information?" Suzune Horikita asked, puzzled, though her instincts told her that her brother had something to do with this.
"It's fine because I'm telling you." Toru Hasegawa's smile never faded. "You think you don't need friends, right?"
"..."
Suzune Horikita fell silent. He was right, and she immediately remembered the conversation at the convenience store on the first day of school. He must have overheard her then.
Though, given how out of the ordinary she'd been acting all week, he could probably have found out just by asking around.
Still, she couldn't help resenting him for rubbing it in her face like that.
"So, Miss Horikita, who has no friends, how will you act now that you know this? I'm very curious to see what happens next."
"If I tell everyone in the class that we're being evaluated, they'll act immediately." Suzune Horikita had finally regained her composure.
Toru Hasegawa neither confirmed nor denied it. "Then I'll be sure to keep an eye on what you do."
As he spoke, he turned to leave. He'd said everything he needed to.
"Wait!" Suzune Horikita called after him. "Was everything you just told me my brother's idea?"
"No, it was mine. But there's no denying your brother played a part in it, too. You should find out next month, Miss Horikita, who has no friends."
After emphasizing once again that she had no friends, Toru Hasegawa walked away, leaving Suzune Horikita alone behind the school building, deep in thought.
But soon, as if she'd made up her mind, she took a firm step and headed back to the dormitory.
Toru Hasegawa thought about a lot of things that morning.
He'd already accepted the 2 million points. He had to do something to earn them.
Manabu Horikita, both the student council president and an older brother, couldn't get involved personally, so he'd entrusted this difficult task to Toru Hasegawa—and paid him handsomely in advance.
So what could he make use of at this stage?
That was right: the class-assignment information, which was extremely important early on, and the school's evaluation system.
The former would make her feel the danger; the latter would make her think about how to deal with it.
But her lack of friends alone had stopped Suzune Horikita in her tracks. She would have to change.
That was Toru Hasegawa's strategy for now.
Before you continue