Undercurrents

That night, Rinya told her about what he planned to do next.

For his new-class plan, he needed to completely shatter Class B as it stood, so it could rise anew from the ruins.

But given how united they were now, he figured there would be few opportunities.

So Rinya planned to use the upcoming Uninhabited Island Exam to crush Class B once and for all.

He needed Hoshinomiya to secretly help him from the sidelines, further destroying the last of these failures' convictions.

It sounded cruel. Even Hoshinomiya, in her current negative state, couldn't help frowning slightly as she listened.

But she knew that throughout history, a general's success had always come at the cost of countless lives. Every new dynasty had been born in blood.

Besides, this was only a reshaping of a class. It might hurt her now, but she knew her future self wouldn't regret this choice.

Before he left, Rinya saw Hoshinomiya give a small nod. He smiled in quiet understanding, then disappeared into the night with Kushida.

The next day was the last day of the semester.

In the Class 1-D classroom, the students had weathered one trial after another, and at last they felt genuinely relaxed for the first time since enrolling.

What's more, Koenji Rokusuke and Ken Sudō, who had both spent some time recovering in the hospital, returned today.

Aside from Koenji, whose already eccentric personality had grown a little more subdued,

Sudō seemed largely unchanged on the surface.

But as soon as he entered the classroom, he didn't greet his buddies or say hello to the girl he had a crush on.

Instead, he went straight to Kushida Kikyo, who was chatting with Wang Meiyu.

Before she could ask what was going on, Ken Sudō, a boy with more pride than most, bent forward in a full ninety-degree bow before her.

"Huh?"

"Sudo, what are you...?"

Then, in a sincere and eager voice, Sudō said, "Kushida, please... take me on as your student!"

"Ah? What~?"

"S-Sudo, but... but I..."

Faced with his sudden request to become her pupil, Kushida's mind was in turmoil.

It wasn't as though a classmate had never done something like this before.

But she had never imagined that a boy like Ken Sudō, who couldn't seem to get along with anyone, would cast aside his pride and ask her to teach him in front of everyone.

She had no idea how to respond.

Seeing the complicated look on her face and how she remained silent, Sudō thought he hadn't shown enough sincerity.

So he ignored the classmates gathering around him, their comments and stares.

Remembering the helpless despair he had felt that night, he gritted his teeth and started to kneel.

But a fair, delicate hand quickly stopped him.

He was about to shake it off, but then he saw that it was Horikita Suzune and froze.

"There are some things I want you to think over carefully before you decide whether to do them."

With that, Horikita returned to her seat.

She watched as Sudō fell briefly silent, then walked out.

Her face remained expressionless, but a tremendous wave surged through her heart.

He really is going to side with Kushida Kikyo, just as Ayanokoji said...

If I hadn't stepped in just now, another key member of the class might have fallen into her hands.

At some point, Kushida Kikyo had won over half the class. Watching her from a distance, Horikita realized for the first time that she seemed nothing like the girl who used to do nothing but probe into other people's hearts.

On the contrary, though she appeared to be doing nothing now, even Horikita found herself instinctively wanting to probe into her.

When had this ability to draw people in, to turn the tables and take the initiative, begun?

Her gaze shifted slightly, and a boy's figure appeared in her eyes.

So it really is only him...

As for Rinya, his mood on the last day of the first semester was rather complicated.

He looked at the invitation on his phone from Chairman Sakayanagi to have drinks that evening.

She said it was to celebrate his successful reinstatement, but Rinya didn't need to think twice to guess what she was really after.

Then Matsushita Chiaki sent him an invitation to dinner at their usual spot that evening.

It looked like she had made another discovery.

After that came a secret invitation from Ken Sudō to meet that evening. Rinya couldn't even be bothered to guess what he wanted.

There were also invitations from various classmates to have dinner together that night to celebrate the end of the first semester...

By the time he finished looking, he had so many invitations that his notifications showed 99+. Anyone would have found it overwhelming.

Just then, Chabashira Sae, the Class D homeroom teacher, walked in on her high heels.

At a glance, she noticed the joy still lingering on many faces at the prospect of the coming vacation.

The corners of her mouth lifted slightly. Then she said coolly, "You were all grinning when I walked in."

"Sure, vacation's here, so you can finally relax."

"But..."

Chabashira drew out the word, then suddenly changed her expression and asked mockingly, "Did you forget that you still have a pop quiz today?"

"Huh? A quiz?" a boy in the front row asked in confusion.

Everyone else wore equally puzzled expressions. It was the last day already. Why was there a surprise quiz? Had they got the date wrong?

As the room grew louder with chatter,

Chabashira suddenly barked out a stern command, and the class fell silent.

"Quiet!"

Ignoring their astonished looks, Chabashira pulled a thick stack of test papers from her bag and announced coolly, "Then I declare the final paper of the end-of-term exams officially underway!"

"W-What? How can there be one more paper on the end-of-term exams?"

Even Yukimura Teruhiko, who was an excellent student and rarely spoke, took off his glasses and exclaimed in surprise.

The others thought they must have misheard.

But Chabashira's next words silenced everyone who couldn't believe what they'd just heard.

"Don't forget, the written exams were originally scheduled to last three days!"

"If Mikawa hadn't pulled that stunt, the school would never have held a combined physical exam."

"All right, that's enough talk."

"I'm sure you understand how important your scores on this exam are. If you still want to study here next semester and earn points, then... well."

"The exam starts now."

As the papers were handed out, the students who had never expected another exam were entirely unprepared. With no other choice, they grimaced and got to work.

Watching them, Rinya couldn't help quietly laughing to himself.

Her performance was as unconvincing as ever, and her expression never changed.

He was getting more and more curious about what she was really trying to accomplish.

"Oh~ What's this..."

Just then, Rinya noticed that the contents of the test paper were unlike anything he'd seen before.

His eyes flickered with rare surprise.

On closer inspection, over seventy percent of the paper consisted of questions based on real-life scenarios.

And every question seemed to involve an in-depth analysis of him personally.

"I see~"

After briefly closing his eyes, Rinya opened them and nodded slightly. Then he murmured, "Heh~ That was a truly brilliant move."

Either he filled in the information himself, letting her hypnotize and control him,

or he wrote nonsense—or left it blank—and, if his scores were too low next semester, he'd be expelled according to school rules.