Time flew by, and the days passed one after another.
Ever since their last encounter in the alley, whenever Horikita Suzune saw Onizuka, she acted like a mouse seeing a cat and stayed well away from him.
Sometimes, the stiff way she turned around made him want to laugh.
And since their seats were quite close to each other, whenever Horikita Suzune returned to her seat, she always hurried over with her head lowered, afraid Onizuka might strike up a conversation with her again.
But that would have been a little rude, so every time, he managed to restrain himself with difficulty.
He did feel a little bad for her. He had meant to take a small revenge on her brother, warn him, and test Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. In the end, the person who suffered the most-and the only one who suffered at all-was this "other person," her.
But if he could turn back time, Onizuka would do it all over again.
At this school, having no ability was the greatest sin!
Before long, the midterm exams were over, and the day the results came out arrived soon after.
After handing the old exam papers to Horikita Suzune, Ayanokoji, and the others, Onizuka never asked about the matter again.
He did not even want to spare a moment to think about it.
The entire midterm exam was extremely similar to the old exam papers. Although he had not looked closely, others said the repetition rate was nearly 80 or even 90 percent.
The last few incredibly difficult, high-scoring questions in particular had been copied word for word onto this year's midterm exam.
Kikyo Kushida and the others had not delayed at all. Basically, the very next second after completing the deal with Onizuka, they called back the seven classmates who had received "expulsion warnings" and gave them the exam papers.
Besides that, to prevent any other "dark horses" from falling into the failing range,
after the previous class meeting, they had also informed the entire class that these old exam papers were available.
They let everyone sign up if they wanted them, and had all the classmates who signed up split the points needed to buy the papers.
In the end, naturally, almost everyone chose to join the "group purchase." After all, no one liked unexpected surprises.
Besides that, Yosuke Hirata and the others held study sessions from time to time, just in case.
With so much time to prepare, memorizing a few sets of exam papers should have been a piece of cake...
"Sudo! You failed English!"
"Wha?????????"
As if he had just heard something unbelievable, Onizuka couldn't help shouting.
The whole class turned to look at him.
"Onizuka, is something the matter?" Chabashira-sensei asked.
"Sorry, a bug crawled onto my textbook. It startled me."
Looking at Onizuka's desk, which was as clean as a blank sheet of paper, Chabashira-sensei's mouth twitched.
"All right, Onizuka. Be careful not to disrupt class next time."
With that, Sae Chabashira continued with what she had been saying before he interrupted her.
"The passing mark isn't fixed every time. Instead, it's determined by dividing each class's average score by two."
"And your scores this time were remarkably good. Nearly half the class got full marks, bringing the average English score to 87.6."
As if she could see how pleased they were with themselves, Sae Chabashira smiled and continued.
"So! Your passing mark is actually 43.8. Rounded to the nearest whole number and then rounded up, that makes it 44. Sudo scored 43, so he failed!"
The entire classroom fell silent as the grave. Then they began heatedly discussing Sudo, but got nowhere.
Chabashira-sensei raised her hand, checked the time, and then smacked the desk hard.
"All right! Quiet down!"
"Your first class is about to start, so get yourselves ready! Sudo, enjoy your last day at school. Come to the teachers' office after school, and we'll sort out your enrollment."
After announcing the exam results, Chabashira-sensei left the classroom, giving the class some free time.
Onizuka: ...
He really hadn't realized that this was how the passing mark was determined.
He had even less expected that someone who had gotten the old exam papers, and had been given so much time to memorize the answers, could still score only 43 points!
He still had a way to save Sudo that one point, but there was no need.
Onizuka wasn't that kind. He didn't care whether Class D moved forward or not.
All he needed to do was make sure Sato, Shinohara, and Inogashira passed the exam. As long as he didn't break the contract, that was enough.
Whether Sudo was expelled or not didn't matter to Onizuka.
But clearly, it mattered to other people.
While everyone discussed Sudo's expulsion and comforted him, Horikita Suzune ran out, looking like she was in a hurry.
A short while later, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka followed right after her.
Seeing this, Onizuka wasn't surprised at all.
After his last conversation with Horikita Suzune, if she still couldn't find that path, then perhaps she didn't even deserve to become a puppet.
Before long, Horikita Suzune and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka returned to the classroom together, bringing news that Sudo wouldn't be expelled.
The classroom erupted into another commotion.
But Onizuka noticed that when Ayanokoji Kiyotaka came back, he was clutching his side and looked constipated.
He didn't need to guess who had done that to him. Sometimes Onizuka couldn't help thinking maliciously: Could this guy be an M...?
Horikita Suzune coolly ignored everyone's praise as she returned to her seat. After sitting there in a daze for quite some time, she turned and looked straight into Onizuka's eyes.
"Onizuka, thank you for warning me last time. I think that if it weren't for you, I might not have been able to accomplish anything this time."
"What you said last time was hurtful, but I don't mind anymore."
"Even if we've chosen different paths, I think we can still move forward together, can't we?"
As Horikita Suzune chattered on, Onizuka turned to look at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who wore an expressionless face.
Onizuka's mind wandered, recalling how the two of them were often stuck together.
Well, sometimes there was something special about two Ms being together.
Onizuka didn't understand, but he respected it.
"Onizuka... Onizuka..."
Coming back to himself without having heard a word, Onizuka looked at the hand Horikita Suzune held out and her slightly hesitant expression.
Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out and shook her hand, then gave her a friendly smile.
He had no idea what was going on, but this really was a path he'd never imagined.
Judging by Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's twitching mouth, it was clear that who stood behind the puppet had yet to be decided.