"Phew—I'm stuffed! I wish I could just lie here and never move..."
Chisato Nishikigi let out a satisfied sigh and flopped backward onto the living room tatami without a care for how she looked. One hand gently patted her slightly rounded stomach.
The warmth of the hot pot still seemed to linger in the air, leaving her feeling warm from her stomach to her heart, wrapped in the happiness of a full belly.
"Lying down right after eating isn't good for digestion, and it can make you gain weight."
As she efficiently cleared the empty plates and leftovers from the table, Runa Inoue gave her usual "reminder." Her violet eyes swept over Chisato's lazy sprawl, her tone calm but carrying a trace of concern.
"Hehe, it's fine~"
Chisato rolled a little way across the tatami, then propped her head up while lying on her side. A mischievous glint sparkled in her amber eyes.
"My Life Ability isn't just for show, you know. Regulating my metabolism, keeping my figure perfect—it's all easy!"
"Rather than wasting your precious ability on maintaining your figure, I'd prefer it if you focused more on 'important things.'"
Walnut had already picked up her laptop again. Her fingers slid over the touchpad as she made the quip without looking up.
"Keeping myself in peak physical and mental condition is the most important thing to me!"
Chisato declared, entirely unashamed.
"That's only 'your' definition of important."
Runa stacked the last few dishes neatly and calmly delivered the final blow.
Watching the three girls interact with such easy familiarity and hearing them tease one another without the slightest awkwardness, Mazumi Mami found himself smiling warmly.
Moments this relaxing and heartwarming, filled with mutual trust, were especially precious between tense missions.
After a short break, once the post-meal drowsiness had begun to fade, the mood naturally shifted to business.
Tonight's hot pot dinner had been about more than just relaxing. More importantly, it was a chance to pool the information they had each gathered.
"Then I'll start by reporting what I found today."
Walnut pushed up her blue-light-blocking glasses. Her blue eyes behind the lenses grew focused and sharp. "I'll send the key information and my initial analysis to our encrypted group chat so everyone can check it on their phones."
"First, my investigation into Kiyotaka Ayanokouji."
Her fingers tapped a few times on the keyboard, and several encrypted messages containing text and images immediately appeared in the group chat.
"There's been little progress so far. His background has been so thoroughly concealed that ordinary methods can barely uncover anything. But I did find one crucial detail: his enrollment file was personally signed by Chairman Sakayanagi Narumori, who initiated a special procedure to process it."
"That means his admission bypassed the normal review process and received direct intervention from the highest authority. If he were just an ordinary student, there'd be no need to give him this kind of 'special treatment.'"
"This strongly suggests that Kiyotaka Ayanokouji has some deep, hidden connection to the Sakayanagi Family—or to the school's highest administration, at least. I'll keep digging along the chairman's trail."
Mazumi quickly skimmed the information in the group chat and nodded. "That's an important lead. Did you find anything else?"
"I did."
Walnut switched screens and continued. "The second point concerns the school's biggest selling point: its promise of a '100% higher education and employment rate for all graduates.'"
She sent a few more screenshots, showing the striking promise on the school's website and in its brochures.
"In theory, even the world's top universities can't guarantee that every student will get into whatever university they want or land their dream job, especially when students have such diverse interests and fields of study."
"Yet this school claims that every student can 'make their wish come true,' whether they're good at sports, art, academics, or technology. There's even a rumor that outstanding students can be directly recommended to Yingtai University, the top university in the Chongying Protectorate."
"That sounds unbelievable," Runa said, frowning slightly as she voiced her guess.
"Could it really be as I suspected earlier? Do they find some way to weed out the 'unqualified' students or those who 'don't meet the requirements' before graduation, leaving only the ones who fit the '100%' standard?"
"That's pretty close."
Walnut confirmed Runa's intuition and brought up a data analysis chart.
"I carefully checked where previous graduates ended up and reviewed fragments of internal documents. I found that the so-called '100% guarantee' comes with enormous differences depending on your rank."
"Students who graduate as Class A really do have something close to 'freedom of choice.' They can choose any university or company within the advertised scope, and the other party 'can't refuse them.'"
"The school uses its considerable influence to pave the way for them and offers some form of 'protection,' ensuring that they aren't easily pushed out or fired soon after enrolling or starting work."
Her tone turned cold as she shifted to the other side of the story.
"But graduates from the other classes—B, C, and D—don't get that treatment. The school 'forcibly assigns' them to designated schools or jobs, which are often not their first choice and may not match their abilities at all."
"Once the assignments are made, the school's obligation to 'guarantee' anything ends. Whether the students adapt to their new environment, get fired, or face exclusion is no longer the school's concern."
"Every graduate is required to sign a strict confidentiality agreement, but you can still find scattered complaints and accusations from former students online. Piece those fragments together, and you can see the true nature of this brutal system of 'graded guarantees.'"
Walnut finished.
"I see..."
Chisato's playful expression faded as she nodded thoughtfully. "That matches what I heard from the upperclassmen."
"Oh? What did you find, Chisato?"
Mazumi looked over at her.
Chisato sat up, unusually serious. "I heard that the rankings of the A, B, C, and D classes in each year aren't fixed! There's a special Class Points system that scores and ranks classes based on their performance. The class with the most points is Class A, and the rest are ranked below it."
"Class Points?"
Mazumi immediately thought of the blackboard he had seen on the upper floors that afternoon. He quickly opened his phone gallery and sent the photo he had taken to the group. "Is it this?"
The photo clearly showed the Class Points rankings for the Second Year and Third Year, with enormous gaps between the numbers.
"That's it!"
Chisato confirmed.
"And here's the most important part: the amount of Personal Points we receive each month is directly tied to these Class Points! The ratio is one to one hundred!"
"So if a class has 1,000 Class Points, then every student in that class gets 1,000 × 100 = 100,000 Personal Points that month!"
Chisato explained.
"Which means..."
Mazumi calculated quickly. "Second Year Class A gets 140,000 points a month, while Second Year Class D gets only 25,000?"
The difference was even greater than he had expected.
"Exactly!"
Chisato nodded emphatically. "The upperclassmen said that points are the 'lifeblood' of life at this school. If you have a lot of points, you can enjoy the best food, the latest electronics, the trendiest clothes, and even buy certain privileges and services. If you don't have many... you have to scrape by."
Chisato explained.
"I see..."
Runa's violet eyes lit up with understanding. "That makes the results of my investigation this afternoon completely clear."
"What did you find, Runa?"
Mazumi asked.
"Yes."
Runa brought up the photos and notes she had taken and shared them in the group chat.
"Following your instructions, I systematically investigated every place on campus where you have to spend points. I found that in addition to the things that are obviously 'luxury goods' or 'premium services,' the school has set up Free Supply Points in many areas of basic daily life."
She showed them several photos.
In a corner of the cafeteria, a rather inconspicuous counter had a sign reading "Basic Meal (Free)." The food inside looked simple, even bland.
On one shelf in the convenience store sat plain bottled water, basic shampoo and body wash, and hygiene products, all marked "Free (one per person)."
And in the laundry room, a few old-fashioned washing machines were labeled "Free Laundry (limited time)."
"At first, I thought these were 'relief measures' for students who had fallen into 'financial trouble' because they were bad at managing their money or spent recklessly. I assumed it was the school's way of showing concern for them."
Runa's tone became calm and objective.
"But I observed that the number of upperclassmen who regularly showed up at these Free Supply Points was far too high to be explained by 'poor money management.'"
"This was especially obvious among Second Year students. It would make sense if a few people were bad at managing their money, but if a large number of students are struggling at the same time, there must be a systemic cause."
She looked at Mazumi and summed up, "Now, with Chisato's information, everything is clear. Those students haven't 'spent all' their points. They simply 'receive' far too few to begin with."
"If a class has few Class Points—or if its Class Points drop to zero—then none of its students will receive any points the following month. At that point, these Free Supply Points may be the only thing keeping them alive."
Silence fell over the room for a moment.
The charcoal still seemed to radiate warmth, but the air felt as though it had grown colder.
"Then all the clues fit together."
Walnut's voice broke the silence. It held the distinctive calm of a technical analyst, but beneath it lay a weight she could barely conceal.
"This school, which claims to put 'ability first,' is really just a brutally ruthless system of competition and elimination. It puts every student in harness with Class Points, forcing them to compete and climb for the 'resources they need to survive,' both as individuals and as a class."
Walnut explained.
"Points are the sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head, and the whip driving them forward."
Mazumi picked up her thought, his amber-gold eyes deep as a pool. "Only by constantly earning more points can you live here with any 'dignity' and secure the A Class Ticket to your ideal future."
"And those who don't have enough points... become fuel for the system, stepping stones for others to climb over, only to receive an assignment they never chose, with an uncertain future, when they graduate."
"No wonder they're so 'generous' in giving each new student 100,000 points in Starting Funds."
Runa murmured, unconsciously rubbing her fingers along the rim of her teacup.
"Every generous gift comes with a price, carefully marked and hidden from view. No, this isn't even a gift. It's bait: they let you taste what it's like to be 'rich,' then tell you that if you want to keep living that way, you have to fight desperately for the limited Class Points."
Runa said.
"Survival of the fittest... They're implanting society's cruelest rules of competition into the school so openly, so systematically."
Mazumi stood and walked to the window, gazing out at the night that had fallen and the scattered lights in the dormitory buildings.
Beneath every light, there might be a student worrying about points or plotting how to earn more.
Night deepened. Their exchange of information came to an end, but the real struggle might only just have begun.