Shuichi Kanda mumbled into his desk.
"You'd understand that kind of thing naturally if you just put a little effort into reading the textbook."
Shuichi Kanda and Akito Miyake's conversation seemed to catch Horikita Suzune's attention. After all, as a top student, she had every right to speak with authority on the subject.
"Are you talking to me?"
Shuichi Kanda lifted his head from the desk and turned around, looking a little confused. We didn't usually have much to do with each other, did we?
"I'm just giving you a friendly tip."
Actually, Horikita Suzune had meant to mock Shuichi Kanda for not knowing even such simple things, since he'd said Horikita Manabu was putting on an act at the club introduction meeting.
But Shuichi Kanda didn't seem angry at all, leaving her with the feeling that she'd thrown a heavy punch and hit a fist instead.
"Then could this friendly person tell me how I'm supposed to learn about society?"
To be honest, as someone who'd been Chinese in his previous life, Shuichi Kanda had studying hard and getting good grades ingrained in his soul. There was nothing shameful about asking questions.
Horikita Suzune was obviously a top student, so why not take her advice?
"That kind of thing is easy, isn't it? You just memorize the textbook."
You make a pretty good point. I can't even argue with that.
The Devastated Horikita Suzune
After closing his diary, Shuichi Kanda stretched and then noticed an unread email on his phone.
[Looking forward to the points being handed out tomorrow, Kanda! o(*≧▽≦)ツ┏━┓]--Sakayanagi Arisu
You're that happy I can't mooch any points from the school? You're even celebrating by flipping a table? Damn you, white-haired loli!
Well, I'll forgive you since you're so pitifully in the dark.
[I've got 2,000,000 Private Points anyway. I can coast for three years without a problem.]
After finishing the message, Shuichi Kanda attached a screenshot of the transfer notification he'd received earlier and sent it.
You think you can get the better of me?
Dream on!
Take that!
Sure enough, after he sent the email, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't message him again. Maybe she'd gone off to torment Kamuro.
Ah, poor Kamuro.
The next day, May 1, was the day Class D's students had been eagerly waiting for: the day their Private Points were supposed to be distributed.
He opened his phone. The balance showed 22,332,318 ppt.
Apart from the money he'd spent on a computer and food, Shuichi Kanda hadn't wasted his points. If it turned out they could be exchanged for cash when they graduated, wouldn't it be a huge loss to squander them now?
What? You're asking why he didn't just ask Chabashira-sensei whether the points could be exchanged for cash?
Give me a break. Shuichi Kanda hadn't done a thing for the past month, and Chabashira-sensei was starting to wonder if she'd misjudged him.
Was this guy just here to scam the school out of money?
But that wasn't the point. The point was that the number hadn't changed since last night. In other words, the points distributed this month really were zero.
Ding ding.
A new message came through on his phone.
[We got 94,000 Private Points this month. This is so delightful!]
Shuichi Kanda's eyebrow twitched. Then he sent a screenshot of the notification for the two million points he'd received.
He was already in a bad mood, and now you were mocking him? Then how about he showed you his ultimate move?
It was practically the same as the "you got beat up by a monkey" trick. Every time, it left Sakayanagi Arisu unable to send whatever she'd been about to say next.
As soon as he walked into class, Shuichi Kanda noticed that the atmosphere was clearly different today. Students were already gossiping first thing in the morning, and the chatter was more intense than usual.
"Why haven't the points been distributed? Isn't today the first?" As soon as he entered the classroom, he heard the battle god by the door, Kanji Ike, shouting.
"Exactly! I've already used up all my points, too. I've had the Wild Vegetable Set Meal for free several times recently, and the taste is just indescribable." The other battle god, Yamauchi Haruki, chimed in with a complaint of his own.
People always liked to echo others to show how well they fit in. Within minutes, quite a few students had gathered around Kanji Ike, complaining either that the points hadn't arrived or that the Wild Vegetable Set Meal tasted awful.
Still...
These guys had managed to burn through a hundred thousand Private Points in just one month. They really were stupid.
Those points had plenty of purchasing power. An adult living a normal life in Tokyo could get by quite comfortably on that amount, provided they didn't have to pay for utilities or rent.
And you lot were high school students who'd spent all that money in a month—or even less?
I'll say it again: even stupidity has its limits.
As soon as he sat down, he heard a voice behind him.
"You didn't receive any points either?"
Horikita Suzune, you've been awfully active lately. Where'd that cold attitude go? Hey, your whole persona's slipped off. Pick it up!
"Are you talking to me?"
"Who else would I mean? I've already confirmed that Ayanokoji didn't receive any points either, but I still want to investigate a little more and see if anyone in the class is an exception."
Horikita Suzune's expression remained serious and cool.
"That's right. I didn't receive any points. Unfortunately, I'm not the exception you mentioned. I'm one of the people who didn't receive any points on the first of the month." Shuichi Kanda couldn't quite keep a straight face. "Sorry, this is just too funny. I can't help it."
"You really do know something, don't you?"
Horikita Suzune had good reason to question Shuichi Kanda. She'd seen him eating expensive meals in the cafeteria several times, and sometimes she'd run into him carrying expensive ingredients back to the dorms.
By her calculations, his Private Points should have been nearly gone by now. But when she saw him walk into class today, there wasn't a trace of worry, panic, or even confusion on his face.
"Of course. Actually, I'm more surprised you still haven't figured it out." Shuichi Kanda nodded quite naturally. "You may both be Horikita, but your abilities are nowhere near the same. You're not even a hundred-thousandth as capable as he is."
"That's true. My abilities are less than one ten-thousandth of the Student Council President's."
Damn, is this the power of being a brocon? That's ridiculous! And you're putting yourself down way too much.
"Come to think of it, the Student Council President's surname is Horikita, too," Kiyotaka Ayanokoji said, offering a useless observation from where he'd been watching the whole time.
But Shuichi Kanda didn't underestimate him at all. He simply didn't look his way. His intuition told him that getting involved with this guy would lead to trouble.
So Shuichi Kanda and Horikita Suzune glanced at Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, then promptly ignored him.
"Anyway, we'll find out soon enough. The fact that no points were distributed on the first of the month isn't a small matter. No matter how reluctant she is, Chabashira-sensei will definitely come explain what's going on."
Just then, Horikita Suzune noticed that Hirata Yosuke, who was usually so active in class, wasn't stepping up to take charge. Instead, he was fielding questions from a group of girls. A thought she didn't want to believe began to form in her mind.
"Does Hirata know, too?"
That caught Shuichi Kanda a little off guard, but he nodded.
"Yeah. Remember the first week of school, when Hirata told everyone to follow the rules as students as much as possible?" Shuichi Kanda's words immediately brought the memory back to Horikita Suzune.
He'd figured it out even back then?
Horikita Suzune looked stunned. Was there really such a huge gap between her and the others?
The sudden realization dealt a heavy blow to Horikita Suzune, and she fell silent.
Meanwhile, Shuichi Kanda was secretly laughing to himself. You think you can get away from me?
You mocked my grades yesterday, and today I paid you back. What goes around comes around!
He hadn't even said a single mocking word, yet the facts alone had knocked Horikita Suzune flat!
Today's winner was Shuichi Kanda!
What Kind of Idiot Is This?
Just as Shuichi Kanda had said, their homeroom teacher, Chabashira-sensei, showed up. But unlike usual, there was nothing gentle about her expression. It was stern.
But was her expression really ever gentle?
Of course, the students in the class could all see how serious she looked.
"Teacher, you're not on your period, are you?"
What!?
Chabashira-sensei was pregnant? Who'd done it?
Suppressing the urge to make a snarky comment, Shuichi Kanda looked over at Kanji Ike, who'd blurted that out. This guy really had no idea how to spell "death."
Come here, I'll teach you: die!
But a grown-up was a grown-up. Chabashira Sae ignored Kanji Ike's tasteless dirty joke and walked straight to the front of the classroom.
"We'll begin homeroom now. But before we do, I imagine you have questions. If there's anything you're concerned about, you should ask now."
"Um... I checked this morning, but the points hadn't been deposited. Weren't they supposed to be paid out on the first of every month? I went to the supermarket this morning to buy juice, but I couldn't pay for it. It was so embarrassing."
"Hondo, I've already explained this, haven't I? That's right. The points are deposited on the first of every month. This month's deposit has undoubtedly been confirmed as well."
"Huh? But... the points haven't been deposited, have they?"
"Did you forget?" Chabashira-sensei asked instead of answering. "We already asked this question at the start of the school year."
At that moment, quite a few students in the class seemed to remember the question Shuichi Kanda had asked Chabashira-sensei on the very first day of school.
"May I ask whether it's true that we'll receive 100,000 Private Points on the first of every month?"
Chabashira-sensei had told him she couldn't answer that question at the time. Now, it seemed, they had their answer.
"The points have been deposited. There's no doubt about that. It's impossible that only this class was forgotten. Do you understand?"
The answer was clear now.
"So we really do get points on the first of every month, but we got zero points this month, right?"
Horikita Suzune, seated behind Shuichi Kanda in the very last row, had reached the same conclusion.
"That's right. That's the correct answer."
Chabashira Sae confirmed Horikita Suzune's question, but her answer only made the students' wails even more desperate.
"No way!"
"Why didn't he keep asking back then?"
"Wasn't he the one who stopped?"
Some of them turned hostile looks on Shuichi Kanda. In their eyes, if he'd kept asking at the time, maybe they wouldn't be in such a sorry state now.
But Shuichi Kanda couldn't care less about them. He just sat there reading a middle school social studies textbook.
He also had to admit, this school's library was incredible. They even had middle school textbooks.
Still, to keep Shuichi Kanda from becoming the students' target, his good buddy Hirata Yosuke stepped in at once and drew everyone's attention again.
"Then, teacher, please at least tell us why we didn't receive any points. Otherwise, we can't accept this."
Hirata could accept it, of course, because he understood what most of the students in the class were like. But at that moment, he needed to put himself on the same level as them to earn their sympathy.
Shuichi Kanda's refusal to engage had made him the villain in their eyes. So Hirata Yosuke was putting himself in the same position as the rest of them, then bringing them together.
It was a simple strategy, wasn't it? But surprisingly effective.
Still, hoping that this alone would make the class behave was pure fantasy. They needed to turn up the heat a little more.
As for Shuichi Kanda, he wasn't the least bit interested in the people blaming him for not pressing the issue. Besides, it was dangerous to associate with people like them.
What if they dragged down his IQ? You might not fear a godlike opponent, but you should fear a useless teammate.
"That's not a problem."
Before you continue