This Year's Second-Years Are a Bunch of Losers / Chapter 57: As Expected, Knocking at the Door Never Brought Good News, Even When It Was Miyake

Ayanokoji fell silent.

"Anyway, I'll take care of this. See you tonight."

After saying goodbye to Ayanokoji, Shuichi Kanda headed for the Archery Club. Miyake was still at cram school; the guy wasn't much of a student.

So when Miyake found out that the exam scope had changed, his face turned green. He sent Club President Sato a text asking for the afternoon off as soon as classes ended.

Club President Sato found it a little strange but agreed anyway.

"Your class has access to old exam questions, and you're still studying so hard?" Of course, he had no idea that Shuichi Kanda wasn't planning to reveal the old questions right away.

After nearly twenty minutes, Shuichi Kanda arrived at the Archery Club again.

He was only a semi-regular support member, so he didn't need to go to the club every day. Besides, he'd been injured recently, and it had been almost half a month since he'd last come by.

Chapter 56: This Year's Second-Years Are a Bunch of Losers

When Shuichi Kanda arrived at the Archery Club, Hashikura-senpai had just finished changing and come out.

"Hey, you're here, Kanda. I heard you got beaten up a couple of days ago. You're such a loser!"

Could someone please sew her mouth shut? I'd pay for it!

"Long time no see, Hashikura-senpai."

By the time he'd finished greeting her, Hashikura was already laughing as she walked over to Shuichi Kanda. She hooked an arm around his neck and shoved him down.

"Honestly, you're so distant. You went to see Club President Sato at lunch, but you didn't even come find me."

He thought he felt Hashikura-senpai's chest against his shoulder. It was kind of soft...

Ugh, what was he thinking? There was no way she had breasts!

"I'm still injured, you know. Could you let go, Hashikura-senpai?"

"Seriously, you don't look injured at all." Even as she said that, Hashikura let go of Shuichi Kanda.

"Then again, it's because you're always so undignified, Hashikura-senpai. Why else would I go all the way to the third-years' classroom?"

"Pfft..."

Two second-year members of the Archery Club nearby couldn't hold back their laughter when they heard Shuichi Kanda.

"You're such an annoying little brat!"

Hashikura, a little embarrassed and angry, reached out and pinched Shuichi Kanda's cheeks, which had filled out a bit. But she quickly let go.

"You haven't gained any weight at all. Are you sure you're eating properly? And you two, what are you laughing at? Run five laps around the Archery Club, then get to practice!"

"All right, I've got something to do later, so could you give me the old exam questions, Hashikura-senpai?" Shuichi Kanda asked helplessly. "You brought them, right?"

"Don't underestimate me, kid!"

After ruffling Shuichi Kanda's hair until it looked like a bird's nest, Hashikura nodded with satisfaction at her handiwork.

"Wait here."

With that, she went back into the women's changing room.

When she came out again, she was holding a stack of papers.

"Here you go. Remember to pay me."

"Sure, sure. I'm not going to skip out on a measly thirty thousand points."

Shuichi Kanda grabbed the test papers Hashikura handed him and immediately used his phone to transfer the points.

As members of the same club who got along fairly well, Shuichi Kanda naturally had Hashikura's contact information.

"Thirty thousand points! I'll have an easier time getting by this month. There are so many things I want." Hashikura was delighted when she saw the payment notification on her phone.

"Aren't you in Class A? Why are you short on points?"

Shuichi Kanda had wanted to ask Club President Sato the same thing at lunch, but the guy had turned into a riddle-speaker and hadn't told him a thing.

"Sigh, our year isn't quite like yours."

"Not like ours? Shuichi Kanda was a little curious."

"Are you an idiot? If you're curious, just say you're curious. Why say 'Shuichi Kanda was a little curious'? Don't tell me you think you're funny. Hahahaha..."

Watching Hashikura laugh nonstop, Shuichi Kanda covered his face, mortified. How had he managed to say something like that?

"You're still laughing?"

"Sorry, sorry. Since you want to know, I don't mind telling you."

Then Hashikura gave Shuichi Kanda a rough rundown of what she knew about the second-years.

If Horikita Manabu was the person at the top of the third-years, then the one at the top of the second-years was the leader of Class 2-A, Miyabi Nagumo.

Miyabi Nagumo, leader of Class 2-A, Vice President of the Student Council, and ruler of the entire second-year cohort.

That was right: ruler.

He'd originally been a student in Class B, but in the first semester of his first year, he'd led Class B to defeat Class A and move up a rank. After that, he'd used all sorts of methods to crush the other three second-year classes and bring them under his control.

The second-years were now completely under Miyabi Nagumo's shadow. The Special Exams the school used to make the classes compete had turned into carefully arranged scripts for the second-years. There was no need for competition, because Class A would always take first place.

On top of that, every second-year had to hand over 75% of their Private Points to Miyabi Nagumo when their points were issued on the first of each month. Otherwise, Miyabi Nagumo would use all sorts of means to force them to withdraw.

So far, more than ten second-years had been forced to withdraw. They weren't just from other classes; even students from Miyabi Nagumo's own Class A had been eliminated.

That was all the information Hashikura revealed, but even that was enough for Shuichi Kanda to imagine what a bunch of losers this year's second-years were.

That was right: losers!

What else could you call them when a mere student had them all under his thumb?

Shuichi Kanda could think of several ways to get that guy called Nagumo expelled.

But that was another year, and it had nothing to do with his own, so Shuichi Kanda didn't plan to pay it much attention.

After saying goodbye to Hashikura-senpai, Shuichi Kanda took the old exam questions back with him. He needed to print out the questions.

He couldn't tell Sudo they were from previous years, since he didn't want to undermine his motivation. But giving them to him on the very last day would be far too risky.

One day wasn't enough to guarantee Sudo would remember everything, so Shuichi Kanda would pretend he'd made up the questions and have him try them out first.

After all, if you only studied without testing yourself, how would you know how well you'd learned the material?

Before that, though, he needed to confirm what was on the test. If it matched the earlier quiz, then the Midterm Exam would most likely be the same as well.

As he walked, Shuichi Kanda opened the test papers and checked them over. He quickly realized he hadn't been wrong: the earlier quiz and the current second-year quiz were exactly the same, without a single change.

As expected, this was the back door the school had left open. Otherwise, Chabashira wouldn't have hinted that he should look for these questions.

After checking the papers, Shuichi Kanda packed them away and headed to the school's largest shopping complex, Keyaki Mall.

He needed to scan the papers, erase the answers, and then print them out. It sounded simple, but it was actually a bit of a hassle.

It took him a full forty minutes to finish printing the tests. Looking at the papers, Shuichi Kanda smiled.

Maybe he could make some extra money again. Even if he didn't, it wouldn't hurt to have someone owe him another favor.

Then he went and printed several extra copies.

On his way back, Shuichi Kanda stopped by the supermarket. When he'd had a concussion, he hadn't been able to cook, but now he was feeling much better and could finally enjoy his own home cooking again.

He'd been eating a little too much meat lately, though, so he decided to have something vegetarian today.

Hmm, tomato and egg noodles. He hadn't had those in a while.

Chapter 57: As Expected, Knocking at the Door Never Brought Good News, Even When It Was Miyake

When Shuichi Kanda returned to his dorm, he didn't start cooking. It was still too early—only a little past four.

What he needed to do was complete all the old exam questions he'd gotten from Hashikura-senpai. They came with an answer key, but doing them himself was the best way to commit them to memory.

The Midterm Exam still covered only five subjects: Japanese, math, English, science, and social studies.

There weren't that many questions, and the most important thing was that they weren't very difficult, at least not for Shuichi Kanda.

The math and science sections took him a little longer, but he finished the other three—especially English—in just over ten minutes.

At that moment, he finally understood what it had been like back in high school when he was taking English pop quizzes. He'd still be working through the multiple-choice questions when someone else had already turned in their paper, essay and all.

So being good at studying really did let you do whatever you wanted.

The last questions in math and science weren't at a first-year high school level, so Shuichi Kanda had to dredge up memories buried deep in his soul. That was why those sections took him longer.

He'd barely finished the questions and hadn't had time to check his answers when a knock sounded at the door.

Hearing it, Shuichi Kanda jumped.

Every time someone knocked at his door, it seemed to bring bad news. He was practically developing a stress response.

But this time, at least, the peephole showed Miyake standing outside.

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at the time, and realized how late it had gotten. Then he reached out and opened the door.

"Hey."

"Hey, yourself. Didn't you go to club activities today?"

There was no need to be polite with Miyake. Shuichi Kanda turned and went inside, ready to start cooking.

"I asked Club President Sato for the day off. That bastard Chabashira-sensei gave us the wrong exam scope." Miyake took off his shoes as he complained.

"That really sucks. If I hadn't accidentally gotten into an argument with a student from Class C while I was at the library today, we might not have found out."

Shuichi Kanda gathered up the test papers he'd finished, took off his jacket, and tossed it casually onto the bed.

Then he took out a tomato, some eggs, and a green onion to cook.

"That's why I'm so pissed. And it's not just me. A lot of people in the class are unhappy, too." Miyake walked into the room and sat in the chair Shuichi Kanda had been using to study.

"By the way, what are you making?"

"Cooking. Tomato and eggs. I'm making noodles."

Noodles?

Miyake tilted his head.

He was short on time, and he didn't have the energy to make noodles from scratch, so Shuichi Kanda wasn't planning to make them by hand.

Fortunately, Japan had something similar to dried noodles, which saved him a lot of trouble.

"Yeah, tomato and egg noodles."

"Then make me a bowl, too."

Shuichi Kanda glanced at him and said nothing. He just silently took out another tomato and two more eggs.

With Shuichi Kanda busy cooking and nothing else to do, Miyake shifted his attention to the desk.

"Shuichi, what's that on your desk? Can I take a look?"

"Sure. They're the midterm questions from when Hashikura-senpai was in her first year." Shuichi Kanda stirred the eggs as he answered Miyake.

"Hashikura-senpai? You actually went to her?" With Shuichi Kanda's permission, Miyake picked up the papers he'd just organized.

"Like I wanted to. I went to Club President Sato first, but he said Hashikura-senpai would be the better person to ask. You can probably guess what happened after that."

"Well..."

Miyake could already picture Shuichi Kanda being completely exasperated by Hashikura-senpai, but unable to just walk away.

"Pfft, sorry. I couldn't help it."

Damn Miyake. No fried egg for you!

Twenty minutes later, the tomato and egg noodles were ready.

The two of them sat at the small dining table in the middle of Shuichi Kanda's room. As they ate, they started talking about the old exam questions.