A Meeting at the Artificial Lake

Although Shuichi Kanda had little hope for the future of this school—or Class 1-D, to be precise—he decided to tell Hirata what he'd observed that day, to repay him for kindly collecting his textbooks.

"Sorry to bother you."

Miyake's room was much like Shuichi Kanda's, with nothing particularly noteworthy about it. Hirata was sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor.

They were all young, so no one bothered with formal kneeling. That was just too tiring.

"Kanda, I'm glad you came to see me on your own. When you introduced yourself to the class, I thought you might be difficult to get along with."

After Kanda sat down, Hirata spoke in a gentle, relieved tone.

Kanda just smiled without explaining.

"Actually, I wanted to tell you about a few things, so I asked you to come over."

"Right, just like you said on LINE."

Kanda nodded. "Do you remember the question I asked Chabashira-sensei in class?"

"Yeah. You asked whether we really get 100,000 Private Points on the first of every month, right?"

Hirata seemed to have a good memory.

"Exactly. It was a simple question, but Chabashira-sensei didn't answer it. She only said the points would be distributed on the first of next month. She never said we'd definitely get 100,000 Private Points."

Hirata and Miyake both nodded, apparently recalling what had happened.

"It was a simple question, but Chabashira-sensei didn't give us a straight answer."

"But the fact that she didn't answer tells us what we need to know."

Hirata smiled.

"Exactly. Since she didn't answer directly, it's pretty clear that we probably won't get 100,000 points next month."

Hirata was pretty sharp. This made things much easier to explain.

"Next, there's what Miyake and I saw today. We found a counter in the cafeteria giving out free meals. The food wasn't great, but plenty of people were still lining up for it."

"The store was also giving away daily necessities for free. And Sato-senpai, the head of the Archery Club and a third-year in Class 3-A, warned us not to waste our points."

"Hirata, if you had 100,000 points to spend every month, would you ever have to line up for a lousy Wild Vegetable Set Meal?"

Hirata shook his head, then caught on. "You two didn't actually eat one, did you?"

"We did. We were curious, so we tried it."

Kanda didn't mention that he'd wanted to get a free meal.

"Something just occurred to me. Chabashira-sensei said today that points represent our evaluations. But evaluations shouldn't stay the same forever, should they? Could the points we get each month be tied to our evaluations?"

Hirata Yosuke had figured out the truth about the school based on nothing more than the bits of information Kanda had given him. That was exactly where Kanda had wanted to lead him.

"Exactly. That's everything I've figured out so far," Kanda said frankly. "My guess is that the school has a set of standards for evaluating students, and it uses those standards to decide how many Private Points to give us each month. I just don't know what those standards are."

"That's amazing, Kanda. You noticed all that in less than a day." Hirata Yosuke sincerely admired Kanda's powers of observation and reasoning.

"Still, even if it all seems reasonable, we don't have any evidence to prove it. I doubt we'd get a detailed answer even if we asked Chabashira-sensei."

"Maybe she'll ask for four million Private Points this time," Miyake joked, shaking his head.

"Hahaha..."

After the laughter died down, Hirata's expression turned serious.

"We should ask Chabashira-sensei to confirm. If the points really are based on evaluations, then this is serious.

"As far as I know, some people have already spent almost all of their 100,000 Private Points."

Hearing Hirata, Kanda glanced at him, feeling a little speechless.

Hirata, you really are a good guy. But what will you do if you run into something you can't help with?

Still, Kanda didn't dislike that kind of person. After all, he was the one who needed help right now.

"Why bother with those guys? Hirata, you already tried warning them in the class group chat today, but that Ike guy just mocked you. It pissed me off!"

Miyake looked a little annoyed. In fact, that was how most of Class D felt. Ike's mockery of Hirata that afternoon had cost him any chance of being picked first as a romantic partner.

"It's okay, it's okay. They're our classmates, after all. Let's all get along. As long as everyone can enjoy school life, I'm fine."

This guy was basically the male version of Kushida. Was it a good idea to get close to him so soon?

Hirata had one vote in favor, Miyake one against, and then both of them looked toward Kanda, who seemed to be staring into space.

"Kanda, what do you think we should do? Should we ask Chabashira-sensei what's going on?"

Seeing Hirata's expectant gaze, Kanda nodded. "Let's ask Chabashira-sensei about it first, then decide what to do based on what we learn."

They had plenty of free time, anyway, and there was no guarantee they'd get any information out of Chabashira-sensei.

Might as well do Hirata a favor.

As for Miyake, he just wanted those two rude guys to get what was coming to them. He had no objection to gathering information, but he didn't expect them to get anywhere.

Without solid evidence, no matter what Hirata said, those guys wouldn't believe him.

Even if Hirata got important information in private and passed it on, they might still refuse to believe him. The only thing that would convince them was hearing it straight from Chabashira-sensei.

They were experts at fooling themselves, after all. They could even make up a story about getting into the National Tournament in middle school without batting an eye.

Kanda had asked Miyake about it while they were talking on the way, and he still couldn't forget Miyake's baffled expression.

Once they'd settled on what to do next, Hirata immediately pulled out his phone and sent Chabashira Sae a message.

He said they had something they wanted to ask her about.

Chapter 13: A Meeting at the Artificial Lake

Hirata got a reply almost as soon as he sent his message.

When he heard the reply chime, Kanda couldn't help commenting, "Looks like Chabashira-sensei has a lot of free time."

"Kanda, I don't think you should talk about Chabashira-sensei that way. She's our teacher, after all."

As Hirata got ready to check his phone, he tried to reason with Kanda. He didn't know why Kanda had such a poor impression of Chabashira Sae, but she would be their homeroom teacher for the next three years.

"Chabashira-sensei wants to meet us by the Artificial Lake behind the dormitory after dinner."

"The school has something as dangerous as an artificial lake? And it's behind the dormitory?"

At the mention of an artificial lake, Kanda wondered if there might be... ghosts wandering around it in the middle of the night.

"Dangerous?" Miyake looked at Kanda. "You can't swim?"

"Of course I can't do that."

Kanda said it as if it were obvious.

"If we get the chance, I can teach you. Playing in the water is fun in the summer."

"I thought archery was the only sport you did."

"What are you talking about?"

Seeing how close the two had become already, Hirata smiled with relief.

But weren't they supposed to meet Chabashira-sensei later? How had they ended up talking about sports?

When it was about time, the three of them went to the cafeteria for dinner. Naturally, they didn't get another free Wild Vegetable Set Meal. Hirata treated them to thank them for sharing the information. Kanda couldn't very well refuse, so he accepted—and even ordered the more expensive Tempura Set Meal.

Mm, the fried shrimp was delicious!

Once dinner time had passed, the April sky gradually darkened. There were streetlights all over the school, but visibility still didn't extend beyond twenty meters.

By the time the three of them reached their destination, it was almost completely dark.

April wasn't very warm, and Kanda didn't know what Miyake and Hirata were thinking, but he was already feeling a little chilly.

"Is Chabashira-sensei still not here? I already want to go back."

Seeing no one near the park bench at the meeting spot, Kanda let out a weary complaint.

"Then you can go back."

A woman's voice drifted in with the wind, making Kanda shudder. He almost blurted out a string of profanity.

Holy crap! There really is a ghost?

Before Kanda could figure out what was going on, a figure emerged from the shadows beside the bench. It was Chabashira Sae, whom they'd met earlier that day, the homeroom teacher of Class 1-D.

Kanda quietly breathed a sigh of relief, only then realizing that his back was drenched in cold sweat. Apparently, even coming here hadn't helped him get over his fear of ghosts.

Chabashira stepped out of the shadows and walked straight to the lake. She stopped by the railing, leaned against it, and lit a cigarette.

"So, Hirata, what did you want to see me about?"

The smell of smoke drifted over. Kanda frowned and began to cough.

Seeing Kanda's reaction, Chabashira paused, then quietly stubbed out the cigarette after only one puff.

"We wanted to ask you to confirm something, Chabashira-sensei."

"Is that so? Go ahead."

Chabashira's expression remained calm throughout, but when Hirata explained all the information they'd gathered that day, her expression changed.

First calm, then surprise, and finally composed again. It wasn't quite as dramatic as Sichuan opera, but it wasn't far off.

They'd seen through the true nature of this school in just one day?

Chabashira Sae felt a little pleased.

Hirata's deduction was correct. The Private Points students received each month were based on their evaluations, and the school really did have a set of evaluation criteria. The S System wasn't as simple as it seemed on the surface.

Put simply, those criteria were called Class Points.

When the new students first enrolled, each class was given 1,000 Class Points.

That was why every new student received 100,000 Private Points as starting funds.

After that came the school's usual practice: without telling any of the new students—and even requiring second- and third-years to keep it secret—the school observed the students' behavior for a month.

Being late, skipping class, sleeping during lessons, and playing on their phones all cost Class Points. Fighting, extortion, and similar behavior brought far more severe consequences.

As a result, every class went through a major shake-up after the first month.

Every Class D lost a large number of Class Points over behavioral issues. Only then did its students realize that the school wasn't as wonderful as the rumors made it out to be.

And now, Hirata and the others had figured out the rules in just their first day.

They still didn't know about the Entrance Behavior Assessment or the differences between classes, but this was enough to prove how capable they were.

"Hirata, you weren't the one who figured all this out, were you?"

Chabashira trusted her ability to read people, and she also knew how the school evaluated its students.

Hirata was certainly capable, but this wasn't where his strengths lay. Miyake wasn't the one for this, either. That left only one possibility.

All of this had been figured out by Kanda Shuichi, the student who had no admission evaluation and had been sent to Class D as a transfer student.

"Exactly. Kanda and Miyake investigated all of this during the day."

"No, I just walked around with Kanda."

In the blink of an eye, the two had thrown Kanda under the bus—or rather, Hirata wanted Chabashira-sensei to recognize how capable he was.

Miyake, on the other hand, simply didn't want to show off in front of other people. That wasn't his style, and he wasn't lying, either.

In fact, Chabashira Sae had been watching Kanda even before they answered.

"So, Chabashira-sensei, were our deductions right?"

Looking at Kanda's calm expression, Chabashira Sae wanted to tell him outright that he was right. But if that was all she did, he wouldn't be worth investing in.

Figuring things out this far in a single day was impressive, but one capable person alone couldn't lead Class D to victory.

"I'm afraid that's not something I can answer for free."

Her tone was exactly the same as it had been earlier that day.