The day after the exam, the entire grade was gathered in their classrooms to await the final scores and the announcement of the passing lines. The atmosphere was even heavier than it had been on exam day. Even the sunlight seemed veiled by a thin layer of gauze, unable to offer the slightest warmth. The rules at Advanced Nurturing High School were clear: half the class average in each subject was the passing line. Fall short by even one point, and you were expelled.
In Class D's classroom, everyone was on edge, barely daring to breathe. They had received their scores and were waiting for their homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira, to address the class. Yosuke Hirata stood beside the lectern, wearing his usual gentle, kindly smile as he tried to soothe the restless atmosphere, but he couldn't hide the panic in his eyes. Kikyo Kushida sat at her desk with her usual perfect, harmless expression, her eyes quietly sweeping over the class before settling on Ken Sudō's tense profile. Kiyotaka Ayanokoji sat hunched in the least conspicuous corner, like a transparent scrap of paper. Suzune Horikita leaned alone by the window, her profile hard and silent, but her tightly clenched fingers betrayed how much she cared.
Sae Chabashira strode into the classroom in her high heels, her expression unreadable. She projected the scores and passing lines above the blackboard. The system quickly finished its calculations, and cold figures appeared, one line at a time:
Class D average in each subject ÷ 2 = passing line 79.6 ÷ 2 = 39.8 Mathematics passing line, rounded to the nearest whole number: 40 points
The entire class's gaze snapped to Ken Sudō's desk.
Ken Sudō's mathematics score: 39 points.
A one-point difference.
One point short, and he would be expelled.
After a moment of dead silence, the classroom erupted.
"Sudō..."
"How could this happen? He even memorized all the past exam questions..."
Yosuke Hirata immediately stepped forward, trying to plead with Sae Chabashira. "Teacher, please. He's only one point short. Couldn't you give him another chance?"
Sae Chabashira raised her eyes coldly. "The rules are the rules. Fail, and you're expelled. Come to my office after school to complete the paperwork."
She left no room for negotiation. After dropping those words, she turned and walked away with icy indifference. Ken Sudō's face went deathly pale. He trembled all over, unable to get a word out. Faced with the absolute terror of expulsion, the boy who was usually so hot-tempered could do nothing but despair.
Yosuke Hirata refused to give up. He did his best to maintain order in the classroom, urging everyone to calm down as he tried to find a way to save Sudō. But everyone knew that the school wouldn't casually change scores once they had been posted. After all the arguing, all that remained was helpless silence. Hirata looked at his dejected classmates, his heart heavy, yet he still forced himself to comfort them. In that moment, even the weariness behind his kindhearted demeanor showed.
Just when everyone thought Sudō's expulsion was inevitable, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji silently got to his feet and left the classroom behind Sae Chabashira.
The wind was strong on the rooftop, whipping at Sae Chabashira's clothes as she leaned against the railing with a cigarette between her fingers. She lit it and took a light drag, smoke scattering in the wind. She wasn't surprised to see Kiyotaka come up. Her tone was casual and blunt. "You came sooner than I expected."
"Teacher, you left yourself some leeway in what you said." Kiyotaka stood a short distance away, his voice perfectly calm. "At this school, there's nothing you can't buy with points."
Sae Chabashira gave a derisive laugh and blew out a puff of smoke. "I should have known. You're right, it can be bought. But I'll give you a special price for the point Sudō is short: one hundred thousand private points. I don't suppose you have that much."
One hundred thousand points.
For Class D, which had just seen its points wiped out and was struggling to get by, that was an impossible sum for any individual to pay. Kiyotaka Ayanokoji's personal account didn't have enough.
While he silently calculated, a cool female voice came from the rooftop entrance.
"I'll pay the rest."
Suzune Horikita had appeared there at some point. Her expression was still cool, but her gaze was unusually determined. "I won't allow anyone in Class D to be expelled after our very first exam."
She took out her phone and checked her point balance. Kiyotaka glanced at her.
I think keeping Ken Sudō in the class will do more good than harm. That was Suzune Horikita's reason.
They had enough to make up the one hundred thousand points.
Sae Chabashira stubbed out her cigarette. "Since this school was founded, no Class D has ever moved up. And yet you still want to fight a losing battle? How are you supposed to climb when even the school has given up on its defective products?" Her tone was full of matter-of-fact scorn.
"Putting him aside, I'm definitely aiming for a higher-ranked class. And with all due respect, even a defective product can become acceptable with a little change. At least, that's what I think." Suzune Horikita delivered the line with a high-scoring, expressionless face.
"Then I'll look forward to seeing what you can do. As your homeroom teacher, I'll be watching you closely." Sae Chabashira turned to leave.
"You can tell him that Ken Sudō won't be expelled." Sudō's expulsion had been quietly revoked.
The chaos that had begun with every student in Class D fearing for their own future was now over.
When the news reached the classroom, Yosuke Hirata let out a long sigh of relief. Kikyo Kushida wore an expression of just the right amount of surprise and delight, while Ken Sudō himself stood there in a daze, unable to speak for a long while. No one knew exactly what had happened; they only knew that Sudō was safe for now. Only Kiyotaka and Horikita knew that behind that single point lay a loophole in the rules, bought with points—and the true face of Advanced Nurturing High School.
At the same time, Class C wasn't facing despair. Its rule was being established.
Three days earlier, on the afternoon before the exam, after Kazuma Sakagami's class had ended, Ryuen Kakeru had climbed onto a desk and sat there, his legs swinging casually. His gaze was violent, yet brimming with confidence that he had everything under control. Pinned to the blackboard was a set of old exam questions of the same kind that had found its way to Class D. By combining violence with information-gathering, he had obtained past exam questions too.
At that point, Class C wasn't united. Mio Ibuki stood in the corner with an annoyed look, arms crossed and openly resistant. Albert Yamada remained silent, radiating an unapproachable air. He was the most defiant person in the class when it came to Ryuen. In the days before, Mio Ibuki had openly and secretly gone against Ryuen, while Albert Yamada had rejected his violent leadership.
But this time, Ryuen didn't go looking for a "target" and start by chewing them out like he usually did.
He slammed photocopied exam questions and answer keys onto a desk, his tone arrogant and domineering. "Memorize all of these. Not one wrong answer. Anyone who drags the class down had better be ready to get what's coming." Then he bolted, leaving everyone in Class C completely baffled.
"Looks like Ryuen isn't quite used to handling things this way." Hiyori Shiina held a stack of the photocopied papers and explained the patterns in the old exam questions to the class. Ryuen must have asked her to "clean up" in advance.
His words were harsh, but his actions were straightforward: he gave them the questions for free, gave them the answers for free, and even forced everyone to memorize them.
Mio Ibuki frowned and grumbled, "What a pain," but still picked up the questions. Albert remained silent, but the resistance in his eyes had eased somewhat. He, too, picked up the papers.
Ryuen was absent for the entire second half. Under the shared goal of "everyone passes, nobody gets expelled," the once-fractious and divided Class C came together for the first time. Some feared his violence, some were grateful he had given them the questions, and some chose to obey under the pressure of life and death. After the exam, Class C, once rife with conflict and cliques, had finally united.
When the scores were announced, everyone in Class C had passed. Not a single student was expelled.
The moment cheers rang out, Ryuen Kakeru's leadership in Class C was firmly established.
No one dared openly defy him anymore. Fear, respect, and dependence intertwined, forming the firmest kind of obedience. In their hearts, the students silently admitted that yielding to a strong leader might really be the only way for the "weak" to survive at this school, where strength was everything.
Listening to his classmates cheer with relief, Ryuen Kakeru curled his lips into an arrogant smile.
He hadn't just won the first exam. He'd won control of the entire class.
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