"You came pretty early yourself, didn't you?" Sae Chabashira countered.
"...Heh heh—" x2
The two of them seemed to laugh.
It was an awkward laugh.
They both understood that they had just had a confrontation, and a rather tense one at that.
Hachiman had deliberately mentioned how early she had arrived to point out how impatient she was. Chabashira responded directly, indicating that he had come this early because he was eager to receive the task she had issued.
In other words, don't expose someone when they were already struggling.
"A day has passed." Chabashira stopped beating around the bush and spoke directly. "You should have some answers by now."
"..." Hachiman said, "Yes. This school really is different, and it seems to use competition between classes to motivate its students."
"Oh?" Chabashira lightly lowered her cigarette. "How so?"
"Today, Kushida and I visited the school buildings for all three years."
"We found that they all had the same setup: a bulletin board and a small blackboard. Except the blackboard for us first-years was completely blank."
"The blackboards for the second and third years had numbers on them."
"They followed the same pattern: A, B, C, and D, followed by a string of numbers," Hachiman said.
"Mm." Chabashira nodded calmly. "And?"
"I guessed they were some kind of evaluation score," Hachiman said. "An evaluation received from the school on a class-by-class basis."
"I noticed that the upperclassmen in Second Year Class D and Third-year Classes C and D were living off assistance."
"So that matches up."
"Their evaluations were very low. Third-year Class D, for example, only had twenty points."
"And the living allowance they could receive from the school based on those evaluations must be very low," Hachiman said. "Definitely not enough to live on."
Oh.
Chabashira nodded lightly.
So that was it.
Then... Class D had really found a treasure this time.
"Your insight is quite good." Chabashira pressed her cigarette against the railing. "It seems I found the right person when I entrusted you with investigating your classmates and compiling their files."
"The reward is two hundred thousand per student."
"And you said you explored the school buildings with Kushida, correct?"
"Then you can choose her as the first person whose file you make," Chabashira said. "What is your assessment of her?"
"As for that..." Hachiman spoke, but he did not raise his head.
"Is there something difficult for you to say?" Chabashira asked.
"No." Hachiman shook his head. "If you want my assessment, it isn't very good."
Oh?
Sae Chabashira blinked.
"Chabashira-sensei, can you first tell me whether Kushida is outstanding in ordinary areas like academics and athletics?" Hachiman asked.
"What do you mean?" Chabashira frowned.
"If Kushida is excellent in those areas, and she also helped Hirata establish the class group chat and obtained the contact details of most of the class in a very short time..."
"And actively takes part in interactions among her classmates," Hachiman said. "Those are all signs of excellence."
"But the more outstanding she appears... the more I feel that she..."
"May have a very serious problem."
"A problem so serious that, once exposed, all of her outstanding qualities would vanish without a trace."
Chabashira: Get Close to Suzune Horikita! She's Like You!
Kushida had a major problem.
It was a startling conclusion.
But Chabashira knew very well.
Hachiman Hikigaya was right.
She had reviewed the files of every student in Class D. As the homeroom teacher, she was also responsible for periodically evaluating the students.
That allowed her to access their past records.
Then guide the students toward better paths.
And the file she had received on Kikyo Kushida was highly problematic.
The interviewer's assessment had been as follows: the student's Academic Ability and athletic ability could both reach B rank.
Although she was somewhat lacking in intelligence and strategy, she possessed exceptionally strong interpersonal affinity. Her coordination and organizational abilities could receive an A rating.
This type of person who excelled at interpersonal relations was rarely encountered.
So they had originally intended to place her in Class B.
But because of her past experiences, they had no choice but to abandon that decision and place her in Class D.
The reason was that the principal of the middle school she had attended had reported that Kushida Kikyo's class had completely collapsed, with both students and teachers going on strike. The person who had caused it all was her.
In other words, although Kikyo Kushida's basic abilities were at the level of a Class B student...
She was a bomb that could explode at any moment.
Naturally, such a bomb could not be placed in Class B. Otherwise, if one person ruined an entire Class B, none of the interviewers could escape blame.
So Kushida had been thrown into Class D.
And that was also why Class D was regarded as trash.
Aside from students who were simply poor in every aspect, it also housed all kinds of strange problem children.
The purpose was to let the students in the excellent upper classes adapt through class competition.
To prepare them for the difficult people they might encounter in society in the future.
But this was information Chabashira had obtained using her authority as the homeroom teacher.
So she knew that Kikyo Kushida was a bomb.
But...
Hachiman Hikigaya, how had you learned that?
Why had he concluded that the more outstanding Kushida appeared, the more dangerous she was?
Thus, although Chabashira-sensei maintained the demeanor of an adult in response to Hachiman's words, her thoughts had already gone around in several circles.
She was also analyzing Hachiman's file.
Hachiman was a special student recommended by Shizuka Hiratsuka.
The school had reviewed his file and decided that he could be accepted as a student.
So he had half come in through the back door, yet he had still been assigned to Class D.
Because...
His records and past were also somewhat strange. His performance had not been remarkable; he was even always alone. It was not that he had never tried, but he had basically failed.
He seemed like nothing more than a withdrawn boy.
His only advantage was his excellent Japanese Language and Literature grades.
He seemed to possess profound skill in writing.
That was the advantage the interviewers had listed for him.
But now, it seemed that was not all there was to him.
His insight was also very strong.
"You really have given an incredible assessment," Chabashira-sensei said. "You are right about Kushida."
"She is a person with considerable risks."
"But how did you reach that conclusion?" Chabashira asked.
"Something like deduction," Hachiman said. "If my conclusion is correct, the school uses competition between classes to allocate resources."
"And if it is competition, what is needed to achieve better development?"
"Of course, evenly matched opponents. If you have opponents you must continually grow stronger to defeat, then you can become stronger as well."
"So at first, I assumed that all four classes contained equally outstanding students, who would lead their classes into competition against one another."
"But," Hachiman continued, "judging from the circumstances of the upperclassmen in the second and third-year Class Ds, it seemed that no matter the year, they were always in the poorest state."
"There would naturally be wins and losses in class competition. If they lost once, that would be understandable."
"But..."
"Looking at the numbers on the third-year blackboard, Third-year Class A had 2530, Third-year Class B had 1300, Third-year Class C had 300, and Third-year Class D had 20."
"The evaluations received by the four classes dropped like they were falling off a cliff, separated by ravines as impassable as natural barriers."
"So I rejected the idea that A, B, C, and D had started out evenly matched."
"Rather, Class A's students had been more outstanding from the beginning and more likely to stand out."
"And Class D was the worst class," Hachiman said. "Because it was so bad, it would always be at the bottom. Then would an exceptionally good student need to be placed in Class D? Wouldn't that be a waste of resources? So I believe that once a student is assigned to Class D, the more outstanding that student appears, the bigger their problem must be."
"The negative consequences they could bring might outweigh all of their strengths."
That included Hirata.
Hachiman sighed inwardly.
He had finally met a male angel, only for him to be a bomb no less dangerous than Kushida.
Chabashira slowly closed her eyes.
I see.
So that was how he understood it.
No wonder.
She understood now.
She had still underestimated him.
Hachiman Hikigaya's insight and analytical ability both exceeded her expectations.
"Did you play detective games in the past? Like often working through deductions with friends?" Chabashira wanted to know how he had become like this.
"No," Hachiman said. "I couldn't find anyone to play detective games with me, so I played several roles by myself."
"..." Chabashira.
Fine.
She somewhat understood how Hachiman had become so capable.
Because he had been alone.
Being alone could make a person lonely, but sometimes it could also make a person stronger.
"Then take this."
Chabashira slipped her left hand into the pocket of her women's suit and took out a black card, roughly ten by five centimeters.
Two QR codes were printed in the center of the card.
One represented receiving payments, while the other was a payment code.
Before you continue