"As a class lacking in every aspect, there was definitely no way we could handle such intensive exams."
"But we've only just enrolled."
"And you saw the school rules I showed you. When we enrolled, all four freshman classes started from the same line."
"They all had 1,000 class points."
"And their living expenses were all the same too: 100,000 points."
"That was fairly [fair]."
"So we can start from there. If we build a foundation here, then hold out through a few more exams and earn decent scores, maybe we can successfully rise to Class A," Hachiman said.
"..." Suzune Horikita.
"..." Suzune Horikita.
"What?"
Hachiman noticed Horikita's silent expression.
"Not to pour cold water on your idea," Suzune Horikita said. "According to the school rules you obtained, we began a month-long Behavioral Guidelines Exam on our very first day of enrollment."
"How many points do you think ordinary students have already lost?"
"...Rather, this test only assesses the qualities a student should possess. Why are there so many people fooling around in class—playing on their phones, reading manga, sleeping soundly, arriving late, and so on?" Suzune Horikita said.
"%..."
All right.
A model student like you should stop talking.
Hachiman was certain he had lost points too.
For example, he had looked at his phone during class.
And there were times when he zoned out as well.
For instance, sitting beside Horikita, whenever class got tiring, he could look at her to restore his energy. She was, after all, a top-tier beauty, and even her serious expression was like a painting.
Though she was as cold as ice, after getting to know her, he discovered... she was still ice.
Still, she was nice to look at.
Besides, Horikita's assessment of behavioral guidelines was a little one-sided. There were cameras everywhere in the school, and with so many cameras, they would capture more than just classroom behavior.
They would also record how students behaved after class and even during breaks.
So if she thought students only lost points during class, she was still too naive.
Their classmates were losing points everywhere.
Even so.
It really was rather despairing.
That was why Hachiman had told Chabashira-sensei that she might have overestimated this year's Class D.
Because Sakayanagi had said that in past years, Class D could still retain four or five hundred points by the end of the first month.
But the current situation might be even worse than in previous years.
What kind of crouching tigers and hidden dragons had gathered in this year's cohort?
"Even so," Hachiman finally said. "Where there's a will, there's a way. I think there's still a solution."
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
Five updates done. Let me catch my breath; I'll continue in ten minutes!
I want to be a ten-update loli!
Sakayanagi the Cutie: Seeing You So Worried Really Makes Me Happy!
The next day.
Morning.
Hachiman arrived at the classroom, sat down at his desk, and blanked out for a moment.
He was looking for a way to break the deadlock.
Given the caliber of the students in his class, rising to Class A would be difficult. Even trying to latch onto Class A required an opportunity.
And the beginning of school was the best chance to do that.
He had to draw a good hand.
But.
Ring ring ring—
Class had already been in session for five minutes.
Yet only thirty-nine students from First-year Class D had arrived. One was still calling out to a classmate who was sleeping like the dead, while the others were already reaching for their phones even though the teacher had taken the podium.
Then.
"Reporting!"
"I was selected as a regular member of the basketball club, so I practiced a little harder than usual and ended up late."
A tall boy spoke from the classroom's front door.
He had close-cropped red hair and long limbs, giving him the appearance of someone good at sports.
Hachiman was fairly familiar with him too. He was Sudō, the student skilled at basketball.
Fierce on the outside, timid on the inside.
He had said, "Huh? Self-introductions? Are we little kids?" yet immediately joined in when it was his turn.
He was also the one who had been mocked by upperclassmen because he looked like a delinquent: "You'll see hell soon enough."
Still, Hachiman had not expected him to join the basketball club the day before yesterday and already become a regular.
A place like the basketball club relied almost entirely on skill. Anyone joining at this time would normally start by helping upperclassmen wipe down basketballs.
But Sudō had become a regular, which proved his athletic ability was worthy of recognition.
Hachiman made a note of it.
However.
Hachiman glanced at the camera mounted high in the classroom's upper-left corner, capable of capturing every scene in the room.
At this point, Class D had probably lost another class point.
Because.
As a student of Advanced Nurturing High School, he had been late for the first class of the day.
There were four morning classes: physics, chemistry, English, and biology.
All were taught by male teachers, making them rather hard to endure.
Like Chabashira-sensei, all the subject teachers let the students do as they pleased and paid them no mind, so they dismissed class the moment the bell rang.
When the bell signaling the end of fourth period sounded, Hachiman glanced toward Kushida, who was incredibly popular in the class.
Kushida happened to look his way as well.
Their gazes met for an instant.
"Eh? Really? That sounds fun~ Let's go experience it together at Zelkova Shopping Center after school." That was Kushida's voice.
She was chatting with her companions.
Clearly, she paid him no attention at all and simply left with the other girls.
That was a relief.
It seemed that as long as he did not step on one of her landmines, or interact with Horikita—who came from the same middle school and might know Kushida's dark past—she would be perfectly genuine.
But Kushida's companions had changed today. Instead of Meiyu Wang, she was with the class's little gyaru clique.
She was talking to Karuizawa, apparently discussing perfume.
She and Hirata were doing similar work.
Hirata was the class mom, specifically responsible for handling the students' various troubles, conflicts, interpersonal relationships, and so on.
Though Kushida also greeted the boys, it was obvious that she spent most of her time interacting with the girls.
That could not be helped. Boys were relatively simple, but the girls had quickly formed all sorts of little cliques.
For example, the twenty girls in their class had split into three groups.
One group consisted of Kushida and Meiyu Wang, and they would also bring along a student named Kokoro Inogashira.
The other was the gyaru group led by Kei Karuizawa.
Maya Sato, Satsuki Shinohara, Chiaki Matsushita, and Haruka Hasebe—the beautiful and kindhearted girl Yamauchi had once praised to the skies—had all joined it.
But based on Hachiman's experience observing people, that Chiaki Matsushita was a fake gyaru.
Then there were the less conspicuous girls in class, like Onodera, along with several NPC-like girls whose names he could not recall. They would occasionally try to blend into those groups.
This was probably the ecosystem that had formed in just a few days.
How terrifying.
Girls' interpersonal relationships.
Speaking of which.
There were actually two girls excluded from all of this. One was Suzune Horikita, who still had not joined the class group chat, while the other was Sakura, with pink hair tied into twin tails and pink-framed glasses.
Her full name was Airi Sakura. It was a pretty cute name.
And.
Hachiman noticed that she seemed to be cautiously glancing his way, as if checking whether he was staring at her.
When she realized he really was looking, she hurriedly propped up her book.
Then hid her face behind it.
So cute.
Hachiman felt that the exhausting ordeal of facing four male teachers and being forced to sit through forty-five minutes of class four times over had been healed.
Look at Horikita. In just a few days, the girls had isolated you all on your own. Are you really not going to change?
Though Hachiman was not qualified to say that to Horikita.
Because he still had zero friends.
When Hachiman reached the cafeteria, he let out a soft sigh.
"My, my. Isn't this Hachiman? Why do you look so troubled?"
Her voice arrived before she did.
Hachiman noticed a little princess with long silver hair approaching with a cane in hand.
Behind her was Masumi Kamuro, with long purple hair and two hairpins. Kamuro kept a certain distance from Sakayanagi, yet her obedience was obvious.
Clearly.
Before you continue