"Do you think you don't need to take responsibility for this?"
"So."
"My proposal is this: if you, Kōenji, keep standing against everyone else, then there's nothing we can do if you get voted out of school," Hachiman said.
"..." Rokosuke Kōenji had been casually holding a small mirror and admiring his own face. But now—
"You're an interesting one, boy," Kōenji said.
Obviously, it was Horikita and Hachiman who had stood against the class, yet he had somehow twisted it into Kōenji being the one opposing everyone.
In other words, the blame had fallen out of the sky and landed right on his head.
Even Kōenji was surprised.
"Hachiman."
At that moment, Hirata stood up. "I think what you just said was unreasonable."
"We're all members of Class D, so there shouldn't be any talk about everyone voting for someone to be expelled."
"Like Third-year Class A, I think the best outcome would be for us to stay united and have nobody expelled even by our third year."
"So I think what you said was inappropriate. Please take it back," Hirata Yosuke said.
Was that so?
Hachiman looked toward Hirata, who had helped him out at the beginning and embraced his classmates like a little sun.
He could practically be certain of it.
If Kushida was a bomb, then Hirata's... his bottom line had appeared as well.
He would not allow anyone in the class to be expelled.
As the bridge connecting everyone, the glue holding them together.
Was that what he desired?
Hachiman owed him a favor, and he had no intention of pushing things to the point where someone absolutely had to be expelled.
So he said, "That was only a manner of speaking."
"If I was rude in any way, please forgive me."
Rude?
Kōenji had just experienced that rudeness firsthand.
And... the threat behind it.
After all, he had always been carefree. Even after Chabashira-sensei had explained this school's rules, he had thought they were nothing special.
That was because he had learned something over the past few days.
As long as he acquired twenty million points, he could transfer into whatever class he wanted.
So long as he gathered enough points, he could still graduate from Class A in the end.
And he had already thought of a way to obtain those twenty million points.
That was why he did not care about the current Class D, the class itself, their class evaluation points dropping to zero, or having no living allowance next month.
But now, he felt a trace of pressure.
The students around him were all idiots. If they really voted to have him expelled, and he was thrown out of school because of them...
How disgusting.
An outstanding man like Kōenji becoming a laughingstock was unbearable.
"I also hope that when we advance to our third year, everyone will still be here," Hachiman continued.
"After all, getting into this school wasn't easy. I also put in a great deal of effort to stand out from over a thousand applicants who received exemption recommendations."
That was somewhat exaggerated, but it was not a lie.
The classmates recalled the written tests and interviews they had gone through before enrolling.
That was right.
Although the principal had approached them and told them they could apply to this high school that every middle school student dreamed of attending, they had still seen many other applicants before the interviews and written examinations.
In other words, they had been chosen from an army of candidates.
Then they had come here.
So why should they be expelled so easily?
Kōenji rested his left hand on the desk.
Suddenly, he raised his head.
"My physical abilities are excellent."
"And my Academic Ability is not bad either. If it truly comes down to expulsion, I suggest you expel those who are useless to the class."
In other words, he was saying that he was useful?
"Kōenji, don't worry. We won't abandon any of our companions," Hirata hurriedly reassured him.
But Kōenji had already picked up his mirror again.
It seemed he no longer intended to speak or care about the matter.
Only one gaze remained fixed on him.
It belonged to Sae Chabashira.
Sae Chabashira watched Class D's development. As their homeroom teacher, she understood these students better than anyone.
For example, Rokosuke Kōenji's profile had already surfaced in her mind.
[Rokosuke Kōenji. This student possesses exceptional intelligence, athletic reflexes comparable to those of a professional athlete, and comes from an extremely famous family. Although his abilities in every area are extraordinarily high, he is narcissistic and arrogant. During the interview, he was repeatedly rude to the interviewers. In the end, it was determined that he lacked the ability to cooperate with others, so he was assigned to Class D. It is hoped that he will come to understand the meaning of teamwork and make improvements.]
In other words, the main reasons Rokosuke Kōenji had been placed in Class D were the interviewers' subjective judgment and Kōenji's refusal to cooperate.
That was only natural. He came from an outstanding family.
And he was supposedly the only son of the Kōenji Zaibatsu, born with a golden spoon in his mouth.
To him, a so-called team existed to serve him in the end.
So he only needed to know how to use people, not cooperate with them.
Therefore, even though all of his abilities were off the charts, Chabashira did not believe anyone could make him move.
Yet now, Kōenji had already learned how to "cooperate."
Chabashira was somewhat surprised.
However, she decided to continue leaving the stage to that dead-fish-eyed boy who had surprised her.
Hirata: Can I Borrow Hachiman? Sakayanagi: I'm Not Familiar with Him
First-year Class D Agreement.
1. All Class D students will continue participating in this month's Behavioral Guidelines Exam, with the goal of obtaining more than 400 class evaluation points.
2. If they ultimately obtain more than 400 class evaluation points, everyone will be happy.
3. If the score falls below 400 class evaluation points, points will be paid to the homeroom teacher to determine the specific deductions. The three students with the most deductions will each pay 100,000 points into the class fund. Installment payments are permitted.
4. If the entire class can achieve 400+ class evaluation points, then during the next special exam, should anyone face possible expulsion, the entire class will help one another and ensure that student's safety.
That was all.
"So your class signed an agreement like this?"
A sweet voice belonging to an adorable girl drifted over.
This was a private room on the third floor of the cafeteria.
Hachiman had been invited here by a silver-haired girl. More precisely, her dog, Kamuro, had been waiting in the hallway outside his classroom.
Then, after discovering that he was alone, she had brought him here directly.
However, Hachiman had also given her some information.
His First-year Class D had already prepared to continue taking the exam.
In other words, they had used an agreement to establish both rewards and punishments, ensuring restraint.
The Behavioral Guidelines Exam did not test whether students were clever or how high their Academic Ability was. It tested their capacity for self-restraint.
So long as they could ensure self-discipline, no more points would be deducted.
Perhaps they could achieve the same result as the students of Class A.
But would the students truly obey it?
After all, those were Class D students.
Still, the fact that they could sit down and sign such an agreement showed that Class D's students had developed a certain degree of determination.
Even discovering that determination in Class D was surprising.
After all, losing five hundred points in five days was a rate of point deduction that even previous upperclassmen found astonishing.
And now they intended to challenge themselves to lose fewer than eighty points over twenty-five days?
The assessment mostly concerned things an excellent student should naturally be able to do. It was not as though they had to solve problems or be forced to answer questions in class.
But with all forty students capable of losing points, they needed extremely strong restraint.
"This is indeed a productive agreement," Sakayanagi Arisu said. "But I'm very curious."
"Will the students in your class really be that easy to control?"
Of course they would not.
From Horikita and Hachiman to Kōenji and Hirata, those four had practically exploded one after another just to bring this agreement about.
It looked like a gathering of heroes, but it was really just a bunch of radishes holding a meeting.
The other classes would not have such problems. Class A, for example, had lost only four points in six days, while Class B was probably reflecting on itself and deciding that it could not relax any further.
The atmosphere in the other classes was much better.
Unlike Class D, where merely trying to save some class evaluation points had turned into a war.
Before you continue