May 1st. The peaceful daily life was finally coming to an end.
That morning.
Class B, having already anticipated this, remained fairly calm. Shirami, Yuki Himeno, and the others surrounded Ichinose as usual.
"Everyone."
Ichinose stood up, her sweet smile offering a sense of security. "You've all received this month's private points, right?"
"Yes, I received 65,000."
Shirami's voice, faint as a mosquito's buzz, reached his ears.
"Me too."
Another girl, who seemed to be named Asako Okakura, also nodded in agreement. "As expected, Honami-chan's judgment was correct. It's impossible for the school to give us 100,000 private points every month."
She also seemed to be one of Ichinose's core members.
One could often see scenes of Okakura, Shirami, and Ichinose laughing together.
"That's not it."
Ichinose shook her head helplessly. "This is all thanks to Hikigaya's contribution. If Hikigaya hadn't deduced the relationship between Class Points and the difference in private points, we wouldn't have been able to react so quickly."
Uh...
Hikigaya quickly looked away and buried his face on his desk. He could already feel several stinging gazes.
As expected of Ichinose, she remembered everyone's contribution perfectly.
But Ichinose's own reasoning was also extremely excellent.
In the end.
Hikigaya knew his reasoning wasn't actually that important.
Even without him.
The private points wouldn't have changed significantly.
Ichinose's deductions would have been enough for the class to get through April safely.
Thinking of this, those gazes made him feel a bit ashamed; his contribution wasn't great enough to warrant such admiration.
Seeing him turn away, his classmates didn't disturb him.
"That is true."
Okakura said in a sweet voice, "Still, it seems Honami-chan's decision to save up private points was indeed correct. It will definitely be useful in the future. Honami-chan, here are May's private points—I'll leave these 35,000 to you for safekeeping."
As Okakura spoke, the surrounding students quickly followed suit, willingly handing their private points over to Ichinose.
Hikigaya's cheeks felt hot; he put on his headphones and pretended not to hear.
Naive.
Too naive, even sweeter than MAX Coffee.
Simply unbelievable.
To voluntarily give private points to a classmate for safekeeping—why not give them to him?
Are these people idiots?
"Honestly."
Their enthusiasm made Ichinose a bit helpless. "Saving private points is indeed beneficial for the class, but don't over-save. If anyone needs to use private points, remember to tell me anytime."
"It's fine, 30,000 points is enough for a month's expenses."
Seeing the topic pass.
Hikigaya opened his eyes slightly and keenly noticed that Yuki Himeno's smile was a bit forced as she reluctantly handed over her private points.
Serves you right!
Hikigaya chuckled inwardly.
As the class bell rang, the students of Class B returned to their seats.
Chie Hoshinomiya walked into the classroom carrying a roll of paper, leaning against the door as if she might die at any moment.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, are you okay?"
Someone asked out of concern.
"I'm fine, I'm fine."
Hoshinomiya waved her hand, a smile squeezed onto her pale, pretty face. "I just drank too much last night and have a bit of a hangover. Don't worry."
"Uh..."
Suddenly, the students of Class B all showed helpless smiles.
This scene had happened many times; Hikigaya had often seen Hoshinomiya hungover during Japanese class.
Fortunately.
The students of Class B were very self-disciplined and instead began to look after this child-like teacher.
After resting for a while, Hoshinomiya turned around, unrolled the papers, and taped them to the blackboard side by side.
On the left were the Class Points for each class.
Class A: 940 points.
Class B: 650 points.
Class C: 560 points.
Class D: 0 points.
Ichinose and the others immediately understood that Hikigaya's deductions were basically correct.
Class Points and private points are exchanged at a 1:100 ratio.
The other paper was the report card from the previous mock test; though it didn't count toward grades, the people in Class B had still given it their all.
Hikigaya did the same, not being careless at all.
He also really wanted to know what level his grades were at in this top-tier school.
Second in the class for Japanese; first place was Ichinose.
As expected of the student who ranked first in the entire grade on the entrance exam.
However, English—also a liberal arts subject—instantly dropped to 8th place; there were many people in this class who were good at it.
His science grades, however, were somewhat disastrous.
Although he didn't give up on science entirely as planned and had studied hard.
Physics and Chemistry were both only 60, and Mathematics was only 52.
Sure enough.
No matter how hard you work at things you aren't good at, you still won't be good at them.
His overall score was roughly 16th in the class, barely a middle-to-upper level.
But that was enough.
He never intended for his academic performance to be that great.
The passing line is half of the class average; in other words, as long as the lowest score in a single subject is above fifty, there won't be any problems.
However.
52 in Math was still a bit dangerous; after all, there was some luck involved. It would be better to keep it around 60.
Hikigaya made up his mind to set a target of 60 points.
"It looks like everyone anticipated this, so I'll keep it short," Hoshinomiya-sensei said listlessly, slumped over the desk. "Only Class A has the right to free career choice. If your Class Points exceed Class A, you can rise to Class A; otherwise, you'll fall to Class C. Everyone~ do your best~"
Hmm...
Concise enough.
Hoshinomiya-sensei seemingly had no intention of explaining, leaving it entirely to the students to understand for themselves.
Fortunately, the people in Class B were very outstanding.
"Teacher."
Ichinose raised her hand and asked, "In that case, the school should have prepared a system for obtaining Class Points, right? Can you tell us?"
"Increasing Class Points?"
Hoshinomiya-sensei tried hard to think with her hungover head. "That would be the upcoming midterm exams. As long as you get good grades, you'll get corresponding Class Points. But if anyone falls below the passing line, they will be expelled. You must be careful. You know the passing line, right? It's... that..."
"Half of the class average."
"That's it!"
Hoshinomiya gave a thumb-up in admiration.
Expulsion.
In Sakura Island, that's not something easily dismissed.
Once a stain appears on your record, your future will undoubtedly become much more difficult.
Feeling the uneasy gazes around her, Ichinose stood up, hand over her heart, and smiled:
"It's okay. In my eyes, this is undoubtedly the best class. As long as we work together, no one will be expelled."
"Honami-chan..."
The corners of the Class B students' mouths couldn't help but twitch into smiles.
However.
Watching this scene, Hikigaya couldn't agree.
Avoiding even a single expulsion.
Striving toward a goal is not a bad thing, but this is just idealism. The world doesn't turn that way; someone will inevitably draw the short straw.
When that time comes, how will Ichinose handle it?
But wait.
The person who drew the short straw is me!
Oh.
Then it's fine.
He was already used to drawing the short straw.
"Also, Teacher," Ichinose continued with her inner doubt, "I believe Class B is the best class, and our performance this month was very good. Why is there such a large gap with Class A? Can you tell us the evaluation criteria?"
Hikigaya couldn't help but look at the teacher.
Class B had minor flaws—after all, getting distracted in class is unavoidable—but blatant tardiness or playing with phones never happened.
People even reminded each other.
For example, Shirami behind him was always poking his back.
Their grades were also excellent; at least many people were better than him.
Even so.
They were still left far behind by Class A. Are the people in Class A monsters?
Hikigaya felt like he should have been assigned to Class D.
Clearly, he had been at the bottom of the class since he was a child, so why was he inexplicably put into Class B?
"I can't tell you that," Hoshinomiya-sensei said, waving her small hand. "However, you can ask Hiki-kun. Although he's an annoying guy, his insight is quite amazing."
Hmm.
To think the class actually had such a talent.
To earn such an evaluation from the teacher.
Hiki-kun.
It should just be a nickname.
But then again, he didn't even know the names of the people in his class, let alone who the person was.
He really wanted to meet the guy who could be so praised by the teacher.
Feeling everyone's gaze, Hikigaya was momentarily stunned.
Ah?
So it's me.