Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V1: Chapter 5 - Classroom of the Elite

Misaka Mikoto POV

On May 1, as soon as the morning bell rang Sakagami-sensei entered the classroom. His faced showed an excited expression. I gulped mentally not comfortable at all with his expression.

"Now." He said placing his things on his desk. "Does anyone have questions?"

"Yeah, Sakagami-sensei, could you please explain why we only receive 56,000 points?"

"Kukuku, so, you still don't get it Manabe? I did warn you about it if I remember correctly." Ryuuen-kun spoke.

"Yeah! It's your own fault for spending everything Manabe!" Ishizaki-kun said supporting Ryuuen-kun.

"What are you talking about idiot? I didn't spend everything. I just... didn't expect the reduction to be that important..."

I looked at Shiina-san beside me to check her reaction to the situation. She had a worried look on her face. A fight between her classmates is something that puts her in a bad mood. Surprisingly she stood up rather loudly.

"Sakagami-sensei!" She called out. "Can you please explain why half of the points were deducted? I think it'll be best the best way to understand the current situation."

"A total of twenty-one absences and late arrivals. Eighty-three incidences of talking or using a cell phone in class. That's quite a lot for students that brag about being the elite of Japan. You see, in this school, your class's results are reflected in the points that you receive. As a result, your actions caused you to lose half of your points."

That just confirms our doubts.

I scanned the classroom and saw most of them with a serious expression. Shiina-san expression slowly relaxed while Ibuki-san's and Hiroya-kun's expression was one of annoyance, although for different reasons. Finally, two of my classmates had an amused looked on their face, like the situation was a funny one instead of a serious one. Those two students were: Ryuuen Kakeru, our class dictator, and Chikujoin Magane, who I'm sure was responsible for most of our losses. More than once, I caught her playing with her phone carelessly, although 'caught' wouldn't be the right term since she didn't really try to hide it. It was more like she was trying to provoke the camera, or, well, the school.

"He! Sensei!" Ryuuen-kun spoke. "Care to tell us about the results for the other classes?"

"Well, then, time for the important part." Sakagami-sensei responded.

He took the tube he had brought with him to class, spread it out and stuck a poster to the blackboard with some magnets.

"Kuku, now those are some interesting results."

On the poster the four classes were listed from A to D. Besides each class was a number. Class D had zero. Class C had 560. Class B had 740. And at the top was Class A, with a total of 940. So that meant that 1000 points represented 100,000 yen. Following Sakagami-sensei's argument, these results exemplified the class's performance during the month of April. It was also safe to assume that everyone had begun the year with 1000 points.

"Sensei, I understand the general idea. But why the results look so distinct if everyone's evaluated the same way." Kaneda-kun asked.

"The answer is in the class ranking Kaneda-kun," I responded before Sakagami-sensei could. "The school doesn't prevent us from doing whatever we want. Since what affects the points distribution is our own actions and the distinction between classes A, B, C and D is so flagrant. Only one conclusion can be reached."