Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V6: Chapter 8 - Who to Trust?

Matsuo Eiichiro POV

I left the library storming behind a not very happy Karma-kun.

We were checking how the study groups were going and it resulted that Sayo-san and Kozue-san weren't present in their study group which was the one tutored by Ryuji-kun. Apparently, they were the only members of our class that hadn't received permission from their upperclassmen to miss club activities.

Because of this, Karma-kun stormed out of the library in the direction of the special building where most clubs held their activities.

But it was just a matter of time, I guess. Since the exam was announced, things had been going too well. Honami-san, Shinobu-san, Ryota-kun, Tetsuya-kun and Ryuji-kun held their study sessions revising the program Karma-kun had devised while, thanks to the agreement concluded between Honami-san and Ayanokouji-kun yesterday, our classmates went through the questions of the short test Class D had given us.

In the meantime, Karma-kun and I created the four hundred questions. I created the easy ones so the smartest students of Class C could get a maximum of sixty, and Karma-kun created the difficult ones to ensure no one could get more than fifty. I had no idea how he could come up with questions difficult enough so that Misaka-san and Chikujoin-san didn't get more than fifty but he always found some way to get what he wanted. I learned that thanks to the sports festival.

We entered the special building and Karma-kun immediately took the direction of the volleyball court.

True to itself, the school had a specialised room for every club or activity. Thus, the volleyball, basketball and fencing clubs to mention some of them, had their respective separate courts to use without having to bother each other. This way, the main gym was completely free and reserved for events like ceremonies or special exams.

Arriving at the court, Karma-kun entered opening the door violently.

"Kozue! Sayo! Go to your fucking study groups!" Karma-kun bellowed as loudly as he could. The sound reverberated through the gym.

All the students present in the place turned in our direction. I spotted the two girls almost instantly. Flinching, they began leaving the court in the direction of the changing rooms.

"Kozue-chan, Sayo-chan. Please stay where you are. Practice hasn't finished yet," a senpai I didn't know told them in a voice way too sweet.

My two classmates nodded slightly and slowly returned to where they were.

Karma-kun sighed and approached the senpai.

"Come on, Ikari. Give them permission to leave. Their absence is completely justified," he said meeting the senpai now named Ikari next to the benches. I remained at Karma-kun's side.

"What? Are you going to stop all your classmates from attending their clubs each time a special exam pops up?" She asked with a chuckle.

"This isn't any special exam, Ikari. I know the level of questions will be hard. If they don't study properly they will be expelled," Karma-kun declared emphasising hid words.

"That shouldn't be a problem, right? You just got twenty million points from Nagumo."

Karma-kun massaged his eyebrows exasperated.

"Listen, Ikari. It's not because I have the points that I want that scenario to play out," he paused for a second. "Now, would you be so kind as to give them permission to leave? As I said their absence is justified." He asked slowly.

I understood why Karma-kun was so insistent in the 'justified absence" thing. On paper, you could incur penalties for missing club activities, and those penalties could affect the students' class if the absences were repetitive. That's why it was better to have justified absences, if it was something health related, a certificate from the infirmary was enough. If it was a problem with the exam results being too low, a certificate from the student's homeroom teacher was enough. However, here it was an agenda problem between the study groups and the club activities. In a normal school, preventing or having permission from the teacher in charge of the club was enough, but because of the important degree of autonomy the students had in this school, the permission of the captain or president of the club was needed.