Starting in class C: not completely defective.

Arc 6 chapter 3: paper shuffle

As I made my way back, I bumped into Katsuragi and Yahiko from Class B. I planned to just walk by, but Katsuragi stopped in his tracks and said to Yahiko, "sorry, but you go in ahead. I have a little something to discuss with Ryuuen."

Yahiko immediately nodded and agreed to Katsuragi's orders.

"Ayanokouji is still absent," Katsuragi said.

"Well, aren't you observant. What do you want me to do about it?" I asked sarcastically.

"I just wanted to tell him that I was surprised by his performance at the sports festival. I never realised he was so athletics," he said.

"We're in class A, after all," I said.

"Perhaps. But his abilities are truly extraordinary, even for a class A student."

In the midst of all the chaos, Katsuragi had observed Ayanokouj closely. He was conscientious like that.

"Imagine whatever you like," I told him.

"No matter. I didn't come here to talk about Ayanokouji's abilities, only our arrangement." He said.

Arrangement?

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ah, so he didn't tell you. Ayanokouji did me a favour a while back, so I'm currently doing his bidding within class B," he said.

Ayanokouji, you clever bastard.

"Why are you telling me about this? Shouldn't it be kept between you and Ayanokouji?"

"I don't see Ayanokouji around. Therefore, I've determined that you are the one Ayanokouji would want me to work with, rather than just sitting quietly," he explained.

That's true, I don't think Ayanokouji would appreciate Katsuragi just sitting around.

"Well, that's all I wanted to say. If you ever need me, call upon me. I'll do whatever I can," he said, walking off.

"Yeah, count on it," I said, continuing to the main school building.

What other deals had Ayanokouji made without me realising?

A few days later, our class's atmosphere was heavy. The feeling wasn't disappointment so much as nervousness. Class A's homeroom teacher, Sakagami-sensei, appeared to sense it.

"Take your seats. It seems you prepared quite a bit in advance for this," he remarked.

The moment Sakagami-sensei walked in, everyone went quiet and a bit stiff. The only reason we behaved like this was because of me, and the way I controlled the class.

"My, my. You all look so serious."

"It's because today's the day you announce the midterm results, right?" Ishizaki looked slightly nervous.

Sakagami-sensei grinned in response.

"That's exactly right. The school will expel you immediately if you fail the midterm or final exam. I told you as much before, so I imagine it's fresh in your memory. Even though you rose to class A in record time, due to your excellent participation in special examinations, many of you are still in danger when facing a written exam. If you receive a failing grade, you'll need to prepare for the consequences. So, without further ado, I'll now post the results. Read them carefully."

His warning was genuine. The classroom's surveillance cameras always had their lenses trained on the students, observing everything. If someone acted out after seeing their test scores, the school would undoubtedly respond with draconian measures.

"So, we can see everyone's test scores?"

"Of course. It's allowed by the school's rules."

There was absolutely no privacy, nothing concealed. Just like a company might post up every salesman's profits, our chart exposed the capable and the incapable alike.

The threshold for failing hadn't changed from the previous test, but the situation was a little different.

"A score of forty or higher is considered a passing grade for all subjects. Anyone with a score under forty will face expulsion. These scores also reflect your results from the sports festival. If anyone achieved a score of over one hundred points on this test because of their sports festival results, the school will treat them as having received a perfect score."

Meanwhile, the school would deduct ten points from the midterm scores of the ten students with the lowest sports festival results.

Many students waited with bated breath as Sakagami-sensei slowly posted the scores on the blackboard.

Everyone passed, but everyone looked at the bottom score:

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka: 42 points

Damn. That guy hadn't even seated the midterms, but he managed to get by with just the sports festival points. He really was amazing. If he hadn't performed as well as he had at the sports festival, he would have been expelled.

At any rate, because the test problems had been simple; there were a few perfect scores among those students at the top of the class. Sakagami-sensei gave us a genuine compliment. "As you can see, no one has to drop out of school due to their midterm scores this time. All of you managed to pass. I must say, in the 9 years I've taught at this school, no other class starting at C or D had held on this long without any students dropping out. Well done."

Sakagami-sensei had never shown us this side of his personality until today. Quite a few students seemed hesitant to believe that it was genuine.

"You praising us feels weird." I wouldn't be fooled: although it was good that no one failed, I understood that Sakagami-sensei wasn't the type to end on a positive note. The gentler a teacher acted at this school, the creepier we all felt.

Our teacher pushed his glasses back.

"Next week, in preparation for the second semester's final exam, there will be a short test with problems from eight subjects. I'm sure that some of you have already started studying, but I just wanted to remind you. There will be one hundred questions on the test, making for a total of one hundred possible points. However, the questions will be on a third-year junior high school level. This test is meant to confirm that you remember your fundamentals. Furthermore, much like the mock test you took in the first semester, it won't effect your grades. However—this test's results will have an enormous impact on your next final exam."

Authors notes
1008 words
Pretty much just taken from the ln
Hope you all enjoyed