Classroom of the Elite: Crimson Usurper (Volume 1)

Chapter 8.2

WE gathered in the library one minute later than we'd agreed.

Everyone had their notebooks open, ready and waiting. The library was a popular study spot, it seemed. First through third years fought to move up in the rankings. I understood it with a glance.

"You're late," Horikita said. 

"Sorry, the crowds were tough."  Ayanokouji explained. "And it's by one minute."

"You two didn't eat lunch together, did you?"

Ike turned to us, his eyes suspicious. Kushida and Ayanokouji had actually eaten together, but perhaps it was better to keep that information private. I was just there since I felt lonely.

"Yes, we did. We ate lunch together," Kushida said.

It would have been better if she'd said nothing. Sure enough, Ike and the others glared at us, their discontent plain to see. 

Ike looked at him as if Ayanokouji was his ancestral enemy.

"You're my rival now, got it punk?"

"Rival?" Ayanokouji's best move for a brilliant was to say that he wasn't interested in Kushida '!!'.

"May the best man win." '!?'

"Wah!? Bring it on!"

He made a blunder and made Ike, his enemy.

"Hurry and sit down," Horikita said without glancing up.

"Okay." Ayanokouji gave in.

"Yes ma'am."

"Kay!" Kushida smiled.

At Horikita's cold command, I sat down and took out my notebook.

"I thought I might need more help on this, but geography is actually pretty easy." Ike commented.

Geography really is easy; it's basically memorizing, with other things.

"Chemistry wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, either." Yamauchi remarked.

Ike and Yamauchi both sounded very pleased.

"Most of the problems boil down to memorization, right? You can't solve many problems in English or mathematics if you don't understand the foundation, though." Ike said his logic.

"Don't let your guard down. I think there might be current events questions on the test, too."

"Current...events?" Ike perked at Horikita's direction.

"Events of the recent past related to politics or the economy. That means that the questions may not be limited by what's written in the textbook." She explained.

"Ugh, isn't that against the rules? That means we have no idea what's going to be on the test, doesn't it?!"

"So that's why you should study everything."

"I suddenly hate geography..."

"Shouldn't we hurry it up?" Ayanokouji asked. 

"Yes. We've been wasting time because some two idiots were late." Hey! What about Kushida!?

"Hey, what did we do? Why are you harping us for tha-"

"Here's a question for everyone. Who came up with inductive reasoning?" Horikita asked.

"Um. It was that guy we learned about in class before, right? That was..." Ike wracked his brain and spun his mechanical pencil.

"Oh, that's it. That one guy. His name made me super hungry."