Love born from hatred (Year 2/End)

What It Means To Be Strong

The news of Koenji leaving Class D spread around the school like wildfire. Although most second years were shocked initially they got over that feeling when they remembered the type of person Koenji was.

The news hit the hardest in Class D as the class had yet again lost another classmate and now we're down two classmates despite no one being expelled. Our classmates weren't surprised a lot by his actions but rather some were disappointed as they still had chosen to believe that Koenji might change his mind and help the class reach new heights someday.

"Alright guys I know you all are disappointed by Koenji's actions but we must focus on the problems at hand." I was standing up there in front of the class next to Horikita and Hirata as Horikita had just recently broke the news of all the things that happened within that karaoke room.

"Horikita is right, for now we can't worry about what was or could have been but rather need to worry about what has to be done. Ryuuen wants the throne of Class A while Class A wants to bury our class into the ground, in no given circumstance can we allow either of the two things to happen. We need to increase our strength as a class and we need to do it fast." Hirata spoke up to break up the worries and looks of panic that were currently on our classmates faces.

"But how are we going to do that Hirata? I mean apart from you and Horikita, the rest of us aren't all rounders and some of us don't even have either of the those things, athletics or academics." Kei spoke up and voiced the opinions of the rest of the class. I admit she had a fair point but that's exactly why I was stepping in.

"We also have Ayanokoji to help us this time as he had stated earlier to the other leaders."

"Sure we know he's good but we don't know if he's on the level of the other class leaders though Horikita."

"Don't worry Keisei I'm more than equal to the other leaders but that won't solve our problems. What we need to do is increase all of our strengths and get rid of your weaknesses to level our class as a whole. Without our strength increasing as a whole there won't be much point in competing with the other classes."

"Alright sure but how do we go about doing that? Some people can't just get smarter or more athletic simply by trying to cram it in their brains all of a sudden. We have many different people with many different learning styles, they will need different attention by whoever is teaching them."

"You're right of course and that's why all of us need to drop to level 0."

"What do you mean level 0?"

"What I mean by that is exactly how it sounds. You all need to discard everything which you believe is your strength and start relearning about the way you look at sports or studies. Being strong means constantly discarding your strength and rebuilding it in order to reach new heights. When you discard your strengths you also discard the limits that you have imposed on yourself or ones that have been imposed on you."

"That's insane! You know how long it will take for us to relearn and rebuild our strengths!" There was a slight uprise in the class from the people that had slightly good abilities such as Keisei and Sudo.

"If you truly want to reach the top then remember that whoever climbs the ladder to success must begin at the bottom, there are no shortcuts and no skips when it comes to reaching the top."

The class become quite after I said this. I know that our class has many egotistical personalities and a lot of disproportionate people but one thing they all share in common is that they all are tired of being at the bottom. Everyone in this class is willing to do whatever it takes to start climbing the ladder because we truly are at the bottom of the ladder while the other classes have already begun their climb with Class A reaching almost half way.

"Ayanokoji is correct all of us even those of us who you all believe are all rounders need to discard everything and build anew because right now we truly have nothing to lose. Currently the difference between us and Ryuuen's class is 80 points while the difference between us and Ichinose's class is 150 points and the difference between us and Sakayanagi's class is 220 points. This goes to show that the higher we try climbing the more effort we need to put in and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to take my class to the top so please as your leader I ask you all to lend me your help and cooperation." As she said this Horikita bowed her head in front of the class and I could see the frustration on her face.

When she first came to this school, Horikita Suzune was nothing more than a self centered narrow minded individual but over the course of this past year she has learned to destroy and rebuild herself time and time again. However no matter how many she did that, it still didn't bring her any closer to reaching Class A then at the start of the year. It was because she tried fighting alone all by herself against a class that was simply superior to hers in every way possible. She had forgotten that a cohesive group of 20 is and always will be superior than 5 individuals fighting by themselves.

Now she's once again willing to destroy and rebuild herself but together as a class rather than taking it all alone. She's finally grown into the role of a proper leader.

"I won't let your efforts go to waste this time around Horikita, I promise."

In the two years of us being together in the same class I have come to respect you Horikita and so I'll help you reach your goal out of the respect I have to your sheer hard work.

Hard work beats Talent or Talent beats Hard work? I have come to realize the real answer to this question is evolution beats both. Even if you have talent but you refuse to see past your own strength and don't try to break through your current skill level then eventually there will be someone out there who has evolved their talent to such a degree that you will be left feeling talentless. In contrast to that hard work without evolution is like trying to break a brick wall with nothing but your fists. Sure you try everyday to break that wall but what you don't see is with the help of the proper tool combined with your hard work you will be able to break that wall rather than aimlessly punching with everything you have.

"Horikita please don't bow your head if anything it should be us that bow our heads because we're all really grateful for all yours and Hirata's hard work this past year. Despite us blaming and almost expelling you, you still stood by and fought for this class. I'm sorry I didn't lend you my strength all those times you needed it but I promise I will now because this class is worth fighting for." Well this is a surprise, Matsushita gave this speech in front of the whole class. I had thought that she would always hide her talents and I would have had to force her to cooperate during this time but she stood up on her own and declared her cooperation.

"I suppose I have been underestimating our class a little too much."

"Thank you for your words Matsushita, I'm so glad I can count on your support from now onwards."

"Hey Suzune, count me in too." Sudo spoke up awkwardly from his seat.

"Thank you Sudo."

"So how do we go about rebuilding ourselves and this whole class?" Keisei spoke up again posing a question which was on everyone's mind including Horikita and Hirata I'm sure.

"Leave that to me, I think I have a way to increase our class strength exponentially but it'll take a lot of time."

"Haha but as you said Ayanokoji, there are no short cuts to climbing this ladder."

Part 11 ends here:

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