Five days had already flown by since the final-exam study sessions began.

Contrary to everyone’s worries, Horikita was doing her best to run the study group. She took full responsibility for the lower-ranking students, including the Idiot Trio and even if she was a bit strict, she taught the fundamentals properly from start to finish and she didn’t make those dismissive remarks like she used to.

Every morning, she reports to me on how she’s running the study group and the past-exam questions she made herself and you can really feel how much effort she’s putting in. Still, because of this, it feels like she’s gone from ‘an incompetent person who’s only good at studying’ to ‘an incompetent person who’s also good at teaching’, which gives me a weird sense of accomplishment.

That said, when I heard Sudo was getting overly motivated and that something felt off, I stayed silent. I don’t know anything about it. Seriously, who told you to ship Koenji and me together (referring to Horikita’s joke earlier)?

The upper-mid group and Yukimura, who’s in charge of them, are also following Horikita’s instructions pretty well, so there’s visible progress in improving grades. Right now my name value is doing a lot of the work, but as time passes, more people will start trusting Horikita’s own name value.

“Anyway, Horikita’s side is going better than I expected. How’s your side?”

“Everyone’s full of motivation. At this rate, we should be able to get through this exam without any issues.”

It doesn’t really matter to me, but Hirata’s study group doesn’t seem to be having any particular trouble either. Honestly, I didn’t expect much since most of them are incompetent girls desperate for Hirata’s attention, but it looks like they at least feel the crisis of failing.

Hirata’s study group was centered around his girlfriend Karuizawa, several incompetent girls who hang out with her, some girls who dislike Horikita and I, with a few boys who kept faith with Hirata. Of course, the one acting like the boss was Karuizawa and her clique. If the atmosphere is being led by that incompetent bunch, then even if they avoid failing somehow, it’ll be hard to expect any real grade improvement.

For the record, among that clique’s members, only two joined Horikita’s study group: Sato and her friend Matsushita Chiaki. It’s fortunate that even in that mess of a group, there are at least a few who can think about what actually matters.

“Your study group is fine in other ways, but the focus is a complete mess. The tension doesn’t last as long as Horikita’s group. So tell your girlfriend’s clique to focus more on studying.”

“Got it. I’ll talk to them.”

As I’ve gotten more involved with Horikita, Hirata has often come to me both to ask whether Horikita is getting along well with our classmates and to get advice about his own study group. I figured he’d handle it fine on his own, but every time Hirata approached me, Karuizawa would glare at me viciously, so I deliberately played along so she could stew in stress by herself.

But when this keeps repeating, it’s starting to annoy me for no reason.

“By the way, Hirata, could you not talk to me first in class unless you really have to? Your girlfriend’s glaring is starting to get on my nerves. At this rate, I feel like I’m actually going to hit her.”

“Hahaha… sorry. I’ll talk to Karuizawa.”

“Good. Now go start your study session.”

After Hirata left to begin his study session, I also headed to the library to check how Horikita’s study group was going.

I could hear Karuizawa complaining behind me, but that’s not my problem.

“Oh, Aoi, are you going to the library too?”

At that moment, I turned when I heard Hiyori’s clear and pure voice, a voice that could never come from Karuizawa. Hiyori was with a few students who seemed to be from Class C. I’d heard Class C had started a study group centered around Hiyori, so they were probably the members.

“Hiyori, you’re going to the library too? If you go now, won’t there be no seats?”

“Our class decided to study in the classroom. We heard the library keeps the exam key-point summaries and the final-exam past-question templates, so we were going to borrow them.”

“Ah, I know where that is. I’m also on my way to supervise Horikita’s study group for a bit, so let’s go together.”

For a short while, I ended up walking together with Hiyori and the Class C students. When I glanced over them, I could feel a few of them were tense. Well, considering I have a record of beating Ryūen, it’d be stranger if they weren’t wary of me.

“But if you’re just borrowing key-point summaries, do you really need this many people?”

“Ah, Ryūen told us to borrow all the templates in the library so the other classes can’t read them as much as possible.”

“My god, that guy really is awful.”

As expected, Ryūen seemed to be trying to use a strategy to hinder the other classes. But it probably wouldn’t be that effective. Class A, with Sakayanagi, or Class D, with me, could hit back if provoked and Class B, with Ichinose, already proved in the midterm that picking a fight didn’t work. The only thing he can do right now is probably something passive like monopolizing materials that might help with exams, like this.

Still, Ryūen is the kind of guy who relies on cunning methods, so we can’t let our guard down. Even if he stays quiet during the finals, the moment he gets an opportunity later, he’ll definitely cause trouble.

“I’m sorry this ended up affecting you, Aoi.”

“It’s fine. Horikita probably copied them ahead of time.”

Whether it was intentional or not, some of the questions Horikita made for the study group were similar to ones from those past-question templates. Besides that, she also figured out the teachers’ tendencies and made questions that seemed likely to appear and even to me, they looked like high-probability exam questions.

She’s basically spent her whole life studying, so she’s good at catching things like this, huh. If academic-style tests come up again, I should make full use of her.

“More importantly, how’s your studying going? You’re obviously in a teaching role, so you’ll be short on personal study time.”

“Because you check in on us so often, I have plenty of leeway. Kaneda is the one having a harder time than me. Thanks to him, our class average has risen a lot too.”

Hiyori pointed to a student walking beside her, a boy with glasses and straight bangs, named Kaneda. I’d heard he was one of the top scorers along with Hiyori and one of Ryūen’s trusted followers, responsible for Class C’s academics.

“I haven’t done anything worth mentioning. It’s thanks to Shiina-san teaching in a way that’s easy for everyone to understand. I’m always grateful.”

“Hoho, no. I still have a lot I’m lacking.”

Since she’s Hiyori’s friend and also one of Class C’s key people, it wouldn’t hurt to get acquainted.

“So you’re Kaneda Satoru. Nice to meet you, I’m Ayanokoji Aoi. I’ve heard a lot about you from Hiyori.”

“It’s an honor that you know me. Even now, I think your feat of making not only your own scores but also the scores of five other Class D students into perfect 100s in every subject was incredible.”

“Haha, all I did was make them memorize the answer sheet.”

“Even if you know what the correct answers are, memorizing a hundred answers and explanations isn’t easy. I can’t deny your ability, Ayanokoji-san, to make that possible.”

I wondered if he’d dislike my method since he’s the academic type like Horikita, but I was grateful he reacted kindly. Seeing the others nod along, I almost felt like I might’ve adapted better in Class C than in Class D.

Of course, in that case, it would’ve split into factions like Class A is now, my side and Ryūen’s side leading to a power struggle. That might’ve been fun too.

“Anyway, I look forward to working with you. If our classes end up facing each other later, let’s make it interesting.”

“Of course. When we meet, at least say hello. And take good care of Hiyori too.”

It was a short time, but meeting Class C was pretty enjoyable. And seeing Hiyori, who I thought might not have friends besides me, getting along with other classmates made me happy, though it also left me with a faint sense of regret.

In another sense, I was glad Hiyori wasn’t in Class D. Horikita, Karuizawa, Kushida, Koenji… people with issues like that wouldn’t match Hiyori at all.

* * *

Maybe because it was exam season, more than half the study-room seats, which usually aren’t even 10% occupied, were taken by students. Reserving a study room ahead of time by spending points really was the correct move.

“Then we’ll borrow this and head right back.”

“Yeah. Everyone, prepare hard for the exam.”

After helping Hiyori and the Class C group find the past-question materials and parting ways, I went straight into the large study room where Horikita was running her session.

The moment I walked in while everyone’s concentration was peaking, everyone’s eyes naturally shifted toward me and Horikita paused her explanation.

“Of all times, you show up when I’m explaining something important? Go to a café and read a novel like you always do.”

“Then do well enough that I don’t have to worry. Is this all the lower-ranking members?”

They were mostly faces I recognized. Besides the Idiot Trio, Sudo, Ike and Yamauchi there was also Hondo, Okitani and Sato, who had seen my ‘grace’ during the midterm. Everyone else was also weak academically and needed to build basic understanding from the ground up.

And among them was one person who looked obviously out of place.

“But it’s surprising that Kushida is here. I thought she’d go to the upper-mid group.”

“I have to keep an eye on the upper-mid group too. It’d be hard for me to teach everything alone, so Kushida agreed to help with the teaching.”

For the record, this was Kushida’s idea, something I’d already heard. Kushida, who’d been ordered by me to keep an eye on Horikita, told me that by taking on a teaching role with Horikita, she could naturally stand by Horikita, observe her and correct anything wrong.

I allowed it, as long as she didn’t say I ordered her. Horikita had caught on to Kushida’s true nature, so she wasn’t friendly at first, but when the guys led by Ike and Yamauchi got excited and motivated, she apparently went, ‘It’ll be fine,’ and approved it.

Acting like I didn’t care, I opened Horikita’s grade-management chart for the lower-ranking members.

It wasn’t explosive growth, but everyone’s grades were steadily rising. If they worked hard for the remaining three weeks, they might even be able to expect a significant improvement in rankings.

“You’re doing well. But try to move the pace a little faster.”

“That’s hard because everyone understands at different speeds. We still have time, so there’s no need to rush, right?”

“That’s because you can’t teach properly.”

“Ah, then Ayanokoji, can you teach this part? It’s difficult, so everyone’s having trouble understanding and it’s hard for me too, so I don’t really get it.”

The part Kushida pointed to was a comprehension problem about systems of quadratic inequalities. It was roughly at the level of something I’d done when I was about six, so I almost sighed.

Still, considering those incompetents’ level, it could be difficult. But for someone with Kushida’s academics, it should’ve been easy. Judging by it, she definitely asked on purpose to see how I’d teach.