Time passed and the week I’d promised Horikita had flown by, which meant it was time to tutor the underachievers in Class B where Ichinose was.

“Then I’m counting on you today, Horikita, Kushida and Ayanokoji too!”

“We’re the ones who are grateful! If we use this as a chance, everyone can get along better.”

“Thanks to you, everyone will be able to take studying more seriously, thank you.”

“Hehe, we’re the ones who should be grateful, since Ayanokoji, the top student in the whole school, is giving us advice on study methods.”

Class B’s final-exam strategy, led by Ichinose, was the same as ours, holding study sessions focused on low-performing students and having high-achieving students teach them. It's the straightforward approach where, depending on the study members’ motivation, you can definitely avoid failing.

Still, Class B had a pretty unusual atmosphere compared to Class A or Class C.

It felt like everyone got along… Even just looking at how they studied, their close, self-driven unity stood out and they were trying to go together to the end without abandoning students who were struggling.

Normally in groups, priorities split between the capable and the incapable, but Ichinose’s class wasn’t like that, regardless of ability, everyone felt equal, absolutely loyal to Ichinose and ready to offer up everything for her.

“Everyone really follows you, Ichinose, it must be easy to lead.”

“Ah, it’s not something as grand as ‘leading.’ If I had to say, it’s more like being a class representative?”

“Class representative? Does this school even have a position like that?”

“We made it up in Class B. Class president, vice president, secretary and so on. Some of it is for a fun school life and we also have to stop people from getting dragged into incidents.”

It was a different level of control from Class A, Class C and Class D. It wasn’t like Ryūen’s method of forcing unity by crushing people with power and it wasn’t like Sakayanagi’s or my method of psychological control, keeping them under control and moving them around either. Ichinose’s method is, how do I put it... it feels like a real friend?

It’s the kind of leadership where, in a normal school and a normal class, the class president leads everyone forward.

If Ichinose had a meritocracy-oriented mindset like mine and if she were better at handling people’s psychology, she could use these obedient chess pieces to raise Class B’s points enormously and move up to Class A.

“What a waste...”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Just talking to myself.”

Thinking again, it really is a waste. Having such a good environment but not having the ability to go beyond this. If I were in Class B, I would have pretended to be loyal to Ichinose while, behind the scenes, sacrificing quite a few of the Class B guys to finish preparing to climb up to the higher classes.

Anyway, the conclusion is that Ichinose isn’t a threat to me. Compared to Sakayanagi or Ryūen, it’d be pretty easy to bring her down. And aside from Kanzaki, I don’t really see anyone worth particularly watching either.

If there’s one unusual point, it’s probably still ‘that’...

“Alright, that’s enough for the study exchange meeting and now it’s Ayanokoji’s turn to shine!”

Lost in various thoughts, I realized the exchange meeting had already ended and it was time to look over the study methods of Class B’s underachievers. I let out a sigh and had them line up one by one.

But these guys... their study methods are an absolute mess. Starting with the very first one, I wondered if they were really high schoolers.

“I have a question, do you know what an equation is?”

“Huh? Ah, I do... um...”

I wasn’t even asking in a scary way, but seeing them so terrified made me feel wronged. Horikita shot me a fierce look from the side that basically meant loosen up your expression, so I forced my face to relax and started explaining.

“First of all, you’re way too weak at math. If you miss something this basic, you’re done. Focus on fundamentals first and then...”

It was agony to hold back from branding them pathetic underachievers and explain as kindly as possible. And it was face-to-face, one-on-one! When I taught Hiyori, she had a solid academic level so she understood fast and it was actually fun to teach.

When I thought about Horikita having to do this unpleasant stuff almost every day, honestly it served her right. From now on, I should make her do it regularly every exam.

And so I went through tutoring all of the more-than-twenty underachievers in Class B and every last one of them reacted happily, saying it was easy to understand.

Unlike them, I was practically dying from forcing myself to hold my temper back. As I calmed myself by drinking coffee like water, Horikita spoke to me.

“You worked hard, unlike your usual self. Honestly, I expected you to start going on about underachievers and treat Class B like idiots.”

“Yeah, I almost did that a bunch of times, those disgusting underachievers with nothing in their heads. Don’t ever set up something like this again.”

“I didn’t want to ask a personality-trash like you if I could help it, but you were the only one in our class who had anything we could use to make a deal. So if you don’t want to do pointless stuff like this in the future, try raising the level of the others properly or something.”

“That’s why I hate you.”

At some point, because of the study sessions, I was talking with Horikita more often and we were casually throwing around light digs like this without hesitation. Just from how she spoke, she seemed to have softened a lot compared to before. And it looked like more underachievers were starting to approach her too.

“But why are you going this far? Is it really true that it’s all just to show your ability?”

She still didn’t stop being suspicious of me though.

“Are you having another paranoia episode? There’s no leaked exam this time and there’s no one causing an incident. If you have any sense at all, you’d know there’s nothing for me to gain from this.”

“...You never know.”

Tch. I thought she’d improved, but that self-important act of hers, like she has such discerning eyes, hasn’t changed at all. Still, it seems her bare minimum social skills have improved a bit, so should I be satisfied with that much growth?

The moment Horikita left to go check on the others’ studying, Kushida and Ichinose came over.

“You two have gotten pretty close. I’m jealous, she still doesn’t really open up to me.”

“If that looks like being close to you, I recommend visiting an ophthalmology (eye doctor) clinic.”

“Haha, Ayanokoji really does have a nasty sense of humor.”

Hearing Kushida’s usual tone, so completely different from the brutal way she talked on the rooftop before, I almost laughed out of sheer disbelief. And at the same time, it felt impressive. No matter how much a person tries, it’s not easy to hide what they really feel, yet she can act like a totally different person that perfectly.

Because I’m used to reading and handling people’s psychology, I could tell immediately, but an ordinary person would never figure it out.

“By the way, Ichinose, Kushida I get, but how did you end up knowing Horikita? I can’t see any point of contact.”

“Ah, during the midterms, Yamawaki from Class C picked a fight with Horikita while she was studying in the library. Something similar happened to our class too, so I really couldn’t just walk past it.”

Did that happen? I knew Class B got targeted early in the term, but I didn’t know they’d gone after Class D too. Or was it just trying to assert dominance? Could it have been a coincidence?

“I was there too, so I know. Back then, Yamawaki said something like, ‘Except for Ayanokoji, Class D is nothing but irredeemable defective products,’ so Horikita got seriously angry. The one being picked on was Sudō, but Sudō was the one who tried to stop her.”

Heh, well, at the time, thanks to me, Class C already knew in advance about the class points going up and down, so they felt grateful to me and from Horikita’s perspective, since she knew I was a traitor to Class D, it makes sense she’d be furious.

This is perfect timing. Should I start slipping in a little ‘medicine’ to stir up trouble?

“From Horikita’s point of view, of course she was angry. It’s basically the same as the life she thought was ‘the best’ being denied because of me.”

“Still, even if it’s not to Ayanokoji’s level, Horikita’s good at studying and sports, right?”

“Yeah. Isn’t it a good thing to have a rival you can compete with?”

“It’s a different issue. Horikita also has the face of the student council president to consider...”

I casually brought up the student council president.

“Huh? Why is the student council president coming up all of a sudden?”

“Wait, Ichinose, you said you even interviewed for the student council and you didn’t know? Horikita is the little sister of the student council president, Horikita Manabu-senpai.”

At my words, both Ichinose and Kushida looked surprised.

“Seriously?! No wonder I felt like their vibe was similar. I can’t believe they’re siblings!”

“Anyway, that’s why she’s so obsessed with Class A. Her brother is an elite who’s kept and led Class A from the start, but she got assigned to Class D and it’s not even about being a leader, she can’t even manage herself properly yet, so of course it would eat her up inside.”

“I see... I think I understand Horikita’s feelings a bit. When we all learned the truth about Class D, we were shocked, so for Horikita it must’ve been even harder to accept.”

That’s enough. Through my words, Horikita now has the keywords ‘little sister of the capable student council president’ and ‘a girl obsessed with getting into Class A.’ That’s plenty of fuel to put Horikita in a difficult position.

Kushida already looks like she’s drawing up a plan in her head to corner Horikita. With the final exam coming up, there are class points involved so she’ll likely stay quiet for now and if an incident begins, it’ll be after the finals. I’m looking forward to how she’ll choose to cause trouble.

“Anyway, don’t say anything to Horikita. If you mess up her mental state for no reason and it affects the study sessions, that’d be bad.”

“Got it. Friends can’t go around giving each other wounds like that!”

Heh, ‘friends,’ yeah right, when she’s clearly brimming with thoughts of how to make Horikita suffer. Kushida, I don’t know why you hate Horikita that much, but I’ll make good use of that hatred. Play your role well as an obstacle so Horikita can grow even more.

Of course, I have no intention of keeping Kushida alive forever. Since she’s a dangerous woman with a filthy inner self, once I decide I’ve used her enough... I’ll throw her away without hesitation. If she stays, Class D is doomed to collapse someday and that would take me further from the peaceful daily life I want, so removing her is necessary.

The longer you leave trash lying around, the worse it starts to stink.

* * *

After that, time passed quickly. Everyone in Class D attended Horikita’s study sessions and Hirata’s study sessions, studying desperately and if someone struggled, they encouraged them and helped.

That change was possible because we received help from Ichinose’s study sessions. Class D, which used to split up into separate groups, gathered into one place through the shared study sessions and gradually influenced each other. Of course, you can’t deny that the biggest main contributor to this was Horikita.

And today, the day came to see whether everyone’s efforts would bear fruit.

“Alright, no absentees. I’ll hand out the answer sheets now. Just like last time, failing scores mean immediate expulsion. Do your best, then... begin!”

Final exam day. Everyone, driven by the single-minded determination not to be expelled, attacked the exam papers like mad. In that intense tension, I leisurely checked all the answers in under ten minutes, then killed time by pretending to review the paper properly.

This final exam was tougher than the midterms. More accurately, you could say that without basic learning, it was at a level where you couldn’t even begin to touch it.

But during the study period, Horikita thoroughly taught the fundamentals to the lower-ranked students. If they kept up with the pace, it wasn’t something they couldn’t solve. They’d easily clear 50, the perfect cutoff line to escape failing.

When I glanced around, the underachievers who received Horikita’s teaching were all solving problems with happy expressions.

The ones who received Hirata’s teaching still looked like they were struggling quite a bit, but seeing them keep pushing through, it seemed there wouldn’t be any failures either.

* * *

After the first period and into second, third and fourth... there were almost no changes in expressions or behavior.

That same state repeated for several days and it became the final day of the finals.

“Ugh~ it’s finally over!”

“This exam was pretty hard, huh?”

“But the easy ones really were easy, you know?”

“Ughhh, if things went well, even 100 points wasn’t just a dream!”

“Let’s go watch a movie to celebrate!”

With the final bell, the finals ended. I stretched a little, took out my bag and roughly stuffed the spare exam papers inside.

“Looks like you did well. You’re not going to mark them?”

Horikita spoke to me from the side. I gave a casual gesture like I didn’t care.

“Why bother when it’s obvious what I got? If you’re going to mark them, want my paper?”

“It just ended and you’re talking like you’re certain you got 100 in every subject.”

“And what about you? If your exam scores don’t come out well, your value ends right there.”

“Seriously, the way you talk.”

Then, everyone who had joined Horikita’s study sessions came to find her.

“Thank you so much, Horikita! Thanks to you, we escaped failing again!”

“I didn’t raise my scores by a lot, but I got all the basics down! Hehe.”

“Almost everything was on the test from the questions you made! If I knew it’d be like this, I would’ve studied harder.”

“If it wasn’t for Horikita, I don’t know what would’ve happened by now~”

“How did you predict the questions so perfectly? Tell me your secret!”

From the looks of it, all study participants passing was basically guaranteed. Since a lot of time was spent on weak fundamentals, it seems they couldn’t show a massive jump compared to their usual scores, but there was definitely improvement and if they kept doing study sessions next time, you could expect even bigger growth.

Still, the predicted questions came out exactly on the exam. She really was the type who poured all her stats into academics. I can’t not acknowledge that.

“She really is incredible. You didn’t see the paper in advance, so how did you pick questions that well?”

“It’s nothing. If you read the teacher’s tendencies well during class, picking out what will appear on the exam is easy. There’s no need to spend points on upperclassmen like someone.”

So petty, seriously, tch tch.

After that, they said we should throw a little wrap-up party to celebrate escaping failure and I was just about to slip away.

“Ah! Ayanokoji, come with us too! You contributed the most to the study sessions~”

Starting with Sato grabbing me as I tried to leave, everyone started clinging to me.

“Yeah! Because of Ayanokoji, studying was easy!”

“You even bought snacks sometimes too!”

“You really are the best capable student in our class!”

“I want to hang out with Ayanokoji too!”

“Don’t even think about ditching~ Today you’re staying with us until the end!”

Before I could even say anything, they piled on so I couldn’t get away. I wanted to go back to the dorm and sleep like a log, but it can’t be helped. I’m not the type to ruin an excited mood for no reason. When I looked over, Horikita was also in a situation where she couldn’t bow out.

“Looks like neither of us can get out of this.”

“Yeah. For the greater good, we have no choice but to sacrifice the small.”

Once we showed we’d go, everyone got even more excited and the atmosphere rose. Honestly, underachievers’ mood swings are too extreme.

While everyone was heading out, I heard whispering from one group.

“Horikita really is...”

“Right~ she’s kind of, you know?”

From the looks of it, Kushida had finally started stirring things up, the student council president’s little sister and the study members’ noticeable score improvements, even just that is enough material to put Horikita in a difficult spot.

Seeing Kushida smiling brightly like she knew nothing made me smile without meaning to, I was curious what kind of sly nonsense that woman had used to put Horikita down.

By tomorrow, the class will probably split into two factions and conflict will break out, the side that doesn’t trust Horikita and the side that does, then the class unity we finally built will shatter.

Now then, Horikita. I’m looking forward to how you’ll overcome this trial. Show me that will of yours.