Partner Written Exam...

That was the first official special exam Ichika-chan took in the original world.

...And the rules of this important exam were as follows:

① First-year students and second-year students form pairs of two.

② Using the OAA, each student may send a pairing request to one student of their choice once per day.

③ If the request is accepted, the pair is formed. If it is rejected, a new request can be sent again at 24:00.

④ Once a pairing has been accepted, it cannot be canceled for any reason. 'Exceptions exist in cases close to criminal acts.'

⑤ Once both members of a pair are confirmed, they can check through the OAA after 8:00 a.m. the next day whether their partner has been confirmed, and from that point on it becomes impossible for third parties to send them requests.

However, the system does not display who the partner actually is.

⑥ If a student fails to form a pair by the day of the exam, a partner will be randomly assigned at 8:00 a.m. on the exam day, and 5% will be deducted from their total score.

⑦ Among first-year students, anyone who fails to form a pair will have their score doubled but then reduced by 5%. 'This is because there are three fewer second-year students than first-year students.'

⑧ As an individual reward, the top 5 pairs receive 100,000 pp and the top 30% of pairs receive 10,000 pp.

⑨ As a class reward, Class Points are awarded as follows:
1st place: 50 cp
2nd place: 30 cp
3rd place: 10 cp
4th place: 0 cp

⑩ As a penalty, if the pair's total score is 500 points or less, the second-year student is expelled. For first-year students, if the pair's total score is 500 points or less, they will not receive Private Point deposits for three months.

Intentionally answering questions incorrectly or coercion by third parties to manipulate scores will result in expulsion.

That's basically how it works~!

"Have you decided which senpai you'll pair up with, Amasawa-san?"

"Well... I do have a senpai in mind, I guess~?"

When my nearby classmate Konishi Tetsuko asked me, I gave a vague answer.

"Konishi-chan is great academically, so it's nice that you found a partner so quickly!"

"N-no! I'm nowhere near as good as you, Amasawa-san!"

This Konishi-chan...

Apparently she's such an excellent student that she already finalized her partner on the very day the explanation was given.

'Well... she's still no match for Ichika-chan (me) though.'

But more importantly...

I bragged like that to Konishi-chan, but what should I actually do about my own exam partner?

Should I play it safe like in the original world and pair up with Sudō-senpai?

Or maybe it would be interesting to try pairing with a different senpai this time~!

'More than anything... what I want the most is to pair up with Kiyotaka-senpai...'

In the original world...

If I remember correctly, he unexpectedly ended up pairing with Hōsen-kun.

Why that sadistic gorilla bastard managed to pair up with Kiyotaka-senpai instead of Ichika-chan is still a complete mystery to me!

"Hey!!! This is bad!!! Apparently Hōsen from Class D barged onto the second-year floor with Nanase-chan!"

As soon as Takahashi-kun returned to the Class A classroom, he announced that to everyone.

"What? That Hōsen-kun?"

"Hōsen-kun... you mean that scary-looking guy?"

"Yeah! I heard he was famous as a delinquent back in middle school!"

"Did he go to pick a fight with the upperclassmen!?"

"What? And he even dragged Nanase-san along!?"

The Class A students immediately became flustered.

Apparently Hōsen-kun's reputation was already infamous in other classes as well, and all sorts of speculation began spreading among the classmates.

"Hehe! Sounds interesting~! Maybe Ichika-chan should go watch the show~!"

"No! Ichika-chan! You might get hurt!!"

Ayumi-chan desperately tried to stop me.

It seemed she was genuinely worried about me.

In the original world I was isolated in class, so something like this would have been impossible for me.

Ichika-chan secretly felt her heart fill with happiness.

But that's a secret!

"It's okay! I'm pretty confident in my physical abilities! Anyway, I'm going to check it out~!"

"Ichika-chan!"

And just like that...

I slipped away from Ayumi-chan's attempt to stop me and headed toward the second-year floor.

* * *

When I arrived at the second-year floor, the situation was already about to turn into a full-blown confrontation.

I hid myself to avoid getting caught up in the mess and observed the scene.

'I don't really know what's going on, but Ryūen-senpai and Hōsen-kun are glaring at each other… The people around them are Ishizaki-senpai, Ibuki-senpai, Sudō-senpai and Horikita-senpai. And also...'

As I looked around—

I happened to spot the person I was looking for.

'There he is!!! That's him!!! There's no mistake!!! It's Kiyotaka-senpai!'

Combining this with the original world, it had been seven years.

And in this world, aside from seeing him through the mirror glass in the observation room, this was our first face-to-face meeting.

At last...

I finally found the person I love the most—Ayanokōji Kiyotaka.