Capítulo 12: Drama at May 1st
On May 1, the morning bell rang for the very first day of class. Soon afterward, Chabashira-sensei strode into the room, holding a rolled-up poster. Her expression today was even more stern than usual.
"Hey, sensei, did you start menopause or something?"
Unbelievably, Ike actually let that joke fly.
"All right, your morning homeroom is about to begin. Before we get started, does anyone have any questions? If so, now is the time to speak." Chabashira-sensei completely ignored Ike's sexual harassment. She appeared totally convinced that the students had questions they wanted to be answered. Immediately, several students raised their hands.
"Um, I checked my point balance this morning, but I didn't see any deposits. Points are given on the first day of every month, aren't they? I couldn't buy juice this morning."
"Hondou, I already explained this before, didn't I? Points are deposited on the first day of the month. I've confirmed that points were wired this month without any issues."
"Um, but…nothing was deposited into my account, though."
Hondou and Yamauchi exchanged glances. Ike appeared too shocked to notice them looking at each other.
"Are you kids really that dumb?"
Was she angry or delighted? She was giving an ominous vibe.
"Dumb? What?"
As Hondou stupidly repeated her words, Chabashira-sensei looked at him sharply.
"Sit down, Hondou. I'll explain once more," she said.
"S-Sae-chan-sensei?"
Hondou, taken aback by her unusually strict tone, slumped in his seat.
"Points were deposited. That much I know for certain. There is absolutely no chance that we forgot about anyone in this class. To think so is ludicrous. Understood?"
"Well, even if I tell you that we understand, we haven't received any points…"
Hondou, still perplexed, began to look dissatisfied. Supposing that what Chabashira-sensei said was true and that points had been wired to us, then that meant…
Had there been a discrepancy, then? Did that mean that zero points had been deposited into our accounts?
"Ha ha ha! I see. So, it's like that then, teacher? I think I've solved the mystery," Kouenji boomed, laughing.
He propped his feet up on his desk and smugly pointed toward Hondou.
"It's simple. We're in Class D, so we didn't receive a single point."
"Huh? What are you talking about? They said that we'd get 100,000
points every month—"
"Haha! Idiots who can't even understand anything. She never said we will get 100,000 points." Izumi spoke and started laughing at everyone.
"Y-You!"
"What in the hell are you Saying?"
"Why are you laughing at others?"
"So the rumors about him being delinquent were true."
The students in the class started speaking while Sae Sensei was shaking her head.
"Izumi, don't create any more problems, and Izumi is exactly right.
For crying out loud, barely anyone seems to have noticed the hint I gave you. How deplorable."
In response to this sudden turn of events, the classroom exploded in an uproar.
"Sae Sensei, May I play the recording?" Izumi asked with a smirk.
Chabashira sensei also smiled and said, "I think it's better if you play it. Then only they will understand."
'How many points do we get every month?'
'Didn't you hear her?' 'We will receive 100,000 points.'
Izumi showed the recording and then everyone remained silent as they remembered him asking the question on the first day.
"Sensei, may I please ask you a question? I'm afraid I still don't
understand." Hirata raised his hand. He appeared to ask on behalf of his classmates rather than out of selfish concern. Just as someone would expect of the de facto class leader. Even now, he took the initiative.
"Can you please tell us why we didn't receive any points? We won't completely understand otherwise."
That was certainly true.
"A total of ninety-eight absences and late arrivals. Three hundred ninety-one incidences of talking or using a cell phone in class. That is quite a few infractions over one month. In this school, your class's results are reflected in the points that you receive. As a result, you wasted all of the 100,000 points that you should have received. That's what happened."
"I should have explained this all to you on the day of the entrance ceremony. This school measures its students' true abilities. This time, you were evaluated as being worth nothing. That's all."
Chabashira-sensei spoke in a robotic fashion, devoid of any emotion.
Koenji and Izumi snickered at others as they had a dumbfounded faces. Both of them looked at each and then laughed. They were having fun seeing the depression and anxiety in the students who didn't think correctly and did whatever they wanted.
Yamauchi stood up and spoke, " Sensei, why isn't Izumi's laptop usage in the class included in the things you talked about? Using a Laptop isn't allowed, Right?"
"Pfff! Haahhaha!" Izumi started laughing when he saw Yamauchi blaming him.
Chabashira Sensei looked at Yamauchi coldly and said, "Student Izumi already had permission from me for using the Laptop in the class and he had to give a test in all subjects and score more than 50%. No sit down and top your childish nonsense."
"Chabashira-sensei. I do not recall hearing you explain that to us before—"
"What? Are you incapable of understanding something unless it's explained in detail?"
"Of course. There was never any talk about reducing our points. Had that been explained beforehand, I'm sure we would have avoided being late or talking during class."
"That is a rather bizarre argument, Hirata. It is certainly true that I don't recall explaining the rules of point distribution. However, didn't you all learn in elementary school not to be late or talk in class? Was that not taught throughout your elementary and junior high schools?"
"Well, that's—"
"I'm sure that in nine years of compulsory education, you learned that being late and talking in class are bad things. And now you say that you can't understand this because I haven't explained it to you? I'm afraid your reasoning is flimsy. If you had simply acted properly, then your points would not have dropped all the way to zero. This comes down to you taking personal responsibility."
There was no way for anyone to refute her perfectly sound argument.
Everyone knew that bad behavior didn't pay.
"Having just entered your first year of high school, did you honestly think you'd receive 100,000 points every month with no strings attached? At a school established by the Japanese government for the express purpose of training gifted people? That's unthinkable. Try using some common sense.
Why would you leave it to chance?"
Although Hirata appeared to be frustrated, he looked the teacher straight in the eye. "Well then, could you at least explain in detail how points are added or deducted? We can keep that in mind for future reference."
"I cannot tell you. We cannot disclose the methods behind our student evaluation. It's the same as any other organization. When you enter a
company, it is the company's choice whether or not to tell you how it evaluates its employees. However, I'm not cruel, and I'm not trying to be cold. In fact, this situation is so pathetic that I will give you one bit of guidance."
For the first time, I saw a faint sliver of a smile on Chabashira- sensei's lips.
"Let's say that you stop being late to class and have no more absences… Even though zero points will be deducted from you this month, that doesn't mean that your points will increase, either. That means next month you will still receive zero points. From another perspective, you could say no matter how times you're late or absent from class, it doesn't matter. So, you're not really at a loss, are you?"
Izumi wanted to raise his hand and ask questions but Chanashira sensei looked at him with a look saying, 'Don't Dare.'
"Tch…" Hirata's expression darkened. Her explanation was so counterproductive that it had the opposite effect; some students seemed incapable of understanding what she meant. The students who thought they could improve their situation by remedying bad behavior had their hopes dashed. That was probably Chabashira-sensei's, or rather, this school's, intention.
The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom.
"It looks like we spent too much time yammering. I hope that you understood the gist of it. Well, it's about time that we switch to our main topic."
From the tube she carried, she removed a white rolled-up poster and spread it out. She stuck the poster to the blackboard with some magnets. The still-confused students stared blankly at the poster.
"Are these…the results for each class?" Horikita tentatively took a guess. She was right. Class A through Class D were listed. To the side was a row of numbers that went up to a maximum of four digits. Class D had zero. Class C had 490. Class B had 650. And at the top was Class A, with a total of 940. In this case, 1000 points would mean 100,000 yen, wouldn't it? Every class had apparently lost points.
"Isn't something about this odd?"
"Yeah. The numbers look too even."
Horikita and I had both noticed something strange.
"You've all been doing whatever you pleased this past month. The school has no intention of preventing you from doing what you want. Your actions, such as being late or talking during class, only affect the points you receive. The same goes for how you use your points. How you choose to spend is entirely up to you. We have not put any restrictions on point usage."
"This isn't fair, though! We can't enjoy our student lives like this!" shouted Ike, who'd stayed quiet until now.
Yamauchi wailed in incredible agony. He'd already used up all of his points but didn't have the guts to still talk like Ike.
"Look here, morons. Every other class got points. The number of points we gave you for the first month should be plenty for you to live on."
"B-but, how do the other classes still have points left? That's weird…" "I've already told you, there's nothing unfair about it. All of the classes
were scored using the same rules. Despite that, they didn't lose as many as you. That's the truth."
"But…why is there such a difference in our point values?" Hirata also seemed to have noticed that the numbers were too tidy.
"Do you finally understand now? Do you see why you were placed in Class D?"
"The reason why we were placed in Class D? Weren't we simply accepted into this school?"
"Huh? But classes are normally divided up like this, right?" Students exchanged glances.
"In this school, students are sorted by their level of excellence. The superior students are sorted into Class A, and the least capable in Class D. It's the same system you'd find in the major cram schools. In other words, Class D is akin to the last bastion for failures. You are the worst of the worst. You're defective. This is just the result of you being defective."
This time Horikita didn't say anything as being with Izumi and Ayanokouji, she had already found many of her defects and she accepts being in Class D at the start but she swore to reach Class A
"However, I have to say, this year's Class D was the first to ever spend
all of their points in a single month. I am impressed by how much you
indulged yourselves. Wonderful, just wonderful."
Chabashira-sensei's false applause echoed throughout the classroom. "So, does that mean that once we reach zero points, we'll always stay
there?"
"Yes. You will remain at zero until you graduate. But don't worry, you can still have a room in the dorms and free meals. You won't die."
Although they knew that it was possible to get by with the bare minimum, a lot of students weren't comforted by that fact. After all, they'd lived a life of luxury this past month. To suddenly restrain yourself after that would prove seriously difficult.
"Won't the other classes make fun of us?"
Sudou kicked the legs of his desk with a loud thwack. After hearing that the classes were divided based on merit, everyone else would probably believe that Class D was full of morons. Despair wasn't unreasonable.
"What? You're still worried about your dignity, Sudou? Well then, work to make your class the best one."
"Huh?"
"Your class's points aren't just linked to the amount of money that you receive each month. They're also indicative of your class rank."
In other words…should we get to 500 points, then Class D would be promoted to Class C. This really did sound like a company performance review.
"Now then, I have one more bit of bad news to share with you all."
She stuck another sheet of paper up on the board. It listed the names of everyone in the class. A number stood next to everyone's name.
"Judging from these, I can see that we've quite a few idiots in this class." As her heels clacked against the floor, she glanced at us. "These are
the results of the short test you took a while ago. Your sensei was so happy after your excellent performance. Come on, what in the world did you all study when you were in junior high?"
With the exception of a few high scores, almost everyone tested below sixty. Even if you ignored Sudou's wonderful score of fourteen points, there was Ike, scoring a little above him at twenty-four points. The average score was sixty-five.
"I'm so glad. If this were an actual test, then seven of you would've had to drop out."
"D-drop out? What do you mean?"
"Oh, what, did I not explain this to you? If you fail on a midterm or final exam in this school, then you have to drop out. If we applied that rule to this test, anyone who scored below thirty-two points would be out. You guys really are stupid, aren't you?"
"Wh-what?!" wailed Ike and the other failures.
There was a red line drawn on the paper, separating the seven people in question from the rest of the class. Among those seven people, someone scored highest, with thirty-one points. Anyone with a score equal to or lower than Kikuchi's had failed.
"Hey, don't jerk us around, Sae-chan-sensei! Don't joke about kicking us out!"
"Frankly, I'm also at a loss," the teacher said. "These are the school rules. You should prepare for the worst."
"The teacher's right. There do seem to be a lot of morons here." Kouenji wore a smug grin while he polished his nails, his legs propped on the desk.
"Indeed Koenji, I wonder how they did even reach the school. Even though this school doesn't only focus on academics, they must have been idiots to fail like this." Izumi spoke while giving out the information and dissing others. But the others only looked at diss and left the information. Izumi shook his head while Koenji laughed when he heard and said, "Yeah! there really are idiots."
"What the hell, Kouenji? You scored below the red line, too!"
"You too Izumi, where is your score?"
"Pah. Where exactly are you looking, boy? Look again."
"Huh? Kouenji is…huh?"
Starting from the bottom of the page, Sudou scanned upward, and there he found Kouenji Rokosuke's name. Unbelievably, Kouenji had tied for the 2nd spot, scoring ninety points with Horikita and Yukimura. That meant he'd been able to solve one of those super difficult problems.
"Izumi You..."
They looked at the top and found two names written. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka and Miyamura Izumi. They both scored 100 marks.
"Heh," Izumi smirked and high five Ayanokouji. While Horikita was frustrated for scoring 90 points and Koenji was also looking with wide eyes.
"Izumi boy, Ayanokouji boy, You two really scored full. It seems there are a few people in the class who can match me. Interesting!"
Izumi shrugged while Ayanokouji still kept a plain expression but there was a slight smile on his face. Chabashira sensei was looking at the four people with hopeful eyes.
'Maybe they can help me in reaching class A. But I won't hope. After all, even though 1 student can prevent others from reaching class A, these 4 won't be able to take care of the class alone.'
"I never thought that Sudou was an idiot like me!" cried Ike, a mixture of wonder and sarcasm in his voice, while others were amazed at 100-pointers
"Oh, one more thing. This school, which operates under government supervision, boasts a high rate of advancement into elite education and workforce placement. That is a well-known fact. It's very likely that most of you have chosen a college or future workplace."
Well, naturally. This school boasted the highest rates of advancement in the whole country. There were rumors that it was possible to get into a highly competitive school or company just by graduating. Rumors even suggested that graduation from this school was like receiving a recommendation from Tokyo University, the most prestigious of Japan's institutes of higher learning.
"However, nothing comes easy in this world. Mediocre people such as yourselves would have to be naive to think that you could easily get into the college or workplace of your choice."
Chabashira-sensei's words carried throughout the room.
"In other words, you're saying that if we want to get into the company or college of our choice, we must, at minimum, surpass Class C?" Hirata asked.
"You're wrong. To make your dreams of a bright future come true, your only option is to overtake Class A. This school guarantees nothing for any other students."
"Th-that's…absurd! We didn't hear anything about that!"
A bespectacled student named Yukimura stood up. He'd tied with Kouenji for the top score, indicating that there were no issues with his academic abilities.
"How disgraceful. There's nothing more pitiful than men losing their cool." As if prompted by Yukimura's words, Kouenji let out a sigh.
"Don't you feel dissatisfied being in Class D, Kouenji?" Yukimura asked.
"Dissatisfied? Why would I feel dissatisfied? I don't understand."
"Because the school says we're so low that we're basically delinquents and failures. We've been told that there's no guarantee whatsoever that we'll advance into higher education or get a job!"
"Pah. Utter nonsense. That's so marvelously stupid that I can't even find the words." Kouenji didn't even stop polishing his nails or turn to face Yukimura as he spoke. "The school simply hasn't seen my potential yet. I pride myself on being great, and I value, respect, and regard myself more highly than anyone. So, the school arbitrarily placing me into Class D means nothing. Say, for instance, that I dropped out of school—I would be perfectly fine. After all, I am 100 percent positive that the school would come crying to take me back."
That certainly sounded like something Kouenji would say. Was it macho? Or narcissism? It's true that if you didn't care about the school's classification of students, then it really wasn't a big deal. If you considered Kouenji's impressive intellect and physical ability, it was difficult to imagine that all of the students in Class A could be better than him. Perhaps he'd been assigned to Class D because of his personality rather than his ability.
"Besides, I don't care in the slightest if the school does or doesn't assist me in higher education or the workforce. It's been decided that I will lead the Kouenji conglomerate group. Whether I'm in Class D or Class A is a trivial matter."
"What about Izumi, Ayanokouji, and you Horikita? Aren't angry for being in class D?"
"It doesn't matter to me. I couldn't care less about any class and I am just like Koenji. Even if I drop out of school, I won't have to do anything for the life." Saying this Izumi looked at Chabashira Sensei and shook his head.
Koenji looked at Izumi and asked, "Miyamura Corporation?"
"Yep! And yours is Koenji Conglomerate."
"Hahaha! Let's enjoy the school life." "Same!"
'Or rather Mom would be happy with me leaving.'
*Hehe! Aren't you glad about it? Is that why you said you won't be in school for 3 years?*
*Yeah, I am glad. But the reason isn't that, I want to go to Shuuchi'in and Totsuki Academy later and see them.*
"I know the reasons why I am in Class D and if you can't accept the school's decision then prove it wrong or just shut up and stop crying," Horkita said with her usual cold expression and said her words without mercy. Chabashira sensei raised her eyebrow when she heard her and then nodded with a smile
"I came to this school to enjoy my life and I don't think being in Class D is bad. I don't know who I would meet in A, B, or C class but I don't think I am unhappy being here. As for A class, if you have potential, you will reach and if you don't have it, then you won't. It's as simple as that. And I don't think you understand the meaning of being in D class."
Ayanokouji said with his usual plain expression but in between, he looked at Izumi and then back to Yukimura.
It was true that for a man whose future was already decided, getting into Class A was far from a necessity. Yukimura, at a loss for words, simply sat back down.
"It looks like your bubbles have been burst. If you had simply understood the harsh reality of the situation from the start, then this long homeroom period might have meant something. Your midterm exams are in three weeks. Please think things over, and be careful not to drop out. I have confidence that you can find a way to avoid getting red marks on your report cards. If at all possible, challenge yourself to act in a way befitting a skilled individual."
Chabashira-sensei exited the room, closing the door with some force for added emphasis. The students marked in red were left dejected. Even the normally proud Sudou clicked his tongue and hung his head in shame.
"If we don't get any more points, what I am gonna do?" "I used up all of my points yesterday…"
During the break, the classroom erupted into an uproar…or rather, chaos.
"Forget about the points. What the hell about this class? Why was I put into Class D?!" Yukimura cried resentfully. A thin layer of sweat covered his forehead.
"Wait, does this mean that we can't get into college now? Why did we even go to this school? Does Sae-chan-sensei hate us or something?"
None of the other students could hide their confusion.
"I understand that you're all confused right now, but everyone needs to calm down." Hirata, sensing the classroom tipping toward crisis, stood and attempted to rein everyone in.
"How are we supposed to calm down? Aren't you frustrated that she called us a bunch of failures?!" Yukimura said.
"Even if I was, isn't it better for us to band together so we can turn things around?" Hirata asked.
"Turn things around? I don't even agree with how we were sorted in the first place!"
"I understand. However, sitting here whining won't help us right now." "What did you say?" Yukimura quickly went to Hirata and forcefully
grasped his collar.
As they were fighting, Horikita stood and went to the center. She stood between them and said, " Calm Down and stop fighting like children." Yukimura backed down and Hirata said thanks to Horkita. Kushida who was looking for a chance sat down and bit her nail.
"Besides, it's only been one month since we started here, right? Like
Hirata-kun said it's better if we all do our best together. Seeing the class, I can't say I am disappointed but I think it would be better to band. I mean you all remove a student from the group just because of a rumor and hah!... Let's talk about this later."
"I'm sorry. I lost my cool," Yukimura said.
"It's all right. I should have chosen my words a little more carefully."
"Attention, everyone. Before class begins, I want you to listen seriously for a moment. Especially you, Sudou-kun." The class was still in an uproar, but Horikita claimed everyone's attention when she stood at the
teacher's podium.
"Tch, what is it?" Sudou grumbled.
"We didn't get any points this month. This is a serious problem and one that will have an enormous impact on our daily lives moving forward. It's impossible for us to make it to graduation with zero points, right?"
"You're absolutely right!" shouted one of the female students, her voice full of despair.
"Of course. Therefore, we must earn points next month. To do that, we all need to cooperate with each other. So, please, take care not to be late to class or to talk during the lecture. Also, the use of cell phones during class is prohibited, of course."
"Huh? And why do you get to tell us what to do? Besides, that's supposing our points will increase. If they don't change at all, then it's useless."
"As long as we continue talking during class and being late, our points won't increase for sure. Although we can't go below zero points, disruption will, without a doubt, count as strikes against us."
"I'm still not convinced. Besides, even if we get serious and work hard in class, our points won't necessarily go up." Sudou snorted and crossed his arms in defiance. Hirata took notice of this and commented on it.
"Well, the teacher did say that being late and talking in class were obviously bad, right?"
"Yeah, I agree with Hirata-san. It's only natural to avoid doing those things."
"That's just your own selfish interpretation. Besides, you don't know how to increase our points. Try talking to me after you figure that out."
"However, Sudou, I know the ways, but the problem is Can you do it? Or will everyone else follow the plan, if you can't even decide on simple things, you won't be able to do anything?
"Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter. Just don't involve me in it.
Understand?" Sudou snapped.
As if being in the room made him feel uncomfortable, he left immediately.
"Sudou-kun really can't read the room. He's the one who was late to class the most. Couldn't we still get some points even without Sudou-kun?"
"Yeah. He really is the worst. Why is he in our class?"
Until now, everyone had been enjoying their lives of luxury to the absolute fullest. No one had previously complained about Sudou.
Seeing this Horikita left the podium. Hirata also sat back as no one was listening to them.
"Why do want me to lead? They aren't even listening to anything. Do you really think they will be able to do anything?" Horikita asked Izumi and Ayanokouji.
Hirata on his seal was also deeply thinking about the problem while Koenji was being Koenji. As for the rest of the class, they had been talking with others and complaining about everything.
Izumi looked at it and he started thinking. Then he thought of Ayanokouji's cold and rational personality and said, " Ayanokouji, can you do something? It looks like they won't take the carrot approach so I want you to think of a method."
"Even if it leads to someone's expulsion," Izumi said with a cold face and it made both Horikita and Ayanokouji silent.
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