Capítulo 17: New Months, New Problems.
Hikigaya's Route to Senior High Is Not Normal, As I Expected
"It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem." – Coretta Scott King
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Hachiman's POV
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The beginning of a new month was always an exciting time for everyone. A new change to the days, and for some students, maybe even mixing up the number sequence as one becomes accustomed to the old number of the old month.
However, for those in ANHS, it was meant to be a supposed exciting time for the meantime. After all, everyone was expecting to receive another hundred thousand points where they could splurge it however they want.
However, for some people, they already knew the pessimistic reality.
When Hachiman woke up, he knew today would be quite the commotion in class.
Reason? No private points were delivered. None whatsoever.
Hachiman already had an idea of what was to come.
To the very benefit for him, he however received 10,000 private points, culminating in a total of 62,750 private points he had gained. Hachiman woke up knowing that this would happen, all the while he assumed the others in his class would be beginning to panic.
When Hachiman woke up, he decided to immediately check his phone. He had been trying to look at his phone more often now, considering the little debacle he had from both Nao and Shiina.
To what he expected, Shiina had messaged him.
Shiina Hiyori: Good morning. How much of the book did you read? I got to the second main part.
Hachiman looked on, pondering on how he should respond.
Hachiman Hikigaya: I read around 30 pages, seems to be a consistent one. It's the first of the month.
Hachiman waited for a bit, about to place his phone down before he noticed text bubbles appear.
Shiina Hiyori: I got around 49,000 private points today, you?
Hachiman was somewhat surprised that Shiina had messaged him relatively quickly after he texted, and before then Shiina messaged another.
Shiina Hiyori: Also, I'm glad you are answering me now.
Hachiman looked on as he nodded to his phone before texting back.
Hachiman Hikigaya: I only got 10,000 private points, from my job, but otherwise, nothing from my class. Therefore, I am assuming we got zero private points.
Shiina Hiyori: Oh wow, are you okay? I can send you some private points if you need.
Hachiman Hikigaya: No need to, this is why I got the job at the library, so that I at least have some private points in case of something like this.
Shiina Hiyori: You planned for this?
Hachiman Hikigaya: Yes
Hachiman quickly plopped his phone down, clearly anticipating what was to come later in the day.
He knew his class would be at an uproar, and through it all, he would have to hear Sae explain it all. Sure, he would finally be confirmed of how close he is to figuring out everything, but in the meantime, Hachiman decided he should prepare himself just in case.
All the while this went on, he went back to see if Shiina was messaging him.
Shiina Hiyori: I see, well I must attend my classes, especially since our representative wants to speak to me.
Hachiman Hikigaya: I see, good luck.
Hachiman placed his phone down, knowing he wouldn't need to do more until the end of class, or during lunch.
In the meantime, Hachiman slowly got his uniform ready. He wore the small martial arts shirt of a white shirt and black stripes, where yellow flowers encompassed the black stripes.
It was something he cared for deeply since it was given to him by Aoki. Once again, someone he held a great deal of respect and care for.
Hachiman in the meantime properly got himself ready for the day, as he slowly made his way towards class.
The very first day of class for May, and Hachiman entered, feeling the atmosphere of the class differ quite considerably in a day.
Instead of it being jovial and exciting, it was filled with solemness and seriousness. Almost as if something had jolted everyone to the reality they lived in.
The fact remained, that they would never enjoy school like their very first month ever again.
Sure enough, everyone's faces were not the same as before.
Only a few select faces in the class remained the same, a few remained flabbergasted, and others looked pale. No doubt the last group were the people who used up all their private points recklessly.
It was a given that Hachiman had been safe and conservative in spending his private points. The only main thing he had done was buy his way to getting a job, something he needed just to remove the rule from.
Therefore, he would confidently say he was doing better than the rest of his class. Not to be the one to boast, but rather to be realistic.
He was theoretically the only one who was gaining private points.
Whether that was something he could boast about, or something he should worry about for the greater good of the class.
All the while this occurred, Hachiman sat down in his seat, clearly waiting for Sae to enter through the door, waiting to hear how she would get on with it.
It seemed that now the lack of private points they were given had brought in many of the students. Even those who had been absent on purpose had now shown up towards the class, clearly their priorities remained strictly on their private points.
For the meantime, Hachiman watched as some students he wasn't even aware were in the class had entered, clearly worried about the lack of private points they were given.
It was somewhat ironic that they were coming now.
In the meantime, he listened to the Idiotic Trio, Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudou. Sudou seemed enraged, Yamauchi looked dumbfounded, and Ike was worried, clearly they had spent all their private points and now had very little.
They didn't want to use the low-quality free stuff and thus their worry on that exploded due to their embarrassment they would face socially and internally.
Yamauchi and Ike even began to ask the ohers in the class if they got their fair share of private points, and even begging and bargaining for private points. Yamauchi had brought a literally Gameboy willing to sell it for a lower than market price.
"Honestly the fact that Haruki out of all people can at least know sensible pricing is surprising." Hachiman thought to himself.
In the end, the idiot trio got nowhere, only escalating an already serious situation into a worry fest, as everyone in the class looked around, not believing that they were not gaining 100,000 private points today.
Some, including Suzune looked to be deep in thought, but the only one who seemed obviously to understand was Kouenji. As much as Hachiman knew he was a stuckup narcissist, he did earn the title of being very smart and capable when he needed to be.
Therefore, he was the most likely within this class to know exactly what was going on.
But, nobody could really guess some bland guy like Hachiman would get it.
"Makes sense, in this world, scum gets nothing." Hachiman told himself as he prepared himself, especially when Sae walked in, her expression stern, holding a large rolled up poster. Her postured today showed that today meant business.
"Hey sensei, did you start menopause or something?" Hachiman internally cringed at the disbelief that Ike would go through with such a joke. It was shocking at how abrupt and confrontational he seemed to be today, all due to his own behaviour catching up to him.
Instead of answering or replying in any hostile manner, Sae merely began the day as if nothing had happened.
"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." Sae ignored Ike's retort and comment, as she knew that by saying that she was opening the groundwork for the uproar to explode into a fully-fledged vocal conversation.
"Well, I'm assuming everyone else here did as well, but I checked my point balance this morning, and I didn't see any deposits. Private points are given on the first day of every month, aren't they? I couldn't buy my high-quality juice this morning." A student named Hondou commented, being the first to vocally express his concern and question.
"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." Sae responded, clearly making the faces of many students pale in worry and confusion, as if they were refusing to believe an alternative that they would have to live with.
Hondou and Yamauchi exchanged worried glances, while Ike was too shocked to look at them.
Hachiman for the meantime mumbled in disbelief. "None of them could see the reality they would have to live with anymore." Hachiman placed a hand right on his head as if he had a headache from this.
"Of course, this is what I expected. The class to not be given any private points. But to see them be this oblivious makes me realize how stupid some of these people are." Hachiman thought to himself, as Sae then grinned, either in anger or delight.
The vibe from Sae was completely unexpected and ominous.
"Are you kids really this stupid?" Sae then asked ominously, causing mostly everyone in the class to turn to face her.
"Dumb? What?!" Hondou repeated her words, as if it would help him decipher what had happened.
Sae looked at him sharply clearly eying the rest of the class. "Sit down, Hondou, I'll explan once more." Sae told one of her students, before her gaze turned to the disinterest of another.
The student who had continuously asked her questions prior and seemed to have gotten the answers. She knew this.
"Actually, maybe one of our students can reveal it themselves, don't you think?" Sae's grin came back once again, as her eyes gazed at the student she was referring to.
The one with dead fisheyes. Hachiman felt the gaze right at him, as he decided to remain silent.
"There's no way Chabashira will throw me under the bus, right?" Hachiman thought to himself, as perhaps he was delving into the same habit of denying reality until it hit in right in the face.
"Oi, who's she talking about?!" The angered Sudou demanded clearly wanting to get to the bottom of it. He was angered and Hachiman knew this would only further prove the dignity of their class as a whole.
A reason why he wanted to stay away from this class and do his own thing.
But alas, he figured that this is something he wouldn't be able to do, if this class had anything to do with it.
It was then until Sae decided to explicitly call Hachiman out.
"Hikigaya, how about you explain what you figured out?" Sae's face said it all.
Especially since the class turned to see who Sae was facing towards, even more about the fact somebody in their class knew of this.
Now, Hachiman was being looked at by most of the class in anger and disbelief. Sudou looked betrayed, Suzune and Kikyou looked conflicted, the usual Kiyotaka had a normal apathetic face.
However, it was Kouenji who seemed to be grinning somewhat, only being dwarfed by Sae's.
Hachiman's eyes glared at Sae. "You threw me under the bus, huh?" Hachiman thought as he got up.
"What's the point of explaining? Whatever I do won't make a difference." Hachiman explained, clearly not wanting to speak on it.
"Oh? So, all those times you came up and asked me questions in my office meant nothing?" Sae responded, almost retorting, before she pointed at the board. "Get over here and explain everything." She gave Hachiman a stern glare which clearly held malice.
Hachiman was so tempted to expose her smoking habits, but he knew that causing more problems now would not be a good idea.
Therefore, the best course of action was to merely approach and follow what Sae expected. Especially since the damage was done. The class was being informed, through Sae that Hachiman knew all along.
No doubt the class would hate him.
"Whatever…" Hachiman mumbled to himself.
Hachiman sighed, eying the class who clearly and likely held a negative light at Hachiman. If anything, this would be his first social disaster, and he wasn't even the one to cause it.
"The number of private points we were given monthly are determined by our merits." Hachiman started, "Simply put, our merit can fall in our performance in work, academics, sports, behaviour outside of school, and more."
"What do you mean by that?" Sudou asked, clearly enraged that Hachiman was keeping such information from them.
Hachiman didn't bother and continued explaining, "The merit and behaviour we hold overall both during and outside class plays a role in the number of private points we will gain monthly. The private points given are our determinant of how well as a class we have behaved."
Sudou looked on, as if realizing, as he suddenly went to grab Hachiman by the shirt. "And you didn't even bother to tell us?!" Despite the clear threat of violence Sudou was clearly trying to use on Hachiman, the fish eyed boy just continued, as if being driven with a fist to the face didn't threaten him.
"Would you have listened? Would any of you even have listened to my warnings?" Hachiman brought the question right back to Sudou and the rest of the class. "Perhaps some of you would have, but the majority would have called me a party pooper or just looked at me like I was trying to run the class or something."
Sudou didn't agree and instead tried to sock Hachiman right in the stomach. Something he anticipated and responded by lifting his legs to block the punch. It hurt less being hit in the legs than the stomach, but with the strength Sudou had, it was still quite a bit.
"That behaviour of yours is exactly a contribution to why we've lost points." Hachiman huffed, being slightly impacted, but not to a point he was in a disadvantaged position. He then motioned his head as if pointing to something. When Sudou turned around, his face paled in realization that there was a camera at the back of the class, watching all over them.
That seemed to be enough to cause Sudou to back away. As his face paled, "This entire time… Of me sleeping and coming to class late… it was all recorded…" Sudou oddly felt violated knowing he was being watched when he didn't realize it.
"But why didn't we get a single point?!" A girl with a blond ponytail exclaimed, one Hachiman recognized was with Yousuke, but was one he didn't bother remember. She then turned to Sae in disbelief, "You said we would get 100,000 private points every month!"
That was when someone else spoke, rather than Hachiman, "I don't remember hearing that thought. Do you? It doesn't matter, my memory is superb compared to yours always being on your phone." The ponytailed girl looked angry as Kouenji made his entrance, still sitting relaxed in his spot, he spoke with ease.
"I get what the fish eyed boy is saying." Kouenji smirked.
Hachiman looked at him slightly tilted, in comedic fashion, "Oi, fish eyed boy? Really?"
"We were never guaranteed 100,000 private points a month, because we're Class D, so that's why we didn't even receive a single point." Kouenji continued, more like booming as he laughed.
Hachiman nodded, "That's correct. Class D is complete scum. That's our merit. Because we are the scum and defect of the school, we don't get private points." Hachiman concluded.
Sae chuckled, "They both are certainly correct. For crying out loud, how barely anyone in this class had noticed the hint I gave you, how deplorable. I guess, like Hikigaya said, you all truly belong in the class of scum."
The classroom, as if not already angered by Hachiman and Kouenji for holding their own without warning the class, now exploded with the reality and statement Sae had given them.
"Chabashira." Yousuke stood up, pretty much taking his role as a de facto leader of the class, "I'm trying to properly wrap my head across what Hikigaya had said regarding our merits. I don't understand completely otherwise why we didn't gain any points."
Kouenji chuckled once again, "Let me tell you, pretty boy. The school measures its sudents' true abilities. We simply, because we are defective and scum, are worth nothing. Our merits as the defects means we were worth nothing."
Sae nodded as she finally spoke, "Yes. 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. "
She then spoke the last part in such a robotic voice devoid of any emotion, "In this school, your class's results are reflected in the points that you receive, which you wasted all in this month. That is what happened."
Sae then looked at Hachiman, "Wouldn't you like to explain everything you figured out."
Hachiman looked at Sae once again. "Does this have to do with how we shuffle classes and the possibility of expulsion?"
Sae smirked as she heard everyone in the class gasp at the sudden revelation after revelation, "Go ahead. Speak to the class about other stuff you figured out."
Hachiman eyed Sae as he sighed, "Simply put, the rules of the school remain the same as elsewhere. You behave according to the rules given or else you will be penalized by losing private points. The school doesn't penalize you with detention as other schools do, but rather it'll limit your capabilities in what you can do here. And just like any school, if your capabilities are below adequacy, you can face expulsion."
"What?!"
Sudou seemed to be angry with this as the others referring to the class who also seemed somewhat scared, seeing that their lives could potentially be gone before they knew it.
Hachiman nodded, "I saw it after realizing many classes in higher years had less than 40 students. This is speculation, but if we cannot leave on our own for three years, and there's fewer as we get higher in our years, then it's highly likely that they are being expelled."
This clearly brought the class to a standstill as they realized the way they were living was not sustainable.
But more of what occurred, was when a girl with blond hair in a ponytail, and purple eyes then looked at Hachiman.
"And yet you hid this and kept it from us? Why didn't you speak to someone like Yousuke? He could have made a difference!" If Hachiman recalled, her name was Kei Karuizawa.
Hachiman eyed her clearly not caring before asking, "I've already told this to Sudou, but would it have made a difference? None of you were capable of changing at that point."
And with that, Hachiman's tone this time turned against the class, immediately bringing the hostility up.
…
It gets more intense next chapter, hehe.
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