Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V8: Chapter 7 - A Wise Man's Fear

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka POV

It was 1:00 A.M., well past lights-out, and I was lying awake in my bed. Everyone else was sleeping soundly. I should have been sleeping in order to prepare for tomorrow. That reason I was still awake lay in the single piece of paper beneath my pillow with the number 25 written on it.

The note's simplicity didn't leave much to the imagination. The memo represented 25:00—in other words, one o'clock in the morning. I didn't have any clue about who had put the note there, but I was awake now so I could find out. If it were just a simple prank or something completely different from what I was imagining, then, well, that would be that. I could just use this time to calm down and think about things.

What lay at the heart of this special exam? The bigger picture was slowly coming into view, bit by bit. Of course, this was all speculation, since we hadn't been told exactly how the test would be scored. But I did know for a fact that there were going to be several things included in this exam.

Zen.

We would be graded on everything from our manners at the start of zazen to the posture we held during it. If we behaved inappropriately or did anything that got us smacked by the zen stick, we'd probably have points docked for it.

Long-Distance Relay Race.

That sounded simple. A test of our speed.

Speech.

Every person in the large group would deliver a speech on four criteria, aforementioned. The grading system for this had already been disclosed.

Written Exam.

I expected this would focus on the subject of ethics. It sounded like it would be a standard essay-based test.

There were other things that concerned me, like "cleaning" and "cooking meals," but I couldn't determine how those would be scored yet. In some cases, things like tardiness or causing trouble might also be included in our assessments.

A lot of students were probably agonizing over how to approach this completely different special exam. A strategy, while vital, could only be devised once you understood something's true nature. The goal of this exam was ostensibly to make us work as a group, support each other, and earn a high average score. Simple, on the face of it.

But though it might sound easy at first, you could tell just from watching the groups be formed that this was going to be an uphill battle. It was extremely difficult for students who were normally hostile toward one another to truly cooperate. Suzune and Hirata, to speak of our own class, or Ichinose and Hiyori, to speak of others, were probably focusing on encouraging such cooperation and as far as I was aware, there had been a semblance of unity in every group. Wielding influence within your group and having leadership skills made all the difference.

Selecting the members of your group was important, of course, but it was nearly impossible to tell right off the bat which students were capable of scoring well in this exam. Although Yukimura's academic prowess was nothing to scoff at, and thus, he could be expected to do well in that regard, he seemed to struggle with even the two five-minute sets of zazen on the first day. Some students couldn't cross their legs at all.

It was still too early to tell whether academic or athletic skill would be a good measure of how students would do from here on out. Rather, it was the most adaptable students who were likely to come out on top.

It was already past 25:00 now, and I had yet to see anything out of the ordinary. If that was the case, should I go back to sleep?

But just then, something happened.