Kiyotaka Of Class B ( Year 2 )

Vol 2 Chapter 9: The Meeting

Everyone listened intently as Ichinose explained her idea.

"This exam is going to involve all grade levels, which means that a lot of powerful people will participate, way more than what we're used to handling. So I thought about forming a three-person group who are competent in all frontiers to battle as our class's powerhouse." Her eloquent and confident speech shows that she has pondered this issue deeply. "You could look at this exam as a three-way battle between the three grades since we're allowed to team up with other classes within our grade and consequently split the rewards. However, I agree with Kanzaki-kun's suggestion: we should stick to our guns and not allow any outside interference."

Everyone seemed zealous about the idea as they silently approved of it. Ichinose waited briefly for any objections to arise-there were none; everyone was on board.

"Alright, we will commence with the selection process."

Almost instantly, a horde of students raised their hands, wanting to get picked off so they could select who they wanted to team up with. Ichinose set them one by one and judged their groups based on the prior standard, either approving or disapproving. At first, everything was going smoothly, but they soon encountered some expected problems.

"No, Shibata-kun. You cannot team up with Mako-chan."

"Huh? Why?!" The blue-haired soccer boy screamed, almost in dejection, but then he quickly reconciled.

"Honami-chan, why?" Consequently, her purple-haired best friend asked her the same question, being equally shocked and confused.

"I know you two want to team up so badly. But that simply has to wait for now." Both of them raised an eyebrow. "Our priority in this exam is to come out without losing anybody. Our second priority is forming a formidable group that can stand toe-to-toe with our foes."

"So...?" Amikura mumbled.

"So..." Ichinose promptly answered her question with a cordial smile. "I've come up with a list of fourteen students that aren't allowed to form groups until the end; those students I have judged to have the ability to empower their groups with their merit. Thus, we can distribute them accordingly among the groups and shift the balance."

This didn't make sense at first for most students, but it was okay. Ichinose climbed the podium and used her teacher's tablet to draw circles representing her class's groups and the number of students on the electric board-to help them visualize.

"There are forty-three members in our class, so that means we can form, at best, fourteen three-man groups with one person going solo. However, this proves impossible to apply since we must follow strict gender rules, so naturally, the order and number of groups will change." She jotted down the gender limitations that were presented by the distribution rules on the board, alongside the rest of the notes. "There is currently only one full three-man group, and that's fine. So if we exclude fourteen members from the rest, there would be room for exactly thirteen two-man groups. But we know that getting a perfectly suitable distribution is impossible, so we'll have to figure it out through a discussion."

The nature of the exam favored large groups; that much was told to the students. It wasn't specified to which advantage it correlates, so they had to work with a vague idea and endeavor to achieve the best equilibrium.

The students of the same party shared the same fate, whether they triumphed or succumbed; they did it together. Of course, there are expensive ways around this, but it was more than enough to deliver the idea: they were each other's backbone.

"Yeah, Honami-chan, all that is clear, but..." Amikura raised her voice questioningly, and it drew Ichinose's attention. "Who are these 'fourteen elite students' you excluded? And can I presume that Sou-kun is one of them?"