"Sensei."
"What is it again, Ayanokouji?"
"I want to ask you something."
"Again, what is it?"
"I'll pay you points to change Ike and Yamauchi's English scores to one below the passing grade."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes. Of course, that's if they already failed in the first place. That's fine, right? I would just be buying them points."
"I suppose so. I don't know what you're doing, but I'll take you up on that offer. You'll need to sign a contract though. If they pass, I won't change their grades and you won't have to transfer any points. If they do fail, I'll change their grades, and you'll have to pay the required amount. I'll let you know that 1 point is worth 100,000 points. Understood?"
"Yeah, sounds good. Thanks, Sensei. Also, I have one more thing to say."
I left the room after ending my conversation with her and after signing the contract.
********
"What? I failed?!" Ike screamed.
"But I thought 32 was the passing grade! This is so unfair!" Yamauchi said.
"Are you guys really that stupid? I even told you hold the passing grade was calculated. Did you really think that the passing grade would miraculously be 32 every time. Of course it's not, you morons. This time, the average score for the English exam was 82, so the passing grade was 41. Both of you are one point from passing."
"Wait... this can't be happening... Am I already going to leave the school?" Ike said.
"No way! I refuse to believe this!" Yamauchi agreed.
"Sensei?" Hirata asked, "Is there no way we can help them?"
"There is, Hirata. But that's for you to figure out. You have until the end of homeroom. If you fail to do so, I'll confirm the results to the school, and their expulsion would be inevitable, understood?"
"Yes, but... I have no idea."
"Sensei, how much does one point cost?" I asked.
Chabashira-sensei smiled.
"As expected of you, Ayanokouji. Indeed, this is currently the only way for you to avoid their expulsion. I said this before, anything can be bought at this school, including test points. I must let you know that one point isn't cheap."
"It doesn't matter! I'll pay for it!" Hirata said.
"One test point cost 100,000 points, you'll need 200,000 to avoid both of their expulsion."
Hirata stood there, silent, speechlesss, hopeless.
"I-I don't have enough..."
"That's so expensive..."
"That's one hundred times the amount I have..."
"Jeez... it's their fault they can't even pass with answer sheets."
Of course, they all spent their points like idiots. Even Hirata who had saved up didn't have anywhere near the 200,000 points required. Even if they were to combine their points, they might not even have 100,000. Even if that were to be the case, most of the students don't want to sacrifice their valuable points.
But the only one who had enough points to save both of them, Horikita, was absent today.
It's exactly just like I planned.
Indeed, if Horikita was here, she could've saved both of them. After all, she had more than enough points after blackmailing those third-years on the first day.
That's why when she wanted to talked to me, I invited her to my room. I poured her some apple juice, the apple juice I had bought on the first day of school at the convenience store. The apple juice I had opened but never drank. The apple juice that went bad after I left it in my fridge for almost two months.
To avoid suspicion, I also poured some apple juice in my own cup, but that was apple juice I had bought the day before.
I intentionally gave Horikita the expired apple juice so that she would be absent today. Drinking juice that has gone bad will give you extreme stomach aches that can last up to five days depending on how bad the juice is. Of course, I wouldn't have done so if I didn't know the date of the results, but Chabashira-sensei told us that it would be today.
If I couldn't give Horikita a cup of apple juice, I wouldn't have been able to go ahead with my plan. I needed to have a talk with Horikita in my room. That's why I intentionally made her arrange the study groups, saying it was because she needed to work on her leadership or what not. After the midterms exams ended, she forced herself to come thank me, and that's when I invited her to my room and gave her the apple juice.
That's why today, nobody could help Ike and Yamauchi in this class. Perhaps Kouenji had enough points, but he obviously couldn't care less. Nobody could help them, nobody but me.
In other words, I was in full control of the situation, just like I had planned.
On the answer sheet I sent Ike and Yamauchi before the midterms, I had imitated Kushida's handwriting. The reason I asked Kushida to copy the answer sheet I initially made was not so that she could get all the credit, which is what I told her, but so that I could see how her handwriting looked like. For those two, as long as they thought Kushida was the one who wrote it, they would brainlessly memorize whatever was on there. Of course, they could never memorize all of the answers even if they wanted to. The proof was that none of their other exam scores surpassed the 50s even though they had the same answer sheets as anyone else.
I intentionally wrote wrong answers for some English questions. I didn't change anything else from the original answer sheet I made. It was best if both of their failures were in a single subject. I chose English because we knew before hand that it would be the last exam, which meant that one was more likely forget the answers they memorized. By making a new answer sheet for the English midterm exam with a few wrong answers in Kushida's handwriting, I was certain that Ike and Yamauchi would foolishly copy the wrong answers onto the exam paper.
In addition, I was sure they wouldn't even blame the answer sheet, since they thought Kushida was the one that made them. They would never blame Kushida.
Now, I already knew that the passing grade for the English exam wouldn't be 32. After all, everyone got extremely high marks, so I assumed the passing grade would be above 40. The English exam contained 20 questions, each of them worth 5 points. Therefore, I wrote wrong answers for 12 of the hardest questions of the exam. I couldn't guarantee that they could get 8 questions right and get exactly 40 points. That's why I told Chabashira-sensei to up their points to one below the passing grade in the worst case. I still don't know the actual scores for both of them as I am yet to pay the points, but I would be surprised if they actually got 40 points.
Of course, I had no idea the passing grade would be exactly 41, that's just a coincidence, but I did guess it would be somewhere around that range, based on the performances of the Ayanokouji Group. Indeed, I had created a mock exam extremely similar to the actual midterms, and I made Airi, Haruka, Ken and Akito take it during the last study session, saying it was preparation for the midterm exams. I took their data and took into consideration the range of academic ability of the students in our class, and I predicted that the average score of the class would be at least 80, knowing that we would also know the answers in advance.
In other words, I intentionally set a maximum amount of points for Ike and Yamauchi's English exams, a maximum of 40 that was not enough to pass. I knew there was no way both of them could get above 40, since they abandoned the study groups on the first day with their selfish behavior. I knew they would desperately rely on the answer sheet I sent them.
Why did I do this?
Who knows?
Perhaps, I just wanted to observe their behavior. I guess you can call it some sort of experiment. Observing human behavior and development is somewhat fascinating.
After all, I had decided before coming here that graduating from Class A wasn't my only objective. I decided that I would use these three years to satisfy my inexplicable curiosity.
Of course, I couldn't say that to the class. Causing chaos in Class D right now wasn't what I wanted. I could probably pass this on as a way to help them realize their own stupidity, some kind of wake-up call, if you will. I'm sure they would understand.
"Does nobody have points they could sacrifice to save Ike and Yamauchi?" Hirata desperately asked.
"No... sorry..."
"I already used up all my points..."
"Same... here..."
As expected, Ike and Yamauchi were helpless.
"Somebody, please!" "Give me a second chance!" they begged.
That's when I stood up and spoke up.
"I can pay..." I said.
The class looked at me. I saw Ike and Yamauchi's eyes shining.
"Ayanokouji! I knew you would come to the rescue!" Yamauchi said.
"Yeah! Looks like we were worried for not-"
"I can pay for only one of you two."
The class was silent. I could see Chabashira-sensei grinning and enjoying the show.
"What do you mean, only one of us?"
"I only have 100,000 points, I can't save both of you. You'll have to decide among yourselves who should be saved."
That was a lie. I had around five million private points.
"What?" Ike said.
"No way! I should be saved!" Yamauchi shouted.
"What! You bastard, you're the dumbest out of the two of us!"
"You're the one that should be expelled, Ike, I'm way better than you anyway!"
Just a few seconds before, they were hopeless, speechless, demoralized. Not only that, they felt somewhat united in their misery. Now, after seeing a glimmer of hope, they let go of each other, selfishly prioritizing one's self-interest. Now, isn't that interesting?
Self-interest generally refers to a focus on the needs or desires of one's self. Someone generous is someone that seemingly isn't motivated by their self-interest. However, all humans are programmed to be motivated by their self-interest and narcissism, and, when having their back against the wall, would want do anything to pursue their personal interest, even if that means letting go of those they hold close.
"Why don't you play Rock Paper Scissors to decide who gets saved?"
"R-rock Paper Scissors?" Ike said.
"I can't decide who to save, I mean, I can't make my mind up. So I thought you could leave it to chance. Any objections?"
Most of the class obviously couldn't say anything. After all, they couldn't save them themselves. Chabashira-sensei also stood silent.
"I- do we have no other choice!?" Yamauchi said.
"Yeah, figure out something else, genius!" Ike cried out.
"Well, I guess I could also save none of you."
"Wait... no... please! I'll play, I'll play!"
"Yeah me too! I'll play, I know I'll beat this bastard anyway."
Pathetic.
"Okay, how about this, first one to two wins gets saved, sounds good?" I asked.
"Y-Yeah..."
"O-Okay... l-let's do... this."
Fascinating behavior.
"R-rock..."
"P-paper..."
"S-scissors..."
"Shoot..."
Ike decided to use rock, and Yamauchi decided to use scissors.
"Ike wins, he has one win, please, continue," I said.
"R-r-rock..."
"P-Paper..."
"S-s-scissors..."
"S-Shoot..."
Yamauchi won the round by beating Ike's paper with scissors.
"Both of you have one win. The winner of this round will be saved. In case of a draw, we'll continue. Best of luck."
The class couldn't say a word. Neither could Chabashira-sensei.
Ike and Yamauchi were trembling.
"R-rock..."
"..."
"...P-paper..."
"..."
"...S-s-s-scissors..."
"..."
"...Sh-shoot..."
Both of them put out their hands while closing their eyes. None of them wanted to see the other's move. However, a winner had been decided.
"I-I-I won... I won! No way! I'm saved!" Ike shouted in joy.
"I-I... lost..." Yamauchi said in despair.
"Sensei, sell me one point to add to Ike's English test score."
Those words, they broke Yamauchi.
"You bastard! Ayanokouji, you bastard! How could you do this! You evil piece of shit! Go back to the White Room you bitch!"
"That's enough, Yamauchi," Chabashira-sensei said, "Come to the teacher's lounge after homeroom ends."
Yamauchi stood up and started running towards me while throwing a punch at me.
"Yamauchi! Stop!"
He couldn't stop.
"What are you doing, Yamauchi?!"
He didn't know what he was doing.
"You have to calm down, Yamauchi!"
He couldn't calm down.
He ran straight towards me at his full speed.
There it is. Desperation.
I easily dodged it, but he continued. He continued throwing punches, but they were slow, almost like he was fighting in slow motion.
Desperation. A state of despair, typically one which results in rash or extreme behavior. Even when completely stuck, humans find a way to convince themselves of an exit. They're able to find a glimpse of hope in their hopelessness.
Rashness, recklessness, wildness. Loosing all common sense, they convince themselves to resort to violence. In the most desperate of cases, they let go of their logic and obey to their instincts. After all, for a long time, humans have always believed in the law of the strongest. It was believed that those who are physically strong, are those who have right to do what they want, and those who are weak, are those would should suffer what they deserve.
But shouldn't that be nonsense? The strongest should never be strong enough to always remain lord and superior. There should always come a time, when someone stronger than you will appear.
However, for me...
I am yet to meet that person.
After a while I finally decided to catch his fists, I pushed him onto the ground and stepped on him.
"It seems like there's a misunderstanding here, Yamauchi," I said to him while staring into his eyes.
"Do you think you can resolve this situation with violence?"
He said no words. No words could come out of his mouth.
"Consider this a warning. You have no one to blame but your idiotic selves. Next time, I won't be saving you," I told both Ike and Yamauchi.
"Next... time?"
I released my foot and let him go. Everyone in the class was comprehensively confused by what I had said.
Thank you, Ike and Yamauchi...
For helping me satisfy my curiosity.
"Sensei, sell me one point to add to Yamauchi's English score."
********
Author's Notes
And boom! That's the end of chapter 3!
Hope you liked it!
Is Kiyotaka a sadist?
Kiyotaka decides to save both of them. He assumes that if he were to not do so, it would cause problems as Horikita knows he has enough points.
On an unrelated note, is Kiyotaka 15 years old or 16 years old when he starts at ANHS?
As usual, a few short stories will follow before chapter 4 begins!
See you then!