Before we knew it, it was finally the day of the final exam. The class had diligently studied and were confident of securing a win against Class C. It was understandable. Academically speaking, Class C could be seen as weaker than Class D.
For Class D students, there were two ways they could potentially lose. Either Class C studied like crazy or they prepared insanely hard exams for Class D.
I looked around the room and everyone was chatting without worry, except for my neighbor who looked completely defeated. Horikita completely lost the class' support. Apart from that, the class was more united than ever.
"This exam will be a piece of cake!" Shinohara said.
"Yeah! There's no way they'll beat us! Ayanokouji the traitor didn't even listen to our discussions!" Yamauchi agreed.
"Who knew the Masterpiece of the White Room would be this easy to ice out? What a disappointment haha!" Ike mockingly said.
I sensed someone waking up to my seat.
"Ken?"
"Yo, Kiyotaka. I replied to your message but you didn't respond so I thought I would say this to your face."
It was true. I didn't reply to Ken's message.
"Are you really going to score full marks?"
"Yes Ken. You shouldn't worry at all. There's no way you'll be expelled."
"I see. Well, I'm not sure what you're up to. But you'll have to explain all this to me when the time comes!"
"I will. I promise you will understand when the time comes."
"Thanks. I'll get going now, sensei will arrive soon."
I nodded as he rushed back to his seat.
Chabashira-sensei then walked through the door with the exam papers.
"The first half of the final exam will begin now. The required overall score for each pair is 692 points. The first four subjects will be Japanese, English, Social Studies and Economics. I will now hand out the Japanese exam papers."
When she finished handing them out, the bell rang, signaling for the Japanese exam to officially begin.
I took a quick look at the questions. I of course didn't know the Class C questions beforehand. Looking at the questions, I would say they were at the limit of the difficulty allowed by the school.
The first four exams went by smoothly, for me anyway. I was confident of getting full marks. The same couldn't be said about the others.
Soon, the second part of the final exam began.
"The second part will now begin. The four next subjects will be Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. I will now hand the Mathematics exam papers."
The second part was more scientific than the first. I also easily answered Class C's questions. The difficulty was pretty much the same as for the first four.
With that, the Paper Shuffle exam ended. All that was left was to wait for the results.
********
The day of the results came. Unlike on the day of the exam, everyone was nervous about the actual outcome. Even though they thought they all did alright, the questions were more difficult than the ones on the midterms
The moment came, and Chabashira-sensei entered the classroom with two big posters in her hands. She had a serious expression on her face, which didn't reassure the class in the least.
"I will now reveal the Paper Shuffle special exam results," she said as she attached the first poster on the blackboard.
The class was silent as they were reading what was written on the poster.
There was a table with three columns. The first simply named the classes. The second indicated the class' average over the eight subjects. The final one indicated the change in class points.
I looked over the poster.
Class A | 75.9 | +100
Class B | 73.8 | - 100
Class C | 80.7 | + 100
Class D | 65.3 | - 100
Meaning that these will the new class rankings with the updated class points for the month of January.
Class A | 1370 cp (+100 cp)
Class B | 1112 cp (-100 cp)
Class C | 902 cp (+100 cp)
Class D | 80 cp (-100 cp)
The gap between the Class D and the other three classes was starting to get ridiculously big.
"There are the bad news. Class C beat you in terms of average points. As a result, the class lost 100 class points," Chabashira-sensei finally said in disappointment, "Class D now has less than 100 class points, again."
"What?"
"We lost?"
"They got higher scores than Class A and B?"
"There's no way, they're all a bunch of idiots!"
"They cheated!"
"No way!"
"Ayanokouji! I'm sure you lowered your scores on purpose!" Yamauchi screamed.
"Sensei, can you reveal the class' scores?" I asked her, ignoring Yamauchi's comment.
"Don't ignore me you bastard!"
"Yamauchi, shut your useless mouth for once," Chabashira-sensei coldly said as she put the other poster on the blackboard, "Here are the good news, nobody got expelled."
The poster showed a huge table. On the left side was the side showing the individual scores of everyone per subject. The right side showed the total score of each pairing and if they passed.
I looked over the left side of the poster.
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100
...
Sudou Ken | 60 | 62 | 67 | 64 | 63 | 62 | 61 | 69
Ken's scores improved a lot since the beginning of the year, I must say. I then looked over the right side.
Ayanokouji / Sudou | 1 308 | Passed
Looking at the other scores, we had the highest total in the class.
"Ayanokouji... got perfect scores?" Yamauchi said.
"I suggest you not to brainlessly insult your classmates, Yamauchi," Chabashira-sensei, "Ayanokouji getting perfect scores is nothing out of the ordinary."
"How did Class C beat all of us then? Aren't they all idiots?" Shinohara asked.
"Did they cheat?"
"What if they got the questions beforehand?"
"That would explain it! Ayanokouji got perfect scores as a cover up for him giving Class C the exam papers."
The class looked at me before Hirata intervened.
"Guys, come on. We were the ones who excluded him from every single meeting. How could he possibly had sent them the exam papers? I believe Ayanokouji didn't betray us this exam. The truth is we lost and we have to take this defeat on the chin. The best we can do is bounce back and hope for the best in the next special exam."
"Tch."
Some students let out their frustration, visibly annoyed that Hirata came to my rescue.
"Anyways, that is all for what I have to announce. Class will start soon, so I will take my leave. I will leave the posters here, make sure to give them back at the end of the day at the faculty office," Chabashira-sensei said as she left the classroom.
"Horikita," I said to my silent neighbor.
"What?" she was visibly angry.
"Are you free for lunch? There are things I want to talk to you about. It's important."
"It better be worth my time, or else," she said as she grabbed the compass in her pencil case.
"It will be. Don't worry."
********
"What is it?"
Horikita and I were eating lunch at a place with few students. It would be a bother for both of us if Class D students saw us, so we decided to talk at a quiet place.
"What do you think about Kushida?"
"Is this what you want to talk about? I'm leaving," she said as she stood up and got ready to leave.
"Have you considered accepting her true self?"
She stopped in her tracks.
"What do you mean?"
"All this time, you're treating her like she's a danger to the class because of her other self. Did you know that she wants to become friends with you?"
"Friends? Stop joking."
I may or may not have twisted Kushida's words a bit.
"I think that if you two were to have a genuine friendship, Class D can rise to Class A."
"Is that what you think? If so, why did you betray the class?"
"I betrayed the class to prevent Kushida from betraying the class first. The truth is, she never betrayed the class. It was all me, everything."
That was a lie.
"What? Why?"
"You know how she wants to expel you? If she betrayed the class, she would have started her plan to expel you, and she would have no choice but to go all the way. Now, wouldn't that have been problematic for you, her, and the entire Class D?"
"It definitely would. But wait..."
"However, she managed to surpress her desire to expel you. She told me she even helped you with Ryuuen's when you couldn't afford the private points. Meanwhile, all you could do was doubt her. I personally think that's quite shameful."
"Shameful? That's right coming from your mo-"
"This is why if Kushida ever approaches you, or tries to befriend you, I want you to give her a second chance. Stop thinking of Kushida as a threat, Horikita, her social abilities can become one of Class D's strongest weapons. You need allies, and she has the potential to be your most reliable one."
"Wait a minute, I'm still thinking about your betrayal. Are you seriously saying you betrayed the class to help Kushida and I form a genuine relationship? Are you insane? You sacrificed your social life for that?"
"Yes. That is precisely why I don't want you two to disappoint me. My first intention wasn't to drag the class down. However, if you don't even try to get along with Kushida, I won't hesitate to continue doing so."
"I see..."
I initially thought Horikita would argue back, but she looked as if she was thinking hard about my words.
Why did I say all this?
I suppose I simply want to see if it was possible for the two of them to get along.
Can two enemies become allies?
I wanted to answer a question I have long desires an answer for.
Can people change?
To attempt to answer this, I let Kushida betray the class on purpose. I didn't intervene in the Zodiac Exam knowing very well that she will take this opportunity to make a first move. Then, during the class meeting when the results were announced, I let everyone know of the presence of a traitor, without saying their name, leaving Kushida anxious and desperate to know why I hadn't exposed her.
I lured her into having a talk with me. I told her the reason I hadn't exposed her was that I had deleted the video. Considering the circumstances, that was an acceptable and logical reason. I put the blame on myself, saying that I was wrong in trusting her and that I still wanted her to trust me. I told her to frame me as the traitor as proof of my desire to earn her trust, slowly beginning to do so. Indeed, that recording was a measure of precaution, in case things got out of control. By framing myself as the traitor, Kushida could continue betraying the class, and the blame would just fall on me again.
During the Sports Festival, I planned my actions so that Horikita would doubt Kushida, without having any proof. One can say I made her intuition tell her that Kushida betrayed the class. When Ryuuen entered the infirmary, I knew he wanted to make a deal with Horikita. Seeing Kushida in the infirmary at that time was probably the last straw for Horikita, who decided to attempt to expose her even though she had no proof, causing the class to turn their backs on her. Losing her leadership, she was backed into a corner, forced to reflect on her actions.
Regarding the deal between Horikita and Ryuuen, Kushida later told me that Horikita had to give 500,000 private points to Ryuuen. Although Horikita had quite a lot of private points compared to other Class D students, she didn't quite have enough. I transferred around 500,000 private points to Kushida, telling her to give those points to Horikita herself. By doing so, Horikita couldn't help but have second thoughts about Kushida's betrayal, which is why right now, she was probably thinking about asking for the class' forgiveness in order to earn back her leader spot.
Kushida continued to come to my room to talk about her problems, inevitably become dependent on me to help with her inner frustration. She was genuine around me, and told me about her past. As usual, I didn't react at the time, I only listened, which was more than good enough for her.
As for Horikita, I knew she would meet up with Kushida to have a talk eventually, which is why I had told Kushida to act in a specific way. I initially didn't know that their talk would be today but in Kushida sent me a message this morning informing me of the time and location. Unluckily though, I had to bump into Hoshinomiya-sensei. After my talk with her ended, I walked quicker than usual to head to their meeting spot.
After their meeting, I wanted to talk to Kushida. I knew Horikita wouldn't want to talk to me at that moment because I was still the traitor in her eyes and she had just finished talking to Kushida who she thought was a traitor too.
I've come to know a lot about Kushida, what drives her, what she wants. Knowing these aspects of her, I manipulated her into considering giving Horikita a second chance.
Today, I invited Horikita to have lunch with me. I knew that she had no plans. After all, the bond between her and the class was broken. There was no chance she was getting an invitation to each lunch from someone, as that was already the case before. Right now, she had calmed down from her meeting with Kushida, she decided to listen to me, as she thought she could learn of the reasons behind my betrayal.
I knew of that desire, and I used it to my advantage. I lied about what happened behind the scenes of my betrayal, leading her to think that I did it so that she and Kushida can form a genuine bond.
I lead her to think that I would go as far as destroying Class D to force her to try to befriend Kushida, but that wasn't true.
If things don't work out between them, then so be it. I would have an answer to my question.
However, should everything work out, it may open up a new path for me.
I've given them the foundations. Now, it's up to them to take matter into their own hands.
Did I lie to Horikita?
Yes and no.
I told a lie, but that lie was perceived as the truth by Horikita.
The truth is only what you believe to be true. Nobody can convince you of the truth, nobody but yourself.
The truth is what you believe is true.
'I can change.'
A part of me believes that statement is true.
********
Author's Notes
That's the end of Chapter 7! It was a short one but I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!
What does the future hold for Kushida and Horikita and Class D?
Spoiler Alert: Not even Author-san knows.
Anyways, two SS will follow before the start of Chapter 8!
See you then!