The cafeteria was filled to the brim with students, it was lunchtime in ANHS and the dedicated feeding area was serving its purpose.
Unlike in the classroom, there was no clear separation of year or class groups in the cafeteria, it was all one mass of teenagers clad in red.
Horikita Suzune, Hirata Yousuke and Karuizawa Kei sat in a moderately isolated corner of the room. Horikita was setting out her home cooked meal, while Hirata and Karuizawa purchased from the school like most of the other students did.
"You seem to be skilled at cooking, Horikita-san." Hirata started the conversation with a light topic, he wasn't a person inclined to silent gatherings.
Horikita looked up from her food on the table, making eye contact with the smiling prince of class D. "I'm fine at it. Are the both of you ready? I called you here for a reason after all."
Hirata smiled sheepishly, slightly in awe of how Horikita completely shut down his attempt at small talk.
"I'm ready to talk, how about you Karuizawa-san?"
"Let's just start, I don't wanna sit here for long."
Karuizawa said this with a passive tone, in contradiction to her usual combative behaviour.
Horikita noticed this abnormality and decided to keep it in mind.
"That's good to hear. I'll be honest, the only person I needed was Hirata but after some consideration I felt like your presence could be helpful as well, Karuizawa-san. In short terms, I'll need both of you to help me."
Horikita asked for help, this surprised Karuizawa and Hirata a bit after hearing of how she really behaved from Ayanokouji.
"Huh? So I'm just a convenient add-on? Whatever, what do you mean help?" Karuizawa made a little show of being annoyed at what Horikita had first said about her, only to discard it soon after.
Horikita began to rethink her decision to invite Karuizawa after witnessing first hand how erratic she could be.
"The class will fall, I'll need your help to salvage it." Horikita said plainly.
At the mention of a fall, Hirata instantly became more alert. He seemed to place higher importance on the conversation now.
Karuizawa was slightly surprised at Horikita's blunt statement but otherwise didn't react too strongly.
"What do you mean 'fall'?" Hirata wasted no time in asking.
Horikita narrowed her eyes on the two, she had planned to reveal her findings on the S-system but a few things bothered her. She decided to take a gamble.
"I don't need to explain much, Ayanokouji-kun must have told you everything."
She believed these two had made contact with Ayanokouji sometime over the weekend. They had made some actions that gave her this idea.
Karuizawa raised an eyebrow after hearing this, not giving much away. Hirata on the other hand immediately looked in Karuizawa's direction, he caught himself too late and tried to cover up the action by looking in the opposite direction as well.
Horikita's suspicions were all but confirmed by this.
This wasn't Horikita's first time in the cafeteria, and Hirata and Karuizawa were common sights whenever she came here.
Karuizawa especially, she was hard to miss with the absolutely extravagant way she used her points. Horikita had never seen her with less than the absolute best the cafeteria had to offer.
Until today.
There was also her and Hirata's unnatural glance at Ayanokouji before they left the class, and Karuizawa's lack of reaction when Horikita mentioned the class falling.
Lately, Horikita Suzune had been making efforts, efforts far removed from who she was as a person.
She looked beyond herself, trying to see what was so important in the people around her that her trivial disregard of them would have such a huge impact on her own abilities.
It didn't make sense to her, you relied on yourself and only yourself.
Horikita yearned to be a person who needed only their own abilities to reach the top. This wish came from her perception of a certain someone who had been a driving force in her life up to this point.
'Why look at other people? What's so important about them? Why should they matter?'
After being verbally battered by Ayanokouji about her self absorption, she asked herself these questions.
And gradually, she began to see what he meant. The former her would have taken the small telling signs of Hirata and Karuizawa to be an insignificant thing they did that she couldn't bother to understand, but she had come to realise.
The glowing prospects that dwelled within other people, the opportunities she could receive if she merely paid a little more attention.
She saw the gold mine that was the daily life of humans.
"You don't have to pretend, I can more or less understand his intentions when he talked to you two."
Hirata deflated, receiving a consoling pat on the back from Karuizawa.
"Anyway, since both of you know of the S-system, you should know that at this point our class can't be saved."
They collectively looked around them, at the senior class D students begrudgingly eating the disgusting free vegetable meal set.
Karuizawa shuddered.
"We're aware, according to Ayanokouji-kun he doesn't have confirmation that the point balance is shared individually or across the class. But I'd like to confront this problem as a class."
With resolve in his voice, Hirata made his stance known.
Horikita too wasn't sure how the points were going to be allocated, and she didn't want to have to carry the whole class on her back.
It was a tragic situation for someone who tried so hard. She knows so much yet the true essence eludes her.
To Horikita, the points didn't have much meaning past its significance in a comfortable life. She had a feeling that it was too elaborate for something like that, but she couldn't figure out why.
"When the new month arrives, our class will most likely receive zero points. From what I've seen from our class, it'll devolve into chaos immediately after they find this out. You two are the ones with the most influence in the class, I'll need you to help the class get into better shape."
"Kushida-san has just as much influence as us, shouldn't she be here as well?" Hirata asked an honest question.
"No." Horikita gave no further explanation, she simply refused with an unnatural amount of force. Karuizawa was a little irked by this, but something else was on her mind.
"Hey, I get all this and stuff…but like, what's the point?"
"What…..?" The sudden question raised red flags in Horikita's head.
It only just occurred to her, what was the point?
Why did she assume that improving their behaviour would increase their points?
Everything until now had been discovered by meticulous analysis of Chabashira's speech and information gathering, when did she start making her own assumptions?
"The points we received are a reflection of our worth…….." Her thoughts were overflowing into her speech.
Hirata too fell deep in thought.
Horikita was slightly amazed at how easy it was to miss things like this, she wondered if her brother would even make the same mistake.
"That was a good question, Karuizawa-san." Horikita said absentmindedly as she was still absorbed in her thoughts.
"Oh uh, it was kinda obvious." Not knowing how to properly handle the unexpected compliment, Karuizawa's persona faltered.
"I thank both of you for your time, there are still some things that are unclear but it doesn't reduce the significance of your role. You can leave if you want now." Feeling like there was no point in thinking in such an active environment, Horikita ended their little meeting.
Karuizawa, who had kept eating throughout the conversation was done with her food and started to get up, only to stop as she saw Hirata was still looking at Horikita.
"Is there a problem?" Horikita couldn't understand why he stayed like that.
"Horikita-san, can I trust you?" Uncharacteristic of Hirata, he asked a question that could cause conflict.
Karuizawa didn't understand the motive or significance of this question but she could tell it meant something to Hirata.
Horikita had a vague idea of what he meant and decided to provide the answer she felt was the most honest to her.
"Frankly, no. I barely know you or our classmates, trusting me would be foolish. But I can say one thing, if our class shares the same collective fate then I will act for myself alone. If the rest of the class benefits from it then so be it."
Hirata wasn't all too bothered by this, he just didn't want his classmates to live uncomfortable lives for three years. This answer from Horikita was enough.
"Huh, you must be really talented if you think you can change the fate of a whole class while acting for yourself alone." Karuizawa said her honest thoughts, but it accidentally struck a sore spot in Horikita.
"Who can say? I'm leaving now." Horikita didn't let her emotions show on her face.
'I'll show both of them, both my brother and Ayanokouji.'
She resolved to crush the views both of them had of her. Both who had unhesitatingly made her aware of her limits, who had shown her how weak she actually was. She intended to change that.
.
.
I made my way across the classroom to where the infamous idiot trio was active. My interactions with this lot were pretty much non existent, especially after their little stunt on pool day.
"Yo." I greeted as I neared them.
The three immediately froze, they seemed confused about why I was bothering to talk to them.
"Uh…aren't you that Ayanokouji dude? The one who beat Hirata in swimming?" It was Sudo who spoke first.
"Who knew someone so bored looking could actually do something?" Yamauchi chipped in.
"Hmm, Ikemen or not Ikemen." Assuming a thinker-like pose, Ike seemed to be thinking of profound things.
"Yeah, that's the one." I responded to Sudo specifically, the rest didn't seem worth talking to for now.
"Yeah, you still lost to me though."
Uh…sure I guess…
"Well, you guys seemed to be having fun so I came here to join in."
Why are they suddenly silent…..?
"HAHAHA! Ayanokouji, you're totally a dork aren't ya?" For some reason, Sudo found me funny.
"Sure, you can hang out with us. Don't go crying to your mom if we're too wild though." He seemed to be proud of his group, impressive….
"Hey Ken, are you sure? This guy's friends with that black haired chick, he might be a snitch." Ike said.
"Uh, I'm not a friend of Horikita's." I made sure to clarify my relationship with the aloof girl.
Ike looked at me with suspicion.
"Kanji, are you stupid? Do you think such a bland guy could be friends with someone like Horikita-san?" Yamauchi said something I consider very insensitive, he was smiling like he just imparted great knowledge into the fool known as Ike.
"Hm, but the girls in the class seemed to like him. But you're probably right!" Despite obviously still having suspicions, the idea of me being friends with a cute girl seemed too outlandish to acknowledge for him.
I could sense a few gazes on us from the few girls who were still in the class, I took a look and saw them looking at the trio with strange expressions that I managed to recognise as "cringing".
Truly a magnificent capability of the human race, I am not aware of another animal that can do this.
The hormone fuelled boys were unsurprisingly oblivious to their plummeting status in the class.
"Ayanokouji, I'll show you the ropes! You've come to us as a dork, you'll emerge as a man." His eyes closed, Yamauchi made a pretty lofty proclamation.
I felt like I had made a mistake in approaching them, but it went well so I'm fine.
With this, I was closer to acquiring a valuable weapon, and even more so to disposing of potential liabilities.
.
.
"Settle down, today will be a little different." Chabashira, who had become more lively in the later part of this month, strode into the classroom. It was Thursday, the last day of the month.
"Sensei! What do you mean?" Ike was the first to ask this question.
"Today you guys will take a test. It-"
Chabashira was promptly interrupted by apprehensive and outraged students.
"Test?! Isn't this too sudden!?"
"I haven't even opened the textbook…"
"Wait, this school has tests?"
"Silence! The test won't reflect on your grades, so there's no need to panic. I'll now pass the questions around. Cheating is prohibited, of course."
Ayanokouji, who had received his copy, began to look over it.
The questions looked easy, easy enough that a highschool first year student should have little trouble answering them.
Then there were the last three.
"Hm, this might cause some trouble for them…" He looked to his side, Horikita seemed to have noticed the difficult questions at the end of the test, but she still had a confident air about her.
Ayanokouji turned away, not wanting to earn her ire again.
'I guess I'll approach this test in the same manner as that swimming competition..'
And so the first years took their first test in the Advanced Nurturing High school.
It was but the first of the hurdles already set in place for the students of class D.
.
.
The only way to describe my feelings at the start of the school year would be boredom.
Of course, it was an elite school that supposedly produced upstanding members of society but that meant little to me.
My father always said I would like it here, and he knew very well that the only things that entertained me were challenges.
There was only meaning in life if you could spend it crushing one strong foe after the other.
He was well aware of this, yet he said that.
My hopes rose when I noticed the abnormality of the school's S-system. It was an intriguing thing that would surely turn the school into a cutthroat environment full of competition.
My hopes rose even more so when I was confronted with a contender for the spot of class A's leader.
Then it all came crashing down.
After seeing who my competition was, I realised something that had been painfully obvious.
An interesting game could be ruined by boring players.
So I settled down, deciding to tackle the matter passively.
There was no reason for me to actively exert myself on something so mundane.
Then my hopes rose again, in the third week of the month.
I received information about two students who had apparently been sniffing around other classes for information.
Horikita Suzune, and more importantly….
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.
It was a funny thing, I always entertained fantasies of meeting him again and having a fair and intense competition with the false genius.
Though I always knew those were fantasies, the chances of meeting him again were so low that they could've been non existent, well as long as I wasn't independent.
But here he was, in this school, in my year.
And by the inevitability of this school's system, a clash was bound to happen.
It was a perfect situation.
If my deductions are correct, then he's starting this game with a handicap.
His pieces were subpar after all.
But if he's even worth half of my evaluation of him, that shouldn't matter.
I, Sakayanagi Arisu, will crush the false genius of the white room.
This was my resolve.
The possibility of me losing existed, it existed but I considered it irrelevant.
Win or lose, only one thing mattered.
If I lost, it means I was wrong and that man's vision actually held substance.
If I won, then it renders everything he did meaningless.
Both were equally entertaining prospects.
And that was what mattered.
So develop your pieces, Masterpiece. As you play with the insects, keep in mind that your true opponent lies in wait.
.
.
Uhh...
Yeah I kinda lost motivation since writing on phone sucks. But one thing pushed me to it.
Some dude added the fic to a reading list called "land of the forgotten" or something similar. That kinda irked me lol.
Like bro, I'm not dead. Welp, tell me how the chapter was, peace.