Sora's POV:
It was two days after I had the tiny clash with Ryuuen San. I already warned him about going back on his word but I didn't expect him to actually do it so soon. I was being stalked on again. And I remember this guy from a lot of times. He used to be the student whose face was the most repeated on my stalker's list. This guy was tall and had long blonde hair with yellow-green eyes. His hair was tied up into a ponytail.
I thought of confronting him so I changed my path and went to the rooftop. Surprisingly, he followed me there too as he was a bit suspicious of me going there all alone. Which was actually the truth. I quickly went up to the top side of the rooftop before he made it to the top floor steps. He came rushing out of the door, surprised. Probably because he wasn't able to see me around anymore.
The spring wind blew across the roof as it messed up with both of our hair. At that moment, he spotted me on top of the roof and our eyes met. I sighed, climbing down from there, and saw him smirking excitedly at me. "Gotta say. You're pretty sneaky, Takahashi Kun~" He somehow knew my name and there was a possibility that he wasn't from class C. "And you are?" I asked him while showing the proof of pictures I had taken of him when he was stalking me before. His eyes widened in surprise. "Geez. You got some crazy skills..." He then remembered that I asked him for his name. "Right. Sorry. I'm Hashimoto Masayoshi from Class A." He finally introduced himself.
"I see. So, you have been stalking me for a week under Yanagi San's orders... I thought you belonged to class C since you both took turns." I explained to which he looked a bit baffled. "Uh... Yanagi San? Oh. It's the princess. And man, you were right on point. I did that on purpose even though I lost track of you many times." He admitted almost all of the things I expected. Why is he confessing everything?
"It's strange actually. Why would you admit to such things?" I asked to which he chuckled a bit. "Princess asked me to confess everything if you found me. She said she didn't mean any ill intentions and just wanted to know about your abilities 'cause she got interested." He tried to explain which pretty much got on my nerves. "I see... Hashimoto San, would you mind passing this message to Yanagi San?" He nodded at me. "I was asked to carry any of your messages as well if you intended to." It seemed like Yanagi San looked through all of this to happen.
"Please ask her to not deal with me like this again. Or I might as well join forces with Ryuuen San to take her down. That is all." I said while turning away from him to walk to the door of the rooftop. "Well... that sounds a bit rude but I guess the princess won't mind if it's you. Alright. I'll deliver your message." I glanced back at him from the side of my eyes and nodded meaning that it was a deal. "Later, Takahashi Kun." He bid me farewell when I left the rooftop and walked down the stairs.
______________________________________
3rd person's POV:
It was the last day of April and a certain white-haired boy was feeling lost in his life crisis. He couldn't sleep until 3 am due to some build-up stress. He sighed calming himself down as the dread in his gut kept increasing. 'It is kinda annoying that I couldn't find who my stalker is for almost a month.' He thought still looking at his points. 90,600. 'If it were to happen in the outside world, I can't even imagine what would have happened by now...'
He felt a sharp pain in his head as he tried to resist the idea. 'If it were true, I might have ended up back there again...' His fingers started trembling as he tried his best to keep himself in control. 'I need to calm down. I can't have an attack now.' He slid his left hand from the desk to his side and squeezed his fist tightly trying to calm down.
Ayanokouji was just done having a small talk with Horikita and turned ahead again. He noticed Sora's left hand trembling slightly as he wondered about the younger's current condition. 'Takahashi seems extra jumpy today. He even flinched when I walked in after him into the empty class.' The white-haired boy sighed after he felt like he calmed down and took some gentle deep breaths.
His deskmate however had noticed him sigh. "Takahashi Kun, are you alright? You look a bit pale." He looked at Matsushita and nodded his head. "I'm just a bit tired, Matsushita San. I'll be fine after I sleep for a while in the lunch break." He explained and turned ahead again as she wasn't really convinced enough but couldn't ask him more because the school bell rang indicating it was time for class.
__________
Sora's POV:
It took me a while to return to my normal state of mind again. It was the third period, Shira Sensei's class. She walked into the class right after the school bell rang which indicated the start of the class. Almost all the students in the class stopped chatting at her arrival. She had a solemn look on her face as she placed her things on the desk.
"Everyone put your books away. We'll be having a surprise test today." She announced as the class went into an uproar. Several students were panicking as it seemed that they didn't study. "That's so unfair Sae Chan-Sensei! You can't suddenly drop a test on us!" Ike San cried out reflecting most of the class' thoughts. "Of course, I can. Since you're all students, you need to be prepared for surprise tests like this." She replied back with a sharp tone shutting Ike San from his outburst. "However, this test will not be reflected in your final grades. So, you can take it lightly. Of course, any kind of cheating is prohibited." She explained while taking out the question papers.
The timing of this test took me by surprise. Especially, when she mentioned that it wasn't connected to our grades. I raised my hand, getting her attention. "What's the matter, Takahashi Kun?" She asked as almost all the students in the class turned their heads towards me since I never really talked in class before. "Sensei, is there any reason for this test if its scores aren't related to our final grades?" I asked her to which she gave me a smug smirk. The attention is killing me...
"There is. This test is only for future reference. To understand your improvement in academic abilities." She explained but her words indirectly meant that this test wasn't actually supposed to be taken lightly. Sensei handed out papers to the first row and they passed the remaining ones back. I took the papers from Hirata San, collected mine, and passed the last one to Kouji San. Don't think of him now...
Once the test started, I looked through the questions. It had a total of 20 questions with 4 per each major subject for a total of 100 marks. What surprised me was the level of the questions. They were quite too easy but I couldn't pinpoint their level because I never went to a middle school. In simple words, the questions were at a lower level than high school's. But to my dismay, I heard groans from most of the students in class who seemed to find this test hard.
While I was taking the test, I came across three higher-level questions. Especially, the last math problem was out of this year's syllabus league. As for me, these questions were no big deal since I spent my entire month studying on the nights when I couldn't get any sleep. And thanks to Horikita Senpai, I covered a lot of the syllabus from the third year too. I quickly wrote down all the answers and glanced around the class.
Even though most of the class seemed to be having trouble, my deskmate however had a serious expression and she didn't hesitate to write down the answers at all. Looks like she studied well enough. I handed my paper to Sensei and she looked at me with surprise. That must be because it had only been 25 minutes since the test started. She quickly took a glance at my answers and nodded her head accepting the paper. I sighed, done with my tiredness, and rested my head on the desk to rest for the remaining time.
______________
I was in a hurry to go back to the dorms. Luckily, my stalker wasn't here today. From last night, I started to feel like it was Kouji San who had been stalking me. There were some good reasons behind it. For example, there were times when he tried to strike up a conversation with me even though he never did that with others, with the exception of Horikita San. He held back during swimming which increased the chance of him hiding his abilities. The way he always stared at me during classes and other times. And lastly, it's taking Lrot San a lot of time to look into his background. Which means, it's hidden too deeply.
Though I knew that there was a possibility that Kouji San was the one I would like to avoid at all costs, I wanted to hope that it wasn't him, just so that I could stay here in peace. Of course, everything in my plan would go downhill if my suspicions were to be true. That said, despite all of this mess, I could start by observing him directly myself. That way, I would know if he was the one that had been observing me instead.
I reached my room and closed the door behind me. I went into my bedroom, dropped my bag on the bed, and took out my laptop. I breathed in before logging in with a tiny little hope but with a strong desire.
Little Spades: Lrot San?
KM: Ah. You're quite early today, Little Spades. How was your day?
Little Spades: I'm serious.
KM: Hey, I was just being nice.
Little Spades: Please. I'm already anxious enough.
KM: *sigh... Calm down first, Sora.
Little Spades: Lrot San! You do know this is important.
KM: That's why I asked you to calm down. Don't worry. And. Relax. First.
Little Spades: ... fine. I'll calm down.
KM: I had to dig deeper because he didn't have any school history. Just like you.
Little Spades: ...
KM: Geez. Sorry. I'll explain properly. There's no need to be wary.
Little Spades: Lrot San-
KM: Okay. I'll be serious.
KM: Ayanokouji Kiyotaka had been homeschooled under the Matsuo household. His parents stated that they were busy and Matsuo was his personal butler. So, the chances of him being related to Takahashi's are zero.
Little Spades: ... phew
KM: That's why I told you to relax. You're all alone over there. We can't have you going into a panic attack.
Little Spades: That...
KM: Please. Take care of yourself, Sora. The team will definitely be disappointed if you were to get sick. They literally ask me how you're doing almost every day.
Little Spades: *sigh... Fine. I'll be careful.
I stared at the screen in front of me trying to figure out how the team knew about this. I stood up from my chair and got myself some cold water from the fridge. I sat back and took some slow sips. I took a glance at the screen while drinking, which almost made me choke. I controlled myself to not let the water fall on my laptop. I stared at the screen, baffled at the new appearance.
KM: Stop using swearing words you dumb idiot! Or just apply a filter!
VX: What? I was just worried about our Little Spades.
KM: Shut up. What if Spades is still here?
VX: There you have it. I deleted our previous conversation.
Little Spades: ... Get out.
KM: Sora, I can explain.
Little Spades: No need. I know he hacked in forcefully.
VX: ... My, my. Little Spades, you're as rude as ever. You know my poor heart can't take it.
Little Spades: We all know that's not true. Just get out. This domain belongs to only the two of us.
KM: VX, you clearly know he hates you because of your methods. So don't resort to such things.
VX: Is that so? Then, let me settle it.
The screen went black and then restarted again. I was forced out of the current domain and it had been linked to another one. VX San just literally hacked my device. To hack his own team members...
CY: Your little domain is yours again, Little Spades. Is it okay to talk here now?
KM: And this is exactly what I told you not to do!
Little Sora: ...
Little Sora: I never permitted you to give me nicknames, VX San. And stop calling me Little Spades.
CY: Ah. Let me introduce my real name too. Cheol-Min Yoon. I'm glad we all know our identities now.
KM: Shut it, you piece of trash. He isn't in the mood!
Little Sora: Just stop.
CY: Oh. Forgive me, Spades. There is a reason I forced my way in.
Little Sora: Meaning?
CY: You don't know. But, Kang-min here had been working a lot to look for your target's parents. And he's just hiding it from you.
KM: Who asked you to interfere, Cheol-Min?!
Little Sora: Um... Lrot San, please. It's fine...
CY: And that's why I have a proposal. Spades, if you can promise me that you'll work as my partner in the future along with Lrot, I can dig out the information for you.
Little Sora: *Sigh. The team would be angry at this. Especially, I don't like it when you use your authority against me, Captain VX.
KM: Actually... The team itself wanted this, Little Spades.
CY: See? It's all up to you, Spades. Strike the deal with me and I'll help you with your life mission.
Little Sora: Fine. I'm off.
KM: Look at what you did, dummy!
CY: I just only wanted him as my partner. There's nothing more to it.
I shut down my laptop and sighed at what I got myself into. I definitely hate him even more now. He literally cornered me indirectly by mentioning Lrot San... Even back during my initial days which was around a year ago, both of them favored me because of my skills and of course, my age. They used to do a lot of back and forth as the other team members enjoyed the scene from behind their screens.
I honestly wondered if those two were really in their mid and late twenties. I got to know that Lrot San was 26 and VX San was 28. As for the others, they were in their early twenties. I didn't really reveal much about myself to them. But because of the emergency, I had to inform Lrot San and he actually offered his help. I kinda trust him a lot because of our bonding by being partners.
I looked at the time and thought of making dinner for myself and eat early since I skipped my afternoon lunch. Tomorrow was going to be the day everything would be revealed. I was sure because it all depended on how we were going to get our points allotted. I went to the kitchen and took out thick noodles since I wanted to cook udon. They might help me calm down and were healthy enough to get rid of this lightheaded feeling.
As for what I've discovered until now, there was this chance that if I do get fewer points, it would mean the merits are shared among the class. And maybe, if I got lucky enough and Sensei mentioned anything regarding the exams or how to score more points, that would confirm the existence of these 'special exams' I've heard from the seniors.
It wasn't their mistake honestly. They weren't just careful enough when they were doing some interclass discussions. Those discussions also led me to confirm that there was a hierarchy system in between the classes which explained the reason behind those popular advertisements of guaranteed jobs or a place in their chosen college.
And lastly, about Kouji San, I would really like to start observing him instead of checking things behind his back. Tomorrow sure looks like a big day to me.
______________________
I was rather in a bit of a down mood. Despite my efforts in the test, I still got less points. I had a total of 102,600. Of course, that concluded my theory of our merits being connected to each other in class. I really hate my deduction ability sometimes. Though I guess them right, I always get disappointed because of their results. Especially, because I'd let it happen to test out my hypothesis.
I waited for Kouji San and Horikita San wanting to know about their points as well, just to be sure. And at the speak of the devil, Horikita San arrived first. She took her seat and placed her bag in its place while looking at me. "Good morning, Takahashi Kun. How many points did you receive today?" I turned my chair a bit as the talk might get longer. "12,000 points. I have a feeling you got the same too since I didn't really break any of the rules."
She nodded at me. "So it seems. I received the same number of points." The classroom door slid open again as Kouji San walked in. At this point, I was sure that he was coming early to observe me. That said, why is he observing me in the first place? I'll need to ask him that directly. He took his seat too as Horikita San was quick to ask the same question. "How many points did you receive, Ayanokouji Kun?" He nodded at me as a greeting first then looked at her. "12,000 points. What about you two?" I shrugged as Horikita San said they were the same.
"So it seems my theory about sharing the merits was correct." I said as Horikita San looked at me curiously and Kouji San just turned towards me with his poker face. "Sharing the merits? You mean among the class?" She asked and I nodded in return. "How many points do you have, Takahashi?" Kouji San suddenly asked me. "102,600 points." I replied nonchalantly as Horikita San looked at Kouji San. "I have around 92,200. What about you, Ayanokouji Kun?" He turned and looked at her. "Around 100,300." He replied with his nonchalant voice making me want to sweatdrop at him. I noticed Horikita San's curious look at me. "I can't say my theories are one hundred percent correct. So, I'd suggest you wait for Sensei to explain it later, Horikita San." I turned away from them after saying that.
___
Soon, the early students came in and started complaining frantically among each other as some of the students were consumed by gloomy feelings. As I couldn't take in the noise anymore, I turned away to listen to music. But unfortunately, I just found out that I left the headphones back in my room. Hirata San came in a bit late today and was immediately surrounded by the girls. The class turned chaotic as many of them didn't save up enough points. Though I felt like I should have warned about saving up points too, it was pretty obvious when Hirata San mentioned that we might receive fewer points.
The class went silent when Shira Sensei walked into the class at the stroke of the bell. She was also holding a poster rolled into a tube which I doubted to be the test results or the point system. "Take your seats, class. Homeroom begins now." Ike San raised his hand breaking the ice. "Um... Sensei, Why were our points reduced?" She looked at him before replying to the class. "All the points for every class in every year have already been given."
Yamauchi San tried to butt in. "But, there seems to be a misunderstanding. Definitely, we didn't receive this low amount of points..." He trailed off when Sensei gave him a cold glare making him shut. "Please understand that there has been no mistake in allocating the points to anyone at all. Though I must say, who knew you defects could save up this many points. I had lost hope when you ignored Hirata Kun's warning about the system." Right after she mentioned Hirata San's name, he raised his hand.
"Um... Sensei, I think we're all confused about this new turn of events. It would help us if you could explain more about the system." He asked with a concerned voice. "Certainly, Hirata. I'll now explain the situation. You were all given the exact number of points that deserve your worth." She explained to which I clicked my tongue in a low tone. I always hated this school measuring our worth like we were some 'things'.
Sensei looked over the class with an expression of disgust and continued. "A total of 86 absences and tardies. 311 incidences of talking or using cell phones in class. In this school, your class performance results are reflected in the number of points you receive. This month you all were evaluated to be worth 12,000 points. That's all there is to it." She explained and started unfolding a chart. Nobody couldn't argue with her as they already understood that they should have taken Hirata San's advice more seriously. They indeed messed it up on their own. But, I also have a part in this since I didn't expect absences to be counted as a bad thing excluding tardies.
As she clipped the chart with magnets on the board, I was able to finalize my theory about class hierarchy.
Class Points:
Class A - 910
Class B - 690
Class C - 490
Class D - 120
I quickly took out my pocket notes and did the math.
120 CP (Class Points)
1000-120 = 880 negative points
Let's make the rough assumption of negative points as 900. 86 absents will roughly be around 300 points and there will be roughly 600 left for 311 mobile issues in negative points.
So, if absences are 3 points each and mobile issues are 2 points each, the sum will work out.
86 x 3 points = 258 points
311 x 2 points = 622 points
Total: 1000-258+622 = 120
(I tried my best to make it look like it makes sense. Cause he likes to write down stuff like this. So, I can't leave it out ^_^')
"Wait. There's something wrong with this chart." Ike started and stared at the board. "Why do the other classes have more points? Just what exactly are these class points?" He asked fumbling with the numbers. "Settle down, Ike. Let me explain." Sensei replied sharply making him flinch. "These are class points. Each class starts with 1000CP and your merits or demerits affect the points depending on various factors. The Private points you'll get are by multiplying your class points by 100. And for this month, you are deemed worthy of 120CP. Thus, you all received 12,000PP." She explained as there were several disappointed groans across the class.
Yamauchi San however didn't know how to reflect on his mistakes. "But, that doesn't explain why the other classes have so many points." He complained making Sensei quite angry. "Pathetic. Such idiots." She mumbled to herself but the whole class was able to hear it. "Don't you still understand? Other classes were graded the same way you were and they were more worthy than you hence they received more CP. The class system here is a hierarchy. And you've all been put into Class D for a simple reason." She paused before slaughtering us with her words.
"You all are defects. Worst of the worst. That is why you are all in class D." The truth hit the class like a storm as everyone went silent at her harsh tone. I simply ignored her words cause I never cared about how others see my worth. And I might even know the reason for me being in class D. Even though I had almost aced the entrance exams, I was sure that I was gonna fail the interview cause I never wanted to communicate with an interrogative tone. And I really wasn't cooperating much with their questions. Not to mention, I have quite an amount of flaws of my own.
She glanced around the class and looked in my direction as we locked our eyes. She gave me a proud smirk before starting to speak again. "But, due to some efforts of certain students, you all seemed to escape from dropping to zero. So, I see your class does have some hope." She changed her words towards us again.
As the class went silent again, Sensei pulled out another chart and clipped it over the previous class point chart. This one was about our results from the surprise test yesterday. If I said I was surprised by the test results, it would be an understatement. They were far more weird than I expected.
I was the only one who scored full marks on the test with a few students like Kouenji San and Yukimura San got tied with 90 points. And Horikita San got the next position with 87 points. So the three of them managed to solve one of the hard problems. Kouji San scored his average score again which I knew wasn't true. And it seemed my deskmate was hiding her abilities as she scored under 60 too. I did observe how confident she was when writing the answers.
"Looking at these scores, I came to understand that there are a lot of idiots in this class." Her heels clacked on the floor as she walked in between the desks. She stopped near my desk and glanced at me before looking around the class. "However, it seems there are some students who are smart enough." Due to her words, most of the class looked at me. I... shouldn't have taken this test seriously just to check my theory.
"But, seriously. What were you guys even studying in Junior High? If it were a real test, 7 of you would have been expelled." Sensei went near the chart and drew a line on top of the student's name who scored 32. As I observed the chart again, except for the top students almost all of them scored below 60. I calculated the average of the class scores and it wasn't really that high. Yet, 7 of the students failed to score above 34 marks which was the average.
"E-expelled?!" Ike San screamed at her frightening words as he scored a weird 25. "We weren't told about that!" Sensei crossed her arms with a smug grin. "Well, you know now. If you get a failing mark on either a midterm or a final exam even in one subject, you have to drop out of the school. On this test, that'd be everyone who got below 34." The class went silent again as the students who failed were dumbfounded.
"What?!" Suddenly, breaking from their trance, Ike San and their group screamed. Shira Sensei just stared at them with a solemn look on her face. "I'm at a loss for words too. It's the school rules. So, prepare for the worst." I glanced at Kouenji San as I got the feeling he was going to interfere. "As the teacher said, there seems to be a lot of idiots in this class." He commented while polishing his nails.
"What's that Kouenji?! Your marks are in the red too!" Sudou San who scored the lowest as 14 growled at him. "Where are your eyes looking at boy? Look carefully." He said with a smug grin. "H-huh? Hey, Kouenji's name is...?" He trailed off when he spotted Kouenji San's name in the second place. I was starting to get a headache from all of this nonsense and just then Sensei came to my rescue. She clapped her hands grabbing everyone's attention.
"One more thing. This school, under the control of the government, boasts a hundred percent guaranteed job or college enrollment. But, that is only applicable to the students who graduate from class A. You see, the human society isn't as fair as it seems. So, if you were to be in class D like now, you wouldn't be able to reach that promise." She started taking off the charts from the board and rolled them back in.
"This is absurd! I never heard about something like this!" Yukimura San suddenly started complaining as he stood up from his seat. Kuoenji San let out a sigh. "How shameful. There's nothing as pitiful as a boy making a commotion and panicking." He directed that sentence towards Yukimura San. "Kouenji Kun, do you not feel any resentment from being in class D?" Yukimura San asked in disbelief.
"That's nonsense. This school has failed to see my potential yet. I value, respect, and regard myself greatly. More than any other person. So, even if the school puts me in class D, that will have no effect on my future as it has already been decided that I'd be the one to lead the Kouenji Conglomerate in the future. It doesn't matter whether I'm in class A or class D." He explained in rather detailed information. Now he sounds more narcissistic. This made Yukimura San sit back down as he had nothing to give as a retort.
Sensei started speaking again. "Everyone, midterm starts after the next two weeks. I hope 'class D' will manage to survive from expulsion." And with those final words, she left the classroom dismissing the students. I needed a break from all this chaos in class today.
A/N: Another long chapter again. And this time... I literally cut out a whole scene cause it crossed 6000words-
And thank you for the 1.3k reads!
I hope you had a good reading!
I should honestly try to refrain from writing too many author notes...
Word Count: 5049