On the start of this sweltering June, the 1st Years scores and grades were declassified on the 1st Year's notice board, which was in the hallway of the first floor. Posted was a large spreadsheet publicly showing this information, and on the school app there was a PDF file with the table that you could download.
During the weekend, me, Ritaka and Kasai went to the school facility to check it out for ourselves. I didn't bother going to look at it on Friday, the first day it was released, as too many students were crowding around the board, and I knew how well B Class did. Suffice to say, we didn't beat A Class at all.
It was frustrating that our tactics didn't work against them. Even though we went out of our way to trouble and harass them, they still kept their shit together and did better than any other class. Whatever, it doesn't matter. I got the best scores in B Class, even beating out that Ichinose. I wasn't going to lose just yet.
However, I did want to see how everyone in our year did. More particularly, the top ten, so I know who to target next time. The issue with the PDF was that it was ordered by gojuuon and class, while the board showed it in ranking order, based on grades, which gave students incentive to visit the board if they were competitive. Since the school facilities are open for students to use on the weekend, I went during that time since it would be peacefully quiet.
"Machida, you'll definitely be on the top 10!"
Ritaka was way too excited, skipping along and spinning around in the hallways like an idiot. Kasai followed quietly behind us. While their personalities were extremely different, both were extremely loyal to me.
I could tell Ritaka was loyal, because while he had a major crush on Ichinose, he chose to follow my cause rather than hers. Kasai is a loyal person because he calls me "boss", recognising my leadership, and follows all my orders without question. That's why I brought these two here with me today.
I was sure that other students would also be here to check out the board. Depending on the circumstances, things might turn ugly. I needed back up with me, like these two. I could've brought Koishi, but he spends his weekends doing financial work for his family back in Tokyo.
"No, no, boss will get top 5."
Kasai refuted Ritaka's claim. Well, the fact they were hyping me up this much was to be expected, but I wanted them to be reasonable about their presumption over my placing within the school.
"Don't try to kiss my ass. I hate when people do that."
It was an indirect threat not to do these sorts of things again. I might be a leader, but I hate suck-ups. While they are loyal, they become annoying real fast.
"But that's what I truly believe you'll get, boss."
While Kasai was loyal, being honest wasn't a thing he was good at. He had the ability to stand on his own two feet, but he relies on my confirmation far too often.
"I'm flattered, but you should think logically about this, Kasai. I'm competing against 124 other students. If you do the math, it's a 4% chance to get a score that high I'll be on there."
"Oh, right... well, top 20 then?"
Kasai was still hopeful. I shut him down quickly.
"16% chance."
Ritaka began walking backwards while looking at me weirdly.
"How'd you get those numbers?"
"Figuring out basic percentages in my head. You take the fraction and multiply by 100. 100 as a fraction is 100/1, and to multiply you just go across. Since fractions also mean divide, you can simplify the fraction and get a whole number through division. That'll give the final percentage."
"And without a calculator... scary."
Since Ritaka was more of a languages student rather than a science student, so of course he found it amazing. It was written all over his face.
"If you think that's impressive, go see Koishi when he does mental math. It's like he has a calculator in his brain."
"Still, he lost out to you in maths though..."
While that was true, he was the only other person who came close to beating me in that subject, besides Ichinose.
"And that's exactly why I'm class rep. I'm the person who most close to rivalling A Class."
It was just a fact I was the best B Class student.
"Still though, the results of our Cl was pretty shocking... to think we'd lose class points this month. Where did we go wrong?"
Ritaka annoyingly brought up the results of this month's Cl. To no one's surprise, the current classes had stayed the same, but a few transfers had been made between classes. A Class had annoyingly regained ground and had 1,000 Cl, but overall, there was very little growth.
Unfortunately, B Class had lost 20 Cl. I had a vague idea on how we did, most likely because we were being troublesome and harassing A Class students. Though, I think there's another factor behind it too. I swear I'll figure out how this shitty S System works one day... and I'll definitely crush you and your class, Ryouta!
It seemed that no one else was here at school today, so we got the whole place to ourselves. We eventually arrived at the notice board and was able to see the rankings of each student. While Ritaka and Kasai were trying to find their names, I immediately looked at the top 10.
1) Shimada Kuroshi (A Class)
Japanese: A* 100%
English: A* 100%
Math: A* 100%
Science: A* 100%
History: A* 100%
Vanguard: A* 100%
Huh, Shimada? I thought he was an A Class dropout, but he got perfect scores. Damn, I'll have to tear him down a notch then... he got full marks on everything, what the hell?
2) Ryouta Hane (A Class)
Japanese: A* 99%
English: A* 99%
Math: A* 99%
Science: A* 99%
History: A* 99%
Vanguard: A* 99%
There was A Class's "fearsome" leader, Ryouta Hane. I put most of my effort trying to knock him down, but he still got 99% on everything. I guess I'll have to try something more extreme next time.
3) Senzaki Kasumi (A Class)
Japanese: A* 99%
English: A* 98%
Math: A* 98%
Science: A* 99%
History: A* 99%
Vanguard: A* 99%
4) Shigaisoshi Namie (A Class)
Japanese: A* 97%
English: A* 98%
Math: A* 99%
Science: A* 100%
History: A* 98%
Vanguard: A* 96%
5) Yamamoto Yami (A Class)
Japanese: A* 97%
English: A* 96%
Math: A* 99%
Science: A+ 94%
History: A* 96%
Vanguard: A* 99%
6) Masamoto Manabe
Japanese: A+ 95%
English: A* 98%
Math: A+ 94%
Science: A* 96%
History: A+ 95%
Vanguard: A 93%
7) Yogen Emica (A Class)
Japanese: A* 96%
English: A- 90%
Math: A+ 94%
Science: A 93%
History: A 93%
Vanguard: A+ 94%
...!
8) Nora Takayuki (E Class)
Japanese: A+ 95%
English: A 93%
Math: A+ 95%
Science: A+ 94%
History: A 92%
Vanguard: A 92%
Then, I saw it.
9) Maehara Ryuuji (A Class)
Japanese: A 93%
English: A 93%
Math: A 93%
Science: A 93%
History: A 93%
Vanguard: A 93%
The eighth ranked person in our year was an... E Class student?
10) Anya Rona (A Class)
Japanese: A 93%
English: A- 91%
Math: A 92%
Science: A 92%
History: A 93%
Vanguard: A 93%
Impossible... it was impossible.
Nora Takayuki...? Who the hell was this bastard?!
"Look, boss! You got 17th!"
I ignored Kasai and asked the question burning in my mind to them.
"Who the hell is Nora Takayuki?"
"Nora? He was in the study coalition. Heh, 69th... nice."
Since Ritaka was good with names and faces, he gave an answer quickly. Unfortunately, his ranking in the school was less than stellar. He placed near the middle despite being a B Class student.
"What did he look like?"
"Brunette, glasses, trap. He tutored Sekine. Lucky bastard."
Oh, I remember now... Nora was that weak-willed feminine one... the one that smelled of fear and anxiety.
After school on the day of the "coalition" revision, I crossed paths with him. He got in my way and timidly apologised, running away. Such weakness was disgusting.
"Oh damn, that pansy got eighth? What the hell?"
Ritaka finally noticed the reason why I asked.
"Wait, hang on you guys... he beat the entirety of B Class..."
Kasai was also surprised, but brought up a point I didn't even realise.
"Ha ha... no way..."
Ritaka was also in disbelief.
"Who would've thought Drachma Red scum could beat all the classes and only lose to seven A Class students..."
"So in other words... out of 125 students... he beat 117 of us..."
Impossible...
It's impossible...
It's absolutely, definitely impossible!
E Class are undeserving people that never put effort into anything! So how the fuck did this bitch get such a high score?!
It's even higher than mine, for fuck's sake... and I got the highest in B Class, beating out that damn Ichinose by a literal point in each subject!
There's no way... he must've cheated, he must have! How else did that E Class shit-head get such a high score?!
That piece of garbage... how dare he usurp all of my class!
He's in E Class, so he should stand in line and act like it! He doesn't deserve the right to score so god damn high!
I looked at my results...
Japanese: A
English: B+
Math: B+
Science: A-
History: A
Vanguard: A+
Ugh! This motherfucker can die!
Why couldn't he have scored shit like all the other rejects in this school?!
Why did he have to go ahead and get a good score?!
Is he mocking us, getting such a high score while being in E Class...?
If so, then he's invoking the wrong person's wrath...
Don't fuck with me... what's the purpose of doing this? Didn't he learn from the school that trash should act like trash?
No... of course he didn't. I get it. E Class students are too stupid to understand that.
It's up to us in B Class to remind him everyday where he stands in this caste system...
I don't give a fuck if he's irrelevant to my cause anymore... because he scored higher than me, I'm going to thoroughly break his spirit.
I'll make him learn his fucking place... and force him to start acting like the E Class scum he is.
I hate him! Nora Takayuki, I fucking hate him!
He should've never stepped out of line! Because of him, I have to clean up after his mess!
Just wait for the finals... I'm going to defeat him once and for all.
"I won't let him get away with beating my class like this... I won't let him get away with embarrassing my class like this... I swear to god I'll make him regret this."
I looked at Ritaka and Kasai, who had became silent.
"Oi, you two. We have a job to do."
I walked away from the notice board and headed over to E Class's poor excuse for a classroom. They followed me over there.
"Oh, I get why you got me to bring my spray paint now."
Ritaka had brought a few cans with him to our journey. I had originally wanted to do this to A Class, but first I needed to warn E Class about getting in B Class's way again.
He took the spray paint out of his bag and sprayed it on the CCTV camera outside E Class in the hallway. The black paint would block the camera from recording us.
I tried to open the door, but it was locked, surprisingly. I stepped away and kicked the door repeatedly, making it rattle and shake. The lock was a cheap one anyways, it wouldn't hold on for very long.
I kept kicking at the door, until finally the lock began to shatter. I stepped away.
"Kasai, finish the job for me."
"Sure thing, boss."
Kasai rammed his body into the class, using the force of the impact to snap the lock cleanly and break open the door. He staggered back, and I finished the job by punching down the door off it's hinge. It fell across a chabudai, landing on it, and breaking it.
"They don't even have desks in this place... pathetic."
I muttered, looking around at the derelict state of their class. The fact their equipment broke with little force was indicative of how bad the quality was.
"It smells like roadkill in here..."
Ritaka didn't hesitate and enter. He scouted out the CCTV camera and also blacked it out with the spray paint. I followed him, walking up to their teaching podium.
"Why did you break into E Class anyways?"
Kasai, who was still unaware of what I wanted them to do, asked me that.
"It's simple really. Trash the class. If you find that bitch Nora's desk, tell me. I'll personally crush it to pieces."
With that simple order, I kicked the podium down, crashing it into a chabudai and destroying it.
"Hell yeah, gladly!"
"You got it, boss."
Ritaka went around the class, flipping over chabudai. Once he did, he'd drag the fallen teacher's podium over and use it as a weapon to smash the chabudai to smithereens. Kasai was more creative with his vandalism, using his pocket knife to cut up the dingy and dirty curtains.
Grabbing the zabuton, Kasai also used his knife to slash them apart, letting the stuffing fall out and scatter on the floor messily. Then, Ritaka had the bright idea to crack open the windows and throw away whole zabutons out of them, forcing the pillows through since they didn't fit very well.
"Oi, Kasai, help me lug the door over. I wanna smash the window with it!"
Kasai put away his pocket knife and helped Ritaka carry the broken door over. Together, they rammed it into the window, shattering the glass and lodging the door in it's place diagonally.
"Ha ha ha! Imagine their faces when they see this happen to their class!"
Ritaka laughed, continuing to flip chabudai over. He started to also jump up and down on them to break them in half.
"I'd wake up early just to see their reactions, holy hell."
Kasai took out a permanent marker from Ritaka's bag and began writing insults on the remains of their chabudai.
As I watched them wreak havoc, Ritaka made his way to the back of the class and excitedly called me over.
"Yo, Machida, I found it, I found it! Nora's seat is here!"
He was standing by a chabudai that had remained intact amongst the chaos and fury. I walked over, taking my hands out of my pockets. Indeed, it was his seat, as his nameplate was engraved on the table.
"Ah... there's so much cruel shit we could do his seat. We could absolutely destroy his chabudai... write as many insults as we want on it... throw his zabuton out of the window..."
"Go wild, man. Give him hell for scoring higher than you!"
I grabbed the bag Ritaka took with him and scoured through it. I took out a plastic bag that had a rotting fish corpse and a back-up pocket knife. I tore open his zabuton with the knife and emptied out the stuffing.
Taking the corpse out of the bag, which stunk like hell, I shoved it into the pillow casing with it's bloody head sticking out. I chucked it to the floor and stomped on it, making disgusting fish guts and blood squirt onto tatami mats, staining it.
I then picked up his chabudai and threw it to the ground. It didn't break on impact annoyingly, but a table leg snapped off. I picked it up and slammed it to the ground again. To finish the job, I jumped on it, snapping it into pieces like Ritaka did earlier.
I grabbed a broken quarter and chucked it out of the window. On the remaining pieces of the table, I used the blood from the corpse to paint clear messages to him.
"Die"/"Cancer"/"Don't score high again"/"I'll fucking kill you"/"Trash trap"
And on the window adjacent to his seat, I grabbed a black permanent marker and wrote even more insults that pointed to him.
"Drop out"/"Homo meat toilet"/"Kill yourself"/"Worst E Class scum"/"Retarded shit"
Just in case he was stupid, I also carved on the wall with the pocket knife to give him a constant reminder of who he is.
"This is your fault, you fucking stupid E Class piece of shit. Go kill yourself and die you waste of space. Nobody likes you. You're better off like that rotting fish."
While I was giving Nora hell, Ritaka was using his spray paint to write obscene insults on the wall and Kasai was dismantling their lightbulbs and throwing them to the floor, shattering it.
I felt satisfied leaving those messages, but his space hadn't been trashed enough yet. I wanted to make it clear this was an attack on him primarily.
"Oi, Ritaka, gimme that spray paint."
Ritaka chucked it over, after writing "Mentally Handicapped Class" and "Drachma Drop Outs" on the wall. I caught it and shook the can.
I sprayed "Die" all over the floor where Nora sat.
Perfect, now his space in the class had been completely ruined. He couldn't escape from it. Even if he replaced the table and chairs, that kanji I burnt into the floor and window will forever haunt him.
"Jeez Machida, you did overkill on this guy."
Ritaka came over to see my handiwork, laughing. He slung an arm around my shoulder.
"He deserved it though."
Kasai also walked over, kicking some debris into the pile of splintered wood.
"This is a lesson not to fuck with B Class ever again."
I spat on Nora's broken chabudai and stuffed zabuton. It smelled like shit.
Of course, while I didn't participate much, the most damage we caused the class was at Nora's table specifically, all thanks to me. The rest of the trashed class was Ritaka's and Kasai's handiwork, and they did a brilliant job. It couldn't even be recognised as a classroom anymore. It was more akin to a garbage heap, which was perfectly fitting for them.
I picked up the loose nameplate with "Nora Takayuki" and snapped it in half.
"Ritaka, could you mail this to him today? Make sure that it's delivered today too."
"Sure thing."
Ritaka took the broken nameplate off my hands and slipped it into his bag.
"Our job here is done. Let's go."
We left E Class. As we were about to leave the hallway, I stopped in front of A Class.
One of these days, I'll be sitting in that class too. I swear it.