"Hello, Chairman Tsukishiro."
After the other man introduced himself, Kamio Tatsuya immediately greeted him with a hint of nervousness.
"Don't be nervous. I'm only here to learn more about the student council's work. The student council is also a very important part of this school."
Tsukishiro smiled warmly as he reassured Kamio Tatsuya and explained why he had come.
"It's all thanks to the school's trust in us,"
Kamio Tatsuya said flatteringly.
"I have something to discuss with Chairman Nagumo. Could you step outside for a moment?"
Their small talk had barely ended when Tsukishiro asked him to leave.
"Of course."
Kamio Tatsuya smiled, glanced at Nagumo, and left the student council office.
As soon as he was outside, Kamio Tatsuya remotely activated the listening device he had planted there earlier using his phone, then put on his Bluetooth earphones.
"Chairman Nagumo, did you do that on purpose?"
Tsukishiro's voice came through the earphones.
"What are you talking about?"
"I asked everyone to leave because I had something important to discuss with you. As student council president, you should have known that the vice president was coming, yet you didn't arrange for anyone to stand guard outside."
"Sorry. I've been busy lately, and it slipped my mind."
Nagumo's voice carried a smile, which made it clear that he had done it on purpose.
But why?
In fact, even if Nagumo had stationed someone outside, it wouldn't have made any difference. If someone had stopped Kamio Tatsuya from entering the student council office, there would obviously have been a reason.
There would have been no need to make up that reason, so Kamio Tatsuya still would have known that the acting chairman was meeting with the student council president.
He still would have been able to listen in on the conversation.
But Nagumo didn't know about the listening device.
So he had deliberately let me know about this meeting.
Why?
Why would he do that?
"By the way, Acting Chairman Tsukishiro, what brings you here today? You should know that I'm very busy as student council president."
Nagumo's tone made it clear that he was quite unhappy with the school's newly appointed acting chairman.
Of course, that was only natural.
At the student council president's inauguration ceremony last October, Nagumo had openly stated that he wanted to bring about major changes at the school.
After all this time, those changes had probably reached their most critical stage. As long as the people above him gave their approval, he would likely be able to put them into action.
But now the former chairman had suddenly been investigated, and an acting chairman had been sent in. This could easily disrupt Nagumo's plans.
Naturally, Nagumo would feel dissatisfied, or even angry.
However, because of their positions, all he could do was speak a little more harshly than usual.
He wasn't worried that Tsukishiro would use his authority to interfere with the reforms, because he was only an acting chairman for the time being.
That meant Tsukishiro's first priority would be to win over the school's existing power groups, not to immediately launch sweeping reforms.
Nagumo was sure that neither he, Horikita Manabu, nor even Kamio Tatsuya, who was currently at odds with him, would want to see that happen.
If Tsukishiro really did something inappropriate, Nagumo would immediately gather everyone he could and organize protests throughout the school.
A school that had previously been stable would become chaotic, possibly leading to even more serious consequences. Once things reached that point, the newly appointed Chairman Tsukishiro would certainly be removed for incompetence.
Nagumo was certain that this was the last thing Tsukishiro wanted.
That was why Nagumo dared to speak so boldly.
Tsukishiro showed no reaction to his insolence. He simply smiled and made Nagumo a promise.
"Heh. I've already looked over your reform plan, and I support your ideas. I can even help clear the way for part of it."
This was exactly what Nagumo had expected. The acting chairman had no intention of making sweeping changes to the school. His goal was to take control of it little by little.
So this was Tsukishiro's way of showing goodwill.
He wants to push through a reform plan that was already close to being approved, and use it to win me over.
"Then I'll thank you in advance. But I assume there are conditions?"
Every gift came with a price, even if that price was hidden.
There was no love without a reason, and no hatred without a reason. Nagumo didn't believe the other man would help him for nothing.
"Of course. In return, you'll help me expel two students."
Expel two students?
Nagumo raised an eyebrow and joked with a smile.
"I'm not one of them, am I?"
"Of course not. You definitely know or have heard of both of them. One is the vice president who was here just now, Kamio Tatsuya. The other is Ayanokouji Kiyotaka from Class 1-D."
Kamio Tatsuya and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka?
Nagumo was stunned. Why would a newly appointed chairman want to expel those two?
Was there something special about them?
Nagumo couldn't understand it.
And he wasn't the only one who couldn't understand it. Kamio Tatsuya was just as confused.
What the hell had I done to anyone?
Why are they trying to expel me?
But after thinking about the other student who had been targeted for expulsion, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, Kamio Tatsuya came up with a possibility.
Could this Tsukishiro...
have been sent by Ayanokouji's father?
Ayanokouji's father ran an experimental institution called the White Room.
It was a place devoted to creating artificial geniuses—in other words, a factory for manufacturing geniuses.
But in Kamio Tatsuya's eyes, it wasn't a factory for manufacturing geniuses. It was a factory for filtering them out.
He had heard that after more than a decade of development, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was the only successful product.
However, because of some unknown incident, Ayanokouji escaped from the facility and was admitted to this school as a special exception by Sakayanagi Naruyoshi.
The last time Ayanokouji's father visited the school, it seemed he had come to take Ayanokouji away, but he had failed.
So now he was attacking the problem at its source. He had removed Sakayanagi Naruyoshi, Ayanokouji's protective shield, from his position as chairman and sent Tsukishiro here to target Ayanokouji.
But according to the school's rules, even the acting chairman couldn't expel a student without a valid reason.
That meant Tsukishiro had to find another way to deal with Ayanokouji—using the rules against him, most likely through an exam.
And the people who understood exams best weren't the teachers. They were the students who took them.
That was why Tsukishiro wanted to work with Nagumo.
But why was I involved?
Was it just because I looked at him the last time we met?
Damn, is he really that petty?
That obviously couldn't be the reason.
At that thought, Kamio Tatsuya came up with another possibility.
Sakayanagi Arisu.
She desperately wanted to defeat Ayanokouji and prove that the White Room's methods were wrong—that geniuses were born, not made.
If the new chairman, Tsukishiro, was one of Ayanokouji's father's men, then they had probably already obtained information on everyone in the first year.
Based on that information, they may have reached one conclusion:
Kamio Tatsuya might be someone capable of defeating Ayanokouji.
If Kamio Tatsuya, an ordinary person who had lived an unremarkable life for more than a decade, defeated Ayanokouji, who had spent more than a decade undergoing elite—or perhaps extreme—training...
If that really happened, people might start thinking:
A true genius cannot be created. Anything that can be created is only a fake genius.
Ayanokouji was the only successful test subject in more than a decade, so plenty of people were watching him.
What would happen if they saw Ayanokouji, who had been raised with so many resources, easily defeated by some ordinary passerby?
The consequences would be serious.
The loss of future investment would be the least of it.
If things went badly, Ayanokouji's father might lose everything he had and even be held responsible for various offenses.
To prevent that from happening, they had taken a series of measures against Sakayanagi Naruyoshi and forced him out of his position as chairman.
They had also sent one of their own people to take charge of the school.
If that was really the situation...
Then Ayanokouji's expulsion was probably just a smokescreen.
If a genius who had been trained for more than a decade was expelled simply because he couldn't adapt to a school's rules, wouldn't that prove there was something wrong with his training?
So this man named Tsukishiro was actually targeting me.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness they couldn't expel me directly because of the school's rules. Otherwise, I'd be in serious danger.
Thank you again, Uncle Sakayanagi!
Well, the next time I target your daughter, I'll be a little gentler.
Inside the student council office, Nagumo's expression gradually turned serious after he heard Tsukishiro's request.
"Why those two?"
Nagumo had already seen what Kamio Tatsuya was capable of, but he didn't think Kamio Tatsuya had any conflict with the newly arrived chairman.
As for Ayanokouji...
That guy really does seem to have some secrets.
"That's not something you need to know." Tsukishiro's smile faded slightly. "So? Do you agree, or do you refuse?"
It was obvious that if Nagumo dared to refuse, then the more pleasant Tsukishiro's earlier words had been, the more difficult he would make things for Nagumo afterward.
Nagumo wasn't sure whether Tsukishiro had the power to interfere with his reforms, but he didn't want to take the risk. He only had one year left at the school, and he wanted to accomplish something during his time as student council president.
Besides, Tsukishiro's request wasn't unreasonable. In fact, it suited Nagumo's own plans.
After thinking it over briefly, Nagumo made up his mind.
"Fine. I'll help you where I can."
"In that case, I look forward to working with you, Chairman Nagumo."
Tsukishiro stood up and extended his right hand.
"Likewise."
Nagumo stood as well and shook his hand.
There was no sound from the earphones. The corner of Kamio Tatsuya's mouth twitched.
Damn, what the hell was going on?
Kamio Tatsuya didn't discuss what he had heard in the student council office with anyone else, because there would have been no point.
Besides, he was curious about how they planned to expel him while he still had someone else who could take the fall for him.
Kamio Tatsuya never did anything that seriously violated the school rules, so they couldn't get rid of him that way.
That left only one option: expelling him through an exam.
But if that was the plan, they had to face a problem they couldn't avoid.
Kamio Tatsuya still had a scapegoat.
To expel him, they would first have to expel Sudou.
And even if they managed to expel Sudou first, expelling Kamio Tatsuya afterward would still be difficult. As acting chairman, Tsukishiro could easily find out how many private points Kamio Tatsuya currently had.
Class C currently had 501 class points, while Kamio Tatsuya had more than twenty million private points. So even after getting rid of his scapegoat, expelling him in a single exam would probably be impossible.
They would have to reduce Class C's class points by more than 200 in one go and expel both Kamio Tatsuya and Sudou at the same time.
It wasn't impossible.
It was just extremely difficult.
It was so difficult that Kamio Tatsuya couldn't even imagine what kind of exam could expel both him and Sudou.
He suddenly became curious about what method this Tsukishiro would use against him.
Surely he wasn't planning to alter Kamio Tatsuya's written test scores and make him fail?
Ha-ha-ha!
Nearly two weeks passed, and the students of Class C made it through the third-term final exams in a tense and exciting atmosphere.
The third term was very short, but that didn't make the final exams any less important.
As before, anyone who failed would be expelled.
To save someone from expulsion, they had to spend 300 class points and twenty million private points.
Class C could afford that cost now, but nobody dared to relax. No one expected Ryuen to save them if they failed.
This was an individual matter. Ryuen would have no hesitation about abandoning a useless pawn.
Kamio Tatsuya felt the same way.
If someone made no effort at all and only expected others to help them, what would be the point of graduating with the class?
No, it would be strange for someone like that to make it all the way to graduation with the class.
On Monday, February 28—the last day of February—Okabe brought the test results to Class C.
The final exams had been fairly difficult, so quite a few of the weaker students in Class C were nervous about their scores.
Ishizaki in particular was near the bottom of the class academically. Kaneda had forced him to study hard for quite some time recently, but even so, Ishizaki still had little confidence.
Actually, it wasn't just Ishizaki. Everyone in Class C could see that the class had a brighter future ahead of it.
As a result, many of the weaker students had been working extremely hard. None of them wanted to be expelled for failing an exam.
Ishizaki wasn't the only one putting in effort.
That would lead to one result: the class average would rise, which would put Ishizaki at an even greater disadvantage.
Still, there was good news. As long as students scored more than 50 in every subject, they wouldn't have to worry about failing.
Under the school's system for calculating averages, the average score could never exceed 50.
So the key was whether they could score 50 points.
"Teacher, you're going to announce the results now, right?"
The weaker students, led by Ishizaki Daichi, stared nervously at their teacher, Okabe, standing at the front of the classroom.
"Don't rush. You'll know soon enough."
A smile appeared on Okabe's face.
Seeing that smile, Ishizaki and the others immediately relaxed. It was Okabe, after all.
"Let me give you the conclusion first. No one failed this exam."
"In other words..."
Ishizaki and the others were filled with excitement.
"That's right. No one will be expelled because of this exam."
"Yeah!"
After Okabe confirmed it, Ishizaki and the others immediately shouted with joy.
While the classroom was in an uproar, Okabe took out the huge sheet of paper he had brought and put it up on the blackboard.
As expected, Ishizaki Daichi was in last place. But that wasn't the important part.
The important part was his score.
His lowest score was in English: 49 points.
There was no way Class C's English average could reach 98, so this was actually a fairly safe score.
Still, to be completely safe in the future, he should aim for at least 50.
All his other scores were above 50. He had even scored 70 in Japanese, which was truly surprising.
The others had also improved by varying amounts.
Good. The overall ability of Class C's students was steadily improving.
Kamio Tatsuya didn't ask for much from them. By the time they graduated, he wanted them to at least have the ability to deserve graduating with their class.
At the very least, they needed to know how to learn.
Kamio Tatsuya had already entered the working world, so he knew that many jobs had little to do with what people studied in school. Once they entered a company, they had to start learning again and build up experience.
That made the ability to learn extremely important.
As for studying...
It was one outward sign of a person's ability to learn.
Kamio Tatsuya then looked at the students near the top of the rankings. He hadn't come in first, and neither had Shiina.
First place went to a girl named Morofuji Rika. She seemed to be part of Manabe's group.
Thanks to her, Manabe and the others had improved their grades as well.
"Over the past year—and especially over the last six months—you've made tremendous progress in your written test scores. The improvement has been so great that I can hardly believe it.
"This exam showed that you've caught up with Class B and Class A. That makes me very happy. I hope you can maintain this level of performance in the future."
Hearing Okabe's praise and encouragement, many of the students in Class C instinctively straightened their backs.
Even the mostly delinquent students of Class C wanted to be recognized.
What was surprising, though, was that Ryuen's grades were unexpectedly good. He scored more than 70 in every subject.
Combined with his appearance, it was difficult to imagine.
Ryuen, who was good at fighting, was also a model student who scored at least 70 in every subject and nearly 90 in some of them?
The more you looked at it, the stranger it seemed.
"What about the other classes, teacher?"
"No one in the entire year was expelled." Okabe smiled. "As for the class averages, Class A came first, Class B came second, and you came third.
"But the difference between the three classes is very small. If you keep working this hard, I wouldn't be surprised if you overtook them in a future exam."
This answer boosted the spirits of the students in Class C once again.
"What about Class D?"
"Class D's scores were somewhat disappointing, but don't let your guard down."
Somewhat disappointing, huh? Heh.
Looks like they wouldn't be able to keep up for much longer.
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