Kamio Tatsuya used the threat of expulsion to put so much pressure on the students of Class D that they could barely breathe. In the end, they could only accept his demand: complete surrender.
Seeing that everything was settled, Kamio Tatsuya pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket.
It was not a finished contract, but a draft.
After Horikita came to him at noon, he had started thinking about what kind of contract he should make Class D sign. He had already anticipated the situation they were in.
So, during the time since noon, he had put together a rough draft.
"This lists my demands. Now I'll read them out to you."
First, the contract identified both sides. The first party was Kamio Tatsuya, and the second party was every student in Class D.
First: After the contract is signed, the second party's representative must collect all the private points held by every student in the class. The first party will then make up any shortfall below twenty million private points.
The twenty million private points obtained this way will be temporarily frozen. They may only be used during the class voting exam this Saturday, March 5, to save students who are facing expulsion.
Second: After the first party makes up the missing private points, the students of the second party must hand over half of the private points they receive on the first day of every month until graduation. These points will be used to repay the debt.
Third: The total repayment amount is twenty million private points. Until the debt has been completely repaid, the first party has the right to interfere with the actions of every member of the second party during all special exams held during that period.
Note 1: The first party may not deliberately assign any member of the second party to be expelled during a special exam.
Note 2: After the contract is signed, anyone who violates its terms will be expelled.
Note 3: After the contract is signed, it will remain valid even if the signer's class or position changes in the future.
The draft contract was not very long, but Kamio Tatsuya felt that it covered things fairly well.
First, it clearly stated Kamio Tatsuya's obligation during this exam: he would provide Class D with enough private points to reach twenty million and help them survive the special exam.
Second, it laid out the repayment plan. Kamio Tatsuya obviously had no intention of accepting only twelve million private points, so he had raised the total to twenty million.
At the same time, while Class D was in debt to him, Kamio Tatsuya would be able to control the class during special exams and make them help him.
This also gave the students of Class D some hope. As long as they worked hard to repay the debt, they could eventually pay it off and free themselves from his control.
He had to give them at least a little hope. If they simply gave up, wouldn't all of Kamio Tatsuya's effort this time go to waste?
Note 1 made it clear that when Kamio Tatsuya interfered with Class D, he could not deliberately cause any of its students to be expelled.
If he had left this out, it would have meant using one person's fate to control the fate of everyone in Class D.
Without this clause, Kamio Tatsuya would truly have held the fate of every student in Class D in his hands.
Even Class D would not easily agree to something that extreme.
As for Note 2, that showed how the contract would be enforced.
Note 3, meanwhile, was aimed entirely at one particular person. You know who I mean, don't you, Ayanokouji?
After hearing the terms of the contract, Hirata stood up with a serious expression.
"Kamio, does this mean you'll be responsible for protecting us as long as we sign this contract?"
Hearing Hirata's ridiculous assumption, Kamio Tatsuya let out a mocking laugh.
"Are you dreaming? I'm only promising that I won't deliberately send you to your expulsions. Right now, all of you are valuable resources to me.
"But do you really think I'm going to take responsibility for your lack of effort? Don't get carried away. That's impossible."
Hirata Yosuke fell silent for a moment.
"Looks like none of you have any objections to my demands." Kamio Tatsuya looked over the students of Class D as he spoke. "Since that's the case, let's talk about what happens if you break the contract."
Contracts are meant to be obeyed, but there were always people who wanted to break them.
To prevent that from happening, he needed a severe punishment to keep them in line.
"The price for breaking the contract is obviously expulsion. I don't think any of you will object to that, since you might be expelled in this exam anyway.
"Since that's the case, let's add another condition. Anyone who breaks the contract will be expelled, and Hirata, you'll be expelled along with them. Is that acceptable?"
Kamio Tatsuya's additional condition shocked the students of Class D.
Hirata, however, agreed without the slightest hesitation.
"Fine. I'll do my best to keep everyone in Class D under control."
"Good. Then it's settled." Kamio Tatsuya folded up the draft. "I'll bring the official contract after school. I'll leave it to you to collect the signatures of every student in Class D."
After finishing his business, Kamio Tatsuya glanced at Ayanokouji, who had been pretending to be dead the entire time, and left the Class D classroom.
Originally, he had wanted to include Ayanokouji in the clause about joint expulsion. But that would have made his intentions too obvious, so after thinking it over, he chose Hirata instead.
As Class D was now, as long as Hirata was gone, there would be no threat left.
Hirata was the center of the class.
Besides, Note 3 already restricted Ayanokouji, so there was no need to be overly cautious.
Kamio Tatsuya opened the classroom door and walked out, looking refreshed. He immediately saw Chabashira Sae leaning near the back door with a grim expression.
She had turned her attention toward the front door after hearing the commotion inside.
"Thanks for your hard work, Chabashira I mean, teacher. You can go inside now."
"What did you do?"
"Heh. Who knows?"
Kamio Tatsuya smiled slyly. You wanted Class D to move up, didn't you? Then I'll completely take away its chance to advance.
Ignoring Chabashira's constantly changing expression, Kamio Tatsuya walked past her toward the Class C classroom.
There was not much time left before school ended. He still had to finish the contract and find Okabe to serve as its witness, so he had no time to stand around chatting with Chabashira.
If you want to know what happened, go ask them yourself. That way, you can feel even more desperate, can't you?
When he opened the door to Class C, the noisy classroom fell silent for a second before erupting again. This time, however, the students were arguing about the person Ryuen had mentioned.
The person Class C did not need. The person whose expulsion would not only have no effect on Class C, but would actually benefit it.
As soon as Kamio Tatsuya sat down, Ishizaki walked straight over to him.
"Kamio, who was that person Ryuen said he was talking about?"
Hearing this, Kamio Tatsuya looked up at Ishizaki.
Seriously? How can you shamelessly ask me that? If I tell you, wouldn't all of Ryuen's careful planning go to waste?
After Kamio Tatsuya stared at him for a while, Ishizaki gave an awkward laugh and quietly walked away.
That gave Kamio Tatsuya time to start organizing the draft in his hands.
He finished it quickly, then went straight to Okabe and explained everything to him.
After hearing the whole story from Kamio Tatsuya, Okabe's feelings were extremely complicated.
There was overwhelming joy, relief, and even a fair amount of schadenfreude.
After school, Kamio Tatsuya returned to Class D and handed the contract to Hirata.
"The contract has been officially witnessed by the school. Take it around and have everyone in Class D sign it. Give it back to me tomorrow morning."
Hirata accepted the contract and nodded with a complicated expression.
Life would be difficult from now on, but even so, this school was still far better than any other school.
The free food and housing alone were something no other school could match.
And for a student like Karuizawa, who had special circumstances, this school was also much safer.
After finishing everything, Kamio Tatsuya headed to the student council office. Katsuragi was handling his work in his place, but he still needed to show up from time to time.
He also wanted to check the work Katsuragi had handled.
Of course, this was not because he doubted Katsuragi's abilities. He simply wanted to gather information from the work.
It was a very important source of intelligence.
At five in the afternoon, Kamio Tatsuya and Katsuragi left the student council office together.
"Is Class B also planning to use private points to get through this exam?"
As they walked, Kamio Tatsuya brought up the exam.
This exam was unusual, and there was no real reason to keep their plans secret, so there was no harm in asking.
"That's right. I don't think Class B has any students it considers unnecessary."
So he had also realized the purpose of this exam: getting rid of students the class did not need.
Kamio Tatsuya glanced at him. Katsuragi's expression did not change. He remained as calm and steady as ever.
"From the sound of it, Class C seems to be planning to do the same."
Faced with Katsuragi's question, Kamio Tatsuya smiled and nodded.
That was true for the class, but Class C was different. He and Ryuen genuinely wanted Tokito expelled. The man was not only incompetent, but also ambitious and always looking for trouble.
To Class C as it was now, he was a bomb that could go off at any moment. Kamio Tatsuya and Ryuen could not simply leave him alone.
Tokito had to be expelled, and absolutely no one could find out beforehand.
Otherwise...
Students in each class could cast commendation votes for students from other classes.
Given Sakayanagi's personality, she would certainly have no problem interfering with Kamio Tatsuya and the others' plans.
If Sakayanagi used her class's influence to give all her commendation votes to Tokito...
Then he would be safe in this exam.
That was why Kamio Tatsuya had chosen to keep the plan secret.
"What about the protection points? Is Class B giving them to Sakayanagi?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
Protection points were a matter of strategy, so Katsuragi chose not to answer. Kamio Tatsuya did not mind.
"Let's assume they're going to Sakayanagi. Class B has forty students, so Sakayanagi can receive at most thirty-nine commendation votes. That's hardly a sure thing."
Katsuragi immediately frowned as he understood what Kamio Tatsuya was implying.
Then he sighed.
"Looks like Sakayanagi won't be getting those protection points."
Kamio Tatsuya smiled but said nothing.
Katsuragi was sharp. One hint had been enough for him to understand.
That was right. How could they let someone like Sakayanagi get protection points?
It was impossible.
After understanding the situation, Katsuragi also began considering whether he could use the same method to interfere with Class C's protection points. But after thinking it over, he shook his head. It would probably be difficult.
Kamio Tatsuya, who had come up with this plan, would not have failed to prepare for it. He had a good relationship with Ichinose, and he also held leverage over Class D.
Trying to control who received Class C's protection points by gathering commendation votes would be extremely difficult.
After returning to the dormitory, Kamio Tatsuya received a long-unseen guest in his room.
"Well, look who it is. It's been a long time, Kushida."
Kamio Tatsuya sat in his chair and smiled at Kushida Kikyo, who was sitting on his bed.
"You! Why did you have to interfere? You've completely drained all the points I had." Kushida started complaining the moment they met.
Kushida had also signed the contract. That meant the points she had left would be used to save her classmates, and half of the points she received each month would have to be handed over afterward.
For someone with friends spread across the entire year and even the whole school, spending points was extremely expensive.
So she had used delivering the contract as an excuse to come to Kamio Tatsuya's room and complain to him.
Kamio Tatsuya also had friends in Class D, such as Sakura. But Sakura was the type to cook for herself, so she had far fewer things to spend points on.
Besides, everyone had to face a few setbacks in life.
"This was a perfect chance to crush Class D. There was no way I was going to let it pass," Kamio Tatsuya said calmly. "And don't forget, Horikita was the one who came to borrow points from me first. I just took advantage of the situation."
In fact, even if Horikita had not come to borrow points from him, he had planned to go to Class D and offer them a loan himself.
The desperate students of Class D would never have let go of that lifeline. Kamio Tatsuya would still have made the same demands he had made today.
"If you have nothing else to say, you can go back now."
As he spoke, Kamio Tatsuya picked up the contract from the desk and looked it over.
The signature section for the second party contained the messy names of all thirty-six students in Class D. Not a single signature was missing.
Kamio Tatsuya nodded, then took out his phone and photographed the contract.
After that, he casually tossed it into a drawer. Tomorrow, he would have Okabe check it and record it in the school's system.
"You haven't seen me in so long, and you're already trying to kick me out."
Kushida put on a resentful expression.
"What do you want, then? Do you want me to buy you dinner?"
"Of course I want you to complain about that idiot Horikita with me! She's always causing trouble for no reason! Couldn't she just let those idiots in Class D get expelled?"
Tch. Kushida was still the same Kushida.
She had said before that she wanted to learn from Ichinose and protect the students in her class, but that was only an act.
On the surface, she would work hard. Deep down, she probably wished someone in her class would get expelled.
As long as her true nature was not exposed, she could never be expelled, so she was not worried about this exam at all.
Instead of worrying about those idiots, she might as well worry about her own wallet.
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