Chapter 91: The Only Person She Could Think of to Borrow Money From (Two-in-One, 5k) (Patreon)

The first-term midterm exams were over before anyone knew it.

With only 160 students in the entire first year, the teachers worked through the papers at tremendous speed. Five subjects' worth of exams, and the results would be posted at homeroom the very next Monday.

In the first-year Class A classroom.

Tomonari Mashima stood at the podium. He swept his gaze over every student in the room first, and a faint smile touched his lips.

A serious disposition didn't mean he never showed his students anything at all.

"Everyone, the midterm results are in."

In Tomonari Mashima's hand was a rolled-up sheet of white poster paper. On it were the rankings of all forty students in the class, along with each person's score in every subject.

"Let's find out what the last month or two of effort has bought you."

For a class of top students, the announcement of results was something everyone cared about intensely. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the blackboard.

Mashima-sensei taped the score sheet to the wall beside the blackboard, then turned to face the class.

"First, the overall picture for the class."

"At present, Class A's average total score is 425 points. That puts us first among the four classes."

When the number came out, a collective breath of relief went through the room.

After all, now that the school's deeper rules had been laid bare, everyone in the top-ranked class wanted to hold their advantage where it mattered most basically of all: grades.

"Now I'll read out the top three. I hope the rest of you will learn from them." Mashima-sensei turned back and began with the first name on the sheet.

"First place... Arisu Sakayanagi, total score 496."

Japanese 99, Math 100, English 98, Science 100, Social Studies 99. Every subject near perfect, and a flawless hundred in math.

A ripple of amazement ran through the classroom.

"My god, of course it's Sakayanagi-san. That score is ridiculous."

"A perfect score in math is genuinely hard."

"She was first on the placement exam too, wasn't she?"

"Incredible."

Under the admiring stares from all sides, the silver-haired girl only smiled a little, perfectly composed.

There was no denying it: when it came to written exams, this one's edge was formidable.

"Second place... Hikaru Naruse, total score 493."

Mashima-sensei's voice carried on.

Japanese 97, Math 99, English 98, Science 100, Social Studies 99.

Steady work across all five subjects, with only a few points lost in Japanese. By any measure, an outstanding result.

Hikaru Naruse heard his own score without so much as a flicker crossing his face.

"Naruse-san is amazing too."

"Mm-hmm, and Naruse-san isn't just smart, he's super good-looking!"

"I wanna cuddle up to him..."

"Hey!"

"Next, third place. Kohei Katsuragi, total score 490."

Kohei Katsuragi's academic rating was an A, and he had always been near the top of the score tables. Hikaru Naruse wasn't the least bit surprised.

Mashima-sensei had only read out the top three, but a single glance at the sheet showed everyone where Class A stood as a whole.

Even dead last had scored over 390. Nowhere near the failing line.

After his brief run-through of the results, Mashima-sensei added a word about keeping up the effort.

This midterm carried the rule that a failing grade meant expulsion, but for Class A that rule might as well not have existed.

Take math, the subject where their combined scores were lowest. Half the average came out to somewhere around 45 points, and that was the red line for expulsion.

In Class A, the lowest math score was a 78. No matter how you ran the numbers, there was no way to trip that rule.

Academically, Class A was as steady as a mountain.

Hikaru Naruse listened to Mashima-sensei's explanation of the results, but his thoughts had already gone somewhere else.

To the situation in Class D. Barring surprises, even though Suzune Horikita had gone to great lengths to obtain last year's midterm papers and answers, having the answers didn't mean everyone would actually score better.

There is no shortage of people who can't even copy properly with the answers right in front of them.

Not to mention a certain red-haired jock. In the original work, that guy's grades had detonated on the spot: his midterm English fell short of the average line, and he was staring straight down the barrel of expulsion.

Naruse's meddling had shifted the shape of the story somewhat by now, but he still believed that guy would drag Class D down.

He'd ask Kei about it later.

At that same moment, in the first-year Class D classroom, Sae Chabashira stood at the podium with a rather amused look on her face.

Once she hung up the score sheet, the mood in the room was actually relaxed at first, since most people had done reasonably well.

But no one got to relax for more than a few minutes before Sae Chabashira spoke.

"Ken Sudo."

"What's up?"

In that instant every gaze in the room converged on the tall boy sitting in the middle row.

Ken Sudo had a shock of red hair, and right now he had no idea why the teacher would suddenly call his name. He'd gotten hold of last year's papers and had actually put in some time memorizing the answers. The results were mediocre at best, but far better than his usual work.

His total for this midterm was around 350 points. His weakest subject was English, at just 36.

But if he'd done his math right, on the last placement exam Class D's English average halved came to 32, so he figured he'd passed.

"I'm sorry to say your English grade is a failure. You will be facing expulsion."

"What?"

"Huh!"

The words set off an uproar. The whole class sat there stunned.

"Hey, Chabashira-sensei, wasn't the average 32? My score's higher than that!"

"Heh. I think you've all misunderstood something. The exam averages at this school are not fixed. They shift dynamically with every exam."

"On the placement exam, the English average was 64. Halved, that's exactly 32. The only difference is that the placement exam carried no penalty of expulsion."

"But..."

At that point, the corner of Sae Chabashira's mouth curled into a cold smile.

"On this midterm, everyone's scores went up quite a bit. So naturally, the English average rose as well."

She turned and wrote out the calculation, explaining as she went.

"Class D's English average this time is 79.6. Halved, that's 39.8. Rounded to the nearest whole number, the minimum passing score in English is 40."

"Your English score is 36. A full four points short. Do you really think that shouldn't carry a penalty?"

The moment she said it, the entire class was dumbstruck all over again.

They had been taught another lesson.

If the average shifted with every single exam, then getting hold of the papers this once solved nothing. What about next time? Would every exam be a gamble?

The composure on Ken Sudo's face, the ease of a man who thought he'd scraped through by luck, drained away into a sickly white.

He had no intention of being expelled. A first-year who had only just joined a club, he'd already won the approval of the basketball team's upperclassmen and earned a starting spot in matches.

Right now, he had to fight with everything he had.

"Sensei, isn't there any other way?"

"Of course not. Rules are rules. I explained this to you once already."

"But..."

Ken Sudo scrubbed hard at his head with both hands. When Suzune Horikita had handed out the papers and answers in this very classroom, he really had only flipped through them and memorized a handful of questions.

He'd assumed 32 was enough, and now the number had changed on him out of nowhere. For someone with a temper like Ken Sudo's, it was enough to drive him out of his mind.

It was then that the boy in the front row, Class D's nominal leader and by far its most handsome face, Yosuke Hirata, stood up and spoke.

"Sensei, can't you make an exception?"

"That's right, the term's only just started. We can't abandon a classmate!"

"Exactly. Hirata's right."

Sae Chabashira let the clamor wash straight past her.

She simply listened, calm, as they questioned and protested, and then told Sudou he could start packing his things.

And in that moment, Suzune Horikita remembered what her brother and Hikaru Naruse had said to her in that alley.

Throw a comrade away carelessly, and the situation only gets more troublesome.

So Suzune Horikita rose to her feet.

"Chabashira-sensei. Sudou is four points short of passing, correct?"

Sae Chabashira looked at the black-haired girl standing there and nodded.

"That's right."

"Can those four points be obtained by some other means?"

"Heh. The exam is over, Horikita-san. Do you understand what you're saying?"

"Of course I do."

In the course of probing her teacher last time, Suzune Horikita had come to understand another rule by which this school operated.

Namely, that teachers held a certain discretion over a great many things, but it worked like another set of hidden rules: unless you raised the matter yourself, a teacher would never hand you the solution.

She had worked out how points could be used, and combined with Chabashira-sensei's reactions, one answer was practically leaping off the page.

"Then... sensei, could you sell those four points to us?"

"?"

When Suzune Horikita said that, every student in the Class D classroom jolted upright.

Buy points with points?

That was allowed?

"Horikita-san, are you serious? You can buy exam points with Private Points?" Yosuke Hirata's head snapped around at once. As the leader of the class, he had just caught hold of a lifeline.

"That depends entirely on our teacher's answer."

Suzune Horikita kicked the question straight back to Sae Chabashira, and the full-figured teacher only gave a cold little laugh before breaking into applause for her.

"Not bad. Not bad at all, Horikita."

"Your proposal is indeed something that can be carried out. But let me ask you something else. Do you have the money to buy those points?"

At those words, Class D erupted again.

Because what she'd said meant it really was possible to pay for grades. And if that was true, then Sudou wouldn't have to be expelled at all, would he?

They might not like his temper, but he was a student in their class. If he got expelled outright, it was hard not to feel the chill of what might come for them next.

Yosuke Hirata, and Kikyo Kushida speaking up beside him, both stood and drove the momentum forward.

"Chabashira-sensei, what's the price for buying points?"

"That's right, sensei. We don't want to lose a classmate. Please give us a chance."

"Sensei, please!"

Other students began chiming in as well. Speaking up at a moment like this made a good impression, after all, marked you as someone who cared about the class, about the group.

"Fine. You lot really won't shed a tear until you see the coffin."

Sae Chabashira laughed coldly, then nodded.

"I can sell you the four points Sudou is missing. The price per point is... one hundred thousand points!"

"If you want to save him, you can pay right now."

"Huh???"

Hearing Sae Chabashira say it, the whole class was floored all over again.

One hundred thousand per point, and Sudou was four points short of passing. Which meant handing over four hundred thousand points on the spot.

It was an impossible demand.

In Class A, those terms could have been met without much trouble.

Over two months, each Class A student had received close to two hundred thousand Private Points in total, and even after two months most of them still had a healthy surplus, since not many were free spenders.

But for Class D the situation was dire, because on May 1st they had received nothing at all.

From the start of term on April 1st to the end of May now, the only money any Class D student had seen was the hundred thousand points the school handed out on day one.

One hundred thousand points, stretched across two full months of expenses, already demanded a fairly frugal hand.

Never mind the ones who had blown through most of theirs back in April. Some of them were borrowing from classmates just to get through the month.

And with the end of May here, whether any points would land in their accounts next month was every bit as much an open question.

Now they were expected to produce four hundred thousand points in one go?

How could that possibly happen?

"Sensei, isn't there any way to lower that price? Right now we..."

Yosuke Hirata's voice rose again. He was still trying to negotiate better terms.

"No. One hundred thousand per point. That's my floor."

"Then... sensei, could you give us time to gather the money? There are a lot of us. Even if we don't have it on hand, we can borrow from students in other classes."

Yosuke Hirata thought it over, then made his appeal with righteous conviction.

"I can borrow some from my club seniors too. If everyone pulls together, we can definitely make up the total!"

"What does everyone think?"

"He's right!"

Kikyo Kushida, the class's resident "little angel," spoke up in earnest as well.

"I can borrow from girls I know in other classes too. We can't give up on a classmate. We can't let Sudou be expelled."

"Kushida, I can go borrow some as well."

"I can put in five thousand. I haven't spent much lately."

Between Yosuke Hirata's and Kikyo Kushida's influence, quite a few in Class D answered the call to pool their points.

But everyone understood perfectly well that scraping together four hundred thousand out of these odds and ends was going to be brutally hard.

It would take time, at minimum. Or holding out a few more days until June arrived, when students in other classes would have a little more room in their wallets.

"Sensei, on this matter of buying points, could you give us time to gather the money?"

Yosuke Hirata caught on to that quickly and said it outright.

"Ideally a few days' grace. On the first of next month, our chances of raising the full amount would be much better!"

"Heh."

Sae Chabashira's voice came again, this time with unmistakable mockery in it.

"I don't have time to wait around while you collect donations. A few days' grace? What do you think this place is?"

"Today is the day the results are announced. Therefore, a failing grade means expulsion today."

"If you want to save Sudou, then unless you have four hundred thousand points in hand before school ends today, Sudou comes with me to file the withdrawal paperwork."

"On that point, there is no possibility of change whatsoever."

"..."

Yosuke Hirata fell silent. Kikyo Kushida glanced around at everyone's faces, looking as though she still had something to say, but Sae Chabashira cut her off again.

"This whole arrangement sits outside the rules to begin with. That's why I'm giving you the chance to buy the points at all."

"Don't get any clever ideas. If you want someone to blame, blame the dead weight in your own class."

"That's all."

The words landed like an ultimatum, backing everyone who had just been arguing so hard into a corner.

Yosuke Hirata, Kikyo Kushida, and the handful of other well-liked students in the class were all at a loss. Without outside help, raising four hundred thousand points before the end of the day was pure fantasy.

Even a close friend couldn't be expected to cough up a huge sum in one go.

And Class D was the bottom-ranked class to begin with. Anyone lending them money would be weighing the odds of ever seeing it paid back.

Blocked at both ends, with nowhere left to turn.

It was then that Suzune Horikita, sitting at her desk, suddenly thought of someone.

Hikaru Naruse.

She had no idea exactly how many points he was sitting on, but her brother had transferred five hundred thousand straight into his account last time.

And he was a member of Class A on top of that, so he was certain to have plenty of Private Points on hand.

But... did she really intend to go and borrow points from him?

The thought left Suzune Horikita's feelings tangled. In all fairness, the two of them hadn't known each other long, yet Naruse had an extraordinary talent for infuriating her. A sentence or two from him was often all it took to leave the girl seething.

From another angle, though, he did seem like the sort of person who didn't fuss over details. Maybe, when it came to lending points... it really was feasible?

She could also borrow from her brother, Manabu Horikita, but Suzune Horikita didn't dare.

After a while, she spoke.

"Chabashira-sensei. As long as we raise the money, the expulsion is waived, correct?"

"That's right."

A flash of resolve went through Suzune Horikita's dark eyes, and then she spoke.

Sae Chabashira looked at the girl's serious expression, nodded, and let a meaningful smile spread across her face.

"You've already found someone to get the money from?"

"Yes."

"I'm looking forward to it."