Chapter 3: Class A (Part 1) (Patreon)

Chapter 3: Class A (Part 1)

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Poke.

Poke, poke.

Poke, poke, poke.

The girl's slender fingertip kept poking Satoru Ajimu's back.

Satoru Ajimu finally turned and swatted the pestering little hand away.

"Ow."

He hadn't even used much force, but Ai Morishita put on a pitiful look, tears welling at the corners of her eyes.

"Sorry."

"Just kidding."

The next second, Ai Morishita's tears turned into laughter.

The switch was so seamless it left Satoru Ajimu blinking in confusion.

It struck him that women were simply born with poker faces.

"So, what's going on over there?" Satoru Ajimu asked, pointing at the standoff.

The classroom had split roughly into two factions, with only a handful of loners keeping to the sidelines to watch.

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"This and that, this and that..."

Sprawled across her desk, Ai Morishita leaned in and rattled off an explanation right into Satoru Ajimu's ear, filling him in on how the scene before them had come about.

"Basically, before the homeroom teacher got here, they were going over the clues they had and figured Private Points could buy anything, so they want to pool some Private Points to buy information..."

"A lot of people think Katsuragi has a point, so they've decided to back him as the class leader."

"Sakayanagi thinks we should pool points with one other class to buy the intel, then resell it at double the price to the remaining two classes."

"That way we win over an ally and drain points from two other classes at the same time."

"But Katsuragi's side thinks the information should stay exclusive — they don't even want the other classes to know Private Points can buy intel in the first place."

"Mm-hmm."

Ai Morishita nodded away, arms crossed over her chest, looking proud of something for reasons he couldn't fathom.

The two camps disagreed on the approach, but they'd at least reached a consensus on buying the information itself.

"That said, neither strategy is particularly good or particularly bad."

"Not good, not bad?" Ai Morishita blinked, giving him a look of grudging admiration that said, 'Wow, you really went there.'

Satoru Ajimu hadn't bothered lowering his voice while talking with Ai Morishita, so naturally his assessment of the two factions reached the rest of the class as well.

"So, does Ajimu have some unique take on this?" An elegant, faintly sharp voice cut through the crowd.

"Nope. The homeroom teacher isn't even here yet, so speculating is pointless."

Faced with little Sakayanagi's provocation, Satoru Ajimu had no intention of engaging further.

"Like what you were just discussing... if Private Points can buy anything, then... could they buy resources that make us stronger?"

"After all, Advanced Nurturing High School isn't an ordinary high school anymore — it's a Jujutsu High that trains sorcerers. We're students, but we're also jujutsu sorcerers."

"And sorcerers ought to care more about personal strength. That's what it means to take responsibility for your own life."

Because of what Satoru Ajimu said, the classroom's earlier enthusiasm seemed to drop several degrees all at once.

They knew that enrolling would grant them cursed energy and possibly a cursed technique, but it still hadn't sunk in — none of them knew what kind of situations awaited them as sorcerers.

If becoming a sorcerer meant getting thrown straight into the grand stage of Shibuya the very next day—

then Satoru Ajimu would drop out on the spot.

Bye-bye, see you never.

"Even good swimmers drown. It's better to be careful — and correct — about how you use your Private Points."

During that impromptu interview earlier, Kento Nanami and the other sorcerers hadn't just explained curses, the island nation's crisis, and the state of Advanced Nurturing Jujutsu High — they'd also covered Class Points and Private Points.

That had robbed Satoru Ajimu of the chance to show off with this information.

The protagonists in Classroom of the Elite fanworks always got to flex their information edge like that.

They'd even revealed that the first month's exam was about conduct, and repeatedly reminded him to use his Private Points 'correctly.'

Great, now even the first month's special exam had been spoiled outright.

"Ajimu has a point. We shouldn't act blindly. Before buying information, we should gather as much as we can first — maybe the upperclassmen know something."

In the crowd, the classmate with alopecia — his head shining bald — spoke up in a steady voice.

Honestly, it was hard to believe the guy was even the same age as him.

Supposedly a boy of fifteen or sixteen.

That overly mature, composed air was exactly why he'd managed to rally so many supporters so fast.

After Satoru Ajimu finished speaking, many of the classmates standing behind Katsuragi and Sakayanagi let their eyes flicker.

Their expressions carried a startled 'wait, there's another heavy hitter?' look.

"Heh, heh."

Ai Morishita, who'd run over from the back row to stand at his side, crossed her arms and puffed out her modestly curved little chest, wearing an expression that screamed 'My underling's pretty amazing, huh? ୧(๑•̀◡•́๑)૭'

Seriously, what are you so proud of?

Not long after, Class A's homeroom teacher walked in. He stood at the podium explaining the rules of Advanced Nurturing High School, while behind him the blackboard was chalked with a name: Tomoya Mashima.

Honestly, Class A's homeroom teacher wasn't much to look at, but compared to the other classes' teachers, he was far more dependable.

Class B's homeroom teacher, Chie Hoshinomiya, was basically an upgraded version of the deadpan Kikyou Kushida — more interested in crushing her best friend's Class D than in her own class, even at the cost of her own students.

Class C's homeroom teacher, Kazuma Sakagami, showed excessive favoritism toward his students — he turned a blind eye to Kakeru Ryuen's violent reign over the class, and even seemed to admire him for it.

Class D's homeroom teacher, Sae Chabashira, nicknamed 'Big Horikita,' was cold and detached, treating her class with obvious apathy. Having failed to rise to Class A in her own past, she'd developed an obsession over it — even threatening students to make them lead the class up to Class A.

All in all, each of them had their own particular brand of formidable.

Once Tomoya Mashima finished his briefing, he looked over the class's discipline and gave a quiet nod of approval.

"Now, please open the phones you were just given. 100,000 Private Points have already been deposited. If any of you find the points haven't arrived, report it to me right away—"

The next moment, everyone whipped out their phones and checked their accounts for the Private Points.

In the original story, Class A's students had all the presence of background scenery — unlike the other classes, which kept producing powerhouse characters, Class A had none of the flair or elite feel it was supposed to have.

By the original premise, Class A was supposed to be excellent, Class B ordinary, Class C subpar, and Class D defective goods.

And yet in the original, third-year Class A was carried entirely by Manabu Horikita — one guy dragging thirty-nine dead weights.

Second-year Class A used to be second-year Class B, led by Nagumo.

As for first-year Class A... there was nothing worth mentioning about them at all. Sure, it made sense that with the fake protagonist stuck in Class D, the author would beef up Class D's cast and pile on the pretty girls there instead — but with Class A reduced to this sorry state, it really made you wonder if Advanced Nurturing's multi-hundred-million-yen annual budget was just a convenient way to launder the island nation's tax money.

The math wasn't hard. 100,000 Private Points per person roughly equaled 100,000 yen out in the real world.

A class of forty students meant four million yen.

Four classes per year meant sixteen million yen.

Twelve months a year came to one hundred ninety-two million yen.

Three years of high school added up to five hundred seventy-six million yen.

And that wasn't even counting whatever else could be siphoned from the Cabinet Secretariat for other construction projects.

Thinking it over, in the original story, the fake protagonist's father had made a show of coming after Advanced Nurturing — and going for a rival faction's purse strings was indeed a solid move.

But doing so could easily get the enemy faction to decide to simply 'remove' him.

Did he really think the White Room, that little breeding facility, was clean?

The original story talked up the fake protagonist's father plenty — no political connections for three generations back, only a high school education, practically a self-made man who'd climbed to a position of power — but there was no path left for him to climb any higher.

That's exactly why, once he saw his son's seemingly limitless potential, he never doubted for a second that the boy would grow up to become the island nation's prime minister.

Satoru Ajimu could only laugh it off — dryly.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand... after the earlier discussion, no one doubted the importance of Private Points anymore.

They all rushed to check their point balances right away.

Seeing no one raise a hand, Tomoya Mashima continued. "That covers the school rules. If you have any questions, raise your hand."

"Whatever I'm allowed to tell you, I will. That's the rule."

"Whatever I'm not allowed to tell you, I won't. That's also the rule."

"From those rules alone, you should be able to figure out quite a bit. Oh, right — the first month's special exam is about conduct. The better you behave, the more Class Points you'll keep."

After Tomoya Mashima finished, students began raising their hands one after another.

For once, they really did look the part of Class A.

Poke.

Poke, poke.

Poke, poke, poke.

This time, something a bit hard kept poking at his back.

Satoru Ajimu turned his head to find that this time Ai Morishita wasn't sprawled on her desk poking him with a finger — she was jabbing him with a pen instead.

"What now?"

"I suddenly have a lot of money. I could treat you to a meal."

"Then I want the extra-large portion."

"Ah, my mistake — I didn't mean I wanted to treat Satoru Ajimu to anything."

Ai Morishita blurted out his full name while nervously clutching her phone tight, terrified he'd somehow make all her points vanish in an instant.

Satoru Ajimu rolled his eyes.

Class A's students kept firing off questions, and each one made Tomoya Mashima's smile grow a little brighter.

Some things he wasn't allowed to volunteer on his own — only if a student asked could he actually explain.

One of Class A's students even brought up what Satoru Ajimu had mentioned earlier — that Private Points might be usable to grow stronger — and asked the homeroom teacher about it, which made the man's eyes light right up.

"I can't explain that one, but it's a great question."

Still, the cheerful tone in his voice made it plain enough just how pleased he was.

Seeing this, Satoru Ajimu raised his hand.

"You're... Ajimu, right? What's your question?"

Class A's homeroom teacher had clearly already memorized every student in the class — it took him no time at all to recognize him.

"Can Private Points be used to change our class schedule? Could I add more classes focused on cursed techniques?"

Satoru Ajimu's question drew more than a few sideways glances.

Even the white-haired girl sitting up front turned around, amusement flickering in her eyes alongside a reproachful glance.

It was as if she were saying, 'Naughty. Should've done this from the start — let's have some fun settling the score~'

Somehow, it felt like he'd gone and provoked trouble.

Class A's homeroom teacher blanked for a second, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.

"I don't know, but I can check with the school administration."

With that, he stepped out of the classroom and pulled out his phone to contact the administration.

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