"Just as I thought." Sakayanagi glanced at her phone. The official message from the school listed her class's Cohesion Project score: 90 points.
The nearby students gaped at her in shock. "Sakayanagi-san, you said you'd checked our transcription and it was fine—so it really was fine? But Mashima-sensei clearly told us—"
Mashima calmly tossed his tally sheet into the classroom trash can. "That, too, is something the school wants you to learn. This project measured unity. Your behavior earned this score."
Ichinose pulled out her own phone and cheerfully showed it around. "Heh-heh, turns out we got eighty-three! Not bad, everyone!"
Her classmates blinked. "Huh? Hoshinomiya-sensei? What's going on? Did the scores change?"
Only then did Hoshinomiya tear her eyes from Chabashira. Her pretty face was glowing with genuine delight.
She even pressed her palms together like a little girl, tilting her head in an exaggerated, half-hearted bow. "Sorry~ Sensei just lied to you. That score was fake. Rely on the data from the school, okay?"
At the same moment Yukio checked his phone. A dazzling ninety-seven confirmed his hunch, and he chuckled in satisfaction.
Ishizaki raised his phone with both hands as though brandishing a holy sword. "Hahaha! I knew it! There's no way I busted my butt memorizing that sutra and messed it up!"
"Yeah, yeah." Kaneda finally relaxed enough to joke, tugging Ishizaki's arm down before he embarrassed them in front of Class D.
Class D students, of course, whipped out their phones—only to see a meager thirty-something. The number stabbed them in the heart.
Their score was almost identical to what Chabashira had announced earlier—utterly unacceptable.
"Why? Why, Chabashira-sensei? Every other class's score changed—why is ours still the same? It's not fair!"
"There's a fix! This whole exam is rigged—I object!"
"Silence!"
Chabashira's icy sweep of the room—and the thunder in her face—froze every complaint in their throats.
Across the way Hoshinomiya's grin nearly split her cheeks; if she could, she might have smiled clear to the back of her head. Mad, Sae-chan? Good—be mad! Call it payback for dragging our class down ten years ago!
Having quelled the uproar, Chabashira ignored Hoshinomiya and turned back to Yukio. "You foresaw this outcome from the start, didn't you?"
Yukio only smiled. His goal was met; no need for words.
"W-what does that even mean?" Karuizawa was lost, staring left and right for an explanation.
Horikita's face was sour. "You bastard—no ulterior motive, you said? So much for just classmates goodwill.'" She had already grasped the exam's trick.
Matsushita had, too. After the true results dropped many caught on, and she kindly explained to her friends
"Basically, in this Cohesion Project, whether we managed to copy the sutra was irrelevant."
"I think the real test was our reaction when told our cooperative effort scored low.
"Yukio's class trusted him as their anchor, barely argued, and earned a high score.
"Sakayanagi's class had her declaration—she'd memorized the entire sutra, no errors—so conflicts were suppressed."
"Ichinose's class: Ichinose tried to shoulder all the blame and soothed internal friction, so those three classes all got high marks.
"As for our Class D…" She trailed off. Their infighting had been brutal; a thirty was generous.
Yukio nodded lightly, endorsing her analysis. Indeed, the so-called Cohesion Project graded not the transcription but each class's collective response after being told the result was poor.
Drilling rote memorization? Totally unlike the Advanced Nurturing School's usual style—that's why everyone had felt the project so out of place at first.
Since Yukio wouldn't elaborate, Chabashira dropped the matter, but not before shooting a vicious glare past him at Sakagami—lucky dog. Ever since midterms first semester she'd thought: If I'd picked up the treasure that is Yukio, I'd be in Class A by now. With a bitter sigh she stalked off.
Only then did Yukio exhale. He'd worried she might keep digging. He hadn't seen through the project from the beginning; at first he'd found it just as bizarre. When he heard every class had low transcription scores—including Sakayanagi's—he sensed something was off. His idea came from a memory of the Chunin Exams in Naruto: a final written question that was actually a test of nerve. The resemblance was uncanny.
Now, grasping the truth, his classmates erupted in cheers, showering praise on him, as merry as New Year's.
Class D wore identically sour faces. Joy is not contagious; they found the noise grating.
Matsushita and Horikita exchanged a we-can't-stand-you glare at Yukio. No ulterior motive, huh? If he hadn't barged in, maybe Class D would've calmed sooner and scored higher. His meddling had muddied the waters and prolonged the quarrel. They were livid.
But the angriest were Class D students themselves—this time they redirected their fury at Onodera.
"It's all your fault! If not for you, we'd have stopped arguing ages ago!"
"Yeah—if you hadn't kept stirring things up and hounding Matsushita, who would've fought?"
"This loss? Onodera, you're at least eighty percent to blame!"
Haha—Class D? Figures. Mud will never stand as a wall. Yukio laughed aloud and led his class away, leaving the still-bickering D-team behind; he laughed so hard it hurt his jaw.
Afterward Matsushita and Horikita cleaned up the mess. They didn't take revenge; instead they stopped classmates from dumping everything on Onodera, earning her gratitude. With Karuizawa's backing, Class D kept its leadership intact.
As for Yukio—none of that concerned him. He had no intention of paying any further attention to the whole affair…
...
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