Early in the morning, Sakagami came into the classroom, and a lot of Yukio's class members stiffened.
Why was their homeroom teacher here so early?
Something's up.
When something's abnormal, there's usually a reason. Yukio's class hadn't made it this far just by riding their boss's coattails—they'd put in their own effort too.
The moment they sensed that, everyone sat up straight. Phones came out. The students who were already here quickly messaged the class group chat, telling anyone not yet in the room to hurry.
Something big was happening.
The students who'd already arrived whispered among themselves.
"Is it about the cultural festival theme? We still haven't finalized ours. Maybe Sakagami-sensei is here to push us."
"But would he come this early just for that? If it was just culture festival stuff, he could've come at the normal time. That explanation doesn't fit."
Yukio wasn't particularly tense. He already knew a special exam called Unanimous was coming. Sakagami was likely here to announce it. The student council had been notified too, and they'd even had a chance to adjust something.
What was strange, though, was how little they were allowed to change this time.
They could only modify one item: the number of times the options could appear.
And the school didn't even explain what that meant—just handed them a number.
Yukio didn't bother changing it. He simply left it as the default: five option cycles, per the school's original design.
Yukio didn't truly understand how much damage this exam had done eleven years ago…
But Sakagami did.
Even if Sakagami hadn't known, Mashima definitely would've told him—how catastrophically Unanimous had gone back then.
Because this exam could break a class.
Mashima had once said that Unanimous was the reason ANHS had switched from double-occupancy dorm rooms to single rooms. That was how severe the fallout had been—so bad the school couldn't even maintain a two-person dorm system afterward.
Sakagami, having learned that, came early precisely because he was worried.
Unfortunately, the school's restrictions meant he couldn't talk about the history of the exam—he was only allowed to explain the rules.
So the only thing he could do was show up early and "hint" with his timing: be careful.
"Alright," Sakagami said, once everyone was present. "No wasting time."
"This time, you're facing the Unanimous Special Exam. The exam date is—tomorrow."
The room immediately reacted.
"Tomorrow?! We only get one day to prepare?! That's insane!"
"Sakagami-sensei, isn't that way too sudden? We hear the rules today and it starts tomorrow?"
"Quiet, quiet." Sakagami turned on the projector, displaying the rules. "The rules are extremely simple. You'll understand them in minutes, so the school believes you don't need preparation time."
"Honestly, they could start it this afternoon and it would still be fine."
"They're only setting it for tomorrow to give you at least some time to discuss."
"Anyway, look. As the name implies—the school gives you multiple-choice questions."
"You'll take the options, consider your reality, and then your class must reach full unanimity."
"In the end, you'll vote anonymously and produce the same result."
"If the class is split on the options, then you keep voting repeatedly until you become unanimous."
Yukio's class members blinked.
The classroom fell dead silent, the earlier chatter gone so completely you could hear a pin drop.
After a moment, Daichi Ishizaki stared at Kaneda like he'd just discovered fire.
"H-Hey, Kaneda… Kaneda. I think… I think I understood all of it."
"..." Kaneda's cheek twitched. With rules this straightforward, if you didn't understand it, you probably needed to be returned to the factory.
But the fact that even Ishizaki got it proved one thing:
This exam really was absurdly simple.
Sakagami nodded, satisfied. If even Ishizaki could follow, he could relax a little.
"To make sure you aren't clumsy tomorrow, the school is allowing homeroom teachers to demonstrate once."
He clicked the laptop, and the projection changed.
[Question 1: Lose 1 class point; every student receives 10,000 private points. Agree / Disagree.]
"See?" Sakagami tapped the board. "It's simple, right? The process is just that you use your school-issued phone to vote anonymously."
"If there's disagreement, you'll enter a ten-minute free discussion time limit."
"If you reach unanimity, the question is cleared."
"Important detail: for this exam, every option you choose Agree on will become reality at the end. Every option you choose Disagree on will become invalid."
"And the most important thing: time."
"Because the exam is so simple, there are strict time limits."
"First, the personal voting limit. To prevent stalling, every person has only thirty seconds per round to submit their vote."
"If, across the whole exam, a student exceeds thirty seconds in voting time two times or more, the school will expel them. You must be careful."
"Second, the overall exam time. An exam this simple won't take an entire day. The school set the total limit at four hours."
"If your class exceeds four hours, the class will be penalized 300 class points."
"That's all the rules."
The students were left blinking.
Simple? Yes, it was simple. But the constraints were brutal.
Someone immediately started calculating based on the sample question.
"One class point is 100 private points, which is 400 per person per month. So 10,000 per person sounds way better."
"But that 400 is per month. That's 4,800 per year."
"If you look at three years, 4,800 times three is 14,400—so class points are more valuable long-term."
"But we're already in second year, second semester. And class rank matters too. One class point doesn't shift much."
"So agreeing seems better."
Sakagami watched them start debating on their own, quickly and smoothly, and felt relief.
Good. They were sharp.
He clapped his hands lightly.
"Alright. There's a second demonstration."
The projection changed again.
[Question 2: One student in the class receives 1,000,000 private points. Agree / Disagree.]
Instantly, excitement flared.
Free one million?! Ishizaki practically turned into a brawler boss. "Then obviously it's me."
Sakagami tapped the screen, as if to say, Sure, let's use you.
A branch appeared beneath the original question:
[Ishizaki receives 1,000,000 private points. Agree / Disagree.]
The class immediately erupted in booing.
Only then did Sakagami explain.
"Questions can branch like this. And the person selected by the branch will lose their voting rights during the branch vote."
"That's everything."
"You all understand now, right?"
"We understand!" the class answered with confidence.
Seeing how firm their voices were, Sakagami finally felt a little calmer.
Smiling, he encouraged them to do their best tomorrow.