The hardest part of the Unanimous Vote Special Exam was obviously the last question—every teacher acknowledged that much. You could even say that if you handled the last question poorly, the class might not have a future at all.
If you had to name the one class in second year most likely to clear the last question, most teachers would've said Ichinose's class without hesitation.
Just their cohesion alone was a trump card for the last question. No class was more united than Ichinose's. A class like that would never abandon a classmate just to gain Class Points. From the first day of school until now, everyone in Ichinose's class had been soaking in that warm, friendly atmosphere—so naturally, the teachers had high expectations.
But the problem was… someone had started to reject that very atmosphere.
The voting was already done, yet the result still hadn't appeared. That alone felt off. Ichinose raised her hand, curiosity on her face, and looked at the proctoring teacher—unsure whether it was still allowed to talk to the homeroom teacher right now.
The proctoring teacher nodded.
Only then did Ichinose ask, "Hoshinomiya-sensei? What's the voting result?"
Hoshinomiya froze for a beat, then looked up at the projector. She seemed a little dazed as she nodded, indicating she'd display the result. That made the students worry about their homeroom teacher even more.
No one knew why, but everything had been fine earlier—until the moment they reached the final question. The normally energetic Hoshinomiya-sensei had suddenly gotten gloomy.
How could she not?
Hoshinomiya's fists clenched as she stared at that final question.
It hadn't changed. Not one bit. This final question was exactly the same as the final question from the Unanimous Vote Special Exam eleven years ago. Not a single character was different!
And that dragged her straight back into the memory—back to that bitterness of running out of time, getting forced into the penalty, losing Class Points, dropping to rock bottom, and completely losing the chance to graduate from Class A.
That was why she'd returned to this school with that resentment, and why she'd followed Chabashira back to teach here—doing everything she could to block Chabashira!
But then she remembered that drink she shared with Chabashira the other night. She remembered the determination in Chabashira's eyes. She remembered the new life she wanted for herself.
Hoshinomiya gave a small shake of her head.
Whatever. She'd already given up. She didn't want to keep getting in Chabashira's way anymore.
So for now, she'd at least cheer for Chabashira a little.
And right now, the important thing was whether her own class—Ichinose's class—could pass this Unanimous Vote exam.
Hoshinomiya snapped back to herself, typed, and finally displayed Ichinose's class's last-question result:
[First-round vote: Approve—1 vote; Oppose—39 votes.]
That ratio was even more extreme than Sakayanagi's class.
If Yukio's class hadn't already set the standard by clearing it in one shot with a first-round unanimous vote, then Ichinose's class would've been the closest to doing the same.
But since the result wasn't unanimous, the fixed ten-minute discussion period began.
Shibata, the athletic type, spoke up casually, still not sensing the danger. "Huh? Did someone just misclick by accident? It's fine, it's fine—there's still plenty of time."
Ichinose's close friend Amikura laughed and cleared up the mystery. "Hahaha, Shibata, you don't need to worry~ Honami and Chihiro agreed ahead of time. They needed to vote differently to create a ten-minute discussion window."
"Oh, so that's what it was. Then yeah, I really don't need to worry." Shibata flashed a sunny thumbs-up, completely approving of the split-vote tactic.
Almost everyone relaxed.
They started chatting about where to go after the exam ended—shopping together, grabbing coffee together—like they hadn't taken the last question seriously at all. In their eyes, it didn't even require thinking. Just vote oppose. That's it.
After all, they were all so close. Everyone had been friends for over a year now. Who in their class could possibly bring themselves to abandon a classmate for Class Points?
But then…
Chihiro panicked. "N-no, it wasn't me. I—I saw that question and I didn't even dare to vote differently from Honami. I thought ending it as fast as possible was best, so I… I voted oppose too."
"!"
In an instant, everyone in Ichinose's class went slack-jawed.
That meant…
Inside their class…
There was someone hiding among them—someone who was profit-first, someone who would abandon a classmate without hesitation?
Kanzaki—Ichinose's vice leader, strong in both academics and athletics—closed his eyes in pain.
The first-round result was exactly as he'd predicted.
And it was precisely because everyone agreed with Ichinose, precisely because everyone was willing to indulge in this "beautiful unity," that it made him even angrier.
You can't let your companions sleep forever in comfort! If everyone falls asleep together in the forest, clueless about the danger creeping toward them… then fine.
He'd wake them up.
BAM!
Kanzaki slammed the desk and shot to his feet, instantly drawing everyone's attention. A few girls even flinched from the sudden noise, then looked at him in confusion.
A well-meaning girl even tried to comfort him. "Kanzaki-kun, d-don't be mad. Like Shibata-kun said, maybe someone hit the wrong button. It wasn't on purpose."
She didn't know the one "approve" vote was Kanzaki's.
She assumed Kanzaki was furious because someone in the class had tried to abandon a classmate for Class Points—so she tried to soothe him.
Others thought the same. They could even understand why he was angry enough to slam the desk. "Yeah, Kanzaki, calm down. It was probably a misclick—don't scare everyone."
"And honestly, I don't believe anyone in our class would abandon a classmate. I'm already kind of desperate to use the bathroom—who knows, next round I might space out and vote wrong too."
"…"
Kanzaki stared at them coldly—smiles everywhere, one after another, all so casual, all so unconcerned—and his heart hurt even more.
People like this, people who only ever sink into warmth and mutual help… really did need to be awakened.
If everyone was asleep in the woods, unaware of what was coming…
Then he would be the one to wake them.
He stopped holding back.
He left his seat and strode straight to the podium.
Hoshinomiya and the proctor both froze, but a student going up to the podium didn't seem to violate any rule. They instinctively stepped aside and gave him space.
BAM!
Kanzaki slammed the podium in front of the whole class. Every student felt their hearts jump—no one could understand why Kanzaki was this furious today.
"You… you still don't get it?!" he shouted.
"That one approve vote was mine! I didn't misclick—I did it on purpose!!"
One stone, a thousand waves.
Everyone in Ichinose's class stared at Kanzaki, stunned, completely unable to understand what that meant.
Even Yukio—who had just finished watching Sakayanagi take a completely different route, and then came to observe Ichinose's class—stopped outside the classroom, silent, watching and analyzing Kanzaki's intent.
The class that almost everyone had believed would be the safest before the Unanimous Vote exam… had just plunged into the worst internal conflict it had ever seen.