There was a palpable eruption of noise and chatter when the teacher left the room. Everyone was talking to everyone else.
"If we don't get any more points, what am I gonna do?"
"I used up all of my points yesterday…"
Yukimura had different ideas, "Forget the points!" He shouted, his hand slamming into his desk, "Why am I in D!?"
Heylel leaned back into his desk, his eyes meeting Yukimura's, "The same reason everyone else is—didn't you just hear? We are defective."
He seethed at his words, a layer of sweat lining his head, "You might be your failure, you might have failed but I—"
"Look at the scores before talking please," His words drew the eyes of the entire class, on the poster eighty. Exact eighty. Not the top score but definitely in the top percentile.
"So what?" He argued, "I don't care about your result or why you are here. Why am I here!?" He barked. Barked like a dog and Heylel shrugged. The only one who could answer that had just left the class. "Why not go ask her?"
Yukimura saw sense in his words and got up from his seat, the intended result—send him after the teacher, to get answers.
However, this was only one conversation. The rest of the class was in mayhem, seeing the situation Hirata intervened, "I understand that you're all confused right now, but everyone needs to calm down."
"How are we supposed to calm down? Aren't you frustrated that she called us a bunch of failures?!" Yukimura shouted.
"Even if I was, isn't it better for us to band together so we can turn things around?" Hirata asked.
"Turn things around? I don't even agree with how we were sorted in the first place!"
"I understand. However, sitting here whining won't help us right now."
"What did you say?" Yukimura quickly went to Hirata and forcefully grasped his collar.
"Calm down, you two, okay? I'm sure that the teacher talked to us harshly so we'd be inspired to do better, right?" That was Kushida. She slipped between the two and separated them, gently taking Yukimura's balled fist. Just as anyone would expect, Yukimura didn't try to hurt her and reflexively took half a step back.
"Besides, it's only been one month since we started here, right? Like Hirata-- said, it's better if we all do our best together. Do you think that I'm wrong about that?"
"N-no, it's… Well, I certainly wouldn't say you're wrong, but…"
Yukimura's anger had almost completely vanished. Kushida looked at everyone in class, and it was almost as if her eyes reflected a sincere wish for us to work together.
"Yeah, it's better for us to band together. Right? There's no need for you to fight, Yukimura. Hirata."
"I'm sorry. I lost my cool," Yukimura said.
"It's all right. I should have chosen my words a little more carefully."
Kushida Kikyou's presence brought everyone together and Yukimura giving her a nod left the class to chase after their teacher.
In the back of the class, Ayanokoji took out his phone and snapped a picture of the poster and class points. Drawing Horikita's eyes.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I haven't been able to figure out how points are calculated yet. You've also been taking notes, haven't you?"
"Wouldn't it be difficult to figure out those details at this stage? Besides, I don't think you can resolve this simply by investigating. Everyone in our class arrived late and talked too often."
He agreed with what Horikita had said, it certainly was difficult to conclude anything based on the current information. Her usually cool, composed attitude was gone. She was rather impatient.
"Are you trying to get into college, too?" Ayanokoji wondered.
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, when we learned about the differences between A and D, you looked shocked."
"But so was almost everyone in this class, more or less. If they'd told us at the start, that would've been one thing, but to explain it at this stage? Unthinkable."
"I think that before we even start talking about A or D or whatever, we should secure points."
"Points are just a byproduct of our performance, though. Not having points won't hinder our lives here at school. We have free options at almost every turn, right?" Horikita said.
If you thought about it that way, it'd be a relief for the students who'd lost all of their points.
"'Won't hinder our lives here at school,' huh?"
If you wanted to simply get by, this wouldn't be a problem. However, there were many things you could only obtain with points. Entertainment, for example. If the lack of entertainment options wasn't a problem, then it'd be fine, but…
"How many points did you spend last month, Ayanokouji--?"
"Hm? Oh, my points? I spent about 20,000, approximately."
This was tragic for the students who'd used up their points. Like Yamauchi, who was ranting and raving at his desk. Ike had also spent almost all of his points.
"While unfortunate, they've simply reaped what they've sown," Horikita said then her eyes turned to the two most impassive students in class right then. One was useless to talk to so she targeted the other, "How many do you have left Heylel?"
"About 90,000," He had saved money by cooking most of his meals and by going after the basics in the 'free' section.
Horikita nodded, "And what was it about you two figuring it out?"
Heylel tapped his desk twice, a second later he made up his mind, "We didn't. We were simply guessing that there was something under the hood, we had data points like free items, free lunches, and seniors eating them…but nothing concrete."
"Ha ha ha!" Hearing them, a laugh bloomed out of the blond sitting ahead of Heylel but he didn't contradict Heylel, he didn't point out how much the boy had omitted. Thankfully.
"They baited us into spending all our points over this one month, and we fell for it."
One hundred thousand points per month. Even though everyone had thought it too good to be true, we'd been too happy to care.
"Attention, everyone. Before class begins, I want you to listen seriously for a moment. Especially you, Sudou--." The class was still in an uproar, but Hirata claimed everyone's attention when he stood at the teacher's podium.
"Tch, what is it?" Sudou grumbled.
"We didn't get any points this month. This is a serious problem and one that will have an enormous impact on our daily lives moving forward. We can't make it to graduation with zero points, right?"
"You're right!" shouted one of the female students, her voice full of despair. Hirata gave a kind nod in response, sympathising with her.
"Of course. Therefore, we must earn points next month. To do that, we all need to cooperate. So, please, take care not to be late to class or to talk during the lecture. Also, the use of cell phones during class is prohibited, of course."
"Huh? And why do you get to tell us what to do? Besides, that's supposing our points will increase. If they don't change at all, then it's useless."
"As long as we continue talking during class and being late, our points won't increase for sure. Although we can't go below zero points, disruption will, without a doubt, count as strikes against us."
"I'm still not convinced. Besides, even if we get serious and work hard in class, our points won't necessarily go up." Sudou snorted and crossed his arms in defiance. Kushida took notice of this and commented on it.
"Well, the teacher did say that being late and talking in class were bad, right?"
"Yeah, I agree with Kushida. It's only natural to avoid doing those things."
"That's just your selfish interpretation. Besides, you don't know how to increase our points. Try talking to me after you figure that out."
"I don't think that there's anything particularly wrong with what you said, Sudou. I apologise if I made you feel uncomfortable." Hirata bowed his head politely toward the disgruntled Sudou. "However, Sudou--, it's a fact that unless we all cooperate, we won't get any more points."
"Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter. Just don't involve me in it. Understand?" Sudou snapped. As if being in the room made him feel uncomfortable, he left immediately.
"Sudou really can't read the room. He's the one who was late to class the most. Couldn't we still get some points even without Sudou?"
"Yeah. He is the worst. Why is he in our class?"
Hmm. Until now, everyone had been enjoying their lives of luxury to the absolute fullest. No one had previously complained about Sudou. Hirata stepped down from the podium and, strangely, stopped near the desks of the four.
"Horikita, Ayanokouji, Heylel do you have a moment? I want to speak with you about how we can increase our points. I'd like you to join me. Can you?"
"Why do you want us?" Ayanokouji asked.
"I want to hear everyone's voices. However, if I ask for everyone to weigh in, I think more than half of the class probably won't take it seriously."
"I'm sorry, can you ask someone else? I'm not particularly good at discussing things with others," said Horikita.
"We wouldn't force you to speak up. If you could help me think of something, that would be good. Simply being there would be enough," Hirata said.
"I'm sorry, but I have no interest in something meaningless."
"This is the first trial we're facing together as a united Class D. So then—"
"I refuse. I won't participate." Her words were stern, yet composed. While she'd considered Hirata's position, she refused him once again.
"I…I see. I'm sorry. If you change your mind, I'd love for you to join us."
Horikita had already stopped looking at Hirata, who withdrew dejectedly.
"What about you, Ayanokouji, Heylel?" he asked.
He wanted to participate. But he knew if Horikita was the only one absent, then she would be treated the same as Sudou.
And so out of consideration, "Ah…I'll pass. I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry for bothering you. If you change your mind, please let me know."
Hirata understood what he was thinking. He hadn't rejected him strongly. After the discussion ended, Horikita began preparing for the next class.
He then looked at Heylel, who shrugged pointing at Kouenji, the implication was obvious, he was going to get dragged around again.
And so left just as Yukimura entered back into the class, dejected, like a puppy that had been kicked by its owner. Heylel waved at him, "What happened?"
He answered back, "She told me nothing. Just what she has already told everyone here. We are defective."
Heylel nodded and switched off the conversation, deciding to eavesdrop on the one behind him.
"Hirata's a great guy. He's able to get everyone to take action just like that. People can easily get depressed in these situations," Ayanokoji said.
"That's one perspective, yes. If we could easily solve this by talking, then that'd be fine. However, if an unintelligent student tries to lead the discussion, the group will fall further into chaos, to the point where there's no hope of salvaging anything. Besides, I can't meekly accept my current situation," Horikita was next to talk.
"You can't accept what now? What do you mean?"
Horikita didn't answer his question. She fell completely silent.