On Thursday morning, Kanda Shuichi packed some spare clothes, grabbed the latest issue of Jump that had just been released yesterday, and picked up his phone and charger before heading out. That was all he needed.
As for the playing cards and game consoles that Chabashira-sensei had mentioned, Kanda Shuichi didn't own any and had no intention of getting them.
When he arrived at school, he saw the same bus from their summer trip parked at the entrance.
"Morning, Shuichi!"
As soon as Kanda Shuichi arrived, Kushida ran up to him with her bag in hand.
"Morning, Kikyo. Looks like you packed a lot."
"No way, it's just a few clothes."
Before they could chat any further, roll call began.
"Alright, we're starting attendance now. Get on the bus when your name is called."
Chabashira-sensei called names in alphabetical order, and the bus seating was assigned the same way.
That's why Kanda Shuichi ended up sitting next to Karuizawa Kei. Their names both started with "Ka," so they were placed together.
When Kushida saw the seating arrangement, her smile became noticeably strained. If he guessed right, she was probably cursing Karuizawa Kei in her head.
"Shuichi, can you help me put my backpack in the luggage rack?"
As soon as she got on the bus, Karuizawa Kei looked up at Kanda Shuichi with hopeful eyes, holding her backpack.
"Of course, give it to me."
"Thanks a lot, Shuichi."
This obvious attempt to win favor almost made Kushida, who was right behind them, grind her teeth to dust. But there was nothing she could do—this was in public. She couldn't get mad. She couldn't lose her cool.
Just as Kanda Shuichi placed Karuizawa's backpack in the luggage rack, he suddenly felt a chill and turned to see Kushida Kikyo standing nearby, holding her own bag.
"Do you need me to put your bag up too, Kikyo?"
"Yeah, I'd appreciate that, Shuichi."
Kushida's mood instantly brightened, and the chill that Kanda Shuichi had felt disappeared just as quickly.
The bus had four seats in each row. Karuizawa Kei and Kanda Shuichi were in two seats on the left side, while Kushida Kikyo was in the third seat.
Realizing this, Kushida's good mood vanished. Then she glanced at Ike and Yamauchi sitting in front of them.
Damn it! Why couldn't one of those two just drop out already? If one of them did, I could've sat with Shuichi!
After making sure all the students were seated, Chabashira-sensei took the frontmost seat, right behind the driver. Before long, the bus slowly started moving.
A long line of buses drove out of the school and onto the highway. These buses weren't just for first-years—second- and third-year students were also on board.
For the first-years, this scene felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
Familiar because they had taken a bus trip to the beach before. Unfamiliar because this time, they were leaving later in the day, so they could see the scenery along the way and notice that the route was completely different.
Even now, Chabashira-sensei hadn't revealed their destination.
But Kanda Shuichi didn't really care. As long as they weren't heading to some warzone, there was nothing to worry about.
As soon as the bus started moving, his eyelids grew heavy. He had slept well the night before, but for some reason, getting on a bus always made him sleepy.
Just as he was about to close his eyes, though, he felt something rest on his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw that Karuizawa had already fallen asleep at some point, her ponytailed head leaning against him.
She smells so nice...
The light fragrance coming from Karuizawa made his already drowsy mind even more dazed.
Then, Kanda Shuichi tilted his head and rested it against Karuizawa's.
Off to the side, Kushida Kikyo's eye twitched as she watched. Damn it! That should've been my spot!
Kanda Shuichi only woke up when he heard Chabashira-sensei's voice.
"Sorry to interrupt your fun, but I need everyone to quiet down for a moment."
Hearing this, the students, who had been chatting away, quickly fell silent.
"I have something important to announce. So if the person next to you is sleeping, it's best to wake them up now."
As she spoke, Chabashira Sae's gaze landed directly on Kanda Shuichi, who was still sleeping soundly.
With all this noise, how did this guy manage to stay asleep?
Noticing Chabashira-sensei's gaze, Kushida finally saw her chance. She grabbed Kanda Shuichi's shoulder and gave him a shake.
"Shuichi, Shuichi, wake up, wake up..."
Kanda Shuichi slowly woke up as an external force nudged him.
"Yawn~~" He stretched lazily and blinked. "Huh? Are we there?"
"Hahahaha~~~~"
The students in the class burst into laughter, not even trying to hold it back. It wasn't often they saw Kanda Shuichi in such a drowsy, confused state.
The loud laughter also startled Karuizawa awake. From the dazed look on her face, it was clear she had been sleeping quite comfortably too.
"Sorry to disappoint, but we still have an hour to go." The one answering Kanda Shuichi was Chabashira Sae. "I'll be explaining the details of this special exam now, so you'd better pay attention."
Kanda Shuichi shrugged, signaling that he had no objections. Once she saw that the students were focused, Chabashira-sensei began.
"I'm sure you're all curious about where this bus is taking you and what's coming next."
"Chabashira-sensei, if you woke me up just to keep us guessing, I don't think that was necessary. Don't tell me it's another deserted island exam?"
Kanda Shuichi's comment made the bus go silent for a moment, followed by scattered chuckles from different seats.
"Alright, let's get straight to the point. Compared to the deserted island, this one will be much easier in terms of daily life—you could even think of it as a field trip."
Yeah, right. Like we'd ever believe that coming from you teachers.
Even so, none of the students complained. Instead, they waited patiently for Chabashira-sensei to continue.
"We're taking you to a mountain camp. It'll take about an hour to get there. That means the shorter my explanation, the more time you'll have to think things over."
More time to think?
So, in other words, as soon as we get off the bus, the exam starts? Everything has to be figured out while we're still on board? That's a tight schedule.
After everything that had happened, Chabashira-sensei had become much more straightforward.
Still, mountain camps were usually a summer thing. Having one in winter was unusual, but then again, this school was anything but ordinary.
Seeing that no one was interrupting, Chabashira-sensei nodded in approval. "In your daily school life, you rarely interact with upperclassmen, especially if you're not in a club. But this camp will involve an eight-day, seven-night inter-year group activity. It'll be even more intense than the sports festival. The school calls this special exam the 'Mixed Training Camp.' Since a verbal explanation might not be enough, I'll be handing out some materials now."
With that, Chabashira-sensei passed a stack of documents to the students in the front row, who then distributed them to the rest of the class.
The booklet was much thinner than the survival guide for the deserted island exam—only about twenty pages.
Kanda Shuichi flipped it open immediately.
But before he could get too far, Chabashira-sensei spoke again. "I'll be going over the rules in detail. These materials will be collected before you get off the bus, so make sure to grasp the key points now. I'll answer questions at the end, so for now, just listen quietly. Understood?"
Time was short, so no one wasted it arguing. After a silent nod of agreement from the students, Chabashira-sensei began explaining the exam rules.
"This special exam focuses on personal growth, particularly in terms of communication. Simply put, it's about testing whether you can build relationships with people you normally wouldn't interact with. This is a basic survival skill for the real world after you graduate, and you're expected to develop it through this exam."
The idea sounded noble, but if society were really that simple, life would be much easier.
Kanda Shuichi didn't deny that communication skills were important in some situations, but for someone like him, mastering the "art of conversation" was pointless. His style was to just say things as they were.
Besides, when your value was high enough, even if you weren't great at talking to strangers, people would find a way to connect with you. All he had to do was express his thoughts, and there would be plenty of people willing to interpret and align with his views.
That kind of behavior even had a name—"self-justification."
"First, once we arrive, boys and girls will be separated. Then, after discussing within your grade, you'll form six groups." Chabashira-sensei held up a copy of the booklet and continued, "Each group has a minimum and maximum number of members. The specifics are listed on page five of the materials."
According to the rules, if a grade had between 60 and 69 students of the same gender, each group had to have 8 to 13 members.
For grades with 70 to 79 students, groups could range from 9 to 14 members.
These conditions mainly applied to second and third years, since those grades had students who had dropped out, especially the second years, who had seen a particularly high dropout rate.
As for the first years, they followed the final rule: if a grade had 80 or more students of the same gender, each group had to have 10 to 15 members.
No matter how you looked at it, this setup didn't encourage class-exclusive teams. And sure enough, Kanda Shuichi spotted another rule—each group had to be made up of students from at least two different classes.
Meanwhile, someone in the class raised a question.
"Teaming up with students from other classes… Aren't they our enemies?"
"No choice. That's just how the rules work." Chabashira-sensei brushed off the concern and continued, "You can discuss how to form your groups later. Right now, I'm going to explain the details of this special exam and how the final results will be determined."
"Also, you'd better not interrupt me again. If you do, you might not have enough time left for your discussion."
As she spoke, Chabashira-sensei shot a warning glance at Ike, who had been the one asking all the questions.
"The groups you form will function like temporary classes during your time at the camp. Even though they're temporary, the activities will be designed to make you interact closely. You'll take classes together, cook, do laundry, bathe, and sleep as a group. Basically, you'll be living together for the entire duration."
Most of the students groaned at the thought.
"I really don't think I can live with students from other classes—"
"Yeah, this sounds impossible!"
It wasn't hard to understand their reaction. Even though they'd be with students of the same gender, living with people from other classes or even complete strangers felt uncomfortable. What if someone had weird habits?
Just imagining it sent chills down their spines.
"Don't start complaining just yet. Once I explain the rules, you might actually want to bring in students from other classes." Chabashira-sensei smiled before continuing.
"The results of this special exam will be determined by a comprehensive test on the final day of the camp. A general overview of the test is listed on page seven of the handout. Read through it first."
The exam was divided into four categories:
[Moral Values], [Mental Training], [Discipline], and [Independence].
It was similar to an essay assignment—there were no clear standards for evaluation. Even though each category had an explanation, the descriptions were vague and hard to grasp.
However, the daily schedule was written out in detail, almost like a logbook.
Each day would start with a morning task, followed by meditation at the dojo, chores (such as cleaning), then breakfast. After that, they'd have lessons in the classroom.
Lunch would be followed by another set of assigned tasks and another meditation session.
Finally, they'd have dinner, take a bath, and go to bed. It was a strict routine, completely different from their usual lifestyle. It reminded Kanda Shuichi of his high school life in his past life—waking up, morning reading, breakfast, morning classes, lunch, a short break, afternoon classes, dinner, night study, washing up, then sleep.
And then the cycle would repeat, day after day.
Saturdays weren't full days off, either. They'd have classes in the morning, and their only real day off would be Sunday.
"A more detailed schedule will be provided once you arrive at the camp. As for the format of the final day's special exam, I can't reveal that at this stage."
"Also, deciding your group members is extremely important. Each six-person group must work together to survive the week. No one is allowed to leave their group or switch members for any reason. If someone gets sick or injured and can't continue, the remaining members must take on their responsibilities."
In other words, if a group member dropped out, the rest would have to cover for them, which could potentially affect their final exam results.
"Lastly, after forming six-person groups within the first-years, each group will be paired with groups from the second and third years. The exam results will be based on the overall performance of these combined teams, meaning the performance of upperclassmen will also impact your final score."
This made Kanda Shuichi frown. If the scores were calculated like that, wouldn't it be difficult for students of different grades to influence each other? Was Nagumo all talk with no real action?
The rest of the class, however, looked uneasy. If they didn't perform well on the test, their upperclassmen might take it out on them.
In this country, where seniority mattered, juniors had to obey their seniors without question.
"That covers the general details of the exam. Now, let's talk about the most important part—what happens based on the results of this special exam."
Finally, here it was.
The students of Class C perked up. This was the part they were most interested in.
"First, the rewards. The top three groups, based on average scores, will receive private points and class points as prizes. Meanwhile, the bottom three groups will face penalties."
The details were clearly written in the handout.
The first-place group would receive three class points per person and 10,000 private points each.
The second-place group would receive one class point per person and 5,000 private points each.
The third-place group wouldn't get any class points but would receive 3,000 private points per person.
The penalty points would come directly from the students. For the fourth-place group, each member would lose 5,000 personal points. The fifth-place group would lose 10,000 personal points per person and 3 class points. The last-place group would suffer the worst, with each member losing 20,000 personal points and 5 class points.
And the worst part? If a student didn't have enough personal points or if the class didn't have enough class points to pay, their balance would go into the negatives for the first time ever. Any future points earned would be used to clear the debt first.
See? The school had an easy way to take back points—just make penalties harsher than rewards, and the job was done.
But then, Chabashira-sensei's next words made Kanda Shuichi realize he had underestimated things. If handled correctly, this exam might actually boost the overall point totals for the entire grade.
"Besides that, the rewards will increase based on the number of classes in a group. The rules I just mentioned only apply to groups made up of two classes. For every additional class, the rewards will be doubled. This applies only to the first, second, and third-place groups—not to the penalty system for fourth place and below."
Simply put, if a top-three group was made up of students from just two classes, they would receive only the base rewards Chabashira-sensei mentioned.
If the group had students from three classes, both types of points would double. If it had four classes, the rewards would triple.
Additionally, the group's total size would also affect the multiplier—9-person groups would receive 0.9x rewards, while 15-person groups would receive 1.5x.
Kanda Shuichi also noticed that students who were in the same group as the "leader" would have their rewards doubled.
With 80 first-year boys and 80 first-year girls, it was possible to form large groups of up to 15 members, covering all four classes.
If everything played out perfectly, a group could be formed with 15 members from four classes, with 12 of them being from Class C, and the leader also from Class C. If this group won first place…
Then these 12 students would earn rewards for Class C. Each person would receive 3 class points and 20,000 personal points. With four classes, the rewards would be tripled. With 15 members, the multiplier would be 1.5x. And since they were in the same group as the leader, the rewards would double again.
That meant each student in the group would get:
3 × 3 × 1.5 × 2 = 27 class points
And for personal points:
10,000 × 3 × 1.5 × 2 = 90,000 personal points each
Adding it all up, that would be:
12 × 27 = 324 class points
12 × 90,000 = 1.08 million personal points
If both the boys' and girls' groups managed to form the optimal setup and take first place, Class C could earn over 600 class points in one go. Even after deducting losses from the bottom three groups, they would still gain more than 500 points.
But of course, that was just wishful thinking. Pulling off something like this would be insanely difficult.
After all, trying to win first place with a group full of weaklings was no easy task.
Still, something in the documents caught Kanda Shuichi's attention—what exactly was this "group leader" role?
Just as he was about to read further, Chabashira-sensei spoke up.
"Now then, the last-place group will face a major penalty."
When it came to serious penalties, nothing scared students more than expulsion. The class was already getting anxious, as some had already guessed what was coming.
"That's right—expulsion. However, that doesn't mean the entire last-place group will be expelled. Since that would affect too many people, the school has set a minimum standard. As long as that standard is met, you'll be safe."
Hearing this, the students who had been on edge suddenly let out a sigh of relief—even Karuizawa, who was sitting next to Kanda Shuichi.
"But," Chabashira-sensei continued, "if the group falls below the passing standard, the 'leader' of the group will be expelled."
"I was just about to ask—how is this leader chosen? I didn't see anything about it in the documents," Kanda Shuichi asked, raising his hand.
"You'll have a discussion within your group and select a leader," Chabashira-sensei explained. "The leader is chosen after the groups are finalized."
"Hah? That position has no benefits and comes with the risk of expulsion—who would want to be the leader?"
As the class started murmuring again, Kanda Shuichi sighed. *Do these people only know how to listen to Chabashira-sensei? Can't they at least read the handbook that was just handed out?*
"Who said there aren't any benefits? The leader and their classmates will have their final rewards doubled."
"Double!?"
A lot of students were shocked again and immediately started calculating how to maximize their gains in the exam.
"So, if we form a group with 12 students from Class C and one student from each of the other classes, then win first place…"
"That would mean a total of 324 class points!"
Of course, this calculation assumed the leader was from Class C. After all, if there were 12 students from Class C, there was no way they'd let someone from another class be the leader.
"The leader must be chosen within each group through discussion. You have until tomorrow morning to decide. If a group fails to select a leader, they will immediately be disqualified from the exam—meaning everyone in the group will be expelled. That being said, no group in the past has ever been dumb enough to fail to pick a leader."
There's no need to worry about that. When the time comes, there's no way every single person in a group of over ten will have the resolve to refuse the leader role, even if it means dropping out. Someone will step up.
"Also, if the leader has to drop out due to failing the exam, they can choose one person from their group to be expelled in their place. You could say they're dragging someone down with them."
Hearing that, Kanda Shuichi's eyes lit up. If handled well, this could be a perfect way to take out the leaders of other classes.
That's right—I'm talking about you, Sakayanagi Arisu!
Noticing the look in Kanda Shuichi's eyes, Chabashira-sensei quickly added a clarification: "The school will only approve this if the chosen student is considered one of the reasons for the failure. As long as you don't intentionally fail or refuse to participate in the exam, this won't be an issue."
Damn it, how boring! I wanted to see total chaos!
"There's one more thing. If a student is expelled during this special exam, their class will lose 100 class points. If the class doesn't have enough, their points will go into the negatives. Keep that in mind."
"That concludes the rule explanation. If you have any questions, ask now."
Hirata immediately raised his hand.
"Um, if someone does get expelled… is there any way to prevent it?"
"Yes, there is. A student can avoid expulsion by paying 20 million private points and 300 class points. However, even if they avoid expulsion, the 100 class points penalty for causing an incident will still be deducted."
Hearing that, most of the students turned to look at Kanda Shuichi. After all, everyone knew he had tens of millions of points.
Kanda Shuichi's mind started working. "Chabashira-sensei, do all students in the class have to agree to use the 300 class points?"
"No. As long as someone can provide 20 million private points, the class points can be used as long as they're available, even if the rest of the class disagrees."
So that's how it works. In that case, Kamuro's safety would be guaranteed, and Ichinose's class, which had a habit of saving up, wouldn't have a problem either.
But this whole thing made Kanda Shuichi more cautious. Could this be what Nagumo was planning?
Even though the school verifies the decisions, it's still possible to manipulate the system and force someone into being expelled.
Is Nagumo targeting someone? Me? Or Horikita Manabu? This was something Kanda Shuichi decided to think about later.
"Thanks, I have no more questions."
"There's only a little time left before we reach our destination. How you use it is up to you. The exam materials will be collected upon arrival. Also, mobile phones are banned for the entire week. I'll be collecting them later. As for personal items and entertainment, you're mostly free to bring what you want, but food isn't allowed. Perishable items must be thrown away in a trash bag before getting off the bus or eaten before arrival. That's all."