Chapter 14: Monster Insight
At that moment, Hikigaya's heart was stirred up. Of course…
Inside the Service Club, waves were also stirred.
Isshiki: "Senior, you're so lucky."
Hikigaya: "Are you stupid? You're obviously teasing me."
Yuigahama: "Hikki, is that true?"
Yukinoshita: "After all, since you've never touched a girl's hand before, it's normal to blush and feel your heart flutter."
Hikigaya: "Hey, hey, Yukinoshita-san, please stop smiling while saying things like that. Okay? It's not like I've never touched a girl's hand before. When I was little, I used to hold Komachi's hand all the time. I don't know why she stopped letting Onii-chan do that after she grew up. I was really sad for a while, but I can understand."
Miura: "Sister complex… that's really scary."
Isshiki Iroha: "Senior, you're so pitiful. You didn't even notice your own sister disliked you."
Hikigaya: "Disdain? Disdain? That's impossible!"
Yukinoshita: "Alright, alright. If you keep making those weird comments, Hikigaya-san, you'll be treated like a pervert."
Hikigaya fell silent once again.
---
"Can you help me?"
"Well… I don't know how to help you."
"No… Is it okay…?"
"I've never had any friends since I was a child, and I have no intention of making any. Even if I did have friends, I wouldn't know what to talk about. So… it's a mistake for you to come to me."
The boy let go of the girl's hand, turned, and walked away immediately—leaving Kushida Kikyo standing there in a daze.
Ike: "This guy… this guy actually rejected Kushida!"
Yamauchi: "How… how is this possible?!"
The class stared at the boy in the video in disbelief. To them, Kushida was like an angel, and rejecting an angel's request was simply insane. At this moment, Kushida, like the girl in the video, was completely stunned.
No one knew how long it took, but eventually, a cold smile appeared on Kushida Kikyo's face.
The more you can't get something, the more you'll try every means to obtain it.
---
After lunch break, all the students returned to class.
Although there were lessons, very few people actually paid attention.
Some played games, some slept, some chatted, some read comics, some scrolled on their phones… almost everyone was doing their own thing. Chabashira-sensei didn't care at all. She turned a blind eye to students leaving early, arriving late, or even skipping class entirely.
It made one suspicious.
Is this really a public school?
The so-called 100,000 points, the ABCD class divisions, the free daily necessities, the cameras everywhere, the inability to contact the outside world—everything pointed toward something abnormal about this school.
If, as Chabashira-sensei said, everything here was graded with the S-point evaluation system, with 100,000 points as the base number, then…
Hikigaya's expression hardened. He had been ignoring the most important, most crucial point.
"Who said the basic points can't be deducted? If you violate school rules, your points might be taken away."
"I can't be sure, but with cameras everywhere… that trash can Sudou kicked over must've been recorded."
"…Also, this classroom atmosphere. Chabashira-sensei seems oblivious, but is it possible she simply doesn't need to care? If every violation in class is treated the same way as Sudou's trash can incident, wouldn't the result be the same?"
As Hikigaya connected the dots, everything fell into place like strands of thread weaving together. The leaders of each class and the strict discipline all pointed toward maintaining class points.
If individual behavior was tied to the class as a whole… did that mean every absence or violation would reduce the class's basic points?
The more Hikigaya thought about it, the more terrifying the school seemed.
Although the rules had never been spelled out, every detail hinted at the truth.
"Let's say every time someone breaks the rules, they lose 100 points. In a class of 25, if one person breaks the rules 10 times, that's 2,500 points gone. By the end of the month… that's a negative balance. No rewards, no luxuries. At that point, forget about buying a game console—you wouldn't even be able to afford daily necessities. That's the real purpose of providing free items."
"The so-called 100,000 points is just a façade. It only decreases over time. After all, even public schools can't afford to give students that much for free."
"And those entertainment facilities? They're clearly designed only for the rich, another tool for the upper class to enjoy."
No wonder leaders emerged in every class.
The boy pieced together almost all the known information into his own network of logic. Even though he had only been at this school for a week, he had already uncovered what sort of gourd the school was selling.
"The so-called ABCD classes appear to be randomly distributed, but in reality… they're not."
"All comprehensive strengths are balanced before the school year begins. That explains why there's no Class D in the upper tiers."
"It also explains why even someone like me was allowed to enter this school."
---
The boy's inner voice reached the ears of every viewer watching the video.
Ichinose: "How is it possible… that he figured out the school's hidden rules just by observing for a week?"
Kanzaki: "What's even scarier is that someone like this ended up in Class D. How is that possible? Even if it's a video, you can't joke like that."
For them, the video might have been some special test from the school. But even so, they couldn't believe that a student from Class D could analyze the school's hidden rules so quickly.
Horikita Manabu: "Really… one cannot help but admire this. Such powerful insight and observation skills are enough to be called a monster."