Volume 13, Chapter 1: Intro - School life is changing

On that day, class 2-D faced a strange situation that it had never experienced before.

Teruhiko Yukimura’s right leg trembled, as he looked towards the entrance of the classroom again and again.

“Can you calm down a little? It hasn’t even been 5 minutes since Kiyopon left. He was called out by the teacher, right? It’s going to be a while.”

Hasebe Haruka, a classmate and close friend, spoke to Yukimura.

Sakura Airi and Miyake Akito sat around her.

“I’m calm… don’t worry.”Yukimura answered. Although he stopped shaking his leg temporarily, it didn’t take long for him to tense up again. He quietly shook his leg up and down, and it rustled his trousers..

Yukimura was planning to talk to Ayanokouji after school, but he gave up temporarily because of Horikita’s appearance. Then he heard from her that Chabashira had called him away and he had gone off somewhere, so he resorted to waiting in the classroom for him to return. Hasebe sighed, somewhat helplessly, and looked out the window.

Knowing full well that Yukimura didn’t normally shake his leg, she quickly realized that there was no point in trying to calm him down anymore. The atmosphere in the 2nd year Class D’s classroom was heavy.

The May sky that ushered in the spring was so azure and clear, so beautiful, Hasebe thought to herself.

Then, she thought about it all over again. How had the situation become like this?

The first and second years had paired up for the special exam in April.

In the fifth subject test of that exam,, their friend Ayanokouji Kiyotaka achieved a perfect score in math.

If it were a normal test, it wouldn’t be surprising to see students get a perfect score.

With the academically strong Yukimura in the lead, students who got a perfect score would appear every now and then. Of course, occasionally an unexpected hidden student would get a perfect score. These people either studied really hard before the exams, or they got lucky with how much the exam covered.

But this exam was like a world away from the previous one.

Of course, even though she wasn’t as strong as Yukimura, Hasebe had still vaguely noticed it.

In this special exam, regardless of the subject, the only one in the class that had achieved a perfect score was Ayanokouji himself.

It couldn’t be explained by cramming beforehand or by chance.

“It’s only been 6 minutes, huh… I don’t think he’ll come back yet.”

As a friend,she couldn’t leave the restless Yukimura alone. Hasebe was planning to move on to a completely different topic, but at the end, decided to stay with Yukimura, and leave the topic of the conversation to him. Although the reason for doing this was mainly because she thought she would be able to distract him a little, Hasebe herself wanted to know how incredible was the fact that Ayanokouji had achieved that perfect score in math.”

“Was the question that hard?”

Hearing the question, Yukimura nodded his head without hesitation.

“It’s not a question of whether it’s hard or not. I didn’t even understand the meaning of the question during the exam.”

What Yukimura meant was that it wasn’t that he couldn’t solve the answer; it was that he couldn’t even understand the question itself.

“After the exam, I tried to analyze the question through my memory and found that it was completely out of range for a highschool student. In other words, this was a question that we shouldn’t have been able to solve.”

“What’s up with that? What’s the school’s problem? It’s not even a question of what’s beyond the range of an exam anymore.”

“It really is unreasonable. That’s why the points you could get for each subject dropped drastically. But, there were also a lot of questions that weren’t as hard as what Chabshira told us they would be.”

In addition to forcing in a few unexpectedly difficult questions, there were also several low-level questions mixed in.

So, in other words, this exam was prepared so that even if you couldn’t get a perfect score, you also wouldn’t get a low score.

“So they made up for it by raising our average score?”

“After all, exam results are directly linked to expulsion. It was a big help to the class.”

This in itself was something to be happy about, but to Yukimura, it was just a small thing.

“Ayanokouji got a perfect score, which should be impossible. I…it’s like I’m witnessing a magic trick!”

The fact that he specifically used his last name to call him showed Yukimura’s resentment.

“S-so he solved such a question, Kiyotaka-kun sure is amazing!”

To try to change the current dreary atmosphere slightly, Sakura said this with a sage smile on her face.

But this seemed to have the opposite effect, and Yukimura’s face tightened even more.

“I’ve worked to understand everyone’s academic abilities during our first year, at least at a certain level. That’s why I’m so surprised by this result because I judged that no one could do the question, based on that.”

“Do tell me more.”

Hearing the Ayanokouji group’s conversation, Shinohara joined in.

Before he knew it, many of his classmates were listening to what Yukimura was saying.

“You’ve all checked the tablet, right? Is there anyone in the class who got a perfect score in one of the subjects? No, look at the other classes as well, and it’ll be clear. Look at the entirety of the 2nd year. Not a single student, not even Ichinose or Sakayanagi, got a perfect score.”

Facts spoke louder than words. Yukimura brought the reality of what happened and put it on the table.

Using the tablet, you could see the results of the exams outside class 2D.

“I didn’t even notice. You can even see the results of the other classes. Why is that?”

The shocked Shinohara took the tablet handed to her, and swiped incredulously.

“Who knows. Maybe it’s because of the introduction of the OAA, or maybe it’s some other reason. No matter what the reason is, we’ll have to wait until the announcement of the details of the next exam to know the answer.”

“Waaah, I hate this! Wouldn’t this mean that a lot of people will know my scores? This is the worst!”

Karuizawa Kei, the leader of the girls in the class said this as she lamented.

Then she went on to say this:

“Maybe Ayanokouji-kun is just a math genius! You know, sometimes in those TV dramas and stuff, isn’t there, like, a protagonist that only uses math or something to solve the murder case? I’m getting that kind of feeling.”

Hearing the words of Karuizawa, which although was from a different direction but just as tone deaf, Yukimura dismissed it with a dumbfounded expression.

“Then tell me, why didn’t he get a perfect score on his previous math tests? If he can solve questions of the kind that came this time, it doesn’t make sense for him to not have gotten a full score or something close to it all along.

Yukimura retorted forcefully, as if he felt that the other person had utterly missed the point.

“What’s the point in asking me that? Well, maybe it’s something like, he studied really hard during the spring break or something?”

Karuizawa’s off-the-point answer caused Yukimura to steadily grow more and more irritated.

“This isn’t something that can be done in a short amount of time. Even if he had studied at a higher level than I could imagine, it doesn’t explain how he was able to solve questions that are far beyond the knowledge of a high school student! If you can’t even understand that, then keep your mouth shut.”

His blunt response irritated Karuizawa as well, and it all gradually approached the boiling point.

“I don’t know anything about that. So can you stop getting so angry so easily? You’re pissing me off.”

“Yeah, yeah! Isn’t it weird that you’re taking your anger out on Karuizawa-san?”

Maezono immediately fired back at Yukimura, helping out Karuizawa.

Karuizawa, who had gained an ally, immediately turned around and started digging into what Yukimura had said.

“You’ve got a big mouth, but couldn’t it just be that you didn’t understand the question? Maybe it’s just you that couldn’t solve the question, but the question itself wasn’t that hard, was it?”

Karuizawa knew deep down that her words were far fetched.

But she didn’t change her attitude, because she felt as if she had to play the fool here.

However, as the atmosphere heated up at the scene, the doubts surrounding Ayanokouji inevitably grew deeper.

“Have you forgotten already? The question was such that even Sakayanagi and Ichinose couldn’t get full marks.”

“Then maybe he just happened to know that question?”

“I just said-“

Yukimura had already surpassed the realm of anger and had reached the point of speechlessness.

And then, in order to organize his emotions, he began to explain.

“I… well, basically, that guy… could probably be good at math at an unbelievable degree, I think.”

“So what’s the problem? That’s what I said, that he was a math genius, right?”

“That’s not the main point. If that’s the case, then that guy-“

“Ah, sorry for interrupting. I had a thought…”

Just as the conversation was taking an unexpected turn, Minami Setsuya threw himself into the fray.

“Ayanokouji getting a perfect score is indeed confusing, and I don’t think there’s anything strange with what Yukimura said. It’s just that, isn’t this happening too suddenly? After all, he’s never gotten any amazing marks before.”

This time the statement was as if to add to what Yukimura had said, yet launching doubts from a different direction at the same time.

“That’s why I was wondering, has this Ayanokouji done something shady?”

What began to occur in the minds of Yukimura and many other students was the idea of “Ayanokouji is a math genius”. However, another opinion that rejected that head-on had also come up.

The doubt of “What if he didn’t do it with his own strength?”

“It’s definitely possible. Like seeing the question paper beforehand or something. Remember, didn’t that happen in the 1st year as well? It was the one test that asked the exact same questions as the previous years!”

Remembering this, Kanji Ike said loudly.

A year ago in the spring, his classmate got the past questions from a 3rd year. It was an extremely difficult test, but if you could remember the answers, anyone could get a high score.

“But assuming that the questions were exactly the same as those in the past, isn’t it weird that he didn’t give us that information? And it’s also weird that no one in the other classes noticed it as well.”

Hearing Ike’s statement, Miyamoto calmly pointed out the parts that he couldn’t accept.

“Then… it’s the method that must not be named, knowing the answer to the question in advance…? Cheating.”

“Cheat? How would he even cheat?”

Shinohara, who was standing beside him, asked him that in response to his vague statement.

“Hacking the school computers and stealing the answers or something! Isn’t that possible!”

“That’s as stupid as what Karuizawa said…”

Yukimura had a headache, in the face of the class’s already unmanageable mess.

Yet miraculously, it was through this speculative topic that the time began to flow solidly.

The heat of the discussion focused around the possibility that Ayanokouji hadn’t solved the problem with his own strength, instead getting the answer in some other way.

Considering that he never scored high before, this was probably the natural course for the discussion.

But the one who reversed the direction was Sudo Ken, who had been listening silently until then.

He stood up, and his towering 186cm tall frame instantly gathered the attention of the entire class.

“You seem to be getting rather excited, but there isn’t even a shred of evidence of Ayanokouji cheating, is there? Don’t just jump to conclusions when the person in question isn’t here.”

The words themselves were perfectly reasonable, but the fact that those words came out of Sudo surprised everyone.

In particular, Ike, who had been good friends with Sudou for a long time, didn’t seem pleased.

“What do you mean, Ken? Don’t tell me you’re taking Ayanokouji’s side?”

“That’s not what I meant. But there is no way he was easily able to see the question paper, right?… I just thought that it’s more likely that he got that perfect score with his own abilities.”

The 2nd half of what he said wasn’t as clear, but he expressed his opinion nonetheless.

“If we’re talking about ability, his academic score in OAA last month was lower than mine, right? It would have been impossible if he was not cheating!”

Miyamoto, who had looked at the just updated OAA data after school, said as if he had already decided that Ayanokouji had cheated.

“That just means he’s different from last year. Anyone can grow.”

“Isn’t it just as Sudo-kun says? After all, Sudo-kun’s academic ability surpassed Miyamoto-kun’s too.”

Kei’s sharp criticism embarrassed Miyamoto for a moment.

One year ago, calling Sudo the worst in the entire year wasn’t an exaggeration. But now, after the OAA was updated, his academic ability had suddenly climbed to 54. It was only one more point than Miyamoto’s 53, but it was still higher.

“We-well, that’s because Sudo was studying hard, I acknowledge his growth, but…but Ayanokouji is growing too much, too fast!”

“So that’s why there’s a possibility that he’s holding back, just like Koenji!”

Now, Karuizawa’s previous point of him being a math genius started up again.

It seemed like the conversation had come full circle, and was headed towards an even worse direction.

“Well isn’t that even more of a problem? Doesn’t that mean he didn’t contribute to the class?”

Points that could have been scored, but he didn’t go for them.

If he really were hiding his strength, then there would be nothing wrong with what Ike just said.

Sudo and the others, who always had a good relationship in their friend circle, were about to be plunged into internal strife.

Judging that they couldn’t let this drag on any longer, one of the students acted as the arbitrator.

“Let’s all calm down a bit. We can’t solve the problem by just getting heated up here, can we?”

At a time when the class’s atmosphere was getting worse, Hirata Yosuke stepped in and pressed the pause button. Hirata, who usually took the lead in unifying the class, kept quiet until the very end this time. He decided to wait until he was sure of what the class was considering, what they were thinking, before acting to break the impasse.

Hirata first spoke to Sudo gently.

“Sudo-kun, isn’t it almost time for your club activities?”

“Eh? Ahhhh, now that you say that…”

The reality check suddenly woke Sudo up.

“I know you’re concerned about this topic, but there are many things that are uncertain right now. I do not think it is good to let your club activities be affected by mere speculation. You know by now that the “I’ll be late just this one time” excuse won’t work, right?”

Hirata judged that the primary goal for now was to reduce the number of students in the classroom.

He calmed down Sudo and the others, who had gotten so hot headed that they’d forgotten about their club activities. The introduction of the OAA had caused the number of students concerned about their grades to skyrocket, Sudo included.

Sudo picked up his bag quietly, after briefly glancing at the back of Suzune, who hadn’t said a word through the entire commotion, left the classroom. The other students who belonged to clubs followed suit.

“I have to go too. I’m sorry, I’ll leave Keisei to you.”

“Yeah. Miyacchi, see you later.”

Miyake, who was a member of the Ayanokouji group, packed up his archery club things and left the turbulent atmosphere of the classroom, with Sakura and Hasebe seeing him off.

Although there were a few more students who left, more than half of the class still remained in the classroom.