From the very start, our class was different from the rest.

We were all well aware that GEN Academy was a prestigious academy, and that a majority of Japan's top students would be invited into the school, but for some strange reason our class seemed to be better than the rest.

Maybe it was because our class was comprised of students aiming for the top constantly. It made the atmosphere hyper competitive and tense.

We had students that specialised in all kind of skills and subjects, but the most common trait among us all was that we were the undisputed best in what we were good at.

That was our pride and dignity. Soon, we'd be asking ourselves: How can we raise the bar higher?

Even though GEN Academy was known for it's cutthroat competition, our class felt like it was the only one who fit in this description. The school promoted freedom and let us do whatever we wished. It felt a strange to be given such preferential treatment.

The other four classes were quite casual, with E Class being the most carefree from all of us. How did this dysfunctional class qualify as some of Japan's best? Why was a class comprised of mostly idiots formed?

The school left many open ended questions, but never gave a direct answer. A Class wasn't bothered by it - we were just like the other classes in the end, except maybe more dignified and competitive, but no one tried to find the answers to these questions that had fallen into our lap.

Well, except one man.

Ryouta Hane, the unexpected leader of A Class. He was the first one to crack the mysterious code behind this school's system.

It was the start of the third week at school. During homeroom, Ryouta went up to the front of class, and took responsibility for the homeroom rather than Hiden-sensei.

"I'd like to thank Hiden-sensei for giving me permission to take control of today's homeroom session. I have something quite serious to talk with you all."

Our class was well-behaved and did everything that was expected of a high-level student. To see Ryouta suddenly have an announcement to make made us all wary.

"This school has been extremely generous to us, but at the same time, it has been extremely deceptive. For the past three weeks, I have been conducting an investigation by scouring the school for answers to the unanswered questions that have fallen in our laps. I have come to a conclusion, and would like to share my thesis with you today."

Many of the students were interested in listening to what Ryouta had to say. His lexical choices and sophisticated speaking captivated us.

"The school has a caste system."

Once those words left his mouth, our usually quiet class couldn't help but begin murmuring to one another. A caste system in a school? That was unbelievable.

"There are multiple cases of evidence to support this. Our classes were not chosen randomly. The school has placed us in specific classes according to both our worth and rank. It's easy to notice that A Class is superior to all four other classes. While B Class may have their own top tier students, A Class is comprised by them fully. Furthermore, after observing and looking into the abilities of all five classes, one can see the clear difference in skill between A Class, B Class, C Class, D Class and E Class. A Class is most definitely the best overall, while E Class is most definitely the worst overall."

Immediately, Keisaki raised his hand. Ryouta gave him permission to speak.

"That's an interesting theory so far, but splitting up classes based on the skill of it's students is quite common in cram schools. What makes it different here?"

"While that is true, this leads very nicely to the next point. In this caste system, students can change classes. While this is typical in all schools, moving up or down classes in this school actually reflects the abilities of that individual. A student performing well in B Class might move up into A Class, while a student performing poorly in A Class will move down to B Class. That would explain why there are CCTV cameras set up almost everywhere we go. The school monitors us using them, and can assesses us on how we do in lesson. Furthermore, they use data from exams to further support their evaluation of us. That is how they determine which class we belong in."

Ryouta presented a very believable case, but no one found this to be quite shocking. If the school works on this kind of system, it would be very fair to all students. If you do well, you get promoted. If you slack, you get demoted.

As A Class was already competitive, no one here would believe they'd move down. If someone joins our class, then it'd be fine.

"In fairness, this is a good system. It rewards those doing well, but punishes those who don't. However, there's reason to believe that falling into E Class is very common at this school. After collecting some data from the upperclassmen, the distribution of E Class students among 2nd Year and 3rd Years are disturbingly high. Among the 3rd Years, there are 72 current E Class students, while among the 2nd Years there are 32 current E Class students. In comparison, the 3rd Years have 11 A Class students, and 2nd Years have 27 A Class students. The chances are, if a student is even fractionally doing less than expected, they'll tumble down the ladder and fall to the bottom."

While we were losing interest, Ryouta reeled us back in with an interesting hook. Those who were less confident in their abilities felt threatened by these statistics, but personally, I found a lack of correlation.

Within the 2nd Years, the number of A Class students has actually increased from 25 to 27, so the gap between A Class and E Class 2nd Years was far smaller than the gap between the 3rd Year A Class and E Class.

Like Keisaki did earlier, Yamamoto (the male one) raised his hand to get permission to speak.

"I don't see what's wrong with moving down to a lower class. There's no direct disadvantage moving down a class, as you can just work your way back up."

"That is certainly true. Initially, there was no reason to be found as to why anyone would fear this system. However, seeking deeper into it, there were pockets of invisible darkness. To put simply, E Class students get treated like garbage by the other students."

That statement caught everyone's fading attention for sure.

"The premise of this idea came from the incident that involved Ishima-san's younger brother, Ishima Akihiro-san, and the 2nd Year student Adachi Taiyou-senpai. In one of the videos capturing the event, an insult about the group of E Class students being in Drachma Red was made, and on the school forums, there were many comments that slandered the E Class students at the table even though they were being, arguably, more respectful than the group of B Class students. Digging deeper, there were many situations where 2nd Year and 3rd Year E Class students were being targeted by their peers, for no other reason than them being in the worst class."

Keisaki raised his hand again.

"I'm sorry, Ryouta-san, but I can't simply believe this part. Why would people harass others for being in another class? That's absurd. Plus, this is all just second-hand information, right? You haven't witnessed this actually, have you?"

"Unfortunately, I have. On this phone are some videos capturing the abuse taking place. The quality of the video is bad because obtaining it was difficult due to sneaking around and acting conspicuously."

Ryouta pointed at his phone, then played the video on the whiteboard in front of the class.

The video was about a minute long, and depicted C Class students following an E Class student after school, shouting at the student and throwing pieces of a pen at them. The C Class students were laughing quite happily, while the E Class student was trying to escape the situation.

A lot of the students found this behaviour incredibly distasteful. Yamamoto (the female one) raised her hand.

"Ryouta-kun, we should report this. This isn't right..."

"A report for this was filed, but thus far there have been no updates regarding the situation. No punishments have been dealt out to the students in question. This is most likely because the school doesn't care if E Class students get harassed."

The class began murmuring once again. What an interesting perspective he's taken.

"Let's give this scene more context. The E Class student being harassed is Soumei Kikaoka-senpai, a 3rd Year. Asking some of Soumei-senpai's acquaintances, from both his prior class of D Class, and his current classmates in E Class, the root cause of his fall to E Class was his rude and obstinate personality. The C Class student harassing him is Fukawari Seidou-senpai, also 3rd Year. Fukawari-senpai is best known for being a former E Class student, and worked his way up the ranks to C Class. What is everyone's impression about this scene now?"

By explaining each of the main people involved, this severely shifted everyone's stance on the matter. It was no longer a case of black and white - the situation became a lot more grey. While it wasn't the most complex situation, it did make us question who was in the right and who was in the wrong.

If Ryouta is telling the truth, then Soumei is a terrible person, and probably does deserve the harassment as a form of karma. Give and take, as they say. Fukawari also seemed like a hard-working individual, but that doesn't exactly excuse the fact he got caught up in this.

A slight contradiction that makes Fukawari the bad guy is that he used to be in E Class. He should know first-hand how bad the treatment is, yet he continues to do it, thus continuing the never-ending cycle of abuse.

Perhaps Ryouta used this to show the more perceptive students that even former E Class students are willing to hurt those in E Class, just as a way to stress how big of a deal this is. He's well aware that we can think for ourselves and have critical judgment, so he left the situation open for interpretation.

If you want my opinion though, I think this is all pretty stupid.

The class began debating over who was right in this situation. Though, Ryouta looked like he had another thing up his sleeve to convince all of us once and for all. A lynchpin in his argument (theory).

"Alright, that's enough. Discuss to your heart's content later, but for now, there's been one thing that's been bothering everyone from the start, isn't there?"

The class nodded. It was a focal point of our homeroom discussion at times. We were all well aware that Ryouta was referring to our private points, something that was a complete enigma to us.

We all agreed that something like this was abnormal and must have some kind of cost using it, even if Hiden-sensei denied it vehemently. No one had yet to confirm these suspicions though, so we all agreed to sparsely use our points just in case.

Now that Ryouta brought it up right after setting the groundwork for his caste system theory, the pieces in our heads began to click. Ryouta smiled as he watched everyone link these two together.

"This is about private points. Everyone received 100,000 points at the start of the month. That goes for all 125 students, no matter the class. Logging into the school app, one can see their balance, but also this. Class points, or in other words, cl. Due to the caste system being in place, I asked Ichinose-san from B Class, Ikeda-san from C Class, Horie-san from D Class, and Matsushita-san from E Class to show me their cl points. We all had 1000 points, even though our classes should be on different tiers of skill. After discussing this with Hiden-sensei, a hint led back to the upperclassmen, where I asked to see their cl points. Every one of them denied to show me."

The class looked confused on where Ryouta was taking this.

"We have to put two and two together. Pr and cl are clearly linked. 100,000 pr divided by 100 is 1000. The cl for all classes is 1000. The school never stated we would receive 100,000 pr per month. So, this must mean they fluctuate. If the cl can fluctuate, it means it can increase or decrease. In all likelihood, A Class's cl will increase, while E Class's cl will decrease, thus making the caste system apparent. If our cl increases, so will the pr we receive at the start of the month. Unfortunately, there is no evidence backing this claim, but it's the best theory based on the hints given so far."

Takizawa raised his hand.

"So how would our cl change?"

"I haven't figured that out yet. The only logical assumption is that cl is affected by the class performance, as it is referred to class points, and not private points. Rather than be owned by an individual, it is owned by all of us, together as a collective group. We are all responsible for the changes in cl."

We had gone silent mulling over what Ryouta was saying. He had a surprisingly strong case going for him, thought it felt too fictional to feel real. A lot of us still felt sceptical at his theory, me included.

Masamoto raised his hand to speak next. He was on the student council, and the only 1st Year to be accepted thus far.

"From what I understand, you believe there is a link between the caste system and our points?"

Ryouta's smile grew wider, showing off his white canines. The class seemed to finally put two and two together.

"Exactly. Our points dictate our standing on the caste system. That's the thesis."

"That's..." Masamoto muttered, thinking about it.

Our class became extremely lively after Ryouta finished his discussion with a snappy and concise final line. We began talking to one another, expanding upon possible ideas and arguing whether this could actually happen in a school.

Ryouta just watched from the podium, looking proud of himself for putting the puzzle pieces together and telling everyone about it. However, this was just his interpretation, and not necessarily the correct answer.

Hiden-sensei watched from his desk, watching everyone with his usual bone-chilling smile. He had shown no change of emotion other than his gleeful persona. No shock or react to Ryouta's deep-cutting words.

Even though we couldn't agree to accept Ryouta's theory, we all remembered that display of courage he showed by talking to everyone.

A Class wouldn't understand the situation fully until May 1st.

Hiden-sensei walked into the room with a dark expression we'd never seen on his face before, and began explaining to us in detail everything that Ryouta had predicted. He watched the air of shock fill the room, and let all 25 of us sink in the truth of this school.

Part of us felt like idiots for not listening to Ryouta. We had somehow managed to lose 50 of our cl.

However, the near-accurate prediction Ryouta made catapulted him into popularity. He unexpectedly rose up the ranks and became leader of our class.

He took onboard the caste system and the situation we were in without any qualms, and urged us all to stay hardworking as to not land up in the dumps of E Class.

As we were already at the top, I saw no reason to tire myself out so early in the race to get to the top of the class.

I was going to instead watch all 100 students under us fail and struggle to climb up the ranks.

Most especially you, Boya-san.