If there's a silver lining to our class getting trashed by Machida, it was the fact that the special wing classroom we were using temporarily had proper desks and chairs. Something none of us had experienced since April.

Without wasting any time, Matsushita and Sakigamiya began drawing up a plan for how E Class would tackle the special exam. While standing at the front, they turned to the rest of us.

"Alright, we've decided that we're going to sort out everyone in the class into three different categories."

As Matsushita explained, Sakigamiya was drawing on the whiteboard. Dividing it into three, she added the headings "creator group", "mentor group", and "mentee group" at the top.

"These groups will determine your role to play for the class over the course of this month. If you're in the creator group, you'll be helping us make questions."

Sakigamiya wrote her name and Matsushita's underneath "creator group". The first person who came to mind to join this group was Nora, but he wasn't in class.

Was he still at the teacher's lounge? I doubted that, since Chabashira-sensei was currently with us here.

"If you're in the mentor group, you'll be leading revision sessions for those in the mentee group."

In other words, the mentee group would be made up of students who needed help the most.

"Before we sort everyone out, would anyone like to nominate themselves for each group?"

"Yeah. I'd like to opt out of this."

Surprisingly, the first person to speak up was Kouji. It was a rare moment where he wasn't wearing his earphones and was actually listening in.

Matsushita and Sakigamiya glanced at each other, before Sakigamiya decided to speak up.

"Does anyone else not want to participate?"

As she asked that, Sakigamiya's gaze briefly fell on me and Ikesugi. Naturally, Ikesugi raised his hand. However, I kept mine down.

"Me."

Another quiet person in the class spoke up. It was Rinbayashi.

She didn't even raise her hand. Her cool voice captivated everyone's attention.

"Kouji-san, Ikesugi-san, Rinbayashi-san, and... anyone else?"

Slowly, another hand was raised.

This time, it was from Kawaguchi. Like Ikesugi, he didn't say anything.

"K-Kawaguchi-san...?"

With a shocked face, it was Tadokoro who expressed concern for him first. Me and many others felt the same way as her.

It was out of character for someone like Kawaguchi to give up so easily. He was best known for being resilient and never giving up, so seeing him act like this was unusual.

However, he was probably like this because of what Shigeru did to him in the war. Now that his past was exposed to everyone, Kawaguchi had no more reason to put up his front anymore. He could now abandon his philosophy and safely give up.

The man sat motionless at the desk was Kawaguchi's true self. A downcast zombie that was a shell of his former self.

"Are you sure about this, Kawaguchi-san?"

Kawaguchi nodded his head.

"Alright, then..."

Once Matsushita gave him the confirmation, Kawaguchi got up and abruptly left the classroom.

This sudden action surprised everyone in the class, including Chabashira-sensei. This was probably her first time seeing him act so defiantly. You could tell Kawaguchi was a delinquent in the past by the way he walked out.

"K... Kawaguchi-san! Wait!"

The only person who had any courage to do anything was Tadokoro. She got up from her seat and tried to chase after him.

"Tadokoro-san... let him be."

Stopping her from also leaving the room was Taiga.

"But... but Kawaguchi-san, he..."

"For now, let's give him some space to sort out things in his head. We can check on him later."

"Okay..."

Tadokoro sat back down with Taiga. Then, Ayano raised his hand next.

"Not for me, but for Hana."

Much like Sakigamiya this morning, it seemed Matsushita didn't remember who Kita was either, as he sheepishly mouthed "who?" to Sakigamiya, who folded her arms and put on a bitter face.

"She's the one who doesn't come to school. Like, at all."

She bluntly replied to Matsushita before turning to Ayano.

"It's fine if she wants to skip out on this, but make sure she takes the finals. You know that if she doesn't show up, she technically fails, right? And each person who fails costs us 50 Cl!"

"I'm well aware of what the consequences for failing are. That's why I'll take responsibility for Hana and make sure she comes to school for the exams. I wouldn't want her to be the reason why we lose the progress we've made either."

Sakigamiya scoffed lightly when Ayano said "we". It was almost like she was dismissing Ayano's limited contributions as not being worth anything.

"What, you'll be her personal tutor?"

"That's what I've been doing for the past two months, since she doesn't want to come to school. I don't want her to fall behind."

"Jeez, so she's relying on you to learn what gets taught at school? Why doesn't she just come to class like everyone else? What a pain."

Sakigamiya sighed frustratedly. Ayano also sighed.

"She has her own reasons for not coming."

"You keep saying that, but I want to know the reason why! Because right now, that girl is dead weight to our class!"

"She's no more dead weight than the three people who said they wouldn't like to participate."

"That's false, and you know it. Name me one thing Kita-san has contributed to in our class. Go on."

Ayano went quiet.

"See? You can't name a single thing, can you? At least Rinbayashi-san scores decently and Ikesugi-san actually tries on exams. The only person who's dead weight like her is..."

Sakigamiya looked at a slouched Kouji and narrowed her eyes.

"Kouji... san."

As she forced herself to utter his name, it looked like Sakigamiya was going to throw up from disgust.

"And unlike Kita-san, Kouji-san at least comes to class."

Quickly jumping into the conversation to help her was Matsushita.

"Guess I'll start not coming into school then."

"What?"

Matsushita was bewildered by Kouji's offhanded comment. Sakigamiya switched baring her fangs from Ayano to Kouji.

"Huh? Isogai-san is trying to help your case, you jerk!"

I got a bit of whiplash seeing Sakigamiya snap so suddenly at Kouji. I wasn't the only one, as even Yukina looked surprised by it.

"If you guys are okay with Ayano's girlfriend not coming to school, then it's fine if I don't come in either, right? The time I spend in this hole I could be using to sleep." Kouji yawned.

"She's not my girlfriend." Ayano said.

"Bet." Kouji said.

No longer able to tolerate Kouji's mischief, Sakigamiya suddenly raised her voice.

"If you don't care about school, then why don't you drop out, you—"

Before Sakigamiya could finish her insult, Ayano stepped in and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Sakigamiya-san, cool it."

"Don't side with him just because he acts like your little girlfriend! Get off me!"

Sakigamiya suddenly shoved Ayano back. Where was this strength when she was getting held back by Ritaka and Kasai?

"Seriously, you've been pissing me off the entire day! First, you start acting like the leader! Next, you start suddenly contributing to class! And now, you have the gall to put your hands on me and tell me to cool it when you instigated all of this in the first place! Screw you!"

Then, she switched her insults to Ayano, poking his chest repeatedly as she vented her frustrations to his face.

"Where the hell has this side of you been this entire time, huh?! Why have you never cared about this class until now?! I don't understand you at all!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but if you want the answer to your questions, it's because I've never cared about this class at all."

Hearing this broke Sakigamiya. The class went silent as Ayano, one of our best students, declared he had no attachment to us at all.

"I'm only in E Class to protect Hana. Nothing more, nothing less."

"...you're the worst!"

Without holding back anymore, Sakigamiya grabbed Ayano by the shirt and started to shake him.

"You're the worst person I've ever met, Ayano!"

Unfazed by her words, Ayano looked down on her.

"Even worse than Takanori-san?"

"Haa? That's a low blow, and you know it!"

Somehow, Sakigamiya ended up defending me. How things have changed...

"You're right. Sorry, Takanori-san."

Ayano apologised to me, but it was completely insincere.

"Sakigamiya-san, cut it out! You know we need Ayano-san's help with creating the questions, his science grade is the best in the class!"

Matsushita realised this situation had spilled out of control and rushed over to stop Sakigamiya, prying her off Ayano's shirt and holding her back from grabbing him again in anger.

"I don't care! I've had enough of his selfish behaviour! Just because he's good doesn't mean he gets to be an asshole to everyone else!"

"Tell that to the A Class students. They think they can act however they want because they're at the top."

"Don't talk like you experience the same discrimination as the rest of us. I thought you didn't care about our class, you snarky bastard..."

"Even if I don't care about E Class, I'm still in Drachma Red. I'll get discrimination regardless because of this tie."

Ayano sighed as Sakigamiya continued to ramble out her feelings while Matsushita tried to hold her back.

"Boohoo, cry me a river. If you don't care for this class, then the least you can do is convince that stupid shut-in Kita to come in so she stops dragging the rest of us down! She's worse than Kouji, for god's sake! How the hell have you let this happen?! You're responsible for her, aren't you?! You're the only one who can do anything! She refuses to talk to us! So do something to help her, instead of trying to protect her, you stupid white knight!"

Sakigamiya screamed at Ayano, but he didn't flinch even once in her long rant. If anything, the sharpness of his eyes increased gradually the more she insulted Kita. However, instead of acting on that asperity, Ayano closed his eyes and turned around.

"I was willing to look past our nonsensical arguments and work alongside both you and Matsushita-san to help create the questions. But after all that... I realised there's no way I could work with someone as childish as you."

"Speak for yourself. And there's no way I'd work with someone as cowardly as you!"

Ayano didn't respond. Instead, he sat back down.

"If that's the case, then consider me not involved with your plans. Me and Hana will deal with the special exam in our own way."

"I swear to god Ayano-san, if you fail on purpose just to screw with us, you're going to regret it!"

The tension between Sakigamiya and Ayano was reaching an all time high now. Ayano simply laughed a little.

"Like I'm petty enough to do that."

"You look like the type of guy who'd do it!"

Sakigamiya snarled, making Matsushita yelp a little.

"A little help here...?"

"Coming!"

As Matsushita struggled to restrain Sakigamiya, Katsumi got up from her seat to help.

"Kou-san, not you too..."

"Alice-chan, this is for your own good. I'm sorry!"

Katsumi took over from Matsushita, using her super strength to forcibly make Sakigamiya heed.

"Kyaaa! Fine, fine, I'll cut it out! Stop squeezing me so hard!"

Mitsuba was drooling as he watched Katsumi hold back Sakigamiya.

"Good."

Once things cooled and the atmosphere of the room had settled down, Katsumi let go of Sakigamiya.

While it must have been embarrassing for Sakigamiya to act so recklessly in front of everyone, I think most people were more relieved that this situation didn't end up turning into what happened between me and Matsushita again.

It was like everyone in E Class unanimously agreed that another civil war would be unnecessary. Though, the fact we nearly broke into another one just shows how thin the ice we're skating on is.

Though, I can't help but imagine some people probably agreed with her opinion on Ayano and silently supported her during that.

"That guy... who does he think he is..."

Sitting down at her desk to cool off, Sakigamiya muttered bitterly. As such, Matsushita began to handle the plan by himself, beginning to draft students into the "mentee group", since that would be the easiest to start off with.

I just found it strange that Sakigamiya became so irrational in that situation. Even though Ayano's words were shocking, I didn't feel like it was enough to trigger her that much.

Sure, Sakigamiya gets easily upset and argumentative, but it's usually for more serious matters. This was a very minor issue in the grand scheme of things, and as a result of their argument, we lost Ayano's cooperation.

In fact, losing Ayano's cooperation would be detrimental for us in this special exam. His science grades were better than Nora's, and he also scored higher than most of us on the midterms, getting mostly Bs. Having him on the creator group would've been essential.

"Mitsuba-san, I'm going to put you in the mentee group, alongside Yukimura-san."

As Matsushita said that, I directed my gaze towards Mitsuba and Yukimura, who were bantering with each other.

Since we were in a different classroom, the seating arrangement had collapsed, and we could sit wherever we wanted. As such, these two chose to sat next to each other, despite being in different rows in the usual seating plan.

"Man, is Alice-chan on her period or what?"

Of course, it was Mitsuba who made such a brazen comment like that. It seems he had become close with Sakigamiya recently, since he was now on a first name basis with her. Although, Sakigamiya does give permission to use her first name fairly easily, so who knows.

"I dunno, I don't care. I'm glad Sakigamiya-san talked some reality into that Ayano guy. I've never liked him since that time he insulted Nora."

"Oh yeah, he told Nora-chan to change back to his old looks, didn't he?"

"Yep. Actually, where is Nora? That goodie two-shoes always comes into school early, but I don't see him."

"Huh, now that you mention it... hmm, did Fujimura-san yoink him? It's her birthday today."

"Seriously? Time to give a bitch her birthday beats!"

"Can I do birthday squeezes instead? He he he!"

Yukimura laughed evilly while Mitsuba laughed like a goblin. The two of them looked over to Fujimura and Suzuki, who were also relegated to the mentee group.

"Huh, he's not with them."

"Hey, stop looking in our direction."

As soon as she noticed Yukimura looking over her way, Fujimura threw those words at him.

"I'm looking cuz I thought you might've abducted Nora."

"I can't believe you'd take me for that kind of woman, Bakamura."

"You dress like that kind of woman, so it can't be helped."

Fujimura rolled her eyes at Yukimura's cheap insult.

"I can't believe you two don't even know what happened to your own friend."

"What, do you?"

"Yes, I do. That's because I actually care for him."

"I also care for him! Don't get it twisted."

"Mhm."

"So, what happened to Nora then?"

"Mayuri-chan, you explain, talking to that guy gives me a migraine..."

Fujimura went back to playing on her phone, rubbing her temples to show Yukimura was getting on her nerves.

"The fact you didn't start screaming at me is kinda impressive."

"Basically, Nora-chan went home." Suzuki explained.

"What? Why'd he go home?"

"He got beat up by Machida."

Suzuki then also returned to playing on her phone after giving that explanation.

"Of course it's that asshole causing trouble again!"

Yukimura hit his table frustratedly.

"Damn, and Nora-chan would've been great for this exam since he's so smart..." Mitsuba said.

"Yeah, we thought so too. That's why we planned on putting Nora-san into the creator group."

Matsushita, overhearing the conversation, chimed in.

"I'm fine with Nora-chan helping us make the questions, but I can't help but think he should take lead of the mentor group."

Also chiming in was Sakigamiya. I disagreed with her opinion, since it would be more beneficial for Nora to help create questions since he was so good at exams.

"What makes you think that?"

"If us two are making questions, then there's no one really suitable for the mentor group, don't you think?"

"Taiga-chan or Yukina-chan would be fine, wouldn't they?"

"For history and Japanese, sure, but we need someone who has good overall skills so we can support everyone in the mentee group."

Sakigamiya pointed at the long list of students slated for needing help.

"I guess... then, maybe one of us should be in the mentor group so Nora-san can be in the creator group?"

"Well... that is a thing we could do. But... I also wanted Nora-chan to be in the mentor group so that those two will actually join in."

Sakigamiya subtly tilted her head towards Fujimura and Suzuki, who had notoriously poor track records for attending revision sessions.

"Ah... so we're baiting them into learning, huh?"

"Yup. If Nora-chan's the one doing it, then Fujimura-san will definitely go. And if Fujimura-san's there, then Suzuki-san's sure to follow."

By using Fujimura's crush on Nora to her advantage, Sakigamiya cleverly came up with a way to get them both to come.

"I mean, have you checked her story recently? She posted herself actually studying, but it was at his place."

"How steamy." Mitsuba said.

Matsushita laughed slightly.

"Though, putting Nora-san in that group just for that reason... is it really okay? What about everyone else?"

"They'll turn up just fine I think. Besides, Nora-chan is friends with nearly everyone on that mentee group list, like Kou-san, Ria-san, Yukimura-kun, Mitsuba-san... even Mikitaka-san and John-san. There shouldn't be any issues. Plus, he's super smart. Maybe some of that intelligence will rub off on them."

As Sakigamiya said that, she looked over her shoulder to Mikitaka and John, who were playing slapsies with each other in the corner of the room.

"I understand. It'd be good for Shouko-chan and Mayuri-chan to come, since they nearly failed their midterms."

"Nearly failed? More like barely scraped a pass. Fujimura-san was one mark off failing maths."

"Yeah, I'd rather not rely on luck for this exam either. Especially when failing means we lose 50 Cl..."

Matsushita looked stressed out by the weight of this special exam. Sakigamiya slumped forward.

"For now, let's just focus on not losing any Cl. I don't think we'll be able to trip up the A Class students, so let's keep the creator group small and pour more resources into the revision group."

"Sure thing. I think we should get one more person onboard for a third opinion... any suggestions?"

"Who doesn't stink at academics in our class?"

Matsushita and Sakigamiya began looking around the class. Then, their gazes reluctantly fell on me.

Wait, were they seriously considering me...?

"...no way, no way, no way. I'd sooner have Yamaguchi-san help than him."

Sakigamiya immediately dismissed this idea, but Matsushita scratched the back of his head.

"I get that it would be awkward for us to work together after all that happened, but he does have better grades than most of the class, especially in English."

"But that's because he's a native English speaker."

"Why don't we use that to our advantage? I think modern foreign languages would be our best chance at tripping up A Class, since not everyone is good at them. We also have John-san, and he's fluent in English."

"More like fluent in chav, that's the furthest thing away from English! I'm starting to really regret arguing with Ayano-san right now..."

"Sakigamiya-san, let's just give him a chance. He even has some experience leading a group before."

"And he royally flopped at it. Any other suggestions?"

Just as I thought, Sakigamiya was going to stubbornly reject me. I didn't mind though, since I had expected this outcome.

"Not really. Everyone else has been sorted, pretty much."

"In that case, personally, I'd just stick to us two doing it."

"How about a compromise?"

"Depends on what kind."

"Let's ask everyone else on their opinion on the matter."

"Huh? Are you serious?"

"Yes. It's better if we heard out the class as a whole."

"I mean... if enough people believe in him... I might be willing to give him a chance."

Sakigamiya finally conceded to Matsushita. With a wide smile, Matsushita called out to the rest of the class.

"For the creator group, would everyone be okay with Takanori-san joining?"

"Huh? Why wouldn't we be okay?" Mikitaka said.

"Of course! He's super good at English!" Katsumi said.

"I agree, Yuu would be really useful in helping to create that exam." Yukina said.

"Mans like Taka out 'ere doing bits, ya done kno!" John said.

"It'd also look good if you two were now working together instead of butting heads." Taiga said.

Naturally, an outpouring of support came from those who used to be in the Takanori group.

"I guess we have no other choice..."

Seeing so many people backing up this suggestion, Sakigamiya pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"...f-fine. Let's put Takanori-san into the creator group."

"Great! Then, Takanori-san... are you okay with helping us come up with the questions?"

I had no idea how to respond at first.

However, after mulling it in my head and chewing on the idea for a bit, I came to one conclusion.

There was no reason not to join.

"Yeah. That's fine."

What Matsushita and Sakigamiya hadn't realised was they had handed me the key that would lead to their own demise.

Being part of the creator group was inadvertently the last puzzle piece I needed to steal leadership from under their noses.

My plan to take these two down would begin here.