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Volume 6, Chapter 2: "Paper Shuffle" Part 2

“Ah, mou- What did you do? You are too late already so how about an apology?”

As soon as we arrived at Pallet, Karuizawa glared at Horikita and immediately started complaining.

“We’ll start right away. After all, Hirata-kun has club activities to get to.”

“Wow, ignore me. As expected of Horikita-san.”

Horikita disregarded Karuizawa’s request for an apology and sat down at her seat.

“And you still didn\'t apologize at all.”

With the two of us now present, the group at the table consisted of Hirata, Karuizawa, Kushida, as well as Sudō.

It\'s true that there\'s not much time left until club activities begin.

It\'s already about 3:50 in the afternoon. Club activities start at around 4:30. The most anxious one of us should be Hirata as a member of the soccer club, but he was very calm and maintained his smile. He seemed to be looking forward to this meeting, his youthful eyes shining brightly.

After Horikita took her seat, without even ordering a beverage, she spoke to the group:

“Well, let’s start with these upcoming quizzes.”

“Should we be concerned about those? All of these tests are being held one after the other. It’s a burden to have to study for all of them. Plus, thankfully the school said that the results of those quizzes won’t be reflected in our grades at all.”

Midterms, quizzes, and then finals. This storm of constant studying would undoubtedly become an unbearable pressure on students who lack the proper study skills.

“Well, I don’t intend to force people to study for these quizzes. But I don’t think the school is having us do these quizzes purely for the purpose of seeing the students’ academic strength. We just finished, and passed, the midterm exams after all.”

“Isn’t it because the midterms this semester had really simple questions?”

“So you’re saying that the quizzes will then be really difficult? That would only be inefficient for the school.”

If they made these upcoming quizzes really difficult, it would defeat the purpose of a midterm exam in the first place. It would be like putting the cart before the horse.

“In other words, the quiz itself is meaningful, right? Does the school have a goal in mind outside of seeing our academic ability?”

“Wait what? What do you mean, Yōsuke-kun?”

Although she didn’t show much interest in Horikita’s remarks, Karuizawa became invested after Hirata started showing concern.

“If the purpose for the quizzes is not to confirm our scholastic ability, then there can only be one other reason for them. The results of the quizzes will decide the partner selection for the final exams. That’s the only thing it could be.”

Sudō had a serious expression as he listened to Hirata and Horikita’s discussion.

“Do you understand, Sudō?”

“…Barely.”

It appears that his understanding of the situation seemed to be rather dubious. They continued on with the discussion despite this.

“There must be a process for determining your partner for the finals hidden in these quizzes. In other words, as long as we figure out this process, we can gain an advantage in the final exam.”

“What does that mean, Ayanokōji?”

Sudō whispers to me quietly. He didn’t ask Horikita directly to make sure that he didn’t interrupt their ongoing dialogue.

“It means that controlling the outcome of the quiz is the first condition for passing the final exam.”

“Ah! That’s what I thought too.”

Sudō’s eyes lit up brilliantly. He was spreading a lie he couldn’t possibly keep up with.

Horikita’s interpretation was undoubtedly correct. The quizzes certainly determine who you ultimately get matched up with. This means there must be a sorting system that we can learn about ahead of time.

The school promised to eventually explain it to the students so they don’t end up making complex, strange decisions.

As to how thoroughly Horikita understands the situation, I can do nothing but watch.

“Like matching up people with similar scores, something like that?”

Karuizawa properly understood the situation and casually proposed an idea.

“Or matching people who answered the same for each question?”

Sudō heard this and desperately worked his head to give input of his own.

“Neither possibility can be denied as there is no way we can know for sure.”

Hirata seemed to have some doubts about Horikita’s response. The smile on his face vanished and turned into a serious expression.

“I understand the general outline of the situation, but I have some doubts about the sorting process.”

“What would those be? No matter what you have to say, I’d be glad to hear your opinion.”

Horikita prompted for Hirata to share his thoughts on the matter with a welcoming gaze.

“To find out the truth behind something like the sorting mechanism, I feel like if we were to consult senior students we could get an answer pretty quickly. If this test was conducted in the previous years, the likelihood that the rules are the same would be pretty high. Isn’t that what the teachers have been trying to hide?”

Kushida had been listening in silence all this time, but after hearing this, she chimed in with some words of agreement.

“I’m a bit curious about that as well. I think that they would be willing to tell me if they were a good friend of mine.”

If it’s a simple rule, it would be safe to tell us from the start. Since we didn’t get any explanation, it’s more likely that there are no rules against doing this, or that the rules are complex. This is what they seemed to be trying to say.

“As expected of Yōsuke-kun! That’s right!”

Horikita glared at Karuizawa as she showered Hirata with praise before folding her arms in contemplation.

“I don’t know for sure if Hirata’s idea is correct, but the school probably won’t be hostile to attempting to learn more about the rules. In fact, I think they consider it a prerequisite for the students to find out about them.”

“What are you saying Suzune? Please explain it clearly.”

Sudō was thinking so much that his head was smoking, and he couldn’t help but ask.

“In other words, are you saying that finding the rules is not all there is to it, and the real exam begins after we determine them? If that was the case, it could lead to devastating results if we don\'t learn the rules.”

Hirata imagined the worst outcome of half of the class dropping out at once.

“I think that’s the core of this exam. It’s hypothetical, but as Hirata-kun just said, if we do not see through the partner sorting process for the final exams, it could lead to devastating results. But, regardless of whether or not she did it as a courtesy, Chabashira-sensei told us that this was the first time that Class D has not had a drop-out by this time in the year. In previous years, only one or two groups of partners dropped out due to this test. Don’t you think there’s something fishy about that?”

“No, I don’t understand at all.”

Sudō finally gave up and bumped his forehead into the table.

“I’ve come to understand the situation. Horikita-san, what you’re trying to say is: ‘There is no serious threat with the final exams even if we don’t determine the rules for the partner selection.’, right?”

“Correct.”

“Can I ask about your basis for that?”

Karuizawa asked Horikita with a confident attitude.

“These final exams are going to be challenged in pairs, and the average score for the class will be the same regardless of what pairs were placed in. Considering that the finals made by other students will be very difficult, if we don’t figure out the rules our only option is to take the exam. If that happened, the result would be a negative one, right?”

“Yeah. I think it would be pretty bad if two students who were close to the red line were paired up with each other.”

“Since we’re afraid of that outcome, we just need to figure out how the partners are decided, right?”

“Yes. We absolutely must know the rules first. Then, as Hirata-kun said, we need to take the quizzes with the goal of avoiding the worst case scenario of failing students getting paired up together. However, Chabashira-sensei said that in previous years only one or two groups of students have dropped out due to this exam. Only one or two, is this not too little? Suppose that the students in our class are grouped in the worst way possible. Nearly 10 students would likely be forced to drop out.”

“…I see. That is what she said.”

“Hey Yōsuke-kun. What does this all mean? I’m getting a little confused.”

“Well, let me see... How do I explain it? So, in order to explain this correctly, let\'s forget about trying to understand the sorting methods of the quizzes. Suppose we went and simply took these quizzes right now, what do you think will happen?”

“Ah, wouldn’t that be bad? If the students with bad brains were concentrated in their own pairs, the number of dropouts would be alarmingly high.”

“I think so too. However, in previous years, only one or two groups of students dropped out of Class D due to this exam.”

“Isn’t that weird?”

Sudō seems to have caught on to this.

“This pretty clearly proves that the rule is something like: ‘partners should be set to a balanced combination’. In other words, that is the ‘proof’ of the existence of the rule.”

Through a gradual in-depth conversation on the matter, we had finally come to the ‘proof’ of the rule of the quiz.

“The answer that we’ve obtained from all of this considering is the ‘high scores will be paired with low scores’ rule. I can’t imagine it to be something other than that. Suppose that I score the highest on the quizzes with a score of 100, and Sudō scores the lowest with a zero. In that case, we would be paired together as our scores are the farthest apart. By doing so, we will be able to calculate the most balanced test results compared to the rest of the class.”

Karuizawa understood, but new problems emerged.

“So that’s how it is… But, doesn’t that mean that students who are near the average score are at higher risk?”

“Yes, the closer a score is to the class average, the more dangerous this test will end up being for them.”

Students with low scores and high scores will be grouped together, but the people in the middle will end up with someone at their same skill level.

At the same time, the difficulty level of the final exams is expected to be high.

The problem may end up as trying to figuring out how to accurately measure the scholastic ability of the class.

Consulting students and preparing countermeasures ahead of time can also probably help solve this issue.

“If we confirm the rules with a few senior students, and we get the same answer from all of them, then this first issue with the partnering system will be resolved. This also means that we can begin thinking about the next stage. Hirata-kun, Kushida-san, can I trouble you to confirm this with an upperclassman?”

“Of course I can.”

“I’ll ask the seniors at the soccer club.”

The two of the readily agreed. We could see a strategy start to form for dealing with the exam.

“I also want to ask a question here.”

“Go ahead.”

Even in the face of Karuizawa’s doubt, Horikita did not show a disagreeable expression.

“Because the students of the class get split up into pairings, what happens if the size of the class is odd?”

“Although that is an interesting question, worrying about it right now is unnecessary. At the time of enrollment, the number of students in all classes from A to D was even. Because there haven\'t been any student withdrawals so far, there shouldn’t be any impact. However, even though this is only speculation, if there was a prior withdrawal, the odd one out would probably be put into a tough situation.”

“I wonder if that’s so. It would be a pity to suffer a loss for a reason like that.”

It appears that Kushida is thinking that the school would have a gentler alternative.

“The number of people enrolled in each class at the start of the year is absolutely an even one. I believe even if someone’s withdrawal was due to unforeseen circumstances, the class would have to bear the responsibility for it.”

When it came to the uninhabited island exam and the sports festival, the school imposed harsh punishments on those who didn’t participate. This does give the impression that there’s a high probability that what she says is true. If there was even a single dropout, there is the potential for us to have a huge disadvantage in future exams. Horikita is probably already aware of the importance of saving Sudō.

“Did this answer your question?”

“Well, sorta. It was a waste of effort to try to understand in the first place.”

Karuizawa’s little questions were answered and everyone moved on to the next issue.

“As long as we confirm the purpose of the quizzes, we can move on to the next issue. However, this is a question that bothers me… Which class do we nominate to attack? My answer would be simple. There is no option other than Class C.”

Before listening to anyone else’s opinion, Horikita first gave her own and began to elaborate on her decision.

“Needless to say, the reason is due to their collective academic ability. The only aspect of Class C that is inferior to Class A and Class B is in academic ability. If we look at how the class points have changed so far, it should be obvious, isn’t it?

It was correct as a basic idea. It would be negative to challenge a class with a high academic aptitude. However, despite knowing that, Hirata gives his input:

“I agree with you, Horikita-san. However, Class A and Class B will definitely see this as well. If multiple classes decide that Class C is the easiest target, we might end up suffering in a bad situation. Something like this is one outcome that comes to mind---”

Hirata wrote out the imaginary situation in his notebook.

Class A nominates Class D → No conflicts with other classes → Target is Class D.

Class B nominates Class C → Wins lottery → Target is Class C.

Class C nominates Class B → No conflicts with other classes → Target is Class B

Class D nominates Class C → Loses lottery → Target defaults to Class A.

“Although this is just the worst outcome, it an entirely feasible one.”

“Wow, an outcome like this would be awful. Being targeted by Class A and then losing the lottery for attacking Class C. I feel like there’s no way we can win.”

“Yeah, there’s no reason for any class to not target Class C. But we have no reason to be afraid of picking them. Shouldn’t we take every step possible to reduce the likelihood of losing?”

Horikita advocated to nominate Class C despite the risk of losing the lottery.

“Is there a noticeable gap in academic ability between Class A and Class B? I’m also curious about how different we are compared to Class C.”

I try to throw out very simple questions.

“There is no doubt that Class A is the best, but I don’t think that they are on a level of their own. There is a considerable gap between Class B and Class C… I’ll solidly investigate this.”

We understand the academic ability of Class D, but we don’t know the specifics about other classes.

In retrospect, the school has not informed us of this. The only thing we know at most is the increases in class points. But we can’t make clear decisions about their academic abilities with that alone. From that point of view, maybe it’s because the school planned on holding tests like this. The number of class points is not an entirely academic gap. If it turns out that Class B is better than Class A, we may end up seeing a painful result.

Having said that, I quietly looked to the man sitting next to Horikita.

Almost at the same time, Horikita began to speak to the man.

“You are very quiet, Sudō-kun. Normally you’d be complaining.”

“This topic is not at a level that I can understand. If I complained, wouldn’t I be disturbing you guys?”

After Sudō said this, we all held our breaths and fell silent.

“What? Did I say something weird?”

“I just took what you had said for granted, so I was surprised… What are your thoughts on the situation?”

She was probably expecting Sudō to interject in the middle and disrupt the conversation out of confusion.

In the face of Sudo’s maturity, Horikita expression went from shock to gentleness.

“Well, one thing I can say is that we have to defeat our opponents one by one, right? We can’t just immediately become Class A in one go, so attacking the class that we’re closest to, Class C, is the obvious and understandable choice.”

“True. Aiming at Class C would indeed help us get results the fastest. If we win in the total score against them, the gap between Class C and our own will shrink dramatically.”

“I can understand that, but it would be nice if Class A attacked Class C, right? After all, Class A will definitely get a higher total score than they will, so Class C would be guaranteed to lose points. Wouldn’t that be really good?”

“It depends on what our goal with this exam is. But in general, the fact that Class C is the target is still the same. Let’s assume that, either us or one of the other classes will beat Class C.”

If the end goal is to reduce the total points of Class C, it may be better to have Class A or Class B attack them and have a better chance of success. However, Class D also wants to win and increase their points. For that to happen, it would be better to have a weaker opponent. If we avoid Class C, it just means that we will have to defeat a stronger enemy. The reason that Horikita’s plan to attack Class C is so reliable is because it’s the easiest to defeat the weakest enemy.

“After all this consideration, everyone seems to agree with Horikita-san’s proposal. I will follow this proposal as well.”

Since my goal was to avoid making things complicated, I only suggested various possibilities for the discussion.

“Thank you. It feels like we can move on to the next steps.”

Despite one or two hiccups, everyone came to the same conclusion.

We disbanded after 4 P.M. Hirata and Sudō both left to participate in their club activities. Karuizawa followed Hirata to the field. The only ones left behind were Horikita and myself, as well as Kushida.

“Then, I will go and ask our seniors about the rules of the upcoming quizzes and report to you my findings.”

“Thank you.”

Kushida did not say anything further and left as expected.

“What are you going to do, Ayanokōji-kun?”

“There should be no problems if I leave it all to you and Hirata. To be honest, this development is almost perfect and was handled impeccably. You have confidence in your plan, right?”

“So far. But to take this final exam, we need to be able to take it head-on.”

“Oh, yes. In short, if the entire class doesn’t put in the effort to improve their academic ability moving forward, there will be nothing left to say. However, put another way, the exams will be easy to pass if everyone improves their academic ability to some extent. If necessary, I can adjust my score and team up with anyone according to your wishes.”

“Can I count on you to put your mind to it?”

“If that’s all it takes. If necessary, I can also attend the study sessions, but I will not be responsible for any guidance.”

“Because you intend to act as the completely useless student.”

“I just leave the facts as they are.”

This is an appropriate place for a compromise between the two of us. At least I think it is, but Horikita has proven herself to not work by ordinary means.

“Let me think about it. After all, you are also a member of Class D, I would like to give you a suitable role. For the sake of everyone.”

“……I\'ll consider it.”

I did my best to avoid the topic.

(Chapter 2 End)