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Volume 10, Chapter 1: Intro - “The Calm Before the Storm”

It was finally the first of March, a few days after the end-of-term exams.

Monday, the day where everyone was anxiously waiting for the results to be announced.

After all, in the case of a failing grade, the only option left was expulsion.

“Sensei, are you gonna announce the results now!?”

Unable to sit still any longer, Ike practically fell out of his seat as he waited for the homeroom teacher, Chabashira, to respond.

“Calm yourself. You’ll know in a couple of minutes.”

Chabashira, with practiced movements, spread out a large piece of paper she brought in on the blackboard.

This school would usually release our grades digitally, like on our cell phones or on the online forums. However, when it comes to the exams where expulsion was at stake, the teachers would display the results to us like this.

“Are you feeling confident, Ike?”

“O-oh well, yeah, I studied pretty hard, but…”

“You studied hard, huh? Yet you’re still so uneasy?”

Chabashira must have found his reply more amusing than surprising, as she gave off a slight smile.

For Ike, who usually gets low scores, it was only natural that he would feel anxious no matter how much he studied.

“Sudō, you always seem to be in the running for the lowest score, so how are you feeling?”

It wouldn’t be surprising for Sudō to be the most anxious student in the classroom.

Considering the previous tests, it was no exaggeration to say that Sudō’s scores were some of the lowest in almost every subject. Chabashira was probably expecting a reply similar to Ike’s, but his response was something far more unexpected.

“…I’m confident at the very least. I absolutely won’t get a failing grade.”

“Oh?”

Despite the fact that physical prowess was Sudō’s only redeeming quality, his expression and tone of voice still managed to hold a distinct air of confidence.

Of course, I suppose he would still be anxious about the results, just like Ike.

However, thanks to the effort he’s put in to overcome that anxiety and the experience he’s accumulated, he’s been able to establish confidence.

This was what Horikita’s repeated study sessions had burned into his head. It was different compared to what he was capable of back when his entire strategy for academics consisted of superficially cramming the information the night before. Little by little the seeds of knowledge had begun to grow.

As the teacher who guided Sudō’s studies, Horikita’s face remained unclouded.

Well, she did seem somewhat displeased with how Sudō was getting ahead of himself.

“Hmm… It’s pretty interesting to see how you kids have grown. There’s no way to figure out just what you’ll accomplish next, and you’ve all easily surpassed my expectations. Now, I suppose I’ll announce the results of your end-of-term exams.”

Chabashira began posting test results onto the paper on the blackboard.

And after this, she would draw a red line across the results.

Anyone whose name falls below that line would be forcibly expelled from the school.

“The results this time-”

With a red pen in hand, Chabashira pressed the tip against the paper and drew a horizontal line.

The red line of fate.

And the number of students whose names fell below it was… zero.

In other words…

“Everyone successfully passed the exam. These have been your best results so far.”

Chabashira revealed that everyone in Class C passed.

“All right!”

Ike was the first to cry out.

It seemed like he was pretty afraid to hear the results. After all, Ike had the lowest score in the class.

“Well, that wasn’t too hard. Hahahaha… That was close!”

Ike spoke, his attention concentrated on his name and the red line directly under it.

“I only studied a little bit the day before and I still managed to pass.”

Yamauchi said as much, yet his name was listed right above Ike’s.

“Don’t lie Haruki, you were studying every day in desperation, weren’t you?”

“Is that so? Wahahaha!”

At any rate, both Ike and Yamauchi had successfully managed to pass the exam, so nobody had any complaints.

Chabashira watched over such a scene with a gentle gaze.

Nevertheless, the results were surprising.

Ike came in last, with Yamauchi coming up right behind him. They were followed by Hondō, Satō, and Inogashira.

Sudō’s name was right above Inogashira’s.

Considering Sudou’s results so far, it could be said that he’s seen some substantial improvement.

“Sudō. This past year, you managed to improve your grades better than anyone. You seemed confident that you’d pass as well. I’m looking forward to seeing how you’ll succeed in the future.”

Chabashira appeared to share my feelings on the matter.

“Heh. It’s nothing special.”

Despite saying that, he looked pleased with how well he did.

On the other side of things, the students taking the positions at the top were pretty much the same as usual.

Coming in first was Keisei, and second place was held by Kōenji. Keisei had been getting good grades from the start, and with how diligent he is with his studies, it was only natural that he’d outrank the rest of the class. However, Kōenji was still as much of a mystery as ever. He was never studying, and he didn’t interact with anyone else, either. If he utilized the full extent of his abilities, then he just may have the potential to surpass even Keisei. Because of all the small fluctuations in Kōenji’s test results so far, it’s possible that, depending on the exam, he’s slacking off when he doesn’t think it’s worth his time. Horikita was ranked third. She usually trailed a bit behind in English, but this time she scored much higher. She had probably gotten a lot better thanks to the time she spent tutoring Sudō.

“Sensei, how did the other classes do?”

“They’ve all pulled through just like you did. In terms of the average score per class, Class C came in 3rd.”

There was no reason to ask which class came in first, second, and fourth respectively.

“As I thought, it seems we’ll have to aim higher if we want to overtake the upper classes.”

Without a hint of complacency, Horikita started writing down everyone’s scores.

The students at the top were just short of perfect scores, so further improvement wasn’t an option. In fact, the only option they had left was to focus on improving the scores of the students at the bottom.

“Good job with Sudō. I’m impressed.”

“It’s the result of his own hard work after all. All I did was thoroughly break down each of his weaknesses until he started to see success.”

Just like Horikita, Sudō’s weakest subject was English, yet he was still seeing quite a bit of improvement with his scores.

This improvement clearly showed that the two of them had focused their efforts on English during their studies.

“I wonder if he’s capable of bumping up his score a bit higher next time. Of course, it all depends on whether or not he can continue to concentrate.”

That was a pointless thing to worry about. After all, as long as Horikita was around, Sudō would continue to give it his all.

He was probably beginning to get the hang of studying by now.

He might even be able to squeeze into the upper half of the class soon.

“It looks like Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun still have a bit of space between their scores and the red line. It was probably the right decision for us to routinely hold study sessions. If a certain you-know-who next to me would actually put in the smallest amount of effort, our class’s average score might go up a little bit more, now wouldn’t it?”

“This is my limit.”

As usual, my scores were neither good nor bad. This time, I came in at 18th place.

“I’m not going to accept that. One day I’m going to make you take this seriously.”

“I’ll try my hardest in order to live up to your expectations.”

In any case, it was great that everyone was able to overcome the exam this time as well.

The students who had just barely managed to pass the exams were all clearly relieved that they were over. Ike and Yamauchi had even already begun joking around with each other.

Chabashira watched over her homeroom class with a tender gaze.

“I have to hand it to you guys. It may be a simple thing to say, but well done.”

It was usually pretty rare for Chabashira to praise her own class, but it seemed like it had been occurring more often recently. She probably had a hunch that everyone would pass the end-of-term exams in the first place.

“We did it!”

“Nevertheless Ike, you’re getting a bit too excited. Special exams aside, at an academic level, it’s only natural for you to pass an exam like this one. And besides, this exam wasn’t nearly as difficult as other national-level exams.”

Compared to the written exams we had taken so far, the difficulty of this particular exam was definitely higher.

However, the school sets the difficulty of the exams close to the student’s current skill level. It seems like it’s all for the purpose of maintaining appearances.

“Well, it can’t be helped, but now that the good news is out of the way…”

Chabashira cut into the cheerful atmosphere that had been filling the classroom, immediately replacing it with something much heavier.

It was the usual display.

“Most of you were probably already aware of this, but just because you’ve finished this end-of-term exam doesn’t mean that testing has finished for the year. There will be a particularly important special exam soon, and as in previous years, it’s scheduled to begin on March 8th.”

Chabashira explained what we should expect moving forward.

Speaking of March 8th, that’s next Monday, isn’t it?

We had just finished with the end-of-term exam, so a final special exam taking place so soon afterward wasn’t unreasonable by any means. After all, it was the last thing left on the school’s schedule for the year.

Furthermore, third-year students would apparently have to take yet another exam in tandem with the one next week.

“Everyone. This next special exam will be the last one this year. Let’s all work together and try our best. If we do, our class should be able to aim for class A without anyone being expelled.”

Hirata’s encouraging words seemed to spread amongst the class, with many students speaking up to show their support.

Chabashira watched over the scene, revealing a vaguely relieved smile.

“The way things have been going recently, I’m starting to think that all of you might just be able to graduate together two years from now.”

With these parting words, Chabashira dismissed class earlier than usual.

“Having sensei give us a compliment like that feels out of this world, doesn’t it?”

Ike and Yamauchi began laughing cheerfully.

“But don’t get too cocky. Your last exam is only a week away, and by no means will it be easy.”

Chabashira spoke up again just before walking out of the classroom, leaving us with this one last reminder.

(Introduction End)