Hachiman’s Classroom of Strength’s Supremacy

Chapter 002: Expulsion by Binding? Hmph, As Expected, I’m the Most Dangerous!

[This exam – pass.]

Seeing this message out of the blue might be confusing. Wasn’t she here to take part in the exam? Why would she pass on it?

But Hachiman understood—this meant she wanted to find an exam where she could properly compete against him.

And this exam wasn’t suitable for either of them to showcase their abilities.

Because…

As expected of the true boss of the former Class A,

Sakayanagi Arisu had immediately seen through the essence of this joint training camp exam.

It was an exam meant for the third-year students.

Each grade had to be divided into six groups for males and six for females.

Then, they would team up with students from other grades.

Previously, in the sports festival, the red team lost because Nagumo had betrayed them, manipulating the second-year students and controlling the point allocation.

This time, with another cross-grade exam, no single class could dictate the outcome.

The second years had four classes, and they would be distributed across six large groups and smaller subgroups. This meant that Nagumo’s ability to manipulate the results would be even greater.

Sakayanagi saw through this immediately and sent a message.

This exam—no fight.

Hachiman even suspected that she wouldn’t just abstain from competition—she might even go as far as to throw the exam entirely.

Of course, that didn’t mean the second years were necessarily strong. In fact, their numbers were the lowest among all grades, making them the least influential in point distribution.

But—

One must not forget.

What if the second-year students all withdrew from the competition one by one?

Unless the first years banded together, there was no way to win this battle.

And the cost of forming such an alliance was too high—there was no reason to take that risk.

Thus, the best strategy was to remain quiet and stay within a safe zone.

At the same time…

This exam didn’t seem to be a direct challenge to the first-years by the school administration. Instead, it seemed designed to teach students how to manage and manipulate people.

That was too advanced for the first-years.

Which meant—

This exam was most likely a test specifically aimed at the third-year students.

And the reason was simple:

The third-years were about to graduate this semester.

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This joint training camp would last for seven nights and eight days—a large-scale event even more intense than the school-wide sports festival.

Students would have to live together across different grade levels.

“This means we can finally compete against students from other years.”

“Ryuen, didn’t you say before that fighting against only your own grade was meaningless? Now you can directly challenge someone on the level of the student council president.”

Similar discussions were taking place on the D-Class bus.

Hearing their homeroom teacher Sakagami’s explanation, Ishizaki, who sat beside Ryuen, spoke up immediately.

“…”

But Ryuen simply closed his eyes and rested, saying nothing.

This made the atmosphere in D-Class turn gloomy.

Ryuen was their leader. But with him withdrawing, the entire class lost its energy. They were still following the school’s rules for exams, but… it just didn’t feel the same.

They missed the days when Ryuen, despite his ruthless ways and constant demands for “protection fees,” would take on all responsibilities and lead them to victory.

In the last written exam, since Ryuen had stopped taking action, Shiina Hiyori had suggested negotiating with Ichinose’s class.

But in the end, all she secured was a monthly stipend of 600,000 points, which, when evenly distributed, amounted to only 15,000 points per person.

On top of that, Shiina had borrowed another 1,000,000 points to cover the class’s living expenses from the previous month.

And as of yesterday, due to D-Class’s evaluation score still being at zero, they had only received the 15,000 points per person from Ichinose’s class.

Which meant—their 1,000,000-point debt remained unpaid.

Not to mention, some students had also learned that, due to a miscalculation by Kinoshita during the sports festival, Ryuen owed Hachiman an 8,000,000-point debt.

Yet Ryuen never asked them to share the burden.

Moreover, he had used the 1,000,000 points borrowed from Sakayanagi to compensate Kinoshita for his injuries.

This sense of responsibility moved people.

Now, facing another exam, they couldn’t help but long for the days when Ryuen, despite his brutal methods, always ensured they had a path forward.

And now, with this new test… they were lost.

Exam Rules:

• Duration: Seven nights, eight days.
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• Upon arrival, students would be immediately separated by gender into six male and six female groups.
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• Each group would undergo moral education, mental training, discipline, and independent survival exercises.
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• The team formations were unique: Each team had to include students from at least two different classes within the same grade, forming groups of 10-15 people.
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• Everyone in the group had to agree to the team composition—if even one person objected, the team would be invalid.
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• Once the smaller teams were formed, they would be merged with second- and third-year teams into larger groups.
•
This meant direct interaction with upperclassmen… and also the opportunity to compete against them.

Ryuen had always complained about the school being dull and uninspiring because he couldn’t challenge older students.

Now the opportunity was here.

“….”

But Ryuen remained silent.

The tyrant had truly lost his motivation.

“Eh—”

Kaneda, the strategist of D-Class and former spy in B-Class, sighed.

“In that case, I’ll take responsibility for this exam.”

He was intelligent, but his strategies were often too conventional. That meant he could only help D-Class perform at its expected level—he couldn’t pull off any grand manipulations to challenge Class A or disrupt Class B.

That was somewhat disappointing, but D-Class had no better options.

“Shiina, what do you think?”

But Kaneda didn’t want to make the decision alone.

When it came to strategic thinking, Shiina Hiyori surpassed him.

“Me?”

Shiina was also studying the exam rules.

Then, she raised her hand and spoke.

“Let’s first confirm the list of students who will be expelled.” Shiina said.

“Either we avoid becoming the leaders of the six male and six female groups as much as possible,”

“Or we prepare ourselves and deliberately assign our class’s students to be group leaders.”

“Since this exam will inevitably result in a last-place ranking, and if all the leaders come from our class, then one of our classmates will be expelled.” Shiina continued.

???

The students in the class looked at her in shock.

What did she mean by confirming that someone from their class would be expelled?

“Can’t we just avoid becoming the group leaders?”

Even if they didn’t fully understand the exam rules yet, they at least knew that the leaders of the last-ranked major group would be expelled.

So, even if they ended up in the last group, wouldn’t they be safe as long as they weren’t the leaders?

“It’s not as simple as just refusing to be a leader.”

“If no one volunteers to take the risk, the school might force each class to provide three students as leaders.”

“And if that happens, there’s still a chance we could end up in the last-ranked group.”

“Which means we’d still face expulsion.” Shiina Hiyori explained. “So, it’s better to confirm in advance that someone from our class will be expelled.”

“Besides, our class has an advantage—our class evaluation score is already zero. Even if we lose another 300 points, it remains zero.”

“Other classes might even be willing to pay us to take on the leadership roles.”

“If we can get 5 million or 10 million points for this, I think it’s reasonable to arrange for someone to be expelled. After all, we are already in debt.” Shiina continued. “So, for the list, I recommend selecting the 12 students with the weakest overall performance.”

“And to the unfortunate student who ends up in the last-ranked group—don’t worry. We’ve already spent an entire semester starving and struggling. Our chances of reaching Class A are extremely low.”

“So, your future here isn’t exactly bright. I suggest you take the 3 million class compensation and leave.” Shiina said.

Hearing this, Kaneda couldn’t help but adjust his glasses.

The other students were also in complete shock.

Because—

Wow!

Shiina was beautiful and elegant, yet she was so ruthless in discarding her own classmates without hesitation.

Everyone suddenly felt insecure.

Kaneda was a moderate strategist, but Shiina was outright sacrificing her own comrades.

Immediately, some students turned their gaze toward Ryuen, who was resting with his eyes closed.

After all, while Ryuen would exploit others for points, he had never willingly sacrificed his own classmates for expulsion.

But Ryuen remained motionless, still resting.

Ryuen always acted—but this time, he wasn’t moving at all.

And so—

The exam hadn’t even started, yet Class D had already descended into chaos.

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Meanwhile, in Class B, which had a similar situation to Class D…

Horikita’s class.

“Just like how the top three teams receive rewards, the bottom three will face severe penalties,” said Chabashira-sensei. “The leaders of all the groups within the last-ranked major group will be expelled, and their class will lose 300 class evaluation points.”

Hiss…

The students gasped at the severity of the punishment.

Because based on the previous reward structure, everyone wanted to be a leader—if they ranked in the top three, their rewards would be doubled.

But even though the penalty for the bottom three wasn’t doubled,

If they came in last—they were doomed.

Currently, Class B had 1,291 points.

And here, Koenji Rokusuke’s 125 points were included, meaning that the actual 1,166 points they had in their own hands were communal. If they ended up in last place by accident, they wouldn’t just lose a teammate—they would also lose 300 points. Additionally, the class would be penalized by five times the number of students in that group in evaluation points.

A complete disaster.

Moreover, given that their class’s overall quality was low, if they were unfortunate enough to rank second-to-last or third-to-last, the point deductions would continue stacking up.

In that case, instead of being excited about the potential 342 points for first place, they were now terrified of losing 400 to 500 points all at once.

This would immediately shrink their living expenses.

As a result—

At this point, no one wanted to be a leader or even participate in the exam.

Because the penalty for losing was too severe.

“Sensei, since this exam calculates total scores based on major groups, isn’t there a possibility that some people might deliberately sabotage their team? If someone intentionally lowers the group’s total score and causes them to place last, is there any way to deal with them?”

One person had not yet given up.

It was Hirata.

He had already considered the worst-case scenario. Though he had almost abandoned the idea of competing for points, he was now more concerned about the possibility of sabotage. Since he knew that his classmates didn’t have good relationships with students from other classes, they could very well be targeted and set up.

“The school has, of course, taken that into account,” Chabashira replied. “Therefore, the leader of the last-ranked group is allowed to designate one student for expulsion. You can think of it as a ‘forced expulsion.’”

“Then… does this mean…?” Yukimura stood up. “If I were the leader of the last-ranked group, and if someone like Ryuen were in my team, could I expel Ryuen along with me?”

“Yes, you could.” Chabashira confirmed.

The air inside the vehicle immediately froze.

Wait—this is allowed?

Seriously?!

“So, in that case, we could just make sure a representative from another class gets expelled instead, right? That… might be somewhat acceptable.”

Some students started considering it—if they were unlucky enough to become leaders, they could at least drag a leader from a rival class down with them. Even though their class would lose 300 points, it might still be a tolerable outcome.

But nobody wanted to sacrifice themselves.

“Theoretically, yes. But someone has to vote for you to become the leader in the first place. And this method only allows for a one-to-one exchange. You should seriously consider whether you’re willing to accept your own expulsion.”

Chabashira continued, “The leaders must be chosen by vote, with everyone’s agreement. Additionally, if by tomorrow morning a major group still hasn’t chosen a leader, then all 30–45 members of that group will be expelled. However, in past years, this has never happened.”

Holy sh*t.

This wasn’t just forcing them to step up—it was backing them into a corner.

Otherwise, over 30 students would be expelled all at once.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

Seeing Yukimura fall silent, Chabashira seemed to realize that he might be the only one in the class still aiming for Class A. So she added:

“Actually, the last-ranked student doesn’t necessarily have to be expelled. As long as you pay 20 million points, you can ‘revive’ them.”

“So, in the end, you’re losing 300 evaluation points, and then spending 20 million points just to take down a rival class’s leader. Think carefully about whether that’s worth it.”

That was brutal.

Their class’s evaluation score wasn’t bad, but because of reckless spending, each student only had about 200,000 points at most. With 40 students, that totaled 8 million—far from the required 20 million.

At this point, Hikigaya noticed Chabashira looking at him.

So he stood up and spoke:

“If it’s 20 million, I currently have about 6 million on hand. I could lend it to you, and if everyone pools their money together, we’d have 8 million. I can then borrow another 6 million from other classes, which means we could eliminate Class A’s leader.”

“We’ve only held Class A’s position for a month—it would be a shame to lose it so soon.” Hikigaya said.

So, he was still so determined to reach Class A?

“No.”

“Absolutely not.”

“The leader of Class A hasn’t done anything to us. And isn’t it Ichinose the leader class? We can’t do that.”

The moment Hikigaya made his proposal, his classmates immediately rejected it.

Not only was Ichinose seen as an angel, but nobody wanted to see her expelled.

Besides—

The cost of this one-for-one trade was way too high.

Even if Hikigaya was willing to offer 6 million points, the rest of them only had 8 million total.

“…”

So this meant they would lose 300 evaluation points, burn through their entire 8 million points, and still owe a debt of 12 million.

What kind of idiot would go through with that?

And besides—why did they have to target a rival class’s leader in the first place?

They were doing fine as they were now.

Because of this, most of the first-year Class B students immediately lost all motivation.

“Ah, what a shame.”

After being rejected, Hikigaya sat back down, feigning disappointment.

Yeah, right.

Sitting a few rows behind him, Kushida rolled her eyes internally.

Being close to Hikigaya, she knew that he actually had around 17 million points.

But he only admitted to having 6 million.

And this 20-million-point revival rule would inevitably make people eye his wealth. So, by revealing only a small amount, he made his classmates realize how impractical the revival was.

Thus, he had successfully prevented himself from being morally pressured into funding a revival.

Smart.

Kushida glanced over at Hirata.

Although she usually worked with him to maintain classroom harmony, she did it to build her own “Kushida Empire.”

But Hirata… even someone like Yamauchi, who was basically trash, he was willing to help.

Kushida suspected that Hirata had some sort of issue—he didn’t want anyone to be expelled.

And Hikigaya, knowing that, had deliberately set up this situation to shut him down.

Since the plan had been rejected by the whole class, Hikigaya no longer had to worry about being pressured into helping anyone financially.

Honestly?

Kushida couldn’t blame him.

If she were in his position—

She wouldn’t want to hand over her points either.

“Now that the rules have been explained, you can review the schedule for the next eight days and seven nights on your own.”

Chabashira handed out another set of documents, likely containing the schedule for the upcoming days.

For example, students would wake up and complete their morning assignments, followed by meditation at the dojo, chores (cleaning, etc.), and then breakfast. Afterward, they would attend classroom lessons on various subjects.

Next came lunch, followed by afternoon assignments and another meditation session.

After dinner and bathing, they would go to bed—a completely different lifestyle from what they were used to.

As a side note, Saturdays were different from regular breaks, with morning classes still in session. The only full day off seemed to be Sunday.

Furthermore, upon arrival at the forest school, all students’ phones would be confiscated—meaning there would be zero entertainment!

Not only that, but boys and girls would be completely separated, with only one hour at lunchtime allowing them to meet. In other words, there would be almost no interaction with the opposite sex.

Once the teacher finished explaining, the students erupted in complaints.

This lifestyle was way too harsh.

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“Hikigaya-kun.”

After Chabashira finished her explanation and the students began reviewing their manuals (which contained the schedule), Hirata and Yukimura immediately rushed to the front.

They nearly pushed Chabashira to the door in their haste.

Because they had surrounded Hachiman.

The teacher had spent 20 minutes explaining, but she had also mentioned that once they got off the bus, boys and girls would separate immediately. Then, the boys would have to form six teams, and the girls would do the same.

At that point, there would be no way to coordinate the students anymore.

And now, there were only 40 minutes left until that moment.

Setting aside the earlier one-for-one exchange strategy (which would require taking on debt and losing 300 class evaluation points), their priority now was to survive as safely as possible.

Indeed, Hirata had completely shifted his mindset.

At first, he had wanted to score points, but now he was only concerned with avoiding last place.

Because if he ended up in last place and got chosen as the leader, or if he was forced into expulsion, it would be too cruel and heartless.

He couldn’t accept losing a classmate.

“If you’re worried about forced expulsions, you really don’t need to be,” Hachiman said. “That’s actually something the other three classes should be worrying about. In fact, that concern is your bargaining chip when negotiating with them.”

“I see!”

Hirata’s eyes lit up.

He had been focusing too much on the worst-case scenario, but now he realized that while Class B was worried about getting targeted, the other classes were even more afraid of being dragged down by Class B’s so-called ‘trash students.’

“So as long as our students join other groups without becoming leaders, we’ll be completely safe?”

For the most part, yes.

Even if another class ended up in last place, they wouldn’t waste their expulsion option on a ‘useless’ Class B student—it wouldn’t benefit them at all.

And as long as nobody from Class B became a leader, their class wouldn’t lose 300 points, because only the last-place leader’s class gets penalized.

From that perspective, Class B was actually quite safe.

Of course, there was still a risk.

If another class wanted to force an expulsion, the number one target would be Hikigaya Hachiman.

The fact that Class A (now demoted to Class C) had been keeping tabs on him made that abundantly clear.

Everyone saw him as a major threat.

However, since Sakayanagi had texted him saying she wouldn’t participate in this battle, she wouldn’t be trying to expel him.

That was a huge relief.

As for Ichinose’s class, they were former allies and a class of “angels”.

If things got bad, they could simply lend them money, and Ichinose would obediently go along with it.

The real concern was Class D.

If Ryuen regained control, Hachiman could be facing a crisis like never before.

After all—

If you expel your creditor, you don’t have to repay the debt.

So, he needed to gather 2,000,000 points, and display his financial security in front of Ryuen—that way, Ryuen would know that Hachiman was untouchable.

And if Ryuen still tried to make a move—

Then next time, it would be Ryuen’s turn to get expelled.