Shirogane Miyuki in COTE

[There will be a special test every month. If any student brings in class points or a large amount of personal points for the class through the test, they will be rewarded with 60% of the value. For example, if a student performs well and earns 100 class points, they'll get the personal points that match that, and 60% of it will go to them or their team. If they bring in a huge personal point reward, like one million points, they'll get 600,000 points directly after the test, and the other 400,000 points will be split evenly among the rest of the class.]

[As for joining the support team, the requirements could include strong academics, good physical ability, or decent thinking skills… If you believe you have talent in any of these areas, you can go to Kaneda to sign up. After evaluation, you can receive extra allowance as part of the support team.]

Then it listed some additional details and rules.

Even though most students felt the reward system had nothing to do with them, some believed they could actually prove themselves.

So very quickly, Class 1-B, on the third day of their second month, signed an agreement that would later be copied by both higher and lower-ranked classes.

This agreement secured the leader's role, protected their financial stability, and guaranteed that students who contributed to the class would get the rewards they deserved.

It also gave average students a chance to share in the benefits.

They even included some financial support for those who had to drop out.

At the very end, it also listed a way to choose which students should drop out if it became necessary.

And obviously, that would be the ones who complain, enjoy the benefits, and don't try to work hard. Easy to find.

…

You could say, that morning, Class 1-B experienced an earthquake.

And for Class 1-D, it wasn't much different.

During homeroom, the teacher didn't show up. Some students were probably planning to show up just before class ended anyway—after all, the class already had zero points, and they couldn't lose any more.

So skipping class didn't seem like a big deal.

But then—

"Damn it!"

"What are we supposed to do?! If we fail the test, we'll be kicked out!"

Yesterday during homeroom, Chabashira-sensei had announced the end-of-month test, and after that, the whole class fell into a slump.

But the test wasn't the only problem. For Class D, there was something else.

No living expenses. They had no living expenses this month.

"How are we supposed to live like this?! I had 200 points left yesterday, and now it's all gone. Doc, can I delay paying back the 10,000 points I owe you?"

"Kushida, can you lend me something? I promise I'll pay you back. I don't know when, but come on, we're friends, right?"

"I've been forcing myself to eat that awful free wild veggie set for the last two days, but I just can't take another bite."

"The boiled vegetables don't even have oil or salt."

The wild veggie meal wasn't just disgusting—it didn't even have salt. It was harsh. No flavor at all.

Someone almost slammed their tray down, but with no money, they ended up sitting back down instead.

"Then what if we added our own ingredients?"

"Wouldn't it taste way better?"

"Let's go grab the free ingredients from the supermarket. We can cook ourselves."

Even though getting the free meal packs used to feel embarrassing, now that nobody had money, it didn't feel that way anymore. So students slowly started getting used to it.

At the same time.

"So if we can get cooking tools, we can actually make some pretty good meals."

The students quickly shifted their focus to the problem of food.

They started thinking about how to eat each day while spending as little as possible—or nothing at all.

"..."

At first, the class had been thinking about the test, but that quickly got pushed aside. It was clear this class didn't have much motivation to improve.

But now that everyone was short on money, if someone stepped up and aimed higher—earning class points and getting money in a fair way—the other students would probably go along with it.

At that moment, Ayanokouji, sitting by the window, was deep in thought.

He looked over at Horikita, but she ignored him completely and kept quietly flipping through her textbook.

In other words, Horikita had rejected his plan.

He didn't want to stand out, so he had hoped to use someone else to push the class forward—both to keep Chabashira from bothering him and to satisfy his own quiet desire to win. But unfortunately, Horikita didn't take the bait.

And on top of that,

Horikita even wanted him to personally investigate how the upperclassmen's exams worked.

That was actually pretty tough for him.

Ayanokouji knew himself well. Back when he first entered the school, he had planned to make a cool, fiery self-introduction.

But it ended up being:

[I'm Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.]

And that was it.

Even though he tried to act normal—copying how Ike and Kanji behaved to seem like a regular high schooler—people still thought he had social problems.

So asking him to go get information from older students was putting him in a tough spot.

Still, it's not like there weren't other people in the class who could do it.

For example,

Even if Horikita didn't want to be used, Hirata probably wouldn't mind. Hirata acted kind of strange, like he really cared about everyone in the class. Did he really value his classmates that much?

That kind of feeling was something Ayanokouji couldn't really understand.

But one thing was clear—Hirata would likely help out for free if it meant no one in the class would get expelled.

Besides Hirata, choosing Kushida was also an option.

Unlike Hirata, Kushida was popular not just in their class but in other classes too. You could often see her chatting with students from other classes in the shopping area. So even though this task meant asking upperclassmen for information, Kushida might actually be a better choice.

Choosing her instead of Hirata was probably a bit of a selfish move.

After all, if you had to go out and work with someone, it'd definitely be more fun if your partner was a cute girl.

Ike Kanji even said that Kushida was his little angel.

No girls in the class ever gave him the time of day—except for Kushida. She treated him like an equal, and that was enough to make his heart race.

Ayanokouji thought Kushida seemed pretty interesting. And she probably wouldn't say no—especially if it was for the class. She seemed like the kind of person who'd be reasonable.

This kind of task could really be done by either Hirata or Kushida.

Thinking this, Ayanokouji looked over at Kushida Kikyo.

Right now, Kushida was chatting with one of her close friends—a small girl with twin black ponytails.

She was really good at English and always seemed to score perfect marks.

In just one month, she and Kushida had become really close—like best friends.

They went to the bathroom together, ate meals together, and now they were chatting again. But since Kushida was very popular, it wasn't just Wang Meiyu joining the conversation—other girls were joining in too.

That made it hard to approach Kushida directly. Even during breaks, other students would come over to talk or hang out with her, so finding a moment to speak to her alone was nearly impossible.

So maybe texting her would be easier.

Time to send her a message.

With that thought, Ayanokouji opened his phone's contact list.

[Chabashira-sensei145555...]

[Hirata Yosuke134555...]

But the moment he opened it, Ayanokouji realized he only had two contacts. Those were the ones written on the board by Chabashira-sensei on the day they enrolled, which he had saved back then.

The other one was Hirata.

During the first week of school, Hirata had noticed he seemed a bit distant from the class, so he offered his number and said Ayanokouji could contact him if he ran into any trouble.

Thinking back, a few days ago Kushida had asked for his number. He gave it to her, but she didn't give hers in return.

Still, it wasn't like there was no way to reach her—after all, the class had a group chat. He could just message her directly through that.

That would work just as well.

But should he really use that way to contact her?

Ayanokouji started wondering if it might be better to ask someone else—maybe Hirata—to handle the task instead.

"Is Kushida from Class 1-D here?"

Right then, a tall blond guy showed up at the door.

He had hair that was part green and part gold—very different from Hirata—and he gave off a completely different vibe. He was tall, with dark circles under his eyes that made him look kind of scary, but it was more about presence than aggression.

He looked like someone strong and capable.

And he actually was.

Not only was he in Class 1-B, he was also the student council secretary. The student council president had even promised that if he helped his class reach Class A, he'd be promoted to vice president right away.

And now, it wasn't just the students at the door looking at him—even Ayanokouji was paying attention.

If he had cared more about his class last month and had known the school's rules from the start, maybe he could've kept them from losing even those 300 points.

"That's Shirogane."

Someone quickly recognized him.

Honestly, who wouldn't? After all, Shirogane had completely stolen the spotlight yesterday.

Even though he was just a freshman like them, he had already led his class to move up, secured more than enough money for living expenses, and now they were aiming straight for Class A.

Of course people were shocked and jealous.

Meanwhile, their own class had a score of 0—and 0 for living expenses too.

It really sucked.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Did someone from our class break a rule or something?"

Kushida, who was standing near the door, quickly spoke up when she heard that.

She had actually heard Shirogane's first words when he came in: "Is Kushida here?"

That meant he had come to see her.

Still, acting like she cared about the class definitely wasn't a bad move.

Besides—

She hadn't done anything wrong yesterday or the day before, right? No one had seen her doing anything strange either. So maybe Shirogane coming to find her was actually a good thing?

With that thought in mind—

The other students around them were watching Shirogane nervously.

Since Class D already had zero class points—and even no money for living expenses—was the student council here to take more money? But they were already broke.

"I'm here to speak with Kushida," Shirogane said. "After a discussion with the student council president last night, he's decided to give the first-years another chance."

"So, Kushida, I've nominated you to join the student council."

"As a general assistant."

"…?"

Huh.