After hearing the rules for this Cross-Grade Team Exam, Sakayanagi's class was absolutely brimming with confidence. If it was just a straight comparison of academic ability, they didn't fear anyone.
On top of that, the fact that their class was basically wall-to-wall "good students" was already a huge advantage. All they had to do was show the first-year juniors their past report cards, and they'd be able to easily pick up honors-student partners and aim together for the individual ranking rewards.
Among the four second-year classes, Sakayanagi's class was easily in the most comfortable position.
"This is such a good opportunity! This time even Yukio's class won't have a way out, right? They've got plenty of underachievers!"
"You can't look at it that simply. No one knows what kind of scheme Yukio's class will come up with. We should still be cautious."
"Sakayanagi-san, what do you think about this one?"
When her excited classmates asked for her opinion, Sakayanagi didn't propose any convoluted strategy. She just told them to move fast.
"As long as we act quickly, that will be enough. This time, we have a huge advantage in direct combat."
"The school gave us five weeks to let the first-years and second-years get to know each other, but why would we waste time on that?"
"We just need to snap up the honors students among the first-years as our partners as quickly as possible. Once we take them, all that's left to the other three classes are the merely 'good' students, the average ones, and the underachievers."
"That way, whether it's the class reward or the individual rewards, we can have them all firmly in our grasp."
Sakayanagi's classmates were wildly fired up. After listening to her analysis, they already felt as if they'd basically won, and they all started itching to rush out and look for suitable first-year partners, but just then, everyone's phone vibrated at once. A student immediately took their phone out. When everyone's device went off at the same time, there was really only one likely reason: a school-wide notice.
Except when they opened it, it turned out to be a broadcast from Ichinose's class. The message sent to each student was simple and clear:
[With the school's permission, we've temporarily rented Gym #1 for this afternoon as a place for second-years and first-years to interact. We'll be unconditionally answering questions for any confused first-year students and helping clear up their doubts. We look forward to your participation. —Ichinose Honami]
"H–How did they manage that?"
"Do you really need to ask?" Hashimoto looked at his stunned classmates and tapped on the word "rented" in the text. "If the gym can be rented with private points, then getting the school to send out a single broadcast message should be doable with points too."
"So that's how… B-But if they're being this generous, is Ichinose's class trying to… recruit first-years as partners?"
"Not necessarily." Sakayanagi knew Ichinose very well and shook her head, denying that theory.
"Recruiting first-years will be a side effect at best. Hosting this exchange meeting is probably because Ichinose is worried the new students don't understand this school yet and wants to explain lots of things so their school lives will go more smoothly."
"Of course, I wouldn't call this a huge splurge either. Getting the school to send out a single text like this probably doesn't cost that many points."
"And remember, during summer break Yukio's class had the school and student council lend them an entire classroom building for a full day to run a test-of-courage event, and that wasn't very expensive."
"Compared to that, Ichinose only renting the gym for a few hours will cost even less."
"Eh?"
Sakayanagi's classmates were all a bit stunned. As expected of Ichinose—right out of the gate she was already thinking of everyone else. Even juniors who'd only been enrolled for two days were getting that level of care.
Kamuro frowned tightly. "Hurting herself to help others… what benefit does that really bring to Ichinose's class? Just giving away intel for free?"
"That's not quite right either." Sakayanagi's eyes shimmered like clear autumn water.
"This is going to give her a lot of goodwill from the juniors. When you've just started school and someone tells you how brutal ANHS is, of course you're going to feel uneasy, and then Ichinose shows up with her class, calms the first-years down, helps dispel that unease, and she'll win the trust and favor of a huge number of them."
"With that foundation in place, if there are similar cross-grade cooperative exams in the future, Ichinose's class will be the one with the biggest advantage."
"She's sacrificing small, immediate gains for herself now in order to reap bigger benefits later."
While the other three classes were all firming up their plans for the coming weeks, Class D was still being pulled along by the nose.
After Chabashira explained the rules of the special exam, Matsushita and Horikita huddled together to discuss how they should handle this Cross-Grade Team Exam. They had also realized that if there were honors students among the first-years, those students would naturally prefer to partner with other high-achievers.
Horikita's expression was grave. "We don't have enough top students in our class to attract them. We'll have to put some information on the table and trade intel for cooperation from the first-years."
Matsushita thought it over and agreed with that line of attack.
"That's right. Information is incredibly important. The first-years have only been here two days and know almost nothing about this school. If we use intel, we can definitely buy some help."
They also knew just how precious that intel was. It was the hard-won experience they'd accumulated over a full school year of fighting, but at the same time, Class D really had nothing else to offer that would appeal to the first-years besides information.
It couldn't be helped. It wasn't that Matsushita and Horikita were necessarily that much worse than the other three class leaders when it came to big-picture strategy.
It was simply the difference in raw stats. With so many weak students, Class D was naturally at a disadvantage in this kind of exam. They were the exact opposite of Sakayanagi's class, whose starting conditions were overwhelmingly favorable.
Top first-year students, in the absence of any extra benefit, would absolutely refuse to partner with them—because they'd gain nothing from it. If they took on an underachieving upperclassman, they'd lose the chance to challenge for the individual ranking rewards and end up empty-handed.
In that situation, if they didn't offer some intel, even putting themselves in the first-years' shoes, Horikita and Matsushita wouldn't want to partner with Class D either.
After going back and forth, all they could agree on was that they needed to hurry and approach the first-years. But right then, they also received the broadcast text from Ichinose's class.
When they saw the phrase "unconditionally answering questions and clearing up doubts," the two of them stared at each other and could only give bitter smiles.
The last bargaining chip they had that was truly valuable suddenly felt like it had been made cheap.
So their thinking shifted again: first, they'd go to Ichinose's exchange meeting and see how things looked there, then decide what to do.
The other members of Class D were also very interested in the two girls' discussion and paid close attention. Only Ayanokouji sat there like nothing was happening, quietly motionless.
He had already noticed something off about this exam.
Ayanokouji had always believed that Tsukishiro had been given orders by his father to have him expelled and brought back.
Which meant that every special exam Tsukishiro designed had the purpose of forcing him out.
In that context, this Cross-Grade Team Exam was perfect. All Tsukishiro had to do was make sure Ayanokouji picked the "new students" he'd prepared in advance, and he could be expelled.
And considering the first-years' age, and the fact that they would have to take Tsukishiro's orders, Ayanokouji had already realized what this implied.
"White Room juniors, huh?"
....
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