Chapter 079: Trying to Accept Kushida—After All, She's a Bomb!
Ichinose Honami didn't explicitly say who the senior from the student council was, but Hachiman immediately suspected they had ill intentions.
Why did he think that? Well, a quick analysis could explain it.
Typically, upperclassmen wouldn't proactively share this kind of information with underclassmen. Even though the school tacitly allows students to buy and sell exam papers, there are still some restrictions.
If all the upperclassmen started sharing this kind of information with the lowerclassmen, then the school wouldn't be able to properly evaluate the abilities of the first-year students.
Hachiman felt there must be some constraints in place, such as a rule that underclassmen couldn't just been told about the information directly. If they did, they would probably get in trouble.
Therefore, if an upperclassman actively sought out a first-year student, it would likely be considered a violation, and they would be dealt with accordingly.
So, why would this upperclassman approach Ichinose Honami? Was it a case of knowingly breaking the rules?
It seemed like the senior had a hidden agenda.
Perhaps it was because Ichinose was cute, and they were interested in pursuing her.
Of course, that seemed likely.
Hachiman had a very high opinion of Ichinose. She was gentle, very tolerant, and in terms of appearance, she was just as good-looking as Horikita Suzune.
Marrying a girl like that would probably be a real pleasure.
Thinking about it for a second, if he were to marry someone like Sakayanagi Arisu, it would feel like he would always be restricted by her.
So, Ichinose Honami was definitely a popular candidate for marriage.
There wasn't a guy who wouldn't like her.
But—
What if their interest wasn't romantic?
Why would this senior from the student council speak to Ichinose from first-year B class?
That would likely be for more practical reasons.
Since Ichinose was both a student and the representative of class B, reaching out to her could possibly give them control over the entire class.
"Can you send me a list of the student council members?" Hachiman texted Horikita.
"..."
Horikita might have been checking his phone, but he immediately replied, though only with two dots.
"Of course, I'll pay the points," Hachiman continued typing.
"..." Horikita sent two more dots, but this time with a QR code for the payment.
Hachiman scanned the code and input the points.
He stared at the amount he was sending.
1000 points.
The student council president really was fair.
Then, he received the information.
There were currently seven members in the student council.
Out of these seven, only one, the secretary Tachibana Akane, was a female.
Five of the members were third-year students, while the two vice-presidents were second-year students.
One of the vice-presidents, Nagumo Miyabi, was the yellow-haired handsome guy Hachiman frequently saw in the student council who would always prominently display his vice-president badge.
The other vice-president was Kiriyama.
From Ichinose's explanation, it seemed that the senior wanted her to join the student council and help with his tasks, so he should be at least have a vice-presidential position, who could have that kind of authority.
"Can you send me more information about Vice-President Nagumo and Vice-President Kiriyama?" Hachiman texted again.
[50,000 points.] Horikita replied.
However, this time Horikita didn't send a QR code for payment.
Of course, Hachiman didn't continue the transaction.
Horikita quickly typed.
[I've already paid for you. Vice-President Nagumo's full name is Nagumo Miyabi. He was a first-year B class student and successfully promoted to A class, so I brought him into the student council and gave him the vice-presidency.]
[As for Kiriyama, he was originally from A class, and was the class representative. He's quite capable, so after Nagumo, I brought him into the student council as well.]
Horikita's reply wasn't long, but there was quite a bit of information.
First off, he had paid for it again himself.
Previously, he had paid once for educational purposes, when helping his sister with her lessons.
But now, he was paying again. Why?
It could only mean… the information Hachiman was asking about might concern Horikita himself.
Which means, the previous attempt to invite him into the student council, Hachiman had assumed it was an attempt to involve him in troublesome matters. But it seemed that suspicion was legitimate.
Moreover, Horikita's words also revealed some information, such as how he first invited Nagumo, who successfully advanced to the next class, into the student council, and then invited Kiriyama, who had fallen to Class B, to join.
Since Kiriyama had fallen, the original Class A must have lost face, yet Horikita was still giving him an opportunity.
Interesting.
Hachiman also remembered that when he and Kushida went to investigate the situation in other grades, they saw numbers written on a small blackboard under the second-year building.
The numbers at that time were as follows:
Class A: 2000
Class B: 600
Class C: 400
Class D: 200
Now it was clear that these referred to the class evaluation scores for each of the four classes.
Even though Class B had been promoted, there was no way they could have a gap this large in class evaluation scores.
Additionally, the scores were all round numbers in the hundreds, which seemed strange, almost like they had been manipulated.
If it truly had been manipulated... then the entire second year must have fallen under this influence.
Generally speaking, a school would have one student council president and one vice-president, with positions like secretary or treasurer being open to multiple individuals.
However, in this case, Horikita's student council had two vice-presidents, each of whom was the representative of their respective grades. It didn't seem like a merit-based selection process, but more like a competition.
If you're already competing within your class, why would you also compete within the student council?
So, perhaps this was the reason.
It could now be confirmed that Horikita Manabu probably wanted to pull him into the student council to prevent Vice-President Nagumo's influence from growing even further.
From this perspective, it was nearly certain that Nagumo Miyabi was the one who informed Ichinose of this news.
And it was easy to guess Nagumo's goal: he likely wanted Ichinose to get a hold of the exam papers and sell a favor to the students of Class B, thus earning their support and trust, eventually leading to total control over Class B.
In other words, it wasn't just second-year students he was trying to influence—he even wanted to interfere with first-year students?
Or perhaps, if it wasn't for this purpose, there would have been no reason for him to make such a big deal about his position as vice-president within the student council.
It was clearly to get first-year students to notice him when they visited the student council.
...
Hachiman had figured out Vice-President Nagumo's intentions.
"Ichinose, if it's Vice-President Nagumo…" Hachiman said. "It's best not to get too close to him."
"I'm not one to talk badly about people behind their backs, but Nagumo-senpai is very dangerous."
With that, Hachiman pulled up the photo he had taken at the start of the school year, showing the class evaluation scores for the second-year classes.
Since it seemed like Hachiman wanted her to look at the photo, Ichinose immediately leaned in closer.
Instantly, the sweet fragrance of the girl wafted over.
It also seemed that Ichinose didn't quite understand the boundaries with others.
Hachiman thought that if she leaned in any further, she would probably be too close.
So, he handed her the phone so she could see the numbers on it.
"This is the photo I took of the second-year's small blackboard," Hachiman said.
"Now, we can see these are the evaluation scores for the four second-year classes. The numbers seem odd, so I suspect that the second-year students may have lost their ability to compete within their own grade."
Lost the ability to compete... which means... have they already become unified as one?
Ichinose's expression started to change.
She wasn't stupid and quickly understood what Hachiman was trying to say.
It was about the danger of the senior who had given her the shortcut to pass the written exam.
Just the right fit.
"This is the photo that Hachiman took when he enrolled, right?" Ichinose said. "As expected, Hachiman noticed the uniqueness of this school very early on."
Uh.
That's not it.
Hachiman wasn't trying to impress her.
It was just...
"I see..."
Ichinose nodded, as though she had figured something out. "Although I don't like to make malicious guesses about others, that senior does seem like a decent person."
"However…"
"If someone can do something like that, then... I can't let my class fall into danger."
"Anyway, thank you," Ichinose said.
"We should be thanking you, actually," Hachiman replied. "You discovered that the exam would be on past topics and still wanted to share it with us."
"Ah... well, C class students are under a lot of pressure," Ichinose said with a smile.
Actually, some of the students from the class went to C class for extra lessons, and someone like Kanzaki Ryuji almost tried to smash his head against a wall.
Ichinose also knew just how awful the academic abilities of C class students could be. Given the pace of their remedial lessons, there was no way they could pass normally.
So, when she learned that the exam would be on past topics, she wanted to share it.
From this perspective, Ichinose really seemed like an angel.
...
After that, Ichinose left since a friend had called for her.
Hachiman looked at Kushida.
"Now, with the news that the written exam in the second month after enrollment will be on past topics, this information can basically be confirmed as true."
"Now, the next thing we need to do is get the exam papers," Hachiman said. "So, can you arrange to meet with your senior?"
"Mm, I'll try," Kushida replied, nodding.
As the angel of the class, she didn't want to see any of her classmates fall behind because of failing grades.
And now that she had confirmed the truth of the matter from Ichinose, she could boldly proceed.
With that, Kushida got to work.
...
Ten minutes later.
"Senior."
Kushida, with a sweet smile, sat across from a senior with a very broad forehead and said, "I have something I'd like to discuss. Do you still have the exam papers from two years ago?"
"How many points are you willing to pay?"
The third-year senior didn't beat around the bush. In fact, when Kushida came to gather information, the senior had already been tempted.
After all, she was from Class D, and had already gotten sick of the bland mountain vegetable set meals.
So, she wanted some points.
Now, looking around nervously, she lowered her voice and asked.
"Hmm~... well..."
Kushida put on a troubled expression, hesitating as she looked at the senior. "Then, how many points do you want, Senior?"
"As I said before, 40,000!"
The senior lowered her voice but said with firm determination, "I'm taking on a risk here, so I won't accept less than 40,000 points!"
If she could help the students in her class pass and, in the process, do a favor for Ichinose, then this price was acceptable.
But...
Kushida felt that she could haggle.
Everyone now knew the rules of the school, and the senior from Class D had a class evaluation score of 20 points, meaning that every month, she only earned 2,000 points in personal points.
It wasn't enough to cover food.
In other words... the senior was poor enough.
Therefore, she might not need to spend that much money.
So...
"Senior..."
Kushida looked at her with a troubled expression. "Isn't that a bit too expensive?"
"Not expensive."
The third-year senior didn't show any mercy, answering seriously, "I can guarantee the accuracy of these exam papers. The questions on your midterm exam will definitely be exactly the same as these. If you pass the exam, you not only avoid being expelled but also earn points. If you score 100 points, with 40 students in the class, that's 400,000 points!
I'm only asking for 40,000, so it's really not expensive."
"..."
Kushida looked troubled, then changed her expression to one of pitiable sadness. "Senior, do you really have the heart to let me be expelled?"
"..."
The third-year senior, though a girl, froze for a moment. After all, Kushida's appearance was very cute.
And she also showed an expression of trust and belief in her.
At that moment, the senior even had a slight feeling of shame. Was it really okay to extort such a cute junior?
"35,000. Not a penny less!"
The senior bit her lip and lowered her demand, though her tone softened significantly. It was no longer as firm as before.
"Senior."
Kushida still wore a pitiful face, continuing to act in a cute and sad manner.
"30,000," Kushida said.
"35,000! It really can't go lower!"
But the senior's expression turned bitter, and her words became firm again, no longer soft like before.
With 35,000 points, she could at least skip 60 meals without needing to eat the bland mountain vegetable sets.
So, she couldn't lower the price any further.
And Kushida, noticing the determination in the senior's voice, knew that her cutesy act wouldn't work anymore.
"Fine, 35,000."
Kushida sighed lightly, took out her phone, and looked pitiful.
...
Thus, Kushida and the senior made the transaction.
Meanwhile, not far away...
Hachiman and Horikita were keeping an eye on the situation.
"See, Kushida is really good at this kind of thing," Hachiman said.
Actually, Hachiman didn't think Kushida's actions were particularly impressive.
Because.
She didn't understand the importance of haggling. From the very beginning, she handed the power of choice over to the senior, letting the senior state her own price, instead of Kushida stating what she was willing to pay.
As a result, even if the senior was a beginner at negotiations, she could tell that Kushida didn't know the true price of the exam papers, nor did she know how to set a proper price for them.
That's why the senior used phrases like "The whole class could get 400,000 points, I only want 40,000 points."
The correct way to haggle is to make the item rare.
The senior was just one of the upperclassmen, so Kushida could have sought out other seniors.
Then, the price would continue to drop. 30,000 points, no, 20,000 could have been enough to get the papers.
But.
"Then."
Hachiman stated his purpose. "How about you try to accept Kushida a little?"
"..."
Horikita responded, "You mean... I should become friends with her?"
"There's something you can learn from her," Hachiman said. "For example, right now, she's doing something that benefits the class."
So, if you keep rejecting her, this 'bomb' that Kushida is carrying could end up exploding.
Hachiman wanted to defuse the bomb.