The next morning, students busily exchanged information with each other. Those from Hirata's group and those with Kushida had spent yesterday searching for the witness. Ike and Yamauchi hated ladies' men like Hirata, but seemed excited about all of the girls who hung around him. They happily tried to chat them up. As I listened in, though, I heard that Hirata and his group hadn't obtained any valuable information. They'd recorded the names of the people to whom they'd spoken, and occasionally taken notes on their cell phones.
Meanwhile, I was alone, like always. I could talk to Kushida, but felt disadvantaged when it came to a big group. I couldn't really talk, so I asked Kushida to fill in me later. Meanwhile, my neighbor—who continued to reject Kushida's invitations, no matter what—sat with a nonchalant expression as she prepared for class. Sudou, the person of interest, still hadn't arrived.
"Man, can we even prove that those Class C guys were in the wrong?" Ike asked.
"As long as we can find a witness, it's not impossible. Let's keep trying our best, Ike-kun."
"Before we try our best, though, is there even a witness in the first place? Didn't Sudou only say that he thought someone might've been there? Wasn't that just a lie? I mean, he is violent, and he does provoke people."
"If we keep doubting him, we won't make any progress. Am I wrong?"
"I guess, you're probably right about that, but…if Sudou is in the wrong, then our hard-earned points are all going be stripped away, right? We'll be at zero. Zero! We'll be back to having no pocket money at all. Our dreams of screwing around to our hearts' content will remain unrealized!"
"Then it would be a good idea for everyone to start saving up again," Hirata said. "It's only been three months since we started here."
Our classroom hero didn't waver as he delivered his magnificent speech. The girls immediately blushed in response. Karuizawa wore a particularly proud expression, perhaps because she was the one he'd chosen to be his girlfriend.
"I do think our points are important. They're tied to our motivation, right? So, I will defend our class points to my last breath. Even if it's only 87 points."
"I understand how you feel. However, it can be dangerous to cling to our points and lose sight of reality. The most important thing is to treasure our friends as much as possible."
Ike, who considered Hirata a goody two shoes, eyed him suspiciously. "Even if Sudou was at fault?"
Being punished when you'd done nothing wrong was horrible. That much was obvious. However, Hirata nodded without a moment's hesitation. It was as though he believed self-sacrifice was unimportant. Ike immediately looked downward, as if pressed under the weight of Hirata's noble intentions.
"I think what you're saying is reasonable, Hirata-kun, but I still want my points. The students in Class A get nearly 100,000 points every month. I'm super envious of them. There are girls in their class who buy lots of stylish clothes and accessories. Aren't we just the bottom of the barrel compared to them?"
Karuizawa's legs dangled over her desk. People looked bitter when she pointed out the stark difference between our classes.
"Why couldn't I have been in Class A from the start? If I were in Class A, I'd probably be loving every second of my student life."
"I wish I was in A, too. I'd be doing so much fun stuff with my friends."
Before I knew it, the meeting to save Sudou had transformed into a grievance session, with students pleading for a way out of the class.
Horikita spontaneously broke into derisive laughter in response to Ike and Karuizawa's delusions. As her neighbor, I was the only one who noticed. She seemed to be implying that they couldn't have started in Class A if they'd wanted to. Horikita immediately took out a library book and began reading, almost as if she was trying not to be distracted by the noise. At a glance, I saw she was reading Dostoevsky's Demons. A good choice.
"It would be awesome if there was some secret trick we could use to switch Class A in an instant. Saving up class points is way too hard."
There was a 1000-point difference between Class A and us. An absurdly huge difference.
"Then cheer up, Ike, because there is one way to instantly reach Class A."
Chabashira-sensei spoke from the classroom entranceway. She'd arrived just five minutes before class started.
"Wait. What did you say, sensei?" Ike nearly fell off his chair before recomposing himself.
"I said that there's a way to reach Class A without class points."
Horikita looked up from her book, probably trying to gauge whether Chabashira-sensei was lying.
"Come on, now. Don't tease us, Sae-chan-sensei!"
Usually, Ike would've sunk his teeth into that information. This time, he laughed it off, as if saying he wouldn't be fooled.
"It's true. At this school, there are certain special methods you can use," answered
Chabashira-sensei. Judging from her answer, she didn't appear to be joking.
"I don't think she's saying that just to confuse us."
Chabashira-sensei sometimes withheld information, but she didn't lie. Ike's guffaws gradually stopped.
"Sensei, what are these special methods?" Ike inquired politely, as if not to offend her.
All of the students fixed their eyes on Chabashira-sensei. Even those who didn't see a substantial benefit to reaching Class A appeared curious.
"I told you on the day you arrived. I said there's nothing you cannot buy with your points at this school. In other words, you can change classes by using your personal points."
Chabashira-sensei shot a quick glance over at Horikita and me. We had tested out that very method ourselves by buying a test point from the school. That supported the truth of her claim.
Class points and private points were linked. If we didn't have any class points, then we wouldn't get the private points, either. However, it wasn't a perfect one-to-one correlation. Based on what we'd heard, you didn't necessarily have to lose out on points. Because students could transfer points, it was theoretically possible to collect private points even if your class points were at zero.
"S-seriously! How many points do we need to save up to do that?!"
"Twenty million. Do your best to conserve points. Do that, and you can enter whichever class you like."
After hearing that absurdly high number, Ike tumbled out of his chair.
"Did you just say twenty million? That's impossible, though!"
Everyone in the class started booing. Their disappointment was to be expected.
"Normally yes, it would be impossible. However, as it's an avenue to Class A, it's naturally expensive. If I were reduce the number by one digit, there would probably be over 100 people in Class A come graduation. Then there'd be no point to our system."
Even by maintaining our monthly allotment of 100,000 points, that still wouldn't be an easy number to reach.
"Just out of curiosity, has anyone successfully changed their class like this before?"
That was an obvious question. The Advanced Nurturing High School had been in operation for about 10 years. A thousand and some students had struggled to make it through. If anyone had managed to achieve success by that method, there would've been talk about it.
"Unfortunately, no. No one has done it before. The reason why is as clear as day. Even if you perfectly maintain your class points upon starting school here, after three years you'd only have 3.6 million. Class A could raise points enough to reach four million. Normally, you simply wouldn't be able to do it."
"So, doesn't that just mean it's impossible?"
"It's almost impossible. However, that does not mean it actually is impossible. There's a big difference, Ike."
However, around half the class had already lost interest in what she was saying. For students in Class D, who dreamed of a mere 100 or 200 private points, reaching 20 million was a faraway dream. It was beyond the scope of our imagination.
"May I ask one question, please?"
The watchful Horikita raised her hand. She looked quite determined, considering this was a potential road to Class A.
"What is the highest number of points that a student has saved since the opening of this school? I'm just asking for the sake of reference."
"A very good question, Horikita. About three years ago, one student from Class B saved nearly 12 million points before graduating."
"T-twelve million?! A student from Class B?!"
"He was expelled before graduation, however, so he was unable to save those 20 million points in the end. He was engaged in a large-scale fraudulent operation to save up points."
"Fraudulent?"
"He took advantage of the newly admitted first-year students who didn't yet understand the system. He went to them one by one and scammed points out of them, so he could reach the 20 million points necessary to move to Class A. There was no way the school could overlook such reckless actions, however. I don't think that his goal was particularly bad, but people who break the rules must be punished."
That was more than a mere anecdote. That story made the possibility of success sound truly impossible.
"So, you're saying that even if we were to use criminal methods, 12 million points is about the limit?" Horikita muttered.
"Give up on that method. Strive to save up your points responsibly."
Horikita returned to reading, likely feeling idiotic for bothering to raise her hand at all. In this world, stories that seemed too good to be true were just that.
"Oh, that reminds me. None of you have gotten any points yet from club activities, have you?" remarked Chabashira-sensei, with the air of suddenly remembering.
"What do you mean?"
"There are cases where individuals may win points based on their efforts in club activities, or their degree of participation. For example, if someone in a calligraphy club were to win a contest, they could receive corresponding points for that award."
This new information took everyone aback.
"Y-you mean we can get points for participating in clubs?!"
"Yes. The other classes should have already been well informed of this."
"Wh-what the hell? That's so mean! Why didn't you tell us earlier?!"
"I simply forgot, sorry. However, extracurricular activities aren't there just as a way to earn points. So it shouldn't make any difference when you learned this information," said Chabashira-sensei without a hint of timidity.
"No, no, no! That's not true at all! If you'd told me before, I—"
"Are you saying you would have participated in extracurricular activities? Do you really think you would've been able to see any results after joining a club, results like winning prizes or being in games, with such shallow feelings?"
"Well…you might be right about that, but… It was possible!"
I understood both Chabashira-sensei and Ike's viewpoints. If someone were to join a club simply for the sake of earning points, he or she probably wouldn't see great results. If anything, joining a club for such a lazy, indifferent reason would probably make you a nuisance for the students who were serious about it. On the other hand, someone who joined the club for the sake of points might discover that they possessed a talent for it.
At any rate, I deduced that our homeroom teacher was being extremely and deliberately mean.
"You know, if you think back on it now, it was obvious from the start."
"What do you mean, Hirata-kun?"
"Think back. Remember what our P.E. instructor Higashiyama-sensei said when we went to the pool? He said the student who got the best time during our first class would get 5000 points. That was a stepping stone to prepare us for other opportunities. It seems plausible, right?"
Ike scratched his head and slumped. "I don't remember," he said.
"If I got points for it, I probably would've joined calligraphy club, or some other kind of art club."
It seemed like Ike could only see the positive side of things. I thought there naturally must be a downside.
There might be cases where if someone didn't participate in their club seriously, he or she would be penalized. The easy route would probably destroy you. However, learning that our points would reflect the efforts we made in club activities was encouraging.
"Horikita. Doesn't this mean there's some value in saving Sudou?" I asked.
"We should save him because he's in a club?"
"Sudou told us that he may be picked as a regular on the team even though he's a first year, right?
Horikita gave a small nod.
"If he was telling the truth…"
She sounded somewhat doubtful.
"It's better to have a lot of private points, right? He can supplement his own grade if he fails, and he can save others."
"I have a hard time imagining that he'd use his points altruistically, though."
"I'm saying that it's better to have points saved up, just in case. Right?"
Whether class points or private points, it was better to have a lot of them. There were absolutely no negatives to that. Also, we knew very little about how else to earn points at this stage. If our chances improved with Sudou in the class, then that was reason enough to make an effort. Horikita fell silent. Even she didn't have the ability to create any points for us right now.
"I won't that I'll help, but I suppose I ought to acknowledge Sudou's existence, at least a little."
Horikita's language was harsh, but she acknowledged the connection to her own interests.
I considered it unnecessary to say more, so I stopped talking. Horikita pondered the issue in silence.