Club building, student council room.
After they'd picked up their new textbooks that morning, it was free time.
Students in clubs went off to their club activities; student council members, naturally, headed to the council room for a meeting.
Kiriyama, the only third-year present, looked downright smug. Their class had already climbed back up to Class 2-A before; now they had officially become Class 3-A.
That was the final destination every ANHS student aimed for. As long as you graduated from Class 3-A, the school's social resource support was guaranteed—whether you wanted to go on to higher education, start a business, or land your dream job, you were basically guaranteed a jump in social class.
Anyone in his shoes would be riding high.
By comparison, the other second-year members were more or less unchanged from before. Sakayanagi wore her usual gentle smile. Ichinose and Kushida greeted everyone warmly. Horikita sat there with her same chilly expression, only occasionally glancing at Yukio seated in the president's chair.
Yukio pulled out his phone, scanned through the message from the school, and summed it up.
"This time, the third-years aren't involved at all."
"Looks like the school wants the new first-years to understand the situation faster. They didn't just change the rule about upperclassmen giving info to freshmen—they're also setting up a slightly different opening exam for the new term."
"As usual, they aren't telling the student council the detailed content.
But what is clear is that this exam is for us second-years and the new first-years together."
He paused, then continued.
"In terms of protecting student interests, there are two main things we're allowed to change for this exam."
"First, the rewards. This time, the rewards are split into class rewards and individual rewards. Class rewards are fixed and can't be altered. The individual reward based on exam performance is up to us.
"Second, the expulsion penalty for second-years who fail the exam… and the private-point confiscation penalty for first-years who fail."
The instant he said it didn't concern third-years, Kiriyama, who had just tensed up, immediately relaxed. He let out a quiet breath, clearly relieved. Just listening to this exam sounded annoying enough; the fact that it had nothing to do with the third-years was a blessing.
Ichinose, however, was still hung up on the expulsion part.
"About that expulsion penalty… shouldn't we just remove it again? We were all just enjoying hanami together a few days ago, and now suddenly someone might get expelled, it's just…"
"Tch. You really don't have any confidence, do you?" Sharing the vice-president role with her, Ryuen sounded almost pleased.
"At the very least, it'll keep the second-years on their toes."
"This morning, my brats were acting pretty damn cocky. Giving them a bit of pressure isn't a bad thing. Either way, I've got confidence in them. As long as it's not some mandatory expulsion setup, there won't be a problem."
"But…" Ichinose was about to argue further when Sakayanagi gently cut in.
"Ichinose-san, I think we should leave this decision to Yukio-kun."
Sakayanagi didn't seem worried about this at all. That, in itself, showed how confident she was in her own class's ability.
Ichinose blinked and instinctively looked to Yukio for help.
This time, however, Yukio gave her an apologetic look. "Ryuen's right. At least for this exam, I don't plan on changing the expulsion penalty."
Mainly, he wanted to see what exactly Tsukishiro intended to do.
If Tsukishiro still planned to expel and retrieve Ayanokouji, he shouldn't be relying on special exams anymore. Last time, during the Project Selection Exam, the expulsion penalty had been rewritten by Yukio himself.
In other words, any time an expulsion penalty appeared, the student council could erase it just the same. Protecting student interests was their mandate, and they could revise or nullify it as many times as necessary. That was a dead end Tsukishiro couldn't get around.
Given that Tsukishiro wasn't an idiot, there was no way he'd keep repeating the same trick when it clearly wouldn't work. Yet here he was again, attaching an expulsion penalty to the new-term exam.
What was he aiming for? If Yukio went and asked him directly, Tsukishiro could refuse to answer and he'd learn nothing. In that case, the best option was simply to let things run their course and watch what Tsukishiro tried to pull.
Besides, with the amount of points Yukio had now, he could put a stop to almost anything. There was nothing to be afraid of. Once you had the power to flip the board over entirely, no matter what your opponent tried to do, they'd ultimately be forced to play along with your will.
Hearing Yukio's decision, Ichinose faltered for a moment. No one else could shake her resolve so easily—but a single word from Yukio could send her into doubt.
Maybe having a real risk of expulsion once in a while, something to jolt everyone awake, wasn't a bad thing.
Just like Sakayanagi-san and Ryuen-san had said—if their classes were strong enough, they wouldn't be expelled.
With that in mind, Ichinose nodded and agreed to the decision.
With both vice-presidents and Sakayanagi in favor, neither Horikita nor Kushida, the two "general affairs" members, had any grounds to object. The matter was settled.
Next up was the reward. Everyone who had at least some confidence in themselves started arguing over how high to set the individual reward ceiling.
Yukio just let them go at it.
The school had already given them a maximum cap—one million private points. Seeing how he was currently sitting on three billion points, this reward was meaningless to him.
Let them decide however they liked.
Just as the debate over rewards was heating up, a thick, heavy knock sounded at the door—thud thud—and the table suddenly fell silent.
Kushida naturally stood up. "Maybe it's another club coming to talk about funding," she said.
This wasn't the first time someone had knocked during a student council meeting. It had happened a few times already—usually club members coming to negotiate their budgets.
Of course, almost every time, Yukio just sent them away with, "We're in a meeting." After that, he'd casually dump the issue on either Kushida or Horikita to handle.
This time, however, things didn't go quite as expected.
Kushida opened the door, then tilted her head in vague confusion. "Huh? Um, you are…?"
Horikita didn't react, but Ichinose, Sakayanagi, Kiriyama, and even Ryuen all turned their heads.
Seriously now—was there anyone left on campus that Kushida didn't recognize?
Her social ability was monstrous, and every student council member knew it. Between the two existing years, it was safe to say almost every single student knew Kushida—and Kushida knew them.
That level of networking was something most people could only dream of, but everyone in this room was sharp. They caught on right away: If Kushida didn't know this person, then they weren't from the upper years.
They had to be one of the first-years who'd just enrolled today. A freshman. Coming to the student council room?
"Heehee~" The girl who stepped in had beautiful dark red hair tied into twin tails. She cheerfully crossed the threshold into the council room.
"I'm Ichika Amasawa from Class 1-A."
"During the entrance ceremony today, the MC said that the student representative, is also the student council president.
"I happened to be part of the student council back in middle school, so now that I'm in high school, I really want to join the student council again. That's why I came to submit an application to join~!
"Please take care of me, senpai!"
....
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