As mentioned earlier, once the Expulsion Branch opens, the person selected for expulsion loses their right to vote. That meant the total vote count was only 36—Hirata couldn't vote for himself.
And that result sent an ice-cold shock through the entire class.
Hirata wasn't expelled—because they hadn't reached unanimity.
But… it was Hirata.
Class D's resident saint. The guy with the best reputation in the room. And even with him on the screen, five people still leaned toward expelling him?
For anyone with weak social ties—or anyone who knew they weren't particularly useful—their hearts started hammering. If even Hirata was at risk, what chance did they have?
Were those five insane? Like expelling someone was no big deal as long as it meant class points? How the hell were they in the same class as people that cold?
"Th-this is bad, Hondo…!"
Someone grabbed his friend like their life depended on it.
"You have to help me! If I get picked next, you have to vote no, okay? Promise me!"
"Y-yeah, yeah—same for me!" the other guy shot back, panicked. "If I show up, you have to save me too!"
That kind of conversation spread through Class D like wildfire.
In the Unanimous Vote Special Exam, even a single "Oppose" vote was a lifeline. One vote could halt the entire process. As long as you had one person willing to oppose, you could keep yourself from being expelled.
But if you had no one?
Then you were staring down a terrifyingly real possibility: you'd get tossed out with nobody able—or willing—to stop it.
Watching from the hallway, Yukio couldn't help thinking Koenji had a point. Class D's overall level really was rough.
And Hirata volunteering to be expelled wasn't like what Kanzaki had done in Ichinose's class. Kanzaki's choice had been something else entirely—he'd been ready to sacrifice himself to wake everyone up and force the class to grow.
Hirata was just… running away. He had no solution, so he tried to make himself the answer. It didn't actually fix anything.
With time bleeding away, those ten-minute discussion blocks had turned into precious, mandatory windows of survival. Everyone was scrambling, begging their closest friends for promises.
Horikita tried to cut through the noise, no matter how tight her expression was, no matter how anxious she looked underneath it.
"Calm down. We only opened the branch—we don't have to expel anyone," she insisted. "We can still stall until the time limit!"
That was the last road. The worst road. Lose 300 class points and erase the exam's outcome.
But the students who'd been voting "Approve" from the start weren't having it.
"No!" one of them snapped. "After all this, we're just going to eat -300 points? Then why did we vote to approve in the first place?!"
"Yeah! We're already barely getting 32,000 points per month as it is. If we drop 300 class points, we'll be down to 2,000 a month. That's a nightmare!"
"If it comes to that… then we might as well actually expel someone."
That immediately set off the weak side.
"Are you kidding me?!" someone shouted back. "If you'd just voted 'Oppose' with us from the start, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"Shut up already! You're really going to talk like that now? You still don't get it?!"
The "Approve" side snapped right back, furious.
"No, you shut up! 'Oppose' means losing 200 class points anyway—can you accept that? Or did you forget how miserable life was when we had only 2,000 points a month?!"
"Yeah—miss the days of living on the free vegetable set at the cafeteria? Or going to the convenience store and only being able to grab the cheapest free hygiene items?"
They were at each other's throats again—ready to erupt into violence.
Former teammates, now glaring like enemies, suspicious of each other, talking like they'd never shared a single hardship.
Class D's disorder only got worse.
Horikita and Matsushita were getting migraines from it. They'd just forced things to cool down—how was it boiling over again?
That was the real horror of the Unanimous Vote Special Exam.
It didn't just test choices. It carved into people.
Koenji, naturally, found the whole thing ugly. He didn't bother engaging with the two factions—he only spoke to Horikita and Matsushita.
"So? Still not decided?" he said lightly. "It's simple. Cut out the most useless student and this mud-pit of a class gets a little prettier."
Even though he was talking to them, everyone was listening. Because whatever those three decided would basically decide Class D's ending.
The "Approve" side perked up instantly.
"Koenji's right! Just kick out whoever's the most useless—done!"
The "Oppose" side looked like they might throw up.
"You people have no conscience! We've been classmates for over a year—do you really have zero loyalty?!"
Hirata—the guy who normally held everything together—looked gray and hollow now. He sat on the floor like he'd run out of fuel, staring off into nowhere.
Kushida tried to keep up her angel act, bouncing between sides, soothing and smiling… but it barely helped. The shouting didn't stop. The hostility didn't stop.
And inside, she was cursing them all. Children. All of you. If she didn't need that sweet, shiny persona, she wouldn't bother wasting her breath.
Ten minutes burned away again.
This time Matsushita stepped forward on her own.
"If we can't decide… then let me stall one round," she said.
[Expulsion Branch — Round 2 Result]
Expel Chiaki Matsushita: Approve 9 / Oppose 27
Another ten minutes.
Matsushita could only stare at the result in disbelief. She'd contributed a lot since becoming the class's figurehead—and still, in a moment like this, nine people wanted her gone?
Her will sagged. Her mind went blank. She didn't even have the strength left to think about how to clear the exam.
Koenji slapped the desk and burst into laughter.
"Ahahaha! So ugly—so ugly!" he cackled. "This class is disgustingly ugly!"
"See? We need to throw out the ugliest one!"
With the momentum starting to tilt their way, the "Approve" side got bolder—already arguing names.
"Then let's expel Hondo! His grades are trash, he won't study, his stamina's weak—he contributes nothing!"
"Yeah, do it. Expel him."
Hondo's friend—who'd been begged earlier—shouted back immediately.
"Like hell! I'm not voting to expel my friend! Forget it! I'll oppose every time—drag it out until time's up!"
The "Approve" side didn't even flinch. With the situation no longer threatening them, they just pivoted to a new target.
"Fine. Then how about Okitani?" someone said. "He grabbed Yukimura earlier and almost started a fight. A violent guy like that is dangerous—better to kick him out."
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.