Chapter 160: Those Who Should Be Expelled Still Have to Leave!
"Shimizu Yuto!"
"Huh?"
Yuto looked in surprise at Ike, who had suddenly shouted his full name.
What did this guy want now?
"It's because you got perfect scores in every subject that the passing lines became so high!"
"That's why the three of us failed and are being forcibly expelled!" Ike pointed at Yuto and shouted indignantly.
Was there genuinely something wrong with this guy's brain?
Yuto rarely showed genuine shock, but Ike's statement actually stunned him.
What kind of mind came up with such completely baseless logic?
"Exactly!" Yamauchi loudly agreed.
There was actually someone agreeing with him?!
Was this guy genuinely an idiot too?
As expected, birds of a feather flocked together.
There was clearly a reason Ike and Yamauchi had become such close friends.
Sudo might have been a hot-tempered delinquent, but at least he seemed to possess some common sense.
He understood that their expulsion had nothing to do with Yuto getting perfect scores.
However, Ike and Yamauchi had conveniently provided Sudo with someone on whom he could vent his anger.
So he joined them in glaring at Yuto.
They truly lived up to their reputation as the idiot trio.
Yuto had not even confronted them for causing such a scene, yet they had proactively decided to pick a fight with him.
Normally, all three were afraid of Yuto.
But now they were no longer scared!
They were getting expelled anyway.
Why should they still fear him?!
"Ike Kanji, are you an idiot?"
"Even if my perfect scores raised the passing line, that isn't the main reason you three are being expelled."
Yuto pulled his arm free from Kei's hands and stood.
As he walked toward the trio, Kei and Kikyo hurriedly followed him.
Airi quietly slipped over to the classroom storage cabinet and took out a broom.
As Yuto approached, fear suddenly rose inside Ike and the others.
They instinctively stepped backward.
With courage like that, they still dared shout at him?
Yuto stopped advancing and looked at them contemptuously.
"The fundamental reason you're being expelled is that you gave up on studying yourselves."
"You placed all your hopes on those so-called old examination papers."
"So stop trying to dump responsibility for your failures onto me."
"..."
None of the three dared argue.
Eventually, Yamauchi stubbornly muttered, "Anyway... if you hadn't scored so high, maybe we wouldn't have failed!"
"Heh."
Yuto sneered.
"Let me tell you something."
"Even if my scores were completely removed from the calculation, the three of you still wouldn't reach the passing line."
"And I'm not your mother or your babysitter."
"Why should I deliberately lower my scores for your sake?"
Suzune, who had somehow ended up standing behind Yuto, pressed her thin lips together.
She felt unfairly implicated.
She was not their mother or babysitter either!
Suzune had indeed deliberately controlled her scores, but she had not done it specifically for Ike and the others.
She had done it for Class D as a whole.
"We're already high school students."
"Stop living under the delusion that the entire world should revolve around you."
"Exactly!" Kei immediately supported Yuto.
She spoke forcefully.
"Everyone else is like Yuto! They're trying to score highly and earn more class points for Class D!"
"And look at your scores!"
"All five subjects combined didn't even reach seventy!"
"Aren't you embarrassed?!"
"Aren't you ashamed?!"
"Don't you feel like you've let Class D down?!"
Yuto looked at Kei in mild surprise.
When had this silly girl become so sharp-tongued?
She had even learned to use class points for a little moral pressure.
In truth, Kei only acted silly around Yuto.
Around other people, she could be extremely forceful.
Some timid girls were even intimidated by her gyaru appearance.
"Shut up!" Sudo snapped angrily before storming out of the classroom.
Once Sudo, the strongest of the trio, left, the cowardly Ike and Yamauchi immediately followed him out.
Only two or three minutes remained before class began.
The three had effectively decided to skip the lesson.
Yuto had no intention of ordering them back.
If they wanted to skip class, they could.
Class D still had zero class points anyway.
No matter how much they skipped, the school could not deduct the class below zero.
"Class is about to start. Everyone, disperse," Yuto told the others.
"Mm."
The Class D students, who instinctively followed Yuto's lead, gradually returned to their seats.
Airi, looking relieved, quietly returned the broom to the storage cabinet.
Kikyo moved closer to Yuto and lowered her voice.
"Yuto, I got some information from Manabe Shiho."
"Five students in Class C failed."
"Five?"
Yuto raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Kei spoke from beside him.
"Class C is losing five students? That's even more than Class D."
Indeed.
Only Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudo were being expelled from Class D.
Class C had five students facing expulsion.
There were several understandable reasons.
First, Class C did not have students like Hirata or Kikyo organizing study sessions for the entire class.
Second, after receiving Ryuen's supposed examination papers, many Class C students stopped studying seriously, just like Ike had.
Third, after both classes obtained old papers, Yuto had warned Class D not to place all their hopes on them.
Ryuen never gave Class C the same warning.
As a result, Class D students still studied material outside the old papers.
Class C students focused almost entirely on memorizing them.
Those three factors were the main reasons Class C had two more failing students than Class D.
It demonstrated just how important a class leader could be.
Every decision a leader made could influence the entire class.
"Hmph~"
Kei gave a smug little hum.
"Now Class C is losing more students than Class D."
"I'd like to see what right those people have to keep claiming Class C is superior to us!"
Kei was referring to Tokito's earlier mockery of Suzune and the others in the library.
She had not been present then, but she had heard plenty about how spectacularly Yuto had handled the situation.
Tokito had claimed Class D was full of defective students and insisted Class C was obviously superior.
If Class C was really so much better...
Then why were more of their students being expelled after the midterm?
Was having more students expelled Tokito's definition of superiority?
"Kikyo, is Ryuen among the five students being expelled?" Yuto asked.
"Unfortunately not."
Kikyo shook her head.
"Ryuen got lucky and passed."
"That really is terrible news," Yuto said helplessly.
He had not expected Ryuen to survive the midterm.
The school would not be expelling him after all.
"The main reason is that Class C's overall scores were fairly low, so their passing thresholds were low too," Kikyo explained, sharing the information she had gathered.
The same thing had happened during the previous quizzes.
Class C's scores were generally poor.
When the entire class average was low, the passing threshold dropped accordingly.
That meant students could survive without particularly high scores.
"Thanks, Kikyo. I appreciate you gathering all that information."
"You're welcome."
Kikyo smiled sweetly.
"You don't need to be disappointed, Yuto. There'll be another chance to get Ryuen expelled."
"Hopefully."
The bell rang.
Class began.
...
Meanwhile, Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudo wandered through the school corridors in a daze.
Only now were they truly beginning to understand that they were going to be expelled.
They were actually leaving this school.
"It's over, it's over! My dad is going to kill me when he finds out the school expelled me!" Ike wailed.
"Same..." Yamauchi looked equally miserable.
Sudo did not cry or complain, but his expression was extremely dark.
His heart was filled with regret.
The basketball club had finally accepted him as an official member.
Sudo had moved one step closer to his dream!
Yet he never imagined that his path toward that dream would suddenly be cut off here.
He was going to be expelled.
"Sudo, say something! I don't want to be expelled!"
"You're annoying as hell!"
"You think I want to get expelled?! What the hell am I supposed to do about it?!" Sudo snapped.
"Maybe..."
Ike hesitated.
"Maybe we should kneel and beg."
"Kneel? What do you mean, Ike?" Yamauchi hurriedly asked.
"I heard that Ryuen from Class C schemed against Shimizu Yuto and got caught."
"The school suspended him."
"Originally, that meant he would miss the midterm and get expelled automatically for being absent."
"But apparently Ryuen went to the administration, knelt down, and begged for forgiveness."
"That's why they allowed him to take the exam despite being suspended."
Ike repeated the rumor he had heard from other students.
And that rumor had actually been spread by Kikyo.
Yuto was Kikyo's boyfriend.
Ryuen was Yuto's enemy.
Therefore, her boyfriend's enemy was naturally her enemy too.
So Kikyo had subtly spread Ryuen's humiliating story around the school, damaging his reputation without appearing directly involved.
Thanks to her efforts, practically every first-year now knew that Ryuen had supposedly knelt before the school administration and begged for forgiveness.
It had turned him into a laughingstock among the first-years.
Both Kei and Kikyo protected Yuto.
If Kei was an aggressive little honeybee, then Kikyo was a discreet little wasp.
One attacked openly.
The other stung from the shadows.
"Kneel? I can't do that!" Sudo rejected the idea immediately.
"Me neither. That's way too humiliating," Yamauchi said, shaking his head.
"Same here..."
For the sake of their pride, none of the three were willing to kneel before the administration.
So their expulsions were effectively inevitable.
Ike's eyes suddenly lit up.
"What if we kneel to Sae-chan instead?! I could accept doing that!"
The suggestion immediately sounded more acceptable to Ike and Yamauchi because they already had embarrassing dirty fantasies about their beautiful homeroom teacher.
They fantasized about when they might finally be trampled under the feet of their aloof and beautiful homeroom teacher...
It was still unclear whether Chabashira Sae was a sadist, but these two definitely had masochistic tendencies.
The idea of pleading with Chabashira also tempted Sudo.
It suddenly seemed like their only remaining chance to stay at school.
Together, the three headed toward the faculty office.
...
Chabashira had already returned to the faculty office.
Her beautiful face was dark with irritation.
She had just received a particularly sarcastic round of "congratulations" from her dear friend Hoshinomiya Chie.
Hoshinomiya had congratulated Chabashira because Yuto achieved the highest average score among all first-years.
Then, smiling brightly, she abruptly changed the subject and innocently asked why three students from Chabashira's Class D were being expelled despite having Yuto, the highest-scoring student, in their class.
Hoshinomiya rambled on and on until Chabashira finally smacked her on the forehead.
Was that how anyone congratulated a friend?!
After getting hit, Hoshinomiya puffed out her cheeks and went to sulk in the infirmary.
"Chabashira-sensei!"
"Hmm?"
Hearing a voice from behind, Chabashira turned around in surprise.
She saw Sudo, Ike, and Yamauchi standing at the office entrance.
"You three are surprisingly eager."
"You came much sooner than expected. I haven't even contacted your guardians yet."
Chabashira looked mildly surprised.
Students who voluntarily rushed over to complete their expulsion paperwork were certainly rare.
"Since you're already here, go over there and fill out the withdrawal forms first."
Chabashira pointed toward an empty desk along one side of the office.
A small stack of documents rested on top.
These were withdrawal forms the school administration had prepared for homeroom teachers.
"Actually, we didn't come here to fill out any withdrawal forms."
"We came to beg you to let us stay at this school," Ike said with an ingratiating smile.
Chabashira's expression did not change.
Most students came to plead with her before being expelled.
"Exactly, exactly! Chabashira-sensei, you don't want us expelled either, right?"
"After all, we're good students!" Yamauchi hurriedly added.
Yamauchi's opinion of himself was astonishingly inflated.
Where had he found the confidence to call himself a good student?
"Begging me is pointless."
"I have no authority to overturn an order issued by the school."
"If you genuinely want to remain here, then go to the principal's office."
"That is your only possible hope," Chabashira said slowly.
In truth...
Even going there would accomplish nothing.
Those who were supposed to be expelled would still have to leave.
…
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