Classroom of the Elite_ Year 2 Vol. 1

to get me expelled by working with Housen. But when I considered that
everything that they’d done was for the purpose of securing twenty million
Private Points, it made sense. In any case, I didn’t have a single shred of
evidence linking any of them to the White Room. It also seemed like if I
presented even the slightest weakness for someone to exploit, I’d be eaten
alive. And it seemed that was going to be the case for a while.

And then… We arrived at this day. The first of May. The day we’d
find out the results of the special exam, which would be announced during
sixth period, the final class period of the day.

“I will now announce the results of the special exam. The results will
be shown up on the blackboard, but they can also be viewed on your tablet
devices, so you can look over them in detail,” said Chabashira.

Our tablets let us zoom in and magnify any part that we wanted to,
without having to stare at the blackboard. I could tell Horikita’s eyes were on
me. There was no doubt that this special exam was the most difficult we’d
had, in terms of how hard it was to get a high score. It was unlikely our
contest would end in a tie.

On the day of the written test, the subject Horikita chose to compete
with me in was Mathematics. I opened up the app and went to the results
page, bringing up the test results on my tablet. Most of the students in our
class didn’t really pay attention to the other numbers, but went to check their
own scores first. I, on the other hand, didn’t bother looking at my score.
Instead, I scanned the overall state of things with our class.

As for who was getting expelled… Well, it seemed we’d successfully
managed to avoid having anyone get expelled this time. When I brought up
the list of scores in order, I saw the lowest combined score was five hundred
and seventy-nine points. It seemed everyone had managed to make it through
without a hitch.

The students had worked hard, of course. But this also proved the
school hadn’t been planning to hit us with a tremendously difficult exam
right away in April, at the start of the new school year. The actual test
questions were the sort that Ike, Satou and other students could easily score
two hundred and fifty points or more on. In other words, the predicted scores
chart that we were shown at the start of the test period had featured
intentionally low scores.

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Sighs of relief and shouts of joy could be heard one after another from
the students around me. Now, then, let’s go ahead and check Horikita’s
score, just in case.

I filtered the results to show math scores, and then set them to display
in order, with the highest scores first. Wow. I supposed it really showed that
this was the subject we’d decided to compete in. Horikita had scored eighty-
even points. Considering that the person after her was Keisei, with eighty-
four points, I couldn’t even imagine how much effort she had put into
studying for this.

The students who came after those two were all generally those with
high academic ability rankings, close to A. But it seemed that the eighty-
point mark was a pretty significant hurdle for everyone, in all subjects. After
all, out of the possible one hundred points, the final ten points or so worth of
questions were based on things completely outside our curriculum from the
past year. And they were difficult questions, to boot.

While our class was overjoyed with how things had turned out, I could
tell the students were gradually starting to stir. Of course, I didn’t really need
to wonder why. I felt Chabashira’s gaze on me, and the gazes of the other
students who had noticed the truth of the matter.

That was no wonder, I supposed, after they saw my name above
Horikita’s in the test results list for math, even though she had eighty-seven
points.

“A-a perfect score… Wait, seriously?”

Even if you went and sorted the results for any subject, no one in our
class had scored ninety points or higher. There was only one exception.
Mathematics, with my score. Incidentally, I had generally scored around
seventy points, give or take, in the other subjects. Most of the students
probably couldn’t comprehend why I had scored so highly in just one of the
subjects.

The written exam was more difficult than I had expected it to be.
Despite the risk that I would get a perfect score, I deliberately chose not to
hold back. It was inevitable that doing so would draw my classmates’
attention, and the attention of the school at large. But considering what
Tsukishiro would be doing in the days to come, I supposed there was no harm
in showing everyone just a glimpse of what I could do. If anything, it was

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probably better for me to make the first move, so that I’d have fewer
problems to deal with later on.

Sudou, who’d normally be making a fuss together with Ike in situations
like this, looked at me, shocked but quiet. Considering he’d seen what I’d
done up to this point, and what happened with Housen and I the other day, I
supposed he would be less surprised than other students.

Anyway, things had started to change greatly in April. I supposed I
ought to be prepared to have lots of conversations with the students who were
looking at me strangely.

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8.1

WHILE CLASS WAS IN SESSION, no one could come up to me to talk.

But after class was a different story. As soon as Chabashira dismissed us for
the day, the first person to come up to me wasn’t Horikita, but rather
someone from the Ayanokouji Group. Keisei.

“Hey, Kiyotaka, you got a minute?” he asked.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Keisei was the top student in
Class D, boasting high scores. Which was exactly why he knew how difficult
it was to get a hundred points. I was sure he had several questions in mind.

“I’m sorry, but would you mind waiting until later, Yukimura-kun? I
would like to have a moment with him first,” said Horikita, cutting in,
pushing Keisei aside.

“Yeah, okay. Sorry Keisei. I’ll chat with you later,” I told him.

“O-okay,” he answered.

As I left the classroom with Horikita, I saw it wasn’t just Haruka and
Airi who had their eyes on me either. I’d attracted the attention of many other
students, too.

After a few moments of silence, Horikita confirmed that there was no
one else around and then looked at me.

“I’m not going to make any excuses. I did the best I could, yet you got
a perfect score,” she said.

“You don’t want to go for a rematch?” I asked.

“I couldn’t even understand what the final questions said. There was no
way I could even solve them at my current level of knowledge. I honestly
don’t even know when I’ll learn how to solve those problems,” said Horikita.

“Hm, well, I guess stuff like measurement and Lebesgue integration…
Probably when you get to college, I’d say?” I replied.

I wasn’t very familiar with how things worked for ordinary students in
a regular curriculum, so I couldn’t give her a precise answer. I mean, even if I
told her that those were things I’d learned when I was a small child, it wasn’t

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going to be of any use to her.

“…Never mind. It was stupid of me to say anything,” said Horikita.

She let out a deep, forced sigh, almost like she was giving up on
something, and then looked at me with a stony gaze.

“It’s frustrating, but I admit defeat. The two things that had happened
recently make me feel as though I can’t help but acknowledge you. If I resist
any longer, I’ll only end up feeling like an idiot,” said Horikita.

Horikita had tried her absolute best and fought admirably but
complimenting her right now would only have the opposite effect.

“So, about the condition that you mentioned earlier—”

“Ah, there you are, Ayanokouji.”

Horikita was probably going to talk to me about the student council,
but she was interrupted. It seemed our homeroom teacher, Chabashira, had
come looking for me.

“Do you need something?” I asked.

“Wow, that’s cold. Wouldn’t you be in quite a bit of trouble right now
if I didn’t come to help you?” said Chabashira.

“Yes, that’s true. You really helped me out there.”

“I’m heading back for today. We’ll talk again later.”

As expected, Horikita wasn’t able to say what she wanted to in front of
Chabashira, so she excused herself and left. After Chabashira watched her go,
she set her sights back on me.

“It seems I’ve interrupted your conversation, but this is urgent. Acting
Director Tsukishiro has been calling for you. Come along,” she said.

“I see,” I replied.

That was certainly something she needed to tell me about, even if that
meant interrupting.

Chabashira continued talking to me while walking slightly ahead, not
turning back to look at me. “In case you’re wondering, according to
Mashima-sensei, Acting Director Tsukishiro didn’t exhibit any unusual
behaviors during the special exam.”

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“That makes sense. He only made his move before the exam. When I
was getting ready,” I told her.

During the special exam, all he’d done was wait for the results to come
out.

“Is there any possibility he might use strong-arm tactics in the future?”
asked Chabashira.

“Meaning?” I asked.

“It’s not every day you get stabbed with a knife. That’s a pretty big
deal, wouldn’t you say? Your father was making his move, wasn’t he?”

“My hand has nothing to do with that.”

I hadn’t reported the precise details of what had happened to
Chabashira. Of course, I hadn’t told her about the issue of the twenty million
points either. Chabashira likely knew nothing about that.

“I certainly hope so. I thought he might try to restrain you somehow.
and forcefully drag you out of this school,” replied Chabashira.

“He would need to actually get his hands on me to do that. That’s
nothing you need to worry about,” I answered.

Trussing up a little rabbit was one thing, but you couldn’t abscond with
a full-sized human quite as easily.

“In that case, good. Because I need you to be of use to me. The fact
that you got a perfect score on the math test this time has made it perfectly
clear to me that you are quite special,” said Chabashira.

Getting a perfect score in that exam had quite a few downsides. And
while there were only a few side effects of me having gotten that score, this
was certainly one of them.

Shortly afterward, we arrived at the reception room. I left Chabashira
behind and stepped inside by myself.

“Thank you for going to the trouble of coming to meet me here,
Ayanokouji-kun,” said Tsukishiro.

“Going as far as using my homeroom teacher, huh? What are you
playing at with that? She probably suspects something is up,” I replied.

I wasn’t going to reveal the fact that I’d already gotten Chabashira over

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to my side, so I pretended to be puzzled by the Acting Director having called
me to his office so suddenly.

“Well, now, I can’t exactly go parading around the classrooms as the
acting director now, can I?” said Tsukishiro.

He kindly urged me to take a seat, but I chose to ignore his prompting
and remained standing. After he noticed that, he started talking once more.

“Well, now that April has ended, have you managed to figure out the
identity of the student who was sent in after you? I was just thinking I should
make sure of that,” said Tsukishiro.

So he wanted to talk about the little game he’d proposed. He told me
that if I figured out the identity of the student from the White Room before
the end of April, he would back off.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know the identity of the person from the White
Room,” I replied.

“What a flat answer. Shouldn’t you at least list the names of students
you feel are reasonably suspicious?” said Tsukishiro.

“I won’t say anything about something I’m not certain of. At least, not
in this situation,” I answered.

“I see. So, that child has managed to conceal their presence quite well,
then.” Tsukishiro nodded, apparently impressed by that, a look of satisfaction
on his face.

“I haven’t been able to detect even the slightest telltale signs of the
White Room agent. They’ve managed to cover their tracks quite beautifully,”
I remarked.

“Well, I suppose that’s because for the past few months, they’ve
engaged in a specialized curriculum to learn how to act like a high-school
student,” said Tsukishiro.

Which meant they’d been planning all this well in advance. Well, if
they hadn’t been doing that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.

“You, on the other hand, seemed to struggle quite a bit when you first
arrived at this institution. From the way you talked to the way you behaved,
the way you thought, even the way you spent your time. You came off as
rather unnatural, in many respects,” said Tsukishiro.

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He sounded like he was merely teasing me, indicating that he had
control over everything.

“That’s because the reality of being a regular high school student had
only ever been a fantasy to me,” I answered.

“At any rate, you haven’t found out their identity for now, Ayanokouji-
kun. Now that I’ve confirmed that much, this meeting is finished. You may
leave,” said Tsukishiro, indicating that this talk was over and urging me to
leave the room.

There was no sign he intended to comment on the bandages on my left
hand. I stood my ground firmly, making no attempt to leave, and instead
continued speaking to Tsukishiro.

“Acting Director Tsukishiro, is it possible that you perhaps made a
miscalculation?” I asked.

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“It’s already May now. Didn’t you want to have this matter settled by
the end of April?”

“No, no, there’s no need for me to rush. I’ve actually been given a
surprisingly long extension. Longer than you might think,” said Tsukishiro.

“Oh, is that so? And here I was thinking you must surely have run into
some unexpected trouble or something.”

“Now, that’s a rather interesting statement. What’s your basis for
that?” he asked.

“Well, I had the impression you were fully prepared to get me expelled
with this special exam. All that remained was for the White Room student to
get in contact with me, partner up, and that’d be it. However, none of the new
students showed any signs of even attempting to do that.”

Of course, there was Tsubaki, who had come up to me earlier hoping to
partner up…but that hardly counted.

“Actually, I’m almost tempted to think there isn’t a White Room agent
among the first-year students at all,” I added.

“You don’t really think that, do you?” he asked.

“In any case, it just doesn’t add up.”

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“Thanks to the OAA app, I knew you were having trouble finding a
partner until about the midway point of the exam period,” said Tsukishiro.
“But you’re a special person. I decided it would be dangerous to simply send
the White Room student after you and subsequently be discovered by you. I
thought it would be wiser to go after you next time, or sometime after that.”

“Talk about taking your time.”

“That might be true.”

“Or, despite your wishes, the person from the White Room didn’t
follow orders, Acting Director Tsukishiro. If you think about the situation
that way, this whole sequence of events seems to fit into place.”

“My word. You certainly come up with some interesting ideas, don’t
you?”

Tsukishiro, smiling and apparently amused, took a sip of tea out of his
cup. After a moment of silence, he brought the cup away from his mouth.

“Very well. It really is quite a bother for you to question the credibility
of my words, but I’ll admit it. We really did plan to have you expelled for
sure with this special exam. However, that child ignored those plans,” said
Tsukishiro.

Though he’d denied everything at first, he immediately changed his
mind and admitted the truth.

“They are a child, after all, I suppose. If this is simply due to them
being in a rebellious phase, well, we could consider that endearing. But if
that’s not the case…let’s just say it won’t be a laughing matter,” said
Tsukishiro.

The student who had been given orders and sent into this school hadn’t
followed Tsukishiro’s instructions. If that really was true, it certainly
wouldn’t be a laughing matter at all.

“Please do be careful, Ayanokouji-kun. I wasn’t the only one who
decided to send in someone from the White Room this time. Also,
considering that the assassin has disobeyed my orders and started acting on
their own, I fear my superiors might be considering something questionable,”
said Tsukishiro.

“What, are they thinking of giving up on you? I mean, your

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performance has been awful.”

“That might be true. However, the fact that I’ve been ordered to have
you expelled hasn’t changed. Even if I’m being used as a pawn, I will
continue to carry out my orders until the very end. If I fail and am cast aside,
so be it. I’ll simply move on to my next post.”

I had thought of this White Room student and Tsukishiro as one entity,
a monolith. But now the possibility that their relationship wasn’t quite so
simple had emerged. But if what Tsukishiro was saying is true, then what are
they after? If they worked together to get me expelled, then their chances of
successfully pulling it off would certainly go up. Or was this perhaps a feint,
meant to mislead me?

Was the White Room student running wild…? Or was he pulling the
strings from the shadows? I’d say the odds of either being the case were
about even. It was also important for me to keep in mind just how deceitful
Tsukishiro was. At the very least, he didn’t seem hurried at all, nor did he
seem shaken.

“Oh, one last thing… If that child is ignoring your father’s wishes, then
depending on how things go, it may be better for you to choose to drop out of
this school yourself. After all, the more unshakeable your position as the
magnum opus of the White Room, the more unfathomable their jealousy and
hatred for your position will be. I shudder to think about what that child will
do to you before they’re satisfied,” said Tsukishiro.

The warning sounded so dire I could almost interpret it to be a joke. I
turned my back to him and left the room.

Special Exam – Overall Rankings

First Place: Second Year Class A, Average of 725 Points

Second Place: Second Year Class C, Average of 673 Points

Third Place: Second Year Class D, Average of 640 Points

Fourth Place: Second Year Class B, Average of 621 Points

Class Points as of May First

Second Year Class A, led by Sakayanagi: 1169 Points

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Second Year Class B, led by Ryuuen: 565 Points
Second Year Class C, led by Ichinose: 539 Points
Second Year Class D, led by Horikita: 283 Points

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Postscript

HEY THERE, it’s 2020 now! Looks like I was able to make it to the

new year and see all of you again without incident.

It’s Kinuko… You remember, right? You didn’t forget, did you?

…Okay! So, yeah, anyway, I’m Kinuko… Or not, actually. Kinugasa
Syougo here. Happy new year to you all.

Apparently, we also managed to release the first volume of the second-
year arc without incident! Whether you’ve been reading since the first-year
arc or you’re new to the series, welcome, and I’m looking forward to
bringing you more stories this year as well. Also, the release of this book
happens to coincide with the release date for the second Classroom art book,
it turns out. I hope you enjoy that, too.

Starting at the end of the month, we’re going to be holding an event to
commemorate moving onto the second year of the story, so we’re looking
forward to seeing people from all over the globe turn up at the venue!
Figured I’d squeeze in some advertising about that here and there!

Well, then, now that we’ve plunged into a memorable new arc, we’re
moving forward with more things than ever before. Ayanokouji and the rest
were still quite immature when they first started school, but they’ve sure
started to show signs of maturing, haven’t they? With the changes they’re
going through after entering their second year, and the arrival of new
students, among other things, there’s certainly a lot to write about. So many
things, in fact, that I ended up using the maximum number of pages allowed
and had to cut a page from the postscript. Just barely managed to make it!

Anyway, I couldn’t say too much this time because I had so little space
to work with here, but I’m sure we’ll meet again soon, so I hope to see you
back next time! Oh, and there’s more fun to be had over at the official
website!

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