In Second-year Class D, lately, Matsushita had been stressing out over the cross-grade team-up special exam—so stressed she was practically about to start losing hair.
Sakayanagi's class could easily find first-year academic monsters and team up to push for individual ranking rewards. Ichinose's class, on the other hand, wasn't even trying to compete—they were basically just going to help first-year underperformers.
Yukio's class was outright unreasonable: they made the weaker students in their own class pay out of pocket to find first-year partners. It was a good trick, sure, but broke-ass Class D couldn't copy it.
Matsushita walked into the classroom and sighed again, then immediately went to Horikita.
"How is it, Horikita? Any progress yesterday?"
"Yes. We ran into a girl from First-year Class A at Keyaki Center." Horikita's expression barely changed, but there was a faint hint of happiness in her voice.
"Still nothing—huh?" Matsushita was about to go back to her seat when she blinked and turned her head back. "First-year Class A?"
Being placed into Class A at enrollment meant that whatever else you could say about them, at least their character and academic ability didn't have obvious weak points.
After the cross-grade team-up special exam rules were announced, this was the best news Matsushita had heard.
"Tell me the details!"
Horikita recalled the scene from yesterday, when they ran into that kouhai—Ichika Amasawa.
"Yesterday, I still wanted to look for first-years at Keyaki Center so we could cooperate."
"By coincidence, I saw a kouhai named Amasawa. She seemed especially lively, and she said she likes food cooked by boys with their own hands. She said if a boy from our class can make a dish that satisfies her, she'll agree to team up with one underperformer from our class."
"And then? And then?" Matsushita perked up. If they could use Amasawa as a breakthrough point, maybe they could collaborate with First-year Class A.
"And then…" Horikita glanced toward Ayanokouji. Ayanokouji was acting like nothing happened, sitting quietly at his seat, not saying a word.
Horikita could only continue explaining the result.
"First I gave Amasawa a few oral questions to test her. Her academic ability is indeed very high—she answered almost instantly."
"After that, Ayanokouji spent some points to buy the kitchen tools and materials Amasawa specified. I secretly coached Ayanokouji over the phone, and he made the tom yum dish she requested."
"Amasawa was pleased, and she said she'd bring a friend today to come pick someone."
"As expected, Horikita—you're reliable!" Matsushita flicked a glance at Ayanokouji, like she'd noticed something, but she didn't say it out loud. Instead, she praised Horikita, then asked, "So when is Amasawa coming?"
"She's probably already here." Horikita stood up.
Matsushita turned her head in mild surprise—at the back door of Class D, Amasawa stood there bright and cheerful, waving at Horikita. Beside her was a blonde girl.
Amasawa's appearance immediately drew a lot of attention from Class D.
"Is that a kouhai? Never seen her before."
"Horikita has friends? No way. My god, Horikita—the Horikita—actually has friends? That's not scientific!"
"No, no, no. She's probably a kouhai they already arranged with, coming for this special exam. If that's the case, then she doesn't count as a 'friend.'"
Horikita didn't care about their chatter. She and Matsushita went out to meet them.
Amasawa didn't seem interested in introducing anyone. She just chatted casually and stated her purpose.
"Good morning, senpai~ I'm here to fulfill our agreement."
"You're Amasawa-san, right?" Matsushita was elegant and proper at this moment. "I'm Chiaki Matsushita from Class D. It's nice to meet you."
"I'm wondering—how many classmates in your class still haven't completed their team-up yet?"
"Stop, stop, stop." Amasawa waved her hands, not caring about the senpai's intentions at all—nothing like the normal Sakurajima students who respected upperclassmen. "I'm just fulfilling our agreement. I don't manage my class's stuff, and I don't know."
"Matsushita-senpai, right? And don't think you can use me to contact our class either. It's useless. Even in my class, I'm more of a solo type."
"..." Matsushita's cheek twitched slightly. She glanced at the blonde girl Amasawa brought with her.
You brought a friend and you're saying you're "solo"? That's not how it looks at all!
But she could only complain in her head. Amasawa already said that much—if Matsushita kept clinging and pushing, it would just look bad.
So Matsushita let Horikita handle it.
Horikita didn't mind. Right now she only cared about one thing: find partners for their underperformers as fast as possible. If they could solve even one, that was a win.
"Alright. Here's the list of our classmates who need an academic partner. Take a look."
As she spoke, she handed over her phone—an album Horikita made herself, combining each classmate's photo with their past grades.
Very quickly, Amasawa picked the person she wanted.
"Then I'll choose this one—Sakura-senpai. I'll be her partner. Our hair color is pretty similar, you know~"
"Huh?" Matsushita blinked. For a second, she almost forgot who Sakura was—then she remembered.
Wasn't that the back-row girl in their class with almost no presence?
Always sitting in the last row, head down all the time, barely talking to anyone. Academics, physical ability—both seemed pretty bad.
Still… Sakura's hair was pink, wasn't it? Compared to Amasawa's dark reddish hair, it wasn't exactly the same. Wasn't that kind of a stretch?
Though if you wanted to say they were both some kind of red, then… sure.
And Sakura was an underperformer anyway, so it was acceptable.
Even if it came down to the worst-case scenario where they had to spend points to hire first-year partners, reducing it by two people would still save Class D two hundred thousand points, right?
With that in mind, Matsushita and Horikita had no objections and let Amasawa pick.
Then Amasawa passed the phone to the First-year Class A girl she brought along.
That girl thought for a moment and used the exact same logic as Amasawa.
"Since Ichika said it like that… then I'll be Kei Karuizawa-senpai's partner."
"Karuizawa-senpai's hair color is pretty similar to mine too."
Matsushita was even happier.
The one person she worried about most for this exam was her close friend Karuizawa, because her academic scores really were kind of bad.
Now that a First-year Class A kouhai was taking her, clearing the special exam should be no problem.
After that, they went to call Sakura and Karuizawa out and tell them the good news.
Karuizawa assumed this was all thanks to Matsushita and Horikita. She hugged Matsushita and thanked her, and her attitude toward Horikita softened too.
Sakura, on the other hand, was extremely nervous. Even though they were all girls, she still nodded shyly, voice very small, and thanked Amasawa.
But when she thanked her, she also gripped her phone tightly.
Inside it, the most recent chat log between her and Yukio made her feel safe.
It was a simple message from Yukio:
"Relax. It's already been arranged. I won't let you get expelled."
It filled Sakura's heart with warmth—and also a deep sense of panic.
She didn't know how she was supposed to face Yukio and Shiina anymore.
And Amasawa quietly widened her eyes too.
Holy shit… no wonder Yukio-senpai arranged for me to come help.
What the hell did this Sakura-senpai even eat growing up?
This is ridiculous.
Should she later… secretly ask her for tips?