After returning to the dormitory, Shikime Natsu closed the door, walked to his chair, sat down, and leaned back comfortably against the backrest.
He activated the 'Observer' skill. He had cast this on Nagumo Miyabi a few days ago. Since Nagumo had sent people to check on his whereabouts, it was naturally no problem for him to conduct some counter-reconnaissance.
He was actually a bit curious about when Nagumo Miyabi had started investigating him. Hmm, according to Shikime Natsu's own findings, he was only followed this afternoon. As for the morning, there was absolutely no sign of it.
After all... in the morning, there was barely anyone at Keyaki Mall. It seemed Nagumo Miyabi couldn't just command the second-year students to be on standby at any time.
Shikime Natsu refocused his gaze on the records within the Observer.
Soon, several pieces of information surfaced.
First, Nagumo Miyabi had ordered his subordinates to investigate Shikime Natsu's study situation. This order was given on Friday. The news he received was that Shikime Natsu was basically hanging out with different girls and seemed to not care about the competition with Nagumo at all.
The time he received this report from his subordinate was just one hour ago.
Nagumo Miyabi's mood was also recorded by the Observer. It could be said that he was quite disdainful of Shikime Natsu.
Before receiving this news, Nagumo Miyabi had even declined requests for dates from several second-year girls, locking himself in his dorm to study. However, after learning this, Nagumo thought to himself that there was no need to be so concerned about Shikime Natsu.
After all, Shikime Natsu looked like he had already given up on himself. If Nagumo were to use his full strength to battle Shikime Natsu, it would inevitably be bullying.
Nagumo Miyabi decided that when the time came, he would display an air of ease in front of Shikime Natsu. Even without much reviewing, he could easily defeat Shikime Natsu, letting him witness the gap in strength between the two.
Incidentally, he would tell Horikita Manabu that the person he had his eye on was nothing but a pretty vase, completely unqualified to be his opponent.
Nagumo Miyabi actually decided to go easy? Do you have cheats enabled that you can afford to hold back like that?
Aside from this news, Shikime Natsu obtained another piece of new information. It looked quite good; it stated that Nagumo Miyabi learned from his subordinates that Ryuuen Kakeru of Class 1-C had united with a few others to forcibly pry information about the 'Special Exam' from Sato's mouth.
Shikime Natsu didn't get the specific details of the Special Exam from the Observer. After all, neither Nagumo Miyabi nor the person reporting to him would specifically recite the entire manual detailing what the Special Exam was and what it tested.
He only learned of the concept.
Seeing this, Shikime Natsu couldn't help but reveal a playful expression.
He hadn't expected this fellow, Ryuuen Kakeru, to have a pretty quick brain. He actually knew how to be flexible, skipping over Natsu directly and turning to acquire deeper intelligence about this school from the upperclassmen instead.
He didn't limit his perception to superficial things like mere midterm and final exams.
This guy indeed had some petty cleverness.
If the Observer had been placed on Ryuuen Kakeru, perhaps he could have heard exactly what details Sato had spilled. After all, with Ryuuen Kakeru's personality, if he didn't get satisfactory intelligence, he definitely wouldn't have easily let that fellow named Sato leave.
Hmm, Shikime Natsu also received a piece of news: Ryuuen Kakeru planned to make a move against him during the Special Exam. It didn't sound like it would be violent. It was a good thing this guy wasn't thinking of repeating his old tricks and launching some violent attack again; otherwise, Shikime Natsu would have insisted on letting him taste the flavor of an iron fist once more.
Furthermore, this guy really was a case of 'honorable people being forgetful.' He had actually forgotten the agreement between the two of them. For the first semester, Ryuuen Kakeru's Class C could only listen to his commands. If he planned to move against Natsu, that would be a breach of contract.
As for all the intelligence Ryuuen Kakeru had knocked out of Sato, Shikime Natsu could acquire it with a mere thought if he wanted.
Of course, Shikime Natsu didn't choose to directly make Ryuuen Kakeru obediently spit out all the intelligence or anything.
Firstly, it was unnecessary. Secondly... that would be too boring.
He simply picked up his phone, opened the Class A group chat, casually edited a message, and sent it out.
[Shikime Natsu: Just received news. Apart from the regular midterm and final exams, this school also has something called 'Special Exams.' Everyone, please take note.]
Shikime Natsu didn't intend to do everything personally.
He was Class A's Leader, not Class A's nanny, and certainly not a beast of burden for this group of people.
If he had to rush to the front to solve everything, then what was the use of this group of so-called elites?
Moreover, appropriate training was also necessary.
He couldn't deprive this group of Class A people of their ability to act and let them just win by doing nothing. Otherwise, in the future, when he wanted to be a hands-off boss and enjoy life, it would be terrible if Class A couldn't find anyone who could carry the banner.
Not long after the message was sent, the class group chat began to get lively.
[Hashimoto Masayoshi: Special Exams? As expected... I felt this school wasn't that simple. Understood, Leader. I'll go ask around for specific details.]
[Katsuragi Kouhei: If that's the case, then our previous preparations might not be sufficient. It seems we need to acquire more intelligence regarding past Special Exams from the upperclassmen.]
[Totsuka Yahiko: I got it. I'll go ask the seniors in the Tennis Club too!]
...
Watching everyone's active responses, Shikime Natsu nodded with satisfaction.
These people were quite taking it to heart.
However, this was normal.
After all, for them, maintaining Class A's status and eventually graduating as Class A was a major event concerning their lifelong future. Their obsession was much greater than his.
He was just here to collect CGs and experience life. Things like 100% employment rate or 100% advancement rate were just fleeting clouds to him.
After thinking for a moment, Shikime Natsu threw out another guiding message.
[Shikime Natsu: If you're preparing for the Special Exam, consider it from the aspect of the exchange student special week. Presumably, the school's assessment shouldn't be too different. It will mainly focus on academic ability, athletic ability, and cooperative ability.]
Academic ability and athletic ability were naturally a given, but as for cooperative ability...
He thought of that black-haired girl, Horikita Suzune. Whether it was academic grades or physical quality, she counted as a top-tier existence among the girls of the entire grade. But even so, she was assigned to Class D, known as the gathering place for 'defectives.'
Coupled with what that Student Council President, Horikita Manabu, had once said—she misunderstood the meaning of 'solitude' and 'loneliness.'
And this school's unique 'Class Points' system.
All of this demonstrated the importance this school placed on 'teamwork' ability.
Of course, if an individual's ability was tough enough, wanting to carry a group to an easy win was absolutely no problem. The premise was that the class had to have a certain amount of cohesion, rather than having fellows who dragged everyone down. Here, he was mainly referring to fellows like Yamauchi Haruki.
The current situation was very obvious.
Class A, Class B, and Class C had basically completed their internal integration and possessed a certain amount of cohesion.
Only Class D still had three forces: Horikita Suzune, Kushida Kikyou, and Hirata Yousuke.
Although due to Shikime Natsu's previous arrangements, Horikita Suzune's attitude had softened a bit, and she was willing to communicate with people in the class, no longer revealing her sharpness and keeping people a thousand miles away like when she first enrolled. This allowed her to gain the recognition of a portion of people after displaying her abilities.
But it was merely a portion.
That kind of recognition was very fragile and could vanish at any time due to a single failure or misunderstanding.
In the current Class D, the one getting along the best was actually Kushida Kikyou.
After all, the matter with the past exam questions allowed her to fiercely farm a wave of favorability, becoming the angel and savior in the class.
Of course, Kushida Kikyou's influence definitely couldn't compare to Ichinose Honami, especially given the situation where there was still a cancer in the class.
As for Class B, Shikime Natsu roughly knew that their personalities were basically all quite nice. Even if Himeno Yuki said she was a gloomy loner, she stood with the majority position. At least, whether she liked it or not, she would ultimately obey the arrangements.
But for Class D, Kushida Kikyou's words might be effective sometimes, and ineffective other times. After all, Yamauchi Haruki's uncertainty was too great.
Just at this moment, Shikime Natsu noticed that his cute desk neighbor had actually spoken up, which was extremely rare.
[Kamuro Masumi: I think it's better to temporarily give up on obtaining intelligence from the second years. The second year is basically under Nagumo's control, and since Nagumo has a betting agreement with Natsu, which counts as having some conflict, it's possible they might provide us with false intelligence.]
[Kamuro Masumi: I heard that the Student Council President and Nagumo have some philosophical disagreements, and there is a relationship of open strife and veiled struggle between them. Therefore, I think we can obtain intelligence from the seniors of Class 3-A. I think we can bring up the news of the betting match between Natsu and Nagumo to prove that at least in dealing with Nagumo, both sides are on the same front.]
Seeing this, Shikime Natsu couldn't help but nod secretly.
So Kamuro Masumi was also participating in the discussion. Moreover, she had organized the intelligence she obtained. Quite good. After knowing about the conflict between Horikita Manabu and Nagumo Miyabi, she directly placed the target on Class 3-A and even analyzed the reasons directly.
Not bad, not bad.
Immediately after, Kamuro Masumi sent another long message.
This time it was a chart.
It listed in detail the current Class Points situation for all classes in the three grades.
[Kamuro Masumi: This is the data I just compiled.]
[Kamuro Masumi: Whether it's the second years or the third years, their Class Points aren't as high as we imagined.]
[Kamuro Masumi: Especially the third years. After two years of hard fighting, the points by which Class 3-A leads the other classes are only a little over two hundred. Moreover, the points for all classes in a grade combined are basically maintained below 4000 points.]
[Kamuro Masumi: So I speculate... the school might be intentionally using various high-difficulty Special Exams to control every class's points, constantly consuming and reducing the points of each class, making us maintain a state of urgent competition at all times.]
This analysis could be said to hit the nail on the head.
Looking at the text on the screen, Shikime Natsu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
For this period of time, Shikime Natsu had merely been teaching Kamuro Masumi how to study. He hadn't expected that Kamuro Masumi's thinking ability would receive an epic enhancement.
Not only did she learn to collect intelligence, but she could also see the logic behind the data.
Not bad, very much improved.
Thus, he unhesitatingly gave his affirmation in the group.
[Shikime Natsu: Masumi's analysis is very correct. The school's goal is to keep us in constant competition, using various exams to maintain the gap between classes and prevent any single class from dominating or completely rotting away.]
[Shikime Natsu: Therefore, if we want to sit firmly in the position of Class A until graduation, we must remain vigilant at all times and cannot slack off in the slightest.]
His own desk neighbor must be quite nervous sending so many words. After all, when in the classroom, she didn't speak that much.
Moreover, when Class A was chatting, Kamuro Masumi was basically just in a state of lurking. Now that she had actually chosen to bubble up, he naturally had to properly support his good desk neighbor.
He was Kamuro Masumi's desk neighbor; if he didn't support her, who would?
Furthermore, what Kamuro Masumi did was truly quite out of Shikime Natsu's expectations. She had actually collected the Class Points of every grade?
When did that happen?
Ahem, Shikime Natsu thought about how there was a period of time after school when he wasn't with Kamuro Masumi. Perhaps she went to collect the intelligence at that time.
Very good indeed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the dormitory.
Seeing Shikime Natsu publicly agree with her views in the group, Kamuro Masumi's small face, which had been tense all along, finally relaxed slightly.
The corners of her mouth rose slightly, outlining a faint smile.
That's great...
Does this count as... slightly proving my ability to Shikime Natsu?
If Shikime Natsu could forget the bad impression she left on him at the start of school, that would be good. She no longer needed to rely on stealing things to satisfy a certain demand deep within her heart.
The current her needed Shikime Natsu's recognition. She wanted to obtain more of Shikime Natsu's approval.
Originally, Kamuro Masumi didn't intend to say this kind of thing in the group, only planning to show it to Shikime Natsu. But after seeing the thing about 'teamwork' that Shikime Natsu sent out, she chose to post it.
She wanted to prove to Shikime Natsu that she could also achieve teamwork, rather than just doing whatever Shikime Natsu ordered.
However...
This wasn't enough.
Merely this was far from enough.
If she wanted to truly stand by his side and become someone useful to him, she needed to become even more excellent.
Kamuro Masumi let go of her phone and glanced at the hair clip Shikime Natsu had given her, her eyes full of joy. Then, looking at the practice questions aside, she picked up her pen again.
Next, she would defeat Sakayanagi Arisu and prove it for Shikime Natsu to see.
____
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