“Can you still call yourself human, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka?” In the classroom of Class 2-C, Hikigaya Hachiman slowly stood up and stared directly at his desk mate.
This was a special exam called “Unanimous Agreement.” The final question was whether to agree to expel a classmate in exchange for class points.
Regardless of agreement or disagreement, everyone had to be unanimous, or there would be a penalty of losing class points.
Because a student named Kushida Kikyo persistently voted “agree,” their class was forced into a situation where they had to vote to expel a student to pass the exam.
Regarding the final choice of the student to be expelled, Hikigaya struggled for a long time but ultimately couldn’t accept it.
Votes for: 37, Votes against: 1 Because there was no unanimous agreement, a re-vote would be held in ten minutes.
The expelled student, Sakura Airi, stood there, her body trembling intermittently.
After being yelled at and persuaded by Sakura, who didn’t want to be expelled but decided to sacrifice herself, she cast her vote for expulsion.
Sakura’s best friend, Hasebe Haruka, cried, and the atmosphere in the classroom was one of crushing despair.
Everyone thought the exam would end like this, but unexpectedly, Hikigaya, who usually acted like a nobody in class, suddenly changed his mind.
“I’m curious why you voted no,” Ayanokouji looked at Hikigaya.
Hikigaya once again confirmed from his unchanging, indifferent expression that he felt no guilt whatsoever.
Sakura was Ayanokouji’s friend and also had feelings for him, yet Ayanokouji was the one who proposed expelling her.
Because Sakura’s actions were too obvious, Hikigaya believed Ayanokouji must have noticed it.
Perhaps it was precisely because he discovered this that he chose to force Sakura’s expulsion.
“Horikita…
Forget it…” Hikigaya didn’t answer Ayanokouji, as it held no meaning for him, who intended to leave.
It was the same for Horikita, the leader of Class C, who opposed expelling the rebellious Kushida.
“No matter what anyone says, I will vote against it.
That’s it,” Hikigaya sat down as if bored.
As a result, his obvious disregard meant he was considered a candidate for expulsion.
Although he didn’t feel close to Sakura, who chose to sacrifice herself, he refused to be part of the group that forced Sakura’s expulsion, even if it meant being expelled himself.
He had his own principles.
That day, three people from Class C were expelled.
———————— After the college entrance exams, Hikigaya “kissed” a large truck while cycling home.
When he came to his senses, he found himself back at the freshman orientation ceremony of his high school days.
He chose to feign illness to gather his thoughts and was taken to the infirmary by teacher to rest.
“Back to this garbage school again,” after his past memories faded, Hikigaya got up from the infirmary bed, walked to the restroom, and stood in front of the mirror.
With his eyes like a dead fish, the pupils in the lower portion of his irises, and his bangs falling past his eyebrows, his hair wasn’t particularly short.
He wore a red blazer school uniform, unchanged from his self three years ago when he first entered this school.
The enrollment guide stated ANHS High School It boasted a 99.9% success rate for employment or further education upon graduation.
The school issued currency monthly, and students had extreme freedom regarding hairstyles and personal belongings.
The school guide described the institution with dreamlike words.
With state support, it was located at the center of a 600,000 square meter enclosed commercial district, complete with karaoke, movie theaters, cafes, clothing stores, and other entertainment and shopping facilities.
Except for the one drawback of not being able to contact family or friends outside for three years while living on campus, this school was simply a student’s paradise.
But Hikigaya knew this was just presenting the appealing aspects.
The school’s true nature was like raising a brood of vipers.
Among the four first-year classes, only the strongest class would receive the promises of the school guide; the other students were merely sacrifices.
Like the outside world, the concept of survival of the fittest was imposed on the students prematurely.
The day of his expulsion in his memory was by no means an event he could easily forget.
If he had a chance to do it again, he wouldn’t live as passively as before.
It was uncertain who would fall; he wouldn’t allow Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, that monster who toyed with people’s hearts, to have the last laugh.
After leaving the restroom, having no desire to return to class, Hikigaya stayed in the infirmary until dismissal.
He then bid farewell to the infirmary teacher and headed to the Keyaki Mall Shopping Center outside the school to start his plan of accumulating private points.
The 160 newly enrolled students would be divided into four classes: A, B, C, and D.
Excellent students would be assigned to classes A and B, while students with various flaws would be assigned to classes C and D.
Only students in Class A would be eligible for ‘graduation.’ Having been assigned to Class D in his first year, he had two ways to graduate into Class A: one was to gather twenty million private points and purchase a transfer qualification from the school, and the other was for Class D’s class points to surpass the other three classes and become the top-ranked class in the grade, effectively becoming the new Class A.
Class points were the basis for the school’s class ranking and changed according to exam results and student behavior.
Initially, each class started with the same thousand points.
Private points were distributed to students monthly based on their class points multiplied by one hundred.
One point was equivalent to one yen and could be used to purchase tangible goods within the entire commercial district, as well as intangible items like exam scores and transfer qualifications to Class A.
In the first month after enrollment, this information was kept hidden by the school.
The current freshmen were only given the misleading information by -sensei that they would receive 100,000 points every first of the month to spend freely.
What he needed to do now was to provide a source for the information he planned to sell from his memory.
This was because the school not only installed numerous surveillance cameras in classrooms and throughout the school but also monitored large flows of student private points.
After trading with other classes, if the school tracked his actions and found he knew things he shouldn’t without doing anything, it would arouse suspicion that he obtained information from former students.
This might cause problems, which he wished to avoid.
He chatted with various people in the Keyaki Mall Shopping Center – a senior student at the cafe, a female employee at the clothing store, a customer at the ramen shop – until it got dark.
It was a long time before Hikigaya returned to the dormitory building from the mall and received the key to his single room, 403, from the dormitory manager.
“I’ve become quite eloquent too,” Hikigaya thought to himself while holding the key and waiting for the elevator.
This was something his past self could never have done.
In the more than a year since he’d been expelled, he hadn’t wasted his time under the “loving” guidance of a certain young lady.
“You’re… Hikigaya-kun?” While he was lost in thought, a beautiful girl tapped him on the shoulder with her finger.
“I’m Kushida from the same class.
Do you remember me?” Hikigaya turned his head to the left, the direction of the voice.
A beautiful girl with straight brown hair stood beside him, tilting her head and looking at him with a cute expression.
Kushida Kikyo, the rebel in the expulsion exam.
She had acted rebelliously because she wanted Horikita Suzune, who knew about her past dark history, to be expelled.
However, she was outmaneuvered by Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, who exposed her dark history.
According to his plan, Kushida had walked right into his trap.
Looking around and seeing no other students nearby, Hikigaya spoke to himself, “Of course, I remember you.
You’re the Kushida Kikyo who caused our class to collapse in middle school.”