Only the four first-year class representatives—and Kushida—were present in the student council room, ringed in a small circle. Today, Yukio had told Kiriyama in advance he didn't need to come.
Kiriyama, the only remaining senior in the council, didn't dare say a word more than necessary and agreed at once. Ryuen had already heard Yukio's plan back in their classroom, so naturally he wouldn't waste time listening to it again.
By now, Yukio had also collected the signed contracts from Sakayanagi and Ichinose's sides. Ichinose was a little surprised.
"Eh? Arisu also signed an agreement with Yukio-kun to transfer her protection point?"
Through their work together in the council, Ichinose and Sakayanagi had quickly become close enough to call each other by given names.
Not just Ichinose—Kushida was surprised too. She'd assumed Sakayanagi's class would either sacrifice one person or simply pay twenty million private points to cancel the expulsion penalty.
After all, Ichinose's class was short almost two million; but if you looked at Sakayanagi's class, their private points would certainly be enough.
The only one not surprised was Horikita, who had already heard a bit from Yukio on the way to the council room.
Sakayanagi cast a smiling sidelong glance at Yukio. She did have someone in mind to expel, but one phone call from him last night made her change course and agree.
The call had been simple: Yukio said to trust him—he could bring Director Sakayanagi back. Though she acted dutiful as a daughter, when it came to serious matters she cared very much about her father.
So this morning she ordered her whole class to sign without fuss. Even the astonished Katsuragi was told to sign—if you can avoid expulsion, obviously you avoid it.
Facing Ichinose's question, Sakayanagi answered with composure. "If we can save twenty million private points, why wouldn't we?"
"Ah, true enough," Ichinose nodded. Even if a class has enough points, thrift is thrift—what class would burn through that much for nothing?
At this, Horikita's eyes lit. See? From an interest-based standpoint, helping Sakayanagi's class made no sense for Yukio—those twenty million might well become a future headache for him. So there had to be a deeper reason different from helping Class D for a protection point. This time, she was sure she'd win their wager!
"Horikita-san, you look… happy?" Kushida, though broadly connected, rarely had access to Sakayanagi, so she hadn't invested much in the conversation. But she still caught the faint smile at Horikita's lips.
"Hm?" Horikita blinked. Was she happy? Of course—rare chance to beat Yukio! What should she make him promise? Have him teach her how to overtake Sakayanagi and Ichinose? Or… make him say, to her face, that he regrets ever teaching her during the sports festival? That would be even better.
She nearly smiled again before remembering they were in the council room, and reined her face in. "Ahem. Of course I'm happy. I'd thought only our Class D needed this method to clear the exam."
Kushida studied her expression, but couldn't find a flaw. The stated reason was barely plausible, yet something still felt off—Horikita's happiness seemed a little too genuine for that.
Before the topic strayed further, Ichinose steered them back. "Alright, Kikyo—let's hear Yukio-kun's method."
"Mhm," Kushida chimed sweetly, then looked to Yukio, curious what kind of plan could clear an exam that so obviously aimed at forcing expulsions.
Yukio didn't stand on ceremony, and laid it out plainly. "Since all the contracts are signed, then the day after tomorrow, everyone follows my plan. All four classes will vote using the same cyclic pattern."
"First, simple: have praise votes and criticism votes cancel each other so that most class members end up at zero."
Sakayanagi smiled; she immediately grasped the cyclic scheme. "Zero, is it? How very Yukio-kun and his class."
Ichinose agreed. "Right—on that first deserted-island exam, Yukio-kun used a 'zero-point' tactic and tricked us badly."
Kushida still looked a bit lost, glancing left and right; Horikita frowned and voiced her doubt. "Will that even work?"
"I get what you mean," she continued. "Because we can't repeat names on praise votes and can't vote for ourselves, we need a cycle."
"That is: A gives to B and C, B gives to C and D, C gives to D and A, and D gives to A and B—completing a cycle."
"Whether your classes have the full forty students or our Class D has only thirty-seven, a cycle can be arranged so each person gets two praise votes and two criticism votes, totaling out to zero for everyone."
Kushida's face cleared—so that's what it meant. She hadn't followed Sakayanagi and Ichinose's train of thought at first, but Horikita's example made it easy. Looked pretty good—so why was Horikita still frowning? Honestly, that girl loved her frosty look. Annoying.
Horikita pressed on. "But… does this work? Each student only has two internal praise votes; the third praise must go to another class, while each has three internal criticism votes!"
"The remaining forty criticism votes will still force someone into negative and out."
"Even if other classes offset them—say, Yukio's class offsets Sakayanagi's remaining negatives, Sakayanagi offsets Ichinose's, and finally we in Class D offset Yukio's—"
"What about the headcount? Our class only has thirty-seven people."
"And even if Class D still had a full forty, the rules don't allow it. If everyone ties at zero, there's a re-vote—there must be an expulsion."
"Hold up." Yukio casually dug at his ear; Horikita's machine-gun logic dump was a bit tiring. "Horikita, did you misunderstand me? When did I say 'pairwise cancellation'?"
"Huh?" Horikita blinked, then gave him a 'did you get amnesia' look. "You said it yourself—make praise and criticism cancel to reach zero."
"Not quite." Yukio corrected her. "I said most people at zero, not everyone at zero."
"And your example cycle—A giving to B and C, a double cycle—that's not precise. It should be A gives to B, then B gives onward—a single cycle within the class."
"???" Horikita was fully baffled. Was there really a difference? Would it solve the 'must have an expelled student' problem? Even so, someone still had to be decided… right?
...
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