On the second day of the new school year, thanks to the student council, all the second-years already knew a special exam was coming, so everyone was on high alert.
When Sakagami walked into the classroom, he paused for a moment, then glanced in Yukio's direction in sudden realization.
"I almost forgot you guys in the student council get information ahead of time. I was sure you'd all be just as slack as yesterday and was planning to use this special exam to snap you back into shape, but looks like you heard about it early."
Ishizaki puffed up like he'd just been praised by the homeroom teacher. "Hehehe, we're not as amazing as you say, Sakagami-sensei. Just basic stuff, totally basic."
"..."
Sakagami choked on his own breath, staring at the class's resident iron-headed idiot with a very complicated expression.
Kaneda couldn't bear to watch anymore and tugged at Ishizaki's sleeve across the aisle.
"Idiot. The teacher wasn't complimenting you."
"Eh?" Ishizaki still hadn't caught on and looked about ready to ask something dumb, so Sakagami hurriedly rapped on the blackboard. He couldn't let this moron keep derailing things—business first.
"Ahem! Since you already know, I'll just be direct. This special exam is called the Cross-Grade Team Exam, and the requirements are a bit novel."
"As the name suggests, you'll be crossing grade levels to form teams with first-year students."
Yukio didn't react at all. Yesterday in the student council, Amasawa had already laid this out for him—info she'd gotten straight from Acting Chairman Tsukishiro, even more detailed than what the council had received.
What Sakagami was saying now matched exactly what Amasawa had reported.
The rest of the class, however, were caught off guard.
"Team up with the new kids? What's the school thinking? It's only the second day of term! The first-years haven't even joined clubs yet. We don't know any of them—how are we supposed to form teams?"
"Seriously. And if it's a team exam, what if the first-years just drag us down? We can follow Yukio-aniki's game plan, but we can't guarantee the first-years will listen."
"Don't say that, you're freaking me out. When you put it like that, it really does feel like they'll just pull us under."
Sakagami had grown used to this kind of reaction. He launched into the school's usual spiel like a well-worn lecture.
"Those reactions are precisely why this exam is necessary.
"Some of you said you 'don't know' any first-years. Out in society, when you're handling business, are you going to sit there waiting for clients to introduce themselves to you?"
"Some of you are worried about being dragged down by juniors. Well, out in society, it might be you who's dragging the team down as the rookie. Everyone starts from that stage and grows from there."
"And once you're the senior, you'll need the patience to guide the people coming after you."
With Sakagami's explanation, the Yukio Class gradually quieted down. Thinking it through, there really wasn't anything wrong with the school's approach or Sakagami's logic.
"Of course, forming teams is the core, but it's only one phase," Sakagami went on, making everyone even more uneasy. "In the end, it still all comes down to your midterms."
"This time, the midterms will be different from before. Only five subjects, five hundred points total. The first-years will be the same, but with different questions within their own curriculum."
"Within the next five weeks, each of you will have to find one first-year partner and form a pair."
"If you haven't found anyone by the deadline, the school will auto-assign partners. But in that case, your final score will be penalized five percent right off the top."
"For the first-years, since three of your classmates have already been expelled, the three left unpaired at the end will have their scores doubled and then also penalized five percent. That part isn't your concern."
"As for rewards, there are class and individual categories. For the class reward, your average score is the sum of you and your teammate's total divided by the number of students. The classes will be ranked by average score from highest to lowest, with class points of 200, 100, 50, and 0 awarded respectively."
"For individuals, the top three pairs by total score will each receive one million private points. Pairs ranked four through ten will each get eight hundred thousand. Individual rewards stop at the top one hundred pairs, and you can't double dip—if you take a top-three prize, you can't also claim a top-ten one."
"If two pairs tie on total points, there'll be no shared ranking; priority goes to whichever pair finished the exam faster."
"And finally, the penalty for this special exam: if any pair fails to score at least five hundred points total, the second-year student in that pair will face… expulsion."
"The first-year will only lose their private point income for the next three months."
"So choose your partner very carefully."
Once all the details were out, the Yukio Class couldn't sit still anymore. Up to now, special exams had always depended purely on their own efforts. Now they had to rely on teammates too?
Even if you were a top student who could solo a perfect 500, if your partner got zeros across all five tests and your combined total failed to clear five hundred, you'd still be expelled.
If an average student drew a particularly bad first-year partner and their combined score didn't break five hundred, they'd also eat an expulsion. Meanwhile, the first-year would just lose three months of income…
In short, it wasn't enough to pass on your own—you also had to make sure your partner did. If your partner failed, even if you passed, you'd still get booted.
That was enough to make everyone feel sick. People naturally trusted themselves more than strangers—who would want to stake their future on a brand-new first-year?
And on top of that, they were supposed to freely go out and find partners when they didn't even know who was smart and who wasn't.
You could say this special exam had truly dumped a massive headache on them.
"I've got it! We just head for Class 1-A. If the school sorted them into A-Class, their academic ability can't be bad, right?"
"Damn, that's the first decent idea I've heard out of you. Been doing fewer manual jobs lately so your brain's working clearer?"
"Shut up, this is serious, I don't have the energy to joke with you!"
It was not a bad suggestion—beeline for Class 1-A. At the very least, you wouldn't have to worry about their academic level. In fact, maybe some second-year underachievers could even ride the first-years' coattails instead.
"Buuut…" Kaneda, as a fellow honors student, understood how top performers thought. He adjusted his glasses in concern. "What if those first-year A-Class juniors are also aiming for the individual rewards?"
"..."
Everyone immediately realized that was a real possibility. The tricky part of this exam lay in the dual reward structure: class points on one side, individual ranking on the other.
If you're a first-year ace, and you've never interacted with these second-years before, it's only natural to want a strong partner to shoot for a top-three total. One million points is a huge sum for a normal student.
And if that fails, the top ten still get eight hundred thousand.
"Ah?" Ishizaki started to panic. "Then… then according to what you're saying, doesn't that mean… doesn't that mean no junior will want to team up with me?"
"In theory… yeah," Kaneda said honestly after giving Ishizaki a look.
If he put himself in the shoes of a first-year prodigy who didn't know Ishizaki at all, there was no way in hell he'd pick him as a partner.
"What are you freaking out for?" At that point, Yukio finally spoke up. "If you just want to check the first-years' academic level, that's easy. You just print a few extra sets of practice exams."
"The real issue is how to get them to happily team up with us."
....
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