2nd May, Thursday
"We only have three weeks before the actual exam. We'll at least have to study for these two hours daily, but that likely won't be enough, especially for you two. So I'll be completely taking away your Sundays." Yamauchi spoke in a firm tone, choosing his words carefully to neither provoke Sudou nor depress Sakura.
"Oy! I know I agreed to this, but that's just a lot, Yamauchi!" Sudou shot up, receiving stares from nearly the whole library.
"Fine. But I'll still need six hours on Sundays then. And you need to focus as much as you can without missing a single lecture." Yamauchi quickly and shamelessly changed his opinion.
Why? Well, of course, because he agreed with Sudou. Studying for one whole day was nearly impossible for him, let alone someone like Sudo. Even if he had achieved that, the efficiency would have been truly questionable.
He had just said that as a simple bargaining gimmick.
"6 hours? Tch, what a scam… Alright, I guess I'll try." Sudou said hesitantly, sitting down again.
And it worked more flawlessly than he expected it to be. Hiding his surprise, he coughed, took out some papers, and slid them towards the four.
"I created these tests yesterday, and started them with Maths. Don't try to make up the answer if you don't know, just leave it." Yamauchi spoke. "I'll go check on Ike and others till then."
What Horikita had done yesterday surprised him quite a bit, so he decided to check it out. Something was different about her from yesterday. Not only did she not reject the idea of her being a mentor, but she also switched two of her students with Ike and Kikuchi later. Was she planning to get rid of them in this exam?
'Did I misunderstand her?' Yamauchi thought while walking towards their group, a few tables away.
"RAHH how the hell am I supposed to know how many Yens do these stupid students have! Why don't they just take them out and count?" Ike cried out, clearly frustrated.
"I just explained it the second time! How can you not understand this simple question?" Horikita said, clearly annoyed and irritated. "Try using your brain! If you just give up from the start, you won't get anywhere."
"Even if you say that, I don't even know how to study!" Ike snapped back.
While on the third seat, Kisuke was calmly sitting with his legs crossed, playing some game on his phone, not even recognizing the other two's existence. The other two seats, which were supposed to have the smarter students and help Horikita, were empty.
Looking at the scene, Yamauchi's eyebrows twitched. 'Never mind, I didn't misunderstand her, she truly just wants to get rid of them!' He jokingly thought.
Yamauchi considered recording their video and then sending it on the class group chat for a moment, but didn't let his intrusive thoughts get ahead of him.
"Er… Do you guys need some help? I think directly starting from solving multiple equations might not be a good idea. Ike's basics are too weak to directly start that." Looking at the situation, Yamauchi decided to intervene.
Since he didn't want anyone to get expelled already, he had no choice but to lend a hand. But what he got in response was a glare from Horikita.
"No need. I can handle this." Horikita said firmly, perhaps she didn't want him to interfere.
It didn't take him long to figure out why the other two left.
"Oh yeah? Well, if you can, then when do you plan to do it? After these guys are expelled? Sorry, can't allow that! This guy right here owns me 3,000 points, can't let him go already." Yamauchi spoke, his tone filled to the brim with sarcasm.
He could tell that Horikita was genuinely trying to make him study, but he didn't understand how she failed with her level of stats. With her intelligence level, she should have long understood that this was beyond what Ike could handle for now. So why was she pushing him without any reason?
"Sigh, I'll send Ayanokoji here, I guess he can help. I think you should first start with questions with 2 equations, then come back to this one later. And Ike, try to cooperate, man, she's the one spending her time ensuring that you don't get expelled." 'Even if that might be for purely selfish reasons.' Of course, he didn't speak the latter part out.
Although he wanted to gauge Ayanokoji's abilities, he knew that this took higher priority. And he knew that Ayanokoji could still just hide his stats pretty well if he wanted to, anyway.
While leaving, he grabbed Kikuchi from the back of his T-shirt. "I'll be taking this guy away." Although he initially wanted to take away Ike, he had realised that putting him and Sudou in the same study group would be a classic recipe for disaster.
[Name: Taichi Kikuchi
Class: 1-D
Physical stats:
Stamina - ??
Strength - 93
Combat technique - 104
Average physical stats - ??
Mental stats:
Academic ability - 57
Memorisation power - 60
Critical thinking - 139
Average mental stats - 85.33]
'Huh… quite weird stats.'
"Hey, Kikuchi, which club are you a part of again?"
"Marathon club, why?" Kikuchi asked with a puzzled expression while involuntarily walking.
'Ah. That makes sense then.' Yamauchi thought, ignoring his question.
"Hey, Ayanokoji. Go your girlf- I mean, Horikita needs help with Ike, you already have a decent score anyway. Ah, by the way, we got a new temporary member in the group. Can you give your question paper to Kikuchi?" Yamauchi said.
Although Ayanokoji was quite confused, he just gave his question paper to Kikuchi, the answer sheet to Yamauchi, and left.
"Are those just rumours or a thing?"
It was Hasebe who spoke up.
"Honestly, I have no idea. Horikita outright refuses to even consider him a friend, but still, they are close to each other. Yesterday they were even having lunch together, or at least that's what Ike was ranting about."
Yamauchi shrugged, but his eyes widened slightly as he skimmed through the answer sheet that Ayanokoji gave him along with the question paper.
The first question, which he had just added so that they would skip it or waste their time and lose confidence, was probably even more difficult than the ones asked in the previous exam, and was solved without a single cut. Although he didn't understand a thing, he felt that it wasn't some random gibberish.
He quickly verified the answer, which was exactly the same, even with 3 decimal places. Moreover, there was no rough work or calculation on the paper. Ayanokoji had just solved it as if there was nothing wrong with the level of the question, and it was just a normal one marker.
'Wha… What the fuck? Does this guy have a system too?'
More to that, he had even finished half of the other questions. Scoring exactly 50 marks, just like the previous exam. Well, 51 if you count the first question.
'Is that what this guy meant when he said "I'll slowly start going all out" and "hiding my skills a bit just to ease up"? It checks out, then, the marks did go up by one.'
"Um… Yamauchi, are you listening? We all completed our paper."
Hasebe asked, waving her hand in front of his eyes.
Hearing her, Yamauchi jerked his head, getting out of the trance.
"Ah, sorry. I was thinking about something. Well, start the next subject then, I'll check your answers."
Two hours passed quite quickly for Yamauchi, analysing his four pupils' papers. But not so quickly for them, having to write all the short tests in quick succession.
"Hmm… Hasebe, your certain topics in History, Science, and English are very weak, but your Maths and Japanese are at a really good level. For now, you should just focus on your weak subjects and try to keep the strong ones at the current level, that'll be the fastest way to improve marks."
Turning to the other three, he used all his willpower to suppress a sigh.
"You three simply have Maths, English, Science, History, and Japanese as your weak points. Everything else is excellent!"
Watching their expressions, he was glad that they at least understood the sarcasm because he had seriously started doubting them. He decided to take this opportunity and push for more.
"No offence, but your basics are worse than a 12-year-old. It'll be quite difficult to make you guys pass with just 2 hours per day. Although I can't put in more time, you need to try and study in all the free time you can have. I am sure that none of you don't understand anything in class, so it'll be best to use that time."
While Kikuchi was certainly at a better level than Sudou and Sakura, and it wouldn't take much time to at least make him pass, Yamauchi felt he was a really lazy guy. So putting him under an imaginary threat would be a good idea to make him put more effort. With the current level of the rest of the class, he could get in the top 20 by the time of the exam.
"The first three chapters of our books, which were skipped by the teachers, are the only thing you guys will be focusing on for this week. Luckily for you, they are as detailed as the chapters of the current year, so there'll likely be no problems with understanding them. Feel free to send any doubts you have in our group or directly to me if you still don't understand anything."
Hearing Yamauchi, Kikuchi, and Sakura hesitantly nodding in agreement to his words.
"Oh man… how will I complete my sleep then?" Sudoku groaned.
"Ever considered sleeping at night rather than playing video games with Ike?" Yamauchi asked with a deadpan expression.
He would have smacked him if not for the fact that it was Sudou and would get smacked back with a much more devastating force. Not to mention, they would likely lose what little class points they were gonna get next month, too.
"Let's wrap up the lesson now, it's time for your club anyway. We'll just focus on Hasebe's weak topics from now on, since you guys are weak at it too. Sundays will be for other subjects."
He said, standing up. The other four didn't bother to hide their tired and bored faces and started leaving too.
Finally finishing his work, he glanced around the library and was surprised to find so many first years sitting in groups. When he started walking, he noticed Hiyori too, along with other class C students.
'It seems she did listen to me seriously… Well, she is probably one of the top students in her class academically, so she might have volunteered by herself too.'
Realising that she had noticed him too, he was about to wave a hand but suddenly stopped when he glanced at a guy standing nearby her.
With his ability, he quickly understood who the guy was and started leaving as soon as he could. However…
"Wait."