One thing to know about Kawahara is that he respects strong people the best. Or so would I assume. I would assume that since he has behaved well thus far when Basara-sensei was in charge.

However, now that that's not the case...

"Kawahara!!"

Maybe what echoed throughout the room wasn't Kawahara's slap onto Akimiyashika's left cheek but Yuka-sensei's immediate shout. She even slammed her own two hands on her desk.

Briefly, after the slap, a quick silence filled the atmosphere.

Unlike a normal girl, Akimiyashika wasn't showing any signs of retaliation.

Even more so, she held her hand in Yuka-sensei's direction thus symbolizing her to not move.

"Happy now?"

"...What?!"

This certainly was a weird turn of events. Akimiyashika wasn't exactly looking at Kawahara, but she wasn't fighting back either.

"I asked you if you're happy now that you've got what you wanted. Or, are you gonna keep hitting people until you're satisfied?"

Damn, what a noble approach. But, seriously, will that work against Kawahara?

"Are you fucking with me, you bitch!? Do you think that I'll show mercy just because you aren't showing any signs of retaliation!? How wrong!"

Once again, Kawahara began to form an uptight grip with his hand. This would symbolize that he was about to throw yet another slap or potentially a punch.

Sincerely, this was fun to watch. I didn't actually care who got hurt or not.

"Kawahara!!"

Unfortunately, this little show wasn't showing any signs of progression because Yuka-sensei had the face of someone who was flowing with rage.

"What the fuck is it now?!"

"To the principal's office, now!"

Ah, of course. The good old 'principal's office' card.

"I don't fucking care anymore. I'm out this bitch."

Angrily kicking his table, Kawahara decides to leave the room. Well, it must've been awkward to have your slap be confronted with such words.

Although, I'm somewhat impressed that Kawahara was able to detect the consequences. Naturally, if Akimiyashika reports him for what he did, he is bound to receive consequences, but since it only applies to him alone, I couldn't give a fuck.

Either that, or he was too moody to stay in the same room as we.

"Aki!! Are you okay?!"

"Are you hurt, sis!?"

Since when did Akimiyashika become your 'sis', Hinagiku?

Nevertheless, both Ikkiri and Hinagiku surrounded Akimiyashika out of worry.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. It's nothing to worry about--"

"What are you talking about!? That violent creature just slapped you! Sensei, can I go with Aki to the nurse's office!?"

"That's right, that's right! That creature that belongs to that gender just slapped her!"

Oi.

Why are they heavily implying something while using the fact that Akimiyashika got slapped as an excuse to portray their tendencies!?

"Sure... Please, take care of yourself."

"I will."

In the end, both Ikkiri, who accompanied Akimiyashika, and Hinagiku left the classroom.

...

Am I overthinking about this?

No, no way, right?

"I hope none of you try anything like that ever again."

Uttering such cold words, Yuka-sensei looked at us like some demon.

What is this? Why is the world so cold all over the sudden?

"I'll continue. To prepare for the upcoming special exam, I will hold daily physical education extra classes. What I'm saying is, aside from the normal classes that you all have, I will, out of kindness, give you all opportunities to overcome the odds with my help."

That's good to know. At least she isn't completely illogical like Basara-sensei who does special exams to satisfy his insatiable thirst for spicy arguments. This time, it was different. Yuka-sensei was offering help.

Help, to us, criminals. I'm fairly sure that that's a demonstration of a certain moral aspect. Maybe compassion?

Immediately wanting to know something, I held my right hand high.

Yuka-sensei didn't seem to be in the mood to be tolerating interruptions, therefore, interrupting her might cause something unnecessary. Plus, if my request gets rejected, then that's fine.

I'm aware that she will eventually get to this point.

"What? If it's something not related to this, you will receive the same punishment."

Cold.

Though, luckily, it's exactly related to that.

"No, it is related. I was just wondering what the real content of the exam is."

"What do you mean by 'real'?"

Hm?

Was I not explicit enough?

Apparently not.

"Um, well, you've been saying that we will compete with another pair and something like that. But, what exactly does this competition revolve around? I know that it must be something physical, otherwise you wouldn't bother to do a physical test in order to form the pairings, right?"

It's been on my mind for a while. If Yuka-sensei went through the trouble of using a physical check-up test to evaluate our speed, then the exam must be related to something that involves physical activity. I was already pretty confident that that was the case.

What I wasn't sure of was what the exam would revolve around. In other words, what sort of physical activity would we be engaging in?

"That's a good question. Although I formed the pairings through a speed test, the special exam won't simply revolve around running only."

Only?

Then...

"I want everyone to look at what I'm about to write on the board, please."

As soon as she said that, my phone vibrated.

Unfortunately, I knew the reason why.

No, it wasn't Hinagiku's message. Hinagiku and Rayazaki weren't talking and that's mainly because Rayazaki was, oddly enough, paying extreme attention to the explanation.

Ah right. The fucking bloomer wants to pass the exam for romantic reasons.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to lose honestly.

"Woah... seriously..."

"No way can I do that..."

Small talk was going on between the girls in the class. In contrast, my table partner just stood still without complaining.

"This is the contents of the exam. On February 25th, this is the area you will be evaluated around."

Written on the board were the following words:

• 5 km run

• 50 squats

• 30 push-ups

• 50 sit-ups

• Planks (5 mins)

....

I wasn't going to call this hard, but I doubt that some people here can actually just do this on their own.

"Now, before you complain, I will explain yet another important piece of understanding when it comes to what I just wrote. Since this is a competition between pairs, naturally, the pairs will have to split this up with their partner. In other words, you will have to distribute all this physical work with your pairing in order to fully make a 50%."

Noticing that some of us were making weird expressions, Yuka-sensei assumed that some of us didn't understand what she was on about.

She was not wrong.

Therefore, Yuka-sensei started to write yet again.

"Seeing how confused the majority of you are, I will illustrate. To fully complete the exam and get the maximum score, the pairing that is being tested will have to equally split the tasks with each other in order to get a 100% result. Now, how does a pair split their tasks? That's quite simple, as you can see..."

Ah, I see. Well, that does make sense.

Of course, I only got the bigger picture once she wrote additional information on the board.

"You can't equally split the tasks. In other to raise the difficulty bar in this exam, in every task, the slowest person in a pair will have to fulfill the task far more. Therefore, let's say that Kuzan, who is paired up with, Sana, who didn't run faster than him, is about to be tested. I can't allow Kuzan to do the 5 kilometers run on his own. Furthermore, it can't be equally split. This means that they can't do 2.5 kilometers each other. No. The weakest runner will always have to do a bigger portion. Ultimately, Sana will have to do, 2.6 kilometers and Kuzan 2.4 kilometers. This way, it won't even out."

Talk about cruel.

Making a girl who has no physical upbringing to her run that much? Certainly, to someone who has minimal physical experience in running, this is actually so little yet to people who don't, it will seem like pure hell.

Also, from my understanding, this alone didn't apply to the 5 kilometers run only. It would, most likely, apply to the rest of the tasks. This is what Yuka-sensei meant by splitting the tasks. However, it will never be an even split. The weaker element will always have to do the hardest part.

Hence, I could understand what Yuka-sensei wanted out of this. To help out the partner. It actually didn't matter how fast I could be, what mattered was that, in my case, Yulia would have to be the one who would succeed.

"Needless to say, this applies the same to the rest of the tasks. Of course, what I'm saying is all under the premise that you will be aiming for the maximum score. In case you are wondering, the failure score will be applied when the pairing can't obtain a higher score than 49%. 50% is the bare minimum. If the pairing can't even complete each task completely then they will be heavily penalized."

In addition to the consequences that we would naturally suffer from being the losers, a fair method was being applied to determine who would lose and win.

As much as I like how logical this currently is, the main problem was that there was only about 4 days to prepare, not myself, but my partner. I was already fully confident about myself, the problem was my partner.

If this exam was made the other way around and the pairings were formed under the formula where, instead of two contrasts, two equals would be paired up, then, the stronger equals would naturally excel in this exam.

Nevertheless, that's obviously not the case.

"Wait, sensei, I have one question."

Whiteknight Sagasuga thus held his left hand up high.

"Go ahead, Sagasuga."

Weirdly enough, Yuka-sensei's mood had gone up a bit. Maybe the fact that no one was violently interrupting her like Kawahara made her relax a bit.

That's a relief. I would very much like to understand the components of this exam to a reasonable degree.

"I understand that if the pairing score goes overall below 50% that the pairing will fail the exam, but why is that the case though? Wasn't the main premise of the consequences based on the results of the pair fights?"

Well, his question might sound bizarre, but Sagasuga did make an intriguing point. Yuka-sensei had previously stated that the losing pair will suffer the consequences of losing yet she never mentioned this.

"Those are additional consequences and, in my opinion, the soft ones."

What did she just say?

Soft ones?

Oh, I see.

So being subjected to a supply exam which implies something malicious like slavery and whatnot, and, cherry on top, being paired up with your partner in this exam for the rest of the year, is soft?

I mean...

The second part was kinda nice actually.

"Then, what is the main one...?"

"For starters, to achieve the main consequence, you need to lose first. Although I'm a somewhat fierce person sometimes, I believe that this exam isn't that hard. But, if you lose, aside from the consequences I've already said, 100 years of jail will be added to your sentence."

I don't even care anymore when it comes to that. 1100 years. Wow, such difference.

Because, you know, it's not as if I will die before my sentence hits 100 years or anything.

Though, that was a different case for someone like Sagasuga who has 25 years of jail.

Realistically, you can't compare Sagasuga's jail sentence to someone like me.

Even if it doesn't faze me, that's a different story for the rest.

"Sensei, isn't that a bit too much!? Why add so many consequences for no reason?"

"Tsudo, no reason?"

Tsudo missed the perfect chance to shut his own mouth.

It's fucking obvious as to why she's applying this many consequences, you damn idiot.

"...Yeah?"

"Hahahah. Hahahaaaa... Do you... No, no. But, I just want to make sure. Do you actually think that this is normal to happen at all?"

"W-What do you mean... Why are you laughing like that? Did I say something funny?"

"Funny is an understatement. Tsudo, do you realize how many people in this entire world would desire a chance like this? All of you, irresponsible brats, have the audacity to complain about this situation when all you have to do is pass one exam. A single stupid fucking exam."

Woah, she's mad. Tsudo, what have you done.

"No, it's more than that. While there are criminals out there who have families to see, you people get to leave once per month, right? And, what do those criminals get? A visit every now and then? For sure, that's a privilege yet you absurdities are taking this as if it's some sort of purgatory. Please don't spout such shit if all you're going to say is utter nonsense."

Christ, why am I smelling roasted smokes from Tsudo's direction? I guess the roast was enough to tell the tale.

Still, lesson learned. Don't piss Yuka-sensei off. She might be a masochistic bitch, but she's not too different from Basara-sensei when it comes to being spiteful.

"Are we clear~?"

"Yes..."

Tsudo, after being roasted, looked down for a while. Public humiliation is one of the worst things a human being could face in today's society.

This is why, the majority of the time, you keep your mouth shut. Impulsive people are often wrong.

Nevertheless, this malicious bitch just smiled at him like she was some sort of saint.

"And with that, my explanation is concluded. You are always free to ask questions, but for now, let's resume the class."

After that, the class went on as normal.

Kawahara never made his return to the classroom, however, to contrast that, Ikkiri, Akimiyashika, and Hinagiku eventually returned to the classroom.

In a swift yet slow time, classes were over for the rest of the day.

To be honest, I was somewhat in a rush because I wanted to contact someone right away.

That certain someone was nowhere to be seen in the classroom.

Apparently, she had already left.

Although she had been the first one to contact me, I sent a message right back at her.

『Where are you? 』

I roughly waited for about 10 seconds while I was walking out of the block and shortly after, a reply came forward.

『Find me to find out. 』

Oh, fuck off.

I have anime to watch.

Even if it means that I'll have to watch it on this tiny phone of mine, I'll watch it regardless.

Therefore, I decided to call her straight up.

"..."

She's not picking up...

What the fuck...

『Please pick up...』

Oh no, why the hell did I say that?

I sound like some desperate ex-boyfriend who failed hard in his relationship.

『No.』

Okay, why though?

『Please. It's important.』

It really is.

『We can talk.』

Great, then--

『In person that is.』

Yeah, no fucking shit.

Then, why the hell can't you tell me where you are?!

『At least give me a hint...』

Knowing her, she probably won't deny this.

Also, for the first time, I actually wanted to contact someone. Of course, this was because I refused to get cucked in the upcoming exam for no reason.

I wasn't going to let my anti-social tendencies kick in right now.

『A place where the usual would fell at disarray. And that's all!』

Are you serious...?

I had to go out of my way just to find her?

Why?

Why is it always like this?

I fucking swear, if it wasn't just for this not random important circumstance, I would literally not give a shit.

However, the situation is different. I urgently need to speak to her.

"Oh."

Just as I was about to walk out of the block, a familiar figure stroke me.

Her light silk pink hair shone even midst the already late weather.

The coldness in her eyes was enough to send your average virgin to suicide watch.

It's rare to see her leave this late.

But, now that I think about it, we did talk for a fair bit today, right?

Therefore, we should be able to interact again without any problems, I think.

"Hey, do you--"

"Don't care."

.....

I fucking hate you all.

Block A.

Where is she?

"Hey, is that..."

No, seriously, where?

She said 'disarray' therefore I'm assuming that she's in a place where the majority of us would feel at confusion. I say this because she said 'the usual', which would imply that she's ultimately referring to our classmates.

I've looked around this whole block yet still found nothing.

The side glares weren't bothering me, but I needed to get this over with pretty soon.

Knowing that I can't ask the people around here for clues, I was a bit lost.

No...

That's not entirely true. I'm simply forbidden from interacting with other students. Verbal interaction is forbidden, to be more precise.

The school staff was entirely different.

Basara-sensei did say that I could talk to them. Damn it, I wish I actually had that index that Hyunda talked about.

Well, in the end, the goal was formed. I would have to talk to the school staff. In every block, there is always at least one staff member, so that shouldn't be a problem.

As a matter of fact, I'm eyeing one right now.

It's a really old lady and she's cleaning the hallway.

There's nothing that remarking about this scenario, it's just that she keeps cleaning the same spot that gets tramped over by the students passing by.

Yet, why does she keep doing that...?

Why not just wait around for them to begone and then be over with?

"Excuse me, can you-"

"Not now, I'm cleaning."

"...Right."

Well, this was awkward. I decided to sit in a near-by bench to wait for when she was done to ask her if she saw the likes of Yulia here, but she just kept doing the same thing over and over.

....

It's been 5 minutes and yet...

Why

The

FUCK

Do

These

Pieces

Of

Shit

keep on doing this?

It's actually impressive how they can't get a damn clue. She just keeps on cleaning the same spot yet the students won't stop passing by that spot. It's not as if it's the only spot you can pass by as well. There is way more space. If you simply go to the right a little bit then you won't have to pass where she's cleaning.

The same could be said if you go to the left.

Essentially, this was prolonging itself because these rich kids refused to move out of their way.

Therefore---

"Let me help you clean. Do you have an extra broom?"

"Hm? Do you want to help me clean? Sure thing. Pick up that broom over there."

Rightly after hearing her words, I went to pick up the broom that was on lining onto her desk's bay.

I don't have an interest in truly helping this school servant, but some people needed to actually get a clue.

Oh, that's right. This wasn't being done because students were leaving the classrooms or anything like that.

It was being done by the same people over and over.

"Gahaha, how fucking dumb do you have to be to do this shit every day?"

"She's probably mentally retarded, what did you expect?"

"Still, you have to be dumb as shit to not notice, hahaha!"

They've been talking for a while. Although I haven't traded glances with them in order to not attract attention, I was already aware of their existence.

It's not uncommon to see this but you have to be certainly on another level to take this type of shit on someone whose years of life is probably greater than you three fuckers combined.

"Hey, let's go over there again."

"Yeah, she now thinks that she's finished cleaning! Look at her relax, hahaha!"

Their reason for doing this is completely unrelated.

I had to take into consideration my own circumstances right now.

Evidentially, the necessity to find Yulia and talk to her was strong yet for the sake of that, I need to confirm whether or not she's been here in order to accumulate clues on Yulia's possible location.

The source of my clues would be someone who is responsible for this block. It's crystal clear that this block's school servant would be my primary source.

It's not as if there are any other choices when it comes to investigating who has been around this block. If it wasn't due to the rule that forbids interaction then I would obviously just have asked the students around if they had seen someone who is gorgeous and had a tan skin tone.

Alright, they probably wouldn't be able to tell that it was Yulia who I was talking about if I said the word 'gorgeous', but I'm heavily confident that if I were to ask a male individual on this matter then they would most likely be able to meet my expectations.

Regardless, what was important right is getting information from my one and only source.

However, there's obviously a slight problem here. She said she would only talk after she was done cleaning. I was always about to talk to her but those fuckers just kept on stepping under the same place.

In other words, my conversation could never initiate. Sometimes it would, but this servant is more preoccupied with cleaning than anything else, honestly.

What's important to conclude here is that there isn't any supposed moral reason as to why I'm doing this. This would all link back to the source. I had to talk to this servant. Get clues. Find Yulia. Talk about how we were going to prepare for the exam and then...

Watch fucking anime!!

That's right, this was all for the sake of watching anime.

I'm going to be a bit honest over here, I've been getting into Vinland Saga and my god, can I just say. Wit Studios.

I have no idea what they do, but every single one of those beautiful motherfuckers deserves a damn fucking raise at the end of the month.

In addition to that, I've been avoiding Vinland Saga this whole time but now that it's over I can finally get into it. I refuse to watch ongoing anime, the hype every week is so unhealthy. I have no idea how people do it.

Thus, I really need to hurry up.

Yet...

"Oi, oi, look."

"Someone's decided to join the fray."

I'm fairly confident that if I put enough killing intent that I could make them flee from the get-go, but they were still talking trash despite the fact that I haven't made any eye contact with them.

"Granny, where do you need help cleaning?"

I already knew what needed to be cleaned up though.

"Ahh, my back hurts. Sorry, you wanted to talk to me about something?"

Well, at least she was aware.

But--

"That can come later. Just tell me where I need to clean up and we'll talk afterward, alright?"

"Alright, young man. Then, could you clean that spot, please?"

She was pointing right at a spot that was between the lockers and the staircase, essentially, the entrance. The spot kept on getting dirty because it was raining a bit outside. If hypothetically speaking, someone wanted to truly dirty a spot constantly, then it wouldn't be such a bad idea to dirty your own shoes for that purpose.

Mud doesn't come off easily hence its irritable disgust factor linked to its existence.

Coincidentally, these three retards had mud on their shoes.

Would you look at that? A coincidence, huh?

"Most certainly."

By extending her chair to the old lady, I allowed her to take a seat.

"Thank you..."

Now, then. I had some cleaning to do.

Truly, as soon as I began to clean with the broom I held on both of my hands, the mud didn't come off easily.

Yet with more than necessarily minimal effort, it was finally cleaned up.

It took me roughly around 40 or so seconds.

Right after I made my own way to her, I took note of the sound of certain footsteps. Of course, I was aware of who those footsteps belonged to.

"Hahaha, fucking retard."

Additionally, I heard that too.

At last, I had arrived. I was ready to engage in a conversation about Yulia's possible whereabouts now.

I did, in theory, clean the spot.

"I'm don-"

"Ahh, that won't do. There is still dirt in it."

I wasn't sure whether or not she was not noticing what was going on or if she had poor vision.

It didn't matter, really. I already knew that it had dirt in it.

"I see. I will clean it then. But, this time. I'll clean all of it."

Yet again, I took off.

Purposely not making eye contact with them allowed those three individuals to gain a certain degree of confidence towards this.

It's common sense that someone who looks down on the ground far often is someone who has low-self esteem. I was doing exactly that.

There was nothing telling them that I was minimally ready to fight back or something like that. If they were to engage in a conversation with the goal of possible intimidation then it would work, most likely.

"Hey. I haven't seen you around here. You fuckin' new?"

Nevertheless, I focused on cleaning. Because, in theory, that was the one thing I had to get it done.

In order to get an audience, I had to clean this spot up.

It couldn't be helped, really.

"Oi, oi, he's ignoring you, Shariolo."

Shariolo, what kind of fucking name is that?

Although I'm trying extremely hard to portray a serious act, that name almost made me burst.

"Tsk. Just watch."

Ah.

How weird.

The spot that I was done cleaning was being dirtied yet again.

That really can't be allowed, no matter how I look at it.

"Well, I did say I would clean all of it, didn't I, granny?"

"Uh? Yes..."

"Then, I better keep my words."

Time to take out the trash.