Volume 4, Chapter 1: The peaceful days suddenly... Part 4 The place where Hirata's meeting would be taking place was not as crowded as when my meeting had occurred. Still there were a few students, some were sitting on the stairs near the elevator, some were playing around with their phones and some were still speculating about the explanation they were due to receive. "I...doubt these all going to be part of my group" Hirata mutters. Even a cursory inspection showed that there were more than 10 people gathered here. They all glanced at each other while playing with their phones sometimes. Unfortunately, I was not acquainted with students from other classes and could not identify most of them. "Who's the one we just passed?". "That's Morimiya-kun from Class A. And the one near the elevator is Tokito-kun of Class C". I see. I make sure to remember the names and faces of the students from the other classes. Of course, this number is still few compared to the crowd I saw earlier this evening. When I came together with Hirata to his meeting location, several male and female students were gathered in front of the door of the meeting room. And so we approached the crowd silently.

"If I'm not wrong, you're also from the 20:40 group are you not?". The one who asked that with a low voice was Katsuragi of Class A. A calm person with a mature attitude that is hard to believe is actually a 1st year student in high school. His physique is pretty good as well. First impressions of him might be more in the range of a college student. There are still quite a few people who favour him as leader of Class A. "If so, does this have something to do with you?" a girl with long black hair answered his inquiry without any hesitation or fear. "No. But I just wanted to talk to you all since starting from tomorrow we'll be cooperating together as part of the same group" the girl that Katsuragi made this statement to was none other than Horikita Suzune. It seems Hirata and Horikita will be in the same group as Katsuragi as well. "You want to talk now? That's funny. The other day you brushed us aside when we came to talk" Horikita spat back at him. On the uninhabited island test, Horikita and Katsuragi met each other just once. At the time, Katsuragi showed little to no interest in Horikita. It seemed to be different now.

There were three other students from Class A with Katsuragi, and listening from a distance without approaching were two girls who seemed to either be from Class B or Class C. "Honestly I've never paid any attention to Class D before. But after the results of the previous exam, it's hard to stay inconspicuous, isn't it?" it seemed Katsuragi's attention has been directed towards our class. Indeed after the uninhabited island test, our class's total points had risen tremendously along with Horikita's popularity with the girls of the class. Also the number of friendship flags raised between Horikita and the other classmates have also increased along with the distrust towards Horikita decreasing at the same time. It seemed the class misunderstood Horikita's cold attitude for her silently supporting the class. Through this misunderstanding, the class began to interpret Horikita's refusal to interact with them in a different way. Also, from the perspective of the other classes Horikita started to look no longer as a student who's merely good at academics but also as a mastermind who acts to support her class while playing the other classes from behind the scenes and it seems thanks to that she's received a fair bit of attention from the other classes as well.

"If one day you rise from Class D to Class C, remember that Class A will show no mercy before crushing you into pieces" Katsuragi warns Horikita. "That's a very petty thing to say, after all, between A and the other classes, the point gap is far too wide to bridge" Horikita counters. "Naturally but caution is required every time a class can potentially rise to a higher position. I would say the same thing to Class B or Class C". It almost sounded like Katsuragi was declaring war against Class D. But it couldn't be helped, after the last test, we would obviously be recognized as a threat. Almost as if in sync, the students around Katsuragi all gathered together to glare at Horikita in an intimidating manner. An ordinary girl would burst out crying after being glared at like that, but Horikita barely showed any reaction at all to this intimidation. Suddenly, the face of the girls around us turned into expressions of adoration as a man silently passed by us.

It was a student from Class B named Kanzaki. Although his hair was rather long for a male student, he does have a straightforward personality and does not engage much in frivolous activities. I don't know much else about Kanzaki in detail but the leader of Class B, Ichinose, seems to trust him. Having met during the island test, Kanzaki seems to be aware of Horikita's intellect and moved towards Katsuragi as if to protect Horikita from him. "You don't need to talk with Katsuragi, after all, the situation is what it is" Kanzaki said to Horikita. "Don't worry, I'm used to people looking down on Class D" Horikita counters his offer to help. "I see, someone from a class like D must be used to getting this treatment, I must admit I shared the same view towards your class as well. But the incident that happened on the island made me revise my view towards your class" Katsuragi made that remark while swiping some dust off his clothes. "But just because you got lucky and won once, I'd like you to not get arrogant and think we're equals now" Katsuragi follows up. "...What is that supposed to mean?" Horikita asks him in response.

"What I'm trying to say is that there is a time in everyone's lives when they get lucky once and manage to close the gap a bit. But don't get in over your head just because of this one lucky incident. The difference between our class points is still a tremendous one" Katsuragi tells her. I see, it seems he's saying the results of one test won't affect the standing of the classes all that much. Of course, Horikita surely knows that as well. Since none of this was her accomplishment in the first place, Horikita was neither happy nor dismayed by his words. But it is vital that the credit goes to her in order to continue hiding my existence. "We've just started our high school life, the difference may be large, but do not forget that it is the school that arbitrarily decided who went to which class and we were distributed to those classes accordingly" Kanzaki interjected in a dignified manner. "Hirata, it looks like you're part of a rather troublesome group" I told him. "It was inevitable the moment we were grouped with Katsuragi-kun and Kanzaki-kun, I think". "No...that's not it" I muttered. "Hmm?".

"Kukuku. It looks like there are quite a lot of weaklings gathered here, let me have some fun here". It was Ryuuen who said that. "Ryuuen, huh?". Katsuragi lost his previously calm expression and even Kanzaki's expression changed to an alert one. "Have you also been allocated to this room? Or did you just happen to be walking by?". "Unfortunately I'm with you" Ryuuen instantly replies to that question while three other students obediently walk behind him.

He almost resembled Katsuragi in that regard but the context was different. It almost seemed like a situation with a king and his servants. The students behind Ryuuen had terrified expressions on their faces and moved quietly with obedient movements. "How about you put on a show for me? Beauty and the Beast could be the title" Ryuuen said as he looked at Horikita and Katsuragi respectively. Now having realized the obvious provocation, Katsuragi returns to his normal, calm self. "I originally thought our group would have students with high academic ability but after seeing you and your lackeys I can see this claerly isn't going to be the case" Katsuragi fires back. "Academic ability? What a bunch of nonsense, having academic ability won't mean anything" Ryuuen retorts.

"Hearing that from you is a shame, academic ability is the most important factor determining your future success in life and your ability to impact the future. It is even said that Japan is built on a society of academics" Katsuragi chides Ryuuen for his earlier remark but it doesn't seem to have fazed Ryuuen at all. I thought to myself that saying something like that to an idiot like Ryuuen would be ineffective. Behind him, his three lackeys obediently nod their heads at their leader's words. "I won't forget this insult". "Huh? Insult? I don't recall having done anything like that, care to refresh my memory?" Ryuuen mocks Katsuragi. "It doesn't matter, since we're in the same group we should have the opportunity to talk at length later" Katsuragi ends the conversation seeing how the explanation for their group was almost about to begin. "Hmm? Hirata-kun? And even Ayanokouji-kun? What are you guys doing here?". It was Kushida who called out to us as she approached the group with a strange expression on her face.

"Could it be that Kushida-san is also in the 20:40 group?" Hirata asks her. "Yeah. I don't understand what's going on but I was told to come here at this hour in the mail...and wow...it seems like an amazing group of people have gathered here" Kushida says as she walked around greeting the gathered students here individually. "Are you ok, Hirata? It looks like it's shaping up to be a hard one" I ask Hirata. "Its ok, I don't mind, no matter who's in my group I'll just have to do my best" Hirata as usual answered in a very positive way. Kushida may not know the circumstances but Hirata is a smart guy. Since I had already received the explanation for this exam earlier, looking at the group of people gathered here I could more or less understand what will be happening. "Ummm...in any case it looks like something difficult's about to start?" Kushida asks. "Yeah it seems like it, you'd better prepare yourself for it" I tell her. "Ahaha...like Hirata-kun said, I'll just also have to do my best here. Also, I never got the chance to talk much with Katsuragi-kun or Ryuuen-kun, I'd like to be friends with the two of them too" Kushida says towards Katsuragi and Ryuuen.

"I'm not going to stay here for this stupid conversation, I'll be going ahead. It's almost time" Horikita simply shook her head and turned her back to us but not before looking coldly at Ryuuen and his group. I'd like to praise Horikita on this. People with a weak will tend to lower their heads and ingratiate themselves into the group and treat themselves as the lower one in the hierarchy. Horikita, on the other hand, without missing a beat, coldly rejected them all and remained the way she always has been. "It looks like I shouldn't have even bothered worrying" I muttered. Of course, I'm not sure how long she can keep up that attitude with the members in her group but it shouldn't be long. That's my intuition. "Good luck then" I threw a sympathetic good luck wish in Hirata's direction and decided to leave the scene.