Chapter 5:
A Means of Escape
AFTER HOMEROOM BEGAN at 6 p.m., Chabashira-sensei left the classroom. Hirata, glancing sideways at the perplexed students, stood and went up to the podium. No more time for games. We were about to have a serious discussion.
“During homeroom today, I’d like to discuss our strategy for the short quiz tomorrow. I’ve received Chabashira-sensei’s permission. First, Horikita-san, would you please come up?”
As if she’d been waiting for him to say the word, Horikita stood and went to Hirata. Some students probably felt it was weird to see the two in solidarity. Hirata had always welcomed a partnership with Horikita, but until now, she never took him up on the offer. Horikita had always fought alone.
However, as a result of the crushing defeat she had suffered during the sports festival, she understood the limits of fighting alone, and it was like she had been reborn. That didn’t mean she had become a perfect being, of course.
The Swiss biologist A. Portmann said it best. He said that human beings are born physiologically premature. He argued that, from a zoological point of view, humans are born about a year early in comparison to other mammals’ developmental states. When a human baby is born, its sensory organs are developed, but its motor skills are not. On the other hand, many large animals, like deer, are capable of moving on their own soon after birth.
Horikita might have been reborn, but she was still underdeveloped. However, she contained limitless possibilities. Perhaps she still felt conflicted, deep down. She was probably struggling. The best course of action would be for her to change and accept it.
I thought Horikita would immediately start discussing the final exam, but she didn’t. “First, there’s something I’d like to say. Please allow me to apologize.”
Something appeared to have festered inside her heart for several weeks now. “My performance during the sports festival was disappointing. Though I act tough in front of you all, in the end, I didn’t do anything for Class D. For that, I apologize.”
Horikita bowed her head deeply. Naturally, this display shook many students. It was as if she was taking the entire blame for Class D’s defeat. Onodera, who had become a little distant with Horikita after the three-legged race, spoke up in response.
“B-but it’s not like it’s only your fault we lost, Horikita-san. Please, don’t bow to us. You don’t have to,” she said.
“That’s right, Suzune. I mean, Haruki and the Professor weren’t really much help either.” Sudou’s words were sad but true. Yamauchi and Sotomura shot vexed glares at him.
“Regardless of whether you win or lose, a humble attitude makes it easier to move on. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I contributed almost nothing to any area of the festival,” said Horikita.
She looked over at Sudou for an instant. By giving him that look, she implied that the one thing she’d gained was becoming Sudou’s ally. Sudou couldn’t have missed that message. While he scratched his cheek in embarrassment, he smiled quietly.
“But now, I’m finished apologizing. Next, I’d like to use my energy to take on the upcoming short quiz. Unless we all come together as a class, we won’t get through this challenge.”
“I can understand that, but do you have a plan? Like, we don’t even know how they choose the pairs yet.”
“Actually, the partner selection process has already been made clear. If we handle things right, each student could feasibly end up with their ideal partner. Hirata-kun, if you would.”
Hirata, now playing the role of Horikita’s support, wrote out the rules on the blackboard.
Deciding How Pairs Are Formed:
After the school looks at the class as a whole, it will pair the highest-scoring and lowest-scoring students.
This process will continue with the second-highest and second-lowest-scoring students pairing up, and then the third-highest and lowest, and so on.
For example, the student with one hundred points will pair with the student with zero points. The student with ninety-nine points will pair with the student with one point.
“So, there’s the method—and the meaning behind our short test. Simple, right?” Horikita said.
“Wh-whoa! You cracked the code, Horikita! Awesome!”
“It’s fairly obvious. However, remember this: though students who earn lower grades will almost automatically partner with students with higher grades, there are always exceptions. I’m going to explain a strategy that we can use to end up with reliable, appropriate pairs,” said Horikita.
She’d called it obvious, but that wasn’t the case. The hints were easier to dissect for this than other trials we’d faced in the past, but she had probably only noticed as a result of her prior failures. She walked to Hirata and faced the classroom. Her face betrayed no hint of fluster; she had only the drive to keep facing forward.
“I’d like to have the students who worry about their grades partner up with high scorers to help them out. However, looking at our grades so far, the truth of the matter is that we can’t cover everyone,” said Horikita.
Eleven students had an average score of eighty points or higher. Only six students had an average of ninety points or more. It didn’t exactly make one feel at ease; less than half the class had excelled. Meanwhile, the number of students with an average of sixty points or below made up more than half the class. In other words, it would be impossible to pair every low-scoring student with a high-scoring counterpart.
Instead, therefore, Horikita aimed to create stability by forcing the top ten and bottom ten students into specific partnerships. Hirata listed the lowest-scoring students’ names on the blackboard, one by one.
“Um, I don’t really get it. What are we supposed to do?” asked Yamauchi, who knew that his name would have been written on the board.
“It’s okay for the ten lowest-scoring students, whose names are written here, to simply score zero points on this test. You could merely write your name. Since your final grades won’t reflect your scores, that’ll do you no harm. Conversely, the ten highest-scoring students should definitely try to score eighty-five points or above. Similarly, we’ll divide the remaining twenty students in the class into two groups of ten. The higher-scoring of those two groups should aim to score a maximum of eighty points, while the lower-scoring group only needs to score one point. By doing things this way, we automatically achieve a good balance in our pairings,” said Horikita. “I will properly confirm the details with you later, because it’s entirely possible that we’ll run into some kind of hiccup.”
The important thing was to ensure that the students who scored zero points and those who scored one point weren’t paired. We needed to ensure that the school partnered the students with the most significant differences in academic ability.
“I think this is a great plan. We’ll definitely need a countermeasure for this test.” Hirata didn’t dissent. He wanted to create a harmonious atmosphere.
Kouenji usually refused to participate in anything, but he didn’t appear to either support or reject the plan. Actually, it was more like he didn’t seem interested whatsoever. His social skills were even worse than Horikita’s, but for once, it didn’t matter that he was up to his usual tricks. Kouenji never took exams too seriously, but he had avoided the kind of results that would get him kicked out of school so far. However, this time, it was possible that you could still fail the final exam even if you got a perfect score, depending on how well your partner did.
That said, if we got Kouenji into a preselected pairing, he’d probably be fine. In other words, while he might not be interested, he basically seemed willing to cooperate. Actually, we didn’t know how Kouenji would react, in some ways. He might be unpredictable.
“Do you have any objections, Kouenji-kun?”
“No. What a nonsensical question. Naturally, I fully grasp the situation.” He rested his long legs across his desk and started combing his hair, like always.
“Then would it be appropriate for me to expect you to score eighty points or higher?”
“Well, I’m not too sure about that. Wouldn’t that depend on the test’s contents?”
“If you intentionally scored a zero, and got matched with one of the higher-scoring students, you’d destroy the balance we’re trying to achieve. Do you understand that?”
The only thing to fear from this test was someone getting an irregular score. If an academically gifted student like Kouenji deliberately held back, he could throw off the class’s balance. We needed to avoid having highly gifted students like Horikita and Kouenji paired together.
“I will consider the matter carefully, girl.”
Even though Kouenji’s response was suspicious, Horikita couldn’t pursue the matter any further. There was no way for us to manipulate the scores on the final exam.
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