Classroom of the Elite (LN) - Vol 12 Chapter 3: Intro - “The Problematic Group of First-Years”
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Vol 12 Chapter 3: Intro - “The Problematic Group of First-Years”

Volume 12, Chapter 3: Intro - The Problematic Group of First-Years

Dozens of students, both first and second-year, had gathered together in the gymnasium. The majority of those in attendance were first-year students. Most of them probably saw this meet-and-greet as an important opportunity to meet other students. Since I wasnt acquainted with any of the attending first-year students yet, the first thing I did was check to see who among the second-years had decided to participate.

The leader of Class A, Sakayanagi, was nowhere to be seen. I did, however, catch sight of Hashimoto Masayoshi, but it wasnt clear if he was here as her substitute or not. Sakayanagis legs werent very strong. Her range of motion was limited, and she couldnt move very fast. Hashimoto played an important role in helping her compensate for that. As far as I could tell, Hashimoto was the only member of Class A who was here. Moreover, he didnt seem to be going out of his way to speak to anyone in particular.

He was probably here on some sort of reconnaissance, figuring out who everybody got into contact with during the meet-and-greet.

As the organizing class of the event, about half of the students from Class B were present, Ichinose included. I could see Kanzaki standing together with her to support her. However, I didnt get the impression that, as a group, the rest of Class B was academically insecure or influential. If anything, it seemed like the students in attendance were the more sociable students in their class. On the other hand, there didnt seem to be any students from Class C participating in this event. It was as if they had completely disregarded the idea of the meet-and-greet from the very beginning. From this one gathering of students, you could roughly grasp the intentions of each of the different second-year classes. But for Horikita, the second-year students werent the important ones today.

The important ones were the first-years we hadnt had much of a chance to get to know yet.

As first-years who had only just enrolled in the school, they shouldnt know their left from right yet.

The fact that they were suddenly being asked to pair up with second-year students probably put many of them at a complete loss about what to do. During the event, they latched onto their classmates, that is, the students they were already familiar with.

Seeing this, Ichinose decided to avoid bringing up the special exam in the first place. Instead, she focused on trying to make friends with the first-years by introducing herself and sparking up casual conversations with them. Of course, this didnt mean that everyone opened their heart to her right away.

Having understood this, Ichinose didnt rush the process. She approached them with a gentle smile on her face, slowly melting away the walls of ice that had closed off their hearts. It only took a few minutes of close observation to get a rough idea of what would happen next.

Instead of prioritizing the special exam, shes focusing on building up relationships based on mutual trust. What an incredibly Ichinose-san way of doing things; A dazzling approach that not just anyone would be able to implement.

Horikita spoke, expressing her first impression of this meet-and-greet.

Strategically, it was unknown to what extent Class B would make use of this, but it was extremely important nonetheless.

Ichinoses actions provided benefits for first and second-years alike.

Horikita had described Ichinose as dazzling for trying to take on such an active role.

From a look at the profile of Horikitas face, I could catch a glimpse of the strategy she had begun to formulate.

Are you thinking of a similar strategy yourself?

I am. A strategy based on private points would be too much for our class to handle. Thats why I thought itd be important for us to establish a trusting relationship with the first-year students. But, were no match for Ichinose-san when it comes to doing that. Or rather, that sort of strategy is pretty much her exclusive way of doing things.

A certain something was necessary in order to get the other party to accept you as their partner. That something could be all sorts of things like private points, trust, friendship, or even obligation.

The face and name of Class 2-Bs Ichinose Honami have already become well-known amongst many of the first-year students. The anxious students will flock to her, and Im certain that shell live up to their expectations.

Yeah.

They wouldnt bother with trying to approach a class like ours that they didnt even know anything about.

But, even if we cant replicate that dazzling approach of hers, we still have options.

Apparently, Horikita had gleaned some sort of idea from this meet-and-greet event.

The key to this probably had to do with how she was constantly looking at the first-year students as she used the OAA app.

It didnt seem like Horikita had any intention of leaving just yet, as she continued to observe the first-years.

I wasnt the only one watching her observe the first-years either, as a large figure showed up beside her.

But you know what I think? Every last one of em looks damn wimpy to me.

Next to Horikita, Sud thoughtlessly shared his own impression of the first-years he had been looking at.

He had originally planned to head straight to his club activities after class today, but the school had accepted Ichinoses request to hold a meet-and-greet and hastily decided that itd be held in the gymnasium until 5:00, so he had asked to accompany Horikita to the event instead.

Horikita had flatly turned him down, saying that he didnt need to come, but he probably thought it was fine to come since hed be heading to the gym later on either way.

Dont glare at them for no reason. We gain nothing by scaring them.

I aint glaring though. This is just the face I was born with. Well say what ya want, but is it really alright to be taking it easy like this? Wont the smart guys get snatched up by Ichinose? Shouldnt we go and say somethin to em?

Sud impatiently spoke to Horikita, saying that itd be better to reach out to the first-year students as soon as possible. Even if a student that wasnt from Class 2-B made advances on one of the first-years at the meet-and-greet, Ichinose wouldnt be angry about it. In fact, shed probably be happy instead.

What are you gonna do, Horikita?

I was curious about Horikitas actions, so I asked her a question as well.

Do you really think we can out-socialize Class 2-B in a place like this?

For the time being, Ichinose seemed to be placing more emphasis on saving the first-year students than winning the exam for her own class.

Nobody from Class B had even left the event yet, and they seemed to be trying to deepen their friendship with the first-years.

The first-year students had probably picked up on their raw enthusiasm as well.

Well, I dont think so.

I conceded to Horikitas question. It might be possible to out-socialize Class B for Ysuke or Kushida, but the three of us lacked the ability to do something like that.

She mustve come here knowing full well that that was the case.

When the meet-and-greet really began picking up steam, Horikita finally took action.

Lets get going.

That is, rather than participate in the meeting and greeting, we were leaving instead.

This meant that Horikita hadnt planned on trying to win over the first-years at this event in the first place.

Is that really okay, Suzune?"

More than half of the students invited to this didnt even attend. Those are the students Im going to negotiate with.

In other words, she was looking to target the first-year students who didnt bother with what Ichinose had to offer.

At the same time, however, winning over those students wouldnt come easily.

Some of them were students who felt like they could find a partner on their own without relying on others or simply didnt have the courage to attend the meet-and-greet. Some might have even already come up with a strategy for the exam. Whatever the case, itd be safe to assume that most of them would have rather eccentric personalities.

Lets hear your basis for thinking that.

There are two reasons. Based on my observations earlier, there was a higher proportion of academically insecure students out of those attending the meet-and-greet. Right now, we need to be looking for students with a B- rating as a bare minimum. That is to say, we need to find confident students who are ready to put up a fight without even going to the meet-and-greet.

I see. With that being the case, it definitely made a certain amount of sense for us to give up on the meet-and-greet.

Our top priority is not to pair up students who have A ratings in Academic Ability. Instead, we need to coax the academically gifted students into covering up for the weaker ones so that nobody gets expelled.

However, even if Class 2-B chose to save a fair number of the first-years who came to the meet-and-greet, there would naturally be some first-years left out. Moreover, Ichinose was probably going to prioritize rescuing the worse-off students over the more academically capable ones. We couldve stuck around and picked from the leftover relatively capable students Class 2-B wasnt able to help.

Her second reason seemed to have something to do with that.

Besides, there was a slight inconsistency in the people who showed up for the meet-and-greet that didnt have anything to do with Academic Ability ratings.

Inconsistency?

The students from Class 1-D didnt attend the event at all.

They didnt attend at all? That was indeed an interesting inconsistency.

It seems like you understand, Ayanokji-kun.

Horikita seemed to catch on to what I was thinking, but

Huh? Is there some kinda meaning behind Class 1-D not attending or somethin?

Sud tilted his head, unable to understand the significance behind this.

There are 40 people in Class 1-D. Some of them dont know how to study, and others arent very good at socializing. But despite that, not even a single person from Class 1-D participated in the event, which obviously reflects the will of the class as a whole.

Clearly, somebody had taken control of the class and convinced them not to participate in the meet-and-greet.

It was unusual, considering that only a short amount of time had passed since they had enrolled here.

So, youre saying that Class 1-D already has a leader, and theyre the one who refused to attend the meet-and-greet?

If theres someone we can negotiate with at the class level, it isnt necessary to try and bargain with people at the individual level.

In other words, her strategy was to have the students in Class 2-D and Class 1-D cover up for each other.

Thats reasonable, but like, wouldnt it be hard as heck to win the special exam?

It wasnt a bad idea in that it would prevent expulsions, but it would also make it impossible for us to beat the other classes.

Youre right. In that sense, I dont plan on engaging in the inter-class competition this time around.

I get that Im not in any position to say anything and all, but like, is that really alright?

Yes. Theres no problem at all.

Horikita spoke definitively. Although there were some fundamental differences in the way they were each going about it, Horikitas strategy was pretty much the same as Ichinoses.

At the end of the day, the concept was to give on the valuable chance to gain class points in the special exam.

Class As Hashimoto had already left the gymnasium, probably because he had finished up with his investigation of Ichinoses meet-and-greet.

Horikita followed in Hashimotos tracks as she headed toward the exit, Sud and I tagging along behind her.

However, just before we walked through the door, I turned and looked at Ichinose one last time.

She was talking to the first-year students with a smile on her face, completely oblivious to our presence.

Ichinose would readily extend a helping hand to any student, no matter how low their Academic Ability rating is.

She had ditched the idea of taking the top spot in the special exam and was instead fighting to prevent any of her own classmates from being expelled.

It was pretty much identical to what Horikita was planning to do, just with a different approach.

However, in essence, were they truly the same thing?

Yo.

After we left the gymnasium, Hashimoto called out to us as if he had been waiting for us.

Ichinose sure is the same as always, eh?

It seems like she has her heart set on saving her classmates along with the first-years.

Sure does. As things are right now, she wont be a threat. Doesnt she realize bringing idiots onto her side is just gonna drag her down? Its like shes tossing her chances of winning in the trash.

Hashimoto spoke as if he couldnt wrap his head around it. There was no way he couldve realized that Horikita was going to execute pretty much the exact same strategy. After all, the fact that Horikita also planned on giving up the competition was an idea he had never even considered.

Perhaps she set up the event precisely because she knew the first-years were going to drag her down?

Aaah, I see. Youve got a point there.

Class A no, Sakayanagi-san understood everything without even having to come to the meet-and-greet. She had already anticipated which students would show up. Thats why she didnt participate, isnt it?

Well, maybe.

Even so, she had probably sent Hashimoto in alone as a scout.

So, how does Class A intend to draw the honor students over to your side?

Thats up to our Princess to figure out. Im just here to follow orders, ya feel?

With that, Hashimoto left, apparently satisfied with what he had talked to us about.

Dont trust a word that bastard Hashimoto says, Suzune.

Sud spoke up after Hashimoto was out of earshot.

I dont need to be told that. Though, are you saying youre well-acquainted with Hashimoto-kun?

Not even a little.

Suds response was confident, if not cocky.

I see. Well, Class A has a huge advantage just by being Class A. To some extent, I suppose its only natural that theyll have people flocking over to them.

Having enrolled in this school, it was only a matter of time until the first-years realized that Class A was the best of the best.

Even if they werent aware of that fact right now, word would spread soon enough.

Anyway, lets get moving. It hasnt gotten too late, so there should still be some Class 1-D students at the school somewhere.

We headed off toward the first-year classrooms to try and find out what had gone on inside Class 1-D.

While the eyes of her surroundings were focused on the meet-and-greet, Horikita seemed to be taking hold of the opportunity that had presented itself to her.

(Introduction End)