Practical Classroom: Kaoru Hanayama's Classroom of Merit

The morning of May 1st. The classrooms of Advanced Educational High School were filled with a unique blend of noise and tension.

The first day of each month is an important day for students to credit their personal points to their smartphones at this school.

The students in Class 1-D started clicking on their terminal screens from the morning, eagerly waiting for their account balances to be updated.

A crisp notification sound rang out from every corner of the classroom.

"Oh...! They're here! They've really come!"

Kanji Ike raised the smart terminal above his head and cheered.

"Wow, that's amazing! 61,000 points! It didn't go down to zero!"

"Y-that's great... I spent a little too much last month, and I was wondering what to do..."

Keiya Karuizawa and the girls around her smiled with relief.

The other students also checked the screen and all breathed a sigh of relief, patting their chests.

The hidden rules information sold by Hanayama, and the discipline inherent in his very existence.

The result was thus deposited into the account as a visible number.

Just then, the door at the front of the classroom opened with a "whoosh," and the teacher, Chabashira Sae, appeared.

"Return to your seats. The class meeting is about to begin."

Although her voice remained indifferent, her expression on the podium seemed inexplicably more cheerful than usual.

Chazhu picked up the chalk and began writing the class points for each class on the blackboard.

Class A, 945

Class B, 770

Class C, 490

Class D 610

Even before the students understood the meaning of that number, Chazhu picked up the blackboard eraser, erased the last two lines, and rewrote the text.

Class C, 610

Class D 490

"That's really surprising. Seeing how miserable you were when you first enrolled, I thought you'd be doomed in the first month. I never expected you to actually make it into Class C in the first month!"

After a brief silence, the classroom was filled with noise upon hearing Chazhu's words.

"Wait a minute, Mr. Chabashira, isn't that a bit too heartless?"

One of the female students voiced her dissatisfaction.

"They didn't give us any hints at all... If it weren't for Hanayama-kun, we would really be completely finished, you know?"

"That's right! Little Chasashi is so mean!"

Chi also echoed the sentiment, getting carried away with his own smugness.

Chazhu didn't blame them; he just let out a soft chuckle.

"That's only natural here. Because this is a school that values ​​meritocracy. Since you already know the rules, there's no need for me to repeat them."

Chabashira's gaze fell on Hanayama Kaoru, who was quietly sitting in the last row of the classroom with her arms crossed, and then immediately looked away.

"But it's too early to be happy. You still have midterms at the end of this month."

Chazhu's tone turned cold and sharp.

"The punishments at this school go beyond just deducting class points. Anyone who fails even one subject in the midterm exams at the end of this month will be expelled immediately."

The air in the classroom froze for a moment.

"Drop out of school!?"

"What score do you mean by 'failing'?!"

"That's about half the class average for each subject. Based on the last quiz, it'll probably be around 30 to 40 points... Well, do your best."

Chazhu wrote the scope of the exam on the blackboard and then turned around decisively.

That's all I wanted to say. Good luck to you all.

After Chazhu left the classroom, a heavy silence descended upon it.

As if they had planned it beforehand, all eyes in the class focused on one person.

Kaoru Hanayama

For the past month, he has been taking notes more diligently than anyone else and listening to lectures with an astonishing level of concentration, a fact known to everyone in the class.

But at the same time, his academic performance had reached a devastating and hopeless point, which everyone was well aware of.

"...Um, Hanayama. You got 20 points on your math quiz last week, right?"

Chi asked cautiously.

"I heard that for Mandarin and such, if you can't even read Chinese characters, you only get 40 points."

Yamauchi muttered under his breath.

More than the fear of violent punishment, they are now distressed by the reality that they are on the verge of dropping out of school due to the absolute defense of their class.

The delinquents in Class C (now Class D) led by Long Yuanxiang would bother Class A and Class B, but they dared not approach this class at all.

Huashan intimidated Longyuan, who came looking for trouble, a fact that many in the class witnessed.

Perhaps unable to bear the atmosphere, Karuizawa Megumi slammed her hand on the table and stood up.

"Wait, wait a minute, you guys! What are you staring at like that for?!"

Karuizawa was more afraid than anyone else of losing her absolute support.

She shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to sound brave.

"Hanayama-kun has been paying close attention in class and taking notes for the past month! And Horikita-kun has been tutoring him too! So how could he possibly fail the midterm exam, right!?"

However, Huashan, the person involved, remained silent and stared intently at the math textbook in his hands.

(...This is bad)

An unprecedented alarm sounded in his mind.

In the brutal arena of the yakuza, no matter how desperate the situation, his grip strength and resilient body always manage to carve out a way out.

No matter the blade, the bullet, or the most powerful violence, he has the confidence to face it head-on and crush it.

However, academic ability tests.

Even if you beat up the exam paper, your score won't increase by a single point.

Even if it exudes a sense of pressure, the answer sheet will not automatically fill in the correct answers.

Although he remained motionless, cold sweat was indeed streaming down his back from his broad latissimus dorsi muscles.

Without a doubt, this was the biggest crisis he had encountered since entering the school.