The True Elites

Chapter 1-7: Midterms

Horikita's POV

I glanced around me at the group I was walking down a school corridor with and had to stifle a sigh. How in the world did I find myself here? Was the question stuck in my mind.

I thought back to everything that has transpired so far today. When I woke up one of the first things that I, and no doubt many of the other Class D students, noticed was that 0 private points had been deposited into our accounts.

When Chabashira-sensei arrived, she was immediately interrogated by the students for a reason as to why their points were not updated - after ignoring sexual harassment from Ike-kun, that is.

Chabashira-sensei went on to call our class 'stupid' and 'defective' before explaining that our class's results are reflected in the points that you receive and that due to our ninety-eight incidences of absences or late arrivals and three hundred ninety-one incidences of talking or using a cell phone in class, we had lost all 100,000 points we were going to receive.

Hirata-kun had tried to speak up on behalf of the class, but Chabashira-sensei mercilessly shot him down and mocked him, saying that by now we shouldn't have to be told how to behave. She also said that the school cannot disclose the methods behind their student evaluation, making the situation even more incomprehensible.

After that, the bell rang which prompted Chabashira-sensei to move on to the next topic and stick a rolled-up sheet to the blackboard. On it, classes and numbers were noted down in a column format.

Class Point Standings:

Class A - 940
Class B - 650
Class C - 450
Class D - 0
Class E - 310

I felt another wave of confusion add to the already huge reservoir of confusion I had in my brain. Class E? Wasn't there only supposed to be four classes? I looked around the class, who now looked even more dumbfounded than before, and it seemed that people were torn between two different questions that they wanted to ask.

Eventually, Hirata-kun spoke up and questioned why the difference in our points was so large, to which Chabashira-sensei explained that we had been assigned from classes A to D based on merit - in other words, all the defective students were placed in the lower classes, which created this discrepancy.

I couldn't help but feel infuriated when I heard this. I had no doubt that I was an excellent student, I was confident that I had made no mistakes during the interview and also got high marks on the entrance examination. What the hell am I doing in this class?

Chabashira-sensei then explained how we could gain class points in other ways and could be 'promoted' to a higher class if we surpassed them in points. But then, that begs the question...

"Excuse me, Chabashira-sensei, but why is there a fifth class written on the sheet? Weren't there only supposed to be four?" I asked.

Chabashira-sensei simply smirked. "Yes, while it's true that there are usually only four classes, this year is an exception. Class E is a special class consisting of only seven students. All of these students were judged to be exceptional, even when compared to the best of the students sorted into Class A. Because of this, a special class was created as an experiment, to see if superior talent could overcome the disadvantages they face in terms of resources and social networking. You may have noticed that Class E has more points than you do. This means that, starting from tomorrow, you are all going to be demoted to Class E, which is now the lowest class for this year."

So, the school had decided to conduct a test of sorts, using a small influx of students they deemed to be far beyond even the best of the rest of the student body. I was starting to get very irritated hearing about all these things like evaluations when I was stuck in this class of misfits. Not only that, but we were going to be demoted from our position within the first month - even 'tragic,' was not enough to describe my situation.