Classroom of the elite: Autonomy.

4: Iron sharpens iron.

I don't have a clear reason for why I started smoking cigarettes, it had been something I picked up at some point during my life in college.

Maybe it was me trying to find a distraction or maybe I just liked the feeling it gave me. I wasn't sure.

Of course I never tried too hard to understand it, my inner self was quite literally the last on the list of things I cared about.

Incidentally, the thing I cared the most about in my present life amounted to nothing more than superficial gratification. It was something I longed for only as a means to satisfy my past regrets and remove my present dissatisfaction.

But even that was out of reach. At the beginning I accused life of being unfair to me, I lamented my own bad luck.

But as I watched my selfish goals inevitably slip from my hands, I buried my stupid fantasies deep inside. With no hope in sight, it was a foregone conclusion that those thoughts would never surface again.

That changed this year.

This batch of new students was a host to a lot of talent, talent that reached even me despite my post as class D's homeroom teacher.

Albeit flawed, as expected of defective products, I could see the potential they had. One standing out to me in particular.

Unknown to me at the beginning, my buried desires had surfaced up like a seed sprouting from within the ground, receiving sustenance from the glowing prospects of class D's alleged defects.

So I decided to bide my time, wait for the perfect opportunity to step in.

Admittedly my plans were unfit for a teacher, but what was one more regret added to an already swollen mountain of similar regrets?

If it's only one more chance I get, I will make use of it.

My heart lifted, my mind had begun to spread once again, latching unto the fleeting opportunity I now had.

I will grab on, and never let go.

.

.

The look in Chabashira-sensei's eyes gave away what she was feeling. It was a subtle detail but I was able to pick it up.

Disbelief, skepticism, elation.

Deducing the catalysts for the disbelief and skepticism was easy, her assumed elation was something I couldn't determine right now.

Horikita had surprised me, she actually deviated from what I expected her to do. Given her personality, I assumed a whole different path to this little saga, but it seems her thinking isn't as rigid as I assumed it to be.

Well, another facet of Horikita Suzune to take note of.

"Why don't you ask your classmates? I'm sure some of them remember."

"Excuse me, but I refuse to hear it any other place than the source."

This play from Horikita is arguably one of the best moves within her capabilities.

Information is a peculiar thing, constantly influencing itself and other things. Horikita had acquired new information from Ichinose and her own personal deductions.

She had decided the best path to take was to listen to the original speech from Chabashira-sensei, take it in and analyze it from the perspective of someone who had been in the school for almost a month.

Her line of thought getting here was quite easy to trace back. She believes the school wouldn't blatantly lie about anything, but her discoveries boldly contrasted that. Either she believed wrong, or the school had actually left discoverable hints.