Classroom of the elite: Autonomy.

5: One man's effort, another man's growth.

"What is wrong with me?"

The beautiful black haired girl asked no one in particular as she slumped on her bed, still clad in her school uniform.

Varying levels of embarrassment and frustration churned within her, she was ashamed that she lost her cool so easily in front of another person, and also frustrated that he hit so close to home with his words.

He understood her, yet she knew virtually nothing about him, to Horikita Suzune who never liked to be on the losing end, this was unacceptable.

Completely disregarding her routine of getting home, cooking dinner, studying and going to bed, she laid on that same spot for close to an hour.

All the while, her thoughts followed different tangents, reaching destinations far removed from her normal line of thought, but it always came back to one thing.

"What did she plan to do?'

In reality, it was quite clear. Carry on as usual, and try to figure out as much as she could before the month ended.

But she wondered if she would be able to do so. Sure, she had a good idea of what to do with the information she had but execution is a totally different matter.

Resolving to distract herself from her tumultuous thoughts and feelings, the conflicted girl rose from her unladylike sprawl on the school provided bed. She delved into mundane house work, her mind still weighing different possibilities all the while.

'If we are still being evaluated, what criteria are they using? How are we being observed?'

Slowly but surely, Horikita had entered a state of complete focus. The secrets the school hid weren't inherently complex, but they existed in a manner that made it hard to figure out with a linear way of thought.

Ayanokouji had indirectly hammered this fact into her, and it would be her greatest shame to still fail with this new insight.

'Look for the outlier, the outlier....' Having nothing else to occupy her hands with anymore, she was now sitting on her bed, pillow hugged close.

Her facial features were taut in concentration, her eyes vacant. She was now completely ignorant of her immediate surroundings.

She remained in this state of hyperfocus for the next ten minutes, then it happened.

She suddenly broke from her trance, her eyes alight with the glow of understanding and clarity. Involuntarily, a smile found its way to her face but it vanished immediately as she considered the ramifications of her deductions.

'Since we started attending this school, no teacher has spoken up against misconduct, this has been the foundation of all my doubts so far but tunnel vision made me disregard it. From my perspective, class conduct is something that is tacitly demanded by any educational institution. It goes without saying that the students of an elite school should abide. So the teachers saw no point in reprimanding them, or better said, it was part of the test.'

Going by this, she realized how bleak the situation of class D was. If she was correct, which she had a good amount of confidence in, then her class could very well have zero points when the new month arrives.

A few things were still unclear, she wasn't sure if the points were calculated individually or if the class shared a unified account.

This question was crucial to how she would approach the problem. If it was individually calculated then she would be satisfied, she saw no point in being responsible for the failure of others, but if it was as a class......

"I still have things to figure out.."

Mildly satisfied with herself, Horikita went to bed, the earlier incident which had thrown her into discord momentarily forgotten.