COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 1:Part 4

The first one to get up was Yousuke as usual.

"I know it's just our first day, and a lot of you are tired, but please stay around for just 5 minutes so we can discuss what Chabashira sensei announced."

Unsurprisingly, Koenji completely ignored Yousuke and walked out of the classroom without as much as a glance toward any of us.

However not a single person aside from him had got up everyone in class was listening to Yousuke and waiting to discuss the exam something like this was unthinkable this time last year cooperating together was practically impossible yet the fact that everyone had stayed now shows our growth over this past year.

I wasn't paying too much attention, but I caught the gist of it,Yousuke explained the exam rules again to anyone who was confused before he arranged multiple study groups starting from tomorrow till the day before the exam and then he got to the real problem, how to form pairs.

Horikita joined the discussion to make a suggestion.

"Since I can't tutor any of the study groups, I volunteer to scout out the first years and try to make pairs. I have an idea in mind, which I believe will work."

I assumed she wasn't participating in any study group because of our competition, Horikita wanted to test my skills so she asked that we compete on our first exam this year which is this upcoming one in 2 weeks.

But for some reason, she was eyeing me the whole she was discussing this "plan" of hers. What was she up to? I got up to leave, hoping I'd never have to find out what she was up to, but...

"Ayanokoji-kun, wait for me outside class. There's something I wish to discuss with you."

It seems I had no option but to accept since our entire class directed their attention to me when she said that.

"Sure."

I reluctantly waited for her in the fall as I got passed by many students, probably heading home. Most of them were from Ryuens class, it seemed Ichinose and Sakayanagi were still discussing the exam just like us.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting."

"It's fine. What did you need?"

She glanced at me through the corners of her eyes before speaking up again.

"I assume our bet will take place during this upcoming exam?"

"Sure. Do you object?"

"No, I think this is a good opportunity. That's the reason I decided not to tutor anyone this time around."

That made sense, but she was trying to say something else...

"But I couldn't just leave the class without doing anything, which is why I volunteered to prepare the pairs."

I see, and how does that involve me..?

"For the sake of fairness in our competition, I think you should help me contact the first years."

There it is.

"If you had complete freedom while I was busy preparing this, then I'd have fewer opportunities to prepare, which would in turn-"

"Sure, I'll help."

"Huh?"

She audibly gasped, causing everyone in the area to stare at us.

"Is there a problem?"

"No...well, I-I didn't think you'd accept so easily."

Luckily for her, I also wanted to scout out the first years more.

"Well, I wouldn't want you to come to me with excuses after you lose."

She was glaring at me at this point, probably debating whether stabbing me in public was a good move at this time, but thankfully, she held herself back.

"But I have one condition."

"What would that be?"

She seemed surprised since so far I hadn't set any conditions on our bet and had let her do as she wished.

"I want to compete in maths."

"That's random. You sounded confident you can beat me in anything,why maths?"

"You object?"

"Not necessarily. Honestly, I would've chosen maths anyway, but I want to hear your reasoning."

"I drew too much attention to myself during the year end exam, I solved a difficult question on the maths exam and tye mental maths test and I was unfortunate enough to be confronted and interrogated by Matsushita if I go and score highly in English for example I wouldn't be able to talk my way out of it."

"But since you already solved 2 incredibly difficult math questions in the year-end exam, you can just say you're only strong in that one subject,I see."

She picked up on my point surprisingly quickly.

"You seen awfully confident that you'll score very highly it's honestly getting irritating, but we'll see. I accept your terms."

"What's your plan regarding the pairs?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Meet up with me after class, and we start preparing."

I agreed to meet with her, and we went our separate ways. I headed back to my dorm as soon as we were done so I could go through the OAA and see what I could learn.

Most of the first years that I had my eye on during the entrance ceremony had exceptional scores on the OAA,the guy that both Horikita and I noticed was a class 1-D student by the name of Hosen. Some others I had my eye on were Ishigami from 1-A,Yagami from 1-B, and Tsubaki from 1-C.

"These new first years are certainly interesting."

I muttered to myself before realising how late it had gotten,I spent almost 4 hours looking through the OAA to analyse the rating and memorise the names and faces of the newcomers.

I decided to call it a day and head to sleep tomorrow. I'll make direct contact with them to form the pairs as Horikita but also to further my own goals.