Light Novel Volume 8/Summary

Below is the long summary of volume 8 of the You-Zitsu light novel series.

Prologue
Manabu Horikita talks about how he had not chosen the school in order to become anything in particular. He had lived with the intent of becoming a talented person but without any specific goal in mind. For better or for worse, he lived his life without stirring up anything, being a role model and believing it to be the right thing to do. However, Miyabi Nagumo had taken repeated actions as though to directly oppose him. Manabu says that he had already given up on taking action since he had failed to make a friend whom he could trust from the "bottom of his heart". That was when after 3 years, he had finally realized his mistake and the regret it led him to.

Chapter 1
On a Thursday morning, after the 3rd semester began, the 1st years along with the 2nd and 3rd were travelling in buses on a highway. As the bus in which the 1st year Class-C students were seated in approached a tunnel, Sae Chabashira revealed that they were going to a facility owned by the school for the next special exam and that the special exam was focused mainly on mental development, and they were going to take it along with the 2nd and 3rd year students.


 * RULES OF THE SPECIAL EXAM


 * After arrival at the camp, 6 gender-based groups would be formed, consisting of students from all the years.
 * There is a lower and upper limit to the number of students in a group. If there were 60 boys in a year, then the group should be between 8-13 boys. If there were 70 boys, then it should be between 9-14, and if there were 80, then it should be between 10 and 15.
 * Small groups would be initially formed within the school year. Once the small groups are formed, a large group will be formed by combining with small groups in the other school years.
 * Students are not allowed to withdraw. If a student is forced to withdraw, then the group must deal with the gap on their own.
 * A leader will be chosen by consensus within a particular group.
 * The group that would place last will face a penalty - small groups whose average is below the borderline set by the school will face the expulsion of its leader.
 * 100 private points per person would be deducted from the expellee's class.

If the leader of that group wanted, they could choose another student from their group to bear joint responsibility and cause them to get expelled as well.

REWARDS


 * 1st place: 10000 private points, 3 class points
 * 2nd place: 5000 private points, 1 class point
 * 3rd place: 3000 private points

The above points will be added to every student of the group.

In addition, if a group is composed of students of more than two classes, the rewards are amplified. If the group is composed of three classes, the rewards are doubled, and if they are composed of all four classes, the reward is tripled. Furthermore, the amplification will be multiplied depending on the amount of people in a group (up to 1.5x for a group of 15 people).

Lastly, classmates of the leaders will receive double the rewards.

PENALTIES


 * 4th place: 5000 private points
 * 5th place: 10000 private points, 3 class points
 * 6th place: 20000 private points, 5 class points

The above points will be deducted from every student of the group, however the private points or class points may not fall below zero, but will remain as a cumulative deficit and would be calculated out in later additions.

Hirata asked Chabashira if there was a way to extend a "lifeline", to which she answers that 20 million private points, along with 300 class points would be needed to save an expellee. Chabashira reveals that for one hour every day, the boys and the girls would be allowed to talk freely in the cafeteria, to which, after hearing of it, Ike and Shinohara seem to rejoice. After Chabashira finished explaining, Hirata asks everyone how to overcome the exam. Sudō answers that they should form a group of 12 students of their class, to which Hirata says that the students of the other classes might not be willing to join their group.

To this, Chabashira smiles and says that they were free to transfer private points whether it was an exam or not, as long as it was legal. However, private points are not the same as regular pocket money, and saving private points for others is not an effective strategy if you were the only one who could save themselves. Hirata seems to be displeased and asks his class for a majority vote for who were willing to share private points evenly among themselves, to which less than half of class raised their hands.

Kiyotaka receives a mail from Suzune Horikita, asking if he had any ideas, to which he replies that he had none. Hirata and Horikita become the leaders of their respective genders for any person to consult if they had problems. Horikita asks Kikyō Kushida to be a sub-leader, saying that not all the girls may think she's reliable, to which Kushida agrees. Kiyotaka send a mail to Kei Karuizawa, to which she replies with a blank mail. He also decides to prioritize protecting Kei, Hirata and Horikita as they are useful to him.

After arriving at the exam site, the boys gather in the gymnasium to form their groups. Immediately, the 2nd and 3rd years begin forming their groups. Meanwhile, with the first-years, Class A prepared a large group of 14 people and informed all the other classes that they were willing to take one student of their class in their group for the next 5 minutes. Everyone seemed surprised by Class A's sudden declaration and say that Katsuragi was not the one giving orders here.

The other classes rejected Class A's proposal, but then Class A declared that whoever joined their group would be given special treatment: that is, if they placed last, they will not drag down the non-Class A student with them and Katsuragi will be the one taking responsibility alone. Afterwards, Satoru Kaneda discusses a strategy with Class B's Ryūji Kanzaki to siege class A with the cooperation of all the three other classes, to which Hirata and Kanzaki agree. After some discussion, Yamauchi volunteered to join Class A's group. The other three classes started forming groups, but no one was willing to take Kakeru Ryūen so Akito Miyake volunteers to take him in exchange for the reward from first place.

After the small groups were formed, Miyabi Nagumo approached the first years to form a large group right away, instead of waiting for the assigned time to form them. Nagumo proposes to form large groups based on the first years' picking via a drafting method. Matoba's group, made of the 14 Class A students, picks Manabu Horikita's group. Meanwhile, Teruhiko Yukimura, who had become the representative of the remaining first-year group, consisting of himself, Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, Rokusuke Kōenji, Masayoshi Hashimoto, Yahiko Totsuka, Daichi Ishizaki, Albert Yamada, Tokitou, Moriyama, and Sumida, had chosen Nagumo's group. Nagumo notices the fact that the group led by Keisei, had not decided who their leader should be, to which Nagumo advises them to elect one as quickly as possible.

The group decides to use rock-paper-scissors in order to fairly choose the leader, however, Kōenji refuses to participate, saying that he had no intentions of participating seriously. In the process, Nagumo reveals what Kōenji had been doing in the background. Kōenji had been using his position as the next head of the Kōenji Conglomerate in order to secure points from the graduating third-years in exchange for cash. By using this method, Kōenji had been planning to move up to Class A by using 20 million points to transfer. Although Nagumo acknowledges it as a plan, he shuts down Kōenji's further attempts by saying that he wasn't trustworthy and that he would report it to the school as it shouldn't be allowed. Keisei eventually says that he will take the mantle of becoming the leader of the mixed first years group.

The mixed first years group go to their dorm, each of them claiming a bed. Hashimoto asks Ishizaki if Albert can understand English, then asks if the rumour that Ishizaki overthrew Ryūen was true. Ishizaki replies that it's true, but there are still doubts on its authenticity.

During mealtime, the first opportunity to make contact with the girls appears. Kiyotaka, however, avoids meeting Kei in order to avoid attracting attention from Arisu Sakayanagi and Nagumo. While alone, Kiyotaka takes a seat near Honami Ichinose to eavesdrop, learning that the girls have difficulties deciding their groups. There were many students of both genders crowded around her which gave Kiyotaka the confidence that he would not to noticed. Many students praised her and asked if it was difficult, with her reply being that she expected there would had been an easier transition. Nonetheless, she elaborated that "when you've got to quarrel, you've just have to quarrel". Although she was supposed to be the most exhausted student, she was still able to be the most stouthearted student present, as she went on to console the other members.

Ichinose then leans on the table, after feeling the exhaustion get to her which causes her to end up noticing Kiyotaka. She then hollered at him in an endearing and cute manner which was loud enough for others to notice. Not knowing how to respond to such a greeting, Kiyotaka greets her with an honest reply. Kiyotaka was surprised as she doesn’t usually show her defenceless side to others, causing him to gawk at the unexpected sight of her leaning on the table emphasising some body parts.

Misinterpreting the scene as to making him uncomfortable, Ichinose attempts to straighten up, but was stopped by Kiyotaka as he internally remarked that "it's not uncomfortable at all" and did not want her to overextend herself for his sake. The two ends up discussing the difficulty of forming groups, with Kiyotaka mentioning that Ryūen was openly disliked. Ichinose contemplates that it must be hard to be disliked by everyone, sympathising with him depsite his past history. Kiyotaka then leaves, advising Ichinose not to get too fired up, with her replying that her energetic side is pretty much the only thing going for her. She then waved and saw him off for that day.

Male students are only allowed to interact with female students for one hour per day, so as to cultivate intelligence gathering and give specific instructions for their individual fights. Kiyotaka remarked that this is when students like Ichinose who are trusted and possesses remarkable communication skills shine, admitting that he isn’t suited for this whatsoever. Comparing it to the time on the uninhabited island where he could do absolutely nothing.

Chapter 2
On the morning of the second day, the mixed first years group are suddenly awakened by the music from the speakers in the room. The group start to prepare for the day, only to find Kōenji missing. Kōenji returns from his training acting high and mighty, which angers Ishizaki. They are interrupted by Keisei who reminds them that they only had five minutes to get to the assembly point. Yahiko makes a derogatory comment while Hashimoto laments on whether the group can make it or not.

Hashimoto manages to get the group under control and the group make it to their classroom where they meet up with the 2nd and 3rd years. A teacher from the school gives an explanation of what they will be doing every morning before the group heads off to clean the school building.

At the location where their Zazen practice will be held, Hideo Sotomura comments that it would be his first time doing Zazen, to which the instructor scolds him for his unusual dialect. He is given a demerit, as his manner of speaking falls under "morals" and "manners". The instructor explains that they must be considerate of the feelings of others and that Zazen is being practiced for that purpose. They are then given a demonstration of how to do Zazen.

After finishing up their Zazen practice, everybody gathers for breakfast. A third year proposes a breakfast rotation, starting with the first years, to which Keisei accepts. Keisei suggests waking up early to cook breakfast, but Ishizaki refuses to cooperate. Kiyotaka notes that only Hashimoto is suited to be the leader in the group, but he doesn't seem to be inclined to do it.

Kiyotaka notices Keisei struggling due to the nature of the tasks in the exam. He decides to help Keisei in order to prevent the group from ending up in last place and having expulsions occur. He also approaches Kōenji to get him to cooperate with the group a little, but Kōenji cannot be persuaded to do so.

After the first day of lessons end, the students end up fatigued and in pain. Kiyotaka tries to convince Keisei that they may need to befriend Ishizaki and Albert, but the latter disagrees. Kiyotaka references Nagumo uniting the second-years, but Keisei says that he's an exception and that Nagumo's method may not work out for anyone not in Class A.

After dinner, Yamauchi ends up bumping into Sakayanagi, causing her to fall. Kiyotaka apologizes to her on Yamauchi's behalf, but Sakayanagi waves the entire thing off. Sakayanagi then asks Kiyotaka if it is really fine to trust Ichinose so much, theorizing that she was acting as a safe for Class B and saying she might use it for herself. Kiyotaka agrees with the theory of her acting as Class B's safe but doubts she will use it for herself.

At night, Nagumo, accompanied by Vice President Ikuto Kiriyama, and third-years Ishikura and Tsunoda, visit the first-years room on the pretence of deepening ties. He then brings out playing cards and suggest they play, betting breakfast duty in order to liven up the game. The game Nagumo suggests is Old Maid. Keisei and Hashimoto represent the first years, but Keisei immediately loses twice, saddling the first-years with two days of breakfast duty. Yahiko swaps with Keisei, while Nagumo and Ishikura make casual conversation. The first-years survive the third round, but end up losing the fourth, giving them a third day of breakfast duty.

Hashimoto swaps out and Nagumo calls on Kiyotaka to join the game. The fifth round ends with the first-years winning. The final round ends up becoming a one-on-one match between Kiyotaka and Nagumo. Nagumo has been predicting the outcomes from the start as he had marked the joker, which Kiyotaka had noticed. Nagumo ends up with the joker, and urges Kiyotaka to think about which card he'll draw. Kiyotaka chooses the marked card, which turns out to be the winning card, resulting in Nagumo's loss. Nagumo then comments on how he and Ishikura get along well before leaving the room.

Chapter 3
The third day of the exam begins with the group making breakfast. Kōenji skips out on making breakfast and doesn't offer any excuses.

On the same day, at 3 PM, Ayanokōji spots Ichinose running energetically around campus from the morals classroom, commenting that although she seemed to be struggling on the first day, the most important thing was that she was cheerful. He recalls Sakayanagi saying that she would crush Ichinose, but there didn't seem to be any signs of that happening yet. Moreover, he comments that "Fortunately, it looks like she’s made a complete recovery" after seeing her round around without difficulty.

From the group, he recognizes Minori Kinoshita, who has recovered from the events of Volume 5, Hiyori Shiina, and Mei-Yu Wang from his class. He notices that, although Mei-Yu is smart, she is bad at sports. Aside from that, he has heard that Hiyori has been acting as the leader of the girls of Class D ever since Ryūen stepped down as the leader of the class. Mii-chan was on the tired and falling behind which Ichinose noticed, causing her to slow down and motivate her with encouragement, in addition to running at her pace. Hiyori soon caught up to them as well.

Meanwhile, in the morals classroom, it is explained that they will need to give a speech everyday, with the theme differing depending on the school year. The speech is one of the things the exam will be testing, but Ishizaki doesn't like it. Kiriyama passes by the first year to correct Ishizaki and Kōenji's attitude towards the lessons, however Kōenji has no intentions of taking them seriously. Kiriyama is eventually stopped by Nagumo and Ishikura, who states that Kiriyama's attempts at correcting the first-years can be interpreted as bullying if taken too far. Nagumo praises Ishikura and asks him if he would work together to crush Manabu Horikita, to which Ishikura declines. Kiyotaka thinks that Nagumo's actions are a way of feigning vulnerability.

During lunch Ayanokōji and Kei make contact. Ayanokōji has already memorized names of all the boys and which groups they belongs to. Ayanokōji wants to know about Sakayanagi and Kamuro's group. The two of them are in the same group composed of three classes with nine from Class A. Sakayanagi didn't take anyone from Class B and on her behalf, Kumuro declared that Ichinose is not trustworthy and added other speculations. Kiyotaka was just as perplexed as they both knew how popular Ichinose was, and if given a choice to name the most trustworthy person, he himself would had named Ichinose. In the school, it was either Ichinose or Kushida who would be the first or second when it comes to being the 'trustworthy student' in their year, and since Kiyotaka knew of Kushida's dark personality, the answer was obvious from the start, yet many students would be duped by her appearance.

Ayanokōji then praises Sakayangi internally for adopting such a solid and safe strategy when attempting to take down someone with immense power, somewhat surprising him as to why an aggressive person would choose a defensive plan of action. Kei then asks for his next orders, to which he told her to just keep an eye on a few people for him. Kiyotaka then gave her a foreboding warning that something stormy was about to happen before reassuring her that at the very least, nothing would happen to her. He then picked up his tray and left to the shared room.

On the third day during bath time, the boys began competing over their 'innate weapons' in which Ayanokoji and Koenji were the last men standing.

In the middle of the night, Ayanokoji wakes up to see who left the message under his pillow which turns out be Manabu Horikita. He calls him to ask about Nagumo's movement which Kiyotaka attempted to lie and told him that he has seen no movements by him. Picking up his report, Manabu chooses not to press Kiyotaka any further and remarked that this was a waste of time. Before leaving, Manabu answers Kiyotaka's questions on how the student council has certain control over the special exams (modifying rules and penalties) within the confines of representing the students' point of view and opinions.

Kiyotaka then muttered 'he might lose' as Manabu walked away. More accurately, he won’t slip up and would eventually be able to overcome the challenge, yet, that isn’t all there is to the special exam. A major change might soon be at hand.

Chapter 4
It opens with Ichinose talking about the outdoor exam. She gave a pep talk to her group members and remarked how despite many ups and downs, stormy and dramatic events repeating themselves, she is now glad that she have people whom she could call companions as they tackle the upcoming examination. The pep talk seems to work as she was able to get them to open up with her and establish some semblance of friendship despite their class difference, the first being Hiyori. Hiyori then calmed the nerves of Mii-chan by relating to her as she could sense that she was bewildered by so many new faces around her, with Ichinose supporting her as well.

Suddenly, a student from Class A unexpectedly threw out a question to Ichinose which was "Have you ever had a boyfriend before?" Ichinose then replied that "No....embarrassingly enough i don't have any experience when it comes to romance." She then went on to comment how surprising it was that even the super popular girl didn’t have experiences, drawing out the question of whether she has super high standards. Ichinose said no once again, but ponders about it a bit deeper. The Class A girl then went on to ask if she was interested in anyone at the moment which caused Ichinose to panic and yet out a yelp.

They then begun speculating whether she was going out with the student council president since she was seen often with him, which caused Ichinose to resolutely reject such a notion as she harbours nothing of that sort for him, further saying that it is purely a platonic work type relationship. She made a mistake by saying there wasn’t anyone she fancies 'right now', which caused an uproar for the girls as that meant she used to like someone before.

She then attempted to explain herself by saying that she used to 'admire' this senpai but before she could think of him as someone from the opposite sex, he had already graduated, thus, she was unsure whether this constituted as 'liking' someone. The girls then begun laughing as they told her that she is way too honest and could had just brushed off questions that she didn’t want answered. Ichinose then glared at Chikako as she realised that she probably dodged that question and did not warn her beforehand. The nighttime girls-only gathering then became lively again.

This time, Ichinose announced that she won’t answer what she can’t answer to the girls. The first question was how many times she was confessed to. Ichinose replied 3 times but if you include elementary it would be 4, and if you you include 'that' case, it would be 5. Realising that she answered it all frankly again, she knows that she is not very good at talking about romance and because of her unfamiliarity, it causes her to slip up. The girls then asked if she was the type to not tell lies which Ichinose disagreed, as even she would gamble once or twice during special exams, using misdirections and lies at times like those.

She explains her mentality that 'everybody’s the same, nobody really wants to tell lies' Thus, she aims to avoid them and be as accurate as possible. She then corrects herself, saying that she is 'bad at telling lies with the intent of hurting people' but not at lies in general. The girls found it strange as lies are normally told to avoid hurting people, but Ichinose then shares her thought that "A lie meant to avoid hurting people would only be delaying the inevitable." Rationalising with herself that with that one lie, more bad thing will crop up more and more. Ending off with her recalling her past that she "don't want to go through that again. Those painful days. That cruel time."

Chapter 5
On Monday which was the fifth day of exam, four hours of the morning's lessons were dedicated to physical exercises. Students would have to run-walk a total of 18 km around the course. Exhaustion soon sets in as they venture across a winding mountain road. They started discussing the possibility of coming across a wild boar which Ishizaki asked if any were the size of Kiyotaka. Although people complimented him, Kiyotaka felt extremely uncomfortable with all the teasing. Most of the 2nd and 3rd years were ahead at a faster pace than them.

As Kiyotaka felt the need to look back, he saw Koenji seemingly running into the jungle, and so Ayanokoji decided to look for him. Surprising at Kouenji's pace, Kiyotaka decided to quicken his as well. After 100 metres, he eventually caught up to him. Kiyotaka then asks why he took a detour to which he answers that he saw a wild boar and got captivated. He then promises to return in time, and asks what else he wanted from him.

Ayanokoji asks him to lend a hand to the exam to which Koenji outright refuses, and expressed his displeasure of constantly being bombarded with that sentence. Ayanokoji then grabbed his arm, expecting him to resist, Kouenji instead relaxed and remarked that Kiyotaka is the person who tamed Dragon. Koenji explained further that with the way that delinquent behaves towards Kiyotaka, gaze constantly on him, as well as the people around him reactions, last but not least their current predicament, he finds his assumption to be more than believable despite Kiyotaka's denial.

Koenji declared that despite Kiyotaka being 'relatively talented', he is nothing more of a childish existence to him like many other students. To reassure him, he promises not to reveal anything that would obstruct his wish. Likewise, he demands they do the same and allow him to act autonomously. Finally Kiyotaka relented, not wishing to exert any more effort and wagering that Koenji would keep his promise after he finished hunting the boar.

After leaving Koenji behind he reached his friends and decided to wait for Koenji in the turn point with Chabashira. After returning, he sees Keisei with a sprained leg. They took the injured Keisei back to school. During lunch time, they talk about their groups with Haruka and Akito. During dinner, Ayanokoji decides to make his move, he had told Kei to look for Nazuna Asahina and he chose to tail her during dinner. After making contact with her, he asks her how he can avoid Nagumo's attention to which she says why don't he beat him. At night, the group started talking about the position of their group. Keisei seems to have been depressed because he wasn't able to accomplish anything major in the special exams.

Chapter 6
On the morning of the seventh day of the training camp, Kiyotaka's group will dissolve after this day. The exam will then be held tomorrow morning. The students in his group were able to get along relatively well, irrespective of their shared antipathy towards Kouenji. Kiyotaka then compares Sudou and Ishizaki whereby the former is better physically and academically, while the latter is able to discern the atmosphere and read his opponents better. Keisei then begins explaining his plan for the long-distance relay the next day.

During dinner, Kiyotaka saw Ichinose walking alone while carrying her tray and calls out to her. It was not out to extract information but rather, Kiyotaka could sense that something was off about her and asked if she was in any trouble. Ichinose was startled and attempted to downplay her situation not wanting to burden him, but Kiyotaka saw through her ploy and guessed that she has ran into a rather difficult challenge. Finally relenting, she begins to share her thoughts and fears with Kiyotaka, primarily with how the exams were progressively getting harder and asked for his thoughts on the matter.

Both of them knew that exams will only get harder from here as they were in their 3rd Semester, thus, it is only natural that expulsion rates would increase. However, what fills her with dread the most is not losing class or private points, but instead the notion of losing one of her friend which is unfathomable to her. Kiyotaka continues to lend her a listening ear and asked what she intends to do if someone close to her is on the brink of expulsion.

Ichinose then begins lifting her head and laughing while complimenting Kiyotaka for being a very smart student as his question does not only pertain to a student's expulsion, but also what happens to them afterward. She was able to pick up his subtle wordplay just with the way he phrased his questions. Surprised, Kiyotaka tries to act modestly by saying that she was overestimating him. They then bid farewell as both of them knew that there are still some things that she has to mull over.

Other students began crowding around her, which Kiyotaka laments that it must be hard being popular. Juxtaposed to her usual persona, she didn’t wear a smile like she normally does, and even went on to pretty much ignore two of the girls she's close with by excusing herself for being too tired. She was also not hiding the fact that she wanted to be alone for awhile, which causes Kiyotaka to realise that Sakayanagi must have had made her move. The upcoming exam will not only drastically impact the boys but also the girls as well.

After dinner, he saw Akane Tachibana crouching down and crying. It was revealed that she was the one Kei was assigned to look out for by Kiyotaka. Despite the relatively obscure place she decided to hide behind, Kiyotaka decides to talk to her before someone else comes by. He then questions her on why she hadn’t consulted the former student council president when she was in trouble. Akane was shocked and starts adamantly denying his words after the introduction of an unexpected guest.

She began refuting his statements and denies that she was crying which would had implied that she was suffering. She then says that she just wants to be alone which Kiyotaka understood as they weren’t given much alone time to themselves. Kiyotaka added that he was on Manabu's side to ease her mind, but she refutes that even if that was the case, he still be much help. She then reprimands him for striking such a casual tone when speaking to his seniors and started envying a first year's optimism.

She then shares that she is most worried about Manabu who was always fighting alone against both the 2nd years and 3rd years, and that if he falls, their Class A would be soon to follow. Despite being president, he did not abuse his authority like Nagumo. She reveals that their Class A had a myriad of thorns that dragged him down, however, he has sacrificed much to protect his comrades. With Nagumo's recent provocation, even they can’t do much which causes her to be anxious. Kiyotaka thinks to himself that if she decides to sacrifice herself, it would be a mistake. Akane then pleads for him not to say anything to Manabu as she walks away.

During midnight, Kiyotaka was awoken by creaking sounds. He then sees Hashimoto leaving the room and decides to follow after him, disregarding the possibility that he might just be going for a toilet break. He is then seen meeting up with Ryuuen as Kiyotaka hid himself to eavesdrop. It was a peculiar duo which aroused Kiyotaka's suspicions as they met up late during the last day. Hashimoto then questions Ryuuen on whether he had really stepped down as Class leader, sharing his perspective that he can’t imagine him being defeated by Ishizaki and the others. Hashimoto then answers that he could betray Sakayanagi if the need arise, however, he immediately added that it doesn’t come cheap as she stands solely at the top of their cohort. In other words, he isn’t gullible enough to leave the winning team. We learn that Hashimoto is a self-centred person and doesn’t care about the journey as long as he graduates from Class A.

Before long, the duo are interrupted by Nagumo and Manabu. Ryuuen attempts to leave but was stopped, causing him to glare maliciously at Nagumo whom simply laughed it off. Nagumo then told the two first years to leave quickly as he has something to discuss with his senior. Ryuuen then shoulder checked Nagumo which piqued his interest as he showed no signs of fear. Nagumo then asked if they wanted to wager on the winner of the impending battle between himself and Manabu, which both ignored as Ryuuen ended with a witty remark.

Nagumo then tells Manabu to excuse himself from the exam tomorrow which caught the attention of Hashimoto. Manabu scoffed at his threat and compares it to be a worse joke than the one Ryuuen did prior. Nagumo then decides to warn him that it may be in his best course of action to minimise the damage as even Manabu's favourite Ayanokouji Kiyotaka would not be able to stop him. Nagumo then asks Hashimoto on his opinion of Kiyotaka which he replied to be just a normal student. Nagumo concurs, but finds it peculiar that his idol Manabu places him above the likes to Sakayangi, Ryuuen and even Ichinose. Manabu then tells him to stop fabricating stories as he never once shared his opinion of Kiyotaka when Nagumo decided to probe further.

Giving up on the matter and sensing that the discussion was ending, Kiyotaka decides to take a detour to avoid them when returning back. Soon after Kiyotaka returned, Hashimoto did as well. Kiyotaka could feel Hashimoto's gaze directed at him for a moment before he silently drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 7
Tomorrow would be when the actual exam will happen. We are then given the thoughts of Horikita Suzune where she had made contact with 'the person' inside their shared room. The person was Kushida whereby both knew that had some sort of resentment with one another. She confronts Horikita's strategy of keeping an eye on her by dragging her into the same group with her usual demeanour but Horikita knew of her true nature. She attempts to aggravate Suzune by asking her to put aside her personal feelings for the sake of their class, and saying that in reality, the result is only a secondary concern for Suzune. However, Suzune agreed with her statement.

Suzune resolved herself that if she couldn’t fix the problem with Kushida, she wouldn’t be able to move forward. She then tells her of her desire to be trusted by her despite knowing of her own personal unsettled feelings. Suzune promises to not reveal her past and even asked if there was anything she could do to make her believe her, which was immediately rejected. Kushida commits to never believing her.

Suzune then understood that it is in Kushida's nature to trust no one. She's indifferent to the pros and cons, most importantly, she can’t accept anyone but herself possessing information that may put her at a disadvantage. Suzune then attempts to butter kushida up by praising her grades, athleticism and communicative skills after stating that more and more people knows of her true nature. Kushida then cuts her off by saying that she despises her know-it-all tone and her leverage against her. She wanted to cut their conversation short after knowing it was redundant.

She ends off by declaring to Suzune that she will never cooperate nor trust her. Until one of them vanishes, this would essentially be their dynamic, leaving off with a warning that she would do good to remember that. Suzune then relents, saying that she'll leave it at least for now, to which Kushida told her to make this the last time before swiftly leaving.

Suzune then reflects that she is powerless with not many comrades to reply on. In retrospect, Kiyotaka is the only one she could rely on but he had grown more distant from her. It may had been because she had forced him to say his piece about the student council in front of Kushida, but she knew that there are some things she can’t compromise on. She tells herself that even if she loses the cooperation of Kiyotaka, she will still choose Kushida at the end of the day.

Epilogue
On the last day after giving the exam, everybody was exhausted and waited for the results. The proctor started announcing the result and says that all the boys have scored more than average so there is no expulsions in boys group led by Manabu. Although he was dominated by the winner, Nagumo was still smiling. On the girls side, a small group fell below the average. It was the group that Tachibana was in. After the result were announced, the proctor asked the leader of the group of who she might consider dragging out.

She calls Tachibana's name. It was the strategy prepared by Nagumo just for her as he would never pull out the strategy against Manabu since he doesn't want to expel him. The 3rd year of Class A decides to cancel the expulsion. After Ayanokoji started leaving the gymnasium, he was approached by Kei. He explains her the strategy that Nagumo used. She went on to ask him on what he would have done if it was her, to which he answers that there is no need for her to ask that as he would had use any method to save her.

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