Light Novel 2nd Year Volume 1/Summary

Below is the long summary of the first 2nd Year volume of the You-Zitsu light novel series.

Prologue
The prologue starts two months before the new school year begins, inside a conference room of a certain facility located in Tokyo. Tsukishiro was explaining the details of the students studying in the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School to a 15-year old person, who was from the White Room. Tsukishiro explains that the person's job is to expel Kiyotaka Ayanokōji from the school before April ends and to bring him back to the White Room. He also warns the person to not be too obvious in his actions so that this secret movement won't reach the ears of the higher-ups, which may damage the reputation of Kiyotaka's father. However, the White Room person was not very satisfied with this job given to him/her, which Tsukishiro picked up and explained further. He said how it's humiliating towards the other White Room people that Kiyotaka has basically forced its operations to halt further due to him escaping, despite being the most outstanding person among the White Room people. Tsukishiro's intent in explaining so was to draw out the White Room person's competitiveness. He told his only listener to surpass Kiyotaka, and that his team has already prepared the necessary means for his plan to succeed. The listener turned on his heels coldly to leave after the explanation ended, which sent a chill down Tsukishiro's spine. Before the White Room person left, Tsukishiro asked one more question: They didn't hide anything, did they? This was so that the White Room person wouldn't disobey his instructions. The person nodded and continued on his path. After they left, Tsukishiro once again looked at the image of Kiyotaka displayed on a screen, to which he thought that he was a monster, even though he doesn't like using that word casually. Kiyotaka's abilities are way superior compared to his peers, including his academic and physical abilities. If he were to fight an adult head-on, there is a higher chance that Kiyotaka would win. Tsukishiro had another thought: What would happen in a battle between artificially nurtured humans from the White Room and natural-born geniuses. To hunt, or to be hunted, he still thought of it as a game between children.

Chapter 1
The author explains how society has become familiar with the term ability. He stated that Japan was at a turning point as it faced numerous problems: declining birth rate, old population, environmental problems, and a declining sense of nationalism. So, in order to rebuild the country from the ground up, the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School was born. Its purpose was to attract and train world-class students from all over Japan in order to lead the future. The school's biggest selling point is how it evaluates its students; not by grade alone, but also many different aspects, thus making this school different from normal high schools. The purpose of doing so is to teach the students how to live in society and cooperate. Each year is divided into 4 classes - class A to class D - which many different people with different strengths and weaknesses will compete to reach the top. At the same time, the students aren't allowed outside the school. However, many facilities have been prepared to suit the students' needs, whether it is studying, sports, or even leisure. Other than that, the school operates on a different currency system, which in turn teaches the students to manage their money properly. To gain wealth, students must cooperate with their own class to compete with other classes in special exams; the ones victorious will gain points, and the ones below will lose them. The biggest selling point, however, is that a job or higher education is practically guaranteed if a student manages to graduate while being in class A. Then, the narrating shifts to Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, a student from class D who will be starting his second year at this school as a sophomore. The class points of each class state their position at the start of the school term: Even though the point difference is huge, the author claims that there are still a lot of chances for class D to rise to the top.
 * Class A: 1119 class points
 * Class B: 542 class points
 * Class C: 540 class points
 * Class D: 275 class points

Chapter 2
The class receives their seating and Kiyotaka ends up in the back near the hallway. The class is surprised to see Horikita's haircut (this is from volume 11.5), Kushida is internally mad that Horikita has pretty much the same haircut. They were forced by Chabashira to put their phone out and the announcement was made to download an app called Overall Ability (OAA), this shows the abilities of their peer with numerical values, Horikita and Hirata are at the top of the class for academics and Sudо̄ are at the top of the grade for athletics with an A+. They are introduced to the newest activity which is an activity of brains and you have to pick a partner, with your classmate or a 1st year. If a student can find a partner they will lose 5% and if you score below a certain score you will be expelled. Kiyotaka will not find a partner because Tsukishiro has installed a student from the white room to get Kiyotaka expelled, and Kiyotaka suspects the partner will join him and purposely fail. Tsukishiro proposes a deal if Kiyotaka finds the white room student Tsukishiro will leave him alone.

Chapter 3
Lots of first and second-year students (primarily class B) gather in the gymnasium for the exchange meeting held by Honami Ichinose. Kiyotaka, Suzune Horikita and Sudо̄ were present as well, observing the situation. Only one person from class A was there, Hashimoto; while no class C students were around. Suzune notes that most of the first years here were either bad at communicating or are concerned about their academic ability. There wouldn't be many benefits in pairing up with any of them. She didn't want to target high academic ability students either; those who can pass with certainty are enough. She also notices that none of the class 1-D students was around, so she concluded that class must already have a leader controlling their movements. Using that to their advantage, they thought of contacting the leader of class 1-D in order to bargain inconvenience without contacting the students one by one. Without much happening, the trio left the gymnasium, only to be met by Hashimoto. He commented on the exchange gathering being worthless, and Honami has thrown away the game, only pairing up with lower capability students. After Hashimoto left, they continued their journey to the classroom of 1-D.

Kiyotaka, Suzune and Ken went to the first-year classrooms corridor, where the first-years looked at them curiously. While making their journey, they bumped to Kakeru Ryūen, who was already there a good twenty or so minutes ago. Suzune talked warily, getting information from Kakeru, but he implies that he's not moving yet. He revealed that he will be using a bit of violence to threaten the first-years to cooperate with him, but to Suzune it seemed immoral. However, the rules do not state anything about violence being illegal, so Kakeru's plan is perfectly fine. He also notes that the first-year students have settled down in this school rather quickly as if someone had already informed them about this school's policies. In Kiyotaka's thoughts, he compared themselves back then with the new freshmen. The new students seem to be way more capable than them. Such a special exam is not easy to get expelled from unless someone is caught cheating or intentionally lowering their score. For that manner, he thinks that going for the top 30% in test results should give them a better advantage than shooting for first place. After Kakeru left, they went to check on class 1-D, which Kiyotaka noticed that no one has entered nor exited during this whole time. Turns out, there wasn't a single person in class D. They called it a day after that and when Kiyotaka returned to his room, he went and memorized every new student in the OAA. On the day the exam started, 22 pairs were already formed.

At the end of the lunch break the next day, two first-year students appeared in the corridor outside their classroom. One of them is a rather tall boy, while another is a shorter girl. Suzune initiated contact with them, and it turns out they were from class 1-D. The boy is called Kazuomi Hōsen while the girl is called Tsubasa Nanase. They came here to force cooperation with class 2-D. Kazuomi's attitude is quite bullish, evident from the constant provocations he throws at Ken for his stupidity. Before Ken and Kazuomi could fight, Tsubasa stopped them by threatening to reveal "that." Kazuomi stopped and resorted to provoking Ken again, and another fight was about to break out when Daichi Ishizaki interrupted. Kakeru and Mio Ibuki have appeared as well. Kazuomi recognized Kakeru from where he lives, as a little celebrity. Daichi didn't like Kazuomi's provocations and launched himself at him, but the latter easily took the former by the neck. He also fended off Mio without much trouble. When the heat of the fight was at its peak, another first-year student, who had been watching from behind, interrupted the fight. He had called the homeroom teacher of class 1-D, a man named Shiba Katsunori. The teacher stopped the fight and called everyone to leave, apologizing to Suzune for the trouble his students caused. The first-year boy, named Takuya Yagami, also apologized. Just as he was about to leave, Kushida and her friends appeared from the stairs. Yagami recognized Kushida as his senpai back in his old school, but the latter took a little bit of time to recognize him. He offered to partner up with Kushida but she chose to ponder about it for now. After they left, Akito Miyake commented on Kazuomi, telling the Ayanokōji Group about a story regarding Kazuomi plummeting his whole junior high school. Mio was dissatisfied that she couldn't fight against Kazuomi despite her speed.

After school, Kiyotaka, Suzune and Ken went to Keyaki Mall to scout out first years. They went to talk to a group of first-year class D boys, named Kakaga, Mikami and Shiratori, who had academic abilities of B and/or higher. Suzune offered 50,000 points to partner up with Ken, but Shiratori wanted 500,000 instead. They didn't have the amount of money for such an offer, and it'd be a big loss if they accepted. Suzune thought it was a bluff and asked if they've been approached by someone else, to which Shiratori says that Hashimoto has already approached them. The boys gave them a week to conjure the money and will cooperate with Ken if that's possible. Kiyotaka, Suzune and Ken left, talking about how the first-years weren't looking ahead. Suzune explains that they plan to scam the money of those who are desperate to find pairs. With enough of that, they'll be able to buy their way to higher classes. Suzune then decided to set three goals for this exam: don't drop out, aim for third place or higher, and don't involve money in their negotiations. To achieve that goal, Suzune still aims to scout out class D students. Then, someone approached them by the stairs. The person calls herself Ichika Amasawa from class A with an academic ability of A. Ichika offered to partner up with Horikita, but the latter wants her to partner up with Ken instead. She claims that she will agree to partner up with him as long as he's a strong person, and will pit his strength with someone else in the school. However, her other party does not respond, and a change of heart occurred. She said she will cooperate if they can find someone who can cook. Suzune bluffed by saying Kiyotaka is good at cooking, and the latter played along. Ichika is satisfied with that and wants to see his skills now, but that will be a problem since Kiyotaka isn't actually an amazing cook. After a bit of bantering, they decided to have Ichika taste Kiyotaka's cooking the next day after school, in his dormitory. Before that, Ichika wants to bring Kiyotaka along with a shopping trip to gather the required ingredients, as she will be requesting a secret item to be cooked.

Chapter 4
On the third day of the special exam, 34 more pairs were created. Among them, only class 1-D hasn't made any partnerships yet. Kiyotaka thinks that his choices are slowly dwindling and that the chance of partnering up with the White Room student will only increase if he does not act soon. He goes over points that might rule out possible White Room candidates, such as who he can remember from the first-years he memorised, but he couldn't get any hints. Same goes for body physique and grades - those can be easily manipulated. In order to find out the White Room student, Kiyotaka resorts to going around the school and observing them himself.

While walking to school, Kiyotaka encounters two first-year girls by the name of Kasuga Kurihara and Tetsuko Konishi. He wanted to talk to them under the pretext of partnering up, but he hesitated as it might look suspicious. Just then, Tsubasa approached him from behind. They initiated a conversation, talking about partnering up, but Kiyotaka intends to prod into her background. When she didn't give answers, however, Kiyotaka decides to come from another angle. He asks about the situation of class 1-D, and Tsubasa confirms that Kazuomi is indeed leading class 1-D. Kiyotaka asks why Tsubasa didn't seem to be under Kazuomi, and she claims she doesn't succumb to violence. In turn, Tsubasa asks Kiyotaka if he thinks violence is good or bad. Kiyotaka answers that it is an advantageous thing, and Tsubasa agrees. Then, Kiyotaka offers to set up a meeting between their classes, and Tsubasa agrees, sharing contacts.

Kiyotaka met with Suzune at the front of their class. He mentions the meeting proposal with Tsubasa, to which Suzune comments how unlike-him to do such a thing. They shift to talking about class 1-D's partnerless situation, which is problematic with the leadership of Kazuomi. Even so, with class 2-A and 2-C competing in money games for the smarter first-years, they would have a better chance to partner up with class 1-D students. Suzune thinks that Kazuomi doesn't only want points, evident to that day when he went to the second-year corridors and declared to cooperate with class 2-D and that he may want something else. Tsubasa's mention of "that" was also suspicious. Then, Kiyotaka remembers the Yagami student being from the same school as Suzune and Kushida. Suzune might not be able to remember him, but she thinks that using Kushida as a link to class 1-B may prove useful to their class, however hard it might be to have that request agreed.

Yousuke later approaches Suzune, which Kiyotaka eavesdropped. He says that a junior in his soccer club has been reached out to by class 2-A, even though their academic ability is only C. However, that student's other OAA evaluations are high. This prods them to think that class 2-A is thinking of long-term benefits instead of just this exam. What's weirder is that class 2-C is also following class 2-A's strategy. After Yousuke left, Suzune turns to Kiyotaka, who she noticed was eavesdropping. They lamented about the fact that being branded as class D is a huge handicap. Suzune then agrees to be present in the meeting with Tsubasa, and requests for an immediate answer from the latter.

After school ended, no response came from Tsubasa. Kiyotaka can't do much about it since he promised Ichika to go shopping later. When Ichika arrived, she was satisfied by the fact that Kiyotaka didn't do unnecessary things while waiting, such as fiddling with his phone. They first went to a utensil store, buying knives, a bowl, a whisk, a pot and a ladle. Kiyotaka says he already has some of them, but Ichika retorted by saying it's for her own use. Then, she also placed a fruit knife in her basket, which is starting to pile up. Kiyotaka asks about the payment, and Ichika says he will be paying for all of it. Kiyotaka thought about discarding his old ones and using these instead, however, Ichika said it's her property, so he mustn't wear them out. Kiyotaka cursed, to which Ichika threatened to not cooperate with Sudou any longer. Kiyotaka had no choice but to apologize.

After buying the ingredients, the total point expenditure totalled to 20,000. Kiyotaka tries to guess what sort of dish he'll be making, but he thinks Ichika placed a few fake ingredients to throw him off. While walking back to Kiyotaka's dorm, he asks Ichika why she's not concerned about a stranger like him making her a dish, to which she compared it to a restaurant, where you don't know who cooks your meal. When they reached Kiyotaka's dorm, he asked Ichika to settle herself and watch TV while he brews her some coffee. The sound from the TV will be useful in regards to his plans. However, Ichika tells Kiyotaka to not use his phone while cooking, so as to not look up any recipes. She reveals her secret dish to be. Kiyotaka didn't know the recipe as he merely studied basic cooking knowledge. Before this, Suzune thought up a plan: she'll teach Kiyotaka how to use a knife properly, and also to tell him the recipe of the dish in real-time. This was possible due to Kiyotaka using Ken's phone in his bag, which he placed strategically near the counter, where he could call Horikita and ask her the recipe in real-time. Kiyotaka asks Ichika why she bought a whisk and a fruit knife, which didn't need to be used in the recipe for tom yam kong, and she claims she wants Kiyotaka to peel an apple with the knife, while the whisk will be useful for her own cooking later on.

After Kiyotaka finished the dish and served it to Ichika, he went to clean the kitchen but the latter told him to sit and wait. As she ate, Kiyotaka noted how she did so without hesitation, despite being watched by someone else. After she finished eating, she commented that is was nothing special, but good enough for another bite. As Ichika washed the dishes (much to Kiyotaka's distaste), he prods her about the result of his cooking. While thinking about her evaluation, she readjusted her hair ribbon. Her say on Kiyotaka's performance wasn't as good as she expected, but he at least showed he could cook. She agrees to partner up with Ken, showing evidence by immediately sending him a partner request. Before Ichika left, Kiyotaka asked her to be their intermediary for class 1-A; however, Ichika apologises for not being able to as she doesn't get along well with her classmates. After she left, Suzune calls Kiyotaka on his own phone, thanking him for his efforts; she also asks why he went out of his way to ask Ichika to be their intermediary for class 1-A since they're aiming for class 1-D and 1-B. Kiyotaka claims it is for extra insurance, and Suzune confesses that she sees a bit of why her brother is so interested in Kiyotaka now. Later that night, Kiyotaka receives a message from Tsubasa, telling him she can meet up after school tomorrow.

In a cafe in Keyaki Mall on the same day as Kiyotaka's cooking game with Ichika, class 2-A students Arisu Sakayanagi, Masumi Kamuro and Masayoshi Hashimoto have gathered to talk. Masumi reports that Kakeru has offered 100,000 points to a first-year that they've set their sights on, and that he will increase the offer to 200,000 if the number of pairs exceeds a certain amount. Masumi wants to fight Kakeru's proposal, but Arisu says it is not wise to play such financial games. She comments that Kakeru might have changed strategies: instead of buying his way to the top class using a million points, he has now decided to rise by increasing his class points. Arisu then counters with a strategy where they will the same amount of points, but not partner up with students nor giving them the points. This way, Kakeru will be forced to offer more points, and lose the money game while class A isn't involved at all. Kamuro does not understand why, so Arisu explains that Kakeru is trying to force class A into a financial game, targeting the same pupils as class A. However, by using her strategy of pretend-money, Kakeru'll have to offer more money. They'll be able to reel in students with their class A reputation anyway. Kamuro still doesn't fully understand, but Arisu told her to just follow instructions. Arisu hopes that her opponent will be a worthy one.

Two hours after the meeting of the class A students, Kakeru, Daichi and Mio gather in a karaoke room. Daichi reports that the same student they've targeted has asked for more points after hearing that class A is offering the same amount to them, which is 200,000 points. Kakeru says to pay 100,000 in advance and 200,000 after the exam. Daichi expresses his concern about the excessive expenditure of points, but Kakeru simply counteracts by saying they won't pay the 200,000 points later. He claims his goal this time isn't to reel in students but to examine the new first-years. He plans to collapse class A in a future exam and crush the first-year's trust in Arisu. His true goal is to find students that intuitively know which class is better, and not the types to be lightly swayed by points. By gathering highly proficient students, Kakeru will be able to drag down Arisu's class in a future exam.

Epilogue
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