2nd Year Room 2

This is the second chapter for the 2nd Year arc of You-Zitsu manga series.

Summary
After school, Horikita and Kiyotaka went to the gym together with Sudō. Kiyotaka remarks that only Hashimoto from Class A was present and while most of Ichinose’s class was present, there was no student from Class C. He believed that the second-year students were insignificant in this exam, and that the only ones who mattered were the first-year students with whom they had yet to interact.

According to Horikita, it was only possible for Honami to build a relationship with first years based only on mutual trust, due to her helping and dazzling nature. She then commented that it wasn’t possible for them to replicate Honami’s methods but added that there were other options. As the event was starting, Horikita began to leave the gym together with Kiyotaka and Sudō. When asked why she didn’t try to talk to any of the first years, she commented that only students who attended the meet-and-greet were those who were academically insecure and added that they were hoping to get the students who had academic ability higher than B-. She then added that the other reason was that there was no first year student from Class 1-D. When asked how Class 1-D not being there mattered, Horikita explained that even though there should be students of Class 1-D, who were academically insecure, none of them attended the meet-and-greet, signifying the presence of a class leader. She then added that if they are able to negotiate with the class leader, they could easily cover up for each other and there would be no need to negotiate personally with each student. She also added that she was only interested in preventing expulsions from the class and wasn’t keen on engaging in inter-class competition. Ayanokōji remarked to himself that Horikita’s strategy was similar to that of Honami but felt that they might not be the same thing.

While they were leaving, they come across Masayoshi Hashimoto, who called out to them and commented on Ichinose’s way of doing things. When Horikita asked if Sakayanagi knew how the meet-and-greet was going to play out and how were they planning to do for the exam, Hashimoto feigned ignorance and said it is for Sakayanagi to decide. After he left, Ayanokōji commented to Horikita that the first years would soon realize that Class A was the best and begin flocking to them. They then went towards the first year class to look for Class D students.

As they moved towards Class 1-D, they come across Class C and noticed that the students left were relaxed and weren’t worried at all. While they wondered about them, Ryūen called out to Suzune and remarked that she was late. When asked why he was here, Ryūen commented that going to the gym would be waste of time. Kiyotaka guessed that since Ryūen had arrived at the 1st year classes ahead of them, it was possible that he had already scouted the academically gifted first years. As if predicting what they were thinking, Ryūen refused that he hadn’t found anyone yet. After a bit of argument between them, Ryūen inquired if she had got an idea, since she came to 1st year classes after going to meet-and-greet. She said it should be the same for him. Ryūen as if waiting for a chance, said that since they were both thinking similarly, he would give her a hint. He speculated that the school may have already informed the first years about the school's operations, and that the first years this time had already started understanding the rules and bringing their classes together. Horikita, wary of Ryūen, inquired as to why he would provide that information to her. Ryūen replied that he wasn’t trying to do anything but added that he would try to come out on the top overall. Kiyotaka contemplated that for Ryūen to take the first place in this exam, he would have to get the students with high academic to join him and felt that instead of aiming for the first place, he should focus on rewards for the top 30% in the individual contest. Ryūen, soon took his leave, sarcastically wishing Horikita to try her best.

As they were going to the Classroom of 1-D, Horikita noticed that the time spent by Ryūen was too short, and since Ryūen left the classroom, no student had come out from it. Shocked, Sudō quickly ran to Class 1-D’s classroom to find it completely empty. When Horikita noticed the empty classroom, she commented that bargaining with Class D would be too difficult. Going back to the dorms, Kiyotaka considered remembering the appearance of all the first year students from the OAA.

By the end of the first day of the special exam, a total of 22 pairs were formed.

Characters
In order of appearance:
 * Suzune Horikita
 * Kiyotaka Ayanokōji
 * Masayoshi Hashimoto
 * Honami Ichinose
 * Kakeru Ryūen
 * Mio Ibuki (Visual)
 * Ken Sudō
 * Arisu Sakayanagi (Visual)