Light Novel Volume 6/Summary

Below is the long summary of volume 6 of the You-Zitsu light novel series.

Prologue
Kikyō Kushida explains that validation is everything to her. She admits that there are people better than her be it in academics, looks, sports or even things like video games. However, she hates losing far more than the average person. It first began in Junior high where she started accumulating losses from people. To combat this, she turned to friendship instead, whereby she extended her hands towards 'asocial boys and unattractive girls', all the while wearing a fake smile and repressing her urge to vomit. By garnering people's secrets, she held the upper hand against them whenever they wronged her in any manner. Although by doing this, the trust and respect people had eventually turned into hate and fear. Therefore, she wants to create an air of superiority around her once again, to be everyone's favourite, she swore to herself that she would not repeat her past mistakes. Her expected life is ruined when she saw Suzune Horikita on the bus on the first day when commuting to school. As long as she was here, she'd never have peace, as she knew about the 'incident'.

Chapter 1
Miyabi Nagumo, the new Student Council President, states that he would be making some changes. Kiyotaka Ayanokōji is approached by Maya Satō who exchanges numbers with him. She went on to asks if he had a girlfriend to which he said no. Seemingly glad, Maya added that she was impressed at the capabilities he'd displayed and that they should start off as friends. She added while blushing that upon closer examination, Ayanokōji seems to be much cooler, mature and gentler than even Hirata. Katsuragi then appears asking to speak with Ayanokōji alone. Kei Karuizawa then calls Ayanokōji and asks him about his interaction with Satō which had been circulating widely on the girls side.

Chapter 2
The midterm results are released, with everyone passing. To everyone's surprise, Ken Sudō has gone up 12 ranks due to his performance during the sports festival. Horikita questions as to why Ayanokōji doesn't score higher, to which he reasons to himself that he would give himself away too fast.

Sae Chabashira has changed her attitude and genuinely praised D-Class. She reminds the class of other upcoming exams, and explains how it should be as easy as middle school. But, the test isn't completely useless, as it helps determine the pairs for the final exam of the semester. There will be tests on 8 subjects with 50 questions per test.

There are 2 ways to be expelled due to this exam:


 * The combined total of the pair is under 60 for a test, or


 * If the cumulative score of the pair is below a certain number both student will be expelled, even if they scored above 60 in all tests. In the last exam, it was 700 points. To get 700 points it necessary to achieve a minimum of 43.75 points per test to pass.

As the class starts speculating about how the pairs are determined, Chabashira mentions another thing about the special exam. The students are tasked with writing the final exam questions for another class, then that class has to 'defend' against the 'attack'. The winner of the battle (the one with the highest score) will gain 50 class points from the loser. To ensure that no impossible quizzes are made the teachers monitor the questions. If the quizzes aren't finished the schools template questions will be used instead.

To attack a class you just have to say it to the homeroom teacher and then she'll forward it to the school. If 2 classes attack the same class, then the classes will draw randomly to decide.

Ayanokōji notes that Kakeru Ryūen and Honami Ichinose will soon suspect him as the puppeteer behind Horikita and plans to increase her popularity to further fade into the background.

A group to clear the special exam is formed. After class, Horikita tells Ayanokōji about Kushida's past and why Kushida hates her. Horikita says the first time she saw Kushida, she was the same as Ayanokōji. Ayanokōji then points out that by that logic she should hate Kōenji even more. Horikita clarifies that they went to the same middle school, and explains Kushida probably thought no one she knew would attend this school since it's far away.

Horikita explains that Kushida was very popular in her old school and was the centre piece in her old class. However, a rumour was going around that Kushida had caused a class to collapse. The incident wasn't made public since it would damage the school's reputation but the rumours couldn't be contained. Students from Horikita's old class were talking about how there was slanderous graffiti on the black boards and tables of the classroom. This leads Ayanokōji to believe that Kushida was being bullied. She replies that there were too many rumours to know the truth. Horikita mentions that the rumours stopped almost at once and everyone acted like nothing happened. Ayanokōji suspected that it was due to external factors. He notes, that what Kushida did to collapse a perfect class like that must have been very serious.

He questions Horikita on what she thinks could have caused it all. She thinks that Kushida did it with brute force. Ayanokōji refutes this explaining that Kushida isn't capable of doing so, plus the school wouldn't have been able to conceal it otherwise. He thinks that it must've been done through lies. They note that D-Class is always in danger so long as Kushida and Horikita are against each other.

The group, consisting of Ayanokōji, Kushida, Horikita, Hirata, Karuizawa and Sudō, then discuss how to clear this special exam. The first test is to determine the pairs of the final exam. The way it is determined is that the one with the highest score pairs with the one with the lowest score. They then chose to 'attack' C-Class during the final exam.

Chapter 3
Ryūen informs C-Class that there's a traitor and a meeting would be held to find out who it is. He also announces that there is a person known as 'X', who is running D-Class from the shadows ('X' being Ayanokōji). After discussing the events of the sports festival Ryūen concludes that X's intentions during the festival was just to play around with Horikita. Ryūen also searches for the traitor, knowing it is either Manabe or one of her friends.

After the announcement, he gets everyone to leave, except his top lackeys, Ibuki, and the traitors to question them. After Manabe explains everything that happened on the cruise, Ryūen asks her if anyone witnessed them bullying Karuizawa, to which she says Ayanokōji and Yukimura. After hearing this, Kaneda (a person Ryūen acknowledges to be of some use) says it is definitely either Yukimura or Ayanokōji, but suspects Yukimura since he doesn't know him well and Ayanokōji doesn't strike him as an evil shadow leader. Ryūen acknowledges this but doesn't rule out the possibility someone was controlling them.

Chapter 4
Hirata and Horikita explain the plan to the whole class. The top 10 smartest people have to score above 80, the dumbest have to score 0, and the 20 in between have to score either between 60 and 80 or 1 point. Ayanokōji notes that Horikita has been motivated enough to cooperate.

The next day, Chabashira attempts to intimidate the student before handing out the exam. She announces that A-Class and B-Class have targeted each other (Ayanokōji thought to believe it was Arisu Sakayanagi's decision since Katsuragi would have gone with the easier choice which was D-Class). This means that C-Class and D-Class are targeting each other.

The pairings comes in the next day and it was as they had expected. Horikita gets paired with Sudō, Ayanokōji with Satō and Ike with Kushida. Miyake and Hasebe, who are pretty much equal in academics, are also paired together. They have the same weaknesses and same strengths. These two have no tutor though and they don't want to participate in either Horikita's or Hirata's study group. Yukimura is given the task of tutoring them and Ayanokōji the task of watching over them.

The Yukimura study group meets up at the Pallet cafe. Yukimura suddenly asks Ayanokōji if he's hiding his academic ability. Ayanokōji blames Horikita for giving Yukimura too much information.

An incident then occurs where Ishizaki tries to buy a special cake, but the store couldn't make it today. It reminds Ayanokōji of his birthday on the next day (20 October). While Yukimura, Miyake and Hasebe are doing their own things, Ayanokōji notices that someone other than Ishizaki has been occasionally looking at him. He goes over to see that it's Airi Sakura, and tells her she's welcome to join the study group. Yukimura mentions his selfish mother, and reflects on his motives, deciding to help others clear this exam. They converse about the matter of making questions for C-Class and leave after an hour, without Sakura ever coming over.

As the study group ended, Ayanokōji tells Horikita about the strategy of testing to see which types of questions are allowed and how hard they can be. He explains how it's very important that Kushida doesn't leak anything. Horikita says that the only way to prevent this is to confront her directly. After the call, Ayanokōji then receives an email from Ryūen (sending to 'X') asking about who he really is.

Over by Horikita's study group, Ayanokōji has been seated next to Satō, who Ayanokōji finds wants to run away from. Ichinose comes into the room, and Horikita reveals that she has made a joint study group with her. Satō continues to attempt getting closer to Ayanokōji and he tries his best to get out of the situation and work around her questions as people are starting to look weirdly at them, especially Ike and Yamauchi. They are left wondering how a popular girl like Satō would have an interest in the taciturn Ayanokōji.

After the study group, Ichinose and Horikita discuss how they very much envy the other's class. Horikita asks Ichinose many vague questions in order to help her think about a way to fix the Kushida problem. Ichinose states that she would be willing to give 1 million private points to Ayanokōji or Horikita if there was a justified reason as they were friends. Horikita calls Ichinose a genuinely good person which she herself didn’t believe prior to knowing her, to which Ichinose became flustered and starts answering while stuttering. After Ichinose excuses herself, Ayanokōji brings up the Kushida problem again and gives Horikita a hint on to how to solve it. He suggests using Ichinose as a mediator, but Horikita doesn't plan on utilising her.

The two leave the library to find a patient Kushida. They discuss her past, which at that point Kushida requests Ayanokōji to leave. After leaving, he receives a call from Horikita, who uses her phone to help him eavesdrop. Horikita makes a bet with Kushida: to get the highest score on a single subject, of her choosing, in the next final exam. If Kushida wins, Horikita will leave the school, but if she loses she has to stop getting in Horikita's way. Horikita uses her older brother Manabu as a witness, and Kushida accepts the deal. After Manabu leaves, Kushida reveals that she knows Ayanokōji knows about her past and has been eavesdropping them. Ayanokōji chimes in and says he wants to join the bet on the condition that he gets to hear the details of the incident regarding Kushida. She agrees and starts explaining, how she desires to be praised and approved of a lot more than the average person. Since she knows she can't be number one in academics or sports, she wanted to become number one by gaining trust (Ayanokōji noting that she's doing more than just being gentle to get along with everyone).

Horikita asks how Kushida was able to keep up her facade. She says that it's very hard to do so and the anxiety has caused her to pull her hair out and even vomit at times, but she has reached her limit. She explains, that it was because she poured her true emotions into a blog that she was able to keep being sane.

However, her blog was accidentally discovered by a classmate, which caused her to be hated in her class. She explains that about 30 students had marked her as an 'enemy', fearing that she in danger because of it. She states that she basically just made them fight against each other by sharing their secrets. She found it 'truly amazing'.

Since she didn't exactly do anything wrong, the school didn't know how to punish her. Kushida proceeds to threaten the two by saying she could disrupt the unity of D-Class with the same tactics. It is revealed that Kushida has now quit blogging and when she's stressed she unleashes everything out when she's alone.

Chapter 5
On the 5th day of Yukimura's study group, they go to a cafe in the mall due to Pallet being packed. Yukimura gives out some liberal art questions and forces Ayanokōji to answer them.

While doing the questions, Hasebe decides to go grab more coffee/sugar, but falling on the way. Ryūen appears before her and steps on her cup. Ryūen asks Yukimura and Ayanokōji if they got his 'gift' (the gift being the "Who are you?" message), to which Yukimura denies and Ayanokōji feigns ignorance. After hearing their answers, Ryūen calls on Hiyori Shiina to analyse them. Ryuen leaves, while Shiina stays and acts weirdly for a few moments before leaving to buy Hasebe a coffee. She comes back and explains that she added the exact amount of sugar that was in there before. She says that she isn't Ryūen's spy, but was requested to come. Shiina announces that C-Class is trying to find the 'mastermind' behind Horikita, which surprises Hasebe and Miyake. Yukimura then asks Shiina to leave.

Ayanokōji asks Hasebe about Satō. She refers him to Karuizawa. Ayanokōji then thinks that if he could have done that he wouldn't have this much trouble. Afterwards she refers him to Kushida. Ayanokōji declines again, of course. Hasebe then tries to push Ayanokōji on the idea that he likes Satō, which is saved due to Miyake wanting to go to the store.

They go to buy ice cream. Hasebe states that she wants to make the study group as her new friend group. Everyone accepts the idea and the 'Ayanokōji Group' is formed. They decide to call each other by their first names, Haruka (Hasebe), Kiyotaka (Ayanokōji), Akito (Miyake) and Teruhiko (Yukimura). Yukimura unexpectedly doesn't want to be called his given name since it was chosen by his 'cowardly' mother who had left him and his father. He says to use the given name from his father: Keisei. Hasebe gives Ayanokōji the new nickname "Kiyopon". Sakura announces her presence and wants to join the group. Hasebe lets her join on the condition of calling everyone by their given names.

The Ayanokōji group make plans to go see a film. Right before heading to bed, Ayanokōji gets a call from Horikita. She notes that Ayanokōji has gotten closer to Yukimura. Ayanokōji notes that she has gotten closer to Hirata in return. She then informs him about a strategy meeting tomorrow.

After the call Ayanokōji gets a message from Karuizawa, who confirms that Shiina is very quick-witted and has great observation abilities. He then instructs Karuizawa to do something at the meeting tomorrow at 8 PM. Before the conversation ends, she sends him a happy birthday sticker, which confuses Ayanokōji and prompts him to hesitate to delete the message. He later checks her profile for her birthday as well to remember. At the theatre the next day, Ayanokōji unexpectedly runs into Karuizawa and Satō, who steals Ayanokōji away from an excited Sakura. Satō was just claiming it to be a coincidence, but Ayanokōji knows it was planned. After forcing himself out of Satō's hold, he enters the theatre with his group. Sakura then asks if he and Satō are dating, to which the answer is no.

Instead of meeting in a classroom, the group gather in the karaoke bar. The meeting begins with Horikita praising Sudō's growth as a student. Karuizawa 'notices' Kushida acting a little too nice, and gets 'pissed' about it. As she points out, Kushida has just been acting nice and proceeds to pour her grape juice over her. Hirata asks her to apologise to Kushida just as Karuizawa is planning to leave. Kushida accepts it calmly and as an apology, Karuizawa offers to pay for her blazer to be cleaned. On his way home, Ayanokōji comes across Katsuragi and starts talking to him. They talk about his struggles with A-Class and the student council. When they return to the dorm they see a lot of people surrounding the mailboxes which are rarely used. There is a message inside from Ryūen, saying "Ichinose may be collecting points illegally". Ryūen and Ichinose arrive. She vaguely denies the allegations. Ichinose proposes that she reports to the school how many points she has and how she got them, but Ryūen won't back down and proposes that she first says it here, to which she declines as she doesn't want people to know about her methods. After some arguing, Ryūen reluctantly backs off. The next day it is announced that Ichinose hasn't broken any rules.

Epilogue
It's 3 days before the final exam. Ayanokōji notes that there are only really two things C-Class can do to win: study or giving super hard questions for D-Class to answer.

Ayanokōji hasn't seen the class study though. He's interrupted by Horikita, who goes to hand in the questions last minute. Ryūen appears stating he's been waiting for her.

Ryūen follows the two to hand in the questions. When Horikita hands in the questions, she makes a condition, that no one can see the questions. Chabashira adds that they can only see them with Horikita's presence. Ayanokōji notes that something feels wrong with Chabashira and Ryūen, who both seem too relaxed. Everything has gone too perfect. Ayanokōji stays in order for Horikita to realise something is wrong. Horikita questions Chabashira whether the questions are actually going be to accepted, to which Chabashira answers vaguely. Horikita realises that Kushida has already handed in the questions before her. Ryūen leaves after laughing in her face. She requests to see the questions and notices that Kushida has disguised them as hard questions when in actuality C-Class probably knows the answers already.

Horikita then drops her depressed act and reveals it was a trap for Ryūen. After hearing the exam details, Horikita immediately went to Chabashira and told her not to accept questions from other people, but to act like they were accepted. This is the complete opposite of Ayanokōji's expectations. These actions inform Ayanokōji about how carefully they need to be regarding Kushida since not even the fight between Sakayanagi and Katsuragi would go that far. Chabashira also shows a rare sign of worry.

The first half of the exam begins and the required overall score for each pair is decided to be 692 points. The first 4 subjects are Japanese, English, Social Studies and Math. Before the exam, Hirata tells Ayanokōji that Karuizawa has been paying more attention to him recently. He also knows that Ayanokōji is the mastermind C-Class is searching for. As they enter the class, Ayanokōji notes that the atmosphere is more relaxed than it usually is before an exam.

Ayanokōji looks through the questions to see if Yukimura's question predictions were right, which they were. He glances at Chabashira and Kushida. Even though the exam has begun, Kushida doesn't move for 2–3 minutes. Nothing is weird and everything goes smoothly until the beginning of the math exam when Kushida lets out a 'why'.

After the exam, Horikita tells Ayanokōji her assurance in obtaining at least 98%, which would be a feat difficult even for Yukimura. Horikita then goes to talk with Kushida. Ayanokōji notes she's probably going to meet Ryūen afterwards. At the proposed place the group discuss the results of the bet. Kushida admits her defeat and that she will uphold her end of the deal, clarifying that while she won't interfere with D-Class, she won't cooperate either. Ayanokōji worries about his own safety regarding Kushida as it wasn't included in the bet and that Kushida might not keep her promise forever.

Ayanokōji starts to think about the future. He thinks of this exam as a complete victory. His thoughts are interrupted by Ryūen, who sends him a threat with an image attachment of Manabe. Kushida meets up with Ryūen. Ryūen laughs and reveals he also changed the questions last minute. He explains that it was done because Horikita had already made a counter plan before time, much to Kushida's surprise.

Ryūen reaches into Kushida's blazer and reveals someone from D-Class had put cheat sheets all over it, so she could be expelled. After explaining what happened at the Karaoke box to Ryūen, he tells her it was a setup. He then explains that 'X' had completely predicted everything down to the last details. He rules out the possibility of Horikita or Karuizawa being that person. He then reveals that even the event with Ichinose was also planned by 'X', and he didn't write the papers. The reason he didn't reveal it was because it was fun. He warns Kushida if she keeps trying to expel Horikita, she will be destroyed first. Ryūen also reveals that he gave the questions to 'X'. He then shows proof and that 'X' had warned him about Horikita's beforehand plan. Ryūen shows a picture of Karuizawa and states that she is an important piece to figure out who 'X' is.

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