It should have been an ordinary day.
Prepare lessons as usual, teach class, dismiss class—then it would be over.
Yet for some reason, Chabashira Sae felt unsettled.
Perhaps it had something to do with the murmurs and looks students had been giving her along the way.
The whispering expressions. The subtle pointing.
As if something had happened.
This wasn't something she should have cared about.
At the end of the day, she truly didn't believe other people's judgments mattered. Their opinions of her wouldn't change anything.
A worse reputation wouldn't make the school pay her one yen less.
A better reputation wouldn't make them pay her one yen more.
The only thing that determined anything was her class's ranking.
Still, for some inexplicable reason, she found herself paying attention—catching fragments of students' conversations.
And she got her answer.
Someone had spread the fact that she used to be a D Class student at this school.
"..."
Honestly, Chabashira Sae wasn't surprised.
Teachers' pasts were prime gossip for students desperate to dig them up. Romantic history, glorious student days—compared to dull lessons, those were far more interesting.
Not just her. Hoshinomiya and Mashima—those three had been in the same year. Other teachers had long known their past as well.
In truth, having once been a student here wasn't shameful. Returning to work at one's alma mater was perfectly normal.
Most likely, some teacher had caved under student persistence and casually let it slip.
...Nothing out of the ordinary.
She wondered if it was Chie, or someone else.
It probably wasn't Mashima. That man was relatively serious, rarely overly close with students. Of course, being the homeroom teacher of Class A played a role—but his personality was a factor too.
Still, she would need to say something to them.
Casually talking about someone else's past to students wasn't very respectful.
"...It's almost time for class."
Glancing at the clock in the otherwise empty office, Chabashira sighed and decided to head to her classroom a bit earlier today.
Although she was D Class's homeroom teacher, she was usually quite laid-back. If she could arrive exactly on time, she would. Never a minute early. Never a minute late.
After all, even if she taught two extra minutes, D Class's grasp of Japanese history wouldn't improve in the slightest. Their average score wouldn't rise by even one point.
But it had been over a week now.
Since they had received a zero evaluation.
D Class's atmosphere had visibly improved. The pressure of zero points had even made Sudō Ken and Yamauchi Haruki maintain basic discipline during her lessons.
Whenever she thought of the decisive "trump card" she had seen in the files, a faint hope stirred within her.
Maybe.
Maybe this would be the year.
Yes, they had fallen far behind at the start—but destruction before rebirth, wasn't that how it went?
"..."
But she was wrong.
Arguments. Noise.
As her footsteps reached the door of Class D, chaotic voices and restless energy spilled out from the sealed classroom.
Dark clouds seemed to gather over her.
Again.
It was happening again.
Almost no change. Almost no growth.
D Class's defective products were once more displaying their flaws without restraint.
"—Quiet."
Hirata Yōsuke stepped forward.
If nothing else happened, he would probably suppress the tension again, just like last time, restoring calm.
But that wasn't enough.
It would never be enough to defeat Class A.
Never enough to beat Chie.
Hirata lacked decisive leadership.
He couldn't subdue Kōenji.
He couldn't earn Horikita Suzune's acknowledgment.
He couldn't gain Kushida Kikyo's trust.
Unless—
"—There should be one, right?"
Kōenji Rokusuke's loud voice carried clearly out of the classroom—so clearly that even she, standing by the back door, could hear every word.
As if by instinct, the introverted girl seated in the back turned her head slightly. Through the glass panel in the door, she saw Chabashira Sae standing there.
The girl quickly lowered her head, pretending she had seen nothing.
"..."
Chabashira sighed silently.
She made her decision.
If they couldn't unite on their own—
Then she would become the "enemy" who bound them together.
Her expression cold, she opened the classroom's front door.
And just as she was about to draw their hostility toward herself—
She was struck down by her students' questions.
"It was because of Chabashira-sensei that the unanimous special exam failed, right? It was because of Chabashira-sensei that D Class couldn't surpass Class A, right?"
Two-hit combo!
"And now you're acting like you were glorious and lecturing us? Isn't that a bit hypocritical?"
Three-hit attack!
"At the end of the day, the ones who worked hard were your classmates back then. Weren't you the one dragging them down?"
Fourfold strike!
"What, dragging your own classmates down back then wasn't enough? You had to come back after graduating to drag every generation of D Class down too?"
Five-hit finisher!
Thump-thump-thump-thump—
With each sentence, Chabashira Sae's heart began racing violently. Her ears filled with the pounding of her own heartbeat. An overwhelming sense of suffocation rose in her chest.
Her complexion visibly worsened.
"...No."
Like the faint buzz of a mosquito, she murmured a rebuttal no one could hear.
"No..."
Her fingertips trembled. Her knuckles pressed hard against the edge of the podium, turning pale. Her straight back slowly curved inward.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something—but her throat felt blocked, allowing only broken fragments to escape.
"I..."
Why—
Why did they suddenly say the name of the unanimous special exam?
Her mind turned to mush. Her ears buzzed with noise.
She couldn't breathe.
It was as if she had returned to that exam from years ago.
As if she had gone back to that past she had dreamed of countless times—yet could never change.
In a classroom just like this.
In an atmosphere just like this.
Under the same focused stares.
Unwaveringly—
She had pressed the "Oppose" button.
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