Arc 4: The Zodiac Deception
The staff-only bar on the executive deck of the cruise ship Speranza offered a quiet escape from the raucous student parties on the lower decks. The room was dimly lit, illuminated only by yellowish chandeliers that reflected softly off the amber liquid inside the crystal glasses. Instrumental jazz music played softly in the background, attempting—and failing—to soothe the heavy tension settling among the four adults seated around a circular table in the corner of the room.
They were the gatekeepers. The homeroom teachers of the first-year students.
Mashima Tomonari, the solidly built man who led Class 1-B (formerly A), broke the silence by setting his glass down a little too hard. The clack of glass against the marble table sounded like a judge's gavel.
"This year..." Mashima's voice was heavy, laden with an exhaustion that wasn't physical, but mental. "This year is truly beyond reason."
Beside him, Hoshinomiya Chie let out a small laugh. The laugh sounded crisp like wind chimes, but the eyes behind her curled eyelashes held no trace of joy. She swirled her pink cocktail with the tips of her fingers.
"Ara, Mashima-kun, you sound so desperate," Hoshinomiya teased, resting her cheek against her hand. "And it's only been four months, you know. Isn't this a record? Usually, you remain as cold as ice until the second semester."
"Stop playing dumb, Hoshinomiya," interrupted another, lower, huskier female voice. Chabashira Sae exhaled a thin stream of cigarette smoke into the air, crossing her long legs elegantly.
Chabashira's face was calm, leaning towards cold, yet there was an unfamiliar glint of satisfaction in her eyes—a glint that had been dead for years and had now sparked back to life.
"You're the one feeling it the most, aren't you?" Chabashira continued, glaring sharply at Hoshinomiya. "That 'Queen' position you're so proud of... its foundation is beginning to crack."
Hoshinomiya pouted, an expression that made her look much younger than her actual age, though it was nothing more than a mask. "Moo~ Sae-chan, you're so mean. My Class A is still at the top, you know! 1,405 points after the island exam. We are number one."
"A wounded number one," muttered Sakagami from behind his sake glass. The homeroom teacher of Class 1-D (formerly C) looked the most miserable among them. The dark circles under his eyes had thickened, and his shoulders slumped as if he were carrying the weight of the world.
"At least you two are still competing," Sakagami let out a long sigh. "My class... Ryuen... that kid is literally a walking time bomb. And right now, that bomb seems to be malfunctioning."
The four teachers fell silent for a moment, allowing the heavy atmosphere to envelop them once again. In their minds, the footage of the events from the past four months replayed like a horrifying silent film.
Ever since the entrance ceremony, the script usually played out at Advanced Nurturing High School had been burned and rewritten by an invisible hand.
"The Ranking Coup in the very first month..." Mashima murmured, his eyes distant. "That was the initial trigger."
He remembered looking at the scoreboard back in May. Class A, led by Sakayanagi Arisu and Katsuragi Kohei—two students considered to be geniuses—had plummeted to position B. Not because of any fatal mistake on their part, but because of the terrifying perfection of another class.
"Ichinose Honami," Mashima stated the name. "That girl... her middle school data stated she was charismatic but naive. The type of leader who would crumble because she was too kind. But what did we actually see?"
"Realism," Hoshinomiya answered, her tone turning serious. Her playful smile vanished. "Honami-chan... she leads with love, but her love has fangs. She understands the concepts of 'value' and 'exchange' far better than adult politicians do. She doesn't hand out her kindness for free; she invests it."
Hoshinomiya recalled her brief conversation with Ichinose. The girl had mentioned someone who taught her about business and value. Someone who had transformed her naivety into pragmatism.
"And then there's Horikita Suzune," Chabashira added, taking a sip of her whiskey. "The Student Council President's younger sister, who was supposed to be a defective product. Her psychological data stated she was antisocial, arrogant, and obsessed with her brother."
"That data is garbage," Sakagami cut in. "What I saw out there in the field was a highly flexible field commander. She is no longer chasing her brother's shadow. She is creating her own."
"Rising from Class D to Class C in a single month," Mashima shook his head. "It sets a dangerous precedent for this school's system. It proves that our initial placements... might have been completely wrong."
"Or perhaps," Chabashira interjected, "there is a catalyst that altered those variables."
All eyes turned to Chabashira. They knew exactly who she meant.
The name didn't even need to be spoken, yet its presence felt heavier than the gravity in the room.
Koroizumi Seiji.
The student with the friendly smile who always looked relaxed, yet possessed an academic track record that made the school's computers look as if they were glitching.
"The Midterm Exams." Sakagami massaged his temples. "That was a nightmare for me. Ryuen's class barely survived through dirty tactics and luck. But Class C... Sae-chan's class..."
"They had a 100% passing rate," Chabashira said, making no effort to hide her pride. "Sudou Ken, Ike Kanji, Yamauchi Haruki. The three students with the lowest academic capacity in this entire cohort. Logically speaking, they should have been expelled last month."
"But they weren't," Hoshinomiya said sharply, her eyes narrowing with jealousy. "Because of that Koroizumi boy. He didn't just tutor them. He completely reprogrammed their brains. I saw Sudou's answer sheet. The way he solved those math problems... that isn't the school's method. It's a bizarre, yet highly effective visual method."
"A perfect 500 score," Mashima mentioned the sacred number. "In the history of this school, no one has ever achieved that on the first written exam, which is notoriously filled with subjective traps. Even Sakayanagi Arisu 'only' scored a 492. That kid... Koroizumi... he literally read the minds of the test makers."
Mashima stared at Chabashira. "Who exactly is he, Sae? His entrance data is full of holes. An orphan, frequently skipped classes, yet achieves perfect scores."
"He's simply a... fascinating student," Chabashira answered ambiguously, though in her heart, she knew Seiji was the very monster she had been waiting for her entire life. The monster who would carry her to Class A.
"And now, this island exam," Sakagami lamented once again. He poured more sake into his glass with a trembling hand.
"Did you all see Ryuen? He's a tyrant. He destroys everything. He tried to burn down the forest, for God's sake! I was already prepared to write my resignation letter because my student was going to become an arsonist."
Sakagami downed his sake roughly.
"But yesterday... when we returned to the ship... Ryuen changed."
"Changed?" Hoshinomiya asked, intrigued.
"He's no longer... explosive. His eyes are still sharp, still full of ambition, but that blind, reckless arrogance is gone. He's become... wary."
Sakagami looked at his colleagues. "He looks like a wolf that just realized there's a tiger sharing the same forest. He lost, didn't he?"
"In terms of points, yes. Class D is in third place, below Classes A and C," Mashima stated.
"Not just points," Sakagami argued. "Mentally. Something happened on the north beach. Something that broke Ryuen's fangs without even touching him."
"And let's not forget Sakayanagi," Mashima added. "The Chairman's daughter. She usually looks down on everyone she considers 'commoners'. But I saw her talking to Koroizumi in the ship's library before the exam started. She looked... thrilled. Like a child who had finally found a worthy playmate."
"She lost a game of chess," Hoshinomiya blurted out suddenly.
"What?" Mashima was shocked.
"I heard it from one of my students who happened to be walking by," Hoshinomiya chuckled, thoroughly enjoying the gossip. "Sakayanagi Arisu, the chess genius, suffered a crushing defeat against Koroizumi. And rumor has it, Koroizumi played the black pieces using some bizarre defensive strategy."
Silence descended upon them once more.
A student who transformed the leader of another class. A student who achieved perfect scores. A student who subjugated a tyrant without using violence. A student who defeated a genius in a game of strategy.
"It's terrifying," Hoshinomiya whispered, this time without any hint of a joke. She looked at Chabashira with a complex gaze—a mixture of envy, fear, and awe.
"Sae-chan... you are raising a dragon in your class. You know that, right? That dragon might burn your enemies, but it can just as easily burn its handler if you aren't careful."
"I am not raising him," Chabashira replied calmly, setting down her empty glass. She stood up, straightening her suit.
"I merely provide him with a classroom. Whatever he does, and wherever he decides to take that class... that is entirely up to him. My only duty is to ensure he doesn't explicitly violate school rules."
Chabashira walked toward the exit of the bar. Her footsteps sounded steady against the carpeted floor.
"But one thing is certain," she said without looking back. "The hierarchy you all know is dead. This golden generation will not play by your old rules. Brace yourselves, because next semester... the real war is only just beginning."
The door closed behind Chabashira, leaving the other three teachers in a deeply unsettling silence.
Hoshinomiya stared at her own reflection in the pink liquid of her glass. Her mind drifted to Ichinose Honami.
The girl had won the island exam. She secured 330 points. Her market strategy, despite being sabotaged, had successfully gathered vital information regarding the leaders of the other classes.
Ichinose had learned that kindness without power was a weakness. She had learned how to trade in a dirty market.
Koroizumi Seiji... Hoshinomiya thought to herself. You taught Honami-chan the reality of the world. You terrified Ryuen. You excited Sakayanagi.
You are the center of gravity of this storm.
"I think I need another drink," Hoshinomiya muttered, raising her hand to hail the bartender.
Meanwhile, outside the bar, Chabashira Sae walked along the ship's deck, battered by the night sea breeze. She stopped for a moment, gazing out into the dark ocean.
She pulled out her phone, looking at the roster of Class 1-C.
Their Class Points were now 1,340. Surpassing Class B. Chasing down Class A.
The ambition she had buried deep down for so long was now blooming perfectly, blossoming into a beautiful, poisonous flower.
"Koroizumi Seiji..." Chabashira whispered into the night wind. "Take me there. Take us to the place I could never reach back then."
She remembered Seiji's smile during the entrance ceremony. A smile that harbored a thousand secrets.
The smile of a teacher ready to educate the world—or destroy it, if necessary—for the sake of his students.
"The next lesson begins in September," she murmured. "And now comes the Zodiac Exam."
Chabashira smirked into the darkness.
"Show me. Show me how you dance upon this hellish stage."
The Speranza continued to sail on, carrying with it hundreds of dreams, ambitions, and young monsters who had just awakened from their long slumber, heading toward the port of an uncertain future.
Latest Provisional First-Year Class Standings
Class A (Ichinose's Class):
New Total: 1,075 + 330 = 1,405 Points
Class B (Horikita's Class):
New Total: 1,040 + 300 = 1,340 Points
Class C (Sakayanagi and Katsuragi's Class):
New Total: 1,046 + 150 = 1,196 Points
Class D (Ryuen's Class):
New Total: 490 + 210 = 700 Points
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