Sora's POV :

It was a balmy morning, it had rained all night so we could still hear the last drops falling. It was 7am and our classes were about to start. I found myself lying on the floor against the wall playing the console with my little sister next to me. After all we had done this month, it was clear that under normal circumstances we would have needed a little rest, but for the two of us it was the opposite. We wanted more, we couldn't get enough.

The real game behind this school was about to begin and to tell you the truth, it was all we wanted, a challenge to keep us entertained until we finished school. No matter how smart a person was, if they didn't nurture their brain, they would eventually become rusty. But nurturing one's brain was not a simple exercise. Not everyone could feed their brain in the same way. An adult won't fuel their brain by learning to do simple math, just as a top athlete won't be satisfied with five minutes of jogging.

Knowing how to occupy your mind to the extent of your abilities was an essential element, and for people like me and Shiro, who were considered extraordinary by human standards, it was all the more important. If we got rusty, we would eventually lose our identity. That was why we were a little apprehensive about our experience at this school. It was clearly evident that the level of education that was offered here was far too simple for us.

The reason we loved video games, besides the fact that it allowed us to disconnect from reality, was because of the potential it represented. In competitive video games everything happened in a fraction of a second. The best players were considered as such when their mastery of the game allowed them to play the best moves in a few seconds. Video games fed the player with crucial new information all the time, and it was up to the player to adapt just as quickly and to make up his mind immediately according to the new information he received. It was both mentally and physically exhausting. It was a perfect activity for minds like ours, because it had no limits.

It didn't take long for both me and Shiro to become the best players in various fields, but it wasn't enough, we needed more, we felt that our abilities were not yet at their limits. That's how we started to use several characters at the same time, to coordinate several attacks at the same time.

It was in those moments that I could see the gap between my sister's natural talent and mine. If I were to compare myself to her, I clearly could consider myself ridiculous, but for the rest of humanity, I was surely seen as a brilliant mind. Everything was relative.

My sister was able to play online video games as accurately as a computer, but she was not able to understand human psychology in the same way I did. There was an arbitrariness in everyone's psychology that escaped her raw logic. That doesn't mean that she hadn't become good at it.

For Shiro, absorbing new information and adapting to it was as natural as breathing. In that sense, she wasn't completely naive to human behavior, she could identify thought patterns more optimally than anyone else, so she had every potential to be able to read people much better than anyone else. Except for me. It was one of the few areas in which I excelled in my sister's eyes, I was in a box she couldn't get through, just as she was on a platform I could never climb.

It was because I had a raison d'etre to be with my sister that I continued to give it my all, clench my teeth, and do my best to excel day after day. Because I was capable of things that she was not, just like she was. But our relationship was not one of competition, but of completion, we complemented each other's weaknesses, in that sense we were unbeatable.

And it was because we had built such a situation, that I could not allow myself to flinch, to weaken, to no longer entertain and feed my mind. That was the danger of this school, but this new challenge, this war between classes, was going to change everything. My mind was not going to be bored, on the contrary, this scenario exposed me to the worst confrontation, to the one of real humans, capable of all the evils of Earth to reach their ends. It was also a way for me to confirm what I was capable of. If Shiro and I represented an ideal of the human mind, if we were really so extraordinary, then we had to be able to overcome this obstacle and we were going to overcome it, I was sure.

I trusted my sister more than anyone else, I surely believed in her more than I believed in myself, that was why I was convinced that we would never lose. If I were to be transparent about what I truly believed, I would even go so far as to say that there was no scenario in which it was possible for both of us to lose in this school, even if we didn't give it our all.

"It shouldn't be long before we leave."

I was so deep in thought that I couldn't even hear the rain falling anymore, it was my sister's tender voice that brought me back to reality. If we didn't want to be late it was important for us to leave now, a new month was starting so it was better not to lose class points for being late on the first day. We were also going to learn today what our place was in the ranking, it was an important day.

After turning off the console and charging it, I got up and grabbed my bag from the bed and went outside with my sister. Our dorm room was larger than the rest, so it was placed near the elevators so as not to disturb the layout of the other rooms. The elevator was one level above ours, it looked like we weren't going to go down that floor alone.

Shiro instinctively squeezed my hand, even though it had been a month since we changed our lifestyle, she still needed a lot of work to get used to others. I didn't feel quite ready either, although I had to keep acting like the arrogant man I was, otherwise my credibility would be gone.

The elevator eventually stopped at our floor and the doors opened slowly, we stepped inside and a striking scent immediately attacked our noses. It was a familiar scent and as soon as the doors opened a pretty face appeared before us. It was a student of class B that all the first year students knew: Ichinose Honami. We had talked with her in the past and even exchanged numbers.

"Sora-kun, Shiro-chan, good morning to you!"

She waved at us as soon as we entered the elevator and spoke to us with a big smile on her lips. Even though it was raining outside I was blessed with a ray of sunshine in that elevator. My heart tightened when I saw her and I couldn't help but blush a little, it had to be said that she naturally knew how to charm people.

"Erm... did you sleep well, Ichinose?"

Ichinose didn't answer me right away and tapped me lightly on the shoulder, she was so close to me that her scent only became more powerful and endearing. She finally distanced herself again, still smiling.

"Ho-na-mi, call me by my first name! I'd be embarrassed to be the only one to do so."

So that was why she had hit me, it was true that we had become a little more than just acquaintances but I didn't feel that our relationship had evolved tremendously. Nevertheless, I was not going to refuse this invitation from her, I was ready to do anything to get closer to her!

"Honami! Like this?"

I had pronounced her first name with so much pride that I felt obliged to ask the question, it was a hair too embarrassing, I had to avoid that.

"Yes, it wasn't that hard!"

She answered me with the same liveliness as usual. Ichinose Honami, if angels were to be on Earth, you would be the most telling example. I felt tears welling up inside me in front of so much benevolence and kindness. Was I hallucinating or was she starting to get white wings on her back?

I was so seduced that a shiver of fear ran through my body, I was so used to it that I was always waiting for my sister's shoulder to knock me back into place, but it never came. I looked quickly at my sister and noticed that she didn't react at all to the conversation, on the contrary she seemed very calm and smiling. Did she trust her that much? I didn't know they were that close.

I looked at Ichinose again, a part of me couldn't help but take advantage of the situation to know more about her.

"How was the first month of class?"

There was a slight surprise that could be seen on her face, however she immediately suppressed it to make way for her natural expression. I don't know if it was intentional or instinctive, but she was hiding her feelings well.

"Well... no one caused any trouble and we all kept up well in class. Plus we've formed a few support groups for the upcoming exams, I think we'll do fine! How about you?"

If I had to guess, Ichinose had surely become the leader of her class, not only was she popular but her natural charisma was such that she had surely become familiar with all her classmates in just a few days.

"Well... a bit of a hectic start but after a few more efforts, we ended up finding common ground as well."

My answer was vague but enough to answer her questions. I had deliberately left a little hesitation in my answer to see what Ichinose thought. It was like a sort of test.

"Hmm... hectic, you say?"

She leaned slightly towards me, her eyes not leaving mine for over thirty seconds. It was so intense that I hesitated to even blink. Either it was a normal reaction and I was overreacting or...

"You didn't want your class to cause too much trouble...You didn't want to lose your private points, did you?"

You didn't want to lose your private points, did you?"

That wasn't entirely accurate, but her words made it clear that she knew more than she was letting on.

"You seem to know a few things yourself."

I couldn't help but smile, slipping a hand into my pants pocket.

"At midnight we all received our monthly private points, but my amount was well under 100,000."

"So you deduced things from that?"

"Precisely. I asked people in my class and we were all accredited with that same lower amount. So I inferred that it was for the whole class."

I still wasn't sure how much information she had, however I was sure that Ichinose Honami was going to be a fun opponent. I had also noticed this morning that we had been accredited a certain amount of points with Shiro. So we knew in advance how many class points we would get. I had decided not to ask Ichinose how many private points they had gotten for that month. We would find out their score in a short time so it wasn't worth it. If I asked Ichinose the question then she might end up inferring that I knew about the system all along, I'd rather not.

"I see, I also saw that I didn't receive the 100,000 private points that were expected. I thought I had done something stupid but if it affects the whole class then it's not necessarily my fault, what do you think it was due to?"

I had decided to play the innocence card to see where her knowledge on the subject was limited.

"Don't try to distract me Sora-kun, you still haven't answered the question. You seem to know a few things too."

Distraction techniques didn't seem to be very effective on her. To dodge a question it was often effective to ask one in return, but Ichinose seemed to have a few techniques for cross-examination.

"It was just rumors that were going around my class, we had been told that if we didn't behave then we would end up not earning any points."

I had decided to make up a little story.

"Where did these rumors come from? People wouldn't have said those words randomly would they?"

"I have some pretty outgoing classmates, they got some information on the sly. But since we couldn't confirm them, part of the class didn't believe it too much. They thought it was hazing."

In a school with so many students, it was natural to believe that these kinds of systems weren't going to stay hidden for very long. The school definitely knew that.

"I understand. You believed the stories, didn't you? That's why you called it an " hectic " month. Because you tried to convince your class but it wasn't enough."

She had no way to deny or affirm what I was saying so she had no choice but to believe my story.

"What about you, Honami? You don't seem to be the least surprised by the existence of rumors about a certain system, surely someone as popular as you has learned things too right?"

Ichinose Honami was one of the most popular people among the first years, she had surely learned everything about the system from the very first days.

"Even if I told you no, I don't think you would have believed me."

"Knowing your popularity, probably not."

She smiled again, the elevator doors opened, we were on the first floor. Our conversation would surely end here.

"You're going to learn everything in a short time so there's no point in me explaining it to you. Just know that this school... it's cruel."

A flicker of sadness and disappointment could be seen slightly on her face, before she wiped it away and replaced it with her cheerfulness again.

"On that note, I'm going to meet up with some friends and go to class. Sora, Shiro, if you ever need anything... count on me."

She looked at Shiro with a regretful look on her face before leaving the elevator. Normally her reactions would have been hard to decipher, but since I knew what was coming, I understood perfectly why she was acting this way.

Ichinose Honami knew the true nature of this school. So she didn't like the idea of a young person like Shiro being inside these walls. It was often said that humans who tended to be too nice had heavy secrets to hide, Ichinose Honami might have some too, however... regardless of her hidden identity, I was sure of one thing: deep inside she was a genuinely nice person, she wasn't faking it.

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The class was pretty quiet, everyone was settled and waiting patiently. I wondered what the reaction of the class would have been if we hadn't done anything about it, what would happen if we had ended up with a score of 0 points.

It was a scenario I was never going to have an answer for. Heels could be heard coming from the hallway. A short time later, Chabashira-sensei entered the classroom. She had rolled up a paper and was holding it under her arm. She put it on her desk and turned to us.

"Well, we are going to start our class for the day, where did we leave off?"

A few expressions of surprise showed in the class, the teacher was planning to start the class as usual. Some people turned to Hirata and Kushida while people like Horikita turned to me.

Looks like this school was even crueler than I thought, if the students weren't going to talk about something, the teachers weren't going to talk about it either. I sighed slightly before raising my hand, it looked like I was going to have to create a bit of chaos to get her to talk.

"What is it Sora?"

"Sensei, I didn't receive the 100,000 points that was scheduled for this month, isn't there a problem?"

At first, the students had been surprised when they saw the teacher start her class normally, they had even thought that they had really been tricked and that no such system existed however one undeniable element immediately proved that it was not possible. It was the private points. If no class evaluation system existed, then we should all have received 100,000 points.

"The points were distributed at the beginning of the month as usual. We never had any problems with the amounts being wrong. So the points credited are most likely correct."

"Oh yeah? But that's weird... this amount doesn't match the amount we had last month at all. You must have made a mistake!"

I insisted with a smile on my face, my gaze fixed on Chabashira-sensei's eyes. She looked at me for a few seconds and then smiled slightly before turning to the board and sticking the sheet she had in her hand. On it was what the students had wanted to see for a long time. A concrete proof of the existence of the S-system.

Even though I had no doubt, seeing concrete proof of the existence of a whole hidden system excited me even more. Once the results were in, the professor turned back to us, put her hands on the desk and looked at us fiercely.

"I must say, I expected much worse for your first performance, considering how you started."

There was silence in the class, no one dared to ask questions, everyone wanted to know more so no one wanted to interrupt Chabashira-sensei.

"The reason you didn't receive the same amount of points as last month is because your score dropped."

Until now, everything Yoshino had told me was gradually being confirmed.

"In this school, just like in the work world or in society, you will be evaluated for your performance. Depending on the quality of your performance, you will be proportionally rewarded."

She took her time explaining the system of this school, some students still seemed shocked. Especially the ones who didn't believe it right away. Although everyone eventually calmed down and became more disciplined, I was sure that more than one student was hoping that such a system did not exist. So this must have been a difficult situation for them.

Chabashira-sensei continued to explain why we had lost points and why we had kept some. If we hadn't convinced our class to behave, we would have lost all our class points and ended up with no private points.

As the explanations continued, it was getting harder and harder for some students to stay quiet and not ask any questions. Ike had finally broken down.

"Sensei! Please tell us there will be a way to catch up!"

"The points you lost can no longer be recovered, on the other hand... that doesn't mean you can't earn them again in the future."

Special exams, that was probably what she was talking about. She hadn't mentioned it in her explanation, it seemed like it was a system the school didn't want to disclose yet.

"We're not going to reward you for keeping your nose clean, however, the better your test scores, the more points you will receive as a reward."

We had no idea how much, but we would eventually find out with the exams coming up. In the meantime, the teacher stuck another sheet of paper on the board, on which all the students' first and last names were listed along with their test scores.

A week earlier, three weeks before school started, the teacher had given us a practice test that was not graded. The purpose was simply to gauge our academic abilities.

The test was not particularly difficult, it was not a high school test but a middle school test, so most people's scores were still high. With Shiro and a few other students, we received the maximum score of 100 points. On the other hand...

"However, there are also consequences to having poor results. Every time the results are published, the class average is calculated and anyone with less than half the class average is expelled from the school."

Chabashira-sensei drew a red line on her paper, below this line were 7 students. The average of the class was 70, so you had to have at least 35 points to be able to pass the subject, which these students had not passed.

"Rest assured, this exam is not graded, so you will not suffer this penalty, however on your next exams, this is a rule to keep in mind."

This was obviously a very effective way to encourage students to buckle down. Letting your guard down in this school was not an option. It would be cruel for a student to go all the way to third year and end up being expelled because they didn't study enough for a test. It was a constant grind, all the way to graduation.

"According to this ranking, it looks like one class point is worth 100 private points."

Shiro had identified the proportionality coefficient of this ranking, the one that connects class points to private points, it was actually easy to see once you had all the facts.

In the sheet announcing the class ranking, the following results were written:

List of points per class

Class A = 940 CP

Class B = 650 CP

Class C = 490 CP

Class D = 300 CP

We still finished last of the ranking, class A having the triple of private points that we had. It was inevitable, even if we did miracles with Shiro, it still took more than two weeks to calm down the class. In that time, we had lost up to 700 class points. That was a lot.

Plus, from my current observations, Class D still had a lot to learn.

"Another thing you need to know is this: only those who graduate from Class A will have the opportunity to go to the company or university of their choice, they will be the only ones who will have that privilege, the rest of the classes will go where there are places."

Tensions could be felt in the class, whispers or small talk, which eventually stopped as students did not want to lose more points. This also explained why the person who contacted us wanted us to "win the game". Winning the game meant graduating as a member of class A. It was an obvious fact that was now confirmed.

I noticed that Horikita had been staring at me silently for a while, so I stared at her for a few seconds before turning back to the teacher.

"Finally, I would like to remind you that there are only a few weeks left before your next exams. Study hard, don't mess up."

With that she ended her explanation, took the sheets off the board and began the start of class.

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The morning classes had ended and the lunch break had begun. Shiro and I were about to go to the Keyaki center for lunch, but we both knew it wasn't going to be that easy. Two rather peculiar people were coming to talk to us.

"Sora-kun, Shiro-san, we are sorry for doubting you, you saved the class from a real disaster..."

Hirata was the first to come and apologize to us. Two weeks ago, he and Kushida had told me that he would stop helping us if all this turned out to be wrong. So it was natural for him to feel bad after seeing the positive consequences of our actions with Shiro. However, it was not this Hirata that I needed.

"No, you were right, Hirata, I shouldn't have done it like that. You were right with Kushida to reprimand me like that, from now on we will all fight together!"

Hirata and Kushida were a little surprised but eventually smiled and nodded, it was surely reassuring for them to know that I wasn't going to push them into having to make complicated moral choices anymore. I wasn't going to stop doing things my way, I just wasn't going to include them in my plans anymore, at least not directly. I needed them to be the face of the class, its representatives. They clearly didn't have the chops to play behind the scenes after all.

"In that case, from now on, we're going to fully support each other."

"A relationship of trust and... friendship..."

Kushida added, turning to Horikita when she said the word "friendship". The latter was concentrated in her reading and did not pay any attention to her at all. It was precisely for these kinds of awkward moments that I tended to hate social interactions. The best thing to do was to change the subject and forget about it.

"I think the people in our class are going to need some company and are going to want some reassurance after what they just heard. I'm counting on you two."

I replied with a tender smile.

"Count us in."

They answered me with a smile on their lips as well before walking to the front of the classroom. Students quickly surrounded them and they were no longer visible from our desk.

"You don't seem very worried."

This time it was Horikita who had decided to talk to us. For the first time since the beginning of the day. By "you" she was probably referring to Shiro as well.

"What for? We get worried when a situation is dangerous."

"Doesn't your future scare you?"

"Why should it? We're all going to move up to Class A without much worry."

Under normal circumstances my words would surely have irritated her more, but she seemed to be used to my presence by now. She sighed, closed her book and prepared to leave.

"Don't underestimate the others too much in my opinion. Especially the current A class, managing to get 940 class points... it shows how organized they are."

This morning we were accredited with only 30,000 private points and our class points were 300. So that meant that 100 private points were worth one class point. This reasoning allowed us to deduce that at the beginning of our schooling all classes had 1000 points to start with and each class lost more or less depending on their behavior.

Class A only lost 60 points. This meant two things. First, it showed that they were an organized class that had adapted to the system right away and minimized their damage as much as possible. Second, it was obvious that someone in Class A had quickly figured out how this school worked and had decided to coordinate their class so that there would be no big losses. No matter who that person was, they were not an opponent to be underestimated. Still, Horikita was wrong about one thing.

"You are wrong about one thing. We never underestimate our opponents, no matter who they are."

Expecting our opponents to play the best strategies as well as expecting them to play the worst. Plan scenarios to anticipate both, not underestimating any possibility. It was because we treated every situation with the same degree of seriousness that we never lost.

The only way to beat someone who was always serious and on guard was to be better than him. Here that meant surpassing both Shiro's and my talents. If such a person existed, we absolutely wanted to meet them.

Horikita didn't know what to say to us and simply ignored us leaving the room. Soon after Sudou decided to follow her. It was clear from his recent behavior that he was clearly attracted to her, I was curious to see how these two very opposite people would bond.

Did opposites really pull at each other? I was going to find out in the near future.

With Shiro ready to leave, I grabbed my bag from my desk and we headed for the exit. We couldn't show it in public but our minds were buzzing with motivation. Now all the classes knew that only one of them would win. In other words, war was declared.

Shaking Shiro's hand, a smile inevitably appeared on my face.

"Now... let the game begin!"

A/N : Sorry for my -hugeee- late, classes started on september and this is my last year before my first law diploma so I have to give it my all. I ended up motivating myself to write this in september before I get even busier, next chapters might not be as long, will depend on my motivation !

Either way, class rankings are revealed and the "true" war will definitely start soon ! I have to take my time and work on proper structure from now on as I don't want to spend too much time writing -not very interesting- scenes because this is a fanfiction that aims to catch up to the real story and I'll never do that if I don't end up cutting some material.

Either way, I hope this chapter was still enjoyable to read, I wanted to give some highlight to one of my favorite characters Ichinose but overall I didn't have a lot of characters interacting with each other.

IMPORTANT : As you can see, I ended up switching writing styles, this time I wrote it from Sora's POV instead of the 3rd person POV that I usually use, please tell me if this is weird or better. I'll probably offer Shiro POV's in the future too !

Hope you enjoyed it, please drop reviews, they fuel m t!