A few things you should know before reading the story:

In the original work, the reader is often misled by an unreliable narrator. For example, Ayanokōji says how cornered he is by someone, but then at the end of the volume reveals his master plan that perfectly counters all his adversaries. While I don't plan to do this to such a degree, I won't shy away from keeping Ayanokōji's plans and true thoughts a secret. There will be hints of these in the text, however, so watch out for them.

The first few arcs will largely ignore the Special Exams. The addition of Matsushita changes a few things, but there is no reason for Ayanokōji to make big changes, at least not at such an early stage. The canon events will still play a role, of course, but a large part of the beginning will be original in nature.

But that will, of course, change later, don't worry.


Changed Perspective

Prologue

The Monologue of Matsushita Chiaki

Coming to this school had seemed like a brilliant idea back when she heard about it all those months ago. After all, a school that almost guaranteed you a good education that would lead you to a similarly good life if you graduated from it was everyone's dream, wasn't it? She didn't have any extraordinary plans for her life before she applied to the Advanced Nurturing High School, but once she was here, she started to plan to aim a bit higher. Still nothing too special, of course, for she still intended to live a simple and good life without complications that a demanding job would bring with it, but it would be a waste if she let the chance this school offered walk by.

Then the class system was revealed one month after their enrolment and everything changed.

Confident as she was in her abilities, she was not delusional.

I am just an excellent student, but not a genius, after all.

She alone wouldn't be enough to change the tidings in their favour, so her class would need to rely on other brilliant students to advance to Class A. With that in mind, she analysed her classmates, especially those she hadn't paid much attention before, to see whether there was anyone that could prove useful.

The results were disheartening.

There were Horikita and Hirata, of course. The later was a cornerstone of the class since day one, proving himself a valuable member of the class time and time again even though she found him a bit naïve, while the former was more… distant. In the beginning, she had thought that Horikita was more or less useless as all her brilliance was wasted on her as long as she couldn't cooperate with the class because of her lacking communication skills. Somewhat surprisingly, she had managed to improver herself since the start of the year and actually led them to victory during the special exam on the uninhabited island, so maybe there was still hope for her.

Then, there was also Kushida. Where Horikita lacked in communication skills, she excelled in them more than anyone else in their year while also managing to get good grades, putting her far to the top of the school's hierarchy. Maybe you could even add Karuizawa to the list for her influence on the class, though her character lowered her score a bit.

She probably didn't need to explain why Kōenji couldn't be considered useful in the slightest.

Unfortunately, that was it. Three students that could hope to compete with the other classes, one possible asset, and one loose canon. Even if she included herself in that list, that was still not enough to advance to Class A; that was the conclusion she had arrived at.

She was confident that she was superior to the majority of her year, but not to a degree where she could fight the top students. If we looked at it from the bigger picture, I should be within the top 10% of the year. Despite that, I didn't make a name for myself in Class D. Instead, I was somewhere near the middle of the hierarchy, only because I decided to hide my strength. After all, why should I bother to go all out if there is no advantage in it? My grades are still excellent, but as long as the stigma of being one of the students that were unable to advance to Class A hangs over my head, that isn't of much use. Frankly speaking, being at this school was just as much of a disadvantage for people from Class B to D as it was an advantage for Class A.

Knowing that, she decided to simply enjoy her school life and only get good enough grades to have a good chance of being accepted into a good university. That would be enough for her. She might not be able to join a top university, but at least a good one. This way, she avoided both jealously as well as the annoyance of other students depending on her for help that would follow her wherever she went if she showed her true strength.

She lived in the background, having fun with her friends and making memories that she could cherish for years to come. That was all she could get from this school and as such, she would make the best of it. At least that had been her plan, but that was when she noticed something strange.

Or, to be more precise, someone strange.

Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, a boy in her class that wasn't noticeable in the least. There was simply nothing about him that stood out, whether it were his grades, his physical abilities, or anything else. His presence was almost non-existent, allowing him to seamlessly vanish into the background without anyone ever noticing his absence. She remembered thinking at some point that it was a shame that he wasn't more proactive; objectively speaking, he was rather handsome, so he would probably be somewhat popular with the girls if he were more outgoing. Not just that, the impression she got from watching him for the last few weeks was that he was more mature than most boys in their year, giving him an immediate advantage over them in regards to personality.

However, because of several things she had observed, her impression of him had recently changed.

The first thing was his relationship with Horikita. Now, that in itself wasn't anything new, of course, and was, in fact, the talk of the class for quite some time at the beginning of the year. With him being the only one she regularly talked to, that was to be expected. There were even rumours that they were secretly dating! However, they gradually became less interesting to talk about when nothing of note happened.

She was now convinced that it was that very thing that allowed Ayanokōji to remain unnoticed even when Horikita began to take a more active role in their class. 'He had been at her side from the very beginning, so it was only natural that he would remain there even now, right?' That was what people thought, something she wasn't excluded from. Everyone just forgot about him, thinking of him as little more than Horikita's follower and henchman that did as he was told at best, a small cog in her plans. But the longer she thought about it, the less sense it made.

Even Kushida's extended attempts to befriend her had failed but Ayanokōji, someone without any communicative abilities to speak of, somehow managed it?

Horikita, a loner who stood rigid to her opinion without budging even a little bit, changed enough to become the leader of their class while the one that was always on her side remained the same, even going so far as staying out of sight entirely when he should be a prominent student in their year?

He was involved in every major event that happened since their enrolment, yet nobody connected him to them when they came up in conversation.

Also, for a loner, he was unusually connected with other prominent people. She wouldn't go so far and to say that he was friends with anyone aside of Horikita, though even that was somewhat far-stretched, but the interactions he had with Hirata and Kushida…

Well, to be fair, both of them were friends with everyone and it would be in-character for them to approach an obvious loner, so she might be just reading too much into that. Though she still thought something about his interaction with both of them was different, even if she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was.

Much more interesting was the development concerning Karuizawa. She wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't paid close attention to who he interacted with, but ever since the cruise ship, Karuizawa threw a suspicious amount of glances in his direction. They were discreet, no doubt about that, and at first, she hadn't thought much of it, but after a few weeks of observing them, she was convinced that there was more to it than something simple like a crush. And there was also that time she had seen them play in the pool during summer vacation when she had gone back that day because she had forgotten something…

Regardless, the most important thing by far was something she had learned from Chabashira-sensei just a few days ago.

She had had the sudden realization –and how had no one else noticed that?!- that once Horikita had retired during the island exam, they shouldn't have had a leader anymore. But that was impossible; there must have been a leader, that's how the exam worked. Actually, they should have been disqualified the moment Horikita had retired because the rules said that the leader couldn't be changed.

Or at least she thought so until she went over the rules once again and found a little loophole: 'Leaders cannot be changed without a legitimate reason.' Retiring from sickness would be such a reason, wouldn't it?

Now, that raised the question of why Horikita hadn't brought that point up when she had explained her plan that brought their class the victory to them. Of course, it might be that she just forgot about it or thought it unimportant, though considering there were a lot of more or less unimportant details in her explanation, that didn't feel right. Also, now that she thought about it some more, she had also appeared quite… flustered during her explanation, especially when someone asked her a question about more details. Back then, she assumed she was that way because she wasn't used to talking with so many people at once, but now she wasn't so sure anymore.

So, deciding to investigate that further, she made a somewhat risky move and decided to talk with Chabashira-sensei. That was a big step for someone like her who preferred to stay in the background, so she was naturally nervous, but she had been prepared to go through with it even if it put her in Sensei's sight. That woman wasn't very interested in the class anyway, so the danger of that move coming back to bite her was minimal.

At this school, there was almost nothing you couldn't buy with points, and she decided to make use of that fact. While she had spent quite a bit in the beginning before the truth about the point system was revealed, she hadn't been as wasteful as most of her classmates, meaning she had still some resources available to her and she was prepared to use all of it to find out the truth.

Unexpectedly, Sensei had been more forthcoming than she could have foreseen. In fact, she seemed to be almost excited that someone was questioning that event. Maybe I need to revaluate my impression of her, she thought. It might be bad if I approach her again without fully understanding her motives.

In the end, she didn't need to pay as much as a single point to find out some interesting facts:

First, Ayanokōji had carried an unconscious Horikita to the camp where the teachers were, meaning her story that she retired on her own was a lie.

Second, Ayanokōji became the new class leader for the remaining duration of the exam without mentioning it to anyone, just like Horikita hadn't told anyone about it later.

Third, Ayanokōji had named the leaders of the other classes right then and there.

It wasn't impossible that he was just following Horikita's orders, but all things considered, that was becoming more and more unlikely with every new thing she found out. After all, the 'official' story they had been told was riddled with lies and that wouldn't be the case if there wasn't anything to hide.

The conclusion of all that was easy:

Ayanokōji Kiyotaka wasn't an average student, nor even an excellent one, but a brilliant one. He was an existence that managed to control their class from the shadows to win against the other classes without any of them noticing a thing, a being that was superior to even Hirata and Horikita.

It made her wonder how he hadn't ended in Class A before she concluded that he must be similar to her and just wanted an easy and simple life.

That thought made her feel giddy for some reason.

But no matter. He was part of Class D and that was the important thing.

She was convinced that with him, they would be able to match the other classes. It had been too early to give up hope on graduating from Class A, she knew that now, and she intended to make use of that new recourse. With her skills, she could be useful if she put her mind on it, especially if someone like he was in the background to push her in the right direction.

All she needed to do now was to make him cooperate with her and, ultimately, the class.