Chapter 26

The bell rang signifying the end of the school day. Now, I had to go and meet with Kushida and the others with Lelouch and Light. I would be tutoring Sudō for the next two weeks, Lelouch would be tutoring Ike and Light would be tutoring Yamauchi. Honestly, I hope that we succeed, mainly because I'd feel bad for Kushida otherwise.

Even if they all fail and get expelled, Class E would still be obliged to pay us a favour, as us succeeding in our tutelage was never specified in the contract. This could be a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and indebt Class E to us while also expelling three of their students. I got the impression that none of us wanted to do that, however.

"Hey~ Ayanokōji-kun, Lelouch-kun, Light-kun!" Kushida waved us over, standing outside the Class E classroom. We waved our hands in greeting.

"So, these three are gonna help us study?" Sudō asked, looking somewhat uncertain. It seems like Kushida hadn't told him the specifics of the arrangement. Now that I thought about it, she had probably only just managed to get them to agree.

"Hey, Sudō," I said as I approached them.

"You teachin' me, Ayanokōji?" he asked, a slight expression of apprehension on his face.

"Yeah, looks like it."

"Ah thank god, I was thinking I'll be made to study with someone I don't even know for a second there." Sudō appeared relieved that I would be his tutor.

"Hey Ken, some of us do have to!" Ike complained from next to him.

I heard Lelouch audibly sigh from behind me. It looks as if my classmates are going to have more mentally taxing job on their hands than I do. Lucky me.

"Let's go to the library!" Kushida said with a bright smile.

"Wait, you're coming as well?" Lelouch questioned in puzzlement.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?" Kushida looked as if she genuinely couldn't understand why she wouldn't join us.

"Well, because we're going to be doing one-on-one tutelage, right. So what the hell are you going to be doing?"

"Uh, eto, I thought maybe I'll just hang around? Maybe make sure that things go smoothly?" Kushida said, and then her smile started to fade, and she looked dejected. "Or do you not want me to come, Lelouch-kun?"

Kushida asked him in a melancholic voice. It almost looked like she was going to burst into tears any minute – I thought I could make out her lower lip trembling as she waited for a response. It seemed like Kushida is sensitive to things like people rejecting her advances and not wanting to be her friend.

"No, that's not it. You can come along, I suppose. I was just confused. I'm sorry if I caused you any offense." Lelouch bowed his head.

Surprisingly, Lelouch didn't fumble or trip over any words even when faced with a depressed Kushida. I got the impression that Lelouch simply didn't care whether Kushida liked him or not, simply acting in accordance with what "you're supposed to do". He was indifferent towards any and all social matters but was still somehow very popular. How peculiar.

Kushida soared into the heights of joy once more after being told she could come along. "There's no need to apologize for a misunderstanding, Lelouch-kun! We should get going to the library, then!"

Not a hint of sadness remained in Kushida's tone. Our group of seven set off towards the library, chatting idly along the way. Before long, we arrived our destination.

A few of the quiet students inside turned their heads as we entered the room. Kushida pointed to a vacant table she'd spotted tucket away in the corner. We made our way past the rows of books that enclosed the tranquil room and sat down at the table.

The table was circular, which made it convenient for us. We each sat in pairs, me with Sudō, Lelouch with Ike and Yamauchi with Light while Kushida sat facing the centre of the group. We each got out our textbooks and placed them neatly on the table. I wasn't expecting the Idiot Trio to be this cooperative, to be completely honest. I ended up pleasantly surprised.

"So, scoring lower than thirty-two means failing. Do you fail if you get exactly thirty-two points, though?" Sudō asked.

"No, then you'd be safe. However, the boundary won't always be at thirty-two – it's calculated by taking half of the class average, so anything below fifty could potentially result in your expulsion" I answered in a hushed tone.

"B-below fifty?! There's no way I can get a score that high!"

"Relax, that's just worse case scenario. The boundary for Class E probably won't go above forty, even if your entire class does better than on the pop-quiz."

"So, you're saying we should aim for forty?"

"Obviously you should aim as high as you can, but if you can secure forty points then I think you're pretty much safe. It's a realistic goal for now."

Kushida, Ike and Yamauchi all also seemed to be listened intently to our conversation. They were probably pretty stressed out about the midterms, but I was sure that these three could pass under our teaching.

"I've prepared a brief summary of the things you'll have to learn in time for the midterms. These are the topics that will be covered by the exam." Light said, handing out a sheet of paper to each of the Class E students.

"Huh, you got one for me as well?" Kushida asked in surprise.

"Let's just say I anticipated you'd come with us." Light said with a victorious smirk.

Everyone scanned the sheet they had been given, before widening their eyes. Ike complained loudly in alarm, causing the other students in the library to shoot glares at us.

"W-what the hell! This is all way too hard!"

"Calm down. It might look hard, but I can personally guarantee I'll have you doing it in no time." Lelouch reassured him.

"Hey, this is weird..." Kushida muttered to herself.

"Something's weird? What is it?" I asked her.

"The topics that Light-kun has written here are completely different from what Chabashira-sensei told us."

The four Class E students' faces melted into bewilderment. I glanced at my classmates and saw them similarly mulling it over.

Ishihara-sensei had definitely said that these topics were the ones we would have to prepare for. Conflictingly, Kushida's class seems to have been given a totally different set of topics. There were multiple different possibilities for why this could be the case.

Case 1: Our classes would be taking different exams. This case was probably the least plausible, considering that we had all taken the same pop-quiz. Additionally, the topics Ishihara-sensei had given us weren't any more difficult than what you'd expect for a high school midterm exam.

Case 2: The school made a mistake. Honestly, I thought that this was also unlikely. This school is very deliberate about everything it does, even down to the exact wording used by its instructors during their explanations. No detail is missed here, so them making a massive mistake like this is near-impossible. That could only mean...

Case 3: The most probable option out of the three was that one of our teachers had intentionally lied about the contents of the exam to their class. Right now, it would be stupid to even attempt to discern why, but I was almost positive that this was what had happened. The chances of the school purposefully assigning us different tests and the chances of the school making a huge mistake like this were equally doubtful – this meant that chances are, all classes did the same test but one of our senseis had taken it upon themselves to lie and disadvantage their own class.

Ishihara-sensei would surely know that even if we in Class D didn't know what would be on the test, none of us would be all that affected and certainly none of us would fail. Even if you completely ignore possible motives, the potential results of such a scheme alone make it clear. The culprit was Chabashira Sae, the Class E homeroom teacher. Unlike Class D, if Class E had information like this withheld from them, it could be a death sentence to many of the students.

This all begs the question: Why? For what purpose was Chabashira-sensei trying to fail her own class? It was pointless to think about it now since I would never come to an answer, however this could prove to be a very valuable piece of information to hold. For now, though, I should probably try to confirm whether our class's given topics are the same as all the other classes, minus Class E. You know, just to be safe.

My gaze shifted over to a group of students sat at the table in the other back-corner. It seemed to be a Class B study group, hosted by the most popular girl in the school, Ichinose Honami. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Lelouch also looking at them. He was probably thinking the same thing as me. Seeing my glance, he nodded and stood up from his chair.

"H-hey, where are you going?" Kushida asked in bewilderment.

"He's going to check what exam topics Class B got given." I told her on behalf of Lelouch, who had already departed from our table.

"Oh, I see."