For the final periods of today, I sat in my seat while burying my swollen cheek in the crease of my elbow, or covering it with my hand. I didn't want anyone to find out I got punched in the face, as it would draw unnecessary attention onto me. Sitting at the back of the class also helped me stealthily hide it.

"Is it just me, or did Takanori-san smell like a dead rat after lunch...?"

"There was a weird fungi scent that lingered around him, de gozaru..."

Even though Mitsuba and Tanaka thought they were out of earshot from me, I still overheard them talk about me behind my back as they left the class.

I'll admit, after those guys in D Class kicked me around like a rag doll, I noticed an unpleasant odour coming off me. Their dirty shoes must've rubbed some nasty stuff on me. When I get home, I'm taking a long bubble bath.

As I was about to go meet up with Zyriot, Matsushita walked up to me with a pleasant smile.

"Takanori-san, thanks again for helping us out. You're really reliable."

Ah, if only I was a girl. Those words would've really made my heart skip a beat. Matsushita was too charming for his own good.

"I would've gotten Zyriot-san myself, but me and Akihiro-san need to go to an emergency club meeting, so I'll see you there?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

Since Matsushita was a good person, I decided to come out and ask him about what was preoccupying my mind.

"By the way... do I smell weird?"

Matsushita raised his eyebrows. He looked apologetic giving me a response.

"Well... how do I describe it... you do smell more sour than you did this morning."

"I see..."

In other words, he confirmed I stunk. I wanted to bury my head in the table in defeat, but my hand was currently covering my cheek to hide the swelling from Matsushita.

Noticing my diminishing self-confidence, he took out a can of deodorant from his bag.

"Don't pay attention to what anyone else says. Here, you can use this."

"Oh... thanks."

I took the deodorant from Matsushita and sprayed it on me with one hand. I hoped this would mask the scent a little. I even put on more than I would usually do.

He looked at me a little strangely, but it wasn't a judgmental look. It was more curious than anything.

"Are you hiding something?"

"No, not at all."

That was a lie. It seems Matsushita's caught on. I handed him his deodorant back.

"Your hand... it's been on your cheek this entire time."

"Yeah."

"Did something happen to your face?"

I needed to come up with a good excuse.

"I... uh... have a rare medical condition that... makes my head droopy, so I need to... use my hand to prop it up."

Ah, I failed. Matsushita covered his mouth and laughed slightly. He must think I'm an idiot.

"Seriously though, did anything happen?"

"No, don't worry about it."

"I see... if something did happen, you know you can talk to me about it. I'm here to lend you an ear."

Matsushita was more perceptive than I thought. Even though I denied anything bad happened, he was able to deduce that something was off. Being a good person though, he didn't want to force me to tell him the truth, so he left an open offer to me before leaving.

Once class was cleared out, including Chabashira-sensei, I removed my hand from my face. I left the class and headed to D Class, where Zyriot was waiting outside the door. On my way there, I noticed some dried blood on the palm of my hand.

"Hey, Takanori-san. Let's go."

Zyriot greeted me pleasantly. In some aspects, I think he could be labelled as an ikemen. I wondered how many girls were interested in him, though. He might've been American, but he wasn't as good looking as Matsushita.

What did girls find more attractive? Foreign genes or good looks? If it was foreign genes, then it'd make my chances of getting a girlfriend easier... yeah, right.

We walked to the sports facilities together. It wasn't too far from the main school building, so it should only take about five or ten minutes. As we walked, my body continued to ache from all the kicks I took. The pain had worsened over time, and it felt like my stomach was in a perpetual state of folding over itself.

"Do you play for the football team?"

Zyriot started some small talk with me. I usually didn't enjoy this sort of conversation, but he seemed like a good person, so there was no reason to refuse.

"Nope. Only helping out a couple of friends."

Could I even consider Matsushita and Akihiro as friends? I didn't really hang out with them all that often.

"Makes sense. Also, I forgot to introduce myself earlier."

He didn't need to, since he was already famous in our year.

"I'm Zyriot Feirbuster. I'm still not used to Japan's culture yet, so please pardon any mistakes I make."

It makes sense, since he was an American. He didn't look all that white, though. His eyes were a bit sharp and blunted. Perhaps he's partly east-Asian?

In fact, his haircut reminds me of a K-Pop idol, and his name doesn't sound all that American either. Zyriot isn't a typical western name, as far as I'm aware. Maybe he's got genes from all over the world... thinking about it like that makes a little jealous.

It's like I'm less exotic than him, even though I'm part English myself.

"And you already know who I am."

He had called me by name during lunch time. Zyriot nodded.

"Yes, you're Takanori Yuuto."

Zyriot spoke in a formal and serious way. It definitely sounded like he was following a textbook, as his Japanese wasn't very conversational or natural sounding.

"I'm still sorry about what my classmates did to you earlier. It looks like you're still in pain."

Being a compassionate person, he noticed small details like this one.

"Ah, yeah... don't worry about it. I get why they did that."

"Still, there was no reason for them to resort to violence. Would you like me to pay you private points as compensation?"

I was surprised by this offer. Private points were hard to come by as an E Class student, so it was extremely tempting.

"Are you really okay with that?"

"I don't mind. I seldom spend my own points for myself. I'd rather use them for other people's benefits."

He was really selfless. It reminded me of Ichinose, the leader of B Class. She was also a saint, but unlike her, Zyriot wasn't afraid to be tough on people if they deserve it. Even though he was in D Class, he was more akin to an A Class student. There were almost no flaws about him.

"Then, yeah. I'd appreciate the points. Can I see how many you have?"

I didn't want to accidentally make him broke.

"Sure."

Zyriot took out his phone and showed me his private points. He had 49,510 points. It was still a considerable amount.

"How much would you like?"

He left it up to me to state the amount I wanted. Since I was saving up private points for a certain something, this would help bring me closer to that goal.

"Hmm..."

"Don't hold back."

With those encouraging words, I decided how much I wanted.

"30,000 points."

"Too much."

Quickly, Zyriot declined my offer.

"How does 20,000 sound?" He proposed a new offer.

"25,000 points." I countered.

"You really want points, don't you?"

Every last point was necessary for my end goal. I had to get use this chance to the fullest.

"You told me not to hold back. They're also useful. Didn't you hear?"

"About what?"

It seems that this piece of information hadn't spread throughout the year yet. Mitsuba had accidentally cracked a very important clue regarding the way this school operates during the midterms.

"You can use points to purchase more than just items in stores."

Mitsuba tried to buy the overturn on his disqualification for the Japanese midterm, but failed because he didn't have sufficient points. However, a C Class girl, Esumi Chirie, was able to buy one herself from the help of a couple students.

"What do you mean?"

"You could buy the overturn of a disqualification with points, for example."

"...seriously?"

"Think about the applications of such a thing."

It could be seen as giving away information to the enemy, but I was going to use this as leverage to convince Zyriot to fork over the 30,000 points.

"Could you... buy your way into A Class, then?"

Zyriot stared at the number of points on his phone in disbelief.

"Yeah."

When we first entered this school, I remember Chabashira-sensei told us that we could buy anything on campus with points. What I didn't realise was that she meant it literally. With private points, you could buy anything you desired, if could pay for it.

In that sense, they were the ultimate weapon.

"Since I told you their true worth, I think I deserve some compensation for that too. We're technically enemies, after all."

Zyriot gripped his phone tightly. He was muttering to himself.

"Then... could I buy changing the rules of the system...? Or buy merging of the classes... or..."

So, this was the true nature of this man. He looked at me with shaken up eyes.

"Sorry... what was that?"

"Is it okay to get 30,000 points?"

"No, that's too much... especially after what you told me. They aren't just currency, they..."

"Whatever grand schemes you're thinking of will probably have a hefty cost."

"It's more reason to save it, then!"

Zyriot flinched as I looked straight at him. His cool exterior was slowly breaking down. All the conditions were perfect.

All I had to do was appeal to his heart.

"I thought you wanted to compensate me? I need the points, since E Class received none this month. It was a struggle to scrape by, as living expenses for a single month costed about 30k points. It's why I asked for that much. You even told me not to hold back. Besides, if I didn't tell you about the true nature of these points, you wouldn't have realised how valuable they are."

He wasn't thinking straight due to what I told him. This new information conflicted with his morale compass. Like Ichinose, he wanted to help others out, especially if they're in a bad spot, which is why he offered me points as compensation. Guilt also played a part in this too, as he brought up the lynching again long after it occurred, even though I told him I forgave his classmates.

However, after realising the true value of these points, he now wanted to save them to try and change the way this school is run, which is what he wants the most. It was clear he despised the system in place through his actions. This goes against what he told me earlier though, as he was being generous. If he acted stingy now, it'd look bad for his character.

Not to mention, I was in E Class, the class that received no private points this month. I had an even better reason for needing the points more than Zyriot. This was one of the few times where I could use my low status to my advantage.

Zyriot's composure came back to him as he sorted out his cluttered head.

"No, you're right... you have it worse than me. I'm grateful that you told me about the points, even though we're technically enemies. I should be helping those weaker than me anyways."

He really was a charitable person. Zyriot transferred to me 30,000 points immediately. It might be a fraction of my end goal, but it was still progress.

"Thank you."

It was the least I could say, as I sincerely appreciated his offering. It was a pleasant surprise that made getting beat up by D Class slightly more tolerable.

"Did you dye your hair blonde?"

Zyriot quickly changed the conversation, probably to get his mind away from the implication of the private points's true power.

"Oh, no... this is natural."

"I see. That's quite rare, a Japanese person with natural blonde hair."

What Zyriot didn't know was that I was actually a halfu. I decided to give him a shock with my superior English skills.

"Actually, I'm not pure Japanese."

Zyriot gazed at me with disbelief.

"You can speak English?" He replied in his poor Japanese.

"Yeah, I'm half-English. If you want, you can speak English too. I can understand you."

Immediately, Zyriot switched to his mother tongue.

"Well, that makes things easier for me."

His accent was fairly American. Not too heavy, nor too light. In comparison, I had a slight British accent when speaking English.

"It's good to hear."

"That's amazing, I never thought I'd find someone else that I can talk to in English."

The difference between his English and Japanese abilities was like night and day. Regardless, he looked pleased that he didn't have to communicate in Japanese to me. As such, we continued our conversation in English.

"When did you learn to speak it?"

"I was taught it from birth."

"That's cool. Which one of your parents is from England?"

I froze up a little as Zyriot asked that question. It was easy to answer for anyone else, but for me, this sort of question clouded my brain in darkness.

I wanted to stay away from the topic of family, as I came to this school to forget about it all.

"I don't remember."

Zyriot looked a bit confused with that response, but accepted it.

"I see. Well, at least we can have secret conversations no one else can understand."

He laughed at his own joke, even though I didn't find it too amusing. Though, the secret conversations intrigued me. At this school, it might be a valuable ability to have talks that no one else understands. It could open up the avenue for backdoor dealings.

"Yeah. That's true."

"While we're speaking English, is it alright to call you by your first name?"

In western culture, it was normal to call each other on a first name basis. The ways of showing respect there is a lot different than it is here.

"That's fine by me."

"Thanks, Yuuto."

It was strangely uncomfortable to hear someone else call me that.

The only people who ever referred to me as "Yuuto" were my mom, my younger sister, my aunt Rina, Yukina and Suzune. No one else had gotten close enough to me to call me that, but Zyriot had bypassed it all due to his foreign nature.

"Hate to bring the mood down, but I got a question."

"What is it?"

"How's life as an E Class student? I don't mean to look down on you, since I'm no better myself, but I'd like to understand the situation from an E Class student's point of view, as you guys are treated like bottom feeders at this school."

Zyriot asked a strong question. It was so sudden, I couldn't think of an answer on the spot.

I began speaking, feeling my way towards a good answer... if there was any.

"Well... it can depend on the person or the situation. Because I have a red tie, people know they can mess with me however they want. I mostly avoid this though, as I don't stand out. In E Class, I'm essentially a nobody, so there's no reason to pick on me. My friends have been harassed though. People like Nora get bullied by other students easily, because he's weak. On the flip side, people like Yamaguchi can fit in the upper bounds of the hierarchy because he's a thug. As for me, that beating I got earlier was probably the worst thing I've experienced at this school, since like I said, I don't really stand out much to get picked on."

I continued to ramble on, as Zyriot seemed genuinely interested in my thoughts.

"I mean, as long as they get a reaction, they'll continue to try and pull stuff on us. Persevering through the abuse or the lack of acknowledgement is both tough and tiring, but as trash of the school, we have no choice. Even students with better prospects from among us, like Yukimura, get mistreated because of their red ties. They might be laughing at us now, but if it we're the successful ones by the end, we'll get the last laugh. It's just at the expense of three hellish school years."

I tried to give a proper answer, even if it wasn't cohesive. I wasn't a regular E Class student, so I tried to frame my perspective as one so Zyriot could better understand our struggle. It was a bit long-winded, but Zyriot understood it somehow. It was probably because I expressed it in English.

"It makes me appreciate I'm not at the bottom sometimes."

I looked at the honest Zyriot. While I had my doubts about him, he seemed to be a genuine person who didn't hide anything. He had no ulterior motives, and wanted the best for everybody.

It was rare to find a person like that these days. In a world where people are so obsessed with their self-image and hiding their flaws and imperfections, Zyriot went against that entirely due to his open-handed nature towards even a stranger like me.

Even though this openness could be exploited as a weakness, Zyriot knew his own self-worth and wouldn't let anyone take advantage of him like that. I understood why everyone in D Class respected him after our brief exchange of words.

However, there was one question lingering in the back of my mind.

"Do you know why you're in D Class? You seem so out of place among the rest of them."

It was the same question I asked myself when analysing people like Matsushita and Sakigamiya. These people who don't have flaws were put on the lowest classes for seemingly no reason.

But there had to be a reason. It's clearly not random, considering the people in each class. There was something that makes people like them less valuable than everyone else above them. I just hadn't figured that out yet.

However, one thing was clear. Zyriot was a better leader than Matsushita or Sakigamiya. That was an obvious reason why he was assigned to a class higher than those two. The rest however was still a mystery.

"To be honest, I don't know. Maybe it's because my Japanese is bad or something."

Considering how ruthless this school was, it might actually be a legitimate reason. If a foreigner like him worked here, he'd be handicapped depending on how well he knew Japanese.

"I will say that this school system is unfair. A modern day caste system? Who the hell thought it was a good idea to bring that back?"

Even though he said spiteful words towards the school, Zyriot sighed in defeat.

"As much as it pains me, I'll admit the system is effective for people like me, that are in D Class. We're not at the bottom yet, so we can hold on by a thread, or advance up if we work hard enough. But for you guys in E Class... does it feel like you've already given up?"

I considered my experience for the past two months here. All the humiliation I received. The ostracisation from my own classmates. Getting my reputation dragged through the mud.

Being labelled as the worst one.

"Yeah."

I decided to reply honestly.

"Being placed in E Class is no different from being expelled. No one cares about us or our feelings. They see us all the same, as a bunch of drop-outs that aren't worth anything. Even if we ascend, we'll still have the stigma of "former Red" lingering us. It's pointless. The only way for us to make a big impact is if we change people's opinions."

"I absolutely agree. Even if you guys manage to get out of the dumps, people are still going to judge you for coming from there. It's like you can't win with these elitist snobs."

Everyone from the upper classes would still look down on us, even though we worked hard to climb the ranks.

"The silver lining to this system is, if you work hard, you can move up. That glimmer of hope is what keeps me going."

Even though he was in one of the lowest classes, Zyriot had an optimistic outlook on life, believing in things like "hope".

"That's a touching idea."

"Thanks. Honestly, Yuuto, you seem like the type who'd move up first."

I was surprised by his compliment, but there was no chance of that happening. My current circumstance meant I was chained to E Class until I make my own move.

"Hopefully, yeah, I guess."

Even if I could move classes, I doubt my situation would change. Moving up to D Class, I'd go back to my old ways. At least in E Class, I had Yukina.

Was that really true, though?

"It's a shame we'll have to fight each other on Friday."

I stared at Zyriot blankly.

"Huh?"

"You don't know? D Class and E Class are gonna go to war."

I hadn't heard of this before.

"It's a friendly war, right?"

"Nope. It's official."

I was in disbelief.

How come we weren't informed? Why am I learning about this now from a student instead our homeroom teacher? Why am I learning about it four days before the war? Why are we going to an official war we haven't even prepared for?

A swirl of nauseous questions came to my head. Then, I realised this was the conditions defective students get treated with.

They don't care for us. No one does. Not even our homeroom teacher. This school set us up for failure. Or rather...

They sabotaged us on purpose.

"I'm sorry to break it to you like that." Zyriot said with sincerity.

I tightened my fists.

"No... it's okay. I'll see you in the war, then."

We arrived at the sports facilities. Matsushita and Akihiro were there to take Zyriot in and explain the situation to their coach and captain. My job here was complete, so I marched back to the school building to confront Chabashira-sensei about the war.

This is also a good opportunity to start laying the groundwork for my eventual leadership of the class. Chabashira-sensei's support would be vital in this war between classes.