This school provided its students with every imaginable benefit—no tuition, full coverage of living expenses, and even guaranteed job placement or admission to higher education upon graduation.
It sounded too good to be true.
That's because it was.
The truth was, each graduating class was divided into four homerooms: A, B, C, and D. But only those who graduated from Class A actually received the benefits flaunted in the school's promotional materials.
The rest were quietly merged into other schools' graduating classes at the end of the year.
That was how the school maintained its 100% graduation and placement rate.
Because, really—was this place a charity?
Of course not.
Advanced Nurturing High School existed to cultivate the kind of talent that could take on society's most difficult problems.
Their method? Ruthless competition.
They gathered a curated group of students, divided them into classes, and pitted them against each other. Every challenge, every clash between classes, was a step in the learning process.
The school took recommendations from junior high school principals across the country, ran its own evaluations, and sorted students into classes A through D according to merit.
So while the system was framed as class-based competition, the reality was that each class started from a very different baseline.
The higher the class rank, the better the student quality.
By the time students reached their third year, most of the ones representing the school at graduation were from Class A.
Rarely did an underdog manage to overturn that structure.
Class D, meanwhile, was where the "rejects" ended up—students considered defective or hopeless.
That was the school's reality.
And that was what she had been debating whether or not to tell Hikigaya if he'd asked about it.
But now…
Chabashira decided there was no need.
The way he had picked up on her unusually large point balance… the way he remained unshaken by the school's apparent generosity… and the clarity with which he seemed to understand there was no such thing as a free lunch…
All of that told her he'd figure it out soon enough.
It looked like Hiratsuka had delivered her a real gem.
"Your question requires payment in high-value points. I can't disclose anything," Chabashira Sae said.
"Oh."
"No need to look so glum," she added, "Let's make a deal instead. The cash conversion privilege you want—I can pull some strings and get it for you."
Huh?
Hikigaya looked up at the teacher, intrigued.
Chabashira Sae usually gave off a careless vibe in class, but now—there was a sharp glint in her eyes.
Though somehow, Hikigaya felt like… he was being hunted.
"What does Chabashira-sensei want me to do?"
According to his student ID, his private account only had 100,000 points.
Inside the school, one point equaled one yen.
But something told him that next month, he wouldn't be getting the same amount again.
Think about it—
With forty students per class and four classes, that was 160 students.
At 100,000 points per student, the school was shelling out 16 million yen a month.
And that was just for first-years. There were surely upperclassmen, too.
No matter how you looked at it, this was a staggering amount. The school wouldn't just hand out that kind of money forever.
And the way Chabashira kept dodging his questions with a "no comment" attitude only made it clearer—
This place wasn't built on goodwill.
It definitely wasn't a charity.
"As your homeroom teacher, I don't know every detail about all of you. I want you to investigate some of your classmates and write up detailed profiles on them. For each one you submit, I'll pay you 200,000 points."
Chabashira smiled. "Don't turn this down. You won't get another offer this generous."
Two hundred thousand per student.
With forty students, that was eight million.
Considering they'd each just been given 100,000 points, it sounded like a sweet deal.
But if this was considered generous…
That meant the road ahead was going to be rough.
—
After accepting Chabashira's offer, Hikigaya returned to the classroom.
He was still just a student, after all.
But when he stepped back in, the room was nearly empty. Only two or three people remained.
Huh?
So the others had already formed their own cliques?
"Hikigaya-kun."
A soft voice called to him.
The slender boy with greenish-blond hair sitting near the podium turned and smiled.
"The others went to pick up their textbooks and took them back to the dorms."
"A few of them also headed to the shopping district to see if they could use their student ID points."
Ah. That made sense.
He'd been chasing down Chabashira, and she had dragged him up to the rooftop.
By the time he'd come back down, half an hour had passed.
That was more than enough time for students to get their books and split off.
And with free dorms and 100,000 yen's worth of spending money, of course they were eager to test it out.
Still…
Wasn't this a little troubling?
It meant the other students had already formed their circles—and he was the one left out.
And he was supposed to be on a mission to make friends, according to Komachi.
Was he already falling behind before even starting?
Hikigaya sighed.
"I saved your textbooks. Glad you made it back," the boy said, standing up.
"I already asked someone else to carry my books back to the dorms. Would you like me to help you with yours?"
"Oh—and we set up a class group chat. Want me to add you?"
"I'll send you an invite. It's handy for sharing announcements and helping each other out."
"Of course, I'm not saying you need help or anything. It's just… your introduction got cut off earlier, and I couldn't help but worry a little."
The boy smiled kindly.
Wait, what?
Who was this angel?
Hikigaya was stunned.
When he'd first entered the classroom, this was the same boy who'd taken the lead during the introductions.
At the time, Hikigaya had pegged him as a total normie—charismatic, sociable, popular.
But now…
It wasn't just a pleasant exterior. The guy was… a literal angel.
Or maybe—no, definitely—a mom-friend.
"I'll add you now," the boy said, pulling out his phone.
Just then, it buzzed with multiple new messages.
"Ah, give me a sec…" he said, fingers already flying over the screen.
The texts were from classmates, asking what to do about various things.
It was clear they trusted him.
He was busy.
Yeah.
Hikigaya found himself reevaluating this boy entirely.
Because clearly—
He wasn't just a normie angel.
He was a mom-friend in male form.