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Chabashira said this with absolute finality, as if no matter what request within her power Yukio asked, she would spare no effort to make it happen.
All for those seven hundred million private points—or rather, to fulfill her ten-year wish of raising Class D to Class A.
Across ANHS, even though most students desperately hope to graduate from Class A, their will and desire can't compare to Chabashira's in this moment.
It's an obsession unchanged for ten years; it's the only meaning in life she can now find.
It may not sound like much—compared to the millennia-long obsessions in certain myths, it hardly seems worth mentioning.
But from the perspective of ordinary people, you realize how hard it is. To hold fast to a single obsession, unchanged for ten years—very few can do that.
When people are young, they have many ideas: become an astronaut, become a scientist, this or that. You don't even need ten years—just a few years of school will overturn those thoughts.
Maybe last year you wanted to reach the sky; next year you want to dive into the sea.
With a bit more age and maturity, people's thoughts grow practical: find a good job, make money, build a happy family.
Where would such a fierce obsession come from then?
Say you graduate high school this year—your fixation now is getting into a good university to secure a good job later, or maybe skipping straight to work.
But after ten years, when you're in your twenties or even your thirties—will you still have that fixation? Life's likely worn down your edges; you just want to earn a steady wage, be with family, eat and hang out with friends sometimes, and not think so much.
But Chabashira, after finishing university, returned to ANHS to teach, and for ten years her resolve never wavered. Neither her feud with Hoshinomiya nor her past regret made her say "forget it." Instead, they only hardened her persistence.
She will not rest until she succeeds—that is Sae Chabashira right now. Getting Class D promoted to Class A is her only obsession.
After hearing her resolute words, Yukio's expression turned a bit odd. He looked Chabashira up and down: white blouse, OL jacket and skirt, black stockings, long legs, high heels.
Even that top shirt button left undone—the open collar, the delicate collarbones—seemed to wordlessly declare a charm completely different from that of schoolgirls, tempered by the years.
And this homeroom teacher was saying that if he wished it, she'd do anything?
Uh…
Perhaps noticing his gaze, Chabashira's face stiffened for an instant. Then she bit down lightly, her already cool and proud brows lowering further as she slowly stepped closer to him. "If that's what you want, I… absolutely can."
Her usually cold voice was a little subdued; constrained by shyness and her role as a teacher, she couldn't speak naturally at all.
Yukio couldn't even tell whether she was gritting her teeth to say "can," or bowing her head in submission to say "can."
But he was someone who'd been tempered by Hoshinomiya's training. If before, this beauty forged by time might have swayed him easily—
Now, with Chabashira—another flower refined by time—already before him, he had at least some resistance. "Ahem, Chabashira-sensei."
"I didn't say anything."
Chabashira broke character in exasperation; her cool pride wouldn't hold. Whether out of anger or embarrassment, a faint crimson spread across her cheeks, and she shot Yukio a meaningful side-eye.
Didn't say anything? Your eyes were practically about to dive down her collar just now—what more needed saying?
And she even felt a bit wronged. She'd already said she was willing, and now Yukio was turning around and acting the gentleman?
Yukio wasn't a gentle person—at least not casually so. It wasn't that he didn't want Chabashira; who doesn't love an OL beauty like this?
Nor did he disdain a deal. If both sides are willing—money for goods—who would look down on that?
He simply felt that the current Chabashira—made and unmade by her obsession—had serious issues in her mindset and spirit. He wasn't some starving wolf who'd eat anything; he had standards, at least a little.
"Chabashira-sensei, don't misunderstand. I'm not saying you aren't acceptable. I'm saying the you right now isn't."
"…" Chabashira's expression cooled again. "What exactly do you mean? Are you talking about the time I sold you midterm answers at ten thousand points per point? Didn't you end up extorting me over that in the end?"
She still thought Yukio was refusing because of past grudges.
But Yukio shook his head with a wry smile. "No, no—that's an even bigger misunderstanding. It has nothing to do with that."
"What truly concerns me is this: since you remember the midterms, your memory must be excellent."
"In that case, do you also remember the exam scope you outlined for Class D before our first-semester midterms?"
How could she not remember? Other homeroom teachers drew up exam scopes seriously—after all, students who failed midterms and finals would be expelled.
But she was the outlier among homeroom teachers, always tossing out the scope offhand and never truly guiding Class D's students.
At most, in the last few days before midterms, when the students sensed something was off, she'd casually give out part of the real scope. If questioned, she'd shrug and say she'd forgotten.
It was only this year's Class D—full of prodigies—that gave Chabashira hope of promotion to A, making her provide the correct scope in later exams. For the previous ten years, she had never done that.
So when Yukio brought it up now, her face immediately stiffened. "Yukio, what are you getting at?"
Seeing her expression grow more and more strained, Yukio knew he'd struck home. He'd kept this in mind for a long, long time.
Back at the very start of the first semester, when he first met Horikita in the library, Class D and his class had a dispute.
One detail he remembered vividly: Ishizaki sneered that Class D's students were defective goods—so defective they could even get the exam scope wrong.
That was enough to prove Chabashira had given the scope incorrectly on purpose. Only after dealing with Hoshinomiya did Yukio solve that puzzle of the time, hitting the mark with a single line: "Looks like you haven't forgotten, Chabashira-sensei."
"In that case, you should be very clear. For ten years you've clung to your obsession—unceasingly—of wanting to raise Class D to Class A."
"But that personal obsession of yours betrayed the previous two cohorts of Class D, making them lose to every other class of those years."
Chabashira's defenses collapsed completely. This was the fault she could not escape.
...
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