Character Motivations (fin.)

“By the way, Senpai. Could you tell what your rating for the Interpersonal category is?”

That question may seem irrelevant at first glance, but I maintain its cruciality in solving the Sakura puzzle.

Put it this way. It’s undeniable that Sakura Emi’s placement in Class F was odd since the three As suggested she was a top-tier student—so top-tier, in fact, that she held one of the highest aggregate ratings in the cohort at the moment.

And while I’d proposed the explanation of random class allocations earlier, knowing that Yukimura had been in Class A from the start based on her point total made that nearly impossible. Just like Mari and Watanabe, two other stellar students, the system had recognised her aptitude and sorted her accordingly from the very start… So, why did this not apply to Sakura Emi?

A gracious girl who greeted even wallflowers like me in the corridor?

Someone who was already unanimously loved by her class within two weeks of school?

You could chalk it up to her being mentally weak, interpersonally inept, grossly uncreative and terrible at combat—so much so that it brought her to Overall F status.

Or you could be like Mari and conclude that her placement was a result of having a grotesque personality.

Perhaps there was just a major oversight.

All three of those were reasonable outcomes.

But personally, I’d given the first option a seventy-five percent chance and the other two ten percent each—the remaining five percent existing in the form of rounding errors and other unthinkable scenarios.

That conclusion was what I’d come to after noticing similarities between all of the upper half students I knew back then.

In any case, figuring out what constituted interpersonal intelligence in the System’s eyes was the key to unlocking the puzzle—so unless I wanted to wait for the fall semester to begin, I needed to proactively search for the information.

Thus the question.

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,” Yukimura mused through the phone.

“That’s… a lot of letters.”

“Arara?”

“...And that catchphrase belongs to someone else.”

“Hmm.”

I stayed silent as she thought to herself—a growing tightness in my chest.

If Yukimura had a high Interpersonal rating, then I knew the answer as to why the System disfavoured Sakura Emi whilst rating Watanabe Yousuke and Tsujimoto Mari.

If her score was low, then sadly, I’d have to admit Mari was probably right.

I found myself hoping for a middling number.

“Kouhai-kun. In normal circumstances, I’d answer that question without a second thought. But…”

“B-but?”

Her voice sounding more emotionless than ever, she continued. “Don’t take this as a compliment. You’re actually rather sharp, aren’t you?”

“...I’m not sure if I understand what you’re getting at.”

And how could anyone not take that as a compliment?

“I’m intrigued. I’m fascinated. And though I want to elaborate on why I think that, you’ve made it clear that you’re capable of analysing supposedly useless statements to derive information, and so I shall hold my tongue. It goes without saying I won’t tell you what any of my scores are, either.”

“......”

“After all, you’ve realised I can’t tell you anything about the STD System—since it wouldn’t be fair for the Upper Half freshmen who have no tutors. That’s why you tried to word your question so innocuously, isn’t it? To catch me off-guard? Sorry, not sorry.”

“Are you a mind-reader?”

“No, I’m just a Class A student.”

“...I see.”

That was the difference between classes, huh?

To think that a Class F student could outsmart a Class A student.

No wonder I was sorted where I was.

“But as I’ve mentioned before,” Yukimura said, “My sheer kindness is overwhelming.”

“...More like underwhelming. Maybe even nonexistent?”

“Let’s just say whelming for a middle ground. Kouhai-kun, what I’m trying to say is that I’m not opposed to being partial towards you.”

Given she’d just shut down my request, it was hard to believe.

“Uh, sure.”

“I’ll tell you things, as long as they don’t invade my modesty.”

“...Please stop characterising me as a pervert.”

“I’ll tell you things, as long as they don’t invade my privacy.”

“That’s fair.”

"I'll tell you things, even if you don't want me to."

"......"

“So, I’ll start by saying that ratings for all seven categories have already been calculated for the first years—as a second-year, I can see them. It’s just that the school chooses to release them in two halves for their own reasons. I’m not allowed to tell you anything you can’t deduce through your own means, so please don’t ask me to search up students' profiles for you or something.”

The part about the staggered release of ratings had already been figured out by Mari and I, but getting confirmation from Yukimura had been useful nonetheless.

“Okay." I nodded whilst on a phone call, just like a genius would. "By the way, did they do the same thing when you were a first year?" 

“Mhm. They withheld four categories—Interpersonal, Academics, Athletics, and Aesthetics. Funnily enough, aside from the first they all start with A. I'm assuming it's the same for you?”

“Nearly the opposite, actually.”

In my case, they’d hidden Mental, Interpersonal, Creative and Combat—rather elusive terms compared to the three As, now that I think about it. (Speaking of 'three As', I'd coined the term thanks to Yukimura's comment about alliteration.)

“Oh. I guess it makes sense, they can’t just recycle the same template for two years in a row. Maybe they alternate between years? Hmm...”

“I thought you knew everything?”

“Unfortunately not. I’m just a Class A student.”

“...Do you have to rub it in every time?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh.”

“Moving on,” Yukimura continued, as if her superiority complex could be hand-waved with just a phrase, “one thing you should take into account is that brilliancy is relative. Being in Class F doesn’t actually imply the student is a failure, it just means that there are 200 individuals ranked higher than them. This should go without saying, but even the second-worst student in this school would be part of the national elite.”

...Wait, that was actually a good point.

And quite obvious too, now that it'd been made clear to me.

I’d been equating class status to Overall Grade so far, but the two were only weakly correlated. It made sense, since purposely enrolling 40 F-tier students would’ve just diluted the talent pool of the school…

Oh.

Was the 5 percent the correct explanation after all?

I felt like an idiot.

Or had Mari planted ideas in my head?

“But you know,” she added, “I say ‘second-worst’ because I don’t have faith in the worst one. And by ‘worst one’, I mean you.”

“Hey! That's not...”

Actually, what was my Overall Grade?

Would Yukimura tell me?

Now that I knew it wasn’t just a big fat F, I was really curious.

“...Uh, Senpai. Could you do me a favour? Could you—”

“No.”

“...But you didn't even—”

"No."

Well, I would find out eventually, so no rush.

I’m a patient person.

...I’m a patient person.

—Repeating something over and over doesn’t make it true, Kohei-san.

Talk about fleeting memories, man.

“Please don’t go around begging your senpais to reveal information to you. It’s rude if you’re not offering anything up for exchange.”

“Exchange?”

“Bribery.”

“...Exchange,” I decided.

“Well, they’re fundamentally the same thing in this context. Unless you're offering money, favours, or information, nobody will take you seriously. And there are things other students won’t do for you no matter what—for instance, I’m not willing to risk expulsion by spoiling the STD System for you. School rules are school rules.”

“School rules are school rules, huh? But not when it comes to—”

“SHHHHHHH!”

I got shushed.

If you search ‘blowing into mic sound effect’ on the net and listen to that at max volume, it might give you an idea what I'd heard.

“OW! Don’t do that!”

“You don’t do that, pervert.”

“...Fine.”

It felt equally embarrassing for me to talk about that unofficial club, anyway.

Equally embarrassing for us.

Since it'd been the first time either of us had tried anything like that.

After a brief silence, Yukimura spoke first. “...Um, it’s nearly five-thirty now.”

“O-oh, yeah. You have a meeting, right? Some special project.”

“Yeah...”

“I see.”

“So, goodbye then.”

“Right… Thanks for the talk, Yukimura-senpai.”

“...No problem.”

“......”

I realised in the quiet that befell us that the tightness in my chest was still there.

Not because I was trying to solve a mystery, but something much more simple.

Just a pleasant feeling.

Just a primal feeling.

Just me wanting to spend more time with Yukimura.

“Can you give me five more minutes... and go a little late to the meeting?”

"Why?" she asked, her voice ever so slightly elevated.

"I just want to make some small talk."

“My meeting's really important, though.”

“Ahh, fine. But it feels a bit difficult for me to end the call, so... can you do it?”

My final gambit.

It always worked, right? You just keep tossing the hot potato back and forth arguing about who hangs up. In the end, no one does, and then the both of you continue—

“Roger.”

I heard two long beeps from my phone before the world went completely silent.

Zero hesitation, like a cold-blooded killer.

She didn't even let me say goodbye.

“...Wow.”

‘Roger’? Was there a worse word she could’ve used in that situation? Maybe ‘understood’ or ‘alright’... no, those were infinitely better.

She'd chosen the iciest way to end our first ever phone call.

Ending aside, it did help me figure out a lot of things about the school—including why Yukimura had been so dodgy about her tutoring responsibilities so far.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help me—she couldn’t. The school rules didn’t permit it.

Not until I was properly orientated with Kitazawa High School first.

For now, the issue of Sakura Emi still remained, but with Yukimura giving context to the situation it appeared to be much more benign than I'd initially thought.

Just eagerness on the side of Mari and a simple case of being outclassed on the side of Sakura.

Hopefully.

It was at that moment I heard something that sounded eerily like an electronic lock opening via keycard. Probably because it was. That was a really bad attempt at building suspense.

So I reacted like how any normal person would react to their roommate coming back—

I waited in my spartan living room so I could talk to Watanabe Yousuke about a girl from my class.

Fact Five: Character Motivations (END).