The week following the school revelation was one of the hardest we've had to endure.

The class's unity had been completely ruined.

All the other students in the school looked at us with disgust. The only sympathisers we had were the other Drachma Red students, but even then they were aloof as well. Everyone else didn't want to be near us at all.

This proved especially hard on the sociable people like Matsushita and Sakigamiya, as they were quickly evicted from their usual friend group that they hung out with, just for being E Class students.

Any friends we made from other classes quickly ignored us. It was ingrained by the school that playing with E Class students was a bad thing. The social pressure to not be associated with us was thick and hung in the air like smog. It was also easier to ignore us if you didn't even know us in the first place. The only things they knew about E Class students was that they were bad people.

Those who did know us deeper than surface level was pressured to cut all connections with us, even if they didn't think we were that bad. Partly out of fear of judgment, and partly because by associating with us they became garbage too. My chances of ever contacting Suzune ever again went down the drain.

The discrimination didn't stop there. In the morning, me and Nora were walking to class together, minding our own business, when suddenly a couple of D Class students began harassing him. They followed us, taking turns flicking the back of his ears in an attempt to make his glasses fall off.

"Knock it off." I said, looking at the two boys. They looked like the delinquent types.

"We're not doing anything wrong. Just going to class." One of the boys said. He had glasses on, which made him look more respectable than his accomplice, who was a boy wearing a beanie and had blonde dyed hair.

Nora shot a timid glance at me. I gave him a look that said "it'll be alright". Even though it was something minute as ear flicking, I could feel the fear resonating off Nora. The idea of being targeted on purpose would be scary for anyone.

As we continued to walk, they continued to flick the back of his ears. They laughed to each other behind our backs. Things finally escalated when the boy with the beanie ran up to Nora and slapped the side of his head, making his glasses fly off and land on the floor.

"Ha ha ha!" The boy with the glasses guffawed with laughter.

As I shot my head around to tell them to go somewhere else, a calm female voice stopped me from doing so.

"Are you alright?"

Coming over to Nora, who looked like he was about to cry, was Hina. She picked his glasses from the floor and blew on it a couple times, handing it back to him.

"Um..." Nora hung his head low as he took the glasses. Slipping them on, he nodded meekly.

"It doesn't look like you're alright... what did the boy do to you?" She asked, stepping in between us and the D Class students.

"The hell is a Royalty doing helping a Red?" The beanie boy laughed. "Let's go, Nakajima."

The boy with the glasses, Nakajima, nodded. They tried going around Hina, but she stepped in front of them after Nora finished his timid explanation.

"Both of you should feel ashamed of yourselves." She declared.

Nora perked his head. I raised an eyebrow. Didn't the school promote harassment of E Class students? Why is she helping us?

"The hell are you talking about? We're just going to class." Nakajima said.

"Out of the way." Beanie boy said.

"No. Why were you harassing him? There's no reason to."

"We didn't do anything to him! Not our fault his glasses fell off."

"I saw you slap his head on purpose. That was assault."

"What proof do you have?"

Hina pointed at the security camera on the ceiling.

"Who cares, they're defective trash anyways. They should get treated like this."

"That's so cruel... why would you ever think that way?" Hina said. "What if you became an E Class student? Would you enjoy being harassed like that? Would you like that the school wants you to suffer?"

"If they don't like it, they should just drop out or get promoted."

"You're part of the reason why they want to drop out. Even though the school has it's negatives, it has it's positives, wouldn't you agree? That's why dropping out isn't that easy thing of a thing to do. Imagine dropping out and returning home, having to face your parents about choosing to leave this revered academy. Do you know much shame you'd bring to not only yourself, but your family too?"

"Well..."

"Please treat others the way you would want to be treated. As a D Class student, you should sympathise with them, as you're also on the bottom of this flawed caste system. As Jack, I don't want to see anyone get hurt by this cruel, inhumane system anymore... that's the truth."

Hina's honest words touched the hearts of Nakajima and beanie boy. They looked at each other, then lowered their heads.

"Well... the school is the one promoting it. We're just following it." Nakajima said.

"You don't have to follow it. Don't be part of the crowd. Be better than everyone else." Hina said.

Nakajima looked at me and Nora, then shrugged. "Sorry."

"Eh...?" Nora was confused like me. Moments ago, these guys were just harassing us. What a swift change of heart.

It probably had to do with the fact Hina was an incredibly cute girl with huge appeal. A lot of boys liked her.

"...thank you!" Hina said. She looked genuinely happy that her words at least reached one of them.

"Argh, whatever. I'll stay out of trouble." The beanie boy said. He walked off with a grumpy expression.

"Hiraoka-san, wait up!" Nakajima chased after him.

Hina turned to us. Nora bowed and began thanking her profusely.

"T-thank you..."

"It's alright really. Are you okay, though, Nora-san? A lot of those D Class boys like to target you."

It seems Hina has observed Nora getting harassed multiple times before this event. Well, it makes sense he's a target, since he's one of the weakest looking guys in our class. The strong will obviously prey on the weak.

"I'll be fine... I just hope one day they'll stop."

"I'll always be here to help you guys out. Honestly, I wish I could do more as Royalty to stop this poor treatment of E Class students. Everyone should be equal."

"Yes... I'd like that too."

Hina and Nora shared the same ideals of equality. While I didn't particularly dislike the system, I can only imagine how strongly both of them felt due to their treatment in this school. Hina was Royalty, yet despite standing at the top, her feelings of empathy for those at the bottom was very strong. Nora was a victim, who experienced first-hand how terrible this system was.

"Sorry for keeping you two from going to your lessons. Stay safe." Hina smiled and walked off.

Nora huffed, hugging his book close to his chest. His cheeks were all pink. Perhaps he has a crush on her. A lot of 1st Year boys do, after all. Hina was a wonderful girl that had both good personality and looks. Her standing as Royalty in this system also made dating her a big climb in social status.

Me and Nora walked to class silently. When we entered, the mood was really dark. As Chabashira-sensei had informed us earlier, since it was now the end of the week, the cruddy table and chairs we had were replaced with zabuton and chabudai. Some of the more optimistic students, like Matsushita, used this to have people sit around the table as if it were some kind of family gathering.

Even then, it never improved our feelings on the situation. It did make the classroom feel a bit more homey, but it felt embarrassing that this is what we're going to use for the remainder of our three years at this school.

Yukimura, who entered class later, was in an outrage over all this. Within five minutes, he broke his chabudai and no one dared approached him. Not even Mitsuba, his closest friend, was ready to take on Yukimura's terrible mood. He was taking this treatment from everyone else the worst.

"Stupid school... stupid Shibata... stupid Yahagi..."

Yukimura muttered to himself, slamming his fist against the broken table leg. The entire class grew ire of Yukimura's poor behaviour, since it would probably affect the class evaluation. It wasn't like it would matter anyways, since we were already at 0 points.

While most of us had learnt to behave now, the two gyaru, Fujimura and Suzuki, continued to act however they pleased. Chabashira-sensei entered class to start homeroom, while they entered class late again. Of course, they didn't take the new seating arrangements too well either, and complained throughout the homeroom.

However, when Chabashira-sensei finished talking to the class, Matsushita stood up and went to the front of the class. Standing behind the podium, he began speaking.

"Everyone, can I please have a moment to talk all of you? I want to first say that..."

Matsushita was softly shaking as he began to speak. While he was good at public speaking, the bags under his eyes showed that he hadn't gotten much sleep recently. The stress of being an E Class student was slowly getting to him.

"I want to first say that, everyone here did a great job at enduring the first week. The way that we've been treated is wrong and unfair. Let's continue head-first, and stay vigilant against the system. Let's work hard, together, to rise to D Class. As a collective class, we're stronger. If we can't rely on other classes, then let's rely on each other. We don't have to hurt each other, because I'm sure... I'm sure your peers have already hurt you for other reasons."

Matsushita's hands curled tightly on the podium's sides. Gritting his teeth, he quickly undid his tie and dangled it in front of everyone.

"Don't let this... don't let something as stupid as this dictate how we live our lives in this school! Even if everyone beats us down, this school promotes freedom! We aren't held back at all by something as meaningless as class ranks! Everyone here has their own specialities, skills, wants and needs! I'm not going to reach everyone's hearts, but at the very least... let's show this school that E Class doesn't have to be the loser class! That E Class isn't weak! That E Class won't bend to their will!"

Following Matsushita, Sakigamiya stood up and undid her tie, dangling it in her hands. Demiza and Hono followed. Mitsuba and Akihiro joined in as well. Soon, almost all the entire class joined Matsushita's rousing speech and figurative actions.

"We are strong! We are E Class! We are Drachma Red students! Let's be proud of ourselves, and not listen to what the school says!"

The whole class broke into spirited uproar. Magnificently, the once divided E Class had banded together, even if it was for a short moment. Even though not all of us joined in the symbol of liberty Matsushita had set up, we all could agree that we couldn't let the school keep us down.

However, Chabashira-sensei who stood in the corner with her eyes closed an arms crossed seemed unamused. Considering her nine year experience in this, she could probably guess how far we'd manage to go. The former E Class students must have acted in a similar way, but none of them ever moved up the ranks. Did their spirits die out, or were they truly just defective students?

"I would also like to take this chance for us to come closer as a class together. I want everyone to share the abuse they've endured this week with everyone else. I know that it might sound uncomfortable or embarrassing, but bottling up these feelings inside won't help us or do us any good. Let's share our negative emotions with each other, and support each other with positivity. I'll start us off."

Matsushita chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck. Closing his eyes, he began to ramble.

"My friends in A Class, Ryouta-kun, Takizawa-kun, and Masamoto-kun, all disregarded me when I tried talking to them. Masamoto-kun ignored me, and Ryouta-kun and Takizawa-kun told me that I should go play with the other defectives, and not associate with elite like them. It didn't help that my other friends in B Class, like Kirishima-kun and Yukada-kun, were friendly for a bit, only to tell me to my face that because of the way this school works, they no longer wanted to be friends. It hurt, a lot... I was being rejected left and right. I felt lonely."

Matsushita opened his weakness up to the class. That took some courage to admit.

"Is there anyone else would who like to talk about it?"

Yukimura stood up and stamped on his splintered chabudai.

"Yeah, I've got a story. Those stupid D Class delinquents like Shigeru and Takemoto are always trying to pick a fight with me, and if they aren't, they're always trying to mess with Mitsuba and Nora!"

Mitsuba nodded, while Nora looked away.

"I'm sick of seeing my friends get harassed, but they keep trying to bait me to fight them. But trying to hold my fist back is getting really hard. Not to mention that stupid Yahagi from A Class banned me from going to the football pitch because I was in E Class! I can't even play football anymore! I hate this school!"

"Yeah, those delinquents in D Class are really annoying. How are we worse than them?" Mitsuba said. "I know I have poor grades, but at least I don't act like a pack of wild animals. The worst of them is a guy named Takenaka."

"Do you mean Takenaka Mikitaka-kun? The delinquent of delinquents?" Matsushita said.

"Yes, that delinquent of delinquents. He deserves to be in E Class! He's the worst!" Mitsuba continued to complain.

"It's not just the boys that are suffering too. There's a really mean girl in C Class named Kinoshita-san, and she was picking a fight with me the other day. She acts like she's queen and I'm sick of her dumb face." Hono said.

"Kinoshita-san is so mean... she called me a fat virgin! Just because I was walking in front of her!" Tanaka said.

Well, Tanaka was actually the fattest person in our class. He was your stereotypical gaming otaku, but kept to himself. I'm pretty sure I saw him in Denki Electronics when I purchased my laptop. I did feel bad for him though, since I was also called a virgin by Suzune.

I'm really shocked. Suzune has really changed for the worst, it seemed.

"Talk about a mean girl. You know her friend, Houki-san? She apparently got 100 marks on that exam from last month." Sakigamiya said with a disgusted face.

"Ugh, annoying. I don't like Houki-san either. I'm glad I'm not in the same class as them." Hono said.

"Not every girl is bad, though. In B Class, there's a really nice girl named Ichinose-san. She's the only one who didn't reject me when I went to sit with her and her friends for lunch." Demiza said. "Everyone was so surprised by Ichinose-san's openness, but they let me eat with them because of her."

"Ah, Ichinose-san's so nice! I love her! She's like B Class' leader though, right? We might have to fight her one day in a war or something." Hono said.

Ichinose is B Class' leader? That's useful information. If I'm going to rock this class to the top, I need to know who I'm going up against.

"This might not mean anything to you guys, but my sister, Tamaki, is in A Class. It's because of her that I haven't received any abuse yet. She's convinced them to leave me alone, just because I'm her sibling... and while I really appreciate it, I do, I also feel bad. I feel guilty that I'm lucky to have a person protecting me from all the things you guys have endured." Akihiro said. "At the same time, it's frustrating. That I'm in E Class, yet she's in A Class. I want to be in the same class as her. I don't want to disappoint my father!"

"Yeah... me too." Kawaguchi said. "My parents mean a lot to me. Being put in E Class is one of the worst situations ever, but I want to climb to the top. I want to make my mom and dad proud of me!"

Unlike everyone else, who had a reason for why they're fighting, the reason for why I'm fighting is paper thin at best. I just don't want to be the worst.

As everyone shared their experiences, there were a few not interested in what was going on. The loners like Ikesugi and Kouji kept quiet, and people like Tadokoro and Nora were too shy to talk about their abuse.

Yukina got up and sat across my table.

"Yuu-kun, has anything bad happened to you? You're awfully quiet."

I felt a bit embarrassed seeing her come over to me. It felt like she was taking pity at my current situation. It just reminded me how little I've changed or made progress at this school when it came to socialising and having friends. Even though I wasn't a loner, I still felt like one.

"Not really. I don't have much to say anyways."

I looked up at Yukina, who was smiling at me. How did I ever end up becoming friends with her anyways? I should feel lucky, yet instead I feel guilty. Before the school revelation happened, she was one of the most popular girls among the first years. It was surprising that someone like her would choose to hang out with someone as pathetic as me.

Even though we had drifted apart, she still tried talking to me. Even though she could talk to anyone else, she still chose me. I couldn't deny that I felt a bit happy, but at the same time, her reaching out to me is just part of her kind personality. As someone who cares about her friends, she's probably like this to everyone else too.

"Do you think I'm some kind of loner?" I asked.

"Hmm... I wouldn't consider you a loner. You play with Aki-kun, Nora-san, Mitsuba-san and people like that, don't you?"

It was true I spent time with them during break and lunch. But we never hung out outside of school, and they never made efforts to play with me during the weekends.

"Yeah."

"So, you're not a loner. You were always like this in middle school though."

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't stand out at all. Back then, I was your only friend. You were a really forgettable person, and you could blend into the background easily. You never made an effort to go outside, even if I invited you to play."

I can't tell whether she's trying to hurt me or not with those words. Sadly, they're all true.

I wish... I went out to play with her back then.

"Were you always so plain and gloomy, Yuu-kun?"

"Not really. I guess before middle school, I was a completely different person."

"Oh? What made you become like this?"

Somehow, the topic of my past came to surface again. Just as I was about to steer the conversation far away from that topic, Mikazuchi-sensei entered the classroom to begin our first lesson of today.

"Ah... let's talk after class." Yukina said as she quickly went back to her table.

Today's going to be a long school day.