Act 15: Scene 4

"I'm glad you understand, Miyacchi." Haruka gave her friend a smile, before turning towards Suzune. "Now then, Horikita-san, who will you work with in searching for our witness?"

"I was hoping to search with Ayanokouji-kun, but you were quicker than me in that aspect, Hasebe-san," Suzune said bluntly, which surprised Haruka, Kikyo, Kei, and even Kiyotaka himself. "There is no need to worry, though. Kushida-san and I will work together instead. With three groups searching for our mystery witness at the same time, we'll be able to cover more ground."

"Eh? You want to team up with me, Horikita-san?" Kikyo's eyes widened in surprise as she turned to face the black-haired girl.

Suzune merely nodded. "Yes. Since we are friends, I believe it would be easier and more comfortable for both of us to work alongside each other. Do you have a problem with this arrangement, Kushida-san?"

"N-Nothing...! Just a bit surprised that you're willing to team up with me, Horikita-san... hehe. Sure, let's team up!"

While she had a smile on her face that she showed to everyone else, it was far from what Kikyo truly felt. Okay, she was surprised that Horikita would make a statement about wanting to work with her, of all people... but it didn't do anything to calm her down from feeling pissed deep down.

"Urgh, why do I have to be stuck with her?! I wanted to work with Ayanokouji-kun. Ugh, fine. I'll let Hasebe-san have this one... but if she does this again, I won't hesitate to keep an eye on her. I've already got my hands full trying to compete against, like, ten other girls... I don't need another rival, damn it!"

Although, between having to work with the girl whom she wanted to expel and letting another girl be alone with Ayanokouji-kun... Kikyo hated having to do the latter more.

Meanwhile, Kiyotaka was simply staring at Suzune in complete wonder. "If someone told me a few months ago that this girl would be willing to work with other people and even accept some as her friends, then I never would have believed them," he said in his mind, feeling both surprised and impressed with how far she had come from the prideful girl that he used to know.

"Horikita-san and Kushida-san will work together, got it. What about you, Karuizawa-san?" Haruka noted, before turning to the one person who wasn't paired with someone yet.

Kei thought about what she should do for a moment. In truth, she shared the same desire as Suzune and Kikyo, wanting to work with Kiyotaka as well but Haruka had gotten to him first. She thought of asking if she could join Kiyotaka and her so they could cover more ground as a three-person group, but thought twice about it.

Their priority right now was to help Miyake and if they fail to do that, their whole class will be affected as a whole. Not only that, but she also felt bad for him and his current situation, so she would do her best to help him! And hey, it's not like Hasebe was thinking of stealing Kiyotaka away, right? She was more focused on helping Miyake, and Kei knew that she had to do the same.

"Well, since you're all taken already, I'll have to team up with someone else. So, if you don't mind him knowing about all this, maybe we can ask Hirata-kun to help out?" Kei suggested, bringing up another name that quickly popped into her mind while thinking of someone who could help them.

Haruka nodded slowly in agreement. "Hirata-kun will surely understand the situation if we explain everything to him. Miyacchi, are you fine with him knowing?" she asked, turning her attention back to her friend.

Akito looked uneasy, but had no problem with the idea at all. "Uh, sure..."

"Okay," Haruka nodded, as she turned back to face Kei. "Karuizawa-san, you can work with Hirata-kun. But before that, me and Miyacchi will just tell him about this whole thing... maybe after we're done here."

The blonde gyaru nodded in agreement. "I'll leave it to the both of you, then."

"Then that's settled. We all know what to do, so we'll get started tomorrow. We only have less than a week to find our two witnesses and we can't waste any time. The moment one of us finds a lead on them, tell someone about it right away. The only thing that could mess this up is if one of us can't tell the others about what we find," Haruka explained to all of them, earning nods from Ken, Kayano, Kei, and Kikyo. Suzune and Kiyotaka didn't answer in any way, but they understood what had to be done.

"Then I'll make a group chat for all of us! That way, we can easily talk to each other whenever we need to, and we can easily tell one another about our findings while we look for our witness!"

"If you do, then kindly leave me out of it, Kushida-san?" Suzune told her friend with folded arms.

"Ehhh? But you're also helping us, right? How else could we talk to you, Horikita-san?"

"You can always send me a message or call me, I don't see the need to be added to a group where the only thing I can do is talk to the people who I'm also classmates with."

Kiyotaka just gave them a blank stare, before turning towards Haruka.

"I'm gonna go on ahead, Hasebe. I'll see you both tomorrow," he told his blue-haired classmate as he turned around and began to head to the door.

"W-Wait, let me walk with you! I want to go home too," Kikyo exclaimed, forgetting her interaction with Suzune just now in favor of walking home with the boy she liked.

"Me too! Don't you dare leave without me, Ayanokouji-kun," Kei spoke as well, shooting Kiyotaka a little frown before following him and Kushida.

"Hmm..." Even without saying anything, Suzune made her intentions clear with her actions by following Kiyotaka and her two other classmates. Like him, Suzune also felt that she had no more business being here and simply wanted to be left in the confines of her room now. Not to mention, she was still feeling a bit embarrassed to be around Kiyotaka right now, which was a little hypocritical because she was about to walk back to her dorm unit with him.

"You're leaving already, Ayanokouji? I could, uh... fix you all something to eat? Just a little snack before you go..." asked Miyake, feeling that he should do something for his classmate at the very least, especially after Kiyotaka swore that he would help in finding the eyewitness to this case.

"Thanks for the offer, but no. I'm feeling sleepy and I want to lie down already..." he told Miyake right away.

While he wasn't lying about wanting to be with Bed-chan by now, Kiyotaka felt that he was done here and had nothing left to do. Of course, he will continue to think about this peculiar case and try to figure out who Akito's attackers are, but he couldn't do either of those here...

He also didn't want to know what would happen if Haruka walked back to her dorm unit with him, especially since she lived on the same floor as him and his other heroines. He didn't want to set a record for fastest time in losing a heroine's trust or worse, cause the system to activate for making Haruka sad.

"Well, you four can go on ahead. We're gonna stay for a while to talk about this a little more," Kayano smiled at their classmates who were about to leave, with her red-haired companion doing the same.

"Well, before you go..." the blue-haired girl spoke, causing Kiyotaka to stop in his tracks and turn to her. "Thank you again, Ayanokouji-kun. I was honestly expecting that you wouldn't really care about this whole thing, not that I would blame you for it."

"Don't worry about it. Like I said earlier, we're classmates, so it isn't weird for us to look out for each other. Not to mention, letting things happen without doing anything about it will get our whole class in trouble," Kiyotaka explained himself. "I don't know if I'll be able to help much, but I'll do my best to make sure that nothing bad happens to Miyake."

"With you, Kushida-san, Karuizawa-san, Horikita-san, Sudo-kun, Onodera-san, and soon enough, Hirata-kun as well..." Haruka smiled warmly at him. "I think we'll be fine. I know we can get through this, as long as we do this together."

The young man nodded slowly, before waving his arm in farewell. "See you tomorrow, Hasebe. Miyake."

"Bye, Miyake-kun!"

"See you guys tomorrow!"

Kiyotaka and Suzune were the first ones to leave the room, while Kikyo and Kei uttered their own words of farewell first before stepping outside as well. With that, they closed the door to Akito's unit and walked down the hallway together, heading to the elevator. None of them spoke for a while, obviously due to the fact that they were still thinking about everything that just happened back there... and how it affects their whole class.

"Do you think we'll be able to find the person who saw Miyake-kun and those Class C students yesterday?" asked Kikyo, turning to her companions for some encouragement because even she was worried for what might happen to their class if they're not able to help Akito with his case.

Suzune chose to speak up in response, but her face remained as cold and serious as ever. "I have no doubt we will, as long as there really is a witness, Kushida-san."

"Wait... you don't believe that there is one, Horikita-san?" Kikyo raised an eyebrow, noticing something strange about her reply.

"I do," Suzune reaffirmed. "However, we must also be prepared for the scenario in which there was no witness at all. Focusing solely on finding a potential witness will not work in our favor, because there is also the possibility that no one steps up to say that they saw the whole incident, or there was no one around to witness it at all."

"What are we gonna do if that's really the case? I mean, even if there's no witness, we still have to try and help Miyake-kun," Kei asked, now feeling interested in this conversation as the group stopped in front of the elevator.

"That's the reason why I'm planning to check on Class C tomorrow with Kushida-san. I want to observe that class and see the students there for myself. I wish to observe and see who among them could be the culprits."

Kiyotaka raised an eyebrow curiously, while Kei and Kikyo were equally surprised at her plan of action. "Ehhh? Are you sure that you can figure out who attacked Miyake-kun just by looking at them, Horikita-san?" asked Kushida.

Suzune shook her head. "No. But through this, I will be able to familiarize myself with that class and I could even take a photo of them, which I can then show Miyake-kun and have him point out who are the people that attacked him."

Kei thought about that idea for a moment, and she found herself feeling impressed with it as a whole. Doing a direct approach and observing Class C while they're in their classroom is a good move, indeed. It just had one big problem attached to it, which would likely cause that plan to go up in smoke in no time at all.

"Don't you think that you'll look suspicious in their eyes when they see you outside of their classroom, just staring at the people inside? You'll be caught by them before you even get the chance to take a picture of the whole class. And didn't you say that it wouldn't be enough even if we find out who attacked Miyake-kun?"

"That's why Horikita wanted to work with Kushida. It's because of Kushida's widespread influence among the first-years by now that she can appear outside of Class C's classroom without looking suspicious. While the eyes of the students from Class C are on her, Horikita will observe them in secret. Yes, she also said that it wouldn't be enough even if we found out who were the ones that attacked Miyake, and she's right. However, finding out the true perpetrators of the whole thing will allow her to observe them carefully and see if there's anything suspicious about them that can count as possible evidence," Kiyotaka explained, surprising both Karuizawa and Kushida with his sudden response. "That's your plan, isn't it?"

"Not bad, Ayanokouji-kun," Suzune smirked at him lightly as the elevator doors opened, and the group stepped inside. "There you have it, Karuizawa-san. There's no need for me to say anything else, because Ayanokouji-kun already said everything that I had in mind."

"I guess it's a good plan..." Kei shrugged, finding nothing wrong with her classmate's idea in the end.

"That's a pretty solid plan, Horikita-san... but what if the Class C students continue to be suspicious of me?" asked Kikyo. As much as she had confidence in herself to be able to get most students' attention, she wasn't stupid to think that she can charm literally everyone.

"Then we can always talk to Shiina-san alone outside of their classroom," she replied, causing Kei and Kikyo to widen their eyes. "She's a part of Class C, isn't she? She must be well-acquainted with her classmates by now to be able to tell which of them is the most prone to starting trouble."

"I didn't really think of that," Kikyo mumbled as she realized how much Suzune's plan made sense, before a sudden thought came to her mind. "Wait, so does that mean... we're not looking for a witness tomorrow? We're just going to check on Class C to look for the people who attacked Miyake-kun?"

As Kushida asked that question, the elevator had reached the 4th floor and the group stepped out into the hallway as they began to walk back to their respective dorm units.

"Ayanokouji-kun, Hasebe-san, Sudo-kun, Onodera-san, Hirata-kun, and Karuizawa-san will be enough to search for those potential witnesses. Of course, that is if there really is a witness. If there isn't any, then it falls on us to find Miyake-kun's attackers."

"I guess that sounds fair... but I still think that there's someone who saw the whole thing. I can't imagine Miyake-kun being able to treat all of his wounds alone without the help of someone else. There's gotta be a person who brought him to the clinic at least..."

Kiyotaka kept a secret glance towards Suzune up until they reached their rooms. Even while he was saying goodbye to Kei as she hugged him before stepping inside her unit, his attention was solely directed towards Suzune. Even after Kikyo did the same as she bid farewell to him, he continued to glance at his black-haired neighbor. Even after Suzune herself looked red in the face for some reason as they were left alone in the hallway before eventually disappearing into her room, Kiyotaka had his attention towards her.

For the next minute or two, Kiyotaka stood alone out in the hallway, not even caring if he would get seen by another girl who lived on this floor. His usual apathetic look was on full display, before it slowly transformed into a tiny smile of acknowledgement as the young man finally stepped inside his dorm with one thought in mind.

"Your plan isn't half-bad, Horikita. I suppose I'll hold off on my own plan of action for now and see where your idea leads you. I hope you don't disappoint me."