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Youkoso V10 Epilogue Part 2

6

"Pardon the intrusion~"

Naturally, Ibuki and Ishizaki were surprised upon seeing the visitor who had appeared before us.

They had probably never imagined that they would meet this person here.

"Seriously…?"

"Woah."

"Oh! I definitely thought there might've been someone else here too… Good evening."

"G-good evening."

For some reason, Ishizaki had become a little flustered.

The person who had come to my room was none other than Ichinose Honami.

And currently, she was sitting together with Ibuki and Ishizaki from Class D.

Having seen Ichinose, Ibuki finally seemed to understand the big picture of what was going on.

"We've got matching interests, don't we Ichinose?"

"It sure looks like it, Ibuki-san."

"Huh? What do you mean, Ibuki?"

Ishizaki tilted his head to the side, still unable to put all the pieces together.

"Ishizaki. Nobody's crazy enough to actually want to save Ryūen. Even if, hypothetically speaking, someone were to show up and say they'd help vote for him, there's no way to know whether they'd really stick to their word or not. Although… There are exceptions to that…"

"I-Is that so… Then, does that mean Ichinose and everyone in Class B are gonna…!?"

Finally, everything clicked, and Ishizaki seemed to understand what was about to happen.

"Yup. I'll appeal to everyone in Class B and ask them to cast every single one of our forty praise votes for Ryūen-kun. In return, Ibuki-san will cover the private points we're missing."

It was a sure-fire strategy that could only be used once.

There was Ichinose, who had the intuition to stockpile her classmate's private points ever since the first day of school, and there was Ryūen, who had continued to hoard private points because of the contract he had made with Class A.

It was the ultimate power play that could only be put into action because of the circumstances surrounding these two specific people.

"If you two joined forces, no one will be expelled from Class B and Ryūen won't have to leave Class D."

No matter what, Ryūen would only end up with a maximum of thirty-nine censure votes.

With the protection of Class B, that outcome would be eliminated completely thanks to the praise votes he would get.

Ibuki and Ichinose looked each other in the eye.

When two people aren't usually involved with one another, there's no reason for them to enter into a relationship built on trust like this.

However, by facing each other eye to eye, it's possible to determine whether or not they're trustworthy, at least to a certain extent.

After a moment, Ichinose shifted her gaze away from Ibuki and looked at me.

"With twenty million points, I'll save one of my classmates… Right?"

Leaving me with that question, she then turned her gaze back to Ibuki.

"What will you do, Ichinose? It's up to you to decide whether you accept it or not."

I spoke up, responding to her uncertainty. She had the right to choose the outcome for herself.

After all, she still had the option to reject Ibuki's proposal and borrow the points from Nagumo instead.

"I've made up my mind. As long as Ibuki-san and Ishizaki-kun are alright with it, I'm willing to do what I can."

"Are you really fine with that?"

"Yes. I've been able to make sure that their sincerity is real."

"You're an idiot, aren't you Ichinose?"

"Eh!? Ibuki-san!?"

"Even though all sorts of cruel rumors were going around about you, you still chose to save up all those points. I can't believe you're gonna throw 'em all away for something like this."

"Well, I can just save up the points all over again. It's clearly not impossible to accumulate close to twenty million points in just a year. Besides, I don't think you're in any position to say that, Ibuki-san. You could just pocket those five million points for yourself right now, but you've decided to use them all for Ryūen-kun's sake instead."

Ibuki quietly looked away without giving her a direct answer to that.

"You and I are different. Besides, someone else's gonna end up bawling their eyes out as they pack their bags in Ryūen's place. In fact, that person could just as well end up being me."

"But you're still saving Ryūen-kun, aren't you?"

"It… It just pisses me off that he's running away before I can pay him back for this stupid loan I took from him, that's all there is to it."

Ibuki would provide salvation to Ichinose, fully prepared to face the potential disdain from her classmates.

And just like that, Ibuki transferred the predetermined amount of private points to Ichinose.

"Confirm everything on your end."

"Will do."

Ichinose immediately took a look at her points, checking to make sure she had received the points.

"Thank you. It arrived beautifully."

She showed the number on her phone, proving to all of us that she had exactly twenty million points in her account.

"I'll be acting as a witness to this negotiation. I'll have you all know now that I've also been recording the contents of this conversation."

Out of the interest of fairness, I took out my cell phone.

"Ibuki is offering about four million points. In return, Ichinose and the rest of her classmates will cast their praise vote for Ryūen, for a total of forty votes. If there is a breach of this agreement…"

"I wouldn't have fulfilled my end of the deal, so I'd take the initiative and drop out school myself."

Of course, none of us actually thought that something like that would happen.

In practice, the school would also take record of any transactions that consisted of a large number of points, so if Ichinose went against her word, it wouldn't be surprising if the transaction was determined to be fraudulent with that alone.

However, Ibuki and Ishizaki knew they were making a deal with none other than Ichinose Honami herself, so they probably felt like they could entrust it to her safely.

This was the story of the events that had taken place between Ishizaki, Ibuki, Ichinose, and myself.

7

The backside of the school building was quiet.

"You claimed that it would've been easy for you to avoid expulsion if you took things seriously. It was because you knew you could've done it this way, wasn't it?"

"Sure. I knew that Ichinose chick was saving up her points. She goes around acting like such a good-natured person too. She never seemed to like me much, but I still thought there was room for negotiation. That said, I was certain Ibuki didn't have the wit or skill to negotiate with Ichinose using the points, so I felt pretty comfortable leaving them with her, it's just… I didn't think you'd get involved in it."

"Ibuki and Ishizaki just happened to ask me for help, so I made use of them for what I could. After all, as far as I was concerned, this was nothing more than a great opportunity for me to build trust with Ichinose. If I had them go to you directly, you would've seen through the plan. I can't imagine you would've given Ibuki the points in that case."

"You made the right choice not to explain anything to her then."

If I had explained everything to her, Ryūen would've gotten suspicious and seen through what I was doing behind the scenes.

"Were you the one who targeted Manabe?"

Considering that Kei had once been the target of Manabe's bullying, it was only natural for him to reach that conclusion.

"No, that was just a coincidence. You know that she was on bad terms with Ibuki too, right?"

"I see. So she made the big decision, eh? Manabe ended up miserably bawling her eyes out."

I could vaguely imagine what her reaction must've been like after hearing her name called.

"So you're sayin' I was saved by Ishizaki and Ibuki, huh? What an annoying gift they've given me."

"I guess."

I wasn't going to delve any further into this. If Ibuki and Ishizaki hadn't visited my room that day, I would've probably brought up my plan with Hiyori instead.

Then, I would've had her collect Ryūen's private points and do the same thing I had Ibuki do.

I had done all of this in order to have Ichinose owe me a favor. At the same time, I didn't want Ryūen to be expelled for some reason I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I had carried these complicated thoughts with me throughout the entire exam.

"What are you gonna do if there's another exam like this one later?"

"Kuku. Who knows?"

He didn't say that he wouldn't do anything.

Among other things, Ryūen probably felt at least somewhat thankful for what Ishizaki and Ibuki had done.

Things might become much more interesting if Ryūen ends up making a comeback in the not-so-distant future.

Of course, whether or not that would happen would be entirely up to him.

My phone began to ring. I took a look at the caller ID to find that it was none other than Ichinose.

Having noticed what was happening, Ryūen turned around and walked back into the school building without saying another word. I answered the call and spoke.

"It seems Class B made it through the exam without losing anyone."

[Yup. Kanzaki-kun volunteered himself to be the one everyone voted against. Once we did, it was announced that he'd be expelled once the results came back. After that, I paid the full twenty million points and negated his expulsion. There were some difficulties, but everyone in Class B managed to get through the exam safely.]

"Is that so? The price you paid wasn't exactly cheap."

Although it was only for the time being, Class B was now poorer than Class D.

Points would be redistributed again in April, but daily life was going to be quite tough for them until then.

Additionally, once the second year begins, having private points readily available might be important.

Though, there was no need to look into that at this point in time.

[We've lost our private points, but we can always make them back again. But, if we had lost even a single person, there would've been no way to get them back.]

Ichinose spoke without any indecision in her voice. It seemed as though I had said something unnecessary.

It was clear that she had set her mind on graduating together with every single one of her precious classmates.

[Ryūen-kun might not be satisfied with this, though. It seems that Manabe-san ended up being expelled in his place.]

I decided not to mention that I had just seen Ryūen a few moments ago and simply ignored the first part of what she had said.

"Were you close with Manabe, Ichinose?"

[Not exactly. We've only ever spoken once or twice, I guess. It still feels kinda lonesome though. Class A's Totsuka-kun and Class C's Yamauchi-kun are also gone…]

She probably hadn't been able to make sense of it all yet.

[I wonder if somebody's gonna have to leave like this again at some point?]

Ichinose pondered uneasily.

"Maybe."

People you had grown accustomed to seeing every day, suddenly disappearing.

"You would just have to keep fighting, wouldn't you?"

[Yup. I'm gonna rise up to Class A together with all my friends and graduate.]

Before today, there were probably still some people who thought that Ichinose was a hypocrite.

However, with this, that impression would be gone.

No matter what, Ichinose would fight to the bitter end in order to protect her class.

[…Thank you so much, Ayanokōji-kun. If you weren't here, I…]

"Would've started dating Nagumo?"

[…Yeah.]

Ichinose responded, affirming my answer.

[I know it's stupid of me, it's just… I kept trying to convince myself that it would've been a small price to pay as long as I saved my classmates. But… once I realized that I didn't have to go through with it, I felt relieved from the bottom of my heart.]

She seemed to let out a deep sigh of relief as I could hear the sound of it from the other end of the phone.

[I think I definitely would have regretted it at some point.]

With that, Ichinose let out a laugh.

"If neither the student council president or I were here, what would you have done instead?"

[…Do you have to ask that?]

"I'm curious. There's no way you haven't thought about it, right?"

[Yeah, I had two plans. The first was that I would leave the school myself.]

As I had thought, Ichinose had also considered sacrificing herself.

[But, I didn't really think that would be the choice to make. As a student of this school, I wanted to stay and fight to the bitter end.]

In which case, that would mean her other plan would've been her first choice.

[The other plan was to… hold a lottery.]

"I see…"

It was a simple enough plan that anybody could've thought of, but it would never work unless everyone agreed to it.

"Was everyone in Class B prepared to draw lots like that?"

[Yup, we had already discussed it. If we hadn't come up with a way to avoid the expulsion by the day of the vote, we would've drawn three random names in a lottery. We didn't bother talking about who the praise votes would go to and just decided the rest would play out on its own.]

It was the only way to judge all the students equally, without considering their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Even if Ichinose had been selected, the votes against her would've probably been canceled out by praise votes. Although, everyone would've probably been fine with that anyway.

"That would've been about as fair as you could've made it, but it would've never happened in the other classes."

The more outstanding students definitely wouldn't agree to a plan like that.

[It's not like anybody actually wanted to be expelled, but nobody wanted to see our friends disappear either. Once I explained this to everyone, they agreed to the plan.]

Class B was probably only able to accomplish a feat like that because they had an absolute leader like Ichinose.

"I'm impressed."

Despite the fact that it wouldn't be communicated over the phone, I lowered my head slightly as a show of respect to Ichinose.

In and of itself, her plan wasn't particularly extraordinary.

It was simply impressive that she had created an environment where a plan like that could be executed in the first place.

[Alrighty, well, I'll talk to you later. Thank you once again, Ayanokōji-kun.]

"I was just the middleman. If you're going to thank anybody, you should thank Ryūen and his friends."

8

Afterward, I found out that I had received an email on my phone.

"Sakayanagi, huh?"

I didn't know how she found out about my email address, but I figured I might as well go and meet up with her.

I had thought that she would come and see the results on the bulletin board, but…

As per Sakayanagi's message, I headed toward the special building where she said she'd be waiting.

Even though it was almost past the time she had requested for us to meet, I figured that if I left now, we'd still be able to run into each other.

Once I got to the special building, I immediately went to the place where we had talked last time.

"So you finally came."

"Seeing that you have my email address, you must have gotten your hands on my phone number as well."

"I didn't call because I didn't think it would be much of an issue if I didn't get to see you today."

"What do you want?"

"For the time being, there's something I'd like to explain to you."

As she spoke, she leaned forward a little bit on her cane, shortening the distance between us.

"Since I had done something a little bit disorderly, I thought you might be somewhat uneasy, but it seems my worries were uncalled for."

Of course, Sakayanagi was referring to how she had manipulated Yamauchi into concentrating all the censure votes on me.

"When you talked to me about delaying our match, I was already ninety-percent certain you were telling the truth. I just didn't trust you completely, so I took some measures of my own, just in case."

"I know. Though, you agree that I didn't break our agreement, right?"

"You didn't do anything that put me at a disadvantage. You didn't lie."

While I had been forced to endure at least some degree of mental stress, if we only consider the outcome, I had ended up with an overwhelming number of praise votes.

No matter how I looked at it, there was no reason for me to hold anything against Sakayanagi.

"Thank you very much."

Sakayanagi bowed her head slightly to show her gratitude.

"Incidentally… Totsuka-kun should've ended up with a total of thirty-eight censure votes, but ultimately only got thirty-six. You voted for him, didn't you?"

"I wasn't certain of anything, but when you said you wanted to have Katsuragi expelled, it felt like it was just a bluff."

In which case, I felt like the chances were higher that she was targeting Yahiko, Katsuragi's supporter, instead.

Even though my vote hadn't changed anything, I had ended up casting it for him anyway.

"How wonderful. As I thought, you're definitely the real deal. The perfect opponent."

"So? Was all of this just your attempt to mess with me?"

"Well… I'd be lying if I said it wasn't, but there is a reason why I said that I wanted to postpone our match. I mentioned something similar not too long ago, but this provisional exam is undoubtedly something that a certain someone prepared in order to have you expelled from the school. In fact, this someone has already happened to send me a message requesting me to help get you expelled."

"A message?"

"Yes. It was probably from the same person who had gotten my father temporarily kicked out of office. Originally, they had set up the provisional exam with slightly different rules. The votes that classes would use on each other were going to be censure votes, not praise votes, so there's no mistaking what their goal was. That would've been quite the unreasonable exam, don't you agree?"

"If that had happened, it wouldn't matter who the student is, if you were colluded against by the other classes, you'd be forced out of school."

It would've been an unreasonable exam where even Sakayanagi and Ichinose would be at risk if the other classes were out to get them.

"Exactly. It seems the current school staff were vehemently opposed to it and managed to change that part of it. Besides, I would never cooperate with that person anyway. That wouldn't be any fun at all. That's why, in order to ensure your safety, I decided to use all of Class A's praise votes on you. That way, even if someone had been up to something behind the scenes, it would've been impossible for you to be expelled."

"Then, why did you pick Yamauchi? Was it just random chance?"

"Do you not remember? He bumped into me and knocked me over during the Mixed Training Camp. Furthermore, he was quite rude about it."

Something like that did happen back then.

"It was revenge for that."

She had targeted him just because of something simple like that?

For Sakayanagi, that alone might've been more than enough of a reason.

"However, all I did was light the fire. In the end, he was burned because he was a burden to his class."

"I guess."

Even if Sakayanagi hadn't interfered with the exam, the end result would've probably been about the same.

"Those were the main reasons I had asked to postpone our match. At the same time, I wouldn't mind seeing my father return to his position so the school can return to normal, but…"

Suddenly, within the empty special building, someone new had arrived.

"Hello hello."

A lone man dressed in a suit appeared before us.

"This is my first time at this school. Do either of you know where the staff room is?"

"If you're looking for the staff room, then you've come to the wrong place. That said, please excuse my lack of manners, but may I know who's asking?"

"My name is Tsukishiro. I'll be working as the acting director of the school for the time being."

He waved his hand politely and gave the two of us a seemingly gentle smile.

He was probably in his forties, somewhere around Sakayanagi's father's age.

"Fufu, is that so? It seems that Mr. Acting Director has quite the poor sense of direction, seeing as how you just so happened to wander your way here. Or, perhaps… you had decided to pay us a visit after seeing the two of us meet on the security camera last time? This is the same place Ayanokōji-kun and I had used to meet secretly at the beginning of the exam. It wouldn't be very hard for you to come here if you had always been keeping an eye on it."

As she spoke, I recalled the unnatural look Sakayanagi had given the camera last time we were here.

If someone had really been watching us last time, it would've been easy to lure them out next time we came here.

Not only had Sakayanagi thought of this plan ahead of time, but the person in question seemed to have fallen for it.

The acting director simply smiled and ignored what she had been implying.

"You say very interesting things. Though, I suppose I've heard that this is quite the amusing school. I wonder if all the students here are like you? Either way, please, pardon me."

The man proceeded to walk forward, as if he was attempting to walk between the two of us.

"Since you're looking for the staff room, I suggest you go back the way you came. You're in the wrong building."

With the same smile as always, Tsukishiro kicked Sakayangi's cane out from under her as she attempted to give him directions.

Naturally, there was no way for her to react to something so unexpected, so she began to fall over.

With an exclamation of surprise, I quickly reached out and grabbed ahold of her to stop her from falling, only to be immediately met with a strike from his elbow aimed at my body.

Unable to take evasive measures while holding onto Sakayanagi, I was forced to take the blow. I resisted the impact to the best of my ability and let Sakayanagi down to the floor. He came at me again in quick succession, seizing me by the neck and pinning me against the wall with bewildering, superhuman strength.

"You're not as good as rumors say, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka-kun."

He was pressing against my throat so hard that I couldn't make a sound.

It was hard to imagine his strength based on his outward appearance. It felt like it would be difficult to break free of his hold.

"…You've gone and done something quite reprehensible, Mr. Acting Director."

"I know you were sent instructions to have him expelled, Sakayanagi."

"So that message was from one of your associates then? Since school officials aren't able to explicitly force an expulsion, it's understandable that you would come to rely on someone like me."

Sakayanagi smiled as she slowly got up from the floor.

"Thank you for helping me, Ayanokōji-kun."

It would've been impossible for Sakayanagi to avoid that given her physical handicap.

There was even a chance that it wouldn't have ended with just a fall.

"Do you believe your violent behavior against students will go unnoticed, Mr. Acting Director?"

"There's no need for me to worry about it. The surveillance cameras in this area have been doctored to show dummy footage."

In other words, no matter what happened, there wouldn't be any recording of it.

"Now then, Ayanokōji, I have a message from your father. He has no interest in playing this childish game anymore and wants you to come home immediately. How about you blink twice if you understand?"

I was unable to speak a single word, and furthermore, wasn't even given an option to refuse.

This was really something 'that man' would do.

"So you have no intention of making this easy for yourself?"

In response to my complete, unresponsive silence, the acting director began to mumble as he got bored.

"Why don't you show a little bit of resistance? Show me something a normal kid couldn't."

His hold on my throat became even stronger.

He was a thoroughly trained, skilled opponent that an ordinary student wouldn't be able to deal with.

"There's more to you than just observation skills, right? Why don't you show me what else you're capable of?"

He provoked me once again, but I still didn't show a single shred of resistance.

In the end, Tsukishiro realized that I had no intention of fighting back and loosened his grip.

"I officially take office at this school in April. Please do look forward to it."

With that, the man walked out of the special building.

"That was a wise choice, Ayanokōji-kun."

Sakayanagi praised me for putting up with his actions and restraining myself from fighting back.

"He's the acting director. Had I chosen to retaliate, I don't know how he would've used it against me."

He said that the surveillance cameras had been doctored to show dummy footage, but there was no guarantee he hadn't recorded everything anyway. It would've been checkmate for me if I fought back and only his violent behavior was edited out from the video.

"Are you hurt?"

"Don't worry. I'm used to stuff like this. More importantly, Sakayanagi…"

"Yes? What is it?"

"Let's officially have our match in the next exam."

As I spoke, Sakayanagi's eyes seemed to widen in surprise.

"I never expected that you would say that sort of thing to me face-to-face."

"If that man is going to be involved starting in April, I don't think I can afford to compete with you for very long. I'll make it obvious to you where things stand and leave it with that."

"That's fine with me. I won't need a second or third time. I will gladly accept the privilege of being your opponent."

The final exam of the first year would begin soon, and that would mark the end of the confrontation Sakayanagi was hoping for.

9

Monday.

Amongst the students, at least some of them were probably wondering if Yamauchi would still be here.

Wondering if the expulsion had been nothing more than a bluff.

However, reality was not so merciful.

Since the events of the weekend, the number of desks in the classroom had decreased by one.

Yamauchi Haruki's place was already long gone.

The smile on Hirata's face had faded.

The smile on Kushida's face had too.

Neither Sudō nor Ike looked particularly energetic.

"-Without any further ado, I will now announce the final special exam."

Just like that, the first year's Class C advanced toward their final special examination.