416 Epilogue 2 : “The Dropouts”

Part 4

The lack of an expulsion from within Class B. The fact that Ryūen was still here.

I had been involved in both of these two noteworthy incidents behind the scenes.

It was back on the day when I had met with Hiyori at the library and invited Ichinose to my room.

That night, just past ten, the sound of the doorbell rang throughout my room.

I didn't have many friends who would come to my room to pay me a visit.

I considered whether or not it was Horikita, Kushida, or maybe even someone from the Ayanokōji Group, but in most cases, they would've sent me some sort of notification that they were coming ahead of time.

This time, however, I hadn't been notified of anything. That is to say, the person at the door wasn't anyone like that.

In which case, who in the world had come to visit me?

"…Well this is a first."

As I checked the intercom from within the depths of my room, I saw an unexpected duo displayed on the screen.

They seemed like they were cold as they waited for me to answer the door.

"Well… I suppose curfew is only enforced for the upper floors."

As a general rule, it's prohibited for a boy to enter a girl's living quarters after eight at night.

Well, even if you did break curfew, it wouldn't be a very big deal as long as word didn't get out. Plus, even if you got caught, the punishment wouldn't be very severe as long as it had only happened once or twice. In any case, there weren't any rules that prevented a girl from being the one to come and visit instead.

"Yes?"

After deciding to at least respond to them, I spoke through the intercom. Although, I wasn't exactly welcoming with how I phrased my words.

"…I'd like to talk if you have a moment."

Of the two of them, the boy began to speak, breaking the silence. He leaned forward and peered into the camera and a close-up of his pupil appeared on the screen.

It didn't seem that he wanted to have this talk over the intercom.

"Give me a moment."

I walked over to the entryway and unlocked the door, and upon doing so, it abruptly swung open. The boy, Class D's Ishizaki, entered my room right away.

If one was careless, the force at which the door had swung open could've hurt someone.

"Welcome. You should hurry and come in too. It's cold out there."

"Why do I have to…"

Ishizaki's classmate, Ibuki, voiced her dissatisfaction at my invitation inside.

"Who cares. Just get in here Ibuki."

"Ugh."

Giving in to Ishizaki's prodding, she walked through the entryway.

The cold air was certainly starting to make its way in, so I hastily closed the door behind her.

After thinking about how we would still feel the cold draft if we talked at the entryway, I invited them further into the room.

"So, what do you need from me, so late at night like this?"

At my question, Ishizaki immediately put his hands together and lowered his head.

<Illustration >

"Please, Ayanokōji! Tell us how to prevent Ryūen-san from getting expelled!"

"…What?"

These two had come barging in uninvited so late at night just to ask for such a ridiculous favor.

"Did I mishear you? Could you say that one more time?"

"I asked you to tell us how to prevent Ryūen-san from getting expelled!"

It didn't seem like I had misheard him.

"Just forget it, Ishizaki. There's no way Ayanokōji will cooperate with you."

Apparently, Ibuki and Ishizaki weren't on the same page. It didn't seem like she had come along to ask for my help.

"That… that's probably true, it's just… I can't think of anyone else other than Ayanokōji who could do something."

"It's not like I care. Oh, by the way, I'm only here because Ishizaki forced me to come along with him. He just wouldn't stop calling me…"

With a sigh, she exasperatedly showed me the screen of her phone.

There were more than fifty missed call notifications from Ishizaki.

"How could I go and ask him all alone!? He's our enemy!"

"It's the same even if I'm here with you. What an idiot."

"Shut yer mouth…"

Ishizaki and Ibuki proceeded to bicker with each other.

"Well, it doesn't seem like you were sent here by Ryūen."

If they were acting, it would've been quite the show, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

"There's no way we'd be here for that. Ryūen-san… wouldn't ask us to do something like this. You should understand at least that much."

"I suppose."

Ryūen had already washed his hands of school matters by making it seem like he had been defeated by Ishizaki.

In fact, it seemed like he was already fully resolved to leave the school.

Furthermore, even if he didn't plan on being expelled, he wouldn't have reached out to me for help.

There's no way he'd be willing to do something so shameful.

"Are you sure you don't want Ryūen gone? He's done all sorts of things to you."

Ibuki spoke up again, questioning Ishizaki.

"…Well… a lot of stuff did happen… But, it's different now."

"What is?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"I'm asking you what you mean by 'it's different now'."

"I've come to understand that Ryūen-san is important for the future of Class D."

"I don't get it. Don't you know how much we've had to go through because of him?"

These two had really come all the way here to see me without being on the same page at all.

Or, to put it more accurately, it was as if they were simply unable to communicate with one another.

"First of all, if you're gonna argue, do it later."

At my words, they stopped glaring at one another.

"Ugh. I wanna go back to my room."

However, they still didn't stop quarreling with each other. In particular, Ibuki still had a stern expression on her face.

"Don't say that. You have to help me persuade Ayanokōji too."

"I don't wanna."

"If you're gonna argue, go do it somewhere else."

Seeing as how there were no signs of the conversation moving forward any time soon, I decided to try asking something myself.

"Ryūen isn't very popular, even in Class C. It's just an outsider's perspective, but I'm not exactly wrong, now am I?"

"Well, uh… I guess some people may hate him, maybe…"

"What do you mean 'some people'? Almost everyone hates him. There's no point in lying about it."

"Just shut it! There's nothing wrong with what I said!"

"Ugh, you're so loud and annoying. By the way, you're spraying your spit everywhere while you talk, so stop shouting."

"I thought I said to save your arguing for later."

If they kept making so much noise in such a small room like this, the sound would be heard in the rooms around us.

I spoke up again, this time with a twinge of anger in my voice, and the two of them seemed to calm down a bit.

Had they realized that they were imposing on me uninvited?

With this, we were finally able to get on with the conversation.

"It would be unreasonably difficult to stop Ryūen from being expelled."

I spoke bluntly, without beating around the bush.

I felt like my intentions would come across better that way.

"I guess that's true."

Having understood what I was getting at, Ibuki nodded in agreement.

However, Ishizaki didn't seem to be willing to accept it so easily.

"Can't you do something, anything!?"

At the very least, his motivations were genuine. There was no doubting his drive to save Ryūen.

"You really want to stop Ryūen from leaving, don't you?"

"…Yeah."

Other than me, Ibuki, and a few others, most students were under the guise that Ishizaki detests Ryūen.

Of course, that was only a consequence of the incident between Ryūen and I. Even so, it was true that Ishizaki had been tyrannized by Ryūen many times up to this point. I didn't think that he would come and bow his head to me and beg me to save him when he obviously didn't want to.

This was probably also due to the emotional connection he had made with Ryūen over the course of the past year.

However, nobody would be struggling if this exam was something that could be overcome with emotions alone.

Ishizaki seemed to need a simple explanation as to why saving his friend was so difficult.

"There are two primary reasons why I think saving him is unreasonable. This provisional exam will be decided by the number of censure votes being used in your own class. Supposing that you, Ibuki, and two or three others don't vote against Ryūen and cast him a praise vote instead, it's still pretty likely that he'll end up with more than thirty censure votes. Secondly, nobody else actually wants to be expelled."

"B-but, I mean, there aren't very many people that think we can win and move forward without his strength, you know?"

It's true that there were probably at least a few students in Class D who recognize Ryūen's capabilities.

However, by itself, that reason wouldn't cut it.

That just wouldn't be enough of a reason to raise the possibility of getting expelled yourself.

"Nobody wants to expel someone. By targeting Ryūen, the most unpopular person in the class, it would cause the least amount of guilt."

It was just as Ibuki said.

"Even if you couldn't get out of Class D, you'd still wanna graduate safely, wouldn't you? It's not like anyone wants to be labeled a high school dropout."

Chances are, this type of discussion had already taken place within their class, something that was written all over Ishizaki's face.

"If you're being treated as the leader who spearheaded a revolt against Ryūen, then you've probably already heard about this, haven't you?"

Ishizaki nodded. After all, he had probably publicly supported Ryūen's expulsion due to the position he had found himself in.

"I think that other than Ibuki, Albert, and Shiina, everybody's in favor of expelling Ryūen-san."

"So it's checkmate no matter how you look at it, yeah?"

"Yeah, it's checkmate."

I responded to Ibuki's statement with simple affirmation.

"That's why I came here in the first place. You're the one who beat Ryūen-san, so…"

"You want to know if there's a way to stop the expulsion. Before we get to that, there's something I want to ask you."

"What…?"

"Saving Ryūen means that someone else from your class will have to be expelled instead. Do you understand that?"

This was an essential aspect of the exam. I had no choice but to hear how he would answer.

"That's… That's true, but…"

"If you really understand, do you have someone else in mind to take Ryūen's place?"

"N-no, not at all. I don't think I want to get rid of anyone."

"Then it sounds like there's a problem. This exam is designed to ensure that someone gets expelled."

This wasn't an exam where you could thoughtlessly talk about wanting to save someone.

"It's just as Ayanokōji said, isn't it? If you really want to save Ryūen, why don't you take the initiative and nominate yourself? If you ask everyone to vote for you instead, you might be able to save him."

Her cold-hearted idea was pretty much the same as abandoning Ishizaki, but, realistically speaking, it was probably the best option he had available.

Ryūen had accumulated a lot of hatred from his classmates. Even though he was talented enough to think of courageous, clever schemes that an ordinary person couldn't possibly come up with, once you consider that the class had fallen down to Class D under his leadership, the fact that he was getting cast aside was simply inevitable.

"There's… really no way to prevent anyone from being expelled?"

"That was everybody else's initial question too. In the end, they all gave up on trying to think of a solution."

"…He's right."

Ibuki let out a short, dejected sigh.

Rather than bothering to reach out to me for help, Ibuki had understood that it was unreasonable from the very beginning.

"As I said before, this is a complete waste of time. We can't change Ryūen's fate."

"Dammit…!"

Consumed with frustration, Ishizaki punched the wall beside him.

"I think Ryūen had planned on spending the next three years without doing anything. But, he probably changed his mind as soon as he heard about the supplemental exam. He probably thought that he had no other choice but to get expelled. That's why he decided to quietly sit back and wait for the exam to finish without saying anything, isn't it?"

Ishizaki didn't seem to think that Ryūen was doing it as a noble act of self-sacrifice either.

Ryūen simply wasn't bothering to resist what was coming to him.

"You have to consider Ryūen's feelings. It's your duty as someone who follows him."

"I, I…"

Ishizaki clenched his fists, filled with regret.

He really wants to save Ryūen, huh?

No matter how many enemies you have, it's not a bad thing to have friends who care about you.

He may not admit to it, but Ryūen has some good friends.

An idea started to take shape in my mind.

However, there were a few things that needed to happen before it could be carried out.

"If I had one piece of advice for you…"

"What is it!? It doesn't matter what it is, just tell me!"

Ishizaki lurched forward, desperately reaching out for any glimmer of hope he could.

But, unfortunately, those hopes of his weren't going to last for long.

"As things are now, Ryūen's private points will disappear along with him. If he's been receiving points from Class A this whole time, then he's ought to have saved up a least a couple million points by now. Right?"

"Yeah. As long as he hasn't used them, he should have around that much."

"There's no guarantee that his private points will be transferred or distributed amongst his classmates if he's still holding onto them when he gets expelled. That being the case, you should transfer all of his points elsewhere before his expulsion is set in stone. They'll be useful for Class D later on."

If the points were distributed amongst Class D, they would lose their value as a lump sum. It would be better for them to transfer everything into their own pockets now.

I was certain that Ryūen would at least agree to that.

"T-this isn't what I wanted to hear from you! I want to know how to save Ryūen-san!"

"Give it up Ishizaki. There's no point in saying any more than this."

Ibuki reprimanded Ishizaki with a light kick before turning to me and continuing.

"That said, Ayanokōji. I'm not gonna go and pick up the points Ryūen saved up."

She spoke definitively. Instead of going to Ryūen and begging him for the points, she would rather give up on them altogether.

"Is that so? What about you, Ishizaki?"

"I won't either!"

They seemed to share the same stance on the matter, although with slightly different reasons behind it.

They were resolved to the idea that, if Ryūen was going to leave the school, then his points would go along with him.

No, it wasn't due to something as praiseworthy as resolve.

"It's a pity, but the two of you can't save Ryūen."

"!"

Ishizaki looked at me, his expression stuck somewhere between anger and regret.

"Listen carefully. The only thing you two can do now is retrieve Ryūen's private points. This exam isn't so simple that you can save someone just because you want to."

"Don't you fuck with me! You want me to take the points from Ryūen-san and peace out? There's no way I could do that!"

Ishizaki raised his fist, but Ibuki immediately reached out and restrained him.

"I said to stop this shit, Ishizaki. This guy may look like an ordinary person, but he's really nothing more than a nasty monster."

"Even if I'm no match for him, I'll at least get one hit in!"

"Get over it."

Ibuki then smacked Ishizaki on the head.

"We came here and asked Ayanokōji for something completely unreasonable. He didn't even say anything wrong, and yet here you are, lashing out at him for it. Could you stop being such a humiliation?"

"Urgh…"

Ishizaki had let the blood rush to his head.

It seems difficult for him to stay composed when it comes to Ryūen for some reason.

Neither of them seemed to have any intention of doing anything. Millions of points, completely free for the taking, were simply going to disappear. If they were thinking about the future of Class D, those points were something that they had absolutely no reason not to get their hands on.

If Ibuki and Ishizaki, Ryūen's closest friends, didn't want it, then there's nothing that could be done about it.

"Well, I had really wanted to see the strength of your resolve a bit more, but…"

"…Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"It has nothing to do with you two anymore. After all, you guys aren't even willing to recover the private points from Ryūen."

With that, I ended the conversation. However, I was somewhat convinced that Ibuki would get the private points from Ryūen nonetheless.

Part 5

At just past ten on the night before the exam, my phone rang.

[It's me. I've gotten all of Ryūen's private points.]

Ibuki spoke, stating the bare minimum and nothing else.

"It's a good thing you figured out my contact information, isn't it?"

I tried questioning her, but Ibuki remained completely silent.

I remembered that I had given Shiina my number, so she had probably gotten ahold of it through her.

"Hmm. So, you've gotten ahold of the points?"

Although I had expected her to make a move, this was pushing it until the last minute.

"Can you grab Ishizaki and come to my room right now?"

[Eh? Right now?]

"Is that a problem? I have something to discuss with you about the points you've gotten your hands on."

[Not exactly, it's just… No, I'll be there.]

With those few short words of consent, Ibuki said she would get in contact with Ishizaki right away and then ended the call.

The two of them showed up at my door less than ten minutes later. Did they have some sort of premonition that something important was about to happen?

Just like that, Ishizaki and Ibuki immediately stepped into my room.

"How many points did Ryūen have?"

"A little more than five million."

"That's plenty. If there weren't enough, I'd have to do some last-minute preparations to make up for the rest."

As I expected, there wasn't any evidence that Ryūen had used them for himself.

"What are you talking about? What are you doing?"

Ishizaki didn't seem to have any clue where I was going with this.

On the other hand, Ibuki had already resolved herself, so she wasn't lagging behind as much.

"You're going to use these to do something, aren't you?"

"Correct."

"He's gonna use them…?"

"These private points will be used for one thing and one thing only. Saving Ryūen."

"N-no wait a second. Don't we need twenty million points in order to do that?"

No matter how Ishizaki looked at it, there simply weren't enough points to do that.

"Before I get into that, I have something to ask you. Ishizaki. Are you prepared to take responsibility for this?"

"W-what're you getting at all of a sudden? Prepared to take responsibility for what…?"

"Saving Ryūen means that you have to abandon someone else. I told you this before, didn't I?"

"…Yeah."

Despite being a bit flustered, Ishizaki nodded in agreement.

"I've resolved myself."

"Is that so? It's nice to see you've made up your mind. So who will it be?"

"Who…"

It seemed that Ishizaki hadn't decided on who would be taking Ryūen's place yet.

"If you haven't decided, I can decide for you if you want. It'd be easier to get rid of any feelings of guilt that way. Of course, if you think that I'd carelessly get rid of an important member of your class, you don't have to listen to me at all."

"P-please hold on. Let me think about it for a bit…"

"There's no time."

"I-I'll make the decision quickly."

Despite saying that, if he could make the decision quickly, he wouldn't be having such a hard time in the first place.

"Hold up. I don't care who we get rid of, but what's the plan here? You said you were gonna save him with the points, but aren't we short by like fifteen million?"

Ibuki cut in, and her irritation was understandable.

Be that as it may, I had my own circumstances to consider as well.

"If you want to prevent Ryūen's expulsion, you need to decide on who will take the fall instead."

We would talk about the plan in detail afterward.

"For example, how about the troublemakers in your class?"

While I felt bad that Ibuki was dissatisfied with not getting an answer from me, I moved the conversation forward.

"Troublemakers… Well, I guess there's me and Komiya, and out of the girls, there's Nishino and Manabe."

"Honestly Ishizaki, as far as Ryūen's safety is concerned, I don't think it's a very good idea to get rid of somebody like you who understands the importance of Ryūen's presence in your class. If there's another exam similar to this one in the future, there's no guarantee Ryūen will be able to make it through that one either."

Ishizaki seemed to agree with my logic.

"So either Nishino or Manabe…"

Ishizaki listed two names, both of whom I was familiar with. Manabe, in particular, was the student I had been thinking of expelling.

Either way, he was the one who had to make the final call.

I intended to respect his decision, regardless of who he ended up choosing.

"Whether it's one of them, or someone else, the decision is entirely up to you."

Ishizaki was also aware of what had taken place between Manabe and Kei during the Cruise Ship Special Exam. If that incident had even the slightest influence on his considerations, in all probability, he would choose to get rid of Manabe.

He was searching for flaws. Searching for some sort of justification where he could throw up his hands and say she had brought this upon herself. Manabe had put her hands on Kei, and by doing so, had brought unnecessary trouble upon her class.

Gradually, Ishizaki would begin to think that expelling Manabe wouldn't be too unreasonable.

As far as Kei was concerned, even though she had already put the incident behind her, Manabe's presence would always be a constant source of uneasiness. Resolving this issue would be enough to allow Kei to relax a little more. Additionally, if I were to have Kei presume that I had been responsible for the expulsion, her confidence in me would also increase yet again.

However, Ibuki unexpectedly spoke up just as Ishizaki was finalizing his decision.

"Is it fine if I make the choice?"

"Eh? You want to?"

"Yeah. There's someone I want gone."

"Who?"

I asked without waiting for Ishizaki's response.

"Manabe. It's just my personal preference though."

"And is it alright to make the decision based on that alone?"

"I don't have any problems with it. Are you saying I should?"

With a single look at Ibuki's eyes, I understood immediately. She didn't have even the slightest bit of hesitation.

"If Ishizaki has no objection to it, then it's settled. That said, there are no guarantees that everything will work out. By preventing Ryūen's expulsion, the person who ends up with the second most censure votes will be expelled. Now, the overall goal is to reduce the possibility that that person will end up being one of you two. There isn't very much time left."

"I get it… I'll tell the guys that there've been some changes and that they should use one of their votes on Manabe. I think they'll agree to it if I tell them that the plan is to scare her by giving her the second most censure votes."

"That's not a bad idea."

I approved of Ishizaki's idea.

As long as they were under the impression that Ryūen's expulsion was set in stone, the rest of his classmates wouldn't particularly care about who they used the other censure votes on.

"…Well, I might be in trouble here though."

"Hmm? What do you mean, Ibuki?"

"Manabe and her friends will probably vote for me along with Ryūen. It really doesn't look very good for me."

"W-wait. Are you being serious?"

"Even you should know that Manabe and I don't get along very well, right?"

"That's, well, that's true but…"

Ishizaki trailed off, shaken from his inability to wrap his head around the conversation.

"It sounds like you've already steeled your resolve, Ibuki."

Of course, if Manabe didn't get expelled, Ibuki wouldn't have any other option but to resign herself to her fate.

"It might be a good idea to consult with Hiyori about it."

"With Shiina?"

"She might be able to help you with this. I think it'd be fine for you to contact her and tell her you want to concentrate the censure votes on Manabe in order to save Ryūen."

"…Fine."

With a nod, Ibuki promptly sent a text message to Hiyori.

"You're in touch with Shiina, Ayanokōji? I don't think she'd be on board with the plan to expel Manabe."

"She just happened to tell me her thoughts about this exam."

While Hiyori may be a pacifist, she also has a strong desire to respect the wishes of her class.

"She told me she'd cooperate as long as it was for the sake of the class; since she thinks that Ryūen is important for Class D, I'm sure she'll choose to lend a hand."

We would control their classmate's votes as much as possible, reducing the praise votes and increasing the censure votes for Manabe.

Conversely, we'd increase the praise votes and decrease the censure votes for Ibuki.

That way, the disparity between Ibuki and Manabe would be closed in one fell swoop.

"Well then, tell us your plan. How are we saving him with only five million points?"

Ibuki stared at me, the look in her eyes telling me to speed things up.

I took out my phone and sent a text message to a certain someone.

It was marked as read almost immediately, with the person responding shortly thereafter, saying they would come to my room.

There were less than two hours remaining until the time limit.

It was fortunate that this person had the patience to wait until now.

"What are you doing?"

"Somebody's going to pay us a visit soon. They'll be the secret weapon that'll stop Ryūen's expulsion."

"The secret weapon… that'll stop the expulsion?"

It didn't seem like they would believe me with words alone.

A few minutes later, my doorbell rang, increasing Ibuki and Ishizaki's skepticism even more.

"Is it alright for this person to see us with you?"

"Don't worry about it. Provided that you get your stories straight right now."

In the brief period before the visitor came in, I instructed them on what exactly they needed to say.

Part 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.

Part 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."

Part 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.

Part 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.