Sudo's Case-7 [Ayanokoji PoV]

The class was divided up into certain groups after school. But Suzuki left as soon as the last period ended with Sakura. Sudo was also forced to go home by Suzuki for some reason.

Hirata, Karuizawa and Kushida led the different teams to look for witnesses.

"Umm, excuse me. I know something about Ryuen."

A boy who is in the Archery club, Miyake Akito raised his hand.

"Please tell us. It may turn out to be useful." Hirata, as always, led the conversation with a kind smile.

"I am from the same area as him. He was a pretty well known delinquent around the area in our middle school. He was like a boss of his school. I don't think he would cry and beg for mercy like Sudo told us. But I can't say for sure because I didn't know him personally. We went to different schools."

If we go by what Miyake said, it confirms that this was Ryuen's scheme to get Sudo into trouble. Or Sudo is lying. But he doesn't seem to be a good enough liar to fool me. But we will need a solid evidence. A witness who has seen the whole situation. Even though it may not prove to be much useful. If he or she witnessed it from midway of the fight, we will be on the losing end.

It's difficult to get results in such a short amount of time.

There are around 360 enrolled students at the school. Even if everyone from Class 1-B was left out, there isn't much of a difference.

It would be difficult even if all the time during the morning, breaks and after school were included.

"Well, I'm going home."

"Are you really going to go Horikita-san?"

"Yeah."

Horikita replied without hesitation and left the classroom.

As expected of Horikita. She wasn't discouraged by the surrounding gazes, all asking, "You're leaving?"

When she becomes an adult, she would probably be the type to quickly leave a drinking party—promising to finish things up at the next meeting—without reading the mood.

"Well…"

If Horikita's tactic is to leave out in the open, my tactic is to leave quietly in the shadows.

"Ayanokoji-kun."

Kushida called out to me with an anxious voice. The small size of the classroom prevented my escape as I was immediately discovered despite my stealthy footsteps.

"What is it? Do you need anything from me?"

Sorry, Kushida. I'm going to reject your invitation with a heart of steel. And then I'll return to the dorms.

"You'll… help, right?"

"Of course."

I couldn't refuse her. Kushida's upturned eyes and her cute request added up to a lethal combination.

I couldn't help it; it felt like I was being controlled by Kushida. I wasn't able to resist.

If a person resolves to stay awake, they'll fall asleep in 24 to 48 hours. Despite some people who occasionally claim that they can stay awake for a long time without sleep, they would eventually collapse.

To put it simply, a person has a limit as to how long they can endure. It's a human mechanism.

After I finished giving an excuse, Kushida made a suggestion.

"I really want to get Horikita-san to help. Can you ask her again please?"

"But she went home today."

They failed to stop her just a few moments ago. Was it already time for revenge?

"Yeah. Can you chase after her? If it's Horikita-san, I think she will definitely become a big help."

"Well, that's true."

"If we take the time to persuade her, don't we have a chance?"

If she wants to try again, I have no right to stop her. I nodded, telling her I understood.

"Ike-kun, Yamauchi-kun, can you stay here? I'll come back quickly."

"Ok."

The two of them aren't on the best of terms with Horikita. Anyway, it doesn't seem like Kushida's forcing them to follow along.

"Let's go."

Taking Kushida's arm, I left the classroom. I wonder what this bittersweet feeling is. For some reason, I heard Ike and Yamauchi's angry voices behind me. It must have been my imagination. Heh.

As I made my way down to the entrance of the building, there was no sign of Horikita. I decided to go out of the building. As she's not the type to stop for anything on the way back, she was probably heading straight towards the dorms.

I pushed past the crowd of students putting on their shoes. Soon after, I saw Horikita in between the school and the dorms (as there's not much of a distance in the first place).

Most of the groups headed back had two people or more, but there was alone figure that stood out.

"Horikita-san."

I hesitated before speaking to her, but Kushida called out to her with confidence.

"…What is it?"

Horikita turned around, looking slightly surprised. It seemed like she didn't expect us to chase after her.

"I really want Horikita-san to help with Sudo-kun's incident… Is that not possible?"

"I thought I already rejected that a few minutes ago."

She shrugged her shoulders, as if the person she was talking to was an idiot.

"I know, but… But I do think we need to do this to get to class A."

"We need to do this to get to class A, huh?"

Looking completely unconvinced, Horikita didn't listen to Kushida's words.

"If you want to help Sudo-kun, go ahead. I don't have the right to stop you. However, if you need someone to help, go ask someone else. I'm busy."

"There isn't anyone that's playing around right now."

I unintentionally retorted. She glared at me, with eyes that said, "Why are you talking?"

"It's important to spend time alone. It's uncomfortable to have that time snatched away."

As expected of a loner's line of thought, she disliked spending time with other people.

"Even if I help him now, this will happen again. Won't it just be a vicious cycle? You may believe that Sudo-kun is the victim this time, well he is. But he should listen when a person explicitly warns them."

"But-"

"Maybe it really was really Ryuen-kun who started the fight this time, but in the end Sudo-kun is also the perpetrator."

"W-Wait, Why? Wasn't he lured into the fight?"

With an expression that said, "Oh my", Horikita looked in my direction.

Not me, I hadn't said anything. I avoided looking into her eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, Horikita spoke with a tired voice.

"Why was he dragged into this incident? The entire issue will be difficult to resolve without solving this fundamental question. I will not agree to help until this question is answered. Since I can't help you, why don't you ask the guy next to you? Even though he pretends to not understand, he probably knows what I'm thinking."

Please stop talking with the impression that I understand.

Kushida looked at me with a confused expression, as though she was asking, "Do you know?"

Horikita, don't say anything unnecessary…

She resumed walking, implying that we were left to resolve the issue. Kushida, having understood something from Horikita's words, was unable to stop her.

"Sudo-kun is also… the perpetrator? Is that… so?"

Kushida looked at me, asking for advice.

After Horikita revealed that I was pretending, even if I were to try to feign ignorance, the future seems troubling. Moreover, if Kushida were to ask with a cute expression, I would gladly give her my bank account information.

The impression other people had of Sudou wasn't good.

"This was bound to happen sooner or later. That's why Horikita said that Sudou was the perpetrator too."

"In other words, his usual actions caused this situation, didn't they?"

"He was an easy target and a person with a lot of rage. Like Suzuki-san said, it was a clichéd method to frame someone. And he was careless enough that someone messaged Ryuen from his phone. In the end, that message is a solid evidence against him.

And Sudo stands firm that he did the right thing to beat Ryuen. It is a really difficult situation if Sudo doesn't take this seriously and believes himself to be right no matter what. So long as Sudo doesn't recognise his mistakes, Horikita won't give in."

"I see, so that's what she meant…"

Kushida, finally understanding what Horikita meant, gave a small nod.

"So Horikita-san isn't helping in order to teach Sudou-kun a lesson?"

"Something like that. By punishing him, she wants Sudou to have some self-awareness."

Kushida seemed to understand, but couldn't agree with it.

Instead, it looked like she was mad; she had balled her fists in anger..

"I don't understand why she would abandon Sudou-kun just to punish him. If she's dissatisfied about something, she should tell him directly. That's what being a friend is for."

I didn't think Horikita considered Sudo a friend in the first place… Putting that aside, she wasn't the type of person who would teach this nicely. She had no sense of responsibility for others.

"You should do what you believe is right. Wanting to help Sudo isn't wrong in the first place."

"Yeah."

Kushida nodded without hesitation. She's the type to help out however many times for her friends. To be honest, it's a really difficult thing to do; something only people like Kushida could do.

"However, it's probably better to be more careful when telling Sudo directly. Since there's no point if he doesn't reflect on it, he should become aware of it by himself."

"…Alright. I'll follow Ayanokoji-kun's advice."

Changing her line of thought, Kushida stretched her back.

"Let's go look for a witness now."

After returning to the classroom, I joined up with the others.

"Were you unable to persuade Horikita in the end?"

"Sorry, we tried."

"It's not Kushida's fault. We should be fine with the people we have."

"I look forward to working with you, Ike-kun, Yamauchi-kun."

Kushida stood there, eyes shining brightly, asking for help. The two of them stared back at her with mad love in their gazes.

"Where are we headed?"

Looking randomly for a witness would be inefficient.

It would probably be best to come up with a plan before making a move.

"If everyone's fine with it, how about asking class C first?"

Kushida gave a suggestion

"Why class C?"

"Because Ichinose-chan, the representative of class C is a really good person. And she is a really big fan of Yui-chan."

But we can't be optimistic about it.

"I don't think so. I don't think any class from our grade will help us. Class A would want us to loose class points, Class D is a no-go. And for class C, they were demoted by us just a day ago. I don't think they will help us. Every class is wary of us due to the speed at which we were promoted."

Of course, there was the fact that we still weren't sure if class C could be trusted. If it was someone crafty, they might have a plan to defeat not only class D but also class B. Even if their plan isn't as detailed, they would have some kind of plan.

"No! I am sure that Ichinose-chan will help us. It won't hurt to at least try."

"Stop."

I reflexively grabbed the back of Kushida's collar as she went ahead.

"Nya~!"

Startled, Kushida let out a cat-like scream.

"Moe~!"

Yamauchi had hearts in his eyes at Kushida's cute yelp. That action was probably on purpose…

Although I had thought that, my heart died from cuteness overload.

"Kushida's communication skills are vital here. However, it's not as simple as casually entering the class and attempting to make friends."

"Is that so?"

If the witness was a friend, or would help for free, there'd be no problem. However if it was a more calculating person, they wouldn't agree to help without a price.

We won't know whether or not they'll help us until we talk to then. Even if we take that into consideration… will things turn out as expected?

"Are you sure this Ichinose will help?"

"Yep."

Kushida was brimming with confidence.

"I see. Do what you think is best Kushida."

"Sorry Ayanokoji-kun."

Kushida held her hands together in front of her apologetically. It was nothing she should be sorry about. It's natural that our opinions didn't match. I withdrew and left the plan up to Kushida and the others.

And even though we can't find anything useful, Suzuki has already got it handled, at least I believe so.