Chapter 36

Sora stared into the eyes of Maezono, the girl who'd originally suggested the idea. She looked lost for words. Honestly, it made me happy that Sora shared my opinion, and wasn't afraid to stand up for it even if it meant he'd be singled out.

"W-we wouldn't go that far..." Maezono mumbled quietly.

"I bet everyone says that. But I've seen it all before." Sora stood up from his chair, leaving his lunch on the table. "Let's go, Shiro."

Sora and Shiro left the cafeteria, hand in hand, not bothering to take their food with them. Hirata and I just watched them leave while all of the girls wore various expressions. Some of them looked guilty, whereas the others looked annoyed.

"W-who the hell does he think he is?" Maezono exclaimed angrily.

"Maezono." Hirata said in an unexpectedly stern voice.

Hirata speaking like this was clearly not a common occurrence, because all of the girls looked surprised too.

"I think Sora-kun was right. Bullying someone just because you don't like them is wrong."

Even though Sora had said the exact same thing, the girls only seemed to listen after hearing it from Hirata's mouth. I felt a sense of irritation at seeing their hypocrisy and bias, but kept my composure.

"B-but Hirata-kun, it's not really that big of a deal, is it?"

Hirata looked like he was about to reply strictly, but a different voice interjected instead, one that only just now started to speak. I found it strange that this girl had been silent the entire time even though she's allegedly the leader of the Class E girls clique, but didn't put too much thought into it. Unlike Sora, I couldn't read people beyond the surface level.

"I also think it's wrong to do anything like that to Horikita-san." Karuizawa said, rather quietly by her standards.

"K-Karuizawa-san?"

Some of the girls who were more annoyed with Sora than guilty looked surprised, whereas the rest just looked towards Karuizawa with an appreciative look. It seemed like they were glad Karuizawa was speaking up on their behalf.

"If you don't like someone, you should just stay away from them. There's no need to go out of your way to bully them," she said resolutely.

Karuizawa's input combined with Hirata's seemed to have convinced the girls, because now they just hung their heads in apparent guilt. Apparently, if you want to make a change, you need to be popular and well-liked.

"The world would be a much better place if there was no conflict, don't you think?" I asked nobody in particular.

"Yes. If everybody just got along, then much more people would be able to live happily." Hirata agreed enthusiastically.

"I know that such a world is idealistic, but I believe that we should strive for that ideal nevertheless."

"Kururugi-kun, was it? Can I have your contact information? I think I'd like to eat with you again sometime." Hirata asked me, a sense of kinship in his voice.

Hirata and I were very similar in our ideals and way of thinking, so it made sense that he felt some kind of affinity with me. I traded contact information with Hirata while all the girls simply watched in silence.

"Well, I'm going to go and try to find Sora. He seemed pretty upset; I hope he's okay." I said, standing up with my lunch.

"Right. Can you apologize to him for me when you see him?"

"You have nothing to apologize for, Hirata."

Saying that, I turned to leave the table and chased after Sora. I genuinely believed that Hirata had done nothing wrong, and I knew that Sora would just become angrier if Hirata apologized to him.

Sora really was remarkable, I thought. Even when faced with the oppressive atmosphere of the Class E girls that even Hirata couldn't speak up in, Sora didn't falter and openly said his opinion. It was quite strange – he claimed to be a shut-in his whole life, but his social skills were definitely above average.

The school had labelled Hirata's class as defective, which I had vehemently refused to accept. At least, until now. The behaviour that the Class E girls just showed is something that even I couldn't defend – it can be called nothing but a major character flaw. As I walked, I wondered: Can a defective person change? I really do hope so.

Light's POV

"All the preparations are now complete. Now all we have to do is wait for the trial." I said to Ryuzaki as we ate lunch in the classroom.

I handed an important piece of paper to Ryuzaki so that he could read it and placed a vegetable in my mouth with my free hand.

Why am I eating the free vegetable set even though I still have 98,670 private points left? It's simple. If I indulged myself every day, not only would my physique worsen but I would get used to indulgent eating, which would only cause my eating habits to spiral out of control exponentially.

"Do you really not mind paying the full amount for that, Ryuzaki?" I asked, motioning toward the device on his desk.

"I don't mind. I'll probably use this quite a lot in the future anyway, so it makes sense that I paid for it," he replied in monotone.

"I see."

In two days was my trial against Class C. Right at the end of the last month, they'd called me out to the special annex and started a fight with me, which I had easily won. They didn't even try to fight back, which pretty much confirmed my suspicions. I also didn't really hit them hard at all, but they went down heavily nonetheless.

Sigh.

If you're going to try a scheme like that, Ryūen Kakeru, at least pick some talented actors to execute it. These idiots don't even have a place in society, they were that incompetent.

Trying to provoke students of other classes into hitting your students is undoubtedly an act of evil. It is my duty to crush such evil. I glanced over to the messy boy who had warned me that my mindset was dangerous.

It's dangerous to enact rightful justice? How preposterous. I, along with many other people, want nothing more than to eradicate people like Ryūen from the world so that the rest of us can live in harmony.

Unfortunately, though, that isn't feasible. I suppose I can settle for crushing him utterly instead, then. You'll regret trying to make me your guinea pig, Ryūen.

"What were you like in middle school, Light?" Ryuzaki asked an unrelated question out of nowhere.

"Hm? I was just a pretty normal honour student, I suppose." I replied. "I played tennis quite a lot, I guess."

I felt like my response was lacking, so I tacked on the bit about tennis onto the end. Thinking about it, though...

"Ryuzaki, didn't you mention that you played tennis?"

"That's right. I was British Junior Champion in tennis at one point."

"We should play a game sometime. There are tennis courts in this school."

This school has all sorts of facilities for all kinds of sports and equipment for all kinds of athletes – tennis was no exception. I thought myself to be very proficient at tennis, so I couldn't help but wonder who was better out of Ryuzaki and me.

"Yes. I would like that."

A silence once again enveloped us after Ryuzaki replied. I took the opportunity to fall deep into thought. This was the second time Ryuzaki had asked me a seemingly random question out of nowhere. He only does it when we're alone, too.

He was probably, no, definitely probing me for information. There was no other explanation for why he took opportunities to get me alone before asking me more personal questions. He wasn't doing anything to hide it, either. He was being pretty open about it.

Just what was he up to? Why did he want information about me and my past? Was I the only one, or was he doing similar things with my other classmates as well? Who is Ryuzaki really? And did he come to this school for a reason other than education?

I will unravel the mysteries behind all of these questions eventually. Now that I think about it, I've been focused on Ryuzaki because he's been focused on me, but everyone in Class D is similar, aren't they?

Sora and Shiro, the pair of geniuses who are apparently shut-ins and who seemed to have experienced something very dark in the past. They avoid talking about their past.

Lelouch Lamperouge, an apathetic boy who used to gamble frequently. There's definitely more to him than he lets on. He avoids talking about his past.

Suzaku Kururugi, a very idealistic boy who hates all kinds of conflict. Even though he was in the military, he hates conflict? That doesn't make sense.

Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, he excels at both academics and athletics and is eternally stoic. He is purposely vague about his past and refuses to tell anyone how he gained his abilities.

There are a multitude of mysteries lying behind each and every one of my classmates. And it's only a matter of time until I learn the truth. When that happens, I just hope that none of them become a target of my justice. That would certainly be troublesome.