Classroom of the Elite: Checkmate

Chapter 18 - Critical Position

"Damn, Ayanokouji... Your girlfriend is scary. Please protect me from now on."

Sudou's whole body shuddered as he recalled the merciless words Chiaki spoke when she pressed for the expulsion of all three Class C students without hesitation.

Her voice had been eerily calm throughout the whole exchange, which scared him more than expected. For him, she was his savior, but for them, their greatest nightmare. Sudou must have been thankful that she was on our side and not someone else's.

I couldn't deny his sentiments, however.

Chiaki was far more ruthless than anticipated.

Thanks to her, everything had worked out for us, even without my intervention into the events, which meant that I could depend on her abilities in the future if the need arose. Maybe I would get to spend some more time as I wished, thanks to my wonderful girlfriend.

"I think you'll be fine if you behave from now on."

I was about to lean against the wall to wait for Chiaki, but Sudou had other ideas.

"I will! I swear! Tell her that, would you?" He kept rocking my shoulders back and forth with a nervous, almost fearful expression before he turned to Sakura, who stood beside us. "And you..." She flinched, surprised by his sudden interest in her. "... thank you so much for helping me. I'm sorry that I put you in that position!"

He bowed down in front of her, whereupon Sakura stared at both of us with wide eyes. Her hands and fingers moved and began to squirm in a panic as she took two steps back. She wasn't used to such a heartfelt, genuine acknowledgement of her courage, so she didn't know how to behave under these circumstances.

"N-no. There is n-no need to t-thank m-me, S-sudou-kun."

The beaming girl lowered her head, overstrained yet happy that she could not only be of help in this situation, but also that her statement during the discussion had actually made a difference for him.

Due to her determination, the outcome had changed to our advantage.

"Sudou-kun is right, Ayanokouji-kun. The way Matsushita-san handled everything was really amazing." She softened her voice and peeked at me with quivering eyes. "But she's also super scary sometimes..."

My pawn shuddered as well as she remembered that she almost began to weep during and after her testimony, while Chiaki was so confident in her abilities and herself that she dared to cut off a teacher during the trial.

It was not surprising that both of them were caught off-guard, since her behavior had surprised even me. The way she had handled herself throughout the discussion was nothing short of marvelous.

Chiaki had utilized every weak point they had exposed during the trial without mercy and buried the enemy under a cluster of facts, evidence and expert statements after realizing that neither of these three goons could have orchestrated such an attack on us.

The only real danger in the room had been Sakagami-sensei, who turned out to be much less passive than our own homeroom teacher, but she still managed to stop him from interfering with an imaginative stroke of reasoning after he interjected and obstructed her plan once.

Her cunning hadn't stopped there, however, as she even used Horikita Manabu against the three Class C students to get the emotional Tachibana on her side. Even though she wasn't able to play this card during the trial, she began to prepare everything in case she needed it.

To sum it up, Chiaki did her homework and executed her own plan to perfection.

I should have been happy with what she had achieved, but I wondered how all of this had turned out if the mastermind had attended the trial as well. Would she have been able to outmaneuver him? Was she quick enough on her feet to figure out potential traps and pitfalls in a short amount of time?