The True Elites

Chapter 5-5: Joining Class A

Some of the students, who presumably were either Sakayanagi's followers or had not yet decided, began to murmur among themselves.

In regular circumstances, I'm sure that members of the Sakayanagi faction would voice immediate opposition to Katsuragi's proposal. However...

"Due to her disability, it's impossible for Sakayanagi to lead the sports festival itself. Her followers are likely struggling to find a valid reason to oppose," Ryuzaki said aloud the exact thoughts that I had in my head.

"Yeah," I agreed. "She'll be made to sit out of the sports festival, so Sakayanagi will be unable to effectively issue instructions throughout the course of the sports festival. Moreover, with the leader themselves not participating, the lack of an on-field commander to rally under could cripple Class A in the event that things take a turn for the worse."

Ryuzaki nodded, agreeing with my assessment of the situation.

I was curious to see if the woman herself, Sakayanagi, would do anything. I set my eyes on her, however, she didn't look as if she was going to act at all. She simply sat there, looking as calm as collected as ever.

Did she expect this?

Just then, another boy stood up on the opposite side of the room. He had long, blonde hair tied into a ponytail and piercing blue eyes.

Katsuragi took immediate attention to this.

Right, although it may look civil on the surface, this is actually a war between two sides: Katsuragi's and Sakayanagi.

Seeing someone else stand up, Katsuragi is naturally wary. If I were him, I would've brainstormed all the ways the enemy could realistically object in advance, and planned for how to deal with them.

"Do you have something to say? Hashimoto?" Katsuragi questioned.

"Yeah, I have a suggestion," Hashimoto grinned, and ran his hand through his hair. "Why don't we let Yagami take the lead?"

He's dragging me into this?!

"He's certainly proved his athletic competence, and won't be biased one way or the other, wouldn't you agree?"

Following his words, a number of the Class A girls, belonging to both factions, simultaneously directed their gazes over to me.

"Yeah! Yagami-kun is great at soccer!"

"Plus, he gets along with everyone and is easy to talk to. He'd be an amazing leader."

"And he's labelled a genius by the school themselves!"

Various comments like this began to take over the conversation. Some of the girls looked like they had sparkles in their eyes, they were so star struck.

How simple-minded. More importantly, though...

I glanced at 'Hashimoto', who I assumed was a part of Team Sakayanagi. Then, I averted my eyes towards the woman herself.

Was this her plan from the beginning? By using someone who sat far away from her to make the suggestion, it seemed less like it was coming from Sakayanagi herself and more like an idea that came naturally.

If this is the case, she'll no doubt contact me privately after establishing me as the temporary Class A leader, and get me to subtlety work against Katsuragi – if I were to do things like undermine his presence, it would cause the mentality of the class to subconsciously away from Katsuragi's favour.

It was a good plan, but I didn't intend to become a pawn in someone else's war so easily.

Katsuragi also seemed to have caught on to the general gist of what was happening. He eyed Sakayanagi with a certain degree of hostility.

He was certainly intelligent in his own right, and made for a great leader. However, Katsuragi was held back in a similar way to Ichinose.

He only made moves above-board. If you were playing chess, but you couldn't see your opponent's moves while they could see all of yours, you were bound to be defeated no matter how good you are.

"Yagami-kun is amicable, and can lead well by example. More importantly, though, he has a vested interest in Class A's victory while having no reason to pick a side in the personal dispute between you and I. It's a great idea, don't you think, Katsuragi-kun?"

For the first time, Sakayanagi spoke. She sang my praises and gave reasons why, on the surface, I seemed like the optimal choice.

After the suggestion received even Sakayanagi's approval, expectant gazes fell on Katsuragi all at once.

I sensed that he didn't wish to concede, however, he didn't possess the gall to go against so many of his peers all at once like this.

He sought peace and wanted the general mood of his classmates to be happy. As a result, there wasn't much he could do but agree to Hashimoto's idea.

"Yes. That does sound good. I'll lend my support to Yagami as well. That is, if he himself even wants to lead?"

Katsuragi wasn't dead yet. It looked like he had one last trick up his sleeve.

If I were to say now that I don't feel up to the task, then responsibility of the position would fall indisputably back to Katsuragi.

It was a far-fetched attempt, likely originating from some kind of desperation as a last resort. That doesn't mean it was stupid to at least try, though.

However, I had to disappoint Katsuragi. "I don't at all mind taking on the role if the class will accept me," to appear more humble, I also bowed as I answered.

This seemed to seal the deal, as a sense of unified agreement seemed to spread between the students.

I was now the leader of Class A.

"That settles it, then," Sakayanagi smiled happily.

A/N: This chapter is on the shorter side, because I plan to release a chapter similar to this one for each of the four classes.

I might update again today, because Suzaku joining Ichinose's class should be even shorter a chapter than this one is. We'll see.

After the one about Kiyotaka and Lelouch joining Class E is finished, there'll probably be one or two more chapters before the sports festival itself begins.

Thank you for reading <3