COTE: Self-Preservation

Y2V3: Begrudgingly Joining the Council

"I see. Hmm, there's quite a lot of ground to cover. Honami and Yagami, in terms of feats, are far ahead of you," Nagumo told her bluntly, not a hint of emotion in his voice.

He was stating the facts.

"It's not impossible to catch up."

And Horikita was doing the same.

For the first time, Nagumo's eyes were glinted with something that wasn't boredom or curiosity.

It was excitement.

"You really are the same," he muttered, a grin forming on his face.

Standing up, he walked over to the standing Horikita.

"I was a little worried about the lack of second-years before, so this eases my worries partially. And, additionally, calling you Horikita is a little confusing to me. So I'm just going to refer to you as Suzune now," Nagumo told her nonchalantly.

Horikita crossed her arms, "Do as you wish."

Nagumo nodded, stretching out his left hand.

"Then welcome, Suzune."

Horikita's hand connected with Nagumo's.

A few of the eyes placed on Horikita moved away, and the room's chatter was growing back to normal.

"Nice job, Horikita~!" a cheery voice rang.

Ichinose was lightly clapping and possessed a warm smile as she approached the girl beside me.

"Thank you, Ichinose."

A boy with messy hair stretched out his hand towards Horikita as well, "Pleasure to work with you, senpai," Yagami remarked politely.

"Thank you, Yagami," Horikita muttered, now being a little taken aback by the sudden attention.

A few of the other students inside the room also stood up, practically forming a crowd around Horikita. The girl was tasked with fighting off the warm regards coming her way.

Nagumo approached me with his hands in his pockets, a confident grin on his face, "Nice to see you again, Ayanokouji."

"Nice to see you too, senpai."

"It's unfortunate how this school works, I'd have loved to see your little stint play out in real-time. But it seems like everything worked out in the end," Nagumo said offhandedly.

Out of the case between Tsukishiro and me, the true winner was Nagumo.

"I'll ask you again, do you want to join? I have pages of those forms, you know?" he offered brazenly.

Kiriyama had overheard the request, walking up to Nagumo with a confused expression, "What are you thinking, Nagumo?"

Nagumo shrugged, "What? In the eyes of the school, he's got the highest academic grade out there. Well, tied with Kiryuuin, I guess. He seems rather competent enough to fill out a seat here, don't you think, Kiriyama?"

There was a condescending undertone within those words, and Kiriyama simply sighed.

"We only had one position left anyway and now that's been taken up by Horikita. What would he do?" Kiriyama asked.

Nagumo bit his thumb, mulling over it.

After a moment, his eyes widened and he had a bright smile.

"He can be my secretary!"

"You already have one."

"He can be the secretary's secretary!"

Kiriyama sighed.