Unveiling the Mastermind - Classroom of the Elite Reaction

Sudo's Trial - Investigation/Meeting Ichinose

(A/N - You can probably tell I had no idea what to name this chapter. )

For context, Class D's investigation led them to Sakura Airi being the witness.

"Sakura? I have no idea who that is,"

"She's a Class C student, right?" Hashimoto remembered.

"Yes, Sakura-san is in our class," Horikita confirmed.

It wasn't surprising to see just how few people knew of Airi's existence.

"That seems like a problem," Utomiya commented.

"Huh, why is that a problem? They found the witness they were looking for," Kobashi looked confused.

"Well just think about it. If the witness is a student from the same class as the defendant, what does that mean for the trial?"

"They have someone backing him up-oh!" It looked like the truth had dawned on Kobashi, "The teachers will think she's lying to help her class,"

"Correct. It would have been better if the witness had been from either Class A or B, then their testimony would have had a higher chance of being perceived as the truth," Utomiya explained.

"Wow, I don't know how I feel about being educated by a first-year," Kobashi sighed.

Kushida is going to try and convince Sakura to help them as the witness.

Let's begin.

Class was over. Kushida stood up right as homeroom ended and walked over towards Sakura, who was quietly preparing to leave. Kushida seemed oddly nervous. Ike, Yamauchi, and even Sudou appeared interested in what was going on, and directed their attention over to the girls.

"Why would she be nervous?" Haruka asked me in a whisper.

"Probably because she hadn't had a lot of contact with Airi," I said, "Even if Kushida has excellent social skills, convincing someone that you know nothing about to do something is extremely difficult,"

Persuasion is a topic on which many books have been written. Understanding both your goal and your opponent are both necessary components in successfully persuading someone else. Kushida, no matter how well she could read another person, had almost no information on Airi. So when she entered a negotiation with her, she failed to understand what her opponent wanted.

"Sakura-san?"

"Wh-what?"

The bespectacled girl with the hunched back peered up with a timid expression. Apparently, she hadn't expected someone to talk to her and was flustered.

"I wanted to ask you something, Sakura-san. Do you have a moment? It's about Sudou's case."

"S-sorry. I...I have plans, so..."

Sakura was obviously uncomfortable. She averted her eyes. She probably wasn't good at talking with others. Or rather, she gave off the impression that she didn't like talking to them.

"I guess you were slightly off, Kiyopon," Haruka grinned, "Airi just didn't know us yet,"

"A-actually, he was right," Airi said.

"Huh? You don't like talking to people?"

"Um, no, that's not what I meant!" Airi waved her hands, flustered, "I mean I didn't really like talking to people back then,"

That dislike originated from her fear of others. Most people, even those that lacked social skills, would try to end the conversation quickly and amicably so they could be on their way. Airi instead tried to skip the conversation altogether and run as soon as she was approached.

Haruka and the others must have just assumed she was the socially awkward type, which is true to an extent. They couldn't see past that, however.

"Well, I guess that's fine," Haruka shrugged, "People annoy me too, that's why I don't get involved with many people,"

"That's not really the issue," Airi wore a bitter smile.

"It's not? I'm confused,"

Unable to see past her own point of view, Haruka couldn't understand the real reason for Airi's behaviour.

"I think if you continue watching, you might be able to understand her a little more," I cut in.

"Okay, I guess,"

"Can you please make some time? This is important, so I'd like to talk to you. When Sudou-kun was involved in the incident, were you perhaps somewhere nearby?"

"I-I don't know. I already told Horikita-san. I really don't know anything..."

"So is she the witness or isn't she?" called out one of the first years.

"Wait if the witness is in their class, why didn't she come forward already?"

Already trying her best to withstand the pressure of the spotlight, Airi tried to make herself smaller and smaller, blocking out what was happening around her.

"Sakura-san didn't feel comfortable coming forward, that's all," Horikita answered the questions, "She did agree to help us in the end,"

There are many ways a person can overcome their weaknesses. The method you use largely depends on the person and the state they are in. Somebody who has let their weakness break them has nothing more to fear and has fewer obstacles in the way of their rehabilitation. However, those that are clinging onto hope are affected way worse when their weakness rears its head. Airi, someone who wishes wholeheartedly to believe in herself and be comfortable with those around her, has a much harder path to reach that goal.

Her words were weak, yet she vehemently denied it. Kushida could clearly see how unpleasant Sakura found this, so she probably didn't want to press her much more. Although Kushida appeared slightly perplexed at first, her concerned expression quickly melted into a pleasant smile. Even so, she couldn't withdraw just like that, because Sakura might have tremendous influence over Sudou's fate.

"So...is it okay? If I go back..." Sakura whispered.

Something seemed strange, however. She wasn't simply bad at talking with people. It looked as though she was hiding something. You could see that from her behaviour. Sakura concealed her dominant hand while also avoiding eye contact. Even if she weren't comfortable meeting someone's eyes, people generally looked in the direction of those to whom they were speaking. Sakura didn't look at Kushida's face at all.

"Hiding something?" Keisei inquired, "She just looks uncomfortable to me,"

"As I explained, her behaviour wasn't that of just a socially awkward student. I wasn't watching someone who was just uncomfortable and wanted to escape but someone who was fighting two separate urges," I replied.

"I can't understand what you mean. What do you mean two different urges?"

"What do people with a guilty conscience often do when confronted about their misdeeds?"

"They exhibit different behaviour than they usually would, right? So you are saying she had a guilty conscience? But she behaved the same way as always,"

"Are you sure? The difference is definitely subtle but keep watching and you'll probably be able to see what I mean,"

He frowned slightly, probably trying to discern what I meant, and then looked back to the screen.

If Ike or I were talking to her, I could have understood that reaction. Though it was mostly out of formal obligation, Sakura had exchanged numbers with Kushida. Kushida's behaviour in a one on one conversation was different, though. I don't think Horikita was wrong to feel some discomfort when speaking with Kushida. I'd found something a bit off-putting about it myself.

"Hmm, did Horikita know about Kushida as well?" Hashimoto asked.

"I knew she wasn't as she made herself out to be but I didn't know the exact details," Horikita answered.

"Can't you please spare just a few minutes now?" Kushida asked.

"Wh-why, though? I-I don't know anything..."

If Kushida failed, we'd gain nothing from their conversation. Of course, the longer this awkwardness dragged on, the more attention they'd attract. This seemed like a complete miscalculation on Kushida's part. Since they were already acquainted and had exchanged contact information, Kushida probably had expected this conversation to go more smoothly, and had gone into this situation thinking she wasn't going to be rejected. That explained why this was currently falling apart.

"This is what you were saying about it being hard to convince someone, right?" Haruka asked me.

"Yeah pretty much,"

"Hey, Kiyopon, how do you seem to know so much about, well, talking but also seem to be terrible at doing it?"

That was a blunt way of putting it but I understood her confusion.

"We are both loners, more or less," I replied, "Surely you also pick up on stuff that other people wouldn't,"

"Well, yeah I guess. Nowhere near like you do, though,"

Horikita carefully monitored the situation. She looked over at me with a somewhat smug expression. It was as though she were saying I know that your powers of observation are incredible.

"Even if I did happen to be thinking something along those lines, the fact that he interpreted it that way is frustrating," Horikita sighed.

"Were you really thinking that, Horikita-san?" Ichinose asked.

"My memory isn't good enough that I can remember every thought I've had but around that time I was trying to determine how capable Ayanokoji-kun really was, so it's likely that he was right,"

"Whether you were truly thinking that or not, the fact that it's true remains the same. Your observation skills are clearly noteworthy, Ayanokoji," Katsuragi said.

"I guess I do have a bit of a knack,"

"If you are this able then how come you haven't been more involved in any special exams so far?" Kanzaki asked, "Besides the Commander exam at the end of our first year, I don't remember you playing a significant role in any of them.

"Just because I can pick up on stuff that others might miss, does that really make me capable of succeeding in the special exams?" I retorted.

"I feel like it's more likely that you have had a hand in them unbeknownst to the other classes," Kanzaki argued, "Excuse me but can anybody in Ayanokoji's class confidently tell me that he's had no impact on your results?"

"Well, I don't think he has," Sonoda shrugged.

"I dunno, Ayanokoji just kind of sits there, I think," Ike agreed.

"I think this conversation can be shelved for another time," Horikita interrupted, "Kanzaki-kun, why don't you show a little patience and see for yourself what 'impact' Ayanokoji-kun may or may not had on the exam results,"

"Fine," Kanzaki backed off, "But there's no guarantee we'll be shown everything. So far these videos seem random,"

"You are already seeing far more than I'm comfortable with as a class leader," Horikita sounded annoyed, "Are you not satisfied that you are able to freely analyse our class' situation?"

Kanzaki had no response to that. Even if our class had been keeping my ability a secret to use as a weapon, it was a perfectly viable option and one that would have been instantly disarmed by these videos.

"I'm really bad at being social. I'm sorry..." Sakura muttered.

She spoke in an unnatural, strained way, and didn't seem to want Kushida to get any closer. When discussing Sakura earlier, Kushida had described her as a shy but ordinary girl. Judging from her current behavior, though, she clearly wasn't normal. Kushida must have felt the same, because she couldn't hide her confusion. Kushida was normally very good at getting others to open up to her, but here she was failing. Horikita also understood what was happening. As she watched the conversation, she came to a conclusion.

Before, there may have been questions thrown at Airi to ask her why she wasn't opening up to Kushida. Now, though, Kushida had become something of a forbidden topic to many of the second and third years. Of course, there were those that were unaffected by her true nature, like Hashimoto who had made a comment earlier, but most were wary to even mention her name.

Normally, this would be an extreme and unusual reaction but in Kushida's case, it could be explained very easily. When you feel betrayed by a close friend or someone you care deeply about, the usual response is sadness and anger, depending on the person. It might then come down to a heated argument or a teary conversation and afterwards, you could both decide on what to do from then on. But what if one person's betrayal was revealed to hundreds of her friends simultaneously? Many of them were probably still wrapping their head around it and reconsidering all of the time they'd spent with her. Most likely wanted to believe there was still some hope for their relationship. This had all resulted in a widespread gag order, understood only by those processing this information.

"My, how unfortunate. Kushida failed to persuade her."

Horikita was correct. If Kushida couldn't do it, then I didn't think that anyone else in our class would be able to. Kushida was good at creating an informal atmosphere, one in which socially awkward people could converse naturally. However, everyone has what they consider their own personal space. An off-limits area, in other words.

Cultural anthropologist Edward Hall further divided the idea of personal space into four parts. One such zone is the so-called "intimate space." In this particular space, you'd be near enough to hug someone. If an outsider tries to step into this space, people naturally exhibit strong signs of rejection. However, if that person is a lover or a best friend, then he or she won't find it uncomfortable. Even if someone were only a casual acquaintance, Kushida probably wouldn't mind letting that person into her "intimate space." That is, she didn't seem to put high value on the idea of personal space.

"Listening to your explanations is infinitely more entertaining than a teacher's lecture," Sakayanagi smiled.

"Hey, hey, Ayanokoji, what exactly are you good at?" Hashimoto asked, frowning, "You score a hundred in maths and now you are going on about some psychology stuff. On top of that, you seemed pretty knowledgeable about the school system quite early on. So, I dunno, are you good at everything or something?"

It seemed very unrealistic to assume something like that with such a small sample size.

"I'm definitely not good at everything, that would be impossible," I replied, "Most of the stuff you mentioned just relies on a bit of common sense, right? Apart from that, I read a lot of books which has helped me become like a jack of all trades or that kind of thing,"

"Jack of all trades, master of none?" Hashimoto thought for a moment, "I guess I can see it, but your maths score was better than anybody in our year's. Doesn't that kind of go against your claim?"

"I was only making a general comparison," I explained, "Of course, there are going to be some things I'm better at,"

Nobody could be equally skilled at everything, whether it was in a good or a bad way.

Hashimoto decided not to pry further for the time being.

However, Sakura had clearly rejected Kushida. No...rather, it looked like she was running away. When Sakura was first asked, she'd said that she "had plans." If she really did have plans, she'd have repeated that when asked again. Sakura collected her bag and stood, seemingly putting distance between herself and Kushida.

"G-goodbye."

Sakura had apparently decided to run because she couldn't find a skillful way to end the conversation. She snatched a digital camera off her desk, and started to walk away. Just then, she ran into Hondou's shoulder. Focused on texting a friend, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going.

"Ah!"

Sakura's digital camera tumbled to the floor with a loud clack.

Hondou simply kept walking, attention still focused on his phone. He apologized as he left. "My bad," he called.

Sakura, flustered, rushed to pick up her camera.

"No way. There's nothing on the screen..."

"Hondo-kun, you should have been more careful!" Inogashira reprimanded him in a calm yet firm tone.

"Woah, hey, I don't even remember that happening, what could I do?" Hondo argued.

"Maybe actually look where you are going?" Haruka glared at him, "Being an idiot isn't a valid excuse!"

"It's okay, Haruka-chan," Airi smiled, "I just had to get it fixed, that's all,"

"Hmm, fine. It's not like anything I say would get through his thick head anyway," Haruka sighed.

Sakura put her hand over her mouth in total shock. The camera seemed to have broken on impact. She pushed the power button over and over, tried taking out the batteries and putting them back in, but the power indicator never came on.

"I-I'm sorry. It's because I came up and talked to you so suddenly, that..." Kushida began.

"No, that's not it. I was just careless, that's all... Anyway, goodbye."

Kushida, unable to stop the despondent Sakura, could only watch her leave with regret.

"Why is a gloomy girl like her my witness? This sucks. She doesn't want to help me at all."

"I don't think you should be complaining in your position," Asahina shook her head, "Weren't you desperate to get anybody to believe you?"

Sudo was likely caught off guard by how much attention he was getting from people he didn't usually interact with.

"Um, well, I was just a bit frustrated," Sudo explained, "I didn't mean to offend her or anything,"

I understood Sudo's frustration. From his perspective, everything was going wrong for him and he could do nothing about it.

Sudou crossed his legs and leaned against the chair, sighing in exasperation.

"I'm sure there's something to learn there. Besides, we didn't ask Sakura-san directly what she saw. Maybe she just can't say it herself?"

"I know. If she were planning to say something, she would have. She restrained herself because she's an adult."

"It might be better this way, Sudou-kun. Better that she's the witness, that is."

"What? I thought it was bad that she was the witness?" Kobashi looked utterly baffled.

"I don't think Horikita-san is thinking about it like that, Yume-chan," Ichinose explained.

"What do you mean?"

"She won't testify on your behalf. They'll determine you caused the incident. In the end, Class D will be affected by your actions, but we'll be okay. We have testimony that they lied about the violence. It's hard to imagine that the school would penalize us by more than 100 or 200 points for being involved in this incident. That way we'll only lose 87 points, and you won't face expulsion. However, we'll shoulder more of the blame than Class C will." Horikita relentlessly spoke her thoughts out loud, as if she'd been hiding them deep inside her all this time.

"That's certainly one way of looking at it," Ryuen chuckled, "You were fine with being on zero points then, Suzune?"

"If it meant limiting the damage to our class then letting things play out naturally was surely a viable option," Horikita answered, "However, it was by no means the optimal choice,"

"Obviously not,"

"Don't make jokes. I'm innocent. Innocent! I hit them, but it was out of self-defence."

"I don't think self-defence is all that helpful in this case."

Ah, I'd accidentally said that aloud.

People snickered at my carelessness.

"You mentioned this earlier didn't you, Ayanokoji-kun?" Mori asked.

"Yeah, with no evidence and Sudo's reputation in mind, whether it was self-defence or not would have little effect on the outcome,"

"I don't really understand all that much..."

"It's fine if you don't understand," Horikita said, "We all play different roles in the class, anyway. If you just watch and try and figure it out, that's good enough,"

"Okay..."

"Hey, Ayanokoji-kun? Why didn't you want to say that out loud?" Amikura asked me, "Like a lot of other people, I don't really understand what you mean, but it could have helped out, right?"

Disregarding whether or not my reasoning would have reached the ears of the other students, my silence had been strictly for myself. At the time, I didn't know if I had made a mistake getting involved at all so there was no way I was going to put myself at the centre of the situation.

"I didn't know if anybody else would get what I meant," I explained, "Horikita seemed to understand at the very least so I thought that was fine,"

"Hey, Ayanokouji-kun."

I tried to act aloof as I turned, but found that Kushida's face was super close to mine. Man, Kushida looked super cute up close. Rather than feeling uncomfortable about this invasion of my personal space, I wanted her to come even closer.

I was once again given many looks of displeasure. Maybe they'd gotten used to my odd comments because nobody said anything directly to me. Well, except...

"So, I suppose this is what you were talking about when you were giving that psychology speech earlier?" Tsubaki absent-mindedly stroked her cheek with her forefinger while saying this, "While Sakura-senpai rejected her completely, you welcomed Kushida-senpai with open arms,"

Well, it was true that my thoughts may lead people to that conclusion. However, rather than actually accepting Kushida, I was commenting on her ability to close emotional distance. Normally when people force themselves into your personal space you view it as an attack and become uncomfortable. But Kushida overcomes that obstacle. Physical and emotional distance are inexplicably intertwined. If you feel comfortable with someone being close to you, you naturally begin to trust them. Kushida used this to build trust in a way that nobody else could. The fact that Sakura rejected her told me a lot about the person she was.

"You knew about her true nature. You realised that she used personal space to grow closer to someone. And yet you didn't reject her as Sakura-senpai did. Why is that?"

"I neither accepted nor rejected her. My thought was merely objective. Having experienced what Airi had moments before, I was able to learn the differences between our reactions. Kushida has the ability to invade others personal space and instead of being forced out, she breaks down the person's natural defences, regardless of gender. Seeing Airi negate this apparent ability told me more about her than anything else could." I explained.

"It's just like him to do something like that just to 'study' something. But it's good that I don't have to worry about him..." Kei smiled, sighed and shook her head, all at the same time.

"Hmm. You really aren't like other people."

Tsubaki seemed satisfied with my answer. Perhaps she was trying to gauge why I was targetted for expulsion by using the incoming first-years. It wouldn't be unnatural for many of the first-year students to question why they had been tasked with such a peculiar goal. If that really was the motive for her questions, she had been disguising the fact well.

I also noticed that I was receiving more and more frequent glances as the wall I'd constructed around myself by maintaining my guise as 'just another student' slowly eroded around me.

"Ayanokouji-kun, you're Sudou-kun's ally, aren't you?" she asked.

"Well... Yeah, I am. Why are you asking me that again, though?"

"Well, it's just that things seem to be a bit tense. Everyone's desire to save Sudou is fading."

I looked around the classroom. "It does seem that way. They probably think that whatever happens, happens. That there's nothing to be done."

"Well, at the time, I didn't think there was anything to do," Sato looked somewhat downcast.

"Most of us believed Sudo-kun was actually in the wrong so it's not like we could have helped at all," Shinohara said.

"He's not saying that to offend any of you. Ayanokoji-kun knew very well the situation Sudo-kun was in," Horikita replied.

If even Sakura, the key witness, denied Sudou her help, then we'd made no progress.

"I can't imagine that we'll find a perfect out for Sudou. Let's just give up on him," muttered Ike, half-heartedly.

"See. Even his close friends had started to give up. None of you should be ashamed of your inaction," Horikita said bluntly.

"That's a bit sad though," Ichinose said, "As his closest friends, shouldn't you try and cheer him up at least, even if you can't think of any way to help?"

"Nah it's fine, I woulda probably said the same stuff about him," Sudo grinned.

First-hand experience told me that this was completely true.

"Oh, I see,"

"What the hell, you guys? Didn't you say that you'd help me?" Sudou cried.

"Well, it's just...you know?" Sudou appealed to our remaining classmates, looking for approval.

"Even your friends don't wish to help you. How unfortunate," Horikita muttered.

The other students didn't try to deny what Ike and Horikita had said.

"Why do I have to suffer like this? You bunch of useless jerks!"

"What an interesting thing to say, Sudou-kun. Haven't you noticed that everyone is turning on you?"

Despite their previous words, the majority of the class seemed to be regretting their past actions. Seeing this scene made me realise how interesting this was. When we remember our past, we modify some of our memories to make ourselves feel better about what we've done. Failing that, we attempt to justify our actions. 'I only did that because I felt this way' or 'If they hadn't have done that then I wouldn't have' are common examples of the justifications we make to make ourselves feel better, even though we would condemn others for the exact same thing.

The common factor in looking back at the past is our memory. In this case, instead of relying on our memory, we are being shown the raw facts through video. It was fascinating to me what changes the students would have in their thinking as they looked back in this unnatural way.

"What do you mean by that?"

Our class often got very tense, but today was worse than usual. However, since Sudou was talking to Horikita, he seemed to be trying his best to restrain himself. However, the attack came at him from an unexpected direction.

"Don't you think it would've been better if you'd been expelled? Your existence is far from beautiful. No, in fact, I could say your life is an ugly one, Red Hair-kun."

Multiple people from the class sighed as they heard Koenji speak. Sudo's eyes remained firmly on the screen, seeming quite composed. If he was faking it, he was doing a good job.

The voice came from a boy checking his reflection in a hand mirror to fix his hair. It was Kouenji Rokusuke, an especially odd guy even amongst the remarkably strange people of our class.

"That's the second time you've thought that. Do we really seem that strange to you, Ayanokoji-kun?" Sato asked.

"I was just referring to some key individuals rather than the class as a whole," I assured her, "Don't worry, I don't think there's anything strange about you, Sato,"

"I'm sure I can guess, but would you like to mention which 'individuals' these are?" Horikita started directly at me.

"If I had to rank my classmates based on their peculiarity, you'd be somewhere close to the top if that's what you want to know,"

Many students around the hall laughed as I said this. Apparently, the observation that they enjoyed watching me make fun of Horikita had been correct.

"I-"

It seemed like Horikita hadn't been expecting me to give my actual opinion.

"What the hell? Say that one more time, I dare you!"

"It would be inefficient for me to tell you, no matter how many times I did. If I know that you're dim-witted, then it doesn't matter how many times I try to lecture you, does it?"

Kouenji didn't even look at Sudou as he spoke. It was as if this were a soliloquy. Suddenly, there was a huge crashing sound. A desk flew through the air and splintered on the ground after being kicked. Everyone froze. Sudou, silent and intense, walked over to Kouenji.

Almost identical to the reaction in the video, the audience froze at this sudden show of violence. Sudo sighed and looked down.

"All right, that's enough. Calm down, you two," Hirata said. He was the only boy able to move in this awful situation. My heart pounded in my chest. "Sudou-kun. You certainly are part of the problem here. But Kouenji-kun, you're in the wrong, too."

"Puh. I don't think I've experienced being wrong since I was born. You must be mistaken."

"Never been wrong? That's quite the confidence you have, Koenji-kun," Sakayanagi commented.

"Oh, you sound like you think that's a joke. I have never been wrong once," Koenji said firmly.

"Oh, come on. I'll admit you aren't the stupid type but actually believing that you've never been wrong is laughable," Nagumo said.

"Hmm, I'd rather not hear you talk to me, Second-Place-kun," Koenji took a comb out of his pocket and began carefully organising his hair, "Your presence is already disgraceful enough without that unbearable noise in my ears,"

Nagumo kept a straight face but the effort he took to do so gave away his anger.

"You-"

"Let's not get off-topic," Mashima interrupted Nagumo before he could argue back.

Still seething, Nagumo held back his words.

"Bring it on. I'll smash your face in and take you down a peg," Sudou snapped.

"Stop it."

Hirata grabbed Sudou's arm, sternly attempting to stop him, but Sudou showed no signs of being swayed. He looked like he wanted to vent all of his frustrations—including what Horikita had said—by hitting Kouenji.

"Stop it already. I don't want to see my friends fight..."

"It's just like Kushida says. I don't know about Kouenji-kun, but I'm your ally, Sudou-kun."

Hirata was way too cool. It would've been fitting if he changed his name to "Hero."

That would have been awesome.

(A/N - I have no idea what it is about this line but I sat in front of my computer for ten minutes straight having no clue what reactions I was going to write to it)

"Do you worship the guy or something, Ayanokoji?" Nagumo chuckled.

"Huh? Does Kiyotaka really think about people like that? Wait, what did he think of me at the time? What about now?" Kei thought, suddenly eager for the videos to continue.

Due to my apparent adoration of Yosuke, I was receiving quizzical looks from various students.

"Ayanokoji-kun think of Hirata in that way? I suppose it isn't unthinkable. He definitely isn't someone who looks down on others, of course, but I also never thought he'd look up to someone like Hirata-kun. No, as much as I think about it, I simply can't believe that." Sakayanagi thought.

"There's no way that guy sees a weakling like Hirata as some kind of 'hero'. That title's reserved for people who can actually get shit done and Hirata's nothing more than a token pretty boy. I refuse to believe that's how he sees him," Ryuen shook his head.

"Interesting. It's looking ever more likely that my theory is correct..." Manabu decided.

"See! That's how most people see Hirata-kun! It's only those weirdos that don't," Mori referred to the three- well, two, idiots as she said this.

"Huh? What makes him such a 'hero'?" Ike yelled.

"What kind of question is that?"

"Have you seen him?"

There were a couple more calls from the girls in our class and, not so surprisingly, other classes as well.

"Hey, settle down, there's no need to argue over something so silly," Yosuke pleaded, "Kiyotaka-kun, I don't think I'm deserving of your praise but thank you all the same,"

I acknowledged his gratitude with a nod of my head. It was true that Yosuke held every quality that a hero was supposed to have. The only unfortunate thing is heroes don't hold the same power in the real world as they do in fiction.

"I'm going to stop this. Sudou-kun, you should act more mature. If you cause another huge disturbance, the school's evaluation of you will only worsen. Right?"

"Tch."

Sudou glared at Kouenji and left the classroom, slamming the door on his way out. Afterwards, a loud voice could be heard in the hall.

"Kouenji-kun. I don't intend to compel you to help. But you were wrong to blame him."

"Unfortunately, I've never experienced being wrong. Not once in my entire life. Oh, looks like it's about time for my date. Well, if you'll excuse me."

"He's really not joking, is he?"

Those not accustomed to Koenji's... 'unique' nature, were starting to come to terms with it.

Watching their bizarre interaction unfold, I realized that our class lacked unity.

"You certainly do have an odd class," Kiriyama noted, "By this point in most classes, there should have been some kind of natural hierarchy beginning to build, but all you have is a few students that people follow with no reason behind it,"

Ryuen's class was ruled by a dictator. Sakayanagi's class had dual leadership. Ichinose's class rallied around a chosen representative. We had nothing that resembled a system at all.

"Not every class is as quick on the uptake," Mashima replied, "I've seen many classes during my time here and each had different ideas on how to organise themselves. While it's true that most classes choose a specific student to follow, it's not necessary to stick to that formula,"

While it was possible to have a leaderless class, you would face many obstacles with forty individuals each doing their own thing. Having a designated student or students to manage that individualism took care of many problems before they even surface.

"Sudou-kun really hasn't grown up, has he?"

"Couldn't you have been a little kinder, Horikita-san?"

"I don't show mercy to people who don't attempt to better themselves. He's caused us nothing but harm, and has no redeeming features."

Well, you don't exactly show any mercy even to people who do attempt such things.

"How would you even know if that was true or not?" Horikita asked with a spiteful look. Many students giggled at my comment.

"You think you did?" I responded.

"That's irrelevant. I'm asking what evidence you had to make that comment,"

"I don't think I need ironclad proof to surmise that,"

"I don't like how much you thought you knew me after such a short period of time,"

"You aren't a difficult person to figure out," I shrugged which only had the effect of annoying her even further.

"Oh, really? While I believe that being open about one's true nature is a good thing, I don't think it's possible to 'figure someone out' after so few interactions,"

If you wore your personality like a flashy accessory then of course people are going to see it. Especially if you were the type to show it off to everyone you meet.

"Perhaps you are right," I conceded, "Why don't you tell me if you think my assessment of you is correct after we watch more videos?"

With one final mean look, Horikita looked away from me.

"What?"

"Ooh!"

While I shrank away, a sharp knife (well, a sharp look) was thrust into me. I made a small rebuttal.

"There's a popular expression in this world: Great talents mature late. Sudou could probably become a professional player in the NBA, right? I think there's a possibility that he'll make a great contribution to society. The power of youth is infinite." I uttered a catchphrase that sounded about as original as a television commercial.

"At least Ayanokoji-kun still believed in him," Amikura said.

"The power of youth is infinite? Did you memorise that shit from a Disney movie?" Ryuen scoffed.

"I don't intend to deny that it could happen in 10 years' time, but I'm looking for things to help me reach Class A right now. If he can't help us right now, then he's worthless to me."

"Even though I should be used to it by now, the harshness in her words still surprised me," Akito muttered.

"I guess so."

Well, Horikita's opinion was consistent, which was nice. I was more worried about Ike and the others. Their moods changed frequently, so I wasn't really able to relax.

"You get along with Sudou, don't you? You eat together with him."

"I don't think we're on bad terms, but I do kind of feel like he's a burden. Sudou cuts class more than anyone else. He also fights the most. I have to draw the line there."

I could see what he meant. Ike appeared to have his own thoughts.

"That's both surprisingly mature and hypocritical at the same time," Keisei said.

"Ike can be honestly reliable when he's in the right frame of mind," Akito added.

"Then it's a shame his mind is usually on girls," Haruka sighed, "I don't know if it's possible but maybe he'll be better with Shinohara-san with him,"

Connecting with the right people was one of the most important contributors to personal growth. Shinohara could definitely prove to be a good companion for Ike.

"I'll try to persuade Sakura-san. Once I do, things should turn around."

"I just wonder about that. Considering the circumstances, even if we get Sakura-san's testimony, I believe it'll have minimal impact. The school will probably have doubts about a witness just suddenly appearing from Class D."

"Doubts? You mean they'd think we were lying about the witness?"

"Of course. They'll consider the witness's testimony along with her possible intentions. They won't take her word as absolute proof."

"No way. You mean even that evidence wouldn't be perfectly sound?"

"Well, the best and most miraculous situation would be if there was a trusted witness from another class or grade who saw the entire incident from start to finish. There isn't anyone who fits that description, though," said Horikita with confidence.

I thought the same.

"Then no matter how hard we try to prove Sudou's innocence, we..."

"Had the incident happened in a classroom, however, it would be a different story."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there are cameras that record what goes on in the classrooms, right? Therefore, if anything did happen, there'd be evidence of it. Those recordings would blow the Class C guys' lies away."

I pointed at the two or so cameras affixed to the ceiling near the corners of the classroom. They were small enough that they wouldn't be a distraction, and they blended in well with their surroundings, but they were undeniably security cameras.

"No cameras could have picked anything up, right? If they did there would be no point in any of this, the school would already know what happened," Matsushita observed.

"No, you are correct. The place where the fight took place wasn't in view of any of the security cameras," Horikita confirmed.

"It would have been so much easier if there were," Ike sighed.

"The school checks those cameras to see if we talk or fall asleep during class. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to accurately assess our monthly performance."

"I have to admit I was a bit confused the first time we had points docked for bad behaviour," Matsushita said, "It didn't occur to me that they'd check the footage for the entire month,"

"It would be too much to ask the teachers to record every instance of bad behaviour by a student," Yosuke added, "It's really the only way they could do it,"

(A/N - I've had to switch from the official translation to a fan translation. There's not really any significance to this as most of the fan edits are just as good as the official releases but I thought I'd mention it.)

"Seriously?! I never knew that!"

Ike looked utterly shocked.

"I just learned about the cameras."

"They're not easily spotted. I also didn't notice until they talked about points for the first time."

"Well, ordinary people don't typically concern themselves with hidden cameras. I mean, most wouldn't be able to directly point out the cameras in a convenience store, even if they went there all the time, right?"

If that person did know, they probably had a guilty conscience or were extremely nervous. Or they might have accidentally spotted them.

"Then why did you spot them?" Ryuen asked.

"Because I was curious as to how the school judged our class performance so accurately," I replied.

Well, considering we didn't need to search for a witness anymore, I thought it was time to head home then. Kushida and the others might discuss looking for another witness. It would be a pain in the butt to get sucked into that.

"Horikita-san was right. You really aren't motivated," Kobashi chuckled.

"If I thought there was a point to searching for a second witness then I probably would have gone along with it,"

"Ayanokouji-kun, do you want to head back together?" Horikita asked.

"..............."

After hearing that invitation, I reflexively placed my hand against her forehead. It felt nice and cool, but I noticed the softness of her skin.

Those who realised why I had done this began to laugh.

"She can't be that cold," Amikura giggled.

"Oh she really can," Sudo thought.

"You do know I don't have a fever? I only wanted to talk to you about something," she deadpanned.

"Ah, okay. That's fine."

It was rare for Horikita to invite me anywhere. With the world going so topsy-turvy, I wondered if it would rain tomorrow.

"Have I ever told you exactly how much I hate your sarcastic comments," Horikita sighed.

"Quite often,"

"You two really have gotten close, huh? I mean, you looked like you were going to murder me after I just touched your shoulder yesterday, and now..."

Ike looked at my hand on Horikita's forehead with seeming discontent.

"That's definitely a weird interaction for two people who supposedly hate each other," Asahina raised her eyebrow with apparent suspicion.

"I've never hated her, senpai," I replied.

"Oh, I see, so Horikita junior is the ice-queen and you were melting away her frozen heart?"

"That's-"

How on earth was that related to what I said?

"I suppose I didn't actually 'hate' Ayanokoji-kun. It was more like I was annoyed by his presence," Horikita explained. That didn't sound very far off.

Asahina didn't respond but muffled her infuriating giggles with a hand over her mouth.

Horikita, having noticed this, didn't change her expression as she spoke to me.

"Do you mind? Your hand."

"Oh, sorry, sorry."

While I was relieved that Horikita offered no counterattack, I drew my hand away. I was on autopilot as the two of us stood in the hallway. I could roughly guess what Horikita wanted, but I didn't know exactly what she was going to say.

"That reminds me. I want to make a stop before we return to the dorms. Is that okay?"

"I don't mind, as long as it doesn't take too long."

"Of course. It should only take about 10 minutes."

Ayanokoji and Horikita then go to the special building, where the incident took place.

"Was there something there that helped out?" Matsushita asked.

"Sort of. You'll see," I replied.

It was hot and humid after class. I made my way over the special building, where the incident had taken place. It wasn't like a murder case where the area needed to be taped off to prevent people from contaminating the crime scene. It didn't really look any different than usual. I didn't see any indication that this building's facilities were used frequently, like the special classrooms, the home economics room, the AV room, etc. This would have been an ideal place to call Sudou out.

"True, the special building isn't commonly used except by a few clubs and occasionally by some classes," Kanzaki said.

"I'm sure it's been used as a secret meeting spot by many people," Hashimoto agreed.

The special building could be viewed as the best spot for such a meeting. That would be true except for the one downside it had - most students knew about how convenient it was.

"It's so hot..."

This heat was abnormal. This was probably how summer at school should feel, but I had at least imagined that inside the building would be somewhat comfortable, the cool air balancing out the heat. I guess I'd gotten too used to air-conditioned buildings. I felt even hotter because of that gap in expectation. The air conditioning was probably on during class time in the special building, but it certainly wasn't right now.

"Sorry for bringing you here."

Horikita, who was standing next to me, simply looked around the hallway. She didn't appear to be sweating at all.

"You've really changed, haven't you? It's odd that you stuck your neck out in this case. The witness has already been found, and we've confirmed that there's nothing left to be done. What are you even trying to do?" she asked.

"The girl has a point, kouhai," Kiryuin said, "You look like the most unmotivated student but you are also the person doing the most work. If the situation doesn't interest you, why get involved at all?"

"I don't think I was doing the most work at all, Kiryuin-senpai," I replied, "Kushida asked for my help to find a witness and Horikita simply asked me to accompany her. Surely that means they are working much harder than me?"

"Sorry, I must have misspoke. Let me rephrase. They clearly couldn't have saved that boy if you hadn't helped them, yet you don't seem all that motivated to do so."

"I don't think you understand, senpai. If I didn't wish to help Sudo, then I would have refused right from the start,"

"Sudou was the first friend that I made here. I want to help him."

"Do you think that there's a way to prove his innocence?"

"I'm not so sure. I can't really say yet. I decided to take some initiative by myself, since I'm not very good at interacting with Hirata, Kushida, or large groups of people. Being social's definitely not my forte. I thought everyone would make me run around the school or the classroom today, so I decided to bolt instead. I like to avoid trouble, remember?"

"I think I understand. Ayanokoji, if you thought they could help Sudo by themselves, you never would have gotten involved, would you?" Kiryuin asked with a slight grin.

"Hmm, I wonder," I said.

"Wait, wait, slow down, I'm getting confused," Kobashi waved her hands in front of her, "Ayanokoji-kun only helped because he thought Horikita-san and Kushida-san couldn't handle it?"

"That's what I'm saying," Kiryuin nodded.

"But isn't Horikita-san the best in their class for this sort of thing? We are always mindful of her strategies," Amikura asked.

"What if Horikita isn't the one coming up with those strategies?" Hashimoto joined in.

"Huh? Horikita-san always comes up with our class plans," Ike denied the possibility.

"Isn't it possible that neither of them have been truthful?" Kanzaki asked.

"What? They wouldn't lie to their own class, that'd be stupid," Mori argued.

"Settle down. Continue watching," Chabashira ordered.

"That's certainly true. But then, you're as contradictory as ever, since you're helping out a friend."

"Well, human beings are, for better or worse, creatures of convenience."

I'd touched on this subject before with Horikita, but she did seem relatively open to my ideas. She usually acted alone, so as long as something didn't harm her, she tended not to mind. She wasn't the type to empathize with someone else's pain, though.

"His thoughts really cut to the point. It's amazing how much Horikita-san has changed. I can't help but wonder how much influence Kiyotaka had on that change," Hirata thought.

"Was I really that much of an open book? I've always been proud to show myself for who I really am but to be able to read me this easily..." Horikita was frustrated.

"Well, your way of thinking isn't relevant to me, Ayanokouji-kun, so you're free to think whatever you like. Also, I appreciate that you say those two are hard to deal with."

"Well, that's just because you hate them, isn't it?"

"Huh? She hated them as well?" Mori was taken aback.

"Have you not been paying attention?" Ryuen sighed.

"It was more like she disliked people in general," I explained.

"Having a common enemy tends to lead to cooperation."

"No. Just because I'm bad at dealing with them doesn't mean I hate them. Please don't think I'm like you."

"I'm glad to hear that," Yosuke smiled.

"I feel like I should apologise for my previous stance," Horikita said, "Also, I don't think it needs to be said, but I no longer feel any sort of unjustified resentment toward you,"

"I appreciate that, Horikita-san,"

I really did want to get closer to Kushida and Hirata. But Horikita's interpretation of my stance was rather broad, and she seemed to think that we had similar thoughts on the matter. Muttering, I walked to the end of the hallway and scanned the corners, making sure not to miss any nooks or crannies. Horikita seemed to notice something, and began looking around. She started to ponder.

"Looks like there aren't any here. Too bad."

"Huh? What?" I asked

"Cameras, like the ones in the classrooms. If there were cameras here, we'd have solid evidence. I can't find any."

"God, I'm dumb. How the hell did I fall for such a cheap trick!" Ishizaki lamented.

"Wait, what?" Kondo showed clear confusion.

"Ah, yes. The security cameras. You're certainly right about it. If they were here, this matter would be settled."

There were electrical outlets by the ceiling, but no signs they were being used. There was nothing in the hallway to obstruct a camera's view, so if one were installed the whole incident would have been recorded from start to finish.

"This just gets worse and worse. How did you manage to help him?" Amikura asked.

"The situation does appear desperate," Kanzaki said, "If the school accepts the three's complaints as genuine then I don't see any way to escape punishment,"

"Oh! Could that be how they got out of it? The school just didn't believe Class C?" Kobashi suggested.

"If you'd been paying attention you'd know that not possible," Utomiya shook his head, "Taken at face value, it looks like Sudo is the aggressor and unless they find something to counteract that impression, they won't be able to overturn a decision in favour of the victims,"

"Oh, fine," Kobashi looked surprisingly defeated for such a weak suggestion.

"Well, did the school have hallway cameras in the first place?"

It probably wasn't just the special building. The hallways in the main school buildings probably didn't have cameras, either.

"If I had to think of places where they wouldn't be installed, I'd probably say the bathrooms and the locker rooms. Right?"

"Yeah. Most likely."

"If there were security cameras here, the school would have checked them first and we wouldn't have any problems with this case."

I shook my head, embarrassed to have gotten my hopes up for even a moment. For a short while, we loitered around, wasting time and not really achieving anything.

"So, have you come up with a plan to save Sudou-kun?" Horikita asked.

"Of course I haven't. It's your job to come up with plans, Horikita. I won't ask you to save Sudou, but it'd be nice for you to point Class D in the right direction."

"You came up with the solution when you both saved Sudo-kun the first time though," Onodera mentioned.

"That's true but that doesn't mean I'm capable of doing it all the time," I responded.

Horikita shrugged in exasperation. She was probably thinking up a response. However, she was the one who'd found Sakura, so it wasn't like she didn't want to help at all.

"You're asking for my help? To use me? Me? Here and now?"

"Having Sakura as our witness hurts us more than it helps. I think it'd be better if we looked for something else."

Horikita likely understood. However, she was acting aloof, cut off from the world, like she was too cool to care about anything.

"I can't help but be amused by your vivid descriptions of Horikita-san," Sakayanagi giggled.

"Hehe! Do you like acting all cool, Horikita-senpai?" Amasawa asked.

"I'm not going to entertain that question with an answer," Horikita sighed.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with the way she's acting," Sudo shrugged.

"Of course you don't Sudo-senpai!" Amasawa turned her attention, "You think Horikita-senpai is really cool, right?"

"Well, sure, I guess," Sudo shrugged again.

"It's just too sad you can't live up to her standard. It's really such a shame," Amasawa put on a downcast expression.

"Yeah- wait, what did you say?" Sudo growled.

"Oops! Sorry about that, I'm sure you'll get there eventually," Amasawa apologised with a mischievous glint still lingering in her eye.

Appearing not to realise he was still being made fun of, Sudo didn't complain any further.

"Sudou has many qualities I can't stomach. However, I want to lessen the blame they're placing upon him. The best possible outcome is we'll still have some points, even if Class D's image worsens."

She sounded honest. Normally, she wasn't quite so candid. That wasn't an especially bad thing. However, most people aren't suited for loneliness. Therefore, they sometimes behave hypocritically, like saving someone out of feigned altruism in order to make other people adore them. That didn't seem to be Horikita's style, though. Also, unlike Kushida and the others, she'd completely given up on proving Sudou's innocence.

"I think I'd have given up too. It just seems impossible," Hashimoto threw up his hands in defeat.

"Then you found a way of saving Sudo without proving his innocence, then?" Kanzaki surmised, "But I can't see how you could do that,"

While he had figured out the goal, he hadn't realised how to achieve it.

"Like I said, unless a perfect witness appears, proving Sudou-kun's innocence will be impossible. If those Class C students admitted that they lied, I suppose things might turn out fine. Do you think that's likely?"

"No way. They would never admit it."

The lie would stand, especially because the other class also lacked any evidence. That was what I thought, anyway. Our only proof was Sudou's word. We were completely in the dark.

"There's no one here after class."

"Well, that's obvious. They only use the special building for club activities."

One party, either Sudou or the Class C students, had summoned the other to the special building. After that, as if by destiny, the two enemies started brawling. In the end, Sudou had injured the others, and they'd complained about it. That was the whole case.

I definitely wouldn't come to a hot place like this unless someone had brought me. The humidity was suffocating. I felt like if I stayed even a few more minutes, my head would explode.

"Kuku, you really don't seem to be handling that heat very well, Ayanokoji," Ryuen chuckled.

"Well, I definitely prefer a little cooler weather,"

"Aren't you hot, Horikita?"

While the severe heat destroyed me, Horikita looked around with a cool expression.

"I'm fairly resilient when it comes to temperature. Ayanokouji-kun, you...don't seem okay."

"It sounds sad, even to me, when I say this but...could this count as a weakness?" Ryuen sighed while thinking this.

The heat was making me dizzy. I moved towards the window, hoping for some cool air. I opened the window...and then immediately slammed it shut.

"That was dangerous."

Opening the window had only let more hot air into the room. Leaving it ajar would've resulted in tragedy, I was sure of it. When I thought about how it would keep getting hotter all the way through August, I became depressed.

I was laughed at yet again for my thoughts.

"Perhaps I'll look into getting an air-conditioner installed in the special building for those with a weaker constitution," Nagumo smirked.

However, coming here today had given us results. Things weren't impossible...

"Huh? What? I thought you both agreed that nothing there helped you?" Kobashi looked bewildered.

"I have to admit that I'm confused as well, Ayanokoji. If there aren't any cameras and you didn't find anything else that could prove useful, then how did you obtain results?" Katsuragi asked.

"I simply looked at it in a different way," I responded.

"So it was him who came up with the plan? He told me it was Horikita-san. I remember him saying that a lot - 'It was Horikita who came up with it, I'm just following her lead'. I wonder, could all of those times have been lies?" Ichinose thought.

"Well, I guess I'll have to wait and see what you came up with," Katsuragi said.

"What are you thinking about right now?" Horikita asked.

"Oh, nothing really. Just that it's hot. I've reached my limit."

It looked as though we'd done all we could, so we started back.

"Ah."

"Oops!"

Turning the hallway corner, I bumped into another student.

"Sorry, are you okay?" I asked.

The impact of our collision wasn't very hard. At the very least, neither of us fell over.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I was careless," she said.

"Oh no, I'm sorry. Wait...Sakura?"

Mid-apology, I realized just whom I'd run into.

"She came back to the scene of the crime, eh?" Hashimoto said.

"Airi, why were you in the special building in the first place?," Haruka asked, "Not many people bother going there,"

"Oh, um, I think Kiyotaka-kun asked the same question," she replied.

"Ah, um?"

Judging from her troubled response, she didn't know who I was. After staring for a moment, she seemed to recognize me as one of her classmates. It's kind of pointless if you can only recognize somebody after a bout of intense staring, though.

"Um, sorry Kiyotaka-kun," Airi said with a sheepish grin.

"Wow, you both really were loners," Haruka said, "Neither of you had any idea who the other was until then,"

Well, it wasn't like Sudo's trial was the first time I'd heard of Airi, but anything I'd heard about her before had told me nothing as to the type of person she was.

"Ah, oh. Well, you see... My hobby is taking pictures, so..."

She showed me her phone's screen. I hadn't really planned on asking for details. Besides, it wasn't particularly unnatural to use your phone. Sakura had probably thought we were returning to the dorms, and now she was undoubtedly wondering why we were here.

"Oh, I've always wanted to take pictures when I'm out and about but I always forget..." Amikura said.

"I remember you saying that you like taking pictures but what were you taking pictures of in the special building?" Haruka asked, "There's basically nothing there, is there?"

Airi squirmed as this question was asked of her. I had no doubts that her extreme nervousness was due to the anticipation of what was to come. Airi obviously had no problems telling her friends about her photography, but it seems that she hadn't even told Haruka about the side of herself that she hid. In a way, the fact she didn't tell her could be viewed as pointless. Ike, Sudo and some others already knew about her online persona and they weren't the types to keep info like that to themselves. However, seeing as it hadn't spread, I assumed Kushida had long since ordered their silence.

"You said it's your hobby? What kind of pictures?" I asked.

"Things like the hallway...and the view outside the window. Stuff like that, I guess."

"Huh. Is that really entertaining?" Haruka asked.

"I like it," Airi answered.

"Leave the poor girl alone, plenty of photographers use basic settings for their shots," Akito said,

"I guess I'm just not that knowledgeable about photography," Haruka shrugged, "Hey, Airi. Do you mind showing me some of your photos after?"

"Sure, I don't mind,"

Just as Sakura finished her brief explanation, she noticed Horikita and lowered her gaze.

"Ah, um..."

"I have something I'd like to ask you, Sakura-san," Horikita said.

Sakura appeared uncomfortable, but Horikita, never one to pass up on an opportunity, stepped closer to her. Sakura backed away, seemingly frightened. I tried to gently restrain Horikita, gesturing for her to stop chasing Sakura.

"Wow, I didn't realise how scary you were, Suzune," Ryuen grinned

"G-goodbye."

"Sakura." I called as she tried to hasten away. "You don't have to force yourself."

I'd spoken up without thinking. Sakura stopped, but didn't turn around.

"You shouldn't feel obligated to appear as the witness, Sakura. It'd be pointless to force you to testify. But if someone scary is trying to intimidate you or something, please talk to us. I have no idea how much I can help, but I'll try."

"Are you talking about me?" Horikita muttered.

Ignoring the existence of such a scary monster, I decided to let Sakura go.

As I, again, made fun of Horikita, another wave of laughter swept the hall. Instead of reprimanding me, Horikita merely sighed.

"So you protected Airi, Kiyopon?" Haruka turned to me. I noticed her lip was slightly upturned as if she was trying not to smile.

"I wouldn't say that exactly. There wasn't much I could do except prevent Horikita from interrogating her,"

"Well, taking into account Airi's personality, that's probably a good idea," Akito said.

"I agree. Although, back then, if I had been involved, I probably would have pressured her just as Horikita tried to do..." Keisei muttered.

"That's just because you want to do everything you can to help, Yukimuu," Haruka consoled him.

"Except it probably wouldn't have helped, right, Kiyotaka?"

"I doubt it. As you saw, both Horikita and Kushida couldn't get through to her using that method,"

"Airi did turn up to the trial though, right?" Akito asked.

"Yes, I did, Kiyotaka-kun convinced me," Airi confirmed.

"That's surprising seeing as you didn't know her either, Kiyopon," Haruka raised her eyebrow in my direction.

"I just told her what I thought, that's all,"

A girl too scared of people to interact with them properly wouldn't be convinced by brute force. The only consequence that method would cause is pushing her further into her shell.

"I didn't see anything. You've got the wrong person..."

She kept insisting she wasn't the witness. So far, we'd been operating based purely on Horikita's dogmatism and prejudices. It was quite possible that Sakura wasn't the witness, like she said.

"Wait, so you never had any proof that she was the witness?" Hashimoto asked.

"No, but I was confident that she was the only one it could be," Horikita answered.

"But, why?"

"There's no point in explaining it specifically. It was just her behaviour that told me,"

"Then that's fine. However, if someone else tries to hound you about it, please tell me."

Sakura went meekly down the stairs.

"That was probably our one big shot, you know? She probably came here because she was still thinking about the incident."

"Since she's denied it, we can't force her to do anything. Besides, you do understand, Horikita? A Class D witness wouldn't help our case much."

"Is that why you let her go, Ayanokoji-kun?" Shibata asked.

"That's not the full reason, but a part of it,"

"Yeah, I suppose."

She would act according to her logic. However, I didn't know what in the world she was thinking. That was why our investigation was at a standstill.

"I thought you two were good partners," Kobashi said.

"We aren't partners or anything of the kind. We simply work together when it's needed," Horikita denied it.

"Hey, you two. What are you doing?"

"Honami?" Amikura realised who was calling to us.

We turned in response to the unexpected voice. A beautiful girl with strawberry-blonde hair stood behind us. I recognized her, though I hadn't ever spoken to her before. She was a student from Class B, Ichinose. Rumor had it she was a superb student.

"Wow, Ayanokoji-kun knew who you were even back then, Honami!" Amikura poked Ichinose's arm repeatedly.

"It appears so," Ichinose's smile seemed forced.

"What's this? Ichinose-san is acting very strangely...I thought her and Ayanokoji-kun were close. It appears something's causing some friction in their relationship," Sakayanagi looked keenly interested.

"Sorry to interrupt you like that. Do you have a moment? Oh, if you happen to be in the middle of a so-so date, though, I'd like you to break it up right away."

"A date? Ayanokoji and Suzune would never be on a date," Sudo announced.

"Hmm~I don't know about that. Haven't you read a single book, Sudo-senpai? There's so many examples of two people hating each other at the beginning but slowly growing closer as the story progresses until they finally admit to themselves that they loved one another the entire time!" Amasawa explained.

"What? I don't really read many books," Sudo scratched his head, "Wait, that's not the point. Ayanokoji assured me he would never date Suzune!"

"He did? But didn't he also say that Horikita-senpai saved you during your midterms, when it was actually him? Maybe they are secretly dating right now!"

"No, I believe in Ayanokoji," Sudo completely rejected the idea. His level of trust in me had climbed surprisingly high.

"You believe in someone that lied to you? That's pretty dumb," Amasawa replied with a giggle, "Or maybe you have a reason for your trust?"

"I trust Ayanokoji. That's all there is to it,"

For a few seconds, Amasawa's gaze lingered on Sudo. I couldn't sense anything from her look. There was no suspicion nor surprise. There was also no sense that she believed him. It was a blank stare from which no meaning could be derived.

Without another word, Amasawa turned her back.

"It's nothing like that." Horikita denied it immediately. She was only quick to respond to suggestions like that.

"Ha ha, I see. This place is a little too hot to be a date spot."

I had no connection with Ichinose. I couldn't be sure, but she probably didn't even know my name. I was only one of many students to her. Perhaps she was an acquaintance of Horikita's? Or a friend? No. There was no way. If they suddenly said something like, "Oh wow, it's been too long! How are you?" and "I'm good, I'm good!" and embraced each other, I'd probably start foaming at the mouth and then faint.

After another round of laughter, Amikura spoke to me.

"I wasn't expecting your thoughts to be so funny, Ayanokoji-kun,"

Rude or not, I understood what she meant. Although, really, my off-hand comments- well, thoughts, were just what I had felt at the time.

"Do you have some business with us?" Horikita asked.

Horikita was on guard after Ichinose's sudden appearance. She probably didn't think that it was a coincidence Ichinose was trying to talk to us.

"Business, huh? Well, it's more like 'What are you doing here?'"

"Nothing. We're wandering around for no reason."

I would've liked to answer honestly, but the pressure of Horikita's gaze made me fib.

"I don't think there was any reason to hide what you were doing, right?" Asahina asked.

"Probably not. Even for new first-years, it's obvious that you'd want to obtain as much information as you can after being targeted. As a member of the student council, I obviously heard about it when it happened, but you can't keep something like this a secret from anyone," Nagumo explained, "This just comes down to Suzune's inability to trust anyone,"

It's true that there was absolutely no reason to lie when Ichinose confronted us. We could have assumed she already had an idea of what we were doing. If we had been confronted by the scheming-type, instead of Ichinose, lying could have actually backed us into a corner.

"For no reason, huh? You're from Class D, aren't you?"

"Do you know us?

"I've met you twice before. We didn't talk directly, though. I remember seeing you in the library once, too."

It seemed that she somehow remembered me. Perhaps I was kind of cool.

"Wow, that's sad," Hashimoto sighed.

"I have a very good memory, you know."

Did she mean that if her memory weren't good, I wouldn't have much of an impression? I'd been a little happy, but my levity died at the backhanded comment.

A couple of people chuckled at my emotional pain.

"I don't think she meant that. Right, Honami?" Kobashi asked.

"Oh, no, not at all," Ichinose shook her head and gave what looked like a rather forced smile.

"See, she did think you were cool, Ayanokoji-kun," Kobashi said proudly.

"Eh? Wait, that's not what I said..."

Before Ichinose could continue, Amikura put a hand over her mouth to prevent her from speaking. I could tell subtlety wasn't included in their plans.

"I thought that surely there'd be something here related to the brawl. I wasn't here yesterday when Class B heard about the witness. Later, I heard that Class D was looking for evidence of Sudou's innocence."

"If we did happen to be here because of an investigation, what's your connection?"

"Hmm, a connection? Well, I'm not connected. When I heard about what happened, I had some doubts. So I thought I'd come here myself to take a look. Would you mind filling me in?"

"Why would you want to know, anyway?" Ishizaki asked, sounding a little resentful. Perhaps he was annoyed by his failure back then.

"I wanted to help out, that's all," Ichinose replied.

"You wanted to help out another class?" Utomiya asked, skeptically.

"Of course, there's no need to constantly be at odds with one another. Alliances are much more helpful than enemies, after all,"

There had been more than one occasion after this first meeting where our class had cooperated with Ichinose's. In this school where enemies are plentiful, having strong allies is vital to not just succeed, but to survive.

Was she really just simply interested? After a brief period of silence, Ichinose sheepishly spoke.

"Guess not, huh? Well, if the other classes were interested..."

"No, we're not saying no, but..."

"I can't help but think there's an ulterior motive," Horikita snapped.

I'd tried to handle this situation peacefully, but Horikita had promptly obliterated that plan. Ichinose, clearly sensing the hostility behind Horikita's words, tilted her neck and smiled.

"Such different methodology," Kiryuin grinned, "I wonder how you ever worked together,"

"Differing methods don't matter if the leader is made apparent," Nagumo said.

"So who do you believe to be the leader between Horikita and Ayanokoji?"

"Well, clearly Suzune is the stronger presence and doesn't seem capable of following another's lead. Especially not someone like Ayanokoji,"

"So you think Ayanokoji is below Horikita?"

"Is that a serious question, Kiryuin? If you compare Suzune's achievements with Ayanokoji, there's no debate necessary. Unless there's a reason you think differently?" Nagumo looked extremely interested in her answer.

"Oh, of course not, President," Kiryuin regained her smirk, "If you say Horikita is superior, then I guess that's all there is to it,"

"Kiryuin...a complete wildcard of a student but I can't say she's not capable. On the surface, there should be no question as to who's superior between Suzune and Ayanokoji. But her questioning makes it seem like she believes otherwise. So, not just Horikita Manabu but also Kiryuin. They seem to share the same belief. Ayanokoji is definitely not what he seems," Nagumo determined.

"Ulterior motive? You think we're working in the shadows to undermine both C and Class D?" Ichinose wore a baffled expression. "Do you need to be that on guard? I'm really just curious, that's all."

"I don't want to talk with someone who is 'just curious.' Do what you want."

Horikita tried to put some distance between them. She peered out the window.

"Please tell me something. All my teacher and friends say is that there was some kind of fight."

I hesitated briefly, but since there wasn't much information to be gained anyway, it may not have been worth keeping quiet. So I explained the situation. I told her that three people from Class C had called Sudou over, and there was a fistfight. However, Sudou turned the tables on his would-be attackers, and beat them up. I also told her that after the fight, the Class C kids filed a false report with the school. Ichinose listened to the story intently.

"Is it really okay to just tell her all that?" Haruka asked.

"You remember we had an alliance with Ichinose's class during our first year? This is basically the beginning of that," I replied.

"Ichinose isn't the type of person to go telling everyone anyway. I think it was fine to tell her," Akito said.

"Well, true,"

I remembered that Haruka was somewhat wary of Ichinose because she portrayed the image of a girl who could do no wrong. She failed to realise that nobody like that existed.

"So that's what happened. This story hasn't made its way to Class B yet. Hey, isn't this a pretty big problem, though? It doesn't really matter who lied since it's an issue about violence, right? Shouldn't you be hurrying to uncover the truth?"

"That's why we came here to look. But we haven't really found much."

This wasn't anything like a murder case, so I'd doubted there'd be many clear hints left for us to find. However, contrary to our expectations, we did get some results.

"I'm still very interested in these results you supposedly got," Utomiya said.

"Watch and find out," Horikita said, instantly preventing the chance for another tangent.

"So you believe Sudou-kun because he's your classmate. And your friend, of course, that much is obvious. So Class D is in an uproar because Sudou is being falsely charged, right?"

"Apparently, they weren't concerned all that much," Hashimoto smirked.

It'd be difficult to convince a third party like Ichinose that we weren't doing this out of friendship or class loyalty. I wasn't going to try explaining it.

"What would you do if Sudou-kun was the liar? Suppose evidence came out that proved his guilt. What then?"

"I'd report on it honestly. After all, covering for a lie would only come back to haunt us later."

"I agree. Lying could increase the penalty incurred," Katsuragi noted.

"What if lying saved you from suffering any penalty?" Sakayanagi asked.

"Why run the risk? There's nothing to gain from lying here,"

"Of course, I agree. I was speaking more from a general viewpoint,"

"You can only contend with what's in front of you. If you have to lie to save a situation then I guess there's no other option," Katsuragi admitted.

"Yeah, okay. I think so, too."

Even so, it wasn't like our struggles were really going to have any impact on Ichinose.

"Are you finished? You heard what you wanted." Horikita spoke sharply and with a sigh, trying to drive Ichinose away.

"You are so hostile to everyone, Horikita," Kiriyama said, "Do you not think you should exercise some restraint? It could help in many cases,"

"This was over a year ago, Kiriyama-senpai. I have learned a lot since then,"

"I see,"

"Hmm. Yeah, how about I help you out? To look for the witness, or whatever. You're bound to get further with more people, right?"

Obviously more people would have been better. That was true. However, it wasn't as though we'd gone up and said to her, "Please help us, we're in trouble!"

"Doesn't hurt to get some backup though, right?" Shibata said.

"Why would a student from Class B offer to help?"

"Are Classes D and B completely unrelated to each other? We don't know when these cases will spring up, or whom they'll involve. Since the classes are in constant competition, there's always the chance that this will happen. This was merely the first case. If the party that lied wins, that'd set a bad precedent. Also, I personally can't turn away now that I know what happened."

"Ever the benevolent saviour," Ryuen said.

"She makes a good point, though. Had the plan to entrap Sudo worked, it would have led to many more scenarios such as this one. Although these schemes are always going to present themselves given the nature of our environment, setting such a precedent early on could have impacted our year significantly," Katsuragi explained.

If Ryuen's plan had worked, a lot of people would have seen the benefits of enacting such a scheme for themselves. By thwarting his plan, we were able to show that underhanded methods didn't result in instant victory.

I couldn't tell whether Ichinose was being serious or joking.

"Why would she be joking about wanting to help?" Kobashi asked.

"That's not exactly the line I was thinking on," I replied.

"What? I don't get it,"

"Bearing in mind, this was before I had a good understanding of Ichinose. I could understand her point. Setting the precedent that lying was a good way to win would certainly cause many unwanted situations. However, that wasn't enough of a reason to assert herself into our investigation. If she had said something like 'I'll do you a favour so you owe me one', then I probably would have trusted her word more,"

"But Honami just wanted to help,"

"As I said, this was my first time talking to Ichinose. There was no way I could have known the kind of person she was,"

In truth, there were many reasons why Ichinose might want to help. It could be to gain an ally, to better understand the consequences of breaking the school rules, to use us to bring down an opponent or to raise herself higher. Without knowing the person I was speaking to, there were too many possibilities to consider.

"If Class B works with you, wouldn't that dramatically improve your credibility? Though I suppose the opposite could be true, too. Class D may suffer greater consequences if the truth's uncovered..."

In other words, if Sudou lied, then that'd prove Class C's assertion. In that case, Sudou would unquestionably be suspended, and Class D might suffer fatal damages.

"What do you think? I don't believe it's a bad suggestion."

I glanced over to see what Horikita thought. However, she still had her back to me. She was still looking out the window, unmoving. I wondered what she thought about Ichinose's offer. Of course, we were worried about what effect this would have. If Class D tried to prove Sudou's innocence by themselves, our credibility would be low unless we managed to find evidence that absolutely, 100 percent confirmed Sudou's innocence.

If a student from Class B got involved, there might be tremendous implications.

I decided to weigh the offer's positives and negatives, even though it was rude. Obviously, I couldn't trust Ichinose yet. She was a student from Class B, and she gained nothing by involving herself. If helping others out of sheer goodwill was reflected in class or private points, then I could understand her motivation. It wouldn't be easy to ask, but she might have important information. The only way to be certain was to ask.

"I think it's good to show a little skepticism in this situation. It's understandable to think that someone would only help if it earnt them class points," Kanzaki said.

"But people can just help without any ulterior motives," Kobashi argued.

"Of course. But let's say I came up to you and offered my help. Would you immediately accept that I had good intentions?" Horikita asked.

"Well, I guess I couldn't, considering the school rules. Still, isn't it better to trust someone has good intentions than to always distrust people?"

"That depends," Horikita answered.

Nobody was likely to trust someone they just met with their life, for example. In this case, if Ichinose had had bad intentions, it may have meant a lot of damage would be sustained by our class.

"Let's accept her help, Ayanokouji-kun."

"Oh, you accepted?" Hashimoto looked surprised.

"Yes. I thought that accepting her help would be beneficial, even if there were risks," Horikita explained.

Horikita had made a decision, probably determining that the benefits outweighed the risks. I was grateful that she'd reached a decision so quickly. I didn't really have the power to decide in the first place; that was Horikita's job. Ichinose smiled, showing off her white teeth.

"You weren't joking when you said you leave every hard decision to Horikita-san," Onodera said.

"If it had a direct impact on our class then I thought it was better than Horikita took charge. After all, she was the one with the desire to reach Class A," I replied.

"Then it's decided! Umm..."

"Horikita."

Horikita gave her name candidly, as if doing so approved our cooperative relationship.

"It's nice to meet you, Horikita-san. And you too, Ayanokouji-kun."

"So this is how you met," Amikura said.

"You've helped each other out loads of times, right?" Kobashi asked.

"We've had a cooperative relationship, yes," Horikita said.

We had unexpectedly made Ichinose of Class B's acquaintance and accepted her as an ally. There was still the risk that this could lead to bad things. No matter what, things were going to change.

"We already found a witness. Unfortunately, it's a student from Class D." Ichinose let out an exasperated sigh.

"Well, that means there isn't another witness. I mean, I guess someone from another class might have witnessed it, but it isn't likely."

Chances were certainly slim. But there was still a chance.

"Just to confirm, there was no other witness, right?" Katsuragi asked.

"No, Sakura-san was the only one," Horikita confirmed.

"Anyway, about your friend. He's a first year, but he might become a regular on the basketball team, right? That's amazing. Even if he's holding you guys back right now, he might become a great asset later. I mean, the school evaluates club and philanthropic activities, right? So if he enters a tournament and does well, Sudou-kun could earn points. Those'll be tied to your class points, too. Wait... Did you guys not know that? Did your teacher not tell you?"

We'd only heard that it would influence our private points.

"This is the first I'm hearing about it affecting our class points. I'll have to complain to Chabashira-sensei later," mumbled Horikita, a little disgruntled.

"Isn't that kind of vital information? Every class should have been told, right?" Hashimoto asked.

"Certain information is given to every class. This is to make the competition as fair as it can be. Although Chabashira-sensei should have given her class this information, each teacher has their own unique style when it comes to overseeing their class," Mashima said.

I thought that information that could affect the competition itself should be shared fairly amongst all students, regardless of someone's teaching style.

This was yet another oversight, another instance where Chabashira-sensei had failed to disclose something important. I wondered if Class B had heard about this from their teacher...

As usual, our teacher didn't even pretend to give us equal treatment. I felt discriminated against.

"Is this how you treat your students, Sae-chan? Poor Ayanokoji doesn't seem to like your methods very much," Hoshinomiya clicked her tongue.

"How I oversee my class is my own prerogative. I'd ask that you refrain from saying anything that could affect my pupils' perception of that guidance," Chabashira complained.

I couldn't exactly say her students' perception of her was particularly positive to begin with.

"Your homeroom teacher is kind of weird," said Ichinose.

"I knew you'd back me up Honami-chan!" Hoshinomiya grinned.

Ichinose chose to keep silent, likely out of extreme embarrassment.

"She doesn't seem motivated to tell us anything. She's completely apathetic. Some teachers are like that."

I didn't think that it was particularly concerning, but Ichinose recoiled.

"Did you know that the school evaluates homeroom teachers when their class graduates?"

"This is the first I've heard of it. Are you sure?"

I wasn't interested so much as I had no choice but to be interested. That was a crucial distinction.

"Our homeroom teacher, Hoshinomiya-sensei, says it like it's her motto. She says she wants to do her best because the homeroom teacher for Class A gets a special bonus. Looks like it's pretty different for you guys."

"I'm envious of your relationship with your homeroom teacher. And your class environment."

Our teacher appeared to lack ambition, or even an interest in money. It felt like even if we collapsed into failure, she'd just say it was great.

Chabashira received some gloomy looks from some sections of our class.

"Ha, looks like you drew the short end of the stick when it comes to homeroom teachers," Hashimoto chuckled.

None of our classmates spoke up in defence of Chabashira.

"I think it would probably be good for us to meet up and discuss things."

"I never thought I'd receive aid from the enemy."

"This seems like a problem we need to address before we can fight. We're not really on equal footing, are we?"

Other classes pitied us. If anything, this showed how little interest Chabashira-sensei felt for her own students.

"I want to switch homeroom teachers with Class B."

"Oh, Horikita-san, I'm sorry. I'm just too attached to my own class," Hoshinomiya grinned.

"If I had been given her class then I would be in such a better position right now," Hoshinomiya sighed.

"Well, I think that'd be difficult to manage."

I thought back to my first meeting with Hoshinomiya-sensei. She seemed to come with her own inherent difficulties as a teacher.

Although none of them verbally admitted to it, I saw many of Ichinose's class show agreement to my observation.

"What's not to love, Ayanokoji-kun?" Hoshinomiya asked, pouting.

"I'm sure your class is very satisfied with your teaching, sensei," I replied.

"Way to dodge the question," Hoshinomiya looked a little unsatisfied herself.

"Ah, it's so hot in here!" Ichinose took out a cute handkerchief covered in panda illustrations, and used it to gently wipe sweat from her forehead. Our thick uniforms really trapped the heat.

"A school that constantly runs air conditioning in empty buildings and is unkind to the environment is the worst," Horikita said.

"Ha ha ha, that's probably true. You're pretty interesting." Ichinose laughed, even though that wasn't really a joke.

"I don't think there was anything funny in what I just said..."

"Honami's just a happy person," Kobashi said.

"How about we exchange contact information, so things can progress smoothly?"

Horikita shot me a look that seemed to say, I don't want to do it. Give her yours.

"Even though you just accepted an alliance, you don't seem to be all that cooperative, Horikita-san," Sakayanagi said.

"There was no problem in Ayanokoji-kun having her info instead of me. As long as one of us had it, we could contact her anytime,"

"If you're okay with having my info, here you go," I said.

"Sure, got it."

After we'd exchanged information, I suddenly realized I had an unexpected number of girls' contacts. Though it was only the beginning of July, I already had seven names and phone numbers in my address book, three of them girls. Perhaps...I had plunged deeply into the joys of youth without even realizing it. Also, I learned that Ichinose's first name was Honami—an unnecessary bit of information.

"So you weren't quite as unpopular as you like to make out," Hashimoto grinned.

"I wouldn't say I got those numbers because of my popularity," I argued.

"Well, who's numbers did you have aside from Ichinose?"

"Horikita and Kushida's"

"Kushida gave her number to everyone so I guess that's true. I'm surprised Horikita gave you her number though,"

"It was just so I could help her,"

I'm sure she'd had quite the hard time mulling over whether to give me her number or not.

"Hey, you basically had three of the most popular girls in our year's numbers," Okitani noticed.

Horikita was definitely not one of the most popular girls around that time. I'm sure there were quite a few boys looking in her direction now, but the walls she had built up weren't easy to climb.

Well, can anyone guess how they solved their little problem yet?

Let's take a break from the heavy stuff. Ready for some love advice?

"What?"

"Who the hell are we getting love advice from? It better not be Ayanokoji," Ike said.

"I highly doubt Kiyotaka would be giving out love advice," Keisei said.

"Nope, there's no way," Haruka agreed.

"Heh, who knows. Maybe Kiyotaka is a secret lady-killer," Akito grinned.

"L-lady-killer?" Airi looked shocked.

"Tch, love advice? Fine, let's just get this shit out of the way," Ryuen slumped back in his chair, clearly bored by the prospect.

Yet another deviation from the script. It was evident now that the creator didn't just want to expose me. There was some other reason for this little show. What that reason was, however...

Okay, let's get started.

(A/N - This one ended up being a little longer than normal. I'm giving myself a week's break so I decided to make this one longer to make up for the missed update during that time. Other than that, there's really nothing to say. I'm sure you can all guess what the next chapter will be. I think there will only be two more chapters for Volume 2 but if I find something I missed there may be one more."

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(A/N 2 - So it's been a while since I attended high school but this scenario instantly came to my mind. You've done your homework right on time and are ready to hand it in on the day. The teacher asks if everyone has done the homework and you answer 'Yes, of course I have'. So, the teacher comes round to collect and suddenly you realise 'Oh shit, my homework isn't in my bag'. 'Why haven't you done the homework then?' the teacher inevitably asks and no matter what you say, you aren't getting out of it.

Anyway the reason for that long analogy is that this was supposed to be out before my break. Except I found it sitting unpublished. Just to explain how it's possible I didn't notice this, I turned off my alerts for Wattpad and basically every other platform that I receive lots of notifications from. So all of you asking where the next update was, all I can do is explain. Instead of this being a longer update because of my break, consider it an apology for taking so long to publish it.

To put into context exactly how unproductive I was over the past week, I started and finished the entirety of Black Clover, as well as watching about three other smaller anime. Let's just hope my brain still works.