Season 4 : Chapter 12
"Pleasure to do business, once again with you, Sensei."
"The pleasure is mine. All the best. Hopefully this expensive purchase doesn't go to waste."
Chabashira chuckled to herself as she took a small sip of her red wine, as Kiyotaka sneakily put his purchase inside his pocket .. not wanting any third party to notice this transaction.
"The future is uncertain. However, if there is anyone in our class who gets to be the VIP, this would come in handy."
"Good to know. So, did you notice any specific oddities in the exam, yet? Like anything you want clarification about."
"Hm, not really. However there is one thing that caught my eye. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the Dragon group consists of some very important students huh? There is Suzune, Kushida, Hirata, Ryuuen, Katsuragi, Kanzaki ... it's almost like it's a group comprised of the class leaders except me and Ichinose."
Chabashira didn't meet Kiyotaka's eyes which were curiously looming over her, as she took another sip of her beverage.
"And? What of it? Are you disappointed that you're not in that group?"
"Not really. I was just curious about the way the students were placed. In a way, it's beneficial for me since I won't have to listen to Ryuuen's taunts all day, and I can use this as an opportunity to see how much Suzune has grown since Day 1."
"Good to know that you are not displeased about the placement. Now, you better leave, since some other teachers also have plans here. I don't want you to be seen with me at this moment."
"Alright. Thanks for the help, Sensei."
"That's my job. Don't worry."
With that Kiyotaka sent her one last wave before turning towards one of the end corners of the room, as he saw the figures of Hoshinomiya-Sensei and Mashima-Sensei approaching Chabashira-sensei.
'Guess it's my time to leave. No point in invading their privacy."
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Kiyotaka in fact did not leave. He just stayed behind the wall and kept eavesdropping on the conversation of the homeroom teachers, hoping to find at least some sort of valuable information from this.
'I truly am a scumbag. But hey, can someone blame me though? This is way too good of an opportunity to not capitalise on.'
However much to his dismay, most of the conversation among the teachers didn't revolve around the exam or any class matters yet. It was filled with small talk and useless stuff.
"You know, it's been a while. Since the three of us got together like this."
"It's fate, in the end we all chose the path of the teacher."
"Stop it. There's no point in talking about that."
"Oh yeah, speaking of which, I saw you on a date. New girlfriend? Mashima-kun, you're surprisingly motivated on that front".
"Chie, how about you? What happened to your former man?"
"Haha, I broke up with him after two weeks. You see, I'm the type of girl that does it with a man and breaks it off before the relationship gets serious and I have to commit to it. That's way too much hard work right?"
'I see. So she is the kind of girl who just wants to have fun and have sex before dumping the poor fellow, who might have actually feelings for her. If that's the case, shouldn't it be better for her to be a hooker instead of men's hearts? .... She will have fun and exciting sex and she will make cash as well. Not that I'm interested in paying for her. Just a suggestion.'
Hoshinomiya groggily smiled at the two of them who looked at her with weirded out expressions.
"That's usually what a man in a relationship says, you know?"
"Ahh, but I'm not doing it with Mashima-kun. You're my best friend after all, I'd hate to ruin our friendship."
"Relax. It's not about that".
"Uwaaa...that's a shock all on its own."
Hoshinomiya-sensei pours whiskey into an empty glass and drank it all in one, large gulp. Compared to that, Chabashira-sensei was slowly sipping on her wine slowly inching away from her colleague, not wanting to meet the possibility of being on the other side of Hoshinomiya-Sensei's barf.
'That woman is way too drunk. She can't even form a coherent sentence which actually makes sense, properly.'
"Speaking of relationships, what about you Sae-chan?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you still talk with him anymore?"
For some reason Chabashira's eyes darkened at the word him which didn't go unnoticed by the Homeroom Teacher of Class-B, as a big and 'pure' smile formed on her face.
"You don't right? Not like its anything shocking given the situation in which it ended. Love truly is heartbreaking right? Just because of one person's fault, so many people suffer."
In spite of her smile, only a fool would miss the dark look Hoshinomiya-Sensei was sending towards the homeroom teacher of Class-D, who was tightly gripping on the glass as if her life depended on it. A small scowl formed on her face for a second, before she replaced it with her usual stoic look, not wanting to give Chie the privilege of messing with her.
"We indeed did not talk anymore. More importantly, what are you going to do, Chie?"
"What're you talking about so suddenly?"
"Generally, the policy here is to put all the representatives of each class in the (Dragon) group."
"I'm not intending on messing around here. Indeed as far as attitude and grades go, Ichinose-san is the top of my class, but the probability of success in society cannot be measured by numerical parameters only. I decided there is a hurdle she must overcome before that. Besides putting her in (Rabbit) group is fitting. A rabbit is cute right? And Ichinose-san is the cutest girl ever!"
'In a way, Hoshinomiya-Sensei's words made complete sense, since as an actual leader, Ichinose was not on the same level as someone like Ryuuen or me , since she didn't have the courage to make a sacrifice or take damage. Just like Hirata, she was a pacifist. And in an institution like ANHS, the possibility of peace is nearly impossible. But for some reason, I could sense a small hint of malicious intent behind Hoshinomiya-Sensei's words.'
"I hope you're right."
"Hoshinomiya's words are indeed reasonable, is there some hidden meaning behind them?"
"I just don't want you to make judgments based on personal grudges."
"Are you still talking about what happened 10 years ago? I thought we got over that..."
"I wonder, you're the type to run your mouth as soon as I'm not immediately in front of you. You're the type that's not satisfied unless you're one step ahead. That's why you put Ichinose in (Rabbit) group right?"
"What do you mean? Explain, Hoshinomiya."
"I genuinely thought Ichinose-san needed to learn a lesson so I had her removed from (Dragon) group. Speaking of which, Sae-chan chose Ayanokouji-kun to be a part of Rabbit group instead of Dragon group as well. I can ask you the same question as well. Are you planning on taking revenge on me for all these failures by putting Ayanokouji-kun against Ichinose-san hmm?"
"That's not my intention. As of now, Ayanokouji is kind of like a one man army, who does most of the job. I decided to take him off the Dragon group and replace him with some potential strong members who still need some development with the intention of seeing them grow further on their own."
'Besides, he already destroyed Class-C and Class-A last exam. I bet he'd be bored facing them this quickly once again. To completely defeat your Class's leader as well as not taking a huge pressure, which he would've gotten in dragon group ... I saw this as a win-win. Since I don't want Ayanokouji to burn out after all. He is my only hope for Class-A.'
Getting enough information from this conversation, Kiyotaka walked out of the bar with his usual bored look on his face.
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As Kiyotaka walked inside his room, he was greeted by the sight of Hirata who was combing his hair, preparing himself for his meeting which was taking place within half an hour.
As their eyes met, he gave the brown haired a boy a small nod of acknowledgment before approaching him.
"It seems that a rather unusual exam is about to begin huh? Yukimura-kun told me about it earlier. Hearing his explanation, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit confused."
"It is complex at first. But once you see the rules and hear the explanation properly, it would be clear. But yeah, this examination is way too different than the Island one, that I won't disagree with. By the way, are you going to your room now? There's only around 18 minutes left."
"Yes. Apparently from what I've heard from Yukimura-kun, we have to cooperate with other classes, right? Might as well introduce myself and form a good relationship with them, so that we might not face any difficulties later on."
"Hmm. That makes sense. Would you mind if I accompany you as well? I want to talk with Suzune and Kushida as well."
"Sure, I don't have any problem."
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Soon, Kiyotaka and Hirata reached the location where the meeting of the Dragon group was taking place. The whole area was crowded however Kiyotaka immediately noticed the black braided hair of his girlfriend, who was at the moment whispering something in Kushida's ears.
He approached them and put his hands over Suzune's shoulders, immediately making her grasp his hands incredibly tightly, nearly breaking it as a relex.
"Who is touchi-oh it's you. My apologies."
"No worries. So, how is it looking so far?"
"I had a chat with Chiaki-san since a certain someone thought about not even meeting up with me even once. Like what were you even doing?"
"I was having a discussion with Chabashira-sensei about the exam. I'll let you in on it later, after your meeting. So, I assume Chiaki gave you the gist of it."
"Yes, she indeed did. I was just telling Kushida-san to keep her guard up since she will have to face Ryuuen-kun."
"Mhmm."
Kushida nodded to Horikita's words slowly inching away from her, however her hand was grabbed as the raven haired girl gave her a menacing smirk before forcefully pulling her.
"Where are you trying to run away, Kushida?"
"N-no where Horikita."
"What did you just say?"
Horikita's eyes narrowed at her as she gave the beige haired girl an ice cold glare, making her freeze on the spot.
"H-horikita-sama."
"Good girl."
She lightly patted Kushida's head for a second before looking back towards her boyfriend who was looking at the both of them with an amused look.
"She became obedient pretty quickly huh? How surprising."
"It truly is. However I'm glad that I have the assistance of Kushida-san since she is a useful ally to have. Aren't you glad that we are working together as well?"
Horikita looked at Kushida with a sweet smile as she grabbed her hand, applying a small amount of force on it, as all Kushida could do was let out a tired smile before nodding to her words.
Kiyotaka looked behind him to find Hirata conversing with Kanzaki and the other Class-B students with a small smile on his face, as a certain baldheaded leader soon approached the Class-D trio.
"If I'm not wrong, you're also from the 20:40 group are you not?"
The person was none other than Katsuragi Kohei, the leader of Class-A who just suffered a big humiliating loss in the previous exam. Katsuragi's eyes went towards Kiyotaka for a second as the both of them nodded to one another as a means of greeting.
Suzune however, did not like the fact that her 'conversation' with Kushida got destroyed as she looked back at Katsuragi with hostile eyes.
"If so, does this have something to do with you?"
"No. But I just wanted to talk to you all since starting from tomorrow we'll be cooperating together as part of the same group."
"You want to talk now? That's funny. Before this, all of you Class-A students looked at us as if we were nothing but trash. But now you're saying we will be cooperating? Don't make me laugh."
Katsuragi however nodded to Horikita's taunt before directing his eyes towards Kiyotaka, as the bald headed boy looked back at him with an extremely serious and judgemental gaze.
"Honestly I've never paid any attention to Class-D before the Island Test, but results don't lie right? If one day, your Class rises from Class-D to Class-C remember that, us Class-A will show you no mercy and crush you to pieces."
'Is that a threat, Johnny?'
Horikita immediately was about to fire back at him, however she kept her mouth shut as she saw a small glint of amusement in Kiyotaka's usually dull eyes.
"Crush us to pieces? Save your own Class first, baldy. Cuz apparently it seems like all of your so-called 'loyal' followers are losing their faith in the all mighty Johnny Sins."
Kanzaki Ryuuji, who was walking by the corridor, stopped in his tracks as well, listening to the conversation.
"All this bravado of your Class-A this, Class-A that. Cry me a river. Don't you realise? In the first actual exam that the school presented us, the so-called 'Elite' class got 22 points while us defectives got 393. And this is just the start. We have three years left after all. While, for you ... I guess it's only 1 or 2 months that you remain as the leade maximum, since a certain woman is about to dethrone your failure of a leadership after all."
Kiyotaka's words resulted in the entire corridor turning silent as the Leader of Class-A glared at him with anger, however all he received in exchange was a bored gaze, before he looked back at his girlfriend.
"This guy truly thinks that he is an all mighty messiah and that he can just say whatever he pleases whenever he wants. Why don't you hand him the second L and completely destroy his pride, dear?"
All he received in return was a small smirk as the ice devil of Class-D looked at Katsuragi with a cold glare.
"What a way to put a target behind my back, Kiyotaka-kun. You truly know how to get on my nerves. Fine, I'll play your game."
'Now this marks the start of the actual exam. No I am not talking about the Zodiac Exam, I'm talking about the exam of Horikita Suzune. Will she be able to stay on the same level or even defeat the other leaders, or will she crumble under the pressure? I won't lie but I'm looking forward to it.'
End of Chapter 89
Words : 3454
So as you can see, the reason Kiyotaka is in the Rabbit group is because of Chabs. Since in her opinion, everything in Class-D is being handled by Kiyotaka himself and she fears that he might burn himselt out at this rate and lose the motivation. That's why she wants to develop her other capable students so He doesn't have to do all the work by himself.
I was thinking at first of maybe putting Kiyotaka in Dragon Group and Horikita in Rabbit, but decided against it, since it wouldn't be that impactful since we already finessed Ryuuen once.
Anyways Hopefully this chapter makes it clear for all the guys who said "Kiyo should be in Dragon Group." XD.
Anyways hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. See ya.
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