Ayanokōji's POV
Two days after the announcement of the upcoming all-grade sports festival, us first years were assigned the extra task of participating in a ballot to determine the temporary relocations of the Class B students.
As the elected plenipotentiary of Class B, I, along with four other students, were required to attend a meeting at the student council room in a few minutes.
After holding talks with Sakayanagi, I had managed to come to an agreement with her. As the one who was present for the negotiations, it was only natural that I, who was most familiar with what was said, was also chosen to go and complete the ballots for Class B.
However, due to the risk that Class A has to undertake as a result of the element of randomness involved in the selection, Sakayanagi had also required me to do a bonus favour for her during the time of the sports festival itself in exchange for her requirement.
Truly, what a devious woman. She was an excellent negotiator; equipped with a good understanding of what each side values and seeks, Sakayanagi Arisu was able to get as much as possible out of a given negotiation without pushing the other person to leave the table.
Honestly, could easily have been a candidate to join Class B herself. However, it seemed like the school had deliberately left at least one student with the ability to lead in each of the other classes: Sakayanagi, Katsuragi, Ichinose and Ryūen are all examples of this.
The only outlier is Class E, which doesn't appear to contain any students who you could call a natural leader.
As the ballot is undergoing, updates are posted on the school forums. I'm sure that the other guys are together, keeping tabs on it in this very moment.
When I arrived at the designated location, I was met with nearly everybody already present.
It seemed like Sakayanagi, who had claimed to already possess a majority of support within Class A, had indeed managed to secure the role of Class Representative for herself. She looked as dignified as ever, her cane in her right hand and a smug smile stuck to her face.
Ichinose Honami, who was widely regarded the most beautiful girl in our school year, waited patiently with a pleasant expression. I recalled Ryuzaki's advice to her back on the island; that she wasn't a 'true' leader, but more of a supportive glue that holds a class together. Despite taking those words into consideration, it seemed like Ichinose was still acting as the representative for her class.
Ryūen Kakeru stood out like a sore thumb amongst the two girls. His appearance was anything but elegant; he towered over Sakayanagi in terms of height, and his build gave off the vibe of strength and function, as opposed to one of elegance and vanity.
The man in question seemed to be the first to notice my arrival. He looked over with an amused expression. "Ayanokōji, huh? I was wondering which one of you bastards would show up."
It is certainly true that, among Class B students, there were a few who could've been equally fitting for this role. However, the circumstances had led to me being the obvious choice.
"Hello, Ayanokōji-kun," Ichinose waved to me with a bright smile.
"Ichinose, it's good to see you," I replied.
Ichinose was always pleasant to interact with. Even though it was unintentional, her presence dominated the atmosphere wherever she went. It suffocated the violent and uneasy feeling that Ryūen usually caused within those around him, replacing it with a serene and warm sensation.
There were still ten minutes to go until the scheduled time, which meant that we were forced to wait patiently outside the room. I wasn't the only one who'd thought it'd be better to be punctual, as evident from the fact that many had arrived before me.
"Now it's just Horikita-san's arrival we are waiting for," Sakayanagi spoke.
Sakayanagi had talked with Horikita back when there was a gathering in the gymnasium regarding the sports festival. I thought that it was safe to assume that the pair had further conversations regarding the strategies their classes would employ as the members of The Red Team in the first year.
However, a couple of minutes later, the reality turned out to be different.
Contrary to Sakayanagi's expectations, it was not Horikita that joined us as the fifth representative. Rather, a boy who I'd never seen before walked up to the scene.
Every class leader already present felt it at the same time. An aura surrounded this guy that drowned out even the radiant vibe that emanated from Ichinose. It was a presence that stated superiority without any words needing to be spoken.
"Huh? Who the fuck are you?" Ryūen was the first to speak.
I was sure that in ordinary circumstances, Ryūen would've laughed, but even he seemed too surprised to do so.
The boy simply walked up, without bothering to exchange words with Ryūen, and joined the group of five, taking a glance at each of us as he approached. Calm and calculating eyes, which appeared to have the rare condition of each being differently coloured, scrutinised us.
"Where is Horikita-san?" Sakayanagi asked with a frown.
Indeed, it was inconvenient for Sakayanagi for a stranger to turn up in a situation like this after she had spent valuable time discussing plans with Horikita.
"She won't be coming. From now on, you can consider me to be the leader of Class E."
For the first time, the boy spoke. Although his voice was calm, his words were reinforced by some kind of persuasive power. Sakayanagi did not look pleased by his retort.
"I would have preferred to see Horikita, rather than some unknown who I don't recognise," Sakayanagi shot at him.
"'Unknown?' Could it be that you're doubting my competence?" The boy asked.
"It would be more unusual if I were to blindly trust in the abilities of a stranger. What if I am doubting your competence?"
Tension that even the peace-seeking Ichinose couldn't find it in her to step up and dispel took over the scene, as Sakayanagi and this mysterious student stared into each other's eyes.
"In that case..."
Before anybody could react, the boy lunged towards Sakayanagi with explosive speed. Expressions of shock formed on everybody's faces, but unlike their expressions, their bodies were too slow to move at all.
The mysterious student raised his knee, and in one unhesitating movement, kicked Sakayanagi's cane cleanly out of her hand.
"Wha—?!"
Not expecting this kind of sudden violence, Sakayanagi couldn't do anything to stop herself from falling with a thud that reverberated loudly down the corridor.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
He made no more movements, ignoring Ichinose's distressed cry and simply glaring down at the defenceless Sakayanagi. He addressed her with a voice that, surprisingly, hadn't changed at all from before; it remained calm, yet still enigmatically dominant.
"You disgrace yourself by condescending others when you're so weak. Stay down on the floor."
Nobody was able to move or speak for what felt like a long time. We could only burn this unbelievable scene into our retinas.
And then, "Kukukukuku! I had wondered what kind of personality would be responsible for the behind-the-scenes movements of Class E!"
Ryūen burst into a fit of laughter. Just now, this person wielded violence just as erratically – no, perhaps even more erratically than Ryūen himself. When meeting such an individual, no other reaction would've been natural for him.
"A-Are you okay Sakayanagi-san?!" Ichinose rushed over to Sakayanagi, calling out in a panicked tone.
However, Sakayanagi reassured her in her usual, elegant manner of speech. "I am fine, thank you, Ichinose-san."
He didn't try to directly attack her, rather, he had intentionally targeted Sakayanagi's cane, the only thing that supported her. His goal wasn't to cause her actual harm, but to simply make a statement.
Sakayanagi understood this as well. She looked up at him not with fear, or anger, but with the kind of eyes that a child would have upon receiving a new toy.
"How interesting," she said in a delighted tone.
Ichinose picked up Sakayanagi's cane for her, and helped pull her back onto her feet. Then, she turned to glare at Sakayanagi's attacker.
"That wasn't good. Sakayanagi-san easily could've been hurt!" She scolded him in such a manner.
"Relax, Honami," Ryūen cut in. "Everyone is fine, are they not?"
If you glanced around now, you wouldn't see anything off compared to how it had been a few minutes prior.
"That doesn't make it alright," Honami shook her head.
Even if nobody ends up getting hurt, violent acts always have the potential to cause damage to some degree. If you were too eager to weaponise your fists, then somebody was bound to get hurt eventually. Ichinose wanted to prevent this outcome by calming down people like Ryūen, and this new arrival.
"There's no need for alarm. The prospect of me causing something unintentional is simply... impossible," ordinarily, such words would be laughed at, but when coming from this guy, they came across as oddly believable.
As if on purpose, the door to the student council room opened, preventing any further conflict from arising.
"Please enter," the third-year student council secretary, Tachibana-senpai, welcomed us with a respectful bow.
Inside the room, we were instructed to take a seat around the large wooden table that stood proudly in the centre of everything.
Voting slips were prepared in front of five of the chairs, with pens waiting patiently to be used on top. I sat down on the opposite side of the table, in between Sakayanagi and her assailant.
Mashima-sensei was present, presumably to oversee the process, but much more noticeable was the man who sat at the head of the table, his chin resting on crossed fingers: Horikita Manabu.
A brief silence passed, wherein the student council president took the time to ensure he had complete control of the room, before signalling to his secretary to begin.
"Thank you all for gathering here today. Before the ballot begins, we would like to recap the rules," she said.
On cue, the shutters on the windows closed, and the projector hanging from the ceiling illuminated the wall. It seemed like the student council had gone to the effort of preparing a visual aid for the event. How diligent.
"From the seven students of Class B, four will be randomly chosen to act as the options for Ballot #1. On your voting cards, you may have already noticed the boxes labelled from one to four. In these spaces, you will order the students in descending order of priority."
I turned my gaze down to the card that the school had prepared for us in front of me. There were two identical cards in a stack, and just like Tachibana said, each one had four boxes printed on them. However, instead of the numbers one to four, mine instead had A, C, D and E. This was due to my role as the tiebreaker.
"If any of you fill in the card wrongly, for example by including the same student twice or including a student who isn't an option in the ballot, that vote will be considered null, and the school will only consider the other four. Please be careful not to make a mistake."
If you made an error writing down your votes, then you would be held liable, and the school would not grant you a reprieve. The process was as efficient and ruthless as you'd come to expect from this school.
"After the ballot is done, the school will take in everybody's votes and calculate the results, using the Class B tiebreaker and randomness where necessary."
If the first-choices of the other four classes consisted of two for one student, and one for two of the others, then my vote will be used to decide which class gets the voted for student, and which one is instead given the student who accumulated no first-choice votes.
If it so happened that my tiebreaker choice assigned the voted student to neither of the two classes involved, then the school would simply use a random number generator to make the decision instead.
"The second ballot will be exactly the same, except this time, 'None' is also a choice in the ballot you must rank. The class which gets assigned 'None' will receive only the student they were given by the first ballot."
The importance of 'None' was much higher for us in Class B than the other students. This is because the other classes could simply continue with their usual class plus one student anyway – the Class 1-B students are unlikely to make a significant difference to the final results.
However, for us, the class with only one student will be the one where an average between the Class B ranks is not taken. In other words, that individual's sole performance will be the only thing affecting our points. If there is an athletically weak student by themselves in a class, it will be impossible to compensate at all.
"After the names are drawn, you will be given a brief period to think or talk between each other. Once the ballot begins, no further talking is allowed. That concludes the explanation, does anybody have any questions before we begin?"
Everybody seemed to understand well enough, so no questions were asked. Seeing this, Horikita gave Tachibana a nod, and the ballot was started without delay.
On the projected screen, an animation of the seven Class B names being shuffled into a hat was played. Then, after a pause, four of them came back out of the hat and were listed clearly on the screen:
Ryuzaki Rue, Shiro, Kururugi Suzaku, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka.
The first set of names drawn consisted of three athletic students and one unathletic student. More importantly though, everything seemed to be perfect so far.
There was still Light available for the second ballot, so my deal with Sakayanagi was all but sealed. Also, it was imperative that Kururugi's name came up in the first ballot, not the second.
This was because if it had come up in the second, it would have been impossible for him to be assigned the same class as 'None'.
"These are your choices for Ballot #1. Please take a moment to think, or speak to the other representatives, before the start of the voting process."
Looking around the room, various expressions were present on each individual's face.
Ichinose looked deep in thought, as if she was carefully considering each possibility and the thought processes of the rest of us.
Ryūen contrasted this with an unconcerned grin. It was as if his strategy would've been the same no matter who had come out the hat.
Sakayanagi looked calm, and she sent me a glance to reconfirm the success of our previous negotiations.
And finally, the boy on the other side simply wore a knowing smirk. It was exceptionally difficult to read, the only impression he gave off was one that said, 'Everything is going as planned,'.
As I expected, nobody felt the need to speak during the first ballot. It was likely that discussion will only spark following the results of this vote.
"If nobody has anything to say, we can start the ballot now," the elder Horikita's commanding voice said.
"Eh? Okay, if Horikita-kun says so," Tachibana responded. "Everyone, please now write down your selections for this ballot, and then hand them to us for review."
I took one last look at the names available, before picking up the pen in front of me and focusing on the voting card.
As per my agreement with Sakayanagi and Class B's plan, I wrote down 'Kururugi Suzaku' in the Class D space and 'Ryuzaki Rue' in the Class A box.
Due to the favour I also had to complete for Sakayanagi in order to complete negotiations, I wasn't able to join Class A myself.
I put Shiro in Class C and myself in Class E. It was good that Shiro and Sora had not come up in the same voting round, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to sort them into the same class.
I had written by own name on the only box remaining after logically filling out all the others. Shiro could not have gone to Class E, due to the relationship between the two entities.
After doing this, I gave my card to Tachibana-senpai. Shortly after that, everybody else also did the same.
She gave the five of them to Horikita-senpai, who looked them over one by one in his hand.
You would assume that one would need to lay out the cards in front of them, and examine them side-by-side in order to properly figure out the results, however this man was capable of keeping track of everything as he went through each vote.
"There has been a tiebreaker between two classes that is also not solved by Class B's selections. As a result, I will use randomness to decide the outcome."
An unexpected result happened. If everything had gone to plan, there should have been no such opportunity for this situation to arise.
Noticing my discomfort, Ryūen cracked a wide grin. Could it be?
After fiddling with the laptop in front of him briefly, Horikita Manabu addressed us once again. "The results are now in. Please observe the screen."
The slide changed to instead show each class paired with a student's name:
Class A: Ryuzaki Rue
Class C: Kururugi Suzaku
Class D: Shiro
Class E: Ayanokōji Kiyotaka
It wasn't the end of the world. Kururugi was still on The White Team, who we had speculated would lose, and Class A had gotten an athletic student as promised.
However, I couldn't help but wonder what had happened with Ryūen's class. If he had listed Kururugi as his first-choice, then my tiebreaker should have guaranteed the ideal outcome. However, that had not happened.
"Manabu. Is it possible that the details of the tiebreaker can be revealed?" Asked the boy to my side.
A vein popped on the forehead of Tachibana-senpai, who seemed to hate his usage of Horikita's first name. However, the student council president himself didn't seem to mind. He seemed intrigued more than anything.
"Of course. The tiebreaker was between the first-choice selection of Kururugi Suzaku by Class C and Class E. Ayanokōji's assignment for Kururugi was Class D, hence the usage of randomness instead," Horikita Manabu explained.
Unexpectedly, Ryūen hadn't chosen Kururugi. In fact, it almost seemed like he'd intentionally taken Shiro instead.
"I see," the heterochromatic boy murmured. "That is unfortunate."
He seemed to have wished to have a powerful asset like Kururugi to himself, which was understandable. However, he wasn't particularly disappointed by the result. Curiosity arising in me, I felt I had to query him.
"Disappointed?" I asked him.
His face remained stoic, looking forward, and only his eyes drifted to the side to look at me.
"You are acceptable, too. There is nothing for me to worry about," he answered.
"You evaluate my abilities as up-to-standard, huh?"
"I have no doubt that you will be an invaluable asset to our team. We cannot lose with you on our side," he gave me an accompanying smile.
This kind of compliment would be enough to make just about anybody follow him. People were unlikely to go against him after he had shown them such goodwill before.
He was firm and demonstrated superiority to his enemies, but to his allies, he was a motivating and charismatic leader.
It was a skillset that not even anybody in Class B would be able to replicate.
I found it odd, though, that somebody like this had been an unknown factor hiding in Class E this whole time. Did he lay low on purpose?
If that was the case, then he might be even more dangerous an enemy than Kōenji.
To lead a class in this school, you had to have at least two of the following three traits: intelligence, physical ability, and charisma.
Sakayanagi had intelligence and charisma but lacked athleticism. However, people still followed her due to the two traits she did have.
Ryūen on the other hand possessed intelligence and athleticism, but most definitely lacked charisma. But again, people were willing to overlook his less-than-ideal personality because he got results.
Nagumo Miyabi was athletic and charismatic, but didn't appear particularly intelligent in comparison to the likes of Horikita Manabu and Sakayanagi. However, to be a leader, he didn't need that third trait.
This guy sitting next to me was different, though. He possessed all three of the qualities you'd normally only need two of:
The intelligence evident in his foresight to understand right from the start of school that there might be adversaries, and hide his presence accordingly.
The physical ability demonstrated by his explosive speed that surpassed the likes of Light, Hirata, and even Nagumo.
And finally, the persuasive charisma he had shown to me just a moment ago.
These three abilities when all put together formed the perfect leader. That was the impression that this man gave off to all those around him.
"We will now undergo the second ballot," Horikita's voice interrupted my thoughts. "The remaining three names, as well as 'None', are the options this time around."
Sora, Yagami Light, Lamperouge Lelouch, None.
I had to try and get Sora into Class D and None into Class C.
Unfortunately, Ryūen seemed like the type to intentionally try to separate Sora and Shiro from each other, lowering his own class' chance of winning in order to launch a psychological attack.
Regardless, all I was able to do was write 'Yagami Light' in my Class A box, 'Sora' in my Class D box, 'None' in the Class C box and 'Lamperouge Lelouch' in the Class E box.
"It appears that every single student has voted for the exact same selection," Horikita Manabu announced.
The probability of that happening was extraordinarily low, however, was supremely fortunate for Class B.
"As a result, we will simply use Class B's choices to assign the rest of the students."
At the end of the process, the final distribution was decided.
Class A: Rue Ryuzaki, Yagami Light
Class C: Kururugi Suzaku
Class D: Shiro, Sora
Class E: Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, Lamperouge Lelouch
For the next month, I would become a member of Class E, along with Lelouch.
More importantly, though, the overall results of the ballot were good. We had gotten Kururugi onto The White Team in a class by himself, kept Sora and Shiro together, and also put two athletic students in a class likely to rank in the bottom half.
After we exited the room with the results in mind, I fell into step with the boy who'd sat next to me and sparked up conversation.
"Are you happy with the students you got?" I asked him.
"Class E would have been the strongest no matter which students we had been assigned. Getting you was merely a bonus," he told me.
Indeed, when you compare the likes of Sudō, Kōenji, and now this guy as well, with the students of the other classes, it was clear that Class E was the best in terms of athletic talent.
"Why do you have such faith in me? I have never displayed such physical ability."
It didn't make sense for him to evaluate me so highly with nearly nothing to go on.
"In truth, I had planned to take you from the start," he said such a surprising statement. "Multiple of my classmates seemed to view you highly; Ken and Kei and, to my surprise, Suzune, to name a few."
I see. So he had heard about me from some of the Class E students I had interacted with in the past. I also noted that he used first names when addressing people, which was an interesting element of his personality.
"'You evaluate my abilities as up-to-standard?'. These are the words of somebody who is confident, but not arrogant, wouldn't you agree? You didn't give off the air of someone who is overconfident, and so I all but confirmed my assumption in that moment."
He confirmed his preconceived notions about me by paying attention to the way I acted. It was a minor thing, but still indicative of an impressive thought process.
When someone is confident in their own abilities, complimenting them will of course make them feel good about themselves, and improve both agreeableness and performance. He seemed to understand this well, too, which explained his unexpected words of praise earlier.
"I see," I said.
After that, we both continued to walk in silence for a while, the conversation having died out. Eventually, we got to the dorms. He was on a lower floor than me, so when we stopped, it was his turn to get off first.
Before he left, though, there was one last thing.
"Say, tomorrow we will be classmates, but I don't even know your name," I called out to him.
"Ah, right," he replied, turning around. "My name is Akashi Seijūrō, the sole heir to the Akashi family, and the leader of Class E."
A/N: 4213 word chapter, this is the third day in a row I've updated. Idk how long it'll continue but—
Most of you guys in the comments of my last chapter said to skip straight to this scene next, so that's what I did. However, I left in the detail of Kiyotaka's favour for Sakayanagi, so that when the time comes for that later on, there will be an opportunity for a flashback scene.
I also wasn't planning to give Kiyotaka's replacement a formal introduction in this chapter, but I figured that most people who know who he is would've figured it out by the end of the chapter anyway, so I thought I might as well do it now. I chose Akashi because he seemed a perfect fit for an interesting antagonist personality-wise, and he possessed a set of abilities that no other character had.
Obviously, 99% of Akashi's screen-time in KnB is about Basketball, so I'll have to extrapolate a lot of his abilities myself. There are a few things to go off: frames of his countless exam papers with full marks, statements about him always being the highest academic scorer in middle school, his unbeaten record in Shogi and the strategies he employs during the show are the main things I considered when scaling his intelligence. If you guys have any questions or just feedback about this, I'm happy to reply to comments here ^^
Other than that, thank you for reading. and see you (hopefully) tomorrow <33