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Part 2
The weekend was uneventful to most. After a long sports festival on Friday, around 85% of the students at Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School just wanted to lie down and take things easy as a form of rest. Other students were out and about making the most of their lives at this school.
For example, in Class B, students such as Ike, Satou and Sotomura who weren't very athletic, took the weekend off to just relax and recover from using a lot of energy. However, other students like Hirata, Onodera and Sudou were out and about doing club activities or hanging out with friends. And Kiyotaka and Kei meanwhile took the weekend to go out and have a date at Akuisha again.
Speaking of Class B, it was now the end of the final lesson on Monday. Sakagami left the classroom after teaching the maths lesson for Class B. The only thing left was the final homeroom session with their homeroom teacher, which was set to begin in 5 minutes. Using that time effectively, the students started up conversations with their friends.
"Ayanokouji-kun. You said there was one more thing that was a part of your plan. Are you going to tell us what it is?"
In Kiyotaka's case, he sat where he was and immediately was brought up into a conversation with Matsushita. Haruka, Kei, Mori and Satou also arrived in front of his desk and joined in the conversation too, eager to know what else Kiyotaka had planned. However, Haruka didn't have much of an eager and curious look compared to the other girls. Rather, hers was dark and mimicking a smug expression.
"I said that to you girls?" He was immediately met with deadpanned expressions. "I'm joking. Of course I remember. Anyway, you'll soon find out exactly what else I had planned."
"Take your seats everyone. I'd like to start straight away since I have two things to say and an announcement before I let you go."
Before Matsushita and the rest had time to try and question Kiyotaka further, Chabashira walked into the classroom and immediately instructed her students. Knowing better than to not obey, the girls and the other students who were away from their seats moved back and sat down, all ready to listen to their homeroom teacher.
Chabashira stood at the podium, overlooking her class with a small smile before speaking up again.
"First of all, I would like to say good work to you all. Even though you got third place overall, resulting in no Class Point gains, your class is still in the same position as before. Meaning you are all still Class B students. Well done. However, the new Class C is catching up to you, so you may want to take the cultural festival even more seriously to try and earn those points and get closer to Class A, who lost 150 Class points for coming last place in the sports festival."
Cheers could be heard from a few students. It was true that they hadn't moved positions since they didn't gain any Class Points. However, because of Sakayanagi's deal with Kiyotaka and her insistence that winning the sports festival was pointless, her class had lost points which meant Class B was 150 points closer to overtaking their class than they have ever been. That was sure to motivate the students in Class B to continue to do well.
"Secondly. Congratulations to Sudou, Onodera and Ayanokouji for taking 1st place in the MVP and Commander rewards. You three have already earned your personal rewards, which are extra private points for all three of you and in Ayanokouji's case, a School Request Ticket. However, Ayanokouji has already used his School Request Ticket for a request so that ticket can no longer be used."
Most students let out a gasp of shock. Some even glared at Kiyotaka, probably a little mad that he used it already. However, they didn't know what his request was so it was a little premature to get angry at him.
"Finally..."
As Chabashira was about to make her final announcement, Kiyotaka closed his eyes. He knew what was coming next and it was about to affect the class greatly. Chabashira turned her gaze to face a certain student in the classroom.
"Kushida Kikyou. When this homeroom session ends, come see me in the staff room. After that, you are to pack your things that you would like to take back with you in your room as this will be your last day at this school."
The room was silent. All eyes turned to Kushida, who was extremely shocked for a moment. She recovered a little bit and then spoke up hesitatingly.
"M-my last day h-here?"
"Yes. Kushida. This is your last day here because you have now been expelled."
"HUH!?"
It wasn't Kushida herself who exclaimed in shock, but Horikita and a few other classmates. Horikita immediately stood up, hands smacking the desk as she did so with a loud bang.
"Sensei. What is the meaning of this? Please explain why Kushida-san is being expelled so randomly."
It was understandable why Horikita would be the first to protest. Being the one who protected Kushida from expulsion in the last special exam, it would be weird to see her not protest unless she truly regretted her decision and wanted to change things, which unfortunately she wasn't.
"A case with really reliable evidence was brought up against Kushida. The original plan was to go through a trial, however the evidence itself has been too reliable that the Principal and the Student Council President had no choice but to just carry out justice, which is the result we have here - Kushida getting expelled."
"Wha... What was the case against her?"
Chabashira gave one small glance to Kiyotaka, who still had his eyes closed. Seeing he wouldn't look at her and that, to her, she thought it was alright, Chabashira turned back to Horikita and answered.
"Blackmail and attempted sexual blackmail. Class ridicule. Defamation from rumour spreading. Rumour spreading in general. I can't say any more than that."
"...Ayanokouji-kun, do you know anything about this?"
Horikita, Kushida and the rest of the students turned to the silent and indifferent Kiyotaka. Being the victim of Kushida's "sexual blackmail", it was understandable that Horikita would ask him if he knew about this case. However, for all she knew, the person who submitted the case could have been another person from another class or another year who also happened to run into Kushida's true nature by accident.
However, those who were thinking that were thinking far-fetched, as Kiyotaka's response completely blew those thoughts out of the window.
"Of course I do. I am the one who submitted the case after all."
"HUH!?"
This time, it was Kushida who exclaimed in shock and horror. Horikita was also shocked and so were the rest of Class B. After Horikita had made her decision to protect Kushida in the unanimous vote special exam and pledged to bring her back and change her, everyone believed that she was pretty much on the path to redemption and that they would just have to accept that path.
[What utter nonsense. How naive to think something like that.] Kiyotaka thought, eyes still closed as he waited for the one person who objected to this the most to speak up.
"You... Ayanokouji-kun... You submitted the case against Kushida-san and got her expelled?" Horikita asked with hesitation, as if she couldn't believe what he had done.
"Yes. I did what had to be done. What should've been done long before. Thanks to the sports festival, I was able to achieve it."
Horikita immediately stiffened again upon realising the hidden meaning there. Kiyotaka had come first place in the sports festival Commander Events, which meant he gained a certain reward that Chabashira had mentioned he had used already.
"Ayanokouji-kun... Don't tell me you used the School Request Ticket you won just to get Kushida-san expelled...?"
That was exactly what Kiyotaka did. When Chairman Sakayanagi handed him the School Request Ticket, Kiyotaka asked the Chairman about how far the school could fulfil a request using the ticket. Of course, the Chairman gave school-like answers, but that didn't stop Kiyotaka. When he probed about whether the school could fulfil a request to expel a dangerous student with evidence, Chairman Sakayanagi answered they could investigate but it wouldn't be a guarantee and expulsion was very harsh as a form of punishment.
That was enough information for Kiyotaka, since he knew the Chairman wouldn't go too far for him. With that information, Kiyotaka made a few moves, using both Haruka and Kei before finally bringing the case and evidence to Chabashira. He was also able to infer that Private Points could be used to a certain extent to help with the case. When Chabashira finally brought the case with the school on behalf of Kiyotaka, it seemed the school made a decision right away instead of prolonging and investigating the case further.
[That was a little unexpected, honestly. Perhaps the information they had on Kushida and her past, plus the evidence Chabashira-sensei brought to them, and with help from Haruka and Kei, allowed the school to just make a decision to expel Kushida straight away. That has definitely saved me some time.] Kiyotaka thought.
Kiyotaka didn't say anything, but that was enough for Horikita and the rest of the class to confirm that Kiyotaka did indeed use his School Request Ticket just to bring a case against Kushida and expel her.
"Ayanokouji-kun... Why would you do this!?"
Horikita was a little furious, to say the least, with what Kiyotaka had done. But she knew she shouldn't have been too furious considering she too had directed the class to expel Airi in the previous special exam.
"Didn't I tell you already, Horikita? Kushida is a lost cause, whether she changes or not. Even if she is useful in one small case, her betrayal is just as possible as shown in the past. It would be better for the class if she were gone from this school entirely. I also cannot accept that she is still here while Airi, who while wasn't as useful as Kushida but wasn't likely to betray and cause problems for the class unlike Kushida, was expelled in her place."
A grudge essentially for getting rid of Airi was what part of it boiled down to. But Kiyotaka was also looking out for the class. Kushida still held the secrets of many others both in the class and around the school. Keeping a monster like that was too dangerous, especially after she already broke this class once. Even if that danger could be made useful, the matter was she was still too dangerous to keep around, and it wasn't a guarantee that she would be make that useful at all.
This was the conclusion Kiyotaka came to. A complete opposite point of view to what Horikita wanted.
"You... It's better for the class? How are you so sure about that!?" Horikita shouted.
"How are you sure that keeping Kushida is better for the class?" Kiyotaka retorted, throwing her argument right back at her similar to how Horikita herself did with Shinohara just a few weeks ago. Horikita obviously couldn't retort back to that.
"But if you want an actual reason as to why it's better for the class, why don't you ask our classmates what their actual opinion is of this outcome. Rather, why don't we do a show of hands as to who opposes Kushida's expulsion and who doesn't." Kiyotaka then said.
If one looked at this situation, it was like a recreation of how the class had come to pick its expulsion target in the unanimous vote special exam. Only this time, the expulsion victim was already decided and about to be thrown out. Even if there were people who objected to Kushida's expulsion, they couldn't overturn the decision. Horikita probably knew that.
"Can anyone that is opposed to Kushida's sudden expulsion, raise their hands right now," Kiyotaka announced, appearing to be the mediator in this situation.
Horikita knew that she couldn't overturn the decision now. And yet she still objected, still holding onto what little hope she had left. Unsurprisingly, Horikita raised her hand immediately. She then turned to face the rest of the class, asking for support when Kiyotaka asked the question.
Only two other hands were raised. Surprisingly, one of them was Mei-Yu, who had been one of the people most affected by Kushida's onslaught just weeks ago. It was likely that even after the half baked yet somewhat genuine apology Kushida gave to her, Mei-Yu still forgave her and wanted to be her friend again.
The other person was Hondou. This didn't surprise Kiyotaka at all, since Hondou had a huge crush on Kushida before she was exposed to be a two-faced bitch who munched on people's secrets and caused despair if she never got what she wanted. It was likely either he still had that crush on her so he wanted to defend Kushida or he just didn't want to agree with Kiyotaka after his dreams were crushed by reality.
"Only three people huh...?" Kiyotaka was honestly surprised there was more than just Horikita who opposed it. Of course, Kushida herself put her hand up but he didn't count it for obvious reasons.
"Now then. Those who are not opposed to Kushida's expulsion, please raise your hands now."
This time, more people raised their hands. Excluding Kiyotaka himself, there was Kei, Haruka, Satou, Matsushita, Mori, Akito, Yukimura and, surprisingly, even Hirata. That was just 9 people in total already, but the number went higher. Shinohara and Ike. Ichihashi and Onodera. Sotomura and Miyamoto. The number pretty much reached just over half the class.
"27 people including myself voted. I'm going to assume the rest abstained. There's your answer, Horikita."
Kiyotaka knew he would reach this number on his side at the very least. Before he used the School Request Ticket to bring the case against Kushida, Kiyotaka had tasked Haruka and Kei with gathering information on the class's current view on Kushida and whether they thought it was good to keep her or not. Of course, with the latter part, Haruka and Kei made sure to not directly mention that Kushida WOULD be expelled, only stating it was theoretical.
Through that, he was able to determine that most of the class either despised Kushida after her change or were just disillusioned with her, and would prefer to see her go instead of seeing her stay even if she changed. That information was useful to his plan to get rid of Kushida with the School Request Ticket as it allowed him to get the school to understand that their class was greatly affected by Kushida's existence. That further resulted in the expulsion result.
"And I'm sure you've realised already, but even if you garnered support from this class to oppose Kushida's expulsion, it won't matter unless you have the points to actually reverse it. Our class doesn't have enough points to do so, and unless the other classes have reason to save Kushida, they won't give them to us either."
Kushida had a large network of people she called her friends in other classes. It was possible if probed, the "simp-kind" friends would probably give some points, but it still wouldn't be enough to reach 20 million private points. Horikita should know that all too well.
"...Damnit..."
At this point, Horikita had given up. There was nothing she could do to save Kushida. All she could do was accept the situation without any further deliberation, like a child who lost an argument with their parents.
"Ayanokouji..." It was Kushida herself this time who called out to her. "You... You betrayed me again!"
"Betrayed you again? Are you making a joke, Kushida? Sure I've betrayed you here, but I never betrayed you before this. You were the one who betrayed me countless times. Do I need to remind you of that? Anyway, aren't I doing you a favour? You wanted to get out of this school, didn't you?"
"Screw you! Have you forgotten what I said would happen if someone would come at me with hostility!? I still have more secrets I can expose in front of the class!"
Hearing that, a few of the students shivered in fear. While she did expose quite a lot already, being someone who was trusted with a lot of secrets, what she exposed was just the minimum she needed to cause a blackhole to form. Said blackhole, to her, was quite tiny and all it needed was more information to materialise larger. In other words, Class B was a walking bomb, ready to explode when provoked by the lighter Kushida.
"Then go ahead and do it."
But Kiyotaka was not deterred. In fact, he outright provoked Kushida to do it right here and now. It was a huge risk to take, especially since Kushida was the person who wouldn't hesitate to do something. She would immediately take that as an opportunity and expose the rest of the secrets. There would be no reason for her not to.
However, Kushida did not do that. Instead, she stayed as silent as a spider. Some students were wondering why that was the case, but all they needed to do was to look at the instigator to find out why she was silent.
Kiyotaka had gotten up from his seat and started making his way towards Kushida's desk. However, the expression on his face as he approached Kushida's desk was not his normal apathetic gloomy self. Replacing it were very dark eyes as sharp as the sharpest knife on earth ready to stab its target and as cold as the North and South Pole. Those eyes glared at Kushida, freezing her in place.
It wasn't just Kushida who was stuck on the edge of her seat in fear. The rest of the class also felt scared seeing someone who was once considered boring and gloomy, now becoming more popular, with a face that almost rivalled that of a murderer. It was terrifying to them. All they could do was sit and watch the spectacle.
"Go ahead and expose everyone's secrets again. This class has already felt the impact of your stupid pride and your idiotic backstory. Whether you expose more secrets now won't change that the class has only gotten closer after rebuilding itself. You've already seen that yourself. Your weapon is no longer as powerful as it once was. You're now weak in other words."
"W-w-w-w-wha-"
"Kushida Kikyou. I've said it already. But you're such a stupid girl. You have no place here any longer. So why don't you just give up and start another life like you did after middle school. You've caused enough problems here, and you won't cause anymore. You can't anyway. So be the goodie tooshoos you claim to be and quietly leave this school. You'll never have a life here again."
Kiyotaka's tone was colder and darker than he had portrayed when he exposed Kushida. Class B couldn't have even pictured Kiyotaka like this. Kushida, who was taking the full brunt of his direct attack, almost felt like she was going to wet herself. She already realised that making an enemy out of Kiyotaka was a bad idea, but now she royally regretted everything she had done to try and expel him.
At that moment, the final bell rang, indicating the end of the day. One thought that would stop this escalating confrontation, however, Kiyotaka still kept his dark, cold eyes on Kushida and the latter just stayed frozen in place with fear. It was only until the sound of hands clapping from the front of the classroom stopped this escalation.
"Kushida. It's time. Come with me to the staff room so we can discuss this further," Chabashira said with caution, not wanting to make the situation any worse than it already was.
Kiyotaka lessened the icy stare he kept on Kushida to the point where she could move while under it, but it was still present on his face. Like a timid bunny, Kushida grabbed her belongings and left the classroom with Chabashira. The latter stopped at the door and turned to glance at Kiyotaka before walking off to the staff room.
The icy cold atmosphere in the classroom finally disappeared when Kiyotaka returned his expression back to his usual one. A few students almost felt like they were about to hyperventilate, so they felt fine again once Kiyotaka returned to normal. Kiyotaka sent a look to Hirata, and he immediately understood what the look meant.
"Everyone. A lot has happened now. I think it's best we all just go home for today and talk about what happened tomorrow. Since part of our year already knows about Kushida's true nature now, there won't be a gag order on her expulsion. But I would recommend not mentioning anything about it at the moment, at least until tomorrow. Is that okay with everyone?"
No one objected to Hirata's offer. There was nothing else they could do anyway. In just the space of a couple of weeks, 2 people from Class B had now been expelled. Class B also now just lost a precious figure/leader and learnt about someone else's possible hidden side. They needed time to let all this sink in smoothly.
Students began packing their things and leaving slowly. Kiyotaka began packing his own items and just as he finished, he found Kei and Haruka coming up to him, looking ready to leave with him. Kiyotaka nodded and the three of them left the classroom together with one destination in mind.
Destination: The School's Front Gate.
A/N:
I know what you're all thinking right now! "You created the School Request Ticket, why didn't Kiyo use it to bring back Airi?" As previously said before, there is only so far a School Request Ticket can go, and while bringing back a student wouldn't exactly be impossible, would it sit well with the Board of Directors? Chabashira mentioned that there's only certain requests they can fulfill. Even the expulsion of Kushida was something the school couldn't do too easily, which explains why Kiyotaka did the extra things he did here to ensure that the school didn't have a choice but to expell Kushida. As of now, the same couldn't be done to bring back Airi yet, but don't worry, Airi will be back. I promise you. Just not now.
Now as for the reasons I decided to expel Kushida this volume after following the same story in Y2 V5 and having Horikita save her in Vol 1. There are 3 reasons:
1. Kiyotaka needs to get rid of all his enemies. Nagumo. Takuya. And yes... even Kushida. That was his whole goal in Volume 1 before Horikita and the rest of Class B ruined it. So when he heard about the School Request Ticket, his mind only had one goal. To gain the ticket to expell Kushida Kikyou and protect himself and others. Kushida is a lost cause after all.
2. At the time, and still to this current moment, Class B still doesn't trust Kushida. To them, there was no telling when Kushida would lose it and cause problems again, even if Horikita and Kushida herself promised she wouldn't. Knowing that, Kiyotaka used that knowledge to his advantage in order to get the class to trust him more. By expelling Kushida, the class can feel safer and trust him even more since their worries had been dealt with.
3. Despite not looking like it, even Kiyotaka can hold grudges. He wanted revenge for having one of his close family friends expelled. Just like Haruka, he wanted revenge on Horikita. He wanted revenge on Kushida. He wanted revenge on the class. So he decided to expell Kushida by using every means possible, just like he previously tried in the unanimous exam, albeit being more successful.
Hope that explains things better! Only two more parts left, the Short Stories and then my Endnotes and Volume 2 will be complete then! Keep tuning in until then!
- rainy26541 (G-String)