The evening after the trial ended, Seiji and Fujimori-san asked me to have dinner with them. I had already been asked by Saionji-senpai so I politely declined. They agreed but in return, they told me to have lunch with them tomorrow. It seemed like they wanted to talk about something important so I agreed to their invitation. The next day the three of us sat together at the most remote table in the cafeteria. Maybe so that no one overhears our conversation.
Seiji was the first to speak. "I don't think I need to explain our situation anymore."
This morning there was a bit of a commotion in our class. Tanaka and several of his friends confront us in class. It was clear to us that he was not happy with the results of yesterday's trial and blamed us for not defending him properly. In his view, we seemed to betray him. Luckily Seiji remained calm and firmly reprimanded him of what he had done so far. Seiji continued by delivering a short speech in front of the class about how this trial showed that we cannot escape punishment just because we are class A. Luckily most of the students in our class were still rational enough to support Seiji's opinion and Tanaka was forced to accept his fate with a bitter face.
"You did a good job controlling the situation, Seiji-kun," Fujimori-san praised him. "I was worried that our class would get into a fight. I'm thankful that didn't happen."
"Of course, Tanaka is the guilty party. If even half of them still defend that guy, then I'll give up on this class." I couldn't blame him for thinking that. We are class A. We are supposed to be the class that is better than other classes, that's why we have to behave appropriately. Luckily apart from a few bad eggs, our class overall was still pretty good. It's just that our reputation was slightly damaged due to the actions of several people who were lulled by their status. That's why we can't ignore these people.
"I hope they can be deterred, it's time for them to reflect on their actions," Seiji said while frowning. It will be a big problem for us if they don't stop. In some time the class competition will get tougher if we can't handle them before that happens...
"If it turns out they don't give up, what will we do Seiji-kun?" Fujimori-san asked.
"Hm, to be honest, I'm still not sure how to answer that question," Seiji answered. "If they don't change after being slapped with this case, then we have no choice but to rely on what we already have."
I didn't really understand what he meant but I understood that we couldn't keep concerning ourselves with the troublemakers. There are many important things we have to do. One of the most important is finding the person who attacked Tanaka. My conversation with the vice president last night was about this. Maybe the two of them can give me a little insight.
"Sorry, if this is a bit off topic," I said. "But what do you think about the person who attacked Tanaka? We also can't just ignore that."
"You're right," said Fujimori-san. "This case is not completely resolved, and yesterday's trial did nothing but reveal the offense of several students. But that doesn't mean we don't have any suspects."
My eyes widen. "You suspect someone?"
"More or less," Fujimori-san answered plainly. "You've heard this before. The easiest way to determine a suspect is to see who benefited most from the incident."
Who will benefit the most? Of course, if you look at the big picture... class A students were attacked and the suspects came from classes B and C. Of course the most rational assumption is that these three classes will attack each other to defend their classmates. If that happens then the one who benefited the most is... "Class D, right?"
"Perhaps," Seiji said calmly. "That class...especially their leader is the most suspicious. But there is one thing that makes me a little surprised."
"What's that?" I asked.
"Try to remember the trial. Ishikawa tends to be passive when we are discussing suspects from class B. He became more active when Nanahara-san from class C was put in the spotlight. If he wanted to pit us all against each other, why did he only attack class C?"
"I think the answer is pretty clear," said Fujimori-san. "Class C is right above them. It makes sense that Ishikawa-kun would want to take them down first. Besides, Nanahara-san is a suspect who has personal beef with class D students."
"Hm... you're right, but I still feel something strange."
As moderator of the trial, Ishikawa did give a rather strange impression. He didn't seem concerned about his friend at all and always looked relaxed from start to finish. It was as if he didn't really care about what happened during the trial. Even when Yukiharu agreed to compromise he immediately stopped pressuring them.
"Whatever it is, how about we stop discussing other classes? We still haven't decided what steps we should take for our class..." Fujimori-san is right although it's probably not my place to say so since I'm the one who diverted the topic.
"For now let's wait and see," Seiji answered and I agreed with him.
"Yes, it is still too early to determine a course of action. We'll leave them alone for a while to see how they act after this. Of course, if Fujimori-san has other suggestions, we will be happy to listen."
"Oh, no, I don't mind," she answered. "It's just that you two need to be careful...the school could announce something at any time..."
I understand what she wants to convey. There is a reason why Seiji and I put our trust in Fujimori-san. In May, when Takada-sensei announced the point system, Fujimori-san was smart enough to question the incompleteness of the teacher's explanation. She knew how unfair the class competition was in this school. She had told us that there might be some kind of special event that would affect the number of points in the future. Takada-sensei could only give a more complete explanation if we paid with our class points, which is why we ultimately decided to wait until that day arrived. The day when every class will be truly tested.
***
There will be more characters form class A in the next arc. Also. if there's something that I need to fix in this arc, then let me know so I can fix it before going to the next. That's all I can say, see you later.