The Trial

The day of the hearing came. As the bell rang for the end of class, Kushida and Hirata stood up.

"So who all are going to join Sudou for the meeting?"

Nobody raised their hand and then Izumi stood up and said,

"Me, Ayanokouji, and Horikita will go if no one wants to go."

Sudou wanted to say something but Horikita glared at him.

"Are you sure Izumi Kun? I mean you weren't even.."

"Yeah! Yeah! I know I wasn't interested but with the drama you three created yesterday, I want to see the end, Plus There is something I want to confirm too."

Yeah! The three planned what Izumi had said yesterday and they did force the weakest one and convinced him that there was a recording. Horikita, in the end, decided to help Sudou out, but she still knew it won't be easy.

As they were leaving, Ayanokouji and Horikita looked at Sudou and he said, "I might be a complete Idiot and you can make fun of me, but if you have something to say, you can say it now."

"Don't do anything selfish. Actually listening right now would be the clever thing to do, yes?" Horikita said and as she said her line Izumi laughed.

"Don't speak anything, Sudou."

The discussion was scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. It was already 3:50 PM. We couldn't afford to take it slow. When the four of them got to the faculty room, a teacher waved at us to come on inside.

"Yahoo! Hello, Class D students!"

The homeroom teacher for Class B, Hoshinomiya-sensei, gave us this happy-go-lucky greeting. "It seems like something rather incredible has

happened, hmm?"

Her eyes sparkled as if she enjoyed sticking her nose into other people's business. (Well, she did).

"What are you doing this time?" Chabashira-sensei muttered.

"Oh no. I've been found out already, huh?"

Chabashira-sensei glared over at Hoshinomiya-sensei as she exited the faculty room.

"Whenever you sneak out, that's around the time I start to feel suspicious."

Hoshinomiya gave a cute wink as if saying, Teehee, you got me! "So I guess I can't join in, huh?"

"Of course, you can't. You know that outsiders cannot participate."

"Aw, that's too bad. Well, that's all right. The results should be out

within the hour, I guess."

Chabashira-sensei forcefully pushed Hoshinomiya-sensei back into the faculty room.

"Well then, shall we be going?" she asked us.

"We're not going to do this in the faculty room, are we?"

"Of course not. This school does have rather complicated rules, but in cases such as these a settlement is reached between the homeroom teacher of the class in question, the concerned parties, and the student council."

Horikita froze the very moment she heard the words "student council." Chabashira-sensei turned and glanced sharply at Horikita's face.

"If you want to stop, now's the time, Horikita."

"Oh! So, President Manabu will be there, then there is no point in cheating, Rigght Ayanokouji?" Izumi said with a joking expression.

"Yeah! Last time, he was really ferocious, this time we should be able to see a calm President who is impartial."

Sae Sensie, who heard the duo asked, "You two have already met him? Heh! As for being impartial, we will see."

"Yeah! Sensei, you will enjoy it. The President's impartiality."

As the three were talking, Horikita glanced at Izumi and Ayanokouji and then said, "I'll Go."

Sudou had a confused expression as he understood nothing.

They left the first-floor faculty room and walked up three floors to the fourth. A placard that read "Student Council Room" was affixed to the wall near the doorway. Chabashira-sensei knocked, and we went inside.

Even though Horikita had winced, she immediately followed everyone. Inside, long tables had been arranged in a rectangular formation. The three students from Class C had already arrived and were seated. Beside them sat a bespectacled male teacher in his 30s.

"Sorry we're late," our sensei said.

"It's before the scheduled start time. There's no need for apologies." "Have you already met?"

Sudou, Horikita, and Ayanokouji did not know the teacher.

"This is Sakagami-sensei, the homeroom teacher for Class C. Now then."

One lone male student seated in the back of the room attracted everyone's attention.

"This is the Student Council President."

Horikita's older brother, without so much as even a glance at his sister, pored over the documents on his desk. Horikita directed her gaze at her brother for a short time, but when she realized that she wasn't his focus, she lowered her eyes and sat down in front of the Class C students.

President did look at Ayanokouji and Izumi for a few seconds and then looked straight again. Though a slight smile that wasn't noticeable appeared on his face.

'Class C is done for. These two are not gonna leave them.'

"Well then, I would now like to discuss the violent incident that occurred last Tuesday with the members of the student council, the involved parties, and their homeroom teachers. You may begin the proceedings, student council secretary Tachibana."

Secretary Tachibana, a woman with short hair, gave a slight bow.

"Of course, considering the magnitude of this dispute, there are times when the student council president will take over. There are several unusual things about this incident. Other than that, the bulk of the proceedings will be handled solely by Tachibana, as usual."

"Because I am quite busy, there are certain agenda topics upon which I will defer. As a general rule, though, I would prefer to attend to these issues, as I'm entrusted to lead this student council."

"So, this is all by chance?" Chabashira-sensei smiled as she said that,

but Horikita's older brother never wavered. On the contrary though, Horikita

—Horikita the younger sister, —couldn't hide her trembling. Considering they were brother and sister, the odds were not in our favor. In fact, Ayanokouji couldn't help but think that this situation was extremely disadvantageous, as Horikita couldn't demonstrate her usual prowess here. The expectations had been thoroughly shattered.

Izumi took out the phone and messaged, 'DO IT!'

'No, You Do It.'

'DO IT, Or I will take away the PS.'

'Consider it done.'

If the student council president acted, there'd be nothing they could do, even if they didn't like it. He'd enrolled in Class A and immediately taken office as secretary for the student council. In December of his first year, he became the student council president after receiving an overwhelming amount of support in the election. Although some senior students had naturally voiced their displeasure, our current, hopeless situation spoke to his incredible abilities.

Secretary Tachibana summarized the situation from both sides in an easy-to-understand manner. There wasn't any need for further explanation.

"Based on the aforementioned facts, we would like for you to identify which version of events is true."

After completing her explanation and the preface to the proceedings, Secretary Tachibana turned her eyes toward us in Class D.

"Komiya-kun and two other members of the basketball club went to the special building after Sudou-kun called them there. There, they claim to have been beaten up in a one-sided brawl. Is this true?"

"What those guys said was a lie. I was the one that got called over to the special building," Sudou said.

"That day, after practice, Komiya and Kondou asked me to go to the special building. Honestly, I thought it was kind of annoying, but I also thought it might've been because they were always hostile towards me. So, I went to meet them."

Sudou wasn't one to mince words. Normally, Horikita would have been disgusted by his casual way of speaking, but judging from her trembling she didn't hear him at all.

Sakagami-sensei, Class C's homeroom teacher, stared in wide-eyed amazement.

"That's a lie. Sudou-kun called us over to the special building."

"Don't screw with me, Komiya! You were the one who called me, you

jerk!"

"You don't seem to remember your position here."

Sudou, irritated, impulsively struck his desk. Immediate silence followed.

"Please calm down, Sudou-kun. Right now, we're merely listening to what both parties have to say. Komiya-kun, we ask that you too please show some restraint, and not interrupt."

"Puh, fine…"

"Both parties insist that the other called them over, so the accounts conflict. However, the stories share some commonalities. There was a dispute between Sudou-kun, Komiya-kun, and Kondou-kun, correct?"

"I wouldn't call it a dispute. Sudou-kun's always picking fights with

us."

"'Picking fights'?"

"Sudou's better at basketball than we are, so he's always bragging

about it. We practice with everything we've got, but it doesn't exactly feel good when he makes fools out of us. So we often butt heads."

They didn't really know the details of Sudou's club activities, but when Ayanokouji saw the veins popping on his forehead, it was rather obvious that they were lying. Next, Secretary Tachibana spoke to Sudou.

"Not one bit of what Komiya said was true. Those guys are just jealous of my talent. When I practice, they constantly get in my way. That's the truth."

Naturally, both sides claimed that the other party was at fault.

"Both sides have given their grievances, but now we have to come to a judgment with the collected evidence."

"Sudou-kun beat us senseless. It was a one-sided fight."

Class C seemed intent on focusing the discussion on their injuries. The three students did seem to have black-and-blue faces. That was undeniable.

"That's a lie. They attacked first. It was self-defense."

Izumi watched the drama in amusement, and Sae Sensei when glanced at Izumi's amused face shook her head.

She whispered to Class C's homeroom teacher, "Your class is Done For."

Class C's teacher didn't understand her and thought she was joking.

"Hey, Horikita," A whispered to Horikita, who remained mute and kept her head down. Clearly, this situation was really bad. If they wanted to stop Sudou from getting carried away, they had to take action sooner rather than later. However, she showed no reaction. It was as if her mind was gone.

"If Class D has no further proof to offer, would you mind if we continued the proceedings?"

If the student council and the teachers continued to sit in complete silence, their judgment would almost certainly be merciless. To prevent that, they needed Horikita to rouse herself into action. However, the team's most crucial member withered and shrank before her older brother.

"It would seem there's no objection, given the arguments we've heard thus far." The student council president finally spoke. Horikita's older brother seemed as though he wanted to draw a conclusion as soon as possible, but he still glanced at Izumi's amused face while Ayanokouji's apathetic face.

"Regardless of which party called the other over, the fact remains that it was a one-sided fight between Sudou and the other students. We can clearly see that from the injuries they sustained. We have no choice but to come up with a conclusion based on that."

"W-wait! I can't accept that! It's just because those guys were a bunch of wimps!"

The moment that Sudou uttered those words, I saw Sakagami-sensei

smile.

"Then can it really be considered self-defense when fighting against

opponents of such unequal strength?"

"B-but, hey. I was fighting against three people! Three people!"

"But only the Class C students were hurt."

This was getting worse. Ayanokouji resigned himself to the fact that even if he might be killed later for doing this, he got up slowly from his folding chair and stood behind Horikita. He stretched my arms out and grasped her sides as hard as he could.

"Hyah?!" Horikita cried out in an abnormally girlish voice. However, this was not the time or place for me to focus on that. Since she hadn't yet regained her sanity, I grabbed her more forcefully and tickled her.

Izumi who was at the side, was recording Ayanokouji and Horikita's actions with his pen camera.

'Finally, He did it. Now I don't have to get bored as the real drama will start now. But why did the weakest wimp didn't say anything? It seems Ryuuen must have done something.'

"W-wait. S-stop, stop!"

No matter how upset or dazed a person was, if you stimulated the body enough, they'd come back to her senses. Even if they didn't like it. The teachers seemed somewhat taken aback by my actions, but right then he didn't care. When he believed he'd roused her enough, he let go. Horikita, looking like she was about to cry, glared at him with startling intensity. He'd had to force her, but he knew it was essential to return Horikita to her usual self.

Then Ayanokouji looked at Izumi and nodded and whispered, "2 extra large treats."

"Heh! Let's have a party when you will be alive later." Both of them whispered and then Izumi spoke to Horikita.

"Get a grip on yourself, Horikita. We're going to lose at this rate. You have to fight!"

"Tch…"

Horikita looked at Class C, then the teacher, and then her brother as if finally understanding our situation. It seemed to dawn on her just how desperate our situation was.

"Excuse me. May I ask a question?" she said.

"Do you mind, president?"

"I'll allow it. However, please answer more quickly next time."

Horikita slowly rose out of her chair.

"Earlier, you said that Sudou-kun called you over to the special building. But who exactly did Sudou call, and why?"

Komiya and the other Class C students looked at one another as if saying, Why is she asking that question now?

"Please answer," Horikita added those last two words to reinforce her aggressive style of questioning.

Secretary Tachibana allowed it.

"Kondou and I don't know why he called us over. When we'd just finished up for the day and were changing, he said he wanted to talk to us for a minute. Wasn't the reason just that he didn't like us?"

"So then, why exactly were you in the special building, Ishizaki-kun?

You're not on the basketball team, so you have no connection to this case. I'd think your presence there would be rather odd."

"That's… I came as a precaution. There were rumors that Sudou was violent. He's also in better shape than we are, physically. I had to go, didn't I?"

"So in other words, you felt the situation might turn violent?"

"Yeah."

They answered in unison, almost as if they'd expected these

questions. It appeared that the Class C students had thoroughly rehearsed for this conference.

"I see. So you brought along Ishizaki-kun as your bodyguard since he was reputed to be rather good at fighting. Just in case there was an emergency."

"It was to protect ourselves. That was it. Besides, we didn't know that Ishizaki-kun was known for being good in a fight. We just considered him a reliable friend."

Horikita quietly listened to their responses, as if running various simulations in her head. Then she immediately made her next move.

"I do have some knowledge of martial arts, if only to a certain extent. I understand that when you're fighting against multiple enemies, victory becomes exponentially more difficult. So I don't understand how you were defeated so handily, how the fight could be so one-sided when you had a skilled fighter like Ishizaki-Kun with you."

"Because we didn't intend to fight."

"The primary factor in triggering a fight is the collision of the 'energy' between opponents. In the event that you don't have any intention of fighting, or that you're nonviolent, the probability that you'll be hurt should be very low. Especially when there are three of you."

"That way of thinking doesn't apply to Sudou-kun. He's exceptionally violent. Even if we were nonviolent, he'd still be mercilessly violent. That's what happened."

He peeled off the gauze that covered his cheek, exposing the scrapes

underneath. No matter how many reasonable arguments Horikita made, his injury gave powerful evidence.

"Are you finished with your claims now, Class D?" said Horikita's older brother coolly.

After staying silent while Horikita gave her argument, his words were few and icy. His look seemed to suggest that if that was all we had to say, it would've been better not to say anything at all.

As the President talked about it, the Class D students couldn't say anything.

Sakagami Sensei said as he saw the class d students remained silent, "So you all have no proof, then President, as you can see, class D had no proof to prove Sudou is innocent, In that case, Can you give the answer to hearing?"

Hearing Sudou wanted to shout, but Ayankouji held his hand and shook his head, "This was your fault. It will be the first and the last time we will save you, Next time, you are done for." Ayanokouji said in an extremely cold voice which made many in the room flinch.

President was about to speak but before that, Izumi spoke,

"Before President says anything, I want to ask Sakagami sensei, 'Sensei, DO you really want to do this? It's getting more and more annoying and you really want to keep this lie?"

Sakagami Sensei looked at Izumi and asked, "Who might you be?"

"A class D student, ANd sensei, can you answer the question?"

"I don't understand what you are saying, Class D student."

"Heh! The President, I want to ask, what will be the Punishment for Sudou?"

"Sudou will be expelled, meaning 100 points will be decreased from Class Point and Class D will have to pay 300,000 points to Class C as compensation."

Izumi nodded and said, "Indeed, A suitable punishment, But let's say, someone had seen the fight and s/he didn't come out of fear. Some days later, because of guilt, The student tells everything and it turns out Sudou was innocent, then what will happen?"

As soon as Izumi, pin drop silence appeared in the room, the trio of class C started panicking and Sakagami Sensei was about to speak but he was stopped by President and Chabashira Sensei.

"If it really happens, Sudou will be brought back to the school, The three Class C students will be expelled, and All the points of Class C will be lost. Class C will also have to pay 500,000 Points to Class D as compensation."

As soon as President spoke about the punishment, the trio wanted to speak but were again cut off by Izumi.

"Wonderful Punishment! As expected of Student Council President. Then President, A guilt-ridden student who had the proof but couldn't show it due to his petty and scared behavior would like to show something."

An amused expression appeared on President Manabu as he saw Izumi's shaky behavior.

"You may."

Izumi nodded and passed the phone to President with shaking hands.

Sudou was shocked seeing Izumi's behavior and he still didn't understand a single thing, while Horikita and Sae-sensei were trying to hold their laughter at Izumi's act.

President took the phone and connected it to the screen after watching it. It showed the whole video of the event and how Class C's students pushed Sudou to fight and everything.

As Sakagami Sensei and The trio saw the video, the trio fell down and shouted, "It was Ryuuen's plan."

"We didn't want to do it."

"I don't want to get expelled."

"Shut Up!" shouted Izumi as he saw their disgusting behavior.

"Now Student Council President, as you can see, The Class C student-Teacher group was just deceiving us and was trying to expel an innocent student. It was only because a GUILT-ridden student stood up and showed the evidence, that he could save an innocent student. Our Class D had even asked Class C to take back the lied but they didn't accept it. Now, what will be the punishment for them, with the above charges and they even tried to deceive the School management and Authority and Student Council?"

As Sakagami Sensei heard Izumi, he looked at Chabashira Sensei and said, "We can talk and I will take back the case and provide appropriate compensation, Can you ask your student to take it back?"

Chabashira sensei laughed at him and said, " Did you forget what I said before, Let me remind you, 'Your class is done for.'"

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