Act 15: Scene 5

It was a very good thing that they had talked about how they would resolve Akito's situation yesterday because if they hadn't, they wouldn't have any idea on how to handle their current dilemma.

Chabashira-sensei stood in front of everyone, her hands slamming on top of her podium while having a dead-serious expression on her face. The teacher who was proud of them for passing their midterms? She wasn't here anymore. It's like she was back to being the teacher that she was during their first day in this school; stoic and uncaring.

"I have an announcement for everyone. There was a bit of trouble the other day. An incident between one of your classmates sitting there, Miyake, and some students from Class C. To put it simply, there was a fight."

In an instant, the classroom erupted in shouts, complaints, and questions. After waiting for everyone to be quiet, Chabashira-sensei laid the whole situation bare for the class, what the incident was all about (at least according to what she knew) and how they could have their points reduced if this ends up in Miyake's defeat. She inserted no personal bias whatsoever when she addressed the class, and explained everything from a position of neutrality, but it was clear that she was displeased with this turn of events.

Amidst the chaos, however, there were a few students that remained calm despite everything that was happening. Hasebe, Ayanokouji, Horikita, Kushida, Karuizawa, Sudo, Onodera, Hirata, and Miyake himself simply listened to everything that their teacher was saying. They already knew what this was all about, and they were just waiting for the aftermath at this point.

"The complaint came from the Class C students. They claimed that the fight was one-sided from the injuries they received. However, when we spoke to the accused, Miyake said that their claims were false and that he was the victim. He insisted that the students of Class C cornered him and started the fight."

Akito just remained quiet as he noticed his classmates' icy glares. No doubt they were all angry at him now, and it's no use standing up for himself now because it's impossible to look credible in front of their teacher without any evidence backing him up.

"In the end, we don't yet know the truth. One side is lying, but we have no way of knowing without an investigation. Therefore, we have put our decision on hold for now. Our response and the punishment to the perpetrator will come when we find out who was at fault." Sae then turned her attention solely towards her magenta-haired student.

"I have no reason to lie, sensei. All I need is evidence to prove I'm innocent, right? Someone who witnessed the fight could definitely vouch for me," he responded in an impassive tone.

"Is that so? If there is an eyewitness, as Miyake seems to believe, then the situation may change. If anyone here witnessed the fight, please raise your hand."

Chabashira-sensei continued talking in a flat voice, looking unimpressed with Akito's lame effort to defend himself. No students raised their hands in response to her question, all while most of them continued to glare at the boy.

"Too bad, Miyake. It appears there are no witnesses in this class."

"Looks that way," he shrugged helplessly, but also took this in as crucial information. If the eyewitness to the incident isn't one of his classmates, then it must be someone from another class. Otherwise, he was wrong this whole time and there wasn't any witness in the first place.

When Chabashira-sensei cast a doubtful look at Akito, he stared at her with a stoic look, staying calm despite his situation.

"However, you do bring up a good case in order to determine which side is telling the truth. I will tell the other teachers to inform their classes of the details of this incident and ask them if there is someone who possibly witnessed the incident. All of us want this to be resolved quickly, after all."

Akito's eyes widened for a brief moment as he heard that, before cursing to himself. He wanted to keep this issue between him, the teachers, and the people who were going to help him. However, he realized yesterday that it was inevitable for his classmates to know about this, which was something that he begrudgingly accepted in the end. What he didn't expect was Chabashira-sensei saying that the other teachers would be telling their classes about it, which will effectively mean that the whole school will know of what happened.

The worst part is that there's no clear answer on who it was that started it, even though Akito knew to himself that it wasn't him.

"Anyway, that is all. We'll make our final judgment next Tuesday, taking into account any eyewitnesses and evidence that could turn up on that day. With that, I will end today's homeroom right here,"

Chabashira-sensei left, and the classroom was silent for a few moments... with no one making a sound because everybody was still trying to process everything that their teacher just said to them...

"Man, isn't Miyake just the worst?" Yamauchi was the first to talk, clearly annoyed with his classmate's actions. It was bad enough that they still haven't received their point allowance for this month, now they were in danger of not getting anything at all.

"What the hell were you thinking Miyake?! Why did you have to pick a fight with those students?!" Hondo turned to Miyake with anger and distrust completely visible in his eyes.

"If we lose points because of Miyake-kun, will we get only 9,700 points again this month?" asked Sonoda, looking very worried for the state of their class in the future.

"Heck, we might even end up with zero points at all because of this..." Maya whispered, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself because all of this was too much for her to process all at once, as well as thinking about the possible repercussions that could happen because of this.

An uproar enveloped the classroom afterwards, with many of the Class D students immediately blaming Akito for this unfortunate incident because he was the one whom their teacher had mentioned. Some were already trying to diffuse the tension by saying that they didn't know everything about what happened. Meanwhile, Akito just remained in his seat, taking in everyone's anger and frustration as if it was something he's used to. It even looked like things were starting to get out of hand, and it reached the point where Haruka stood up from her seat and quickly faced her classmates.

"Miyacchi hasn't done anything wrong!" she exclaimed loud enough for everyone to hear.

Her classmates stared at her for a brief moment, as if they were thinking deeply about her words before they continued to throw insults towards her friend and berate him for bringing their class down. It's like her statement went through one ear and came out of the other like it didn't matter.

"Hey, Miyake! You should just admit that you were wrong already! Look, even Hasebe-chan has to cover up for you because you keep on denying it!" No points on guessing who was the idiot that said these words.

"Hasebe-san, you heard what Chabashira-sensei said! Miyake–kun attacked those Class C students!" Ishikura accused, looking scared at the possibility of them getting punished for what their classmate did.

"Miyacchi is innocent! He didn't do anything to them! Do you really think that he can fight three students on his own? He was completely outnumbered!" Haruka pointed out the obvious flaw in the argument.

"Maybe he can! You never know!"

"No, he can't!"

From his seat, Kiyotaka watched on with an impassive look on his face. He honestly expected Chabashira-sensei to inform the whole class of the incident right after he was informed of it himself, so it didn't surprise him that things turned out like this. It also didn't surprise him that his classmates were quick to turn on Akito as if he was never their classmate in the first place, with seemingly no intention of believing him.

Honestly, he was content on remaining quiet so that he wouldn't get the attention (and because he was going to help Akito anyway), but the way that a lot of his classmates were dismissing Haruka's claims of her friend's innocence didn't sit right with him. Were they just that stupid? Can't they see that Haruka was right in saying that her friend was completely outnumbered in every way when the incident happened? Or did they just take Chabashira-sensei's words as the gospel and now they were convinced that Akito was at fault, nothing more.

Either way, he could see that Hasebe was beginning to realize that her attempts to change her classmates' minds weren't working at all. All of them were just adamant in blaming her friend for the incident that occurred. While Akito didn't seem to care about the insults hurled towards him, Hasebe was starting to get frustrated and desperate... it felt like she was getting closer to her breaking point by the second...

"I'm gonna regret this but if I don't do anything, the system will activate that broken skill again..."

Sighing to himself, Kiyotaka braced himself for what he was about to do. Yeah, he already knew where this was leading to, he didn't need a damn notification to spell things out for him. He could only hope that he can handle this without looking like an idiot.

Right before he could get up on his feet though, someone else beat him to it.

"Everyone, can you please listen to what I have to say?" Kikyo had stood up like Haruka as she tried to silence the commotion, which was somewhat successful as it got their classmates to turn to her instead. "I think that what Chabashira-sensei said is true. Miyake-kun was involved in a fight. However, I think he was only dragged into it."

Thanks to the girl's influence across the whole class, Kikyo was able to stop them from talking badly about Akito any further. "Kushida-chan, what do you mean? Do you believe Miyake?" asked Ike.

Before she could say anything, Kushida first turned towards Hasebe, as if she was asking for permission to tell their classmates about what happened yesterday. Hasebe only

With that, Kushida conveyed yesterday's story to the whole class. She told them how Akito had been cornered by three Class C students and led him to a location with no video cameras, before proceeding to beat him up for absolutely no reason at all. She also explained that Akito, acting in self-defense, had no choice but to fight back in order to defend himself. Lastly, she told them how Akito had been outnumbered and had no way of possibly injuring the Class C students, which makes their accusations meaningless because it couldn't have been him.

Most of the class listened to Kikyo's heartfelt words in silence. Haruka had tried to explain the situation too, but everyone else didn't listen to her. If Akito himself tried to explain things, it would have yielded the same result. Regardless, they now had a chance to get their classmates on their side with Kikyo speaking up on behalf of Akito.

"I know Chabashira-sensei already did this, but I'd like to ask you all again. If one of you, or anyone you know saw what happened last Sunday, whether it's a friend, someone from another class, or an upperclassman, please tell me. You can contact me at any time. I would sincerely appreciate it."

Even though she'd basically said the same thing as Sae, the class had a very different response to the beige-haired girl. Unlike their teacher, Kikyo can easily connect with other people, and everyone in the classroom liked her.

Silence took over the classroom afterwards. No one said anything for a few moments and when someone did, he wasn't really the best choice because people would rather listen to a goat than him.

"Sorry, Kushida-chan. I just can't believe what Miyake said. I think he's lying. I mean, he doesn't even have any evidence that he didn't do anything," Yamauchi shrugged. "That guy should pay for getting us in trouble!"

After Yamauchi voiced his complaints, the rest of the class followed, but they weren't as loud as they were earlier.

"Yeah, are you sure you're not just trying to save him for no reason, Kushida-san?" asked Ishikura.

"...but we're still in trouble, Kushida-san. We can't treat this issue like it's nothing," said Sato.

"How do you expect us to convince Chabashira-sensei that Miyake-kun didn't do anything, then? She asked earlier if there was someone here who saw what happened, but nobody raised their hands," asked Shinohara.

And so, even after Kikyo's words that were intended to prove Akito's innocence to everyone, it seems like things were back to how they were. Seeing this, Kiyotaka felt even more tempted to stand up and help his heroine in handling this situation by intimidating his classmates into submission (because they are making two of his heroines sad), but he was beaten to the punch again by someone else.

"I can vouch for Miyake-kun."

Hirata uttered those words as he stood in support of Kushida and Miyake, gaining everyone's attention. He didn't have his usual smile that charmed most of the girls. Instead, he bore a more serious look that seemed to demand respect.

After Kiyotaka, Kei, Kikyo, and Suzune had left yesterday, Haruka went ahead and sent a message to Yosuke about the reason why Akito was summoned to the faculty office. Instead of telling him to come to the dorm unit though, she opted to send him a long message about the details regarding the case, with Akito sending a voice message confirming her words.

Hirata immediately gave them his support, as he had no reason not to believe them and agreed to speak on behalf of Miyake if the situation called for it.

Which was, apparently, right now.

"If it was a student from another class who was casting doubt on Miyake-kun, I could understand it," Hirata said. "But I believe it is wrong to doubt our own classmate right away. Miyake-kun is a part of our class, isn't it our responsibility to help him?"

"I agree! Miyake-kun wasn't at fault!"

Karuizawa called out in agreement as she stood up as well, brushing her bangs aside with her hand as she spoke. For most of the girls in the classroom, this was a big thing, because she made it clear that she didn't like the boys in their class (apart from Ayanokouji whom she kissed a week ago). Seeing her standing up for Miyake got the other females in the classroom to start thinking twice about their stances at least.

"If Miyake-kun was really innocent, that'd be a problem, wouldn't it? If that was the case, you'd feel bad for falsely accusing him, right? Just because Chabashira-sensei said that he was involved doesn't make him the one at fault."

"Same here. I've seen a few Class C students myself. They like to cause trouble, that's it."

"I believe Miyake-kun too!"

After Karuizawa stated her intention to support Miyake, Sudo and Onodera followed right after, standing up like their classmates. Seeing this, those who were casting doubt on Akito regarding this whole incident were finally starting to feel convinced of their classmate's situation, especially the stubborn boys who refused to budge at first.

...no, they definitely aren't changing their minds because they felt bad for Akito. They're only doing so because their female classmates were starting to believe that Akito didn't do anything wrong. As a matter of fact, they are probably criticizing him in their minds right now.

Indeed, seeing Kushida, Karuizawa, and Onodera all coming together to support Miyake was enough to sway most of the other girls to their side. And from there, those stubborn boys finally stopped throwing accusations at Akito and even began to cheer for him as if they weren't against him a while ago. Truly fickle to the point that it made Koenji laugh out loud.

Kiyotaka and Suzune shook their heads at the same time, both disappointed in the majority of their classmates. While the boys only showed that they were on board with supporting Akito the moment the girls did, their female classmates weren't really any better. They only changed their minds right after a few people spoke up on behalf of Akito, with three of them being people who were very popular in their class.

"I'll try asking my friends from other classes!"

"Well then, I'll try asking some of the senpais I met in the Cooking Club!"

"There are some Class C students I talk to sometimes. I'll try to ask them if they know something or if they're the ones who did it."

"I'll ask around, too."

And from there, the investigation to prove Akito's innocence was launched. Haruka and Suzune doubted that they had everyone's full support but as long as they were cooperating, there's really nothing to worry about.

At this rate, they'd be able to find the true perpetrators of the incident before the week ends.