Chapter 3 Part I

As we approached April, the temperature gradually rose.

It was just after 9:30 in the morning. Although it was sunny today, the weather forecast said that it was expected to rain at noon. We decided to meet up earlier, so then we could avoid the rain.

There was still plenty of time left before the meeting, so I decided to go and walk around the mall first. I pressed the button to the elevator.

Since it was the holidays, I would see many students of the school on the way to the mall.

Of course, this included the students of the same grade as me as well as some of the 2nd year students.

Even though I didn't know that many people, as long as I walked around for a bit, I would encounter some familiar faces.

It's just that the presence of the graduating 3rd years were decreasing day by day, and now, there were virtually none to be seen around.

And when the first of April rolled around, only the first and second years would remain. I'm guessing the next few days would seem pretty desolate after the third year's left.

As I was thinking about that, I bumped into a familiar girl from the same grade on the elevator.

"…You again…"

The first-year student who was keeping her distance and speaking to me with a displeased tone was Ibuki from Class D.

I felt that the way she spent her holiday was pretty similar to how I did.

She was probably also thinking the same thing.

It was an elevator, so we were in an enclosed space together.

"I don't see this as particularly strange, bumping into you, especially during the holiday."

"You say that… but I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore."

"I know."

She seemed to hate coming into my room last time.

If Ishizaki didn't force her to come, she wouldn't have.

Even though she hated me, Ibuki went with Ishizaki for Ryuuen's sake.

This showed that she thought Ryuuen was an integral part of her class.

I entered the elevator that Ibuki was already in, as there wasn't much choice.

"It's not going to break down again…?"

"Now that you say it, that really has happened before."

This reminded me of summer vacation again, during which, Ibuki and I got stuck in an elevator together.

Although we were both alert in case something similar happened, such improbable accidents don't happen twice.

After arriving at the lobby on the first floor, Ibuki immediately stepped out of the elevator.

It seems like Ibuki was also heading in the direction of Keyaki mall.

"Are you fine with this? You're walking at the same pace as me."

She could have walked faster or run to quickly leave my presence.

"Why does it have to be me? Why don't you walk faster then?"

Although she couldn't stand me, it seemed like she did not want to be the one taking the initiative to leave.

This seems like exactly the kind of thing Ibuki would do, not being able to accept defeat.

Having said that, it would seem weird for me to walk faster just to get away from her.

As far as I'm concerned, walking next to her wouldn't be a problem, although it would waste some of my energy.

And as a result, neither of us backed down, and we walked side by side.

My destination should only be 5 minutes away from the dormitory. We would be separated soon enough.

"It's great that Ryuuen was able to come back."

"You're annoying. Shut up. Don't speak to me."

I couldn't even get a sentence in. I better not say anything unnecessary.

I wasn't afraid of the silence, so I decided to match her and shut my mouth.

And so we walked together within this fiery, tense atmosphere.

"Yo, Ibuki, wait for me-!"

After walking with this tense atmosphere for a good while, a loud voice came from behind us.

The voice was from Class 1D's Ishizaki.

As one of Ryuuen's close associates, he often acted together with Ibuki.

Maybe it was because of the fact we've accidentally come into contact multiple times, that we've been able to talk to each other normally recently.

Ibuki didn't look back, and her expression didn't change, and she just continued walking forward. It couldn't be because she hadn't heard.

"Hey, wait! Hey!"

"Shut up, you're noisy."

"But that's because you didn't respond-oh? Ayanokouji's with you, huh? What are you two doing? Could it be… a date?"

Ishizaki ran over to where we were and said this, so Ibuki kicked him in the knee immediately after he said it.

"Ow! What are you doing!"

"You know why you got kicked. I'm not going to say anything else, so get away from me."

"What, there's no point in doing that. We're going to see each other later anyway."

It seemed like Ibuki was meeting Ishizaki at Keyaki Mall.

"Is Ryuuen coming?"

"Yea-No…umm…"

I casually asked that, and Ishizaki accidentally answered.

"Stupid-idiot."

It seemed like these two were going to meet up at Keyaki Mall for some reason.

From the reaction Ishizaki made when I asked about Ryuuen, it wasn't hard to guess what that reason was.

It also seemed like the meeting was supposed to be a secret.

"Forget it, it won't matter anyway, right? It's useless to try to hide it from Ayanokouji in the first place."

Although Ishizaki quickly bounced back from his mistake, Ibuki was still serious about it.

"It won't matter now, but we're still going to have to take this bastard out to climb up the ranks."

"If you put it like that…"

Why are they talking about this when I'm right next to them?

Although I was doubtful about whether Ryuuen would indeed return, after seeing this, it seemed like it was true.

It was a secret meeting because Ryuuen had not actually officially come back yet.

For Ryuuen, who had already stepped down once as the leader, his classmates would not be able to accept his return so quickly.

Ishizaki also faced a dilemma, as he was the one who took the credit for bringing Ryuuen down.

"Hey, Ayanokouji."

"Hm?"

As I was sorting these bits of information in my head, Ishizaki spoke to me.

"In order to rise to Class A, I've devised the ultimate strategy. Want to help?"

I didn't know how I should answer, as what he said was too surprising.

"Let's hear this first. Your ultimate strategy."

"'Heh!" Ishizaki patted his chest and said this proudly. "You, come to our class. That way, we can definitely reach Class A."

"Huh? What the hell are you saying so suddenly?"

"If Ryuuen and Ayanokouji work together, they'll be unstoppable. Not even Sakayanagi and Ichinose will stand a chance."

So this was the ultimate strategy that Ishizaki came up with.

Ibuki rejected the notion of this strategy ever working. "Impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible."

Joining forces with Ryuuen….

"I don't think it's a bad strategy."

"Are…you serious?"

Ibuki shot a disgusted glance towards the two of us.

"Yeah, yeah, if you're willing to partner up with us, we'll welcome you with open arms. I think you and Ryuuen would be an unexpectedly powerful combination. I think Albert also likes you because whenever you come up in a conversation, he gets a bit excited."

This was the first time I've heard that Yamada Albert liked me.

Was it really appropriate to use the word "like" to describe his feelings towards me…

I haven't interacted with him much. In fact, the only time I really talked to him was on the rooftop.

Did he come to like me after our fight?

For me, I would have thought that the fight would only create resentment towards me.

"He didn't say this explicitly, right?"

Ibuki also seemed to have questions about this, and so she asked Ishizaki.

"Men can feel these kinds of things physically. It's intuition, I tell you, intuition."

Really unreliable intuition.

It also seemed like if I really did join Ryuuen's class, Albert might try to fight me.

The more Ishizaki thought about it, the more excited he became

I needed to thank his good intentions, so I answered seriously.

"It's impossible to achieve. How are you going to get 20 million points for the transfer?"

Although they beat Class B at the end of year exam, they couldn't have accumulated that much money.

"That, well, Ryuuen will definitely do something about that."

"He won't go out of his way to do something like that."

"Are you sure? I think that if you're willing to join us, Ryuuen will cooperate."

"He definitely won't help."

In that regard, I agreed with Ibuki. That person wasn't someone who would go out of his way to satisfy other people's demands to make them happy.

He won't rely on me just for the reason of reaching Class A.

His pride as a man wouldn't allow it.

No, I wouldn't want him to be someone who would resort to something like that either.

"I'm happy that you invited me, but I'll have to refuse. It's more fun being opponents than allies anyway."

That took precedent, even before the issue of having enough private points.

"Really? Damn, I thought it was a great idea."

"You're weird. Why are you happy about going up against him again?

Ibuki laughed grimly without even looking at me.

"Well, I'm looking forward to how he's going to attack me."

I answered honestly, in which Ibuki responded by making a disgusted face at me.

Although I didn't want to act myself too much, if the opponent was Ryuuen, I wouldn't mind having a rematch.

But for him to match me, he needed to develop even more.

He needed to show me that he could win against Horikita, Ichinose and Sakayanagi.

Not long after, we reached Keyaki mall.

"Sorry Ayanokouji, let's end it here. It would be a problem if anyone saw us together.."

Although I didn't know where they were going to meet later, exchanging ideas like this wasn't bad.

I accepted Ishizaki for looking out for me like this, something he usually didn't do.

I parted ways with Ishizaki and Ibuki, and headed towards the mall entrance.

When I first met Ishizaki, I never thought that I would be able to hold this sort of conversation with him.

Although my relationship with Ibuki might've regressed, it was still at least a change.

"It's been a year already…"

The circumstances around me had changed drastically over the year.

I could even hold conversations with Ryuuen and Sakayanagi.

Not to mention the many other students as well.

It may have only been one year, but it was a whole year.

This was evidence that time was indeed passing.

I didn't really get it before, but I feel like I've gained an understanding of the concept of time passing.

Speaking of which, this reminds me of what happened last year.

The time before I came to Advanced Nurturing high school. To prevent anyone from finding out about what I planned to do, I quietly got on with life.

I experienced small tastes of feelings I had never felt before. Especially when trying to not provoke that man… I tried my best to hide it from that person.

Because I knew that if I was discovered by that man, he would definitely stop me.

I got off lucky due to various factors. If he had been around me more, he probably wouldn't have let me run off that easily.

But that man rarely came home, as he was a busy person.

Although there was a so-called caretaker who was supposed to supervise me, he spent around 70-80% of his time that year living in a hotel.

And for me, I wasn't even that familiar with the place I called home, even though I lived there.

The white room was where I spent most of my time. For me, that home was just a temporary residence in which I've stayed in for no longer than a year. It felt no different from a hotel.

"The white room, huh."

That man hasn't given up yet.

I've already felt his intense desire to get me out of here.

I didn't know much about what happened during this past year, but I was certain that the white room would have restarted its activities.

And as long as the white room needed me, I would return.

This would happen in the not so distant future, 2 years later.

But… I still had 2 more years left of this school life.

It didn't make sense to be thinking about this now.

Basically, I was in a situation now that I couldn't have imagined would happen a year before.

And these irreplaceable memories had definitely been engraved in my heart.

I arrived at the north entrance of Keyaki Mall, where we were going to meet.

Normally, the stores would open at 10 every morning on weekdays, but some stores would open at 9 during the holidays.

The cafe on the second floor where we were going to meet was one of those stores.

"This is the life."

Doing whatever I liked, freely living my life as a high school student.

Talking with classmates with my phone as well as doing hanging out together sometimes.

Living a life like this, it always did seem a bit unreal.

But saying this life was unfulfilling would be a lie.

Of course, the campus had its own fair share of troubles.

A lot had changed from the past few months.

I had become more comfortable with the company of the multiple girls I was growing closer to.

Yeah… I seem to have turned into a real person on the surface.

I temporarily stopped thinking about it and turned my attention to the other issues for now.

I'll put my focus on the conversation that was going to happen.

"You're here early. There are about 20 minutes until the meeting time. Don't you have other things to do?"

Horikita, who was wearing casual clothes, said that as she looked at her phone.

"You say that, but aren't you also as early as I am?"

It was like we were confirming that neither of us had nothing to do during the spring break.

We didn't discuss the topic immediately, as we went up to the second floor first.

"You should be clear on what the topic of discussion is going to be about today."

She seemed to think that was the case. Maybe because she thought that since I didn't ask her about it, I must have known.

She was correct, but I'll try to confuse her a bit.

"What are you talking about."

"You clearly know what I'm talking about, so stop pretending."

"No, I don't know what you're talking about. What's Ichinose going to talk to us about?"

I wanted to forcefully push the topic, and confuse Horikita, but…

"You really don't know? If it turns out you do, then I won't let you off that easily.."

"…Well, you should first calm down a bit."

I looked at Horikita and decided to stop messing with her, as she looked like she was about to bite me.

"I can guess what it'll be about. It's not difficult."

"It's not hard to just say that, so stop misleading me like this."

She rudely told me.

Seems like using this kind of method to try to figure out what Horikita was feeling would be useless.

"Were you trying to see how much I knew?"

"You're thinking into it too much."

"Am I really, though?"

Rather than say that she's become keener now, she probably just got used to the way I did things.

Simple response patterns like that would not work on Horikita anymore.

If I was questioned again, I might get attacked, so I decided to avoid the issue.

"Anyway…let's go."

I saw Ichinose waiting at the entrance of the cafe, so I changed the topic.

It was still 10 minutes before the appointed time, but Ichinose seemed to have arrived already.

"Ichinose seems just as busy as we are now."

I don't think she just arrived. How long had she been waiting for?

"She can't have as much free time as we do. Judging from this situation, I think she just simply wanted to arrive on time. She probably just hates making people wait. "

Maybe it was as Horikita said.

"So that's what you think of Ichinose."

"At first, I thought she was a hypocrite who acted like a good person."

She might have overthought that a bit too much, as well as being a bit too quick to judge from her initial thoughts of her.

"But after a year, my thoughts of her has changed completely. She really is a good person."

Many people disguised themselves as good people, and it was difficult to find one that truly did have a good heart.

Many people had ulterior motives.

As she was one of the genuinely kindhearted people, there would not be anyone who labelled Ichinose as a hypocrite.

"What kind of life did she live before, being such a kind-hearted person."

This was the only thing I didn't understand.

"Being kind-hearted is a weapon she possesses, but at the same time, it's also her weakness."

While walking towards the destination, Horikita praised Ichinose and sighed, as if she was worried for her.

The more kind-hearted a person was, the easier it was for bad people to use them.

"Do you think it's better not to be that kind-hearted?"

"Being kind-hearted would be great if you were living in the mountains, surrounded by nature. But in order to survive in this competitive society, being kind-hearted would be a disadvantage."

"I see."

"But going by her personality, she'll never stop being a kind and good person."

Horikita was saying that Ichinose would continue being a kind-hearted person, even if it were disadvantageous to her.

"Even so, Ichinose knows how to distinguish between good and evil. If something were to happen that would endanger her classmates, she would be willing to do anything.

"If that's the case then it's fine, sure, we should end this boring conversation here."

To get ready for the conversation that was about to occur, Horikita's expression became serious.

I also stopped talking and called out to Ichinose.

"Ichinose, you're really early. How long have you been waiting for?'

"Good morning Horikita-san, Ayanokouji-kun. I just arrived."

That line was very cliche. Although she said that, when did she really arrive?

Ichinose, who wore casual clothes, greeted us with her usual smile.

"It's a lot easier to get seats early in the morning."

The students already in the cafe were spread out, making it look like there were available seats everywhere.

"Okay, order whatever you want to eat, I'll treat you."

She lightly tapped her chest with a clenched fist and said that she was going to settle the payments.

"This won't- be for the sake of gaining an edge over us during the conversation, right?"

Because she had an experience using her own cooking to gain superiority over a situation, Horikita immediately raised her suspicions.

"She's not you, she won't do that."

"I don't like what you said but… you're right."

Just as Horikita noted just before, the other person here was none other than Ichinose.

She wouldn't use such a method to gain an advantage in the conversation like this.

And even if she really did gain an advantage in the conversation from that, Horikita should be able to wrestle it back.

"If so, thank you very much."

"Of course. No problem, Horikita-san, you can start ordering first."

Urged by Ichinose, Horikita went first and ordered.

I was worried about Ichinose, so I closed the distance with her to speak to her quietly.

Although it was subtle, I could smell the citrusy scent on her today again.

"Ichinose, will there be any problems with your private points?"

Although I was grateful for her treating us, her private points should be 0, as she used them all to prevent one of her classmates from getting expelled.

Although as the invitee, it was normal to treat your guests, I was still a bit worried about her financial situation.

"Ah, um, after paying here, I should still have about 3000 points. There's no problem."

April was approaching.

With that much remaining in her balance, she should have enough money to overcome this crisis.

But her private points should have been down to 0 for a while now.

Maybe after noticing my doubt, Ichinose added this:

"I got this money after selling my hairdryer to Class A's Nishikawa-san. I needed to do it so I could survive in March. The others also had to resort to this."

Although the school had a system in which one could survive without money, you still needed funds in hand sometimes.

If an item was being sold cheaper than it was priced in the store, it was common for people to buy from 3rd party sellers.

"So Ayanokouji-kun, you don't need to hesitate. Come on, you can order now."

Ichinose, who was now behind me, gently pushed my back while saying that.

Indeed, if I was too modest, Ichinose wouldn't be too happy.

After Horikita ordered, I went and ordered a cup of coffee.

Then the three of us grabbed our food from the pickup area and left the counter to sit on the seats in the corner of the cafe.

Taking advantage of the fact that there weren't many people here yet, Horikita immediately went straight to business.

"Are we going to talk about the end of year exam? Or is it going to be about the agreement between our classes April?"

Without talking to me in advance, Horikita was able to predict what the conversation with Ichinose was going to be about.

"Ahaha, so you've seen through it all."

Ichinose, who was smiling as she said this, also had a serious look in her eyes.

This was proof that they both knew that this conversation would be extremely important.

"Am I troubling you guys?"

"No, I also felt like we had to talk, so it was a big help that you were the one to initiate it. After all, you're a popular person, it's hard for us to talk to you alone like this."

"It's not like that nowadays. I'm not busy at all during this spring break. You can talk to me anytime."

As she replied, Ichinose had a slight smile.

From the expression on her face, it seemed like she was trying to hide some kind of bitterness.

It was probably because someone tried to ask her on a date, and she refused.

And as for the reason for that, Horikita should have noticed.

"The end of year exam seemed to take a toll on you."

Even though it wouldn't be a very appropriate way to start the conversation, I said that to Ichinose.

It was because even if we deliberately beat around the bush not to reopen the wound she had from it, we would eventually get there anyway.

And if that was the case, bringing it up earlier would be better as Ichinose would recover faster from it anyway.

Because she didn't want to start with that topic, Horikita had a stiff expression for just a moment.

Even so, she realised what I was doing and adjusted.

"Ahhhhh, umm, I lost. We were completely defeated by Ryuuen-san's strategy."

She seemed to have remembered something, sighing deeply, and shaking her head. Then she said that with certainty.

Drifting fretfully, Ichinose seemed to constantly sigh at her failure.

"We still don't know anything. What was the reason for the loss?"

"The reason we failed is obvious. It's because I lack the ability."

Ichinose did not blame her opponent or her classmates.

She replied without hesitation, that the reason for the failure was because, of course, of her own failure as the commanding tower.

"Although we didn't see the exam take place, it's hard to imagine you making big mistakes."

"You flatter me. Well, back then, I think I might have lost my head over fear…"

Ichinose humbly rejected Horikita's praise.

No, it was probably true that she panicked back then.

She would have been troubled due to Ryuuen's surprise appearance, which affected the outcome of the scores.

"At the start, we thought that the commanding tower was Kaneda, and when it was revealed that he wasn't, it messed up our rhythm."

"That's understandable. Ryuuen should have already stepped down from as the leader, and he didn't have any protection points, so he couldn't have been the commander. That's what we all thought, but it was all part of Ryuuen's plans."

That's right. Even Sakayanagi and I didn't expect Ryuuen to reappear.

For Ichinose, who was to be his opponent, it would be impossible for her not to be shaken.

If he lost, he would be expelled. Noone apart from Ryuuen would be willing to carry out such a high-risk plan.

"I wasn't able to fix my frame of mind at the end, so I'm responsible for our loss. This fact won't change."

While thinking about how they would fight against Kaneda, Ryuuen suddenly appeared.

Although it wasn't my problem, I still felt sympathy towards Ichinose.

The things that the commanding tower could do were extremely limited.

But during that free speech event, Ryuuen would have completely backed Ichinose into a corner with his abilities with words.

"I heard that your class achieved excellent results in your battle against class A."

Ichinose praised us in response.

Now, a problem had arisen. Back then, I asked Ichinose to let us fight Class A.

Horikita didn't know this, as she had instructed me to target Class D. It didn't go as planned during the lottery, so we drew against Class A.

Depending on the direction of the conversation, things can get a bit tricky if something contradicted what Horikita thought was true.

It might be better to discuss this with Ichinose first, but the problem was that I told Ichinose it was Horikita who wanted to target Class A.

Ichinose thought that Horikita was the one who requested to fight Class A.

And Horikita thought I lost the draw, which resulted in us having to fight Class A.

Both sides were at a position where they didn't know the real truth.

It wasn't impossible to avoid the topic if the conversation continued.

If I were the usual me, I would have made preparations beforehand.

Or enact temporary measures to deal with these emergencies without anyone noticing.

After I thought for a while, I decided to expose myself.

As for the reason I did not act up to now.

It was to see to what extent Horikita had grown.

"A loss is a loss. I remember that I asked you to give me the right to fight Class A. If Class B was against Class A, the results might have been different."

After hearing this, Horikita's gaze turned to me immediately.

I didn't need to explain what she meant by that.

"What do you mean, asked her to fight Class A" was what her gaze meant.

But because I conformed to the flow of the conversation by saying that, Horikita decided to let it slide.

But because the look she gave me seemed natural and was faint, Ichinose did not notice it.

She understood I was saying that this wasn't the time to discuss it.

If she were the Horikita from before, she would definitely question me right there, also causing Ichinose to develop doubts.

Even if it didn't reach that extent, it would still have made Ichinose waver a bit.

Her ability to understand and her judgement had significantly improved. No, I should say that she's become more astute.

Through Horikita's patience, Ichinose decided that Horikita was the one who chose to target Class A.

Because of this, my presence would be further diminished from the perspectives of the other classes.

"Because of my request, it resulted in you having to fight a tough battle.."

To support what I was doing, Horikita apologised to Ichinose.

"It's my responsibility, so there's no reason for you to apologise."

Class B going against Class D was a bad matchup, which resulted in Class B only winning 2 and losing 5.

Which then resulted in Class B losing a lot of class points at once.

"That's a hypothetical situation anyway. The winner of the lottery was Kaneda anyways, who chose Class B, so it didn't matter anyway."

Of course, this was indeed the case after looking at the outcomes now.

The battle between Class B and Class D was inevitable, even if they made prior preparations for it not to happen.

"That's not something you need to reflect on, Horikita-san. I… I need to figure out a more stable strategy that can lead us to victory. I'm the one who needs to deeply reflect on this.

Although she was enthusiastic as she said that, whether her mentality had adjusted was another matter.

"If it is possible, can you explain what the strategy you used was? Of course, in exchange, we will also explain our battle with Class A to you in detail."

Horikita must have heard some of the rumours of what happened already.

But only the commanding towers knew what happened between them.

Ichinose nodded her approval towards the proposal.

The events that Ichinose chose and the events that Ryuuen chose.

The order of the events, what events were chosen, and how Ryuuen went about doing them.

Where she won and where she lost. Ichinose revealed the answers for how she had failed without concealing it.

Ryuuen's Class D adopted a style of brute force when doing the events.

To the Class B students, this exploited one of their glaring weaknesses.

"They adopted a fighting method that plays to their strengths. I'll give that to them."

"If so, we don't stand a chance against them."

"Yeah… even on the boy's side, only Sudo-san could win. No, if his opponent is Yamada-san, there's no guarantee of victory."

If Koenji was serious, he might be able to win as well, but even if so, Horikita couldn't say that aloud.

As for the girls, outside of Horikita, I didn't think anyone else could put up a fight.

"Class A might be able to win against Ryuuen's methods."

"I agree with that."

It all depended on luck. If even a bit of luck was on Ryuuen's side, he would be able to defeat every other class.

If you look at all their battles, their win rate was the highest against Class B.

That would be proof of his intention to attack Class B from the very start.

"But, you also chose a few of your own events, so how did you lose on two of them?"

Although Ryuuen's methods were powerful, it all depended on luck one way or another.

Class B chose 4 events, so Ichinose still could have won in those.

"….Ummm."

Horikita didn't know anything about this, and I was the same. So we listened to her attentively, without prior knowledge anything that happened.

What exactly did Ryuuen do? Ichinose told us everything.

He didn't do anything to the students directly. Instead, he attacked them mentally.

He forcibly contacted and pressurised Class B.

There's also the issue in which several of the competitors in Class B failed to exert their full strength due to sudden physical discomfort on the day.

After mentioning that, Ichinose added this.

"I lost at the event that I was supposed to excel at, and I wasn't able to adapt to the situation. That's all my fault as the commanding tower's."

She didn't blame Ryuuen and instead said that it was her own fault.

"Many of your classmates had abdominal pain and showed symptoms of mental instability…"

Of course, Horikita recognised that this was all part of Ryuuen's plan.

"I'm sure that this was part of Ryuuen-san's trap. I heard from the students that felt unwell on the day that they bumped into Ishizaki-san before the exam when they were at the karaoke place."

Karaoke, huh? That was one of the places that students were rarely monitored.

It would be an extremely high-risk plan if they really did poison them there.

"Shouldn't you try to report this to the school?"

The exam had already ended for a week now.

The student's food and drinks have, without a doubt, been disposed of.

You could trace the purchases of the drug they used back to the pharmacy, but there will still be arguments that Class D didn't use those drugs.

"There's no harm in reporting this to the school. Even if it yields no result this time, the report you make now might play a role in the next incident. If they continue doing things like this, the school will be more strict on them."

If it was found out that Class D really were behind this, it would be a severe issue, and the school would have to take action.

"Maybe. But it doesn't matter, I won't report this to the school."

Ichinose rejected the proposal. In the week after the exam, her classmates would all have advised her to appeal to the school multiple times, and yet she still didn't.

"Why? Are you just going to submit to this humiliation? This is a serious incident that can change the results of the exam, and all you need to do is to reveal these details."

The evidence wasn't impossible to find, that's what Horikita is saying.

Depending on the situation, Class D might be subject to disciplinary action.

The longer the delay, the harder it would be to appeal.

"I will assist you if you wish."

If it were Horikita, she would have never given up on this. Because she was like this, she offered to help Ichinose.

"Thank you, Horikita-san. But I still don't want to complain. There still isn't any concrete evidence now, and… I want to use this incident as a lesson."

"Lesson? What do you mean?"

Ichinose did not submit to Horikita's persuasion.

"I think I'm lucky."

Ichinose, who had a resigned expression just now, regained some life in her eyes.

It was like a broken-down engine desperately trying to ignite.

"I don't know what would happen if this happened again during the crucial periods of the 2nd and 3rd years, but now, there's still room for recovery."

Ichinose nodded her head strongly, her eyes brimming with power.

Perhaps I was the only one who could understand her brilliance at that moment.

"Our whole class is taking this defeat seriously, and we've decided to make good use of this failure, and not repeat the same mistakes in the future."

"Well, I'm not in your class so I won't say anything more."

"Alright then."

Class B had now finished telling Class D what happened on their end.

We had finished listening to the details of the battle between Ichinose and Ryuuen. It was our turn now.

Horikita glanced at me, conveying her thoughts through her eyes.

[Are you going to talk in the perspective as the commander tower?] is what she wanted to ask.

As a commander, just like Ichinose, we had the same duties in the event selection exam.

But the details of what we did as commanders were rather bland and ambiguous.

What events we took part in, how we won the ones we won, and how we lost the ones we lost.

Of course, I won't mention anything unnecessary, like how I answered that one question in the mental arithmetic test.

"I already know the results of your battle, but it's still a great showing by your class."

"Even so, we still lost to Sakayagani during the 7th match at the end."

Chess was just a game. As long as I said that I was confident enough to win in chess, it shouldn't be investigated any further, and since I've lost to Sakayagani, they will think that I was weaker than her anyway.

"The only good news… well, you can't really call it that, but we only lost 30 points. But it's still not ideal as the gap between the classes has been opened up again."

"Your classmates are slowly getting stronger, so we can't take you as lightly anymore."

Even to a future rival, Ichinose still praised us straightforwardly.

"Yeah. Our class will only get stronger."

After hearing Horikita's confident words and seeing them in her eyes, Ichinose nodded her head.

"I have something to say to you that relates to the conversation, ok?"

"Mhm."

This was the start of the next half of the conversation. The beginning of the real conversation.

It was Horikita who brought it up instead of Ichinose.

"Bluntly speaking, I want to cancel our partnership next year."

Horikita made an unexpected proposal, but Ichinose was already mentally prepared for this.

"I thought you would say that."

"We lost against Class A, and we're Class D again. If you purely look at the rankings, you could say that it was a loss for us, but if you think about the big picture, we didn't exactly lose. You could even say that we've closed the gap."

"That's true. Considering that you were at 0 points at the start of the year, your class was the one that gained the most points throughout the year. And since your results against Class A were 3 wins and 4 losses…"

After a bit of calculation, Ichinose noticed something.

The difference in those numbers was so small that it wouldn't have been surprising if we emerged victoriously in that battle.

Although Tsukishiro's interference could have affected the results, it was cancelled out by the fact that we had enough opportunities to win.

"But, can't we still maintain this cooperative relationship?"

Ichinose did not readily agree to Horikita's idea to cancel the partnership between the classes.

"Let's discuss this again when the differences in class points reduce some more."

"I'm thankful that you still want to continue this. But I still think it would be best to dissolve this cooperative relationship."

There were 2 conditions required to maintain this cooperative relationship.

The first condition was if the class point difference was so large that catching up in terms of class points would be impossible.

The other condition was that if both parties were able to establish and maintain a stable relationship.

Last May, the difference in the class points was 650 points, and Class B's points remained static throughout the year. Because of this, we were able to maintain our relationship without any problems.

However, those 2 conditions no longer apply. Class D gained 300 points, while Class B's total class points were declining, which significantly reduced the gap.

In other words, the conditions were no longer fulfilled.

"Next year, I will definitely lead our class to Class B or above. And in order to defeat Class A, I plan to obtain all of the class points possible."

In the face of Horikita, who had established such a resolute goal, Ichinose seemed to shake a little.

"…Oh, yes."

What she was saying was that our class must also defeat Ichinose's Class B.

Of course, if that's the case, then the cooperative relationship couldn't continue.

Horikita judged the unfledged relationship to be nothing more than a stumbling block now and refused to allow it to continue.

"No objections? Ayanokouji-san."

"Of course, I agree with you. This is the right move that would lead us to Class A."

Horikita asked, and I nodded. Her judgement wasn't wrong.

Ichinose closed her eyes and exhaled deeply.

"I'm grateful to you, Ichinose, having proposed a cooperative relationship with us when we were at our weakest. But… even if you resent us now, we'll still be enemies in the future."

Ichinose quietly accepted what Horikita had said with conviction.

"How can I hate you? We were enemies from the start, and we only had a temporary truce. I thank you very much for this as well."

Finally, Ichinose slowly opened her eyes and looked towards Horikita and me without a shadow of any bitterness in them.

"From the start of the 2nd year, we'll be enemies."

"Yes."

Horikita firmly shook Ichinose's outstretched hand.

Horikita had to be thinking about certain things at this moment.

Class B's weaknesses and how we could exploit them.

And Ichinose must also be calculating the strength of our class now.

I'll have to think about how to prevent that information from leaking now.

And that was the end of our brief conversation.

Starting in April, our battle with Class B would officially begin.