Chapter 6 Part VIII

It was Friday evening, the day before the exam, and Sakayanagi had gone to the Karaoke parlor to make preparations for it.

"What's the situation?"

Kamuro and Hashimoto were present, along with Kitō, for a total of four people.

"It seems that everything was exposed today. Apparently, Horikita-san caught wind of the plan and exposed the fact that I was collaborating with Yamauchi-kun to the rest of their class. I wonder how the information got leaked?"

Sakayanagi leisurely carried a french fry into her mouth.

She intently looked upon her classmates before one of them finally spoke up.

"Sakayanagi, the leak came from Karuizawa. Like I told you before, if you wanted to make sure Ayanokōji got expelled, it would've been better to avoid pulling Karuizawa into Yamauchi's group."

Hashimoto Masayoshi. He was one of Sakayanagi's closest associates, and he was someone who had previously taken notice of Ayanokōji all on his own.

Throughout the course of his investigations, he had seen Ayanokōji meet with Karuizawa in secret, so he had previously provided input on what she should do this time.

Even though Sakayanagi had agreed to refrain from pulling Karuizawa into the group at first, she had changed her mind yesterday.

As a consequence, her plan had been exposed to the students of Class D.

"Didn't I tell you that our first priority was to make sure that Ayanokōji didn't realize he was being targeted until the exam was already over?"

"Yes. I definitely kept your words in mind. It's true that Ayanokōji-kun and Karuizawa-san may indeed share an unusual relationship. That is to say, if she was let in on the plan, there was a high chance Ayanokōji-kun would hear of it as well."

This was the very reason why Sakayanagi had decided to postpone pulling Karuizawa into Yamauchi's group.

She had let Tuesday and Wednesday pass by, purposefully choosing to pull her into the group on Thursday.

Then, she stepped back and waited to see what would happen next. Based on what had taken place today, it was quite likely that she had leaked the information to Ayanokōji.

"You messed up, didn't you, Sakayanagi?"

The one who had asked this was none other than Kamuro, who had been silently listening to the conversation.

Hashimoto spoke up too, offering an analysis on why Sakayanagi had made such a simple mistake.

"Karuizawa is one of the most influential girls in her class. If we had managed to pull her into the group, it would've pretty much guaranteed Ayanokōji's expulsion. Forget twenty votes, it's possible we'd have gotten around thirty. You let the greed get to you."

"I was well aware they'd carry out a class trial. It was just a matter of time."

"But, if things hadn't come to light, Yamauchi might've had a way out too."

Having heard each of their opinions, Sakayanagi couldn't help but feel amused.

"Should it know that it's become someone's prey, even a herbivore will try to fight for it's life if it comes down to it. But, I find that's exactly what makes it so interesting. Don't you want to see what he'll do in this time he has left? How he'll struggle to stay afloat?"

"You deliberately let Karuizawa leak the information because of that?"

"I was also able to confirm that your information about Karuizawa and Ayanokōji was accurate."

"But Ayanokouji went to Horikita about it, who then revealed everything to the rest of the class. It made it hard to tell what'll happen next. Considering that Yamauchi won't be expelled because of our praise votes, there's still no way Ayanokōji'll be expelled anymore. I have no idea who's gonna be expelled at this point."

When Hashimoto finished, Kamuro spoke up as well.

"Wasn't it also a mistake to make contracts with the ones who agreed to vote for Ayanokōji without getting anything in writing? How many people are still gonna vote for him after what happened today…?"

There'd be a dramatic decrease in the number of censure votes Ayanokōji would be getting, while the number for Yamauchi would only go up.

However, Yamauchi would be getting 20 votes from Class A to escape this predicament.

In which case, it'd be hard to guess who'd end up with the most votes against them.

Having heard Hashimoto and Kamuro's analysis of the situation, Sakayanagi grinned.

To Sakayanagi, the outcome of all of this was obvious.

Kamuro, Hashimoto, and Yamauchi simply couldn't see it yet.

She was reminded of the reason why she had done this in the first place.

Sakayanagi pulled out her cell phone and turned off the power.

After all, she'd receive an incessant, endless number of calls and messages from Yamauchi if she kept it on.

Class A had a lot of praise votes to use during this exam.

Yamauchi probably couldn't help but feel worried about whether or not they were really going to use them on him.

"It seems there's something I had forgotten to tell everybody, a very important story concerning Yamauchi-kun."

With that, Sakayanagi began to tell them about the encounter that she had oh so carelessly forgotten to mention.