Chapter 31

"Same reason as you. I just happened to spot you come here and decided to follow."

"You're that troublesome first-year who burst into my student council and demanded an audience. I take it you're also in that experimental class?" The Student Council President interjected.

It seemed like Sora had made his appointment in a rather undignified way. The elder Horikita didn't seem too bothered by it, though.

"That's right," Sora said. Then, he turned his attention to the girl standing against the wall. "Did you learn nothing when you lost to me on the second day here?"

Horikita Manabu raised his eyebrow. It seemed like he was unaware of the game that had taken place between Sora and Horikita.

"What are you talking about?" Horikita responded irritably.

"You won't reach Class A just because you want to, or say you'll drag yourself up using sheer will, or whatever." Sora leaned forward and stared into Horikita's eyes, which caused her to shudder.

The Student Council President and I just watched the scene with interest.

"If someone wishes to fly, will that let him grow wings? I don't think so. You don't change yourself. You change how you approach the problem."

"Meaning?"

"You shouldn't change your own true self in pursuit of success. Instead, change the way in which you seek it. You've seen your brother's success, and have changed yourself to be more like him when what you should've been doing is changing your approach while keeping yourself the same. You don't have the ability to fight all alone, and yet you insist on doing so and pushing everyone else away. This is why you were placed in Class D."

"You're telling me to stop fighting? Don't be ridiculous—"

"No. I'm simply telling you that there are other ways to fight than by yourself. If you cannot win by yourself, then you can win with another – this is how Blank has never lost."

"Blank?" The elder Horikita ask quizzically.

"It's what we call the combination of Sora and his sister, Shiro. If you put the kanji in their names together, you get Kūhaku, or Blank." I explained to him. "They say that together, they've never lost."

"We haven't. If there's something that I can't do, or if I make a mistake, Shiro will be there for me. The same is true the other way around. This is a way of fighting that Horikita will need to learn if she ever wants to have even a chance of reaching Class A."

The Student Council President seemed to be reconsidering his evaluation of Sora. He probably agreed with everything that Sora had said so far. I agreed with him as well. Horikita Suzune had been blinded trying to follow in her brother's footsteps.

Horikita didn't say anything, and instead just looked at Sora blankly. She was probably thinking about what he'd said.

"Hm, I certainly wasn't expecting this. If everybody in that class of yours is as fascinating as you two, then things could really start to get interesting around here.

He walked past me and Sora and disappeared into the night. So, that was the distinguished student council president. His presence explained some of Horikita's weird behaviour.

Sora and I similarly decided our business here was done. Just as we were about to return to the dorms, though, Horikita called out to us.

"What are you trying to do, stepping into my affairs like this?"

"Blank's main goal is to have fun. There's no point in doing something if it isn't fun. As it stands, you and your class are going to self-destruct in the near future. I want to have as much fun as possible during my next three years, so I'd at least like you to put up some kind of fight when we destroy you." Sora said over his shoulder.

Why would you try to help me? It'll come to bite you later."

"No matter whether I help you or not, the result will be the same. You and your class are going to be crushed. I just want the process to be fun, that's all. If you destroy yourselves, then I won't get the chance to destroy you myself, see? It won't come back to bite me, because Blank never loses." Sora said exuding an aura of arrogance.

With that, Sora departed from the scene, and I followed shortly behind him. We met Shiro waiting just around the corner. That explained how Sora was able to act so domineering just now, then.

"Why didn't you come out as well, Shiro?" I asked her.

"Nii and I decided to try and start practicing being able to function independently of one another. We decided that a good starting point would be this – for me to remain nearby but for Nii not to have me right by his side."

It looked like Blank had taken the advice from Class D seriously and had decided to work on their independency. One could say their problem was the complete opposite of Horikita's.

"What do you think, Ayanokōji? Do you think it's wrong for me to try to help Horikita and, by extension, Class E?" Sora asked me.

"I like to watch people grow, I guess, so I have no problem with it. I'm not going to actively step in to solve their problems, though. That's up to them." I responded indifferently.

"Well yeah, neither am I. Not only have we agreed to help get them through the midterms, but now we've also made an attempt to push one of their key class members for a change. I'd say we've done enough for them now. If they end up doing something stupid or fall short again, I'm making no moves to intervene either."

Class E had started to fall apart after the first month ended. Sora, I, and the rest of Class D had covered the next trial for them to give them some time to recover and had also tried to patch together some of the holes in their class. If they couldn't start to fix themselves and walk on their own now, then that would be the end of them. There was only so much we could do before we were basically fighting for their class as well as our own. After the midterms, we wouldn't provide any help to Class E anymore. Besides, when we start fighting the other classes, we won't be able to help them anyway. We'll be preoccupied with our own battles.

It was Thursday. Tomorrow, the midterm would be upon us. Class had ended for the day. After Ishihara-sensei concluded homeroom period and left the classroom, an absentminded discussion broke out in the classroom.

"So, do you think your little batch of misfits will end up passing, senseis?" Sora asked lazily as he stood up from his desk.

To be honest, Sudō had shown a quite unexpected level of commitment to my teaching. I wasn't too sure about the other two because after our first group session in the library, we had started doing one on one sessions instead to reduce distractions. Although I'm pretty sure the real reason was that Kushida wanted to avoid me.

"Well, Ike did end up trying very hard to learn what I taught him. But..." Lelouch trailed off.

"But?" Kururugi asked.

"But that was only because I promised to help him get a date."

So, that was it. It looked like Ike's driving motivation was not, in fact, avoiding expulsion. It was actually the prospect of getting a date with a girl.

"Well I'm sure if you use your popularity you can pull a few strings, matchmaker-kun." Sora snickered. "What about you two?"

"Well, Sudō really wants to stay in this school to play basketball. I think he'll be fine." I said.

"Yamauchi... He uh... Yeah, how about we pray for him?" Light suggested flatly.

Laughter echoed around the classroom.

"So, you're saying you think he'll fail?" Kururugi asked.

"Let's just say that... He's much harder to teach than Sudō and Ike."

Sora laughed again. "Don't you know, Light? There's no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher."

"Well, I guess Yamauchi is a unique specimen, then, because I couldn't possibly be a bad teacher." Light seemed unfazed by Sora's teasing.

Everybody got up and prepared to leave. Just as we were going to, Lelouch called out and stopped us.

"There's just one thing I want to say now."

Everyone turned around and waited for him to continue.

"After this, unless they give us an incredible offer, we aren't going to help Class E anymore."

Everyone seemed to agree with what he said. I'm sure we were all thinking the same thing anyway. Well, except for one person.

"H-huh? What, why not? They could get expelled!" Kururugi looked alarmed.

"And if they do, it's their fault. Why should I care?" Lelouch retorted apathetically.

"Won't you feel bad if someone gets expelled when you could've prevented it?"

"Nonsense. Failure on their part is their own fault. If you live your whole life worrying for every single person you come across, you'll end up wasting it all."

Lelouch was right, at least in my opinion. We didn't have the time nor the energy to constantly watch over Class E. After this, I predicted that we'd have to face some trials much more intensive than the midterms. In that case, we simply couldn't afford to look out for Class E as well as ourselves.

"Remember Suzaku, expulsion is on the line for some mere midterm exam. Who knows what they could throw at us in the future? I'd much rather ensure the safety of my own class than some group of defectives." Lelouch hit Kururugi with a barrage of solid points.

Kururugi looked like he wanted to reply, but knew that nothing he'd say would be accepted by Lelouch. Kururugi was driven by emotion, he wouldn't think logically if it meant that someone else would take damage. Instead, he'd do whatever he could to help them without a second thought. In a way, he was like a male version of Ichinose.

"R-right..." Kururugi muttered as we exited the classroom.