Vol.10 Epilogue

[Intro]

Saturday morning, the very day of the exam, had finally arrived.

It seemed that nearly every single class had managed to come to a decision.

Class A had chosen to expel Katsuragi and Class D had chosen to expel Ryuuen.

Class B was moving forward believing nobody would have to be expelled.

Of course, there was a possibility that none of that would turn out as planned. Everyone had a chance to face expulsion.

No one would know for sure until the results were revealed.

Even if a class were to work together to get rid of someone, it wouldn't matter much if they managed to gather enough praise vote from the other classes.

What was important now, was what you did with the little time we had left.

Even I wasn't one hundred percent safe.

There were no absolute guarantees like that in this exam.

Even though we were expected to be in the classroom at the same time as always, the exam was going to start a bit later, at nine.

It was currently just half-past eight.

Should this short time-extension be taken as the school showing us some sort of consideration… or was there another reason?

Perhaps it was a trick to keep us on our toes until the very end.

"You really didn't do anything?"

"What?"

"I'm asking if you really just stayed on the sidelines and didn't involve yourself in any of this, even though you were in danger?"

"Does it look like I've done something?"

"…Not on the surface."

"There's your answer. I didn't do anything this time. Rather, you're the one who saved me."

"Then it wouldn't be funny if you got expelled because of that."

"Even more so if I got expelled after fighting back like you did."

This might just be the last conversation we would have as neighbors.

"I suppose."

Horikita responded dismissively.

Just like this, the class welcomed the exam in silence.

At least, that's what I thought… At the last moment, something happened once again.

"Please listen up, everyone."

The one to break the silence was none other than Hirata. Yesterday, he had engaged in an argument with Horikita, but he hadn't actually done anything more than that.

He had only spoken aimlessly about voting for Horikita.

Of course, it's possible that some of the students who admire Hirata may vote against her.

However, that would be too weak for a finishing blow.

Within Class C, Horikita's evaluation was relatively high.

Even though her frank, in-your-face way of speaking is sharp and prickly, it also gave off an impression of reliability.

"After listening to what Horikita-san and everyone else had to say yesterday, I've come to a conclusion. The primary focus of this exam… is who we should cast our censure votes for, right?"

Hirata was calm and composed as he spoke.

"Is… Is he still going to say something?"

"Looks like it."

If he wasn't, he wouldn't be trying to say something at the last minute like this.

"What a waste. He doesn't have a plan. This is just him trying to delay the inevitable."

No, It's hard to say for sure…

I could see traces of new-found determination in Hirata's eyes.

"First of all, I'd like to apologise for what happened yesterday, when I said that I'd vote against Horikita-san."

Just as I thought, Hirata bowed his head to Horikita to apologize for his rude behavior.

"There isn't anything you need to apologize for. What in the world are you doing?"

"I decided that you are necessary for the success of our class."

"If that's the case, have you thought about who is unnecessary?"

"Yeah. I did."

Hirata spoke definitively, causing Horikita to falter for a moment.

"…Could you tell us who?"

"I'll tell you right now."

Hirata slowly got up from his seat and stood behind the teaching podium, just like Horikita had the day before.

"I love this class. I think that each and every one of you are necessary. No matter what anyone says, or what any of you do, that won't change. But, I already know that won't solve anything."

After all his struggling, this was the answer Hirata had arrived at.

It seemed like nothing had changed from what he had told me yesterday.

"I want everyone to cast a censure vote for me."

Hirata said what I thought he would say.

"H-how could any of us do something like that!?"

Mii-chan exclaimed, with other girls voicing similar thoughts in quick succession.

"It'll be fine if I'm expelled. I'm prepared to do at least that much."

"Think about what you're saying… Have you gone insane?"

Horikita unconsciously raised her voice, even though, given the situation, it would've been fine to let Hirata say whatever he wanted.

"You're gonna sacrifice yourself just because you can't decide who to expel?"

"You said it yourself right, Horikita-san? That if a student wants to be expelled, there wouldn't be anything else we need to talk about?"

"That's-"

"So I'm volunteering."

"Nobody in this class actually wants to see you expelled. You act as a mediator to settle the class's conflicts. This is far too ridiculous."

"Either way, I don't care."

It wouldn't be wrong to say that Class C was on the brink of chaos.

At this point, there were no surprises about who people would be voting against. The key question had changed from 'Who would get the censure votes?' to 'Who would get the praise votes?'.

Without Hirata, the future special exams would probably be far more difficult.

That's the risk of losing one of the class's central figures.

"There's absolutely, totally, no way I'm using a censure vote on Hirata-kun!"

Shinohara and the rest of the girls collectively begun to speak up to defend Hirata.

Hirata's heart probably felt that much worse every time they spoke up for him.

"There's no reason for you guys to stick up for me. I've already come to hate all of you."

His tone was the same as usual, but the words he spoke were cold.

"So please let me make this easier on all of us."

"I… I'll vote for Hirata!"

Yamauchi shouted.

"If it's for Hirata, I think everyone else should vote for him too!"

He then continued to yell things like that.

"I see. This is Yamauchi-kun's last stand…"

Yamauchi had probably contacted Hirata yesterday and pleaded about how he didn't want to be expelled, begging Hirata to help.

That may have been one of the reasons why Hirata had hardened his resolve to get expelled.

Then, after a long silence, Chabashira entered the classroom.

"Well then, the class vote will now begin. Once your name has been called, please make your way to the voting room."

It didn't seem like we were going to be voting all at the same time in the classroom.

There was no guarantee that we wouldn't be able to see each other's votes. It seemed that the school was doing what it could to ensure the votes remained anonymous.

Now, how would it turn out from here…?

[Intro end]

[Part 1]

Within Class A that same morning, everyone was patiently waiting for the results to be announced.

The outcome had already been decided ever since the supplemental exam was first announced, and there were no objections to it either.

As the bell rang, Mashima entered the classroom to announce the outcome.

He was as calm as always. He didn't have very much of an opinion about what was about to take place.

No, rather, it was more like he was simply trying not to think about it very much.

It had been four years since he became a teacher at Advanced Nurturing High School, and he had seen many students get expelled in that time.

"I'll now be announcing the results of the supplementary special exam. To start things out, the student who received the most praise votes… would be you, Sakayanagi, with a total of thirty-six votes."

"I didn't expect that all of you would vote for me. I really must thank everyone."

She responded with empty words of gratitude. Nearly everyone in the class had voted for her.

"Next… I'll announce the student who received the most censure votes. I'm sure you're all aware of this by now, but the person whose name is called will be expelled. After this, they'll have to pack their bags and come along with me to the staff room."

The classroom was dead silent.

Every single student was quiet as they waited for the name to be called.

"In last place, with thirty-six censure votes…"

He paused for a split-second, and then…

"Yahiko Totsuka."

He spoke.

The name resounded throughout the silent classroom.

"How absurd! What's going on!?"

Katsuragi stood up from his seat, raising his voice after the results had sunken in.

"K-Katsuragi-san… Why? Wha…?"

Totsuka looked at Katsuragi with an expression of disbelief on his face as well.

He had received an overwhelming majority, thirty-six, of the classes censure votes, ensuring his expulsion.

Then, Mashima revealed the total number of votes that every student in the class had gotten.

Katsuragi had placed just behind Totsuka with a total of thirty censure votes.

"What's going on here, sensei? The one being expelled should be me-"

"There haven't been any mistakes."

Mashima cut Katsuragi off, answering his question calmly.

A young girl began to speak, as if to shed light on such an inexplicable situation.

"Katsuragi-kun, it seems you've been given some praise votes. How wonderful."

Hearing that, Katsuragi finally understood.

This hadn't happened due to some kind of mistake. Rather, this was the outcome of one of Sakayanagi's schemes.

"Wait, Sakayanagi! The one who should've been expelled was me!"

"Expulsion? You? You weren't the target in the first place."

She responded decisively.

"Stop joking with me. You definitely said you were going to get rid of me!"

"Come to think of it, you're right, aren't you? I did say I was going to get rid of you, but… that was just a lie."

Without an ounce of apprehension, Sakayanagi smiled gently.

"Why… Why!?"

"It's simple. Totsuka-kun doesn't bring any benefits to Class A. On the other hand, you're sharp, and your reflexes aren't anything to scoff at either. This, combined with your calm head, makes you useful in your own way. This exam is perfect for disposing of somebody unnecessary, so only an idiot would get rid of someone who still has use left in them."

Katsuragi winced, unable to refute her point.

Although, that wasn't the only reason why Sakayanagi had done this.

Originally, Totsuka wasn't the only one who sided with Katsuragi. Even though she intended to mercilessly make an example out of Katsuragi for going against her, Totsuka's expulsion would have an even larger impact on Class A.

It would instill the idea that, if you sided with Katsuragi, you would be the next to see yourself in Totsuka's shoes.

"Why would you do this in such an indirect way…?"

"Isn't it only natural for someone to do their best to avoid expulsion? There are a lot of praise votes floating around from other classes in this exam. If Totsuka-kun had gone and gathered them from the other classes in order to save himself, I don't believe we could've gotten him expelled."

She couldn't know for sure that another class wouldn't just whimsically decide to save Totsuka.

However, if she singled out Katsuragi from the very beginning, nobody would bother to use their praise votes on Totsuka.

"Thank you for your hard work, Totsuka-kun. Be sure to take care of yourself after you've left the school."

"D-damn…! Dammit! Dammit…!"

Totsuka curled over as if he was about to collapse. Katsuragi couldn't find the right words to comfort him.

Totsuka would have normally been overjoyed to find out Katsuragi wasn't going to be expelled.

But now that he was being expelled himself, that didn't matter anymore.

Instead, he could only feel resentment as he wondered why it had to be him instead of his friend.

If Katsuragi had gotten expelled, Totsuka Yahiko would've been able to stay in Class A. And while he would've been displeased with it, he would've followed Sakayanagi all the way until graduation. And then, he would've become successful in life.

Even though he felt guilty for it, he had already vaguely begun to imagine his wonderful future as a graduate from Class A.

But because of this sudden twist of fate, he had lost everything.

"Saving him with twenty million points… is probably impossible."

"Correct. Unfortunately, even if we added up all of our points, we still wouldn't have enough."

"Totsuka, there's… no way to overturn this decision."

The homeroom teacher, Mashima, spoke definitively as he buried the pain within his heart.

"...…"

Totsuka was at a loss for words, unable to do anything but nod in response.

"Totsuka, please come with me to the staff room for the time being. I'll let you collect your things later."

In consideration of the young man's feelings, Mashima asked for Totsuka to leave the room.

His expulsion had been set in stone, so staying in the classroom would only serve to hurt him more.

"By the way, Mashima-sensei… Might I ask you something?"

"What is it, Sakayanagi?"

As Mashima began to leave the classroom with Totsuka, Sakayanagi's voice brought him to a halt.

He instructed for Totsuka to wait in the hallway before turning to hear her out.

"While it's a shame that Totsuka-kun had to be sacrificed… It has already been decided who's going to be expelled in the other classes, right?"

"Tentatively. As soon as the results have been finalized, they'll be posted on the first-floor bulletin board."

"Then, depending on the results, is it possible that there will be consequences for Katsuragi-kun?"

"What are you talking about, Sakayanagi?"

Katsuragi questioned her, unsure of what she was getting at.

"I'm just asking for future reference."

For a moment, Mashima, just like Katsuragi, didn't seem to understand the meaning behind Sakayanagi's words.

He hadn't considered the possibility that she was asking about 'that'.

However, upon seeing Sakayanagi's fearless smile, Mashima changed his mind.

"…No matter who gets expelled, there won't be any consequences. 'That' doesn't work like that. If, for some reason, there were consequences, even you wouldn't be able to take advantage of it very easily."

"That's certainly true. Thank you very much for answering."

After Mashima left the classroom, Katsuragi calmly approached Sakayanagi.

In response, Hashimoto and Kitō hurriedly got up to obstruct his path in the off chance he resorted to violence.

However, before Katsuragi could say a word, Sakayanagi spoke up.

"There's no reason for you to bear a grudge against me, Katsuragi-kun. Somebody had to be expelled during this exam. Whether it be you or Totsuka-kun, the results must be taken seriously. The fact of the matter is that there was a vote. One in which every student in Class A participated."

"…I understand."

Katsuragi hadn't planned on getting violent from the start. He had only intended to vent his dissatisfaction to her.

And yet, Sakayanagi had put a stop to even that.

"That's fine then. After all, I don't want you to hold back our class moving forward because you become consumed by self-despair. However… If by chance you were to go against Class A in the future…"

"I told you I understood. You don't have to drag anyone else into this."

"I'm glad to see you're so sensible."

If Katsuragi were to bare his fangs at Sakayanagi out of resentment because of Totsuka's expulsion, Sakayanagi was threatening that she would have someone else expelled next time. Sakayanagi was well aware that, as long as Katsuragi was obedient, he'd be able to contribute greatly to the future success of Class A.

Like this, Katsuragi had given in entirely. Without any means of going against her, he had no choice but to raise the white flag and surrender to Sakayanagi.

"Well then… I wonder how the other classes are doing right now?"

Of course, as far as Sakayanagi was concerned, Class B and Class D weren't even worth thinking about.

The only thing she cared about was what had happened within Class C, the class that Ayanokōji was in. She couldn't help but look forward to hearing about it.

[Part 1 end]

[Part 2]

Back within Class C, the sound of Yamauchi restlessly tapping his foot was extremely distracting.

"Yo, Haruki… Try and quiet down a bit."

Ike quietly whispered a warning to him.

"S-shut up. I know."

"Fufufu. At any rate, it seems your defeat is close at hand, wouldn't you say?"

"Huh? What are you getting at, Kōenji? I'm not gonna be expelled, considering the other options."

Yamauchi turned and looked at Kōenji with an eerie smile on his face.

"I think it's fair to say that, out of everyone in the class, a considerable number of students have voted against you."

Ike and Sudō sat quietly, unable to help Yamauchi as Kōenji fanned the flames. Hirata, however, interjected.

"That's not how this will turn out. The one being expelled will be me."

"You're still going on about that? You aren't aware of it yet, are you?"

"…What are you talking about?"

Kōenji took out his cell phone with a fearless smile on his face.

"This message was sent to me by one of the girls in our class. It reads: 'I believe Hirata-kun intends to sacrifice himself and volunteer to be expelled tomorrow. He might end up saying something hurtful about everyone or make himself out to be a bad guy, but those won't be his true feelings. Please, have faith in him and don't vote against him for it.' It seems to me like it was sent to everyone other than you and Yamauchi-kun."

Hirata approached Kōenji and read the message on the phone for himself.

"Most students would sympathize with you after seeing a message like this. After all, it's not untrue that you've spent this past year taking action for the sake of the class. Wouldn't it make more sense for you to get more praise votes because of this, instead?"

"No way…"

Hirata's plan to get the most censure votes had failed.

Of course, this negatively affected the students most at risk of being expelled.

Horikita quietly turned to me and spoke.

"You're awfully composed. It's almost as if you've already foreseen what will happen."

"You probably know what will happen too."

"Even if I did, I wouldn't sit back and watch so complacently. As long as there's room for uncertainty, there's still reason to worry."

Kōenji cut in, as if responding to Horikita.

"The only one who should be worried is him."

Almost everyone in the class shifted their gaze toward Yamauchi, wondering how he would respond after hearing something like that.

Yamauchi slowly stood up and turned around to look at Kōenji.

His expression was one of confidence, one that said he was certain of his chances of coming out on top.

"…Hah."

Yamauchi laughed at Kōenji contemptuously.

"Go ahead, say whatever you want… The person getting expelled isn't gonna be me."

"Oh? And will you tell us why?"

"Fine. I will."

It seemed Yamauchi couldn't stand to let Kōenji say whatever he wanted any longer.

"How many of you voted against me? Twenty of you? Thirty? I didn't specifically betray any of you, yet you guys treat me like this? It's unreasonable! But that's fine. I'll forgive you."

With a thoughtless smile, Yamauchi approached Ike and patted his hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry Kanji. For making you worry about me so much."

"Y-yeah."

Completely unaware of what his friend was getting at, Ike could do nothing but nod.

"There are several people here who might get expelled other than me, right? There's Kanji, Sudō, Kōenji, and Ayanokōji, but I wonder how many praise votes they'll get? I'm just so worried!"

"From what you're saying, it sounds as if you're expecting to get a large number of praise votes."

"Yep, that's right. I will."

"Even if your friends felt sorry enough to vote for you, you'd only get around four or five votes, at best. Are you saying that's enough to put you in the safe zone?"

"That's fine. That much would be plenty. Hahaha… Yes, no matter who you voted for, it's all pointless!"

Yamauchi showily raised his arms up into the air.

"Sakayanagi-chan promised that she would give me twenty praise votes! In other words, even if most of the class voted against me, I still won't be the one who gets expelled!"

Having realized that there was no point in hiding it any longer, Yamauchi decided to show his cards.

"That's why it doesn't matter how many of you voted against me… I'm protected by Class A!"

The votes had already been cast.

It was probably true that Yamauchi had made a promise like that with Sakayanagi.

Assuming he got five praise votes from Class C and twenty votes from Class A, even in the worst-case scenario, he would only end up with a maximum of nine censure votes.

If he was telling the truth, he could hardly be considered at risk of expulsion.

The danger would then shift toward Kōenji and I. Even Ike and Sudō could be in trouble.

"If that's the case, then why do you look so anxious?"

Yamauchi didn't seem calm at all. He was trembling nonstop.

It was proof that, mentally, he was under an incredible amount of stress.

"That's…"

"Since you made a promise with the enemy, you made sure to sign a contract, yes? It's one of the basic fundamentals of doing negotiations."

"N-no, but that's…"

"A simple verbal promise doesn't count for anything. Miss little girl isn't that merciful."

"Of course I know that! It's fine!"

Kōenji's words simply weren't able to make it through to him.

Yamauchi could only believe that Sakayanagi wouldn't go back on her word. There was nothing else he could do.

He must have reached out to Sakayanagi many times last night to ensure everything would still go as he expected it to.

"My my, you must be so reassured, then. It seems that the censure vote I cast for you was meaningless."

"That's right, it was meaningless! Meaningless!"

"Be quiet, Yamauchi. I could hear your shouting from out in the hallway."

Just then, Chabashira arrived.

"I've kept all of you waiting. I'll get along with announcing the results for Class C. Please find your seats."

The time of judgment had finally come.

Very soon, one student would be expelled from this class.

Would it be Yamauchi, who was telling himself that everything would be okay?

Would it be Sudō or Ike, one of the secondary candidates for expulsion?

Would it be Hirata, who was patiently waiting for the results to be announced?

Would it be Kōenji, who was as inattentive as always?

Would it be Horikita or me, as we quietly watched over the classroom?

Or, would it end up being someone else entirely?

"To start out, I'll announce the three of you who ended up with the most praise votes. In third place is… Kushida Kikyō."

Kushida sighed with relief when she heard her name being called.

Even though Yamauchi had targeted her yesterday, she ended up earning quite a lot of praise votes.

If you take into account the fact that she's adored by her classmates, an outcome like this makes sense.

"Next, in second place…"

Chabashira began reading a little slower.

Even I couldn't fully predict whose name she would say.

"It's you, Hirata Yōsuke."

"!"

The moment his name was called, Hirata shut his eyes and looked up toward the sky.

The disgraceful behavior he showed yesterday hadn't had any significant consequences.

Hirata worked hard this past year, going through thick and thin for the sake of the class.

He had earned a tremendous amount of trust, especially from the girls in the class.

Even if I hadn't arranged for Kei to spread that text message around yesterday, his ranking would've hardly changed.

"B-but, if Hirata placed second… who placed first?"

Since the beginning, everyone had expected for Hirata and Kushida to get most of the praise votes.

It wasn't unreasonable for them to place second and third, it was just that this outcome meant there was somebody who had surpassed them both.

"…As for first place…"

Chabashira let show a slight smile before she read the name.

I shut my eyes.

"Ayanokōji Kiyotaka."

Everything turned out as I expected.

"W-what!?"

Yamauchi, the one I was supposed to be competing with for last place, was the first to react.

"Aren't you mistaking him with first place for the censure vote!? Sensei!?"

"No. There's no doubt about it. He took first place with a splendid total of forty-two votes."

My classmates all seemed to be surprised. After all, I had gotten more praise votes than there were students in our class.

"You. What did you do…?"

Horikita also couldn't hide her surprise.

"Like I said, I didn't do anything."

Sakayanagi had done all of this by herself.

"And finally, the student who ended up with the most censure votes, with a grand total of thirty-three votes. I'm sorry to say that it's you, Yamauchi Haruki."

Now, Yamauchi took yet another heavy blow.

Before he could even make sense of the situation, he was being told he had to leave the school.

"T-thirty-three votes!?"

It pretty much confirmed that he hadn't gotten any praise votes from Class A.

Second to last was Sudō with twenty-one votes. And coming in right behind him was Ike with twenty.

It was clear that his friends were by no means in the safe zone either.

"No! Why!? Why do I have to be expelled!?"

Chabashira approached Yamauchi and put her arm on his shoulder, but he shook it off.

"…Haruki…"

As his friends, Ike and Sudō could only look away.

They had been hoping that, somehow, Yamauchi would make it through the exam, but the only thing they could do is wait for the results.

And now that the results had come out, they probably realized the sad truth behind all of this.

If Yamauchi hadn't placed last, what would have happened to them?

[Part 2 end]

[Part 3]

One person was missing from the classroom.

It was the same classroom, but nonetheless, it was distinctly different.

The atmosphere was heavy and everyone was disheartened.

No matter who ended up getting expelled, the situation would've probably still turned out like this.

Even so, considering that someone had to disappear, it's only natural that the decision was made after considering all the potential pros and cons.

To ensure the future success of the class as a whole, who is necessary? Who is unnecessary?

These questions had to be answered.

One person finally stood up from their seat and left the room.

With that, everyone else began to follow suit without anyone saying very much.

After a day off, once Monday came around, everyone would come back to the classroom once again.

And when that time comes, Yamauchi wouldn't be there.

"He's crazier than I thought."

The 'he' Horikita was referring to was, of course, none other than Hirata.

He was sitting motionless at his desk, as if in a daze.

He had been like this ever since Yamauchi left the classroom.

"Hirata-kun… Uhm…"

Mii-chan timidly called out to him, concerned about his well-being.

However, Hirata only slightly shifted his gaze to look at her and didn't say anything.

How did Hirata feel about this class now?

The answer to that was something only he knew. In any case, there was no other choice for him but to keep moving forward.

The students who couldn't bear to see Hirata in such a state slowly left and headed home.

Sudō and Ike quietly left the classroom as well.

『Let's just go home individually for today.』

Everyone in the group quickly agreed to Haruka's text.

With my bag in hand, I excused myself and started walking to the door.

On my way out, I stopped in front of Kōenji for a moment as he was still in the classroom.

"What is it, Ayanokōji-boy?"

"I didn't think you'd take action for the sake of the class."

"Of course. Even I would cooperate with Horikita-girl in order to avoid expulsion."

"That's not what I'm talking about. Seeing how you were constantly provoking Yamauchi, it seemed to me that you were trying to focus his hatred on you, and you alone."

It's obvious that Yamauchi would come to hate his classmates after he's gotten expelled.

However, since even before the results came out, Kōenji persistently incited Yamauchi more than anyone else in the class, diverting Yamauchi's hatred solely towards him.

Kōenji had personally dealt with Yamauchi once he had lost all sense of reason after his expulsion was confirmed.

Although, from the perspective of the rest of the class, Kōenji's actions may have just come across as bullying.

"Well now, I have no memory of that. I just wanted to see his ugly figure disappear from as close up as possible."

"Is that so? Then I'll just drop it."

As soon as I was out of the classroom, Horikita quickly followed after me and grabbed me by the arm.

"Ayanokōji-kun. You… How much of this did you anticipate ahead of time?"

Back when Sakayanagi proposed a temporary truce, I was a little more than ninety-percent certain that I didn't have to worry about being expelled. It's obvious that, to her, beating me with a surprise attack would be meaningless. If she had lied about the truce in order to force me out of the school, she wouldn't have been happy about it.

But at the same time, she manipulated Yamauchi and tried to have him get me expelled.

In other words, she had made a clear violation of our truce. That is to say, her actions were contradictory.

To compensate for this contradiction, she would have to do whatever she could to invalidate any censure votes I may get because of Yamauchi.

Namely, to have Class A cast a majority of their praise votes for me.

That way, even if I ended up with twenty to thirty of Class C's censure votes, I'd still end up with a positive number of votes in the end. My safety would be guaranteed. In which case, why would she go through all this trouble? She had probably done so in order to get Yamauchi Haruki expelled. By making him out to be a villain, she had managed to lower his standing within Class C. Of course, I had no way of being absolutely certain of any of this. I couldn't discount the off-chance that Sakayanagi was trying to have me expelled with a surprise attack.

So, I instigated Horikita, using her as a means to ruin Yamauchi. In addition, by letting the class find out that Yamauchi was targeting someone harmless like me, I'd be able to get additional praise votes due to sympathy or protection. Although, ending up in first place was a little bit too much.

"Didn't I say it before? I didn't explicitly take part in this exam."

"…But…"

"I'm heading home."

"Ayanokōji-kun!!"

As if her feet were frozen to the ground, Horikita shouted after me as I walked away.

"It was you, wasn't it…? You're the one who told my brother about the connection between Sakayanagi-san and Yamauchi-kun, aren't you?"

I simply continued walking without giving her an answer and descended the stairway.

On the first floor, I approached the bulletin board.

There was a statement posted that listed the results of the exam for each of the classes.

Class Vote Results:

Expulsions:

Class A: Totsuka Yahiko

Class B: None

Class C: Yamauchi Haruki

Class D: Manabe Shiho

These are the only expulsions.

There will be no changes to the number of Class Points because of these results.

"Yahiko, huh…? I guess she really was lying when she said she'd expel Katsuragi after all."

Along with who had been expelled, the names of those who had gotten the most praise votes were listed. In Class A it was Sakayanagi, in Class B it was Ichinose, and in Class D it was Kaneda. Kaneda had gotten the fewest, with a total of twenty-seven votes, whereas Ichinose had ended up with a stunning total of ninety-eight. Considering that most of Class A had used their praise votes on me, it was clear just how much everyone valued Ichinose.

Behind me, another student appeared, likely to check the results of the exam for himself.

It was Katsuragi, and at almost the same time, Ryūen showed up as well.

"So you didn't get expelled either, Katsuragi."

"…I could say the same to you. Out of everyone, I thought you'd be the one to go."

"Kuku. It seems like the Grim Reaper has taken pity on me."

"The Grim Reaper, is it?"

"Don't worry about it. It's not like you'd be able to see it anyway."

With a grin, Ryūen went and looked at the results.

"Though, it seems that Sakayanagi girl did something interesting too, wouldn't you say? Seeing as that she went and cut down your only supporter."

While Ryūen spoke cheerfully, Katsuragi's expression turned into one of remorse.

"You've completely lost your fighting spirit, haven't you?"

"I have nothing to gain by acting out any more than I already have."

"So you plan to be Sakayanagi's obedient dog until graduation? What a joke."

"...…"

There was a moment of silence.

However, there was a ghastly expression on Katsuragi's face.

Yahiko, who had followed Katsuragi through thick and thin, had been expelled.

At the same time, Katsuragi had lost his status as a person who people were willing to protect.

"Hoh? So you can make a face like that too, huh Katsuragi?"

After seeing Katsuragi's expression, perhaps Ryūen had the same impression as me.

"As you are now, you could easily deceive Sakayanagi."

"…Don't joke with me. Putting that aside, what does a bastard like you plan on doing now? Your future at this school was saved by the Grim Reaper. Do you plan on challenging Sakayanagi, Ichinose, and Horikita once again?"

"I'm not interested in something like that."

Ryūen coldly responded without missing a beat.

"The contract I made with you and the rest of Class A is still valid. To put it simply, I plan on sitting back and squeezing you dry as I casually enjoy myself for a little while. I just thought I'd meet you here today to kiss your ass for that."

Apparently, that was the reason why Ryūen had come here in the first place.

After all, from Ryūen's perspective, Katsuragi's expulsion would've also caused the contract to be annulled.

With that, Katsuragi left first and headed back home, leaving Ryūen and me behind.

"Do yourself a favor and come with me for a bit."

Without refusing, I let Ryūen lead the way as we walked around to the backside of the school building.

"Since when were you such a good person, Ayanokōji?"

"I didn't do anything, but it doesn't seem like you're very willing to believe that."

Ryūen should already be well aware of what I did.

"It's not so much that I did anything, it's more like the people who care about you did. They're the ones that did everything."

I looked up at the sky as I recalled the events that had taken place a few days earlier.

[Part 3 end]

[Part 4]

The lack of an expulsion from within Class B. The fact that Ryūen was still here.

I had been involved in both of these two noteworthy incidents behind the scenes.

It was back on the day when I had met with Hiyori at the library and invited Ichinose to my room.

That night, just past ten, the sound of the doorbell rang throughout my room.

I didn't have many friends who would come to my room to pay me a visit.

I considered whether or not it was Horikita, Kushida, or maybe even someone from the Ayanokōji Group, but in most cases, they would've sent me some sort of notification that they were coming ahead of time.

This time, however, I hadn't been notified of anything. That is to say, the person at the door wasn't anyone like that.

In which case, who in the world had come to visit me?

"…Well this is a first."

As I checked the intercom from within the depths of my room, I saw an unexpected duo displayed on the screen.

They seemed like they were cold as they waited for me to answer the door.

"Well… I suppose curfew is only enforced for the upper floors."

As a general rule, it's prohibited for a boy to enter a girl's living quarters after eight at night.

Well, even if you did break curfew, it wouldn't be a very big deal as long as word didn't get out. Plus, even if you got caught, the punishment wouldn't be very severe as long as it had only happened once or twice. In any case, there weren't any rules that prevented a girl from being the one to come and visit instead.

"Yes?"

After deciding to at least respond to them, I spoke through the intercom. Although, I wasn't exactly welcoming with how I phrased my words.

"…I'd like to talk if you have a moment."

Of the two of them, the boy began to speak, breaking the silence. He leaned forward and peered into the camera and a close-up of his pupil appeared on the screen.

It didn't seem that he wanted to have this talk over the intercom.

"Give me a moment."

I walked over to the entryway and unlocked the door, and upon doing so, it abruptly swung open. The boy, Class D's Ishizaki, entered my room right away.

If one was careless, the force at which the door had swung open could've hurt someone.

"Welcome. You should hurry and come in too. It's cold out there."

"Why do I have to…"

Ishizaki's classmate, Ibuki, voiced her dissatisfaction at my invitation inside.

"Who cares. Just get in here Ibuki."

"Ugh."

Giving in to Ishizaki's prodding, she walked through the entryway.

The cold air was certainly starting to make its way in, so I hastily closed the door behind her.

After thinking about how we would still feel the cold draft if we talked at the entryway, I invited them further into the room.

"So, what do you need from me, so late at night like this?"

At my question, Ishizaki immediately put his hands together and lowered his head.

"Please, Ayanokōji! Tell us how to prevent Ryūen-san from getting expelled!"

"…What?"

These two had come barging in uninvited so late at night just to ask for such a ridiculous favor.

"Did I mishear you? Could you say that one more time?"

"I asked you to tell us how to prevent Ryūen-san from getting expelled!"

It didn't seem like I had misheard him.

"Just forget it, Ishizaki. There's no way Ayanokōji will cooperate with you."

Apparently, Ibuki and Ishizaki weren't on the same page. It didn't seem like she had come along to ask for my help.

"That… that's probably true, it's just… I can't think of anyone else other than Ayanokōji who could do something."

"It's not like I care. Oh, by the way, I'm only here because Ishizaki forced me to come along with him. He just wouldn't stop calling me…"

With a sigh, she exasperatedly showed me the screen of her phone.

There were more than fifty missed call notifications from Ishizaki.

"How could I go and ask him all alone!? He's our enemy!"

"It's the same even if I'm here with you. What an idiot."

"Shut yer mouth…"

Ishizaki and Ibuki proceeded to bicker with each other.

"Well, it doesn't seem like you were sent here by Ryūen."

If they were acting, it would've been quite the show, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

"There's no way we'd be here for that. Ryūen-san… wouldn't ask us to do something like this. You should understand at least that much."

"I suppose."

Ryūen had already washed his hands of school matters by making it seem like he had been defeated by Ishizaki.

In fact, it seemed like he was already fully resolved to leave the school.

Furthermore, even if he didn't plan on being expelled, he wouldn't have reached out to me for help.

There's no way he'd be willing to do something so shameful.

"Are you sure you don't want Ryūen gone? He's done all sorts of things to you."

Ibuki spoke up again, questioning Ishizaki.

"…Well… a lot of stuff did happen… But, it's different now."

"What is?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"I'm asking you what you mean by 'it's different now'."

"I've come to understand that Ryūen-san is important for the future of Class D."

"I don't get it. Don't you know how much we've had to go through because of him?"

These two had really come all the way here to see me without being on the same page at all.

Or, to put it more accurately, it was as if they were simply unable to communicate with one another.

"First of all, if you're gonna argue, do it later."

At my words, they stopped glaring at one another.

"Ugh. I wanna go back to my room."

However, they still didn't stop quarreling with each other. In particular, Ibuki still had a stern expression on her face.

"Don't say that. You have to help me persuade Ayanokōji too."

"I don't wanna."

"If you're gonna argue, go do it somewhere else."

Seeing as how there were no signs of the conversation moving forward any time soon, I decided to try asking something myself.

"Ryūen isn't very popular, even in Class C. It's just an outsider's perspective, but I'm not exactly wrong, now am I?"

"Well, uh… I guess some people may hate him, maybe…"

"What do you mean 'some people'? Almost everyone hates him. There's no point in lying about it."

"Just shut it! There's nothing wrong with what I said!"

"Ugh, you're so loud and annoying. By the way, you're spraying your spit everywhere while you talk, so stop shouting."

"I thought I said to save your arguing for later."

If they kept making so much noise in such a small room like this, the sound would be heard in the rooms around us.

I spoke up again, this time with a twinge of anger in my voice, and the two of them seemed to calm down a bit.

Had they realized that they were imposing on me uninvited?

With this, we were finally able to get on with the conversation.

"It would be unreasonably difficult to stop Ryūen from being expelled."

I spoke bluntly, without beating around the bush.

I felt like my intentions would come across better that way.

"I guess that's true."

Having understood what I was getting at, Ibuki nodded in agreement.

However, Ishizaki didn't seem to be willing to accept it so easily.

"Can't you do something, anything!?"

At the very least, his motivations were genuine. There was no doubting his drive to save Ryūen.

"You really want to stop Ryūen from leaving, don't you?"

"…Yeah."

Other than me, Ibuki, and a few others, most students were under the guise that Ishizaki detests Ryūen.

Of course, that was only a consequence of the incident between Ryūen and I. Even so, it was true that Ishizaki had been tyrannized by Ryūen many times up to this point. I didn't think that he would come and bow his head to me and beg me to save him when he obviously didn't want to.

This was probably also due to the emotional connection he had made with Ryūen over the course of the past year.

However, nobody would be struggling if this exam was something that could be overcome with emotions alone.

Ishizaki seemed to need a simple explanation as to why saving his friend was so difficult.

"There are two primary reasons why I think saving him is unreasonable. This provisional exam will be decided by the number of censure votes being used in your own class. Supposing that you, Ibuki, and two or three others don't vote against Ryūen and cast him a praise vote instead, it's still pretty likely that he'll end up with more than thirty censure votes. Secondly, nobody else actually wants to be expelled."

"B-but, I mean, there aren't very many people that think we can win and move forward without his strength, you know?"

It's true that there were probably at least a few students in Class D who recognize Ryūen's capabilities.

However, by itself, that reason wouldn't cut it.

That just wouldn't be enough of a reason to raise the possibility of getting expelled yourself.

"Nobody wants to expel someone. By targeting Ryūen, the most unpopular person in the class, it would cause the least amount of guilt."

It was just as Ibuki said.

"Even if you couldn't get out of Class D, you'd still wanna graduate safely, wouldn't you? It's not like anyone wants to be labeled a high school dropout."

Chances are, this type of discussion had already taken place within their class, something that was written all over Ishizaki's face.

"If you're being treated as the leader who spearheaded a revolt against Ryūen, then you've probably already heard about this, haven't you?"

Ishizaki nodded. After all, he had probably publicly supported Ryūen's expulsion due to the position he had found himself in.

"I think that other than Ibuki, Albert, and Shiina, everybody's in favor of expelling Ryūen-san."

"So it's checkmate no matter how you look at it, yeah?"

"Yeah, it's checkmate."

I responded to Ibuki's statement with simple affirmation.

"That's why I came here in the first place. You're the one who beat Ryūen-san, so…"

"You want to know if there's a way to stop the expulsion. Before we get to that, there's something I want to ask you."

"What…?"

"Saving Ryūen means that someone else from your class will have to be expelled instead. Do you understand that?"

This was an essential aspect of the exam. I had no choice but to hear how he would answer.

"That's… That's true, but…"

"If you really understand, do you have someone else in mind to take Ryūen's place?"

"N-no, not at all. I don't think I want to get rid of anyone."

"Then it sounds like there's a problem. This exam is designed to ensure that someone gets expelled."

This wasn't an exam where you could thoughtlessly talk about wanting to save someone.

"It's just as Ayanokōji said, isn't it? If you really want to save Ryūen, why don't you take the initiative and nominate yourself? If you ask everyone to vote for you instead, you might be able to save him."

Her cold-hearted idea was pretty much the same as abandoning Ishizaki, but, realistically speaking, it was probably the best option he had available.

Ryūen had accumulated a lot of hatred from his classmates. Even though he was talented enough to think of courageous, clever schemes that an ordinary person couldn't possibly come up with, once you consider that the class had fallen down to Class D under his leadership, the fact that he was getting cast aside was simply inevitable.

"There's… really no way to prevent anyone from being expelled?"

"That was everybody else's initial question too. In the end, they all gave up on trying to think of a solution."

"…He's right."

Ibuki let out a short, dejected sigh.

Rather than bothering to reach out to me for help, Ibuki had understood that it was unreasonable from the very beginning.

"As I said before, this is a complete waste of time. We can't change Ryūen's fate."

"Dammit…!"

Consumed with frustration, Ishizaki punched the wall beside him.

"I think Ryūen had planned on spending the next three years without doing anything. But, he probably changed his mind as soon as he heard about the supplemental exam. He probably thought that he had no other choice but to get expelled. That's why he decided to quietly sit back and wait for the exam to finish without saying anything, isn't it?"

Ishizaki didn't seem to think that Ryūen was doing it as a noble act of self-sacrifice either.

Ryūen simply wasn't bothering to resist what was coming to him.

"You have to consider Ryūen's feelings. It's your duty as someone who follows him."

"I, I…"

Ishizaki clenched his fists, filled with regret.

He really wants to save Ryūen, huh?

No matter how many enemies you have, it's not a bad thing to have friends who care about you.

He may not admit to it, but Ryūen has some good friends.

An idea started to take shape in my mind.

However, there were a few things that needed to happen before it could be carried out.

"If I had one piece of advice for you…"

"What is it!? It doesn't matter what it is, just tell me!"

Ishizaki lurched forward, desperately reaching out for any glimmer of hope he could.

But, unfortunately, those hopes of his weren't going to last for long.

"As things are now, Ryūen's private points will disappear along with him. If he's been receiving points from Class A this whole time, then he's ought to have saved up a least a couple million points by now. Right?"

"Yeah. As long as he hasn't used them, he should have around that much."

"There's no guarantee that his private points will be transferred or distributed amongst his classmates if he's still holding onto them when he gets expelled. That being the case, you should transfer all of his points elsewhere before his expulsion is set in stone. They'll be useful for Class D later on."

If the points were distributed amongst Class D, they would lose their value as a lump sum. It would be better for them to transfer everything into their own pockets now.

I was certain that Ryūen would at least agree to that.

"T-this isn't what I wanted to hear from you! I want to know how to save Ryūen-san!"

"Give it up Ishizaki. There's no point in saying any more than this."

Ibuki reprimanded Ishizaki with a light kick before turning to me and continuing.

"That said, Ayanokōji. I'm not gonna go and pick up the points Ryūen saved up."

She spoke definitively. Instead of going to Ryūen and begging him for the points, she would rather give up on them altogether.

"Is that so? What about you, Ishizaki?"

"I won't either!"

They seemed to share the same stance on the matter, although with slightly different reasons behind it.

They were resolved to the idea that, if Ryūen was going to leave the school, then his points would go along with him.

No, it wasn't due to something as praiseworthy as resolve.

"It's a pity, but the two of you can't save Ryūen."

"!"

Ishizaki looked at me, his expression stuck somewhere between anger and regret.

"Listen carefully. The only thing you two can do now is retrieve Ryūen's private points. This exam isn't so simple that you can save someone just because you want to."

"Don't you fuck with me! You want me to take the points from Ryūen-san and peace out? There's no way I could do that!"

Ishizaki raised his fist, but Ibuki immediately reached out and restrained him.

"I said to stop this shit, Ishizaki. This guy may look like an ordinary person, but he's really nothing more than a nasty monster."

"Even if I'm no match for him, I'll at least get one hit in!"

"Get over it."

Ibuki then smacked Ishizaki on the head.

"We came here and asked Ayanokōji for something completely unreasonable. He didn't even say anything wrong, and yet here you are, lashing out at him for it. Could you stop being such a humiliation?"

"Urgh…"

Ishizaki had let the blood rush to his head.

It seems difficult for him to stay composed when it comes to Ryūen for some reason.

Neither of them seemed to have any intention of doing anything. Millions of points, completely free for the taking, were simply going to disappear. If they were thinking about the future of Class D, those points were something that they had absolutely no reason not to get their hands on.

If Ibuki and Ishizaki, Ryūen's closest friends, didn't want it, then there's nothing that could be done about it.

"Well, I had really wanted to see the strength of your resolve a bit more, but…"

"…Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"It has nothing to do with you two anymore. After all, you guys aren't even willing to recover the private points from Ryūen."

With that, I ended the conversation. However, I was somewhat convinced that Ibuki would get the private points from Ryūen nonetheless.

[Part 4 end]

[Part 5]

At just past ten on the night before the exam, my phone rang.

[It's me. I've gotten all of Ryūen's private points.]

Ibuki spoke, stating the bare minimum and nothing else.

"It's a good thing you figured out my contact information, isn't it?"

I tried questioning her, but Ibuki remained completely silent.

I remembered that I had given Shiina my number, so she had probably gotten ahold of it through her.

"Hmm. So, you've gotten ahold of the points?"

Although I had expected her to make a move, this was pushing it until the last minute.

"Can you grab Ishizaki and come to my room right now?"

[Eh? Right now?]

"Is that a problem? I have something to discuss with you about the points you've gotten your hands on."

[Not exactly, it's just… No, I'll be there.]

With those few short words of consent, Ibuki said she would get in contact with Ishizaki right away and then ended the call.

The two of them showed up at my door less than ten minutes later. Did they have some sort of premonition that something important was about to happen?

Just like that, Ishizaki and Ibuki immediately stepped into my room.

"How many points did Ryūen have?"

"A little more than five million."

"That's plenty. If there weren't enough, I'd have to do some last-minute preparations to make up for the rest."

As I expected, there wasn't any evidence that Ryūen had used them for himself.

"What are you talking about? What are you doing?"

Ishizaki didn't seem to have any clue where I was going with this.

On the other hand, Ibuki had already resolved herself, so she wasn't lagging behind as much.

"You're going to use these to do something, aren't you?"

"Correct."

"He's gonna use them…?"

"These private points will be used for one thing and one thing only. Saving Ryūen."

"N-no wait a second. Don't we need twenty million points in order to do that?"

No matter how Ishizaki looked at it, there simply weren't enough points to do that.

"Before I get into that, I have something to ask you. Ishizaki. Are you prepared to take responsibility for this?"

"W-what're you getting at all of a sudden? Prepared to take responsibility for what…?"

"Saving Ryūen means that you have to abandon someone else. I told you this before, didn't I?"

"…Yeah."

Despite being a bit flustered, Ishizaki nodded in agreement.

"I've resolved myself."

"Is that so? It's nice to see you've made up your mind. So who will it be?"

"Who…"

It seemed that Ishizaki hadn't decided on who would be taking Ryūen's place yet.

"If you haven't decided, I can decide for you if you want. It'd be easier to get rid of any feelings of guilt that way. Of course, if you think that I'd carelessly get rid of an important member of your class, you don't have to listen to me at all."

"P-please hold on. Let me think about it for a bit…"

"There's no time."

"I-I'll make the decision quickly."

Despite saying that, if he could make the decision quickly, he wouldn't be having such a hard time in the first place.

"Hold up. I don't care who we get rid of, but what's the plan here? You said you were gonna save him with the points, but aren't we short by like fifteen million?"

Ibuki cut in, and her irritation was understandable.

Be that as it may, I had my own circumstances to consider as well.

"If you want to prevent Ryūen's expulsion, you need to decide on who will take the fall instead."

We would talk about the plan in detail afterward.

"For example, how about the troublemakers in your class?"

While I felt bad that Ibuki was dissatisfied with not getting an answer from me, I moved the conversation forward.

"Troublemakers… Well, I guess there's me and Komiya, and out of the girls, there's Nishino and Manabe."

"Honestly Ishizaki, as far as Ryūen's safety is concerned, I don't think it's a very good idea to get rid of somebody like you who understands the importance of Ryūen's presence in your class. If there's another exam similar to this one in the future, there's no guarantee Ryūen will be able to make it through that one either."

Ishizaki seemed to agree with my logic.

"So either Nishino or Manabe…"

Ishizaki listed two names, both of whom I was familiar with. Manabe, in particular, was the student I had been thinking of expelling.

Either way, he was the one who had to make the final call.

I intended to respect his decision, regardless of who he ended up choosing.

"Whether it's one of them, or someone else, the decision is entirely up to you."

Ishizaki was also aware of what had taken place between Manabe and Kei during the Cruise Ship Special Exam. If that incident had even the slightest influence on his considerations, in all probability, he would choose to get rid of Manabe.

He was searching for flaws. Searching for some sort of justification where he could throw up his hands and say she had brought this upon herself. Manabe had put her hands on Kei, and by doing so, had brought unnecessary trouble upon her class.

Gradually, Ishizaki would begin to think that expelling Manabe wouldn't be too unreasonable.

As far as Kei was concerned, even though she had already put the incident behind her, Manabe's presence would always be a constant source of uneasiness. Resolving this issue would be enough to allow Kei to relax a little more. Additionally, if I were to have Kei presume that I had been responsible for the expulsion, her confidence in me would also increase yet again.

However, Ibuki unexpectedly spoke up just as Ishizaki was finalizing his decision.

"Is it fine if I make the choice?"

"Eh? You want to?"

"Yeah. There's someone I want gone."

"Who?"

I asked without waiting for Ishizaki's response.

"Manabe. It's just my personal preference though."

"And is it alright to make the decision based on that alone?"

"I don't have any problems with it. Are you saying I should?"

With a single look at Ibuki's eyes, I understood immediately. She didn't have even the slightest bit of hesitation.

"If Ishizaki has no objection to it, then it's settled. That said, there are no guarantees that everything will work out. By preventing Ryūen's expulsion, the person who ends up with the second most censure votes will be expelled. Now, the overall goal is to reduce the possibility that that person will end up being one of you two. There isn't very much time left."

"I get it… I'll tell the guys that there've been some changes and that they should use one of their votes on Manabe. I think they'll agree to it if I tell them that the plan is to scare her by giving her the second most censure votes."

"That's not a bad idea."

I approved of Ishizaki's idea.

As long as they were under the impression that Ryūen's expulsion was set in stone, the rest of his classmates wouldn't particularly care about who they used the other censure votes on.

"…Well, I might be in trouble here though."

"Hmm? What do you mean, Ibuki?"

"Manabe and her friends will probably vote for me along with Ryūen. It really doesn't look very good for me."

"W-wait. Are you being serious?"

"Even you should know that Manabe and I don't get along very well, right?"

"That's, well, that's true but…"

Ishizaki trailed off, shaken from his inability to wrap his head around the conversation.

"It sounds like you've already steeled your resolve, Ibuki."

Of course, if Manabe didn't get expelled, Ibuki wouldn't have any other option but to resign herself to her fate.

"It might be a good idea to consult with Hiyori about it."

"With Shiina?"

"She might be able to help you with this. I think it'd be fine for you to contact her and tell her you want to concentrate the censure votes on Manabe in order to save Ryūen."

"…Fine."

With a nod, Ibuki promptly sent a text message to Hiyori.

"You're in touch with Shiina, Ayanokōji? I don't think she'd be on board with the plan to expel Manabe."

"She just happened to tell me her thoughts about this exam."

While Hiyori may be a pacifist, she also has a strong desire to respect the wishes of her class.

"She told me she'd cooperate as long as it was for the sake of the class; since she thinks that Ryūen is important for Class D, I'm sure she'll choose to lend a hand."

We would control their classmate's votes as much as possible, reducing the praise votes and increasing the censure votes for Manabe.

Conversely, we'd increase the praise votes and decrease the censure votes for Ibuki.

That way, the disparity between Ibuki and Manabe would be closed in one fell swoop.

"Well then, tell us your plan. How are we saving him with only five million points?"

Ibuki stared at me, the look in her eyes telling me to speed things up.

I took out my phone and sent a text message to a certain someone.

It was marked as read almost immediately, with the person responding shortly thereafter, saying they would come to my room.

There were less than two hours remaining until the time limit.

It was fortunate that this person had the patience to wait until now.

"What are you doing?"

"Somebody's going to pay us a visit soon. They'll be the secret weapon that'll stop Ryūen's expulsion."

"The secret weapon… that'll stop the expulsion?"

It didn't seem like they would believe me with words alone.

A few minutes later, my doorbell rang, increasing Ibuki and Ishizaki's skepticism even more.

"Is it alright for this person to see us with you?"

"Don't worry about it. Provided that you get your stories straight right now."

In the brief period before the visitor came in, I instructed them on what exactly they needed to say.

[Part 5 end]

[Part 6]

"Pardon the intrusion~"

Naturally, Ibuki and Ishizaki were surprised upon seeing the visitor who had appeared before us.

They had probably never imagined that they would meet this person here.

"Seriously…?"

"Woah."

"Oh! I definitely thought there might've been someone else here too… Good evening."

"G-good evening."

For some reason, Ishizaki had become a little flustered.

The person who had come to my room was none other than Ichinose Honami.

And currently, she was sitting together with Ibuki and Ishizaki from Class D.

Having seen Ichinose, Ibuki finally seemed to understand the big picture of what was going on.

"We've got matching interests, don't we Ichinose?"

"It sure looks like it, Ibuki-san."

"Huh? What do you mean, Ibuki?"

Ishizaki tilted his head to the side, still unable to put all the pieces together.

"Ishizaki. Nobody's crazy enough to actually want to save Ryūen. Even if, hypothetically speaking, someone were to show up and say they'd help vote for him, there's no way to know whether they'd really stick to their word or not. Although… There are exceptions to that…"

"I-Is that so… Then, does that mean Ichinose and everyone in Class B are gonna…!?"

Finally, everything clicked, and Ishizaki seemed to understand what was about to happen.

"Yup. I'll appeal to everyone in Class B and ask them to cast every single one of our forty praise votes for Ryūen-kun. In return, Ibuki-san will cover the private points we're missing."

It was a sure-fire strategy that could only be used once.

There was Ichinose, who had the intuition to stockpile her classmate's private points ever since the first day of school, and there was Ryūen, who had continued to hoard private points because of the contract he had made with Class A.

It was the ultimate power play that could only be put into action because of the circumstances surrounding these two specific people.

"If you two joined forces, no one will be expelled from Class B and Ryūen won't have to leave Class D."

No matter what, Ryūen would only end up with a maximum of thirty-nine censure votes.

With the protection of Class B, that outcome would be eliminated completely thanks to the praise votes he would get.

Ibuki and Ichinose looked each other in the eye.

When two people aren't usually involved with one another, there's no reason for them to enter into a relationship built on trust like this.

However, by facing each other eye to eye, it's possible to determine whether or not they're trustworthy, at least to a certain extent.

After a moment, Ichinose shifted her gaze away from Ibuki and looked at me.

"With twenty million points, I'll save one of my classmates… Right?"

Leaving me with that question, she then turned her gaze back to Ibuki.

"What will you do, Ichinose? It's up to you to decide whether you accept it or not."

I spoke up, responding to her uncertainty. She had the right to choose the outcome for herself.

After all, she still had the option to reject Ibuki's proposal and borrow the points from Nagumo instead.

"I've made up my mind. As long as Ibuki-san and Ishizaki-kun are alright with it, I'm willing to do what I can."

"Are you really fine with that?"

"Yes. I've been able to make sure that their sincerity is real."

"You're an idiot, aren't you Ichinose?"

"Eh!? Ibuki-san!?"

"Even though all sorts of cruel rumors were going around about you, you still chose to save up all those points. I can't believe you're gonna throw 'em all away for something like this."

"Well, I can just save up the points all over again. It's clearly not impossible to accumulate close to twenty million points in just a year. Besides, I don't think you're in any position to say that, Ibuki-san. You could just pocket those five million points for yourself right now, but you've decided to use them all for Ryūen-kun's sake instead."

Ibuki quietly looked away without giving her a direct answer to that.

"You and I are different. Besides, someone else's gonna end up bawling their eyes out as they pack their bags in Ryūen's place. In fact, that person could just as well end up being me."

"But you're still saving Ryūen-kun, aren't you?"

"It… It just pisses me off that he's running away before I can pay him back for this stupid loan I took from him, that's all there is to it."

Ibuki would provide salvation to Ichinose, fully prepared to face the potential disdain from her classmates.

And just like that, Ibuki transferred the predetermined amount of private points to Ichinose.

"Confirm everything on your end."

"Will do."

Ichinose immediately took a look at her points, checking to make sure she had received the points.

"Thank you. It arrived beautifully."

She showed the number on her phone, proving to all of us that she had exactly twenty million points in her account.

"I'll be acting as a witness to this negotiation. I'll have you all know now that I've also been recording the contents of this conversation."

Out of the interest of fairness, I took out my cell phone.

"Ibuki is offering about four million points. In return, Ichinose and the rest of her classmates will cast their praise vote for Ryūen, for a total of forty votes. If there is a breach of this agreement…"

"I wouldn't have fulfilled my end of the deal, so I'd take the initiative and drop out school myself."

Of course, none of us actually thought that something like that would happen.

In practice, the school would also take record of any transactions that consisted of a large number of points, so if Ichinose went against her word, it wouldn't be surprising if the transaction was determined to be fraudulent with that alone.

However, Ibuki and Ishizaki knew they were making a deal with none other than Ichinose Honami herself, so they probably felt like they could entrust it to her safely.

This was the story of the events that had taken place between Ishizaki, Ibuki, Ichinose, and myself.

[Part 6 end]

[Part 7]

The backside of the school building was quiet.

"You claimed that it would've been easy for you to avoid expulsion if you took things seriously. It was because you knew you could've done it this way, wasn't it?"

"Sure. I knew that Ichinose chick was saving up her points. She goes around acting like such a good-natured person too. She never seemed to like me much, but I still thought there was room for negotiation. That said, I was certain Ibuki didn't have the wit or skill to negotiate with Ichinose using the points, so I felt pretty comfortable leaving them with her, it's just… I didn't think you'd get involved in it."

"Ibuki and Ishizaki just happened to ask me for help, so I made use of them for what I could. After all, as far as I was concerned, this was nothing more than a great opportunity for me to build trust with Ichinose. If I had them go to you directly, you would've seen through the plan. I can't imagine you would've given Ibuki the points in that case."

"You made the right choice not to explain anything to her then."

If I had explained everything to her, Ryūen would've gotten suspicious and seen through what I was doing behind the scenes.

"Were you the one who targeted Manabe?"

Considering that Kei had once been the target of Manabe's bullying, it was only natural for him to reach that conclusion.

"No, that was just a coincidence. You know that she was on bad terms with Ibuki too, right?"

"I see. So she made the big decision, eh? Manabe ended up miserably bawling her eyes out."

I could vaguely imagine what her reaction must've been like after hearing her name called.

"So you're sayin' I was saved by Ishizaki and Ibuki, huh? What an annoying gift they've given me."

"I guess."

I wasn't going to delve any further into this. If Ibuki and Ishizaki hadn't visited my room that day, I would've probably brought up my plan with Hiyori instead.

Then, I would've had her collect Ryūen's private points and do the same thing I had Ibuki do.

I had done all of this in order to have Ichinose owe me a favor. At the same time, I didn't want Ryūen to be expelled for some reason I couldn't quite put my finger on.

I had carried these complicated thoughts with me throughout the entire exam.

"What are you gonna do if there's another exam like this one later?"

"Kuku. Who knows?"

He didn't say that he wouldn't do anything.

Among other things, Ryūen probably felt at least somewhat thankful for what Ishizaki and Ibuki had done.

Things might become much more interesting if Ryūen ends up making a comeback in the not-so-distant future.

Of course, whether or not that would happen would be entirely up to him.

My phone began to ring. I took a look at the caller ID to find that it was none other than Ichinose.

Having noticed what was happening, Ryūen turned around and walked back into the school building without saying another word. I answered the call and spoke.

"It seems Class B made it through the exam without losing anyone."

[Yup. Kanzaki-kun volunteered himself to be the one everyone voted against. Once we did, it was announced that he'd be expelled once the results came back. After that, I paid the full twenty million points and negated his expulsion. There were some difficulties, but everyone in Class B managed to get through the exam safely.]

"Is that so? The price you paid wasn't exactly cheap."

Although it was only for the time being, Class B was now poorer than Class D.

Points would be redistributed again in April, but daily life was going to be quite tough for them until then.

Additionally, once the second year begins, having private points readily available might be important.

Though, there was no need to look into that at this point in time.

[We've lost our private points, but we can always make them back again. But, if we had lost even a single person, there would've been no way to get them back.]

Ichinose spoke without any indecision in her voice. It seemed as though I had said something unnecessary.

It was clear that she had set her mind on graduating together with every single one of her precious classmates.

[Ryūen-kun might not be satisfied with this, though. It seems that Manabe-san ended up being expelled in his place.]

I decided not to mention that I had just seen Ryūen a few moments ago and simply ignored the first part of what she had said.

"Were you close with Manabe, Ichinose?"

[Not exactly. We've only ever spoken once or twice, I guess. It still feels kinda lonesome though. Class A's Totsuka-kun and Class C's Yamauchi-kun are also gone…]

She probably hadn't been able to make sense of it all yet.

[I wonder if somebody's gonna have to leave like this again at some point?]

Ichinose pondered uneasily.

"Maybe."

People you had grown accustomed to seeing every day, suddenly disappearing.

"You would just have to keep fighting, wouldn't you?"

[Yup. I'm gonna rise up to Class A together with all my friends and graduate.]

Before today, there were probably still some people who thought that Ichinose was a hypocrite.

However, with this, that impression would be gone.

No matter what, Ichinose would fight to the bitter end in order to protect her class.

[…Thank you so much, Ayanokōji-kun. If you weren't here, I…]

"Would've started dating Nagumo?"

[…Yeah.]

Ichinose responded, affirming my answer.

[I know it's stupid of me, it's just… I kept trying to convince myself that it would've been a small price to pay as long as I saved my classmates. But… once I realized that I didn't have to go through with it, I felt relieved from the bottom of my heart.]

She seemed to let out a deep sigh of relief as I could hear the sound of it from the other end of the phone.

[I think I definitely would have regretted it at some point.]

With that, Ichinose let out a laugh.

"If neither the student council president or I were here, what would you have done instead?"

[…Do you have to ask that?]

"I'm curious. There's no way you haven't thought about it, right?"

[Yeah, I had two plans. The first was that I would leave the school myself.]

As I had thought, Ichinose had also considered sacrificing herself.

[But, I didn't really think that would be the choice to make. As a student of this school, I wanted to stay and fight to the bitter end.]

In which case, that would mean her other plan would've been her first choice.

[The other plan was to… hold a lottery.]

"I see…"

It was a simple enough plan that anybody could've thought of, but it would never work unless everyone agreed to it.

"Was everyone in Class B prepared to draw lots like that?"

[Yup, we had already discussed it. If we hadn't come up with a way to avoid the expulsion by the day of the vote, we would've drawn three random names in a lottery. We didn't bother talking about who the praise votes would go to and just decided the rest would play out on its own.]

It was the only way to judge all the students equally, without considering their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Even if Ichinose had been selected, the votes against her would've probably been canceled out by praise votes. Although, everyone would've probably been fine with that anyway.

"That would've been about as fair as you could've made it, but it would've never happened in the other classes."

The more outstanding students definitely wouldn't agree to a plan like that.

[It's not like anybody actually wanted to be expelled, but nobody wanted to see our friends disappear either. Once I explained this to everyone, they agreed to the plan.]

Class B was probably only able to accomplish a feat like that because they had an absolute leader like Ichinose.

"I'm impressed."

Despite the fact that it wouldn't be communicated over the phone, I lowered my head slightly as a show of respect to Ichinose.

In and of itself, her plan wasn't particularly extraordinary.

It was simply impressive that she had created an environment where a plan like that could be executed in the first place.

[Alrighty, well, I'll talk to you later. Thank you once again, Ayanokōji-kun.]

"I was just the middleman. If you're going to thank anybody, you should thank Ryūen and his friends."

[Part 7 end]

[Part 8]

Afterward, I found out that I had received an email on my phone.

"Sakayanagi, huh?"

I didn't know how she found out about my email address, but I figured I might as well go and meet up with her.

I had thought that she would come and see the results on the bulletin board, but…

As per Sakayanagi's message, I headed toward the special building where she said she'd be waiting.

Even though it was almost past the time she had requested for us to meet, I figured that if I left now, we'd still be able to run into each other.

Once I got to the special building, I immediately went to the place where we had talked last time.

"So you finally came."

"Seeing that you have my email address, you must have gotten your hands on my phone number as well."

"I didn't call because I didn't think it would be much of an issue if I didn't get to see you today."

"What do you want?"

"For the time being, there's something I'd like to explain to you."

As she spoke, she leaned forward a little bit on her cane, shortening the distance between us.

"Since I had done something a little bit disorderly, I thought you might be somewhat uneasy, but it seems my worries were uncalled for."

Of course, Sakayanagi was referring to how she had manipulated Yamauchi into concentrating all the censure votes on me.

"When you talked to me about delaying our match, I was already ninety-percent certain you were telling the truth. I just didn't trust you completely, so I took some measures of my own, just in case."

"I know. Though, you agree that I didn't break our agreement, right?"

"You didn't do anything that put me at a disadvantage. You didn't lie."

While I had been forced to endure at least some degree of mental stress, if we only consider the outcome, I had ended up with an overwhelming number of praise votes.

No matter how I looked at it, there was no reason for me to hold anything against Sakayanagi.

"Thank you very much."

Sakayanagi bowed her head slightly to show her gratitude.

"Incidentally… Totsuka-kun should've ended up with a total of thirty-eight censure votes, but ultimately only got thirty-six. You voted for him, didn't you?"

"I wasn't certain of anything, but when you said you wanted to have Katsuragi expelled, it felt like it was just a bluff."

In which case, I felt like the chances were higher that she was targeting Yahiko, Katsuragi's supporter, instead.

Even though my vote hadn't changed anything, I had ended up casting it for him anyway.

"How wonderful. As I thought, you're definitely the real deal. The perfect opponent."

"So? Was all of this just your attempt to mess with me?"

"Well… I'd be lying if I said it wasn't, but there is a reason why I said that I wanted to postpone our match. I mentioned something similar not too long ago, but this provisional exam is undoubtedly something that a certain someone prepared in order to have you expelled from the school. In fact, this someone has already happened to send me a message requesting me to help get you expelled."

"A message?"

"Yes. It was probably from the same person who had gotten my father temporarily kicked out of office. Originally, they had set up the provisional exam with slightly different rules. The votes that classes would use on each other were going to be censure votes, not praise votes, so there's no mistaking what their goal was. That would've been quite the unreasonable exam, don't you agree?"

"If that had happened, it wouldn't matter who the student is, if you were colluded against by the other classes, you'd be forced out of school."

It would've been an unreasonable exam where even Sakayanagi and Ichinose would be at risk if the other classes were out to get them.

"Exactly. It seems the current school staff were vehemently opposed to it and managed to change that part of it. Besides, I would never cooperate with that person anyway. That wouldn't be any fun at all. That's why, in order to ensure your safety, I decided to use all of Class A's praise votes on you. That way, even if someone had been up to something behind the scenes, it would've been impossible for you to be expelled."

"Then, why did you pick Yamauchi? Was it just random chance?"

"Do you not remember? He bumped into me and knocked me over during the Mixed Training Camp. Furthermore, he was quite rude about it."

Something like that did happen back then.

"It was revenge for that."

She had targeted him just because of something simple like that?

For Sakayanagi, that alone might've been more than enough of a reason.

"However, all I did was light the fire. In the end, he was burned because he was a burden to his class."

"I guess."

Even if Sakayanagi hadn't interfered with the exam, the end result would've probably been about the same.

"Those were the main reasons I had asked to postpone our match. At the same time, I wouldn't mind seeing my father return to his position so the school can return to normal, but…"

Suddenly, within the empty special building, someone new had arrived.

"Hello hello."

A lone man dressed in a suit appeared before us.

"This is my first time at this school. Do either of you know where the staff room is?"

"If you're looking for the staff room, then you've come to the wrong place. That said, please excuse my lack of manners, but may I know who's asking?"

"My name is Tsukishiro. I'll be working as the acting director of the school for the time being."

He waved his hand politely and gave the two of us a seemingly gentle smile.

He was probably in his forties, somewhere around Sakayanagi's father's age.

"Fufu, is that so? It seems that Mr. Acting Director has quite the poor sense of direction, seeing as how you just so happened to wander your way here. Or, perhaps… you had decided to pay us a visit after seeing the two of us meet on the security camera last time? This is the same place Ayanokōji-kun and I had used to meet secretly at the beginning of the exam. It wouldn't be very hard for you to come here if you had always been keeping an eye on it."

As she spoke, I recalled the unnatural look Sakayanagi had given the camera last time we were here.

If someone had really been watching us last time, it would've been easy to lure them out next time we came here.

Not only had Sakayanagi thought of this plan ahead of time, but the person in question seemed to have fallen for it.

The acting director simply smiled and ignored what she had been implying.

"You say very interesting things. Though, I suppose I've heard that this is quite the amusing school. I wonder if all the students here are like you? Either way, please, pardon me."

The man proceeded to walk forward, as if he was attempting to walk between the two of us.

"Since you're looking for the staff room, I suggest you go back the way you came. You're in the wrong building."

With the same smile as always, Tsukishiro kicked Sakayangi's cane out from under her as she attempted to give him directions.

Naturally, there was no way for her to react to something so unexpected, so she began to fall over.

With an exclamation of surprise, I quickly reached out and grabbed ahold of her to stop her from falling, only to be immediately met with a strike from his elbow aimed at my body.

Unable to take evasive measures while holding onto Sakayanagi, I was forced to take the blow. I resisted the impact to the best of my ability and let Sakayanagi down to the floor. He came at me again in quick succession, seizing me by the neck and pinning me against the wall with bewildering, superhuman strength.

"You're not as good as rumors say, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka-kun."

He was pressing against my throat so hard that I couldn't make a sound.

It was hard to imagine his strength based on his outward appearance. It felt like it would be difficult to break free of his hold.

"…You've gone and done something quite reprehensible, Mr. Acting Director."

"I know you were sent instructions to have him expelled, Sakayanagi."

"So that message was from one of your associates then? Since school officials aren't able to explicitly force an expulsion, it's understandable that you would come to rely on someone like me."

Sakayanagi smiled as she slowly got up from the floor.

"Thank you for helping me, Ayanokōji-kun."

It would've been impossible for Sakayanagi to avoid that given her physical handicap.

There was even a chance that it wouldn't have ended with just a fall.

"Do you believe your violent behavior against students will go unnoticed, Mr. Acting Director?"

"There's no need for me to worry about it. The surveillance cameras in this area have been doctored to show dummy footage."

In other words, no matter what happened, there wouldn't be any recording of it.

"Now then, Ayanokōji, I have a message from your father. He has no interest in playing this childish game anymore and wants you to come home immediately. How about you blink twice if you understand?"

I was unable to speak a single word, and furthermore, wasn't even given an option to refuse.

This was really something 'that man' would do.

"So you have no intention of making this easy for yourself?"

In response to my complete, unresponsive silence, the acting director began to mumble as he got bored.

"Why don't you show a little bit of resistance? Show me something a normal kid couldn't."

His hold on my throat became even stronger.

He was a thoroughly trained, skilled opponent that an ordinary student wouldn't be able to deal with.

"There's more to you than just observation skills, right? Why don't you show me what else you're capable of?"

He provoked me once again, but I still didn't show a single shred of resistance.

In the end, Tsukishiro realized that I had no intention of fighting back and loosened his grip.

"I officially take office at this school in April. Please do look forward to it."

With that, the man walked out of the special building.

"That was a wise choice, Ayanokōji-kun."

Sakayanagi praised me for putting up with his actions and restraining myself from fighting back.

"He's the acting director. Had I chosen to retaliate, I don't know how he would've used it against me."

He said that the surveillance cameras had been doctored to show dummy footage, but there was no guarantee he hadn't recorded everything anyway. It would've been checkmate for me if I fought back and only his violent behavior was edited out from the video.

"Are you hurt?"

"Don't worry. I'm used to stuff like this. More importantly, Sakayanagi…"

"Yes? What is it?"

"Let's officially have our match in the next exam."

As I spoke, Sakayanagi's eyes seemed to widen in surprise.

"I never expected that you would say that sort of thing to me face-to-face."

"If that man is going to be involved starting in April, I don't think I can afford to compete with you for very long. I'll make it obvious to you where things stand and leave it with that."

"That's fine with me. I won't need a second or third time. I will gladly accept the privilege of being your opponent."

The final exam of the first year would begin soon, and that would mark the end of the confrontation Sakayanagi was hoping for.

[Part 8 end]

[Part 9]

Monday.

Amongst the students, at least some of them were probably wondering if Yamauchi would still be here.

Wondering if the expulsion had been nothing more than a bluff.

However, reality was not so merciful.

Since the events of the weekend, the number of desks in the classroom had decreased by one.

Yamauchi Haruki's place was already long gone.

The smile on Hirata's face had faded.

The smile on Kushida's face had too.

Neither Sudō nor Ike looked particularly energetic.

"-Without any further ado, I will now announce the final special exam."

Just like that, the first year's Class C advanced toward their final special examination.

Volume 10 end