Chapter Summaries

Bai Lan rushed to rescue Karuizawa after she sent him their distress signal from a girls’ restroom. As he raced to the school building, Karuizawa used the combat training he had given her to fight back against her attacker.

• Karuizawa sent Bai Lan their cough signal while an unfamiliar girl confronted her and demanded an apology.
• Bai Lan tracked Karuizawa to a girls’ restroom in the school building but could not tell which floor she was on.
• Hearing Karuizawa scream as the girl advanced, Bai Lan rushed out of his dorm room to reach her.
• On the first floor, Karuizawa shifted from a cowering pose into a fighting stance and struck the girl’s exposed armpit and chin.
• Karuizawa began swinging her fists at the girl, drawing on the physical training Bai Lan had arranged.

Karuizawa used the strength Bai Lan had taught her to fight off a girl who confronted her in the restroom, then explained the incident to him over the phone. Bai Lan suspected the attack had been deliberately staged because the girl seemed unlike anyone he knew at the school.

• Karuizawa struck the vicious girl with a burst of powerful punches, knocking her down and making her flee in tears.
• Bai Lan recognized the familiar sounds of Karuizawa using her trained movements, shouted her name through the phone, and helped her regain her composure.
• Karuizawa told Bai Lan that she had returned to school for her jacket and encountered the girl while washing her hands in the first-floor women's restroom.
• Karuizawa explained that she had secretly called Bai Lan using the discreet method he had trained her to use.
• Bai Lan reasoned that the girl's deliberate provocation and apparent age did not fit anyone he had encountered or heard about at the school, leading him to suspect a setup.

Bai Lan investigated the girl who had provoked Karuizawa and suspected someone was manipulating events, possibly Nagumo. After Karuizawa was suspended for allegedly bullying Yonekura Kōko, Bai Lan reassured her that he had evidence to clear her, but chose to delay appealing so he could uncover who was behind the accusation.

• Bai Lan identified Yonekura Kōko of Class 2-D as the girl who had confronted Karuizawa and suspected Nagumo might be involved.
• Bai Lan secretly gathered information and prepared evidence while avoiding any rule-breaking before midterms.
• On May 19, Chabashira summoned Karuizawa and suspended her for seven days after Yonekura reported being injured.
• Bai Lan told Karuizawa he had recordings and photographs that could clear her, but wanted to use the suspension to learn who was targeting her.
• Karuizawa agreed to cooperate, and Bai Lan asked when her punishment would begin.

Karuizawa faced a possible suspension for bullying and asked Bai Lan, Horikita, Hirata, and Kushida for help. The four met her at noon to hear her case, while Bai Lan insisted they should neither protect the guilty nor abandon the innocent.

• Karuizawa told Bai Lan she could accept her suspension or appeal to the Student Council for arbitration, and he instructed her to ask Horikita, Hirata, and Kushida for help without revealing their connection.
• Horikita asked Bai Lan whether Karuizawa's suspension could make her miss the upcoming exam and lead to expulsion, but he said he would not defend her if she was guilty.
• Horikita said Karuizawa claimed she had been bullied and falsely accused, and Bai Lan agreed they should investigate before judging her.
• Hirata and Kushida separately asked Bai Lan about Karuizawa, and he told both that they should not protect the guilty or wrong the innocent.
• At noon, Bai Lan, Horikita, Hirata, and Kushida met Karuizawa outside the school building, where she angrily demanded that the class managers protect her.

Bai Lan and the others appealed Kei Karuizawa’s suspension for allegedly bullying Yonekura, and Horikita Manabu scheduled an arbitration hearing. At the hearing, Yonekura arrived appearing badly injured and afraid of Karuizawa, while Bai Lan suspected she had exaggerated or faked her injuries.

• Karuizawa recounted the restroom incident, and Horikita judged that the evidence seemed to favor Yonekura.
• Bai Lan and the others went to the Student Council, where Horikita Suzune registered an appeal denying that Karuizawa had bullied anyone.
• Horikita Manabu accepted the appeal and arranged an arbitration hearing, while Karuizawa asked Horikita Suzune whether she was available to attend.
• Karuizawa received the hearing details, and Bai Lan and the others went to a courtroom-like classroom after the final class.
• Yonekura entered limping with visible bruises and swelling, and Bai Lan suspected her injuries were faked or exaggerated.
• Bai Lan noticed Yonekura shrink back from Karuizawa and saw Karuizawa’s hidden fingers trembling faintly.

Bai Lan watched as Karuizawa faced Yonekura’s accusation at the student council arbitration, letting her speak for herself despite her panic. Karuizawa regained her composure and denied the charge, and the hearing moved to questions with Yonekura’s side about to challenge the arbitration.

• Bai Lan restrained Horikita Suzune from speaking for Karuizawa, telling her to let Karuizawa handle her own responsibility.
• Yonekura claimed Karuizawa had attacked and threatened her in a restroom, then cried after finishing her statement.
• Karuizawa remembered Bai Lan’s promise of protection, calmed down, and gave her account of Yonekura provoking and trying to hit her.
• Tachibana Akane began the question-and-answer stage, but one of Yonekura’s companions asked to raise a question about the arbitration itself.

At a mock disciplinary hearing, Horikita Suzune challenged the case against Karuizawa by showing that her month-long record of obeying school rules made the accusation suspicious. Yonekura's side struggled to counter her argument, then began questioning the limits of the evidence as the hearing continued.

• A girl pointed out that Bai Lan was a Disciplinary Committee member, so Bai Lan moved from the defendant's side to the judge's bench and took over Tachibana Akane's role.
• The girl argued that Yonekura looked too timid to bully anyone, and Horikita Suzune objected that appearances did not establish who was at fault.
• Horikita Suzune argued that Karuizawa's seven-day suspension would make her miss the midterms and risk expulsion, despite her spotless disciplinary record over the previous month.
• The hearing's participants were surprised by Karuizawa's record, and Karuizawa explained that she had followed the rules for the class's honor.
• Yonekura's side argued that one month was not long enough to prove Karuizawa's character, then began challenging how motive could be used as evidence.

Horikita Suzune tried to defend Karuizawa by arguing that she had struck Yonekura only in an initial retaliation and had not pursued her, but surveillance footage could not prove that. The proceedings left Karuizawa facing a likely severe punishment, with assault an even harsher possibility if Yonekura’s initial wrongdoing could not be established.

• The opposing side argued that the footage and injuries made Yonekura look like the victim and Karuizawa’s response excessive.
• Karuizawa recalled the photographs, recordings, and video Bai Lan had shown her, while Horikita Suzune searched for a reliable rebuttal.
• After the opposing side urged the judges to punish Karuizawa, Horikita Suzune proposed using the bathroom surveillance footage to estimate how long the fight lasted.
• Bai Lan asked to check the footage, and Horikita Manabu obtained and displayed it for the hearing.
• The footage showed that Yonekura had spent more than two minutes in the bathroom, leaving enough uncertain time for a pursuit, so Horikita Suzune’s argument failed.

Horikita Suzune failed to resolve Karuizawa’s expulsion crisis, so Horikita Manabu postponed the arbitration until May 23, the day before the midterms. Bai Lan warned that someone might approach Karuizawa and suggested the frame-up’s real motive could involve a benefit for someone beyond the second-years who accused her.

• Horikita Suzune asked to postpone the arbitration, but Yonekura’s side objected and insisted that Karuizawa be expelled.
• Horikita Manabu ended the arbitration and scheduled the final verdict for May 23, leaving Karuizawa to attend classes until then.
• Karuizawa’s intimidating remarks made Yonekura fear retaliation and led Horikita Suzune to suspect Karuizawa might act recklessly.
• Horikita assigned Kushida, Hirata, and Karuizawa separate investigative tasks, while Bai Lan told Karuizawa to alert him if anyone approached her.
• Horikita explained that the frame-up might serve a broader purpose, since Karuizawa’s expulsion would benefit the first-year classes rather than the second-year accusers.

Horikita reasoned that whoever framed Karuizawa wanted something from the class rather than simply to make it lose points, and Bai Lan waited for that person to approach. As the arbitration resumed with no evidence or contact, Nagumo arrived, and Karuizawa revealed she had recently spoken with him without telling Bai Lan.

• Horikita concluded that the person behind Karuizawa’s framing likely intended to negotiate for something from the class, while Hirata hoped they could save her from expulsion.
• By May 23, no one had approached Karuizawa’s defenders and they had found no counterevidence, so the arbitration seemed to be heading toward her punishment.
• Nagumo entered the special classroom with a document for Horikita Manabu, and Bai Lan recognized him as the person he had been waiting to catch.
• Karuizawa said she had chatted briefly with Nagumo in the cafeteria a day or two earlier, but she had not told Bai Lan because she thought she only needed to report proposed deals.

Karuizawa told Horikita Suzune how Nagumo had defended her in a cafeteria dispute, while privately sending Bai Lan a more vulnerable account. Bai Lan suspected Nagumo was maneuvering to make him suffer a mental blow before engineering his expulsion, and the chapter left Nagumo discussing Karuizawa with Horikita Manabu.

• Horikita Suzune pressed Karuizawa to explain her contact with Nagumo, and Karuizawa secretly messaged Bai Lan while recounting it.
• Karuizawa described losing her student ID, being accused of cutting in line, and standing her ground because other students might see her back down.
• Karuizawa explained that Nagumo vouched for her with a timestamped photo and said he hoped they would become friends.
• Bai Lan read Karuizawa's private account and watched Nagumo, who asked Horikita Manabu whether Karuizawa had gotten into another misunderstanding.
• Bai Lan concluded that Nagumo wanted to undermine him before causing his expulsion, while Nagumo feared the retaliation and loss of control that might follow.

Nagumo planned to recruit Karuizawa as an informant and use her to undermine Bai Lan, but her unexpected defeat of Yonekura forced him to replace his staged rescue with a frame-up. He aimed to appear as Karuizawa’s savior and win her over, even though Bai Lan might become suspicious.

• Nagumo planned to secretly recruit students from Bai Lan’s class and eventually use them to get Bai Lan expelled without giving him a chance to retaliate.
• Nagumo chose Karuizawa as his target, reasoning that she was easier to manipulate than Horikita or Kushida and could be drawn to him as a supposedly strong protector.
• Nagumo’s planned rescue failed when Karuizawa quickly defeated Yonekura, whom he had expected to bully her.
• Nagumo changed tactics and had Yonekura and the others frame Karuizawa so he could appear at a moment of crisis and win her trust.
• Nagumo had previously staged a food-line misunderstanding involving Karuizawa’s student ID to make his later intervention seem natural.
• Nagumo accepted that Bai Lan might suspect him, believing he could still use Karuizawa before Bai Lan could act against him.

Bai Lan sent Horikita Suzune evidence that could clear Karuizawa, while Horikita interpreted his delay as an effort to give her a chance to prove herself before her brother. She realized the evidence would let her lead the next stage of the investigation.

• Bai Lan sent Horikita Suzune an email with video, audio, and photographs showing Yonekura shortly after her confrontation with Karuizawa.
• Horikita studied the photographs and recognized Yonekura, noting that their timestamps placed them less than five minutes after the restroom incident.
• Horikita inferred that Bai Lan had tracked down and photographed Yonekura soon after the incident, then withheld the evidence while the group struggled.
• Horikita decided Bai Lan had left her to lead the group so she could demonstrate her ability and determination to her brother.
• Horikita concluded that Bai Lan had prepared a stage for her next performance by giving her evidence that could help resolve Karuizawa's case.

Horikita Suzune used the evidence Bai Lan sent to prepare to clear Karuizawa and expose Yonekura’s false accusation. Nagumo tried to intervene as a mediator, but Suzune rejected his help and stood ready to present their case.

• Horikita Suzune examined Bai Lan’s photographs, recording, and video, concluding that Karuizawa’s injuries had been faked and that Yonekura had made a false accusation.
• Nagumo told Horikita Manabu about his earlier encounter with Karuizawa and asked Yonekura to let the matter go, claiming there had been a misunderstanding.
• Horikita Suzune declined Nagumo’s offer, saying her class could resolve the dispute themselves.
• Nagumo sat nearby and watched as Horikita Suzune prepared to make her case.

Horikita Suzune presented evidence clearing Karuizawa and exposing Yonekura’s attempt to frame and persecute her, while Nagumo tried to protect the students acting on his behalf. After Horikita called for Yonekura’s expulsion, Bai Lan instructed her to accept negotiations, and she demanded forty million.

• Horikita Suzune showed evidence proving Karuizawa had not bullied Yonekura and that Yonekura had fabricated her injuries after trying to bully Karuizawa.
• Horikita demanded that Horikita Manabu punish Yonekura with expulsion and argued that the students had turned school rules into tools for persecution.
• Horikita Manabu promised an impartial Student Council decision, and Horikita Suzune bowed to him, surprising Karuizawa, Kushida, and Hirata.
• Yonekura sought Nagumo’s help, making Bai Lan and the others suspect that Nagumo was involved.
• Nagumo claimed he only wanted to mediate and urged the group to forgive Yonekura, but Horikita said they could negotiate and demanded forty million.

Bai Lan turned Nagumo’s low settlement offer into a confrontation, arguing that Nagumo controlled the second year’s points and resources and could afford far more. He began listing Nagumo’s alleged offenses and warned that Yonekura must have had an accomplice.

• Nagumo argued that Horikita Suzune’s forty-million settlement demand was impossible for Yonekura and offered eight million instead.
• Horikita Suzune deferred to Bai Lan, who kept the demand at forty million and then raised it to fifty million after Nagumo told him to get to the point.
• Nagumo lost his composure and accused Bai Lan of wasting time, while Bai Lan said Nagumo had provoked him first.
• Bai Lan accused Nagumo of controlling Second-Year Class D’s points, rankings, and allowances, so Nagumo—not Yonekura’s class—could afford the compensation.
• Bai Lan said Yonekura’s expulsion would cost Nagumo twenty million to prevent and began listing alleged offenses, including violence, framing, and misuse of public resources.

Bai Lan used the allegations against Yonekura and her accomplices to pressure Nagumo for a huge payment, arguing that their suspensions could cost Second-Year Class D its points and influence. Nagumo rejected the demand and offered eight million points while promising to support the class if its points were wiped out.

• Bai Lan told Horikita Manabu that Yonekura and her accomplices could face suspension for intentionally injuring a classmate, and Horikita agreed that suspension would be lenient.
• Bai Lan accused the group of fraud, and Yonekura admitted they had planned to seek one or two million points in compensation.
• Bai Lan raised his demand from fifty million to sixty million points, claiming that paying would protect the accomplices and preserve Nagumo's control over the second year.
• Nagumo rejected Bai Lan's demand, argued that the punishments could be avoided for less than twenty million points, and offered eight million.
• Nagumo claimed the class's points could not become negative and promised to organize donations so Second-Year Class D could continue living normally.

Bai Lan rejected Nagumo’s offer to pay 8.5 million points to settle the disciplinary case against Yonekura and the others. He then threatened to expose a leak of the first-year midterm questions, leaving Nagumo scrambling to stop him.

• Nagumo warned Bai Lan that punishing Yonekura and the others would invite revenge from their zero-point class, then offered him 8.5 million points to end the matter.
• Bai Lan pretended to accept Nagumo’s argument before insisting that the rulebreakers should be punished as required.
• Bai Lan briefly presented himself as an uncompromising Disciplinary Committee member, then admitted that Nagumo could not buy him off for 8.5 million points.
• Bai Lan hinted that Nagumo’s connections might not protect him from a genuine expulsion and reported to Horikita Manabu that the midterm questions had been leaked.
• Nagumo recognized that Bai Lan’s report threatened to expose the exam-paper scheme and hurriedly told him to wait.

Bai Lan planned to use past exam papers to make the midterm easier while exploiting their importance to threaten Nagumo over Karuizawa’s framing. After confirming that exam-paper overlap decreased over time, he concluded that second-year Classes C and D still relied heavily on past papers and could suffer mass expulsions without them.

• Bai Lan adjusted his plan to use past exam papers both to lower the midterm’s difficulty and to retaliate against whoever had framed Karuizawa.
• Bai Lan reasoned that underachievers could not reliably make up years of missed study in the short time between exams, leaving them at risk of eventual expulsion.
• Bai Lan inferred that the school gradually reduced the overlap between past papers and official exams as students advanced through the grades.
• Bai Lan paid a third-year senior to confirm his theory, and the senior verified that the overlap decreased over time.
• Bai Lan concluded that second-year Class D still depended on past papers and considered using the threat of expulsions in Classes C and D to pressure Nagumo.

Bai Lan used the leaked midterm questions to threaten Nagumo’s control of the second year and demanded that he choose between surrendering that control and paying seventy million. Nagumo suspected Bai Lan was bluffing, but Bai Lan produced exam papers as evidence before the student council president.

• Bai Lan’s earlier expulsions and point deductions left Nagumo facing dwindling income, rising costs, and the risk that the other second-year classes would rebel.
• Bai Lan told Nagumo he would report leaked midterm questions unless Nagumo gave up control of the second year or paid seventy million.
• Nagumo realized that a report could force the school to replace the exam questions and undermine his support, but he tried to convince himself Bai Lan would not dare.
• Bai Lan began reporting the leak to Horikita Manabu, who asked whether he had evidence.
• Bai Lan placed leaked first-year exam papers on Horikita Manabu’s desk, and Horikita and Nagumo examined them.