After sharing a profoundly meaningful handshake with Kushida Kikyo, the school building hallway fell silent for a moment. The atmosphere between them was somewhat strange.
Tennoji Kaede was the first to break the silence.
"I'm glad to have earned your trust, Kushida. To be honest, I don't know what you've been through in the past, but I think your true self looks more at ease—and more adorable—than the person you were before."
Tennoji Kaede meant every word. The false persona Kushida had worn before was genuinely unnerving if you thought about it too much. It was nowhere near as interesting as an emotionless beauty.
Huh?
Kushida Kikyo's icy eyes suddenly widened!
In disbelief, she watched Kaede's retreating back as he walked toward Yamauchi.
He actually thinks I'm cuter like this?
As the saying goes, people who wear a mask for too long often come to hate that mask—and grow to hate their own true face even more.
That was exactly how Kushida felt. But today, for the first time in her life, someone had said her real self was better... In her eyes, Kaede had no reason to say something like that now if he didn't mean it... Was he serious?
"We should think about how to handle Yamauchi Haruki. After all, that lunatic also knows your secret."
That's right!
Kushida Kikyo suddenly came to her senses. She had almost forgotten that her situation was still precarious.
"Um, I was planning to get the evidence and then threaten Yamauchi Haruki in return. I'd tell him he had to keep quiet from now on, or else..."
He cut her off. "Or else you and Yamauchi Haruki would go down together, right?"
Kushida Kikyo: "...Yes."
It was time to bring that person in.
After some thought, Tennoji Kaede made a decision.
"Kushida, that won't be nearly enough. You'll only keep living in the shadow of this incident."
Tennoji Kaede turned back to face her.
"I'll take care of Yamauchi. But are you really willing to trust me?"
"To put an end to this for good, you may have to make a sacrifice. But I promise you won't have to suffer this kind of harm again."
Kushida fell into thought.
"This could even be an opportunity. Maybe you won't have to keep living behind that extreme false persona of yours. You might have a better choice."
Kushida Kikyo: !?
"Are you willing to trust me, Kushida?"
Kushida could no longer refuse Kaede.
Afterward, Tennoji Kaede made a phone call, and a certain man came to meet them—
Third Year Class A's Student Council President, Horikita Manabu!
Advanced Nurturing High School, more than a month and a half after the new first-year students had enrolled.
A shocking event took place!
First, there was Kushida Kikyo, Class D's social butterfly and the undisputed number one on the list of female students most popular with first-year boys.
She suddenly became a completely different person!?
She was quiet and reserved, her expression solemn. An air of bleak coldness surrounded her, like a truly solitary flower.
Everyone was shocked. Whenever anyone asked her what had happened, she would remain silent.
At the same time, the Class D students were the first to notice that Kushida had changed. They also noticed something else strange.
Their Class D classmate, Yamauchi Haruki, had mysteriously disappeared from school?
At first, Yamauchi's good friends, like Kanji Ike, Ken Sudō, and Tendo Ryotaro, were all puzzled.
Where was Yamauchi? Where had he gone? Could he have... dropped out?
Later, someone—no one knew who had been the first—suddenly voiced a terrifying suspicion.
Taking into account that Kushida had changed first and Yamauchi had mysteriously disappeared afterward, everyone felt a chill of horror.
Then, just as Class D was growing increasingly uneasy, Teacher Chabashira revealed the shocking truth at their latest Class Meeting.
Kushida Kikyo had taken temporary leave from that Class Meeting—and not just for one day.
Teacher Chabashira looked like an active volcano that day. "First, I have some very bad news for Class D. Yamauchi Haruki has been expelled for violating school rules."
"Class D's Class Points have now dropped from one to zero. Heh."
When she finished, Teacher Chabashira was the first to laugh, as if she were sincerely pleased that her class had finally returned to its ideal score.
Class D fell silent, but, surprisingly, everyone seemed to have expected this.
Besides, the difference between one point and zero hardly mattered to them anymore.
They were waiting for confirmation...
Kanji Ike couldn't hold back any longer and asked the question everyone wanted answered. "Saechie, um... when you say Yamauchi violated the school rules... what do you mean?"
Teacher Chabashira's expression remained cold. "I'm sure you've all noticed the changes in Kushida Kikyo recently, haven't you?"
At her words, everyone in Class D felt as if they couldn't breathe!
They might be foolish and slow on the uptake, but they weren't completely clueless.
Could the rumors be true!?
Hirata's face was twisted with pain as he let out a heavy breath.
He had given up hope.
He had still been imagining that the two strange events might not be connected, but in the end, he'd simply been too naive...
"Yamauchi Haruki molested Kushida Kikyo. The evidence is conclusive. That is the crime he committed, one serious enough to warrant expulsion!"
"'Molested' might even be putting it mildly... Ike, are you satisfied with that answer?"
Ike slumped in his seat. He knew how serious the consequences would be for having once been friends with a criminal like Yamauchi!
The expressions on the faces of Yamauchi's other friends in Class D were just as difficult to read.
Seeing everyone sink into a silence as deep as an abyss, Teacher Chabashira sighed heavily once more.
This time, Class D might truly be finished, even with that boy among them... After saying her piece, Teacher Chabashira quickly left the classroom.
Then Class D exploded!
Karuizawa Kei, the girls' unofficial leader in Class D, sprang to her feet in anger. Facing the boys who had been close to Yamauchi, she pointed at them and shouted:
"Are you boys even human? How could you do something like that to a classmate?!"
Ken Sudō kicked a desk and shouted back furiously. "You shrew! Yamauchi's the one who did it! What does that have to do with me?!"
"Exactly!"
"Karuizawa, that's not fair."
Sato Maya wept softly. "I can't believe Little Kikyo had to go through something so horrible..."
As soon as she said that, Class D fell silent.
Then a more chaotic war of insults broke out between the boys and girls, and it had nothing at all to do with Kushida Kikyo anymore.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka sat expressionlessly on the throne in the "King's Homeland."
In reality, he felt somewhat speechless himself.
He didn't care about the loser Yamauchi, nor was he concerned about what consequences the current chaos in the class might bring.
On the contrary, he thought the opportunity had come.
Ayanokoji realized that several people in Class D he had previously considered promising were now in varying states of confusion and collapse. This was a good opportunity.
It had come sooner than expected, but the timing was still right for him to step in.
Still, he had his reservations. Kushida Kikyo had been acting somewhat strangely these past few days, and he hadn't missed it.
But if he didn't act now, Class D might really slip out of control...
In the end, Ayanokoji decided to intervene first and salvage the situation.
He would start with that interesting man—
Hirata Yousuke!
The truth couldn't stay hidden forever.
In less than a day, the story of Kushida Kikyo spread across the entire Gao campus.
For a time, every decent person felt sympathy and sorrow for Kushida Kikyo's tragic experience.
Not long after, the Student Council President, Horikita Manabu, suddenly announced that Kushida Kikyo had officially joined the Student Council!
Before you continue