He had wanted to go over and greet his brother, to tell him how much he'd missed him over the past three years. Instead, not only had he failed to earn his brother's approval, but he'd also been beaten up by him.
Horikita Suzune sat on the chair beside the vending machine, forcing herself to endure the pain.
She could tell her brother had held back, but even so, it still hurt so much.
Was her very existence really such a source of shame to him?
Was being at the same school as her really so unbearable for her brother?
She felt her strength draining away, bit by bit. Her goals, her pride—all of them seemed so insignificant. She was like a clay doll, washed away by a downpour, leaving nothing behind but a mess.
Was there really no point in staying at this school?
Her eyes slowly lost focus, and the world before her blurred.
Horikita Manabu turned and walked away.
After rounding the corner and reaching a spot out of Horikita Suzune's sight, he stopped.
"Come out."
"So you really can't escape the Student Council President's notice?" The one who emerged from the shadows was Amasawa Yuto, who had witnessed the whole thing.
"Can't escape? Didn't you deliberately make a noise to get my attention?" Horikita Manabu adjusted his glasses, his gaze sharp. "I heard a girl's voice, so I assume you have a companion."
He must mean the noise Morishita Ran made. Amasawa Yuto thought with some exasperation.
"I do, but I sent them to look after your sister. By the way, you hit her pretty hard. How could you lay into your own little sister like that without worrying about her?"
Horikita Manabu's gaze turned cold. "I was only greeting my sister. You can ask her yourself. And if you mean whether I'm worried about Suzune, she isn't so weak that she needs my pity."
What the heck is he going on about?
Amasawa Yuto's face went blank. Why had he hit her and then claimed she was strong and didn't need his pity?
Horikita Manabu continued, "So, why have you shown yourself now, Amasawa Yuto of Class 1-A?"
If possible, please don't say my full name. It reminds me of a certain purple-haired king of corny jokes. Amasawa Yuto really wanted to make that snarky remark.
"You know the name of an ordinary student in the year below you. Is your memory as Student Council President really that overstuffed?"
"An ordinary student? You? Don't joke around. You got perfect marks on the entrance exam, and you were the only first-year to score full marks on the test at the end of April."
"So getting perfect marks really did make me stand out too much?"
"And what about Club Orientation? You haven't forgotten that, have you?" Horikita Manabu stared at Amasawa Yuto as if he could see right through him.
He must be talking about Masumi Kamuro's phone ringing. He'd already noticed Amasawa Yuto and Sakayanagi, after all. But now that he'd come face-to-face with the Student Council President, there was no need to bring up Sakayanagi's name.
"If I told you it wasn't on purpose, would you believe me?"
"I couldn't care less about that little thing." Horikita Manabu kept his eyes on Amasawa Yuto and pressed on. "Why have you shown yourself now?"
If you couldn't care less, then why bring it up?
"Why have I shown myself?" Amasawa Yuto took out his phone. It displayed the video he'd just recorded, though the low light and long distance made the footage terribly blurry.
"What if I said I wanted to expose what happened and use it to threaten the Student Council President?"
"You mean... threaten me?" There was a dangerous edge to Horikita Manabu's voice. "I don't see what leverage you have. This footage is so blurry that it shows nothing. How could anyone believe your word alone?"
Amasawa Yuto glanced at his phone. It was true: apart from showing that there were two people, you couldn't even tell their genders. It was enough to make anyone worry about the school-issued phones' quality.
Still, from what Amasawa Yuto had seen, the camera was awful, but the audio quality was decent.
The problem was that his phone was recording video now, so he couldn't record audio at the same time. And Horikita Manabu hadn't said anything just now that could be used against him.
"Do you think I was the closest one to you just now?" Amasawa Yuto said. He'd already reminded Horikita Manabu that he had more than one companion.
That meant Horikita Manabu had only heard Morishita Ran's voice, and likely had no idea where Tsubaki Yuki was.
The clear footage was actually on Tsubaki Yuki's phone. It had recorded the whole thing, from the moment he started hitting her—
"Don't try to bluff me." Horikita Manabu raised a hand. "I know far better than you just how terrible the cameras on these school-issued phones are. Even if you were only ten meters away, in this darkness you couldn't tell a man from a woman unless you used the flash."
So he'd lost because of the information gap?
"Besides, let me tell you something. If you're trying to accuse me of hitting my sister, this school is far more tolerant of violence than you think. As long as neither party reports it, the school turns a blind eye. And even if both parties report it, disputes between students are ultimately arbitrated by the Student Council. Understand?"
So that was how it worked. It lined up with the Sudo assault incident in the original story.
Amasawa Yuto nodded. "I'm sorry, Student Council President. I was out of line. It's just that I have a younger sister too. Seeing an irresponsible older brother made me think of her, and I got carried away. Please don't take it to heart."
As he spoke, he deleted the video from his phone in front of Horikita Manabu.
Then he looked Horikita Manabu in the eye and held out the phone. "This is my show of good faith. You can check to make sure I haven't made a backup. If you want compensation in points, I'll do my best."
Horikita Manabu took the phone and casually looked through it. Amasawa Yuto stepped back a few paces to show respect.
"Tch. I thought your phone might have a picture of you and your sister together."
Of course, there wouldn't be any old photos on the phone's memory card. They'd have to be downloaded from the cloud. Had Horikita Manabu done that himself?
"Here." Horikita Manabu held the phone up in the air. Since Amasawa Yuto had just stepped back, he seemed to be waiting for him to come forward and take it.
Amasawa Yuto met his gaze, walked over, and reached out to take his phone—
But Horikita Manabu suddenly let go, and Amasawa Yuto's phone fell toward the ground.
At the same time, a powerful rising kick whipped through the air with a sharp hiss. Like an iron pillar suddenly swung into motion, it traced a low arc straight toward Amasawa Yuto's temple.
The kick had been prepared well in advance. There was no hesitation between releasing the phone and launching the attack; clearly, letting go had been the trigger.
He'd used the falling phone to distract his opponent, then followed up with a high kick to finish things in one blow.
Horikita Manabu's movement was clean and efficient, without a hint of wasted motion.
But in that instant, Amasawa Yuto had already reacted. He leaned backward, shifting his center of gravity behind him, his body like a coiled spring.
Horikita Manabu's kick narrowly missed the tip of his nose. It came so fast that Amasawa Yuto's tie flew upward.
Before you continue