On the training field, the upperclassmen stood in a row, looking utterly disheveled.
Yamashiro Taiga stood at the very front with his head lowered, his face going from pale to red, then red to pale again.
Yamaue Ikai stood before them with his hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping over their faces like blades.
"Pretty capable, aren't you?" His voice was not loud, but every word made the group before him shrink their necks. "Distracting the teacher, then having the whole class gang up on the first year?"
No one dared make a sound.
"More than twenty of you, beating up one class, and you ended up like this?"
Yamaue Ikai pointed at the charred pit on the ground, then at the unlucky fellows whose faces still bore streaks of snot. "And you still have the nerve to stand there?"
Yamashiro Taiga's lips moved. He wanted to say something, but swallowed the words back down.
Yamaue Ikai walked up to him and looked down at him.
"Yamashiro Taiga."
"Here."
"Leading the trouble, distracting the teacher, and attacking younger students." Yamaue Ikai enunciated every word. "One demerit."
Yamashiro Taiga's face turned pale again.
A demerit...
"If there's a next time." Yamaue Ikai's voice turned cold. "You'll be expelled immediately."
Yamashiro Taiga's legs went weak, and he nearly dropped to his knees.
The others beside him who had shouted the loudest also went pale.
Expulsion was no joking matter.
Yamaue Ikai glanced over them, then turned to Teacher Ibuki.
"Teacher Ibuki, what do you think?"
Teacher Ibuki stood to the side, looking at the pathetic upperclassmen before glancing at the children from his own class in the distance.
He was silent for two seconds. "One more thing."
Yamaue Ikai raised an eyebrow.
"Tomorrow." Teacher Ibuki looked at Yamashiro Taiga. "Everyone in