Perjury

Horikita had been quite overwhelmed over the past two days; no matter where she looked for a breakthrough, the results were always unsatisfactory.

"Horikita, did you see that?"

Ayanokōji nudged her arm while pointing toward the security camera in the corner of the classroom ceiling.

"What do you mean?"

"The school uses that to monitor us, whether it's our daily conduct or if something happens in the classroom. It would be great if there were a camera at the scene where Sudō allegedly hit those people."

"You're... right! Surveillance..."

The words woke her from her stupor, and Horikita immediately dragged Ayanokōji to the scene of the incident that Sudō had described.

However, the reason this case was so tricky was precisely because the school itself couldn't find any useful information, so how could there possibly be a camera here?

Horikita sat on the steps at the corner of the stairwell, staring at the wall not far away, thinking and thinking, until finally! A brilliant plan emerged in her mind.

And so, she, along with Ayanokōji and Ichinose—who insisted on helping despite it having nothing to do with her—began to set the stage.

"Everything is ready now. As soon as those three show up, we can force them to settle this privately."

"Leave this to me!"

Ichinose took the initiative to handle the task.

"I'm sorry, I'm not questioning you, but what I don't understand is why you're getting involved when this shouldn't have anything to do with you."

"Well... for one thing, I can't stand the despicable methods Class 1-C uses, and for another, actually... I have the intention of forming an alliance with your Class 1-D."

You have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.

Therefore, if Class 1-C wants to rise to Class A, the hurdle they can never bypass is Class B.

And while Class A sits high above, they must also strictly guard against Class B, which is ranked right below them.

In this way, Ichinose's class could be said to be facing enemies on both sides.

Plus, since the enemy of an enemy is a friend, her wanting to form an alliance with Class 1-D was perfectly understandable.

After hearing the other girl's analysis, Horikita felt it made some sense. Regardless, they were both planning to sanction Class 1-C now, so cooperating wouldn't be a problem.

"Fine, I understand. Then I'll leave this to you."

"Mm! Leave it to me!"

Although Horikita didn't look like she had the proper attitude when asking for a favor, Ichinose didn't seem to mind at all.

A while later, she called Ishizaki and the other two over, using the excuse that she had found evidence against them.

Ishizaki and his group were guilty, after all. Although they had told themselves countless times that Ryuen's plan couldn't have any flaws, one always fears the "what if."

After the three of them arrived at the scene, Horikita walked down from the stairs with an arrogant expression:

"It's not too late for you to admit defeat now. Otherwise, not only will you lose face, but you'll likely end up with a charge of slander!"

Although Ishizaki was shocked inside, his outward performance was quite decent. He put on a fierce expression:

"Hey, I don't know what you're talking about. This whole thing was Sudō provoking us; where would there be any slander?!"

"Heh, is that so? Then why did you three look so shocked when I said that Horikita and the others found evidence? If you were truly fearless, you probably wouldn't have agreed to come here, would you?"

"Ichinose, I thought you were going to say something! We were just afraid you'd pin some baseless crime on us. As for being nervous... where did you see us being nervous?!"

Komiya, standing to the side, felt a bit traumatized and, fearing that something might happen if they stayed, feigned composure and said:

"I think they're just playing us. There's no need to play house with them! Let's go."

As he said this, the three of them turned to leave, only to find a figure appearing at the top of the stairs—it was that guy named Ayanokōji.

"Whether you leave or not is your freedom, but I'll kindly advise you: when you're plotting to frame someone, why didn't you take a good look to see if there was a security camera here?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the hearts of Ishizaki and his two companions fell into chaos. They clearly remembered choosing this spot specifically because it was a lawless zone.

"Surveillance... you... what surveillance?! How come I didn't know there was any surveillance?!"

Seeing that they had revealed their psychological weakness, Horikita pointed casually at a corner that looked particularly inconspicuous, where a security camera was indeed operating.

"What a pity, truly a pity... you were just a hair's breadth away from your scheme succeeding."

"What?! How is this possible..."

In their panic, the psychological pressure on the three of them grew along with their cracks. Horikita felt a surge of joy; now, she only needed one final push to completely shatter their psychological defenses!

"How about we make a deal?"

"A deal? What kind of deal?"

"As long as you drop the complaint now and privately compensate us with 300,000 private points for emotional distress, we might just let you off this time. Otherwise... the three of you can just wait to be expelled!"

They say women are natural actors. If one only looked at the expressions and demeanor of Horikita and Ichinose right now, they would truly believe they had found evidence.

Ishizaki and his group had never imagined they would be countered like this. That camera—they hadn't noticed it at all!

"I... I..."

"We... ag..."

However, just as the three of them were halfway through their agreement, a curse from downstairs interrupted their thoughts.

"Idiots!"

"This voice is... Ryuen-san...!"

Horikita remained somewhat indifferent, but Ichinose's expression stiffened; that Ryuen was undoubtedly the opponent she least wanted to face.

Vicious, brutal, insidious, cunning—one could say every word she could think of to describe a delinquent could be applied to Ryuen, and they would all need to be amplified.

"Thump... thump... thump."

In just one month since the start of the school year, he had used violence to forcibly unify Class 1-C, becoming a tyrant of his generation.

Ryuen carried an aura that naturally instilled fear, walking up the stairs step by step; the sound seemed to strike everyone's heart with each impact, pressing down on them until they couldn't catch their breath.

Before long, a tall boy with a purple center-parted hairstyle and a roguish look on his face walked up.

Seeing the pathetic state of Ishizaki and the other two, Ryuen first spat on the ground:

"What a bunch of useless trash! You couldn't even see through such a simple scheme?!"