When Natsukawa Sosuke stepped into the Class D classroom the next day, an atmosphere of jubilation completely unlike before washed over him.
"Did you hear? Not only did Sudo get off scot-free, he even got Class C docked a hundred points instead!"
"Seriously?! Does that mean we saved last month's points?"
"More than saved them! This was a complete victory! Horikita is incredible!"
A group of students led by Ike Kanji and Yamauchi Haruki were gathered together, excitedly discussing yesterday's results. Since they knew none of the specifics of what had happened within the student council, they could only piece together a rough version from Sudo Ken's heavily embellished account.
But that was enough.
In their version of events, Horikita Suzune had become a "'Pound of Pressure' Ace Attorney," single-handedly tearing Class C's conspiracy to shreds and ultimately claiming victory.
Hirata Yosuke also walked over to Horikita's desk with a sincere smile on his face. "Horikita, you really worked hard this time. If it hadn't been for you, Class D might really have been finished."
Faced with her classmates' praise and admiration, Horikita Suzune merely sat at her desk, calmly reading her book without any expression on her face.
Yet inwardly, she was far from calm.
A tremendous shock still churned within her like a tsunami.
She knew perfectly well that yesterday's victory had not the slightest thing to do with her own abilities.
Although that opening line—"Three against one, and they still got counter-killed"—had embarrassed her enough to want to crawl into a crack in the ground, every precise blow afterward against the holes in Class C's testimony, even the doubts Class C's homeroom teacher might raise and how she should rebut them—all of it had been laid out clearly in the script that man had given her beforehand.