The Disrupted Speech, Making an Enemy of the Student Council President, Ayanokouji's Speculation

Inside the gymnasium.

The students, who had been chattering noisily, gradually fell silent.

They raised their heads slightly, their eyes settling on the bespectacled man in a school uniform standing on the podium.

At first, they thought he was some club senior who had forgotten his speech and was too nervous to speak in front of everyone.

Quite a few people took the opportunity to tease him, and some even called out encouragement.

But as time passed, they began to feel the pressure radiating from him.

Many of them promptly shut their mouths, and the others followed suit, falling silent as well.

Seeing this, the brown-haired boy in the gymnasium couldn't help but marvel to himself.

What an incredible guy.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka looked at the student on the podium, genuinely impressed.

As a student, it was quite difficult to command the attention of people who didn't know one another.

Although Ayanokouji had never attended an ordinary elementary or middle school before coming to this school, he knew how difficult it was to pull that off.

As the greatest masterpiece produced by the White Room, he was confident he could use his words to guide everyone and get them to listen to him.

But even he couldn't silence everyone present without saying a word.

Onstage, Manabu Horikita surveyed the crowd.

When he spotted his good-for-nothing little sister among them, Manabu's expression didn't change, but deep down, he was quite disappointed.

Suzune, you haven't made any progress at all in these past two years.

He looked away from his sister. Seeing that everyone in the gymnasium had quieted down, Manabu prepared to give a speech on behalf of the Student Council.

However.

Just then.

Another group of people came laughing and talking into the gymnasium.

There were five of them, three men and two women.

When the woman with a purple side ponytail spotted her classmates, she greeted them enthusiastically. "Yume, Yuki, did you come here to hang out too?"

Hang out?

At that word, some of the people present could barely contain themselves.

The somewhat subdued atmosphere was shattered in the blink of an eye by the girl's casual use of the word "hang out."

"Mako, keep your voice down!"

Yume Kobashi, who was also in Class 1-B, hurriedly raised a finger to her lips, gesturing for silence.

"What's wrong?"

Mako Amikura tilted her head. Though a little confused, she lowered her voice as her friend had asked.

"That senior who's about to give a speech looks really scary. It wouldn't be good to offend him," Yume whispered.

Mako curiously glanced at the stage. The moment her eyes met Manabu Horikita's, she shrank her neck in fright. "I understand."

Although Mako Amikura, who had broken the ice, quieted down too, the atmosphere Manabu Horikita had worked so hard to create had been ruined.

The effect he'd hoped to achieve was bound to fall short of what he'd originally expected.

"Did something unexpected happen?"

Ayanokouji quickly understood the downside of this approach.

Silencing newcomers with nothing but silence was certainly intimidating.

But if new people joined partway through, it could backfire instead.

Come to think of it, there's no point in learning from this. There are too many unpredictable factors.

Thinking this, Ayanokouji looked toward the purple-haired girl and then spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

He's here too.

The person Ayanokouji had spotted was naturally Dokuho Kouya, whom he had met on the bus and at the convenience store.

"Money Brother makes his grand entrance!"

"That guy was just about to show off, and Money Brother ruined it for him"

"To the person above: Money Brother just happened to arrive at that moment. Besides, it was the friend beside him who broke the silence, so what does Money Brother have to do with it?"

"Speaking of which, has Money Brother already made so many friends? The protagonist can only talk to the person sitting next to him right now."

"Fake protagonist: He only senses that something is wrong with the school rules, tries his best but can only talk to his desk neighbor, and gets intimidated by a fellow student."

"Real protagonist: Knows the school rules from the start and earns 1.6 million points, is surrounded by all kinds of friends in less than two days, and influences someone who looks really impressive without lifting a finger."

As Dokuho Kouya appeared in the anime's frame, the barrage of comments suddenly came to life.

Seeing the viewers' remarks, the boy's mouth twitched slightly.

Hadn't they agreed to change his nickname to "the CEO"?

How had he gone back to being Money Brother in less than a day?

Dokuho Kouya really wanted to protest, but he knew it wouldn't do any good, so he simply quieted down and listened to Manabu Horikita's speech.

Once the crowd had settled down again, Manabu Horikita began speaking about what he'd come to say. "I'm the Student Council president, Manabu Horikita. With the previous year's students having graduated, the Student Council needs new members to join..."

What followed was no different from the original story.

After finishing his speech, Manabu stepped down from the stage and strode quickly toward the gymnasium exit.

In the original story, his behavior gave people the impression that he was mysterious and seemed quite impressive.

But now, it gave them the sense that he was in a bad mood, almost as if he were sulking.

"Phew... That Student Council president finally left." Mako Amikura let out a sigh of relief, placing a hand on her chest. "He scared me to death."

When she'd met the Student Council president's gaze just now, she'd felt as though he was angry, and it had startled her.

"Yeah, I thought President Horikita might hold a grudge against us." Sayo Ando sighed too; she'd been nervous as well.

Seeing how nervous the girls were, Dokuho Kouya reassured them. "Don't worry. President Horikita probably isn't that petty."

"If he really does give you trouble over something this trivial, I'll take care of it for you."

The others immediately felt reassured by the boy's words.

"If Kouya says so, then I feel better."

That morning, they had seen Dokuho Kouya reveal the school's hidden rules, and then watched him earn 150,000 private points from an upperclassman.

Sayo Ando and the others had come to trust Dokuho Kouya's character and abilities immensely.

"But wouldn't that be too much trouble for you, Kouya?" Mako Amikura asked, her pretty brows drooping with concern.

"It's all right. I happen to want to see just how powerful the Student Council president at this school is," Dokuho Kouya replied with a smile.

Their conversation reached Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, who was standing not far away.

"He's confident enough to stand up to the Student Council president?"

After the speech, Ayanokouji knew that the Student Council president was no ordinary person. He also knew that the Student Council had the power to influence school rules.

Yet after hearing all that, the guy named Kouya was still confident he could take on the Student Council president.

And considering those 1.6 million private points from yesterday—

This guy has real ability too.

Like the viewers at large, Ayanokouji had labeled Dokuho Kouya a formidable person without knowing the specifics.