The school cafeteria.
Dokuho Kouya was having a meal with his friends.
"So you won't have to go to the Club Activity Building anymore, Kouya?"
Mako Amikura's eyes sparkled with excitement as she said, her emotions running high, "That means we'll have more time to hang out together from now on."
Last month, Kouya had been going back and forth between the Shogi Club and the chess club, leaving him little time to hang out with Mako and the others.
Now that she knew Dokuho Kouya had stopped teaching the upperclassmen, he'd have more time to relax and go out with his friends.
"It's too bad I'm so busy with the Volleyball Club."
Sayo Ando sounded a little disappointed.
Like Dokuho Kouya, she didn't have any free time in the afternoons to hang out.
Kouya had managed to free himself, but she still had to attend Volleyball Club practice.
"Doesn't the Volleyball Club have Saturdays and Sundays off?" Mako Amikura comforted her. "We'll definitely go out with you then, Sayo."
"Mm-hmm, thank you, everyone." Hearing her friends' reassurance, Sayo Ando immediately felt a little better.
While the girls chatted, the boys were having a conversation of their own.
"Kouya, why did you stop teaching the upperclassmen?" Norihito Watanabe asked curiously.
"I'm not interested in that anymore."
Imitating the air of someone who enjoyed stirring up trouble, Dokuho said, "If I kept at it, I'd only be making 350,000 personal points a month. It's not worth it."
For Class A students who could only receive 98,000 points a month right now, Dokuho Kouya's words were undoubtedly a humblebrag.
Come on, making 350,000 points a month and still thinking it wasn't enough?
That was about as much as you'd make from a part-time job.
After hesitating for a while, Tetsuya Hamaguchi asked with mixed feelings, "I heard from Himeno in our class that you made 20 million points last month and helped a third-year student transfer classes?"
Dokuho Kouya nodded. "Collecting 20 million personal points was easier than I expected."
The third-years' point-collection plan had now entered its second round, and they had already gathered quite a lot of points.
After seeing someone really complete a class transfer, the students either grew envious or became eager to try it themselves. One after another, they handed over the points they had saved to Dokuho Kouya.
Dokuho Kouya had put a great many restrictions on himself in the contract. If he violated any of them, he would be expelled.
On top of that, he had successfully completed a class transfer the previous time.
Students from the other third-year classes all trusted him.
This time, though, he wasn't helping the third-years keep their points for free. He was charging a monthly safekeeping fee of 50,000 points.
At first, the third-years were a little unhappy when they heard Dokuho Kouya wanted to charge them. But once they learned it was only 50,000 points a month, they didn't think much of it.
The safekeeping fee wasn't as high as the training fees paid by the Shogi Club and other clubs, but the work was easy. Whenever Dokuho Kouya had to show his personal points, he could also use the third-years' points to intimidate people.
He could earn a safekeeping fee and use the third-years' points to keep others in line.
It was a win-win.
While Dokuho Kouya and the others were chatting, a group of boys from another class came over.
As they passed the table where Kouya and the others were sitting, the boy at the front raised his hand and knocked a tray onto the floor.
"Oops, oops, I'm so sorry." The boy deliberately drew out his words, speaking in an infuriating tone. "My hand slipped. I'm really sorry."
Though he was apologizing,
his tone made it obvious that he had come looking for trouble.
"Hey, you—"
Mako Amikura furrowed her pretty brows and was about to say something, but then she saw Dokuho Kouya raise a hand in a gesture telling her to stay calm.
Does Kouya have a plan?
Realizing this, Mako Amikura closed her mouth and quietly watched to see what the boy would do.
"You're Daichi Ishizaki, Togo Komiya, and Hidetoshi Suzuki from Class 1-C, right?"
Even though his food had been knocked over, Dokuho Kouya remained perfectly calm and showed no sign of anger.
"W-what do you want?"
Seeing how unusually calm the boy was, Daichi Ishizaki felt nervous instead.
"I'm Dokuho Kouya from Class A of the First Year. It's unfortunate that we're meeting under these circumstances." After introducing himself, Dokuho Kouya changed the subject. "You knocked my tray over. Pay me 20,000 points in compensation and we'll call it even."
"Please transfer the points."
"What?!"
Daichi Ishizaki was stunned.
Good grief, was that tray made of gold? He was asking for 20,000 points just like that?
"In your dreams!"
Daichi Ishizaki said angrily, "I'm telling you, I'm not paying you anything. I wouldn't give you even 100 points!"
He had come looking for trouble in the first place. Refusing to pay for what he'd done had been part of the plan from the start. There was no way he'd pay 20,000 points.
"So you're refusing?"
Dokuho Kouya took out his Student Terminal. "Then I'll call the Student Council to settle this."
"Huh?"
"You're really going to call the Student Council over something this minor?"
Daichi Ishizaki and the others couldn't help laughing.
They had thought this guy named Kouya was something special, but he was nothing like that.
Before long,
members of the Student Council arrived at the cafeteria.
It was the Student Council president, Manabu Horikita. Beside him was a girl with short purple hair tied into two buns on top of her head. She was probably the Student Council secretary, Akane Tachibana.
"Kouya, you said Daichi Ishizaki and the others from Class C deliberately knocked over your tray and were trying to provoke you. Do you have video or audio evidence?"
As soon as he arrived, Manabu Horikita asked Dokuho for evidence.
Dokuho Kouya wasn't surprised, but his friends beside him were taken aback.
"How could we have recorded audio?" Mako Amikura asked anxiously.
They could at least use the cafeteria's security cameras to get video.
But they hadn't had any chance to record audio.
"We can get the video from the cafeteria's security cameras. I also have an audio recording." Dokuho Kouya took out his phone and played the recording he'd just made.
Starting this month, he had been on guard against Class C's moves.
When he saw Daichi Ishizaki and the others approaching, he'd already turned on the recording function.
After listening to Ishizaki's utterly insincere apology, Manabu Horikita gave a slight nod. "That does count as provocation."
"We'll retrieve the cafeteria security footage shortly and check whether Daichi Ishizaki knocked over your tray."
"If the footage confirms what happened, we'll suspend Daichi Ishizaki for one week and order him to pay you 50,000 points in compensation."
"If Ishizaki doesn't have enough personal points, the shortfall will be deducted from the points the school gives him next month."
"Wait!"
Hearing the punishment, Daichi Ishizaki shouted in surprise. "I only knocked over a tray. How can I be punished so severely?"
He panicked.
The suspension was one thing, but having to pay personal points was the real problem.
He could only get 49,000 points a month from the school.
Were they going to take away his entire monthly allowance?
"That's the school's rule. The Student Council is simply enforcing it as required."
Manabu Horikita said coldly, "It won't do you any good to complain to a teacher, either."
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