"Fine!" Horikita Suzune let out a cold laugh. "Then once the cameras are installed, we'll let the whole class see who's holding everyone back!" With that, she sat back down.
Horikita hadn't been deliberately picking on the two of them. She had always believed that a sincere apology was enough.
As Kanji Ike had said, the school had deliberately hidden the rules about point deductions. She didn't expect them to take all the blame, but they should at least show the right attitude.
Ike had handled himself reasonably well. He had been able to apologize frankly in front of the whole class.
No matter how capable he was, that sincerity deserved recognition.
But as for Yamauchi Haruki?
His grades were a disaster, and his attitude was even worse.
He really wouldn't learn until he saw the coffin!
Once the footage was put in front of him, they'd see what excuses he could come up with!
Horikita remembered how, last time, he had openly described her as "flat-chested" in front of Shimizu Akira. She had nearly let him experience the feeling of her fist firsthand.
All in all, Horikita Suzune's opinion of Yamauchi Haruki had plummeted.
In her view, if that good-for-nothing had no redeeming qualities and no desire to improve, he should get out of Class D as soon as possible!
She wasn't a peacemaker like Kushida Kikyou, nor was she a soft-hearted do-gooder like Hirata Yosuke.
She had never considered herself some kind of saint.
The sense of duty to "bring every Class D student to Class A"? Ridiculous! All she had to do was take Shimizu Akira with her and earn her brother's approval!
She had once been too indifferent to give up her seat on the bus. How could she possibly care about everyone in her class?
But to her surprise, her sharp remarks didn't make her unpopular. Instead, they earned the approval of quite a few classmates.
So this is what it feels like to have people look at you with admiration.
Horikita had to admit that she felt rather pleased at that moment.
It was the first time she had experienced being admired by others—and it felt surprisingly good.
"Not bad. You're finally getting it," Shimizu Akira said, glancing at her with a faint smile.
"What do you mean?"
"You can't match Kushida's approachability, and you're nowhere near Hirata when it comes to leadership. But because you don't care about pleasing anyone, you can point out the problem right to everyone's face." Shimizu paused. "Keep being so outspoken, and people will naturally follow you. When the time comes, you can still compete for class representative."
For once, Horikita didn't argue. She fell into thought.
If even Shimizu Akira said so, maybe she really could make a run for class representative.
A moment later, she looked up and met Shimizu's gaze.
"When we elect a new class representative next month, will you vote for me?"
Shimizu chuckled and returned her gaze. "Of course. Honestly, I can't stand leaders who try to smooth everything over. People who slack off and drag the class down with their deductions should just be fired on the spot."
A decisive leader who rewards good behavior and punishes bad... That doesn't really conflict with my image, either.
Horikita narrowed her eyes slightly, feeling as though she had found her place in the class.
During lunch break, Shimizu Akira hurriedly finished his meal and returned to his dorm.
The representatives of all four classes had sent him questions at almost the same time. Their messages were much the same: they all doubted whether he really had access to the surveillance footage.
Ryuen Kakeru demanded that he provide footage from the past as proof, while Sakayanagi Arisu questioned whether he had actually received official authorization from the School Administration.
Shimizu Akira had been prepared for this.
First, he retrieved recent surveillance clips from all four classes. Then he gathered screenshots of the portions of his contract with the principal from two days earlier that he was allowed to disclose.
After sending the evidence to each of them, they all fell silent.
What he hadn't expected was for his phone to suddenly ring.
The screen displayed the name "Ichinose Honami"—his main account, of course.
As for his alternate account, Yueqing, he had long since set it to block all incoming calls automatically. He had even turned off the notifications.
After all, if the other party happened to call out of the blue, wouldn't his double identity be exposed on the spot? Better to be careful.
"Shimizu..." Ichinose's hesitant voice came through the phone. "Um... could I take up a little of your time?"
Unlike last time, when she had sounded flustered, Shimizu Akira replied naturally. "No problem. Go ahead."
"...I might not be able to give you any extra Private Points next month." Her voice grew quieter. "I've... run into a little trouble on my end."
"That's all right." Shimizu paused, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right! I was supposed to pay back those eighty thousand points anyway. They were your money in the first place."
He had always had a good impression of Ichinose Honami. He remembered how, when they first met, she had offered him a helping hand without the slightest hesitation.
He wouldn't go easy on Class D for her sake, but he still had to return every last point of that personal loan.
"Um... that wasn't actually why I called..." Ichinose sounded unsure, but she still gave an awkward laugh. "But it's hard to refuse your offer. We really are short on points over here! You've gone to all that trouble for me again."
"Don't overthink it," Shimizu Akira cut in at once. "Those eighty thousand points were yours to begin with. I'm just returning them to their rightful owner. Understand? This isn't charity, and it's not a loan!"
"...Mm-hmm!" The girl answered a few times, then quickly hung up.
"...Ichinose Honami is way too easy to deal with!" Shimizu Akira thought as he held his phone. The thought had come to him for no particular reason.
They had been her points from the start, but after being passed back and forth twice, it almost felt as if he had lent them to her.
That Mysterious Person Isn't from Class C!
Ichinose Honami gently set her phone down.
She took a deep breath and looked up to meet Kanzaki Ryuji's searching gaze.
He was rising from his seat, a crease between his brows betraying his misgivings.
"Kanzaki, I've confirmed it." Ichinose nodded at him. "He wants us to go straight to the Student Council and sign an official contract. After that, we'll get access to the surveillance footage for Class 1-B."
She turned the phone screen toward Kanzaki. "I forwarded you clips from our class's cameras, as well as the parts of the contract with the School Administration that he was allowed to share. Take a look for yourself."
Kanzaki took the phone and quickly scrolled through the screen.
A few minutes later, the tension in his shoulders finally eased.
"I don't see any problems. The footage is real; there's not the slightest sign of tampering," he said calmly. "The contract terms are standard, and the School Administration's seal is genuine. Especially since we have to sign through the Student Council—it should rule out the possibility of a scam."
He turned to face the other students in the classroom and raised his voice. "Everyone, have you transferred the seventy thousand points to Ichinose?"
"Already done!" A girl with a ponytail raised her hand. "Thanks to Ichinose borrowing two hundred thousand points from a senior, she was able to get five thousand points waived for each of us."
"Yeah," the boy beside her chimed in. "We just paid ten thousand last time, and now they want another seventy thousand. We'd really be struggling if she hadn't borrowed those points for us."
The students chatted among themselves.
Someone suddenly raised their voice. "But it's worth spending the money! We absolutely can't let another class get their hands on our surveillance footage!"
"Ugh... I feel like we've already fallen behind the other classes, even though the school year's barely begun. I wonder who this mysterious person really is." Ichinose stared at the balance of three million points displayed on her phone and couldn't help sighing.
That number would have been astonishing at the start of the school year, but now it only made her feel helpless.
What bothered her even more was the mysterious person's exorbitant price. He seemed not to care at all that it was the first month of the new school year.
He was really taking advantage of them!
"Wait!" She suddenly straightened up, a spark of inspiration in her eyes. "That mysterious person renting out the surveillance footage... At first, he asked me for Ryuen Kakeru's contact information. Then he tried to sell me those hidden school rules..."
Kanzaki Ryuji turned to her.
"Who's Ryuen Kakeru?"
As her classmate, he knew better than anyone what Ichinose was good at. This seemingly kind and approachable girl had social skills most people could only dream of.
The web of information she had built could sometimes be even more effective than the entire class working together.
"As for what I know about him..." Ichinose lightly tapped her chin. "The girls in Class C never came out and said anything, but when I talked with them, I noticed..." Her voice lowered without her meaning to. "They'd start trembling, and some of them had bruises on their wrists."
Kanzaki considered it. "So Ryuen might be the delinquent leader who rules Class C through violence?"
"And," a glint flashed in Kanzaki's eyes, "since you're the class representative of Class B, the fact that he specifically asked you about Ryuen means..."
"He's probably not..." Ichinose picked up his thought, as if she had suddenly realized something, and her gaze unconsciously shifted toward the camera.
He's not from Class C!
She still wasn't used to being watched.
Although the other person probably wasn't staring at the cameras the whole time.
"Come to think of it, I just remembered something, too." Kanzaki Ryuji glanced at the surveillance camera on the wall. "Class C should have been notified about renting the footage as well. I made a point of observing them at lunch. The School Administration sent people to install new equipment in their classroom." A derisive smile appeared on his face. "Those people probably think destroying the cameras will solve the problem."
Kanzaki paused, then added, "Renting the footage might not be a bad thing. We have a few students who are often late or skip class, and they've broken the rules quite a few times. You let it go last time to spare their feelings, but now that we've rented the footage, we can recover about a hundred Class Points at the very least. Spending three million Private Points to get a hundred Class Points is a pretty good deal in the long run."
"Then I'll get going! I'm going to pay the points now. It'll be a relief to get the footage as soon as possible." Ichinose suddenly stood up.
Kanzaki nodded. "Good idea. You know a lot of people, so keep an eye out for who else goes to the Student Council. But..." He paused to think. "It's Friday, so the Student Council is probably busy, and there may be a lot of people there. Anyway, play it by ear."
Ichinose gave a slight nod, then headed straight for the Student Council.
Just as Kanzaki Ryuji had said, a long, winding line had already formed outside the Student Council's office.
As she was about to join the queue, a blunt question suddenly came from behind her:
"You're Ichinose from Class 1-B, right?"
The unexpected voice made Ichinose turn around. A long-haired boy was leaning against the wall, a playful smile on his lips.
He was none other than Ryuen Kakeru, a student in her year.
Having memorized all the students in her year, Ichinose Honami naturally recognized the infamous boy.
At the start of the school year, he had stood at the very front of the line, just like her.
"Hello, Ryuen." Though she felt uneasy, she kept her smile polite and nodded in greeting.
"I heard you went out of your way to ask for my contact information?" Ryuen toyed with his knuckles, the joints cracking softly. "What would an honor student want with someone like me?"
Ichinose couldn't help frowning. She hadn't expected this little private inquiry to reach his ears.
This boy, who seemed to understand nothing but violence, was much more perceptive than she had imagined.
After a brief silence, she spoke calmly. "I just wanted to warn you that this school isn't a place where you can solve everything with violence."
"Ha." Ryuen scoffed, a mocking glint in his eyes. "You hothouse flower from Class B—what do you know? If you were tossed into our class, you'd be a pretty little mascot at best! You'd be lucky just to avoid being bullied."
In this survival-of-the-fittest class, he firmly believed that his iron-fisted rule was the most effective way to control Class C. No one could do it better than him.
"But, come to think of it... Did you really ask for my contact information just to do something this boring? You don't seem like that kind of person..." Ryuen stared at her. After a long moment, he suddenly sneered. "...I get it. You're the one who gave my contact information to 'that person,' aren't you?"
Ryuen Kakeru: Shiina Hiyori, Find Out Who This Mysterious Person Is
Though Ryuen Kakeru had reluctantly decided to rent the surveillance footage, one question still nagged at him: How had the person selling him access gotten his contact information?
Since he had required his classmates to pay him tribute, he had indeed exchanged contact information with everyone in class during the first week.
But he had never added anyone from another class as a friend.
Thinking about it, the answer was obvious—one of his classmates had leaked his contact information.
So he questioned his classmates one by one. Under the threat of violence, one girl finally cracked and told the truth: A few days earlier, Ichinose Honami from Class 1-B had suddenly asked her for Ryuen Kakeru's contact information.
"Traitor!" Ryuen's expression darkened at once. He hated nothing more than people who betrayed their own side.
His raised hand was about to come down, but Ibuki Mio stopped him in time.
"Stop, Ryuen! She only gave her the contact information. She didn't do it on purpose!"
"You again!" Ryuen's eyes flashed coldly. "I hate traitors more than anything!"
At that moment, Shiina Hiyori stepped forward and spoke calmly. "Ryuen, if the other person went out of their way to ask for your contact information, that proves they're not from our class. That's actually good news for us, isn't it?"
"..." Ryuen froze. He had to admit Shiina had a point. Although he had already ruled out those "cowards" in his class, her careful reasoning still made him think more highly of her.
Come to think of it, Shiina Hiyori was the best student in their class.
She was also one of only two people in Class C who actually used their brains.
"Ryuen!" Ibuki Mio irritably ran a hand through her hair. "Shiina already explained everything to me! I hate you, but Class C really does need you right now!" She gritted her teeth. "I'll transfer you eighty thousand Private Points, but you have to leave her alone!"
"Hmph. Finally learned your lesson?" Ryuen sneered as he lowered his hand. Just then, his phone chimed with a transfer notification.
He stared at the screen, thinking for a moment, then suddenly smiled playfully. "Fine. I'll let her go."
"You..." Ibuki Mio had just started to relax.
Before you continue