Chapter 103
Seeing the growing sense of frustration emanating from Horikita Suzune, Aragaki Shun tossed over the documents he was too lazy to deal with, and looked at the long-haired black-haired girl's withdrawn appearance with some amazement.
"Tsk tsk~ Compared to your usual aloof and arrogant self, you're definitely much cuter now that you're being meek. Remember that humility is a virtue, and don't always have that grumpy face."
"The Student Council is a serious Matoba. I hope this Vice President can be more serious and not act like a slacker."
Feeling somewhat embarrassed and annoyed by Aragaki Shun's scrutiny, Horikita Suzune gripped her pen tightly, her fox-like eyes narrowing, and her voice turning cold again.
"But you just signed an unequal agreement with those thugs from Class C."
"Snap!"
The pen, unable to withstand the force, naturally snapped in two. Horikita Suzune's face turned a mixture of red and blue, but she ultimately lowered her head, practicing the principle that silence is golden.
Lies don't hurt, but the truth is the sharpest knife.
To avoid further humiliation, the girl decided to simply pretend the guy in front of her didn't exist, so he wouldn't continue to harass her.
However, this childish and naive resistance was naturally meaningless to Aragaki Shun.
With just one sentence, he forced Horikita Suzune to turn her attention to him.
"Don't you want to know what it means that Horikita President sent you here without saying a word?"
The next moment, the boy could clearly sense that the breathing of the person next to him had become much heavier.
With a smile, Aragaki Shun stretched and pointed to the water dispenser in the distance. "I'm a little thirsty. I wonder if any kind soul could pour me a glass of water?"
Horikita Suzune: "..."
The girl with long, straight black hair didn't speak. She simply stood up silently, poured the water as instructed, and then sat quietly opposite the other person, watching them leisurely take a sip.
Closing her eyes and recalling memories of being bossed around by the person in front of her, Horikita Suzune forced a stiff smile.
"Excuse me, Aragaki -san, what exactly does my brother mean?"
"Hmm~ Although it felt a bit awkward, you did follow my previous requirements, so I'll consider you to have passed."
This further agitated the girl, and seeing her eyes almost bloodshot, Aragaki Shun casually said, "Failure is not terrible; what is terrible is not learning from failure and falling into the same trap again and again."
"You looked down on Ryuen Kakeru's methods, but you suffered a great loss at his hands. If you fight him again in the future, can you guarantee that you won't repeat the same mistake?"
"Or, if we could turn back time to before the deliberations, and start over with the memory of defeat, could you come up with a better strategy to counter his offensive and turn the tide?"
My brother wants me to learn how to deal with Ryuen from Aragaki Shun?
Realizing this, Horikita Suzune subconsciously clenched her fists, racking her brains to mentally recount the ins and outs of the conflict with Class C.
After thinking for a long time, the girl could only shake her head in dejection.
"Class C prepared a great deal for this operation and provided substantial evidence. Class D, in its haste, simply cannot prove that Kanji Ike was wrongly accused."
To put it jokingly, even among his classmates in Class D, very few believed that Kanji Ike was innocent.
On the first day of school, this student openly declared during his self-introduction, "I like girls, I hate handsome guys, I'm always looking for a girlfriend, and I look forward to hanging out with cute girls or beautiful girls."
Most of the girls in Class D thought he was mentally ill, but he had no self-awareness whatsoever. He would openly chat with his like-minded Yamauchi Haruki about lewd topics like breasts in the classroom every day, and he would always secretly ogle the girls' bodies with disgusting eyes, and then comment on who was pretty, who had the best body, and who was more suitable to be a girlfriend.
The girls in the class were all greatly troubled by this.
In this situation, when Kanji Ike was accused by Kinoshita Minori from Class C, the first reaction of the students in Class D was not to question him, but to blame him for implicating the class... This shows how deep the impression Kanji Ike left on the public.
Even his classmates believed that he was indeed capable of doing such a thing!
It's only natural that Ryuen Kakeru would deliberately set a trap for him.
"I once thought of luring Kinoshita Minori out, using a pre-prepared surveillance camera to successfully deceive her, and then forcing her to drop the charges against Kanji Ike."
"Alternatively, a voice recorder could be used to induce her, in her moment of triumph, to reveal the cause and effect of the conflict."
"But the plan went wrong right from the start. As soon as she left the classroom, she hid in the dormitory. We couldn't find an opportunity to lure her out and act alone."
At this point, Horikita Suzune glanced at Aragaki Shun.
In an effort to lure Kinoshita out, Class D specifically asked Yosuke Hirata to make the invitation, but the other party remained unmoved.
But if it were this guy in front of me, even a delinquent girl from Class C would probably agree to meet him, right?
Of course, if Aragaki Shun were in Class D, they wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
If it were him, he would definitely have a better solution.
"Don't look at me like that. My method won't work for Class D. Oh, wait, it will work for Koenji Rokusuke, but you can't get him to do anything."
Aragaki Shun twitched the corner of his mouth, offering no comment on the two methods Horikita Suzune had come up with, and simply continued speaking to himself:
"Ryuen used 500,000 Private Points to order Kinoshita, while I can offer her ten times that amount in cash to make her voluntarily drop out of school."
"By the way, it would be fun if we could provide evidence of her conspiracy with Ryuen before she voluntarily dropped out of school, and then pin the reason for her dropping out on Ryuen."
Upon hearing this suggestion, Horikita Suzune's face froze.
She was certain that Class C would not be able to withstand this offensive, simply because Class D was in a similar situation. If Aragaki Shun were to offer real money, she guaranteed that a bunch of hopeless people would be willing to pay to leave Advanced Nurturing.
That's five million yen! It's not a small amount, not just for a high school student, but even for an adult.
Since there's no hope of graduating from Class A anyway, and it's hard to concentrate on studying here, why not go out and change the learning environment?
"So if it were me, Ryuen wouldn't dare to use such methods at all."
If the target really is Aragaki Shun, Kinoshita will definitely switch sides on the spot and sell the Ryuen project for greater profits.
A mere 500,000 Private Points? Who are they looking down on?
"This is the biggest problem with Class D," Aragaki Shun said, resting his chin on his hand as he questioned Horikita Suzune across from him, "Why do you think Ryuen was able to use such methods against Class D and still succeed?"
The girl with long, straight black hair looked uneasy, but still pinched her nose and replied, "It's because of Kanji Ike. Only he is so easily led into this obvious trap."
"That's true," Aragaki Shun nodded. "Kanji Ike is indeed a weakness of Class D, but Class D has quite a few weaknesses like this."
"A solid foundation needs to be built up over time. Some things shouldn't be addressed after they happen, but rather prevented from the outset."
"The trap set up by Ryuen is actually not very sophisticated. It took too long. If you were able to keep an eye on Kanji Ike's movements, you would easily have discovered the connection between him and Kinoshita Minori."
But it's clear that Horikita Suzune didn't care about her classmates' daily activities, and no one in the class would proactively tell her these things.
Therefore, she could only passively defend against Class C's offensive after the incident had already occurred.
"Not only you, but Karuizawa Kei made the same mistake."
"Now that she has taken control of Class D, she should try to gather information on everyone in the class. If she can't reform and win over dissenting voices like Kanji Ike, she should simply exclude him. How can she let him drag the whole class down?"
Should we exclude it directly?
Horikita Suzune was startled by this cold-blooded statement.
Judging from Aragaki Shun's usual behavior, you would never guess that he would do something like expelling a classmate from school.
Despite projecting an image of being extremely responsible, almost like he's single-handedly carrying the entire class forward.
But thinking about it, it doesn't seem to be a problem, after all, the overall quality of the students in Class D is completely different from that of Class A.
"In that case, shouldn't we have never saved him in the first place?"
In fact, Horikita Suzune had also considered simply giving up on Kanji Ike and letting him drop out of school.
Since joining the Student Council, the girl no longer aspires to lead Class D forward, but instead wants to accumulate Twenty Million Personal Points on her own and go solo to Class A.
However, apart from Special Exam, most ordinary students obtain Private Points through Class Evaluation Points.
Therefore, she could not allow other classes to take Class D's Class Evaluation Points.
If given the chance, she would prefer to take a portion of the class's evaluation points through a deal with her classmates.
The 200 points that Ryuen Kakeru took are equivalent to 800,000 Private Points per month. If they were all given to one person, it would be enough for her to transfer to Class A on her own.
"Normally, you should look at whether the value is worthwhile."
"If he can correct his mistakes and grow into an important force in the class after this experience, then it's okay to help him."
"But if they remain unrepentant and continue to be a liability to the class, then expelling them from school is also an option."
At this point, Aragaki Shun looked at the pensive girl with long, straight black hair, "Do you think that after this incident, Kanji Ike will still be the obvious weakness of Class D?"
Horikita Suzune did not respond.
She wanted to say no, but she also knew that human nature wasn't so easily changed.
However, this would render the reconciliation between Class D and Class C, which aimed to retain some of their Private Points, completely meaningless.
However, given the circumstances at the time, she couldn't abandon Kanji Ike even if she wanted to.
After all, Yosuke Hirata and Kushida Kikyo had been persuading everyone in the class, so they had quite a lot of influence in Class D.
"In short, think about the cause, process, and result of this matter yourself. What you can learn from it depends on your perspective."
"Let me remind you, Class A won't encounter this kind of difficulty, because I won't allow such a foolish flaw to exist, not now, and not in the future."
Looking calmly at the aloof student council president's younger sister, Aragaki Shun's voice became extremely indifferent.
"Let me be frank, before Horikita President graduates, he should prepare 20 million yen for your class transfer."
"But I'm not Hirata. I've never been one to tolerate weaknesses like Kanji Ike's. The atmosphere in Class A is great right now, and we don't need another destabilizing factor."
"So if I don't agree to you joining Class A, he'll just take you away from the Advanced Nurturing."
After all, Manabu Horikita knew his sister's personality well.
If Aragaki Shun doesn't approve, even if Horikita Suzune forcibly transfers to Class A, she will only become a candidate for dropping out of the class and be discarded as cannon fodder in the Special Exam.
"Wait, how could my brother...?"
Horikita Suzune's eyes widened, and she was about to argue when Aragaki Shun waved his hand to interrupt her.
"As an older brother, it's perfectly normal to offer some help to my younger sister when she's going through a difficult time."
"If you can't accept that, you can just leave school with him."
In Aragaki Shun's opinion, the relationship between the siblings was truly awkward.
Can't we just speak our minds?
They actually needed an outsider like him to act as a middleman.
However, considering Manabu Horikita's full support for him taking over as Student Council President, it's alright to occasionally carry out a "discipline" mission.
Although Horikita Suzune has personality issues, she still has overall strength, and at least she can handle being a tool or assistant without any problems.
Given the current management system in Class A, she's not going to be in the decision-making level anyway. As an executor, all she has to do is obey orders and do her job.
In that case, he would naturally accept the chairman's kind offer.
172. Surrounded by all the girls in the class; End of the first semester
After the battle between Class C and Class D came to an end, the first grade returned to peace.
Because Final Exam were approaching, no one wanted to stir up any more conflict, and everyone focused their energy on intense review and preparation.
However, for those top students who were confident of success, what they looked forward to even more than the insignificant passing grade was the Summer Vacation Trip that the school had promised everyone after the exams.
The Matoba of taking Luxury Cruise Ship to a southern island is so dreamlike that just imagining it is enough to ignite boundless enthusiasm.
Those like Aragaki Shun who understood the truth about the trip didn't spoil everyone's fun by announcing the exam in advance.
He simply led Ichinose to quietly organize past exam materials in the Student Council, and after gaining a clear understanding of the situation, he secretly instructed Kanzaki Ryuji to strengthen the training of the physically weaker students in the class.
Then, unsurprisingly, many people in the class suddenly found themselves in a period of unbearable suffering.
Incidentally, this included Shiina Hiyori had just transferred to the school.
The Literary Girl's academic ability and intelligence are among the best in the entire first grade, but her physical fitness is really not impressive.
Seeing Hiyori looking like she was half-dead after running one lap, Aragaki Shun couldn't help but laugh.
"It's rare to see Hiyori such a disheveled state."
He usually seems to handle everything with ease, but he lost his composure on the sports field.
One can only say that this state does indeed fit the stereotypical image of a "Literary Girl."
"Shun-kun, you're up to no good."
Dragging her tired body, Shiina Hiyori sat down next to Aragaki Shun. She rolled her eyes at him cutely, puffed out her cheeks slightly, and looked a little unhappy.
"I never imagined that the first challenge I would encounter after joining Class A would be physical training."
The silver-haired girl found this very strange.
Her original Class C, consisted mostly of hot-tempered girls and delinquents who were good at fighting. While their academic abilities might not be as good as those of other classes, their overall physical strength was definitely among the top of the four classes.