The Truth Hidden Behind the Incident

"That's right. We'll drop the matter here. We won't hold the other side responsible anymore."

"Has the issue been settled privately?" Horikita's older brother asked as he took the minutes from Secretary Tachibana and decided to put an end to this farce.

"More or less. I really didn't expect Class D to have such an interesting student."

A Class D student... Was there some meaning behind that?

So that phone call hadn't been a coincidence, either.

"Wait, Ryuen. Do you know what you're saying?"

"I know perfectly well, Teacher Sakagami. Although someone from Class D was at fault to begin with, one person can't be held solely responsible. Dropping the complaint is only natural."

Even with absolute proof in the other side's hands, he still wouldn't change his tune? In other words, they hadn't actually intended to help us. Everyone involved in this dispute, myself included, had been manipulated.

"Only natural, is it?" Teacher Chabashira wore a faint smile, like an audience member watching a show. In the end, she couldn't hold back and laughed outright.

"Teacher Chabashira, I don't see what's so funny. Aren't you going to discipline your students?"

"Sorry, that was rude of me. I just didn't expect the situation to unfold this way. As for disciplining students, we teachers aren't allowed to interfere too much in their affairs, are we?" Faced with Teacher Sakagami's agitation, Teacher Chabashira showed no sign of alarm. If anything, she seemed completely unconcerned.

It was then that I noticed her discreetly glance at me, then shift her gaze to Horikita.

"...Don't tell me you were threatened again behind the scenes?"

"Teacher Sakagami, the students of Class D have never threatened us. We simply reached an agreement just now. Sorry for troubling you all this time."

"This kind of thing—"

Teacher Sakagami closed his eyes, shook his head in confusion, and sighed.

"As a teacher, I really shouldn't interfere too much in students' affairs. You can decide what to do."

"To be certain, I'll confirm once more. Is Class C withdrawing its complaint? I should make it clear beforehand: once you choose to withdraw it, the Student Council won't accept a second hearing for this dispute."

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Then do the three of you agree as well?" Horikita President turned his attention to the three boys from Class C.

"I-I'm sure."

After hearing their confirmation, Horikita President nodded, then turned to us.

"It's rare for a case to be withdrawn during a hearing, but I can process it for you. However, according to the rules, you'll still need to pay the required points to cover the damages. Do you object?"

"No."

"Then, if the students of Class D don't intend to pursue the matter, this dispute is over. Will the students of Class D file a complaint against Class C?"

"Of course! Those guys picked a fight in the first place, and now—Horikita?"

"Shut up. This is no place for you to butt in." As Horikita restrained Sudo, who was on the verge of losing his temper, she stood up. "We have no intention of fighting further."

"Then I hereby declare this hearing concluded."

0

"Seriously, what's with all of them?" After leaving the Student Council office, Sudo ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

Horikita had been kept in the meeting room by Teacher Chabashira. I had no idea what they were discussing, while the students from Class C had left as soon as the meeting ended.

"But things worked out in the end. Isn't that good news?"

"Yeah... I don't know what happened, but Horikita must've done a lot, right?"

"Maybe. I only did what she told me to. I have no idea how much preparation she actually did."

"See? I told you she'd help me." Sudo grinned to himself for a while.

"Anyway, I can go back to club activities as usual now. I'm heading out."

"Okay."

I watched Sudo leave the Special Building. No one else appeared in my field of vision, much like the person who had really resolved the matter behind the scenes—they hadn't shown themselves to me.

Soon afterward, the student council president and Secretary Tachibana finished up the meeting records and left the archives room.

"Thanks for your hard work." I'd meant to offer a word of appreciation to everyone for all their efforts, but they stopped in front of me.

"Was that last move yours? The method you had prepared to prove that Sudo and Sakura weren't lying—the one that made Class C withdraw its complaint?"

"I was just following your younger sister's orders."

"Don't joke around. Suzune definitely couldn't have done something like that. If things really went the way you said, then the withdrawal at the end wasn't something you had prepared, right? But Ryuen seemed certain that the person behind it was in your Class D."

"Maybe it was your younger sister. At least, I don't know how much she prepared for this."

"You hadn't finished presenting your evidence about the injuries during the hearing. Can I assume that even without the withdrawal, you could still have proved they weren't lying and won the argument?"

"Who knows? Now that the meeting's over, what might have happened during it is unknowable."

"We can't predict the future of the past, but we can think about whether certain events were inevitable."

"If that's how you see it, I can't argue with you."

"...Interesting." Horikita President pushed up his glasses, then turned to Secretary Tachibana, who was holding a thick stack of documents.

"Tachibana, there's still an opening for secretary, right?"

"Yes. You eliminated the Class A student who applied last time, so only the Class B applicant is still under consideration."

"Are you interested in the secretary position, Ayanokoji?"

I was taken aback. Secretary Tachibana, who had been listening nearby, looked just as surprised.

"P-President, you—"

"Do you have an objection?"

"No, I don't. I just find it surprising... But if that's your decision, you must have your reasons."

"Does the Student Council really need someone as useless as me? Besides, I prefer the life of an ordinary student."

"What?! You turned it down! W-why?"

"My joining would only tarnish the Student Council. I'm not suited to this kind of work, either."

"'I prefer the life of an ordinary student'... To say something like that just proves you're anything but ordinary, Ayanokoji. Let's go, Tachibana."

"W-Wait!"

At last, the trouble was gone.

Just as I was congratulating myself on having some time to myself, an unwelcome voice reached my ears again.

"Ayanokoji..."

After a hurried series of footsteps, Ichinose and Kanzaki arrived in front of me, panting. Their expressions made it clear how anxious they were.

Their panic reminded me of Raku, who always wore an expression of complete indifference.

The person who had always seemed strangely familiar to me.

[The Truth Hidden Behind the Incident]

[Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's perspective]

"Ayanokoji, did you miss the beginning of the meeting, or has it already ended?" Ichinose asked anxiously.

"I made it just in time, more or less. The hearing just ended."

"H-How did it go?"

"Class C decided to withdraw its complaint."

"W-Withdraw it? Are you joking, Ayanokoji?"

"I'm not. If you don't believe me, you can ask Horikita when she comes out." I shrugged and pointed toward Horikita and Teacher Chabashira, who were still in the meeting room.

"But why? Didn't our plan fail?"

"Sorry, I'm not sure what happened, either. Horikita might know some of the truth."

Then I told Ichinose what had happened in the meeting room.

"Ryuen again... What is he trying to do?" Ichinose frowned when she heard his name.

"Do you know what kind of person he is, Ichinose? You seem to hold a grudge against him."

"It's not really a grudge... The students from Class C have been picking on the students from Class B for a while now, and it's happened too many times to count. I've always suspected that Ryuen was the one pulling the strings."

"Were all the disputes this troublesome?"

"No. At least, they never dragged the school into things to this extent. Thankfully, they withdrew the complaint in time. We wasted a lot of points buying surveillance cameras, but we didn't suffer any other losses in the end."

I was about to ask Ichinose why Kanzaki had shown up at this time when, as luck would have it, Horikita and Teacher Chabashira finished talking.

Teacher Chabashira merely glanced at me, but Horikita glared at me fiercely.

"Well, look who's here. Ichinose and the others came too."

Faced with an expression this vicious, unlike anything I'd seen from her before, I nervously raised my hands in surrender.

"Ayanokoji, don't you think you should explain what you did?"

"...Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. If you're talking about carrying out the plan, I already explained that to you during the meeting."

So Horikita wasn't the person behind it.

"Do I really need to explain what? You've been manipulating me from the very beginning, and just now you kept using my orders as a shield."

"Ichinose is right there. Could you please not make me sound like some scumbag who enjoys manipulating girls? People might get the wrong idea."

"What does that mean? Horikita, you don't know what happened either?"

"I have no idea. Ayanokoji deceived me right to the end."

"Ayanokoji?"

She'd clearly given me a look that said we'd talk about this later, so why was she turning around and attacking me now?

"Sorry, I really don't know what happened." I spread my hands to show that I was innocent.

In truth, all of us had been manipulated. Except for the uncertainty of how the hearing would end, that person had anticipated every move we made.

Ichinose, Horikita, and even Ryuen.

Honestly, I just wanted to live an ordinary student life. Why did every incident have to drag me into it?

Besides, I really had involved myself too much in this matter. I'd overdone it. I needed to come up with a plan to fade from everyone's sight.

"Clap, clap, clap—"

Slow, rhythmic applause rang out, drawing our attention away from our standoff.

It was Ryuen.

Unlike Sudo, he had long, smooth red hair, though his personality was anything but gentle. He was almost as tall as me, and an amused smile always played across his face.

"Since threatening you with the surveillance footage didn't work, I had to use my backup plan... My strategy failed this time, but you suffered heavy losses too."

"Isn't this a complete defeat for you?" Horikita replied coldly.

"Seems you still don't understand. Then again, what could a weak girl like you possibly do?" Ryuen smiled mockingly at Horikita.

"What are you trying to do, Ryuen?" Ichinose stepped in front of us, shielding me from him.

"This has nothing to do with Class B, Ichinose. I was only going to take a casual shot at Class D, but I didn't expect to flush out such a big fish. Your Class D took a hit too, didn't you? It might be defective, but it's surprisingly powerful."

"Class C took a worse hit than we did, didn't it?"

"Wasn't your side the one that suffered more? You wasted one of your pawns embedded in our class for the sake of a useless hothead."

A pawn embedded in Class C?

"...I see. So the mastermind wasn't among you?"

At this point, we couldn't pretend we'd known all along.

"What have you been muttering to yourself about?"

"..." Ryuen fell silent for a moment when he saw our reactions, then burst out laughing. "Even your own allies chose to deceive you and keep things hidden. Isn't that even more interesting?"

"Since none of you know, I might as well let you in on a little secret." With that, Ryuen pulled out his phone, opened a file, turned the volume all the way up, and held it out in front of us.

At first, the phone played a muffled sound of indescribable pain. Then a clear voice came through.