Classroom of the Elite, It's Not About Meritocracy, It's Me Ruling the World! Chapter 30

Even the two of them became somewhat solemn.

No matter how dangerous it might be, they had to protect Ichinose Honami; that was the very reason they had come.

"Let's go."

Ichinose Honami took a deep breath and smiled, and the three of them headed toward the rooftop.

Chapter 27: Mutual Probing, Karuizawa's Fear

Tap, tap, tap.

As soon as the three of them stepped onto the rooftop, they saw Kijima Tsukur sitting in a seat, with Katsuragi Kohei and the others standing behind him.

In just an instant, Kanzaki Ryuji and Shibata Sou understood what Ichinose Honami meant...

To Katsuragi Kohei and the others, who were classmates, they might not have felt much, only thinking that this person was a bit strange.

But to Kanzaki Ryuji and the others from a different class, they felt it instantly.

This person was dangerous... perhaps that wasn't the right way to put it; it was more of a bizarre... sense of revulsion?

Kijima Tsukur's gaze was like a sharp blade, constantly dissecting everything he saw before him.

"Hmm, there are unexpectedly quite a few people here~"

Ichinose Honami stepped forward a few paces, scanned the group, and then looked at Kijima Tsukur with a smile:

"Kijima-kun, Katsuragi-kun, Yamamura Miki-san, good afternoon everyone. It's my first time meeting some of you; I am Ichinose Honami from Class 1-B. I'm not sure if I count as the leader, but I am the class representative. These two are..."

"Class 1-B, Kanzaki Ryuji."

"Also from Class 1-B, Shibata Sou. Pleased to meet you~"

Following that, the group began to introduce themselves. Aside from Kamuro Masumi, who was somewhat cold, the others maintained proper etiquette.

"Kijima-kun."

Ichinose Honami walked to within three meters of Kijima Tsukur and stopped.

This distance was just right; Kijima Tsukur was sitting on a folding chair, and if she walked any closer, she would be looking down at him.

On the other hand, because Kijima Tsukur was seated, standing in this position felt like being lectured by a superior.

Neither too far nor too close was ideal.

Strictly speaking, Kijima Tsukur should have stood up; remaining seated during a conversation was somewhat disrespectful.

However, Ichinose Honami didn't say anything about it.

From this, one could see Ichinose Honami's character; she didn't care much about minor slights.

Kanzaki Ryuji and Shibata Sou merely frowned but didn't speak up.

It was clear that

Class 1-B was entirely centered around Ichinose Honami, perhaps even more unified than Class A.

"I don't see Morishita Ai-san from this morning?"

Ichinose Honami observed the people behind Kijima Tsukur and took the initiative to open the conversation.

Honestly, there were indeed quite a lot of people.

Kijima Tsukur's side had a full six people.

Whether for communication or declaring war, this was a bit too many!

More importantly, she had exchanged a few words with Morishita Ai that morning. Although she was a bit strange, she should have been Kijima Tsukur's confidant, right?

For such an important occasion, Morishita Ai was actually absent!

Setting aside Yamamura Miki, who had been present both times without standing out—she felt like someone just there to move chairs.

But the others.

Katsuragi Kohei, Kito Hayato, Hashimoto Masayoshi, Kamuro Masumi.

She couldn't grasp the necessity of their presence, or rather, their roles seemed to conflict.

When there were too many people, it gave off a very chaotic feeling...

While Kijima Tsukur wanted to observe other classes, Ichinose Honami and the others naturally wanted to observe Class A to conduct necessary probing.

Kanzaki and Shibata wore smiles on their faces; this was the leader of Class B, and she was no weaker than anyone else!

Kijima Tsukur spoke frankly:

"She didn't come."

"I see, that's a real shame."

Ichinose Honami thought for a moment and chose to get straight to the point:

"Kijima-kun, you asked us here to talk about this school, right?"

"Yes."

Kijima Tsukur nodded and said bluntly, "I also invited people from Class C and Class D. I don't want to repeat myself, so let's wait for them to arrive."

"Hm? You invited people from Class C and Class D as well?"

"Yes."

As soon as these words were spoken.

Ichinose and the others were momentarily stunned.

They had originally expected a request for cooperation, an exchange of information, a declaration of war, or perhaps even some kind of scheme.

They hadn't expected any of that.

Instead, it was a gathering involving the entire first-year grade?

The three of them exchanged glances; the situation had exceeded their expectations from the very start.

Seeing that Kijima Tsukur had no intention of saying more, Ichinose Honami hesitated for a moment before stepping to the side, with Kanzaki and Shibata following close behind.

Shibata glanced at the group from Class A and lowered his voice:

"Ichinose, won't this be a bit awkward? Should we go over and try to get some information out of them?"

"Yes, that's true, but I'd like to observe for a little while first."

"..."

As she spoke.

Ichinose observed the direction of Kijima Tsukur without being too obvious, and she soon sensed that something was wrong.

Although the distance was very small.

The members of Class A were also talking, but they were clearly divided into three factions.

Kito Hayato and Hashimoto Masayoshi were centered around Kamuro Masumi.

Katsuragi stood alone behind Kijima Tsukur, while Yamamura Miki seemed almost isolated, standing two or three paces away.

This class... has issues!

Having realized this, Ichinose exchanged a few brief words with Kanzaki and the others before beginning to close the distance between them and Kamuro Masumi's group.

Kijima Tsukur did not interfere with this at all.

Soon.

Clack, clack, clack.

Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, three students with dyed hair appeared on the rooftop.

The newcomers were one boy and two girls, one of whom Kijima Tsukur recognized as the girl named Kikyo Kushida from the bus.

They were Hirata Yosuke, Karuizawa Kei, and Kikyo Kushida from Class D.

With just a single glance.

Kijima Tsukur sensed that something was off.

Generally speaking, the person walking in the middle is the core of the group, just as Ichinose Honami was the center of the trio from Class B earlier.

But in this group.

The person walking in the middle was a girl with a ponytail and flashy attire.

Her behavior was exaggerated, as if she were deliberately hogging the center position, intentionally keeping Kikyo Kushida separated from the boy.

Rather than a team, it looked more like... female competition?

Hmm.

That was indeed the impression.

But that didn't matter much; there were plenty of frivolous women in the world.

What was most intriguing was her change in behavior.

When their eyes met as they entered, she clearly stiffened for a split second, then, while continuing to talk, she moved to the side as if nothing had happened, ceding the center position to the boy.

Although it might seem like nothing to others, as if she were simply revolving around the boy, it was...

To Kijima Tsukur, however, this change felt truly bizarre.

It felt... more like she had been frightened?

That was it.

Karuizawa Kei felt her heart pounding in her chest.

Her intuition told her that the man before her was extremely dangerous; just one glance made her feel as though she were being laid bare by him.

At this moment, hiding behind Hirata, Karuizawa Kei felt nothing but endless regret; if she had known, she wouldn't have come.

And the facts were indeed as they appeared...

For a gyaru who acted frivolous and dressed gaudily to be frightened by the scene before her, this gyaru was clearly somewhat of a fake!

However, Kijima Tsukur did not care; whether she was real or fake had nothing to do with his objective.

"Hm?"

The leading man was clearly somewhat surprised:

"Um... excuse me, are you all from Class A?"

"That's right."

"We are from Class 1-B."

After the group introduced themselves to one another, the leading boy smiled and said:

"Sorry, we aren't late, are we? I am Hirata Yosuke from Class 1-D, and beside me are Karuizawa Kei and Kikyo Kushida."

"Hello..."