Ryūji Kanzaki's Questions

"Yeah. How many points do you have left?"

"Only forty thousand."

"Then you'd better save them. There are ways to earn points later, and you'll have plenty to keep you busy with those. Anyway, you look so pitiful that if things go well on my end this time, I'll transfer you five thousand."

"Eh... that works. It's better than nothing."

Kushida had wanted to say that the points were a little stingy, but then she realized that she and he weren't even on the same level. The fact that he was willing to give her any points at all was practically charity.

So all she could do was sigh, feeling miserable about ending up in Class D.

If only she'd been in Class B.

But that was impossible. Because of her past, she could only be dumped in Class D.

"Anyway, what's with that woman in your dorm?"

"You mean Ryuen? What about her?"

"Who was it that told me I could come to you whenever I wanted to vent?"

"So you came by?"

"Yeah, but that woman answered the door. How am I supposed to vent when there's someone else around?"

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. Just come whenever you want. I'll have her step aside when you do. Don't look at me like that. She's not a blabbermouth. She isn't interested in this sort of thing, and she won't go telling anyone."

"Really?"

"If she does, I'll give you all my points. How about that?"

After he'd put it that way, what else could she say? Kushida had no choice but to trust him.

"All right. If you want to vent, why not let a little of it out now?"

Hoya went to the door and closed the rooftop entrance, then listened as Kushida angrily unloaded all her trash talk.

She'd been holding in too much this past week. Once she'd let it all out, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sounds like Class D has plenty of problems, if they can drive you to this."

"You... listened to all of it?"

"What else? Nod along while playing on my phone and let it go in one ear and out the other?"

Hoya stroked his chin, unable to understand what Kushida meant.

He'd told her he'd be her sounding board. How could he not listen properly?

Sure, most of it was trash talk and all kinds of creative insults, but overall, it was pretty entertaining.

Hoya's words left Kushida silent for a moment. She hadn't expected him to listen to all of it.

She'd been venting her negative emotions. Didn't this man feel even a little annoyed?

Of course not. You weren't insulting me, so why would I feel bad?

Besides, seeing the usually sweet and well-behaved girl completely break character and curse people out, her face twisted up in anger, felt incredibly real.

And once he stripped away all the useless chatter, he had a much better understanding of the situation in Class D.

Horikita was gradually starting to want to take charge of the class. That was certainly big news.

There were plenty of troublesome girls, too. If he played them off against each other later, he might have trouble deciding which one to use.

Ayanokoji hadn't been insulted much. Mostly, she'd criticized him for having no social awareness. Hoya thought he could let Ayanokoji sit in next time and listen to a prime example of what not to do.

Then there were the Three Idiots. Ken Sudō had gotten into another fight with upperclassmen, while Kanji Ike was always trying to get close to her but didn't dare take it any further. To Kushida, his pathetic, lovesick behavior was no different from a fly buzzing around.

If you've got the guts, then ask her out. Why keep pestering her for no reason?

As for Lord Yamauchi... Never mind. He was always daydreaming. He had no ability, but plenty of imagination.

He fantasized about dating Kushida, Horikita, and sometimes even Ayanokoji. The way he stared at them all day was more annoying than Hoya.

At least Hoya was genuinely serious when they discussed important matters, and otherwise he mostly admired them. And Yamauchi? His head was probably full of nothing but thoughts of sleeping with them.

Ugh. Disgusting! Absolutely disgusting!

After cursing everyone else, Kushida started talking about Hirata. That gentle, kind boy was too nice to everyone, so he got an earful, too.

Who asked him to act like he was everyone's boyfriend? And he wasn't even as capable as Ichinose. He could barely keep the class united on the surface, and he couldn't control the handful of defiant students.

Koenji naturally got his usual share of insults. His unbearably arrogant attitude made him an easy target.

Karuizawa got mentioned, too. She was always clinging to Kushida and asking her to go shopping for new clothes together. She'd already gone shopping with Matsushita last week. Apparently, she really didn't believe they'd run out of S-Points next month. She'd already spent tens of thousands of points on clothes.

Matsushita and Sato, who were closest to Karuizawa, weren't spared either. Hasebe had clashed with Kushida because she was always thinking about the archery club. Sakura didn't get off lightly, either. She was so timid and didn't like talking to people, and it took ages just to explain anything to her.

All in all, she'd cursed out pretty much all thirty-nine of her classmates.

Class D really did have a lot of ridiculous problems.

She'd spent a whole hour unloading all that garbage. Classes were about to start by the time she finally relaxed.

"Done cursing them out?"

"Yeah."

"Same as I said before: whenever you want to curse someone out, come find me. You can think of it as a reward from me."

"Oh, okay."

"All right, time to get back to class. You've got plenty more to deal with, huh?"

Hoya held his head in his hands. Just from listening to what Kushida had said, he could tell she was going back to suffer through even more trouble.

"Good. You passed again today."

Hoya put the test paper on the table and nodded in satisfaction. "Then let's get ready to eat."

"Oh."

After school, Ryuen Shoko had gone with Hoya for another tutoring session. As before, he only let her go once he'd confirmed she'd gotten everything right.

There wasn't much food today. Seeing a meal that looked like it was only for one person, Ryuen Shoko looked at Hoya in confusion.

"You're not eating?"

"Me? I've got something to do, so I only made yours. Someone invited me to dinner, so I have to take care of that."

"A man or a woman?"

"A man. Don't overthink it."

Hoya smiled and tapped Ryuen Shoko on the nose. "You say you don't care, but you still got nervous when I said I was having dinner with someone else, didn't you?"

"I just want to know what's going on. I wouldn't care even if you were having dinner with a woman."

"Sure, sure. Well, Shoko, tonight, are we still going to..."

Hoya didn't say what he meant, but Ryuen Shoko knew.

She rolled her eyes and lightly punched him. "We'll talk when you get back."

"Sure, sure."

Laughing, Hoya left the dorm.

Someone really had invited him out today, and that person was Ichinose.

But it wasn't just Ichinose. In fact, she wasn't really the one who'd invited him. She was only acting as a go-between.

The one who'd actually invited him was her classmate, Kanzaki Ryuji.

"Hoya, I'm very sorry to bother you at a time like this."

"It's fine. I wasn't doing anything anyway, and I don't mind that you're paying for dinner."

Naturally, they weren't talking in the cafeteria, but in a private room at some restaurant.

They'd booked a private room, which definitely hadn't been Ichinose's idea. Kanzaki Ryuji had arranged it.

So someone in Class B had some ability after all. Hoya looked at the boy who'd always kept a low profile.

Kanzaki Ryuji was much like Hoya. They both preferred to work behind the scenes, but Kanzaki was lazier. As long as Ichinose was doing a good job, he didn't interfere.

Hoya, on the other hand, got involved himself, to keep Ryuen Shoko from doing something suffocatingly reckless.

She really was capable of that, and Hoya didn't want her going off the rails. Otherwise, he'd have a headache no matter how things turned out.

"This dinner isn't going to be that easy to enjoy, Hoya."

Seated at the head of the table, Kanzaki Ryuji quietly watched Ichinose treat Hoya so warmly and frowned slightly.

He wasn't jealous of Hoya. He simply thought Ichinose wasn't acting appropriately.

Even if she was a kind person, she couldn't be too easygoing. A leader had to maintain a certain presence.

"Is that so? Then I suppose we should sit down and talk, right?"

Hoya pulled out a chair and sat down without hesitation. He was willing to come to dinner because Kanzaki Ryuji hadn't been too unpleasant toward him.

If Kanzaki's attitude had annoyed Hoya, he wouldn't have come.

"You seem much calmer than I expected, Hoya."

"What's there to get worked up about? We're allies, aren't we?"

Hoya spoke as he sat down and started looking through the menu. Since someone else was paying, he might as well choose whatever he felt like eating.

Kanzaki Ryuji gave a quiet snort at Hoya's behavior. He hadn't expected Hoya to be more concerned about dinner than their discussion.

Was he just carefree, or was he sure of himself?

"Allies, you say. I'd like to know whether we really are allies."

"Are we not?"

"Back then, you did tell us about S-Points, and your proposal that our two classes become allies was acceptable. But over the past week, you've asked us to do quite a few things. As allies, we can't have one side giving while the other gives nothing back, can we?"

Oh, so that was what this was about.

Hoya had thought Kanzaki was making such a fuss for something else. Turns out he just wanted to get a clearer picture.

Kanzaki Ryuji mainly wanted to know whether Class C genuinely intended to cooperate with Class B or was simply treating Class B like a tool.

Isn't that obvious? Of course they're using them as tools—just a more sophisticated kind.

Cooperation between groups was different from cooperation between individuals. There were lots of people in a group, so personal feelings couldn't be allowed to get in the way. They had to keep most people satisfied. That meant cooperation between groups depended on whether the other side was useful.

Were they worth working with, merely there to be exploited, or complete trash—useless to everyone?

"Fair enough. We have been troubling Class B a bit lately. But it's only been a week, and I'm talking about cooperating not for a week or two, but for three years."

As he spoke, Hoya looked at Ichinose. "Ichinose, can I tell him some things?"

"Yes. He's the vice class representative."

Ichinose answered at once.

Hoya's meaning was simple: Was Kanzaki qualified to hear it? Ichinose's answer was yes.

Since he was qualified, Hoya could continue.

"Have you ever talked with any upperclassmen?"

"You mean..."

"In the future, there'll be a few events where all four classes compete against each other. Some events change every year, while others happen annually. For example, the next competition will be the Uninhabited Island event after our first break. And when all four classes compete, I assume Class A will be your opponent, right?"

"Yeah."

"But you probably aren't confident you can deal with Class A, are you? Don't look at me like that. Tell me, who's the leader of Class A?"

"Katsuragi Kohei. Why?"

"I see. Then it looks like you won't be able to beat them."

Hoya clapped his hands. "If you can't even see that much, then forget it. You won't be able to win. Don't look at me like that. I'm not going to tell you the answer. Go figure it out yourself. Class A is our opponent, too, so don't you think it'd be great if our two classes worked together on the Uninhabited Island?"

"..."

"Compared to that, helping each other with studies isn't anything special. Studying at this school doesn't earn many points for your class. Take the upcoming midterms... Oh, they're still five weeks away. Guess they're not exactly coming up."

Hoya worked out the timing. They were still quite a way off. "At most, each class might earn a hundred points from midterms. But major events like the Uninhabited Island and the Sports Festival could bring in a lot more. Those are also the times when we can take points from other classes. That's the kind of cooperation I'm talking about. I hope you understand."