Summer Is Over

It was just to surprise someone in the class.

Just as Horikita Suzune was becoming somewhat numb, she learned that Kitagawa Ryo had used Twenty Million Personal Points to get a student status for a cat.

Horikita Suzune's view on money has almost been overturned by Kitagawa Ryo. She saved up for a whole semester by living frugally, and it wasn't even enough for a single drone show.

"You're really generous."

By the time he came to his senses, he had already uttered this somewhat ambiguous statement.

Seemingly realizing the inappropriateness of her statement, Horikita Suzune quickly turned her head to peek at Kitagawa Ryo's reaction.

To her relief, Kitagawa Ryo seemed to be completely focused on the formation of drones in the sky and didn't hear her at all.

Shaking her head, comforting herself that her biological clock had been disrupted these past few days and her mind wasn't quite clear, Horikita Suzune turned her gaze back to the sky.

"That's the fun of this school."

As the drones began to descend in an orderly fashion, Kitagawa Ryo inexplicably spoke up.

Didn't you hear that?

Feeling a little embarrassed, Horikita Suzune simply stopped hiding it and nodded in response:

"But I thought you would use the points you get from winning Werewolf for promotions in your class."

From Horikita Suzune's perspective, Kitagawa Ryo seems to be someone who is single-mindedly focused on leading Class C to Class A. In fact, during this process, he has framed Class D and other classes several times. After a semester, Class C has not only been promoted to Class B, but is also less than 200 Class Points away from Class A.

But suddenly you feel that Class C's pace, no, it should be said that Kitagawa Ryo's pace has slowed down.

"If it were Suzune, she would probably use these points to directly advance to Class A."

"After all, your brother is in Class A too."

Kitagawa Ryo immediately captured Horikita Suzune's attention with his first words:

"Actually, Suzune doesn't need to care about Class D at all. You just need to show your growth, just like in the last Werewolf."

"As long as you truly learn something, even if you're only in Class D until graduation, your brother will still approve of you."

This was the first time Horikita Suzune had heard Kitagawa Ryo speak to her in such a gentle yet incredibly serious tone. In the past, Kitagawa would either provoke or tease her, leaving Suzune somewhat at a loss for words.

Seeing Horikita Suzune cross her arms and remain silent for a long time, her face flushed red, Horikita Suzune Kitagawa Ryo his head helplessly.

He had initially made a two-way agreement with Horikita Manabu: he would help Horikita Suzune "grow," and Horikita Manabu would assist her to the best of his ability.

However, Kitagawa Ryo has become somewhat indifferent to such thoughts now. Since he figured out some things last time, his mindset has changed.

More than 20 million points were squandered in such a ridiculous way, which would be incomprehensible to the average person.

But for Kitagawa Ryo, he was now trapped in an atmosphere that felt unreal.

During this long simulation, he brushed shoulders with many people.

Genius, idiot, artificial genius.

Vulgar, pretentious, eccentric.

Although he knew there would be problems in seeking truth in a fake world, he still chose to date Shiina Hiyori.

Just like he said back then, "Let's give it a try."

Even if it's just a tiny bit of truth.

"One more test and we can be done."

Pulling his somewhat chaotic thoughts together, Kitagawa Ryo glanced at his phone to estimate the time, and then instructed the two to resume the cleanup and the second round of testing.

"I didn't expect you to actually reach out to me."

Lazily stretching her shoulders and neck, Sakayanagi Arisu looked at Karuizawa Kei sitting opposite her with great interest.

"Since it took three days, can I assume that it only takes a girl three days to get over a breakup?"

"I didn't come here today to hear these things."

Karuizawa Kei, and when she opened them again, her previous hesitation and doubt had vanished.

"You mentioned before that you wanted me to help Liang. What exactly did you mean by that?"

"Who is the enemy? What strategies will they employ? Since you were so confident back then, you must have some understanding of that, right?"

Her azure eyes stared directly into Sakayanagi Arisu's purple eyes, observing the changes in her expression.

"It seems you're not interested in that group photo."

"Or have you already remembered?"

When she spoke her second sentence, Sakayanagi Arisu deliberately lowered her voice, her tone carrying a hint of seduction and probing.

None of that matters.

Karuizawa Kei took a deep breath:

"You said last time it was an internal Student Council issue... Is it that Vice President Nagumo?"

"Looks like you haven't been isolating yourself in your room for the past three days."

Sakayanagi Arisu glanced at Karuizawa Kei with considerable surprise. She had only mentioned it briefly, but the other party had unexpectedly followed the clues to Miyabi Nagumo.

"Stop talking nonsense."

Karuizawa Kei's gaze turned even colder. She didn't know when it had started, but when facing a girl with such a powerful aura Sakayanagi Arisu, whom she would never have dared to approach in the past, she no longer felt any fear.

"To be precise, it was him."

"To put it simply, there is an ideological difference between Nagumo and Student Council Horikita, and the two each occupy their own factions and are evenly matched."

"It's roughly equivalent to Class A last semester, except the location is now the Student Council."

Sakayanagi Arisu stopped teasing and took the initiative to explain the situation.

"President Horikita will step down next semester, Nagumo will take over as Student Council."

"However, President Horikita is worried that the Student Council or even the entire school will be changed by Nagumo, so she hopes to find an outstanding candidate among the First Year to deal with Nagumo."

"Is this person Liang?"

In response to Karuizawa Kei's question, Sakayanagi Arisu simply shrugged:

"It's a bit complicated, I'm not quite sure."

"The fact is that Ryo hasn't joined the Student Council, but Nagumo has already privately designated Ryo as an obstacle to his advancement."

"What's this 'Sports Festival' all about?"

"The Student Council has the right to modify some of the rules for Special Exam, and the most recent Special Exam for us was the autumn Sports Festival."

"There's a very high chance that Nagumo will choose that time to make his move."

"And it's not just targeting First Year; he seems to also intend to prove his abilities to Horikita, a third-year student."

Sakayanagi Arisu shared all the information she knew with Karuizawa Kei.

"I see."

Karuizawa Kei did not ask Sakayanagi Arisu about how she should act. In fact, from the moment Sakayanagi Arisu spoke, she had already analyzed the whole situation herself.

"Actually, if the other party wants to drop out of school, don't we each have 20 million points?"

Faced with Karuizawa Kei's probing, Sakayanagi Arisu smiled and took a sip of the black tea in front of her.

"Will it really work?"

Both of them understood each other's meaning. Although they each possessed a large amount of Private Points that they could use to transfer classes or prevent dropping out, they absolutely could not use them to Salvation Kitagawa Ryo.

Because whether it's transferring to another class or dropping out, students in Class A and Class D have little grounds to interfere, since they earned the points themselves.

However, if the 20 million were spent on canceling the expulsion of Leader from other classes, it's conceivable that whoever made that decision would find it difficult to maintain their position in their own class for the next two years.

And--

The two continued discussing the Sports Festival with smiles on their faces, but they both thought of the same thing.

If you spend 20 million Private Points, the other party may very well force you to transfer to Class D.

"Have you heard? Class 1-C is having a party tonight, and a lot of students from other classes are planning to go."

"Huh? Where is it? I didn't expect there would still be fun things to do even though summer vacation is almost over."

"I think it was near the Special Building."

The conversation between two girls who were walking out of the coffee shop reached their ears.

"..."

"..."

Sakayanagi Arisu and Karuizawa Kei both fell silent, one with her head down studying the patterns on the porcelain plate, and the other with her eyes up counting the patterns on the ceiling.

It is precisely because of failure that the past seems meaningless.

Because everyone prefers to share their memories with their loved one under the starry sky, even if it's bitter, it will feel sweet.

"It's Confessions, isn't it?"

"It's Confessions."

The girls unanimously made their own judgments.

Sakayanagi Arisu at the somewhat dejected Karuizawa Kei, who had just been so sharp and competitive with her.

She pursed her lips, but in the end, all she could do was sigh.

In that instant, even Sakayanagi Arisu, who had just mocked Karuizawa Kei, clearly understood.

She, like the other person, harbored a sliver of hope...

Lovelorn.

Chapter Sixty: Summer is Over

"It's so lively!"

"I didn't expect so many people to come."

"It seems that in addition to us First Year students, some upperclassmen have also come."

As soon as Ayanokoji Kiyotaka arrived at the open space, he was taken aback by the massive crowd of people thronging around him.

"Hey, isn't this Ayanokoji?"

Turning around, I saw Hirata Yosuke and Ken Sudō from my class. It was a rare sight to see them together. And the one with sharp eyes who first noticed me and greeted me was Sudo, who was still eating something.

Good evening, both of you.

Now that he'd been discovered, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka simply walked over and joined the two boys from his class. Hirata Yosuke smiled and said:

"I didn't expect Ayanokoji-kun to be here too."

"Because I am genuinely curious."

Hirata Yosuke nodded in agreement with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's reason. The recreational facilities at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School were indeed limited; otherwise, the entire school wouldn't have been so excited and lined up for a fortune teller from out of town a few days ago. For students confined to this place, anything new was interesting.

Just like the various snack stalls stretching out like a long dragon along the roadside right now, or the small activities that students are very familiar with, such as target shooting, ring toss, and goldfish catching.

What might have seemed a bit childish to past high school students is even better for the students of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School.

And it seems that the older they are, the more fun they have.

"Although Kitagawa from Class C is always causing trouble, they really put on a lavish party tonight."

Ken Sudō tore at a snack resembling a meat skewer in his hand, then gulped down a mouthful of his drink and remarked that he had just participated in a competition outside of school as the only official member of the First Year students with the school's Basketball Club. Although the final ranking was not good, the school still gave him some Private Points as a reward, so he wasn't exactly struggling financially.

Moreover, in such a lively atmosphere, the points seemed to matter; at every stall, no one seemed to be trying to save money.

"I heard that Beichuan contacted off-campus personnel through the Student Council and then paid some points to get permission from the school."

"But they're much wealthier than the kids in our Class D."

The three walked and chatted, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka also bought some snacks, following the trend. Although food is only for maintaining the body's normal functions, delicious food can indeed make people feel happier.

"Apart from the lack of fireworks, the whole atmosphere was basically Fireworks Festival."

Hirata Yosuke casually took the bag from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and walked to the roadside to throw away the trash along with it.