The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

"No, no, it's just that I thought Ayanokoji was a bit aloof before, and you didn't accept my invitations the previous few times."

"So it's really great to see Ayanokoji come to me on her own initiative."

Before Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could react, Kushida Kikyo had already grasped his right hand:

"This shows that Ayanokoji is willing to consider me a friend."

"... Right?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka still doesn't quite understand the psychology of socially adept social terrorists like Kushida Kikyo. However, she certainly lives up to her A rating in coordination. In just half a month since enrolling, she seems to have made quite a few friends not only with students in her own class but also with students from the other three classes.

Katsuragi Kohei, Hirata Yosuke, and Kushida Kikyo were the three characters Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had conceived from the beginning to be the face of Class A. With his help, Katsuragi Kohei had successfully become the class representative of Class A, so Ayanokoji Kiyotaka then set his sights on Kushida Kikyo.

Of course, he had another purpose in contacting Kushida Kikyo.

Katsuragi Kohei's stubbornness and conservatism were even more severe than Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had imagined. After spending some time in close contact with him, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka realized that the other party was completely like a rock. No matter how eloquently he spoke, Katsuragi Kohei was determined to maintain the status quo, believing that Class A was invincible. He resolutely disagreed with taking action against the other three classes and instead devoted himself wholeheartedly to trying to reform Koenji Rokusuke.

"I heard that Kushida gets along well with students from other classes?"

"Just call me Kikyo."

Kushida Kikyo smiled warmly:

"I do know some friends from other classes."

Kushida Kikyo placed her finger to her lips and teased him mischievously:

"Does Ayanokoji have a girl he wants to ask out?"

"..."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's silence confirmed Kushida Kikyo's thoughts, and she nodded, adding:

"Actually Ayanokoji is quite handsome, but he's a bit gloomy. If he could improve that, I think quite a few girls would be willing to date him."

"Yes."

Since the other party had already said that much, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka naturally took over the conversation.

"There's a joint activity with another class after school today, Ayanokoji, you can come if you're interested."

"This is troublesome."

"Fine."

Kushida Kikyo smiled again; she seemed to enjoy being asked to do something.

When the school bell rang, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka quickly caught up with Kushida Kikyo. Her phone had been ringing non-stop since class ended. Kushida Kikyo was answering calls and replying to messages from three or four people at the same time, which made Ayanokoji Kiyotaka somewhat amazed.

Maintaining such a vast network of relationships would require an enormous amount of time, effort, and even points (money).

In this situation, she was still able to maintain her position at the top of her class in both academics and sports. In this respect, Kushida Kikyo is truly a rare talent.

When the two arrived at the Keyaki Mall, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka realized that there were already five or six students chatting and laughing around him. None of them looked familiar; they must all be students from other classes. Kushida Kikyo Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to the others.

Because he was a boy brought by Kushida Kikyo, and was quite handsome, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was quickly accepted by the students. Some of the boys in Class B even jokingly asked him if he was Kushida Kikyo's boyfriend. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka remembered that his name was Yagami Takuya, who was also a handsome guy with delicate features.

When the group arrived at the second floor of the Keyaki Mall, Kushida Kikyo waved to the two boys waiting by the roadside. The slightly shorter boy in front responded excitedly, and almost tripped as he ran over, seemingly too excited.

"This is Ike and Yamauchi from Class D."

As the two approached, Kushida Kikyo introduced them with a smile, clapping her hands as she did so.

"Now that everyone's here, let's all go sing karaoke!"

At this moment, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was still dealing with a girl's constant attempts to talk to him, but after hearing the words "Class D," he still glanced outside. Ike was a boy who looked frivolous, while the Yamauchi standing next to him, Yamauchi, was behaving in an overly lewd manner. Despite being quite tall, he hunched over and looked silly with his mouth wide open.

After Yamauchi and Ike joined the group, they started chatting on the way to the karaoke bar. When Yagami Takuya unintentionally mentioned Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, the conversation veered back to the topic. When they heard that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was Kushida Kikyo's suspected boyfriend, Yamauchi and Ike immediately started talking about it.

"You... don't joke around. Kushida has been my goal for a long time! We're like childhood sweethearts who vowed to marry each other under a giant cherry blossom tree! This is Fate reunion!"

"You're lying! You clearly promised to give me Kushida, and I knew it! I knew you were always lying!"

It's hard to imagine that the two of them could say such mindless things in front of the people involved. Even Ayanokoji Kiyotaka noticed that the people around them had unconsciously distanced themselves from the two of them, and the girls' eyes seemed to pronounce their doom.

"What? Everything I said is true!"

Yamauchi Haruki pointed at himself and began to boast. If you completely believed what he said, then in just a few minutes, Yamauchi Haruki was an unimaginable, top-notch man who had a beautiful singing voice since childhood, had been scouted by foreign talent agents, became the ace of the choir in junior high school, and was even predicted to become a professional singer.

Unfortunately, the other person's hoarse voice wasn't very convincing.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka showed no anger at being offended; in fact, he almost wanted to laugh.

The thought that this clown was in Class 1-D and was Kitagawa Ryo's classmate almost made Ayanokoji Kiyotaka burst out laughing.

Therefore, he wished those two were even more stupid.

In the end, it was Kushida Kikyo who calmed down the two idiots. Students from classes A, B, C, and D surrounded Kushida Kikyo and led her to the karaoke bar, where they booked the largest private room.

The shop was quite lively because of the many students, but there were almost no upperclassmen; most of them looked like First Year students.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka observed the students coming and going, following in their footsteps. They exuded the unique innocence of freshmen, finding everything new and exciting.

"What is Kushida going to sing?"

As soon as he entered the private room, Yamauchi, who had been eagerly occupying the karaoke machine, asked at the Yamauchi.

"Everyone, please sing first! As for me, could you please Yamauchi 'Memory'?"

"Um... that, is it very cute?"

"It means 'memory,' m, e, m, o, r, y."

A murmur of laughter rose from the side; everyone except Kushida Kikyo watched Yamauchi Haruki's embarrassment as if he were a clown.

"Haha, so that's the word. I just didn't know which one Kushida was talking about because there are so many homophones."

Yamauchi Haruki, however, seemed completely unfazed and continued boasting:

"I used to score 900 on the APEC exam."

What is APEC?

One of the boys asked a question casually, Yamauchi immediately showed off.

"You don't even know this? It's a very difficult English Exam."

"Uh, that's probably not APEC, it's TOEIC."

Kushida Kikyo gently corrected Yamauchi Haruki's mistake.

Another girl added from the side:

"By the way, APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation."

"They're like relatives, aren't they?"

"I imagine their relationship with their families and relatives is worlds apart..."

After this somewhat awkward interlude ended, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka heard the girl next to Kushida Kikyo ask:

"I haven't heard this song that Kikyo before."

"It's a song from the musical 'Cats,' it's really beautiful. I even rehearsed for this show when I was in middle school."

"Hey, I remember Kushida Kikyo went to Azabu Middle School, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Now that you mention it, I think I remember. Your school's Drama Club is quite famous, right? I heard there's a super famous drama Actor named—named..."

"It's Kitagawa Ryo, Kitagawa-kun, right? He's the head of the Drama Club. We're in the same year, and we're really close."

Upon hearing the familiar name, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka tensed instantly, a chill running up his spine. He used the dim light inside the private room to observe Kushida Kikyo's smiling face from afar, listening to her say, "We have a good relationship."

He suddenly realized a terrifying possibility:

Everything about Class A now--

Kushida Kikyo was covering her mouth and chuckling softly.

Perhaps it has already been completely exposed to the other party.

Yamauchi Haruki, Kanji Ike

Kitagawa Ryo wrote the two people's names on the whiteboard with a black ballpoint pen.

Class D' s Class Points should have dropped to almost zero.

This demonstrates both the incompetence of Class D and another fact.

Kitagawa Ryo put a big X over the two names.

Now the matter is quite simple.

Let's drag Class A into this.

They were caught up in this expulsion storm that had become harmless to Class D.

Chapter 48: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

"Is Kikyo referring to Kitagawa from Class D?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka subtly moved closer to Kushida Kikyo. Yagami Takuya, sitting to Kushida Kikyo's right, had already asked the question he wanted to know, and he wore a curious expression.

"My Karuizawa is very close to him, and they even started a new club together."

"I know about this too, because these two knew each other before, and they've supposedly been stage partners, but..."

Kushida Kikyo paused for a moment, then realized that apart from her own Class A, the other three classes probably didn't know the secret of the class division yet, which was why the students from the four classes had been meeting and exchanging ideas so frequently lately.

If the information about class assignments and Class Points is made public, the competition between classes will immediately become the most brutal. At that time, the clubs created by Karuizawa and Kitagawa may also be difficult to maintain. After all, Karuizawa is the class representative of Class 1-B. Even if their friendship is strong, their classmates may prevent them from interacting closely.

"Um?"

Yagami Takuya noticed Kushida Kikyo's pause, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was standing next to him, narrowed his eyes. He suddenly remembered that when they were assigned to classes, it seemed that Kushida Kikyo had intentionally put Kitagawa Ryo Kikyo out for him.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka only got two pieces in total, the other being Koenji Rokusuke, who had always been a loner in the class. With this in mind, Kushida Kikyo's identity suddenly became suspicious.

However, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka wouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly. If Kushida Kikyo really was Kitagawa Ryo's spy planted in Class A, he would have a chance to turn the tables on her.

"It's nothing, it's just a bit of a shame that these two weren't in the same class. After all, back in junior high, almost everyone in the Drama Club thought they were a couple."

While changing the subject, Kushida Kikyo also turned to the girl sitting to her left and asked:

"By the way, Matsushita -kun, has your class elected a class monitor?"

The class president of Class 1-A is Katsuragi Kohei, the class president of Class B is Karuizawa Kei, Class C is said to be led by a boy named Ryuen, while Class D is in complete chaos with no news at all.

Matsushita Chiaki had been quietly swinging her maracas in the corner and seemed almost invisible, was a student in Class 1-D. Upon hearing Kushida Kikyo's question, she smiled and replied:

"We don't have a class monitor, and everyone's used to being noisy and argumentative. If I had to say, Ichinose is probably the most popular."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nodded secretly to the side. He knew that Ichinose Honami was a girl who, like Kushida Kikyo, was rated A in coordination. He was not surprised that such a person quickly gained the support of her classmates.

"And another one is Sakura. Quite a few classmates were her fans before, especially the boys."

As if recalling something amusing, Matsushita Chiaki covered her mouth and chuckled softly.

"Is it that very famous idol?"

My sister really liked her before.

"I've heard of her name before, and I even went to one of her concerts with a classmate. I never imagined she'd be at this school now."

The other students joined in the discussion, chattering away. Yamauchi Haruki grinned, seemingly about to make some shocking statement, but after saying a few words, he realized that no one cared about him, so he reluctantly shut his mouth again.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka made notes of the key figures from each class, which was why he chose to come here with Kushida Kikyo. He didn't consider himself a sociable person, but Kushida Kikyo's social gathering today truly made him see her value.

Out of caution, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka decided to postpone his interactions with Kushida Kikyo, at least until he was certain that she was indeed in contact with Kitagawa Ryo.

However, there were indeed things that could be done. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced at Ike and Yamauchi, who were looking somewhat awkward in the crowd, and took the initiative to go up and start a conversation.

"I noticed it when school started, but I never expected Arisu you would actually choose Matsushita, Arisu."

Kitagawa Ryo teased the girl sitting in front of him while refilling his teacup with hot water.

"Because Chiaki is a very interesting child."

Sakayanagi Arisu said, holding her teacup. Today, she unusually didn't choose coffee but instead drank tea with Kitagawa Ryo. Since Shiina Hiyori joined the Tea Ceremony Club, she would often bring Kitagawa Ryo various kinds of tea leaves and matcha powder. According to her, they were all distributed by the club and one person couldn't finish them all. Therefore, Kitagawa Ryo's cupboard was now full of tea leaves.

Kitagawa Ryo took a sip of hot tea. He wasn't surprised that Sakayanagi Arisu would find an assistant-type follower. Kamuro Masumi's nature was actually similar to Matsushita Chiaki, whom the other party had taken a liking to in Class A. After all, due to various limitations, Sakayanagi Arisu needed a second pair of eyes and legs.