Legendary Observer Kiyotaka Ayanokōji / Arisu Wants to Unlock a New Way to Play

"Kanzaki, what are your thoughts?"

After rejecting Amikura Mako's suggestion, which was difficult to even say aloud, Karuizawa Kei turned to look at Kanzaki Ryuji seemed lost in thought.

"Actually, as Shibata mentioned earlier, I've been thinking about and investigating that anonymous post on the forum lately, trying to find out who's behind it and what they're trying to do through this method. If the 20,000 Private Points joining fee weren't so expensive, I would have already infiltrated to gather information."

"That poster is really strange. Judging from the messages he posted, you can't guess which grade or class he's from at all."

Karuizawa Kei sighed upon hearing this, but although she said it, several possible candidates had already come to mind.

But her gaze quickly hardened again.

Since she has made this decision, whoever is behind it all, anyone who hinders her plan to earn Private Points is someone she needs to defeat, or rather, an enemy.

Karuizawa Kei clenched her right hand little by little in a corner where no one else could see.

The range is between five million and twenty million.

It won't be longer than the long time she spent getting from the last Sports Festival to this Sports Festival, nor will it make her sad about everything she sacrificed to transform from a parasite into a rose that, despite the wind and rain, still bloomed beautifully.

Chapter 295: Legendary Observer Ayanokoji Kiyotaka

Kushida Kikyo, a student in Class 1-D, is not doing well lately.

Although she had established early on that in order to escape her passive position, she needed to find a major weakness in Kitagawa Ryo to use as a check and balance, Kushida Kikyo spent more than a week thoroughly searching her personal network but still failed to gather any valuable information.

Aside from having too many girlfriends and ambiguous relationships, Kitagawa Ryo is an exceptionally high-caliber student, whether in his own class or other classes, and whether praised by classmates or teachers.

But the more this happens, the more Kushida Kikyo wants to find the other person's flaws. For someone like her who uses other people's secrets as nourishment, the deeper the secret is buried and the fewer people who know it, the sweeter it becomes.

Moreover, Kushida Kikyo also had her own basis for her argument: Kitagawa Ryo was assigned to Class D at the beginning of the school year, which indicates that there must have been some major flaw or accident in his personality or past. Otherwise, he should have been a student in Class 1-A.

Although as time went on, Kushida Kikyo herself was somewhat speechless about the school's ABCD grading and class assignment standards. For example, she still couldn't understand how a student like Totsuka Yahiko was assigned to Class A. Rather, she felt that Class D, where he had fallen to, was where he should have been.

As for the imminent Sports Festival, Kushida Kikyo surprisingly didn't have many thoughts about it. A social monster of her caliber lives by interpersonal relationships. If anything, the Sports Festival, this Special Exam, was just a tool for her to further establish or deepen connections with others.

Kushida Kikyo's athletic ability is actually not bad, and she can even be considered one of the best among her peers. But just like she has experienced countless times since childhood, she is never number one. Even if you don't consider other people in the grade, there is still Kamuro Masumi in her class who can steadily surpass her.

Of course, she knew that winning the Sports Festival in front of the whole school would be a very impressive and popular thing. She even thought about using her connections to collect as many competition forms as possible from girls in other classes when the Sports Festival rules were first announced, so that she could be assigned to a group that would be relatively easy to avoid the favorites and try to get first place.

However, it seemed as if the Leader of the four first- First Year classes had planned this in advance, and they quickly and decisively published and submitted their respective competition forms, leaving her no room for maneuver whatsoever.

In the First Year competition list that had been confirmed and finalized by the school, Kushida Kikyo's luck was only so-so. The good news was that she didn't run into Amasawa Ichika from Class B again, but the bad news was that she was grouped with Horikita Suzune from Class B or Karuizawa Kei from Class A in several events, so the chances of winning first place didn't seem very high.

Under these circumstances, Kushida Kikyo had no choice but to focus her energy off the field, showing as much care and concern as possible during training. She would hand out water and towels to the students who had just finished training and offer encouragement. In a sense, this actually boosted the morale and training enthusiasm of the Class B and Class D in the joint training session.

"Please wait a moment, Kushida Kikyo."

After training one day, just as Kushida Kikyo, who had been trying to smile all day and was about to vent her frustration by leaning against the railing in the grove, was about to leave, she suddenly heard another girl calling out behind her. Turning around, she saw Ichinose Honami from Class 1-B.

As she watched the other girl jog towards her, Kushida Kikyo's radar went off like crazy. After all, as the queen who stood at the top of the class and even the grade's social circle, if there was anyone who could threaten her position, it was only this girl in front of her.

As the saying goes, humans are always accustomed to viewing others and the world through their own set of thoughts and perspectives. Similarly, Kushida Kikyo did not believe that Ichinose Honami's inner self was as pure and kind as her outward appearance, after all, she herself was the best example.

However, compared to Kitagawa Ryo, who is impeccable so far, Kushida Kikyo obviously knows more about Ichinose Honami was her junior high school classmate. If she were really asked to fabricate two pieces of dirt on each other on the spot, she could actually throw out some unsubstantiated rumors.

"Oh, it's Honami. What's up?"

Of course, despite thinking this in her heart, Kushida Kikyo still wore that angelic smile that everyone loved, and her manners were impeccable.

"Well, I personally want to discuss something with Katsuragi, the Leader of your class, but since I'm not very familiar with him, I'd like to ask you, Kushida Kikyo, to pass it on for me."

Faced with Ichinose Honami's words, Kushida Kikyo really wanted to retort with "I'm not your mouthpiece" to pay homage to a certain legendary true damage inflictor, but she subconsciously adhered to her usual persona and nodded in agreement for the time being.

"Okay, I'll go and say hello for you, Honami."

After receiving Kushida Kikyo's message, Katsuragi Kohei was also a bit confused, completely unaware of what Ichinose Honami wanted to say to him.

Just as Kushida Kikyo relayed the message, her own phone suddenly vibrated, and the caller ID showed it was Ichinose Honami.

"Is this Kushida Kikyo? I've already seen you with Katsuragi. You've probably already talked to him, right? Can I give the phone to Katsuragi now? I have something important to discuss with him."

Kushida Kikyo could even react to Ichinose Honami's roundabout maneuver, she had already subconsciously handed her phone to Katsuragi Kohei. By the time she realized she had unwittingly been dragged into another trap, Katsuragi Kohei was already communicating with the other end of the line with a serious expression.

"Okay, I understand. No problem, let's leave it at that for now."

After waiting for Katsuragi Kohei to end the call, Kushida Kikyo quickly snatched the phone back. Just as she hesitated whether to delete the call record immediately, Katsuragi Kohei spoke first:

"I'll leave the Kushida."

"Huh? What?"

"Hmm? Didn't Ichinose tell you? But it's nothing, it's just that she and I need to use your phone for our subsequent conversations online, she said it would be safer and more discreet that way."

It's unclear what the two discussed on the phone, but Katsuragi Kohei seemed much more relaxed. He appeared to sense Kushida Kikyo's slight unease and immediately bowed slightly, speaking with a sincere expression:

"It's a bit of a hassle for Kushida, but this matter involves the interests of the entire class, so I hope you can understand. Thank you."

As the class Leader, Katsuragi Kohei had already made his point, Kushida Kikyo couldn't risk ruining her image by refusing outright. She could only nod in agreement while subtly asking:

"So what exactly is going on? Why are you being so secretive?"

When confronted with Kushida Kikyo's question, Katsuragi Kohei hesitated for a moment at first, but ultimately lowered his voice and spoke:

"The other party is willing to take over part of our debt."

Kushida Kikyo was also aware of the ten million Private Points loan that her students had inexplicably received from Miyabi Nagumo, since she herself had been assigned a debt of three hundred thousand yen. However, she hadn't spent a single penny of it and it was still safely in her personal account.

However, the fact that she herself didn't spend the points doesn't mean that the other students in Class D didn't use them for the guessing game, which is one of the issues that Katsuragi Kohei has been worried about.

As a conservative, Katsuragi Kohei didn't believe Miyabi Nagumo's flowery persuasion when they borrowed money. Even though it was said that they would only have to pay two million Private Points in interest, that was entirely based on the premise that everyone in Class 1-D would stick to their bottom line and not touch a single penny of the Private Points that were deposited into their personal accounts out of thin air.

Undeniably, there were indeed such students in Class 1-D, and quite a few of them. However, the disastrous defeat on the Uninhabited Island also tore open cracks within the class. This was evident from the reaction of the Class D students when Kitagawa Ryo came over during their training and said he had inside information from the upperclassmen.

As the saying goes, a team is hard to lead when its members are scattered. Under such circumstances, Katsuragi Kohei still wanted to try to do something, and Ichinose Honami's suggestion was precisely an opportunity.

So, after urgently raising the remaining Private Points from the Class D students who hadn't yet spent the loan, Katsuragi Kohei once again contacted Ichinose Honami using Kushida Kikyo's phone number.

"How many Private Points have you prepared so far, Katsuragi?"

"Around five million, and that should be the limit."

Katsuragi Kohei's tone was somewhat helpless. The amount was less than he had imagined, meaning that the students in Class 1-D had already spent half of the Private Points borrowed from Miyabi Nagumo. He himself was quite pessimistic about the five million he had bet on the betting.

"If it's five million Private Points, then according to the ratio we agreed on before, I will return five and a half million Private Points to your Class D after the Sports Festival. Is that acceptable?"

"No problem."

For the steady and reliable Katsuragi Kohei, being able to sell the five million he had thrown into the betting pool, which he wasn't even sure he'd get back intact, for five and a half million was already quite satisfactory. After all, this meant he had retained half of his principal while also receiving a quarter of the interest.

It can only be said that before entering the workforce, Katsuragi Kohei had already learned the tricks of using multiple layers of outsourcing and middlemen to make a profit.

"Then, it's a pleasure to cooperate."

After discussing some details of the process in more detail, Katsuragi Kohei wisely refrained from asking Ichinose Honami what he wanted the five million Private Points for, and the two quickly reached an agreement.

After finishing his transaction with Ichinose Honami and returning the item to Kushida Kikyo, Katsuragi Kohei hurriedly left the coffee shop and met up with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who was sitting on a bench outside.

"Speaking of which, why did you ask me to agree to this deal so readily, Ayanokoji? Although the borrower is Ichinose Honami, given her relationship with Kitagawa, Kitagawa might be the mastermind behind it all... I'm a little worried that he might use these five million points to do something far exceeding the five hundred thousand we received."

Katsuragi Kohei naturally wouldn't forget his external brain Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. In fact, after his first phone conversation with Ichinose Honami that day, he immediately told Ayanokoji Kiyotaka the whole story and asked for his opinion.

"Lending it to her is no problem, and this should only be Ichinose's personal action, and has nothing to do with Kitagawa."

Compared to the somewhat worried Katsuragi Kohei, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka remained as calm as ever, and his even tone gradually reassured Katsuragi beside him.

"The First Year portion of this Sports Festival is a huge zero-sum game. We, Class D, just need to let this situation continue. After all, in the end, it's Class A and Class B who are spending their own points. It's even possible that 40 million Private Points will all disappear in a single match."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, with his keen insight, or rather, who had been keeping a close eye on Kitagawa Ryo's situation, sensed this covert power struggle from the very beginning. However, he and Kitagawa Ryo chose not to get involved and instead set their sights on other things.

"Like I said, it doesn't matter if we're in First Year."

"Kitagawa's target is the second-year students. That Kiryuin was a setup he orchestrated, but we don't need to worry about that."

"Class 1-D of Grade 1 is focusing entirely on the third grade this time."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said that he had already made contact with Class 3-C when he entered the university, so he knew that the situation in the third year was different from that in the second year. With two semesters left before graduation, Class 3-B might have a chance to catch up, especially since they had also received support from Miyabi Nagumo, who wanted to target Horikita Manabu.

To be frank, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka did not deny Horikita Manabu's talent. Even though he hadn't interacted with him much, based on the information he had gathered, Horikita's performance since entering the school was impeccable.

However, their weakness still exists: the entire Class 3-A relies excessively on Horikita Manabu's abilities. Even Tachibana Akane, who served as the Student Council secretary for two years alongside Horikita Manabu, can be considered an excellent person with a broad perspective. This disadvantage will actually be magnified when everyone participates in the unavoidable Sports Festival.

"I understand... By the way, were you the poster of that anonymous leak post, Ayanokoji?"

As if remembering something, Katsuragi Kohei suddenly asked this question.

"No, but I can already guess who it will be, which is one of the reasons I told you not to interfere with the First Year."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka merely shook his head slightly upon hearing this, his tone as serious as that of an astronomer studying the movement of stars.

"If I'm not mistaken, it should be Sakayanagi."

After reading Kitagawa Ryo's guide to love up close, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka concluded that he had observed a rare phenomenon called a "battlefield".

Meanwhile, Katsuragi Kohei simply smirked and expressed his thoughts:

"Ha, how complicated. It's a pity I've never been in a relationship."

Chapter 296: Arisu Wants to Unlock a New Way to Play

There are only three or four days left until the official opening of the Sports Festival. However, due to the joint training mode of classes B and D, no matter what kind of deals or contracts students from each class make in secret, they will still appear to be doing nothing and come to the Gymnasium for training at the same time every day.

Ultimately, the ability to control the situation is the foundation for any undertaking; otherwise, even immense wealth wouldn't be enough to handle.

"In that case—this will be the last one."

As Yamada Albert, Ken Sudō, and Miyake Akito charged forward, Kitagawa Ryo, acting as the rider, swiftly leaned out and removed the headscarf that Katsuragi Kohei was wearing.

It has to be said that compared to the other guys whose hands were oily from being touched, Katsuragi Kohei's bald head felt quite solid, and even his headscarf seemed easier to remove.

"Ah, what a pity."

Katsuragi Kohei, whose headscarf had been abruptly removed by Kitagawa Ryo, was naturally unaware that the other was inwardly commenting on his hairstyle; he simply sighed in annoyance.

"So it still doesn't work? We should be the ones with the numerical advantage."

"It's alright. At least your teamwork is much better than at the beginning. There are also Class A and Class C on the day of the official competition. Who knows what might happen?"

Kitagawa Ryo used both hands to support himself and nimbly jumped off Yamada Albert. Seeing Katsuragi Kohei's regretful expression, he took two steps forward and offered a few words of comfort with a smile.

The joint training between Class B and Class D was initially conceived to practice these team-based events. Therefore, in the past, both classes have focused their attention and energy on tug-of-war, Cavalry Battle, and relay races.

Although it may sound like the Pole Toppling, which is also a team event, was omitted, both classes did practice this event at the beginning. However, after the incidents involving Shibata Sō Hirata Yosuke, Class B and Class D tacitly stopped practicing this event, which is easy to cause injury in many ways.

"Indeed, I also believe that the Student Council in Class B and Class D will show an even better performance on the day of the Sports Festival."

After being lectured by Kitagawa Ryo, Katsuragi Kohei responded with equal composure, and then, as always, announced the end of the training session.

"Katsuragi, why don't you let me play on the day of the Sports Festival? Maybe I can pull off a surprise victory."

Just as Katsuragi Kohei returned to his class's strategy, Totsuka Yahiko was sitting in the rest area, suddenly stood up from his seat with a bright look on his face and ran over to him to volunteer.

Cavalry Battle is a team battle consisting of four people in a group, with red and white groups forming a larger group. The school's rule is to round down. For example, there are currently twenty-one boys in Class D, which is the last person left in the top five groups. Totsuka Yahiko happens to be that unwanted extra person.

Although Katsuragi Kohei knew that this was the group of Class 1-D venting their dissatisfaction with Totsuka Yahiko's performance on the Uninhabited Island, it was essentially because Totsuka himself was terrible at sports. If he were as good as Hirata Yosuke, everyone would have reluctantly recruited him into the team.

"Ahem, after all, we've practiced so many times, and the competition forms have all been submitted. It wouldn't be good to make personnel changes now."

But there was no other way. Even if everyone in the world could look down on Totsuka Yahiko, Katsuragi Kohei still had to speak kindly and gently to his little follower, so he comforted him in a tactful tone:

"Look at Sotomura and Kobayashi from Class D, they're sitting there quite comfortably, aren't they? Totsuka, just conserve your energy and focus on performing well in your own event."

The two boys that Katsuragi Kohei mentioned, Sotomura and Kobayashi, were surplus boys from Class B. Class 1-B had a small number of students, with only eighteen boys, so they could only field four teams in the Cavalry Battle event. This was the reason why he was always resentful of not being able to compete with Class B. Class D, after all, had a genuinely extra team.

"All right."

Totsuka Yahiko nodded, seemingly accepting Katsuragi Kohei's explanation with reluctance, then his eyes darted around before he leaned closer and sneered:

"Anyway, the girls' performance wasn't as good as ours."

Unlike the boys' group, the girls in Class 1-B and Class 1-D the first year had sixteen and eighteen students respectively, which made up four groups in total. However, despite having the same number of groups as Class B, they were no match for the boys. While the boys' group had improved after so many days of training, the girls' group seemed to be lying down and getting beaten up.

Following Totsuka Yahiko's gloating gaze, the girls' group was indeed in a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere. After all, Amasawa Ichika Kushida Kikyo had been relentlessly targeted by Amasawa Ichika, had no intention of playing the Tian anymore, so the atmosphere naturally collapsed, and occasional muttered complaints could be heard.

"If only there were two more girls in our class, we might have a chance against four opponents."

"The boys didn't win even with one more group, did they? You might as well think about reducing the number of groups in Class B. Once Amasawa's group is removed, we'll definitely have the advantage."

As if suddenly struck by something from the girls' conversation, Katsuragi Kohei frowned and left the still-chattering Totsuka Yahiko, returning to Kitagawa Ryo, who was packing up to leave.

"It might seem a bit abrupt... well, I wanted to talk to you about something, Kitagawa. Maybe I'm just overthinking it, but I feel it's best to say it anyway."

Seeing Katsuragi Kohei walk up to him in a few steps, touching his shiny bald head and speaking hesitantly, Kitagawa Ryo laughed heartily:

"It's alright, just say what you want to say."

"Okay, then I'll get straight to the point."

Katsuragi Kohei nodded upon hearing this, took a deep breath after organizing his thoughts, and then solemnly spoke: