Honami Ichinose's Perfect Alibi

Unfortunately, the contestants who signed up for all the events simply didn't have any free time.

"Be careful, Liang. I hope I can make it in time after my project ends."

"Good."

Kitagawa Ryo had barely taken a few steps away from Ichinose Honami when Sakayanagi Arisu silently reappeared beside him, smiling confidently.

"I've figured out Megumi's strategy for this Sports Festival. Ryo, would you like to hear it?"

"Hmm? So fast?"

"I had already suspected this before, and today I'm just proving it. I might even be enjoying the process."

As if she had solved an interesting puzzle, Sakayanagi Arisu smiled and raised a finger, keeping Kitagawa Ryo in suspense for the time being:

"The answer is actually hidden in two numbers: thirty million and five."

After listening to Sakayanagi Arisu's words, Kitagawa Ryo, while stretching his muscles in preparation for the upcoming hurdles race, casually gave the answer:

"Hui didn't place any bets in this contest; instead, she opened a betting pool privately."

The two figures mentioned by Sakayanagi Arisu refer to the 30 million yen that Miyabi Nagumo himself spent during this Sports Festival. Anyone who knows this information can vaguely sense that there is something subtly wrong with the total prize pool amount of this prediction, because with Miyabi Nagumo spending so much money, the total prize pool amount that originally seemed astronomical seems to be getting lower and lower.

The "five" refers to the rule that the school would charge a 5% handling fee on the prize pool after each bet, as stated in the betting rules from the beginning. This undoubtedly reduces the winner's earnings.

Adding these two points together, it becomes easy to conclude that some students are running their own gambling operations in order to avoid the fees charged by the school.

"I see. So it's Huihe Class A that's running the betting platform? They're making some money, but it's probably not much, since most students still habitually use the school's platform."

"That's not necessarily true. Has Liang forgotten that there are other people in the school who have Private Points?"

Then, Sakayanagi Arisu, turning to the audience members—employees of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School cafeterias, convenience stores, clothing stores, and other similar establishments—added a playful tone:

"The school's platform isn't open to them, but there are always those who see it and get itchy to try it out. It's a largely untapped blue ocean market."

"... Arisu said that, I'm starting to wonder if the applause and cheers from the audience today weren't genuine at all."

Who knows?

Sakayanagi Arisu stretched slightly, but her expression immediately turned serious again:

"However, I haven't been able to figure out Honami's strategy yet. Apart from that Cavalry Battle, I can hardly find any other actions of hers. She's like a suspect with the perfect alibi. We know she has a strong motive and must have taken action, and there are many suspicious points left behind, but we just can't find any evidence against her."

"You've got an alibi now, Arisu, what mystery novel have you been reading lately?"

"Because Ryo likes this kind of thing, right? I remembered it when I went to the library, so I borrowed two books. Speaking of which, Ryo, do you know? There's a mystery writer whose name sounds a lot like mine."

"Arisu mean Arisugawa Arisu, right? The names do sound quite similar. His works are indeed quite suitable for beginners of the orthodox mystery genre. His National Series is also good; otherwise, he wouldn't be called the Ellery Queen of Japan."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo paused for a moment, recalling that Shiina Hiyori, a fervent mystery novel enthusiast who had read hundreds of mystery novels, hadn't read Arisugawa Arisu's work because of her Shiina Hiyori, which Sakayanagi Arisu's. As a result, he rarely discussed the author's works with her.

Which two books Arisu been reading so far?

"<The Mystery of the Swedish Hall> and <The Magic Mirror>, oh right, now that you mention it, I remember <The Magic Mirror> had some lecture notes on how to create an alibi to fool others."

"For example, if the witness himself was an accomplice or conspirator who deliberately lied, then it's because he was misled by the other party into having a related illusion about time and space."

Sakayanagi Arisu recalled and spoke bit by bit, revealing a thoughtful expression:

"The illusion of the time and place of the crime, the illusion of related physical evidence, the insight into the psychology of the victim or witness, and inducing the other party to fabricate testimony or evidence favorable to oneself..."

After squinting and thinking calmly for a while, Sakayanagi Arisu a flash of inspiration and remembered something that happened before the Sports Festival: she and Ichinose Honami had both gone to see Sakura Airi, who had ten million Private Points.

Sakayanagi Arisu's request to Sakura Airi was for the latter to send her a screenshot of her daily balance so she could be assured that the enormous amount of points, enough to change the course of the battle, hadn't been used. She then used these real-time updated balance screenshots to deceive several students who wanted insider information to make a fortune, forming small groups to stir up public opinion on the forum, and finally swindling all their Private Points in one fell swoop.

... Did Ichinose Honami, who went with her at the time, also consider how to utilize the ten million yen that had become unusable due to the promises made by its holders Sakura Airi and Karuizawa Kei?

Thinking of this, Sakayanagi Arisu quickly bid farewell to Kitagawa Ryo:

"I'm going to find Airi. Go Ryo in the 110-meter hurdles!"

Soon, Sakayanagi Arisu found Sakura Airi among the spectators waiting to watch Kitagawa Ryo's 110-meter hurdles and asked her about some of the details of what happened.

"Hmm, it seems like that happened. Back then, Honami was even less trusting Arisu. She said that screenshots weren't very reliable and asked me to send her the Private Points so she could see them. I sent them, but they were returned to me two seconds later."

After listening to Sakura Airi's words, Sakayanagi Arisu's eyes lit up, feeling that she had vaguely grasped the clues left by Ichinose Honami.

If that's really what she thinks.

Ryuen Kakeru bet five million, also had to quickly and respectfully step down from his position as the most insane gambler at this Sports Festival and give his seat to Ichinose Honami.

... Perhaps she was the one who gambled everything, everything, on Kitagawa Ryo without hesitation.

Chapter 314: Ichinose Honami's Perfect Alibi (6k)

After roughly deducing in her mind Ichinose Honami's course of action before and after this Sports Festival, Sakayanagi Arisu immediately began to verify her findings.

First and foremost, it's important to understand that Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Kei share the same goal: to interfere with each other's point-earning plans as much as possible while accumulating a large number of Private Points, and to find ways to prevent the other from disrupting their own point-earning plans.

At first glance, the easiest way for the two to earn Private Points in this Sports Festival is through the school's betting games. Therefore, in Sakayanagi Arisu's initial plan, Ichinose Honami and Karuizawa Kei would probably design, test, confirm, and ultimately sabotage each other's betting projects, such as the First Year girls' Cavalry Battle project, which was clearly manipulated by Ichinose Honami.

However, both parties involved were clearly aware of this, which is why Karuizawa Kei opened up a new track, turning her attention to students who did not want to pay the school's fees and staff working in the school's various facilities and venues.

So, within the entire Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, besides the students and staff such as security guards, cafeteria workers, cleaners, sales clerks, and convenience store employees, what other group holds a certain number of Private Points?

The answer is teacher.

Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School has its own independent financial system centered on Private Points. Therefore, the salaries and bonuses that these faculty and staff receive from the school are also distributed in the form of Private Points. This is why Mashima Tomoya teacher of Class 1-B, took the initiative to help the students of Class B survive in the school during the most difficult semester of Class B.

Scholarships, living allowances, academic progress awards... The fact that Class 1-B, whose Class Points had been zero for a long time, didn't completely collapse in the first semester can be largely attributed to Mashima Tomoya's earnest help and support.

Mashima Tomoya can provide so much financial aid to his students, partly due to his sense of responsibility as a teacher, and partly due to his own savings.

After all, before Kitagawa Ryo proposed the exchange of teachers between Class A and Class D, Mashima Tomoya had already served as the teacher of Class A for two consecutive terms. Under the system of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, the treatment of Class A teachers is higher than that of the lower-level classes. This is also a way for the school to encourage teachers to work hard to lead their classes to promotion.

Therefore, both Chabashira Sae and Hoshinomiya Chie should be able to produce a considerable amount of Private Points.

The former is because she actually served as the homeroom teacher of Class A for more than a semester, and her personal life was quite frugal, or rather, monotonous. The latter, although her personal life was quite chaotic, can be viewed from another perspective. It is said that Hoshinomiya Chie has a wide network of connections within the faculty and staff of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. After all, she can find an ex-boyfriend anywhere, and even if she only borrows a little from one person or another, she can probably still accumulate a certain amount of Private Points.

To find a breakthrough by understanding these two individuals, it is necessary to clarify their respective underlying psychology.

On the surface, Hoshinomiya Chie and Chabashira Sae's current goal is to recruit Kitagawa Ryo into their team.

Therefore, the former temporarily reached a consensus with Karuizawa Kei, resolving the differences between Class A before the Sports Festival.

The latter was due to Kitagawa Ryo's own hypnosis and Chabashira Sae's somewhat abnormal mental state, to the point that she readily agreed to Kitagawa Ryo's absurd request to train together with the B and D classes who were not in the same group.

However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that Hoshinomiya Chie's demands are actually hierarchically structured: 'punishing Chabashira Sae's is at a higher psychological level than 'getting Kitagawa Ryo transferred to Class A,' since the latter is ultimately just a matter of...

The means and the end are still to achieve the former.

Karuizawa Kei exploited Hoshinomiya Chie's psychology, using the pretense that Kitagawa Ryo would transfer to Class D to deceive Hoshinomiya Chie and give her command over the entire Class A for the Sports Festival.

As the details of various events gradually pieced together in her mind, just as Sakayanagi Arisu was getting closer to the truth, Ichinose Honami appeared in her field of vision. She seemed to have just finished the girls' group activity and was wiping the sweat from her forehead as she walked towards the boys' group.

"Hey, Honami."

Sakayanagi Arisu reached out to greet her, her tone filled with strong confidence and the joy of solving the mystery:

"I know the strategy you're using for this Sports Festival."

Before Ichinose Honami could respond, Sakayanagi Arisu added:

"But I won't interfere with your plans. Besides, I've only seen through the first half of your plan so far. As for how to finish it off... well, I haven't figured it out completely yet."

"So Arisu called me just to say this? I still need to go see Ryo."

Ichinose Honami showed no sign of panic despite Sakayanagi Arisu's comment. She responded calmly and then strode past her.

"Wait a minute, there's one more thing I want to confirm, just to satisfy my own curiosity. If Honami agrees, consider it a favor I owe you."

Just as Ichinose Honami was about to leave, Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly reached out and grabbed her sleeve, earnestly proposing a deal to her:

"Let me see your Private Points balance on your phone right now."

It has to be said that Ichinose Honami was quite tempted by the deal proposed by Sakayanagi Arisu. After all, as a classmate and friend, she was one of the people who knew the girl's talents best. If the girl hadn't been completely in a gossipy, inflammatory mood during the Sports Festival, the difficulty of carrying out this plan would probably have been several levels higher.

Moreover, since the other party has taken the initiative to ask to see her account balance, it means that, just as she herself said, Sakayanagi Arisu has almost completely seen through most of her actions.

"If Arisu promises me I won't do anything out of line, I can show you."

After hesitating for a moment, Ichinose Honami finally relented.

"I promise Honami."

Sakayanagi Arisu's eyes sparkled as she awaited the complete revelation of the halfway point of the mystery.

Then, she saw the phone screen that Ichinose Honami had shown her. The time and date in the upper right corner were correct, and the screen responded when touched. It was not a screenshot.

"Just as I thought."

Sakayanagi Arisu nodded in realization, a slight smile playing on her lips.

What appeared in her field of vision was a staggering 15 million points.

If Karuizawa Kei directly bypassed the school and opened up a brand new track, Ichinose Honami was no less impressive. She actually only participated in the girls' group 'Cavalry Battle event, which cost her about one million Private Points, which she had saved up and borrowed.

That was actually a smokescreen she threw out, because Ichinose Honami believed that Karuizawa Kei would definitely see through her blatant acting in that team match, thus making the other party think that her strategy for this Sports Festival was to directly use her past persona and network of connections to quietly manipulate and control the match to gain benefits.

But that's not the case.

From the very beginning, Ichinose Honami devised a crazy plan to get something for nothing.

After investing almost all her points in the girls' group's Cavalry Battle guessing game, her initial investment was practically zero.

Then, the first payment came from five million Private Points borrowed from Katsuragi Kohei of Class D.

After receiving the five million, Ichinose Honami immediately went to find Hoshinomiya Chie of Class 1-A, and proposed a second deal to her.

She also discerned Hoshinomiya Chie's psychological level, so she immediately brought up the topic, going along with the other party's current understanding, and also pinned the blame on Class 1-D, further confirming Hoshinomiya Chie's belief that Kitagawa Ryo was indeed transferring to Class D.

Then, Ichinose Honami shared her thoughts with her.

In reality, Hoshinomiya Chie is not an adult who can be easily fooled, but Ichinose Honami's words to her are impeccable in terms of motives, emotions, and practical considerations.

She wants to keep Kitagawa Ryo in Class B, so she's raising Twenty Million Personal Points to protect Kitagawa Ryo.

Next, Ichinose Honami showed Hoshinomiya Chie her current results.

That was 15 million Private Points lying quietly in her account balance.

Hoshinomiya Chie, of course, had no idea that ten million yen would be transferred back to Sakura Airi exactly as it was just seconds after she showed it to her for confirmation. Before she could even react, Ichinose Honami seized the opportunity and made her own request:

"But this is the limit I can raise personally, and to ensure safety, I will not use it for the Sports Festival predictions."

"I wanted to keep Liang in our class and by my side in the safest and most secure way possible, so after thinking it over, I decided to come to you."

Without a doubt, Ichinose Honami's natural performance captivated Hoshinomiya Chie.

"... So how can I help you?"

"Please lend me another five million Private Points, Hoshinomiya. With these twenty million, even if Class D manages to gather twenty million points at this Sports Festival, I can still keep Ryo in Class B."

Hoshinomiya Chie couldn't refuse such a proposal. After all, for her, this was equivalent to having double insurance from Karuizawa Kei and Ichinose Honami. Even if the former failed to raise 20 million yen in the end, the latter could ensure that Kitagawa Ryo wouldn't transfer to Class D. Moreover, it was just a loan, not a gift of 5 million Private Points.

Although five million is not a small amount for Hoshinomiya Chie, she can still scrape together the money.

And so, with the initial capital of five million borrowed from Class D, Ichinose Honami successfully obtained a second five million from Hoshinomiya Chie.

Then, when she found Chabashira Sae again and used the same trick, the balance she showed to her had actually become 20 million yen (again, under the pretext of confirmation, she asked Sakura Airi to transfer the money for a few seconds).

"So, Chabashira -sensei should understand now, even if Class D raises enough 20 million points at this Sports Festival, Ryo still can't go to your class."

"We will transfer him back. Moreover, the Hoshinomiya-sensei of Class A, Hoshinomiya-sensei, and your class Leader, Katsuragi, do not want Ryo to go to Class D. You see, the ten million Private Points here were lent to me by them. Otherwise, we really wouldn't have been able to raise them."

After showing the two loan certificates, deliberately listing Hoshinomiya Chie and Katsuragi Kohei's names side by side, with just a little provocation, Chabashira Sae will fall into a quagmire of suspicion on her own.

Never try to verify what you already believe.

After the ordeal on the Uninhabited Island, Kitagawa Ryo Sae's mental state became somewhat unstable. Furthermore, having been deceived by Chabashira Sae in a scumbag manner, she had already accepted the fact that he was loyal to Class D. With this preconceived notion, things seemed even stranger.

Not long ago, Kitagawa Ryo took the initiative to get close to Class D on the playground, offering to lead them to make money off the upperclassmen's secrets. Why is Katsuragi Kohei so resistant? Does he really think that the other party will take his Leader position after transferring to another class?

Kitagawa Ryo first proposed that Classes B and D train together to improve, but why does Class D always act like they're guarding against thieves during training? And why did Katsuragi Kohei secretly sell information about the training matches between the two classes?

However, this was merely Ichinose Honami. She quickly seized the opportunity when Chabashira Sae was in a state of confusion and pressed her advantage by presenting her own ideas to him:

"But there's still room for maneuver in this matter. Chabashira-sensei should know very well that I want to keep Ryo in Class B simply because I want to keep him by my side so I can see him every day, talk to him, and eat together..."

"Furthermore, if I were to use those 20 million to offset the 20 million that your Class D might raise, it would actually be a zero-sum game and a losing proposition for both classes."

"So, Chabashira-sensei, what do you think of the idea of me and Ryo transferring to your Class D together? Anyway, as long as Ryo and I are in the same class, it doesn't really matter which class we're in. If Chabashira-sensei is willing, I can immediately return this ten million yen to Hoshinomiya- san and Katsuragi."

Faced with Ichinose Honami's smiling suggestion, Chabashira Sae simply frowned and replied:

"I don't have enough Private Points to make up for your ten million shortfall, and besides, our class might not even be able to raise the Twenty Million Personal Points for Beichuan to transfer to our class this time."