Shiina Hiyori Is Starting to Remember

It's safe to say that Horikita Suzune's time in the Student Council over the past six months hasn't been wasted. Unlike other students who were still racking their brains over titles and formatting, she finished a decent proposal in just ten minutes and handed the paper directly to Ichinose Honami, who was in charge of reviewing it.

"Honami, what do you think of this proposal?"

"Hmm? Is Suzune that fast?"

Ichinose Honami seemed surprised that someone could write a proposal in such a short time. After a moment of stunned silence, she took the proposal into her hands and read it carefully, word by word:

"According to data in Appendix 3 from the school, the majority of guests at this Sports Festival were men in their forties and fifties. If we were to conduct user surveys and profiles of this group, we would find that art forms such as drama play a more prominent role in their daily lives and leisure activities compared to younger groups, representing a considerable potential consumer group."

"According to the fan profile of my student Kitagawa Ryo on social media, his popularity and influence among young people (mainly women) is significantly higher than that of other theater Actor. His fan base covers a wide age range. In one performance a year ago, there was even an incident where a 60-year-old audience member berated a high school student in the front row for bringing his own light stick into the theater, accusing him of not being there to watch the play but to chase after a star. This incident was widely reported by the media at the time, who believed that Kitagawa Ryo was leading the trend of younger theater audiences and a wider age range of viewers."

"In conclusion, I believe that this Cultural Festival can be centered Kitagawa Ryo and other members of the Drama Club, perfectly leveraging Kitagawa Ryo's personal popularity to seize a commanding position and launch a dominant attack on other related projects and industries within the Cultural Festival..."

It has to be said that after serving in the Student Council for so long, Horikita Suzune really knows how to write this kind of thing. If Ichinose Honami hadn't also served Student Council President for a long time in junior high school, she probably would have been completely confused by the various long and difficult sentences.

"So, Suzune means to put on a theatrical performance."

"Yes, that's it."

Horikita Suzune nodded, and then added:

"However, due to the tight schedule, I have only finished the first half of the proposal, which concerns the feasibility of this plan. If Honami thinks it's acceptable, I can finish writing the specific implementation plan for you tonight."

"What does Liang think about this plan?"

Ichinose Honami didn't answer Horikita Suzune immediately, but instead waved the proposal in her hand slightly towards Kitagawa Ryo, wanting to know his thoughts on it.

"It's not that I can't do it, but I'm a little worried that it will take up too much time."

Kitagawa Ryo pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered Tsukishiro as a ready-made scapegoat:

"Actually, before the Sports Festival, I was entrusted by the current Acting Chairman, Tsukishiro, with a task that could only be carried out on the day of the Cultural Festival. This matter was quite important to me, so I was a little worried that it would affect the theatrical performance. After all, this project is the kind of thing that you can't really leave once you're on stage."

"I see."

After hearing Kitagawa Ryo's explanation, Ichinose Honami believed him without hesitation, nodding with a smile.

"Since this is something very important to Ryo, then Ryo can do it without worry. Leave the Cultural Festival -related matters to me."

After saying that, she turned around and helped Kitagawa Ryo comfort Horikita Suzune, the one who proposed the project:

"Suzune's proposal is well-written and feasible, with promising returns. However, as you said, the core of this project is Liang. Since Liang is currently unavailable, well... I'm sorry."

"... If Liang has said that, then there's really nothing we can do."

Horikita Suzune also looked a little disappointed; her slightly drooping eyes and dejected tone made Kitagawa Ryo feel a little sorry for her, so he quickly added:

"Actually, it's not like I won't be able to help the class at all during the Sports Festival. If it's a facility or event that's convenient or that I can help with beforehand, I should be fine."

As soon as he said that, Horikita Suzune, who had just looked dejected because her proposal had been rejected, immediately ran back to her seat and started writing furiously again, as if she had caught Kitagawa Ryo in a compromising situation.

Kitagawa Ryo returned to his seat, subconsciously glancing at Horikita Suzune, who was sitting next to him, a couple more times.

"Regarding the possibility of fully utilizing our class's outstanding pastry-making talent Kitagawa Ryo, and opening a pastry shop during this Cultural Festival..."

Thinking of the little dessert shop called 'Hotaru' that Horikita Suzune kept mentioning, which occupied a significant portion of their simulation, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but shake his head with a slight chuckle.

Wow, so that's what they were aiming for from the start.

Meanwhile, in Class 1-B.

"That concludes the explanation of this Cultural Festival and OAA."

After explaining these two important matters, Hoshinomiya Chie lazily yawned on the podium. Although she didn't know why Ichinose Honami had returned the five million Private Points she had borrowed so quickly after the Sports Festival, nor did she know how much Karuizawa Kei had profited from the Sports Festival, these were all irrelevant to Hoshinomiya Chie.

She didn't even care that Class B had dropped back to Class B from Class A.

Anyway, Kitagawa Ryo didn't transfer classes in the end, and Chabashira Sae stayed in Class D obediently, which means everything is fine, so why think so much?

It was under her indifferent influence that the students in Class 1-B seemed to care little about the reality of their class dropping in rank. After all, they were assigned to Class B when they entered the university, so instead of being anxious about it, they were more interested in discussing how to get through the upcoming Cultural Festival in a harmonious way.

For the students in Class 1-B, this Special Exam with only rewards and no punishments was undoubtedly the most appealing thing to them, a time for joyful play without any psychological burden.

Similar to Kitagawa Ryo's situation in Class A, Karuizawa Kei, also a well-known theatrical Actor, was naturally nominated by the other students in the class, but she declined the nomination somewhat reluctantly.

"Hey, besides me, it seems like only Kanzaki in our class knows a little bit about drama, and even then, it's just theoretical knowledge. I can't possibly go on stage and perform a solo act all by myself."

"Indeed, sigh, I really regret not being able to see Karuizawa and Kitagawa on stage together again."

Kanzaki Ryuji sighed heavily, his tone revealing deep emotion.

As the vice class representative of Class 1-B, he was well aware of the class's specific profits during the Sports Festival. By enticing school staff to participate through private betting, Karuizawa Kei's initial investment of five million yen eventually doubled, resulting in a net profit of approximately seven million Private Points, which is now deposited along with the initial investment in a special card opened by Karuizawa Kei.

A profit of seven million is by no means small. After all, Ryuen Kakeru took such a big risk and went all in on five million, only to get a profit of seven million. However, even with the five million principal, the figure of twelve million is still far from the twenty million transfer fee. It seems that the remaining difference can only be obtained through the Special Exam later.

Furthermore, so far, neither he nor Karuizawa Kei know the extent of Ichinose Honami's profits at the Sports Festival. Apart from the girls' team's Cavalry Battle, the other party has not left any other obvious clues. Under these circumstances, even if they have saved up 20 million yen, they probably cannot act rashly.

Therefore, it's better to focus on the current Cultural Festival for now.

"Speaking of which, could we collaborate with other classes for this Cultural Festival?"

Perhaps because Kitagawa Ryo from another class was mentioned, or perhaps because the students of Class 1-B have always valued the concept of cooperation and mutual benefit, it wasn't long before a girl naturally asked:

"For example, organizing joint exhibitions or something?"

"That doesn't seem feasible. Apparently, it would make it difficult to calculate revenue that way. The school specifically stipulated that students from each class can only appear and participate in activities within their own class's facilities and programs."

Karuizawa Kei shook her head and explained, but immediately raised a finger to offer some of her thoughts on the implications of this rule:

"But it's not that there's absolutely no way to cooperate. The specific method was already demonstrated by Ryuen from Class C during the Uninhabited Island Special Exam."

"Does 'Hui' mean not providing manpower assistance, but directly supporting relevant supplies?"

Karuizawa Kei spoke, Himeno Yuki quickly realized what was going on.

Similar to the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, this time the students had Private Points specifically for the Cultural Festival. These points were allocated by the school to them as preparation funds for the Cultural Festival and to pay for the venue. Although inter-class transfers were not allowed, it was entirely possible to negotiate with other classes in advance, purchase the necessary materials, and then deliver them to them through a roundabout method.

"Well, while students aren't allowed to help with other classes' facilities or programs, it's fine for guests. Ryo, I think, came to the Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School's Cultural Festival more than two years ago, before she even enrolled, and even made a guest appearance in a program for Horikita's former Student Council's class."

After Karuizawa Kei revealed the two pieces of information she knew, the other students in Class B began to discuss them, only to be stopped by her after a while:

"So in my opinion, this Cultural Festival is not as simple as we initially thought. There must be quite a few hidden rules involved, and finding and utilizing them as much as possible is one of the keys to our class's success."

After saying that, Karuizawa Kei offered another idea to spark discussion:

"The partial opening of this Cultural Festival to the public may not be limited to visitors entering the school on the day of the Cultural Festival. Do you remember this rule? If the school does not have the necessary supplies or materials, we can purchase them from outside. If used well, it can be a valuable channel for communication and contact with the outside world."

At this point, Karuizawa Kei couldn't help but recall Kitagawa Ryo's story about Katsuragi Kohei sending gifts to his sister. Perhaps this rare opportunity could be used to send the sister's letters and gifts to her brother from the outside world into Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School.

Anyway, she figured Kitagawa Ryo was definitely going to do it, and it could only be described as a kind of mutual appreciation between two sister-complex friends.

Chapter 320: Shiina Hiyori is remembering

Unlike Class A and Class B, which had a harmonious atmosphere on the surface Class 1-C, which had lost a full 150 Private Points at the Sports Festival and was just a hair's breadth away from falling to Class D, was still shrouded in a visible silence even after their homeroom teacher Sakagami Kazuma, finished explaining all the relevant rules and left. Everyone was waiting for Ryuen Kakeru Sho to speak.

After suffering a major setback at the Sports Festival due to his lack of understanding of people's hearts, Ryuen Kakeru gradually began to reflect on his past shortcomings. Although his absolute violent methods did help him forcibly bring together the disorganized Class C at the beginning of the school year, they also sowed the seeds of various hidden dangers for the class at that time. These dangers eventually erupted, starting with the Uninhabited Island Special Exam and taking advantage of the Sports Festival.

This is why Ryuen Kakeru was finally able to make the decision to exchange his 12 million Private Points for the debt contracts of the Class C students with Matsushita Chiaki. With gentle words on his lips and a sharp blade in his hand, he began to try to wield both carrot and stick, using a more conciliatory approach to lead the class than before.

But it must be said that this tactic worked more effectively than he expected.

As it turns out, the gamblers' courage and madness only exist for a brief moment before and after the dice are rolled. At that time, the Class C students who dared to band together and challenge Ryuen Kakeru at the Sports Festival lost all the money they had borrowed, and also lost all the blood and courage they had finally mustered up.

With Class C's Class Points down to just over a hundred, Ryuen Kakeru could easily expel them all if he wanted to. After all, once the Class Points drop to zero, there's no more to deduct. Besides, the neighboring Class D, now Class A, has already demonstrated the feasibility of this operation to everyone. They expelled six students in the first semester, and they've still been promoted back to Class A, haven't they?

It was precisely under these circumstances of unease that Ryuen Kakeru successfully used these debt contracts to control these unruly students. He held the reins of control, just as Miyabi Nagumo had previously controlled almost the entire second-year class. Ryuen Kakeru had once again returned to the position of Leader of Class C.

Even so, Class C still had students who progressed at their own pace, just like at the beginning of the semester, and even Ryuen Kakeru couldn't interfere with them.

For example, there's Shiina Hiyori, who goes to the library or the Tea Ceremony Club every day after school without fail.

Watching the silver-haired girl pack her bag on her own, leave her seat, quietly greet Ibuki Mio next to her, and then clatter away in her indoor shoes right in front of him, Ryuen Kakeru said that he hadn't seen anything, and everyone should just pretend nothing happened.

After all, Shiina Hiyori didn't owe him Private Points, and in a sense, Ryuen Kakeru also needed her presence to help Class C maintain its connection with Class A and the possibility of future cooperation.

However, Shiina Hiyori didn't care what Ryuen Kakeru was thinking. After reading through the rules of the Cultural Festival, she also realized the hidden rule that Karuizawa Kei had mentioned, and was now preparing to verify it.

Walking leisurely to the faculty office in the staff building, where the teachers in charge of managing the Cultural Festival were located, Shiina Hiyori cut to the chase and made her request to one of the teachers who was working there.

"Huh? Are you planning to apply to purchase supplies from external stores so early?"

Since today was the day the rules for the Cultural Festival were announced to the students, the somewhat unprepared female teacher adjusted her glasses in surprise.

"Excuse me, Shiina from Class 1-C, what kind of supplies do you want to purchase for the Cultural Festival? Although our rules do allow students to order from outside shops, if it's something that can be purchased on campus, our application won't be approved."

Faced with such a dedicated teacher, Shiina Hiyori simply nodded slightly.

"Our class needs the works of mystery novelist Jikeming Zhui for this year's Cultural Festival, but I checked the school library and couldn't find the books I wanted, so I'm thinking of buying them from an outside shop."

"The works of mystery novelist Jikeming Zhui...?"

The female teacher briefly repeated the somewhat tongue-twisting name, following Shiina Hiyori's words, and then opened a program on her computer:

"Wait a moment, let me take a look."

After entering the author's name Jikeming Zhui, into the software used to search library books, the final search result was indeed a blank zero.

A little worried that the girl might have just made up a name, the female teacher clicked the mouse to open a search engine and searched for the name. She found that there really was a mystery novelist with that pen name, and several of his works had already been published. However, probably due to his lack of popularity, it seemed that the library of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School hadn't included his books.

After all, even if we narrow the category to mystery novels, there are many masterpieces in the literary world that are better than the works of this unknown mystery novelist.

Although the female teacher wanted to ask Shiina Hiyori what she was going to do with the thing, she hesitated because she thought it might affect the other class's Cultural Festival program preparations. Instead, she approved Shiina Hiyori's application according to the rules, then took out a tablet and handed it to Shiina Hiyori, indicating that she should operate it in front of her.

However, Shiina Hiyori was also prepared. After opening a shopping app that mainly sold books, she easily found a small shop with low traffic and casually ordered two Jikeming Zhui. She wrote her name in the recipient field and filled in the address according to her teacher's instructions.

"That solves the problem. Thank you, teacher."

After dealing with all these matters, Shiina Hiyori politely thanked the teacher in charge of such matters, then stood up to leave.

Is anyone home?

Just as Shiina Hiyori picked up her schoolbag and walked out of the room, there was a gentle knock on the door, followed by a voice that Shiina Hiyori knew all too well.

"Please come in."

"Excuse me."

After receiving permission from the teacher inside the room, the door was gently pushed open, and the two boys who walked in were Kitagawa Ryo from Class 1-A and Katsuragi Kohei from Class 1-D —a pair that seemed a little odd when they stood up.

"Hmm? Is Hiyori here too?"

As soon as he entered, he saw Shiina Hiyori, who seemed to be about to leave. Kitagawa Ryo was also a little surprised, then patted Katsuragi Kohei on the shoulder and whispered to him:

"No problem, just say what we agreed on. I'll be leaving for a bit."

After saying that, Kitagawa Ryo naturally took Shiina Hiyori's hand and led her outside the room, gently closing the door behind him.

"What are you doing here, Liang?"

After walking a distance away to ensure their conversation wouldn't be overheard by the people in the room, Shiina Hiyori lowered her voice and asked with some curiosity.

"I came with Katsuragi. Hiyori, do you remember what I told you before about Katsuragi's sister? If you make good use of the rules in the supplies area of this Cultural Festival, you can help Katsuragi receive a return gift and a letter from his sister. I came here to help him with that."

As Kitagawa Ryo spoke, he also lazily yawned:

"After all, Nagumo is now the Student Council President, so our Drama Club can't just leave school as freely as before. It's not bad that we were able to solve this problem this way."

"Oh, me too. I really want to receive a reply from my parents, and they happen to have something they want to send me."

After listening to Kitagawa Ryo's purpose for coming, Shiina Hiyori nodded again and explained her own reason for coming.

While Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School prohibits two-way communication and contact between students and the outside world, one-way information transmission is not really restricted. After all, it's impossible to completely isolate students here for three years. Browsing news and watching short videos are allowed by school rules. Sharing photos or text on public forums without revealing school-related information is also not a big problem. The only problem is that they cannot reply to messages or comments from the outside world.

Kitagawa Ryo, on the other hand, was a student who skillfully navigated the boundaries of rules within the entire Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School and communicated with the outside world almost freely. Naturally, Shiina Hiyori, who was next to him, quickly learned the corresponding skills and soon connected with her parents on a reading app used to share reading notes and recommend good books.

Although both sides meticulously employ a multitude of tricks to subtly convey their questions, thoughts, and answers within reviews and reflections on various mystery novels, for a family where the father is a mystery novelist and the daughter is a mystery novel enthusiast, it's more like a rather fun interactive game.

"I see. I have other things to take care of, so see you at dinner time. I'll probably make stew today, since the weather is getting colder every day."

"Hmm, I was just planning to participate in the Tea Ceremony Club activities. It seems a senior student got some really nice tea. I'll bring some back for Ryo to try after the club activities."

After a brief chat about dinner, Kitagawa Ryo said goodbye to the hurried Shiina Hiyori and slowly made her way towards the Tea Ceremony Club. Perhaps because she was quite diligent in the club, or perhaps because Kitagawa Ryo had already won over the palates of the other upperclassmen, she received a fairly good score in the social contribution rating section related to club activity in the OAA System released today.

Thinking of this, Shiina Hiyori subconsciously turned on her phone and opened the OAA video that she had already watched during the day.

[Class 1-C: Shiina Hiyori]

[First-year grades (up to the end of the second-semester Sports Festival)]

[Academic Ability: A (87)]

Physical ability: C (53)

Flexible thinking ability: B+ (79)

Social contribution: A-(83)