Isn't Your Girlfriend Your Protection Point? (4.5k) / The Boys' Rivalry

"It's no use if I just want it; I need to accumulate those Twenty Million Personal Points first."

After placing the black tea on the coffee table in the living room, seeing that Karuizawa Kei still showed no intention of getting up, Kitagawa Ryo simply walked to the bedside and followed her posture, lying down on the bed together. The two of them chatted shoulder to shoulder, although it wasn't long before Karuizawa Kei had already kicked off her shoes and put her two long, straight legs across him.

"Can't Ryo sponsor me even a little bit? That's 20 million yen! Who knows where the next big thing like the Sports Festival will come from?"

"I can't sponsor that, since I didn't give any Private Points to Honami either. As for the 'wind spot,' didn't this Special Exam have a prediction contest just like the Sports Festival?"

"They're on completely different levels. This Special Exam was only for First Year students, so it's much smaller in scale than the school-wide one last time. When I went to check this morning, there were only a few scattered people placing bets."

"There's no other way. Everyone's votes are still pending, so it's impossible to choose the dropout so quickly. We'll have to wait until the last few days."

At this point, Kitagawa Ryo patted Karuizawa Kei on the shoulder encouragingly, as if to give her some confidence, and continued:

"Actually, there's absolutely no need for Honami to stop me when I accumulate 20 million points to transfer classes. Those Twenty Million Personal Points she holds aren't for this purpose."

As an emotional master who understands the deep psychology and subconscious thoughts of the girls around him, Kitagawa Ryo knew from the beginning that Ichinose Honami's thought was never 'don't let him leave the class,' but rather 'don't let him leave her.'

"... Um, does Ryo mean that Honami will transfer to this class with you?"

"High probability event."

After receiving an affirmative answer from Kitagawa Ryo, Karuizawa Kei couldn't help but twitch the corners of her mouth.

I have this feeling that I'm destined to have Ichinose Honami.

Chapter 362: Isn't your girlfriend just Protection Point? (4k5)

"Thank you for your hard work today, senior. Ayanokoji and I will take our leave now."

After finishing their after-school Student Council work, Katsuragi Kohei from Class 1-C stood up with his classmate Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, politely bowed slightly to the second-year students not far away, and after seeing the other nod in acknowledgment, they turned around and left the Student Council's main classroom, gently closing the door behind them.

He and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka were recruited into the Student Council after the Sports Festival ended and Miyabi Nagumo became the student Student Council President. The price they paid was a super loan contract that included interest on two million Private Points. Although half of it had already been repaid to Ichinose Honami, they still had to repay the remaining seven million Private Points along with the two million in interest themselves. This made Class 1-C's current Private Points reserves quite tight.

After all, their Class Points only had a little over 200 points, and each student could only get a little over 20,000 Private Points from the school each month. After paying off their debts, they were already struggling to make ends meet.

They had hoped to make up for some of the losses through the revenue from the Cultural Festival, but the final results were only so-so.

This is actually one of the reasons why the prediction contest launched alongside this Special Exam hasn't been very popular yet. After all, among the four First Year classes, the students in the lower-ranked Class C and Class D are all burdened with debts owed to Miyabi Nagumo or Ryuen Kakeru, leaving them with a very meager amount of Private Points at their disposal.

However, from a long-term perspective, Katsuragi Kohei did not think it was a bad deal. After all, debts can be paid off eventually, but the opportunity to join the Student Council is not common, especially the Student Council of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School.

Moreover, the next Student Council recruitment will not be until April of next year, and those recruited will all be newly enrolled First Year students. It can be said that he and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka caught the last train of this year's class, becoming the only four Student Council members of this year, along with Sakayanagi Arisu and Horikita Suzune from Class A.

From another perspective, this means that the next Student Council President will only be chosen from among these four. In terms of class affiliation, Class A and Class C each have a 50% chance. This is undoubtedly much better than the situation in the past when the Student Council only had students from Class As First Year members. After all, they have all personally witnessed how Miyabi Nagumo, as the Student Council President, possessed and used the power that belonged to the Student Council.

Therefore, if either he or Ayanokoji Kiyotaka succeeds in the Student Council President next year, it will definitely help the class take the initiative and gain an advantage in the competition within the grade. In fact, Miyabi Nagumo initially took advantage of his open-mindedness, which is why she semi-forced Class C to take out the loan.

However, Katsuragi Kohei occasionally had some doubts in his heart, because after he actually joined the Student Council and started working as a member, he found that Miyabi Nagumo seemed to treat the two students in Class A better, especially Sakayanagi Arisu. Not only did she not pursue the matter of Arisu skipping class for an entire semester as a Student Council member, but she also did not have any airs as a senior or Student Council President. She was very humble in all aspects.

At first, Katsuragi Kohei thought that Miyabi Nagumo might be pursuing Sakayanagi Arisu. After all, although Kitagawa Ryo had overshadowed him at the moment, Katsuragi had heard about the senior's romantic escapades. However, according to his information, Nagumo, who was so confident that he was even a little arrogant, almost always put himself in a superior position when interacting with the opposite sex. He was the kind of person who would do anything to make the other person obediently beg him and pursue him, which was completely inconsistent with the current situation.

Katsuragi Kohei entered the Student Council with a sense of responsibility and awareness as the other party's confidant, only to find Nagumo constantly fawning over his rival, which left him somewhat confused.

"How's things going with Hashimoto?"

Soon, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's question brought Katsuragi Kohei back to his senses, and he immediately answered without hesitation:

"Progress is going smoothly, except he is strongly protesting against using this method anymore, as he is under a lot of mental pressure."

"No one else will fall for it again. Using a handsome man to deceive someone else is enough, once in Class B and once in Class A. This time it was actually more effective than last time. Should I say that the girl in Class A was easier to fool?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nodded almost imperceptibly. The current undercurrent in Class A was naturally the work of Class C. After deceiving a girl from Class B during the summer vacation and obtaining her class's roster for the Sports Festival, Class C's Casanova, Hashimoto Masayoshi, struck again this time, easily getting his hands on Maezono from Class A and playing her for a fool in no time.

In fact, this was also an open conspiracy by Class C. From the Maezono was tricked and induced to start calling a meeting with the worst students in the class, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had already achieved his goal. No matter what measures Class A would take in the future, the seeds of division and conflict had already taken root through this incident.

After all, Class C was arguably the most qualified to speak on this matter. The spy from Class A had kept them in turmoil for over a semester, greatly disrupting the class's atmosphere and even damaging the prestige of their Leader, Katsuragi Kohei.

If this had happened during the first two months of the school year, it would have been impossible for the girls in the class, led by Morishita Ai and Kamuro Masumi, to refuse to participate in the maid café project during the Cultural Festival preparation phase. It just goes to show that when morale is low, it's indeed harder to lead a team.

"Well, according to Hashimoto, Maezono has now gathered a small group of about seven or eight people, but I don't know if they're reliable."

"Whether it's reliable or not doesn't matter. With seven or eight people, I'm pretty sure there are some students who weren't fooled by that rhetoric. Maybe the Leader of Class A already know about this."

"Yeah, just like you said, Ayanokoji, this is an open conspiracy that doesn't matter whether it's discovered or not. In fact, making a scene openly will make it easier for our Class C to take advantage of the chaos in this Special Exam."

After discussing matters related to Class A, Katsuragi Kohei hesitated before turning to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and asking further:

"By the way, Ayanokoji... do you think Yahiko absolutely has to drop out of school for this Special Exam?"

"Me? If you ask me, he's not the right person to be voted out in this Class Vote."

Even when discussing Totsuka Yahiko, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's tone remained eternally rational and indifferent.

"His only value, or rather his merit, is his loyalty to you, Katsuragi. Therefore, the most suitable Matoba for him to use this value is to drop out of school in your Katsuragi at a specific time. He himself should not have any complaints about it. So it would be a waste to send him out here for nothing."

As he spoke, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka glanced at Katsuragi Kohei again:

"Besides, this isn't something you can stop right now. If you really want to save him when most of the Criticism Vote in the class are directed at Totsuka, you'll inevitably need to use the praise votes from other classes to protect him. But Katsuragi, do you think you have the confidence or the leverage to negotiate with the Leader of other classes right now?"

"Even if you did manage to do it, would the value of protecting Totsuka Yahiko truly outweigh the price you paid? Ultimately, you are the Leader of Class 1-C, and Totsuka's decision to drop out is precisely the choice of the majority of Class 1-C students."

After listening to Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's purely rational and emotionless speech, Katsuragi Kohei calmed down again, but still seemed unwilling to give up easily.

"No matter what, I'll give it a try."

"Indeed, even just showing that you're working hard for the other side can effectively appease him during this voting period."

"You're still so blunt... Sigh, yeah, all I can do now is try my best."

Kitagawa Ryo, who had just been called to the rooftop by Ryuen Kakeru after school and leaned on the railing next to him, immediately heard the complaints of the Class D Leader, who was not in a good mood:

"To be honest, I'd love for all three of the worst students in the grade to be from our class, especially that Manabe. I already gave her a hard time during the last Sports Festival, but she's only been behaving herself for a little over a month and she's already started again."

Just like the situation that Shiina Hiyori Kitagawa Ryo that day, the former Class C, which had been demoted to Class D, had almost returned to the chaotic state before the Sports Festival. However, the reason for using the adjective 'almost' is mainly because Ryuen Kakeru, who holds the debt contract, still has the ability to control the class on the surface. After all, no one wants to live a miserable life with their points reduced to zero. The undercurrents in all aspects are just surging under the deeper water.

But Ryuen Kakeru wasn't stupid. As soon as their homeroom teacher Sakagami Kazuma, read out the rules for this Special Exam, he immediately realized that he had once again been placed in a rather dangerous situation. It was only slightly better than the last Sports Festival, where everyone except for a few underlings like Ishizaki Daichi had turned against him. At least this time, quite a few students from Class D were still maintaining a neutral stance.

After all, not all Class D are like Manabe Shiho, who are completely blinded by personal grudges and do not consider the future at all. A considerable number of students actually have a different mindset than during the Sports Festival.

At that time, the entire Class D stood up to ostracize Ryuen Kakeru. Besides the fact that his actions during the Uninhabited Island Special Exam were confusing to the students who didn't know the truth, Shiina Hiyori's sudden rise to prominence actually played a large part in this.

They dared to oust Ryuen Kakeru from his Leader position because they thought it would be better to let Shiina Hiyori shone brightly during the Uninhabited Island Special Exam, become the Leader. However, it turned out that it was a beautiful misunderstanding. Not only did Shiina Hiyori never show any desire to lead the class forward, but many students in Class D also did not genuinely want to support her; they were simply trying to annoy Ryuen Kakeru.

So, Class D unsurprisingly exploded during that Sports Festival.

It is precisely because of this that the students who are slightly more clear-headed gradually realized a fact: they could indeed vote Ryuen Kakeru out of the Class Vote now, but what would happen after that?

After Ryuen Kakeru dropped out of school, who will be the new Leader to guide the class forward? Or is it irrelevant whether he goes to Class A or not, and getting rid of Ryuen means a successful three years of high school?

Shiina Hiyori has already been proven that it's unrealistic to expect her to lead the entire class. After all, judging from her inseparable and flirtatious relationship with Kitagawa Ryo from Class A, it wouldn't be surprising if she sold the class and transferred there one day.

Further down the list, Ishizaki Daichi? Ibuki Mio? Kaneda Satoru? Or does anyone actually think that Manabe Shiho's been jumping around all the time, is capable of handling this important task?

Of course, knowing that the situation wasn't as bad as he'd imagined, Ryuen Kakeru's expression was relatively relaxed. After giving Manabe Shiho a few harsh words, he turned to look at Kitagawa Ryo:

"So, if Class A doesn't really want to send anyone from their own class this time, how about trying to cooperate with our class? The same goes for Class B and Class C. Kitagawa, you should know those two classes better than I do, right? Could you act as an intermediary and make some connections?"

"You never know. The rumors about Totsuka Yahiko dropping out of Class C have been all over the place these past few days, haven't they? All the few Private Points in the prediction section are on his name."

"Totsuka Yahiko? Yeah, if I were a student in Class C, I'd probably be thinking about taking this opportunity to get rid of him too. It's ridiculous that he was even assigned to Class A when we entered the school."

Upon hearing Kitagawa Ryo mention Totsuka Yahiko's name, Ryuen Kakeru chuckled softly, but immediately his mind raced and he made the connection:

"But Katsuragi seems to have a pretty good relationship with that guy. If I were to sell him the praise votes from students in other classes, what price would he offer?"

"It seems like Katsuragi and Totsuka alone can't offer much, since they still owe Nagumo a loan."

"That's true. It feels like it's better to sell them to students who want the first-place prize than to try and protect them."

At this point, Ryuen Kakeru tentatively raised an eyebrow at Kitagawa Ryo and took the initiative to ask:

"What about Kitagawa? You should know who in the grade would be interested in the Protection Point for first place, right?"

"You've come to the right person; I do know the answer."

"Who?"

"The one you made a deal with before the Uninhabited Island Special Exam."

"You mean Ayanokoji?"

Ryuen Kakeru himself had a deep impression of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. After all, if it weren't for Kitagawa Ryo's reminder on the Kitagawa Ryo Uninhabited Island, he would have been taken advantage of by the other party and wasted his time. Even so, all of Class D's Free Ride cards were destroyed by Ayanokoji's strategy, and he didn't get a single Private Points. This objectively caused strong dissatisfaction among the students of Class D, which led to the series of events that followed, such as him being driven off the stage by the crowd before the Sports Festival.

"Go and try asking around yourself."

After giving such a casual answer, Kitagawa Ryo himself, somewhat puzzled, turned to Ryuen Kakeru and asked in return:

"Speaking of which, Ryuen, it seems you already knew I wasn't interested in these Protection Point?"

"Yes."

Ryuen Kakeru nodded as if it were a matter of course, and then began to do math problems for Kitagawa Ryo:

"Ichinose exchanged over ten million Private Points with me during the Sports Festival. Nagumo from the Student Council told me that Sakura from your class received another substantial amount of Private Points from the school at the beginning of the semester. And Shiina from our class, her Private Points are also stored with you, right...?"

"You've managed to rack up more than 20 million points by living off a woman, why would I need to sell to you?"

Chapter 363: The Boys' Tough Encounters

On the weekend, at the entrance of the Keyaki Mall on the first floor, boys from different classes gathered together, forming a magical group that attracted a lot of attention.

"Don't we seem a little too conspicuous being all together like this?"

As if somewhat unaccustomed to the curious glances and scrutiny from the other students around him, Katsuragi Kohei habitually touched his shiny bald head, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"That's normal, considering that by rounding up, it's basically the Leader of all four First Year classes clustered together."

Ryuen Kakeru, on the other hand, seemed indifferent, with his hands behind his head and a nonchalant gait, looking completely nonchalant.

As he spoke, he turned to Kitagawa Ryo and asked:

Where to?

"I have a private room booked at the karaoke bar on the fifth floor."

After casually answering Ryuen Kakeru's question, Kitagawa Ryo nodded to Kanzaki Ryuji beside him. He had initially only intended to act as a mediator to bring Ryuen Kakeru and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka together for a talk, but Ayanokoji himself felt that the combination of the three of them was too strange and could easily cause him unnecessary trouble in class. Therefore, he called over Katsuragi Kohei to use the class Leader as a shield.

As for Kanzaki Ryuji, he simply bumped into them by chance on the way. However, it couldn't be said to be entirely accidental. After all, the vice class representative of Class B was recently investigating a breakup case in the class. While following the person involved, Hashimoto Masayoshi, he discovered that Hashimoto had a close relationship with Katsuragi Kohei, which is why he began to focus his attention on the two from Class C.

It can only be said that Hashimoto Masayoshi is indeed Love Expert. Even if it was purely for the sake of the mission, he had been keeping his crush in Class B completely devoted for the past few months. However, when he had to break up with his crush in a flash to take over Class A's Maezono because he had changed his mission partner, the girl in Class B who had been played with in his heart couldn't let go. And coincidentally, Class B is the kind of collectivist class where everyone knows what's going on with each other within a day. Therefore, this matter was quickly reported to the class committee, and in the end, the vice class president Kanzaki Ryuji, volunteered to start this investigation.

Originally, he just wanted to vent his anger for the students in his class or to make her give up on the relationship. But he didn't expect to make an unexpected discovery. Through his conversation with the girl, Kanzaki Ryuji quickly learned that Hashimoto Masayoshi, who was dating her, had tricked her into talking about and writing down the Class B's competition list before the Sports Festival. However, since all the First Year classes had published their own competition lists, the girl didn't take it seriously. But it gave Kanzaki Ryuji a real fright.

Because Hashimoto Masayoshi acted much earlier than the four classes tacitly agreed to release the competition list to the whole school, Kanzaki Ryuji was one of the decision-makers in his class at the time, so he was very clear about these matters.

If that's the case, then Hashimoto Masayoshi's initial motivation was to extract information about Class B from the other party.

Having established this premise, Kanzaki Ryuji continued his thinking, assuming Hashimoto Masayoshi's position. After all, the girl in Class B whom he had been deceiving into dating still showed no sign of seeing through his true colors. Theoretically, this information-gathering work could continue. So why did she suddenly choose to break up and actively sever the relationship?

After Class 1-D defeated Class C at the Cultural Festival and successfully advanced to Class C's direct rival should have been Class 1-B, which they belonged to. Shouldn't they have been more interested in gathering information about their class?

Unless the other party has a new target of higher value.

It was with this idea in mind that Kanzaki Ryuji had been following Hashimoto Masayoshi and Katsuragi Kohei for the past two days, and as a result, he just happened to run into the four of them gathering today.

Kitagawa Ryo's purpose in bringing Kanzaki Ryuji along was quite simple: judging from the current situation of Class C and Class D, the entire First Year was actually closer to the cooperative model mentioned by Suzune in this special Class Vote Special Exam, at least the current trend is leaning towards this. Therefore, bringing together the only remaining Class 1-B can be seen as laying the groundwork for future possibilities.

And so, the five boys from four First Year classes rode the escalator to the fifth floor amidst the stares of their classmates. After all, it was quite rare to see an all-boys group shopping at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School. However, groups of boys could often be seen buying snacks and instant noodles at the nearby convenience stores.

"... The way the person at the karaoke counter was looking at me was pretty strange."

As soon as he sat down in the pre-booked private room, Katsuragi Kohei breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the class's usual social gatherings and extracurricular activities were mostly organized by Kushida Kikyo Hirata Yosuke. He had never thought much of it when he joined in, but after today's experience, he belatedly realized that his social skills weren't that great, especially compared to Ryuen Kakeru, who had always been so adept at socializing. Kitagawa Ryo, the big spender.

Fortunately, Ryuen Kakeru and Kitagawa Ryo were able to liven up the atmosphere, otherwise, he, Ayanokoji, and Kanzaki from Class B would have been silently staring at each other in bewilderment.

In fact, Katsuragi Kohei isn't usually this tense in his daily life. He can talk quite a bit with Kitagawa Ryo about his sister. But he probably came here with the idea that "today we're going to discuss something important between the classes," and he's been troubled by Totsuka Yahiko's situation for the past two days, which is why he's so tense and serious.

So, after the waiters brought in their drinks, Katsuragi Kohei immediately stood up, turned off the colorful lights in the private room, took a deep breath, and got straight to the point with the others:

"Regarding this additional Special Exam, I hope all classes can achieve an As You Like It outcome. Kitagawa and Ryuen probably share this sentiment, otherwise they wouldn't have organized this meeting today."

Although Ayanokoji Kiyotaka really wanted to say "Look, you're in such a hurry again," he was still playing the role of Katsuragi Kohei's follower, so he could only remain silent and sip his drink without making a sound.

In this negotiation and transaction scenario, the party that first demonstrates the urgency of its needs always has to pay a higher price. Katsuragi Kohei's hasty intervention essentially gave Ryuen Kakeru the confidence to raise the price.

"Is it possible to make all four classes As You Like It? This Special Exam will inevitably result in the expulsion of three students. Just considering that alone, it's impossible to have an outcome that satisfies everyone, right?"

As expected, as soon as Katsuragi Kohei opened his mouth, Ryuen Kakeru, who was sitting there with his legs crossed, took over the conversation and began with a leading statement.

"While it's true that three students need to be expelled this time, but..."

Having been drawn into Ryuen Kakeru's rhythm, Katsuragi Kohei subconsciously opened his mouth to reply, but the words caught in his throat halfway through.

Kitagawa Ryo knew very well what the other person meant by the unspoken second half of the sentence, which was most likely something like, "But each class might also have students who need and can be expelled."

Undoubtedly, as the class Leader, Katsuragi Kohei could have said this without any psychological pressure, since theoretically this is the basis for cooperation between classes. However, as Totsuka Yahiko's most cherished friend, saying this would be tantamount to abandoning him.