Fill Them in One by One / The Source of Courage

As a result, most of the stores had already made a mental estimate after the questionnaire was released yesterday, and their communication with Kitagawa Ryo or the Student Council went quite smoothly, indicating that they would cooperate with the specific plan for promotion and sales activities.

"Thank you very much for your strong support of this event. We will contact you again after the specific Matoba layout and booth management regulations are confirmed."

After smiling and saying goodbye to the staff of yet another shop, Kitagawa Ryo stretched wearily.

In theory, these things shouldn't be something that he, as the Student Council, or any Student Council member, should have to handle personally. Although the ANHS Student Council is relatively small compared to other clubs, it holds crucial power over the review and approval of various clubs and the allocation of funds. Therefore, it's quite common for them to ask other clubs to run errands or do things. It's just that Kitagawa Ryo is particularly interested in this event, so he chose to do it himself.

"We've already contacted all the restaurants... Next up are the flower shops and jewelry stores."

Unlike the various restaurants that occupy almost 60-70% of the market share in Keyaki Mall, there are only a handful of flower shops and jewelry stores here. However, they are basically the type that only open for half a year and then make a living for the other half. They count down the days to New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Teacher's Day, and students' birthdays to do business.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was repeating the process he had done countless times before and successfully confirmed with the flower shop on the third floor of the Keyaki Mall, the owner, a middle-aged woman in her forties, suddenly stopped him as he was about to leave, her eyes gleaming with the golden light of 'a big business has been delivered to my door'.

"Excuse me, Kitagawa-kun, would you like to order flowers?"

Browsing campus forums is not just for ANHS students. As part of the unique ecosystem of this distinctive campus, the shop owners are also familiar with the various influential figures on campus. For the flower shop owner, students like Kitagawa Ryo, who are entangled in a complex web of emotions, are even more irresistible.

It's common knowledge that students like this buy a lot of flowers, and even more people are willing to buy flowers for them; each of these orders represents a huge business opportunity.

It can only be said that every time this topic comes up, the owner of the dessert shop next door who sells chocolates gets quite frustrated and kicks himself. After all, it's no secret in ANHS that Kitagawa Ryo can make desserts and his skill level is no exaggeration to say that he is a master. He even showed it off during the Cultural Festival, which objectively caused him to lose a lot of potential orders.

But the florist obviously didn't have such worries. After all, Kitagawa Ryo can bake desserts, but he can't exactly hand-make bouquets of fresh flowers, can he? He specially ordered a large batch of various bouquets for Valentine's Day, just waiting for this opportunity.

Kitagawa Ryo was somewhat tempted by the florist's enthusiastic sales pitch and soon went back into the shop to start a detailed discussion with the owner.

Half an hour later, the florist finally saw Kitagawa Ryo off the shop again, sweating profusely. She had thought she could rip off a sucker, but she didn't expect that the other woman's knowledge of the flowering seasons, flower meanings, and prices of various flowers was more extensive than her own, a veteran in the industry. She managed to negotiate the price down again and again, and even got a lecture on the packaging and arrangement of various bouquets.

Looking at the florist who seemed to be sweating a bit, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but chuckle. He unconsciously took another look at himself, not at his physical form, but at the blue talent of Florist that was carried by some kind of equipment.

This is one of the rewards Karuizawa Kei received after her first simulation; the equipment is named 'White Rose of Karuizawa Kei'.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was somewhat dazed as he recalled certain things from the past, he caught a glimpse of the person behind the equipment in the window of a jewelry store, his next destination, not far away.

Standing beside the other person was Shiina Hiyori, and the two seemed to be choosing something, occasionally whispering to each other. After watching them from a distance, Kitagawa Ryo felt his previously tired and tense nerves relax again.

[Florist (Blue): You are skilled in planting, cultivating, and preserving all kinds of flowers. In your hands, those flowers with short blooming periods that drift away with the wind can often remain vibrant for a longer time.]

Flowers seem to understand words, greeting people with smiles.

Chapter 448: Filling in the Gaps One by One

"Hello, how can you help us? Valentine's Day is coming soon, and we've received a lot of new and stylish jewelry. Our pre-sale promotions have also started, and if you pre-order now, you can enjoy an extra Discount and receive a special gift."

Because it was one of the busiest times of the year, the shop assistants were all on high alert. As soon as Karuizawa Kei and Shiina Hiyori entered the store, a friendly-looking and gentle-voiced female shop assistant immediately came up to them and began to introduce the products to them in a very smooth manner.

Originally, Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Kei were just looking for a ring pillow or ring box to pick out, but the sales staff were too good at sales pitches. Just like Sakayanagi Arisu was completely overwhelmed by the sales pitch at the sports equipment store, by the time they came to their senses, they were already standing in front of those dazzling display cases.

In reality, the luxury-like shops in Keyaki Mall, or rather, in Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, have always been in an awkward position, neither high nor low. Given the same price range, boys are more willing to buy themselves high-performance electronic products, while girls are more accustomed to improving their appearance by buying new clothes or cosmetics.

Ultimately, however, it's because most students lack the material and psychological means to acquire these luxuries. It's just that Private Points are a rather peculiar system. Although it's just a currency used within the small financial system of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, the school gives it a one-to-one purchasing power equivalent to the Japanese yen. This is why the concept of Private Points has always had a flexible standard of judgment in the minds of many students.

Of course, this situation also changed considerably after Tsukishiro moved into ANHS.

Completely different from the style of the former chairman, Sakayanagi Shigemori, Kitagawa Ryo noticed that consumerism seemed to have suddenly become popular at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School since last summer. The two openings of the sports festival and the special class voting exams that followed further intensified this trend. Tens of thousands, millions, and even tens of millions of personal points were invested and gathered together by students with various motives, and then clearly displayed in front of everyone.

Kitagawa Ryo still remembers that when the Sports Festival betting craze was at its peak, even many students from the original Class D who had spent months Class Points until they had zero points, and who ate free mountain vegetable meals in the cafeteria every day to save a few hundred Private Points, were still excited when talking about these six, seven, or eight-figure bets.

From this perspective, the shops in the Keyaki Mall should be quite grateful to Tsukishiro, the Acting Chairman, and Miyabi Nagumo, who successfully spent money in two waves. After all, from their point of view, the more Private Points circulated and traded in the Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School market, the higher their profits would be. The large number of Private Points collected by the second-year students by exploiting the school flowed out of Miyabi Nagumo's fingers like a tide, and then flowed back into the school's hands like a tide through the indulgent spending of the three-year students.

Tsukishiro is undoubtedly a highly skilled politician. Although Kitagawa Ryo has always commented that he is only acting arbitrarily because of his temporary acting status, he has always been clear that all of Tsukishiro's actions are orderly despite the chaos. Even when he directly taught Miyabi Nagumo a lesson, it was a seemingly reckless but meticulous act after seeing through Nangumo's true nature. The same applies to all his actions with Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. It cannot be said that he is dancing on eggs, but rather that he has a more relaxed and at ease attitude.

Looking at the jewelry store with a lot of foot traffic in the distance, Kitagawa Ryo couldn't help but think of some things related to Tsukishiro, but he immediately shook his head and put the face of that always smiling middle-aged man out of his mind, and prepared to go and say hello to Karuizawa Kei and the others, since he was going to the jewelry store to communicate with the owner anyway.

"Welcome!"

Hearing the friendly greetings from the shop assistant, Kitagawa Ryo pushed open the door and walked into the store.

As is well known, just like the numerous blind spots in surveillance cameras at Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, the ANHS rules also contain many vague and unclear provisions, including those concerning accessories and other aspects related to students' attire.

Simply put, just like the rule that Kitagawa Ryo remembers most vividly in the entire school rules—prohibiting students from doing 'certain actions' beyond the scope of high school students— ANHS's requirements regarding students' accessories, hair dyeing, clothing, etc., can be summarized as prohibiting them from exceeding the so-called boundaries of high school students.

However, on the other hand, these jewelry stores in the Keyaki Mall are essentially the same as those condoms that are placed in the corner of the convenience store on campus, but which can be legally purchased. The school is actually quite lenient, after all, the Student Council, Nagumo, has also worn rather flamboyant earrings in public.

Although Kitagawa Ryo still felt that accessories like earrings that require piercing were too early for high school students, most students shared his opinion, which could be seen from the fact that jewelry stores mostly sold necklaces, bracelets, rings, and hair clips.

As Kitagawa Ryo looked at the exquisite hair clips priced in the five figures that flashed by on the display stand, he was reminded of the first story CG he had seen about Ichinose Honami, imagining himself in the complex state of mind she held in that story called 'The Guilty'.

The 10,000 yen birthday present was something that Ichinose Honami could never obtain, no matter what she tried, and in the end, she could only get it by stealing.

However, if you change its suffix to Private Points, it becomes a number that Ichinose Honami can easily produce now.

Perhaps this is also the reason why Ichinose Honami entered Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School.

Private Points are money and not money, but undeniably, they did instill a certain confidence in Ichinose Honami. Just as economic independence is always a basic condition for personal independence, the fact that she was able to truly hold her head high and express her thoughts to her mother during summer vacation is also inseparable from this reason.

If Kitagawa Ryo were to travel back in time now and tell the Ichinose Honami from the first simulation that she would unhesitatingly plan and then recklessly spend the equivalent of 20 million yen in Twenty Million Personal Points on her love affair, the other person would definitely not believe it.

Smilingly declining the offer from the shop assistant who approached to ask if he needed help, Kitagawa Ryo quietly strolled up behind Karuizawa Kei and Shiina Hiyori, who were still engrossed in their lively discussion about the shop window. Mischievously, he suddenly reached out and put his hands on their shoulders, one on each side, startling them.

Hiyori, in particular, instinctively jumped forward, pressing herself against the glass window in front of her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was Kitagawa Ryo, but immediately grabbed Karuizawa Kei next to her in a nervous manner. Before he could say anything, she had already run out of the shop like a whirlwind, leaving Kitagawa Ryo somewhat bewildered.

"Um... excuse me, could you tell me what they came to buy, or if they asked anything?"

With the person involved fleeing in disarray, Kitagawa Ryo had no choice but to try asking the shop assistant next to him, only to be met with a warm, paternal smile from her.

"A girl's feelings are always the most precious and also the most important to keep secret."

It can only be said that his face and the various versions of his deeds are indeed too famous throughout ANHS. However, although he got no results from asking, Kitagawa Ryo himself had a pretty good idea of what the other party was preparing. Then he suddenly thought of the promise he made to Arisu with a bit of a headache.

I have a feeling that the day he becomes the Lord of the Rings is not far off.

"Yes, this is Student Council Kitagawa Ryo. Okay, I'll be right there."

After hanging up the Student Council's hotline, Kitagawa Ryo gathered a stack of explanatory materials he would need later from his desk and hurriedly went from the Student Council Office to the academic affairs office.

It has to be said that organizing a large-scale event at ANHS is more troublesome than Kitagawa Ryo had imagined. Even with the Student Council taking the lead and members like Horikita Suzune working hard, time is tight and the task is heavy. These past few days, Kitagawa Ryo himself has been busy with various trivial matters. The phone call he just received was from the relevant department of the school, requesting him to provide further explanation and supplementation for the application he submitted yesterday regarding the setting off of fireworks during the event.

In Karuizawa Kei's simulation, since it was just an activity held in the name of the class, Kitagawa Ryo could only settle for using drones instead of fireworks to complete the Confessions. But now that he is the acting president of the Student Council, he naturally wants to arrange and apply for everything in the best possible way.

Although Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School has "Tokyo" in its name, it is essentially like the relationship between northern Jiangsu and Shanghai. It was originally a school built on an artificial island overseas, so it is not subject to any special restrictions on setting off fireworks.

After spending a long time negotiating with the staff of the Academic Affairs Office while holding these explanatory materials, Kitagawa Ryo finally resolved the matter. Before he could even get up, he received an invitation from the Acting Chairman, Tsukishiro, to go to the Chairman's Office on the next floor for a chat.

Tsukishiro was still the same smiling, middle-aged man exercising, and even personally brewed him tea.

"I've noticed you've been coming here quite often these past few days. Looks like you're doing a pretty good job as acting Student Council. I've also seen the activity you submitted; it really brings back memories of my high school days."

"If that's the case, then the Chairman should stop blocking our Student Council's applications; the process will be much faster."

"There's always something we can't do about these things. After all, organizing such events puts a lot of pressure on our school, and the safety of the students is definitely our top priority. Take this fireworks display application you submitted yesterday, for example; if the contingency plan isn't in place, accidents can easily happen."

Faced with the skillful Tai Chi displayed by Tsukishiro, Kitagawa Ryo didn't want to argue with him any further on this issue, and instead directly addressed the topic:

"So, what exactly did you call me here for? I still have a ton of Student Council work to do, and my time is really tight."

"It's nothing really, I just saw that you placed a custom order at the Keyaki Mall Center a couple of days ago. You were probably planning to give it to that little girl from the Sakayanagi Family, right?"

"Don't misunderstand, I didn't mean anything by it. I just think the quality of the shops in ANHS is just so-so. After all, their target market is mainly high school students. Of course, I also know that ANHS has its own rules. Unless it's like the last Cultural Festival, Kitagawa, you can't buy better or more suitable items from outside. But actually, I can help with this."

"As for the reason, consider it me doing you a favor. Of course, I'm not helping you without a reason; it's because I've already done Ayanokoji Kiyotaka a favor, and to maintain fairness between you, this should be considered compensation."

Faced with Tsukishiro Tsuneshiro, who had suddenly transformed into a riddle master and was Tsukishiro a wealth of information, Kitagawa Ryo pondered for a moment but did not immediately give an answer. Instead, he smiled knowingly and said:

"The favor you mentioned doing for Ayanokoji, you wouldn't mean changing his grade on the Final Exam of the last Special Exam, would you?"

"No, no, that definitely can't be counted. After all, even if it's changed, it didn't affect the final ranking or the outcome of your match, did it?"

At this point, Tsukishiro simply smiled:

"Therefore, only Ayanokoji and you can see this change. If I had to say, this is the favor I did for him."

"I understand. I'll get back to you if I change my mind."

Kitagawa Ryo abruptly ended the conversation with Tsukishiro, giving him no further chance to speak, and then got up and left the Chairman's Office.

After watching his figure disappear from his sight, Tsukishiro leisurely sat back down in his chair and casually picked up the application submitted by Kitagawa Ryo yesterday, along with the details of the fireworks display, from the table.

To be honest, he wasn't interested in these romantic and romantic matters.

But just as he sensed a future father-son conflict from Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Tsukishiro also sensed a similar atmosphere from Kitagawa Ryo.

In this world, many people think that it's best for everything to remain unchanged, but Tsukishiro is not one of them. After all, an opportunist like him always prefers conflict, because conflict brings change, and change brings a redistribution of benefits.

Kitagawa Ryo simply shook his head as he walked outside.

He could already imagine what kind of interpretations and hints Tsukishiro was making inside, but in fact, most of them were fictitious.

Ultimately

He simply wanted to make up for the regrets they owed each of them, one by one, at this age when they hadn't yet become so-called 'dirty' adults.

Chapter 449: The Source of Courage

As all the plans were implemented in a well-organized and efficient manner, the classroom of the Student Council department has been bustling with activity these past two days. Student Council members who come out to submit review materials and conduct site inspections, representatives of clubs who submit various applications to the Student Council union, and merchants from the Keyaki Mall... Almost every few minutes, you can see people hurrying in and out, making the corridors on this floor much more lively and noisy.

Fortunately, the current Student Council members are all elite First Year- and second-year students. After a brief period of being overwhelmed, they quickly demonstrated amazing adaptability. In particular, the four First Year students who are expected to run for Student Council wanted to take this opportunity to prove their abilities to all the students. In addition, with Kitagawa Ryo acting as Student Council president coordinating things, no mistakes or mishaps occurred even under these circumstances.

"An application for Class 1-D... I didn't expect it to be personally delivered by you, Ryuen. Do you value it that much?"

Sitting in his office chair, Kitagawa Ryo flipped through the paper application materials in his hand while smiling and greeting Ryuen Kakeru, who was sitting on the guest sofa with his legs crossed, sipping tea.

"I'm not as busy as you, you can't even see me. I still have time to deliver some documents."

Ryuen Kakeru put down his teacup, chuckled, and then casually surveyed the layout of the Student Council's office, clicking his tongue as he said:

"Not bad, better taste than that guy Nagumo."

"It's only going to stay like this for the next two months. Once the new president is officially elected, this place will belong to someone else."

"What, you're still reluctant to give up this position?"

"It's not that I'd be reluctant to leave, but to be honest, the Student Council, or rather, the Student Council of ANHS, does make many things in this school much more convenient."

Ryuen Kakeru nodded in agreement in response to Kitagawa Ryo's assessment:

"That's why Class A and Class C are vying for this position now. In other words, none of our students in Class D can join the Student Council. Otherwise, I guess we would have to find a way to help him give it a try."

As the absolute Leader has been in charge of the class for almost a year, Ryuen Kakeru undoubtedly knows his students exceptionally well. Unlike most clubs in school that can be joined based on interest, the Student Council interview has a fairly obvious threshold, and the requirements for students' comprehensive qualities are not low. Class D does have students who are good at studying, outstanding in sports, and quick-witted, but it is really hard to find a single student who is a model student in all three aspects.

Putting aside the differences in ability, most of the students in Class D also have significant personality problems. Their initiative is quite weak, and even in other clubs, there are few students who perform well. This can be seen from the extra funds obtained for last year's Cultural Festival. However, this is also related to Ryuen Kakeru's own way of ruling, which is like the eldest brother not despising the second brother.

Just then, Ryuen Kakeru brought up the Student Council election, and Kitagawa Ryo remembered that he had promised Suzune a long time ago that he would help her gather information about Class D. Mainly, he had been so busy since then, and aside from the Student Council, matters concerning the second year were more important, so he hadn't had a chance to approach Ryuen to probe about this matter.

"Since your class, Ryuen, isn't really involved in this Student Council election, why don't you try selling your votes to us like you did with the special Class Vote Special Exam last time?"

Undoubtedly, Ryuen Kakeru has a certain obsession with Private Points. Although the original plan of 800 million Private Points has been gradually abandoned under his advice, it does not mean that Ryuen has given up. From last year's Sports Festival to now, he has even become one of the students with the most Private Points at ANHS, especially after Kitagawa Ryo and Ichinose Honami used up Twenty Million Personal Points to transfer classes one after another.

Well, there's no rush.

In response to Kitagawa Ryo's direct question, Ryuen Kakeru merely curled the corners of his lips into a playful smile, put down his teacup again, and turned his gaze to the window:

"I want to wait and see."

As if certain of a fact, after saying this, Ryuen Kakeru changed the subject, stood up from the sofa, walked to Kitagawa Ryo's desk, rested his arm on the desk, and gestured with his chin towards him:

"How about coming to our class next semester?"

Ever since Hashimoto Masayoshi offered his 'loyalty' during the last Mixed Training Camp Special Exam, Ryuen Kakeru has seriously considered transferring Kitagawa Ryo to his class.

After all, it's obvious to anyone with eyes that with Class A and Class B far ahead, and Class C starting to rise under the leadership of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Class 1-D' s competitiveness is simply lacking.

In this situation, foreign aid is certainly a good option.

Moreover, on the other hand, this can also fundamentally eliminate the rumors that are gradually emerging in Class D about Ryuen Kakeru's plan to accumulate Twenty Million Personal Points to transfer to another class before graduation.

"Let's talk about second-year things when you're in second year. For now, I think it's better for your Class D to focus on preparing for the big Special Exam at the end of this school year, so you don't fall too far behind the classes ahead of you."

Although he had heard similar words from Ryuen Kakeru back in the summer of last year, Kitagawa Ryo could also sense that Ryuen Kakeru was now genuinely considering implementing the plan, unlike his casual remarks at that time.

There's no way around it; Class D is under immense pressure right now, and it's facing the most troublesome internal and external problems. Even though Ryuen Kakeru can still maintain his leadership position by relying on the remaining debt and past inertia, if the class's future remains uncertain, new students will inevitably choose to seek change again, and things might end up getting out of control. Although we already saw this scenario at last year's Sports Festival.

"Besides, you haven't accumulated enough Twenty Million Personal Points yet, have you?"

"It will be available soon."

Ryuen Kakeru seemed quite satisfied with Kitagawa Ryo's rather ambiguous attitude. After giving such a confident reply, he finally got up and left, leaving behind one last sentence before closing the door:

"Anyway, I feel that if I take Shiina's ring, doesn't that mean I'm part of our class?"

"The last sentence doesn't actually need to be repeated so clearly."

After listening to Kitagawa Ryo's complete account of his conversation with Ryuen Kakeru that afternoon, Horikita Suzune sighed, rubbing her forehead, but immediately forced herself to perk up:

"So, Class 1-D is still in a wait-and-see mode?"