The atmosphere on the sports field was charged with hostility, as if a fight might break out at any moment.
Ryuen stood in the distance, the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
Ishizaki stood to one side. In a mocking tone, he said, "The people in Class D really are idiots. It only took a little maneuvering to get someone to confront Sudo."
Ryuen shook his head, his hands in his pockets. "The conflict within their class won't last long. We only need to plant a seed of doubt in their minds."
Just as Ryuen had predicted, Hirata's strenuous efforts to mediate finally got Shinohara and Sudo talking.
"Look, isn't this proof?" Shinohara pulled out her Student Terminal and showed them the screen.
[Anonymous Chat System]
No. 449: "I just saw Sudo go over to Class C. Could he have let something slip?"
No. 200: "Why would Sudo go to Class C for no reason? Doesn't he have a grudge against them?"
No. 248: "Could he... have already revealed the Secret Key?"
Shinohara regarded Sudo with a hint of accusation. "Sudo! What do you have to say for yourself? I saw you go to Class C just now, too!"
Karuizawa Kei, standing in the crowd behind them, suddenly thought of the same thing. She pushed through the crowd and said,
"I saw it, too. Didn't you go over there with your arms around people from Class C? And why did you win that basketball game so easily just now?"
"I didn't reveal the Class Key! And I don't know why people from Class C asked me to go over there! They didn't say anything! At first, they said they wanted to apologize, but it turned out they were trying to frame me!"
Even Sudo had figured it out by now. His gaze searched the crowd at the edge of the field.
At last, he spotted Ryuen, whose mouth was curled into a smile.
"It was him! Ryuen! Don't believe me? Go ask him!" Sudo roared, pointing at Ryuen on the outskirts of the crowd.
Everyone turned to look at Ryuen.
Ryuen merely shrugged and said, as if he were an honest man, "That's right. I did ask him to come over, but I didn't say anything."
"See? I told you I didn't say anything." Sudo finally relaxed when he heard Ryuen tell the truth.
He'd been afraid Ryuen would frame him, so he was surprised to hear him tell the truth. He even found himself thinking that Ryuen might be a decent person.
But he hadn't expected that Ryuen's honesty would only convince Shinohara more firmly that Sudo had struck some kind of deal with him—and that Ryuen was covering for him!
Once Hirata felt that both sides had calmed down a little, he let out a long breath.
"Now that we've established Sudo was framed—"
"Hirata, I don't think Sudo was framed," Shinohara interjected. "If he was, why wouldn't Ryuen, as a member of an opposing class, have taken the opportunity to frame him, too?"
"You—do you just have it in for me?" Sudo clenched his fists, his anger burning inside him.
"Uh..." Hirata hesitated. He wasn't unsure about whether Sudo had made a deal with Ryuen; he was trying to figure out how to explain to Shinohara that Sudo had been framed.
"Hirata..." Karuizawa Kei came over and took hold of his arm. In a low voice, she said, "I also saw Sudo walking off with people from Class C, with their arms around each other. And don't you think that last basketball game was far too easy to win?"
As the second person to see Sudo go over to Class C, Karuizawa naturally had plenty of questions. Besides, she'd never liked Sudo much in the first place, and now she was even more convinced that he'd revealed their Class Key.
Hirata fell silent. He was exhausted, and he wished more than anything that someone would step forward and take charge.
"What's the point of arguing about this now?" Horikita Suzune interrupted, as though she'd heard Hirata's thoughts.
The crowd parted, and Suzune walked over slowly.
A hint of delight appeared in Hirata's eyes when he saw Horikita Suzune.
Suzune first glanced at Sudo, who looked furious, then turned to Shinohara.
"You suspect Sudo made a deal with Ryuen. That's not surprising, because, given everything you've said, even I suspect him."
At that, the people in Class D looked at Sudo as if to say, "We knew it."
"But!" Suzune continued. "Are you saying Sudo used the victory in the last basketball game to trade away our Class Key?"
"Isn't that what happened?" Shinohara said, feigning calm.
"First." Horikita Suzune held up one finger. "That basketball game served no purpose beyond physical exercise. Why would Sudo trade away the Key?"
"Second! If Sudo really had traded away the Key, wouldn't this Special Exam already be over?"
Several people turned to Shinohara, hoping she could explain.
"As for your first point, maybe Sudo wanted to show off in front of his classmates to save face.
"And as for your second point, even if they learned the Key, the only way to end the exam now would be for the spy to submit it. The spy was chosen by anonymous class vote, so no one knows who it is. Even if Class D learned the Key, they couldn't end the exam right now, could they?"
Shinohara stumbled through her explanation.
To everyone watching, the situation seemed to be shifting. It wasn't just that Shinohara's arguments were flimsy; her whole demeanor had suddenly weakened.
Horikita Suzune said, "If Sudo really was trying to save face, then why did he get beaten so badly in the first game? And the halftime break was less than ten minutes, wasn't it? Did you see him go over to Class C to discuss anything?"
Then Suzune scanned the people around them and said, "The spy was chosen by anonymous vote, but what if the class forced everyone to show their Student Terminals?"
Everyone pictured Ryuen's brutal face. He seemed like the sort of person who would do something like that.
For a moment, Shinohara was at a loss for words.
Sudo looked at the slender figure between them. For some reason, warmth welled up inside him.
Suzune... Is she sticking up for me?
"F-Fine. Maybe I was mistaken." Under pressure, Shinohara turned her head away and said the words reluctantly.
I can't win an argument against Horikita...
Unlike the resolution of the conflict in Class D, Ryuen was having a headache over in Class C.
Horikita Etsuka had appeared at the Class C gathering at some point. He draped an arm around Ishizaki's shoulder, as if they were just chatting.
"Hey, you did a pretty good job framing him."
"By the way, did you bribe someone in Class D?"
"Come on, tell me. We're all buddies here."
Ishizaki chuckled awkwardly, trying to play it off, while looking to Ryuen for help.
Ryuen, however, wore a grim expression, his thoughts in disarray. He couldn't figure out what Horikita Etsuka was up to.
This was completely against the rules of common sense!
Who walks up and starts prying into a class's secrets? And asks such personal questions?
Wait! Ryuen suddenly seemed to realize something. He stared at the human sun before him, a social force of nature.
Isn't Class B in class right now? Why is he here in Class C?!
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