Considering that the future Sakayanagi had called Horikita her rival, Shirogane decided to keep his guard up.
However.
[He got the phone number of their homeroom teacher, Chabashira, from Kushida. The number was 14565XXX.]
Shirogane quickly skimmed the message Shiina had sent him.
And the number was identical to his own homeroom teacher Sakagami's, except for the last digit.
So there was a good chance the homeroom teachers were using the special smartphones distributed by the school.
But the phone number Horikita had given him for Chabashira matched the number Shiina had provided.
In other words, was the Horikita in front of him actually an honest person?
She hadn't even tried to change it up a little.
"Confirmed. Your homeroom teacher broke the rules," Shirogane said. "And the fact that she's only read the message without replying is the clearest answer."
But why had she only read it? That meant she already knew about this, but it might not have affected her very much.
Shirogane's first thought was of what his homeroom teacher, Sakagami, had said when they enrolled: the points on their student IDs could be used as money for purchases at school, and as long as they had enough points, they could buy anything.
Which meant...
It was possible to buy your way out of punishment, too.
So as long as you had points, you could avoid punishment. Was that why Chabashira wasn't afraid?
Shirogane quickly processed the information he'd gotten from Horikita Suzune.
Horikita wasn't Sakagayanagi's lapdog.
But her homeroom teacher had sent her to investigate the school. She'd failed, though she'd found a few things that seemed suspicious. Unable to find anyone who could answer her questions, she'd tried asking an upperclassman and failed at that, too.
So she'd chosen the second option Chabashira had offered her.
Learn from Shirogane. She wanted to get something from him that would help her grow.
"..."
"Just like you said before, I don't want to disgrace my brother."
"About that..." Suzune gripped her right hand with her left, her expression seeming to droop before hardening with resolve. "I have to do it."
"..." Shirogane.
Looking at it that way, Horikita seemed aloof, but she was the sort of person who could easily be steered into doing someone else's work.
Still, it was strange to have someone suddenly follow him around and even treat him as a role model.
However...
Her identity made it difficult to refuse her outright.
She was Horikita Suzune. The surname Horikita alone was enough to make people pay her a little more attention. After all, Shirogane hoped to get into Horikita's older brother's Student Council.
And if he flat-out rejected the Student Council President's little sister... Well, if the guy was a siscon, things could get awkward.
Of course, Shirogane couldn't accept something based purely on that kind of nepotism.
If she were in his class, he might have been swayed. But they were in different classes, which made them rivals.
Shirogane had no intention of helping the competition.
So Shirogane kept looking at Horikita.
"We're in different classes, so it's not convenient for us to meet. And how much do you even know about the students in your own class?"
"Why not get to know your classmates?" Shirogane asked.
"My classmates..." Suzune shook her head. "I haven't interacted with them, but many of them are hard to understand. And the ones who seem fairly capable, like Hirata and Kushida, don't seem wary at all."
"They seem to think of this school as an ordinary school."
"They have no sense of danger."
So Horikita felt out of place among her classmates? Did she even think they were all incompetent?
Then her powers of observation really weren't very good.
Shirogane already knew several students in her class had secrets. There were even two boss-level monsters.
They might not have been the type to draw attention to themselves, but after half a month in the same classroom, she should have noticed something.
"Then..." Shirogane recalled that he'd originally planned to wait for Class A students to come by, then force them to help him put together a directory of the first-years.
But now, the only person who'd shown up was Horikita.
And she was in Class D. Could she contribute some information?
It felt a little wrong to trick a girl, but if they made a deal, they'd both get something out of it.
Besides, she was the Student Council President's little sister. Shirogane wasn't about to mess with her and expect to get away unscathed.
If he put himself in her brother's shoes, he'd definitely step in if someone bullied Kei or took advantage of her.
He understood that feeling as an older brother.
Still...
President Horikita had been able to recite the basic information about him and Sakayanagi. He must have known his little sister had enrolled and been assigned to Class D.
"Have you been in touch with your brother since you came to this school?" Shirogane asked.
"..." Horikita paused. "I came to this school to follow in my brother's footsteps, but I haven't met with him privately."
"He might not even know I'm here," Horikita Suzune said. "Or perhaps I haven't done well enough, so he doesn't think it's worth meeting someone like me."
"I haven't earned my brother's approval."
Is that so?
But as an older brother, Shirogane saw things differently.
First, Horikita's brother definitely knew his sister had come to the school. Naturally, he also knew she'd been assigned to Class D.
As a responsible Student Council President, he couldn't play favorites, especially during the first month after the new students enrolled.
So he wouldn't do anything.
But...
Did that really mean he didn't care about his sister?
That was hard to say.
After all, Shirogane Miyuki was an older brother himself.
And so...
Chapter 29: Heh, He Knows Me So Well. Does He Have a Crush on Me?
Shirogane was an older brother himself, so sometimes he understood these things.
"I've got a task for you." Shirogane looked across at Horikita Suzune. "You give me information for a directory of the students in your class, and I'll give you information about the students in Class A."
"We'll trade."
"Gathering information is part of the process," Shirogane said. "It's very important at this school."
"Your brother hasn't met with you yet, but if you can bring him information about Class A when you do meet, you might be able to turn things around."
"I've been working on this myself these past few days," Shirogane said.
Stare—
Horikita gazed intently at Shirogane. She had a feeling he was hiding something.
But...
Shirogane had received a reward from the school and earned high praise from Chabashira. And after meeting her just once, he'd figured out that she was the Student Council President's little sister.
She hadn't managed to uncover the truth about the school. Maybe this was the only path left to her.
"I understand," Horikita said. "I'll investigate the students in my class."
"Okay." Shirogane nodded.
And so, the two of them left the café without ordering anything to drink.
The clerk, who'd been keeping an eye on them the whole time, breathed a sigh of relief.
At last, there wouldn't be any customers coming in to order right before closing time today.
Meanwhile.
The student dormitory.
It was already ten o'clock. In Sakayanagi Arisu's room.
"Sakayanagi, the person we sent out reported back. Shirogane seems to be pretty vigilant. He noticed he was being followed and turned around to catch the person."
"But he caught the wrong person."
"He's talking to a student from Class D right now." Kamuro, her purple hair visible, reported to Sakayanagi with an unhappy expression.
Kamuro was reporting to Classmate Sakayanagi.
She didn't understand Sakayanagi's way of thinking. At noon, when she'd seen Shirogane alone, Sakayanagi had approached him of her own accord.
But when she came back, she immediately arranged to have someone follow Shirogane Miyuki.
It was as if something had suddenly gone wrong between them.
The person assigned to follow him was Hashimoto Masayoshi, who seemed quite good at that sort of thing. From Hashimoto's performance, he really was capable. Once he realized Shirogane was wary, he backed off even farther. Otherwise, the person Shirogane caught would have been Hashimoto, not that Class D student.
Now Hashimoto had reported what happened to Kamuro, and Kamuro was passing it on to Sakayanagi.
It was a strange arrangement.
Sakayanagi was the leader of the Sakayanagi Faction, yet she'd assigned Kamuro to collect information like this and then pass it on to her.
It seemed like an unnecessary extra step.
But Kamuro saw it differently.
It wasn't that it seemed suspicious. The truth was, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't really care about her class. Even after learning the truth about the school, she hadn't cared much about being in Class A.
And she'd said as much.
"I'm a genius. There's hardly anyone at this school who can make me give it my all."
"Being in Class A just makes for a dull school life."
She was incredibly arrogant.
She was so tiny, yet so arrogant.
And she had the talent to back it up. The Katsuragi Faction in her class was a product of that arrogance, something she'd allowed to come into existence. She'd taken control of the class from the start, but hadn't tried to hold on to it.
As she put it:
"School life is rather dull, but I know how to make it interesting."
"There are monsters worth competing with in the lower classes. And only when they come up here will I be able to give it my all."
"I'm looking forward to the lower classes climbing up and competing with us. But the Class A I'm in is far too powerful."
"So I should leave them a few openings."
In other words, Sakayanagi Arisu wanted to create a breeding ground for strong opponents.
As a member of Class A, Kamuro couldn't understand why anyone from a lower class should climb up. Did Sakayanagi really think there were powerful people in the lower classes?
Wouldn't that put Class A in danger?
That was why Kamuro resented Sakayanagi.
And now...
"Then let Hashimoto go back for today," Sakayanagi said. "There's no need to follow him today or tomorrow. Shirogane should be prepared by now."
"Shirogane seems to know my behavior patterns extremely well. He even figured out that I'd have someone follow him. It's as if he knows what I'm thinking." Sakayanagi pondered. "Wait..."
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