You're Not Very Good, Are You

The next day at noon, the sun was shining brightly.

Ayanokoji followed Horikita's figure to the scene of the incident; in fact, Ayanokoji was even walking in front!

Watching his steady pace, Horikita Suzune felt a momentary sense of bewilderment.

How did this guy know where the incident took place?

She had only learned about that out-of-the-way corner, which was not covered by surveillance cameras, after attending the disciplinary hearing yesterday.

Strange, too strange...

Could it be that he was cheating?

However, Ayanokoji had simply happened to pass by.

"So, how do you plan to prove Sudo's innocence?"

Ayanokoji's listless voice pulled Horikita back to her thoughts. She smoothed her furrowed brow and said, "Call them out here and use verbal manipulation to make them admit it voluntarily."

A master of language?

Hearing this, Ayanokoji was greatly surprised, a look of astonishment appearing in his eyes.

He was acting.

For some reason, Horikita felt this in her heart.

But she didn't intend to argue with him; she would need his cooperation for what came next.

Because... Horikita really couldn't reach the spot where the surveillance camera needed to be installed, even if she stood on a table...

"Here, install this over there."

Horikita handed the two surveillance cameras she was carrying to Ayanokoji and pointed to a spot on the wall.

Ayanokoji took them and sighed imperceptibly.

So, he was just called here to be a handyman.

He glanced at the spot on the wall and pondered for a moment.

It wasn't that he didn't understand Horikita's approach: create a fake to make them believe they had been careless and failed to avoid surveillance, cause them to panic, and then use that to manipulate them into dropping the charges.

But what if they had scouted the location beforehand and had intentionally lured Sudo here?

Wouldn't that make them the clowns?

No, having her as the only clown was enough.

Although he thought this, he couldn't withstand the pressure of her gaze, so Ayanokoji had to obediently comply.

"Look... is this okay?"

Ayanokoji said with a hint of helplessness.

"A bit higher."

"Like this?"

"A bit lower."

"..."

"How about this?"

"Uh... let's just go back to the first spot."

Are you kidding me!

Are you the client or what!

The shadows of his past life came rushing back, and his fists were truly clenching now.

But Ayanokoji was still a polite person and didn't show his irritation, though he felt the girl behind him still looked like she hadn't had enough, which left him feeling very helpless.

As expected, what goes around comes around.

He secretly decided that once this was over, he would owe a much bigger favor next time.

"Alright, that's fine."

Horikita's usual cold tone came through, and Ayanokoji finally let out a small sigh of relief.

After sullenly climbing down from the table he had been standing on, he glanced at Horikita's forced cold expression and the corners of her mouth that were slightly upturned in defiance, and his fists clenched once more.

If her brother weren't his creditor, he would definitely show this woman what was what.

As for what kind of "what," those who know, know.

Not long after, the three people from Class C arrived for the meeting.

"Huh? Why is it you two? Where is Kushida?"

Ishizaki, who was leading them, looked at the two deadpan faces in front of him, his expression clearly showing he felt swindled.

He had thought the angel Kushida was coming to heal the scars in his heart; these two deadpan faces were just too much!

Ayanokoji took a brief look at them, unable to help but marvel inwardly at the ruthlessness of Ryuen's methods.

The three men each had no fewer than ten injuries of varying sizes, and Ishizaki, who led them, even had one arm in a cast—and that was just the visible damage.

Exaggerated.

It was a good thing this world didn't allow for people to be beaten to death, otherwise Ryuen and that hulking brute by his side would have been behind bars long ago.

Ayanokoji muttered to himself.

At the same time, the three men were disappointed not to see Kushida, and they prepared to leave after casting a look of disdain, but Horikita was not about to let her prey escape.

"Stop right there!" she said, her voice louder than usual. "It was you who intentionally provoked Sudo and goaded him into throwing the first punch, wasn't it?"

"Hey, don't just go spouting nonsense. Anyone with eyes can see what happened. He beat the three of us up like this—do you have no conscience?"

Ishizaki said in a mournful tone, acting as if he were the victim.

"Exactly. Are we crazy? Why would we intentionally provoke him to hit us? He already has a prior record, after all."

"Forget them, let's go!"

"Hold it," a cold sneer curled the corners of Horikita's mouth as she directed the three men's gazes toward the wall. "Look at what that is."

The moment they saw the surveillance camera, the three men froze for a split second, and then a smile crept onto their faces.

"You've got to be kidding, Horikita. Do you take us for children?"

"Hahaha, did you really think we wouldn't check for cameras before we made our move?"

"That's hilarious. You went out of your way to buy a camera and install it—what, are you trying to 'mark the boat to find your sword'?"

Hearing this, Horikita's eyes flickered, her gaze turning vacant; the look of a plan falling apart was laid bare for the three of them to see.

At this, they laughed even more wantonly.

"Haha, is this the pillar of Class D? Is that it? Class D really is just a bunch of bottom-feeders."

"Yeah, I really don't get why Ryuen went through so much trouble to target them. I think just letting them rot on their own would have been fine."

"Exactly. Sigh, we took this beating from Ryuen for nothing. He insisted we provoke that hothead and forbade us from fighting back. What was the point of trying to get him expelled..."

"Shh, shut up."

Ishizaki, the leader, seemed to realize something and suddenly interrupted with a wary tone, leaving his two lackeys looking confused.

"What are you afraid of, Ishizaki? Look at her expression. She's practically wearing 'I can't believe they checked for cameras' on her face. This is just a bookworm who only knows how to take tests."

"Haha, exactly. Thinking of a trick like this to scare us—that's exactly the level of competence I'd expect from Class D."

Ishizaki didn't speak. He just felt that the other party was being unnervingly calm, which felt inconsistent with the current situation. Could it be that they had really just come here to humiliate themselves?

In the next second, his thoughts were validated.

Horikita Suzune's lips curled into a composed smile. She slowly pulled her phone from her skirt pocket, tapped play, and their conversation from just moments ago blared out from the speaker!

Seeing this, the smiles on the faces of Ishizaki and his men froze.

So, Horikita Suzune's true intention lay elsewhere!

Installing the camera was just to create a flaw, to make the three of them lower their guard and mistakenly believe that was the extent of her plan.

Combined with her Oscar-worthy acting, she had made them think she was a fool, causing them to drop their defenses completely and even start mocking her for her failed plan.

And she had been waiting for the exact moment they would let something slip out of sheer arrogance...

So that was it... so that was it!

For a moment, all three of them stood with their mouths agape, unable to close them for a long time, their faces wearing expressions of existential doubt.

But after a brief panic, Ishizaki managed to calm himself down in time and shouted to his accomplices behind him: "Don't panic!"

"Recordings can be tampered with! As long as we insist that they engaged in entrapment and editing, we can render that thing invalid!"

Once he said this, the three of them finally regained a shred of composure, their mouths curling into a sneer that suggested, "Good thing I kept a backup plan"...

And so, it was now Horikita's turn to worry.

She truly hadn't considered the issue of the reliability and absolute nature of the evidence; there were indeed many ways to fake a recording.

Her expression was serious, and a hint of confusion gathered in her eyes.

Beside her, Ayanokoji watched it all with indifference, his heart devoid of ripples.

Because, at this very moment, Ichinose had already delivered another, far more convincing piece of evidence to the Student Council.