Perjury

Horikita had been quite overwhelmed these past two days; no matter where she looked for a breakthrough, the results were always unsatisfactory.

"Horikita, do you see that?"

Ayanokoji nudged her arm while pointing toward the security camera in the corner at the front of the classroom.

"What do you mean?"

"The school uses that to monitor us, whether it's our daily conduct or if something happens within the class. If there had been a camera at the scene where Sudo got into the fight, it would have been perfect."

"You're... right! The surveillance..."

Awakened by these words, Horikita hurriedly pulled Ayanokoji along to the scene of the incident that Sudo had described.

However, the reason this case was so tricky was precisely because the school itself couldn't find any useful information, so how could there possibly be a camera here?

Horikita sat on the steps of the stairwell landing, staring at the wall not far away and thinking hard, until finally! A brilliant plan emerged in her mind.

And so, she, along with Ayanokoji and Ichinose—who insisted on helping despite it having nothing to do with her—began to set up the scene.

"Everything is ready now. As soon as those three show up, we can force them to settle this privately."

"Leave this part to me!"

Ichinose took the initiative to accept the task.

"I'm sorry, I'm not questioning you, but what I don't quite understand is why you're getting involved when this shouldn't have anything to do with your class."

"Well... for one thing, I really can't stand the despicable methods used by Class C, and for another, actually... I have the intention of forming an alliance with your Class D."

You have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time.

Therefore, if Class C wanted to rise to Class A, the hurdle they could never bypass was Class B.

And while Class A stood high above, they also had to strictly guard against Class B, which was ranked right below them.

In this way, Ichinose's class could be said to be facing enemies from both front and back.

Plus, since the enemy of an enemy is a friend, it was perfectly reasonable for her to want to form an alliance with Class D.

After hearing the other party's analysis, Horikita also felt it made some sense. Regardless, they were both planning to sanction Class C now, so it didn't matter if they cooperated.

"Alright, I understand. Then I'll leave this to you."

"Mm! Leave it to me!"

Although Horikita didn't look like she had the proper attitude one should have when asking for a favor, Ichinose didn't seem to mind at all.

A while later, she called Ishizaki and the other two over, using the excuse that they had found evidence detrimental to them.

Ishizaki and his group were guilty, after all. Although they had told themselves countless times that Ryuen's plan couldn't possibly have any flaws, one always fears the "what if."

After the group arrived at the scene, Horikita walked down from the stairs with an arrogant expression:

"It's not too late for you to admit defeat now. Otherwise, not only will you lose face, but you'll likely end up with a charge of defamation!"

Although Ishizaki was startled inside, his outward performance was quite decent. He put on a fierce expression:

"Hey, I don't know what you're talking about. This whole thing was Sudo provoking us in the first place, so where does this 'defamation' come from?!"

"Heh, is that so? Then why did you three look so shocked when I said that Horikita and the others found evidence? If you were truly fearless, you probably wouldn't have agreed to come here at all, would you?"

"Ichinose, I thought you were going to say something! We were just afraid you'd try to pin some baseless crime on us. As for being nervous... where did you see us being nervous?!"

Komiya, standing to the side, felt a bit traumatized and, fearing that something might happen if they stayed any longer, feigned composure and said:

"I think they're just playing us. There's no need to play house with them! Let's go."

As he said this, the three of them turned to leave, only to find a figure appearing at the top of the stairs—it was that guy named Ayanokoji.

"Whether you leave or not is your freedom, but I'll kindly advise you: when you're plotting to frame someone, why couldn't you have taken a good look to see if there was a security camera here?"

Once these words were spoken, the hearts of Ishizaki and his two companions fell into chaos. They clearly remembered choosing this spot in advance precisely because it was a lawless zone.

"Surveillance... you... what surveillance?! How would I know about any surveillance?!"

Seeing that they had revealed their inner cracks, Horikita pointed casually toward a corner that looked particularly inconspicuous, where a security camera was indeed operating.

"What a pity, truly a pity... you were just a hair's breadth away from your scheme succeeding."

"What?! How is this possible..."

In their panic, the psychological pressure on the three grew along with their cracks. Horikita felt a surge of joy; now, all it would take was one final push to completely shatter their psychological defenses!

"How about we make a deal?"

"A deal? What kind of deal?"

"As long as you drop the complaint now and privately compensate us with 300,000 private points for emotional distress, we might just let you off this time. Otherwise... the three of you can just wait to be expelled!"

They say women are natural-born actors. If one only looked at the expressions and demeanor of Horikita and Ichinose right now, anyone unaware would truly believe they had found evidence.

Ishizaki and his group had never imagined they would be countered like this. That camera—they hadn't noticed it at all!

"I... I..."

"We... ag..."

However, even as the three of them were halfway through their agreement, a curse from downstairs interrupted their thoughts.

"Idiots!"

"That voice is... Ryuen-aniki...!"

Horikita remained somewhat indifferent, but Ichinose's expression stiffened; that Ryuen was undoubtedly the opponent she least wanted to face.

Vicious, brutal, insidious, cunning—it could be said that every word she could think of to describe a delinquent student could be applied to Ryuen, and they would all need to be amplified.

"Thump... thump... thump."

In just one month since the start of the school year, he had used violence to forcibly unify Class C, becoming a tyrant of his generation.

Ryuen carried an aura that naturally instilled fear, walking up the stairs step by step, the sound of his footsteps striking everyone's heart as if it were crushing them, leaving them unable to breathe.

Before long, a tall boy with a purple center-parted hairstyle and a roguish look on his face walked up.

Seeing the pathetic state of Ishizaki and the other two, Ryuen first spat on the ground:

"What useless trash! You couldn't even see through such a simple scheme?!"