Faking Evidence

Horikita had been rather overwhelmed these past two days. No matter where she tried to find a breakthrough, the results were always disappointing.

"Horikita, do you see that?"

Ayanokoji nudged her arm and pointed to the security camera in the corner at the front of the classroom.

"What do you mean?"

"The school uses those to monitor us, whether it's our behavior or what happens in class. If there had been a camera at the scene where Sudo supposedly beat them up, that would've been great."

"You mean... Right! The cameras..."

His words had suddenly awakened her to the possibility. Horikita hurriedly dragged Ayanokoji to the place Sudo had named as the scene of the incident.

But the reason this case was so tricky was that the school itself couldn't find any useful information. So how could there possibly be a camera here?

Horikita sat on the steps at the landing, staring at the wall a short distance away as she pondered. At last, a brilliant idea came to her.

And so she, along with Ayanokoji and Ichinose, who insisted on helping despite having no stake in the matter, began setting up the scene.

"Everything's ready now. Once those three get here, we can pressure them into settling this privately."

"Leave this to me!"

Ichinose volunteered for the task.

"Sorry, I'm not questioning you, but I don't understand. This matter shouldn't have anything to do with you, so why are you getting involved?"

"Well... For one thing, I can't stand Class C's despicable tactics. And also... I've been thinking about forming an alliance with Class D."

You had to eat a meal one bite at a time, and walk a road one step at a time.

So if Class C wanted to rise to Class A, they couldn't avoid the obstacle standing in their way: Class B.

And although Class A sat high above the rest, they still had to keep a close eye on Class B below them.

That left Ichinose's class caught between two enemies.

Besides, the enemy of your enemy was your friend, so it made sense that she wanted to ally with Class D.

After hearing Ichinose's reasoning, Horikita found it convincing. In any case, they were both planning to punish Class C, so there was no harm in working together.

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

"Yeah! Leave it to me!"

Horikita didn't look at all like someone asking a favor, but Ichinose didn't seem to mind.

A little while later, she called Ishizaki and the other two over, claiming that they'd found evidence that would incriminate them.

Ishizaki and the others had guilty consciences. They kept telling themselves that there was no way Ryuen's plan had a flaw, but there was always the chance of something going wrong.

When they arrived at the scene, Horikita was walking down the stairs with a haughty look on her face.

"You can still admit defeat now. Otherwise, you won't just lose face—you may end up charged with defamation!"

Ishizaki was surprised, but he managed to keep up appearances. He put on a fierce expression.

"Hey, I don't know what you're talking about. Sudo was the one who provoked us. How could this be defamation?!"

"Oh? Then why did the three of you look so surprised when I said Horikita and the others had found evidence? If you really had nothing to fear, you wouldn't have agreed to come here at all."

"Ichinose, I thought you were going to say something important! We were just worried you'd pin some made-up charge on us. And nervous? What makes you think we're nervous?!"

Komiya was still shaken by what had happened before and was afraid something might happen if he stayed here. He put on a brave face and said:

"I think they're just messing with us. There's no reason to play along with them! Let's go."

The three of them turned to leave, but saw a figure standing at the stairwell. It was that guy named Ayanokoji.

"You're free to leave, but let me give you a friendly warning. When you're plotting to frame someone, why not make sure you've checked whether there are cameras here?"

His words threw the three of them into a panic. They clearly remembered choosing this spot in advance because it was a blind spot.

"A camera... You... What camera?! I don't know anything about a camera!"

Seeing that they had let a crack show in their composure, Horikita casually pointed toward a particularly inconspicuous corner, where a security camera was recording.

"What a shame, what a shame... You were this close to making your scheme work."

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

Under the pressure of the moment, the three of them grew increasingly flustered, and their composure slipped further. Horikita was delighted. All it would take now was one final push to completely shatter their defenses!

"Why don't we make a deal?"

"A deal? What kind of deal?"

"If you withdraw your complaint now and privately compensate us with 300,000 personal points for emotional distress, we might let this slide. Otherwise... the three of you can look forward to being expelled!"

They said women were natural actresses. Judging by Horikita and Ichinose's expressions and demeanor, anyone who didn't know better would've thought they really had found evidence.

Ishizaki and the other two had never imagined they'd be countered like this. They hadn't noticed the camera at all!

"I... I..."

"We... agr—"

They had only gotten halfway through agreeing when a curse from downstairs interrupted them.

"Idiots!"

"That voice... Ryuen!"

Horikita wasn't particularly bothered, but Ichinose's expression stiffened. Ryuen was undoubtedly the opponent she least wanted to face.

Cruel, violent, devious, cunning—every word she could think of for a delinquent seemed to fit Ryuen, and each one needed to be intensified.

"Thud... thud... thud."

In just one month since the start of the school year, he had used violence to forcibly unite Class C and become its tyrant.

Ryuen had an intimidating aura that inspired fear. He walked up the stairs one step at a time, each footfall seeming to strike at everyone's heart and leave them struggling to breathe.

Before long, a tall boy with purple hair parted down the middle and a roguish look on his face came upstairs.

Seeing how useless the three of them looked, Ryuen spat on the ground.

"What a bunch of worthless cowards! You couldn't even see through a scheme this simple?!"