The Plan to Find Ryuen as a Group

Over the next few days, the students from Class D continued working hard to find information about any witnesses.

The commotion was so great that even the students in Class B who usually paid little attention to the other classes had heard about the conflict between Classes C and D.

An Xiao had even seen Kushida outside Class B's classroom several times, asking the others for information about the incident.

"This has gotten pretty serious," Ichinose said with a sigh, standing beside An Xiao's desk.

"According to those people from Class C, it's practically turned into school bullying," An Xiao remarked.

No matter the country or the school, bullying was a serious problem for any school.

If it didn't become a big deal, that was one thing. But once it did, the school would surely deal with it seriously.

As An Xiao thought this over, he looked at Honami Ichinose in front of him and suddenly smiled. "You've helped Class D a lot with this, haven't you?"

"Hehe." Ichinose smiled sheepishly. "I helped them put up a few notices around the school and on the forum."

"I also gathered some information about those people from Class C."

After saying that, Ichinose quickly held up three fingers and made a cute promise to An Xiao. "But that's all I did. I didn't get any more involved than that."

"I also reminded everyone in the class group chat to be careful."

"Didn't you know, An Xiao?"

As she spoke, Ichinose tilted her head in confusion.

An Xiao took out his phone with a blank expression. After seeing the conspicuous "Mute Notifications" setting in the class group chat, he turned it off as if nothing had happened.

"But... even so, there are still a lot of people in our class willing to help."

"Everyone's so nice and kind," Ichinose said with a smile.

That was why Ichinose cared so much about Class B. She hoped everyone could get along well for all three years.

"And... Xiao An, you're like that too!" Ichinose leaned forward slightly and looked at An Xiao with a bright smile. "You haven't said it yourself, but you're a very kind person, too."

"Who goes around calling themselves kind?" An Xiao remarked. Then he propped his face up with one hand and said helplessly, "And why am I suddenly getting the feeling that I'm the only one in all of Class B with a slightly dark heart?"

"Huh?"

"Ichinose, are you free this afternoon?"

"I am..."

Though she had no idea what An Xiao wanted, Ichinose answered without hesitation.

"Then sorry for the trouble, but come with me after school this afternoon. Oh, and we'll need to bring Kanzaki along. We'll need the voice recorder, too." After saying that, An Xiao stretched heartily.

It was tomorrow, wasn't it?

"It's finally about to begin!"

That afternoon, outside Birch Shopping Center, An Xiao waved at the two people hurrying toward him.

"Over here!"

"We're not late, are we?" Ryuji Kanzaki asked, slightly out of breath.

"No, no. We're still waiting for one more person," An Xiao said, waving a hand.

"Someone else is coming?" Ichinose asked curiously. "By the way, what are we going to do?"

"It's about the incident between Classes C and D, but we're not the main characters today." An Xiao pointed to Kanzaki beside him. "He's the main character. You and I can just sit off to the side and watch."

"Don't exaggerate. I'm just here to help, though this does happen to be something I'm good at." Ryuji Kanzaki adjusted his glasses. "Still, I'm surprised you actually have this kind of evidence, An Xiao."

"I just got lucky." As An Xiao spoke, he spotted a familiar flash of silver and smiled. "Perfect. The last person's here, too."

"Pant... pant... Sorry I'm late." Shiina Hiyori jogged up to the three of them and apologized sheepishly.

"Not at all. I'm the one asking you for a favor this time. I'll treat you to something good next time."

"Thanks, An Xiao," Shiina said with a smile. Then she led them toward a shop.

An Xiao and Kanzaki followed behind her, with the still-confused Ichinose in tow.

Creak—

An Xiao and the others entered a private room in the shop. Inside, they found a burly red-haired man swirling a glass in his hand, with several equally muscular boys standing neatly behind him.

Why did this feel like a gang meeting? And weren't people in Japan only allowed to buy alcohol once they turned twenty? Were these guys even old enough?

An Xiao couldn't help grumbling to himself, but his expression didn't change. He simply moved Ichinose behind him.

"Oh? Looks like everyone's here," Ryuen Kakeru said, pausing as he swirled his glass and setting it down on the table.

"Shiina said you had something you wanted to trade with us."

"I hope it doesn't disappoint."

An Xiao didn't reply. He stepped forward, took out his phone and the voice recorder from his pocket, and placed them on the table. Then he showed Ryuen the audio, along with the videos and photos he'd secretly recorded earlier.

Ryuen's expression barely changed. He picked up the phone and watched the videos and looked through the photos several times. He also listened to the audio on the voice recorder again and again.

After a while, he finally put everything back down and smiled.

"Interesting."

"Albert. Ibuki."

"Yes." x2

The words seemed to serve as a signal. The two whose names had been called stepped forward and quickly ran out of the room.

"What are they..." Watching the two leave, Ichinose had a bad feeling.

"Don't overthink it."

"Boss, maybe we should..." One of Ryuen's underlings, standing behind him, glanced at the two items on the table and stepped forward to speak.

But he had only gotten halfway through his sentence when he saw Ryuen's calm gaze. He immediately apologized. "Sorry."

Then he retreated.

Ryuen looked at the things on the table, then at the three students from Class B in front of him.

"So Class B has a few capable people, after all."

"But... are you sure you can use this stuff to get the better of me?"

Ryuen gave a cold smile. He picked up An Xiao's phone and played the contents again right in front of him, then said, "This stuff you have... doesn't seem to prove who started it, does it?"

To Ryuen's surprise, An Xiao didn't argue when he heard that. Instead, he agreed outright, pulled over a chair, and sat down across from Ryuen before speaking.

"You're right. It doesn't prove who started it."

"But from a certain point of view, it could still be a problem for you."

An Xiao smiled. "In the report you submitted to the school, you made it sound as if Sudo from Class D had attacked those three people from Class C all on his own, right?"

"That's not quite what the video and photos on my phone show."

"I'm sure you understand how big the difference is between bullying and a fight, and how differently the school handles each of them."

"I doubt you want this to end with both sides getting punished equally."

"So, do you still think this evidence of mine is really useless?"