Chapter 44

"...Don't do this. Let's start out as friends," Shiina said, choosing her words carefully. "That's great! You agreed to be my friend!" I happily let go of her little hand, without resorting to the shameless clinging or pushing my luck she'd probably expected. "=_=..." Shiina, realizing she'd been played, was even more at a loss for words. "We agreed on this, so from now on, I'll call you Hiyori-san! You can call me Minya, too." I grinned wickedly. Didn't see that coming, did you? I'd already settled for second best and set my sights on this! Heh heh heh... Don't blame me, Hiyori-san. This is a school where only the strong thrive! Just consider this failure a lesson you had to pay for! "Kitazawa-kun, you really did come from a big city. You're seriously good at playing people..." "I don't care! Starting today, I'm Hiyori-san's first friend at this school! Wahahahaha! Calling me Kitazawa is so formal! Don't be shy—friends can just call me Minya!" Hiyori-san's first blood, get! "That's a textbook villain laugh..." "As if. In my diary, I'm the protagonist." "Kitazawa... um... Minya-kun, you keep a diary?" A deal was a deal—even though we hadn't actually made a bet. Hiyori used the rename card the system had given her to change her ID and the name she used for me. "Sometimes. I write down fun or memorable things so I can look back on them someday. It's really nice to flip through them a few years later..." "Heh heh. Then you'd better make sure your enemies don't find your diary, Minya." "It's fine. A diary is just written evidence, so it doesn't count. I can say I turned real-life events into a novel. It has absolutely no legal force." Trying that on me, a half-professional lawyer? I'm the man even Zhang San, the lawless outlaw, is afraid of. "...Talking to you really is an eye-opening experience!" "Aw, it's nothing... You have a lovely way of speaking, too, Hiyori-san." Hiyori shuddered slightly under my gaze and said, "Please don't compliment me while staring at me with that lecherous look... I'm scared..." "Don't be. I'm here." "I told you, it's because you're here that I'm scared..." "You'll get used to it." "I don't want to get used to it!" "Then tomorrow, we'll keep slowly getting used to it, friend..." "..." But the next afternoon, after school, I couldn't keep my promise to go eat with Hiyori. I noticed Ishizaki at the next table happily discussing Kushida's invitation with Komiya and the others. The second hearing, which would decide the fate of the two classes, was coming up soon. I couldn't believe Kushida didn't know that, yet she'd invited the key players on the other side to hang out? To be safe, I didn't stop them right away. Instead, I quietly followed behind. I wanted to see what Class D had up its sleeve with disaster looming. Was Kushida going to use her feminine wiles to trick Ishizaki and the others into withdrawing their complaint at the last minute? But she was seriously overestimating herself if she thought she could handle all three at once. Or was there another girl besides Kushida? Maybe I was looking at it the wrong way. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I still followed the three of them to their destination. It wasn't a karaoke place or a student dorm, somewhere convenient for an ambush... It was the scene of Sudo's assault. Was Sudo planning to fight them to the death? I quietly took out my phone, started recording, and hid it in my coat pocket. The three of them filed in through the nearest stairwell. To avoid walking into an ambush, I ran to the stairwell at the far end instead. But the scene where a Sudo suddenly leapt out from a corner, yelled, "Surprise! Moxxer fxxker!" and tackled the three of them never happened. Instead, Ayanokoji and Ichinose had them cornered in the hallway, one at each end. Meddlesome Class B... Why was Ichinose still getting involved? What had they traded for? Fortunately, sound carried well through the quiet hallway, so I could still make out bits of their conversation from the other end, where I was hiding. I see! So that was where Sakura had been standing back then? Wait!? Was there a camera here at the time!? You've got to be kidding me!!? At the other end of the hallway, Ichinose had already begun speaking up for what was right. "I saw through all of it in this incident—the fact that you lied, and that you attacked first... If you don't want the truth made public, you should withdraw your complaint immediately." "What? You want us to withdraw our complaint? Don't make me laugh. What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Your testimony is completely unreliable. Sudo was the one who started the fight!" That was definitely Ishizaki Daishi's voice. "You know that even in Japan, this school is recognized by the government as one of the top schools for university admissions, right?" "Of course. That's why we applied here." "Then you should think a little harder. Your intentions were obvious from the start!" From Ichinose's tone, she seemed to be enjoying herself. "Don't you think the school's response to this incident has been strange?" "Huh?" "When you reported the incident to the school, why wasn't Sudo-kun punished immediately? And why was he given several days to make amends? What do you think the reason was?" "Because that guy lied and begged the school, right? If they hadn't postponed the decision, it would've looked like whoever filed the complaint first won." "Is that really it? Could there be another reason, another purpose?" I see. They'd deliberately gotten Ishizaki and the others alone, planning to strike at the root of the problem? Then I'd test the three of them. "This makes no sense. Ah... Damn, it's hot. Let's go. If we stay here any longer, I feel like we'll get boiled alive." "Are you sure? If you leave now, you'll probably regret it for the rest of your lives." "What have you been talking about this whole time, Ichinose? Don't you get it? The school knows you Class C students are lying. They've known from the very beginning." "Don't make me laugh. You're saying we're lying?? And that the school knows about it?" "Ahahahaha. That's ridiculous. You've been dancing in the palm of their hand this whole time." "It was clever of you to recruit her, but that kind of lie won't work on us!" You three idiots, stop wasting time talking to her and leave! You really couldn't stand up to a test... "We have conclusive evidence." "Ha! Then show us this so-called evidence of yours..." "You know there are surveillance cameras all over this school, right? They're in classrooms, the cafeteria, and the convenience store. You've probably seen them without realizing it. The school uses them to monitor our usual behavior so it can catch any misconduct." "So what?" "Then you didn't notice that one?" Ichinose pointed at the ceiling up ahead. "Huh...?" "That's not good. If you're going to frame someone,"