Riot (Part 2)

"Let's go, there's no need to stay."

Amidst the chaotic crowd, Ayanokoji shifted his position rapidly, arriving behind Horikita Suzune as she tried to stop those who had lost control.

"No, I can't. If I let them keep fighting like this, someone might actually die."

"Besides, there are plenty of innocent students being beaten up. Can't you see that?" Horikita Suzune covered her nose and mouth, her voice firm as she struggled to knock out the attackers one by one.

"Bang!"

"How many do you think you can stop on your own?"

"Furthermore..." As he spoke, Ayanokoji moved as if he had eyes in the back of his head, side-stepping to knock out a man charging at him with a single strike. He looked at Horikita Suzune with a serious expression. "You think you're helping them, but if you were the one in trouble, would they help you?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Heh~" Ayanokoji gave a light smile and said nothing more.

"It's just... I never expected you to be this strong. You've been hiding it well."

She remembered that the man he had just struck was Kanzaki Ryuji from Class B, someone whose martial arts skills were definitely not inferior to her own.

Even in a state of frenzy, his robust physique was not something an ordinary person could handle.

Seeing that he could effortlessly knock the man out with a single move—and that his technique bore a faint resemblance to that of Rinya—Horikita Suzune couldn't help but be filled with astonishment.

"Are you coming, or not? This is the last time I'll ask." Ayanokoji ignored her comment, his expression blank as he pressed the question.

However, hearing this, Horikita Suzune seemed not to have heard him at all. A flicker of hope ignited on her face, and she said with excitement, "Ayanokoji, if you help me..."

Before the girl could finish her sentence, Ayanokoji had already turned and walked away.

"Ayanokoji, you..." Horikita Suzune felt both indignant and aggrieved.

The class was in the midst of a crisis; as a member, how could he just ignore them?

Especially when he had promised to help her reach Class A.

"So... is this your answer?"

Watching his retreating back, Horikita Suzune bit her lip, feeling an inexplicable sense of loss in her heart.

However, just as she let her guard down, the two Class A boys she had just knocked over—perhaps due to their sturdy builds—suddenly rose to their feet and lunged at her from both sides.

"Oh no!" Horikita Suzune screamed internally. Although she tried her best to react, she couldn't avoid being sent flying by a heavy punch from each of them.

"Boom!"

The violent impact threw the girl's body a short distance away.

"Cough~" Fresh blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Horikita Suzune gritted her teeth, enduring the pain in her abdomen. She wiped away the blood, but as she used one hand to support herself—while the other still held the cloth over her nose and mouth—she was kicked heavily by someone.

Already physically exhausted, she looked up to find herself surrounded by three or four people who had lost control.

Seeing that she had no way to escape, her gaze suddenly swept over a few Class B students she had just saved, who were crouching low as they passed by.

Driven by the instinct to survive, Horikita Suzune subconsciously shouted, "Cough, cough~ Help, please help me... I beg you all."

However, after she finished speaking, she felt a moment of relief seeing them look her way, but the next second, hearing their trembling voices, she was left completely stunned.

"S-sorry, Horikita-san, we have to go save Class President Ichinose. We're really sorry."

"..." Horikita Suzune opened her mouth blankly. She had a thousand words she wanted to say, but at that moment, she couldn't utter a single one.

"Bang!"

As she was slammed against the wall by another kick from a frenzied student, Horikita Suzune seemed unable to feel the pain anymore. Her gaze grew dim, and even the hand covering her nose and mouth fell away.

Seeing this, a gaze from afar that had been locked onto her seemed to grow increasingly anxious.

"Master, as the only opponent I acknowledge, I would like to..."

Ibuki Mio turned her head to look at the boy standing with his hands behind his back, his expression playful. Her intent was clear without words.

"Heh~ Go ahead."

"Mm~ Thank you, Master."

Watching the girl dash away, Rinya gave a meaningful smile before turning his focus back to the middle-aged man in the arena who seemed to be searching for something.

Seeing this, Kushida, who was operating the camera beside him, couldn't help but feel puzzled. "Master, I've noticed you've been staring at him from the start. Did he cause this situation with the students losing control?"

"Him..." Rinya seemed to recall something, his voice trailing off as he sneered, "He's not worthy~"

"I-is that so?" Hearing this, Kushida's face was full of question marks, but she felt too embarrassed to keep asking.

"Let's wait a little longer. He won't be able to hold back much longer, heh."

"Oh~" the girl replied blankly, then, as if remembering something, she looked down at her own chest with a grievance.

"Could it be that what Ibuki said about 'big chest, no brain' is true..."

Meanwhile, sure enough, shortly after Rinya spoke, the middle-aged man who had been searching the arena for a long time without finding his target grew increasingly ugly in the face.

"Damn it, how can I not find him? I clearly saw him come in."

"Could that guy have discovered me back then?"

"But even so, after the scent of the Berserk Liquid took effect, how could there not even be a shadow of a person in sight?"

"Unless..."

The middle-aged man's eyes darted around, and he suddenly remembered that among the informants the boss had mentioned, there was his son as well.

"Could it be..."

"Yes, that's the only way it makes sense!"

He clapped his palms together as if struck by a sudden realization and hurriedly called his boss...

Seeing this from the rooftop in the distance, Rinya also clapped his hands, though his movements were leisurely and slow.

The boy, his face filled with a playful expression, finally couldn't help but let out a cold laugh as he clapped. "Hehehehe~ The situation I wanted has finally emerged."

"Kushida, take some snacks out of the bag; the good show is about to begin."

"Ah?"

Kushida touched her head, full of question marks, but still didn't forget to whisper a reminder: "Master, isn't that small backpack with Ibuki?"

"Uh..." Rinya's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

On the other side, after the middle-aged man finished his phone call, he looked as if he had received a brand-new mission; his previously bitter expression suddenly turned incredibly sharp.

"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, it's a waste that the boss was even willing to trust you once. You brought this upon yourself."

As the man sent out a piece of special information, perhaps no one would have expected that he, as a member of the school's management, would dare to privately mobilize the Security Department to use as a weapon.

"Heh, it's a good thing the boss was prepared long ago. Let's see how you run this time." The middle-aged man gave a cold laugh.

Sure enough, not long after the message was sent, Ayanokoji, who was walking back alone on the road outside the stadium, happened to run into a group of people dispatched by the Security Department.

Seeing their serious expressions—fully armed as if they were heading out to catch terrorists—Ayanokoji naturally assumed they were responding to a rescue call from the stadium.

However, when the other party stepped out of the vehicle and surrounded him with electric batons, he understood in an instant that he had been set up by that foolish guy.

"You are Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, right?" The tall, thin man in the lead, wearing an officer's uniform, looked at the photo on his phone while comparing it to the person in front of him.

"Yes, is there something you need?" Ayanokoji didn't dawdle; because he had been secretly sabotaged today, he guessed immediately that this group must have been misled by that guy.

"That's fine, take him away." Upon hearing this, the tall, thin man didn't give the other party a chance to explain, ordering his men to cuff him immediately.

Yet, hearing this, Ayanokoji smiled faintly, as if he had expected it.

He understood that if he resisted, the other party would definitely use it as an excuse to blow things out of proportion and eventually expel him.

But if he didn't resist, once he reached the Supervision Center, he figured that with that guy's interference, even if he were innocent, he would be framed as guilty.

Therefore, before getting into the car without resistance, he silently handed a recording to the tall, thin man in the lead, then sat down without saying a word.

"Oh, this is..."

"Take a listen."

Although the tall, thin man was somewhat suspicious, out of human curiosity, he played the recording inside the car...

The entire recording was quite long, but the gist of it was: "How that middle-aged man's boss used network technology to infiltrate and secretly alter Chairman Sakayanagi's work computer, then used the fabricated evidence of illegal activity to send him to the Supervision Center, and finally spent a great deal of effort to help his chosen mole get into this school as a high-level executive."

"What!" As the recording finished playing, the tall, thin man, who had just been acting indifferent, slapped his knee and slammed on the brakes.

He then turned his head to look at Ayanokoji in disbelief. "Are... are you sure there's nothing wrong with this recording?"

"Look at whose recording device this is."

Ayanokoji pointed expressionlessly at the exclusive symbol belonging to Chairman Sakayanagi on the surface, telling the other party that it couldn't possibly be fake.

"It's just... if I remember correctly, this should be the hidden recording device from his computer, right?"

"How do you know that, and how do you have it?" The tall, thin man widened his eyes, unable to help but ask out of curiosity.

"Regarding that, I just happened to pass by his office that day and heard some strange conversations outside the door, so I made a trip to the Supervision Center. You knew about me visiting the Chairman back then, right?"

Of course, whether it was truly a coincidence or not, Ayanokoji wasn't about to offer any further explanation.

"Heh, you make it sound so easy..." The tall, thin man was speechless.

If Ayanokoji hadn't shown him the text message sent personally by Sakayanagi Arisu, he wouldn't have fully believed him.

After all, as the second-in-command of the Security Department for so many years, since he had accidentally discovered such a major hidden case, he naturally wouldn't sit idly by.

What's more, once he secured the credit for this, the position of the top leader might be within reach.

Thus, the group of personnel who were originally heading to the Security Department, under the command of the tall, thin man, swarmed toward the stadium following Ayanokoji's lead.