Chess Piece

Kushida arrived at the rooftop of the school building during lunch break. Seeing no one around, she cautiously pushed open the slightly ajar door.

"Ryuen's run into a bit of a problem." After pushing the door open, a familiar figure stood by the railing. She walked over gently and spoke first.

"It's about points, isn't it?" Mu Tianchen turned around, looking at Kushida.

"You actually guessed it. That's pretty scary."

"What's so hard to guess? He's Ryuen, sure, and he controls the whole class—he can scrape together a million points. But as a leader, he can't just ignore his responsibility to the class, even if he doesn't show it on the surface."

"Why do you say that?" Kushida was a bit puzzled. After all, Ryuen gave her the vibe of a yakuza boss, using violence to intimidate others. She couldn't imagine him taking responsibility for his underlings.

"Do you know about the Class Transfer Right you can buy with points?"

"You can transfer classes?!" Kushida gasped in surprise at this, covering her mouth with her hand.

After a moment, she asked again, "How many points does the Class Transfer Right cost?"

Judging by Kushida's reaction, Mu Tianchen could easily guess how badly she wanted out of this class—like she'd transfer the second she could.

Thinking about it, the reason was probably Horikita. Though he didn't know why she held such a grudge against her.

"Twenty million."

"Haah, twenty million points?! That's not a sum an ordinary person could save up, is it?" Kushida's eyes visibly dimmed. "But, if it's you, Tianchen-kun, you could manage it, right?"

In Kushida's eyes, the man before her had unfathomable strength.

"As for me, I do have that plan. But right now, we're talking about Ryuen, aren't we?"

"Ryuen-kun?... Right..." Kushida clearly sensed he didn't want to talk too much about himself, so she didn't press further.

"As for Ryuen, I'd guess he's trying to gather a huge amount of points."

"I don't quite follow, Tianchen-kun. Doesn't he already control the class? He shouldn't be short on points, right?" Kushida was confused by his words.

"Enough points to transfer everyone in Class C to Class A." Mu Tianchen continued, shifting his gaze from the distance to Kushida.

"What?! That... can't be possible, right? Twenty million is already a lot. Transferring everyone... that's no small amount of points."

Kushida was clearly stunned by this statement. Saving up twenty million to transfer to Class A alone was hard enough, let alone moving the whole class...

She never imagined Ryuen had such ambition.

"But, Tianchen-kun, how did you figure it out?"

Women were naturally curious. Though Kushida didn't doubt this man's judgment, she still wanted to know the reason.

"Because of the points."

"Points?"

"I've tricked him out of points before. He always paid up without hesitation, even if he had no choice."

"But that just proves he always believed he had the ability to earn even more. This kind of thing doesn't faze him."

"Then why would he be willing to transfer the whole class? Wouldn't it be better to just go alone?" Kushida still found it hard to believe he was the kind of leader who took responsibility for everyone in his class.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have used violence to control them.

"It's a feeling."

"A feeling?" Kushida couldn't quite believe those words came from the man in front of her. It was completely at odds with his usual image.

"He's a lot like someone I used to know. A lot. But now, that person has decided to start changing himself..."

Kushida was a bit lost, but when he said this, his expression was calm—a kind of relief. She didn't dare speak, afraid to disturb him.

"If there's nothing else, head back first. Remember the task I gave you before."

"Mm, okay, got it." Kushida was about to leave when she suddenly remembered something and turned back.

"What is it?"

"It's just... today, Ayanokouji-kun came to find me. He asked me to go with him after school."

"Ayanokouji?" Hearing that name, Mu Tianchen slowly curled his lips. "So he's finally making a move, huh. Interesting."

"What do you mean?" Kushida didn't quite understand his words. To her, Ayanokouji seemed like just an ordinary background character, barely noticeable.

"Nothing. Whatever he asks you to do, just go along with it. It's probably about the past exam papers."

"Past exam papers... Could it be that Ayanokouji-kun is actually a really capable person?" Kushida couldn't help but wonder. Anyone who thought of using past exam papers couldn't be ordinary.

"He might even be smarter than me."

"I see... No wonder Horikita hangs around him..." A flicker of hostility passed through Kushida's eyes. Maybe at that moment, she saw Ayanokouji as an enemy too.

"I'll cooperate. But if it really is about the past exam papers, won't that conflict with your plan?"

Mu Tianchen's plan for her was to distribute the past exam papers to Class D the day before the test. If Ayanokouji was after the same thing, they'd contradict each other.

"There's no real conflict. After all, the starting point is the same. It doesn't matter who does it. Besides, I don't think he'd just take all the credit for himself."

Mu Tianchen smiled. "He'd probably pass the benefits to you or Horikita-san."

"So... does Ayanokouji-kun not want to reveal his abilities either? Why would he do that?"

Kushida wasn't stupid—she caught the implication. But in her view, this was a great chance to build trust and goodwill with her classmates.

Was he being too kind by just giving it away like that?

"He truly doesn't want to be exposed." Mu Tianchen gave a definitive answer. "Those who hold real power and possess overwhelming strength often prefer to stay hidden behind the scenes as 'puppeteers.'"

"He's playing a game of chess. Everything and everyone he can think of and use—relationships included—are nothing more than 'pieces' and 'tools.'"

Hearing Mu Tianchen say this, Kushida couldn't help but feel a chill of fear—not just from the dread Ayanokouji inspired in her, but also from him!

"Why do you know him so well?"

"I just know a few things about him. Alright, that's enough for today." Mu Tianchen waved his hand, signaling Kushida to leave.

Kushida had no reason to stay any longer. She turned around and pushed open the door to the rooftop.

"From the looks of it, maybe I'm just one of his pieces too..." Kushida thought to herself.

Still, even though she knew it was a relationship of mutual use, she found herself growing a little interested in that man...