Cooperation with Sakayanagi

Sakayanagi Arisu's words sounded like a greeting, but she had actually already placed a challenge before him.

"No, I'd still rather deal with Katsuragi." Shiraishi Makoto took another small sip of coffee.

"Oh? And what do you mean by that?" The smile on Sakayanagi Arisu's face deepened.

"Katsuragi is more straightforward, while Classmate Sakayanagi is smarter. And I dislike dealing with smart people the most."

Faced with Shiraishi Makoto's roundabout compliment, Sakayanagi Arisu merely smiled. "So does that mean you intend to win Katsuragi over and suppress me, Shiraishi?"

Shiraishi Makoto held his cup and savored its contents leisurely, looking as though he were seriously weighing the feasibility of it.

"Forget it. I don't want Classmate Sakayanagi holding a grudge against me." Shiraishi Makoto finally spoke after a while.

Sakayanagi Arisu turned to glance at Kamuro Masumi. Kamuro immediately understood and silently retreated some distance away to stand watch for them.

"Then how about we reverse it? What if I asked you to help undermine Katsuragi's reputation?" Sakayanagi Arisu asked.

"And the reward?" Shiraishi Makoto agreed without hesitation.

Sakayanagi Arisu seemed not to have expected Shiraishi Makoto to reply so quickly, agreeing without even giving it any thought.

"As for the reward, how about victory in one exam?" Sakayanagi considered it for a while before presenting her terms.

"Not enough." Shiraishi Makoto rejected the proposal. In the original story, Sakayanagi Arisu would join forces with Ryuen Kakeru of Class C during the Uninhabited Island Exam to strike at Class A under Katsuragi's leadership, so Shiraishi was not surprised by her proposal.

However, Sakayanagi's offer truly was not enough. The current Class A's style made it impossible for them to use underhanded tactics to slander others, and Sakayanagi could not possibly fail to understand that. Therefore, the only occasion where Katsuragi could suffer a setback would be during a Special Exam.

And victory in an exam was itself a necessary result of striking at Katsuragi. Even if Sakayanagi provided secret assistance, this proposal still lacked sincerity.

"First, I need to borrow Kamuro for a while. I won't mention the timing or details for now. Before taking action, I'll tell Kamuro the specifics, but this should benefit Classmate Sakayanagi as well." Shiraishi Makoto had taken notice of Kamuro's abilities and intended to send her to handle something major.

"No problem." Borrowing someone was only a trivial matter. Besides, Sakayanagi Arisu had leverage over Kamuro Masumi, so she agreed readily.

"The second condition may not necessarily come in handy." At this point, even Shiraishi Makoto hesitated slightly. "In the future, I may need to meet Chairman Sakayanagi once. I hope you can introduce me."

"Oh?" This condition surprised Sakayanagi Arisu somewhat, but after considering it, she still nodded in agreement.

Neither condition was particularly difficult, and both had piqued her interest.

Since this transaction involved Sakayanagi betraying her own class, they could not have the school notarize a contract. The agreement remained purely verbal, but Shiraishi Makoto trusted Sakayanagi's reliability in this regard well enough.

Just then, Shiraishi Makoto's phone rang.

Shiraishi Makoto glanced at the caller ID, and his expression became somewhat strange.

"Hello, Hoshinomiya-sensei." Shiraishi Makoto answered the call.

"Is Makoto free right now? There's something I need you to come to the office for~" Hoshinomiya Chie's voice came through the phone.

"No problem." Although he was curious why Hoshinomiya Chie wanted to see him, Shiraishi Makoto did not refuse.

"Since Shiraishi has business to attend to, I won't keep you any longer. I hope our cooperation goes well." Sakayanagi Arisu stood up, bracing herself against the tabletop with her left hand to maintain her balance as she extended her right hand.

"Likewise." Shiraishi Makoto raised his hand and gave hers a light shake, releasing it almost immediately.

After bidding farewell to Sakayanagi and Kamuro, Shiraishi Makoto hurried to the teachers' office. Since school had been over for quite some time, there were no other teachers in the office. Only Hoshinomiya Chie was there.

"Makoto, you're here." When Hoshinomiya Chie saw Shiraishi Makoto, she revealed a delighted smile. "Close the door, would you?"

"Of course." Shiraishi Makoto closed the door and walked over beside Hoshinomiya's desk. "May I ask why you called me here, sensei?"

"Sit down first." Hoshinomiya found him a stool, and once Shiraishi Makoto was seated, she asked a deeply meaningful question.

"What do you think of little Sae?"

Chabashira Sae was not only the homeroom teacher of first-year Class D, but also taught Japanese history to the entire grade. This happened to be Shiraishi Makoto's weak subject, so he studied diligently during every one of Chabashira's classes.

However, Shiraishi Makoto knew perfectly well that Hoshinomiya was not asking about her teaching ability.

"A Class D with zero points shouldn't be worth paying attention to, should it?" Although Shiraishi Makoto knew about the history between Hoshinomiya Chie and Chabashira Sae, he could not show it. On the surface, Class D was also a history-making class—the first in the school's history to lose all its Class Points in the very first month.

"That's what I thought too, but little Sae has been making moves lately~" As she spoke of Chabashira Sae, Hoshinomiya's gaze turned dangerous.

"So, sensei wants to ask you for a favor." Hoshinomiya Chie said, "I want you to help suppress Class D and make sure they can never rise again."

"May I know the reason?"

"It's like this..." Hoshinomiya paused before recounting her story with Chabashira Sae. They had once been students at this school as well, and on the eve of graduation, they had an opportunity to overtake the Class A of their time. Then their class encountered an exam.

In that exam, the entire class had to reach a unanimous decision and cast a vote. The final vote allowed them to choose one classmate to expel in exchange for 100 Class Points. As long as they obtained those 100 points, they could complete their comeback.

At the time, the class leader was Chabashira Sae's boyfriend. He decided to sacrifice himself for the sake of the class. But Chabashira Sae had always opposed it, preventing them from reaching a unanimous vote. In the end, not only did the class fail to gain the points, but because they had failed to reach a consensus, they lost 300 Class Points and completely lost their chance to become Class A.

Because of this, enormous conflicts erupted within the class, and many people never spoke to one another again. Hoshinomiya Chie, meanwhile, came to resent Chabashira Sae for causing it all.

"Anyone else would be fine, but not little Sae. She has no right to set foot in Class A." That was Hoshinomiya Chie's reason.

"I understand." Having obtained this information from Hoshinomiya, Shiraishi Makoto nodded lightly.

"Shiraishi, your powers of observation are strong, so start by observing these two students." Hoshinomiya wrote down two names on a sheet of paper.

"Horikita Suzune, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka." Shiraishi Makoto looked at the two names, feeling somewhat surprised. Horikita Suzune made sense, but how had Hoshinomiya noticed Ayanokoji at this point?

"Little Sae called these two students to the office today for private talks."

So that was it. Perhaps Shiraishi Makoto's successful comeback in the first month had put Hoshinomiya on alert. When she saw Chabashira Sae call two students in separately, she immediately sensed that something was wrong and used her authority as a teacher to check their information.

Horikita Suzune's academic and athletic abilities were both exceptional. Moreover, Horikita's surname and her similar hair and eye color reminded Hoshinomiya of the current Student Council president, Horikita Manabu. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's entrance exam scores, meanwhile, were extremely strange: every subject had landed exactly in the middle, at fifty points.

As the saying went, too many coincidences became inevitability. To control his scores so perfectly, especially on an important occasion like an entrance exam, meant that this student named Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could not be underestimated.

"And this is your reward for the first stage." Hoshinomiya Chie operated her phone and transferred Shiraishi Makoto 300,000 Private Points.

"Make sure you work hard~"