Bound by the contract, Shiraishi Makoto could only simplify the matter by saying that he had gotten hold of Class C's weakness, signed a contract favorable to the class, and hoped Ichinose Honami would help persuade their classmates.
"But is this really okay?" Ichinose Honami's brows held a trace of reluctance.
Shiraishi Makoto knew that the kindness in her heart would not allow her to stand idly by in the face of such a thing.
But Shiraishi Makoto still intended to hold Ichinose Honami back, and not merely because the contract required it.
The incidents since the start of school had only been appetizers. From now on, Ichinose Honami had to establish the mindset that the class's interests came first.
"The students in our class haven't weathered many storms. I'm worried they still don't truly understand how cruel this school is," Shiraishi Makoto explained.
With Shiraishi Makoto blocking both open and hidden attacks from the outside, and Ichinose Honami uniting the class from within, Class A's ordinary students had been protected too well at Advanced Nurturing High School. Their understanding of class competition was still limited to comparing discipline and academic performance.
Letting Class A observe this incident in its entirety, as it truly unfolded, would be greatly helpful in changing everyone's outlook.
"Besides, Class D has capable people. Class C is underestimating Class D too much."
After meeting Ryuen Kakeru, Shiraishi Makoto had confirmed one thing: Ryuen had no idea Ayanokoji Kiyotaka even existed.
Although Ichinose Honami was very curious about who the "capable person" Shiraishi Makoto mentioned was, she wisely kept quiet when she saw that he had no intention of continuing.
She trusted Shiraishi Makoto's judgment of the situation completely, so she could only convince herself that Class D would be able to overcome this crisis on its own. She also knew very well that everything Shiraishi Makoto did was for Class A, so she had no standing to blame him for standing aside.
"Then I'll speak with everyone in class and make sure they don't interfere with your plans." Ichinose Honami nodded gently and chose to stand with Shiraishi Makoto.
The next day, Class A.
Since Sudo Ken had also filed an appeal with the school, and both sides were sticking to their stories, the school instructed each class's homeroom teacher to relay the details of the incident in order to find witnesses.
Ichinose Honami added a reminder afterward, telling her classmates to travel in groups recently, be careful to protect themselves, focus on preparing for the Final Exam, and not spend too much effort getting involved in other classes' disputes.
Over in Class D, when the students learned that Sudo Ken had been involved in a fight, not only were they unsurprised, but hardly anyone believed Sudo Ken was the victim.
Still, under Kushida Kikyo's persuasion and driven by the class's interests, everyone temporarily decided to help Sudo Ken search for clues.
Although Sakura Airi had not been involved in this incident, and Sudo Ken had not said as he had in the original story, "I feel like there was a witness nearby when the fight happened," Class D still placed its hopes on another witness stepping forward to testify.
After school, two teams represented by Hirata Yosuke and Kushida Kikyo began asking around campus whether anyone had witnessed the incident. As for Horikita Suzune, she apparently had no intention of taking part.
So Kushida Kikyo approached Horikita Suzune.
"It's your freedom if you want to run around for Sudo. I have no right to stop you. But if you need help, could you ask someone else? I'm very busy," Horikita Suzune said, seemingly with no intention of listening to Kushida Kikyo.
"What do you mean, busy? Even after school, you can't find anyone to hang out with, can you?" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, standing nearby, instinctively snarked.
Horikita Suzune glared at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, seemingly warning him not to speak out of turn. "Being alone is also an important part of my daily routine. I don't like having that time taken away from me."
That's an excuse too... Ayanokouji could tell Horikita Suzune had casually made up an excuse, but he said nothing further.
"Besides, even if we save him again this time, he'll just repeat the same mistakes and continue the vicious cycle."
"But Sudo is the victim, isn't he?" Kushida Kikyo seemed not to understand what Horikita Suzune meant.
"Even if Class C's students were the ones who started trouble, he bears considerable responsibility for things escalating to this point. It would not be excessive at all to call him an aggressor." Horikita Suzune looked helpless.
Sudo Ken was that kind of person. He had done things including, but not limited to, the following:
He happily recounted his middle school fighting experiences in class, explaining in detail which places hurt especially badly when hit; after bumping into students from other classes in the hallway, he violently grabbed them by the collar; he maliciously cut in line at the cafeteria, then flew into a rage and cursed at others when they called him out.
After the Archived Exam Questions Incident during the Midterm Exam, Horikita Suzune had realized that Sudo Ken was Class D's weak point. Shiraishi Makoto could exploit him, and so could the other classes.
If Class D were compared to a person from a poor family, then Sudo Ken would be an arm that was nearly necrotic. It might be strong, but it was now continuously bleeding them dry.
Horikita Suzune did not know what choice to make either. Should they gamble their already scarce resources on healing that arm, or choose to amputate it outright?
For now, she could not see what this had to do with Shiraishi Makoto, so she simply chose to wait and watch.
As time passed, Class D's desire to save Sudo Ken steadily weakened.
"We can't find any witnesses at all..." Ike Kanji sighed.
For the past two days, they had followed Kushida Kikyo around everywhere. They had even asked upperclassmen, yet they still had no leads whatsoever.
"Are you really not the culprit?" Yamauchi Haruki looked at Sudo Ken and asked again.
"How many times do I have to say it? It was self-defense," Sudo Ken said in distress.
"Actually, it doesn't matter whether there are witnesses or not." Horikita Suzune spoke from the side.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I don't believe such a serious violent incident would only cost us a few dozen Class Points. Anyway, our class barely has any points left as it is, so losing them wouldn't hurt that much." Horikita Suzune seemed to have been holding this in for a long time, and blurted it all out at once.
Sudo Ken was furious upon hearing that, but what angered him even more was that the other students all looked as though they agreed.
"Why am I the only one who has to deal with this kind of thing? You're all completely useless." Sudo Ken growled resentfully.
Horikita Suzune looked at him coldly, her tone carrying a hint of mockery. "What you said is quite amusing, Sudo. Haven't you noticed that all of this is like a boomerang?"
Even Kouenji Rokusuke, who had been watching from the sidelines all along, was amused by Sudo Ken's ridiculous appearance. "Wouldn't it be better for you to drop out? Your existence is not beautiful. No, it should be called ugly, shouldn't it, Red Hair?"
"What did you say? Say that again?" Sudo Ken could barely endure Horikita Suzune's criticism, since Horikita had helped him tremendously during the Midterm Exam and had earnestly tutored him afterward. But he absolutely could not tolerate Kouenji Rokusuke's condescending mockery and belittlement.
"Repeating myself would be terribly inefficient. Is your comprehension really so poor? If you have some kind of impairment in that regard, I wouldn't mind repeating myself while adding an explanation." Kouenji remained as arrogantly nonchalant as ever.
Bang! The classroom rang with the sound of a desk being violently kicked away.
Before you continue