A Fish With No Ability to Resist

"So you really did join the basketball club. Tell me, what do you intend to do?"

I looked over the summary table Ryuen had compiled, which detailed the club enrollment status of every student in the first-year classes.

"I've already made the arrangements. Komiya and Kondo from our class will be joining the basketball club; they will serve as the bait."

"Basketball club training is open to the public, and anyone can come to watch. I'll have those who haven't chosen a club take turns sitting in the stands to mock Sudo during practice."

"Judging by his performance thus far, there is no way he won't take the bait."

If the timeline were the same as the original, I would never have agreed to this plan, as it would have been far too crude.

However, given the current situation, this plan is perfectly executable. It is only the third day of school, and Class D is incapable of mounting an effective counterattack, especially since they don't even know the rules yet.

Using intent to catch the unsuspecting—that is where our chance of victory lies this time.

"As long as the people are in place, remember to find a legitimate excuse for them to familiarize themselves with the route. It's not primarily so they can escape, but to ensure the target doesn't lose their trail."

"I won't be locking the clubroom door during this time. Tell the bait that as soon as they enter the clubroom, they must close the door immediately, but do not lock it. I'll loosen the screws on the door so that the target can kick it down with a single blow."

"The partition I built with the bookshelves is already in place; outsiders will never be able to tell that I've tampered with the clubroom."

Having made the final arrangements for baiting Sudo, I only wondered how long it would take for the target to reach a state of blind rage.

Sudo is a great asset to Class D. The faster he causes trouble, the more class points Class D will lose. Class C is practically saving Class D!

In the afternoon, inside the gymnasium, the basketball club was organizing training for the freshmen.

"Class D trash! Do you even know how to play basketball? You're clanking every shot! I could hit those free throws myself!"

Ishizaki was the one chosen to heckle Sudo from the stands. Ishizaki had some basketball experience, so he was able to relentlessly attack Sudo by pointing out every mistake he made on the court.

The key was that everything he said was the truth—there was no fabrication, just a loud, public airing of all of Sudo's errors.

This was not a good thing for Sudo; he hated the "flies" buzzing in his ears more than anything.

Especially when the opponent mentioned he was Class D trash, he could see the others in the basketball club laughing wantonly. The look on their faces was identical to the upperclassmen he had clashed with at the supermarket entrance, and it quickly ignited the fire of rage in his heart.

"Hey! Sudo! What are you doing? I know I'm not great, but you don't have to give me that look! You're bad at studying and bad at being a person—truly worthy of being Class D trash!"

"Look at that expression; you've got a real problem with our friend, don't you? Is there something he said that wasn't true? You were bragging about how good you were at basketball, but it turns out you're nothing but garbage!"

As Sudo's rage mounted and his mistakes became more frequent, Komiya and Kondo—who had volunteered to be Sudo's training partners—also began to criticize him.

They intended to negate Sudo as a person in every way, forcing him to lose his composure and lash out at them.

"Hey, what are you doing! I'm warning you! Don't you dare do anything rash!"

While the others in the club weren't paying too much attention to this corner, Ishizaki had already moved from the stands onto the court.

The three from Class C surrounded Sudo, tightening the circle while verbally pretending to be the victims.

"Don't look down on me! You bastards!"

Sudo, who possessed plenty of combat experience, saw his situation deteriorating. He knew that if he let them get any closer, he would be at their mercy once the fight started.

So, after a roar, he chose to strike first, throwing a heavy punch toward Kondo's face.

"Trash is just trash. You want to be a regular player with skills like that? If you don't want to taste some broken bones, just quit the basketball club voluntarily!"

Ishizaki, standing behind Sudo, continued to provoke him with words, showing no intention of throwing a punch himself.

"Hmph! Trying to run!"

Under the constant verbal stimulation of the three, Sudo lost his mind. In his heart, the goal shifted from simply teaching the three a lesson to accepting the possibility of expulsion if it meant a fight.

Sensing the shift in Sudo's emotions, Ishizaki realized the plan had succeeded. He gave his two companions a look, and the three of them bolted toward the Traditional Literature Club.

The gymnasium where the basketball club trained was very close to the club activity building, so the four of them reached the third floor in no time.

"Close the door, he won't be able to get in!"

Seeing the clubroom right in front of them, Ishizaki glanced back at Sudo—who had already landed a few punches on Komiya, the slowest of the trio, during the chase—and pulled Komiya along with Kondo.

The trio made it into the clubroom just ahead of Sudo, and I cast them a "plan accomplished" look.

I hadn't asked Sakayanagi to come to the clubroom today; only Class C members were stationed here.

With a thunderous crash, the clubroom door I had tampered with fell to the floor. The noise should have been loud enough for every club in the entire building to hear.

Once the enraged Sudo kicked down the door of the Traditional Literature Club and stepped inside, the incident was effectively settled.

"Sudo, stop! If you keep hitting them, you're going to kill someone!"

"Someone help! Stop Sudo! He's going to kill someone!"

"Help! Ken Sudo from Class 1-D is beating up the club president in the Traditional Literature Club!"

Inside the Traditional Literature Club at Advanced Nurturing High School, a room shielded from all detection equipment, Ken Sudo stood frozen.

"You... what are you bastards doing?"

The scene before him made Sudo's blood run cold. He couldn't react to what was happening, so he stood there, stunned.

By now, the three from Class C had finished beating each other up. They had crushed the homemade "blood bags" they had prepared in advance and were lying on the floor, bruised and battered, looking truly horrific.

"This student, don't just stand there. Come, sit down."

I used my gloved hands to pull over a chair and helped the CPU-overloaded Sudo sit down. In the process, I also crushed a homemade blood bag hidden in my hand and smeared it onto Sudo's hands.

Once this was finished, the "onlookers" from Class C, who had been arranged by Ryuen, emerged from their own clubrooms and surrounded the Traditional Literature Club. They were there both to prevent other classes from interfering and to exert even greater psychological pressure on Sudo.

"Ah!!!"

Under the constant flashing of cell phone cameras, Sudo finally broke down. Ignoring everything, he shoved past the Class C students blocking the doorway, ran to the restroom, and washed the "blood" off his hands.

The other Class C students began the cleanup work, scrubbing away the "bloodstains" and finishing the destruction of the evidence.