"So you really did join the Basketball Club. Tell me, what are you planning to do?"
I looked at the chart Ryuen had put together. It listed which clubs the first-year students from each class had joined.
"I've got it all arranged. Komiya and Kondo are the ones from our class who joined the Basketball Club. They'll be the bait.
"Basketball Club practices are open to the public, so anyone can go watch. I've arranged for the guys who didn't join any clubs to take turns heckling Sudo from the stands during practice.
"Judging by how he's acted so far, there's no way he won't take the bait."
If things were following the same timeline as in the original story, I wouldn't have agreed to this plan. By that timeline, it was far too crude.
But given the current situation, the plan could work. It was only the third day of school, and Class D couldn't mount any effective retaliation—especially when they didn't even know the rules.
Our advantage this time was that we were prepared while they weren't.
"As long as you've got the people in place, that's fine. Give them a legitimate reason to familiarize themselves with the route. The main point isn't to help them escape, but to make sure we don't lose track of the target.
"I won't lock the Activity Room during this time. Tell the bait that as soon as they enter the room, they should close the door, but not lock it. I'll loosen the screws on the door, so the target will be able to kick it right off its hinges.
"The partition I built out of bookshelves is in there, too. No outsider will be able to tell I've tampered with anything in the Activity Room."
That was the final instruction for luring Sudo in. I just didn't know how long it would take to push him into a rage.
Sudo was a great asset to Class D. The sooner he got into trouble, the more Class Points Class D could keep. Class C was practically saving Class D!
That afternoon, the Basketball Club was holding a practice for the new students in the gymnasium.
"Class D defective! Can you even play basketball? You can't even make that shot! I could get it in from the free-throw line!"
Ishizaki was chosen to heckle Sudo from the stands. He had some basketball experience himself, so he could seize on Sudo's mistakes on the court and really lay into him.
The key was that everything he said was true. He wasn't making anything up; he was simply shouting out every mistake Sudo made.
That didn't sit well with Sudo. He hated the "flies" that buzzed in his ear.
And whenever Ishizaki called him a Class D defective, Sudo could see the other members of the Basketball Club laughing brazenly. Their sneering faces were just like those of the two upperclassmen he'd argued with outside the supermarket. The anger in his chest flared up fast.
"Hey, Sudo! What's your problem? I know I'm not very good, but you don't have to give me that look! You can't study, and you don't know how to act, either. No wonder you're a Class D defective!"
"Look at your face. You've got a problem with our friend? Did he say anything wrong? You were bragging about how good you were at basketball, but it turns out you're worse than trash!"
As Sudo's anger mounted and his mistakes became more frequent, Komiya and Kondo—who had volunteered to be his practice partners—started criticizing him, too.
They were trying to tear Sudo down from every angle and provoke him into losing control and attacking them.
"Hey, what are you doing? I'm warning you! Don't do anything rash!"
While the other club members were still paying little attention to what was happening, Ishizaki had already come down from the stands and onto the court.
The three Class C students surrounded Sudo, steadily closing in while pretending to be the ones under threat.
"Don't look down on me, you bastard!"
Sudo had plenty of experience in fights, and he could see his situation getting worse by the second. He knew that if he let them get any closer, they'd have him at their mercy once the fight started.
So, after roaring at them, he struck first and punched Kondo hard in the face.
"A defective is a defective. You think you can be a real player looking like that? If you don't want to get your bones broken, then just quit the Basketball Club!"
Behind Sudo, Ishizaki kept provoking him with words, but made no move to attack.
"Hmph! Trying to run?"
The three of them kept needling him until Sudo lost control. His thoughts shifted from simply teaching the three of them a lesson to deciding that getting expelled for fighting might be acceptable.
When he noticed the change in Sudo's mood, Ishizaki realized they'd succeeded. He secretly signaled to his two companions, and the three of them took off toward the Traditional Literature Club.
The gymnasium where the Basketball Club practiced was very close to the club building, so the four of them reached the third floor in no time.
"Shut the door! He won't be able to get in!"
When the Activity Room came into view, Ishizaki glanced back at Sudo, who had caught up with them and landed a few punches on Komiya, the slowest of the three. After confirming his position, Ishizaki and Kondo helped Komiya along.
The three of them made it into the Activity Room just ahead of Sudo. I gave them a look that said, The plan worked.
I hadn't asked Sakayanagi to come to the Activity Room today. Only the Class C students were stationed here.
With a roar, Sudo kicked down the tampered Activity Room door. The crash was loud enough to be heard by every club in the entire building.
Once Sudo, furious beyond reason, had kicked down the door of the Traditional Literature Club and entered, the outcome of this incident was already settled.
"Sudo, stop! You're going to kill him if you keep going!"
"Someone, help! Stop Sudo! Someone's going to die!"
"Help! Ken Sudō from Class 1-D is attacking the club president in the Traditional Literature Club!"
Inside the Traditional Literature Club's Activity Room at Advanced Nurturing High School—a place no detection device could reach—was Ken Sudō.
"W-What are you bastards doing?"
The scene before him drained the heat from Sudo's blood. He couldn't react to what he was seeing right away, and froze in place.
The three of them had already finished their staged fight. They'd burst the homemade "blood bags" they'd prepared beforehand, and all lay on the ground with bruised, swollen faces. They looked horrifying.
"Hey, don't just stand there. Come sit down."
I picked up a chair with my gloved hands and helped Sudo, whose CPU had overloaded, sit down. As I did, I also burst the homemade blood bag hidden in my hand and smeared it over Sudo's hands.
Once all that was done, the "spectators" from Class C whom Ryuen had arranged came out of their clubrooms and gathered outside the Traditional Literature Club's Activity Room. Their presence was meant to stop students from other classes from interfering and to put even more psychological pressure on Sudo.
"Ah!!!"
With camera flashes going off all around him, Sudo finally broke down. He shoved past the Class C students crowding the Activity Room doorway, ran to the restroom, and washed the "blood" off his hands.
The other Class C students began cleaning up, wiping away the "blood" and making sure there was no evidence left behind.
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