Just as Teacher Matsuzaki and Principal Yamamoto were engaged in an "intense" battle of "wits and schemes," earning the admiration of all the club members.
At private Toyogasaki High School, the entire second-year cohort was gripped by an atmosphere of impending upheaval.
Among them, the class Sogo Doma was in had it the worst. After all, he was the only boy in the entire class, and since he had not skipped school, Sogo Doma rather felt like an emperor inspecting his harem.
Of course, that was only if Yukino Yukinoshita had not been watching him with wary eyes...
If Mashiro Shiina had not worn an expression that said, I clearly didn't do anything, so why are there suddenly so many fewer people...
What kind of chemical reaction resulted from unparalleled artistic talent combined with tireless effort? Artistic skills far beyond those of one's peers—or rather, a gap so vast that her peers could never see its end. That was one of Mashiro Shiina's gains.
Mashiro's other gain had come from the foundation of the first. When faced with an opponent they could never surpass no matter how hard they tried, people were initially agitated, then fell into despair, and finally fled one after another—running away might be shameful, but it worked!
Mashiro had once watched the students in an art studio leave one by one. So when she noticed that there were suddenly far fewer people in the classroom, she felt both sad and uneasy—would Sogo leave like those students had?
If Utaha Kasumigaoka had not been looking at him with an expression of bewilderment mixed with confusion...
Utaha Kasumigaoka's bewilderment—there was actually a boy in her class who could do something like that?
Utaha Kasumigaoka's confusion—would what happened that morning implicate Sogo? She remembered that Sogo had always been