Since he was the person Manabu Horikita had personally transferred 100,000 points to in order to shut him up, Manabu still acknowledged Hachiman's insight and sharpness.
Nor did he think Hachiman would do something so idiotic.
"It wasn't rash," Hachiman said. "It was the answer I reached after careful consideration."
"Because I wanted to climb higher—or, more precisely, take a shot at Class A—I couldn't let the class crash and burn in its first month."
"And if I damaged a security camera, the school would definitely punish me, right?"
"Compensation was one thing. What I wanted to know was whether it would implicate the class. If it could implicate the class, then I'd do it," Hachiman said.
You'd do it if it implicated the class?
What grudge did you have against your class?
You actually wanted to drag everyone down.
And you knew your goal was Class A, yet you still wanted to make your own class lose points. Were you insane?
Wait.
To drag the class down... there had to be something to drag down in the first place.
Manabu Horikita fell silent.
His brows furrowed as he sat in his chair, apparently deep in thought.
He was considering why Hachiman wanted to rise to Class A while deliberately making his own class lose points.
More than a minute passed.
I see.
He adjusted his glasses.
He had misjudged him slightly.
"You," Manabu Horikita said, "I take back my assessment of you. Your ambitions are truly enormous."
"Would you like to join the Student Council?" He extended an invitation to Hachiman rather than asking him to submit an application.
Akane Tachibana, standing nearby, was somewhat dumbfounded.
Why were the Student Council President and Hachiman Hikigaya talking about things she could not understand again?
She had failed to notice that they had been speaking in code earlier, but now... she simply could not understand them at all.
Just as the Student Council President extended his invitation,
Katsuragi returned to the classroom with Yahiko.
Yahiko's full name was Yahiko Totsuka.
He was proud and arrogant by nature, but after arriving at this school and meeting Katsuragi, he was immediately won over by him.
"Katsuragi, Totsuka, you're back."
As soon as the two returned to the classroom, a student came forward to greet them.
As Katsuragi's foremost lackey, Totsuka also received respect.
The one greeting them was a boy named Masayoshi Hashimoto, who had joined the Katsuragi Faction yesterday.
He was tall and lean, capable in every respect, and quite handsome as well.
The students in the class had already split into the Katsuragi Faction and the Sakayanagi Faction, with several others still watching from the middle.
Hashimoto was a member of the Katsuragi Faction.
"Have you submitted your Student Council application?" Hashimoto asked.
"The Student Council President said he would look at it," Yahiko Totsuka replied.
"That's good news. If we can get into the Student Council, our class will gain another advantage," Hashimoto said cheerfully.
This school was a Meritocracy. The school gave students ample freedom, while the Student Council possessed extremely high authority.
So if they could join the Student Council, whether it came to obtaining information or other matters, they could benefit their own class.
As a Class A student, he felt reassured.
Katsuragi, however, remained silent.
He watched Yahiko and Hashimoto converse.
They were currently in the classroom, yet Yahiko had directly announced that he had gone to the Student Council to submit an application.
The goal was probably to show off to those still wavering and not yet affiliated with either the Katsuragi Faction or the Sakayanagi Faction.
To tell them that choosing the steady path was the correct choice.
Katsuragi did not particularly care about such utilitarian matters.
Still, he believed that although Sakayanagi was aggressive and exceptionally clever in every respect,
she was simply too radical.
The class could not let her toss it around as she pleased.
When they had privately discussed the class's strategy, she had actually proposed that it would be fine even if Class A lost. They had three years, and they could find another opportunity to climb back up.
The process could also temper Class A's students psychologically.
It would be a valuable asset.
But.
What if they fell and could not climb back up after one, two, or even three attempts?
That would deal them a tremendous blow.
So he did not dare take such a risk.
Moreover, judging from the information they had obtained and the experiences of upperclassmen, the best plan was for someone steady like him to preserve Class A's advantage and carry it through to graduation.
Thus, he tacitly allowed Yahiko to do things that resembled winning people over.
"However, when we went to the Student Council, we saw Hachiman Hikigaya from First-year Class D there as well," Yahiko Totsuka said.
Class A's students more or less gathered information on students from other classes.
Most people in First-year Class D did not interact much with the others.
But Sakayanagi had previously arranged for Masumi Kamuro to ask a boy from First-year Class D out.
Then Sakayanagi Arisu had personally eaten with him as well.
Sakayanagi Arisu had eaten with a boy from First-year Class D.
They seemed to be quite close.
It had only been a rumor, but during yesterday's lunch break in the cafeteria, more than one classmate had noticed that Sakayanagi Arisu was indeed seated across from a boy.
That boy was Hachiman.
"However, Hachiman wasn't there to join the Student Council like us. Rather, it wasn't merely that he lacked such awareness."
"He even treated this school like an ordinary school."
"He went to ask what would happen if he accidentally damaged one of the school's security cameras—whether he would be expelled, whether he would have to pay compensation, and so on."
Totsuka said, "In other words, Class D really is beyond saving."
"Yahiko." Katsuragi stopped Yahiko from continuing to spread rumors.
Although it was regrettable that quite a few students in the class still felt Sakayanagi could lead them, Katsuragi was certain of her arbitrary nature and dangerousness.
Therefore, he could not risk the entire class.
Yahiko had simply gone too far.
If he continued, people would start doubting Sakayanagi's ability to judge people.
He only wanted his classmates to trust and believe in him, not to truly split the class apart.
So Katsuragi stopped him.
It seemed as though he had stopped at the right point.
In reality, however, he had not.
Because Hashimoto, who had joined the Katsuragi Faction yesterday,
had not joined because he trusted Katsuragi. He was actually part of the Sakayanagi Faction, planted by Sakayanagi as a spy in Katsuragi's ranks.
Over the past few days, the students in the class had begun to divide into three groups.
One believed in Katsuragi's steady approach, one firmly believed in the brilliant Sakayanagi Arisu, and the last consisted of a few scattered students who had yet to choose a side.
So after obtaining information from the Katsuragi Faction, Hashimoto immediately passed it on to Sakayanagi Arisu... or rather, Masumi Kamuro at her side.
Like Yahiko Totsuka at Katsuragi's side, Kamuro, who stood beside Sakayanagi, had also gained the status of a representative lackey.
Thus, those in the Sakayanagi Faction also greatly respected her, since she was always by Sakayanagi's side.
It was not about her ability, but about how close she was to Sakayanagi.
Therefore, such matters were reported to her first.
Sakayanagi's explanation had been, "Kamuro, I value you highly. You can handle tasks like contacting people and compiling information, can't you?"
And so she became the messenger.
But Kamuro knew full well that this simply showed how little Sakayanagi Arisu cared.
When the students in the class had jointly borne the cost of obtaining the school's rules and true nature from Majima-sensei,
each person had paid 50,000 points.
It seemed quite fair, but it also took away credit that should have belonged to Sakayanagi Arisu.
Because if Sakayanagi alone had paid, then all those accomplishments would have been hers.
Instead of the current situation, where the class had split into the Sakayanagi Faction and the Katsuragi Faction.
Kamuro had not joined Sakayanagi's camp on the day of enrollment, but afterward, she had heard the Sakayanagi Faction's students describe what happened that day.
Sakayanagi had led ten students straight at the upperclassmen.
Using chess as the wager, she had fleeced the upperclassmen and taught them a harsh lesson.
So Sakayanagi was actually quite decisive and aggressive.
If she had to describe her, she would probably call her... a little tyrannosaurus.
That was why Kamuro felt Sakayanagi did not care in the slightest about the current Sakayanagi Faction or Katsuragi Faction.
That was why
the intelligence gathered by the Sakayanagi Faction was pushed onto her.
On one hand, refusing to accept it would be equivalent to shirking the people on her own side.
But she also did not want to be troubled herself.
"Kamuro, I'll leave this important job to you."
That was how it ended up.
She became Sakayanagi's messenger.
To sum it up, Sakayanagi, it seemed you were not all that invested in the class struggle or graduating from Class A.
Before you continue