The Disciplinary Committee's Summons

On Monday morning, the corridors of Advanced Nurturing High School were filled with an atmosphere unlike any other. It was not the tension before an exam, nor the restlessness before a break, but a deeper, imperceptible undercurrent—like the subtle shift in air pressure before a storm, causing everyone to unconsciously soften their footsteps. Kanzaki Toru felt it the moment he headed toward the classroom. There were more groups of students whispering in the hallways than usual, and when they saw him approach, they would instinctively lower their voices or stop talking altogether. It wasn't hostility, but a cautious, watchful gaze, as if he were wearing some conspicuous mark on his clothes.

A large crowd had gathered in front of the bulletin board on the first floor of the academic building. Sudo and Ike Kanji were squeezed to the very front, and Sudo's voice could be heard three classrooms away: "What is this supposed to mean? What do you mean 'cooperate with the investigation'? Didn't that matter from last semester already close?" Kanzaki Toru caught a glimpse of the notice through a gap in the crowd—a formal notification from the Disciplinary Committee, printed in black and white and stamped with the committee's official seal. The content was brief: the Disciplinary Committee would conduct a re-examination of three inter-class disputes from the previous semester this Wednesday afternoon, and the following students were requested to arrive on time to assist with the investigation. The first name on the list was Ryuen Kakeru, the second was Ishizaki Daichi, and the third was Kondo. On the Class D side, Sudo Ken's name was also listed, along with one that made his eyebrows twitch slightly—Manabe Shiho, from Class C.

Manabe's name appeared in the witness column, not the investigation column. The summons was signed by the Disciplinary Committee Chairman, with a small note appended below: "This review is conducted independently by the Disciplinary Committee; all relevant evidence and materials have been archived. No out-of-court settlements or private withdrawals will be accepted."

He took a photo of the notice and sent it to Horikita Suzune. Her reply came quickly: "I saw it. Manabe's name was added at the last minute this morning; it wasn't on the final version archived last night. Someone added new material to the committee overnight."

Horikita sent over a compressed file containing scans of the original Disciplinary Committee files for the three inter-class disputes from last semester. The first was the theft case involving Tanaka, the second was the shoving incident between Sudo and Ishizaki, and the third—the file title contained only one line: "Internal communication barrier within Class C, student involved requested sick leave." The student involved was Sato Kenichi. In the investigator signature column for all three files, the same name appeared: Ryuen Kakeru. In the assistant investigator column, the signatures for the first and second files belonged to a second-year committee member, though the names had been covered with correction fluid and re-signed. The signature for the third assistant investigator was clear, written in neat, blue ink—Kushida Kikyo.

He saved the comparison screenshots into an encrypted partition and walked into the classroom. The atmosphere in the Class D room was even more subtle than in the hallway. Sudo sat at his desk, clutching the copy of the summons with both hands, the paper crumpled. Ike Kanji was whispering to him, "It's not like you're the defendant, you're just going to explain what happened," but Sudo remained silent. Karuizawa Kei and a few other girls were gathered in the back of the room, whispering. Seeing him enter, Karuizawa looked up, her blue eyes filled with inquiry. Kanzaki Toru sat in his usual seat in the back by the window and gave her a slight nod. The meaning of that nod was clear: proceed as planned. Karuizawa looked away and continued talking to the girls beside her, her tone as casual as if they were discussing which dessert shop to visit over the weekend.

Sakura Airi entered through the front door. She was wearing a hat today, but the brim wasn't pulled low as usual; it sat steadily above her brow bone. She hung her bag on the side of her desk, took out her notebook and camera, and then turned to look at Kanzaki Toru in the back row. Her purple eyes looked exceptionally calm behind her thick red-rimmed glasses, and a faint curve appeared at the corners of her mouth.

The first period of the morning was Chabashira's homeroom. When she walked into the classroom, she didn't carry any extra materials, only the daily attendance sheet and a thin homeroom logbook. She pushed up her glasses and announced the routine matters for the week in her usual flat tone—during the Disciplinary Committee review on Wednesday afternoon, students involved could use their summons to request leave, while others would attend class as normal. Her gaze lingered on Sudo for a beat when she said this, then moved away. Before the homeroom ended, she turned on the projector and displayed a semester schedule on the left side of the screen. Most people only saw the notice that next week's swimming class had been moved to Thursday, but Kanzaki Toru stared at the top right corner of the screen—there was a tiny note there, two font sizes smaller than the other entries: "Early June, Special Exam Preparatory Briefing." Next to the words "Special Exam," an abbreviation was noted in parentheses: LD-B1-0401. Early June.

He quickly looked away and jotted down the characters in his notebook. The last four digits of that abbreviation matched the date when Ryuen first used his Disciplinary Committee authority last semester, and the preceding letters were identical to the prefix of a frozen trial cooperation model in the old system archives. As Chabashira passed his seat on her way out of the classroom, she slowed her pace for a split second, but said nothing.

Lunch break. Kanzaki Toru found Shiina Hiyori on the third floor of the library. She was sitting by the window with a thick volume of senior-year system archives spread out before her, her light chestnut hair loosely tied back with a plain ribbon, her fingertips dusted with paper scraps from the old files. He placed the summary of the Disciplinary Committee files she had sent him and the three handwriting samples of Ryuen's forged signatures in front of her, pointing his finger at one of the areas where the correction fluid had been used.

Shiina took a look, pulled a thin booklet from her stack of files—Advanced Nurturing High School Special Exam Preparatory Regulations—opened it to a page, and pushed it toward him. The first article of the regulations read: "Once the cumulative number of disciplinary cases handled within an academic year reaches a certain threshold, the special exam preparatory procedure will be triggered. After the preparatory procedure is initiated, the exam themes, grouping methods, and scoring weights for each class will be set differentially based on previously accumulated records of cooperation or confrontation. Relevant records include, but are not limited to: inter-class group task evaluations, cooperation levels with the Disciplinary Committee, and records of spontaneous mediation between classes."

In other words, all the side quests—the research reports from the inter-class groups, the Disciplinary Committee's re-examination of Ryuen's perjury case, the process of Ishizaki's shift from betrayal to alignment, the handling of the Manabe bullying incident—all these matters that seemed unrelated to the exam would be converted into actual bonus or penalty weights in the June special exam. This school never wasted a single conflict; every conflict was data, every choice was recorded, and then calculated into cold, hard numbers in the next exam.

Just as he was about to take a photo of the key page of the regulations, his phone vibrated in his pocket in a series of short, silent pulses. He pulled out his phone, and an encrypted message with no sender appeared on the screen, containing only a few words: "She is going to hand over the shoes this afternoon." No context, no explanation. He flipped the phone over to look at it, then turned off the screen.

"What's wrong?" Shiina stopped her pen.

He put away the copy of the regulations and showed the anonymous message pop-up to Shiina. Shiina lowered her eyes slightly, her light brown pupils shifting gently, and a few seconds later she looked up again: "She was looking at old records of Disciplinary Committee recusal applications in the reading room three days ago, and this morning she checked out a surveillance management manual. These 'shoes' must refer to the piece of physical evidence she intends to remove before the formal committee review."

Their gazes met for a moment in the quiet library. There was no need for extra words regarding who "she" was. He put his phone back in his pocket, stood up, and carefully tucked the copy of the regulations into his binder. The timeline was compressed to its limit at this moment—the Disciplinary Committee review on Wednesday afternoon, the potential transfer of physical evidence that morning, the special exam preparatory procedure in early June; all events were lined up as tightly as dominoes. And that anonymous informant was quietly marking today's date in the shadow of the very last domino in the sequence.