Brewing Tea and Discussing Heroes

"I did take a look around," Kiryu Yume said, casually pulling the thin blanket that had slipped down a little back over her.

"But some things can't be seen through just by looking. Some people's true nature only becomes visible when you dig a layer deeper. So rather than giving you my conclusions, I'd rather hear Mama Sakayanagi's opinion first. I'll name a few people, and you can give me your assessment."

Sakayanagi Arisu looked at him, a hint of fresh interest appearing in her eyes.

"Let's hear them."

"Class B—Ichinose Honami."

Kiryu Yume raised his first finger. "Since enrollment, she's been gathering her classmates around her, organizing bulk textbook purchases, and mediating interpersonal conflicts. Now, she has all of Class B completely under control. She has a keen eye for people, treats everyone sincerely, and has hardly ever clashed with anyone. Class B is more united than any other class."

He paused and looked into her eyes.

"Does someone like that need watching?"

Sakayanagi Arisu did not answer immediately. She lowered her gaze as though savoring the layers of a dish. Her long lashes cast faint shadows beneath her eyes, and her fingertips slowly brushed the edge of the blanket before she spoke, her voice even softer than before.

"Ichinose Honami."

"She is indeed good at uniting people. There's no denying that. Under her leadership, Class B's atmosphere is far more harmonious than the other classes, and her popularity within the class surpasses even Katsuragi Kohei's in Class A."

"But she is too upright."

Sakayanagi Arisu raised her eyes to him, her gaze calm as if she were stating an established fact.

"This school was never designed for honorable people from the start. The format of the special exams, the mechanism for competing over class points, the gray areas of private point transactions—every rule hints at the same lesson: if you want to rise here, you cannot avoid power plays, schemes, and methods that cannot bear the light."

"It isn't that Ichinose Honami can't do those things. She simply doesn't approve of them. Deep down, she believes that as long as everyone unites and works hard openly and honestly, they will surely be rewarded. There is nothing wrong with that belief itself, but she chose the wrong school."

Kiryu Yume neither nodded nor shook his head after hearing her out. He fell silent for several seconds, then reached for the warm water on the bedside table and held it out to her, turning the handle in her direction. He only let go after she had a firm grip on it, then raised his second finger.

"Class C—Ryuuen Kakeru."

"Since enrollment, he has been using various methods to unify Class C. Now, the entire class has been subdued by him. No one dares disobey his orders."

Kiryu Yume said, "It isn't easy to achieve that in a class that was once scattered like loose sand. Does he need watching?"

"Ryuuen Kakeru does have methods. I won't deny that. Not just anyone could subdue all those thorns in Class C in such a short time."

She paused, and a trace of contempt so faint it was nearly invisible entered her tone.

"But his methods are too crude. He relies on violence, intimidation, and holding people's weaknesses over them to maintain his rule. Those tactics work at the very bottom, certainly, but only at the very bottom. This school may not be clean, but it has not fallen so low that whoever has the harder fist automatically wins. His methods are unfit for the stage. Once the contest shifts to the level of open rules, his whole approach becomes useless."

After listening, Kiryu Yume raised his third finger.

"Class D—Horikita Suzune."

Sakayanagi Arisu's gaze lingered on his face for a moment, as though she had not expected him to mention that name after Ryuuen.

"At present, she is the only person in Class D capable of handling problems independently. She forced that group in Class D to study for their exams, and when Sudo Ken nearly got expelled, she was the one who stepped forward to resolve it."

He paused, remembering Horikita's perpetually tense demeanor, and his tone softened.

"But she is too isolated. She stands too straight alone in that muddy pool called Class D. No one around her can keep up with her, and she is unwilling to bend down and pull those people along. Could someone like that become a variable?"

Sakayanagi Arisu gently shook her head after hearing him out.

"Horikita Suzune does have some ability. I can see that. But she has a fatal flaw: she is too arrogant."

"In her mind, those who lack ability should find their own way to keep up. If they can't, then they deserve to be left behind. There is nothing particularly wrong with that mindset in an ordinary school, but in this school, the class she belongs to is an enormous liability. No matter how strong she is alone, she cannot drag an entire leaking ship."

She looked at Kiryu Yume, her tone as calm as if she were stating a conclusion that had already come to pass.

"And she will not ask for help. She would rather bear everything alone until she breaks than say a single word to anyone: 'Help me.' In a system that requires alliances and maneuvering, that kind of personality is a fatal weakness. The more she tries to prove something on her own, the deeper she will force herself into a dead end. So she is not worth worrying about either."

Kiryu Yume did not immediately raise his fourth finger. He looked at Sakayanagi Arisu in silence for several seconds, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly before he lowered his voice.

"There is one more person in Class D—Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."

Sakayanagi Arisu's hand, holding the cup of water, paused at its rim.

"On the surface, he is the most inconspicuous person in Class D. Average grades, average athletic ability, and such a low presence that most of his classmates probably cannot even remember his face."

Kiryu Yume said, "But I have personally seen the timing and methods of his interventions several times. Every time, he acted at a critical point—not too much, not too little, not too early, not too late. He was as precise as a machine."

The room fell quiet for a while. Streetlight filtered through the gap in the curtains, cutting a faint strip of light across the dim wall. At some point, Kamuro Masumi had walked over from the table and replaced the damp towel on Sakayanagi Arisu's forehead after it had gone warm.

Her movements were as light as a breeze. Once she was done, she retreated into the shadows again without making a sound.

Sakayanagi Arisu placed the cup back on the bedside table, but her fingers did not immediately release it. They lingered on the cup's surface for a moment.

"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."

The way she spoke his name differed from the way she had spoken Ichinose, Ryuuen, and Horikita's names. It was slower, softer, as though she were weighing a name that should not be mentioned lightly. A faint emotion flickered in her eyes, impossible to tell whether it was wariness or scrutiny.

"Your observations are correct. Among those people in Class D, he is indeed the only one who needs attention."

She looked up at Kiryu Yume. Her gaze was deeper than before, carrying a seriousness he rarely saw on her face.

"His methods, his sense of timing, his ability to steer events from the shadows—among those people in Class D, he is on an entirely different level. Ryuuen's method of suppressing people with his fists is a joke in front of him. Ichinose's straightforward approach would not last more than a few exchanges against him either."

She gently turned the cup in her hand, and the glimmering waterlight on its surface wavered in her eyes.

"But he has a ceiling he cannot cross. He was artificially cultivated in a particular environment. His abilities were trained into him, not grown by himself. He grew up in a carefully designed system, and every way he responds is built upon the framework that system gave him. Once he steps outside that framework and encounters a true variable, his reactions can be predicted."

"He may be the most dangerous opponent, but he will never be the strongest one. Because true strength is not cultivated. It grows from the soil on its own."

She gently leaned back against the pillow, her gaze moving away from his face and settling on the ceiling. Her tone shifted, taking on a weary, languid softness.