Chapter 5: Older Brother and Younger Sister

Chapter 5:
Older Brother and Younger Sister

 

IT WAS THE MORNING of the third day since the supplementary exam had been announced. The vote would be held on Saturday, the day after tomorrow. Far too soon, one of our friends were going to be expelled from school.

As I opened the front door of my room, I felt the cold air wash over me. I stepped out into the hallway and made my way down to the first-floor lobby. As I was going down, I noticed Sudou headed down as well, via the stairs.

“Using the stairs, huh?”

“Yeah. I was thinking I’d get a little workout, even if it’s not much,” he replied.

Sudou was probably trying to live his student life to the fullest right now, between his club activities and his studies. And so, the two of us headed off to school together, side by side.

“I might be dumb and have a short fuse, but I’ve been makin’ lots of progress. That’s why I definitely don’t wanna get expelled,” said Sudou. He seemed to be monologuing, rather than making conversation with me. “Would you think it was wrong if I said that I wouldn’t care if people resented me, as long as I got to stay here at this school?”

“No, I think that’s the right approach, honestly. I think it’s the people with a strong desire to stay who are going to make it through this test.”

“Yeah.”

When we made it to school and entered the classroom, I sensed something off. Sudou, on the other hand, went over to his seat without noticing anything. The atmosphere had changed, and frankly, I wasn’t that oblivious. The moment I set foot in Class C, I sensed something was different from the other day.

Everything looked normal, at first glance. It seemed like a typical day. Yep. People were chatting away like normal and I could hear friendly conversations. But that was exactly what felt so out of place. Just yesterday, everyone had had their guard up. Our classmates were all supposed to be keeping each other in check.

And yet, despite that, there was this bizarre sense of unity.

“Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Hirata, calling over to me.

“Morning.” After giving him that brief reply, I looked Hirata over.

“Hm? What’s up?” he asked.

I wondered if he really hadn’t noticed anything, or if he was just pretending. Hirata looked into my eyes with the same expression he always had.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I replied.

“Really? Well, all right then. I hope today goes well,” he answered.

After Hirata and I finished greeting each other, he headed over to the girls who’d been calling for him. However, the feeling of something being out of place began to fade both as time passed and the number of students in the room increased. The conclusion I came to was that a large group of people had probably formed for the sake of getting through this exam. Additionally, they were starting to come to a consensus not about who to protect, but about who to kick out.

There were eleven students in the classroom. Even if I put Hirata aside, that left ten people. And if those ten people all conspired to use their criticism votes together on someone, their target would be in serious danger. I spotted Ike and Yamauchi among the guys in that group. There were also some girls in the group who had little if any connection whatsoever to either of them.

It was possible that everyone here was conspiring together. What struck me as odd was that some of the girls in the group belonged to Kei’s circle. Kei hadn’t reported anything about this to me.

“Morning.”

Not long after, Horikita arrived at school. Although her behavior was the same as always, she did take a look around the room.

“…Did something happen?” she asked.

“You feel it too, huh?” I asked.

“Yes. Something feels a little off. If you’re concerned about it though, why not go speak with the people in question?”

“I’ll pass. It’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie, after all.”

If nothing else, this warranted proceeding with caution. I sent a message to Keisei, who had gotten to school earlier that morning.

Me: “Did anything unusual happen?”

Keisei: “I don’t know. But I do feel like there’s something different in the air today, for some reason.”

Though uncertain, he did seem to have picked up on something unusual.

I texted him exactly what I thought. “Some people might have formed a large group. Our classmates seem strangely calm.”

After he got my message, he looked around the room, and then at me.

“Yeah, you seem to be right about that,” he texted back. “The dark cloud that hung over the class the other day is totally gone. Good work picking up on that.”

“I don’t have many friends, so I’m alert to changes in my surroundings.”

“If a group of ten people or more has formed, it’s possible they’ve talked about who they’re going to kick out, right?”

“Whoever they go after is going to be in trouble, for sure.”

“I have to wonder who’s in this group… Are we going to be okay?”

I could feel Keisei’s anxiousness through his message. As the group’s numbers swelled, students who weren’t even that close to its members would naturally begin to want to join. Directing the actions of such a group wouldn’t be that easy.

At any rate, since more students were showing up in the classroom, I decided to stop texting. I could continue this conversation during lunch or after class.

5.1

 

LUNCHTIME FOUND ME chatting with the Ayanokouji Group. Well, I say chatting, but we were really discussing the supplementary exam. Naturally, the first topic that came up was the change in the air in the classroom that morning. Since Keisei was the one who came to class early today, he began telling the rest of us that there were signs a large group had formed.

“…I see, I see. Yeah, you might be right about that. It definitely seemed like people were way more chipper than they were yesterday,” said Haruka.

“But it’s still just…speculation, at this point, right?” asked Airi.

“Yeah. There’s no proof a large group has formed, and even if they have, it doesn’t seem they’ve necessarily narrowed down their target to just one person,” said Keisei.

In the end, this was all we could infer based on what we’d seen this morning.

“So, should we have one of us do some digging, for the time being?”

“I’m not so sure. If we end up picking the wrong person for the job, then the group’s leader might find out someone’s snooping. And if that happens, there’s a chance someone from our group would wind up being targeted.” That in and of itself was something Keisei wanted to avoid.

“There’s probably a reason we weren’t invited to join.”

If someone were to make a large group, then it would be okay for them to ask anyone to join in, except for the person that they were specifically targeting. The ideal development would be to have 39 people corner the solitary person. However, that wasn’t that likely to become reality.

“What if one of us is…close to whoever it is they’re targeting, or something?” guessed Haruka, quietly scanning her eyes over the group. “…Or what if…one of us is the target?”

“S-Stop it, Haruka-chan…!” said Airi.

She seemed to be getting a little too anxious, but honestly, this wasn’t exactly a laughing matter.

“People probably started trying to form a group on the very first day. From there, they’ve been working to expand that group with people they can trust. The signs just became more obvious now, on the third day,” said Keisei.

He was probably on the mark. The group’s apparent growth was too much for a single day’s work. I was guessing they’d made their move the very day the supplementary exam was announced.

“If they’re still planning on bringing more people into the fold, they might make contact with one of us sometime today.”

“What do we do if they talk about targeting one of us, though? I mean, what if they come to us and threaten to have one of us expelled if we don’t cooperate with them… What then?” said Akito, unintentionally posing a significant, challenging question.

“Isn’t it obvious? We’ve already decided we’re going to prioritize our own group, right?” said Haruka.

“But what if you end up being the one targeted as a result, Haruka?” he asked in return.

“That’s… But I don’t think I want to stay in school badly enough to make me betray my friends. If they did say something like that, I’d probably go and complain about it to the school,” replied Haruka, recoiling a little bit, though she still managed to answer Akito’s question.

“I’m the same. I’d never want to betray my friends,” said Airi, nodding forcefully, despite her anxiousness.

“What about you, Keisei?” asked Akito.

After a brief silence, Keisei gave his honest thoughts on the matter.

“…Fundamentally speaking, I share Haruka and Airi’s opinion. But things are never that simple. If you actually do wind up being targeted in this exam, there’s probably no way out. Saying things like ‘I’m okay with getting expelled in exchange for defending my friends’ might sound better, but…it’ll still be really painful.”

“That’s… What do you think, Kiyopon?” asked Haruka.

Everyone’s eyes fell on me. I should try guide their thoughts to a certain degree to bring them into accord.

“I’m against Haruka’s approach—that is, complaining about it,” I said.

“Wait, does that mean you’d betray your friends and join the large group?” she snapped back.

“No, cooperating with the group to try get one of your friends expelled is completely out of the question. However, I think it’s better to pretend to play along on the surface. I don’t think being uncooperative or speaking out sharply would be a good idea,” I told her.

You had to make sure you didn’t let your emotions get the better of you.

“By making it seem like we’re cooperating with them, we can find out how many criticism votes they have and who they’re planning to invite into the group next. We need that kind of information. Am I wrong?”

“…No, you’ve certainly got a point,” replied Haruka.

She’d gotten really heated, but now started to calm back down. If you got worked up and pushed people away when they tried to talk to you, then you’d lose the chance to get any information out of them. At that point, you wouldn’t even know who they were targeting.

“Even if you pretend to be one of them, since the vote is anonymous, they won’t be able to know exactly who anyone actually used their criticism votes on,” I added. In other words, we could obscure what was really going on.

“Yeah, I guess it would probably be in our group’s best interest to do things that way,” said Haruka.

I nodded.

“Besides, if their group has been quietly expanding since day one and has a fair number of people in it by day three, it’s possible that the mastermind who brought them all together is pretty clever. They’ve been taking bold action, but also treading carefully. More importantly, they haven’t let anything slip that would identify the person they’re targeting for expulsion. And it seems both Hirata and Horikita haven’t noticed this big group’s existence,” I added.

Horikita might have had some suspicions, but Hirata seemed not to have noticed anything at all. It wouldn’t have been strange if word of the group’s existence had gotten out, but they’d kept things under tight wraps, even at such a critical moment.

“I suppose the reason why Hirata hasn’t really joined a particular group is because he takes a very neutral stance with everyone. If they just thoughtlessly approached him and asked him to join their group, then he might not only refuse, but try and break up their group,” I reasoned.

“So you’re saying that the person who started this group has thought of all that, huh?”

“You’re amazing, Kiyotaka-kun! It’s awesome that you’ve figured out so much!” said Airi, clapping her hands happily, congratulating me.

“You’re certainly right about that. I wasn’t the one who noticed the abnormality this morning. Kiyotaka was,” said Keisei.

“I already told you, didn’t I? When you’re on your own for a long time, you can’t help but unintentionally pick up on extraneous details. Besides, it’s not like this group’s existence is official. We’re still speaking in hypotheticals.”

We were just talking through theories right now. There was no proof any of it was actually for real.

“I suppose it’s probably best to be on our guard, though.”

“Everything we’ve been talking about has been so dark and depressing, jeez. Can’t we talk about something a little lighter?” said Akito with a sigh, while fiddling with his phone.

Everyone shook their heads.

“It’s not like we can really talk about anything else right now. It’s hard to just sit back and enjoy ourselves when we’re being confronted with the fact that one of our classmates is going away, and soon.”

No matter how much we continued to plan together as a group, our anxieties would continue to burn in the back of our minds.

“Still, when I think about that, I… I am really worried…” said Airi.

“Come on, you’re still talking about that, Airi? You’ll definitely be fine!” said Haruka, lightly patting Airi on the head, telling her not to stress.

“But…”

“If anything, I suspect I’m the one the girls in our class hate, anyway,” said Haruka.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” said Akito, nodding in agreement.

Haruka shot him an intense glare.

“What? You said it yourself, didn’t you?” he shot back.

“It’s fine if I say it, but do you seriously think I’d like hearing that from someone else?” she snapped.

“…I guess.”

In the face of that unassailable argument, Akito just gave in. Seeing this, Airi’s self-confidence seemed to shrink even further.

“You’re cute though, Haruka-chan. And you’ve got a good sense of humor, and you’re smart, and…”

“No, no, wait… Come on, at the very least, you shouldn’t be saying that first part to me,” said Haruka, sounding exasperated, but still trying to console Airi anyway.

“There’s probably no need for you girls to worry, though. I think there are way more targets among the guys,” said Keisei, trying to reassure the two of them.

“Yeah, the guys are the ones in serious trouble right now. So there’s no point in getting super scared about it,” said Akito.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Compared to the girls, the guys are definitely… Hey, wait a sec, isn’t that Hirata-kun?” said Haruka, sounding somewhat unsure.

The rest of us followed her line of sight. There, indeed, was a lone figure walking listlessly by. It was Hirata. He normally stood straight and tall, and always had a smile on his face. But looking at him now, you couldn’t call him cheerful by any stretch of the imagination.

“I wonder if he really is worried about this test after all.”

“Semes like it. He almost looks like a different person.”

The two of them watched Hirata walk off, sounding worried about him.

“Wow, even though he doesn’t have to worry at all about getting expelled himself. That guy is just carrying too much on his shoulders.”

“Someone will get expelled, though. That much is unavoidable.”

They looked at Hirata with pity in their eyes. As I was listening to the conversation, I got a message. One I couldn’t ignore, apparently.

“Sorry, I gotta go meet someone,” I announced.

“Who are you meeting?” asked Haruka with interest, looking at me with curiosity-laden eyes.

Airi looked at me too, though her eyes showed anxiousness.

“Horikita. It’s probably about the test.”

“Ah, ’kay,” replied Haruka, losing all interest, as if she had come to realize something on hearing my response. She was probably remembering the incident with Horikita and Ryuuen the other day.

I said bye to the group and left the café.

5.2

 

OUR MEETING LOCATION was a rest area along a path that seemed an odd choice for a lunch break. Spring and autumn aside, no one really liked to go all the way out here at this time of year.

“Sorry for the trouble, calling you out to meet like this.”

“Not a big deal. I’m the one who is sorry, having to make you wait out in the cold weather.”

“I don’t mind.”

I was meeting with Horikita—but not the younger sister, Suzune. I was meeting with the older brother, Manabu.

“…Hello.”

Tachibana bowed her head to me, gently. They weren’t on the student council anymore, but Tachibana still continued to accompany Horikita, waiting at his side. It went without saying that what they had seemed to go beyond a simple hierarchical boss-subordinate relationship.

In the past, Tachibana had been a bit harsh to me, but she seemed somewhat mild-mannered today. I wondered if it was because she was still reeling from nearly getting expelled after being caught in Nagumo’s trap.

“It seems like a new supplementary special exam has begun,” said Horikita.

“Word travels fast, I see. Well, the test will be over pretty soon.”

“Some first-year students have already approached third-years to talk about it. But I doubt there’s anyone in our grade who can help out in a concrete way.”

“So, there’re no upperclassmen who’d lend out private points?”

“It would be difficult, I imagine. Special exams are held each year, but generally speaking, the formats are rotated every three years or so. This is done in order to prevent currently enrolled students from leaking information about the tests,” said Horikita.

That was exactly what I’d imagined. I supposed it was an obvious conclusion, though.

“The number of private points we possess will determine loss or victory in the special exams we third-years will face. We can’t afford to give points to our juniors,” said Horikita.

I see. I was betting that was the reason Tachibana didn’t look so well right about now. Her class had had to pay up twenty million points because of her mistake. If those points were basically the war funds needed to get through the special exams, it was all the more understandable why she looked green in the gills.

“I’m sorry. If I’d only handled myself better, I…”

Compelled by her feelings of remorse, Tachibana bowed deeply toward Horikita.

“There’s no need for that.” Horikita rebuked her. I wonder how many times she had apologized to him.

“O-Oh, o-okay…”

“Any word from your sister?” I asked.

“Suzune will not come to me,” he replied.

“This special exam isn’t like anything we’ve ever had before. Horikita needs someone who can give her advice.”

She was struggling right now, which was why she’d made contact with Ryuuen. In the end, though, she got shut down.

“In that case, can’t you fulfill that role?” asked Horikita.

“That’s an impossible ask. Your sister and I are just different kinds of people.”

“Are you saying she and I are the same kind?”

“At the very least, a lot more similar than me.”

“………”

There was a brief silence.

“She’s probably going to be compelled to make some tough choices about how to fight this battle. You’re the only who can guide her,” I told Horikita.

“Even if that’s true, this is something she’ll have to decide for herself.”

That was certainly true. He wasn’t going to compel her to make a decision. Ultimately, it was up to Horikita Suzune to choose her own path.

“Okay then, what did you call me out here for?” I asked.

I doubted either of us really wanted to be having a long conversation out here in the cold. Since Horikita didn’t really enjoy talking about his sister, I thought I’d change the topic.

“It’s about Nagumo. I wanted to ask you if you’ve noticed any unusual activity going on,” said Horikita.

“Is this something you felt like we specifically needed to meet up in person to discuss?”

“Actually, I was the one who asked for it,” said Tachibana.

I’d found out why the meeting had been set for this location, albeit in a way I didn’t expect.

“It’s because I wanted to know the reason you’ve been acknowledged,” said Tachibana.

I could see the feelings of frustration welling up in her eyes. Perhaps Horikita Manabu had taken this opportunity to meet because he thought it would help Tachibana grow.

“I’ve been acknowledged? I’ve probably only ever been rude to Horikita, though,” I replied.

“I know that,” she snapped. Having her give me such a clear, immediate answer honestly stung a little. “But…I’ve decided to try and broaden my horizons. You might have ability worth recognizing, that I just can’t see.”

“So? What is your impression of Ayanokouji now that you’re seeing him again?” asked Horikita.

“Honestly, I don’t have the slightest clue.”

“I know what you mean,” said Horikita.

What kind of conversation was this? Maybe because of the strange, relaxed atmosphere, Horikita let out a small chuckle. “Unfortunately, we probably won’t understand Ayanokouji’s true worth until after we graduate,” he said.

“No. Nothing’s going to change, even after you graduate,” I replied.

“Well, I think you’re right about that,” said Tachibana.

Really? They’d had me meet them out here in the cold for this? I supposed it spoke to how wounded Tachibana was.

“Nagumo is obsessed with you. He probably wants nothing to do with me, right? Given that, it might be a good idea for you to engage him directly yourself,” I told them.

This wasn’t really something I should be demanding of a guy who was about to graduate from Class A. Regardless, Nagumo was definitely going to pick a fight. In fact, he might already have made his move.

“…Nagumo-kun has been in close contact with third-year Class B lately. I think he’s giving them his total support, just like he did at the training camp.”

He might have presented them with the idea of knocking Horikita’s brother down to Class B. All for the sake of his goal to defeat Horikita Manabu.

“The nonsense never stops. I just want to live in peace,” I said.

“If you first-years are to have any peace in the future, we can’t leave the Nagumo problem unresolved,” answered Horikita.

Horikita was convinced that something terrible was going to happen next year. Once the person Nagumo was obsessed with defeating was gone, Nagumo might go on a rampage and do whatever he pleased. Horikita was implying that we’d be in big trouble if we didn’t take action now.

“I intend to do whatever I can,” I told him.

At least for the moment, that was the answer I had for him.

5.3

 

WHEN I STEPPED OUT of the shower that evening, I saw I had several missed calls from Kei. It must have been something urgent, considering that each call was about a minute apart. As I’d just barely finished drying my hair, I picked up my phone, thinking that I’d go ahead and call Kei back. But she called me again right then, so I just answered her call instead.

“Hello?”

“Ah, I finally got through…!” she huffed.

“You sound really flustered.”

“Well, of course I am…! Something really awful is about to happen, Kiyotaka!”

“Something awful?”

“I don’t know who’s putting this together, but…it sounds like everyone’s gonna vote you out of school,” said Kei.

“Is that so?” I asked.

“W-Wait a second, did you already know?”

“No, this is the first I’m hearing of it. I just had a vague understanding that someone was probably being targeted.” I hadn’t known until now that it was me.

“Why are you so calm about this?” asked Kei.

“Do you know how many people are going to vote against me?” I asked.

“Not sure… But I get the feeling about half the class is on board with the idea. Also, it sounds like they’re threatening people that they’ll get targeted too if they tell you about what’s going on, Kiyotaka,” said Kei.

On top of setting someone up to get expelled, they were going around making threats like that, huh? It seemed the majority of the class had fallen in line, then. Even if I got praise votes from the Ayanokouji Group and another from Kei, it’d be just a drop in the bucket.

“Are you okay with telling me this? It sounds like you could get targeted yourself,” I told her.

Of course, that would only happen if I went around blabbing that I’d heard about the situation from Kei. I didn’t know who was behind this, but they’d handled things well. Although targeting a specific person for expulsion was a simple strategy, actually securing all those votes wasn’t easy. Anyone who proclaimed their desire to get a specific person expelled stood the risk of being seen as “evil” by others. If a student with a strong sense of justice, or someone close to the target, heard about it, there was a possibility that the ringleader would actually wind up being the one expelled. People were resistant to the idea of passing judgment on a friend, but not as resistant to the idea of passing judgment on evil.

That was precisely why even relatively sharp-tongued people like Haruka and Akito hadn’t taken the initiative to ask us to eliminate someone. At most, people would try to come up with candidates through group discussion, and then everyone in the group would vote in line with each other.

The ringleader targeting me in this case wasn’t afraid of the risk of being expelled themselves.

“You’ve got to do something. I mean, you can do something about this, can’t you?” asked Kei.

“I’m not sure. If half the class really is against me, then that’s a troubling development,” I told her.

Even if I did manage to get a total of ten praise votes myself, that didn’t necessarily mean I was out of the woods. The people conspiring together in the large group would obviously use their praise votes on their own friends. I was facing a significantly high risk of expulsion.

“Thanks for letting me know about this.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome, but… Seriously, what are you gonna do?”

“I’ll have to think about that,” I replied.

“Look, you might seem like you’re perfect, but you’re lacking in some areas too, y’know. If I wasn’t around, you might have gotten expelled without even knowing it was coming,” said Kei.

“That’s why I have you,” I told her. “For times like these.”

“I-I see…”

It was precisely because I had talented people on my side—people with access to information I couldn’t get myself—that I’d been able to learn about my impending expulsion like this.

“I’ll contact you again,” I told her.

“Okay, gotcha.”

I ended the call. I’d wanted to talk about March 8th coming up next week, but decided to hold off on that for now. First, I needed to find out why I was being targeted.

“All right, then…”

As I clutched my phone, I started slowly thinking the situation through. The question of who I would contact was going to be a big part of how things would move forward. I needed to exclude the ringleader targeting me, and any of their cronies, of course. Still, with that being said, talking to someone completely useless wasn’t going to make my situation any better either.

“Okay, in that case…”

I pulled up someone’s name in my contact list and called them right away, without notifying them that I was going to call. First, I needed to finish something that needed to be done. A few moments later, the call connected.

“What?” asked Horikita Manabu, his tone of voice the same as ever.

“I need to talk to you about the supplementary special exam. It’s pretty serious.”

“Wait just a moment.”

I waited for about ten seconds. I could hear the sound of running water on the other end of the line.

“I was just washing the dishes. I didn’t think that was something you wanted to talk about over speakerphone.”

“Sorry for the bother.”

“From the sounds of it, something happened. Something not good.”

We’d just met up this afternoon. He was probably guessing something had happened because I hadn’t mention it when we spoke earlier.

“There’s been some activity in my class. A large group was formed, and they’ve picked a specific person they’re going to get expelled,” I explained.

“Considering the nature exam, the formation of a large group was inevitable. Who is being targeted?” he asked, likely thinking of his younger sister.

“Me.”

“That’s not a very funny joke.”

“It’s not a joke. Right now, about half the class has agreed to use their criticism votes on me.”

“Really?”

“I’m in a really tight spot right now. That’s why I thought I’d talk to you about it.”

“Are you saying that even you can’t do anything about this test?”

“To put it plainly, yeah. That’s exactly it.” Though, to be precise, I was talking to him right now because I was trying to do something.

“What do you want from me? I don’t think I can really do anything to help you with this exam,” said Horikita.

“There’s just one thing I want you to do,” I replied.

I made Horikita Manabu a proposal. Whether he accepted or rejected my offer would affect how I dealt with this problem going forward.

“…I see. So that’s what this is.”

“This shouldn’t be a bad thing for you, either. You can use this case as a reason,” I told him.

“That’s certainly true. I wouldn’t have talked to you if that weren’t the case.”

“You don’t need to demonstrate your authority as the former student council president. And you don’t need to help me directly, either.”

Surely a student like Horikita Manabu would be able to understand what I was getting at without me explicitly stating anything.

“You were probably planning to use this strategy regardless of whether you were targeted by your class or not,” said Horikita.

“Yeah. I was planning on contacting you anyway. I would’ve happily told you about this earlier today, but…”

“But Tachibana was there, right?”

Of course, I knew she wasn’t the kind of person who’d go around spilling the beans. Still, I’d held back just in case.

“Okay, so what kind of tight spot are you talking about? You’ve never been in a tight spot to begin with.”

“That all depends on tomorrow. Without your help, I’d have to make some pretty heavy-handed moves. And you know as well as I do that it’s not a great idea for me to take center stage, right?” I replied.

“…All right. We’ll make a move tomorrow.”

“Thanks. I’ll contact you when I identify who the mastermind is.”

I ended my call with Horikita’s brother and plugged my phone in to charge.

“First things first.”

I’d originally intended to implement a certain strategy for this exam. A necessary action, to remove an unnecessary student. If I was being targeted myself, however, that meant I needed to improve this strategy’s accuracy.

The next person I called was Kushida.

“Good evening, Ayanokouji-kun. I was wondering if you might call me today,” said Kushida.

“I assume you already have a grasp of the situation, then?”

“Yes. Seems like you’re in quite a pickle right now.”

So, the news that I was a candidate for expulsion had already reached Kushida’s ears, huh?

“You’re not going to say you wanted me to tell you about this because we’re cooperating with one another, are you? If I’d had leaked any information about this, I might have become the next target… You understand, right?” said Kushida.

Of course, that probably wasn’t the real reason she didn’t tell me.

“So, who did you hear about it from? That you’re being targeted?” asked Kushida. She was clearly interested in finding out who’d told me about my planned expulsion.

“They were anonymous.”

“Hmm. Well then, tell me one thing. What did this anonymous person tell you?”

What did they tell me, huh? I remained silent, not giving her an answer.

“You’re quite clever, aren’t you, Ayanokouji-kun? You’re probably thinking that you can’t be careless with what you say.”

“Sorry, but I’m completely failing to see what you’re getting at. What do you want to know?” I asked her.

“For instance, did this person tell you who the mastermind is? Or how many votes they’ve gotten?” asked Kushida.

So that was what she wanted to know, hm? If, for instance, she’d told Kei that half of the students would be voting for me, but had told other students that one-third would be voting for me…that would be enough information for her to narrow things down and determine Kei was the one who tipped me off.

“It seems like we’re both trying to get a read on each other’s intentions, doesn’t it?” said Kushida.

“Don’t tell me that you’re the mastermind, Kushida. Are you?”

“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly be the one. I hold a completely neutral position in the class. I’m the epitome of peace. Don’t you agree?”

But even if she wasn’t the mastermind, it seemed she was close to whoever it was. I moved onto something else.

“I suppose so. If you were the mastermind, I’d expect you to make Horikita your target,” I told her.

“Ah ha ha, yes, I suppose you’re right. Judging from the fact that you went ahead and contacted me anyway, despite knowing the risk, you must be in quite a bit of trouble… So, what would you like from me?”

“I want to know who the mastermind is.”

“Even though there’s nothing you can do once you find out?”

Kushida was always analyzing the situations, adapting herself to the needs of the moment. It wouldn’t be difficult to bring her over to my side.

“Please tell me,” I told her.

“My, you’re quite direct, Ayanokouji-kun. But I can’t betray my friends, so… Well, you know,” replied Kushida, adding a devilish little chuckle, which I could clearly hear over the phone. “Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that… I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to.”

“And that means?”

“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but unfortunately, I’m the only one who knows the mastermind’s identity,” she replied.

“…So that’s it.”

“It sounds like you understand, Ayanokouji-kun.”

The mastermind, having selected me out of everyone in class to be expelled, chose Kushida to be their confidant right away. From there, they used Kushida to expand their reach by recruiting people who weren’t close to me. It would be hard for people to turn down Kushida, who was highly trusted by her classmates.

“Well, this is you we’re talking, Ayanokouji-kun. I’m sure you can find out who the mastermind is sooner or later, right? It doesn’t really change anything, even if I don’t tell you now. Don’t you agree?” said Kushida.

“No. If I don’t hear it from you, I’m in for a tougher time. I’m sure whoever this is wants to keep their role hidden. That’s probably the exact reason why they entrusted everything to you, right?” I replied.

“You certainly are frank.”

“Well, this is you we’re talking, Kushida. I’m sure you’ve already guessed what I’m thinking.”

My strategy of trying to get Kushida to tell me the mastermind’s identity had been a success—and at the same time, also a failure.

“I’m surprised that you’re going along with this. Even though it means you’re complicit in getting someone expelled,” I added.

“I suppose so. It’s a difficult situation, even for me. After all, if I refused them, they’d think I wasn’t willing to help them, wouldn’t then? It would spell trouble for me if talk got around that I turned down someone who came to me for help,” said Kushida.

That was entirely possible.

“So I’ve had to make a rather difficult decision. I don’t want you to get expelled, Ayanokouji-kun, but I also cannot betray the trust of a student who came to me for help. That’s the way it is. On top of that, they gave me the impression they understand a little bit about my weakness. And then, word started to spread about how anyone who betrayed them would end up being their target,” said Kushida.

Kushida might have been able to remain neutral, even in that position. The fact that she’d deliberately decided to cooperate with them was worrisome. It was probably partly to protect herself. If she’d turned them down, she might have been blocked from joining the mastermind’s group, or suffered the blowback of their resentment. Instead, even though there was some risk involved, she became central to the group and took up a position as one of the people controlling it. That story checked out.

Kushida was entirely self-absorbed. Self-importance was her thing. She liked being worshipped and flattered by others, and she liked dominating people in turn. She was the kind of person who took pleasure in dealing with people inferior to her.

“So, you understand the situation I’ve been put in, right? I can’t help you even if I wanted to,” repeated Kushida.

If the mastermind’s identity became public, it would mean Kushida’s failure. They had manipulated her quite cleverly.

“I suppose I can’t force anything out of you, then. Sorry for calling you in the middle of the night,” I told her.

“Oh? You’re giving up so easily?”

“I don’t want to cause trouble for you. It doesn’t seem like I can count on your help this time.”

“Do you think that you can find out who the mastermind is without my help?” she asked.

“Not sure. I’m not feeling too confident about it.”

I backed down. By doing so, I was inviting Kushida to take a step forward. If she didn’t respond to that invitation, then that would be that. Either way, the mastermind’s identity had nothing at all to do with my strategy. Knowing it would just make things a little easier, was all.

“Hm, what should I do?” said Kushida.

She wasn’t backing down. It seemed like she was at a standstill. No, wait—she was taking a step forward, all on her own.

“Ayanokouji-kun, we’re friends. So, I guess I’ll tell you.”

So, I stopped backing down myself.

“…Why did you change your mind?” I asked.

“I suppose it’s because I want to see how you’ll handle this situation, Ayanokouji-kun. That being said, if this ends up hurting me, I won’t forgive you. Okay?”

“I know what kind of people I can make enemies of and what kind not to.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

I had a feeling she was smiling.

“Yamauchi-kun,” said Kushida.

She gave me the name of the possible mastermind. I specifically say possible, because I still had no evidence to determine whether or not that was actually true.

“I see. Yamauchi, huh?”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“He’s a likely candidate for expulsion himself. It’s not surprising that he’d take the initiative to make a move himself.”

“…Satisfied?” she asked, like she was testing me.

“Now that I’ve heard who the mastermind is, something doesn’t quite add up. There’s no way a student like you would be stupid enough to be manipulated by someone like Yamauchi. I’m sure you could have easily taken control of the conversation and turned down his request for help. It has to be pretty risky, going to the trouble of protecting the mastermind while playing ringleader,” I told her.

“I wonder why didn’t I turn him down, then?” said Kushida.

“Maybe because Yamauchi isn’t the real mastermind. Maybe because you realized that it was the student pulling his strings.”

Kushida had sounded like she was having fun, so far. But now her tone of voice dropped and grew serious.

“So you know that much.”

“Sakayanagi came to visit our class before. Maybe that has something to do with it?”

Before the year-end final written exams, Sakayanagi had visited Class C—to see Yamauchi. It had been something of a hot topic for the class. Leaving aside my direct connection with Sakayanagi, I presented Kushida with some other evidence that she might find convincing.

“It really was quite the surprise when she visited our class, wasn’t it? But yes, you’re exactly right. It seems Sakayanagi-san from Class A is the one pulling Yamauchi’s strings. I really wanted to avoid making her my enemy,” said Kushida.

“How did you know Sakayanagi was the one behind this? Did Yamauchi tell you?” I asked.

“No, Yamauchi-kun has been desperately trying to hide it at all costs. But you know the extent of my information network, don’t you? I found out from someone in Class A. They told me she was manipulating Yamauchi-kun and trying to do something to Class C,” said Kushida.

Everything was proceeding almost too perfectly. Considering what had happened, I was guessing Yamauchi going to Kushida was also something that Sakayanagi had instructed him to do, most likely. Hashimoto from Class A had some doubts about the extent of my relationship with Kei. If he’d wanted a group to be formed without my knowledge, I would have expected him to advise Sakayanagi to make sure that Kei was left out of it.

If that had been the case, they shouldn’t have brought Kei into the group until the very end. If they’d done that, it would probably have taken me longer to notice I was being targeted.

“So is it a coincidence that you’re being targeted by Sakayanagi-san, Ayanokouji-kun? Or is this intentional?” asked Kushida.

“No clue. I’ve never really had much contact with her. Maybe I’m just being targeted as a student who doesn’t stand out.”

“I see. I suppose that makes sense. Other than Horikita-san, Sudou-kun, Satou-san, Yukimura-kun and the other people in that group you hang out with, there’s probably no one willing to take the risk of telling you what’s going on,” said Kushida.

Still, Sakayanagi being the mastermind was rather odd. Why did she deliberately come up to me and ask me to postpone our match until the next exam, then? Was she so eager to destroy me that she was willing to stab me in the back and break her promise? If she was going to make a move against me now, then she’d have to be prepared for the fact that I wasn’t going to compete against her in the next special exam.

Having Yamauchi gather criticism votes against me absolutely went against what we had promised. The only way this made sense was if what she’d promised me was a lie. She’d made it seem like she was going to postpone our competition until next time, while actually laying a trap for me. But…

No. That wasn’t it. As far as I could tell, Sakayanagi wasn’t the type of person who would be satisfied with something like that. But then what should I make of this mess?

“Thanks, Kushida.”

“I hope you get through this without getting expelled.”

After ending the call, I tossed the phone on my bed.

“Well, no matter what they’re scheming, it doesn’t change what I’m going to do,” I said to myself.

Now that I knew the mastermind’s identity, all that remained for me to do was tell Horikita Manabu and have him work it out.