Chapter 175 – Kanzaki's thoughts
Tuesday, during lunch break, Kanzaki, with a serious and anxious expression, came to Yukio's class alone.
Seeing his heavy expression and slightly dark circles, anyone who didn't know better might think Kanzaki had just returned from a battlefield.
Kanzaki's mood was indeed very heavy. He initially thought that the slander letter incident involving Ichinose had been contained, but who would have thought it would become known throughout the entire school?
In this situation, no matter how hard Kanzaki and the others tried to find clues to identify the slanderer and clear Ichinose's name, they couldn't find any leads. All the clues had completely dried up, and the opponent had left no chance.
Starting today, Ichinose had even taken her first leave of absence, saying she would stay in her dormitory to rest and refusing to step out.
This scared the members of Ichinose's class. The cheerful and always angelic Ichinose was actually absent from class?
Unable to just sit back and do nothing, they desperately took action, but it was all in vain. They had wasted almost the entire morning.
Finally, Kanzaki felt that continuing like this was meaningless, so he decided to seek help from Yukio.
His thinking was simple: if he couldn't handle the matter himself, he would seek help from someone stronger, a very common and straightforward thought.
In Kanzaki's view, if the amazing Yukio, who had a good relationship with Ichinose, was willing to help, it might not take long to find the slanderer and resolve this matter completely.
Hurrying, Kanzaki managed to catch Yukio and his group just as they were about to head to the cafeteria: "Sorry to interrupt your break, but could I have a word with you?"
"I don't have one," Yukio waved his hand, indicating that it was no big deal, since they were familiar with each other. He then turned to Ishizaki: "Ishizaki, you have one, right? Lend one to Kanzaki."
(T/N: Some Chinese characters could be interpreted as adult videos.)
Ishizaki blinked, feeling a bit embarrassed to be called out in public by Yukio for having a small video collection. He scratched the back of his head and then took out his phone to ask Kanzaki: "What kind do you need?"
"..." Kanzaki almost spat blood all over Ishizaki and his phone! He had said, "Could I have a word," not "Could I have one AV!"
This misunderstanding almost broke Kanzaki's spirit, but he managed to control his emotions, though his eyebrows were tightly furrowed.
The furrowed "川" shape on Kanzaki's forehead could easily hold two cotton swabs: "Yukio, I'm sorry, but I'm not in the mood for jokes right now. This isn't a situation to take lightly, is it?"
"Do you think this is funny? I'm really here on urgent business."
"Tch." Ryuuen, with one hand in his pocket, casually told Ishizaki to put his phone away before turning to Kanzaki: "Yukio is politely refusing you. Can't you see that?"
"It's about Ichinose, right? This has blown up so much that the whole school knows. Do you really think Yukio hasn't heard about it?"
Kanzaki was stunned by Ryuuen's bluntness. After a moment of reflection, he realized Ryuuen was right. He was too anxious. If he were as calm as usual, he would have noticed Yukio's polite refusal.
Yukio indeed didn't want to discuss the matter with Kanzaki immediately. He had just asked someone to investigate Ichinose's past this morning, and now it was only noon. Without the investigation results, any discussion would be meaningless.
They had to wait patiently. This delay was partly due to the registration system information in Japan. Without an identity card, proving one's identity usually relied on a driver's license, student ID, or work badge.
So investigating someone wasn't as quick as imagined. Even though Yukio had provided Ichinose's name and middle school to the investigators, uncovering her past would still take at least half a day.
Without results, Yukio didn't like to act without knowing the full picture.
However, Kanzaki still wanted to try. He was truly anxious and at a loss for clues: "Our two classes are not enemies, right?"
"Yukio, your class is already Class A, and we have fallen to Class C. There's no direct conflict of interest between us, so why refuse to help?"
"Please help us find out who the bastard is that's slandering and maliciously harming Ichinose."
"Tch." Seeing Kanzaki so anxious, Yukio stepped forward and patted his shoulder, trying to calm him down: "This has nothing to do with class interests. It's just that we don't have enough information at the moment."
The vice-president of Ichinose's class had clearly lost his composure. Yukio didn't want to share his analysis and guesses with Kanzaki.
Yukio had previously guessed that the most likely slanderer was Nagumo. Then there was Class D, but after Kushida's denial, that possibility became even smaller.
But Yukio couldn't just tell Kanzaki directly. In his current state, Kanzaki might take the class members and confront Nagumo in the second year, creating an even bigger mess and more trouble.
Then Yukio would have to put in more effort to resolve it. Why bother? It was better to keep Kanzaki in the dark. Letting him rage helplessly was better than cleaning up a mess later.
Kanzaki couldn't understand Yukio's words because he had no idea that Yukio had means to contact and investigate through external forces.
Therefore, Kanzaki could only bow his head and plead: "Whatever information you need, we'll find it. Yukio, don't you like private points?"
"If you're willing to help, after this incident is resolved, we can pay you extra on top of our original contract."
Yukio couldn't help but roll his eyes. At this point, did he still care about such small gains? Kanzaki, with his thick eyebrows and honest appearance, turned out to have quite an imagination.
Did he think Yukio wanted to take advantage of the situation and raise the price amid the chaos? Was that necessary?
After the sports festival, Yukio's class could now receive nearly 160,000 private points per month from the school, making Ichinose's class's small contribution insignificant.
"In any case, don't worry. This matter started because of me, and I'll handle it properly." With this, Yukio ignored Kanzaki's plea and led his group towards the cafeteria without looking back.
Kanzaki, unwilling to give up, reached out as if to call Yukio back but couldn't muster the words. His mind was racing... because of Yukio? What did that mean?
Someone was slandering Ichinose, so how was Yukio involved? Was it related to the inspection of club funds that day?
Because during the inspection, Yukio was unreasonable, and Ichinose didn't stop him, the club seniors were afraid of Yukio and didn't dare to slander him, so they turned to slander Ichinose instead?
With just a casual remark from Yukio, Kanzaki's thoughts had already veered off track. In his anxious state, with little rationality left, Kanzaki's reasoning became increasingly bizarre.
***
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