Chapitre 20: Chapter 20: Sūdo Ken
Ayanokoji Pov
「2nd July 」
I stared at the seat right in front of me, which is still empty, despite the Japanese history lesson with Chabashira-sensei starting in a minute. It wasn't just me who intensely stared, everyone in the classroom did.
And in these small moments, I could feel the perplexed and disturbed mood arriving in the classroom. It's quite unusual that the mood of my classmates could change in over ten minutes to 180 degrees.
I also wondered why Kurushima wasn't here. Has he perhaps overslept? I'm not sure. As of right now, I can't be sure.
"One moment, I'll call him," Hirata expressed, taking his phone out and dialing Kurushima's number. He waited patiently, but nothing happened.
Suddenly the door opened and Chabashira-sensei looked at Hirata. "Hirata, have I made myself not clear on the 1st May?"
"It's not because of that Sensei," Hirata expressed in a worrisome tone. "Kurushima-kun isn't here and neither is going on his phone. Sensei, do you perhaps know something?"
"I do," she exclaimed. "But it aren't good news," she added.
Huh? Not good news? What can Sensei possibly imply with that?
"Huh? How so?" Hirata asked, furrowing his eyebrows in surprise.
"Kurushima is dropping out of school," she exclaimed.
I think I misheard her, didn't I? Yeah…No way I did. She clearly said Kurushima is dropping out of school.
"Whaaat?!" Everyone shouted in surprise. In all sudden anxiety, nervousness, and sadness formed the face of everyone.
"Sensei, you are joking, right?" Hirata asked, having his hopes high that she was joking.
"Of course I am. Do you really think he would leave the school?" she said in a disappointing and questioning tone. "He informed me today morning via an E-Mail that he has a fever. He's just sick. Nothing more, nothing less," she announced.
I could see everyone, including Horikita sighing in relief. Even though our time here hasn't been long, for some people like the girls or for some of the boys Kurushima has become an important part of the school life.
Whether it might be for his capabilities to lead our class to Class A or for his charm that made many of the girls fall for him.
But after progressing the information further, many became shocked and expressed their worry in the classroom that Kurushima is sick.
Chabashira-sensei looked at us with a deep sigh and began speaking. "And also don't worry, we've sent the school doctor to Kurushima's room, who's going to proscribe him some medicine," she said, making some of us worry-free.
"But that's not the only bad news," she added, pausing for a moment to let her words sink in. The room grew silent, everyone holding their breath in anticipation.
It's about Sūdo, right? Yeah…
"There was a bit of trouble the other day, an incident between the student sitting there, Sūdo, and some students from Class D. In short, there was a fight."
The classroom erupted. Depending on the degree of responsibility that Class D saddled him with, Sūdo could face suspension, and we might see a reduction in our class points. Chabashira-sensei laid the whole situation bare for the class. Her face was so devoid of emotion or interest when she spoke that there was a certain serene beauty to it. She inserted no personal bias whatsoever when she addressed the class, and explained the situation from a position of neutrality.
"Umm. So why hasn't this issue been resolved already?" Hirata asked a rather reasonable question.
"The complaint came from Class D. They claim that the fight was one-sided. However, when we spoke to the accused, Sūdo said that their claims were false. He insists that the students of Class D called him over and started the fight."
"It wasn't my fault! It was self-defense! Self-defense, I tell you!" shouted Sūdo as he shouldered his classmates' icy glares.
"But there's no evidence of that. Am I wrong?"
"What evidence? I don't have any."
"So in other words, we don't yet know the truth. Therefore, we have put our decision on hold for now. Our response, and the punishment, will come when we find out who was at fault."
"All I know is that I'm innocent. If anything, I ought to receive a settlement for my trouble."
"So speaks the accused, but I wouldn't say that you have a high level of credibility right now. If there is an eyewitness, as Sūdo seems to believe, then the situation may change. If anyone here witnessed the fight, please raise your hand."
Chabashira-sensei continued talking in a robotic, flat voice. No students raised their hands in response to her question.
"Too bad, Sūdo. It appears there are no witnesses in this class."
"Looks that way," he grumbled.
When Chabashira-sensei cast a doubtful look at Sūdo, he glanced downward.
"In order to check for witnesses, every teacher will inform their classes of the details of this incident."
"Huh?! You're telling everyone?!"
The school probably had no say in the matter. Because Sūdo had insisted it was a false charge and brought up a potential witness, the school had to be sure. For Sūdo, who had hoped to hide the situation, none of this was good.
"Damn it!"
Sūdo's plan had already fallen apart.
"Anyway, that is all. We'll make our final judgment next Tuesday, taking into account any eyewitnesses and evidence. With that, let's end homeroom for the day."
"Wait, Kurushima can sure do something," Sūdo exclaimed in a hopeful tone, expecting Kurushima to save him again. "After all, he saved me once, so twice shouldn't be any problem."
I could see some people in the class being both relieved and angered by Sūdo's statement right now. One of the people who got immensely angered are for one many of the girls, and even Hirata to a small bit.
Horikita had a neutral facial expression, but I guess she was also among the people who were angered by Sūdo's statement.
"I can't believe it," Chabashira-sensei muttered with a deep sigh, looking Sūdo dead in the eyes.
"Sūdo, Kurushima is sick. He won't be able to help you this time. Accept this fact already. And instead of asking him ask your other classmates to help you searching for evidence that suggests your innocence."
"I'm really…disappointed," she muttered with a deep sigh, walking out of the classroom. Sūdo quickly followed her lead, as he didn't want to stay in the classroom anymore.
"Everyone, let's help Sūdo-kun to our best ability," Hirata said, trying to gather the support of everyone.
"What do you think?" Horikita asked.
"It will be difficult to prove Sūdo's innocence without any potential witnesses or evidence. If we can't secure either of these factors, we're already at a disadvantage."
"Yes, that's true," she murmured.
Third person Pov
A certain person looked over his reflection on the bathroom mirror in a pained and soothing expression. It was none other than the owner of the room 402.
But there was another thing that standed out. The mirror which was reflecting that white-haired boy began to form cracks on the edges. The cracks did not affect the reflection at all, however, with each day since the school start small and barely noticeable cracks have formed the mirror.
These small cracks were just as big as a few hairline fractures in the mirror. But today an crack bigger than a hairline fracture appeared in the mirror.
It was a small disdained crack on the edge, visible to everyone who looked at it, unlike the other cracks where particular observation was required.
The white-haired boy who occupied the room couldn't help but feel a sense of unease every time he caught sight of his reflection.
It was as if the cracks were multiplying before his very eyes, spreading outwards like a contagion. He wondered if it was just his imagination.
The boy suddenly began talking. "This year…I'm not going to be able to go to your eight year death anniversary, Mother, Father, Kyō, Kaori," the white-haired boy said, his voice breaking with emotion. "It just feels like I'm abandoning them."
The weight of his grief felt heavier than ever before. The cracks on the mirror seemed to mock him, as if to say that no matter how much time had passed, the pain of his loss would always be with him.
He tried to distract himself, but memories flooded his mind: his mother's warm embrace, his father's gentle smile, his little sister's infectious laughter, his little brothers viable cuteness.
Out of pure anger the white-haired boy punched the mirror which seemed to mock him with more than enough force to destroy it.
But...he seemed to control his anger and stopped before his fist strikes the mirror.
"It won't be long now until I extract my vengeance," the boy said, his eyes ablaze with an unfathomable depth of loathing, their redness like smoldering embers.
Ayanokoji Pov
1 Week Later
「8th July, Monday 」
"Ah, Kurushima," I said, seeing his door opening. "Are you uh feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you for asking," he replied with a smile. "Has something happened during the week where I was absent?" he asked.
"Yeah, pretty much," I said, explaining him everything that happened, whilst we were walking to the classroom.
"Ah, I see," he muttered. "Perhaps I should have let my phone on while I was sick," he murmured, as he started his phone which seemed to be off for the whole week.
I slightly looked at his phone and even I got shocked. More than 8000 messages had arrived according to the phones calculation.
I looked at him as he scratches his head awkwardly.
"Aha, that's why I in the first place turned my phone off," he murmured, expecting something like this to happen.
"Yeah…" I murmured, as I wanted to emphasize that I can imagine his pain.
But it shot right in the opposite, since I'm never going to have a imagination of how it feels like being popular.
Meanwhile, we also reached our classroom. And just as expected, when Kurushima opened the door almost everyone stood up, walking to our direction.
"Kurushima-kun," Hirata said, alongside almost everyone else in the classroom.
I simply walked past by the crowd of people and went towards my seat.
"Are you feeling better?" Hirata was once again the first one to ask.
"Yeah, thank you for asking. I'm feeling much better now," Kurushima replied, with a small smile on his face.
"Good to hear that," Hirata said, with a sense of relief in his voice.
Suddenly from the side Chabashira-sensei entered the room. "Kurushima, it's good to see you healthy," she said, walking up to the podium.
After all the lessons, some stayed in the room to discuss with Kurushima the upcoming trial.
No, in all actuality only Horikita, Hirata, Kurushima, and I were in the classroom. The others already walked away, even Sūdo.
"Kurushima-kun, have you any idea how we can win this trial?" Hirata asked.
"Not exactly," he answered. "But I do have some ideas how we can convince the student council president to a degree and gain some more time for the trial."
"You do?!" Horikita asked, raising her eyebrow in surprise.
I also raised my eyebrow in surprise as I didn't expect Kurushima already to have devised some strategies to extend the time for the trial.
"Before I explain my reasoning, have we anything crucial in the hand with Sakura as our witness?" Kurushima asked. "If we don't have anything, it won't matter whether she is testifying for Sūdo-kun. Class D is going to twist it like we've forced her into testifying to increase Sūdo's chances of winning. It definitely won't end for us well."
"Yes, that's an valid point. And no, we don't have anything aside from Sakura's statement." Horikita responded.
"I see," Kurushima said, twirling his finger around his hair. "That's definitely making it harder for us."
"We've Sūdo-kun's statement that Komiya and Kōndo-kun from Class D have called Sūdo-kun to the special building. But if that's so, why should Ishizaki-kun also be there? He isn't a member of the basketball club, and has no relation to their dispute in the basketball hall. Right now, that's one of the few arguments where we should be centered and try to convince Manabu-senpai. If it's done efficiently, we might get the chance go postpone the trial to another day," Kurushima said, considering the likelihood of our success in the trial.
"Manabu-senpai?!" she murmured in surprise.
"Ah, yes, I have the student council president's permission to call him by Manabu-senpai," Kurushima added.
"I see," she muttered in a depriving tone.
"Again to your argument. It's certainly true that we can use this and create doubt in Nissan — I mean the student council president minds about the validity of the accusations against Sūdo. This might buy us more time to prepare for more evidence."
"But how do we prove that Ishizaki-kun had no relation to the dispute between Sūdo-kun, Komiya and Kōndo-kun?" Hirata added.
Kurushima looked thoughtful for a moment, until he spoke up. "We can start by interviewing Ishizaki-kun tomorrow in the trial and asking him why he was present at the special building that day. If we're lucky, some loopholes might be presented to us, which could help our case."
"But…that is just idealistic thinking," Kurushima murmured. "Ryūen-kun really has gotten us here. Despite everything we might say, the other party will keep denying it. And they're the one with the advantage, since the three have physical injuries and Sūdo already testified doing them in self-defense."
"Ah, it's almost four pm. The work for the student council awaits me," Kurushima said. "I'm sorry for not being able to help you guys further. And I wish I could help you on the trials meeting, but since you three are registered in the trial, I won't have the opportunity to participate, unless I'm a witness."
"Humph, this trial won't be a problem. It's just winning." Horikita expressed in her arrogant and superior demeanor.
"Aha, I see," he muttered. "Well, goodbye, Horikita-san, Ayanokoji-kun, Hirata," Kurushima said, walking out of the classroom.
Hirata also left, deep in his thoughts of the potential aftermath for Sūdo, as he like Kurushima wasn´t participating in the trial.
I also wanted to walk away until a certain female's hand prevented me of doing so.
"What are you doing?" I asked, slightly narrowing my head to the left, looking at Horikita´s hand which was on my shoulder.
"You barely participated in the conversation. Are you sure you don't have any ideas how to save Sūdo-kun?" she asked with expectancy.
"No, I don't," I answered truthfully.
"You're lying. You have a method, right?" she asked.
"No. To begin with, I'm not even that intelligent to think and devise of a potential strategy which could save Sūdo."
"Your entrance exams are saying the opposite," she said.
"Just like I told you on the roof, my scores are a coincidence. If I were a genius, why should I hide it? There's no benefit of doing that," I answered again, countering her logic.
"I see," she muttered.
"Also, if you don't mind, can you let go of my shoulder?" I asked.
"Yes," she answered, letting my shoulder go.
"Goodbye," I said, walking away leaving her standing in the classroom.
I can't believe she thinks I'm a genius or something like that.
I'm just an ice cream fanatic.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Kurushima Pov
Huh…
It looks like we're in quite a predicament here…
Hopefully, Ayanokoji and Horikita can solve this case without my interference. It'd be quite bothersome if I even have to interfere here.
Especially, since I'm not really in the mood right now. Since last week my mood has been pretty much decreasing.
During the free time I had, I pretty much reminisced about past events. It disturbed me greatly, just how much time has passed and I hadn't gotten real achievements over those four people.
And now this case…
Should I help Sūdo or not?
I'm not exactly sure though. But I guess it would be more appropriate to help. Yeah…it would prevent any instances of drama happening in the class.
No, it's better to say that Hirata Yosuke is going to cause drama, when Sūdo is expelled, due to his excessive state of Cognitive Dissonance.
During these two months, I was able to get to know Hirata. And I have concluded that Hirata is someone affected with excessive Cognitive Dissonance, causing him extreme discomfort about particular situations.
I'm also not sure how to estimate Horikita's approach in the trial. For example, is she ready to accept a compromise between Class D and C when the chance is offered? I doubt it.
She thinks way too highly of herself. But at the end of the day, she is just all talk, nothing more.
In actuality, I'm wondering whether Ayanokoji is going to save Sūdo. He has given me in the last months since his arrival at the school always a strange feeling.
And this situation might be the perfect way to test whether I'm simply overthinking everything about Ayanokoji, or if there is some truth in my intuition, which I even to this point want to ignore, as I don't like to rely on something which isn't definitive.
But I can't deny my intuition as much as I like. I should perhaps start now by relying on my intuition, instead of always denying it.
Yeah, that might be better…
Just in case, I coincidentally also devised some small strategies that are usable for this particular situation. I'm not sure why I devised it, but I guess that's too much to ask.
For this specific case, one of the more probable options to happen is to deceive Ishizaki, Kōndo, and Komiya into thinking that the school is testing us, as a fake camera could be attached during the trial or after if Horikita and Ayanokoji can extend the trials time.
They're already under a lot of pressure from Ryūen and his expectations, so it's likely they'll make mistakes and overlook important details. Attaching a fake camera in the building might be an option. This may or may not work.
However, considering that this trial is going to be extended and Manabu-senpai is someone who likes to prevent the constant back and forth he'll most likely judge both parties by the evidence presented.
I heard Tachibana-senpai saying when something like this happens that Manabu-senpai is going to give expulsions, depending on the degree of the offense one has committed.
Strict violence is punished with an immediate expulsion if both parties are unable to come to one agreement. And Horikita, who has a highly elevated superiority complex and feels the urge to prove to her brother that she's able to solve this trial won't accept a compromise.
In that case, I can assume that Ayanokoji might interfere if Horikita isn't in a position to win the trial with her abilities and save Sūdo by making Class D retract their complaint.
Another strategy that could work is to gather an audio recording of them when they talk about their plan in detail, which could be used as leverage against them. Of course, this strategy would require a certain level of skill in espionage and stealth, which I just happen to possess.
And my personal favorite strategy is the good old "attack is the best defense" tactic. It's a rather classic strategy, which has been used over the decades pretty often by many historical figures.
Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Sun Tzu are famous generals and strategists in mankind's history: each of these three having something in common.
And that is for saying these famous words, "Attack is the best defensive". Obviously, it might not be exactly these precise words, but they're in that direction.
By applying that logic of this strategy, I'm going to attack Ryūen's class, just like he attacked ours.
Coincidentally, I have a video of two of Ryūen's female classmates bullying one of their fellow classmates. I'm not sure who it was, but I'm pretty sure it was Manabe and someone else who bullied that girl.
I could naturally make with this video recording a deal with Ryūen. An profitable one, since I could achieve two objectives: Firstly I could make Class D retract their complaint about Sūdo. Secondly, I could also earn large amounts of Private Points from him via the selling of that video to him.
Meanwhile, via contractual terms, I'm going to delete this video and not be allowed to spread information or the video further, just in case I have a reserved file.
But undoubtedly one thing is for sure. Once Ryūen confirms that I have this video material which could lead to the expulsion of two of his classmates, he can't do otherwise but accept my conditions.
After all, he alongside the other classes doesn't know how much the expulsion of a student costs. And taking the risk of two expulsions and losing Class and Private Points is something he would like to prevent.
I however know it, since I expelled three students of Class 3-C and made them from earning 52.000 Private Points per month earning 22.000 Private Points per month now.
In short, one student is worth 100 Class Points. Even if Ryūen is crazy, he's not crazy enough to take this mysterious risk.
Well…
I hope I can grasp Ayanokoji's abilities with this trial further…
And test whether my intuition and estimation of him is right or not.
Let's see whether I'm truly right…
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A/N: Hopefully some of you are as hyped as I am. Because I am.
I won´t really spoil you regarding anything, I´ll just say it now that Volume 1 will be officially over, and there´ll be two SS: Chapter´s incoming.
The one SS Chapter will be published directly afterwards I have uploaded this Chapter. Although, it´ll be quite short. Around 400 or 500 Words, and will be from Kurushima´s perspective.
The other SS Chapter will be one from Hiyori.
Although I have no idea how to write from a perspective of a girl. Especially Hiyori.
So when I publish that Chapter, probably in two or three days, estimating that I have finished writing at that time, I hope you can give me some feedback.
I´ll try my hardest writing from the perspective of Hiyori. As for her personality, I have a good gist of it, I suppose.
Well, I have talked more than enough.
Have a great day.
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