Thwack! Thwack!
"Get up."
"Ugh..."
"Don't lie down—stand up!"
At Ryuuen’s command, the hulking black man, Yamada Albert, roughly hauled Ishizaki to his feet.
"Tch..."
Perhaps she didn’t like the sight, because the bob-haired girl near Ryuuen turned away from the battered Ishizaki and muttered under her breath. Ryuuen, however, paid her no heed as he played the audio file sent to his terminal.
[I was ordered by a man named Ryuuen. To pick a fight with Sudo for no reason, to lose intentionally... and then report it to the school so Sudo would be expelled...]
The voice from Ryuuen’s device recounted the entire incident that Ishizaki had divulged after being ambushed by the mysterious assailant.
"Ishizaki."
"Hiiik...!"
Stepping toward the sprawled Ishizaki, Ryuuen grabbed him roughly by the hair and yanked him upright. Fixing his gaze on Ishizaki’s quivering eyes, he growled,
"Think of everything about the bastard who attacked you. I’m keeping you alive for that reason alone."
"Y-Yes, sir. I’ll remember everything, every detail...!"
"...Take him away."
"Yes, sir."
Responding stiffly like a soldier, Albert supported Ishizaki and began walking as though nothing were amiss. The bob-haired girl also rose and silently followed them, leaving Ryuuen alone with his terminal.
"...Who the hell are you, Shadow Mastermind X?"
His elaborate scheme—to expel a troublemaking Class D student, crush their fighting spirit, and even preempt the consequences of producing an expelled student—had fallen apart. Worse still, his plan had backfired so badly that he risked being the one pushed toward expulsion.
And not by some simple ploy, but by employing violence and fear—the very same tactics he once used to rule over Class C.
Furious at the violation of his personal turf, Ryuuen bared his teeth.
"...I will break you with my own two hands."
With murderous intent simmering below the surface, Ryuuen quietly vowed it.
After the twists and turns that resolved Sudo’s case, and the subsequent stalking incident involving Sakura...
"Where do you think you’re running? I’m just going to crush your lower half, so stand still."
"P-Please, spare me! Just call the police!"
While I kept a discreet watch on Sakura, I not only subdued the stalker the moment he struck but even attempted to trample his future—yes, I was determined to wipe him out completely.
Unfortunately, just as I thought I had him secured, Ayanokouji and Ichinose, who had been lying in wait nearby, summoned the police before I could finish him off.
Tch.
"Um, really, thank you so much..."
In the end, Sakura—who had screamed at the stalker to keep his distance—bowed repeatedly toward me as a word of gratitude after I drove him away.
She must have been terrified, especially given her timid nature.
I brushed it off as nothing, wrapped up the incident, and returned to my room. Lying on my bed, I mused,
'...I certainly used that insurance clause far too carelessly. This is going to be a headache.'
Originally, it was a backup plan in case no witness could be found—or if Ryuuen’s side were forced to come out with something. I never planned to send it to Ryuuen immediately; moreover, the fact that he was even involved in the hearing was highly irregular.
Anyway, if I hadn’t misjudged Ryuuen, he would soon uncover the truth.
'Namely, that the culprit is most likely either me or Ayanokouji.'
The timing had been impeccable. Just as Horikita was about to request a rehearing over the staged Class C incident, an anonymous threat email and an audio file arrived. Even without listening to the audio, the file even included a photo of me having turned Ishizaki into a rag—if Ryuuen was as clever as I suspected, he would have immediately grasped the implication.
Sure enough, the sight of Ryuuen conceding defeat in the nick of time and withdrawing the hearing before he could be caught red-handed was, in its own way, a spectacle.
'I need to bump Ryuuen’s danger level up a couple of notches. Unlike the clueless lot out there, this guy has real vision—and the drive to see it through.'
For a high schooler, he was truly something else. He exuded confidence in a fight, and
he might just be the perfect antidote to boredom on lazy days.
...That is, if I could continue to play from the shadows.
If Ryuuen wasn’t foolish, he’d sense the truth soon enough. The fact that the email was sent at such an exact moment meant the sender had been present during the hearing.
If we assume the email was triggered by Horikita’s sudden motion to request a rehearing, then the remaining suspects were Sudo, Ayanokouji, and me.
Since Sudo was already implicated, Ryuuen’s attention would narrow down to just Ayanokouji and me.
Whether one of us had actually attacked Ishizaki, or whether we were mere proxies while the real culprit operated in the background—or if both of us were involved—the possibilities were many. But one thing was clear: Ryuuen would soon realize our connection to the shadow mastermind behind it all.
What troubled me even more than Ryuuen uncovering that fact was...
'Ayanokouji...'
There were two candidates for the mastermind role, but what if one of them figured out the situation and thereby exonerated himself? Then the remaining one would automatically be branded the culprit.
If Ayanokouji caught wind of this... I couldn’t even begin to predict his reaction. Unlike Sudo, his actions were notoriously unpredictable.
'Ryuuen is no concern—he’s not on my level anyway... but Ayanokouji is a different story.'
Before I could make matters awkward by confessing everything to Horikita and jeopardizing my position further, I had to decide whether to silence Ayanokouji once and for all.
It was clear that tonight was going to be a long one.
Ding
"...Hm?"
11:44 p.m.
Who sends an email at this hour...?
[Sender: Ayanokouji Kiyotaka]
[Subject: I need to talk—meet me in the back alley where the Horikita siblings were fighting by midnight.]
[Body: None]
"...Hah? This bastard."
Taking the initiative, he wanted to make the first move?
Time passed. 12:27 a.m.
I stepped into the narrow alley beside the vending machine I’d seen before. There, leaning against the wall and gazing blankly at the sky, stood Ayanokouji.
"You're late, Ian."
"Sorry—I had to prepare a bit. So, what did you want to talk about?"
Despite my roughly thirty-minute delay, Ayanokouji didn’t even spare me a glance as he spoke. I maintained a casual distance, trying to ease into the conversation.
"By the way, calling me out here at this hour... do you have a thing for these kinds of midnight rendezvous?"
"That tone and your choice of words aren’t like you. Did you pick up those jokes from Ike?"
...Busted. It seemed that no amount of cheap tricks would work on him.
"...What exactly do you want to talk about?"
"Yet you don’t seem suspicious at all. When Horikita and the student council president caused a ruckus here before, you were sure to hide, thinking you wouldn’t be noticed. So why aren’t you questioning how I know about that?"
He phrased it in an annoyingly convoluted way—as if questioning it in the first place were absurd.
"...What are you getting at?"
"If you're trying to imitate Kushida, cut it out. You know this isn’t the time for that."
Imitating Kushida? What on earth was he talking about now? Did Kushida have anything to do with this?
"...Fine. So that's your game? Alright, I get it. I'll drop the act."
Now that I had a rough idea of his intent, there was no need for further pretense.
"You asked why I wasn’t suspicious, right? Isn’t the answer obvious? You sent that because you were sure it was me. Otherwise, would that not be an insanely dumb move?"
"Your tone just changed."
"Says you, Ayanokouji."
...Alright, let’s be honest.
I had repeatedly told myself to ignore the possibility, to look away and pretend not to know.
But now that he had seen through me, there was no more hiding.
And mind you, "hiding" here wasn’t just about deceiving Ayanokouji...
It was also about fooling myself.
"Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, son of Ayanokouji Atsuomi."
At these words, Ayanokouji’s eyes flashed with recognition, and in an instant he closed the gap between us.
I had anticipated this. Slipping past his reaching hand, I hooked his leg to knock him off balance. Yet Ayanokouji quickly planted a hand on the ground and delivered a swift back kick to keep me at bay.
'Quick.'
His reaction speed and athleticism far surpassed those of a small fry like Sudo—and his strength was equally formidable.
I raised both hands to guard against his kick and leapt backward to widen the distance between us.
Still maintaining an acrobatic stance with one hand on the ground from his previous kick, Ayanokouji swiftly regained his footing, brushed himself off, and glared at me.
"Who are you? An assassin sent by that man?"
"What are you babbling about?"
"...So you’re not one of those from the White Room? I thought very few people even know his name."
"Ah, so that's what you're implying."
I scratched my head and replied,
"If you’re asking whether I’m involved, then yes—I am. I come from that world too. Well, I quit midway, anyway."
"...Quit? Is that even possible?"
"You don’t know what happened to those who were discarded, do you? I wasn’t discarded, but regardless, I’m from the same fourth generation as you are."
"...I don't remember that."
"Do you even recall any of your classmates? You have those dead-fish eyes."
"...Dead-fish eyes?"
"Ah, sorry. That was a nickname I gave you."
"...Not exactly a flattering one."
"Anyway. I know you. The man who put me through that experiment was him, and he’s the one who got me out."
(Strictly speaking, I negotiated my release.)
"...So what exactly does that mean? You're not an assassin?"
"Hey, hey. First off, I don’t even know why you’re here, and second, I’m just a regular student who took the entrance exam like everyone else—unlike you."
"...Unlike me?"
"You're a special case, aren’t you? That’s what the chairman told me."
".........What exactly are you?"
"What am I? Just your average student, really..."
Before I could finish, Ayanokouji closed the distance again and attacked. This time, it wasn’t a strike...
'Grappling...!'
Lowering his body and charging toward my thigh in a textbook tackle motion, I instinctively lowered myself in response.
But then it hit me.
'It’s a feint...!'
The angle of his trailing leg was slightly off—as if he were using the recoil to spring his body.
Suppose he was faking a tackle; then what would be the most effective counter if I lowered my stance?
'Hit him in the chin with my head...!'
This guy... he was actually trying to execute that move in real life!
In any case, having read his intention, instead of lowering my stance further to counter his feint, I decided to let the tackle complete and allow him to mount me.
It was risky to allow someone like him to get into mount position—even if a scruffy fighter like Sudo might not pose much danger—but...
'Jiu-jitsu.'
Perhaps he expected me to dodge, and was taken off guard; escaping his grip turned out to be surprisingly simple.
Using the recoil, I rolled and hooked his entire leg, reversing our positions.
"Damn..."
For the first time, Ayanokouji's surprise was evident. He reacted instantly, and in the end, we were forced to separate.
Then, before he could recover his stance, I was the first to get back on my feet and dash toward him.
'Right into his face with a knee.'
A knee strike reminiscent of a Muay Thai attack.
But instead of dodging, Ayanokouji...
"Hey, hey...! Who normally blocks a knee strike with their forehead?"
He instead tamed the blow with his forehead, minimizing the impact as the attack slid off.
I had barely registered his bold decision when...
'Tch...!'
Sure, he likely took some damage too, but I never expected him to take the full hit head-on—so the impact that slammed into my knee made me wince.
It felt just like retribution for what I had suffered during that tackle, and it was downright infuriating.
"Hm..."
Even as he clutched his shaking head, Ayanokouji reached out with his other hand as if to grab me.
'What relentless persistence.'
At a moment like that—when he seemed ready to take on any injury if it meant pinning me down—I swiftly swatted his hand away and put more distance between us.
'...My knee aches something fierce. I hope I haven't damaged the cartilage.'
I had thrown that knee strike with no protection, so there was no avoiding a bit of damage. Ayanokouji, too, appeared to have taken a hit.
"Hey. What the hell are you trying to do?"
"...Hm? Aren't you coming at me?"
In response to my query, Ayanokouji, delicately touching the blood trickling from a split on his forehead, retorted,
"We didn’t come here to fight. You called me out, and you were the one who struck first."
"...Your tone, your attitude at school—aren't you supposed to be that assassin sent by that man to get me expelled?"
"I've been saying it from the start, you lunatic. I'm not!"
"That’s the first time I’ve heard you say that."
"...Is that so?"
We might have had a similar exchange before, but this was the first time I had so firmly denied it.
"No—listen, Ayanokouji! Whether you’re Atsuomi’s son or not, you have nothing to do with me. I enrolled here solely because I took the entrance exam at the chairman’s invitation, and after leaving the White Room, I severed all ties with that world. As for you, I only wondered if there might be a connection because you share Atsuomi’s surname. Nothing more, nothing less."
"...So what’s your conclusion?"
"I'm not your enemy."
For now.
There was no need to elaborate further at that moment.
After a moment’s pause, Ayanokouji seemed to consider my words before saying,
"Understood."
He raised both hands in a clear gesture of no hostility.
"...For someone who attacked first, you're taking this so lightly."
"I figured it would be more useful not to turn you into an enemy than to get bogged down in details. Initially, I intended to subdue you and grill you for answers... but that wasn’t looking easy. Besides, stirring up more trouble in the middle of the night might attract unwanted attention. I’d rather keep a low profile."
"I agree."
When I expressed my partial agreement, Ayanokouji fixed his glare on me and asked,
"...So, the guy who doesn’t want to stand out is the one who forced Ryuuen to turn the hearing into this mess?"
"It was a sort of insurance policy—a backup plan in case no witness could be found. Relying on a single plan is for amateurs."
"Even so, you picked a dangerously reckless moment to threaten Ryuuen."
"Hey, you saw it too. If Horikita hadn’t lost his temper, I wouldn’t have needed that backup at all. My original aim was simply to shorten Sudo’s suspension."
"...Even if you hadn’t threatened Ryuuen, had the rehearing been approved, I would have handled it myself. Did you not consider that?"
"I only became sure you were Atsuomi’s son this very moment. In Class D, where everyone else looks like monkeys, who would I expect to solve this for me?"
"...A poor question. If you don’t want to attract attention, being ordinary would suffice."
"That’s too bland. It’s boring. I felt it when I first left the White Room, and I felt it even during my time inside—it all just lacks the necessary spark."
"...Are you insane? Or addicted to thrill-seeking...? Either way, that’s not exactly normal thinking."
"You're the one saying that, you antisocial, dead-fish-eyed bastard."
That guy was hitting me right where it hurt.
Really—should we just start fighting all over again?
Judging by the way strength was gathering in his right hand, Ayanokouji seemed to be thinking the same thing. But in the end, both of us sighed and declared,
"Haa... forget it."
"...What a pain. What are we even doing?"
In the end, we both realized that there was nothing to gain by settling this here and now.
"...For now, let's call it a night. We still have school tomorrow."
"What’s the point? You sleep through everything except class anyway."
"You never sleep in class. Honestly, listening to something you already know is as boring as it gets."
"...Fair enough."
Without further ado, the two of us left the back alley and walked together toward the dormitory.
Passing by the vending machine, I said,
"I'm going to grab a drink. Want one?"
"...Orange juice."
"Got it."
I picked up my green tea and Ayanokouji’s orange juice, then stood in front of the dorm building, gazing up at the moon.
Damn, my knee hurt like hell—but the moon was breathtaking.
"...So the information about the S-System that Hirata once brought over, and the details about the midterm test questions that Kushida provided—those were all your doing?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah. Right. When I just got into school, I thought all that would be interesting, so I put in some effort. Figured I might as well help out some of the troublemakers while I was at it."
"...You must have spent quite a few points. If you're trying not to stand out, why deliberately draw attention with that kind of act? What, an inferiority complex or a hero complex?"
"Have I ever admired that sort of thing? The books I read in the White Room were all dreadfully boring—I really wouldn’t know."
I said that, then casually tossed my empty plastic bottle into a nearby trash can.
"Honestly, I’m not all that interested in moving up to Class A. But I can’t stand being bored either. So I decided to make my move once. If it bothers you that much... I’ll stop meddling from behind the scenes."
"...Whatever—it doesn’t matter to me."
Ayanokouji also discarded his empty can and turned away from me.
So we're parting without even a proper goodbye? What a boring guy.
"Ah, right. Ayanokouji."
Came to think of it, there was something I wanted to say.
"Are you an idiot? The guy who claims not to seek attention is the one scoring fifty in every subject, making point deals with Chabashira, and so on... aren’t you the one drawing the most attention?"
"...Huh?"
"The student council president, your homeroom teacher, even Horikita—they’re all keeping an eye on you. You’re actually more of an attention-seeker than I am, aren’t you?"
"........You little—"
[Going up.]
At that moment, the elevator doors closed and began carrying me up to my floor.
Okay, one win for now.
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