Chapter 76 - Chapter 7: Ambiguous Things

FOR HASHIMOTO MASAYOSHI, the question of who to follow was trivial.

Actually, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that he didn't care at all. It didn't matter to him whether Sakayanagi or Katsuragi led Class A; he would simply use whoever served him best. That was all there was to it.

While he'd been fortunate enough to start out in Class A, he had considered the possibility of dropping down to Class B or Class C along the way. The important thing for him was to get into a position where he could turn the tables on his foes, whoever they were, and pull off a late-stage victory in the end. That was precisely why he'd made contact with Ryuuen Kakeru at an early stage in his rise to power, sensing his potential. Ryuuen was a person of exceptional talent, capable of defeating both Sakayanagi and Ichinose. Hashimoto recognized his unsettling power.

If necessary, Hashimoto wouldn't hesitate to leak information about Class A to Ryuuen. Of course, he was currently conducting reconnaissance on Sakayanagi's behalf, at most. However, if Ryuuen ever did surpass the others, Hashimoto was prepared to betray Sakayanagi.

He'd also set his sights on Ichinose from Class B, in the same fashion. But Ichinose wasn't like Ryuuen and Sakayanagi. You couldn't engage her with shady, underhanded tactics. And so, rather than trying to force the issue, Hashimoto chose instead to remove the obstacles in the way of his objective.

He'd made contact with a girl in Class B who was close to Ichinose.

He wasn't able to get her to go so far as to betray Ichinose, but the connection had been established at least, and he went on to establish similar relationships with people from each of the four classes. There was simply no such thing as having too much insurance against unexpected events.

And today, he was trying to make preliminary arrangements in preparation for one such "unexpected event."

"U-um, Hashimoto-kun, do you have a minute?"

One of Hashimoto's classmates, a girl named Motodoi Chikako, called

out to him in the hallway after class. Like Hashimoto, she was in the tennis club. Apparently, she'd run after him after he left the classroom. She looked nervous and fidgety.

Hashimoto immediately understood what was happening without her saying a word. Today was February 14th. He'd already experienced this sort of thing many times. Of course, even though he understood what was going on, he didn't let it show on his face. Nor did he say a word.

"What's up, Motodoi? Something you wanna talk to me about?" he asked gently.

At that, Motodoi seemed to gather the courage to come out with it. "Here, for you. Chocolate. Because it's Valentine's Day today," she replied, handing some chocolate to Hashimoto, which he immediately accepted.

"Thanks, Motodoi. This makes me really happy." "I-I'm glad!"

Hashimoto had noticed some time ago that Motodoi had been looking at him fondly for a while now. The chocolate she'd just given him was undoubtedly an expression of romantic feelings. While he felt confident that she'd say yes if he asked her to go out with him, he felt nothing whatsoever for Motodoi in return.

For better or worse, he thought of her only as someone who wasn't worth using. He had already determined that there was absolutely zero benefit to going out with her.

"You should drop by the club every now and again," she added. "Sorry. Guess I've been skipping all the time lately, huh?" "Seriously! Our senpai are so totally exasperated."

"I'll remember that. Anyway, I'll make sure to thank you properly next month," Hashimoto said.

"O-okay."

Motodoi blushed, nodded, and then ran off, as if trying to escape her embarrassment. There was absolutely no chance that he'd go out with her, but Hashimoto still left the option open by hinting to her about it. Something might change in the future, after all.

He sped up his pace a bit as he made his way to first-year Class C, trying to make up for lost time. There was currently one person occupying far more of his attention than Motodoi, and it was a boy from Class C named Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

"Why can't I stop thinking about him?" murmured Hashimoto. A part of him couldn't help but wonder.

Prior to the school camp, Ayanokouji hadn't even been on Hashimoto's radar. He'd barely known what he looked like. He remembered that Ayanokouji ran a fierce race against the former student council president during the sports festival, but that was it, and Hashimoto wasn't about to drastically change his evaluation of someone just because they were a fast runner. More importantly, he didn't pay Ayanokouji much mind because both Sakayanagi and Ryuuen, who had keen instincts when it came to sussing out other powerful people, didn't seem to be paying Ayanokouji any extra attention.

However, something had happened recently to make him change his mind about Ayanokouji. A puzzling remark made by the student council president, Nagumo Miyabi. Miyabi had made a mysterious claim that Horikita Manabu held Ayanokouji in higher regard than he did anyone else. Hashimoto tried to dismiss the idea as nothing more than a joke, but he couldn't do it.

In retrospect, the signs were all there. Why did Ayanokouji and the former student council president directly confront one another during the sports festival relay? What if that wasn't mere coincidence, but intentional? What if there was a reason they'd wanted to make a big show of competing against one another? Those questions began to swirl around in Hashimoto's head.

Additionally, he remained unsure about the matter of Ishizaki and the others supposedly overthrowing Ryuuen. Class C had been Class D, the lowest-ranked class by far, back in the spring. But they began steadily closing the gap between them and the upper-level classes. What if Ayanokouji had something to do with it…?

"What if he surpasses both Sakayanagi and Ryuuen…?" wondered Hashimoto.

As of this moment, he couldn't really imagine that happening. All he

had to go on was mere suspicions; a series of paranoid delusions that might have gone too far. He was missing a crucial part of the puzzle. Nagumo's words might have been nothing more than an unfounded joke; what happened at the sports festival relay might just have been a product of Hashimoto's imagination.

Which was why he was taking action to discover the truth. While acting under Sakayanagi's orders to spread rumors about

Ichinose, Hashimoto had recently found himself with some free time to spare.

He'd spent it following Ayanokouji around to try to find out what he was up to. Now, he arrived at Class C, only to find Ayanokouji was already gone.

"You never waste any time, huh, Ayanokouji?"

Perhaps because his circle of friends was rather limited, Ayanokouji hardly ever stayed back in the classroom after classes ended for the day. Was he with that close group of friends of his again today, Hashimoto wondered, the one including Miyake and Yukimura and the others? But Yukimura and Sakura were still in the classroom, so he eliminated that possibility.

"Yo, Hirata." Just standing there idly and observing another class would draw attention to himself, so Hashimoto quickly called out to Hirata, who hadn't yet left to go to his club.

"Oh, hey there, Hashimoto-kun. What's up?" replied Hirata. "Just came by to check and see whether you got yourself a new

girlfriend."

"Well, I'm not really thinking about jumping into another relationship right now."

"So you're still in the process of mending your broken heart, eh?" "Ha ha… Something like that, I suppose," said Hirata.

"You'll have to tell me more about it sometime, then. Oh, by the way, I've been trying to get contact info for the guys I was with back at the school camp. I was thinking I'd ask Ayanokouji next, but it looks like he's already left," said Hashimoto.

"You didn't bump into him? I think he only just left a minute or two ago…"

Just a hair too late, then. Hashimoto, quickly determining that he might still be able to catch up to Ayanokouji, thanked Hirata and immediately stepped back out into the hallway.

It was almost time for the year-end exams. Even he couldn't afford to spend every day doing nothing but chasing after Ayanokouji. He wanted to come to a definite conclusion, and he wanted to do so quickly, so he could shift his attention to prepping for the exams and be ready to take them in top form.

"Man, hope I get something soon," he muttered to himself.

If there was a chance, he would take it. And so he continued chasing after Ayanokouji.

As luck would have it, Ayanokouji was by the entrance, fiddling with his phone. Was he waiting to meet with someone? Or was he just killing time? Either way, it seemed like Hashimoto's luck was holding.

Ayanokouji was almost incessantly fiddling with his phone to communicate with people. It was unclear whether he was talking to Miyake and the other people in that group, or if he was communicating with someone who Hashimoto didn't know. The only thing he did know for sure was that Ayanokouji was an extremely easy person for him to track.

He'd been tailing several students so far: Katsuragi, Ryuuen, Kanzaki, and sometimes even Ichinose. None of them were all that easy to follow. If he got a bead on them once in two days, he considered himself lucky. And sometimes, when they gave him the slip, he'd go almost a whole week without knowing what they were up to.

However, Ayanokouji's daily routine was ironclad, and his circle of friends was extremely small. This made it incredibly easy to anticipate where he was going to be. On top of that, Ayanokouji seemed to have no awareness whatsoever of what was going on around him. He never paid attention to anything behind him, and he never gave any indication of having a keen sense of intuition, not even that he had accidentally detected Hashimoto following him.

Even so, Hashimoto wasn't so careless as to let his guard down. He followed Ayanokouji while keeping sufficient distance between them, just to be completely safe.

Then, his phone rang. It was one of his classmates, Shimizu Naoki. "Hey, what's up, Naoki?"

"Well… To tell you the truth, it's about what happened this morning… Seriously, dude, I give up. This sucks."

"I know, dude. Hey, it's probably best just to forget about it, all right?

We just have a lot of people who like to talk in our class is all."

A minor problem had cropped up that morning in Class A, which Hashimoto belonged to. Apparently, the girls of Class A had found out that Shimizu had confessed his feelings to one of their classmates, a girl named Nishikawa. And that she'd turned him down. Nishikawa had probably inadvertently let the fact of Shimizu's confession slip out to her friends, and it had spread. It happened all the time.

"Dude, you're never going to get anyone to go out with you if you worry about each and every little thing, you know?" said Hashimoto.

"Y-yeah, I guess so, but… Seriously dude, I just can't forgive Nishikawa for this."

"Well, as much as I'd love to stick around and listen to you complain, I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."

"Oh, really? Sorry, man."

Hashimoto promised that he'd call him back that night and then ended the call.

"That's just what happens when you ask someone out without first making sure you've met all the conditions for success," he muttered after he hung up.

Resolving to console Shimizu later, Hashimoto followed Ayanokouji back to the dormitory.

"If he's heading straight back, then I guess I'm not getting anything today either, huh?"

The worst part of tailing Ayanokouji was probably the almost complete lack of variety. However, the elevator had passed the fourth floor, the location of Ayanokouji's room. It continued to ascend for a while. Hashimoto watched the monitor, observing Ayanokouji getting off alone on a floor

where the girls were residing.

"If I remember correctly… That's Ichinose's floor, isn't it?" he said

aloud.

It might be a coincidence. Ayanokouji might be meeting some other

girl. But given what had been happening lately, Hashimoto couldn't help but connect the dots to Ichinose, even if he didn't want to.

"Since it's Ichinose, though, I guess it's possible he's just paying a simple visit…?"

While Ayanokouji had a small circle of friends, Ichinose was highly popular, liked by students across all grade levels. It wouldn't be surprising for her to be friends with Ayanokouji. Also, she was pretty cute. Plenty of students might be making a point of visiting her, maybe hoping to spark something by doing so.

Regardless, Ayanokouji got back on the elevator soon after. This time, he got off at the fourth floor, which was where his room was.

"What…?"

Hashimoto struggled to understand what in the world Ayanokouji was doing. On the monitor, he saw several girls from Class B entering the elevator from the floor Ichinose resided on. Hashimoto deduced that they'd come to visit her before Ayanokouji, causing him to decide to turn back when he bumped into them.

Just in case, Hashimoto quickly took the elevator up to the fourth floor.

But Ayanokouji was gone, almost certainly back in his room. "In the end, I got nothing today either, huh," he muttered.

After pondering whether or not to call it quits for now, he decided to

mull over the situation for a while in the lobby. It was still early. There was still a good chance that Ayanokouji would make contact with Ichinose later, or that he might be making plans to go out and see someone else. If Ayanokouji hopped on the elevator, Hashimoto would be able to see whether he was headed up or down on the monitor.

His decision to hang around a bit longer paid off just about an hour later. Ayanokouji got on the elevator and began descending toward a lower floor. Additionally, he was still in his uniform.

"Is he heading back to the school building?"

It made no sense for him to be heading back out now, after going through all the trouble of heading back to the dorms. If he were headed to the convenience store and didn't want to bother changing his clothes, that might explain it…but Ayanokouji had his school bag with him.

Hashimoto immediately got up off the sofa and hid near the emergency

stairs. said.

"All right, here's hoping something interesting is about to happen," he As if Hashimoto's wish had just been granted, Ayanokouji exited the

lobby and walked toward a relatively isolated area of campus. This pretty

much put paid to the possibility of him heading to the school building or the convenience store. So was he meeting with someone? But…the place he was headed really wasn't well suited to casual hangouts.

All things considered, Hashimoto was sure he was up to something, and that he was meeting someone. If it turned out to be the former student council president Horikita, or Ryuuen, then things would be heating up for sure.

His expectations, however, were overturned quite unexpectedly. "Whoa, whoa, are you serious…?" he murmured aloud.

The person who turned up to meet Ayanokouji was none other than

Karuizawa Kei, from first-year Class C. She was quite the hot topic, even in Class A, after recently breaking up with Hirata. Hashimoto had had almost no contact with her himself, so he couldn't control his surprise at her unexpected appearance.

Disappointment washed over him. His expectations had been totally shattered.

This had nothing to do with the "hidden side" of Ayanokouji that he'd been trying to discover. This was simply a romantic affair. Hashimoto tried automatically to arrive at a different interpretation for the scene before him, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't help but feel like the two of them shared something more than a regular friendship. He'd witnessed Hirata and Karuizawa on dates several times before, but never sensed much

intimacy between them or gotten the feeling they were lovers. "…I don't get it. Why Ayanokouji?"

Which of them was romantically interested in the other? Or were they both interested in each other? Hashimoto tried to hazard a guess, but came up blank. Romance was never logical, anyway. After all, if he were to objectively compare Hirata and Ayanokouji, 80 percent of girls would probably choose Hirata. The remaining 20 percent might choose Ayanokouji as an alternative to having nothing at all. In short…

"The person who Ayanokouji has been in frequent contact with is Karuizawa…?"

Hashimoto quickly ditched that idea. It was just his imagination. Just something he had selfishly latched onto to explain the current situation. He needed to investigate further to know the truth.

However, he couldn't hear the details of their conversation. It wasn't like he could just casually stroll up close to them either, since this was a place students didn't often frequent.

"What should I do…?" he mused aloud. No matter how hard he tried, he was at a loss.

Then the scene took an unexpected turn. "Chocolates, huh?" said Hashimoto.

Karuizawa handed Ayanokouji something she had been holding. Today was February 14th. If she was handing him something in secret, where no one was around to see, then he could easily guess what it was even without seeing what it was inside. If nothing else, this proved that Karuizawa had developed a romantic interest in Ayanokouji.

"Well, guess that's it for today, then."

It was completely unrelated to the information that Hashimoto had sought to discover. But just as he came to that conclusion and thought to head on back to the dorm, he stopped in his tracks.

"Since I've got this chance…maybe I should try to pick a fight with

him?"

Considering how close they were to the year-end exams, it could be

said that this was a valuable opportunity. He could shake things up, throw Ayanokouji off balance by forcibly dragging Karuizawa into the equation. This was a chance to expose Ayanokouji's secrets. And if nothing came of it…then he might be able to conclude once and for all that Ayanokouji was no threat to him.

His mind made up, Hashimoto quickly headed over toward Ayanokouji and Karuizawa.

7.1

I SENSED SOMEONE APPROACHING US from behind, moving quickly. It was obvious from their movement that they didn't want to miss the chance to see me and Kei in close proximity to each other like this.

"Yo, Karuizawa. Oh, and Ayanokouji too."

It was Hashimoto, who had been hiding his presence and tailing after me since I left the lobby.

"…Uh, who is he?" Kei, not seeming to know who Hashimoto was, looked to me for an answer.

"Hashimoto, from Class A. I was with him during the school camp." After greeting us, Hashimoto approached Kei.

"Whoa, for a guy and a girl to have a secret rendezvous like this… you're quite the smooth operator, aren't ya, Ayanokouji?"

I'd known Hashimoto would try to make contact eventually. So this was the moment he'd chosen, huh? In that case, I'd just have to turn his plans to my own benefit.

"It's not like we're really doing any—"

"Don't try to hide it. It's Valentine's Day. Even if you're not dating, I'm not surprised you two set up a whole secret rendezvous. In fact, it looks like you got something from her," said Hashimoto. He'd witnessed me receiving chocolate from Kei and immediately putting it in my bag.

"She just happened to give me chocolates by coincidence. It wasn't like we were meeting intentionally."

I tried to deny it, but Hashimoto snickered, seeing through my excuse. "No, come on, man. You knew she was going to be giving you chocolates from the very beginning, didn't you? I mean, your bag."

"My bag?"

"You already went back to your dorm room, so there was no reason for you to bring your school bag when you went back out. Right?"

"…Well, I was actually planning on heading over to the library originally. It's just that Karuizawa called me right before I left, and I agreed to meet her. That's what happened."

"So…you're saying it's just a coincidence, then?"

I nodded in response to Hashimoto's question, then took two books out of my school bag, showing them to him.

"Well, it's all the same, in any case. You still got chocolate from Karuizawa, anyway." From Hashimoto's point of view, it didn't matter that I hadn't been the one who reached out to Karuizawa. What mattered was the fact that I had gotten chocolate from her.

"I don't really get it, but… Is there some kind of problem?" I asked. "I'm just curious about why she's attracted to you is all. I mean, come

on, Karuizawa's ex is Hirata. One of the most popular guys in the entire school, you know? So, what, she picks you after dumping Hirata?"

So he wanted to know how things had gotten to this point. Kei, who had been listening in silence so far, opened her mouth to speak.

"Uh, sorry, but I think there's kind of a misunderstanding here." "Misunderstanding?"

"Yeah. I actually meant to give the chocolate to Hirata-kun originally.

But I kinda thought it would be, like, a waste to just throw it away. So, I thought I'd give it to someone, and I just happened to choose Ayanokouji- kun," said Kei.

"You hand over an intimate gift like chocolate, and then say it was just at random? And in a place like this, on top of that? Come on, that's a lie. And it's a pretty lame one too," said Hashimoto with a laugh.

Kei looked visibly angry.

"Excuse me?" she demanded, pinning him with an intense look. "Where do you get off, just showing up out of nowhere and spouting nonsense at us? What in the hell is your deal?"

"I just want to know the truth," said Hashimoto, looking a little cowed.

All things said and done, it was true that we'd done nothing to hide the suspicious circumstances of our meeting. I pivoted and came at things from

another direction. This would be a chance for Kei to prove her skills. Prove how well she could keep up with me.

"Come on. Don't you think it's best if you're honest about what's going on here, Karuizawa? I think it'll just come back to bite us later if we try to hide it?" I told Kei, handing the baton to her. "I mean, if he thinks we're dating, then that'll be bad, right?"

Without hesitation, she let out a dramatic sigh.

"Agh. All right, all right. I'll come out with it. But this does not get spread around, okay?" said Kei, pointing her finger at Hashimoto. "I'm entrusting the chocolate to Ayanokouji-kun to hold on to. So that he can give it to the person I like."

"So… you're saying that Ayanokouji is the middleman?" he asked. "Yes, exactly. Get the picture?" said Kei.

The look on Hashimoto's face seemed to say that he just couldn't believe it.

"Okay, then, who's the chocolate actually for?" he said, continuing to press us.

"Huh? I'm not going to tell that to someone I just met. Are you an idiot or something?" said Kei. She was clearly trying to agitate him, but nothing about her response rang false. It was all in accordance with the image of the popular gyaru that Karuizawa Kei had constructed for herself.

"That's… Well, I suppose you've got a point," said Hashimoto, looking somewhat shocked. He bowed his head apologetically.

"Okay, look, you're not gonna smooth this all over just by bowing your head at me. Seriously, give me a break," said Kei.

"…I see. It seems like I really misunderstood things here. Sorry 'bout that. When I thought that you two might like each other, I just couldn't help but get suspicious," said Hashimoto.

"Okay, and why are you sticking your nose in something that has nothing to do with you in the first place?" said Kei.

"Well, regarding that point, you can't really say that it's got nothing to do with me."

"Huh?"

Hashimoto walked toward the still-angry Kei. He reached out his arm and pushed against the wall, blocking Kei in.

"Hey, wh-what? What is it?"

"You know, I've been thinking about this for a while now. Go out with me, Karuizawa. I don't know who your next true love might be, but if you haven't given anyone your chocolate yet, then that means you haven't expressed your feelings. Isn't that right?" He kept going, adding forcefully, "It's not too late, even now."

"What are you even talking about…? You seriously think I'd be okay with that?!"

"Love's an interesting thing, because you never know what's going to happen. You know?" said Hashimoto, shooting a sharp glance at me for an instant. He might be trying to provoke a response from me by aggressively hitting on Kei.

"Well, I'll be going then," I said. "Huh? W-wait, I'm heading back too."

Kei put her hand to Hashimoto's chest, forcibly pushed him back, and

then took her distance from him.

"That was cold," said Hashimoto, with a bitter smile on his face. It didn't seem like he intended to keep pushing things any further today. Or rather, it seemed like he no longer had any interest in Kei.

Kei surveyed the situation, deliberately let out an exasperated sigh, and then headed on back to the dorms.

"Sorry," Hashimoto said to me. "For butting in and all, at such a bad

time."

"Nah, no big deal."

We walked side by side until the point where the path to the dormitory

and the school building split.

"Anyway, seems like you've got a lot to worry about in your love life too, huh?" asked Hashimoto.

"What are you saying?"

He put his hand on my shoulder, and whispered in my ear, "I'm talking 'bout how an inexperienced girl probably won't be able to take your huge you-know-what, dude." He wore a smile on his face, as if he were teasing me.

Seriously, this again…?

"Hey, dude, don't look so exasperated about it. You know, there's quite a few people tipping their hat to you because of it," he added.

That didn't make me at all happy to know. If anything, I was starting to resent the school camp more and more for causing this to happen.

"So, anyway, King. Exchange contact info with me," said Hashimoto. "I'll do it as long as you never use that nickname you just suddenly

came up with ever again," I replied.

"Ha ha ha ha! All right, I won't, I won't."

I went ahead and swapped contact information with Hashimoto, who apologized to me as he pulled out his cell phone.

"Welp, guess I'll be heading on back then. See ya later, Ayanokouji," he said and left.

Hashimoto came and went, like a passing storm. Did he think he'd collected enough information for now? Or did he just want to avoid pushing the issue any further?

Regardless, my true nature should remain shrouded in mystery in his mind for now. As long as things continued this way, of course.

I decided to stop by the library and see Hiyori, who was probably there waiting for me. There was also one other person whom I had promised to meet at school.

7.2

SINCE I'D GOTTEN BACK to the dorms later than planned, I couldn't meet up with the Ayanokouji Group after all. When I made it back to my room just before seven o'clock, I saw a paper bag had been placed in front of my door. Within it were two differently wrapped packages, one square and one round.

Each package had names handwritten on them. They were Valentine's chocolates from Haruka and Airi, as I'd already been alerted to by messages posted in our chat. Akito and Keisei had received the same thing.

I entered my room and lined up the chocolates on top of my desk. "I never expected to get five…" I said aloud.

Kei, Airi, Haruka, Hiyori. And one more. It was a box of chocolates that was wrapped with a lovely pink ribbon.

Later that night, after ten o'clock, I stepped out into the hallway with a hoodie on over my casual clothes. I got in the elevator, knowing the cameras inside it were placed in such a way that my face was hidden. Just a precautionary measure in the unlikely event that something did happen. I would have preferred to have this meeting elsewhere, but if she was resting because she didn't feel well, then it couldn't be helped.

It was late enough that Ichinose might already be asleep, but I'd confirmed that she was still awake ahead of time by sending her a message, having gotten her contact information from Horikita. However, I didn't tell her that I was coming to her room.

I got to Ichinose's floor and stood in front of her door.

I rang the doorbell. Ten seconds passed. Then twenty seconds. I heard nothing from inside the room, so I rang the doorbell once again. I supposed it was only natural that Ichinose might be confused about someone coming to visit her in the middle of the night.

After about thirty seconds had passed, I decided to speak up. "Hey, it's me, Ichinose. It's Ayanokouji."

It was past curfew. Hanging out on her floor for too long could get me in trouble, and Ichinose probably understood that. She wouldn't carelessly abandon someone to face that kind of danger.

"…Ayanokouji… kun? What's up?" replied Ichinose, her voice coming from the other side of the door.

She sounded weak, and I heard her begin to cough immediately after. It was hard to tell just from how she sounded if she was really ill, though.

"There are a few important things I'd like to talk to you about. I was hoping I could come in and talk to you. Is that not okay?"

"No, it's fine… um…"

"To tell the truth, it'll be bad if another girl sees me out here," I said, urging her more forcefully.

"Wait just a second, okay?"

Moments later, I heard the sound of the lock being disengaged from inside the room. When Ichinose opened the door, she looked so visibly down in the dumps that I almost couldn't believe it.

"Nyahaha. You were being a little aggressive there, Ayanokouji- kun…" she mumbled. She was wearing a surgical mask, clearly not feeling well. Seemed like she wasn't faking being sick after all.

"Sorry about that. I was definitely a bit aggressive. You really don't look like you're feeling that well, huh," I told her.

"Yeah… I'm just a little bit of a mess right now…" "Sorry for visiting you at such a bad time."

"No, no, it's okay. My fever has mostly subsided. I guess it's more like I just feel all bleh because I slept way too much, and I'm hungry? Oh, I'm sorry to ask this, but could you put this mask on?" said Ichinose.

She presented me with a mask, so that I wouldn't catch her cold. My immune system was pretty robust, but I wasn't immune to illness, and I was sure Ichinose would feel awful if I thoughtlessly refused her request and then did catch her cold. I put the mask on without a moment's hesitation.

"So have you been to the clinic?" "I went there during the week."

A lot of students thought that Ichinose was faking being sick to get away from all the rumors circulating about her. Apparently, that wasn't the case. She was genuinely sick.

"You were worried that I've been missing class because of those rumors, huh? Thanks for worrying about me," said Ichinose.

"No, I…"

Did she see through me and guess what I was thinking?

"You're the first person who I've met with face-to-face like this since I've been sick, Ayanokouji-kun," she said.

"Is that so?"

"There were some girls who came back to visit me when my fever was pretty bad, but even though I felt bad about it, I had to turn them away since I wasn't feeling up to it. Since then, I guess my other friends must think I'm feeling depressed, because it seems like they've been holding back from coming by," said Ichinose.

I'd come to visit her much later than everyone else, and yet, I was her first visitor since she'd gotten sick, huh? Ironic.

The situation seemed simple enough: Ichinose was resting because she was sick. But when I considered her past behavior, I didn't have to think too hard to come to the realization that she was the kind of person who paid careful consideration to monitoring her health. Not to mention that the year- end exams were right around the corner. She would have wanted to avoid getting sick at all costs during a time like this, leaving me certain that she'd caught a cold because her immune system had been weakened by the psychological ordeal she was suffering.

Not that she was going to admit that, of course. "I'm not going to take a day off just because of those rumors," said Ichinose.

"You're really tough," I told her.

"Tough, huh…? Oh, sorry, but could you please close the entranceway door for me? I had it open to ventilate the room a bit, but now it's gotten a bit cold… Oh, and please make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after you get back," she replied.

"Okay."

She had been running the humidifier inside the room to prevent it from getting too dry. The flu virus thrives best in dry, low-temperature environments, and warming the air around you is, therefore, an excellent way to eliminate that virus. If you scoffed at the idea of taking such precautions, then you dramatically increased your chances of prolonging your cold or passing it to someone who came to visit. The dryness of the air was the main reason why colds tended to last longer in the winter.

That said, it was a little odd that I'd been visiting girls' rooms and having girls come to my room so often of late, and yet absolutely none of those visits had had anything to do with romance.

"Is something wrong…?" asked Ichinose, giving me a puzzled look as I examined her humidifier.

"I'm sorry that I came by and bothered you while you're resting," I replied.

"Oh, no, it's okay, really. It's true that it would be safer if I didn't meet with anyone right now, but it's probably a better idea for me to actually let people know I caught a cold, I suppose."

It seemed she was well aware of the widespread speculation that she was faking being sick. As if to prove it, Ichinose showed me her phone. It looked like she'd had several exchanges with Horikita. I guessed that Horikita was still worried about Ichinose and was showing it in her own way.

We didn't talk for long after that. I decided to leave as soon as possible and did so at the next good opportunity that presented itself.

7.3

THE DAY OF THE PRACTICE test had come—a day on which each class would have to focus on their own exam. However, the classroom was full of students engaged in chattering, rather than studying. And they weren't talking about things like vocabulary and test preparation either. The topics of conversation I overheard were all completely unrelated to the exams.

"It's pretty lively in here, huh," I said aloud.

"Well, of course it is," said Horikita. "Isn't it obvious? It's because of the crazy rumors we've been hearing this morning."

"Crazy rumors? More news about Ichinose?"

"No. New rumors, and they're causing chaos within Class C." "New rumors…huh." Just a glance at the total chaos that was our

classroom made it clear this was no small thing.

"By the way, it seems they mention you, Ayanokouji-kun," said Horikita, showing me her phone. There were four rumors described on her notes app.

"This is—"

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka has a crush on Karuizawa Kei. Hondou Ryoutarou is only interested in chubby girls.

Shinohara Satsuki engaged in prostitution when she was in junior high.

Satou Maya hates Onodera Kayano.

The contents of the rumors were similar in nature. Four people, including me, were singled out and named directly as objects of ridicule.

"Where did this information come from?" I asked.

"Do you know about the bulletin boards that the school provides for each of the classes?"

"Yeah, if I recall, they're in the app, right?"

When students wanted to check the balance remaining on their

account, or something of the sort, they had to log in through the official school app. This app included forums and bulletin boards for student use, but because we had plenty of easy-to-use chat apps on our phones, the bulletin boards went ignored 99 percent of the time.

"That was a good catch, noticing those posts. Who was the first person to discover them?"

"By the time I got to the classroom, the rumors were already doing the rounds. I wonder if someone just happened to stumble upon the messages on the bulletin board when they were using the app? Also, you can tell when the board was last updated, apparently."

The bulletin boards weren't just used for classwork—there were several dedicated just to casual chatter. Since anyone could access them, there was a good chance these rumors had been seen by the other classes too.

"Aren't you curious about why the modus operandi this time around is different from the last time?"

"Regardless of whether this was committed by the same person or by someone else, there are countless ways to spread rumors. Sure, the modus operandi's different, but there's nothing we can really do about that, right? Additionally, since these rumors were put in explicit words and posted online, they're impossible to conceal or dismiss."

Horikita pivoted, prefacing her next comment with a disclaimer. "By the way. I'm asking you this just in case, but is it true?"

"No, it's not." I denied it right away. "Besides, not many people even know Karuizawa and I are on speaking terms to begin with."

"Can you think of anyone who might have posted those rumors?" "Well, I suppose I have some guesses."

I gave Horikita a brief summary of what happened yesterday when I

met up with Hashimoto.

"If Hashimoto-kun started the rumors about Ichinose-san, then it wouldn't be surprising at all for him to do the same with rumors about you and Karuizawa-san."

"But what about the other victims? We don't have a lot of avenues to ascertain the truth."

"That's true…"

I mean, it wasn't like there were any students who could just directly confirm the truth of these rum—

"Hey, Shinohara! You used to be a prostitute or something?!" shouted Yamauchi with a laugh, completely oblivious to other people's feelings, as usual.

"I-I was not!" replied Shinohara, fervently denying it. She stood from her seat in a panic, embarrassment and anger writ large on her face.

"Well, show me some proof then," said Yamauchi.

"Proof…? How am I supposed to prove it to you?!" shouted Shinohara.

Captivated by the drama, the students already in the classroom started sharing the rumors with the ones who were just showing up. Well, they'd hear them sooner or later, anyway.

"So you're saying it's all a lie?" Yamauchi demanded. "Then what, everything else posted online was a lie too, huh? And that we're just running our mouths without even thinking?"

As I watched Yamauchi and Shinohara get into it, I confirmed what I was thinking with Horikita.

"I wonder… Well, I suppose all we can do is confirm the truth of the rumors with each student in turn, like what Yamauchi is doing."

Of course, it was easier said than done for a normal person to go around prying into people's private business, reopening wounds they wanted to keep hidden for all to see.

"How stupid can you be?! I can't believe you're getting carried away by these rumors when you don't even know who wrote them!"

Shinohara was clearly furious with Yamauchi, but it wasn't surprising she was denying it so vehemently. If anything, it was surprising that she could be this calm after someone had posted such things about her.

"But you know…don't you think all the stuff said online is pretty believable?"

"Knock it off already, Haruki!"

In response to Yamauchi's merciless teasing, Ike, who had been

standing next to him, aggressively grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to get him to stop.

"Wh-what, dude?! This is just my chance to pay Shinohara back for always acting so high and mighty all the time!"

"Payback for what…? Dude, those rumors are nothing but lies!"

"And how do you know that, huh? I mean, they do say ugly chicks like her can get up to some surprisingly nasty shit, y'know." Yamauchi laughed, continuing to run his mouth like a fool in complete dismissal of Ike's feelings. "Oh, ho, I get it. Ike, you kinda have a thing for Shinohara. That's why you can't admi—"

"Haruki!" Ike grabbed Yamauchi's collar. "Knock it off, you two!"

Unable to stand by and watch things play out, Sudou stepped in and pulled the two of them apart by force.

Hirata arrived at the classroom soon after and immediately sensed what was going on. He began asking some of the girls about the situation, confirming the specifics of these rumors.

Since Shinohara was denying everything, Yamauchi temporarily switched targets. "So, hey, Hondou! You seriously have a fat fetish?" he said, directing his attention toward Hondou.

"N-no way, dude! No way! Those rumors are all just straight-up BS!

Right, Ayanokouji? I mean, there's no way that you have a thing for Karuizawa!"

Naturally, Hondou denied the accusation. He also turned to me for help, seeking to avoid persecution. All at once, everyone's eyes were on me. Fortunately, most of Kei's group of friends still hadn't gotten to class yet.

I answered Hondou with a nod, confirming that he was right. He shouted "See?" loudly, turning back to Yamauchi.

"Tch, come on. What the hell, man? Are they all lies?"

Now that three of us had denied the rumors, the classroom began to settle down a little.

"But…it's true that Satou-san doesn't really like Onodera-san very

much, isn't it?" Maezono blurted out without thinking, probably because Onodera wasn't here yet.

"H-hey, wait a second, Maezono-san!" Satou frantically tried to stop her, but it was already too late.

"Actually yeah, come to think of it, has anyone ever seen Satou hang out with Onodera before?"

"Th-that's…"

The situation had changed. All of a sudden, people no longer seemed inclined to dismiss the rumors as outright lies. Sudou, confirming that he had separated Ike and Yamauchi, walked up to Horikita and me.

"Ayanokouji. You really don't have a thing for Karuizawa?" Apparently, even he felt like he needed to ask.

"Nope, I don't."

"Hm. Well, hey, even if it was true, it doesn't really matter to me, I guess. Hey, Suzune."

"What is it, Sudou-kun?"

"Well, it's just that I happened to hear a little bit of your conversation earlier. If you're okay with me helping out, I'd like to lend a hand," said Sudou.

"Meaning?"

"Well, I'm an insensitive guy. So I can just go around and ask people straight out, like Haruki did. How about it?" offered Sudou.

It was true that Sudou could be a useful tool in determining the origin of these rumors…though if he had heard our conversation, he should have heard the part where I denied the fact that I was interested in Kei.

"Don't do anything to lower yourself in people's estimation," Horikita said. "People already don't think too highly of you. You should be striving to improve how they see you, even if just a little. Yamauchi-kun's careless comments seem to have drastically lowered his standing in our class…"

It felt like Yamauchi had overtaken Sudou as the most hated person in class in one fell swoop. Even Ike, his closest friend, was now furious at him.

"You might be right about that… But I want to be useful somehow."

Sudou glanced at me for a moment before immediately averting his gaze. I was sure it was because he was vaguely aware of the fact that Horikita consulted me on a lot of things. Of course, he probably also understood that it was partly because it was easy for us to talk to one another, being desk neighbors.

"In that case, please keep an eye on Yamauchi-kun and keep him under control. If even one of the rumors had been positive, this would be a different story. Instead, they're so troubling as to become deeply personal, whether or not they're true. I'm sure Hondou-kun must be shaken by all this, so I'd like you to check in on him. You can do that, right?"

"…Yeah, okay."

Sudou seemed a little bit disappointed, but he still obediently followed Horikita's instructions. Horikita waited to confirm that he'd left, then returned to the topic at hand.

"This is likely part of Sakayanagi-san's plan. She wasn't satisfied with going after Ichinose-san, so she's trying the same scheme on Class C too.

Hitting multiple people at the same time, no less. I think it's just an attempt to throw us off before the year-end exams, but… What should we do?"

"What do you mean? Do you think there's any way we can really fight these rumors? The more we try to deny them, the more everyone's imaginations will run wild, convincing them they're true. The rumor about me isn't really a big deal, but if the ones about the other students are recognized as fact, it'll do them some real damage."

"…That's true. You might be right." Horikita nodded in understanding as she looked over at Hondou and Shinohara. I wonder if she was imagining herself in their shoes. "That said, this is a really dirty move. How do we push back against something like this?"

"I wonder."

"Even though you can see the sparks starting to fly, you're planning to just sit back and watch?" asked Horikita.

"It's not that bad. Well, I guess it will be from Karuizawa's point of view, though."

"Meaning you're fine?"

"Yep, totally fine."

For whatever reason, it seemed like Horikita might have been hoping to see me panic. As a result, I got to see a rare look of mild disappointment on her face.

"It's fortunate that it's not the other way around, at least," she said.

In other words, if the rumor had claimed Kei had a crush on me. That would've inspired more rumors about Kei—that she was chasing after a new guy right after breaking up with Hirata, for instance. Speculation would run rampant. It didn't matter if something was completely untrue; if enough people recognized a lie as fact, that lie would become reality.

"But…I can't just sit back in silence and observe forever, like you." "I see."

The commotion in the classroom made it obvious these fires were going to keep spreading even if no one took action. Yamauchi was about to turn the conversation back toward Shinohara and Satou, but Hirata stopped him.

"Yamauchi-kun. Just because something is written on the bulletin board doesn't make it true. Besides, at the very least, you can agree that it's wrong to hurt a fellow classmate like this, right?" said Hirata.

"But if it's like with the rumors about Ichinose, then everyone's gotta have heard them already, right? Even if we don't say anything, it'll all be the same in the end, won't it?"

"I don't think we can say that for sure. At least not yet. That's why I think the best thing for us to do right now is to carry on without letting what was posted on the bulletin board throw us into chaos," said Hirata.

His words were met with a strong chorus of agreement from both the guys and girls. This wasn't going to solve all of our problems, of course, but he'd at least managed to put a lid on things for now.

Then Horikita got a message on her phone.

"It's from Kanzaki-kun." Horikita took a look at the message. "Apparently, it seems like Ichinose has taken today off as well."

The day of the practice test. Even if you were feeling a little under the

weather, you would still want to take the test to check where your abilities were at. Not to mention the fact that Ichinose was the class leader, the one responsible for guiding her classmates along. Well, based on how she looked yesterday, it was no wonder she hadn't completely recovered yet.

"And one more thing… It seems like similar rumors were posted on the Class B bulletin board."

"Meaning they must've noticed what was written about us too." "Seems that way."

Horikita hurriedly logged into the app and checked the Class B bulletin board. Much like with Class C, there were four rumors posted on the boards, each naming a different student. There were similar messages on Class D's bulletin board, too.

"Conveniently enough, it looks like the students of Class A were the only ones who had no rumors posted about them. Can I have a moment of your time after class today? I'd like to check in with Ichinose, get some more information, and discuss how to respond to these posts."

"Sure," I agreed.

"For the time being, let's focus on the practice test. It's a valuable opportunity to gauge the difficulty level of the year-end exam, and to get an idea of where our class is at."

But Horikita wasn't one of the people targeted by the rumors. Unlike her, the victims weren't going to be able to concentrate on the test quite so easily. When Kei and her friends arrived at the classroom, they huddled together and started whispering among themselves. Then, they looked over at me. They looked at me as if I were human trash. I could tell what was going on even if I couldn't hear what they were saying.

"Does it really look like Ayanokouji-kun has a crush on Karuizawa-

san?"

"Hey, what do you think about him anyway? Huh, Karuizawa-san?"

I was sure the conversation they were having right now went

something like that. And, without a doubt, I bet that Kei was responding to them with things like "He's disgusting" or "He's the worst."

"Didn't you say that you were fine?"

"…It kinda bothers me a little."

I would've kept watching them talking, but I didn't want to actually overhear what they were saying, so I decided to stop. The real issue was the students other than me who'd been singled out by name and were currently being discussed.

7.4

THE PRACTICE TEST had begun, despite the chilly traces of awkwardness and ill will still lingering in the air. This was an important phase of the end of the school year. The content of the practice test was, even comparatively speaking, much more difficult than what we'd seen on tests so far. Extremely so.

However, it was also true that students who'd gotten through the exams we've had so far should be able to handle what was on this one without needing to panic. On the other hand, the students who'd barely managed to squeak by probably needed to really put their noses to the grindstone after this practice test.

I'd been invited to join the Ayanokouji Group for a study session, but I decided to let them know they could start without me, since I was going to be accompanying Horikita today. Kanzaki didn't want to draw any attention to himself, so we decided to meet up at the Keyaki Mall after school, after the practice tests were over.

Following Horikita's lead, we went over to where Kanzaki was waiting for us. He was by the southern entrance to the mall. This was the farthest point from the school building, so students didn't usually come by here.

I wasn't particularly invested in the whole class conflict thing, but that didn't mean that I wasn't worried about Ichinose, as a friend. Besides, more information wasn't a bad thing. Not to mention the fact that Hashimoto had been tailing me lately, and for some time now. If I made contact with Class B, the shadow of Class A would inevitably loom closer…but that was exactly what I was hoping for.

In fact, Hashimoto had followed me all the way here, keeping an appropriate level of distance all the while.

"Two days off in a row. And on top of that, you still haven't been able to get in touch with Ichinose-san yourself?"

"It's not that she isn't responding at all; it's that her responses are slow.

All I've gotten from her was a notification that she's sick with a cold."

Kanzaki seemed on edge. I imagined he'd been under a lot of stress lately. Ichinose must have told him not to worry, but I supposed he could hardly sit there and take it.

Ichinose's health issues were probably one reason why she was reluctant to meet with any of her classmates right now. I was willing to bet another was that she really didn't want to hear about or discuss the rumors any further.

"What did your homeroom teacher say about it?"

"The same as always. She only said that Ichinose was taking the day off because she was out sick with a cold."

Their homeroom teacher had probably gotten the same message from Ichinose that everyone else had. Kanzaki looked depressed because he doubted whether Ichinose was really absent from class because she had a cold. After all, she'd been the subject of an ongoing scandal lately. Of course, he suspected that was the real reason for her absence.

"How about we go to visit her? I think we could clear this all up if we just went to see her in person," said Horikita.

"Apparently, some girls from our class went to visit her. It doesn't sound like they were able to see her face-to-face," replied Kanzaki.

Horikita, realizing that the situation wasn't looking good, pondered the matter deeply. "Well, on the bright side, Ichinose is academically gifted.

Even if she doesn't take the practice test, she'll probably do just fine," she reasoned.

It was possible for students who were sick, like Ichinose, to get the test questions at a later date, or they could ask other students about what problems were on the test.

"We're not worried about that either. We're only concerned about Ichinose's mental well-being," said Kanzaki.

As Horikita and Kanzaki continued to try to come up with a plan, several shadows approached us. It seemed like Hashimoto had already reported on this secret meeting.

"Oh, it sounds like Ichinose-san is absent from class again today, huh? Next week is the year-end exam. If she were absent for an extended period of

time…why, perhaps all the way to the day of the exam… Well, she might be in a lot of trouble, hm?"

"…Sakayanagi."

Sakayanagi and her underlings had appeared before us. Well, before Kanzaki, rather. We saw Kamuro and Hashimoto with her, and also a boy named Kitou. So these were the key members of Sakayanagi's faction, huh?

"Now then, what in the world could you be discussing with these Class-C fellows?" asked Sakayanagi.

"It has nothing to do with you."

"Oh, my, it doesn't seem like we're very welcome here."

"If you want to be welcomed, then you should stop spreading weird rumors. Before you do something that you can't take back."

Sakayanagi and her classmates looked at one another and chuckled. "What in the world are you talking about?" she asked.

"Class B's unity won't be shaken, no matter how many rumors you spread."

"I'm afraid I don't know what kind of situation your class is in. But I look forward to finding out what comes next."

I was guessing she'd only come here to see for herself how things were proceeding. She seemed to conclude that her plans were showing immediate results, for she departed right after that exchange with Kanzaki.

"Don't worry about her, Kanzaki-kun," said Horikita. "This is all part of Sakayanagi-san's strategy."

"I know."

Unfortunately, Kanzaki's concern for his companions, and his humble, reserved nature meant his suffering wouldn't be ending anytime soon.

7.5

CLASS WAS OVER, but it wasn't like the rumors were going to stop spreading. I made it back to the dorm and was relaxing when I got a call from Kei.

"Hey, w-w-w-wait a minute! What's going on, Kiyotaka?!"

"What do you mean, 'What's going on?'" I already knew, but I figured I'd anyway.

"No, come on, you know what! Kiyotaka, there's…well, um, there's a- a rumor going around that you have a c-crush on me! Did you not know?!"

"Don't worry about the rumors."

"N-no, no way, no way, no way! It's not like I can just not worry about it just because it's a rumor! How did this even happen?!"

She was shouting so loudly that there was a shrill ringing in my ears. I moved my phone away for a moment and hit the button to lower the volume.

"I suppose it might be Hashimoto who started the rumor," I said. "Or maybe some other students saw us together."

"Aahhh!" Kei let out a quiet scream.

"Well, I mean, this is fine though, isn't it? It would've been really bad for you if things were reversed."

"R-reversed?"

"If the rumor went 'Kei has a crush on Kiyotaka,' then that'd be bad news for you, wouldn't it? I think if that were the case, then people would be even more suspicious of you than they are of me, since you just broke up with Hirata," I told her.

"…I-I suppose so, but…"

"Don't worry. Things like rumors always fade quickly." "Really?"

"Still, I suppose it might be easier for us to make contact moving

forward, thanks to this rumor. If I try to talk to you, people will just assume it's because of what the rumor says, and that'll be that."

It all came down to perspective. I had no plans to start having conversations in conspicuous locations, but it could be something of an insurance policy, circumstances depending.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Kei repeated the word many more times than before. "If the two of us are together, people will look at us weird! They absolutely, definitely will look at us weird!"

Was repeating yourself like that becoming some kind of trend? What a bizarre speech affectation. Anyway, this meant that Hashimoto, who'd been following me, would also have this information planted in his head.

"Don't worry about it."

"Even if you tell me not to worry about it...…"

A long period of silence followed, after which she apparently decided it was just too difficult after all. "It's just impossible. I can't do it!"

Kei continued to grumble at me about a variety of topics for a while but then eventually seemed to give up, and she ended the call.

7.6

THINGS WERE BEGINNING to move at a dizzying pace. Even though there was no special exam, and we should be concentrating only on the written exam that was going to be held in late February, these were tumultuous days.

On Friday, February 18th—three days after the practice test—students from each class except for B had gathered at a spot some distance from the school building. Hirata had done his best to keep the new rumors from spreading at this critical juncture, but his efforts had been in vain. Class A, the only class with no rumors about them posted on the bulletin boards, had already gotten wind of the information.

"Yo, Ishizaki. So what the heck did you wanna talk about with me, anyway?" asked Hashimoto, seeming the same as always.

"What do I want to talk about? You already know what this is about, Hashimoto! And what are you thinkin', bringin' Kitou along with you? I told ya to come alone, didn't I?" said Ishizaki.

"Well, you brought Albert with you, didn't you? Just taking precautions."

The air was tense, like everyone was on tenterhooks. Looking at the current situation, it was hard to imagine the two of them had been rooming together just a little while ago at the school camp, but the reasons why things had gotten to be like this were plain to see.

"We just came to talk today. Isn't that right, Ishizaki-kun?"

Ishizaki and Albert weren't the only Class-D students present. Hiyori and Ibuki were there too.

"Well, as long as they don't make a scene, then I suppose everything will be fine."

"But…"

Hiyori's worries were understandable. Given the people who were present, it was hard to imagine nothing happening.

"But what about those other people? I didn't know you invited other people out here aside from us," said Ishizaki.

Hashimoto looked over at us and let out an exasperated sigh. "Dunno about them. Aren't you the ones who called them?"

Apparently, both Class D and Class A were uncomfortable about having us Class-C students present.

"It's just like you said, Ayanokouji," said Akito, who stood beside me, along with the rest of the Ayanokouji Group. We'd all met up at the café for a study session a little while ago.

"I just remembered that time when Kanzaki and Hashimoto were going at it. And then I just 'happened' to see you guys heading away from campus, so I thought that maybe… Well."

As soon as I'd told Akito that I had sensed something was wrong, he immediately followed me here. The only thing I hadn't planned on was Haruka, Airi, and Keisei coming along too.

"There's way more people here than there was last time. Things might get pretty rough…"

"Ah, come on, why do we keep getting into these kinds of dangerous situations all the time?" said Haruka, apparently exasperated.

"Well, whatever. It doesn't matter who called them here. So let's hear what you have to say, Shiina-chan."

"It's about the rumors. You Class-A people are the ones who've been starting them, aren't you?" said Hiyori, perhaps deciding this would result in a fistfight if she left it to Ishizaki to handle the conversation.

"Hey, hey, why are you asking us something like that?" "That's friggin'—"

"Please leave this to me, Ishizaki-kun," said Hiyori, gently stopping

Ishizaki from angrily shouting back. "I happened to overhear Kanzaki-kun saying that he saw you spreading rumors about Ichinose-san."

"Wow, he's a blabbermouth, huh? Or maybe you happened to hear that from those two over there?" replied Hashimoto. He was referring to me and Akito, since we'd heard Hashimoto's conversation with Kanzaki the

other day.

"Please answer the question, Hashimoto-kun." Hiyori continued to press Hashimoto without even looking in our direction.

"…Well, Ayanokouji and Miyake know, so I'll just come out and say it, I suppose. I heard these rumors about Ichinose somewhere, and I just decided to repeat them a bunch, just 'cause I thought it'd be amusing."

Hashimoto didn't admit the truth, of course.

"That's a rather convenient excuse. Do you really think something like that is still going to fly?"

"Excuse? It's the truth. I guess if it's wrong to repeat rumors 'cause it amuses you, then I'm the bad guy. Still, it's strange, isn't it? That Class D, who should have nothing to do with this, would just swoop into this whole situation?" said Hashimoto. He continued talking, jovial as ever, but with a sharp glint in his eye. "Is it possible that…it's actually you Class-D folks who are the ones spreading those rumors?"

"You've got to be friggin' kidding me. We already know that Sakayanagi is the one spreading these rumors!"

"Don't be so quick to assume that. Sure, it's true that our leader is the aggressive type. There are times when she, against her better judgment, says things that'll provoke people. Says things against Ichinose too. I mean, I guess I understand how you feel. I understand why you wanna read way too much into things and selfishly decide that she was the source of the rumors. But we've got nothing to do with it. Besides, you don't actually have any proof, do you?"

Ishizaki was clearly frustrated by Hashimoto's words, but Hashimoto wasn't wrong. As of now, there was no conclusive evidence suggesting that it was Sakayanagi who had put the letters in the mailboxes or posted the rumors on the online bulletin boards…even though we knew that in all probability, it was her.

"So that's what today's about. You guys wanted to press me about this whole thing, huh? Gotta say, I had no idea that you Class-D folks had Ichinose's back," said Hashimoto.

Ishizaki and his group glared in response. Hashimoto let out a sigh, as if to show he understood the situation he was in.

"There's no point in trying to fool us. You haven't just been spreadin' crap about Ichinose. You've been makin' up stuff about us too."

"I see. So that's the reason, huh? You don't really care about Ichinose

—you just don't like that Class D got caught up in these rumors. Oh, yeah, they said something about you getting put in juvenile detention for a prank you played on an elementary school student. Isn't that right, Ishizaki?"

The moment those words passed Hashimoto's lips, Ishizaki snapped. Hiyori hurriedly grabbed Ishizaki's arm, holding him back before he could pounce on Hashimoto.

The rumor Hashimoto just mentioned was one of the supposed lies posted on the bulletin board. Ishizaki's fury was inevitable, the result of being in a situation like this. Hashimoto, showing no signs of backing down, continued speaking.

"But seriously, I'm amazed that you came up with all of these rumors.

Come on, tell me how you managed to sniff out all this stuff about other people, not just Ichinose?"

"Stop screwing with us, Hashimoto!" "Wait, Ishizaki!"

Akito, thinking that Hiyori wouldn't be able to hold Ishizaki back on

her own, hurriedly tried to stop him.

"Don't try to stop me, Miyake! Like hell I'm just gonna sit here and let Class A just keep doing whatever they feel like!! I'm gonna punch his lights out!"

"Knock it off, Ishizaki. You're the one who'll get hurt, understand?

You're probably confident in your fighting skills, but I can throw down pretty well myself, you know?" said Kitou, quietly taking one step forward and putting his fists up in a fighting stance, readying himself against Ishizaki and Albert. It looked like he was ready to accept their challenge, should the situation call for it.

"Cut it out, you guys. You all know how mad the school gets when it comes to fights," said Akito, trying to calm things down, while standing at a distance.

"Until now, that is." "Until now?"

"I've heard that the current student council president is actually willing to tolerate a little bad behavior here and there. Get it?"

Hashimoto closed the distance between himself and Ishizaki, launching his right leg into a kick. Akito blocked it with his left arm.

"Tch… S-seriously? Jeez, seems like anything's possible with this president."

Hashimoto's word alone wasn't enough to convince us the ban on fighting had been lifted. Which was precisely why he'd gone on to prove it by taking the initiative himself.

"Not bad, Miyake. Man, it's no wonder you were so confident when you said you could stop us from fighting," said Hashimoto, taking his distance once again.

The atmosphere became even more tense than it was before. That feeling of pins and needles washed over everyone.

"Fighting is not okay," said Hiyori.

"I know. I didn't come here to fight with you guys. That there was just my way of proving to you that we have the power to defend ourselves," replied Hashimoto.

"…Can we trust you?"

Hashimoto nodded, looking Hiyori in the eyes. And yet, no one believed him.

"Come on, enough already, Hiyori. This guy lies without even batting an eyelash. No matter how you think about it, it was Class A who spread these rumors. The proof is that Class A was the only one not targeted by the rumors."

"But… isn't that also precisely why it's possible that they're not the ones responsible?" said Hiyori.

"It's just like Shiina-chan says," said Hashimoto. "If we were the ones who spread the rumors, wouldn't we have made sure to post something on the Class A bulletin board too, to deflect suspicion?"

"I'm not so sure about that. I can't imagine every student in Class A knows Sakayanagi was the person behind those rumors about Ichinose. If rumors targeting Class A surfaced, it would naturally cause confusion within the class."

After Akito pointed that out, Hashimoto let out a sigh. "Well, I can't really say that your reasoning is off there, to be sure. But it's probatio diabolica, isn't it?"

Despite the fact that their actions were extremely suspicious, we had no evidence to prove their guilt. Meanwhile, it was equally difficult for them to prove their innocence.

"The only way we're going to get the truth out of them is if we let our fists do the talking."

"Whoa, hey now. Knock it off, Ibuki-chan. Even if we fight, you're not going to get anything out of it, you know?"

"Telling us to stop after you were just trying to pick a fight with us yourself, huh? You've got a lot of nerve."

"We've got nothing to do with this. Believe me," said Hashimoto, letting out a laugh.

Ibuki, though, wasn't smiling. On the contrary, she seemed to be trying her absolute hardest to hold back her anger. One of the rumors had targeted her, just like Ishizaki.

"You…think you can make fun of us just because Ryuuen quit being our leader, huh?" said Ishizaki.

He must have reached the limits of his patience, because he pushed past Akito. Then, as if moving in lockstep with Ishizaki, Ibuki went to stand in front of Hashimoto and Kitou.

"Wait, wait a second! Seriously!"

"Make Sakayanagi apologize both for the rumors about Ichinose and the rumors about us."

"You've got it wrong. We didn't spread the rumors." "Stop laughing!"

Ishizaki kicked the railing as hard as he could. Hashimoto was beginning to understand that he couldn't control the situation anymore.

"…Okay, so what're you going to do about it?" "Ain't that obvious? I'll shut you up by force." "You seriously think you can do that?"

"Yep. And if you don't want that, then you better go make her take those rumors back, right now."

"I keep telling you, we didn't start those rumors."

Though he kept saying that, Hashimoto understood no one believed him. What Sakayanagi had done was as good as declaring war on Ichinose; it was difficult for him to prove his innocence after such that. His mouth curved back into a smile.

"This ain't something to laugh about."

"Sorry, sorry. It's just that this is just too absurd for me to even comprehend."

Since Hashimoto couldn't admit that Sakayanagi was the source of the rumors, he had no choice but to reject Ishizaki's request.

"In that case, you'll just have to let us talk to Sakayanagi herself." "You? Yeah, no way," said Hashimoto with a wave of his hand, as if

dismissing the very idea that Sakayanagi would meet with them. Ishizaki had to have known it was impossible too, which was why he'd approached Hashimoto. "Kitou. We might not have any other choice."

It seemed Hashimoto, sensing the mood, had decided words were no longer going to work. Kitou, who'd been preparing himself for this, assumed a fighting stance right after.

"Hah!" shouted Ishizaki, rushing at Kitou, attempting to tackle him.

Right beside him, Ibuki delivered a flying kick at Hashimoto, which he rushed to avoid in a panic.

"Christ!" shouted Hashimoto.

Because of her powerful jump, Ibuki's cell phone and student ID card fell out of her pocket and hit the ground. Realizing she was faster and stronger than he'd imagined, Hashimoto's expression showed that he sensed the danger he was in.

"Wow, you're much more used to fighting than I remember, Ibuki- chan…" he said, expressing his respect. "Guess I forgot about that."

"Stop it, everyone!" shouted Akito, picking up the cell phone that lay on the ground nearby.

However, the Class-D students showed no signs of stopping. Ibuki didn't seem at all fazed that her phone might be damaged. I reached out and

grabbed her student ID, which had fallen near my feet, lowered my eyes without thinking to read it. Naturally, she wasn't smiling in the picture. She had her usual brusque, stiff expression on her face.

However…one particular detail caught my eye. "What does this mean…?" I muttered aloud.

"What?" asked Keisei, apparently having heard what I had mumbled

from beside him. I quickly shook my head to dismiss the question and put Ibuki's student ID card in my pocket for the time being, for safe-keeping.

"Oh, it's nothing. More importantly, our biggest priority is stopping this fight."

"Stopping it…? How?"

The fight had already turned into a two-versus-two situation, and it looked like round two was about to begin.

"He's right, we should stay out of it." "It looks dangerous, Kiyotaka-kun…"

Haruka and Airi spoke up, saying that we should stay out of it.

"…I suppose you're right. Leaving it to Akito is probably the wise choice," I replied.

Akito intervened to try to stop the next assault. "Don't get in the way, Miyake!"

Ishizaki attempted to shove him out of the way with brute force, but

Akito grabbed his hand and forcefully pushed Ishizaki down. "Hey, you jerk, let go!"

"Sorry, Ishizaki. I don't hate guys like you or anything, but I gotta stop

you."

"Back off!" shouted Ibuki, aiming a kick at Akito's head.

Akito hurriedly moved away from Ishizaki, just barely dodging Ibuki's

foot by the skin of his teeth, but he lost his balance in the process. Albert then grabbed Akito with his large arms.

"Hold him, Albert."

"Gr…"

There was no way for Akito to break free of Albert's monstrously strong grip. Class D had determined that they wouldn't lose as long as they managed to keep this fight two-on-two.

"Ibuki!" shouted Ishizaki. At the same time, Kitou thrust his hand forward, aiming at Ibuki's neck.

"Don't underestimate me!" shouted Ibuki, reacting to Kitou's attack by kicking his hand away.

"They're going at it for real… What do we do?" The four of us watched, unable to stop them.

"Well, nothing we can really do about it now, since the fight's started, but you Class-C guys are really in the way here…" Hashimoto looked over at us, still keeping an eye on Ishizaki, who had just gotten back up.

"We happened to come here by coincidence, but there is something that we'd like to say. One of our friends… Ayanokouji has been targeted and affected by these rumors, just like Ishizaki and the others," said Keisei. When he appealed to Hashimoto, Airi, who was standing next to him, nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh? Oh, yeah, there was something about him, wasn't there? A lovely little rumor about him having a crush on Karuizawa or something, right?"

"I-It's absolutely not lovely at all!" said the usually soft-spoken Airi, raising her voice to object, which was a rare sight.

Going along with them, I addressed Hashimoto as well. "I hate to say this, but I suspect you too, Hashimoto."

"…Guess that makes sense. I mean, I was the only one who saw you and Karuizawa meeting in secret the other day, after all."

"M-meeting in secret?"

Not just Airi, but Haruka quickly turned around to look at me too. "There's nothing strange going on between us at all," I said.

"Really? B-but, Kiyotaka-kun, I have gotten the impression that you and Karuizawa-san have been getting along pretty well lately…" said Airi.

Well, Airi did watch me very carefully, so it wasn't surprising she'd seen that much. But the important thing was that Hashimoto heard her say that. I needed him to know that there were other people who were aware of the kind of relationship I had with Kei. There needed to be the appearance of a certain degree of intimacy between me and Kei if the excuse we'd used the other day—that I was the middleman, delivering chocolates on Kei's behalf to her real crush—was to appear legitimate.

Hashimoto was doing this to ascertain how my classmates saw my relationship with Kei. But it was precisely his own cleverness that would cause him to end up closing himself off to several possibilities. Even though he'd been keeping his eyes on me, he was going to draw out testimony that suggested I posed no threat to him. As a result, his suspicions of me would fade.

"I'm your opponent right now, Hashimoto!"

"Come on, dude… This is getting to be really annoying."

"Please Ishizaki-kun, stop! Don't do this anymore! At the very least, I cannot allow this," said Hiyori, speaking in a firm tone.

Ishizaki, unable to ignore her, looked back at her with a troubled expression.

"B-but!"

"Even if you do manage to beat Hashimoto-kun and Kitou-kun in a fight and force them to confess, that won't amount to real evidence. The person at the heart of the matter, Sakayanagi-san, still won't admit to anything. Isn't it enough that we couldn't get them to confess?" said Hiyori.

"So you're telling Ibuki and me to just shut up and take it?"

"I know that is going to sound harsh, but yes. Please bear with it for

now."

"You're the one who asked us to come with you, aren't you? And yet

you're telling us to bear with it? That doesn't make any sense!" "I promise that I'll make it up to you," said Hiyori.

Hashimoto let out a whistle, seemingly deeply interested in what he just heard. "Oh, ho, so it wasn't Ishizaki who set up this meeting, but you, Shiina-chan?"

"Albert-kun. Please let him go."

Albert slowly released Akito, as instructed.

"We've really caused you guys from Class C a lot of trouble," said Hiyori, bowing deeply.

"Wow, okay, you think this is all over, just like that? Talk about one- sided. So what, you accuse us, try to beat us up, and we're just supposed to accept it?"

"Could you please forgive us?"

Hashimoto accepted what Hiyori had to say. He must have known that there was nothing to be gained by pushing the issue. "Well, it's not like we're injured or anything. Let's call it a day then, Kitou. But please, stop single- mindedly blaming us. If you must accuse us, find some ironclad proof first, okay?"

Somehow, Hiyori had successfully managed to bring the situation under control before it devolved into an all-out brawl. However, the relationship between Class A and the other classes had now deteriorated to the point where it was impossible to repair.

7.7

THAT NIGHT, I called Horikita Manabu.

"It's rather unusual for me to get a call from you," said Horikita. "There's one thing I want to ask you."

"What is it?"

I reported what I'd noticed after looking at two students' ID cards.

"I hope that this isn't just a misunderstanding on your part," answered Horikita, sounding surprised, as if this was the first he'd heard of this.

"Based on your reaction, I'm guessing the student council… no, I mean that this has never happened before?" I asked.

"That's correct. That is, as long as it's not just some simple mistake."

I couldn't exclude the possibility that it was a mistake, of course. But if it was, it was a very rare one.

"The school changes and evolves every year. This phenomenon, too, should have some meaning. As I'm quite possibly the first person to have noticed it, a day may come when it will prove useful to you."

Even if that day came, I hoped I could wrap things up without having to make use of it, if at all possible.

"You first-year students will likely have one more special exam to complete this year," Horikita said.

I made note of the fact that he referenced the first-years specifically.

Did that mean the situation was different for us?

"Well, that's the way it's been in previous years, at least. I can't be absolutely certain it'll be that way this year. But if things proceed as they have in the past, even the third-year students should be facing two or more special exams," added Horikita.

"So it's going to be quite the rough time for you, huh?" If all the second-year students led by Nagumo put their weight behind the students of third-year Class B, then Horikita's position was by no means safe.

"It's a highly unpredictable situation, that's for sure. But it's nothing that you need to be concerned about."

As I'd expect of the former student council president. He didn't seem to consider his current situation hopeless, and I felt confident he had the strength to fight his way through.

However, my confidence was in Horikita Manabu, and Horikita Manabu alone. Just like he'd targeted Tachibana Akane, I was sure that Nagumo would take aim at other victims whom he could break down.

"What you should be worried about now is the first-year class as a whole," said Horikita.

"If the student council is backing him, then Nagumo should be able to sweep whatever he wants under the rug," I reasoned.

"Yes, that's possible. Of course, the student council might lose the school's trust and be forcibly disbanded if they go too far…but we're dealing with Nagumo here. He'll probably handle things quite cleverly. Did you have any trouble with that matter regarding Kushida?"

"Oh, that's been taken care of."

"It seems there's been a lot happening behind the scenes where this whole ordeal with Ichinose is concerned."

"I'll contact you again."

Having ascertained what I wanted to know, I ended the call.

7.8

THE NEXT FEW DAYS passed by in a flash. Ichinose, the center of this whirlwind of controversy, continued to be absent until February 24th, one day before the year-end final exam, when she finally returned to class. I didn't see her myself, but there were a lot of people tracking her every move with watchful eyes because she hadn't been to class in over a week's time.

News about her return reached me almost immediately.

That being said, this was only really important to Class B. Class C was far more occupied with the year-end final exam awaiting us tomorrow.

"All right. Ayanokouji, Akito, Haruka, and Airi, you all did great."

During our lunch break, we gathered around Keisei's desk. We'd taken a mock test that Keisei had prepared for us to take independently, at night, in order to test our abilities. And he'd just got done grading our answers.

"Whoa, Kiyopon, you got 90 points? That's awesome!" said Haruka, sounding surprised, as she ate her sandwich.

"Well, that's because the tests that Keisei made for us are perfect. You got a good score too, didn't you?" Though their scores varied a little, the three of them had all scored in the neighborhood of 80 points.

"Well, if you managed to get through both the practice test and the mock test that I made, then I'm sure you should do fine in the test tomorrow," said Keisei.

"If you're giving us the seal of approval, Keisei, then I'm sure it'll be a piece of cake," said Akito, rolling his stiff shoulders, as if squaring up to fight.

"Really, thank you so much, Keisei-kun. I always get so anxious every time I take a test…" said Airi.

"Oh, no need to thank me. This is the least I can do," said Keisei. He lightly scratched the bridge of his nose, looking a little embarrassed.

"Is it really okay if we take the rest of the day off?"

"You've spent a lot of time studying this week. Honestly, I think it's a

good idea to take it easy on this last day. It's not like everything you've studied so carefully will just slip away so soon. Besides, you don't want to overdo it now and get sick, or end up falling asleep on the day of the exam. It would be a real shame if you lose points over such a trivial mistake."

"Roger! I'll follow your orders, Yukimuu!" replied Haruka, offering Keisei a bizarre salute. The others nodded along, sharing her same sentiment.

Bam!

Suddenly, a loud sound echoed throughout the classroom. It was the sound of the door being violently flung open.

"Whoa! You guys! This is huge!"

Just as we were about to casually enjoy the rest of our lunch too. Talk about bad timing.

"Ugh, seriously?" Haruka, startled, had accidentally dropped her sandwich on the floor. She glared at Ike, clearly mad and not trying to hide it. "Hey! What's your deal?!"

"Dude, it's like a mob! Like pitchforks and everything! A bunch of Class A people are marching into Class B right now!" shouted Ike excitedly.

"So Sakayanagi-san is making her move now that Ichinose-san has returned, huh…" said Horikita, who'd also been eating lunch in the classroom. She stood up quickly, looking disturbed, and left the classroom without saying anything to me.

Seeing her leave, Sudou, Hirata, and a few others followed. Tomorrow was the year-end exam. If Sakayanagi was going to end this, today was the last chance she'd have. She intended to launch a direct assault on Ichinose right after she'd returned and finish her off.

"What should we do, Akito…?"

"We have no choice but to head over there. If it turns out like what happened the other day, then someone has to be there to stop it."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"But Haruka, Airi, you two stay here. There's no point in getting more people involved."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. We'll take our time eating."

"What are you going to do, Kiyotaka-kun?" "I—"

Keisei had risen to his feet, along with Akito. It would be hard for me to say I was staying behind, in a situation like this.

"I'll go too, just in case. Though I don't think I'll be much help."

The three of us left the classroom and headed toward Class B. The commotion seemed to have already spilled out into the hallway, and there was an obvious crowd forming.

"What did you come here for, Sakayanagi?!" As we entered Class B, we heard Shibata shout.

"What did I come here for? I've come to rescue all of you in Class B. Don't you see?"

Sakayanagi was accompanied by Kamuro and Hashimoto, though I saw no sign of Kitou or anyone else. They'd probably have gotten more pushback if they showed up in greater numbers, which was why they'd chosen to take action with a small group.

"What do you mean by that, Sakayanagi?" asked Ichinose, speaking up from the back of the classroom where she stood surrounded by several students.

"Wait, Ichinose. There's no need for you to get involved." "Yeah, that's right, Honami-chan. Don't go!"

One of the students hugged Ichinose tightly, trying to prevent her from going to see Sakayanagi.

"First of all, I must say I'm quite glad to see that you've made a full recovery. To be honest, I wanted to speak to you much earlier, but I've been ever so busy studying for the exam. Ah, but yes, I'm glad to see you're back. Just in time for the year-end exam, too."

"Yes. Thank you."

They spoke to each other across the classroom. It was clear to see that every student in Class B considered Sakayanagi a foe. Even though it was lunch break, there wasn't a single student missing from the class. They'd all decided to stick together to protect Ichinose.

However, Sakayanagi didn't appear shaken at all. If anything, she seemed to be enjoying the feeling of being deep in enemy territory. She must have anticipated that Ichinose, who was still caught at the center of a whirlwind of controversy, wouldn't have gone somewhere like the school cafeteria during her lunch break.

"You say you came here to save us, Sakayanagi?" asked Kanzaki. "Yes," replied Sakayanagi with a smile and a nod.

"Does that mean you're admitting that you started those rumors? I

suppose I can understand how you'd be 'saving us' if you came here to apologize."

"I am not the one who started the rumors," she replied. "…Then what are you saving us from, exactly?"

"Do you recall a rumor that went around earlier? The one about how Ichinose-san had accumulated a massive number of points? At the time, the school had declared that no wrongdoing had taken place, and the matter was quickly put to rest."

"What about it?" replied Kanzaki without a second's delay, moving fast to keep Ichinose from saying anything.

"Now, this might just be my imagination, but… Well, there are only a few ways that someone could collect that many points without resorting to illegal means. One of those ways would be to collect private points from your classmates on a regular basis and hold onto them. In short, I've determined that Ichinose is acting as something of a banker for your class."

"I can't really say anything about that," said Kanzaki.

If true, it was part of Class B's strategy. It was only natural he'd deny knowing anything.

"I suppose so. Well, it's not like I really came here seeking an answer on that matter. It's just… Well, it's just that if Ichinose-san is playing the role of a banker, as I have surmised, then…I think that's extremely dangerous for all of you," said Sakayanagi, looking over at Ichinose, who returned her gaze from afar.

"......"

Ichinose didn't answer. Instead, she simply continued to look straight back at Sakayanagi.

"Is what I've said incorrect? Ichinose Honami-san?"

A cruel situation, Sakayanagi. You've certainly cornered Ichinose.

Ichinose, who'd had no weapon but silence at her disposal so far, had been driven to the edge of a cliff. One final push would send her plummeting to the bottom. It was precisely the situation Sakayanagi had worked to create.

However, her plan wasn't going to work.

"Sorry, but Chihiro-chan, Mako-chan, could you give me a little space?" asked Ichinose.

"B-but!"

"It's okay. I'll be just fine. You don't have to worry anymore," said Ichinose with a gentle smile, as she slowly closed the distance between herself and Sakayanagi.

In the end, however, she didn't move to face Sakayanagi directly. Instead, she took up a position at the teacher's podium, facing all of her classmates.

"…I'm sorry!" said Ichinose, bowing her head before all of the students of Class B.

"Wh-what are you apologizing to us for, Ichinose? There's no reason for you to apologize to us. Right?" said Shibata, clearly upset, trying to stop Ichinose from speaking.

"Please don't try to stop her, Shibata-kun. She's just trying to repent," said Sakayanagi, smiling merrily.

"The whole year I've been here… There's a secret that I've been keeping hidden from you. I've been keeping it for a long, long time."

"Wait, Ichinose. You don't need to say anything here," said Kanzaki, clearly sensing that something was amiss. But Ichinose wasn't stopping.

"There have been quite a few strange rumors circulating about me these past few weeks. However, one of those rumors is actually the truth. Just as that letter said… I am a criminal."

As Ichinose spoke those words, Sakayanagi wore a satisfied smile on

her face.

"Is that really true?"

The noisy classroom once again fell silent.

"It would seem this group of good-natured souls have absolutely no idea what's going on here, so please do give them all the details, Ichinose- san. Exactly what kind of crime did you commit?"

"I—"

Ichinose was about to continue speaking, but she stopped and gulped nervously.

"I've been keeping secrets from all of you…but I'm going to confess everything, starting now," she finally said, revealing the past she'd kept buried. "The crime that I've been silent about… Well, it's that I was a shoplifter."

The shoplifting honor student, Ichinose Honami. It was a revelation that didn't only surprise Class B, but also the spectators on the sidelines, like Akito and Keisei. Ichinose just didn't seem like the kind of person who'd do such a thing.

"Honami-chan is… a shoplifter…? I-Is that true?" "Yes. I'm sorry, Mako-chan."

As she apologized to everyone, Ichinose started to tell us the story of

how it started.

"I came from a single-parent family. My father wasn't in the picture, so I lived with my mom and my two younger sisters. We weren't wealthy, but we were never unhappy. My mother always seemed like she had it so hard, raising my two younger sisters while working. That was why, when I was in elementary school, I got the idea to start working myself once I graduated from junior high. It did cost a lot of money to go to high school, after all.

I thought I'd get a job, help my mom out, help support my two younger sisters. But my mom was strongly against the idea. Just as I wanted my younger sisters to be happy, my mom, too, wished for her daughters' happiness," said Ichinose, telling us about everything that happened in her past.

"I learned that even if you were poor, you could benefit from a

scholarship if you studied really hard for it. So I studied as hard as I possibly could. I studied so much that I got to the level where I was told that I was number one in my whole school. But…in the summer of my third year of junior high…my mother worked herself too hard and collapsed."

Ichinose's mother must have been working hard to support her family.

She'd worked herself to the bone to raise her children.

"My little sister's birthday was coming up. She'd never once asked me or our mother for a gift before. She was still only in her first year of junior high. She deserved to have us spoil her a little, but she never asked us for anything. Not for clothes that she wanted, or to go hang out with friends or go shopping…all she did was endure, never asking for anything. She always, always, always held back.

"But then, for the first time…my little sister said that there was something she wanted. It was this kind of hair clip that used to be really popular, something that my sister's favorite celebrity wore. I'm sure my mom pushed herself harder, picking up extra shifts, just so she could buy it."

And instead, she'd been hospitalized. From the sound of it, she hadn't been able to get her daughter the birthday present she wanted.

"Even now, I still remember the sight of my little sister's face, as she shouted and screamed all kinds of things at our mother, who was crying and apologizing to her from her hospital bed. I remember watching her shout and cry about how she'd been looking forward to getting that hair clip. I couldn't even really blame her for acting like that. It was the only gift she had ever asked for…" said Ichinose.

The smile never faded from Sakayanagi's face as she continued to listen to Ichinose's confession.

"As her older sister… I thought I had to bring back my little sister's smile, whatever it took. So, on the day of my sister's birthday, after class, I went to the department store."

I was sure that Ichinose's heart was racing nervously right now, just like it had back then.

"I'm sure I was burying my real feelings, back then. I told myself it was okay. That it wasn't a big deal to do something bad like this, just this one time, for my sister's sake. After all, there were plenty of people who did bad

things in the world. Why should my family, who'd put up with so much for so long, be blamed? I told myself what I was doing could be forgiven. That was the selfish, self-centered justification I gave myself."

Ichinose's words came forth as if she were releasing something heavy she'd been holding onto.

"That hair clip cost ten thousand yen or more. So…I stole it. I stole the hair clip that my little sister wanted. It was an act that made everyone unhappy. But at that time, all I wanted was to make my sister happy, somehow."

And that act triggered what followed.

"…But it doesn't matter, does it?" muttered Ichinose quietly. She kept going, stringing together disconnected phrases in an attempt to express her jumbled thoughts. "Ultimately, a crime is a crime. No matter how much you repent, your sins will never disappear."

"So you're saying that you got caught?" asked Hashimoto. Ichinose simply shook her head.

"I just left the department store with the hair clip. It was the first time I'd ever shoplifted. The first time I ever committed a crime, at all. No one saw me. I went back home and gave it to my little sister, who was still moping around. I'd just stolen it, so it wasn't wrapped or anything. It was such a sloppy gift. But she was so incredibly happy to see it. When I saw her smile, I felt my guilt fade away for a moment. But it didn't fade entirely. It came back and continued to grow and grow inside me."