Haruka and the rest of the Ayanokōji Group approached me immediately after Chabashira left the classroom.
Horikita and Yamauchi left the classroom right away.
"Are you free right now?"
"Hm? Yeah."
I actually wanted to talk to Hirata a little bit but…
Without showing any particular sort of emotion on his face, Hirata quietly left the classroom alone.
Since my situation had been made public, ignoring the Ayanokōji Group didn't seem like a very good idea.
"Let's go to the cafe!"
We collectively agreed with Haruka's suggestion and left the classroom behind.
We all entered the hallway together, none of us even thinking of heading over to the cafe alone.
"Is this alright? If worst comes to worst, the rest of you might be targeted by Yamauchi's group."
"If they want to aim for us then bring it on! I absolutely won't let somebody from our group be expelled."
Contrary to her usual behavior, Haruka's anger was more pronounced and didn't seem to be letting up.
"I have the same opinion. There isn't a single reason why Kiyotaka should be expelled."
Keisei spoke up in agreement, with Akito and Airi nodding along.
"I thought it was strange that we didn't find out any information, but it makes sense that we couldn't, what with their target being somebody in our group."
No matter how much they investigated, they wouldn't have been able to catch on to the identity of the large group's target.
Keisei seemed to understand this well enough.
We arrived at the cafe. After everyone finished ordering their drinks, Haruka broke the ice.
"I think Yamauchi-kun is a really good choice for our censure votes. Well, rather, I totally don't think there's any other option."
"No objections here, but what about our other two votes?"
"Isn't it, like, fine to vote for the people who're still supporting him?"
"Won't there be a huge drop in the number of his supporters now that it's been made public that he's got connections with Sakayanagi? Even Ike and Sudō weren't bold enough to say anything to defend him."
"Yeah, but since they're his friends, I feel like they'll cast him a praise vote out of sympathy."
Haruka's prediction was probably correct.
Even though he'd been branded a traitor, Yamauchi had only taken action to protect himself.
From another perspective, it could be said that he had simply been taken advantage of by Sakayanagi. It's not like there was no room for sympathy.
Horikita was the one who had incited all the hate for Yamauchi… Well… No, I had been the one behind that.
Yamauchi was the mastermind, and Sakayanagi was the one pulling the strings behind him.
I informed the elder Horikita about everything, and had him relay the information to his sister.
If, by any chance, she hadn't taken action, I would have just done the same thing she had done myself.
"I wonder how many censure votes Kiyotaka is actually gonna get? Out of the boys, there's Yamauchi along with Ike and Sudō, and beyond those three, Hondō, Ijuin, Miyamoto, and Sotomura all seem to be on fairly good terms with him."
There only seemed to be seven censure votes from the boys in the class.
"What about the girls?"
"I have no doubts that Horikita-san will cast a praise vote for Kiyotaka-kun and a censure vote for Yamauchi-kun. I don't know what the other girls are gonna do though… Do you know Airi?"
"…Satō-san and Karuizawa-san probably won't vote against him… I think…"
"Why?"
"I don't know why, it's just a feeling but…"
Airi trailed off as she tried to explain it to Keisei, and Haruka chimed in.
"It's a woman's intuition."
"We can't rely on that."
Keisei wasn't going to count these votes with this explanation alone.
"Yes we can. It's real weird, but I think she's on the right track. Especially since it's Airi we're talking about here."
"What's that supposed to mean? Satō aside, how could she possibly know anything about Karuizawa?"
Unable to understand her reasoning, Keisei doubtfully tilted his head.
"Don't worry about it. Like, let's just say we can count those two out from voting for him."
"This is sloppy…"
"However, other than those three, it's still pretty unclear what the rest of the girls will do."
"Yea. There are a lot of girls who don't like Yamauchi-kun though. Even if they go through with their promises to vote for Kiyopon, they'll probably end up casting one for him as well."
"Looking at it from a psychological perspective, that's probably true. For somebody who's simply looking to get through the exam, they'll be able to save themselves by casting their votes for people with the highest chance of being expelled. They probably see it as a one-on-one fight for survival between Kiyotaka and Yamauchi, and the remaining votes will probably be scattered among the other options."
Keisei went into the facts of the matter based on everything he'd heard so far.
For instance, Kōenji had been a prime target for the class's censure votes, but even so, that mindset had probably lost some traction. Casting a censure vote for Kōenji would mean disregarding his strengths, and since there are several students actively dragging their feet and holding the class back from moving forward, Kōenji would probably end up being safe.
"I'm sure you'll be fine, Kiyotaka-kun."
"Yeah, thank you."
In the back of her mind, Airi was probably still somewhat anxious that some of the remaining censure votes would be cast for her.
And yet, she offered me resolute words of encouragement without letting this anxiety show through.
"Anyhow, isn't Kiyopon the calmest one here?"
"It's just that there's nothing I can do. My thoughts have been filled with uneasiness."
"Don't worry. Thanks to Horikita, things aren't looking too bad anymore. Rather, it's kinda like you've been saved by her."
If it weren't for Horikita, there's a good chance that most of the class would've faced the exam without knowing anything about what had been happening.
Without even a second thought, they would've gone and cast their vote for me just to save themselves.
An outcome like that was far too easy for me to imagine.
"But… I wonder how Horikita-san found out about Yamauchi-kun's betrayal."
Airi casually posed a crucial new question.
"Our group is close with Kiyotaka-kun, so it makes sense that none of us heard anything about it, right? I thought Horikita-san would be in the same kinda situation as us is all…"
"That's true… It doesn't seem like Horikita tried to go and form a group either."
Yamauchi was probably frustrated about this as well. He was most likely thinking that someone in the large group he had created betrayed him, even going as far as to spill everything to Horikita.
In the first place, he probably wouldn't have been able to notice the information leak, nor do anything about it.
"I don't know who, but there must've been somebody who didn't want Kiyopon to be expelled, right?"
"Probably. At least there's one good egg in the bunch."
None of them were able to realize that this 'somebody' was both Kei and myself.