Let me summarize what has happened so far.
It is important to remember all the components and aspects before going into a full blown war.
The war is not between class C and A, but between me and class C.
Although I am a student of class C myself, my classmates think that I am a traitor, who joined hands with class A to bring down my own class.
It's true that Yamauchi betrayed class C in the in-class voting special exam at first, but, just when I tried to correct things after reincarnating into his body and by making a necessary sacrifice of Sakura, things went wrong somehow.
And now, everyone in class C just wants me expelled from the school as soon as possible.
I understand that it was unfair for Sakura and I feel somewhat guilty about it, but, whatever I did was definitely better for class C.
Borrowing Koenji's words, that special exam was a way to remove incompetent students.
Yamauchi, definitely, was incompetent. Neither good at academics nor in sports and class contribution. Moreover, he was a traitor.
However, that was true until I entered his body.
I am not confident about sports, but being a high school graduate myself, I am, without a doubt, more valuable than him and Sakura in academics. Moreover, I would have also helped the class in planning, during special exams, using my prior knowledge of this light novel.
That's why, it would have been a better deal for class C, if Horikita would have just used me for the betterment of this class.
But, she declared me a traitor and compelled the whole class to expel me in the year-end special exam.
In this exam, two pairs of classes compete with each other, and our competitor is class A.
Each class would assign a commander role to one of the students, and the losing commander would be expelled from school.
Commander for class A is Sakayanagi, and for our class is yours truly.
While all the other three commanders have protection points, which would save them in case they lose in this special exam, the commander of class C, that is I, don't have one.
We compete in terms of events like a match of soccer, or basketball, etc. in total of 7.
Whichever class wins 4 or more events is the winner.
That means, if class C loses 4 or more events, then I am gonna get expelled.
And that's all.
Game over.
Well, not only this is quite a difficult exam to even win, my dear classmates would not spare any effort to knowingly lose the events.
Why?
Because, I made a contract with them, entailing, if class C wins this special exam, then each of them would have to give me 10,000 private points, each month until graduation.
If I am expelled, then the contract is annulled.
Even if I did add a rule in the contract that prevents them from intentionally losing the events, there is no telling what would Horikita plan to entrap me.
By the way, for our class, the 10 events we are gonna propse, is being decided by Horikita and others.
As I am being hated right now, it's not possible for me to seriously discuss about any events with them.
So, I am not really participating in the class meetings, and I don't know how they are deciding on events either.
You can ask me why I am letting them make plans for this special exam at all, if they are just trying to expel me?
Like, for events, I could have just put forward things, based on the strong suits of our classmates.
For instance, Sudo is good at basketball.
Onodera is good at swimming.
For academics, we have Yukimura, Horikita and Koenji.
Then why am I making things difficult for myself like this?
Well, that's a valid question.
But, to be honest, I have a hunch that things might work out in my favor.
Because, there is a strong possibility that Horikita is willing to win this special exam no matter what, after getting a setback as the class leader in the previous one.
If they just want me expelled, then they would put forward events solely relying on academic skills, because in that regard, class A is second to none in our grade.
But, if Horikita is trying to win, then she would definitely do things like how I would have done.
So, I am not thinking about that aspect at all.
Instead, I am trying to build escape routes for myself, so that chances of our class winning would be higher. Like that deal I made with Sakayanagi.
Moreover, there is also a final resort for my safety, in case our class is doomed to lose.
Therefore, for now, I have to search for those kinds of escape routes as much as possible.
By the way, regarding our eyewitness for that contract I made with Sakayanagi, I, instantly thought of one person, and that is Hoshinomiya sensei, the homeroom teacher of class B.
Being the homeroom teacher of a completely different class, she and Sakagami sensei of Ryuen's class, were the perfect picks, but as I don't know much about Sakagami, Hoshinomiya became the prime candidate for it.
Moreover, from her previous statements in the novel, it was quite clear that, she hates class C, or more like she hates Chabashira sensei, despite being close friends with her. I don't know the reason though.
As classes ended while I was thinking about these things, I decided to fix a meeting with Hoshinomiya tomorrow.
And for now, I am gonna check a few things at the drugs' store.
It's actually because of the things that happened the last night.
First of all, it's really absurd for my mom, who is already dead, to appear here. Then, that dream about a hospital setting just increases the bizarreness of this situation.
I know that reincarnation is just as bizarre as that, but still this world feels more real to me.
Then how those incidents could be explained?
The most probable explanation is.... shadow clone jutsu.
Or a forbidden magic spell maybe?
...
I am just joking.
There is nothing like magic in real world.
Right? There is none right?
Well, keeping aside my doubts regarding magic and whatever, my wild guess is that the reason is some kind of hallucination.
'As I have a perfectly fit mind', the cause of such hallucinations might be some kind of drug, or so I want to believe.
Moreover, when I was checking my room after Haruka left, I found grains of some kind of salty substance on my desk, where my monitor was kept.
That's why, I am gonna check the drugs' store, and see for myself, if there is any purchase made by a student named Haruka Hasebe.
Yeah, I finally learned her full name from Sakayanagi after our conversation in the morning.
As I entered the mall with that mindset, the crowd got denser and denser by the minute.
The drugs' store was located in a corner, so it was a bit difficult to pass through.
But there is a mysterious allure of this mall, that made me forget about my goal, and I just kept checking in different stores one after another.
Although, it's true that in my previous life, I barely went inside one of those places in my entire youth.
Maybe that's why, I want to explore more things like this.
Just then, I stumbled upon a store that sold mangas and light novels.
It was my first time visiting one in this Keyaki mall, so I got curious and started my search for some trendy mangas of each genre.
There was a section just for those trending types, and I decided to to take one, if any got my interest.
The first one was obviously isekai genre.
Back in my time too, they were always in demand.
I picked a book with an interesting cover, but was baffled by the title.
"I was exiled from the hero's party, because I was a fucking bastard. Then I picked up some MILFs along the way, and defeated the demon lord myself"
Well, ....the title pretty much explains the whole story, which is as expected of the genre itself.
But the art was definitely good, so I can guess, why it sells well.
I hope you can guess too.
Under the comedy genre there was one that caught my attention.
"The author is already dead."
Bruh.
That's not comedy, that's horror. Reminds me of 'berserk', though.
Although, it was pretty fun to read the titles and checking out different mangas, I was here with a goal in mind.
So, I decided to check the romance genre at last, and pick one from them.
Their titles were amusing as hell.
"I want to eat your finger"
"Anya sometimes hides her guns in a closet"
"Blue bus"
And so on.
After realizing it was already pretty late, I decided to buy one named "Days with my stepbrother".
I hope it turns out good, as I haven't even checked it from inside.
***
As I approached the drugs' store, there seemed to be fewer and fewer people roaming around, which was a relief.
Most of them were probably upper classmen as I was not able to recognize any of their faces.
Just as I was going to enter the store, a familiar face made their exit.
At first, I couldn't think of anything about that, but after giving this some thought within that brief duration, it felt quite unusual to me.
I subconsciously blurted out their name.
"Ishizaki, huh?"