"Hey, is that the guy?"
"Yeah, that's the one who's always with President Ayakoji..."
"So it's that jerk who's framing President Kiryu, what a lowlife! I'm going to go give him a piece of my mind!"
"Idiot, have you forgotten that he's a friend of President Ayakoji? Be careful not to get on the wrong side of the Disciplinary Committee!"
"But..."
Walking to school, Kagura Hikaru was already surrounded by all sorts of gazes.
Classmates were pointing and talking about him, and those who didn't know what was going on got a quick lesson from their friends and soon joined the indignation.
Justice shines bright and karma circles back; this must be the fruit of his wrongdoing.
This time, the intensity of public opinion was much worse than when Kiryu Hina was accused of bullying, and it involved innocent people.
The Discipline Committee members, who would usually greet him loudly at the school gates, were nowhere to be seen today, replaced by an embarrassed physical education teacher standing there awkwardly.
Ayakoji Chiyoko's prestige had taken a hit, and the Disciplinary Committee she represented couldn't escape unscathed.
If they couldn't quell the students' anger, the Disciplinary Committee's power was unlikely to return to what it had been before.
When Kagura Hikaru got to the shoe lockers to switch into his indoor shoes, he opened his locker only to find no shoes inside, but a bunch of rusty thumbtacks, along with several threatening letters.
[I will never forgive you!!]
[Die die die die]
[I will kill you]
High school students, their language was so simplistically cute.
He tossed the letters and thumbtacks together into a trash can and found his indoor shoes in it too, but they had been cut up so badly with scissors that he had no intention of taking them back.
With just his socks on, he found a teacher and got a pair of spare indoor shoes to wear, then tread carefully back to class.
Fortunately, his desk was still in the classroom, not thrown out, and nobody had doodled on it. At most, the atmosphere in the classroom was a bit colder, which didn't affect him much.
Before the teacher arrived, he took out his phone to check the school forum.
The Yuqiu High School internal forum is operated by the News Department. Usually, it features news articles, study materials for reference, recommended reading lists and the like—it's considered a rather serious forum, not frequented by many people.
But today, when Kagura Hikaru logged on, the number of posts had exploded to over a thousand. He clicked on the top post pinned by the administrators and saw that it was the stuff Hina had shown him the day before.
Recordings, photographs, everything included.
Kagura Hikaru patiently listened to the recording and discovered it had been edited; the part where he and Ayakoji Chiyoko were bargaining, as well as the latter's grievances with Kiryu Hina, were missing.
However, the remaining part, the conspiratorial part, clearly proved there was collusion between Kagura Hikaru and Ayakoji Chiyoko.
Above the recording was a low-resolution photo.
The photo, taken from behind and somewhat blurry, showed their profiles clearly enough, and whether it was the lighting or edited, Kagura Hikaru and Ayakoji Chiyoko looked very sinister with their cold expressions.
Besides that, an anonymous poster claimed that the recently popular Society Discussion Meeting was being controlled behind the scenes by Ayakoji Chiyoko to smear the Student Council President.
Although there was no evidence presented regarding this, with Ayakoji Chiyoko's credibility in decline, the audience would believe any conspiracy theory.
As expected, the comments below were full of anger, with scornful and vulgar words about the Society Discussion Meeting and Ayakoji Chiyoko.
Kagura Hikaru himself was rarely mentioned; probably because he wasn't very famous.
But his locker had already been vandalized, indicating the situation was hardly optimistic. Kiryu Hina's supporters had set their sights on him, so it was best not to harbor any false hopes.
That's also why Kagura Hikaru had kept his distance from Ai Cheng Hua Lian these past few days; no one knew what those high school students, thinking they knew the truth and fired up with zeal, might do.
He had even prepared himself for the possibility of a violent incident.
As for Ayakoji Chiyoko, with the backing of the Disciplinary Committee and her usual authority, her situation was probably much better than his, but she definitely wasn't under any less pressure.
Under current circumstances, unless Ayakoji Chiyoko had some kind of trump card to turn the tables in a hopeless situation, she would have no choice but to bite the bullet and admit defeat.
The evidence provided by Hina was too clear and impactful; a significant counterattack was virtually impossible, as she had no such leverage over others.
Classes started, and classes ended.
During lunch break, Kagura Hikaru was stopped by a Discipline Committee member wearing a red armband, who said Ayakoji Chiyoko was waiting for him at the Disciplinary Committee.
Going downstairs, planning to bypass the courtyard to the old school building, he was surprised to run into Kiryu Hina at the bottom of the stairs.
She was followed by members of the Student Council, apparently on an inspection tour, with a string of students surrounding her, looking as if they were walking on a pilgrimage with the Pope—some excited, some infatuated, a never-ending stream of laughter and chatter.
Kagura Hikaru watched this bizarre scene from a distance.
The winter sun was always welcome, bright and warm, making one drowsy, wishing to curl up like a cat on a sunny patch of floor for a nap.
But Kagura Hikaru was not in a bright mood standing in the sunlight.
Especially upon realizing that the Student Council and others were headed for the old school building where the clubs were clustered.
He certainly didn't think Hina's 'club inspections' at this time were a coincidence; they were clearly targeting the Discipline Committee on the third floor.
Their purpose, perhaps, was to show off their power.
After all, the Society Discussion Meeting had recently been smeared so badly by Ayakoji Chiyoko, and today's Kiryu Hina appeared to have a look of triumph about her.
Of course, looking at her smiling face, one could never tell she was feeling proud; all outsiders could see was an extremely amiable gentleness and purity that instinctively drew them to her side.
The Student Council members were the most seriously affected, with most of their gaze fixed on Kiryu Hina, and the remainder of their attention on the students crowding around, ready to intervene at any moment, playing the role of gallant protectors.
The crowd surged into the old school building, and Kagura Hikaru discreetly followed them, watching the Student Council members visit each club's room on the first floor, and then inconspicuously avoiding the crowd to go upstairs.
Right now, to Hina's followers, he was like a stinking rat in the gutter—it was better not to meet face to face.
The entire third floor of the old school building was the territory of the Discipline Committee.
There was always a tense atmosphere in the air.
Asking a passing Discipline Committee member, Kagura Hikaru found out which old classroom Ayakoji Chiyoko was in and headed there.
Even though she definitely didn't know he'd met with Kiryu Hina yesterday and learned about the post's content in advance, approaching her now made him feel quite conflicted.
He really didn't know what Ayakoji Chiyoko would look like now. Would she be thunderously angry? That didn't seem like her style.
Most likely, she was plotting her next move for revenge.
When he opened the door to the old classroom, there were surprisingly many people inside, including Ayakoji Chiyoko.
She looked no different than the day before, as calm as ever, her expressionless face concealing pride, arms crossed, legs crossed, sitting there. When Kagura Hikaru entered, she just lifted her eyes to nod, then turned her head to continue speaking to the Discipline Committee members around her:
"...In the next three days, patrol frequency will be reduced to once a day, to be carried out at four in the afternoon. The morning routine duties at the school gate are to be handed over to Teacher Yamazaki. If you encounter insults while performing your duties, you may detain one or two representatives to the Discipline Committee for the usual processing. Understood?"
"Understood!!"
Like well-trained soldiers, the Discipline Committee members stood at attention with their hands behind their backs and responded in unison.
"President, should we investigate who posted that article?" Gorilla Vice President asked from the side.
"No need, I have a rough idea of who it was," Ayakoji Chiyoko sneered, then waved her hand, "If there's no problem, then everyone go back to work. Dismissed."
"Yes!!"
The Discipline Committee members in the room straightened their backs, acknowledged in unison, and left one by one through the main door.
As they passed by him, apart from the Gorilla Vice President whose expression was stern, the other Discipline Committee members didn't cast a single doubtful or wavering glance at him as they left, as if everything was normal.
How Ayakoji Chiyoko had managed to train such unswervingly loyal subordinates was a mystery.
As the last Discipline Committee member left the classroom and closed the door, only Kagura Hikaru and Ayakoji Chiyoko remained in the room.
Kagura Hikaru moved a chair expertly, sitting directly opposite her.
He had barely sat down when he heard her speak, "This round we lost. Kiryu Hina played a card we couldn't refute."
Ayakoji Chiyoko's expression and complexion were cold, but her eyes revealed a hint of unwillingness.
The scene that Kiryu Hina orchestrated destroyed all of her subsequent plans.
She knew the opponent would counterattack, but she did not expect it to be so swift and deadly, not only dismantling her offensive but also using her own tactics against her, effectively branding Ayakoji Chiyoko's reputation as a 'Petty woman who throws dirt behind others.'
A tarnished reputation meant the loss of her voice, turning all the preparedness and countermeasures she had taken from 'bullets' to 'fireworks,' incapable of threatening Kiryu Hina.
Instead, it was she who was in big trouble.
"Is the Society Discussion Meeting going to be shut down?" asked Kagura Hikaru.
Ayakoji Chiyoko thought for a moment and decisively shook her head, "It will never happen. Even the defeated have their honor. I will ensure its continuation, to stand against the Student Council."
"What about the Discipline Committee?"
"It won't be affected either," said Ayakoji Chiyoko calmly. "As long as I step down, that will suffice."