E.1
The first day of winter vacation. The sky was covered with thick clouds and had been pouring since the morning.
About 10 minutes past the appointed time, Ryūen approached with an umbrella in hand. Ichinose, who had been waiting ahead of time for him, gazed silently into his face.
They stopped when they were far enough away from each other so that they could hear each other through the sound of the rain
“The weather has been like this lately, hasn't it?”
Ichinose spoke to Ryūen without making any inquiry about his delay.
“Not going to complain about the delay?”
“I was prepared to wait for 30 minutes. If you didn't show up by then, I was going to leave without hesitation.”
Ichinose, who answered with a relaxed attitude, seemed to be more concerned about the sky than Ryūen. She tilted her umbrella and looked up at the rainy sky a little.
“It won't stop for the rest of the day.”
“You're such a softy for taking the trouble to answer my call.”
Ignoring Ichinose's muttering, Ryūen told Ichinose.
“I don't know if Ryūen-kun would be satisfied if I said we were friends, but I think it's normal for me to answer when you call. I didn't have any plans at this time. So what do you want?”
“My schedule got a little screwed up. I thought I'd see if I could figure out why.”
“Is it the special exam you're talking about? I was a little confused about the harassment.”
“I know you think it's not artistic to do that, but it suits our needs. If it's the easiest and most effective way, why not repeat it?”
Ryūen instructed his classmates to relentlessly pressure and sabotage Ichinose’s classmates. He would force his way into classrooms, libraries, or karaoke rooms where Ichinose’s classmates would gather for study sessions, and would disrupt their studies by making a lot of noise.
Unbeknownst to Ayanokōji and the others, Ryūen was also giving dangerous instructions. He offered money to students with high academic ability and rewarded them if they got all the questions wrong. Or he threatened that answering all the questions correctly would cause trouble for some of their peers.
The strategy was based on the idea that a weak class would be able to open a hole in a tight-knit class.
“I'm sure everyone was annoyed.”
“I guess.”
However, it did not cause much damage in the end.
In the academic competition, Ryūen did not have a good chance to win even if they played a straightforward game.
Knowing this, Ryūen planned to fight them outside of the ring.
“But did you really think you could win that way?”
“Yes, I did.”
However, as it turned out, none of the strategies worked against Ichinose.
“I thought your class would fall apart after something like that, but it seems you've grown since the first year.”
Ishizaki and the others who came up to Ryūen were all reporting that the sabotage of Ichinose’s class had been a success. Although some of the students did not accept the temptations and threats, they were aware of their effectiveness, as evidenced by the agitation that could be seen in the students.
However, the students of Ichinose's class were only outwardly showing that they were in trouble. Behind the scenes, they were steadily making time to study and acting as if they were frightened by the threats.
“Where’d this wisdom come from? If it had been you in the past, you might have canceled the study sessions immediately and shut yourself in early instead of wasting your energy. You would’ve rejected our threats outright. Yet, you went through the trouble of pretending that you were still falling for our strategy.”
If it was Sakayanagi or Ayanokōji, Ryūen would not have been surprised.
Instead, he would have considered making a stronger move as a natural countermeasure.
A cornered rat bites the cat. The cornered and weak strike back.
To find out firsthand, Ryūen invited Ichinose to talk.
“There is no wisdom in there, Ryūen-kun. We just continued to study in the midst of the noise. The threatening words simply frightened everyone. It just happened to not have much effect.”
“There's no need for modesty here. Obviously, something must have changed in your class.”
“Ryūen-kun and the others should have taken it seriously like we and the other classes did. You should have studied and scored points... just like the way Horikita-san and her class beat Sakayanagi-san.”
“You're talking from a very high place just because you picked up a win in a favorable exam. Well, this special exam was the ultimate in lukewarmness. No risk of anyone dropping out, just a firm grip on the pen and arm movement. I didn't care enough to take it seriously either.”
“Why couldn't you have done it the normal way like everyone else did?”
“I've been teaching these idiots for a week or two, but I don't think they're going to improve much. It's just easier and faster to kick them down the road.”
Ryūen laughed as he faced Ichinose in the pouring rain.
“But that decision was a mistake, wasn't it?”
“I was beaten by you people whose only merit is earnestness, but next time I'm going to have to sabotage you even harder.”
“So you're not going to change your ways if the same special exam is repeated?”
“Yeah, I'm not going to change. I'm going to sink you on the spot.”
Ryūen answered with a confident manner as if this was his own way of doing things.
“I see. It seems that no matter what we say, we can't agree on anything anymore.”
“You're back in Class C by a narrow margin for a while. But don't think that's going to help you win again. You're a pathetic sheep that's long since been defeated. No matter how hard you struggle in the mud, you are doomed to sink eventually. Don't you agree?”
“We've been losing so much lately. That hurts my ears.”
“I'll say it again, you're only saved this time by the content of the special exam.”
“I won't deny that.”
Ryūen had his own reasons for relentlessly and forcibly biting Ichinose.
He thought that he could see through the other party by talking this way. However, he couldn’t see it. The openings that Ichinose would have shown in the past did not appear at all.
“The class you’ll face in the final exam is Ayanokōji's class. That’s a pain in the ass, you know? Even more so than Sakayanagi, the class I plan to crush. So defeat is inevitable for you. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Sakayanagi must be thinking the same way. You will be finished at the end of the school year. There is no way we could have won this time. I urge you not to get your hopes up.”
Ichinose did not answer immediately, but stood still and listened to Ryūen continue on.
“It's easy for Ayanokōji and the others. They get class points for fighting small fry like you without having to deal with me and Sakayanagi. Nothing could be luckier.”
He attacked Ichinose relentlessly, ignoring her lack of response and trying to push her into a corner.
“Indeed... If we lose in the final exam, we may be finished.”
If the gap widens for the new Class C in a direct confrontation, it will be almost impossible for them to make up for it in a year.
“So I'll tell you how to graduate in Class A.”
“Is there such a thing?”
“The end-of-year exam will cut off your path to Class A. Then the only way to graduate in Class A is to collect private points.”
“It would take a large sum of points to save 40 people. I don't think that's possible.”
“We can't save all of them. But what about one person? Just 20 million points. You have the ability to collect points out of the goodness of the hearts from your class. They'll deposit 1 million, 2 million, whatever you want with you as collateral for their trust. You just have to spend the money in the end.”
“Using the money entrusted to you to move to another class is embezzlement. The school won't allow it.”
“I don't know. Certainly, if people like me or Sakayanagi were to do the same thing, we would be punished. We would be expelled without question. But that's not likely to happen to you.”
“Why?”
“Because the good guys will take your feelings into consideration. Even if you know you've been embezzling, you can tell the school that ‘the money was given to you somehow.’ It's not 100% true, but it's a good enough chance to bet that you'll get straight to Class A.”
“Interesting story. But I think I've had enough.”
Ichinose, who had figured out the reason for the invitation, had no reason to stay there any longer.
“I think it's time to end this conversation.”
“I was going to play with Suzune and Sakayanagi from now on, but if there is a battle involving expulsion from school in the future, your class will be a target. I'll erase your friends who have been trying so hard to protect you.”
From Ryūen's point of view, Ichinose is still not recognized as an obstacle and tried to threaten her.
Ichinose took the threat head-on and smiled.
“Then I'll just stop you before you do. If necessary, I'll just have you expelled.”
“Kuku. You think you can make me, or anyone at all, disappear?”
Ichinose, who is a good-natured person, is extremely against other people getting hurt. This has been the uniform impression of not only Ryūen but also everyone around her for the past two years.
“You've certainly become more skilled at lying, haven't you?”
“What’s the need for you and Sakayanagi-san to be so cautious of me now? I don't really care about what you say. I'm not the kind of person you need to worry about.”
Thick clouds covered the sky and the sound of rain became stronger.
Before he knew it, Ryūen's smile was gone and he was thinking about Ichinose's words.
‘The woman in front of me is not worth the trouble.’ I thought I had been treating her as such.
However, when I looked back on it calmly, I realized that I was being very stubborn.
“I won't hold back against anyone in the future. I won't choose a means to an end.”
“That's not like you to be bluffing.”
“I just realized I don't have time to worry about it anymore. That's all there is to it.”
Ryūen's rash thoughts quietly receded from his mind.
“You’re not going to give any mercy to anyone, huh? You seem to be quite obsessed with Ayanokōji these days. If that's the case, the first thing you should get rid of is Karuizawa's existence, right?”
A joke. This was Ryūen's way of harassment to upset her mentally.
Even after saying this, Ichinose did not change her soft, smiling face.
“What do you mean, 'obsessed'?”
“Rumors travel fast in this small school.”
Ryūen was already aware of the increasing contact between the two parties in the process of gathering information. Ryūen was also convinced of Ichinose's one-sided feelings, though he can only guess.
“Why don't you move more calculatingly? If you want, I can help you get rid of Karuizawa.”
‘Impatience, anger, frustration or disgust.’ Whatever feelings you have, show them to me.
This is Ryūen's aim in this incitement.
“If Ryūen-kun already knows. Then there's no need to hide it.”
Ichinose, with a faint smile on her face, looked Ryūen in the eyes and replied without hesitation.
“I don't want to expel Karuizawa-san because of my personal feelings. That's a different story.”
Despite her bold words, she is a good person after all.
So Ryūen tried to interject this, but...
“But Ryūen-kun is mistaken. I am a calculating enough person.”
Saying this, Ichinose puts her hand on her chest and smiles.
“If you can't solve a problem, think about it and come up with an answer. If you still can't find the answer, take action. That's how most paths open up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wonder?”
Ichinose thought back… to the night of the school trip.
It was then that my destiny began to change.
There is a slight possibility. No, it was a result derived by instinct that didn't even consider the possibility.
The situation at midnight when everyone was at the inn. A blizzard. A vanished self.
How will my classmates react and what will happen to them if it turns into a commotion?
It wasn't anything surprising for Ayanokouji to find me.
Everything at that time, at that moment, was inevitable.
Something unpleasant clung to Ryūen's hand holding the umbrella, and then spread to his whole body.
“I've got to go to the gym now. I don't want to waste even one second of happiness.”
All the analysis of Ichinose that he had been holding until then, all of it, was negated. Ichinose was not interested in Ryūen at all anymore. She started walking, passing by Ryūen and heading for the Keyaki Mall.
“I take it back, Ichinose.”
Ryūen turned around and spoke to Ichinose.
“It might be lucky for us not to run into you at the end-of-year exam.”
That was a hunch.
It was a word of respect for her presence, which made him think she was more troublesome than Sakayanagi, even if only for a moment.
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