Yagami had always held himself absurdly high—how could he possibly accept being counter-threatened by Kushida?
He snapped into motion, lunging to snatch Kushida's phone.
But Kushida didn't panic at all. Deep down, she truly looked down on someone like him.
"You don't seriously think that's the only copy, do you?"
Yagami's hand froze mid-air, stuck between grabbing and retreating—awkward as hell.
"W-What do you mean?" he snarled at Kushida. The sunny, confident, "I control everything" expression was gone. What remained was a twisted, ugly rage.
"Tch." Kushida let out a disdainful little laugh. "What else could it mean?"
"Phones in this country force a flash and a shutter sound. If it was taken on a phone, do you think you wouldn't have noticed?"
"So what—how do you think that photo happened?"
"It was taken by a first-year girl's own camera," Kushida said coolly, like she was explaining something to an idiot. "She sent the digital files to me to gain my trust."
"You don't honestly believe I made zero backups and kept only one photo on my phone, right?"
Yagami stiffly pulled his arm back.
He tried to force a smile—but he couldn't.
Inside, he was screaming.
What the hell is wrong with this school?! Why is everyone here so disgusting and hard to deal with?!
Of course, that was hypocrisy too.
When he used White Room intel to threaten Kushida, he didn't call it disgusting.
But the moment it happened to him, suddenly it was unforgivable.
"Alright." Seeing him back off, Kushida casually put her phone away. "I'm not in the mood to keep playing polite little games with you."
"This ends here."
"When both sides have dirt on each other, the smartest thing is to stop."
"My persona can't collapse," she said sweetly. "And your dumb 'sunshine boy' persona can't collapse either."
"So we keep quiet. Mutual secrecy."
"I'm leaving."
And with that, Kushida stood up lightly—like she was informing him, not negotiating.
Yagami was left sitting there, frozen.
His mind wouldn't calm down.
He was so furious he wanted to go full "desktop cleaning master"—sweep every cup and plate off the table with one violent swing.
But he couldn't.
Even if Palette wasn't busy at night, there were still people. There were cameras. If he did something like that, his persona would shatter.
And he refused to accept that outcome.
Why had he run into the woods alone to gnaw on a tree after losing to Cheng Yukio on the uninhabited island?
To keep it secret. To protect his image.
In Yagami's White Room mindset, failure in any area was unacceptable.
In the White Room, if you failed even slightly, you got eliminated.
That environment had shaped him into this: arrogant to the bone, looking down on everything, and obsessively demanding perfection.
Even if expelling Ayanokoji meant he'd leave ANHS and this fake persona would become meaningless…
He still couldn't allow it to collapse. Because that would still be a failure. A failure he could never accept.
So Yagami forced himself to decide: just as Kushida said, it ends here.
Kushida was useless as a tool for now. With leverage in her hands, the two of them could only restrain each other—mutual fear, mutual checks, neither daring to push.
So tomorrow's Unanimous exam… fine. Whatever. He'd look for another chance later.
Honestly, he hadn't even wanted to expel Ayanokoji in the first place.
If not for Ayanokoji's father calling him out, he wouldn't have bothered approaching Kushida tonight—wouldn't have tried to make a move through Unanimous.
If Kushida had succeeded, it would've just been a way to give that man an answer.
And even then, it wasn't the outcome Yagami truly wanted.
Expelling Ayanokoji—what did that accomplish?
To Yagami, the only real solution was assassination.
Only if Ayanokoji died would the White Room have a single success case left—him.
In the end, Yagami held his rage down with sheer force. After leaving Palette, he marched straight into the small grove near the dorms—and another innocent tree suffered.
…
Meanwhile, Yukio was listening to Kushida's call.
"So you're saying… that Yagami used your past to threaten you, trying to make you expel Ayanokoji through tomorrow's Unanimous exam?"
Interesting.
Hearing the intel—Yagami also wants Ayanokoji expelled—Yukio's gaze lifted.
So that was it.
He'd found the other White Room assassin.
And the fact that Yagami had gotten played by Kushida made Yukio want to laugh.
White Room, huh?
All muscle, no brain.
But if Yagami was the other assassin… Why had he sent Yukio that note during the uninhabited island exam?
Back then, Yukio's theories had been:
Maybe Yagami hated Tsukishiro and wanted to sabotage him.
Or maybe he was Ayanokoji's ally and didn't want him expelled.
But now?
If Yagami also wanted Ayanokoji expelled, then he wasn't Ayanokoji's friend.
So was it Tsukishiro he hated?
It was getting more and more interesting.
"Mm-hm." On the other end of the phone, Kushida's smile was dazzling. Lying on her bed in her room, she lazily lifted and lowered her long pale legs, totally different from the dark, vicious expression she'd shown Yagami earlier.
"That Yagami is so annoying. But I was better. I found dirt on him too."
"Now he's all tied up and can't move freely. So it should be mutual secrecy…"
"But, you know—just in case. Better safe than sorry."
"I still want him expelled."
"You…" Yukio shook his head with a laugh, remembering how she used to target Horikita. "So it's always like this. Anyone who knows your past—out they go, huh?"
"That's not the same~" Kushida pouted playfully. "You told me to let Horikita go, and after that I never targeted Horikita again."
"But this Yagami? I don't want to endure him."
"We need to find a chance and kick him out as soon as possible."
"Alright." Either way, someone who threatened his woman wasn't getting spared. Yukio agreed easily. "We'll find a chance and make him disappear. I'll help you."
"Hehe~" That feeling of being protected made Kushida melt. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and her voice gained a faint, teasing sweetness.
"Then… I should give my dear Yukio a little reward."
"Only a little?" Yukio thought about it, unimpressed. "How about three little rewards?"
Three…?
Kushida blinked on the other end, not understanding for half a second.
Then she caught up—fast. Her face heated up, and her voice turned into a shy, annoyed whine.
"Y-You're disgusting!" (T/N: I have faith that someone understood what Yukio said)