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The next day.
Akira sat in his seat, idly opening his phone to browse information about shops around the school.
He was surprised to find that there was a KFC on campus, and it happened to be Crazy Thursday, so the prices were much lower than usual.
He thought to himself that he could go try it after school today. After all, it'd been a long time since he'd eaten such junk food.
But before that, he still had to handle the point transfer in his account.
Yesterday, the club president gave him 50,000 points, plus the 30,000 from Kamuro, and his own reserved 60,000. After deducting the expenses from his date with Ichinose yesterday, his main account now had a total of 130,000 private points.
Actually, he'd wanted to explain to Kamuro yesterday that he'd already received the 50,000 private points from the club president.
But on second thought, he decided against it. Kamuro seemed to have something she wanted to ask of him. If he returned the points now, she'd probably feel awkward and embarrassed, keeping her request to herself, and might even avoid him for the next few days.
He knew Kamuro's personality too well. She was perfectly capable of doing something like that.
So, to avoid any complications, he decided to transfer 100,000 private points to his alternate account.
Leaving only the 30,000 private points she'd transferred.
Then he opened his alternate account, which he hadn't logged into for a long time.
Speaking of which, he'd rarely logged into this alternate account after using it in the first month. After all, he'd long since stopped trading with other classes.
He looked closely and found that someone had actually sent him a message.
And it was his old acquaintance, Sakayanagi.
{The midterm exam incident, was it your doing?}
{Why frame Class C? What did Ryuuen ever do to offend you?}
Akira's mouth twitched slightly. He switched to his main account and scrolled through the messages she'd sent yesterday.
{Shimizu-kun, you must've also noticed something strange about that question on the midterm exam, right?}
{The answer actually pointed to First Year Class C.}
{Thinking about it that way, it must've been Ryuuen who did it!}
'No? Is this person schizophrenic or something?'
Comparing them, he increasingly felt that she might've been drinking too much coffee lately, as her words were inconsistent.
Her side account was still feigning ignorance, saying she didn't know who did it, but her main account directly questioned if it was his doing?
This message was sent the day before yesterday.
Just one day apart, she'd posed completely different questions to him using her alternate account and main account.
Akira stared at the screen, a huge question mark in his mind.
However, after a brief thought, he replied:
{It wasn't me.}
Sakayanagi replied almost instantly: {It wasn't you?! Then who else could come up with such a method?!}
Akira couldn't help but wonder if this person spent all day glued to her phone, just waiting for his reply. He decided to ignore it for now.
Before he could sort out the details, his phone suddenly vibrated again, and a new message popped up.
{Shimizu Akira, did you get that midterm exam question right? Choosing C was correct.}
{Are you satisfied with the surprise I gave you?}
{Tell me your thoughts.}
Akira himself was utterly speechless.
Sakayanagi sent messages to his main account using her main account, and also sent messages to his alternate account using her main account. Now, this "Chattering Cat," which he suspected was her alternate account, was sending messages to his main account. This was the third identity talking to him.
If this was truly all Sakayanagi's doing, then wasn't she playing three roles at once?
He could guess with his toes that if this play was indeed orchestrated by that woman, she was probably hugging her phone, hiding in some corner, secretly gloating, perhaps even feeling smug about her intricate plan.
'It shouldn't be! After all, I have no concrete evidence to prove that Chattering Cat is Sakayanagi.'
'I must be overthinking! She wouldn't possibly use three identities to talk to me!'
He rubbed his throbbing temples, feeling that his guess was likely incorrect.
Sakayanagi shouldn't be that bored. She was the leader of Class A, and she had class affairs to manage daily. How could she have the time to play such games with him?
But before that thought finished, the daily intel update notification suddenly rang in his mind.
[1. First Year Class A's Sakayanagi Arisu purchased an alternate account from her homeroom teacher last month, naming it "Chattering Cat," an allusion to the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.]
[2. First Year Class D's Sudo Ken will assault three students from Class C tonight at 6:10 PM.]
[3. Electronics store employee Kusuda Yukitsu knows the true identity of First Year Class D's Sakura Airi. As a stalker fan, he harbors malicious intentions toward her and has sent her over a hundred harassing letters, expressing his affection.]
Ah?!
Akira's eyes widened suddenly as he stared at the first piece of intel, his face filled with disbelief.
It really was her?!
Sakayanagi really was that "Chattering Cat"?!
Even the meaning of the name was clear. It was the Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland."
Arisu! And you still say you're not Alice?!
No way... is she really that bored?!
It turned out Akira's logic was completely correct.
Sakayanagi had indeed guessed his identity and deliberately bought an alternate account to add him and tease him.
Akira's lips, however, didn't stay straight, curving slightly upward.
To say he was angry wasn't entirely accurate.
After all, Sakayanagi had helped him out.
It just felt that this operation was too outrageous. The Class A leader neglecting class affairs, yet spending her energy orchestrating this play for him, even embedding a fairy tale reference in her alternate account name. It was simply too... overkill.
It seemed she probably didn't know yet that he'd already guessed she'd seen through his identity long ago.
In short, his level was higher, always one step above hers.
However, let's not rush to deal with this Little Princess Arisu yet. Let's continue with the second piece of intel.
To be honest, he was quite surprised. He didn't expect Sudo to even consider hitting someone? Had the Class C guys pushed him to his limit, or was there another reason?
Sudo was impulsive by nature, but he didn't expect him to act up at this critical juncture.
If a fight broke out before the review, the school would definitely impose heavier penalties, perhaps more than just a suspension.
Now for the last piece of intel.
Sakura always kept her head down, speaking softly, appearing timid and easily giving others the impression that she was weak-willed, making her susceptible to bullying.
However, in class, with Kushida, Hirata, and Chabashira, no one would bully her.
But clearly, when she went to the electronics store to buy a camera, she was targeted.
Although he didn't know this man named Kusuda, there weren't many staff members at the electronics store. A little inquiry would surely make him easy to find.
He now strongly suspected that the person was the uncle he encountered last time when he went to the electronics store with Shiina.
Looking at this middle-aged man's intel: he was actually a fan of Sakura and had sent her so many harassing letters. Wasn't this a typical stalker and obsessive fan? What was more alarming was that, according to the intel, the other party seemed to be planning further action?
Upon encountering such a pervert, his first reaction was to call the police. Such matters were best handled by the police, as it was their area of expertise.
But then again... could he really call the police directly in this school?
He couldn't recall if he'd ever paid attention to such matters.
What puzzled him even more was that Sakayanagi clearly knew his identity, yet still chose to help conceal it. What was her logic?
First Year Class A.
For Katsuragi, Class A's recent development had been relatively smooth.
In last month's exam, the class not only achieved an impressive average score of 93 points, but he also gradually consolidated his own power through his continuous contributions to the class. Totsuka, Takemoto, and others had joined his faction, and now the class had many supporters.
Of course, Sakayanagi's momentum was equally strong.
That woman had successively brought Yamamura, Kito, and several others under her wing.
Especially Kito. In Katsuragi's opinion, this person was a rare and formidable force, sure to be of great use at times.
Although he regretted not being able to recruit him into his own faction, he felt that his deputy, Totsuka, might not be inferior to the other party.
Totsuka was a bit impetuous, always rash since middle school, but his physical fitness was also very good. He didn't quite fit Katsuragi's steady style, but as long as he was under his restraint, he should be able to shoulder important responsibilities.
Another thing that he found quite regrettable was that strange question on last month's midterm exam.
At the time, he was convinced the answer was First Year Class A. Emotionally, he'd never considered leaving his class, determined to keep Class A always victorious. Logically, Class A's overall strength was indeed the strongest.
But unexpectedly, the answer was wrong. The correct answer was surprisingly First Year Class C.
This was the correct answer after the other party had bought and modified the question.
After all, having been in this school for almost two months, he'd successively heard many rumors about Class C's overall style. It was probably a dictatorial class led by Ryuuen, composed of a group of ruffians and delinquents.
He didn't believe Class C was qualified to be Class A's opponent, but he also didn't think Ryuuen would be foolish enough to specifically buy a question from the school just to reduce other classes' two points. After all, that person hadn't reached such an arrogant level yet.
Given this, that question was most likely not done by Class C. It was clearly someone intentionally framing them.
However, he didn't intend to delve deeper. After all, this was also a means to weaken an opponent, and he understood the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
'The most urgent task is to quickly find those with outstanding physical abilities in the class.'
In his faction, he could handle the intellectual tasks, but when it came to physical prowess, it seemed only Totsuka was currently holding the fort. Considering that the school would definitely hold events similar to sports festivals in the future, more strong individuals would be needed to join the faction then.
'That very good fighter in Class D, I think his name was Sudo? I heard he took on three people by himself and wasn't even injured.'
He suddenly remembered the name mentioned yesterday when the homeroom teacher informed Class A to help find witnesses.
Regardless of whether Sudo intentionally hit someone or was caught in someone else's trap, his ability to take on three opponents alone was enough to demonstrate his excellent physical fitness, which to some extent met his expectations for a combat-oriented member.
But the other party was, after all, from Class D, and judging by his actions, his conduct didn't seem very upright. Although he coveted the other party's combat prowess, he had no intention of recruiting him. He still had to maintain his bottom line.
The class had set a goal of slowly accumulating 20 million points to recruit talent, but this wasn't something he could decide alone. He also needed Sakayanagi's agreement.
He planned to wait a bit longer. There was no rush for this, and he might as well continue to observe for a while. After all, at Class A's current point accumulation rate, it'd take at least seven or eight more months to reach the target amount. Class A's current class points exceeded one thousand. Don't let the long time span fool you; this speed was actually very fast. Other classes would probably take about a year.
Moreover, perhaps there were even more excellent and well-behaved combat-type talents in other classes than Sudo.
As he was thinking this, he unknowingly walked in front of Sakayanagi. He cleared his throat to signal her, but she seemed not to notice him, simply staring at her phone and smiling, her gaze not moving from the screen at all.
'What is this woman plotting again? She's smiling so smugly!'
Katsuragi inexplicably felt a chill. Sakayanagi's happy demeanor always gave him a strange sense of unease. After all, she seemed to constantly want to push him out of the core group.
But he'd come for an important matter, so he deliberately raised his voice. "Sakayanagi-san."
"...Oh, it's Katsuragi-kun." Sakayanagi reluctantly shifted her gaze, looking at him with clear displeasure. "Do you need something?"
Katsuragi pretended not to notice her coldness and said directly, "Sakayanagi-san, I'd like to discuss the matter of accumulating twenty million points to recruit talent."
"Oh? You already have a suitable candidate?" Sakayanagi raised an eyebrow. "Tell me about it."
"Not yet, as for a candidate," Katsuragi shook his head. "I just hope that the person we scout in the future can be primarily evaluated based on physical fitness. Or rather, I lean toward only considering one thing. As long as they're a qualified combat-type talent, other aspects are secondary. Of course, I still hope their character is as good as possible."
"A combat-type person?!"
For some reason, someone in the class suddenly looked over with a hint of surprise.
Katsuragi turned his head and found that the person who spoke was a girl named Kamuro.
This student had been very close to Sakayanagi last month, but later, when he specifically asked about it, she said with some disdain that she wasn't Sakayanagi's person.
This was also one of the reasons why Katsuragi ultimately didn't attribute her to Sakayanagi's faction.
Katsuragi was somewhat puzzled by her surprise, so he tentatively asked, "Kamuro-san, if you don't mind me asking, do you have any questions?"
"...Cough, cough, it's nothing." Kamuro quickly returned to her usual indifferent demeanor, crossing her arms and replying flatly.
He'd initially thought Kamuro might have a suitable candidate in mind, but then he reconsidered, thinking it unlikely.
As far as he knew, although this student was strikingly attractive, she was aloof in class, not easily approachable, and didn't have many close friends.
It was probably just him overthinking things, a simple misunderstanding.
However, on second thought, she was a classmate after all, and currently hadn't joined any faction, making her a neutral party.
If she were truly willing to recommend someone, he wouldn't rule out considering them as a priority.