The private room fell silent for a moment. Sitting across from each other, both men had their own agendas. Each wanted to make the other share the risk posed by Tsukishiro.
Knock, knock, knock.
Just then, it seemed the food they had ordered was ready, and the waiter knocked on the door.
The knocking temporarily interrupted their thoughts.
"Please enjoy your meal."
As he watched the waiter leave and looked at the dinner on the table, Kamio Tatsuya suddenly smiled.
"Anyway, let's eat first."
"Thank you for the meal."
While they ate, the two quickly thought about how they should deal with the problem ahead—or rather, how they could convince the other to help them deal with Tsukishiro.
Kamio Tatsuya was the first to come up with an answer. As for an excuse, wasn't there already an obvious one?
"Ayanokouji, let's work together and deal with Tsukishiro. Chairman Sakayanagi has treated me well, so I can't just sit by while someone targets him."
Kamio Tatsuya made his request first. This might give Ayanokouji the upper hand, but at this point, Kamio Tatsuya could not afford to worry about that.
Protecting himself was one reason. The other was exactly what he had said: Sakayanagi Naruyoshi had treated him well, yet he was now being investigated while confined to his home.
If Kamio could do something for him, he naturally had a duty to help.
"You mean you want to deal with Tsukishiro?"
"It's just self-preservation. Since he's preparing to target both of us, he'll probably make a series of moves. This class vote exam might even be something he arranged.
"This exam has taken away the private points we could use to protect ourselves. Next time, he may come at us for real."
Ayanokouji nodded at that.
He knew his father well. Once his father made a move, he would never end things halfway.
Tsukishiro would certainly have further plans. That much was certain.
"Whatever the case, the Tsukishiro you mentioned is the acting chairman. It'll be difficult for us to hurt him, since we're only students."
"So you agree?"
Kamio Tatsuya raised an eyebrow.
"Like you said, it's just self-preservation. I don't want to be expelled for no reason."
Ayanokouji spoke without changing his expression.
In truth, he was relieved. He had been wondering how to bring Kamio Tatsuya over to his side, but he had not expected Kamio to also want to deal with Tsukishiro.
That made things much easier. Ayanokouji was more than happy to work with him for the sake of protecting himself.
After receiving Ayanokouji's agreement, Kamio Tatsuya smiled.
"I have an idea for dealing with Tsukishiro. It's still rough, though."
"As expected of you. You already have a solution?"
Ayanokouji was not surprised. In fact, he would have been surprised if Kamio Tatsuya had not had an idea.
"We all know this school was founded by the government, so the amount of funding it receives each year should be limited."
Ayanokouji's interest was piqued. "Are you planning to interfere with the school's funding?"
"This year probably won't work. There's hardly any time left before the school year ends.
"But I learned from Nagumo's plan about an exam scheduled for next year—an enormous exam that could involve several hundred million points."
They could not rush into getting rid of Tsukishiro. As acting chairman, he certainly had considerable authority. To force him out, they would have to make him commit an undeniable mistake or give him a reputation for incompetence.
That meant they had to plan carefully and lay the groundwork over time.
As for the exam Kamio had just mentioned, it was Nagumo's idea. However, as vice president of the student council, Kamio Tatsuya also knew about it.
At the time, he had thought the school would never approve such an exam. If it were handled well, the students could obtain a huge number of private points from the school.
But soon afterward, Chairman Sakayanagi came under investigation, and Tsukishiro took over as acting chairman.
Tsukishiro's intention to cooperate with Nagumo was obvious, so the exam might actually be held.
However, Kamio Tatsuya knew himself well enough to realize that he probably could not come out on top with his own abilities. When the time came, he would need an all-around player to help him.
At the moment, the only person who came to mind was Ayanokouji.
Of course, if Kamio Tatsuya happened to draw another item that increased his physical abilities before the exam began, he might be able to handle it himself.
"That sounds good, but how are you planning to deal with Tsukishiro targeting you in the meantime?"
At Ayanokouji's question, Kamio Tatsuya calmly replied, "We'll deal with whatever comes our way. That's all.
"Even as acting chairman, Tsukishiro doesn't have the authority to expel a student outright. As long as we stay within the rules, I'm not afraid of him.
"What worries me is the possibility that he'll use underhanded tactics where we can't see them."
As students, trying to oppose the acting chairman was extremely difficult. Launching a direct attack was practically impossible.
All they could do was wait for him to make the first move, then defend themselves and strike back.
Ayanokouji understood this as well, so he nodded.
"I understand."
"For this exam, I'll have the students in Class D give all their praise votes to you. That should help you secure Class D's protection points first.
"I don't know how useful those protection points will be, but having them is better than not having them."
Ayanokouji looked at Kamio Tatsuya in surprise, then nodded.
"What about you? Aren't you going to secure Class C's protection points?"
Kamio Tatsuya shook his head.
"Not for now. I still have some private points, enough to avoid one expulsion. Besides, Tsukishiro still doesn't know that we're aware he intends to target us.
"If we both obtain protection points in this exam, it'll expose the fact that we know."
They had the advantage of knowing the enemy's intentions while remaining unknown to him. Kamio Tatsuya had no intention of giving up that advantage yet.
After discussing a few more things, Kamio Tatsuya and Ayanokouji left the restaurant at different times.
Around the same time, in a karaoke room at the shopping center, Tokito had gathered a group of people to discuss the upcoming exam.
Other than Tokito himself, everyone there was a student he had found during this period who was deeply dissatisfied with Ryuen.
"Tokito, why did you call us here?"
Manabe held the drink the waiter had just brought over and asked unhappily while taking a sip.
She had already made plans to go shopping with her friends, but Tokito had insisted on calling her over. Naturally, she was furious.
The others were more or less the same. Today was March 1, and everyone had just received 50,000 points in living expenses. They had been planning to enjoy themselves after school, only to be dragged there by Tokito.
"Of course it's about this exam."
At the mention of the exam, the expressions of the Class C students changed slightly.
"Ryuen already said we should find one student who's useless to the class. Even if we choose the wrong person, he'll take responsibility and save them."
"Hmph. You actually believed Ryuen's nonsense, Manabe?"
Tokito gave a mocking laugh.
"That's what he said, sure. But in the end, the points are in his hands, so he gets to decide how they're interpreted.
"What if, no matter who gets expelled, he decides not to save them? He can simply claim that we chose correctly and that the person we selected really was useless to the class."
After hearing Tokito's words, Manabe and the others looked troubled.
"Why do you think Ryuen said those things?" Tokito continued to sneer. "Here's a hint. What do you think Ishizaki and Kondo are good for?"
As soon as he said this, the expressions of several people in the room changed again. They thought of a possibility.
"You mean… he said that to protect those students under him?"
Tokito smiled.
"Hmph, exactly. If he tells us to choose someone useless, we naturally won't think of those fighters under his command.
"Since Ryuen himself is the leader of the fighters, our attention will naturally turn to everyone else."
After hearing Tokito's analysis, everyone looked serious. What he said made a lot of sense.
When Ryuen first brought it up, none of them had considered that the person the class did not need might be someone like Ishizaki or Kondo—students with poor grades who were only good at fighting.
Whenever something happened, or whenever Ryuen took action, he always brought those people along. As a proper leader, Ryuen would certainly not consider them useless.
That was why they had instinctively shifted their attention to everyone else.
Once they understood this, several people broke out in a cold sweat.
They could not tell whether Ryuen really had such an intention.
"But, but Ryuen…"
A student in the private room stammered.
"Do you still trust Ryuen?"
"But he's never broken a promise before. His attitude is awful and he's extremely forceful, but he's never actually gone back on his word."
That was true. Ryuen had never technically broken a promise.
No, perhaps there had been one time…
Maybe that one barely counted…
"Have you forgotten? At the start of the second semester, when we first received the rewards from the special exam for finding the VIP?
"He said he would gather the points together to protect us, using that as an excuse to take them. But then he turned around and spent them himself.
"Looking at things now, his decision wasn't wrong. But wasn't that still going back on his word? Even if you don't count it, that's only because he hadn't yet encountered a situation where he wanted to break his promise.
"He might go back on his word in this exam. We're talking about 20 million private points!"
Tokito's long speech successfully planted seeds of doubt and fear in everyone's minds.
That was exactly the effect he wanted. Class C's situation was improving steadily, and if things continued to go smoothly, moving up to the next class would not be difficult.
So at this point, no one was willing to be expelled.
People were selfish by nature and never hesitated to assume the worst about others. That was why Tokito found it so easy to sway them.
"What are you planning to do?"
One of them seemed to have made up his mind. He looked at Tokito with a serious expression, while the others stopped thinking for the moment and turned their attention to him as well.
Good. I finally got these people on my side.
"We absolutely can't sit around and wait during this exam. The safest method, of course, would be to put all the criticism votes on Ryuen.
"If he's saving himself, he definitely won't be stingy with the points in his hands."
"That's impossible. Even though we're all dissatisfied with Ryuen, he has supporters in the class. There's no way we can make him receive the most criticism votes.
"And even if we succeed, Ryuen can save himself. He'll definitely come after us later."
Tokito's suggestion was immediately rejected, and the student even gave a very reasonable explanation.
Tokito did not care. His original plan had never been to make Ryuen receive the most criticism votes. That was unrealistic.
"I agree. I was only throwing out an idea."
Tokito nodded without getting angry. "So what do you think about Kamio? He's an outsider, but he's always telling us what to do during every exam."
The others, who had been waiting to hear Tokito's good idea, immediately became wary.
Is this bastard trying to test us?
Anyone could see how important Kamio Tatsuya was to Class C. They had been struggling under Ryuen's harsh rule, and it was only after Kamio Tatsuya arrived that they gradually began to break free.
Kamio Tatsuya had also proven his abilities in several special exams. If Class C wanted to move up, Kamio Tatsuya was indispensable.
Some people even considered him more important than Ryuen.
And now you want us to vote out this savior? What the hell are you thinking?
Wait. Could Ryuen have sent you here to test us?
"It seems I already know your answer."
Tokito nodded before they could reply. "You're right. It would be even harder to concentrate the criticism votes on Kamio than on Ryuen, so I was only mentioning it in passing."
"My real target is Mio Ibuki."
Mio Ibuki was a complete loner in Class C. She had no friends at all. Although she followed Ryuen's orders, her attitude toward him was hardly respectful.
To outsiders, she never seemed to act together with anyone else. She only occasionally helped Ryuen with something.
Her relationship with Kamio Tatsuya was also fairly ordinary, and neither the boys nor the girls really liked her.
The girls in particular disliked her. When Manabe heard Ibuki's name, clear disgust appeared on her face.
The others exchanged looks when they heard Ibuki's name, but no one immediately objected.
In order to protect himself, Tokito had considered many possible targets. At first, he had two candidates. Besides Mio Ibuki, the other was Hiyori Shiina.
But after thinking it over, he abandoned the idea of directing everyone's hostility toward Shiina.
Shiina had even fewer friends in the class than Ibuki, and almost all the girls disliked her. In the eyes of the Class C students, she was Kamio Tatsuya's girlfriend.
Everyone in the class could see Kamio Tatsuya's potential, and yet this strange girl Shiina had gotten to him first.
Shiina also usually avoided spending time with the girls, so naturally they came to dislike her.
That was simply how some girls thought deep down.
But it was precisely because she was Kamio Tatsuya's girlfriend that Tokito gave up on targeting her.
It would be too easy for Kamio Tatsuya to hold a grudge against him. The events of today could be exposed at any time, and Tokito did not want to face Kamio and Ryuen teaming up against him.
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