Time passed quickly.
Before they knew it, the time for the Tower Battle (Event Selection Exam) arrived.
The match that should have been fair was instead cheated by Tsukishiro. Ryunosuke's side lost, and lost very badly. The result was exactly like what Ayanokouji experienced in the original story.
The opponent maliciously changed the match results; if this was how it was played, what was there to play?!
Ryunosuke was now truly furious.
(Alright, alright, you don't want to play honestly? Then I'll also flip the table and play rough with you!)
He had decided what to do. He would finish off Tsukishiro!
He didn't mean kill him, but make him truly leave this school forever.
He had been targeted repeatedly. First, putting five problematic students in his class, then changing school rules so they'd be expelled to cut class points. Okay, he was still patient. Then the opponent raised the passing limit from 40 to 60 points, he was still patient again. But in the last tower battle, even the referee was biased, truly damn!
Ryunosuke also had a limit to his patience.
(I, Akasaka Ryunosuke, if I can't make you collapse, I'll write my name backwards!)
Ryunosuke returned to the movie theater and used the phone given by Sakayanagi Narumori to contact him. He asked the former Chairman to come out to discuss an urgent matter.
Ryunosuke held back his anger, there was a strong urge to beat someone up. He regretted why he didn't listen to Ayanokouji's advice before to just sink that person into the sea. Turned out it was true, soft-heartedness would only bring disaster.
Narumori came carrying popcorn and a can of beer.
Currently his status was early retirement; he was still at this school but no longer had any authority. Narumori sat beside Ryunosuke who looked like a volcano ready to erupt.
"Who made you this angry? The fire is so big, want a can of beer to cool the atmosphere?" Narumori shook his beer can.
Ryunosuke pushed the beer aside and said with a dark face. "I don't want to beat around the bush. I have a question for you: how big a mess must be made for a Chairman to be removed from office?"
Narumori didn't immediately answer, he thought the young man was just joking. He opened his beer can, started eating and drinking like a retired old man.
If it were him before, he wouldn't be this relaxed. Now the responsibility on his shoulders was gone, he actually felt much lighter. He quite enjoyed this retirement period.
Seeing Narumori not answering, Ryunosuke's eyes narrowed. He knew that man must consider him joking. After all, for a student who wanted to oppose the Headmaster, that sounded like an international joke. But he was truly serious.
He took a deep breath to suppress his anger. Actually he didn't want to oppose Tsukishiro, but the opponent was too deliberately targeting him. Wasn't he just stripping his clothes and hanging him at the school gate? Did he have to hold a grudge this far?
Tsukishiro: (Try using your conscience, are you aware what you said is humane?!)
Ryunosuke felt he wasn't wrong, because Ayanokouji was far more cruel. If he hadn't stopped him, Ayanokouji might have already sent Tsukishiro to a cemetery at the bottom of the sea.
Ryunosuke sighed and asked again. "What do I have to do for him to leave? Or more simply: to what extent do I have to do something for him to disappear forever from my sight?"
Narumori's movement eating popcorn stopped. He looked at the arrogant young man in front of him strangely. "Do you need to hate him to this extent?"
"YES!" Ryunosuke snapped.
Haoshoku Haki aura and faint black-red lightning appeared around him. He was truly at the breaking point.
Narumori put down his popcorn and advised patiently. "You're no match for him, you're just a student. Exam rules can be changed at his whim, what do you have to oppose him?"
Ryunosuke began to calm down, realizing the truth of those words. His aura subsided.
Narumori adjusted his glasses and continued warning him not to hit an egg against a stone, or seek his own death. Considering his daughter (Arisu) also needed protection, he didn't want this foolish young man to die ridiculously.
Narumori explained the advantages and disadvantages. "You underestimate the supreme authority of a Chairman. For example this meeting of ours. If I didn't give you a phone from outside the school, you wouldn't be able to contact me. Your phone terminals are always monitored; the school knows who you contact, including your personal points."
"Because of that," Narumori adjusted his black-framed glasses seriously, "Tsukishiro knows you have 80 million personal points. That's why he doesn't target you specifically, but targets the entire class."
"Targeting you alone is useless because you can save yourself with points. But others are different. As long as he makes other students' expenses seem reasonable and linked to class interests, you'll be forced to busy yourself handling it."
"You have to move to protect the class, because if not, your status as leader will be hard to maintain. People in the class won't obey you anymore. This is what's called an open tactic, you know but can't do anything, understand?"
Narumori patted Ryunosuke's shoulder in a heavy tone. "Your position now is too passive. How will you oppose him? Once you move, he'll threaten you with the entire class, forcing you to retreat."
"Like a mother hen with her five chicks, and a human wants to take her chicks to roast. Although newly hatched chicks don't have much meat, that human's intention is to see your suffering, not just eat your chicken. You're like that mother hen; can only protect your chicks behind you but can't attack back. Because once you attack, your chicks might be directly kidnapped by that evil human."
Narumori's explanation was very simple, even a small child would understand like listening to a fairy tale. No wonder he was an educator. However, Ryunosuke was already angry, where did he care about all those rules?
His only thought now was to destroy the opponent. Ryunosuke took a deep breath and said to that former Chairman in a heavy tone:
"To what extent must I act for the opponent to disappear from this school? Or to make it easier to understand: How big a mess must I make so people up there can no longer protect him?!"
Facing this student full of violent aura, Narumori didn't answer. Ryunosuke understood what that man was thinking, so he didn't ask again. He closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and revealed his idea.
"If I can make a large number of students expelled en masse, will that newly appointed Tsukishiro be finished?"
Ryunosuke already had a strategy in his heart.