Ryuen led Hiyori and the rest of Class D away from the gate. Before leaving, Hiyori caught Ryunosuke's eye and gave him a small look that meant: find me in the library later.
Ryunosuke responded with an OK gesture.
Ryuen had noticed the exchange, but chose to say nothing. Before his expulsion, he had already sensed these two would end up together, so seeing it confirmed now wasn't surprising. His opinion on the matter? He didn't particularly care. As long as they both wanted it, he wasn't the kind of person to interfere with someone else's happiness out of pettiness. He and Ryunosuke were rivals, even enemies, but Hiyori had kept his class from falling apart while he was gone. He wasn't going to repay that by undermining her.
Watching Ryuen go, Ryunosuke shrugged. He wasn't worried. Against a Ryuen Kakeru, his current state of mind, somewhere in the vicinity of Uchiha Madara, didn't register the man as a significant threat.
"Tsk." He smacked himself lightly on the cheek. The Chuunibyou mode was a significant boost in combat, but it had a real downside. It had a habit of producing embarrassing declarations that slipped out without warning.
It also affected his cognition. His intelligence dropped sharply when the mode was active, in a way that resembled Ultraman Tiga's transformation: emphasize strength, and mental acuity suffers; emphasize mental acuity, and physical output diminishes.
This was the incomplete nature of Akasaka Ryunosuke's transformation. It may have had something to do with the blood clot in his brain. He had looked into it once, and a doctor had told him there was a clot pressing on a specific cluster of nerves, possibly affecting the cerebral cortex or restricting oxygen supply. It wasn't hard to guess why his cognitive function dropped during the mode. The clot was probably the cause.
He had briefly considered having it dealt with, but the doctor had quoted a craniotomy cost of 40 million points. Ryunosuke immediately felt protective of his finances. Since the condition wasn't currently life-threatening, he decided to put it off. Forty million points for a non-emergency medical procedure was a difficult number to justify.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Ryuen, now back at school, began reintegrating his class. Hiyori stepped down from the leader position immediately and without hesitation. She had wanted to do that for a long time. The role had been consuming her reading hours.
Ryuen was quietly pleased by that. He had half-expected her to have developed a taste for authority and planned mentally for having to take it back by force. Instead she gave it up without a second thought.
He was in a position to help things along between Hiyori and Ryunosuke, but Hiyori had told him plainly: "There's no need. We're already together. Come to the wedding."
He swept his gaze across the class and noticed several unfamiliar faces: Fumino, Rizu, and Yukino. Hiyori informed him that all three were analytical types, with academic scores placing them in the school's top ten.
He couldn't hide a flicker of genuine surprise. Class D, historically a gathering place for problem students, had somehow produced three high achievers. That was remarkable.
He didn't give them a hard time, just informed them in a tone that left no ambiguity that they would be following his lead from now on. Fumino was uneasy; Ryuen's presence made it clear he wasn't a person of gentle intentions, and she still preferred Hiyori's direction. Rizu felt the same and positioned herself quietly on Hiyori's side. Yukino stated openly that she wasn't going to take orders from someone like him.
Ryuen understood it. After a year under Hiyori's guidance, a few loyal followers was a natural result. He categorized them as people with strong loyalties and moved on. He also had a straightforward way to bring them in line. He wasn't the muscle-only idiot he had been before. He was now a student capable of scoring 80 or above, and he had found his solution quickly.
He let the three of them continue to follow Hiyori, while Hiyori continued to follow him. A clean chain of command, and the problem solved itself. From the outside, Hiyori was their leader. But his was the authority above hers. It let him manage the class without disturbing its internal harmony.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
The new first-year students had meanwhile settled into their assigned positions.
Amasawa Ichika was placed in Class A, alongside Ishigami Kyo, who had solid ability of her own.
Yagami Takuya was placed in Class B and had already begun constructing a plan to defeat Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. His original target, Akasaka Ryunosuke, had been all but forgotten in his mind without him realizing it. A boring opponent like that was no competition for the goal of surpassing Ayanokoji.
Tsubaki Sakurako was placed in Class C. She was a fourth-generation White Room graduate, the younger sister of "Yuki," a peer of Ayanokoji's generation. Yuki had ranked third in that cohort; second was Eiichiro Matsuo, Nanase's childhood friend; and first had been Ayanokoji.
Sakurako's reason for coming to this school was to see the person who had broken her older sister. Yuki had experienced a mental collapse trying to keep pace with Eiichiro and Ayanokoji. To suppress her frustration and stay awake long enough to chase them, she had relied heavily on psychotropic substances. The consequences had been devastating. Yuki had genuinely lost her stability and was currently receiving treatment in a psychiatric facility. She frequently injured herself, trying to get out so she could find Ayanokoji. Sakurako, as her younger sister, had come to see for herself what kind of magnetic force this person carried that had driven her sister to this.
Sakurako pulled a lollipop from her mouth, tossed it in the bin by the path, and let her expression settle into something unfriendly. Her target, like the others, was Ayanokoji.
Inside the classroom, Ayanokoji, who had been reviewing his work, felt a familiar aura of hostility he had sensed before. The last time had been during the incident with the ill-fated garden bench. The feeling put him on alert.
He closed his book and prepared to go investigate the source. He was not willing to experience another garden bench situation, and he preferred to address problems at their root before they grew.
He walked out of the classroom with his hands in his pockets, expression unchanged.
Utomiya Riku, Sakurako's childhood friend, had also been placed in Class C. He would be supporting her plan. From the outside, Sakurako looked like a listless girl who went through lollipops by the dozen, but the reality was that she was a pure genius. Her command ability in particular was exceptional, and her intelligence and leadership were on par with Class A's Honami and Class B's Arisu.
Nanase Tsubasa and Housen Kazuomi, meanwhile, had been placed in Class D of the first year, the lowest-ranked class.
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