Narrator: Shikakoi Souta
After around two months of following Sudo around, Shikakoi had a recording of Sudo and some class C students fighting. One of the students was Ishizaki.
Shikakoi's plan was simple: get to the place before either Sudo or class C got to the meeting place where they decided to 'talk things out', and plant his easy-to-hide camera synced with the microphone in an inconspicuous place.
Then, leave the place, and after everything was over, come back to collect the camera.
And it was successful.
Three days later, when the monthly payment of private points was not conducted, and it was confirmed that this violent incident was responsible for the delay in transfer, Souta knew that he had finished the trap brilliantly.
From following around Sudo, it was also apparent that I would hear snippets of information about class C, especially their leader, Ryuen.
And that is how I came to this moment, meeting Ryuen in a barbecue restaurant in the evening.
x-x-x
Ryuen was sitting with a smirk, "I am honoured that the anomaly from class B was interested in me."
"Interest is a strong word. I doubt I would show interest in you after today, but I am sure you will not forget today for a long time."
"Oh! I like that confidence. Then, let's have some fun."
"Sure! Tell me your contact info."
"Why?"
"You will see."
He still had a smirk, but he seemed as if waiting for this to end.
After exchanging contact info, I sent him the recording, one by one, not all, just enough to interest him. Then, I continued, "I believe you understand where I am going with this."
"You have recordings of some squabbles. Is there something I am missing?"
"Right now, the hearing is taking place. If I were to send these to Horikita right now, what do you think would happen?"
I waited for a moment before leaning towards him and continuing, "Let me paint a picture, first-year students, systematic bullying of a volatile student, creating a setup to frame him. I wonder how far the school would go to make an example."
Ryuen's smirk vanished as his expression grew colder. He clicked his tongue, and I waited for him to continue the conversation.
"Tch! What do you want?"
"I want you to withdraw the complaint and make everyone in class C sign a specific contract."
"That is not going to cut it. What contract?"
"The contract states three postulates,
1. The student who signs the contract will send 40,000 private points every month until expulsion or graduation to Shikakoi Souta.
2. The private points will be sent automatically to Shikakoi Souta the day they receive their monthly private points from the school's official computer system.
3. In case the student who signs this contract gets less than 40,000 private points from the official school computer system, then all private points would be given to Shikakoi Souta."
"Oye Oye, you really expect me to do this?"
"If you do not do this, then the resulting expulsion will cost you class points."
"Oh! And how do you know that?"
"I learned this from Horikita-senpai, the council president."
"Tch! You sure are unpleasant."
"I want all the 40 students' contracts delivered with a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement regarding this deal to Hoshinomiya sensei three days from now, signed correctly, or else, be ready for the evidence to be submitted."
I left after saying this. The other students in the restaurant were pretty strange about me conversing with Ryuen so normally, and then ordering him around whilst leaving.
x-x-x
Narrator: Kiyotaka Ayanokoji
I stood atop the stairwell, watching as the boys were bantering around with 'Who was called by Kushida', and revealed myself to the trio.
"Why are you here?" one of the trio asked.
"Kushida will not be coming here."
"Huh!"
"I asked Kushida to send that fake mail."
"Why would you do that?"
"You'd probably never bat an eye if I didn't do this, right? I wanted to talk with you."
"About what?"
"Sudo's incident," Ayanokoji said.
"Then there is nothing to talk about." He said that, as a mail was sent by the student council to both Ayanokoji and Horikita, as well as all members of the first year classes.
The mail said that the complaint regarding Sudo has been withdrawn, and the students who filed the complaint will lose private points.
"Then we are leaving..." They said as they ran away.
Horikita also came out and asked, "What do you think happened?"
"I do not know what happened. But their complaint being withdrawn is suspicious." I said
"Any person comes to mind related to this?" She asked
"Yeah, Shikakoi." I replied
"Why?" She said, shooting me a cold glare
"I saw him following around Sudo various times. At the time, it did not seem remarkable, but it seems he was following around, expecting this to happen."
"But why would he do that?"
"Who knows?"
As he said this, Horikita turned to leave. Her face was full of frustration and displeasure. To prevent her from making irrational decisions, I asked, "Where are you going?"
"To ask him why?"
"Do you really think he would answer?"
"Even if he does not, I still feel like I should talk to him."
"I will come with you then."
"Do as you like." She said as she walked, then stopped.
Standing in front of them was Shikakoi Souta. He went past her, checked the surroundings, and took a photo of the camera we had placed.
"Why are you here?" She asked, frustrated.
Souta replied with a smile, "I did not expect the honor student Horikita to do something so shameless. Planting a fake camera is a serious offense, you know. You can be expelled if I were to report this incident."
"Then how about you try it?" She said with a confident and fiery demeanor.
"Then how about I call the president over here right now?" Souta shot back.
Horikita was visibly shaken, but still tried to maintain her demeanor, "Involving him is unnecessary."
Seeing this, Souta was somewhat disappointed and then asked her, "How about you call Hirata and Kushida, and we strike a deal?"
Seeing Horikita stiffen again, I decided to call them myself.
When they came here, Kushida was visibly panting as Hirata literally rushed her here.
"What happened? You sounded very serious." Hirata asked.
"What are you doing here? Kushida asked, somewhat shocked to see Shikakoi here. After all, he had turned the tables on her the other night. Though she quickly regained her composure.
"Horkita-san and Ayanokoji-kun have planted a camera resembling the school's cameras on the school campus, right there (He said, pointing to our camera). If I were to report this, the school would take it very seriously."
"And why is that?" I asked, trying to destabilize him.
But his smirk only got more dangerous as he said, "This is a government school, you see. Planting a camera resembling the school's cameras can be viewed as both harmless and impersonation. And based on how serious this gets, I would say that expulsion is not off the table."
"What do you want?" Hirata asked, clenching his hand.
"I want you four to sign a contract. One that says that I would get one wish from you all. As long as it does not break any school rules, you would have to do it regardless of what you want. The total is one wish, not four. Not completing the wish would lead to the expulsion of all four of you, but I assure you that the wish would not be difficult; it may be heartbreaking, though"
At that moment, I understood that Souta's trap was never the camera; it was just the trigger. Souta's main artillery was Hirata himself.
After all, Hirata is someone who does his best to prevent the atmosphere from becoming difficult. Even during the investigations regarding the fight, Hirata did his best to prevent expulsion.
How Souta came to understand that Hirata would agree instantly is the strangest part.
x-x-x
Narrator: Ayanokoji Kiyotaka
After coming back to my room, I lay down on my bed, thinking.
Somehow, Shikakoi had not only made class C withdraw their complaint, but also understood that Horikita would pull off something and came to check it out.
In an instant, using the planted cameras and Horikita's brother to destabilize Horikita, he decided to create a trap.
Seeing Horikita not moving, I decided to call them quickly before Horikita did something that would create problems.
But Shikakoi had already predicted that I would rush them, and that was the trap.
Though the trap was only one wish bound by the school rules, I have a bad premonition regarding it.
After all, he seems to have a foresight beyond what I expected.
But that is not all, the sense I dread I felt at that moment, he was using the image of him I had created to make me dread every second of Horikita's inaction, and effectively used it against us.
And he came up with all of it the moment he saw the camera. Which meant that he knew all of the school's cameras' locations firsthand.
He is more troublesome than I expected.
x-x-x
Narrator: Shikakoi Souta
Three days ago, I was able to trap class D and class C into a trap.
The Sudo investment was a major hit.
40,000 pp per month from 40 students, totaling 1.6 million private points per month.
Not only that, but I was also able to land a one-wish contract with class D.
Class D has Sudo, Hirata, Kushida, Horikita, and Ayanokoji. They will be the most dangerous climbers in the second and third years, if not the first.
As such, having even one favour over them could lead to a massive profit or save.
Deciding to treat myself, I went to a cafe shop. It was mostly empty, which meant that it would remain peaceful here... Or so I thought.
Suddenly, a frail girl with a cane walked towards my seat, with another girl behind her.
"Hello, my name is Sakayanagi Arisu."