"So, are you ready to make a move?"
Seeing Kakeru Ryuen's look of guaranteed victory, Mio Ibuki just clicked her tongue in disdain.
"Ah, yes."
"Although it's quite different from what I imagined, the opportunity has presented itself, so there is no reason not to take it."
Upon hearing Mio Ibuki's inquiry, Kakeru Ryuen smiled and said, "These guys in Class D are truly useless."
Originally, Kakeru Ryuen had thought about taking advantage of this opportunity to launch a major offensive directly, while the school administration had not yet officially intervened.
However, Class D's efficiency was simply too low.
There was no helping it; if Class D couldn't do it, Class C would have to do it themselves.
It just meant that the price to be paid when the time came might be a little bit more than originally planned.
Just like that, following the conclusion of the formal meeting between Natsuki Subaru and Kakeru Ryuen, Class C—which had been in a state of observation and passive defense—began to take action, displaying an aggression far surpassing that of Class D.
Time passed quickly, and the next day arrived.
"Kei-chan."
"We need to be a little careful recently."
In the Year 1, Class D classroom.
Maya Sato looked at Kei Karuizawa beside her and whispered a warning, "Shiho Manabe and her group from Class C... they seem to have started counterattacking."
"We had a serious conflict with Shiho Manabe's group last time, which caused Class C to lose quite a few class points. We must be even more careful."
" absolutely do not go to the restroom alone, or to any relatively secluded places."
As she spoke, Maya Sato revealed an expression of lingering fear.
"What happened?"
"Did Shiho Manabe and those guys do something?"
Maya Sato's words made Kei Karuizawa pause for a moment, not quite reacting immediately.
During this period, although Kei Karuizawa had actively participated in Class D's operations, she also spent a lot of time working part-time jobs, wanting to pay back the personal points she had borrowed from Natsuki Subaru as soon as possible.
Even though, if Natsuki Subaru spent his personal points normally, he might not necessarily be able to finish spending them even by graduation.
"Yesterday afternoon, when Maya and I went to the restroom, something terrible happened."
Satsuki Shinohara leaned in at this moment, describing the event with a startled demeanor.
Yesterday afternoon, not long after Natsuki Subaru and Kakeru Ryuen finished their lunch meeting, Class C, who had been ready for a long time, began to act upon hearing Kakeru Ryuen's instructions.
Maya Sato and Satsuki Shinohara had been lucky; they happened to agree to go to the restroom together and witnessed a scene of bullying led by Shiho Manabe of Class C.
While a female student—it was unclear whether she was from Class A or Class B—was using the restroom, they splashed a bucket of cold water directly into the stall.
Maya Sato and Satsuki Shinohara, who had just arrived at the restroom, were shocked on the spot.
"Eh?!"
After hearing Satsuki Shinohara's account, a clear look of panic flashed through Kei Karuizawa's eyes.
"No way."
"Won't they really be punished by the school for doing that?"
Kei Karuizawa wore an expression of disbelief, while her heart began to beat violently and uncontrollably.
The scene Satsuki Shinohara just described was simply too familiar to Kei Karuizawa. Whether it was being suddenly splashed with cold water while in the restroom or even more excessive things... Kei Karuizawa had experienced it all.
It was one thing at her previous school.
But with so many surveillance cameras in this school, Kei Karuizawa had always thought it would be a very safe place.
Even if there were conflicts, they were basically limited to verbal disputes.
Since going to Natsuki Subaru's dorm room to find him that day, Kei Karuizawa thought she had already moved on.
She felt she had become much more calm, and perhaps if she faced similar things from the past, she could handle them with more composure... but now, Kei Karuizawa discovered that was not the case at all.
She hadn't become calm, nor was she as composed as she appeared.
"No, Kei-chan, that's not the strange part."
"If it were just that, it wouldn't be a big deal. The truly strange thing is that Shiho Manabe and those guys had a very proper attitude... and were very polite..."
"Anyway, it was just very weird!"
Maya Sato didn't notice the panic in Kei Karuizawa's eyes but instead emphasized this point.
"Attitude was proper and polite?"
Several large question marks floated in Kei Karuizawa's mind.
Originally, Kei Karuizawa had involuntarily begun to recall those nightmare-like memories she didn't want to look back on, but Maya Sato's words directly left her mind filled with nothing but confusion.
The group of people who bullied Kei Karuizawa in the past had absolutely nothing to do with being 'proper' or 'polite'.
"What is this?"
Looking at Maya Sato, who was speaking as if it were a serious matter, Kei Karuizawa said somewhat helplessly, "I completely don't understand what on earth you and Satsuki are talking about."
"Oh, they were just very sincere, Kei-chan."
"Clearly, Shiho Manabe and her group did the bad thing, but they really apologized very sincerely."
Seeing Kei Karuizawa's completely bewildered look, Maya Sato explained anxiously, "It wasn't just an apology; they also promised to give a certain amount of personal points as compensation and offered to help wash the clothes."
"It looked like it really was just an accident!"
"But, I guarantee it was definitely not an accident. Shiho Manabe and her group definitely did it on purpose."
"Really?"
Kei Karuizawa was somewhat amazed.
At this moment, after Maya Sato's description, Kei Karuizawa had already imagined such a scene in her mind: Shiho Manabe and a few others deliberately camping in the restroom.
Waiting for a student who was alone and weak to come in—after all, it was a restroom, and restrooms had no surveillance.
Once they had a target, they would deliberately pour a prepared bucket of water directly into the stall with wicked smiles, and then apologize with sincere faces and offer certain compensation.
By this time, Kei Karuizawa had calmed down a bit.
Through the descriptions of Maya Sato and Satsuki Shinohara, Kei Karuizawa understood what was happening.
Shiho Manabe and these people didn't look like they were simply bullying others; it was more like Class D's racketeering plan—finding someone to self-destruct upon...
But, isn't the situation of Class C different from Class D?
Class D could act so unscrupulously entirely because Class D had zero class points. Class C's situation was completely different from Class D's; Class C still had quite a few class points.
"In that case, we really do need to be careful."
"Unless there are special circumstances, we should try to go to the restroom together from now on..."
Kei Karuizawa couldn't figure out the reason for Class C doing this.
However, Kei Karuizawa decided to play it safe next, to avoid being targeted by Shiho Manabe and those guys.
Maya Sato and Satsuki Shinohara definitely didn't encounter Shiho Manabe's operation by luck; it was definitely because Class C had already carried out a large-scale operation that allowed Maya Sato and Satsuki Shinohara to run into them.
Most importantly, Class C was clearly acting much bolder than Class D.
Even Ken Sudo, who had made the biggest fuss before, only made a move after Daichi Ishizaki and Komiya Kyogo actively touched him. Strictly speaking, he wasn't the one who started it.
The behavior of Shiho Manabe and the others was clearly not of the same nature.
"Natsuki, I saw you go to the second floor of the cafeteria yesterday."
On the other side of the classroom.
Suzune Horikita looked at Natsuki Subaru, who was sitting beside her as if nothing had happened. She frowned and said, "Shortly before you went up, Ryuen of Class C also went up. Did you meet and talk about something?"
The school cafeteria wasn't that big.
Especially in the case of someone relatively eye-catching like Natsuki Subaru, it was even more so. As soon as Natsuki Subaru arrived at the cafeteria yesterday, Suzune Horikita, who was also in the cafeteria, noticed him.
Originally, Suzune Horikita just took a glance, thinking Natsuki Subaru would order a lavish set meal as usual, find a quiet corner to eat, and leave directly after finishing.
As a result, Natsuki Subaru actually went directly to the second floor of the cafeteria.
Suzune Horikita paid attention to any behavior that did not conform to Natsuki Subaru's usual behavioral logic, so she noted this incident.
Combined with Class C's subsequent actions, Suzune Horikita naturally linked the two events together.
"Horikita-san pays a high level of attention to me as always."
Natsuki Subaru looked at Suzune Horikita without any surprise.
Natsuki Subaru had also noticed Suzune Horikita at the time, but he just glanced at her and didn't care at all.
"Ryuen-kun invited me to have lunch together."
"I have to say, for the same dishes, the taste and standard on the second floor are slightly higher than on the first floor."
Natsuki Subaru recalled yesterday's experience briefly and said, "As for Ryuen-kun's purpose, he probably wanted to determine my position. If my position is not with Class D, then if I want to stay out of it, I should transfer to Class C."
"I think things are a bit..."
"Transfer to Class C?"
Suzune Horikita's pupils contracted violently. Hearing the keyword, she directly interrupted Natsuki Subaru before he could finish, asking anxiously, "Natsuki, what do you mean by transferring to Class C?"
"Could it be that in this school, not only can the class rank change, but one can also directly transfer to other classes?"
Suzune Horikita felt an indescribable mix of emotions.
If one could transfer classes as an individual, Suzune Horikita would be ten thousand times willing.
Leading Class D to execute the self-destruct plan for more than half a month, Suzune Horikita had doubted herself more than once, wondering if trying to bring this kind of trash class to the level of Class A was too delusional.
Before, it was one thing; not knowing other channels to graduate from Class A, she could only bite the bullet and lead Class D to climb as high as possible. After all, it was impossible for Suzune Horikita to do nothing.
Suzune Horikita came to this school with the very purpose of proving her growth to her older brother, Manabu Horikita.
"Did Horikita-san not know?"
"I thought Horikita-san was already clear about this matter."
Natsuki Subaru looked at Suzune Horikita's slightly excited expression and cast a surprised glance at Kiyotaka Ayanokoji in front of him.
According to Natsuki Subaru's understanding, even if Suzune Horikita hadn't thought of it, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji should have been able to see this point.
Or perhaps, he saw it but didn't say it?
Thinking of this, Natsuki Subaru smiled gently and said, "Hasn't the school always been emphasizing one thing?"
"As long as you have enough personal points, you can achieve anything."
"Although I think there must be a lot of exaggeration in that—there are many things that can't be done even with enough personal points—merely transferring classes shouldn't be a problem."
Anyway, one couldn't use personal points to escape punishment for murder.
Saying 'anything can be achieved' was just talk.
"Even something like transferring classes can be done using personal points..."
Suzune Horikita's expression was unusually complex.
Because Suzune Horikita knew very well that even if she knew this, she couldn't do anything.
The personal points she had were only enough for her personal use. If she really wanted to do something through the school with them, it was definitely far from enough. On the other hand, Natsuki Subaru was different.
Millions of personal points might have already reached the standard for transferring classes.
As long as Natsuki Subaru was willing, he could transfer classes at any time, transferring to the Class A she dreamed of.
"Natsuki, you have enough personal points on you, right?"
"Why do you still... Ah, right."
"Transferring classes should be possible at any time. If you transfer too early, it would be a huge loss if the class falls from Class A. It's much better to transfer when the three years are about to end."
Suzune Horikita wanted to ask why Natsuki Subaru stayed in a class like Class D instead of transferring, but then she realized. Everything was just beginning now; it was unknown which class would be the ultimate winner.
Just like how Classes A and B couldn't have imagined that before the first semester even ended, Class A would fall and Class B would rise.
Transferring too early would easily waste the millions of personal points that were hard to come by.
"I don't have any thoughts of transferring classes, Horikita-san."
Looking at Suzune Horikita's fluctuating expression, Natsuki Subaru said with some amusement, "For me, the idea that 'graduating from Class A will lead to very good future prospects' has been meaningless from the start..."
"After graduation, if things go smoothly, going directly to work for Koenji-kun would provide a very high starting point."
"Moreover, I am still far short on personal points. If I wanted to transfer classes..."
"It requires twenty million personal points, Horikita-san."
As Natsuki Subaru's voice fell, Suzune Horikita's pupils contracted violently.
Twenty million personal points?!
Natsuki Subaru's five million personal points were already a figure that Suzune Horikita felt was unreachable. What kind of concept was twenty million?!
In that case...
Suzune Horikita really couldn't say whether it was simpler to raise twenty million personal points or to lead Class D to climb up to Class A.
____
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