"Well, the conversation ends here. Enjoy your student life from now on," Chabooba-sensei said with a smirk.
That was sarcasm. Especially after she just wrecked my peaceful life.
Fuck you.
That was my entire thought process.
"I'll be heading off too. Staff meeting's about to start. I'm locking this room, so out, all of you."
Without giving us a choice, she practically shoved the three of us out into the hallway.
"Anyway… shall we go back?" Ayanokoji said casually, already walking off like nothing happened.
"Sounds good." I nodded and matched his pace.
"Wait."
Horikita's voice came from behind us. But neither of us slowed down.
"Is your score… really a coincidence?"
"I already said it was," Ayanokoji replied without turning around. "Or do you have any proof that I did it on purpose?"
She was closer to him—and if the anime was any indicator, she'd probably try to make him her pawn eventually.
As for me? Even if she found out the truth, I could always play it off.
'Now that I think about it, I'm basically a fusion of Koenji and Ayanokoji… Though only when it comes to how I "participate" in class.'
With that amusing thought, I tuned out their conversation entirely and walked back to class.
.
.
The first weekend of May rolled around, and the class had gone unusually quiet. Most students, even Ike and Yamauchi, were paying attention now. Only Sudou stayed the same—dozing off in the middle of lectures like the world didn't apply to him. No one even bothered to stop him anymore. With no way to increase our points, everyone had more pressing things to worry about.
Still, that didn't stop people from glaring at him every day.
Right after the bell rang for lunch, Hirata stood up and made his move.
He talked about the upcoming test—The usual speech about how good grades might improve our class's standing.
He even took it a step further—forming a study group in the classroom every day from 5 p.m. He'd already asked the smarter students to help out and welcomed anyone who felt they were at risk of failing.
Unsurprisingly, a bunch of the more panicked students went over. Sudou didn't move. Neither did Ike or Yamauchi. They looked unsure but stayed glued to their seats.
.
.
I was seated in the library, flipping through a classic novel I picked at random. Studying for the exam wasn't necessary—at least not for me—so I figured I'd use the time to enjoy something old and well-written.
A few pages in, I noticed the usual suspects stumbling in.
The idiot trio—Sudou, Ike, and Yamauchi—followed by Horikita, Ayanokoji, Kushida and some random fodder.
They took up space at a large table nearby. Ayanokoji's eyes met mine briefly. I met his gaze and returned to my book.
If I was reading casually, with the help of Jarvis i could finish this entire book in under an hour, And that was also stretching it.
Some time passed, and just like in the anime, Sudou got into it with Horikita. The argument didn't last long. He stormed out of the library, The other three and Kushida left soon after.
Ayanokoji left right after them. If the web novel was anything to go by, this was probably the moment he'd catch a glimpse of the real Kushida—behind that smile she always wore.
Fifteen minutes later, I closed the book. Another one down. I stood, stretched, and made my way out of the library. Horikita was still there, flipping through her notes, probably.
Today is Thursday after school. The day before the midterm.
Just like in the anime, Kushida passed out previous year's papers. I accepted mine without much thought. Free material was free material afterall.
.
.
Chiyabashira-sensei entered the classroom announcing the start of the midterms and hinting at a summer vacation on a tropical island if no one failed. The class buzzed with motivation—especially the boys, whose imaginations ran wild at the mention of swimsuits. Ike even led a loud cheer.
The tests were distributed, starting with social studies. Everyone got serious as they began writing.
This time, I planned to get above 80%. Since we were given past year question papers, all it took was memorization. I could easily score high in a few subjects and let myself drop a little in others—balancing it all out to around 83.
Japanese and chemistry followed in second and third period, and before long, it was time for math.
When break came, I noticed the study group members gathering: Ike, Yamauchi, Kushida, Horikita.
Wait—Sudou was supposed to fail this test, wasn't he? If the person whose place I took was below average, and I scored too high now, the class average might go up by one or two points. That's a problem. If I get a high score here, it could risk Sudo failing by more then a point.
Which means… I need to pull my score down in English. I decided to aim for a 55. That would drop my overall percentage to around 65–70, which is still enough to pass but won't tip the balance too far.
The break ended, and the English test began.
Sudou was visibly struggling. He kept tapping his pen against his head, pausing constantly. It was clear—he was stuck. But this was it. No one could help him anymore. If he wanted to pass, he'd have to do it on his own.
.
.
After the test ended, Just like in the anime the idiot trio, Horikita and Ayanokoji gathered around Sudo's table while i left the class.
I was finally going to catch up to One piece today, and i didn't have time to waste in class.
.
Chiyabashira-sensei entered the classroom, surprised to see everyone already gathered. Without much delay, she pinned the midterm results sheet on the board and announced the scores.
Overall, the class had done well. There were multiple perfect scores in subjects like math, Japanese, and social studies.
Four of Sudo's subjects were at 60, but his English score was 39. Just one point short of what Sensei declared was the passing mark—40. The class had assumed 32 would be enough, as in the last test. Sensei corrected them, explaining that passing scores were based on half the class average, rounded appropriately. This time, the average was higher, and so was the passing grade.
A red line was drawn above Sudou's name. His expulsion was confirmed.
I was momentarily relieved, despite not having any particular attachment to the outcome. I still wished that things go the same way as in canon for as long as possible.
Hirata tried to intervene, requesting to see Sudou's paper. Even so, there were no grading mistakes.
That's when Ayanokoji stood up.
"Where are you going, Ayanokouji-kun?!"
"To the bathroom," He replied.
.
.
Morning in Class D was as loud as ever, if not more. With midterms behind us, everyone was finally expecting a reward for their efforts. When Chabashira-sensei walked in, the first thing she faced was Ike complaining about the zero balance in his account.
The mood shifted quickly once she pinned the class rankings on the board. All classes had gone up, including ours. We'd climbed to 87 points—not much, but still an improvement.
Ike celebrated prematurely. Horikita and Hirata, however, pointed out that we hadn't actually gained anything significant. It just meant we didn't lose points this time from deductions. The actual deposit of private points had been delayed due to some internal issue on the school's end, or so Sensei claimed.
But i obviously knew the truth, It was because of the Sudo case.
.
.
Chabashira-sensei called Sudou out to the faculty room right after class, and it didn't seem optional. He grumbled something about basketball practice, but ended up going anyway.
Some students whispered that maybe it would've been better if he'd been expelled after all. Honestly, in a school like this, Sudou might have more value than some of the same students calling for his head.
The next day, Sensei dropped another one of her abrupt announcements. Sudou got into a fight with some guys from Class C. They claimed it was one-sided. Sudou insisted it was self-defense.
Without evidence or witnesses, the school held off judgment. For now. The decision would come next Tuesday. Chabashira made it clear—if there was anyone who saw what happened, they needed to step up. No one did.
Once she left, the class atmosphere dipped again. Ike and the others immediately worried about points.
Then Kushida stood up. She explained what happened: Sudou had earned a shot at being a regular on the basketball team, and some upperclassmen didn't take kindly to it. They tried to intimidate him. He fought back.
She asked the class to help—if anyone knew anyone who might've seen the fight, even outside our class, she wanted them to speak up. Her words weren't that different from Chabashira's, but the response was.
Kushida had that kind of presence. The way people listened to her was… impressive.
Even so, Yamauchi immediately pushed back. Said Sudou had a history of violence and probably just wanted to justify his actions. Others piled on—stories of hallway scuffles, cafeteria incidents, small things that suddenly seemed bigger.
The tide shifted again when Hirata stepped in. Said he wanted to believe in a classmate. Karuizawa backed him up right away, and the mood changed once more. Girls started voicing support, and slowly the tension eased.
By the end of it, a handful of students were offering to ask around for eyewitnesses. Maybe it was Kushida, maybe Hirata, maybe Karuizawa—or maybe just herd mentality.
I had no intention of butting in on this arc of the story either.
.
.
The next day, lunch break rolled around. I decided to skip the cafeteria chaos and get some air instead.
As I stepped into the hallway, I caught sight of Kushida speaking to Sakura near the end of the corridor. I slowed down just a bit, not trying to eavesdrop, but not hurrying away either.
Just then, I noticed two others standing nearby—Horikita and Ayanokoji. They weren't hiding, just... watching.
When Horikita caught sight of me, her eyes narrowed slightly.
"You. Miyamizu," she called out, stopping in front of me.
Ayanokoji followed her lead,
" Do you know anything about the Sudo case?"
I glanced over at Sakura and Kushida. Maybe she'd been asking me for the same reason Kushida had asked Sakura—to see if I'd been a witness, Due to my lack of surprise on the matter. But of course, I hadn't.
"No," I said. "Didn't see or hear anything."
Horikita looked like she was ready to move on, but I wasn't finished.
"However," I added, "I do have a suggestion."
"What is it?" She stopped,
"Where the fight took place—have you checked if there were any security cameras in that area? This school has cameras all over. If the incident happened on campus, there's a good chance it was caught on tape."
Horikita blinked, pausing in thought. "That… makes sense."
I was hinting Horikita towards a solution Ayanokoji proposed to her later in the story, So i could see him nodding along.
"If there's footage, that could be used to clear Sudou's name… or confirm Class C's version," I added.
"Assuming the school gives us access," Horikita said, now more to herself than to me.
"Still worth checking."
She didn't thank me, but I could tell she'd taken it seriously.