As the bell rang for the end of class, Horikita and I stood up.
"Have you prepared for this, Sudou-kun?"
"What's happening?" Amikura asked.
"It was the day of the trial." Hirata answered her.
"Woah, we're gonna watch the showdown in the student council room?" Hashimoto said excited.
"Honestly. Is it even necessary? Showing the things the student council do is quite a breach of the school privacy?" Nagumo sighed.
'Then what about my privacy?'
"Yeah… I'm good. I was born ready."
As if mentally preparing himself for what lay ahead, Sudou closed his eyes and folded his arms. But then he slowly opened his eyes again.
"You might call me a complete idiot and make fun of me, but I'm me. If you have something you want to say, say it now."
"Don't do anything selfish. Actually listening right now would be the clever thing to do, yes?"
"Ugh, you always act so high and mighty, lady."
"When does she act all humble and modest?" Ibuki snarled.
Ryuuen laughed, "Maybe in front of her nii-san."
"Shut up," Horikita glared at them.
"Or never?" Sakayanagi have an amused smile.
When you saw them like this, it did seem as though they fought like cats and dogs. But at the very least, Sudou didn't hate Horikita. If he did he would've absolutely refused her help, no matter how advantageous her offer.
"Do your best, Horikita-san. Sudou-kun."
Horikita didn't respond at all, but Sudou pumped his fist to show resolve. I turned to check on Sakura who was still sitting down, her body rigid. She stood, her lips trembling slightly.
"Yeah… I'm okay. Thank you…"
Sakura was far tenser than I'd expected. If she was in this psychological state before the meeting had even begun, she might not be able to speak satisfactorily.
"I'm sorry if you felt like we were forcing you Sakura." Sudo apologized to her.
Airi flushed, "N-no, I did it on my own will. No need to apologized to me, Sudo-kun."
"Still, you were amazing. Standing up to Sakagami-sensei that way and class C even if they ridiculed you." Sudo smiled at her bashfully. Truly grateful.
"I only did what was right." Airi quietly said.
"Let's go. We'll make a bad impression if we're late."
The discussion was scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM. It was already 3:50 PM. We couldn't afford to take it slow. When the four of us got to the faculty room, a teacher waved at us to come on inside.
"Yahoo! Hello, Class D students!"
The homeroom teacher for Class B, Hoshinomiya-sensei, gave us this happy-go-lucky greeting. "It seems like something rather incredible has happened, hmm?"
Her eyes sparkled, as if she enjoyed sticking her nose into other people's business. (Well, she did).
"That's not nice, Ayanokoji-kun." Hoshinomiya-sensei pouted. "I was only curious, you know?"
"It's class D's business, Chie. We don't need an outsider butting in." Chabashira harshly reprimanded her.
Hoshinomiya silently seeth in her chair. She sent a glare towards her high school friend's direction.
"We're sorry for our teachers attitude, Class D." Ichinose took the initiative and apologized.
"What are you doing this time?" Chabashira-sensei muttered.
"Oh no. I've been found out already, huh?"
Chabashira-sensei glared over at Hoshinomiya-sensei as she exited the faculty room. "Whenever you sneak out, that's around the time I start to feel
suspicious."
Hoshinomiya gave a cute wink, as if saying, Teehee, you got me! "So I guess I can't join in, huh?"
"Of course you can't. You know that outsiders cannot participate."
"Aw, that's too bad. Well, that's all right. The results should be out within the hour, I guess."
Chabashira-sensei forcefully pushed Hoshinomiya-sensei back into the faculty room.
"Sensei." Kanzaki sighed.
Hoshinomiya giggled. "Gomeen, I'm not gonna do this again, promiseee." She fluttered her eye lashes.
'As if' Chabashira muttered quietly.
"Are you saying something, Sae-chan?" Hoshinomiya asked sweetly.
"Nothing."
"Well then, shall we be going?" she asked us.
"We're not going to do this in the faculty room, are we?"
"Of course not. This school does have rather complicated rules, but in cases such as these a settlement is reached between the homeroom teacher of the class in question, the concerned parties, and the student council."
Horikita froze the very moment she heard the words "student council." Chabashira-sensei turned and glanced sharply at Horikita's face.
"If you want to stop, now's the time, Horikita."
"Oh, right." Matsushita realized.
"Your brother is the President." Yume stared at her in pity, remembering Horikita's state when she confronted her brother.
Sudou, who didn't understand why Horikita would react that way, looked confused. It was almost as if a giant question mark was floating above his head. Our teacher, as usual, had revealed an important detail right at the last minute.
"You have got to stop doing that, Chabashira." Mashima said.
"I'll go. I'm fine."
Horikita quickly glanced at me. Her look probably meant something like, Don't worry on my account. We left the first-floor faculty room and walked up three floors to the fourth. A placard that read "Student Council Room" was affixed to the wall near the doorway. Chabashira-sensei knocked, and we went inside.
Even though Horikita had winced, she immediately followed us. Inside, long tables had been arranged in rectangular formation. The three students from Class C had already arrived and were seated. Beside them sat a bespectacled male teacher in his 30s.
"How spacious." Sato hummed.
Ike glanced over in envious. "Do you think I'll get to experience that if I run as president?"
Ryuuen scoffed, "As if they let you run in the first place. Pretty sure they don't want the likes of you running the school."
"Hey, no need to be harsh, man." Ike frowned.
"Truth hurts."
"I want to feel how soft the chairs there." Yume sighed. Amikura agreed with her.
"Ne ne, Honami-chan. Are the chairs soft and bouncy?" Amikura asked.
Ichinose smiled at her, "Yeah, I feels nice seating at them."
"Sorry we're late," our sensei said.
"It's before the scheduled start time. There's no need for apologies."
"Have you already met?"
Sudou, Horikita, and I did not know the teacher.
"This is Sakagami-sensei, the homeroom teacher for Class C. Now then."
One lone male student seated in the back of the room attracted everyone's attention.
"This is the student council president."
Horikita's older brother, without so much as even a glance at his sister, pored over the documents on his desk. Horikita directed her gaze at her brother for a short time, but when she realized that she wasn't his focus, she lowered her eyes and sat down in front of the Class C students.
Students glanced between the two siblings.
"Isn't that sad?" Hiyori frowned.
"Not really. The trial was for Sudo-kun, not for her. It only made sense that she wasn't the center of his attention." Kamuro said.
"But isn't she his sister? A simple greeting suffice." Kaneda said.
"Watching their interaction? Very unlikely." Hashimoto said.
'A prodigy of a brother, and a sister with a superiority complex who doesn't realized her own flaws.' Sakayanagi laughed. 'Fufufu, how interesting.'
Manabu and Horikita simply ignored the speculation around them.
"Well then, I would now like to discuss the violent incident that occurred last Tuesday with the members of the student council, the involved parties, and their homeroom teachers. You may begin the proceedings, student council secretary Tachibana."
Secretary Tachibana, a woman with short hair, gave a slight bow.
"Of course, considering the magnitude of this dispute, there are times when the student council president will take over. There are several unusual things about this incident. Other than that, the bulk of the proceedings will be handled solely by Tachibana, as usual."
"It's weird that she referred herself in a third person." Yamauchi said.
"Yeah. You can just say myself." Ishizaki said.
Tachibana glared at them. 'Seriously. What a rude kohais.'
"Because I am quite busy, there are certain agenda topics upon which I will defer. As a general rule, though, I would prefer to attend to these issues, as I'm entrusted to lead this student council."
"So, this is all by chance?"
Chabashira-sensei smiled as she said that,but Horikita's older brother never wavered. On the contrary though, Horikita —Horikita the younger sister, I mean—couldn't hide her trembling. Considering they were brother and sister, the odds were not in our favor. In fact, I couldn't help but think that this situation was extremely disadvantageous, as Horikita couldn't demonstrate her usual prowess here. Our expectations had been thoroughly shattered.
"Then how did you managed to stall for time?" Kanzaki asked.
Horikita glanced at Ayanokoji momentarily. "I... I was snapped out of my thoughts."
Kanzaki nodded, "I see."
"It was also thanks at Sakura's testimony and evidence." Ayanokoji chimed in.
Airi turned red when a number of students–mainly from Class D turned to her. She gasped quietly, avoiding their gaze.
If the student council president acted, there'd be nothing we could do, even if we didn't like it. He'd enrolled in Class A and immediately taken office as secretary for the student council. In December of his first year, he became the student council president after receiving an overwhelming amount of support in the election. Although some senior students had naturally voiced their displeasure, our current, hopeless situation spoke to his incredible abilities.
Students who didn't know the feats of the current president gaped in astonishment. Becoming a secretary when he was just a first year? Further more, winning the president election by a landslide?
Their respect and admiration for the man grew more. His attitude and actions towards his sister, forgotten.
"It seems like the students admire and respect you more, senpai." Nagumo said. He looked at Manabu with the same reverence as the others.
Horikita felt her admiration for her brother grew more. Additionally, her determination to walked beside her brother, be to praised and be to proud of, grew.
Secretary Tachibana summarized the situation from both sides in an easy-to-understand manner. There wasn't any need for further explanation.
"Based on the aforementioned facts, we would like for you to identify which version of events is true."
After completing her explanation and the preface to the proceedings, Secretary Tachibana turned her eyes toward us in Class D.
"Komiya-kun and two other members of the basketball club went to the special building after Sudou-kun called them there. There, they claim to have been beaten up in a one-sided brawl. Is this true?"
"Why don't they just checked the involved people's phone? Won't that be easier?" Inogashira asked.
"It is, but if the victim was called verbally then it's useless." Katsuragi answered.
"Whether or whether not, Sudo-kun's the one who called them wasn't the problem in the first place." Sakayanagi said.
"Huh? I thought that was the whole point?" Chihiro said.
Sakayanagi smiled at her, " The problem was who was the person who initiated the fight. Calling a person simply doesn't make you the instigator of the fight. It is always who hit who first. Acting based on the provoker's words merely puts you on a disadvantageous position."
"What those guys said was a lie. I was the one that got called over to the special building," Sudou said.
"That day, after practice, Komiya and Kondou asked me to go to the special building. Honestly, I thought it was kind of annoying, but I also thought it might've been because they were always hostile towards me. So, I went to meet them."
Sudou wasn't one to mince words. Normally, Horikita would have been disgusted by his casual way of speaking, but judging from her trembling she didn't hear him at all. Sakagami-sensei, Class C's homeroom teacher, stared in wide-eyed amazement.
"What's more amazing is you're completely siding with your students despite knowing the entire truth." Karuizawa said.
"Karuizawa-san, saying that to a teacher is not nice and rude." Hirata chastised her.
"What? I just said what everyone is thinking." Karuizawa defended herself.
"And it's not like she's wrong, Hirata-kun" Sakayanagi said. "Just us students, there's also a silent competition between the class teachers, on who's class will graduate from Class A after three years."
"Still," Hirata was not convinced.
"Sakagami-kun, they are totally badmouthing you. Is that okay with you?" Hoshinomiya giggled.
The older man didn't bat an eye, "What's the point? Whatever Sakayanagi said was indeed true after all. As a teacher, our duty is to guide and supports our students without revealing the school's system ourselves, and most definitely not interfering with the class competition based on a petty grudge that happened years ago."
Hoshinomiya's eye twitch. 'Tch.'
"That's a lie. Sudou-kun called us over to the special building."
"Don't screw with me, Komiya! You were the one who called me, you jerk!"
"You don't seem to remember your position here."Sudou, irritated, impulsively struck his desk. Immediate silence followed.
"Please calm down, Sudou-kun. Right now, we're merely listening to what both parties have to say. Komiya-kun, we ask that you too please show some restraint, and not interrupt."
"Puh, fine…"
"Both parties insist that the other called them over, so the accounts conflict. However, the stories share some commonality. There was a dispute
between Sudou-kun, Komiya-kun, and Kondou-kun, correct?"
"I wouldn't call it a dispute. Sudou-kun's always picking fights with us."
"'Picking fights'?"
"Sudou's better at basketball than we are, so he's always bragging about it. We practice with everything we've got, but it doesn't exactly feel good when he makes fools out of us. So we often butt heads."
I didn't really know the details of Sudou's club activities, but when I saw the veins popping on his forehead, it was rather obvious that they were lying. Next, Secretary Tachibana spoke to Sudou.
Yume frowned, "Then–"
"It may seemed obvious that they were lying, but logical reasoning can't overweight the injuries that was seen in their bodies. A concrete evidence is still needed. " Ichinose interrupted Yume.
"Not one bit of what Komiya said was true. Those guys are just jealous of my talent. When I practice, they constantly get in my way. That's the truth."
Naturally, both sides claimed that the other party was at fault.
"Both sides have given their grievances, but now we have to come to a judgment with the collected evidence."
"Sudou-kun beat us senseless. It was a one-sided fight."
"Yet, there was three of them and they still lost?" Shibata said.
"I heard Ishizaki-kun was a great fighter in middle school." Miyake added. "That seems fishy."
"Them calling Ishizaki just because Sudo-kun called them was suspicious." Yukimura stated.
Class C seemed intent on focusing the discussion on their injuries. The three students did seem to have black-and-blue faces. That was undeniable.
"That's a lie. They attacked first. It was self-defense."
Haruka leaned over to Miyake and whispered, "I thought Ishizaki-kun was a delinquent back in middle school? How come he lost?"
Miyake shrugged, "It must had been in purposed to framed Sudo-kun."
"Hey, Horikita," I whispered to Horikita, who remained mute and kept her head down.
Clearly, this situation was really bad. If we wanted to stop Sudou from getting carried away, we had to take action sooner rather than later. However, she showed no reaction. It was as if her mind was gone. Did her brother's mere presence truly have this much of an effect?
"Suspicious." Ryuuen laughed, "For simply trying to catched up to her brother, it made her like this? So vulnerable to his mere presence?"
Sakayanagi mouth twitched, "It seemed like a deeper and more interesting reason was involved. Or perhaps the shame of her own incompetence made her unable to face her brother more confidently?"
'The latter, I suppose.' Ayanokoji observed the girl silently, casually glancing at her brother to see his reaction to the two's speculation. So far, Manabu's facial expression gave nothing away. It remained strict and stern, befitting of his title as the Student Council President.
I flashed back to those two talking behind the dormitory. I didn't really understand the depth of the situation, but I suspected that Horikita had chased after her extremely talented brother, enrolling in the same school to make him recognize her abilities. But regardless of her hopes and talents, the younger sister in Class D was still very far away from her brother, the Class A student council president. To prove herself, she'd have to rise up to the same arena as him.
'And she can't do that as she insists of fighting alone, thinking that everyone around her is just a burden not worth of carrying.' Sakayanagi silently observed. 'As of the moment, Ayanokoji-kun is the one who is carrying the class– with what reason, I wonder? Up until now, he's quite persistent in keeping a peaceful life.'
She glanced at Class D's teacher, remembering the scene where she called Ayanokoji in the faculty room later on to Horikita. Sakayanagi narrowed her eyes, 'Did she...'
"If Class D has no further proof to offer, would you mind if we continued the proceedings?"
If the student council and the teachers continued to sit in complete silence, their judgment would almost certainly be merciless. To prevent that, we needed Horikita to rouse herself into action. However, our team's most crucial member withered and shrank before her older brother.
"It would seem there's no objection, given the arguments we've heard thus far."
The student council president finally spoke. Horikita's older brother seemed as though he wanted to draw a conclusion as soon as possible.
"Regardless which party called the other over, the fact remains that it was a one-sided fight between Sudou and the other students. We can clearly see that from the injuries they sustained. We have no choice but to come up with a conclusion based on that."
"W-wait! I can't accept that! It's just because those guys were a bunch of wimps!"
"I think your attitude during that time only proves that, Sudo-kun." Sato sweatdrop.
"I'm trying to improve now!" Sudo grumbled.
The moment that Sudou uttered those words, I saw Sakagami-sensei smile.
"Then can it really be considered self-defense when fighting against
opponents of such unequal strength?"
"B-but, hey. I was fighting against three people! Three people!"
"But only the Class C students were hurt."
This was getting worse. I resigned myself to the fact that I might be killed later for doing this, but I got up slowly from my folding chair and stood behind Horikita. I stretched my arms out and grasped her sides as hard as I could.
"Hyah?!" Horikita cried out in an abnormally girlish voice. However, this was not the time or place for me to focus on that. Since she hadn't yet regained her sanity, I grabbed her more forcefully and tickled her.
Everyone–except who already know this, eyes widened.
"Pft."
"Wha...?"
"HA HA HA HA HA HA."
"What the hell?"
"This is so humiliating."
Horikita flushed, but Ayanokoji is still unsure whether if it was in anger or embarrassment.
"Stop laughing!" Horikita snaps.
"B-but... This is so funny." Ibuki laughed.
"Imagined feeling inferior compared to your brother and of your own incompetence yet, showing this side of yours at the same time to him– and the other people inside as well. How embarrassing." Ibuki laughed harder.
"What did you say?!" Horikita glared hard. "And you!" She pointed at Ayanokoji who pointed at himself. She opened her mouth, sighed, and closed it again.
"Me what?" Ayanokoji asked confused.
"W-wait. S-stop, stop!"
No matter how upset or dazed a person was, if you stimulated the body enough, they'd come back to her senses. Even if they didn't like it. The teachers seemed somewhat taken aback by my actions, but right then I didn't care. When I believed I'd roused her enough, I let go.
Horikita, looking like she was about to cry, glared at me with startling intensity. I'd had to force her, but I knew it was essential to return Horikita to her usual self.
"Pfft."
"She's about to cry."
"How mean of you, Ayanokoji-kun."
"Ha ha, funny. Keep laughing."
'How is that mean?' Ayanokoji tiredly sighed.
"Get a grip on yourself, Horikita. We're going to lose at this rate. You have to fight!"
"Tch…"
Horikita, looked at Class C, then the teacher, and then her brother as if
finally understanding our situation. It seemed to dawn on her just how desperate our situation was.
"Excuse me. May I ask a question?" she said.
"Do you mind, president?"
"I'll allow it. However, please answer more quickly next time."
Horikita slowly rose out of her chair.
"Earlier, you said that Sudou-kun called you over to the special building. But who exactly did Sudou call, and why?"
Komiya and the others who was questioned by her shuddered. They still remembered the way she cornered them and questioned that almost made them confessed right there.
"Here comes, Horikita-san." Ike and the others yelled excitedly.
'Tch, it's just a simple interrogation. What's so exciting about that?' Kushida silently watched, trying to ignore everyone around her.
Komiya and the other Class C students looked at one another, as if saying, Why is she asking that question now?
"Please answer." Horikita added those last two words to reinforce her aggressive style of questioning. Secretary Tachibana allowed it.
"Kondou and I don't know why he called us over. When we'd just finished up for the day and were changing, he said he wanted to talk to us for a minute. Wasn't the reason just that he didn't like us?"
"So then, why exactly were you in the special building, Ishizaki-kun? You're not on the basketball team, so you have no connection to this case. I'd think your presence there would be rather odd."
"That's… I came as a precaution. There were rumors that Sudou was violent. He's also in better shape than we are, physically. I had to go, didn't I?"
"Isn't that being paranoid?" Haruka frowned. "He just called you there. Why bring Ishizaki-kun?"
"I wasn't the one who called, Hasabe." Sudo pouted.
"Oh, may bad." Haruka laughed. Miyake just shook his head over his friend's antics.
"So in other words, you felt the situation might turn violent?"
"Yeah." They answered in unison, almost as if they'd expected these questions. It appeared that the Class C students had thoroughly rehearsed for this conference.
"I see. So you brought along Ishizaki-kun as your bodyguard, since he was reputed to be rather good at fighting. Just in case there was an emergency."
"It was to protect ourselves. That was it. Besides, we didn't know that Ishizaki-kun was known for being good in a fight. We just considered him a reliable friend."
Horikita quietly listened to their responses, as if running various simulations in her head. Then she immediately made her next move.
"I do have some knowledge of martial arts, if only to a certain extent. I understand that when you're fighting against multiple enemies, victory becomes exponentially more difficult. So I don't understand how you were defeated so handily, how the fight could be so one-sided, when you had a skilled fighter like Ishizaki-kun with you."
"To me, it seemed liked you want to framed Sudo-kun." Karuizawa said. Her supporters eagerly voiced their agreements.
"May it be Sudo-kun did hit you, that level of injuries is just ridiculous." Matsushita remarked.
"Eh? Because it was inte–" Hiyori was cut off when Ibuki firmly held her palm on her mouth. Hiyori struggled before laying still, indicating that she'll behave. Ibuki paused momentarily before releasing her. Hiyori pouted while Ibuki looked away.
"Because we didn't intend to fight."
"The primary factor in triggering a fight is the collision of the 'energy' between opponents. In the event that you don't have any intention of fighting, or that you're nonviolent, the probability that you'll be hurt should be very low. Especially when there are three of you."
Horikita's opinion was very objective, grounded in evidence, rules, and her own logic. On the other end, Komiya fought back with his own weapon,
real evidence.
"Oh. So that's what Sakayanagi-san meant." Chihiro said. She realized that Sakayanagi was right. No matter what, evidence is still the key to win the trial, and as of the moment, class C held it.
"That way of thinking doesn't apply to Sudou-kun. He's exceptionally violent. Even if we were nonviolent, he'd still be mercilessly violent. That's what happened."
He peeled off the gauze that covered his cheek, exposing the scrapes underneath. No matter how many reasonable arguments Horikita made, his injury gave powerful evidence.
"Are you finished with your claims now, Class D?" said Horikita's older brother coolly.
"Its like he's just watching a tv drama with how calm he is." Shibata whispered to Kanzaki.
Kanzaki deadpanned at him, "What do you want him to do? Scream? Throw things? He's the President, being calm in a situation like that is expected of him from the school."
Shibata pouted, "Okay, okay."
After staying silent while Horikita gave her argument, his words were few and icy. His look seemed to suggest that if that was all we had to say, it would've been better not to say anything at all.
"It's true that Sudou injured the other students. However, Class C started the fight. There is one student witness who saw the entire incident and can attest to this."
"Well then, Class D—if Class D's witness would please enter?"
Sakura, looking worried and restless, walked into the student council room. She looked down at her feet, as if scared of danger.
"1-D, Sakura Airi-san."
"I thought I'd heard something or other about a witness, but you're a Class D student?" Sakagami, the Class C's homeroom instructor, snickered while wiping his glasses.
"Is there a problem, Sakagami-sensei?"
"No, no, please. Go ahead."
Sakagami-sensei and Chabashira-sensei exchanged looks.
"You may begin your testimony, if you wouldn't mind, Sakura-san."
"Y-yes, okay… Well… I…"
She stopped speaking. A period of silence followed. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Sakura steadily looked further downward, and her face became increasingly pale.
Haruka frowned sadly. She looked over to the shy and timid girl who's meekly avoiding everyone's eyes. She felt the need to hug and comfort the girl.
"You're so brave, Sakura-chan! I wished I was as braved as you." Haruka yelled with a smile. Airi flinched in surprised before looking at her. She saw Haruka wink at her and felt happy and feeling confident at the same time. She smiled in return, mouthing a quick thanks.
"Sakura-san…" Horikita, unable to take any more, addressed Sakura. Unlike before, the words didn't seem to reach her.
"Apparently she didn't witness anything. More of this would just be a waste of our time."
"Why are you in such a hurry, Sakagami-sensei?"
"I want to speed this along. If we waste time, my students will suffer. These students are the joyful heart of their class, so I've no doubt that their many friends are worried about them. Also, they're striving to improve their basketball skills, and we're depriving them of valuable practice time. As a
teacher, I can't overlook this."
"Or maybe you are afraid that Sakura-san might have solid evidence that will pin your class as the instigator." Sato accuses the teacher.
"I see. You're probably right about that."
You'd think that Chabashira-sensei would ally herself with Class D, but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, she nodded in apparent agreement with Sakagami-sensei.
"You're certainly right that this is a waste of time, so I suppose we have no choice. You can come down now, Sakura."
Chabashira-sensei ordered Sakura to leave, almost as if she'd lost interest. The student council members didn't ask for a delay or anything. The writing was clearly on the student council room wall, and it spelled Class D's defeat.
Sakura closed her eyes tightly, as if she couldn't bear it anymore, as if she regretted her own weakness. Even Sudou, Horikita, and I felt like this was impossible for Sakura, and mentally resigned herself. Then, it happened. An unexpected voice reverberated throughout the room.
"I definitely saw what happened!"
Many students flinched when Sakura's voice was heard loudly.
"I think my eardrums burst for a moment."
"Same."
"That was loud."
It was certainly Sakura's voice, though it took me several seconds to recognize it. What most struck me was the volume of her voice.
"The students in Class C threw the first punch. There's no mistake about that!"
Sakura's words had a force that belied the image she'd presented at first. She spoke so desperately that you wanted to believe she was telling the truth. She certainly made me believe it. However, much like a magical spell, the effect lasted for only a few minutes. If the audience remained calm, it wouldn't be difficult for them to see through it.
"Excuse me, but may I say something?" asked Sakagami-sensei, raising his hand.
"Why are you speaking so much?!" Ando said.
"Teachers are expected to speak as little as possible yet, you're yapping so much that it seems like you were the victim!"
It appears that many students can't take it anymore and straight up accused and yelled at the poor class C teacher who remained quiet.
"Let your students– the ones who's involve, and the overseers handle it will ya?!"
"Why don't you act like Chabashira-sensei during that time! She's only keeping quiet and only speaking when it's necessary of her!"
"Normally, teachers are asked to speak as little as possible, but this situation is just too pitiful. Student council president, do you mind?"
"I'll allow it."
"In regards to what you've said, Sakura-kun, I do not necessarily doubt you. However, I have one thing to ask. You've stepped forward to testify as a witness, but you were rather late in doing so. May I ask why? I would think if you really did see something, you would have come forward much earlier."
Sakagami-sensei harped on the same point that Chabashira-sensei had.
"That's… Well, that's… I didn't want to get involved…"
"Why didn't you want to get involved?"
"Because I'm not very good at talking with other people…"
"I see. I understand that. However, I'd like to say something else. You're not good at talking with others, and yet when the week was nearly out you stepped forward as a witness. Doesn't that seem rather odd? To my mind, it seems Class D secretly put a story together and are having you act as a false witness to give phony testimony."
"Hey, what are you saying to her?" Yume said sadly.
"You're rude! Maybe she only gained the courage to speak up recently?!" Amikura yelled.
"Let's just cal–" Ichinose was cut off when another student yelled.
"Not all people want to be involved in that situation, you know! Who knows it may lead to her becoming a target of your class in the future?!" Karuizawa teared to the teacher.
"Oh my. The students seems rather angry at you, Sakagami-kun." Hoshinomiya laughed.
After conferring together, the Class C students answered that they'd thought so, too.
"That's… I'm just…telling the truth…"
"No matter how poor your communication skills might be, I can see you haven't testified with much confidence. Is that because you're tormented with guilt, because you know what you're saying is actually a lie?"
"Why you!"
"Honestly, how did you become a teacher?!"
"Have you no shame?!"
"N-no, that's not it…"
"I'm not blaming you. You were probably forced to lie for your class's sake, to save Sudou-kun. Weren't you? If you come forward and confess honestly to us now, you won't be punished."
The teacher's relentless psychological attacks just kept coming. Of course Horikita raised her hand.
"That is not the case. It is certainly true that Sakura-san is not good at speaking before others. However, it is precisely because she witnessed the incident that she is standing here today. Otherwise, she most likely would not, even if we'd asked her. Don't you think that if we needed someone who could speak boldly, we would have found a replacement?"
"Yeah! What Horikita-san said!" Ike yelled.
"Stop coming for her!" Yamauchi seconded.
Sudo felt angry on Airi's behalf. "I'm sorry, Sakura. Because of me you experienced that." He bowed his head apologetically.
Airi smiled, "It's fine, at least I know that I somehow made your situation bearable. Even for a moment. I'm glad to be of help." She shook her head slowly.
"I don't think so. There are excellent students in Class D, students such as yourself, Horikita-san. By setting up a person like Sakura-san as your witness, it would establish a sense of realism that you yourself could not."
Sakagami-sensei probably didn't actually believe this. However, no matter what response we volleyed back, I was convinced that he'd do anything to block us. Just as I'd felt from the start, a Class D witness did not carry enough weight.
No matter how many times we stressed the truth, they would say that we were lying. If the testimony came from someone on your side, they wouldn't accept it. Had we run out of options? Sakagami-sensei gave a hostile grin as he began to sit back down.
"If you want proof… I'll give it to you!"
Sakagami-sensei froze in response to Sakura's words.
"Please, let's not force this situation to continue. If there really was evidence, you would have presented it at an earlier stage—"
Sakura loudly slammed her hand on the desk, and threw down what looked to be a few small, rectangular pieces of paper.
"Dayum."
"Oh my, how aggressive."
"Marry me, Sakura-chan!"
"Why did I just blushed?"
Airi felt her heart exploding and her ears heating when she heard the remarks of her fellow students. She looked down but shot up when an arm snaked itself around her shoulder. She glanced up and saw Haruka's grinned.
'How did she get here?'
'So noisy.' Ayanokoji looked around the cheering students and contemplated whether if it's appropriate to sleep right now.
"What are those?"
Because she'd produced something other than words, Sakagami-sensei's expression stiffened for the first time.
"Ha! Suck that sucker!"
"Not so confident now, huh?!"
"This is proof that I was in the special building that day!"
Secretary Tachibana walked over to Sakura. Though she hesitated at first, she then reached for the paper. No, those weren't pieces of paper like I'd thought. They were photos.
"President."
After looking at the photographs, Secretary Tachibana handed them over to the student council president. Horikita's older brother, after looking at the pictures for some time, laid them out on the desk so that we could see.
We saw Sakura in those pictures, but this Sakura wore a lovely expression that looked both similar and dissimilar to the Sakura with us now. It was the idol, Shizuku.
"So beautiful."
"I wish I was pretty as you." Chihiro mumbled but was heard.
"You're beautiful yourself, Chihiro-chan." Ichinose said. She side hug her and continued to compliments her.
"No fair!" Yume and the other class B girls complained.
"We want to be compliment by Honami-chan too!"
Class B Ichinose laughed before going to each if her classmates to assures them that they are perfect and beautiful just the way they are. The class B boys just chuckled.
"I'm…I was looking for places where no one was around so I could take pictures of myself. The pictures also show the date and time, which proves that I was there when I said."
The date on the pictures definitely showed that they'd been taken in the evening one week ago. That would've been around the time that Sudou and
the others finished their club activities for the day.
Horikita and I unintentionally gasped in response to this new evidence. We began to see changes in the three Class C students, who up until now had been playing the part of victims. They were visibly shaking.
"What did you use to take these photos?" asked Sakagami-sensei.
"A digital…camera."
"You can alter the date rather easily with a digital camera, though. If you manipulated these photos on a computer, you could effectively set them at the time and date of the incident. This are inadequate evidence."
"But Sakagami-sensei, don't you think this photo is different?"
Horikita's older brother slid out one of the photos we hadn't yet seen, and
handed it to the teacher.
"Th-this?!"
The photo showed the fight itself; clearly there was no need to nitpick the time. The setting sun bathed the hallway in dusky light. The picture seemed to show what had happened immediately after Sudou hit Ishizaki.
"Looked at that!"
"Concrete evidence that she was there!"
"How are you gonna turn the table now, huh?"
"Just give up and tell the truth!"
'This already happened. Being happy, angry, or what can't changed anything.' Ayanokoji thought.
"I think that you'll believe I was there after seeing…this."
"Thank you, Sakura-san."
This picture had absolutely saved Horikita as well. To rescue such an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation…
"I see. Well, you do seem to be telling the truth about witnessing the incident. That much I simply must accept. However, I can't ascertain how the situation started from this picture. This doesn't prove that you saw the entire incident."
It was certainly true that this picture made it look like the fight had already ended. We couldn't call this definitive evidence.
"So, what do you think, Chabashira-sensei? Why not look for a
compromise here?" Sakagami-sensei asked.
"And yet, you suddenly want to compromise when a concrete evidence was presented?"
"Talk about shameless."
"Honestly, how embarrassing."
"Nervous now, eh?"
"Well, if the president found out that class C and their teacher was lying, a heavy punishment awaits them. And by that, I mean as expulsion.' Katsuragi said.
"Eh, really?!" Yahiko asked.
"They lied and dragged the school this long. It's only appropriate to expect harsh punishment."
"Compromise?"
"I'm convinced that Sudou-kun lied in his testimony."
"You jerk!" Sudou stood up, looking ready to fly out of his chair, but finally grabbed hold of his own arms and pinned himself down.
"No matter how long we go back and forth, we'll never reach an agreement. We won't change our testimony, and your side won't give up or admit that you conspired with the witness. In other words, you won't stop. It'll be an endless cycle of saying that the other side is lying. In addition, the picture is too inconclusive to be considered definitive proof. Therefore, I suggest we compromise. I do think that the students from Class C are responsible for some of the blame here. There were three students up against Sudou, and one of them has a history of fighting, which is a problem. So how about two weeks of suspension for Sudou-kun, and one week of suspension for my students? What do you think of that? The weight of the punishment is different, of course, but I think that matches the difference in sustained injuries."
"There's no way Horikita-san will agree to that." Sato said.
"No matter how you look at it, it's clear that our class will faced the heavy punishment." Shinohara said.
"Furthermore, our class points will also be reduce because Sudo-kun was suspended."
Horikita's older brother stayed silent as he listened to Sakagami-sensei. It seemed that Class C was willing to compromise only halfway. If we hadn't had Sakura's testimony or evidence, Sudou-kun probably would have been suspended for over a month. Asking for less than half of that made this a
considerable concession.
"Don't screw around! This isn't a joke!" Sudou raged.
"Chabashira-sensei. What do you think?" Sakagami-sensei didn't even glance at Sudou.
"We seem to have already reached a logical conclusion. There's no reason to refuse Sakagami-sensei's proposal," Chabashira-sensei said.
"Sensei!"
"What? Don't agree to what he says!"
"We're your class, right?!"
Class D students complaints rang in the air. Same as Sakagami-sensei, Chabashira-sensei remained quiet.
"This is so unfair!"
His proposal was certainly a reasonable compromise. Horikita looked up at the ceiling, as if quietly mulling over everything that had gone on so far. No matter how much we resisted, Sudou wouldn't be acquitted entirely without conclusive evidence. Horikita had known this from the very beginning.
She had concluded that we needed to reach a compromise. For a Class D student, Horikita was quite impressive. However, if she was aiming to make it to Class A, she couldn't give up here. I hadn't intended to speak out until the very end, but I decided to lend a helping hand, perhaps out of respect for Sakura's earlier courage.
"Eh? Then why are you there, Ayanokoji-kun? No offense." Sato asked.
"None taken. I was there for support, I guess. Both for Sakura and Sudo." Ayanokoji answered.
"He was the one who snapped Horikita-san back remember?" Shinohara said.
"Oh, right. I forgot."
"Horikita, are we really out of options?" I asked.
"…"
Horikita did not respond. Well, did she even have any words left?
"I'm not very smart, so I can't really come up with a solution. I do, however, think that we probably should accept the compromise that you have offered us, Sakagami-sensei," I said.
"Huh?!" Ike and Yamauchi gaped.
"What do you mean accept?!"
"There's no way!"
"Ayanokoji, you bastard!"
Ayanokoji sighed, "If you watch more, you'll find the reason why I said that."
"Right," Sakagami-sensei replied with a smile, pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"We have no definitive proof of Sudou's innocence. I suppose I should say such evidence just doesn't exist. If this event had occurred in a classroom or the convenience store, a greater number of students would have been around to see it, and there probably would have been sound evidence. There's no record of anyone watching this scene unfold. Since this event took place in the special building, where there weren't any people around, there's nothing we can do."
"Precisely because of that, Ryuuen-kun ordered the three to call Sudo-kun to the special building because there's no camera there, isn't it right?" Matsushita said.
"But there was a camera?" Komiya asked confused.
"Huh? Then why..." Matsushita looked confused too.
Komiya and the others realized there was no camera at all and were tricked to withdrew the complaint. They turned to Horikita and Ayanokoji and gave then a nasty glare. "The two of you tricked us!"
"Tricked?"
"What's that about?"
I sighed deeply and shook my head. I looked straight into Horikita's eyes, and she gazed back at me. I spoke as if we were accepting defeat.
"I understand why we're having this discussion. No matter how much we appeal to the contrary, Class C won't admit that they lied. Sudou won't admit that he lied, either. We really would just keep going back and forth. Honestly, it's getting to the point where I would've been happier never having had this discussion in the first place. Don't you agree?"
Horikita cast her eyes down. I wondered what she was thinking. If she took my words only at surface value, then things would end here.
"Surface value?"
"So there was a hidden meaning?" Katsuragi narrowed his eyes. He watched the screen intently.
Class D glanced over to the poker faced Ayanokoji and concluded that he had no intention to surrender to class C that time.
Naturally, he hasn't lost before, and he won't lose now, especially a pathetic and small problem like that.
"So, that's it, yes? Well, Class D representative Horikita-san. Please give your opinion on the matter."
Sakagami-sensei had taken what I'd said literally. In other words, as a declaration of defeat. For Class C, victory meant not allowing Sudou to be acquitted. The teacher's expression indicated that he had won this match.
"I understand…" Horikita answered, slowly looking back up.
"Horikita!" Sudou cried. It was the roar of a man who, more than anyone else, did not want to admit defeat. He couldn't. However, Horikita did not stop there. She continued with her closing remarks.
"I think that Sudou, who caused the incident, has a problem. He doesn't ever stop to consider his actions, which inconveniences everyone around him. He has a history of getting in fights. He's the type to raise his voice and fists right away whenever something displeases him. In the event of an uproar such as this, well, it should be obvious who
caused it."
Sudo clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He hung his head listening to Horikita's words again.
"That... That is certainly true."
A few students mumbled. Watching Sudo for just about two days, they clearly understand the temper and attitude of the boy.
"H-hey!"
"You need to understand, Sudou. Your attitude caused all of this."
Horikita glared intensely over at Sudou, almost as if to outdo Sudou's own ferocity.
"This is why I wasn't motivated at all to help Sudou-kun in the beginning. I knew that even if I forced myself to lend a hand, he would just repeat the same mistakes again and again."
'I won't do this again, I promise you, Horikita.' Sudo felt determination creeping up his entire being.
"A very honest answer. The matter seems settled now, wouldn't you say?"
"Thank you very much. Please take your seat now," Secretary Tachibana said to Horikita.
A period of silence followed. After that came Sudou's clearly irritated bellow. And then, even after five, then ten seconds of waiting, Horikita did not sit back down.
"Horikita-san?"
"She's not finished yet?"
"But she stopped talking tho?"
"Baka! Remember that our class emerged as the victor?"
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Will you take your seat now?"
Secretary Tachibana asked Horikita to sit once again, as if she suspected that Horikita couldn't hear her. Yet Horikita still did not sit. She fixated on the teachers, continuing to stare right at them.
"He should reflect on his actions. However, not in this particular case. When I say he should reflect, I mean that he should look back on his past
actions. In regards to this particular incident, however, I don't think Sudou-kun did anything wrong. This was not an unfortunate event that occurred
merely by chance. I'm convinced that this was a deliberate move made by Class C. I have absolutely no intention of meekly accepting defeat."
'I will, Horikita. I will reflect and improve myself not for you, or anyone else for that matter. I will do it for myself and my future.'
Horikita broke the long silence with these haughty words.
"So then…what do you mean?"
Horikita's older brother looked at his younger sister for the first time. Horikita did not shrink under his gaze. She probably felt that this wasn't the time to be frightened, that she had to be brave in front of Sakura. Or perhaps she could see the path to a final resolution?
'Class D seemed to be growing.' Sakayanagi observed. 'I recon, during the third or fourth special exam, they will certainly become a threat for everyone. It appears to be your doing, Ayanokoji-kun.'
"If you did not understand, I will say it once again. We claim that Sudou-kun is completely innocent. Therefore, we cannot accept his suspension from school, even for just one day."
"Ha ha… What can I even say? We did this intentionally? What a bizarre claim. Apparently, the student council president's younger sister can't help but spew nonsense."
"Sudou-kun is the victim, just as the witness testified. Please do not make any errors in your judgment."
The Class C students began to shout insistently.
"Don't screw around! I'm the victim here!"
Sudou, compelled by the shouting, raised his own voice again. The objections came fast and furious. Everyone understood that we would not
find a solution this way.
"That's enough. Continuing this discussion would just be a waste of
time."
Horikita Manabu looked at us as if we were just swapping lies in a giant mudslinging match.
"What I've learned today is that each side has an exact opposite claim. In that case, one side is propagating an extremely malicious falsehood."
D or C? Which class was lying to the school? If this fact became known, the consequences would be greater than suspension.
Everyone was quiet, they held their breath.
"I'll ask you, Class C. Have you lied to us today?"
"Of…of course not!"
"Well, what about you, Class D?"
"I haven't lied. Everything we've said has been the truth."
"Then we will regroup here for a retrial tomorrow at 4:00 PM. If by then it hasn't been clearly established which party has lied, or in the event no one admits that they were at fault, we will pass judgment based on the evidence we've collected thus far. Of course, in that case we may have to consider the possibility of expulsion from this school. That is all."
"Phew!"
"That was intense."
"I'm never going to break the rules if that's how a trial being conducted." Shibata joked.
"Why are you even thinking about breaking the rules?" Kanzaki looked at him in disbelief.
"I wasn't thinking about breaking them! I was joking!" Shibata defended himself.
"You better be."
After offering that statement, Horikita's older brother ended the proceedings. If the trial was set to reopen at 4:00 tomorrow, that was a very small window of time in which to uncover new evidence.
"Would be possible to have a little more time before we reconvene?" Horikita asked, raising her hand. She hadn't protested, but she had made an offer.
"If this matter required some extra time before retrial, then the student council president would have offered a sufficient grace period. In other words, the amount of time granted should be enough for this case. Extensions are only offered under special circumstances," answered Chabashira-sensei, folding her arms. It appeared she'd taken the student council's intentions into consideration.
'By coercing Sakura-san indirectly to testify, you managed to let the president give you more time because of the lack of evidence, and the pictures Sakura-san presented.' Sakayanagi smiled.
"You made the direction flow in your favor splendidly. How admirable." Sakayanagi glanced at his direction momentarily. Her gaze was noticed by the brown-haired boy.
"What's wrong with you now?" Kamuro complained.
"Nothing."
We were told to leave. Everyone looked dissatisfied as they exited the student council office. Sakagami-sensei approached Sakura, who seemed to be on the verge of tears. He said something very cold to her.
"I want you to reflect on the fact that many students will be involved in this due to your lies. Also, if you think that we'll go easy on you if you start crying, then I am afraid you are being foolish. You should be ashamed of yourself."
"Huh?!"
"Ashamed?! You should be ashamed for lying at everyone in their faces!"
"Screw you and your class!"
"What the hell is wrong with you!"
"And what do you mean we'll go easy?!"
"Are you planning something to Sakura-san?!"
The students once again complained about class C teacher. They yelled insults, complaints, and support at Airi for doing her best to testify.
Sakagami-sensei and his students left, leaving those words hanging in the air. The Class C students repeatedly complained that the witness's lies were far too much on their way out, almost as if they wanted Sakura to hear them. Silence enveloped the student council room immediately afterward. Sakura, trying to stifle her voice as best she could, burst into tears.
"I tried my absolute hardest to speak up during the discussion, but do we even have a chance? Horikita?"
"I won't give up. I will keep fighting to support your testimony until the end," Horikita said.
"Yeah!" Ike yelled.
"We'll continue to support you, Sakura-chan!" Haruka supported the shock girl.
"We got your back!" The girls grinned at her.
"Everyone. Thank you!" Finding the courage, Airi yelled out that words loudly.
"You understand that we won't solve this problem just by being stubborn. Won't that just hurt more people in the process?"
"I have no intention of losing. Well then, I must excuse myself."
With that, Horikita turned and left. Sudou followed. I left the student council room alongside Sakura.
"I'm sorry, Ayanokouji-kun… If I'd only stepped forward in the very beginning, everything would have been fine, but… Everything turned out this way because I didn't have the courage."
"It would've ended the same even if you had stepped forward at the beginning. They would've fought to discredit your testimony simply because the witness came from Class D. The result would be the same."
"But!"
If they suspected Sakura to be a liar, she probably wouldn't be able to save Sudou by herself. Overcome with emotion, Sakura started crying, large tears rolling down her cheeks. If Hirata were here, he probably would've kindly offered her a handkerchief. Strangely enough, this scene seemed to mimic the time Horikita had collapsed briefly when reunited with her brother.
It was a moment of deep déjà vu. Why was this world divided into winners and losers? I'd already witnessed many victories and defeats, and had seen how closely joy and sorrow seemed to be linked to those outcomes. I couldn't just abandon Sakura, so I decided to wait until she could move.
"Witness many victory and defeats?" Kanzaki asked.
"You sound like you never lost before." Matsushita pointed out.
"You sounded weird with that sentence, Ayanokoji-kun." Hiyori giggled.
"Isn't it only natural to witness many victory and defeats? We're surrounded by everything that can be count as a contest. Do I need to elaborate one by one?" Horikita chimed in.
"You're weird, Ayanokoji. And mysterious too. I can't wait to find out what you're hiding." Ryuuen smirk.
'Get in line, please.'
"You're still here?"
Horikita's older brother and Secretary Tachibana came out of the student council room. Secretary Tachibana began locking the door with a key.
"What are you planning to do?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I thought that when you came here with Suzune, you'd unveil somekind of master plan."
"I'm not exactly Zhuge Liang or Kuroda Kanbei. I don't have any plans."
"Who's Zhuge Liang?" Ike asked.
"Kuroda what now?" Ishizaki dumbly watched the screen.
"So does that mean when Suzune claimed Sudou was completely innocent, she was merely getting carried away?"
"Hyperbole, you mean? I don't think so."
"I see."
Strangely enough, though my exchanges with Horikita's brother up to now had been short, our conversation continued. Though he'd left a bad impression on me during our first meeting, I found him easy to talk to now. Perhaps this was to be expected of someone who had climbed the ranks to become student council president. He had a superior understanding of human nature.
Manabu smiled a little. He too, find the boy easy to talk to. If possible, he wants to have a conversation with him a little longer. But their different school years made that impossible.
"Then there's what you said, Sakura." Horikita's brother turned to Sakura, who'd stifled her crying.
"Eyewitness testimony and pictorial evidence certainly carry weight during deliberation. However, please keep in mind that how much we value the evidence is determined by how much we trust in its believability. No matter what you do, the evidence's legitimacy is reduced because you are a student from Class D. No matter how detailed your account, we cannot accept it as one hundred percent true."
Everyone remember the conversation about being confident about yourself and believing about yourself to not reduced the validity of your statements.
Basically, he was calling Sakura a liar.
"I-I…I just…told the truth…"
"If you can't prove it, then it's little more than nonsense."
Sakura hung her head low in frustration, crying once again.
"I believe her. I believe Sakura's testimony," I said.
"Since she's a Class D student, it's only natural that you would want to believe her."
"There's a difference between I believe her, and I want to believe her." Katsuragi said.
"I didn't say that I want to believe her. I said I believe her. Those mean different things."
"So can you prove it? Can you prove she's not lying?"
"That's not up to me. Your sister will prove it. If Sakura isn't lying, then she will find a way to convince everyone."
Horikita's brother chuckled softly, then smiled, as if to suggest such a thing couldn't be done.
"She proved you wrong, president." Ike smugly said to him.
"I wonder about that." Manabu said.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ike asked. He didn't get a response so he gave up and sulk.
After Horikita's brother and Tachibana left, I approached Sakura, who still was not able to move.
"Come on. Chin up, Sakura. There's no use in crying forever."
"But…it's all my fault… Hic."
"You didn't do anything wrong. You just told the truth. Right?"
"But… I…"
"I'll say it one more time. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Cheer up, Sakura-san!"
"You did your best!"
"Don't take their words to heart!"
I crouched slightly so I could meet Sakura's eyes. She lowered her head once more, like she didn't want anyone to see her tears.
"I believe in you. I'm grateful that you came here today. Thanks to you, we now have a chance to save Sudou and our classmates."
Airi blushed, and Haruka's thoughts about the two intensifies more.
"But… I… Wasn't I completely useless?"
Just how little confidence did this girl have in herself?
"I believe you because you're my friend."
I put my hand on her shoulder. Turning her around somewhat forcibly, I tried to make her look me in the eye. I repeated it with conviction. I told her,
"Do it for yourself."
"You can do it, Sakura-san!"
"Believe in yourself!"
"We support you!"
"We got you back, Sakura-chan!"
-x-
Previous Chapter: Each and Every Prediction.
Next Chapter: Only One Solution.
Word Count: 9898
Only one chapter left and then we're on to Volume 3! Reading your comments about whether to add the Tool Monologue and Spread your legs made me think of letting just Class D watched the scene. It will make Kiyotaka more mysterious to the other classes, no? Well, except Sakayanagi, of course. As for the intermission, I will be replacing it by making them react to a SS; completely random, of course. Or maybe not? Who knows?