After a month of no showing himself, the Ace is finally back with another chapter! And at the same time, I published on the same day as Kei's birthday! Even if I'm not a fan of her, I am still working hard to give her the love and development she deserves in this fanfic. Oh, and what's this? 600 follows?! Hell yeah! Next stop, 600 faves and then our new goal will be 700 for both. I will continue to write for this archive until it is back from the grave and even if that happens, I will still continue to write! Enjoy the chapter!

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Disclaimer: I don't own Classroom of the Elite but if I did, there will be MAJOR CHANGES.

"So why did you want us to come here? Is it about Chabashira-sensei wanting to talk with Miyake earlier?" Kiyotaka asked, going straight to the point regarding the possible reason why Haruka wanted them to come here.

"Yeah, come on in. We'll tell you all about it."

Haruka nodded and gestured for her three classmates to step inside. As the three went inside the dorm unit, Kikyo then had a moment of realization.

"Wait, so… did Chabashira-sensei really punish Miyake-kun for something he did? A lot of our classmates were speculating about the reason why he was called to the teacher's lounge, and most of them were thinking that he did something wrong…"

"That's pretty much the gist of it…" Haruka shrugged before closing the door after all of them were inside.

"Hang on a minute… is this the reason why we haven't gotten our points for this month? Because Miyake-kun did something that Chabashira-sensei didn't like?" asked Kei, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

Haruka sighed, before turning to her classmates with a pleading look on her face.

"I have no idea but please, I need you three to listen to everything that Miyacchi will say for now. Save the questions once we're done, okay?"

Kiyotaka only nodded, while Kikyo and Kei looked at each other first before muttering out, "Okay, Hasebe-san."

Haruka let out a huge sigh of relief afterwards. "Thanks for understanding."

With that, the blue-haired girl led the three further inside the dorm room where they were greeted with the sight of Sudo Ken and Onodera Kayano standing by the sliding door that led to the balcony. Aside from them, only one other person was there, and he was sitting on the bed with his head down as though he was depressed about something.

"Sudo-kun, he's here."

"Ah, Ayanokouji! Good to see you here," Ken greeted his friend with a wave and Kayano did the same.

"Sudo. Onodera. Shouldn't you two be handling club activities right now?" asked Kiyotaka, raising an eyebrow curiously at them.

"Yeah, but many members of the basketball team couldn't attend, so they just canceled our training today."

"Today's a free day for me. I was with Sudo-kun the entire time when Hasebe-san sent him a message saying she wanted him to go here."

Kiyotaka nodded after hearing those reasons. "So why are you two here then?"

"Because of him," Haruka pointed to the person sitting on the bed before tapping his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, Miyacchi. Ayanokouji-kun's here, and he brought Kushida-san and Karuizawa-san with him."

The magenta-haired student was silent for a few moments, before he spoke.

"Will he really help, though?" asked Akito, keeping his head low.

"Sudo-kun said that Ayanokouji-kun can help us out, Miyacchi. I don't think he has any reason to lie, and he did come all this way to help."

He looked up at Haruka for a brief moment, as though he was testing her words. Kiyotaka, Kei, and Kikyo only stared at him, waiting for the young man to say something… if he wanted to, that is.

"Ayanokouji," Akito began, getting the brown-haired teen's attention. "What do you know about Class C?"

"He's asking about Class C… perhaps Miyake got himself involved in some trouble with one of the students in that class?" Kiyotaka thought, taking a moment to digest the question that was asked.

He actually wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. However, the strange thing about that if it was true would be that Akito either provoked a student or two from Class C, or he was cornered and beaten up by those students.

Well, he was completely sure that his own classmate wouldn't go out looking for trouble, so it must be the second scenario. His classmate just didn't seem like the type of student to create mischief for any reason and from his own observation, Akito was a person who's mostly quiet and rarely talked to anyone, save for Haruka and the people who were in the same study group as him in the past month.

Kiyotaka simply had a hard time picturing that Akito would go look for trouble for no reason but then again, he had no context regarding the situation.

"Why are you asking?" he replied after a few moments of silence.

"You know why Chabashira-sensei wanted to talk to me earlier?" Akito continued, finally looking up at his classmates while letting out a deep sigh. "She told me that I might get suspended. For a long time."

"S-Suspended?" Kikyo said in a worried tone.

Akito's words quickly registered in everyone's minds except Haruka's. None of them had expected to hear such a thing. They only thought that he got scolded personally for a minor issue and was warned not to do it again. They never could have seen something like this coming.

"What exactly did you do?" Kiyotaka asked.

"Uh, Miyake-kun? Did you insult Chabashira-sensei or something?" asked Kayano, who recovered from her state of shock rather quickly.

Her idea had merit, and it immediately sparked as a possible reason in everyone's minds. Miyake might have said something reckless that led to him being punished by their homeroom teacher, even if Kiyotaka didn't think that it was likely.

Akito shook his head. "That's not it."

"Then what? Did you grab her by the collar or something?" Kei suggested.

"That's not it, either."

"Oh, I got it. Miyake-kun got into a physical fight with Chabashira-sensei and now he's being punished for it!" Kushida cried, her mouth hanging open as she pointed at Akito accusingly.

Sudo, of all people, looked horrified at that suggestion. "Kushida, that's going too far!"

Kikyo then giggled, before shaking her head. "Hahaha, I'm only joking! I know Miyake-kun wouldn't do something like that."

Despite it being a joke, Miyake didn't say anything nor did he react in any way to Kushida's words unlike his responses to Onodera and Karuizawa's suggestions earlier. In Ayanokouji's eyes, that was already proof that something was up, but could it really be that Miyake was the one to instigate the conflict?

"What exactly happened?" asked Kiyotaka.

"I was beaten up by three students from Class C yesterday. Then, for some reason, I got suspended. But on the bright side, those students were suspended too."

Everyone other than Hasebe was shocked by his words. While Kushida, Sudo, Onodera, and Karuizawa looked at him like they couldn't believe what they were hearing, Ayanokouji felt relieved and curious at the same time. He was relieved that Miyake didn't instigate anything, but he was also curious at why he was punished when he was the victim.

No wonder he had a few band-aids around his face right now. Nobody else from their class either cared nor thought it was anything big, but it seems that this truly is a major issue that they would have to deal with.

"They beat you up, and yet you were suspended?" he asked, wanting to confirm if he heard the magenta-haired teen right.

"I had no idea why I got beaten up. Out of nowhere, those cowards from Class C blocked my way while I was having a morning jog, then dragged me to the back of the bathhouse. There, they started beating me up and I tried to fight back, but they overwhelmed me."

Even with Akito's explanation, it wasn't able to make things clear for everyone. While they now understood what happened to him, they had no details on why it happened or who started it. Haruka only sighed and looked down, feeling helpless as she was hearing all of this for the second time today.

"Wait, you're saying that they just beat you up for no reason?" Kikyo asked, utterly confused with this situation.

Akito nodded, turning his head to the side with a hollow look in his eyes. "Pretty much. They only stopped when I couldn't even get up anymore."

Kikyo, Kei, and Kayano all let out collective gasps of shock as they stared at their magenta-haired classmate with sad looks on their faces.

"No way… how could they?!" the swimmer exclaimed as she balled her fists in anger.

The 'Masterpiece' took this as an opportunity to ask an important question, one that would be vital in helping Akito with his situation. "Do you know the students who attacked you?" he asked.

Akito turned his attention back to Kiyotaka and shook his head, "No, that's why I asked Sudo to help me pinpoint who they were, since he trains with a few of them in the basketball team. But then he said that I should include you too."

That seemed to pique Kiyotaka's interest, as he turned towards Ken with a curious expression. He started to wonder what reason his red-haired classmate might have for recommending his help. Did Ken think that he might know about the Class C students who attacked Akito?

"Oh? What makes you think that I know the students of Class C, Sudo?"

Sudo shrugged, looking unsure for a moment. "Eh, I have no idea if you know them. I just thought that you'd be able to help out."

Kiyotaka only gave Ken a blank stare in return, disappointed at his 'reason'.

Okay, that was on him. He shouldn't have thought that Ken would think like that. No offense, but that red-haired brute isn't very smart… even though he managed to pass his midterms.

Here's to hoping that Onodera can change him, though.

"Okay, moving on… you said that you got suspended, but those students got suspended too? How did that happen?" Kiyotaka continued, turning his attention back to Akito.

"For some reason, even though I was the one who got beaten up, Chabashira-sensei said that they were injured when they attended their classes earlier. Apparently, they also wanted to file a case against me."

"Now that's just too much! You didn't even do anything wrong!" Kei gasped.

"Did they try to paint you as the bad guy, Miyake-kun?" Kikyo asked with a look of worry on her face.

"Pretty much," Akito shrugged, before turning to the side with a look of frustration. "Chabashira-sensei also said that their teacher was fully on board with filing a case against me for 'inflicting violence on fellow students', and that I'll have to defend myself in a trial."

"There are cameras all over the school, right? Couldn't you show them that you weren't the one who started it?" asked Onodera.

"I can't. Those cowards were pretty smart to bring me to the back of the bathhouse, because there were no cameras there. They were able to gang up on me without anyone seeing us at all."

Sudo clenched his fists tightly, almost to the point of drawing blood. "Those bastards… when I find out who did this, they're gonna have a taste of these hands!"

Kiyotaka was quiet, but he thought about this situation deeply. Yes, he understood that some students in Class C had started the whole thing, going so far as to drag Akito to a place where there were no security cameras, but it made no sense. Why would they do such a thing for no reason? Surely there must be a reason why they attacked Akito, no matter what it is and how senseless it may be.

Or was it really just an act of violence for the sake of violence?

On the other hand, those Class C students went as far as to get themselves injured just to place the blame on Akito. They could have left the issue as it is because they accomplished what they wanted in beating up his classmate, yet they went beyond that and tried to stage it as an incident that ended up in their defeat. Because there was no evidence of what had happened, they lied the next day and told their homeroom teacher that Akito beat them up instead of it being the other way around, which was successful in putting his classmate into question of being guilty for the whole thing.

There's definitely more to this than just a simple act of bullying and violence.

He was about to think about this more deeply in order to paint a clearer picture in his mind, when Haruka's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Now you all know why I was asking for your help, Ayanokouji-kun. You two as well, Kushida-san, Karuizawa-san. Sudo-kun may have only wanted you, Ayanokouji-kun, but I want to ask help from all three of you. We can't let Miyacchi suffer from these false allegations," Haruka clenched her fists and turned to the three newcomers with a look of plea on her face. "I know we're not close friends or anything, so this is a crazy thing that I'm asking from all of you, but please help us! We can't prove Miyacchi's innocence on our own!"

Akito turned to his blue-haired friend, clearly taken aback by her words. "Haruka, you don't have to—"

"Don't worry, Hasebe-san! I'll always have my friends' back, so you can count on me!" Kikyo smiled and gave a thumbs-up, showing her stance regarding the matter.

Kei folded her arms and nodded. Not only was their classmate fighting a battle on his own, but this whole thing involved their whole class now too. "Same here. What those jerks did was just too much. I can't stand by and let this go without doing anything."

"Thanks, you two." Haruka bowed her head before looking towards their other companion.

Kiyotaka shrugged. "I have no problem helping out, but I think there's one other person we can bring here who'll help as well."

Haruka nodded, an elated look appearing on her face. "The more people, the better. Who do you have in mind, Ayanokouji-kun?"

In response to that question, Kiyotaka simply brought out his phone and turned his attention towards one particular contact of his… one who'll be surely interested in knowing more about this incident.

After sending a message to that person about needing her presence at the moment, it didn't even take ten minutes for the individual to knock on the door. Before Haruka could move from her place to open it though, Kikyo moved to be the one to greet their new guest.

Upon opening the door, Kikyo was greeted with the sight of a girl with long, black hair and red eyes. Just seeing this girl made her want to groan out loud in displeasure, but she knew that she'll have to put on her mask for everyone to hide her intentions.

"Hi, Horikita-san!" she greeted her classmate with a smile on her face.

Suzune blinked in surprise, clearly not expecting to see her friend here. "I didn't know you were here, Kushida-san."

"Then Ayanokouji-kun didn't tell you when he told you to come here," the beige-haired girl pouted for a moment, before smiling again. "I should have known that you'd be the one he was going to invite, though!"

"Apparently, he should have," Suzune shook her head in disappointment before noticing the other people who were in the unit with them. "Karuizawa-san. I see that you're here as well. You too, Onodera-san. Sudo-kun."

"Hey," Karuizawa acknowledged her with a wave, while Sudo and Onodera simply smiled.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Horikita-san."

Despite Haruka walking up to her with a tiny smile on her face, Suzune ignored her in favor of turning to the person who invited her here.

"You better have a good reason for bringing me here, Ayanokouji-kun. I was simply reading in peace when I saw your message," she warned, narrowing her eyes at him.

In truth, Suzune still felt embarrassed from their earlier interaction in the classroom and was hoping to avoid Kiyotaka for the rest of the day, so she tried to decline his little invitation earlier to go to the dorm unit of one of their classmates. However, because he had insisted that it was for 'something important' that involved their whole class, Suzune didn't really have a choice.

In other words, Suzune was currently trying to mask her embarrassment by relying on her annoyance.

Kiyotaka only sighed, expecting that response from her. "Trust me, you're gonna want to hear this."

And so, the young man went on to explain the whole situation to their newest guest. The basic things, at least. Haruka and even Akito took care of the rest, telling Suzune about the details regarding this strange incident. Haruka made sure to emphasize the fact that her friend did nothing wrong, and that those students from Class C were the ones who started the whole thing.

At the end of the explanation, Suzune bore a serious look on her face as she thought about the situation at hand more deeply. Long was her annoyance forgotten and was replaced with a thoughtful expression, because this was a situation that can't be taken lightly.

"So what do you say? Gonna help out?" Kiyotaka asked after everything was made clear to Suzune.

The black-haired didn't even need to think about her answer. "Our class is in danger of losing points if I don't. You can expect my assistance on this matter," she stated firmly.

Haruka bowed her head in gratitude. "Thank you, Horikita-san."

"Don't forget us too, Hasebe-san! We're right beside you!" Kayano added with a big smile of her own, as Ken nodded in agreement.

Haruka turned to them afterwards, before smiling as well. She truly felt thankful that she and her friend weren't fighting this battle on their own.

Suzune rubbed her chin in deep thought, as she too tried to make some sense of this incident like Kiyotaka was doing. "From what you all told me, there is only one conclusion to all of this. Because those students from Class C started this, then Miyake-kun isn't at fault."

"I know, right? I seriously don't get this. I can't believe that teacher, either!" Haruka agreed, before folding her arms while letting out a huff of frustration. "I bet he was just agreeing to what his students wanted to do…"

"We should tell Chabashira-sensei tomorrow. Let's tell her it wasn't Miyake-kun's fault," Kushida suggested.

Kiyotaka shook his head at that. Things wouldn't be that simple. By now, Miyake must have already told their teacher what he and Hasebe just told them. However, because he lacked clear evidence to support his claim, he was still punished. The only light in this situation is the fact that those Class C students also got suspended like him, as a consequence of having no evidence to support their claims either.

"Miyake, what did Chabashira-sensei say after all of that again? You said that you have to defend yourself in a trial?" Kiyotaka asked, hoping to get more details regarding this matter so that he'd know how to handle this.

"She said that the student council would give me until next Tuesday to come up with proof in a trial. If I can't do that, they'll say I'm at fault and I'll be suspended until summer. On top of that, the whole class will lose points, too."

Kiyotaka quickly noticed Suzune's eyebrows had raised slightly the moment she heard that the student council knew about this matter. It's likely that she didn't expect her brother would be involved, only the teachers.

"Anyway, the school is giving Miyake a chance to defend himself in front of everyone… but he has no evidence to present to them because there were no cameras around to record the incident, which is why Hasebe's asking us to help in investigating the matter. Right now, the priority should be finding out who exactly were the students who attacked him," he thought to himself.

"Miyake-kun, you told Chabashira-sensei the truth, right? She didn't believe you even though you said you didn't do anything wrong?" asked Kayano.

Akito shook his head. "I have no idea. I guess it's because she wouldn't take me seriously."

"Miyake-kun, do you remember who were the people that attacked you?" asked Suzune.

"I can't really describe them because I can't remember, but I'm sure I can point them out if I see a picture of their class."

Haruka nodded, as though she now understood what had to be done. "Then that's what we'll do. We can just find a picture of Class C and have Miyacchi point out who attacked him. Sudo-kun, do you have one? You play with some Class C students during your basketball training, right?"

Sudo nodded. "Yeah. I wonder if they were the ones who did it… I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Ishizaki and his friends always like to talk like they own this school… I don't have a picture of their class, though."

Kiyotaka shook his head again. He was fairly sure that this matter wouldn't be resolved just by discovering who'd started it. Even if the culprits were the students whom Ken was talking about, it wouldn't make everything better all of a sudden.

Sure, those students might be experiencing a suspension period of their own, but Akito is still the one who's the target of the accusations. Without ironclad proof that Akito wasn't at fault, he would definitely take the blame in the end. And that only meant one thing…

"Even if we do find out who it was that attacked Miyake-kun, it's still highly likely that he will take the blame," Suzune stated, which caught everyone's attention in an instant.

"Why, Horikita-san? I mean, we'd be telling the truth, won't we? Once we find out who did this to him, the school will realize that Miyake-kun didn't do anything wrong!" Kushida explained.

"But that is what we know. The school itself is not aware of what truly happened, and we lack evidence to prove our claim. Even if we find out the identities of Miyake-kun's attackers, it will not change a thing and he will remain suspended."

Haruka looked at her with a dumbfounded expression on her face. It's as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing right now. "I-I don't understand. Miyacchi was up against three guys! How can they not understand that he was outnumbered by them?!" she shouted out of pure concern and confusion.

Akito chose to speak up this time, sensing his friend's growing desperation. "It all falls on the fact that there were no cameras that recorded the whole thing, Haruka. Like I said, those cowards were smart not to gang up on me at a place where we can be seen."

"Well, don't they think it's odd that you were the one who got beaten up even though they're the ones accusing you?"

"Don't forget, the students who attacked Miyake-kun were also injured for some strange reason," Kikyo added.

The atmosphere in the room became quiet afterwards, as they all tried to dissect this strange case that involved their classmate. It's so easy to say that Akito did nothing wrong and was the victim of the whole thing, but they lacked the clear evidence to prove it. After a long silence, Suzune was the one to speak first.

"I think the teachers and the school have already thought about that strange occurrence, Kushida-san. I think they also believe that it is rather strange for Miyake-kun alone to be able to inflict injuries on three other students, but like what Miyake-kun said, there were no cameras to take footage of the incident. Now, if the school were willing to place more weight on the number of people who were involved, Miyake-kun could be declared innocent because he was outnumbered. However, it's clear that the whole situation is too delicate for the school to make any move."

Kiyotaka decided to chime in right after her words. "In conclusion, the reason why there's even a trial for Miyake to begin with, is because there's too many possibilities in this case that haven't been brought to light yet. It's also too soon for the school to start punishing the one behind this, which is why both Miyake and the Class C students have been suspended."

"So that means… the school and the teachers are trying to be in the middle ground for now?" asked Haruka, now having a sense of understanding what her friend's situation was.

"That's right," Kiyotaka nodded.

"I wonder what they're trying to accomplish by making this whole thing blow up into a bigger issue. They already got what they wanted by beating up Miyake-kun, but they suddenly get injured and blame him for it? That can't be a coincidence," Kei said.

Suzune shook her head and folded her arms. "There isn't enough context for me to find out what their intentions were, Karuizawa-san. However, whoever reported it first has the advantage. The victim's testimony can work as evidence and in this case, those Class C students were the ones who reported the matter."

"This is stupid… " Ken gritted his teeth and scoffed, wanting nothing more than to know who were the masterminds behind this whole thing. He honestly didn't care about their reasons why they did this, he only wished to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Kiyotaka was on the same boat as Suzune, if he had to be honest. There really isn't enough context for him to come up with a logical conclusion as to why those Class C students were doing this. It's clear by now that there's a reason for it, but what exactly? It's not like Akito knew who they were and they knew him, because those students would have done the same thing even if the victim was someone else.

Okay, to reiterate… the three students from Class C had cornered Akito yesterday, dragged him to the back of the bathhouse, and then proceeded to beat him up. And then, for some reason, Chabashira-sensei said that they had been injured and were blaming Akito for what happened to them. In the end, despite an explanation to Chabashira-sensei about the whole thing, both parties were suspended and now Akito was due to defend himself in a hearing next week about his innocence.

"We won't let them get away with this…"

Haruka's low voice caught everyone's attention, as the people in the room turned to the blue-haired girl who was looking down on the floor. Her hair was covering most of her eyes, and her hands had balled up into fists both out of anger and determination.

She slowly raised her head to look at the magenta-haired boy with a serious frown on her face. "Don't you worry, Miyacchi. We're going to find out who did this to you. We're not going to let them get away with hurting you and then trying to frame you for something you didn't do."

Akito looked away, feeling conflicted about seeing Haruka act like this for his sake.

"Let's just come out and ask those three Class C students to be honest. If they feel like what they did was wrong, then surely they'd feel guilty about it. Right?" Kikyo asked, shifting the topic of their discussion back to figuring out how to help their classmate with his current situation.

"Tch. That ain't gonna happen, Kushida. You saw what they did to Miyake, just look at those bandages on his face. I don't need a doctor to tell me that he was in worse shape before today," Ken scoffed, thinking about all the times that he had been involved in a fight himself. "They won't be honest no matter what you do. God, if I could, I'd beat the shit out of them for being cowards!"

"Hey, calm down… you're letting your emotions get the better of you again…" Kayano muttered, giving her friend a pat on the back to soothe his anger.

"Sorry… this whole thing is just pissing me off…"

"Explaining the situation to Chabashira-sensei didn't work, and neither will getting the culprits to admit their fault. We'll need to find ironclad proof to prove Miyake's innocence," Kiyotaka continued right where Kikyo had left off.

"Yeah. It would be nice if there was evidence that proved Miyake-kun wasn't to blame…" Kei nodded in agreement.

Everything was silent between the group of students once again, as they each retreated to their own thoughts. Even after all that they have talked about, they weren't any closer to finding out how to help their classmate. Compared to his earlier demeanor, however, Akito seemed like he was in deep thought… like he was trying to remember something important.

"There might be something, though…" he muttered, causing everyone else to look at him. "This might just be based on my imagination, but when I was fighting those guys I think I felt something odd. Like… someone was nearby, watching the whole thing."

Akito didn't sound entirely confident, but it attracted everyone's attention nonetheless. This was a completely new development that none of them were expecting to hear. Up until now, the possibility of a witness had been outside the realm of possibility in their possible solutions because the whole incident happened at a place where they couldn't be seen.

"Miyacchi, why didn't you say this earlier?!" Haruka cried, turning to look at him as if he was crazy.

The magenta-haired boy shrugged. "I wasn't confident about it a while ago. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me, honestly."

"Are you saying that there might be an eyewitness to the whole incident?" Kiyotaka asked.

Akito frowned as he tried to recall what happened to him after he was left helpless on the ground by those Class C students. "My memory of yesterday after I got beaten up is a bit hazy… but I think I remember seeing someone helping me. I can't point out who it was because my vision was blurry that time, but it was a girl because of her voice… Before I passed out, I even heard two voices talking, and one of them was the girl. That's all I remember."

"Two potential eyewitnesses then… this changes everything. If someone had seen everything, then that's great news for us. However, depending on how things went, it might drive Miyake further into a corner, especially in the instance that the witnesses only saw the aftermath of their fight," Kiyotaka thought. He didn't feel confident about this just yet, because there's no telling if those witnesses saw the entire thing.

On the other hand, Suzune saw this as an opportunity right away. "If that's the case, then it's someone who is either from our class or another. Who do you think it was, Miyake-kun?" Suzune asked, now shifting her focus on this new knowledge so she could capitalize on it.

"I don't know. I think you're right in thinking that it could be one of our classmates or someone from another class, though," he responded.

Haruka, Kei, and Kayano all breathed out a collective sigh of relief. They felt immensely relieved that the 'witness' that Akito was referring to could be one of their own classmates. Even if it wasn't, they were just glad that there was someone who might have seen the whole thing and therefore, it's possible for the truth to come into light.

Suzune nodded slowly as she took in this information carefully. "Then right now, we have two ways of proving your innocence, Miyake-kun. The first way, like what Kushida-san said earlier, is to find the culprits from Class C and get them to admit that they were the ones who instigated the entire conflict. Since you weren't at fault, they have to acknowledge that."

Their first option was an absurdly idealistic solution.

"I agree with Sudo. There's no chance of that happening. They won't admit that they're the ones who started it," Akito said, shaking his head.

Kiyotaka retreated into his thoughts for a brief moment."It still doesn't answer why they're doing this, though. What could be their reason for putting the blame on Miyake? Is it to drag our class down the rankings because we're catching up to their class?"

Suzune nodded in agreement after hearing Akito's words. "I agree. Which is why we have the other option. The other idea is to find the eyewitness you're talking about, Miyake-kun. You spoke of two possible witnesses, which means that we can approach two people about this matter. If someone happened to see the fight, then we should be able to get to the heart of the matter."

Almost everyone nodded after Suzune's words. This was likely the only good plan of action that they had.

"So, how do we look for this eyewitness?" asked Kayano.

"We could ask people one by one, or we could ask our class as a whole if the witness we're looking for is one of them," Kushida suggested with a cheerful look on her face. "If she's not part of our class, then we can ask other classes."

"It would be great if someone just stepped forward, but…"

"But that would mean everybody in our class will know about Miyake-kun and what happened to him," Kei pointed out while folding her arms across her chest. She had her doubts about telling their classmates everything that they talked about in this room.

What if they don't trust Akito and they turn against him…?

Kikyo continued to smile despite that outcome. "That's fine. We'll just tell them that Miyake-kun did nothing wrong and he's being framed for something he didn't do!"

"Uh, this might sound kind of stupid, but… can you guys not tell anyone about this?" Akito asked them with a conflicted look on his face. It's like he didn't know whether he was fine with most of his classmates knowing about his situation or not…

"H-Huh? You don't want us to tell anyone?" Kushida asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"It's not because I don't want anyone to know. I just don't want our classmates to get involved," he admitted with a sigh. "Plus, what if I fail to prove that I'm innocent and our class gets punished? I can tell that everyone will hate me if that happens and I don't want to be the cause of our class falling apart."

Kiyotaka stared at him in deep thought. "Even if word didn't get out, it's impossible for this issue to stay contained between us. If other students or worse, teachers find out that Miyake 'started' a fight, our class will definitely receive the punishment and we'd likely end up losing points in the process."

"But won't the students in Class C talk about how you 'beat them up' and started a fight? That would work in their favor and students from other classes might believe them too," Kei asked, which made Akito flinch for a moment because he didn't think about that possibility.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. It wouldn't be strange for them to talk about it amongst themselves and let other classes and teachers hear about it on purpose."

Akito didn't say anything, but his gaze was drawn to the floor now as he didn't know what to do. On one hand, he didn't want anyone else to know because it might cause conflict within their classroom and on the other, it would be a worse scenario if their classmates found out about the incident from other classes, which was a completely twisted version of the incident.

"What if word already got out?" asked Onodera as she began to fear the worst.

"No, at this stage it's probably only being discussed by the school and the people involved," Kiyotaka explained, choosing to speak up this time before his classmates panic.

"Really?" asked Miyake, looking up to face his classmate for some confirmation.

The young man nodded, as everyone turned towards him. "If those students in Class C had intended to spread rumors, we probably would've heard about it already by now. Instead, they approached the teachers about the issue before anyone else."

"I agree with Ayanokouji-kun. They chose to report to the teachers and the school instead of spreading rumors. While it has given us a time limit in our search for evidence that can help Miyake-kun, we can at least be reassured that the culprits will not make up any rumors about the incident."

"So you think we're safe for now, Horikita-san?" asked Kikyo, not really convinced that they were in the clear.

Kiyotaka didn't answer her, but he didn't believe that they were safe. There's a chance that tomorrow morning, Chabashira-sensei could reveal to everyone that Miyake had gotten himself involved in an incident, should their classmates ask about why they haven't received their allotted points for this month. And then from there, everyone will start to question Miyake and, at worst, turn on him for getting their class in trouble.

Right now, their best option truly was to find those witnesses and—

"We split into groups of two," Haruka spoke for the first time ever since Akito brought up the possibility of there being a witness to the whole incident, which drew everyone's gazes towards her. "We find the person who saw the whole incident and get her to testify for Miyacchi next week. We can't waste time, so we have to start as soon as possible."

"A sound plan, Hasebe-san. I support your idea," Horikita acknowledged her with a nod, before turning to everyone else. "Is everyone else fine with this?"

"Works for me! As long as me and Sudo-kun get to team up in looking for our witness," Kayano exclaimed, as she threw her arm around Ken's neck and pulled him close to her.

"I'll roll with it. I just wish I knew who it was that attacked Miyake so I can give them a piece of my mind… seriously, beating up another student and then getting themselves injured so they can blame the one they attacked? Pathetic," the red-haired athlete grumbled, still visibly angry about this whole matter.

"If this succeeds, then there won't be any need to know who exactly are the perpetrators until the actual hearing. As long as we ensure that our eyewitness managed to see the incident from the start, then we have a good chance of proving Miyake-kun's innocence."

While Suzune explained to Ken that there is no need for him to lose his cool, Haruka walked up towards Kiyotaka, causing him to raise an eyebrow slightly at her.

"Ayanokouji-kun, I need you for this. I know we're not close friends or anything, but will you help me look for the person who can help us prove Miyacchi's innocence?" she asked him with pleading eyes.

He stared at her in confusion, wondering why she was trying to ask for his help and not anyone else's. Because of this, Kiyotaka wanted to ask her why she was asking him specifically out of the people here, but thought better about it.

This is obviously another product of the system trying to push him to raise more Affection Points with Haruka… and now he was wondering if the incident that happened to Miyake was also a product of the system's meddling with reality. This was part of a 'special event', after all. If it's true, then this eroge system just gave him another reason not to go against it…

With that in mind, he cleared his throat and prepared to give his answer to her. He just hoped that his other heroines wouldn't take this the wrong way, but he doubted it.

"You can count on me, Hasebe," he nodded.

Kiyotaka could hear the sigh of relief that came out of Haruka afterwards and for some reason, it made him strangely relieved as well.

"Thank you, Ayanokouji-kun. Really…" she whispered just loud enough for him to hear, and Kiyotaka even noticed a little tear

[You gained 20 Affection Points with Hasebe Haruka!]

[You lessened a Heroine's doubts regarding you! You gained +5 in Aura!]

"Doubts?" he asked himself upon seeing the two new notifications that appeared, before remembering her 'heroine summary' that he saw earlier. "Oh yeah, she didn't want to be near me at first because she thinks I play with other girls' feelings. I guess this is the system's plan of getting her to fall for me?"

While Kiyotaka was left unbothered in his own thoughts, Kikyo turned to Akito who had only been staring at Haruka after she stated her 'plan' earlier. "Miyake-kun, I think it would be better if you keep your head down and don't do anything that'll attract any attention."

"Yeah. It wouldn't be good if you tried anything, especially since you seem to be on thin ice with Chabashira-sensei right now," Kei added, agreeing with Kushida's judgment.

Akito didn't look pleased with that arrangement, knowing what it meant. "Hang on, I can't just let you guys do this on your own. At least let me help—"

"You don't have to do anything, Miyacchi. Just keep yourself out of any trouble. I don't know how much we can do, but we'll try our best," Haruka told him as if she was trying to say that everything will be fine.

Akito turned to Haruka with a conflicted look, listening to her every word but unsure if he was fine with being completely helpless in his own situation. He felt that he shouldn't be sitting around, doing nothing while his classmates were doing all of these things for him.

"Leave it to us, man. We'll prove you did nothing wrong," Sudo gave him a nod as a way of reassuring his classmate.

The magenta-haired boy gritted his teeth and was left quiet for a few moments, before sighing in defeat. As much as he hated the thought of not doing anything while these people were doing everything they can to help him, he understood that he couldn't act rash and he had to be careful from here going forward.

"All right. I hate being useless, but I'll leave this whole thing to you."

"I'm glad you understand, Miyacchi." Haruka gave her friend a smile, before turning towards Suzune. "Now then, Horikita-san, who will you work with in searching for our witness?"

"I was hoping to search with Ayanokouji-kun, but you were quicker than me in that aspect, Hasebe-san," Suzune said bluntly, which surprised Haruka, Kikyo, Kei, and even Kiyotaka himself. "There is no need to worry, though. Kushida-san and I will work together instead. With three groups searching for our mystery witness at the same time, we'll be able to cover more ground."

"Eh? You want to team up with me, Horikita-san?" Kikyo's eyes widened in surprise as she turned to face the black-haired girl.

Suzune merely nodded. "Yes. Since we are friends, I believe it would be easier and more comfortable for both of us to work alongside each other. Do you have a problem with this arrangement, Kushida-san?"

"N-Nothing…! Just a bit surprised that you're willing to team up with me, Horikita-san… hehe. Sure, let's team up!"

While she had a smile on her face that she showed to everyone else, it was far from what Kikyo truly felt. Okay, she was surprised that Horikita would make a statement about wanting to work with her, of all people… but it didn't do anything to calm her down from feeling pissed deep down.

"Urgh, why do I have to be stuck with her?! I wanted to work with Ayanokouji-kun. Ugh, fine. I'll let Hasebe-san have this one… but if she does this again, I won't hesitate to keep an eye on her. I've already got my hands full trying to compete against, like, ten other girls… I don't need another rival, damn it!"

Although, between having to work with the girl whom she wanted to expel and letting another girl be alone with Ayanokouji-kun… Kikyo hated having to do the latter more.

Meanwhile, Kiyotaka was simply staring at Suzune in complete wonder. "If someone told me a few months ago that this girl would be willing to work with other people and even accept some as her friends, then I never would have believed them," he said in his mind, feeling both surprised and impressed with how far she had come from the prideful girl that he used to know.

"Horikita-san and Kushida-san will work together, got it. What about you, Karuizawa-san?" Haruka noted, before turning to the one person who wasn't paired with someone yet.

Kei thought about what she should do for a moment. In truth, she shared the same desire as Suzune and Kikyo, wanting to work with Kiyotaka as well but Haruka had gotten to him first. She thought of asking if she could join Kiyotaka and her so they could cover more ground as a three-person group, but thought twice about it.

Their priority right now was to help Miyake and if they fail to do that, their whole class will be affected as a whole. Not only that, but she also felt bad for him and his current situation, so she would do her best to help him! And hey, it's not like Hasebe was thinking of stealing Kiyotaka away, right? She was more focused on helping Miyake, and Kei knew that she had to do the same.

"Well, since you're all taken already, I'll have to team up with someone else. So, if you don't mind him knowing about all this, maybe we can ask Hirata-kun to help out?" Kei suggested, bringing up another name that quickly popped into her mind while thinking of someone who could help them.

Haruka nodded slowly in agreement. "Hirata-kun will surely understand the situation if we explain everything to him. Miyacchi, are you fine with him knowing?" she asked, turning her attention back to her friend.

Akito looked uneasy, but had no problem with the idea at all. "Uh, sure…"

"Okay," Haruka nodded, as she turned back to face Kei. "Karuizawa-san, you can work with Hirata-kun. But before that, me and Miyacchi will just tell him about this whole thing… maybe after we're done here."

The blonde gyaru nodded in agreement. "I'll leave it to the both of you, then."

"Then that's settled. We all know what to do, so we'll get started tomorrow. We only have less than a week to find our two witnesses and we can't waste any time. The moment one of us finds a lead on them, tell someone about it right away. The only thing that could mess this up is if one of us can't tell the others about what we find," Haruka explained to all of them, earning nods from Ken, Kayano, Kei, and Kikyo. Suzune and Kiyotaka didn't answer in any way, but they understood what had to be done.

"Then I'll make a group chat for all of us! That way, we can easily talk to each other whenever we need to, and we can easily tell one another about our findings while we look for our witness!"

"If you do, then kindly leave me out of it, Kushida-san?" Suzune told her friend with folded arms.

"Ehhh? But you're also helping us, right? How else could we talk to you, Horikita-san?"

"You can always send me a message or call me, I don't see the need to be added to a group where the only thing I can do is talk to the people who I'm also classmates with."

Kiyotaka just gave them a blank stare, before turning towards Haruka.

"I'm gonna go on ahead, Hasebe. I'll see you both tomorrow," he told his blue-haired classmate as he turned around and began to head to the door.

"W-Wait, let me walk with you! I want to go home too," Kikyo exclaimed, forgetting her interaction with Suzune just now in favor of walking home with the boy she liked.

"Me too! Don't you dare leave without me, Ayanokouji-kun," Kei spoke as well, shooting Kiyotaka a little frown before following him and Kushida.

"Hmm…" Even without saying anything, Suzune made her intentions clear with her actions by following Kiyotaka and her two other classmates. Like him, Suzune also felt that she had no more business being here and simply wanted to be left in the confines of her room now. Not to mention, she was still feeling a bit embarrassed to be around Kiyotaka right now, which was a little hypocritical because she was about to walk back to her dorm unit with him.

"You're leaving already, Ayanokouji? I could, uh… fix you all something to eat? Just a little snack before you go…" asked Miyake, feeling that he should do something for his classmate at the very least, especially after Kiyotaka swore that he would help in finding the eyewitness to this case.

"Thanks for the offer, but no. I'm feeling sleepy and I want to lie down already…" he told Miyake right away.

While he wasn't lying about wanting to be with Bed-chan by now, Kiyotaka felt that he was done here and had nothing left to do. Of course, he will continue to think about this peculiar case and try to figure out who Akito's attackers are, but he couldn't do either of those here…

He also didn't want to know what would happen if Haruka walked back to her dorm unit with him, especially since she lived on the same floor as him and his other heroines. He didn't want to set a record for fastest time in losing a heroine's trust or worse, cause the system to activate for making Haruka sad.

"Well, you four can go on ahead. We're gonna stay for a while to talk about this a little more," Kayano smiled at their classmates who were about to leave, with her red-haired companion doing the same.

"Well, before you go…" the blue-haired girl spoke, causing Kiyotaka to stop in his tracks and turn to her. "Thank you again, Ayanokouji-kun. I was honestly expecting that you wouldn't really care about this whole thing, not that I would blame you for it."

"Don't worry about it. Like I said earlier, we're classmates, so it isn't weird for us to look out for each other. Not to mention, letting things happen without doing anything about it will get our whole class in trouble," Kiyotaka explained himself. "I don't know if I'll be able to help much, but I'll do my best to make sure that nothing bad happens to Miyake."

"With you, Kushida-san, Karuizawa-san, Horikita-san, Sudo-kun, Onodera-san, and soon enough, Hirata-kun as well…" Haruka smiled warmly at him. "I think we'll be fine. I know we can get through this, as long as we do this together."

The young man nodded slowly, before waving his arm in farewell. "See you tomorrow, Hasebe. Miyake."

"Bye, Miyake-kun!"

"See you guys tomorrow!"

Kiyotaka and Suzune were the first ones to leave the room, while Kikyo and Kei uttered their own words of farewell first before stepping outside as well. With that, they closed the door to Akito's unit and walked down the hallway together, heading to the elevator. None of them spoke for a while, obviously due to the fact that they were still thinking about everything that just happened back there… and how it affects their whole class.

"Do you think we'll be able to find the person who saw Miyake-kun and those Class C students yesterday?" asked Kikyo, turning to her companions for some encouragement because even she was worried for what might happen to their class if they're not able to help Akito with his case.

Suzune chose to speak up in response, but her face remained as cold and serious as ever. "I have no doubt we will, as long as there really is a witness, Kushida-san."

"Wait… you don't believe that there is one, Horikita-san?" Kikyo raised an eyebrow, noticing something strange about her reply.

"I do," Suzune reaffirmed. "However, we must also be prepared for the scenario in which there was no witness at all. Focusing solely on finding a potential witness will not work in our favor, because there is also the possibility that no one steps up to say that they saw the whole incident, or there was no one around to witness it at all."

"What are we gonna do if that's really the case? I mean, even if there's no witness, we still have to try and help Miyake-kun," Kei asked, now feeling interested in this conversation as the group stopped in front of the elevator.

"That's the reason why I'm planning to check on Class C tomorrow with Kushida-san. I want to observe that class and see the students there for myself. I wish to observe and see who among them could be the culprits."

Kiyotaka raised an eyebrow curiously, while Kei and Kikyo were equally surprised at her plan of action. "Ehhh? Are you sure that you can figure out who attacked Miyake-kun just by looking at them, Horikita-san?" asked Kushida.

Suzune shook her head. "No. But through this, I will be able to familiarize myself with that class and I could even take a photo of them, which I can then show Miyake-kun and have him point out who are the people that attacked him."

Kei thought about that idea for a moment, and she found herself feeling impressed with it as a whole. Doing a direct approach and observing Class C while they're in their classroom is a good move, indeed. It just had one big problem attached to it, which would likely cause that plan to go up in smoke in no time at all.

"Don't you think that you'll look suspicious in their eyes when they see you outside of their classroom, just staring at the people inside? You'll be caught by them before you even get the chance to take a picture of the whole class. And didn't you say that it wouldn't be enough even if we find out who attacked Miyake-kun?"

"That's why Horikita wanted to work with Kushida. It's because of Kushida's widespread influence among the first-years by now that she can appear outside of Class C's classroom without looking suspicious. While the eyes of the students from Class C are on her, Horikita will observe them in secret. Yes, she also said that it wouldn't be enough even if we found out who were the ones that attacked Miyake, and she's right. However, finding out the true perpetrators of the whole thing will allow her to observe them carefully and see if there's anything suspicious about them that can count as possible evidence," Kiyotaka explained, surprising both Karuizawa and Kushida with his sudden response. "That's your plan, isn't it?"

"Not bad, Ayanokouji-kun," Suzune smirked at him lightly as the elevator doors opened, and the group stepped inside. "There you have it, Karuizawa-san. There's no need for me to say anything else, because Ayanokouji-kun already said everything that I had in mind."

"I guess it's a good plan…" Kei shrugged, finding nothing wrong with her classmate's idea in the end.

"That's a pretty solid plan, Horikita-san… but what if the Class C students continue to be suspicious of me?" asked Kikyo. As much as she had confidence in herself to be able to get most students' attention, she wasn't stupid to think that she can charm literally everyone.

"Then we can always talk to Shiina-san alone outside of their classroom," she replied, causing Kei and Kikyo to widen their eyes. "She's a part of Class C, isn't she? She must be well-acquainted with her classmates by now to be able to tell which of them is the most prone to starting trouble."

"I didn't really think of that," Kikyo mumbled as she realized how much Suzune's plan made sense, before a sudden thought came to her mind. "Wait, so does that mean… we're not looking for a witness tomorrow? We're just going to check on Class C to look for the people who attacked Miyake-kun?"

As Kushida asked that question, the elevator had reached the 4th floor and the group stepped out into the hallway as they began to walk back to their respective dorm units.

"Ayanokouji-kun, Hasebe-san, Sudo-kun, Onodera-san, Hirata-kun, and Karuizawa-san will be enough to search for those potential witnesses. Of course, that is if there really is a witness. If there isn't any, then it falls on us to find Miyake-kun's attackers."

"I guess that sounds fair… but I still think that there's someone who saw the whole thing. I can't imagine Miyake-kun being able to treat all of his wounds alone without the help of someone else. There's gotta be a person who brought him to the clinic at least…"

Kiyotaka kept a secret glance towards Suzune up until they reached their rooms. Even while he was saying goodbye to Kei as she hugged him before stepping inside her unit, his attention was solely directed towards Suzune. Even after Kikyo did the same as she bid farewell to him, he continued to glance at his black-haired neighbor. Even after Suzune herself looked red in the face for some reason as they were left alone in the hallway before eventually disappearing into her room, Kiyotaka had his attention towards her.

For the next minute or two, Kiyotaka stood alone out in the hallway, not even caring if he would get seen by another girl who lived on this floor. His usual apathetic look was on full display, before it slowly transformed into a tiny smile of acknowledgement as the young man finally stepped inside his dorm with one thought in mind.

"Your plan isn't half-bad, Horikita. I suppose I'll hold off on my own plan of action for now and see where your idea leads you. I hope you don't disappoint me."

It was a very good thing that they had talked about how they would resolve Akito's situation yesterday because if they hadn't, they wouldn't have any idea on how to handle their current dilemma.

Chabashira-sensei stood in front of everyone, her hands slamming on top of her podium while having a dead-serious expression on her face. The teacher who was proud of them for passing their midterms? She wasn't here anymore. It's like she was back to being the teacher that she was during their first day in this school; stoic and uncaring.

"I have an announcement for everyone. There was a bit of trouble the other day. An incident between one of your classmates sitting there, Miyake, and some students from Class C. To put it simply, there was a fight."

In an instant, the classroom erupted in shouts, complaints, and questions. After waiting for everyone to be quiet, Chabashira-sensei laid the whole situation bare for the class, what the incident was all about (at least according to what she knew) and how they could have their points reduced if this ends up in Miyake's defeat. She inserted no personal bias whatsoever when she addressed the class, and explained everything from a position of neutrality, but it was clear that she was displeased with this turn of events.

Amidst the chaos, however, there were a few students that remained calm despite everything that was happening. Hasebe, Ayanokouji, Horikita, Kushida, Karuizawa, Sudo, Onodera, Hirata, and Miyake himself simply listened to everything that their teacher was saying. They already knew what this was all about, and they were just waiting for the aftermath at this point.

"The complaint came from the Class C students. They claimed that the fight was one-sided from the injuries they received. However, when we spoke to the accused, Miyake said that their claims were false and that he was the victim. He insisted that the students of Class C cornered him and started the fight."

Akito just remained quiet as he noticed his classmates' icy glares. No doubt they were all angry at him now, and it's no use standing up for himself now because it's impossible to look credible in front of their teacher without any evidence backing him up.

"In the end, we don't yet know the truth. One side is lying, but we have no way of knowing without an investigation. Therefore, we have put our decision on hold for now. Our response and the punishment to the perpetrator will come when we find out who was at fault." Sae then turned her attention solely towards her magenta-haired student.

"I have no reason to lie, sensei. All I need is evidence to prove I'm innocent, right? Someone who witnessed the fight could definitely vouch for me," he responded in an impassive tone.

"Is that so? If there is an eyewitness, as Miyake seems to believe, then the situation may change. If anyone here witnessed the fight, please raise your hand."

Chabashira-sensei continued talking in a flat voice, looking unimpressed with Akito's lame effort to defend himself. No students raised their hands in response to her question, all while most of them continued to glare at the boy.

"Too bad, Miyake. It appears there are no witnesses in this class."

"Looks that way," he shrugged helplessly, but also took this in as crucial information. If the eyewitness to the incident isn't one of his classmates, then it must be someone from another class. Otherwise, he was wrong this whole time and there wasn't any witness in the first place.

When Chabashira-sensei cast a doubtful look at Akito, he stared at her with a stoic look, staying calm despite his situation.

"However, you do bring up a good case in order to determine which side is telling the truth. I will tell the other teachers to inform their classes of the details of this incident and ask them if there is someone who possibly witnessed the incident. All of us want this to be resolved quickly, after all."

Akito's eyes widened for a brief moment as he heard that, before cursing to himself. He wanted to keep this issue between him, the teachers, and the people who were going to help him. However, he realized yesterday that it was inevitable for his classmates to know about this, which was something that he begrudgingly accepted in the end. What he didn't expect was Chabashira-sensei saying that the other teachers would be telling their classes about it, which will effectively mean that the whole school will know of what happened.

The worst part is that there's no clear answer on who it was that started it, even though Akito knew to himself that it wasn't him.

"Anyway, that is all. We'll make our final judgment next Tuesday, taking into account any eyewitnesses and evidence that could turn up on that day. With that, I will end today's homeroom right here,"

Chabashira-sensei left, and the classroom was silent for a few moments… with no one making a sound because everybody was still trying to process everything that their teacher just said to them…

"Man, isn't Miyake just the worst?" Yamauchi was the first to talk, clearly annoyed with his classmate's actions. It was bad enough that they still haven't received their point allowance for this month, now they were in danger of not getting anything at all.

"What the hell were you thinking Miyake?! Why did you have to pick a fight with those students?!" Hondo turned to Miyake with anger and distrust completely visible in his eyes.

"If we lose points because of Miyake-kun, will we get only 9,700 points again this month?" asked Sonoda, looking very worried for the state of their class in the future.

"Heck, we might even end up with zero points at all because of this…" Maya whispered, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself because all of this was too much for her to process all at once, as well as thinking about the possible repercussions that could happen because of this.

An uproar enveloped the classroom afterwards, with many of the Class D students immediately blaming Akito for this unfortunate incident because he was the one whom their teacher had mentioned. Some were already trying to diffuse the tension by saying that they didn't know everything about what happened. Meanwhile, Akito just remained in his seat, taking in everyone's anger and frustration as if it was something he's used to. It even looked like things were starting to get out of hand, and it reached the point where Haruka stood up from her seat and quickly faced her classmates.

"Miyacchi hasn't done anything wrong!" she exclaimed loud enough for everyone to hear.

Her classmates stared at her for a brief moment, as if they were thinking deeply about her words before they continued to throw insults towards her friend and berate him for bringing their class down. It's like her statement went through one ear and came out of the other like it didn't matter.

"Hey, Miyake! You should just admit that you were wrong already! Look, even Hasebe-chan has to cover up for you because you keep on denying it!" No points on guessing who was the idiot that said these words.

"Hasebe-san, you heard what Chabashira-sensei said! Miyake–kun attacked those Class C students!" Ishikura accused, looking scared at the possibility of them getting punished for what their classmate did.

"Miyacchi is innocent! He didn't do anything to them! Do you really think that he can fight three students on his own? He was completely outnumbered!" Haruka pointed out the obvious flaw in the argument.

"Maybe he can! You never know!"

"No, he can't!"

From his seat, Kiyotaka watched on with an impassive look on his face. He honestly expected Chabashira-sensei to inform the whole class of the incident right after he was informed of it himself, so it didn't surprise him that things turned out like this. It also didn't surprise him that his classmates were quick to turn on Akito as if he was never their classmate in the first place, with seemingly no intention of believing him.

Honestly, he was content on remaining quiet so that he wouldn't get the attention (and because he was going to help Akito anyway), but the way that a lot of his classmates were dismissing Haruka's claims of her friend's innocence didn't sit right with him. Were they just that stupid? Can't they see that Haruka was right in saying that her friend was completely outnumbered in every way when the incident happened? Or did they just take Chabashira-sensei's words as the gospel and now they were convinced that Akito was at fault, nothing more.

Either way, he could see that Hasebe was beginning to realize that her attempts to change her classmates' minds weren't working at all. All of them were just adamant in blaming her friend for the incident that occurred. While Akito didn't seem to care about the insults hurled towards him, Hasebe was starting to get frustrated and desperate… it felt like she was getting closer to her breaking point by the second…

"I'm gonna regret this but if I don't do anything, the system will activate that broken skill again…"

Sighing to himself, Kiyotaka braced himself for what he was about to do. Yeah, he already knew where this was leading to, he didn't need a damn notification to spell things out for him. He could only hope that he can handle this without looking like an idiot.

Right before he could get up on his feet though, someone else beat him to it.

"Everyone, can you please listen to what I have to say?" Kikyo had stood up like Haruka as she tried to silence the commotion, which was somewhat successful as it got their classmates to turn to her instead. "I think that what Chabashira-sensei said is true. Miyake-kun was involved in a fight. However, I think he was only dragged into it."

Thanks to the girl's influence across the whole class, Kikyo was able to stop them from talking badly about Akito any further. "Kushida-chan, what do you mean? Do you believe Miyake?" asked Ike.

Before she could say anything, Kushida first turned towards Hasebe, as if she was asking for permission to tell their classmates about what happened yesterday. Hasebe only

With that, Kushida conveyed yesterday's story to the whole class. She told them how Akito had been cornered by three Class C students and led him to a location with no video cameras, before proceeding to beat him up for absolutely no reason at all. She also explained that Akito, acting in self-defense, had no choice but to fight back in order to defend himself. Lastly, she told them how Akito had been outnumbered and had no way of possibly injuring the Class C students, which makes their accusations meaningless because it couldn't have been him.

Most of the class listened to Kikyo's heartfelt words in silence. Haruka had tried to explain the situation too, but everyone else didn't listen to her. If Akito himself tried to explain things, it would have yielded the same result. Regardless, they now had a chance to get their classmates on their side with Kikyo speaking up on behalf of Akito.

"I know Chabashira-sensei already did this, but I'd like to ask you all again. If one of you, or anyone you know saw what happened last Sunday, whether it's a friend, someone from another class, or an upperclassman, please tell me. You can contact me at any time. I would sincerely appreciate it."

Even though she'd basically said the same thing as Sae, the class had a very different response to the beige-haired girl. Unlike their teacher, Kikyo can easily connect with other people, and everyone in the classroom liked her.

Silence took over the classroom afterwards. No one said anything for a few moments and when someone did, he wasn't really the best choice because people would rather listen to a goat than him.

"Sorry, Kushida-chan. I just can't believe what Miyake said. I think he's lying. I mean, he doesn't even have any evidence that he didn't do anything," Yamauchi shrugged. "That guy should pay for getting us in trouble!"

After Yamauchi voiced his complaints, the rest of the class followed, but they weren't as loud as they were earlier.

"Yeah, are you sure you're not just trying to save him for no reason, Kushida-san?" asked Ishikura.

"...but we're still in trouble, Kushida-san. We can't treat this issue like it's nothing," said Sato.

"How do you expect us to convince Chabashira-sensei that Miyake-kun didn't do anything, then? She asked earlier if there was someone here who saw what happened, but nobody raised their hands," asked Shinohara.

And so, even after Kikyo's words that were intended to prove Akito's innocence to everyone, it seems like things were back to how they were. Seeing this, Kiyotaka felt even more tempted to stand up and help his heroine in handling this situation by intimidating his classmates into submission (because they are making two of his heroines sad), but he was beaten to the punch again by someone else.

"I can vouch for Miyake-kun."

Hirata uttered those words as he stood in support of Kushida and Miyake, gaining everyone's attention. He didn't have his usual smile that charmed most of the girls. Instead, he bore a more serious look that seemed to demand respect.

After Kiyotaka, Kei, Kikyo, and Suzune had left yesterday, Haruka went ahead and sent a message to Yosuke about the reason why Akito was summoned to the faculty office. Instead of telling him to come to the dorm unit though, she opted to send him a long message about the details regarding the case, with Akito sending a voice message confirming her words.

Hirata immediately gave them his support, as he had no reason not to believe them and agreed to speak on behalf of Miyake if the situation called for it.

Which was, apparently, right now.

"If it was a student from another class who was casting doubt on Miyake-kun, I could understand it," Hirata said. "But I believe it is wrong to doubt our own classmate right away. Miyake-kun is a part of our class, isn't it our responsibility to help him?"

"I agree! Miyake-kun wasn't at fault!"

Karuizawa called out in agreement as she stood up as well, brushing her bangs aside with her hand as she spoke. For most of the girls in the classroom, this was a big thing, because she made it clear that she didn't like the boys in their class (apart from Ayanokouji whom she kissed a week ago). Seeing her standing up for Miyake got the other females in the classroom to start thinking twice about their stances at least.

"If Miyake-kun was really innocent, that'd be a problem, wouldn't it? If that was the case, you'd feel bad for falsely accusing him, right? Just because Chabashira-sensei said that he was involved doesn't make him the one at fault."

"Same here. I've seen a few Class C students myself. They like to cause trouble, that's it."

"I believe Miyake-kun too!"

After Karuizawa stated her intention to support Miyake, Sudo and Onodera followed right after, standing up like their classmates. Seeing this, those who were casting doubt on Akito regarding this whole incident were finally starting to feel convinced of their classmate's situation, especially the stubborn boys who refused to budge at first.

…no, they definitely aren't changing their minds because they felt bad for Akito. They're only doing so because their female classmates were starting to believe that Akito didn't do anything wrong. As a matter of fact, they are probably criticizing him in their minds right now.

Indeed, seeing Kushida, Karuizawa, and Onodera all coming together to support Miyake was enough to sway most of the other girls to their side. And from there, those stubborn boys finally stopped throwing accusations at Akito and even began to cheer for him as if they weren't against him a while ago. Truly fickle to the point that it made Koenji laugh out loud.

Kiyotaka and Suzune shook their heads at the same time, both disappointed in the majority of their classmates. While the boys only showed that they were on board with supporting Akito the moment the girls did, their female classmates weren't really any better. They only changed their minds right after a few people spoke up on behalf of Akito, with three of them being people who were very popular in their class.

"I'll try asking my friends from other classes!"

"Well then, I'll try asking some of the senpais I met in the Cooking Club!"

"There are some Class C students I talk to sometimes. I'll try to ask them if they know something or if they're the ones who did it."

"I'll ask around, too."

And from there, the investigation to prove Akito's innocence was launched. Haruka and Suzune doubted that they had everyone's full support but as long as they were cooperating, there's really nothing to worry about.

At this rate, they'd be able to find the true perpetrators of the incident before the week ends.

After all of their morning classes were over, it was now time for their lunch break. Unfortunately for Kiyotaka, he wouldn't get a chance to even get a bite during this whole period because as soon as the bell rang, Haruka wasted no time by running to his desk with a smile and looking eager for some reason.

"Come on, let's go! The sooner we work on finding our witness, the better!" she exclaimed, sending him a warm smile.

After getting over a brief moment of surprise, Kiyotaka only nodded slowly, knowing that he really didn't have any choice in the matter. Declining her wasn't an option as it would make the girl sad. Plus, he did agree to be her partner in their little mission to search for evidence that can help in Akito's case.

Still, do they have to do this as early as their lunch break when they could just do this after class? Their free time right now was supposed to be dedicated to eating lunch…

"Can we eat first before we do this, Hasebe?" he asked as he stood up from his seat.

"Of course we'll eat something before we go look for our mystery person. We'll head to the cafeteria, buy something we can eat on the way, and start looking from there!" she explained happily. It should be noted that her demeanor was happier compared to her earlier state. "Now, are you ready to begin our search, Kiyopon?"

Well, at least he'd be able to buy and eat something before doing this. Maybe a burger or a hotdog sandwich would do. And then a can of soda or a bottle of juice. His thoughts didn't linger on food for long though, because his attention was quickly directed to the name that Haruka used to refer to him.

"Who the hell is 'Kiyopon'?" he said in a deadpan voice.

Haruka began to giggle in amusement at seeing his reaction. "It's a nickname, silly! Jeez, it was so obvious!"

"Oh, yeah… she likes making nicknames for other people. But still… the one she gave me could have been better. She could just call me by my name instead," he thought to himself, remembering a particular quirk about Haruka in her 'heroine summary'. Still, it didn't stop him from feeling a little weird about the name itself. It honestly sounded too cute for his liking and he was sure that Kikyo, Chiaki, and Kei would never let him live it down if they learn about it. "What kind of nickname is 'Kiyopon'?"

"It's what I'll call you from now on!"

Haruka looked really proud of herself for coming up with the nickname, while Kiyotaka just stared at her, unsure of what to feel about it.

"You get used to it…"

Hearing someone's voice cutting into their conversation, Kiyotaka turned his head to see Akito with a bored look on his face, looking like all signs of life had left his body. The magenta-haired boy felt frustrated that he couldn't do anything to help his friends in proving his own innocence, but he knew that it was for his own good.

"Come to think of it, Hasebe calls him 'Miyacchi', and not by his name," the brown-haired teen thought to himself as he stared at Akito for a moment, before shrugging in defeat. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Oh, why are you complaining about it now, Miyacchi? I've called you the same way ever since we were kids!" Haruka placed her hands on her hips and smirked at her friend in a teasing manner.

Akito sighed and shook his head. "I'm not complaining about anything."

The girl turned towards him next. "What about you, Kiyopon? Do you have a problem with what I call you? If you do, well… just say so, okay? I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

Even though there was a part of him that felt awkward about the nickname that she wanted for him, it wasn't really that big of a deal in the end. Who knows? The name might grow on him eventually and he'd have no problem with it when the time comes.

"...it's fine."

The smile that appeared on Haruka's face afterwards could light up and keep the whole campus powered for a full year with its radiance, which was a sight that caught Kiyotaka off guard just for a moment, as two new notifications appeared before him.

[Congratulations! You unlocked the Achievement: 'The Nickname Stuck'! You gained +5 in Charm!]

[You gained 10 Affection Points with Hasebe Haruka!]

"Nice to know!" she exclaimed happily before grabbing his arm. Afterwards, Haruka then began to lead him out of the classroom. "Come on, let's get going. Even I'm feeling hungry about sitting here for hours."

"Yeah…" he muttered, unable to do anything but follow after his blue-haired classmate.

Before the two could leave the room, however, two girls with shoulder-length brown hair had walked past them which got their attention and caused them to turn around. Both of them were surprised to see the two girls stopping right in front of Akito's desk as though they had something to talk to him about.

"Are you feeling okay, Miyake-kun?"

Akito blinked in surprise at seeing two of his classmates standing right in front of him with concerned looks on their faces. He was even more surprised that both of them were people whom he had never really interacted with before, though he knew who they were.

"I'm fine. Why are you asking, uh… Inogashira?" he replied, pausing in his words temporarily when he scrambled his brain while thinking of the name of the girl who just spoke.

"I can't imagine the kind of pain you had to go through…" Inogashira Kokoro bore a downcast look on her face, before she placed a comforting hand on Akito's shoulder. The gesture surprised him greatly. "Are you sure you're fine? Sensei did say that you were up against three students…"

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" he asked rhetorically, as he began to wonder why this girl was here and asking about how he's feeling. Akito wouldn't even say that they're friends, just classmates.

"Are you sure? You didn't suffer from any serious injuries when it happened?" Inogashira's companion asked, having the same disheartened look on her face.

Akito scratched the back of his neck, continuing to feel confused on why these two girls were here. "Er, yeah… other than bruises, a busted lip, and some scratches, nothing more. I didn't get any broken bones or anything like that. I'm completely fine, Mori."

"I hope that's the case…" Mori Nene clasped her hands together and released a huge sigh of relief, before smiling at the magenta-haired boy. "I'm just glad to see you're okay, Miyake-kun."

"Why are you two ask—"

"Is there anything I can do to help you, Miyake-kun?"

"Me too. I want to help as well! I already talked to my friends a while ago and they said they'll help with finding the person who saw the whole thing."

Akito stared at them with a dumbfounded look. "Don't worry about me. I'm okay."

Seriously, why were these girls being overly concerned about him? It really confused him, because Kokoro and Nene had never really talked to him before. The only time that they even interacted was when they were cheering for him during the swimming race two months ago, but can that even be called an 'interaction'?

"Are you sure? You don't feel sad that our classmates didn't believe you earlier?" Inogashira asked, squeezing his shoulder slightly as a sign of concern.

"Yeah, the nerve of them…" Mori frowned and turned her head slightly to glance at their classmates, especially the boys. "I can't believe they would suspect their own classmate right away without even thinking about it a lot more!"

"Seriously, I'm fine… you two have nothing to worry about…"

Kiyotaka watched the interaction between the three individuals before him with a look of interest in his eyes. He didn't know why, but it kind of felt amusing to see Miyake talking with Inogashira and Mori. It's like seeing Sudo talking with Onodera after he admitted that he liked her. Perhaps it's because the scenario was a reminder of his own situation regarding his heroines?

"We better leave them alone, Kiyopon. I think they deserve some privacy~"

The young man turned towards Haruka, who was also watching her friend with a smug look on her face, like she was thinking of something devious in mind. He simply shrugged in response, as they continued on their way out of the classroom.

As they walked through the hallway while heading to the cafeteria to buy something to eat, Kiyotaka decided to strike up a conversation between them out of pure curiosity on his part. The question on his mind being the relationship between Miyake and Hasebe, even though he already knew what it was from her 'summary' alone. Plus, in Hasebe's eyes, he doesn't know about their close relationship at all.

"You and Miyake seem to be close," he commented.

"Well yeah, I mean… we're friends. Isn't it typical for friends to be close to each other?" Haruka replied, curious on why he would say something that was completely obvious.

"No, I mean, you seem to know a lot about Miyake. More than anyone else in the classroom. Is there some history between you two?"

"Oh, that's because we've known each other for years. We've been classmates ever since grade school, and now we ended up in the same high school even though we didn't tell each other where we'd go!"

"So… childhood friends?"

"I guess? Our parents aren't really close friends or anything like that. We've just known each other since we were kids, which is why I know that he didn't do anything wrong. Miyacchi would never start a fight with anyone else, even if he does get into a lot of arguments. He's not like that."

Kiyotaka raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh? Would you mind enlightening me then? What is Miyake like?"

Haruka shook her head and shifted her gaze to the ground. "Miyacchi's not that complicated. He's honest and straightforward with what he feels, and he can be pretty blunt with his words most of the time. That's the reason why he got into a lot of disagreements in our old school, because other people keep on misinterpreting what he says. It doesn't help that he didn't really care about his studies much and liked to focus more on archery."

"Sounds like he's a bit of a delinquent."

"Yeah… it was hard to help get out of those situations because Miyacchi would always fight back when someone pushes him first. Luckily, he promised to never involve himself in those situations again when we started high school here. And Miyacchi did that by staying quiet, because he noticed that it's because of his mouth that he gets into trouble."

"That explains why he's quiet most of the time," he commented, thinking back on the times when he observed his classmates from afar. Compared to most of the boys, Akito was relatively quiet and didn't speak unless he was spoken to. The only person whom he regularly talked to was Haruka and for good reason.

"Mmhm. And it's the biggest reason why I don't believe that Miyacchi started that fight. Other than him being my friend, of course."

Kiyotaka nodded slowly, now understanding why this girl was deeply motivated to show that Akito didn't do anything wrong. An admirable trait, if he had to be honest. Akito himself didn't look like he cared about defending himself at first, but Haruka went ahead and did the work for him by asking for his, Kushida, and Karuizawa's help.

"So that's why you're protective of him."

"Protective?" she asked curiously.

"It's just something I've noticed while observing the two of you yesterday. Miyake didn't seem to care about proving his innocence at first, which was surprising considering how you spoke of him. But you were very determined to convince us to help you. You were even a lot more serious yesterday than how you are right now."

Haruka thought about that explanation for a moment, before she found herself agreeing with it. "Well, I guess you can say that I'm a bit protective of Miyacchi. He's a very dear friend to me, and I'm not gonna let him take the blame for something he didn't do."

"You're a good friend, Hasebe. Miyake's lucky to have you by his side," he said in the most sincere tone he could muster at the moment.

The girl snapped her head to the right as she looked at Kiyotaka with wide eyes, an intense blush quickly forming on her cheeks. She didn't expect to hear such a thing from Kiyotaka, which was even more significant coming from him because he chose to help her in proving Akito's innocence.

"Ah, t-thanks…" she mumbled, before snapping herself out of her embarrassment by forcing a smile on her face. "J-Jeez, is this why Kushida-san and Karuizawa-san like you? Your mouth is a dangerous weapon~"

As he felt Haruka slapping him on the shoulder a few times, Kiyotaka took notice of another notification that had popped up just now.

[You gained 5 Affection Points with Hasebe Haruka!]

"I guess…" he muttered while dismissing it, as the young man couldn't help but think about how quick he was gaining Affection Points with Haruka, which was very reminiscent of what happened with Kikyo at first.

Hmm, surely Haruka didn't have a hidden side like Kikyo, right?

After classes for the day finally ended, the students of Class D divided into groups to go around and ask people. However, in reality, there weren't that many helping to search for an eyewitness despite most of the students in class proclaiming that they would help. Hirata and Karuizawa were one group, Kushida and Horikita were another, Ayanokouji and Hasebe, Onodera and Sudo, Matsushita and Wang, Sato and Shinohara, Yukimura and Sotomura, and Ishikura and Minami.

The different groups were spread out across the campus in search of a possible eyewitness. Even so, it'd be difficult to get results in the span of an afternoon, especially since there were only eight pairs who were working to ask other students.

Within the school building, Suzune and Kikyo were walking through the hallways, asking various students if they had possibly witnessed a fight near the bathhouse. They were the only ones who remained here while everyone else was exploring a different part of the campus in their search.

Suzune had her usual cold look as her eyes went left and right, making sure that she doesn't miss a potential student whom they can ask about the Akito's incident. Meanwhile, Kikyo was struggling to keep up her usual smile because her eyebrow was twitching in annoyance and she kept on stealing hidden glances at Suzune with hatred in her eyes. It also seemed like she was starting to feel exhausted.

"We've been asking people around for an hour now…" Kushida commented, trying her best not to let any sign of anger come out even though she was really tempted to. "Horikita-san, I think of myself as someone patient, but I thought you wanted to check out Class C and take a picture of them?"

"Before we do that, we must ask the other students of this school, Kushida-san. I thought you believed that there must have been a person who saw Miyake-kun getting attacked by the three students of Class C?"

"I do," Kikyo sighed, before chuckling in amusement. "I guess I'm just feeling tired of having to be the one to ask people if they were a possible witness. When is it going to be your turn to ask, Horikita-san?"

Suzune turned to look at her friend, and saw Kikyo smiling innocently at her. Despite that, Suzune could tell that that statement was a direct jab at her because, well… her friend was right. For the past hour, Kushida had been doing all the work by asking students about the incident, all while she did nothing but remain quiet and watch.

The black-haired girl sighed. "I apologize, Kushida-san. You have to understand that it is not in my abilities to interact with people as well as you. You are better at this than me."

"Stupid bitch… if I had my way, I wouldn't be stuck with you," Kikyo grumbled in her thoughts in annoyance, but managed to retain her mask. "Oh, I understand… I guess I just feel a bit tired from walking and talking all this time. Maybe we can rest for a bit?"

"Very well," Suzune conceded with another sigh.

The pair found a metal bench as they walked through the hallway, and they chose to sit there for the time being. Kikyo let out a huge sigh of relief at the chance of being able to rest her legs after walking nonstop for an hour and a half by now. And that's not even counting how much she had kept on talking the whole time.

The two were relatively quiet for a few minutes, with both of them savoring the short moment of peace that they had before eventually continuing in their little quest. And then, out of nowhere, Suzune broke the silence by asking her friend a question that caught the beige-haired girl off guard.

"Kushida-san, what do you think of Amasawa-san?"

Kikyo blinked for a few moments, before turning towards Suzune curiously. "Eh? Amasawa-san?" she asked, wondering where this sudden question came from.

"Yes. What do you think of her?" Suzune turned to her in return, her face as serious as ever.

"Well, I think she has a pretty mysterious connection to Ayanokouji-kun… why do you ask?" Kikyo raised an eyebrow at her, feeling both curious and interested in where this conversation was heading.

"Amasawa-san said that the moment she arrived in our class and hugged Ayanokouji-kun all of a sudden was the first time she met him. And yet… she said that she has heard of him before. Why do you think that is, Kushida-san?"

Kikyo thought about that question for a good minute, realizing that there was indeed something strange with that scenario. "Maybe they just came from the same school before this? Amasawa-san does refer to him as her 'senpai'," she suggested.

In return, Suzune thought about Kikyo's answer for a while, letting the implications of that statement register in her mind as well as what it could signify. "That is a possible explanation, but it would also mean that Amasawa-san isn't just any regular student. She's… someone who is more capable than what they seem to be."

"What do you mean, Horikita-san?"

Suzune took a deep breath and breathed into her hands. "On the first day of school, when we first met on the bus heading here, Ayanokouji-kun said that the school he attended before Advanced Nurturing High School only accepted students who excel greatly in comparison to others. A school for the elite, just like this one. I didn't believe him at first because it seemed so far-fetched but after seeing what he's capable of with my own eyes, there may be merit in his words, after all."

"Wait… you're saying that Ayanokouji-kun is a really smart student?" asked Kushida, her eyes widening in shock at what she's hearing from Horikita.

Kiyotaka… is more than just the same guy with a semi-permanent apathetic look whom she had feelings for? For some reason, it didn't surprise as much as she thought it would and if she had to be honest, it honestly made sense. Kikyo didn't let the thought linger for long though, because for all she knew, Horikita might just be making this up.

"Yes, but not only that… if Amasawa-san really did come from the same school as him, then it also means that she's a very capable student like Ayanokouji-kun."

"If that's true, then that means that smug bitch was just playing around the whole time while we're talking to her," Kikyo clenched her fists in secret, being reminded of that exact moment yesterday. That smug little devil pissed her off the whole time, especially that demeanor of hers.

"That being said, it fits perfectly with her words from that day…" Suzune continued. "She said that what she knows about Ayanokouji-kun is strictly confidential. When I asked Ayanokouji-kun about his former school, he had almost the same answer, only that his school wants to remain anonymous in the eyes of the world."

"Really? I'm confused," Kikyo frowned, now feeling as if they hit a roadblock in their thought process. "If their school doesn't want to be found out by other people, then why would it send Amasawa-san to our school? That's what she said when Karuizawa-san asked her about why she's a 'guest' and not a student here."

"That's true… and if what I'm thinking is correct, then it could either mean that Amasawa-san is still a student when she was sent here… or she isn't a student at all."

The two girls continued to think about this strange case regarding Amasawa for a few more minutes, before both shook their heads and sighed.

"This whole thing is confusing…" Kikyo groaned to herself, cursing their twin-tailed kouhai under her breath.

"I have to agree. We need more information about her before thinking about what she really is," Suzune took a few deep breaths to regain her bearings after that discussion, feeling a bit frustrated with herself for not being able to solve this mystery right away despite the clues that were laid out for them.

"We know a few things, though. Like you said, Horikita-san, Amasawa-san isn't just any normal student, and there's something strange about the school that she and Ayanokouji-kun went to."

"Yes, and as much as I would like to continue discussing our theories regarding her, we should get back on track and focus on searching for our eyewitness. Amasawa-san isn't our priority at the moment."

Suzune stood up from the bench and prepared to leave in search of a new possible witness to Akito's case, but Kikyo's voice prevented her from going anywhere.

"Do you want to know something I found out from one of our classmates, Horikita-san? I bet you want to know, because this will be useful to us in the future!" Kikyo asked as she brought out her phone and opened a certain application.

"Know what?" her friend asked while turning to her with an eyebrow raised.

"You can track other people's locations on your phone using an app made by the school."

As she said those words, Kushida showed her phone to Horikita, revealing a map of the entire campus but that wasn't what caught the latter's attention. It's the little portrait of Ayanokouji that was located near Keyaki Mall that got her full attention. Apart from that and the labels on the various landmarks within the campus, nothing else was on the map.

"Ayanokouji-kun is at the mall?"

"Yep! He's there right now, but that's not what I'm trying to say," Kikyo smiled as she continued to show the map to the black-haired girl. "Using this app, we can find out where Amasawa-san is anytime we want."

Suzune raised an eyebrow in keen interest, but she didn't feel quite convinced just yet. "Is it really capable of tracking her, though? That might not work on people who aren't students, Kushida-san."

"Well, I don't really know yet because I haven't tried it…" A nervous chuckle escaped Kikyo's lips before she smiled again. "But if it works, then it's a good thing. We'd be able to keep an eye on Amasawa-san whenever we need to."

Suzune stared at her for a few moments, her attention shifting back and forth between her friend and the map on her phone. She thought about the possibility of putting Kikyo's idea into play, but wondered if it would actually be effective.

And then, all of a sudden, the girl suddenly felt as if someone was watching her from behind with devious intentions, causing Suzune to quickly turn around with a serious look on her face. She narrowed her gaze as her eyes roamed in every direction, searching for the source of that weird presence.

"Who was that?" she asked herself, feeling someone's presence nearby. She couldn't be wrong about her instincts this time, because the gaze that she just felt was definitely from another individual.

"Horikita-san? Is there something wrong?" Kikyo seemingly asked out of concern, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Suzune continued to observe her surroundings for a few more moments, before letting out a heavy sigh as she worked to calm herself down. "Nothing. Let's continue this conversation later, Kushida-san. We have to keep on searching for our possible witness."

"Okay…"

Although she was confused on what caused her classmate to react so strongly for a brief moment, Kikyo just shrugged it off and followed after Suzune while the other girl led the way.

Meanwhile, even though Suzune herself was trying to shift her attention back to the task at hand, she couldn't help but think about that strange presence she felt just now.

Who exactly was watching them?

Kiyotaka stood in front of Keyaki Mall, glancing at the nearby clock every few minutes as he waited for his companion to come. He and Haruka were supposed to continue their search this afternoon, but she wanted to accompany Akito back home to his dorm unit before that. He had no problem with what she wanted and simply said that he would wait for her in front of Keyaki Mall.

"Horikita said that she'll check out Class C with Kushida, so I guess there's no need for us to approach that class. We'll stick with Class B and Class A," Kiyotaka thought to himself. "Now, I have no doubts about Ichinose helping us, but Sakayanagi is a different story. As much as possible, I'd like to avoid her. If I can't, then I'll let Hasebe talk to her."

While he was thinking about how they would go about their investigation for the day, a girl suddenly walked past him, which managed to bring him back to reality.

She was a beautiful girl of average height with violet eyes and violet hair that's tied up in twintails with blue streaks. She was wearing the female school uniform, consisting of a white dress shirt, a white miniskirt, black socks, and black shoes, although she didn't have her red blazer on. Instead, the girl sported a gray vest over her dress shirt which was all underneath a light gray jacket.

Her school uniform alone presented an opportunity for him to approach her and unlike the other students around who were in groups, this girl was alone, which meant that he could talk to her without worrying about other students. Because honestly, if he tried to approach a group of students and ask them if they witnessed a commotion that happened a few days ago, then it's a likely scenario for him to mess up and cause those students to laugh at him. To add to that, Haruka isn't here with him right now.

Talking to only one student? That's way more manageable.

"I could ask her if she knows anything, but I'm supposed to wait for Hasebe…" he thought to himself, weighing his options as he stared at the girl who was walking away. Kiyotaka knew that he had to make a decision quickly, otherwise he would lose sight of this girl and a chance at knowing if she was the eyewitness that they were looking for. "Oh well, it's not like I can't ask other students even without Hasebe around. Even she wouldn't want that."

Shrugging to himself, he quickly followed after the girl but wisely kept his distance, not wanting to be accused of being a stalker or something worse. Once he was about a meter away from the girl, Kiyotaka finally spoke.

"Excuse me. May I take a bit of your time by asking a quick question?"

"The hell do you want?" she asked in return, but not turning around to face him just yet.

Kiyotaka raised his hands as if he was surrendering, despite the fact that the girl wasn't looking at him. "I just want to ask you a question, that's it."

"Well, get on with it. I don't have all—" The girl let out a loud groan as she finally turned around to face him. There was a frown on her face, which softened the moment she laid eyes on him and for some reason, she stopped talking as well.

Kiyotaka tilted his head curiously at her, wondering what got her to stop speaking out of nowhere.

"Is there something on my face?"

As he asked that question, a familiar pink screen appeared on top of the girl's head, which the young man immediately began to read. Maybe something in her 'summary' could explain why she was rendered speechless while simply looking at him.

[Himeno Yuki: 'Annoyed yet Curious Schoolmate']

[Relationship Status: ?]

[Affection Points: 0/100]

[Heroine Summary: Yuki is a student of Class B who is normally isolated from the rest of her classmates. While she is capable of being sociable and working with others without any problems, she mostly prefers to be left alone in peace and her classmates know it. It may look like she is angry most of the time, but she also has a sweet and caring side to her. She is fond of listening to music and likes just about anything, but has a slight preference for alternative rock and acoustic music, highlighted by her talents in playing guitar, the keyboard, and drums.]

"Another heroine, huh? I'm surprised the system chose someone from Ichinose's class. I was beginning to think that Ichinose would be my only heroine from her own class," the brown-haired teen commented in his thoughts, pleasantly surprised to meet another one of his heroines.

As he read the 'heroine summary' before him, his attention was quickly brought back to reality when he felt his face being pulled. He looked down at the girl named Himeno, and noticed that she was now right in front of him, pinching and pulling on his cheeks while having a frown of confusion on her face.

"What the hell is she doing?" he asked himself, absolutely baffled by her action.

"Where have I seen you before…" she muttered, leaning closer to his face as though she was trying to get a better look at him.

"It doesn't really hurt when you do that, but it's making me uncomfortable. Can you please stop?" he asked as she pulled on his cheeks even more.

It was after that question that Himeno finally realized what she was doing and moved away from the young man. "Oh, sorry. It just felt like I've seen you before, but I can't pinpoint when exactly."

"In my case, this is the first time I've seen you…" he replied, raising an eyebrow at her for a moment.

Yeah, he was completely sure that this was the first time that he had seen this girl, but he was interested in how this girl could have seen him before. Did they cross paths once and he had no idea? Or did Ichinose tell her about him since they're classmates?

"...but to make things easier, my name is Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. From Class D."

"Class D, huh? That's a lot of pressure on your class," she remarked while placing a hand on her hip. "So? Is there something you need from me?"

"What do you mean 'a lot of pressure'?" he asked curiously.

"You're part of the lowest class, right? That means a lot of eyes are on you and your classmates, whether you rise up or fall down in the class rankings. You're all gonna have to work hard to even catch up to one of the other classes," Yuki explained her stance with a serious look in her eyes, yet there was also a mix of sympathy in them. "Now are you gonna answer my question or not?"

"I would like to know your name."

Even though he knew her name through her 'heroine summary', in her eyes, he didn't. So, in order to prevent being referred to as a 'creep' and a 'stalker' in the case that he accidentally uses her name, it's better that Yuki introduces herself to him right now.

"It's Himeno Yuki. Is that your question?" the girl replied, rolling her eyes as if she was thinking that she just wasted her time being here. "If so, see you around."

Before Yuki could turn around and leave however, Kiyotaka quickly stopped her with his next statement. "Wait, that's not my question."

The girl let out an audible groan. "What is it, then? If you're looking for a date with me, then you have a long way to go before earning one, Ayanokouji. I don't like wasting time," she frowned at him.

His eyebrows rose at her strange response, which got her to smirk for just a moment before he continued with his words. "...that wasn't what I had in mind. I wanted to ask if you happened to come across a fight between students recently, particularly one student against several."

Yuki folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Fight? I haven't seen any fights lately."

"It happened two days ago. Right behind the newly-established bathhouse in the campus. My classmate was the one fighting against several students and he got beaten pretty badly," he explained.

She shrugged. "Sorry, I haven't been there yet. The idea of going to a place with so many people is just a big turn-off."

"It's fine. It was worth a shot," Kiyotaka waved it off. To be honest, he wasn't really expecting to get a lead this soon, so he wasn't surprised that Yuki didn't know anything. He also didn't expect her to be one of his heroines, even though he was supposed to be used to it at this point. "I guess I can ask your classmates instead. What class do you belong in, Himeno?"

"Class B."

"Ichinose's class? I suppose this makes things easier."

That caught her attention as soon as those words left his mouth. "You know Ichinose-san?" she asked with a look of interest.

"We're… friends."

Yeah, they were friends. That's about the most precise word he'd use to describe their relationship. Of course, there's no way he'd tell her that she's supposed to be one of his heroines, courtesy of divine intervention and an overpowered dating simulator system. There's no way he'd tell her that they had been almost naked in each other's presence as well.

No way.

"I never would have guessed… but I suppose Ichinose isn't the type of person to judge someone else based on their appearance."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"No offense, but it's that look on your face. Has someone ever told you that it looks a bit creepy? Can't you make another expression instead of that?"

Kiyotaka actually thought about her first question for a good moment, trying to think back and see if someone referred to him as 'creepy' even once. In the end though, there was no such instance. Maybe someone has, behind his back and without his knowledge. But as far as someone talking right in front of his face, no one has called him creepy.

"I don't think so. And no, I can't."

"Well, don't take it the wrong way. I just call 'em when I see 'em."

"Actually, I appreciate you being honest with me, Himeno. I am personally aware of this expression on my face, and I would like for it to change for the better."

"Heh. Good to see that you can take some criticism. Most of the people I meet can't even handle me being brutally honest with them," the frown on Yuki's face disappeared and it was replaced with a smug look. "Anyway, are you going to ask Ichinose-san the same thing you asked me?"

He nodded. "Yes."

Just when Himeno was about to say something, she stopped herself upon realizing something strange about the topic that they were talking about. "Wait, wait, hang on a minute. Why are you asking if someone saw the fight, anyway? Planning a revenge prank or something?"

"No. We're looking for a possible witness who saw what happened because there were no cameras to record what went down. Our classmate is due to prove his innocence in a hearing next week with the teachers and student council, so we're looking for evidence that can help him."

Himeno frowned in confusion. "Wait, I don't get it. Why would your friend have to defend himself when he was the one who got beaten up?"

Kiyotaka sighed. "That's the tricky part. When our teacher called our classmate to her office regarding the incident, she said that the students whom he fought had also sustained injuries, and they blamed the victim for the whole thing. They even went as far as to say that the whole fight was one-sided in my classmate's favor."

"I get it…" The violet-haired girl nodded slowly as things slowly began to make sense the more she learned about this case. "And since there weren't any cameras around to record the fight, nobody knows who started the whole thing for sure, so now you're looking for a witness who might have seen the whole thing unfold?"

He nodded. "My classmate said that he felt that someone was watching the whole time. Although I don't really think a mere hunch can prove that someone witnessed the fight, it's the only lead we have. Too bad it wasn't anyone from our class, because when Chabashira-sensei asked if someone saw the whole thing, no one raised their hands."

"That's gotta suck for your friend," Yuki said, donning a look of sympathy on her face.

He shrugged. "Some of my classmates have already begun to ask people from other classes and year levels. But since you said that you weren't around that time, I suppose my next bet is to ask Ichinose the same question. Or whoever I meet from your class. Or whichever student I meet, I guess."

"Tell you what, I could tell Ichinose-san about this whole thing for you," Yuki offered.

"Really?" he asked.

She nodded, seeing nothing wrong with her suggestion. "Yeah, that would save you some time, wouldn't it? Instead of asking every student of Class B, I'll just ask Ichinose-san for you and then she'll ask the whole class about it in return. If someone says they saw the fight, then she can tell you herself."

"Why would you do that? It's not like I'm asking you to."

"And you aren't. You can think of it as a little reward for being able to take that little comment I made about your face," she planted both hands on her hips and smirked as she looked up at him. "Plus, I got time to spare anyway."

If Kiyotaka had to be honest, he was still a bit curious as to why Yuki came up with that offer all of a sudden, but whatever. He wasn't going to dwell on it for long. If she wanted to help, then he'd let her help. It would indeed save him and Haruka from having to approach every student of Class B and ask them about the commotion between Akito and those Class C students.

"Then, by all means, I'll leave it to you. Thank you for lending a hand, Himeno," he bowed his head slightly out of gratitude.

"Don't mention it. Guess I'll see you around, then?"

Before he could answer the girl, Kiyotaka felt the world around him stop and lose all of its color, as a wave of realization hit him.

He had not 'unlocked' this heroine route yet.

A. [Cool. See you later.]

B. [I hope our paths cross again, Himeno. You're an interesting person, to say the least.]

C. [Sure. Can I get a date from you the next time we meet?]

The usual three pink screens that showed his possible choices then appeared before him and compared to the past ones that he had encountered, this set of options was relatively tame.

Huh. Was the system actually being merciful to him today?

"Ignoring the first option, it's either the second or the third one," he said as he observed the two remaining choices. He shifted his attention alternately between the two, thinking hard on what would be the more appropriate one to say in this situation.

Should he go for the safe route, or the shameless flirting route?

"I have no concrete idea on how she would react on either option, because I don't have a clear grasp on her personality," Kiyotaka observed the girl who was currently frozen before him and thought about what the most appropriate choice would be. "She frowns like Horikita, but she can also feel amused and her 'summary' did say that she has a caring side to her. I could go for the third option right here, but what if Himeno thinks I'm getting too ahead of myself?"

At this point, the third option was the obvious choice in most of these scenarios, save for a few people whom he wouldn't use it on, namely Suzune, Kei, Airi, Hiyori, and Haruka. Then again, he only avoided choosing the 'shameless flirting' route the first time he encountered those heroines. Who knows? He could pick Option C the next time those three choices appear…

Okay, Option B it is, then. It's definitely the safest choice this time around— WAIT, DID HE JUST PUSH OPTION C?! THAT WASN'T WHAT HE—

"Sure. Can I get a date from you the next time we meet?" Kiyotaka asked as the world returned to normal, unable to stop himself saying those words because of the system overriding his control over his own body.

The 'Masterpiece' of the White Room suddenly felt like committing seppuku right now. How embarrassing.

Yuki widened her eyes for a brief moment after his words, and she looked up at the young man with a slight blush dusting her cheeks. She didn't expect to hear a question like that from him and it caught her off guard. It reached the point that she had to take a step back in clear surprise.

Truth be told, no guy had ever asked her a question like that in her life. Seriously, no guy had ever dared to make a move on her or even flirt with her, mainly because boys were normally intimidated by her. While she did mention going on a date earlier while she and Kiyotaka were still conversing, it was only in a rhetorical way and Yuki didn't expect him to take it seriously. This made her completely inexperienced in this whole thing and had no idea how to respond to Ayanokouji after that question.

After a few moments of surprise, Yuki managed to regain her composure and she smirked at him. "Don't push your luck, Ayanokouji. You still have a long way to go."

Despite her growing red cheeks, Kiyotaka's newest heroine was able to walk away without a problem, leaving the young man in his place, watching her the whole time before she disappeared from sight. As he watched the girl leave, three new notifications appeared before him.

[You gained 12 Affection Points with Himeno Yuki!]

[Yuki Route has been Unlocked! You can now see 'Heroine Status' with Himeno Yuki!]

[Your current status with Yuki has changed to 'Elites, Delusions, and Feelings'!]

"Somehow, I survived that and Himeno didn't lash out on me for that question I asked her," he thought while dismissing the three notifications. "I wonder if it's because it was the right option this whole time, or it's because of the system making sure I was safe… probably the former. I guess I was just worried about Himeno reacting in the same way as Karuizawa and Horikita."

While he stood there wondering what the hell just happened, Kiyotaka was brought out of his musings by someone tapping his shoulder. He slowly turned around to see Haruka smiling brightly at him. She was still in her school uniform like him and she still had her bag with her, showing that she had not gone home yet.

"Kiyopon, did I make you wait too long? I hope I didn't," she asked, chuckling in embarrassment. "I made sure to head here as soon as I was done taking Miyacchi back home."

"Not really," he shook his head. He'd probably feel like he did if Himeno wasn't here to talk to him just now, though.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. Come on, let's start looking for our witness."

"Lead the way, then."

With that, Haruka grabbed his arm and led him away to search for their eyewitness, feeling determined and eager to find their person of interest with someone whom she felt a lot of gratitude towards.

Number of days left before Akito's trial: 6

MINASAN, YONDE KURETE ARIGATŌ! AISHITEMAAAAASUUUUU! *starts playing air guitar*

-Lance