“Alright, let’s go Kushida. This time it’s a complete win. For the finale we’re going to squeeze Horikita.”

“I wonder how she’s doing. If she’s crushed, I’ll be happy.”

I head to the infirmary with Kushida, who said she wanted to see Horikita bow down in apology in exchange for helping Class C.

I plan to demand a bow plus a bit of PP from Horikita.

Class D doesn’t have much CP so there’s no way they have a lot of PP either.

Since Horikita was in the dragon group on the ship she doesn’t have the 500,000 reward from betrayal or VIP either.

Still I’ll make her show me her device.

In the end, the first-year sports festival results were

1st Class B

2nd Class C

3rd Class A

4th Class D

Unfortunately, when you include the upperclassmen Red Team won so CP was

A minus 50

B minus 50

C minus 100

D minus 100

So in this sports festival, every first-year class ended up negative.

If the upperclassmen had worked hard, it would’ve been a completely different result, but that can’t be helped.

For Class C, it’s pretty good that there wasn’t any gap overall.

I enter the infirmary.

I thought Horikita would be asleep but she was up, sitting on the bed and staring out the window.

If she’s awake that’s convenient.

Let’s get right to it.

“Yo. How’s your mood Horikita? I’ve got something I want to talk about so I came by as a get-well visit.”

“I’m in the worst mood. So? What do you want? I have nothing I want to say to you.”

“Hey, don’t play dumb. Or did I overestimate you. Because you fell, my Kinoshita got hurt. That’s completely your carelessness. So I figured I’d have you show some sincerity.”

“I see. Then I’ll show you my device. There’s 120,000 PP in here. I have to live too, so I’ll pay up to 80,000. Is that fine?”

I check the device and confirm there’s roughly 120,000 PP.

As expected, it’s not much.

More importantly, why is she being this obedient?

It’s true Kinoshita is injured, but since she isn’t here, Horikita shouldn’t be able to confirm whether she got injured at all.

If it’s only this much, there’s no way that monster would entrust her with steering… or so it should be.

What is she plotting?

Or did she really just go limp?

“Hah, you think I’d be satisfied with some drop-in-the-bucket amount like that? But I’m not a demon. I was going to take 500,000 but if you say you’ll kneel and apologize, I might graciously discount it to 80,000.”

“…What benefit does that give you? I don’t understand at all.”

“Sure, you’d say that, but this is like a thank-you for helping Class C this time. Right… Kushida?”

I call Kushida in through the door.

“That’s right. It’s because I leaked everything to Class C. So, how does it feel? Losing because the classmate you were trying to make win betrayed you?”

“……”

“Her reaction is thinner than I expected. Aren’t you surprised Kushida betrayed you?”

“Of course I am. Class C’s moves were blatant. It was obvious there was a traitor inside Class D. Kōenji-kun's chances of betrayal weren’t zero, but aside from Kōenji-kun, the most likely is Kushida-san.”

“Oh yeah. Why did you think it was me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Because you hate me.”

Hearing that answer, Kushida’s expression flips.

“So you do get it! Yeah. I hate you. With this your trust is at rock bottom now. If it’s like this you’re not worthy to stay by Kiyotaka-kun’s side.”

“…The one who decides that is Kiyotaka-kun. Not me.”

“When that time comes, I’ll get in your way again like this. Over and over and over. I won’t let you win.”

Kushida and Horikita glare at each other, sparks flying.

Watching this I had the totally out-of-place thought that I’m glad I’m a guy.

Between guys it’s simple, you just punch each other and it’s easy to understand.

“So? Are you kneeling or not? Well, I don’t think someone as prideful as you can kneel and if you can, then I’ll feel amazing. Either beg Kiyotaka-kun for 500,000 somehow or kneel and entertain me. Choose whichever you want!!”

Personally, I’d obviously rather get 500,000.

But this time, Kushida is the cooperator and since this is a condition for her cooperation, I can’t butt in unnecessarily.

And Horikita’s choice…

“Yes. I have no room for excuses. I’m truly sorry that because I fell I caused Kinoshita-san to be injured.”

It was a beautiful kneel, flawless in every way.

* * *

Yeah.

There was nothing more I could do.

It’s true I wanted to abandon even thinking.

But if I stopped even that, then I really would become someone who can do nothing.

That was the conclusion my mind reached after I fell into being unable to recover because of my injury.

The sports festival results won’t change anymore.

That’s a fact.

No matter how much I panic now, there’s nothing I can do.

That’s why what I have to think about now is Kiyotaka-kun and Ryūen-kun.

In the first place, why did Kiyotaka-kun decide to leave the sports festival to us?

Even if there was Class C surveillance, I can’t believe that alone could beat him.

Which means he wanted to lose at this time.

I can only guess at the reason right now, but he probably didn’t want the classmates to get cocky.

In reality, Kiyotaka-kun was moving behind the scenes, but looking at it overall, Class D won on the uninhabited island and on the ship without really doing much.

If we kept winning and someone started thinking someone will always do something for us, that we can win without effort, then even what we could win would become unwinnable, especially for Class D, whose base strength is already inferior.

That applies even to Sudō-kun and me.

Because Kiyotaka-kun is here, he’ll do something.

I can’t say that kind of thinking doesn’t exist.

With a wry smile, I think that he was probably aiming for our mental growth too.

This was definitely intentional, but there’s a real chance that in another special exam, we could end up in a situation where we can’t ask him for help.

There’s no doubt we needed to grow ourselves.

And one more thing.

The one who leaked the information to Class C was definitely Kushida-san, up to here, that’s fine.

But the one who gave the participation sheet information to Kushida-san might have been Kiyotaka-kun or it might have been someone else.

And considering Kiyotaka-kun was being watched by Class C, the chance that Kiyotaka-kun gave Kushida-san the information is low.

And I’m sorry, but I can’t believe Kushida-san memorized it all herself.

If she could, she wouldn’t be tormented by an inferiority complex even now.

Which means there might still be someone capable in the class that I don’t know about.

And it shows Kushida-san knows about that person.

Later, we’ll have to question them for sure.

Putting that aside, what I need is to understand my classmates more deeply.

If I had known them properly and kept them in check, maybe it wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Though if it was Kiyotaka-kun’s goal, then no matter what I did, he would’ve made us lose anyway.

Since it takes 20 million PP to move classes, the classmates probably won’t change.

They might decrease though.

Which means it’s not bad to know the classmates we have now more deeply.

I’m not a monster like my brother or him.

Even alone, I can’t grasp everything and I can’t control everything.

That’s why I think what I need is to be involved with my classmates more.

* * *

Ryūen-kun, he’ll probably go together with Kushida-san.

If he brings Kinoshita-san, then it’ll probably be after he really did injure her and brings her along.

If he brought her without injury, then she’d see through it immediately, so that’s not a problem.

But considering how the violence incident played out, the chance of either is not that high.

And he probably won’t bring both of them either.

I can’t see Ryūen-kun telling Kinoshita-san about the existence of Kushida-san, who’s Class C’s joker.

So he’ll probably bring only Kushida-san and use only the fact that someone was injured as a shield to demand something as a settlement.

Depending on what it is, I’ll have to push back, but it’ll probably be mainly psychological.

Since Kushida-san will be there, he should be controlling it to some extent.

Though knowing Kushida-san, she might force a kneel.

If things end with my kneel and some PP, then that’s fine.

That much is cheap.

After that, it depends on what Ryūen-kun and Kushida-san say.

I’ll guide Ryūen-kun as much as possible in the direction of letting his guard down.

* * *

Bonus Scene

My talk with Ryūen-kun went almost entirely well.

The PP that got taken was only 80,000.

Between those two choices, I of course choose kneeling.

In reality, there’s no need to beg Kiyotaka-kun, but 500,000 is huge.

With this in his eyes, my rank as a usable pawn probably rose.

I don’t know if he’ll leave the next exam to me, but for that time, I have to change how I deal with my classmates.

In the first place, this time was a major blunder, so I have to think about that too.

But more than that.

“Kushida-san. Next time it’s probably… your turn.”