At a certain place within the school grounds...

"Take this!"

"Tch..."

'That lack of mercy... Hōsen-kun is just as rough as ever~!'

Ichika-chan was secretly observing the exchange between Kiyotaka-senpai, Horikita-senpai and Sudō-senpai, and Hōsen-kun and Tsubasa-chan.

From the looks of the situation...

The negotiation to form pairs between Class 1-D and Class 2-D must have collapsed just as Hōsen-kun intended.

"For a girl... you’re pretty good, Horikita-senpai!"

Sudō-senpai had already been taken down, and now Horikita-senpai was the one fighting Hōsen-kun.

But honestly speaking, Horikita-senpai has no chance of winning.

First of all, at this age there’s a clear difference in physique and muscle mass between boys and girls.

On top of that, Hōsen-kun is a genuine delinquent who made a name for himself back in middle school.

If it were me then maybe, but even though Horikita-senpai is athletic, she isn’t used to fighting.

There’s no way she can beat Hōsen-kun.

'Horikita-senpai is telling Kiyotaka-senpai to call a teacher, but that won’t work...'

Because in this situation...

Sudō-senpai was the one who threw the first punch.

If Hōsen-kun argues that to the teachers, the worst punishment he’d receive would probably only be excessive self-defense.

Looks like it’s finally Kiyotaka-senpai’s turn.

'I was seriously surprised when I heard Kiyotaka-senpai’s plan~!'

A few days earlier...

When Ichika-chan visited Kiyotaka-senpai’s room again, she told him everything about the plan Hōsen-kun had prepared.

Of course, that included the part where I was supposed to steal the knife with Kiyotaka-senpai’s fingerprints on it.

After hearing everything...

Kiyotaka-senpai gave me certain instructions and told me to deliver the knife to Hōsen-kun.

Glance...

As Kiyotaka-senpai walked toward Hōsen-kun, he briefly glanced at me while I was hiding.

In response I gave him a White Room-style gesture meaning,

"Senpai! Everything’s ready over here~!"

Then I immediately set my phone to recording mode and pointed it toward Hōsen-kun.

And the moment Kiyotaka-senpai approached him—

Hōsen-kun grinned, pulled out that petty knife, and raised it high.

"Ayanokōji-kun! Run!"

"Ayanokōji! Dodge it!"

Horikita-senpai and Sudō-senpai thought Hōsen-kun was about to stab Kiyotaka-senpai, so they desperately shouted for him to get away.

"Gah..."

But don’t worry.

Even Hōsen-kun wouldn’t go that far.

"Huh? What the hell are you doing?"

"This makes no sense... why stab your own leg..."

Hōsen-kun didn’t aim at Kiyotaka-senpai.

He stabbed his own leg.

Seeing that, Sudō-senpai and Horikita-senpai were left stunned.

"That hurts... Nanase! Hurry up and call a teacher! Tell them Ayanokōji stabbed me!"

"W-what?"

The next moment, Hōsen-kun said something so outrageous that it left Sudō-senpai and Horikita-senpai speechless.

"This is the end for you, Ayanokōji... This knife is your property, and I had an accomplice steal it for me. You get what that means?"

"So you plan to claim that I stabbed your leg?"

"That’s right..."

No matter how badly he wants those 20 million points, I’m honestly amazed at Hōsen-kun’s obsession to go this far.

"Don’t screw with us! We’ll just testify that you stabbed your own leg!"

"Are you stupid? Even if you testify, it’ll just look like Class 2-D is covering for Ayanokōji. You guys don’t even have evidence."

"That goes for you too!"

But actually... that’s not true.

Oh? Looks like Horikita-senpai figured it out.

"You mean... Ayanokōji-kun’s fingerprints..."

"Exactly! This knife belongs to Ayanokōji. That means we’ve got his fingerprints as evidence!"

"Damn it..."

Sudō-senpai and Horikita-senpai fell silent, unable to respond.

Looking down at them, Hōsen-kun laughed smugly.

But it didn’t take long for him to notice something strange.

"Hey hey, Ayanokōji... you’re awfully calm. Did you give up?"

"No. I’m actually praising you. I didn’t expect you to resort to something like this. If you press charges like this, there’s no doubt I’ll be expelled."

The strange thing was that Kiyotaka-senpai—the one being targeted—remained completely calm.

"But... you made one mistake."

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?"

Unable to keep up, Hōsen-kun stared blankly as Kiyotaka-senpai continued.

"You chose the wrong accomplice."

"Huh?"

Here it comes~!

Now it’s time to expose Hōsen Kazuomi!

"Amasawa... you can come out now."

"Okaaay! As you wish, Kiyotaka-senpai~!"

Replying to Kiyotaka-senpai, I stopped the recording on my phone and ran over to his side.