[A/N: Hello there, I hope you guys didn't forget me already. First of all, my apologies for leaving so abruptly without any notices. I won't go into the details, but let's just say I had my giant share of issues to resolve…
I still can't promise regular updates though, but I'll keep uploading. I know that this will probably become dead with only a few readers remaining (hopefully) due to low updates, but that's the best I can manage to offer right now.]
What Sakura sent wasn't a text, but an image.
It was a selfie of a pink haired girl, with bright blue eyes and a lovely smile, wearing a red dress and doing a peace sign.
Although the similarities were glaringly obvious because of the fact that she was the one who sent it, Yamauchi couldn't just believe that the girl in the image was none other than his classmate, Sakura Airi.
But more importantly, behind her one could see Sudou holding Komiya by his collar while Komiya was speaking something at a distance.
Yamauchi: This is great! With this, we can easily prove that there is a witness. If you don't mind, can you send me any other photos you took?
While he was curious about Sakura, he decided to not ask her since she would obviously not want to talk about something like that. Moreover, he needed to be focused on the current case at hand.
Airi: Yes, I'll send them, but can you please keep this a secret from the rest of our classmates?
Yamauchi: Of course, I won't tell anyone. Although I will need to give these to school as a proof, they won't share them to anyone else if we ask them to.
Feeling a bit confident, she sent him a dozen other photos while explaining to Yamauchi about how the class C students provoked and attacked Sudou first, then she started calling him to make him stop because she was too scared to directly intervene.
After reading all that, Yamauchi was entirely sure that this was a trap by class C to get rid of Sudou and class D altogether.
When he started observing the photos properly, a particular one caught his attention.
It was dramatic, to say the least. Although it was a bit blurry due to movement, it was obvious that Ichizaki was punching Sudou straight at his face, which was blocked by his forearm.
While having a witness from the same class is certainly suspicious, the school would have to side with class D since there would be no other proof.
Ryueen's plan had backfired because of a variable named Sakura.
Yamauchi: Thanks a lot Airi, with this we should be easily able to prove Sudou innocent.
'Heh, who knew Sudou's sarcastic words would come true to such an extent? I can't wait to see Chabashira-sensei's expression.'
Since he was dealing with Ryueen, he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks and chose to explain it to Kushida, Hirata, Ayanokoji and Horikita.
He called them over for dinner. Horikita rarely interacted with others, but words like 'something important for class' worked better than magic.
Once that was done, he decided to go and buy ingredients since he would be cooking for 6 people. While there was a limit on buying them, a lot of vegetables were available for free in the supermarket.
He had survived the past two months mostly on them and the club's food. Fortunately, they weren't half bad, unlike the vegetable set available in the cafeteria.
Considering most of his private points will be spent in the gym this month, he would have to depend on them even further.
After a while, as he was learning the basics of chess, which was his new task for improving critical thinking, he got a call from Sudou.
Without explaining anything to him, he called him over for dinner too.
After a few hours everyone was at his dorm, eating.
"Yum, Yamauchi-kun, you can cook really well!" Kushida complemented.
It took Yamauchi all of his self control to not melt away.
"Thanks, but let's start with the main topic now." Yamauchi replied.
Then he began to explain everything from the start of Sudou's fight. He did say Sakura had given him the proof but outright refused to show it because of privacy.
"...so tomorrow me and Airi will go to the school early and tell Chabashira-sensei about her."
"That's a bit disappointing."
While everyone was happy, Horikita found the results disappointing.
"Huh? Why the heck is that disappointing?" Sudou asked.
"Once we do this, class C will be punished, but not that severely. With Sakura-san as a witness, we can prove that they started the fight, but not that your actions were self defence. Because they weren't." She added, before Sudou could interrupt, "What you did was retaliation. The three class C students could have been expelled and we could use that to blackmail them, but now they will simply be hit with a penalty."
"Well what did you expect me to do then? Stand there and get hit by them?" Sudou said, barely containing his rage.
"You could have just ran away."
She said without even glancing at him.
"That would be even worse than now. There's no saying if they would stop annoying Sudou after that, two of them are in the basketball club too, remember? Plus, there would have been no proof of the fight if he ran away, and they would likely just go unpunished."
Yamauchi defended Sudou with a sigh.
"If you want that idealistic results, start predicting the future and tell us what to do rather than pointlessly blaming others."
'While her contributions are in no way inferior, she just starts expecting too much from others.'
When Yamauchi was saying that, a subconscious smirk, so barely noticeable that she herself didn't realise, crept up on Kushida's face, unnoticed by everyone but Ayanokoji.
"Should we file a counter complaint against class C students for trying to frame Sudou?
As Sudou said, those two keep getting in his way during training too, so adding seniors as witnesses and some recordings to the proof, we can actually make a strong case. If they get banned from the basketball club, that will be a win for us."
Ayanokoji said while staring at his sushi, as if what he said was something very obvious.
Apart from Sudou, everyone had realised that Ayanokoji was not as normal as he seemed, though their evaluation was still different.
Yamauchi knew that out of all the people he had marked, which were all the students of his year, and around 300 of the remaining two years, only 4 other students had the possibility of being at Ayanokoji's level in terms of overall stats.
Those four being Koenji– the madlad, Manabu– the leader of class 3-A and the current student council president, Nagumo– the guy who had allegedly monopolized the private points of whole second year students, according to Nakamoto; and Kiryuin Fuka– a girl he had just marked yesterday and knew nothing about.
So Yamauchi naturally rated Ayanokoji very highly, even as someone who could have the highest influence on their year, since Koenji didn't show any signs of caring.
Similarly, Horikita also had a high opinion of him, considering that he managed to counter Manavu in a short fight and was praised by him.
But while she knew all that, she still refused to acknowledge it due to her personality.
On the other hand, while Kushida and Hirata didn't know much about Ayanokoji, they had instinctively realised that there was something different about him.
"Wait, is that really possible?! Alright, I'll kick those bastards out!"
Sudou seemed too interested in that. They likely bothered him more than he realised or accepted.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's do that right away after Airi gives her proof as a witness." Yamauchi agreed.
After most of the plans were decided, everyone thanked him for the meal and left.
———
"Say, Horikita-san, why don't you ever message in the group chat?"
Kushida tried to start a conversation with Horikita for the nth time, but I could tell there was something different about her tone this time.
"Because I don't want to. Besides, why are you following me when you hate me?"
Horikita didn't look at her while speaking, walking towards the supermarket.
Very few people were outside right now, making it very easy for me to hide while being able to hear them.
"I hate you? Why would you say something like that?"
Horikita simply glared at her, refusing to say anything.
"So you do remember it, huh? I had expected that. Alright then, yes, I absolutely hate you, Horikita-san."
Her tone was so different this time that I wouldn't have guessed it was her if I hadn't been watching her.
She was nothing like Kushida. Or rather, she was the true Kushida.
It seemed they didn't simply hate each other because they were so opposite, but had some sort of history.
"Glad to be on the same page. But my question still stands, why are you following me?"
Horikita simply didn't care. Her indifference was admirable, at least at times like these.
"Hmm, should I tell you the reason I hate you?" Kushida asked, closing her distance with Horikita.
"No need. I don't really care about that as long as you cooperate with the class. Besides, I already know a few reasons as to why you would hate me."
Kushida looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself.
"God… so annoying. Why don't you just drop out? Whatever, I'll just deal with you later."
I quickly hid myself behind a vending machine as Kushida turned back and started walking away in her casual demeanour. The change was surprisingly drastic, but what bothered me more was the fact that I would need to reveal myself to get more information.
So Horikita does know about Kushida…
I intentionally shifted a bit, letting Horikita know my presence without letting her feel it was intentional.
It took her a bit longer than I expected, but she did realise someone was hearing their previous conversation.
"Who is there?" She asked in a sharp voice, ready to chase behind if necessary.
I went out with a deep sigh.
"Ayanokoji-kun? Do you just keep stalking me or was it a coincidence this time too?"
She narrowed her eyes, but she seemed a bit relieved at the same time too, probably because this could be a problem if someone from another class heard about Kushida.
"Yeah, as I said, coincidences can be freaky." I joked, "But no, this time I intentionally followed Kushida right after we left Yamauchi's room."
Horikita raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't expect you to admit it that easily. So what, were you going to confess your love to her?"
"Yes. But now that I realised her true self because of you, you'll now have to accept my love."
I said, without the slightest hint of hesitation.
She blinked, taking a moment to realise what I just said.
Before she could summon her compass out of thin air and stab me with it, I quickly changed the topic.
"Anyway, back to my would-have-been-ex. So what's your past with Kushida?"
If not for the fact that I had recently fought her brother and managed to stand my ground, she would have attacked me by now.
Thankfully, she just sighed and explained the story of a girl named Kushida Kikyou cautiously.
I was genuinely impressed by what Kushida had managed to pull off. In just middle school, no less.
But this could be a much more dire problem to our class if Kushida decided to do something. It wouldn't be wrong to say that she holds the most wanted secrets of many students, and she surely knows how to use them.
[Also, a little question for you guys: Would you rather want me to give the POV anytime I change it, or keep it as it is and let you guys figure it out yourselves?]