Chapter 029: You're Trying to Kill Class C Directly!
Inside the Student Council office, only the Student Council President, Horikita Manabu, and his secretary, Tachibana Akane, were present.
"Did you two arrange to come at this time?" Horikita Manabu asked. He stopped reviewing the documents on his desk and cast a sharp gaze toward the newly entered Hikigaya and Ichinose.
This was Hikigaya's first time truly facing Horikita Manabu. Different from the impression at the entrance ceremony, Horikita Manabu's aura now was even more chilling.
If Horikita Suzune was a lonely, noble flower on a high peak, Horikita Manabu was like a towering pine tree. Wearing glasses, his face was cold and stern, his posture perfectly upright. As a senpai, the pressure brought by his gaze was anything but trivial.
Ichinose seemed somewhat nervous, but Hikigaya remained calm.
In his eyes, the man was just a "stinky older brother" who loved his sister, just like himself.
Facing a kindred spirit, he felt no pressure at all.
"We just happened to come over," Hikigaya said.
"I actually rushed here. While at the shopping district just now, I discovered a male clerk secretly filming girls, so I came to report it immediately."
"Oh?" Horikita Manabu frowned slightly.
"How could someone do something so terrible!" As a woman, Tachibana Akane also had strong feelings about this. Being a cute girl herself, she harbored a deep hatred for such staff members being at the school.
"Here is the evidence," Hikigaya said.
"I went to an electronics store with a student from Class D and happened to see that clerk aiming a camera at two female customers. This data card was obtained from the camera while the clerk was intentionally lured away. And this is my newly purchased camera."
Hikigaya handed over the camera. Secretary Tachibana Akane hurried over to receive it and turned on the power. Very quickly, she confirmed the contents.
Surreptitious filming.
The electronics store in the shopping district.
She immediately nodded to Horikita Manabu, indicating that what was said was true.
"..." Horikita Manabu remained silent.
'Is that so?
He discovered this with a Class D student, yet he brought Ichinose from Class B to report it. Is it because the Class D student didn't want to show her face, or is her identity special (perhaps Suzune), or does he want all the credit for the report to go to Class B?'
Horikita Manabu seemed to be pondering the true meaning behind this.
However.
His gaze was sharp—even steadier than Katsuragi's—and he asked bluntly, "What do you want?"
Hikigaya, as if having long expected this question, answered quickly, "As a student, all I can do is report it. But I've heard the Chairman is very tolerant. Such a malicious incident should naturally be brought to his attention, shouldn't it?"
Horikita Manabu was silent for a moment, his eyes scrutinizing Hikigaya.
He thought to himself.
If it were just a simple report, it would end here.
However, now the Chairman was being involved, and the management of shopping district staff did indeed fall under the Chairman's jurisdiction.
For a staff member like this to appear, and for a freshman to discover it, was a management failure no matter how you looked at it.
At the same time, Horikita Manabu recalled the chapter involving his "foolish sister."
During his conversation with Hikigaya, he had told him: although the school delegates power to the Student Council and gives students maximum freedom, the school administration does not relinquish all power; the Chairman's authority is still very large.
So.
'This guy... could he be trying to seize this loophole to make the Chairman's side take action?'
Of course, getting adults to admit a mistake in their work is simple, but getting them to apologize for it is difficult.
Therefore, Hikigaya likely wanted to obtain some concessions from the adults after their mistake, and what those concessions would be—considering he was a first-year student—made his goal for Class 1-B very clear.
Horikita Manabu almost understood his intent—he wanted to obtain bonus points in this conduct assessment.
But that was only his interpretation.
This kouhai's way of thinking was different from his own, so he had to confirm.
Thus.
Horikita Manabu interlaced his fingers, resting his elbows on the desk, and looked at Hikigaya over the top of his hands.
"A cafeteria staff member mentioned previously that a student offered to pay points to learn the craft of cooking. Are you trying to catch the school administration's attention?" Horikita Manabu said.
This phrasing was specific. For example, perhaps Hikigaya wanted to gain the Chairman's recognition early by establishing a connection.
"Well, President Horikita must be joking. I have zero interest in catching the attention of the school administration or the Chairman; I'm simply very interested in the recipe for a certain dish there," Hikigaya said candidly.
"So I wanted to learn."
"I see." Horikita Manabu didn't take an immediate stance.
'But doesn't this mean that even when I tell the truth, no one believes me?'
With the report finished, Hikigaya and Ichinose took their leave.
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Hikigaya and Ichinose left the office.
"I can't help but feel a bit nervous," Ichinose said. Being suddenly called to face the Student Council President brought a fair amount of pressure.
"That's because this year's Student Council President is excellent and can suppress everyone, which makes you nervous. But once we get to the next President, there won't be anything to worry about," Hikigaya said.
"Doesn't that imply... the next Student Council President will be incompetent?" Ichinose lowered her voice, clearly surprised.
In truth, through Hikigaya-kun's inner thoughts these past few days, she more or less knew that—if it wasn't just Hikigaya-kun's delusion—they were actually inside a novel he had read. They were characters in a story.
This place was likely a parallel world where the plot was the same, and Hikigaya-kun had simply wandered in by mistake.
But regardless.
Ichinose felt that life was beautiful. Even if she were a character in a novel, she hoped her life could have some brilliant moments, because she came to Advanced Nurturing High School to start over, to ease her mother's burden, and to be a role model for her sister.
So, even if the author wrote her life to be terrible, she wouldn't yield easily. Moreover, she felt that Hikigaya-kun might be a special existence who could change her destiny.
She thought to herself.
At that moment, she suddenly noticed two people still standing in the hallway by the door—it was Katsuragi and Totsuka Yahiko, who they had greeted earlier.
"Yo, you're still here," Hikigaya said.
"Are you feeling pressured because you found out we didn't report Class C?"
"..." Katsuragi was silent for a moment.
"So you really came to report a stalker in the shopping district?"
"Of course. We're not like Class A; we don't report our own allies," Hikigaya said with a righteous air.
"The students of Class A are certainly not those kinds of people either," Katsuragi said immediately.
He knew the school held special exams every month, and the small blackboards in the second- and third-year buildings showed the changes in evaluation points for each class after those exams.
Since there were so many exams, some would surely involve unity or cooperation; in the future, they might need to form alliances with other classes to face certain challenges. Therefore, before any alliance was even formed, Class A's reputation couldn't be tarnished.
"But you just reported Class C..." Ichinose interjected.
"That's because Class A and Class C are not allies. Class C is not one of our own. I understand you lower classes want to rise, but helping Class C like this is like nursing a tiger that will eventually turn on you. So, perhaps in the future, you'll even have to thank us for taking action this time." Katsuragi crossed his arms.
In other words, Class A reported Class C and expected Class B to owe them a favor? That was a bit thick-skinned.
"Lower classes? The current 2nd-year Class A rose up from Class B. If anything, it's you who are starting to fear us," Hikigaya said.
"Because a Class B has already successfully reached the top, you're the ones who need to be nervous, right? I only visited Class C once and Class A became a startled bird. So, the cowardly ones are you."
As he spoke, Hikigaya-kun's gaze became incredibly cold.
"Heh." Katsuragi simply led Totsuka Yahiko away.
The reason they reported Class C's fighting was naturally because they noticed the possibility of a B-C alliance. Then, they unexpectedly found that Class C had actually committed "fighting" violations under the conduct assessment, so they recorded it.
At the time, Katsuragi hadn't cared too much, but over the next two days, they discovered that after Ryuen took control of Class C, he began regulating his classmates directly—confiscating phones, using violent threats, and so on—actually causing the chaotic class to reduce its point deductions.
So, if left unaddressed, Class C might not have any major deductions for the remaining half-month, and their final score might stay around 750 to 800+ points—a score no Class C in history had ever achieved.
Therefore, out of crisis considerations, Katsuragi came to report Class C to try and shave off their points first.
But now that Class B didn't seem to feel they were "nursing a tiger," it looked like they would have to make several more trips. After all, they didn't have just one video of Class C fighting.
By sending different people over, they could increase the frequency of Class C's deductions.
.
.
.
Watching Katsuragi and the others walk away, Ichinose frowned slightly. But she still stood obediently by Hikigaya's side.
"So Class A reported Class C for fighting, and we in Class B aren't reporting at all?" She knew Hikigaya had the videos of Class C fighting taken by Kanzaki and Shibata.
"No," Hikigaya shook his head.
"We are definitely going to report them, but the target isn't the Student Council. I originally wanted Class A to notice and report Class C's fighting, but I was worried they wouldn't act, so we had to prepare. Now that they've acted out of fear of Ryuen's integration of Class C, it saves us that step."
"Then..." Ichinose still had some doubts.
Hikigaya stopped being cryptic and added:
"The school has two management systems: the Student Council and the Board of Directors. The Student Council is responsible for managing students; Katsuragi's report will naturally
cause Class C to be punished with point deductions. But how many points will be deducted is very specific. 20 points? 30? 50? It definitely won't exceed 200, so it won't be fatal.
But don't forget, this is a conduct assessment; the school primarily monitors students via cameras.
Now, we go back to the classroom and play all the collected videos of Class C fighting for the 'school' to see under the cameras. An incident involving half the class, multiple injuries, multiple occurrences, and group brawls is enough to wipe out Class C's entire conduct score for this exam. That is the real report I've planned."
Ah...
Ichinose Honami looked at Hikigaya-kun in shock. She thought she had learned a bit about how to survive in this school, but looking at it now, she was still far behind Hikigaya-kun.
Because...
'Are you a demon?'