In the student council office, Nagumo frowned as he stared at his phone, which had just been hung up.
I just announced that we'd be loosening the rules on violence, and the very next day, you're reporting a fight? And this whole thing started because of you, didn't it?
To test my limits, you first stirred up conflict among the first-years, pushed them into fighting, and then stayed on the sidelines to see how I'd handle it?
Nagumo was almost speechless at Kanda Shuichi's bold approach, but he still immediately gathered several student council members and headed toward the first-year building.
After all, since the report came from Kanda Shuichi, the student council vice president, he wouldn't joke about something like this. If Nagumo ignored the report and something big actually happened, his position as student council president would be in danger.
It was just like calling the police—whenever there's a report, the police have to respond. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm, they still have to check.
But if someone calls the police, and they don't show up, and then something really does happen… the public will definitely criticize them.
So as soon as Nagumo received the report, he had no choice but to act immediately.
"You hear that, Ibuki? Since things are already headed this way, might as well take this chance to beat him up."
Ibuki understood what Ryuen meant. Since they couldn't keep things under wraps today, they might as well go all out!
But…
Just as she was about to make her move, Ibuki glanced at Ayanokouji.
"Are you planning to stop me?"
If this guy stands in front of Kanda Shuichi, there's no way I can break through his defense.
But as soon as she spoke, Ayanokouji silently shifted his foot to the side, making it clear he had no intention of interfering.
"How heartless, Ayanokouji. I was here to save you, you know?"
Kanda Shuichi joked.
But no one believed that nonsense—not Ayanokouji, not even Ryuen, who scoffed at the remark.
Seeing Ayanokouji step aside, Ibuki dashed forward and aimed a kick straight at Kanda Shuichi's chest.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You really don't care about your image, do you? I can see everything from this angle—blue and white stripes, huh…? You act all tough, but you're surprisingly pure."
But Ibuki couldn't care less about that right now. She just wanted to vent her frustration.
If Kanda Shuichi had been his usual self, he would've had a hard time dodging Ibuki's kick and might not have avoided it at all.
However, with his black belt hidden under his school uniform, his vision, strength, and reflexes were all on a completely different level.
Just as Ibuki got close, Kanda Shuichi suddenly bent down and caught her incoming right leg with both hands.
Ibuki instantly felt a powerful force on her leg, and before she knew it, her body was lifted off the ground, soaring through the air. Once again, she found herself looking up at the sky.
A classic over-the-shoulder throw, just like Mori Kogoro's move!
With just one move, Ibuki was slammed onto the ground, her whole body feeling like it was falling apart. She was still conscious, but the pain was so intense that she couldn't get up.
"You… you… damn it…"
The scene fell into complete silence.
Ishizaki stared blankly at Ibuki, who was lying on the ground.
"Ibuki got taken down by that weakling in a single throw? Albert, tell me I'm dreaming!"
But Yamada Albert only looked at Kanda Shuichi with a serious expression.
"Not a dream."
Everyone present was skilled in fights, and just from that one move, it was clear that Kanda Shuichi had incredible judo skills.
Ryuen's lips twitched slightly, and he felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
What the hell, what kind of monsters are in Class D?
First, there was that unknown Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. And now, you're telling me that the sickly-looking Kanda Shuichi is also this strong in combat?
Not to mention that mysterious Koenji…
And this is supposed to be the "defective" Class D?
What a joke!
Looking at Ibuki on the ground, Kanda Shuichi suddenly felt a little sorry for her. This was probably the second time today she had been slammed down like this.
Turning his gaze away, Kanda Shuichi, who had just dealt with Ibuki, looked at Ayanokouji.
"Aren't you going to attack me?"
"I don't have any grudge against you. Why would I attack?"
Ayanokouji had no hesitation fighting Ryuen because he had been tricked into coming here with a fake love letter.
Besides, Ryuen had a few people lying in wait here, and he even painted over the security camera. On top of that, he was injured himself.
So this was self-defense at best—just a regular fight between students. But if he were to attack Kanda Shuichi, that would be a direct assault on the vice president of the student council.
Maybe, as Kanda Shuichi said, this year's student council president was more lenient about fights, but what if that wasn't the case?
Ayanokouji had no intention of getting expelled over this. A regular fight between students and attacking a student council officer were two completely different things.
Besides, knowing how shameless Kanda Shuichi was, Ayanokouji was sure that if he made a move, Kanda would immediately play the victim. So under no circumstances could he start a fight.
And so, the scene reached a stalemate. The ones who wanted to fight had already been taken care of, and the ones who could still fight had no intention of stepping in.
Right at that moment, Nagumo finally arrived at the first-year school building's rooftop with his people.
Seeing Nagumo show up so late, Kanda Shuichi was reminded of a scene from a movie.
"The cops are here to clean up the mess!"
Looking at Ryuen and the others lying on the ground, then at Kanda Shuichi and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka still standing, Nagumo Miyabi clearly had no idea what was going on.
"You guys really made a mess here."
"This has nothing to do with me. I just got here." Kanda Shuichi immediately distanced himself. "The fight was between Ryuen's group and this guy named Ayanokouji."
"As for why… well, I guess Ayanokouji got a love letter from someone, showed up on the rooftop as planned, and then Ryuen and his group were already here. After that, something happened, and Ryuen decided to beat up Ayanokouji. But he didn't expect Ayanokouji to be such a good fighter, and his whole group ended up getting taken down instead."
Weren't you the one who just said you got here? How do you know so much?
Everyone present had the same thought in their heads.
"I was the one who told them to go after Ayanokouji. They were just following my orders. If anyone has to take the fall, it should be me alone."
Ryuen staggered to his feet and spoke to Nagumo.
There was no way to cover this up. No matter how things played out, the fact remained that Ayanokouji only came to the rooftop because he received a love letter.
That letter was proof. Ryuen couldn't talk his way out of it, so he might as well take full responsibility. At the same time, he was also using this to test Nagumo's stance.
By showing goodwill toward Kanda Shuichi, he was hoping Kanda would speak up and help protect Ishizaki and the others.
"Ryuen!"
"Shut up, Ishizaki!"
Ryuen snapped at Ishizaki before he could say anything. A one-on-one fight and a group beating were two very different things. Even though Ishizaki meant well, speaking out now could just make things worse.
"You're overthinking this, Ryuen. President Nagumo has said it himself—he plans to allow fights to some extent. After all, it's normal for teenagers to get into fights, right, President Nagumo?"
Kanda Shuichi was still testing him, trying to see if Nagumo actually meant what he had said. If not, then the so-called "Nagumo Kingdom" he had built might just collapse because of this.
The second-year students followed him because they trusted him. They believed he would use his points to help the most capable people get into Class A.
If he went back on his word now, it would be a huge blow to his plans.
So even though Kanda Shuichi was practically dancing all over his face, Nagumo had no choice but to follow along.
"That's right. I did say that." Nagumo stepped forward and looked at Ryuen. "But every fight has a reason. Care to explain what this one was about?"
Ryuen stayed silent. What was he supposed to say? That he found out Ayanokouji had planted a listening device in his class, so he lured him up here with a fake love letter to beat him up?
Seeing Ryuen keep quiet, Nagumo turned his gaze to Ayanokouji. But Ayanokouji simply played dead, refusing to say a word.
There was no way around it. While Ayanokouji was at fault for secretly planting a bug, Ryuen had also tricked him into coming here with a love letter and tried to beat him up.
Both sides had dirt on each other, so neither of them spoke.
"If you don't want to talk now, that's fine. Since none of you are seriously injured, I'll just turn a blind eye to this and won't issue any expulsions."
Not seriously injured…
Kanda Shuichi took a good look at Ryuen's face, which was swollen like a pig's head, and couldn't help but laugh. The other student council members, following his lead, struggled to hold back their own laughter.
Nagumo sure was good at twisting the truth with a straight face.
"Kanda, since you're the one who reported this, how do you think they should be punished? This is a first-year issue, so I'll leave it to you."
Hearing Kanda Shuichi laugh, Nagumo immediately pushed the responsibility onto him. He had already given a general ruling—now the details were Kanda's problem.
If the punishment was too light, they wouldn't be grateful, since he was the one who reported them in the first place. If it was too harsh, they would only resent him.
Either way, he had already played the "good guy" role. The rest was up to Kanda.
"I have full authority to handle it?" Kanda Shuichi smirked and then turned to Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. "Even though President Nagumo is willing to turn a blind eye, if they don't receive some kind of punishment, they might not learn their lesson."
"First, this incident should be made public."
That way, Ayanokouji wouldn't be able to hide the fact that he single-handedly took down four of Ryuen's top fighters.
"And since this is a first offense, each of them should write a 10,000-word reflection. After all, this was a fight caused by both sides, not a one-sided case of bullying."
This statement made Kanda Shuichi's stance clear—he had no issue with fights to some extent, but outright bullying was unacceptable.
As soon as Kanda finished speaking, another vice president, Kiriyama, stepped forward.
"Aside from that, we found that a security camera on the rooftop was blacked out. Who did it?"
Saying this, Kiriyama looked at Ryuen, who was still on the ground, and then at Ayanokouji, who was standing nearby.
"It was me."
Hearing Ryuen admit it, Kiriyama nodded. "In that case, make sure you fix it. Someone will check later."
"Now that this is settled, we're leaving. But since an incident happened, we need to get all the details. I won't be involved in that part." Nagumo didn't seem interested in staying any longer. "Kanda, I'm leaving the rest to you. Make sure to hold a hearing after school tomorrow and come to a final decision."
"Of course."
With that, Nagumo and the others left the rooftop of the first-year building.
Nagumo's main goal in coming here was to prevent things from escalating further. Even the prime minister avoids enforcing the death penalty—why would a student council president want to deal with something that serious?
Obviously, he didn't want anyone dying, so he rushed over to check on the situation.
Once he arrived and saw that Ryuen and his group looked terrible but weren't seriously injured, he immediately took a stance.
As long as no one was badly hurt, he wouldn't get involved. After all, it wasn't his problem.
As for Kanda Shuichi's ruling, he had no reason to oppose it. Bullying was something he neither condoned nor outright rejected.
Before leaving, he even gave Ryuen's group a day to come up with an explanation.
After Nagumo left, Ryuen turned to Kanda Shuichi.
"Heh, so you get to be both the good guy and the bad guy?"
"Well, you could always drop out."
Kanda Shuichi's words immediately shut Ryuen up.
"Since this is over, I'm leaving now."
Ayanokouji, who had been standing silently in the corner the whole time, finally spoke.
At this point, he could only feel exasperated. Just yesterday, he had warned Kanda Shuichi to stay out of his business, and now he had fallen right into his trap.
Solving today's problem would have been easy—just let Ryuen beat him up without fighting back.
But that was never an option. So Ayanokouji didn't hesitate to take Ryuen down.
Even though he knew this would expose his strength, he did it anyway.
Anyway, I'm just fast at running and good at fighting, basically on the same level as Sudou. No big deal, no big deal.
"See you."
Kanda Shuichi smiled, eager to see what would happen tomorrow.
Then, he turned to Ryuen and took out a small bottle from his pocket, tossing it over.
"This is safflower oil. Rub it on your face, and the swelling will go down overnight. You wouldn't want to show up at school looking like a swollen mess, would you?"
"Tch, do you even know whose fault this is?" Ryuen clicked his tongue as he caught the bottle.
"How was I supposed to know that guy could fight like that?" Kanda Shuichi shrugged innocently. "Anyway, I'm heading out. Even though I gave you the safflower oil, you guys should probably still go to the infirmary or even a hospital. This stuff won't help if you've got broken bones."
"Just get lost already! Seeing your face pisses me off!"
"Well, that's just perfect then."
Kanda Shuichi turned to leave, but as he passed by Ibuki, he stopped.
"You're still lying on the ground? Isn't it cold?"
"Shut up."
Ibuki was still flat on her back, only turning her head to the side.
Getting slammed to the ground twice in one day—no, in just an hour—was the ultimate humiliation for Ibuki Mio. I swear, I'll get back at them for this!
As Kanda Shuichi walked out of the school building, he noticed that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka hadn't left yet. He was standing by the school gate, clearly waiting for someone.
"How lucky. President Nagumo was kind enough not to expel you."
"So this was your way of sending me a warning?"
"A warning? Never thought you knew that term." Kanda Shuichi chuckled. "Well, if that's what you think, then sure."
"Why are you targeting me? I don't think I've done anything to get in your way."
"Ayanokouji, I don't care if you want to enjoy your school life. There are plenty of people in your class who are worse than you and completely useless. But why am I targeting you? Blame Horikita. She's the one who shared her suspicions about Kushida with you."
So it's about Kushida…
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka felt like he was getting dragged into something for no reason.
"Ayanokouji, I won't meddle in your affairs anymore. But I hope you don't do anything unnecessary from now on. Otherwise, I won't go easy on you."
With that, Kanda Shuichi turned and headed toward the Keyaki Mall Shopping Center.
He still had to go back and remove the cameras later. No time to cook today.
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