Volume 11, Chapter 8: Class B vs. Class D Part 3

I cant take it anymore! Im at my limit!

Although Ibuki had been more than patient, the time was now just past 8 PM.

She was beyond irritated. The word late hardly even applied anymore; This could only be described as being stood up.

Oho. You say that, but havent you only sung like 10 songs?

You still havent hit your limit yet, Ibuki-san!

I went past my limit a long time ago! Im sick of this!

Then lets do our best to try and surpass your limits altogether!

Im not joking around here!

Jeeze, yer pissy Arent you tired of being angry all the time?

One look at your ugly mug would make anyone a million percent more tired.

Ishizaki reached out to try and stop Ibuki, but she shook him off and began to leave.

However, just as she reached for the door handle, the door opened all on its own.

The hell? Did you guys seriously wait here thinking Id show up eventually?

A man, Ryen, entered the room with a grin on his face. As if by impulse, Ishizaki and Ibuki froze up entirely.

They never thought that hed actually come.

Youre late, Ryen-kun.

You say that, but it looks like youre enjoying yourself.

Yes. Ive never been to karaoke before. Im having a great time.

Then Ill get out of your hair. Make sure you enjoy yourself, Ibuki. Sorry for bothering you all.

Ryen sneered as he tried to close the door behind him, but Ibuki stopped him.

Ill kick your ass if you leave me here in karaoke hell any longer.

Kuku. How scary.

Ryen was then pulled into the room by Ibuki and had Ishizaki order him some sparkling water.

Then, he sat down and began to play with his phone without saying anything.

So?

Ibuki questioned him, urging him to speak.

So? What do you mean?

You kept us waiting for this long and youre not even gonna say anything?

I just came by to see if you guys were still wasting your time waiting here for me.

He took a sip of the sparkling water Ishizaki had ordered for him.

Thats all there is to it.

Shiinas forced me to stay here for hours now. Ive run out of patience.

Aint my fault.

Of course it is!

Pounding her fists on the table, Ibuki scowled at Ryen.

O-oi, calm down Ibuki. Snapping at Ryen-san wont do ya any good.

For crying out loud, how long are you gonna just sit there and wag your tail for him?

How long? I Ive already decided to follow Ryen-san.

You shameless mutt. You hated being his lackey at first.

D-dont go saying unnecessary shit like that!

While the two of them were busy going at each other, Shiina was focused on selecting a new song.

We ended up throwing away our right to choose our opponent because this idiot got caught up in your smooth talk.

Sure seems like it.

Ishizaki curled back. If they had gone with the class consensus, they wouldve chosen Class C. It was the one class they thought theyd have a chance of defeating.

However, Ishizakis actions had changed things, and they didnt have the slightest clue about how they would win.

This buffoon listens to anything that comes out of your mouth. That means youre also partially responsible for saying it.

Kuku, I cant blame ya. I said something stupid too.

With a smile, Ryen began to open up.

Do you remember what I did to Class B back at the start of the year?

If I recall correctly, you tried to get them to split up, yes?

At Ryens instruction, he had started a dispute with Class B where he tried to get them to have a falling out.

To check the potential of each class, he had intentionally sparked a fire.

It had happened around the time back when Sud had gotten into a brawl and when he had secretly made contact with Katsuragi.

Remember what the result was?

It didnt have any effect. Class B became very unified quite quickly. Right?

Yep. Those guysve got more cohesion and unity than any other class.

Isnt that why we shouldve avoided going up against Class B in a team competition like this?

I agree with Ibuki. Itll be difficult to go against Ichinose and her army of admirers.

Ibuki and Ishizaki both shared the collective opinion of Class D.

Shiina, whats your take on Class B?

Lets see As Ibuki-san and Ishizaki-kun have said, Class B is indeed strong. All of their abilities are above average as well. Its quite enviable that they are so very harmonious with one another, but you could say thats all they really have going for them. They have no particular threats, theyre just a close-knit class.

After Shiina finished giving her analysis, Ibuki quietly commented.

Youve got such a gentle face, but your words are almost heartless.

After hearing everyones opinions, Ryen gave his own evaluation of Class B.

If you ask me, their biggest flaw is Ichinose Scratch that, its their lack of a leader.

H-hold up. I dont understand what you mean. Ichinose is their leader, isnt she?

Between Ichinose and Kanzaki, neither of them are natural-born leaders. Theyre the type of people whore better suited to support a leader. Instead of placing someone like her in charge, theyd be way better off with people like Suzune or Katsuragi. This is the reason why our rotten Class D stands a chance at winning.

But the fact that its an incompatible matchup still hasnt changed, right? Class D is below average at almost everything, so in that sense, you could even say that theyre the worst possible opponent for us right now.

Id say weve got pretty low chances no matter who we fight against.

D-do we really suck that much?

While Ishizaki was completely stunned, neither Ryen nor Shiina were very affected by his reaction.

But

Ryen picked up his empty glass of sparkling water and looked at Ibuki and the others through it.

With a bit of trickery, our low chancesll be closer to 50%. And depending on the situation, it might shoot up even higher than that.

Ryen took out a sheet of folded paper and handed it over to Shiina.

Written on it were the names of ten different events, five of which had been marked as favorites for the events theyd actually be choosing.

As Shiina read through it, Ibuki and Ishizaki both leaned in from the side to take a peek as well.

When the day comes, well smash this exam.

Wait a second, these are all-

Thats right. Those events are all based entirely around forcing your opponents to surrender through brute force.

Ten physically demanding events, including Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, Kendo, and Wrestling.

Hold on. Its true that, uh, there are several people in our class who can hold their own like me, Albert, Komiya, and Kond. Ibuki too but some of the others cant.

Ishizaki was saying that, even if the stronger students could pick up the win in one or two events, there was no way of telling how the rest of the events would play out.

Yeah. Class Bs got plenty of athletic people of their own. Itd be different if we could get them to compete one-on-one, but doesnt the rule involving the required number of participants kinda get in the way of that?

Ibuki shared Ishizakis uncertainty. Even if they were to leave everything to the luck of the draw, there was no guarantee that theyd win all of them. However, Ryen responded flatly.

So what?

Eh?

Dont get so caught up with shit like participant numbers. It doesnt matter.

While Ishizaki was having a hard time trying to grasp Ryens intentions, Shiina caught on immediately.

I see, so thats how we should look at it? It doesnt matter how many participants an event might have, it all depends on the rules. If we make use of tournament-style knock-out rules, we can win with only one person.

Exactly. Lets say we did a ten-on-ten Judo event. Just having Albert would be more than enough.

But would the school even allow that? Tournament-style knock-out rules?

Itd prolly be impossible to use knock-out rules in a written test or some sort of ball game. But in sports like Karate and Judo, tournament-style rulesets are fairly standard. They wouldnt be able to say theyre unacceptable. For events like Karate, it should be fine as long as we use the non-contact Sundome ruleset in order to tone down the danger. Even if the school rejects one or two of em for being too dangerous, it should be fine if we can somehow get at least five through the process.

We can do it! With this, we can really do it Ryen-san!

Having finally put together all the pieces, a glimmer of hope flashed across Ishizakis eyes. However, Ibuki still had her doubts.

With this, its true that well be able to win our own events, but what if we dont get lucky? What if more of Class Bs events end up getting drawn?

Theres a 50% chance, cant you just be happy with that?

If Im gonna cooperate with you, Im gonna have to demand that you secure the win.

Kuku, of course. Ive got a plan.

Based on raw ability, Class D was in no position to even think about winning the events Class B would propose right now.

Ryen was saying that they needed to come up with another method to shorten the gap.

What do you want us to do?

Little by little, Ibuki began to understand the situation.

Sin to win.

Ryen smiled.

Youll be picking on some of those Class B guys day in and day out from now until the exam. At first, all youve gotta do is follow em around. Theyll notice what were doing sooner or later.

The heck? You really saying something tiny like that is gonna stress them out?

Class B is probably gonna laugh at us, calling our actions childish. As long as we dont actually do them any harm, theyll just choose to drop it. Thats the type of person Ichinose is. In the end, she wont even notice what were doing.

What were doing?

Either way, thats just the plan for the first week. Once their ten events get announced, well start cranking up the heat. Any petty little thingll do. Taking their seats in the cafeteria, glaring em down, accusing them of being loud. Anything goes, really, just dont go overboard. You guys know the perfect people to do this, right?

Ryen was saying that they should include the people who can hold their own in fights like Ishizaki.

Does Does that mean you want me to get into fights with them?

Our goal is just to interact with them more. Dont even think of threatening or fighting them at this point. Well save that as a trump card we can pull on them at the very end.

It was necessary to keep everything they did as vague and abstract as possible.

If they went about creating a bunch of one-sided problems, thered be no way of preventing the school from intervening.

The most important part of all of this is information. Throughout all our interactions with em, well steal their intel and get a head start on figuring out which events theyre gonna choose on exam day. Its natural that theyll come to some sort of consensus on their 5 events from pretty early on. Then some dumbassll discuss these events over email or group chat. Its the same kinda shit you guysll be doing in Class D, right?

Y-yes. Weve also tried to find a good time to discuss which events wed be going with.

There you go. Even if their lips are sealed, their phones will be left defenseless. After all, they probably think theres no way somebody would snoop through them without permission. And, their policy will become more solidified as the exam approaches. We may even be able to find out wholl be participating in each event.

Thats easy to say and all, but is it actually going to go that smoothly?

We wont be relying on luck, Ill be guiding you guys through the specific details. The groundwork for all of this is the shit we start with them tomorrow. Besides, well also be taking some other measures aside from just stealing info from em. Like using this.

What the is that a laxative?

This is a slow-acting laxative that begins to take effect after 48 hours. If we can trick some of em into taking one of these, one or two of em might not be feelin that good on exam day, eh?

Y-you. This type of crap is against the rules! What if it gets exposed!?

Who gives a shit?

!

You really think Im the type of person who cares about something like that?

Haa Right, I remember now. That you were the type of guy whod do anything to win.

If something happens then Ill take full responsibility. Simple as that.

Regardless of whatever penalty the school might impose on him, Ryen wasnt concerned in the slightest.

Even if the class ends up taking damage for it, they would still suffer a crushing defeat anyway.

You only came up with this cuz youve already given up on being here before

Earlier, when you said wed save fighting as a trump card for later, did that mean youd be willing to use force if things took a turn for the worse?

Yeah. Its fairly typical for fights to break out amongst brats over petty random shit. It also wouldnt be that bad if some of the people theyre planning to use in their events got into a fight with some of our incompetent classmates. That way, wed prolly have an advantage on exam day, right?

Now that he had set his mind on it, Ryen definitely wouldnt be easing up on Class B.

Ill become the commander on the day of the exam. Itll be important to make Ichinose lose her cool as well.

Youre brutal

Ill take that as a compliment. Lets give em a taste of what Class Ds capable of, aight?

Y-yesh!!!

What kind of noises are you making?

Ibuki let out a sigh, exhausted by the outrageous mess this had all turned into.

And yet, she found that she didnt hate it for some reason, a feeling that disgusted her.

But Why are you doing this, Ryen-san? Its not just because you pitied us, right?

Hm, why indeed?

Ryen leaned back on the couch and shut his eyes. He had no lingering attachments to this school. At least, that was the case at first, but now that he was here, something in him had started to change a little.

Ayanokji Kiyotaka. Ever since he lost to that man, he felt frustrated with the idea of leaving the school. By becoming the commander and forcing himself into a situation where he couldnt look back, he was looking to confirm whether or not this frustration meant he wanted a rematch with Ayanokji. If he really didnt have any lingering attachments, he could just select people at random for the events and lose the exam on purpose.

But if he still had regrets if he felt a true, growing desire to face Ayanokji again, he would find a way to survive. He wanted to know for sure which option hed choose.

(Chapter 8 End)