11.5 Chapter 1.4: Graduation Ceremony Part 4

Part 4

That was the conclusion of my little talk with Chairman Sakayanagi yesterday.

And now, I'm headed towards the arranged reception room.

I had no intention to rendezvous with anyone else before coming here.

I reached the door of the reception room. Has anyone arrived before me? Or was I the first?

"Excuse me."

After knocking, I entered the room and was greeted by Chabashira-sensei.

She stood by the window and looked at me.

"You're early, Ayanokouji. There's still 10 minutes before the designated time."

"It doesn't make a difference. You're early as well."

Chabashira looked at me pryingly, contemplating how she should reply.

I could more or less guess what was going on in her mind when Chairman Sakayanagi told her about the situation.

Incredibly, the sofa was unoccupied, but neither of us sat down.

"Where's Mashima-sensei?"

"I've already greeted him, but it wasn't suitable for him to come with me. This is a bold move, Ayanokouji. Didn't you want to live a peaceful school life?"

Before Mashima-sensei arrives, I'll play a game of words with Chabashira-sensei.

"You say that, but you were the one that initially disrupted that peaceful school life."

"No matter what, that isn't how you should speak to a teacher. You might want to correct your attitude."

"I'd say my attitude is appropriate considering that what you've done back then wasn't something a teacher should have done."

Chabashira-sensei, who wanted Class D to rise to Class A, even resorted to threatening me, a student, to accomplish what she wanted. Ever since, I've always had a sense of distrust...No, disgust, for her.

Chabashira-sensei looked away, ashamed.

"Indeed, I can't deny that."

Her desire for reaching Class A was too strong.

Because Chairman Sakayanagi trusted her, she couldn't blatantly use me, but she could have handled it more smoothly.

No. No matter what she did, the result would've been the same.

Even if Chabashira tried to talk me over, my stance wouldn't have changed.

But then again, my situation had changed a lot since the beginning.

"Since you hate me, why call me here, Ayanokouji?"

It seemed that she was surprised that I called her over in this situation.

Although she was just a pawn to get Mashima-sensei involved, I still could have chosen to exclude her.

It wasn't hard to figure out why I didn't do that.

"At the very least, it's true that I don't like you."

"It seems so."

No matter what my feelings were, I had to use whatever I could.

Like and dislike was a separate matter than loss and gain.

That's because I judged that the presence of Chabashira would increase the chance of bringing Mashima-sensei to our side, even by a millimetre.

"How much did he tell you?"

"He asked me to prepare the meeting by contacting Mashima-sensei. He also said you had something important to talk about, and asked me to help you, but..."

Did she know anything about the situation with Tsukishiro?"

It seems like the Chairman intended for me to have all the power in this situation.

"What's the reason you wanted to talk to us then?"

"I'll say it once Mashima-sensei comes. I don't want to say it twice."

"Although I don't know what you got yourself into, if you want my help, shouldn't you use a more suitable tone?"

She was defiant, and that was perhaps because she was on the defensive in this situation.

"As a teacher, I will obey the instructions of Chairman Sakayanagi, but his word isn't absolute. Do you know what I mean by that?"

"Do you dislike my attitude that much?"

"Heh, I hate it. Although you are an excellent student to an extent, You're still only a 1st-year high school student, aren't you? And although it was a confrontation between classes, you were defeated by Sakayanagi at the end of year exam. Looks like you don't actually have the extraordinary strength I expected of you."

So was she disappointed that I didn't have the power she thought I had?

"If you have the necessary ability, I will tolerate what you say and what you do. However, if what you've displayed up to now is the extent of your power, it's a different story."

If I couldn't defeat Sakayanagi of Class A, then what Chabashira wanted couldn't be achieved.

It seemed like she could keep silent to me as I dominated her all this time.

Although Chabashira was a teacher, what she was doing right now was already beyond the scope of a teacher's duties.

Depending on the content of the conversation, she could, of course, refuse to help.

Depending on the situation, she might even choose to go over to Tsukishiro's side.

If I kept mentioning the fact that I wasn't in her control any longer, it would only be counterproductive.

I breathed out a sigh of relief, seeing that she possessed some degree of intelligence.

"I understand. I will change my attitude, Chabashira-sensei."

"What?"

Chabashira was surprised by my outspoken agreement.

I guess she didn't expect that her defiance on that level would make me yield to her.

Although it seemed like the reason was that I wanted to be able to continue with the conversation, it was mainly because I wanted to leave her with the possibility that I could be tamed.

However, despite this possibility, Chabashira still couldn't trust me entirely.

She could also think that I was laughing at her behind her back as I said that.

I intended to express the fact that I was a "positive presence" for the whole of Class D.

"My way of thinking has changed. After April, I plan to seriously target Class A."

"What's the joke here? Preparing this meeting as well, what are you thinking?"

"I'm completely serious. I plan to break away from Class D or Class C. However, because of the differences in Class Points, there's no guarantee that I'll be able to rise to Class A at the end of the next year. But I'm confident that we'll be able to rise to Class B."

For Chabashira, this was the thing she desired the most.

Rising from Class D to Class A.

That was something that had never happened in this school before.

"It seems like you've finally come to realise...but anything coming out of your mouth would mean nothing if you don't actually intend to do anything."

"That's true. But don't you want to keep your ticket to Class A?"

It didn't matter if this ticket was real or fake, as it was better than having nothing.

"I've already said this, but you lost against Class A at the end of year exam. Although you had an admirable ratio of 3 wins to 4 losses, a loss is still a loss. Although the exam required a certain amount of luck, I can't let you use that as an excuse."

She re-emphasized what was said before.

"No matter who the opponent is, and no matter what the exam is, you can win. It seems like I had been expecting a little too much out of you."

It seems like she had some sort of fantasy about me.

"You'll learn the truth later in the meeting."

"Learn the truth......?

"Listen to me until the end, and if you still can't trust my strength, you can do whatever you want."

"What is this-"

Although Chabashira wanted an answer, a loud knocking sound blocked out her voice.

"...Please come in."

As soon as Chabashira replied, Mashima-sensei entered the reception room.

"It seems like you're all here."

And immediately after-

"Hello."

A student of Class A, Sakayanagi Arisu.

She came in with Mashima-sensei. An unexpected guest.

I didn't remember calling her, and I didn't think Mashima-sensei would bring her here himself.

"I'm a student of Class A, so even if others see me walking with Mashima-sensei, there's isn't a problem."

Needless to say, Sakayanagi must have followed Mashima-sensei here.

"I received a notification from Chabashira-sensei. But she said she was related to this incident, so I brought her..."

Chairman Sakayanagi probably told his daughter about the call I gave him.

To be sure that I did indeed actually got his number from her.

But was that really related to why Sakayanagi was here?

Was she following orders, or was this just out of curiosity?

9 times out of 10, it's the latter.

"No problem, it's within the realms of my expectations."

I accepted this visitor as someone I should welcome and responded accordingly.

Sakayanagi nodded slightly with a smile.

Then, without even looking at Chabashira's direction, she closed the door to the reception room.

It seems like Chabashira couldn't keep up with why Sakayanagi was here.

Mashima-sensei was the same.

Regardless of that, all the necessary people were in place.

This limited amount of time had to be used meaningfully.

"You seem to have something to say to us, Ayanokouji. Making a special announcement through Chairman Sakayanagi, allowing us to skip the closing ceremony to have a secret meeting... What's the big deal? What's going on?"

"I will explain that now."

I first urged the two teachers to sit down.

But Mashima-sensei told Sakayanagi to sit down first.

"Then, I will respectfully do so."

Mashima-sensei stood, letting the crippled Sakayanagi sit, crossing his arms.

It seemed that whether he would sit depended on the contents of the conversation. Chabashira seemed to be the same.

The three other people in the room all looked towards me.

20-30 minutes was the maximum amount of time they could slip out of the closing ceremony, so time was minimal.

Although I wanted to get straight to the point, I didn't know how long it would take for them to understand. The current situation wasn't something that could be easily understood with just one explanation.

Time was precious, so I started with the matter of Acting Director Tsukishiro.

"You might be wondering why we're meeting at such a busy time, and that's because of important matters relating to Acting Director Tsukishiro."

"Important matters relating to Acting Director Tsukishiro? What are you talking about?"

Mashima-sensei's face had a perplexed expression, due to my unexpected statement right from the start.

Hearing a student saying such a thing, the expression that he had was understandable.

Chabashira also seemed unable to keep up with this, and instead turned her attention to the unexpected turn-up. Sakayanagi, who confronted the attention head first, flashed a fearless smile.

An expression which seemed to express her superior knowledge of the situation.

That cheerful expression that was on her face. Classic Sakayanagi.

"The current events are affecting the school's operations and management, and it has reached the point in which we can't ignore it. To smoothly settle this situation, I hope that you two teachers can help me while keeping this case confidential."

"I heard that there was something important to tell me... Is this a joke? Chabashira-sensei."

Finding it very difficult to believe, Mashima-sensei asked Chabashira sensei for an explanation.

"I'm not trying to play games with you. Did you think I'm someone who does meaningless things like Hoshinomiya-sensei?"

"That's what you say, but I don't understand the situation at all. Right now, there's a thank you meeting which I should be at."

This was originally supposed to be a valuable time to interact with the graduates.

He showed no interest in listening to a child's imagination run wild.

"What are you trying to do, Ayanokouji?"

"I don't know, even if I want to explain, I can't. Like I said yesterday, I just prepared this location under Chairman Sakayangi's orders. I also need an explanation for me to understand what's going on."

Both teachers cast a doubtful gaze at me, but I continued to explain.

"If I said that I'm the reason why Tsukishiro replaced Chairman Sakayanagi after being confined for suspected wrongdoing, what would you say, Mashima-sensei?"

"What?"

Even if we get straight into the topic, it wouldn't be easy to progress in this situation.

Not only that, but Mashima-sensei's doubts were growing deeper.

"This makes no sense. Why is it because of you?"

Of course, this would be the natural reaction.

He would never have thought that a student would shape the very structure of the school itself.

Sure enough, we should start with the end of year exam.

"Let me explain what happened—"

When I wanted to bring up the end of year exam, Sakayanagi raised her hand.

"Sorry, but is it alright for me to explain?".

Sakayanagi seemed to have anticipated this would happen and suggested explaining it herself.

"Sakayanagi, you said you knew about the situation, right? "

"Well, if you may excuse my rudeness, I think I understand the situation a lot better than you teachers."

Sakayanagi acted immediately. Maybe she thought that it would be faster for someone who understood the situation to explain, instead of the person in question explaining. I nodded slightly, so she turned her attention to Mashima-sensei.

"Are you saying that you've already heard about this from the Chairman?"

"No, it's just from what I've gathered. Ayanokouji-kun and I- How should I say this... Simply put, we're like childhood friends."

Sakayangi said this happily. Although I wasn't sure how the others would react to this, the teachers seemed surprised, at the very least.

"I never expected you two to be... childhood friends..."

Sakayangi explained to Chabashira what she meant.

"It's just something similar to that. Anyways, I'll explain the situation to you."

The matter of childhood friends was glossed over by Sakayanagi, and she began explaining the situation.

"I'm sure the confrontation between Ayanokouji-kun and me as the two commander towers at the end of year exam held a few days ago is still fresh in everyone's minds. Back then, my victory during the final chess event determined the outcome of the exam."

This was the result, which was a fact, at least as far as the school knew.

"What happened then?"

Of course, Mashima-sensei and Chabashira wouldn't have any doubts about what happened.

"What if I said during then, someone stepped in to interfere with the match, which changed the outcome, and therefore had a great impact on the test results? Wouldn't that be a serious issue?"

"Exams are carried out very strictly, and there are no problems with how they're conducted."

"Let me ask, on what basis are you to say that the exam was strictly run? Neither of you was present during the exam, right?"

Because they couldn't serve as an invigilator for their own class, Chabashira and Mashima-sensei were in charge of Ichinose's and Ryuuen's class. In other words, they did not see our exam take place in person.

"I was originally the loser of that chess game, Ayanokouji-kun came out victorious."

"Ayanokouji won that match? But I saw the results of the match, and I've also seen what happened during the match."

The first person to say something about this was not Mashima-sensei, but Chabashira.

It was because of Class C's defeat in chess that led to her class falling back to Class D, which was why she cared so much about this issue.

"You still don't get it?"

Sakayanagi used that question to sound out Mashima-sensei and Chabashira.

"What are you trying to say? Could it be that acting director Tsukishiro changed the results of the chess game? Sakagami-sensei and Hoshinomiya-sensei met up after the exam, and they didn't find anything irregular had happened."

"The thing that has changed wasn't the result, but the process. It's impossible to see the truth if one is bound by common sense. The orders that the commanding tower sends out weren't directly sent to the students. Instead, it was passed onto the school to review, and then after that, finally sent through the headphones. It is a reasonable system from on the basis of preventing misconduct. Still, on the other hand, the school is free to change its purpose."

Did they understand now? Just like that, Sakayanagi made them slowly come to an understanding.

For the first time, doubts about Acting Director Tsukishiro and the exam flashed through Mashima-sensei's mind.

"It was rare to have an exam that made use of such large scale equipment even for the teachers, but the fact of the matter is that Acting Director Tsukishiro urgently prepared that to illegally intervene with the exam."

Sakayagani cleverly intertwined lies, mysteries, as well as the truths together.

Because exactly how much Tsukishiro had planned out, only Tsukishiro would know.

Instead of confirming the facts, it was an appropriate explanation based on her conjectures, and she acted as if it were the truth.

Such well organized words would be accepted by the teachers.

Mashima-sensei and Chabashira wouldn't be able to understand it entirely due to the sheer volume of information just revealed to them. As Sakayagani was still explaining the topic, in order to keep up with her, their minds would have to treat what she said as a fact.

"Basically, the information Ayanokouji-kun inputted and the information Horikita-san heard- that is, the content read by the machine, was different. If she had followed Ayanokouji-kun's real instructions, I would've lost instead. Do you understand what that means?"

Sakayagani smiled, testing their ability to understand.

Could they understand with just that? This restricted the answer of the other party to only one possibility.

"You mean that Acting Director Tsukishiro-is behind this?"

"Because for him, the protection points Ayanokouji-kun held was in the way of his true objective, which is for Ayanokouji-kun to be expelled."

The two teachers did not speak.

But before long, Mashima-sensei asked something.

"Was what Sakayagani said true, Ayanokouji?"

"Yes, it's as she said."

"I'll admit that what you both said made some sense. As I've been Sakayanagi's teacher for a year, I have a certain understanding of her personality and how she thinks. If she really wanted to lose against Ayanokouji deliberately, she just needed to choose different examination events carefully to manipulate the results to what she wanted, including the chess event. She wouldn't have gained anything by lowering herself in order to elevate Ayanokouji."

As the leader of Class A, even if Sakayagani was lying, admitting defeat would have no benefits.

It's as Mashima-sensei said. If she wanted me to win due to personal reasons, there were many ways to concede victory, either by exceeding the time limit or some other method.

There was no need to deliberately set up something while also saying something of doubtful reliability.

"But even if we do know the whole sequence of events, there isn't a way for a third party to confirm its authenticity, right?"

Chabashira replied to Sakayagani in response to those unfounded statements.

"This was unbelievable for a moment....what do you think?"

Chabashira asked for the opinion of Mashima-sensei, who was seriously listening to what was being said.

"Never mind what I think, the current data is hard for anyone to accept."

Just when Mashima-sensei wanted to step back for a bit, Chabashira stopped him.

"My personal opinion is that what these two said has semblance of truth in it. Ever since Acting Director Tsukishiro arrived, the whole school feels a bit abnormal."

"If you believe that only because you don't like Tsukihiro, then there's no need to even think about it. It's the same as blindly believing your class can actually win."

Mashima-sensei spoke sternly towards Chabashira next to us.

And then immediately turned to us students.

"Do you two have any evidence?"

"If we said we heard about the improper behaviour directly from Tsukishiro himself, would you not believe us?"

"...Of course."

A person who engaged in illegal behaviour behind the scenes would not reveal themselves.

Even if the matter came up, the person wouldn't respond to anything. That was something which everyone understood.

"It's hard to believe that there is a child similar to Acting Director Tsukishiro who stepped up, wanting him to leave. That's what I really think."

"It's the truth."

"I don't want to doubt what you students say. I also don't think that you're stupid enough to not realise that lying right now won't do you any good. But this lacks any basis, as well as evidence."

Even though he really wanted to believe it, since there was no reliable evidence, Mashima-sensei would not accept it.

"What kind of person are you, Ayanokouji? Please tell me."

It had been only a matter of time before Mashima-sensei asked that question.

Chairman Sakayanagi was confined for suspected wrongdoing, so a man named Tsukishiro was sent to this school.

Tsukishiro started acting to make me drop out of school. Even if it meant interfering with a special exam, he had to carry out his orders. So it was inevitable that questions would arise about myself.

Should I explain it myself, or leave it to someone else?

Seeing that there was no response from me, Mashima-sensei turned to Chabashira.

"Do you know about Ayanokouji?"

Mashima-sensei asked Chabashira, who had just said that what we said had a certain amount of truth.

"Honestly... From my past experiences, I only know a little."

She glanced at me pryingly. I coldly ignored her.

There was no harm in Chabashira exposing some superficial information about me here.

"I looked at Ayanokouji's entrance exam results, and he scored 50 on all subjects, which I thought was extremely peculiar."

"50 points for each subject... does that mean he deliberately tried to score half marks for every subject?"

"If you investigate deeper yourself, you should see that it's true."

"Hou? How intriguing."

"But this doesn't prove anything. In general, students won't hold back their abilities during the entrance exam, but if you have high academic ability, it is not difficult to attain scores like that. In fact, the method the school uses to calculate the scores of the entrance exam is actually very simple."

"Also, when Ayanokouji enrolled in this school, Chairman Sakayanagi told me that he was a special student."

"Chairman Sakayanagi said that? Is that why you are here? Chabashira-sensei?"

Chabashira-sensei nodded and began talking about what happened at that time.

"He entrusted me, as his class teacher, with the duty of reporting back to him any inconveniences relating to Ayanokouji. As far as I know, Ayanokouji's father is very authoritarian, and he didn't want him to enter this school in the first place. Chairman Sakayagani had to use various methods to semi forcefully permit him to enter the school."

"So he enrolled him into this school without his guardian's permission? Looks like the Chairman is also someone willing to use such forceful means to get what he wants."

If we ignored compulsory education, every ordinary child needed their parent's permission to enter high school. The world wasn't so naive to let children do as they wish.

"Because of the fact my father and Ayanokouji-kun had some sort of relationship, I sympathised with his unfortunate situation and acted because of it. But now, various problems have arisen because of this incident. The Acting Director, Tsukishiro, attempted to get closer to him by fabricating evidence to restrain my father based on dishonest behaviour, and then tried to get Ayanokouji expelled."

That was the most important part for Mashima-sensei.

"The father was against his child entering this school, so he sent Acting Director Tsukishiro here..."

This wasn't something that an ordinary person's authority could achieve.

"He didn't need to do all this, he just had to complain to the school itself."

"His father had already been in contact with the chairman, and Ayanokouji himself after he enrolled."

"So you're saying that his guardian had already expressed to the school with the wish that he wanted Ayanokouji to withdraw?"

"Yes. It's as Chabashira-sensei says. I talked with Chairman Sakayanagi and my father in this very room. You can check the surveillance cameras out in the corridor to confirm if that's the truth."

"And after that, since you're still at the school, does that mean that they rejected the withdrawal application, including the chairman?"

"Yes."

Mashima-sensei wanted to confirm it, so Chabashira nodded her head.

"Chairman Sakayanagi respected the will of the students. Although this was just a temporary replacement...I didn't expect Acting Director Tsukishiro to be sent to the school just to get Ayanokouji expelled."

Sakayanagi replied to Chabashira's review of the situation.

"That isn't a surprise, it seems like Chabashira-sensei doesn't actually know anything about the situation."

"You seem to know that very well."

"Yes. I understand Ayanokouji-kun more than you do, Chabashira-sensei."

Sakayagani always had this unnecessary aura of superiority around her.

"Seeing me come here without an invitation without even objecting to my presence, isn't it obvious?"

Presenting indisputable facts, Sakayanagi smiled haughtily.

"Finally, I get to understand the big picture. At least the part about the father that wanted his child back is true."

Mashima-sensei had figured out what was happening in the current situation but still couldn't accept it.

"But...although I don't know the extent of Ayanokoji's father's authority, why did he have to try to get Ayanokouji expelled in this way? This doesn't seem realistic."

"Because Ayanokouji-kun possesses skill that other ordinary people do not."

"I've taken a look at Ayanokouji's results for the event selection exam from the past few days. In terms of flash mental math as well as chess skills, he's definitely top tier. But there are other similarly outstanding students, and it shouldn't be enough to label him as an extraordinary specimen."

"Mashima-sensei. I won't try to reject the method in how you've attempted to accept this situation. But have you actually thought about what's going on? From the start of school, my father had been paying attention to him. Then Acting Director Tsukishiro tried to use dishonest means to expel him from school. This is a fact, and the only truth."

Mashima folded his arms and closed his eyes.

"Mashima-sensei presumably has reached his verdict. It's just a matter of finding evidence later."

After staying silent for a bit, he opened his eyes and looked at me, Sakayagani, and finally, Chabashira.

"Yeah...The part about how the father was dissatisfied with his child's decision to enrol into the school and tried to get him expelled, I believe. And I don't want to help him with that. I'm sure you're clear with why."

Mashima-sensei was well aware that this was just the surface of the situation.

"Aren't you going to tell me everything?"

It seems that Mashima-sensei had figured out that there was something that was kept secret during the conversation by organising the contents of the discussion in his head.

But if he couldn't even decipher something on that level, then I'd be troubled.

"Yeah. Even if I told you, it wouldn't be of any help... no, it would be meaningless."

Even if I talked about the white room from the very start, I'm afraid the adults wouldn't be able to understand it.

Even if you relied on only common sense, it was obvious that that man was doing something strange.

And, even if I talked about the White Room here, it was still difficult to reach the truth.

Because that matter would've been completely covered up by now.

That being the case, there wasn't any point in doing such meaningless things.

"What if I refuse to assist you?"

"Although I don't intend to give up, if you refuse, it'll be a headache when dealing with Acting Director Tsukisiro. The school's events, whether it's a special exam or something else, would be a lot easier for him to intervene illegally. In fact, during the exam selection exam, it already happened."

Students alone couldn't prevent that from happening.

If we could convey that fact to Mashima-sensei, we could determine if he was a person who would turn a blind eye to that sort of thing.

"Are you trying to test me, Ayanokouji? ...Fine. In future special examinations and tests, I will properly handle them. I will not allow Acting Director Tsukishiro to engage in illegal participation again."

Finally, Mashima-sensei had said that he stood on our side.

"Mashima-sensei, you do realise that this isn't so simple, right?"

Chabashira warned Mashima-sensei, who had accepted all of this.

"Even if it's true that he did something against the rules, if we aren't careful, we could get fired."

I could understand why Chabashira said that.

Resisting against Tsukishiro would undoubtedly threaten their teaching careers.

The opponent this time wasn't someone you could fight against with just a half-assed sense of justice.

"Although I don't fully believe this, if what they said was true, then it'd be a grave matter. The school should never manipulate the course of the exam and change the results at will. If we're going to do this, you'll have to do this thoroughly and carefully."

"But, wouldn't it be better if you just ignored these troublesome issues? You just got your wages cut this morning for violating the rules during the event selection exam anyway."

Sakayanagi thought that was interesting, so she pounced on the opportunity.

"Pay cuts for violating rules? What exactly did you do?"

"I'm not going to tell you that."

"Is it because of a conflict that happened between Class B and D's exam? We'll hear about this sooner or later. But if it has something to do with Tsukishiro's improper acts, I think it's better to speak out about this element of concern now, or problems may occur later."

"This has nothing to do with the current situation."

Instead of Mashima-sensei who was not planning to explain, it was Chabashira-sensei that spoke up.

"Let me explain. During the event selection exam between Class B and D, one of the selected events of Class D was Judo. The student participating was Albert Yamada. Class B's Ichinose lost all her fighting spirit during then, which resulted in her failing to select a student to participate.

"Because the opponent was Yamada-kun, this isn't suprising. Probably no-one among the first year can beat him in judo."

"Of course, Ichinose had already decided on who was going to participate in the judo event. However, if the student was chosen randomly like that, what would happen? We don't know what would happen. Everyone should be aware of this."

Once the time was up, students who hadn't yet participated in any events would be automatically selected.

Not only the boys, but the girls as well.

"Even if they had lost immediately, nothing would've happened as a result. But this was Class B, and they would do anything for the sake of their companions. The selected students will most likely go all out for Ichinose."

No matter who the opponent was, Albert would not hold back in order to bring them down.

In that case, it was likely it would have resulted in a major accident.

"As a result, Mashima-sensei decided that it was Class B's loss, without even having a fight. This might have caused Acting Director Tsukishiro to become unhappy with him."

That's why Mashima-sensei wages got cut as a punishment? If I had to say whether this violated the rules or not, it indeed would be considered a violation.

"Both of those situations are the same. If something is considered dangerous to the students, I'll quickly stop it. If there's improper behaviour, I'll quickly see it corrected. We teach them this, so what would happen if we teachers don't apply what we teach to ourselves?"

And for that reason, even if this got in his way, he would not regret anything.

"It looks like I can't stop you."

"I've always consciously done my job as a teacher."

The words he said seemed simple, but Mashima-sensei really was an excellent person who was able to do what he said.

"Your...no, if Mashima-sensei's decision is final, I have nothing else to say."

"Have we reached a temporary agreement?"

Sakayanagi asked me, and I nodded in agreement.

Chabashira backed down, presumably because she realised that trying to persuade Mashima-sensei was pointless.

"Since Mashima-sensei agreed, I'll help as well. Is that fine, Ayanokouji?"

"An additional person on our side is greatly appreciated."

"Let's put an end to this discussion now. I'll keep this to myself. There's no problem with that right?"

"Of course."

After all, both Mashima-sensei and Chabashira hadn't actually seen Tsukishiro's wrongdoings with their own eyes.

And if we increase the number of teachers who are in the know, the chances of leakage of information would increase correspondingly.

Once Tsukishiro finds out that there are people who are trying to expose his wrongdoings, then he would naturally be more alert.

"I also intend to stand at Ayanokouji's side at the time being."

"Sakayanagi. Even if you do know Ayanokouji's situation, if people see you giving special treatment to him, it will raise some questions."

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm going to give him special treatment. I've got the right to do so."

Sakayanagi countered Mashima's words head-on.

"...What right?"

"Yes, although this school's system revolves around competition between the classes, the students themselves will have various situations among them. Some of them might have friends or lovers in other classes that they'll betray for, and some might have relationships that revolve money, or violence. Sometimes, one's feelings can go beyond the boundaries of classes, forming mutually beneficial relationships with people in other classes. Is the climate of this school always the same? No, it's constantly changing. In that way, it's the same as society itself, isn't it?"

Sakayanagi asserted that no one had the power to stop anyone from treating someone else specially.

"Even if I only was able to save Ayanokouji-kun and abandoned my classmates in Class A, the teachers won't have any reason to blame me. The only ones who can resent me will be the students I've betrayed."

Mashima-sensei might have beeen dissatisfied with what Sakayanagi said, but he did not retort.

"But he may find special treatment to be unwelcoming."

"Why?"

"I'll wait until the Acting Director is gone, but after that, things will be different. And when Class D obstructs Class A, I will beat them out mercilessly at any time."

"Will you? That's good."

Mashima-sensei accepted this, facing against the determined Sakayanagi.

"Let's confirm this again. Right now, we can't find any evidence to prove that Acting Director Tsukishiro has acted improperly, is that right?"

"It's already been erased, so it'd be meaningless to investigate now."

He would not do something as foolish as deliberately leaving evidence.

"Then, it seems that we can only wait for his next move."

The teachers had a better understanding of the exams we will face after we become 2nd years.

As for what Tsukishiro would do, I'll leave that to Mashima-sensei to think about.

"It's been more than 30 minutes, and it won't be good to be absent from the closing ceremony for too long. You students head out first, then we'll leave the room separately."

"Got it."

Sakayanagi and I walked out of the reception room and out to the corridor at the same time.

Then the two of us walked side by side together.

"Although it's a bold move, it's beneficial to have Mashima-sensei on our side. As the person in charge of the first year, he's closer to the acting director than anyone else."

"Mhm. Even if it doesn't stop Tsukishiro completely, if it'll restrain him, then it's already a good result."

"Mashima-sensei might have too strong of a sense of righteousness. It's a little worrying. That should be considered one of his negatives in his evaluation."

"Yeah. Although he's reliable, he does have some drawbacks."

"If he gets involved too deeply, Mashima-sensei will be fired. But since he's this sort of person, it will happen sooner or later anyway."

Sakayagani said. Looking at the side of her face, it seemed like she was happy.

"You seem happy."

"I'm delighted. Aren't you?"

"I don't know. The situation I'm in is a bit troublesome after all. Why are you here anyway-"

"Yes, I'm here because this seems like fun. Does that bother you?"

Sakayagani immediately admitted all that.

"No. Because your arrival had improved my chances of persuading Mashima-sense, I thank you for that."

"Well, that's great then."

Sakayanagi turned to face my direction and smiled.

"I won't allow the school to repeatedly interfere with the outcome of our battles."

Sakayanagi was furious at Tsukishiro's inappropriate behaviour.

Afterwards, she was facing a complete battle with Tsukishiro, and work towards removing him from the school.

"The enemy that's right in front of us is careless, so we should resolve this as soon as possible."

In Tsukishiro's eyes, we were nothing more than a few high school students. No matter how much we tried, we couldn't create a big enough storm to affect him.

If he thought like that, he would make mistakes.

"Ayanokouji-kun. At the moment, please let me work towards getting rid of Acting Director Tsukishiro."

"Thanks for your help."

Whether she can be trusted wasn't something that needed to be seen as a critical issue.

Because based on our interactions, I was already familiar with Sakayanagi's personality.