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Classroom of The Elite Vol. 9
Classroom of The Elite Vol. 9
Character Gallery
Table of Contents Page
Title Page
Copyrights and Credits
Chapter 1: Ichinose Honami’s Soliloquy
Chapter 2: The Student Council President’s Inclination
Chapter 3: Changing Relationships
Chapter 4: Unchanging Intent
Chapter 5: Ichinose’s Secret, Kamuro’s Secret
Chapter 6: Rumors Running Rampant
Chapter 7: Ambiguous Things
Chapter 8: All the Tricks
Chapter 9: Return
Postscript
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A BOUT TWO HOURS LATER, the girls were chatting amongst themselves
while Keisei pored over his notebook. I dipped in and out of the girls’
conversation while I fiddled with my phone. And then, Haruka’s phone
vibrated where it sat on the table.
“Oh, it’s from Miyacchi.”
Haruka fiddled with the touchscreen options and answered the call on
speaker phone.
“You finished with club stuff?” she asked.
“Sorry, think I’ll be a little late.” It was Miyake Akito, and he sounded
nervous.
“Huh? Is practice running late or something?”
“No…no, I think some trouble’s about to go down.”
“Wait, trouble? What kind of trouble? Explain it to me so I can
understand what’s going on.”
“Class A and Class B are going at it. If the worst-case scenario happens
and a fight breaks out, I’ll probably need to step in and stop it.”
Sounded like Akito hadn’t really gotten involved yet, but…Class A
and Class B? The faces of the core members of Class B flashed through my
mind. Would Ichinose really be so careless as to let a fight break out?
“Probably better to just leave it be,” said Haruka. “It doesn’t have
anything to do with our class.”
“Could be our problem tomorrow though,” said Akito, before ending
the call. Although normally a man of few words, he had a surprisingly
passionate side to him. Like when he’d welcomed Ryuuen into our group at
the school camp, despite no one else wanting anything to do with him.
“I wonder who’s fighting…?” said Airi, sounding concerned.
“It’s usually that class always starting fights. But not this time, I
guess,” said Haruka. She was referring, of course, to Ryuuen’s class, now
W E DIDN’T SEE any sign of Akito as headed for the archery club.
“Huuuh? Where is Miyacchi, anyway?”
We were certain he’d been heading to the café, meaning he’d probably
changed direction once he saw a fight brewing. We kept looking, and a few
minutes later, we got some reliable information from a classmate who was
heading back to the dorms from club activities.
And so we arrived at a spot by the side of the gym, a short distance
from the school building, where we found two male students facing off
against one another. Neither of them appeared to be the people whom Haruka
and Airi had been expecting.
One of them was Hashimoto, from first-year Class A. The other was
Kanzaki, from first-year Class B. Akito stood between them, as if trying to
keep a handle on the situation.
“You guys aren’t really going to fight, are you?” asked Akito.
“You’re real persistent, Miyake. Besides, I wasn’t the one trying to
pick a fight here in the first place. Kanzaki dragged me into this,” said
Hashimoto. At that, my eyes met his. “Looks like your friends have arrived,
huh?”
When he said that, Akito and Kanzaki looked over in our direction at
almost the exact same time.
“…You guys came?” Akito didn’t sound thrilled to have us sticking
our noses in this. Well, I suppose there wasn’t anything to be gained by
getting the girls involved in this mess.
But Haruka spoke up, snapping back at Akito. “You’re the one who
stuck your nose into something weird, Miyacchi. We just came to save you.”
“Save me…” Akito looked to the sky regretfully. “Of course.”
“So, what’s up? These two fighting?” asked Haruka.
Realizing there was no point arguing, Akito changed gears. “I was
I SPENT THE REST of the time leisurely hanging out in my room. At five
minutes to seven, I left my room and walked over to Horikita’s. At almost the
exact moment I got off the elevator, I spied Ichinose.
“Ah, good evening, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Ichinose.
I responded to her with a light wave.
“Sorry for the bother,” I told her.
“Aha ha! No no, I’m the one being a bother.” With those words,
Ichinose took the lead and rang the bell to Horikita’s room. We heard the
lock click open at once.
“Please come in.”
We planned to meet at seven; there was nothing odd about us arriving
at the same time. Horikita invited us in without comment, and I went ahead
and sat down on the floor. I had visited her room before, and it didn’t seem to
have changed much since the last time. It was much like mine: simple and
austere.
“I’m sorry to call you over like this on a weeknight, Ichinose-san.”
“You’re doing this out of consideration for me, though. There’s no
need to be sorry,” Ichinose said.
Seeing her face-to-face like this, she seemed like the same old Ichinose
she’d always been.
“But…if this goes on too late, it’ll affect us tomorrow, so I don’t plan
to draw out this conversation. So I’m sure you’ve heard some worrisome
rumors going around about me.”
“Yes. Do you know who is spreading those rumors?” asked Horikita,
getting straight to the point. I listened, curious to see if Ichinose would
answer the question honestly.
“I don’t have any hard evidence. But if I had to guess, I’d peg
Sakayanagi.”
T ODAY WAS FRIDAY. Four days since Kanzaki had made contact with
Hashimoto. The rumors about Ichinose had spread further with each passing
day, to the point where it was no exaggeration to say the whole school knew
of them. However, Ichinose had yet to report anything to the school. She
seemed to pay the rumors no mind, going about her business as if nothing had
changed. She stood firm in the face of the harassment.
People were beginning to speak up in support of her, saying things like
“Rumors are just rumors, after all.” These were all red herrings. They were
nothing but lies.
Rumors didn’t last forever, though.
The plan to defame Ichinose had ended in failure. She’d made it
through the ordeal by maintaining her silence. As more and more people
began to see it that way, their attention shifted to studying in earnest for the
year-end final exams.
But something else happened during that time. Something that stoked
the rumor mill again and caused fresh gossip to spread.
When I made it back to the dorm after class on Friday, I witnessed a
large group of people gathered in the lobby. This was a familiar spectacle.
“Déjà vu, huh?”
Coincidentally, Katsuragi was standing in the same spot as last time.
The difference this time was that Yahiko was standing next to him. Since
there didn’t seem to be anyone else around who I could talk to, I decided to
approach Katsuragi and call out to him.
“What’s all this fuss about?” I asked.
“Seems like there was a letter put in people’s mailboxes. It’s similar to
the previous incident,” muttered Katsuragi, crossing his arms in apparent
disapproval.
“Didn’t you get one too?” said Yahiko, directing his question at me at
“…A H, MAN, I’m exhausted. It’s been a long time since I talked
that much.”
Having finished her story, Kamuro gazes at me with the same look in
her eyes that she had since we started the conversation.
“So basically, I’m a habitual shoplifter.”
“Even recently?”
“Sakayanagi has been working me to the bone. I haven’t had the time
to shoplift.”
Despite saying that, Kamuro didn’t sound entirely dissatisfied. She’d
probably never been needed by anyone before, which had led to the darkness
she kept within in her heart. The fact that Sakayanagi now needed her kept
her from continuing to commit crimes.
If that was the case, Sakayanagi was making good use of her. If
Kamuro kept shoplifting, sooner or later, she’d be caught. She might have
flown under the radar if she were doing it off campus, but the school
provided her a very limited territory to work in. If on-campus store owners
noticed continuing inconsistencies in their inventory, then they’d quickly
figure out the truth. And if that happened, Class A would take some
significant damage.
“Sakayanagi said something at the school camp about you and Ichinose
sharing the same secret,” I told her. In other words, if I assumed Kamuro was
telling me the truth, it meant Ichinose has a history of shoplifting too.
“Exactly.”
“So what exactly do you hope to achieve by telling me the truth about
your past?” Depending on the circumstances, I might be able to use this to
investigate her past. If that happened, Kamuro would be the only one losing
out.
“I don’t particularly like Sakayanagi or Ichinose or anything. But it’s
just that, well, the truth about Ichinose shoplifting really was a shock to me,
I WASN’T THE ONLY GUY who was excited about Valentine’s Day. As
soon as I arrived at Class C, I felt the classroom enveloped in a strange
atmosphere. Many of the guys were clustered together in one place. Today
was the culmination of an entire year of hard work. Just like Christmas, this
was an event that put a spotlight on lovers.
“Oh, you showed up, huh, Ayanokouji? Come over here for a sec,”
said Sudou.
I went over to him.
“Did you get any chocolate?” he asked, his face tense, like he was
really pressing me for an answer. He was almost glaring at me.
“Huh?”
“Let me translate that for you. It seems like he’s actually asking, ‘Did
you get any chocolate from Horikita?’” said Ike, with a grin.
“Don’t go running your mouth, idiot. Ain’t got nothin’ to do with this,”
said Sudou, not smiling at all. If anything, his eyes were filled with this
almost demonic energy, like he was saying, ‘Well?’
“I didn’t get any. There’s no way I would,” I answered.
“…Really?” asked Sudou.
“Yeah.”
Sudou nodded a couple times in response, then released me from his
piercing glare.
“Well, I get why Ken’s all panicky. I mean, Ayanokouji’s thing is a
total monster, after all,” said Ike, drawing the outline of something like a
plastic bottle in the air with his hand as he spoke.
“…Okay Ayanokouji, don’t think you’ve won just because you’ve got
that, okay?” said Sudou.
“No, I don’t think that at all…”
I’d been occasionally getting comments like that since the school
T HE DAY OF THE PRACTICE test had come—a day on which each class
would have to focus on their own exam. However, the classroom was full of
students engaged in chattering, rather than studying. And they weren’t talking
about things like vocabulary and test preparation either. The topics of
conversation I overheard were all completely unrelated to the exams.
“It’s pretty lively in here, huh,” I said aloud.
“Well, of course it is,” said Horikita. “Isn’t it obvious? It’s because of
the crazy rumors we’ve been hearing this morning.”
“Crazy rumors? More news about Ichinose?”
“No. New rumors, and they’re causing chaos within Class C.”
“New rumors…huh.” Just a glance at the total chaos that was our
classroom made it clear this was no small thing.
“By the way, it seems they mention you, Ayanokouji-kun,” said
Horikita, showing me her phone. There were four rumors described on her
notes app.
“This is—”
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka has a crush on Karuizawa Kei.
Hondou Ryoutarou is only interested in chubby girls.
Shinohara Satsuki engaged in prostitution when she was in junior high.
Satou Maya hates Onodera Kayano.
The contents of the rumors were similar in nature. Four people,
including me, were singled out and named directly as objects of ridicule.
“Where did this information come from?” I asked.
“Do you know about the bulletin boards that the school provides for
each of the classes?”
“Yeah, if I recall, they’re in the app, right?”
When students wanted to check the balance remaining on their
C LASS WAS OVER, but it wasn’t like the rumors were going to stop
spreading. I made it back to the dorm and was relaxing when I got a call from
Kei.
“Hey, w-w-w-wait a minute! What’s going on, Kiyotaka?!”
“What do you mean, ‘What’s going on?’” I already knew, but I figured
I’d anyway.
“No, come on, you know what! Kiyotaka, there’s…well, um, there’s a-
a rumor going around that you have a c-crush on me! Did you not know?!”
“Don’t worry about the rumors.”
“N-no, no way, no way, no way! It’s not like I can just not worry about
it just because it’s a rumor! How did this even happen?!”
She was shouting so loudly that there was a shrill ringing in my ears. I
moved my phone away for a moment and hit the button to lower the volume.
“I suppose it might be Hashimoto who started the rumor,” I said. “Or
maybe some other students saw us together.”
“Aahhh!” Kei let out a quiet scream.
“Well, I mean, this is fine though, isn’t it? It would’ve been really bad
for you if things were reversed.”
“R-reversed?”
“If the rumor went ‘Kei has a crush on Kiyotaka,’ then that’d be bad
news for you, wouldn’t it? I think if that were the case, then people would be
even more suspicious of you than they are of me, since you just broke up
with Hirata,” I told her.
“…I-I suppose so, but…”
“Don’t worry. Things like rumors always fade quickly.”
“Really?”
“Still, I suppose it might be easier for us to make contact moving
T HIS PART OF THE STORY went back to Friday, February 11th. The day
when those letters stating Ichinose was a criminal were dropped in our
mailboxes. After seeing Ichinose be affected by them, and having Kamuro
get in touch with me to talk about her past as a shoplifter, I decided to lay out
my pieces in advance so I’d be prepared for Sakayanagi’s strategy.
To execute that plan, I called a certain female student on her phone and
asked her to come and meet me in my room.
The time of our meeting arrived, and I heard the sound of light
knocking on my door, rather than the doorbell. Since the door was already
unlocked, I simply opened it. The faint scent of flowers tickled my nose at
the same time that I felt the cold air rush in from the hallway.
“Good evening, Ayanokouji-kun.” Since it was around midnight,
Kushida spoke in a lowered tone.
“Sorry for calling you at such a late hour. If you don’t mind, please
come on in.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’d be cold if we stayed out by the front door, wouldn’t it?” I replied.
“Yes, that’s true. Thank you.”
Going into a boy’s room in the middle of the night. And being alone
together, on top of that. Anyone would find the idea fishy, but Kushida had
come to my room without any hesitation.
“It’s a little early, but this is for you, Ayanokouji-kun.”
She took out a box of chocolates that had been wrapped with a pink
ribbon. She must have been keeping it inside her jacket.
“You’re okay with giving me this?” I asked.
“I have quite a few to give out on the 14th, so if there’s anyone I can
give them to early, I’ve been doing just that.”
A the groundwork had been laid. All that remained were the
ND SO,
finishing touches to my plans. Crushing Ichinose Honami’s spirit was the last
item on my to-do list…since I knew Sakayanagi would crush it herself before
long, anyway.
Sakayanagi’s scheme had succeeded beautifully. Ichinose continued to
be absent from class even after it was thought she had recovered from her
illness. It was February 18th the day that Class A and Class D clashed. It had
been five days since she had gotten sick, and Ichinose still wasn’t coming to
class.
I was sure she’d physically recovered, but the same might not be true
of her emotional scars. Knowing she was absent from class yet again, I
decided to get in touch with her. But if I tried to go see her after class or
during a day off, chances were high that someone would spot me. Instead, I
opted to visit her on a weekday afternoon, when nearly all the dorms were
empty.
I didn’t contact her by phone ahead of time. I didn’t plan on giving her
a way out. I just showed up at her door and rang the doorbell.
“Hey, I want to talk to you a bit. Can you come out?” I asked.
A little while after, a response came from inside the room.
“I’m sorry, Ayanokouji-kun. I’m sorry to turn you away since you
came out of your way to visit me, but could you please come back some time
later?” she replied.
Judging by the sound of her voice, she was still in low spirits. But it
seemed safe to assume that she’d completely recovered from her cold by
now.
“Were those letters really such a big deal to you, Ichinose?” I asked.
She didn’t respond.
I sat down, leaning back against her door.
“Will you be coming to class on Monday?” I asked.
T HE WEEKEND HAD PASSED, and it was now the 21st. It was now
Monday, and the year-end exams would start on Friday, but Ichinose was still
nowhere to be seen. Kanzaki, Shibata, and some other girls who Ichinose was
close to were trying to call, text, and email her, doing everything in their
power to get in contact. But I didn’t see them showing up at Ichinose’s room
after class, which I could only assume was because Ichinose had asked them
not to come anymore, just like she’d asked me.
During lunch break, I slipped out of the school building and went over
to Ichinose’s room. I knocked lightly on her door and called out to her
without waiting for an answer.
“I heard you’re taking today off too?” I asked.
It was a reckless move on my part. She had told me not to come
anymore, and I was ignoring her wishes.
This time, Ichinose didn’t say anything back to me from the other side
of the door. I didn’t say anything to her either. I just sat in front of her door
until the last possible minute, just like I had done the previous week.
A T LONG LAST,
the day of the year-end exam had come. We’d each
done what we could to prepare, based on the practice test we had taken.
According to Horikita, Sudou, Ike, and Yamauchi were all expected to
perform quite well. Apparently, they’d done everything possible to cram
during the week before the test.
Then there was Akito, Haruka, Airi, and Kei. The students in my group
had all done quite well at raising their personal bars. The other students,
meanwhile, had been getting help from Hirata. There were no signs of any
students really struggling, so as long as everyone made sure to keep an eye on
their health, the whole class should make it through this exam just fine.
Just then, I heard the sound of footsteps. Someone was hurrying up
behind me, trying to catch up, and then slowing down to match my pace.
“Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun!” Ichinose approached me, a broad
smile on her face.
“Good morning, Ichinose.”
“Today’s finally the day, huh? The year-end exam. Did you study
hard?”
“More or less, yeah. But I guess… I don’t even need to ask, in your
case.”
I didn’t even need to think about it. Class B was far more coordinated
than our class, and I was sure they’d were much better prepared for the test.
Even Ichinose, who’d been absent until just the other day, probably had
nothing to worry about as far as academics.
“You were really cool yesterday, Ichinose. Cool enough to charm even
a guy like me,” I told her.
“R-really…? I suppose it’s just like Sakayanagi-san said, though… that
was just me being shameless.”
Ichinose hadn’t really committed a crime in the first place, though.