During lunch break the next day, the hallway outside the classroom was a little too noisy, irritating the handful of people who were trying to squeeze in a quick nap.
"Who the hell is it? Why's it so loud?"
One student, who didn't have a napping habit and still had plenty of energy, went out to take a look. When he came back, he reported the situation with a click of his tongue.
"Tsk tsk—looks like someone's here to mess with Class D. Not sure if it's an upperclassman or a first-year."
Yukio and Ryuuen were still in the classroom, hovering around Ishizaki while he sat there with a face like he was praying, doing a ten-pull on some game.
The results were absolutely tragic.
He pulled nothing.
Hearing someone had come to pick a fight with Class D, Yukio's first thought was what Amasawa had told him before—Tsukishiro gathering a tiny number of first-years for an evaluation meant to get Ayanokouji Kiyotaka expelled.
"Probably first-years." As Yukio said it, he stood up and walked out. Ryuuen and Ishizaki followed right behind him.
There were already plenty of second-years watching in the hallway. Sure enough—no matter where you went, people loved a good show.
Looking a bit closer toward the center, they saw a boy and a girl standing opposite Matsushita and Horikita.
The boy… put simply, he had a gorilla-like build. Thick, bulky, and packed with muscle, with a face full of rough features. He didn't look like a high schooler at all—more like some seasoned veteran who'd been working a mine for decades.
The girl was much more eye-catching. A waterfall of bright, pale-blonde hair spilled down with no accessories at all, and standing next to the gorilla only made her look even prettier by contrast.
Add in that hot, sandglass figure and honestly, she'd fit better standing in line with Matsushita and Horikita, not beside that hulking guy.
When Yukio arrived, he caught the tail end of the boy's arrogant speech.
"So basically, your second-year Class D can't even find anyone to team up with and clear the special exam, right?"
"I'm only here because I'm being merciful. If you've got any sense, you two should bow your heads, beg me nicely, and then I might consider letting First-year Class D team up with your Second-year Class D."
His tone was infuriating, but Horikita and Matsushita weren't the type to get baited so easily.
"Housen-kun, I think you've misunderstood something," Horikita replied coolly. "The relationship between us isn't 'first-years are higher, second-years are lower.' It should always be an equal relationship."
"Even if this special exam doesn't carry expulsion risk for first-years… what about later? No one can say whether you'll face a special exam with expulsion risk in the future."
"When that happens, you might need our help."
"Housen…?" While Horikita was verbally fencing with him, Ryuuen—watching from the side—muttered the name, like it belonged to someone he'd heard of before.
"Hah?" Maybe Ryuuen's voice was a bit loud. The first-year called Housen directly ignored Horikita's righteous argument and turned his head toward Yukio and Ryuuen.
"Oho! Didn't expect to run into someone who knows my reputation after coming to this school. Lucky me."
"Tch." Ryuuen didn't care about the brute's presence at all. There was pure disdain in his eyes.
"Ryuuen, you know this guy?" Yukio asked quietly.
Japan was huge, and ANHS recruited from the whole island every year—only one hundred and sixty students.
With such a wide recruitment range and such a small intake, the chance of running into an old acquaintance was ridiculously low.
Looking across the entire second year—even back when it was full—only Horikita and Kushida were middle school acquaintances from the same place. That ratio was basically one in eighty.
Ryuuen stared at Housen with zero warmth of reunion. "Wouldn't say I know him. I've just heard of him. A gorilla who could fight, back in our area."
"If I had to name his most famous achievement—when Housen first entered middle school, he beat down some third-year delinquent boss."
"Y-You're Ryuuen?" From the way Yukio addressed him, Housen looked like he'd discovered a whole new continent. His eyes widened and shone, and his expression turned smug and delighted. "Oi, oi, oi! To think I'd run into you here, Ryuuen!"
"I've been hearing rumors about you every day. Every day I wanted to take you out! But I couldn't find you for a whole year—so I thought you were just a coward who ran away!"
"Didn't expect you to be hiding out in here!"
Their exchange reeked of delinquent-kid energy. But it was also obvious—Ryuuen had already grown past the cliché, like he was speaking from a higher level now.
Meanwhile, Housen still sounded like a punk stuck in the mud—cocky, loud, and clueless about the world.
Matsushita and Horikita frowned together.
No wonder this first-year was so arrogant. Turns out he'd been this kind of delinquent all through middle school. That meant he'd be a pain to deal with—someone like this didn't even listen to reason.
Ignoring Matsushita and Horikita's expressions, Housen seemed provoked by Ryuuen's contemptuous gaze. He shot it right back, also full of scorn.
"That's it? That Ryuuen the rumors made sound so scary? You're just… this skinny?"
The physical gap between them really was huge, which was exactly why Housen was so confident when he mouthed off at Ryuuen.
"Don't go crying the second you eat one punch from me, alright?"
"And hey—why are you standing behind someone now, Ryuuen?" Housen leaned in, voice dripping mockery. "No way, no way… don't tell me the 'Ryuuen' from the rumors is someone's lackey now?"
Ryuuen was standing behind Yukio.
The moment Housen started provoking Yukio, the look in Ryuuen's eyes stopped being contempt and turned into outright pity.
Like a god sighing at humanity's ignorance.
"What, you couldn't find anyone else, so you even brought a girl lackey too?"
"You mean Nanase?" Housen instinctively glanced at the pale-blonde girl beside him, then looked back at Ryuuen. "She's not just some lackey-level role. But that kind of thing isn't important."
"Since we ran into each other, let's play!" As he spoke, Housen shoved through the second-years, fists clenched, a savage grin spreading across his face as he closed in on Yukio and Ryuuen.
"Or what—you gonna hide like a turtle? Then have your new boss come out and take it!"
"What's with this clown?" Yukio confirmed the two in front of him matched Amasawa's intel—First-year Class D's pair involved in the plan to expel Ayanokouji: Kazuomi Housen and Tsubasa Nanase.
Letting a guy like Housen carry out the plan… no wonder the whole thing was full of holes.
"Big talk, Ryuuen's new boss!" Housen surged forward and suddenly stretched out a palm twice the size of a normal person's, like he meant to seize the leader first.
The attack came like a gust of wind—his hand shooting straight for Yukio's forehead—!
....
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