Although Ishizaki Daichi had shown a surface-level willingness to submit to Ryūen the day before, that had only been because their homeroom teacher had been standing right there. Taking various factors into account, he'd had no choice but to go along with it.
It wasn't that he hadn't obediently paid up to buy the information, nor that he didn't think the intel was worth the price.
But once he calmed down and thought it over, he quickly realized something was off.
The reason the homeroom teacher supported Ryūen wasn't because he acknowledged him as the class leader—it was because he believed that unifying the class to buy information was beneficial.
Ishizaki had no reason whatsoever to submit to Ryūen himself.
So after school yesterday, he made his resistance clear.
And the result of that resistance was the declaration Ryūen was now carrying out.
Sneak attacks in the shadows, dirty tricks, no matter how underhanded or despicable—he would do it again and again, over and over, tirelessly.
—Until Ishizaki submitted.
"...I-If you've got the guts, go fight Yamada!" Ishizaki Daichi roared after curling on the ground for a while to recover. "You bastard… you're so damn underhanded!"
In a fair, head-on fight, Ryūen Shō wouldn't stand a chance against him!
And if it were Yamada, even with a sneak attack like this, Ryūen would have no chance at all!
"You're saying that if Yamada submits, then you'll submit too?" Ryūen Shō asked with interest, planting himself down on Ishizaki Daichi's body so he couldn't get up.
"Guh—"
With Ryūen pressing down on him, the last bit of strength Ishizaki had barely managed to hold onto slipped away again.
Gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut, he shouted:
"So what if I am?! There's no way you can beat that guy anyway!"
He'd had enough.
Ever since yesterday afternoon, this bastard had been nonstop with the sneak attacks.
While eating, while shopping, even while using the bathroom—Ryūen Shō would appear without mercy and launch an attack.
After being harassed all day, Ishizaki had gone to bed and even dreamed about Ryūen popping out at him.
The worst part was what came after he woke up. The moment he relaxed, opened his dorm door, and stepped out to go to class—
The damn Ryūen was already waiting right outside his room, jumping him the instant the door opened!
His mind was completely shot.
He was even starting to think maybe he should just give up and be done with it.
The only thing keeping him from submitting outright was that last shred of pride he had as a delinquent.
Bowing to such low, despicable tactics felt humiliating.
But if even a hulking brute like Yamada Albert ended up submitting, then maybe… maybe he could compromise too.
Ishizaki Daichi truly couldn't imagine what his mental state would become if Ryūen Shō kept this up—day and night—for several more days.
At least in that sense, he really did feel a bit of reluctant admiration for Ryūen Shō.
"Good. Then remember what you said," Ryūen Shō said coldly as he stood up from Ishizaki Daichi's body.
Yamada Albert was, like Ishizaki Daichi, one of the few who had clearly resisted Ryūen's rule and hadn't submitted on the first day of violence.
He'd also handed over the fifty thousand points, but for the same reason as Ishizaki—only because the transaction was backed by the homeroom teacher, and only for the sake of the class.
To make him submit, Ryūen's violence alone wasn't enough.
After all, Yamada Albert possessed a physique beyond imagination—just standing there, he was practically the embodiment of violence. Rumor had it he was of mixed heritage, with Black ancestry.
Ryūen Shō wasn't weak, but compared to Yamada Albert, he was on a completely different level.
But Ryūen Shō's greatest pride had never been his strength.
It was his complete lack of fear, no matter what kind of enemy he faced—what Asakusa Tōru had called the tenacity of a "clingy snake."
...
While Ryūen Shō of Class C was finishing up the final stage of consolidating the class, Asakusa Tōru had finally been freed from his own classroom.
Ichinose had obediently taken on the role of standing at the front, without exposing that the information had come from him.
…Well, some of the more observant students had probably already noticed. But they should know better than to say anything.
In truth, Asakusa Tōru could have taken this opportunity to seize the leadership position in Class B himself.
But… what a hassle.
Even if he went all out playing class warfare, at best it would just mean a bit more pocket money each month.
He didn't need to graduate from Class A to get any special privileges.
From that perspective, his stance was actually quite similar to that of "Beautiful Bro."
Kōenji Rokusuke—nicknamed Beautiful Bro—first-year Class D, with blond hair and a powerfully built, well-trained body.
More importantly, he was the sole heir of the Kōenji conglomerate.
A conglomerate, after all, couldn't be called one without serious money behind it.
While it couldn't compare to absurd, numbers-pulled-out-of-thin-air giants like the Shinomiya Group or the Suzuki Zaibatsu, it was still the largest financial backer of a certain political party in Japan.
As a conglomerate heir, he naturally had no reason to care about graduating from Class A, nor did he need to worry about whether the school's evaluation of him was fair.
As long as he wasn't disgracefully expelled, even skipping every special exam wouldn't affect him in the slightest.
…Well, even so, Asakusa Tōru wasn't planning to act like Kōenji.
He was just lazy.
At least until he'd fully digested everything the White Gym membership card had to offer, he didn't have the spare time to waste on class competition.
Securing his own combat power was the top priority.
In short, as the price for having Ichinose stand in front on his behalf—
Today's lunch was on him.
"I never thought I'd end up at the same school as you, Asakusa-kun," Ichinose Honami said with a hint of emotion, resting her chin on her hands as she sat across from him. "And in the same class, too."
"This country really is small," Asakusa Tōru shrugged. "So, what do you want to say?"
"My answer about what happened before hasn't changed. If you really want to do something, then just be a good leader for this class."
"Yes. I will," Ichinose Honami nodded softly.
"But before that, there's something I want to say to you, Asakusa-kun."
"Just treat it as my own monologue. You don't need to feel any burden from it," the girl said, using words eerily similar to his own.
"I'm actually very grateful to you, Asakusa-kun," she continued without waiting for a response. "Even though I got scolded really badly back then, and Natsuki-san's family even called the police… in the end I not only missed a day of school, my mom scolded me terribly too."
"But even so, I'm still grateful to you."
Just as she said—
This was nothing more than a monologue.
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