During lunch time, me and Yukina went to C Class to try and talk to Ginga.

"Come to think of it... this is my first time coming to this class."

"Yeah. They don't stand out much, do they?"

I say this while being aware that I've come here before on a few occasions.

"No, they don't... do you know anyone from C Class?"

"I know maybe... three people?"

Not counting Ginga, I knew Suzune, Ikeda, and Nakasato.

"That's two more than I do... I only know Satou-san, but that's on a technicality."

That reminded me, Satou actually got promoted from D Class to C Class after the war. I guess that makes it four people.

"That's going to be awkward."

"Anyways... let's hope she's here."

Yukina coughed and knocked on the door. Answering it was Suzune.

A flicker of happiness and annoyance flashed across her face as she let out a groan.

If I was by myself, I think Suzune would've kept her happy expression, but since I came here with Yukina, she had no choice but to act snobbish towards us to keep up her appearance as a fierce leader in front of her classmates.

"...can I help you two?"

Suzune's cold tone was harsh as ever.

Ikeda peeked at us over her shoulder and gave me a cheeky smile. He knew what was going on between me and Suzune, so this must've been pretty amusing for him.

"Umm, is Ginga-san here? We'd like to talk to her."

"Ginga-san, two Drachma dropouts want to talk to you."

Suzune didn't even hesitate to insult us. She would make for a good actor.

Yukina blinked owlishly, taken aback by how sharp tongued Suzune was. She probably reminded her of Sakigamiya.

I peered inside the classroom to get a feel for how C Class operated.

It was a relaxed atmosphere, but everyone was sitting apart, divided up into their own friend groups. Much like our class, the unity that existed between them was scattered and fragmented between certain people.

Getting up from her seat, Ginga approached us with a welcoming expression.

"Takanori-san and Kazuraba-san, right? Isen-senpai told me about you guys, hello!"

Ginga was an very animated person, introducing herself by flailing her arms around wildly.

"Hooo, you've met them before?"

"Ya. I haven't spoke to them properly though. I was in charge of interviewing Shimizu-san when the story about Takanori-san broke out."

The newspaper club did a huge favour for me by publishing that story. For the most part, it dispelled the rumours of me being a woman beater as untrue and cleared up any misunderstandings about the situation.

"You should come inside, we have air-con."

Ikeda, noticing how humid it was to stand around in the hallway, ushered us inside. I was more jealous that they had air-con and we didn't.

As Ikeda and Ginga led Yukina to some free seats near the front, Suzune pulled me aside discreetly.

"Yuu-kun, it's seriously been way too long!"

Immediately, Suzune switched back to her regular self as she pulled me into a hug to celebrate our reunion.

"It's only been about a month... ah, did you miss me that much?"

I asked sarcastically while hugging her. Suzune narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.

"What, and you didn't?"

"Of course, I missed talking to you too."

Suzune's pursed lips broke into happy giggles.

"Wow... you look so much cooler now. I almost didn't recognise you. I love those sunglasses!"

"Thanks. It's a gift from a senpai."

I felt like if I mentioned it was Kurosaki in specific, Suzune would've gotten mad, so I refrained.

"Why haven't you messaged me recently?"

"I've been really busy, unfortunately."

We agreed to stop contacting each other temporarily when the rumours about me being a woman beater first surfaced to protect Suzune's reputation.

Ever since then, I've had my hands full dealing with other things, such as the war, researching Minanohara, and now the test shuffle, leaving me with no time to contact her at all.

"When you have some free time, let's play!"

"Sure thing. How about after the finals is done?"

"I was about to say, I think that's the only free time I'll have."

Suzune sighed.

"I take it you've been busy with leading C Class?"

"If you can call carrying this class on my back leading it, then yes."

It sounded like C Class was somehow struggling the most out of the five classes.

"Not only do I have to somehow formulate a plan for the test shuffle, but I also need to help everyone prepare for our war against B Class! Like, there's twenty-five other students in this class, why am I the one doing all the work?!"

"Hang on, you have a war against B Class?"

"Yes, an official one at that! It's ridiculous, I can't believe the school would make us go through two preparation stages at once! There's no way we can do it... if we prioritise the war, then we'll be behind on revision and creating questions. But if we focus on the special exam, then we'll be unprepared for the war, since it's next week... we just can't win."

I felt bad for Suzune. It was like she was performing a delicate balancing act between preparing for the special exam and the war all by herself as C Class lacked the necessary tools to organise and split up the workload between everyone efficiently.

I'm sure B Class had a similar struggle, as they were in the same situation, but they could probably figure something out due to having two consolidated factions. As the Machida faction was preoccupied with taking down A Class, they were probably more inclined to work on the special exam, leaving the Ichinose faction to work on the war.

"What's the reward for the war?"

"100 Cl. The same as yours."

"How about the victory condition?"

"The class that has possession over the flag when the war ends wins."

"Oh, so it's a capture the flag type of deal?"

"Yeah. We're cardfighting for control over the flag."

That one sounds a lot more fun to do than the one we did against D Class.

"Personally, I would focus on preparing for the war. Between B Class and D Class, you're going to struggle with the former more, so it's best to try and minimise your chance of losing there."

"I don't know... I feel like we should give up trying to beat B Class and focus on defeating D Class, since they're not that strong academically. If we fail enough people, we could get more than the reward being offered in the war."

"But to do that, you'd need to fail four students in D Class. That's quite a tall order."

"We have plenty of smart people in our class. Ikeda-san, Fujita-san, and Fukuhara-san, just to name a few!"

"If you think that you have the best chance against D Class then, why haven't you gone all in and focused on that?"

Suzune looked away sheepishly.

"I can't convince everyone to agree with me."

The reason Suzune hasn't gone with her gut was because of everyone's differing opinions. The class didn't agree that it was best to give up winning the war against B Class in favour of pouring all their resources into failing a lot of D Class students.

Some probably believed the war reward was more achievable than failing four D Class students. Some probably believed that defeating D Class was more difficult than B Class, which already had a visible weakness. Some probably believed it was better to work on both instead of betting everything into one risky manoeuvre.

"Hmm."

I made a thinking noise, before looking back into C Class.

"For now, let's go join up with Yukina and Ginga-san. People might get suspicious."

"Can't argue with that. Also, when did you start calling Kazuraba-san without any honourifics, huh?"

"Maybe... last month?"

A jealous expression spread across Suzune's face.

"So that's how it is... hmph."

Suzune then kicked me in the butt, sending me tumbling into the class.

"Ow... hey, what was that for?"

I would've pressed the question further, but Suzune tilted her head away from me bitterly. Was she mad at me?

Regardless, I went over to the table and sat down next to Yukina, whereas Suzune sat down next to Ginga.

"Yuu, what took you so long?"

"I was just talking to Kinoshita-san about something."

Yukina raised an eyebrow and looked over at Suzune suspiciously. Suzune returned that suspicious look to Yukina and folded her arms.

"Why are you joining us exactly, Kinoshita-san...? We only need to talk to Ginga-san."

"I'm the class representative, so I want to know what's going on between you three."

Suzune firmly planted herself in the situation, even though her male counterpart, Ikeda, had left us alone to discuss privately.

"Yuu, is it okay to let her join...?"

Yukina looked unsure, so she turned to me. I looked at Suzune.

"Even if we told her to leave, I don't think she'll budge. Besides, we're here to ask about Minanohara."

Ginga raised her eyebrows when I said that.

"It's nothing to do about the intra-class war, so I don't mind."

"Alright... if you say so."

Yukina nodded and turned to Ginga, who seemed to grow panicked as she was now trapped in this discussion.

"Ginga-san, relax. You're acting more like a Drachma dropout than they are."

Seeing her suddenly become fidgety, Suzune tried to reassure Ginga by insulting us.

"He he, sorry..."

"And to think you're cousins with that super cool Ansei-san. God, you guys aren't alike at all!"

Catching my attention with that name, I looked over to Ginga with surprise, before asking Suzune for confirmation.

"Ansei-san? Do you mean Ansei Taira, the King of Hagiwara High School?"

Yukina's eyes also widened when I dropped Ansei's full name. Ginga suddenly became flustered while Suzune laughed.

"Yes, that Ansei-san!"

"...seriously?"

I would've had no clue based on their appearance. Ansei had dark orange hair, whereas Ginga had light blue hair.

"Wow Ginga-san! That's amazing!"

Yukina was in awe by this fact. Ginga shook her head, humbly dismissing it.

"K-Kinoshita-san! Don't say that kind of thing so easily, now they'll have expectations of me! I'm nothing like him!"

"True, you don't scream as much as he does."

"I meant about how good I am at Vanguard! I could scream like that guy if I wanted to."

Despite insulting her own ability to play Vanguard, Ginga patted her small chest proudly.

"I too was blessed with the lungs that Fubuki-oji has!"

Please don't scream, I don't want to hear the full force of Ansei's signature "ree" in real life.

"I'm surprised you didn't go to Hagiwara as well." Yukina said.

"If I did that, then I'd just be living in Taira-kun's shadow."

I couldn't argue with that. Half of Nora's struggle was because he had to live up to the expectations his older brothers left during their time at GEN Academy.

"Besides, I'd be dumb to not accept an invite from GEN. I don't want to end up like Taira-kun's friend, Akio-san. He got one but declined for some reason. Like, what?!"

Now I wish the Jack of Hagiwara, Akio Ichigo, went to this school. I'd prefer having him as my senpai over Kaido, to be honest.

"He does sound pretty dumb." Suzune said.

"I heard he's into fashion design." Ginga said.

"No way, I would've never guessed!" Yukina said.

I coughed slightly to get the three girls back on track. Realising this, Ginga put on a serious face and nodded.

"Right. So, uh, what do you guys want from me anyways?"

"We wanted to know whether or not you knew more details about this."

Yukina took out her phone and showed Ginga the newspaper article.

"Oh... oh, no..."

Ginga's face suddenly grew pale when she read the headline. Suzune peered over her shoulder and took a look.

"Jeez, that's grim."

Since Suzune didn't live in Tokyo when this happened, she probably hadn't heard of this before until now.

"Ginga-san? Are you okay?"

Seeing the look on Ginga's face become uncomfortable, Yukina gently reached out to her.

"Oh! Please, don't worry about me. I was just thinking to myself... that I should've seen this coming."

Ginga shook her hands before gazing down at her lap.

"Could you tell us the specifics of what happened?"

When Yukina asked that, Ginga raised her head and looked straight at me.

"I want to know why you two... no, why you're interested in this, Takanori-san."

Realising that the only one who would benefit from this information was me, Ginga sharply questioned my intentions.

She must have gained this perceptiveness through the newspaper club, where it was an indispensable tool to have for investigations.

Since I couldn't reveal my true intentions to her, I decided to use what Matsushita told me about his past to my advantage here.

"I heard from Matsushita-san that someone in his class got bullied really badly to the point they tried committing suicide. I was wondering if what he told me was related to this article Yukina found."

"That's..."

Ginga wavered for a second and shook her head.

"I don't know where Matsushita-san got that from... I was in the same class as him. No one tried committing suicide."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Does that mean Matsushita-san lied to me?"

If he did, I wouldn't be surprised.

"Yes... he did."

"What happened then?"

"...I don't like to talk about people behind their backs, but I'll make an exception this time. This was a long time coming, for both of them."

Ginga muttered mysteriously, steeling her heart to tell us the truth.

"That newspaper article you found... it's talking about Matsushita-san and Kouji-san."

Both Yukina and Suzune's eyes widened. So this explains Kouji's hostility towards Matsushita in class.

"It happened just before winter break. I don't know why, but Matsushita-san was beating up Kouji-san in front of the whole class. As he did, everyone was cheering him on and encouraging them to fight... and slowly, their chants warped into "throw him off the balcony" for some reason..."

Ginga fidgeted with her thumbs, recalling the past. I tried to imagine Matsushita being violent to another person, but I couldn't.... until I remembered that time he grabbed me by the shirt.

Suddenly, I could vividly imagine a scene in my head where Matsushita, with that same expression of anger on his face, mercilessly held Kouji over the edge as everyone screamed at him to shove him off.

"And then... I remember, Matsushita-san, he... he actually did it... he actually threw Kouji-san off of the balcony... and... and... and when that happened, everyone just... everyone just went silent... we all stood there lifelessly as the sound of Kouji-san's body hitting the ground echoed through the air."

Ginga began stammering through her words as she recalled the traumatic events she witnessed two years ago. Suzune was in shock, trying not to recoil from Ginga's graphic description of the scene. Yukina quietly listened with a guilty face.

"And... I'm not sure what happened after that. We all thought Kouji-san was dead. I remember someone called for an ambulance while someone else went to get a teacher... basically, everyone panicked to save Kouji-san. None of us wanted his life on our hands... especially Matsushita-san."

Thanks to Ginga's class acting quickly, they were able to save Kouji from death.

"He broke down into a mess when he realised what he'd done. It was really hard, watching him scream and cry... he wouldn't listen to reason at all. It was Sakigamiya-san who managed to calm him down, but she was acting frantic and jittery too... everyone went home early that day. When we came back to school, we were told that Kouji-san was alive, but was hospitalised for his injuries."

I realised this was the reason why Matsushita lied to me.

Due to the incredible guilt of nearly killing someone, he wanted to convince himself and the others around him that he wasn't at fault for what happened.

He wanted everyone to think he was a bystander in this situation, rather than the perpetrator.

Seeing as he told me this story while I was a big 3 loner, he must've also told this same story to the other people in our class too, falsifying a narrative in case the truth ever broke out.

Unfortunately for him, there were four other people who attended Minanohara at this school, so his lie would've been exposed eventually. Did he not think ahead when he came up with this idea?

"What happened to Kouji-san after that?"

"I have no idea... he didn't come into school once after that incident. Matsushita-san took a week off, but he returned to class just fine. I don't think he even got in trouble..."

"What?! That's messed up. Shouldn't he have been suspended for that at least?" Suzune said.

"He should've... but the school didn't seem to give him any punishment."

"Not even a detention?"

"I mean... maybe he did? I don't know honestly. I'm basically trying to say that he got let off really easily, all things considered."

"To think these two ended up crossing paths again at the same high school... fate is a cruel mistress."

"Yeah, I was really surprised to see Kouji-san here. I thought I'd never see him again since he was still hospitalised during the rest of our time in middle school. Hell, I was even more surprised when I learnt that he was put in the same class as Matsushita-san. It's unfortunate... really, really unfortunate."

"If I had to deal with seeing the person who nearly killed me every day, I think I'd act like Kouji-san too."

This is what Ginga meant earlier when she said this was "a long time coming" for them.

Much like how Kawaguchi's past being exposed was inevitable due to the high amount of Karaikai students, Matsushita's past was also guaranteed to be exposed since the person he pushed off, Kouji, also attended the school.

The only thing that saved Matsushita from the embarrassment of this story from coming to light was the fact Kouji was a loner who had given up. He had no friends or acquaintances to tell this story about, nor did he have the energy or will to do so.

However, there were at least three other students who could talk about this, so it made me wonder why no one else had brought it up yet already.

"I have a minor question."

"What is it?"

"I was wondering, why is it so difficult to find out about this?"

"This seems like a no-brainer... the school didn't want to have a bad reputation, so they kept the details vague to cover their tracks and tried to suppress the story as much as possible."

It clearly worked then, since there was a wealth of articles with important information omitted published online. However, this isn't what I meant when I asked the question.

"I should've been more specific. I meant why has no one exposed what Matsushita-san did to Kouji-san already? This is practically a crime, since he tried to kill him. I thought there would be more outrage."

"Oh! Well, that's simple too. Keisaki-san was in a different class when this happened, and Sakigamiya-san is friends with Matsushita-san, so she doesn't want to expose him. Personally, I just... wanted to forget this ever happened."

We got extremely lucky with asking Ginga first then, since she practically provided all the missing answers.

"That's understandable."

I would've followed up by asking if Sakigamiya was involved in any other incidents in Minanohara, but I felt that was pushing it, especially after how much she's helped us already.

"If anyone was going to speak out about this, then it probably is Kouji-san, yet he hasn't..."

"He's probably traumatised from the experience. I can't imagine it's easy to tell such a heavy story to others."

"Yeah, not to mention how the scenario it happened in sounds ridiculous at face value."

I agreed with both Yukina and Suzune's opinions. Adding onto them, it probably didn't help that the one who pushed Kouji was Matsushita, someone very popular among others.

If this were to break out, then most people would either think Kouji is lying or be willing to hear out Matsushita first. Due to how everyone perceived him, it was only natural them to doubt if he could do something so savage to another person.

"Regardless, thank you for helping us out, Ginga-san."

"No problem! Just... please don't tell anyone I told you this."

Even though she wanted to stay anonymous, she never said anything about keeping it a secret. If anything, based on how easily she told us what happened, Ginga wanted to make more people aware of the incident.

"We won't."

"Phew..."

I looked over to Suzune.

"For helping us out, I'd like to repay your class with a solid. You guys have a war against B Class next week, correct?"

Suzune raised an eyebrow, unable to understand what I was doing. Even Yukina looked at me strangely.

"Yeah, we do. What's it matter to you?"

"It's probably difficult balancing work on the special exam and preparation for the war. As such, we'd like to offer our assistance with the test shuffle."

Being reminded of the conversation we had privately earlier, Suzune slowly understood what I was trying to do.

"Oh? What kind of assistance are you offering?"

"We'll handle making the exams for your class, so you guys can focus on preparing for the war."

Suzune's eyes widened.

This offer was mutually beneficial for both classes. For E Class, it would provide us a direct way of attack against D Class by being the ones to make the exams for them, but submitting it under C Class's name. It would be a sneak attack with a built in disguise.

For C Class, this would let them forget about the exam so they could spend their time preparing for the war. This would also help Suzune, as it would push C Class to work together towards a single goal, improving their unity, which they lacked a lot of.

Plus, I knew from our earlier conversation that Suzune thought about abandoning the war in favour of putting everything into defeating D Class. With this offer, she didn't have to pick between working on either of them anymore, as we'd be ones handling the special exam.

Overall, this would form the start of a positive relationship between E Class and C Class, making it easier for me and Suzune to meet up publicly.

"Kinoshita-san... can we really trust them on this? E Class is, well... you know."

"I was thinking the same thing, Ginga-san. I'm also sceptical on whether or not E Class can deliver on this offer."

Suzune was superb at acting. Despite understanding that I was trying to offer a solution to the issue she talked about earlier, she had to pretend to be cautious of my offer, since Ginga and Yukina were present.

"Besides, are you guys even in the position to make this sort of deal? No offence, but you're not even the class reps."

"We can sort something out. Yukina is close friends with Sakigamiya-san."

"What about work load then? Aren't you guys already busy with making the finals for A Class?"

Taking on this work wouldn't be stressful if Matsushita and Sakigamiya choose to finalise the deal with A Class, as that would mean no one in our class is working on exams. That meant we'd have the free time available to work on making questions for C Class.

However, since this wasn't a guarantee, I decided to lie and give a different, but still believable, reason.

"Truth be told, our class has given up on that. Everyone's defaulted to studying so we don't lose what we already have."

I looked over to Yukina to see if her facial expression would give away the fact I was lying, but there was no change whatsoever. She remained calm and continued to go along with what I was saying.

"At least your class recognises that much. There was no chance of you guys ever beating A Class."

"Yeah. Plus, it doesn't clash with what we're doing right now either, since we'd be asking the smartest students in the class to help make the questions. They wouldn't be busy with studying, since they're the ones who need revision the least."

Ginga twisted her lips, unconvinced.

"Do those sorts of people exist in your class?"

"Of course they do."

"Such as...?"

"Do you know who Nora-san is?"

"Hmm... come to think of it, that name does sound familiar."

"Isn't he the one who looks like a girl?"

Suzune interjected, showing Ginga an image of Nora that Sakigamiya posted when she did his makeover.

"Oh, so that's where I know him from! That post got super popular!"

"What's so special about him?"

"On the midterms, he ranked 7th out of all the students in our year."

"What?! You guys have someone that smart in your class?!"

Ginga was in disbelief when I showed Nora's exam results.

"Yeah. He's the best non-A Class student when it comes to academics. If you want, we can have him make the questions for your class. I'm friends with him, so it wouldn't be hard to convince him to help."

"This sounds like a steal... Kinoshita-san, maybe we should accept this?"

One good thing about C Class not being unified was the fact Suzune had complete control over the decisions the class would take, as a discussion with the entire class would be unnecessary.

"It's a very tempting offer. Hang on."

Suzune got up and pulled Ikeda over to our table to discuss with him.

"What's up?"

"Since Ginga-san told Takanori-san and Kazuraba-san about what happened at her middle school, these two want to repay us back by having their class make our questions for us. They have quite a few good academic assets to do so, such as Nora-san. What do you think?"

Ikeda looked at Suzune, then at me. Then, he looked at the rest of the class.

"I don't see anything wrong with this offer. In fact, we could probably get Fujita-san and Murakawa-san to help out as well. Let's take the extra help."

"It's good to see that we're on the same wavelength. It's decided, we'll accept your offer."

Suzune offered her hand to me. I took it and we shook hands. A smile appeared on her face.

"We'll be in your care, C Class."

"Please do your best, E Class."

Ikeda threw his arms around me and Suzune, bringing our faces closer together.

We were so close, I could smell the scent of Suzune's shampoo coming from her hair.

"Here's to a cooperative relationship!"

"Yeah!"

Ginga cheered, clapping her hands. Yukina laughed awkwardly and clapped her hands too.

"I-Ikeda-san, let go of me!"

Swatting Ikeda away, Suzune's face turned bright red as our noses nearly bumped into each other. Ikeda chuckled, removing his arms with an innocent look on his face.

"Whoops, sorry! Ignore me, I got excited. This is the first time we've teamed up with another class, so cut me some slack."

Pinching her nose, Suzune looked at Ikeda with a blunt look that said "I'll talk to you later about your misdeeds...".

"That's because we've never had to join forces with another class until now."

"True. To think we're working with E Class... I wonder how the other classes will think of us."

"They don't have to know. We can keep it a secret between us. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a good idea. You guys in?"

Ikeda turned to me and Yukina. I nodded.

"That's fine."

I had no intentions of telling Matsushita and Sakigamiya about this deal in the first place anyways.