Volume 10, Epilogue: The Dropouts Part 7

The backside of the school building was quiet.

You claimed that it wouldve been easy for you to avoid expulsion if you took things seriously. It was because you knew you couldve done it this way, wasnt it?

Sure. I knew that Ichinose chick was saving up her points. She goes around acting like such a good-natured person too. She never seemed to like me much, but I still thought there was room for negotiation. That said, I was certain Ibuki didnt have the wit or skill to negotiate with Ichinose using the points, so I felt pretty comfortable leaving them with her, its just I didnt think youd get involved in it.

Ibuki and Ishizaki just happened to ask me for help, so I made use of them for what I could. After all, as far as I was concerned, this was nothing more than a great opportunity for me to build trust with Ichinose. If I had them go to you directly, you wouldve seen through the plan. I cant imagine you wouldve given Ibuki the points in that case.

You made the right choice not to explain anything to her then.

If I had explained everything to her, Ryen wouldve gotten suspicious and seen through what I was doing behind the scenes.

Were you the one who targeted Manabe?

Considering that Kei had once been the target of Manabes bullying, it was only natural for him to reach that conclusion.

No, that was just a coincidence. You know that she was on bad terms with Ibuki too, right?

I see. So she made the big decision, eh? Manabe ended up miserably bawling her eyes out.

I could vaguely imagine what her reaction mustve been like after hearing her name called.

So youre sayin I was saved by Ishizaki and Ibuki, huh? What an annoying gift theyve given me.

I guess.

I wasnt going to delve any further into this. If Ibuki and Ishizaki hadnt visited my room that day, I wouldve probably brought up my plan with Hiyori instead.

Then, I wouldve had her collect Ryens private points and do the same thing I had Ibuki do.

I had done all of this in order to have Ichinose owe me a favor. At the same time, I didnt want Ryen to be expelled for some reason I couldnt quite put my finger on.

I had carried these complicated thoughts with me throughout the entire exam.

What are you gonna do if theres another exam like this one later?

Kuku. Who knows?

He didnt say that he wouldnt do anything.

Among other things, Ryen probably felt at least somewhat thankful for what Ishizaki and Ibuki had done.

Things might become much more interesting if Ryen ends up making a comeback in the not-so-distant future.

Of course, whether or not that would happen would be entirely up to him.

My phone began to ring. I took a look at the caller ID to find that it was none other than Ichinose.

Having noticed what was happening, Ryen turned around and walked back into the school building without saying another word. I answered the call and spoke.

It seems Class B made it through the exam without losing anyone.

[Yup. Kanzaki-kun volunteered himself to be the one everyone voted against. Once we did, it was announced that hed be expelled once the results came back. After that, I paid the full twenty million points and negated his expulsion. There were some difficulties, but everyone in Class B managed to get through the exam safely.]

Is that so? The price you paid wasnt exactly cheap.

Although it was only for the time being, Class B was now poorer than Class D.

Points would be redistributed again in April, but daily life was going to be quite tough for them until then.

Additionally, once the second year begins, having private points readily available might be important.

Though, there was no need to look into that at this point in time.

[Weve lost our private points, but we can always make them back again. But, if we had lost even a single person, there wouldve been no way to get them back.]

Ichinose spoke without any indecision in her voice. It seemed as though I had said something unnecessary.

It was clear that she had set her mind on graduating together with every single one of her precious classmates.

[Ryen-kun might not be satisfied with this, though. It seems that Manabe-san ended up being expelled in his place.]

I decided not to mention that I had just seen Ryen a few moments ago and simply ignored the first part of what she had said.

Were you close with Manabe, Ichinose?

[Not exactly. Weve only ever spoken once or twice, I guess. It still feels kinda lonesome though. Class As Totsuka-kun and Class Cs Yamauchi-kun are also gone]

She probably hadnt been able to make sense of it all yet.

[I wonder if somebodys gonna have to leave like this again at some point?]

Ichinose pondered uneasily.

Maybe.

People you had grown accustomed to seeing everyday, suddenly disappearing.

You would just have to keep fighting, wouldnt you?

[Yup. Im gonna rise up to Class A together with all my friends and graduate.]

Before today, there were probably still some people who thought that Ichinose was a hypocrite.

However, with this, that impression would be gone.

No matter what, Ichinose would fight to the bitter end in order to protect her class.

[Thank you so much, Ayanokji-kun. If you werent here, I]

Wouldve started dating Nagumo?

[Yeah.]

Ichinose responded, affirming my answer.

[I know its stupid of me, its just I kept trying to convince myself that it wouldve been a small price to pay as long as I saved my classmates. But once I realized that I didnt have to go through with it, I felt relieved from the bottom of my heart.]

She seemed to let out a deep sigh of relief as I could hear the sound of it from the other end of the phone.

[I think I definitely would have regretted it at some point.]

With that, Ichinose let out a laugh.

If neither the student council president or I were here, what would you have done instead?

[Do you have to ask that?]

Im curious. Theres no way you havent thought about it, right?

[Yeah, I had two plans. The first was that I would leave the school myself.]

As I had thought, Ichinose had also considered sacrificing herself.

[But, I didnt really think that would be the choice to make. As a student of this school, I wanted to stay and fight to the bitter end.]

In which case, that would mean her other plan wouldve been her first choice.

[The other plan was to hold a lottery.]

I see

It was a simple enough plan that anybody couldve thought of, but it would never work unless everyone agreed to it.

Was everyone in Class B prepared to draw lots like that?

[Yup, we had already discussed it. If we hadnt come up with a way to avoid the expulsion by the day of the vote, we wouldve drawn three random names in a lottery. We didnt bother talking about who the praise votes would go to and just decided the rest would play out on its own.]

It was the only way to judge all the students equally, without considering their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Even if Ichinose had been selected, the votes against her wouldve probably been cancelled out by praise votes. Although, everyone wouldve probably been fine with that anyway.

That wouldve been about as fair as you couldve made it, but it wouldve never happened in the other classes.

The more outstanding students definitely wouldnt agree to a plan like that.

[Its not like anybody actually wanted to be expelled, but nobody wanted to see our friends disappear either. Once I explained this to everyone, they agreed to the plan.]

Class B was probably only able to accomplish a feat like that because they had an absolute leader like Ichinose.

Im impressed.

Despite the fact that it wouldnt be communicated over the phone, I lowered my head slightly as a show of respect to Ichinose.

In and of itself, her plan wasnt particularly extraordinary.

It was simply impressive that she had created an environment where a plan like that could be executed in the first place.

[Alrighty, well, Ill talk to you later. Thank you once again, Ayanokji-kun.]

I was just the middleman. If youre going to thank anybody, you should thank Ryen and his friends.

(Part 7 End)