Chapter 185: Go Collect Written Complaints
Ryuen took a deep breath, his expression dark.
"Shimizu Yuto, I'll stop having everyone harass the other classes. Let's end this here."
Neither Ishizaki nor Albert showed any surprise or objection to Ryuen's compromise.
Ryuen had already damaged his reputation in Class D through three separate incidents: ruling everyone through violence, orchestrating the scheme against Yuto, and obtaining midterm exam papers that turned out to be useless.
If the students in clubs now got expelled from those clubs because of another plan Ryuen had ordered, then even fewer people in Class D would be willing—or brave enough—to act for him in the future.
"Ryuen, your surrender came too late. I already summoned all the club representatives over the school broadcast. How am I supposed to send them home without doing anything?"
"Tch."
Yuto pointed toward the student council meeting room.
"If you want to know how I'm going to get your classmates kicked out of their clubs, go inside and wait. If you don't care, you can leave right now."
Without saying another word, Ryuen walked straight toward the meeting room.
Ishizaki and Albert hurried after him.
Ryuen didn't merely want to know how Yuto planned to remove his classmates from their clubs.
He intended to stop him.
Inside the meeting room, Ryuen saw Katsuragi Kohei.
Katsuragi glanced at him and gestured toward the seats on the left.
"First-year Class D students, your seats are over there."
"Well, if it isn't Class A's Katsuragi Kohei." Ryuen sneered. "When did you become Shimizu Yuto's subordinate? Now you're even arranging seats for him?"
Katsuragi answered calmly, unaffected by the mockery.
"I'm not Shimizu's subordinate. I'm simply carrying out my duties as a member of the student council's general affairs staff."
"Dress it up however you like. Shimizu Yuto's goal is to reach Class A, isn't it? And you're still willingly working for him."
"That's a separate matter."
Katsuragi's complete lack of reaction quickly made Ryuen lose interest.
He sat down in the section Katsuragi had indicated.
As time passed, the remaining Class D students and the presidents or representatives of the various clubs gradually arrived.
All the Class D students were seated on the left side of the meeting room.
The club representatives sat on the right.
The seats at the front and center belonged to the student council and were still empty because Yuto and the others had yet to enter.
The students summoned by Yuto's broadcast whispered among themselves, unable to understand why they had suddenly been called here.
The Class D students, meanwhile, wore gloomy expressions.
They could more or less guess the reason.
It was probably connected to Class D's recent harassment campaign.
Ibuki Mio glanced toward Ryuen.
"Ryuen, you know why Shimizu called us here, don't you?"
"...It looks like he plans to get all of you kicked out of your clubs."
"What?!"
Just as Ibuki and the others reacted in shock, the meeting-room door opened.
Yuto walked inside with a smile.
Suzune, Ichinose, and Katsuragi followed behind him.
The club representatives swallowed nervously when they saw Yuto enter.
He was only a first-year junior, yet facing him still made them instinctively tense.
It felt almost like standing in front of some terrifying demon.
Apparently Yuto's earlier campaign of challenging club after club had left quite a psychological shadow on them.
After sitting down, Yuto addressed the room.
"Everyone, I summoned you here over the broadcast because I want to discuss an issue concerning the clubs."
Standing behind him, Suzune began taking minutes of the meeting.
Both Yuto and Tachibana intended to gradually train Suzune toward secretary work, so recording meetings had become one of her responsibilities.
Oda Ishiumi, the basketball club president who had interacted with Yuto several times before, spoke first.
"Shimizu, what club issue are you talking about?"
"This is the student council, so please address me as Vice President, senpai," Yuto replied with a smile.
"...Fine, fine, Vice President. What exactly is this club issue?"
"You should all be very familiar with the matter of ghost members."
The club representatives stiffened.
Hadn't the ghost-member issue already been resolved?
Was this demon planning to settle old scores now?
The kendo club representative coughed lightly.
"Vice President, wasn't the ghost-member matter already settled? Is there some kind of follow-up?"
Yuto folded his hands together.
"Because of the ghost-member issue, the student council has started questioning whether certain students actually deserve to remain members of their clubs."
"So, in my capacity as student council vice president, I intend to conduct qualification checks on selected club members. If a student cannot defeat me in the relevant club discipline, then I'll conclude they aren't qualified to remain in that club."
His gaze shifted toward the Class D students.
"..."
Their expressions immediately changed.
They now understood exactly how Yuto intended to drive them out.
Through open, legitimate competition.
Ryuen had assumed Yuto would threaten the club representatives and pressure them into expelling the Class D students.
If Yuto had done that, Ryuen could have mocked the clubs for throwing away their own members just because Yuto said a few words.
But Ryuen had never imagined Yuto would avoid threats entirely.
Instead, he was using a completely transparent scheme.
A direct challenge.
The archery club representative cautiously asked, "Vice President, what exactly do you mean by that?"
"It's simple. If a student who joined a club can't even beat an outsider like me at that club's specialty, then they clearly aren't contributing much. I have no reason to let deadweight like that remain in the club."
Ryuen laughed coldly.
"You make it sound so righteous, Shimizu Yuto, but this is obviously just personal retaliation against people you dislike. Otherwise, why did you only summon clubs that students from our class belong to?"
That finally made the club representatives understand.
So that was it.
The demon Shimizu Yuto wasn't targeting them.
He was targeting the Class D students.
"How can you call it retaliation?" Yuto replied pleasantly. "I remember someone in your class named Tokito Hiroya saying Class D was the most useless class and that its students were the most useless students."
"If we're going to verify club-member qualifications, naturally we should start with the most useless class."
The faces of the Class D students immediately darkened.
Who the hell was he calling useless?!
Yuto looked toward them.
"Starting tomorrow, I'll personally test each of your club abilities. If you can't beat me in the relevant discipline, you'll withdraw from your club."
Oda and the other club representatives twitched visibly.
Who the hell could beat this monster?
"I object!" Ryuen shouted.
"Then state your objection."
"Ibuki Mio and Kinoshita Minori are both in the track and field club. Girls are naturally at a physical disadvantage compared with boys. If you personally compete against them, that isn't fair."
"I don't care. Even if they were boys, I wouldn't lose to them in track and field," Ibuki said proudly.
Oda and the others silently rolled their eyes.
They had once thought exactly the same thing.
They had believed they were experts in basketball, kendo, archery, or whatever their club specialized in, and that there was no way they would lose to some first-year junior named Shimizu Yuto.
And then?
They lost.
Badly.
"You have a point, Ryuen."
Yuto turned toward Suzune, who was still recording the meeting.
"Horikita, how good are you at track and field?"
"More than enough to handle them," Suzune replied coolly.
Ibuki immediately glared at her.
"Then the girls' track-and-field qualification tests will be handled by Horikita, who is also a girl. You don't have any objections now, do you, Ryuen?"
"Hmph."
"Then the club qualification tests will officially begin after school tomorrow. Class D students, please prepare yourselves."
Yuto looked around the room.
"That concludes the meeting. Everyone, please leave in an orderly manner."
As soon as he finished speaking, the students gradually began leaving the meeting room.
Yoshimoto Kousetsu, who walked out with Ryuen, looked especially pale.
"Ryuen... the archery club wants me to quit."
"What do you mean?" Ishizaki asked in surprise. "Shimizu's qualification test isn't until tomorrow."
"The club president seems terrified of Shimizu. He messaged me just now and advised me to withdraw from the archery club voluntarily..."
Yoshimoto's expression was ugly.
If Yuto hadn't earned such an overwhelming reputation by challenging virtually every club in the school, the club members wouldn't have feared him this much.
But everyone already knew he was a monster who won challenge after challenge.
On top of that, he was now student council vice president and controlled approvals for club funding and facilities.
Who knew what kind of trouble he might create if a club offended him just to protect a few Class D students?
From the clubs' perspective, it was much safer for those Class D students to leave before they dragged everyone else down with them.
...
After Ryuen and the others had left, Yuto turned toward Katsuragi, Ichinose, and Suzune.
"Just kicking the Class D students out of their clubs may not be enough to stop Ryuen's harassment campaign. So I need the three of you to collect written complaints from everyone."
"Written complaints?" Ichinose asked curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Basically, have students write statements describing Class D's harassment, what happened, and how badly it affected them."
"If we collect enough written complaints, the student council can use them as formal grounds to issue Class D an official warning. If they repeat the behavior after that, we'll be justified in imposing severe punishment."
Ichinose's eyes immediately lit up.
"That really would stop Class D from continuing!"
"Exactly," Katsuragi agreed approvingly.
Until now, the Class D students had been reckless precisely because neither the student council nor the school had formally warned them.
Once enough written complaints were collected, the student council could officially put them on notice.
If they repeated the behavior afterward, they would face serious punishment.
That threat alone would make them much more cautious.
Combined with Yuto driving the club members from Class D out of their clubs, the rest of Class D would also become afraid that Yuto might target them next.
That would make them even less willing to continue Ryuen's reckless campaign.
"So the three of you should return to your classes now and collect written complaints," Yuto said. "Give them to me during lunch break tomorrow."
"Mm!"
Both Ichinose and Katsuragi took the assignment very seriously because it directly concerned Class D's harassment.
They left the student council to contact their classmates.
Only Suzune remained behind.
"Shimizu..." She looked slightly uncomfortable. "You should know I don't really have friends in my class, so this kind of task doesn't seem particularly suited to me."
"Hah~ Horikita, even you know you don't have any friends?" Yuto asked with a grin.
Suzune fell silent.
She did have one person she could probably call a friend.
And that person was standing right in front of her.
"Go find Kei or Kikyo. Hirata works too. Any of them will help you collect everyone's written complaints."
"Do you really have to make me handle this personally?" Suzune asked helplessly.
"Weren't you the one who asked me to train you more so your brother would see you differently?"
Yuto smiled.
"Doing something you're bad at is exactly how you gain the most experience and improve the fastest."
"...You have a point."
Suzune nodded seriously.
"All right. I'll do my best to complete the assignment."
Yuto gave her shoulder an encouraging pat.
"Good luck. I'm sure you can do it."
"Mm."
After dumping the written-complaint work onto Katsuragi, Ichinose, and Suzune, Yuto left the student council feeling completely relaxed.
Having three capable workers handle things for him really did make life easy.
Katsuragi and Ichinose had little difficulty collecting written complaints from their classmates.
After all, both were leaders within their respective classes, and everyone was already thoroughly sick of Class D's harassment.
…
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