Amane's questioning startled Morofuji. How could she dare not give Amane face? Even Ishizaki-kun was severely reprimanded by Amane, and Ryuuen was even beaten into hospitalization by Class D students.
Morofuji's original personality was somewhat timid. It was only because Karuizawa was a girl and not very intimidating that she became bolder and dared to argue with Karuizawa.
Anyway, Hirata wasn't there, Amane hadn't spoken to stop them, and the other two Class D students looked taciturn, all of which gave Morofuji great confidence.
In Morofuji's view, to save face from yesterday, she only needed to complete the simplest step: make Karuizawa speechless or apologize to her.
However, events unfolded beyond Morofuji's expectations. Karuizawa Kei, who appeared to be an arrogant, self-centered girl who made people uncomfortable at all times.
Actually refuted her with clear logic, from initial head-to-head confrontation to outright mutual accusations, the two were always evenly matched. Because they each viewed yesterday's problem from their own perspective, they both felt they were in the right, and at the same time, they both thought the other's behavior was unreasonable. With such understanding, even if they argued until their voices were hoarse, they might not be able to determine a winner.
Seeing that she couldn't win against Karuizawa in the argument, Morofuji had already considered retreating. She just needed someone to give her an opening, and Morofuji would unhesitatingly take it.
Anyway, continuing to argue wouldn't lead to a resolution. It would be better to go back and find her classmates to help her get even. She knew that Karuizawa's boyfriend, Hirata Yousuke, was also injured during the Uninhabited Island exam. This meant that if something happened to Karuizawa, no one would jump out to help this self-important person.
Just when Morofuji had calculated all the subsequent developments, Amane played a joke on her, not only placing Karuizawa next to her but also ordering her to continue arguing.
Morofuji hesitated for only a moment before Amane questioned whether she was not giving her face.
This scene left Morofuji momentarily at a loss as to what to do next.
It must be said, Amane's move was quite something.
To outsiders, Amane's stance seemed relatively neutral; she didn't kick Morofuji when she was down.
But this didn't mean Amane wouldn't put pressure on her.
Especially that glance from Amane directly made Morofuji lose her ability to retort.
The speechless Morofuji, along with Karuizawa, fell into a deathly silence.
"Miyako-san, I'm very sorry. I didn't intend to disrespect you, Miyako-san, but I think the matter with Karuizawa should be handled privately between us..."
Morofuji's intention seemed to be to resolve it privately later.
"Hmm? Morofuji, your words are unoriginal. If you two could handle this matter, would I still be acting this way? Since it has come to this, you might as well have some backbone and stick to your convictions."
Amane looked at Morofuji, whose face had suddenly turned very ugly, and her voice became hollow.
"You wouldn't think that I haven't done my homework at all, and am simply opposing you based on class differences, would you? Speaking of yesterday's incident, it was just Kei stepping on your shoe. Even though she apologized, her careless attitude displeased you. So you called another Class C student to verbally attack and pressure Kei. Kei was forced to flee in disarray, but what you didn't expect was..."
"You thought it was a sure win, but at the crucial moment, it backfired, allowing Karuizawa to get help from a classmate. In the end, you failed miserably and were told you were useless. So, you're using today's incident to try and regain the face you lost. Isn't that all it is?"
Amane, with a calm expression, almost perfectly recreated everything that happened that day.
"Why... Miyako-san, how do you know so much detail? I remember you weren't there that day..."
Morofuji looked at Amane in disbelief, because Amane's analysis was spot-on and absolutely could not have been from Karuizawa's perspective to know the full scope of the incident.
"I don't remember saying it in such detail either."
Even Karuizawa was a bit confused.
Yesterday, when Karuizawa asked Amane for help, she deliberately concealed some details, such as her apology, which in hindsight seemed perfunctory, or how she was publicly criticized by two people with no power to retort, wanting to run away but being blocked by Morofuji and another girl – these embarrassing things. She thought she had hidden them well.
Where did Amane find out?
Seeing that the two idiots were focusing on how she obtained the information, Amane was also a bit speechless. Shouldn't the current situation be to apologize to each other and facilitate reconciliation, now that she had laid everything bare?
If this stalemate continues, Morofuji will likely find a way to bully Karuizawa at least once before giving up.
"I said, did you two really listen to what the other said during your argument? Weren't all these things said during your argument?"
Amane sighed heavily.
In the beginning, their mutual accusations and clashes had some logic, allowing them to criticize and correct each other's specific actions.
Later on, even physical appearance was used as a tool for mockery.
If they were ordinary people, they would probably just enjoy the show of Karuizawa and Morofuji arguing, but Amane was the only one who truly listened to all their conversations, piecing together the fragments in her mind to reconstruct the entire sequence of events and their causes.
In the end, it was just a trivial matter, but once a variable appears in anything, its outcome cannot be understood in a normal way; for example, the variable in this incident involved self-esteem.
Suddenly, the outcome became difficult for even Amane to grasp.
Just as Morofuji was about to say something more, the first one-hour discussion meeting concluded amidst their arguments.
Amane was the first to pick up her phone and leave the room, completely ignoring the reactions of Morofuji or Karuizawa.
To Amane, these daily trivialities were merely a diversion in her life, not worth getting too invested in.
Just as Amane was about to return to her dorm, she was stopped by a staff member.
"Miyako-san, please wait a moment, you forgot to draw the ghost card intelligence slip."
Hearing "intelligence slip," Amane finally slapped her forehead.
No wonder she felt something wasn't quite right.
Amane originally thought the drawing would be from a small box, but then two staff members laboriously carried a huge square box, half a meter tall, towards Amane.
"Huh? You're not going to tell me I'm drawing here, are you?"
Amane pointed somewhat blankly at the huge box in front of her.
Inside, white slips of paper were densely stacked; at a glance, there were certainly thousands. According to Mashima-sensei, even insignificant intelligence slips like weather reports could appear, so a whole box full of useless information must be as numerous as ox hair.
No wonder Mashima-sensei told her not to have too many expectations.
Amane casually picked up a slip of paper.
Just as she was about to open it, she suddenly heard an announcement over the broadcast.
"The dragon group's exam has ended. dragon group students no longer need to participate in the exam. Please proceed with caution and do not disturb other students."
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