Chapter 189: ?... Catching six fish with one hook!
What?!
This turn of events was so far beyond Shimizu Akira's expectations that it was bordering on the ridiculous.
Wait! How did Sudo Ken know about him helping Sakura Airi with the harassment issue at noon and gathering intel on the side? Judging by his tone, was it Kushida Kikyo who told him?
Come to think of it, during the lunch break, since he had promised Kushida to give her the intel first, he did tell her the relevant information after getting Sakura Airi's personal consent. It seemed Kushida later shared this with Sudo Ken. She probably wanted to share the good news with the person involved.
However—since when did he become someone who "seeks no reward"? Kushida had clearly promised him a lap pillow!
'Ah... I get it.'
Shimizu had an epiphany. Kushida would definitely never tell Sudo about such a private agreement.
After all, she maintained the persona of a "Popular Angel" in class. If people found out she casually agreed to give a boy a lap pillow, her popularity would plummet. People like Yamauchi Haruki and Ike Kanji would certainly stop worshipping her—if their "idol" wasn't "pure," why would they keep being fans?
So, Kushida most likely lied, telling Sudo something like: "Shimizu-kun didn't ask for anything; he proactively helped gather information, you know."
Thus, in Sudo's eyes, Shimizu Akira naturally seemed selfless, helping him unconditionally and even solving the problem in a single afternoon.
But seriously, which "friend" did Sudo consult to reach the conclusion that Shimizu was a "do-gooder who hides his name"? Shimizu was completely baffled.
Sudo didn't have many friends to begin with; currently, there were only two: Ike Kanji and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. Which one was spreading these rumors?!
In any case, this was likely why Sudo had called those three out. Furthermore, they were the ones who had framed him before, and with Shimizu joining the Boxing Club and his opponent happening to be Yamada from Class 1-C...
It could only be said that everything coincided perfectly.
Actually, thinking it through, Sudo's logic was sound; Ryuen Kakeru indeed might have made a move against him. However, hearing Komiya Kyogo and Ishizaki Daichi's fearful defense just now, they didn't look like they were faking it.
Shimizu was also a bit confused: did they actually plan to target him or not?
But he also suddenly realized something.
'This isn't catching five fish with one hook; it's clearly six fish now!'
He had even gained Sudo Ken's personal favor. Shimizu clicked his tongue inwardly. If he hadn't had the intelligence alert, he would never have come to look—after all, who could have guessed the truth was this: Sudo was actually planning to fight for his sake.
Since that was the case, Shimizu naturally had no reason to stay on the sidelines. No matter how you looked at it, Sudo was sticking his neck out for him. He couldn't sit by and watch Sudo hit someone and end up being expelled.
"Stop it! Sudo!" Shimizu shouted, then walked straight up to the four of them.
Sudo's fist, mid-swing, froze instantly. He turned and saw Shimizu, the anger on his face stiffening.
"Shimizu? Why are you here?"
Kondo Reo and the other two didn't expect Shimizu to appear suddenly either. They instinctively shrank back, a hint of vigilance flashing in their eyes.
Shimizu ignored those three and walked directly to Sudo, his gaze falling on the clenched fist. "Calm down. You can't hit anyone again."
"But they..." Sudo wanted to argue, but was cut off by Shimizu.
"Sudo! If you do this, you'll make the efforts of the whole class go to waste. Yamauchi said you're a guy who loves to hit people; do you want to follow his words and prove him right?!"
These words hit Sudo like a sledgehammer.
He froze completely, his clenched fist slowly loosening as a hint of embarrassment crept onto his face.
Shimizu's words hit his weak spot—after all, Shimizu was the one who had helped him the most and found the witness. If he really fought now, wouldn't he be wasting all the other's hard work?
Moreover, Yamauchi did say he liked hitting people a couple of days ago, and he didn't want to give that guy the satisfaction.
"Let's go." Shimizu didn't spare a look for the three remaining there, only speaking to Sudo. The two of them left decisively without looking back.
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Ishizaki Daichi, Komiya Kyogo, and Kondo Reo looked at each other, feeling that the situation had once again gone beyond their expectations. They thought Shimizu's appearance was to back Sudo up and continue the confrontation. They didn't expect that with just a few words, he would lead the man away so cleanly.
"Um... did we just get helped by that guy named Shimizu Akira?" Ishizaki spoke first, scratching his head.
"It... looks like that's the case." Kondo Reo nodded awkwardly. Factually speaking, they were shivering with fear just now and only escaped because Shimizu stepped in.
"He... is actually a pretty good guy, huh."
"Yeah! Luckily Ryuen didn't mention any plans to target Shimizu during the meeting last time."
Ishizaki and Kondo exchanged glances, sighing in relief.
Thinking back to the last meeting, Ryuen Kakeru had indeed gathered everyone from Class 1-C at the karaoke and laid out the plan for the third month—it mainly targeted Class D students who participated in clubs and had outstanding abilities, centering a series of targeted plans around them.
The reason was simple: their homeroom teacher, Sakagami Kazuma, had said in the first month that active participation in club activities yields many personal points; if one achieves something for the school, it increases Class Points. For example, the baseball club making it to Koshien or the soccer club reaching the nationals are examples of gaining points for the class.
The core of the plan was specifically to provoke Class D members in clubs—especially those in sports clubs—into fighting. These people are mostly simple-minded and easily provoked. Once induced to strike, they would be suspended for violating school rules, and their class would lose a large amount of points. This way, they could prevent "talents" from becoming club cores, trap them in suspension, and damage the enemy class's points.
This was the entire logic behind Ryuen Kakeru's strategy.
"As expected of Big Brother Ryuen! This scheme is brilliant!" "Yeah, yeah, it's amazing!"
The two nodded in agreement. The reason Ryuen's first target was Sudo Ken made sense—though Sudo was poor academically, his club performance was excellent; his basketball skills were almost at the starting level, lacking only seniority. In Kondo's view, this guy's strength was enough for famous basketball powerhouse schools; he had no idea why he came to this school. But seeing his hot temper, he likely caused trouble before enrollment and lost his recommendation eligibility.
Precisely because of this, among the first-years, only Sudo was chosen as a regular candidate, fitting Ryuen's initial target perfectly. Moreover, Kondo and Komiya already disliked him in the club.
Last week, they took action. They intentionally called Sudo to the vicinity of the special teaching building where there are no cameras and asked Ishizaki to help. They mocked him for being "Class D trash" and threatened to beat him if he didn't quit the club, then made a move to surround him. Sure enough, Sudo reacted exactly as they predicted and fought back.
After getting bruised, they naturally reported it to the Student Council.
They weren't worried about Sudo denying it—the guy was a simpleton who couldn't hide anything. Indeed, Sudo admitted to it as soon as he opened his mouth, arguing it was "self-defense," which was laughable.
According to the rules, if he couldn't find evidence that he wasn't the provocateur by next Tuesday, he'd likely have to pack his bags this semester, and his candidate status would be gone.
But in reality, after all these days, Class C had only moved against Sudo. The reason was simple: there were too few people who met their criteria.
First, some in Class D didn't join clubs at all.
They couldn't understand why—performing well in a club nets extra personal points. Second, even if they joined, many were average in skill and not worth targeting. After all, if they were truly talented, they might not have ended up in Class D. Third, in the clubs some joined, there were no Class C members, so there was no way to start. Without knowing the opponent's personality and trying to pick a fight across different classes, it made no logical sense—there was no premise for conflict.
So, after thinking it over, only two people fit all the criteria. The first was Sudo; since they already moved against him, he could be set aside.
The second was Shimizu Akira. On Tuesday, Yamada Albert personally said that his opponent for the exhibition match next Tuesday was Shimizu Akira.
A first-year participating in a Boxing Club exhibition match—what did that represent? It was roughly equivalent to Sudo becoming a regular candidate, perhaps even a step above—since boxing is a one-on-one duel, a first-year being chosen was quite rare.
Yamada Albert's physique made him look like a professional fighter, while Shimizu currently showed nothing special.
However, it was worth mentioning that when Ryuen brought this up at the meeting, two people opposed it.
The first was Yamada Albert.
He shook his head sharply, explicitly rejecting Ryuen's suggestion to trip up Shimizu, stating he could win the match fair and square. Ishizaki wasn't surprised by Albert's refusal. He had been by Ryuen's side for over two months and was familiar with Albert—despite his exaggerated physique, he actually had a nice personality, liked collecting national flags, and
was happy when people spoke English to him. For him, in a match he was confident in winning, there was no need for tricks, and it wasn't in his character.
The second opponent was Shiina Hiyori.
After she tutored the class last month, both boys and girls recognized her intelligence and ability; in a sense, she was one of the leaders in class. Her reason was: Class C had already moved against Class B in the second month, and with the midterm exam question incident, the class reputation was already poor. Since they already acted against Sudo, targeting a second person now would be easily noticed as intentional sabotage by the other three classes and even the school administration.
Ishizaki thought this reason was reasonable.
Regarding the midterm exam question, he had secretly admired his boss for thinking of a way to lower other classes' averages. But after the exam, seeing Ryuen kick the desk several times with a livid face, he realized things weren't as simple as he thought.
In fact, when he went out these past few days, he clearly felt the way other classes looked at him had changed—a mix of undisguised disdain and contempt. Especially Class A; some students had specifically stopped him to mock him: "Think you can climb to Class A with such low-life methods? Laughable." "Class C trash only has this much ability."
In short, the reputation of Class 1-C was now likely the worst among the four classes.
Ryuen hadn't responded directly that day; he just dismissed everyone.
The plan was supposed to be executed by club members. Since Albert refused to trip up Shimizu, even if Ryuen wanted to do something, it was hard to find suitable hands—not to mention Shiina Hiyori's logical dissuasion. To other students, it seemed Ryuen had given up on targeting Shimizu.
So, their staring at Shimizu these past few days wasn't to prepare for a move, but pure curiosity: Why was this guy chosen by the Boxing Club president?
Especially for Ishizaki, he remembered being warned at the cafeteria by those tall Boxing Club senpais not to move against Class B. Thinking back, Shimizu was there too—he didn't fight, just watched. But he could tell Shimizu was highly regarded by the president, otherwise he wouldn't have been called over.
Generally, people who are liked are either good talkers or powerful themselves. Because of the experience of Shimizu resolving the situation just now, Ishizaki momentarily felt he leaned more toward the first type.
He scratched his head and said with a hint of regret: "Too bad! The three of us have to go to the Student Council; we probably won't make it to see the boxing match."
Whether as classmates or just as boys, he really wanted to see that match. But who knew how long the Student Council business would take.
"It's okay, it should be resolved quickly! I brought a flyer; it says it starts at 7:00 PM! The Student Council thing starts at 4:00, we'll definitely make it!" Komiya Kyogo said as he pulled a flyer out of his pocket.
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