"There will be no lunch today. Based on the scenario that you all can see, I'll conduct a thorough investigation on all of you when it's lunchtime, until then, we will conduct class as normal. I don't want any commentaries as well. Any unnecessary words will earn you a walk into the principal's office. Are we clear here or do I need to emphasize further? Also, Sana and Arkalee, I need to talk to the two of you for obvious reasons. After class, please."

Starting off with a semi-long speech, Yuka-sensei addressed the situation clearly. The only two people who could not attend the situation were Kawahara and Akihiko. Aside from that, everyone else was present.

The class had to proceed as normal, but it was undoubtedly hard to do so considering the current scenario.

"Sensei, it's fine! Can we just start the class already? I don't really mind!"

One of the biggest mysteries yet is why Ikkiri is happily smiling and saying that what just took place is nothing to take into consideration? This must be an act, but why is she acting like this?

If someone did this do me, I would use physical force without a second thought. It's unacceptable to be looked down upon.

"It's not fine. But, you are correct. The class is starting now. Take your seats, please."

There were still some of us who were not on their respective seats. It's creepy how Ikkiri is just smiling through all this.

"Sensei, you said 'obvious reasons' but I don't understand."

Sana, who was already on her seat asked. It wasn't only Sana that was remotely interested in this. Arkalee was as well.

Although, Arkalee did not speak and just looked at Yuka-sensei expecting an answer. Hyunda, who is seated next to her, whispered something on her ear in the meantime, which made Arkalee tap her own mouth due to a certain amount of shock she received.

Speaking of which, these two have been quite close to each other the past few days. It's a no-brainer that Arkalee is essentially all over him for some reason.

"Do you really want me to say it out loud?"

"Yes..."

Unlike Arkalee, whose facial expression deemed the result of no longer being clueless, Sana was quite confused.

"What happened to not talking to other students? Or just interaction in general? Why did you two blatantly ignore this?"

Seriously? They did? Are they stupid? If I recall correctly, I did the same, but my case has not been found out and even if it is, there is technically no anecdotical evidence to censure me for what I did.

However, both Sana and Arkalee did not respond and just embraced the silence that consumed the classroom.

Thus, the class proceeded as usual, even when that should've not been the case.

I recall Akimiyashika's words and how she said that it must've been one of the boys who has gone and done this. Certainly, if we take into consideration the ones who have shown the vilest behaviors yet, then the boys would be the case.

9: 15 am.

With the serious atmosphere that Yuka-sensei had created in this classroom, no one would dare to cause any ruckus. It would be a different story if Kawahara was here, for example. Would he make a scene out of this?

Nevertheless, despite the iron-clad rule of not commenting on the overall situation, Ikkiri was constantly receiving eyes from our classmates. There were some small laughs along the way too.

Why are they finding this funny though? Tatsu, for example, is maintaining his distance from Ikkiri by going to the furthest edge of the table.

That's a sign of disgust.

"Did you do it?"

I launched that question at my attentive table parter who was religiously taking notes once again.

Her serious expression never changes. Considering that we've had our fair share of arguments still, it doesn't take a fool to know what was ahead of me.

"What part of 'Don't talk to me' do you not understand? Oh, that's right. You're a retard. I forgot. Retards don't possess the natural comprehensive abilities that average human beings do."

I doubt she did it. She doesn't seem to be the type of person who would be bothered to go through this much length in the first place. Plus, there were some hateful messages, well, not just hateful, but spiteful, malicious and evil words/sentences on Ikkiri's table. As a matter of fact, they still are there.

Unless there is a drama between her and Ikkiri, I doubt that she was the one who did it.

With that in mind, I ignored her retort and additionally ignored the vibrating sound from my phone and proceeded to sleep until 1 pm.

1 pm.

"....Ouch..."

Waking up at late 5 am today, it's natural that I might've been more sleepy than usual and thus, it would additionally be natural that the chances of me oversleeping in a scenario where I was already asleep, would be extremely high.

Nonetheless, my table partner delivered a strong kick on my calf in order to wake me up.

"It's starting. I want this to be over as soon as possible. If you get interrogated, then don't prolong it."

......?

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that you should act with minimal intelligence. Preserve time, so to speak. Or is this also hard for you to understand?"

My face is still semi-buried in my tender arms, but it's pretty clear that she's already starting to try and boss me around per usual.

Furthermore, just by looking at the front scenery, I could tell that Yuka-sensei was on her desk while waiting for everyone to maintain silence. Therefore, there was no point in retorting back to the bitch, even if I supremely wanted to do so.

"As you all know or might not know, this morning when I opened the classroom, I stumbled upon the disgrace that someone must have done it. Ikkiri, can you come to my side, please?"

Ikkiri was starting to show visible discomfort. Of course she is. No one in their right mind would be able to endure hours seating on a desk that is full of curses. There's also the fact that this is a room full of criminals. Without a doubt, the culprit is part of this class.

"...Do I really have to? I already said it's fine."

I would suggest a drinking game for every time she says the word 'fine', but I'm not that heartless.

"Please."

Despite her initial continuous resistance, Ikkiri eventually slowly walked up to Yuka-sensei while constantly looking down on the floor. Her strong facade was starting to shatter itself in the process of attempting to maintain itself endlessly.

After she took a seat on the chair next to Yuka-sensei, Yuka-sensei continued.

"I have no idea how you all can come up with something this horrible. Is this funny? While I was explaining morals, I heard some laughs. Tell me. Is it funny? Well, is it?"

No one answered. Ikkiri was still looking downcast.

"No answer? Fine. I must say, whoever came up with this is extremely bold. Breaking the four cameras and removing the inner chip from them at the same time? Impressive. But what's more impressive is how there isn't any footage between 7 pm to today. Which means it must've happened in that time-gap. However, it would be impossible for the culprit to simply walk in and break the cameras without being caught by the cameras doing it first. Therefore, the system itself was infiltrated. Or am I just wrong here? Is there some way to magically access the security system physically?"

Is she making a claim that the system was hacked? By one of us...? That's just... What?

No way that's true. Though, if she's speaking the truth, then it makes sense because despite there being cameras, it doesn't matter if you remove the inner chip or not since the footage is already recorded.

A plausible scenario would be the shutdown on the electronic system.

"Coincidentally, all of the blocks yesterday ran out of electricity between 7 pm to 9 pm. Coincidence? I don't think so."

The dorm's electricity was fine and thankfully, no one messed with the Wi-Fi password, so I was not even aware that this happened in the first place.

"Doesn't that mean that the culprit is someone who could hack the system?"

Tateyana made that bold question. Truth to be told, that would be way too open. Plus, there's no telling whether or not that was truly a coincidence or not. Even if the chances are high, discounting the missing percentage isn't entirely correct.

"Not necessarily the case. As I've explained it, since the blocks ran out of electricity, someone must've infiltrated the power storages and had shut down the blocks as a whole. However, that doesn't make much sense. The culprit that supposedly shut down the power storages should have been caught by the cameras. This means someone must have manipulated the cameras, in other words, going to the point of hacking them."

Would someone really go that far just to make Ikkiri feel this bad? I doubt it. What's there to hate about her?

I'm not trying to portray a white-knight perspective or anything of that sort, there aren't, however, any reasons to hate on Ikkiri.

She's overall enthusiastic and hasn't hurt a fly.... Is what I would say. But considering the last exam, I would think that there is someone who truly hates her.

"So the culprit has experience in hacking...?"

Tateyana asked once again. Puzzled this time, though. Sagasuga followed her up on that.

"That's only under the assumption that the culprit has done all of this. Why would someone go as far as doing all of this...?"

"It's weird. Ikkiri, have you done something to anyone here? It would make this a lot easier if you tell us something that we don't know, for sure."

I'm surprised that they are showing this much cooperation just to help out Ikkiri. How do I say this... I wasn't expecting this much kindness from students who are labeled as criminals.

Both Sagasuga and Tateyana seem to be in good terms now, to the point of synergizing both of their thoughts and ideas altogether.

"I don't think so..."

If she had done something worthy of this, then it would explain. Though, Sagasuga, aren't you forgetting something essential here?

There is someone who has a reason to hate her. Even if that reason should not be relevant in the first place.

"Under my impression, there might've been more than just a culprit. Someone who hacked the cameras and someone who destroyed the cameras, and possibly, the third culprit, the one who wrote all of those cursed words."

Akimiyashika had spoken at long last. Initially, she showed a great deal of anger when it came to this situation, but she had kept her silence for a while. I think that she was drawing conclusions on the scenarios with the highest likelihood in general.

"Interesting. Explain your reasoning, Aki."

Yuka-sensei allowed her to express herself even further, thus Akimiyashika got up from her seat and spoke in the direction of all of us, which contrasted Ikkiri and Yuka-sensei's location.

Radiantly, her crimson red hair shone and bathed her posture with dignity and regality. With her hand on her chest, she spoke succinctly.

"From what I could observe thus far, I've concluded that there might be three culprits overall. Based on how each action was executed, they were executed fairly differently. First of all, the one who hacked the camera's system did not have any direct physical involvement in this, therefore, it's hard to claim which pattern that person upholds in the first place. Nonetheless, I would assume that the person who did such is attempting to stay hidden here."

It's simply an assumption but that might've been the case. They already discussed as to why they believe that the system was truly hacked. Someone with a high caliber when it comes to hacking could've easily pulled this out.

The question is... Who?

"Secondly, as everyone in this room can observe, the security cameras were ravaged and destroyed in a brute enforcing manner. Pardon my bias, but I don't truly believe that a girl would do this. In other words, I will claim that a boy did this!"

It is biased alright, but she does have a point. Even though it lacks enough logic. And since that was the case, Tsudo decided to protest in response to Akimiyashika's biased words.

"That's complete bullshit! Girls can also do this! What gives you the right to make such a claim based on gender alone?!"

Some boys undoubtedly sided with Tsudo here as they saw Akimiyashika's point truly biased and not logical.

Truth to be told, she does have a fair share of bias when it comes to our gender. It's been bugging me. Why do feminists even exist?

"Have you looked at how the cameras are!? They are destroyed. In order to truly crush them, even through their hard-metallic structures, the culprit needs to have a decent amount of physical strength. No, beyond decent. Which is why I believe the culprit at hand to be someone who has an incredible physical prowess. Don't get me wrong though. I'm not claiming that any of you did this. Because, to me, the culprit who broke the cameras is not present today. I don't think I need to say who it is!"

Oh, I see. Under her impression, only someone like Kawahara could break those hard-steeled security cameras.

It's seriously not hard to imagine Kawahara pulling out something like that. Though, is she seriously assuming that the only way to crush those cameras is through physical contact? Clobbering them with a metal bat could do the trick.

So biased...

"Kawahara, then?"

Yuka-sensei wanted to confirm Akimiyashika's obvious claim. Nobody dared to defend Kawahara because the majority of the girls were starring at us with madness.

Not even Kuzan.

"Yes. That's what I truly believe."

"Excuse me for interrupting, but I don't think Kawahara is even that smart, to begin with. Kawahara must've been in contact with someone that had experience in hacking and considering how just about every single one of us hates him, I strongly doubt that he managed to pull out some unreal teamwork like that..."

Shizuku has no way of knowing whether or not Kawahara actually did it, but her point makes sense.

Essentially, since about everyone here hates him with all of their guts, except Kuzan, the likelihood of him being able to contact someone with hacking experience is low. Though, Shizuku has no idea what actually happens behind the scenes.

Nevertheless, even I hate Kawahara a bit. His arrogance and know-it-all attitude isn't exactly a momentum of admiration.

"Shizuku is right, Akimiyashika. You can't just blame Kawahara so one-sidedly like that. It's not as if he is the only boy with tremendous physical strength here..."

Yulia, what are you saying? Stop looking at me, please.

Plus, Kawahara isn't even here. Structure your sentences well.

Unfortunately, Akimiyashika looked at me as some girls did as well, but Akimiyashika quickly turned her eyes around, thankfully.

"True... I do have to admit that I am blaming him a tiny bit. Though, out of all the boys who could have destroyed the cameras, which of them have the highest chance of doing it?"

"Sensei... Can you stop her? She's just spewing gender-related bullshit at this point. This debate is starting to lose coherence."

Unexpectedly, Susaga spoke up and shut down Akimiyashika's vile attempts to glorifying her gender quickly.

Or, that would be the ideal case...

"Whoever broke the cameras utilized brutal physical force for sure. And considering the overall physical prowess in both genders, I would say that the girls are at a disadvantage. Don't think I'm saying this because I like to say it. It's a scientific fact."

"But this doesn't make any sense to discuss in the first place. What matters is who wrote those rubbish aggressive words, right? Why are we suddenly talking about who destroyed the cameras? If someone hacked the system, then doesn't that mean that the culprit is trying to drive us away from what truly matters?"

Certainly... If the culprit's intention is to stall, then, as Susaga said, it would make sense for them to create a sudden distraction like that. I still don't know why Akimiyashika is prioritizing the topic of who destroyed the security cameras...

Is there an actual reason for this?

"Sorry for taking your turn again, sensei, but I'll speak again. It's important to know who did this as well. If the cameras were not destroyed, then the internal chip would contain the footage. However, since the electricity was shut down, the cameras were shut down as well. This triggered one of the culprits to destroy the cameras."

"Your opinion makes no sense. If, according to you, the one who hacked the system disabled the cameras and electricity in general, then why would someone bother with destroying the cameras? I get what you are trying to say though. Accordingly, the internal chip matters, but that also makes no sense. The footage is only available through the cameras when they are working. As soon as the electricity was shut down, the internal chip stopped mattering."

A wild trade of opinions between Akimiyashika and Susaga just took place. I never took Susaga for someone who could hold his ground this well, but he's going at it.

"That's the entire point. Supposedly, it makes no sense, so, why would someone do it in the first place?"

Akimiyashika just acknowledged that her previous point that she drastically tried to make gain relevance only had the meaning of questioning the action of whoever did this and why that person did it in the first place.

"Hmmmm... Then, isn't this bait, Aki?!"

According to Kanawari, this is potentially baiting, however, is it truly correct to just discard the possibility of the camera's destruction? Is it as nonsensical as they are saying?

"That's not a bad assumption, Kana. But, don't you think that that's the bait itself? To make us think that it's bait when it's not?"

Without a doubt, Akimiyashika is currently in charge of this investigation. The fact that Yuka-sensei isn't doing anything to stop her, it means that she agrees with her methodology.

Plus, she just made a good question. This could very well be reverse psychology.

"I see! I see! Then, the culprit made us think that the destruction was bait in order to delay the progression? But, are you sure, Aki?"

"There's nothing wrong with investigating each section clearly. However, I think that I should move on from this point already. This can come later."

It seems she was ready to move on to the essential point. And, in order to portray her upcoming point better, Akimiyashika went to Ikkiri's desk and examined the words that were written in it, before speaking.

Ikkiri was still looking down while Akimiyashika was standing up for her and her alone. Impressive bond, I have to say.

Or rather, Akimiyashika's will to pursue is the remarkable thing here.

"Lastly, the culprit who wrote this... Might either be a boy or a girl."

This raised a few questions and brought up controversy as well.

Why was she suddenly saying such things?

"My reasoning for my deduction is the following... This hand-writing does not alternate. Which means that only one person did it and not multiple. This was most likely the end goal of the culprit, to write this plethora of untruthful words at Ikkiri for no reasonable reason whatsoever!"

Akimiyashika's strong words assaulted everyone in this classroom with great effect. Her voice was so spiteful and stoic in the process of all this, which just reflected how serious she was about this.

"Aki... It's really fine..."

"No, it's not. And with this as proof, I will ask all of you to write the following sentence on a blank sheet. I'll write that sentence on the board, without further ado."

What is she planing...?

She couldn't be thinking of...

Well, regardless of what she was thinking of doing, Akimiyashika went to her desk and brought up a pile of white sheets and distributed a single sheet to all of us, after writing the sentence on the board, which was...

'I am the culprit'.

How bold. Though, I get what she's trying to do. Applying psychological pressure onto the culprit is already a good move.

There's still the option of Kawahara being the culprit, but I don't see why. This seems way too personal and I don't think I've ever witnessed any remarkable interaction between Kawahara and Ikkiri.

Akihiko's case is self-explanatory, therefore... The culprit is in this classroom.

Already on the edge of the board, Akimiyashika spoke as soon as she saw that everyone was done writing the sentence on their sheets.

Noticeably, both Ikkiri and Yuka-sensei also had to write down the sentence. She was not letting anyone escape.

"The hand-writing of the culprit is very childish and messy. However, that can be something that the culprit wanted to be known. By suspecting this event, the culprit might've gone and purposedly changed their hand-writing. Which is why every hand-writing will be taken into serious consideration."

That's confusing then. What's the point of writing down the sentence even? Shouldn't the whole point of this be to decipher the culprit's hand-writing based on the similarities?

Why would you contradict this?

"In case you are wondering, this is superficial."

Your words are confusing me now, even more, Akimiyashika. You are saying this is superficial, but aren't you defeating the whole purpose of this, then?

I do want to speak up now, but this is still the early game.

"Then, what was the point of this?"

Ryoken questioned Akimiyashika's mysterious action without waiting around.

"It would defeat the whole purpose if I told anyone what the true intent of this is..."

Ultimately handing out the sheets to Yuka-sensei, Akimiyashika resumed her stance while leaving Ryoken and the majority of the class in confusion.

"There is something we know for sure. This could not have happened on February 28th. Therefore, it happened yesterday. Would someone like to tell me what exactly happened yesterday that could be considered something out of the ordinary?"

Of course, everyone knew what Akimiyashika was referring to. I don't think anyone missed out on this whatsoever.

Thus, Kuzan enthusiastic replied.

"Our only day of freedom!"

"That's right, Kuzan. The only day anyone from our class can leave is at the beginning of the month. Today is March 2nd, thus yesterday marked the beginning of March; March 1st. Without a shadow of a doubt, the majority, if not all of us left school to enjoy their day of freedom. No offense, but being locked here for an entire month is excruciatingly boring. That aside, assuming that we all left --- Oh wait! That's right! Someone didn't leave! Who was that person again...? Um...? Oh yeah! Someone who is still grounded and isn't present here today! Who is it?!"

Wow, I can't believe she made such a solid point at first but she washed it all down just to point out the fact that Kawahara is still grounded and under suspension.

There is some obvious hatred here. I'm starting to think that it's not even a gender-related thing, but just Kawahara in general.

"Kawahara, Aki!"

Following Akimiyashika's lead, Hinagiku erupted from the silence she herself bestowed upon her and let out a loud shout.

"This again, Akimiyashika? I'm not defending Kawahara but didn't we all agree that this could have only happened between 7 pm to 9 pm? For your information, in case you didn't know, if you left school yesterday, you had to be in school at 6 pm maximum. It's unjust to label Kawahara as the overall culprit just based on the fact that he stayed here at school."

If we go by Yuka-sensei's logic, then Sagasuga is correct. Assuming that this event did take place between 7 pm and 9 pm, Kawahara can't be the only person to blame here.

"That would normally be the case, Sagasuga. I do agree with you this time. However, if the culprit truly has a connection with a hacker in this class, then, shouldn't changing the time of the event be a simple thing?"

What?

"Are you seriously suggesting that for some reason, the time was altered? Certainly, that shouldn't be impossible for a hacker, but still... Aren't you going out of the line a little bit too much? This is an unrealistic scenario."

Sagasuga is once again, correct. Akimiyashika is proposing a scenario where Kawahara was able to infiltrate this classroom in a time that was not the one that was proposed by Yuka-sensei.

"Isn't it possible though? If Kawahara truly had such connections, he could've told the hacker to manipulate the time span. According to common sense, the majority could only infiltrate here when the blackout happened. That's common sense. But if the time was not correspondent to the one of the blackout, wouldn't it make the most sense to assume that the timespan was manipulated?"

This is... I mean, it's not impossible.

It's just... If we go by Akimiyashika's set of methods, we will be here all day interrogating the probabilities of the infinite scenarios that there are out there.

"That's not possible. Kawahara was being watched by our supervisor. Plus, I stayed with him from 4 pm and beyond. Akimiyashika, you are getting a bit unrealistic..."

I can't tell if Kuzan is lying or not, but it would make sense for Kawahara to be under King George's vigilance.

Furthermore, to aid Kuzan's words, Yuka-sensei additionally spoke.

"Aki, Kuzan is right. I did ask the supervisor to watch over him. Kawahara can't be the culprit here."

Was this all an act then? Did Yuka-sensei purposely allow this event to happen just to make sure that Akimiyashika would understand that Kawahara could not possibly have done anything regarding this?

For sure, that's the correct approach if we want to eliminate the ones who are to be less suspected.

".......I see..."

She seemed slightly damaged by that. Yet, she continued to speak.

"Kawahara aside, I think I can label a strong guess on who has the most reason to hate Ikkiri. It should be common sense to everyone here that the previous exam involved two individuals instead of one. And, it should also be even more obvious that there were a lot of losses. However, some of us just can't accept losses maturely and thus, it wouldn't be strange to censure your partner for your own immaturity."

Akimiyashika midst her speech was looking at the one person who I had in mind all this time. The only person who has a reason to hate Ikkiri, in spite of all.

This person had a serious look on his face and was trying not to act bothered at all, but it was too late since Akimiyashika had already chosen her target.

"Tatsu! You did it, didn't you?"

"What?"

Strongly pointing towards Tatsu, Akimiyashika claimed Tatsu to be the one who did this.

"You can't lie to me. I saw how you acted full of spite all this time and how you couldn't accept your defeat! You surely thought it was Ikkiri's fault even though it was her absence that was the cause!"

"Nonsense. I wouldn't win either way. She's useless and most importantly, she acts like a kid all the damn time. Winning was not an option. I would not bother myself with this shit!"

Even if Tatsu denies it, in my mind, he is the one who did all of this. But...

It's strange still. I know that he is the most suspectable person out of all, but considering the cursed words...

It doesn't add up yet...

"Admit it! There's no one else here that has a bigger reason to censure Ikkiri than you! She's kind, grateful and sympathetic! Only someone with tremendous spite like you would go through such lengths!"

"I would seriously advise you to watch your mouth..."

Given that the argument was escalating a bit too high, Yuka-sensei had no choice to intervene.

However, before she could, a certain twin-tailed girl spoke loudly, which drew the attention of all eyes to her.

"Please wait! I think I know who the culprit is!"