Matsuo Eichiiro's POV

"So, you're saying this is the structure where the event almost took place?" Kiyo inquired as he stood alongside me, facing me.

"I'm rather certain it is." In response to his question, I merely nodded.

We had agreed to conduct an investigation into the brawl that nearly occurred between Sudou, Komiya, Kondou, and Ishizaki after school. Needless to say, we didn't yet inform the other leaders of our plans since we wanted to get a jump start on examining it just the two of us alone.

After that, we went inside and into the special annex building.

"The holiest shitiest of shit, why is it so fucking hot...?" I made a reasonable fuss over the sweltering and unappealing atmosphere of the edifice.

This heat was atrociously apocalyptic. With all things being equal, this was probably how summer at school should feel more often than not, but I had hoped that the cold air would help to balance out the heat within the building.

I guess I had become too accustomed to air-conditioned environments. Because of the difference in expectations, I felt extra sweaty. The air conditioning in the special building was presumably on during class time, but it wasn't on at the current moment. As of right now, I'd give anything for a glass of orange-flavored Fanta with ice cubes.

"Please accept my apologies for dragging you here." Kiyo, who was sauntering next to me, simply looked around the corridor, showing little yet subtle signs of discomfort and annoyance.

"It's not a big deal, really. You gave me the option of accepting or declining, and I came here voluntarily on my own accord." I reassured him by lightly patting the right shoulder of his blazer.

"So, this is the exact place?"

"Yep, sure is. I was initially out for a meander around here, somewhere around... Over there." I pointed south with my index finger from my vantage point of view. "Sakura was also present at the time. I believe she was taking pictures of herself without wearing her spectacles and untying her hair down. She probably has an interest and a passion for photography, which is how we happened to cross paths coincidentally. She also witnessed the near-fight with me." I clarified the situation.

"Sakura has a hobby of photography?" Kiyo slightly raised his left eyebrow as an indication of imperceptible surprise. "I didn't know that..."

She was regarded as one of Class B's unfortunate loners. While she is highly attractive, many people concluded that her potential to be popular among her peers is limited due to her shy and awkward demeanor. In the first month, no one made the effort to interact with her, so very few people knew who she actually was.

Of course, with the support of Kiyo's study group, she was able to meet a handful of students with whom she could identify and relate to on a personal level. If my memory serves me well, the names of those individuals were Kiyotaka himself, Hasebe, Miyake, Mori, and Yukimura.

They were also the introverts of our class who only interacted with certain people. Mori, on the other hand, is more on the extroverted side of the spectrum in light of the fact that she was well acquainted with the other well-liked pupils of our class.

"Hm... I see. I think I have a gist of what's happening here." He muttered under his breath, which did not go unnoticed by me.

Damn, that fast? I guess that's Kiyotaka for you.

Please don't take that out of context.

"Well then, mind enlightening me about what you're thinking about, Mr.Herlock Sholm- I mean, Mr.Sherlock Holmes?" I inquired in a joking manner.

Frankly, that moniker was rather apt for him. Whatever problems or difficulties you were having, he'll most likely be able to solve them in a couple of minutes. I'd go as far as to even suggest seconds.

One day, I was bored at the government facility where we were staying, so I asked one of the staff members if there were any games for me to play. And praise God and everything that was good, he answered yes and showed me where the video games were kept on the shelf. They were all extremely old and traditional games, but they were still a lot of fun.

Luckily, I was able to snag three of Capcom and Nintendo's most recognizable and well-loved old titles. It was the Ace Attorney trilogy, to be precise.

This trilogy consisted of three primary games. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Ace Attorney: Justice for All, and Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, to name them all.

If you're unfamiliar with it, Ace Attorney is a series of adventure video game legal dramas developed by Capcom. The first entry in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was released in 2001; since then, five further main series games, as well as various spin-offs and high-definition remasters for newer game consoles, have been released. Additionally, the series has seen adaptations in the form of a live-action film and an anime and has been the base for manga series, drama CDs, musicals, and stage plays.

The player assumes the roles of various defense attorneys, including Phoenix Wright, his mentor Mia Fey, and his understudy, Apollo justice. They investigate cases and defend their clients in court; they discover the truth by cross-examining witnesses and looking for inconsistencies between their testimonies and the proof they have gathered. The trials take a maximum of three days, with the judge deciding the outcome based on evidence provided by both the defense and prosecuting attorneys.

I invited him to play with me in some special cases so that I could revisit the nostalgic memories of my boyhood days. I had no idea how brilliant his deductive abilities were at the time. I mean, it took me god damn days to finish specific cases and several resets, but he could do it easily in a matter of hours and without making any mistakes. At the very least, he's set a record for finishing the series in the shortest amount of time.

It demonstrates how truly talented and skilled he was as a person. To all intents and purposes, given how frighteningly clever he can be at times, I question if he even is a real human being sometimes. But, hey, I suppose that's Kiyotaka for you.

"Class D is beginning to instigate an assault on multiple classes." He stated in a nonchalant tone.

"Well, that much is already obvious." I shrugged insouciantly. "But can you elucidate to me by what you one hundred percent mean by that?"

I attempted to come up with anything, but the puzzle pieces just wouldn't fit together. After all, I have more faith in Kiyo's convictions than I do in my own. My intellect is insignificant in comparison to his.

"Everything is starting to make sense now that we have a few solid pieces of information from Miyake and you. To begin with, there were three of them. Because Komiya and Kondou are both members of the basketball club, they must have been aware of Sudou's volatile temperament and violent behavior. They brought Ishizaki along to trigger Sudou into fighting them." He began clarifying his exposition as I listened intently to his words.

"Komiya rushed in first to punch Sudou, according to your observations. That, though, strikes me as unusual. They should've pursued Sudou simultaneously if they truly wanted to pummel him to a pulp."

Indeed. It was odd. It was painfully evident that they couldn't win a physical fistfight against Sudou. They could have had a better chance of winning if they had swarmed and thumped him all at once. One of them could, for example, distract Sudou while the other two attack him in his unguarded areas, leaving him baffled and vulnerable.

"So you're saying they didn't want to 'beat him up?'" I enquired, my brow furrowed skeptically.

"Yes, that's weak authentication on its own, but we'll come back to it later. The second thing that struck me as odd was their reaction to your unexpected presence. Normally, they'd use you to further aggravate him, but instead, they just went away," He added.

"Yeah, you're right! That's what I thought back then, too! I reckoned they were going to mock us intently, but when they saw me arrive, their faces were full of distress instead." Something clicked in my head. "Oh! They also mentioned some kind of plan not being able to work!"

I think I'm starting to see the light here...

"The exact location was the last piece of verification I required. Security cameras are installed in each room on the first and second floors. However, they are only found in a few rooms on the third floor. None of them can be effortlessly located in the corridors, as you can see. He remarked this while pointing to a few electrical sockets on the ceiling.

But, Kiyo, then, what were their true motivations for inciting Sudou in the first place?" I wondered.

"This is all just mere guesswork and suspicion, but when you sum it all together... They took Sudou to an undisclosed location and set out to quote on quote 'fight' him. They threw the fight on purpose, hoping Sudou would beat them up. They can report what happened to the teachers and claim to be the victims even though they were the ones who started it originally because there were no surveillance cameras around. It wouldn't work, of course, because you were there for the entire event. As Sudou's witness, you may retaliate. That is why, rather than doing anything else, they decided to leave." He concluded his hypothesis logically.

"The consequences for aggression at this school should be strong and punitive. I'm guessing they're striving to expel Sudou or something?" I came up with my own reasoning.

Suspension, for instance, would result in a loss of class points, so it would make sense. I'm curious as to how much we'd lose if one of our classmates was expelled.

I quickly shook my head, dismissing the possibility of it happening. I couldn't bear the thought of it happening to one of our classmates. Given that we had to graduate from Class A, they'd be leaving the school with an unsure future, unsettled if they'd be able to make it in the real world or not.

"I don't deny that as a possibility, but I think it's about something even bigger than that. I think he's trying to conduct some sort of experiment."

"Experiment?"

"It's the only sensible motive to make sense of Class C's actions. They're plainly endeavoring to provoke someone into attacking them in order to see how harshly students who conduct acts of violence will be punished."

"Although I don't believe in judging a book by its cover, I doubt that three fools could come up with such a well-thought-out and well-prepared scheme only to annoy Sudou. That is to say..." I removed my hand from my chin. "It has to be Ryuen who designed everything."

"Without a doubt, yes." He bobbed his head in agreement.

This is ridiculous. I felt a surge of rage within me. So he's just treating us all like we're guinea pigs for his farcical trial?

This Ryuen guy is starting to get under my skin a lot. To be honest, all I wanted to do was hit the guy in the face and let out some steam. But if I did, I'd probably get rekt.

He was able to subjugate a class with pure tyranny and brutality for heaven's sake. I thought that type of shit only happened solely in movies or something along the lines of that.

Ryuen appears to be a reckless and violent delinquent, but he is actually highly intelligent. Despite the fact that his grades don't reflect it, his intellect score does. If I'm not mistaken, he has an intelligence score of approximately 84-88. As a result, he's quite a force to be reckoned with.

He's probably a really formidable fighter, but I doubt he'd be able to defeat Kiyo one on one.

"So, what are we going to do about him? Do we go to the school and report his class, or..."

"No, no. Let him do what he wants. To be candid with you, I've actually already devised a stratagem to counter against Class D." He affirmed sternly. "While I will not go into details for now, "I'm going to use class D as an example of why Ryuen should think twice before befouling with us."

I swear if this was death note and Kiyotaka was light, he would be smirking evilly like Kira. Be that as it may, I do think he would relate to L more than Kira.

"Having said that, before we can set our trap, we must first make particular preparations. That's where you come into play." He made eye contact with me. "For the time being, I'll give you numerous jobs. Don't worry; I'm confident they won't take up too much of your free time."

Oh, that's fantastic. Just dandy. We already have homework and final exams to deal with; now I'm gonna have to do this crap. I don't always enjoy being his most trusted ally. On the contrary, things could be a lot worse. Over at Class D, I could be working for Dollar Tree Rapunzel.

I heaved a sigh before responding. "Just please don't burden me too much with your tasks."

"Fear not, I would never do such a cruel thing to you."

No, you would, actually. That's why I'm dreading it to start with.

"We also need two certain individuals to be involved in this master ploy, so it may take a while."

"That makes sense. We should also warn the class about this so they don't fall for Ryuen's trickery and risk the class of losing points." He bowed his head, showing endorsement. "Also, you owe me 2000-5000 private points of garlic bread for forcing me to do all this. I need some sort of payment."

"Fine. I have no problems with it."

"Yosh!" I raised my fist in vehemence. "Don't forget that, okay! You promised!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just get a move on now."

We wrapped up the inspection by leaving the building and parting ways, with me returning to my room.

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Author's Log

This marks the beginning of the game plan I've thought of for this volume.

You can try to guess who the two individuals Ayanokouji needs and what Eichiiro will be assigned to do for his course of action to be perfect.

This was a shorter chapter than usual, but I hope you enjoyed it regardless.

Also, I paraphrased some lines from alter-self-test. So maybe that's why it may seem familiar to you.

That is all for today, until then,

Sayonara!