"???"
Ibuki had no idea about Yagami's scheme, much less that he wanted Ayanokoji dead, so she was genuinely baffled.
An underclassman wanted to use her to lure an upperclassman to the deserted area behind Gym No. 2 for a private meeting?
Ibuki kept blinking. Dear God.
There was no way...
The more she thought about it, the harder she rubbed her arms. Goosebumps were breaking out all over.
It was not her fault for getting the wrong idea. Everybody knew the area behind the gym was the school's go-to confession spot. Over the past year and more, who knew how many campus couples had gotten together there after confessing?
At this point, the spot behind the gym was basically Advanced Nurturing High School's sacred confession ground. So now Yagami wanted to use her to invite Ayanokoji there. Anyone who heard that would get the wrong idea.
To make it happen, he had even thrown out this so-called vital information that could break Yukio and Shiina up, just to manipulate her into helping.
Ibuki was getting creeped out. Were feelings between boys really this twisted and obsessive? He was willing to stoop this low just to arrange one private meeting with Ayanokoji?
If Yagami could read minds and heard the disgusted, thoroughly revolted thoughts in Ibuki's head right now, he would probably die on the spot from rage.
"So why do I have to be the one to do it?"
While rubbing her arms, Ibuki asked in confusion. Partly she was dragging things out on purpose, but honestly, she was curious too. Her natural curiosity as a girl had kicked in, and now she wanted the gossip.
"Heh. Of course it's because you're connected to President Yukio, Ibuki-senpai."
At that moment, Yagami looked completely sure of himself.
He saw himself as the one controlling the whole board, the master moving the pieces, calmly placing one move after another while even taking the time to explain to the piece why it belonged there.
"If I just picked some random person to ask Ayanokoji-senpai to meet me, there's no way it would work, right? But if it's you, then with your connection to President Yukio, all you'd have to do is tell Ayanokoji-senpai that President Yukio wants to see him, and he'd probably go."
That was the limit of Yagami's imagination. The only thing he could think of was using Yukio's name to lure Ayanokoji out.
Of course, Yagami was still deeply resentful toward Yukio, and being forced to rely on Yukio's influence right now irritated him to no end. But with the four o'clock deadline hanging over him, he had no room to care about that.
No matter how much he hated it, Atsuomi Ayanokoji's pressure was far too terrifying. All Yagami could do was forcibly crush his disgust and pray he could kill Kiyotaka in time and settle everything before then.
Since he needed to use Yukio's influence, the choice of intermediary mattered a lot. He obviously could not just grab any random student and claim they were speaking for Yukio.
So after thinking it through, Yagami had settled on Ibuki as his second choice.
Naturally, the best first choice would have been Hiyori Shiina, the one he had mentioned earlier. But Hiyori had been busy in her classroom all morning dealing with the cultural festival and never came out.
Yagami had already waited the entire morning before finally giving up and coming to Ibuki as his backup plan.
As for the idea of using himself, since he was also in the student council and could technically invite Ayanokoji directly—that was impossible. Yagami was just that full of himself. Whenever he carried out one of his "schemes," he always wanted to stay hidden in the background and never show himself in person.
That was his so-called pride, along with his personal obsession with pulling strings from the shadows.
So after laying all that out, Ibuki's expression turned even weirder.
This was seriously too twisted.
Using her was not enough—he also wanted to piggyback off Yukio's influence just to set up a meeting with Ayanokoji?
Once she compared Yagami's warped ass to Yukio, even Yukio being a little greedy with girls suddenly felt way more acceptable. He absolutely could not turn into someone like this Yagami creep. That would be terrifying.
"Hm? Ibuki-senpai?"
After waiting quite a while, Yagami was growing impatient. The two of them had already gone from the first floor to the third, and Ibuki still had not said a word. She just kept walking in silence.
That left Yagami thoroughly annoyed. How much longer was she going to keep that up?
This was such a simple little favor. Did it seriously need that much thought?
All she had to do was use Yukio's name to trick Ayanokoji. It did not put her at risk, and afterward she would supposedly get this "valuable intel" in return.
No matter how you looked at it, it was all benefit and no downside. So what the hell was there to think about?
Privately, Yagami looked down on her again. Ordinary people really were stupid. If it were a smart White Room student in her place, they would have agreed in a second.
While Yagami was busy judging her, the two of them happened to reach a stairwell landing.
And right there, turning the corner toward them, was the last person Yagami expected to see.
Yukio.
Yukio should have been stuck wandering around the cultural festival with Ichika Amasawa. So why the hell was he here?
Yagami had no idea why Amasawa had been clinging to Yukio all morning, but he had seen them together several times while he was waiting. That meant he had not bothered to guard against the possibility of Yukio showing up here.
That was exactly why the shock hit so hard.
Because he had not been prepared for Yukio at all, the moment the man actually appeared, it slammed straight into Yagami's nerves and left him completely unable to think.
In that instant, a wave of dread hit him.
And then his upper body was forced downward.
His entire torso was folded over.
His right arm—wrist, elbow, shoulder, all of it—was seized in a sudden, fierce lock by Ibuki, her expression turning sharp in an instant. She twisted the arm behind his back, killing his leverage and making escape impossible.
The whole sequence was smooth as flowing water. Clean, fast, stylish.
Even Yukio could not help admiring it.
"Nice technique."
"Hmph."
Once she had Yagami locked down, the coldness on Ibuki's face lifted just enough for a trace of sweetness to show through. Half annoyed, half pleased, she shot Yukio a look.
"You took your sweet time. I was starting to run out of ways to drag this out."
Yukio grinned and waved his phone. "I came the second I got your message."
On the screen was the live location marker of a friend.
This was one of the internal phone features at Advanced Nurturing High School. If both people agreed, they could see each other's locations.
Ibuki had only said that out loud. She was not actually blaming him.
That little exchange, sweet enough to make somebody's teeth ache, was what finally snapped Yagami out of it. The smug look from before was gone completely.
Hearing what Yukio said and seeing the phone's location display, Yagami's mind exploded.
Only now, in this situation, did he piece together what had happened.
"The phone? A text? Ibuki!!"
"When you checked the time back then...!"
"That was when you texted President Yukio? No, wait, that's not right. You only looked at it for a few seconds. You shouldn't have had time to do anything!"
In his fury, he had even dropped the "senpai."
Ibuki only increased the pressure, wrenching Yagami's shoulder harder until he let out a pained gasp.
"What's so strange about that?"
"In this school, you never know what you'll run into. Keeping a pre-written 'Come now' message saved in your drafts is just common sense."
"!"
Yagami never could have imagined he would lose to one lousy pre-written text sitting in someone's inbox.
...
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.