[A/N: The public reaction to this chapter will make or break this fic. Please read to the end. Also, just to clarify the only people Heylel has in his contacts are: Kouenji, Horikita, Ayanokoji, Kushida. That's it.]
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Things had developed rapidly from the time I had spent with Horikita in the cafeteria. A witness had been found, Horikita had agreed to help, and the hero and the saint had also done things. I had gotten wind of this only because of Horikita who had told me so over text.
Even the group that had dragged me into this case considered Ike and Yamauchi more important than me, the matter of them stabbing Sudou having been brushed off as missteps by the stab victim himself.
Even that library girl, Mori, had never contacted me again.
I was truly a loner now, my only friends, Horikita and Kouenji.
Funny that Horikita had more information on the class than me. Not more like, it was frightening how disconnected I was from the class.
Oh well, I was connected to important people other than Hirata and his girl.
Another thing of note was the competence of the people involved—that and the name that came up repeatedly in all of this, Ayanokoji.
A character of interest from very early on in my days here. I put a pin in his picture and stuck it on my mental board of people to keep an eye on.
Still, it had already reached the day of the hearing and I was not involved at all. Until the end of the class, when Horikita tapped my head twice
I looked up at her, "What?"
"You are coming with us," She said, by her side Ayanokoji—the once loner who now had many friends.
"You guys don't seem to need me very much," I said in as flat a tone as ever used. Not to give the impression of moping, no, far from it, I was fine. It was just a return to the time before the mid-terms.
She nodded at my statement, "You are correct. Nevertheless, please come." I was surprised by that, she was not the type to involve people.
So, I stood up. "Right, lead the way."
Soudu and Sakura joined us in the hallway. Sudou didn't look me in the face; he had an obvious frown at my presence—only stopping when Horikita started talking to him.
Seeing so I elbowed Ayanokoji, who turned to me, in whispers I asked him, "Why is he looking at me like that?"
He thought for a second and then pointed at Horikita. "The hell does she have to do with it?"
"He likes her."
My eyes widened. Then I realised, "He views me as a threat?"
Ayanokoji shrugged, "Probably. In the cafeteria, remember you sat with Horikita?" I nodded, "You two seemed very close."
I looked at him blankly, "This is so stupid. It is cuz we are close." I had a text chat with the girl daily. It didn't mean I was fucking her.
"And," He added, a bit reluctant, "He made up with Ike and Yamauchi and thinks you attacking them in the class was…disagreeable."
Of course, he does.
When she was done talking to Sudou, she led us toward the "courtroom."
On the way, I asked, "Can I get any context?"
Horikita kept walking, "You have all of it." From our conversations? Alright but, "Why didn't you tell me to be ready beforehand?" I asked.
"You were a last-minute addition, I wanted. You are there just to support."
"Meaning?"
"When things get out of hand." Well, I could at least try. However, that did not make the bull happy.
"Come on Horikita, we don't need—"
"Not a word on this. We need to be there before 4." She shut him up with one line. There was something to be said about his boot-licking but it was overshadowed by the fact that it was already 3:55.
When the five of us reached the faculty room, there we met one annoying presence in addition to our Homeroom teacher.
"Yahoo! Hello, Class D students!"
The homeroom teacher for Class B, Hoshinomiya-sensei, gave us this happy-go-lucky greeting. "It seems like something rather incredible has happened, hmm?"
"Now go away," Chabashira-sensei told her, it seems that the two had been conversing while waiting for us.
"Oh come on, I can join, can't I?" She tilted her head sideways and kept the most mischievous smile she could muster.
"Of course, you can't. You know that outsiders cannot participate."
"Aw, that's too bad. Well, that's all right. The results should be out within the hour, I guess."
Chabashira-sensei forcefully pushed Hoshinomiya-sensei back into the faculty room.
"Well then, shall we be going?" she asked us.
"We're not going to do this in the faculty room, are we?"
"Of course not. This school does have rather complicated rules, but in cases such as these a settlement is reached between the homeroom teacher of the class in question, the concerned parties, and the student council."
Horikita froze the very moment she heard the words 'student council.' Chabashira-sensei turned and glanced sharply at Horikita's face.
"If you want to stop, now's the time, Horikita."
Sudou, who didn't understand why Horikita would react that way, looked confused. Well, he couldn't know, now could he?
"I'll go. I'm fine."
She turned her head back for a second, to both me and Ayanokoji, we both knew what she meant.
We left the first-floor faculty room and walked up three floors to the fourth. A placard that read "Student Council Room" was affixed to the wall near the doorway. Chabashira-sensei knocked, and we went inside.
Even though Horikita had winced, she immediately followed us. Inside, long tables had been arranged in a rectangular formation. The three students from Class C had already arrived and were seated. Beside them sat a bespectacled male teacher in his 30s.
"Sorry we're late," our sensei said.
"It's before the scheduled start time. There's no need for apologies."
"Have you already met?"
I didn't know about the others but I had not.
One lone male student seated in the back of the room attracted everyone's attention.
"This is the student council president."
Horikita's older brother, without so much as even a glance at his sister, pored over the documents on his desk. Horikita directed her gaze at her brother for a short time, but when she realized that she wasn't his focus, she lowered her eyes and sat down in front of the Class C students. He didn't seem to care to have seen her or me for that matter.
"Well then, I would now like to discuss the violent incident that occurred last Tuesday with the members of the student council, the involved parties, and their homeroom teachers. You may begin the proceedings, student council secretary Tachibana."
Secretary Tachibana, a woman with short hair, gave a slight bow.
"Of course, considering the magnitude of this dispute, there are times when the student council president will take over. There are several unusual things about this incident. Other than that, the bulk of the proceedings will be handled solely by Tachibana, as usual."
"Because I am quite busy, there are certain agenda topics upon which I will defer. As a general rule, though, I would prefer to attend to these issues, as I'm entrusted to lead this student council."
"So, this is all by chance?" Chabashira-sensei smiled as she said that, but Horikita's older brother never wavered. On the contrary, though, Horikita—Suzune, couldn't hide her trembling.
Secretary Tachibana summarized the situation from both sides, quick and simple. There wasn't any need for further explanation.
"Based on the aforementioned facts, we would like for you to identify which version of events is true." After completing her explanation and the preface to the proceedings, Secretary Tachibana turned her eyes toward us in Class D.
"Komiya and two other members of the basketball club went to the special building after Sudou-kun called them there. There, they claim to have been beaten up in a one-sided brawl. Is this true?"
"What those guys said was a lie. I was the one that got called over to the special building," Sudou said. "That day, after practice, Komiya and Kondou asked me to go to the special building. Honestly, I thought it was kind of annoying, but I also thought it might've been because they were always hostile towards me. So, I went to meet them."
Frank, blunt and without tact, but that was fine. Sakagami-sensei, Class C's homeroom teacher, stared in wide-eyed amazement, he had not anticipated Sudou's crass speech it seems.
"That's a lie. Sudou-kun called us over to the special building."
"Don't screw with me, Komiya! You were the one who called me, you jerk!"
"You don't seem to remember your position here."
Sudou, irritated, impulsively struck his desk. Immediate silence followed.
"Please calm down, Sudou. Right now, we're merely listening to what both parties have to say. Komiya, we ask that you too please show some restraint, and not interrupt."
"Puh, fine…"
"Both parties insist that the other called them over, so the accounts conflict. However, the stories share some commonality. There was a dispute between Sudou, Komiya, and Kondou, correct?"
"I wouldn't call it a dispute. Sudou's always picking fights with us."
"'Picking fights'?"
"Sudou's better at basketball than we are, so he's always bragging about it. We practice with everything we've got, but it doesn't exactly feel good when he makes fools out of us. So we often butt heads."
"Not one bit of what Komiya said was true. Those guys are just jealous of my talent…"
The blame game was somewhat entertaining but I was not focusing on it, my eyes were on the girl next to me. I finally moved my hand and tapped her head twice. No response eh? I switched to my index finger and drove it into her side. "Eh!?" A squeak leaked out and she nearly jumped in her seat at the sudden sensation and then turned to me. What was that for? She seemed to ask.
I gestured to the president and a second later her eyes widened. As if she were remembering where she was. There were eyes on us but they quickly returned to the discussion.
"Both sides have given their grievances, but now we have to come to a judgment with the collected evidence."
"Sudou beat us senseless. It was a one-sided fight."
I looked up at the 'victims' they were bruised, decently at that. Black and blue were easy to see on their bodies. Oof, someone must have taken a few good swings.
"That's a lie. They attacked first. It was self-defence."
"Class D," The president said, "Please present your case."
"May I ask a question?" Horikita said.
"You may." He said.
"Earlier, you said that Sudou called you over to the special building. But who exactly did Sudou call, and why?"
Komiya and the other Class C students looked at one another as if wondering, 'Why is she asking that question now?'
"So then, why exactly were you in the special building, Ishizaki? You're not on the basketball team, so you have no connection to this case. I'd think your presence there would be rather odd."
"That's… I came as a precaution. There were rumours that Sudou was violent. He's also in better shape than we are, physically. I had to go, didn't I?"
"So in other words, you felt the situation might turn violent?"
"Yeah." They answered in unison. At least they had their story straight.
"I see. So you brought along Ishizaki as your bodyguard since he was reputed to be rather good at fighting. Just in case there was an emergency."
"It was to protect ourselves. That was it. Besides, we didn't know that Ishizaki was known for being good in a fight. We just considered him a reliable friend."
Horikita quietly listened to their responses. Then she immediately made her next move.
"I do have some knowledge of martial arts, if only to a certain extent. I understand that when you're fighting against multiple enemies, victory becomes exponentially more difficult. So I don't understand how you were defeated so handily, how the fight could be so one-sided when you had a skilled fighter like Ishizaki with you."
"Because we didn't intend to fight."
"The primary factor in triggering a fight is the collision of the 'energy' between opponents. If you don't have any intention of fighting, or that you're nonviolent, the probability that you'll be hurt should be very low. Especially when there are three of you."
Energy huh? An interesting view but ultimately wrong, a friendly conversation could be turned violent by a single line and vice-versa. This energy thing—pseudo-intellectual nonsense. Views of someone who has never been in a real fight or at least not enough of them.
Oh well, I am living in an anime wonder land so it might just be true.
"That way of thinking doesn't apply to Sudou. He's exceptionally violent. Even if we were nonviolent, he'd still be mercilessly violent. That's what happened." Konami said.
He peeled off the gauze that covered his cheek, exposing the scrapes underneath. No matter how many reasonable arguments she made, his injury gave powerful evidence.
"Are you finished with your claims now, Class D?" said Horikita's older brother. After staying silent while she gave her argument, his words were few and icy.
"It's true that Sudou injured the other students. However, Class C started the fight. There is one student witness who saw the entire incident and can attest to this."
"Well then, Class D—if Class D's witness would please enter?"
Sakura, looking worried and restless, walked into the student council room. Her eyes were firmly planted onto the ground as if this all would just go away if she looked away from it.
"1-D, Sakura Airi-san."
"I thought I'd heard something or other about a witness, but you're a Class D student?"
Sakagami, the Class C's homeroom instructor, snickered while wiping his glasses.
"Is there a problem, Sakagami-sensei?"
"No, no, please. Go ahead."
Sakagami-sensei and Chabashira-sensei exchanged looks.
"You may begin your testimony, if you wouldn't mind, Sakura-san."
"Y-yes, okay… Well… I…"
She stopped speaking. A period of silence followed. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Sakura steadily looked further downward, and her face became increasingly pale. What a worthless witness.
"Sakura-san…" Horikita, unable to take any more, addressed Sakura. The words didn't seem to reach her.
"She didn't witness anything. More of this would just be a waste of our time."
"Why are you in such a hurry, Sakagami-sensei?"
"I want to speed this along. If we waste time, my students will suffer. These students are the joyful heart of their class, so I do not doubt that their many friends are worried about them. Also, they're striving to improve their basketball skills, and we're depriving them of valuable practice time. As a teacher, I can't overlook this."
"I see. You're probably right about that." Our Homeroom teacher conceded.
"You're certainly right that this is a waste of time, so I suppose we have no choice. You can come down now, Sakura."
Chabashira-sensei told her, a dismissal that carried forward my thoughts as well, this is a waste of time. The verdict was clear at this point.
Even the girl was herself looking like she might implode…how did she manage to get to this point in her life being that weak?
Then, it happened. An unexpected voice reverberated throughout the room. Sakura had forced the words out.
"I definitely saw what happened!"
Well, maybe I had given my judgement too early and as if to prove it, her next words were even louder, "The students in Class C threw the first punch. There's no mistake about that!"
Impressive but ultimately a testimony as worthless as a piece of paper, something no one would believe unless she showed video proof of the act.
"Excuse me, but may I say something?" asked Sakagami-sensei, raising his hand.
"Normally, teachers are asked to speak as little as possible, but this situation is just too pitiful. Student council president, do you mind?"
"I'll allow it."
"In regards to what you've said, Sakura-kun, I do not necessarily doubt you. However, I have one thing to ask. You've stepped forward to testify as a witness, but you were rather late in doing so. May I ask why? I would think if you really did see something, you would have come forward much earlier."
Sakagami-sensei harped on the same point that Chabashira-sensei had.
"That's… Well, that's… I didn't want to get involved…"
"Why didn't you want to get involved?"
"Because I'm not very good at talking with other people…"
"I see. I understand that. However, I'd like to say something else. You're not good at talking with others, and yet when the week was nearly out you stepped forward as a witness. Doesn't that seem rather odd? To my mind, it seems Class D secretly put a story together and are having you act as a false witness to give phoney testimony."
After conferring together, the Class C students answered that they'd thought so, too.
"That's… I'm just…telling the truth…"
"No matter how poor your communication skills might be, I can see you haven't testified with much confidence. Is that because you're tormented with guilt, because you know what you're saying is actually a lie?"
"N-no, that's not it…"
"I'm not blaming you. You were probably forced to lie for your class's sake, to save Sudou-kun. Weren't you? If you come forward and confess honestly to us now, you won't be punished."
The teacher's relentless psychological attacks just kept coming. Of course, Horikita raised her hand.
"That is not the case. It is certainly true that Sakura-san is not good at speaking before others. However, it is precisely because she witnessed the incident that she is standing here today. Otherwise, she most likely would not, even if we'd asked her. Don't you think that if we needed someone who could speak boldly, we would have found a replacement?"
"I don't think so. There are excellent students in Class D, students such as yourself, Horikita. By setting up a person like Sakura as your witness, it would establish a sense of realism that you yourself could not."
This was rotting my brain…ugh. Both of these people might as well have been shouting slurs at each other with what little good it was doing.
"If you want proof… I'll give it to you!"
She has proof? Alright, something interesting.
Even Sakagami-sensei froze in response to Sakura's words.
"Please, let's not force this situation to continue. If there really was evidence, you would have presented it at an earlier stage—"
Sakura loudly slammed her hand on the desk and threw down photos. Huh? She was a photographer?
"What are those?"
Because she'd produced something other than words, Sakagami-sensei's expression stiffened for the first time.
"This is proof that I was in the special building that day!"
Secretary Tachibana walked over to Sakura. Though she hesitated at first, she then reached for the photos.
"President."
After looking at the photographs, Secretary Tachibana handed them over to the student council president. Who, after looking at the pictures for some time, laid them out on the desk so that we could see. We saw Sakura in those pictures, but this Sakura wore a lovely expression that looked both similar and dissimilar to the Sakura with us now. She was a pervert?
"I'm…I was looking for places where no one was around so I could take pictures of myself. The pictures also show the date and time, which proves that I was there when I said."
When they saw the pictures we began to see changes in the three Class C students, who up until now had been playing the part of victims. They were visibly shaking.
"What did you use to take these photos?" asked Sakagami-sensei.
"A digital…camera."
"You can alter the date rather easily with a digital camera, though. If you manipulated these photos on a computer, you could effectively set them at the time and date of the incident. This is inadequate evidence."
"But Sakagami-sensei, don't you think this photo is different?" Horikita's older brother slid out one of the photos we hadn't yet seen and handed it to the teacher.
"Th-this?!"
The photo showed the fight itself; there was no need to nitpick the time. The setting sun bathed the hallway in dusky light. The picture seemed to show what had happened immediately after Sudou hit Ishizaki.
Doesn't this just incriminate Sudou more? This picture showed that the fight already ended. We couldn't call this any evidence. It just showed that Sudou beat the shit out of the three. It fucking helped them! He literally had blood on his hands in the picture! Huh? How does this help us? Yes, he had injuries too but they were beyond minor…this proves jack and shit.
"I see. Well, you do seem to be telling the truth about witnessing the incident. That much I simply must accept. However, I can't ascertain how the situation started from this picture. This doesn't prove that you saw the entire incident."
"So, what do you think, Chabashira-sensei? Why not look for a compromise here?" Sakagami-sensei asked.
"Compromise?"
I guess it is our best option…ugh, I need painkillers.
"I'm convinced that Sudou lied in his testimony."
"You jerk!" Sudou stood up, looking ready to fly out of his chair, but finally grabbed hold of his own arms and pinned himself down.
"No matter how long we go back and forth, we'll never reach an agreement. We won't change our testimony, and your side won't give up or admit that you conspired with the witness. In other words, you won't stop. It'll be an endless cycle of saying that the other side is lying. In addition, the picture is too inconclusive to be considered definitive proof. Therefore, I suggest we compromise. I do think that the students from Class C are responsible for some of the blame here. There were three students up against Sudou, and one of them had a history of fighting, which is a problem. So how about two weeks of suspension for Sudou and one week of suspension for my students? What do you think of that? The weight of the punishment is different, of course, but I think that matches the difference in sustained injuries."
I guess in that way he is right. But what the fuck, why are you looking—you know what? I give up. Just the scope of injuries would have been enough to take action but what do I know?
"Don't screw around! This isn't a joke!" Sudou raged."Chabashira-sensei. What do you think?" Sakagami-sensei didn't even glance at Sudou.
"We seem to have already reached a logical conclusion. There's no reason to refuse Sakagami-sensei's proposal," Chabashira-sensei said.
A reasonable compromise. Horikita looked up at the ceiling as if quietly mulling over everything that had gone on so far. No matter how much we resisted, Sudou wouldn't be acquitted entirely without conclusive evidence.
She too had concluded that we needed to reach a compromise.
"Horikita, are we really out of options?" His voice came out dull and monotone.
Both of us Horikita and me, no, everyone heard him speak, "I'm not very smart, so I can't really come up with a solution. I do, however, think that we probably should accept the compromise that you have offered us, Sakagami-sensei." And though everyone heard him, both I and the girl knew he was lying from the first world till the last. Not very smart—that was disproved the day we heard his results in the guidance room.
He didn't want a suspension.
Not that Sakagami-sensei noticed, he just pushed up his glasses, "Right."
I ignored glasses-sensei and looking directly at him I asked, "Is that how you want to play this?"
He tilted his head ever so slightly, "What do you mean?"
Ignoring the dull look she was giving I turned to the president, "The way I see it. We have a few options. Really. We say that Sudou is at fault—"
"Hey! That's not—" I glared at the read head. My meaning was clear but in case it wasn't, "Shut up."
"As I was saying. We say that Sudou is guilty. Which we do not believe," I locked eyes with Mr Glasses, "And you can not prove, not any more."
It was weird having so many eyes on me, oh well, I decided to help the princess out so might as well, "For our second option. We can reject the notion that Sudou has any fault in this situation."
He scoffed as if I was stating the obvious, well I was. "Third, accept your compromise and take the suspensions."
Then I looked at our president, "What would be your decision if we went with the second option president?"
He looked interested, "What I've learned today is that each side has an exact opposite claim. In that case, one side is propagating an extremely malicious falsehood. We would have to give more time. Since no side has provided conclusive evidence. And if no new evidence is present by the end of that time, we would have to pass judgement based on what we have. If one side is found to have lied then expulsion may be on the table."
"And what would that judgment be?"
"Since we can't place complete blame on either party, a week-long suspension and a warning for both sides, since this is both parties' first official offence. Nothing more, nothing less."
Finally, I looked at Mr Glasses, who wore a deep frown, "So, one for three? I don't see an issue with that. Even then, we would have more time to investigate maybe something new will turn up." I smiled looking straight at the three, they were already shaken before, and now they were completely rattled, "It was hard but we found a whiteness but who says we can't do that again? Maybe prove that your three pupils are lying and then, well, the consequences."
"And what if Class-C turns up more evidence?" He bit back.
A grim drew on my lips, "I am confident you won't. And based on my confidence, I will say, our worst result is a week-long suspension for Sudou. For you, expulsion. Maybe we could do that or..." I cast a glance at the president. He had no expression.
There was silence in the room.
Mr Glasses looked thoroughly annoyed. The risk was immense. "And what is your or?"
"We forget this ever happened."
Again I looked at our SCP, "Can that be done?"
"Withdrawal of the complaint. Yes." There was an intense glint in his eyes.
"You are basically threatening my class with the consequences if you somehow prove that they are lying." Mr Glasses concluded.
"That is your perspective." I shrugged.
Glasses sighed, pulling out a cloth from his chest pocket to clean his lenses and putting them back he looked up, "Class-C will take your or. The three boys will withdraw their complaint."
After all, this was too little reward for so much risk.
I turned to the girl next to me, "That is for the rep to decide," Her eyes were glued to me, a smile on her lips, it took her a good second before she nodded.
"First, I must clarify something, Sudou has a problem. He doesn't ever stop to consider his actions, which inconveniences everyone around him. He has a history of getting into fights. He's the type to raise his voice and fists right away whenever something displeases him." She began.
"Hey!?"
"You need to understand, Sudou. Your attitude caused all of this." Horikita glared intensely over at Sudou, almost as if to outdo Sudou's own ferocity. "This is why I wasn't motivated at all to help Sudou-kun in the beginning. I knew that even if I forced myself to lend a hand, he would just repeat the same mistakes again and again."
She took a breath, "He needs to reflect on his actions. That being said he is not at fault this time, in light of our combined belief in his innocence," She turned to the three boys, "We accept."
There was silent grumbling in the three.
We were told to leave the room then. Kicked out without much care, as if we were annoyances. Which I suppose is not far from the truth.
"This was a gigantic waste of time," Were the first words I said when the door finally closed behind us.
It was almost comical the looks that earned me.
Mr Glasses shook his head before looking at our Homeroom teacher, "It seems this year Class D has some impressive students."
"Impressively lazy, yes." She said as she cast a snide look at me and Ayanokoji.
"Impressive still," He said as he turned away with the 'C boys' following him. Their gazes lingered on me as they left. And annoying enough I now had a spotlight on me, oh well, money is money.
"It seems you decided to pull your weight this time," Chabashira-sensei said as she too left us with her usual devil-may-care attitude.
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"You know, aren't you failing your goals?" She asked as we all walked together. A message had already been circulated of the case's dismissal in the group chat—I didn't know, I was not part of it.
"I think it's fine if it helps a friend," I told her, as we kept our slow pace.
Her amber eyes turned away, to the boy walking behind us, "Sudou, anything to say?"
The redhead looked awkward as he scratched his hair, I would be too if I tried to shun away the guy minutes before he saved me, "Tha–Thank you?"
I tilted my head, "Why is that a question?"
"It's just…I was treating you—"
"I am not dating her," I said bluntly, "And neither do I hate Ike or Yamauchi, I just told you the truth, they are your friends, your choice."
He stood frozen, it took him a good moment before he could speak again, "Sorry dude, it is just…You know how it is right?"
"I do not like you Soudo, not in the way you want, not in any way and never will," A hard declaration comes from my side. We are all startled, even Sakura and Ayanokoji who were both a step ahead.
My eyes sat steady on the boy. He was frozen again. He looked like someone with a broken heart, well, he was. She was not done though, "Leave him. It takes them a decent while to recover."
My eyes turned to the girl by my side, she wasn't even bothered, honestly impressive, "Guess, we were too obvious."
"You were, yes. You have no other girls that you talk with enough to be dating." She declared as we kept going and by we, I mean Horikita and me. Ayanokoji peeled off towards Soudu to console the boy and Sakura went with him.
I eyed the girl by my side. "Brutal," were the words that came out of my lips as we walked along the paths drenched in the light of the dying sun.
"It is better to crush any illusions before they become annoying," She answered.
Fair enough.
"Say," I started, "Why did you pull me into the trial today?"
Her shoulders lifted simultaneously for an instant—she shrugged! "You looked bored."
'Huh?'
"Surprised?" She had a smirk, an annoying little thing that made me want to throw her into the ocean. "You looked deathly bored. And I decided that even if not helpful then at least you won't be detrimental in the trial so I decided to drag you along."
A smile spread on my lips, "Isn't that very irresponsible?"
"It's fine if it helps a friend, right?" Oh, you little…"Besides, you were more than helpful there."
"I was there for the money, just so you know. To keep our class points afloat."
"Sure you were."
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[A/N: Fuck me, I am cutting it here. Overall "The Troubles" which covers the LN's V2 took about 10k words(1.9k+3k+5.4k)