She had significant influence in class; with just a little effort, she could have immediately squashed the rumors.
But she genuinely wanted to see Suzune in trouble, so she did the bare minimum by only reporting to Houtarou.
Being confronted like this, she couldn't find an excuse to escape.
"So. What's going on with you, Suzune?"
Kikyō noticed that while this girl had no defense against rumors, when facing her directly, Suzune's attack power suddenly increased. It was absolutely toxic.
"Anyway, Kushida-san, you need to pay more attention to Horikita-san from now on." Houtarou summarized, "Your relationship won't remain so shallow. You'll have more interactions in the future, so I hope you can support each other more, with less suspicion and targeting."
"...You're talking as if you can see the future." Kikyō quipped.
Thinking about this topic made her feel somewhat pained.
She was almost becoming shaped like Houtarou, and he had said before that he would marry Suzune in the future.
What would her own future look like? Perhaps it would have been better if she hadn't come to this school at all?
But if she hadn't come here, her relationship with her parents would probably be even worse.
After all, she was already a troublesome problem child. Her relationships with classmates had fractured, and her parents saw her as a nuisance.
This place was her only refuge now.
"So..." Suzune asked, "Since Kushida isn't the mastermind behind this rumor incident, who is the real mastermind?"
She asked a good question.
The issue appeared resolved on the surface. But if the real mastermind wasn't Kikyō, then who was it?
The core of the rumor incident was exposing Suzune's sibling relationship with the Student Council President.
Information from Honami revealed that the source came from Class C — Kakeru and Hiyori's class.
But Kakeru had become withdrawn during the break, so the probability of him being the scapegoat was high.
Therefore… Could the mastermind be Hiyori?
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After school, Houtarou opened the GPS system on his phone. The school-issued devices allowed students to quickly locate friends through the positioning feature.
Having added Hiyori as a friend, he immediately confirmed her location: the library.
She wasn't at her usual seat on the first floor but had gone to the search terminal instead.
There, desktop computers were available for students to search the library's book catalog.
Hiyori was looking up Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, an author.
"If you're searching for 'Flow', it's not available in the library." Houtarou said, "You'll need to request the library order it or buy it from a bookstore."
"Eh! Ah!"
The beautiful silver-haired Hiyori startled at his voice.
Clearly not in a good mood today, dressed in black stockings, she appeared shocked. She hadn't expected to encounter him here.
What seemed even more unnatural was Houtarou initiating conversation with her. His presence here could only mean one thing — he had come specifically to find her.
In other words... he had come to confront her.
"Ah... Oreki-kun. I didn't expect we'd meet again in the library." Hiyori said, "What a coincidence."
"Indeed." Houtarou nodded.
But seeing Hiyori trying to quickly slip away after greeting him, he grabbed her smooth, fair wrist, preventing her from leaving.
His voice rang out clearly.
"How much do you know about the rumors concerning Suzune Horikita? Or rather, how much were you involved, Shiina? I'm very curious."
"Eh—" Hiyori's expression froze.
Although she didn't have many friends in class, that was by her own choice.
Unlike Suzune, she possessed a natural smoothness in social interactions. The evidence was clear — despite having few friends, she wasn't bullied or targeted by her classmates.
She could comfortably talk to anyone, from Mio to delinquent girls like Shiho. She definitely had social skills.
Even when caught red-handed, she maintained a cute expression, looking curious and turning around as if Houtarou had made some mistake.
Her body carried a faint, pleasant scent of milk, but her expression was pitiful.
"Oreki-kun, what strange things are you saying?" Hiyori said.
"Horikita told me." Houtarou replied, "That you came to her room to make a deal, asking her to pay 1 million Points to resolve the rumor incident.
I also received information that the original source of the rumor came from your class — that Ryūen discovered the sibling relationship between Horikita and the Student Council President.And I've determined that you're behind this."
Hiyori: "..."
Oh. I see.
But isn't the girl you're interested in Kei? Why are you so concerned about Suzune now?
Sighing softly in her heart, Hiyori had no choice but to put on a pitiful expression.
"Since I've been found out, I can't deny it." She said, "If you looked at last month's exam, you might know that students in my class invited Kōenji to come over. The 50-point class evaluation reward belongs to him.
This means we can't earn money. Ryūen has already withdrawn, and without his violent rule, I had to temporarily stop collecting points from everyone.
My class isn't particularly good either — they submit to violence and can be bought with money. I can't fight, so I can only use money. Class C only becomes a sharp blade when the entire class is united. Otherwise, our situation might be only slightly better than Class D.
Yes, I was indeed behind this incident. I arranged for students in my class to spread rumors and even bribed some Class D students to help. The purpose was to extract points from Suzune. She's probably the wealthiest first-year student after you and Class A's Sakayanagi or Katsuragi.
Looking at the results, she didn't suffer any loss. On one hand, her identity as the Student Council President's sister has become well-known — an identity that can bring her benefits.
On the other hand, having weathered this rumor attack and being able to resolve it shows she's taken a step forward. Having recognized her classmates' attitudes, she definitely won't have psychological barriers about going solo in the future."
With this, Hiyori directly admitted her role as the mastermind behind the incident. By claiming the results were beneficial for Suzune, she was cleverly deflecting responsibility.
However, she did explain her reason: she needed money.
This was a school where strength prevailed, so class confrontations and various tactics against each other were common. Hiyori's class was Kakeru's class, which had never dealt with the school in a conventional way.
She was simply following the tradition of Kakeru's class — using underhanded methods.
But now that the rumors had been dispelled and Houtarou had confronted her, it was clear she had failed.
Houtarou released her wrist — not to forgive her, but to take out his phone. He was ending a call.
Beep—
The screen displayed "Call Ended" with "Suzune Horikita" at the top. He had been on a call with her the entire time.
"Now Horikita knows you're behind this, and she probably recorded our conversation." Houtarou said, "If you want to make friends at this school, I think this recording could be quite useful. After all, who would want to be close with someone so calculating?"
Hiyori: "..."
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