Chapter 5

In Class D, the first vote for the fifth question ended as 14 votes for yes, 26 votes for no. Ishizaki asks Ryuuen for instructions on how to proceed. The first, third and 4^th questions all reached unanimity after only a single break interval with Ryuuen’s instructions on how to vote. The second question about the destination of the school trip ended up being decided by majority after 30 minutes of discussion amongst the class. Everyone had followed Ryuuen’s instructions until now and hence they naturally looked towards him again for instructions on how to vote for this question. However, Ryuuen merely walked up to the podium and asked the people who voted yes to raise their hands. After a few seconds of hesitation, 5 of the 14 people raised their hands. Komiya asked the remaining 9 people to also name themselves, saying that no one will get angry at them for voting ‘yes’ in the first round of voting, especially since there weren’t any instructions from Ryuuen. After Ishizaki shouted angrily, one more student apologetically raised their hand, bringing the total up to 6. But Ryuuen says that he’ll allow it to pass for now and tells them to spend the remaining 8 minutes thinking about what they believe is the correct decision. The class spends the next few minutes in silence but Ryuuen didn’t say anything. Ishizaki gets impatient and asks Ryuuen for instructions, but he continues to hold his silence. In the end, the first break interval ends without anything happening. The results of the second vote were:

10 votes for yes, 30 votes for no.

Everyone in the class believed that with the current trend, if Ryuuen just said a few more words, the class will unanimously reach the conclusion of voting ‘no’. However Ryuuen merely frowned and was disappointed that even after ten minutes of thinking, the results weren’t what he expected. Kaneda asked him if it was because the number of ‘yes’ votes were too few, but Ryuuen shook his head. But he didn’t confirm whether he voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’. As the class starts getting agitated, Ryuuen says his only intention with this first and second vote was to know what the class’ feeling truly were. Ryuuen tells everyone to voice their own opinions. He walked around the classroom listening to everyone talk, sometimes bringing his ear to their mouths so that they could whisper their thoughts to him. After a while, it was time for the third round of voting. The results were:

9 votes for yes. 31 votes for no.

This time Ryuuen asked everyone who voted for yes to raise their hands. The only people who did were Kaneda and Nishino, while 7 people remained anonymous. Ryuuen asked Kaneda why he had voted to expel all 3 times. Kaneda says that while he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to expel their classmates, he thinks the 100 class points will be important for attaining victory. Ryuuen asks if Kaneda considered that he might be expelled by the class if he held this stance, but Kaneda says that Ryuuen would never cut off anyone who was valuable. Ryuuen agrees with Kaneda’s self evaluation and then asks Nishino if she had the same opinion of herself. Nishino says she voted for yes because she thinks it’s a good idea to take an easy way to gain 100 class points and the reason she named herself was because she didn’t like the idea of stealthily hiding her vote like a snake. Ryuuen then reveals that he had voted to expel all three times. Ishizaki then asks Ryuuen if that meant they were going to choose to expel someone. But Ryuuen smirks and said that his decision was for the class to choose in a democratic manner. He wanted to vote ‘yes’ because the idea of getting rid of trash while earning 100 class points by doing so sounded like it only had positives. But even after three votes, the majority of the class was against expulsion. Hence, he decided that they would now unify the class in the direction of voting ‘no’. However, Ibuki objects and asks why he isn’t forcing his opinion through like he usually does. Ryuuen wonders if Ibuki was also part of the ‘expel’ faction but Ibuki says that she voted ‘no’ but doesn’t understand why Ryuuen was acting out of character. Ryuuen says that if this exam wasn’t anonymous, he wouldn’t have hesitated to use forceful means. However, with the current rules, it’s easier to just unify the class in the direction of the majority. But while everyone thought that the next vote would be the last, the results of the fourth round of voting were:

7 votes for yes, 33 votes for no.

When Ryuuen asked Kaneda and Nishino, both of them said that they had switched their votes to ‘no’. Since Ryuuen himself had also switched his vote, it either meant that one of them was lying or someone had switched their vote from ‘no’ to ‘yes’. Ishizaki roared in anger but Ryuuen calmed him down while saying that things were getting interesting. He says he welcomes the fact that there are seven ambitious students who want the class points to aim for Class A. But, the fact that they voted ‘yes’ means that they probably had somebody in mind who they wanted to expel. And that person was probably Ryuuen. He challenges the anonymous voters to name themselves but none of them reveal themselves. The results of the fifth vote were:

8 votes for yes, 32 votes for no.

Since the ‘no’ vote isn’t passing through, Yabu Nanami (Don’t ask me who she is, I don’t know) proposes that they should just first unanimously vote ‘yes’ and then expel someone who no one else minds expelling. Upon being asked to elaborate, she names Ibuki as an example. Afterwards, several other girls voice out their agreement that they’d be okay with expelling Ibuki. Ishizaki exasperatedly tries to stop them but Ryuuen says he welcomes their idea since they at least had the guts to name themselves unlike the 8 anonymous voters who kept casting ‘yes’ votes. Yabu was the leader of the top caste of girls in the class, which meant her opinion was essentially the same as the opinion of the collective group. Ryuuen says they’d just be wasting time if the votes don’t switch to ‘no’. He asks the class if anyone would be willing to defend Ibuki. No one raises their hands. When he then asks Ibuki if she is willing to just obediently go gently into that good night without raging against the dying of the light, Ibuki declines. She says that while she doesn’t particularly care about the school itself, there was someone she wanted to get revenge on. She also has no intention of being used by people she disliked for their own convenience. Yabu mocks her for putting on a tough front when in reality, she was just afraid of being expelled like the rest of them. Ibuki retorts that she’s gotten awfully arrogant for someone who used to just be Manabe’s groupie. Ryuuen warns Ibuki that Yabu had many friends who would oppose her expulsion but Ibuki didn’t have a single friend. He says that he doesn’t dislike Ibuki but the circumstances are not in her favour so he tells her to sacrifice herself to become a fertiliser for the rest of the class. Yabu mocks Ibuki, saying that her only ally Ryuuen had also turned against her. However, Ibuki continues to refuse to leave the school.

Result of the 6^th round of voting: 7 votes for yes, 33 votes for no.

Results of the 7^th round of voting: 6 votes for yes, 34 votes for no.

Results of the 8^th round of voting: 7 votes for yes, 33 votes for no.

Results of the 9^th round of voting: 7 votes for yes, 33 votes for no.

Throughout these 40 minutes, Ryuuen just sat at the front of the class and observed his classmates silently. But during the break interval before the 10^th round of voting, he asked his class why none of them had the brains to think for themselves and change their votes without him giving them any instructions. He tells them to stop messing around.

Results of the 10^th round of voting: 6 votes for yes, 34 votes for no.

By this time, the smirk had disappeared from Ryuuen’s face and turned into a scowl.

Results of the 11^th round of voting: 7 votes for yes, 33 votes for no.

Nishino asks Ryuuen how he intends to unify their votes. Ryuuen says that it’s about time to finish this and says that after observing the class, he now knew the identity of the idiot who had been switching their vote around between ‘yes’ and ‘no’. He names a girl called Yajima Mariko who hurriedly tries to deny his accusation. Ryuuen says that he wouldn’t name anyone unless he was certain. As long as her vote is now no longer anonymous, Ryuuen forbids her from making any more ‘yes’ votes without his permission. He also warns the rest of the anonymous voters saying that if they still get caught voting ‘yes’, he won’t give a second chance to the rest of them.

Results of the 12^th round of voting: 5 votes for yes, 35 votes for no.

Ryuuen sits back down in his seat and calls for the remaining five anonymous people to name themselves. He says that if they don’t want to run out of time, their only choice now is to try to bring the class’ opinion in the direction of expelling Ryuuen. At this point in time, Tokitou accepts Ryuuen’s challenge and names himself as one of the people who were voting ‘yes’. Ishizaki was about to hit him but Katsuragi restrains him and reminds Ishizaki about the rules forbidding the use of violence.

Tokitou reveals that he had always been waiting for an opportunity like this since the usual special exams wouldn’t give him any opportunity to get rid of Ryuuen. Ryuuen welcomes his challenge and relishes the feeling of someone rebelling against him. Ryuuen asks him what he plans to do since at this rate they will just run out of time and lose 300 class points. Tokitou says that wouldn’t be his responsibility and instead it would be Ryuuen who takes the blame as the class leader. He appeals to the class that following Ryuuen is wrong, listing the earlier example of Ryuuen overruling the class’ desire to pick Ichinose’s class for the end of term exam and instead choosing Sakayanagi’s class. Tokitou tells Ryuuen that if he pledges to step down from the position of class leader, the remaining votes will naturally turn into ‘no’. Ryuuen asks Tokitou if he lacks the confidence to win the class’ support but Tokitou scoffs and says that if the vote becomes an unanimous ‘yes’, then Ryuuen would definitely become the primary target.

Kaneda intervenes and says that while the responsibility for failing special exams would fall onto Ryuuen’s shoulders, right now, the first person the class would pick would definitely be Tokitou who kept trying to force through an expulsion against the class’ wishes. Tokitou says that other than himself, there were still 4 other anonymous voters who wished for Ryuuen’s expulsion and many more who merely lacked the courage to oppose him. Ryuuen then applauded him and said that his logic was a lot more sound than that of the likes of Yabu. Ryuuen then asks if he would like a duel. He proposes that everyone in the class switch their votes to ‘yes’ and then nominate one of either Ryuuen or Tokitou. That way everyone else would be able to vote knowing that their safety is assured. Tokitou warns him that Ryuuen would have no way of surviving in such a scenario but Ryuuen urges him on by saying that they were wasting time. He provoked Tokitou, asking if he was scared of losing. Tokitou then finally accepts Ryuuen’s proposal, confident in his own victory.

Katsuragi interrupts saying that with the current state of the classroom, Ryuuen had the absolute advantage. Tokitou denies his claim, saying that many students had simply been biding their time and will bite back if an opportunity arises, listing the ‘dog’ Ishizaki as an example. When Ishizaki objects, Tokitou tells him to remember the rebellious spirit he once had when he defeated Ryuuen. Seeing that Tokitou had confidence in his own victory, Katsuragi then changed the question, asking him who was going to take leadership of the class after Ryuuen was gone. Tokitou says that they can talk it out but it won’t be Katsuragi since he’s an outsider. Seeing that Tokitou was unwilling to listen to him, Katsuragi pleaded with Ryuuen to spare Tokitou. Ryuuen then laughs and says that he’s willing to give Tokitou a second chance. He says that in the next vote, everyone in the class except for Tokitou will vote ‘no’. Whether or not they pass the exam will depend solely on Tokitou’s decision. If Tokitou decides to vote ‘yes’, he will begin taking action in the direction of expelling Tokitou. Tokitou asks what happened to the other 4 votes. Ryuuen dared him to try voting ‘yes’ and says that he will see for himself. Tokitou wants to call Ryuuen’s bluff but gets nervous as he imagines the possibility of the other dissidents switching to Ryuuen’s side. In that scenario he would definitely lose. On the contrary, if Ryuuen was bluffing and Tokitou alone switched his vote to ‘no’, he would also lose all the confidence of his classmates and will definitely lose if it ended up coming down to a duel between himself and Ryuuen. Ryuuen dares him to vote ‘yes’ if he is prepared to be expelled.

Results of the 13^th round of voting: 2 votes for yes, 38 votes for no.

Tokitou is relieved that there’s someone else with a will as strong as his and wouldn’t succumb despite Ryuuen’s attempts at intimidation. However, Ryuuen interrogates Katsuragi on what he was trying to to do. Katsuragi reveals that he was the other person who voted ‘yes’ since he thinks that Tokitou was a student necessary for this class. In fact, after objectively looking at the class as an outsider coming from Class A, he honestly believes that there isn’t a single unnecessary student in the class. He thinks that Tokitou’s willingness to provide dissenting opinions to Ryuuen was a valuable trait. He reveals that Tokitou’s anonymous allies were a figment of imagination all along because the other 4 votes were Katsuragi, Hiyori, Albert and Ryuuen himself. Katsuragi says that Ryuuen had given him multiple second chances but Tokitou did not recognise them and simply continued trying to expel Ryuuen. He asks Ryuuen to grant Tokitou another chance. Ryuuen says he isn’t that forgiving of a person but Katsuragi says Ryuuen was also at fault for provoking him too much.

The 14^th round of voting began. Tokitou was left with his pride shattered. He had the option of either voting yes and guaranteeing his own expulsion or swallowing his pride and succumbing to Ryuuen. In the middle he thought about continuing to vote against his class’ decision and causing them to fail this special exam, but in the end decided not to involve his classmates in his feud with Ryuuen.

Results of the 14^th round of voting: 0 votes for yes, 40 votes for no.

Tokitou tells Ryuuen that he hadn’t accepted his ways and that if he thinks Ryuuen makes a mistake, he will once again stand up to him and challenge him. Ryuuen welcomes him to challenge him at any time.

After the exam, Ryuuen approached Katsuragi and said that he did something unnecessary. Katsuragi theorises that Ryuuen told Hiyori to include him in the fake voting group because he expected Katsuragi to protect Tokitou after receiving information from Hiyori that Tokitou often spoke to Katsuragi. But after seeing Ryuuen’s response, he became convinced that it was actually Hiyori’s independent decision. But either way, the result was that Ryuuen gave Tokitou a lifeline and nobody was expelled. Katsuragi is convinced after today that this class had the potential to defeat Sakayanagi and aim for Class A.

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