The agreement had been reached. Ryuen Kakeru and his group were taken away by the student council president, the waiter wiped away the bloodstains on the floor, and the gathered spectators outside the store were gradually dismissed by other student council members who had arrived later.
Life at the school returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened.
As Horikita had mentioned before leaving, he would draft the contract within the next two days—without tricks, loopholes, or hidden clauses. Both parties would then meet at an agreed time to review and sign it together.
This was what he meant by "proper handling."
Kure Ragna wasn't particularly worried about Horikita trying to manipulate things behind the scenes. After all, if he did, then next Monday morning, the entire student body would wake up to find the student council president stripped naked, tied up, gagged, and hoisted to the top of the school's flagpole.
Still seated at the hot pot restaurant, Sakayanagi Arisu gracefully tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear. Taking a delicate bite of Japanese tofu, she spoke softly.
"I thought you would go as far as stomping the student council president into the ground."
Across from her, Kure Ragna was eating heartily. Hunger had gnawed at him for a while, and after the prolonged back-and-forth with Ryuen and Horikita, his appetite had only grown.
Hearing her words, he raised his head slightly from the bowl. The steam from the hot pot fogged up his dark glasses, tiny droplets of water collecting on the lenses.
"If that guy had tried to use his authority to pressure me right away, I would have."
"Oh?"
Kure Ragna set down his chopsticks, sitting up straight as he gave the thought some serious consideration.
"Not that it matters. Once the agreement is signed, I doubt he'll even be around next month."
After all, under Horikita's arrangement, Ryuen Kakeru would be required to hand over a set amount of class points to Kure Ragna every month, starting from the next.
At first glance, taking a few thousand points from a class's total might not seem like much. But the real question was—why would his classmates agree to this? Who was he to them?
Even if Ryuen decided to surrender all of his personal points, it would barely be enough for five people. What about the rest of Class C? Where would he get points for all of them?
"That's not a certainty~"
Arisu's soft voice carried a knowing amusement.
"Don't forget, Ryuen Kakeru is the undisputed leader of Class C. He rules with violence, earning the nickname 'Tyrant.' With his methods, it wouldn't take him long to force his entire class into accepting a point transfer agreement."
Kure Ragna stared at her for a moment before letting out a dry chuckle.
"Tyrant? That guy?"
To him, Ryuen was nothing more than a low-level thug.
Even among gangsters, there was a certain order. A proper gangster, when encountering a valued customer, might offer a smoke and call them "boss." They'd only bare their fangs when someone caused trouble on their turf.
Ryuen, however, didn't follow that logic. Instead, he spent his time wandering around with his lackeys, picking fights for no reason, and getting into pointless conflicts. He lacked real strategy or execution. At best, he was an aggressive fool.
If Kure Ragna had been in the mood, he could have crushed Ryuen then and there. But causing unnecessary trouble for Uncle Sakayanagi wasn't worth it.
Besides, even in the Kure Clan—where fighting and killing were an ancestral tradition—combat ability alone wasn't enough to become the next leader.
If leadership was decided solely by bloodlust, then the clan would have chosen his mad-dog cousin instead of him.
A leader needed more than brute strength. If the underlings were all crazed fighters, then the leader had to be someone who could control them. Otherwise, when they finally encountered a real opponent, they'd all get wiped out together.
Given that, Kure Ragna found it hilarious that Class C had chosen Ryuen as their leader.
"Is it bravery… or stupidity?" he muttered.
"Speaking of class leaders," Arisu continued, "the leader of Class B is a girl named Ichinose Honami."
"I haven't had a chance to interact with her yet, but from what I've heard, she has an almost absolute hold over her class—like a queen bee."
"Queen bee?"
At those words, an absurd image formed in Kure Ragna's mind.
A seductive woman in revealing clothing, holding a leather whip, standing on a podium in high heels. Below her, all the boys in Class B crawled on the floor, tongues out, drooling as they begged to be her loyal dogs.
"Mommy."
Kure Ragna shook his head violently, dispelling the ridiculous illusion.
"Not just over the boys," Arisu added with a knowing smile. "The girls follow her, too."
Now, in his mind, Ichinose Honami had transformed into something far more terrifying—some kind of eldritch, mind-controlling deity.
"…Kazakhstan," he muttered under his breath.
"Anyway, what about you? How's your progress in recruiting?" Kure Ragna asked, shifting the topic.
Arisu, for once, hesitated. Instead of answering directly, she turned her face slightly away.
"It's… going fine."
"Huh?"
Sensing something off, Kure Ragna tilted his head in the same direction.
"Wait, don't tell me—"
"It's exactly what you're thinking."
With an irritated sigh, Arisu took a sip of her now-lukewarm orange juice.
"Katsuragi Kohei, leader of the Katsuragi faction, is honest, conservative, and overly cautious. His serious demeanor, combined with his bald head, has led many uncertain Class A students to side with him instead of me."
"That sounds fine, doesn't it?" Kure Ragna commented as he finished another bowl of hot pot soup.
"I thought you enjoyed facing worthy opponents."
"The key word is worthy opponents," Arisu corrected sharply.
"Katsuragi would make a fine leader in an ordinary high school. But in this school? Even Ryuen could take him down easily. His so-called leadership is just wasted effort."
She scoffed.
"But it doesn't matter. Integrating Class A under my leadership is only a matter of time."
"That said," Kure Ragna mused, "there's no question about the leader of my class, right?"
"Yukinoshita Haruno," Arisu answered without hesitation.
"…Yeah."
"That was obvious."
"But…"
"Hmm?"
Kure Ragna's expression turned contemplative.
"There's someone else in our class who's caught my attention. At first glance, he seems unremarkable, but… for some reason, I feel a strange sense of déjà vu when I look at him. Maybe it's just my intuition, but still…"
Arisu's gaze sharpened.
"Who is it?"
"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka."
For a brief moment, there was silence.
Then, with a soft breath, Arisu's expression shifted into something Kure Ragna couldn't quite place.
"Ayanokoji Kiyotaka…?"
She gave a small, knowing smile.
"To some extent, he's just like you—a student who shouldn't be in this school."
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