COTE : Oh No, I've Become the Substitute

Advanced Nurturing High School, Class C classroom.

Sunlight slanted through the windows, drawing long pillars of light through the air. Chalk dust drifted lazily within the beams.

With still an hour left until the end of morning classes, the classroom was steeped in a drowsy, stifling atmosphere.

Bang—!

A dull, piercing crash erupted without warning, shattering the lethargy in the air.

Having kicked over the chair closest to the lectern, Ryuen Kakeru planted himself on the lectern itself, looking down upon the entire body of Class C students. His two die-hard underlings, Yamawaki and Komiya, stood flanking the lectern like door gods.

"I'll be direct. For this Sports Festival, follow my orders. I will lead you worthless garbage to victory."

The atmosphere of the entire class fell silent for a brief moment.

Then, a perfectly synchronized, utterly exhausted and helpless sigh—"Ah~"—rose simultaneously from every corner of the classroom, like air leaking from a deflated ball.

By now, they didn't even have the energy to curse at Ryuen anymore. Like several dozen air-dried salted fish, they lay neatly and uniformly slumped across their chairs.

Every single special exam, it was always the same. Grandiose declarations before the match. Dead silence during the match. Incoherent rambling after the match...

N-No, wait!

Given Ryuen's half-crazed, half-not state, it was more like: incoherent rambling before the match, grandiose declarations during the match, dead silence after the match—with the occasional bout of deranged muttering sprinkled in between.

"Look, Ryuen. We've been classmates for a whole semester now, and we've had our share of fights. No matter how you put it, we've got some bond between us. Can't you just be a little honest? Wouldn't it be better if we were all a bit more straightforward with each other?" Nomura Yuji lay sprawled across his desk, earnestly trying to persuade him.

"Exactly." Yoshimoto Kōsetsu spoke with a tone of genuine sympathy. "Even though you're certainly... something else, we've all seen what you did in the last two special exams. Even without merit, you've put in the effort. Besides, I heard from some upperclasswomen that our year is apparently exceptionally outstanding. As long as your plan is reasonable, following your orders isn't out of the question."

"Give it up..." Tokito Hiroya propped his legs up on his desk and sneered coldly. "If he were the type to listen to advice, he wouldn't have gone looking for trouble with that Class D student in the first place, making our Class C lose a huge chunk of points for nothing."

At that moment, Kaneda Satoru, one of the top students in Class C in terms of academic ability, rose from his seat and adjusted his glasses.

"Ryuen-shi, tell us your plan. If it's like the one from the uninhabited island last time, I'll raise my hand in support."

"Yeah."

"Right!"

...

The assembled Class C students voiced their agreement in succession. At the same time, they turned their heads and looked at Ryuen with unhurried calm. There wasn't the slightest trace of fear in their eyes—only strained forbearance.

They had to admit, the uninhabited island plan Ryuen had come up with for Class C last time was indeed a fairly perfect scheme. Class C could see that much, thhe one thing they hadn't foreseen was that Class A could actually, out of thirty-nine people, accurately guess the leader. Not just Ryuen had failed to figure it out, they still couldn't figure it out to this day.

As for the VIP exam, although Class A had screwed them over, in terms of the class points they'd actually obtained, it was still a resounding victory. At the very least, they hadn't gone all-in like the Class D next door and gambled away every single point.

In summary, although the man himself was rather hard to stomach and excessively chuuni, he did have a couple of tricks up his sleeve.

Of course, just a couple. Nothing more.

Crack—!

Bathed in the crowd's calm gazes—mingled with pity, strained forbearance, schadenfreude, and even... encouragement? among other things—yet utterly devoid of the one thing Ryuen most desperately wanted to see: fear—

Ryuen clenched his teeth fiercely. His knuckles whitened from the sheer force of his grip. Veins bulged angrily on his temples and neck, writhing like twisted earthworms beneath his skin. A seething, raging fury—born of being slighted, of being affronted—churned violently within his chest.

He opened his mouth, wanting to mock and ridicule them with the trash talk he had once prided himself on. Yet the moment the words reached his lips, all he received in return were gazes of ever-deepening pity.

How utterly infuriating!

How had his Class C—his own class—been reduced to this state?!

Where was the violence? Where was the swaggering, high-spirited confidence he'd had when he first entered this school?

Why had it turned into this after just a few short months? Why?!

Because of that damned mastermind, of course! That sniveling coward! That stinking rat lurking in the gutter!

The answer surfaced in Ryuen's mind in an instant.

Last month, because of the special exam and summer break, he hadn't been able to truly get down to tracking that bastard down. He'd entrusted Shiina Hiyori with the investigation, but there'd been no leads whatsoever.

However, he knew that certain people were highly likely to know the identity of that damned mastermind—the students who had been involved in the false accusation incident against Hirata Yosuke last time!

No matter how he thought about it, the timing had been far too coincidental. That damned mastermind had definitely been someone in the know about that plan.

Horikita Suzune, Sakayanagi Arisu, Ichinose Honami—any of the three could potentially know the mastermind's identity.

Among them, that woman Sakayanagi was the most suspicious. It was even possible that the entire plan itself had been a trap within a trap designed by her.

As for Horikita Suzune and Ichinose Honami, the shock they'd displayed at the time didn't seem feigned. But it was still possible.

Therefore...

"I will find a way to get my hands on Class D's participation roster. You will use that roster to thoroughly crush Class D. And then," Ryuen's voice suddenly spiked in volume. The corner of his mouth split open uncontrollably into a cold, cruel grin. "I will use my methods to show those bastards what true cruelty looks like, seize leverage over them, and threaten them into revealing the mastermind's identity."

This way, Class C would secure their points, and he would root out the mastermind. Killing two birds with one stone!

In that instant, the entire Class C classroom sank into a silence even deeper than before. Only the faint, distant sounds of sports club training drifting in through the window served to accentuate the deathly stillness within.

"..."

The assembled Class C students silently stared at Ryuen on the lectern. After a few seconds, by unspoken agreement, they lowered their heads and resumed whatever they had been doing.

"Ryuen, can you show a little ambition? Stop obsessively fixating on those defective products in Class D. They might just surrender on their own. If you really want to rule the school, at least set your sights a little further, won't you?"

"Boss, Class D is already at zero points. If you hit them any more, can their score even go negative?"

"Never mind the fact that our Class C still has to pay them ten thousand points every month. And no matter what you say, Class D didn't get you expelled back then, did they? Can you just... not be this awful for once?!"

...

Faced with the verbal condemnation of the Class C students, Ryuen bellowed in mortified fury.

"Shut up! What do you worthless trash know?! Once I drag out the mastermind, I will definitely wash away my disgrace!"

Did they think he didn't know they should be targeting Class A and Class B right now?!

The reason he wasn't was precisely because Class A and B's defenses were impenetrable—there was simply no opening to exploit. That was why he was looking for opportunities in Class D!

The entire class fell silent once more at his furious roar—and then immediately erupted into an even louder wave of discussion.

"If you want to do it, do it yourself. Don't drag me into it."

"If any more points get docked, you can get expelled on your own. I'm not helping you raise funds again."

"Ah~ Can you just not accept the fact that you ate crap? You absolutely have to fantasize some mastermind into existence. This is just how people are—always unable to face the pain of their dark past."

Ryuen's fists clenched deathly tight. His chest heaved violently, like a bellowows being pumped.

"You'll regret this! I'll be waiting for you to come begging to me!"

"You said that last time too!" The entire Class C student body roared back in perfect unison.

The most infamous figure of Advanced Nurturing High, Ryuen Kakeru, continued his endless back-and-forth struggle on the path to unifying Class C—a long road ahead, with much still to be done.

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