Kiyotaka Ayanokōji/Plot

Plot
During the bus trip to school, he witnessed Kikyō Kushida pleading Rokusuke Kōenji to give up his seat for an older woman, but to no avail. Watching the scene, he commented on the situation as he noticed another girl looking on with a cold stare. Shortly after, the students arrive at the school where Kiyotaka talks with the other girl who inquired as to why he looked at her as he stated he saw a similarity between them in the bus incident. She told him not to compare them as she chooses not to involve herself in such a trivial manner, while he internally noted that she is worse than him.

He attended the opening ceremony where he was surprised to learn he was classmates with the girl from earlier, named Suzune Horikita, who said it was a bad coincidence after being seated next to each other in class 1-D. As most of the students introduced themselves, Kiyotaka evaluated most of their personalities before being asked to introduce himself. His undecided thoughts caused him to awkwardly introduce himself, though he did give his name and stated that he hopes to be friends with the class. His speech was applauded by a few classmates, but he was mocked by Suzune. Shortly after the introductions finished the class met their teacher, Sae Chabashira, who told them about points and how the school operates.

Days went by, and Kiyotaka is still unable to make friends but did find an associate in Suzune, who sits next to him in class. He later met Kikyō, who is one of the few to interact with Kiyotaka apart from Suzune. She asked for his help in befriending Suzune herself, and he reluctantly agreed to take her to a café for the meetup. After class the next day he asked Suzune to accompany him, as it was a girls café and he felt too scared to go along. Upon arriving at the packed place, a table opened up for them to sit, where they were joined by Kikyō, although that caused Suzune to leave due to her uncovering their plan.

After a month passed, the class was told they wouldn't get any more points after losing them all, although put their effort in the upcoming test to gain more. Kiyotaka was invited to lunch by Suzune, and while he was doubtful on her intentions, he went and treated himself to lunch at her expense. To his mild dismay, Suzune uses this as an opportunity to force him into helping her reach Class A bringing up his supposed conspiring with Kikyō as a means to get an agreement. Reluctant, he agrees and is tasked by Suzune to gather up the more idiotic students for a study group. He was annoyed that the first girl to give him her number was blackmailed him. He tried to get Kanji Ike, Haruki Yamauchi and Ken Sudō to join but they all refuse; however, it took bringing Kikyō into the plan and Suzune herself reaching out to Ken for everyone else to agree on joining. Despite this, Suzune's condescending attitude causes them to leave and taking the risk of failing. Kiyotaka brought this up to Suzune who paid it no mind and said what they did had no repercussion on her.

One night, while he was out getting a drink, he found Suzune about to be assaulted by her older brother, Manabu Horikita, but quickly intervened by grabbing the man's hand admonishing his acts as he demanded him to release her. He was told by Suzune not to get involved as he noted on the sincerity in her tone, which caused him to release Manabu before avoiding the latter's strikes with ease and pushing him back. Kiyotaka was asked by Manabu in which fighting arts he practised, but he replied with a vague answer. Manabu proceeded to recall him from his test scores and implied that Kiyotaka is hiding his intelligence, but he called it a coincidence as Manabu left the area.

Suzune thanked him, but he shrugged it off, and when she complimented his fighting skill he stated it was nothing special, just piano and tea ceremony lessons as to which she called him out on this contradictory statement. He was then questioned by Suzune if her brother's statement about him scoring half of what he should have made was true, but he again provides a vague answer. Suzune remarked that everything about him is a mystery, to which he replied asking if the study group was finished, in which she confirmed. Kiyotaka asked her if she ever wondered whether it was her distant and cold behaviour that got her placed in D-Class, but she couldn't answer it.

When Suzune decided to disband her study group, Kiyotaka decided to use the school rules to his advantage. With the help of Kikyō, he requested an upperclassman to give him answers for an old test in exchange for points while also having Kikyō use her charm to convince him further to lower his payment. Not liking the thought of attention, Kiyotaka has Kikyō take credit, and a majority of the class passed except Ken, who would be expelled. Kiyotaka then used his points to bribe the teacher to overturn this decision, to which she agreed but only after Suzune helped out with the payment. Because of this, Ken was saved, and the teacher told them to keep making things interesting for her since they could advance to Class A which is something nobody else did something in the history of class 1-D.

During a celebratory party at his room, Kiyotaka was asked by Kikyō if he had a hand in stopping Ken's expulsion as the latter and his friends listened to see if this was true. However, Kiyotaka passed the credit to Suzune, much to her dismay. Later that night, he went to return a phone that Kikyō left behind, however stumbling upon her hidden personality, cursing Suzune out loud. After being spotted, Kikyō threatened him with rape charges after she placed his hand on her breasts. After asking whether she can trust him, he swore not to tell anyone about this as she reverted to her cheerful personality and walked off.

Kiyotaka soon made another acquaintance with Honami and helped her in facing a love confession from her friend by giving her the courage, to be honest after she requested that he pretended to be her boyfriend. When this was done, he gained her gratitude, and she paid him back by helping in proving the innocence of Ken after he was accused of attacking three boys of class 1-C.

He and Kikyō soon meet Airi, who witnessed the brawl but stated she didn't want to get involved, though after her camera broke, she requested their help in getting it repaired. Kiyotaka then helped her with two matters, first with the broken camera and then by telling her not to burden herself with the current event. Those encouraging words later motivated her to change her mind and help with the hearing. At the hearing, he noticed Suzune was in fearful silence due to her brother's presence and helped her to return to her senses and called for Airi, who provided her evidence. After the hearing ended for the day, he spoke to Airi, comforting her just as Manabu appeared and stated he expected more from the hearing since he saw Kiyotaka was present. Kiyotaka shrugged it off and once more avoided Manabu's strike with ease while affirming his belief in Airi.

After that, Kiyotaka and Suzune went to the area where the fight occurred, and Suzune devised a plan to get the trio of class 1-C to withdraw their complaint, which had Kiyotaka borrow points from Honami to buy cameras. With that done, he headed to class and spoke to Airi promising her help in the future before going off to put the plan into action. The procedure was successful as Suzune and Kiyotaka have the students believe that the Student Council President knows the truth, causing them to withdraw their complaint. Soon afterwards, Kiyotaka spoke with Honami and with her help saved Airi from being assaulted by a crazed stalker. After the stalker was apprehended by security, Kiyotaka made another acquaintance in Airi.

He later spoke with Ken who told him how the students of Class C withdrew the complaint. Kiyotaka gave Suzune credit for saving Ken, who believed it as he happily went off to practice. Kiyotaka later met with Manabu and his secretary in the hallway. Manabu explained the recent events and asked if this proved Airi was telling the truth before he congratulated him on his victory, but Kiyotaka once again gave Suzune all credit for the act. Glaring at Kiyotaka, Manabu had asked Tachibana if they had an opening for a secretary on the Student Council, to which she confirmed. Manabu offered the position to Kiyotaka, while Tachibana questioned his intentions only to be silenced by a gaze from him. He repeated this offer for Kiyotaka to join the council; however, he rejected it in favour of living a regular school life. Manabu accepted this choice for now but told him not to disappoint him as he and Tachibana walked off.

Kiyotaka soon met Suzune and walks with her in the rain with their umbrellas, and when they reach the street, she accuses him of manipulating her into carrying out false evidence to get the complaint withdrawn, he denies this and she brings up the promise he made to help her reach Class A as he reminds her that she had forced him to do so. He tries to walk off, but she stops him and presses him for the reasons of his actions as she wants to know if she can trust him as he explains that he simply wants to live a peaceful life, but she states that he wouldn't have helped if that were true. Kiyotaka states he was looking out for a friend, but she disregards this and pressures him into revealing his motives. Kiyotaka briefly reflected on his past before he stated he would help her in reaching Class A but sternly told her never to try prying into his past again.

During summer break, he was a part of a group of boys who planned to peep on the girls changing room under the codename "Argos-4", though he didn't want to participate. Knowing that the boys would proceed behind his back, he decided to join but enlisted Suzune's help to sabotage the plan. He invited her to the pool and told her of the boys' plan, and asked her to steal the memory cards from the cameras at the right time. He later invited Airi the pool as well to have fun, and they met up with some students of class 1-B. At the outing, Kiyotaka tried to use the event as a way to get Suzune to lose her cold demeanour and associate with people no matter how tough it was to get through to her. When the boys plan hit a problem, they signalled Kiyotaka for help, and he had Suzune perform a speech that distracted everyone. This allowed the boys to safely abort the plan, while Suzune collected the cards. Kiyotaka thanked her for the help before asking if she had fun in which she gave a negative reply. He followed up by pushing her into the pool, and she did the same though everyone else joins in afterwards. He watches as she plays with the class before he was splashed by Airi as she sinks in the water out of embarrassment when he stared at her. That night, he sent Suzune a picture of her with the other students at the pool.

On the school cruise, he was summoned by Sae; he went to the theatre where she informed him of an unknown man who wanted Kiyotaka to be expelled. She promised to protect him but only if he started working his way up to A-Class, but he refused to comply, causing her to promise that he will be expelled, which in turn caused him to grab her by the collar and warn her not to manipulate him. She was unfazed by his actions and told him to choose between leaving or ascending to A-Class. After that, he went to the bow of the ship, where he contemplated whether he should reveal his talents just to stay in school.

While relaxing in his room, he is visited by Yōsuke Hirata who invites to an outing with his friends, but he turns it down. Yōsuke soon reveals his true intentions were for Kiyotaka to get Suzune to work with him as Kiyotaka gives him an unsure answer before he leaves.

He later spent his time with the 3 Idiots of D-Class, being confused over why they were excited about Kanji asking Kikyō if he can call her by her first name. He was even more confused when an excited Ken asked him what Horikita's first name was, giving him the answer before going for lunch. At the restaurant, Kiyotaka noticed how out of element they were as Ken grabbed one student for insulting them, leaving Kōhei Katsuragi to break up the fight and the boys leaving the area, Kiyotaka taking caution of Kōhei. At night, he approached Airi while she was on the deck of the ship (who was seen practising to ask him out), his presence startled her and caused her to become flustered. After being asked if he heard her, Kiyotaka denied listening to her and asked what it might've been about. Airi instead told him that she needed his help in becoming friends with the class, where she is seen to be still nervous around them. He agreed to help her, saying that it was nothing special, as she became elated and grabbed his hand out of gratitude. However, the moment between the two ceased when Kikyō appeared, and Airi quickly excused herself by leaving.

Kiyotaka talked with Kikyō and noticed that her bubbly nature almost made him forget about the hidden persona he saw the other night. When he tried to leave, Kikyō stopped him, shifting back to her darker personality to continue talking. She inquired if he was nervous and wary being alone around her, to which he confirmed, as she went back to her other personality, and told him that she just gets lonely when left all alone. She tried to tell him something else but decided not to go through with it and left while he was put off by her actions.

The ship arrived at the island and was told that they are meant to survive on the island for a week to achieve bonus points.

After receiving the provisions, class 1-D moved out while Suzune asked about Kiyotaka's dreams after graduation, earning yet another vague answer. After Yōsuke asked for everyone to gather supplies for camps, Kiyotaka volunteered, telling a surprised Suzune its best to not stick out. He was grouped with Airi and Rokusuke, though he lost track of the latter when he escaped through the trees, presumably ditching the test then.

When they discovered a point spot, Kiyotaka hid with Airi as he felt someone was coming and covered her mouth just as Kōhei Katsuragi and Yahiko Totsuka appeared. Kiyotaka overheard them talking and noticed a glimpse of A-Class' leader card, but knowing he was a cautious man, he deduced Yahiko was the leader. After the two left, he released Airi and apologized for his actions, but she was seen still heavily blushing and squirming on the ground, nervously mumbling that it was fine. He and Airi investigate the spot, and with this, he decided to change his strategy to guess the leaders of the classes. After returning to camp, he relayed this information to Yōsuke and soon asked for Suzune to join him in gathering firewood, but she refused. He later went with Airi and Haruki who told him that he sought to win over the latter by being a nice guy. The trio then found Mio Ibuki bruised and laying against a tree as Haruki tried to approach her, but Kiyotaka stopped him, sensing something was up but relents, and they took her back to the camp. Once at camp, they discussed what to do about her before learning Rokusuke Kōenji dropped out of the test which would deplete some of the class' points.

The next day, Kiyotaka and Suzune went on a reconnaissance to see what the situation was like at the other class camps. The first camp they found was class B. They had their spot set up near a waterfall and operated similarly like theirs. Suzune was impressed when she witnessed how disciplined and coordinated everyone was. A quality that D class lacks. Honami modestly explained the difficulties she and her class faced at first, and how they eventually overcame it together. When Suzune and Honami finished affirming their relation, a student interrupts their conversation and asks if there was something he could do to help out around camp. Honami assigns him to help out a few other students, he thanks her politely and makes his way. Seeing that he was somewhat distant from the rest, Suzune asks Honami out of curiosity. Leading them to learn that, he is actually from class C, but was kicked out due to a falling out.

Kiyotaka internally deduced that the student was a spy sent from class C and chose not to identify class B's leader due to their class alliance and that the leader would be guessed anyway. The pair then left to scout class A's camp which was in a cave. When they arrived, they hid in the bushes while they observed class A's movements from a distance. Seeing that Suzune wasn't going to take the initiative because she was intimidated by the best class, Kiyotaka takes a stand and tells her that he is going to them. Suzune hesitates at first, however after Kiyotaka reasonably reasons against her emotions, she regains her usual confidence. Following his lead to approach them. They were unknowingly speaking to class A's leader for entry to their camp. When Suzune was about to take a look beyond the draped curtains at the entrance of the cave, she was stopped by Kōhei. He summons his security force and warns her that her 'right to enter' was an intrusion on their territory and that might lead to a start of a war.

With that, Kiyotaka and Suzune decided to leave class A alone and depart for class C's camp which they found at a beachside. Under Kakeru's leadership, the pair discovered that class C had spent all their S-points on buying luxury items the other class was scrimping on. Kakeru told them that they did this, knowing that they will not be penalized even if they had spent all of their test points. Kakeru mocks class D for sacrificing themselves for the test. Suzune and Kiyotaka witness how Kakeru treats his classmates like slaves. As such, Kakeru had punished Mio for being disobedient and critical of his leadership while Suzune spoke with Kakeru, Kiyotaka spotted a two-way communicator and deduced Kakeru was the leader before he and Suzune left the area. He told Suzune what Kakeru's endgame was similar to what Rokusuke did to return to the cruise. That night, Kiyotaka sneaked into the girls' tent at the class D camp and searched Mio's bag for her phone. He discovered her camera and sabotaged it as he figured that she was a spy.

On the fourth day, class D did more survey to find out who the class leaders are. Kiyotaka and Airi were gathering supplies when he asked her if she wanted to stay in a pair with him, to which she confirmed though apologized for dragging him down in the search. He soon asked her if she was afraid if people started talking to her about them, as she told him that she didn't care about that, explaining that she was down on the school trip at first due to not having friends, but now was glad that she came. She then admiringly looked at him, stated regrettably that she wanted to have her camera so that she could take a great picture of him. He and Airi met Honami and Ryūji Kanzaki at class C's camp only to find out that everybody except Mio had withdrawn from the test. He then asked them about Arisu Sakayanagi and Kōhei Katsuragi, he learned of the two were leaders of the class, but their ideals collide with one another. On the fifth day, Kei Karuizawa found out that her underwear was stolen. The girls of class D had Yōsuke conduct a bag search, and Haruki found it in Kanji's bag. Kiyotaka believed he didn't take it, but Kanji quickly planted it on him, he was forced to hide it just as Yōsuke did a pat-down search on him and he prepared for the worse. To his surprise, Yōsuke reported that he does not have it. Unsurely, Kiyotaka confronted Yōsuke and asked why he covered for him as Yōsuke asked if he took them, but Kiyotaka confirms he did not, and Yōsuke decides to take the underwear knowing that his reputation would be damaged the least for being the culprit because Kei is his girlfriend. He then asked for Kiyotaka to find the real thief which he agrees.

The day after the underwear scandal, the girls demanded the boys be separated from them. They made Yōsuke stand guard, with Suzune intervening by stating that since he is a boy himself, he needed to be watched as well. The girls agreed but were unsure of who else to pick as Suzune nominated Kiyotaka as another guard since he didn't seem like the type to peep on girls. While some of the girls noted on his lack of prominence in the class, they nevertheless accepted him as a guard as he complained about being the last resort, but still accepting the request. As he worked, Kiyotaka was approached by Mio, who asked if he believed she stole the underwear since she was an outsider. However, he replied he knew she didn't do it and trusted her, much to her surprise and joy as she thanked him for believing her. After he finished working, he met Suzune and asked her why she made him a guard, as she stated she needed him as an incentive as Yōsuke couldn't be trusted. They talk about secretive people for a while as Suzune stated, unlike Kiyotaka and others she has no such side. He soon asks her how long she was going to pretend to be healthy while she asked how he knew she was sick in the first place as he mentioned her behaviour since the test started.

Shortly after, he goes back to the spot where he found Mio and discovers a communicator like Kakeru confirming her as a spy. To put a plan in action, he promises Haruki that he'd give him Airi's email if he did him a favour. He, Suzune and Kanji tried to catch some fish but to no avail as they only caught one. Kiyotaka then spoke with Suzune discussing the leader key card as he had seen it on Kōhei and wanted to match them. Once he saw it, Kiyotaka confirmed they didn't match, but Haruki places mud on Suzune after noting on their closeness, which earned him a flip from Suzune but Kiyotaka caught him. This would soon prove to be part of his plan as he had Suzune show him the card so Mio would be tempted to steal it since her camera was destroyed. By having Haruki drop mud on her, Kiyotaka gave Suzune a reason to go to the waterfall so she temporarily relieves herself of the card so that Mio could steal it.

While the class was distracted by the fire he started, Kiyotaka put his plan into action to help D-Class win the test. After Mio stole the card once she defeated Suzune, Kiyotaka found an unconscious Suzune injured after her fight with Mio and took her to a tree before she awoke. They talk where he discovered her reasons for reaching Class A and noticed she wanted allies before he implores her to withdraw from the test, but she refused out of pride though she fell unconscious. He carried her and returned Suzune in her deteriorating condition to the teachers to go back to the ship, officially causing her to drop out. He assumed the position as the class leader, foiling class 1-A and class 1-C's plan so they'd incorrectly guess D-Class' leader as still being Suzune.

When the test finished the following day, D-Class cleaned up camp as Kiyotaka spoke with Airi for a while and approached Yōsuke. He gives the sulking Yōsuke a list of the other class' leaders and the latter puts down the names on the list. Later on, D Class is declared the winner of the test due to correctly guessing the leaders of classes A & C, leaving class B's out because he wanted to remain friends with them. Upon returning to the ship, Kiyotaka is questioned by Suzune on how the class passed the test, and he told her of his plan and how he outsmarted the other classes with various tactics, which left her in astonishment at his intellect as she tries to ask about his motives before the class arrives. It turns out he told their class the credit was all Suzune's, quickly gaining her popularity. Kiyotaka then met with Kikyō, who asked whether he would prefer being with Suzune or her, to which Kiyotaka said he didn't know, leaving her dissatisfied with the answer.

As this happened, Kiyotaka was contacted by Sae Chabashira who requested he met with her again at the theatre. Once there, Kiyotaka's plan is complemented by her, and she revealed it was indeed his father who requested Kiyotaka be expelled though he also said Kiyotaka would leave of his own accord soon enough. Sae soon asked him on what he planned to do now, to which she receives a vague answer, she goes amused at his response.

He wandered the ship just as Suzune confronted him once again and he calmly stated that she needed allies, having noticed she finally changed her anti-social behaviour. After he confirmed he did everything to help her, she gets flustered and blushed before begrudgingly thanking him while stating that she will see him as an ally though she warned Kiyotaka not to get too friendly with her as all she wanted is to reach A-Class.

While she went on about this, Kiyotaka internally noted that he doesn't truly acknowledge her, Kikyō and Yōsuke as allies but merely pawns in helping him to win. As it turned out, Kiyotaka's time in the White Room made him more than willing to do anything to accomplish victory even if it meant using people to believe that all of humanity was nothing but tools. He ended his monologue, stating that all that matters is him winning in the end.

Volume 4
After completing the grueling Island survival special test, yet another special test is announced back on the cruise ship. For this special exam, Kiyotaka is placed in the Rabbit Group, alongside Kei Karuizawa, Hideo Sotomura, and Teruhiko Yukimura. Prominent members of the rabbit group from other classes are Class B's representative Ichinose Honami and Class C's Ibuki Mio. The following day after the announcement of the exam, Kiyotaka meets with Horikita in the morning to discuss the exam, where they are interrupted by Kakeru Ryūen, who shows suspicion that Kiyotaka abilities aren't average as it seems, implying that his loss in the island exam is due to someone working in the shadows behind Horikita.

As the exam continues, Kiyotaka starts having doubts about Karuizawa's personality through her interactions with Manabe and Ibuki, who had already been determined as the person who stole her underwear in the Island survival exam. Moreover, despite having Hirata as a boyfriend, she openly flirts with the Class A student Machida Kōji. During some downtime, Kiyotaka receives a message from Sakura telling him she wants to meet him. As he approaches the meeting point, she overhears her trying to practice asking someone out on a date. Kiyotaka pretends not to hear what she said and that puts her at ease as they proceed to discuss the exam. Following this encounter, Yamauchi approaches Kiyotaka from behind and asks for advice on how to approach Sakura. Kiyotaka advises him to work hard and produce results for this exam as Sakura and Yamauchi are grouped together. When he gives this advice, he thinks that even if Yamauchi fails and loses points, he will be able to make use of his failure in the future.

After one of the rabbit group meetings, Kiyotaka and Yukimura notice that the Class C girls lead by Manabe in the rabbit group except Ibuki were acting strange as they follow Karuizawa outside their usual meeting room. They watch as Manabe's group takes Karuizawa to an emergency stairwell, where they proceed to shove her into the wall and begin to bully her. Yukimura wants to intervene before it escalates, but Kiyotaka stops him as he believes stopping the bullying from occurring now will not guarantee that it will stop in the future. As the bullying begins, Karuizawa's usual strong facade drops as she starts begging for them to stop while holding her head in her hand and trembling violently before finally ceasing to move at all as if she had given up. As Kiyotaka starts to understand Karuizawa a little better after observing her, Yukimura intervenes too early before he can gather more information. When Kiyotaka threatens to call more people, Manabe and her friends leave before promising to make Karuizawa apologize to Rika, whom Karuizawa had previously wronged. Karuizawa's haughty facade returns with the girls gone as she tells the two guys to get lost and not tell anyone what they had seen.

After this encounter, Kiyotaka approaches Chabashira sensei to confirm that anything can be bought with points at this goal. As she confirms this, Kiyotaka tells her he will request her sometime in the future. With some understanding of Karuizawa's situation, he follows Hirata out of their shared room at 2 AM, who will meet Karuizawa as Kiyotaka suspects. He informs Hirata that he is somewhat aware of the situation, which prompts Hirata to allow Kiyotaka to meet Karuizawa. When they meet, Karuizawa is surprised to see Kiyotaka there but proceeds to ask Hirata for help dealing with Manabe. Hirata declines that he won't hurt others for any reason, which makes Karuizawa angry, who then storms off. As Kiyotaka quietly observes, he puts together the puzzle pieces and realizes that their relationship has been fake the whole time. Karuizawa is similar to a parasite who can't live without having someone to protect her, which is why she uses Hirata and flirts with Machida to gain protection within their rabbit group. Hirata reveals why he wanted Kiyotaka to come along; it was for Kiyotaka to do something about the situation as there were some things he wasn't willing to do.

Furthermore, Hirata continues to explain Karuizawa's past and a little about his own past, which leads to Kiyotaka having some doubts about Hirata's real personality, but he does not press the issue. Throughout their conversation, Kiyotaka continues to pretend that he is trying to get close to both Hirata and Karuizawa as per Horikita's ideas. However, he has other plans for Karuizawa. Before they end the conversation, Kiyotaka passes a piece of paper to Hirata, which prompts a discussion about class D's VIPs.

During one of the intervals, Kiyotaka has already made plans for Karuizawa. On the one hand, using Hirata to lead her to lower decks of the cruise ship where there are no cameras, and on the other, he sends a message to Manabe utilizing an account that is not registered to his ID obtained from Chabashira, telling Manabe that he will help her get revenge on Karuizawa. When all of the girls arrived at the lower deck, Kiyotaka is hiding below as he observes the scene of the Class C girls physically bullying Karuizawa before determining that not much physical harm is being done. He then leaves to let Manabe and the others bully Karuizawa.

He returns sometime later to check on Karuizawa after Manabe and the others left. He reveals that he knows all about her past as a victim of bullying the past that Karuizawa has tried so hard to protect from being exposed and proceeds to push her into the wall. Karuizawa continues to put on her strong facade, but Kiyotaka pushes her limits by sexually harassing her to see how far she is willing to protect her secret and her place in the school. When she doesn't resist, he decides that she will be very useful to him. As she continues to submit to his advances, Kiyotaka presses her to reveal more about her past bullying, which she tells him willingly. However, he realizes that she is still hiding something and pushes her further. From her actions, Kiyotaka finds a scar on her body. By showing her the darkness in his past through his eyes, Karuizawa begins to understand Kiyotaka a little better. After Finally obtaining all of her secrets, Kiyotaka then changes his attitude and promises to protect her in Hirata's place instead. He promised to do a much better job than Hirata in exchange for her cooperation. He shows her a picture of Manabe bullying her in the stairwell, which he plans to use to stop Manabe from bullying her again. He also tells her that he intends to use her to win the special exam for their group.

At a final meeting of the exam, the rabbit group decides that everyone should show the emails on their phone to prove the VIP. As everyone shows the email they received from the school, Yukimura is revealed to have the email that shows that he is the VIP. When everyone decides that he is the VIP, Ichinose makes a call to Kiyotaka's phone. The phone Yukimura is holding rings, showing Ichinose as the caller and revealing that Kiyotaka and Yukimura had switched phones. Yukimura apologizes to everyone for trying to trick them and hopes that everyone will wait to tell the VIP together instead of betraying them. In the end, it's decided by the group that Kiyotaka is the VIP. A little after the rabbit group meeting ends, a notification comes that the rabbit group exam is over, meaning someone betrayed the VIP. Ichinose and Kiyotaka, who are both still in the meeting room, discuss what happened. Ichinose reveals she suspected that Kiyotaka and Karuizawa had switched SIM cards and she was the VIP. Kiyotaka inquires why she didn't tell her suspicions if she had known, to which she replies that since Class A was most likely to betray them due to their fighting, it would be beneficial to let them guess wrong. Kiyotaka decides that he needs to reevaluate Ichinose. At the end of the exam, Kiyotaka discusses the results with the leaders of Class D, Hirata, Karuizawa, and Horikita, which once again Ryūen interrupts and informs them he had complete control of this exam and that Class D should watch out as they were his next target.

Volume 4.5
During the summer holidays of the first year, as Kiyotaka transfers a large amount of points to Sudō, Sudō asks Kiyotaka for help in asking Horikita to see a fortune teller that has specially come to Keyaki Mall for the summer holidays. Despite his best effort and Horikita having some interest in fortune-telling, she turns him down. Being slightly interested in fortune-telling, Kiyotaka goes down to Keyaki Mall by himself, bumping into Ibuki Mio. Unfortunately, the fortune teller only accepts pairs; therefore, Ibuki and Kiyotaka, whom both have come along, are denied. Ibuki discusses some of her interest in seeing the future telling with Kiyotaka, but since both can't get their fortune told, they leave for the day. Later, due to his talk with Ibuki, Kiyotaka decides to go back to Keyaki mall, where he once again meets Ibuki at the fortune teller. This time, they both decide to go in as a pair and get their fortune told. They are left with a warning not to take a detour on the way back. Due to the crowds at the elevator, they decide to go to an elevator further away, which ends up trapping them as it stops mid-way. Kiyotaka calls Kōhei Katsuragi for help which arrives a little after as Ibuki and Kiyotaka are freed from the elevator.

Katsuragi's connection with Kiyotaka is revealed in a flashback where Kiyotaka and the idiot Trio are looking for a gift to buy for their classmate Inogashira. They spot Katsuragi, who is buying a somewhat girly gift, and the idiot trio believes that he is buying a gift for his girlfriend. The idiot Trio pressure Kiyotaka into finding out the identity of Katsuragi's supposed girlfriend. Kiyotaka waits around the main road to catch Katsuragi. Along the way, he is spotted by Manabu Horikita, Suzune's older brother and the student council president, as well as his secretary Akane Tachibana.

Manabu talks about Class D's recent developments in the island exam and suspects Kiyotaka is behind Horikita's sudden status as the class leader. While Kiyotaka denies this, Manabu does not believe him and even invites him to be the student council's vice-president, which surprises Tachibana. Kiyotaka rejects his offer, which further surprises Tachibana. She wonders if Manabu means for Kiyotaka to be the vice-president when Nagumo becomes the president, but Manabu states that normally there are two vice-presidents in the student council. However, Tachibana says that there is no way Nagumo would allow that. After the conversation with Manabu, Kiyotaka spots Katsuragi leaving the dorm and heading in the school's direction.

Realizing that the only reason to wear your school uniform would be to visit the school grounds, which was required, Kiyotaka is unable to follow as he is in his everyday clothes. Kiyotaka waits for Katsuragi to return from school to question him on who the gift is for, but does not get an answer. Reporting this to Ike, he realizes that he could be buying the present for himself to make himself feel better for not getting any present for his birthday. Feeling sorry for him, the idiot trio and Kiyotaka decides to celebrate his birthday with him. Kiyotaka discovers that the present is actually for Katsuragi's twin sister, who is not at this school. Katsuragi has been visiting the student council to receive permission to send her a gift, but his request is denied as it is against the school rules. Kiyotaka proposes using Sudō, who is leaving campus for a basketball match, to send the gift to Katsuragi's sister in exchange for 100,000 private points, while Kiyotaka receives 5000 points as the intermediary. As Sudō successfully completes the task, the idiot trio and Kiyotaka celebrate Katsuragi's birthday with him.

Another incident that occurs during the summer involved Horikita, who finds herself in a spot of trouble as her hand gets stuck in her water bottle while she is cleaning. Due to the stoppage of water across the dormitories and the convenience store, Horikita can't get her hand out of the bottle. Finally giving up and needed help, she calls Kiyotaka, who suggests asking someone for water, such as Ike or Sudō, to which she refuses. Kiyotaka then suggests Sakura or Kushida. Due to the bad relationship between Kushida and Horikita, she chooses Sakura to ask for help. Sakura doesn't immediately reply, and Horikita is left with the choice to travel to Keyaki Mall to get water after failing to get dormitory without being seen. Due to the intervention of Koenji, who calls Kiyotaka elevator boy when they meet in the elevator, as well as meeting Kushida along the way out, Horikita gives up and returns to her room. Thankfully by then, Sakura had replied, and the case of the stuck hand is resolved.

After returning to his room, Kiyotaka wonders if it's possible to get stuck like that. He takes out the water bottle and puts his hand in to test it. After playing around, he tries to take it off but realizes that his hand has been stuck as well.

Following the events of the cruise, Yamauchi asks for Kiyotaka's help in confessing to Sakura. Yamauchi passes a love letter to Kiyotaka to pass to Sakura for him. Kiyotaka asks for Kushida's help to call Sakura out and hands her the letter. While she misunderstands that the love letter is not from him, he clears it up repeatedly that he is just the messenger. Sakura is disappointed that it is not from Kiyotaka. When Kiyotaka says it could be from someone she likes, she accidentally blurts out that the chances of that are now impossible. Sakura manages to guess whom the love letter is actually from based on Yamauchi's behaviour. Later that night, Sakura and Kiyotaka briefly talk about what she should do. Kiyotaka talks about them both having zero experience in love, which reassures her. She also asks Kiyotaka to meet with her before she meets with Yamauchi.

The next day at the meeting place, she tells Kiyotaka that she will reject Yamauchi, which Kiyotaka completely expected, but it was important for her to say it out loud. As Kiyotaka is about to leave, Sakura asks for him to stay as she wouldn't be able to speak if he wasn't there. Kiyotaka complies with her request. While Yamauchi is somewhat bothered by his presence, Kiyotaka's words leave no room for him to protest. Yamauchi confesses his feelings but is rejected by Sakura, who apologises and leaves Kiyotaka and Yamauchi alone. Yamauchi confesses that he probably didn't really like Sakura and just thought she was cute and would be great to date. He apologises for getting Kiyotaka roped up in this business, while Kiyotaka replies that it's all right and thinks that Yamauchi has grown from this experience.

As the summer holidays come to a close, the idiot trio, along with Kiyotaka, Kushida, Horikita, and Sakura, head to the pool for some final summer activities. There, they meet Ichinose and some of her classmates. Furthermore, they are introduced to Nagumo, a 2nd-year member of the student council who started from class B like Ichinose but already reached class A. Inspired by Nagumo's volleyball match, Ichinose challenges the class D students to a volleyball game with the losers paying for the winners' lunch. Class D, composed of everyone except Sakura, wins the match and is treated to lunch by class B.

After lunch, everyone decides to leave the pool while Kiyotaka stays behind to find Karuizawa, who is waiting for him. They discuss his plans from now on. Kiyotaka tells Karuizawa that he plans to expel someone in the near future, which surprises her. He tells her he may want to expel the three students who know about her past; if not them, then someone from another class. And if another class is not possible, someone useless from their class. Karuizawa calls Kiyotaka a terrible person as he remembers what he did to her on the cruise ship; he thinks she is probably not wrong. They discuss about telling his plans to Hirata, but Kiyotaka says he can't be trusted yet because of his past. Karuizawa tells him that he is definitely not normal, which Kiyotaka readily denies, and she calls him a liar.

As they are about to leave, Kiyotaka notices Karuizawa is still not heading back. She tells him that he should know that changing in front of other people is difficult for her. Kiyotaka thinks that if he can get her to swim today, that would be good. She refuses him when he asks her to swim, asking why she has to let him see her in a swimsuit. Forcing the issue, he orders her to swim, which she reluctantly obeys. As she takes off her rash guard and places it on the chair, she doesn't turn to face Kiyotaka due to a scar on her body. Without warning, Kiyotaka then grabs Karuizawa's arm and throws her into the pool. As he reaches out to Karuizawa with his hand, she pulls him into the pool with him. They play around in the pool until the lifeguard comes over to get them to leave as the pool is closing. As they play in the pool like children, Kiyotaka thinks it was worth it to even see a Karuizawa laughing for even a moment.

In the side story of Ike, Yamauchi, and Sudō's summer holiday, it is revealed that the idiot trio forced Kiyotaka along with their plans to peep on the girls changing room, which was connected to the male changing room, using a remote control car and a camera. This is why Kiyotaka asks Karuizawa to meet him a day before going to the pool so he can have her interfere with the idiot trios plans. Once everyone had finished changing, Karuizawa entered the changing room and found the remote control car, replacing the memory card in the camera with a blank one so the idiot trio would have no footage of any of the girls changing.

Volume 5
Kiyotaka gathers with Horikita, Hirata, and Karuizawa for lunch to discuss the previous cruise ship's special exam results. Together, they manage to decipher how the VIPs were chosen for the exam. They wonder why Ryūen, who had figured out all the VIPs, made a mistake in guessing one of the groups. Hirata and Horikita guess that maybe someone in Class C betrayed Ryūen; while Kiyotaka does not offer a theory, he does not believe that anyone betrayed him.

Later that day, during afternoon classes, a new event is announced with class points and private points on the line, the Annual Sports Festival, where the students across all levels compete in sports events to determine the winner. For this year's sports festival, Class D and A are placed in the red team while B and C are placed in the white team. With the announcement over, Sudō comes over to Horikita to propose that they select their best athletes for each event to win as many as possible. Kiyotaka thinks that this would be the best way to win but would leave some of the class unsatisfied. Students in the bottom ten will receive minus points in the subsequent exam, causing worry for the weaker academic students.

20 mins after the announcement, the class gathers in the sports hall and meets the other classes of the red team, the leader of the red team, Class 3-A's Fujimaki. In the hall, Kiyotaka also spots a long girl sitting in a chair holding a cane. Katsuragi explains that she is Arisu Sakayanagi. The school provided her a chair due to her difficulty walking. Horikita asks Kiyotaka if there is a way for them to win this "special exam". However, Kiyotaka points out that no teacher and no documents have mentioned that this is a special exam, and even the 3rd years seem to treat it like a sports festival rather than an exam. Horikita disagrees and says since points are on the line, it is the same as a special exam. They are unable to reach an agreement. After the assembly in the sports hall, Kiyotaka, on the way back to the dormitory alone, bumping into Chabashira sensei. When she is questioning whether he has a plan for the sports festival, he says he doesn't have any plan at all this time.

Over the next few weeks, in preparation for the Sports Festival, the class is given free time to plan their strategy. Horikita comes up with a strategy where they should let the most athletic students get the first choice in whatever events they think they can win to take as many podium finishes as they can; her strategy involves pairing the weaker students with the stronger students, which diminishes weaker student's their chances of winning any event, which leaves the academically weak students and physically weak students in danger of receiving penalties in the next exam. While Kiyotaka doesn't necessarily think that the strategy is wrong, he uses Karuizawa to propose another strategy, sending her a message during the class discussion. Telling her to oppose the current strategy and get Kushida's opinion.

Thinking on her feet, Karuizawa says they shouldn't leave the weaker students behind and proposes a multi-pronged approach where the strongest aims for 1st place but leaving the 3rd place or 2nd place open for those who have a chance to attain that position, also participate instead of just selecting the athletically strong students to take all the top spots. Kushida, who is put into the spotlight by Karuizawa, agrees with both opinions, and the class is divided; hence Hirata puts it to a class vote. Horikita's strategy wins 16-13 votes as Kiyotaka abstains from voting. As the plans are decided, school ends. Kiyotaka sends Karuizawa a message signaling her with a glance, but she leaves the classroom regardless. Thinking she didn't get his message, Kiyotaka leaves as well but finds Karuizawa waiting by the stairwell for him, asking him if he wanted to talk to her. They discuss the class strategy. Even though Karuizawa agreed with Horikita's strategy, she came out with a good compromise despite being put on the spot by Kiyotaka, who thinks she did a good job. As they part, Kiyotaka believes that he has managed to get a very useful pawn to use in Karuizawa due to her ability to read the atmosphere and act accordingly.

As class D prepares for the sports festival, everyone's abilities are measured to see what events they would be best at. During the grip strength test, Kiyotaka asks Sudō what the national average is and is told that it is about 60, hence when it is his turn to take the test, he ensures that he gets 60.6 kg in grip strength. To his surprise, he finds out that Sudō got the average wrong, and it is closer to 50. Due to the mistake by the measurement, Kiyotaka is now the second strongest in grip strength in the class and is selected to participate in the four-way Tug of Wag event along with Sudō, Hirata, and Miyake. Another event that Kiyotaka is chosen to participate in is the scavenger hunt race decided by rock-paper-scissors. For events that all students must participate in, such as the three legs raced, Kiyotaka is paired with Hirata. With the selections and teams decided for all the events, Class D begin practicing for the sports festival.

During one of these practices, Horikita performs poorly in the three-legged race with her partner Onodera, one of the fastest students in Class D. Kiyotaka reasons that because Horikita is unwilling to match Onodera's pace, they aren't performing well. In order to show her the importance of teamwork. Kiyotaka pairs up with her and moves so fast that she cannot keep up, causing Horikita to almost falling if not Kiyotaka catching her. Kiyotaka hopes she has learned her lesson from their three-legged race.

As the preparations carry on, Kiyotaka meets with Horikita and Kushida to discuss scouting out the competition. Horikita at first refuses because Kushida, and Kiyotaka would be enough. After Kushida is gone, he tells Horikita that although he has no proof, he thinks that Kushida most likely betrayed the Class and told Ryūen that she was the VIP in the previous exam. This causes her to agree to scout out the competition together. Meeting the next day, Kushida, Horikita, and Kiyotaka are watching the soccer club and with Kushida's extensive network is able to point out everyone's names.

Finally, the day of the sports festival arrives. Kiyotaka begins the festival by carefully not getting any of the top spots and avoiding all the bottom spots. Ryūji Kanzaki approaches Kiyotaka asking him why he is holding back, especially since there wasn't any real need to and since Ichinose told him that Kiyotaka was fast. Kiyotaka continues his act although Kanzaki does not believe him.

As the festival unfolds, Kouenji doesn't want to participate, so he pretends to be sick, angering Sudō who almost starts a fight but is stopped by Hirata. Furthermore, Ryūen uses dirty tactics that could have injured people during the tug of war and pole toppling event, which further sours Sudō's mood as the day goes on. Kiyotaka also begins to notice a pattern emerging as Horikita is repeatedly forced to compete with the same person, two people from Class C, Yajima and Kinoshita who were faster than Horikita due to experience in track and field, leading him to suspect it was not a coincidence. This culminates in an accident where the Kinoshita collides with Horikita, and both girls are injured. Although Kinoshita is unable to continue competing, Horikita can still compete, albeit not at her best due to being slightly injured, as Kiyotaka notices during her three-legged race with Kushida where they both end up in the last place. Class C continues their relentless attack on Horikita in the Female Calvary Battle as all the Class C cavalries surround Horikita. Although Karuizawa tries to assist, she is stopped by Ichinose who prevents her from Horikita, leading ultimately to Class D's defeat.

During the guys' turn to compete in the calvary battle, Ryūen once again uses dirty tactics, this time applying hair wax onto the headbands so they are much harder to grab off their heads. His tactics greatly anger Sudō, who is all but ready to get into a fight. Moreover, due to continued losses, Sudō is increasingly taking out his frustrations on his classmates. Karuizawa comes over to speak to Kiyotaka after the battle, expressing concerns about the developments. She also uses his first name for the first time, even omitting honorifics which startles Kiyotaka although he decides now isn't the time to think about it. They talk about their selections being released, and the existence of someone betraying them comes up. Karuizawa asks Kiyotaka what he will do to help them win, but he says he will do nothing, and everything is happening as he has foreseen. Before she can ask more, Sudō returns to the class tent and wants to go and confront Ryūen. By this point, the pressure of being a leader overwhelms him as his classmates point out how poorly everything is going and how he needs to calm down and act appropriately; when the pressure boils over, he hits Hirata, who is trying to mediate. Chabashira sensei, who has arrived asks what's wrong, but Hirata covers for him. Finally fed up, Sudō just leaves when Horikita can't look at Sudō.

Once Sudō leaves, Class D is put in a terrible position as Sudō is supposed to participate in many of the selection events. Kiyotaka finds Horikita and gives her advice on what she can do now, finding Sudō and bringing him back. Horikita doesn't want to, and Kiyotaka believes it's because she doesn't understand that Sudō has feelings for her. He talks about how Ryūen created his plans to defeat her and especially Sudō mentally. While she still resists, Kiyotaka harshly tells her, she, as she is now, is totally useless and she should go and do something useful. She is injured, and simply praying to recover is not good enough. Kiyotaka leaves her to make her own decisions after giving her his advice while thinking that Horikita needs to feel defeat and be reborn. Following his conversation with Horikita, Kiyotaka eats lunch with Karuizawa and Hirata to discuss the spy's existence in their class. Hirata says that it's a delicate matter and shouldn't be raised casually to disrupt the class. They also discuss what to do now that Sudō is gone.

After lunch, Kiyotaka participates in the Scavenger Hunt race but ends up last due to having to find things like 10 Friends and the person he likes, which results in him wasting too much time changing what he has to find. Next, he takes over Sudō's place in the mixed three-legged race while Kushida takes Horikita's place. As they both prepare for the race, Kiyotaka tells Kushida she was the one who leaked the Class D selection list to Class C. As they discuss how the spy could have done it, Kiyotaka reasons that the spy asked Chabashira sensei to see the list. When Kiyotaka suggests asking Chabashira sensei if anyone asked to see the list, Kushida drops her facade and tells Kiyotaka that he isn't some normal person. Kiyotaka asks why she did it, and she replies that she wants to expel Horikita Suzune and is willing to do that even if it means Class D loses.

By the time Horikita and Sudō return, it is time for the final event. As Miyake sprained his leg in the earlier 200m race, Kiyotaka offers to replace him. While Kushida replaces Horikita, Kiyotaka is chosen as the anchor. As he is waiting for the baton to reach him, Horikita Manabu is the anchor for his class, and he proposes that Kiyotaka and he should race even at the cost of 2nd place. Manabu doesn't start running when he receives the baton but waits for Kiyotaka to receive his from Kushida. As they run, Kiyotaka runs as fast as he can, although he thinks he should speed up as he reaches the final bend. In the end, due to both Manabu and Kiyotaka's speed, the runner in front of Kiyotaka trips over the surprise, causing Kiyotaka to fall as well; hence he doesn't win the race. Having gone all out for the first time, many people come over to expresses their surprise, the first of which is Karuizawa, who disappears as more of their classmates arrive. The results are released, and class D is last placed.

At the end of the day, Kiyotaka meets Sakayanagi at the school entrance who wants to talk to him. Before he talks to her, Kiyotaka sends a recording to Ryūen exposing his plan to cause Horikita to fall during one of the events. He sends it to Ryūen, who is seen threatening Horikita with false evidence that Horikita tripped Kinoshita on purpose. After they introduce themselves, Sakayanagi reveals that she has known him for eight years and 243 days, which Kiyotaka says is not possible because he doesn't know her but one-sidedly knows him from the "White Room". Kiyotaka is surprised she knows something about his past. She also reveals that she knows that he has been acting behind the scenes of his class. She declares that it is her duty to defeat the fake genius that is Kiyotaka and doesn't intend to reveal his past to anyone.

Volume 6
As the sports festival comes to a close, the seasons change and the school welcomes Autumn. As the students gather in the sports hall, the first sign of changes appears in Student Council members' change, with Manabu Horikita stepping down as president and Miyabi Nagumo taking over as the new student council president. Nagumo vows to break down the school's traditions during his term and introduces several changes, such as increasing the length of his term as student council president to last until he graduates instead of until the following October. Alongside these changes, Kiyotaka expresses that many of his relationships are also about to change. With some people growing further apart and others growing closer, Kiyotaka notices other changes in Sudō's attitude during class, especially after the sports festival. Sudō appears to be paying more attention during class and even taking notes, noting that Horikita checked them after is a large influence on him. He thinks that Sudō will be a great resource for the class moving forward. During lunch, Kiyotaka is eating alone when Horikita comes to make fun of him for being alone. She teases him about Ike and Yamauchi, who have seemed to have been inviting Kiyotaka less and less to their gatherings. He thinks that they have stopped inviting him along at all and have now taken to inviting Sotomura out with them. She also mentions that it can't be helped as now, due to his race with Manabu, the two guys are don't feel like he is below average like them due to his speed. As she leaves him alone to eat lunch, Kiyotaka thinks that he respects Horikita for all the time she spends alone.

Kiyotaka also sees that Karuizawa is still in the classroom when he notices Karuizawa's gaze and thinks that she wants to talk but realizes she doesn't when she averts his gaze quickly as if to tell him she didn't mean to look at him. As she leaves the classroom, he notices that her skirt is about 1-2cm shorter than normal. When Kiyotaka is finally alone in the classroom, his classmate Satō whose given name he doesn't know due to how little they interact, comes up to him and asks for some of his time to talk. Satō asks him if he has a girlfriend and he tells her no, thinking that lying in this situation would make him be liked even less. Finally, realizing her intentions, his first thought is whether this was a trap set by someone. As they exchange numbers because Satō wants to start with being friends first, Kiyotaka is curious about her sudden interest and asks her about it. She tells him that because of the sports festival, she finds him very cool. While he ponders what he should do, he thinks that Satō is nothing but a classmate to him, and he understands a little better how Sakura felt when she was confessed to by Yamauchi. After Kiyotaka parts ways with Satō, he runs into Katsuragi, who wants to talk to him. Katsuragi expresses his surprise at his race during the sports festival, but Kiyotaka doesn't say much. They end up discussing Ryūen and how he is a common enemy for all the classes. Kiyotaka counters with how Katsuragi was the first person to work with Ryūen, which Katsuragi now regrets. Kiyotaka asks if Katsuragi wants him to pass on the message to Horikita, still feigning ignorance, but he receives Katsuragi's warnings regarding Ryūen and promises to pass the message to Horikita. Later that evening, Kiyotaka receives a call from Karuizawa, which surprises him. She calls and demands to know what happened with Satō in the afternoon, informing him that she knew Satō was going to confess. She wants to know if he said yes to Satō confession because all guys think about is just dirty things, which Kiyotaka denies. Karuizawa expresses her worry about what would happen if Kiyotaka had accepted Satō's confession as the chances of her working for him and her past could be exposed. She insists on hearing what Kiyotaka's answer was despite him resisting several times before relenting and telling her that they exchanged phone numbers and Satō wanted to start by being friends. Karuizawa thinks that Satō will try and progress the relationship and asks if he intends to reject her. He says he doesn't know yet. Before they end the conversation, Kiyotaka wants to tell Karuizawa something but decides against it because it would be an unnecessary burden on her, and it will happen regardless of his warning. Instead, he tells her to delete the record of their contact, to which she replies that she already has.

As the mid-term results for the Autumn semester are released, everyone is surprised at the improvement Sudō has made since the sports festival. He manages to place above the bottom 10 in mid-term results with an average score of 57 and is 12 from the bottom in the class of 40. On the other hand, Kiyotaka once again scores near the middle getting an average of 64 points. Horikita once again questions him about going all out in the exams, but he simply replies by saying that was the best he could do. Chabashira sensei further compliments the class on having no expulsion since the start of the school year, a feat not achieved by any Class D in the three years she has been in the school. Despite having just completed the midterms, Chabashira sensei informs them of an upcoming quiz that will affect the final exams for the term, which will also be a special exam, the Paper Shuffle. The upcoming quiz will determine which students are paired up for the final exams, set by one of the other three classes. Once the explanations are complete, Horikita calls together the two leaders of the class, Hirata and Karuizawa along with Kiyotaka, for a strategy meeting. Wanting to do it in a more comfortable place, Karuizawa wants to meet at Pallet Café instead. Deciding that it is easier to agree than arguing, Horikita agrees. As they are discussing, Kushida comes up to them and asks to join them for their meeting. Horikita agrees and tells Karuizawa, Hirata and Kushida to ahead first. Sudō shows up and says that he can't join immediately due to club activities and is told to join them later at Pallet. Having completed his job of connecting Hirata and Karuizawa to Horikita and thinking about fading into the background and creating some distance between himself and Horikita, Kiyotaka says he is going home. Horikita stops him by enticing him with information about Kushida. Kiyotaka expresses interest in finding out why Horikita and Kushida are not getting along and decides to stay in exchange for that information. Horikita tells him that while she initially thought that the first time she met Kushida was on the bus to school just like Kiyotaka, but in actuality, they are from the same middle school. She follows up by telling him about a rumour that she heard back in school about a single girl destroying a class until no one attended school until graduation. Why she did it or how, Horikita doesn't know though. They wonder if Kushida can really destroy an entire class by herself or even worse, an entire level. They discuss what methods she could have used. Horikita proposes violence or perhaps political power. Kiyotaka says lies could also be used. They wonder if Kushida right now can destroy Class D with her lies and violence, but he says there would be opponents too tough for her like Kouenji and Sudō, but it would not be impossible to destroy the class with lies. They determine that Kushida is willing to destroy their class to protect her past and her presence is not good for the class; hence, they discuss if they should expel her. But with Horikita's new perspective from losing at the sports festival, she doesn't want to resort to that. Finally, Horikita reveals that she knows that he had sent the recording to Ryūen at the end of the sports festival and thanks him even though he had known the outcome beforehand.

At Pallet café, Karuizawa complains about Kiyotaka and Horikita's lateness but receives no apology. They quickly begin discussing their strategy for the upcoming paper shuffle exam. Horikita explains the proof of there being a rule to determine how the pairs are formed in the quiz; she believes that the pairs formed will the top students paired up with the bottom students and asked Hirata and Kushida to use their network of upper-level students to confirm her theory on how the pairs are determined. Karuizawa quickly points out that if that is the case, the students in the middle of the class are in the toughest position. Aside from determining what to do for the pre-quiz, they discuss which class they should 'attack' for the paper shuffle exam. Hirata produces a memo which he believes what who each class will choose to attack. Class A should choose Class D, while B should choose A. C should choose B, and D should choose C. He believes this is the case because A has the highest academic ability and can set questions that will be hard for D to solve, leading to an easy win. D should choose C because they are the closest in academic ability based on their monthly class points. Kiyotaka points out that class points may not be an indicator of their academic ability and that they do not have a good grasp of the other class's academic ability, only their own. Hirata also bases his guess on the classes wanting to close the gap between each other. Most importantly, they agree that to close the gap in points, D should target class C. As the meeting ends due to Sudō and Hirata having club activities, Horikita once again asks if Kiyotaka will not do his best in the tests again; he replies that he will think about it.

A day before the quiz to determine the pairs, during homeroom Hirata and Horikita both present their strategy for the quiz to the class. Horikita begins with an apology to the class for her failure and attitude during the sports festival and says she wants to work with everyone from now on. Her idea is to ensure the pairs are balances by having the top 10 students score 85 and above while the bottom 10 students in the midterm average score 0. The next best 10 students should aim for a maximum of 80 points while the next bottom 10 students should get 1 point. This way the pairs will be balanced. While what Koenji will do is left ambigious, the class decides to go with her plan with Hirata's support. The following day before the quiz, the class each class is setting for is decided. Class D and C will set for each other while Class B and A will set for each other. From the groupings, Kiyotaka infers that Sakayanagi made the choice as she wants to widen the gap between the class rather than aim for Class D where they have the highest chances of winning which would have been Katsuragi's choice. When Chabashira sensei tells everyone to take the test seriously, the weaker students who are supposed to get 0 points are worried, but Horikita confidently says that her plan is correct leading the others to feel relieved. Seeing this Kiyotaka thinks class D has changed for the better. The pairs are announced soon after and Kiyotaka is paired with none other than Satō who appears happy that she is paired with him. As it happens, Koenji goes along with the plan and ends up paired with one of the weaker students. Kiyotaka thinks that since Satō is one of the weaker students, he will have to get more points for this exam. With the pairs determined, the next stage of their strategy involves setting up study sessions for the entire class which will be lead by Horikita, Hirata and Kushida. Horikita will be incharge of session 1 while Hirata will be incharge of sesseion 2 for those with club activities while Kushida will help with both. While most of the plans are settled, 2 class D students Akito Miyake and Haruka Hasebe approach Horikita for advice as they were paired together and both had average scores in class, furthermore from their test results they have the same weak points, which for the coming exam since they couldn't cover each other's strong points. Horikita suggests joining one of the study sessions but because Hasebe is on bad terms with some of the girls she declines and leaves. Miyake is then asked to join alone but he declines as well as studying with a group of girls would be uncomfortable for him hence he leaves as well. Horikita discusses with Hirata, Kushida and Kiyotaka what to do about them, and decides to teach them herself but Hirata refuses as she would be taking on too many responsibilities as she also has to set the questions. Fortunately Yukimura for overhears them says he will teach them but the leaders will have to convince them for him. Horikita stares at Kiyotaka and forces him to look after the group, and report back to her. He relunctantly agrees as she starts to threaten him.

After class that day, the group consisting of Miyake, Hasebe, Yukimura and Kiyotaka head to Pallet café to discuss their study plans. Yukimura looks over their previous test and Hasebe asks him why he is willing to teach them. He replies that being good academically is not good enough at this school so he wants to do want he can for his class since he is weak at other areas and teaching smaller groups of people is easier. While they are at the café, Kiyotaka notices several people looking towards his direction. Daichi Ishizaki from Class C is at the café and buys a cake. Upon seeing the cake, Kiyotaka remembers that his birthday is tomorrow and thinks that it's a day he doesn't really think much off, but ponders about how you would normally spend the day with your friends or lover. He wonders if next year someone will remember his birthday. While Yukimura is looking over the pairs notes. Kiyotaka stands up and goes to find Sakura who he noticed was following him this whole time. He gives her advice about joining their study group, while thinking that for Sakura interacting with people like Miyake, Hasebe and Yukimura is not difficult for her as they were all very similar when interact with other people. He also says that it will be okay because he is around and reassures her but tells her she must ask them herself. By the end of the day, Hasebe and Miyake accepts Yukimura proposal to teach them and also expresses interest in setting questions for he exam which Kiyotaka promises to tell Horikita. He also learns from Miyake that Class C's Kaneda is likely to be setting the questions for class c. Sakura is unable to gather the courage to ask to join the study group as the day ends. That same night, Kiyotaka calls Horikita to report on the group. They discuss about the other study sessions, and Horikita mentions that it is difficult to teach large groups and people like Ike and Yamauchi have low attention spans. She asks for Kiyotaka's help in managing them during his off days from his study group. Furthermore, they talk about Kushida betraying them and the possibility of their questions leaking. Horikita decides if too many people sets questions the chances of leaking is higher so she intends to do them herself. As he ends to conversation with Horikita, he receives mail from Ryūen, asking for he is. Kiyotaka realises that if he knows his unassigned number, Ryūen has already found his spy in Class C Manabe. Not caring at all, he doesn't reply and goes to sleep.

The following day, Kiyotaka participates in Horikita's study session. Where Satō is present, she attempts to get close to Kiyotaka setting next to him asking him to help her study, Horikita even encourages him to teach her himself but he says his scores aren't much better than hers so Horikita has no choice but to teach them herself. Also there at the library where they are studying is Ichinose who is having her own study session with Class B students. After the study sesssion is over, Horikita asks Ichinose if they can talk alone while Kiyotaka is given permission to stay and listen to them talk. They talk about Ichinose's class and what she would do if they are in trouble. Ichinose says she will help them if they are in trouble beacuse they are her important friends. She even includes both Horikita and Kiyotaka as her important friends and would be willing to help them if they ever need it, even if it means lending them large sums of points. Horikita asks her how good of a person she can be, but that is just who Ichinose is. When she leaves, Horikita and Kiyotaka discuss what they plan to do about Kushida, Kiyotaka mentions he has a plan to use that involves someone like Ichinose who is a good person and is trusted by everyone to allow for a fair 1v1 between Kushida and Horikita but she declines this saying she won't use Ichinose.

After leaving the library, they meet Kushida who Horikita wants to talk to. Kushida doesn't want Kiyotaka there so he excuses himself but Horikita calls him on his phone so he can listen to their conversation. They talk about being from the same middle school, and Horikita tells her she won't reveal her secret but that doesn't satisfy Kushida therefore Horikita proposes a duel. Where Horikita will resign from the school if she loses and if Kushida loses she will have to help the class. They agree to challenge each other in a single text paper and see who can individually scores the higher instead of total scores, Kushida is allowed to pick the subject as well. In order to ensure the deal is followed through, Horikita calls her brother Manabu who is the witness to the deal. With Manabu as witness, Kushida can be sure that Horikita will not back out from resigning. Kushida agrees but says she has a one extra conditions and tells Horikita that she knows that Kiyotaka is listening through the phone and asks him to come out. Kiyotaka meets up with them and Kushida request that if Horikita loses, Kiyotaka must also resign. Horikita says he isn't involved but Kiyotaka bets on Horikita in exchange for hearing the truth about Kushida past. Kushida agrees as if he gets expel it would be unsatifying for Kiyotaka if he doesn't know why. Kushida explains wanted to be the most liked person so she created her facade which she uses today but in order to release the stress of always been nice, that she used to post her thoughts on a blog which was found out by her classmates in middle school which turned everyone against her. In order to destroy everyone she used the secrets she learnt from every one of her classmates that she didn't post on the blog an spread them to her class. This caused the class to fight each other, they were destroyed by the truths that Kushida had learnt by being friends with everyone. Kushida decides to challenge Horikita in the maths paper and Kushida warns them they she can get Ryūen to cooperate and get the answers from him but Horikita is betting on the fact that he won't do that.

On the 5th time Yukimura's study group is having a study session at Keyaki Mall, Ryūen and his lackies appear to disrupt their study session, Ryūen knocks over Hasebe's drink which angers her. Miyake is the first to react, telling Ryūen to back off. Ishizaki who is annoyed at his attitude is ready to start a fight but is stopped by Ryūen. Ryūen asks no one in particular if they had received his message, trying to find the person who is X who has been pulling the strings behind Class D no one reacts and Miyake is wondering what he is talking about. He lists all the possible suspects like Yukimura, Kiyotaka, Hirata and Koenji before leaving saying that he was just giving an introduction before they would meet again. Once he leaves, a girl from Class C revealed to be Hiyori Shiina who was tagging along with Ryūen returns with 2 drinks in hand offering one to Hasebe saying what happened earlier was his fault and this was an apology for his attitude. Hasebe is surprised as the amount of sugar in the drink is exactly the same as what Hasebe was drinking earlier, she has that she reverse calculated the amount of sugar from the one thrown out earlier. She then asks the group about whether they know anything about the person pulling the strings behind class D but everyone says that it has been Horikita all this time strategising for the class. While she questions Kiyotaka since he is close to Horikita, he replies that it hasn't been the case recently and she is spending more time with others. The others help to sell the story that there isn't anyone working behind Horikita by saying that it's hard to imagine someone smarter than Horikita.

As they end the study session and head back to the dormitories, Kiyotaka asks Hasebe if she knows anything abou Satō. She says she isn't very close with her and suggest askinging Karuizawa, but Kiyotaka thinks that asking her would be tough. So Hasebe proposes asking Kushida who is close with everyone. Hasebe teases Kiyotaka about whether he links Satō but he says that he just wants to know more about his partner for the paper shuffle exam. This prompts Kiyotaka to think that Kushida is an important piece to Class D. On the way back after the conversation the group decide to head to the convenience store together. After buying their stuff from the convenience store, Yukimura asks Hasebe about his nickname Yukimu and is embarrassed by it. Hasebe explains that she gives nicknames to those she is close to. They end up talking about how they are all close with each other because they all find it hard to make friends, they decide this study group should be a new group for people who are loners. They decide to call themselves the Ayanokōji Group because he is the connector to everyone although he weakly protests. From they with them deciding to be a group they decide to call each other by their given names. Yukimura protests as he doesn't like his given name because it was a name given by his mother who he doesn't have a good relationship with, instead he tells them to call him Keisei. Sakura who is following them loudly asks them to let her join the Ayanokōji group. She starts off by saying she is worried about her test scores. Which Keisei rebuffs her by saying she should join Horikita's sessions as more people will be harder to manage and they are at different places in their studies. Sakura then instead says that she wants to join because it's Kiyotaka's group. Akito agrees who feels that Sakura is like them as she has difficulty making friends in class. Keisei also agrees as Sakura is easy to accept but says that no more people should be added or he will leave. Sakura thanks the 2 guys but calls them by their last name. Last is Haruka, who says she can't accept, because the group is supposed to be close so if she wants to join she needs to call everyone by their given names so she needs to call everyone by their given name and everyone has to call her by her given name. Which Haruka asks what it is, Sakura tells her Airi. Airi finds it dificult but she manages to say Keisei-kun, Akito-kun and Haruka-san. She has difficulty saying Kiyotaka's name and as all the eyes are on her but she manages to do it and is accepted into the group.

With the Ayanokōji Group completed, they decide to go watch a movie to refresh themselves from all the studying. With plans to watch a movie made, Horikita asks to meet with Keisei, Hirata, Karuizawa and Kiyotaka the day after coincidently the same day as the movie. Following his conversation with Horikita, Kiyotaka receives a message from Karuizawa telling him about what she found out about Hiyori. She tells him that she had asked around about how much sugar Haruka had put in her drink just like he thought. Kiyotaka passes along the message about the final meeting for class D the day after at 8pm, Karuizawa mentions how late that is and he replies saying that his study group is going to watch a movie. He then tells her about something she wants her to do at the meeting tomorrow. She mentions that it's something very troublesome. Just as he thought their converstion had ended, he receives a emoji of a cake with candles on it from Karuizawa, and some words saying she realised a little late. Kiyotaka thinks about how this is the first birthday congragulation he has received and expresses some regret before deleting the message. He ponders how she found out his birthday, and checks Karuizawa personal information linked to her account and decides to remember her birthday 8th of March. The next day at the movie theatre, Satō and Karuizawa along with people from their study group also show up to the same meeting. Satō acts flirty with Kiyotaka which Airi questions him about but he quickly denies it saying that they are just paired up for the upcoming exam. After the movie, the leaders of the different study groups meet in a karaoke room to have their final meeting. They discuss the progress of all the different groups and whether they are ready for the exam. As the discussion goes on as per Kiyotaka's instructions, Karuizawa acts displeased with Kushida's attitude and throws a drink at her. Everyone is displeased with Karuizawa's actions but she continues putting on the act, until finally apologising and offering to take Kushida's school blazer for drive cleaner as an apology. Once the meeting is over, when Kiyotaka returns to the dorm there is a large number of people there, he meets Katsuragi who is also outside. The large number of people have gathered due to a message placed in everyone's letter box with the message that Honami Ichinose has a large amount of points obtained illegally signed off by Kakeru Ryūen. Ichinose herself appears and declares that the school will determine if it's illegal or not. Kiyotaka notes that the amount of points she saw Ichinose had was more than 10000000 points. As she said, the school declared that it was not illegal the next day.

On the final day to hand up the test papers for the paper shuffle exam, Kiyotaka and Horikita both go to submit the questions. Ryūen is there to greet them happily, when they try to submit the papers, Kiyotaka thinks Chabashira sensei's manner of speaking is strange and as there are about to leave after handing the test to Chabashira sensei. Horikita realises that someone had come before her can submitted test papers and told her that if someone tries to change the test they should not be accepted to prevent leakage by a spy working against class D. Horikita and Kiyotaka try and think of counter measures as Ryūen leaves above hearing his desired result. Horikita reveals she expected this and thanks Chabashira sensei for helping out. Kiyotaka learns that Horikita had told Chabashira sensei before hand that only test answers handed up by Horikita should be accepted and no other students submitted test should be allowed. Horikita apologises for keeping Kiyotaka in the dark. And thinks that now that the threat of Ryūen was taken care of now she can focus on beating Kushida.

On the day of the test, Kiyotaka unexpectedly meets up with Satō on his way to school. The talk about if they are both ready for the exam before, Karuizawa shows up and asks if Satō would like to go get a drink before heading to class. Kiyotaka thinks that they are good friends, as Hirata shows up and says that Karuizawa is unexpectedly the jealous type. Kiyotaka expresses surprise, but Hirata who has been acting as Karuizawa's boyfriend says he can tell that lately Karuizawa has been paying more attention to Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka thinks that that's unavoidable as Karuizawa as a parasite has transferred from Hirata to himself. They head to the classroom together as they discuss about the upcoming exam. Hirata also asks him whether him whether he is the person acting behind Horikita as Hiyori Shiina had been asking around for that person, surprisingly he doesn't deny it. He warns Kiyotaka that class C is looking for him and he should be careful. As the tests begin, Kiyotaka watchs Kushida for her reaction, he notices her panic as the tests go on. After the tests are over, Horikita says that she thinks got around 98 for the test once it is over. As every leaves, Horikita asks to talk to Kushida and Kiyotaka follows along, Horikita tells Kushida that she thinks she got 98 for the maths test, Kushida replies that she doesn't think she can reach 80 on her test therefore, Horikita wins the bet. Horikita asks Kushida to stop interfering with the class, and Kushida promises to but reaffirms that she hates Horikita and doesn't shake her hand as she leaves.

Once Horikita leaves, Kiyotaka begins thinking about the current developments, he thinks that Ryūen is not someone so easily dealt with using methods like this. He also thinks about the chances of using a spy in each other classes and thinks that the chances of that depends on the exam themselves. Kiyotaka also thinks that this battle was a complete win for class D. As he is thinking he receives a message from Ryūen, asking what is he planning. More message comes but he ignores them finally a Ryūen sends an image to Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka knew it before hand but the image he receives proves that Manabe had revealed everything to Ryūen. Finally Kiyotaka says he is waiting for Ryūen to come at him in his own arena, already aware of what he intends to do.

At the end of the volume, Kushida meets with Ryūen and demands to know why the questions she was expecting did not show up on the exam. Ryūen reveals that someone had places cheat sheets in her blazar to frame her for cheating if she got full marks for the exams. Hence changing the questions saved Kushida from being expelled. Kushida wonders how they managed to get it inside her blazar and Ryūen asked if anything weird happened. She explains what happened in the Karaoke room with Karuizawa which Ryūen already guessed. He also reveals the existence of someone working behind the scenes of class D, and shows Kushida the email he received from X. In exchange for information, X requests for the questions and answers to the test that Class C prepared for class D or if they were already given to Kushida, he requests that the questions be changed. X had read Ryūen's choice to change the test questions as he didn't want to expell Horikita, or get Kushida caught for cheating because that was boring. In exchange he received information about Horikita's plan to prevent Kushida and Ryūen from changing the questions. He also says that he didn't send the letter regarding Ichinose, that was also X's handiwork. Finally he shows Kushida a picture of Karuizawa and says she is important to finding out who X was.

Volume 7
It is already the middle of December, Kiyotaka is meeting with Airi Haruka and Keisei and Keyaki Mall. The Ayanokōji group have been getting closer, meeting 2 to 3 times a week. However, due to Akito's club activities the group meets every friday and wait for him to arrive. When he arrives, they are talking about hobbies, Kiyotaka thinks that it's good to see that Airi has become more talkative and is able to join the conversation. When the topic of hobbies turns to posting pictures on SNS,both Keisei and Haruka end up talking bad about people who post pictures on SNS, as Kiyotaka tries to cheer Airi up, they realise the effect their words have on Airi who used to secretly posts pictures on SNS they quickly apologize. The conversation then turns to the topic of Class D and Ryūen, as Akito tells the group the guys from class C who where interfering with Akito's club activities, Kiyotaka notes that Komiya is watching them from away. They begin discussing the odd behaviour of Class C and Kiyotaka thinks that since they aren't making any moves, Ryūen has already narrowed down his choices for who is X. Furthermore, since he already knows about Kei Karuizawa, it's only a matter of time before he makes his move. Kiyotaka already knows what Ryūen intends to do just not when he intends to make it. The conversation progresses and the group think that Class D's improvements over the last few exams have caused Class C to be nervous, hence their current actions. As they talk about all of the previous exams and the outcomes and strategies, Kiyotaka thinks that's most people in the class don't really know what happens behind the signs of their special exams. The group then express interest in knowing what Horikita was thinking and what she thought Ryūen strategies were for the previous exams. With all their focus on him, he tells what he knows from what Horikita "told" him. He tells them about what Ryūen did in the previous exams but leaves out the fact that Kushida has been betraying them. As they talk about how amazing Horikita is, the conversation shifts to whether Kiyotaka and Horikita are dating or if he likes her. He denies both accusations, and they talk about christmas which is coming up which is an important day for couples. All the guys end up saying they are spending the day alone, as the groups talks about all mannner of topics, Airi expresses her happiness at being about to talk to everyone like this. As they leave to get dinner, Kiyotaka excuses himself to go to the toilet, this makes Komiya who is following them decide to follow the group instead. Kiyotaka uses to chance to confront another person stalking him, Masumi Kamuro from Class A, he asks her what Sakayanagi knows about her to force Kamuro to follow her orders. Kamuro at first denies this but when Kiyotaka threatens to tell Sakayanagi about what a poor job she did watching Kiyotaka, Kamuro says are you planning on threatening me too. Revealing that Sakayanagi does now something about her. Kamuro threatens Kiyotaka back and says she can reveal his existence to Ryūen who is looking for him, and they strike a deal to not get in each others way, letting Kamuro continue her job and Kiyotaka existence is not revealed by her.

In school, Sudou speaks to Horikita about being pestered by Class C students on his way to school. She asks if he got into a fight which he denies saying he won't break his promise to her. Kiyotaka also informs her about the Class C students pestering Akito, Horikita surmises that Ryūen must be looking for him and it's only a matter of time. She wonders if Ryūen has already found him, but he tells her if that's the case all the focus would have been on him and not on the others in the class. She then asks if he has a plan to stop him, expressing some concern, Kiyotaka continues his act and tells her he has no plan. She also wonders why he is still spending time with the Ayanokōji group since exams are over and there isn't much point, he tells her it's more enjoyable than spending time with her while thinking Horikita doesn't yet understand what being friendly is yet. She once again confirms if he is really helping her, and he replies that he will doing as much as he can. During lunch, Horikita asks Kiyotaka for a favor. She asks if he can return a book to the library for her, as the book is popular and there is a shortage of it in stores, Kiyotaka who has been wanting to read the book has not been able to. She proposes that he return it for her so he can borrow it from the library immediately so he can read it. He wonders if this is a how Horikita shows her kindness as he accepts the request.

He immediately heads to the school library to settle the matter as the book needs to be returned that day, at the library he chances upon Hiyori Shiina, trying to reach for a book that is too high for her, he helps her and they begin talking. After talking about different types of books, She asks if he wants to eat lunch with her, as she wants to talk more about book since class C does not have anyone who likes books. Kiyotaka at first thinks this could be a trap by Ryūen but sensing his hesitation she says she isn't interested in the battle between the classes. In the end, in decides to have lunch with her after borrowing another book recommended by Shiina. At lunch, Shiina brings out a stack of book from her bag and asks if Kiyotaka would like to borrow one. She tells him she always brings around books with her so she can lend them to people she finds who also likes book. Kiyotaka borrows a book he hasn't read, while he thinks it could be a trap and he should be on guard he also thinks meeting her at the library was purely a coincidence and Shiina could just be a book lover.

After school, Kiyotaka gathers with the Ayanokōji group, and he is surprised to see Akito there who tells him he skipped club pratice because of the class C guys perstering him. Haruka suggests to tell the teachers, but Akito replies they can't do anything because students are free to learn about club activities. They realise that Komiya has been following them around recently and dicuss the rumours of the mysterious strategies working behind Horikita, the talk about the possibilities, such as Koenji who they say is unlikely because of his attitude and Hirata would could be the strategist. Akito doubts there is one, when Airi asks if Kiyotaka is the person because he gives advice to Horikita and is reliable and smart. He says that it's the other way around and he always receive help from Horikita instead. The rest suspect because he is close to Horikita he is being targeted too. He also mentions because everyone is being followed he has not been able to make any moves or talk to Hirata as well. He thinks there is no need to create more baits for Ryūen to use by carelessly making contact with Hirata and finally concludes that Ryūen is probably just waiting for the perfect time to strike.

The next day after class, Satō comes up to Kiyotaka and asks him if he wants to get a drink with her, unfortunately for her due to Chabashira sensei sending signals that she needs to speak with Kiyotaka, he turns Satō down. Chabashira asks him to follow when he leaves the classroom leading him to a reception office where the principle and another man is waiting for him. As he enters the room, Chabashira sensei and the principle both leave Kiyotaka alone with this man. They begin to talk, he tells Kiyotaka that the papers for him to leave school is ready all he has to do is sign it. Kiyotaka says no. The man proceeds to tell Kiyotaka about his butler Matsuo who helped him enroll into this school and about Matsuo son who was expelled from school due to the man's influence furthermore he has prevented the son in finding jobs and is forced to work part time to survive. This man is Kiyotaka's father although they may share the same DNA, both of them have never treated each other as father and son. Kiyotaka says that's expected considering he didn't do his job. His father tells Kiyotaka how Matsuo committed suicide by burning himself to death after his pleas falls on deaf ears. Kiyotaka tells him if he is died than all the more reason to stay in the school to carry on Matsuo's wishes. His father mentions he has changed in this past year, and says how upset he was when the white room was closed for that one year which gave Kiyotaka a chance to escape, but now the white room is up and running and wants to take him back. Kiyotaka tells him that, the white room was a great education having learnt many things but his curiosity means that he also believes there are things to learn outside the white room especially the things his father deems worthless. He also suspects his father who has great influence outside the school has less influence in the school because the body guards who usually follow him are no where to be seem implying that to even enter the school his father had to make concessions. Finally his father asks him which would he prefer, to leave the school by his own will or does he have to force him. Kiyotaka replies he doesn't intend to leave the school. They are then interrupted by the schools chairman Sakayanagi, upon hearing the name he thinks about Arisu Sakayanagi and whether they have a connection. Chairman Sakayanagi greats Kiyotaka's father and says it's been 7-8 years since they last met, they talk about how weird it is that Kiyotaka got to enter the school because normal applications to the school are just a farce so he shouldn't have been able to. Chairman Sakayanagi reveals it was him who let Kiyotaka enroll. Kiyotaka father then says that as a parent he should be able to take out his school, but Sakayanagi replies normally that is the case if the parents pay school fees or the student is having trouble in school like bullying but that's not the case so the school will protect the student's interest. Finally Kiyotaka's father leaves and says he won't be coming back again. With the chairman and Kiyotaka alone, Kiyotaka asks him several questions one regarding Arisu Sakayanagi who the chairman replies is his daughter which answers the question about why she knows about the white room and another about whether the school really selects students based on the evaluations and opinions of the middle schools and that applications are all fake. He comfirms this and Kiyotaka now understands why students like Ike and Sudou or students with a hidden past like Karuizawa and Hirata can get in.

Kiyotaka leaves the reception room and Chabashira sensei is waiting for him outside and the talk. Kiyotaka tells her he knows everything after talking to Chairman Sakayanagi, he knows she never talked to his father. More importantly he also knows why he was placed in class D. Chairman Sakayanagi thought that because Chabashira sensei didn't seem to have ambitions to raise her class, Kiyotaka could have a quiet existence. However, due to the many irregular existences in her class this year like Horikita, Hirata and Kushida her desire to reach class A which she had buried deep down came back, hence she threatened him before the survival island exam. He tells her he has no more reason to help her and she can't do anything about it as she is a teacher and she cannot simply break the rules and expel him. They part ways with Kiyotaka thinking about the situation ahead, he thinks about losing his reason to aim for class A and that at this point it doesn't matter if Karuizawa reveals his existence to Ryuuen as even if he does nothing it wouldn't affect the expected outcome. On the way back to the dorm, he overhears a 2nd year talking on the phone, and watches as she falls down. Kiyotaka goes to help her but she quickly gets up and leaves. Once she is gone, he asks Karuizawa via message if they can talk getting her okay, he calls her. He tells her that he has lost the reason to aim for class A and tells her that their relationship will end with this phone call. He apologizes to her for getting her involved in all sorts of things especially with Ryūen. While they are thanking, he sports a charm on the floor where the 2nd year fell. He decides to pass it to the manager of the year 2 dormitory so it can be given back to the 2nd year he saw fall down. Once back in his room, he cleans his room and boils water. As he waits for the water to boil, he reflects on what has happened today, he thinks about his conversation with Chabashira sensei and what he needs to do about Ryūen. As he is thinking,he hears his someone calling his room from the front lobby. Since the call is coming from the front lobby it can't be his classmates. Horikita Manabu is coming to see him. He lets him in and Manabu tells him about the problem with Nagumo and how he has complete control over the second years not just his class. He also tells him about how Nagumo went behind his back to gather information on Ichinose and force her into the student council. Manabu comes to request his help in dealing with Nagumo to protect the school traditions, but Kiyotaka doesn't know if they should be protected. Manabu tells him if he wants he can just his Suzune as his face in the council and work behind the scenes if he wants as Kiyotaka tells him he has no interest in the student council. Kiyotaka doesn't commit to doing anything just yet thus Manabu leaves but gives Kiyotaka his contact information and asks him to contact him if he wants to cooperate. Over the weekend Kiyotaka spends time with the Ayanokōji group then head to karaoke where they enjoy themselves, as they are heading back they spot an unlikely pair, Ichinose and Sakayanagi the class leaders of Class B and A respectively. Once the pair part ways with the group after exchanging a few words, Haruak expresses that she doesn't believe a perfect person like Ichinose actually exists. They talk about the coming battles between the classes and Kiyotaka wonders what will happen when Class D reaches Class C and Class B becomes their enemy.

One day after school, Ryūen and his gang of people who specialize in violence, Ishizaki, Albert, Komiya and Kondo visit the class D classroom. Chabashira who sees them, leaves the classroom as students from other classes are allowed to visit another class so no rule breaking is actually happening. Sudou is asks him what is he doing here and Hirata intervenes to prevent a fight from breaking out and ask him what he wants with class D. Ryūen says he has come to give a proper warning as he looks around the class looking for someone. He barely glances at Hirata, Kiyotaka, Keisei and Akito and his eyes rest on someone Kiyotaka doesn't expect, Kōenji. Kōenji who doesn't care about the situation simply leaves. This prompts Ryūen to signal his guys to follow him out and the class C students leave. Worried about the situation, Akito, Keisei, Kiyotaka and Horikita follow them out. Hirata reading the situation follows them out. Sudou wanting to protect Horikita follows them as well. Kiyotaka tells Hirata to keep the class calm instead of following them as there are enough people, he agrees and returns to the class. they search for Kōenji by thinking about the places he usually goes to after class. While Horikita doesn't want Sudou there he isn't willing to leave Horikita alone, Kiyotaka thinks him coming along is good due to the previous incident involving class C as that would be a detterant for a fight breaking out. On the main street towards the dormitory, the group spot the class C students who have met up with Mio Ibuki and also Kōenji. Ryūen wants to have a word with Kōenji and they move to somewhere less conspicuous. At the point, Horikita interferes with Ryūen but he expected her to arrive along with everyone else in the group. He expresses that he thought Hirata would also be here, to wish Horikita says not everything can go as he expects. Ryūen tells his gang to surround Kōenji and tells him it was his fault he didn't get more points in the cruise ship exam which Kōenji apologizes for. Kōenji who who is unconcerned by the situation, takes out a mirror to check his hair because it's been windy. He hands Ryūen the mirror and asks him to hold it for him, Ryūen takes the mirror and throws it away shattering on the floor. Horikita and Sudou go and pick up the broken shards to glass when more people arrive. Class A students, Kitou, Hashimoto and Kamuro lead by Sakayanagi arrive and seem to want to join in. Ryūen tells them not to intefere so Sakayanagi sits down on the near by bench and watches them. Kōenji says he wants to leave if there is nothing else but Ryūen says he still has questions. Kōenji then tells him that he is looking for the person interfering with Class C's plans behind the scenes in Class D, but says he is targeting the wrong person as he as no interest in Class C or even Class A and doesn't intend to do anything at all for the class battles. He says he just didn't want to waste time at meetings during the cruise ship exam so he finished it early by figuring out the VIP. He also calls Ryūen dragon boy which greatly amuses Sakayanagi who says that's a good name which annoys Ryūen. Sakayanagi now begins to question Ryūen if this X really exists and begins to tell him maybe he is wrong. She reveals the contract between class C and A regarding transferring 20000 private points per person in exchange for the points in the island survival exam she says that contract was made by Katsuragi and has nothing to do with her. Kiyotaka thinks at this point Sakayanagi probably has full control of class A. She calls Ryūen dragon boi which causes Ryūen to attempt to kick Sakayanagi in the face, but Hashimoto intercepts. Horikita says that that's as far as it goes, but Sakayanagi says nothing happened. Finally Ryūen asks Kōenji one final question, who does he think X is. Kōenji says he doesn't care about anyone in here or in the class which Sakayanagi takes offense with and questions Kōenji about whether he means to include her. He calls her Little Girl which she doesn't like. With the line of questioning over, Kōenji leaves with the scene over the class A students also leaves. Ryūen says that today he was able to reduce his lists of suspects, as he leaves and Class D wonders what he is up to. Kiyotaka thinks that Ryūen's preparations are almost complete as the class D students head back to tell Hirata what happened.

On the last day of term, Kiyotaka receives a message telling him that he is going to go after Karuizawa today. Karuizawa herself sends Kiyotaka a message about Ryūen wanting to see her on the rooftop at 2 pm later that day. She tries to send him a signal in the classroom after the day ends, he meets her eyes and she looks relived before leaving with her friends. The Ayanokōji group decide to meet up at Keyaki mall, while Kiyotaka is preparing to leave, Satō approaches him and asks him out one more time since he already has plans he turns her down again, feeling bad about rejected her twice in a row he tells her he has no plans over the term break so he can go out with her during that time. When he leaves the classroom, the Ayanokōji group is waiting for him, they all question him about what was going on with Satō and Keisei is apparently unhappy with the developments. Akito notices that no one is following them today as they head towards the mall. Kiyotaka thinks that since everything was ending today, there was no more need for Ryūen to send his goons to follow them anymore. A little while later close to 2pm, Kiyotaka excuses himself from the Ayanokōji group, while Airi is a little sad that he is living Kiyotaka thinks that she doesn't need him anymore to have a place in the group. He heads back towards the school and calls Chabashira sensei asking her to meet him in the classroom. At the classroom, Kiyotaka asks for help in dealing with Ryūen who is about to bully Karuizawa which might lead her to resign from the school. Chabashira says she cannot interfere with the students directly. To which Kiyotaka treatens to intefere with Class D's attempts to get to class A, she replies is it not your turn to threaten me. Kiyotaka says he was joking saying that he never expected her to help, he just wants to to watch over them and asks if she will follow him. As the wait in the hallway near the roof, Kiyotaka guess that Karuizawa is being bullied repeated by having buckets of cold water thrown over her as he see's Ishizaki carry buckets of water to the roof. Since 30 mins had past since 2pm he was surprised to see Ishizaki still carrying buckets of water up, thinking that this development was not what he was expecting. He thinks that he could go up now but he already had a planned time to go up and going too early or too late would not be beneficial to his plans so he asks Chabashira sensei to speak with him a for a little while. They talk about the schools system of using points and wonders if they have a planned guideline in place for any situation that can occur, Chabashira says she cannot answer because she is a teacher, but Kiyotaka can infer the truth from the way she acts and replies to his questions. He surmises that there are guidelines in place for the use of private points, he understands from seeing the amount of points Ryūen and Ichinose have been accumulating. She finally replies as he guesses the truth that the truth is the teachers themselves do not know how far the points can be used for hence she 'can't answer'. Once they finish the conversation, Kiyotaka says it's time to go and finish this game of hide and seek. He checks the time and asks someone to come to his location immediately. Chabashira says she she doesn't intend to interfere calling someone else would be a good idea. He says he is going up, which surprises Chabashira who says if he does then his peaceful life will be over. He thinks that even if he doesn't go his peaceful life is over. Chabashira sensei, then tells him she was wrong for trying to use him after hearing about him from Chairman Sakayanagi, and asks if he is really stepping down from the raising the class up, he says yes but tells her she should watch over the class properly because even without him Horikita can do a good job bringing the class together. Moments later, the person he messages arrives, Manabu Horikita which surprises Chabashira. Manabu tells tells him to not forget the promise he made. Kiyotaka tells him that all his needs to do is stay outside as a witness and memorise the faces of the people that comes out.

As he climbs the stairs, he meets Albert who is guarding the entrance to the rooftop. He first speaks to him in Japanese but get's no reply so he tries English next telling him that he is the one they have been looking for. This grabs his attention and Albert uses his phone to send a message to Ryūen, Kiyotaka tells him to let him through and follow him because without him, Ryūen has no chance of winning. When he reaches the roof, he first checks that the camera on the roof has been dealt with, he sees that it's been covered by black spray paint. Karuizawa is surprised to see him, he tells her he is sorry he is late. Ibuki can't seem to believe that he is X so she tries to convince Ryūen that he isn't. Ishizaki also doesn't seem to believe that Kiyotaka is X but Ryūen is convinced. In order to convince Ibuki, he explains to her what he did in the island exam as proof that he was X. As they start to believe it, they talk about what to do. Ryūen asks him why he would show up when the best thing to do would have been to leave Karuizawa as in either situation his identity would have been revealed he wonders what kind of plan he has to come up here where he is surrounded. Kiyotaka returns the with a question asking if this was supposed to be a terrible situation for him. Kiyotaka explains that he is here because Karuizawa asked for his help that's all. Ryūen then threatens him by saying he will reveal his identity to everyone, he also tells him that even if everything that happened here is revealed the one who would receive the most damage would be Karuizawa and him, his identity would be revealed and her past of being bullied would have been revealed. However, in a show of strength, Karuizawa says if Kiyotaka is exposed then she is fine being exposed too. Kiyotaka then asks if they can leave since being exposed is what they all decided, but he reveals that he doesn't expect Ryūen to accept that conclusion as that's not the type of person he is.

Ryūen grabs Karuizawa by the hear and says that now that Kiyotaka is here her job is over and he throws her aside losing interest in her. Ryūen tells Albert to close the door, and asks Kiyotaka does he know what is about to happen. He tells Ishizaki to attack Kiyotaka, but Kiyotaka easily catches his punch and crushes his fist, causing Ishizaki to crumble to the floor. Albert seeing the situation intervenes but his attack is once again caught by Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka hits him in the stomach to little effect by takes him out by going for his throat. Ishizaki attacks again but is easily dispatched again. Ibuki who has learnt martial arts tries to kick Kiyotaka, he expresses that it's not suprising she beat Horikita, but even she is taken out easily after he dodges all of he kicks with ease. Ryūen says he underestimated Kiyotaka and begins to attack Kiyotaka who dodges most of his attacks but when Ryūen starts talking about how he hasn't felt fear before, Kiyotaka takes a few hits to remember the feeling of pain. Ryūen wonders if Kiyotaka has even felt fear believing that he hasn't, but Kiyotaka thinks that he used to feel fear when he saw people break around him, but he learnt that as long as he didn't lose he wouldn't feel that feeling. Kiyotaka reveals that everything happened as Kiyotaka planned and that even the fight they were having was exactly as Kiyotaka wanted and that Ryūen this whole time was simply dancing the palm of his hand even since he used Manabe as a spy he knew it would come to this. As he plays around with Ryūen, Ryūen asks why someone as power as Kiyotaka is happy to be treated as a normal person if he has any ambitions. Finally bored with the fight, Kiyotaka thinks he made a miscalculation, Ryūen wouldn't be able to feel their difference in power because he did not know what fear is, so Kiyotaka quickly overpowers him and gets on top of him when he knock Ryūen down, repeatly punching him. While Ryūen resists and laughs at the situation, Kiyotaka continues to hit him until he sees the fear in Ryūen. Once he is done teaching Ryūen what fear is, he thinks he shouldn't waste too much time as he can't bear to leave Karuizawa alone anymore.

Kiyotaka goes to check on Karuizawa, who is shivering from being drenched and being exposed to the winter winds, he asks if she is hurt but she tells him she is just cold. He asks if he is now disillusioned by him, she says of course because he tricked her in the first place by setting up the trap that let Manabe attack her. He asks why she didn't give him up even then, and she replies that she did it for herself. She falls into him as her exhaustion catches up to her and tells him how scared she was. Once again he promises that he will save her the next time she is trouble. He starts to think about Karuizawa and how he know knows that she won't betray him, revealing that if she did betray him he would have used her guilt to control her further. He thinks that letting her go would be a waste and that Karuizawa's usefulness was know not his priority but ensuring that she remained his was more important. He tells her that Chabashira sensei and Manabu were waiting for her downstairs and she should go home first while he finishes things up here. When she leaves, Kiyotaka wakes up the everyone leaving Ryūen for last. While Ryūen still has some of his strong attitude he loses it once Kiyotaka asks if he wants to be hit again? Kiyotaka tells him his mistake was going after him first, he should have gone after Ichinose than Sakayanagi gaining experience to take him on. He tells him he is willing to take him on anytime but he would prefer not to as he just wants to fade into the background. He also informs him that Manabu is waiting downstairs as a witness to what happen here and Kiyotaka already has an alibi and evidence that he was at Keyaki Mall when the cameras on the roof went down. With Manabe there even if Ryūen revealed everything to the school he would receive the most damage, getting everyone up here in trouble as well. Therefore, Kiyotaka proposes that they just everything that happened up on the roof a secret, but Ryūen doesn't believe him so he says he take all the blame on himself says before he gets expelled he wants to transfer all his points to Ibuki and pases her his phone. He tells the the remaining class C guys to handle things from now on, saying he will leave the school on his own accord. As he tries to leave Kiyotaka stops him, telling him that he won't grow if he gives up here, Ryūen asks why he is stopping him, he tells him that the contract he has for Katsuragi will hurt class A while he can also help class D deal with class B and A for him. Most importantly if Ryūen suddenly disappears Ichinose and Sakayanagi will probably start to focus on X. Kiyotaka tells him, that he doesn't intend to tell anyone about what happend here and neither does Manabu. Ryūen says he won't be that naive and leaves. The next day Ryūen meet Ibuki who asks him if he really intends to quit after one loss she tries to dissuade him but fails, he goes to see Sakagami the class C homeroom teacher and he says that he was the one who damaged the camera on the rooftop, which Sakagami says is contradictory as someone from class D already claimed responsibility for the damage. Ryūen thinks it was Kiyotaka who did it. Ryūen then asks to resign from the school, Sakagami says if he resigns, Albert and Ishizaki will both resign from the school as well. Ryūen wonders if it was Kiyotaka who gave them the idea to stop him from resigning. He gives up trying to resign as it would be meaningless if Ishizaki and Albert also resigned. Rumors around the school spread that Ryūen has stopped being leader of his class, and is now leaving a quiet life like Kiyotaka did at the start of school, Kiyotaka wonders what Ryūen will learn from this, he doesn't know but he confirms that Ryūen is similar to him.

Volume 7.5
On the 25th of December, Kiyotaka is getting ready to go out. He thinks that on Christmas most people are most likely spending it it with their families or loved ones. He guesses that at this school there will probably be many students spending today with their loved ones too. He opens the window of his room and hears the sounds of some girls talking and laughing and thinks that they seem to be heading to Keyaki Mall as well. Kiyotaka checks the time and sees that it is already past 11 and he should go now since today is the day for his date with Maya Satō, he wonders if anything will change today for him today. He laments that this day must be significant to him if it wasn't we wouldn't have considered going on the date. He continues to wonder if he will experience what is it to like someone, to have someone who is important to him, someone who will become irreplaceable to him. He wonders if something like that is possible for him. As he leaves he thinks back to what happened 2 days ago on the 23rd of December.

On the 23rd of December, he goes to Keyaki Mall early to buy something for a girl, he makes sure to get the best product and buys two kinds of it using reviews from the internet and asking the stores staff. He then heads back to the dormitory where he meets Sakayanagi who is waiting for Kamuro to go out together. Sakayanagi asks if he is feeling ill when she sees the item he had bought earlier at Keyaki Mall, he tells her he isn't. They start talking about what happened with Ryūen just a day before. Kiyotaka thinks it's not weird that the rumors have already spread this fast even though the only people who should have known is the students involved on the roof top. Sakayanagi tells him that the rumors are that Ryūen got into a fight with the people in his class, but she thinks that's a bit wrong, and that she thinks it was Kiyotaka who fought him. However he replies that as she can see he is perfectly fine and hasn't gotten into any fight. She starts by asking if she want's to battle with her, he says he would rather avoid that then she says she has other methods to make him fight her. She then starts to tell him about her plan to destroy Ichinose because she feels bored that class C and D where having such an interesting battle. Kiyotaka thinking that if Sakayanagi focuses on Ichinose he won't have to fight her, riles her up by getting telling her he knows that her father is the chairman and perhaps she isn't that smart and got into the school because of him. Sakayanagi turns this back on him asking him if he isn't being just arrogant because he is a success story of the white room and that because of the white room he both has incredible knowledge and physical skills. She tells if it's her job as a real genius who doesn't need the white room whose job is the create geniuses to defeat Kiyotaka. Kamuro then arrives, telling Sakayanagi not to wander from their meeting place. They start talking about what kind of person Ichinose is, before Kamuro and Kiyotaka both agree she is a nice person who is hard to attack because she doesn't really have weak points, but Sakayanagi replies every has weak points and reveals Ichinose has a secret that is the same as Kamuro's. She says that she got the information via cold reading Ichinose, but Kiyotaka thinks she probably used both hot reading then approached her to confirm with cold reading. As Sakayanagi leaves she observes that from Kamuro attitude that she has already met Kiyotaka but doesn't do anything because she says she is in a good mood. Kiyotaka thinks that from this conversation, Sakayanagi is not likely to spread the knowledge about his past as she wants to beat him herself. He also says he originally wanted to give the things he bought to the girl but saw that she was feeling well enough to go out since he saw her earlier when he was leaving the mall. With no more plans for the day, he decides to go watch a movie.

Kiyotaka goes to the movie theatre along to watch some B-movie. He narrates that since coming to school he gained interest in watching movies. He picks a set near the centre of the theatre and is surprised to see so many sets of 2 taken, as the movie isn't some romance or Christmas movie. When he goes to his set he mentions how he enjoys going early to see the previews of upcoming movies. When he reaches his seat, there is a couple to his right but the seat on his left is empty. When the lights have dimmed he notices someone else coming along to watch the movie, that person is Mio Ibuki who he previous knock unconscious on the roof the previous day. She sets down next to him but doesn't notice Kiyotaka. Unfortunately, for him Ibuki doesn't realize that he is already using the armrest on the left, and he attempts to use it too and their arms touch causing her to notice him. Ibuki is annoyed at seeing him and is constant watching him as the movie plays. Kiyotaka notices that he is used to being observed in the white room so he ignored her and focuses on the movie. However, at the climax of the movie the screen blacks out and there is an announcement that they are experiencing technical issues from the staff. They finally talk a little about Kiyotaka's past actions and Ibuki is annoyed that he made a fool of her by tricking her. He tells her that's power, and that you should always be aware of the difference in power between your opponents. He tells her unlike the rest he isn't interested in the class battles but she replies that his past actions have been to help his class which contradicts his statement. With atmosphere between them both sour, they turn their attention back to the screen and wait. After 20 mins, they are still waiting, while many other students have already left Ibuki and Kiyotaka have not. Ibuki tells him that she doesn't want to leave before him. While Kiyotaka is interested in the ending of the show but doesn't want to simply check how it ends online. Unfortunately for him, the movie screening is cancelled and they both leave the theatre. As they part ways outside the theatre, Ibuki grabs Kiyotaka and drags him into the corner to hide. She tells him Ishizaki is coming and they hide from him, Kondo and Komiya. They overhear them talk about what happen with Ryūen and Ishizaki says his leadership is over and from now on maybe Kaneda will be making the plans. Once Ishizaki is gone, Ibuki and Kiyotaka start talking when Ibuki says that Ishizaki told her that Ryūen didn't resign from the school, she asks if Kiyotaka has anything to do with that, to which he just denies it. Finally she can't take it anymore and asks Kiyotaka to fight her one more time. Kiyotaka thinks that Mio who is confident in her fighting ability cannot accept defeat and also doesn't understand the difference between males and females in terms of fighting strength although he thinks that she would beat any guy who didn't have the same experience in martial arts as her. He accepts the condition as he doesn't think she will back down and asks if she is free now. He tells her he will only accept the fight now and if they can't find a place that isn't filled with people or cameras they should give up. As they walk around, Ibuki finds a store room filled with drug store goods that is only for staff which the has been left open and enters it. Unfortunately, the door cannot be opened from the inside due as a safety precaution for stealing and they are trapped there. In the end, they decide to have their fight there and Ibuki sets the rules. That the match is only over when one side gives up Kiyotaka agrees only if he can set one condition, if he wins Ibuki can never bother him with any more personal battles any more. Ibuki starts by launching a flurry of kicks, which Kiyo blocks as dodging is hard with all the goods around that he doesn't want damaged. He strikes her in the forehead with an open palm from his less dominant left hand which almost knocks her out, then she continues to attack finally he grabs her by the neck and she is unable to move, he tells her that he should know by watching Ryūen already and she gives up. She asks him why he is so strong and he tells her he trained a lot, Ibuki doesn't really believe his answer. Now they decide to get out of the trapped room, Kiyotaka who remembered the name of the staff who left the door open calls the drug store and asks for him by name. He pretends that Ibuki is his girlfriend and they wanted to fool around in the room. The staff member leaves them after scolding them for going in but doesn't report it as it was his duty to close the room so he was also at fault. Ibuki promises to not battle him anymore as they part ways.

On the way back to the dormitories, Kiyotaka spots Shinohara, Satō and Matsushita and decides to follow them because he thinks he might get some information. He overhears them talking about not having boyfriends as he follows them but when his name comes up when the other girls question Satō, he decides he doesn't want to hear and takes some distance. He walks around the book store and sports Ryūen looking at book on science, he is impressed that after one day he is already walking around but decides not to approach him yet. As he is looking around the book store. He sees Shinohara alone and guesses that the other 2 girls have gone to the toilet. As he observes Shinohara, he sees 2 upperclassmen comes over to her, a couple and the female upperclassman begins to harass Shinohara due to them bumping into each other earlier, and the upperclassman feeling that Shinohara gave her a dirty look after. As the commotion looks to escalate, Kiyotaka is about to go and help but Ike appears and intervenes telling the upperclassman that Shinohara always looks angry and gives mean looks, he also says he saw a teacher around here. This prompts the male upperclassman, who Kiyotaka recognizes as the guy he bought the mid-term tests for back in the first term, to take his girlfriend away. Shinohara thanks Ike but wishes he could have solved it better, Ike leaves but tells Shinohara to enjoy her boyfriendless Christmas which makes her made. When Satō and Matsushita return and determining that he won't receive any useful information, Kiyotaka leaves the book store and goes home. Back at home, he receives a call from Haruka later at night, who tells him that the group will be having a party on christmas day, but Kiyotaka tells her he already has plans. Being Christmas day, Haruka asked him what he plans on doing on christmas day, deciding it better to tell the truth then having to explain it if they run into each other on Christmas day, he tells her he is going to go out with Satō. Haruka thinks that he needs to think of an excuse for Airi for not joining the party that day because if she sees Kiyotaka and Satō she might faint. While she thinks fainting is too much, if it's Airi it might happen and he thinks that he needs to be careful if not she will become depressed. Sensing Kiyotaka's change in atmosphere when Haruka asks about Airi she asks him if he knows about Airi's feelings. Kiyotaka confirms this, which makes Haruka think, he isn't that dense. Kiyotaka thinks that Airi is like a little chick taking her first steps in the world, and that it was always likely she would like him as he was the first guy she ever talked to, he thinks that he she starts to get used to more people and meet other people those feelings of hers might change. He apologizes for not being able to join but Haruka says it's fine as the group was never meant to force them to join all their activities. That same night, he also calls Karuizawa to ask her to pass him information on Satō but he doesn't express any concern for her after what she endured on the roof which angers her.

On Christmas eve, 24th of December Kiyotaka has made plans to meet 2 guys. One of which he asks to meet, and the other one wants to meet him. He meets the first guy at an area near Keyaki Mall where there are benches at about 7 in the morning. It is currently snowing and the forecast says that it will snow for the rest of the day. He sits down on a bench and the person he is meeting Ryūen appears and takes a different bench. They discuss about what Ryūen is going to do from now on, and how Kiyotaka stopped him from resigning from the school. Kiyotaka thinks that Ryūen has a lot of potential and gives him some advice. He tells him that he shouldn't follow the obvious order of which classes to attack and he can attack any class. Ryūen says that even if he beats every other class there isn't any point because Kiyotaka is around. Kiyotaka tells hims insider information about Sakayanagi intended to attack Ichinose during the next term, telling him that it is his chance to attack Class A. Ryūen asks Kiyotaka if this information is accurate he replies about 50-50. They also talk about the problem in class D, Kushida who wants to expel Horikita. Kiyotaka tells Ryūen that class D who will become class C in the new term may drop back to class D because Kiyotaka wants to expel Kushida. They both agree thought that Kushida would be a very useful asset in the coming class battles. Finally, Kiyotaka asks about Ryūen's plan to save enough points to transfer all his classmates to class A. Kiyotaka at first thinks it's unfeasible but upon recalculation he says that the plan has about 5% chance of succeeding and isn't a plan he would come with because of how low the chances are, Ryūen says while they are similar that is where they differ. Ryūen finally asks Kiyotaka why he is letting the snow pile up on his head, but he replies he just wanted to feel what it felt like. Based on their earlier discussion, they both agree to a cease fire between their classes for the coming term. Kiyotaka asks if Ryūen intends to work behind the scenes of class C but he says he intends to leave it up to both Shiina and Kaneda. They shake on their agreement. The second person who Kiyotaka was supposed to meet, Manabu the previous student council president turns up and is surprised to see Ryūen there. Ryūen challenges Manabu to a fight, throwing snow in his face and aiming for his stomach, but Manabu easily blocks it, Ryūen says he thought Manabu was just a smart guy, impressed with his fighting ability. Kiyotaka thinks that the reason they asked them to meet at such close timings was so the 2 of them would be able to meet. Manabu then begins to tell them about the promise they made for his help on the rooftop. Manabu wants Kiyotaka to stop Nagumo from going out of control, he tells them that Nagumo has expel around 17 students that were in his way and has gained control of his entire year. On top of that due to his new position as student council president he has the right to set special exams, saying that the island survival exam was previously thought of by a former student council president. While both Ryūen and Kiyotaka both don't think that Nagumo's methods are particularly right or wrong they hear Manabu out. After hearing enough, Ryūen leaves saying he doesn't want to be brought into the situation and leaves. Manabu asks if Kiyotaka wants to make Ryūen his ally but Kiyotaka tells him his goal was mainly to get himself out of Ryūen sights. Kiyotaka says in order to take down Nagumo, he needs data. Manabu says of course, and provides him with all the data he has collected with faces and names on the student council members. He aslo tells him that there is someone in the 2nd years who opposes Nagumo and he wants to tell that person Kiyotaka's name. Kiyotaka says that he definitely doesn't want to join the student council but Kiyotaka doesn't mind if the 2nd year student knows his name, he does that thinking that since there are people who already know his true abilities there is no more merit in trying to hide them completely. Before Manabu leaves Kiyotaka asks him about his sister, Manabu says he can use her however he wants. But what Kiyotaka wants to know is why he is so cold to her responds that he should already know she possesses good abilities, Manabu says he knows but she is only aiming for Manabu and that's the problem. Kiyotaka calls it a problem of 'Final Station', and confirms that Horikita will have Manabu's recommendation if she wants to join the student council.

Having met the 2 people he had planned on meeting, Kiyotaka goes back to his room and passes some time before decided to talk to Horikita about joining the school council, he messages her but she has already gone out she asks him to meet her at the café if she wants to talk and he agrees. At the café, he is surprised to see Kushida with Horikita and asks who invited whom. Horikita says she invited Kushida and Kiyotaka thinks that she is working hard on making Kushida an ally. Kiyotaka tries to leave because Kushida is there not wanting to talk about the Nagumo issue, but Horikita forces him to talk saying that Kushida is an ally. In the end, he decides to simply ask if Horikita would join the student council, not wanting to talk about Nagumo in front of Kushida. He tells her that her brother wants her to do it, which Horikita doesn't believe so he simply asks her to call him to confirm. She says she doesn't have his number so Kushida offers to ask Tachibana who was Manabu's secretary as she has met had many times. She receives the number and Horikita calls Manabu while being extremely nervous. Manabu confirms that he wants her to join the student council but he declines to join, Horikita is then annoyed that Kiyotaka is the person connected her to her brother. Having finished half of what he wanted to talk about, Kiyotaka leaves the 2 girls. Later that night, Airi visits Kiyotaka's room around 10pm, having been out with Haruka all day. She wants to hand him a present, because he won't be around at the Ayanokōji Groups party tomorrow. He receives a pair of winter gloves from her since he said he wanted gloves. Kiyotaka is glad that Airi seems to be doing fine with the Ayanokōji group even without him he also thinks that he would have invited her in for a drink if it wasn't so late or Christmas eve as he sees her off.

On the 25th of December, as Kiyotaka prepares for his date, he thinks that today is the day for his first even date and wonders what he will learn from this experience. Kiyotaka meets Satō in the lobby. She teases him about being excited about the date because he arrived at the meeting place first and was early. Kiyotaka plainly tells her he actually just arrived. Since they were both ready, Kiyotaka suggest that they leave for the movie that they had planned on seeing. However, Satō is hesitant to leave, which makes Kiyotaka slightly suspicious. Satō says she can't find her phone and starts rummaging around her bag for it, as she is looking for her phone, Kiyotaka spots a wrapped package in her bag, thinking that it's rude to stare at it too long, he offers to call her phone for her to help her find it. Satō remarks how kind he is to help her, but he tells her anyone in the same position would have done the same. Once again Kiyotaka suggest they should start leaving, but Satō is slightly hesitant. Suddenly the lift opens revealing Karuizawa and Hirata. Spotting Satō and Kiyotaka they mention that seeing the pair of them together is a slightly weird. In response, Kiyotaka asks if they are going on a date. This prompts Karuizawa to ask if Kiyotaka and Satō are going on a dating each other, saying that going out on Christmas would cause people to see them as a couple, which suddenly causes Satō to be worried about inviting Kiyotaka out on such an important they for couples, Kiyotaka plainly replies if he didn't like it he would have rejected her offer of going out today causing her to become embarrassed. Karuizawa teases Kiyotaka for liking Satō, she suddenly suggests that the 4 of them go on a double date, as Karuizawa and Satō talk about a double date, they both seem to be excited about the prospect of it. Hirata thinks that they shouldn't interfere as they would each have their own plans and suddenly joining them would be difficult but, Karuizawa insist that it will be interesting continues strongly suggesting that they should have a double date. Hirata relents and says that if it's okay with Satō and Kiyotaka then it is okay with him. Satō says it sounds interesting and hands the baton to Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka thinks many different things, especially about which choice would be better, or how feasible would it be to suddenly add more people to their already made plans. With him as the last person to decide, he finds it hard to say no so he goes along with the double date. With that decided, Karuizawa asks them what they were planning to do first, Satō tells her they were planning to go watch a movie, Karuizawa tells them that they were going to watch the same movie. They check the reserved tickets and find that they are watching the same screening. Kiyotaka thinks that is too much of a coincidence but since the seats were not next to each other, he thinks maybe they were just lucky.

The 4 of them start making their way towards, Keyaki Mall. Along the way, Karuizawa continues to tease Kiyotaka about them looking like a couple saying that maybe they have just been hiding their relationship. Satō denies it again, and Karuizawa confirms that Satō doesn't have a boyfriend which Satō confirms. Kiyotaka finally understands Karuizawa's intentions, he realizes that the double date idea was probably pre-planned. He thinks that right now the problem is he doesn't really no what to talk about with Satō so there is a long silence as they are walking. Karuizawa gives him a look which only lasts for 1 second, and Kiyotaka guesses that what she is trying to tell him is that: 'Isn't it tough always pretending to calm and collected'. With just his eyes alone, he replies that he doesn't really know what to talk about, Kiyotaka thinks that what Karuizawa was saying was just his imagination and might not be right. As it turns out, Karuizawa receives his message and asks Satō if maybe Kiyotaka doesn't know what to talk about. Hearing this, Satō starts talking about what she likes such as Idols and what kind of music. When Kiyotaka is asks what kind of music he likes, he thinks answering with classical musicians would be a bad answer so he talks about a song he heard in a popular movie. His answer makes Satō happy and she offers to lend him a CD of the artist sometime. The conversation shifts to club activities, Satō compliments Kiyotaka's speed and that he was faster than Manabu at the sports festival. Karuizawa interjects and says Kiyotaka was slower and maybe he just ran with someone slow. She further says, that Kiyotaka looks weak in a fight and is probably a heartless person who doesn't check up on people precious to him who could be sick in bed. Kiyotaka thinks she sounds really angry when she says it, but Satō defends him saying she believes that Kiyotaka is very kind and wouldn't do something like that, Hirata agrees with Satō and Karuizawa replies that if only she thinks that, she becomes the bad guy. From her words, Kiyotaka thinks she maybe proposed the double date as revenge so she could interfere in his relationship. Satō then asks if Kiyotaka is troubled with the school rules of no contact with the outside world. She tells him that she misses her pet back at home, and wishes she could keep a pet at school, while they are talking happily about pets, Kiyotaka is thinking about why the rules don't allow pets, he realizes his musings are useless and that girls don't want to hear about his logic. As the conversation progresses, Satō wants to ask a question, but can't seem to get it out. Karuizawa jumps in and asks what kind of girl does Kiyotaka like, Satō agrees with her and tells him she wants to know too. He says he likes cheerful girls, which surprises Satō. He thinks since both Karuizawa and Satō are cheerful girls him saying that would not affect them. Karuizawa then asks if maybe he likes girls that are both cheerful and adult like. He replies that since he is the quiet type he thinks it's better to have someone who can pull along the conversation. Then Karuizawa asks how he feels about Horikita, Kiyotaka thinks her question is weird because Karuizawa is one of the few people who knows what he relationship with Horikita is, and looking at Satō he thinks that she wants to hear the answer. He then realizes that Karuizawa is asking questions on Satō's behalf to help her, but he still doesn't know whose idea it was to go on a double date. Karuizawa begins attack Kiyotaka by insinuating that maybe he is just keeping Satō around because he can't get Horikita. He asks if he seems like that kind of person who is skillful enough to do that. Karuizawa says he is but Satō defends him saying he isn't like that. Seeing that Karuizawa agrees but follows up with another attack asking if about how close he is to Kushida and how most guys want to date her. Kiyotaka deflects the question by asking Hirata if he wants to date Kushida. Hirata saves him by once again confirming with him that right now he isn't interested in anyone. Kiyotaka praises Hirata for saving his ass from the line of questioning. At that moment, someone ask for the 4 of them. They are approached by Nagumo the current president of the student council, who has brought with him, the vice president Ikuto Kiriyama and some members of the student council including Ichinose. Nagumo wants to have a word with Kiyotaka because he is interested in him, and Hirata who knows Nagumo from the soccer club, asks what he wants with Kiyotaka. Due to his position, the 4 1st years find it hard to deny the request. Nagumo asks his friends to go on ahead, and they talk about how fast Kiyotaka is wanting to test Kiyotaka further, Nagumo grabs Kiyotaka by the arm. This surprising everyone but Karuizawa is the first to react, to defuse the situation, telling Nagumo that his face is scary while laughing. Nagumo apologizes for scary her but doesn't release Kiyotaka, he tells him if Manabu sees something in Kiyotaka, he must be right because Nagumo rates Manabu very highly. Nagumo asks Kiyotaka to be his playmate after Manabu graduates from the school since he will get bored. Kiyotaka asks one question before he leaves, what kind of changes was he going to make with the school. Nagumo tells him that he wants to make the exam more like virtual games, with that he leaves. Satō says he is amazing since the student council president has his eyes on him, but Karuizawa says Hirata is much better and is smarter, which leads to Satō defending Kiyotaka. He then thinks that the plan for the rest of the day, Karuizawa is going to continue putting him down so Satō can bring him.

At the movie theatre, the girls go to the toilet leaving Hirata and Kiyotaka alone. Hirata thanks Kiyotaka who his help with Karuizawa but Kiyotaka replies he hasn't done anything worthy of thanks. Hirata also thinks that very soon Karuizawa won't need him anymore because she hasn't needed him in a long time, although today was a surprise. Kiyotaka thinks that Hirata has 0 feelings towards Karuizawa and is simply looking out for everyone's interest. Hirata asks if Kiyotaka is going to start dating Satō after this, he is about to say no but changes his mind and says he doesn't no yet. Hirata thinks finding someone to date will be good for him and that the reason he hasn't found anyone is not because he isn't popular but because he hasn't found anyone he wants to date yet. They change the conversation to Nagumo, as Kiyotaka wants to learn more about him, Hirata tells him he has many good ideas during his time in the soccer club, but apparently students who didn't agree with his ideas were not only forced out of the club but also the school. Hirata asks if Kiyotaka is planning to join the student council but he says not at all. They are discussing class D and whether they can work together to aim for class A as a class before the girls return ending the conversation. After the movie, the 4 head for lunch and decide to do a round robin of questions. Karuizawa starts by asking him, if he has dated anyone, thinking that he would sound lame if he sound he hasn't dated anybody, he says he isn't dating anyone now. Karuizawa points out that only those who haven't ever dated anyone adds now and confirms it by asking again but this time asking if he has dated anyone in the past. He says no, Satō look happy at his answer and says its all right it he has dated anyone before. Satō asks the next question, what kind of hair styles does he prefer, he says it depends on whether it suits the person. Which Karuizawa says is just a model answer, Hirata comes in an says he thinks that's best too. Satō agrees with his answer and Karuizawa acting as a good girlfriend agrees with Hirata. Now it's Kiyotaka turn to ask a question but instead of asking Satō a question he wants to know if Hirata is aware that he is popular. Karuizawa calls him out on it, but they reach the restaurant before they can continue. At lunch Kiyotaka is amazed that the table is set for 4, Karuizawa says they requested them to add more people while they were in the toilet, Karuizawa proudly says that she is an expert in these things. Kiyotaka calls her a liar using his eyes, and Karuizawa shots him a look back which Kiyotaka imagines is her saying that she doesn't want to hear that from someone has has never dated anyone before. They continue the questioning from before and Kiyotaka asks Satō what her interests are. She says she is into fashion design, and hopes to get a job in fashion if she can graduate from class A, Kiyotaka and Karuizawa both say they will probably continue studying.

After lunch and hanging around the mall, after Karuizawa and Satō exchange some signals, Karuizawa and Hirata leave to return to the dormitories first. Satō ask if they can walk around a little bit more. Satō asks if he enjoyed himself today, he says yes, but she doubts it because he didn't laugh or smile once the whole day. He tries to convince by saying he just isn't used to smiling but he really enjoyed himself. Kiyotaka thinks he enjoyed himself and hopes that the day won't end on a sad note. As the atmosphere becomes quieter, Satō decides to confess to Kiyotaka. However, Kiyotaka rejects her confessing telling her that he cannot date someone if he doesn't have feelings for them, although he thinks that this is just the surface reason. He tells Satō that even if it was Horikita or Kushida confessing he wouldn't accept the confession, in his mind he also thinks about Airi. He tells her that he isn't mature enough to understand love so he isn't ready to date. She asks if she can ask him out again and he says it was fun and he would like to go out again. He also thinks that he probably won't forget the first time he was confessed for his life. Satō has tears in her eyes as she runs off, not waiting to cross paths with her in the dormitories he lets her run off. During the confession, his phone rings but he doesn't answer it, when Satō runs off, his phone rings again and this time he answers it. The person calling has an unknown number, and asks if he can trust Kiyotaka. He reveals that Manabu told him about Kiyotaka and he would like to meet. Kiyotaka tells him he has something to do first as he looks at a bush where someone is hiding. They agree to meet in 20 minutes. Kiyotaka calls out to the person in the bushes, telling her that she will catch a cold if she stays there, but she doesn't come out. Kiyotaka says he is going to prompting her to ask how long did he know she was hiding there. Karuizawa comes out of the bushes as he says he knew from the start. Karuizawa asks why he rejected Satō when there was nothing wrong with her and he looked liked enjoyed the date too. Kiyotaka reminds her that it was her who said dating someone you have no feelings for is terrible, but she replies that he could have grown feelings for her. He admits that he thought about dating Satō which makes Karuizawa angry since he rejected her even though she worked so had to get them together. Kiyotaka continues to give reasons like he can't have a normal relationship, but Karuizawa says, that he wants a normal relationship though to which he also agrees. So she once again keeps asking why he rejected Satō. He even admits he wouldn't have minded getting to enjoy the fruits of having a relationship, Karuizawa calls him the worst but he asks her if she herself doesn't want to try it herself, she replies that it depends on the person to which he agrees. Still not satisfied with his answer Karuizawa keeps pressing him, finally he asks her to let him make his own choice but she gets made again and asks him why he rejected Satō. He finally tells her the real reason, because she is here with him he didn't accept Satō. He thinks that accepted Satō would have decreased her her trust in him and increase her anxieties, because she would feel like Satō would replace her. He confirms that Karuizawa is a much better at adapting to situation than Satō from the way she handled Nagumo during the date. While he is thinking about Karuizawa's usefulness to him, Karuizawa who thinks about his answer, expresses that Kiyotaka really only thinks of people as tools, seeing right through his thought process. They start walking together, although Karuizawa is walking in step slightly further so they do not look like they are together. She asks him to apologizes for what happened with Shiho Manabe, and Kiyotaka says he will make it up to her later, but she wants him to make it up to her now and asks him what was happening with Nagumo. He decides that he should tell her now and tells her he is going to meet a 2nd year who opposes Nagumo and invites her along.

Kiyotaka turns off his fun as he reaches the meeting place. He and Karuizawa wait for the 2nd year to show up. Karuizawa thinks that the 2nd year can see their identities and leave without showing their face but Kiyotaka thinks that because Karuizawa is with him and his phone is off, the person has to show up to confirm whether he is the person the 2nd year is supposed to be meeting or a random couple hanging out on Christmas. The vice president Kiriyama shows up and asks who Karuizawa is, Kiyotaka replies a partner he can trust. They begin talking about Nagumo and why Kiriyama wants to bring him down. Kiyotaka asks if Nagumo really has control of all the 2nd years. Kiriyama tells him he has although some may not like it, Karuizawa thinks it's weird since they should all be fighting to be in class A. Kiriyama explains that, Nagumo promised a revolution and that he would bring any student from any class with good abilities into class A. Kiyotaka explains that there are students like Keisei and Horikita who are talented but in class D and these students will follow Nagumo on the chance to get to class A. They learn that Kiriyama is from class A but dropped to class B because of Nagumo and is working on the student council as the vice president so he can gather information on Nagumo. Kiyotaka realizes that he really dislikes Nagumo, which is why he is willing to good behind him. Kiriyama tells him that since all of the 2nd years are under his control he looked for rivals in other years like Manabu, and tells Kiyotaka that Nagumo will focus on him once Manabu graduates. Similar, because of the 2nd years aren't willing to defy Nagumo, Kiriyama has to find allies outside his year. Kiyotaka thinks that this wouldn't have happened if he didn't run against Manabu at the sports festival, but since Nagumo already has him in his gaze he may need to do something. Kiriyama says he is willing to pass information but anymore than that he won't do especially if it's against the school rules he leaves the decisions to Kiyotaka to make. He tells him from now on they won't meet but he will send messages using a free account, with that Kiriyama leaves.

Kiyotaka and Karuizawa head back and they talk about what they heard from Kiriyama both of them are not sure what to think of Nagumo. As they walk, Karuizawa asks what he meant when he called her his partner because she thinks Horikita is more fitting of that title. However, he tells her she is just his neighbor and that Karuizawa is much closer to him. She accepts being his partner and Kiyotaka tells her not to expect too much as that would mean making meaning the people after him her enemy too, she tells him when that happens she will protect him too. Karuizawa then asks what kind of middle school did Kiyotaka go and instead of answer he asks her to guess. She guesses that if this was a manga the only thing she can think of is him being raised in a facility to be some sort of agent. Kiyotaka thinks she is spot on but doesn't tell her when she gives up guessing. She promises that she will one day get the answer out of him. He then returns with a question about whose idea was it for a double date, and they both agree that Satō was acting a little weird. She then decides to give him a Christmas present, after teasing him that he didn't get to receive a present from Satō. She says she bought it when she went Christmas shopping with her friends and bought a present for Hirata, he accepts the present. Karuizawa then asks Kiyotaka if it's okay if she breaks up with Hirata even if her value to him drops, he tells her that even without Hirata here value won't drop because she is different from the old Karuizawa. In his mind, he muses that he had also planned for this to happen as well and with this Karuizawa would become more closely attached to him which was part of his plans. Although the double date was unexpected he ended up getting closer to Karuizawa too. Since they are going to break up, she reverts to calling Hirata by his surname but continues to call Kiyotaka by his given name. He asks if it's okay if she continues calling him that, he replies it's up to her. He tells her that from now he will call her by her given name Kei which surprises her. He remembers the package he had bought 2 days prior and takes it out of his coat and says he has a present for her too. He hands her a package with 2 types of medicine and a receipt inside. The receipt shows that it was bought on the 23rd of December at 10.55 am, which makes Kei release that Kiyotaka had wanted to make sure she wasn't sick and actually care if she okay after what happened on the roof. He then explains that he saw her and Satō at the mall so he knew she was all right. She tells him that if he was worried he should have went to see her directly or called her. He replies that he can't simply go to her room, and calling her wouldn't be good as Kei could have pretended to be strong. Moreover since he was the cause of what happened on the roof he didn't want to put any pressure on her mentally. He tells her that he underestimate how strong she was and would need her help in the future, she agrees as his partner. As they walk back Kiyotaka thinks that in this 1 year, the person closest to him was probably Kei and before he knew it she have become some indispensable to him. He thinks that maybe there are friends, and if there was no problems like Nagumo or aiming for class A they could be more than friends.

Volume 8
At the start of the new school term, Class D is raised to Class C. They are on a bus headed for a new special exam, Kiyotaka is assigned to sits next to Ike who Kiyotaka thinks is now just another classmate even though they used to be friends. He notes that he feels slightly lonely, but he has recently become friends with Keisei and Akito due to the exams. Chabashira sensei begins explaining the new exam that they will be taking, the Mixed Training Camp. For the new exam, the boys and the girls will be separated and each year will be split into 6 small groups and each group will combine with small groups from the 2nd and 3rd years to make 1 big group. The formation of the groups are important and each small group must be made of at least 2 classes and must appoint unanimously decide on a group leader. All students will take an exam on the final day of the camp where their average score will be used to rank each group. The group in last place will have their leader expelled if they also get scores below the borderline set by the school. The leader can also appoint another person responsible for dragging the group down, forcing both the leader and appointed person to both be expelled. The class with a student expelled will also lose 100 class points. After the explanation, Hirata asks Chabashira sensei a question on whether it is possible to cancel the expulsion. She tells him that to cancel the expulsion, 20 Million Points need to be paid and 300 class points as well. Ike also asks a question on whether boys and girls will be separated throughout the camp, he and Shinohara seem happy that once a day during dinner both genders will have dinner in the same food hall. Kiyotaka thinks their christmas meal went well. Hirata and asks the class if they would like to combine the points earned and redistribute them equally among the class, but most of the class do not want to after Chabashira offers advice that holding points is a good policy as in some situations you may not be able to transfer points to your classmates when you need it immediately so always having a reserve is good. Hirata says since the class will be separated by gender, Horikita should be the leader on the girls side if the girls need any advice, realising that she herself is not the most approachable she asks Kushida to be the sub leader and help with with the girls side. Hirata takes up the role of leader for the guys. Horikita messages Kiyotaka asking if he has any thoughts for the coming exam he says he has none but sends a message of encouragement since boys and girls will be separated he can't do anything to help. Thinking that the biggest problem for this is lack of information and the movements of the upper classmen, Kiyotaka sends a message to one of the upper classmen for information. He also sends a request to Kei by text but receives a blank reply. He realises that she is worried about the exam as she is not the most well liked person, so he thinks she should send her advice so that she will get through the exam. Kiyotaka then thinks that he cannot protect everybody during this exam, aside from himself, he prioritises Kei then Hirata and finally Horikita due to her use in the situation with the student council. While he doesn't want to lose anyone in the Ayanokōji group he can't protect everyone.

The bus arrives at their destination and the guys and girls are immediately seperated after their phones are confiscated. The first order of business is to form 6 groups from within their year and inform the teacher. Class A's Matoba takes the lead and has a group of 14 class A student's with him including Katsuragi, he makes an offer to all the other classes, he is looking for 1 person of any class to join their group so they can fulfill the requirements of the group. Secondly, if they accept their offer the remaining 6 students of class A can be divided in anyway they want. Matoba explains that the Class A's group leader will be Katsuragi and if they accept the condition within the next 5 minutes they guarantee that in the case that the group ends up last, they will only drag the non class A person down with Katsuragi if he person intentionally sabotages the group, even if he has terrible scores he will be safe. While on paper it appears that there is no guarantee that a verbal agreement like that will hold, Kiyotaka thinks that class A wouldn't go back on their word as that would decrease their classes sincerity in the long run. Hirata also holds the same opinion as Kiyotaka and is planning on taking up the offer while classes A and D (Ryūen's Class) is not willing to take the offer in the begining until, Class D now lead by Kaneda proposes that one of them should take their offer so Classes D, C and B can join forces to make groups with all classes use the remaining class A students and close the gap with class A by maximising the bonus for combining multiple classes. Kanzaki who is leading class B and Hirata agree with the idea, but no one in any of the classes wants to join the class A team due to being the odd one out. Hirata tells class D that they should consider taking the offer, as they will probably be safe from expulsion and get private points in case the group ranks first. On hearing this, Yamauchi, Ike and Onizuka all say they want to join the group, Yamauchi joins the group by wining in rock paper scissors. This leaves the other classes to start forming their groups with all classes using selection. Shibata from class B also chimes in and asks if this plan was made by Ryūen who has been living quietly by himself and rumours of him stepping down as leader have been floating around, Kaneda denies it and says that it is his plan. Although the students around seem to have some doubts. Keisei expresses to Akito and Kiyotaka that he isn't satified with Hirata's plan of saving people instead of gaining more class and private points but doesn't speak up. The next trouble in grouping arises from what to do with Ryūen who nobody wants to group with. Hirata who wants to help everybody asks him to join his group but Hirata's group members oppose the idea.

With no one willing to take Ryūen the forming of groups is stalled until Akito speaks up. Akito proposes that his group will take Ryūen and in exchange, he will be the leader of the group. He justifies this by saying he wants to increase the multiplier for his group as much as possible so he can get as many points as possible. While some people doubt Akito, the groups cannot be decided without unless everyone agrees and Ryūen is the last piece so they agree. The groups for the mixed training groups and then decided. They are 4 groups centered around each class with 2 remaining groups filled with the remainders. Ryūen and Akito and part of one group while Kiyotaka contains, Albert and Ishizaki from class D Keisei and Kōenji from class C, 3 students from class B, and finally Yahiko and Hashimoto from class A. Once the first year groups are formed, the upper classmen come and are surprised that the first years had formed their groups so quickly. Nagumo proposes since they are ready they start forming the big groups right away, he proposes that to make it fair and let the first years should chose which groups they want to group with as they have the least information but Manabu says it's not very fair either, since they are differences in knowledge amond people. The 1st years agree to the idea and the leaders from each group go form a circle to decide who gets first pick. Kiyotaka's group is the only group with no leader as no one wants the responsibility. Seeing that they are the only group not ready, Kiyotaka gives Keisei a light nudge and he steps forward. Matoba who gets to pick first, chooses Manabu's group. The next few 1st year groups avoid Nagumo's group which allows Keisei who picks 4th to pick Nagumo's group. Kiyotaka asks why everyone is avoiding Nagumo's group and is told that it's because his group is weirdly made up of student's from class C and D. With the groups decided, Nagumo challenges Manabu to a 1 on 1 battle between the 2 of them, Fujimaki who lead the red team at the sports festival is annoyed at Nagumo for constantly challenging Manabu and tells him to know his place. However, Nagumo doesn't back down Manabu tells him that they is no point in them even battling, but finally relents and accepts the challenge. Nagumo jokes that they should see who can expel the most people. Finally they settle on which group will have the higher point average on the final day. Manabu also tells Nagumo that he won't participate if he involved anyone else in their battle and he can't interfere with other groups as well, Nagumo replies that interfering is part of the strategy of this particular exam, but Manabu says if he does that then it won't be a 1 on 1 battle. Nagumo says all right and asks if they should simply put their pride on the line, Manabu doesn't answer and simply leaves.

With their challenge decided and the large groups decided. Nagumo, approaches the first year small group that picked his group and guesses that they haven't decided on a leader. He explains his reasoning due to their reaction during the rock paper scissors selection. Nagumo begins to pressure them to choose a leader at this moment. Seeing as how no one wants the responsibility, they decide to make the decision once again by rock paper scissors. As all the group members gather, Kōenji doesn't and is just staring out a window. The uppers classmen get annoyed at his attitude and ask him to quickly join. However, Kōenji being Kōenji doesn't care and says he has no interest in it. He says if they want to make him the leader he doesn't mind but starts threating that he may purposely get scores of 0 at the tests if he is the leader. Kiyotaka thinks that there is something strange in his words but doesn't say anything. Instead Nagumo approachs him and says he knows about Kōenji, he stills him although he feigns interested in getting to class A, isn't it because he already has a method to get to class A. This surprises most of the people present. Kōenji interested in what Nagumo is saying asks for his reasoning. Nagumo says that if he tells reveals his plan here he won't be able to use it, but Kōenji doesn't mind. Nagumo tells him that his plan to get to class A is to buy private points with real money from students who are graduating as points are useless once they graduate. Kōenji had posted his picture and profile on his families companies page before coming here, allowing him to have credibility in moving large sums of money outside the real world. Nagumo says he should inform the school about this transfer of points of graduating students. Hashimoto mutters that his method is something not many people can consider which Kiyotaka overhears. Having lost his way of getting to Class A, Kōenji replies that now it's even clearer that there is no point in making him the leader because for someone like him getting expelled is not a problem as he has a future already secured. Which means making him the leader would simply allow him to drag someone down which he probably won't hesitate in doing. Seeing the situation, Keisei volunteers to be the leader. Which the upperclassmen agreee to. With that done, the group head to their sleeping area where Ishizaki rushes to the bunk bed he wants to sleep in. Yahiko says that instead of first come first serve, they should discuss it, which Keisei agrees to. Ishizaki eyes accidently meet Kiyotaka's when Keisei says that as they were standing next to each other. Ishizaki then says how should they discuss it and gets off the bed.

Kōenji seeing the opportunity takes the bed Ishizaki just vacated and starts to ignore everyone. Seeing no choice, Ishizaki takes another bed with Albert below him. Keisei chooses the bed below Kōenji while Hashimoto is above Kiyotaka. No knowing Kiyotaka's name they introduce themselves to each other. Kiyotaka thinks without a leader like Hirata the group will not get closer. When suddenly Hashimoto asks if the rumours about Ryūen loses a fight are true. Not wanting to be part of the conversation Kiyotaka leaves the room and heads for dinner. At the dining hall which is the first time the guys and the girls can interact, Kiyotaka waits by the entrance as the area is large and without phones meeting up would be difficult, he thinks that if Horikita wants to talk to him, she would just come up to him but with Kei, they can't make any suspicious moves as he might be in the spotlights of both Nagumo and Sakayanagi. Kei gives signals to him that she doesn't need to talk and he goes to eat dinner alone. He thinks that this time is most likely for the students to share intel and gather information or give out instructions during this exam and needs to be used wisely, he also thinks that this exam is not suited for him. When he sits down, a few seats down Ichinose sits down with a group of her friends and appears tired, he thinks that since he is good at erasing his presence she won't notice him. He overhears them talking about what happened at the girls side of the exam and learns that they had difficulty grouping up. As Ichinose rests her head on the table, she unfortunately notices his presence and calls out to him. The chat a little and he gives some encouragement before leaving.

The next day, the lessons for the exam begins. The day starts at 6 and the group begins fighting immediately due to Kōenji and Ishizaki not getting alone, as they are about to start a fight, Hashimoto calms them all down saying they should gather first so they won't get in trouble with the school and if they want to fight later then they can this seems to work and the group goes to the appointed meeting place. Aside from taking lessons, there is meditation practice and during the first practice Hakase is corrected for his way of speaking by the instructor who tells them the importance of considering the other person in society and not simply act on your own accord. Aside from lessons and practice, the students are expected to clean the premises everyday and well as prepare breakfast for themselves. The 2nd and 3rd years in Kiyotaka's group propose that each year should take on 2 breakfast duties each morning for the next 6 days. Everyone agrees but Ishizaki complains that they have to wake up 2 hours earlier from the standard 6 am to prepare for breaksfast. Kiyotaka monologues that their group doesn't have anyone to bring them together like a leader and Ishizaki status has gone up after supposedly bring Ryūen down so he acts tougher now which is causing problems, and perhaps the only one who can bring the group together is Hashimoto who says the right things and is good at observation. They attend lessons all day, and also have marathon training as part of their schedule, Keisei who is weak physcially cannot keep up with the pace of the group after a days worth of activities. Kiyotaka thinking that there might be a small chance no matter how small that Keisei who is leader can drag with down with in, decides to help out a little by trying to convince Kōenji to slow his pace. Kōenji says no and says that he shouldn't be brought down to the plebians level and continues on. During dinner that day, Kiyotaka notices a small commotion and sees that Sakayanagi has been knocked over by Yamauchi, he apologises and tries to lend a hand but she doesn't take it. As Yamauchi walks away, Kiyotaka hears him call Sakayanagi a little slow. Kiyotaka then goes to see if Sakayanagi is all right. They talk a little about Ichinose and whether they can really trust her, or if her class can trust her as the bank for class B. At the end of the day, the 2nd and 3rd years come to the first 1st years room saying they came to get to know each other better and proposes to play cards to help them get to know each other. They agree on playing old maid and bet on breakfast duty where the loses have to do breakfast duty. During the game, Nagumo talks about how he respects Manabu so he challenges with so Manabu will accept him. The 1st years lose twice in a row before Yahiko switches with Keisei and the 1st years manages to get a win and Manabu loses to the third years. The first years lose on the 4th round and Hashimoto requests to tag out. Nagumo saying he doesn't want to waste time, 'randomly' picks Kiyotaka to take his place. Kiyotaka opens the game with the joker but manages to hand is over to the 3rd year which surprises him leading to the third years losing the 5th game. On the last game, Nagumo and Kiyotaka face off as the last 2. Kiyotaka has the joker but is taken by Nagumo on purpose to test Kiyotaka, Kiyotaka thinks that he could lose to make Nagumo lose interest in him but revels that Nagumo had made a small mark on the joker when the games had started. Already knowing where the joker is in Nagumo hands, he comes up with a random reason and takes the right card even after Nagumo asks him to think about it. In the end, from 2 breakfast duties, the 1st years end up with 3 duties.

On the next day, the 1st years are making breakfast. Kiyotaka and Albert work togeher to cut vegetables while Hashimoto fries the eggs. Unfortunately, Kōenji is no where to be seen having gone off to the toilet and having stomach pains for the entire duration which angers Ishizaki. At the lessons, Kiriyama lectures both Kōenji and Ishizaki who are both not taking the lessons seriously, as usual Kōenji has the same attitude and doesn't care. The 3rd year representative from Class B Ishikura tells Kiriyama to not be too forcefull as it will backfire. Nagumo then intejects and asks him if he would like him to help in taking down Manabu possibly expelling him, telling him it's a waste that Ishikura is in Class B just because Class A has Manabu. He even says that there are many ways to hurt Manabu. At dinner that evening, Kiyotaka looks for Kei as he wants to get information on the girls side after seeing a strange group composed of Ichinose and Hiyori and Mei-Yu Wang who people in his usually call Mii-chan from his classroom in the day. Kiyotaka easily finds Kei who has been sitting at the same place for the past 3 days to make herself easy to find without his intruction which impresses him. Sending her friends away, Kei asks if he needs her help now after 3 days. He says he needs information and she teases him by saying he can't rely on many people since he has low communication skills. Kiyotaka thinks letting her tease him is a small price for their relationship, but decides he wants to tease her back. He says since she is fine she doesn't need any advice from him. She gives in and also asks about Ryūen since the girls where talking about him too. He tells her there is nothing to worry about and calls her by her first name which surprises her, seeing that it has an effect on her he calls her name another 2 times in different sentences. She realises that he is just teasing her. Getting information about the groups from her, he also request that she look out for a few individuals who will be key players in the exam. He thinks Kei will be fine as he thinks the focus will be on the different years.

At the shower that day, Kiyotaka chats with Shibata and Kanzaki about how their group is doing and whether Ryūen is up to something before they both talk about how they would like to continue the good relations between their classes. Yamauchi shows up and says the 1st are checking to see who is the 'biggest' among them. Kanzaki not being interested leaves but Shibata joins in, Kiyotaka is also about to leave until he is stopped by Sudou. Kaneda is the current leader in size, but is challenged by Sudou who wins. Yahiko says class A has someone who can match him and presents Katsuragi who is comparable but loses barely. Ishizaki says there is someone in Class D who can't lose and everyone thinks he means Ryūen but he actually means Albert who easily crushes Sudou. Finally Kōenji steps up calling himself a perfect specimen and handly beats Albert. Ryūen suddenly says that they is someone here still hiding his true strength and everyone looks at Kiyotaka who is the only one still wearing his towel. Amongst cheers from everyone to remove it, he thinks Ryūen has him in a good trap as no matter what he can't win. So he removes the towel and Kiyotaka is revealed to be the largest but just barely. Kōenji is impresses that someone can compete with him but states that in this case experience is more important. At night, Kiyotaka finds a note under his bed with a message to meet at 25 o'clock. Using the time, he thinks about the exam and figures out how they will be tested at the end of the exam. He thinks that Meditation, Long Distance Relay, a written exam and speech giving are most likely to be what is tested. He later meets with Manabu, who wants to know if he has any information on Nagumo but Kiyotaka says that he hasn't done anything suspicious. Manabu gives Kiyotaka the information he wanted when he sent the text on the bus, that the student council president cannot unilaterally add rules to special exams but the rules can be taken into consideration and added. Kiyotaka thinks that while Manabu is not taking the wrong strategy by getting his group as strong as possible, but that isn't perfect.

As the group continues, their lessons. During the physical training exercise the groups is tasked with walking 18 kilometers and must make it back by 12 in time for lunch. The first year group are the slowest group as they are trying to keep pace by walking up slope and running the retun leg downslope to preserve energy, moreover mid way through Kōenji disappears off the track. Since roll call is required at the halfway make, Kiyotaka offers to try and bring him back as he wants a choice to talk along with him. He finds Kōenji and asks him to co-operate with the group, he tells him that that depends entirely on him and he came into the forest and wanted to come into contact with a wild boar he sported. Kiyotaka grabs his arm to stop him, at that moment Kōenji releases that Kiyotaka is the person who tamed Ryūen from his strength, while Kiyotaka says it wasn't him, Kōenji says he cannot convince him others but promises he won't say anything and runs off to wrestle with the boar. Kiyotaka catches up to the group and says he couldn't bring him back but no one blames him. At the checkpoint where Chabashira sensei is waiting. The group returns first without Kiyotaka who wants to wait for Kōenji, when he arrives they both head back catching up with the group but Keisei has sprained his leg and is being supported by Hashimoto, Kiyotaka helps Hashimoto support Keisei back. The next day at clean up, Keisei is struggling due to his injury so Kiyotaka decides to help him, but Ishizaki is unhappy with Keisei not doing his job and acts out. Kiyotaka thinks that the only one in the group who can help their worsening relationship is probably Hashimoto whose position in class A he doesn't know but thinks that he has good abilities. At dinner that day, Kiyotaka is preparing to gather information from Nazuna Asahina due to 2 reason. She doesn't seem to worship Nagumo and his meeting with her would be a 'coincidence'. He waits while she is alone and asks about her charm, she realises that Kiyotaka was the one who picked it up and thanks him. They talk little about Nagumo, and who Kiyotaka is being targeted and how to get out of his sights. She jokes and says to beat him. Kiyotaka says maybe he should do that which she laughs at. To repay for his help in returning her charm, she lets him ask her about any information since he can't affect the outcome anyway. Kiyotaka asks about how the groups for the 2nd year was formed and about how big groups were formed. He realised that they weren't formed randomly like the guys side from her response she reveals the only notable 3rd year is Tachibana, Manabu's ex-secretary and that she is not the leader. Kiyotaka thinks that there is connection to Nagumo being connected with Ishikura. Kiyotaka uses the information combined with Kei's information to figure out Nagumo's plan and how his strategies are different from Ryūen or Sakayanagi. Later that night in rooms, the atmosphere between everyone is very heavy. Finally Hashimoto speaks up about his past and how he felt useless when he stopped playing soccer because he wasn't the best and switched to studying. This prompts Keisei to speak up about his past and why he studies so hard and his insecurities about being useless to his class in the island survival exam and the sports relay and he cries tears of frustration. Ishizaki who understands his insecurities as he has been acting out because this exam he hasn't felt like he has down everything says he knows that he took the responsibility of leader because no one else would and he is holding them back. This prompts the rest of the group to open up, and Kiyotaka feels like their group has finally become a group.

On the last day before the day of the tests. Keisei proposes a strategy for the long distance relay, his plans is for the weaker runs to run the shorters required distance while the fitter and faster runners run longer distances. Ishizaki, Albert, Hashimoto and Kiyotaka volunteer to run the longer portions of the 18 km run. The next step of the strategy involves getting Kōenji to cooperate with them so they don't get the lowest grades, after some talking Keisei manages to detemine that Kōenji will at least do the miminum in the tests and not do nothing. At cleaning that day, Ishizaki helps Keisei clean his area as he is still recovering from the strain from earlier. Kiyotaka also overhears the conversation between Hashimoto and Yahiko which allows him to find out that Hashimoto works under Sakayanagi and often was used to clash with Katsuragi making him enemies with Yahiko who follows Katsuragi. At dinner on the last day, Kiyotaka spots Ichinose who is not acting like usual and calls out to her. They talk about the possibility of someone being expelled and about the dificulties of the exam. Ichinose appears to want to think about things and walks away. From her behaviour, Kiyotaka thinks that Sakayanagi has already made her move to attack Ichinose. As Kiyotaka leaves the dining hall, Kei secretly passes him a piece of paper with information on 1 of the people he asked her to look out for. He goes to find Tachibana who is alone and is crying, he tells her if she is troubled she should tell Manabu but she acts tough and says nothing is wrong. Kiyotaka learns a little more about Manabu and how he singlehanded has been keeping class A in front and saving as many classmates as he can, and wonders if he is similar to Hirata even though he doesn't look like it. As she leaves she tells him to not tell Manabu about this at all, which Kiyotaka thinks is the wrong decision and is not something being a sacrifice would solve.

Later that night, Kiyotaka wakes up because Hashimoto above him, gets up to leave the room. Thinking he possibly isn't going to the toilet, Kiyotaka tails him and finds him meeting Ryūen. He thinks that it's possible that Hashimoto connected Ryūen to Katsuragi for the island exam He overhears them talking about whether he has really stepped down as leader as he can't believe Ishizaki did it and about Class D's sudden rise to class C and who the strong students are in the class at this point, Hashimoto doesn't mention Kiyotaka among those he thinks are threats. Ryūen also asks if Hashimoto will betray Sakayanagi but he says the price of that would be high since Sakayangi is the strongest in class A and he is part of her staff. Hashimoto confirms that Ryūen isn't as gone as he thought and they are about to leave when Manabu and Nagumo arrive for their own secret talk. Nagumo asks Ryūen who he stops from leaving if he wants to bet on the outcome of their battle between each other for 10000 points but he replies that's too little money and he will do it for 1000000 points but Nagumo doesn't believe he has that many points since he is in class D. Nagumo asks Hashimoto if he believes Ryūen can pay, even though he knows about Ryūen's contract with Katsuragi he says he doesn't know. Ryūen leaves but Hashimoto stays to hear what Nagumo and Manabu is talking about. Nagumo asks Manabu to go easy on him on the exams because if he doesn't he will regret it. Nagumo says no one has figured out his plan and no way in the school can probably do it, even the 1st year that Manabu highly rates, Kiyotaka. Hashimoto is intrigued by this conversation and Nagumo even asks him what he thinks of Kiyotaka, he replies he is a normal student which Nagumo agrees to. Manabu replies not once did he say that Kiyotaka held great ability so he was misunderstanding. Although Kiyotaka wants to hear more, he goes back to the room by the long way as he needs to be back in bed before Hashimoto. When Hashimoto returns, Kiyotaka can feel his gaze on him before he goes to sleep.

The day of the exams arrives and as expected, the exams are the 4 that Kiyotaka predicted: Meditation, Long Distance Relay, a written exam and speech giving. The order of the test for the first years is Meditaion, the written test, the relay and the speech. At the start of the meditation exam, names are called randomly to increase the dificulty of the test but not dificult if the form is done properly. While the written exam is fairly simple. Since both exams are particularly easy, Kiyotaka doesn't think that holding back is worth it so he aims to do his best, only making a mistake on the first question of the written exam. Seeing how easy the test are he thinks that most of the averages between every group will be fairly close so the exam will be decided by the long distance relay. Hashimoto following what he overhears the nighth before is asking Kiyotaka some questions regarding Ryūen but Kiyotaka feigns ignorance. Using Keisei's plan, the group place the slower runners at the start and the faster runners at the back. The last runner for the group is Kōenji who Keisei thinks will try slightly harder if he is last. Kiyotaka who is second last and runs fast enough to overtake the 3rd rank group from 4th position and get close to the 2nd place runner because he can camouflage his speeds as the runners in front may think they are slowing down due to the distance. Kōenji who is 3rd when he receives the baton overtakes the 2nd place team and finishes second. At the end of the exams, the results are annouced and Manabu's big group is first place. While Nagumo and Kiyotaka's big group is second and there are no expulsions on the guys sides. From the annoucers wording, Kiyotaka surmises that there are expulsions on the girls side. Horikita and Kushida's group composed of mainly D-class students end up in first place. While the girls side have a group below the borderline. That group lead by Momoko Ikari of class 3-B will have Ikari expelled. The Class 3-A students get angry because they realise that Tachibana who is in that group will likely be the person they bring down with them. Manabu asks why he did it, Naguumo simply replies he didn't want to expel Manabu but just see what face Manabu will make knowing Tachibaba would be expelled and he also says he finally understands his way of doing things. Manabu asks why Tachibaba didn't say anything even though she knew, but she said that she didn't want to burden Manabu and she should be responsible for herself. Manabu has made up his mide on saving her and the rest of class A are ready to use their class points. Nagumo asks if at this late stage they should use their class points for this. Since it is their last term, but Manabu says that he will just take back the position of class A later. Hearing enough, Kiyotaka leaves and Kei is waiting for him outside. Kei slowing follows behind and says everything happend as he expected. He explains that he knew from the information he received and that the student council was involved and it was a large trap. Kei is understands his explanation but doesn't understand why they would use class 3-B instead of 3-D or 3-C as now both classes B and A would lose 300 points and the difference between the classes won't change. He also says that Nagumo probably paid for 20000000 private points in advance to guarantee their support. He says that for class D and C there would want to raise their classes even if only by one class so they wouldn't drag class A down but other classes. If it's B they will definitely drag A down. Kei finally asks him if the same situation happens to her and there is nothing that can be done. To which he replies that she should know the answer without asking, he will use any method so that she won't be expelled.

Volume 9
The school term continues with regular classes, and Kiyotaka is later than usual to arrive in class. When he arrives, they is a big commotion around the girls. Horikita tells him that it seems Kei and Hirata have broken up, Kiyotaka thinks it's strange that Horikita is interested in such a topic but she says she happened to catch wind of it during the commotion. Horikita asks him to confirm if he didn't know anything about it since he is close to both Hirata and Kei. He says he doesn't know about their private affairs and thinks that for a second Horikita had a look of suspicion and they shouldn't be any indication of what he is thinking on his face. Kiyotaka asks who broke up with who since he doesn't know, and she tells him it seems it was Kei. He thinks that is better to help maintain her position in the class and it won't be weird even if Hirata defends Kei's if she is trouble. Kiyotaka also notes about how the recent camp may have made people mature but Yamauchi makes fun of Hirata for being dumped but is stopped by both Sudō and Ike he notes that people mature at different rates. Aside from the big news of the couple breaking up, Horikita tells Kiyotaka about the terrible rumours that have been spreading about Ichinose: 'A History of Violence', 'Engagaed in Compensated dating', 'Engaged in theft and robbery' and 'A history of drug abuse'. They discuss what they should do but at this stage they can't do anything as they are just rumours spread around and there isn't anyone to blame for slander so think they should not get invovled. Kiyotaka thinks that this must be Sakayanagi's attack on Ichinose. At the end of class, Sakayanagi surprisingly turns up at class C and is looking for Yamauchi and wants to talk to him alone. She leaves first and tells him she will want for him outside. Horikita tries to stop Yamauchi from meeting her by saying it could be a trap, but Yamauchi is too positive and doesn't believe it and it more focused on the cute girl possibly wanting to be with him and he leaves to talk to Sakayanagi. People in the class are curious so some of them follow to eavesdrop including the Ayanokōji group except Akito who has gone for club practive. As they watch Yamauchi and Sakayanagi they see Sakayanagi act like a girl in love trying to appeal to Yamauchi by fiddling with her hair. Haruka and Airi thinks that it's an act and a trap but Keisei says that if that were the case she would have approached him in secret instead of in front of the whole class. Sakayanagi wants to talk more privately and they go somewhere else and the class C busybodies are unable to follow.

The Ayanokōji group then head to the café and chat about things they talk about Yamauchi and Sakayanagi and whether it's real or not. Kiyotaka thinks that by approaching him in front of the class, the believability of it being a trap goes down but that is something that Sakayanagi would consider. They talk about Kei and Hirata breaking up, Haruka says she isn't surprised as she thought Hirata would prefer a more ladylike girl, Airi then asks if Kiyotaka thinks Kei is cute, which he finds difficult to answer so he says that he doesn't know since he doesn't pay that much attention to her. Haruka says the bigger problem is now that Hirata is free what will happen to the class as lots of girls like him, like Mii-chan. They notice Ichinose who is surround by her class but notably Kanzaku is missing. Kiyotaka thinks they are likely trying to shield her from the rumours but she doesn't seem to want that. 2 hours while they are at the café, Keisei is studying while Haruka gets a call from Akito saying something is happening at practice between class A and B so he will be late because he wants to make sure nothing happens/. Interested in whats happening, Haruka suggests they go and check it out and if anything happens Kiyotaka will protect Airi and Akito can handle it so they go and search for him. When they find him, Kanzaki and Hashimoto are discussing about the rumours floating around about Ichinose, Kanzaki says he has been looking around and has knows that the rumours started from class A. Hashimoto says they have talked about it but it didn't come from them he simply heard it somwhere and is talking about it. Hashimoto says isn't it weird that Ichinose isn't denying or responding to the rumours, but Kanzaki simply says he believes her when he asked her. Fromt their conversation, Kiyotaka who suspected as much confirms that one of the rumours being spread must true which is why Ichinose cannot complain about the slander without making it public. Hence nothing can be done now. When Hashimoto and Kanzaki leave, Haruka says that Akito is strong and Akito eventually talks a little about his past, it seems he is confident in his fighting ability because he used to grow up in a bad area in the some area Ryūen is also from. He tells them not to spread about his past. They return to the café as Keisei is still there stuyding by himself as Kiyotaka thinks that they shouldn't get too involved.

One day on the way home from school, Kiyotaka spots Ichinose alone he thinks about checking up on her, but he notices 2 people following behind him. Usingh his phone camera to check who is behind him, he notices Hashimoto and Mii-chan. He thinks starts to suspect that Hashimoto is following him while Mii-chan comes up to him and asks for a little of his time. Seeing as Ichinose is too far away he accepts agrees to talk to her and she ask if they can go to a café. At the café, she asks about Hirata and tells Kiyotaka that Hirata thinks he is the most reliable guy in the class so she is asking for his help. From his conversation with the Ayanokōji group earlier he thinks it must be able how she likes Hirata. She asks if Hirata likes anyone to which Kiyotaka says probably not. He advises her to take it slow with Hirata instead of confessing straight away. Kiyotaka also spots Hashimoto at the café which confirms his suspicion that Hashimoto is following him around. He also thinks that he is doing it on his own accord and not doing it on Sakayanagi orders as she doesn't want to reveal his skills to anyone. While they are talking, Hiyori appears and asks if they are on a date. She wonders what they are doing together as it's strange to see them together. Not wanting to talk about her love life, Mii-chan doesn't know what to say. So Kiyotaka says they were talking about china as he is interested in going there. Hiyori joins them as they converse. At the end of their gathering, Hiyori asks if Kiyotaka can do anything to help Ichinose as she doesn't want to see her get hurt. Kiyotaka says he cannot do anything and but he can help by asking Horikita or Hirata unfortunately Hiyori wants his help and involving more people may do more harm then good. Later that evening, Horikita invites Kiyotaka to meet with Ichinose in her room that night to discuss the situation. Horikita offers her help in the matter but Ichinose is her cheeful self and says the best strategy is to leave it alone and not react, sooner or later the rumours will die down. Horikita insists on helping and prevents her from leaving but Ichinose insists and she leaves saying thank you for their concern. Once Ichinose is gone, Horikita asks if there should do anything, but Kiyotaka who thinks it's good that Horikita has grown and wants to help others reminds her that Ichinose is from another class and they may have to defeat her sooner or later so if someone else does it, it's not a bad thing. When he leaves Horikita's room Ichinose is waiting for him he asks if she is all right. She apologises for worrying them and that the best thing to do is ignore it. Later that night at 1 am, Kiyotaka receives a phone call from someone he doesn't know, the person who calls, says nothing but Kiyotaka's name. From the sound of the person's voice, Kiyotaka thinks its someone young and since the phones provided by school has security measures to prevent outside people from calling students, he thinks it's most likely either a student or teacher. Kiyotaka thinks that this is strange if his father wanted to attack him as he would do so without alerting him. He begings to think that something is about to change.

Days past and the students are busy preparing for final exams so the rumours seem to have died down but still persist in the background. Until one thursday, when Kiyotaka is headed back after school and sees Katsuragi and Yahiko in the lobby where there is a big commotion. It seems like someone has place letters into everyone mail boxes again like last time, Katsuragi is also here but this time with Yahiko. Yahiko asks Kiyotaka to check if he received one and he finds a letter that says: 'Ichinose is a criminal'. Katsuragi thinks that is kind of attack is probably Sakayanagi. Ichinose arrives her some of her classmates and they tell her to report it to the school but she continues her stance of ignoring it can goes back to her room. Kamuro also arrives and immediately throws the letter away and heads into the lobby after Kiyotaka who has decided to go back to his room. He asks Kamuro what floor she wants to go to but says nothing. He clicks the 4th floor where his room is and she follows him out when it reaches. She then forces herself into his room by asking if they can talk and that she doesn't like standing around to do that. Seeing that she won't leave him alone if he doesn't comply he lets her in. She begins to say that she is here without Sakayanagi's knowledge and that she wants Kiyotaka to do something about Ichinose. Kiyotaka thinks that it's probable that Sakayanagi sent Kamuro here to get him to have a 1 on 1 battle with him. Kamuro begins to tell him how Sakayanagi controls her with the secret which is the same as Ichinose's. She tells him how Sakayanagi caught her stealling a can of alcohol near the start of school and that Sakayanagi will give her something more thrilling than stealing if she works with her. Kiyotaka doesn't really have proof and has doubts if this is true, so Kamuro leaves her student ID with him and goes out of his room coming back 10 mins later with a can of beer in hand. Since she is underage she can't buy it so it serves as proof that she stole it. She offers to leave it behind but he tells her to not joke. Kiyotaka asks why come to him, but she just tells him she can't go to anyone else as he already heard it from Sakayanagi. Kamuro then leaves with the can of beer. Later that night, Kiyotaka receives a call from Manabu who has some information for him, Kushida has made contact with Nagumo and wants him to help her expel Horikita Suzune. Kiyotaka doesn't exactly trust the information since it's from Kiriyama who informed Manabu but he thinks that as a source of information Manabu is very useful. He thinks while Kushida is making a good move it all depends on whether Nagumo trusts her. He also thinks that Nagumo might be become a problem sooner or later, although if he doesn't do anything Nagumo might lose interest in him. He also asks about whether Hashimoto has come into contact with Nagumo since he has been following him, but that doesn't seem to be the case as Manabu informs him. Which lets Kiyotaka conclude he is just checking to see if Kiyotaka is really hiding his skills or not, but he shouldn't know that he has been pulling the strings behind Horikita. Manabu tells him that what he does with the information is up to him before ending the call.

It is monday, the 14th of Febrary, Valentines day. Kiyotaka had turned off his handphone the previous night, turning it on in the morning he sees a message from Airi asking if she can meet him in the morning and a missed call from Kei. He tells Airi that he is running late this morning and asks if they can meet in school. Airi says it isn't very important. He messages Kei and asks what she wants, she says nothing in particular but he arranges to meet with Kei at 5 today, as he wants to talk to her face to face about something. On the way to school, he meets Hirata who is also late. When they get off at the elevator, Hirata is ambushed by crowds of girls with Valentines chocolates for him. Not wanted to be late, he leaves Hirata to deal with the girls. At school, Sudō wants to know if Kiyotaka received chocolates from Horikita which he says he hasn't. Sudō tries to meet up with Horikita today for a study session hoping for chocolates but is turned down as he still has club practice and they is still time before the final exams. Kiyotaka asks Horikita if things are going well with Kushida, and she says it's going all right and they are meeting up later. Kiyotaka thinks Kushida is keeping up the front of cooperating but working behind the scenes. After class, he heads to Class B to check up on Ichinose, but overhears that she is sick and did not come in today. He wonders how Sakayanagi got her secret and has a line of thought that Ichinose could have told Nagumo and he had leaked it and that's how the secret came out, although whether her secret is the same as Kamuro's or not can only be found out from Ichinose herself. He also realises that Hashimoto is following him and thinks that going to check on Ichinose might be a good way to get him off his back so he heads to the dormitories and finds Ichinose's floor but it is crowded with students from her class so he goes back to his room. Once it reaches 5pm he meets with Kei some ways away from the dormitories where few people might see them. He asks her if she knows whose number the mysetrious person who called him at 1am was but it doesn't some up in her contact list. She makes a memo of it, and Kiyotaka asks how her finals preperations are going she gets worried and asks him to teach her. He asks her to ask Hirata but because of the breakup it might be hard all though he thinks she can easily do it. He thinks about asking Keisei to do it but realises that would be trouble too so he offers to teach her but only at night. As he is about to leave, she asks what day it is, and before he can answer Valentines day, she hits him in the hit with a small package. She says it was meant for Hirata but now that's not needed, she teases him about not receiving any chocolates today and that this is just to comfort him. She asked him if he asked her to meet her today because he thought he would receive some from her, he says he wasn't expecting anything. As they are about to part ways Kiyotaka sends her a signal that someone is coming.

Hashimoto who has been following him, appears and questions Kei and Kiyotaka about their relationship. He thinks it's weird that they are meeting secretly here. Kei first tries saying they happened to meet and since she wasn't going to give chocolates to Hirata anymore she just found someone to hand her chocolates over to. Hashimoto thinks they are closer than they appear and doesn't believe that especially because Kiyotaka brought his bag out from his room after going back once so he must have expected to receive the chocolates, Kiyotaka replies that he was heading to the library so he brought his bag. Seeing how Hashimoto doesn't believe him, he comes up with another lie, saying that Kiyotaka is supposed to pass the chocolates to the person Kei really likes. Not missing a beat she agrees with what Kiyotaka says. Hashimoto asks who it is actually for, but Kei easily deflects the question. Hashimoto turns puts his arms on the wall behind her entraping her asking her to date him instead. Kiyotaka realises that Hashimoto is trying to get a reaction out of him but he doesn't react. Annoyed at Hashimoto, Kei leaves them there, Hashimoto then jokes about how 'big' Kiyotaka is and that it would be a trouble to girls, calling him 'king'. Kiyotaka agress to exchange contact information with Hashimoto if he never calls him that again. Later that night, after receiving Ichinose's contact information from Horikita he goes to check on her going up to her room and forcing his way in but appealing to how much trouble he would be in if people found him on her floor, so she lets him in. Ichinose says that he is the first person to see her since she fell sick. While many thought that she was feigning her illness due to the rumours, Kiyotaka is able to confirm that she is indeed sick perhaps because the attacks by Sakayanagi have lowered her immunity.

The next day at school, more rumours are being spread around. Horikita tells Kiyotaka that this time, the rumors have been posted on each classes online bulletin page and that he is directly involved as one of the rumours is about him. She shows him the 4 rumors: 'Kiyotaka Ayanokōji likes Kei Karuizawa', 'Ryōtarō Hondō only likes chubby girls', 'Satsuki Shinohara used to be a prostitute in middle school', and 'Maya Satō doesn't like Onodera Kayano'. Horikita asks Kiyotaka if the rumour about him is true but he denies it, although she appears suspicious for a second. Thankfully, Kei's group hasn't arrived in class yet so the commotion regarding Kiyotaka hasn't increased but Yamauchi who cannot read the atmosphere, asks Shinohara extremely loudly if she was a prostitute. She denies it but Yamauchi asks for proof, Ike and Sudō who have become a little more mature try and stop Yamauchi from causing a commotion but Yamauchi just makes it worse by saying it's a chance for revenge on Shinohara who Ike once said was ugly. Ike is really angry and is about to start a fight with Yamauchi but Sudō keeps them apart, Hirata arrives and sensing the situation tries and calms everybody. Yamauchi seeing decides to change target and asks Hondō if the rumour is true, he denies it and deflects the question to Kiyotaka who simply nods that it isn't true. However, Maezono points out that Satō may not actually like Onodera as they are rarely seen together. Horikita and Kiyotaka dicuss If this could be another one of Sakayanagi moves all though the way of spreading the rumor is different so it could be someone else as well. Sudō comes over to confirm if Kiyotaka's rumour is true personally saying he overhead their conversation earlier and offers to help by making sure Yamauchi doesn't spread the rumours too far. Horikita receives a message from Kanzaki telling her that Ichinose didn't come to school again even though today is the day for the evalutaion test for the final exams. Although because Ichinose is quite good acadamically it shouldn't be a problem. He also tells her that the same kinds of rumours were posted on the B class and D class bulletin board, but not on the A class board. Horikita asks how long he plans to stay on the sidelines if he is already directly involved liked this, but he says something on this level he can deal with. He also mentions that if the rumours where about Kei liking him, the situtaion would be worse so this is level is fine. Horikita asks how the rumour could have come about and he thinks about what Hashimoto say yesterday and tells her he understands how the rumours came about. When Kei arrives with her friends and Kiyotaka receives looks from them and he imagines their conversations, with Kei saying she finds it disgusting and thinks that it might be tough. Although he thinks the rumours will be harder on the other people than on him.

After school that day, Horikita and Kiyotaka meet up with Kanzaki after school at the café to discuss what is happening, while they are discussing the case of the rumours and Ichinose being absent, Sakayanagi shows up to stir some trouble, but Kanzaki ignores her provocations and leaves. Later Kei calls Kiyotaka and asks him what the rumours are about. He tells that they are rumours and will disappear in time so she shouldn't worry about it. He also says the rumours are also good because this way it can act as insurance if they are ever seen talking together and they won't think it's weird, all though Kei says they will think its weird. The next day, more trouble breaks out between the class as Class D's Ishizaki, Albert, Ibuki and Hiyori meet up with Hashimoto and Kitou from class A. The Ayanokōji group is watching over them as they were nearby and were worried a fight might break out. It seems that Ishizaki had asked Hashimoto to meet him alone, but both seemed to have brought reinforcements. They Ishizaki wants class A to stop with the rumours as Ishizaki and Ibuki were both involved in the rumours from class D. As it gets more heated a fight breaks out and Ibuki goes for Hashimoto while Ishizaki goes up against Kitou. Hiyori tries to stop them from fighting but to no avail. Ibuki lauching a flurry of kicks drops her handphone and student ID, Kiyotaka notices something strange about her ID as Akito gets involed and tries to stop Ishizaki. Hashimoto then asks about the cute rumour regarding Kei and Kiyotaka, to which Airi and Haruka who are also present say that they have been getting closer recently which helps to remove the suspision of Hashimoto on Kiyotaka exactly as Kiyotaka wanted. Albert grabs Akito and stops with from being able to fight. Finally Hiyori gets them to stop and Hasimoto seeing no point in continuing either leaves the area. Later that evening, Kiyotaka calls Manabu looking for some information, he asks about the weird thing he noticed about Ibuki's ID. Manabu tells him that it never occured at his year and that the first years might be different and the school might be preparing something different for them. Manabu asks him about the situation with Kushida but Kiyotaka tells him he already took care of it. Manabu then wonders if Nagumo was really involed with this case of crashing Ichinose.

A few days later with Ichinose not showing up at school during those days, a day before the final exams. The Ayanokōji group are doing their final preperations for the exam. When a back commotion occurs, Ike comes running in saying class A has gone to confront class B. Worried another fight will break out Akito, Keisei and Kiyotaka go to class B to see what is happeining, Horikita and Hirata are also there as well as students from class D. Ichinose who has finally come back from her leave is confronted by Sakayanagi, who questions if she is really trustworthy. Ichinose who seems back to her strong self goes to the front of her class and apologises to her classmates for lying to them and she confesses the truth. She tells them about her childhold and how she studied hard to be on scholarship to lessen the burdens on her mother. However, one day while in her 3rd year she did something that she couldn't forgive. She tells them about how her younger sister really wanted a popular hairclip and was angry at their mother who had fallen ill and in hospital when she said no. Ichinose decides to steal the hairclip for her sister and gives it to her. Her mother who notices the hairclip is angry that Ichinose did that, and drags her back to the store and makes her get on her knees and apoplogise to the store. At that moment she realised she made a mistake and couldn't forgive herself so she stopped going to school. Sakayanagi questions if she can lead class B even if they hear her story or if she is worthy as stealing is still stealing even if she didn't get in trouble for it. Ichinose says that she will step down from her position as payment for her crimes but her class doesn't let her. Seeing that she vows once more to do her job as class leader. Kiyotaka thinks that this Ichinose is much stronger than before because he already broke her once so confessing again was no problem. Sakayanagi is not ready to give up and says more rumours might come around but the teachers, Chabashira, Hoshimomiya and Nagumo the student council president appears saying that rumours cannot be spread from now on as many people have been affected by the rumours. Horikita tells Sakayanagi she went too far by involving so many students, she wants to retort but decides not too. With the commotion over the class disband and the Ayanokōji discusses want happened with Haruka and Airi who thinks that Ichinose stealing something is not unbelievable. Kiyotaka gets a phone call from an unknown number and moves away to answer the call. The call is from Sakayanagi who wants to talk to him, he goes to meet her and she says good job on working behind the scenes. She asks him why he helped Ichinose, but Kiyotaka just replies wasn't it because she used Kamuro. She says Kamuro acted on her own but Kiyotaka counters by saying that the can of beer Kamuro brought was too old and was the alchohol can she had stolen at the start of the year. Seeing that Kiyotaka guessed that Sakayanagi wanted him to challenge her in the case of Ichinose. Sakayanagi tells him that whether he would act was 50-50 as she also knew he could have easily done nothing and actually everything happened as she expected, whatever happened to Ichinose was of no actual concern to her. She just wanted to fight Kiyotaka. She asks him to battle with her in the next exam with her expulsion on the line as if she does that then he wouldn't have to fear having his past or abilities revealed. Kiyotaka agrees as the conditions are pretty good since she could also reveal him anyway.

As Kiyotaka flashback to what happened over the last few days, we retun to the 11 of Febrary the day the letter of Ichinose being a criminal is distributed at 12am Kushida visit Kiyotaka in his room. He has a plan to break through Sakayanagi's attack but needs Kushida'help to do it. He asks her for some secrets he can use to spread around the school so that they can get the school involved with the slandering of students. He realises that Sakayanagi has been attacking Ichinose just on the line so that the school won't get involved so he wants to cross the line on her behalf. Due to the risk involved of easily finding out who posted the rumours, Kushida is not so easily convinced. He convinces her by offering her half of the private points he earns moving forward. Since the points are still money and it's easiest to negotiate with that. He says that his true intention here was to find out the extent of her network in order to expel her and that all the other things were just pieces of the puzzle, such as Helping Ichinose, the threat of Nagumo, the attack of Sakayanagi. Kiyotaka reveals he expected her to record their conversation and she puts that away but when the deal is done she takes out another recorder saying that that will be the record for their deal. On Valentines day, he turned off his phone to ensure that Kei would have to give him her chocolates on the day itself and he used that chance to get Hashimoto off his back. He reveals that he met with Hiyori at the library afterwords to plant the seeds that it was Class A who might spread more rumours and he choose rumours about Ibuki and Ishizaki as they were most likely to start a fight, which is a situation the school cannot ignore. Finally, he contacts Kiriyama and asks him to post the rumours online saying that if he does it he can say he did it to protect Ichinose how is a member of the student council and since Kushida already contact them, he can say he got the information from her. He is still reluctant so Kiyotaka treathens him by saying that perhaps he has become someone happy to be under Nagumo and maybe he needs to warn Manabu. He finally relents and he posts the rumours there and then. FInally all that is left to do is break down Ichinose for his plan to be complete.

He goes to Ichinose's room everyday during lunch and waits by her door, not saying a word. Finally on the second last day before the final exams, which Kiyotaka recgonises as the deadline for her to come back as Class B will be in trouble psychologically for the final exams if she doesn't come back by the next day. Ichinose finally asks him why he keeps coming and not saying anything. He tells her, he doesn't think the care of some outsider with move her so he is waiting for her to do it herself. She moves to sit behind the door of her room. He tells her he already knows that she was a criminal and that no one has the right to judge her for what she has done. As she listens she finally tells him, everything about her telling her secret to Nagumo and how she feels that Nagumo told it to Sakyanagi, she also talks about her past. He just listens without saying anything. He thinks about how he saw children in the white room never able to get back up because they never had anyone to share their troubles with and that this situation is similar. On the day of the finals, Ichinose sees Kiyotaka on the way to school and she thanks with for everything and without him she probably would have been crushed by Sakayanagi. he thinks that she simply needed to forgive herself as her mother already did very well it removing the actual crime from her as in the need she didn't really do any wrong. He tells her he was just making use of a chance anway so there is no need for thanks. While they are taking Ichinose spots Nagumo and goes up to him and thanks him even though he says she should hate him but instead she says she is grateful and that she will work hard for the student council. Nagumo looks at Kiyotaka just for a second and within that second he guesses that look was him being unhappy that he ruined his plans to rebuild Ichinose himself to use as a pawn. Finally Ichinose goes back to Kiyotaka and he tells her that if she needs to talk to him anytime she is in trouble, he will always hear her out although he jokes that might make Horikita angry if class B ends up in class A instead because of that. Ichinose starts acting a little nervous but takes out a package and gives him Valentines day chocolates as thanks for everything and says it's her first time doing something like this and he gratefully accepts them.

Volume 10
A few days after the final exams, class C is in the classroom getting ready to hear the result. Chabashira sensei reveals the results and no one has failed the exam, hence no one is expelled. Ike and Yamauchi and the bottom 2 students followed by Hondo, Satou, Onodera and finally Sudō who has shown great improvement thanks to Horikita's tutoring. Horikita says that as long as Sudō stays focus he will improve, while Kiyotaka thinks that as long Horikita is around that shouldn't be a problem. Horikita asks Kiyotaka how much longer he can keep holding back as he is placed 18 in the class, he keeping in character says that that is the best he can do. Chabashira informs them that the final special exam of the term will be held on the 8th of March and week from no on monday and tells her class that they may be able to get through the 3 years without losing anyone, praising her class. During lunch, Kiyotaka notices a weird pair talking, Nagumo and Manabu. Nagumo notices him and calls him over. They are talking near the year 1s area so it's a little strange, Kiyotaka thinks. Nagumo asks if he knows who spread the rumours earlier during the Ichinose case, but Kiyotaka feigns ignorance and says he complained to the school too since rumours about him were spread too. Kiyotaka thinks that Nagumo maybe have already seen through his plans despite his attitude. Horikita shows up and it's reveled Nagumo called her over as well, Manabu tells him that using Horikita to get him to compete is useless and they proceed to show how bad their relationship really is. Nagumo wants to invite Horikita into the student council but she declines and quickly leaves. Nagumo says he should try and spend more time with her since he is graduating soon but Manabu is tired of his games saying that he is the type who will win by any means and leaves as well. Nagumo asks Kiyotaka about the coming special exam and how he will cope with it before leaving. Horikita is waiting for Kiyotaka who wants to know what Manabu and Nagumo was talking about. He says if she was that curious she should have stayed to listen he trys to give her some advice on repairing her relationship with Manabu but stops when he realises she won't listen to him.

The very next day, Chabashira sensei come in with a heavy mood as she announces an attention to the final special exam of the term. The Class Poll exam which will occur on the saturday before the final special exam. The person who accumalates the most praise votes will get a protection point that can be used to cancel any expulsion in the future, while the person with the most criticism votes will be expelled unless 20 million private points are payed. Horikita asks if they can control the votes so everyone has exactly 0 votes but Chabashira says a re-vote will happen if that occurs, which means this exam is there to specifically expel someone. Once Chabashira leaves, the boys and the girls of class c start fighting about who they are going to vote for. Kōenji speaks up and says that this exam is for expelling the useless people in the class. Since there is no minuses to class points for expulsions unlike normal exams. Sudō speaks up and says he is useless and bringing the class down and gets angry. However, Kōenji says that if he promises to work hard for the class in the future there is more merit in giving him criticism votes as they now he has actual abilities and him saying he will work hard for the class is more beneficial then someone who has no abilities saying they will work hard to improve further. He then says Sudō's friends are useless which gets him riled up. Hirata tries to intervene but Ike mocks him by saying since he is safe from getting criticism votes he can say whatever he wants. Kiyotaka mentally agrees that Hirata is most likely safe with all the work he has done for the class. Seeing enough of this, Horikita controls Sudō by asking him to sit down and not get cocky simply because his grades have improved. The class heavy mood continues through the afternoon classes.

At lunch break, the Ayanokōji are at the café for lunch are discussing what to do about the exam, they decide they should work together as a group to control their votes so they can at least cancel out criticism votes if they receives them. Keisei says that while that idea is good perhaps forming a bigger group would be better as they will have more votes than 5 peoples votes. However, Kiyotaka says that forming a large group too early will just make them a larger target in the class. So they shouldn't go around forming a large group, but they do decide that if a group wants them to join with them they will do it. They also decide that the 4 people in the class most likely to get targeted are Kōenji, and the 3 idiots. They decide as a group that they are going to at least vote for Kōenji but leave the other spots open if they form a big group. They then spot Ryūen who is sitting alone and reading a book they think he is in a terrible situtaion as his class hates him for his dictatorship and how he looks like someone ready to be expelled. They talk about the methods like threatening his class but that would make them want to expel him more or if he can use to save himself like buying votes from outside his class with the large amount of money he has but they decide the other classes most likely want to get rid of him too much to help him. Horikita who has been listening to their conversation nearby appears and says he wants to go ask him herself. She goes up to her and asks if he is quietly going to accept his expulsion, he says that he has too since he lost. When he says that, Horikita looks at Kiyotaka in doubt for a moment before turning her attention back to Ryūen. Horikita tells hiim that the other class probably also want to see him gone to which he replies without him his class probably has no hope. She asks him if he intends to properply take on this examp would he be able to do save himself. Ryūen confidently replies of course he can. Kiyotaka thinks that Ryūen was entirely in control of the conversation as Horikita shows her weakness in her using words that show she isn't as heartless as she was at the start of the school year where she would have easily let Sudō be expelled he thinks that right now, Horikita probably wouldn't be able to get him expelled. They leave Ryūen alone, and Horikita asks Kiyotaka if there is a way to save Ryūen to which he replies there isn't one although in his mind he thinks that not all the parts to accomplish that are available yet.

That night, Kei calls Kiyotaka asking about what she should do and tells him that she has formed a group of 7 girls. He gives her the same advice he gave to the Ayanokōji group to lay low and not draw attention to herself. She is a little worried as she knows that some people hate her, he replies that that is probably true which angers her. She tells him at this point he should lie just to make her feel better. Kiyotaka tells her that it's good that she broke up with Hirata because if she hadn't there may be girls who want to get rid of her to take her position as his girlfriend, she responds that Sudō too might vote for him because he mistakes Kiyotaka as his rival. She asks him if Kōenji and the 3 idiots are the ones in most trouble which he agrees too, noting that Kei's group came to the same conclusion as his group. She also asks if he will be all right for this exam, he says thankfully he doesn't stand out and isn't pulling down the class but isn't bringing it up later so he should be fine. He asks her to tell him if any new information comes up immediately. The next day on the way to schhol, Ichinose meets up with him and they talk a little about the exam, Kiyotaka thinks she looks ready to sacrifice herself in order to protect a classmate and she says this is probably the hardest exam so far. Ichinose tells him that if he is in trouble this exam she will give him a praise vote as outside her class he is most deserving of it. Asahina appears and says that they are a weird combination, with Ichinose saying that they are good friends. Asahina wants to talk to Kiyotaka alone so Ichinose goes to school first. Asahina then tells Kiyotaka about the deal Ichinose was offered by Nagumo to get the points she needs to avoid an expulsion in her class. She tells him that he will lend the points if Ichinose dates him. Kiyotaka thinks it's a very Nagumo like plan but asks why Asahina is telling him this, she responds that the private points are from the 2nd and 3rd years and that they are important for their future exams so she doesn't want to let him use that money on this, she also feels sorry for Ichinose. At school that day, Kiyotaka thinks that Horikita might be in trouble this exam as she doesn't have a group so he offers to let her join his in case she needs it but she says that that is not what she needs right now, indicated to him that she already has a plan in mind. She also doesn't ask him for any advice which he thinks is a sign of her growth. At lunch he goes to the library and meets him Hiyori where he asks about Ryūen's situtaion, she thinks that this exam is tough but Ryūen is someone class D needs. When Hiyori asks him what he thinks about it, he is about to say something but changes his mind and says he doesn't want to see Ryūen get expelled.

After school, Hirata asks if he can talk to Kiyotaka at Keyaki Mall later, seeing no reason to decline he agrees. As he is leaving to meet Hirata, Sakayangi and Kamuro are at the entrance and Sakayanagi wants to talk with Kiyotaka for a bit, seeing as he still has enough time before meeting Hirata, he agrees. Sakayanagi says they should move to somewhere less inconspicious, because they both don't want to stand out. They talk a little about the exam and how tough it is this time. Before saying that her father was removed from his position because someone had gotten him involved with some dirty dealings. Sakayanagi says she is sure her father isn't involved in such things. Kiyotaka thinks about his father and he is probably the cause and from what he knows about Sakayanagi's father she is probably right. Kamuro is finally curious about why Sakayanagi is interested in Kiyotaka and she simply says she knows him from before although she isn't very convinced of Kiyotaka's abilities. Sakayanagi asks Kamuro to leave them alone and go back first. Once she leaves she talks about their deal to challenge each other at the next special exam but since this exam is not good for that, she says they should postpone it to the next exam. Kiyotaka agrees, and Sakayanagi gives a verbal promise that she won't give Kiyotaka any criticism votes. They discuss a little about Ryūen and Ichinose's classes and finally she tells him she plans to expel Katsuragi which Kiyotaka isn't surprised with. Seeing as it's time to meet Hirata, he leaves first. When he reaches Hirata asks if they can go to his room instead, Kiyotaka agrees. As they are walking, Hirata asks for his help in this exam, Kiyotaka thinks that this time, Horikita isn't asking for his help but Hirata is. Kiyotaka tells him the only way is to get the 20 Million Points, and Hirata tells him that he already asked his friends who are seniors but they have their own special exams to worry about. When they reach the lobby, Kōenji is there and he is acting as he normally is not worried about the exam, he tells Hirata to be a good leader and get rid of the useless people in the class, which angers him. When Kiyotaka and Hirata enter the lift, Hirata appologises for his beheviour. Hirata once more asks Kiyotaka what he should do because he cannot come up with an answer for who he should cut away. So Kiyotaka tells him instead of thinking about that he should think about who he should save and rank them so he can come up with who to vote on the exam day. Later that night Kiyotaka calls Ichinose to his room, and asks about the deal with Nagumo, she guesses that he head it from Asahina this morning. Although the deal would be canceled if Ichinose talked about it since it was Asahina it was fine. Kiyotaka asks about one much she stills needs and she tells him 4 million points. Ichinose thinks that if there is no way to get the 4 million points, she will probably have to talk Nagumo's deal. Kiyotaka is able to grasp that Ichinose is willing to do whatever it takes as long as she can save her classmate.

On the third day after the class poll exam is announced as Kiyotaka is on the way to school he bumps into Sudō who says he doesn't want to be expelled and is willing to do anything to make sure that does not happen. Kiyotaka tells him it's all right to think that and everyone should feel the same way. When Kiyotaka reaches the classroom something has changed in the class room. When Kiyotaka arrives, he notices the atmosphere is a little different from the day before, everything is back to normal which is strange because of the exam since the class atmosphere was terrible the day before. Even though there are only 11 people in the class, the atmosphere is like as if they have someone in mind to vote on already. He notes that most of the girls are close to Ike and Yamauchi who are already in the class. Although there is a girl from Kei's group in the class, Kei hasn't told him anything so the information hasn't reached Kei yet. Hirata arrives but doesn't feel anything is different, Horikita arrives and notices the strange atmosphere. The Ayanokōji group meet up and discuss the new development as they all felt the change in atmosphere they guess that a big group has been formed and that they already have a target. They find it strange that no one has approached their group yet which means that there is a chance the target is one of the group. Airi is worried but Haruka says she is more likely to be a target which Akito agrees to but Haruka doesn't want to here that from him. Kiyotaka thinks that they must be a leader behind the groups who got them together and it got larger on the 3rd day. They see Hirata who is shell of his forming self. Manabu messages Kiyotaka telling him to meet him. He goes to meet him and sees Tachibana is with him as well. They talk about the current exam and how the 3rd years can't give up their points at this stage. Kiyotaka asks if Horikita has asked him for help but Manabu replies that she wouldn't ask him for something like that. Kiyotaka asks what he wanted to talk about, Manabu says he wanted to know if Nagumo is doing anything. Kiyotaka replies that they didn't have to meet to do that so Tachibana cuts in and says she wanted to know why Manabu acknowledges him. He says that he did something very rude to Manabu though, Tachibana says she knows. but she acknowledges he has abilities in areas she didn't see, but both Tachibana and Manabu agree there don't get him. Manabu tells him that once he graduates the school will have problems as his focus on defeated Manabu will shift to the school and it might be trouble. Kiyotaka replies he will do what he must.

Later that night, Kei calls him in a hurry with urgent news. He is being targeted by the big group in the class. To ensure the target isn't told he is the target, the ring leader told Kei that whoever told the target would then become the new target. Kiyotaka asks if it's okay to tell him that, but she says she trust him to do something about it. Kei asks him what he would do if she wasn't around, he replies that he would be in a real trouble but thats what she is around for. She asks him what is he going to do, but he says he is going to think about it now. After receiving the call from Kei he calls Manabu and asks him for some help. Kiyotaka tells him he was already planning to talk to him about the exam anyway but this team he is the target, he aks Manabu to do something for him, that isn't related to his position as a 3rd year or as the former student council president. He also tells him that there is a benefit for him doing this as Kiyotaka won't have to take center stage to do it and that benefits Manabu too, so he agrees. Kiyotaka says he will call him back when he has more information. Kiyotaka then calls Kushida to ask about who the ring leader is, Kushida firsts asks what he knows trying to figure out who leaked the information but Kiyotaka keeps slightly think they told everyone different information so they could pin point the leak. Kushida then says she wants to help but since only she knows who the ring leader is then they will know who betrayed them if she tells him. She also tells him how she was troubled by the request of the person but couldn't leave a classmate in trouble alone so she helped the person. Kiyotaka, says if she can't help it's fine he won't put her on the sport and is withdrawing but it was his plan to appeal to her self worth to get her to offer the information if it failed then there was nothing he could do but Kushida offers the information and tells him the Yamauchi is the ring leader. Kiyotaka wonders if Yamauchi is smart enought to pull such a plan and asks if Sakayanagi is behind this. Kushida says yes but Yamauchi tried to hide it, she found out from a friend in class A that Sakayanagi was planning to make a move in class C. They finish talking and Kiyotaka wonders if Sakayanagi is going back on her deal to compete in the next exam not this exam, but thinks she is not the type to do that either. He thinks that it doesn't matter anyway because what he had to do wasn't going to change.

The next day in school the atmosphere is still the same and everyone is preparing to vote to expel Kiyotaka. He thinks that Yamauchi plan is actually pretty good but too bad for him that he chose to target him. He doesn't tell his group this information so they won't be targets. Horikita comes and asks him if he did anything, because the day before she received a message from Manabu and have agreed to meet up later. Kiyotaka says no and thinks that Manabu shouldn't have talked to her yet. The next day, the friday just before the exam, Kiyotaka notices how Horikita's aura is different and the person she is now should be able to do it. She stands up and asks everyone to listen to her as she takes the teachers stand. Chabashira who can feel something different from Horikita stays to watch even though school has ended for the day. Horikita begins to tell everyone what she has come to a conclusion to for this exam. They should expel those that are most necessary and she names Yamauchi as the person they should expel she explains the reason. Saying that he is the weakest in the calss and doesn't provide much for it, similar to both Ike and Sudō. However Sudō has outstanding physcial qualities and Ike has grown somehwat and is useful in certain aspects while Yamauchi provides nothing to the class. Yamauchi and Hirata both disagree, Hirata thinks no one should be targeted. Howeve, Horikita says if he Yamauchi won't accept it she will reveal the truth. She tells the class the plan to expel Kiyotaka to everyone, and that Yamauchi is the mastermind. He tries to deflect this by saying it was Ike but he says that he heard it from Kushida. Kushida says begins crying and says that she couldn't not help Yamauchi but she didn't want to expel Kiyotaka either. Horikita says she made the wrong decision helping Yamauchi. Kōenji supports everything Horikita says as that will help him to avoid being voted on as he does posess the abilities to help the class. Horikita then tells everyone that Sakayanagi is behind the attack on Kiyotaka, and that Yamauchi betrayed his class and went to the enemy maybe in exchange for dating. With Yamauchi singled out as the mastermind and that class A was involed, they is no way out for him, he begins saying that since everyone promised they should keep their promise but most of the class who originally agreed go back on their word. Sudō tries to defend Yamauchi but Horikita says that Yamauchi is the most logical choice due to his abilities. Hirata becomes very angry at what Horikita has done, breaking the class and signalling out someone to be the sacrifice. He kicks a table in anger and says he doesn't agree with Horikita's way of doing things. Horikita tries to reason with him by asking if anyone in the class is happy to be expelled but no one is. He finally just tells her to shut up and that he will vote on Horikita for singling someone out. Yamauchi tries to say it isn't his fault but Hirata says he is the same trying to control the votes in the background.

Once the disscussion is over, Kiyotaka wants to talk to Hirata but the Ayanokōji invite him to go to the cafe, since there are so many people around he goes with the group as he doesn't want to draw too much attention to himself by talking to Hirata. The group talk about what happened in class and are not surprised that they didn't know who the target was since they were close to Kiyotaka. They discuss how many votes Kiyotaka might get and conclude the 7 guys close to Yamauchi might vote from him, but they aren't sure about the girls. Airi thinks at the least Satō and Kei won't vote for him. Keisei doesn't understand why she would think that Kei won't vote for him. They tell him Kiyotaka is probably fine because of what Horikita said in the classroom, as Yamauchi is likely to accumalate most of the votes. On the way back from the cafe, they see Hirata sitting on a bench along, Kiyotaka tells the rest to go on alone as he wants to talk to him. Before Kiyotaka goes up to him, he takes a photo of him and sends it to Kei with a message. He goes to talk to Hirata, and he tells him that tomorrow he can just vote on Yamauchi, himself and Horikita and leave the decision to the class. Hirata calls him amazing as the Horikita and Yamauchi wanted people to not vote them but Kiyotaka is asking him to vote for him. Hirata asks if from now on Kiyotaka can look after the class in his place. However, Kiyotaka replies he can't do something like that and if he wants someone to do it he should do it himself. On the day of the exam, Hirata implores everyone to vote for him instead and to let him be expelled. He tries to make everyone dislike him so that they will expel him, Yamauchi also voices his agreement to expelling him. Kiyotaka thinks that Yamauchi probably approached him last night, which gave Hirata the determination to make this decision. Horikita tries to get him to change his mind as he is needed for the class to be united, but he is determined to be expelled. As the class is waiting got the results, Yamauchi is confident and reveals that he was promised praise votes from Sakayanagi although Horikita tells him that a verbal agreement is the same as trash. Chabashira comes back after the voting is done and announces the results. Kushida is 3rd, Hirata is 2nd and Kiyotaka is in 1st place with 42 votes. Yamauchi is last with 33 criticism votes while Sudō is 2nd last with 20 and Ike is 3rd last with 21. Yamauchi cannot accept the results and acts out, while Kōenji adds oil to the fire causing Yamauchi to grab a chair and try to attack him but he easily blocks it. At the end of the day, Kiyotaka goes up to Kōenji and asks if he intends to be useful to the class since he tried to make Yamauchi and the class direct his anger at him, but Kōenji says he will act as usual this time he just supported Horikita's words.

As Kiyotaka leaves the class, Horikita chases after him and asks what he did, but he replies he did nothing. She asks if he was the one who pased to information to Manabu and had him tell him. Kiyotaka says he did nothing and thinks that everything was done by Sakayanagi, he realises she was planning something when she came to give him her declaration of a seize fire. Understanding that she wouln't be satisfied with expelling him like this he guessed that the real plan was to expel Yamauchi. Although he thinks it was not 100% that was her plan so as insurance he had Manabu tell Horikita the information to ensure that he Yamauchi would be targeted by the class as well. He walks away without saying anything as Horikita calls out to him. He goes to see the results and sees that A class has Yahiko expelled, B class has no one expelled, and C class has Manabe expelled. At the results announcement board he sees both Katsuragi and Ryūen who are both surprised that they are both still around. Ryūen tells Katsuragi that the grim reaper is looking out for him. They talk about how Katsuragi is a little different after Sakayanagi expelled Yahiko and Kiyotaka thinks maybe his face is now similar to Ryūen and himself. Ryūen wants to talk to Kiyotaka and they head elsewhere where he asks when Kiyotaka became such a nice guy. Kiyotaka thinks back to what he did. On the day he met Hiyori, Ibuki and Ishizaki come to his room and ask his help to prevent Ryūen from being expelled. He tells them that if they can get Ryūen to transfer all the private points he has to them they may be a way. On the day before the exam, Ibuki calls him and tells him she has the points. So Ishizaki and Ibuki come over while he sends a message to Ichinose to come over in a little while as Kiyotaka, Ibuki, and Ishizaki finalise the plans. They decide on an appropriate person to expel, Kiyotaka thinks he wants to expel Manabe and thankfully both Ishizaki and Ibuki think she is a good person as well. Ishizaki works on getting the guys to votes while Kiyotaka proposes they use Hiyori to help control the other votes as well. With the pieces assembled to save Ryūen they wait for Ichinose. Ichinose arrives and is surprised to see the 2 class D students Kiyotaka tells them that to save Ryūen then need Ichinose's classes votes and in exchange Ibuki and Ishizaki will make up the missing money required for Class B to save their classmate. In order to protect her classmates she easiy accepts their deal seeing as the 2 really want to save Ryūen. They transfer over the points to Ichinose in exchange for Ichinose's classes praise votes for Ryūen. Kiyotaka asks as the witness to the exchange and Ichinose says she will drop out if she doesn't complete her end of the bargain.

Kiyotaka asks Ryūen if he hadn't already came up with this plan earlier. He confirms he did but didn't think Ibuki had the ability to pull the deal of so he gave up the points. Kiyotaka says it was a good choice to not let Ibuki no what the points were for. Kiyotaka tells him that it was thanks to Ishizaki and Ibuki that he wasn't expelled. Kiyotaka asks him what he is going to do for the next exam. Ryūen doesn't reply. Ichinose calls Kiyotaka to tell him about the results. Ryūen leaves when he gets the call. She reveals they all voted for Kanzaki but the expulsion got cancelled due to the points. Ichinose thanks him because if not for his help she would have taken up Nagumo's offer and regretted it later. Kiyotaka asks what she would have done if there was no Nagumo or him. She tells him there were 2 plans, the first one to get herself expelled and the second to draw lots. Kiyotaka thinks drawing lots is probablt the fairest way and something only class B can do. Sakayanagi then messages to meet her, he goes to meet her and she wants to offer an explanation for the commotion. Kiyotaka says that he was 90% sure he was safe but he just acted as insurance. Sakayanagi asks him if he gave a praise vote to Yahiko as he was supposed to have 38 criticism votes on him but only ended up with 36. He says that he already thought that Katsuragi was a bluff earlier and wanted to vote for him, although his vote didn't make a difference. She tells him he really is an opponent worth beating. Kiyotaka asks her why Yamauchi and she says because he disrespected her at the Mixed camp. She tells him that before the start of the exam, someone had messaged her and asked her to expel Kiyotaka originally the exam would have other students able to give criticism votes to students in other classes as well. When she heard that, she already decided at the start to give her classes praise votes to him. As they are talking a middle aged man who introduces himself as the acting director Tsukishiro replaces Sakayanagi's father at the moment, comes up to them asking for directions. When Sakayanagi gives him the directions, he suddenly kicks her cane away causing her to fall. Kiyotaka tries to prevent her from failing but he is grabbed by Tsukishiro who pins him to the wall and says his father wants him out of the school and is done playing games. He says to blink twice if he is ready to leave the school on his own. Kiyotaka doesn't do anything or try to fight back even though Tsukishiro tries to rile him up. Sakayanagi says that violence against a student caught on camera is not good, but Tsukishiro tells her that the camera feed is now fake. Seeing as Kiyotaka won't do anything, Tsukishiro leaves telling them he officially starts in April. When he leaves Sakayanagi praises him for not fighting back as he could have easily change the footage to his liking. Kiyotaka tells her that they should fight properly at the next exam as when April comes Tsukishiro will be in the way and he wants to end it as fast as possible. Sakayanagi is surprised but is excited to have a battle with him. On the monday, the students feel the absence of Yamauchi, Hirata is not happy, Kushida is not happy while they wait for the announcement of the next special exam.