Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ✔

Chapter 11 - Hearing

The rest of the walk to the special building was, thankfully, uneventful.

My little chat with Nagumo and Kiryuin gave me a significant piece of information: The Student Council would be presiding over the hearing for Sudo's case. That would mean that the final decision would probably rest in the hands of President Horikita.

And from what I know, the relation between Horikita Suzune and Horikita Manabu is strained.

This was problematic. Horikita would have been an important part of the discussion that would take place at the hearing. If Manabu was present as well, she would almost certainly falter. I do not know the past between the 2, but I can safely assume that Manabu does not view his sister in favorable light, while Suzune is trying her hardest to get into her brother's good books — by reaching Class A.

Oh well. I don't see why I should be bothered. It's in my best interest to not get involved between the 2 siblings. I'll give them the privacy they deserve.

When I made it back to the special building, I was greeted by the beautiful, serene woman which the grade calls Honami Ichinose, along with Ryuji Kanzaki. If I remember correctly, Kanzaki held a high position in Class B, sort of like second-in-command to Ichinose.

"Ahh~~ Takeyama-kun! Hello!", Ichinose was the one to greet me, as she bounced at my arrival. Cute.

"Good evening, Ichinose-san", I replied, "are you here to help us with our case?"

"We are", Kanzaki replied in place of her, "I'm Ryuji Kanzaki. Pleased to finally meet you, Takeyama-kun. It seems you're on quite good terms with Hoshinomi-"

"Yes, yes, indeed", I quickly butted in, "may I ask what you 2 are doing here? Have you found anything of interest?"

I could see Ichinose's smile falter. "No, nothing that we already haven't found, Takeyama-kun. It's already established that there are no cameras here, but other than that, we haven't found a single clue as to how we can save Sudo-kun. I've even asked Class B for support, but no one seems to have seen anything out of the ordinary. I'm sorry for not being able to help much."

"Don't be", I reassured her, "in fact, I'm extremely grateful that we've received support from Class B. Thank you."

"No, no, not at all! I'm glad you think of us that way, though", Ichinose said, with a slight tint of red on her cheeks.

Kanzaki's cellphone suddenly started to ring, and he excused himself to attend the call. Ichinose soon excused herself as well, and proceeded to head back along with Ryuji Kanzaki.

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(Shopping District; Ayanokoji, Kiyotaka POV)

The clerk at the department store was being kinda pushy, and I could see Sakura was a bit uncomfortable talking to him. He seemed overly enthusiastic. I don't think Kushida has noticed it yet. She, after all, gets attention like this all the time. But Sakura was a quiet girl who didn't stand out. She did not like this excess attention.

Sakura picked up the pen to write her contact and room number on the bill, but her hands suddenly stopped moving. She seemed to be thinking hard, or frozen in fear. She did not write for 5, 10, 15 seconds. Kushida had noticed by now, and she tried to ask Sakura what was wrong. But Sakura continued to stand there, motionless, looking at the paper with bulging eyes.

I sighed, and walked over to the counter and lightly grasped the pen from her hand. Sakura looked nervous, but gave me the pen. I wrote down my room number, and contact information.