Starting in class C: not completely defective.

Arc 10 chapter 5: what are you doing, bro?

It was Monday morning—the day our opponent's ten events would be announced. What kind of events and rules would class D come up with? And what kind of involvement would the commander have?

Horikita had declined my offer of cooperation, rather unfortunately. So I had to get Matsushita to tell me which events they would actually be going with. Such a shame things had to be this way.

Speaking of Horikita, I just so happened to see Horikita's brother along with his secretary, Tachibana. Something had been gnawing at me for a little while, so I decided to call out to him.

He turned to look at me.

"Ayanokouji-kun? What do you want?" He asked.

"Horikita-kun...why does your sister hate me?" I asked, flat out.

Horikita looked stunned for a moment, before smiling slightly.

"Tachibana-san...could you please leave us for a moment?" He asked.

Tachibana bowed slightly, and walked away.

"Ayanokouji-kun, shall we sit?" Horikita asked, gesturing to the nearby bench.

We sat.

Horikita sighed.

"The blossoms look exceedingly fine this year," he said.

"With all due respect, Horikita-senpai, I would appreciate it if you would not beat around the bush. This is a serious issue," I pressed him.

He sighed again, heavier than before.

"Ayanokouji-kun, our parents knew each other," he said.

Oh, interesting. It's a small world after all.

"And? Why does she hate me for that?" I asked.

"I'm getting to that. Suzune, she...never really got to know our parents, because they met were...taken from us too soon. By your father," he explained.

Ah, I see now.

"And your sister, she wants revenge?" I asked.

"Perhaps. When you first started having troubles with Kushida, I tasked Suzune with keeping the violence between your groups to a minimum. I think she believes the best way to get rid of the violence altogether is to remove you from the equation," he explained.

"I see...I suppose that makes sense," I said.

"Ayanokouji-kun, I must warn you: be careful of Suzune. Before she came to this school, she was emotionally distant, to be sure, and would only show affection to me. But after she came here, she's been prone to being violent, and sometimes even angry, nothing like what I knew of her before," he said.

This conversation would have been a little more useful in the last arc yanno.

"And do you hate me? For the death of your parents that is?" I asked.

Horikita thought for a moment.

"I suppose, on an emotional level, there's a part of me that does resent you slightly, only because you're related to that man. But I know that you had nothing to do with that, so I suppose it would be unfair of me to hate you," he said.

Finally, someone who doesn't hate me.

I gained a new respect for Manabu Horikita that day. To rise above his feelings, and to put aside his hatred...most ordinary people probably couldn't do such a thing.

Back in the classroom, homeroom was already over. At the same time, the ten events chosen by our opponent, Class D, had just been announced via documents left for us in our classroom, which Ryuuen read aloud for everyone to hear.