All or Nothing

Volume 1: Epilogue Part 1

Part 1

"Can I give you my opinion?"

The one who spoke was the one who stood up from his seat at the very back. Kiyotaka grabbed the attention of everyone in the room.

"Eh?"

Horikita was surprised to hear him speak up, as if she hadn't expected him to say anything. In fact, no one probably expected him to say anything.

Kiyotaka glanced at three individuals before returning his eyes to Horikita in front of him.

"Horikita, I voted in favour on the 14th round just now."

This was a lie. Kiyotaka had already voted in favour of the proposal on the 12th round of voting. In order to let his plan go easier, he needed to lie here for better conviction.

"How come Ayanokouji-kun is..."

"Time is running out, and there is no sign of our opposition winning over the one person who kept voting in favour. If this is going to continue on, then there is no other way but to vote in favour of it. I think we all know that by now."

In order to increase the number of people in favour of the proposal, someone had to take on the role of guiding everyone to make the same decision. From the seat beside Kiyotaka, Satou looked anxiously toward him. But it wasn't just Satou who was concerned, most of the other students were too except for a few.

"It's not going to solve the root of the problem. In the end, you're going to get into trouble over who to expel."

"Yes. But we can break out of the rigidity of the situation. Even if we find out who has been voting in favour of the task all along, I don't think they will vote against it. In other words, we can't hope for unanimity against the proposal in the end. But now it is possible to achieve unanimity in favour. And we can bring only the defector to justice, the 38 of us. It's a forceful way to bring about unanimity."

"It is-"

"Justice? Do you think we have the right to judge a student who is just voting in favour?"

Hirata interrupted and countered Kiyotaka's statement. However, Kiyotaka knew that Hirata was only putting on a show. Despite not liking the idea, Hirata was actually on board with the plan.

"I do. If we can't make this unanimous, we won't move up to Class A. I don't think anyone thinks that the students who know that and continue to vote in favour are completely blameless."

"But, but, but that's... closer to the end of the time limit, I'm sure it will be the other way around..."

"Really now? There are only a few more opportunities to vote. Are we going to involve all our classmates in that slim possibility? The less time you have, the more you close off even the way to escape in favour of it. That would mean nipping unanimity in the bud altogether."

It didn't have to be said, but Hirata and the rest knew it. But the biggest hurdle for many students is the fact that they don't want to take the first step.

"It is true that there are many students who are hesitant to vote in favour. That is why we would like to identify the one who continued to vote in favour of the task from the beginning and arrange for them to be expelled from the school. In other words, we will guarantee the safety of the students who are currently voting against it."

Satou, who had been listening to Kiyotaka more than anyone else (minus Kei who had a look similar to Hirata meaning that she knew about this happening), raised her small hand.

"I'm glad to hear that, but it doesn't matter if we don't know who's voting... in favour of it. In the end, when the time is up, we'll just have to come up with a random candidate for expulsion. I'm scared."