Classroom of the elite: Autonomy.

7: Looming Conflict.

The cafeteria was filled to the brim with students, it was lunchtime in ANHS and the dedicated feeding area was serving its purpose.

Unlike in the classroom, there was no clear separation of year or class groups in the cafeteria, it was all one mass of teenagers clad in red. 

Horikita Suzune, Hirata Yousuke and Karuizawa Kei sat in a moderately isolated corner of the room. Horikita was setting out her home cooked meal, while Hirata and Karuizawa purchased from the school like most of the other students did.

"You seem to be skilled at cooking, Horikita-san." Hirata started the conversation with a light topic, he wasn't a person inclined to silent gatherings.

Horikita looked up from her food on the table, making eye contact with the smiling prince of class D. "I'm fine at it. Are the both of you ready? I called you here for a reason after all."

Hirata smiled sheepishly, slightly in awe of how Horikita completely shut down his attempt at small talk. 

"I'm ready to talk, how about you Karuizawa-san?"

"Let's just start, I don't wanna sit here for long."

Karuizawa said this with a passive tone, in contradiction to her usual combative behaviour.

Horikita noticed this abnormality and decided to keep it in mind.

"That's good to hear. I'll be honest, the only person I needed was Hirata but after some consideration I felt like your presence could be helpful as well, Karuizawa-san. In short terms, I'll need both of you to help me."

Horikita asked for help, this surprised Karuizawa and Hirata a bit after hearing of how she really behaved from Ayanokouji.

"Huh? So I'm just a convenient add-on? Whatever, what do you mean help?" Karuizawa made a little show of being annoyed at what Horikita had first said about her, only to discard it soon after.

Horikita began to rethink her decision to invite Karuizawa after witnessing first hand how erratic she could be.

"The class will fall, I'll need your help to salvage it." Horikita said plainly.

At the mention of a fall, Hirata instantly became more alert. He seemed to place higher importance on the conversation now.

Karuizawa was slightly surprised at Horikita's blunt statement but otherwise didn't react too strongly.

"What do you mean 'fall'?" Hirata wasted no time in asking.

Horikita narrowed her eyes on the two, she had planned to reveal her findings on the S-system but a few things bothered her. She decided to take a gamble.

"I don't need to explain much, Ayanokouji-kun must have told you everything."

She believed these two had made contact with Ayanokouji sometime over the weekend. They had made some actions that gave her this idea.

Karuizawa raised an eyebrow after hearing this, not giving much away. Hirata on the other hand immediately looked in Karuizawa's direction, he caught himself too late and tried to cover up the action by looking in the opposite direction as well.

Horikita's suspicions were all but confirmed by this.

This wasn't Horikita's first time in the cafeteria, and Hirata and Karuizawa were common sights whenever she came here.

Karuizawa especially, she was hard to miss with the absolutely extravagant way she used her points. Horikita had never seen her with less than the absolute best the cafeteria had to offer.

Until today.

There was also her and Hirata's unnatural glance at Ayanokouji before they left the class, and Karuizawa's lack of reaction when Horikita mentioned the class falling.