COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 7:Part 11

Kushida and I were making our way back to the class, but I had to make one more stop.

"Go on ahead, I need to take care of something else first."

She stopped walking and looked back towards me.

"Sometjing that'll help us win against Ryuen-kun, right? I knew you had some kind of plan."

I nodded at her, and she looked proud of herself to have guessed my intentions.

"There's also one more thing I need you to do."

She sighed at me in disappointment and waited to hear it. I told her what role she had to play and clearly didn't like it.

"Ugh, you know I don't like talking to Horikita-san, but you always ask me to do it so I can help your plan."

I shrugged at her because I knew she was going to do her job anyway despite her complaining.

"If it makes you feel better, then know that I'll have a surprise for you at the end of the day."

She gave me a sceptic look but nodded.

"Fine, I'll do it. Ugh."

Kushida was surprisingly acting natural instead of playing up her good girl persona as usual. I nodded at her, and we went our separate ways.

I made my way over to meet with Chabashira. She was the key to us winning against Ryuen during this festival.

I needed to win in order to earn the points Ryuen was offering, but I was also doing this for personal reasons, I haven't forgiven Chabashira for trying to use me.

"Ayanokoji? Shouldn't you be helping your class?"

She noticed me approaching and came up to me.

"I am, we need your help right now."

Chabashira didn't understand my meaning and waited for an explanation.

"Will you dress up as a maid and help us during this festival?"

Her mouth dropped wide, open in confusion. She didn't comprehend what I was asking, and she definitely didn't want to dress up as a maid.

"What are you asking? I can't help my own class that's stated in the rules."

Chabashira couldn't willingly offer up her support just to help us win, but I already found a loophole.

"I'm not asking for your help. I'm hiring you to dress up as a maid and work for us."

If we paid Chabashira, then she wouldn't be helping us, but rather, she'd be an employee we hired. We could pay any of the guests or teachers to enlist their services, but the one I needed was Chabashira.

"Hiring me? Is that even allowed?"

I nodded at her.

"I looked at the rules very closely and even confirmed it with Mashima Sensei before the festival. I'm certain that this is allowed."

She clicked her tongue and started looking through her phone. The teachers probably had a list of rules to follow and details about how points can be used. It's very likely that the school itself knew about this loophole and even set a price for anyone who managed to figure it out. Chabashira's now had a grim look on her face, which meant I was right.

"You're not wrong. You're allowed to do that, but the price is high. You need to pay 100 thousand points per hour."

I figured it would be around that amount. I pulled out my phone and showed it to her.

"I have the points right here."

She saw that I had almost 3 million points, and she was now even more anxious.

"Wait.. wouldn't Chie be better for this? I mean, her personality suits this festival perfectly. Why not hire her?"

She was doing her best to talk her way out of this, but I wouldn't allow that.

"You're correct, but it's very likely that Hoshinomiya sensei would refuse to help us. Even if she did accept, I'm still sure that you're the better option. All you have to do is stand in the corner of the room awkwardly and take pictures with the customers."

It wouldn't be very hard to deduce that Hoshinomiya sensei was acting, which will put off the customers when they realise it wasn't real. Even if Chabashira doesn't do much, the fact that she's being genuine would be more attractive to the customers, especially knowing that she's a teacher.

"But can't we just-"

She was still trying to talk her way out of this, but I cut her off.

"No. This is the perfect plan. So will you refuse? Do you want us to fight all on our own even though there's a high chance we will lose without you? I need an answer quickly so I can try and find countermeasures."

After putting a bit of pressure on her, Chabashira reluctantly nodded and followed me. We made our way back to the class, and I immediately noticed Haruka, who was now wearing the maid costume, had started helping around.

I had already informed Horikita about my plan. The moment she saw Chabashira, she knew I succeeded and took her to the back to give her the costume and instructions.

It didn't take long for Chabashira to change into the costume and come out. Everyone in the café immediately glanced in her direction, and her face instantly turned red in embarrassment. She took her position in the corner of the classroom and tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible.

Kushida followed the orders Horikita gave her and immediately went out to announce that we had a teacher in costume, which caught everyone's attention, and they were clearly willing to wait much longer now.

Next up was my turn, I went out and announced that anyone who was willing to stand can pay an entrance fee and follow me. Almost half the crowd immediately came up to me in order to take me up on that offer.

It took over 30 minutes for me to finally deal with the customers who wanted to stand. They all paid and went into the café to just look around and mostly watch Chabashira. But even that wasn't enough.

I went out to everyone else waiting in the hallway and asked them to pay me all their points or leave since we were about to open the curtains and allow everyone who paid to watch the café for the last 30 minutes.

Around 75% of the people waiting paid me all their remaining points since they didn't have any time to spend it elsewhere anyway. The rest left and tried to check out the other classes before the day ended. After receiving all the points, I signalled to Horikita, and she opened all the curtains, allowing everyone outside to look in.

30 more minutes passed, and the festival was finally over. Chabashira, who had only been here for an hour, already overtook Kushida in terms of pictures taken with customers. The profit we made in that last hour was almost double what we made all day, I highly doubt we'd end up losing to Ryuen at this rate.

Horikita made her way out over ten minutes ago and Kushida gave me an irritated expression probably because my plan dethroned her as our classes most popular maid. I also noticed that Haruka and Akito were talking, it looked like she was apologising to him. Keisei also walked up to them and after a lot of discussion they all smiled, it seems like they made up.

However Haruka glanced in my direction and so did the other two. They probably expected me to come up to them so we could all be friends again. I closed my eyes and turned around to walk out of the classroom. Our friendship was no longer necessary for either of us. I never truly considered them my friends despite all the time we spent together which meant they weren't necessary to me anymore. My presence would also trouble Haruka which meant I wasn't necessary for them either.

I couldn't think on them for too long however since there was still one more thing I needed to do before this day ends. I closed my eyes once more and took a deep breath while preparing myself for this unpleasant task.