Following Shiina's gaze, Shirogane quickly spotted the frail-looking Sakayanagi Arisu among the crowd.
She had a congenital heart condition, which meant she had no choice but to use a cane to walk.
But—
Even though her condition sounded pitiful, seeing her in person didn't give off that impression at all.
Sakayanagi held her cane in her left hand. She was petite and delicate, her skin pale and flawless, her silver hair smooth and elegant.
Yet, rather than looking weak, she radiated confidence and pride.
Yes.
The air around her was one of self-assurance and superiority.
She walked ahead, surrounded by five or six other students who clustered around her like stars orbiting a moon.
When she moved forward, they moved forward. When she stopped, they stopped too.
It was as if she was the leader of this group of students.
Some of them were carrying shopping bags, seemingly accompanying the girl on a shopping trip.
It was a surprising sight.
"..." Shirogane.
At first, he was worried that Sakayanagi might struggle to manage on her own due to her frail health.
After all, even for freshmen, shopping for necessities could be a challenge.
But it seemed like he had worried for nothing.
Sakayanagi had plenty of people helping her.
However, these people didn't look like they were helping out of sympathy. Instead, they seemed to be following her lead.
In other words, she had already gained control over a portion of her classmates.
Shirogane recalled what Sakayanagi Arisu had said that morning when they walked from the infirmary to the gym.
[Even though I'm just a freshman, I don't think this school is the same as regular schools outside.]
[A school backed and promoted by the government, boasting a 100% employment and university acceptance rate, with free tuition and even living expenses covered—this all sounds too good to be true.]
[But free things often come at the highest price. So, this school must have some unusual system in place.]
Now, seeing how her classmates treated her, it was clear that she had already earned their recognition.
Her classmates followed her lead. In other words, strength ruled here.
"Suddenly, it feels like moving up in ranks will be even harder for our year," Shirogane muttered.
"Huh?" Shiina looked confused.
She had no idea that, while Sakayanagi seemed cute and harmless, Shirogane had already classified her as an SSS-level threat.
She had introduced herself, and her class was 1-A.
That meant that to earn the rewards promised by the school, they had to reach Class A and defeat her.
According to the upperclassmen's intel, it was already difficult for lower-ranked classes to rise. Now, with someone like Sakayanagi Arisu in the mix, it was even harder.
It was as if her class had hit the jackpot and pulled an SSR-tier student.
If all of Class A were filled with students like Sakayanagi, then it was practically impossible for Class C to climb up.
The gap was just too big.
Still, there was some small relief.
If all of Class A were like Sakayanagi, then she wouldn't have five or six students gathered around her right now.
That meant these students had acknowledged her abilities.
They believed she was smarter than them.
So, not every student in Class A was on her level.
But still…
"Do you think our class will ever have someone that everyone recognizes as a leader?" Shirogane asked.
"Recognize? You mean like someone the whole class listens to and follows?" Hiyori responded, but quickly shook her head. "I don't think so. Even if someone stands out as exceptional, the others might listen, but they wouldn't necessarily follow."
In other words, it was a problem with Class C's student quality.
They were probably stubborn, not very smart, and unwilling to listen.
It seemed like Ryuen might actually be necessary. His violent methods might be the only way to unify the class.
Otherwise, forget about reaching Class A—they might not even be able to break into Class B.
Shirogane thought to himself.
"I was worried earlier that Sakayanagi might not be in good health and might need help, but now it looks like I was just overthinking it," he said. "Let's go take care of what we need to do."
In other words, they were about to go their separate ways.
"Where are you going next, Shirogane?" Shiina asked.
"I'm planning to go to the electronics store to buy a USB drive," Shirogane said, sharing his plan.
Buying a USB drive, huh. Nothing strange about that—he just needed to save the video of Ryuen hitting someone.
It could be used as a weapon to control him later.
Hiyori nodded.
"I'll send the video to your phone," Shiina said.
At the same time, Hiyori also decided to delete the recording from her own phone.
Because at this point, the video could be used against Ryuen.
But Ryuen was still a student in their class—if a video of him fighting got out, he wouldn't be the only one punished. The whole class could get penalized.
So it was a double-edged sword.
If the phone were to get lost and the video leaked, it would be a serious problem.
With that, Shirogane and Shiina went their separate ways at the intersection.
Shirogane headed toward the electronics store, while Shiina returned to the supermarket. She had only picked out about half of the items and needed to check if her shopping cart had been taken away by a store worker.
...
"Sakayanagi?" one of the students walking with her noticed that Sakayanagi was looking off in another direction.
"It's nothing," Sakayanagi Arisu said with a smile.
"Even though today is only the first day of school, if my guess is right, getting information about the other classes is going to be really important."
"Those students who just passed by were from Class C, weren't they?" Sakayanagi said.
Oh!
So that's what it was!
"Got it."
One of the students answered right away.
She had noticed two students walk out from around the corner just now, so the plan was to get information from them.
But those two had split up.
Should she follow the boy or the girl?
Better to go after the girl.
The student quickly moved into action.
That made the group one person smaller, but the attention and focus on Sakayanagi didn't change.
She walked on, calmly holding her cane, as if nothing had happened.
Even as a new student, she still had a few things she needed to buy.