Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V7: Chapter 8 - Walking in the Zoo

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka POV

Chabashira-sensei and I came to the stands to see how the events would develop.

We left Yosuke near one of the entrances of the pool, ready to intervene. I made sure he would wait for my message, as to prevent him from jumping in as soon as things started. For now, Kei, Manabe and Yamashita were engaged in a heated discussion so it shouldn't take much longer.

At the end of the hallway before entering the stands, Nao was keeping an eye on what was happening next to the pool, two backpacks at her feet. She had been the one to tell me Kei and Manabe would be here. The choice of the indoor pool surprised me since it wasn't the first place you would think of to have this kind of meeting. Considering that Karma had reserved both the rooftop and the back of the school building, Nao probably didn't have much more places to pick up from. I doubted Manabe or Yamashita chose this location, of course. It was possible that Nao had obtained some guarantee that no one would come here today. There was also the fact that today there weren't any club activities as they had been suspended.

Noticing us, Nao waved her hand happily.

"So, you decided to invite someone, Kiyo?"

"Just a witness," I said simply.

"And your little follower?" Nao raised an eyebrow looking behind me.

Puzzled, Chabashira-sensei looked down the hallway but there was no one.

"It's only the three of us," I said.

Nao smiled roguishly and shrugged taking her attention back to what was transpiring down by the pool. Judging by Chabashira-sensei and Nao's reaction, the both of them draw different conclusions from my comment.

I paid no mind to that and took a glance to see what was happening. They were still discussing, although Kei appeared to be closer to Manabe than she was a few minutes ago. They were next to the pool, Manabe and Yamashita were the only ones with their backpacks.

"Want some?" Nao offered me some chocolate sticks that, apparently, she had taken out of her backpack.

I accepted with a simple nod and grabbed two. Nao then offered some to Chabashira-sensei who looked at Nao as if she was a weird alien or something.

"Your friend might be about to be bullied and you two will calmly watch while eating chocolate sticks?"

Nao shifted her glance between Chabashira-sensei and the box of chocolate sticks. She blinked and pointed at her bag with her free hand.

"I have white chocolate if you prefer—"

Chabashira-sensei sighed and grabbed the box of chocolate sticks from Nao's hand, took several and gave it back to her. Nao recovered her roguish smile seeing my teacher's attitude. Leaning against the wall, she put her attention back on the events of the pool where Yamashita was on the floor probably because she fell on her butt, she appeared surprised. Maybe Kei had pushed her. Manabe tried to attack Kei, but she dodged the punch coming from the right and hit Manabe on the throat with the side of her hand. Manabe fell to her knees, taking a hand to her throat as she coughed.

I turned to Nao.

"What did you teach her?"

"What?" she shrugged eating a chocolate stick. "It's self-defence. Where's the harm?"

Yamashita coming back from her stupor, stood up and threw her bag at Kei. She evaded it quite easily, moving almost automatically. The bag landed on the pool but that didn't seem to perturb Yamashita since she threw herself at Kei.