Cardfight!! Vanguard: Generations Volume 4 [Ryouta Rival]

- Part 5

While I'd love to stay around and chat with them, I had to rendezvous with Ikeda in a couple of minutes.

"Thanks for paying for my meal, Ryouta-san."

"No problem, it was a pleasure dining with you."

Like usual, we shook with our left hands.

"Just before I go... may I enquire something?"

"Hm? What is it?"

"When are you going to change classes?"

When I brought that topic up, Akihiro's eyes widened. Meanwhile, Masamoto and Tamaki (I had gotten her permission to call her that while eating) both looked at me strangely.

"Uh... hopefully, never?"

Ryouta chuckled slightly afterwards. I raised an eyebrow.

"But you lost that challenge with Shimada-san."

"Yes... that much is true. However, the reason why I'm still in A Class is because of everyone else."

Ryouta looked at Tamaki and Masamoto with a gentle smile.

"When the results were revealed, I announced to everyone that I would be leaving A Class to whichever class Shimada-san desired since it was my loss. However, there was a giant outcry, and everyone in class protested this decision."

"It was certainly quite the spectacle. Ishima-san and Yogen-san were the first to speak out against Shimada, and everyone else naturally followed." Masamoto said.

"Yes... it's a little embarrassing, but I just thought it wasn't right that Ryouta-kun had to leave our class over such a slim defeat, especially since Shimada-san didn't even get 100% himself. I think it's more impressive that the gap between them was only 2%, since it shows just how hard Ryouta-kun worked in order to keep up with someone who has photographic memory. In my eyes, he won." Tamaki said.

"I agree. In the first place, our class only agreed to this challenge because we wanted Shimada out, and this was the only way to force his hand. Even if Ryouta-san lost, I don't think any of us would actually support the decision."

"Exactly! We all rallied besides Ryouta-kun and made it clear to Shimada-san that we weren't going to let him leave just because of this result. And guess what happened?"

Tamaki, with a cheeky grin, nudged Ryouta as he scratched his cheek and smiled to himself timidly.

"Because of their support... Shimada-san changed his mind. Even he, someone who operates purely on his own whims, could see just how much they didn't want me to go. In the end, he told me to transfer to A Class as the outcome of our challenge."

So that's how Ryouta got to stay in A Class, huh?

It seems Shimada was bemused enough by A Class's antics that it made him change his mind on the outcome. Though... knowing him, he probably also let Ryouta stay because he was bored with him.

This challenge proved that Ryouta wasn't going to sate his hunger for competition. If anything, that desire to find a close match had been shifted to me instead, because he recognised me from... <that>.

As such, he probably doesn't have a reason to fight Ryouta anymore. And if that's the case, whichever class he belonged to would become irrelevant.

Even so, Shimada still could've pissed everyone else by forcing Ryouta to transfer elsewhere, but I think he didn't, partially because he understood just how much moving him to another class would drastically alter the current power dynamic in our year.

A Class would be at a severe disadvantage if they gave away their leader for free. It'd be like if E Class gave away Zyriot to us. We would absolutely dominate the interclass war if that was the case.