The Other Ayanokoji

Chapter 22

The majority of Class D rejoices in celebration after successfully completing the Paper Shuffle. "We did it!" I hear everyone shouting in the classroom.

Later, the Ayanokoji group observes Ichinose and Arisu hanging out together. "Thank you for going out with me today, Sakayanagi-san!" Ichinose smiles at her. "Oh, no, no. The pleasure is mine." Arisu says with a smug smile.  

"Everything about Ichinose seems perfect. It's unsettling." Haruka remarks. Keisei nods. "Agreed. To take down Class-C, we should target her."

Meanwhile, a Class-C student follows Karuizawa around, making her uncomfortable. I think I'm being followed by a Class-C student. I hear her think to herself.
Class-C students provoke many Class-D students, trying to exploit the mastermind behind Class-D.
 An Class-A student was spying on our study sessions. Karuizawa reaches out to me. Send me the picture you took. I type. Ok. It was a picture of a member of the Sakayanagi faction, Masumi Kamuro. How did you know that I took a picture?  She asks. I will tell you when I absolutely have to. I type. Arisu Sakayanagi... I think I have seen her before a long time ago...
~Next day~

Ryuen is trying to bait us. He doesn't buy into me being the mastermind. I can hear Horikita deducing the situation. 

She turns to my brother. "Here." She gives him the book that he wanted to read. "You wanted to read it. I finished it. The book is always being borrowed, so you should just return it and then borrow it." My brother nods in a deliberate and unhurried manner. "Ryo, come with me."  "Siscon," I whisper under my breath.

While my brother was returning the book to the library, I see Hiyori jumping to try and get a book. I get the book for her. "Here you go." Hiyori appears to be taken aback, filled with astonishment. "You are..." "Ryo Ayanokoji," I say. "Ah. The twins." "Are you going to borrow that book?" I look down at the book in her hands. 

"I don't mind. I've read this book before."  "It is a good book and a great author. Emily Brontë." I nod. Her face lights up. "Really!"

 My brother walks up toward me. He's still holding the book that he was going to borrow. Hiyori looks at the book in his hands. "Ohhh! That is Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, right?" I am taken aback by the look on my brother's face. 

Hiyori turns to me. "Have you read anything by Dorothy Leigh Slayers?" She searches for a book and passes it to me and my brother. "I really recommend this, the first novel in her Lord Peter Series." She pauses. "There's no one in Class C who likes reading novels, so I have no one I can talk to." I look at her. "Isn't there someone in Class D you're fervently searching for? Aren't we both on the suspect list?" I ask. She smiles. "I'm not at all interested in all that fighting." "I see." My brother looks carefully at her.  A pacifist, huh?  "I think it is best if everyone gets along." She walks away. "What a strange coincidence." We both remark. My brother smiles at me.

~Time skip~

Both me and my brother were walking to go see our friends when Chabahsira-sensei stops us. "Come with me." "We have friends to go meet up with." I say calmly. She shakes her head. "It's important. Someone is here to meet you." Father. I whisper into my brother's head. We are then both taken to a reception room, where our father is sitting down, drinking green tea. 

"Your butler committed suicide after I fired him for helping you two apply to this school and escape our family." "I see." We both say calmly. "You feel no remorse for your savior?" I take off my glasses and stare at him coldly. "Ah. You have been using your clairvoyance. The last time was..." I slam my fist on the table. "Don't talk about that." "Ah. I have bothered the beastly creation of mine." I glare at him but calmly take a step back.