Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Solace

Vol. 6: Chapter 7.3 - Protagonist

"I still have them in my room. We can try, but Ryuuen will probably be on guard this time..." I replied.

"Yeah, that's true... Man, this is hard. How in the world do we get Soshi out of this...?"

"Arghh-! I'll just take Ryuuen's phone and delete those pictures myself!"

"Ohh! Now that's a plan Sudou would think of!"

"Don't hype him up..." I tsukkomi'd.

"Is this really the time to be joking around...?" Horikita sighed.

"I ain't jokin' around! If it weren't for the rules..."

"Let's calm down now. I still think there's a way to turn things around without using force."

"By force... I guess it would be easy for someone as strong as Sudou-kun," smiled Kikyou.

"You bet it is!"

"Ah, but Yamada-kun is always around Ryuuen-kun, right? Are you stronger than him?"

Faced with an innocent question, Ken could only answer truthfully-- or at least, he tried.

"W-Well... Maybe it's not that easy anymore..."

"Ahaha, I really wish it was," Hondou laughed bitterly before standing up. "I think we can end things here, for now, Horikita-san. We've practically covered everything already. The only thing we need to think about is how to save Soshi."

"I understand. We're going to continue working with Kushida-san in this case, if that's alright."

"Of course," Kikyou nodded without hesitation.

"Thank you for your time, Sudou-kun. If it's alright with you, we'd like some updates if anything strange happens with Kondou-kun or even Komiya-kun for that matter," asked Hirata.

"Sure," replied Ken.

"You too, Ayanokouji-kun. Please don't hesitate to give us your opinion on this matter if you have any."

"Of course," I nodded in return.

In other words, I don't have to do it if I don't want to. That saves me a lot of trouble.

With the initial plan in motion, we got out of the classroom and split into two groups. Hirata and Horikita asked Kikyou to accompany them. Meanwhile, Ken and I left the building with Hondou. Ken, who was surprised by Hondou's involvement, decided to break the ice.

"You've really changed, Hondou. My opinion of you is gettin' better," he said.

"What's with that, Sudou? You're gonna make me blush," Hondou teased back.

"Shut it!" Ken bit back before turning serious. "Well, I'm just sayin' the truth."

Seeing this, Hondou reciprocated him.

"Everyone's changing, you know?" he simply said. "And I'm not like you, Sudou. All I'm doing is tryna be more out there. I'm not as fast as you in terms of improving my studies or anything like that. And I'm still as unathletic as ever."

Hearing his points, Ken could only agree.

"What made you want to change, though? You were just like Ike and Yamauchi durin' the first semester."

"Don't lump me with those morons-- is what I would like to say, but you're right. To be honest, I was already satisfied with how I was back then. Trying hard is a pain, after all."

Now that's something I can personally relate to.

"Well, we're the same. But after makin' some friends, I realized that I don't wanna get expelled... Suddenly, studyin' didn't seem so hard anymore."