Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Solace

Vol. 6: Chapter 13.5 - The Man on a Mission

"Can we just... stop this?" Hirata's distinct voice caused everyone to shift their gazes.

"Hirata-kun... What do you mean?" asked Horikita.

"This is too cruel. We shouldn't be piling up on someone like this."

Horikita's sharp expression softened as she looked at Hirata's face of grief, suffering, and resistance.

"You've got it wrong, Hirata-kun. We're not piling up on anyone. We're just trying to make Miyamoto-kun understand that he has to take responsibility for his actions."

"Responsibility...? Do we even have the right to judge that?"

"No, we don't... But the school does, and they're punishing him. The purpose of this conversation is not to get Miyamoto-kun expelled. It's to save Mori-san. Every one of us just wants to make that happen."

Whether the class likes it or not, the school will eventually decide to expel Miyamoto. But Mori is also caught up in it, and Kikuchi just wants everyone in the class to save her. Hirata already knew that, but for some reason, he couldn't just accept it.

"But still..."

Horikita walked up to him and said something that only they could hear. Hirata's eyes opened wide as he desperately tried to hold himself together.

"Can I trust you...?" he simply asked.

"Yes, please trust me."

Horikita's answer was devoid of calculation. Hirata saw this more clearly than anyone else. And so, he nodded and let things be. After seeing this, our classmates, who probably felt a subtle hint of doubt towards Horikita, started to look relieved.

Ever since the start of school, the one who held this class together was none other than Hirata Yousuke. If he decided to trust Horikita, they should also put their faith in her.

"Tch, this is ridiculous."

Miyamoto tightened his hold on his things before walking out of the room.

"H-Hey, Soshi, wait!"

His friends immediately ran after him.

And with that, the class discussion finally ended.

Honestly, I just wanted to eat lunch already so I could go home and sleep.

The conversations about the situation continued until the very end of the day in our class group chat. However, none of our classmates could figure out the real truth. It's easy to point fingers as to who was responsible, but without actual proof, it's just useless chatter. 

Shinohara, in particular, was scrutinized by a lot of the girls because she stayed relatively silent during the entire thing. She managed to get by after saying that she didn't want to say anything useless. But given her recent closeness to Ike, it's understandable for her to act passively against him or his group in serious situations like that. And siding with them is an even more dangerous option for her given how Karuizawa and the other girls would see it.

Then there was Hirata. Everyone can see that he's got all of the group chat's messages on read, but he wasn't participating in the discussion. Some students would occasionally @ him, but even if his response was normal, it would usually close the conversation immediately. That said, everyone was at least happy to see him back to normal. It was quite a shock to see him suddenly turn into a completely different person. Even I was surprised.

We would take the second and last day of the exam with the weight of an expelled classmate bearing on our shoulders. This could be seen on each Class A student's face.