As Ichinose rejoined the group by the console, her earlier display of vulnerability was gone and she was back to her usual self again as if nothing ever happened. However, it had already left an indelible mark on my mind. Whatever was in that folder had rattled her, and whether it was something related to the case or something else entirely remained unclear.
The others welcomed her return, they chatted and relayed about their findings with their usual vigor, seemingly unaware of what had just occurred.
"As you can see, these are the seven other students that entered the store," Kanzaki said, pointing to the screen. "We should consider them both witnesses and potential suspects."
"Once we figure out their identities and determine their classes, we can start questioning them. Fortunately, we already know of two," Horikita added.
Ignoring the earlier matter, I focused on the expanded images of each student. Among them, the two that Horikita mentioned were also familiar faces to me. They were students from class D — Mori Nene and Sakura Airi.
"The others look familiar to me as well, but I don't really know which class they are from. I'm sorry," said Amikura.
"What are you sorry for Mako-chan? We don't think there's anything wrong with it, in fact I'm actually on the same boat."
Ichinose was quick to reassure with a comforting smile. However, this sudden gesture by her made Amikura jittery and struggled to maintain eye contact.
"I-I see, I'm sorry. Ah, I mean y-yeah!" she said, her cheeks flushing slightly.
The effect from earlier is more potent than I had initially thought, sigh. I just hope she doesn't react like that everytime.
Ichinose continued, seemingly aware but relishing the turmoil she caused in Amikura. "No worries, Mako-chan. We'll figure it out together."
"The fastest way would be to cross-reference these images with the student database, but those aren't exactly free," Horikita suggested.
Of course she would know about that. A while back, she had the gall to order me to gather all relevant information concerning our classmates, when she could have just purchased the information herself. She even had the perfect and condescending excuse of, 'Why waste points when I can just order you for free?'
She sure knows how to take full advantage of the result of our bet. Though recently, it had transformed into a 'I'll cook for you and you'll do what I want' type of deal, which is better in a way...In the first place, I never considered benefiting from that bet when I proposed it.
...It was simply a selfish whim of mine.
"But wouldn't information about other classes cost significantly higher?" Shibata asked after a moment of thought.
It was a logical assumption and everyone seemed to have nodded in agreement.
As expected, all of us here are aware of the special conditions of the academy's points and emblem system. 'You can buy anything in this academy with either points or emblems'—that includes information, no matter how trivial. However, the actual cost of these items remained undisclosed, leaving us to guess the right amount.
During my chat with Ichinose earlier, she shared how she acquired access to the camera records and how much it cost her—10 white emblems. This gave them unrestricted access to recordings from the past four months. In hindsight, that sum must have been way beyond the amount set by the academy for items of this nature, considering that all we really needed was recording from a few days ago.
YOU ARE READING
Classroom of the Elite: Monster Academy
Fanfiction"The Masterpiece had escaped." In order to be free of his pursuers, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka had found himself enrolling into the prestigious Advanced Nurturing Spirit Academy --- the only place they cannot reach. It towered as the best institution in Ja...
