Classroom of the Elite: Crimson Usurper (V5-V11.5)

(V7) Chapter 4.1

"THIS brings us to the end of homeroom," said Sakagami-sensei.

"I'd like to remind everyone to please be on your best behavior, even during winter vacation, and to make good use of your time. That's all."

I took out my phone as I listened to his gracious, meaningless words. Today was the day of the closing ceremony—the final day of the second semester. Our classes finished early, leaving us free by afternoon. There were no club activities today, either. The school encouraged students to head back early, so hardly anyone would be left in the building.

I purposely picked today using these facts in mind.

To be honest, there was a particular person I'd had my eye on all along, but I couldn't jump to conclusions yet. If anything, it would be all the more fun to be able to confront the real 'X' with a clear head and no doubts.

I'd taken certain steps after the Paper Shuffle. I mobilized every Class C student and assigned them targets to spy on. Of course, it wasn't like tailing people was likely to get me much closer to discovering X's identity. I excluded the weaklings, narrowing my list of suspects to delinquents like Sudou and Miyake, and conservative people like Hirata.

The Class D punks had noticed they were being tailed... except for Sudou, who was so dumb and oblivious I'd had to have my people provoke him directly. But being noticed was fine by me. 

I wanted them constantly aware that I was watching. 

I wanted X to spend their days trembling with fear, terrified of having their identity discovered.

Yet they'd continued to use Suzune and Shinjiro as a cover, stubbornly keeping themselves hidden. Which meant I had to tighten the noose.

One more thing. Though I'd all but told both Shinjiro and the real X I'd target Karuizawa, I had yet to make a move. I was sure they'd been on edge these past two weeks or so, probably wondering how and when I'd contact Karuizawa, how I'd extract information from her. 

Chances were, they were asking her daily whether anything out of the ordinary had happened. The uncertainty would take it out of them. It would confuse them. They'd be exhausted, paranoid, and jumping at shadows, constantly imagining me breathing down their neck.

But... this X isn't like that.

Although they were absolutely in anticipation for what was about to come, I wouldn't exactly say they'd be paranoid. 

Besides their personality traits, I have no idea of X's actual personality.

Even though it'd only been a few minutes since dismissal, more than half the class had left. The clock on the wall seemed as if it was ticking slower than normal.

"Hah..."

My heart raced. It'd been years since I felt this kind of exhilaration.

Ibuki had asked why I risked so much just to identify X. She called it meaningless. She was right that I didn't care about anything past discovering X's identity, at least. Ibuki thought I'd feel disappointed once I found out who X was. But the mere thought of an insanely cruel person, perhaps crueler than me, fascinated me.

I wondered how I would feel when I came face-to-face with X.

I would do anything, use any means, to find them. The text I'd sent to X this morning was already marked as read. Via the same first email that always checks first. And then the second email a bit later was checked. 

They knew what was going to happen today. What would they do, then? What kind of plan would they devise?

"Ryuuen-kun," said Shiina Hiyori, who sat right beside me.