Volume 2: Chapter 7.1 - Revelation

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"Yahoo! You're really late, huh?"

Ichinose and Kanzaki were standing near the entrance, chatting with Hamaguchi. They must've been on tenterhooks about the trial's results. When Ichinose saw me, she waved me over.

"I take it Hamaguchi filled you in?" I asked.

"Yeah, Tetsuya-kun told us everything. So, you turned down the compromise, huh? Class D is insisting on Horikita-san and Sudou-kun's innocence until the very end?"

"That was Horikita's call. Even a single day of suspension for her or Sudou would've meant a win for Class A."

The compromise had been a trap designed to lure us to our defeat. But in truth, "compromise" wasn't the right word, since it implied concessions from both sides. This was more like an exploitative, one-sided contract. Still, given Class A's overwhelming advantage in the trial, Ryuuen had the leverage to push through a deal like that.

"But unless you show up with new evidence on Monday, the result won't change. In fact, it will be worse, since Horikita will almost certainly be expelled. I know the compromise wasn't ideal, but I still would've taken it. Ayanokouji, I'm guessing you have some idea on how to turn things around, right?"

Kanzaki turned to me. Judging by the look in his eyes, it seemed he valued my opinion quite highly.

"I'm not sure yet. I'll talk things over with Horikita and Hirata, then get back to you once we have a plan. Before making any decisions, I want to see what Horikita intends to do first."

In truth, accepting Ryuuen's compromise was the smartest move for Class D. For 99.9% of students, rejecting it and pushing for a full acquittal would only end in disaster. I wanted to see if Horikita belonged to the rare few capable of pulling off the impossible.

"Horikita-san sure looked determined. She breezed right past us on her way back. I'm curious to see what she comes up with, because I've got no idea what to do from here," Ichinose said with a laugh.

"Same here. Honestly, the fact that we even got an extension is already incredible," Kanzaki added.

The fake witnesses were the only reason we'd made it this far. Without them, the trial would've ended in a crushing defeat. The problem now was that the school would disregard Hamaguchi and Machida's testimony on Monday and focus solely on the evidence. No matter how passionately we pleaded our case, it wouldn't matter. The only thing that could save Class D was solid proof that Class A had lied, but that kind of evidence simply didn't exist.

"Hey, Ayanokouji-kun. Ryuuji-kun said you were the one who came up with the idea for me to change my testimony during the trial. You even predicted that Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun would testify for Class A. That was incredible! How did you figure it out?" Hamaguchi asked.

"Well, I didn't figure out everything. I just came up with the idea for that little trick with the audio bug. You pulled it off perfectly, Ichinose. I really appreciate you taking that risk."

Before the trial, I handed Ichinose a small audio bug I had picked up from an electronics store. The school had recently announced her acceptance into the student council, which meant she had access to the student council room during school hours. I asked her to discreetly plant the device inside one of the desks. During the trial, it would transmit a live audio feed directly to Hamaguchi's phone, allowing him to follow everything in real time.

Having Ichinose do this wasn't strictly necessary, but it served as a precaution. If Nagumo decided to press Hamaguchi with any follow-up questions, he'd be ready. Since he had followed the trial from start to finish, he could respond confidently to anything Class A or the student council threw at him. That would strengthen his credibility.

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