The day after the special exam was completed.

Before we broke off for the summer vacation, Zyriot gathered everyone in E Class for a meeting to congratulate us on making it through the special exam and introducing the class to our four new members.

"Hi everyone! It's nice to meet all of you, I'm Yoneda Yui! I hope we can get along well from now on!"

"And I'm Houki Kimi. Please take good care of us."

"Hey. My name is Kamuro Hokyou. I'll be in your care."

"Yo. I'm Handa Kakichi, nice to meet ya."

"Hello, I'm Masamoto Manabe. It's nice to meet all of you. I hope we can all get along."

"Yamaguchi Teruhiko. Teruhiko's fine though. I'm happy to be here."

As expected, Masamoto left the meeting pretty quickly after his introduction. Akihiro tried talking to him, but it was pointless. Once a stuck up elite, always a stuck up elite.

In comparison, the four C Class students banded together, and had Yoneda, the social butterfly, handle most of the talking. Due to their shared interests, she, Houki, and Kamuro quickly got along with the girls in our class.

However, Handa, the only boy, didn't gel well with the delinquents as he was the studious type, so he continued to stick around them.

I don't even have to mention how seamlessly Teruhiko fit in. It was like he was right at home with the rest of us.

"Alright, thank you for attending. Well done everyone, I hope you all have a great summer vacation. Meeting dismissed."

Zyriot clapped his hands, letting everyone disperse. I was starting to make my way out as well, but someone put their hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"Huh? The hell do you want?"

I was half-expecting it to be Zyriot or Kanon, but to my surprise, it was Souichirou. He grunted, with Gentarou, Suehiro, Shouhei, Rokurou, and Teruhiko following behind him.

"Oi, Zenkichi. Mind your attitude."

I sighed. Even though I was their de facto leader since I was the only one with actual brain cells among them, Souichirou liked to use his raw strength as a way to gain authority over me, since he was clearly the most dangerous one amongst all of us.

"Huh? What's got your panties in a twist all of a sudden?"

That much earned me a slap on the cheek from Souichirou. I stumbled back a little from the force, nearly falling over entirely from my crutches going off balance. Gentarou and Shouhei laughed.

"You being a hypocrite, dumbass. Think you can talk smack about being a delinquent in public and get away with it while being one of us? It's either or, not both."

"Why can't I? It's my life, dumbass. I'll say what I want, be what I want. If you got a problem with it, that's on you. Stop being so sensitive."

I rubbed my cheek before spitting at his foot. Souichirou stomped on my wad of phlegm.

"I let you off the hook the first time cuz you were settling your problems with that hilarious arsonist. But this time, you straight up insulted us. All this crap about wanting to becoming better, being forced to go back to being a delinquent... is there something wrong with being one, huh? If you got such a problem with us, why do still act like you're one of us, huh?!"

Souichirou slugged me in the face, sending me tumbling to the floor. I gritted my teeth, covering my mouth as I could feel blood peel away from inside my cheek.

"You spat on the face of every guy in our class with those stupid words of yours. You know, I thought you were smart, Zenkichi. But yesterday, you proved to everyone in our year that you're a hypocrite."

Suehiro and Teruhiko came out from behind Souichirou to snag one of my crutches each, rendering me unable to get up from the floor.

"Like I said. You can't have it both ways. So, what's it gonna be, Zenkichi?"

Souichirou squatted, meeting me at eye level.

"Are you with us? Or against us?"

He then stood up, laughing as he taunted me to also get up and face him, lest he pummel me in the stomach with his foot.

Even if I could get up, and even if I could fight back, there were six of them and one of me. It was a losing fight.

Talk about kicking a guy when he's already down... I snarled.

"You bunch of dumbasses... you're so desperate to pick a fight that you're missing the obvious."

I sighed, forcing a smirk on my face and looking up at all of them.

"It's blindingly obvious that I'm with you guys. I only said that crap earlier so the riajuu would understand, since they're too dumb to get it otherwise. If I legit hated being one of ya, I would've quit already, like arson boy Masaru. As Zyriot-san once said... actions speak louder than words."

These guys have brains the size of peas, so I wasn't even sure if they would understand the English phrase I just threw out at them, but that's not what's important here.

I was gonna reinstate my spot as ringleader over these dumbasses who know only how to fight by speaking big and weaving Zyriot into the conversation. Even these buffoons calm down from their testosterone hype when the Godfather Zy comes into play.

"Oh. So it's like that, huh?"

Souichirou put down his foot, suddenly becoming bored. Any traces of interest in beating me to a pulp vanished from his eyes.

"Obviously."

"In that case, get on your knees and beg for forgiveness. Otherwise, Teruhiko and Suehiro's gonna toss these things in the trash on our way outside."

I rolled my eyes.

"Piss off and hand them back."

"Aight, well... it's your funeral then, you crippled hypocrite."

Souichirou whistled and started walking away, the other delinquents following him in tow.

"Oi! Give 'em back, you idiots!"

"Get up and grab 'em off us then!"

As Shouhei heckled me, the delinquents laughed together.

"You can't be serious... Souichirou you greasy yeast bastard, come the hell back here with my crutches!"

I growled, trying to use the wall as support to try and at least stand up.

"Bad boy."

As I did, from the corner of my eye, I could hear the sound of a fist colliding with flesh, followed by the sound of someone grunting as they hit the floor.

I turned my attention to see that Albert had punched Teruhiko, knocking the crutches out of his hands. Suehiro, terrified of meeting the same fate, tossed the crutches over to Souichirou to let him decide what he wanted to do with it.

"Obama-kun, that ain't very nice. He's one of our new classmates, you know?"

Souichirou held the crutch, pointing it at Albert's chest. Albert grabbed the stick of the crutch and started pulling on it, dragging Souichirou closer to him. In an act of resistance, Souichirou used his heels to dig into the floor and stand his ground.

"Hand it over, Souichirou-san. This isn't funny anymore."

"I think it's hilarious."

Souichirou yanked the crutch, trying to out muscle Albert in this impromptu tug of war fight. Seeing as they were both the strongest guys in our class, I honestly couldn't tell who was going to win.

"Wow, you got the whole crew laughing."

Albert pointed at the gaggle of delinquents standing behind Souichirou. This caused him to look back momentarily to check if they were, distracting him long enough to be blindsided by Albert punching him in the face.

Not even the tough as nails Souichirou could take the force that came from an Obama backed American style falcon punch, and he reflexively let go of the crutch to back off.

"Tch, whatever. We had our fun, let's go guys."

Souichirou spat at Albert's feet before walking away with his posse. Albert shook his head, approaching me with my crutches in hand.

"Here, Zenkichi-san. Sorry about those guys."

"Thanks, Albert-san... you're a lifesaver."

I sighed, taking back my crutches so I could stand up properly.

"I'll tell Zyriot about this so he can give them an earful later. That was just cruel of them."

"Nah, it's alright. Leave it be, I think you've already done more than enough."

I laughed, remembering how goofy Souichirou looked as he was caught blindsided by Albert's killer "bad boy" atomic punch.

"If you insist. Have a good summer holiday, Zenkichi-san."

"Yeah, you too man."

Man I was grateful that Albert was in my class. I'd be scared crapless if I had to go up against him...

I hobbled my way over the balcony of the second floor of the outdoors school, letting me look over everyone while the clear blue sky hung over my head.

I breathed in the fresh air, feeling my chest decompress.

"This special exam came to an end without a hitch... and yet somehow, I still don't feel satisfied."

I muttered to myself, scratching the back of my hand.

I had managed to bury Masamoto down to E Class and cause him to lose his place in the student council, but I knew this wouldn't be a permanent fixture.

Knowing how good that guy is at academics, he'll probably use it to his advantage to force the S System to make him rank up. How many classes he'd move up is up in the air.

Ideally, he'd get shovelled in with C Class, since they're clearly the weakest, but if he ends up in D Class with Takanori, that could potentially be troubling, especially for me...

It would be easy for a crafty guy like Takanori to easily capitalise on Masamoto's disdain towards me and use their shared hatred to form an alliance to specifically take me down in revenge.

After all, even if they don't look like the types to chase after it, it's usually guys like them who want vengeance the most.

"Ah... I seriously put a major target on my back without thinking it through, huh?"

It's always been like this.

I'm used to it.

But somehow, it felt different this time.

Instead of fending myself with my strength, I would have to fend for myself with my intelligence.

And unlike Takanori's position as the leader of D Class or Masamoto's position as a former A Class student, I had no position of power myself that I could take advantage of.

The most I had were the delinquents, but I've just seen with my own two eyes that even they're willing to cast me aside if I say the wrong thing or if they want to use me for their own entertainment.

...I'm the only bastard at this school crazy enough to hurt themselves just to see their plan go through.

None of these leaders are ready to sacrifice themselves to get the dirty work done.

That's the only advantage I have over them.

...well, it's alright.

I don't care how many times I have to damage or hurt myself.

When you have nothing, you can go all out without any regrets.

It's always the man with nothing to lose you should fear most.

After all, they don't care about how their own fate ends up.

So who knows what kind of crazy tricks they'll pull off?

An unpredictable variable.

The gambler's speciality.

In that case, I wonder who should be my next target...

「Who do I want to get revenge on next?」

I closed my eyes, trying to envision the person who I want to see gone next.

Piece by piece, bit by bit, their face began being formed in my mind.

It was a boy.

A boy with blonde hair.

A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes.

I thought I was done with him, but his words yesterday still rang true in my mind.

Even though he wasn't here now, they were still provoking me.

I laughed at myself, putting my hand to my face.

I'll make the kingdom of D Class crumble by sniping their head honcho.

"For my next act, I'll make you disappear."

Before he can get me, I'll get him first.

"Takanori Yuuto."

On the stage of the sports festival, I'll arrange an injury on him so deadly, he'll have no choice but to retire from this school.

Permanently.