Ichinose Honami was a bit confused. Was this classmate talking about her?
But she hadn't been taken advantage of by Nagumo Miyabi, so why say something like that?
She wanted to say something in Nagumo Miyabi defense, but his expression was so ugly that she suddenly felt suspicious and swallowed her words. Of course Nagumo Miyabi looked terrible. For him, Kaoru Mitoma rumors were pretty fatal.
After all, Nagumo Miyabi already had a lot of negative rumors, especially about messing around with girls. Sometimes he'd flirt with girls from other classes, sometimes he'd go on dates with senpai—everyone knew he was a lecher.
If someone else was accused of abusing their position, maybe they could clear their name, but with Nagumo Miyabi, people would really believe it.
"Looks like you've done your homework on me. Not bad at gathering intel," Nagumo Miyabi stared hard at Kaoru Mitoma.
"But I'm curious—how exactly did you find all this out? Did you go around chatting up second-years?"
"No need to go that far. The school-issued phones have a built-in student forum. Just post a bounty, and plenty of people will answer anonymously right away." Kaoru Mitoma sounded a little disappointed. He'd hoped to get some crucial intel, like the truth behind this school.
Unfortunately, when someone saw from his profile that he was a first-year student, they absolutely refused to answer him. Hearing what he said, Nagumo Miyabi was a little taken aback, then remembered the school's official forum.
Since students were more used to using INS, Line, and X, almost no one ever bothered with the forum. He didn't expect Kaoru Mitoma to gather intel there, and that surprised him a bit. And judging by his attitude, he even seemed to know about his relationship with Horikita Manabu. Otherwise, he wouldn't have suddenly brought up Horikita Manabu just now.
"Heh... This year first-years are pretty interesting." Nagumo Miyabi tapped his fingers on the table, his earlier irritation slowly fading.
"So, what do you want?"
Kaoru Mitoma thought for a moment. "Senpai, you're making this a bit difficult for me. I was just passing by, that's all."
"Just passing by, huh?"
Nagumo Miyabi didn't buy his bullshit for a second. It was a day off, and hardly any students would be hanging around the school building.
Kaoru Mitoma smiled faintly. Of course, he'd just happened to see someone in the student council room. As for why he saw it... He'd actually been planning to see if he could plant a bug in the teachers' office or the student council office.
It was a high-tech reward, really tiny, but worked pretty well. He'd planted one in Higuchi Madoka room before, and after that, he'd heard the same Higuchi Madoka who was so harsh to him during the day, moaning his name at night while getting herself off.
Yeah, you can eavesdrop on people even if you leave it outside the room. It's a pretty underhanded move, but as long as it gets results, who cares.
So, at this moment, Kaoru Mitoma just happened to see Ichinose Honami walk into the student council office. He wasn't sure if that counted as good luck.
"Rather than questioning me, shouldn't you explain why you're meeting a junior on your day off?" Kaoru Mitoma sighed.
"No third party, just a one-on-one conversation, and you even want her to talk about her past. Is that how the student council does things?"
"Because Nagumo-senpai heard that I was rejected by President Horikita, so he wanted to ask me about it."
For some reason, Ichinose Honami suddenly spoke up. Kaoru Mitoma glanced at her. Was this girl still trusting people even now?
No, she was just hoping she could trust Nagumo Miyabi. But it was pointless. Because Nagumo Miyabi was about to shatter her illusions himself.
"Mitoma, I'll admit you're pretty sharp, and yeah, you guessed right. I do want to use Ichinose. Who knows, she might come in handy in ways I never expected."
Without hiding anything, Nagumo Miyabi calmly stated his thoughts. Since he'd already gotten what he wanted, there was no need to keep up the act. Besides, he never liked pretending to be clueless in the first place.
Ichinose Honami stared at Nagumo Miyabi in shock, unable to believe he would actually think that way.
"What do you mean by that, Nagumo-senpai?
She tried her best to keep smiling, but it only made her expression look stiff. Nagumo Miyabi didn't even look at her. He had leverage now, so he could deal with her however he wanted later. Right now, it was Kaoru Mitoma who seemed more dangerous.
"Is that all you're after, senpai?"
Kaoru Mitoma mused. "Using a first-year weakness to force her into the student council—if she's the only first-year who makes it as a council member, then the next student council president will have to be her, right? A handpicked student council president would be valuable in itself."
"Looks like you know exactly what's going on, Mitoma."
Nagumo Miyabi gave a fearless smile.
"But let me make one thing clear: Ichinose is talented, sure, but that's not the point. What's important is that she has the value to stay by my side as my personal possession."
Ichinose Honami pressed her lips together. She should have realized this before, but she chose to trust Nagumo Miyabi. Now, hearing Nagumo Miyabi say it so bluntly, she fell silent.
"Saying something like that right in front of her—aren't you worried?"
Kaoru Mitoma asked, pretending to be surprised.
"No, that's just my taste. It has nothing to do with anyone else, that's all."
Nagumo Miyabi raised his eyebrows.
"But let's talk about you, Mitoma. You didn't choose to leave right away. Instead, you showed up in front of me, which means you want to make a deal."
Kaoru Mitoma wasn't surprised that he figured it out.
"So, senpai, how do you plan to buy back this recording?"
"Fifty thousand private points."
"So the student council's reputation is only worth fifty thousand points to you, senpai."
Kaoru Mitoma gave a slight smile.
"If I release this recording and hire a few rappers to make a scene, I'm sure the whole school will know about your heroic deeds."
Kaoru Mitoma snorted coldly.
"You're pretty good at blackmail, Mitoma, but do you really think that's enough to guarantee your win? That recording is worth, at most, two hundred thousand private points."
"One million personal points."
Nagumo Miyabi was stunned for a moment, then his face darkened.
"That's a ridiculous price. Even for you freshmen, you only get a hundred thousand personal points this month. One million is way too much."
He hated being extorted, especially in such a humiliating way.
"One million,"
Kaoru Mitoma didn't budge.
"If you don't give it to me, I'll upload it to the forum."
Nagumo Miyabi let out a laugh, half angry, half amused. Did this freshman really think personal points just fell from the sky?
He'd been hustling in ANHS for a whole year, scraping points from the entire grade, and even then he only had close to ten million personal points. Now Kaoru Mitoma wanted to take a tenth of his fortune in one go—how could it be that easy?!
"I can only give you five hundred thousand. One million is impossible,"
Nagumo Miyabi raised his offer again. Kaoru Mitoma sighed.
"I hope senpai can be just as tough when facing questions from the students and the school."
As he spoke, he glanced at Ichinose Honami, making his meaning very clear. Nagumo Miyabi could naturally understand the hint.
To avoid leaving any evidence, he even had the school turn off the surveillance here, thinking he had everything under control. Who would have thought someone would be running around with a bug, putting him in a really tough spot now.
The problem now was that, as a member of the student council, Nagumi Miyabi represented its image. Just luring a freshman into revealing their dark past would be enough to make all the first-years have a bad impression of him and the student council. And during this time, if Kaoru Mitoma guided public opinion, plus the fact that there was no surveillance here, it would be hard for him to prove his innocence.
Even worse, if Ichinose Honami backed up Kaoru Mitoma words, it would definitely draw the school's attention. At that moment, for some reason, Nagumo Miyabi thought of train molesters—once you get caught, your social life is basically over.
Damn it, he hadn't even done anything yet!
Nagumo Miyabi was silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "One million private points, fine. But you have to hand over the recording and the bug!"
Kaoru Mitoma smiled. "Thanks for your help, senpai. You really saved me." Nagumo snorted coldly. He could handle this loss—it was just a temporary setback.
On the contrary, Kaoru Mitoma had caught his attention, and he was definitely going to get back at Kaoru Mitoma in the future.
"But, I have a few simple questions I'd like to ask senpai for help with,"
Kaoru Mitoma shamelessly continued. Nagumo Miyabi face darkened. Not only do you want personal points, now you want information too, huh?
"What questions?"
"First, how do class points affect us?"
Hearing this, Nagumo Miyabi narrowed his eyes. So he still doesn't know?
No, that's not right. His expression doesn't look like he doesn't know, but more like he wants a definite answer.
"Heh, you still haven't figured it out by now? This year freshmen are really slow. I didn't expect even someone from Class A like you would have to ask others for help."
Nagumo deliberately said those belittling words about Kaoru Mitoma, hoping to see more of a reaction from him. When people get angry, they often reveal weaknesses that should have stayed hidden.
"Before you talk about others, I hope you can think about yourself—why you started out in Class B, and not Class A."
Nagumo face stiffened. He didn't say anything, but this had always been a sore spot for him. Now that Kaoru Mitoma brought it up, he was the one who couldn't keep his composure.
"From the way you talk, it sounds like you already understand what's going on, so why bother asking me?"
"Because you just told Ichinose about it. You used to be in Class B, but now you're a student in Class A. I want to know how that happened."
"Heh, your hearing's pretty sharp, Mitoma."
"Did you transfer to Class A by yourself, or did your whole group get promoted to Class A?"
"Sorry, I can't answer that. That's the school's rule."
Kaoru Mitoma sighed.
"Senpai, can you stop wasting time? If I'm not mistaken, that camera up there isn't even working, is it?"
"... ... "