The next day, at five in the morning, the group members were already up and preparing breakfast. They had an hour and a half until the 6:30 AM assembly.
Kamio Tatsuya had originally wanted to wake up at six since the ingredients were prepped the night before. Thirty minutes should have been enough for six people to cook.
However, because it was the first day of this activity, they were worried about unexpected issues. So, after discussing it, they decided to wake up an hour earlier.
But this worry turned out to be unnecessary. In just half an hour, the only tasks left were steaming the rice and boiling the miso soup.
While these two tasks took time, they didn't require much effort.
And so, it was 6:30 AM. Kamio Tatsuya and the others responsible for cooking finished up and headed to the dojo for meditation.
"Kamio, Koenji didn't help with the cleaning at all this morning!"
As soon as Ishizaki entered, he ran over, looking displeased, to complain.
Kamio Tatsuya then looked at Koenji, who was already sitting on the floor.
"Is that so? Koenji-kun?"
"I had a stomach ache, so I couldn't leave the toilet," Koenji said with a carefree look, making it impossible to tell he'd just had a bad stomach.
"Oh, you don't have a cold, do you? I warned you yesterday."
"Please don't worry about that. It's just my daily gut cleansing routine. I wouldn't catch a cold."
Hearing Koenji's answer, Kamio Tatsuya felt relieved.
Then, he subtly signaled Ishizaki to stop causing trouble.
Ishizaki didn't understand why Kamio Tatsuya was treating Koenji so well, but under Ryuen's orders, he held back his anger.
He knew deep down that Kamio Tatsuya wasn't a pushover. When he had tricked Ryuen before, he hadn't held back at all.
So, he couldn't figure out why Kamio Tatsuya was trying so hard to please Koenji.
"Koenji, you won't have a stomach ache during cleaning time tomorrow, will you?"
"Who knows."
Kamio Tatsuya showed a curious expression at Koenji's answer.
Wasn't this guy afraid that I'd team up with the class and deliberately fail us to force mutual expulsion?
He knows I have two spots for expulsion, right?
What is he trying to do?
In reality, Koenji wasn't afraid of Kamio Tatsuya making moves to get him expelled.
And he had also anticipated this situation. But even so, he wouldn't listen to Kamio Tatsuya's command to sweep.
Even if it meant being expelled, he wouldn't be controlled by Kamio Tatsuya.
That's just Koenji.
Besides, for him, whether he was expelled or not made no difference. At most, he'd just find another place to have fun.
Moreover, Koenji also had the intention of testing Kamio Tatsuya.
Ever since Kamio Tatsuya left Class D, he had targeted Class D in the subsequent two exams. Although he didn't know the specific reason, he could guess the general idea.
In the future, Kamio Tatsuya would likely continue to target Class D, and their class points would probably remain at zero for a long time.
Living without pocket money wasn't something even Koenji was too keen on.
And for the current Class D, escaping this predicament was almost impossible.
Of course, Koenji was confident he could change the current situation, but it wouldn't benefit him, or rather, the benefits wouldn't match the cost.
Therefore, Koenji wasn't planning to do anything. If he had to contribute to the class, he'd rather be expelled now.
Also, looking at Kamio Tatsuya's actions last semester, besides targeting Class D, he also seemed to want Class C to be promoted.
If he wanted to be promoted, Koenji's strength would undoubtedly be something Kamio Tatsuya couldn't ignore.
Even though Koenji wasn't exerting himself now, a competent strategist would never overlook Koenji's power.
Koenji knew this himself, and Kamio Tatsuya knew it too.
Therefore, the reason Koenji acted this way was to see if Kamio Tatsuya had the guts to eliminate him, a potential stumbling block.
After all, when he had previously tried to recruit Kamio Tatsuya, he wasn't joking; he was very serious.
If Kamio Tatsuya made a move, he would consider bringing Kamio Tatsuya into the Koenji Conglomerate.
As for expulsion, Koenji didn't care about it at all, because, for him, graduating from here or not wouldn't affect his status.
Kamio Tatsuya stopped paying attention to Koenji; it would only tire him out more.
Frankly, Koenji's presence at this school was already unreasonable, as his demands were different from those of ordinary students.
After meditation, the group members went to eat breakfast.
The absence of any complaints indicated that the breakfast was at least passable.
For the boys, Saturday morning lessons were in the classroom, involving speeches.
"The details of the speech topics vary each academic year, but the judging criteria will always be these four: volume, demeanor, content, and delivery."
Kamio Tatsuya listened to -sensei's explanation while looking out the window, as he had just heard the energetic voices of the girls outside.
To avoid boys and girls meeting during classes, their extracurricular activity times were staggered. The boys had theirs in the afternoon, while the girls had theirs in the morning.
At this time, the girls were sweating it out on the school grounds.
Hmm, what a beautiful sight.
Kamio Tatsuya had excellent eyesight. Even though they were dozens of meters away, he could clearly see the face of every student.
Of course, that wasn't the main point. The main point was that as the girls exercised, their "Shiranami Rabbit" bounced along, which was quite captivating to watch.
The girls seemed to be running in groups. He could see Kamuro and Shiina's figures, but after looking around, Kamio Tatsuya didn't see Sakayanagi.
As expected, even though that guy participated in the training camp, she probably couldn't take part in sports.
However, Kamio Tatsuya's attention wasn't focused here; it was on the third-year students. The third-year groups looked quite harmonious, with most members running in unison.
Only one group was an exception. Although Kamio Tatsuya didn't recognize most people in that group, there was one person he was very familiar with.
Tachibana Akane was currently at the very back of the pack, looking listless. However, her current state was different from the exhaustion shown by Shiina, who was hopeless at sports.
It looked more like she was deliberately slowing down.
How pitiful...
So, Nagumo's target wasn't just me, but Tachibana Akane as well?
Indeed, to strike at Horikita Manabu, getting Tachibana Akane expelled would be a very effective tactic.
However, this alone didn't seem enough to confirm the situation. He'd have to wait for Kamuro's news tonight.
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