Chapter 92: Beginning of the Battle

The students and the guardians, who weren’t able to pick a side, had their opinions divided. The one side definitely had accusations and testimonials, but there was the undeniable possibility that the Kujou family had used force or some other method. The contents of the matter were certainly too convenient for the Kujou family.

For some reason, people got suspicious when someone seemed too innocent. If there was proof of their innocence, they’d normally believe it, but if the proof seemed too perfect, they’d start thinking it was suspicious and doubt it.

Besides, even if they said that they were involved parties or witnesses, they didn’t have any proof and were just speaking. And almost all of those witnesses were first-grade children. It wasn’t unreasonable for the adults to doubt which side was correct from those testimonies.

On the other hand, the content of the current broadcast was still unclear, but you could tell that Kujou Sakuya was questioning Hagiwara Shion about something and had made her cry. The broadcast just now was probably the voice files that the newspaper had written about.

There was an undeniable possibility that the files may have been edited or cut. In the first place, you couldn’t clearly tell what they were talking about from the voices, so you could say that it was insufficient as proof.

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But… even so… people believed the information that they wanted to believe. It didn’t matter if it was rational, logical, or objective. For those who wanted to believe that Kujou Sakuya was in the wrong, they pointed to the broadcast, going “Look at this!”.

Disputes emerged amongst the students and guardians gathered there. From one look, you could think that the place, which still wasn’t under control, would devolve into a huge fight. But…

“Now, now! Silence! Quiet down!”

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“…”

Yap. Isdsl alvwadle vs vbl pvytl, prlyjkdt obkzl nzyrrkdt bla bydep, obknb iwklvle vbl rzynl. Fbl poyrrle rzynlp okvb Iyuy, Ggyxk yde vbl svblap, obs eked’v jdso obyv vs es dso vbyv vblka xknp bye clld nwv, yde yrrlyale sd vbl pvytl sdnl ytykd.

Wasx Yap. Isdsl’p prsv sd vbl pvytl, y nlavykd okdeso sd vbl plnsde qzssa sq vbl ywekvsakwx nswze cl plld. Fbl nsdqkaxle vbl pktd qasx vblal yde dseele.

“Zlp. Xjyu. Mbl hsknlp vbyv rzyule dso yal nlavykdzu qasx vbl “scvykdle hsknl qkzlp” vbyv vbl dlopryrla oasvl ycswv. Jwv obyv rzyule fwpv dso oyp lekvle yde rasnlpple. R byhl scvykdle vbl ayo wdlekvle hsknl qkzlp. Vzlypl zkpvld vs vbyv vss.”

Yap. Isdsl pyke vbyv, yde tyglp olal ekalnvle vs vbl casyenypv assx sdnl ytykd. Mbld, vbl hsknlp pvyavle rzyukdt ytykd.

“Ps usw dsv wdelapvyde… obu usw olal nyzzle? Tytkoyay Fbksd-pyd.”

“R es dsv wdelapvyde! Ebu eke usw dlle vs nyzz xl? Iwfsw Fyjwuy-pyd.”

“Zsw es dsv wdelapvyde? Mbld, zlv xl ypj usw. Ebu eke usw plde Lkpbktsak Zydytk qzukdt ewakdt vbl alzyu?”

“Wh-!?… I do not understand what you are talking about.”

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“Is that so… you do not understand…? I merely wanted to ask what your goals were, but… if you would like to fake innocence… you are okay with my own family’s video being broadcasted in a public place, yes?”

“…huh?”

“My own family… had many cameras recording me because I had entered in the relay. Of course, the moment before I had passed the baton as well. There were many cameras at that moment in various locations placed to capture that moment. Because of that, it has been clearly captured… the moment you tripped Nishigori Yanagi… or would you like to continue as if you do not know?”

“Th-… That is…”

“B-Because! I had to do it! That guy was saying stupid things like “I’ll defeat Konoe-sama”! Someone of the Nishigori family, part of the Konoe monryuu! The Nishigori family that the Hagiwara family is the head of! If he does that and the Konoe family notices, the Hagiwara family’ll be destroyed! That was why I had to make him do that! It’s not my fault! It’s not my fault! Waaaaaah!”

“There is no one who willl be angered or kick you out of the monryuu because Konoe Ibuki lost in a race. Rather, they will get mad at you, who sabotaged the race like that. Do you not understand what will happen to you as you are part of the Konoe monryuu?”

“Waaaaah! Waah! Ue… aaaaaa!”

“*sigh*…. I will not pointlessly scold you… at the very least… I want you to realise the seriousness of what you have planned…”

At the moment the broadcast ended, the auditorium once again broke out into chaos. The audio didn’t unnaturally cut out of these voice files and there was no evidence that parts had been cut out. The conversation and sound was clearly a normal conversation. It was different from the voice files; there was no doubt that this was the real conversation.

Then, when the voice file ended, Mrs. Konoe signalled the second-floor broadcast room again. The video playing on the screen on the stage was of the sports festival. LIke what Kujou Sakuya said, it showed Hagiwara Shion clearly sabotaging Nishigori Yanagi on purpose.

A video of the sports festival. Voice files of the conversation. All of those clearly connected. It was data that anyone would believe just from an objective perspective.

The assembly accelerated towards it’s final stage.

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　　～～～～～～～

A little before the voice files between Sakuya and Shion’s conversation played, a quiet fight was occurring in the auditorium second floor broadcast room. Black-clothed men broke into the broadcast room controlled by academy members. After a small scuffle, the academy people were pinned and tied down, and the black-robed men started operating the machinery.

They cut the mics of the poeple on stage, swapped the broadcasted content, and played the edited voice files. The black-clothed men laughed, thinking that it was all going well. But…

“—-what!?”

One of the men who was laughing suddenly fell over. Then, before they could understand what happened, another one of them was blown backwards and fell over. The last of the black-clothed men, unable to understand what was going on, saw a black-robed figure before he lost consciousness. 

“Hm… the request did not include getting rid of these people. I have to add an additional fee afterwards.”

The black-robed man muttered to himself. In this bright place, you could see that his whole body was clothed in black and his face was covered with headgear—he looked a lot like a ninja. No, he really was a ninja.

“Since this was a Konoe request originally, I wasn’t planning to take this job, but… it can’t be helped for my stupid discple.”

The black-robed man laughed to himself as he operated the machinery. The black-robed ninja had accepted this request from the Konoe family. Then, he obtained the raw unedited data of those “obtained voice files” that the newspaper had mentioned, the clearly visible video of Hagiwara Shion tripping Nishigori Yanagi in the video and another unedited video.

The Konoe family, who were the requesters, had obtained their enemies information, so it wasn’t that hard to obtain. But if that data was broadcasted in the broadcasting room, then it’d become a fight between them and the enemy.

As he looked down on the enemies hands, the black-robed man worried over how much additional fee he should ask for.

Coordinating with the signal that Mrs. Konoe sent to him from the stage, he operated the machinery and the raw voice files played. Then, he waited for the timing and played the sports festival video. With that, the black-robed man’s job was done. He just had to watch the enemies’ hands so that they didn’t escape, and hid so he himself wouldn’t be found.

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He didn’t know if the people they were pursuing were the enemies’ allies, the school’s allies, or the people who requested the black-robed man. That was because the treatment of those defeated men would be changed. At the end of the day, the black-robed man, who had hidden to check for himself, was undiscovered by anyone and escaped from that place in a flash.

　　～～～～～～～

With the voice data and what had happened at the sports festival, almost everyone agreed that Kujou Sakuya’s side was clearly right. But, to the people who wanted to look down on the Kujou family, this wouldn’t be the end. The talk shifted towards the final opposition.

That definitely must’ve happened at the sports festival. But she still intimidated Hagiwara Shion without consulting the adults and used violence against Kuwahara Katsura, getting him kicked out of the academy. That truth was unchangeable. Kujou Sakuya was dangerous; that was what the talk shifted to.

Hearing that, it was a sitaution where everyone could say “That is definitely true, but…”

“Everyone, I would like to show you one last video.”

Mrs. Konoe returned to the mic, said that, and once again signaled to the broadcast room. The black-robed man had long disappeared from the second floor, and the video that he had left behind started playing.

The occupied broadcasting station was filled with those who were from the school and those who were part of the Konoe family. That was why the black-robed man had left the rest of the voice data to those related to the Konoe family and left the palace. The fallen-over black-clothed men were being watched by both sides, so he didn’t have to worry about them running away.

“Kujou Sakuya!”

“Huh?”

The video played. That was a video of this academy’s entrance lobby. There were two different videos of the same scene. The first was security camera footage from the lobby. The second was an unedited video of Kujou Sakuya using violence against Kuwahara Katsura.

In the first place, there were a lot of important points cut out of the violent video. What had happened in the beginning and how did that come to be? The video didn’t show the beginning to the end and it was unnaturally edited so that it looked like Kujou Sakuya was one-sidedly attacking Kuwahara Katsura.

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But the video playing now from both the security cameras and the edited version was complete from start to finish. With both cameras, you could understand what had happened at that place.

Kujou Sakuya, who was just walking leisurely, was suddenly attacked by Kuwahara Katsura. She splendidly passed him, flipped him over, and restrained him. Those actions could be said, in one word, to be “wonderful”: she didn’t pointlessly hurt her opponent and had trapped even the smallest movements. It was so perfect as to be an example from a teacher practicing self-defence.

They couldn’t feel any intent to injure or bad intent from her. She simply wanted to protect herself, nothing more. And there was the heart-warming exchange between her and her brother. Compared to that, the way the others reacted was lacking.

It was possible that the same person who said something to stir up the others was the same person that set up this matter. If not, the timing was too good. The criticism was too one-sided; for people who saw the whole thing, it seemed too unnatural.

It was Kujou Sakuya’s fault for raising her voice like that against someone else, but that was expected of a first-grade girl.

Actually, that wasn’t because she was acting like a first-grader, but because she’d done similar things again and again and so accumulated a lot of frustration and dissatisfaction, but you couldn’t understand that from this video.

When this video played… there wasn’t a single person who still said that Kujou Sakuya was wrong. There were people who were dissatisfied or who wanted to bring down the Kujou family a little more. But in this place and with this much proof accumulated, there was no one who’d still say that; they’d be critisised. No one would be able to blame Kujou Sakuya knowing that much information.

“This is the result of the kids here working hard to save Kujou Sakuya-chan. Then… it’s adult’s talk from here on out. In the first place, why did something like this happen? The actual perpetrator was Kuwahara Katsura… I have called the person who ordered Kuwahara Katsura and the Kuwahara family, but… the Kuwahara family has not appeared…”

Mrs. Konoe continued talking and everyone paid attention to her. Even though she’d called Kuwahara Katsura and the Kuwahara family, who’d been kicked out, they didn’t come. Then, it came to the person Mrs. Konoe was mentioning, who gave the Kuwahara family orders.

“The person who gave orders to the Kuwahara family… is the son of the Touin family, a member of the Five Norths Association, Touin Aoki.”

The hall got loud all of a sudden. The Touin family held status akin to the Seven Shining, and the sixth-grade Aoki was a member of the Five Norths Association. The Touin family was a branch family of the Saionjis’, and though it wasn’t counted as one of the Seven Shining, their status was about the same. Why would that person… that was the subject of the guardians’ confusion.

“Wh-What proof do you have to say that!?”

Then, the Touin family, who were with the guardians and who participated at this meeting, stood up and objected. There was no way they thought it’d go this far, so they had just been sitting there, uninvolved with the Konoe family and just watching.

“Proof… proof, you say… is there proof? Of course. I’m not going to show it to the kids, but… you planned to topple the Kuwahara family and make a deal with them because of their debt, which caused this matter. You will exchange funds after this. I have obtained the proof of that flow of money.”

“Th-That was to save the Kuwahara family, who’re part of the same monryuu as us…”

The Touin family continued making excuses, flustered. However, due to Mrs. Konoe’s words and the tampered evidence, they couldn’t insist that. If the evidence was submitted to the appropriate authorities, the Touin family would be searched on various charges and probably arrested. There was a lot of evidence that they’d broken various laws, which would be fatal for the Touin family.

“I have also… recieved testimony from the Kuwahara family that this was done at the urging of the Touin family. They did not appear this time not because they couldn’t, but because they were not permitted to, yes? You were preventing them, yes?”

“Uh, guh…”

The Touin family couldn’t say anything. They were completely trapped. After this, evidence would be submitted to various institutions and the family would collapse. This was a manifestation of the Five Norths family and the academy’s strong will that this couldn’t happen.

“This matter was…”

“It is punishment given by the Konoe, Kujou, and Takatsukasa families.”

From behind Mrs. Konoe, Mrs. Takatsukasa and Mrs. Kujou appeared. Objections wouldn’t be forgiven. It was saying that these three families had already decided. There wasn’t another method to overturn it.

“The Touin family must demolish their house. Their company must also cancel all transactions involving the Konoe, Kujou, and Takatsukasa companies.”

The auditorium was completely silent. Everyone shook, thinking it was a far-too-heavy punishment. This declaration meant that they were dead fundamentally and societally. No matter what happened in the future, the Touin family would never rise again. The demolition of their house didn’t mean that their name was taken or that they were banished, but it was a declaration that they’d never be able to return to the upper classes again.

“Then… Sakuya-chan, come here.”

“Um…”

At Mrs. Konoe calling her, Kujou Sakuya cautiously went up on stage. You couldn’t see the perfect calm figure on the videos. She was troubled and seemed like a weakened or rather, weak maiden.

Kaya, Azami and the others faced Sakuya, who went up on stage. They were all worried and wanted to call to her, but they didn’t know what to do… they faced each other with that atmosphere.

“Everyone, what’re you doing?”

“No, um…”

The seven of them who avoided Sakuya for this whole week felt guilty, averted their gazes, and stiffened. Mrs. Konoe, following up for them, explained what had happened.

“Sakuya-chan, these kids went to me because they wanted to borrow my power and save you. It was my order to prevent them from talking to you. It was to make the opponent think that their plan was going well and to make them have openings. Because of that, these kids went around every day and convinced people to testify.”

“Everyone…?”

Sakuya, lifting her head, looked at the seven of them in turn. But the seven of them were still uncertain and avoided her gaze.

“Sakuya-chan, I think you must’ve experienced pain too, but… do you hold a grudge against everyone?”

“No… no! I do not hold a grudge! Thank you… everyone, thank you.”

At that place, Sakuya started crying and crouched downwards.

“Sakuya-chan!”

“Sakuya-sama!”

Everyone panicked and went over to the crouched-down Sakuya.

“Sorry, Sakuya-chan. Sorry…”

“Doing such a thing to Sakuya-sama… I did not think that you would forgive us. But…”

“Everyone… it’s okay… it’s okay. Thank you. Thank you.”

She was crying, but Sakuya’s face was clear. There were definitely tears flowing, but her face had a smile appropriate to one of her age, and everyone was crying while smiling and hugging her.

“Everyone… I love you.”

“Sakuya-sama!”

That beautiful smile while she laughed and that clear voice with those impactful words made Azami and the others hug Sakuya while crying and laughing.

“Beautiful…”

“Cute…”

The guardians and students watcihng were captivated by those beautiful figures. What did they think at those young girls? They looked at them with an ugly heart from the fighting of adults. Even though they had pure hearts that were completely unrelated to those things. Even though they were girls who did their best for themselves and that was it…

Someone took a picture of the eight of them crying as they laughed and hugged each other. That beautiful picture got made into a poster, and became a part of Touka Academy’s history that was talked about for a long time.

　　～～～～～～～

On the side of the stage, watching the girls hug each other, the Konoe, Kujou, and Takatsukasa wives smiled, but their expressions tightened when they looked at each other.

“This time… it is a declaration of war…”

“That is true. That being said, the Touin family with almost the same status as the Seven Shining was easily thrown away for the purpose of declaring war.”

“Two families, the Touin and Kuwahara, were lost.”

The three of them talked seriously. But their expressions weren’t kind. It wasn’t easy for these three families to gether. Considering this chaos, it was expected that their enemy would move seriously.

“Even though they have the same amount of monryuu as the Konoe, losing a family with status equivalent of the Seven Shining must’ve been a great loss, but…”

“More importantly, Kujou-sama, is everything around Sakuya-chan okay?”

“…yes.”

At Mrs. Konoe’s worry, Mrs. Kujou said that she’d take care. But…

“The Kuwahara family, then the Touin family, and the head of the Touin family, the Saionji family… there’s still others… the Ichijou monryuu is still around Sakuya, yes?”

The people related to all of this were the Ichijou monryuu… the lower families couldn’t arbitrarily pick a fight with the Five Norths families… in other words, the real masterminds were the Ichijou family… they didn’t have any concrete proof, but all the guardians here must’ve noticed that.

This was… this meant that a fight between the Ichijou family and the Konoe, Kujou, and Takatsukasa families—a fight between the Five Norths families—was going to start.

“There is definitely someone related to the Ichijou around Sakuya… but… you do not need to worry…”

As she answered that, Mrs. Kujou thought about the fight and looked up at the ceiling.