Faced with Horikita Manabu's cold interrogation, which carried such a powerful, crushing pressure, Ike Kanji's mental line of defense was already teetering on the brink of collapse—yet, relying on his survival instinct, he still attempted one last bit of weaseling.
Ike Kanji forced out a faint, dry smile, his hands waving about clumsily in front of him as he tried to play down the gravity of the situation.
"Th-this is nothing more than a bit of horsing around on our part! It's just... just the kind of little prank you pull before the new term starts. Everyone cracks jokes like this back in the dorms all the time. There's no need to blow it out of proportion, dragging it all the way up to something like 'causing immeasurable damage to the school's honor,' is there?"
He swallowed a gulp of saliva, glanced at the scornful gazes around him, and his voice grew even more lacking in confidence, even taking on a trace of pleading.
"And besides... besides, even if we really had thought about doing something out of line earlier, haven't we still not actually done it? We'll stop right now, leave the pool immediately, and I promise we'll absolutely never do it again. That should settle things, right?"
This attempt of Ike Kanji's to gloss their behavior over as mere "horsing around" not only failed to have any softening effect, it was instead like pouring oil onto the flames.
Upon hearing these words, the expressions of the onlooking students around them turned even uglier.
Especially those girls who had originally planned to go change in the changing room. When their eyes turned toward Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken, the loathing and disgust in their gaze was no longer concealed in the slightest, as though they were looking at some piece of nauseating garbage.
"At a time like this, you still have the gall to hope you can use an excuse like 'horsing around' to dodge responsibility?"
It was at this very moment that Tachibana Akane, the Student Council secretary standing beside Horikita Manabu, took a step forward.
Her exquisite face was now likewise filled with fury. Tachibana Akane wasted no words; she simply took her phone out of her pocket, flipped the screen around, and presented it for Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken to see.
On the phone screen, a video with extremely crisp picture and audio quality was now playing.
In the footage of the video were, plain as day, the four of them—Sudou Ken, Ike Kanji, Yamauchi Haruki, and Sotomura Hideo!
In the small hours of the morning, the four had huddled together in a corner along the outer wall of the building, brazenly discussing their entire plan—how to sneak into the women's changing room, how to divide up the lookout duties, and how to install the miniature cameras.
In the video, even Yamauchi Haruki's sleazy line of "This is what youth is all about" had been recorded with perfect clarity.
Then, the scene cut.
The video's progress bar jumped to a few minutes prior, and the footage clearly captured the entire process of Yamauchi Haruki taking off his jacket in the corner, putting on that slightly oversized cleaning uniform, donning a cap and a face mask, and then furtively slipping into the women's changing room while holding the "No Entry" sign.
Looking at the clear evidence of their crime on the screen.
Sudou Ken and Ike Kanji felt a "buzz" go off in their brains, the two of them seeming to lose all capacity for thought, frozen dumbstruck on the spot. At this moment, they truly didn't know what to say.
Tachibana Akane watched their stupefied expressions and spoke coldly, shattering the last sliver of wishful hope in their hearts.
"You think you've merely been caught red-handed by the school?"
"This thing you've done, along with this video, is now no longer just spreading on the school's internal forums. Ten minutes ago, this evidence was already posted directly onto the internet, and it's now spreading like wildfire across all the major social media platforms out in society."
"In other words, you two are now peeping perverts known to the entire web."
Upon hearing these words.
Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath, the color draining from their faces in an instant, turning pale as paper.
"Th-this can't be true?!"
Sudou Ken's eyes went wide as he stared incredulously at Tachibana Akane, his tall frame trembling uncontrollably.
"How could it possibly spread out into society? How could it be this fast?!"
Sudou Ken's heart was filled with an unprecedented terror. Although he was a delinquent who frequently caused trouble, he had always harbored a dream in his heart of playing professional basketball.
If something this despicable were truly exposed and spread out into society, then not only would this school expel him, but the basketball clubs out in the world would absolutely never again take in a criminal with a prior record of voyeurism.
Didn't that mean their lives, in this very instant, were already utterly finished?!
As if to confirm Sudou Ken's terror, Tachibana Akane continued to swipe across her phone screen.
She pulled up the pages of several mainstream news apps from out in society, and on them, in the headlines and trending searches, reports about this matter had already appeared, plain as day.
"Shocking! Vile Peeping Ring Surfaces at the Advanced Nurturing High School—the Students Involved Are Actually..."
Looking at that appalling news headline, Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken's legs went weak, no longer able to support the weight of their bodies.
It could be said that, from this moment on, the trajectory of their lives had completely collapsed.
And it was right then that a burst of noisy commotion quickly came from the entrance of the pool.
Immediately after, the crowd was forcibly pushed apart by an external force, and more and more people came pouring in from outside.
What's more, judging from these people's attire and bearing, the majority of them were the school's faculty staff and teachers.
On the outer edge of the teachers, a squad of the school's security personnel had also followed in.
And at the very front of the crowd was the chairman of this academy, Sakayanagi Narumori. Sakayanagi Narumori had originally been sitting comfortably in his own office, but just a short while ago, his phone had suddenly lit up on its own and then played this video.
And almost in the very next instant, messages from the other teachers came in—they had all seen it. And then, they had further learned that this video was now spreading not only within the Advanced Nurturing High School, but that the matter was far from over.
So now they had all rushed over to this place at once. At this moment, the expressions on the faces of this group of teachers walking at the front could be described as each one worse than the last, gloomy enough to seem as if water could drip from them.
Especially Chabashira Sae, the Class D homeroom teacher walking at Sakayanagi Narumori's side.
That face of hers, normally always cold as ice, was now covered in an even thicker layer of frozen frost, her gaze so sharp it looked ready to kill.
Things were great now—forget about rising from Class D up to Class A; the question now was whether they could even smooth this whole thing over.
And on Chabashira Sae's other side.
Hoshinomiya Chie, the Class B homeroom teacher, had also hurried over along with the main group, but the expression on her face was completely different from the indignant teachers around her.
The corners of Hoshinomiya Chie's mouth were turned slightly upward, even carrying a faint, barely perceptible smile.
Clearly, seeing the students of Class D stir up such a huge mess and make fools of themselves in public was, to her, a rather splendid thing.
As for whether the school's reputation would suffer because of this incident?
That kind of big-picture concern, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with her, Hoshinomiya Chie.
After all, Hoshinomiya Chie was also quite clear that her own reputation, in the eyes of certain teachers, had long since rotted away completely.
She couldn't care less whether the reputation of this school would gain a few more stains because of these few idiots.
Right now, as Hoshinomiya Chie walked, she used the corner of her eye to secretly observe Chabashira Sae walking beside her.
Watching Chabashira Sae's miserable, anguished appearance—as if she'd swallowed a dead fly—Hoshinomiya Chie's heart practically blossomed with joy.
Even though she knew that this was a public setting and that she had to restrain her expression a little on the surface, not laughing too loudly, the gleam flickering in those peach-blossom eyes of hers still couldn't conceal the elation and schadenfreude within her heart.
Of course.
At this moment, all the attention of the students and teachers present was concentrated on the vile incident before them, and no one had the spare time to bother with how Hoshinomiya Chie was conducting herself just then.
After all, for the entire leadership of the school, there was now an even more pressing matter that needed to be handled immediately—they had to control the source before public opinion fermented any further.
And as for the two of them, Ike Kanji and Sudou Ken, who were slumped on the ground.
When they saw that the chairman, Sakayanagi Narumori, had actually come striding over in person, leading a whole troop of teachers and security personnel with such menacing momentum, they were directly frozen stiff with fright, their minds going utterly blank.
They had never imagined that things would take such a serious turn.
And moreover, that the response speed of the school's higher-ups would actually be this swift?!
Meanwhile, over on the other side.
Sotomura Hideo, the one responsible for keeping watch on the outside and serving as the scout.
At this moment, he had long since been scared out of his wits. He hurriedly set down the binoculars in his hand, then hid himself in a relatively concealed spot to the side and threw on a set of inconspicuous clothes.
Drenched in sweat, Sotomura Hideo gripped the walkie-talkie tightly in his hand, hastily pressed the talk button, and, his voice quivering, relayed the situation outside to Yamauchi Haruki, who was still inside.
"Haru… Haruki! It's bad! Something terrible's happened!"
"The situation out here is all wrong! A whole bunch of teachers and security guards have come over, and there are Student Council people too! Hurry up and get out of there!"
And at this moment, beneath the ventilation duct of the women's changing room was Yamauchi Haruki, who had just stepped up onto a stool and was preparing to take out a screwdriver to remove the louver and install the miniature camera.
Hearing the panic-stricken, off-key voice of Sotomura Hideo coming through the walkie-talkie, his whole body jolted with fright and his hand trembled.
"Clang."
The screwdriver slipped from his hand and slammed heavily onto the floor, making a crisp ringing sound.
Yamauchi Haruki instantly panicked.
"Wh… what's going on?! How could teachers be coming over?!"
Even as he growled lowly into the walkie-talkie, he hurriedly leapt down from the stool, his gaze sweeping all around the spacious women's changing room, trying to find some place to hide.
But this was a changing room. Apart from those neat rows of lockers, there were only the flat floor and a few long benches—there was simply no dead corner that could be used to conceal a fully grown living person.
As for those lockers, the space inside was cramped, and most of them were locked; there was no way he could squeeze into one.
"It's no use… there's no way out."
On the other end of the walkie-talkie, Sotomura Hideo's voice carried obvious sobs and despair as he said to Yamauchi Haruki.
"They already know everything. They know how many of us there are, they know what we're doing, and what's more…"
Sotomura Hideo paused, as if he'd just seen something horrifying.
"And what's more, the recording of us discussing the plan outside just now—someone filmed it, I don't know who, and it's already been uploaded onto the internet. I've seen it myself..."
Sotomura Hideo was at that moment staring at his phone screen with a grim look on his face.
That video was just hanging there, blatant as could be, on the trending recommendations of a social media platform.
He had never imagined that just because of a momentary lapse of reason—thinking he could scrape up a little perk by tagging along with Yamauchi Haruki—he would run into something this catastrophic.
He truly regretted it now!
Had he known things would turn out like this, he wouldn't have come and waded into these muddy waters even if it killed him.
This time, perhaps because of this single impulsive act, he had genuinely thrown away his own bright future—maybe even his entire life.
You have to understand, Sotomura Hideo just now hadn't even deliberately searched for any related keywords at all.
The push link for this video had simply appeared on the home page of his phone, like a virus.
Since even he, one of the people directly involved, could see it this easily, then combining that with everyone else's reactions, surely those students and teachers outside must have already seen this video too.
It was over. Completely exposed.
Still, after the fear passed, a person of weak character like Sotomura Hideo quickly began searching his heart for reasons to exonerate himself.
At this point, he thought to himself with wishful hope: maybe things wouldn't develop too terribly.
After all, he had only been responsible for keeping watch outside; he hadn't actually entered the changing room, nor had he taken part in installing the equipment.
Strictly speaking, his crime should be far lighter than that of Yamauchi Haruki and the others.
"Right, that's exactly it."
Sotomura Hideo bit his nails inside the stall, secretly making up his mind.
"When I'm dragged off for a talking-to later, I absolutely have to be the first to step forward and actively admit my fault. As long as my attitude is good, the punishment should be lightened a bit too."
"Besides, I'm nothing more than an underage high school student. The school always has to be mindful of the repercussions, so I shouldn't end up with too heavy a punishment—at most just a suspension and a period of reflection, right?"
Sotomura Hideo kept comforting himself in his heart with this kind of self-deceiving line of thought.
Yet he had no idea at all that the mess they'd stirred up this time had already far exceeded the bounds of what the school could handle internally.
And just as Sotomura Hideo was still dreaming his sweet dream of lenient treatment.
In the corridor by the women's changing room, dense footsteps had already begun to sound.
Bang!
The changing room's large door, which had originally hung the "Cleaning in Progress" sign, was unceremoniously shoved open from the outside by several burly security guards.
Immediately after.
Under the escort of several security personnel, the chairman, Sakayanagi Narumori, his face livid, stepped directly over the threshold and walked into this women's changing room, bringing Chabashira Sae and a whole group of teachers with him.
The instant he saw the door being pushed open.
Yamauchi Haruki—still wearing that ridiculous cleaning uniform, a miniature camera in his hand, spinning around the changing room like a headless fly—instantly froze stiff on the spot, scared rigid.
Yamauchi Haruki had never seen so many people gathered around staring at him. The scale of this spectacle could be called quite enormous. Yamauchi Haruki's brain crashed in an instant, his legs went weak, and with a "thud," Yamauchi Haruki dropped straight down onto the cold floor, the camera rolling off to one side.
Looking at Yamauchi Haruki slumped on the ground, looking every bit the clown, and at that fallen miniature device beside him.
Chabashira Sae could no longer suppress the fury within her heart. She strode several steps past Sakayanagi Narumori beside her, pointed down at Yamauchi Haruki from above, and, abandoning all sense of dignity, began cursing him out at the top of her lungs.
"You pack of hopeless idiots! Scum!
Chabashira Sae's voice turned shrill from anger.
"Do you even have any idea what you've done?! Do you really still think you're little kids, that once something goes wrong you can just apologize and be forgiven?"
"You actually had the nerve to pull off something this low and despicable! And what's more, these glorious deeds of yours have now been reported on the internet in their entirety, and have already caused an uproar and outcry throughout all of Neon society!"
Chabashira Sae was trembling all over with rage.
"This doesn't just affect you—the reputation of the entire Advanced Nurturing High School will probably plummet today because of you few idiots!"
The chairman, Sakayanagi Narumori, standing to one side, looked at that camera on the ground still blinking with its working indicator light, his face likewise livid.
You have to understand, ever since this academy was founded, an incident this vile had never once occurred. Even the people of Class D wouldn't go so far as to do something like this.
This was a crime!
Sakayanagi Narumori could only say that he himself had been careless. He had originally thought that this year's Class D had a great deal of talent, but he had absolutely never imagined there would be quite this much.
Faced with Chabashira Sae's tongue-lashing and the cold gazes all around.
Yamauchi Haruki was by now scared out of his wits. He scrambled backward using both his hands and feet, stammering and awkwardly trying to make excuses for himself.
"Cha… Chabashira-sensei, hear me out, I—I really didn't mean to—"
"We just, we just wanted to play a little joke…"
Upon hearing these feeble, powerless words.
Chabashira Sae was practically driven to a furious laugh.
She let out a cold sneer, her eyes brimming with disgust.
"You still dare to claim it wasn't intentional?"
Chabashira Sae pointed at his nose, her voice cold as ice.
"You spent days in advance discussing the plan, purchasing equipment, dividing up the lookout duties—your entire criminal plan has already been exposed onto the internet in its full entirety through that video! And you can still call that unintentional?!"
"There ought to be a limit to taking other people for fools!"
Chabashira Sae was so angry she was about to explode.
Sakayanagi Narumori closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, seeming unwilling to look at Yamauchi Haruki for even one more second. He waved his hand, signaling the security personnel behind him to take Yamauchi Haruki down.
"Take this student, along with the other three accomplices outside, all away. They'll wait for the police to arrive."
"Yes, sir!"
Several security guards immediately stepped forward and, without the slightest mercy, hauled the limp-as-mud Yamauchi Haruki up from the ground.
As Yamauchi Haruki was being dragged past Chabashira Sae's side.
Chabashira Sae looked at this chief culprit who had utterly ruined Class D's future, and spoke coldly.
"Don't count on the school covering for you anymore, Yamauchi."
There was not a trace of pity in her voice.
"Next, what the four of you will face is not only expulsion and dismissal handed down directly by the school, but at the same time, the sanctions of the law."
"What you've done this time is simply too vile. Right here, get ready to pay the price for that so-called 'youth' of yours."
Accompanying Chabashira Sae's pronouncement, Yamauchi Haruki let out a despairing wail and was dragged out of the changing room like a dead dog.
"No! Why?! Oh right, I'm not the mastermind…"
Had these videos and the like not been uploaded onto the internet, had they only spread within the school, then the school could still have suppressed the matter. But the situation now was entirely different—it was spreading across the whole network of online platforms.
In that case, this matter had become an enormous deal. Add to that the fact that the impact on that man, Kijima, behind this Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School could be said to be very great, and so the handling of Yamauchi Haruki and the others would absolutely never be lenient.
And just like that, on the eve of the start of the second semester, the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School was four people fewer.
____
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