Chapter 230: Ambush

Asagiri, Kaguya Shinomiya, and Iwanaga Kotoko stepped out of Class A just as Fujiwara Chika and Yuuki Asuna came out of Class B.

The moment the five of them appeared in the hallway, the Year 1 students who had just finished class and were about to head off for lunch instinctively moved aside and made way for them.

"So this is the aura of the new Student Council... It’s intense..."

"That’s Utsunomiya Asagiri and Kaguya Shinomiya, our new first year President and Vice President. They really do look incredibly capable."

"Utsunomiya and Shinomiya only enrolled two months ago. Could it be those two are really going to hold the President and Vice President positions for the next three years?"

"If Utsunomiya can really do what he promised in yesterday’s speech, then it’s not impossible... Anyway, I’m supporting him."

Clearly, Asagiri, Kaguya Shinomiya, and the others, as the core members of the new Student Council, had already become the most watched people among the first years. No, among the entire student body of Shuchiin Academy.

Not only had Kaguya Shinomiya successfully become Student Council President as a first year, but every major member she had selected for the council was also a first year. It was unprecedented in the history of Shuchiin Academy.

Although most of the voices around them were supportive, there were still some more rational students in the school who felt that whether a Student Council made up entirely of first year high school students could truly handle the complicated day to day affairs of Shuchiin Academy remained an open question.

Under the gaze of countless students, Asagiri and the others walked to the door of the Student Council room.

Kaguya Shinomiya took out the key and opened the door.

The instant the door swung open, she saw Hayasaka Ai sitting on the Student Council President’s desk. She looked exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes, as if she had been waiting there for a very long time.

The moment Kaguya saw her, a trace of a smile unconsciously appeared on her face, but she immediately suppressed it and forced herself back into a calm expression.

"I saw that you took leave this morning and didn’t come to school. I thought you had decided not to participate in our plan..."

Before Kaguya Shinomiya could finish, Asagiri cut in directly.

"Alright, stop acting so tsundere. You were obviously happy to see Hayasaka, but you’re still pretending to stay calm. You really are a classic tsundere."

"She’s always been like this."

Hayasaka Ai let her dangling legs drop from the desk to the floor, then walked over to Kaguya Shinomiya with a helpless little smile and shrugged.

"So I had no choice but to come and help her."

"Thank you... Ai."

Kaguya Shinomiya said that first. Then, after everyone had entered the Student Council room, she closed the door behind them and locked it before speaking softly.

"But I lied. In the plan Utsunomiya and I discussed, your help wasn’t actually necessary."

"Not just hers."

Asagiri walked behind the desk and crushed the phantom Tarot card that drifted down into his hand.

"Persona, Meta."

As his voice fell, Kind Mita appeared inside the Student Council room and immediately sat down in front of the computer on the desk, already beginning her preparations.

"I could handle this by myself without anyone’s help."

"Maybe you could, but..."

Kaguya Shinomiya sat down on the sofa and looked at Asagiri standing beside Kind Mita.

"If I let you handle this operation alone while we stayed completely uninvolved, then it would mean we’d be holding a handle over you. Of course, we would never use that to threaten you, but if our two teams want to maintain peace in the future, then the best method is for me to participate as well. That way, we become accomplices."

"Your excessively arrogant pride is part of the reason too, isn’t it?"

"You saw through me..."

Kaguya Shinomiya did not deny it. She merely raised a hand and brushed back her black hair, her voice cool and flat.

"That’s right. I can’t accept hiding in a safe place and letting you take all the risk alone."

Asagiri merely smiled at that and replied softly, "It’s precisely because of that overly arrogant pride that you and I could never clear Dungeons together as teammates."

"Okay, found it."

Just then, Kind Mita suddenly pointed at the computer screen.

Displayed there were all of the surveillance feeds inside Shuchiin Academy, as well as the full floor plan of the entire school.

"Although the cameras in this area are arranged very tightly and there aren’t any blind spots for a normal sized person, that only applies to ordinary people. If Little Meta moves along this route, she won’t be caught by any of the cameras. Let me see... it will require two transfers along the way before reaching the parking lot."

"Good. Nice work."

"You’re welcome. It’s what I’m here for."

Listening to the exchange between Kind Mita and Asagiri, Hayasaka Ai, despite still not fully understanding what was going on, could not hide the shock in her eyes.

From the sound of it... that cute blue haired girl had hacked directly into Shuchiin Academy’s internal surveillance system?

Seriously?

The security measures at Private Shuchiin Academy were stricter than those of ordinary schools, nearly comparable to certain government facilities. Yet that blue haired girl had sat down in front of the computer for less than a minute and had already broken into the school’s internal network.

What kind of genius hacker was this? Why hadn’t Hayasaka seen her in the Dungeon where she had met Utsunomiya and the others last time? Was she a new member they had recruited? And what exactly was the principle behind that summoning like appearance?

Hayasaka Ai’s head filled with questions.

"I also set a timer for the surveillance cameras on the road outside the school. When the time comes, you just need to click here and all the cameras along that section will be temporarily blocked. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to fix it, but it’ll definitely be more than enough for your operation."

"Good."

Asagiri nodded, looking at the images on the computer screen as he murmured, "It’ll be over quickly."

...

Meanwhile, outside Ashikaga Miwa’s private office.

Oko stood outside the door holding a black briefcase, his expression as ugly as could be.

Of course, a mere briefcase could not possibly contain two billion yen in cash. Inside it was only five million yen, exactly as Ashikaga Miwa had specifically requested.

The remaining 1.995 billion yen had already been transferred online. These five million yen were merely the last portion, which Oko was required to personally carry in a briefcase to the door of Ashikaga Miwa’s office after school let out that morning.

If he had been given a choice, Oko would never have agreed to such a humiliating condition.

Unfortunately, he had no choice.

At the time, he had assumed he had the upper hand and only proposed the wager itself for the duel, without clearly specifying the delivery method in advance. According to the rules of the duel world, Ashikaga Miwa, as the victor, had every right to make such a reasonable request.

Either he accepted humiliation here, or he was humiliated before the entire duel circle.

After thinking it through, Oko chose the former.

However, to his surprise, when Ashikaga Miwa opened the office door and took the briefcase from him, she did not mock him at all. She did not even say a word. She merely looked at him with an oddly meaningful expression, then shut the door again.

Even after he had reached the parking lot, Oko still could not stop cursing under his breath.

"That damned woman, who does she think she is? Just wait. The humiliation I suffered today... once I become head of the Shinomiya Family, I’ll repay it a hundredfold... no, a thousandfold, ten thousandfold! Hiring a few Players would be enough to deal with her... Just wait..."

The bodyguard and driver waiting by the car saw him approaching and immediately understood from his expression that his mood was terrible.

They wisely said nothing and simply opened the door of the extended luxury sedan for him.

Only after Oko had gotten into the back seat did they drive the car toward the exit of Shuchiin Academy.

"Damn it... damn it... that bitch, and that bitch’s puppet, Utsunomiya Asagiri..."

Oko Shinomiya sat in the back seat of the luxury car, cursing hatefully. He opened the compartment beneath the armrest, took out a cigar, and lit it before the car had even completely left the school grounds.

He drew in a deep breath, held the smoke in his mouth for a moment, then slowly exhaled it.

Under the calming effect of nicotine, his depressed mood eased slightly.

At that very moment, the two bodyguards seated in the front, who had just driven the car out through the main gate of Shuchiin Academy, suddenly saw a tiny figure, no more than a few centimeters tall, like a doll, waving at them from outside the front windshield.

"What the...?"

Before either of them could get a clearer look, the tiny figure vanished instantly.

In its place stood a mysterious person in a dark gray mask and a long black coat.

Bang!!!

Asagiri landed on the hood of the car with a heavy thud. Even standing atop a moving vehicle, his body did not sway in the slightest. His Chain Rope Dart was already in his hand.

Without the slightest hesitation, he threw it.

The dart pierced straight through the forehead of the bodyguard in the driver’s seat.

Screech!!!

The tires of the now out of control extended black sedan screamed brutally against the pavement, producing an ear piercing sound, before the vehicle finally slammed into the concrete divider between the lanes and came to a stop.

Dazed from the sudden impact, Oko, whose cigar had even fallen onto his trousers, revealed a look of panic.

He forced himself through the dizziness and immediately shouted toward the front seats.

"What happened?! What’s going on...?!"

Before he could finish, the locked rear door of the extended sedan was violently torn open from the outside.

The force was so terrifying that the entire car door was ripped right off its hinges.

"You are..."

Seeing those familiar black eyes beneath the dark gray mask, Oko Shinomiya froze for a second.

The next moment, intense fear surged into his eyes, and his whole body began to tremble.

The brutal scene from the previous night’s duel instantly resurfaced in his mind.

That masked fighter under Ashikaga Miwa had blown the head off the Player Oko had hired with a single punch.

.....

[If you don’t want to wait for the next update, read 50 Chapters ahead on P@treon.]

[[email protected]/FanficLord03]