Demon Slayer: I was taken home by Shinobu Kocho at the beginning.

Despite Toki's seemingly tall and imposing appearance, and not because Ishizaki looked down on him, he felt he could easily defeat Toki with one hand.

"What are you going to do?"

Seeing that Kaneda and Shiina were silent, Manabe asked a question.

"Let's not talk about that now. How do I know if what you're saying is true, Mr. Manabe?"

Kaneda asked casually, but he already believed Manabe's statement because he couldn't find any flaws in her words.

Moreover, Jintian has been pondering for the past two days who the person Ryuen mentioned who needs to drop out of school is.

The final conclusion was that it was likely the then-serving official.

Jin Tian believes that Class C is now a perfect group.

Ryuen united the class into a single force, while Tatsuya Kamio worked in tandem with Ryuen to manipulate that force.

Moreover, both of them are very capable, especially Tatsuya Kamio. Even Ryuen had never gained the upper hand against him before.

Therefore, he had great confidence in the two of them and believed that they could lead Class C to promotion.

Therefore, the person in the class who is not on this rope at the moment, or even the one who is dragging everyone down, should be the person Longyuan was talking about.

And this person...

After thinking for a long time, Kaneda could only come up with the name of Tokito.

At the time, he thought his actions of contacting the resistance faction to cause trouble were very secretive, but in reality, he, Kaneda, had quite a few connections in the class.

Sometimes, what's needed isn't how outstanding your abilities are, but rather your ability to follow orders.

Otherwise, they would just be a disorganized mob.

Therefore, Kaneda did not doubt Manabe's words; what he needed to do was to convince Shiina that it was indeed Tokito who did it.

That's why he asked that question, hoping that Manabe could provide further evidence.

However, as soon as he said that, Ishizaki looked at him with suspicion, which made Kaneda's lips twitch twice.

“I didn’t expect the then-in-chief to bring this up, so I have no evidence.” Manabe shook his head, then added, “I told Ryuen about it, but he obviously didn’t want to get involved and said he’d leave it to us.”

"I believe you, Manabe-kun."

Shiina's sudden statement surprised everyone, even Manabe looked at Shiina in astonishment.

"The students at the time were dissatisfied with this matter from the time Tatsuya joined Class C, and even refused to hand over the reward points for preferential treatment when Ryuen collected them."

However, I can understand why my classmate did that; he was protecting himself.

"Self-protection?"

Question marks suddenly appeared above the heads of the group at the same time.

"Well, actually Long Yuan already said that day that if Shi Ren was voted out by everyone, he would not use points to help him."

You should know Longyuan well; he won't easily abandon his companions, even if he didn't hand over the points at the time.

If Ryuen truly believed that Shiren was indispensable to the class, he would definitely have helped him.

Shiina's words made everyone present suddenly realize the truth.

So that's what Longyuan meant back then.

He didn't consider Shi Ren an ally at all, otherwise he would definitely have helped him.

Because it wasn't just Shi Ren; there was another person in the class who hadn't paid, but Longyuan didn't specifically name him or say they wouldn't help him.

That's right, it's Tatsuya Kamio.

He came from Class D, so naturally he didn't contribute any money to the fundraising, and logically he shouldn't be on the aid list either.

However, Longyuan only mentioned the name of the then-incumbent, which is actually a signal.

Unfortunately, most of the students in Class C hadn't thought of this, so now that Shiina had pointed it out, the others, including Kaneda, suddenly realized it.

"I see, I see!" Kaneda nodded as if he had just realized something, then thought of something, "So Tokito also thought of this, which is why he secretly contacted others and ultimately targeted Ibuki?"

"I don't know if he understood what Longyuan meant, but in any case, he is different from others; he has no guarantees."

Therefore, he probably wanted to be on the safe side, which is why he contacted his classmates targeting Ibuki.

Shiina shook her head, offering no guarantee.

Is that really the case?

Actually, Shiina decided to say that after hearing from Manabe that Tokito actually wanted everyone to vote for Kamio in the criticism poll.

Although she didn't want the students in her class to drop out, since Shi Ren dared to do it, he had to pay the price.

Therefore, regardless of whether Ryuen meant it that way, that's what Shiina meant.

As for whether Manabe and Kaneda believe it or not, you can tell by their expressions.

Since Tokito is acting so arrogantly and even targeting her beloved Tatsuya Kamio, then she doesn't need to be polite to him anymore.

In any case, she will definitely choose to stand on Kamio Tatsuya's side between Kamio and Tokito!

Chapter 273 The Dust Settles

Although Shiina is not very sociable, she has good observation skills and intelligence, so she directly pointed out Tokito's true purpose.

Moreover, her analysis was well-reasoned and supported by evidence, and everyone present felt that her statement made perfect sense.

Tokito took the initiative to target Ibuki in order to protect himself and prevent someone he didn't need from dropping out of the class.

"As expected of Shiina-kun, she saw through Tokito-kun's intentions right away."

Kaneda adjusted his glasses and said these words with a smile.

Shiina glanced at him, then gave him an innocent-looking smile.

"So, what should we do next? We can't just watch his plan succeed, can we?" Ishizaki's presence effectively propelled the conversation forward.

"Since the current leader wants to protect himself by guiding Ibuki to drop out of school, then let's give him a taste of his own medicine."

"You mean, expel him from school?"

“That’s right, if he does the first year of the lunar calendar, we can certainly do the fifteenth.” Shiina nodded. “Besides, I think everyone in Class C should have realized this as well.”

Upon hearing Shiina's suggestion, Kaneda agreed after only a brief moment's thought.

"Wait, are you saying that everyone realized this means that the person Longyuan said was not needed was Shi Ren?"

"Yes, because several people have contacted me privately in the past few days to ask if this person is Shi Ren."

Shiina smiled, while Kaneda remained silent.

"Hehehe, I underestimated everyone, but just to be on the safe side, let's do something."

"I think it's possible, but this must be done in secret, and the current leader must never find out."

"Well, let's just consider it a surprise for Shi Ren."

……

After discussing for a while, the short gathering came to an end.

After leaving the room, Manabe breathed a sigh of relief.

Great, now whether it's Ibuki or Tokito who drops out, I'm safe.

Since Shiina and the others decided to start their operation by making Toki a dropout, Kamio Tatsuya keenly sensed that the winds of change in Class C had shifted once again.

The initial hostility towards Ibuki gradually dissipated and then began to converge towards Tokito.

Although he didn't know what had happened, Tatsuya Kamio knew that someone in Class C had taken action and that someone had understood the meaning behind Ryuen's words.

I understand now that Shi Ren was the student who should have been expelled the most.

However, what surprised Tatsuya Kamio was that Tokito didn't seem to have noticed this, or rather, he did notice but didn't care about it.

Well, we'll know the result on Saturday anyway.

There's a saying that goes, "Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked."

Perhaps the person in charge at the time genuinely didn't notice.

Time passed day by day. On Saturday, a day that was supposed to be a rest day, the first-grade students still got up at the same time as school days and went to the classroom.

However, since there are no classes, there's no need for a schoolbag.

The class didn't care about the exam because they had points to help their classmates avoid being expelled.

Class B followed a similar pattern, and in order to prevent Sakayanagi from cheating at the end, they had even given their personal points to Majima-sensei in advance.

Furthermore, it was specified that these points could only be used in this special class-wide voting exam.

However, Sakayanagi will also receive class points as a result... no, it's an agreement with her classmates that everyone will give her a vote of appreciation.

"Sakayanagi, you might not get any protection points this time."

Before the exam began, Katsuragi approached Sakayanagi.

"Oh? Are the students going to change their minds?"

“No, what I mean is that the protection points are affected by the praise votes from other classes.” Ge Cheng shook his head.

Sakayanagi glanced at Katsuragi with curiosity.

"This shouldn't be a trick you could come up with. Did Kamio tell you about it?"

Katsuragi glanced at Sakayanagi; she was indeed formidable. She was probably the only one in Class B capable of fighting against that monster, Kamio.

Katsuragi nodded, then sighed.

“That’s right. He told me about this a few days ago. I’ve been thinking about countermeasures for the past two days, but I haven’t come up with any good solutions yet.”

"The solution is actually quite simple, Katsuragi-kun." Sakayanagi smiled. "All we need to do is find out who Kamio-kun wants the protection points to go to."

"You mean we should focus our criticism votes on the person who received the most praise votes?" Katsuragi's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately understood Sakayanagi's meaning.

"Yes."

As a result, Katsuragi shook his head.

"It's difficult. We have no idea who he wants to have the protection points. Any one of the 39 people in the class could be a candidate."

"No, I think the answer is quite obvious." Sakayanagi smiled. "Let's focus all the criticism on Masumi-san later."

"You think it's Kamuro?"

"After all, the relationship between the two is quite special. Compared to others, Masumi-san has a higher chance of receiving a lot of praise votes."

Sakayanagi didn't guarantee anything, only that the chances were higher.

In reality, this was the only resistance she could mount, since Tatsuya Kamio could simply choose someone randomly and make them the lucky one in Class B.

"Should we take the same approach and make the protection points for Class C fall on people other than Kamio and Ryuen?"

"Do as you please, but I think it's unlikely to succeed, and it wouldn't make much sense anyway. After all, Class C has a lot of private points, so even without protection points, their advantage won't change."

Katsuragi glanced at Sakayanagi, then fell into thought.

Meanwhile, Class D was in chaos, just like always.

After learning they wouldn't be expelled this time, the group simply gave up. Having owed such a harsh contract, they had almost lost all hope of being promoted.

However, most of the students in Class D seemed to have gotten used to their current lives, so they were not affected by this incident at all.

On the eve of the exam, Horikita stepped onto the podium.

"Everyone, please cast all your votes of appreciation for Ayanokouji. This is Kamio's request, to ensure that the protection points for Class D go to Ayanokouji."

As for the criticism votes directed at other classes, write Tatsuya Kamio's name on them.

As she said this, Horikita glanced at Ayanokouji with a complicated look, but the other person still had a deadpan expression.

The students in Class D all glanced at Ayanokouji, and many of them showed a hint of jealousy in their eyes.

Is this guy really that close to Tatsuya Kamio?

Or did he do something that made Tatsuya Kamio decide to give him the protection points?

"As for the criticism votes, please write my name on them. I will then use my personal points to avoid expulsion."

The students in Class D had no objections to this. They had already signed the indenture, so what could they do but follow the other party's instructions?

Unlike the other three classes, the students in Class C were not as carefree as the students in the other classes.