As a fellow older brother, Ayanokouji feels he and Horikita Manabu actually have some shared views.
Unfortunately, it seems that both of them are doing their best, trying to guide their younger sisters and help them make the right choices—but the sisters don't seem to get it.
It's always easier to see things from the outside.
Ayanokouji noticed something odd in how Horikita Manabu and Suzune get along: the sister just doesn't understand what her brother is trying to do for her.
Of course—
There's also the chance that Horikita Manabu never clearly explained everything.
But—
Back at home, Ayanokouji had carefully explained to his own little sister that some things just shouldn't be done and that they could have serious consequences. He wasn't being vague at all. But even then, his sister Koyuki just said he was annoying and noisy.
Thinking about that now makes his feelings kind of complicated.
"Shirogane, what are you spacing out for?" Horikita Manabu's voice suddenly called out.
Uh…
Shirogane snapped out of it.
"I was just thinking about my little sister back home. She just started high school, so I won't be able to see her again for another three years." Shirogane said. "We've grown distant since she hit puberty, so that's been on my mind."
"Oh," Horikita Manabu replied calmly.
Shirogane wasn't sure if he was imagining it, but he felt like Manabu's opinion of him had just gone up a little.
Anyway…
Time to hear what the narrator system had to say.
[Horikita Manabu really is Horikita Suzune's older brother. He's strict and serious.]
Shirogane had already experienced that for himself.
[But she's his only sister.]
Huh.
So maybe that's why he values her so much.
[He doesn't hate her. His cold attitude is just to wake her up to reality. A moment ago, he might have even been thinking of getting her to drop out.]
[As the student council president, he knows better than anyone how hard it is to move up in this school.]
[He knows exactly how tough things will be for his sister, who's been placed in Class D. Especially now that Class D has zero points—setting a new record for the lowest.]
"..."
That part left Shirogane speechless.
So he kept listening.
[As student council president, he thinks he's doing a good job—he has no regrets. But as a brother, he feels like he's failed.]
[One reason is that his sister was placed in Class D, and the class competition ahead looks bleak.]
[The other is that he's noticed a major flaw in her. She came to this school just to follow in his footsteps. In other words, she's not here for herself—she's just chasing after him. But he knows this path doesn't suit her.]
[So she forced her way into the school, but she's completely unable to adjust. She hasn't changed at all. She's still a loner. And if you rely only on yourself here, you won't survive.]
[Despite that, she still wants to move up to a higher class.]
[Those were his thoughts before, but now he's even more critical.]
[Because he found out that even though she gathered intel, that intel ended up being used by someone else. And even though she found someone to help her gather information, that might've just been a setup.]
[He suspects that Kushida isn't really trying to help her from the heart.]
In other words, Horikita Manabu thinks his sister is surrounded by trouble—both from inside and outside.
She got tricked twice.
She didn't come to this school because she wanted to, but just to follow her brother—right into a dangerous place. And now, even the classmates she tries to rely on might be untrustworthy.
But does Manabu really think Kushida is suspicious too…?
Even though Shirogane had just been listening quietly, he also thought Kushida's behavior was a little off.
Kushida's goal was to become friends with everyone, so of course she couldn't leave out Horikita, who's in the same class.
But her attitude toward Horikita felt strange—almost clingy.
She went out of her way to be friendly and tried way too hard.
Is Horikita Suzune really worth all this effort?
That's what seemed strange about Kushida's behavior. It was like she was trying way too hard to become best friends with Horikita.
Too much enthusiasm, too much obsession—clearly, something was off.
"So earlier, you met with Suzune and convinced her to trade Class D's info with you?" Horikita Manabu asked.
"Yes," Shirogane said. "Our class figured out the school's rules ahead of time. And after Sakayanagi printed the student list, I realized gathering intel on other classes might become really important."
Horikita Manabu knew about that. He was the one who printed the list for Sakayanagi Arisu.
But Shirogane didn't get a copy back then, so he started collecting data in a different way.
Turned out, the information he gathered was actually much more useful than the official list.
"So that's when I started gathering intel," Shirogane continued.
"Our class was already maxed out collecting info on Class A and Ichinose's class. Trying to get info on Class D too was too much. That's when I happened to run into Horikita."
"Actually, it wasn't me who approached Horikita. She came to me. She was told by Chabashira-sensei to talk to me," Shirogane said. "So I decided to make a deal with her."
Shirogane quickly mentioned the name.
And sure enough, Horikita Manabu went quiet when he heard Chabashira-sensei's name.
"There may have been some manipulation involved, but Suzune, with the data you've collected from these three classes, it should still be useful," Manabu said after thinking for a moment.
That was the conclusion he came to after a quick analysis.
He didn't tell his sister to quit school right away.
As her brother and the student council president, even if she suddenly dropped out, it wouldn't affect him as long as their sibling relationship stayed secret.
But as her brother, he wasn't against revealing that they were siblings.
What he worried about wasn't the risk of others using Suzune to attack him and throw him off. What he really worried about was whether quitting school like this would hurt her.
He knew his sister well. Manabu thought that kind of outcome would hit her hard.
She followed in his footsteps to get here, only to run into trouble right away, feel powerless, and then be pushed out. Even if schools outside weren't as harsh as this one, could his sister—who was already mentally worn down—really handle life outside?
And if something happened out there, he wouldn't be able to help her from inside this school.
After thinking it over, Manabu decided to give his sister a chance. Or rather, this was the most he could do for her as her brother.
Let her stay in school for now. As her senior, he still had one year left here, so if she didn't grow within that time, then he'd tell her to drop out.
At least while he was still here, he could keep an eye on her.
And even if she didn't improve much, spending a year here would still give her some experience. So when he graduated, he'd have her quit then.
By that time, even if she transferred to another school, she probably wouldn't have any mental struggles left.
As her brother, Manabu felt this was the best plan he could come up with.
"Being put in Class D means there's something you lack. It might even be hiding your strengths," Manabu said to his sister. "You said you want to climb up from Class D, and I don't disagree. But jumping straight to Class A? That's basically impossible. However, if you can lead your class up to Class C within a year—"
"That would be something people could respect," Manabu said.
"Just need to reach Class C?" Horikita Suzune asked.
"…" Horikita Manabu.
"…" Shirogane.
The scene went totally silent for a moment.
Shirogane glanced at Horikita's older brother with a bit of sympathy, while also feeling kind of lucky. At least his little sister wasn't anything like Horikita.
Horikita was a bit too naive.
Did she really think climbing up to Class C would be that easy?
If it were that simple, then in this school's history, there would be way more examples—not of students reaching Class A, but even just successfully moving up a class. But there aren't.
"Shirogane, you explain it," Horikita Manabu said with a bit of a sigh. "Why did your class work so hard last month just to maintain your score?"
"Because we want to move up," Shirogane replied. "The overall strength of the four classes wasn't equal from the start, so we were already at a disadvantage. But the starting points were the same. So if we hold on to as many points as we can, we'll have more confidence going into the next tests."
"And right now, this month's regular written test only has a 100-point difference at most."
"Our class wants to catch up to Class A, but we'll probably need to go through several special tests and get good results in each one. Isn't that right, Horikita Manabu?" Shirogane said.
"..." Manabu didn't answer right away.
It took over ten seconds before he finally asked, "Where did you hear the term 'regular written test'?"
"Horikita knows," Shirogane said vaguely.