Chaoskouji

Arc 6 Chapter 1 - Changes

It had been just under a month since the new semester began, and already I was beginning to feel changes in the school.

Most notably of them was Class C.

Ever since summer break, Ryuuen had been almost absent, with his grip on the class lessening more and more. His attention had been drifting, and it hadn't taken long for his class members to take the opportunity and begin to branch out.

More and more, I would see Class C students mingling with people from other classes. It wasn't as if they were all as cruel as Ryuuen, they simply hadn't been afforded the opportunity to make friends outside of their class. But now that Ryuuen wasn't enforcing his tyrannical rule so harshly, they had an opportunity to get to know our grade.

I'd walked through the school grounds, and the cafeteria, and seen groups of students who would never have mixed before. Sure, students had been sent out to gather information, to strategicly insert themselves into our classes significant friendship groups, but from what I could tell this was a genuine attempt to reach out, and our class had happily accepted.

There wasn't a lot of bad blood between us. Class D had done particularly well on the exams, and to the majority of students, Ryuuen's class didn't seem like a threat. Of course, they weren't aware of the goings on in the exams, and so the real danger was hidden, but outwardly, there was no real reason for Class D to dislike Class C.

Ryuuen though, instead of dealing with his collapsing class, was entirely distracted, and day by day more of his control was slipping.

He was seemingly entirely taken by Amikura.

It was an unexpected turn of events, but it seemed that the cold heart of the tyrant had been thawed by the insanity that was Amikura. The two of them had been seen on a number of dates ever since she flung herself at him at the pool, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what was happening.

Every outcome of her actions that I had considered, none of them had reasonably ended in this result. Somehow, Amikura had managed to distract Ryuuen enough with her feminine charms to let his class start to collapse.

Even if he broke it off now, and tried to pull the class together again, his authority was in the gutter. Any respect they had for him wouldn't be enough to follow Ryuuen again, not when there was always the chance for him to abandon them for a girl again.

Was it orchestrated? That seemed like the highest possibility, but if that was the case then it would have to be very well prepared. I didn't think that Class C was capable of such a scheme, and in my investigations, there hadn't been a hint of a plan.

Class C legitimately seemed leaderless now.

I was keeping a close eye on them, and so was Kikyou, probably more effectively, but so far there was nothing truly suspicious.

The other major change in the first years was the presence of a new Class A. The former Class B, led by Amikura, Ichinose and Kanzaki, had gained enough Class Points to rise above the former Class A, and now replaced them.

This turn of events had changed the attitude significantly of many students in my grade. While it wasn't uncommon for Class A to be dislodged from their position, the grade above us having done the exact same thing, in the majority of the previous years while the school had existed, Class A had held their rank until graduation.

It was to be expected, so for Class B to overtake them was an unusual situation, and it had forced many students to unnecessarily reassess themselves.

The new Class B students in particular were increasingly sullen and withdrawn, the bravado and inflated ego quite a few of them had possessed was gone. It wasn't all of them, it wasn't even half of them, but the most vocal members of the former superior class had been forced to reconsider their actions.