COTE: Self-Preservation

Y2V3: Creating Groups is a Chore

"See you, Yagami," I told him.

Lightly waving me goodbye, Yagami left, leaving me alone in the student council room.

I sent a message to Kiriyama, and soon, a man with pin-straight red hair walked in.

"Hey, Tanaka! How's it going?" I asked him cheerfully.

Tanaka walked towards me casually, hands in his pockets, looking at me with a cold face, "What do you want, Nagumo?"

"Cooperation."

"Yeah, I expected this..." he sighed, "What do you want from me?" Tanaka said while sitting down.

"Well, it's pretty simple, to be honest. Your job to transfer points has kinda gone down the drain now that I get every point in the year. You don't have a purpose anymore, just like Yoichi."

Tanaka let out a snort, "So what?"

"Hmm, tell me, do you know the group who started all of this?"

"I don't want to answer that."

He's getting annoying with this. Loyalty is nice if it's for me, but this guy is so adamant on not answering anything. 

"Yeah, yeah. In this exam, the price to save yourself for a third year is pretty cruel, 6 million points. Do you have enough, Tanaka? I'd be willing to cover it."

Unlike the second and first years, in this exam, our fee is increased to 6 million.

"I'm good."

"Hmm, so you expect me to expel you, but you may also have the 6 million to cover it. Well, even if you don't have enough, maybe you just don't like me so much you're going risk expulsion. I respect the pettiness."

Tanaka shrugged, "I dunno. Weren't you supposed to be an expert conversationalist? I might as well just walk away now."

And that's exactly what he began to do. Moving the seat back, he promptly stood up and took a few steps away from me.

I chuckled.

"That 6 million only applies for the exam, you know."

The boy froze in place. 

His eyes sharpened as he glared at me with a fire in his eyes, "What are you saying?"

"For the next few weeks, it's 20 million points. Can you cover that, Tanaka?"

"Honestly, what are you even tal-."

"March 7th, end of second year."

I grinned. The fear in his eyes was so clear. All of that confidence, that nonchalant behaviour... And it just crumbles.

"You caused an expulsion by getting a student from class D sick, causing them to not complete the exam and thus get expelled. Of course, the student never knew it was you, so no complaint could have ever been made. Impressive job, I've gotta hand it to you, it was a calm, carefully done plan."

I rested my cheek in the palm of my hand.

"But you overlooked some details. For example, the only person to have bought such medicine at that point was you. Secondly, you were seen with the student a day before the exam, I've got about 3 different people who can attest to it."

Tanaka slowly stretched out his arm to grab his seat, crouching down as he sat on the plush chair and looked at me with shaken eyes.

"I assume this group of yours probably helped out. Made the classmates think nothing was out of the ordinary and that it was just bad luck, so you were safe the entire time. But, Tanaka, it's as clear as day."