Kouji huffed, looking down on a grovelling Matsushita indifferently.

"Satisfied?"

As I asked that, Kouji looked over to me, then at his balled up fist, then at the open hole in the mesh fencing.

Seeing this, Matsushita spat out a dry chuckle.

"Ha... ha ha... even now, you're still thinking of throwing me off...? You're no different from me after all."

Kouji's eyes narrowed in disgust.

"Don't compare me to you... I'm nothing like the human garbage you are..."

"You're garbage for being tempted to do it... and I'm garbage for actually doing it... see, there's no difference."

Kouji continued to look down on Matsushita before clicking his tongue and turning his back on him.

"Takanori-san. I'm done here."

Kouji sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. Matsushita let out another dry chuckle, shaking his head.

"Are you sure?"

I asked as he began walking away. Kouji stopped next to me and nodded.

"...even after getting my revenge, I don't feel happy."

He looked up to the sky, closed his eyes, and let out a tense, deep breath.

"Somehow... I hate myself more than before."

Kouji opened his eyes, whispering that confession to me. He entered the stairwell, disappearing into the darkness.

In the end, revenge wasn't what he really wanted. It's what he thought he wanted.

That's fine, though. Things become easier for me if he's not in the picture.

I walked up to Matsushita and extended a hand.

"...don't pity me."

Matsushita slapped my hand away and got up from the floor by himself.

"That bruise looks nasty."

Only a couple minutes after Kouji had punched him, an unsightly purple bruise had bubbled up on Matsushita's face.

"I know. Hurts like hell too..."

Matsushita spat on the floor. A tinge of blood was mixed in with his saliva. The inside of his mouth must've been cut when he got punched.

It's scary how powerful Kouji's swing was. He must've put all of his pent-up feelings from the past two years into that.

He wrapped up all of his anger, frustration, and hatred into one concise blow, releasing everything he held inside by giving it to Matsushita, who received it with an overwhelming amount of force.

Matsushita stomped on his spit with his foot. Then, he looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"How did you find out?"

With a callous tone, he began interrogating me on how I found out about his past.

"Who knows."

"I know it wasn't Kouji who told you. There's no way he'd ever open up about that so easily. Same with Alice. If it wasn't those two, then who ratted us out?"

From the tone of his voice, I could tell he was planning to personally deal with the person responsible himself. Whether that meant a threat, violence, or some other kind of silencing, there was no way I was going to put Ginga in danger with a guy like him.

"No one did. I found out all by myself by looking into your middle school."

"What...?"

"Do you remember, at the beginning of May?"

"Be more specific. A lot of things have happened since then."

"It was when we took the train ride together. You told me about your past. Or rather, you lied about it."

Matsushita's eyes widened slightly before returning back to normal.

"...right, I did. I've told so many people, I've lost track. Let me guess, it wasn't convincing enough for you?"

"No. I fully believed it at the time. However, what made me look into it deeper was Kawaguchi-san and Shigeru-san's fight during the war."

"What? Why?"

"Shigeru-san exposing Kawaguchi-san's past made me realise something. Our "defects" aren't limited to personality flaws or lack of ability. It also includes the actions of our pasts, and their consequences."

Matsushita squeezed his fists.

"I heard from Yukina that you and Alice-san went to the same middle school, and I remembered the story you told me on our way to school. If "defects" included the past, then I wanted to know more about what happened back then."

Slowly, Matsushita's face morphed into despair.

"What... why?"

"I wanted to figure out why you were in E Class. You and Alice-san are model students, yet you were considered defects like the rest of us. It's obvious something didn't add up."

"You're disgusting for trying to find out what's wrong with me."

"Under normal circumstances, I'd agree. But do you remember in May when we had that civil war? By surrendering, I also gave up my reputation in that class. Everyone, except the dregs of the Takanori Group, thinks of me as nothing lower than a rat in that class for what I did. If I have nothing to lose, then I have nothing to fear."

"You're insane... you used that to your advantage...?"

"No. I planned it from the very beginning."

"What? There's no way, I forced you to surrender after your huge failure in the war!"

"Matsushita-san, we both failed in the war. The class's opinion on who was the better leader would've swayed either way. Rather than drag out of an unnecessary conflict that would slow me down, I surrendered to you on purpose so you'd no longer consider me a threat. Since you weren't wary of me, I was free to look into your past without facing any issues."

Matsushita's eyes widened in fear as he realised just how far I had manipulated him. Just like in the past, the consequences of his actions were slowly catching up to him.

"As Kouji-san said, your arrogance was your downfall. By assuming I yielded to you, you let me get away with all of this."

"You son of a bitch..."

With a dizzy look in his eyes, Matsushita collapsed onto a bench. He let out a low groan, realising his school life was practically over. All it took was for either me or Kouji to tell everyone about what he did back then to ruin his reputation forever.

Not only would he be exposed of lying about his past, but he'd also become the next target of bullying, like Kawaguchi was when his past was revealed. Matsushita would be mocked, criticised, and judged for his actions, before being ostracised by everyone else.

No one would be friends with a near-murderer. Nobody.

"How did things turn out like this...? Why did things turn out like this...?"

Burying his face into his hands, a lone tear fell from his miserable eyes.

I sat down next to Matsushita as he began crying about the consequences of his actions all those years ago. Just like Kouji, he was trying to escape the past, but for a more selfish reason.

From the very beginning, he was in complete denial about pushing Kouji off. If he ever accepted that it was his fault, the guilt from that sin would break him.

He kept running away desperately, hoping the past would never catch up to him.

But after today, there was no escape. The clock had ran out.

Matsushita had to face reality and accept the truth.

He nearly killed Kouji.

That was a fact.

A fact that, after two years, he finally accepted.

Matsushita continued to cry silently as the world he carefully constructed around him was on the verge of breaking down.

He sank deeper and deeper, until no more tears could be shed.

Raising his head slightly, he side eyed me.

"...what are you still doing here?"

I gave a light shrug. Matsushita wiped away his tears.

"Don't give me that. If you're still here just to look down on me, then piss off."

I'll admit, it was satisfying seeing Matsushita destroyed. However, that wasn't why I stayed.

"No. I want to know something."

"What?"

"Why did you keep shifting blame to Alice-san during the fight?"

Rather, I wanted to know the full extent of Alice's involvement in the incident. Since Matsushita was closest to her, it was best to ask him if I wanted to know more.

"...I guess it doesn't make sense to you, does it?"

Matsushita sighed. He looked at me with dead eyes.

"Let me get one thing straight, Takanori. I hate you."

Well, the feeling's mutual.

"But... I hate Alice even more."

"...really? You seem like good friends though."

"On the outside, maybe. But on the inside, I loathe her. I hate her as much as I hate Kouji. And I'm willing to bet she feels the same about me."

"What did she even do to make you hate her that much?"

I had no clue it ran this deep. It made his front of being friends with her extremely impressive.

"She used me to bully Kouji on her behalf... she was too much of a coward to do it herself, so she hid behind me and my friends and made us to do the dirty work. Looking back, I got played like a fiddle by that bitch."

By the way he was muttering about her, I could tell his hatred for Alice was genuine. This much wasn't a lie.

"And how did she do that?"

"...goddamn it."

Matsushita sighed and shook his head.

"I don't trust you for a second, but can you be a decent human being and keep this much between us?"

"If it's a secret, you don't have to tell me."

"If I don't tell you, then you won't understand where I'm coming from."

"...I see. Alright, I won't tell anyone."

"Good... you better."

If anything, I can use this against him later if necessary.

"To put it bluntly... my family is dirt poor. My dad's a deadbeat and my mom can't work. She's... well, disabled. Because of that, our family never had any steady source of income. We coasted by on benefits, disabled grants, and government handouts."

From how good-looking, stylish, and well-spoken he was, I would've never imagined Matsushita came from such a culturally deprived background. It completely caught me off guard.

However, it would explain why he got so angry at Kouji when he didn't give back that 10 yen coin. In Matsushita's situation, that 10 yen could've been the difference between having food on the table and going to sleep on an empty stomach.

"Money's always been an issue in my family. My dad left after mom had her fourth child. As the oldest sibling, I was responsible for taking care of my younger brother and two younger sisters since mom couldn't. I've been a young carer for as long as I can remember."

Things must have been rough. With five mouths to feed, especially young ones, I don't think benefits would be enough to support them.

"To be honest with you, I was ready to get a job straight after graduating middle school to help my mom. I had no intentions of ever going to high school. But things changed when I got an invite from GEN... my mom kept insisting that I should go, but I didn't want to since that meant I wouldn't be there to support her or my siblings. Even so, she kept encouraging me, telling me to seize this chance so I can have a more successful future... or whatever that meant. In the end, I caved in to her words and accepted. Looking back... I wish I never did."

Considering he ran into Alice and Kouji at this school, it's no surprise. He wanted to get away from his past, yet was unexpectedly dragged closer to it.

"It might just be the second worst decision in my life. The first obviously being... you know."

"I'm guessing your mom didn't take it well when she found out about the incident?"

If I did something like that, I think mom would disown me on the spot. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if that happened.

"...I never told her."

"Wait, what?"

"I... I never told anyone in my family what I did."

"Surely the school did, didn't they?"

"They didn't. I was suspended for what I did, but they never specified why I was being suspended to my mom. Minanohara wanted to desperately cover up the situation. They didn't want anyone knowing about what happened."

So my theory about the school trying to suppress information from going viral was correct.

"When she asked what I did, I lied and told her I stole another student's phone... and I guess that's where the lies began."

And that eventually became Matsushita's downwards spiral of self-denial.

"Obviously... because we were so poor, things like stealing became pretty common for me. No one ever noticed though, since I was so popular. I used to go around taking food from other people's pockets and saving them for my younger siblings. I once tried taking a bag of sweets from Alice, but she caught me and asked me what I was doing. I tried to lie my way out, but she saw through it. That's when I confessed to her about my family situation."

Slowly, I'm starting to see what's going on here.

"She took sympathy on me... and offered to pay for my lunch that day. The next day, she did the same thing when she saw I had no lunch. Soon, it became a regular occurrence for her to pay for all my meals and snacks while we were at school. It made things a lot easier for me, since I could buy extra food to bring home for my family. Though... in exchange, she asked me and my friends to start messing with Kouji."

In other words, Alice bribed Matsushita.

"It was easy enough and it got me food, so I roped everyone I could into doing it so she'd be willing to pay for more. Considering me and her were the most popular people in class, that was probably a bad idea... since everyone ended up joining in. Things got worse when we began dating... she started buying me more and more stuff, like clothes and gifts, and... well..."

Matsushita sighed.

"You get the idea. The more I became indebted to her, the more I didn't realise I was being used. I was just happy someone who I thought I loved was helping out my family financially. I didn't mind hurting Kouji, since he was being an eyesore to her. In reality... she practically groomed me into falling in love with her and used her money to control me. I feel sick..."

It sounded like a vicious cycle. Even in GEN, Alice used Matsushita to fight her fights. Back when I was being accused as a traitor of E Class, Matsushita was the one who was confronting me.

Alice was always present, but she never asserted herself as the main aggressor. It was always Matsushita doing the arguing and fighting. I guess some things never change.

"What happened after the incident?"

"We broke up. She stopped paying for my lunches. The whole class was kind of in shambles... the atmosphere definitely became more colder and more dead. Even though we tried to ignore it... Kouji's empty seat was a constant reminder of what happened. It became taboo to talk about the subject, but... everyone was definitely thinking about it. Or at least, they won't ever forget about it."

If I witnessed something like that, there was no way I'd forget it either.

OST: Youkoso Jitsuryoku Main Theme 2

"So then, why did Alice-san target Kouji-san?"

"Are you ready for the most stupid reason ever?"

"It can't be that bad."

"Ha ha... it is, unfortunately."

Matsushita chuckled and shook his head in disappointment.

"This dumb bitch started everything because Kouji kept getting higher scores than her on the exams. That's it."

"...what?"

"This is why I keep saying everything is her fault.... she nearly killed someone because they were smarter than her. It's ridiculous."

Despite how insane and mind-numbing this reasoning was, I was inclined to believe it. There was no reason for Matsushita to protect Alice since he hated her, and considering how stubborn she was, this level of pettiness was realistic for her.

To think all this was over some test scores... I guess that's why Kouji requested to fail all of his midterm exams on purpose. He didn't want to cause any trouble by scoring higher than her. He was probably afraid she'd try doing something to him again if he did.

"Aargh... and the worst part is, she's going to get away with it... everyone's going to blame me instead because I pushed him off... no one is going to believe me... how is this fair at all?!"

With a painful cry, Matsushita buried his face into his hands.

"Well... there is one way around that."

"...and that is?"

I looked at Matsushita.

"If you follow my every order from here on out, I won't tell the entire school about your past."

Matsushita's eyes widened. Anger flashed across his face as he went to grab my collar.

"Don't try to blackmail me, you piece of—"

I grabbed his incoming hand by the wrist, intercepting his strike. Then, I snatched him by the throat and pinned him down on the bench.

"...w-what the he, g-gugrrr!!"

I gently squeezed his neck to make him gargle on his words. He tried squirming out, but I used my body weight to keep him down.

"Don't try anything stupid. Yukina is downstairs ready to expose you on my behalf. All I have to do is give her the order."

As Matsushita stared up at me, fear began seeping into his shaking eyes.

"Do as I say, and I'll keep quiet about your secret. It's that simple. However, if you do anything that I disapprove of, I'll reveal your past to everyone and make your school life here a living hell. Do you understand?"

"Y-you're... you're despica—urk...!"

I squeezed his throat harder to make him shut up.

"So? What's it going to be?"

Loosening my grip, Matsushita coughed before narrowing his eyes at me.

"Go on then... go ahead and tell everyone about my past! Let's see how many of them will believe you! You're such a loser, I bet you don't even have the balls to go through with it!"

I dropped Matsushita's wrist and took out my phone. With his both of his hands free, he latched onto my wrist holding onto his neck and tried budging it off. It was futile though, since my grip was stronger than he was.

I showed him the screen, my finger hovering above Yukina's name in my contact list. His eyes bulged with panic, but he tried keeping a tough facade by continuing to pry away my hand.

I clicked on her number, and the phone began ringing. I put the call on speaker mode so Matsushita could hear his own demise.

"Hello, Yuu?"

I looked at him with eyes threatening that this was his last chance to concede.

Even so, Matsushita stubbornly continued to fight back until the very end.

I guess I have no other choice.

"Yukina—"

"W-wait!"

The moment I opened my mouth, Matsushita folded.

Whether or not he'd like to admit it, this was something he couldn't afford to be leaked to everyone in the school.

I had finally forced his hand.

"I... I'll follow your every instruction... just... just don't tell everyone about my past... p-please..."

A desperate plea, more close to a sad whimper, escaped his thin lips.

"Good. We have a deal, then."

I ended the call, knowing Yukina had also heard Matsushita submitting to me. As an added bonus, I was able to get audio evidence of him kowtowing to me since I had set my phone to record all calls I make in advance.

This means, if he ever tried claiming this never happened between us, I could just show everyone the call as proof it did, and expose him about his past for turning against me.

In any and all scenarios, Matsushita's hands were tied because I had information that could be used against him.

"I swear to god, Takanori... one of these days, I'll kill you...!"

It was an empty threat made by a man delusional with hatred. I didn't have to pay any attention to it.

Even so, it would be entertaining to see if Matsushita could bring himself to try and kill someone again.

"Good luck."

I let go of him and got off the bench. Matsushita also got up, albeit wobbling.

It seems his body had been throughly shaken up by the experience. Even if he holds a tremendous amount of hatred towards me, it doesn't change the fact his instincts are screaming at him to stay away from me.

"...what do you want me to do, then?"

Matsushita begrudgingly asked with a sigh. He was quick on the uptake, realising there was no reason for me to do all this unless I had something in mind that required his cooperation.

"We're first going to take a trip to the teacher's lounge to meet with Chabashira-sensei. After that, you don't have to do anything. Just don't get in my way."

Matsushita scowled.

"What, are you saying you'll handle things on your own?"

"Pretty much. You're just not necessary at this stage anymore."

"I don't know whether to be relieved or not..."

To Matsushita, it felt like I was letting him off the hook with such simple orders.

He was probably thinking I was going to make him do my dirty work, like Alice did. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately for him, there are far more competent people I could use for that purpose.

Really, all I needed from him was one thing. After that, I just have to keep him on a leash, then I can forget about him.

"Come on, let's go."

It was nearly 5pm, so Chabashira-sensei would probably be getting ready to head home for the day. I'd better hurry to go meet her. I needed to make this transaction while there aren't that many people around.

"Right..."

Matsushita followed me as we headed back to the main school building.