Before everyone left for the day, Matsushita went up to the front of the class and clapped his hands to get our attention.

"Everyone, me and Alice-chan are planning to help clean up E Class today after school. Would anyone like to join us?"

Immediately, most of the girls raised their hands in support.

"Yuu, are you going to join?"

Yukina, who I was sitting next to, turned to me and asked.

"Probably."

"Really? I'm surprised."

"It's more like I don't have a choice. I'm working together with Matsushita-san and Sakigamiya-san, after all. Although, the classroom would probably get cleaned up faster if more people helped out, so I don't mind."

"True, the sooner we clean it up, the sooner we can return. I'd rather not have to walk all the way to the special wing every morning until our class is fixed."

"Same. For now though, let's just stick to our current plan."

"Sure thing. I'll go find out about Minanohara while you help out cleaning the class."

"That's what I had in mind too. I messaged you the stuff I already have on the school, by the way."

"Great, I'll look into it. Good luck!"

"You too. See you tonight."

Yukina cheerfully smiled and left the class. When she left, I raised my hand to show I'd help out.

Unsurprisingly, most of the guys chose to leave rather than help out. Aside from me and Matsushita, Yukimura and Ayano were the only other boys who volunteered to help out. Girls wise, Sakigamiya, Taiga, Hono, and Misogi were helping out.

"Yo, Takanori. Let's move."

Yukimura, being one of the last to leave the class like me, beckoned me to follow the group.

"Coming."

I got up and walked together with Yukimura to E Class.

"I never thought you'd be the type to pick up trash."

"Same with you."

"I'm going cuz it's a good chance for me to impress Sakigamiya-san. Kazuraba ain't coming?"

"She's revising for the exam."

"That's a long way away. Eh, guess nerds will be nerds."

"It's better to start early when you still have time than to wait last minute."

"Finding motivation to study is hard though... all I wanna do is have a kick around."

"Study subjects you find interesting. Didn't you do well on the last science midterm?"

"It was my only half decent grade. Though, compared to Ayano, it's basically nothing."

I looked at Ayano, who was walking by himself in front of us.

"I wouldn't compare myself to others if I were you."

"I can't help it, I'm competitive. Though, don't you think it's weird that Ayano's joining us?"

Yukimura whispered the last part to me.

"After the fight he had with Sakigamiya-san this morning... I'm surprised too. Maybe they made up during lunch?"

"Doubt it. Sakigamiya-san's stubborn like me."

He was saying that like it was a good thing...

"I'm not sure then. I've never seen him this proactive before until now."

"Same, it's kinda creeping me out. You'd think he'd skip out on helping out, but here he is, going to clean up the class like the two of us..."

"We aren't exactly the type of people you'd expect to help out either, to be fair."

"Heh, true. Maybe he's trying to get close to one of the girls?"

"Who though? He doesn't talk to anyone in class."

"He's friends with that girl... uh, you know, the one that got called his girlfriend."

Not even Yukimura knew her name either.

"You mean Kita-san?"

"Yeah, yeah, her. Is she cute?"

"I wouldn't know. I barely remember what she looks like."

"Same. That empty seat of hers in class is super annoying."

"It is. I think the last time I saw her was back in April, during our war against 3-A."

"Jeez, has it really been that long? The fact she's bunked school more than Fujimura probably affected our Cl, damn it!"

"I'd argue you nearly getting expelled made us lose more."

"Oi, watch your mouth."

"Sorry."

Yukimura doesn't like it when people bring up the trial. He gets embarrassed by it.

"You know, the more I think about it, the more I realise Ayano's a massive loner, just like you."

"I'd argue I'm less of a loner than when I first started. Ayano-san on the other hand... he's stayed the same, pretty much."

"He can replace you as one of the big 3 loners then."

"I'd love to lose that nickname, honestly."

"Aight, the new big 3 loners are Ayano, Ikesugi, and Kouji. You're free now."

"Great. Now if only everyone else would latch onto it..."

"Give it time, you just gotta spread the word."

"It'd be narcissistic of me to say I'm not a big 3 loner anymore just because I made a few friends."

"True, people would naturally stop associating you with those two if you really did stop being a loner."

"Do you still think I'm a loner still, Yukimura-san?"

"Nah."

Even though his answer was given casually without much thought, it made me glad to see that some people's opinions on me were gradually improving.

As we approached the classroom, Matsushita split off from the rest of us to get some black bin bags from Chabashira-sensei. Meanwhile, the rest of us continued heading to E Class to get a head start in cleaning up.

"My head hurts trying to think on how we'll start cleaning up..."

When we entered, Sakigamiya groaned at the absolute trashed state our classroom was still in.

"Let's get rid of the door first. Yukimura-san, could you give me a hand?"

Once again, Ayano took the lead and started to pull out the door stuck in the window.

"Huh? Aight."

Yukimura went over to help him. Together, the two of them managed to safely take out the door and put it on the floor.

"Next, I think we should see if we can salvage anything from the zabuton and chabudai."

"Good idea, Ayano-san!" Taiga said.

"Let's do that!" Misogi said.

Ayano nodded as everyone started to pitch in. He was surprisingly good at being a leader.

His natural charisma shined through when he took control of the situation when a flustered Sakigamiya couldn't. However, because he didn't want to provoke her, he framed what he wanted us to do as a suggestion.

"While we're looking, let's start also sorting everything into separate piles to make putting it into the bin easier." Sakigamiya instructed.

Even though she didn't like him, Sakigamiya seemed tolerant of his idea, as she also started to scour through the broken pieces of wood and stuffing to find anything that could be salvaged.

"Guess we'd better help."

Me and Yukimura headed to the back and started inspecting the broken bits and pieces. As we dug through them, it became apparent to us that everything really had been thoroughly destroyed.

"This is ridiculous..." Ayano muttered, sweeping up the broken glass on the floor with a brush and pan.

"Tell me about it." Taiga said, holding up a deflated zabuton.

"I think we're going to have to throw everything away." Sakigamiya sighed, shaking her head.

"What about the graffiti?" Hono asked.

"We can't do much about it. Chabashira-sensei said to leave it to the cleaners."

"Do janitors even come into E Class? I swear they avoid coming into here." Yukimura said.

"We'll see once this room gets patched up. If it's still there, then that's the answer to your question."

"Damn it all, especially Machida!"

"Same Yukimura-kun, same. Worst case scenario, we'll just have to wash it off ourselves."

"They wrote some really messed up stuff on the walls..." Misogi said.

"Especially on Nora-san's seat. Look at how many insults they gave him."

Ayano pointed at the writing scribbled on the wall, windows, and broken chabudai.

"Did they use permanent marker? That's horrible!" Hono gasped.

"How are we gonna remove that?" Taiga asked.

"You can't." Sakigamiya said the unfortunate truth.

"Why does it smell like something died here?"

As we gathered around Nora's seat, Yukimura started to gag as he pointed out the unpleasant rotting odour lingering in the air.

"Yeah, something smells terrible. Who farted?"

Taiga joked, but she put on her face mask as the scent diffused strongly into the air.

"Huh..."

Ayano seemed to have noticed something in the zabuton, like I had this morning. However, he had the courage to reach out and grab it, unlike me.

"What the hell's that?"

Yukimura looked bewildered as Ayano had grabbed whatever was stuffed inside Nora's zabuton with his bare hands. Everyone took a step back as the smell worsened as he slowly pulled it out.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Collectively, the girls started screaming as Ayano finally revealed what was stuffed inside Nora's zabuton. It was the decomposing corpse of a dead fish.

"Oh my god, what the hell?!"

Hono, who looked like she was about to vomit, rushed out of the classroom.

"Where's Isogai-san, we need one of those bin bags now!" Sakigamiya screamed.

"You sir, are a soldier..."

Taiga squirmed, taking a few steps back from Ayano, who stood awkwardly with a dead fish in his hands.

"...I hate my life."

"It really makes you wonder what the hell those B Class bastards are carrying in their bags."

Yukimura grunted, pinching his nose and also backing away from Ayano.

"It reeks... it's so gross!" Misogi gagged, putting on her face mask.

"It's like he's holding a bomb."

Putting on a mask as well, Sakigamiya tried to find some humour in the situation. However, she also found it incredibly disgusting.

"Guys, I got the bags!"

Matsushita entered class cheerfully with Chabashira-sensei in tow. However, after seeing our distraught and angry faces, confusion washed over his face.

"What happened?"

"Isogai-san, give me one of those!"

Sakigamiya snatched a bag from him and rushed over to Ayano, holding it out reluctantly.

"Hurry up and chuck it in there! Along with the zabuton! And make sure not to get any on me! If you do, I'll kill you!"

"I get it, I get it!"

Even Ayano began to get flustered as he dropped both the corpse and zabuton in the bag. Then, Sakigamiya shoved it into Ayano's hands.

"Throw it away! Burn it! I don't care! Just do something, anything, to get it far, far away from our class! Now!"

"Okay, okay, hang on!"

Ayano sighed, rushing out of class to dispose of it. Taiga saluted him for his bravery.

"What was all that about...?" Matsushita asked.

"You should feel lucky you didn't have to see that." Sakigamiya hissed.

"I'm starting to think the only person not grossed out is Takanori-san."

"I saw it this morning, so I wasn't shocked by it."

I answered Matsushita's observation. Then, Chabashira-sensei cleared her throat to get our attention.

"You know, you guys really don't have to do this if it's grossing you out. The school will handle it."

Even though she said we could leave it be, Sakigamiya and Matsushita shook their heads.

"You say that, but there's always the chance they won't bother. And even if they do bother, it might take months before they resolve this issue. That's why it's better for us to just clean it up ourselves."

It was fair for Sakigamiya to be sceptical and doubtful of the school, since they usually try to screw us over on purpose.

"Plus, when you say the school will help... you actually mean it's just you who's going to help, don't you? I'd feel guilty if we left cleaning up this mess just to you, sensei. I'm sure the others feel the same way, right?"

Everyone nodded in agreement with Matsushita. He didn't want Chabashira-sensei to carry all the burden by herself.

"I'm in charge of E Class, so it can't be helped. But if you insist on helping, then I don't mind. The extra hands are helpful."

Albeit bashfully, Chabashira-sensei accepted our help. A bit of her true self leaked out there.

"Come on, let's start putting stuff into the trash. Did you guys find anything still intact?"

"Just one zabuton." Taiga said, squishing a somehow intact zabuton.

"That's better than nothing. Protect it with your life!"

Just as Matsushita said that, the zabuton suddenly deflated as the stuffing fell out of the bottom.

Apparently, there was a large cut in it that no one had noticed... except for gravity.

"Huh..."

"I guess we really are throwing everything away after all." Sakigamiya facepalmed.

And so, we began cleaning up the room.