Welcome to the Classroom of Espers (Classroom of the Elite x The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.)

Chapter 13: A Delinquent?

The Advanced Nurturing High School is fitted with surveillance cameras all over campus and the Keyaki Mall grounds, but there are exceptions.

The special building where Ishizaki and the others called Sudo, plus places excluded for privacy—bathrooms, changing rooms, and one’s dorm room—have no cameras.

And there are public places with no cameras too.

One of those places is the karaoke room.

“A? Ishizaki, so you tripped and didn’t get punched by Sudo, is that it?”

“Y-yes— My leg just got heavy and tangled— bu-but! I did get injured properly!”

Ishizaki and his group returned to the karaoke room where Ryuen and the rest of Class C were waiting and reported what happened: he hadn’t been struck by Sudo, he’d merely fallen and gotten hurt that way.

“The injuries you get from being punched and the injuries you get from falling are totally different, you know, Albert.”

“Yes.”

“W-wait, ah—hold on!!”

A right straight thrown from a powerful body sent Ishizaki flying, and the bruise from his stumble was overlaid by a fresh, blue contusion.

(We could use this injury to report to Sakagami, but that’s risky. If Komiya and Kondo had also been hurt it’d be a more convincing claim.)

“Albert, give Komiya and Kondo each a punch to the gut while you’re at it.”

“Wha!?”

“Ah—y—ow!?”

Even the two lackeys who achieved nothing useful receive Ryuen’s punishment. By the way, the one who does the punching is Yamada Albert, a half-Japanese, half-Black Class C student.

He’s Ryuen’s enforcement man, but he himself dislikes violence. He stands out a bit, so I knew a little more about him than about Ryuen—the fact that he dislikes hurting people is something that I learned via telepathy.

“So what now?”

“Don’t rush me, Ibuki… change of plans. Make the target Class B.”

The only girl among Ryuen’s usual circle, whom I’d been watching from the side, was called Ibuki. She asked Ryuen what he intended; he hadn’t given up—he still planned to stir up trouble.

“I don’t think the Class B kids would come at us, though?”

“That depends on the circumstances. And it doesn’t have to end up as an assault case.”

If they wanted to go the assault route, they could just leave Sudo as the target. But if Sudo’s case came to light and it was found to be Class C’s set-up, the three perpetrators and maybe even Ryuen, who ordered it, would face severe punishment.

“Class B is tight-knit. If one of their precious classmates gets trashed, they might step in and give us hell—or at least say some nasty things about us.”

(I’d like to prepare a voice recorder in case of the latter, but that would be evidence showing we provoked things. If we’re going to act, violence is the quickest route.)

Would the school really go this far just to see how they handle student trouble? If so, I could just ask Horikita-kaicho about it.

Ryuen probably wanted to make it look like Class C bore no blame, but things rarely go that neatly.

Besides, now that I knew they were planning to cause trouble, I couldn’t just pretend not to see it.

“…Class B doesn’t have anyone as dumb and brutish as Sudo.”

“If we go to the school with this injury now, wouldn’t that deal damage to Sudo and Class D?”

Recovering from Yamada’s beating, Ishizaki and Komiya made that suggestion to Ryuen.

“If one of you lot had actually been hit properly, I’d do that,” Ryuen said, his eyes cold. He sighed heavily and muttered inwardly, (I don’t want to, but…)

“Fine. Then we’ll get Hiyori to help.”

“Huh? Shiina? What are you gonna do with her?”

Shiina? I can’t imagine her cooperating with thuggish types. She’s the kind to stop them, not join them.

“That one… if we threaten her it might get scary later.”

“Yeah, I agree with that. But I’m not asking Shiina to cause the incident.”

Even Ryuen, who controls Class C, seemed wary of Shiina. It's no wonder, really—she’s the girl who fed me an endless stream of spoilers after all.

“Ibuki, you said Shiina knows someone in Class B, right? Use that guy.”

Someone in Class B who’s acquainted with Shiina? I’d thought she didn’t have many close connections—who could it be?

“Ah—Saki… Saiki? Kunio…? I think she said. A reading buddy, maybe.”

What a coincidence. The family name is the same as mine.

But the only Saiki in Class B is me. Besides, my given name is Kusuo.

The surname and “reading buddy” match, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s me.

Ryuen frowned.

“Oh, that reading buddy—the boy who wears two hairpins even though he’s a guy, he wears plain glasses.”

What’s wrong with a guy wearing hairpins? If I had a complex about my appearance, that line alone would have been infuriating.

And those glasses are toy glasses—they’re not that plain.

Enough daydreaming. Looks like Ryuen has set his sights on me next.

“What do you intend to do to that weak, plain-glassed kid?”

“Shiina’s buddies with that hairpin otaku, right? We’ll bait him with Shiina—have Ishizaki pretend to be her boyfriend and provoke Saiki: ‘Don’t come near my woman, you bastard,’ kind of stunt, like with Sudo.”

“Alright, we’ll clear your name, Ishizaki. You pretend to be Shiina’s boyfriend and provoke Saiki—get him to lash out.”

“Uh, sure… but, y’know, Saiki’s a scrawny otaku, right? Do you really think he’d attack over something like that?”

How rude. My body type is always adjustable, so I just match the average male high school student. Neither flabby nor skinny—just a standard build.

Also, stop labeling someone as an otaku just because they wear glasses and like reading.

“Guys like that get overly worked up the moment their crush or close female friend has another boy around. If you provoke him, he’ll either go after you or the ‘traitor’ Shiina.”

“Ew, that’s disgusting.”

“Whatever the reason, in Japan it’s always the one who strikes first who loses. Got it? Don’t screw up like you did with Sudo, understand? (Not that I expect this half-baked plan to succeed, I’ll just push Sudo again or think of another move if this doesn’t work out.)”

“Y-yes, sir… (I have to make this work somehow… I need to live up to Ryuen-san’s expectations!)”

You really shouldn’t treat messing with people like it’s a daily gacha pull.

And to top it off, after bragging so much, even Ryuen himself doesn’t think it’ll work.

Is such a sloppy plan really going to cut it? Forget it, Ishizaki—Ryuen clearly doesn’t expect anything from you.

“That’s the end of it. Before June’s over, lure that hairpin bastard out and make him target either one of you or Shiina. Also, you guys cover today’s room fee.”

Great. Thanks to me butting in, this turned into a real hassle.

At this rate, I’m going to be branded as some cringey, frail, spineless, hairpin-wearing, glasses-wearing otaku creep with a crush on Shiina.

All because I tried to protect Sudo from getting hurt—I ended up getting caught in the crossfire.

If there’s one takeaway, it’s that I got a glimpse of Class C’s main members.

Ryuen, the one running the class; Yamada Albert, Ishizaki, Komiya, and Kondo as the muscle.

Ibuki-san seems to dislike Ryuen, but it feels like she follows him only because she lost a fight against him.

It’s not like she’s his girlfriend or anything—honestly, she probably thinks being anyone’s girlfriend in that group would be a nightmare. 

If they’re deciding everything through brawls, then isn’t Class C the real dog-eat-dog class?

Still, I managed to gather a lot of intel. It was worth the trouble of renting a private room right next to the party room just to eavesdrop.

“Thanks for waiting~ Here’s your Premium Fruit Ice Parfait. Please enjoy!”

(Whoa, this guy booked a whole big room just for himself. Does he have no friends?)

Well, at this time on a weekday, the only ones who come to karaoke are students, and since the smaller 2–3 person rooms next door were already taken, I had no choice.

Sure, I could still hear them with telepathy, and clairvoyance lets me see what’s going on inside anyway, but being closer means less background noise. More importantly, this large room has excellent soundproofing, which is why I picked it.

It’s not like I wanted to enjoy a Premium Fruit Ice Parfait in a big room. Whether you eat it in a small room or a big one, good food is good food.

See? Delicious.

Karaoke places these days have a surprisingly good food menu, and the quality has gotten better too.

It’s worth getting an hour pack just for this.

I need to load up on sugar so I can think properly about what’s coming next. 

Nom nom.

. . . .

Note:

Because Saiki tripped Ishizaki, Sudo ended up late for club practice, Sakura broke her camera, Ishizaki and two of his buddies got beaten by Albert, Shiina is about to be falsely rumored to be dating Ishizaki behind the scenes, and Saiki himself is being painted as some creepy, delusional otaku.

After giving up chasing Ishizaki and the others, Sudo just went to club practice as usual.

As for Sakura, since it’s been more than 24 hours since her camera broke, it’s now outside the range of Saiki’s restoration powers. It’s still under warranty from the electronics store at Keyaki Mall where she bought it.