The next afternoon, Kaoru wore the student council armband and stood before the sports storage room.

"Here's the inventory list for the storage room—it records all the equipment. And this is the malfunction log. If you find anything damaged, please note down the item number and specifics immediately."

The teacher in charge of the storage handed the keys to Tachibana Akane and added.

"If you have time, I'd appreciate it if you could do a full inspection. I'm swamped by myself."

Akane's lips twitched slightly.

Originally, they only needed to prepare equipment for the sports festival, but now they had to conduct a full inventory check—effectively doubling their workload.

Still, the teacher was the authority, and as a student—especially a student council officer—she couldn't bring herself to refuse.

"Don't worry, Onodera-sensei! Leave it to us!"

"Don't stay too late. The latest you can lock up is 7 PM." The teacher suddenly remembered something else.

"Oh, and students have been borrowing things frequently lately. Could you help log those as well?"

"Ahaha, no problem!" Akane forced a smile, though she quickly realized she couldn't even fake it properly.

Once the teacher left, she turned to face Kaoru and the others.

"Let's start with the equipment needed for the sports festival. I have the school's requirements here. Following the usual practice from previous years, each person will be responsible for one area."

It must be said that Tachibana Akane was extremely professional when it came to serious work—efficient and decisive.

Considering the difference in physical strength between boys and girls, she assigned Kaoru and Katsuragi to handle the heavy equipment and track and field supplies, while she and Ichinose Honami checked the other items.

Kaoru had expected her to cause trouble, but to his surprise, she didn't even glance at him as she led Ichinose to another area.

"Today is our first joint training session with Class D, right?"

"I've already put Matoba-kun in charge of directing it." Katsuragi had originally intended to assign Totsuka Yahiko as the leader.

Despite the latter's constant loudmouthing, he was actually quite popular in their class and his character was beyond reproach.

The only problem was that Totsuka Yahiko was just too much of a handful.

"While I know you have a plan in mind, given the current situation, it doesn't seem like we have any chance of losing," Katsuragi muttered quietly as he worked.

"No, we can lose," Kaoru replied calmly. "Not only can we lose, but I can also get Class C to cooperate with us."

"You're planning to sell us out to Ryuen?" Katsuragi looked slightly surprised.

"Not me selling us out—someone else will." Kaoru took out his phone and showed him yesterday's chat logs.

After reading for a while, Katsuragi gave him a strange look.

"So you really do have someone in the second year? When did you two start colluding?"

"Summer break," Kaoru answered briefly.

The messages he had shown Katsuragi were Kiriyama Ikuyo's reports.

For some reason, Nagumo Miyabi hadn't demanded their participation forms.

Instead, he had openly declared that everyone should enjoy the sports festival to the fullest.

"Your previous actions against him had some negative repercussions. He wants to stabilize his position now," Katsuragi analyzed.

"The best way is to once again use Class A's strength to dominate the entire grade. The more straightforward he is, the more effective it'll be."

"This sports festival is an opportunity. Even if we can't shatter his crown, we can at least make him look bad." Kaoru's idea was simple—the second-years had lost their fighting spirit against Nagumo Miyabi because they couldn't win alone.

But what if they saw that they could ally with other grades?

If a few classes couldn't win, was it really too much to bring in two more grades?

With that in mind, Kaoru explained his deal with Kiriyama to Katsuragi.

"Isn't this ratio a bit too low?" Katsuragi's first reaction was that they were getting the short end of the stick.

"We need to leave some room for adjustments. Later, we can let Nagumo chase him down, and he'll come to us himself to raise the ratio." Kaoru patted his shoulder.

"Besides, there'll be new students next year too."

Katsuragi fell silent.

They hadn't even enrolled yet, and you're already scheming against them?

"The key is to take control of the student council. After that, we can start making small changes to this school." Kaoru had already planned everything out, deliberately leaving one reward untouched.

Katsuragi hesitated before lowering his voice.

"What you just said… don't tell me you have someone in Class C too?"

Kaoru looked at him in surprise but still didn't mention Shiho Manabe.

Instead, he said, "The current issue is Ichinose. I think Nagumo might make a move against her."

"Because Class B's points are closest to ours?" Katsuragi seemed puzzled.

"That's part of it," Kaoru replied vaguely.

In truth, Ichinose Honami had a weakness that Nagumo Miyabi held over her.

Even if Nagumo kept it to himself for now, this problem would have to be addressed sooner or later.

...

After about an hour of work, they finally finished inventorying the equipment needed for the sports festival.

"Alright, only two railings are broken, one tug-of-war rope is missing, and everything else is fine," Tachibana Akane checked off items on the record sheet before glancing at the other areas with despair in her eyes.

"Damn it, I have to help that lazy guy check again!"

"Is only Onodera-sensei in charge here?" Ichinose Honami asked.

"Yeah, he's the homeroom teacher for Class 3-B," Tachibana Akane gritted her teeth.

"Same as last year—just dumping all the work on students. What a lousy adult!"

Kaoru wanted to remind her to maintain her senpai's image, especially since Ichinose and Katsuragi were already looking quite awkward.

At this point, Tachibana Akane pretended to clear her throat.

"Ahem, whatever. Ichinose, Katsuragi, take the right side. I'll go left with Mitoma. Splitting up will make things faster."

Ichinose Honami didn't question her and immediately got to work.

Kaoru, however, silently watched her, his gaze quickly drawing her displeasure.

"You—come here!"

Without waiting for a response, Tachibana Akane dragged him to a slightly more secluded spot before pointing without even looking.

"This, that, and here—you're in charge of counting these!"

Kaoru glanced at where she was pointing—basically all the heaviest tasks.

"Senpai."

"What? Complaints don't work on me."

"Nothing, just wanted to remind you to be careful while working."

With that, Kaoru obediently followed her orders and quietly got to work.

Tachibana Akane was pleased.

No matter how capable he usually was, now he had to meekly obey her commands!

Honestly, it felt pretty satisfying.

"Senpai, aren't you working?"

"I am working—supervising to make sure you don't slack off."

"Supervising is fine, but could you not stand behind me?"

"If I don't stand behind you, how can I supervise?"

"Because accidents can happen easily."

"I'm the senpai here. If I say there won't be an accident, there won't be one. As a junior, you should learn to shut up and pick up that basketball for me."

Since they were organizing the ball racks, it was inevitable that a few balls might accidentally fall.

Every time she saw one, she couldn't resist ordering Kaoru around.

Just as Kaoru bent down to pick up the basketball and turned to toss it back into the rack, his elbow suddenly bumped into something soft.....

Immediately after, a certain arrogant senpai let out a pained cry beside him.