Suzune assumes leadership of the class and declares that the person they can do most without in their class is Yamauchi Haruki. When he protests, she not only points out how he has the least ability, but has also been conspiring to get Ayanokouji expelled. When blaming Ike doesn’t work, he throw Kushida under the bus, which was always going to be a bad move.
No, Yamauchi is a mere mouse in the corner, and Suzune is a snake preparing for a swift and efficient kill. But to Yousuke, it feels like she’s a cat playing with her food. He finds this whole exercise distasteful to the point he completely drops his nice guy façade, tells her to shut the hell up, and vows to give her his negative vote.
But as Chabashira-sensei adds after this heated exchange, this special exam isn’t meant to be cruel, and anyone who sees it that way is simply being immature. This is a school that produces leaders, and it becomes necessary at times for leaders to cut someone loose. Suzune is making the best of a bad situation and making the hard call, while Yousuke clings to naive idealism.
Meanwhile in Class D, Manabe Shiho teasts Ibuki Mio about her bud Ryuuen’s imminent expulsion, while Ishizaki urges her to take Ryuuen’s private points off of him before it happens. Ibuki meets Ryuuen that night by the water, and Ryuuen agrees to give them to her.
When he wall-or rather pole-slams her and blocks her defensive kick, only to withdraw, saying he likes her belligerent side, but leaves “too many openings” to ever have a chance at beating Suzune.
Meanwhile, Honami calls President Nagumo to ask if he even likes her, to which he says he wouldn’t offer her the deal if he didn’t. That said, she hangs up without agreeing to the deal quite yet, as she want to keep her options open until the last minute.
Once everyone has voted, Yamauchi tells everyone that Sakayanagi promised that Class A would give him positive votes to keep him from getting expelled. But in a previous scene we see that once her plan was exposed she shut that plan down, as she promised Ayanokouji she’d accept the loss of their competition if she indirectly casued his expulsion.
Ayanokouji is the top positive vote-getter, followed by Yousuke and Kushida, while Yamauchi gets the most negatives and is expelled. When he doesn’t accept this and starts crying and shouting, Kouenji provokes him into violence. Chabashira breaks it up and escorts Yamauchi out of the class. In Class A, some nobody got expelled (Sakayanagi decided Katsuragi was too talented to drop), Manabe Shiho is expelled from Class D, and … no one is expelled from Class B.
So Honami caved and made a deal with Nagumo, right? Wrong. Well before the vote, Ibuki and Ishizaki reached out to Ayanokouji for a way to save Ryuuen. They needed positive votes, and Honami needed about four million points to keep someone from being expelled. Once Ibuki got the points from Ryuuen, Ayanokouji served as the go-between for a mutually beneficial deal.
I love it when a secret Ayanokouji plan comes together. Indeed, I pumped my fist emphatically when it was confirmed Honami wouldn’t have to sell herself to that prick Nagumo. As for that prick Ryuuen? Like Ibuki and Ayanokouji, I don’t mind keeping the guy around.
Hell, not only has Ayanokouji proven his intellectual, strategic, and physical superiority, but Ryuuen’s now indirectly in his debt for putting the deal together. That said, Ayanokouji is modest as ever in victory, giving credit to Ryuuen’s associates for wanting to save him in the first place.
As for Sakayanagi, the moment the book closes on the special voting exam, she’s texting Ayanokouji, no doubt to tell him that their competition is back on like Donkey Kong. I say bring it on … whatever it is.
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