Class D splits into study groups, with Suzune and Kikyou overseeing. When two students paired up despite having the same strengths and weaknesses ask for help, Yukimura volunteers to lead their group, and Suzune has Kiyotaka join them. After his performance at the relay, his classmates tell him he should stop holding back.
When Kiyotaka agrees to sit in on Suzune and Kikyou’s group, Maya tags along, and despite him not putting in any effort, other students still view them as a cozy couple. Honestly I feel bad for Maya, who could have had a crush on virtually anyone else and fared better.
Two notable exceptions are Ryuen and our two-faced charmer Kikyou, whom Suzune meets one-on-one in an empty classroom. She tells Kikyou that she only knows vague rumors about what went down in middle school, Kikyou has no way of trusting her. So Suzune proposes a bet.
She’ll let Kikyou choose one of the eight subjects they’re being tested in. Whoever gets the higher individual score will win. If Kikyou wins, Suzune will leave the school of her own free will. If Suzune wins, Kikyou will cease her vendetta. Suzune brings in Manabe, whom both trust and respect, as a witness, and the bet is formally agreed to.
Of course, Kikyou is well aware that Kiyotaka is listening in on Suzune’s phone, so later that night she meets with him and Suzune and proposes an amendment to the bet: if she wins, Kiyotaka leaves the school too. Suzune is against it, but Kiyotaka will bet on Suzune winning every time.
In exchange, he asks that Kikyou tell them both exactly what happened. If they’re putting their school lives on the line, they deserve that much. Kikyou agrees, and slides into Dark Backstory Mode. It all started in grade school when she’d get praised and recognized for every little thing she said and did.
When that automatic praise stopped and started to be distributed across her classmates, she vowed to become the friendliest, most helpful, most trusting classmate she could be; indispensable to all. This took an emotional toll, and she needed an outlet for her pent-up rage and resentment. Perhaps misguidedly, she chose a public blog.
While she changed all the names in her blog entries, it became a receptacle for all the class’ dirty little secrets, which she of course collected by being everyone’s best friend. The system worked until someone found the blog and exposed her, and suddenly she was everyone’s worst enemy.
Rather than cower or run, Kikyou fought back, dumping all of the secrets she hadn’t written about in her blog to that point. With that tinder she set the entire class against each other, resulting in its rumored annihilation.
Suffice it to say, she wants anyone who knows anything about this incident out of her life so she can reset things as everyone’s best friend. So now Kiyotaka and Suzune know the full story, and the full depth of Kikyou’s depraved, bottomless desire for recognition, praise, and of course, dirty secrets.
Even now she’s collected enough of Class D’s to destroy the class, but would rather not. Instead, she’s staking everything on getting a better math score than Suzune. I can’t imagine she’ll succeed. It’s not that such an outcome wouldn’t be interesting; it just doesn’t seem plausible for our two leads to suddenly drop out.
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