Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ?

Chapter 11 - Hearing

When everyone had settled in, Akane Tachibana cleared her throat, and began to explain the procedure.

"This meeting was called to deliver judgement to the victims of Class C, Daichi Ishizaki, Kyogo Komiya and Reo Kondo, who have accused Ken Sudo, Class D, to have beaten them in a one sided brawl one week prior to this meeting. The victim states that they were called to the special building by Ken Sudo after club activities, and were injured during a fight that broke out. Does anyone have any objections?"

I was surprised at how fast Sudo could lose his cool. "I wasn't the one who asked them to show up! They were the ones who called me to the special building!"

"No, it was Sudo!", Komiya butted in, "he called us to the second floor of the building after club activities that day and completely thrashed us. He's always been like that, and thinks just because he's better than us at basketball and he's a regular, he can harass us and do whatever he wants!"

"They're all lying! I had nothing to do with this!"

The tension in the room further escalated, and both sides seemed to have their own perspective of the way things went. The elder Horikita silently listened to both sides of the argument, while Nagumo seemed to be enjoying himself, and had crossed his legs over one another.

After the banter had quietened down, Tachibana started once again. "Both sides give conflicting views of how the incident panned out. This meeting is to decide which version of events is true. Class C states that the perpetrator, Ken Sudo, called them over to the special building and beat them in a one-sided fight. Class D, do you have any objections to this statement?"

Sudo opened his mouth to speak again, but I raised my right hand to stop him from doing so. I looked towards Horikita, and she was still cowering in her seat, unable to make eye contact with her brother. Looks like I'll have to go ahead with my points, then.

I cleared my throat to garner the attention of everyone in the room. A simple, yet effective strategy to focus all attention on yourself, even though I disliked the resulting eyes that would follow my every movement.

I stood up from my chair. "Secretary Tachibana, I have a few questions to ask Class C. May I?". Tachibana nodded, and I looked towards Class C.

"Firstly, I want to ask rather trivial questions. When did Sudo-kun call you to the special building?"

"It was last Thursday, after Club Activities. He called us out and said that he had something to talk to us about", Komiya said.

"I see. So this incident did happen after the Club Activities, did it not? In that case, why was Ishizaki-kun present at the crime scene? I was of the opinion that he wasn't involved in the basketball club."

"We-well, Sudo is known for his violent behavior, right? So, we brought Ishizaki along with us for insurance", Kondo fashioned a rather half-assed reply. Horikita-senpai seemed to have found this piece of information interesting, and he leaned forward on his chair to listen in closely.

"According to my sources, Ishizaki was quite the delinquent back in middle school. He was skilled and was experienced in fighting. Yet, having such a fighter on your side, you 3 managed to get beaten this easily by just one person. That doesn't fit in, does it?"

"It's not like that! We just didn't want to fight! We were against it from the very beginning!", Ishizaki cut in.

"Your reluctance to fight cannot be so severe that you purposely took hits from Sudo to leave you in such bad state", I continued with my verbal onslaught, drawing attention to Class C's battered and bruised faces, "it makes me think that this entire incident was a setup, a plan initiated by Class C to harm, and possibly expel, Ken Sudo."