Classroom of the Elite Volume 15 Chapter 4 Part 4

Not too long after the fight first began, Kōenji was surrounded by exhausted third-year students; each of them down on their knees, gasping for air.

He had broken their spirits by effortlessly evading everything they had thrown at him, all without ever striking a single blow of his own.

“Haaa… Haaa… Dammit, what even are you…? Some kinda monster? Why even go through all this effort in the first place? Wouldn’t it have been way easier to just shake us off your trail like earlier…?”

Mikitani slouched back in fear, having keenly realized that Kōenji could easily come after him at any time.

“It’s quite annoying to have you following me around all the time, you know? It’s unpleasant, like having the wind sweep dead autumn leaves into my face over and over again.”

Listening in from the sidelines, Kiriyama calmly offered an analysis of the situation.

“I see. You’re not wrong, Mikitani was indeed fully prepared to chase you down until the bitter end, so you probably thought to break his resolve by making it perfectly clear how much more powerful you are. But to think you’d break him without even lifting a finger… You’re probably the only one capable of coming up with a stunt like that and actually following through with it.”

Kōenji had decided to nip this problem in the bud here and now, even if it meant giving up on a chance for an Early Bird Bonus to do so.

And from the way it had played out, Kiriyama and the rest of the third-years had had the rug pulled right out from under them.

“You alright, Mikitani?”

“Y-yeah. I’m not hurt…”

Some students had fallen down by accident, whereas others had thrown themselves down to the ground out of self-destruction, but overall, just about everyone was unharmed. Even in the worst cases, nobody had anything more than a few scrapes on their hands.

The fact that Kōenji had never utilized violence further illustrated the overwhelming difference in power between them.

“I’ll be taking my leave if that’s alright.”

“Do whatever you want Kōenji.”

“Do excuse me then. Adieu~”

With nobody left to stop him anymore, Kōenji simply walked away.

Once the young man had disappeared from view, the still-dejected Mikitani began to mutter to himself.

“What the hell is with that guy? Is he really just a high schooler?”

“In life, there’ll always be people who don’t seem to play by the same rules as the rest of us. Just like Nagumo.”

“So we’re just stuck crawling around on the ground like this for the rest of our lives then, huh?”

Mikitani slammed his fist down to the ground, frustrated by his own inadequacy.

“That freak! Making me look like such a fuckin’ idiot! Dammit! Dammit!!!”

“Our fight’s not over yet.”

Kiriyama cast a glance in the direction Kōenji had gone before picking up his walkie-talkie.

“What, you gonna report my failure to Nagumo?”

“And what good would that do at this point? I’ve already decided to win this instead.”

“R-right.”

“Don’t worry Mikitani. I anticipated that Kōenji would be extraordinary from the start. But, no matter the person, everyone has a weakness. After all, as the saying goes: go big or go home.”

Mikitani nodded silently, feeling at least somewhat relieved by Kiriyama’s words.

Kiriyama, on the other hand, wasn’t the least bit shaken by anything that had happened today. After all, he had anticipated that it would end up like this from the very beginning.

It was all a part of his strategy to have Kōenji lower his guard now that he believed that the third-years had given up on stopping him.

Despite the best efforts of everyone in the Free Group, they had accomplished effectively nothing today. As a result, Kōenji had probably gotten the impression that the third-years as a whole were pushovers. And that was exactly what Kiriyama was hoping for.

TL Notes:

This marks the end of the Kōenji portion of this chapter I believe. Next part should have Kiyotaka back in action, as well as a visit from a character we haven’t seen much of in a while, so stay tuned. Thank you everyone for reading and look forward to more coming soon.

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