Book 9: Chapter 6: “Something Vague”
(Introduction)
For Hashimoto Masayoshi, the question of whose side he supports was a trivial one.
Or better yet, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that he didn’t care about it at all.
Regardless of whether the leader of the class turned out to be Sakayanagi or Katsuragi, he would’ve chosen the side that turned out most beneficial to himself. That’s all there was to it. While he was fortunate to have started out in Class A, he was always considering the option of falling down to Class B or C.
The important thing for him was to take up the position that would turn things around in the end.
This was the reason why, after sensing his potential, he had gotten into contact with Ryūen Kakeru after he had quickly risen to power within Class C at the start of the year.
His outstanding talent could’ve taken down both Sakayanagi and Ichinose. Hashimoto had realized that the man had an ominous amount of strength. If Ryūen had asked for it, Hashimoto wouldn’t have hesitated to leak him information about Class A. Of course, this behavior was just espionage done under Sakayanagi’s instruction. However, if Ryūen had the potential to overtake the other classes, he was fully prepared to double-cross even her.
This was the same reason why he had targeted Ichinose in Class B. However, Ichinose was different than Sakayanagi or Ryūen because underhanded deals simply wouldn’t work with her. In response to this, Hashimoto decided not to be too pushy, choosing instead to gradually approach from another angle. While they wouldn’t go as far as to betray Ichinose, he established connections with a certain someone from B class who was close to her.
Hashimoto had promptly set up this type of social network with students from each class immediately after coming to this school.