Kikyo Kushida — Classroom of the Elite

Kushida’s outgoing persona hides a powerful need to be admired and a habit of looking down on other people. In middle school, she vented her resentment through anonymous online posts about classmates. When those posts were discovered, she retaliated by revealing private secrets, contributing to the breakdown of her class. Horikita attended the same middle school and knows of that history. Kushida regards her as a threat to the identity she has carefully built at Advanced Nurturing High School and repeatedly tries to engineer her expulsion. Ayanokoji also becomes a target after he discovers the hostility behind Kushida’s public manner.

Her access to classmates’ confidences also makes her dangerous in the competition between classes. During the first year, she secretly works with Kakeru Ryuen, passing information that can be used against Horikita and Class D, including details connected to special examinations. Ayanokoji later arranges to transfer half of his monthly private-point income to Kushida as part of a nonaggression agreement. The arrangement does not make her trust him or abandon her goals.

In the second year, Kushida attempts to exploit the Unanimous Special Exam to force an expulsion. A synopsis of the novel recounts how Takuya Yagami encourages her to use the vote against Horikita or Ayanokoji. As the class struggles with repeated anonymous votes, Ayanokoji identifies Kushida as the obstruction and exposes both her past schemes and the private-points arrangement. Pressed into admitting the truth, she turns on classmates whose secrets she holds. Horikita nevertheless argues that her abilities make her worth keeping. Ayanokoji puts forward Airi Sakura instead, and Sakura is expelled. The decision keeps Kushida in school but leaves the class deeply divided.

Remaining enrolled does not restore Kushida’s former standing. She, Haruka Hasebe, and Mei-Yu Wang are absent from school after the vote, while Horikita and Hirata attempt to bring the missing students back before the sports festival. With her carefully maintained image exposed to the class, Kushida must deal with people who now know how she used their trust. Her eventual cooperation is practical and uneasy rather than an instant reconciliation.

Later in the second year, an unusual school-trip arrangement puts Kushida in a Hokkaido group with Ayanokoji, Ryuen, and students from other classes. The trip returns her to the mixed social environment in which she is most comfortable, but it does not undo what happened in the classroom. She remains useful to the group while her relationships with its members carry their previous tensions.

When the students enter their third year, Horikita’s class has reached Class 3-A, and Kushida remains in it. The official third-year profile states openly that the class learned about her false persona and that she now contributes for her own benefit. Ayanokoji, meanwhile, has transferred to a rival class, changing the dynamics of competition around them. The Japanese series continues beyond this point; Year 3 Volume 5 was published on October 23, 2026, but the sources checked for this record do not establish a final graduation outcome for Kushida.