[Claies]

Originally Posted by noobita

Chapter 23 RAW is available. I guess it was pretty pointless to read Iris Zero if you don't know anything about Japanese. There are so many texts in this chapter. Good thing about this chapter is it has 28 pages.

Apparently, the conflict between Toru and Tokita solved in this chapter. At least this is the impression I got from skimming through the chapter.

Skimmed the text, got a guess.

Spoiler for not exact, missing most details:

This short story is about Houjou, who is revealed as not just some random smoking jerkass, but actually a good friend of Tokita and Kuga.

Basically, he used to be a delinquent whose Iris lets him see the bad things people say about others as stickers on their bodies. (This probably means he's a sensitive guy. It's probably worth rereading the Iris Hunter arc from here.) He started defending Kuga because he noticed that people say bad things about both of them, and then he got violent that one time when he heard too much, punched one of the girls (they look kinda manipulative), and was suspended. He started becoming friends with Kuga and Tokita, and came back a more proper, popular, and sociable person. Life was looking good.

Then I think he tried running for student council president, with Tokita heavily supporting him. Just as Tokita tried to undermine Koyuki in order for him or Houjou to win, Toru came in the picture, and Koyuki won as a result.

The girls came back to trash talk Houjou some more, and somehow that pissed him off more than anything and he started hanging out with delinquents and picking up bad habits (like smoking) again. Friendship soured.

So yes, Toru unknowingly caused some damage.