tyrant headhunter

by vamer

ok

COTE x OC (The Tyrant and Headhunter)
Shimu

Published: 2023
Source: https/

Enter Advanced Nurturing High School

A 15 year-old boy, sitting on a bus heading on its way to Advanced Nurturing High School, the place where he'll spend his next three years.

For others it's just a new high school life, but for Yamakawa Shin, this is where he's going to live a new life, away from the hell that he'd lived in before.

Yamakawa Shin POV

I've already been told that this school is closed off from the outside world, which must mean that it has quite the number of facilities. A 100% employment rate upon graduation too? It's to be expected from the most elite high school in Japan.

The bus was moving at an average speed, going over major bumps on the road which forced me to tilt my head to the side and rest on the window.

'*Yawn, would be nice if I got an hour's sleep before getting off.'

As I closed my eyes ready to nap, I heard a loud voice coming from the front of the bus.

"Won't you give up your seat?"

My luck is great isn't it...

An office worker said those words to a boy.

"That's a really crazy question, lady," said the boy who appears to be wearing the same uniform as me.

"You're sitting in a priority seat. It's natural to offer up those seats to the elderly."

"I don't understand. Priority seats are just that: priority seats. I have no legal obligation to move. Since I'm currently occupying this seat, I should be the one who determines whether or not I move. Am I supposed to give up my seat just because I'm young? Ha! That reasoning is nonsense."

He didn't speak like a normal high school student. His tone, his posture, and his blonde hair made him stand out. That would be the perfect character introduction for this weirdo.

"Wh-what kind of attitude is that to take with your superiors?" she demanded.

"Superiors? Well, it's obvious that both you and the old woman there been alive longer than I have. There can be no doubt about that. However, the word 'superior' implies that you're referring to someone of a higher position. In addition, we have another problem. Even though our ages are different, wouldn't you agree that you have an impertinent attitude and are being extremely rude?"

"Wha— You're a high schooler, aren't you?! You should be quiet and listen to what adults tell you!"

"It's f-fine, whatever..." the elderly woman mumbled.

If we ignore morality, everything the boy said is factual. He was under no legal obligation to give up his priority seat.

"Apparently, this elderly woman is more perceptive than you, which is nice. Also, I haven't given up on Japanese society yet. Please enjoy your remaining years."

After flashing a pointlessly vigorous smile, the boy slid his earphones in and began listening to rather loud music. The office lady now clenched her teeth in frustration. Though she tried needling the boy by arguing further, his smug, self-important attitude remained fixed.

As the argument faded away and the old lady gave up, another girl who appears to wear my uniform approached the lady.

"Um... I think that the lady is right." The beige-haired girl said.

"And the new challenger is a pretty girl, eh? It would seem that I'm rather lucky with the fairer sex," the boy said.

"This guy never changes..." I muttered under my breath.

"This poor woman appears to have been suffering for quite some time now. Won't you offer up your seat? While you might consider such courtesy unnecessary, I think it would contribute greatly to society."

Crack! The boy snapped his fingers.

"A contribution to society, you say? Well, that is a rather interesting opinion. It's certainly true that offering up one's seat to the elderly could be viewed in such a positive light. Unfortunately, I have no interest in contributing to society. I care only for my own satisfaction. Oh, and one more thing. You're asking me, the one in the priority seat, to give up his spot, but couldn't you simply ask one of the other people seated on this crowded bus? If you truly cared for the elderly, then something like priority seating would be a rather trivial concern."

The blonde boy surprisingly replied with facts and logic, completely shutting off her argument in a rude manner.

Though he seems like the type of guy to do whatever he wants wherever he wants. I'd personally not want this guy to be in the same class as me. But that's for more personal reasons...

"Everyone, please listen to me for just a moment. Won't someone give up their seat for this woman? It doesn't matter who. Please." This girl didn't seem to back down and decided to ask everyone on the bus.

Me being me, I sat there with absolutely no care in the world, looking out of the window and back to the commotion every few seconds. I don't intend to stand out in such a troublesome situation.

I then proceeded to look around to observe people's reactions to the situation, most of them were looking down in guilt. However I could tell that they too agreed with the boy. My eyes wandered around and then landed on a brown haired boy who seemed indifferent to the situation. Both of our eyes met for a split second before I looked away to the next person.

The girl sat adjacent to him has a beautiful face with long black hair, she seemed more focused on the book she was reading than the commotion.

From looking around the bus I came to one conclusion:

No one in the bus had any intention of giving up their seat. The tension was high, so high in fact that someone was gonna have to give up soon out of guilt.

"E-excuse me. You can have mine." I called it. A working lady got up and gestured to the elderly woman to sit in her now vacated seat.

"Thank you very much!" the elderly woman said.

The bus ride went on without a hitch and we finally arrived outside Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the school, I can't say that I wasn't slightly nervous. After all, I'll be spending my time here for the next 3 years.

I made my way to the Gymnasium where the entrance ceremony will be held, following the crowd of new students.

~Timeskip~

That was the most boring hour I've spent in my entire life. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating but all I did was stand in a line listening to the principal ramble on about how us students are special and blah blah, a snooze fest would be an understatement.

Once I got up to the first floor of the school building I made my way to my classroom labelled 1-C. I opened the door and saw various students chatting in different areas of the classroom. Many of the people were looking in my direction before quickly averting their gaze.

I walked around looking for the seat labelled 'Yamakawa Shin' and found it on the third row next to the window. I sat down and to my right, my neighbour glanced at me. He had long magenta hair and was about the same height as me.

A smirk formed on his face, "Ohh so I'm sat next to the pretty boy eh, kukuku."

Though he seems to be an odd individual, and what's with that laugh? I thought about how to respond to this weirdo.

I chose to play my own game with him, "Hmm? Did I hear something?" I replied, not even sparing him a glance as I looked out of the window.

"Kukuku, you're a funny one ain't ya? Well that just means it'll be more fun to crush that face of yours!" Seriously, this guy has a couple loose screws. Why is he going on about crushing people?

Before I could respond, a man who looks to be in his 30s walked into the room and stood on the podium.

"Ahem. Good morning to you, students. I'm the instructor for Class C. My name is Sakagami Kazuma. I usually teach Science. However, at this school, we do not change classrooms for each grade. For the next three years, I will be acting as your homeroom teacher, so I hope to get to know all of you. It's a pleasure to meet you. The entrance ceremony will be in the gymnasium one hour from now, but first, I will distribute written materials with information about this school's special rules. I will also hand out the admissions guide."

The students in the front seats passed back the familiar documents I'd received after being accepted.

This school differed from the multitude of other Japanese high schools in a few key ways. Here, all students were required to live in dormitories located on school premises. Also, except for special cases, such as studying abroad, students were forbidden to contact anyone outside the school. Even contact with your immediate family was forbidden without authorization. Naturally, leaving school grounds without permission was also strictly forbidden.

However, the campus also came equipped with many excellent facilities. With its own karaoke spot, theater, café, boutique, and "more, you could easily compare this school to a small city. The campus spread over more than 600,000 square meters. This school boasted another unique feature: the S System.

"I will now hand out your student ID cards. By using your card, you can access any of the facilities on campus, purchase goods from the store, and so on. It acts like a credit card. However, it is imperative that you pay attention to the points that you spend. At this school, you can use your points to buy anything. Anything located on the school premises is available for purchase."

"Your student cards can be used simply by swiping them through the machine scanner. The method is simple, so you shouldn't get confused. Points are automatically deposited into your account on the first of every month. You should all have received 100,000 points already. Keep in mind that one point is worth one yen. No further explanation should be necessary." The classroom erupted after hearing this.

In other words, we had received a 100,000 yen allowance from the school upon admission. I'd expect nothing less from a massive institution run by the Japanese government. 100,000 yen is a rather large sum of money for a high schooler.

"Shocked by the amount of points you've been given? This school evaluates its students' talents. Everyone here has passed the entrance examination, which itself speaks to your value and potential. The amount you've received reflects the evaluation of your worth. You can use your points without restraint. After graduation, however, all of your points return to the school. Because it's impossible to exchange your points for cash, there's no advantage to saving them. Once points have been deposited into your account, it's up to you how to spend them. Do as you like. In the event that you don't want to spend your points, you may transfer them to someone else. However, extorting money from your peers is not allowed. This school monitors bullying very carefully."

As bewilderment spread among the students, Sakagami-sensei looked over the room. It looked like was expecting questions, I looked to my neighbour and he was smiling, I guess he also had his suspicions about this thing the school calls the S-System.

"Well, it appears no one has any questions. I hope that you enjoy your time here as students."
Many of my classmates could not hide their surprise at the large amount of points.

My neighbour got up from his seat, I thought he was getting ready to leave, but he went and sat on the podium, like he was a king of some sorts.

Little to no one was paying attention as they were still excited about what the elite school had just offered us. 100,000 yen for high school students is no joke.

"Hey, hey! Do you want to check out a store with me on our way back? Let's do some shopping!" one girl cried.

"Sure. With this much, we can buy anything. I'm so glad I got into this school!" another said.

BANG!

The loud noise came from the front of the classroom, garnering everyone's attention. He was sat on the podium, calm and collected, observing everyone in the class.

"All of you shitheads will introduce yourselves one by one. Starting from the front, I'm Ryuuen Kakeru, and I will lead this class starting from today." He said with an intimidating tone which intimidated most, if not all the girls and a majority of the boys.

"Who said you could order us around!??"

"Yeah yeah you're just another delinquent!"

Various insults of that sort were shouted out by the unaffected party. The boy simply stayed sat, with his eyes closed.

3 people coincidentally walked up towards the podium in rebellion, a tomboy with blue hair, a boy with dark green hair, and a large dark skinned male. I seriously can't believe that he's the same age as us. He was built like he was in his 20s and seems to be a foreigner.

"You think you can just tell me what to do!" The dark green haired boy shouted. The other two were in agreement with him.

"An ant like you needs someone to order them around don't ya think?" He decided to provoke the dark green haired student, which worked as he clenched his fists in anger before swinging his right hand towards Ryuuen's head.

Ryuuen simply blocked the punch and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down in one blow.

"You wanna introduce yourself, Ant-kun?"

"I-Ishizaki Daichi!"

"Kukuku, anyone else want to oppose me now?"

The whole class silently watched in fear, they all thought that they would meet the same fate as him if they moved even an inch. The blue haired girl reluctantly went back to her seat, feeling slightly fearful.

The large well built guy stayed still, looking down towards Ryuuen, who seemed excited by his next challenge. Seriously... This guy has ruined every ounce of peace that I desired when entering this school.

The dark-skinned man swung his fist at a speed that many people wouldn't react to. Ryuuen, instead of dodging, slapped his fist away from his direction. This was a feint however, and the big built man sent another powerful fist right into his solar plexus, causing Ryuuen to fall onto the floor spitting out saliva.

Many people had sighs of relief on their face, and the introductions started through a girl who I now know as Manabe Shiho. One by one all students introduced themselves, until it got to me. The blue haired girl's named Ibuki Mio, and the tall dark skinned man is Albert Yamada, who speaks like a foreigner.

I stood up, looking around the classroom and at Ryuuen, who's now sat on the floor leaning against the wall below the chalkboard.

"Greetings, my name is Yamakawa Shin, my hobbies include listening to music, fashion, and watching movies. I'm confident in my physical abilities and hope to join the soccer club in this school. Nice to meet you all." I said with a straight face and bowed at a 30 degree angle

I heard many claps from around the classroom. 'Phew' I sighed in relief, who knows what would've happened to me if I fumbled my introduction...

—————————————————————————

"Um. Well, my name is Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. And, uh, I don't really have any special skills or anything. I'll do my best to get along with all of you. It's, uh, nice to meet you."

Well? Was that my introduction?

I'd failed!

I instinctively buried my head in my hands.

—————————————————————————

It's better not to think about it.

I noticed that many people, in particular girls, looked at me at me whilst whispering inaudible words to each other.

The introductions finished smoothly, and everyone walked out excited about spending their newly acquired points. I waited to the class to empty out before getting up and walking towards the front of the class, Ryuuen was still sat in the same position as when he had lost to Albert.

"How did that defeat taste? I felt that punch from where I was sat, that guys pretty strong. Not a nice feeling to get your ass kicked like that?" I asked with a mischievous grin on my face.

"Kukuku *cough, I'm gonna make him work for me soon, just wait and see. I'll crush you too just wait." Damn this guy is stubborn, I can't say I dislike his determination and willpower.

His phone was laying next to his feet, picked up his phone and fiddled with it, dropped it and walked towards the front door.

"In that case I'm looking forward to it, see ya Ryuuen." I waved him off and walked out of the empty classroom, that interaction made me interested in how he'll overcome this obstacle.

Once I left the school building I headed to the convenience store near the dorms to pick up some essential products.

Coupled with 100,000 points, the school also has a section for free items in this store, allowing students to pick up 3 free items per month. Far too lenient. No, even if this is a government funded high school, they wouldn't go this far on top the 100,000 yen we were all given today.

Unless there are situations where students are forced to pick these up...

Thinking about it, sensei didn't specifically say we we'll receive 100,000 points monthly, just the fact that we got 100,000 points deposited into our account, and that we'll get points on the first of every month.

There was an argument between a redhead and some seniors that I brushed off and walked past. Not my business, until I heard the seniors say something interesting.

"Haha did you hear that, he's in class D it was so obvious!" Class D... obvious...

"Hey, what does that mean bastard!"

"Hahaha! Let's leave him, you'll see hell soon anyway."

Hell? Class D? What on earth does this mean? I could tell from this and the free items that the school isn't the heaven it sounded like.

I went towards the dorm lobby and picked up my keycard, my room number is 402, not too high up and it should have a decent view.

As I ascended the elevator I continued to ponder about this suspicious high school, I quickly sent a text message to someone and entered my dorm room

The room was quite large, around 8 tatami mats wide, it had a double bed, a desk with an office chair, and a dining table with another chair. The room also had a kitchen and bathroom which is to be expected. A large window-door which leads to a small balcony.

"Looks like I'll be living here for 3 years, not bad at all,"

Hopefully I'll get to enjoy true freedom here...

Club Fair

Today, our lessons began, and to my surprise, the teachers were far too lenient with the behaviour of people in my class. Many people were listening but there were some who were occasionally on their phones, or talking to other people. The person sat to my right, has been composed and calm. Which came as a surprise to many due to yesterday's events.

I glanced over to my right and he seemed to be sat with his legs crossed smiling, what is he planning?

The day continued until lunch, as I got up to leave, some people in my class approached me.

"Yo Yamakawa! Wanna join us for lunch?" Ishizaki followed by Kondo and Komiya asked me.

"Sure I don't have anything planned." I nodded and looked at Ryuuen who's still sat on his chair, until his gaze flickered to the door where Albert was walking out.

"Wait!" He shouted before running up to him and swinging a right hook, Albert turned around and blocked it casually.

"Is this guy a dumbass! Why would he do that after he got his ass handed to him yesterday?" Komiya questioned Ryuuen's actions.

"I guess he'll lose again but..." I interjected

"But?" This time it was Kondou who was confused.

"Have you ever heard of the saying 'you'll lose the battle but win the war?"

"So you're saying... he's gonna keep trying till he wins?"

"Not necessarily winning, he'll probably just keep going daily until he gets him to join his side." I think his plant is to breaking him mentally, since he can't handle him in direct combat. An intelligent strategy I must say.

"This Ryuuen guy is kinda awesome don't you think? He's going up and fighting that Albert with no fear whatsoever!" Ishizaki managed to gain respect for Ryuuen despite losing so easily to him yesterday.

Not long after, Albert stood victorious once again and walked out of the classroom.

"Alright we're late let's hurry," I said whilst looking at my watch, there's 30 minutes left of lunch time. They nodded and we left to the cafeteria.

We had our lunch with small talk here and there, they told me I was popular with the girls in our class, which explains the constant gazes I sensed in my direction after the bell went.

I don't understand why they didn't approach me, am I giving off the aura of an unapproachable person? Or is it because I'm indifferent towards Ryuuen. Almost everyone in the class hates him so me being fine with his antics definitely makes for a troublesome predicament.

There was also an announcement through the speakers, talking about how there's going to be a club fair at 5pm in the Gymnasium today. Both Komiya and Kondou wanted to join the basketball club and I wanted to join the soccer club, so we agreed to go together after classes end.

Classes ended and we headed out to the club fair alongside another person. I asked Hiyori Shiina, the girl sat behind me, and she surprisingly agreed.

The impression I had from her was that she wasn't the type to interact with others, she's always reading her book silently whenever theres free time. She seems way more co-operative than I had initially surmised. Speaking of which, Shiina-san doesn't seem to show any dissatisfaction towards Ryuuen's actions.

After a couple announcements and club captains coming and going off stage. A senior student with glasses walked up to the front of the stage and stood there in silence. The first year students didn't understand what was happening and many of them found the situation amusing.

"Do your best!"

"Did you forget to bring your notecards?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

The first-year students hurled comments at him. However, the upperclassman stood on the stage calmly, without trembling. The laughter and comments didn't seem to faze him. When the laughter had reached a crescendo, it suddenly died. He wore an apathetic expression.

"What's with this guy?" remarked an astonished student.

The gymnasium buzzed with people talking, yet the boy on the stage still did not move. He simply stood there, quiet and motionless, staring fixedly at the crowd. The situation completely turned upside down, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a butter knife.

The student on stage slowly looked around, one by one meeting everyone's gaze.

"I'm the student council president. My name is Horikita Manabu," he said. That makes sense now, a student of this caliber had to have some authority.

"The student council is looking to recruit potential candidates among the first-year students to replace the graduating third years. Although no special qualifications are required for candidacy, we humbly ask that those considering application not be involved in other club activities. We generally do not accept students involved elsewhere." I see, the student council is something I'd want to get involved in, but not for now. I'm planning to join the soccer club anyway so there's no option for me.

Once the president hopped off of the stage everyone was frozen staring at his back for a couple of seconds. I look to my left and Ishizaki, Kondou, Komiya and Shiina were the same.

"The president sure is scary isn't he?" Shiina was the first to break the silence.

"I mean he sure destroyed the fun atmosphere without speaking a word which is impressive."

"Yamakawa were you even scared of him?" Ishizaki asked me after hearing my reaction.

"I don't know..." I replied a bit hesitantly

"What the fuck do you mean you don't know? It's a yes or no question." Kondou joked.

"Anyway I'm gonna go sign up for the soccer club, see you guys tomorrow." I waved them off and went to where the soccer club captain was, I signed up and left to the dorms once again.

"Today was a long day... I wonder how I'm gonna deal with being in this class for 3 years." I muttered as I walked towards the lobby.

~Timeskip~

A couple of weeks have passed since the entrance ceremony and classes have been the same. I've hung out with more classmates during lunch and even went to the mall a couple of times.

Yesterday, Ryuuen finally tamed Albert and now we might see a big change in the class. Once honeroom finished, Ryuuen walked up to and sat on top of the podium like he did on the first day, patiently waiting for everyone's attention.

Once everyone realised, I could tell that many people in the class were confused. I, for one, understood the situation. He wants to freely control the class through violence. With Albert working under him, no one can oppose him.

"Albert." Ryuuen called out to him, he stood up not before saying "YES BOSS" and walking behind him like some sort of bodyguard.

Ishizaki was already behind him, and Ibuki is just leaning on the wall with an annoyed look as usual.

"Kukuku, you guys understand the situation now don't you? You can't do as you please anymore." Ryuuen's back to his April 1st shenanigans.

"Listen up you fuckers, our private points are being affected by our behaviour. If you guys continue to fuck about during class, we'll lose a shit ton of our points." Usually I'd expect the class to retort but no one here can dare speak up against Ryuuen right now.

I stood up and looked at Ryuuen, indicating that I want to speak. "That's right, I now remember sensei never saying we'd get 100,000 per month. We just received 100,000 points for entering the school. Our monthly points are affected by our "merit" which means if we don't behave or perform like elite students, our monthly income decreases." If someone who's amongst the seated students spoke up, they'll be more inclined to listen.

As I expected, most of them nodded and understood what I was trying to say. Ryuuen looked at me with a wide grin, he seemed genuinely happy that there was someone else that caught onto the hints.

"Kuku, you've got some brains eh Yamakawa? From now on you'll be my right hand man. How does that sound?" The tone behind that last question was him daring me to oppose him. What a bastard.

"*sigh* Why not, I'm not dumb enough to oppose you. Just give my my freedom to do as I please most of the time." I'm not interested in being this weirdo's lap dog, although he seems fun, I'm not trying to do some wicked shit every 2 days. I'll take this position and use it for influence.

"And who said you deserve to have that much authority?" Ryuuen snickered at me.

I walked up to the podium and bowed slightly with a warm smile on my face to ease the tense atmosphere. Many people felt a lot more comfortable after my actions. Without saying a word, I walked back and sat down on my seat, eyeing Ryuuen with a smirk on my face. 'How's that?' I thought.

"Kukuku... do as you wish, but I'll crush you before we graduate."

Ryuuen tapped the podium twice to get everyone's attention back on him.

"Oi bastards! If you manage to keep at least half of your points, we're gonna have a party in the karaoke alright!" The whole class mood changed with smiles on people's faces. They were thinking 'maybe he's not so bad', but Ryuuen wouldn't care about that, he's clearly trying to get a better hold of his class.

Though I wonder how on earth Ryuuen out of all people managed to lift the spirits of the class. Even when he's universally hated, they can't help but gravitate towards his charisma.

"Also, study like there's no tomorrow! If there's a test and any of you end up failing, we might lose points, and then I'm gonna have Albert kick the living shit out of you!" Never mind, this guys still the same Ryuuen.

"Who do you think you are!?" A rebellious boy walked up pointing towards Ryuuen angrily.

The only problem for Ryuuen right now is this guy named Tokito Hiroya who just openly expressed his displeasure, the poor boy had no one on his side.

"Albert."

"YES BOSS"

Seriously, I'm gonna have to hear the same dialogue every day now. Such shitty luck...

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End of chapter

May 1st

Today was the final week of April. Almost a month has passed since I joined this school. Currently, we are supposed to have mathematics with our homeroom tutor, Sakagami-sensei. He walked in with a stack of papers, which was unusual, but no one questioned it.

"It's the end of the month, so we're going to have a short test. Please pass these to the back." He handed out the papers to the students in the front row.

Once I got the paper, I took a quick look at the contents on the front page. It contained questions on the five main subjects. With only a few questions per subject, it was quite a short test...

"Huh? I wasn't listening, though. This is so unfair!" a student cried.

"Don't say that. This test is just for future reference. It won't be reflected in your report cards. There is no risk involved, so don't worry. Of course, cheating is prohibited." Normally, only general grades are reflected on your report card. But the way Sakagami-sensei said they wouldn't be reflected in our report cards made me think that the grade could be reflected in some other way.

As soon as the pop quiz began, I scanned the questions. There were four questions per subject, for a total of twenty. Each question was worth five points, for a total of one hundred points. Most of these questions were at the junior high level.

However, just as I thought that, I reached the end of the test. The final three questions were much harder than the previous 17. I didn't have a clue about how to answer those questions. They were certainly at the 2nd or maybe even 3rd year level.

I answered the questions to the best of my ability. Actually, I should score around 70, considering I haven't studied in years.

~Timeskip~

Today was May 1st, the day we received our monthly allowance. I woke up and checked my phone balance.

Balance: 134,300 PP

I had already saved up 76,300 points over the past month, so it seems we ended up receiving 58,000 points this month. More than half the points saved is definitely a good outcome for us, since we'll have a party at the karaoke in the mall because of Ryuuen's promise.

When I arrived in class, everyone seemed calm, some felt slightly frustrated that they didn't receive 100,000 points, which was a product of Class C's behaviour before Ryuuen led the class. Sakagami-sensei walked in, and widened his eyes a little bit, before smiling.

"I was expecting you guys to be restless, but it seems you guys understand the situation. Well-"

"We understand, old man, hurry up and explain the important shit." Ryuuen interrupted him in the most Ryuuen way possible, which made me laugh a little.

"... I understand. Here are the point totals for each class."

Class Points

Class A - 940 CP

Class B - 650 CP

Class C - 580 CP

Class D - 0 CP

"So 1 class point is equal to 100 private points, I take it?" I asked my homeroom teacher.

"Yes, and also, I forgot to say something else, in this school, the class points determine not only your monthly income but also your standing. Should you receive more points than Class B, then Class B will be demoted to Class C while Class C is promoted to Class B." Sensei explained, which confused many students, who asked themselves what the purpose of this ranking system is.

"In this school, students are sorted by their level of excellence. The superior students are sorted into Class A, the least capable are in Class D. It's the same system you'd find in the major cram schools. In other words, Class D is akin to the last bastion for failures, while Class A is full of honour students. But rejoice, Class C, you are 70 points away from overtaking Class B. Impressive."

"You're making it sound like a competition, sensei. What's the point of this other than to gain private points?"

"This school, which operates under government supervision, boasts a high rate of advancement into elite education and workforce placement. That is a well-known fact. It's very likely that most of you have chosen a college or future workplace." Sakagami-sensei explained, which made me realise one thing-

"I see where you're going with this old man, so we have to reach the top of the class ladder to gain the 100% employment rate, huh?" Ryuuen came to a similar conclusion to mine after hearing his words.

"Yes, that's exactly right, Ryuuen. In other words, you must graduate as Class A to make your dreams of a bright future come true. This school guarantees nothing for any other students."

Many students were bespectacled at this. I can't blame them. The school chose to draw people in with their 100% graduation and employment rate only to tell them that their dreams of three classes would be crushed.

"Th-that's...absurd! We didn't hear anything about that!" Kaneda seemed extremely unhappy with the situation we're in.

"Does that mean we won't get anything? We're almost 400 points behind class A! How are we supposed to close the gap!?" Comments like that were hurled around the class, and the once calm atmosphere has dissipated into a heated one.

"There are multiple ways to gain Class Points, one of them being the midterms coming up in two weeks. If everyone passes, you will gain 100 Class Points. However, anyone who fails gets expelled."

The mood became even more tense inside the classroom. Revelation after revelation, these students failed to keep up with the drastic changes that came today.

"But it doesn't seem like you guys will have any problems." Sensei brought out a large sheet of paper and stuck it to the whiteboard.

"These are the results of the pop quiz you did last week." Sensei then grabbed a marker and drew the red line below Kondou's name, who scored the lowest in the class, 40 points.

"Fortunately for you, all of you scored above the passing grade, which was 34." Everyone let out sighs of relief after seeing that no one failed. Kondou and Ishizaki, who were below average academically, have taken steps to improve themselves under my tutelage for the past 2 weeks.

I scored 75 points, which put me in the top 10, behind Hiyori's 90, Kaneda's 85, and a couple others scoring 80. I realised that the class is slightly weaker than I had expected when it comes to academics. The average score was around 68.

There are other ways we can earn Class Points, since the midterms won't be able to close the gap that easily, perhaps other tests to do with physical ability or communication skills.

"One final thing: starting next month, you can earn Private Points by participating in clubs. If, let's say, someone in a sports club participates and performs excellently in a tournament, Class Points can also be earned. Student council members also earn a bonus depending on their position. That's all for today." This is useful information since more than 80% of our class participates in club activities, including me.

Sensei finished off with those words and walked out of the classroom.

Ryuuen immediately got up from his seat and walked to the front of the classroom. The class slowly silenced upon hearing his footsteps towards the podium.

"Good work, you imbeciles, we're still not close to class A. Make sure to study diligently for the upcoming midterms or you'll incur my wrath." Seriously, this guy sucks at giving compliments, what a tsundere.

"We've got a party in the karaoke at 6pm so do as you wish for today. If you don't attend, I'll have Albert kick the shit out of you." Ryuuen left with those violent words before returning to his seat.

The students, who were all happy to hear compliments coming from Ryuuen, gulped and realised that this man was still the same tyranic bastard of a leader.

As he sat down, I called out to him.

"Ryuuen, today's the day, right?" I smiled mischievously.

"Yeah, today's the day...

-

-

-

-

-

We start playing with those defects in Class D."

End of chapter

Defects

After classes ended, me, Ryuuen, Ibuki and Shiina quickly walked out of the class to head over to class D for our little 'investigation'.

As we headed through, Ryuuen didn't even consider letting us prepare as he barged in with no respect whatsoever. I mean why would I expect him to enter respectfully anyway?

The moment the door opened, all of the remaining students gazes fell on us, there were about 15 of them still left talking to one another. From what I can gather, the potentially good students have already left, leaving the room filled with all the true defectives.

The class was clearly in a mess after they received 0 points, it was perfect for us to take advantage of.

A girl with beige-hair and large... features approached us with a cheery smile. I recognised this girl from the commotion on the bus on my first day here.

"What can we do for you guys today? I'm Kushida Kikyo, nice to meet you!" Ryuuen casually walked past, ignoring her, looking at the large paper on the board.

"What do you think you are doing?!"

"Hey! Don't ignore Kushida-chan!!" What a simp.

"Pardon his rudeness, I'm Yamakawa Shin, and beside me is Shiina Hiyori, the guy standing at the podium is irrelevant anyway. We're class C students, and we came here to look at the 'defective' class." I said it with the most sarcastic smile.

"What did you call us, bastards?!" This red-haired man was ready to waltz out of his seat and confront me before he was stopped by Kushida.

"Not only are you dumb, but deaf as well?" I feel sorry for your classmates." I said this while wiping a fake tear from my eye.

My action only fuels his anger further. Before he could get up from his seat again, Ryuuen let out a loud laugh. I also noticed something for a split second, but I kept it to myself for now.

"Kukuku, this class is fucking finished. With 7 failures and 0 class points, how will you guys live for this month?" I tried to hold in my laughter but simply couldn't.

"Pfft!" The class' glares went from him back to me.

"Ryuuen-kun that was kinda harsh don't ya think? I bet they still gotta have some points saved up. I mean 100,000 is a lot for a student am I right guys?" The look on their faces is priceless, I don't know if Shiina was genuinely saying that, or it was sarcastic. I'm leaning towards the latter.

"Um... all of the classmates in this room don't have any points right now, so I've been helping them out." Kushida was desperately helping her classmates it seems, truly kind to the core huh?

"Woah won't you run out of points though Kushida?" I pretended to be surprised, I honestly didn't give a flying fuck.

"I'll be fine! It doesn't matter as long as I can help everyone!"

"Kushida-chan you angel!"

"Kukuku, what an angel you are." Ryuuen said in the most sarcastic way possible.

"That's right! Kushida-san is the best!" Oi, what happened to all that hate you had for us a second ago?

"I might have to chip in..." I said, which caused everyone to look at me in admiration.

"Oh, I'm lacking in points." I joked, the glares thrown at me increased by tenfold.

"Anyway, can I get your contact details? I'd love to be friends with you guys despite the class conflict!" Kushida smiled warmly as I opened my phone and gave her mine and both Ryuuen and Shiina's numbers.

"Alright, we're going now. Sorry for the unnecessary intrusion." She smiled even after my half-assed apology.

We were pretty much done with our analysis, so we decided to take our leave and discuss it on the way to the karaoke.

"What did you notice about the students, Hiyori?" Shockingly, it was Ryuuen who initiated the conversation, he seemed to be in a good mood. Has he thought up a plan, I wonder?

"They all seemed below average, as expected, nothing much. The only person who seemed interesting is Kushida-san."

"Kukuku I thought so, and did you get what you wanted Yamakawa?"

"Yeah, the red-haired guy seems to be a hothead." I replied while shrugging, "But there was also one more anomaly... " I continued.

"When you sarcastically called her an angel, her face changed to anger for a split second." Shiina nodded her head as if saying she had noticed it too.

"An angel like that was too good to be true." Our conversation ended on Ryuuen's words as we entered the karaoke area.

We went to the receptionist and got the room number. We were still slightly early, so we waited inside for a few minutes, playing rock, paper, scissors, and talking about random stuff.

The door swung open, and we saw Ishizaki, Albert, and... a pissed-off Ibuki? They walked in and sat on the sofa, while I had to deal with ordering a ton of snacks and drinks.

"Ryuuen, you're paying for all this, you know, and I know damn well you put that voice message and image I sent you on the first day to good use."

I remembered that I sent Ryuuen blackmail material on some seniors who were provoking that red-haired guy on the first day. Poor red-hair-kun has been taking Ls for our success.

"Kuku, those seniors got their private points milked out of them, made a good 500k."

"What's got you so mad Ibuki?" Ishizaki decided to ask the question that's on my mind.

"Shut up... Why did you bother dragging me her-" Before she could finish, many students walked in cheerfully. The food and drink also arrived in succession.

"Cheers!"

Man, if it wasn't for Ryuuen and Yamakawa, we would have been rotting with like 10k points or less."

"Yamakawa-kun is so cool!"

"BOSS IS THE BEST!"

"Sing to your ass' content!" Ryuuen has a unique way of telling people to celebrate. At least he's not telling them they'll get kick-

"Everyone sings, or they get their asses kicked by Albert." This guy has to be doing this on purpose...

A few hours passed while we were celebrating, and it was a positive experience. I've been to karaoke before, but only with one other person, so we were limited in terms of what we could do. Plus, Shiina's singing was the cutest thing I've seen since enrolling here.

Everyone left with the exception of Ryuuen, Albert, Ibuki, and myself.

"Urgh, I've been here for so long. Can you hurry with whatever plan you're getting me involved in?" Ibuki asks with impatience.

"Nah"

"..."

"Kukuku, Ibuki, Albert, and Yamakawa, I'm going to buy a file of all of the first-year students' report cards." An interesting idea.

"Is that even allowed?"

"It only shows your photo and your abilities graded based on last month. I got Sakagami-sensei to show me mine yesterday." He pulled out his phone and showed us a page with his name, photo, and various statistics with grades applied to them.

Ryuuen had a C for academic ability, an A for intelligence, a B for physical ability, and an excellent E for cooperativeness.

"What did you bribe the school with to give you a generous E for cooperativeness? That shitty laugh alone would lose you all opportunities for cooperation." Ibuki said, which made me laugh a lot. Then, Ryuuen sent her a playful roundhouse kick to the head, which she barely dodged.

"So did you plan to tell us this for future knowledge? Or are you trying to get us to split the bill?" I broke up the little scuffle between them with my words..

"It's 400,000 fucking private points. Of course, you guys are gonna have to chip in 50k each. I'll pay the rest." This guy... 50k is fairly kind for him. Nevertheless, I was still slightly annoyed with losing half of my points on a PDF file that will be useful for 3 months max.

"Don't make yourself sound like a saint, you should be paying for every cent of it, leader!" I responded with a cheeky grin.

"BOSS' ORDERS!"

"Fine... Just don't invite me here again."

"I'll pay too. After all, information is the most powerful weapon." We all agreed to pay.

With that, Ibuki and Albert left, and it was just me and Ryuuen in the room.

"Oi Yamakawa, I'll need you to do something to class D this month."

"You know I don't take orders from you."

"My ass, I need you to test the punishments at this school. Use that red-haired guy you provoked earlier today."

"You want me to set him up, huh?" That's quite a request; if it happens to flip on us, we'll get punished. I doubt Ryuuen hasn't thought up a decent plan yet.

"Kuku, just fucking listen, will you? I'll need you to corner him in the second-floor hallway of the special building and provoke him into beating you and your friends up."

"Woah, woah, so you want me to drag my friends into it as well?"

"Komiya and Kondou, they're basketball club members like that red head, his name's Sudo. Apparently he gets pissed off quite a bit in practice."

"So we can make up a narrative then, and I'll have to make them meet and let Sudo beat them up? Why, specifically the 2nd floor of the special building?"

"There are no cameras there, so it's a fail-safe measure. If the original plan backfires, we will still be able to report Sudou. Even if there's a witness, it'll limit their abilities to interfere." As expected of Ryuuen, he's already thoroughly analysed his own plan.

"Alright, you owe me one, though, tricky bastard."

"Kuku, don't forget, I'll crush you before graduation." Tsundere...

With that, I left and headed back to my dorms, thinking about how and when I should set this up.

He's given me a month; I should plant the seeds during the next 2 weeks and then initiate it after the midterms.

I guess I'll just start studying for the midterms tomorrow.

Midterms

The midterms are now in one week, and I have been studying diligently every day for the past week. Today was no different. I'm currently in the library with Nishino, Ishizaki, Komiya, Kondo, and Shiina. Ishizaki wanted my help in English, while Nishino asked Hiyori to push her grades up in science. Komiya and Kondo were studying math.

Nishino was already above average academically, scoring in the 55–60 range. Meanwhile, Ishizaki, similar to Kondo and Komiya, was slightly below average. My main focus was to get them and Ishizaki as close to the 50-mark position as possible.

"Yume-chan...43... or...fail"

While we were studying, I heard class B students on another table, which was roughly 7 metres behind me. They were really quiet, even in the atmosphere of the library. I couldn't register everything that was said.

The things that I heard were certainly interesting. I got up and pretended to look for a book while eavesdropping.

"Kobashi-san, you're cutting it close with your marks, we need to get you at least 5 marks above the passing grade."

"Fine~ so 48, I think I can do it."

Wait. 48...

I was wondering whether they had noticed me eavesdropping, but that can't have been the case.

They mentioned the number 43 when I sat down, which is 5 marks below 48. Their passing grade was 43...

It's possible that the passing grade is set based on the class rankings. No, the school ensures fairness amongst all students, plus academics isn't everything here. The most likely answer is that there's a formula for the passing grade that involves the class results, perhaps half of the average. Our average score was 68 last time, and our passing grade ended up being 34...

I should tell them about this. I sat back down. "Guys, listen up, the passing grade is calculated based on the average score, so it's most likely gonna change for the midterms." They looked at me attentively.

"How do I know? When I got up to walk around, I was actually listening to the class B students behind me studying for the midterms. They mentioned the passing mark being 43. Class B has a higher passing mark because they have more capable students. The school wouldn't unfairly change the passing mark for each class, unless it's relative to their results."

"What!?" Ishizaki replied, of course, he would be dumbfounded by such information.

"Quiet down, you dumbass." Nishino replied and bonked his head.

"So, I'm guessing there's a calculation for the passing grade: Half of the average? Since our average score was around the 70 mark range if I recall correctly. Well in that case, can't we just score 0 on each paper?" Shiina concluded, I must say her deductive skills are not to be underestimated.

"It sounds possible in theory, but it's not worth the risk."

"What do you mean by that?" Kondo asked.

"Scoring 0 would be too big of a loophole. If that were the case, wouldn't senior students in lower classes just do this for each test they take? It's all conjecture at the end of the day, so I'd rather us take the safe route and have everyone score at least 50 if possible." I concluded, to which they nodded in agreement.

"50 is not too bad, to be honest, we are close enough anyway." Due to my tutoring, Komiya and Kondo were only below average in mathematics. They just needed to step that up a bit.

There were still a couple other students in the class who are in the 40s, but I think they'll be fine. The passing grade likely won't go above 40 since our class hasn't got many high scorers besides Kaneda and Shiina.

Once another 30 minutes passed and they all left, I decided to stay and study for another 15 minutes. I think I'll be able to score 85 in all the papers after this. When I'm done with this, I'll just focus on helping everyone else pass.

(A/N: His adaptability is busted, so he went from 75 marks to 85 in a week of studying.)

As I packed up to leave, I heard some loud noise coming from the other side of the first floor of the library.

"Ugh, isn't that against the rules? That means we have no idea what's going to be on the test, doesn't it?!" I looked to see the source of the voice.

Class D students...

Due to the document Ryuuen bought from Sakagami-sensei, I committed all the names and faces of the high-level students to memory. There may be some people hiding their abilities, but I highly doubt they would be placed in Class D for that.

The recognisable ones that are here are Kushida, Horikita, and Sudou. I didn't bother to know the names of the other three boys who were sitting with them. As I got closer, I listened in from behind one of the shelves.

"Here's a question for everyone. Who came up with inductive reasoning?" It was a girl's voice, and it wasn't Kushida's, so that must've been Horikita Suzune.

Hold on, why are they studying Francis Bacon when it's not on the test?

We're all doing the same test, is our teacher purposely lying to us? No, Sakagami-sensei would more likely do the opposite. So class D's homeroom tutor is lying to them, but why?

"Um. It was that guy we learned about in class before, right? That was..." Sudou thought...

"Oh, that's it. That one guy. His name made me super hungry." A shitty bacon joke, seriously?

"Francisco Xavier! Or something like that, right?" Sudou asked. Who??? That sounds like an Italian professor.

"I remember! Francis Bacon!" One of them cried.

"That's correct."

"Yes! I'm definitely going to get a perfect score!"

No, this isn't even on the test, buddy.

I walked out of the store to make it look like a coincidental meeting. "Is that Yamakawa-kun?" Kushida was the first to call out to me. I waved and walked over, and everyone at the table was now focused on me. I received a glare from Sudou immediately.

"Oi, that's one of the class C guys who insulted me last week!" Sudou angrily shouted once he noticed me. Both boys 1 and 2 glared at me once they realised who I was.

"Woah red-hair-kun... Hold your high horses. I'm just here to see how many of you are gonna fail this exam, defects." Sudou clenched his teeth and slammed his hand on the table.

Horikita interrupted the scene, saying, "You're not so much better than us, being in class C and all. The way I see it, anyone who's not in class A is a failure in this school."

"Well, there are the failures who aren't in class A but still have points to live off of. Then there are you guys in Class D. I mean I heard this was the first time a class has ever wasted all of their points. Pitiful." I had a disappointed expression on my face.

"Tch. If you're gonna interrupt us with some lousy provocation attempts, then you might as well leave us be. We're not falling fo-" Horikita could only click her tongue, and as she tried to compose everyone, Sudou walked up to me and stood in front of me angrily. This is going better than I expected.

"What'd you say?!" Sudou's voice echoed across the entire second floor of the library.

"Chill I'm just curious as to why you guys were talking about this." I pointed to the paper on Horikita's side.

"I mean, Francis Bacon? That's not even on the test. Are you guys high or something?" My words caught the third boy's attention.

He's been quiet until now, but he slightly perked up when I said that. It was subtle, but I noticed the change in his look, though his expression remained emotionless.

"Huh?" Horikita looked at me, confused.

"Wait, do you guys not know what's on the test? No wonder you guys got zero points. Truly defects to the core." Ryuuen should give me some extra payment for the way I'm cooking them right now.

"Um... can you please stop Yamakawa-kun?" Kushida tried to break the situation apart, but to no avail.

"That's enough!" Sudou then grabbed me by the collar.

"Quiet down, you're making a scene in the library, Sudou." I noticed someone was approaching us as I spoke those words.

"You're really going to get violent even though it'll lose you points? You're okay with that? Falling into the negatives would be funny, I suppose." I laughed it off without a shred of care about him threatening me.

"!!!!" Sudou angrily swung his fist back, ready to hit me. I was prepared to catch his fist, I can't let him punch me here.

"Okay, stop. Stop!" A female student called out at us. Sudou stopped in response. If I remember correctly, she's Ichinose Honami of class B.

"What? This doesn't involve you. Stay out of it," Sudou said.

"Doesn't involve me? I'm trying to use the library, so it does involve me. If you want to get violent, might I suggest that you do so outside?"

"Ehh? That's mean, Ichinose-san... You'd let me get beaten up if it's outside the library?" I said playfully, ignoring an angry Sudou retracting his hand from my collar.

"Yamakawa-kun? Don't you think you're provoking him? If things continue like this, I'd have to report it to the school. Would you want that to happen?"

She came up with a statement that I couldn't refute. Had she ratted us out, it wouldn't cause much trouble, and class D would take some damage too, but it's better to leave them today.

"Sorry for that, Ichinose, Kushida, and Sudou. I got what I wanted anyways... See you next time, defects." I walked down the stairs and proceeded to exit the library.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to view the call that had been active for the last 10 minutes.

"How's that?" I said to the guy on the call

"Kukuku. That Sudou has somehow become an easier target than before, as if he wasn't already."

"All that's left is to drag him to the special building at the end of the month." He added, Let's see if I can get some points off of him.

"That stunt sure put a lot of eyes on me, would you mind sending me a couple thousan-"

BEEP*

This bastard hung up on me...

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Ayanokouji POV

The study sessions with Yamauchi, Sudou, Ike, Horikita, and Kushida were going smoothly. Today they made good progress, only for us to be interrupted by a class C student who I now know as Yamakawa. He told us that we were studying the wrong test material.

Chabashira-sensei had told us that material about the Age of Discovery would be on the test. Horikita and I had written that down. Yamakawa could have been lying to throw us off our studies, but that would serve no purpose for him. We can always check with other classes and other teachers to confirm whether he's lying, which is what we're doing now.

All of us decided to head to the faculty room to confront Chabashira-sensei.

"Chabashira-sensei, we have an urgent question."

"Quite the theatrical entrance. You surprised the other teachers," she said.

"I sincerely apologise for the sudden intrusion."

"It's fine. We're in the middle of something, so please keep it brief." Chabashira-sensei continued to write in her notebook.

"Chabashira-sensei, last week when you told us what material the test would cover, did you make a mistake? A little earlier today, a Class C student told us that the test's material would be different from what we were expecting."

Chabashira-sensei listened in complete silence and didn't even bat an eyelash as Horikita spoke. Then she put down her pen.

"That's right. The test's topics changed last Friday. Sorry, I must've forgotten to inform you."

"What?!"

She scribbled something down on a page in her notebook, tore it out, and handed it to Horikita. She'd written down textbook page numbers that referred to material we'd already covered in class. Most of the new material was from before we started the group, stuff that Sudou and the others hadn't learned.

"Thanks to you, Horikita-san, I was able to correct my mistake. I'm grateful to all of you. That's all. Thank you."

"Wait a minute, Sae-chan-sensei! Isn't it way too late for this?"

"I don't think so. You still have one week. If you use that study time wisely, it should be easy. Right?"

Chabashira-sensei tried to shoo us out of the faculty room without the slightest hesitation. However, none of us moved.

"Even if you stay, nothing will change. You understand that, don't you?" she asked.

"Let's go." Horikita said.

"B-but, Horikita-chan! We can't just accept this!"

"As Chabashira-sensei said, staying would be a waste of time. Instead, we should begin studying the revised test materials." Horikita responded while walking out of the faculty room.

Despite the fact that this was a pretty serious mistake for a homeroom teacher to make, none of the other teachers that were present seemed to care. I don't think that our teacher simply forgot to tell us what would be covered on the test.

Yamakawa's words before leaving the library replayed in my mind.

"I got what I wanted anyways... See you next time, defects."

What did he get out of this? Was it simply to attack Sudou? I don't plan to get involved with whatever happens.

Due to the change in topics, I'll have to buy the previous year's midterms off a senior and hand it to the class as a fail-safe measure.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Yamakawa Shin POV

The second week of studying passed by smoothly, and we decided to use my dorm room to prevent anyone from interrupting us. Which is funny because I was the one interrupting others in the library.

Today was the day of the midterms, and Sakagami-sensei had just arrived in class.

"That's the first challenge for you people. Are there any questions?"

"We've studied diligently these past few weeks. I don't think that anyone will fail." Manabe said, to which everyone agreed.

"You sound quite confident in your class, Manabe."

"If anyone stumbles here, the other tests will be an uphill battle, quite frankly. You'll take this midterm and the final exam in July. If no one fails either test, you'll be rewarded with a vacation during your summer break." Sakagami-sensei said, the mood brightened further.

"A vacation?"

"That's right. A dream vacation on an island surrounded by the brilliant blue sea."

I looked to my right, and both me and Ryuuen were thinking the exact same thing.

'Summer vacation my ass.'

There is no way we can let our guards down at any time here at this school. The majority of the boys are thinking about girls in their swimsuits or something, though...

"Wh-what is this strange pressure..." one of the boys muttered.

Now that the explanation was done, sensei passed down the sheets to each row, once it got to me, I picked one up and passed the sheets to the cute angel sitting behind me.

On the teacher's signal, everyone began. I started going through the social studies paper.

I was flying through the relatively easy questions and making good attempts at the harder questions. After finishing the paper, I'm confident that I'll score highly on these, like I thought.

~Timeskip~

"It's about time to show you your midterm results." Sakagami-sensei then unrolled the large paper in his hands and stuck it to the chalkboard.

Many of my classmates tensed up when Sakagami-sensei picked up the red marker, only to then draw a red line at the bottom of each subject. The students sighed in relief at everyone passing.

"As I expected, every one of you has passed yet again. Congratulations are in order." The whole class cheered in celebration. We passed the midterms, for which we could gain up to 100 Class Points.

I ended up scoring 85, 87, 86, 88, 87 on my papers, an extremely great improvement putting me in 2nd place, just behind Shiina's 90 across the board.

Ryuuen noticed my improvement and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "What drugs did you take to raise your marks by ten?"

"If studying an hour a day is called drugs, then Kaneda would have been high as fuck doing that exam."

"Kukuku." Ryuuen laughed at my response.

He did well for someone who doesn't give a horse's shit about studying. He scored an average of 63 points.

Now that the midterms are done, I have to make preparations for the mission...

"It's time for me to deal with someone, eh?"

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Report Card: Yamakawa Shin (May 1st)

Academic Ability: B
Intelligence: A
Decision Making: A
Physical Ability: A
Cooperativeness: C

Volume 1 Epilogue (A short dream about the past)

In a random alleyway in Tokyo, at night time. Two 8 year old boys met, and that was the day their fates changed.

"Who are you?"

"Shin."

"Shin?"

"Just Shin. I don't like to speak about my family name."

"I'm Shiro."

"Just Shiro?"

"Yes."

"..."

"Hahaha you know you suck at communicating."

"..."

"You gonna speak or what?... Shiro??"

"What is there to talk about?"

"Hmm... there's sushi in my flat, you wanna come eat with me?"

"Sushi..."

"Don't tell me you've never eaten sushi?"

"I've never eaten sushi."

"... YOU'RE JOKING RIGHT!???"

"Sushi is a Japanese dish consisting of small balls of cold rice served with a garnish of raw seafood."

"Eh?"

"..."

"Hahahaha you're funny you know, you sound like a robot."

"A robot?"

"Anyway hurry up let's go!"

"Is this your living space?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"1 room with a toilet and kitchen..."

"I've been living here with my grandma since I was 5 years old, she's now kicking in the hospital so I have to live alone and make my own money."

"Living alone at 8 years old? In this ragged apartment?"

"Oi cmon now! It's only messy because you caught me at an awkward time! What about you? Where do you live?"

'I can't tell him about the white room'

"I grew up in a strict boarding school. I wanted to see the world so I ran away. Today is my first day outside."

"Woah! You've been a shut-in your whole life? No wonder you speak like an old man hahaha."

'This guy is weird...'

"I've been living here alone for a few months but I've gotten used to it. I make money through headhunting activities at night time."

"Headhunting activities?"

"It's my night time routine! I was about to start for tonight, but then we had our fateful meeting."

"A fateful meeting..."

"Shiro, I don't know what or how you've lived in the past, but..."

"I promise I'll show you true freedom!"

"!!!"

'True freedom... is this a deal? What does he get in exchange for my freedom?'

"Are you gonna leave me hanging? Oh yeah you wouldn't know about this would you, it's a pinky promise. Stick your pinky finger out like this."

"Lock your fingers in like this, and there you go that's a promise between the 2 of us!"

"A promise for my freedom..."

"That's exactly right. Now help me make the sushi you robot!"

"Is this how you did it?"

"No you just put it like this... and voilla! Try eating your first handmade sushi."

"This taste.. I like sushi. I think."

"No need to be shy, I can see your eyes shining hahahaha."

"Anyway eat till you're full 'cause you're gonna go out with the Headhunter today."

BZZZTTTTT

"That was quite a nostalgic dream... it's been a while since I've remembered that day."

Sigh* I wish we came to this school together, enjoying everything without anyone interrupting our daily lives.

Here I met someone who was like me in the past. At first, I was the lively guy and you were the calm and composed one.

In my partnership with this guy, I'm the calm guy and he's the lively one. Oh how the tables turned.

But everything happens for a reason... I'll have to carry on our promise by myself, my brother in arms...

Trials & Tribulations 1

Today's May 31st. Having finished soccer practice, I'm now heading towards the special building, it is now 15 minutes past the meeting time for Sudou, Komiya and Kondo.

Ryuuen's plan was to get me involved from the start. However, since my physical abilities are very high, losing alongside 2 other people wouldn't be a good idea.

I arrived late to fit the narrative and make it look like I lost a 1v1 between me and Sudou.

I walk up the stairs of the 2nd floor to see Sudou punching and kicking both of them up ahead. Wow, he's not holding back in the slightest. They're on the ground calling my name for help.

I see, the plan went perfectly.

"KOMIYA!!! KONDO!!! WHAT HAPPENED!?" I immediately screamed out whilst worriedly walking towards them. Sudou, who heard me, looked up in my direction.

"SUDOU!!!!!" I screamed at him in dramatic fashion.

"Oh it's you again Yamakawa!! You wanna get beaten up too, HUH!?" Sudou was extremely angered by my presence, running up to me ready to swing a right hook.

"Yamakawa *cough* call the teachers! *cough*." Nice acting Komiya.

"I can defend myself! Don't worry abou-" I was cut off by Sudou's punch. I blocked it and he swung another punch.

For the past month I've been provoking him, planting seeds of hatred. Now he's completely lost it, releasing all of his pent-up frustration.

I tried, or pretended to try and dodge the attack, only to let it hit me on the side of my face.

"OUCH!! What was that for? URGHH"

It seems someone was watching the incident unfold, so I have to amp up the acting skills. A witness would help the case in becoming more one sided.

After a couple of kicks and punches being sent to me. I tanked them all whilst blocking my face, leading me with minor bruises on my body. I collapsed to my knees. Komiya and Kondo were heavily bruised aswell.

"You wimps can't even fight!" Sudou then walked down the stairs to exit the location.

Since I was the least injured I ended up calling Sakagami-sensei. The homeroom teacher's contact details are automatically saved on the phone in case of emergencies.

Around 10 minutes later, a wide-eyed Sakagami-sensei arrives and sees me kneeling, clutching my abdomen area. Komiya and Kondo were both sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall.

"W-What happened to you guys?" Sakagami was completely shocked to see all 3 of us in agony like this.

"Sensei. W-we were *cough* beaten up by a Class D student." Komiya said.

"I-I will make him pay for today! *cough*." Kondo spoke hesitantly, showing his 'fear' of Sudou.

"Those defects in Chabashira's class... The best decision would be for you guys going to file a report to the school. But it is all up to you guys, the victims."

"Yamakawa! *cough* I want to get my revenge... but we have to report him, otherwise he'll go unpunished." Hollywood level acting, who am I kidding. Any professional actor should be able to tell he's talking horseshit. But it'll pass for school.

"We'll file a report sensei. Take us to the faculty room." I responded calmly. Sensei helped take Komiya over, I wrapped Kondo's arm around my shoulder since I'm still in a good enough condition to walk.

After arriving in the faculty room, we spilled everything, from how Sudou called Komiya and Kondou, and what happened after I arrived to the scene. I didn't give them any evidence yet because I wanted to confirm my next line of action with Ryuuen. The other teachers were sat listening in to our conversation. The look on Chabashira-sensei's face was priceless, she didn't know whether to believe in Sudou or not.

~Timeskip~

Ayanokouji POV

"Good morning, everyone. You all seem more restless than usual today." Chabashira-sensei strode into the classroom as the homeroom bell rang.

"Sae-chan-sensei! Do we have zero points again this month?! When I checked this morning, I didn't see a single point deposited into my account!"

"Oh, so that's why you're all so restless?"

"We worked ourselves half to death this past month! We passed the midterm, so why are we still at zero points?! No one's been late or absent, and no one's talked during class, either!"

"Don't jump to conclusions. Listen to what I have to say first. You're correct, Ike. You have all worked harder than ever before. I recognize that. Naturally, the school understands full well how you all feel."

Class Points
Class A - 1004 CP (64)
Class B - 732 CP (82)
Class C - 660 CP (80)
Class D - 87 CP (87)

"Wait. But then, why didn't we get any points?"
He lobbed his original question again at Chabashira-sensei. It was indeed strange that we hadn't received 8700 private points in our accounts.

"Well, this time there was a little trouble. The first-year students' point distribution has been delayed. I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait a bit longer," she said.

"Huh? Seriously? If this is the school's fault, then shouldn't we get some kind of bonus as compensation?"

The students grumbled in discontent. Once they found out that they would be getting their points, their attitudes had changed dramatically. There was a significant difference between 87 points and no points.

"Don't blame me. This was the school's decision, there's nothing I can do about it. Once the trouble has been resolved, you'll receive your points. If there are still points left, that is."

"Sudou, you'll need to go to the faculty room after classes end today." Chabashira-sensei spoke those words before leaving.

Sudou's gotten in trouble again huh?

Yamakawa Shin POV

So all of the first year points got delayed as a result of our actions. The good news is that our Class Points have increased to 660 as a result of passing the midterms.

Once homeroom ended, many girls surrounded my desk asking many questions, like "who did this to you?" or "how dare they do this to Yamakawa-kun!" Both Kondo and Komiya received similar reactions from the boys.

Ryuuen slammed the podium in order to take the attention away from us. Nice save.

"O, mind telling us what happened yesterday? Why the fuck are you 3 guys looking like a mess? Especially Komiya and Kondo." Ryuuen asked in order to keep the act up.

I explained everything in the way we had set it up to be. Everyone was cursing Sudou for hurting us, the girls were especially angered because I got hurt in the process.

Once the school day ended, I left to go straight home. Since the injury was recent, I can't be walking around casually the day after the incident.

As I entered the lobby, I rushed around the corner, holding my abdomen region in pain. I accidentally bumped into someone with some force.

As the person falls, their strawberry blonde hair blew in front of my eyes. I wrap my right arm around the person's back, preventing them from falling.

"Huh? Yamakawa-kun?" It was Ichinose who first spoke. I picked her up from that awkward situation back into a standing position.

"Sorry, I was in a rush to get home." I apologised and turned away, in the direction of the elevator.

"Are you okay? you seem like you're in pain..." I guess my expression gave it away.

"I'm fine, I just got involved in something minor." I tried to brush it off but she didn't look like she believed it.

"If you need help getting back to your dorm room, I'll gladly help out right now." She said with a genuine smile on her face and held her hand out.

- - - -

"Shin..."

"What? You've been gloomy all morning. Today's meant to be the one year anniversary of our promise. We should celebrate this with some sushi!"

"Back then... Why did you trust me so easily? You didn't think twice about inviting me to live with you that time."

"I saw your depressed, robotic and overly gloomy state back then- OUCH!"

"Answer seriously you dumbass."

"I don't know why... I dragged you over because it felt like it was the right decision... like my intuition or some shit... I just sensed that you were a good guy. At least you were far better than the people I've met before at my age."

"Shin, I never thought I'd get the chance to say this. Man you're looking like one gloomy bastard right now!"

"Hahaha fuck, you got me- wait, you're smiling!"

"I'm smiling?"

"Yeah! On the anniversary too! This is a rare moment I'm telling ya. Ohh, look now you're back to Robot-kun. It's like someone possessed you for 3 seconds."

- - - -

"...kawa-kun. Can you tell Ryuuen to stop targeting us. You're the vice-leader right?" I heard muffled words from a girl's voice.

"Yamakawa-kun!" Her words brought me back to my senses. My eyes welled up a little whilst reminiscing the past.

"Stupid..." I muttered.

"Huh? Are you okay?" She was probably worried again...

"I said you're stupid. Did you even think twice before trusting me? I'm a Class C student, the Vice-leader even. Even if I agree, you shouldn't just take my word." I walked to the other side of the lobby and pressed the button to call down the elevator.

"But..." She looked down in silence, taking in my words.

"You shouldn't trust people so easily." I said that and pressed the button to the 4th floor.

"Call it a woman's intuition, regardless of your class' actions in the past month. Right now you seem like a good guy." She said those words with a beaming smile. I widened my eyes hearing this. The elevator doors closed, separating us from each other. Those damn words...

Once I entered my room I found a pair of shoes on the floor.

"*Sigh* I'm not in the best of moods right now. I'd appreciate it if you say whatever you wanna say quickly, Ryuuen."

I remembered that this guy made a keycard to my room without permission. Well, I agreed to meet with him here every time there's something important.

Flashback (May 20th, inside the classroom at lunch)

"Hey Ryuuen what's that?? Wait- why the fuck did you make a duplicate keycard for my dorm room?" Just how far can private points take you in this school.

"Kuku, we need a private meeting place without eavesdroppers and stalkers, vice-leader."

"Then why not your-"

"Your room, and no objections. I already spent 10k points on this shit. I even told them not to make any more keycards for anyone else who asks."

"*sigh* Wow... what a kind gesture..." I said sarcastically. "Fine, just don't barge in on me changing or I'll kick your ass."

"Why would I fucking do that?" he sent a punch to my face, which I blocked with my hand.

Flashback end

"I'll need you to not bring out any of your evidence during the trial next week." Ryuuen said as he laid on my bed as if it were his own room, grabbing the book below the pillow.
"Did Hiyori also give you this book to read?"

"Who cares about that right now!? How did you know there's gonna be a trial next week?"

"Heard it from the pres when he walked past me with his lil purple-haired chick in tow." He meant Tachibana-senpai, I think.

"The Student Council is involved huh? You must have a good reason for me not to use my evidence, you want me to drag it out for what? Oh I got you." I understood the situation now...

"Kuku, as quick witted as ever. I want you to test Class D during the trial. I'm trying to see if there's someone in that class who can flip the script on us. If they corner us, we finish them with the voice recording."

The voice recording will definitely put them in a corner, since our story of the events perfectly matches the evidence.

"I wonder if there is someone like that, as far as I remember, there's Horikita Suzune who's talented but uncooperative. There's Hirata Yousuke who's their leader figure. There's also Koenji Rokusuke who I've met a couple times before coming to this school. He'd be their most talented student, if that guy gave a flying fuck about anything."

"Kukuku, so let's say: Koenji, Horikita and Hirata in order of ability. If one of them is involved in the trial, we might have a fun opponent to play with in the future." He said before getting up off of my bed and putting his shoes back on, getting ready to leave.

"You're not gonna stay for tea or coffee?"

"If I stay in this empty ass room any longer, I'll have bad luck for the rest of my life." He said comically, just before noticing the golden picture frame on my desk.

"What the fuck? How expensive is this frame!?"

"It's my most treasured possession, I'd prefer if you don't touch it."

"Kukuku, I might be a piece of shit but I know that picture means a lot to ya."

"Ryuuen. Your goal is to see the level of punishment the school hands out for violence right? Whether class D has a demon lurking is secondary."

"Damn right." He opened my door and was about to head out.

"By the way, how's things going against Class B?" I asked, making him stop from leaving.

"Those bastards didn't budge at all to my provocations like that red hair. I've sent people to follow them around the mall for today." He continued. "Those power of friendship fuckers are gonna have a hard time dealing with 'em. Kukuku." He just slammed the door and left.

"Seriously... no goodbye or nothing?" I sighed and laid down on my bed, in deep thought about Ichinose's words.

I got up and picked up the picture frame, it's a picture of me and Shiro smiling from 6 years ago.

'Ichinose's words... I said similar things to him once... after all these years am I questioning whether I'm a good person?'

No.

You would still be alive if we had never met each other in the first place...

Shiro.

Trials & Tribulations 2

It's the end of our first week in June, and I have prepared Komiya and Kondo for the trial thanks to Ryuuen's early information dump. The incident has now also been publicized. Moreover, the witness that I sensed during the fight still hasn't come out and said anything. It's not like it matters to me anyway.

As I entered the school building and changed my shoes, I noticed a piece of paper stuck on the bulletin board near the stairs. The person who left this note was asking for information related to the incident.

I see that whoever wrote this is trying to find something to help Class D, because Class C doesn't need any help in this case.

Another possibility is that the person who wrote this is trying to find out the truth for peace of mind, which I wouldn't understand. Unless it was a class B student who wrote this out.

Hmm, they're trying at least...

~Timeskip~

The trial is being held today, and classes just ended for the day. When Sakagami-sensei approached the door, he motioned for Komiya, Kondo, and me to follow him. As a group, we left the classroom. We then proceeded to make our way down the hallway and up the stairs to the third floor, where the student council office is situated. When we got to the door, Sakagami-sensei knocked three times before waiting.

The door opened, revealing Tachibana-senpai greeting us. She walked us inside and led us to our seats, which were on the left side of the U-shaped table. The three of us sat down, and Sakagami-sensei stood behind us.

The Student Council President was sitting at the top of the U-shaped table, looking at his piece of paper, not even sparing a glance at us. He seemed disinterested in our class for some reason.

A couple moments later, three students and a teacher walked through the door, taking seats opposite us.

The students were, of course, Sudou, Horikita Suzune, and the guy who I now know as Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. I did hear that he hangs around Horikita a lot, but wouldn't they want someone more trusted in the class to represent Sudou, like Hirata, for example?

"Well then, I would now like to discuss the violent incident that occurred last Tuesday with the members of the student council, the involved parties, and their homeroom teachers. You may begin the proceedings, student council secretary Tachibana."

Secretary Tachibana, a woman with short hair, gave a slight bow.

"Of course, considering the magnitude of this dispute, there are times when the student council president will take over. There are several unusual things about this incident. Other than that, the bulk of the proceedings will be handled solely by Tachibana, as usual."

I understand what he meant by 'unusual things.' After all, the incident occurred in a location with supposedly no cameras.

"Because I am quite busy, there are certain agenda topics upon which I will defer. As a general rule, though, I would prefer to attend to these issues, as I'm entrusted to lead this student council." He continued.

"So, this is all by chance?" Chabashira-sensei smiled as she said that, implying that he chose to take over for a reason. The president never wavered. On the contrary, though, Horikita couldn't hide her trembling, a stark contrast between the two siblings.

"Based on the aforementioned facts, we would like for you to identify which version of events is true." After completing her explanation and the preface to the proceedings, Secretary Tachibana turned her eyes towards Class D.

"Komiya-kun and Kondo-kun, two members of the basketball club, went to the special building after Sudou-kun called them there. There, they claim to have been beaten up in a one-sided brawl. Yamakawa-kun, who was waiting for his friends, arrived at the scene around ten minutes later to check out what was happening. As a result, he also got beaten up after a bit of self-defence. Is this true?"

"What those guys said was a lie. I was the one that got called over to the special building," Sudou said.

"That day, after practice, Komiya and Kondou asked me to go to the special building. Honestly, I thought it was kind of annoying, but I also thought it might've been because they were always hostile towards me. So, I went to meet them."

"That's a lie. Sudou-kun called us over to the special building." Komiya responded

"Don't screw with me, Komiya! You were the one who called me, you jerk!"

"You don't deny the part about Yamakawa arriving ten minutes later and also getting beaten up by you?" Kondo retorted logically.

"It was self-defence; I've already told you that!" Sudou, irritated, impulsively struck his desk. Immediate silence followed.

"Please calm down, Sudou-kun. Right now, we're merely listening to what both parties have to say."

"Both parties insist that the other called them over, so the accounts conflict. However, the stories share some commonalities. There was a dispute between Sudou-kun, Komiya-kun, and Kondou-kun, correct?" Tachibana-senpai continued.

"A dispute that was started by Sudou himself. During basketball practice, he kept on taking his anger out on us, simply because we aren't as talented as him." Komiya explained

"Not one bit of what Komiya said was true. Those guys are just jealous of my talent. When I practice, they constantly get in my way. That's the truth." Naturally, Sudou claimed that we were at fault.

"Both sides have given their grievances, but now we have to come to a judgement with the collected evidence." It seems the injuries on Komiya and Kondo, and the idea of a dispute were enough for them to come to a conclusion.

"Sudou-kun beat us senseless. It was a one-sided fight. Our injuries and his lack of injuries are enough proof of that."

Regardless of which party called the other over, the fact remains that it was a one-sided fight between Sudou and the other students. We can clearly see that from the injuries they sustained. We have no choice but to come up with a conclusion based on that."

Horikita seemed to struggle with his presence in the trial. What a disappointment. Sigh... I expected at least a fight out of class D.

"Hyah?!" Horikita suddenly made a loud noise, everyone in the room looked at the source, and it was Ayanokouji tickling her.

I almost let out a loud laugh.

"Get a grip on yourself, Horikita. We're going to lose at this rate. You have to fight!"

"Tch..." Horikita wasn't pleased with that action, as expected.

"Excuse me. May I ask a question?" she said.

"Do you mind, president?"

"I'll allow it. However, please answer more quickly next time."

Horikita slowly rose out of her chair. "Earlier, you said that Sudou-kun called you over to the special building. But who exactly did Sudou call, and why?"

"Please answer." Horikita added those last two words to reinforce her aggressive style of questioning. Secretary Tachibana allowed it.

"Kondou and I don't know why he called us over. When we'd just finished up for the day and were changing, he said he wanted to talk to us for a minute. I assumed it was related to practice."

"So then, why exactly did you come to the special building, Yamakawa-kun? You're not on the basketball team, so you have no connection to this case. I'd think your presence there would be rather odd."

Well, wouldn't it be odd if I didn't come to the special building? Usually, Komiya, Kondo, and I meet up outside the school building after our clubs finish. This time, they said they had a meeting with Sudou, so I waited downstairs until I heard them shouting my name and asking for help." I concluded very vaguely in order to test her.

"Fighting is the collision of energy' between opponents. In the event that you don't have any intention of fighting or that you're nonviolent, the probability that you'll be hurt should be very low. Especially when it is a 2v1 situation. It is extremely suspicious how Komiya and Kondo, both of whom are quite athletic, lost so one-sidedly." Horikita made a good point on the spot, displaying her quick thinking and intelligence. She continued once again.

"Then there was Yamakawa-kun, who has extremely high physical abilities, according to the school. He lost to a Sudou that should've been exhausted from his previous scuffle." A very well-thought-out statement, grounded in logic.

"That way of thinking doesn't apply to Sudou-kun. He's exceptionally violent. Even if we were nonviolent, he'd still be mercilessly violent. That's what happened." Komiya retorted.

"It is true that Sudou injured those students, but we have a witness who said that Kondo and Komiya were the ones who started the fight."

Both Komiya and Kondou are shocked to hear that there was a witness. The other part about them throwing the first punch was a lie, but if the witness has evidence of them attempting to fight back, they could twist this into a stalemate.

"Well then, Class D—if Class D's witness would please enter?"

Sakura, looking worried and restless, walked into the student council room. She looked down at her feet, as if scared of danger.

"1-D, Sakura Airi-san."

"I thought I'd heard something or other about a witness, but you're a Class D student?" Sakagami, Class C's homeroom instructor, snickered while wiping his glasses. I chuckled a bit, causing the room to look at me instead.

"Sorry, please continue." I added.

"You may begin your testimony, if you wouldn't mind, Sakura-san."

"Y-yes, okay... Well... I..."

"Sakura-san..." Horikita, unable to take any more, addressed Sakura. Another wave of silence followed.

"Apparently she didn't witness anything. More of this would just be a waste of our time." Sakagami-sensei spoke.

"Why are you in such a hurry, Sakagami-sensei?" Horikita questioned his intentions.

"I want to speed this along. If we waste time, my students will suffer. These students are the joyful heart of their class, especially Yamakawa-kun. I've no doubt that their many friends are worried about them. Also, they're striving to improve their soccer and basketball skills, and we're depriving them of valuable practice time. As a teacher, I can't overlook this."

A very skillfully put-together answer from Sakagami-sensei.

"It's fine sensei, let her take her time." I spoke up, which surprised him a bit, before he nodded to maintain his calm composure. Another wave of silence followed once more...

Okay, maybe this is a waste of time." I said nonchalantly.

"You're certainly right that this is a waste of time, so I suppose we have no choice. You can come down now, Sakura." Chabashira-sensei defeatedly said.

"I definitely saw what happened!"

It was certainly Sakura's voice, though it took me several seconds to recognise it. What most struck me was the volume of her voice.

"The students in Class C threw the first punch. There's no mistake about that!"

That's a complete lie, I told Kondo and Komiya to force Sudou into throwing the first punch, and I know that they did because of proof. Even if they did throw the first punch, she has to have evidence that she was a witness to the fight. Then it could help them possibly turn the tides by filling the situation with a bunch of half-truths.

"As you can see, the girl can't even speak properly. These guys must have manipulated her into being a fake witness." Sakagami-sensei said.

"Excuse me, but may I say something?" asked Sakagami-sensei,raising his hand. "Normally, teachers are asked to speak as little as possible, but this situation is just too pitiful. Student council president, do you mind?"

"I'll allow it."

"In regards to what you've said, Sakura-san, I do not necessarily doubt you. However, I have one thing to ask. You've stepped forward to testify as a witness, but you were rather late in doing so. May I ask why? I would think if you really did see something, you would have come forward much earlier." Sakagami-sensei made a good point, although he's digging his nose too deeply into this matter. This case is still to our advantage; for this trial, it's a win or stalemate. There is no possibility of us getting branded as guilty of lying.

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes, listening to the endless rabble.

"That's... Well, that's... I didn't want to get involved..."

"Why didn't you want to get involved?"

"Because I'm not very good at talking with other people..."

"I see. I understand that. However, I'd like to say something else. You're not good at talking with others, and yet when the week was nearly out you stepped forward as a witness. Doesn't that seem rather odd? To my mind, it seems Class D secretly put a story together and are having you act as a false witness to give a fake testimony."

"If you want proof... I'll give it to you!" Sakagami-sensei froze in response to Sakura's words.

"Please, let's not force this situation to continue. If there really was evidence, you would have presented it at an earlier stage-"

Sakura loudly slammed her hand on the desk, which made me open my eyes. She threw down what looked to be a few small, rectangular pieces of paper. They looked like photos that she had printed out of a camera.

"What are those?" Because she'd produced something other than words, Sakagami-sensei's expression stiffened for the first time.

"This is proof that I was in the special building that day!"

The proof was a printed photo of Sudou with Komiya and Kondou fighting each other. From the photo, you could see Sudo grabbing Kondo's collar with Komiya swinging his fist. This shows that she was there at the fight scene, but also that Komiya and Kondou were acting violently too. Although that doesn't disprove anything that happened before or after the image was taken.

Well, the trial will probably be adjourned. Sakagami-sensei spoke about a compromise and tried to reason with Class D. I closed my eyes again, they were arguing about how they were injured and stuff. I opened my eyes once the president talked.

"That's enough. Continuing this discussion would just be a waste of time." Horikita Manabu looked at us as if we were just swapping lies constantly. I agreed with him on this occasion.

"What I've learned today is that each side has an exact opposite claim. In that case, one side is propagating an extremely malicious falsehood." This is what I wanted to hear: the punishments are now going to be more severe than weeks of suspension, now that this is a case of finding the liar.

"I'll ask you, Class C. Have you lied to us today?"

"Of course we haven't." I said with a calm and collected tone.

"Well, what about you, Class D?"

"I haven't lied. Everything we've said has been the truth." Horikita replied.

"Then we will regroup here for a retrial tomorrow at 4:00 PM. If by then it hasn't been clearly established which party has lied, or in the event no one admits that they were at fault, we will pass judgement based on the evidence we've collected thus far. Of course, in that case we may have to consider the possibility of expulsion from this school. That is all." Expulsion huh? After that, all the class C students and Sakagami-sensei stood up to walk out of the room.

Before I stood up, I eyed the president and smirked. He was probably confused about what that was for, but I did it anyway.

Once I left the Student Council room, I was met with Ichinose and a violet-haired guy. I think his name is Kanzaki Ryuuji, he glared at me, probably because of what Ryuuen has been doing to them recently.

"Oh, Yamakawa-kun!" She waved at me, and I simply walked past her silently. I stopped before the staircase.

"Which side do you believe in, Ichinose?" I asked without turning my back.

"Right now, I'm inclined to believe Class D is telling the truth." Well, she's right, but in a sense wrong at the same time. Class D stood no chance at winning this from the start.

"Feel free to believe and trust who you want to trust. It won't matter who's wrong or who's right, the winners are the ones who get to choose." I left with those words and walked down the stairs.

I pulled up my phone and sent a text message to a certain someone.

[Horikita Suzune is a bit troublesome]

[The other person who was with them was Ayanokouji, the plain guy]

[Depending on what happens, the punishment could become expulsion next time]

[As the victims of the case, we'll likely be able to propose a deal]

[kukuku]

[The fuck is wrong with you??]

[You typed that shitty laugh out on messages...]

[KUKUKUKUKU]

[...]

[So Horikita and Ayanokouji huh?]

[Make sure you tell me if they pull something off]

[Got it]

[As for the punishment, you should try going for...]

The response I got was interesting to say the least. This Ryuuen guy sure knows how to spice things up.

~Timeskip~

Classes ended the next day, and now we have to prepare for the second trial. As Ibuki and Hiyori were asking questions about the previous trial, Kondo and Komiya interrupted and called out to me, showing me their phone screens.

"Yamakawa! Look here. We're being called on a date by Kushida-san!" I looked at the message and facepalmed. They looked at me in confusion. Sometimes my friends can be so stupid...

"Dude... Kushida called you out to the location of the fucking incident, it's obviously a trap."

"No chance, you're just jealous." Said Komiya. Man, what a dumbass!

"Alright, but meet me at the trial room when you're done with your 'date'" I said and headed towards the Student Council office. - -
-

Ayanokouji POV

"Kushida won't be here. I asked her to send an email to compel you all to come."

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Talk to us? Why would we want to do that? Has the heat scrambled your brain or something?"
Kondo, who was clearly affected by the heat, grabbed his shirt and flapped it.

"It's about the trial." I added

"No matter what you do, you can't hide the truth. Sudou called us over here and beat us up. That's our answer. Now he needs to quietly accept his punishment."

"I have no intention of arguing. That would be a waste of time. I fully understand that neither Class C nor Class D will retract what they claimed yesterday."

"So why do this? Are you going to abduct us so we miss the trial? Or are you going to have a bunch of people surround us and threaten us with violence? It'll be just like that time with Sudou."

"Just give up. See ya later."

Understanding that Kushida would not be coming, both Komiya and Kondo turned and tried to leave, but one other person stood in their way.

"I think you guys might want to consider that idea, actually." Ichinose came out and finally spoke.

"I-Ichinose?! What are you doing here?!" Komiya is baffled by her random appearance.

"What do you mean? What if I said that I'm here because I'm involved in this case?"

"Ichinose, you're a celebrity."

"Ha ha. Well, I guess I'm well known among the members of Class C."

"This incident had nothing to do with Class B, right? So butt out..." Kondo's words were starting to lose power.

"You're certainly right that Class B has nothing to do with this. But how do you feel about involving so many people in your lies?"

"We didn't lie. We're the victims. We are. Sudou called us out here and beat us up. That's the truth."

"So evildoers remain obstinate until the very end. It's about time for you to pay the piper! You lied. We can all see through you. You got violent in the end. If you don't want that fact to become public knowledge, withdraw your claim right away." Ichinose declared, her arm sweeping across the air.

"Huh? Withdraw? Don't make me laugh. What, were you half asleep when you came up with that argument? You can't just claim something and make it true. Sudou started the fight. Right?" Kondo said, slightly nervous.

"Whatever, I'm out of here. I'm going to boil alive if I stay." With that, Kondo tried to leave.

"Is that really okay, though? If you leave this place, you might regret it for the rest of your life."

"What do you want, Ichinose?" They didn't seem to understand what she was getting at.

"Don't you understand? The school knows that you're lying, Class C. They've known from the beginning."

"Don't make me laugh. We lied? And the school knows it?"

"Ha ha ha ha. You guys are so funny," Ichinose said. "You've been dancing to my tune all this time."

"That's a nice try, Ichinose. But we're calling your bluff!" The two guys in front of me are on their last straws.

"I have actual evidence," Ichinose continued, unfazed by Kondo's threats.

"Oh? Well, let's see it. Show me what evidence you—"

They thought there was no way we had any evidence, of course. Even after what Ichinose had said, they weren't shaking. However, when she began to speak, their defeat was decided.

"Did you know that there are security cameras installed everywhere around the school? It's a measure they've taken in order to monitor what we do every day."

"Yeah. So what?"

"Well, then. Did you not see that?" Ichinose points to the camera on the ceiling in the middle of the hallway.

"Huh?"

"That's too bad, isn't it? If you want to set a trap for someone, you'd need to do it in a place without any cameras." She added.

"Buh, wh-what camera?! You're lying! But there weren't any cameras in the other hallways, were there?! It's weird that there's only one installed here!"

"T-That's exactly right... There were never any cameras here, and if that camera has always been there, then there would be no need for a trial right? It would show our innocence."

"Innocence? That depends on what you're innocent of. We know that both parties suffered damage during the incident. No matter the circumstances,Sudou hit three of you. That's undeniable. Of course, if the security footage can prove that Sudou wasn't the one who called you two over here, he'd probably receive the lightest possible punishment. However, his position as a regular would still be threatened. He might not be allowed to participate in tournaments."

"If that happens, you might be expelled. Are you fine with that? If someone checked the security camera footage, it would expose your lies. If that were to happen, chances are good that you'd be expelled. Anyone could see that." Ichinose said.

"Wha—!"

"W-wait, why expelled? You didn't say that we lied!" Kondo was trying to save himself, his voice was weak and strained.

"The school is testing us. They're testing to see if we can solve problems and what kind of conclusions we can draw. Don't you think that's consistent with everything else in this case? At the end of the day, everyone except Yamakawa-kun will receive major punishments. That's the reason why he wasn't called here with you guys."

Ichinose continued to pressure them, using the fact that Yamakawa wasn't here as a way to pressure Komiya and Kondo.

If Horikita had included him, he most likely would have seen through her plan.

"Why would... I-I definitely don't want to get expelled!"

"Damn it. This is ridiculous. Admit that we lied? Well, fine. As long as Sudou's punished, I'll prepare myself for the worst punishment possible—an honourable sacrifice! It'll all be over for Sudou! As long as Yamakawa's innocent, that's enough for me!" In other words, Kondo wouldn't withdraw. Instead, he'd press forward.

"It's rather early to draw a conclusion. We'll give you one last chance. There's only one way to save both Class C and Class D."

"Like hell we'd do that!"

"There's only one way to resolve this issue. Tell the school that you wish to withdraw your complaint. If you do that, the school will not bring forward the security camera footage. If there's no complaint, no one can be punished. Additionally, if the security footage is never brought up, Class D benefits, too. As we already know, if the security footage were produced, Sudou would still face some degree of punishment. In other words, Class C and Class D can come to a compromise together. The school can't investigate if they can't watch the video and see that you lied, right?"

"Ahh, ahh... Just...let me call..."

A shattered-looking Kondo took out his cell phone.

However, Ichinose sternly told him no. She wouldn't give him time to think. We had to finish this now.

"Well, you're not being very cooperative. Therefore, we have no choice but to prepare. We'll have the school confirm the security footage right away, and you'll both be expelled. Don't you realise Yamakawa-kun has left you guys for dead?" Ichinose added lies in order to convince them, and their hope is now completely shattered.

I nodded in agreement. Komiya grabbed Kondo's arms.

"Come on. Let's just accept Ichinose's idea, Kondo!"

"W-wait. If I don't check with that person, it'll be bad," he murmured.

"We've already lost! I don't wanna get expelled! Please, Kondo!"

"Damn! Fine... We'll withdraw. It'll be fine if we withdraw!"

After they left, Ichinose looked like she wanted to tell me something important.

"I probably shouldn't be saying this right now, but...there was someone pulling the strings behind this whole Sudou incident." Because Ichinose looked so deadly serious, I didn't think this was just a hunch of hers.

"Pulling the strings? You mean Yamakawa?" I heavily doubted it was him, but I asked anyway.

"No, I think Yamakawa is also acting on someone's orders. To tell the truth, there was a dispute between Class B and Class C students before. That time, though, the school didn't get involved. Someone named Ryuuen-kun masterminded that one."

"Ryuuen? I don't recognise the name."

"That's because he hasn't seen any reason to reveal himself just yet. There's no reason that you'd know him."

-

-

-

-

Yamakawa POV

I got to the Student Council office and found the president and secretary, Sakagami-sensei, Horikita, Sudou, and Chabashira-sensei already inside the room. I went up to my seat and stayed standing, which allowed the attention to stay in my direction. I then sat down and put my feet on the desk while keeping my eyes closed. The second stage will begin once the other students arrive.

KNOCK KNOCK

I opened my eyes to the sound of the door opening and turned my head to the door.

On the other side of the door were Kondo, Komiya, Ichinose, and Ayanokouji. They shooed Komiya and Kondo inside and left. Now it's time for the final stage of the story.

"You made it just in the nick of time," said Sakagami-sensei to his students with a slight sigh of relief.

"Well then, we would like to resume deliberations on this case from where we left off yesterday. Please take your seat."

Tachibana-san urged the students from Class C to sit down. However,they didn't budge. Instead, they remained standing in front of Sakagami-sensei.

"Can you please sit down?" Tachibana-san repeated her request, but the two of them did not move.

"Umm... Sakagami-sensei."

"What is it?" It wasn't just me. Everyone else noticed that this situation was strange.

"Would it be possible not to hold this trial?"

"What are you...? What in the world do you mean?" Sakagami-sensei stood up in response to this unexpected request.

"Did you want to come to an agreement? Or did you already do something to that effect?"

The president gazed sharply at the Class C students. However, the two boys shook their heads in unison, signalling that they didn't want to compromise.

"We realised that we weren't really saying anything worthwhile about which side was at fault. Our complaint was a mistake. Therefore, we'd like to withdraw it."

"You're withdrawing your complaint?" Chabashira-sensei chuckled as she spoke. She wore a thin smile, as if she found something amusing.

"What's so funny, Chabashira-sensei?" Sakagami-sensei did not seem to like her attitude, glaring at Chabashira-sensei in irritation.

"Oh, excuse me. I was just surprised because I hadn't foreseen this. I figured we would argue all day until one side collapsed or until we could propose an acceptable compromise. However, unbelievably, they've said that they want to withdraw the complaint."

"Teachers, members of this student council, we are sorry to have taken your time. However, after careful consideration, this is the conclusion we've all come to." The duo's ardent appeal signalled that their will was strong.

"Surely you can't accept this. You did nothing wrong. Sudou-kun caused all of this through one-sided intimidation and violence. Do you plan to just quietly sit there and take this?" Sakagami-sensei said, and then he looked at me, pleading for help.

I simply sat there smiling. This is going perfectly.

Horikita POV

This situation is going as planned, but why is Yamakawa-kun not doing anything? He's sitting there smiling without an ounce of nervousness. None of the Class C side noticed this as they were engaged in their own argument. Is he going to sweep the rug from underneath us?

No, he has nothing up his sleeve, they're besieged, and due to Ichinose-san and Ayanokouji-kun, they have no alternative but to go. He's merely relieved that he will not be punished regardless of the outcome.

Sakagami-sensei was arguing with Chabashira-sensei, but I was stuck staring at him, the longer I looked, the more nervous I'd gotten.

"Horikita-san? What did you do? Threaten my students with violence so they'd withdraw their appeal?" I broke out of my trance, listening to Sakagami-sensei's desperate appeal.

"Huh? Don't screw around. I didn't do anything," Sudou said.

"There's no way that my students would withdraw their complaint unless you had. Tell us the truth. If you do that, then we can do something about it."

"Sakagami-sensei...regardless of what you say, we're withdrawing the complaint." Our choice will not be changed." Sakagami-sensei lowered his head down and sat back down, as if unable to understand what his students were saying.

"If you say you want to withdraw your complaint, we'll accept it. It is unusual to cancel deliberations during a case, but-" Nii-san's voice was cut off.

TAP TAP TAP

Everyone turned to the source of the sound, it was Yamakawa-kun tapping on the table.

"As a victim of this incident and the vice leader of Class C, I will not allow the withdrawal of the complaint from the side of Class C."

What? Is he not thinking about his classmates right now?

He stood up, took out a USB stick, and handed it to Nii-san.

I began panicking, and questions ran through my mind at a mile an hour.

Did he have this evidence all along? Why didn't he show it in the last trial? Is he playing mind games with us? There is no evidence in that drive...

He's bluffing... he has to be bluffing... he's trying to pressure us as a last-ditch attempt.

Words could not describe what I witnessed next...

Trials & Tribulations (Finale) Aftermath

Third Person POV

The council room was silent, the dark room was brightened by the lighting of the projector, which is currently displaying a video.

The film being presented is about to depict something that will completely change everyone's mood. The first part of the video has no audio.

Sudou walks into the special building. Then he began waiting in the corridor. Moments later, Komiya and Kondo arrive, they look to be having a civil talk.

All of a sudden, Sudou punches Komiya in the face. Kondo reacted immediately and tried to defend Komiya, only to get kicked in the stomach and kneed in the face. Sudo then grabbed Kondo by the collar and lifted him, with Komiya trying to punch Sudou to break the hold.

That specific scene was shown in the photo handed in by Class D's witness, Sakura Airi.

Sudou continuously punched and kicked them, leaving them both on the floor.

Silence filled the entire area as Sudou and Horikita broke into shock and terror. In the same way, Chabashira-Sensei froze.

Kondo and Komiya were terrified of what would happen to them before watching the video, but they soon realised that Yamakawa had it under control, they sighed in relief.

The second video shown is mixed with a muffled voice recording.

Yamakawa is walking down the 2nd floor hallway, noticing a knocked-down Kondo and Komiya laying on the wall.

"KOMIYA!!! KONDO!!! WHAT HAPPENED!? ...SUDOU!!!!!"

"Oh it's you again, Yamakawa!! You wanna get beaten up too, HUH!?"

"Yamakawa, *cough* call the teachers! *cough*."

"I can defend myself! Don't worry abou-"

Sudo suddenly sends a punch to a kneeling Yamakawa, he blocks the right fist. While he's distracted by his injured friend's cry for help, Sudou sends another punch into his stomach.

"OUCH!! What was that for- URGH!"

After a couple of kicks and punches were sent to Yamakawa, Sudou stood triumphant, and Yamakawa was kneeling with his head on the floor, clutching his bruised body.

"You wimps can't even fight!"

Sudou then walked out of the 2nd floor of the special building, in his usual angry mood.

Silence. There is complete silence.

Words could not be spoken until one man began to chuckle.

"Hahaha! I can't believe you intentionally tried to trick us from the beginning! You Class D students were guilty, I knew it!" The previously silent room was filled with Sakagami-sensei's laughter. It was fair to say that he found the incident amusing.

The situation was completely under the hands of a male student with medium length white hair, tanned skin, and crimson eyes. The president and secretary were still unable to talk as they were still processing what they had just witnessed. The student turned to his left and gazed at them.

"Um, since Class D were proven to have lied, they will receive the appropriate punishment. Sudou Ken will have to be expelled, which will result in Class D losing 100 class points." The president stated this matter-of-factly.

To say that Class D were humiliated today is an understatement.

"President? May I speak?"

The crimson-eyed boy spoke up. The president simply nodded, urging him to continue.

Every other Class C representative simply sat quietly, giving him free reigns for their side. He was in complete control of the situation.

All of Class D's attention was on the male student in front of them. All they could see was him sitting on the other side of the table, as if he were the only one representing Class C. All they could hear was his breathing; every other sound was inaudible to them.

Little did they know, the puppet master was planning on bringing them back to life.

"I would like to make a deal with Class D."

"A deal!?" Chabashira-sensei was the first to respond.

"We propose that Class D transfer 100 Class Points to Class C, instead of the expulsion of Sudou Ken."

Everyone in the room was shocked.

'Why would he try to save me?' Sudou thought.

"100 Class Points would be deducted for the expulsion of Sudou Ken. In comparison to the previous suggestion, which the president has endorsed, this offer is far better for Class D. We hope you will accept the deal because we are aware of how valuable Sudou Ken is to Class D. Naturally, this will only happen if the president allows it."

Sudou was extremely surprised to see the person he hated openly complimenting him and even saving him from expulsion.

"I will allow the proposal of these conditions." The president said, evidently still surprised.

Sudou looked at a frozen Horikita, begging her to accept the generous deal being handed to them.

Horikita thought about denying the deal. She has stepped too deep into the dragon's den to come out unscathed.

Being helped by her enemy made her feel unpleasant; her enemy protecting them is the most humiliating experience she's had so far in this school.

Horikita POV

We were totally destroyed.

We were twirling around in his palms the entire time. In the end, he showed us pity and gave us the option to save Sudou-kun in exchange for 100 Class Points.

At this point, I don't even care about keeping Sudou-kun in the school.

We believed it to be self-defence the entire time, so we assumed he was correct.

Of course, it would be preferable if he stayed because our class needs his athletic abilities.

"We agree to the conditions," I said, my voice trembling.

I still find it hard to believe what just happened.

Yamakawa Shin's POV

"Very well, the proceedings have come to an end. We will now call this discussion closed. As punishment, Class D will give their 87 Class Points to Class C and the remaining 13 from their future Class Points. That's all, you may leave the room now."

The president finished the case, and I immediately got up and left the room without looking at the mess that I had created. Komiya and Kondou followed shortly after, probably wanting to question me.

"Yamakawa! How did you pull that shit off?!" Komiya shouted, almost echoing across the hallway.

"I know right! I thought we were done and had to give up, but you stole us that win!" Kondo was also extremely happy with the outcome.

Knowing that they were once almost manipulated by what I assumed to be Horikita's strategy, they had every right to be delighted.

I, however...

Sigh...

I smiled and pointed towards a person leaning with his back to the wall, waiting for us. Komiya and Kondo greeted him and left, while I stayed with him.

"Yamakawa, you better have done what I asked." The individual was Ryuuen Kakeru, the well-known tyrannical leader of Class C.

"Don't worry leader, we'll be Class B next semester in exchange for saving Sudou." I replied with a grin on my face.

"Kukuku, that's even better for us. That rabid dog will give us more chances to milk Class D's points in the future."

"But damn, they were so confused, you should've seen the look on Horikita's face. Hahaha!" I walked off. It seems he wanted to meet Horikita, so he stayed back in the hallway, waiting for them.

As I reached the pathway to the dorms, I sat on one of the benches there.

I began to recall the words I said after the first trial...

"Feel free to believe and trust who you want to trust. It won't matter as long as we have proof that we're the victims."

Why did I save Sudou? I could have taken 100 Class Points and suspended him for at least a month. His physical abilities will cause us problems if we ever have a sports competition between classes in the future.

I felt guilty...

I felt guilty about ruining someone's school life here over a fabricated incident. Kicking him out of the basketball club because we wanted to win feels wrong...

Sigh...

How will I be able to accomplish what I want with such trivial feelings lingering within me?

In order to achieve my goals, I need to graduate from class A...

To win...

All I need to do is win.

Ayanokouji POV

After the incident with the store clerk and Sakura, I made my way back to the school building's third floor. On the way, I saw Komiya and Kondo walking out, they both wore cheerful expressions on their faces.

I see. Horikita's plan had failed due to the interference of Yamakawa. I can't say I didn't expect this, Horikita was the one who underestimated him.

He should have known about Komiya and Kondo being invited to the special building earlier today, yet he still didn't join them.

This whole time, he must have already held a powerful card in his hands.

As I reached the door of the Student Council office, Sudou burst out of the door.

"Ayanokouji?" He immediately noticed my ever-lacking presence.

"What happened?" I felt the need to ask Sudou for details.

"I was saved in the end. But Horikita, she's..." Sudou looked down in sadness.

Horikita Suzune, who was extremely prideful in her abilities, must have had a great shock, especially after losing in front of her older brother.

However, saving Sudou from expulsion is something I wouldn't expect from the ruthless Class C, had they won the trial.

The Class C students must have exchanged Sudou's expulsion for something equally valuable.

"Well, I gotta head to my club. See ya" He left with those words.

The next people to leave the room were the Student Council president and Secretary Tachibana.

"It seems your plan of making them withdraw from the case didn't work out. Was that your attempt at proving that Sakura wasn't a liar?"

"That was all your little sister's plan, I didn't do anything."

"During this case you were far too passive, and got outmanoeuvred by Yamakawa Shin. Do not disappoint me next time, Ayanokouji." Yamakawa huh?

"Sorry to say, but I intend to live an ordinary life in this school. This is the most I could have done without standing out."

"If that's what you wish, I'll be leaving now." With those words, they both left.

A short time later, Horikita and Chabashira-sensei walked out of the room. Chabashira-sensei gave me a glance before walking away.

"Yo." I greeted Horikita.

Horikita's eyes lacked any visible brightness, and she weakly glared in my direction. This was a similar state to when I fought with her older brother.

"It seems your strategy didn't work out as you had planned." I continued.

"I lost in front of Nii-san... he took 100 Class Points from us and still saved Sudou-kun..." Horikita's tone was completely dark. I could barely hear her voice.

"..." I could only watch, comforting her wouldn't work as of right now.

"Hey, Ayanokouji-kun, am I just your puppet?" Her voice returned to normal as she spoke those words.

"Hm?"

"You brought up the idea of surveillance cameras in class. Next, you took me to the special building and pointed out the lack of cameras. Then, you guided me to the idea of installing a camera and inventing false evidence in order to make them admit defeat."

"You're overthinking it, it's just a coincidence."

"In the end, if Ayanokouji-kun was the one leading the plan, you would have recorded the conversation with Kondo and Komiya, right? That would have at least brought mutual destruction for both Sudou and the two of them. You must have anticipated something happening behind the scenes." She asked me in a meek tone.

"You're overestimating me. We were played by Class C, and that's that. Sudou is free from expulsion, you should be slightly grateful for their mercy. Horikita, you must have realised your weaknes-"

"Ayanokouji-kun, who are you?"

"What do you mean, who am I? I'm a guy who dislikes trouble."

"Someone who dislikes trouble. If that's the case, then-" Horikita was cut off by a male student walking towards us.

He had magenta-coloured hair, styled so it was worn long. He was around the same height as me, maybe a little bit taller. I glanced at him and noticed he had a wide grin on his face.

"My plan went a little too perfectly, looking at the poor state you're in, Horikita Suzune. I must say though, setting up a camera? That's quite the trick you tried to pull." His plan? So this must be Ryuuen.

"And you are?" Horikita asked the mystery student, seemingly curious.

"Next time, I'll be the one to crush you." He said so and left the scene.

"Wait. We haven't finished discussing yet, Ayanokouji-kun."

"I'll stop talking now." I carried on without turning around.

"You kept your word, yes? You said you'd support me in getting to Class A."

"You kind of made me. You also assisted Sudou in this situation. Right?"

"That's not what I meant. I want to know what you're thinking."

"I'm thinking 'This is annoying,' and 'I don't have any motivation to do this.' Stuff like that. That's what I'm thinking. Even if you took back what you said just now, Horikita, I do intend to live my life quietly. Whether we aim for Class A or whatever, that's it."

I'd hoped that answer would satisfy her, but Horikita didn't listen.

"If you really hated drawing attention, you wouldn't make all this effort to get involved. You say you're someone who 'dislikes trouble,' after all. Yet you act all evasive and non-committal, even while you help me. Why?"

I assumed that this change in Horikita's behaviour was Chabashira-sensei's doing. She was probably pulling the strings here. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew about my past.

"I thought that I should help the first friends I've ever made. Probably." If I kept talking, I might say something unnecessary. I walked faster.

By now, I had reached one absolute conclusion. If Horikita were truly aiming for Class A, it would be impossible under our present circumstances. Horikita would require a change, and the entire class needs to change.

This defeat, combined with my slight manipulation of her actions, has completely shattered her self-belief.

Horikita, you will soon come to realise that you cannot do everything by yourself; you can't win without the help of others.

At the end of the day...

Everything happened in the best way possible.

I really am an idiot.

What was I thinking when I got worked up over this?

I had started analysing Class D and considering the options. I didn't want to. I mean, she was the one who chose this school, right?

Horikita and Ichinose were aiming for the top, not me. All I wanted was an ordinary, regular life where nothing ever happened. But the contradiction in my heart...

I knew more about myself than anyone else. I knew just how defective and foolish I was.

I am truly a horrible human being.

(A/N: I'm thinking of making a couple chapters between right now and the island arc, focusing on Shin's interactions with the side characters.)

All Eyes On Me

Yamakawa Shin POV

It has now been a day since my victory against Class D. I got up off my bed to turn on my phone which which had many messages on the Class C group chat.

Many of them were talking about the sudden increase in our private points. They also told the class about my actions in the trial yesterday.

Those loudmouths Komiya and Kondo already spread the news. How troublesome... I told the class chat to keep it between us, which should stop the spread to other years and classes.

I checked my private point balance, and it increased by 74,700. Our Class Points have hit 747 which is a gigantic leap from having 580 at the start of last month.

After showering and getting ready, I went and made my breakfast. As I was eating I scrolled through my phone replying to all the messages. I found something strange and tapped on it.

An unknown messenger...

Meet me at4pm in Pallet Café.

Hmm, interesting...

Another message popped up on my phone, it was Ryuuen.

Leader-kun: I got some information on Class A last night.

Me: I'm thinking about something right now, some creep told me to meet 'em at 4pm in Pallet Café.

Leader-kun: Kukuku, you thinking of betraying me behind my back?

Me: Hahaha maybe
This meeting is definitely related to yesterday.

Leader-Kun: So either the pres, or a class D student. How tedious...

Me: If you were sat on your ass all day whilst I was doing the hard work, I would've gladly stepped down from my position.

Ryuuen: kukuku, like you can, I'll just beat the fuck out of you with Albert and Ishizaki.

Me: A joke is supposed to be funny

Ryuuen: Cocky bastard... Class A has 2 people fighting to be the leader, Sakayanagi Arisu, and Katsuragi Kohei.

Me: I remember their profiles, they're the top 2 Class A students.

That Sakayanagi girl seems more intelligent. But she's physically weak.

Ryuuen: I met her at night after the incident yesterday, she's a crippled loli with a band of stalkers.

Me: Oh that explains everything.
Katsuragi... isn't that the guy who you said looks like Johnny Sins hahaha!

Ryuuen: Kukuku. Literally a carbon copy of that baldy.

The conversation ended with that message, and I got up to head to class after finishing my breakfast.

As I walked inside, many of the students who were already in the room greeted me with smiles on their faces. I went to sit down in my usual seat next to a smirking bastard.

"Took your sweet time, 2 minutes before the bell. I would've kicked your ass if you lost us some Class Points."

"Oh~? The same Class Points that I earned myself? After all that hard work during the trial period, I still have to follow your tyranny. What a bummer~"

"You followed my orders like an obedient dog, those 100 Class Points were my winnings, kukuku." He countered with his own provocation.

"Your shitty plan? Easier said than done, I had to drag out the case just to find out about Class D."

"They almost caught us out with the camera trap. Because of that you now have an obsession with the president's younger sis-" As I was about to finish, Sakagami-sensei entered the room.

"Good morning, my student of Class C, you might even be class B soon." The students cheered when he said those words.

"Of course! It's thanks to Yamakawa-kun!" Manabe began the praise, and a majority of the other students agreed.

"Yeah yeah!"

"Ryuuen-san and Yamakawa-san are the best!"

"BOSS AND BRO ARE A GOATED DUO!"

Albert, refrain from referring to us as a duo. This weirdo just dumps all of the hard work onto me...

3rd Person POV

Class D was extra restless today, they still didn't receive their 8700 points after all, whereas the other 3 classes received their points. Horikita seemed to be in a better mood than yesterday, she looked determined and ready.

As the homeroom bell rang, Chabashira-sensei walked into a shower of questions.

"Sae-chan-sensei! Kushida-chan said that the other classes received their points this morning. Why didn't we receive any? Our Class Points are meant to be 87, right?" Ike asked, and many people followed with similar questions.

"Be quiet and listen, defects. Have you bothered checking the Class Points on the school app?

Class Points
Class A - 1004 CP
Class B - 740 CP
Class C - 747 CP
Class D - 0 CP

The gap between Class D and the others widened even more than before. The class erupted in a state of confusion.

"What..."

"Why are we on 0 points?"

"Didn't we have 87 points yesterday?"

"Explain the meaning of this sensei!"

"If you want to know why you're back on 0 points, you should ask the boy sitting over there." She then pointed to Sudou. All of the glares were directed at him. "Seriously, 2 months in, and you guys can't keep more than 0 points in your pockets."

Many mean comments swung his way. All he could do was sit with his head down in silence. Chabashira-sensei continued her mocking.

"Hahaha you guys are truly defective! Look at Class C's points, I mean, all of your points were 'mysteriously' transferred, am I right, Sudou?" She said it in a mocking tone.

"My, red hair-kun, your existence is becoming uglier by the second. To think you fell at the feet of Hunter-kun. Just the thought of you being in my presence ruins my perfect existence." Koenji said, without even sparing him a glance.

"Sudou." Horikita got up off her seat and looked at him, forcing him to look up at her.

"I'm sorry my plan failed." She bowed, much to her classmates' confusion.

"Why are you apologising, Horikita-san? It's all Sudou's fault we're here now." Of course, Class D began pinning the blame on Sudou immediately.

Horikita then looked at everyone and continued to speak her thoughts.

"Sorry, because of my incompetence, I failed at saving our class, I was let off lightly by the victims, and Sudou could have been suspended or expelled. It's my fault that I couldn't overturn the decision, sorry Class D."

The way she stood and spoke was far too different from the usual Horikita Suzune. She spoke with calmness and sincerity.

"Next time, I, no, we will come out on top." Horikita declared with newly found determination in her eyes.

In Class B

Ichinose POV

I checked my phone to view the current class rankings, as Hoshinomiya-sensei instructed. The numbers on the screen surprised me... The class was just as shocked as I was.

"Hoshinomiya-sensei, why does Class D have 0 points, and how has Class C increased their points by that much?" I asked curiously.

"Sorry, we teachers can't disclose that information to the classes. Just know it involved both Class D and Class C~" For some reason, Hoshinomiya-sensei was delighted with Class D's fall.

This is really bad for Class D, I have to do what I can to help my friends in that class!

If it's related to Class C, then it must mean it's about the trial...

Koniya and Kondo didn't withdraw the case after me and Ayanokouji-kun sent them back. B-but why?

I then remembered Yamakawa-kun's words after the first hearing.

"Feel free to believe and trust who you want to trust. It won't matter who's wrong or who's right, the winners are the ones who get to choose."

How did he stop them from withdrawing the case...

They lost completely...

Was it karma for trying to win through lies...? No, Class C were the real liars in the case.

Ryuuen-kun and Yamakawa-kun are dangerous enemies...

In Class A

3rd Person POV

The class was silent, listening to their homeroom teacher.

"Fufufu..." A quiet chuckle came from a lilac-haired girl who was checking her phone.

"What are you brooding about?" The purple-haired girl sitting next to her asked with irritation on her face.

"Ryuuen-kun has made a move..."

~Timeskip~

Classes have finished, and I'm now making my way over to Pallet Café, which is on the first floor of the school building. I'm heading out of the classroom with Ryuuen, who is trying to punch or kick me every 5 seconds for no reason. Once I reached the area, we split up, and I made my way inside.

As I entered Pallet, I noticed this place is filled with female students, and I stood out amongst the rest of the people here. There is one empty table for two in the corner, and I sat there without ordering anything, waiting for the person to come.

It's been 5 minutes of waiting, and no one has arrived. I've noticed that most of the tables surrounding me are filled with senior students. The looks I'm getting from the entire café are making me slightly uncomfortable.

I messaged the unknown contact.

Me: I'm waiting 10 more minutes for you to arrive here, after that I'm leaving...

9 minutes have passed since then, and no one has shown up.

9 minutes and 55 seconds have passed.

56...57...58...59...

As I stood up to leave, a male senior student I'd never met before approached my table and sat down in front of me. I greeted him formally and shook his hand. He had blonde hair and was clearly attractive to the female populace; quite literally all the attention was on us now.

The man in front of me introduced himself as Nagumo Miyabi of Class 2-A.

"You're quite a troll, aren't you, Nagumo-senpai? Arriving 9 minutes and 59 seconds in."

"Hahaha, it was a pure coincidence. I just got caught up with Student Council work, that's all." What a liar.

"Is that so? Then I won't question it..." This guy knows how to play mind games. He was trying to make me uncomfortable before I began talking to him. He surrounded the only empty table with senior students, he has quite a lot of dominance in his class, or even grade.

"I wanted to meet the student named Yamakawa Shin ever since I got the news about the trial yesterday."

"I take it you're the Vice President then? You wouldn't have so much power to see such events otherwise, even the teachers were told to keep quiet." The only other people that know about the case are the teachers, the students present, and all of Class C.

"Plus, that explains how you got access to my phone number, though you could have probably bought it with private points as well." I continued.

"You're extremely well-informed, as expected." He replied with a smile. "Yes, it is as you said, I'm the future Student Council president." This guy is quite confident in himself, I mean, who wouldn't be if they were the Vice President.

"So what do you want from me future president-kun?" I asked with a grin on my face.

"Join the student council."

"Pardon?" I raised my eyebrow, what is the point of this offer? Is he trying to make me his pawn?

"You're quite an interesting kouhai after all. To think that your class points would increase by nearly 167 before a special exam is a feat that not even the current president has matched." If that's true, then couldn't he have asked Ryuuen first... nope.

I discarded that stupid thought immediately. That guy has a an A in behavioural issues after all. No way is he fit to be on the Student Council.

"Special exam? You wouldn't let information like that slip unintentionally, don't tell me this is part of your attempt to bribe me?"

I looked at him with a questioning gaze, he didn't seem to change his approach.

"I simply just want to see what you'll do with that information. Now I'd like your answer to my previous question. There is an open spot for the secretary position." Nagumo replied.

"Before you ask, you won't need to submit an application or go through an interview. I've already deemed you suitable for the position." Nagumo continued praising me, I continued to look at him with a neutral expression.

It's a good offer, joining the Student Council would give me a lot of influence, plus it would increase my pool of private points. But I'm already in a club, and even then... I'm wary of this senpai.

"Not interested." I said nonchalantly and got up from my seat. I took two steps away before turning by head back towards his seat. His face didn't change at all. Did he expect this?

"I won't settle for a position less than the vice president himself." I said with absolute confidence.

This time, his smile widened more than before, there was a momentary silence between our gazes. It seems like he wanted me to oppose him for some reason...

Nagumo began to laugh hysterically, catching everyone's attention.

"You'd only settle for the vice president position? Hahaha, you're a funny kouhai." Nagumo seemed to have been amused by that comment, he clapped with excitement in his eyes.

His true motivation lies in seeking a challenge from me.

He wanted to see whether I'd lower myself to being his pawn by accepting the offer.

Or whether I'd step up and challenge him directly.

Running away was also an option but that would be no fun...

He created a win-win situation for himself, what a shrewd guy.

"But can you prove that you're as capable as me?" He asked that question while glancing at the exit.

I see how it is now...

I didn't respond, and left the café.

I saw him visibly happy due to my actions. He was looking at me like a new toy to play with.

What a dangerous senpai...

I walked out of the café and walked towards a quiet part of the school building.

I was right, he's testing me.

—————————————————————————
Matsushita Chiaki POV

Today was another normal day at school for me, my classmates were in agony over another month of 0 points.

I'm currently sitting in Pallet Café after school with Mii-chan and Inogashira-chan. Usually I would hang out with Kei-chan, Satsuki-chan, or Maya-chan, but they're living frugally after having spent all of their points.

As we talked about random topics ranging from fashion to studying, a boy who I recognise as Yamakawa-kun from Class C walked in all alone.

A very popular guy who's ranked #1 in the hottest boy ranking but also not very well liked in Class D due to his actions on May 1st. He's also friends with Hirata-kun through the soccer club.

He caught the gaze of everyone in the café as he went to occupy the only available table without ordering anything. He fiddled with his phone for the next couple of minutes...

"Ne? Why is Yamakawa-kun sitting alone over there?" Inogashira-chan asked us two.

"Beats me, he could be waiting for his date~" I replied with a grin plastered on my face.

"Shall we go home now?" Asked Mii-chan.

"Yeah sure!" Replied Inogashira-chan.

"Oh, I've got someone to meet here in 15 minutes, so I guess I won't be leaving with you guys."

I fabricated a quick lie, in truth, I wanted to stalk him—I mean, observe him for longer. They waved me off and left.

10 minutes later, another person arrived in the café. He looked like a senpai, he had blonde hair and was quite attractive. He sat across from Yamakawa-kun and shook his hand formally.

Strangely enough, all the upperclass girls looked at him in awe and respect. He seemed like someone in a position of power.

If so, then why would a Class C student gain his attention this early? I wish I could hear what they were saying.

Wait, wasn't Yamakwa-kun directly involved in Sudou-kun's incident?

Suddenly, their conversation ended, and Yamakawa-kun walked away from him without speaking. Strangely enough, the upperclassman was in a good mood.

As he left the Café, I got up to follow him roughly 10 seconds later.

He walked down the hallway and turned right, walking in the opposite direction to the main entrance.

I followed him carefully, not to cause any suspicion. He Until I turned a corner and...

"BOO!" A loud sound rang through my ears.

"Hyah!!!" What the hell was that?!! I unintentionally let out an embarrassing sound.

Yamakawa-kun stood in front of me.

"Hahaha! Caught you~"

He didn't give me time to think, as he grabbed my right wrist and pinned it to the wall. He leaned his head forward. His sharp crimson eyes pieced into my soul.

'That was kind of hot—No! Focus Chiaki! I must get out of this situation.'

"Ohh, I didn't know my stalker was this beautiful~ I take back my actions, m'lady." He slowly let go of my wrist.

I quickly regained my composure. Right now, I can't get caught up in his games.

"Kidding~" He put me back in the same position as before, with even quicker speed, placing his right foot on the wall between my legs. I can't escape, his grip is too strong.

"Before I let you go, I want to know why you chose to 'observe me', stalker-chan?"

H-How did he even know I was following him?
I don't remember him looking in my direction even once...

"Stalking, what are you talking about?"

I attempted to escape, but I knew it was futile. The man standing in front of me eyed me suspiciously.

"You think I didn't notice, you stayed behind when both of your friends left. The others were all seniors, and they were watching me on Nagumo's orders." He noticed all of that while being on his phone most of the time. How?

"Besides, you were closely watching me and Nagumo's conversation. He also noticed your prying eyes. So answer my question, stalker-chan~"

He's backed me into a corner here. I have no choice but to try and explain myself...

Also, Nagumo? Isn't that the—well, whatever.

"I was curious as to why you were in the café alone. It was a coincidence that we walked in similar directions." I mixed lies and truths, hoping he wouldn't notice.

"You think I'd let you go with such a half-assed answer?" A mischievous smile appeared on his face, he didn't fall for such a weak answer...

"W-well, I guess it's because of Class D's sudden decrease in Class Points. Why do you think that happened?" I'll try to probe for information, though I wonder if this guy would leave such openings.

"Oh that? How did you end up losing all your points again? Oh it was because your rabid dog was found guilty of beating me and my friends."

"Shouldn't Sudou-kun be the one punished and not the class? The Class Points were transferred, while Sudou was left unpunished. You were involved in the dispute, so I was curious about what happened."

"I see, and why should I care?" He simply shrugged. I decided to try once more.

"From what I've heard, Nagumo is the name of the Student Council Vice President. He must have information on the case that others do not. You met with him, a day after the second trial. What were you talking to him about?"

"I must say you're really smart for a Class D defect, trying to play mind games with me." He let go of my hand and narrowed his eyes. At this point I began to panic. He completely saw through me...

I got carried away and said too much—no, he still doesn't know about my intelligence, this is all just guesswork and cold reading. I'll just have to keep my cool and try to find a way out.

"I'm just a bit more observant than others, it's obvious that you're quite smart, I was just curious to know." I retorted vaguely, he narrowed his eyes, but quickly let go of his suspicions.

"Is that so~ then I guess I'll leave you alone." He said so, but I was still frozen in fear. I wasn't convinced at all by his playful tone.

"One more thing~" He placed his hand on my chin and brought me centimetres away from his face. His hair fluttered, covering his right eye.

'Eh? Is he going to k-kiss me? No way, I can't even move...'

He put his hands in my blazer pocket and took it out, leaving something inside.

"See ya, stalker-chan~" He said so and left the hallway.

I sighed and regained my composure, his actions left me a blushing mess. I'm convinced my heart rate is at least 100 beats per minute. He completely took control of the flow of the conversation. His handsome looks didn't help either...

When I was in my 3rd year of middle school, I'd decided to hold back on my finals and my high school entrance exams in order to make friends easily and avoid unnecessary attention. Back in middle school, due to my outstanding results, I was treated with jealousy from many students.

I think this decision to hide my abilities in the entrance exam caused me to be placed in Class D. Though, I didn't think much of it, thinking I'd get the 100% employment rate upon graduation.

On May 1st, the day we'd received 0 Class Points, and the day my dream of graduating and getting the 100% employment bonus shattered completely, it was only the class that graduates as Class A who'd reap these rewards. I'd also come to realise that I was labelled a defect for holding back my abilities.

Even worse, my class wasn't even at the starting point. The other three classes had saved up at least half of their Class Points...

The most interesting case is Class C, who are making their name around our grade ever so quickly. This class was labelled as the second-worst class, yet they're already overtaking Class B.

They managed to gain 167 points within a single month, taking away 87 Class Points from us due to Sudou-kun's violent actions.

Then today, I ended up seeing Yamakawa-kun, one of the three Class C students involved. I wanted to know the mastermind behind the case, since sensei, Horikita-san, and Sudou-kun kept quiet about that part of the matter.

I'm confident in my stalking—no, in my observational abilities. Yet this man noticed me almost immediately and set me into a trap.

I tried to beat him in psychological warfare. I was confident I'd get inside his head and find out the name of the mastermind from him. Yet he didn't waver at all... he was the one pressuring me.

I picked up the item he left in my blazer pocket, a small voice recorder...

I played the contents, it was part of his conversation with Nagumo-senpai. It was a short audio clip that only recorded 10 seconds.

"I won't settle for a position less than that of the vice president himself."

... What?! He openly opposed the vice president's offer with THAT?! W-wow...

"But can you prove that you're as capable as me?"

I replayed the clip a couple more times to understand something.

Those last few words, and his reaction to Yamakawa-kun abruptly exiting the café...

To test whether he was capable...

Nagumo-senpai used me as a challenge for Yamakawa-kun, which is why he cornered me in this isolated place.

Without realising it, I was being manipulated from the very beginning. I thought I was exceptionally smart and capable.

I was just a rat that got caught in his trap.

But I didn't realise just how far away I was from the best students in this school. I thought that I was in the top 10%, I don't know anymore...

"I'll be taking this back now~" A whisper came from beside me, causing me to jolt.

H-how did he get here without me noticing? He swiped the voice recorder from my hand and disappeared from the area.

Quick thinking, high physical abilities, and scary observational abilities. It's no wonder he has caught the attention of the vice president himself.

Now I'm certain it was Yamakawa-kun who masterminded the change in Class Points. A punishment like that wouldn't be handed out unless a deal was made. An exchange of Sudou for Class Points...

If he's a Class C student, how is our class supposed to even have a chance of overtaking Class C, never mind reaching Class A?

Just how am I supposed to ever reach my goal with Classes A and C as our enemies...?

Island Exam Part 1 - The Plan

Today was the first day of our summer vacation, and everyone in the grade had passed the midterms and finals. The school decided to reward us with a two-week trip on this luxury cruise ship. At least that's how the average person sees it...

With the information Nagumo gave me, I'm certain this is one of those special exams.

I am currently standing on the balcony of the cabin and gazing out over the wide Pacific Ocean. It goes without saying that it is beautiful, like an oceanic paradise.

I left the balcony and was on my way to a restaurant to meet up with classmates until an announcement proceeded.

"Attention, students. Please assemble on the deck. You will be able to see the island soon. This is a good time to take in some rather significant scenery." Quite the odd choice of words, if you ask me.

I got to the front of the deck, slipping and sliding through Class D students in the process. The ship was nearing the island.

Other students noticed and began assembling on the deck. After a crowd had gathered, some particularly domineering boys showed up and began pushing people out of the way in order to get the best position. They seem to be Class A students...

"Hey, you're in the way. Move it, you defects." One of the boys tried to intimidate Ayanokouji, who was a couple of metres to my left, and shoved his shoulder. Ayanokouji fell back and grabbed onto the deck's railing to keep from falling. The students laughed mockingly.

"Hey, what the hell are you guys doing?!" Sudou shouted as he walked up to the Class A student

"You do understand how this school is structured, right? Class D doesn't get any human rights. Defects like you are just that—defective—so you should submit. We're all in Class A over here." This guy was starting to piss me off, so I turned to my left, slipping through the crowd, and grabbed his shoulder with low-moderate grip strength. This action caused him to grunt in pain and turn around.

"You're..."

"Yamakawa Shin yes, I didn't know I was popular with the mighty Class A!" I said sarcastically while waving my hands, feigning embarrassment.

The Class A students and the Class D students who got kicked out of this area started looking in our direction.

"What do you think you're doing here? This is merely for Class A students, the elites. Don't act cocky because you gained a couple Class Poin-"

"Ironic, coming from the most useless student in Class A, you lack in everything. It seems the school board must've placed you there for their own amusement, am I right, Totsuka Yahiko-kun?" He gritted his teeth and grabbed my collar, pinning me on the rails. I laughed at his actions.

"You bastard! You're nothing but a dog below that flimsy delinquent!" I yawned in his face, causing him to get even more pissed; he was ready to punch me in front of everyone. Is he that dumb?

"Yahiko, stop it." A hand was placed on his shoulder, causing him to let go of me. "You're a Class A student; you should act befitting of your worth." I believe this guy is Katsuragi Kohei, one of the two leaders of Class A.

"Look at you cowering behind your master; maybe that's one thing you're good at. Being a nice, obedient dog, Yahiko-chan?" Some of the students in the area were holding back their laughter.

"Yamakawa. You shouldn't provoke other students unnecessarily. Especially that of Class A." Katsuragi said it in a respectful tone. I can tell that he's trying to keep a good relationship with me because of Ryuuen.

"The guy was being an asshole, I simply settled the score with words." I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Who are you calling an assho-"

"You." I deadpanned.

"Well, I'm leaving. You can enjoy your premium 1st class view, Doggy-kun and Johnny-kun~" I moved between them and left the area. Some of the Class A students were laughing out loud at that comment.

I went to another part of the deck and noticed that the ship began to speed up and circle the island. The island was around 0.5 square kilometres, slightly smaller than our campus. The highest point was 230 metres, it wasn't the largest island, but it worked out for 160 students. The ship circled the island a couple more times, showing us a variety of locations.

"We will disembark in thirty minutes. Please assemble on the deck. All students should have changed into their jerseys. Make sure to check your designated bag and your luggage, and do not forget your cell phone. Please keep all other personal items in your room. There is a possibility that you will not be able to visit the bathroom for some time, so please do so now." The announcement came, so I decided to head to my cabin to get ready.

I'm sharing a room with Sonoda, Albert, and Ishizaki. Trust me, I let out the biggest sigh of relief when I found out that I wasn't sleeping in the same room as that guy. I changed, grabbed my luggage and phone, and went to the deck where my class is currently standing.

"I can't wait to play on the beach!" One of the girls shouted.

"Honestly, I don't want to ruin their high spirits at this point." I muttered.

"We will disembark now, beginning with the students from Class A. Cell phones are prohibited on the island. Please hand your phone to your homeroom teacher as you leave." The announcer said

Following the loudspeaker's command, the students went down the stairs in an orderly fashion. Our luggage was checked carefully as we went down, and our phones were confiscated.

"I will now start roll call for Class C. When you hear your name, please respond loud and clear."

Once all of our names were called out, the teachers began setting up a white podium on which Mashima-sensei stood.

"First, I would like to say that I'm happy you've arrived safely. However, it's unfortunate that one of you was unable to participate due to illness."

"Kuku, I almost feel bad for the loli." Ryuuen spoke out from next to me.

"Well, it looks like she won't be able to enjoy the beach." I replied sarcastically.

Mashima-sensei uttered a few cruel words, as if waiting for the atmosphere to change. "Well then. We shall commence the current academic year's first special test."

"Huh? Special test? What do you mean?"

Our summer vacation was a product of the school's goodwill, but that had been an illusion. The mood plummeted from relief to stark tension.

I suspected this to be what Nagumo called a 'special exam' since this was the final event of the first semester. He also implied that it could change our Class Points drastically.

Plus, if we have at least one special exam per semester, it gives us enough opportunities to bridge the gap between us and Class A.

"The test commences now and lasts for one week, concluding on August 7th at the year's end. This test will determine if you can live on a deserted island together as a group. In addition, I should warn you that this special test is both practical and realistic, designed based on real-world corporate training."

"Living on a deserted island, does that mean we're not staying on the boat, but the island?"
Some students from Class B and my class voiced their concerns.

"You are correct. During the test, you will not be allowed to board the ship without a suitably justifiable reason. It will be necessary for you to fend for yourselves on this island while you are here, from creating a place to sleep to preparing food to eat. Once the test starts, each class will receive two tents and two flashlights. You will be provided with one box of matches. There is no limit to the amount of sunscreen you can use. Each student will be provided with one toothbrush. As a special case, girls will be allowed to have as many feminine sanitary products as they'd like without any restrictions. Please ask your respective homeroom teachers for those. That is all."

With that, the teachers began distributing the items. Everyone in our class wasn't happy with the situation, but they were shut up by Mashima-sensei's speech.

"However, please do not worry. It would make sense for you to have complaints if you were being forced into a harsh situation. However, even though we're calling it a special test, there's no need to think about it in such unhappy terms. In the coming week, you can go swimming or hold a barbecue. It wouldn't be a bad time for you to occasionally have a campfire and chat with friends, either. The theme of this special exam is 'freedom', after all." Freedom huh?

"As a major part of this special test, we've decided to distribute 300 points to each class. By using your points well, you might be able to enjoy this week's special test just as you would a normal trip. We've also prepared a manual just for that purpose."

Mashima-sensei received a booklet that looked to be a few dozen pages thick from another teacher.

"This manual lists all of the ways you can obtain points. It also explains where to get drinking water and food, as well as other essential necessities. If you wanted to have a barbecue, it explained how to prepare the equipment and ingredients. We also have numerous tools for you to be able to enjoy playing in the ocean to the fullest."

That sounds far more promising than staying inside two tents with a class of 40 people. But I still think there's more to it than that...

"When this special test period is over, each class' remaining points will be added to their total class points. Your point totals will reflect this change once summer vacation is over."

As he spoke, a gust of wind blew across the beach and kicked up a cloud of dust. Mashima-sensei's words were the greatest shock of the day. In previous examinations, they measured things like our academic abilities. This time, however, we were tested on our physical abilities and survival skills.

It seems Class D will have to try really hard since the gap can close up by a maximum of 300 points, assuming we spend all of our points and enjoy the holiday, whilst Class D spends none.

~Timeskip~ (After rules are explained)

We were told about how points could be deducted through pollution, missing roll calls, and other things. There are also ways to increase our point usage, such as by occupying spots on the island or by guessing leaders at the end of the exam.

"Ryuuen-san, what's the plan for the test?" Ishizaki asked the question that was on a lot of people's minds. I was also curious on how he's planning to approach this.

"Plan? There's no plan, kuku. We're going to have a fucking party on the beach."

"What do you mean, Ryuuen-shi? Are you planning on skipping out on the points we could gain?" Kaneda asked incredulously.

"Not exactly; I'll just win using the additional rules."

"Oh, I think I understand what you're getting at." I interjected

"What does he mean, Yamakawa?" Ibuki didn't understand the plan Ryuuen had in mind.

"If you take a look at the additional rules on the manual, we can gain 50 points for every leader we guess and gain points for spot occupations. There's also the fact that we can't go below zero points without incurring penalties." I explained.

"Hence, if we spend all of our points today, we will not incur any negative penalties from missing roll call and retiring from the exam. We can make back at least 150 points if we guess the three other class leaders without our leader being guessed."

"150 points? That's not bad, but surely we can aim for double that."

"Kuku, Kaneda, if we gain 150 points, we can also sink the other classes in the process. Guessing leaders deducts 50 points from the guessed leader's class. We can force the other classes to take out each other."

"I see, but wouldn't it be hard to find a leader of a class?" Hiyori asked a question that was on everyone's mind.

"That's why I'm going to have Ibuki and Kaneda sent to spy on Class B and D. I'll make sure it looks like we had a fight and got you kicked out." The students mentioned wanting to object but simply couldn't in fear of Ryuuen.

An interesting strategy indeed...

Everyone headed to the beach and started discussing things to buy. Ryuuen decided to buy four walkie-talkies, two cameras, and a sunlounger. The boys and girls were thinking about buying jet skis and a volleyball net.

He then told them not to go below 200 S points for some reason; he's planning something again.

"Ryuuen, you're planning to do something else to Class A; there's no way you're the typa guy to leave the strongest class be." I questioned him while holding the manual, looking at a hammock that costs 15 S-points.

"I plan to make a nice little deal with Katsuragi." He then pulled out a piece of paper and started scribbling on it. I read the contents, and it was an idea of a contract.

"Class C will give Class A 200 S-points worth of items. In return, each student in Class A must pay Ryuuen Kakeru 20,000 private points a month." I see. That sounds like a good deal for us. We can make him sign this and then milk their private points until graduation.

"So you plan on cooperating with Johnny-kun? Or you're gonna set him up and backstab him at the end of the exam... The latter sounds more fun if I'm honest with ya." I continued to speak with a wide smirk on my face.

"Kukuku, I see, if we make them sign this and then find out their leader behind their backs..."

"We can sell out their leader to the other classes and bring their points down. Then we can guess the other class leaders using our spies, negating their point increase." I finished his sentence for him.

"Hm, it's a very good plan, but it requires a lot of skill to pull off. Class D is gonna be cautious, while Class B is gonna accept Kaneda's sad backstory with open arms." I joked

"That Suzune girl might cause our spy some problems. If I send Ibuki to Class D, it'll be more convincing knowing that she hates my leadership." Ryuuen surmised.

"In theory, we could win this exam by having you become our leader and stay on the island till the last day and having everyone else drop out. But there are loopholes in the rules. 'A leader cannot be changed once chosen without suitable justification.'"

"So you're saying they could change their leader with a suitable justification, which could make us guess wrong. You never fail to show off that brain of yours, Yamakawa."

"Kukuku... I have an idea, you're gonna stay on the island as well."

"So you want me to stay to do what?" I asked, but I already have an idea of what he's planning.

"Become the leader and occupy most of the spots for the next 6 days in broad daylight. They'll automatically have to think the leader is you since there are cameras on the spot machines. On the last day, you'll get your ass kicked by me, forcing you to retire and change leaders." I see, so he's taking advantage of the loophole. In the event of my injury, it would be classified as an emergency, rendering me incapable of occupying the base camp spot.

"That's a good plan, but I ain't planning on getting my ass kicked by the likes of you." I provoked him, only for him to smirk. "I can just find a poisonous berry and take the risk. It ain't gonna be lethal anyway; the school must have made sure of that." I explained while throwing the manual at a bored Nishino.

"That's another way of doing it, but I still wanna kick your ass for my own reasons." This fucker just wants to beat me up.

"No can do~ I'm gonna leave the spying shit to you and go get my leader card from sensei." I left towards where Sakagami-sensei stood.

"Sensei, we've chosen myself to be the leader for the exam."

"I see. Well, I expect good results from you, Yamakawa-kun."

We talked for a bit, and then a staff member came and handed me the keycard with my name on it. I then made my way to the western beach, where we agreed to be our base camp.

For the rest of the day, I just ran around the island, trying to find food locations and occupying five spots. Once night-time arrived, I went to check out the cave which I remembered seeing from the ship's deck. Yet there was an expected arrival before me; the cave had already fallen under the control of the Class A students. They covered the entrance of the cave with a large piece of cloth. It is the perfect spot due to its location, near the high-altitude tower, which would also be a good lookout spot. Had we taken the survival strategy, this was the spot I would've recommended for our base.

Feeling slightly unsatisfied, I decided to make my way to the hut in the northern part of the island. When I arrived, I noticed that this place had yet to be discovered. I was surprised to find cans of food and water bottles that I eagerly took and left. Now that I had supplies to last the day, I could relax a bit. I walked over deep inside the mysterious forest ahead and climbed up a tree. I hung my hammock on one of the branches and laid down. My gaze turned upward to behold the canvas of the night sky. a view woven with stars that whispered stories of the cosmos.

"Seriously, this is what you meant by 'Headhunting activities'?"

"What?! You don't think this makes us cool!" I said cheerfully, while flicking a coin upwards.

"We're too young to go to the casino, so why not just bet with a couple old heads and rake in some cash?"

The boy in front of me sighed. "This is certainly illegal... I must say you're smart for coming up with a plan like that."

"Hahaha! I didn't think too much of it, I just run around the district, find an old head, and milk the crap outta their expenses. The Headhunter is the king of gambling!" I said, while looking at the coin that had landed. "Tails, my luck is so good today!"

"Shin," the boy calls out to him as he finds him looking up at the night sky.

" "A man once said, 'Shoot for the stars, but if you happen to miss, shoot for the moon instead.'" Those were the words my grandma once shared with me. They resonate deeply with me. Even if I don't achieve greatness in my journey, I'm determined to etch my presence into someone's memory before I depart from this world." Shin's shift in demeanour left Shiro momentarily lost for words. The weight of his words hung in the air, his tone carrying a sombre resonance that seemed to echo in his mind.

Those certainly didn't sound like the words of an eight-year-old boy, they sounded like the words of a soul who has lived through the trials of hardship and come out on the other side.

"..." Shiro fell into a contemplative silence. He had initially dismissed this boy as foolish and an idiot. But the current conversation revealed a different side—a darkness hidden beneath the tone of his voice. The weight of Shin's experiences began to register with Shiro's own experiences in the white room.

"Oi, what are you in deep thought about, Robot-kun?" Shin picked up a ball that was lying on the side of the pathway. "Let's play soccer!"

I was awoken from my deep thought when I heard the sounds of two voices and footsteps a couple of metres away. I got off my hammock and snuck around to listen in on the conversation.

"Katsuragi's downfall is imminent, and the princess will assume leadership over the entire class."

"Kukuku, what kind of shit are you planning Hashimoto... Polluting Class A's camp and sabotaging Katsuragi." Ryuuen and Hashimoto huh?

"I'm saying I'll assist you in taking down Katsuragi in this exam, I'll give you the leader of our class."

"Don't take me for a fool. There must be a hefty price you're aiming for."

"This isn't of my free-will, the princess wanted to leave you a gift for that stunt you pulled off against Class D. Though I'd love if you saved me a seat if you graduate as Class A." He commented jokingly. So Hashimoto is willing to do anything for Class A, even betraying Sakayanagi.

"Kukuku, you think I'll pony up 20 million points just for the leader of your class? Dream on and get the fuck out of here."

"I know you possess the means. I happened to overhear your negotiations with Katsuragi. '200 S-points worth of items for 20,000 private points monthly per student' huh..." Hashimoto's retort was swift, his expression carrying a wry smile.

"Kukuku, the power of private points are far higher than you think." I was inclined to agree with Ryuuen. In this school, private points held immeasurable value. The rule that 'anything on school grounds can be bought with points' can be very exploitable in special exams and tests.

"Anyway, Class A's leader is Totsuka Yahiko, take it as you wish." He said so and left the area.

As he exited the scene, I emerged from hiding to meet with Ryuuen, noting the disarray of his appearance—muddy shoes and unkempt hair.

"I didn't know you were quite the swindler, Ryuuen."

"So you were eavesdropping, Yamakawa?"

"Haha, you guys were so loud, it would be hard not to eavesdrop." I retorted jokingly. "What's with that Hashimoto guy, playing all sides like that?"

"Beats me, he's a fucking snake, that's for sure."

We both returned to the beach and had a barbecue for the night.

The next day, I repeated the same spot occupation activities, careful enough not to get caught by other students. If I get caught out before the final few days, they could end up seeing it as a trap I set myself. I have to 'accidentally' slip up on the second last day to reduce suspicions.

Ibuki and Kaneda also got the shit kicked out of them by Ryuuen, he had no mercy beating those two up.

I've occupied 5 spots in total, which after tonight would make it 30 points earned. If this continues until the 6th day without interruption, I should be able to bank 90 points. Then, Ryuuen needs to capture these spots on the final morning to ensure we get the bonus, which would bring it up to 95 points total.

While in deep thought, I'm seated on the beach with Hiyori to my left, her gaze fixed upon the sight of the beautiful sea before us.

"You seem to be relishing the scenery," I remarked, a playful tone accompanying my words. "I was expecting you to go crazy over not having any books with you for a week." As I spoke, I scooped up a handful of sand with my right hand, letting it scatter in the air.

"Haha! I wish I could read right now, but the special exam isn't so bad. Seeing my classmates have fun makes me happy. Are you fine running around the island daily?" She inquired, a hint of anxiousness visible in her expression.

"I guess I'm fine... If you compare me to what Ibuki's going through, then it's like heaven for me." I replied with a chuckle, the memory of Ibuki's frustrated expression from the previous day playing vividly in my mind.

"Yamakawa! Wanna play volleyball with us? We need one more person." I was called over by Suzuki, someone who tends to hang out with the girls in our class. I still speak to him every now and then.

"Shin-kun, Ibuki, Kaneda, and Ryuuen-kun. The four of you will be enduring a longer stay than us. It might be tough, but give it your all!" Hiyori's cheerful words resonated, prompting a nod and a smile from me. With that, I made my way towards the beach volleyball area.

"Woah, Yamakawa, you can really play volleyball!" Ishizaki was out of breath after our mini-game.

It was a 3v3 with me, Suzuki, and Nishino against him, Albert, and Kinoshita. The score ended 10-9 for us. "That last spike was so cool, you were flying through the air!" Kinoshita said, she was exaggerating my movements with her hands. They were also very athletic students, so it wasn't an easy win...

I went around eating and talking to my friends; the afternoon went pretty smoothly until we were visited by Horikita and Ayanokoji from Class D.

Ryuuen seemed to have noticed them too and sent Ishizaki over to bring them. Intrigued by this development, I went and sat on the sunlounger next to him.

"Kukuku, look at their faces. They're fucking bewildered." I laughed alongside him while eating the steak on the side of the table.

The two of them, along with Ishizaki, reached us and Ryuuen initiated the conversation.

"I thought someone was sniffing around. It's you, huh? What business do you have with me?"

"You seem to be quite at ease here. This gathering appears to be quite lavish," Horikita observed, her words were met with a smile from Ryuuen.

"Just as you see. We're enjoying our summer vacation." I interjected.

"This is a test. Do you understand what that means? You guys don't seem to understand the rules..."

"I'm shocked. Does that mean you're offering help even to an enemy like me?" Ryuuen replied.

"If the person on top is incompetent, those below him will suffer. This is pitiful," Horikita said.

"Oh, Horikita! It's been quite a while since our last encounter, hasn't it?" I greeted her with a playful smirk, knowing well that the memories of the trial from over two months ago were likely still fresh in her mind. She flinched but recomposed herself.

"Yes, you may have crushed us back then, but look at what you guys are doing now..." she looks, once again, confused at our actions of spending most of our points.

Ryuuen simply smiled, grabbing the bottle of water placed next to the radio.

"How many points did you use? To be able to enjoy this level of entertainment, I mean," she inquired.

"Does it really matter? We've got 750 points, we don't need to work our asses off for a measly increase of 100 or 200 points. We might as well use this vacation to celebrate our position." Ryuuen replied. Essentially, we're saying that we'll spend all of our points. Horikita, however, remained uncertain about what we were doing in this exam. She kept glancing over at me sceptically, as if asking herself whether I would come up with some sort of plan.

"We're trying to warn you. You're an idiot." She said. Me and Ayanokouji were just watching this exchange at this point. I wonder whether that guy has ever had any other look on his face...

"Which one of us is the idiot? Me? You?" Ryuuen would not accept insults and threw them back at Horikita. I inwardly chuckled at his response, knowing what we were planning to do for this exam.

"Tch. Already getting warm. Hey, Ishizaki. Bring me some cold water, right away." Ryuuen said.

"Right!" Ishizaki replied, though it was in fear of Ryuuen.

Ishizaki dashed over, droplets of sweat tracing his face as he came back with a cold bottle of water. With a swift motion, he extended it to Ryuuen.

"I explicitly asked for cold water. Can't you even manage that?" Ryuuen's voice dripped with disdain, a deliberate attempt to fashion himself as a piece of shit. Ryuuen's response was as unexpected as it was harsh—the bottle was thrown back towards Ishizaki.

Reacting instinctively, my hand shot out, intercepting the water with a stroke of luck. A sense of satisfaction graced my lips as I quenched my thirst from the bottle, a smug smile curving upward on my face. It felt like a small victory in the midst of the tension, or so I thought...

In reality, Ryuuen wasn't even paying attention to my attempts at provocation; his attention was still on Horikita.

Realising that this conversation had turned into Ryuuen flirting, or essentially harassing Horikita, I decided to leave the area. What a fucking creep...

Having initially secured the spots around noon, the plan dictated that I reclaim them at 8 p.m., strategically aligned with the night-time roll call. This approach would help reduce the risk of being caught occupying the spots, considering that we do not need to attend roll call with our zero-point strategy.

Third day

This morning, everyone in the camp retired and went back to the ship, except for me and Ryuuen. We're currently in a place surrounded by bushes, marked by a cross on one of the trees. This was the meetup spot he decided on for Kaneda's espionage mission.

"It's time to set forth the rest of the plan." I say this as we see Kaneda approaching the location with a camera in his hand.

"Kukuku, this is where the real island exam begins."

( A/N For those who are confused, a simple explanation of the plan is:

- Occupy 5 spots a day without getting caught

- Shin 'Accidentally' gets caught occupying a spot on the last night, the students realise he's still on the island and guess him as leader

- He changes leader's on the last night by retiring and making Ryuuen the leader.

- Ryuuen occupies the spots in the morning and guesses the leaders.)

Island Exam Part 2 - The Execution

Ryuuen grabs the camera and walkie-talkie from Kaneda's pocket, giving me the walkie-talkie in the process.

"So Chihiro Shiranami, huh? I'll need to stay here till Katsuragi comes. Yamakawa, you'll have to leave while I make another deal with him. I'll give him Class B's and Class D's leaders to lower their points. I'll try and find out if their leader is Yahiko through his reactions." He says.

"Kuku, if I get their leader, you can try tipping Class B. That'll be their way of finding out that you're still on the island." I see. By giving Class B Class A's leader, I'll make my movements more conspicuous. They'll also have suspicions of me being Class C's leader in the process.

"Kaneda, you can go back to their camp now and retire later with them watching your movements. We don't want someone like Kanzaki to catch on that you're a spy. Good work." The fuck? This guy's praising him? He's probably exhausted from the heat, or maybe he feels bad for beating him up—no, never mind that possibility, as if he would feel bad.

"Ryuuen, leave the camera under that tree once you show him the proof. It still has some battery left right?"

"Yeah, what the fuck are you planning to do with it," I accidentally smiled mischievously.

"Yamakawa, we'll meet here on the final night to do that." He said it ever so suspiciously.

"I'm sorry to tell you, I don't swing that way–" He sent me a punch to the stomach without hesitation. "Maybe, I'll just kick your ass before those raw elderberries do."

He said that and left, by that, he meant retiring me and becoming the leader. I just wanted to have a little fun...

I continued on with my activities for 2 more days, it's now the 5th morning. I have been constantly occupying my spots, avoiding people, and sleeping on a hammock in an inconspicuous location. Right now, suspicions are probably kicking in, the other classes should have noticed that there are spots occupied by our class. I have earned 65 points so far, including this morning.

Ryuuen is hiding somewhere, waiting for Ibuki to call him up. Who knows what Class B is doing? I still have until tomorrow before I make my presence known to the other classes. I went and grabbed some corn from my backpack. I can't wait to actually eat some good food on the ship. The day continued similar to the third and fourth...

~Timeskip~ 6th day (1 p.m.)

3rd Person POV

Ichinose, Kanzaki, and Shibata are walking around the island looking for fruit when they encounter something.

"Is that a spot apparatus? We should go and get her to occupy it!" Shibata excitedly screamed, like the dense person he is. They walked up to the spot and noticed something peculiar.

Occupied by: Class C

Time remaining: 6:57:29

"Huh? C-Class C? Why would there still be a Class C student here?" Ichinose was dumbfounded. "I thought they all dropped out..."

"There's Kaneda. But we made sure that he retired yesterday, he couldn't have occupied it. I'm certain this plan was orchestrated by Ryuuen." Kanzaki deduced.

"There is still at least one Class C student on the island, and that would be their leader. This whole time they were playing the game using the additional rules..." Ichinose sighed, only just having figured out their strategy.

"The time at which they reoccupy the spot is near 8 p.m., which is the evening roll call... He must have thoroughly calculated this. Let's have someone come back here and check the spot at that time." They will lose 5 points from missing roll call, but gain 50 if they guess the leader correctly, a net gain of 45 points. They all agree and leave the scene.

Yamakawa Shin POV

It is now 7:47 p.m.; it is time to reoccupy the five spots for the very last time. I'm currently running to the third spot, which will reset in 2 minutes according to my memory. It'll take me 5 minutes to arrive there.

After 5 minutes of jogging, I made it to the spot and occupied it. There was someone nearby, so I made sure to be slightly conspicuous to gain their attention. I made some noise and left the area. It suddenly started raining heavily.

I reoccupied the final two spots and am now on my way to me and Ryuuen's meeting spot. The results are at 12 p.m. tomorrow, so as long as Ryuuen occupies these spots tomorrow morning after 4 a.m., we should be racking up 95 points from these. Guessing three leaders would make it 245 points in the best-case scenario, and 0 points if we fail to guess all of them.

Though something has been lingering in my mind, there was a faint presence once I occupied the fifth and final spot on the island. Does that spell good or bad news? I'm overthinking it. If they saw me, it would mean they'd guess me and lose 50 S-points.

I call Ryuuen on my walkie-talkie, and he responds, telling me to meet him further south from our meeting point.

Once I got to the meeting place, I noticed flashlights being lit in some sort of communicative manner. I decided to stay quiet in a corner and watch until the people appeared. Once I saw it, there were Ibuki, Ryuuen, and... Katsuragi?

They start to discuss something while holding up a key card, but I can't hear what they're saying due to the rain.

Oh, that's right, Ryuuen said he would make another deal with him, or more so, an alliance to take down classes B and D, alongside that absolute scam of a contract. Katsuragi thought he'd be saving 200 S-points. I snuck in closer to hear some of the final bits of the conversation.

"We've established negotiations, as promised. I accept your proposal." With that, Katsuragi stretched out his hand to Ryuuen, who smiled audaciously.

"That's good. You've exercised sound judgement."

"Wait, what negotiation? Would you explain?" Ibuki asked curiously.

"To form an alliance. With Class A."

"I'll be heading back now. I don't want to risk things by lingering for too long." Katsuragi returned the card to Ibuki and disappeared into the darkness. I decided to step out and greet them.

"Yo, Ryuuen, Ibuki." I waved my hand a little while walking towards them.

"Kukuku, Yamakawa is here, our strategies completely destroyed Class A." Ryuuen muttered while grinning. Ibuki widened her eyes, muttering "Class A..." ever so quietly, as if confused by his words.

"We had a plan to double-cross class A from the beginning. The alliance was specifically for guessing Class B's and Class D's leaders. So Class A's leader being guessed by two classes wouldn't break our alliance. We found out Class A's leader, and we'll guess him." I explained, Ibuki was in shock.

"What do you mean two classes?" Ibuki asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Kukuku, I'm also curious, but we've gotta finish the job first."

"I'll explain that part once the exam is done." I replied.

"Ibuki, return the keycard and retire now. Good work." Ryuuen commanded, causing Ibuki to grit her teeth and turn towards Horikita's location.

"Urghh, it took me so long to get that card, I had to fight her, and I ended up knocking her out. She seemed sick the whole time as well, so I felt kind of bad." Ibuki looked away from us as she spoke.

Both me and Ryuuen reacted to the fact that Horikita had been sick and knocked unconscious. This could mean...

Ibuki left the scene, and we waited for her to wipe the fingerprints off and give the card back.

"Good work, Ibuki, you can return to the ship now." Ryuuen said.

The rain was still pouring ever so loudly, and I stood underneath the tree, trying to get some shelter.

"You know what it means, right? Horikita being unconscious." He asked me.

"Retirement, causing a forced change of their leader, is one possibility. We shouldn't risk guessing Class D's leader." I replied.

"Class D would lose 30 points from this, but we should still theoretically win this exam even without guessing their leaders." He said this, wiping the mud off of his tracksuit top.

"It's time to put forth the final stage of the plan," I said while picking out poisonous berries from my bag. "If I eat one or two of these, I should start vomiting and feeling nauseous in a couple of hours. I also picked out a piece of paper with five areas marked on a drawing of the island.

"Make sure you occupy the 5 spots on this map here, you can go at around 4:15. No one should be around at that time. You'll have to attend the 8 a.m. roll call to guess the leaders, and the results will be at 12 p.m."

"I fuckin' get it, I won't get caught. Hurry and eat that shit so I can drag you back to Sakagami-sensei." He sneered.

I ate the berries and walked over to the trees near the teachers area, waiting to fall sick. Once I fell sick and drowsy, Ryuuen came over and forcefully dragged me to the staff tent. The last thing I heard before fully passing out was, "You'll need a new leader for the rest of the exam."

~Timeskip~ (Day of results)

I woke up in my cabin. I guess I was carried here after being taken care of. I looked at the alarm clock next to me. it is almost 12 p.m., the time for the results to come out. I got up off of my recovery bed and ran down to the front of the deck, looking over the railing. It was quite easy to see everyone from up here, the Class D and Class B students had already arrived.

Class A students finally arrived, and Mashima-sensei was about to announce the results, until...

"Wait for me, ya bastards!" Ryuuen emerged in the most dramatic fashion, classes B and D were equally shocked by his arrival. Even though he was smiling, he looked half-beaten. Was it because of his living conditions or the fact that something unexpected occurred?

"Wait, Ryuuen? Why's he here?!" Sudou growled.

"Oh, hey there, sycophants. What happened to Suzune?" Ryuuen said as he drew closer, a paper cup in hand, completely ignoring Hirata's presence.

After Sudou heard the name "Suzune" cross Ryuuen's lips, the veins in his head bulged, and he shot Ryuuen a glare.

"I know you've been chasing Suzune's ass. We were together before,you know." Ryuuen, having drained the contents of his paper cup,lightly crushed it and threw it at my feet. This guy does not care about shit.

"Horikita-san retired yesterday. She's not here." Hirata replied.

"Retired? Suzune? She doesn't seem like that kind of girl." This guy is a perfect actor, give him an Oscar. I swear I'd believe him if I hadn't talked about it with him yesterday.

Ayanokouji POV

Just then, we heard the click of a megaphone being turned on. Mashima-sensei appeared on the beach. The first-year students hurriedly tried to form a line, but Mashima-sensei waved his hands at them to stop.

"It's fine. We don't mind if you want to keep relaxing. The test has already concluded. Now we've entered the summer vacation part of the trip, so it's alright if you loosen up." Even though he'd said that, tensions were naturally running high among the students. They all stopped their chatter in an instant.

"Over this past week, we, your teachers, have closely watched your efforts in this special test. There were some students who took on the challenge honestly and head-on. There were some who devised schemes to tackle the test. Many things have happened, but overall,the test results were splendid. Good work."

The students appeared relieved to receive such straightforward praise from Mashima-sensei. It seemed like everyone was finally starting to believe the one-week test was really over.

"Well then, to get straight to the point, I would like to announce the results of the special test."

"We will not accept any questions regarding the results, no exceptions. We would like you to accept the results you have been given, analyse them, and use them to prepare for the next test. It is what it is. Don't wet yourselves over these results. You must accept reality, you know?"

"That's what we should be saying to you Class C people. You used up all of your points, right? Don't make us laugh." Sudou poked fun at Class C's reckless behavior.

"We have 125 points remaining. I think we'll be quite fine," Hirata said so proudly, probably irritated by Ryuuen's provocation.

Ryuuen responded by making a gesture that looked like he was vomiting. "Ha. I'm jealous of the nerve of you small fry. How can you be satisfied with that amount of points...?"

"It doesn't really matter whatever you say; Class C is still going to stay at zero points."

"Heh heh heh. Don't be hasty. It's certainly true that we used up 300 points. However, have you forgotten the additional rules of this test?"

"So you're going to expose a class leader?"

"That's right. I wrote it on the paper, didn't I? The name of Class D's leader is Suzune, right?" Sudou was completely shocked, while I and Hirata tried not to show any emotion.

"Also, those guys in A and B wrote the same thing, too. Do you know what this means?" Ryuuen said.

"Hold on a minute. What are you talking about, huh?! I-If you're telling the truth, then..."

Then Class D would be hit with penalties, and we would lose 150 points. Mashima-sensei's voice sounded through the megaphone.

"Now, we will announce the rankings. The lowest class is Class A,with 70 points."

"What is the meaning of this, Katsuragi?" Katsuragi was dumbfounded, and I slightly widened my eyes upon hearing that number.

"In third place is Class B with 135 points. Coming in second place is Class C, with 157 points." The other classes were shocked by this outcome, realising that classes C and D finished as the top 2.

A commotion broke out. No one had expected the rankings or the point totals. "And then, Class D..." For an instant, Mashima-sensei's movements stiffened. However, he soon resumed speaking.

"...has come in first with 177 points. This concludes the announcement." All of the students in Class D, save Hirata, were probably more confused than anyone else. Even Hirata, who was the only one in the know, was still almost unable to believe it. He wore an exuberant smile.

"What's the meaning of this, Katsuragi? Voices saying such things echoed from one end of the rest area to the other. Class A students circled around Katsuragi.

"Something is strange... What does this mean?" he muttered.

"Yahoo! We did it! In your face!" As Sudou shouted for joy, all of the Class D students gathered together.

"Hey, hey, hey, what's going on?! Hey, hey!!" Ike, filled with both excitement and confusion, asked Hirata for an explanation.

"I'll explain everything. Well, Ryuuen-kun, if you'll excuse us." Ryuuen looked slightly frustrated for some reason, as if he was expecting to earn more points.

The exam was over, and the first-year students scattered. The ship was going to depart in two hours, and although we were free to play in the sea, we were also free to go onto the ship. I walked aboard.

As I saw many students crowding Horikita, I stared out into the vast sea laying before my eyes, deep in thought.

Although I had to make a few major adjustments yesterday night...

I still won, and that's all that matters.

A/N: The exam results for all classes will be explained next chapter :)

Island Exam Part 3 - Winners and Losers

Yamakawa Shin POV

W-what on earth happened?

The points I calculated amounted to 195 even without guessing Class D's leader.

We finished with 157...

In short, we guessed the leaders of classes A and B correctly.

We chose to avoid guessing Class D's leader due to Horikita's sick and unconscious state being revealed to us.

100 bonus points from guessing the leaders, but only 57 points from spot occupation. Each spot gave us 19 points (3 points everyday for the first 6 days, and once on the morning of the final day).

This would mean we only had 3 spots secured out of 5...

( A/N: I made my own little rule, where you lose your accumulated spot points if you don't keep your spot until the final announcement)

Did Ryuuen make a blunder? No, I'm pushing excuses out to other people. When I sensed that faint presence while I was occupying the final spot, I thought none of it and decided to run off.

I thought if they guessed our leader they'd be punished with a 50 point deduction. My thinking was too one-dimensional, I underestimated my opponent.

To think they'd be able to play with the additional rules so easily. While Ryuuen had the map of the spots, and is extremely capable physically, this person outmanoeuvred him and took 2 of our spots. Their odd number of 177 points confirms that.

I need to talk to Ryuuen about the exam as soon as possible. I called him up and told him to meet me in the karaoke. I also invited Ibuki, Hiyori and Kaneda.

Whilst in thought, a smile appeared on my face, it was one of excitement. I want to challenge this crazy person until I can see myself defeating them.

"Shouldn't we be celebrating?! We got 157 points starting from zero!" Hiyori cheered whilst grabbing a drink. This honestly lightened my mood up a bit. I grabbed a can of soda and drank it.

"Our results were great, I'm sure that's what everyone else in the year sees. It's just... Class D pulled one over us." I replied, slightly dissatisfied.

"Yamakawa, the shit I saw this mornin'. You probably already know this, two of our five spots got taken, and they were both taken by Class D's leader." Ryuuen growled, gripping his can of drink with slight force.

"You mean Horikita took our spots? Impossible. She was in an awful state last night." Ibuki remarked, I understand why she would think that.

"No, they used the same loophole as us. This person in class D changed the leader from Suzune to someone else, since Suzune was sick and unconscious. When you told us about her, we decided not to guess Class D's leader. I can't say the same for class A. They guessed Suzune and lost points, kukuku." Ryuuen replied.

"I'm 90% sure the person who occupied the spots is the same person who changed their leader. Plus this guy is a fucking monster, he managed to get to 2 spots before Ryuuen, who had a map and the spot times with him." I stated.

"W-What? In the dark times of the early morning too?" I nodded, slowly spinning the soda in my hand.

"Class D's mastermind, I can't wait to crush them." Ryuuen says with a creepy smile on his face.

"Anyway, Yamakawa you got some explaining to do. The fuck did you do with Kaneda's camera?" I finished up my drink and turned in his direction.

"Once I reached the 5th day, I went to the camera's location. I picked it up, and walked around the area of Class A's camp. I found Yahiko and Katsuragi walking, then saw them going to the tower to reoccupy it." I took a deep breath, and continued.

"At that point, they made a blunder and came out of the tower with the keycard out. I zoomed in with the camera and took a low quality photo of the keycard, which showed his name on it. It was a stroke of luck. This was also the confirmation I needed for what Hashimoto told us." Indeed, Katsuragi didn't trust anyone in his class, and that was his biggest mistake...

"The next day, I was near Class B's camp. I noticed Shibata nearby so I lured him over to where my closest spot was, and scanned it while pretending to be sneaky. After scanning it, I left the camera on top of the apparatus with the screen showing a picture of Yahiko's keycard. Everything went to my plan for that part. They used the picture and guessed Class A's leader, and they also failed to guess our leader correctly." I finished my explanation, looking at their bewildered faces.

"Incredible, Yamakawa-shi!" Kaneda was the first to respond.

"Kukuku, you sure have it out for that bald guy. To think you'd crush him so badly. That buddy-buddy Class B was completely duped by your little trick."

"I was planning to make Class A guess me as their leader, but that wouldn't be true to your negotiations. I'm still happy with lowering Class A's points." I said

"For someone in class D to see through your plan, who is this person?" Kaneda asked.

"There's a hidden genius in Class D." Hiyori said while posing as if she's in deep thought.

A few moments later we walked out onto the top of the ship, on the way to meet our class to celebrate. Me and Ryuuen were walking behind the other three.

"Don't get in my way, Ryuuen." I said, it felt like my eyes were glowing in excitement.

"Huh?" He responded in confusion.

"I'm going to crush this mastermind by myself."

Ichinose POV

The island exam results were unexpected, Class A finished with only 70 points. Class D managed to get first place by saving 177 points. We in Class B did well and finished with 135.

The most shocking result was Class C, who finished with 156 points despite having nearly everybody drop out. Ryuuen staying on the island was surprising, and Shibata-kun found Yamakawa-kun occupying a spot on the 6th night.

I wonder why he retired before the results. Why did he leave us the name of Class A's leader? Was he repaying us for helping Kaneda-kun?

No, we ended up playing into his hands, I realised it. He made us bring down Class A's points, and then negated our 50 points earned by making us incorrectly guess him as Class C's leader.

All this time, he was planning to bring down Class A, and negate our winnings simultaneously.

Unbelievable...

At any rate, we need to close the gap between us and Class C. Me and my classmates will work together and win!

3rd Person POV

Many class A students gathered around a certain student, questioning his leadership during the exam.

"How in earth did you finish with 70 points Katsuragi?!" A man named Matoba Shinji asked him.

'What on earth happened?'

'Our leader was guessed?'

'We guessed wrong?'

'Did someone sell our leader out?'

Such were the thoughts of Class A's Katsuragi Kohei right now.

"Hahaha!" A loud laughter came from a boy, who styled his blonde hair with a ponytail, walking towards what's left of the Katsuragi faction.

"Johnny, you completely failed, good luck explaining that to the whole class." He smirked as he said those words.

"Hashimoto! watch your mouth you–" Yahiko felt defensive, and wanted to confront him.

"Yahiko. He's right, I'll just have to redeem myself next time." Such was the response from Katsuragi. He tried to remain calm but the numbers kept lingering over his head.

Ayanokouji POV

"Is it safe to say that for the time being, you're satisfied?" I asked. Looking in Chabashira-sensei's direction.

"Yes. First, I'd like to say that you did wonderfully. Although the gap hasn't changed much, you pulled one over everyone on the island and proved your superiority. Splendid."

"Well, tell me something. Is it really true? Did he demand I be expelled from this school?"

Chabashira-sensei leaned against the railing and looked toward the sky.

"Do you have any basis for saying that the story is true?"

"I know quite a lot about you. Might not that be the reason, more than anything else? Other teachers don't know about your true abilities. But I have no doubts."

I certainly had my doubts. It was true that I stood out because of the entrance examination, but it shouldn't have been something all the teachers had inside knowledge of.

But still, the sequence of events was rather odd. Chabashira-sensei had said that man had contacted the school directly. As expected, this person was hiding something.

Later that night, I was forced to meet up with Horikita, we sat at a bar, ordering mock tails.

"What do these test results mean? What in the world happened?" Her concerns were understandable, the results reflected the class rankings flipped upside down.

"You look like you don't have any idea at all."

"I just can't imagine it. I don't understand it at all. I have a mountain of questions."

Horikita ordered a drink from an attendant. I started talking.

"I'll tell you everything. However, my one condition is that you stay quiet on this." She nodded.

"What were you doing during the test? Tell me," she said.
That was a much better question than I'd expected. She wanted to hear everything at once.

"When the special test was announced, I didn't focus on anything except for the additional rules. I roughly understood how to manage the 300 points, but you couldn't manipulate them as an individual."

"But the additional rules were really difficult to understand. If you did things normally, you wouldn't have been able to identify the leaders. Right?"

"Yeah. First of all, I volunteered to join the search for the base camp. Able to move freely, I planned to search out spot locations ahead of everyone else."

"Then, I reached the cave. I thought it was the most important base."

"The cave was the most important base? Don't you think that the river and the well would have been more convenient, though?"

"The spot itself wasn't what was important. Its location was."

"You make it sound simple, but no one should have known the spot locations."

"That's not true. You didn't understand because you were ill and holed up inside the ship, but the school already gave us hints about the locations when we were sailing around the island. Both Katsuragi and Yamakawa noticed this. The cave was the most important base." Yamakawa would have chosen that spot too, if he and Ryuuen hadn't intended to use a zero-point strategy.

"The cave was the most important base? Don't you think that the river and the well would have been more convenient, though?"

Mini timeskip (after explaining how he guessed Class A's leader)

"That's why I excluded Class A at that stage, and turned my attention toward Class C. Katsuragi was easy to understand, but with Ryuuen, there were many unknown variables. To tell you the truth, he was gathering more information than I was. He'd found out the identities of all of the leaders."

"W-wait, he found out the identities of all of the leaders... So not only Class D, but also the leaders for Classes B and A? But that's strange. We were far from being penalized; we ended up getting first place at the end. How do you intend to explain that?"

"This is a little difficult to explain, but the reason I made you retire is the answer."

"Wait, the answer is you made me retire? What in the world did you do?"

"Oh, that reminds me. I didn't return it to the school yet."

I took a single card out of my pocket and handed it over to Horikita.

"This is a keycard. Why do you...?!"

Horikita was astonished when she saw the letters engraved on the card.

"Wait, why does...?"

The name read "Ayanokouji Kiyotaka."

"What do you think would happen if the leader retired because of poor health?"

"That's... The leader would be absent. So the rights of exclusive possession would disappear..."

"Wrong. In the manual, it says, 'It is impossible to change the leader without suitable justification.' Don't you think that retirement is suitable enough justification?"

"So then, you made me...?"

Horikita Suzune had retired, and I was appointed in her place. Of course, that meant that I was the leader they were supposed to guess at the end of the test. There can only be one.

"That's why even though Class C knew you were the leader, we avoided penalties."

"But I have to wonder why Ibuki-san specifically stole my keycard. All she needed was to check my name."

"That was likely Ibuki's intention from the start. However, she ran into unexpected trouble."
That was the catalyst that led to verifying the leader of Class C.

"Ibuki had a digital camera in her bag to take a picture of the keycard."

"To take a picture...with the camera? Why would she go so far?"

"If she had a picture, then the leader's identity would have been clear for anyone to see, right? If she had convincing evidence, she would have profited."

"I don't quite understand... Did Ryuuen-kun not trust Ibuki-san?"

"That wasn't it. If the discussion only stayed within Class C, then there shouldn't have been any need for her to take a picture with the camera or steal the card."

"From here on out, I don't have any evidence of what I'm saying. Think of it as my intuition, which I derived from the test results. At the end of the test, Class A had 270 points." In other words, they hadn't used a single point during the test.

"Classes A and C were connected, working together behind the scenes. Class C sacrificed their own points and bought whatever Class A needed. Also, by taking all of C's tools, Class A was able to spend the week without using any points."

"By the way, I became suspicious of Class C's leader after most of the students retired. It was certain that the leader would have remained on the island, right?"

"Even so, we weren't supposed to know who was left."

"No, there was at least Ryuuen left on the island for certain."

"H-how did you figure that out?"

"I figured it out when I saw Ibuki hiding a wireless transceiver in the ground. Ibuki had used it to stay in contact with Ryuuen. Retired students shouldn't have been able to use a transceiver. In other words, someone was left on the island for her to communicate with."

"He'd casually set the transceiver on top of a table while enjoying his vacation. No one else was controlling it, just him. His mistake was that he didn't trust anyone."

"So that meant Ryuuen-kun was the leader?"

"No, on the 6th night, I found another Class C student occupying spots on the island."

"What? Another Class C student survived on the island?" Horikita was shocked, even I wasn't expecting a complex strategy from them.

"When I made you retire and change leaders, I ran back to our camp through a pathway. The rain was loud but somebody was making conspicuous movements. I decided to trail them, and it was Yamakawa. He was occupying spots around the island until the last day."

"So their leader was Yamakawa-kun? But Ryuuen-kun was the only one left on the island when the test concluded. Does that mean...?"

"Yes, they figured out the same loophole that I had." I said while pointing to the keycard on the table.

"Yamakawa's intentions were to occupy all the spots, and move conspicuously on the 6th day in order to force other classes to guess wrong."

His mistake was that he underestimated me, and thought that I would guess him as the leader. He didn't seem to overdo it, he was likely trying to target both Class B and Class D's points with that method. He managed to trick Class B, since they were left with 135 points. Implying that they had guessed Yahiko and failed to guess Ryuuen.

"Once I realised his plan, I changed my strategy for the morning. There was another rule you overlooked, Horikita."

"Another rule? To do with the spots?"

"Yes, it stated that there were two ways to negate bonus points from spots. The first way is if your leader is guessed, you lose all of your spot points."

"The second?"

"You have to maintain that spot from the time it was occupied until the end of the exam. I made a mental note of the spot Yamakawa scanned. Then, I woke up at 3 a.m., around an hour before the spot resets, in order to search the island for class C's spots. I wanted to remove as many of their bonus points as possible. In the end, I managed to take 2 of their spots in time. This is why we ended with 177 points instead of 175."

"You did all that?? Unbelievable..." she muttered in shock.

"Wait, if you knew Ryuuen-kun was the leader, why didn't you guess him? We ended up with 177 because you only guessed Class A's leader right?" She asked a question I was expecting.

"There was no way of me knowing whether Ibuki stayed on the island. Had Ibuki been the new leader, we'd have lost 50 points, it was a 25/75 choice between her and Ryuuen. It would certainly be a gamble to guess one or the other. I'd already dealt damage through stealing their spots, so I left it at that."

"My god... I don't even have the words," Horikita answered, facing the truth.

If I were to summarize this test, I'd say that Class A's first mistake carried through to the end. They didn't function well due to an internal rift. Class B went through the test with a thoroughly defense-oriented strategy, which did neither harm nor good. Their only mistake was that, because there were so many good-natured people in Class B, they'd permitted Kaneda to stay, and they'd believed him.

I don't know how Kaneda got the evidence, but he'd obtained something, and probably told Ryuuen.

If you looked at the fact that Class A lost many points, you might think it was because they hadn't obtained any physical evidence, but it was due to being guessed by all three classes. Alongside that, they had lost another 50 points which I can't analyse without some information.

Then there was Class C. We were able to avoid damage because I'd been appointed as the leader. Class C must've manipulated Class A into guessing Horikita as the leader. They knew of the loophole, and Horikita's sickness was apparent. They avoided guessing Horikita as our leader, which was their reason for success.

In addition to sending people off as spies to find out the identities of the other leaders, Class C had profited from some kind of negotiations with Class A.

Then there was the oddity that was Yamakawa, he was able to traverse and hide in the island without a trace for 6 days. He must also have made alterations to Ryuuen's plan in order to increase its success rate.

Class C is definitely our number one enemy.

Calculations:
- Class A (70 points)

(All bonus points from spots negated)

- 300 - 30 (Sakayanagi not participating) = 270

- 270 50 (guessed class B's leader correctly) = 320

- 320 - 50 (failed to guess Class D's leader) = 270

- 270-50 (Hashimoto's spot misuse (pollution)) = 220

- 220-100 (guessed by class C and class D) = 120

- 120-50 (guessed by class B) = 70 total

- Class B (135 points)

(All bonus points from spots negated)

300 - 60 (Supplies bought) = 240

240 50 (Correctly guessed Class A's leader) = 290

290 - 100 (Leader guessed by Class A and C) = 190

190 - 50 (Failed to guess class C's leader) = 140

140 - 5 (Shibata missing roll call) = 135

- Class C (157 points)

300 - 100 (Supplies for camping) = 200

200 - 200 (Supplies for Class A) = 0

0 - 1080 ( 36 students retiring) = 0 (No negative points rule)

0 100 (Correctly guessed Class A and B leaders) = 100

100 57 (Occupied 3 spots from the start till end of exam) = 157

- Class D (177 Points)

300 - 30 (Koenji's retirement) = 270

270 19 (Spot occupation) = 289

289 - 124 (Supplies bought) = 165

165 - 10 (Ayanokouji and Horikita missing roll call) = 155

155- 30 (Horikita's retirement) = 125

125 50 (Guessing Class A's leader correctly) = 175

175 2 (Two spots occupied at the end by Ayanokouji) = 177

Zodiac Exam Part 1 - The Beginning

Yamakawa Shin POV

It has been 3 days since since the island exam ended. Most of my time was spent in the gym with Albert or in the pool with groups. Of course, I'd set up a party for the end of the week due to our Class Points total.

Class Points:
Class A - 1065 CP
Class B - 826 CP
Class C - 889 CP
Class D - 175 CP

The gap between us and Class B seems to have widened a little bit more, but it seems our deductions from behaviour in class were the highest since last time. We're still on the verge of becoming Class B next month.

I'm currently in the arcade with Ishizaki and Albert, playing darts against Ishizaki.

"Ah dammit, I missed the 20 again!" I groaned.

"Yamakawa-san, I didn't expect you to suck at darts." Albert laughed a little at Ishizaki's comment.

"It's my first time playing, let me rest." I replied while rolling my eyes comedically. We played until the end and...

"Hahaha you got demolished! You still have 121 points left." Ishizaki celebrated his flawless victory over me.

"I was hitting double 20's near the end."

"Sure, sure, keep yammering, Yamakawa-san. Wanna get lunch with the other boys?"

"Ishizaki, one more game! Or are you running away after a single lucky win?" I taunted, igniting a challenge.

"Lucky win? If you lose this time, you better admit I'm better than you in front of the whole class," Ishizaki countered.

"Deal."

"Hahaha! what was that about admitting you're better than me?!" I ended up winning a close game against him. All he needed was a triple 7, yet he missed by a few millimetres.

"Arghh I was so close, how on earth did you hit those back to back triple 20s? I thought you sucked!" Ishizaki's cries accompanied our departure from the arcade.

"Well, truth be told, I did start off pretty shit. But practice makes perfect," I shrugged nonchalantly, sticking a lollipop inside my mouth.

"Were you not taking it seriously before? It's not humanly possible to improve that fuckin' quick!" Ishizaki grumbled.

"Hmm? Albert, enlighten him." I said to him in English, appreciating how talking to Albert has significantly developed my English speaking skills.

"Bro is a fast learner!" Albert stated in English, with the "bro" nickname he gave me.

"Thanks, Albert. Although, let's be honest, Ishizaki was trash anyways."

"Hey, could you stick to Japanese when you're talking about me?"

"I said Ishizaki was trash anyway so it wasn't hard to beat him." I repeated those words in a robotic voice.

"Hey! Your words cut deep–" Ishizaki's mock hurt added a touch of humor to the moment.

BZZZZZT

All of our phone notification sounds played simultaneously. I opened up my phone and found an email from the school.

"A special test will begin soon. Place gather in the designated room at the designated time. Anyone who arrives later than ten minutes after start time may be penalized. Please gather in Room 201 on the second deck by 18:45 today. Because it takes about twenty minutes to reach the area, we ask that you please use the restrooms now if necessary. Either silence your phone or turn it off, and make your way over."

"What is this about..." I muttered.

"Did you guys receive the same message?" Ishizaki displayed his phone, the content identical save for room and time. "Yours says Room 207 at 20:00? Mine's Room 201 at 18:45. Albert, show us yours."

"We all got different times?" Ishizaki asked confused, seeing Albert's email telling him to convene in Room 203 at 20:20.

"I thought this would be to explain another special exam, but why are they separating us?" I asked that question to no one in particular.

"Look at the Class C chat. Everyone's got a range of different times..."

"Looks like your with Hiyori, Albert." I said to which he nodded with a thumbs up.

"Lucky you. I'm stuck with Tokito and Nomura – I barely know 'em," I commented while scrolling through the group chat.

"At least I'm with Kondo!" Ishizaki's restrained fist pump hinted at his satisfaction.

"Ryuuen's one's at 20:40." Once more, my luck spares me from that piece of shit!

"Whatever, I've got to dash back to my room for a quick stop. My meeting starts in 30 minutes."

~Timeskip~ (Rules explained)

Following a brief overview from Chabashira-sensei regarding the exam, a sheet of paper was unveiled upon the table. "Here's your designated group for the upcoming exam. You will all be part of the 'Cow' group this time."

Cow Group:

Class A: Sawada Yasumi, Shimizu Naoki, Nishi Haruka, Yoshida Kenta

Class B: Kobashi Yume, Ninomiya Yui, Watanabe Norihito

Class C: Tokitō Hiroya, Nomura Yūji, Yamakawa Shin

Class D: Ike Kanji, Sakura Airi, Sudou Ken, Matsushita Chiaki

Who the hell are these guys? The only name I recognise here is Sudou, and that's probably the last name I'd wanna be in a group with. Looks like my luck ran out.

The additional rules were explained and it was similar to werewolf, except there is 1 VIP and the rest of the members in the group are potential traitors. You can betray for Class Points and take the risk, or cooperate and gain Private Points.

I got out after understanding the rest of the talk about the exam and waited for other group names. A leisurely stroll around the ship sounded like a good way to spend my time.

3rd Person POV

Inside a restaurant

Kanzaki and Ichinose are sat discussing the rules of the exam they were given. "Ichinose-san, look at this," Kanzaki spoke, sliding a piece of paper across the table towards her. The contents revealed the members constituting his group – the Dragon group.

"Kanzaki-kun, Ryuuen-kun, Katsuragi-kun, Horikita-san, and Hirata-kun... there are many big figures in this group. Don't you think that's deliberate?" He mused aloud

"Yeah... there's no way that 12 groups can be randomised only to find most of the leaders in one group. But shouldn't you be placed here?"

"There's a chance that they placed just one representative here, and that representative is you. It might all be a coincidence, after all, hahaha~"

"Besides you in the Rabbit group... there's also this other peculiar group placement," Kanzaki places another piece of paper – this one containing the Cow group's members, which was written by Watanabe.

" He's in this group, we should definitely keep a watchful eye on his actions." Kanzaki stated, his eyes narrowed on a name on the paper.

"Kanzaki-kun, I agree that we should be careful but don't you think that's too far?"

"Not to be rude, he's placed in one of the weakest groups, finding a VIP for the guy that tricked us in the island exam would be child's play." Kanzaki surmised, after what happened at the island he's decided to be more vigilant. He can't prove that Yamakawa had a hand in that exam but he seems to be wary of him.

"Alright then, I have a suggestion. But, let's wait until tomorrow morning to discover the VIPs in our class first~" Ichinose replied ever so brightly.

Yamakawa Shin POV

I woke up to a buzzing sound on my phone, it seems like everyone who stays in this room is out right now, probably stressed about the exam. I got up and took 30 minutes to get ready to leave, I had to meet with Ryuuen and Ibuki at 8 a.m.

"After thorough consideration, you have not been chosen to be the VIP. Please remember to be a team player as your group tackles the challenges of this test. The exam begins today, and will be held over a period of three days. Members of the Cow group should gather in the Cow room located on the second deck."

I haven't been chosen as the VIP huh? I checked with Tokito and Nomura, they both don't seem to be the VIP either. I opened up the Class C group chat and it was flooded with messages.

Hiyori is the VIP of the Sheep group it seems... she has the ability to get through it. I found Ryuuen and Ibuki on the window table in the café, Ibuki being moody as usual.

"Morning, how nice of you to order me a drink in advance" I said, knowing full well I'd not get a normal reply.

"Sit the fuck down already. We need to talk about the groups." Ryuuen said ever so casually, kicking the chair towards me.

"Our VIPs are in the Sheep, Snake and Tiger groups."

"We should aim for outcome 1 on those groups. We'd end up with 4 to 5 million points from those groups alone." Ibuki surprisingly said something smart.

"I agree with Ibuki, outcome 1 is far better than outcome 2 or 4 for our private point pool." I added.

"If only it was that fuckin' easy, if they catch our VIP out we're fucked. Hiyori's the only VIP I expect to hide themselves well. Outcome 1 on the Sheep group and Outcome 2 on the other groups is less risky." Ryuuen logically retorted. If we aim for Outcome 1 on the other two groups, we'll risk the VIP getting exposed, we're better off keeping them quiet.

"There's a method for the VIP selection, once I figure that shit out I'm gonna aim for Class B's groups." Ryuuen figured that out too...

"We'll probably be on our own for this exam anyway, making an alliance with classes A and D won't work out after what we pulled these last few months. Well it's kinda my fault hahaha!" I responded, ending it with laughter.

"I've got a little rat in Class D, they came to me yesterday and sold themselves out. I'll be able to get one VIP out of them." Just as I thought, this guy has been scheming already.

"That's nice, with 4 VIP's, we can start to figure out the selection pattern." I tapped the table a couple of times.

"You're in a group with Kanzaki right?" I asked, looking at Ryuuen who's deep in thought.

"Yea, Ichinose's dog is in my group, what are you getting at?"

"Perfect, now our main goal should be—"

I then proceeded to explain the plan I had in mind.

"..." They both stared at me with widened eyes.

"KUKUKU!" Ryuuen let out a loud laughter, we're lucky we are sat in a secluded part of the café.

"That's..." I could tell that Ibuki wasn't expecting this in the slightest.

"I was thinking of us becoming Class A after the exam, but you're aiming for that instead? Kukuku."

"This is probably the most fun result hahaha!"

"Urgh, why am I still here? You guys are the 'brains' of Class C. You don't need me here anymore." Ibuki said, irritated by our 'crazy' ideas.

"It hasn't even been ten minutes since we began... seems you're quite the tsundere~" she glared at me and threw a kick towards my head, which I blocked with my right arm.

"Ibuki. I need you to report everything that happens in your group. Don't underestimate Ichinose, she's probably thought up some strategies already." Ryuuen responded, sipping his coffee.

"Fine... whatever." Ibuki huffed and left the scene.

"Shall we go pay a visit to those two over there?" I suggested, pointing to a nearby table for two.

I was keen on gathering more information about the enigmatic mastermind of Class D, a matter that had been occupying my thoughts lately.

"Kukuku, I was thinking the same thing." We rose from our seats and made our way over to them.

Ayanokouji POV

"Nice weather, eh, Suzune?" Our conversation was interrupted by Ryuuen, with Yamakawa next to him.

"Ohh~ it seems we're interrupting a date Ryuuen. If that's the case the–" Before Yamakawa could finish his statement, he gets cut off by Horikita.

"Don't be absurd." Horikita glared at Yamakawa, who held his hands up in apology.

"Also, I've warned you not to call me by my first name, Ryuuen-kun. It seems your lackey has more respect than you do."

"Oi. That's real mean y'know! I'll have you know I'm the smarter one."

Ryuuen decided to cut the light-hearted atmosphere off. "You should have received the message already. What were the results? Were you chosen as the VIP?"

"As if I would tell you. Perhaps you'd like to tell us about your message?" Horikita responded.

"If you wish." Ryuuen and Yamakawa sat on the two vacant seats. "But before that, I want to ask you something. How did you manage to get first place on the island exam?"

Yamakawa narrowed his eyes hearing this, looking at horikita with a calculative gaze.

"I have nothing to tell you," Horikita calmly responded.

"Yesterday, it seemed Katsuragi was rather cautious of you."

"Well, that's understandable. He couldn't have guessed that someone from Class D would pull a win like that. Isn't that why you and Yamakawa-kun are here? You came to check on me, am I wrong?" asked Horikita.

"Heh. Well, I won't lie and say that I didn't come here to measure your abilities."

"Of course." Horikita responded whilst calmly sipping her coffee.

"I'm remembering the test on the island, Ibuki's report on your movements, the mysterious spot occupation. Even if someone was being used on that last day, there was no way a serious-minded girl like you would have come up with the plan." reasoned Ryuuen.

"Think whatever you like. Though I wonder, how would you even know the details of our point expenditure and gains? Those details are supposed to be private-"

"Hai hai, we know you changed leaders like we did... let's get to the nitty-gritty already." Yamakawa interrupted and yawned slightly.

"Who was it that came up with the plan, puppet-leader Horikita Suzune?" Yamakawa was completely unconvinced of the idea that Horikita masterminded the strategy.

Horikita clearly didn't budge at his interrogation attempts. He looked at me for a while before looking back at Horikita, trying to observe my reactions.

"I'm afraid I can't understand you. I have no close friends. The closest I have would be Ayanokouji-kun here, and he's always dragging me down. I'd be hard-pressed to say that he's working with me. Sad, but true," answered Horikita.

"However, if we did change leaders, he wouldn't be the most likely candidate."

"I see." Ryuuen glanced at me, but quickly looked away. "Well, I suppose that's expected of a clingy tag-along." He added

"So that's how it is... I got a message for them, tell them I'll bring them out of the shadows by force if they don't come to me first." Yamakawa smiled and left the scene, leaving Ryuuen with us two.

"So now you understand. Though I wonder what basis you two had for your hypothesis," said Horikita.

"That guy with you is considerably smart. Despite that, he hasn't achieved anything significant, or gotten high grades. He has some excellent qualities, though I have my doubts," said Ryuuen, whilst pointing at me.

"You've investigated Class D rather thoroughly, it seems. Ayanokouji-kun, we've been putting you down mercilessly. Aren't you going to defend yourself?" asked Horikita.

"I would if I had anything to defend," I responded. My lazy façade had become the perfect counterattack. I'm not exactly sure how he figured that out, but Ryuuen appeared to understand me.

"I'll be crushing them before he does, that's all." He said and left, by he, he probably meant Yamakawa.

I couldn't really understand what both of them were thinking, though Yamakawa seemed more confident about finding out my identity for some reason...

How troublesome.

Zodiac Exam Part 2 - The Cow Group

Right now, it's 12:57 PM, and I'm about to enter the Cow group room. I walked down the second floor until I found the meeting room. I opened the door to find everyone sitting in silence.

"Oh, it looks like I'm the last one to arrive." I said, everyone's eyes directed towards me. I could feel a glare coming from Sudou. It seems the witness from the trial is also here...

There was one empty seat next to... I sighed internally and sat down, ignoring the familiar presence looking at me.

A heavy silence followed. "Ahem, is it fine if we all introduce ourselves first? My name is Kobashi Yume; sat next to me are Watanabe Norihito and Ninomiya Yui," she pointed to the two students sat next to her before continuing.

"We're representing class B and hoping to get outcome 1 for this group!" The tension lightened, and everyone introduced themselves one by one.

"My name is Yamakawa Shin." I said this without even looking up from my phone.

"Matsushita Chiaki," said the girl beside me.

As they were in discussion, I concluded one thing: half of this group doesn't understand a thing about outcomes 3 and 4. I took advantage of the noise and tapped a girl on her left shoulder.

"So your name is Matsushita, stalker-chan?" I whispered.

She was taken aback by my nickname, "Yes, but stop calling me stalker-chan..."

"Why? It suits you~ or would you rather, Chiaki?" I whispered in an attempt to catch her off guard

"..." She deadpanned.

I quietly whispered to myself, "Haah, I'll stick to stalker-chan then..." I turned back to my phone and waited for the meeting to end.

Throughout the meeting, I was receiving occasional glances from Class B students; I guess they're taking notes on my actions, probably on the orders of Ichinose.

Once the meeting ended, I got up and left, I went back to my room and dozed off. The next meeting is at 9 PM so I have a lot of time to kill. I also intend to meet a certain someone before the meeting. My phone buzzed, it was a message from Ryuuen.

Leader-kun: Kushida Kikyō is the VIP of the Dragon group.

Me: That angel is our traitor, huh? I'm not going to ask how you convinced her to help us.

Leader-kun: Kukuku, you think of me that badly? She's the one that came crawling to me, asking for me to help crush Suzune.

Me: Don't really care about her personal problems; I can start making my move now.

I managed to gather all of the VIPs in Class C easily through my information network. I went off the chat and opened an application, and started jotting down names and groups.

'This will take me a while'

It's now 6 PM, and I am standing in the lowest part of the ship to meet a certain someone.

"Yo, didn't expect you'd actually come here, Johnny-kun." Yes. The person standing in front of me is Katsuragi Kohei.

"Can you make it quick? This place is not very comfortable." He rubs his hands, clearly feeling cold.

"In short, I'd like you to cooperate with me for this exam." He expected something like this, it seems.

"Why would I trust you after the stunt Class C pulled?"

"I'd like to convince you using words, but I know it's futile." I sighed. "You have no choice but to trust me. I know all of your class' VIPs." Katsuragi's face stiffened.

"How am I going to believe–"

"Kamuro Masumi of the Rat Group." I saw his eyes widen slightly.

I don't know how he got his hands on a Sakayanagi factions VIP, probably process of elimination. It seems I got more useful information than I expected.

"How did you-"

"That's for later; if you don't want all of your VIPs sent in, you're going to have to cooperate. This is your chance to fight back against Sakayanagi, you've got one foot on the grave already."

"Wouldn't it be better if you guys sent in all the VIPs?"

"All of Class C's relations with other classes are a mess right now, getting Class A's temporary help at the cost of fighting three classes is not the best idea. Our goals align, Katsuragi. We'll become a more cooperative class while you regain the trust you've lost."

It wasn't because of that; I was bluffing about knowing the VIPs, there were two patterns which could have been correct. His reaction gave me the answer I needed.

I didn't really care about building a relationship with Class A or Katsuragi, I just wanted to get the deal done. We have already gained some trust from another class in this exam.

"Fine... but I'll need to write it on a contract after you explain your plan." An expected response from the cautious Katsuragi.

"So what I want you to do is—"

The second meeting just began, and it's quieter than last time. Guess I can do something about it, "Since everyone's aiming for outcome 1, we'll just do nothing until the final day. But that'll be too boring. I pulled out a pack of cards.

"How about we bet private points on poker?" Everyone agreed, even Sudou, whom I thought hated me.

Everyone bet 1,000 points each, and we played until just me and Kobashi left.

"Four of a kind."

"Aww~ two pairs," Kobashi replied.

"Oh, a quick 13,000 points, I'll take it."

"You kept pulling the good cards; are you sure you're not cheating?" Matsushita said

"How am I supposed to cheat? My luck was just good today. Plus, you were watching me the whole time."

"How did you know? Were you also peeking at me from time to time? Were you having indecent thoughts?" She teased.

"I don't wanna hear anything about indecency coming from stalker-chan's mouth," I replied.

"Ow." She playfully punched me on the shoulder.

Though I'm glad everyone's engrossed in their own conversations about their hobbies, they don't know what's happening behind the scenes. I laid my head on the table until the meeting ended.

The meeting finished, and I quickly went back to chill in my room. Albert was already asleep, and Ishizaki and Sonoda were playing a fighting game. I guess I'll join them.

BZZZT

All of our phones buzzed at the same time, this is unprecedented...

"The test has now ended for the Monkey group. Those in the Monkey group are no longer required to participate any further. Please do not disturb the other students."

"What?! Someone ended it already?" Ishizaki's concerns are valid.

I messaged Kaneda, he replied, saying that it was most likely the work of Koenji.

That unpredictable bastard... I haven't spoken to him since coming to this school. I'll pay him a visit soon.

But the Monkey group, huh? I guess it doesn't interfere much with my plans. At any rate, he's definitely secured outcome 3, he wouldn't miss out on 500,000 private points.

I decided it was time to fall asleep too... Thinking about how I can unveil the mastermind of Class D has taken a toll on me.

The next day came, and nothing special happened in the first meeting. I'm now in the café with Ryuuen, Kanzaki, Ichinose, Horikita, and Ayanokouji.

"If you don't cooperate, you'll lose out on Class Points. We could share our VIPs, find the selection method, and bring down Class A." Ryuuen spoke with a grin on his face.

"As if we'd trust you after what you guys did on the island." Kanzaki replied with a glare towards me.

"Cmon, the past is in the past, let's at least appear to get along on the surface." I said, leaning my hand on the table.

"But Ryuuen-kun is really untrustworthy..." Ichinose replied.

"That may be so, but we intend on working with at least one other class for our goals," I said ominously, and all of them caught on to my words.

"You're saying if we pass up on the opportunity, you'll work with Class A, after what you did to them? Try me with that bluff, your cooperation level with all the other classes is near zero." Horikita finally spoke out.

"I guess that's a no, then. Don't blame me for what happens; I tried to help you guys~"

"Your help is not appreciated," Horikita replied.

I wanted to appear like I tried to cooperate on the surface so that they wouldn't blame my next actions. I pulled up my phone and sent a short email before placing it on the table.

"Kukuku, someone's cooking right now."

BZZZT

All phones vibrated at the same time once again

"The test has now ended for the Cow group. Those in the Cow group are no longer required to participate any further. Please do not disturb the other students."

"Huh? What are you doing?" Horikita a shockingly asked.

"Hahaha! Whoever did that is a genius. What kinda coincidence is this?" I joked around.

"Yamakawa-kun... was this your doing?" Ichinose asked.

"Well duh, I did tell you didn't I, but I guess I can tell you one more thing." I went up to Ichinose.

"Kobashi Yume," I whispered, causing her to flinch. She tried to hide her reaction, but I noticed.

"I'll tell you right now. The exam results will look strange to all of you, if you're smart, you'll understand our true goal." I said before leaving with Ryuuen.

We were walking around the 4th floor talking about the plan we had in mind and Kushida Kikyō's involvement.

"Kukuku, did you really have to be so dramatic about ending the Cow group?"

"Gotta make it look like we tried." I shrugged.

"Their alliance is going to sink soon."

"I don't really care about the D class and B class groups. I just wanted the 500,000 private points from the outcome 3 going into my pockets." I replied nonchalantly, knowing there was somebody listening in, I couldn't reveal our true plans.

"Kukuku, I guess tomorrow will mark the end of the show. I heard there's been trouble in the rabbit group between Manabe and Ibuki."

"Sucks to be Ibuki right now hahaha."

"Are you gonna go deal with your stalker or do you want me to?" He said, noticing the presence that's been following us.

"I don't need you to tell me. See ya" I turned back around and noticed stalker-chan behind us by about 10 metres, presumably waiting for our conversation to end.

"Heyyy~" I called out to her.

"Did you end that exam just now?"

"If I said no?"

"I wouldn't be inclined to believe that."

"It hurts me to think that you don't trust me~" I teased. "Fine, I ended the exam because I didn't wanna sit there and play cards."

"Mmm... Okay, I just wanted to confirm that it was you. Anyway, how did you figure out the VIP?" She asked, curious about the situation.

"Did you read the VIP email that was sent to you at the start of the exam?"

"Yeah what about it?"

"There's a clue as to how I found it there." I said while pointing to my screen.

"Hmm... I don't see it– Oh! 'After careful consideration', meaning they're possibly selecting the VIPs with a method." She said it with genuine happiness; it was kind of cute, I'm not gonna lie.

"That's quite an unexpected observation from average-chan~"

"Haha, I can't hide it from you anyway; you would've noticed sooner or later. Still, it's amazing that you noticed that clue immediately. Care to fill me in on the pattern as well?" She asked with a mischievous smile on her face.

"Hmm... Nope." I flat-out rejected her question. Causing her to pull back.

"Mean..."

"Don't worry about it; we're not even aiming for your class. They'll be fine if they do things correctly." I responded.

Though I'm wondering why the mastermind of the island exam isn't doing anything...

Was that victory actually Horikita's doing? I'm having doubts creep up now...

It might be hard for them to operate in the shadows for this exam, they don't seem to stand out, and Class D is far from united, it would be hard for them to get all the VIP names and discover the pattern with a 4th VIP.

"Wouldn't you want to shut off all the other groups? You'd gain 450 Class Points just from th-"

"But also lose the cooperation of all other classes for future special exams? No thanks. I said too much; I better get going now."

I waved her off and left the area. I wonder when I'll start to open up to people in this school. Who knows...

The last time I opened up to someone, I ended up getting them involved in hell. The people that had discarded me 10 years ago reappeared once again.

"3, 2, 1."
*BANG*
" You killed your friend..."

Zodiac Exam Part 3 - Deals and Defeat

The Final Day

Yamakawa Shin POV

The final meeting should have ended for the remaining groups, which means it's time for me to head over to the lounge to finish the exam.

"The test has now ended for the Rabbit group. Those in the Rabbit group are no longer required to participate any further. Please do not disturb the other students."

The Rabbit group is Ibuki and Ichinose's group if I recall correctly. That was unprecedented...

Looks like it's time to finish the plan.

Ayanokouji POV (After the final meeting)

"Well it was Horikita's plan after all." I told Ichinose.

"Well, I'll be leaving then. It would be bad if we broke the rules, wouldn't you say?"

However, the moment Ichinose said that, both of our phones played a unique sound, twice to be exact.

"Wh-what does this mean?" asked Ichinose.
She seemed completely shocked as she slowly looked from her phone's screen over to me.

"The test has now ended for the Horse group. Those in the Horse group are no longer required to participate any further. Please do not disturb the other students."

"The test has now ended for the Rat group. Those in the Rat group are no longer required to participate any further. Please do not disturb the other students."

(Next morning)

Ayanokouji POV

Currently, a group of 5 Class D students are gathered inside the café, waiting for the results notification to drop at 11:00. They were me, Hirata, Horikita, Karuizawa, and Sudou.

"What I'm worried about is that those emails came in at almost the exact same time," she said.

"They might have sent the emails at the exact same time as a way of showing off their supremacy," Hirata added.

"Yeah. And there's only one person I can imagine who'd do such a thing." said Horikita.

Horikita and Hirata had a natural rapport. I was grateful they were able to do this without me having to jump in. Meeting in this particular café, a place we'd used so many times before, had been a deliberate move on my part.

"So. You're all here after all, huh?" It was so I could invite a particular sixth guest to join us.

"Ryuuen!" Sudou, after noticing Ryuuen, stood up as if to threaten him, but Ryuuen didn't pay any mind. He simply grabbed a vacant chair, forcefully slamming it next to Horikita before taking a seat.

"I thought I'd enjoy finding out the results with you all. Thanks so much for gathering in such an easy-to-find place," he said mockingly.

"Yes. I chose this space because even an idiot like you would be able to find it quite easily. You should be grateful," answered Horikita.

"Anyway, Suzune, you've got a rather large group with you. Have you grown more sociable?" muttered Ryuuen, looking out at the other people gathered around the table and ignoring Sudou completely.

"The results will be announced any minute now. Are you expecting any results?" he asked.

"More or less. You look rather relaxed," Horikita said.

"Heh. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't. Looks like the same as the island exam," replied Ryuuen.

"Suzune. You know if you get carried away now, you'll just be embarrassed later. I already know our group's VIP," said Ryuuen.

Whether he was lying or not, Horikita wasn't shaken in the least. She was convinced that she wouldn't lose to Ryuuen. "I'm quite glad to hear that. I look forward to the results," she replied with confidence.

"There's no need to wait for the announcement. Want me to tell you who the Dragon group VIP is?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, but I'm hearing the irritating whine of a loser. The test has already ended, and no one in the Dragon group has turned traitor. That can only mean one thing," she answered. The exam had ended without Ryuuen figuring out that Kushida was the VIP.

"If you could only understand the depth of my mercy, you'd be moved. So moved that you'll get wet between your thighs." Ryuuen chuckled, injecting his words with a coarse vulgarity.

"All right, tell me then. Who is the Dragon group VIP?" asked Horikita.

Ryuuen, as if he'd been waiting for her to ask, covered his smiling face with his hand. He peered at us through the gaps in his fingers, like some kind of beast in a cage. He looked ready to tear out his prey's throat.

"Kushida Kikyō"

"Huh?" Horikita, who had been unperturbed until then, exclaimed and stiffened.

"I'm sorry, but I've known Kushida was the VIP since the second day of the test," Ryuuen said.

"You're joking, right? If that's true, you would have turned traitor and sent an email. But the test didn't end like that. That must mean you realized that fact after the exam had ended. There's no other way. Am I wrong?" asked Horikita.

"Well, plans changed, someone decided it would be more fun to play it this way. Be grateful Suzune," he retorted.

"What transpired?" Horikita inquired.

"You'll understand soon enough."

Apparently, Ryuuen had played a part in the betrayal emails. Once the clock struck eleven, we received notifications at the exact same time. Everyone, except Ryuuen, checked the results:

Rat: Outcome #3. The traitor answered correctly.

Cow: Outcome #4. The traitor answered incorrectly.

Tiger: Outcome #2. The VIP's identity was not discovered.

Rabbit: Outcome #4. The traitor answered incorrectly.

Dragon: Outcome #1. The entire group answered correctly at the end of the test.

Snake: Outcome #1. The entire group answered correctly at the end of the test.

Horse: Outcome #3. The traitor answered correctly.

Sheep: Outcome #1. The entire group answered correctly at the end of the test.

Monkey: Outcome #3. The traitor answered correctly.

Rooster: Outcome #2. The VIP's identity was not discovered.

Dog: Outcome #2. The VIP's identity was not discovered.

Pig: Outcome #2. The VIP's identity was not discovered.

Class A: Minus 100 class points; Plus 3 million private points

Class B: Plus 100 class points; Plus 2.5 million private points

Class C: Minus 50 class points; Plus 15.5 million private points

Class D: Plus 50 class points; Plus 5.5 million private points

Class A: 1065 -- 965 CP

Class B: 826 -- 926 CP

Class C: 889 -- 839 CP

Class D: 177 -- 227 CP

"Kukuku, take it easy Suzune," Ryuuen laughed at the reactions.

"Oi!" Sudou was about to get up in anger, but Horikita stopped him.

"Class B won... what are you laughing about?" Horikita, still stunned, says.

"Did you not understand, or are you just dumb?" Ryuuen responded.

"You were bluffing when you implied that you'd win." Horikita states confidently.

"I won't explain it to someone below me, if you used your eyes a little, you'd know we won the exam." Ryuuen said mockingly, while pointing to his phone.

"Ohh~ what's this, you guys forgot to invite us to the party!" A loud voice interrupted us, we looked to see it was Yamakawa coming towards us.

"Yamakawa-kun, why did you say that about the Cow group VIP yesterday? I was stressing over it you know?" Ichinose, who was behind him, asked.

"Hmm... maybe I just guessed when I whispered that name," she didn't believe what he said, and deadpanned, he just shrugged and began fiddling with his phone.

"Anyways, thanks for helping us out Ichinose. I should've told you yesterday so that you weren't stressing over it, but the acting was needed."

This confused everyone on the table, except for Ryuuen. Yamakawa put his phone back into his pocket and sat down next to us.

"No worries~ as long as we won, that was the deal wasn't it?" Ichinose sat down next to him.

"What?!" Karuizawa reacts in complete shock.

"So you mean to tell me you were working together all this time?" Hirata, who was silent this whole time, asked.

"Actually, I didn't know until this morning, Kanzaki-kun and Ryuuen-kun were working together from the second day."

"HUH?!" The 4 other Class D students reacted at the same time.

"Horikita, don't tell me you're only looking at the Class Points." Yamakawa said, whilst stifling his laughter.

"Wait... Class C have... 15.5 million private points!? What's the meaning of this..." Everyone turns to look at Yamakawa.

"Who knows..." He stole my line and shrugged.

Ichinose began explaining what she heard from him about their plan this morning.

Flashback (2nd day, after the first Dragon group meeting)

3rd Person POV

"Why did you call me out here, Ryuuen"

"Kukuku, what's with the hostility Kanzaki? I'm here to make a nice deal with you."

"A deal, with you? No thanks." Kanzaki turned around and walked away.

"Dog group, Cow group, and Monkey group." Kanzaki turned around upon hearing those words.

"Kukuku, it was that easy for you to stop and turn, if you don't cooperate, you're fucked."

"I'll hear you out."

"If you give us 100% of your private points accumulated from the exam, we'll give you one of Class A VIPs in return. Yamakawa will purposely force outcome 4 in the Cow group. I'll even give you the VIP of the Horse group."

"The traitor of the Monkey group submitted "Minamikita Kozue" as the VIP." Kanzaki's eyes widened.

"The VIP for the Cow group is Kobashi Yume. Yamakawa is going to end the exam in an hour or two, you decide if it's outcome 3 or 4."

"You're cornered right now. If you disagree, we can always ask Class A for a similar deal."

He continued to control the situation, using the VIP knowledge gives him a major advantage in the negotiations.

"100% is too much. If you can bring it down to 75% I'll accept. The most we can end up with would be 100 Class Points. Any more than 75% wouldn't be worth it."

"Kukuku, Ichinose's dog has a couple braincells huh, I thought you were another pushover like the rest of them. It's a deal."

"Tch. We'll sign it on a contract." Kanzaki agrees with a hint of anger at his provocation attempt.

A contract was written entailing the deal between them,

75% of Class B's private point earnings during the Cruise Ship Special Test will go towards Ryuuen Kakeru, provided that Class B achieve outcome 3 in the Rat and Horse groups, and achieve outcome 4 in the Cow group. Should one of these conditions not be met, it will lead to the expulsion of the responsible party.

"The Rat group's VIP is Kamuro Masumi, and the Horse group's VIP is Minami Testuya."

Back to present

"So when he submitted the Cow group answer, he was simply acting." Ichinose says while pointing at the person sat next to her.

"Yep, we had to make sure no one knew, we even had people listening in. We had to keep it up until we left the area because of that." He explained, fidgeting with his phone.

"Why would you submit one of our VIPs when we're in an alliance?" Horikita sends a glare towards Ichinose.

"Dumbass. Maybe your mastermind could explain it to you." Yamakawa joked.

"Tch. Can you at least tell us why you betrayed our alliance, Ichinose-san?" Horikita's unwavering composure faltered, showing visible frustration on her face.

"Kukuku, Suzune, your alliance was broken by your wild Monkey of the Monkey group. We simply took advantage and gave them a helping hand, what happened in the Horse group was to cancel out the Monkey group." Ryuuen responds in her stead.

"It's as he said, Kanzaki-kun also had to agree or we'd lose many Class Points to them. None of the classes took major damage because of our deal." She explains.

Suddenly, Yamakawa's expression shifted as if he remembered something important. He locked eyes with Ichinose.

With a swift motion, Yamakawa sprang from his seat, his hand now gripping Ichinose's wrist as he guided her toward the opposite side of the café.

Yamakawa Shin POV

"Yamakawa-kun that was so sudden..."

Oh, I'm still holding her wrist. I released her and turned my gaze out of the window.

"How did the Rabbit group manage that?" I mumbled.

She looked at me, realizing what I was referring to. "Oh, the Rabbit group's outcome was achieved through a clever trick that Class D played. A Class A student fell for it and submitted the incorrect answer."

"Is that so? Can you at least tell me who orchestrated it?"

Ichinose pointed in the direction of where we were sitting. "Oh, that was A–"

"Yamakawa! What's the meaning of this?!" A frustrated Katsuragi walks up towards us, causing both of us to shift our attention towards him.

"Huh? I promised that you'll stay as Class A didn't I. Someone in your class messed up your plan, so we both got half of the deal. The second part of the contract is void. That's all I have to say to you," I said, gesturing for him to go.

"Huh?" Ichinose was confused by the sudden argument.

"I thought that the second part is void because you chose to act with Class B behind my back." He says in confusion.

"The contract stated that you would give Class C 3 million private points for maintaining your position as Class A. Because of the report I got from Ibuki of the Rabbit group, I had to take measures and make Ryuuen change the deal with Class B so that they don't overtake your class."

"The Rabbit group was directly involved in causing you a lot of trouble. A class A student submitted it according to Ichinose. Class D had the VIP. It was a slight loss as soon as they submitted the Rabbit group answer." I replied

"So that explains how the second part of the contract became void..." He said sternly, with his arms crossed.

"The second part of the contract was that Class C would help Class A in any special exam of Class A's choosing if Class A finishes with a net change of 0 Class Points. In other words, we'd help you out if you don't interfere in this special exam. I don't need to explain further do I?"

"The situation is still better than dropping to Class B or C. Sorry about accusing you, Yamakawa." He apologized and departed.

"It's fine... I guess I still got my 3 million out of it." I muttered quietly with a grin on my face.

"Eh? You're a cunning one Yamakawa-kun."

"I tried to soften the blow taken by Class A and Katsuragi, so that Class A stays in a schism for longer. In exchange for private points obviously."

"Oh? Quite a strategy hehe."

"But Katsuragi wasn't trusting enough so I added a second part of the contract to cooperate in the future. I tried to force that deal with him but it got messed up by Class D's puppet-master."

"Horikita-san... or maybe..." she mutters.

"Well, can you please keep this a secret from them?" I clasped my hands and pleaded.

"Mhm... but you'll do something in return, Kay?"

"As long as it's feasible..."

"If you were in Class B, I can't help but think we'd be Class A by now. You're incredibly smart!"

"That maybe so..." I replied, and began to walk back to my seat.

Ayanokouji POV

"Kukuku, to think you failed to cooperate with that baldy... Class D's mastermind's already causing you trouble huh?" Ryuuen muttered, as Yamakawa returned to his seat.

"Hahhh, I don't even care as much about beating them as I do about finding them before your scrawny ass!" Yamakawa glared at Ryuuen.

"Kukuku, I already have my own plan to find them."

"I'm leaving, I can't handle these big brains talking at once together." Karuizawa said, and got up and left.

"Me too," I replied and got up from my seat.

"Anyway if that's all, we're leaving," I could hear Horikita say before Hirata and Sudou followed behind her.

Katsuragi and Yamakawa – it's hard to believe that they were also in contact during the exam.

Yamakawa was agitated and talked to Ichinose specifically. Leading me to believe that he's trying to understand what happened in the Rabbit group. More likely than not, my actions in the Rabbit group must have damaged their negotiations, due to Morishige betraying the Rabbit group.

Ryuuen's deal with Kanzaki... Kanzaki wouldn't have trusted him so readily. There must have been evidence or...

Ryuuen probably knew not only about Kushida being the VIP but about the VIPs of every class by the second day. Class C discerned the pattern using another class' VIP. In this case, Kushida betrayed our class and gave them the opportunity needed to find the selection pattern.

He must have used Class B's VIP names as leverage during negotiations with Kanzaki.

It's safe to assume that Classes B and C would be the only beneficiaries when it comes to Private Points. Class B's unity and Class C's strict control will likely enable them to pool their winnings.

Class A is divided between two factions, and Class D lacks any form of unity, so their Private Points wouldn't be pooled together.

Class B managed to stay in their position, narrowing the gap between them and Class A, while still honoring their agreement with Class C.

But Class C ended up winning at least 15 million Private Points for a minor loss of 50 Class Points. When you consider the power of private points, they were no doubt the real winners of this exam.

I walked towards the deck railing alone, and looked out at the vast sea once more, thinking about my future in this place. The sun shining down, reflecting on the small waves being produced by the ship's movement.

I have now acquired a pawn in Karuizawa, I have now set the stage for the future. Whether Ryuuen or Yamakawa comes to me first, it'll end the same way for both of them.

In every possible future that exists between us, I can never imagine losing to either of them...

Zodiac Exam SS - Birthday

As the sun sets on the last day of our cruise-ship getaway, my steps feel heavy as I ascend to the luxury restaurant nestled on the ship's sixth floor.

The sky, once a breathtaking canvas, now mirrors the ache in my heart. The grandeur of the ship and the cheerful atmosphere serve as poignant reminders of the passage of time.

These past two weeks have filled my life with experiences that I won't forget. The beauty that surrounded me as I looked out to the sea each morning of this vacation.

And amidst it all, I find myself contemplating the existence of alternate realities where Shiro and I stand here together, enjoying freedom.

As I approach the restaurant, the door seems to be closed. Am I in the right place? Well, I'll just open it and waltz in, and–

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"Everyone..." The unexpected wave of warmth leaves me stunned. Gathered around an extra-large round table, my classmates exude excitement.

Indeed, today is my birthday, August 14th.

I never really embraced the idea of celebrating my own birthday. To me, it always seemed trivial—just another day of the calendar year without any significant meaning. The circumstances of my birth only added to this sentiment—it wasn't exactly a moment of joy within my family.

"Let go of him!"

"No! That boy is nothing more than a mistake. Our family already has an heiress. He's nothing but trouble, look at him; those eyes are dangerous."

Instead, it carried a weight of complications and emotions that were anything but happy. My closest friend also shared my lack of enthusiasm for birthday celebrations, although his reasons were different.

However, perhaps today I can allow myself to bask in this unexpected warmth and partake in the joy of the moment. Just this once, I can let go and revel in the pleasant atmosphere that surrounds me.

"Don't just stand there! Get the fuck over here so we can eat already." Typical of him to say that.

"This celebration was meant for the exam results, you know." I muttered. I was the one who proposed the idea in the first place, it seems they arrived earlier than me for a warm surprise.

"Kukuku, now you know how it feels to have your fuckin' plans changed by someone else." Huh? All this was done because of the zodiac exam? I guess he wouldn't do such a nice thing out of his own good will.

"Thank you all for coming together to celebrate. Our class amassed over 15 million private points in this exam alone, the Class Points lost are of no concern—we'll continue our ascent towards Class A." Cheers sound throughout the pre-booked restaurant.

I bowed gracefully before settling into the sole vacant seat between Manabe and Ishizaki.

"What are you guys waiting for? Eat the fuck up till your stomach's full! Everything is on the house."

It's a luxury establishment, and our class certainly wasn't fit for such an environment. Needless to say, the party was a complete, fun, and chaotic mess. Ibuki was being tortured by everyone, even the ever-quiet Hiyori was getting involved in teasing her.

The cheerful atmosphere put me in a state of comfort.

"Yamakawa! Toss over that steak if you're letting it go to waste." Ishizaki's voice snaps me back out of my thoughts.

"You can have a tenth of it at most." I replied and began to devour it like there's no tomorrow.

"Oi! You're gonna choke on your food, you know?!"

"I thought that sentence was about to head in a different direction. Sorry, Ishizaki, but I don't swing that way–"

"Fuck off!" Everyone who heard our conversation burst into laughter. Well, almost everyone.

Amidst everyone's conversations and cheerful mood, one presence remains quietly introspective—the girl beside me...

"Manabe..." Her response remains absent, and so I opt for a more direct approach—I gently pinch her cheek to wake her up.

"Eep?! What in the world are you doing?"

"I'm just trying to rouse you from your thoughts. Is everything alright? You've been a bit distant..."

"Nothing... I'm fine. Don't worry." She mustered a forced smile and began to eat.

"If anything's bothering you, you can talk to me, you know?" I patted her back, and she looked at me with a genuine smile.

"Mhm." She nodded.

I guess I'll leave her be, it's probably a trivial matter anyway.

After we finished our meal, I decided to take my daily walk around the luxurious cruise ship. I couldn't help but marvel at how effortlessly the school could organize such extravagant events. As I strolled along the deck, I gazed out at the vast expanse of the sea, taking in the breathtaking view.

"Yamakawa-kun!" A familiar voice rang out.

"Ah, Ichinose..." The one who had called out was Ichinose Honami, the leader of Class B.

"Are you here to enjoy the scenery as well?"

"Yeah, I guess so... I tend to get lost in my thoughts, so I come here to clear my mind. What about you?"

"Well... I just came here because I wanted some alone time."

"It's the perfect time to ask you an important question."

"Hmm?"

"Have you heard that it costs 20 million points to revoke an expulsion?" I asked, leaning against the rail.

"Yeah, it's quite expensive! But I believe it's worth every single point. I wouldn't want to graduate while leaving someone behind."

"Let's consider a scenario where you have to choose between graduating from Class A and leaving someone behind or saving that person from expulsion and staying in Class B. What would your decision as a leader be?"

"I wouldn't see the point in advancing if I had to ruin someone else's future. I would choose to keep all of my classmates together," she replied with her ever-present cheerful smile.

"But wouldn't that mean you're jeopardising more people's futures by doing that? Essentially, you'd be sacrificing everyone's dream of graduating as Class A just to save one person."

"I'd feel too guilty about leaving someone behind just for the sake of graduating as Class A. I'm determined to graduate with all 40 students intact!"

"That's quite idealistic... I can't say I'm much better, though."

"How so?" She asked with a hint of surprise.

"I want the same thing, but I understand that I might have to expel students to win. It's just the way the system works, isn't it?" I shrugged.

"But if they're your friends..." she mumbled.

"That's precisely why you're not suitable to be Class B's leader at the moment," I replied straightforwardly. "You lack the necessary resolve."

"Resolve?" It seems was taken aback by my serious gaze and attitude.

"Regardless of whether you have friends in other classes, there's a competition that takes precedence. You must be resolved to cut ties with them if the time comes. If there's a situation where you're forced to cut a classmate off, you must resolve yourself to do it, that's a leader's responsibility." I explained, removing my hands from the rail and beginning to walk backwards. "I apologise if I sounded a bit presumptuous."

Her reaction to my words tells me that she understood them, at least somewhat. "No, I understand where you're coming from. It's just... it's difficult, I can't do such a heartless thing..." she said, gazing solemnly into the sea.

"Well, let's stop sulking and enjoy the sights of the ship, it's our final day here after all!" I said, lightening up the mood. She nodded and went along with it.

We talked and walked around the ship, touring every facility. This definitely gathered the attention of many onlookers.

—————————————————————————

Several hours had passed since the festivities came to an end when I received an invitation from Hirata to join a gathering at the pool. The attendees included students from various classes, primarily from Class D. It was quite unexpected, as I hadn't considered myself particularly popular within Class D.

I changed into blue swimming trunks and entered the outdoor pool. The place was crowded with boys and girls alike. Some were playing volleyball. others say talking on the side, some splashing water on each other.

However, amidst the atmosphere, I couldn't help but notice something troubling. Some of the girls were wearing revealing swimsuits, and a few of the Class D boys were openly ogling them inappropriately. It was a discordant note in an otherwise joyful scene.

As I walked towards the sun lounger on the side of the pool, I noticed the stares I was getting. I chose to ignore the attention and settled into the sun lounger, watching everyone have their fun. It was their last day on the cruise ship, and they were making the most of it.

"Oh? Yamakawa-kun, you're attracting quite a bit of attention, huh?" Hirata, who had organised this gathering, called out to me. I leaned forward and sat up, and he tossed me an ice pop, which I caught with ease.

He also carried a bag, which piqued my curiosity given the number of presents I'd already received today.

"Hm? Yeah, I don't have anything better to do right now," I joked, sticking the ice pop in my mouth.

"Is that so? Well, happy birthday." He pulled an item from the bag – it was a white shirt with a stylish black pattern on it. I couldn't help but smile; it genuinely made me happy.

"Thanks, Hirata, I didn't expect you to remember." I smiled genuinely, taking the bag from him. He nodded.

"I wouldn't forget my soccer clubmate's birthday, would I?"

"So we're not even friends yet? Just clubmates." I said, to which he chuckled.

"Anyway, your birthday is on..." I put a finger on my chin, then perked up. "March 21st!"

"Hahaha! Not even close. September 1st." He laughed. Such a friendly guy.

"I'll make sure to get you something in return. For now, I'll go see what the other students are up to." I got up from the sun lounger and headed towards the edge of the pool.

"Thanks, see you at practice," he said, waving me off.

I sat down on the edge of the pool, my feet touching the water. A familiar presence came and sat beside me.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Stalker-chan?"

"Stop calling me that!" She pouted.

"Yet, here you are, sitting next to me. Aren't you worried about being seen?"

"Hmm... Weren't you hanging out with Ichinose-san earlier? Isn't that overly conspicuous?" Ah, right, I spent time with her today.

"We didn't go on a date or anything, so I don't see a problem..."

"Rumours still spread when the hottest guy and girl are seen together."

"Oh, right—Wait, did you just call me–"

"Did you mishear something? I never said anything." She mumbled, though her cheeks had a faint blush.

"Besides, wouldn't rumours also spread if I was sitting in a pool talking to the prettiest girl in Class D?" I teased.

"Eh???"

"You're so red hahaha, a tomato stalker!"

"S-shut up... God! You're so annoying!" She protested, punching my shoulder.

Today was truly an eventful day...

Summer Vacation - Soccer Match

The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the soccer field at ANHS. It was supposed to be just another practice day, but the air was thick with anticipation as students gathered at the center circle.

What was supposed to be a practice session for the first years turned into a match between the seniors and us.

"Ohh, it's good to see you here kouhai!" He greeted me with a smile on his face.

He approached me and stuck his hand out. "Let's have a good match." I nodded and shook his hand.

"Senpai... you did all of this to challenge me, right? No need for the formalities." I responded, this guy clearly set this.

"Haha, I'm just here to have fun. It's summer vacation after all!"

"I'm calling bullshit on that."

I looked at him with confidence oozing from my eyes.

"If you're looking for a challenge, senpai..."

"You've got one."

"Hahaha! That's the spirit."

Shibata approached me with a slap on the back and said, "Yamakawa-kun, today's the day we show these seniors what we're made of!"

I grinned at his enthusiasm and replied, "You're right, Shibata. Let's give 'em a run for their money!"

Hirata, who's playing in the midfield, nodded in agreement. "Remember, teamwork and focus, guys. We can do this."

Satonaka, stationed on the right wing, added with a grin, "I'll be serving up crosses all day, just be ready to finish, striker duo."

We lined up in our 4-4-2 formation, ready to take on the senior team, who were confident in their 4-2-3-1 setup.

Leading their attack was Nagumo, the striker and vice president of the student council.

As the game kicked off, Shibata couldn't contain his excitement. "Yamakawa-kun, make some magic happen!"

I chuckled and replied, "You got it, just keep those shots coming." He was truly immersed by the challenge.

The senior team, with their experience, dominated possession, and Nagumo wasted no time testing our defense. He got past many of them with smooth one-twos. Fortunately, our defence was tight-knit. Just from his skills, you could tell that he was clearly the ace of the soccer club.

My first chance came from a lovely through pass by Shibata, but I couldn't find the back of the net.

But as the time approached the 10th minute, Nagumo received the ball and decided to take me on one-on-one in the centre of the field.

"Fancy a challenge, Yamakawa?" He asked with a grin on his face.

I kept up with his step-overs and feints, until he decided it was no use trying to dribble past me, and passed it to the winger.

"You're good, but..."

As I was occupied with watching their winger, he suddenly ran behind my blindspot and sprinted towards the box. He caught me off guard...

"See you kouhai." He mocked as he ran into the box.

After a couple of passes, the ball was eventually crossed into the box and Nagumo's finished it with a header.

The cheers from Nagumo's fangirls filled the air. The Vice President approached me and decided to taunt me with a smirk on his face.

"I may have overestimated you, kouhai."

I simply ignored his trash talk and positioned myself near the half-way line. With me and Shibata as strikers we'll score at least 2 goals against that level of defence.

Hirata, always the calming presence, kept the team cool, "Stay focused, guys. We can bounce back."

I nodded, determined to redeem myself. Shibata, ever the optimist, encouraged me, "Yamakawa, remember what we practiced!"

"Hm? Yeah, let's try that combination." I replied while matching the glint in his eyes with my own.

As soon as the ball kicked off towards me, I trapped it neatly and began running through their midfield, me and Shibata had a high level of chemistry. We passed to each other and moved in quick one-two sequences, running past the defence.

"What are you guys doing?! Don't just rush them! Stay back!" The seniors couldn't keep up with our passing and movement speed.

We entered the final third of the pitch quite easily, as the ball returned to my feet I decided to dribble past the centre back.

"Senpai~ you shouldn't keep your legs open like that~" I nutmegged him and went ahead, I was now just outside the penalty area.

I noticed Hirata shifting, trying to get past the person marking him. I also noticed Satonaka bursting down the side of the pitch. I see, Hirata will be the bait...

Satonaka is fast, so I trusted his speed and sent a lobbed through ball over the head of the defender towards him.

As expected, he blew past the left-back and caught up to the ball. "A meal for the striker!" He said before crossing the ball into the box.

The ball landed on Shibata who had to readjust to header the ball, causing him to miss to the right side by a few inches.

"Next time, Shibata!"

"Yeah I'm scoring the next one for sure!"

The match continued with a back and forth between us for 15 minutes, no one was able to score a goal in this time.

In the 25th minute, Hirata's movement in the midfield created an opportunity. I saw Nagumo approaching me and I smirked.

"How are you gonna get past me now, kouhai." Nagumo began to mark me aggressively, seeing that I was trying to get towards an open space.

As I struggled to get past him, an idea came to my mind.

Remembering Nagumo's run from earlier, I pointed to the left-winger.

Hirata, who noticed, passed it to the left-winger.

For less than a second, Nagumo gazed towards the balls direction of movement. In that time I broke through using his blind spot and sprinted into the area.

"Remember this one senpai?" I mocked.

"Woah!" He reacted late and I was already gapping him.

The winger noticed and sent a cross in my direction, I was aiming to score until a defender immediately denied me the opportunity. I decided to head the hall to a freely moving Shibata, and he capitalized, scoring our first goal.

His childlike cheerfulness shone through as he celebrated, "That's how we do it, juniors!"

I bumped fists with him, "Great job, Shibata. Just keep it up, 'kay?"

The game continued with missed chances from both sides. I found myself in promising positions but couldn't seem to find the finishing touch.

Nagumo, on the other hand, was relentless. He scored his second goal in the 40th minute, and the senior team led 2-1 at halftime.

As we regrouped in our side of the pitch, Hirata's mature voice broke through the disappointment. "We're still in this, guys. Keep your heads up."

Satonaka nodded, "We've got another half to turn this around. Yamakawa, you've got this."

I took a deep breath, "You know what, guys? I think it's time I actually start hitting the target..." I said jokingly

Shibata chuckled, "You'll get your goal soon."

The second half began, and the tension on the field was palpable. We pressed high, hunting for an equalizer.

Satonaka delivered a cross that led to Shibata hitting a volley into the top left corner of the goal. "Ha-ha! Take that, seniors!"

But Nagumo, ever the trash talker, couldn't resist taunting me. "Yamakawa, you may have beaten me once, but you'll never be as good as me."

I couldn't help but talk back, "Oh, Nagumo, you talk a big game, but will you back it up when I change gears?"

"Oh? Well see then..." he smiled and walked off.

I found myself running through, and one-on-one with the goalkeeper. I tried to chip the ball over him, causing it to barely hit the crossbar.

Shibata, always the optimist, encouraged me, "Close one Yamakawa-kun, the third time's the charm!"

Nagumo was determined to keep the pressure on. He made powerful runs and tested our goalkeeper, but we held firm.

Hirata, with his composure, controlled the midfield and distributed passes with precision.

As the clock ticked down, it seemed like the game was destined for a draw. The tension was palpable, and both teams were giving it their all. Satonaka, with his blistering pace, tormented the senior team's left-back, delivering crosses into the box. But all were to no avail, the seniors started taking things more seriously.

But then, in the 88th minute, everything changed. Satonaka surged down the right wing once more, and there I was, ready to head the ball.

"Don't think you can score with me here."

All of a sudden, Nagumo came from behind me and leaped into the air to clear the ball.

The ball flow high up and was heading to land just outside the box.

No one was in that area, I instinctively reacted to the balls movement and positioned myself with my back towards the goal. I felt a surge of adrenaline as I saw the ball drop towards my position.

My body leapt into the air as the ball came down to my feet, I sent a bicycle kick into the goal, leaving the senior team's goalkeeper rooted to the spot.

Everyone that was watching went silent, which then turned into waves of cheers.

As the crowd erupted, I decided to get back at the Vice President.

"How's that, Nagumo-senpai?" He was in utter disbelief at what he just saw.

"Woah!! That was so cool Yamakawa-kun!"

"I didn't know you had a bicycle kick in you! On Nagumo-senpai's head too? You're insane."

I got jumped by my entire team for scoring that goal...

But the game wasn't over yet. The senior team launched one final assault, throwing everyone forward, including their goalkeeper. The final play of the game came, it was a corner for the senior team.

Everyone was marking someone tightly, until cracks started forming in our defence. The corner kicker noticed and sent a curved ball to the back post, where the ball landed on Nagumo, or should've landed on Nagumo.

"What was that about a challenge? You're too easy of a challenge Nagumo-senpai~" I cleared the ball with all of my power.

"Tsk..."

It was chaos in our box, with bodies flying everywhere. But we held on, determined to secure our victory.

When the final whistle blew, I was in a world of my own. I challenged Nagumo and it felt good, the feeling of winning against that bastard.

"Hahaha! Just as I thought you're something else, kouhai." The man in question came up to me.

"If anything, I only turned up at the end. Shibata was the reason our team won."

"Haha no need to be humble here Yamakawa. I can say with certainty that your skills are even better than mine." Nagumo, fixated on me, continued to praise my efforts.

"I've been playing soccer for my whole life, if it were any other sport I'd probably lose to you." I honestly replied.

We shook hands and left each other to our own devices.

"Yamakawa-kun, taking the spotlight from everyone like that, how did you even come up with that?" Satonaka asked.

"My body just moved for it, you know? Everything just seemed perfect when I leapt in the air." I responded, looking at the goal I had scored on minutes ago.

I look around the crowd and spot the entire student council watching the match, all eyes on me.

"Shit. I've gotten too much attention."

Guess what, as soon as I planned my sneaky escape, I got caught by the President himself and his secretary.

"Yamakawa Shin, I believe we haven't met since the trial." He said with his usual stern expression.

"Yeah I guess it's been since then. I mean why would I meet up with you randomly?"

"Your performance has gained quite a bit of attention hasn't it, Yamakawa?"

"That last goal was quite amazing!" The purple-haired secretary added.

"Thanks, uh... Takebunbun-senpai?"

"How could you forget my name?! Rude Kouhai!! President, I want to punc–"

"I'll give you one piece of advice, be careful when dealing with Nagumo." He said, his voice tone being more serious.

"Yeah yeah got it," I waved him off nonchalantly.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Nope, I just go with the flow... I don't want him to bother me more so I reluctantly agree to his nonsense." I grinned.

"I myself can see that you're quite capable, but if you end up in Nagumo's clutches, it won't be for the best."

He smirked and walked off leaving me and Takebunbun-senpai standing there. She was thinking about something while glaring at me.

"It's just a friendly competition... I've already been diligent with him anyways, the hell are you planning pres?" I muttered under my breath, which caused her to get even angrier.

"Have some respect for the president!"

"Oh you're still here, you need me to give you directions little girl?"

"Little– You are a rude kouhai!!" She punched me in the chest and walked off, leaving me standing here.

Another enjoyable day of summer vacation passed.

Except for the fact that I have gained a new stalker...

Summer Vacation - The Princess

I sighed in disbelief as I scanned the grocery store inside Keyaki Mall. While the allure of higher-quality ingredients was hard to resist, the costs were significantly higher than the convenience store near our dorms.

Nishino, my companion on this grocery run, chimed in, "300 points, that's not cheap at all..." She looked on as I picked up a pack of apples, inspecting its quality.

"You're gonna run out of points if you spend like that..." She continued.

"Yeah," I muttered, "but it's a one-time thing. We're loaded after that special exam anyway." I carefully threw the pack of apples into my basket.

Speaking of points, after the zodiac exam, I suggested setting up a class bank, where a whopping 10.5 million out of the 15.5 million Private Points earned would be stashed away. The remaining 5 million would be divided among the forty of us. Including the monthly Private Points, another 125,000 will be deposited on September 1st, so it was prime time for some spending.

We chose Ryuuen to be the class bank, and by choosing him, I meant that he used violence to convince us that he was the best choice.

Personally, I didn't mind; Ryuuen wasn't exactly known for his extravagant spending habits.

"Well if you want to tell me the secrets behind–"

"I'm not even going to ask what Ryuuen-kun did to get that many points, nor do I care that much to be honest," she replied curtly.

"Mean..." I muttered, walking over towards the cashier's counter. Thankfully, the store wasn't too crowded at this hour, so there was no need to endure a long queue.

"Wait... what's this?" I looked at the cause of the commotion across the mall, through the large glass pane of the store's entrance.

A crowd of students had gathered in front of two stalls. Nishino was the first to respond.

"A fortune-telling stall?"

My eyes wandered until I spotted a sign that piqued my interest. "Hmm... 'Couples Only,' so maybe we should—"

"..." I cut myself off as I caught the deadpan look on her face.

"Alright alright, I get it... You wanna go with Ishizaki instead–"

"Fuck off," she replied with a dissatisfied huff.

"Why not?" I half-heartedly defended my friend, but she simply ignored me and retrieved her bag from the counter.

As we made our way out of the store and strolled down the mall's third floor toward the escalator, something unusual caught our eye.

"Ibuki-san and..."

Nishino pondered upon who Ibuki was hanging around in the queue with.

"Ayanokouji??? Is this a dream?" We stood there for a moment, mouths agape, stunned by the unexpected sight.

"Ibuki-san with a student from another class? I would never have expected this, and who the hell's Ayanokouji?!" Nishino asked, her choice of words adding a touch of irony to the situation. For her to call anyone a nobody...

"Yeah, when it comes to social skills, you're at least a step ahead of her. You might have the social skills of a newborn baby, but it's still an improvement over her," I casually interjected, giving her a backhanded compliment.

It earned me a chop to my head, alongside a show of disgruntlement on her face.

*CLICK* *CLICK*

I quickly snapped a couple of photos of the unusual scene before us.

"I'll ignore what you said if you send those photos to me within the next—"

*DING*

"Deal."

"That was surprisingly quick... Wait, why do I feel like that guy behind us is following us?" She whispered in a hushed tone, her voice barely audible over the ambient noise of the mall.

"That's one of the people that have been stalking me for the last week." I pointed towards the figure who's catching up to me as I speak.

"Hmm... sometimes I wonder whether you're just magically drawn to attention..."

"Beats me." I shrugged

Ever since the cruise ship exam, I'd noticed Class A students trailing me daily. I made a point of walking in unpredictable patterns to keep them on their toes. They were quite adept at trailing me, I know the identities of two of them. One of them being the one who's following us right now.

"Go back to the dorms without me, it seems I have some business to take care of—" and she had already vanished into the crowd...

I exchanged glances with the approaching individual and waited for him to make the first move. He had blonde hair tied into a ponytail, and was around the same height as me.

"What do you want from me Hashimoto? I've already got a favourite stalker, so you're gonna have to wait in the back of the line." I joked.

"Hahaha! That gets an 8/10 from me," he replied with amusement.

"The princess wants to see you right now." His voice took on a more serious tone, a stark contrast to his earlier joviality. He began to head towards the café that was a couple of metres ahead of us.

"Princess?"

As I followed Hashimoto into the café, my curiosity was piqued by the "princess." I have some ideas as to who this is. Well, a single student immediately came to mind...

He guided me to the back of the café, where a lone student sat. I took a seat at the table, and to my surprise, a cup of coffee was already waiting for me.

"Good work, Hashimoto-kun, you may leave now."

As expected, the person seated across from me was Sakayanagi Arisu, one of the two leaders of Class A. Her piercing eyes met mine as she spoke.

"Fufu~ you must be wondering why i asked you here., you're quite an interesting student, Yamakawa Shin-kun."

"Yes, I am aware of how good I am, I don't need a child to remind me of that." I replied with a hint of playfulness.

"Is this how you speak to people you just met." She said with a murderous aura, a tick mark appeared on her forehead.

"Sorry ma'am."

She calmed down and sipped her drink elegantly. "Enough about that, I understand you played a significant role in the special exams."

I nodded again, a bit taken back by her directness. "Hmm? I guess so! I didn't do much on the island though." I told her, bending the truth a bit.

"Fufufu~ I have a feeling you played a major role, rumours fly around quickly even if they're faint."

"Is that so? Well, I'll tell you that I tried my best during that 'vacation'," I added with a hint of irony.

She smiled faintly. "I've had people observe you since the island exam finished, Yamakawa-kun. That deal you made with Katsuragi-kun is interesting..." She paused, her gaze shifting from the table to lock onto my eyes. It seems I had a target on my back since that time, the constant following in the past week was her doing.

"Johnny-kun? He cooperated with us on the ship exam if that's what you're talking about. Or, did Hashimoto tell you about the island exam too?"

"Fufufu~ I'm well aware of that contract Ryuuen-kun made. To think he'd fall for such tricks shows his incompetence." Her voice turned serious, and she continued. "No, it's not that which I was talking about."

"Hmm..." I hummed, taking a sip of coffee, her unwavering gaze still locked onto my eyes.

"Katsuragi-kun is far too cautious to enter into a second deal, especially after his failure on the island exam." She smiled smugly, her eyes never leaving mine.

I simply stayed silent, refusing to reveal my thoughts. Whether she sought answers or was simply assessing my abilities, I wouldn't fall into her traps.

Sakayanagi broke the 30-second silence, her gaze intensifying. "You're the only one in Class C that I know of who doesn't act under Ryuuen."

She's right, but wrong at the same time. I've never seen Ryuuen give Hiyori many direct orders, probably because she doesn't care much, or he wants to use her as a wildcard.

"Hm? What does that mean?" I replied, feigning ignorance.

"Fufu~ I'll gladly continue. It's quite interesting after all. You were able to control Katsuragi precisely because it's known to him that you can act without Ryuuen." She paused, tapping the table thoughtfully. "You gave him the opportunity to raise his falling influence in Class A, didn't you?"

"Yes, it was something along those lines."

I decided there was no point in concealing the truth from her. Her confidence was unshakable, and her deductive skills were impressive, as expected of her.

"I haven't even revealed the main part. The Private Points that Class C acquired should've been 10.5 million, including the deal with Katsuragi," she continued. "And then there's Class B's Private Points, you collaborated with Class B to give them a boost in Class Points. I'm not sure about the details, but it seems to align with this." She placed a piece of paper on the table with precise calculations.

To my surprise, her calculations were remarkably accurate, it showed their approximate earnings, and how much they ended up earning on the results email.

She had also figured out Class B's involvement in the Rat and Horse groups, along with the Outcome 4 that I had purposely engineered in the 'Cow' group.

She couldn't predict the exact timing of my moves, yet she knew the events that occured. She had deduced most of the results and connected them like jigsaw pieces.

"Incredible..." I muttered. It was clear that the girl sitting in front of me possessed the skills to challenge my strategies. If she had directly participated, our domination of the exam might not have been so easy.

"Fufu~ you flatter me. In fact, you managed to identify all the VIPs before the final day, right?" My eyes slightly widened in surprise, her smile widened upon seeing my reaction.

She couldn't have possibly deduced that there was a mole within Class D secretly assisting us, yet she arrived at this conclusion, quite scary skills.

Though it seemed more like her intuition rather than strict logical deduction.

"Please continue..."

"But that's not all. In terms of Class Points, you ensured that our Class remained in A, while narrowing the gap between Class A and the other classes. You also accumulated a significant amount of Private Points. You manipulated the outcome of the exam, which is truly astonishing. The results of Class A and B were completely controlled by you." She clapped her hands, drawing the attention of everyone in the café, as if we hadn't already been noticed enough.

"Hahaha! You saw through it all, without even being directly involved. That takes an impressive level of skill, you know?"

"Fufufu~ there's one more thing. You intentionally attacked the Rat group VIP didn't you."

"Please elaborate," she happily obliged, nodding slightly. This was most likely her main reason for calling me here.

"You set them up to target the only VIP from Class A who was working under my orders. It was a subtle attempt to diminish my influence, since the other two VIPs who successfully achieved Outcome 2 were a part of Katsuragi-kun's faction. You aimed to create a narrative suggesting that my subordinates were less competent than his. I have no doubt that Katsuragi-kun will capitalize on that when the new semester begins." She fiddled with her empty cup, her smug smile unwavering.

Truthfully, I have reduced her rising power within Class A, maintaining the internal conflict between the two leaders. This is a decision I took to keep Class A in chaos for a little longer, which helps us students in the lower classes.

"Does that make you my enemy now? Did you call me out here to simply tell me that?" I wanted to get to the main point of this meeting.

She placed both of her hands on the table. "No need to worry, you put on a spectacular show, maybe my life in this school wouldn't be so boring with you here. I came here to negotiate with you."

"Go ahead..." I sipped my coffee, awaiting her response.

"I want you to—"

"Hmm... I'll think about it."

She stood up, gracefully pushing her chair back. "Fufufu~ Contact me if you decide to consider my offer." With a nod, she turned and walked away, leaving me to ponder her proposal.

As I watched her disappear into the crowd, I couldn't help but wonder if this meeting was the beginning of something that could change the course of my school life.

However, at the moment, I had more pressing matters on my mind. I needed to figure out the person lurking behind Horikita Suzune, 'the shadow of Class D'. Gathering information on this mysterious individual proved to be troublesome. There was little to go off, except for the fact that their physical abilities are clearly above average, based on their movements on the island exam.

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The final week of summer vacation began, and I was determined to make the most of it. As the sun began its ascent into the sky, casting a warm glow across the campus, I found myself in the gym. It was a moment of peace, a place where I could escape the fight within the school and focus solely on myself.

Today, I had an extreme leg workout planned, I loaded up the squat rack with heavy weights, the cold steel of the barbell feeling reassuring against my hands. With each repetition, I could feel the burn in my muscles, a satisfying reminder of the effort I was putting in.

After finishing my squats, I headed over to the leg press machine. The weights clanked as I pushed them upward, my body straining with the effort. I went and used other machines which continued for about an hour.

Once my leg workout was complete, I decided to take a light jog on the treadmill. I set the pace to a brisk run and began to lose myself in the rhythm. An hour of jogging passed, and I was drenched in sweat by the time I stepped off the machine.

As I made my way to the changing rooms, I noticed a familiar figure in the gym. It was Koenji Rokusuke, a student I had encountered a couple of times, but haven't spoken to directly. He was comfortably running with no signs of fatigue.

- - -
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"Hey, we've been getting bread like there's no tomorrow, it's been 4 years and we've made millions! We're living on 'easy mode,'" I chuckled, taking in the surroundings of the grand gathering we were attending, filled with social elites.

""Yeah, 'easy mode,' except for those 100-plus encounters with the police, narrowly escaping the yakuza another 36 times, and let's not forget the brawls with delinquents who were five years older than us. Real walk in the park," Shiro replied sarcastically.

"Hahaha, as soon as you taught me how to train and fight, it's been smooth sailing. Remember when we snuck into that fighting arena last year? They were showing off some hulking delinquent who was a year younger than us."

Shiro nodded, reminiscing, "Oh yeah, when I had to step in and fight that gorilla-looking guy?"

"Everyone was betting on that guy, except for Sensei. Then you beat him up in like five seconds, and they lost a shit ton of cash. That's what I meant by easy mode Shiro," I chuckled.

"Oh, what was that?" A middle-aged man with an air of nonchalance approached us, a toothpick casually hanging from his lips.

"Oh, Fukuhara-sensei! You're back already?" I called out to him. He was Yamakawa Fukuhara-sensei, our guardian of sorts. He took us in at 10 years-old, when we were making waves shutting down casinos with large scale bets. He has connections to many conglomerates and upper class families.

"Some squinty old man tried to convince me to invest in an educational institution. I tossed him 100 yen out of kindness and walked away." He placed his empty cup on a nearby table. "We better get going now, or Hana-chan is gonna scold me for bringing you two back late."

"We've hung out at night for many years now..." I rolled my eyes.

As we started to make our way out of the hall, something caught Shiro's attention.

"Yo, Shin?" He called out to me.

I turned to him and replied, "Hmm?"

He pointed towards a peculiar sight in the corner of the hall, where a young blonde-haired boy, seemingly around our age, sat.

The boy was engrossed in his own reflection, meticulously combing his hair while gazing into a small mirror.

"I've never seen that guy before..." He remarked.

I squinted, my curiosity piqued by the guy's odd behavior. "You're right, he does seem like a newcomer. Sensei, do you know who that is?"

"Oh that ego freak? Don't worry about him, he's the Koenji Conglomerate heir. A complete weirdo."

No wonder he's sat like that, he's richer than most people here.

"It seems I've been getting the attention that I, a perfect being, deserve. Truly beautiful." I heard the guy say. He didn't even look away from his mirror once during that time.

"Is that a 100,000 yen mirror? The fuck?" I whispered. "It seems like he's more absorbed in himself than meeting with the elites, and what's with that golden handheld mirror?"

"Who knows, let's just leave him be," Shiro suggested, and we continued our exit from the gathering.

Fukuhara-sensei and Hana, I wonder what they're doing right now...

Summer Vacation - The Pool

Today is the final day of the summer vacation, and the school has decided to open the large pool facility to everyone.

Today I've been invited to a hangout by Shibata, who came with his class B friends, Kanzaki and Hamaguchi. It seems they were both fine with me tagging along, which came as a surprise since the relationship between Class B and Class C isn't the best. It seems that our cooperation during the zodiac exam results may have smoothed the relationship a little, but I have no doubts that we're still their biggest enemies. Kanzaki, in particular, is still cautious around me.

"Whoa, talk about luxury. It's completely decked out."

The large pool facility, normally used for club activities and regular practice, looked completely different today. A number of students crowded the area, but food stalls were also everywhere. Snacks and junk food were in abundance: hot dogs, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, and more. Even weirder, upperclassmen seemed to be managing the stalls. There were all types, from serious students who worked hard without so much as a smile to students who looked like they were having a blast.

As we approached the ice cream stall, the scent of freshly churned ice cream wafted through the air. The colourful array of flavours tempted our taste buds, and we couldn't resist indulging in it.

Shibata spoke up, "What flavour are you guys thinking of getting?"

Kanzaki chimed in, "Vanilla, you can't go wrong with that."

"I see, plain and basic, typical Kanzaki-kun." Shibata chuckled.

"Tsk."

Hamaguchi grinned. "I'll go with pistachio."

Shibata nodded and then looked towards me. I glanced at the options, there were many vibrant fruit flavours and such. Wait, there's coffee-flavoured ice cream... Who the hell would buy coffee-flavoured ice cream?

I decided to go with my favourite. "I'll have chocolate chip cookie dough."

Shibata pondered for a moment and then decided, "I'll go with strawberry cheesecake."

With our ice cream in hand, we gathered around a shaded table near the sports pool. Shibata and Hamaguchi began a childish debate about their choices, arguing passionately about the merits of each flavour.

As their debate began to fade out, Kanzaki tilted his head and spoke up in my direction, "Yamakawa, do you workout often?"

"Hmm... yeah, I guess so, but why that question in particular?"

"Your physique is really good, you must be training daily to get to that level." The other two students turned their heads in my direction.

"I've been blessed with some good genes is all." I replied jokingly.

Hamaguchi rolls his eyes, says, "Good genes, my ass!" and points at my arm.

"Hahaha! That bicycle kick goal you scored was also good genes, was it?" Shibata shot me a grin, everyone cackled in response.

"Of course–" Our chatter and laughter were interrupted as we noticed the crowd's attention shifting towards the pool area.

"Kyaaa!"

"So cool!"

"Marry me!" Wait, did I hear that right?

We turned our heads to see a male student, his looks, body, and charisma were drawing the gaze of everyone, particularly the female senpais. He was dominating the volleyball game in the sports pool nearby. It hardly looked like a challenge for him, though I'm hoping he doesn't look in my direction at all. I'm not in the mood for challenging this troublesome senpai again...

"Is that Nagumo-senpai?" Shibata questioned.

"It's like him to pull off public stunts like that." I muttered, remembering the soccer match from around two weeks ago. It seems like he's got a plan to keep his high-status game strong in this school. I glance around, and the food stall seems to be emptying out.

"You guys want some takoyaki?" I asked.

"Nah/I'm fine/I'll gladly take it if you're paying!" Ignoring Shibata's response, the other two denied me simultaneously. I nodded and headed over to the food stall, I didn't have an idea of the food available, so I took a menu from the counter and stayed a reasonable distance away. I looked around, and apparently I've been spotted, I stared at the individual and averted my eyes immediately upon contact.

"Kouhai. You're not going to ignore me now, are you? " A voice called out to me from the pool's direction. The person made his way out of the pool and approached me, shifting the attention from themselves onto me. I could hear various mumbles, but not loud enough for me to decipher what they were talking about.

"He's that cool kouhai!"

"The one who impressed the Vice President, right? He looks handsome too!"

"Right, right?!"

"Sigh... what shitty luck." I muttered, but the person was in close enough range to hear me. I thought in my mind that maybe I shouldn't have gone for some good food at this time. The person who called out to me was, of course, Nagumo, who seemed to be done with humiliating the second year inside the pool. It was one of those truly unfortunate Murphy's Law moments. Usually, I have a knack for coming out on top in games of chance, but today turned out to be one of those rare days where luck just wasn't on my side.

He looked at me with a smirk on his face. "Bad luck? Hahaha, don't worry, Kouhai. I don't plan to drag you into another competition right now. Although I would have loved to go for round two."

I shot him a yawn. "Right now? It'd be smart to stay away from challenging me until graduation, or do you wanna be embarrassed that badly...?"

He simply laughed at my choice of words, but then his eyes narrowed, and he responded with, "Hahaha, you're quite cocky. I came here to ask you whether you've reconsidered my offer of joining the student council."

"What's this, senpai? Last time, you made it seem like you wanted me to turn it down. Besides, even if you're genuinely trying to ask me, I have zero interest in being a member of the student council." I gave him a disinterested look, but his smirk didn't falter at all.

He responds, "That's fine for now... But when I become president, I'll make sure to pry you out of your comfort zone." He said the last part quietly enough for the whole crowd to miss it. That guy sure knows how to put me on the spot. There was a hint of malice behind his words.

Joining the student council is probably the last thing I want right now. The perks that come with it are good, but Nagumo is someone I don't want to be involved with often. I'm not willing to let that guy control my actions, and joining the student council would allow him to keep his surveillance on me.

Evidently, Nagumo's evaluation of me hadn't changed, in fact, it only grew since the last time he asked me. What's unclear is whether he will abuse his power to get me involved with him more often in the future. I've heard that the Student Council President can get directly involved with the creation of special exams.

The power of the president is also a factor. Nagumo, who seems to be a very competent and intellectual student, wouldn't take advantage of his future power should he become president. Of course, the rules he applies have to be justified, and it's highly likely that the higher-ups have to finalise all of his decisions.

"Sure thing, future president- sama. Knock yourself out." My tone had a hint of teasing, and it earned me a sneer from him as he strutted back to his gang of students.

After that little encounter, I finally managed to grab the takoyaki I had my eye on before he barged in. When I returned to our group, I was met with three inquisitive stares.

"Got the Vice President's attention again, huh? Lucky bastard." Shibata exclaimed.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Trust me, there's nothing lucky about having that guy breathing down your neck all the time." With that, I placed the food on the table, and we went back to our random discussions, enjoying the pleasantries of the last day of summer break.

"You guys seem to be having a lot of fun. I hope you don't mind us joining in." Our chatter was interrupted by Ichinose and her friend walking beside her.

"It's fine, we don't mind it at all." Everyone on the table nodded, and they both sat down to the left of me.

The girl to my left looked at me with a penetrating gaze. "I believe we haven't met before, I'm–"

She immediately cut me off. "Hai popular-kun~, I'm Amikura Mako, but call me Mako, Shin-kun~" She leaned into my ear and whispered those last words.

"Hm... well it's a pleasure to meet you Amikura." I sent her a smirk, causing her to fall back. I inferred that she was attempting to catch me off guard.

Once my arms moved to reach the takoyaki near her, she began poking and touching my body, trying to get a reaction out of me. "Shin-kun~ you have quite the body eh-?" While she was teasing me, I was too focused on savouring the takoyaki in my mouth to feel anything from that.

"Um, Mako-chan... Can't you see he's feeling uncomfortable?" Ichinose pulled her off with worry on her face.

"Hmm~ so that's how it is..." Amikura shot her a teasing smirk. "Back when you mentioned your type–"

"MAKO-CHAN!!" Ichinose hurriedly covered her mouth, her cheeks turning slightly pink. Whatever she was going to say about Ichinose must've been an embarrassing story.

"Oh, what's this about?" Shibata joined in on the conversation, seemingly reinvigorated by the food he ate. I felt like the topic was heading back towards me; this girl was devilishly smiling from ear to ear. I glanced at her and decided to respond before she had a chance to.

"Hona–"

"Amikura was talking about how cute you looked while eating."

"..."

"Huh? HUH?!"

It seems to have done the damage, Shibata choked on his food, seemingly in a completely flustered state. Amikura's composure cracked for the smallest time frame, but enough time for me to notice. Her usual expression returned in an instant.

"Haha~ you almost got me." She whispered those words, no longer affected by my teasing. "But, almost isn't enough."

"What are you talking about? Can't you see Shibata's reaction?" I pointed towards the blue-haired boy, who had his head down while mumbling a couple of inaudible phrases.

"Forget about that doofus, why don't you tell us about your type, Shin-kun~?" This girl wasn't giving up on using my first name, she was really trying too hard here.

Though I saw that she glanced towards her left side ever so slightly, Ichinose, who sat next to her, sharply looked at me, seemingly paying attention. I decided to play off of that information.

I pointed to the left, past Amikura, directly at Ichinose without saying a single word or even looking at her. She blinked multiple times, frozen by my actions. Her entire face suddenly turned red, and she was quick to cover it. The rest of the table was silent, all that was heard was the wind blowing and distant cheers.

"Honami-chan~?" The witch began attacking her next target just like that.

I seized this perfect opportunity to flee from the scene, seeing people surround Ichinose, who was completely flustered. I managed to successfully get rid of Amikura's constant attacks.

As I made my way to the changing rooms, I noticed a small folded piece of paper that was snuck down my sleeve earlier.

"Phone numbers..." I internally facepalmed and sighed. I guess having the contact details of these prominent figures won't hurt in the future.

Sports Festival - Beginning of a new semester

Today was the day we returned to class, most of the class was in a good mood having just returned from summer vacation. Some people grumbled, feeling that their vacation time blew by quick.

Sakagami-sensei entered the classroom with his usual demeanor.

"Today's homeroom is going to be different. Before I explain everything, here are the Class Points for the new semester."

Class Points

Class A - 965 CP

Class B - 926 CP

Class C - 852 CP

Class D - 214 CP

The other 13 Class Points that we won from the Sudou case, which our classes already moved on from, were subtracted from Class D and added to our class. Sakagami-sensei continued his explanation after the reveal.

"From today, classes will resume again. However, during the second Semester, from September to the start of October for a period of one month, in anticipation of the Sports Festival, there will be increased physical education classes. Keep that in mind for the distribution of the new timetables. And also, along with the timetables, material regarding the Sports Festival will also be distributed. The students from the front will distribute the printouts to the back."

A sports festival? What perplexed me was that this wasn't a special exam, or at least it wasn't called a special exam. It was just labelled as a sports festival. Considering there is a month worth of preparations, I still believe that Class Points will be involved in the outcome.

I could see many students excited, this is arguably the most athletic class in the grade after all, many of the class will get to show off their skills.

"The details on the printed handouts can be found on the school homepage as well. Please refer to them if necessary."

"Sakagami-sensei, is this festival another one of the special exams?" Kaneda asked, I myself had similar thoughts.

"You're free to interpret this however you wish. In any case, this event will massively impact each and every class." Ah well, whatever the case, we should prepare accordingly for a potential change in Class Points.

At an ordinary school, you could find a way to sit out or skip a sports festival. If this festival affected the entire class's fate, however, then even the least athletic of us had to participate.

There were students like Ibuki, who were motivated by the mere possibility of challenging another class in sport events.

Through the commotion, I decided to read through the handout, I stopped once I noticed something in the description. I was about to raise my hand until Sakagami-sensei spoke.

"Some people may have noticed this already, but for this year's festival, we're going to divide all the students across all grade levels into two groups and have them compete against each other. You in Class C are assigned to the White Team. Class B is also assigned to the White Team, so they will compete alongside you. That means they'll be your allies this time around." This essentially means that we'll be competing against classes A and D.

"First, let's review the sports festival's potential outcomes" Sakagami-sensei spoke once again. As he spoke, I lowered my eyes to the handout on my desk.

Sports Festival Rules and Team Division

The sports festival divides all students, across all grade levels, into two teams: Red and White. The breakdown goes as follows: Classes A and D are on the Red Team, Classes B and C are on the White Team.

Point Allocation for All Competitors (Individual Competitions)

Points will be allocated as follows: first place will be awarded fifteen points, second place will be awarded twelve points, third place will be awarded ten points, and fourth place will be awarded eight points.

One point will be deducted for coming in fifth place, and one additional point will be subtracted for each place below that. (During a team competition, the winning team will be awarded 500 points.)

Point Allocation for Recommended Competitors

Points will be allocated as follows: first place will be awarded fifty points, second place will be awarded thirty points, third place will be awarded fifteen points, and fourth place will be awarded ten points.

Two points will be deducted for coming in fifth place, and two additional points will be subtracted for each place below that. (The final competition, the relay race, will offer three times the point values.)

Red Team vs. White Team Outcome

After reviewing the combined overall scores for each class, 100 classpoints will be deducted from the first, second, and third-year batches of the two classes on the losing team.

The Effect of Ranking by Grade Level

50 class points will be awarded to the class that scores highest in each of the three grade levels. Classes that achieve second place in their grade level will not see any changes to their class point totals. Classes that achieve third place will have 50 points deducted, and classes that achieve fourth place will have 100 class points deducted.

"Um, sensei, how many points does the winning team get? That doesn't appear to be written anywhere," asked Hiyori.

Sakagami-sensei's response to that naïve question was cruel and brief. "None. Their reward will be not having any points deducted."

"Ugh, are you kidding me?! That doesn't sound good, like, at all!" Cries of agony sprang up all over the classroom. It was complete pandemonium.

Of course, that was hardly surprising. Up until then, whenever there was an enormous risk, there had been an enormous reward to spur us on. However, that hardly seemed the case in this sports festival.

"We have the strongest class in physicals, even if the White Team loses. Assuming that the Red Team wins, if Class B or C finish in first place, all classes in the grade will endure a loss in points." I muttered quietly.

The only way to gain points is to finish in 1st place in the class results, and your team wins the overall matchup. If we assume it to be equal chances between all classes, it would be a 1/8 chance for each class in our grade. Even on the chance of meeting both conditions, it is only an increase of 50 Class Points...

"Please keep in mind that points are awarded and subtracted, not just by team, but on a class-by-class basis. So, even if the White Team wins, you'll still be hit by the 100-point penalty if Class C holds the lowest combined overall score," Sakagami-sensei added. In other words, we'd end up losing unless all of us took this seriously.

Individual Competition Rewards (may be applied to the next midterm exam)

Students who achieve first place in an individual competition will be awarded either 5000 private points, or the score equivalent of three points on a written test. (In the event that a student accepts the test points, they will not be allowed to give those test points to another student.)

Students who achieve second place in an individual competition will be awarded either 3000 private points, or the score equivalent of two points on a written test. (In the event that a student accepts the test points, they will not be allowed to give those test points to another student.)

Students who achieve third place in an individual competition will be awarded either 1000 private points, or the score equivalent of one point on a written test. (In the event that a student accepts the test points, they will not be allowed to give those test points to another student.)

Students who score lowest in an individual competition will have 1000private points deducted from their total. (In the event that a student has less than 1000 points, they will instead receive a one-point penalty on a written exam.)

Regarding Rule Violations/Foul Play

Read and comply with every competition's rules. Those who violate the rules will be disqualified. Anyone engaging in foul play may be forced to withdraw from the festival. In such cases, the school may render all previously awarded points invalid.

MVP Reward

The student who receives the highest total score across all competitions will be awarded 100,000 private points.

MVP Rewards for Each Individual Grade Level

The three students from each grade level who receive their grade's highest total score across all competitions will be awarded 10,000 private points

"Sakagami-sensei, what does it mean by 'adding written test scores'?" Ishizaki spoke up.

"In the upcoming sports festival, you have a unique opportunity to earn valuable test points as prizes, which you can then apply towards your written exams. This means you have the flexibility to utilize your hard-earned points as you see fit."

People couldn't help but let out cheers of joy. The most athletic students among us looked especially excited about that. If they went all-out in the sports festival, they could supplement their scores in the event of a failing grade. Students who score in the lower bound of the class, like Ishizaki and Kondo, and were also athletic, were thrilled to hear this. However, it was clear that this strategy could backfire for those less gifted in academics if they happened to finish at the bottom of the events. Thankfully, most of the students in Class C who lack in academics have at least average physical abilities, hence it's unlikely that this scenario will occur.

Now that we'd heard the rules, it was time to look at the different kinds of events in this sports festival. They were divided into two categories: "all participants" and "recommended participants."

"All participants" was exactly what it sounded like: An event that literally all the students in a class participated in. Individual events like the 100-meter dash fell into that category, as did group events like the tug-of-war. Meanwhile, only certain select students would participate in "recommended participant" events. The word "recommended" implied that a person was nominated, but a student could put themselves forward if the rest of their class agreed.

A single person could also participate in a competition meant for multiple people. Events in the "recommended participants" category included the scavenger hunt, the co-ed three-legged race, and the 1200-meter relay race. Most likely, only the best of the best would be involved in these.

"Details of the events are noted in your handouts. There will be no changes whatsoever," said Sakagami-sensei.

"Ugh, this is crazy hard, though! This is on a completely different level than junior high!"

Events for All Participants
- 100-Meter Dash
- Hurdle Race
- Capture the Flag (boys only)
- Ball Toss (girls only)
- Tug-of-War (separate events for boys and girls)
- Obstacle Course Race
- Three-Legged Race
- Cavalry Battle
- 200-Meter Dash

Events for Recommended Participants
- Scavenger Hunt
- Four-Way Tug-of-War
- Three-Legged Race (mixed boys and girls)
- 1200-Meter Relay Race (mixed grade level, all three years)

"Isn't this like, way too many events." One student groaned.

The idea of every student partaking in at least 8 events clearly agonised the less physically gifted students.

"I appreciate your concern, but the school already considered that," answered Sakagami-sensei.

"No events require specific skills, such as cheerleading, dancing, or coordinated group gymnastics. The sports festival will be a thorough test of your general physical ability and stamina."

The unathletic students' resistance was in vain. Sakagami-sensei had anticipated their every complaint.

"Another important thing to note is the participation table. Fill it out with the order you'll participate in, and I will submit it to the school on your behalf. I don't imagine any junior high has adopted a system like this, so do be extra careful not to make any mistakes."

"Wait. So, we can decide the order in which we'll participate?" A student asked.

"Your class must come to a consensus on everything to do with the sports festival, such as which students will participate in which events. No changes will be allowed once the deadline passes, no matter the reason. That is the most crucial rule of this sports festival. The submission window opens one week prior to the festival and ends at 5:00 pm on the day before it begins. If by chance you miss the window, you'll be assigned randomly, be careful not to miss the chance."

"I realize that no further changes will be accepted once the submission window closes. However, in the event of someone's absence, what do we do? In the case of an individual competition, I assume that would be treated as an absence, but for group competitions? Especially in games like the cavalry battle and the three-legged race, we might not be able to compete at all if one important person is missing." Kaneda got up and asked a good question.

"Should you fall short of the minimum required number of people for competitions for all participants, you will be deemed unable to continue and disqualified. Using your example of the cavalry battle, someone's absence would make you a bit short of a full formation. But you'd just have to perform with them missing, wouldn't you? The same goes for the three-legged race. It'd probably be wise to choose a healthy, hearty student to be your partner."

Our fates were linked, then. It was crucial that we chose a student who excelled in athletics, and they had to be healthy and free of any injuries.

"For recommended-participant events, however, you are permitted to arrange a substitute. Don't even think about picking someone willy-nilly or lying your way through it—we've put a measure in place to prevent that. To establish a substitute, you must offer points as compensation."

"If an athlete's health suffers, or they're severely injured, will it be possible for that person to continue participating if they wish? Or will they have to stop and see a doctor?" One student asked.

"We leave that to the students to decide for themselves. Knowing your own limits will be an indispensable skill in the working world. For instance, you can't simply take a day off just because you have a fever on the date of an extremely important conference. You'll just have to grin and bear it," replied Sakagami-sensei.

So, personal responsibility might trump personal health if the stakes were high enough.

"However, if someone's health gets truly poor, then they'll have to drop out," he said. So it seems that injury can be a valid reason for dropping out.

"It seems that you guys have a grasp on all the rules now. You have 20 minutes of homeroom left before you must head to the gymnasium for the announcement." On those words, Sakagami-sensei left the classroom. There were various mutters amongst my classmates talking about the sports festival.

BANG!

Ryuuen, after hearing all the rules, slammed his desk and stood from his seat, "Oi, maggots! For the preparation, do whatever you want. I'm putting Albert and Kinoshita in charge of training you. Based on the training data I'll get from the next month, I'm gonna come up with a plan and lay it out." He delivered those words to the entire class and sat down, causing the murmurs to return.

"There aren't many, if not any loopholes in this you know, it's pretty much all based on skill." I replied

"What about the participation table, after it's submitted the night before, that's the final table right?"

"You mean, we can get spies in the other classes to leak us the participation tables?"

"AKA, using Kikyō once again, kukuku." He whipped out his phone and began texting someone, presumably Kushida.

"No matter how many times they change the participation table, Kushida can just keep checking and sending over information to us. But, the deadline is the same for all of the classes, so if they find out that someone's been leaking the table, they can change it at the last minute and fuck us over."

"Kukuku, I thought you'd get it. They will never suspect Kikyō to be their rat, I have my ways of bending the rules."

He seems oddly fixated on Class D, well it's mainly because of his fixation on humiliating Horikita.

I got up out of my seat, giving him a side glance. "Hoh~, care to tell me your secret methods, leader?"

"Kukuku, you're not gonna try some shit behind my back now?" He laughed, before returning to his phone.

"Huh, when have I done something like that?" I replied in a tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Kukuku, I'll get to that bastard behind Suzune soon..."

I got up out of my seat and decided to go for a quick walk out of the classroom, there was still 10 minutes remaining until we head to the gymnasium.

—————————————————————————

"Hurry up! We're leaving this boring ass place." Ryuuen commanded, to which everyone in our class obeyed, and began walking out of the gymnasium one by one.

"So you don't intend to cooperate with us?" Ichinose's voice interrupted the large crowd heading towards the exit. The other first year classes in the gymnasium turned their heads in our direction.

Among those students, Ryuuen turned around with his hands in his pockets.

"You understand that I'm leaving out of goodwill, right? Even if I offered to cooperate with you, I can't imagine that you'd believe me. In the end, you'd just probe me for information to see whether I can be trusted, right? It's a waste of time," he scoffed.

"I see. So, you're just saving us the hassle, then," replied Ichinose.

"Yep, that's it. You should be grateful." Ryuuen sneered and continued walking, with all the Class C students trailing behind him. I stopped and leaned against the wall near the exit for a moment, observing all the other groups gathered in the gymnasium.

Class D seems to be cooperating with Katsuragi, who's clearly taken back some control over Class A. There are about 10 to 15 students siding with him. Sakayanagi is sitting on a chair with a calm aura,

"Hey, Yamakawa-kun. Do you think you guys can win without cooperating?" asked Ichinose, while heading towards me.

"Who knows? Whether our class cooperates or not, it'll be hard enough to win as a team against those guys."

"So you're going to give up so easily?"

"There's barely a chance that White team can come out on top here, look at the other side of the gymnasium," I pointed to the senior Class A students, who were all huddled in groups sharing their plans.

"And look at us," I pointed to a lone senior student, a female with platinum-blonde hair and crimson eyes. She's sitting on a chair with elegance and an unapproachable aura.

"Clearly, some of our classes have a slight lack of chemistry compared to the others, but because we're classes B and C, the average quality per student is most likely higher than the Red Team's." I analysed.

She leaned against the wall to my right, "We should still attempt to cooperate, it's not impossible to win right?"

Ichinose's principles took priority for her, she still had her own ideals of winning through teamwork and cooperation.

I got off the wall and walked towards the exit door, before turning around to meet her eyes. "I'll consider talking to Ryuuen about it." She nodded with a beaming smile.

In reality, I was in agreement with Ryuuen here. Cooperation was hard between our classes in the first place, the real reason was that Ichinose would never approve of the methods Ryuuen uses. We'd end up in major trouble if Class B gets word of any of his dirty tactics. Regardless, winning the Sports Festival will be hard enough, focusing on the individual competitions and minimising the Class Point losses is our best bet.

I went and sat down at a bench in the path behind the gymnasium, looking up at the sky. I wonder what they're planning to do, I doubt theywill sit idly and watch as Kushida betrays their class.

As I was thinking about my next stage of actions, a certain student approached my bench and sat next to me, I let them do as they wanted.

"My, that gaze would have made a normal woman faint. Fortunately I'm not just an ordinary lady."

"That's the first thing you say? Not an introduction old lady..." I sigh and look up at the sky, it seems to be a cloudy morning.

"You'll have to earn my name, handsome kouhai. I've heard some words about you from the second years, Mr. Notice Me seems to have taken an interest in you." She laughed and crossed her legs. "A lot of the students talk about how he has an interest in you."

"Mr. Notice Me? Hahaha what's with that stupid nickname? If you're talking about the blondie then I guess he's been annoying me." I chuckled. "But what does that have to do with anything?" My expression turned serious.

"Now... that blonde pig won't give attention to any student." She placed a finger over her chin. "Can you impress your beautiful senpai in the sports festival~?"

"I'm flattered, to be given attention by Female Koenji-senpai." I scoffed, she sent me a look of slight disgust. Her disinterest and high self-importance reminds me of Koenji.

"Don't compare me to that narcissist."

Hmm... there seems to be bad blood between the two of them.

I looked at her with a light smirk, "I'm going with the flow, it's just a physical exam, nothing can be done to tremendously affect the results." As I finished speaking, she leaned over and brought her face closer to my ear.

"How about this, if you impress me, you'll be rewarded with a rare gift of your senpai's phone number~" She added, pulling her face back to her normal position. Her phone number is rare? She really values herself highly as a woman.

"Hmm... what else is in it for me?"

"Still not satisfied? You'll have future help from your dear senpai~"

How bold, though she seems quite intelligent. From her aura I can tell that she's definitely amongst the top students in her grade.

I looked at her quizzically, trying to understand whether there is another purpose behind all of this. "Is there any need for you to go that far to get some entertainment?" I asked her the question that was on my mind.

"Fufu~, I'll tell you something, this school has completely bored me to death. There are only two students in this place that have ever caught my interest." Basically, she's become completely bored of the lack of competition in her grade.

The mysterious senpai stood up from the bench, "But when I saw you in the gym, my intuition told me that you weren't a normal student. In fact, you're definitely going to interest me~. I look forward to it, kouhai-kun." She began to walk off in the direction of the school building.

I've caught the interest of a troublesome senpai. Well it might be useful to have someone of that calibre helping me in the future.

Sports Festival - Preparations

Flashback (March 24th)

The heavy rain kept pouring as I stood in the same spot for 2 hours, with my umbrella in hand, looking down.

"It's almost been a year, huh?"

"I'm about to go to high school, can you believe that? Me going to high school? You'd be laughing if you saw it."

"It's such a weird story. One random day passed by, and I found a recommendation letter lying in my mailbox. I was gonna reject it until I read through the contents."

"Getting chosen by an elite high school that's closed off from the outside world. So convenient, right? Hahaha! I have a feeling someone was behind this."

"That letter almost looked like it was meant for you. I was never the kind of guy who enjoyed going to school. I remember dropping out of junior high in my first year because it was boring as fuck. I wonder how they thought I was worthy."

"I took advantage and accepted it, there's no way I wouldn't use this chance to run away, right? Because that's what you would do... To live freely."

"At any rate, the three of you taught me enough to survive through the next three years."

"Speaking of which, Fukuhara-sensei and Hana-san are still alive and well. I doubt you'd be worried, they're strong enough to survive anything that comes their way."

"Because of us, their stress has amplified, as if they weren't stressed enough."

"Us? Haah, when did I become so out of touch?"

"You were the one who helped out, I was the one who dragged you into this mess in the first place."

"At any rate, I hope you're watching my boring-ass life right now. I hope it doesn't get more boring when I go to high school."

"Ha! Who am I kidding? I'll probably be bored to death again, it's better than having enemies everywhere, I guess..."

"..." The rain continued pouring over the graveyard at extreme levels.

"Tsk."

"What a joke..."

"What the fuck am I doing? Standing here and talking to a rock with letters engraved on it..."

"You can't even hear me, it's all pointless."

"And yet I came here and blabbered on for hours every week, what a shitty contradiction."

"I wonder what you would've said to me if the roles were reversed."

"Oh, there's one thing that I've forgotten to say for the past year..."

"No, it's more like I never had the strength to say it."

"I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry."

Ayanokouji POV

"Ayanokouji-kun, you were the one who decided to invite me out today, weren't you?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, I can't imagine that Horikita-san would invite me," replied Kushida. Still smiling, she briefly looked over at Horikita, then returned her gaze to me.

"Why can't you imagine that Horikita would invite you?" I asked.

"Ha ha! You know, you're kind of an awful person, Ayanokouji-kun. You understand that things aren't good between Horikita-san and me, don't you?" Kushida spoke frankly, knowing I understood. Horikita listened quietly, not attempting to deny anything.

"To be completely honest, it's not that I don't understand it. Rather, it's like I half believe it and half don't."

The player in the corner kicked the ball, sending it towards a teammate waiting near the goalpost. Hirata skillfully caught it. Seeing that he couldn't score a goal if he tried for a shot from right there, he passed the ball to a teammate, a Class B student we already knew. The ball sailed into the goal in a brilliant arc.

"So, Shibata's in the soccer club."

"Yeah. Hirata-kun often says that Shibata-kun is better than he is. It seems like they're close," answered Kushida. As expected, she was especially well informed. "He often praises him and Yam-Woah! They're moving fast!" Kushida couldn't hold back her excitement.

When the game started back up, Shibata got the ball and quickly wove through the opposing team, trading passes with Yamakawa, who was keeping up with his speed.

"Wow... they're very coordinated." Horikita mumbled. They were connecting passes without even looking at each other, it was a sign that they'd practiced together plenty of times beforehand.

"They're fast." Both of their speeds seemed about equal to Hirata's—no, even faster. Hirata hadn't been lying when praising Shibata.

"Wow, they're really going at it! They're all fired up! This is the best!" A tall guy in a soccer uniform walked past the spectators, and by spectators, I mean us. I had assumed that he probably played some kind of sport, so this just confirmed that it was soccer.

"Good morning, Nagumo-senpai!" said Kushida.
Apparently, she knew him. Horikita, meanwhile, had a small, nearly imperceptible reaction. Nagumo was a candidate to become the next Student Council President.

"Oh? Right, you're Kikyō-chan. I see you're on a date. Nice," said Nagumo.

"Ha ha! No, it's not like that. I was just curious, so I came here to watch," she replied.

"Great. Enjoy. We don't really hold back here, so I think this is a good way to measure our players' strengths," said Nagumo.

He winked at Kushida and headed down to meet up with the others. Apparently, he'd guessed what we were doing. The soccer club seemed excited when Nagumo joined them.

"Is it okay for someone to be on the student council and in a club?" I asked.

"It looks like he's not really in the club anymore," Kushida replied. "But even though he quit, he's still the best player. He shows up to practice from time to time to help guide the rest of the team."

"So, you're all set, Nagumo?" asked one of the students.

"Yeah, dude. I overslept, but after running some laps, I'm all warmed up," Nagumo replied. He got on the field and immediately dominated the match.

No one on the pitch could keep up with his dribbling, he easily passed Hirata. Even Shibata and Yamakawa struggled to keep up with him.

"The player handling the ball right now is Sonoda-kun from Class C. He's quite fast, isn't he?" mused Kushida.

All the students in the soccer club were nimble. The only ones from our class who could probably hold their own were Sudou and Hirata, but even they'd be hard-pressed to keep up. Shibata, in particular, was the best performer out of the first-years.

Yamakawa Shin POV

It's been a week since the Sports Festival announcement, and the training has gone smoothly in our class. As for me, I'm currently playing a soccer practice game with Shibata and Hirata on my team.

Now it's become even more troublesome since Nagumo joined in the middle of the match, he won't sit back and let me rest.

I overheard something about him oversleeping, why couldn't he have just slept an extra hour so I wouldn't have to see him here?

I dribbled down the wing, trying a couple of new moves here and there. Once I got to the corner, I began to look for a gap in order to send the ball into the box.

'Now!' I timed a cross into the box immediately after the perfect opening appeared.

"Nice pass!" Shibata received the ball and sent a powerful volley into the bottom corner, out of the goalkeeper's reach.

I walked away and suddenly felt an arm around my shoulder. "But man, the others might not realise it, you're moving slower than usual today. It's like you're holding back or something." He continued to speak in a low voice, questioning my performance.

"Well, I guess I'm exhausted from all of the studying I had to do earlier. I don't want to get injured before the sports festival, you know?" I lied.

"Dude, don't overwork yourself, otherwise, I won't be able to race you in the relay," Shibata replied.

We both decided that we'd start the relay for our respective classes to encourage competition. It was easy to convince Ryuuen since he'd already planned for me to participate.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, don't worry."

In reality, I intentionally played worse than I usually do because there were quite a number of spectators today, and gathering information for the sports festival was most likely their aim. I would rather keep things low and go all out at the festival.

Nagumo surprisingly didn't get involved with me throughout the entire match, I'm hoping that he lost interest in me. Or, it could be that he realised that I wasn't giving it my all and decided to avoid getting involved.

(Flashback) Third Person POV

The girl stood amidst the opulence of the grand ballroom. A man who looks to be around 40 years old, with long, flowing brown hair had bumped into her. Instead of offering an apology or a courteous acknowledgment, he chose to ignore her presence, leaving her with a heart pounding not just from fear but also a hint of resentment.

Their eyes locked for what felt like an eternity, though it was mere seconds, the passage of time stretched by the man's powerful glare, sending shivers down her spine. She knew better than to provoke those who wielded both influence and wealth in this area.

Just as her anxiety threatened to overwhelm her, a sudden sensation of weightlessness enveloped her. Strong arms encircled her waist, lifting her effortlessly off her feet. Her wide eyes locked onto the face of a young man, similar in age to her but possessing an aura that felt both powerful and enigmatic.

The person who held her had striking white hair that seemed to emit an ethereal glow against the dimly lit backdrop of the ballroom. Crimson eyes, like burning embers, met hers with an intensity that made her breath catch in her throat. She couldn't decipher the poker face he wore, but an ominous presence emanated from him.

"Are you all right?" the enigmatic figure asked, his voice gentle yet tinged with an underlying concern.

The girl, still caught in the whirlwind of emotions, managed to nod. "I... Yeah, I'm fine."

For a brief, suspended moment, the world around them seemed to hold its breath, with nobody sparing a glance in their direction, oblivious to their existence. With a graceful movement, the stranger set her back on her feet and turned around to walk away.

"W–"

She didn't have time to utter a word before the white-haired stranger vanished into the sea of faces, leaving the girl both bewildered and intrigued, her curiosity piqued by this mysterious encounter in the midst of this social gathering.

"...ki-chan!"

"Wake up Chiaki-chan! Homeroom is about to start."

The girl woke up from her slumber, laid back on her chair, and outstretched her hands.

"Maya-chan... sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night."

Her friend chuckled as she patted her shoulder. "But you should try to stay awake in class, isn't that what you always tell me?"

With a sigh, the girl nodded and straightened in her chair, her thoughts lingering on the vivid dream that had momentarily transported her to the past. The image of those white locks and crimson eyes continued to haunt her, but now, they were no longer just a distant memory but a puzzle piece connected to the present.

'What a funny twist of fate...'

"Without further ado, let's decide on the participants for the recommended events,"

Yamakawa Shin POV

With only one week left until the sports festival, we're now fully prepared for the All-Participant events. We have been making thorough preparations. Albert and Kinoshita have been training the boys and girls rigorously. We've gotten enough information on the strengths and weaknesses of each student in the class.

The teachers told us to make use of the weekly two-hour homeroom period in any way we wished. Today we had another two-hour free period.

Prior to the event, we were tasked with choosing who would take part in the recommended-participant activities and making plans for the events with everyone in the class getting involved. Those two decisions would have a significant impact on whether or not we won.

"Tired..." Hiyori's voice broke me out of my thoughts.

"Hm?" When I turned around in my seat to face her, I noticed that she was half asleep on the desk, which was out of character for her.

"Shin, your exercise routine is strenuous!" She cried out while cutely flailing her arms.

In truth, I have been training her for the sports festival, making her perform my warm-up exercises.

Though if I told her that those were just my warm-ups, she would lose all motivation to train ever again.

"I'm trying to get you to an average level. You've neglected your physical training, I hope that by now you've realised how important it is in this school to be physically fit." I playfully poked her head, which was lying on the desk, like a parent scolding their child.

"A-average? She sighs, with a hint of melancholy, "All of that daily training will only get me to an average level...?"

I decided to change the topic to boost her mood. "Oh, by the way, I finished that book you gave me–"

"Really?!" All of a sudden, she jumped back into her seat, her eyes sparkling and full of life. It was as if the training hadn't affected her in the first place.

I don't read books often, and Hiyori doesn't have anyone who shares her hobby with as much passion as she does. So whenever I read a book, her mood is completely uplifted.

"Of Mice and Men was a good read, who would have thought it would end like that?" The ending did remind me of something...

And here I thought I'd gotten over it already...

"It was justified, Lennie–"

BANG!

Hiyori was cut off by the sound of a loud bang reverberating through the class.

"Listen up, you guys. We're going to set a trap for Horikita Suzune. I don't care what it takes to completely crush her. I have a plan in mind. First, I'll show you something interesting." He pulled out his phone from his pocket and began fiddling with it.

DING!

Various phones rang at the same time inside the quiet classroom. Ryuuen sent a photo to the class group chat, consisting of a blackboard with specific names. The names shown include 'Hirata Yosuke', 'Sudou Ken', and 'Horikita Suzune'. It is evident that this should be Class D's participation table for the festival. Kushida seems to have done her part of the task.

"We have our hands on Class D's participation table."

Ishizaki swiftly stood up and said, "Ryuuen-san, what's the point in getting this? No, forget that, how on earth did you—"

"Kukuku, we have an advantage, dumbass, I'm gonna write our participation table based off of theirs. We'll have our strongest and fastest people face off against their strongest and fastest." He briefly explained. "These are the participants for the recommended events." He then began writing names on the blackboard.

Scavenger Hunt: Komiya Kyogo, Ishizaki Daichi, Yamashita Saki, Suzuki Hidetoshi, Yuuki Yuuya, Kondou Reo

Four-way Tug-of-war: Yamada Albert, Yamakawa Shin, Ryuuen Kakeru, Ishizaki Daichi

Mixed-gender Three-legged Race: Yamakawa Shin/Ibuki Mio, Sonoda Masashi/Yajima Mariko

1200-Metre Relay Race: Yamakawa Shin, Ryuuen Kakeru, Ibuki Mio, Yajima Mariko, Yabu Nanami , Sonoda Masashi

Using the participants that have low academic ability for the scavenger hunt was a good decision, since it's a game of luck. Having them win would give them some extra test points to fall back on in the future.

The four-way tug-of-war was simply based off grip strength.

As for the other two events, it was an expected roster, using our fastest students... except for the unusual addition of Yabu to the relay race. As far as the training went, she was behind Kinoshita, Ibuki, and Yajima in terms of speed. Maybe there is something planned that I'm not aware of...

"Look, I'm not discounting your strategy or whatever, but give me a chance to fight Horikita." Ibuki suddenly spoke out.

"Kukuku, fine. You only have one chance, Ibuki. If you lose, I'm kicking the shit out of you."

"Piss off! As if I'd lose to that girl."

"Give me a reward for my consideration, kukuku." Ibuki gritted her teeth at his reply.

"Ryuuen-kun, I'm not against your strategy, I just think that I should have been selected for the relay at least." Kinoshita voiced her complaints, understandably so. She is a member of the track and field club and is one of the fastest girls in our grade. Having her removed from all the recommended events is a blow to her pride.

"Kukuku, there's a reason for that, Kinoshita. I'm putting you in the same group as Horikita for the obstacle course. You're gonna collide with Suzune and make it look like Suzune injured you."

"Huh?! What if I get caught? They are going to have cameras everywhere during the event. Why would I purposely get injured?" She retorted in an attempt to slip away from doing this.

"One question at a time, girl. For that reason, you'll do it during the obstacle course. You'll let her overtake you and then distract her, making her slow down. As soon as you're about to overtake her, you'll collide with her, causing both of you to fall to the ground. Your initial injury won't be big enough to file a complaint, so I'll come by and..."

Ryuuen then performed a loud stomp with a sinister grin on his face, causing most people to tremble in fear.

A very Ryuuen-like strategy, using underhanded tricks and even going as far as injuring a classmate in order to increase his credibility.

"I-I can't accept this..." she replied. The deal was far too risky and also put your health on the line for a selfish plan. There was nothing for her to benefit from, but I'm sure he has thought out that part.

"That's why I'll make you a deal, if you agree to the plan, I'll send you 500,000 private points." She perked up upon hearing the reward.

"Really? I'll do it..."

"She changed her mind that quickly...?" Ibuki muttered to herself, shocked by how quickly she changed her mind.

I turned my head to the side, "It's 500k, You won't get that opportunity often."

"I wouldn't even do it for 1,000,000 Private Points. Getting beat up by that guy is the worst." She huffed.

"Haaah, come on... I get it now! You're trying to hide the fact that you'd love to get stomped on by Ryuuen for free—Ow!" Before I could finish, I received a punt kick to the leg.

"Not in a million years!"

Her face was red from... anger? Yes, anger.

DING!

I hear the notification sound of a message coming from my phone. I opened it discretely, and then closed it upon seeing the name of the sender.

"Stage 1, done."

—————————————————————————

The Festival Begins

At last, the day had come. The curtains were about to rise on the sports festival, and it looked to be a long day. The entire student body, all wearing their jerseys, marched together as one. Well, we called it a march, but most people just strolled along, taking the movement seriously.
enough not to disrupt the order.

"This is taking forever..."

Fujimaki, from the third-year Class A, gave a speech during the opening ceremony. Although there weren't many, a number of spectators watched from the school grounds' outskirts. They were probably adults who worked on campus.

The school didn't seem to have put any strict restrictions in place. in place regarding who could attend the festival. Occasionally, one of the spectators smiled or waved. Meanwhile, the teachers themselves watched us without the vaguest hint of smiles.

Medical personnel could also be seen setting up some kind of cottage. It could fit around twenty people and was equipped with an air conditioner and a water cooler. The school's preparations were as meticulous as as they had been on the deserted island. They provided tents for the Red Team and the White Team; the tents faced each other on opposite sides of the track. The school didn't want the teams mingling with each other, except during competitions.

The first event of the festival was the 100-metre dash, and I saw that a camera had been installed and pointed toward the finish line. The line between victory and defeat could come down to a hair's breadth in competitions like these. I supposed that was why they hadn't included events like cheerleading, which were challenging to score.

I walked up to Ryuuen, who was watching over the Class A and D students, with a question in mind.

"Why did you have to put me in that guy's group for this race?" I sighed, I was going to get a lot of early attention because of this.

"I'm sure you know why, Suzune's dog needs to be put in his place."

"So you want me to hand him second place huh? Completely demolish his pride?"

"Kukuku. Aim for first place, but by a small margin, he'll get even more pissed off that way."
He replied, watching the first-year male students gather at the track.

Ryuuen seems to have a high evaluation of my physical abilities, probably due to the dozens of random occasions where he's tried to fight me.

It was time for the first-year boys to gather in their participation groups on the track. There were 10 different groups for the boys, and 10 for the girls, which meant that each group would have 8 people participating. 8 people, meaning 2 people per class participating in each race.

I was already aware that I am racing against Sudou, because of the 'leak' of Class D's participation table. Other than Sudou, the rest of the competition seemed relatively weak.

Once I gathered at the track and got ready for the run, there was a momentary silence, anticipating the sound. my partner called out to me before the race began, "Yama-shi, good luck."

"Kaneda, I don't rely on luck." I smirked, getting in a running stance.

Ayanokouji POV

The signal sounded, and the students bolted off. Two students in particular were running at a much higher speed than the other competitors, completely leaving them in the dust within 30 metres. The spectators cheered enthusiastically as Yamakawa and Sudou showcased their competitiveness.

"Woah!"

"Beat that Yamakawa guy!"

"Go Ken!"

Cheers sung amongst the crowd, everyone paid close attention to the first race of the sports festival.

The race continued almost equally between these two, until the last 10 metres, where Yamakawa barely pulled ahead, and strove to the finish line. The distance was close, but enough to tell who the winner was.

"It was a close race as expected, Sudou-kun was unlucky not to win at the end." Hirata, my partner, seemed genuinely impressed, and not displeased at the result.

"Yeah. Feels like all the classes are hyped up now." I replied.

"Dammit! I almost had it." Sudou was slightly frustrated with the result, but it seems like his motivation rose from that slight defeat. Sudou certainly was unlucky to be up against another athletic student.

Yamakawa Shin POV

We hurried off the track and headed over to the tent. The next group would be starting, and we were in the way. As I made my way back to the white team's tent, I was showered with attention.

"Yamakawa-kun, you were so fast!"

I looked at the girls with a raised eyebrow, "Eh? Most of them were just slow..."

"No, no! You zoomed past them, you even beat Sudou-kun!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

I went and sat at the furthest seat, so that I could watch the rest of the races in peace. By the time I had sat down, the 7th race had started.

The only notably fast people in this race were Hirata and Sonoda. There was also Ayanokouji, who I've been keeping an eye on recently, alongside other Class D students who tend to be quiet.

"You were quite fast." A voice called out to me from the side. My momentary peace disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Thanks, Ibuki—Wait! A compliment from Ibuki?!"

"Urgh, this is why I hate talking to you." She sent me a disgusted look. I felt slightly pained, but I brushed it off.

"Are you ready to race Horikita? If you lose–"

"Heh, I will win." She smirked, and both of our eyes locked onto the race that began once the signal sounded.

As expected, Hirata took first place, Sonoda took second, and Ayanokouji took 5th place, his performance was average.

As expected, using the festival events to narrow down my suspicions isn't going to work. The person can either hold back and choose to blend in with the other students, or they can perform well, but without using their full abilities.

The mastermind seems to enjoy lurking in the shadows, so for now I'll cross off the possibility that it's Hirata. I've interacted with Hirata more than most of the other boys, if he was the one manipulating Class D, it would seem unnatural. His decision to lead the class from the front is also different to the characteristics that the mastermind has shown.

For the rest of the races, nothing notable happened, both Ryuuen and Shibata won their respective races race quite easily, as expected. The only other thing that crossed my mind was Koenji's absence, it was a blessing for us in the White Team. The Red Team would end up missing out on a lot of points.

After the first-year boys finished running the 100-meter dash, they returned to their seats and focused on watching the girls' races. They cared about the race's outcome, of course, but they also just wanted to watch the girls run.

There wasn't much to note about the first-year girls' groups, Kinoshita had Onodera from Class D in her group. According to Ryuuen, Onodera and Horikita are the only two girls in Class D that would challenge our first place spots. It will not be an easy race for Kinoshita, but I still believe she'll win.

Meanwhile, Yajima was in a group with Kamuro from Class A, who was one of the more athletic female students in the grade. I experienced her stealth first-hand when she followed me around during summer vacation. However, Yajima is the fastest girl in Class C, she should have no trouble winning her race.

Then, there was Ibuki and Horikita's group, which I expect to be the most competitive race so far. Ibuki seemed to have developed a one sided rivalry against Horikita, maybe because of the island exam, or something else that happened which I was unaware of.

Both Kinoshita and Yajima won their groups as expected. And after a couple of other races, it was time for Hiyori's race. I don't expect much, but I'm still curious to see how 1 month of intense training has affected her.

As the signal sounded, Hiyori ran at a steady speed, even reaching the top 4 at one point, she slowed down slightly and lost her momentum. Once she walked towards the tent I called out to her.

She walked over and sat down on the bench, next to me. "Shin! I managed to come 5th," she said with a beaming smile on her face.

"5th huh? That's really impressive for only 1 month's work."

"Really?" Her eyes beamed, I couldn't resist patting her head.

As I patted her head, I spoke out. "Don't expect the training to end this month, expect it to be harder next month." She was too lost in her own world to even hear what I said.

The final race was about to begin, Ibuki's group, which she requested to be against Horikita for.

As they got ready to run, Horikita didn't even look at Ibuki, but Ibuki wore a furious expression, as though fire shot from her eyes. She was determined never to beat Horikita, no matter what.

"Do you think Ibuki-san could win against Horikita-san?"

"Mmm... I'm not sure how athletic Horikita is, but judging how Ibuki sees her as a rival, it seems like a close matchup."

Both Ibuki and Horikita were highly athletic, I couldn't say for certain who would win. The only information I had to go off was their scuffle during the island exam. But Horikita was already in a bad condition, so her physical abilities couldn't be deduced based off of that fight alone.

When the signal sounded, seven of the girls launched themselves forward. Between the two I focused on, Ibuki had the better start. Horikita's reaction was slightly delayed, so she lagged behind the rest of the group.

However, she immediately picked up the pace and began to catch up to Ibuki, who seemed distracted. She glanced behind, perhaps curious about Horikita, and the distance between them closed. Ibuki remained stuck in the middle of the group, neither increasing nor decreasing her distance from Horikita.

As they neared the end of the race, Ibuki's expression stiffened. She and Horikita were neck and neck, running side-by-side. Horikita, looking quite pleased with herself, managed to nudge ahead of Ibuki by a narrow margin.

Even though Horikita and Ibuki were just about evenly matched, the other girls are pretty slow in comparison.

"Hoh? She still has some fight left." I muttered.

"Go Ibuki-san!" Hiyori cheered on her fellow lone wolf.

Ibuki ran harder, fighting to close the distance between herself and Horikita, who was in the lead. Horikita tried to shake her off, Ibuki just chased her down even harder. Horikita managed to cross the finish line first. After an incredible race like that, everyone erupted into cheers. I wouldn't have been surprised if the judges would need to replay the video to be sure.

Next to the out-of-breath Horikita, Ibuki kicked the ground in frustration. If she hadn't been so concerned about Horikita, the race results would have been different. A slight gap in her awareness was the reason Horikita won. Ibuki was definitely the faster one of the two, she lost because of her extreme focus on Horikita.

After the first-year students' 100-metre dash ended, we went to check the results. Me, Ryuuen, Kinoshita, and Yajima had taken first place, as expected. Ishizaki, Komiya, Nishino, and other relatively athletic students took top 3 spots. Even the lower level athletes like Hiyori and Manabe were able to avoid finishing at rock bottom.

For this event, we were the best performing class amongst the first years. But the tides were sure to change when other events popped up, and when tactics are made by other classes.

After each grade level finished the 100-meter dash, the final results were tallied. The first round of points for the Red and White teams were announced.

Red Team: 2011 points.
White Team: 1891 points.

It looked like the second and third year's races had drastically changed the results for the White Team. It was to be expected, when they had formidable students like the president and vice President of the Student Council.

The hurdle race came next. It was like the 100-metre dash in that it was based on speed. However, that wasn't all there was to it. You also needed to clear hurdles while running. If you knocked down or touched a hurdle, your time was penalized. If you knocked the hurdle down, the penalty was 0.5 seconds. If you only touched it, 0.3 seconds.

I got ready for my race, this time, I was placed with Kanzaki, who stood to my right.

"Looks like we're in the same group Yamakawa."

"That's right Kanzaki, you were quite fast earlier." Earlier, he had taken first place against Katsuragi and the others.

"Still, I don't expect this to be an easy race for me, Shibata praises you a lot, and I saw how you beat Sudou in that intense race."

"Oh, you're overestimating me haha. I just got a bit lucky at the end." I shook off his words.

"Well, I'm still gonna give it my all. Don't expect to win so easily."

"Good luck then." I replied, getting ready. Kanzaki turned to his right and began speaking to Ayanokouji, who was also participating in this race.

"We meet again," said Kanzaki.

"Go easy on me," Ayanokouji told him.

"Ichinose says you're pretty fast," he replied.

I didn't know where Ichinose had gotten that information, but if it's Ichinose who says that, then it's most likely more than just a suspicion.

Looks like I'm going to have to keep an eye on Ayanokouji even more than before.

"She's exaggerating. Didn't you see my ranking in the 100-meter dash earlier? I got fifth."

"Sure, but it didn't seem to me that you were taking the race seriously," Kanzaki replied.

"There's no advantage to gain from holding back, right? You just lose," He gave a normal response in return. I looked away before they could notice my gaze.

When the signal came, I started running about as fast as I had before, jumping over the first hurdle easily. Maybe I was running a little slower, because for a moment, Kanzaki overtook me.

But it didn't last long, I sped up and took my position back. In the end, I ultimately ended up winning the race by about 1 second.

"That was quite the race, you were running faster than before at the end." Kanzaki called out to me from beside me.

"Hahaha, another close win eh? Don't sweat it. A bit of a speed from those jumps I'm guessing." I replied.

He narrowed his eyes, "That doesn't explain it, you wee holding back against Sudou weren't you?"

"Think whatever you want..." I shrugged, to which he sighed and dropped the topic.

There were a lot of variables to consider, but for better or worse, I'd been able to keep my relatively high individual ranking.

Kanzaki's now wary of me, but his words lack credibility since my speed wasn't much different from when I raced Sudou. I walked back to camp with him and separated to the class C area.

Once I got to the camp, and talked to a couple of friends, I let out a heavy sigh as I sat down.

"What are you signing over, Mr Popular. If anything, I should be the one sighing." A voice called out from beside me.

"Haha, I'm sorry for putting you through that. But trust me, it'll work out."

"Haah..." the person sighed, got up and walked off to their friends.

The next competition was capture the flag. Though simple, it was still a fierce and slightly dangerous event. It was all of the boys from Class B and Class C facing off against the boys from Class A and Class D.

Ryuuen, noticing my lingering gaze, called out to me, "Hurry and get your ass here Yamakawa." I smirked and walked over to the group.

He'd gathered all of Class C in one place. "Listen up, we're gonna be on the offence for the first round, all we got to do is force our way through. You guys know where I'm going with this."

"Ryuuen-san, if we get caught–"

"Kukuku, a little pushing or shoving will do. The school can't punish us for that sort of violence." Blatant violence, like punching and kicking, was naturally prohibited. However, the school would overlook a certain degree of roughhousing. Pushing, grabbing, and such were expected.

I looked back at the Class B boys, and it seems Shibata and Kanzaki managed to create a strong defensive formation around the flag.

Soon, the signal went off. Sudou charged in headfirst, ahead of everyone else. A couple Class D boys followed behind him. It was forbidden for two attacking teams to make contact with each other, so we had to target the flag, which was being protected by Katsuragi's Class A defence.

"Charge!" We all decided to split up into groups and surround their area. Class B should be able to hold out against Sudou for a while, considering how rash he's acting, there's a lack of communication between their offence.

"Ugh." From the corner of my eye, I could see Ishizaki and Komiya pushing through the Class A boys. They were very sneaky about their actions, so it's unlikely they would be caught doing anything, it wasn't very violent after all.

"Albert, go ahead of me, I'll need you to send me past these guys." I spoke clearly in English, which threw off Morishige, who was 5 metres ahead, trying to protect my distance. There were also 4 students surrounding Albert, but he managed to waltz through them without any effort. It was pretty funny to see them drop to the ground like dominoes.

"Now," Albert went down in a squatting position, I sprinted towards him, and jumped on top of his shoulders. As soon as Albert raised his body, I used the momentum of his movement to jump off and over the outer defence.

"Woah! What the hell was that?!"

"Kukuku, fucking freak." I heard Ryuuen's distinct laugh, he was standing at the back of our offence, spectating in amusement.

I landed the jump smoothly, only to be greeted by a familiar face.

"Long time no see, Yamakawa." The person who stood between me and the flag, was a grinning Hashimoto. I ran forward, to which he reacted by grabbing my shoulders, keeping me in my place.

"You already know what to do, right?" I spoke quiet enough for no one to hear, amidst the loud shouts of Sudou and others, it would be hard to hear our conversation anyway.

"Haha, I can see why the princess has taken a liking to you. Your methods are quite sneaky," He chuckled.

I pushed him to the side, giving me a small time frame to try and pull the flag down by myself.

"Stop him!" Other students noticed me thanks to Ryuuen's words, and they got here in time to stop me from reaching and pulling down the flag.

However, this was just a trap...

The more students came here, the easier it was for us to control the game. Komiya, Ishizaki, and Yoshimoto barged through, giving Albert the opportunity to pull the flag down using his long reach and superhuman strength.

The signal went off, ending the round.

"Yeah!!!"

"I'm all fired up now!"

We managed to pull the flag down before Sudou could make it through by himself, it was impressive that he'd gotten past half of the Class B students. It could've been more than half had he coordinated with his classmates.

For this round, it's the same as last time. We will be attacking, while Class B will defend the flag.

We, once again gathered in our separate classes. The formation yielded great results, so there was no point in changing it. It's clear that the lack of cooperation between Class B and C hasn't had much of an effect, yet.

The powerful Class C students geared up to launch their attack, Ryuuen laughing fearlessly from the rear. As if he were a general commanding his troops in battle, he gave the order to charge immediately after the starting signal. A simple "Amp it up!" came from his lips, and we all immediately understood what his objective was.

Within a moment, the outer defences of Class D crumbled, succumbing to our attack. This was different to the previous round, sneaky elbow strikes were being thrown all over the place.

"Gah!" Sudou, who was supporting the flag, cried out, trying to protect it against Albert.

In the large chaos, I noticed Komiya sneaking up and landing a direct punch on Sudou. It looked like he was taking his anger out from the first semester. If he was caught, then he'd definitely be punished by the school.

Sudou fell to his knees in pain. I commended his fighting spirit as he continued to protect their flag. Unfortunately for the rabid red-haired dog, there were too many strong people in our class.

Then, someone stomped on his back with all their might. It was as if the assailant were trying to assert his dominance, like he was a king.

"Gah?!" It was a fiendishly low blow, even in the midst of a particularly messy and chaotic match. Of course, the perpetrator was none other than Ryuuen.

"Y-you bastard! Ugh!"

Ryuuen bore down hard again mercilessly, with such force that I feared he might break Sudou's spine. When Sudou collapsed, the flag lost its support, producing a cloud of dust as it fell to the ground. In the blink of an eye, it was over.

Still collapsed on the ground, Sudou glared up at Ryuuen.

"Uh-uh, you jerk. That was foul play!"

"Hmm? Oh, I didn't notice you," replied Ryuuen. He picked up the flag without any hesitation. Sudou tried to go after him, but due to the pain, couldn't yet stand back up.

We had won the second round as well. In order to win the event, Ryuuen once again used violence in a thoughtful, clever way.

"Dude, what the hell was that about?!" Shibata, who was in defence for both rounds, asked in confusion.

"It was a complete mess, and he took advantage of it." I replied, pointing to the tyrant leader.

"What happens if he gets reported for it?"

"He can't get reported for something like that, to them, it looked like he just walked into a chaotic area and tried to take the flag. No one could see what happened in the first place." I shrugged.

"Well, we should expect that much from Ryuuen. At least we won the event." Kanzaki chimed in, his focus seemed to be on the result rather than the methods used.

"Anyway, we should get ready for the tug-of-war."

"Alright I gotta go back to my class, see ya there." I waved off Kanzaki and Shibata and returned to Class C's area.

Minutes later, all of the first-year boys gathered, ready for the tug-of-war. Meanwhile, the first-year girls were making steady progress in their ball toss.

The team competitions continued. I hadn't paid much attention at first, but the competition order was fairly arduous. It took a lot of energy out of us.

Because we were some distance away, we couldn't clearly discern how the ball toss would end. All I could think was that it looked like a close battle.

The game finished soon afterward, and the teacher in charge counted up the points while clearing away the balls.

"With fifty-four points total, the Red Team wins." It seems the Red Team won this time, which ended up cancelling out our recent victory.

The rules for tug-of-war were extremely simple. It was almost exactly the same as capture the flag; the first team to get two points won.

As the four classes gathered, we split into two groups to the left and right. The A/D team and the B/C team. 40 people on each side, it was quite the populated event. There seemed to be some heat between Class A's students, as expected.

"Hey, Katsuragi-kun, stop ordering us around," said one boy.

"What do you mean by that, Hashimoto?" asked Katsuragi."

"Exactly what I said. It's your fault that Class A is in a slump now. Are you sure this strategy will let us win?" asked Hashimoto. He's doing a good job right now I must say. I turned to Class A's camp and looked for one specific student, sat down on the bench with a cane laying by their side.

Sakayanagi noticed my gaze from a long distance and waved with a thin smile, holding a piece of paper in her hand.

It seems she intended to do whatever it took to crush her opposition, Katsuragi. Her behavior was unsettling, but in a different way than Ryuuen's. Her aura was similar to that senpai I met after the festival ceremony.

I stood near the back of our line, which was separated by class, since we weren't cooperating at all.

I held the rope that was slowly rising in my direction, Albert was the only person in Class C in front of me. We were ordered from strongest to weakest, according to Ryuuen.

It ended up being a messy formation since Class B, who were lined up ahead of us, also chose the 'strongest to weakest' formation.

Just then the signal went off, and we immediately pulled on the rope.

"And pull! And pull!"

We were slowly moving forward as we were pulling, causing us to lose momentum and eventually tip over the edge.

Not long after, we heard the signal that the match had ended, and that the D/A team had scored a point.

Clearly, this formation wasn't going to work. At the end of the day, Ryuuen wasn't planning on taking the first round seriously with that kind of strategy.

"Hey, it'll be really bad if we don't work together, you know? These guys are crazy strong," Shibata said to Ryuuen.

But Ryuuen causally walked past, ignoring his existence. "All right! Time to switch things up. Line up with the shortest in front," he commanded. Class B remained the same, having their tallest at the front and shortest at the middle of the rope.

Now, we have our weakest student at the middle and the strongest at the back. We now formed a perfect bow shape, which is a good strategy when you have this many people pulling the rope.

Shibata shouted words of encouragement to his classmates and held onto the rope.

The signal went off. We all began to pull with some power, causing the rope to slightly nudge back, other than that, we were evenly matched in strength.

"Hey, you guys better stick this out. If you lose here, I'll kill you," warned Ryuuen.

Suddenly, mostly everyone had a surge of power, fearing Ryuuen, even most the Class B students were affected.

His threatening statement, combined with the tactical bow-like shape, caused the rope to move towards us. We carried the momentum quite easily and won the second round.

"Okay, you did fairly well. We just have to do the same thing one more time. Those pieces of garbage think they can win. Let's teach them a thing or two," said Ryuuen. This was our signal to do that thing.

Once both sides were ready, the crucial third round began.

"And pull! And pull! Pull!"

Just like before, things weren't decided immediately. The white flag attached to the rope fluttered above the center line without moving.

Exactly 30 seconds passed and...

The rope suddenly lost half of its power, followed by loud tumbling sounds.

The scene before us was that of carnage. All of the students in the red team collapsed backwards due to the sudden change in force. Some collided with one another, but none of them managed to stay on their feet.

"Hey, what the hell? Don't screw with us!" Some Class B students had fallen over, too, since Ryuuen didn't inform them about his 'strategy.'

"Yamakawa, Albert? Are you guys fine with that guy throwing events like this?!" Kanzaki frowned, wiping the sand from his joggers.

"I guess I'm used to it. That's simply how Ryuuen deals with his enemies." I said nonchalantly, Albert simply nodded in agreement. "You didn't seem to care when we won the last event the same way?"

"Tcb. All you Class C students are weird..." Kanzaki walked off feeling frustrated, returning to his little group.

"And you seem to be unique for a class B student..." I mumbled quietly only for myself to hear.

I looked ahead at the commotion caused by Sudou. Well, technically Ryuuen caused the entire event.

"I decided to take a break, since I thought we couldn't win," said Ryuuen. He turned to the Red Team and sneered. "Good for you. You managed to pick up a meaningless win. It's hilarious to see you all crawling on the ground."

Even though we purposely threw the event, Ryuuen smiled, clearly enjoying himself. This was another part of his mind games.

Ryuuen aimed for both mental and physical damage, which is typical of him. It is certainly not the best way to win, but Ryuuen wants to do it the 'fun' way.

"Jerk!"

Sudou stood up and charged at Ryuuen from his backline position, still angry over the capture-the-flag incident.

However, Katsuragi, who had been leading the Red Team's strategy for this round, hurriedly grabbed Sudou's arms and stopped him. "Stop, Sudou. This is all part of Ryuuen's plan. He wants to make us waste our energy. He might also be trying to egg us on to violence, so that we're accused of foul play."

"But—"

"What they did was unsportsmanlike, but it wasn't a violation of the rules," Katsuragi understood that his moves were that of a jerk's, but it certainly wasn't against the rules to do that. It is to be expected of one of the two Class A leaders.

Though unfortunately for him, this may be the last time he'll have the privilege of leading Class A...

(A/N Prolly my longest chapter yet, I didn't deviate much from the canon, but I threw in a couple of puzzle pieces for the future.)

The Obstacle Course Incident

"Are your plans going well then, Tyrant?" I approached Ryuuen who's sat on the bench, in deep thought. His eyes glinted like a predator hunting its prey.

"Kukuku, Suzune and her dog will meet their end soon," he chuckled ominously.

The men's obstacle course race had recently concluded, and I had effortlessly secured first place in my group.

"You did some shit too huh, Yamakawa." Ryuuen quipped.

I replied casually, "If you mean winning all the individual events, then yes." Of course that was not what he'd meant, Ryuuen also secured first place in all of his matchups.

His expression grew serious. "Don't fuck with me. I'm talking about the rumors swirling around Class A's camp."

I feigned innocence, asking, "What makes you suspect me?"

He turned his gaze toward the next race. "I know you well enough to know you're not one to sit and do jackshit."

I smirked and revealed a small item from my pocket. "Since they confiscated our phones, I decided to sneak this in."

"Kukuku, so you bought that tiny ass voice recorder?" He replied in amusement, before his eyes widened. "I see, I see. When you made contact with Hashimoto in the capture the flag, it was intentional, so that you can pass off a message. Working with that Sakayanagi huh?"

"Haha, you're half-right. When Hashimoto made contact with me, he returned the voice recorder to me. I already passed it off to Sakayanagi long before that. I delivered an envelope that looked like an anonymous confession after the hurdles race."

I had Manabe pass off the envelope to her friend, which looked like an anonymous love letter sent to Sakayanagi. No one would dare open the envelope since if they were found out, their reputation would be in tatters.

As for why I chose Manabe, it's because I'm playing along with thatstrategy.

Ever since the sports festival announcement last month, she's been following me twice a week after classes. It is very unnatural but if I want to make moves, I'll have to go with the flow. The conclusion I made is that she is being ordered to follow me around by someone, a pawn in someone else's game.

Why would she be ordered around by someone? The most likely reason would be blackmail...for in the theatre of secrets, it is the darkest motives that often pull the strings.

There's only one person that fits the bill, the mastermind is trying to discern my behaviour and actions...

"Kukuku, so you planned it out like that? Most people wouldn't feel the difference in weight, huh?" I nodded slightly.

"As for what I told her to do, you'll see later on in the recommended events."

I sat on the bench next to him, in order to watch the girls obstacle course race. More specifically, the 6th group, which had Yajima, Kinoshita, and Horikita.

This was the same group they had in the hurdles race. He didn't seem fazed about his Class D spy being found out. Their chances of recovery were slim by now anyway.

When the race started, Kinoshita had dashed forward, bolting straight toward the balance beam. She made it there first and put a lot of distance between herself and those behind her. Yajima was now in second place. Horikita followed in third.

Unlike the 100-metre dash or the hurdle race, both of which relied purely on speed and stamina, there were numerous unknown variables in the obstacle course. After the girls passed the balance beam, the distance between them shrank until they were practically all neck and neck.

By the time the girls started crawling through the net, Horikita had taken the second place position momentarily. However, Kinoshita was fast. In between obstacles, she closed and shortened the distance between herself and Horikita. She managed to come back into second place.

Yajima wasn't about to be thrown out of first. Horikita sprinted forward with everything she had to try and steal second place. When Kinoshita was thrown off balance during the obstacle course's final leg, the sack race, Horikita closed the distance between them. When she passed Kinoshita, Horikita raced forward as quickly as possible. The distance between herself and Kinoshita could only have been one or two seconds.

Horikita ran at top speed for the final fifty meters of the race. However, she must have been concerned about Kinoshita closing in on her, because she repeatedly glanced over her shoulder.

Unfortunately for Horikita, it was all planned out...

That caused her speed to drop, and soon the two were once again side by side. Suddenly Horikita, who'd been trying to slip past Kinoshita, and Kinoshita, who was trying to catch up, became entangled and fell down.

Although they kept going, the incident affected them. In the end, Horikita finished in an unbelievable seventh place. Kinoshita ended up getting last place due to significant pain in her leg, which rendered her unable to continue to run.

"Your fucked up plan seems to be working. It's hard to tell who's responsible for that fall."

He sneered in response. "Kukuku, I'll deal the final blow after this."

The next event was the three-legged race, and Ryuuen and I were paired up. I had a feeling this would be interesting.

"I'm not tying that shit, you do it." Ryuuen insisted.

"No. Way. As the leader, you gotta look out for your subordinates."

We ended up getting into a long argument about who should tie the rope...

"Piss off with that shitty logic, it's the fucking opposite. I'm the leader, so you should naturally kneel down and tie it."

"I have my freedom to do whatever I want, I'm not under you, remember?"

"Kukuku, so you're going that far then. Fine," he smirked. "Refusing to tie the rope will only draw negative attention to you. I'm sure you don't want that, Mr. Popular."

This fucker...

"Ryuuen you bastard!!" We heard Sudou shout on the leftmost lane.

I glanced at him, then back to the rope below, "Oh, looks like we're racing against Sudou."

Meanwhile, Ryuuen ignored him, smirking.

"Hey! Don't ignore me you bastard!"

Everyone on the track began looking at us.

Of course, Ryuuen was unaffected; he didn't care about his reputation. Not that it wasn't already rock-bottom...

"Haaah, I give up," I grumbled as I bent down to tie the rope, to which he cackled in amusement.

"Run at your full speed, I'll just match it." I stated matter-of-factly.

"Kukuku, how arrogant."

The three legged race was a form of coordination, the best strategy would be to run at the highest speed that the pair would both be comfortable with. If Ryuuen ran at full speed, I should be able to keep up and match his movements. The only notable competitor amongst the other five people was Sudou anyway. This is an easy first place should no issues arise.

Once the signal sounded, we took off, completely obliterating the competition. There was a one second gap between us and the next duo, which was Sudou and a guy named Ike.

We kept on widening the gap between us, to the point where it had reached 10 metres halfway through.

It was too easy, so I decided to have some fun. As we neared the three-quarters mark, I accelerated. Ryuuen, struggling to keep up, began to stumble.

I grabbed his shoulder, pulling him along, and we crossed the finish line together.

As I began to untie the rope, Ryuuen, infuriated, tripped me with his leg. A lot of people were laughing at the sight.

"Aaaargh, you bastard." Ryuuen, who was out of breath, was stood on top of my leg. I began to untie the rope, resisting his body weight.

"Next time, just tie the rope and save yourself from this. But man, I'm going to buy the footage with my private points later. You must have looked hilarious, hahaha." It was so petty, but it was funny nonetheless.

Ryuuen attempted a roundhouse kick, but I dodged it easily.

"Fucking demon..." he muttered before walking back to the camp.

There was a 10 minute break given to us before the final two events. After that there will be a lunch break, and then the recommended events will begin. I headed off to the toilet, as did many others.

"Woah... careful there." As I made my way out of the toilet I bumped into someone, I briefly glanced at the person.

Why now of all times?

"Sorry, I'll be going now." I hurriedly tried to leave, but my wrist was grabbed from behind.

"Nope." She emphasised the 'p' sound, a mischievous grin on her face. "Giving me the cold shoulder? A beauty like me?"

"I didn't peg you as a narcissist, senpai. And I've noticed you eyeing me since the break began."

"Haha, you're observant, kouhai-kun. I was quite discreet with my movements." She moved in front of me, hands on her hips. "As I thought, you're an interesting one, Yamakawa Shin."

I sneered at her, meeting her gaze. "That's amusing, considering you haven't even told me your name. Isn't that the first thing you should do?"

"I suppose I can reveal that much. Fuka Kiryuuin at your service~"

"Kiryuuin? You're—"

She interrupted me with a subtle change in her expression. "You've been effortlessly winning all your races, you've thoroughly entertained me."

I replied, "I wouldn't say effortlessly; some victories were by a mere meter or two."

She chuckled. "You can't fool me with modesty."Her eyes sharpened, threatening to pierce through me.

Looks like she had noticed I was holding back, her ability to read people was better than I expected.

I walked past her, turning my head. "Nothing escapes your eye, does it? Don't worry; I'll put on a show in the relay."

Her smile widened, "Oh? I'll be watching."

She handed me a folded piece of paper, containing an eleven-digit number.

"Use it wisely, we'll meet again soon." She began walking towards the women's toilet.

I just kept looking at the direction she exited from.

Kiryuuin huh? Fukuhara-sensei mentioned the Kiryuuin family before, but it wasn't much information. Did she know me from before? Or is this truly my first time meeting her.

If she knew about me from before, it could be troublesome. But I'm sure she's not the type of person to go around meddling in other people's affairs.

The events continued where we left off, the girls Cavalry battle began. The cavalry battle ran on a time limit, and the rules were the same for boys and girls. They dictated that points would be awarded based on the number of enemy units your team defeated in a three-minute period, and how many allied units you had remaining.

You could still get points, even if your opponent was left standing, so long as you stole their headband. If we had a particularly powerful warrior on our side, we might get as many as 400 or 500 points in one go.

As the signal sounded, the Class B and C horses began closing the gap between them and Classes A and D. Ibuki, a jockey herself, was determined and aimed straight for Horikita. However, she wasn't the only one; During the ten-minute break, Ryuuen ordered all of the Class C groups to single out Horikita. They converged on her horse, outnumbering Horikita's horse. Class A showed no intention of assisting Horikita and seemed to be using her as bait for later on.

"Dude, this is an awesome game!"

The audience cheered in excitement as Karuizawa's group initiated their attack against Ichinose's group. Moments later, Horikita's headband was snatched away by the four Class C horses attacking her simultaneously. She fell dramatically from her horse, frustrated but defeated.

In any case, that was that. Horikita's loss triggered an all-out melee. Class D, now down a horse and pursued by Class B, lost any semblance of coordination in the blink of an eye. Some players fell off their horses, while others had their headbands snatched. In the end, it was an easy win for both Class B and Class C.

The boys' cavalry battle began, and I assumed my position on the left, with Albert in the middle, Ishizaki on the right, and Ryuuen as the jockey. Ryuuen decided that this was the strongest horse our class could create.

"You have a plan right, Ryuuen-san?" Ishizaki voiced out.

"My hands are a little slippery. Excuse me, kukuku." He wiped his hands on the back of Alberts shirt.

Was that... gel? Poor Albert.

"We should focus on their strongest horse." I pointed to the horse with Sudou, Hirata, Miyake, and Ayanokouji.

As soon as the signal sounded, Class D's horsemen joined Class A's. They looked like one large mass of people, the two classes indistinguishable from each other. Though Class A had basically abandoned Class D entirely during the girls' match, they decided to cooperate for this one.

"Overwhelm them!" Ryuuen have one simple command, and all 4 other Class C horses ahead of us dispersed in different directions.

As for our horse, we simply stood and spectated behind all of the mess, Ryuuen was sat on top of us like a king. More importantly, he's pushing the limits with the rules here, I could see a slight glint on his headband. It was easy to deduce that he had rubbed gel on his headband.

He knows that it's easy to get away with such a strategy. All he has to do is wipe the gel off the headband before anyone could investigate the situation.

"Run through them!" They began making their way through the chaos, defeating Class A horsemen in their path.

Sudou was also making quick work of our team, taking down three horsemen with ease. Katsuragi and the other Class A students managed to defeat Shibata and Kanzaki's unit, even though they lost three players in the process.

After a few more skirmishes, our horse was the last remaining on the White Team. Both Hirata and Katsuragi's units had survived, and one other Class D horseman remained, creating a one-vs-three situation that was quite unfavorable.

"Kukuku, bring it you bastards!" Ryuuen emphatically called out to our three enemy horses.

"Oh, I remember your name. Sudou. When I stepped on you earlier, it looked quite painful," Ryuuen sneered.

"Yeah, keep talkin'. I'm gonna return the favor," replied Sudou.

"You talk a pretty big game for a simple beast of burden. I have to say, it feels good to look down on you," said Ryuuen.

"Heh. Just because you're ridin' on top don't mean you're a big deal yourself," snapped Sudou.

"Oh? I guess this is all meaningless, unless we settle things one-on-one," said Ryuuen.

"Huh?"

The Class A and Class D horsemen began surrounding us cautiously, Ryuuen provoking Sudou with taunts. It was evident that Ryuuen intended to provoke Sudou into a one-on-one duel.

"If you can only beat me when it's two against one, I suppose that's that. However, 'winning' only means something when you beat somebody one-on-one," said Ryuuen.

"But could you handle that? Or, what, are you planning to defeat me with a pincer attack?" He continued to provoke Sudou, I guess this was what he was planning to do after all.

Sudou looked like a different person than last time, he was awfully composed, I'm guessing he had a good few scoldings from his master– I mean, Horikita.

"You just don't get it," Sudou told Ryuuen.

"No, you don't get it, Sudou. You've taken down those who got in your way before, but you used cowardly means to do so. You could never beat my trusted subordinates with a frontal attack," he retorted back.

"Stop screwing around. Those dudes are weak garbage who can't even fight!" snapped Sudou.

"Oi, did you forget what happened the last time you got into a fight?" I reminded him, in a mocking tone.

"I beat the shit out of you and the other lackeys! And I'll do it again right here and now!"

This guy doesn't get it at all...

"Tough words, but with nothing to back them up. If you're so very strong, then face me one-on-one. If you can beat me then, I'll kneel before you," said Ryuuen.

"Fine. Don't forget what you just said, Ryuuen! You heard all that, Katsuragi? Don't you dare stick your nose in this!" said Sudou.

Good, Sudou fell right into the trap once again. He might've changed a little, but his hotheaded nature will still be there for Ryuuen to bring out.

"All right. Hirata, make sure your headband doesn't get snatched!" Sudou commanded.

"Albert, don't hold back on that red-hair."

The other horses watched as the battle unfolded, Sudou charged forward, ramming directly into us. However, our horse wasn't phased at all. Our power was just about equal to theirs, no, with Albert supporting the centre, our power was greater. Albert was easily able to stop Sudou's forward charge.

"Come on, come on then. Or are you going to lose to my Albert?" Ryuuen mocked.

As he said that, Sudou went in for the attack, Hirata quickly leaned in to pick out the headband from Ryuuen.

With subtle movements, I shifted to the right, and he ended up dodging Hirata's hand smoothly.

From what I could see, they were almost evenly matched. However, Ryuuen only used verbal attacks, not wasting any effort on physical attacks. He conserved his stamina, responding with only one attack for every three of Hirata's. It was clear that his strategy was to conserve energy for the remaining horses we'll have to face.

"Just a little more!" Hirata extended his arm, feinting, before launching an attack. As Ryuuen tried to sway and dodge, Hirata grabbed hold of his headband, but only managed to snag the edge.

Hirata tried his hardest to pull the headband off. He couldn't snatch it away, and the headband slipped out of his hand. The strategy worked wonders.

"What are you doin', Hirata?! Take it! I'm usin' up an awful lot of strength here!" said Sudou.

"Sorry. My hand was slippery!"

Sudou, breathing heavily, launched another attack. Ryuuen waited fearlessly. Meanwhile Hirata, who had only been on the offensive so far, was breathing heavily. We were in an advantageous position now.

"What's wrong? That all you got?" He taunted, a grin appearing on his face.

"Eat this!" shouted Sudou.

Our horses once again clashed, and it was a battle between the jockeys.

Hirata's aim was straight and true. Again, he successfully grabbed hold of Ryuuen's headband. However, once again, the headband slipped out of his hand.

"What?!"

Ryuuen took advantage of Hirata's bewilderment. He reached out to grab Hirata's headband, gripped it tightly, and effortlessly snatched it from Hirata's head. Sudou, upon the realisation of defeat, dropped to his knees, causing Hirata to fall.

Ryuuen raised Hirata's headband up high. Soon afterward, a referee came over and warned the Class D students to leave the field.

"Damn it!" Sudou, looking wild and unruly, glared at us.

"How pathetic," Ryuuen sneered.

"A two-on-one huh?"

Katsuragi's horse teamed up with the remaining Class D horsemen. He gave orders to the jockey, Yahiko, while fortifying his defenses. Now that Sudou had withdrawn, Katsuragi's unit joined the remaining Class D horsemen to start a two-against-one against us.

However, things played out in a similar fashion to the previous battle, and we ended up snatching both of their headbands and winning the event.

As we were celebrating the victory, Sudou charged towards us, viciously glaring at Ryuuen. "That's foul play! You slathered your headband with something!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. If there's anything on my headband, it's probably just hair gel. Don't be a sore loser," chided Ryuuen.

Clearly, he had already disposed of any traces of gel his headband, seeing that there was only slight dirt on his headband. After a bit of a back and forth, the referee guided us out of the arena.

Ryuuen didn't care about Class D finding out, it only served to benefit his mental games.

"Shameless..." I muttered.

"Kukuku, I must've overdone it with the hair gel."

"Yeah yeah whatever..."

The senior cavalry battle began, and it started with the second year females. Normally, I wouldn't be paying attention to the senior events.

But, this time, I was slightly interested in one student in particular—Fuka Kiryuuin, who was completely dominating all of the other team's horses, she was also a part of the white team.

She took a current record of 7 headbands before succumbing to defeat. The rest of the white team carried the momentum and ended up taking the win.

So far from my evaluation of her, I could say that her physical abilities and deduction skills are top-level. Having such a useful ally could help me massively in the uncertain future I have inside this school.

As we waited for the senior's events to finish, I decided to watch the scenery, I sat down on the evenly cut grass.

My peace was suddenly broken, when a loud commotion could be heard coming from the opposite side of the field, where the Red Team stayed.

"Hey, what's going on over there!" One of the Class B students shouted, pointing to the area where Class D hung.

It seems like Sudou was at the centre of it once again, the constant provocations and defeat must've gotten him to his breaking point. Sudou had stormed off and kicked a... chair? It was too far away for me to see what's happening clearly, but there seems to be some conflict within Class D.

Class D are falling further and further down the rankings, as I thought about the situation, I looked towards Class A's camp.

When are you going to attack, Sakayanagi?

Internal Warfare

More time has passed, and the final event before the lunch break has begun; the 200-metre dash. Others school years will do this event after the lunch break, which means that our senpai's eyes will be on us for this event.

So far during the sports festival I have amassed 15,000 private points from finishing in first place in the individual competitions. If I were to get first place again, and win the first year MVP award, I'll have an extra 30,000 Private Points.

Depending on how well the seniors perform, there's also a possibility of me winning the all years MVP, granting me another 100,000 Private Points. The maximum number points I can earn is 130,000, which would be beneficial for the future.

Once again, I faced little to no competition, so winning didn't demand much effort. As soon as the signal rang out, I effortlessly surged ahead of the competition at my 'usual' speed and clinched victory.

As soon I started walking back to the tent I saw a few people glancing at me from afar, but none of them had any courage to approach me.

Have I become hard to approach because of my performance, or because of my behavioural tendencies.

Just as I pondered this, Nishino approached me with a grin. "Once again, you left them in the dust, Mr. Popular."

A smirk crept onto my face. "What can I say? My luck is insane..." I playfully joked about my rigged group placements.

"You beat Sudou-kun in the first race, so you're still seen as impressive by everyone. Besides..." She pondered, poking her cheek. "Girls tend to ignore all negative things about a guy once they see that their athletic."

"Huh? Are you suggesting that I have many 'negative things' about me?"

"Who knows?"

"Oi." I lightly punched her sides.

The competition continued with the final first-year boys race, Ryuuen was once again paired up against some of the weakest Class D students.

"Hey, isn't Ryuuen-kun making it painfully obvious that we have Class D's table?"

"That's his type of strategy. Knowing that they can't do anything to fix the situation just causes them more anguish." I shrugged, understanding Ryuuen's mentality to a degree.

Even right now, the most that Class D could do is try and gather points through the recommended-participant events. They're in a corner with no way out.

Moreover, if they have knowledge of a potential traitor, it would only cause Class D more internal rift.

"Isn't it better if they don't know about the situation though? For future plans I mean," she asked.

In this festival, not much can be altered except for the participation groups. The rest is up to the participants' physical abilities.

I don't blame her for her judgment, the point distribution in the festival is really weak.

'If we were to attack in another special exam using the same strategy, it wouldn't work.' Such are her thoughts right now.

Those logical thoughts were applied because she is unaware of the Class D traitor.

Kushida Kikyō, the well-known 'angel of Class D', the class is least likely to suspect her out of anyone.

Not using her information gathering skills in this festival would be a waste of our resources.

"He probably has crazier schemes lined up in the future on top of this." I slipped my way out of that specific topic.

"That bastard is such a sadist..." she mumbled, I chuckled in response. We then talked about random topics until she had to go for the girls 200-metre race.

Ayanokouji POV

The lunch break had arrived, and students had various options for their lunch meal. Some chose to dine in the cafeteria, while others preferred to enjoy their lunches on the open grounds, taking advantage of the freedom we were given during this 50-minute break.

During the sports festival, a strong sense of camaraderie pervaded the atmosphere, blurring the lines between gender and offering ample opportunities to share lunchtime with senior students.

Unlike the usual routine, our classrooms were currently restricted, limiting the spaces available for us to eat.

It seemed that the lunch provided was not the usual fare from the school's cafeteria but rather luxurious bentos ordered from outside the campus. Although there was only one variety available, the fact that it was being offered for free meant that most of the students would likely choose it.

Some students left the field without touching the lunchboxes, though, and Horikita was among them. Perhaps my words had finally reached her, and she was looking for Sudou.

Kushida also abstained. After telling some other girls that she was going to look for Sudou, she took off.

"Gah! God, I'm so tired! Why do I gotta suffer through this, dude?!" Ike cried.

"Because you lost!" After losing at rock-paper-scissors, Yamauchi went off to grab everyone's lunches.

"Man, I'm starving. I'm gonna inhale this!" Ike and Yamauchi showed no real interest in Sudou's whereabouts. Since they'd known Sudou since day one, they understood his personality all too well.

They weren't going to chase after him. At most, Sudou would lose out on private points, although his absence would be bad for the Red Team. Then again, some people probably felt grateful that his reign of terror had ended.

Most of the girls had seen him punch Hirata. Any minor goodwill people might have developed for Sudou had gone completely out the window. The fact that there had hardly been any change despite the absence of our MVP was honestly a little unsettling.

"Let's just find someplace to eat for now." As the three of us decided to move, Hirata showed up with several guys and girls in tow.

"Is it okay if we come along, too?" Hirata walked up towards Ike and Yamauchi.

Yamauchi and Ike were momentarily shocked that Hirata was reaching out to them, since the three weren't normally close friends. However, with cute girls in Hirata's group, they had no reason to object.

"Yeah, dude." Our group now contained ten people, including both guys and girls.

After finding a suitable spot, we started eating. As people finished up, Hirata and Karuizawa approached me. Smartly done; with a bunch of classmates around, it wouldn't look odd or unnatural for such a trio to form.

"Looks like Ryuuen-kun's making his move, as expected," said Hirata, his voice cutting through all the noise around us.

Then Karuizawa had opened her mouth and interjected, as if she had been waiting to speak up. "So, who's the traitor? You know, don't you, Yousuke-kun?" Hirata just gently shook his head.

"There are several things I don't understand. I wonder if it'll be cleared up."

"Well, I can't say who the traitor is," I told them.

"Huh? Why?" asked Karuizawa.

"Because, right now, we'd only throw the class into even more turmoil by identifying them. We need to deal with the traitor quietly and calmly," I told them.

"Okay. I won't hound you. But why did you submit the participation table to the school when you knew there was a traitor? Couldn't we have adjusted the table ourselves and avoided all this strife? We could have flipped the script on Class C," said Hirata.

"Probably," I said. In truth, I'd wanted Horikita to discover the spy and deal with it appropriately.

"Wait. The traitor might be someone nearby, right? It might even be someone among us right now. Can we afford to take it this easy?" Karuizawa scanned her surroundings, suspecting everyone at the gathering.

Traitors were certainly troublesome, but depending on the circumstances, it could be more convenient just to leave them alone. Besides, even if we'd used Hirata's strategy, it probably wouldn't have worked against perceptive students like Ryuuen or Yamakawa.

Right now, it would be difficult to make Hirata and Karuizawa understand why, so I lied instead.

"I've taken stock of the traitor's moral fiber," I said.

"Moral fiber?"

"I think they want to reform without being cornered." Hirata stared at me intently.

"And this is all on Horikita's orders, right, Ayanokouji-kun?" If Hirata was already suspicious of me, then he would soon no longer trust me. Even so, I needed him to believe me right now, if only for appearances' sake.

"Yeah. Everything is going according to Horikita's plan." Hirata didn't question me any further. He nodded once, seemingly convinced.

"So, where is Horikita-san? What's she doing?" asked Karuizawa.

"Something only she can do. At least, I hope that's what she's doing," I said.

"Wait. Are you talking about Sudou-kun?" Hirata glanced around, noticing that Horikita and Sudou were nowhere in sight. His intuition was onpoint.

"Without Sudou, it won't be easy for us to win the second half of the sports festival, right?" I asked.

"I mean, it will be hard even with Sudou's help. He'll be forced to go up against Shibata-kun and Yamakawa-kun who are both in the white team." Karuizawa makes a surprisingly logical statement.

At this point, Sudou's chances of winning the MVP have dropped by half. Him finishing first in the 200-metre sprint was detrimental. Yet he missed the event completely. If he performs at his best in the recommended events, he still has a chance of snatching the MVP award from his rivals.

"Yeah. We're relying on Sud–" before Hirata could finish, he was interrupted by his 'girlfriend'.

"Hey Yousuke-kun, What's going on over there?!"

Karuizawa pointed to the Red Team tent, where various individuals are gathered.

"There seems to be a commotion where the Class A students have gathered." Hirata's face turned into one of worry. "If they continue, this will be problematic for the Red Team."

What Hirata said is true, the disappearance of Sudou, Koenji's lack of participation, and Horikita's issues, we cannot afford to have even more trouble brewing within the Red Team.

Third Person POV

At the centre of the commotion stood Class A's two leaders, Katsuragi Kohei and Sakayanagi Arisu. They were surrounded by many of her faction members who were in a heated mood.

This argument began after the students looked at the scoreboard, seeing Class A in last place.

"Katsuragi! What on earth are these results? At this rate we'll fall down to Class B!" Morishige, a member of the Sakayanagi faction, yelled out his frustrations.

"Can we even reach the top 2 classes' total score? Because of Katsuragi's poor leadership, we're fighting for last place with Class D right now." Hashimoto effortlessly added fuel to the fire.

Katsuragi, who was silently listening to all the berating until now, finally spoke up. "I created the best possible groups, focusing on the best athletes in our class. There's nothing more to be done, this isn't a special exam where tactics are involved."

Sakyanagi seized her opportunity, "Fufufu, do you really think that there were no strategies?" She chuckled lightly at his conservative stance.

Sakayanagi Arisu is the complete opposite of her rival, she will involve outside factors, psychological tricks, manipulation, if it meant that her class wins.

Had she lead the class, her strategy for the sports festival would have been similar to Ryuuen's.

"Yes, and I stand by it, these results are merely a reflection of our class' physical abilities." Katsuragi didn't falter, his stern expression remained.

"Fufufu, a pathetic answer. If that was the case, wouldn't Class D be at a better position than they are now?" She lightly tapped her cane on the floor, her composure never wavering.

"They fell to a strategy that's high risk and underhanded."

He refers to Ryuuen's cheap tricks, which caused Sudou to drop out of the events.

"You just said it right now, it's a strategy." She emphasised the last words. "Also, my friends are giving it their all, so I would like for your people to stop insulting them." Sakayanagi's tone had a hint of sympathy. But in reality, she didn't care enough about her pawns.

"As a leader, I'll try my best to ensure that we don't finish in a bad position." A very Katsuragi-like response, completely ignoring her question.

"Fufufu~ You're saying that the results of the festival will solely be your responsibility, Katsuragi-kun?" Sakayanagi chuckled in amusement.

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion, wondering why she would say such an obvious thing, but quickly chalked his thoughts up as unnecessary.

"Naturally, I take responsibility for all of the results today, as the true leader of Class A." When surrounded by many students of the Sakayanagi faction, he had no choice but to uphold his status.

Satisfied with his response, she let out a smile and signalled for everyone to disperse, realising that this scuffle has caught the attention of the teachers and other students.

'This will be his last time as a leader. Although, I didn't even need to use him .' She thought as she looked towards the Class C camp.

Yamakawa Shin POV

After witnessing the seniors' 200-metre sprint, it was time for the beginning of the All-Participant events.

The first All-participant event to start is the Scavenger Hunt, where I will not participate. It is a game of luck, so giving our academically weaker students a chance to earn test points is the best tactic to employ.

Well, it would be more fun if I just hid from the eyes of everyone right now.

For the 3rd time in the span of 10 minutes, I've been approached by a Class D girl who's participating. I think her name was Mori Nene.

"Um... C-can I have your left shoe?" She politely asked.

"Oh? Only if you show me your note~" I winked, causing her to blush, she shyly gave me the slip of paper.

"Your crush's left foot (shoe)"

Damn, now I feel like a piece of shit.

"Hahaha sorry, I was teasing you. As an apology, here." I gave her my left shoe, and she cutely picked it up and ran away.

Moments later, she returned, giving me back my precious left shoe.

"T-thanks," she mumbled, leaving without making any eye contact. She must feel really embarrassed...

Ok, now that the first-years are done I can relax, I won't have to be dragged away again...

"Kouhai-kun!"

What the fuck did I do to deserve this?

"Be grateful to be selected for this," she pulled out a note with the words: "A male student."

"Really?! 'A male student', and you had to choose ME?!" I yelled in annoyance. All she did was laugh loudly and gather all nearby eyes on us.

"Chop chop." She gestured, I reluctantly got up and jogged besides her towards the teacher in charge.

As she handed the note, the teacher glanced at me.

"You finished in 4th place."

Huh? She still finished 4th after that easy task.

"Wait?, how many times did she request a change?" I glanced to my right and she had already disappeared...

"... 8 times."

"Oh... wait, 8 TIMES?!"

She must've seen how annoyed I was from dealing with this shit.

She did all of that just to piss me off? That bitch...

I returned to camp, to the least welcome greeting possible.

"Hahaha! It's almost as if you're competing in the event." The Class C boys chuckled at my demise.

"Haaah, this might be the most energy I've expended in the entire festival." I sighed.

Let's just hope that was the last of the day. Though, I have a feeling it wasn't...

"Oh, Bunbun-senpai! It's been a while, huh?" I called out to the pres' secretary, as she jogged towards me, carrying a note in her right hand.

A note in her right hand...

"Not again..."

"Come. Here." She called out with the 'warmest' smile. Her eyes told me a different story.

I pretended to ignore her.

"Rude Kouhai!!!" It seems she's persistent...

I sighed, getting up from the bench. "Okayyyy, but show me the–"

Before I could finish speaking, she grabbed me by the sleeve and dragged me down the field.

I don't know where she got the strength to do such a thing, but now I'm the centre of everyone's amusement. To say it was embarrassing would be an understatement.

"Here!" She handed her paper to the teacher.

"First place, congratulations Tachibana." That teacher seems to know her well.

Before Bunbun-senpai got out of hearing range, I spoke up. "Sensei, you can at least tell me her note card as a token of admiration for my efforts." He chuckled, seeing me here for the 5th time today.

"No–" Bunbun-senpai almost screamed in my ear, thankfully he had already passed me the note.

"The first year student with the most potential."

"Ohh, I didn't expect a compliment from you, Bunbun-senpai. I'm flattered, coming from a cute little girl~" I teased.

"L-little girl? Watch your mouth! Annoying kouhai!" She glared at me with murderous aura leaking.

Scary...

I escaped her millions of insults and walked back to the camp.

"One more!"

I'm currently taking part in a four-way tug of war with 4 students per class.

Class A was eliminated first, after a slip up from one of the students, which caused them to lose balance and grip on the rope. Completely suspicious...

Class D was eliminated a short while after, giving in a bit more effort than Class A.

Now it has become a duel, it's going to be easy to settle with Class B, our total strength far outclassed theirs with me, Albert, Ishizaki, and Ryuuen.

"Pull!"

All of us leaned back further, increasing our pulling strength. Very swiftly, Class B's students toppled over the circle one by one. The whistle blew, signalling our victory.

The competition seemed unfair with Sudou missing. But even if Sudou was here, we'd still dominate this event the same way.

With this event, Class A dropped down to last place of the rankings. We've maintained our second place ranking, but we're closing in on Class B. In fact, there's even a chance of Class B rising to Class A here.

Flashback (Summer vacation conversation with Sakayanagi)

"Okay, I need you to aid me in bringing down Katsuragi. In return, Class C can close the small point gap." A strange offer...

I smirked, "How about we change the conditions?"

"Fufufu, let's hear it. You wouldn't go back on your word, even if I wasn't recording this conversation." She brought out her phone, which had been recording for presumably the whole time we've been here.

"Hahaha, do as you please. It involves some espionage."

She tapped the table, in deep thought. "Hmm... you're really careful when talking. Fufufu, please entertain me."

I slid a note across the circular table of the café. "I want you to use your minions to gather information on these 3 Class D students."

Miyake Akito
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka
Minami Setsuya

As she scrolled through the names with her eyes, it took more than a second for her eyes to widen slightly.

I couldn't hear her mumbling, but she looked genuinely excited for the first time today.

'So it must be one of these three huh?'

"Sorry, I didn't mean to take up most of your time here. You want to target Class D with my students?" She giggled lightly. "I'll agree to it after you've done what I require."

"Hmm... I'll think about it."

"Fufufu, I look forward to the results." Her eyes suddenly sharpened, her aura changed. "Because once Katsuragi-kun disappears, I'll take the liberty of crushing you."

"Hahaha, try me. But..."

"Hmmm?"

"Be prepared for your fall."

The New Era

The only competitions that remained were the mixed-gender three-legged race, and the final event, the 1200m relay. Both were events that I had to compete in.

The three-legged race was split into two different groups, consisting of one pair from each class.

In this race, I was partnered up with Ibuki, one of the most athletic girls in the grade. But that wasn't all that mattered in this.

While we were having a conversation, we were waiting for the track to empty out. Shibata and Ichinose had taken first place in their group. The second group, which I'm placed in, had some rather challenging competition. After all, recommended events are filled with the best of the best of all the first-years.

We all gathered near the starting line.

"Tch. Some tough competition..." She looked around at the other 3 pairs competing against us, and spoke with uncertainty.

I began to secure the rope and replied, "In the three-legged race, coordination is more critical than pure speed."

With our short conversation done, we got into a running stance, waiting for the signal to sound.

When the signal came, I started running about as fast as Ibuki, matching her strides almost perfectly.

From what I could see in my peripheral vision, we were slightly behind the Class B group in second place.

Feeling the mounting pressure, Ibuki's composure faltered, and she accelerated her pace with urgency. Swiftly adapting my left foot to match her rhythm, I also increased my speed.

It seems she's still frustrated from her loss to Horikita.

In no time, we surged ahead of the Class B pair and claimed the first-place position. The finishing line drew closer with every stride—30 meters, 20 meters, 10 meters—until victory was firmly within our grasp.

After Ibuki and I took a comfortable first place spot. It was time for the final event, the 1200m relay, consisting of all 12 classes spanning across the 3 grades. This was the pinnacle of the festival, and a chance for any student to make a name for themselves.

"Look at all the adults over there!" Hiyori spotted a large crowd.

From what I could see, many teachers, and other important-looking adults gathered to watch the closing event.

"Looks like I have to go now." I muttered.

Hiyori clasped her hands together, a wide smile appeared on her face. "I'll be cheering you on from the side, you too Ibuki-san!"

"Whatever." Ibuki huffed, and walked over to the field. She's participating as the third runner. Which means that Ryuuen will be passing the baton to her, given that he's the second runner.

Generally, the fastest runners are set up to be the anchors, but I decided to start the relay because of someone. We also didn't have the best second half roster, generally the female participants were slower than the males.

The plan was simple, as long as Class B finish stop the first years and Class A finish last, Sakayanagi will follow through with my deal.

As I began walking to the starting line, I realised that we were positioned from the lowest class of the lowest grade, to the highest class of the highest grade. So I was the second closest to the inner lane, none of the other first-years had gotten here yet.

"Yamakawa-kun! About time I get to race you." The person appeared to my right side, excitement in his eyes.

I smiled at him, "Shibata, we haven't spoken all day and that's the first thing you say? Quite competitive."

He scratched the back of his head, "Hahaha, I'm too pumped up."

"Yeah, same here."

I felt the second and third year students glancing in our direction every now and then. It was obvious to me that we looked odd being the first runners, since we were assumed to be the fastest students in our respective classes.

There were three girls on the lanes for the third years, so one might imagine we would have an overwhelming starting advantage. The excitement was finally reaching its peak.

Shibata spoke up once again, a bit more seriously. "But man, I expect you to go all out here. No cutting corners."

When I saw the focused look in his eyes, I resigned.

"Can you keep up?" I confidently stared ahead towards the teacher in charge of the signal.

"I should be the one asking you that question." I smirked at his response.

This is the last event, it wouldn't hurt to go all out. I'll respect Shibata's wishes, and give him a good performance.

Class D's runner was taking a considerably long time to arrive, every other class had their runners ready.

Just in the nick of time, Sudou ran towards us. "Huff... Sorry for being late!" He bowed deeply and stood to my left, having been motivated once again.

Whatever happened during the time he was gone must have affected him a lot. The change in his behaviour was incredible.

"Sudou." I called out to him, but he ignored me, looking forward at the race.

He must've thought I was trying to get under his skin again, but that wasn't my intention.

I got into my running stance, 10 seconds left until the final event began. All eyes were on the 12 competitors standing at the starting line.

Just before the signal sounded, I spoke again, aimed at both Sudou and Shibata.

"Race for second place, because the first place has already been decided."

BANG!

Third Person POV

The instant the signal sounded, three students bolted off in perfect form. They launched themselves with so much momentum, taking the lead over the 9 other racers.

Yamakawa, Shibata, and Sudou ran at the fastest speed anyone has seen so far in the festival. Everyone was left in the dust.

30 metres in, Sudou accelerated to his full speed, Yamakawa also accelerated, Shibata was not about to be left behind.

It became an intense race between arguably the three fastest students in the year. The cheers got louder, everyone was on the edge of their seats.

"W-wow..."

"Amazing!"

Various shouts spread as they were in awe of the spectacular performances.

'Time to go even faster.'

Yamakawa once again accelerated, this time Sudou couldn't keep up. The person besides him also sped up, to his own surprise.

"Were they holding back this whole time?!" One of the students blurted in the midst of all the loud cheering.

Shibata was really fast, but even he can't keep up with the speed that Yamakawa is running at right now. The gap began to form with only 50 metres left in the race.

'I could hear the loud cheers of everyone, but that didn't matter to me, right now I feel like I'm in the zone. The wind blew by, yet it didn't affect me. The loud cheers faded away, all I saw was the track in front of me.'

'To think I'm this motivated... I wonder what made me change in the last two years?'

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka POV

"He's so fast!"

The racers beside me were mesmerised by Yamakawa's performance.

His dash had the best time of any I'd seen thus far. I could tell that he was moving at an incredible speed, even for a high school student. The top speed that Yamakawa exerted was on par with junior athletes.

The second-year guys and girls were left to struggle desperately for a position, and got caught up in a chaotic free-for-all.

When he finished his leg of the relay, he'd secured an advantage of at least ten metres. The baton was passed to the leader of Class C, Ryuuen Kakeru.

Walking over to the sidelines, Yamakawa sat down on the grass nearby, watching the rest of the relay.

Sudou reached the end of his 200 metre run, "It's up to you, Hirata!"

Class D brimmed with excitement. Sudou passed the baton to the next runner, Hirata. As a man who excelled in both studies and sports, he was glorious.

For some reason, Ryuuen slowly fell off the lead that Yamakawa had created, almost conveniently. Class B took the first place position.

He began closing the gap between us, and Class C and Class B, who were ahead. Hirata passed the baton to Onodera, our third runner.

This was where problems might start. For a girl, Onodera was fast, but the guys chasing her were starting to close in. A guy from the second-year Class A overtook her as she ran.

The same occurred for Ibuki, who was the third runner for Class C. The Class 2-A student had also overtaken her.

New students ran one after another. One third-year Class A guy also passed Onodera, and other third- and second-year students after that. By the time Onodera passed the baton to our fourth runner, Maezono, our top three spot was gone.

Despite our hopes for first place, our upperclassmen were truly strong. That was the competition for you, huh?

However, the race was full of surprises. A girl from the third-year Class A, who was her team's fourth runner, took a spill and fell about fifty meters behind the runner she was supposed to pass the baton to. Panicking, the girl tried to get back in the race, but a Class A second year took advantage of that opening and created a significant gap.

By the time Maezono passed the baton to Kushida, our fifth runner, Class A had overtaken Class D, and we'd fallen to tenth place. Class C had fallen to fourth place after that incredible start from Yamakawa. One of the runners in Class C, Yabu Nanami, had lost them the top three spot to a third-year Class A student. Class B had fallen to third place behind that very same class.

So, the other classes surpassed our abilities, eh? I had set my sights on the winner's podium, but this was really becoming an arduous battle.

Because the fourth runner from the third-year Class A tumbled, the situation between the guys in the anchor positions changed.

"Looks like victory is ours this time, President Horikita. I would've liked to run against you directly, if possible." Nagumo laughed as the second-year Class A's top runner approached him.

There was a thirty-meter gap between him and the third-year Class A student in second place. If they were equal, there was no way for the second-place student to clinch it.

"Looks like we're going to win in overall points, too. Guess this is the dawn of a new era, eh?"

"Do you seriously plan to change this school?" the student council president asked.

"You're too traditional. And even though you're strict, you're weak. Your rules are too generous, and they stop people from getting expelled. All I'm going to do is help make this school the ultimate meritocracy," said Nagumo.

Without even sparing a glance, the student council president understood what he was talking about. The presidents eyes were on a single student, the one laying on the grass field, comfortably watching the relay.

"You seem to have taken a bit of interest in him." Nagumo chuckled. "What's with the change of heart senpai?"

"I'm simply against what you're planning with that boy." The president looked away, towards the student in class 3-A who was trying his best to catch up to the first place runner.

Nagumo sighed and walked forward towards the lane, getting in position to receive the baton as it came his way.

My eyes met Horikita's brother's for an instant. I could tell this man was fighting some internal struggle.

"To think that you're the anchor," he said.

"I'm just a substitute for someone who's been injured. Originally, your sister planned to be in this position," I replied.

"I see. I suppose she's struggling to make it through," he responded.

Horikita had probably dreamed of running alongside her brother Manabu, even for a moment. While she couldn't have a conversation with him, she may have at least told him how she felt.

"I've observed your class," the student council president told me.

"Up until a short while ago, I thought there was no hope for you. However, I don't get that impression from you at all in this relay. What happened?"

"You don't really need to pay attention to first-year Class D, though. Right?"

"I keep an eye on every class. No exceptions."

"I suppose, if anything's changed, it would be your sister."

"I see." No look of surprise. He looked as composed as always.

"I'll ask you one thing. What about you? I can't feel any excitement from you."

"I'm not interested in the sports festival. I already know the outcome."

The class's feelings.

Sudou's feelings.

Horikita's feelings.

I had no interest in any of those. All I had was a single premonition.

"You probably won't be around to see this, but our class will become stronger," I told him.

"I'm not interested in such a fanciful future," Horikita's older brother replied.

He shifted his gaze toward his teammate, who was drawing near.

I spoke. "In that case, would you be interested in learning exactly what kind of person I am?"

"What?"

We should've been getting ready to start running. However, just as I had expected, he stopped.

"If you'd like, I'll race against you seriously," I added.

"You really say some interesting things. Did I have the wrong impression of you? I thought you hated standing out or getting involved. You seemed like you'd just watch things play themselves out. Why change that now?" he asked.

"It's not often that a first-year and third-year have the opportunity to compete like this, is it?"

Horikita's brother stood still and turned to face me. "Or were you slightly motivated by the race at the beginning? It's interesting nonetheless."

I would be lying if I said it wasn't motivated by that.

He didn't seem as though he was going to move at all. His team's fifth runner passed him the baton, looking perplexed, but the older Horikita took it and stood completely still. "You did well. Great work," he said.

"Uh, thanks. Hah..." The third-year student left in a mild state of shock.

Everyone in the audience noticed this bizarre spectacle. One after another, other runners passed the third-year Class A, and Horikita Manabu just stood there. Finally, Kushida approached me at full speed. She'd be here in seconds.

"I'll say one thing to you before we race."

"What?" Horikita's brother asked.

"Run as fast as you can."

I got the feeling that the older Horikita, whose face was in my peripheral vision, wore a slight smile. Finally, the baton passed to me.

"Ayanokouji-kun!" Kushida cried.

I bolted down the track at full throttle.