Chapter 4: Lost Lamb

Chapter 4: Lost Lamb

Chapter 4:

Lost Lamb

S PRING BREAK WAS HERE and April was just about to begin. Today was 30th March. I hadn’t really done much of anything the past few days, other than spend most of that time in my room and just enjoy my time off. I thought I might be able to just take it easy and welcome the start of the new school year like this, but…

When I woke that morning, just before eight o’clock, I saw that I had a message. The sender was a student from first-year Class B. Ichinose Honami. The message asked if we could meet up somewhere during spring break.

It seemed the remainder of my vacation wasn’t going to be passing by so quietly after all.

It sounded like Ichinose was fine with any day and time, but she wanted Horikita to come along too, if at all possible. From that part of the message, I guessed that Horikita was probably the main person she wanted to see, and I was nothing more than a bonus.

I could make a rough guess at what the conversation would be about—our final exam of our first year: the Event Selection Exam. Ichinose was bound to have gathered some information about what happened with our class, but I was betting she wanted to know more about our three wins and four losses against Class A. In addition to that, I was guessing she wanted to talk about becoming second-year students. More specifically about the alliance relationship that my class had with her.

Would that relationship continue? Or would it be dissolved? I’m sure Ichinose wanted to sort that out. Either option seemed equally likely at the moment, but the latter, in particular, was something best discussed thoroughly during our spring break.

“Has Ichinose recovered? Or not?” I asked myself.

I thought about the girl who I hadn’t seen even once since spring break had started. I was guessing the results of the year-end exam probably continued to weigh on Ichinose’s mind. Two wins and five losses. It was a crushing defeat for Class B.

Even though my own class had been demoted back down to D, the gap in points between classes was certainly shrinking. It now seemed quite likely that a single special exam would change the ranks of the classes. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Class D and C were now almost neck and neck with Class B. Given the situation, a discussion of what to do from here on out was necessary, sooner or later.

The alliance we’d entered into in the early stages of our first year was by no means a bad thing. If we were to keep this vaguely cooperative relationship into next year, it would lessen the mental burden on us. But we could also see that, in the near future, it was possible that this relationship could come to hinder both classes. And when the time came that the relationship grew strained, we’d probably have to dissolve it by force. And something like that would generally be called “dishonest.”

At any rate, to clarify what was happening, both the lower and upper classes would need to come up with policies to direct what they were going to do in the future.

If Horikita knew about Ichinose’s approach, then she was probably thinking the same thing I was. This wasn’t going to be a simple conversation. It would likely be a major point of divergence for both of our classes, which would predict where we went in the future. Even if Ichinose wasn’t in a state where she could think that far ahead, there was a good chance that Horikita would bring it up herself.

What I could say right now was that turning down this discussion was not an option. Which left the issue of timing. Today wasn’t a problem for me, but I had to wonder about Horikita. According to what her brother had said, he’d be leaving school on the thirty-first. I was sure that, deep down, Horikita wanted to talk to him in the little time that remained. It wouldn’t be surprising if they wanted family time, with no one else around, just for today.

As for whether Horikita’s brother would allow that, though—and whether Horikita could actually go through with meeting him—that was a different matter. For the time being, I figured I’d send Horikita a text.

While I was at it, I added a note, asking if she’d gotten a chance to actually sit down and talk with her brother. Other than that, I simply told her that Ichinose wanted to meet up.

A few seconds later, I saw that the message had been read. The reply came shortly after.

“I’m fine with whenever.”

That was her response. Well, okay, no, ‘whenever’ is not fine. As I commented mentally on the text she’d just sent me, I wondered what kind of response I’d get from her if I set the date for our meeting to be tomorrow, the thirty-first. But I supposed she wouldn’t be pleased to have me deliberately bring up something I knew bothered her. That was clear from the fact that she had completely ignored the subject of her brother in her reply.

“In that case, how about April 2?” I replied.

I took the situation with her brother into consideration, deciding to leave today and tomorrow out of the equation.

“I’m free today.”

Her response back to me was immediate. And it had this intense feeling behind it, like she was telling me to mind my own business. Even if coming right out and saying she honestly wanted to spend time with her brother would’ve been difficult for her, she could’ve simply said she already had plans. Also, even if I told her that I had plans for today, it would probably be hard to convince her that was true.

“Okay. I’d definitely want to get troublesome stuff out of the way quickly.”

It would be tiring to push back against what Horikita wanted right now, so I figured I’d go along with it. Even if it was afternoon by the time our discussion ended, that would still leave plenty of time for her to meet up with her brother.

“…Yeah, that’s probably impossible,” I said to myself.

It seemed unlikely those two were going to meet privately, except for when they planned to say their goodbyes tomorrow.

I sent my reply to Horikita, deciding to commit to meeting with Ichinose today. Afterward, in talking with Ichinose, we settled on a meeting time of ten o’clock, at the café on the second floor of the Keyaki Mall.

4.1

I T MUST HAVE BEEN because April was just around the corner, but the temperature was gradually getting warmer. It was now just after nine-thirty in the morning. Although it was sunny and clear outside right now, the weather forecast called for heavy rain just past noon, so we decided to have our meeting time early in the day and be done by noon.

There was still some time before we were to meet. I casually set out for Keyaki Mall and hit the button for the elevator, passing all kinds of students outside on vacation on the way. Classmates, of course, but second-year students from other classes, too. Even though I didn’t know very many people, I figured that if I walked around a bit, I would see someone I knew.

But more and more of the graduates were leaving by the day, and now hardly any of them seemed to be around anymore. Once April first rolled around, only the second- and first-year students would be left. I supposed it was probably going to be rather quiet for a few days.

Just as I thought that, I happened to bump into a girl I knew from my grade level. She was on the elevator that I had just called.

“…You again…” she huffed.

The girl, who addressed me in such a displeased tone and then put some distance between us, was a student of first-year Class D. Ibuki Mio. For some reason, I found myself imagining what Ibuki had been doing during the long break. I was sure she was wondering the same of me.

Anyway, since we were in an elevator together, you could say that we were in a private space.

“We’re on break. It’s not that strange for us to bump into each other now and again, is it?” I told her.

“Well, no, but… I just don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore.”

“I know.”.

It seemed like she hadn’t been too pleased when she came to my room last time, either. If Ishizaki hadn’t forced her to accompany him, she probably wouldn’t have come. But even though Ibuki hated me, she’d still come along and helped for Ryuuen’s sake. That alone was proof that she felt that Ryuuen was an essential part of her class.

I didn’t really have the choice of not getting on the elevator, so I got on with Ibuki.

“It’s not going to break down again, is it…?”

“Now that you mention it, that did happen before, didn’t it?”

It had happened during summer vacation, if I recall. Ibuki and I had gotten stuck in an elevator together. Although we were both wary about it happening again, that was obviously too much of a coincidence. The elevator reached the first-floor lobby and Ibuki immediately got off.

Apparently, she was also heading toward Keyaki Mall.

“You don’t mind? Keeping pace with me, I mean.”

She could have simply broken into a run if she wanted to get away from me right away.

“Why should I need to do anything different? Why don’t you just hurry up and start going faster instead?” she snapped.

Although she hated being around me, she apparently couldn’t stand the idea of backing down herself. That did seem very much like Ibuki, I supposed. I couldn’t help but feel like it had something to do with the power of a competitive spirit, the kind that hated to lose.

That being said, it would be weird for me to run just to get away from her. As far as I was concerned, keeping pace with Ibuki wasn’t a problem. More importantly, if I rushed off toward Keyaki Mall, I’d get there too far ahead of schedule. It would just be a waste of energy.

In the end, neither one of us backed down. We continued walking along, keeping a similar place.

My destination was only about five minutes from the dormitory. We would be parting ways soon.

“I’m glad that Ryuuen came back.”

“Ugh, shut up. Just shut up. Don’t talk to me.”

I wasn’t even allowed to make small talk. I supposed that I would hold back from saying anything unnecessary. It didn’t seem like silence bothered her, so I decided to keep my mouth shut, like her. We continued to walk alongside each other, me feeling like I was treading on eggshells the whole time.

“Yo, Ibuki! Wait up!” shouted Ishizaki.

“Ugh, shut up ! Don’t shout so loud when you’re so close,” snapped Ibuki.

“Well, I was only doing that because you weren’t respondin’ to me. Huh? Wait, you’re with Ayanokouji. Wait, don’t tell me, are you guys maybe out on a…date?” asked Ishizaki, who had broken into a run to catch up with us.

When Ibuki heard him say those words, she immediately kicked the back of his knee.

“Ow! Hey, what the hell?!”

“You know full well why you got kicked. Besides, it’s awkward being around you. Get lost,” said Ibuki.

“What? Come on, it’s fine, ain’t it? I mean, we planned to meet up later anyway,” said Ishizaki.

Apparently, they’d made plans to meet up at the Keyaki Mall.

“I’m assuming Ryuuen is going to be there too?” I asked.

“Yeah, he is—I mean, no… Uh…”

After I had casually asked Ishizaki if Ryuuen would be there, he had inadvertently let the answer slip.

“Moron.”

It seemed these two had planned to meet up at Keyaki Mall separately, for whatever reason. It wasn’t hard to deduce as much, considering how strongly Ishizaki reacted when he heard Ryuuen’s name. They must have been planning to meet in secret.

“W-well, whatever, it doesn’t matter, does it? There ain’t no point trying to hide it from Ayanokouji.” Ishizaki got defensive, but Ibuki’s expression remained stern.

“It does matter. Because in the end, if we don’t defeat him, then we’ll never get to the top,” she Ibuki.

“Well, yeah, I guess you got a point…”

Shouldn’t they be having this kind of conversation when I wasn’t around? Although I remained skeptical about Ryuuen’s return, from the looks of things, it seemed pretty likely that it was going to happen. I supposed that the reason they were planning to meet in private was because he hadn’t made his return official yet.

Ryuuen had abdicated his throne before. Obviously, his classmates weren’t going to accept him reclaiming it quite so easily. Ishizaki was faced with a dilemma of his own, as he was the one who’d been given credit for taking Ryuuen down.

While I was organizing my thoughts in my head, Ishizaki called out to me. “Hey, Ayanokouji.”

“Hm?”

“I’ve come up with the ultimate plan to get up to Class A. Wanna be part of it?” he asked.

What he just said was so sudden that I was at a complete loss as to how to respond to him.

“Let me hear it. This ultimate plan of yours.”

“Hell yeah,” he replied, proudly pounding his chest with a thump . “Get this. You come over to our class. Then, getting to Class A will be a sure thing, right?”

“Huh? What the hell are you spouting all of a sudden?” asked Ibuki.

“If Ryuuen-san and Ayanokouji join forces, we’d be unbeatable, dude. We’d be able to beat Sakayanagi and Ichinose.”

“No. No. Absolutely not,” said Ibuki, rejecting the idea outright.

So that was the ultimate plan Ishizaki had come up with. Huh. Joining forces with Ryuuen, hm…?

“It’s not a bad idea,” I told them.

“Are you… being serious?” asked Ibuki, looking at me with a look of disgust.

“I know, right? If you say you’re gonna join our team, then we’ll welcome ya with open arms. I think that you and Ryuuen-san would actually get along pretty well, surprisingly. And y’know, Albert, he likes you. When you came up in conversation the other day, dude got like super excited,” said Ishizaki.

This was the first I’d heard of Yamada Albert liking me. Wait. Hold on. Could you really interpret however he felt as actually liking me…? We’d hardly even interacted with one another. The only time I could remember doing so was when we met up on the roof that one time. Did he take a liking to people whom he fought with, or something? If anything, I’d imagine he would resent me for it.

“It’s not like he said that explicitly though, did he?” Ibuki must have had her doubts too, because she asked Ishizaki about it.

“Dudes can just sense this kind of stuff. It’s a hunch. Intuition.”

Yeah, that was a really unreliable hunch. If I did take this offer and join Ryuuen’s class, it was possible Albert might try to fight me again. Ishizaki had clearly come up with this idea all alone, and he was the only one who seemed to be getting increasingly excited about it. While I was grateful for his appreciation, I decided to give him a serious answer.

“It’s not going to happen. What would you do about the twenty million points necessary for the class transfer? That’s the basic requirement.”

Even though they had beaten Class B in the year-end exam, there was no way they had saved up that many points.

“Well, y’know. Ryuuen-san would come up with something,” said Ishizaki.

“Yeah, there’s no way he’d do anything,” said Ibuki.

“You think? I think Ryuuen-san would lend a hand if Ayanokouji decided to join us.”

“I can’t imagine he’d lend anything.”

I agreed with Ibuki on that point. He wasn’t the kind of guy who would entertain such good-natured ideas. He wasn’t going to go so far as to join forces with me to get to Class A. His pride as a man wouldn’t allow it. Honestly, I didn’t want him to be the kind of guy who’d allow something like that, either.

“It’s honestly more fun for me to have you as my enemy than to be your ally. I’m happy to receive the offer, but I’ll have to decline,” I told them.

That point was especially important, even before getting to the problem of having enough Private Points.

“Really? Damn. And I thought it was such a great idea.”

“You really are a weirdo. You think it’s fun being enemies?” said Ibuki with a snort.

She didn’t even turn to look at me once.

“Yeah. I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ll do,” I admitted openly.

When I told her that, Ibuki responded with a show of disgust, acting like she was about to vomit. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself by acting belligerent or anything, but I’d be happy to have a rematch with Ryuuen. However, in order for that to happen, he needed to grow more. He needed to show me that he could win against Horikita, Ichinose, and Sakayanagi.

Shortly afterward, we arrived near Keyaki Mall.

“Sorry, Ayanokouji, gotta go our separate ways here. It’d be a pain in the butt if people saw us hanging with you.”

I parted ways with them near the mall’s main entrance, deciding to enter the building through another route.

Although I didn’t know where they’d be meeting up later, I supposed it didn’t hurt to exchange ideas like we’d just done. It wasn’t like Ishizaki to be so considerate of others, so I was honestly grateful for it. When I first met Ishizaki, I never dreamed that we’d develop the kind of relationship where we could have this much conversation. As for Ibuki, I felt like our relationship had regressed compared to where we stood before, but I supposed that was a kind of development, too.

“A year certainly has passed, huh.”

The environment around me had changed significantly in the past year. I could now have actual conversations with students from other classes, like Ryuuen and Sakayanagi, and others, too. Even though only one year had passed, it was still a whole year. It was proof that time didn’t stand still. I could grasp the passage of time now, which I couldn’t do when I was little.

Speaking of which…that reminded me of this time last year. The time before I started attending the Advanced Nurturing High School, when I was spending my days quietly to avoid letting anyone know I was about to start school. I’d savored that sensation of nothingness. I was especially trying not to provoke…him. That man. Because I knew full well that if I got his attention, he would have stopped me.

I had been saved by a variety of factors. If he had been around me more regularly, he might not have overlooked what I was up to. However, he was a busy man, so he rarely ever came home. Although there were servants posted to keep watch over me, the man himself lived in a hotel for up to seventy or eighty percent of the year.

It wasn’t like I was that familiar with the house myself, even though I’d lived there. I’d spent most of my life in the White Room. The house had been nothing more than a temporary abode for less than a year. It was no different from a hotel to me.

“The White Room, huh.”

That man hadn’t given up yet. If anything, I felt like he was doing everything in his power to resist my efforts. I didn’t know what had happened in the past year, but it was safe to assume the White Room had restarted its activities. As long as the White Room needed me, then it was a foregone conclusion that I’d be going back there. I’d be facing that problem in the not-too-distant future, just two years from now.

I hoped I could spend two more years here at this school…but…

It was pointless to think about that right now. Besides, I was currently in a situation I couldn’t have even imagined a year ago. And I was certain it would be engraved into my mind as an irreplaceable memory.

I had arrived at our meeting place, near the north entrance of the Keyaki Mall. Normally, the stores opened at ten o’clock in the morning on weekdays, but during long holiday periods, some stores opened earlier at nine. The café on the second floor, where we had planned to meet, was one of those stores.

“This really is the life,” I said to myself.

Doing whatever you pleased. Living the carefree life of a high-school kid. Having conversations with your classmates on your phone and getting together for a little rendezvous. Somehow, these days still felt so unreal. I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t fulfilling. Of course, life here at this school had its share of troubles, too.

Things had changed a lot from how they were just a few months ago. I had become much more comfortable dealing with the girl who was walking toward me right now. Yeah…I was almost becoming a different person, at least on the surface.

I stopped thinking about that for now and changed over into that other person. For now, I figured I’d focus all my energy on the upcoming conversation.

“You’re here rather early. We still have almost twenty minutes until our meeting. What, do you just have a lot of free time on your hands?” Horikita had, unsurprisingly, arrived clad in casual clothes. She deliberately looked at her phone screen while she greeted me.

“You got here twenty minutes early too. That makes you the same as me, doesn’t it?” I replied.

It was like we were mutually proving to one another that neither of us had any plans for spring break. We made our way toward our destination on the second floor without really engaging in any deep conversation.

“It seems you already understand what we’re talking about today, too,” said Horikita.

She seemed to have concluded as such, considering that I didn’t ask to confirm anything. She was correct, but I thought I’d try to mess with her a little.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You already know, and yet you’re going to try to go through this pointless song and dance?” she shot back.

“No, I don’t understand, at all. What is Ichinose planning to talk to us about?” I had intended to deceive Horikita, who seemed to be suspicious of me, with my insistence, but…

“You really don’t understand? If you do know, and you’re just playing dumb, I am not going to let you off the hook for it. Understand?”

“…Okay, calm down.”

Horikita was glaring at me like she was about to take a bite out of me. I decided I’d stop messing with her right away.

“I can guess what it’ll be about, more or less. It’s not that hard.”

“If it’s not all that difficult for you to do so, then stop trying to mess with me,” she snapped, perfectly understandably so.

I supposed there was no point in trying to get inside Horikita’s head like this.

“Were you testing me? To see how much I understood?” she asked.

“You’re reading way too much into it,” I replied.

“Is that true?” she asked back.

She seemed to be getting sharper. Or rather, I suppose I should say that she was starting to understand my methods. I guessed that superficial tricks wouldn’t work on her anymore.

I decided to back off, since pursuing the matter further would probably result in me suffering injury.

“Well, more importantly… She’s here.”

I could see Ichinose waiting for us by the entrance to the café, so I changed the topic. It was still ten minutes until we were scheduled to meet. It seemed Ichinose had arrived quite early, then.

“Ichinose might have as few plans for the spring break as we do,” I observed.

I couldn’t imagine she’d only just arrived here. How long had she been waiting for us out front, I wondered?

“There’s no way she’s like us. In her case, I’m guessing she’s simply conscientious, or rather, she’s too disciplined to be late. She probably just doesn’t want to make whoever she’s meeting wait,” said Horikita.

She was probably exactly right. “So that’s how you see Ichinose too, then?”

“At first, I thought she was a faker, someone who just acted like they were a good person,” said Horikita. Her words were so shockingly blunt and direct that I almost thought she was exaggerating. “But after this past year, the image I have of her in my mind changed completely. She is a pure, genuinely good-natured person.”

There were many who played the part of good people, but the real deal was quite hard to find. Most people talked shit behind each other’s backs and behaved in a two-faced manner. But there was no doubt that Ichinose was certainly one of those precious few truly good people.

“What kind of life did she have before, I wonder? That led her to becoming such a good person?” said Horikita.

That was the only thing I didn’t have the slightest clue about.

“Being a good person is her strength. But at the same time, it’s also her weakness,” she added, letting out a sigh that seemed to indicate both admiration and concern for Ichinose as we approached.

The more genuinely good someone was, the more bad people would take advantage of them.

“Do you think it’d be better to not be a good person?” I asked.

“If you lived alone in the mountains, surrounded by nature, then it would be fine, sure. But if you want to survive in a competitive society, I think you should abandon the notion of being a completely good person,” said Horikita.

“I see.”

“But in her case, I’m sure that she’ll continue to be a good person, all the way until the end of her days,” said Horikita.

She was saying Ichinose would probably continue to be a good person even if it became a detriment to her.

“Even so, Ichinose knows how to make a distinction between right and wrong, good and bad. I’m sure she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to get her classmates out of harm’s way,” I reasoned.

“If so, then that’s great. Anyway, I think that’s enough of this silly conversation,” said Horikita.

Her expression turned serious as she prepared herself for the discussion to come. We decided to stop our chit-chatting and called out to Ichinose.

“You’re early, Ichinose-san. I hope we haven’t kept you waiting long,” said Horikita.

“Good morning, Horikita-san, Ayanokouji-kun. Oh, and not at all! I only just got here myself.”

Ichinose welcomed us warmly, with a smile on her face like usual, clad in her personal clothes. I was sure that was just her being polite and giving us a cliché greeting, though. I had to wonder when she’d really arrived here.

“I guess it’ll probably be pretty easy to find a seat first thing in the morning,” I reasoned.

It seemed like students were still few and far between here, so we were able to sit just about anywhere.

“Come on, order whatever you like. It’ll be my treat,” said Ichinose, lightly thumping her chest with her fist, with a whump , telling us that she’d take care of paying.

“That’s not… meant to be a bargaining chip, that you can use in our discussion, is it?” asked Horikita.

Horikita had momentarily put her guard up, since she herself had served a home-cooked meal to a certain someone to try to take advantage of the situation in the past.

“She’s not you. She wouldn’t do that,” I answered.

“I really don’t like the way you said that, but… You’ve got a point,” replied Horikita.

Just as Horikita herself had stated earlier, the person we were meeting with was none other than Ichinose. I couldn’t imagine her doing something like that to put us in her debt. Even if she did try something like that, I was sure Horikita would find a way to regain control of the situation.

“Well, I suppose we’ll take you up on your kind offer, if you’re okay with it,” said Horikita.

“Of course! Please, go ahead. You can order first, Horikita-san.”

Since Ichinose had urged her to do so, Horikita decided to go ahead and put in her order first. There was one thing I was worried about though, so I got in close and spoke to Ichinose in a quiet whisper. I could faintly detect the smell of citrus again today.

“Ichinose, is this going to be okay though? I mean, with your Private Points?” I asked.

Although I was grateful for her offer to treat us, she should have zero points right now, since she’d stopped one of her classmates from Class B from getting expelled. She probably felt like she should pay because she was the one who’d invited us to meet, but I was worried about her financial situation.

“Oh, it’s okay. Even after covering these, I should have about three thousand points left. It’s all right,” she answered.

April was just around the corner. I supposed if she had that much left, then she wouldn’t have any trouble getting through until then. However, I was sure she should have been down to zero Private Points. Perhaps Ichinose had sensed my doubts, because she spoke up once again.

“I got it with my hairdryer. I sold it to Nishikawa-san from Class A, to get some money. I thought it was the only way I could make it through March. The other girls have been toughing it out too, doing similar things to make it through,” said Ichinose.

Although there were systems in place to let you survive without any money, there were cases where you needed cash on hand. If someone was willing to sell an item for a cheaper price than what it was going for in stores, then it was possible to successfully negotiate a deal.

“So, you really don’t need to be modest, Ayanokouji-kun. Please, go ahead and order,” said Ichinose, gently pushing me forward as she spoke.

It was certainly true that she wouldn’t be too happy if I was the only one who didn’t take her up on her generous offer. After Horikita had finished placing her order, I went up and ordered a coffee. Then, we picked up our orders, and took our seats at a table in the corner of the café.

I wanted to get this going quickly, while there were still only a few students around, and assumed Ichinose and Horikita would be thinking the same thing. Horikita launched into our discussion almost as soon as we sat down.

“So, I was wondering if you called us here to talk about the exam. Or, perhaps, about what our policies will be starting in April?”

It seemed she’d correctly predicted what Ichinose was going to talk about without needing to discuss anything with me beforehand.

“ A ha ha! Guess you saw right through me. You’re absolutely right,” replied Ichinose, admitting to it with a laugh.

Even though she laughed, she still had a serious look in her eyes—proof that she understood this discussion wasn’t in the least bit frivolous.

“Was it a bother that I called you out to talk?” she asked.

“Not at all. I thought this discussion needed to happen soon, too, so it was nice that you reached out, Ichinose-san. You’re quite a popular person too, so I imagined it would’ve been hard to get plans put together,” said Horikita.

“Oh no, not at all. I’ve actually been pretty free for spring break. You can call me anytime,” said Ichinose, answering with a pleasant smile.

It looked as though there was a hint of painful sadness in her smile, though. I was guessing something had happened, like she had gotten an invitation but turned it down. Of course, Horikita could guess what that might be.

“It seems you really had a difficult time with the final exam,” I told her.

That might have not been an appropriate way to start a conversation, but I decided to bring it up anyway. Even if we tried to have this discussion in a roundabout way to avoid opening up those wounds, sooner or later, we’d have to tackle the topic. It was better to get to it right away and deal with some pain at the start, so that she could heal quicker.

Perhaps Horikita had planned to delay bringing that topic up for a little while, because a strained expression flashed on her face for just a moment. Even so, she sensed what I was doing by bringing it up, and her expression changed.

“Well, yeah. I completely lost. I feel like I was totally overwhelmed by Ryuuen-kun’s strategy,” said Ichinose, affirming what I had said earlier. She shook her head side-to-side and let out a deep sigh as she spoke, as if she were recalling what had happened. She then sighed again, sounding depressed and clearly frustrated.

“I still don’t know the details. What caused you to lose?” asked Horikita.

“The cause is clear. It’s because I’m no good,” said Ichinose.

She didn’t say it was because of the opposing commander she’d faced, nor did she blame her classmates. She answered Horikita’s question without any hesitation, putting all of the blame solely on herself, the commander.

“Although we didn’t watch your exam directly, it’s hard to imagine you making any big mistakes or anything,” said Horikita.

“You’re giving me way too much credit. To be honest, it felt like I was in a panic the whole time…” said Ichinose.

Horikita tried to compliment Ichinose, but she humbly rejected it. To tell the truth, I believed that she’d been in a panic. I’d seen how flustered she’d been from the moment that Ryuuen arrived. I was guessing that meant he’d dragged out that feeling of shock all through the whole exam.

“We had assumed that Kaneda-kun was going to be their commander. But then he wasn’t. That first upset threw us completely off our game,” said Ichinose.

“That’s completely understandable, though. Ryuuen-kun had previously withdrawn from his position as leader of his class. And besides, there was no way that a student without a Protection Point would have become the commander. I’m sure that’s what everyone thought. Ryuuen-kun was the exception,” said Horikita.

That was absolutely right. Neither Sakayanagi nor I had thought Ryuuen would show up like he did. It would be completely unreasonable to expect Ichinose, as Ryuuen’s opponent, to not be surprised. If Ryuuen had lost, he would’ve been expelled. No one other than him could put his life on the line and fight such a desperate battle.

“There’s no changing the fact that the fault is mine. I was unable to pull myself together throughout the whole test, until the very end,” said Ichinose.

Just when she thought she’d be facing off against Kaneda, Ryuuen appeared. Even though it wasn’t my business, the whole situation made me feel sorry for Ichinose. The commander was limited in what they could do. But since the commanders were free to talk during the exam, I’m sure that Ryuuen had completely driven Ichinose into a corner with his words.

“I heard that you and the rest of your class put up a great fight against Class A, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Ichinose, offering us words of praise, turning the conversation around.

If there were any problems that might arise from this change in topic, it was that I’d told Ichinose I had wanted to fight Class A. Horikita didn’t know about this fact. She’d instructed me to go up against Class D. But I’d lost the drawing, and never had the chance to choose Class D as our opponent. Depending on how this conversation progressed, inconsistencies could pop up and things could get a little tricky for me.

You might think it would have been a good idea for me to meet Ichinose and discuss this beforehand, but the problem was that I’d told Ichinose it was actually Horikita who wanted to fight Class A. Ichinose thought Horikita had ordered me to choose Class A as our opponent. Horikita thought we’d lost the drawing and had no choice but to fight Class A.

Both Ichinose and Horikita were at a point where neither of them were aware of the truth. I supposed there was no reason I couldn’t forcibly guide the conversation forward in a way that kept them from becoming aware of it. Ordinarily, the old me would have definitely laid the necessary groundwork beforehand. Or, as an emergency stopgap measure, take steps now to prevent them from finding out.

After careful consideration, I decided to deliberately expose myself to Horikita. It was the reason why I hadn’t taken action up until that moment. To ascertain just how much Horikita had grown.

“A loss is a loss. I even went to all the trouble of asking you to give up your right to choose Class A as your opponent so we could fight them, instead. I think if Class B had gone up against Class A, the results might have been different,” I replied.

After hearing me make that off-handed comment, Horikita turned her gaze over at me, just for a moment. Of course, I didn’t need to wonder about the meaning behind that gaze. The look she gave me said, “What do you mean, so we could fight Class A?”

But after considering smoothly I’d slid it into our conversation, Horikita decided to let it slide for the moment. The momentary glance she shot me was so natural and so brief that not even Ichinose would harbor any doubts about it. It proved she understood, from the moment she heard me speak, that the topic was not to be broached right now.

The old Horikita would’ve said, out loud, “What are you talking about?” And in doing so, she would’ve made Ichinose feel suspicious. Even if things didn’t go that far, it would’ve planted a seed in Ichinose’s mind and made her feel like something was off. Horikita’s abilities of comprehension and judgment had improved considerably…though perhaps it was more that they’d become clearer to see.

Thanks to Horikita keeping quiet here, the only truth Ichinose was left with was that this was something that Horikita had decided, after all. It also made my presence less visible to the other classes.

“As a result of my request, you and your class had to fight an uphill battle, Ichinose-san.” Horikita apologized to Ichinose, falling in sync with my forceful pace.

“This is my responsibility. This isn’t something you should apologize for, Horikita-san,” said Ichinose.

It was easy to see that it had been a bad matchup for Class B. As a result of their battle with Class D, Class B had ended up with two wins and five losses. More importantly, it had led to Class B losing a lot of Class Points all in one fell swoop.

“Besides, these are all what-ifs, anyway. At the end of the day, it was Kaneda-kun from Class D who won the drawing and then chose Class B as his opponent. So it’s not a problem,” added Ichinose.

That was certainly true. At least, that was what you might conclude if you were only looking at the results. Even without laying groundwork ahead of time, the battle between Class B and Class D was unavoidable.

“Don’t worry yourself about this, Horikita-san. I… I should have thought hard and come up with a better, more solid strategy to win. That’s something I’m reflecting on quite a bit,” said Ichinose.

While that was a proactive statement, the extent to which things could or would change was a different matter.

“If it’s all right with you, may I ask what kinds of battle strategies you used and in what events? Of course, I’ll tell you all about how things went for us, in exchange,” said Horikita.

Horikita must have heard about what happened to Class B, even if only rumors and hearsay. But the exact nature of what happened between commanders was something that only the people in question could know.

Ichinose responded to Horikita’s proposal with a nod.

Which events she and the rest of her class had chosen. Which events Ryuuen and his class had chosen. Which events were finally chosen and in what order, the traps Ryuuen had laid, where they won and where they lost. Ichinose told us everything in detail, holding nothing back. She even included the reasons why they lost.

Ryuuen’s class had adopted a brutal knockout competition style system in their selections, with all of their events being focused on martial arts. Quite a lethal line-up of events for Class B.

“Well, I suppose you could certainly say they made use of a strategy that played to their strengths,” said Horikita.

“We probably wouldn’t have stood a chance against them either,” I added.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right… For the boys, we at least have Sudou-kun. He’s the only one we could count on to win. Well, actually, no. I suppose there’s no guarantee he would win against Yamada-kun,” reasoned Horikita.

If Kouenji took things seriously, he would be a contender. But I didn’t expect Horikita to bring that. As for the girls in our class, it was doubtful that any of them, aside from Horikita, could go very far in such a competition.

“With Ryuuen-kun’s fighting style, he might have even won against Class A,” said Horikita.

“Yeah, I agree with you there,” I replied.

It had all come down to luck. If fortune skewed even a little bit in Ryuuen’s favor, there was a chance he could win against any class. Still, overall, he saw his highest win rate when he was up against Class B. That was proof that he’d had his eyes set on Class B from the very beginning.

“But wait, what was the reason you ended up with only two wins, even though many of the events during the test were ones chosen by Class B?” asked Horikita.

Ryuuen’s strategy was indeed a force to be reckoned with, but Class B had been lucky in the events drawing. Ichinose should have stood a certain chance of winning, given the fact that four of the events that were selected were events from Class B.

“…Okay,” said Ichinose.

Horikita still didn’t know anything about what had really happened. I naturally didn’t, either. So, we listened to her intently, without prior assumptions.

What happened was part of the strategy that Ryuuen had enacted. Ichinose told us about that strategy—how Ryuuen and the students of Class D didn’t do anything directly to Class B students, but instead, continued to stalk them and inflict mental and emotional anguish. They’d forcefully get in students’ faces, put pressure on them. And on the day of the exam, several students from Class B suddenly fell ill and were unable to demonstrate their full potential.

After she had finished telling us everything that had happened, Ichinose added one more thing.

“I dropped the ball during the event that I specialized in, that I had chosen myself. I wasn’t able to adapt to the situation. That’s my failure as commander,” she said, making it very clear that this wasn’t Ryuuen’s fault. It was her own.

“Multiple people experiencing stomach pains, and students suffering from mental and emotional anguish. That must mean…” Naturally, Horikita also understood that what had happened was part of Ryuuen’s plans.

“I think that it was a trap laid by Ryuuen-kun, without a doubt. When I interviewed some of my classmates who’d fallen ill, they told me they had bumped into Ishizaki-kun and some other people at karaoke, before the exam,” said Ichinose.

Karaoke, huh. That was one of the few places where students weren’t monitored. So, they must have done something there—administered something to the Class B students. That was an extremely risky move.

“Shouldn’t you report this issue to the school? It couldn’t hurt to make an appeal,” said Horikita.

A week had passed since the test ended. Of course, the students’ food or drink would have already been disposed of. Even if you could find evidence that they’d purchased medicine at the pharmacy, it was a moot point. There’d just be endless argument over whether or not they had really given the medicine to the Class B students.

“Raising the issue isn’t a bad thing. Even if nothing comes of it this time around, it could serve as a deterrent for next time. If they continue doing such reckless things, the school will naturally judge them more harshly,” reasoned Horikita.

If the school found out it was true that Class D did those things, it would be a serious matter. They’d likely put measures in place to prevent it happening again.

“You’re probably right. But in any case, I’m not planning on reporting anything that happened this time.” Ichinose turned down Horikita’s suggestion. It had been a week since the exam had ended, and I was sure her classmates had repeatedly appealed to her during that time, asking her to say something. But even so, she hadn’t done anything.

Well, that was no wonder, I supposed.

“Why? Are you just going to roll over and take it? This is a serious matter. If Ryuuen made a single error, even just one tiny slip-up—and you reported it—it could end up completely overturning the results of the exam,” said Horikita.

She was saying there was no way to be sure no evidence could be found. Depending on how things played out, Ryuuen and the other Class D students might get hit with suspension, or worse. The more time that passed, the harder it would be to make that appeal to the school.

“If you’d like, I will assist you,” added Horikita.

If Horikita were in Ichinose’s shoes, she definitely wouldn’t take this injustice lying down. Which was precisely why she was making such a forceful offer right now.

“Thank you, Horikita-san. But I don’t think I can appeal to the school. There’s no hard evidence at this point, and besides…I want this issue to serve as a powerful lesson.” Despite Horikita’s efforts to persuade her, Ichinose rejected the offer.

“A lesson? What do you mean?” asked Horikita.

“I think that I’m lucky,” said Ichinose.

Ichinose had looked down in the dumps moments ago. But now, a slight spark had returned to her eyes. Like a damaged engine desperately struggling to start back up.

“If something like this happened at the end of our second year, or during a critical time in our third, then I have no idea how much trouble I’d be in. But since it happened now, I think I’ll be okay.”

Ichinose nodded after saying that. Her eyes held a kind of strength as she looked at Horikita and me.

I was probably the only one who understood her brilliance in that moment.

“Our entire class is taking this defeat very seriously. And we’ve decided we’re going to make good use of this experience for what comes next,” said Ichinose.

“I see. In that case, I suppose there’s no need for me, as someone from another class, to say anything else,” said Horikita.

“Guess so,” I added.

With that, the Class B vs. Class D discussion came to an end for the time being. We’d heard about the details of what happened during the test for Ichinose and Ryuuen. Horikita asked me a question with her eyes. You were the commander. Are you going to talk about that? That was what she had wanted to confirm.

And I, as commander, reported the results of our exam and events we’d had in the same way that Ichinose did. Everything I said was entirely bland, unremarkable, and matter-of-fact, though. What events were chosen? What kinds of strategies did we rely on? How did we lose? Of course, I didn’t mention anything unnecessary, like the fact that I’d had answered the final question on the Flash Mental Arithmetic event.

“I had already heard the results of your exam, but I still have to say, you fought extremely well,” said Ichinose.

“Still, of the seven events in the exam, we couldn’t hold our own against Sakayanagi in chess,” said Horikita. “And so we lost.”

It was just one game. As long as we said it was simply an event that we felt confident about, no one would think to probe further. More importantly, the fact that we’d lost against Sakayanagi, of all people, was enough to make anyone accept our loss as understandable.

“The only good thing about this… Well, I’m not so sure that you could really call it a good thing per se, but the fact that we only lost thirty points is a relief. We can’t afford to let the upper classes get any further away from us,” said Horikita.

“You and your class have been steadily building up your strength, Horikita-san. We can’t let our guard down.” Ichinose genuinely praised Horikita and our class, clearly anticipating that we would become rivals in the near future.

“That’s right. Our class is getting stronger,” said Horikita.

After seeing the confidence in Horikita’s eyes and hearing the confidence in her words, Ichinose nodded gently.

“There’s something I wanted to tell you today as well, regarding another talking point in our discussion, if that’s all right,” said Horikita.

“Of course,” said Ichinose.

The second half of the discussion started here. The real discussion. It wasn’t Ichinose who launched into this, but Horikita.

“To be frank, I would like to dissolve our partnership from the next year onward,” said Horikita.

Horikita’s proposal was unexpected, but not to Ichinose, apparently. She seemed to have been prepared for it.

“I had a feeling you were probably going to suggest that,” said Ichinose.

“We lost against Class A in the final exam of our first year, and we’ve been demoted back down to Class D. If you look solely at the class rankings, it seems like we’ve lost. But in reality, we haven’t. If anything, I think that we’ve closed the gap,” said Horikita.

“That’s true. Considering the fact you’d once been down to zero points, that means your class gained the most Class Points over the year, Horikita-san. And on top of that, you only narrowly lost against Class A in that exam, with three wins and four losses,” said Ichinose.

It was easy to understand if you just did the math, but it looked like Ichinose was also aware of the truth. There was only a small difference in the numerical results. It wouldn’t have been strange for the match-up to have gone either way. Although Tsukishiro’s meddling had been a deciding factor in what happened, you could say that there was still a good chance we could’ve won.

“Even so, there’s no way we can maintain a successful relationship?” Ichinose didn’t readily agree to dissolve the partnership. “For example, could we perhaps hold for now, and discuss this again once the gap in Class Points has narrowed further?”

“I’m very appreciative of the offer. However, I don’t think we should continue this cooperative relationship any longer,” said Horikita.

There were two necessary conditions for this relationship to be established and maintained. The first was that the gap in Class Points be wide enough to be difficult for us to bridge on our own. And the other was the higher-level class in the relationship must be in a stable position.

In May of last year, there had been a gap of six hundred and fifty points, and Class B’s point totals had been stable thus far. That was precisely why it made sense for our class, which was struggling at the time, to involve itself with Class B. But the situation was different now. Our class had gained over three hundred points throughout the year, whereas Class B had ended up losing points near the end. The gap was closing significantly. Which meant that neither of those two aforementioned conditions were being met.

“I would like to make it our definite goal to reach Class B or higher next year. And in order to overtake Class A, I plan to get us within the range of points we need,” said Horikita.

Ichinose seemed visibly shaken to hear Horikita announce such firm goals.

“…I see. That makes sense.”

What Horikita had just said meant that she intended to defeat Class B, which was led by Ichinose, the person right in front of us right now. Of course we couldn’t really have an alliance if that was to be the case. Horikita had refused to continue our partnership, having concluded that a half-hearted relationship would be a complete hindrance to her goals.

“I trust you have no objections, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Horikita.

“That’s right. I’ll follow your lead, of course. That’s the correct call, if you want to get to Class A,” I replied, nodding in response to Horikita’s question.

The decision she was making here wasn’t wrong.

Ichinose briefly closed her eyes and then took a deep breath.

“I am quite grateful to you, Ichinose-san, for offering to help us and offering us this partnership when we had no way to save ourselves. However…even if you resent me for this, from this point onward, we will be enemies,” said Horikita.

Ichinose listened to Horikita’s firm decision with quiet acceptance.

“I would never resent you for that. Besides, we were originally enemies from the beginning. We just happened to make a temporary truce, is all. I am extremely grateful to you, as well,” she said.

Ichinose slowly opened her eyes once more. There wasn’t a hint of hatred in her gaze when she looked at Horikita and me.

“I suppose we’ll be real enemies from our second year here,” she said.

“Yes,” replied Horikita.

Ichinose offered her hand to us. Horikita took it and shook it firmly.

I was sure Horikita had been running some calculations in her mind. About what Class B’s strengths and weaknesses were. About how we could defeat them. I was also sure that, similarly, Ichinose could see things about us. Like the strength our class possessed.

How would we deal with each other? That was something we needed to think about. And so, our short conversation came to an end with that handshake. Starting in April, a full-blown battle with Class B would begin.

4.2

W E HAD FINISHED our meeting and parted ways, but Ichinose decided to stay at the café for a little while longer. With the defeat she’d suffered and the dissolution of our partnership, I was sure there were a lot of things she wanted to think about right now.

Deciding to head back to the dorms, I reached the stairs, and made my way down.

“Wait a minute.”

While I was on my way back from the café in Keyaki Mall, Horikita called out to me, stopping me in my tracks. I was about to turn around, but she said something else.

“Don’t turn around to look at me. There’s something I want to ask you, and I want you to keep your back to me while you answer.”

That was what she asked of me. In consideration of how serious she sounded, I decided not to turn around, a signal that I was agreeing to her request.

“What’s this all about, all of a sudden?”

“What do you mean, all of a sudden? I think you owe me an apology. Hm?” she replied, her anger-filled voice hitting me in the back.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” I replied.

I tried to play innocent. But Horikita cut straight to the heart of the matter without any hesitation.

“So you talked things over with Ichinose-san from Class B ahead of time, so that you could fight with Class A, huh?” she asked.

“Oh, that,” I answered.

“If I hadn’t supported your story, then that would’ve been trouble for you, wouldn’t it?” she asked.

“But you did support it, without issue.”

“That’s… I thought it would be a headache if I said otherwise. Can you explain what that was all about to me?”

“Ichinose already said it herself, didn’t she? Kaneda won the drawing and he picked Class B as his opponent. Which means that no matter what kind of shady things I did behind the scenes, the results were the same.”

“What I’m asking is why you decided to fight Class A without my permission?”

“Because I decided that would give us our highest chances of winning,” I told her.

“But don’t you think that in all likelihood, we would’ve stood a better chance if we fought against Class C? Against Kaneda-kun and Ryuuen-kun?” asked Horikita.

“Chances were high that we would’ve gotten overwhelmed, just like what happened with Class B. You and Sudou are the ones who could have really held their own,” I argued.

“That argument is based on hindsight, knowing what you know now. At the time, Class D should have been the logical choice of opponent,” said Horikita.

I could tell from the sound of her voice that she’d taken a step toward me. Even so, she didn’t close the distance between us significantly.

“Am I wrong in what I’m saying?” she asked.

“No, not at all. It’s true that fighting Class A posed the greatest drawbacks. I can’t deny that.”

“I’ll put aside the matter of you ignoring my warnings. Why did you choose Class A?” she asked.

Even though she understood that it was a decision I’d made entirely on my own, I supposed it was that point in particular that she couldn’t figure out.

“Why do you think? Do you understand why I laid the groundwork for that to happen?” I asked.

I thought I’d try throwing the question back at her…though it was a question she probably couldn’t answer. Only someone who knew about the relationship between Sakayanagi and me, and the significance of the White Room, could answer it.

“Based on what I know…I would infer my answer from what you just said about having the highest chance of winning. In that case, why would you exclude Class B and Class D as candidates? Well, I suppose we can rule out Class B without any issues,” said Horikita.

Although we hadn’t expressly planned anything to that effect, we still had an alliance with Class B at the time. It was unsurprising to conclude that the chances of Ichinose breaking our agreement and fighting us were low.

“The problem is Class D. Normally, they would have been the obvious choice as our opponent. We shouldn’t have hesitated to pick them… But in reality, Class B lost badly against them this time. All because Ryuuen-kun’s bizarre plan had ensnared them so well. There’s no way to tell how we would have done against them if we were put in the same situation,” said Horikita.

We couldn’t exclude the possibility that we would have been evenly matched, or even at a disadvantage.

“Everyone thought that Class D would have been a simple opponent for us to handle. Which was precisely why you felt like there was something off,” she reasoned.

Of course, that was probably the best guess she could come up with, based on what she could deduce.

“Did you foresee that Ryuuen-kun would come back? And what events he was going to choose?” asked Horikita.

“Maybe. So I decided to use Class B as a sacrifice, because of that,” I replied.

“Even if what you’re saying is true, you should have discussed it with me,” said Horikita.

“I suppose so.”

I listened to what she said without denying anything. That wasn’t a good reason for me to have acted alone.

“But…is that really the reason?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked in return.

“In the In-Class Voting exam, you got a lot of votes from Class A, and you got first place. And then you got a Protection Point. Was that really just a simple coincidence? It’s almost as if…you and Sakayanagi-san conspired together beforehand…” said Horikita.

What she was talking about right now was just a simple coincidence. Still, she was beginning to notice the relationship that Sakayanagi and I had, and some of what was happening in the background.

“No… I suppose that’s just absurd. More importantly, there isn’t a shred of evidence supporting any of it. Forget I said anything,” said Horikita, withdrawing her previous statement. “I’d like to hear your thoughts again. As of this moment, you plan to move up to Class A, right?”

“I just said that earlier,” I replied.

“Yes. But I don’t know if you really meant it or not. As far as I can tell, you’ve been extremely indifferent to the idea of ascending to the upper-level classes ever since school started,” said Horikita.

“People grow. It’s just like how you have. You’ve grown so much that I feel like I was mistaken about my impression of you when you first started school here,” I replied.

In fact, I had started to begin entertaining the idea of aiming for the higher-level classes. But I supposed that it was understandable that Horikita would doubt me and think she couldn’t trust me. Especially because I hadn’t exactly been cooperative so far. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she considered me unsettling.

“That’s right. People do grow… And viewpoints change, too.”

Though possibly still dissatisfied, Horikita seemed to forcibly convince herself to believe what I said. However, our talk didn’t seem like it was going to end there.

“Our class has grown. There is a definite sense that we’re getting stronger. However, that still isn’t enough. Your help is absolutely vital in order to reach Class A,” said Horikita.

“Meaning?” I asked.

“Up until now, you’ve been cutting corners and putting in minimal effort in both academics and physical activities. It’s certainly true that if your performance is average, you aren’t dragging the class down. But it doesn’t mean you’re contributing, either,” said Horikita.

That was painfully true. In terms of actually, visibly contributing to the class, I’d hardly done anything.

“I wonder if you can release yourself from those restrictions for me? I want you to fully commit yourself to whatever you do, in the days that come. That will prove you have the will to move up to Class A,” said Horikita.

What she said wasn’t a threat. Nor was it a request. She was simply saying things to see my reaction. Of course, the fact that she’d make such barbed comments just amused me.

“I refuse,” I replied.

“I knew it,” said Horikita.

Rather than looking exasperated, she let out a snort, as if she’d known that was how I’d respond.

“You’re all talk. You don’t have any intention of helping us get to Class A or anything,” said Horikita.

“At the very least, not at present, no,” I shot back, in some verbal tit-for-tat.

“…Huh? At present?” she asked.

She’d thought that she’d never be able to get me to cooperate. But now I was willing to make some compromises.

“Keep in mind that a year’s worth of activity has led to this point. I’ve been this way for that whole year. If I suddenly start going all out after spring break, forget about our classmates—everyone in our grade, no, everyone in the school would start talking. I want to avoid that happening as much as possible,” I told her.

“I will acknowledge that you are an excellent student, but you seem to have quite a high opinion of yourself. If we were to focus just on academics alone, there’s Yukimura-kun and I just in your class. In other classes, there’s Ichinose-san and Sakayanagi-san. And I’m sure there are many other students out there whose names could be added to that list of top-scorers, aren’t there? I’m not so sure you can stand toe-to-toe with them.”

Horikita dismissed this out of hand, suggesting it wasn’t like I could be counted with those students.

“Although I suppose it’s certainly true that if there’s suddenly this big gap between how you were then and how you are now, it’ll make you conspicuous for a time,” she added. “But if you end up settling in the top ten to twenty percent of our grade, I’m sure you’ll quickly be accepted as one of the top-tier students. It’s not uncommon for students to see their grades improve dramatically in a short period of time.”

Apparently, that was the conclusion she’d arrived at after giving it some thought. If her statements were accurate, then that certainly might be the end of this discussion. If they weren’t, however, this was not over.

“Sorry, Horikita. But right now, I don’t think there’s anyone in our year who’s on my level,” I told her.

Excluding the students who still had room to grow and those who were too lacking in seriousness to demonstrate their real ability, of course.

“…Wow. I’m honestly dumbfounded by the size of your ego,” snapped Horikita, not believing what I had just told her. “Just because my brother had his eye on you doesn’t prove anything. You haven’t once clearly shown me just how incredible you are.”

“What you’ve seen from me so far wasn’t enough then?” I asked.

“Do you have any proof that you’re the best at academics? No, wait—proof that you’re the best in anything , even outside of academics? You need to be good enough to win no matter what for me to accept such a grandiose claim. It was just one event, sure, but you did lose in that chess game against Sakayanagi-san. I will admit that you were both playing at an unbelievably high level, but a loss is still a loss. How can you possibly say no one in our grade level is a match for you?” said Horikita.

“You’re free to see things however you want, Horikita. What I said earlier might very well be a simple bluff.”

“And in the end, you just run away. You’re just an insincere liar.”

“In that case, will it make you happy if you just stick me with that label and call it a day?”

When I asked her that question in return, she fell silent. If letting off some steam and calling me that satisfied her, the conversation would simply come to an end right here.

I decided to move to take a step forward, acting like I was about to descend the stairs.

“…Let me test you,” said Horikita in a forceful tone.

“Test what?” I asked.

“Your true abilities. Although I understand to some extent that you are intelligent and quite physically skilled, I can’t get a full read on you. It’s like grasping at air. Your abilities remain entirely unclear.”

Was she saying she wanted to evaluate me based on her own metrics?

“I want to know if your abilities are worth hiding,” she added.

“Are you confident that you can measure my abilities accurately?” I asked.

“I’m confident that I can get a higher score than you on a written exam. And I’m also confident that I can win against you in a fight, if I seriously throw down,” said Horikita.

It was certainly true that over the past year, Horikita had always scored higher than I did on tests. I could also understand why she’d say the last part, even though men held an advantage in speed and muscle strength. If you factored in technique, she would hold the edge if we fought. In fact, Horikita had even put up a good fight against Ibuki, when she was feeling physically unwell.

On top of that, she’d seen me and her brother have our little fight shortly after starting school. Based on what she’d seen, she felt confident that she could beat me.

“In that case how are you going to test me?” I asked.

“There are countless ways we could do this. We could compete by taking a written test in your room,” said Horikita.

She had told me not to turn around because she wanted to avoid using anything other than our words and our voices to bargain with me. You could read a lot of emotions just through eye contact. She had determined that was a disadvantageous position to be in. The one thing she didn’t want was to play mind games with me, so she was wary.

“I’m fine with that, but this is all so one-sided. I don’t gain anything from this,” I told her.

“Is this really an issue of loss or gain? You’ve been hiding your true abilities, and you’ve been dangling that secret right in front of my face. If you don’t accept my challenge right here and now, I could force your secret out and expose you, thus dragging you out into the open, couldn’t I? After all, you’ve been getting quite a lot of attention lately. You can’t weasel your way out of everything, can you?” said Horikita.

As a threat, that was weak. Horikita would never expose me if she thought it would be a detriment to her in the future. However, considering her growth, this might be a good place for me to compromise.

While I carefully considered what to say in response, Horikita waited quietly for my answer.

“In that case, how about this? We’ll pick one subject on the next written exam that comes our way sometime in April or later, and we’ll compete to see who gets the highest score in just that subject. That way, even if I do get one hundred points, I could just pass it off by saying that I studied desperately hard for just that one subject,” I told her.

If I didn’t get high scores in the other subjects, it would be a perfectly good excuse, most likely.

“That’s a somewhat poor way of measuring your abilities, but… Anyway, is it all right to compete in a formal setting like that?” she asked in return.

“Well, I’ll have to think about what might happen if I lose to you, just in case. If you’re going to have me get high scores in all subjects in the future, I want to make sure I lay the necessary groundwork first,” I told her.

“Fine. I accept your proposal. But how are we going to decide upon which subject to compete against each other in?”

“You’re free to pick whatever you want, of course. I’ll let you pick the time too, obviously. Also, I’m fine with you only telling me what subject we’ll be competing in on the day of the exam, right before the test begins,” I told her.

“I see… For you to win this without any prior notice of the subject would mean at minimum that you’d be required to study all subjects equally on a regular basis, every day. This lets me gauge your overall abilities to a certain extent, even if we’re focusing on just one subject,” said Horikita.

I was sure this would go some way toward convincing her.

“If I win, I will conclude that your abilities aren’t all that significant. Then, from that point onward, I’ll be expecting you to tackle every issue we come up against to the best of your ability. Is that all right?” asked Horikita.

“Sure. But if I win, I want you to do one favor for me,” I told her.

“All right. I suppose it would be unfair if this arrangement were one-sided. What favor?”

“Don’t know. I’ll think of something.”

“…Now that’s just sneaky. If I agree to your terms for this contest, it would mean I’d have to deal with some potentially absurd demand from you if I lose,” said Horikita.

“Are you already worried about what’s going to happen when you lose? I thought you’d be much more confident about this.”

“I can’t believe you…” she huffed.

“You don’t have to force yourself into doing this. If you’re not feeling confident, we can just scrap this whole contest idea altogether,” I replied.

Telling her that, though, only ensured Horikita could no longer back down.

“Fine. If I lose, then I’ll do whatever you ask, no matter what it is. That’s fine.”

“All right. It’s settled, then.”

And so, Horikita and I had made our decision to compete with each other on the very next written exam that came our way, sometime in April or later.

Horikita walked forward and stood next to me. Then she continued walking, descending the stairs.

“I’m looking forward to this. To directly doing battle with you.”

Of course, I was sure she’d exhaust all possible means to prepare for this exam. As for me…I supposed I’d just do things like I always did.

I watched Horikita, firm in her determination, walk away. As I stood there, she gradually disappeared from view.

“Now then, what should I do next?” I wondered aloud.

At first, I’d meant to head straight back to my dorm room. But I had changed my mind. I was a little worried about how Ichinose was doing. Even though she told us to go on ahead, I had to wonder what she was thinking about now, all by herself.

Just as I thought that, though, I noticed a certain guy looking at me. It didn’t seem our eyes had met simply by chance. I descended the stairs, almost as if I were being beckoned by his gaze.

4.3

J UST AFTER ELEVEN-THIRTY that same morning, two guys stood talking in the men’s restroom on the second floor of Keyaki Mall. One of them was the leader who’d stepped down from his throne, only to later re-emerge, taking to the stage once more. Ryuuen Kakeru. The other was Hashimoto Masayoshi, a student from Class A, which had managed to maintain their position all throughout the first year.

They hadn’t met up by accident. Hashimoto had contacted Ryuuen and specifically chosen this location for not having many people around.

“So? What kind of devious scheme are you gonna tell me all about, since you’ve called me all the way out here?” asked Ryuuen.

“Come on man, devious schemes? That just makes me sound disreputable. I thought we could just recap our first year of school, is all,” said Hashimoto, acting like he was trying to wheedle something out of Ryuuen.

Ryuuen didn’t dislike guys who always had that sort of vibe about them, like they were evasive or shifty. However, he didn’t like them, either. He found muscle-bound idiots like Ishizaki and Ibuki to be easier to understand and preferable to be around.

Of course, Hashimoto didn’t trust Ryuuen either, nor did he think Ryuuen trusted him. They had the kind of relationship where they came together only when their interests aligned. But they both knew that that kind of relationship could sometimes be a powerful connection.

“So, seems like you really beat the crap out of Class B during the year-end final exam, huh. Can I assume that you’re back in full force then?” asked Hashimoto.

“Who can say? Maybe I just did that on a whim,” said Ryuuen without a hint of seriousness, crossing his arms and smiling.

“A whim, huh? If so, that sounds like the scariest whim ever, dude. I can’t even begin to imagine how bad it’d be if you decided to target Class A on a whim.” Hashimoto briefly and casually threw up both his hands, as if raising a white flag, saying he didn’t want to fight.

“Are you that worried about what I’m up to?” asked Ryuuen.

“You retreated all the way to the back, and then returned to the forefront. It’d be weird if I wasn’t worried,” said Hashimoto.

People were significantly more concerned about the movements of individuals who could potentially become obstacles in their path.

“Did you come here snooping around on Sakayanagi’s orders?” asked Ryuuen.

“Unfortunately, that’s a question that I can’t easily answer,” replied Hashimoto.

Although Hashimoto was being vague, Ryuuen knew that he wasn’t sniffing around on Sakayanagi’s orders. He’d deliberately mentioned her name, trying to get a feel for Hashimoto based on his reaction.

“So? What are you planning on doing now?” asked Hashimoto.

“What the hell do you think I’m gonna do?” Ryuuen shot back with a sneer, closing the distance between them.

Hashimoto stiffened slightly, his body getting into a defensive posture so that he could defend himself, just in case something happened. Even though Hashimoto had chosen this location himself, there weren’t very many people around here. If something did happen, there were no surveillance cameras here to guarantee his safety. The idea that he should record this conversation on his cell phone, both audio and video, had surely crossed Hashimoto’s mind, but he risked destroying his relationship with Ryuuen if he got caught doing something like that.

“Don’t go thinking you can score an easy win just by playing it smart and being a double-agent, okay?”

The kind of pressure that Ryuuen exerted when he spoke, even though he was smiling, was far, far different from what an ordinary person could do.

“Heh. Wow, I guess even though your class certainly qualifies as ‘in the rough,’ I guess that makes you the ‘diamond in the rough.’ You really pack a punch,” said Hashimoto.

Even though Hashimoto was a little flustered, at the same time, he seemed pleased. Class A was a rock. They were stable. However, depending on Sakayanagi’s whims, things could go up or down. And should the time come when they went down, it would most likely be Ryuuen’s class that rose up and won. Therefore, it was only natural that Hashimoto would want to try to stake a claim himself.

Which was precisely why Hashimoto then brought up a point he knew he ought to refute. “Sorry, Ryuuen. But I’m not planning on settling things with only two classes.”

“ Ku ku . What does that mean?”

“Well, it’s a little early, but—”

Hashimoto took out his phone and deliberately showed Ryuuen the screen for a brief moment. While he was proving to Ryuuen that he wasn’t recording this conversation, he was also showing him that he was about to place a call to someone.

The call only lasted a few seconds. Ryuuen immediately recognized that the person on the other end of the line had been waiting for Hashimoto to call.

“Come on over. We’re still at the place I told you about.” With that short message, Hashimoto ended the call. “Who do you think that was, Ryuuen?”

“No idea.”

“Ayanokouji.”

“Ayanokouji? Ah, I thought it might be him.”

Ryuuen didn’t panic even after hearing that name. Hashimoto’s scheme to suddenly throw Ryuuen off guard and get some information out of him had failed, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet. He pressed the matter.

“Can you guess why I called Ayanokouji here?” asked Hashimoto.

“Nope,” answered Ryuuen, clearly and distinctly. He then immediately followed up and pressed Hashimoto in turn. “Did you really call him, though? Because it doesn’t look like it to me.”

Hashimoto had planned to spring a trap on Ryuuen, but Ryuuen had easily turned the tables on him.

“…Christ, dude. Guess some casual bullshit isn’t gonna cut it for you, huh?”

Hashimoto had hoped mentioning the name “Ayanokouji” would make Ryuuen react differently than usual. But instead, Ryuuen was acting like the name was no big deal at all, like he couldn’t be bothered with this.

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Is there something goin’ on behind all this, Hashimoto?”

It was precisely because Hashimoto was worried about Ayanokouji that Ryuuen suspected something else was going on. There was no sign that Ryuuen was putting on an act, but even so, Hashimoto couldn’t completely shake his distrust of Ayanokouji and Ryuuen. It was hard to imagine that Ryuuen, who’d been the king of his class, could have been so easily overthrown by Ishizaki and the others. Hashimoto could also see Ayanokouji’s shadow flickering over a series of actions that Sakayanagi had taken. If he had just one more piece of information, he could be certain.

“The person I called was—”

The sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the second-floor restroom. Then, the figure of a lone male student came into view.

“Oh? Oh ho, looks like you called someone pretty interestin’ over, Hashimoto,” said Ryuuen.

The person who appeared before Ryuuen and Hashimoto was Kanzaki Ryuuji, from first-year Class B. And so, three people who never normally interacted with one another had gathered in one place.

“He said he wanted to come talk with you. So, I decided to bring you together,” said Hashimoto.

“So? What do you get in return for it?” asked Ryuuen.

“Ain’t that obvious? A connection with Class B.”

“Sakayanagi took a cheap shot at Ichinose. Meaning you guys should be enemies. Did you seriously think Kanzaki would go for something like that?” asked Ryuuen.

“Sure he will. Isn’t that right, Kanzaki?” asked Hashimoto.

“I don’t trust you, Hashimoto. But I do think that you’re worth using,” said Kanzaki.

“There you go.”

Hashimoto had appealed to Kanzaki, saying that they could work together if their interests were aligned. Smiling flippantly, Hashimoto placed his hand on Kanzaki’s shoulder.

“Come on, just hear him out. For me,” said Hashimoto.

“I getcha. So this is what you meant when you said you weren’t going to settle things with just two classes, huh?”

So far, Hashimoto had only been interested in Ryuuen’s class. However, once Ryuuen had retreated, he shifted gears, broadening his scope.

“Yep. I plan to plant some seeds in Ayanokouji’s class later, too,” said Hashimoto, announcing what move he planned to make in hopes of saving himself, no matter which class came out on top.

However, Ryuuen’s interest had already shifted away from Hashimoto and to Kanzaki. “You’re not going to say somethin’ that’ll bore me to tears, will it?”

“I have no idea what you’re expecting, but it’s not going to be anything that will make you happy.” Kanzaki continued undaunted, even before Ryuuen. “The year-end final exam. I wanted to talk about what happened then. That’s all.”

“What, you’re gonna tell me about how you feel about getting completely and utterly crushed?”

“Sorry, Ryuuen. I don’t think I lost to you,” said Kanzaki.

After hearing Kanzaki’s forceful statement, Hashimoto whistled.

“You only snatched a victory because of dirty tricks. Nothing more. Don’t forget that,” added Kanzaki.

Kanzaki was proud and confident of the fact that if they had fought fairly, they could’ve competed on even ground, or that Class B would have had the upper hand. Victory had been stolen from them because of Ryuuen’s underhanded tactics.

“Big deal. So, what, you seriously came all the way out here just to tell me that?” said Ryuuen.

From Ryuuen’s perspective, there was no such thing as clean or dirty when it came to fighting. A win was a win. Kanzaki’s loss was a result that could never be changed.

“’Sides, what dirty tricks? Are you talking about me being the commander?” asked Ryuuen.

“Don’t play dumb. I’m talking about stomachaches on the day of the exam and the way you psychologically attacked some students,” said Kanzaki.

Hashimoto, who hadn’t known exactly what had happened during the exam, clapped his hands in apparent amusement. “Wow, dude, no wonder he’s pissed! Really outlandish plans there, Ryuuen.”

“Let’s just say that such cowardly acts aren’t going to work against Class B in the future, at all,” said Kanzaki.

“ Ku ku. You really think that Ichinose can stop me? Or maybe you’re planning on crying to the school?” asked Ryuuen.

“No. That would be pointless.”

Kanzaki immediately shot down Ryuuen’s question. This wasn’t something that the good-natured Ichinose could do anything about.

“Okay, then who is going to stop me?” asked Ryuuen.

“Me.”

Kanzaki had answered Ryuuen’s question without hesitating for even a moment. Two competing thoughts popped up in Ryuuen’s mind after hearing that. Was he simply bluffing? Or perhaps…

“You’re just Ichinose’s lap dog. What can you even do?” He pressed forward, trying to find out just exactly what Kanzaki meant by what he said.

“It’s certainly true that I’ve stood by Ichinose and supported her during our first year. But that’s because at the time we had started school, I determined her to be a talented individual, someone who could demonstrate superior leadership and teamwork skills compared to the students from the other classes. In that regard, my faith in her still has not wavered. But I’ve found that she has a major weakness, in that she has a tendency to avoid crisis situations rather than deal with them, and that she cannot abandon the weak in an emergency,” said Kanzaki.

“Oh ho? Huh. I thought this was gonna be nothin’ but a boring waste of my time, but it’s getting interesting. I mean, who would have thought there’d be someone in Class B, where people only wanna hold hands and get along, who could think like that?”

Even so, Ryuuen brushed off what Kanzaki said.

“You ain’t nothin’ but talk. If you’re just gonna pointlessly bitch and moan, well, even a lap dog can do that.”

“In that case, I’ll show you. I’ll prove it.”

Hashimoto had only cooperated with Kanzaki in order to establish a connection with Class B, but his opinion of him had changed slightly. He might be more capable than I thought he was , he thought.

“All right. If that’s what you want, I’ll thoroughly crush you next time,” said Ryuuen.

“I don’t know what kind of dirty tricks you’re planning, but I’m not like Ichinose. I don’t show mercy. If you hate losing on your own turf, fight fair and square.”

“Let’s just hope your class isn’t that lame,” said Ryuuen with a smile, as he relieved himself at the stall.

Hashimoto lined up next to him.

“Well, well, isn’t this interesting? Don’t you think so? Anyway, if something else happens, you gotta come talk to me, Kanzaki,” said Hashimoto, thinking Kanzaki would leave after making his declaration.

But instead Kanzaki got in closer, lining up at the stall next to Hashimoto in a show of intimidation, perhaps to signal that he wasn’t going to fall behind Hashimoto or Ryuuen. After he had finished his business, he gave one final parting shot, speaking with intensity.

“Remember what I told you, Ryuuen.”

After saying that, Kanzaki left the restroom.

“ Ku ku ku . Ooh, scary.”

“So, what are you gonna do next to knock Class B all the way to the bottom level?” asked Hashimoto.

“No idea,” replied Ryuuen with a laugh, dodging the question.

At the same time, he also remembered something else. Something that had only happened an hour before his discussion with Hashimoto and Kanzaki.

4.4

A FTER PARTING WAYS with Ichinose and Horikita, I was wondering whether or not I’d just head on back to my dorm room. But then I happened to bump into Ryuuen, who seemed like he was leading me somewhere. We moved over to a corridor within the mall where there weren’t many people around. We stood just far apart that if anyone did spot us, we could quickly disperse and pretend we happened to both be in the area for totally unrelated reasons.

“Did you hear from Ishizaki? That I came to Keyaki Mall?” I asked.

“Yeah. I specifically came out looking for you,” replied Ryuuen.

So, did his discussion with Ishizaki and Ibuki end after about an hour then? Or did they just take a break from their discussion? In any case, Ryuuen’s eyes seemed to have more of a spark in them than they did before.

“You know, I do already have your contact info. You could have just called or texted me, couldn’t you?” I told him.

“I just figured I’d talk to you, face-to-flat-as-hell-boring-ass-face,” sneered Ryuuen.

In that case, I supposed that I’d hear what he had to say in the limited time I had.

“So, what was that all about?” he asked.

By that , I assume he was referring to the message from Hiyori. That I could have secured five or more wins safely and easily, through a much better strategy. I had asked Hiyori to pass along the message to Ryuuen for me, and apparently, she had fulfilled her task well. I’d expected he would try to get in touch with me after hearing my message.

“It means exactly what it sounds like. If it were me in your shoes, I would have done better,” I told him.

“I don’t care about the methods. I do things my own way,” said Ryuuen.

“I don’t want you to meet your end that way. If you do something reckless and have to leave this school, I’ll be lonely.”

The words came out of my mouth quite naturally, but apparently didn’t land all that well with Ryuuen.

“ Ku ku . What the hell kinda joke is that? For a low-ranked scrub who lost to Sakayanagi, you sure are talkin’ a big game,” said Ryuuen.

“Yes, it’s certainly true that my class lost to Sakayanagi. And since I was the commander for our class, I can’t make any excuses. But as for the question of whether Sakayanagi is actually better than me, well, you’ll just have to fight her directly and find out for yourself,” I told him.

“ Ha! …Are you lookin’ down on me?” he sneered.

The smile had disappeared from his face. He closed the distance between us.

“You beat me before. There’s no way you’re weaker than Sakayanagi,” said Ryuuen.

Apparently, he’d been trying to provoke me earlier by calling me low-ranked.

“I’m grateful that you hold me in such high esteem, but isn’t it possible I might’ve just cut corners and done a sloppy job on the exam?” I asked.

“Sorry, but I don’t buy that. It wasn’t like you took it seriously and still ended up losing. It feels more like you just didn’t care about the competition in the first place, or something… Or you had an accident or ran into something beyond your control. That feels very plausible. It’s way easier to believe someone at the school rigged things so that Class A would win, for the sake of their reputation,” said Ryuuen.

While he wasn’t technically correct, he had hit closer to the mark than I had imagined he would. Ryuuen was probably the only person at this school who could read into things so outrageously deeply and well. He possessed an absolute certainty that of from him having confronted me once before.

“So? Now that you’re back, what are you going to do, Ryuuen?” I asked.

“Don’t just decide I’m back without my say-so. I’m planning on enjoying this little break a bit longer,” replied Ryuuen, implying he wasn’t going all-in on the offensive for a while yet.

“But… I guess if I get bored of vacation time, then I’ll crush Ichinose and Sakayanagi as a warm-up.”

“That’s quite a dramatic change of heart.”

“ Ku ku ku , yeah, I s’pose so. I’m surprised at myself, too. I didn’t think I’d be this eager to go and get my revenge on you so soon.”

“I see,” I replied.

It seemed the snake was about to wake from hibernation. When that happened, neither Class B nor Class A could afford to ignore Ryuuen. I supposed that from Sakayanagi’s perspective, this was just what she wanted, but as things stood right now, it wouldn’t be surprising if either she or Ryuuen won.

“Well, I’m quite grateful for that. If you crush Ichinose and Sakayanagi first, then everything will work out just as I hoped. My path to the top will be smoother for it,” I told him.

The upper-level classes getting all tangled up in fighting one another was an important part of our plans to reach the top ourselves.

“I thought you didn’t care one bit about class rankings and stuff,” said Ryuuen.

“Things are a little different now. Our class will be high in the ranks around this time next year. Even if I’m no longer in the class at that time,” I told him.

“Huh?”

Ryuuen eyed me suspiciously after hearing the part about me no longer being in the class.

“I might be put into a position where I’ll be targeted in the future. If that happens, it wouldn’t be surprising if I did get expelled because of somebody. Isn’t that right?” I told him.

If Tsukishiro were so inclined, any number of things might happen—things I couldn’t do anything about. Even if I drew a hard line and tried to defend myself, he’d probably still succeed. Of course, I would make sure he couldn’t take me down easily.

“Relax. If there’s anyone here who’s gonna get you kicked out of school, it’s me, and only me.”

Such confidence was very typical of Ryuuen.

“But—”

Ryuuen, still standing in front of me, was just about to say something else. But then he suddenly slipped out of my field of view. He swiftly closed the distance between us, and then extended his right arm, taking a swing at my face. Without hesitation, he reached directly for my eyeball with his pointed fingertips, forcing me to respond.

“Rah!”

He then spun around, delivering a roundhouse kick. He tried to kick at me with his right foot, but it was a fake-out. His real attack came from his left leg, using the momentum from his spin. I dodged once again and put some distance between us.

“ Ha , wow, and that was a total surprise attack. Christ, dude. Seriously, how much of a monster are you?”

“Those were some pretty flashy moves,” I told him.

Even though you could say we were in a private spot, there were many security cameras throughout Keyaki Mall. Of course, as long as the students involved didn’t actually complain about what was happening, it was unlikely it would attract all that much attention. Still, this was the sort of audacious act only Ryuuen could pull off.

“My heart is telling me something. It’s telling me to devour you,” said Ryuuen.

Even though the snake was hibernating, he bit on instinct.

“You’re not gonna attack me?” he asked.

“I’d like to avoid risking going toe-to-toe with you here. Besides, it’s not time yet.”

“ Hah . So, this is like, the composure of the strong, huh? You sound like you’re bein’ totally real with me when you say that. Makes my skin crawl.”

The glint in his eyes shone as brightly as before. No—perhaps even brighter, now. Seeing how fired up he was right now, it was hard to imagine he’d been keeping his head down for months.

“You have potential. That’s exactly why you need to grow more and get better, Ryuuen.”

He must not have liked what he heard, or thought I was lecturing him, because he slammed his fist against the wall.

“Grow more? Get better? When the hell did you become my master?” said Ryuuen.

“I’m telling you the truth. Underhanded tricks, cowardly attacks, criminal acts… I think it’s fine to do whatever you need to do, use whatever strategy will make you win. But don’t do anything that can be so easily traced back to you.”

“Huh?”

“I heard from Ishizaki that you used laxatives. Lacing their stuff with laxatives while they were in the karaoke room wasn’t a bad idea, but if the leftover food and drinks had been preserved for safekeeping, it would have been all over for you. What you did merits expulsion without question. Even if you somehow managed to slip by at first, the school officials would naturally grow suspicious of such strange things happening during the exam. The only thing that saved you was that Ichinose didn’t raise the issue and complain,” I told him.

“I factored Ichinose being a goody-two-shoes into my plans,” said Ryuuen.

“If that’s true, you’re being naïve. You’ll never be able to surpass me.”

“…You really said it now,” growled Ryuuen, once again closing the distance between us.

But unlike before, there was no sign that he intended to attack. Well, even if he were completely suppressing his intent to attack, it wouldn’t be difficult for me to deal with him. Still…

“You’re free to listen to my advice or not. It’s up to you. But…if things continue as they are right now, we’ll never have our rematch.”

How would Ryuuen respond to getting some friendly advice from an enemy? His reaction would help me measure his wits.

Ryuuen still had his fist up against the wall. Then he lowered it, as if to signal he was calming down.

“Fine, I’ll take your shit advice for right now. But I definitely will crush you, sooner or later,” said Ryuuen.

“That’s the spirit, Ryuuen. If I’m defeated by you and get expelled, that wouldn’t be so bad,” I told him.

Even though Ryuuen seemed furious deep down, it also seemed like my words had gotten through to him. Which meant the strategies he came up with from here would probably become more refined.

The race ahead of us, starting with our second year, had honestly become even harder to visualize. Would Ryuuen devour Sakayanagi and rise to Class A in one bound? Would Sakayanagi prevent him from doing so? Or perhaps Ichinose would leap back into the fray and attempt to make a comeback? And how would Horikita, facing off against those other three, factor into the mix?

Things would be quite different from how they were in our first year. And we’d be able to see those changes quite soon.

4.5

T HAT WAS WHAT Ryuuen had done before he went to the restroom. He glanced at Kanzaki out of the corner of his eye as Kanzaki walked out of the restroom, then spoke up once more.

“I’m returning to the battlefield. Though I used some pretty showy moves against Class B, I admit there are definitely some things I’ve gotta think about.”

He had admitted it. In order to defeat Ayanokouji, he would need to admit to the things that he should.

“Well now, that’s pretty commendable, dude. And here I was thinking that you were all about usin’ dirty tricks. So, you’re plannin’ on fightin’ fair and square just like Kanzaki wants, huh?” asked Hashimoto.

“ Hah . Who said anything about that?” replied Ryuuen.

“Oh?”

“I took advantage of Ichinose’s naivete and won big. But doin’ that ended up givin’ them too many opportunities to hit me back. That’s why the small fry’s gotten all cocky,” said Ryuuen.

“…I see.”

It wasn’t his usage of cowardly methods that he ought to be reflecting upon. It was the fact that he left himself vulnerable to attack.

“Next time, I’ll crush them even harder, and in an even flashier way.”

No matter what Kanzaki had proposed, Ryuuen wouldn’t be going along with it at this stage. If he had really hidden his fangs, he would understand soon.

“You’ve grown over this past year yourself, Ryuuen. I’m sure glad we got to connect. Looks like I better seriously consider the possibility that Sakayanagi might be devoured by you,” said Hashimoto.

The eagle-eyed Hashimoto was also getting closer to Class B, vigilantly watching for an opportunity. So that no matter which class won in the end, he’d be able to graduate in Class A himself.

4.6

J UST AFTER NOON , it started pouring rain like someone was upturning buckets overhead. Over thirty millimeters of rainfall. For some reason or another, I couldn’t bring myself to head back to my dorm, so I stayed at Keyaki Mall by myself.

There were lots of conveniences around campus. So even in sudden rainfall, it was never all that difficult to get back to the dormitories. Provisional umbrellas were made available for students who didn’t have any, and since they were free as long as you returned them on time, more than a few students took advantage of the offer. Some of the students who’d gone out to have fun this morning hadn’t brought umbrellas with them, to reduce the amount of stuff they had to carry around.

That being said, today was a bit of an exception. When it was raining this hard, you’d be completely soaked even if you had an umbrella.

“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna let up at all today,” I muttered to myself.

If the forecast was correct, it sounded like the downpour was supposed to keep coming down from noon today until tomorrow morning. My phone’s notification sound went off from time to time. Each time it did, I saw that people in the Ayanokouji Group chat were talking about the rain, as well as other miscellaneous topics, as well. Right now, it seemed like they were talking about how the rain was really coming down.

“What should I do, I wonder?” I muttered to myself.

I didn’t feel like participating in the chat, so I decided to just leave the messages on read for the time being. I stared blankly at the screen, looking through the messages in the chat group. Then, I would look outside the window at the rain, as if I suddenly remembered something. I repeated that process several times.

An unproductive waste of time. It was nice to spend time like this every once in a while, though. Instead of going back to the café, I sat down on a random bench, and spent some time just zoning out. But it wasn’t like I was going to just sit here and do this for hours. After listening to the sounds of the rain for about twenty or thirty minutes, I decided to leave.

I ran my student ID through the machine and rented an umbrella. Even though the lower half of my body would get wet, especially the part below my knees, that was still way better than not having an umbrella at all. Then, when I went outside to make my way back to the dormitories, I saw a familiar student near the mall exit.

It was Ichinose. Even though she was standing in the heavy rain, she wasn’t holding an umbrella. She must have been at Keyaki Mall this whole time. She hadn’t been hanging out with her friends though, she had been alone. Maybe she had a lot going through her mind after she parted ways with Horikita and me.

“I guess she was probably trying to wrap her head around the situation, huh,” I said to myself.

But from the looks of things, it didn’t seem like she had been able to do so all that well. If she headed back to the dormitories without an umbrella, she’d obviously get completely soaked, down to the bone. For a moment, I had thought that maybe she was waiting for a friend who had an umbrella. But that didn’t seem to be the case.

It might be a kindness to just leave her alone, but…I was a little bit worried, since Class B had just been completely devastated in that last exam. I hurried back and rented another umbrella. When I got back outside a little later, Ichinose was out walking in the rain. She was apparently prepared to get soaked after all.

She wasn’t heading in the direction of the dormitories. Ichinose was heading in the opposite direction, toward the school. Without an umbrella, she continued to get showered with rain. I could just watch her go, but…

I chased after Ichinose, umbrellas in hand. Because of the sound of the rain being so intense, it seemed like she didn’t hear me running toward her. She probably wouldn’t be able to hear me if I called out to her at a normal volume. Eventually, Ichinose got within eyeshot of the school building, as she continued walking on the path.

As you’d expect, there wasn’t any sign of anyone else around, in the midst of this heavy rain. And then, she looked up at the sky. Rather than seeming like she didn’t want to get soaked, if anything, it felt like she wanted it to happen.

What was she feeling right now? What was she thinking about? It wasn’t difficult for me to read. I supposed that it wasn’t a bad idea to just let her stand there and get soaked until she was satisfied, but she would definitely catch a cold. And if she caught a cold, I’m sure that her heart would suffer at the same time, along with her health. That would probably be a little too much, a little too cruel for Ichinose to handle right now.

“You’ll catch a cold if you stand around here for too long,” I told her, speaking at a slightly louder volume, as I approached her.

“…Ayanokouji-kun.”

Ichinose probably didn’t expect to see someone come up beside her. After that moment of surprise, she looked over at me.

“…Yeah, you’re probably right,” she added.

Even though she had responded to me, speaking in a soft voice, she wasn’t moving. She looked back up toward the sky, not afraid of getting soaked in the rain.

“You can head on back. I think I’d like to feel a little rain coming down on me,” said Ichinose, when I was close enough to be able to hear her voice clearly.

“I see.”

This downpour was far too intense to call it just a little rain. If I just left things be, Ichinose would probably stay out here in the rain for an hour or two.

It didn’t seem like she was in a position where she would listen to me, even if I tried to talk to her. In that case, I’d just have to adopt slightly more forceful measures to make her stop this. There was a particular way of handling Ichinose that worked well. I put down the umbrella I was holding and folded it up. In an instant, my whole body started to get soaked by the rain, from my head to my toes.

“A-Ayanokouji-kun?”

“I thought I’d join you,” I replied.

Naturally, Ichinose wouldn’t be able to ignore such bizarre behavior.

“Why…?”

“Sometimes I just want to get caught in the rain for no reason at all,” I replied.

This was in contrast to Ichinose though, who had a reason for getting caught in the rain. Even while I was holding onto two umbrellas, the both of us were getting soaked to the bone. It was such a strange experience.

“Won’t you catch a cold?” she asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied.

“I’m okay. If anything, I was thinking it’d be fine if I caught a little cold,” said Ichinose.

I see. In that case, I supposed that staying out in the cold rain for a long time would probably be the optimal solution.

“All right, then maybe I’ll catch one, too,” I replied.

If I gave her an answer like that, then it was obvious that Ichinose would be flummoxed. After all, she would never say something like, “All right, let’s both catch colds together!”

“No, you can’t. Ayanokouji-kun, you should really head on back. You even have an umbrella, too,” said Ichinose.

“Well, there’s little point in me having one now, though,” I replied.

I was already completely soaked down to my underwear.

“Gosh, now that’s just mean.”

“Sorry.”

If Ichinose wasn’t heading back, I wasn’t going to head back. Ichinose had given in to my threat.

“…All right, I understand. Let’s head back,” said Ichinose.

“In that case—”

I was going to hand her an umbrella, but then I stopped.

“Well, I guess we’re already soaked anyway, so let’s just head back.”

“ Ha ha! Yeah, I guess you’re right,” replied Ichinose.

If we headed straight back to the dormitories, we’d get there in only a few minutes. It wouldn’t really make much of a difference anymore if we used them or not. So, we both started walking back, already drenched. I had thought it wouldn’t be so bad to just head on back in silence, but shortly after we started walking, Ichinose let out a sigh.

“I feel like I’ve only been coming off as entirely hopeless to you all the time, Ayanokouji-kun… I’m so lame…”

“Hopeless? Well, I suppose you might have a point.”

There was that time before, too, when she was being tormented by Sakayanagi. She had lost sight of herself that time, too.

“People can only show that side of themselves, that hopeless side, to the person they can trust. That’s just what I think, though,” I told her.

At the very least, I supposed that people wouldn’t show weakness in front of people they disliked. They would act tough, even if it was just a front, and only reveal their weakness when they were alone.

“That was a little pretentious. Forget what I just said,” I added.

“No…I think you’re probably right. You’re someone I can trust a lot, Ayanokouji-kun. I think that’s why I feel like I’m always complaining and whining about my issues when I’m around you. But… I feel like you’re always there beside me whenever I’m feeling weak, Ayanokouji-kun.”

“Well, that’s just been coincidental,” I replied.

“I’m really sorry,” said Ichinose.

“There’s no need for you to apologize. In fact, I don’t think it’s bad at all for you to vent like this. But I think if the other students found out, they’d probably get pretty ticked off,” I replied.

Ichinose was an exceptionally popular girl in our grade level. This was the kind of conversation that would probably make ordinary guys envious if they heard about it.

“If you want, you can keep coming to me with your complaints, it’s okay.”

“That’s—”

Ichinose shook her head from side to side, like she was flustered about something.

“I-I shouldn’t. I’d look so lame, showing my vulnerable side.”

Even though it was getting a bit warmer, the temperature was still low. Eventually, while walking through the heavy rainfall, with no one else around, we reached the front of the dormitory. We were just about to enter the lobby, but once again, Ichinose stopped in her tracks.

“I think… you should go on ahead yourself, Ayanokouji-kun, after all.”

“What are you going to do, Ichinose?”

“I’ll just stay a little longer… I don’t want to go back to my room right now,” she replied, refusing to go back.

It was a weaker-willed refusal than the one she had previously given.

“Even so, it’d be better if you headed on back,” I told her.

I supposed that if she stayed out and got drenched in the rain, that certainly might distract her from her issues, somewhat. However, it wasn’t going to lead her to a fundamental solution. Even though Ichinose was showing some resistance, I didn’t think it’d be a good idea for me to back down.

“But… I really don’t want to go back…for right now, I don’t think,” said Ichinose.

“Okay. In that case, I’ll hang out here too, then,” I replied.

Ichinose appeared to be both surprised and perplexed about how forceful I was being.

“I just feel like that if I stay alone in my room, I’ll think about all sorts of things, and I’ll start to feel down… So, I don’t want to go,” she said.

She probably wasn’t going to move, even if I stayed out here in the rain and got drenched with her. In that case, I’d have to find another way to move her forward.

“All right, then. How about we go to my room?” I asked.

“Huh?”

After hearing a question from me that she didn’t expect at all, Ichinose looked me right in the eyes.

“If you have someone to talk to, then you probably won’t get depressed,” I reasoned.

“But… I’m soaked…”

“Well, so am I. It doesn’t really make much difference. If you say that you’re not going to go back though, then I’ll just stay with you, for as many hours as it takes,” I replied.

“You are surprisingly pushy, aren’t you, Ayanokouji-kun?”

“Maybe.”

So, the two of us, soaked to the bone, headed inside. It might have been a lifesaver that it just so happened that there wasn’t anybody in the lobby at that time. We got onto the elevator, and we headed up to my room on the fourth floor.

“Come on in,” I told her.

“Is that really okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“…Thank you, and sorry for the bother,” said Ichinose.

Ichinose came into my room, and for the time being, I asked her to sit. Sitting down on the cold floor would probably just make her feel even colder, though. And I couldn’t say that wearing such wet clothes could be good for her health. So, at the very least, I decided to turn on the heater, to prevent her from getting any colder. Then, I took out a towel and handed it to Ichinose.

“So, how about we have a nice long chat about it?”

“It?” she asked in return.

“About what you’re thinking about right now, Ichinose. About what you’re worried about. Everything.”

“But… I-I can’t, I shouldn’t bother you.” Ichinose refused my offer, apparently flustered. “I’ve been relying on you all the time lately, Ayanokouji-kun. I feel like I’ve been asking you for so much help, more than anyone else. And talking to you about that stuff, it’s just, it’d be too much for me to ask of you… God, I’m so lame, I just can’t do it.”

Ichinose Honami was a weak girl. However, she had always continued to maintain a cool composure as a leader. That was a necessary skill for a leader. It was necessary to make people think that it was all right to follow you. It was something that the leader had to show to the people underneath them.

“I’ve already told you so much about me, Ayanokouji-kun.”

“Well, it’s certainly true that I know a lot about you, yes. But that’s just limited to you, the individual. The student Ichinose Honami. I still don’t know very much about your worries, as the leader guiding Class B.”

“But if you go this far out of your way for me, I…” she replied.

Ichinose, unable to be honest with how she felt, covered her face with her towel. It was like she was refusing to let me try to read something from her expression.

“You can’t trust me?” I asked.

“Huh?” she replied, her face still hidden.

“If that’s the case, you don’t have to force yourself to come out with it. If anything, it’d probably be wrong to let someone try to get it out of you then.”

“No, that’s not it. I probably trust you more than anyone else, Ayanokouji-kun…”

Whether that was the truth or a lie, it hardly mattered. No matter what it was, I had decided to follow up by telling her something else.

“I’m honored, but how can you say that for sure? I might just be taking advantage of your honesty. Although I already know a little about it myself, you already told Sakayanagi about your entire past, didn’t you? Right?” I asked.

I’m sure that incident was still fresh in her memory. The crime she had committed when she was in junior high, an incident from her past that she had wanted to keep secret. Although she had only done it for her little sister, she had still shoplifted. And her enemy, Sakayanagi from Class A, came to know of it.

Ichinose had told Sakayanagi things that you couldn’t easily confide in your one true best friend about. Granted, she had been led into telling her about it. Even for a good-natured person, that was too much.

“You wouldn’t normally tell your secrets to someone in a situation where you don’t know what your relationship with that person is like yet,” I added.

Of course, it that was done intentionally, for a certain purpose, then that would be a different story. However, what Ichinose did was truly meaningless. Well, actually, she did it, even while knowing that it would cause trouble for her.

“So, if you happen to find yourself in a similar situation again, what will you do then?” I asked.

“Well, I think I don’t want to go through the same thing again either,” she replied, touching her bangs, which were glossy and shiny.

“I see. In that case, good. Now that you’ve learned to be cautious, then I’m not going to press you any further.”

“Oh, well, no, it’s uh… It’s definitely true that I can’t afford to get stuck in a crisis like that again. But you’re different, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Ichinose.

“I’m in a different class, too. There’s no changing the fact that I’m your enemy, is there, Ichinose?” I replied.

“I don’t want to call you an enemy so easily,” she replied.

“Whether you want to say it or not, that’s the reality of the situation,” I replied.

“…But…”

She must have been unable to accept that, because Ichinose went with a different choice of words.

“You’re not an ally…but you are someone I can trust,” said Ichinose.

Considering how she phrased that, she must have hated using the word enemy . The water that I had been heating up had now come to a boil.

“I have coffee, café au lait, and cocoa,” I told her.

“Okay, then… I’ll have cocoa, please,” she replied, with a little smile, nodding.

I poured her a cup of cocoa. A hot drink could warm you up inside. Eventually, the rain started to subside, and the evening glow of the setting sun peeked through the clouds. After looking at the scenery outside for a little bit, Ichinose then turned back to me, with a meek smile still on her face. A little while later, Ichinose slowly started to talk about what she was feeling now, little by little.

“When I got assigned to Class B and met my classmates, I felt sure that we were going to win. You could say that I was being conceited, but I felt that I had really been blessed with wonderful friends. That feeling still hasn’t changed,” said Ichinose.

Then, Ichinose spoke up once more, as if she wanted to clarify something.

“However, the one miscalculation was making me the leader. I think that if I had handled things better, Class B would have many, many more points than they do right now,” said Ichinose.

“I’m not so sure about that. I don’t think there’s any doubt that you are an incredibly gifted person, Ichinose,” I replied.

She denied that, shaking her head side-to-side.

“I felt keenly aware of something when I was talking to Horikita-san today. She really has grown so much this past year. Ryuuen-kun and Sakayanagi-san seem to have grown, too. All of the other class leaders are getting much, much stronger,” said Ichinose.

She wasn’t able to see any growth for her own part this past year, unlike what she saw for those around her, who seemed to be rising to power rapidly. Because of that feeling, she was losing confidence. As she felt like she was being overwhelmed by her own feelings, she was also feeling more and more strongly that she was being left behind.

“Can…I even win, down the road?” she wondered aloud.

“Can you even win, huh?” I repeated.

“Ayanokouji-kun, if I said that I wanted to know your opinion, would you tell me your honest thoughts?” she asked.

“If that’s what you want, then I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t answer,” I replied.

My answer wasn’t necessarily the correct one. But there was one answer that Ichinose wanted to know right now. However, that wasn’t really something that I could state definitively right now. The future hadn’t yet been determined, and there were infinite possibilities. I knew very well, though, that Ichinose wasn’t the type of student to give up here.

“We’re going to be starting our second year soon. Meaning a whole new year is about to begin,” I told her.

“Yeah…”

“During that year, you’ll push forward with your classmates, as far as you can go. There will be happy times and sad times along the way. And I think there will be times when you feel crushed and disheartened. But even so, don’t ever stop,” I added.

What could Ichinose Honami, the leader of Class B, do right now? All she could do is go about her daily life, being as foolhardy as she always has been until now. The only option she had was to trust in her allies and fight to the end. That was a weapon that was only allowed to be used in Class B.

“That’s… Will that… be the answer I’m looking for… one year later…?”

Herself, one year later. She couldn’t see what that looked like. I’m sure that must have made her feel incredibly anxious.

“I’m scared. I’m scared of… what you’ll say to that version of me then, a year from now, Ayanokouji-kun … ”

She had gotten off to a good start at the Advanced Nurturing High School, being placed in Class B. She had made it through the first year together with her classmates and they had successfully defended their position. Surrounded by a great number of friends, her life here had been smooth sailing. However, before she knew it, the reality that the gap between classes was now staring her in the face.

The word defeat was on Ichinose Honami’s mind.

“I—”

“I know. I’m sure that it’s hard to accept that as an answer,” I told her.

Ichinose turned her gaze away from me. I deliberately didn’t give her an answer for her question of whether or not she could win in the future. Well, I suppose I didn’t need to answer. There was starting to be a big gap in strength, from what we could see from the current situation. If I were to speak objectively about the state of things at this current point in time, Class B could very well sink to the bottom of the class rankings next year.

That thought had inexplicably stirred up Ichinose’s anxieties. She was trembling slightly, not from the cold but because of fear.

“What should I do…? What should I do…?” she said to herself quietly.

I’m sure that Ichinose probably couldn’t let the other students see herself in such a weak state. Especially her classmates. It would be easy to give her some kind words right now. It would be no trouble at all to whisper sweet and gentle things to Ichinose, who had opened up her heart to me. So that I could take advantage of her openness. Or maybe now I could touch her skin, hidden underneath her wet clothes.

When I moved, Ichinose reacted strongly, almost to an excessive degree, looking up at me. I moved over by Ichinose’s side and sat down, catching sight of her gaze. From her eyes, it looked like she wanted to run away.

“A-Ayanokouji… kun…?”

I reached out with my right hand and touched Ichinose’s hair, then lightly placed my palm against her cheek. I felt a cold, soft sensation, and then there was faint building heat that I could feel through my fingertips. Then, I moved my thumb and gently caressed her lips.

As I did so, the trembling of her body started to lessen, and eventually, her lips also stopped quivering as well. Normally, Ichinose would have rejected something like this. It wouldn’t have been strange for her to have turned away from it. But she wasn’t.

“So strange… You really are a mysterious person… Ayanokouji-kun…”

“You might be right.”

We stopped speaking, and Ichinose and I looked at one another. Just looked, nothing more, nothing less.

“Hey, Ichinose. How about we meet like this again, one year from today?” I asked.

“…What do you mean?” replied Ichinose.

She didn’t break away from my hand. Ichinose’s wet, glassy eyes caught me and wouldn’t let me go.

“Exactly what it sounds like. I want to meet just like we are now, one year from today. Just the two of us. You and me, Ichinose.”

What I just said might have come off as telling her that I had romantic feelings for her. But that was as far as I went. I gently pulled my hand away and let go of Ichinose. Then I stood up and put some distance between us.

“Don’t get trapped by hesitation this coming year. Meet with me again. Can you promise me that?” I asked.

“I…” She paused for a moment. “But what if, at that time, I… my class…”

“It doesn’t matter. I just want to meet with you a year from now, Ichinose.”

Ichinose closed her eyes and then nodded gently.

“I’ll tell you what I wanted to tell you now when we meet then. I promise.”

“Okay. Thank you… Ayanokouji-kun.”

Some life had come back to her eyes, which had lost their spark before.

“I’ll make a promise to you, too. I will try my absolute hardest this year, and I’ll shoot for Class A,” said Ichinose.

Ichinose had a bigger smile on her face than she’d had in a while. We made a promise to each other to meet a year from now. If we both survived and made it through, that promise would be fulfilled. Class B, led by Ichinose Honami. What would happen to Class B in the future?

Even though there were many things to be pessimistic about, the future had yet to be determined.

However…should Class B fall, I would be the one to finish Ichinose off.