Chapter 7: The Man Called Tsukishiro

Chapter 7: The Man Called Tsukishiro

Chapter 7:

The Man Called Tsukishiro

T HAT MORNING , I woke up somewhere along the right edge of area E3. I went to check the map on my tablet. As a result of avoiding the first-years’ assault all day yesterday, I hadn’t set foot in even a single designated area the entire day. Although Sakayanagi had informed me that the first-years had withdrawn in the afternoon, I still didn’t dare head to my designated areas after that. Instead, I just participated in Tasks that appeared along my escape route and scored the bare minimum level of points needed for me to continue.

The one o’clock designated area yesterday had been randomly assigned and was in area F3. The designated area after that was in G3 at three o’clock. I opened the map app and brought up the screenshot that showed my GPS search results as of one o’clock in the afternoon yesterday. At the time, there had been five first-year groups following me around. After that, I had been certain they would let Housen handle the rest, since he had been approaching me with his GPS turned off. I was sure that was the plan.

It was also clear from my subsequent search results that after Housen had confronted Ryuuen and they had settled their match, all the groups withdrew and went back to their normal exam activities. However…while Sakayanagi and I were focusing our attention on those enemies, several disparate groups of first-year students had gathered and moved ahead of me in the direction of my designated areas.

I thought there was something suspicious about these groups because as soon as three o’clock in the afternoon rolled around and my fourth designated area for the day was announced, they started moving west and heading toward area F4. The paths were narrow there, and it would’ve been difficult for me to escape if they blocked my way. In order to avoid them, I was forced to take a considerable detour.

“I avoided the danger just in case, but that’s going to cost me quite a bit. It’ll put that much more strain on my last day,” I muttered to myself.

As a result of trying to avoid encounters with those students, I ended up missing my designated areas six consecutive times. I was facing four consecutive penalties. I needed to get out of this situation as soon as possible. If I missed three more areas, then my penalties would cost me eighteen more points. My total score was currently 119 points, but I was far, far from being completely in the clear to avoid expulsion. According to my estimations, the safe zone for me would be around 105 points. If I fell below that mark, then it wouldn’t be surprising at all if I ended up being expelled from school.

That was why I had moved about in the middle of the night last night. I had successfully managed to reach the vicinity of area G3, which, again, had been the fourth and final designated area of the previous day. Since we couldn’t check the leaderboards anymore, we’d have to fight our way through the final day while only guessing at our rankings. The rankings as of the night of the twelfth day might not have been entirely dependable, after all. Things seemed like they should be fine since there had been a total of 157 groups, but in reality, many of those groups had likely merged with one another by now. I needed to assume that the number of groups had decreased considerably.

Doubtless, some of those groups’ main goal would be to save their classmates on the final day. If a group that was close to 200 points merged with a group that had fewer points, they would immediately overtake me in the rankings. I couldn’t ignore the impact that doubled score values on the final day would have either. The strategy that the first-year students came up with had slowly but surely pushed me down the path toward expulsion.

It was possible that there were still first-year students waiting for me up ahead, but the GPS search function was no longer a practical option for me. My seven o’clock designated area was H3. I couldn’t exactly say that it was a particularly good position even if I was being charitable, considering that it was in the mountains. But since I had no way to predict what was going to happen, I didn’t have any other choice. It was going to take me nearly two hours to get from here to there, even if I took the shortest possible route.

I couldn’t sit around hemming and hawing. I had no idea if I might find myself forced into a close battle to see if I’d even be able to reach my designated areas today, a day when many students would be tackling Tasks with doubled point values. I could lose even more ground in the rankings by noon.

Just when I had packed up my things and set out, I received a call from Sakayanagi on the walkie-talkie.

“Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun,” she said pleasantly. “It would seem you had quite an ordeal yesterday.”

“I made it through thanks to you, Sakayanagi,” I replied.

“Will you be all right? With those penalties? Though it does seem as though you’ve moved quite a bit over the course of the night.”

She had noticed my movements via the GPS search.

“My first designated area is H3,” I told her. “I don’t have much time to spare, but I think I can make it in time.”

“H3, you say?” she muttered, repeating my designated area with deep interest.

It sounded like there was something on her mind. As I continued moving, Sakayanagi kept the conversation going.

“Truthfully, there is one thing that is troubling me,” she said . “ Ichinose-san seems to have disappeared. She was nowhere to be found this morning .”

“She disappeared? You think there was an accident?” I asked.

“No, I believe that she left voluntarily. There’s been something odd about her these past few days.”

Come to think of it, I remembered her saying something earlier about Ichinose seeming off.

“Why are you telling me this, though? I can’t imagine that there’s anything I can do about it that’ll help.”

“Actually, I performed a GPS search to find Ichinose-san’s location and discovered that she was in E3, the same as you, Ayanokouji-kun. However, she was at the opposite end, near area D3.”

Even if she was in the same area, there was quite a bit of distance between borders, end to end. And besides, I had already entered F3 by this point.

“What was your last designated area yesterday, Sakayanagi?” I asked.

“D5,” she replied. “Ichinose-san was there too.”

That meant that Ichinose had set out early this morning without telling anyone and somehow made it all the way to area E3. Why?

“This morning, I noticed that our point total had gone down by one,” Sakayanagi said. “I checked with everyone else in our group and there was no evidence to suggest any of them used the GPS search. It would seem that Ichinose-san was the one who used it. It’s currently unclear whether she intends to reach area E3 or some other area further away, but wouldn’t it be rational to assume that she left to meet with someone?”

“Yeah, you’re right about that,” I agreed. “If she was in your fourth designated area yesterday, then that’s just about the only reason she could have for moving about so early in the morning.”

“I thought perhaps she might have left to find you, Ayanokouji-kun, but—”

“Sorry, but I have no idea why she would,” I told her. “And I haven’t seen Ichinose even once during this entire exam so far. I guess if I wait, then Ichinose might come around to the F3 side, but unfortunately, I’m in kind of a hurry right now. What are you going to do?”

“Our first designated area of the day is area E6, so that’s where our group ought to be heading. While this means that we will be discarding our chances of getting the Early Bird Bonus, we have no other choice but to ignore it for now. Even if, at worst, Ichinose is eliminated from the exam, it won’t have a significant negative impact on us since it’s the last day.”

At seven members, Sakayanagi’s group was impressively large. They had been in fourth place as of the end of the twelfth day, so they were in a prime position to shoot for the winner’s podium. Losing Ichinose now would be a serious blow. Putting it another way, this meant that Ichinose had chosen to do something selfish on the final and most important day of the exam. She was the sort of person who went above and beyond for her friends, more than other people did, which made what she was doing right now totally incomprehensible.

“Sounds like you’ve got it rough, too,” I told Sakayanagi.

“Accidents happen,” she said. “Well, I suppose even if we leave things be, the special exam is going to be over in just half a day, so I don’t think there will be any problems. If you do happen to see her, though, please ask her what’s going on.”

She added that continuing this conversation any further would only be a hindrance to me, so she stopped transmitting then and there.

“Where is Ichinose headed…?” I asked myself aloud.

As I continued walking, I put the walkie-talkie away in my backpack and took out my tablet. I didn’t need to worry about charging it anymore since it was the final day. I had about 31 percent battery life remaining, so I figured that it would be fine. The map filled up the screen, showing me the designated area that I ought to have been heading toward, as well as various Tasks scattered here and there. Over these past two weeks, Tasks really had appeared everywhere throughout the entire island.

However, at least for this final day, I could see that no Tasks had appeared in the northern part of the island, meaning in any of the areas marked 1 through 3. Rather, many Tasks seemed to have been concentrated in the central and southern parts of the island in the areas marked 5 through 10, more specifically in areas A through E. This made sense, considering that this was the final day of the exam and doing things that way would guide people back to the starting area.

Moving quickly to reach my designated areas and to take on Tasks would be a wise choice. I did want to use my GPS search to locate Ichinose, but right now I was in danger of getting expelled. I needed to save every point I could if I was going to increase my chances of survival.

7.1

M Y SECOND DESIGNATED AREA for the day was revealed to be area I2, in the northeast corner of the uninhabited island. I had managed to stop the penalties from racking up, so it was a safe place for me to go for the time being. Students were basically supposed to walk straight back to the starting point once the exam ended at three o’clock this afternoon, but the school was apparently planning to collect students here and there as needed via a boat that was patrolling the island, depending on how things went at the end. It seemed like the patrol boat would be coming to area J6, which was nearby, at five o’clock.

“It’s the endgame and my designated areas are popping up in some really ridiculous places…” I muttered to myself.

While the circumstances of the exam were technically the same for everyone, with Tasks concentrated on the south side of the island, my designated area was located at the area furthest northeast. I was tempted to bemoan my luck that I was clearly in a bad Table, but there was nothing I could have done anyway. It would have been easier for me to just accept that and be done with it, but I was beginning to sense that there was something disturbing going on.

I hadn’t passed any other students in a while, not a single one. I hadn’t even seen any other students. Though this island was vast, there were many opportunities to spot or overhear other people as long as you kept up with the Basic Movement system. Of course, it wasn’t hard to understand why I hadn’t bumped into any of the students from my Table yesterday, as I hadn’t arrived at my final designated area. What this indicated to me was that most students were already heading down to the southern part of the island, where the Tasks were concentrated. Perhaps I could touch down in I2 and then ignore my final designated area for the day in favor of Tasks.

A narrow river in H3 divided the area. It couldn’t be used as a shortcut, which made that area a pain in the rear as it inevitably forced me to take a detour. The silver lining was that all I needed to do was walk along the river, so there wasn’t any need to worry about getting lost. If I didn’t panic and just made my way southwest along its banks, once I reached the point where I could cross the river, I could head northeast from there. I figured it would be a good idea to just walk along the water until I reached the mountains, and that was exactly how I got to the other side.

Once I got near the center of area H3 though, something happened.

“Ayanokouji-kuuuuuun!”

I was just walking along and listening to the sound of the flowing river when I heard someone calling my name from far away. The voice came from the north side of the river, from where I just crossed. When I looked in that direction, I spotted Ichinose, covered in mud. She was looking over at me and was completely out of breath.

“Ichinose… You came all the way to H3?”

If I remembered correctly, according to what Sakayanagi had said, Ichinose should’ve been in area E3. It was just after ten in the morning right now. If I assumed that the sun started to rise around five-thirty in the morning, then that meant Ichinose must’ve walked for about four and a half hours to get here. And she would have had to walk at a rather fast pace at that.

“I…I came to see you, Ayanokouji-kun!” shouted Ichinose from the other side of the river, though the fact that she was exhausted and out of breath made it tough for her to get the words out.

“I’m coming over to you right now!” she added, breaking into a run along the riverside. She wobbled and staggered as she moved.

Her heavy-looking backpack must have been weighing her down because she tossed it to the ground right then. Her gait looked incredibly unsteady, like she was limping. She had probably reached the limits of her physical strength, and it must have taken a backbreaking level of effort for her to have come this far. I hurriedly headed back the way I came to meet up with her. After about five minutes of us both running along the riverside, we reached a point where we could cross and meet up. I crossed over to the north side since I couldn’t force Ichinose to push herself.

“I, I finally… I finally caught up… Please wait, I’m coming,” Ichinose panted, heading toward me.

I wondered if she felt responsible for following me here and calling out to me or something. She struggled desperately to stay on her feet, summoning all her strength to walk, and she approached me, one step at a time. She was completely out of breath by the time she arrived before me, and now she couldn’t even seem to stand anymore. She pitched forward, falling.

“Oof!”

I caught Ichinose just as she was about to fall.

“What in the world is the matter, Ichinose?” I asked.

Ichinose looked up at me, her mouth moving quickly, as she desperately tried to sort out her words.

“Th-there’s something I have to tell you, Ayanokouji-kun, no matter what!” she pleaded.

“Something to tell me?” I repeated.

“I was so, so worried!” she said, frantic. “I was so worried for such a long time. I worried what I should do, and… I have to protect my friends and my classmates, but…”

What in the world was she talking about? I couldn’t understand what she was getting at, but at the very least, I could tell that she was trying her absolute hardest to tell me whatever it was.

“But still, even so, I was worried about you, Ayanokouji-kun…which is why, no matter what, I had to—”

I hadn’t had any contact with Ichinose at all during the course of this special exam. I was sure something unexpected had happened. She had traveled frantically for four hours just to come and tell me about it.

“I, I… My watch broke, so, I thought I’d go back to the starting point and exchange it, but…when I did, Acting Director Tsukishiro and Shiba-sensei, they said…!”

Ichinose was exhausted to the point that she couldn’t even catch her breath anymore. She spoke in gasps. I didn’t know when all this had happened, but it sounded like she had been worrying about this for several days.

“Th-they said that if you were still here on the final day of the exam, that they were going to call you to I2 and bury you, Ayanokouji-kun!” she wailed.

I2. Bury . It was certainly true that if someone overheard a conversation like that, they’d find it very disturbing. I figured the reason Tsukishiro and this other teacher had so carelessly allowed Ichinose to overhear their conversation was because her watch had been broken, so she wouldn’t have had a GPS signature for them to sense.

“You said something about protecting your classmates… Does that mean that Tsukishiro threatened to do something to them?” I asked.

Ichinose seemed momentarily surprised by my correct guess. She nodded repeatedly.

“He, he said that if I told you, Ayanokouji-kun, that…that he’d expel my classmates… But, but, I just couldn’t abandon you, Ayanokouji-kun!” she wailed.

“You should have not cared about it and just abandoned me,” I told her. “I am your enemy, after all.”

In this situation, she should have been thinking to herself, “Hopefully that Ayanokouji will get expelled,” and been satisfied with that. It would have been better if she had. When Ichinose heard me say that, though, she vehemently, emphatically shook her head.

“I couldn’t do that! Ayanokouji-kun, you’re… I mean, you’re… You’re not my enemy, Ayanokouji-kun!” she shouted, clutching the front of my shirt.

“I think that I am your enemy, though,” I answered.

“But, I… But to me, you’re—”

She already had a firm hold on my shirt, but now her grip tightened even more.

“B-because, because I love you, Ayanokouji-kun!” she shouted.

Most likely, Ichinose hadn’t expected she would let those words leave her lips. Once they had, though, she covered her mouth and averted her eyes.

“N-no, that’s not what I—! Wh-what I just, I, um?!” she squeaked.

It was like she couldn’t grasp what had just happened either. She panicked, quickly shaking her head repeatedly.

“Wait, what did I just say?!” she wailed.

She was flustered, unable to comprehend what was happening, as if the memory of what she had just said had fled.

“Do you want me to repeat it? What you just told me?” I asked her.

“Y-yes… Ah, I mean, no! I just remembered what I said, so you don’t have to say it after all!!!” she wailed.

“…Thank you, Ichinose.”

“Wh-wh-wha—?!”

I had to express my thanks to her once again. She had put me ahead of her classmates, and even ahead of her own group, the people she had joined in hopes of winning this exam. I wasn’t going to make light of or disrespect her feelings.

“If you hadn’t given me this warning, then I don’t know what might have happened to me,” I told her.

Perhaps this was actually a huge crossroads for me. Had I not met Ichinose here, I would’ve gone on to I2, not expecting Tsukishiro to be there. It was certainly true that he would have threatened Ichinose too, to keep her quiet. But here she was, right in front of me. She was willing to take the risk to tell me everything that was going on.

“Was what you said before the truth?” I asked.

“O-oh, well that, it’s just, um—it’s not like that ,” she said, flustered. “I mean, you know?”

“If it’s not like that, then please take it back right now,” I said. “I’ll get the wrong idea.”

“…Um, well… It’s…not exactly the wrong idea…” she answered, meekly.

She had tried to deny it at first, but now, she seemed convinced that she couldn’t talk her way out of it anymore.

“…I…I do love you…” she said softly.

She spoke so quietly, and in such a faint voice, that it was like her words vanished into the air as soon as they passed her lips. But I heard it.

“Also, I, um, I’ve noticed that I’ve probably felt this way for a while now… I-I’m sorry,” said Ichinose.

There was nothing for her to apologize for.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect that you would think of me that way,” I said. “I’m a little shocked.”

“I-I’m sorry… It probably bothers you, right?”

“Not at all. It’s just that I can’t respond to your feelings right this minute.”

“Ye… Yeah, I, I figured that I’m not really good enough or a good match for you, Ayanokouji-kun…”

“That’s not true. There are a few things that I still need to take care of right now though, so I don’t think that I can answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ at the moment. Not with the way things are.”

Besides, I needed to avoid telling her about Kei. Even if Ichinose would be even more hurt and resentful if she found out about her later, we were at the tail end of the uninhabited island exam right now. There was still some time left, so I shouldn’t do anything that would rob her of her will to fight in this exam.

“I’m sure it might not be easy to accept,” I said, “but that’s the best answer I can give you right now.”

“Yeah… I understand.” Ichinose nodded. She wasn’t upset or angry in the slightest.

“I’m planning on heading to I2 anyway,” I told her. “There’s something I need to do there.”

“B-but you can’t! It’s dangerous!” she exclaimed.

“If I don’t go, then I won’t be able to protect you or your precious classmates, will I?” I replied.

I was sure that Ichinose should have understood that herself since she had agonized over it so much. It was easy to imagine that Tsukishiro would find out that she had told me something. However, I thought that I needed to teach Tsukishiro that this wasn’t a predicament for me. Instead, this would be my comeback.

“Take a nice, long break, and then try and join back up with your group, okay?” I told her, gently stroking her head.

It was time for me to go to I2.

7.2

T HE BOUNDARY BETWEEN I2 and I3 was quite rocky. There were even some bushes there that came up past my knees.

“Think this’ll be a good place,” I said to myself.

I took off my backpack and hid it in one of the bushes. I didn’t know what awaited me from this point forward, and I figured that my stuff would only get in the way. I decided to leave everything behind, including my tablet. If I headed toward the seaside, then I could probably make my way back to this rocky area without getting lost.

So, according to Ichinose, this was the place Tsukishiro was planning to bury me, huh? Perhaps the other groups in my Table were actually being shown completely different designated areas. I didn’t want to waste a point conducting a search just to find that out for sure, though.

Besides, now that I knew that Ichinose was involved, the option of not going to I2 had disappeared. If I chose not to go, Tsukishiro would show Ichinose’s class no mercy. It was hard for me to even guess what kind of awful punishment he would dole out in retaliation.

I finished getting ready and was just starting to walk toward I2 when…

“Hey, Ayanokouji. What a coincidence.”

It was Nagumo, tablet in hand. He looked over at me as though deeply interested in something.

Given the situation, it was odd for anyone else to be in the vicinity. Aside from the bounty on my head, was it possible that this young man was involved with Tsukishiro in some way? No, I figured that the title of student council president probably didn’t mean much of anything to Tsukishiro. Nagumo being here didn’t necessarily mean that there was a connection between him and that matter. Still, I thought I ought to be cautious.

“Student Council President Nagumo, why are you in a place like this?” I asked.

Even with just a quick look around the area, I didn’t see any other students that could possibly be a member of Nagumo’s group.

“Relax. It’s only you and me here,” said Nagumo, trying to ease my concerns. Perhaps he had used the GPS search.

“There aren’t any Tasks nearby. Where exactly did you come from?” I asked.

Nagumo had come from somewhere in the southeast.

“I was playing around on the sandy beaches in I4,” said Nagumo. “The uninhabited island exam is pretty much finished already, after all.”

To think he was playing around, having a good time on the beach while almost all of the other students were whipping themselves up into a frenzy trying to collect points for the final day.

“Is that what you’d call the luxury of being king?” I asked.

Nagumo didn’t answer the question. He only laughed.

“Even if that were true, I suppose I could say something similar back at you, Ayanokouji. You came all the way to a place like this even though it’s not a designated area. There are no Tasks either. Were you meeting with Honami?”

It wasn’t surprising that he brought her name up. Even if Nagumo hadn’t seen Ichinose directly, if he used the GPS search, it would have been clear that she was in the proximity.

“Is it a problem if I did?”

“Nah,” said Nagumo. “Not really? Well, I suppose if you two were together even now, then there would be a lot I could say, but you’re alone, and that means that you have some other purpose. What’s over in I2?”

Though I decided to just let his question slide, Nagumo continued speaking, as though he were trying to change the subject.

“The uninhabited island exam’s already over, right?” he said. “I was just thinking that I’d come and talk to you, at least once. There aren’t many situations at school where I, as the student council president, can talk with you alone, just the two of us.”

“That’s certainly true,” I agreed.

I was simply a student who hung back in the shadows. He, on the other hand, was the head of the student council, someone intimidating enough to quiet a crying child. We were a mismatched pair. Still, I couldn’t imagine that he had come all this way just to make small talk.

“I get the sense that you were aware that the first-year students were going to come after me,” I told him.

“Not a bad guess,” said Nagumo.

There was a twenty-million-point bounty on my head. Someone would receive those points if they got me expelled. Even though Tsukishiro was the one who spearheaded the idea, it was an undeniable fact that Nagumo was involved. A man in his position could have easily monitored the situation via GPS searches regardless of the time of day. If he had watched my and the first-years’ movements yesterday, then it would have been obvious to him that they had mounted their attack.

Nagumo could see the whole picture for this particular special exam as well as I could. No, actually, he could see it better . If he had gotten here without any difficulty, it could only be because he knew what I was about to do.

“Don’t think badly of me because of the whole bounty thing, okay?” he said. “It wasn’t my idea in the first place.”

“It was Acting Director Tsukishiro’s,” I acknowledged.

“If you know that much already, then this conversation will be brief. The points all came from the Acting Director. I only put my name on it as student council president.”

The question of whether Nagumo had wanted to be part of the plan was irrelevant. If it had been an order from the acting director, he wouldn’t have had a choice but to obey.

“If it were a demand from the acting director, then I can understand why you would go along with it,” I said. “But the Student Council President Nagumo that I know would’ve rejected such an idea. That’s what I think.”

“I would have, sure,” Nagumo agreed, “if it had been any student other than you when he came to me about the bounty. But of all people, he named you. The only man to win the praise of Horikita-senpai.”

It was as if Nagumo was looking through me and could see Horikita Manabu standing behind me instead.

“Answer me, Ayanokouji. What are you planning on doing now?”

It would have been easy to tell him not to worry about me, that I was someone completely insignificant. But I was sure that Nagumo wouldn’t be deterred by words as simple as that. Since I didn’t know what exactly was lying in wait ahead, I wanted to make the most of the time I had left.

“It has nothing to do with the Student Council President,” I told him. “Shouldn’t you be concentrating on the final part of the special exam instead of worrying about someone like me? In terms of scores, Kouenji must be closing in on you fast. If you don’t head back, you won’t be able to earn the Early Bird Bonus. You won’t be able to participate in some of the Tasks either, if you stick around here.”

There was still a possibility that I could turn this situation around.

“Don’t worry about that. I have Kouenji perfectly under control for the final day,” said Nagumo, taking a walkie-talkie out of his back pocket.

I took that to mean that even if he were some distance away, everything would be fine if he just gave his people instructions.

“I was curious about why you came here,” he went on, “but since you can’t answer my question, I’ll ask a new one. Actually, it’s more of a demand. I want to know if you’re really good enough to fulfill Horikita-senpai’s lofty expectations. Show me what you can really do.”

So that was the real reason he had come here then.

“You’re not telling me you want me to engage in a fistfight with the student council president here, are you?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t reject one, per se,” he admitted. “But personally, I’d prefer something more proper and straightforward. Even after this uninhabited island exam is over, there will still be opportunities for students from different grade levels to fight each other. I’ll deal with you during one of those times.”

The student council president was directly targeting me.

“You already understand where we stand from how things went in this exam though, right?” I said. “Between you and me, it was no contest.”

The fact of the matter was that Nagumo consistently hovered around first and second place throughout this exam. Kouenji was close behind him, and there was a chance that he could turn things around, but there was no denying that it was still going to be a difficult battle.

“There’s one of you, and seven of us. It would’ve been crazy if we actually competed against each other,” said Nagumo.

“Kouenji is good enough to be your opponent if you’re looking for one though, right?” I said. “He is an odd one, but his skills are undeniable. I, on the other hand, didn’t even break into the top ten during this exam, not even once.” I urged Nagumo to reconsider Kouenji as a more viable choice for a fight.

“Well, he’s more than I expected, that’s for sure. He was the only opponent in this test worth attacking,” said Nagumo.

Though he sounded like he was somewhat approving of Kouenji, he also shrugged his shoulders in exasperation. I guessed that part about attacking Kouenji was exactly what he was using that walkie-talkie for right now.

“I’m sure that using the entirety of the third-year class to jump ahead and take the Early Bird Bonuses, not to mention monopolizing all the Tasks, is a feat that only you could pull off, Student Council President,” I said.

Unlike the first-years and second-years, almost all of the third-year students’ groups were under Nagumo’s control. If he wanted to contain Kouenji for sure, he could certainly have done so by mobilizing his entire grade. It wouldn’t matter how much stamina Kouenji had, or how fast he was, or how proficient he was at clearing Tasks.

Groups summoned from all over could have circled Kouenji and taken away every opportunity from him, right at the root. As a result, he would only be able to earn Arrival Bonuses from the Basic Movement system. Meanwhile, Nagumo and his teammates could widen the gap just by collecting Arrival Bonuses for their group.

“I should have guessed, but wow. You figured out all of that. When’d you notice?” asked Nagumo.

“I had my suspicions that there was something going on since the Beach Flags event,” I replied. “I noticed Vice President Kiriyama left a spot open in the roster. They must have deliberately chosen not to fill it, because they wanted it open for someone else.”

That spot had been reserved for the Student Council President. However, since I arrived before Nagumo did, Kiriyama had no choice but to fill in that remaining space with one of his available teammates—leaving Nagumo to leisurely play around while waiting for Kiriyama and the others to finish the Task.

“I always thought that you and the Vice President were enemies,” I added, “but apparently not.”

“Even though he hates me, he’s willing to work together if it means he’ll graduate from Class A,” said Nagumo.

“Which means that aside from anyone totally outside the norm like Kouenji, no regular students could raise a hand against you, huh?”

Nagumo laughed, as though he found what I’d said amusing.

“That’s not how you really feel at all though, is it?” he said. “You don’t think I’m a great person, not for a moment.”

“That’s—”

I tried to deny it, but Nagumo silenced me with a gesture of his hand.

“I’m sure you’re thinking that I won by brute force alone, by mobilizing the third-years. But that’s not true. Now, I’m going to show you my psychic abilities.”

“Psychic abilities?” I repeated.

“I’m going to guess what your group ranking was at the end of the twelfth day.”

Only the top ten and bottom ten groups were displayed publicly. If you excluded those twenty groups from the total 157, that left you with 137, albeit with the assumption that none of them had merged. So, of course, I was the only one who knew my exact ranking. At the end of the twelfth day, before the date had changed, I had been in sixteenth place.

“You were in…eleventh place, right?” said Nagumo.

Though he answered with confidence, he was slightly off. But I couldn’t exactly laugh him off for being wrong. I had used the GPS search function repeatedly on the twelfth day in preparation for the first-years’ attack. Hypothetically, if I hadn’t spent those extra points, it was entirely possible that I would have been in eleventh place.

Considering the rules, it was impossible to know the rankings of all the groups—which meant that there was a good reason for Nagumo to have come to that conclusion.

“Actually, I might’ve been a little bit off , ” he mused. “You’re probably somewhere around fifteenth or sixteenth. Right?”

“That’s right,” I replied. “I’m honestly impressed.”

I sincerely acknowledged his ability, and Nagumo simply said, “Of course,” in response, calmly accepting it as the truth.

“I was just kidding around about that psychic stuff. I just assumed that if you really were hiding incredible abilities, there wasn’t any range of rankings you could be in except for that.”

Apparently, the student known as Nagumo was much, much better than I’d previously thought.

“You’ve been keeping yourself slightly behind tenth place so you wouldn’t stand out,” he continued. “And you’ve been positioning yourself so that you could jump ahead of the people at the top of the rankings at any given time. Right? If Kouenji and I clashed and we each dropped down in the rankings, you could go for an upset.”

I had avoided drawing attention to myself with the intention of lurking in the shadows until the end of the twelfth day. When people started to feel fatigued during the home stretch of the exam and the people in the top ranks started to slow down their pace of collecting points, I would have raced for a spot among the winners by scoring a bunch of points all at once, depending on how the situation played out. Well, no, rather, that’s what I had intended to do.

“Did you realize it? That it would have been impossible from the beginning, I mean,” added Nagumo, asking if I understood that the strategy that I had come up with had immediately been rendered ineffective thanks to him.

“You know how Kuronaga’s group, from the third-years, was in tenth place for a long, long time? That was me, keeping them in tenth. I kept them there so that I could shut down anyone who might have tried to turn the tables on me by racking up points while staying out of sight.”

The gap between my scores and the ninth and tenth groups had been widening, and it had gotten increasingly difficult for me to shoot for those top spots, day by day. Based on what Nagumo was saying, that had been part of his strategy too. Everything went as he planned. He forced out the enemies that couldn’t be seen, narrowing the field down to only the enemies that he could keep an eye on.

“I’ve always doubted your abilities, but now it’s clear to me,” said Nagumo. “You have earned the right to fight and be crushed by me. So, rejoice.”

“Was it part of your strategy to go out of your way to take command and target Kouenji on the final day of the exam too, Student Council President?” I asked.

“I could have easily earned 400 or even 500 points if I had wanted to,” Nagumo said, “but that would’ve posed a slight problem. Besides, that wouldn’t have been interesting, would it? I gave the second-years and first-years some hope that they might be able to win. And on top of that, if it ends up being a close race and Kouenji loses, then I might get the chance to see the frustration on his face.”

As someone in the most powerful group, Nagumo had fought rather comfortably for the past two weeks. And now, on the final day of the exam, he was considering making a display of his presence by sinking Kouenji and taking first place for himself. If Nagumo was serious, he could even find out how many points a particular group had. He could find out whether they were earning the Early Bird Bonuses, what kinds of results they were pulling in Tasks, and so on. He could learn those things either via GPS searches or through the eyes of his allies.

Even now on the final day when the scores were unknown, it was safe to assume that Nagumo knew exactly how many points Kouenji had. That meant it was possible for Nagumo to stage a dramatic victory, for example by pulling ahead by just one single point.

“Well, I don’t really care about Kouenji anymore,” he said. “What do I care about is the last thing that I’m going to do at this school. I’m going to eat you alive, Ayanokouji.”

Nagumo had constantly chased after Horikita Manabu’s shadow. And now, he was trying to superimpose that person’s image on top of me. I thought he must be trying to make his position with Horikita Manabu clear by overtaking him, albeit in an unconventional way, by defeating me soundly and decisively.

“Unfortunately, Horikita is the leader of Class 2-D,” I told him. “Even if there was another special exam where we could compete against you third-years, I’m not going to be fighting you, Student Council President Nagumo.”

“In that case, I guess I have no other choice but to drag you out to the front of the stage by force then, huh? Including the matter of the bounty on your head.”

It sounded like he was willing to bring everything and anything about that situation to light too.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to be hurrying on ahead now,” I replied. “Let’s continue this conversation another time.”

“Do you think I’ll let you get away that easily?” Nagumo said. “I have no intention of letting you go until you say that you’ll throw down against me. Y’know?”

He started walking after me, as though he were intending to follow me. If something was lying in wait ahead, Nagumo would end up getting dragged into it. My opponent was Tsukishiro. In the worst-case scenario, Nagumo could lose everything that he had built and be expelled thanks to the authority that man wielded.

Even if I tried to persuade Nagumo with words, he most likely wouldn’t comply. And I obviously couldn’t spin a convincing enough lie that I’d promise to do something when the time was right. I stopped and turned around.

“So, do you think you want to fight—”

Nagumo had mistaken the reason for my turning around and was delighted. He thought that I was going to agree. Instead, I shoved him hard and without warning, thrusting my hand against his chest. He must not have thought that a younger student would have the gall to lay a hand on him because he didn’t resist at all. He crumpled to the ground, falling on his backside. The tablet he was holding and the walkie-talkie that had been in his pocket spilled out onto the ground.

“Wha—”

He seemed unable to understand what had just happened. I figured I’d take care of what needed to be done before he could wrap his head around the situation.

“Student Council President Nagumo,” I said, “even now, I still have a high opinion of you. You have different abilities than President Horikita does, and you’ve risen to the top of this school, brilliantly. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that not only have you maintained the top spot in this special exam with plenty of room to spare, but you have also completely dominated it.”

He was still calm. I continued speaking before he remembered his anger.

“It’s simply that there are some places that you should not tread. Please withdraw here.”

“ Hah … Don’t mess with me, Ayanokouji. You really think you can order me around?”

“It is precisely because you are my senpai, and thus someone I ought to respect, that I’m not going to go easy on you,” I replied.

“Huh? What are you—”

I looked right into Nagumo’s eyes with all the killing intent I could muster.

“Huh?!”

“I told you to withdraw. Do you understand?” I told him sternly.

Nagumo quickly shot upright, jumping back to his feet, as if to refuse to recognize the fear that I had instilled within him.

“Okay, that’s enough, do you hear me? You are the first person who has disrespected me this much, Ayanokouji, you—”

Just then, a voice came through the walkie-talkie that he had dropped.

“It worked great, Nagumo. This is the third time in a row that we’ve blocked Kouenji from a Task. Give us your next orders.”

The voice of a joyful third-year student came clearly through the device. It sounded like their plan to suppress Kouenji was coming along well. Nagumo glared at me, but didn’t react to the voice at all.

“Hey, Nagumo, our people aren’t gonna move unless you give the order. Don’t we need to keep attacking until the end of the exam to make sure that Kouenji falls to second place?”

“Don’t you need to answer that?” I asked.

Even from just the part of the conversation that I could hear, I got the sense that the message was important to Nagumo. He silently took the walkie-talkie in hand and turned the knob so that it was pointed to the Off indicator, powering it down.

“Kouenji isn’t what’s important to me,” he said.

He walked up to me, not even bothering to brush the dirt from himself.

“I’ll take you on and beat you thoroughly into the ground. I’m making that my final point of business as student council president.”

Willpower, was it? He was trying to rouse himself as student council president and shake off the intimidation he felt from me.

“I—?!”

Without warning, I punched Nagumo right in the solar plexus without batting an eye.

“A…yano…ko—!”

Immediately rendered unable to breathe, Nagumo collapsed right on the spot, temporarily losing consciousness. I caught his body as he fell and propped him up against a large tree, placing him out of direct sunlight. Since he wasn’t going to be listening to any of my unsolicited advice, this was the only way I could have dealt with the situation. Nagumo’s watch must have detected an abnormality because the Warning Alert sounded for five seconds.

I figured it wouldn’t be long before he woke up, perhaps just twenty or thirty minutes. At any rate, this would save him from getting involved in whatever came next. Of course, there was no avoiding the fact that other problems would emerge again after this uninhabited island exam was over, but even that was a trivial concern right now. I needed to deal with Tsukishiro, and the path ahead would not open until that matter had been resolved.

7.3

I T WAS JUST AFTER ten o’clock in the morning on the final day of the exam, and I—that is to say, Horikita Suzune—was heading north along the border of I4 and I3 toward area I2. I was wringing out every last bit of energy I had for the final stretch, as this was the final day. The special exam was finally almost over.

Fortunately, as of just before midnight last night, no one from Class 2-D had been in the bottom ten groups. The bottom five, the ones in danger of getting expelled, were all third-year groups. Still, I couldn’t be completely relaxed about this. Considering the fact that those five groups could still join with other groups which would inevitably raise their point scores, it was possible that the rankings could change at the last minute. It was very possible that some of them could easily swap with the groups that were just barely managing to hold onto sixth and seventh place. If I were to take this idea to its logical extreme, if all the groups in the bottom ten were to merge with groups in higher positions, then all ten of those groups could break themselves out of the bottom of the rankings.

My designated area, displayed on my tablet, was I7. It was in the opposite direction of I2, where I was headed. Ignoring the designated area that I should have been headed toward could have been interpreted as a reckless act. Why was I doing such a thing, you ask? The answer to that could be found on the slip of paper that I held in my right hand. When I had woken up in my tent this morning, I had found this paper, folded up small, secretly tucked inside the entrance.

When I unfolded it, I saw four things written, without any real order or sequence to them: “Noon,” “AK,” “Expelled,” and “I2.”

My first two thoughts when I saw this were as follows: First, I thought that the person who had written this note had very neat handwriting. So much so that I wanted to use it as a reference to improve my own. The second thought I had was that pens and paper were not handed out for free as supplies for this exam.

“How many points was it for a notebook and a pen, anyway…?” I muttered to myself.

I vaguely remembered that those items were listed in the uninhabited island manual, but I didn’t remember exactly how many points they were as I had deemed them worthless. Though I supposed, in hindsight, I might have needed the notebook if my tablet had run out of battery life or if it had suddenly stopped working. At any rate, someone rather eccentric had purchased the notebook and writing tools and sent me this coded message.

“Well, no, this message is far too simple for me to say that it’s a code,” I uttered, correcting myself.

“I2” referred to the area on this uninhabited island. “Noon” clearly referred to the time. Since the note had been delivered to me on the final day of the exam, that indicated to me that there was something happening today, the fourteenth day. If this were a simple prank, then that would be all there was to it, but the two other things written on the note made me think otherwise.

“Expelled” and “AK.” Putting aside the first word, the problem was the “AK” part. If another student saw this message, they surely would not have understood its meaning. The instant I saw it, though, I understood what it meant. Those were Ayanokouji Kiyotaka’s initials.

“If I were to consider the meaning of the message as it stands,” I said to myself, “it says that Ayanokouji-kun will get expelled at noon in I2…”

What a ridiculous notion, I thought. That was why, when the designated area was announced this morning at seven o’clock, I had intended to ignore the message. Still, I was a little concerned that Ayanokouji-kun’s GPS signature was in E3. I thought that if he got closer to I2 as time went on, then perhaps this might not have been a simple joke. With that in mind, I decided to give the matter some time and then use the GPS search again.

As a result, I learned that Ayanokouji-kun had left F3 and was currently making his way through G3. If he continues at this rate, if he really heads to I2, then… I considered this. Driven by that hunch, I decided to head north to confirm what was going on. There was a bounty on his head, after all; the probability that this had something to do with said bounty could not be dismissed.

There was still some time before noon, but I wondered how far Ayanokouji-kun might have gone. Of course, there was still the possibility that this was all just a simple coincidence, and that he was already headed toward another area. I felt the desire to use the GPS search welling up inside me, but I firmly reined in that impulse.

My score was good enough to place me conceivably in the top 50 percent. However, if I abandoned designated areas and Tasks from this point on, and especially if I used the search function, then I wouldn’t know where I might stand in the rankings. In any case, if I was wasting my time coming this way, I decided that I might as well just continue all the way to I2.

Just as the river came into view, I heard a voice coming from behind me.

“Ah! I finally caught up with you! Wait right there, Horikita!”

“…What are you doing here?” I asked in return.

It was Ibuki-san, glaring at me, completely out of breath. I didn’t get the sense that she had appeared here by chance, which made me think that she had deliberately gone through the trouble of using the GPS search to chase after me.

“Your score. Show me your score,” she huffed.

“Wait a minute. What in the world are you saying?”

Showing up entirely unexpectedly and demanding that I, her enemy, show her my score? I couldn’t even begin to understand what she was thinking.

“I told you before, didn’t I? That I wasn’t going to lose to you in this special exam,” barked Ibuki-san, thrusting her index finger at me intensely, pointing right at my eyes.

“There’s no need to check that right now,” I told her. “Can’t you just wait until the exam’s finished?”

“There’s no guarantee that all of the groups’ points will be shown at the end of the special exam,” she argued.

“That certainly might end up being the case,” I conceded. “What’s important are the top and bottom groups, after all.”

There was no guarantee that all the rankings of the numerous other groups would be viewable right away. Of course, it was also possible that they would publicly announce all the scores as a matter of course too.

“So, you’re going to let me confirm it right here and now,” she ordered.

From the sound of it, she wanted to make it absolutely clear which one of us had scored more points as of the final day of the exam.

“This is so incredibly stupid that I can’t even believe it… But you must be serious about this if you went through all the trouble of coming here. How many times did you use the GPS search?” I asked.

“…Three times,” she answered. “You were close, so I thought now would be the only time to do this.” Ibuki-san had used the GPS search three times and come all this way…for this.

“I appreciate all the effort you went through,” I said sarcastically.

“I don’t need your appreciation. Just show me your score. My score is 131 points!” she announced confidently, as if to say, “How about that?”

“Thank you for telling me even though I didn’t ask,” I said. “But there are two things I’d like to say. First, there’s no proof that what you’re telling me is your real score.”

“Huh? In that case, how about I show you?!” she shouted.

Ibuki-san was about to take her tablet out from her backpack, but I stopped her from doing so.

“Second,” I went on, “even if you do show me your actual score, I’m not going to tell you mine.”

“Huh? What the hell? Are you saying that you’re the same as him ?” she sneered.

Him? Though I was a little curious, I continued saying my piece anyway.

“Though we are both second-years, we are enemies. I don’t want to run the risk of disclosing information to you.”

At this point in time, I couldn’t imagine that my name would appear in the bottom ten. However, the scores would keep changing until the very last minute. Even though it was the last day, there was a nonzero possibility that giving information to Ibuki-san could result in the rug being pulled out from under me.

“I get it,” she said. “Hearing my score made you scared, huh? You’re losing to me, aren’t you?”

“Even if you keep talking about who is winning and who is losing, I’m still not going to answer,” I said firmly.

Even though I had repeatedly told Ibuki-san that I had no intention of sharing any information with her, she kept snapping back at me.

“Why can’t you just admit it already?” she huffed. “That you can’t beat my score?”

“Sure, I’ll do that for you. I admit it. Now you can go back to the exam.”

I figured that if it satisfied her, I’d go along with her demands.

“…You’re really pissin’ me off , ” she grumbled. “Show me your actual score.”

“I gave in and admitted it, and you’re still not satisfied?” I asked.

“I wanna know your actual score. And I wanna know how much I beat you by,” she added.

“This is so stupid…”

“It’s very important to me,” she insisted.

“I’m sorry, but I need to be moving on.”

“Trying to run away?”

“I’m heading to my designated area. It’s funny that you would describe that as running away.”

I turned and hurried off toward I2. Ibuki-san must really have thought that I was running away because she followed me, giving chase.

“Do you have a designated area up north? Or are you just chasing me?” I asked.

“What I want to know right now is your score,” she answered. “Once I find that out, I’ll go back to my own designated area.”

I figured that meant she would stubbornly remain fixated on me—and me alone—no matter where I went. I honestly did not want to end up getting held up here for such a bizarre reason. Even if I was just being led around by this single piece of paper, I still didn’t want to waste my time.

“…I give in,” I told her.

“Y-you do? So, you’re finally admitting that you lose?” said Ibuki-san.

“That’s not what I meant. I’m saying that I’ve given in to that thing you have that resembles a kind of stubborn persistence. I’ve earned 145 points. Unfortunately for you, you came close, but I beat you in points earned.”

I revealed the information that I should have kept hidden. That was the reason I had declared that I had given in earlier.

“Wait, you beat me? If you’re saying that you beat me, then show me proof. I want evidence,” demanded Ibuki-san.

Of course, she would say that. But I had no intention of stopping anymore. I just wanted to get to I2 as soon as possible and make sure that Ayanokouji-kun was safe.

“…Fine.”

In terms of efficiency… Well, no, actually, I couldn’t imagine that this was the right tactic. But letting Ibuki-san know what my score was on the final day of the special exam would most likely not have a significant impact. I didn’t want to waste a single second of a single minute. I took off my backpack and reached for my tablet in the outer pouch. Ibuki-san still had a stern look on her face, and it didn’t seem like her expression would change as she waited for me to show her my point total.

I had the tablet in my hands. I was just about to press the power button. But just then, Ibuki-san and I both, at almost the exact same time, sensed a powerful presence ahead and looked up. It was someone who made no attempt to conceal their presence, either.

“Found youuuuu!”

It was an innocent-sounding voice, like a child calling out to a playmate.

“Hello there, Horikita-senpai.”

Seeing this girl appear before us from seemingly out of nowhere, Ibuki-san didn’t even try to hide the dissatisfied look on her face.

“…Who’s that?” she huffed.

“It’s Amasawa Ichika-san, from Class 1-A,” I answered.

It was possible that Amasawa had just so happened to show up here, but something seemed strange. Feeling on edge, I turned my attention to her, though I was still holding onto my tablet. The whole situation with the bounty that the first-years were after and what was written on that slip of paper I found this morning… It couldn’t be her, could it?

“Oh, don’t worry about me,” said Amasawa-san. “You can keep doing what you were doing, ’kay?”

“No, we can’t,” I informed her. “We were discussing private matters.”

I was sure that Ibuki-san was well aware that I wanted as few other people as possible to know my score. I was also sure that she understood that was why I didn’t want to show her my tablet right now to prove whether she won or lost.

I gently urged Amasawa-san to leave, but she wasn’t budging. Seeing this, Ibuki-san must have lost her patience because she spoke up.

“You’re interrupting us,” she huffed, sounding irritated.

“So, how’s Sudou-senpai, Horikita-senpai?” asked Amasawa-san.

“Huh? You ignorin’ me?” grumbled Ibuki-san.

Even though Amasawa-san should have heard Ibuki-san’s question, she acted as if she didn’t. She must not have been planning to leave right away because she set her backpack down and rolled her shoulders.

“…He’s well,” I replied. “He was saved, thanks to you. I’m incredibly grateful for that.”

She smiled brightly at me, but I didn’t get the sense of anything even remotely like an apology from her. Did she think I wasn’t worth apologizing to for how she had acted toward and responded to Ayanokouji-kun? Or, perhaps, did she think she hadn’t done anything wrong in the first place?

“I told you that you’re interrupting us. We’ve got an engagement of our own here, so get out of here,” snapped Ibuki-san.

“An engagement?” Amasawa-san repeated. “Didn’t you just selfishly barge in and demand Horikita-senpai’s time though, Ibuki-senpai?”

It sounded as though she had been listening in on our conversation for a while. Perhaps it really was true that she had been here, eavesdropping.

“Even so, it’s got nothing to do with you,” Ibuki-san said. “Beat it.”

Ibuki-san’s tone was becoming more and more stern. If this went any further, Ibuki-san might’ve really started getting physical. But even though she was being threatened, Amasawa-san just smiled, as though she found it all amusing.

Putting Ibuki-san aside for the moment, I turned my attention back to Amasawa-san. “I’m wondering what you’re after, Amasawa-san,” I told her. I didn’t want to waste any more time, but I didn’t have any other choice.

“Tch.” Ibuki clicked her tongue in irritation. But still, she waited too, probably because she sensed that she didn’t have a choice either.

“I have one question I’d like to ask you,” said Amasawa-san. “Where are you going from here, Horikita-senpai?”

“Right now, I’m speaking with Ibuki-san right here,” I replied, “but after I’m finished, I’m planning to head toward area F3 right away.”

That was a lie, of course. I had already intended on giving up on my designated area. But there was no benefit in telling Amasawa-san that. She had colluded with other first-year students in their plan to get Ayanokouji-kun expelled so they could collect the bounty on his head. It was safer for me to not say anything unnecessary in matters related to him. That was what I had decided, anyway, but I soon realized my mistake.

“You’re a liar, Horikita-senpai,” Amasawa-san declared. “Your designated area isn’t that way, is it?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked. “Are you trying to trap me with some strange trick?”

“It’s pointless to try and fool me,” she responded immediately. “Your designated area, where you’re supposed to be going, is I7. Am I wrong, Horikita-senpai?”

The area that she had mentioned was exactly the place that I was supposed to be headed to next. She couldn’t have guessed that by mere coincidence. Judging from the look on her face, I could only imagine that she had intended to catch me in that trap from the very start of this conversation.

“We second-years have our own way of fighting,” I told her. “It’s not like we can tell the absolute truth about everything.”

After I told her that, I continued right away.

“Besides, I think it’s inevitable that we’d be wary of someone who tried to take down Ayanokouji-kun.”

I smoothly transitioned from one topic to the next. The first-years were our enemy. There was no need for us to show any shame.

“Hmm. Well, you might be right about that,” she said.

Though that was what she said, it was as if my words never even reached her ears. I couldn’t help but feel that, based on her attitude, she had come here with a predetermined conclusion in mind.

“So, where are you going, Horikita-senpai?” she pressed. “It couldn’t be…I2, could it?”

It seemed that I had guessed right, but in a bad way.

“You seem to have figured out quite a few things,” I said. “But I’ve only just decided to head to I2 as of this morning. You’re an exceptionally good guesser, aren’t you?”

Even if she had used the GPS search and pinpointed my location, it wouldn’t have been easy for her to get ahead of me like this. If that was the case, then I could assume that Amasawa also had something to do with that piece of paper I found this morning. While I wondered whether to question her about it, Ibuki-san stepped forward instead.

“Hey, how much longer are you gonna drag out this boring conservation?” she snapped.

I certainly felt frustrated too. At this rate, I was going to be forced to deal with Amasawa-san on top of all the time I had already wasted on Ibuki-san.

“Ibuki-san.”

I decided to power on my tablet and show my score to her, resigning myself to disclosing my own personal information. Inevitably, Ibuki-san would also see that I had earned three additional group member slots, but since it was the endgame and I hadn’t used them, I figured there was virtually no harm done. From her point of view, something like my maximum group size was probably completely irrelevant.

The moment that she saw my score, Ibuki-san faintly clicked her tongue. Then, scratching her head, she put her irritation into words…loudly.

“Huh? Seriously? HUH?! This sucks,” she grumbled.

I supposed this was a somewhat cruel conclusion for Ibuki-san after all the hard work that she put in over the past two weeks. That being said, I still thought that she performed admirably. The fact that she was able to achieve a score on level with mine, even though she had a lower level of academic ability, was something that she should look back on proudly.

“Well then, if we’re done here, you can head to your designated area,” I told her. “You still have a chance to turn things around, since we earn double points on the final day.”

“Well, yeah, sure, I guess that’s true… But what the hell is this about you giving up on your designated area?” Amasawa-san’s words must have piqued her curiosity.

“This is your chance, Ibuki-san,” I said. “For reasons I’m not going to go into, I will not be scoring any points from this point.”

I tried to signal to her with my eyes. Surely you can understand without me having to explain everything from the beginning, right?

“Well, you’re right that our contest isn’t over until the uninhabited island exam is finished,” she said, exasperated. “If you’re telling me that you’re staying put, then I won’t lie, I’ll be more than happy to go ahead and turn the tables on you.”

She must have been satisfied, at least to some extent, because she turned her back to me and started walking away. At any rate, I had succeeded in getting her away from here for the time being. As I put my tablet away, tucking it into my backpack, I focused my attention back on dealing with Amasawa-san.

“I’m going to be heading over to I2 now,” I informed her. “What are you going to do?”

“Why are you giving up on your designated area and going to I2, which is totally irrelevant to you?” she asked. “There aren’t even any Tasks there. I mean, we are still in the middle of the special exam, right? Aren’t we?”

“I think you know the answer to that better than anyone,” I replied. “Don’t you?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You slipped this piece of paper into my tent while I was sleeping. Why did you do that?”

I held out the small, folded paper between the thumb and index finger of my left hand.

“…Paper?” said Amasawa-san. “If you don’t mind, could you show it to me for a sec?”

This was practically a textbook example of an unconvincing performance. But I supposed I had no more use for this piece of paper anyway. I handed it over to Amasawa-san, who I believed to be its original owner. When she received it, she unfolded it and read its contents.

“A bunch of things scribbled in no particular order… ‘Noon,’ ‘AK,’ ‘Expelled,’ and ‘I2,’” said Amasawa-san, closing her eyes for a moment as she read the note aloud. “For the love of… Just how much do you like playing these games…?”

“Games?” I repeated. “What exactly are you planning on involving Ayanokouji-kun and me in?”

“I dunno,” said Amasawa-san. “Seems like I’m nothing more than just another participant, just like you, senpai.”

“Don’t try and fool me. The fact that you appeared right here proves that you’re the one who wrote that note.”

Amasawa-san smiled, looking somewhat annoyed, and began tearing up the paper. She ripped it seven or eight times and then proceeded to toss the scattered pieces away.

“Did you sense anything disturbing about the four things written in that note?” she asked.

“That Ayanokouji-kun might get expelled,” I replied. “It was quite easy to interpret the message that way.”

“Hmm.”

It sounded as if she knew more about the situation than I did. At any rate, it was a waste of time for me to play word games with her any longer. I slung my backpack over my shoulders once more and started walking toward her.

Amasawa-san snapped at me, just as I was about to walk past her. “I’m not happy about this. You don’t know aaaaanything about Ayanokouji-senpai at all, and you’re just pretending to be his ally because you’re classmates. I gotta wonder about that, I really do. You don’t know anything about Ayanokouji-senpai, do you, Horikita-senpai?” she added.

That didn’t sit well with me for some reason, and I stopped in my tracks.

“So, then, would you say that you know a lot more about him than I do?” I asked.

When I cast a glance at her, she met my gaze with an overbearing glance of her own, smiling broadly and triumphantly.

“Of course,” she declared. “I know Ayanokouji-senpai very, verrrrry well. Like, I know why he’s so cool, so smart…and so much stronger than everyone else.”

I found it hard to believe that a first-year student who had only just started attending our school could know so much about Ayanokouji-kun. Did that mean that they had been acquainted with each other since junior high school or earlier, in that case? Just like how Kushida-san and I had known each other since junior high?

Amasawa-san continued speaking, not caring about my reaction.

“So, what do you know, Horikita-senpai?”

What did I know? He was… Since I enrolled in this school, Ayanokouji-kun was my very first…friend. Yes, I supposed that it would be fair to say that we were friends, more or less. Since we just so happened to sit next to one another in class, we ended up talking about lots of different things… At first, I thought he was just an ordinary student, but he turned out to be much, much smarter than I could have ever imagined.

Even my older brother recognized his talents early on, finding Ayanokouji-kun to be well-versed in martial arts. But he was also someone who usually hid himself away and just wanted to live a quiet life at school. Although there were a few people who knew about his true abilities, really, there were a lot of rumors and lies, making it hard to discern the truth from fiction.

“Yes, I suppose you might be right,” I answered. “I might not really know anything about him. I cannot deny that.”

When I thought about Ayanokouji-kun again, I couldn’t help but come to that conclusion. Perhaps Amasawa-san was well aware of that too. She smiled happily at what I said, taking my words as a declaration of defeat.

“But.”

“But?”

Surely, that was not what was important. It’s not about how much I know about him right now, I thought to myself.

“I want to continuing getting to know more and more about him from here on out, until the time we graduate. As a classmate… As a friend. Until I know far more than you do right now,” I declared.

That was my wish at present. That feeling was the sincere truth. He had certainly caused me some grief more than once or twice, but he was an indispensable person to our class. He was a valuable ally that we could not afford to lose. If he was in danger right now, then of course I would go running to save him. That was precisely the reason I was heading over to I2, even though I was going as far as giving up on my designated area.

Now, I had once again reaffirmed what it was that I was trying to do. That the choice I was making was not the wrong one. If everything turned out to have simply been baseless fears, then that would have been perfectly fine as well.

“Do you really think that you can be of any use?” asked Amasawa-san. “Someone like you, Horikita-senpai?”

“I may not be skilled enough yet at this point in time, but I intend to become someone who can help him when he’s in trouble.”

Our lives as students at this school had really only just started, and we were just beginning to turn the pages. This conversation, which I could have interpreted as a waste of time, might have held some great meaning after all. I needed to be grateful to her, then, for making me realize all of this. As I was about to walk away though, Amasawa-san stretched out her right arm, blocking my path. When I looked at her face again, her smile was long gone. Instead, she looked at me with severe murderous intent.

“I’ve learned something from our conversation here,” I told her. “That something really is about to happen in I2. If not, then there would be no reason for you to be trying so desperately to keep me here.”

I couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“After everything I’ve said, don’t you understand? I’m going to I2 to save Ayanokouji-kun.”

It was my first step in becoming someone who could help him when he was in trouble, just as I said earlier.

“Don’t make me laugh,” Amasawa-san scoffed. “There’s no way that Ayanokouji-senpai would look to someone like you for help, Horikita-senpai.”

“That might be true at present, at the very least,” I admitted.

“Meaning that in the future, it’ll be different?” she asked.

I nodded, then turned back to look at her.

“Oh, and there’s one more thing I’ve come to understand from our conversation,” I told her. “That you really do not want to let me go to I2. Which means that you were not the one who sent me this piece of paper.”

When I tried to move past Amasawa-san’s outstretched arm, she quickly moved to stand in front of me, blocking my path once again.

“I’m not letting you go, Horikita-senpai,” she said firmly.

“The more you try and stop me, the more I feel that I absolutely must go to him. Judging from the way you’re talking, I’m guessing that he must be in trouble right now. Right?”

It didn’t matter how much she knew about the situation. The one thing that I was sure of was that there was obviously something going on with Ayanokouji-kun.

“You really think you can go?” taunted Amasawa-san.

“Yes, I really think I can,” I answered decisively. Even if I have to remove any obstacles standing in my way by force.

“Hmmm. Wow, I can really, really feel your determination loud and clear. I’ll wait for you just long enough so you can put your stuff down.”

She clearly meant that she was planning to keep me here, even if she had to use force in return. I figured that it would be best to assume this was no simple verbal threat. I took her at her word and slowly lowered my backpack down to the ground, near my feet.

“I’ll just tell you this up front. I am an experienced martial artist,” I cautioned her.

“I know.”

“…I see. You are quite well informed.”

“And let me tell you something up front,” she retorted, “I’m super strong, so you better be ready for me.”

From the moment that she unveiled her anger, I could instinctively sense that she was no ordinary child. I was sure that wasn’t just some random conclusion on my part either; this was real. It was certainly true that I was getting increasingly fatigued due to being on an uninhabited island for this exam. But the same was true for Amasawa-san here as well. Since she appeared to be in fine physical condition, I couldn’t say that we were evenly matched in that regard.

In any case, I was not going to be easily defeated. I slowly positioned myself into a stance and observed Amasawa-san’s behavior. She didn’t seem to be getting into any particular stance herself. She simply looked at me with an unsettling expression on her face.

“If you’re saying that you’re going to see Ayanokouji-senpai, then I think I’ll play with you a little bit. To stop you.”

Amasawa-san took a step forward with her left foot, and then—

“Wha—?!”

I had been completely alert and thought I was ready for her, but in the instant she started to move, I sensed intense danger coming in my direction. I hopped backwards to get out of the way. She hadn’t put much power behind her movements when she’d reached out toward me with her arm. Was she trying to grab hold of me? At any rate, I avoided the first blow. Or so I thought, at least. The next thing I knew, Amasawa-san had grabbed me, clutching onto my right sleeve and the fabric around my chest.

“That’s im—” I sputtered.

As I almost silently muttered those words, my field of vision started to spin. I felt pain shoot through my back, and I realized that I had just gotten shoulder thrown.

“One point for meeee! Heh, just kiddin’!”

“ Koff!” I hacked painfully, unable to breathe.

“Come on now, you can’t let your guard down, silly.” Amasawa had a wicked grin on her face as she looked down at me. “All right. Back on your feet. Let’s go, stand up, stand up.”

It was unnecessary to reiterate just how humiliating this experience was. I understood well enough just from getting grabbed by her once that Amasawa-san possessed incredible physical abilities. I had assumed that since we were both women, even if there was a difference in our level of skill, it would have only been slight. Ingenuity, quick-wittedness, a flash of opportunity, luck—I thought it would be possible for any one of those things to lead to a turnaround. But that line of thinking might have been naïve.

At any rate, the damage done to my back wasn’t something I could just shrug off. Fortunately, I had landed on soil, but it was still going to take some time for me to recover. If Amasawa-san was so proud of her overwhelmingly superior position, I decided I’d take advantage of that as much as possible. I purposefully spent a prolonged time on the process of getting back up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wait. You can rest up for five, even ten minutes,” said Amasawa-san.

“Of course you’d say that, since your intention is to keep me from going to Ayanokouji-kun,” I replied.

“It’s best to settle things without having to fight, right? I’m sure you must think so too, Horikita-senpai.”

That was certainly true. The uninhabited island exam had been going smoothly up to this point. We were only just starting our altercation here in the endgame. If I wasn’t careful, I could very well end up being eliminated and become the only one here to be expelled from school.

“…One more time,” I announced.

Once the pain in my back had subsided, I once again entered a fighting stance, the same one as before. Even with my knowledge of martial arts, it didn’t mean I was good at raw, bare-knuckle fights like this. I could only demonstrate the abilities I had acquired, just as I had learned them. I was surprised by how fast Amasawa-san moved, but I had my own ideas about how to fight due to my specialty: namely, judo.

Once, an assistant karate instructor taught me what to do when a man came at you to try and grab you and push you down to the ground. I remembered that lesson, tucked away deep in my memory, and thought I would try and put it into practice here. I wasn’t exactly of sound enough mind to be able to adjust it by feel and go easy on my opponent, but I decided that since Amasawa-san was the one I was facing now, I probably didn’t need to worry about that. I tossed aside any thoughts about how she was younger than me and instead made myself focus on the idea that I was fighting a superior opponent.

“A ha ha!”

Just when I was focusing on the slight changes not just on Amasawa-san’s face, but also in her legs and shoulders, she laughed, as though she were amused.

“Yeah, yeah. I can tell, Horikita-senpai. I know exactly how you feel. But, hey, y’know…?”

I wouldn’t play along with her mind games. In that moment, I focused all my attention, all my reflexes, on watching to determine what her first move would—

Just as I was counting the seconds, not even sparing time to blink, I saw her right leg coming straight at me. I tried to intercept her attack, but then I realized that she had switched up and quickly swung her left leg at me instead, connecting with the side of my torso.

A jolt of pain shot through me. “Ngh!”

She had kicked me hard enough to knock me back down to the ground, inflicting so much agonizing pain that I felt as if I might start crying or just lose consciousness. The only thing I could do with my arms in that moment, as I couldn’t even defend myself with them, was to simply catch myself as I hit the earth. I rolled along the ground two or three times. Though I understood how it had all happened, I still felt confused.

“Did you think this fight was mostly going to be judo? Pretty naïve of you to think that,” she taunted.

“U-ur…k…!”

I reflexively held my right side, where she had kicked me, closing my eyes. The pain was so intense that I felt my spirit shatter in an instant. This was the second time that I had felt such overwhelming, despair-inducing strength. I hadn’t felt like this since…that time we confronted Housen-kun, which wasn’t all that long ago. With events like that happening in such quick succession, I felt like I was losing confidence in myself.

“I guess none of this year’s batch of first-years are just cute underclassmen…” I huffed.

“Oh, so does that mean that you used to be a cute girl last year, Horikita-senpai?” she retorted. “Unlike me?”

I figured she would say something mean-spirited in response to my jab, but that still really hurt to hear. Even though we were different types of people, I didn’t think I was totally lacking in the cuteness department myself… Just as I tried to stand back up, though, I felt overwhelmed by a sensation that felt like all the energy had just drained out of me. Just one shoulder throw and a single kick had sapped more of my strength than I imagined.

“Who are you?” I asked. “It seems like you know Ayanokouji-kun from long ago…”

One thing was for certain: Amasawa-san possessed a bizarre strength, just like he did. I had caught glimpses of that power before from Ayanokouji-kun, both when he faced my brother and when he faced Housen-kun.

“Yeah, well, there’s no way I’d tell you something like that, senpai.”

“I suppose so. You don’t seem like the kind of person who would answer so easily.”

At any rate, there weren’t exactly many positives in this situation, not with Amasawa-san playing around with me like this. From her point of view, she just needed to keep me from getting to Ayanokouji-kun, so I supposed it didn’t matter to her how much time she spent on this fight. For me to move forward, I would need to avoid taking any more damage.

“You know, actually,” Amasawa-san started, “it’s like…I’m really disappointed in you, in a lot of ways. You’re nowhere near as superior as you seem to think you are, Horikita-senpai, are you? That’s exactly why Ayanokouji-senpai won’t talk ’bout anything with you.”

She looked at me as though she was peering straight into my heart.

“You say things like how you want to save him, but in reality, you can’t even trust him, and you just want to know what he thinks about you.”

“…You might be right about that,” I conceded.

“But it’s like I told you before, Horikita-senpai. Ayanokouji-senpai can’t count on someone like you.”

“Even if that were true, I’d rather hear that from his mouth, not yours.”

“Can’t you understand how that would just be so tactless?” she shot back. She wasn’t even attempting to hide her irritation with me anymore.

Amasawa-san then came up beside me.

“Kushida-senpai still has more worth seeing,” she added.

“Kushida-san? Why did you just mention her name…?”

“Stand up, Horikita-senpai. Talking to you any more would just piss me off, so let’s end this already.”

She gave me a moment to get back up and regain my stance at least, which was a small mercy. In that instant, I decided that I couldn’t give up this fight until the bitter end. I got back to my feet and focused all my attention on trying to detect Amasawa-san’s next attack. I realized that I was repeating myself, doing the same thing as before, but that was all I could do. I didn’t really have any other choice.

“Bye-byeeee!” taunted Amasawa-san.

She drew in closer with fleet-footed steps. Should I catch her attack? Avoid it? I was sure that I wouldn’t succeed with either option though. In that case, I decided that I’d at least get in one good shot, as retaliation. And—!

Smack! I heard the dull sound of a fist hitting something, right near my ear. But no pain came.

Then, a figure appeared before me, blocking my line of sight.

“Why are you…?” I stammered.

The student who had caught the fist that had been coming straight for me didn’t even turn around to look at me. She spat. I stared at Ibuki-san’s small figure. She should have left minutes ago.

“Ow… Damn, that’s quite a punch you got,” she huffed.

“And nice catch!” said Amasawa-san. “I’m a little bit surprised by you just showing up here out of the blue.”

I was unable to wrap my mind around what was happening anymore and was equally unable to move. Just then, Ibuki-san looked back and glared at me.

“I’m the one who’s going to defeat you,” she said, letting go of Amasawa-san’s fist. “I don’t wanna see you lose to some random first-year from who-knows-where.”

Amasawa-san once again put some distance between us.

“Hi there! I’m Amasawa Ichika-chan. Please remember my name, okay, Ibuki-senpaiii?”

“I don’t have a good memory for names and junk. If you want to make me remember who you are, then you gotta leave that much of an impression on me. Got it?” snapped Ibuki-san.

“ A ha ha! You’re kinda funny,” said Amasawa-san.

“I’ll play around with her,” Ibuki-san told me. “Why don’t you just go wherever it was you wanted to go?”

“What are you saying? Weren’t you going to keep trying your hardest to beat me in this exam?”

“You’re giving up on your designated area, right? It’s pointless for me to turn things around and win because of something like that,” she said.

And you came back just because of that? I wanted to ask in return. But I swallowed my words.

“She’s unbelievably strong,” I told her. “You might come to regret this. Are you sure you’re all right doing that?”

“The hell are you on about?” said Ibuki-san. “You trying to tell me that I’m going to lose?”

“That’s how strong of an opponent she is.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to lose to someone like Ibuki-senpaiiii,” Amasawa-san interjected.

“…Heh, bring it on,” said Ibuki-san.

Amasawa-san’s casual threat seemed to have had the opposite effect, instead lighting a fire under Ibuki-san.

“Supposing you do beat Amasawa-san,” I said, “it’s entirely possible that you could overdo it. Your Emergency Alert might start going off, and you’d be eliminated. Since you’re alone, you’re at risk of being expelled.”

“Aren’t you in the same boat?” she replied.

“Huh? Well, yes, I am,” I conceded.

“I’m confident that I’m stronger than you,” said Ibuki-san. She made a gesture with her hand, telling me to hurry up and go.

“Which one of you is gonna fight me?” Amasawa-san called out. “Come on, decide already.”

“I’ll fight her,” I announced.

“Yeah, is that really something the person who was just about to lose minutes ago should be saying? Look, you’re in the way, so just get outta here,” snapped Ibuki-san.

“This is my fight,” I insisted. “It has nothing to do with you.”

“You’re spouting nonsense, you know that, right?” Ibuki-san said. “Did you hit your head and go nuts or something?”

“I just—”

This wasn’t working. I wasn’t going to be able to stop Ibuki-san with any half-hearted attempts. But I couldn’t just let her handle this fight, either. I grabbed her by the shoulders and forcefully shoved her back.

“What are you doing?!” she shouted.

“I’ve been trying to put this delicately so I wouldn’t upset you, but I’m just going to come out and say it. You cannot beat her.”

“Don’t screw with me,” she huffed. “Don’t just make assumptions before we even start.”

“It’s the truth,” I said. “I couldn’t even do a single thing against her, so there’s no way that you can beat her.”

If Amasawa-san had lit a fire in Ibuki-san, then I was going to fan the flames until they became a raging inferno.

“All right then, show me some proof th—”

I thrust out my left arm toward Ibuki-san before she could finish speaking.

“What?”

“I’m not intending on fighting a losing battle,” I said. “If you’re going to jump into this fight too, then you’re going to have to show me your resolve. Join my group. That way, if one of us is completely incapacitated, the other can retreat. That way, we won’t be disqualified.”

She balked. “You’re kidding, right? Why would I ever join up with you?”

“I already told you. You need to show me your resolve,” I replied. “If you’re not ready to do that, then don’t butt into this fight.”

“I don’t like this…” she whined.

“You don’t have to like it, but if you’re going to be a part of this, I want to be able to count on you.”

“This seriously sucks. This sucks so hard it makes me want to die. But…I guess I couldn’t laugh it off if you got expelled because of some first-year,” Ibuki-san sighed.

We both understood that we were conflicted about what to do here. But even so, we brought our watches together. You needed about ten seconds for the link to be finalized. I supposed that if Amasawa-san wanted to stop us, she could have done something, but she didn’t show any signs of moving. She just kept watching us with amusement.

“It’s not a bad strategy,” she said. “If two people going it solo came together and made a group, then they’d be able to avoid getting expelled even if one of them gets seriously injured.”

She had her back to us, quietly putting more distance between us. I couldn’t imagine that it was because she sensed there was danger in a two-on-one fight and was trying to pull back. After getting a reasonable distance away, she turned again and looked back at us.

“But, you know, you’ve made one miscalculation, Horikita-senpai.”

“Oh? What in the world do you mean by that?” I asked.

“The idea that you’ll be okay even if one of you gets eliminated. You know, if you turn that logic around, it means that there’ll be no problem for me even if I completely and utterly destroy one of you.”

A huge grin lit up her face. It was pure evil, the likes of which I had never seen before.

“What, you mean we pissed you off or something? Fine by me. Bring it,” said Ibuki-san.

Ibuki-san looked somewhat amused by all of this, even though she should have sensed how strong our opponent was. Just then, we heard the notification that indicated that the link was complete.

“Now then… I wonder which one of you I’ll break first!” shouted Amasawa-san.

With that, she suddenly broke into a full run. A look of intense fury spread over her whole face. She hadn’t taken on any stance or form, but simply reached out in our direction, seemingly planning to grab us.

“ A ha ha! A ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

She let out a shrill laugh, with a wicked, warped smile on her face that made her look completely inhuman. Was she coming after me? Or Ibuki-san? I figured that in her eyes, I was the more revolting person here, so if I had to guess, chances were that I was the more likely target.

“Here we go, Ibuki-san! On your left!” I shouted.

“Don’t order me around!” she snapped back, but she still listened and moved to the left.

At the same time, I went right, watching to confirm which one of us Amasawa-san would go after. Amasawa-san was heading straight for the both of us and didn’t seem like she had any intention whatsoever of playing games. I wondered if she was planning to keep us from making any decisions until the very last second. If that was the case, then I would just keep my eyes on her and take my time to find out. Since both sides moved at the same time, with Amasawa-san on one and Ibuki-san and I on the other, the distance between us closed rather quickly. We clashed.

My punch and Ibuki-san’s breathing weren’t in perfect sync or anything, so, naturally, it wasn’t like our attacks on Amasawa-san were perfectly timed. Still, no normal person would be able to respond to a punch like that so easily. And yet despite that fact, Amasawa-san brilliantly dodged our attacks as though she had been trained to handle such things. Then, to keep up our bombardment, Ibuki-san and I continued throwing out blows without stopping.

“Okey dokey, that’s enough of that!” said Amasawa-san, effortlessly catching our attempts and shutting down our attack even though we weren’t holding back at all.

“What is with this first-year…?!” Ibuki-san growled.

“You’re telling me…” I replied.

Ibuki-san and I stood together side-by-side, gazing at Amasawa-san. We were completely out of breath. Sure, we were trying to push on ahead as an impromptu mismatched team, but even so, it was still two-on-one. Normally, we should have been dominating, but instead, we were being pushed around. Amasawa-san was more than I’d imagined… No, actually, she was wildly beyond the realm of my imagination. She seemed to be someone with abilities so far out of the scope of common sense. Amasawa-san held onto our dominant arms. If we carelessly tried to kick her, she would probably hit us with a counterattack.

“Ibuki-san, don’t just stupidly try and attack her!” I shouted.

“Lemme go!” screamed Ibuki-san.

She must not have been able to put up with being restrained. She was flexible and stretched her body as much as she could, trying to land a kick on Amasawa-san. However, it was like Amasawa-san had been waiting for that to happen. She made use of her grip on Ibuki-san’s dominant arm to make her lose her footing.

“Ngh!!!”

“I believe I said that was enough of that, didn’t I?” taunted Amasawa-san.

In that exact moment, as we were being restrained, I felt that something was off. Something was indescribably wrong with the progression of this battle. I sensed the clear difference in power between us. Did that mean that Amasawa-san was only playing with us? She seemed to have been fighting with only the bare minimum amount of movement for a while now. What if she hadn’t waited and given me time to recover when we were fighting one-on-one earlier?

Still though, something didn’t feel right. With her strength, she should have been able to subdue us easily. I thought of at least one strategy that we could try. At any rate, we needed to get out of this situation, for the time being.

“Hah!”

I thrust out my left arm, figuring that I might as well try something, but Amasawa-san brushed my attack off, just like she had done with Ibuki-san’s.

“All right, let’s start over, ’kay?” she announced, looking down on us with a big grin on her face.

She let go of us and, once again put some distance between us.

“Weren’t you supposed to not be the same as me?” snapped Ibuki-san.

“Unlike you, I let her do that to me so things would happen this way… So that we would start over,” I replied.

“What a lame excuse,” Ibuki-san sighed.

I supposed that anyone else watching us right now probably would have said the same thing.

“If you seriously think you can underestimate me, I’m going to teach you a thing or two…” growled Ibuki-san, looking at Amasawa-san.

Just as she was getting back up and was about to launch herself at Amasawa-san all on her own, I quickly grabbed her arm to stop her.

“What’re you doing?!” she snapped at me.

“Now that we’re on the same side, I’m going to need you to follow my lead,” I said. “Can you do that?”

“Huh? You think that I can’t?” she huffed.

“Look, if you don’t follow me, then there’s no point to any of this. You should understand Amasawa-san’s strength perfectly well by now. Neither I nor you can win alone against her.”

“Even if that’s true, I absolutely, positively refuse to do what you tell me. Forget it,” said Ibuki-san.

I kept thinking about this. How could I reach Ibuki-san? What was the best possible solution? Hypothetically, if Ayanokouji-kun were here now, what would he have done in my situation? How could I make two people who normally didn’t get along at all work together, even if it was just for right here and now?

“Ibuki-san.”

“I already told you, no,” she answered flatly.

“I understand quite well that you and I are like oil and water. I realize that our relationship has become what it is after we had something of a petty quarrel during the uninhabited island exam last year. But there is one thing about you that I must acknowledge.”

Yes, I was going to do what was necessary right now, without hesitation.

“You hold your own well in a fight,” I told her. “You stand toe-to-toe with me in that regard. No, actually, I believe you have a slight edge on me.”

“Huh? What’s all this about? You trying to flatter me all of a sudden?”

“However,” I continued, “your fighting style is specialized for one-on-one fights. I’m more familiar when it comes to what moves to make when fighting a powerful opponent in a two-on-one setting. I suppose that in asking you to cooperate with me—well, cooperate might be the wrong word for you… Lend me your strength.”

At that, Ibuki-san turned to look at me, but just for a moment.

“In terms of strength, you are equal to me, or perhaps even better. But that’s it. Aside from that, we’re on completely different levels. You can’t handle yourself academically, you can’t lead your class, and you can’t work together with anyone. I’m sorry, but going ahead and calling yourself my rival is quite conceited,” I added.

If she was going to get angry with me, then I’d let her get mad. But I wasn’t going to stop talking before I said what needed to be said.

“I think that the time has come for you to come out of your shell too, Ibuki Mio-san.”

“…What are you even talking about?” she asked.

“If you keep pressing on ahead as you are right now, alone, you will surely find yourself in danger of being expelled at some point,” I answered.

“Whatever,” she said. “I don’t really care if that happens.”

“But if that does happen, that will mean you’ve lost to me, completely and utterly. There would be no contest. Are you okay with that?”

“What was that?” She blinked.

“You can’t possibly call yourself my rival if you just wind up getting yourself expelled in such an underwhelming fashion,” I said. “You need to face the situation and try as hard as you possibly can, for as long as you can, and grow into a rival that can intimidate me.”

“Uggggh.” Ibuki-san groaned. “Fine. I get it. I get it already, so just shut up! I’ll do what you tell me. Just right here and now, though. All right?”

“Excellent,” I replied.

“So, what do we do?”

“We’re going to go after Amasawa-san at the same time, just like before,” I told her. “But actually hitting her is only our secondary objective. I want you to stand your ground and make sure that you absolutely do not let yourself get caught. And I want you to keep on attacking her, over and over.”

“Wait, secondary? What’s that going to accomplish?” asked Ibuki-san.

“If my hunch is correct, then…this will give us a chance to turn things around and win. When I give you the signal, attack with all your might.”

Ibuki-san moved away from me at that point, though she didn’t look entirely convinced by what I said.

“Strategy meeting over?” said Amasawa-san. “Well then, shall we get started on round two?”

Ibuki-san and I split up and broke into a run at the exact same moment, with one of us going left and the other going right as we closed in on Amasawa-san. I had strictly forbidden us from getting in too close so that we wouldn’t get caught. While keeping within a distance to be able to reach out with our fists, I timed my move and then thrust my arm out.

If Amasawa-san didn’t do anything in response to my move, then my attack would land. Therefore, as she needed to continue to respond to each attack that came her way, her nerves would be wearing down, at least to some degree. I needed to remain calm, unpanicked, and ready to quickly move away if I sensed danger. If I were alone, I probably wouldn’t have been able to get away at all. This was a fighting style that would only work right now, at this very moment, because we were able to pull her attention in two different directions.

We still hadn’t found any openings yet. Come on, quickly, quickly, before I run out of breath! By keeping up this flurry of dangerous attacks, the sharpness of Amasawa-san’s movements began to dull. Although she still had a smile on her face, she was clearly starting to lose her stamina.

“…Now!!!” I shouted.

I swung my right fist as hard as I possibly could at Amasawa-san, not letting this golden opportunity pass me by. If I had tried this attack moments earlier in our fight, she would have easily brushed me off with just one hand. But this time, she took on a defensive stance. Even though I didn’t land a direct hit, Ibuki-san managed to get behind her while the first-year blocked my attack.

Ibuki-san kicked off the ground, dashing toward Amasawa-san. She threw a punch, and though Amasawa-san tried to turn and block it, Ibuki-san managed to hit her square in the face. Amasawa-san’s body shook from the impact of that first blow hitting home.

“Haaaah!” I shouted.

I dropped down low into a crouch. I thrust my arm out with force, driving my fist into Amasawa-san’s abdomen. She was not in a defensive stance this time either. I exhaled, and Amasawa-san collapsed onto the ground. In that same instant, I straddled her and prevented her from moving to get back up.

“ Huff … It… It really worked…” said Ibuki-san.

“ H-huff … Phew… That’s enough, Amasawa-san… I acknowledge your strength, but your lack of stamina proved to be fatal,” I told her.

Somehow, I had been able to exploit her all-too-surprising weakness and managed to turn the tables on her.

“Oh, did I get found out? That I have a weak constitution?” she replied.

Even though I was straddling her, the girl wasn’t flustered at all. She chuckled, sticking her tongue out playfully. I happened to look down at her clothes and couldn’t believe what I saw. A bit of skin was visible from under the fabric, just barely peeking out. Without thinking, I grabbed her gym uniform shirt and forcefully pulled it up to her navel.

“You— What are these injuries…?” I sputtered.

She had deep marks all over, like bruises. The wounds on her body looked purposeful, like they had been inflicted as a kind of punishment. They were completely unlike the mark left from the one thrusting punch I hit her with earlier. These injuries had been inflicted before our fight even began.

“I had a little bit of a tussle myself before I met up with you two,” said Amasawa-san.

Normally, it would have been hard to hide that level of pain. Her face should have been twisted in agony this whole time. It should’ve been difficult for her to even walk. And yet she had taken on the two us while in such a ragged state—and had the upper hand as well. It wasn’t that she was lacking in stamina. From the beginning, she had been fighting while on the verge of collapsing. She had held her own in battle while in need of recovery, far more so than I did…

The truth of the situation almost made me dizzy. I tried to imagine who could have inflicted injuries this severe on Amasawa-san when she was in top form. Even if I were to include the boys in those possibilities, the only person I could think of that would come close would be someone like Housen-kun.

“Do you want to know who did this to me? It might have been Housen-kun,” she teased.

There was no doubt whatsoever that Housen-kun’s abilities were extraordinary. He certainly might have been able to gain the upper hand against an opponent like Amasawa-san, whose incredible strength defied the norm. But just from this encounter with her, I had come to understand something about her personality: I couldn’t imagine that she would tell me anything honestly.

She presented me with one possible answer just to satisfy me and nothing more. If that was the case…did that mean that there was someone else out there powerful enough to overwhelm Amasawa-san? Even if I widened the scope and considered all the students at our school, I couldn’t think of anyone that fit the bill. Yamada-kun, perhaps. But, no, I supposed there wouldn’t be any benefit for him in doing something like this.

“Sorry, but I’m having a tough time believing you. Who was it, really?” I asked.

“I can’t answer that question… And—!”

I had let my guard down. Amasawa-san didn’t miss the opening I’d made for her when she noticed how shaken I was by the state of her injuries.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” shouted Ibuki-san.

“Sorry… I was careless,” I replied.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I had let Amasawa-san slip away.

“Well then, looks like we’re back to where we started, huh, you two?” taunted Amasawa-san.

Our opponent was severely wounded from head to toe. Nevertheless, the situation was once again in her favor. Could we put her down again? To be honest, I wasn’t confident that we could. But we had no other choice but to try.

It seemed like she had other ideas, though, because she went over to her backpack and took out her tablet.

“Seems like it’s over now,” she said. “Well, that was kind of fun, but time’s up, I guess.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It means we’re done here. If you want to go on ahead, be my guest!” She was allowing us to pass, no longer showing any sign of the strong resistance she had put up until that point.

Was this some kind of trap? While I was still trying to get a grasp on the situation, Amasawa-san started walking off.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Where? Hmm. Maybe my designated area for the time being, I guess. I mean, I do still have to do this special exam thingy a bit, more or less.”

At any rate, I supposed I could let her withdraw here so I could go ahead and check on Ayanokouji-kun—

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me,” said Amasawa-san. “I don’t think you’re gonna need to run after Ayanokouji-senpai anymore. Y’know?”

“…Why?”

“Because everything’s already over. If you think I’m lying, though, why don’t you go and check?”

“What…about Ayanokouji-kun?” I asked.

Amasawa-san cast her eyes down slightly at that question.

“Why don’t you look for yourself?” she said. “But you might regret not making it there in time.”

She seemed intent on withdrawing, and Amasawa-san just made her way past us. Had she already been done in by someone?

“What are you gonna do?” asked Ibuki-san. “Chase after Ayanokouji? That’s why we fought Amasawa, right?”

“Yes, I’m going after him,” I answered.

Ayanokouji-kun was just up ahead. There was no way I could turn back without checking on him myself now that we had come this far.

“In that case, I’ll go too,” said Ibuki-san.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because if Ayanokouji is in trouble, then I wanna be there to laugh at him,” she replied.

“You really are deeply spiteful at heart,” I said.

We hurriedly threw our backpacks over our shoulders once more and ran toward I2.

7.4

I HAD CROSSED THE BOUNDARY between areas and arrived in I2, but there was no notification on my watch to indicate that I had done so. Normally, I would have suspected this was due to some kind of tracking error in the GPS, but that didn’t seem likely in this particular case. If that was the reason, then I’d probably need to move as close to the center of the area as possible to make up for the tracking error with the watch. However, I hadn’t experienced a situation like this even once over these past two weeks.

I supposed that this might have just been one of those inevitable things since the center of this area would have been the tip of the island. Even if Ichinose had not come to me earlier and I had come to this area without knowing anything, it might not have mattered; things had been designed in such a way that I would have arrived by this route anyway. I walked slowly along the inescapable path before me.

After less than ten minutes of walking, more and more light gradually began to penetrate the deep, dense woods, and I was able to see the ocean beyond and the blue skies above. Despite coming this far, I still hadn’t received any response from my watch at all. Instead, I spotted two adults standing on the small beach up ahead.

One of them was a man who was quite familiar to me: Acting Director Tsukishiro. He wore a jersey and looked somewhat cheerful. The other was Shiba-sensei, the homeroom instructor for Class 1-D. An unusual pair to be sure, but from the looks of things, they were here together.

“I see you’ve decided to take a very aggressive approach, Acting Director Tsukishiro,” I called out to him as I walked along the sandy beach.

“Nothing was working. Things just haven’t gone right at all,” he replied. “This was the only feasible option, you see.”

I thought back over the past fourteen days that I had spent enduring this special exam. It was clear to me that Tsukishiro’s final “trap” was to lure me here to I2. Still, there were some things that bothered me. There were no designated areas nor Tasks around this northeastern section, so no other students were likely to wander through. But at the same time, I could have just abandoned the idea of going after this designated area and pursued Tasks instead as I had originally planned. Or I could have been working with someone like Nanase, or even another person from my Table.

It was absurd to think that Tsukishiro would have arranged this meeting by leaving so many variables to mere chance. That meant that my coming here had already been determined, since at least yesterday, or perhaps even earlier. Nanase falling before me in defeat, and the two of us going our separate ways. My strategy to remain hidden somewhere around eleventh place in the rankings before shooting for the higher ranks, and continuing to act alone just for that purpose. The timing and the details of the attack by the first-years. I had little doubt that Tsukishiro’s side had accounted for all those things from the very beginning.

“So, what’s going to happen to me after this?” I asked.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a small boat. It was anchored. The motor was left running though, and it rocked with the waves. It was ready to launch at any moment.

“If at all possible, we would like for you to follow our instructions and come aboard with us,” said Tsukishiro.

“There will be an announcement that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka has withdrawn voluntarily. That’s how the matter will be settled. Amicably,” added Shiba-sensei.

“Do you think that I’d choose the option of obediently getting into the boat?” I asked.

“I suppose you have a point,” said Tsukishiro. “If you were obedient, then there wouldn’t have been any need for us to go to the trouble of coming to an uninhabited island.”

“Also, there doesn’t seem to be any particular connection between you and Shiba-sensei at school, but I suppose this means he’s on your side, Acting Director Tsukishiro.”

Since I had no prior contact with this teacher, I supposed that he might have been assigned as a watchdog for Amasawa. Now that the need for such a role had disappeared, he didn’t seem to have any intentions of hiding any longer. My being here in the northeast corner of the island, where there was nothing at all happening, might have seemed suspicious, but Ichinose and Nagumo were here too. I supposed, in that sense, they had served their purpose as well, as a kind of camouflage.

In any case, it was safe to assume that this watchdog of sorts was on Tsukishiro’s side. He didn’t appear to be carrying anything visibly dangerous.

“Had we employed weapons and the like for this task, then collecting you would have been overwhelmingly simple. Unfortunately, however, you are an asset. Because it is my duty to bring you back safely…I have decided that it’s necessary to settle this with fists,” said Tsukishiro. He stood on the beach with a bold grin and his arms spread wide.

Did this mean that I would need to trade blows with Tsukishiro right here and now, in the eleventh hour of the exam, if I wanted to resist? Unlike my fight with Nanase, the option of simply evading his attacks continuously was probably not going to work.

“So, I have to take you on if I’m going to avoid expulsion,” I deduced.

“That’s how it is, yes.”

“Would it be at all possible for you to just cut me a break here?” I asked. “I’m not necessarily saying that solving matters through violence is bad, but I am a student at this school. And considering what the rules of a normal institution would be, something like this would likely be a violation.”

“Indeed, it certainly might,” agreed Tsukishiro. “However, Ayanokouji-kun, you are a particularly notable success story who has achieved truly remarkable results among those in the White Room. Even if you were to fight while constrained by certain rules, there’s no enemy who could match you. Don’t you think it foolish to compete with others at this school? Or…perhaps you have come to find it amusing to be king of the mountain here?”

“If that were true, then would that be a disappointing development? Something that runs contrary to that man’s wishes?” I said. “Well…no, I suppose I should call it a ‘regression’ rather than a development, huh.”

“No, no, not at all. The White Room’s dearest wish is to seize control of Japan, and in turn, the world. If you, a successful template, did feel that way, then further-developed specimens will take even greater pleasure in dominating the world, no?”

Going from controlling a small Japanese high school to suddenly seizing control over the entire world. If anyone were to hear such a fantastic story, they probably would’ve started snickering. Even Tsukishiro himself was probably deeply skeptical about how realistic that dream was, I bet. He was just faithfully following his orders and performing his professional duties in a cool, detached manner. Nothing more.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I didn’t think that this school was much of a challenge,” I said.

“Yes, I have no doubt about that,” said Tsukishiro. “I’m sure that for you, this school would be equivalent to a level you’d be able to pass in your early childhood.”

“But that’s only if we’re talking about the curriculum, though,” I went on. “I’m starting to get a sense of what I should do at this school, what I want to do, and what direction I’m taking things. I think that I’m going to have plenty of fun here until I graduate. And besides, there are plenty of exceptional people outside of the White Room too.”

If anything, I could say that this school was a treasure trove of talented individuals that the White Room could have never, ever produced.

“I have no intention of denigrating the students at the Advanced Nurturing High School,” Tsukishiro said. “As you have said, you can find individuals with exceptional talents all throughout the world. At times, there will be people who excel in sports. Other times, you’ll find those who excel academically. That, however, is not that part that is important here. What is important is a person who produces such exceptional results that they can excel in any situation, and who can lead the masses.”

Acting Director Tsukishiro then shot a brief glance over at Shiba.

“What about Nagumo-kun and Ichinose-san?” he asked.

“Nagumo has stopped, and Ichinose is already far away, so there isn’t anything to worry about,” said Shiba.

They must have calculated that I would have stopped Nagumo and Ichinose, of course.

“And regarding the unexpected signatures we picked up,” he added, “it would appear that Amasawa has taken care of them.”

Unexpected signatures? There weren’t any designated areas or Tasks in the vicinity. Had others besides Ichinose or Nagumo come this way? If an uninvolved student did appear here, it would certainly be a nuisance for Tsukishiro. But at any rate, it sounded as though Amasawa had stalled whatever person or persons had caused this irregularity.

“I suppose that means that she has extended at least some courtesy to us then,” said Tsukishiro.

“It didn’t seem to me like Amasawa was aligning herself with you though, Acting Director Tsukishiro,” I remarked.

“She is, simply put, a traitor,” he replied. “She was the one who was chosen to bring you back, but it appears that she never had any intention of doing so in the first place.”

Then, as if to declare that this pointless conversation was now over, Tsukishiro took a step forward. It wasn’t a good idea for either of us to just stand around idly and waste each other’s time, anyway. Tsukishiro and I gradually started closing the distance between us, little by little. Even so, there was still about five or six meters between us. I noticed Shiba-sensei moving in behind me to keep me from escaping.

“You won’t say that two-against-one is unfair, will you?” said Tsukishiro. “You are, after all, the crowning achievement of the White Room. It’s enough to make even me feel a little anxious.”

In spite of his words, he looked incredibly cool and composed. My intuition told me that he believed he could handle me well even in a one-on-one fight, but despite that, he decided to team up and fight me with a partner. He wasn’t being prideful at all. He took a firm, rock-solid stance.

I shifted my gaze over to the boat that was waiting for us over by the coast. As far as I could see, there was only one crew member, the captain, on board. Even if he rushed in after me as well, I still only needed to eliminate a maximum of three enemies.

“Please do not worry. You will only be fighting us two,” said Tsukishiro, referring to Shiba.

Tsukishiro wasn’t the sort of opponent that I could just easily take at his word with no questions asked. Although his earlier comments implied that he had come here empty-handed, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that he might be carrying some kind of concealed, handheld weapon. This was a fight that put me up against two adults with unknown levels of ability, both of whom were at the level of an agent. I had to consider the risks of whether they had weapons, whether reinforcements would come, and other factors, as well. Ordinarily, the amount of multitasking required by a situation like this would’ve scrambled anyone’s brains. However, in my case, I was under no mental duress.

Fighting while under unreasonable and disadvantageous conditions was something I was accustomed to as I had been drilled on it repeatedly from an early age. For me, doing this was the same as the unconscious process of breathing, something that was essential for a human being to live.

“The look on your face suggests that you don’t think that you’re going to lose,” said Tsukishiro. “You don’t even consider it a slight possibility.”

“Do I really look like that?” I asked.

I didn’t know what the end result would be. The only way for me to open a path to the future was to seize it right here. My opponents were still observing the situation, having blocked me from both the front and the back. Normally, I would have liked to make the first move, but it wasn’t the best idea for me to go on the offensive. The people standing to the front and back of me weren’t students. They were representatives of the school. If I were the only one who ended up throwing a punch, that would put me at a disadvantage and at risk of expulsion.

“You aren’t going to start attacking us yourself, even though you know it would be to your advantage to do so,” said Tsukishiro, analyzing the situation right back. “That is just like you.”

He must have known about the educational policies of the White Room in detail.

“Well then… Let us hold nothing back. Shall we begin, Shiba-sensei?” he added, calling to his companion.

As soon as Tsukishiro called his partner’s name, the two adults started walking toward me at the exact same time. They weren’t rushing at all. They were each cool and composed, advancing like shogi pieces being moved down the board in methodical, calculated fashion. Shiba had erased any trace of his presence, and at the same time, made his footsteps silent as he approached me from behind. Meanwhile, Tsukishiro advanced from the front. He was going to reach me in seven more steps. Six. Five. Four—

I crouched down slightly, avoiding Shiba’s hands as he tried to grab my face from behind. So, the first move had come from the back after all. While I was in the process of evading Shiba’s first move, Tsukishiro extended his arm, trying to grab me in a similar fashion. I evaded his reach by rolling away along the beach. I quickly got back on my feet and instantly broke into a run, keeping away from his follow-up attempts.

A cloud of dust danced in the air, carried on the sea breeze. The two adults looked at me quietly, taking their pursuit slowly. And, similarly, I was observing them too. They seemed to have been trying to gauge my skill level through the moves we were making, which was information that couldn’t be understood from data alone. My feet sunk into the sand. Considering how deeply they sunk, I figured I should have taken off my shoes right away, ahead of time.

As we stood beneath the hot, blazing sun, the two men started walking toward me, once again closing the distance between us. With my face and my body facing the two of them, I backed away from them in step, keeping my distance. With my back to the ocean, I could avoid letting anyone get behind me. At the same time, I had escaped from the soft sand, now ensuring that I had a secure foothold.

“What a textbook strategy, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Tsukishiro, “but it’s doubtful that it’s necessarily the correct one.”

Even though I couldn’t be grabbed from behind now, this also meant I didn’t have an escape route. Tsukishiro and Shiba moved in closer. I was standing in a position where if I backed up any further, the tide would be crashing against my legs. They were still trying to grab hold of me with outstretched arms. They still apparently had no intention of trying to cause any actual harm to me by landing a blow.

“You are quite good at running away,” said Tsukishiro.

Both started picking up the pace, moving faster now, and what few opportunities I had to dodge were getting taken away from me. I backed up until it felt like one of my legs was just barely touching the seawater. I couldn’t stay where I was anymore, and I quickly scrambled away.

“Oh?” said Tsukishiro. “Have you given up on trying to keep your back to the water, then?”

If you could make your opponent panic, it was easier to get them to make mistakes. That was the kind of thing that ran through my mind as I moved. Shiba and Tsukishiro came after me, kicking up sand as they went. It was two against one. If either one of them caught me, it would be game over.

Four arms alternated reaching out for me in turns, and I was sure that if they saw the slightest opening, it would be all over for me. I ran and tried to keep my distance from them, but they continued to chase me down, never letting me get far. Running away in a place like this would only continue to drain my energy. It was clear that their intention was to rob me of my stamina, between the poor footing and the scorching sun. I stopped my escape attempt midway and making full use of the momentum from my body, I stepped down with my left foot, turned around, and attacked Shiba, who was directly behind me.

“Hm?!”

Shiba’s movements stiffened slightly in response to my unexpected change in trajectory. While I went for a feint with my left at first, I switched it up by taking a swing at his chest area with my right. But Shiba, sensing the danger, didn’t panic and kept his distance from me. They were seemingly prioritizing avoiding blows rather than catching them.

“My oh my,” said Tsukishiro. “Even while going up against the two of us, you are putting up a marvelous fight, Ayanokouji-kun.”

I tried to change things up by attempting to counterattack, still avoiding the attacks coming at me from both sides, but I couldn’t get a clean hit.

“But, you know, human stamina is finite. Any minute now, you’ll start feeling like you need to catch your breath, no?”

“You are a difficult opponent to fight, Acting Director Tsukishiro,” I replied.

“I take the initiative to do the sorts of things that others don’t like to do,” he said. “It’s my job.”

There was nothing particularly clean or dirty about the way he fought. Instead, it was clear that his goal was simply to catch me and bring me back. However, it wasn’t like I was burning through my stamina for no reason either. There was something that I had gained from everything that had happened up until this point. I had found that there seemed to be a slight and unexpected difference in fighting ability between Tsukishiro and Shiba.

Tsukishiro was a four and Shiba was a six. Shiba’s movements had a greater degree of sharpness. My previous hunch had assumed that Tsukishiro would have been a cut above his partner, but… At any rate, I slightly changed the balance of the degree of caution I had shown to each of them, changing it to an even fifty-fifty.

I had previously considered Shiba to be the less capable one, thinking he had been put in the rear for a reason, but it turned out to have been the opposite. They were putting more of a priority on fighting me from the back. With that in mind, I considered changing tactics by taking aim at the now-inferior Tsukishiro—but that being said, he still possessed extraordinary abilities. He was someone on an entirely different level, a higher plane of skill. It wasn’t going to be easy to bring him down. In fact, if Tsukishiro realized that I made this deduction, then he might start focusing on defense instead.

I would finish off Shiba in a single blow, before giving the two of them enough time to realize that I discovered the difference in their abilities. To put it in simpler terms, the idea was that I would let them think that they were going to win, then turn around and settle this with one hit. This, right now—this moment when my opponents still planned to refrain from hitting me—was my chance. If luck was on my side, then I would be the only one dealing damage. Then, after neutralizing Shiba, I could quickly deal with Tsukishiro one-on-one, without a moment’s delay.

I had spent about a second or so thinking all of this. Both men approached to attack me at the same speed as before. However, the hand that came my way, which I thought would’ve been open to grab me, had changed shape. It was now tightly clenched into a fist, meant to strike.

They saw through me and figured out my intentions to start trading blows with them. If they continued attacking me at this rate, then we were all going to end up getting injured. If that was the case, then I just needed to hurt them more than they hurt me, and—

I tried to focus my attention on dealing with and damaging Shiba, who was still behind me, but then something unexpected happened. I felt a cold sensation on the nape of my neck, inevitably forcing me to bring my counterattack to a halt. I took evasive action once again for what felt like the millionth time and moved away from Tsukishiro. Moments after I moved, Shiba’s arm swung by me. The sound of his fist flying through the air rang in my ears.

If I had carelessly gone through with trying to trade blows with Shiba, I might have been stopped at once. Shiba’s attack just then had most definitely boasted the same level of power as my own. But, more importantly…I had been looking at Tsukishiro, who I had surmised as inferior, out of the corner of my eye, and saw that he was now moving two degrees faster than I had expected.

“…I see that I really can’t let down my guard with you after all, Acting Director Tsukishiro,” I remarked.

I had managed to evade the attack just in time. For the first time in years, I was breaking out into a cold sweat during a fight. I wondered what would have happened had I not trusted my intuition. Not only would I have been hit by Shiba’s attack just then, but I might have been left completely defenseless for Tsukishiro’s subsequent strike.

As it turned out, my earlier interpretation that Tsukishiro was a four and Shiba was a six was false. It was merely a trick from my opponents. They had been intentionally keeping their abilities hidden, and then made their attack in such a way that exceeded my degree of caution.

“We intended to finish you off right then, but your reaction time really is beyond that of an ordinary person’s,” said Tsukishiro.

It was fortunate that I hadn’t dismissed any possibilities. That I hadn’t ignored how unnatural it seemed for Tsukishiro to be inferior to Shiba in terms of ability. It was safe to say that it was that fact alone that I hadn’t dismissed this possibility which had led to me putting up my guard right at the very last moment. Both men were being as cautious as possible, but they weren’t going to hesitate to take a risk if they thought they could gain something. It seemed that this scenario was slightly unfavorable for me…

Even if I did take out one of them first, it would be difficult for me to keep up my guard up and strike the other with a proper hit at the perfect moment. It was hard to imagine that this pair had come together as a team overnight.

“So, how is your analysis going, Ayanokouji-kun?” asked Tsukishiro.

The fight had only begun just over two minutes ago. In that time, I had assessed a variety of ideas, but so far, none of them had proved to be decisive.

“This fight would have been easier if we simply traded blows like children, trying to take each other down with brute force alone, no?” he said. “However, we adults do not hesitate to adopt the best possible measures to avoid losing, you see. Even if those measures are unrefined and by no means what people might consider ‘cool.’”

Tsukishiro had read 99 percent of my thoughts. His fighting style was precise and without indecision, and he didn’t allow his own thoughts to be read. Or rather, I supposed I should say that while he did let me read his thoughts, he wasn’t showing me the truth. In any case, I wasn’t going to be able to make a decisive move in this current situation. At this rate, things were going to just get worse and worse for me; it seemed that I was going to need to take on a sizeable risk to make a difference in this situation.

“Acting Director Tsukishiro.”

Someone spoke up just then, interrupting the disadvantageous impasse that I had found myself in, and it was none other than Shiba. Until this point, he had barely spoken a word as he engaged in the fight. Immediately after his name was called, Tsukishiro also seemed to notice the unusual development that had just arisen. It was something that no one here had expected to happen.

An uninvited visitor arrived.

“I was wondering what the Acting Director and a homeroom instructor were doing here in such an isolated place, fighting against a student no less. If you wouldn’t mind, would you please care to enlighten me?”

“If I recall, you’re—” said Shiba.

“That’s Kiryuuin Fuuka, from Class 3-B,” answered Tsukishiro.

Why was she here? I was the only one who was supposed to have I2 as a designated area now.

“You do not appear to be a lost little kitten to me,” said Tsukishiro, slipping out of his combat-ready stance for the moment. “What can I do for you?”

“To tell you the truth, I’ve been watching from behind a big tree for some time now,” Kiryuuin said. “But I couldn’t see exactly what was happening in this two-on-one fight, so I decided to jump out from behind the tree.”

There was no way that Tsukishiro and Shiba wouldn’t have seen her GPS signal in the area, of course.

“Oh, you’re surprised I’m here? I wonder if perhaps this is the reason? It seems that my wristwatch has stopped working because of an accident,” she added with a smile, showing us the shattered face of her wristwatch. It looked like it had been smashed to pieces.

“So, I ask you, esteemed representatives of our fine educational institution, is there any problem with that?” she continued. “Even if my watch is broken, all that means is the scoring functions have been turned off. I am free to go wherever I wish.”

“Oh no, no problem at all, of course,” replied Tsukishiro. “It is certainly true that malfunctions are bound to occur during this test.”

He showed no hint of panic at this unexpected arrival. Normally, in a situation like this, you would think that a wayward administrator would pull back when a student showed up. However, Tsukishiro understood that this was his last opportunity, so he was not backing down. Most likely, he had simply added Kiryuuin’s name to the list of people that needed to be eliminated instead.

“Ayanokouji, did I do something unnecessary?” asked Kiryuuin.

If she had seen this bizarre battle between student and teachers taking place, then there was no point in trying to smooth things over for appearance’s sake. Rather, I figured that I should make practical use of this happy accident that just occurred.

“That depends on what happens next. Can I assume that this means you’re going to lend me a hand?” I asked in return.

Tsukishiro’s strength was considerable. I could state with certainty that his fighting style, based on the accumulation of experience and skill, made him one of the most powerful opponents I ever faced, even out of everyone I could remember.

“Of course I will,” replied Kiryuuin. “As your senpai, it’s only natural that I protect someone younger than me, no?” She stood beside me with a smirk.

“But why did you come here anyway?” I asked.

“I saw you running around trying to escape the first-years yesterday,” she said. “It piqued my curiosity, so I thought I’d stop and ask you about it, but then I thought it’d be a good idea to just let you keep running.”

Did that mean that she deliberately broke her own watch and approached me without me even realizing it?

“I’m glad that my curiosity won out in the end. I’ve been called into a remarkably interesting turn of events as a result.”

Well, it was certainly true that this was something that you normally wouldn’t see.

“Shiba-sensei, I leave the matter of dealing with her to you, if you please,” said Tsukishiro.

“As far as I can tell, the acting director and Shiba-sensei have a ridiculously high level of ability. I don’t know exactly how much use I can be, but I probably won’t last very long,” said Kiryuuin. She stood beside me, gleefully holding her fists up at the ready.

“If you can keep him busy for even a second or two, it would be greatly appreciated,” I replied.

“Oh, you’ve really said it now,” said Kiryuuin. “I’ll try to hold him off for a minute or two, at least. But Ayanokouji, can’t you make yourself look more…you know?”

“Huh?” I asked.

“That blank, slovenly look on your face certainly isn’t helping matters either,” she said. “Hold your fists up and bring forth an aura about yourself like you’re saying, ‘Bring it on.’ Go on.”

I had never imagined that I’d be told something like that in a situation like this. However, Kiryuuin was exerting this bizarre pressure on me, and so I felt like I had no choice but to strike a pose that was more, as she put it, “you know.” It was the sort of pose that you might see someone adopt in a fight scene in a TV drama.

“…How’s this?” I asked.

“ Fu fu. Well, it’s awkward, but it’ll do. I’ll say that you’ve met the bare minimum requirements,” said Kiryuuin with a grin, once again striking a fighting pose herself.

“Do you have experience fighting people?” I asked.

“I am a lady. Of course I don’t,” she replied.

“…Are you serious?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve been thinking that I’d like to punch someone at least once.”

Kiryuuin and I moved some distance apart from each other, putting ourselves in position to establish that we were clearly going to have our own respective one-on-one fights.

“Let’s settle this, Acting Director Tsukishiro.”

“So, you’ve decided that you can win if you’re facing me alone? Is that what you think?” Tsukishiro slipped back into his stance, wearing his usual smile, showing no signs of complacency or tension. “Well then, why don’t you show me how good you really are in a one-on-one fight?”

I needed to regard the opponent standing in front of me as an equal adversary. If I didn’t, then I’d have the rug pulled out from under me. Even so, our match would need to be decided in less than a minute. I needed to finish this while Kiryuuin was still holding Shiba back.

Tsukishiro launched his attack at me without a sound. I evaded it and then returned the favor by driving my left fist into his cheek.

“Ngh?!”

I repeatedly delivered fast jabs, at a matching tempo. They were sharp punches. Because I was focused solely on making my hits land, there wasn’t a great degree of power behind each strike. But as I repeatedly landed hit after hit, Tsukishiro’s smile started to fade. What I was aiming for now was his septum. Even light damage there would trigger certain effects in the human body. To be specific, tears.

If you hit someone on the bridge of their nose, it would induce tears, no matter who they were. They would flow before the pain would come. Those tears would rob you of your vision, which was all too important. It didn’t matter whether you were an adult, a teenager, a young child, or an elderly person. It was simply a mechanism of the human body. As Tsukishiro’s field of vision worsened, I came at him with an uppercut, hitting him right in the jaw. Tsukishiro was now looking up at the sky. He must have bit the inside of his mouth because he spat out a little blood.

“I wonder how long it’s been,” he mused, wiping the blood from his lips with a fearless grin. “Considering that the opponent standing before me now is but a child in his second year of high school, I must commend you. You are, without a doubt, a masterpiece.”

Out of all the opponents that I’d traded blows with, Tsukishiro was, without question, one of the best. I was certain of that, even though I had determined that I could still beat him in a one-on-one fight.

“I ordinarily do not care for such violence,” he added, “but this is so enjoyable that I just cannot help myself.”

Tsukishiro, smiling as though he found something amusing, once again assumed a stance. But rather than coming at me with an attack right away, he began backing up slowly and steadily. I could have interpreted what he was doing as an attempt to stall until Shiba got control of Kiryuuin, I supposed, but…he wasn’t getting riled up. He was calmly looking for a path to victory. Tsukishiro looked at the sand beneath his feet. It had only been an instant, at most. Without missing a beat, I lunged forward and focused power into my right fist.

“You are truly, absolutely brilliant!” said Tsukishiro.

I drove my fist into him with a twisting motion, delivering a vicious body blow. It was a direct hit, with an almost unceasing degree of force. But even so, Tsukishiro’s smile didn’t fade. He crumpled, losing his balance. While he was down, he snatched up some sand with his left hand and flung it at me. Then, he plunged his free hand down into the sandy beach like he was about to dig a hole with it and used it to prop himself back up.

Still, even if he managed to strike me directly with his right fist, he wasn’t going to deal much damage since he hadn’t been in a good position to strike in the first place. He swung his right arm at me in an uppercut, but I didn’t take the punch from his right straight on. Instead, I brushed his arm aside and then grabbed it tightly, stopping him from moving.

“Ngh!”

And there, for the first time, Tsukishiro’s smile completely vanished, just for a moment. My gaze was fixed on his right hand. He was holding a stun gun.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“I didn’t, not until just seconds ago,” I replied. “You couldn’t have possibly afforded to give me even the slightest opening in this situation, and yet for some reason, you looked down at your feet for a moment like you were looking for something. When I saw you do that, I felt like there was something off. Even if your goal was to blind me with sand, there wasn’t any reason for you to deliberately look to your feet.”

Even when he grabbed some sand on the beach with his left hand and threw it at me earlier, I was already thinking about that possibility.

“I also felt like there was something unnatural about the way you were moving, like you were intentionally letting yourself get hit by my attack.”

Considering that we were both so close in terms of ability, it was necessary for both of us to try and control the flow of the battle.

“I hadn’t wanted to take this risk if it were at all possible… It was intended to be an insurance policy,” he said. “But I suppose your skills were so great that they caused me to become impatient.”

He relaxed his right hand, letting the stun gun fall to the beach, sticking up in the sand.

“Now then, what will you do? I have sustained quite a bit of damage, though…” said Tsukishiro.

I followed his line of sight and saw that Shiba had restrained Kiryuuin, holding her from behind. She was about to give up. Just then, Acting Director Tsukishiro raised his hand, giving some kind of signal to someone. The operator of the small boat that had been anchored nearby had something in his hands, and he tried to start coming up on land. It was obvious that this was their final trump card, meant to be used in the unlikely event they were defeated.

But I had a trump card too.

“Unfortunately, you’re out of time, Acting Director Tsukishiro.”

Suddenly, the small boat that Tsukishiro had called, and which had been preparing to come ashore, roared back to life. The engine came on and it departed rapidly, leaving behind the two men on the beach. The reason was probably because the boat’s captain had seen another vessel coming from further out on the water.

“…That’s quite a surprise,” said Tsukishiro. “How did you call that boat here? I had already made the arrangements for this meeting, of course. I had to make sure of that on the off chance that you attempted to call upon the school, you would be stopped. Besides, I thought you would have avoided letting the school find out about this.”

“It’s simple,” I replied. “Just look at the small boat over there closely, and you’ll see what I mean,” I answered.

If you took a good, hard look at the approaching boat, you would see Mashima-sensei and Chabashira-sensei aboard. Tsukishiro must have presumed as much, too, after hearing what I’d said.

“What would happen if someone reported that students from Class 2-A and Class 2-D had collapsed in I2 and were in danger?” I said. “That’s not an issue that could be covered up so easily, after all. I already verified that those students’ respective homeroom teachers would be among those selected to take part in rescue operations should there be trouble, thanks to a previous incident. I knew that Mashima-sensei and Chabashira-sensei would rush to the scene.”

To put it simply, this was a rule that the school had during this exam. The school administration had figured that it was best for the students’ respective homeroom teachers to be part of the rescue crew because they could identify their students with a single glance. So, if it were reported that students from classes 2-A and 2-D had an issue, the medical crew would have no choice but to allow those homeroom instructors to accompany them, even if they didn’t want to let them come along. And, if a student’s Emergency Alert were to go off, there wouldn’t be any time to check the GPS location of each and every person involved. If the report included a note that a student’s watch was apparently broken, the response crew would be sent to investigate, even if there was no GPS response at the location in the report.

“Supposing all of the students’ GPS signatures were checked, would the medical response crew not have come, and the situation not have changed, then?” asked Tsukishiro.

“Not quite. In fact, if you look at the map right now, you’ll notice that one student from Class 2-A and one student from Class 2-D no longer have a GPS signature. So, if anything, I think it would’ve actually increased the credibility of the report if they had checked.”

“So, you were intentionally trying to stall for time from the very beginning,” Tsukishiro said. “That was why you focused on escaping at first, even while at a disadvantage.”

“Threatening Ichinose in such a half-baked fashion was a mistake,” I told him. “If you’re going to do something, you need to be thorough.”

As a result, Tsukishiro had given me the chance to offer help to Sakayanagi before I came here.

“Even so, I hold an esteemed, almost unimpeachable position, you know?” said Tsukishiro, smiling. “There’s no way I could do something so dangerous.”

I didn’t know whether what he just said was the truth or a lie.

“It would seem that having rules that require you to wear a wristwatch that gives away your position has quite a few downsides to it in an exam, wouldn’t you say?” he added, seemingly surrendering.

Picking up on Tsukishiro’s air of resignation, Shiba immediately let go of Kiryuuin.

“Phew…” she sighed. “Thank you for the help, Ayanokouji. I couldn’t even make a dent in this guy. I was so out of my depth that it was almost funny.”

Kiryuuin got down on one knee, trying to catch her breath and recover. I had watched some of her fight with Shiba, albeit out of the corner of my eye. Although she was on the defensive the whole time, she held her ground well. The fact that she had confirmed that she was clearly outclassed and had worked only to slow down her opponent without overdoing it herself was notable. If Shiba had joined in on the fight with me, alongside Tsukishiro when he was going all out, I don’t know how things would have turned out.

Eventually, the boat came ashore, and Mashima and Chabashira disembarked. That walkie-talkie that I had borrowed from Sakayanagi had come in handy right at the very end.

“So, does this mean that you’re acknowledging this as my victory?” I asked.

“Well, I can’t not acknowledge it, at present,” he replied.

There shouldn’t have been any way for Tsukishiro to turn things around anymore, not at this current time and place. If the school investigated the matter, they would find that I was the only one who had their designated area deliberately changed.

“You are certainly skirting a fine line with your score, but I suppose you should be okay,” Tsukishiro conceded. “Just barely, though. As for me, considering that I have become something of an official, I suppose I wouldn’t be able to avoid objections if you did find yourself in the bottom five groups.”

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’ve been keeping an eye on staying on the safe side of the line.”

“I see, so that was an unnecessary concern on my part. Well then, I believe I’ll retreat for the time being.”

“For the time being?” I repeated. “I’d prefer not to see any more schemes like this where you resort to committing acts of violence, thank you very much. I think that, at the very least, it goes against the foundational ideology of this school. Of course, if you’re going to have me tested on my physical strength, officially, and via the school’s rules, then I suppose I would see that as a welcome challenge.”

Tsukishiro’s smile hadn’t left his face as he looked over at Mashima-sensei and Chabashira-sensei approaching.

“Please let me ask you one last thing, Acting Director Tsukishiro. Were you really, seriously trying to have me expelled? I’m sure that you were under strong restrictions, but if I were in your position, I would have gone ahead with a more reliable method of doing things.”

I couldn’t believe that the man standing before me was too stupid to have thought of that himself.

“You are giving me far too much credit,” he said. “I did everything in my power to have you expelled in accordance with the instructions I received from my superiors. But, in the end, that wasn’t what happened, and thus I have fallen before you in defeat.”

One thing that I had come to understand from all of this was that I hadn’t yet seen everything Tsukishiro was truly capable of. It wasn’t clear to me whether he was mixing lies and half-truths into what he told me, but I supposed I should assume that he had other aims.

“There is one request I’d like to ask of you, myself , ” he said. “A message to give to Amasawa-san, if you would.”

“Let’s hear it,” I replied.

“Please tell her that because she has continuously disobeyed orders, Amasawa Ichika has been deemed a failure. She no longer has any place to return to. Whether she remains at this school or leaves, she is free to do whatever she wishes.”

Was that the truth? Or a lie? I couldn’t tell. Even after he admitted defeat, I didn’t get the sense that he was shaken in the least. Also, even if Amasawa really had abandoned the White Room, I couldn’t imagine that this was going to be the end of it. Only one thing was certain: I didn’t think things with the White Room were resolved, even after everything that happened here. There was still something more. That was the only conclusion I could come to.

“Please show me how you’ll continue to struggle desperately, up until the very end,” Tsukishiro said.

He slowly got to his feet, turning to Mashima and Chabashira with both arms up in the air, like he was showing that he had given up.

“Nothing happened here,” he told them. “Ayanokouji-kun and I were simply having a little chat, nothing more.”

“Do you really think that’ll be the end of it?” asked Mashima.

“Whether or not it will, the matter has been settled. I have no intention of resisting you two teachers. In fact, I would sincerely hope that you decide to be grateful that I am not resisting.”

I glanced over at Mashima-sensei and nodded, signaling to him that it was all right.

“Well then, shall we depart?” said Tsukishiro. “The students’ special exam is not yet over, after all.”

After verifying that the adults were heading toward the boat, I looked over in Kiryuuin’s direction. She must have been worn out after fighting with Shiba as she was down on one knee on the beach, looking out at the ocean.

“That was brilliant, Ayanokouji,” she said.

“Oh no, not at all,” I replied. “You were amazing, Kiryuuin-senpai. Handling Shiba-sensei yourself.”

“After seeing you in action, I can’t exactly take that as a compliment, not even if we’re being generous. Oh, by the way, don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone about this. But I am quite interested in hearing more about you.”

I didn’t expect to be seen by anyone, but fortunately for me, it was Kiryuuin who did.

“I have a somewhat complicated family situation,” I told her. “That’s all.”

“Family situation, huh? That doesn’t sound like something you can get into that easily, I suppose.”

Kiryuuin got up, lightly brushed the sand off her backside, and then started walking toward the woods. By the time Kiryuuin and I left I2 together and returned to I3, Nagumo was already gone. In his place, though, were two students that I didn’t expect to run into. They were both just as surprised when they saw my face.

“Now there’s someone I usually don’t see you palling around with, Horikita,” I remarked. “Walking around together with Ibuki? Has hell frozen over? Will mochi start falling from the sky?”

“…Are you all right?” asked Horikita.

“All right in what way?” I asked in return.

“Oh, um, never mind,” she said. “I just thought that maybe you had a fight with someone or something.”

Kiryuuin and I briefly exchanged glances and then denied Horikita’s assumptions at almost the exact same time.

“No. There wasn’t anyone over there,” I said.

“Then what were you doing?” asked Horikita.

“It’s been a really, really exhausting two weeks. I was relaxing on the beach, away from people, looking out at the ocean,” I answered.

“You’re certainly carefree, aren’t you?” said Horikita. “Though I suppose, knowing you, you’ve probably saved up the bare minimum level of points you need.”

Then, Horikita shot a look at me that seemed to say, “And why is Kiryuuin-senpai here?”

“I happened to see a student slacking off and I brought him back. We need to take this exam seriously until the last second, after all,” said Kiryuuin.

She lightly patted me on the back and then started walking away.

“Well then, when the exam’s over, we’ll see each other again on the boat,” she added as she walked away.

Horikita, now standing directly next to me, leaned over and spoke in a small voice. “Are you really all right…?” she whispered, trying to make sure of it.

“All right how?” I replied.

“Well, it’s just… There was something I heard. Well, read. It was on this small piece of paper,” said Horikita.

“Paper?” I repeated.

“Never mind, don’t worry about it,” she said. “It’s nothing. There are still a lot of things I don’t understand, so I’ll come and talk to you after I do some more digging myself.”

I was a little curious since I didn’t understand what she was talking about, but I didn’t want to prolong any conversation relating to I2. I couldn’t tell her about the matter of Tsukishiro, after all.

“More importantly, why are you and Ibuki here?” I asked. “There isn’t a Task in the vicinity.”

Ibuki looked like she was about to say something, but Horikita stopped her.

“Ibuki-san challenged me to a contest. We were just checking each other’s scores. Your GPS signature was in a strange location, so I thought I’d come and check on you,” said Horikita.

“We’ll say that it ended in a draw,” said Ibuki.

“…How exactly did you arrive at that conclusion?” said Horikita. “I clearly won, didn’t I?”

“It was a calculation error,” said Ibuki. “A calculation error.”

“Calculation error or not, if I’m ahead of you by even one point, it means I’ve won,” said Horikita.

I didn’t really understand what was happening here, but apparently Horikita and Ibuki had become friends through this test…maybe?

Shortly thereafter, the uninhabited island exam finally came to a close.