Chapter 3: The Beginning of a Short-Lived Vacation

Chapter 3: The Beginning of a Short-Lived Vacation

Chapter 3:

The Beginning of a Short-Lived Vacation

F OR MANY STUDENTS , each day spent on the uninhabited island felt like an eternity. In contrast, each day on the luxury cruise ship seemed to be over in an instantaneous flash of light. How could the flow of time be so different when it was still the same twenty-four-hour period? I supposed the most crucial factor was that here, we rarely thought about the time for most of the day. During normal school days and special exams, we frequently thought about the passage of time. On the other hand, on days off, we usually did not, and so the difference in our perception of time was striking.

Today was the second day of our festive holiday. The number of students that passed by one another in the ship’s corridors increased dramatically. Many students’ fatigue had finally abated, and they finally started to enjoy their vacation in earnest. Even someone like me, who had been spending most of my time quietly all by myself, received a message from a rather unexpected someone inviting me to hang out with them. It was none other than Vice President Kiriyama, from Class 3-B.

The invitation said to meet him by the pool. I wondered if he intended to have a light-hearted chat while we floated around on pool floats, or maybe to deepen our bonds of friendship by way of a game of volleyball. I immediately banished such incomprehensible predictions from my mind though. Although he was inviting me out by the pool, I was sure that his intentions in inviting me weren’t just to “hang out.”

I could have refused his offer, of course, or I could’ve ignored it. But whatever I decided, I was sure that I was going to have to hear what he had to say anyway. Depending on how things played out, it was entirely possible that I could have been called out in a far, far more unpleasant way than this. I responded to his invitation with a simple, indifferent “Yes,” and promised to head over to meet him at the appointed time. Besides, there was a significant possibility that this could solve the mystery of the nagging stares from the third-years that I felt the other day.

“Kiriyama, huh…” I muttered to myself.

Right now, I was in the break area next to the fitness center. Before me was the monitor where the results of the special exam were posted. It seemed that most of the other students had already finished checking their exam results because I was the only student here now. The number of teachers monitoring the students checking their results had similarly been reduced down to one person. I had already committed the exam results to memory more or less, but I slid through the results once more. Once the positions of the top groups were shown on the screen, I focused on Kiriyama’s group’s results.

The overall rankings had already been announced out in front of front of the entire school earlier, with Kouenji Rokusuke coming in first place by himself. Nagumo’s group came in second place, and Sakayanagi’s group came in third. I saw that Kiriyama’s group had come in fourth place by just a slim margin, at only six points behind. His group had a total of 255 points. That meant Sakayanagi must have gotten the lead over him at the last second and clinched the third-place position to secure herself a place at the podium. The difference between third and fourth place was not limited to a mere difference in ranking, but also a number of benefits.

“Naturally, this must have been quite frustrating for the third-year students,” I mused.

First place has slipped away from Nagumo, and Kiriyama had missed getting into the winner’s circle entirely. Moreover, all the students who had been expelled had been third-years, which was quite an anomaly. I still had about twenty minutes to go before I was supposed to meet with Kiriyama, but I decided to head to the pool area ahead of time. I wanted to confirm that I wasn’t simply being overly self-conscious in noticing the stares I was getting, but rather that there was some kind of plan in motion.

The answer was immediately apparent, without any need for careful observation or scrutiny. Within a few dozen seconds of me arriving by the pool, I had attracted stares from an unspecified number of third-year students from all over the place. Students who were engrossed in conversation, students who were swimming, it didn’t matter. As soon as they noticed my presence, they started to observe me closely. The glances I felt yesterday hadn’t been mere coincidence.

“I know I came here to find proof, but I feel like I got it almost too fast,” I muttered to myself.

This gave me such an intense feeling of unease that it actually made me want to grumble about the situation. I was just supposed to be here as an inconspicuous, nondescript student, someone who blended into the background, but now I was sticking out more than anyone else. Even if I wasn’t trying to think about what was going on here, I naturally wanted to find out what was behind this and what the true intent was. The orders had come from Nagumo, most likely, but at this point in time, it was completely unclear what those orders were exactly.

Many students were directing obvious glances my way, but I continued to deliberately pretend not to notice anything. It was much easier to play the part of a foolish, thick-headed person. However, I knew Nagumo must have assumed I’d be aware of the strange looks I was getting from all these students. On top of that, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was enjoying seeing me being the center of attention. Regardless, the best plan of action for the time being was to just completely ignore the stares and let the moment pass.

I looked around the pool to see if anyone else was around besides the third-year students, and I saw Ichinose and some of her classmates. Ichinose alone had just so happened to notice my presence, and our eyes met. Her shoulders twitched, and then she proceeded to hide behind her classmates like she was trying to escape. Ichinose’s sudden, bizarre movements prompted a response from her companions, who asked her if something was wrong.

I supposed Ichinose reacted that way because she had confessed her romantic feelings for me back on the island. It was no wonder that simply locking eyes with each other at a distance like we just did would make things feel awkward. If Ichinose were the only one here, I would’ve done things differently, but since she had classmates with her, I figured I’d keep my distance for the time being. Even if I left her alone right now, I had already planned to meet with her on the evening of the day after tomorrow.

I saw a few of my own classmates around here and there, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone with whom I was particularly close.

“Seems like things are starting to get quite serious, Ayanokouji.”

I turned my head to glance over in the direction that voice had come from, slightly diagonally in front of me. When I did, I saw Kiryuuin, lounging on a beach chair on the deck.

“What has?” I asked.

“Things with the third-year students,” she said. “You surely couldn’t possibly be unaware of it, are you?”

“I’m not sure I understand,” I replied.

I tried to play dumb, but Kiryuuin simply continued acting nonchalantly, not even snickering at me over it.

“Though I am not complicit in what is happening, I am a third-year student too,” she went on. “I’ve already heard some things about it, at least.”

“Are you referring to the looks that I’ve been getting, by any chance?” I asked.

“Surely you know what I’m talking about.”

“It’s not a big problem,” I said, trying to act like I didn’t care about what was going on. “They’re just looking at me, that’s all.”

“That’s all, huh.” Kiryuuin was clearly unconvinced by my façade. “To me, this seems like one of the most frightening strategies I could possibly imagine. Don’t you think so? Especially for someone like you, this would be something fairly troubling.”

Though Kiryuuin was teasing me somewhat, what she was saying certainly wasn’t wrong.

“That’s just what I’d expect from the Student Council President,” she added. “It’s a bizarre card to play, but it’s effective, even against someone as flawless as you.”

“Flawless?” I repeated. “I think you’re overestimating me.”

“Don’t be modest. We’ve experienced a brush with death together now, and I understand that you possess a bottomless well of strength. Isn’t that right?”

She lifted her sunglasses, resting them on her forehead, and looked at me with a piercing gaze. Even if I were to clumsily continue to deny her assertions, there was a considerable number of students in the vicinity, and I had no way of knowing when or if our conversation might be overheard. Of course, though, I was sure that Kiryuuin would have taken our environment into consideration.

“I understand,” I said. “For the time being, I’ll admit that much.”

“ Fu fu , well, good. Now, getting back to the topic at hand, what happened with Nagumo at the tail end of the exam anyway?” Kiryuuin asked. “There was no such directive given to the third-year students, at least up until the end of the exam.”

“It’s frustrating that… Well, I can’t say with certainty that I don’t remember doing anything that would have given him cause to resent me,” I answered, doing my best to be evasive.

Kiryuuin had been reclining comfortably in her chair up until this point, but now she adjusted her posture slightly.

“If we’re talking individual ability, the man known as Nagumo Miyabi is among the best in our entire school,” she said. “Academic Ability, A. Physical Ability, A. Adaptability, A+. Societal Contribution, A+. Truly impeccable.”

“I know. As far as OAA is concerned, he is by far the top student in our school.”

A small number of students, like Sudou and Kiryuuin, had A+ rankings in certain areas. The number of students who had two or more A+ rankings was also extremely limited. Nagumo was the only student with all A’s or higher across the board.

“With his elevated academic and physical abilities, his charisma that allows him to rally the rest of the students from our grade, and his achievements like having cinched the position of student council president, no one in our grade is a worthy foe for Nagumo,” Kiryuuin went on. “The only other student that people accepted as his equal at our school was Horikita Manabu, but now he’s gone as he’s graduated.”

Kiryuuin took a breath, and then picked up the wine glass that had been on the table.

“In Nagumo’s eyes, you should have been nothing more than a toy. However, it seems as if something must have happened during the uninhabited island exam that had caused him to start taking you seriously.”

“It would be best if he simply left someone like me alone,” I answered.

“If that’s the case, then you made the wrong choice somewhere along the line,” said Kiryuuin.

It was painful for me to hear that, but still, she spoke mercilessly.

“There are probably few people who could defeat you one-on-one,” she said. “I am quite confident in my skills, but if there’s a type of person that I’m not good at dealing with, then it’s probably someone like you, Ayanokouji. However, Nagumo is in a completely different category. I believe that he’s the type of person that you are not good at dealing with. What do you think?”

“I can’t deny that possibility,” I agreed. “I’ve misjudged his true nature.”

The other students were just looking at me, but I hadn’t realized how stressful and repulsive it would feel. Though I had been under constant surveillance in the White Room, this was completely different. To put it another way, I was being forced into an environment that I had never experienced before in my entire life. The only way for me to escape this situation was to stay hidden away indoors, which wasn’t a realistic solution here.

“You’re right about that,” said Kiryuuin. “Nagumo tends to prefer employing flashy moves, winning in a spectacular fashion, and facing opponents one-on-one. But when it comes to making sure that he’ll win for certain, he’ll employ any strategy, no matter what it is. Even if it means mobilizing all the third-year students, as he’s doing now. No matter how underhanded the method might be, his priority is to win in the end.”

That meant that having many people watching me was just the opening act, the prelude to whatever he was planning.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with this one,” Kiryuuin added, as though she was trying to get ahead of me asking her to cooperate with me.

And with that, she put the sunglasses that had been resting on her forehead back over her eyes.

“I never said anything about wanting you to help me though,” I said.

“After spending about two and a half years of being free do whatever I pleased, I…admit that have a few regrets about my time spent at this school. If this school had a system in place where students could repeat a grade, I might have considered going for it,” said Kiryuuin.

Repeating a grade, or in other words, doing the same year’s classes over again rather than advancing to the next. She was talking about staying here another year.

“There you are, Ayanokouji.”

As Kiryuuin and I were engaging in our conversation, Vice President Kiriyama appeared, all by himself. Kiriyama struck me as a serious person, and he had arrived much earlier than we were scheduled to meet. After casting a quick glance over to Kiryuuin relaxing beside me, he directed his gaze at me once more.

“I know that there’s still a little time until we were supposed to meet, but do you mind if we start now?” he said. “This isn’t a good place though. Let’s move elsewhere.”

“I suppose that means it’s a conversation that you don’t want me to overhear then, eh, Kiriyama?” chided Kiryuuin.

She had just said that she couldn’t help me, but apparently, she was interested in hearing what we were going to talk about. She lifted her sunglasses once again.

“It’s simply because we would attract too much attention here. I would prefer for us to speak in a quiet place, if at all possible,” said Kiriyama.

The pool was one of the most popular areas on the ship, so there were a considerable number of students around. For some reason, the only available seats seemed to be the ones directly next to Kiryuuin, but I figured there wasn’t any reason to question that too deeply. It just seemed kind of uncomfortable, in a way.

“Now that’s odd, saying that you don’t want to attract too much attention,” said Kiryuuin. “That’s quite a contradiction, Kiriyama.”

“What?” he asked.

“If you wished to talk in a quiet place, then meeting by the pool, where a considerable number of people gather, would be utter nonsense. Am I wrong?” asked Kiryuuin.

“So, you’re saying that you’d prefer that I told you from the very beginning that I didn’t want to talk next to you, as it would’ve been irritating?” Kiriyama spat back in response to her prodding. “Is that it?”

When Kiriyama spoke, his face was pale and devoid of color, like he was completely dead inside. The look on his face made it clear to me just how many times Kiryuuin had caused him grief up until now.

“I see. I suppose I’ve made you uncomfortable then,” said Kiryuuin.

Once a conversation began, if Kiryuuin was around, it would always start to revolve around her. Kiriyama didn’t like that, so he tried to get away from her, but his attempts appeared to have backfired, giving Kiryuuin an opportunity to plunge right back in.

“In any case, why not allow me to listen in on what you’re about to discuss?” she asked.

“Absolutely not. It has nothing to do with you,” said Kiriyama.

“Nothing to do with me? I wonder how it is that you can assume that it doesn’t.”

“What?” asked Kiriyama.

“Ayanokouji and I have a relationship, as boyfriend and girlfriend. That being the case, how can you say that it has nothing to do with me?”

Before I could even react to that, Kiriyama alternated between looking over at me and Kiryuuin with a look of astonishment on his face.

“ Fu fu, that was a joke, Kiriyama. You are a boring guy, but your reactions are amusing from time to time.”

Seeing an amused smile on Kiryuuin’s lips, Kiriyama’s face twisted in indignation. He stormed off without a word. From the way he moved, it was like he was telling me, “Just leave that woman there and hurry along.”

“I can’t ignore this, so please excuse me, Kiryuuin-senpai,” I told her.

“Please give my regards to Kiriyama,” she replied.

Please don’t ask me to do that. Even though he left, I’m sure he doesn’t even want to hear the name Kiryuuin right now.

I followed Kiriyama and arrived at the deck one floor above where we were, overlooking the pool. It was relatively quiet in this area, with most students there sunbathing or taking an afternoon nap. There were still a fair number of students gathered here though, so having a conversation could very well raise suspicions.

However, there were no other third-year students aside from Kiriyama present, which suggested that he had cleared the room. With that in mind, I figured that neither the first- nor second-year students would pay much attention to our chat. Another redeeming quality was the fact that there was no one lying in wait to ambush me, so this was going to be a one-on-one talk from the looks of things.

“So, then, what did you call me all the way out here for?” I asked.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush,” said Kiriyama. “What did you do to Nagumo on the final day of the uninhabited island exam, Ayanokouji?”

“What did I do?” I repeated.

“Don’t play games. It’s obvious that you had something to do with the exam results.”

I could hear people talking on the other end of the line on the walkie-talkie when I encountered Nagumo on the final day of the uninhabited island exam. He was still in the middle of conducting his operation to suppress Kouenji. It was no surprise that Kiriyama would have found out what happened.

“I don’t mind answering your question, but could you answer one of my own first?” I asked.

“One of yours?” he repeated.

That was right. When I first got this call to meet with Kiriyama, I decided there was something that I wanted to verify myself. Kiriyama eyed me suspiciously, but I continued speaking.

“I’ve been wondering about this ever since we first met, Vice President Kiriyama. Back then, it seemed like you were working against Nagumo, to defeat him. But you appear to have abandoned the fight at some point along the way… Did you give up?”

If Kiriyama were expecting Nagumo’s downfall and defeat, then what happened should have been a welcome development for him.

“Give up?” said Kiriyama. “I don’t understand what you mean. My personal battle is continuing on, even now.”

“Is that so? It doesn’t look that way to me though.”

When I denied his claim, Kiriyama seemed to immediately understand what I was after.

“You seem to think that I’m taking Nagumo’s side, but I’m not,” he said. “The changes in Nagumo’s plans are simply beginning to have a negative impact on me and my surroundings. I believe I told you this before the uninhabited island exam. I said to stay out of my way.”

His response just now was a rather ordinary, yet overly verbose way of rejecting my assertion. However, human beings are prone to make trivial slips of the tongue like that.

“You seem to have interpreted what I said rather broadly,” I said. “I was simply asking whether you’ve abandoned the fight. Instead, you seemed to jump right to the question of whether you’re in the student council president’s camp, Kiriyama-senpai.”

“…Isn’t that the same thing?” he asked.

“Admitting defeat and joining the other side are two completely different things. They are absolutely, unequivocally, not the same thing at all. I’m sure that you understand that much, Vice President.”

Prideful people who think of themselves as superior think that they don’t make mistakes. That was exactly why, if you turned around and asked them, “Well, since you’re so superior, there’s no way you could be wrong about this, right?” they’d have an even harder time admitting to a mistake.

“What are you trying to say?” he asked.

He wasn’t admitting to anything or denying anything. He just attempted to move the conversation forward. Right now, the easiest option for him was to just let what I said slide and ignore it.

“I simply wanted to ask you where you stand, that’s all,” I told him. “Even though you’ve given up on fighting, are you still Nagumo’s enemy? Things haven’t changed there, have they? Or are you under Nagumo’s thumb, perhaps? After all, this is a matter that Horikita Manabu entrusted to me.”

Perhaps because it had been some time since he had heard Manabu’s name, Kiriyama’s expression stiffened.

“…Yes, I suppose he did.”

Maybe he was thinking back to the time that he and I had first met.

“Looking back, the relationship between me, and Nagumo, and Horikita-senpai… Well, in short, you were someone who had no interest in the student council whatsoever. In that sense, you shouldn’t have gotten involved in the situation.”

Kiriyama placed his left hand on the railing and gripped it tightly.

“It’s true that I was planning to take down Nagumo. If we don’t beat him, then it’ll be impossible for my class to rise back up to Class A. Unfortunately, that fighting spirit started to gradually fade away sometime around the middle of my second year.”

The current third-year students allowed their Class A to run ahead unchallenged, far more than we did in our grade level. At this point in time, there was a difference of more than 900 Class Points between Class 3-A and Class 3-B. Even if you looked at the midpoint of last year, there would’ve still been a difference of 700 points or more. They had allowed Nagumo to establish a commanding lead early on, and it had now gotten to the point where it was impossible for anyone to catch up with him.

“We third-years shifted over to individual competition early on,” Kiriyama continued. “We started competing according to Nagumo’s own unique rules, and things like Class Points and the school’s own rules became secondary.”

I was sure that played a big part in the improbable, commanding lead Nagumo had created for himself. Once that had happened, the hurdle would’ve been too high for Kiriyama to clear on his own.

“I struggled to break through somehow, but as soon as I entered my third year, I was swallowed up by that wave,” said Kiriyama.

What was that look? Frustration? Resignation? Looking at Kiriyama’s side profile, his expression was indescribable.

“What happened to you then?” I asked.

“Ugh… I suppose you won’t be satisfied unless you hear it right from my own mouth,” he replied.

“It’s important to me.”

“Nagumo handed me a ticket to graduate from Class A, so I decided to follow the rules that he set… That’s what you wanted to hear, right?” said Kiriyama.

In other words, as things stood now, not only had hostilities been ceased, but he had been turned into one of Nagumo’s allies. Graduating from Class A was just that important to an ordinary student, apparently. It also proved that twenty million points just had that much value and allure.

“Whether or not you earn this school’s greatest privileges will have a significant bearing on the rest of your life,” Kiriyama said. “Even if your classmates might ultimately resent you, it is far, far more important to graduate from Class A than anything else. The three years we spend in high school are a mere blink of an eye compared to the decades that follow, after all.”

It was no wonder, then, that Kiriyama was so outraged, and that he wanted to know the details of what happened so badly that he called me up to find out.

“Ensuring that Nagumo got first place was our challenge, our mission. However, your involvement caused a disturbance in the chain of command. Kouenji took first place, and Nagumo came in second. As a result, we lost a great deal of both Class and Private Points. Do you have any idea just how much that cost us?”

As I had already confirmed on OAA, I knew that Nagumo had the Trials and Tribulations Card as along with seven Bonus cards, so the number of points that he had lost by not taking first place in the exam amounted to about seven million. Furthermore, if all twenty-eight of the Free Ride cards that the third-year students had were applied to Nagumo’s group, they would have received an additional reward of fifteen million Private Points.

However, the result was that they had gotten almost half of that when Nagumo fell into second place. Of course, it was still an enormous amount of money, there was no doubt about that. But if you were to include the effect the Trials and Tribulations Card would have had on their Class Points, then their losses were even greater.

“We third-years are approaching graduation now. Missing out on first place is a significant loss. We need to be collecting as many Private Points as we possibly can and not wasting a single one,” said Kiriyama.

Considering that Kiriyama’s group had intended to take second place, and the fact that they had collected a number of Bonus Cards for their own group, they had lost even more Private Points than I had calculated.

“It would seem the fact that your group missed out on a prize isn’t unrelated either, Kiriyama-senpai.”

His shoulders twitched slightly in response when I pointed that out.

“…Yes,” he replied slowly. “I was quickly dispatched to function as back-up for Nagumo’s group. However, that slight delay in response caused a chain reaction, resulting in issues on all sides until the very end. We didn’t just lose to Kouenji either. Third place was also snatched away from us by a group of second-year students.”

If everything had gone according to plan, the third-years would have been rewarded with a massive number of Private Points. Although this might’ve been a rough calculation and somewhat over-optimistic, that substantial number of points might have been the exact sum needed to save their fellow students for certain.

“The ticket to move up to Class A costs twenty million points,” said Kiriyama. “We are constantly searching for optimal ways to generate that sum. As it now stands, you could say that there is one less ticket available.”

The rewards for winning the uninhabited island exam were all appealing, for sure, but when it came to Private Points, the total effect of the Bonus Cards and Free Ride Cards would have caused the total amount to soar even higher.

“Until now, Nagumo has continued to produce results that have earned the trust of everyone else in our grade level. But by coming here and stubbornly clinging onto you, he lost a great deal of money, and his credibility has taken a hit. If he stopped thinking about you, I suppose that the problems would have been minimal, but after the special exam ended…Nagumo took unbelievable actions.”

“You mean how those third-year students were expelled, right?” I asked.

“Correct,” said Kiriyama. “Originally, the plan was for the higher-ranking groups to take in groups that deliberately let themselves sink to the bottom of the rankings, with of the intent of bailing them out at the end of the exam. That way, they’d be prevented from getting expelled.”

However, this part of the plan was not executed, and the third-year students in the lower rankings were all expelled simultaneously.

“Fifteen people were expelled. There wasn’t anything they could’ve done. They didn’t even have the time to cry about it,” said Kiriyama.

“That must have been terrifying, from the third-years’ point of view.”

“Obviously. One whim reduced three whole years to nothing for those students. If it were due to their own actions, they could accept what happened, resign themselves to it. But if it was the result of Nagumo’s irrational actions, then that’s a different story.”

If everything Kiriyama said was true, this could very well be a wake-up call for the students who blindly followed Nagumo all this time. Well, no, rather, I should say that it was strange for the third-year students to have shown no signs of trying to defy Nagumo, especially after an event like that.

“You find it strange, don’t you? The fact that Nagumo isn’t being raked over the coals for this, I mean,” said Kiriyama.

“It certainly was a huge failure on his part,” I agreed. “But a lot of people in Class B and below who don’t have a way into Class A are keeping quiet.”

“Even if we wanted to defy him, there’s no way we could pull it off. Nagumo and the rest of the students in Class 3-A have created an impenetrable fortress,” said Kiriyama.

An impenetrable fortress. By that, I’m sure he meant some kind of system has been created that prevented those in any of the other classes from possibly defying Nagumo. If that were the case, then…by posing just a single question, I might be able to unravel this mystery.

“Do you have a ticket in hand right now, Vice President Kiriyama?” I asked.

It was a question that normally would’ve been satisfied with just a simple yes or no. However, Kiriyama answered in a different way in the blink of an eye, without changing the expression on his face at all.

“If I had a ticket in my hands, I wouldn’t be having any problems.”

“I see. I suppose if Nagumo still has the tickets in his possession, then that certainly changes things,” I answered.

It was obvious, but Nagumo really was enacting quite a cunning strategy. If Nagumo controlled all the Private Points, then no one could defy him. Putting it simply, Nagumo had made an agreement with people that he would spend twenty million points and bring them up to Class 3-A. No, actually, even going as far as calling it that might be too generous. If you continue to pledge your loyalty to me, I will prepare a ticket, just for you . I could assume he said something along those lines, or something similarly ambiguous, avoiding making any clear promises. Given the situation, if anyone were to carelessly defy him, then Nagumo would likely terminate that agreement without a second thought.

“We’re also forbidden from secretly saving up Private Points on our own,” Kiriyama explained. “Basically, individuals are free to hold up to a maximum of 500,000 points. Anything beyond that is siphoned off by Nagumo,” said Kiriyama.

“That’s harsh.”

Unlike cash, which you could stuff away under your mattress, Private Points basically existed as a form of electronic currency and couldn’t be hidden. Nagumo must have put certain rules in place to have students monitor each other too. This way, even if Nagumo were to get knocked down a peg by some means and ended up getting expelled as a result, he’d still have tens or even hundreds of millions of Private Points in his possession. Considering all of that, even if people did want to stage an uprising, they’d never be able to.

“Surely now you see the reason why the third-year students back Nagumo to such an unusual degree, and why they protect him?” said Kiriyama.

“Yes, I understand very well,” I replied.

You could say that it was a perfect dictatorship. No one in their grade could possibly compete with Nagumo—it was impossible.

“He’s playing with the entirety of the third-year grade level,” Kiriyama said. “He’s using us. Nagumo makes the students without tickets compete with each other, and then makes a big show of handing out tickets and making students pledge their loyalty to him.”

Which meant, of course, for the students in Class 3-D and Class 3-C who had absolutely no chance of winning, Nagumo was nothing short of a god. That was only natural, I supposed, since they were being publicly told that if they could prove themselves useful, they could graduate from Class A. However, they wouldn’t know it was true until they actually got moved up to Class A, right when they were about to graduate.

“In the little time we have left here at this school, we want to compete and fight so as many people can get tickets as possible. That’s why your presence is nothing but a hindrance, Ayanokouji.”

Thanks to Nagumo focusing his attention on me, he was losing out on precious Private Points. And with the losses that came with that, students who should have been saved no longer would be. So, that was the situation the third-years were in right now, from the sound of it.

“But do you really think that I want to be in this situation?” I countered.

“I know, I know,” said Kiriyama.

“Okay, then what do you want me to do?”

“Let’s go back to where this conversation started,” said Kiriyama. “First, tell me what happened on the island, and then I’ll look for a solution from there.”

“Nagumo doesn’t want that though, does he?” I asked “I mean, he didn’t even tell you what happened, and you’re the vice president. Right?”

“That might be true…but leaving things alone won’t solve anything,” said Kiriyama.

He wanted to stop Nagumo’s rampage, even at the risk of losing his own means of getting into Class A. Well, no, he feared that if he didn’t stop Nagumo, he had no idea what would happen to his own ticket.

“If you don’t want to talk to me, then I want you to meet with Nagumo immediately and talk to him. I can arrange a meeting if necessary. Surely no one stands to gain anything from you and Nagumo going at it from this point onward, yes?”

“You are absolutely right about that,” I agreed.

“I will also advise Nagumo that this strategy he’s executing must be stopped. I want you to trust me,” said Kiriyama.

This strategy… I didn’t even need to bother asking him what that strategy was about.

“You mean the stares I’ve been getting lately.”

Kiriyama looked down at the pool and nodded.

“What is he after?” he said. “And for what purpose? And how long will this go on? There’s no explanation for it at all. This bizarre behavior is seeding distrust among the third-year students.”

And yet, despite their disbelief, they had no choice but to obey Nagumo, as he held supreme authority over their grade.

“Nagumo’s regime is rock-solid… However, if he continues this reckless behavior, it’s possible the worst could happen,” said Kiriyama.

Kiriyama, and the others who’d been promised tickets, would continue to serve him faithfully, but many of the students who had not been promised anything would not. Kiriyama couldn’t let a revolt break out. It wouldn’t be surprising if some students were plotting to get Nagumo expelled now if they weren’t going to get a ticket anyway. For Kiriyama and his crew, that would certainly be a very bad scenario.

“Hypothetically, even if I told him that I would talk to him, I can’t imagine that would be the end of it,” I said.

“In that case, what should I do? You’re not giving me any details, but you have no intention of seeing Nagumo either. That’s just making the situation worse.”

“Can you give me a little time? I will definitely give you an answer in the near future,” I replied.

Perhaps the news that would follow would reach Kiriyama’s ears not from me, but from Nagumo.

“…Fine,” conceded Kiriyama. “But do decide before Nagumo makes his next move.”

Kiriyama had been surveying the entire area around the pool, and he immediately noticed the arrival of a certain someone. It was, of course, Nagumo himself, the person that we had been discussing all this time.

“It’s time to go. If he finds out that I met with you, there’s going to be trouble again.”

That was probably wise. Kiriyama must have taken a considerable risk to reach out to me like this today. At any rate though, just learning the details of the third-year students’ situation made this a worthwhile conversation.

3.1

A S MORE OF NAGUMO’S FRIENDS showed up, the pool quickly started to clear out. If he wanted to talk with me directly, it was clear that even if I tried to let things be and didn’t try and make contact, Nagumo would send a messenger. If he wasn’t sending one right now, I concluded he must’ve had no intention of setting up a meeting. But just when I had finished changing in the locker room and was trying to make my escape…

“Ayanokouji-senpai!”

I happened to bump into Nanase, who spotted me in the hallway again. She ran up to me with a happy look on her face. I supposed that on a ship with a fixed number of places we could go, it wasn’t that unusual for me to see her two days in a row as I was constantly passing students I was acquainted with when I was outside my room. Nevertheless, she appeared before me in exactly the same fashion as she previously did, reminding me of the spectacle I saw yesterday.

“May I have a moment of your time?” she asked.

She briefly glanced around, checking my surroundings. She seemed to be looking to see if I was with anyone. I was with Ishizaki yesterday, so she might not have been able to start a conversation with me because of that. I felt somewhat bewildered by this strong pressure she was exerting on me, or rather, by just how close she was. Despite that, I nodded my head anyway.

“Actually, I’ve been agonizing over whether I should report on something that’s been concerning me a little,” said Nanase.

“A report?” I asked.

Nanase nodded. Her cheerful mood dissipated and was replaced with an air of seriousness. She spoke to me in a whisper, being mindful of our surroundings.

“There’s one thing that I’ve been keeping from you, senpai. I thought if I told you, you might get angry, but…”

I might get angry? What in the world was she talking about?

“Well, it’s—”

Nanase tried to tell me what it was in a soft whisper, but then…

“Oh? Ayanokouji-kun?”

Hearing my name being called by someone she didn’t recognize, Nanase quickly put some distance between us. The voice belonged to Ichinose’s classmate, Kobashi Yume. If this was the old days, like how I’d spent my time at school until this point, we probably wouldn’t have greeted each other if we saw one another. However, during the uninhabited island exam, we had spent some time together, albeit brief. That seemed to have brought about a change in our relationship.

“Oh, am I…interrupting something? Maybe it’d be better if I waited,” said Kobashi apologetically, seeing Nanase hiding behind me.

“Oh, no, it’s all right,” said Nanase. “I was just asking Ayanokouji-senpai about something that I didn’t understand.”

“Are you sure?” asked Kobashi.

Nanase vigorously nodded twice, trying to convince Kobashi that nothing nearly so serious was going on here.

“I’ll come talk to you again when I have time,” the first-year said.

The only thing I knew for sure was that it was something that Nanase didn’t want other students to overhear. She then bowed deeply and respectfully not only to me, but to Kobashi as well, and ran off.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you were in the middle of a conversation,” said Kobashi. “She’s a first-year, right? I hope I didn’t upset her.”

“I don’t think you need to worry,” I assured her. “Anyway, what did you want with me?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, the girls in my class are thinking of throwing a ‘We made it!’ party tonight to celebrate the exam being over. I was wondering if you might like to join us, if you’re interested? Plus, I wanted to thank you again for saving Chihiro-chan.”

I was getting invited to something. However, her phrasing, specifically about the girls in her class, stuck out to me.

“Who else is going to come?” I asked.

I was worried, so I tried to check and see who would be there. But Kobashi didn’t know the details. She tilted her head to the side, looking lost in thought.

“Well, we’re still kinda in the middle of putting it all together. Don’t worry about it though, it’s not like there are any weirdos in my class, so it’ll be all right.”

It wasn’t like I was afraid of strange people showing up, but it didn’t look like Kobashi understood what I was getting at.

“But, I mean, only students from your class are going to be there, right, Kobashi? Wouldn’t it be a little awkward for someone like me, an outsider, to drop in?”

“You think so? No way, it wouldn’t be awkward at all! So, what do you think?”

I found myself with a vague, casual invitation to a post-exam party. To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, partly because there weren’t many people in Ichinose’s class that I could talk with intimately. Especially with the way things were right now, it was doubtful that I’d actually be able to get into a good conversation with Ichinose, even if I ran into her there. It’d feel a little regretful over it, but I figured that I should decline.

“Hey, sorry, but I think I’ll—”

Seeing that I was about to refuse the invitation, Kobashi clasped her hands together and spoke up again, cutting me off.

“Please! It’s just that I think, like, us meeting here is like fate, right?”

It was hard to refuse her when she put it to me like that, but I wasn’t going to be broken so easily. It was plain to see that if I went with the flow right here, things would not go so well for me later.

“So, I guess this…means it’s my fault, huh?” sighed Kobashi.

“Huh?” I replied, confused.

“Yeah, it’s all right,” sighed Kobashi. “Guess there’s nothing I can do. I think I’ll just go tell the rest of the class what happened. I asked Ayanokouji-kun to come, but I flubbed the invitation, so he turned me down.”

“Wait, hold on. Why would it be like that?” I asked.

“So, will you come?”

“…Well, that’s…”

“I knew it, it was a bother after all. If only I were a little better at inviting people out to stuff… I’m sorry, everyone,” said Kobashi dejectedly.

“I don’t really like seeing you get so depressed over it…”

“Please, even just showing your face for like a second is fine! Please come! Honami-chan is coming too!” she exclaimed, clasping her hands together once more. She was pleading for me to go to the party with fervor, even more intensely than before. Now that we’d gotten to this point, it felt like there was already no way out.

“All right,” I conceded. “It’s really okay if I just make a brief appearance?”

“Yes! Thank you!” she said. “Oh, but keep the fact that you’re coming to the post-exam party tonight a secret from Honami-chan, okay?”

She was smiling so cheerfully that it made it hard to believe she had been so depressed and sad just moments ago. They do say that women are born actresses, after all. Anyway though, keeping it a secret from Ichinose? That part kind of struck me as odd.

“Why keep it a secret though?” I asked. “I’d like to get permission from everyone to see if it’s okay for me to show up.”

If there was even one student who didn’t want me there, I’d prefer that they just came straight out with it and tell me. And that way, I could refuse the offer to attend once again, more openly, and it would be with good reason.

“Well, it’s because, you see… Don’t you think it would be better to be a surprise, Ayanokouji-kun?”

I couldn’t help but think that, while it would be a surprise, it wouldn’t be a particularly good one. I didn’t want to get into it, but from the sounds of things, Ichinose’s classmates had their own ideas about me and Ichinose.

“Okay, we’ll be waiting for you in room 5034 at eight o’clock,” said Kobashi.

“5034… The party is in someone’s room?” I asked.

I had thought for sure that they would’ve held this in the break area somewhere, or on the deck. Moreover, the room number she gave indicated that it was one of the rooms that girls stayed in, not guys.

“Is that a problem?” she asked.

“Well, I…wouldn’t say it is,” I replied, “but I feel like it would make it a little more difficult to go there.”

“Oh, no, not at all! Okay?”

Somehow, that last “Okay?” made me feel like I had been pushed into a corner. My escape route was being locked off and blocked.

“All right then, we’ll be waiting for you! You’ve gotta come!” she exclaimed happily.

Seemingly satisfied that I had promised to attend, Kobashi walked away with hasty steps.

“Good grief , ” I muttered.

It still wasn’t time for me to talk with Ichinose face-to-face yet, but…well, I supposed that if we were going to be in a crowd of people, then it’d probably be fine. If it was a post-exam party, I was sure that quite a few guys would be attending too.

3.2

A FTERWARD , I didn’t really feel like playing around. I ended up kind of hanging around my room, not really doing anything and feeling depressed. After I had dinner at six o’clock, eight o’clock rolled around before I knew it.

“Guess I…should be going now,” I muttered to myself.

Right now, if I could choose whether to go or not, I would decide not to go without hesitation. That was just how unwelcome this invitation was. But I supposed that if I really didn’t want to attend, I should have refused the invitation without hesitation in the first place. I figured that it was because I had given such a wishy-washy response earlier that I was in this situation now, so really, I had no other choice but to reap what I had sown. Though I had renewed my sense of determination…when I arrived at room 5034, I just stood there outside the door.

A minute had passed since I arrived in front of the room. I thought about knocking, but I could hear the sounds of girls talking and laughing coming from inside the room from time to time. And yet…there wasn’t any sign whatsoever that there were any guys there yet. I had a bad feeling about this. I didn’t know why, but I was starting to break out in a kind of cold sweat. The only thing I was certain of was that I was more nervous right now than when I squared off against Tsukishiro during the uninhabited island exam.

“Wouldn’t it be wiser for me to just turn around and head back now?”

A devil had whispered those words into my ear, and I found that they leaked out of my own mouth, coming out in my own voice. Maybe it would be less painful if I just gave a humble apology later, giving them the excuse that I inadvertently forgot all about the party? No, I also wanted to avoid being branded as the sort of person who broke his promises…

What in the world should I do? I was unable to move, like I had been bound hand and foot. But suddenly, the spell on me was broken from an unexpected direction.

“Oh, you came!” exclaimed Kobashi, happily.

Kobashi had appeared, standing at the end of the hall. I wasn’t sure if this was just bad timing or what. There were plastic bags in her hands, with assorted items peeking out from inside like snacks and bottles of juice. Now that I had been discovered, my option to run away had been obliterated.

“I think that everyone’s already inside, so don’t be shy, head on in!” she said.

“O-okay… I was just about to do that,” I replied.

Someone, save me…

Kobashi, without hesitation, gently started to open the door that I could not open before. It simply felt like it was too heavy.

Was this really okay? To open the door so easily like that? I needed to mentally prepare myself a little more… Just as I was thinking that, the door, the only thing separating me and the inside of the room, was being taken away from me.

The first of my senses to be stimulated was not my sight, but rather, my sense of smell. It smelled like flowers. It was a thick smell, but it was sweet and pleasant. It wafted through the air. Immediately after picking up that smell, my eyes caught sight of girl after girl after girl—girls as far as I could see.

“Ta-daaaa! I brought Ayanokouji-kun!” announced Kobashi.

There were girls sitting all around the room, crammed tightly in a space that you couldn’t by any means say was spacious for four. What was this world before my eyes? One, two, three… Including Kobashi, who had just come inside, there were a total of ten girls in here. That meant that half of the girls in Ichinose’s class were here. And on top of that , there wasn’t even the slightest hint of a guy around. I almost felt like I had been betrayed somehow.

“Hey, phrasing! Saying that you brought him is a little weird, Yume-chan!”

“Really? Oh, I bought the stuff that you asked for,” said Kobashi, setting down the plastic bags on the small table near the bed in the cramped room.

What was this? What was with the lighthearted, fluffy, airy atmosphere of this gathering? The only thing I knew for certain was that it felt slightly different from when Kei and her group of girls got together. Most of the girls attending this party were people that I hadn’t spoken to before, but I remembered their names and faces from OAA, more or less. While I was overwhelmed by the spectacle before me, rendered unable to move, Kobashi lightly patted me on the back.

“So, Ayanokouji-kun, where should we have you go?” said Kobashi. “Oh, how about right next to Honami-chan?”

While it was certainly true that Ichinose was the one I was the closest to out of everyone there, Kobashi decided on my spot for me without even the slightest hesitation. To be fair, I didn’t think that I really had any other choice of seat to begin with since the room was so small, but still, it seemed like I didn’t even have the right to choose for myself from the very beginning. What I did find a little strange, however, was that despite the fact there were ten people here in this room, they had somehow left enough space for one boy to sit next to Ichinose without any issues, right from the start.

That meant that the space wasn’t available out of sheer coincidence. It was highly likely that they had planned it that way in advance. I thought back to what Kobashi had said when she had invited me this afternoon, and it all seemed to fit… Anyway, I wasn’t sure that thinking it out was going to be any help to me in this current situation. If I just stood there, I’d keep getting stared at by ten people, and that would only make me feel even more uncomfortable. I hurriedly excused myself and went next to Ichinose.

“…May I sit here?” I asked her.

“O-of course you may,” she replied.

Ichinose immediately agreed to let me sit by her, so I sat down, but I still seemed to be getting stared at by almost everyone there. Or rather, apart from Ichinose, Kobashi, Shiranami and another student named Himeno, it felt like everyone there was observing me, like the six of them were trying to evaluate me. No, I needed to stay calm and keep a straight face here, pretending not to notice anything. Then, when the timing was right, I would be able to leave early.

Kobashi poured some tea into a clear cup and handed it to me. Once everyone had drinks in hand, Amikura, who seemed to be the facilitator of this event, spoke up in a loud voice.

“Well then, without further ado… Let’s begin the post-exam party to celebrate a job well done, along with the ‘Thank you, Ayanokouji, for saving Chihiro-chan when she got lost on the uninhabited island’ party. Cheers!”

After Amikura made that announcement, everyone raised their cups high.

“Um, first of all, I just want to say, thank you, Ayanokouji-kun. You really saved me back then,” said Shiranami, seated to the left of Ichinose, offering me words of gratitude.

I didn’t think that I did anything that would make people thank me so much or be so humbled by me, though… At any rate, I simply nodded my head gently, since I couldn’t really say anything to expand on the conversation for the time being. Personally, I would have liked to have said that the party was in full swing then. But just as I was lamenting the fact that only ten minutes had passed, Shiranami came over to me with a serious look on her face.

“Um, Ayanokouji-kun?”

“What is it…?” I asked.

She was tightly holding her can of orange juice with both hands, and the look on her face suggested that she wanted to say something.

“I’m, um, I’m very grateful to you for helping me,” she said. “But I just can’t accept it yet.”

“Huh…?” I answered, bewildered.

She offered no further explanation. After saying her piece, she forcefully gulped down her orange juice.

“Wah! I can’t say anything more than that!” she wailed.

Wait, hold on a minute. What in the world…? She walked away, leaving me behind, dumbstruck. The people around Shiranami showered her with words of encouragement and appreciation, praising her for doing her best and telling her she did a good job. Shiranami seemed a little embarrassed but didn’t appear as bothered by it as you might have thought. Seriously though, what was happening here? Since I was out of my element though, I couldn’t ask those kinds of questions in return.

Though Shiranami had talked about me at the start of the post-exam party, after that point, the girls started talking more about whatever was on their minds. I just sat there quietly on the sidelines, not making a peep, like a well-trained pet. Of course, if someone were to ask me if I were comfortable in this situation, then I would have immediately said “no.” At any rate…

I had witnessed firsthand just how amazing girl talk was, and how they effortlessly transitioned from one topic to another. The conversation didn’t stick to any one thing, and they moved from subject to subject as busily as an airplane flying around Japan. But no matter the topic, there was one thing all the girls had in common. Namely, many of the girls centered their thoughts around Ichinose, placed a lot of trust in her, and had blind faith in her. I wouldn’t say that was a terrible thing, though.

The girl known as Ichinose Honami was, without a doubt, the most trustworthy person in our entire grade. I could make that assertion regardless of whether she was my friend or foe. The standards of what made someone trustworthy came down to the individual, sure, but trust was something that was built up day by day. No one would ever trust a student who had never once spoken up before if they suddenly said “Trust me” one day.

But trustworthiness and blind faith were not the same thing. Even if Ichinose were a trustworthy person, there were times when she’d make the wrong choice now and again. If you continued to trust someone when they made mistakes, you wouldn’t get any results. There was a definite need for students who could point out when was something was wrong to correct those mistakes.

As the girls’ excitement had visibly peaked, one girl raised her hand. Up until this point, she had only made some general comments to show that she was listening, rather than contributing to the conversation.

Now she asked, “Can I have a sec?”

“What’s the matter, Yuki-chan?” asked another girl.

“Just one of my typical headaches,” said Himeno. “Look, sorry, but I’m really out of it. Is it good if I head back to my room? I’m seriously not feeling great.”

I wouldn’t have paid any attention to what she said if I were just focusing on the message, like if it had just been a casual remark or request. But I was surprised by the unexpected tone of voice she spoke in. Many of the students in Ichinose’s class were generally courteous and well-mannered. Himeno had curtly told everyone that she wasn’t feeling good and that she wanted to go back to her room.

“Of course you can. Want me to walk with you?” said Ichinose. She and the other girls at the party hurriedly offered their support when they heard that one of their friends wasn’t feeling well.

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m fine… I’m not a little kid, you know.”

Himeno stood up, seeming like she was fed up with her classmates’ overprotective behavior. There was even this type of student in Ichinose’s class, huh. As I recalled, Himeno was in a group of all students from their own class during the uninhabited island exam.

At any rate, up until that point, I hadn’t gotten the feeling that I would’ve been able to leave, but now the winds of change brought me an opportunity to go. If I missed this chance, I didn’t know when I’d find the next window to leave. I decided to take the plunge and followed Himeno’s lead.

“Well, I think it’s about time I be going too, actually,” I added.

“Huh? You’re already leaving? You can still stick around a lot longer though!” said Kobashi.

“Nah, I was only planning to make a brief appearance anyway,” I replied. “And besides, I had plans to meet someone after this.”

If I said that I had plans, then Ichinose and the other girls would surely refrain from asking me to stay, out of politeness.

“W-well, see you later then, Ayanokouji-kun,” said Ichinose, still sitting pretty.

She and the other girls waved goodbye, seeing me off as I left the room.

3.3

“P HEW… I felt like I was about to break out in a weird sweat,” I muttered to myself.

No, actually, I had already broken out in a sweat. Less than thirty seconds after Himeno had left the room, I also managed to escape from the devilish room 5034. I figured that for some people, that situation would’ve been heaven. But for me, personally, it was a painful place to be. You couldn’t call me particularly good at getting close to people, after all. It would have been a different story if I were to completely create a new role for myself, but since I was operating on the premise of playing the part of an inconspicuous high school student, it wasn’t that easy for me to change.

However, I supposed that in a way, the fact that I had little connection with Ichinose’s class up until this point

might have helped me get closer to her. With Ichinose at the center of her class, I could see, albeit just faintly, what kinds of kids were beside her. What did she have, and what was she lacking? At this point in time, I knew the strengths and weaknesses of Ichinose’s class.

Students who could speak up and make themselves heard were essential, no matter who would be the leader in the future. The only person that I could think of at the moment who could do that would be that guy Kanzaki. However, with the class centered on Ichinose, the girls’ collective voices seemed to be just as strong as the guys’. Kanzaki, as an individual, was the type of person who could speak up to Ichinose, but whether he could appeal to the class as a whole and whether he could control the girls was another matter.

“Hm?”

Himeno had complained of a headache earlier and said that she was going back to her room, but she was walking in a different direction from the guest rooms. She left and turned the corner in an instant, but considering that distinctive hair color of hers, there was no mistaking her. There was something about Himeno that I felt was off during the girls’ party just moments earlier. Since I was somewhat curious about what was up with her, I decided to follow.

I found myself at the aft deck. It was nighttime, and there was no sign of anyone else around. As I continued to look at Himeno Yuki’s side profile from a distance, I recalled her profile in OAA.

2-B Himeno Yuki

Academic Ability: B– (63)

Physical Ability: C (51)

Adaptability: C+ (58)

Societal Contribution: C+ (58)

Overall Ability: C+ (57)

Other than her high level of academic ability, she wasn’t particularly skilled or lacking in any way. She had no outstanding abilities as far as I could see. However, that was just a view of her abilities only as far as the school’s metrics were concerned. It was possible that any student had invisible strengths and weaknesses hidden away. I decided that I wanted to investigate a little further, and that direct contact would be the fastest way.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Huh…? What?”

She averted her eyes, looking somewhat uncomfortable. Considering that she slipped out of the room after saying that she had a headache, it was strange for her to be in a place like this.

“Your headache all better?”

“Gawd…”

Her short mumbling was almost completely drowned out by the wind, but it sounded like she was telling me to shut up. There were several guys and girls who used harsh language in our school, but in Himeno’s case, it seemed like her way of speaking was a defense mechanism—a way for her to keep people away rather than meaning to be hurtful.

However, perhaps because she was concerned about her public image, she coughed, and then directed her gaze over to me.

“I just stopped here because I thought the breeze would help me settle down. Okay?”

“Do you get headaches often?” I asked. “You said something earlier that gave me the impression you do.”

I tried pressing her for more details, but she must not have wanted to engage in conversation with me any further because she fell silent. Even during the girls’ party earlier, she hadn’t spoken up at all except to say that she was leaving. In addition, I had noticed that the other girls generally didn’t really start conversations with Himeno either. It wasn’t like she was being excluded on purpose or anything, as Ichinose would never tolerate such a thing. And if their relationship was that bad, I was sure they wouldn’t want to show that to someone from another class, like me. In that case…

I supposed that they must have somewhat forcefully invited Himeno to come out to the post-exam party then, twisting her arm a bit. If I framed what happened as the girls doing it because they wanted to get their classmate to have at least some fun, then it all made sense.

“I get migraines. That’s what they say,” said Himeno, her comment brief and muddled.

“If you have migraines, then cooling down is the right choice,” I replied.

Migraines are caused by the dilation of cerebral blood vessels due to things such as changes in female hormones, fatigue, lack of sleep, and so on. Blood vessels are less dilated when cool and more dilated when warm, so stepping outside to feel the cool breeze wasn’t a bad idea.

That is, if she really did have a migraine.

“Pain in the…” she mumbled.

“Aren’t you just using headaches as a way to get out of uncomfortable situations?” I asked.

“Huh? You callin’ me a liar?” she huffed.

Himeno had been acting relatively indifferent up until this point, but the look on her face changed as soon as I had pointed out that she might have been stretching the truth. She was an unusual type for Ichinose’s class, which was full of mild-mannered people. My intuition had not been wrong.

“You look pretty angry. That mean I hit the bull’s-eye?”

“Wrong,” said Himeno. “Actually, you know what? Ugh, my head’s startin’ to hurt again. I’m going back to my room.”

“Sorry if I offended you,” I said. “But would you mind listening to me for just a minute?”

Himeno, her hand held up to her forehead, turned and shot me a disgusted look. “Look, my headache’s getting more intense. Okay?”

“Sorry.”

“‘Sorry,’ huh… So, you assume I’ll listen to you if you say sorry?”

“You don’t seem to want to talk.”

“I don’t.”

After trying to engage in conversation a few times and getting a couple of responses now, I could start to see that this person in front of me was the real Himeno. This seemed to be her true self.

“I see,” I said. “Well, nothing I can do, then.”

She shrugged her shoulders in indignation, seemingly telling me, “ You get it now?”

“Guess this means I don’t have any other choice but to head back to the girls’ party and report that Himeno might be faking being sick,” I told her.

“Huh? Say what?” she said. “Don’t just go acting like I’m faking it. You’re a liar.”

“Liar?” I repeated. “All I said was that you ‘might’ be faking it. Besides, as long as I feel like that might be true, then I have the right to raise the question, don’t I? You can just prove it to everyone at a later date whether it’s true or not.”

“There’s no way someone can prove they have a headache, though,” said Himeno.

“Maybe,” I answered.

“The hell? Everyone was all praising you up and down, but you sure have a nasty personality.”

“Hey, at the very least, I wasn’t being praised for having a good personality though, was I?”

I didn’t really want to say this myself, but really, all Shiranami did was express her gratitude to me for helping her.

“Guess so,” she replied.

“Anyway though, you’re a strange one, Himeno,” I told her. “It’s like you don’t seem like someone from Ichinose’s class.”

“Strange?” she scoffed. “If you ask me, the people in my class are way too nice. Our class is always getting together in big groups to do stuff. And sure, that’s fine. But the issue is that each time we do something, it takes friggin’ forever, and nobody ever leaves.”

I supposed that if I had to repeatedly go to meetups I didn’t like, I couldn’t help feeling fed up either. Ichinose’s other classmates, however, enjoyed those gatherings. That was probably why no one wanted to leave each time they met, which resulted in each meeting getting drawn out for long hours.

“If you don’t like it though, you don’t have to participate. Right?”

“You really think I could get away with something like that?” said Himeno. “Even if it’s annoying, it’s important for me to keep in line.”

“Well, I suppose so.”

Her whole class was united, and there was an especially strong kind of camaraderie among the girls. It would take courage to toss a stone and cause a ripple, even if you felt dissatisfied with things on the inside.

Himeno. Maybe our chance encounter right now could change the direction things were headed in. Normally, I wouldn’t get too deeply involved with a member of the opposite sex like her unless it were a special situation. However, I figured that it wasn’t a bad thing to deliberately take a step forward here.

Of course, if this ended up making trouble for her as a result, then, well, c’est la vie. There was no getting around it.

“If you want to relieve stress, then isn’t screaming the best thing you can do?” I asked.

“Screaming…?” Himeno repeated. “If I did that in a place like this, it’d just draw attention, whether I liked it or not.”

“Not many students come to the aft deck, and besides, given the noise from the ship, there won’t be an echo,” I pointed out. “It’d just get drowned out and disappear.”

“But…”

She looked bewildered, like she had never cried out as loud as she could before.

“Then why don’t you go ahead and scream first?” she said.

“…Me?” I blinked.

Her totally unexpected response had managed to get me to feel flustered too, despite myself.

“I don’t really know anything about you,” said Himeno. “But you strike me as a pretty quiet person. Or like… You don’t look like the type who’d scream. If you show me how it’s done, I’ll try it myself.”

Now I was in trouble. I didn’t remember ever experiencing intense stress in my life, so if you were to ask me if I had ever screamed out as loud as I could myself, then the answer would be no. That’s how little experience I had with this kind of thing.

“If you can’t, then I’m out of here,” Himeno said.

If I backed down now, this would probably be the first and last time that Himeno and I would interact.

“All right.”

With Himeno watching me, I steeled myself, faced the ocean, and shouted in a loud voice.

“AAHHHHHHHHH! There. Your turn, Himeno.”

“…Are you kidding me?” she replied.

“No, not at all?” I answered.

“Your shout barely had any volume to it,” said Himeno. “You’re seriously messing with me right now.”

“Then show me how it’s done,” I countered.

“I ain’t showing you shit after that.”

Exasperated, Himeno tried to escape, but I shouted at her back as she was trying to leave, stopping her in her tracks.

“I thought if I did it, you were gonna do it too?!” I asked.

“No, it’s just that I’m annoyed that you think what you did actually counted,” said Himeno.

“Hey, whatever volume the shout, the fact is that I complied with your request. But if yours is just as quiet as mine, then you have no right to make fun of me at all.”

I preemptively blocked her off so that she wouldn’t shout at the same quiet level that I did.

“Oh, for the love of… Fine. Just once is okay, right? Then I’m getting out of here.”

After first taking a deep breath, Himeno brought both of her hands up to her mouth, a look of resignation about her, like she figured she had no choice but to do it.

“WAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The sounds of the ship’s engine and the wind drowned out the sound enough so that no one heard her except for me. However, her voice echoed in my ears, and it was twice as loud as I imagined it would be. I felt like the ship was shaking… But it was only just a feeling. The ship wasn’t actually shaking from that, of course.

From the way she spoke and acted, she seemed like kind of a downer. Or rather, she was someone who was pretty reserved and had a quiet, subdued voice. As it turned out, she had a tremendously loud one.

“Phew… That feels better.” Himeno nodded her head in satisfaction, seemingly unconcerned about my shock.

“Right? Screaming was worth it for me too,” I told her.

She gave me a cold look. “No, you really didn’t scream at all though.”

“Well… I think I probably could’ve done better if I were feeling stressed.”

“Really? You don’t look it though.”

“You were even better than I thought. You must be under a lot of stress.”

“Huh? I’m gonna kill you, y’know?” she huffed, with a sharp glare.

She was the sort of person who resorted to using her mouth before using her hands and feet when she was angry.

“I went a little too far,” I admitted. I apologized to her sincerely, but she didn’t seem like was offended. Maybe Himeno had a fearless side to her, after all.

“I’m headed back to my room,” she announced.

“All right. Sorry for holding you up.”

“If you know you did something wrong, then that’s good at least,” she said, and then she headed back inside.

“Guess I’ll head back to my room too,” I said aloud to no one in particular.

I knew that I had just been to a post-exam party to relax after giving it our all on the island, but even so, I was unusually exhausted. I had a feeling I was going to sleep very deeply that night.