Chapter 10: Who Is the Challenger?

Chapter 10: Who Is the Challenger?

Chapter 10:

Who Is the Challenger?

S OCIAL GROUP CAME ENDED, and despite the changes it brought about in the relationships between students, our regular school lives resumed as usual.

It was my habit to meet up with Kei in the mornings, either in my room or in the lobby, and then we would go to class together, as was the established custom, but not today. About twenty minutes earlier than usual, I left my room alone, took the elevator down to the lobby, and then headed outside.

It was awfully chilly today, with fierce winds blowing. Soon it would be the end of February, and next month was probably going to be busier than I’d ever been. First, I needed to deal with the matter of Karuizawa Kei. That wouldn’t require anything special. All I needed to do was proceed with my originally planned process, so long as it was quiet.

Next was the matter of Ichinose Honami, the class leader who couldn’t pull ahead among the four classes, and who saw that there would be tough times ahead if she tried to fight with the other three classes. Her reading of the situation was correct, and now, as the end of our second year was approaching, she was currently in a slump, languishing in Class D. However…unlike the issue of Kei, that trajectory might require correction.

It would probably be best to draw a conclusion after the results of the year-end final exams came out. No matter what kind of growth Ichinose demonstrated, there wouldn’t be any change to the overall outline. I had thought it would be fine to proceed with my plans as I had originally envisioned them; however…

It was just one thing, but a problem that I hadn’t expected arose, which forced me to make some changes to my plans. While this would inevitably result in some harmful effects, change wasn’t always a terrible thing. Just as soon as I started walking along the route to class, I immediately came to a stop.

“You’re early,” I remarked.

At the end of my line of sight, I saw someone waiting. I didn’t realize that she was already waiting, since it was still a little while before we were scheduled to meet. She didn’t hear me, and occasionally exhaled white clouds, but then she noticed my gaze.

“Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun.”

“Morning. Sorry for asking you to come out so early in the morning.”

“It’s all right. So, what did you want to talk to me about? Is it something that would be difficult to say over the phone?”

As classmates, we had the kind of relationship where we knew each other’s contact information just as a matter of course. Normally, we could contact each other just with a single call or text on our phones. The fact that I didn’t do so raised some questions.

“Yeah, maybe, in a sense,” I replied.

Horikita stood next to me and eventually, we started to walk in step with each other.

“In a sense? That sounds loaded. What a frightening way of expressing it,” said Horikita.

“It’s nothing so alarming,” I replied.

“Really?” asked Horikita.

Horikita looked at me with suspicion in her eyes, but she wasn’t as prickly and hostile as when we first met. Her eyes also had a softness to them, the sort that you could have no qualms about describing as growing from a natural friendship.

“When I talk with you, Horikita, we often talk about things related to special exams and the class. But sometimes, for just a brief moment, I want to talk to you about subjects unrelated to those things,” I told her.

“Hm? Sorry, I don’t really understand what you’re getting at. What do you mean?” asked Horikita.

In my head, I had first imagined this all being more informal, but I decided that phrasing could end up making the other person feel awkward, which is why I put it the way I did. Upon reflection, I regret to say that my words came out sounding clumsier than I had planned for.

“I wanted to have a meaningless conversation with you, Horikita, free from self-interest. If I put it that way, would you understand?” I asked.

“…I see?” replied Horikita.

She gestured like she was giving it some thought, but it sounded like she was lost.

“Anyway Horikita, we’ve become classmates, but we won’t have opportunities to talk like this forever,” I told her.

“Forever? That’s kind of hyperbolic. While that’s technically true, we still have more than a year until graduation, right? You don’t need to call me like this; I’m fine chatting with you anytime,” said Horikita.

“But if I were to get expelled in the final exam, then I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore, would I?” I replied.

“That’s quite a leap. There’s no way you would be expelled. Or that’s what I would say, but seeing as how easy it is for you to get a common-sense question wrong, I suppose maybe it is surprisingly possible…” said Horikita.

Horikita chuckled a little after giving such a serious answer, as though she found herself amusing.

“Wait, don’t tell me. Are you feeling anxious? That you might get expelled from school? Is that why you wanted to talk to me so early in the morning…?”

“I am a little traumatized from the last special exam.”

“In that case, why don’t you try and study some common-sense questions? You’re good at studying,” said Horikita, quipping at me as if to say, “ Come on, you know what you’re bad at, right?”

“Then I ask you, Horikita: Can you remember terminology from games and anime as well as you can study?” I asked.

“Huh? …I’m not so sure about that. Before, when Onizuka-kun was rather aggressively trying to sell me on some game thing, he said ‘DP’…something or other. And I think ‘DEF’ too. And then ‘cooldown’ or something like that. But my brain just refused to remember those words and their meanings…”

“In my case, it feels kind of like that. I just can’t seem to make myself willingly want to learn it,” I explained.

Basically, I was trying to say that while I had a voracious appetite for learning, even I could be fussy or particular about the subjects.

“Don’t worry. Even if we’re not trying to cast you in a favorable light, from our class’s point of view, you are an absolutely indispensable presence. If you get hit with those common-sense problems you’re so bad at, I will definitely support you. So, in other words, there is no way you will be expelled,” Horikita reassured me in her clear and definitive way.

“In that case, I’m relieved,” I replied.

Horikita had seriously engaged with me in conversation about that topic, but then she gave my shoulder a left-handed chop. Thwap!

“Are you seriously worried about being expelled? Because you don’t look it. What did you really want to talk about here?” said Horikita.

“Actually, I’m not worried about myself, but more about the possibility of you being expelled, Horikita,” I replied.

“That does sound more realistic, I suppose,” she huffed.

Horikita made a face like she was offended and angry, but didn’t seem serious about it, and quickly went back to normal. Compared to when we first started school here, the variation of Horikita’s human emotions, like joy, anger, sadness, and pleasure, had grown greatly.

“The last special exam ended with only Kamuro’s expulsion. But next time, it might amount to more than that,” I told her.

“…So, we’re looking at a new expulsion happening,” said Horikita.

“Yeah. At least one person from our grade level, at a minimum. Depending on the content and how it unfolds, it’s possible that several may disappear.”

“…That many?”

“It would be better to think of it that way. The school told us before, remember? They told us that there weren’t students getting expelled in our grade level and our school careers have been progressing with low dropout rates,” I answered.

“So, they’re going to force us to take an exam that will increase the number of students who get expelled? That’s… Well, that’s a little tyrannical. There haven’t been that many failures in our grade level. Normally, that should be a good thing,” said Horikita.

That was true, if you looked at it in a positive light. However, sometimes, the act of screening became a high-handed necessity.

“I suppose it depends on how it looks to the outside world. For one, the government is involved in this school’s operation. Supposing if their set goal is that ten students are tossed out per year, then that would mean that our year hasn’t met that quota. If they simply interpreted that to mean that we’re an excellent grade, that would be fine, sure, but whether the people in charge are aware of or care about those details is unknown,” I replied.

“You’re saying that the school is going to make the curriculum stricter to align with policy decided by the government?” asked Horikita.

“Actually, they were forced to change zero to one last year because no one had been expelled. I wouldn’t be surprised even if multiple students were to be expelled as a result of the year-end final exam,” I replied.

That was the advice I had gotten from a third-year student over winter vacation. I had to wonder if that would apply to more than the Survival and Elimination Special Exam. However, the truth was that the third-year students shouldn’t have been told anything about the future of the second-year students.

“Don’t you think this is just…overthinking things?” asked Horikita.

“It’s just speculation, of course. I just feel that way based on my perspective, from what I can see at the moment. But I can’t show any concrete evidence,” I told her.

“In that case… All right, then. I’d like for you to work hard,” said Horikita, asking for my cooperation half seriously and half jokingly.

However, my mind had already been made up.

“If there is a situation at the end of the school year where I can lend a hand,” I told her, “I will do everything I can to help.”

“That’s another answer that is very unlike you,” said Horikita, “I feel like you’ve been awfully cooperative lately. A little too cooperative. Like with the recent matter of training. You didn’t even make a sour face when we talked about the matter of Amasawa-san.”

“There have been lots of situations before now where I’ve left everything to someone else,” I replied, “I need to lend a hand, at least a little.”

“An admirable endeavor. But…as I thought, this isn’t like you. It’s out of character for you to be this cooperative,” said Horikita.

“Who can say? Maybe it’s some kind of trap,” I replied.

“I would rather you not, if possible,” huffed Horikita.

At this point, Horikita and I looked each other in the eye. Perhaps the same thought had gone through our minds at the same time.

“Even though you invited me to chat with you about nothing, we ended up talking about exams anyway,” Horikita chuckled.

“Guess so. That kind of defeats the purpose of calling you out here. Okay. Exam talk is over.”

With that, I had brought an end to that topic.

“By the way,” I remarked, “I heard the results from Kushida. It sounds like you put up a good fight, but you lost against Amasawa.”

“She really is strong after all, that girl. Even though I cast aside my pride and fought her two on one, in the end, we still couldn’t beat her.”

However, Horikita and Ibuki had landed some hits on Amasawa, from what I heard, and as a result, Amasawa had acknowledged the two of them for it.

“I’m sure you’ll put up an even better fight next time,” I told her.

“Two-on-one?” asked Horikita.

“You don’t like that?” I asked.

“No. Besides, Ibuki-san said that she was never going to team up with me ever again.”

“Don’t worry. She’s rather forgetful.”

“Come on, that’s an overstatement,” replied Horikita, chuckling. “Speaking of, as soon as we started fighting, Amasawa-san seemed to notice your influence. But she seemed rather happy about it. What’s your relationship with her?” asked Horikita.

“She’s an ex-girlfriend,” I replied.

“Are you being serious right now? Or are you joking?” asked Horikita.

“Sorry, that was a joke,” I answered.

“If that’s true, that’s not funny at all,” Horikita replied harshly. “I would like to hear the truth come out of your mouth sometime, Ayanokouji-kun.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. But don’t—”

“Expect anything from you. Yes, I know,” said Horikita.

Horikita’s eyes creased happily as she showed me a brief smile, and then her face changed again. I guessed that I was also learning a lot of things from Horikita, although this relationship between us would soon be over. In the days to come, Horikita might go through some of the most painful experiences she has ever had. But there was no need to continue to be anxious. In the future, she would be guided by both her own personal growth and the support of her fellow classmates.

10.1

N OW, WE ROLL BACK the clock a bit to before Horikita and I walked to school, and even back before Social Group. To a time shortly before we left for camp, when Hashimoto came to my room, looking for help. Why did Hashimoto commit a seemingly foolhardy act of betrayal? Why did he take on that risk, and why at that point in time? The traitor himself divulged many of those particular details to me.

“…Before I continue, there’s something I really want to confirm with you, Ayanokouji,” said Hashimoto.

Hashimoto must’ve had extraordinary determination to bring this up with me. The thing he wanted to confirm was just how much information I had at the moment—a crucial factor in his mind.

“Ryuuen invited me to betray my class long before that special exam. Not on the level of a temporary partnership or anything like that, but on the premise of transferring classes,” said Hashimoto.

Of course, there wasn’t any benefit for Hashimoto in transferring to Ryuuen’s class, as he was enrolled in Class A. Putting aside cases like with Katsuragi, who had lost his place, if Hashimoto was saying ‘long before,’ then he was talking about a time when Class A had established an even more stable position than they were in right now.

“Of course, I didn’t take his offer seriously at first. But soon afterward, Ryuuen told me that I would definitely regret it at the end of the school year if I didn’t transfer classes,” said Hashimoto.

“Regret it? Because Ryuuen himself is convinced that he’ll win?” I asked.

“By the sound of it, not even you know about it, huh. By ‘it,’ I mean the particulars of the bet that Ryuuen and Sakayanagi agreed upon.”

“A bet, huh. I don’t know if this is the same thing, but I did hear a little bit about some brief exchange they had during the previous Uninhabited Island Special Exam. Unfortunately, I don’t have a grasp on the exact details of that.”

At my response, Hashimoto rubbed his fingers together and made a sound, as if that was precisely what he had wanted to hear.

“That’s great. Then it made sense for me to come here after all,” he said.

The corners of Hashimoto’s mouth curved up into a small smile after receiving my confirmation on the gist of the story. Then, Hashimoto laid out the details of the bet that had been made between the two parties.

“When I first heard it, I thought it was a joke, but apparently they were serious.” concluded Hashimoto.

“I see. So it was at that time that the impetus for your betrayal in the Survival and Elimination Special Exam arose, then,” I replied.

It was at this stage that it became clear to me that Hashimoto did not simply act on a whim.

“I mean, it ain’t unreasonable to have some doubts about the bet itself though, right? No matter how you look at it, there are more inconveniences for Sakayanagi,” he said.

“Yeah. But knowing Sakayanagi, she wouldn’t turn down the bet because of those inconveniences,” I answered.

Sakayanagi was the type of person who believed she would be victorious in the end, just as much as Ryuuen.