Seen Through the Eyes of Goodwill

Chapter- 5

"What do we have here?"

"An unfortunate coincidence."

Ryuuen's voice made everyone else silent. Even Kanzaki stiffened up a little, but Horikita answered him without any hesitation.

"It is an interesting coincidence, hope you put up a good show for me. Suzune," as if intentionally to throw her off he added her name in the end.

"How many times do I need to warn you to not use my first name freely?"

Ryuuen chuckled in an irritating way. Taking his seat he started scanning the other members. His eyes stopped at Matsushita, as if trying to figure out why she was here. I gave him a dry smile when his gaze caught mine, and he flashed his annoying grin.

He took a seat beside Ayanokouji. This does not look good for Ayanokouji, hopefully Horikita takes care of things on her side. Beside Ryuuen sat Kaneda, he was top on the academic leaderboard of Class C last time I checked it.

Beside Kaneda was a white haired girl, she looked at everyone with a calming smile. Perhaps she is the one called Shiina Hiyori.

Katsuragi sat opposite to us, monitoring the flow of things carefully. Once everyone was seated it was time to bear our fangs at each other.

"It is time, we should introduce ourselves," I announced in a polite tone.

Kanzaki taking my lead continued with the introductions by his class, every class did that since it was the first assigned test to start the test.

"So what is the plan here?"

Once everyone was done introducing, Ryuuen was the first one to speak up. He looked at Kanzaki as he spoke.

"I would like to hear what Katsuragi has to say before offering my own opinion."

Speaking in a collected manner Kanzaki threw the ball in Katsuragi's court. All the gazes landed on Katsuragi, as if waiting for him to make his move.

"I don't plan to do anything, talking is not the best move for this test."

Everyone stared at him with question marks hanging over their heads, the students beside Katsuragi nodded in sync. Perhaps it was preplanned.

"How do you plan to find the VIP without talking?" Kanzaki inquired.

"It is simple, I don't plan to." Katsuragi answered instantly as if expecting it.

"Huh?" I made a sound unintentionally.

"Discussing will only invite more confusion and misunderstanding, then someone will make a mistake for the VIP and end up taking damage."

Something felt off in his words, it might be true one would avoid mistakes that way. But was it really the solution to the test?

Ryuuen, Kanzaki and Horikita stared at him sharply, but he sat there with his arms crossed.

Only one phrase popped into mind, 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained.'

Playing safe was never an option, I had decided well before the test started that attacking was the only defense for us. And Katsuragi was sitting there trying to crush that motivation of mine by suddenly asking everyone to give up on fighting and sit silently like sages.

"Interesting opinion," Ryuuen said in a sarcastic manner.

"You just want to play safe Katsuragi. We are here to discuss things and find the VIP, not just come and go then let the them escape."

Kanzaki said it as an indirect attack.

"I understand that this test is about our 'thinking', but that does not mean it nullifies the demand of 'communication'."