The White Room Report

A New Path Opens

Normally, one might be able to rule out an individual such as Hosen due to the fact he was a sort of "celebrity" back in middle school, but neither Ryuuen nor Akito had actually come into contact with him in person. In other words, it was possible that the imposter had actually contacted the real Hosen and taken his identity.

As for Nanase, even though she showed no direct malice aimed towards me, upon delving deeper there were several factors that could not be ignored. Such as the method she used to get close to me, her attitude after we left the karaoke parlor, and the reason she had decided to contact me in the first place.

And then there was the anomaly known as Ichika Amasawa, undoubtedly her attitude thus far has been extraordinary, to say the least. Despite her friendly demeanor, she had teamed up with Hosen to get me expelled. But, she may have simply been aiming for the 20 million bounty on my head.

In any case, I still didn't have a single shred of actual evidence to connect any of the people I just listed to the White Room.

'If I show any weakness now, I may just be swallowed whole.'

Walking into the classroom, I noticed the gazes of my classmates who bore witness to my new found injury.

Without a word, I made my way to my desk while the others took quick glances at me all throughout the morning. Soon enough, the rest of the members of the Ayanokouji group made their way inside the class and before they were even able to question me, Chabashira-sensei had entered the classroom.

"Seats everyone, we will begin class shortly."

All throughout the periods, I couldn't help but notice the looks I was getting from both my classmates and Chabashira-sensei. At first, I noticed her gaze when we were completing a History assignment on a piece of paper, to that I simply brushed it off as her concern or simply her interest in the incident that took place with Hosen. Yet, as I noticed her looking at me, I raised my head and met her eyes which weren't filled with the usual gaze she always had. Instead, her eyes seemed to be filled with actual concern and sympathy, and as soon as our eyes met, she quickly looked away. 

'There's something wrong, I know there is.'

The day continued on like this, I felt uncomfortable in the classroom all throughout the day.

'Hopefully, my life gets better, or at least, can it not be like this tomorrow?'

During the 6th and final period of the day, the few last minutes of class were cast aside for the exam results.

"I will now present the results of the special exam. While everything will be displayed up here on the blackboard, it will also be displayed on your tablets. You can check what you want in detail there."

Thanks to the tablet, we could zoom in on the scores we wanted to check without even looking at the board.

'Now Horikita is looking at me.'

I could feel Horikita's eyes fixated on me, there was no doubt this was because of our agreement. This special exam had included some of the most difficult problems yet, thus it was unlikely for us to get the same score.

On the day of the exam, Horikita had chosen math as the subject for the two of us to compete over.

Before long, the screen on the blackboard swapped over and the test results were displayed for us all to bear witness to.

Most of the other students didn't care all that much for the scores of others but rather their own. I, on the other hand, prioritized looking at the scores of my classmates.