Chapter- 5
Four of us reached the appointed room half an hour before the given time, the lower deck was a little crowded as it seemed like many students were here to see who belongs to which group.
We entered the empty room and took our seats. The chairs were arranged in a big circle, perhaps to promote discussion. We sat beside each other. I and Horikita took the middle seat, Ayanokouji sat beside Horikita and Matsushita was on my side.
"Seems like it will have time to talk at length," Horikita mentioned.
"Well, it works for us."
I did not exactly state that it worked for us because we didn't have the VIP in our class, I don't want someone to accidentally or intentionally overhear us.
We were far too early than the designated time. We had nothing to do, maybe I should check around if this room has any voice recorders set in it by school. But even if it did have any, I doubt we would find it easily.
Horikita took out her phone and got immersed in it, she was not very talkative with most students so I wonder what she might be doing in it.
"Ichinose-san, how are things going with the other groups?" Matsushita broke the ice.
"I would say everyone is quite pumped up. The results of the island test have increased the morale of the whole class."
"Sounds cool, by the way..... . . ."
We chatted with each other in a low voice as Horikita used her phone and Ayanokouji sat on his seat staring at the door. We would occasionally involve those two but they would leave once their part was said.
After 10 more minutes, with a click, the door opened. I stared at it in anticipation, trying to guess who might it be.
Kanzaki entered the room with other members of his class, he was a little surprised to see us. Through the open door two people were visible, they were Ryuuen and Katsuragi.
They both stood facing each other as if staring at their prey, Katsuragi's face was still in battle mode just like it was in the gym. But right now he looked prepared more than worried.
Kanzaki took a seat beside Matsushita and the other members of his class followed him in succession.
"Nice to meet you again, Ichinose."
"Nice to meet you as well, Kanzaki-kun."
"It seems like the results of the island test took a rather unexpected turn for all the classes."
"Haha, seems so."
If I remember right, then his class scored approximately 80 points. Just if we would not have been able to guess their leader they would have been in Class A this very moment. He had successfully closed his distance to the top, this is a deciding test for him and his class. I wonder how he will progress.
"The lower classes surely had closed distance with the upper classes, you all became a potential threat now."
"Well, you did refrain from helping us when we asked for help. Perhaps you were right to be cautious of us."
"Not that it matters now, after this test our class will ascend to become Class A and we will keep rising."
"Seems like you have a plan for it."
"Of course. I wonder if you all have a plan."
"We will see soon."
Matsushita kept looking at us one by one as if trying to grasp which of us will outdo the other. More members stepped into the room soon.
"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'."
I launched my attacks as well.
"You all can discuss as much as you want, Class A will not be participating in it."
He didn't even attempt to defend his opinion, perhaps he understood that his words were fooling no one. We all could not force him to conversate either, Ryuuen's palm twitched from anger but he adapted to the situation soon.
All class A students stood up and gained some distance from the circle. They were far but still well within the earshot, so they can actually hear us.
"Kukuku, you won't escape me, Katsuragi." Ryuuen said in a menacing tone as he looked at Katsuragi sitting afar.
"How do you plan for us to proceed, Kanzaki-kun?" I asked Kanzaki.
Kanzaki looked at Katsuragi one last time and sighed.
"I would say let us discuss everything fairly amongst each other, if by the end any of us is not sure who the VIP is then we can sign a deal with VIP for pursuing Outcome#1."
"Now, what nonsense are you spouting?" Ryuuen snapped.
Indeed it was not funny anymore how both the leaders are coming up with bizarre ideas.
"Hear me out calmly, it is actually possible."
"Let us assume that I make an online group consisting of all members of 'dragon group'. You all join it with anonymous accounts, where we sign a memorandum," He waited for a moment to see other's reactions.
"A memorandum about what?" Horikita did not give him much time though.
"All four classes pool a certain amount of points, say 100,000, for the VIP. We will ask the VIP to reveal their identity not just after the test is over, but in the last half hour window provided by school to pursue Outcome#1 or #2. We all will submit the given name and if the name is correct then we will pay VIP the given amount of points."
[Author's note: I will try to take a reference from real LN about this; In volume 1 chapter 5 Ichinose posts a question on school form asking for information on Sudou and Class C. At that time when she receives an answer from an anonymous account Ayanokouji helps her to pay the mysterious helper (also the time when he discovers that Ichinose has an insane amount of points). Kanzaki is also talking about same method to pay the VIP]
"Sounds good, but what if the VIP does not want to reveal their name due to privacy issues?"
"Indeed, in case the VIP holds higher value for their privacy than gaining more than double the reward then it can't be helped. This might not work either if the VIP is in a Class that already receives a large amount of private points each month and would not want other classes to get more private points."
Kanzaki said as he looked at Katsuragi, then he continued. Ryuuen heard him out with a bored expression on his face.
"But still, if we all can't find the VIP by the end of the test or let's say someone has a rough idea but does not want to take risk of mistaking then following this solution would be the ideal choice."
His strategy was truly exceptional, it could actually work in groups with underconfident students and maybe in this group as well but it would have a slim chance. That makes me feel that there is some other hidden intention behind his move.
Perhaps he plans to crush our motivations to find the VIP by giving us an easy way out of this. I sense that he wanted to play safe like Katsuragi but he knows this is his chance to actually climb up, so he devised a strategy that would keep most of the unconfident groups safe from penalties while the elite groups of his class garner points.
"Tch, useless." Ryuuen rolled his eyes once Kanzaki was done.
"Perhaps we will discuss this strategy in more detail in the penultimate stages of the test."
I curbed his poison before it could reach other members, if they relied on this strategy then they will not participate in discussion with the vigour they should and end up losing a chance to gain class points.
"Kukuku, how do you plan to do this, Ichinose?" I felt a little relieved by the fact that he did not use my first name.
"I would like to hear you out first, Ryuuen-kun. You are in a superior class than me." Although it was true, I had a hint of sarcasm in my words.
"It is simple, I know the names of all the VIPs of Class C, if three classes sitting here share the information about all VIPs then we can easily bypass the school rules. We will crush Class A with this once and for all."
That sounds like some nonsense only Ryuuen can say, one after another each leader came up with nonsensical ideas and I had the same for them. Perhaps what seems senseless now will take shape into a heinous weapon as the test matures.
On hearing Ryuuen, Katsuragi's expression which supposedly did not have any room left to grow stiffer just grew stiffer.
I was asked to monitor him but actually there is nothing much to monitor about him since he is pretty much silent.
"This plan is pretty unrealistic, it would have been a little credible if it was proposed by anyone except you," Horikita shot down his bold idea without thinking twice.
"How do we know that you have all the Class C VIPs?" asked Kanzaki.
No one was ready to believe him.
"It's natural that you wouldn't trust me. In that case, why don't we make a contract? We'll pledge to share the identities of our three VIPs and go after Class A. That way, our three classes will benefit, but Class A won't."
"The possibility of someone turning traitor kills that proposal we don't know when you or I might turn traitor, Ryuuen," Kanzaki pointed out.
"Let's say I turn traitor, even then you will have the names of the VIPs of my class. You can always use them to get back to me."
Ryuuen was not backing off either.
Kanzaki went deep into thoughts, perhaps he was considering Ryuuen's plan.
"I have to disagree with Ryuuen-kun, even if a Class turns traitor we will not know which one did it. Let's say Class D gives all the names of your VIP before the test ends, you will not be able to find out if it was Class D or Class B that actually did it."
"I have a very simple solution to that Ichinose; it is to kick you out of this deal. If only two classes do it then there will be no room for confusion."
"Do you think only you two alone can do it? I doubt it would be sufficient to take down Class A," Horikita spoke up.
"Getting Class D into this deal is simply a waste of time, there's no denying that. Even if Suzune wanted to agree, there's a reason why she can't," said Ryuuen.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Horikita.
"You already know what I'm getting at, don't you? For this strategy to
work, you need to understand your own class perfectly. For Class D, which lacks any spirit of teamwork, this is an impossible undertaking. right? It's also impossible for Class A, since they're split into two factions."
Ryuuen touched the sour spot of our class. He caught Katsuragi's attention this time.
"The results of the island test said otherwise," Horikita made a comeback using our splendid results from the last test.
"That bluff would have worked on anyone but me, Suzune."
Indeed, Ryuuen remained unfazed whenever those results were brought up. Our conversation last time proved that he had many things figured out already.
This is not heading in the right direction.
"Hm? Bluff?" Kanzaki looked at Ryuuen with a questioning expression.
"Their leader was changed on the last day on the island, do you know of anyone among these apes who can actually think of that?"
Katsuragi and his class looked at the events unfold with even greater interest than before, just by looking at him I know that he is playing the island test in his mind to find the hidden links.
"I did figure out that the leader was changed but now that you say I wonder who would have been the one to come up with that idea."
Kanzaki said as he looked at me. But before I can speak to provide some cover Ryuuen spoke up again.
"Indeed, there are some suspicious characters, for instance take this moron sitting beside me." Ryuuen slithered his arm around Ayanokouji's shoulder.
"What about him?"
"Not only was he the leader that retired but on top of that he is placed in Dragon group, which has the star players of each class. Don't you say someone like him might be the one pulling the strings behind the scenes?"
My heart was about to freeze but there was no time for that.
"Ryuuen, even after knowing that our leader has been changed you made a mistake in guessing the new leader. And now you are trying to target someone like Ayanokouji?" I had found the opening to launch the attack.
"How pathetic." (Horikita)
"What? You knew the leader was replaced?" Kanzaki tried his best to sound calm, but his tone grew sharp.
According to what Ayanokouji explained Class B and Class C seemed like they were in a cooperative relationship. At the end of the island test Ryuuen had mentioned he had names of leaders of two classes and our class was one of them, that leaves Class A and B. He also mentioned that other Classes had written our name and given the low score of Class A it is safe to assume that Class B was the other Class that had the name of our leader.
It just dawned upon me. Moments ago when Ryuuen was talking about our strategy, the fact that we fooled the whole class would have sounded more convincing to prove the existence of a mysterious leader but still Ryuuen did not mention it to Kanzaki. On top of that Kanzaki did not mention getting the name of any new leader either, that means there was a slight chance Ryuuen had betrayed Kanzaki and not given him the name of the replaced leader.
Once I figured out that opening I pounced at it, even though my heart was racing fast I had kept my breathing and voice controlled.
Ryuuen gave a broad grin to Kanzaki and that was when the trust Kanzaki put on Ryuuen was broken, looking at Ryuuen's expression he apparently expected it to happen at one point but not now.
"I see, so that is how it is," Kanzaki composed himself.
"I must say that I won't be willing to cooperate with you in this VIP exchange plan of your Ryuuen."
Topic had shifted smoothly far from Ayanokouji, but Ryuuen still had his arm over his shoulder.
"Now that you know that, I will tell you I guessed the wrong name of the leader. Do you know why?"
"You were played by them twice, it was a double trap." Kanzaki said in a sharp voice.
"Exactly, who do you think would be able to play me twice?"
Kanzaki looked at Ayanokouji, who was sitting silently without moving a muscle. If he appeared even a little flustered Ryuuen would pounce upon him. It was uncanny how all 3 of us were acting so calmly in this desperate situation while the other students existed on an undefined level of confusion.
"Are you saying that it is this guy?" Kanzaki asked.
"You never know."
"Well, I'm sorry, but what you're saying is complete nonsense. It's a child's excuse, used because he's upset that he lost and needs to resort to fantasy. Does it embarrass you that two girls managed to see through your schemes?" Horikita took the lead this time.
Ryuuen tried to ignore her as if she made no sense, but the seed of doubt had germinated in Kanzaki by now.
"You are stupid Horikita, you can't think of a strategy of that level."
"I have got nothing to tell you about my strategy."
"Are you sure that this is the guy, Ryuuen?" Kanzaki brought the topic back to Ayanokouji!
"Perhaps, on sniffing around I found out that this guy was actually sick. So he might not be the one but him being in this group makes me have other ideas."
"I see."
"Anyways, The fact that you are in this group must mean that you have some connection to the one I am talking about, tell whoever it is that better stay low until I reach Class A." Ryuuen turned to Ayanokouji and spoke. But Ayanokouji remained silent.
After a moment of silence he spoke.
"Horikita, can you explain all this to me again?" Although he said it in an apathetic tone, he sounded genuinely confused.
"Pfff." Matsushita-san beside me chuckled.
Ryuuen got his hands off Ayanokouji out of disgust.
"So you have kept him in the dark as well."
"You asked me to put up a show for you, but you entertained me well with your's, Ryuuen. Hope you can face reality soon."
Horikita said it like some teacher who rebuked their student for getting the wrong answer and is now waiting for the student to get the right answer in the next attempt.
"I think we can discuss what happened in the last test after this session ends, for now we should focus on the ongoing test." I changed the topic again, this was a close call.
"Seems like no one is going to follow your plan now." Horikita reprimanded him again. But Ryuuen knew that he would need to change his strategy soon.
There was a moment of silence then Kanzaki looked at the watch placed in the room.
"I would have liked to hear your thoughts, Ichinose. But it seems like this session has come to an end." Kanzaki had regained his composure back by now, apparently he was in a hurry to have a private discussion with Ryuuen.
"Haha, sure thing. I will let you know next time I guess."
With that the session ended and all four of us left, followed by Class A. I must say most of the students were silent all along this meeting as a result I caught them spacing out at times, but among all of them I felt that the girl named Shiina Hiyori never lost focus even once. Same can be said for Matsushita, somehow I have a feeling that these two were able to extract a rough idea of what was going on from the conversation of the Dragon group.
(Author's note: I opened a new discord server dedicated to Classroom of the elite and specifically Ichinose.
Link: https: https://discord.gg/eWrrMfV5Bt (also present in comment section)
Your choice to join, would be happy to see you there.)