Ayanokōji's POV
I began my return toward the guest room where Shiro was waiting for her brother later than usual this time.
Back before the first meeting of this special test, I'd organised a discussion with a certain person, off out of the way in the opposite direction of the meeting rooms where no students were at the time.
And now, as a result of that discussion, I had just rendezvoused with a different person at that very same location.
Although it was the middle of the afternoon, when you'd expect the most activity out on the deck, the area of the ship that I was at was rather deserted. That's because this was the far end of the cruise liner, around where the meeting rooms for the current special exam were located.
It seemed to be some sort of psychological effect – after an hour of spending time within their groups, wherein they were constantly reminded of the strenuous special exam that is in progress, students wanted to get a change of scenery to wind down.
Consequently, it was ideal to hold meetings at this area of the ship right after the special exam discussions if you wanted them to be hidden from the public eye. Unfortunately, it seemed to be pointless, though, as the discussion had eventually broken down and lead nowhere.
As expected, while I was walking back towards the guest rooms, I ended up walking through the densely packed part of the deck – where all of the various luxuries were, like cafés, swimming pools, the theatre, arcade, massage spa, and everything else you could imagine.
Students were making full use of these facilities to enjoy their vacation, even in the midst of the Zodiac test.
I spotted some familiar faces; there was Kushida and her friends having fun and playing in a swimming pool, clad in dangerously lascivious swimsuits. Kushida was particularly magnetic to the male eye, her swimsuit erotically supplementing her perfect figure and generous proportions.
I quickly averted my eyes to prevent any unwanted reactions from occurring.
There was also Ichinose and her friends, who had joined two café tables together and appeared to be blissfully chatting about some funny and interesting things.
As I observed all the different groups enjoying their youth, I felt a little left out. It's not like I could ever join any of them, however, so I pushed those sorts of feelings aside and carried on.
Twenty minutes later than I normally did, I arrived at the guest room I was allocated to, unlocked the door, and stepped into the dimly lit room. And, there, I was met with a peculiar sight.
Shiro was curled up on her bed, as she usually was, but she was trembling much more noticeably than usual now. She seemed to be aware of my presence in the room, but didn't move to acknowledge me.
No, but more importantly...
"Sora isn't here...?"
I arrived twenty minutes later than usual due to a rendezvous I'd arranged, which meant that Sora definitely should've gotten here before I did. That, however, didn't appear to be the case.
Moreover, I inferred that he hadn't planned to be late – if he had, he would've definitely told Shiro about it, and then she wouldn't be this frightened by his absence.
Of course, Shiro is always frightened by Sora's absence, but her fright was clearly heightened this time around – she didn't know why Sora wasn't here yet, or why he wasn't. And that scared her.
I felt a bit awkward as I shut the door behind me, since I didn't really know what I was supposed to do in this situation. Shiro's situation was a delicate one, so acting or speaking carelessly could land me in quite a bit of trouble.
Thusly, I simply sat on my bed and silently pulled out my phone, deciding not to disturb Shiro. If she wanted me to speak, she would've initiated conversation herself.
After around five minutes of silence, though, something unexpected happened. Shiro spoke up to me, alone, for the first time.
"Ayanokōji..."
Taken aback, I took a few beats to formulate a response.
"Hm? What is it?"
"Do... you know... where Nii is...?"
Shiro uncurled a little, and peaked just her eyes out over her knees to look at me. I didn't miss the tears formed in the corner of her eyes, but acted as if I didn't notice them.
While I hated to make Shiro sad, it was impossible to lie in this situation. I shook my head slowly.
"I'm sorry. I haven't seen him."
"I—... I..."
Shiro was probably trying to say, 'I see', but the words got caught in her throat.
She once more buried her face in her knees. Making sure to move silently, I moved across the room and sat down beside the timid Shiro. She froze for a second, presumably because she felt the bed move as I sat.
Unsure of whether I was doing the right or thing or not, I hesitantly reached out my hand.
"H-huh...?"
I gently stroked the top of Shiro's head. Her silky hair was incredibly soft and smooth, and it had a completely different texture to my own. I felt a completely foreign sensation – this way of communicating just by the contact between my hand and her head.
"Ayano...kōji...? What are you..."
"Sora does this a lot, right? Do you dislike it?"
At first, Shiro was hesitant, but didn't pull away either. Now, though, she subtly leaned into my touch, and let out a soft breath.
"Nii... he stroked my hair often... when I was little."
If a certain action was done repeatedly as comfort, the person in question would inevitably begin to rely on it as a calming mechanism. After observing these siblings for some months now, I concluded that such was the case with Shiro.
The outcome of somebody other than Sora trying this with Shiro was dubious at best, especially in a situation like these, but everything seems to be turning out all right so far.
"I see. I'm sorry for suddenly doing this."
"It's... okay. Nii told me to try trusting people... other than him."
So, Shiro is attempting to trust me, eh? Well, I couldn't say I disliked the feeling.
"Do you have any idea of where Sora could be?" I asked.
"Nii has been acting... strange... recently. But I don't know where he might've gone," Shiro answered after a slight pause.
I had noticed that too. Although Shiro most definitely had a more in-depth understanding of the nuances of Sora's behaviour, I myself had picked up on what she was talking about.
For the past day or two, Sora had seemed like something was bothering him. Yesterday, when I walked back here with him, he appeared as if he was going to tell me, only to brush it off as him being worried about Shiro.
An obvious lie, but not one that would've been appropriate to call out at the time.
"So, we have nothing to go off of, huh..." I murmured.
"I don't know where he's gone," Shiro repeated. "But... I know where Nii is..."
Huh? I found myself a little lost for words for a moment. Did they have a psychic connection or something?
"You do? How?" I asked eventually.
Wordlessly answering me, Shiro pulled out her phone and navigated a few menus in silence. Then she handed the phone to me. As I took it and peered at the screen, I suddenly understood what she'd meant.
"Ah, right. I'd forgotten about this."
Installed in every phone was a GPS function. And, with the phones we were provided with by the school, it was possible to see the GPS location of any other student as long as you had their contact.
Upon learning about this feature, almost all students had disabled it; even I had to admit, having your location broadcasted constantly to everybody on your contacts list was unnaturally creepy. For that reason, I too had turned the feature off.
It would be even worse for people like Kushida and Ichinose, who probably had countless contacts in their phones by now. Constantly sending your location to that many people was a recipe for disaster, and unwanted attention would inevitably occur.
It seemed like Sora and Shiro still had the feature enabled on their phones, however. If I had to guess, I assume they'd agreed to do so in case a situation like this ever did arise. Sora and Shiro probably didn't have that many contacts in their phones, so the demerits wouldn't be as prominent.
In fact, I'd wager that most people have forgotten about the feature by now. It's hard to imagine this little fact ever being used against the two in the future.
On the screen, there were two dots – one was the dot for Shiro's phone, where we were, and the other corresponded to Sora's. Usually, there would be a map in the background, but since we were on a cruise liner in the ocean right now, only a grey plane spanned the screen.
GPS still worked even in the middle of the ocean because all it required to function was a direct line of sight to a satellite, which could be achieved pretty much anywhere on the surface of the planet.
That being said, however, on the scale of just this ship, the lack of map detailing made it hard to gauge the distance between the two of us. If I had to guess, though, Sora was more than likely on the other side of the ship to the guest rooms, near where the Zodiac exam meeting rooms were located.
Sora's dot had also not moved at all since the screen had been opened. Either he had left his phone somewhere, or he was stationary. Hopefully, the latter was the case, because he would be much harder to find if only his phone was left somewhere.
"Shiro, do you mind if I take your phone? I want to go and look for him," I said.
Shiro grabbed onto the sleeve of my shirt and looked up into my eyes with a pleading gaze.
"I want to come too. I'm worried about Nii... but I was too scared to go and look for him alone... but with Ayanokōji... maybe I can..."
This was a predicament that had to be handled with care. Shiro probably knew it too, but Sora disappearing without any notice was almost definitely not a good thing. If he were here right now to make the choice, he would likely not want Shiro to see whatever it is that's going on.
For both Sora and Shiro's sakes, it was best if I went searching for Sora alone. However, I couldn't carelessly reject Shiro's desire to help search – it had taken her a great deal of courage to take a step by my side, without Sora, to act. If I shot her down tactlessly, she may never build up the courage to break out of the chains that bound her again.
"Shiro. You should stay here," I told her.
Her eyes widened in confusion.
"W-what? But... why...? Does Ayanokōji also think... I'm not good enough?"
"That's not it," I said, running my hand through her hair once more. "Sora wouldn't want you to be stressed because of him. So, instead, I'd like to ask you to trust me to go and find him instead."
Rather than rebutting based on what Shiro wants to do, it was better for me to use what Sora would want as my argument's basis. That way, Shiro would feel treasured, rather than inadequate.
"That's... right... I understand..."
Shiro held out her phone, prompting me to take it. I obliged, pocketing the device and standing up.
"I'll have Sora back here in no time. I promise, okay?"
I gave Shiro one last pat on the head, before turning and exiting the room.
Opening up the GPS navigation function on Shiro's phone, I started to walk towards Sora's unmoving blip on the screen.
△▼△▼△▼△
The two dots on the screen were now on top of one another. I'd searched around this area for a brief bit in confusion, since he was nowhere to be seen on the deck.
I'd searched the ship's lower levels, too, but found nothing. However, I eventually landed in front of the one place I'd yet to look.
Stood before me was a metal door, behind which lay the emergency exit stairs.
I quickly checked that nobody was around, before slowly pushing the door open and stepping into the dimly lit room. Although it was dark, the outlined silhouette of a boy was clear.
Sitting with his back against the wall, he had his right leg outstretched while the other one was with its foot planted against the ground and the knee up in the air. He was resting his forearm atop his left knee, and was gazing over it and into the ground with a dark expression on his face.
"Sora," I called out.
I received no verbal response, but the boy raised his lowered head to look up at my standing figure. With this, I got a better look at him.
He wore a defeated visage, but what was more noticeable was his shirt, which had previously been concealed by his slumped over form. It was clearly crumpled and in disarray, as if it had been grasped and shaken violently.
"Ayanokōji..."
"What are you doing, Sora?"
"I'm thinking. And, if it's fine by you, I'd rather think alone."
In other words, Sora was telling me to leave him alone. However, we both knew that isn't really what he wanted.
"And let your sister worry even more? Don't be ridiculous."
Sora lowered his gaze once more, and silence set in. Eventually, after a few minutes, Sora began to speak.
He explained how he'd been observing Karuizawa Kei for the past three days, and how she'd made an enemy of three Class C girls. He told me about their quarrel in the Rabbit group just earlier, and how Karuizawa had been brought to this very place.
He talked about how the three girls had used violence against Karuizawa, with the clear intention of bullying her. And, how Ryūen had turned up and advised them to go somewhere more discreet 'next time'.
Sora had managed to take a photo of the incident, presumably intending to put a stop to it using it, but Ryūen had forced him to delete it. Although Ryūen was a little rough with him, it appeared that Ryūen ultimately showed mercy to the powerless Sora, saying that he 'had somewhere to be.'
However, it seemed that Ryūen letting Sora go unscathed has done more damage to him than violence would've.
"It's only because of Ryūen's whim that I'm fine right now... honestly... how useless can one person be...?"
Ryūen's proficiency in violence was, to put it bluntly, a nightmare for someone like Sora.
Even within Class D, the students weren't great at everything. Just thinking in terms of intellect and physical ability, the only people I could think of who were outstanding in both were Kōenji Rokusuke and the student council president, Horikita Manabu.
In other words, no matter how good one becomes, there will likely be a kind of enemy that they cannot beat. For Sora, who is extremely weak, this kind of enemy is Ryūen Kakeru.
Sora has realised that Ryūen could've destroyed him thoroughly if he so chose to do so, and that has broken his spirit.
"What would you do, Ayanokōji? If you had to fight somebody like Ryūen."
"Well... I don't know if I could beat him. Ryūen is good at scheming, and fighting him would be far too risky, especially if he brought his henchmen."
"Is that so..." Sora murmured with a bitter smile.
After hearing me say that, Sora would feel some kinship, which would ultimately reduce the feeling of isolated powerlessness that was plaguing him.
"What is it that ails you, Sora?"
"Is it not obvious? I call myself a big brother who can protect Shiro, but I can't even stand up to some girls. Who wouldn't be depressed to be me?"
Basically, Sora feels like he's inadequately filling the role he promised himself to fulfil.
"So, you're demotivated because you're frightened of physical altercations?"
"To, put it in it's simplest form, I guess so."
I let out a sigh with a slight trace of disappointment embedded within.
"Sora. When was the last time you were good at something without ever doing it?"
"Huh?"
To be able to confidently stand up to altercations, that required confidence in one's own physical and fighting ability. And, if you've spent your whole life holed up in a room with little to no interaction outside of it, it's unrealistic to expect to have good physical or fighting ability.
Skill in anything comes with practicing that skill. It seems obvious, some might even call it unhelpful advice, yet there still exists people who complain about their lacking social skills while they spend every day by themselves in their house.
"If you want to be able to stand up to other people who may be a little aggressive, a very good starting point is to just fix the fact that you're weak. Being above average physically means you can defend yourself against a large majority of people."
"Tch. I'm well aware. Doesn't ease my mind though."
Ultimately, Sora being this down just because of his lacking physical ability wouldn't make much sense. However, this whole ordeal was about the bigger picture of him.
Sora is beginning to realise that the skills he's honed and relied on his whole life cannot carry him through this environment alone.
He's come to the realisation that the arguably niche skills he's trained back when he was a shut in are not sufficient on their own to survive in the greater world outside.
"You know, it's far from too late for you to improve. That is what this school is built for, after all; advanced nurturing."
This school, which aims to simulate and prepare its students for the real world and society. One could call it the perfect training ground for Sora and Shiro, whose pasts have restricted them from developing certain abilities that they'll need in the future.
Even for people as great as Sora and Shiro, there were things that this school could teach them.
Although my expression didn't change, I felt my heart smile in anticipation, looking forward to seeing how these siblings would grow over the next three years here.
The same was true for the rest of my classmates, too – even though they were excellent, there were for sure things that they can learn and things they can improve upon at this school.
And the same goes for me, too. There are things I can learn here that I couldn't learn before. That's why, no matter what happens, the most important thing is that I remain firmly at this school, all the way until graduation.
"I suppose that's true. 'Stop moping around and get to work.' That's the essence of what you told me before, isn't it?"
"Rather than pouring your energy into self-deprecation, pour it into self-improvement. Precisely."
With that, the reinvigorated Sora pushed himself up with determination burning in his eyes. He unruffled his clothes and set himself straight, before standing resolutely in front of me. I'd never seen a man look this 'ready to go' before.
Sora's eyes softened as we faced each other, and a genuine smile formed on his face. He stepped forward and placed his hand on my shoulder before starting to speak.
"I really needed that. Thank you, Ayanokōji."
He began to lift his hand away, but suddenly froze and kept it there.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Thank you, Kiyotaka."
With that, I felt my eyes widen a fraction.
Then, I closed my eyes and let out a laugh.
"Yeah. Let's get going. We wouldn't want to keep Shiro waiting any longer."
△▼△▼△▼△
3rd Person POV
"Funny you should choose this as a meeting place, Suzune. I was just telling some 'friends' of mine about here earlier."
Down at the deepest levels of the ship where the rumbling of the engines reverberated ominously throughout the walls, a muscular boy with magenta-coloured hair spoke haughtily to his two conspirators.
The black-haired girl he was addressing narrowed her red eyes. "What is that supposed to mean? And haven't I told you repeatedly to stop calling me that?"
"Ah, my apologies. It's just that my brain subconsciously ignores the orders of incompetent people," Ryūen Kakeru answered, flashing his white teeth in a grin.
"Tch, whatever." Horikita Suzune clicked her tongue in irritation just fifteen seconds into their rendezvous.
"So, Ryūen," the third person present, Kanzaki Ryūji, interjected and got down to business. "Have you sorted everything out? That must be why you called a meeting, no?"
"Kuku, indeed, little ones, I have gotten everything in order for you."
Ryūen didn't hesitate to speak down to even his own allies. He must surely be confident that they won't betray him, no matter how much he annoys them.
"That so?"
"Of course. I'll send you all a file now," Ryūen told them.
He pulled out his phone and tapped the screen for a few seconds. Then, the phones of the other two buzzed. They both checked the notifications simultaneously, and read the contents of the file they'd been sent.
It was a list of names and their groups. Immediately, they all knew what this was – the VIPs of every group in the exam.
"Are you absolutely sure that this is correct, Ryūen?" Kanzaki asked uncertainly.
"Obviously. The pattern is as follows: each group has a number that depends on where its animal is in the zodiac. Then, the names of every student, written in kana, is arranged alphabetically, and the VIP is the name in the list that is in the same position as the zodiac number. If you doubt me, then feel free to check every group yourself using that pattern. You'll see that it all adds up."
Horikita and Kanzaki's doubts seemed to have been quelled just by this statement, so there was no need for them to double check. Ryūen wouldn't have told them this if he wasn't sure of it, after all.
"So? What are we going to do?" Horikita inquired, hastily moving on to the next piece of business.
It appeared that Horikita didn't want to spend any more time with Ryūen than necessary. If anything, the one thing you had to respect Horikita for was her transparency with these kinds of things.
"So, here's the plan. There are three Class A VIPs and one Class D VIP. Unfortunately, that leaves our three classes to guess four VIPs. Which means one of us will get 50 more class points than the others. How do we plan to sort that, hmm?" Ryūen said.
"Well, I'm fine if you want to take the extra, Ryūen." Kanzaki answered.
Ryūen raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And why is that?"
"Well, we're currently cooperating with each other. And nobody can deny that you've done the most labour here, so in the spirit of fairness, you should take it."
Ryūen let out a laugh as he heard this reasoning.
"Why thank you. It seems that you have a decent head on your shoulders, after all, Kanzaki."
Horikita had been silent for a while now, apparently troubled by something. She chose this opportunity now to speak up.
"We may have a slight problem," she said.
"What is it?" Kanzaki asked.
"Well, it recently came to my attention that Kōenji of my class decided to guess of his own accord in the Monkey group. That's one of the groups with a Class A VIP, according to this list."
Indeed, if he was wrong, then it would be a major setback for Class E. This must be what Horikita has been worried about.
"Well, you'd better start praying that he was right, then, eh Suzune?" Ryūen replied with a smirk.
Ryūen made his intentions clear – he wasn't going to give Horikita a reprieve for her classmates' hastiness.
"Isn't it unfair on me if I miss out on the main benefit of helping you in the first place?" Horikita retorted.
"On the contrary, Suzune, would it not be more unfair for Kanzaki and I to lose out on benefits just to cover your incompetence? Class B and Class C both have no problem keeping everyone in line and working as one, so you only have yourself to blame."
Horikita looked as if she was about to speak back, but the words got caught in her throat and she looked down to the ground with a clenched fist.
"What about the other groups?" Kanzaki asked, changing the subject.
"Ah, you mean the ones where we have the VIPs? Well, in those, we're going to be guessing each other's VIPs." Ryūen told him.
"Huh? Why?" Horikita asked in confusion.
"Class C has two VIPs, so I'll be guessing two of your VIPs. Since Class B and E each have three VIPs, you'll each guess half of the remaining six VIPs. That way, we can end all of the groups at once with no negative repercussions. In other words, it's a defense mechanism."
If every group was ended at the same time, there would be zero chance for Class A or Class D to counter it, no matter what they did. It was a perfect plan, a quick and lethal attack planned by Ryūen Kakeru.
"I see... I take it you've decided who will guess who for every group, as well?" Kanzaki replied.
"Naturally," smiled Ryūen.
"And when are we going to make our move?" Horikita asked.
"Well, all of us need to move as one. Because you're so incompetent, Suzune, I suppose we should give you a bit of time to get all your defective classmates prepared to make the guesses they need to make. You know, it can't be easy for forty idiots to get themselves organized."
By this point, Horikita was used to Ryūen's provocations, so she didn't bat an eye and simply responded with another question.
"So? When are we doing it?"
"Tonight should be good enough. An hour after the meeting later ends. That fine?"
"Fine by me," Kanzaki said.
"I'll try my best to get everyone organised." Horikita answered.
Ryūen flashed his pearly teeth once more in a wide smile.
"You don't lie down, even after getting your ass kicked. I like that about you, Suzune."
Horikita just glared at him coldly as he began walking, moving to go past her towards the stairs back up to the ship's deck. However, he paused as they met shoulder-to-shoulder.
"It'll make it even more fun to utterly crush you. Look forward to it."
△▼△▼△▼△
Ayanokōji's POV
Sora and Shiro had left to go to the arcade together, which left me alone in my room. Coincidentally, a certain someone had asked me if I was alone not too long ago, and were on their way here now.
After a few minutes of waiting, a knocking sound echoed throughout the empty guest room. I swiped my key card and unlocked the door, letting the visitor come in and shutting the door.
He walked across the room silently and seated himself on the bed opposite mine which belonged to Sora, taking up that strange pose of his.
"So? Why did you want to meet with me alone, Ryuzaki?"
The scruffy black-haired boy didn't answer me, and merely placed his thumb to his lips and began chewing it.
"Hmm..." he let out a thinking sound. "What middle school did you go to, Ayanokōji?"
I raised an eyebrow as he voiced his inquiry. That was an extremely random question to ask.
"I didn't go to a middle school. I was home-schooled."
I gave him a vague answer that I'd long since prepared.
"I see... it's unusual for somebody who's been home-schooled to be so proficient in both academics and physical prowess."
"I had very good teachers,"
"Teachers, huh? Were you not taught by your parents?"
I shook my head calmly. "No. They hired tutors for me. They also made me learn an assortment of other skills, including the fighting skills you saw on the island."
I mean, technically, it wasn't a lie. I was made to learn an assortment of other skills, after all.
"Hmm, your parents are rich, then?"
"Yeah. They thought that by hiring elite teachers for me, it would enhance my ability, but it has stunted my social development quite a bit, as you can probably see."
I had some suspicions about Ryuzaki myself, so I added this part in to try and divert some of his suspicion away from me. If he was smart, though, he'd likely take what I'd just said with a grain of salt.
"So, Ryuzaki. Why did you want to meet with me?"
"Hm?" he looked at me blanky.
"You wanted to ask me something alone, right? And that's why you met up with me alone?" I asked suspiciously.
"Ah, that's right. But I already asked you what I wanted to ask."
I felt mild shock internally. One advantage of being me was that Ryuzaki didn't know that I was surprised, however.
"You mean you wanted to ask about my middle school?" I asked, double checking his meaning.
"That's right... is that troublesome for you?"
I took a second to consider what I should say, before giving an answer.
"Depends on your intentions. You should know, I don't appreciate people prying into my life." I told him.
Ryuzaki tilted his head to the side and shifted in his seat.
"I'm a detective, Ayanokōji. Prying into other people's lives is, well, my whole job."
Previously, he'd merely said that he 'solved crimes', but this time he used the word 'detective'. Is that significant? Or is it nothing?
Either way, there was a prominent fallacy in Ryuzaki's logic here.
"Just because you solve crimes, that doesn't mean you need to investigate everyone you come across, does it?" I countered.
Ryuzaki removed his thumb from his mouth.
"I could be investigating you in particular."
"I don't see why you would be investigating me, Ryuzaki. I can say with confidence that I have never done anything I can be charged for."
He raised his eyebrow at my deliberate wording.
"You didn't say that you've never committed a crime. Was that intentional?"
"The meaning is the same. Aren't you just picking at threads?" I retorted.
In reality, I intentionally didn't say that I'd never committed a crime. I wanted to see how far Ryuzaki would press, to see if he would even scrutinise my wording. I wanted to know what he's truly after.
"Besides," Ryuzaki said. "Perhaps you haven't done anything that could get you charged, but have you ever considered that there's somebody connected to you that has?"
I see. So he's saying that, if he was investigating me, it wouldn't need to be because of me directly. He could be searching for a lead using me as a stepping stone.
I closed my eyes briefly and thought. Considering my situation, it isn't entirely implausible that a so-called detective would try to investigate me because of my connection to 'that man'.
But, realistically, could it really be? No, it's too unlikely... I mean, who would really try to search for him by enrolling at a high school? No detective would use methods that outlandish... would they?
"So? Are you investigating me, Ryuzaki?" I prodded.
"How about we do a little exchange," he said. "You give me some information, and I'll tell you."
I narrowed my eyes in doubt.
"What kind of 'information' would you be asking me for? As I told you, I don't take kindly to people poking their nose into my past."
I was aware that acting so secretive about my past probably raised his suspicion of me, but it was probably the best move for me to make here. If I came off to eager to share my life with him all of a sudden, he would only trouble me more.
Ryuzaki sighed, and stood up. He walked up to me, and looked as if he was about to leave, but paused at the door.
"Ayanokōji. The chance of you being who I think you are is just over five percent. I don't expect you to give me a verbal answer right now, of course, but just in the case that I am correct about you, I'll just say this. If I'm wrong, please pay it no mind."
This is what Ryuzaki probably wanted to tell me from the very beginning. He'd just used the middle school part as a diversion, and also perhaps to gleam some extra information on me.
From his perspective, even if he's wrong about whatever he suspects me of, there is no demerit in saying this to me anyway. In other words, he's about to speak freely on the off chance that he's right.
"Don't you think that you and I should cooperate, Ayanokōji? Ultimately, we share a common goal, after all."
With that, Ryuzaki opened the door and left, leaving as quickly as he'd came and leaving me alone to ponder his cryptic parting message.
A/N: 5586 words, pretty short, but at least this chapter didn't take a week.
Not gonna lie, I think writing Ryūen is one of the most fun parts of this fic, even though I have the entirety of Class E (now D) to work with lmao
This chapter was mainly build up, next chapters will get into the meat of the whole Kei debacle. I have something special cooked up for that :)
As always, thanks for reading and I'll see you guys in the next one <3