After the day ended, I noticed myself seated in the back of the crowded café, Pallet, with a crew as bizarre as JoJo's Adventures which included Ayanokouji, Horikita, Hirata and Karuizawa.
"The students' surnames were the key to figuring out the VIPs' identities. They were assigned in the order of the animals of the zodiac. The rabbit is fourth in the zodiac. If you put the names of the students in the rabbit group in alphabetical order, it would be Ayanokouji-kun, Ichinose-san, Ibuki-san, and then Karuizawa-san," Horikita said.
Ah, so these four met up to discuss and review the Special Zodiac Exam. Wait, so why did Ayanokouji ask me to tag along? This bastard, he asked me to come along just so he wouldn't have to suffer alone. He knows that I don't really like Horikita's attitude either.
"I see. In that case, yeah, I'd be fourth. That's why I was chosen as VIP," said Karuizawa.
Karuizawa seemed impressed. To be honest, it was thanks to Hirata that the discomfort between Horikita and Karuizawa disappeared, considering the fact that those two are incompatible to an unimaginable degree.
"But isn't that really, really simple? I mean, anyone could figure it out. Like, the fifth person in the dragon group was Kushida-san, so she was the VIP, right?" Karuizawa spoke.
"It was that simple. However, figuring that out in the middle of an exam wasn't so easy. With only three VIPs in your own class, you wouldn't have enough solid data to determine the system behind the selection," explained Horikita.
To be honest, I really did nothing at all in the last exam. In the group I was in, most of the girls just kept trying their chance on me because they had heard about my break up with Honami. Well, now that everything's all right, I guess I can participate a little more seriously from now on.
"I'm worried about Class-C, though. I think Ryuen-kun figured it out in the middle of the test," said Hirata. He was probably right. I remember Ryuen's Class-C leading the scoreboard by a large margin. Hah! I sighed in my mind because he's a troublesome person to deal with.
"If that's true, then why did he mess up?" asked Karuizawa.
"I wondered about that too. If he understood the rules, he should've discovered all the VIPs," spoke Hirata.
"Though it appears that Ryuuen-kun rules Class C alone, perhaps that isn't actually true. More than a handful of people are probably deeply dissatisfied with his dictatorship," Horikita said with a different perspective on the issue.
"Yes. A rebellious student must've tossed out the wrong answer in direct defiance of Ryuen-kun," Hirata agreed.
Hmm....a traitor, huh? If there's a possibility of a traitor in Class-C who doesn't like Ryuen, then isn't there the possibility of a traitor in Class-D? Well, I'm not going to put forward any baseless accusations, but the possibility of Kushida telling Ryuen that she is the VIP in exchange for something is still greater than the possibility of Ryuen figuring out the rules and the selection system, considering the fact if there was a traitor, Ryuen would've searched for them like crazy and the most important factor to take into consideration is that that Kushida totally hates Horikita, giving her all the more reason to sell out Class-D.
"What do you two think?" Horikita asked me and Ayanokouji.
"Dunno. Honestly, I don't have clue," Ayanokouji lied. Horikita and Hirata lost interest in him as they turned their heads to look at me while Karuizawa was still looking at Ayanokouji.
"Me neither," I told them. I actually did nothing in the last exam. I'm also not going to roll out baseless accusations against Kushida, not in this meeting at least.
"In any case, our first priority is to cement this relationship. I'm glad we're discussing this, Horikita-san, Ayanokouji-kun and Miyamura-kun," Hirata showed his appreciation.
"Don't thank me, Hirata. I'm just tagging along with Ayanokouji," I told him the truth. To be honest, I really had no interest in this meeting. Sooner or later, this information would've reached me via Ayanokouji anyway. It's not like he trusts me but he would tell me since he knows that I was about to get serious from now on, seeing that Honami and I were back which made my reason for feeling down, disappear. I guess that that had also been the reason that he had me and Honami get back together.
"Well, we don't really have a choice. The zodiac exam was a special case. If we assume that future elements may have similar elements, though, then a certain degree of cooperation will be necessary," Horikita said.
Huh? Is that desperation that I can feel in her voice? Well, she did get cornered in two special exams which made her realise that she can't do anything alone. Her attitude is becoming less self-centred.
"That said, you evaded Ryuen-kun's cluthes quite well," Horikita praised Karuizawa.
"Well, I guess I do have a surprisingly good poker face. Right, Yosuke-kun?" Karuizawa said as she smiled at him. Hirata returned the smile and spoke up. Wait, didn't she used to call him by last him, considering the fact that they're pretending to go out? Well, I have heard that people get closer after they have a falling out so, I guess that something might've happened. Nothing I'm interested in.
"I actually have a proposal. Want to hear it?" Hirata asked Horikita.
Horikita remained silent, her way of telling him to keep going.
"First, to bring our class together, I'd like to rope in Kushida-san as an ally. I think she'll complement our group well and add qualities that the five of us lack. She could potentially unite a lot of the boys, starting with Ike-kun and Yamauchi-kun."
"Unnecessary," Horikita immediately refuted and then, kept going, "I won't deny that she has certain skills, but we can do anything she can on our own. That's why I selected you and Karuizawa-san. With your combined talents, we can solve any problem that faces us....unless you plan to be uncooperative, like a certain someone."
She side-eyed Ayanokouji. That's where you're wrong, Horikita. He doesn't cooperate because there isn't any merit in it for him. To get what you want, you also got to make sure that the other person also gets what they want. Nobody in this school runs a charity like that and certainly not Ayanokouji.
"It's certainly true that Ayanokouji might not follow our lead," Karuizawa said as she agreed with Horikita. Both of them nodded, though, Hirata did not.
"Looks like you're mistaken if you think that I'm uncooperative one," he said as he looked at me. Then the other three also looked at me.
I stopped trying to balance a straw on my philtrum, trying to make it position like a moustache.
I stopped what I was doing as Karuizawa sighed, Hirata wore a sly smile and Horikita glared at me. Then, Ayanokouji continued.
"Besides, I'm the guy most likely to quietly go along with a group. I'm exactly the sort of person you can control. I have no presence."
Control? You? You're joking, right? The three other people in front us, they're all under your control and they themselves don't know that, well, only Karuizawa does. Even I might be in your control and I do not know it!
"Those who claim that they have no presence usually cast long shadows," Horikita spoke, trying to sound prophetic which she did not.
"So, are you someone with no presence?" Ayanokouji asked her.
Woah. That's going to piss her off.
"Me? There's no way I could have no presence. How dare you? Do you take me for a fool?" she asked.
I was wrong. It seems like her superiority complex is actually getting worse.
"Uh...sorry," Ayanokouji apologized, knowing that there was no need for a useless argument with someone like Horikita.
Our afternoon class became a two-hour homeroom period where Chabashira-sensei announced the happening of the sports festival.
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