It had been three days since the Island Special Exam had ended. Since then, the entire grade had been allowed to enjoy the vacation we were originally promised on the cruise, albeit with some caution and hesitancy from most people.
It was understandable, seeing how the island exam was such a surprise, but at this point, most people had started to relax, enjoying the cruise the way they had originally intended, doing whatever they wanted.
And that was how I had ended up in the underbelly of the cruise ship, following the piping to hopefully solve my problem, whilst being followed by two of my roommates.
"You two really shouldn't be down here you know."
Yukimura, one of the best at academics and worst at sports was following behind Kouenji and I, as we hunted for the solution to our problem.
"Silence yourself glasses. The fate of my very existence is at stake here, and if demon-boy and myself cannot solve this problem you too will suffer our fate."
Kouenji was exaggerating somewhat, although to him it was probably true. However, he wasn't wrong. If we didn't solve this issue now, it would be too late.
"If you aren't going to help us then leave, Yukimura. We're on a serious quest, so steel your heart or give up now."
It was a dramatic statement, but I was getting into character. Perhaps it was the ridiculousness of the situation, but I was enjoying this, at least a little.
"Hey, I'm just following you to make sure you don't break any rules. We aren't supposed to be down here in the first place."
No, students weren't supposed to be down here. This was one of the workers corridors, and an underused one at that. The wall was lined with different pipes, transferring various liquids and air around the ship, and weren't meant to be tampered with. Unfortunately, for the sake of our safety I would have to break this rule.
It had been three days of relaxation, and for the boys in the room across from us, being Ike, Yamauchi, Sudou and Sotomura, they had left their room only a couple of times. I had seen them outside a total of twice, both for meals, and the smell of their room had started to creep out through the gap beneath the door.
One of them had had the genius idea to stick the 'no cleaning' sign on the door to their room, so when the daily cleaning came through, their room was missed. If it continued any longer, the smell would reach our room, and our doom would be sealed.
It was imperiatve that we acted now.
"I believe this is the correct one, Ayanokouji-boy."
Kouenji, unwilling to risk filth from the ship coming into contact with his person, pointed to the correct pipe out of the mass that we had been looking through. There were at least a hundred of them, but luckily, they were all named, and Kouenji had managed to find the correct one.
"Ah, thanks."
"This benefits me significantly, hence it would be remiss of such a perfect existence to reap the rewards without assisting in any way."
His warped way of thinking aside, Kouenji could prove to be quite helpful when the mood struck him.
"Wait, you aren't planning to do anything with the pipes are you?! Are you crazy?"
"Why did you think we were down here otherwise, then?"
"Use your brain glasses-kun, it's your one somewhat redeemable feature. Where on the ship are we?"
Yukimura, his face flushed with anger at the insult, did his best to ignore Koueji's words and considered the question. It took him a moment, perhaps as he tried to conceptualise the ship in his mind, before figuring it out.
"We're underneath our cabin."
Almost right, although there was a rather large margin for error, so it was understandable that he hadn't quite got it right.
"Close. We're actually underneath our neighbours' cabin."
Yukimura made a face at the mention of our disgusting class perverts. Like all people in Class D, he had his own defect, but Yamauchi and Ike were on another level. Sudou had shaped up somewhat, and Sotomura was his own brand of loveable weird, but the first two were irredeemable.
I moved to the pipe that Kouenji had indicated, and sure enough, it was the pipe coming from their room. I felt bad for the cleaners, but something had to be done.
"Woah, you're not actually gonna do something are you?"
"Sometimes, Yukimura, you have to stand up for what you believe in."
And with that, I twisted the valve on the pipe, cutting off the outflow from their room. I estimated it would take about half an hour before their pipes backed up, and their toilet began to overflow. It was disgusting, but it would get them out of their room, and get cleaners in. A small price to pay for salvation.
"Congratulations, demon-boy, you now carry the honour of saving one such as perfect as me. Now, I must return to the pool. My body will degrade if I remain in this filth any longer."
And with that, the strange man left, without a care in the world. Yukimura was staring at me with a strange expression on his face, one I couldn't understand.
"What did you just do?"
"I got the room across from us to be cleaned. Let's go, I'd rather not be seen down here."
Saying that, I followed after Kouenji, and after a moment's hesitation, Yukimura did too, leaving the valve shut, not messing with my work. Luckily, it seemed no one was down here at this time of day, and I hadn't spotted any security cameras on our way here, so it was unlikely that we would get into any trouble for this.
Realistically, most people would just assume that the boys clogged the pipes themselves, and even when the valve was found to be shut, there wouldn't be any evidence leading back to us.
We moved back in silence, Yukimura not sure what to say, probably thinking of some way to complain about our actions, me having nothing to say to him. The passages were quite long, branching off often, but as I explored through them, taking a slightly less efficient route back, it became clear that they had been cleverly designed.
Getting to one point from another on the ship would be much easier using these. There were private elevators for staff only, and without unnecessary winds and bends around fancy but useless designs, it was a lot quicker to move around. Although using these came with the added risk of discovery, if I ever had a need to get from one end of the ship to the other in a short amount of time, knowing how they worked would be handy.
Yukimura, deaf to the world as usual, was about to move around a corner when the sound of footsteps reached my ears. I grabbed him, and dragged him by the collar back around, clamping my hand over his mouth so we wouldn't be heard.
"Stupid smug student thinks he's so amazing. God, there's no way to deal with him, it's ridiculous."
A bellhop was muttering to himself, apparently fed up with one of my year mates. He passed right by our hiding place, and although we weren't concealed all that well, he seemed so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice us.
"Thinks he can get away with anything by signing his name on a piece of paper? What sort of delusion is that? And what kind of name is Kouenji Rokusuke?"
Oh. That made much more sense.
I could see Yukimura rolling his eyes beside me at the mention of our partner in crime, but with a good sense of restraint he made no comment. Not long after, the bellhop made his way around a bend and out of sight, and we quickly dashed across the hall and out from the service corridor back into the main lobby.
"Are you happy? We almost got caught breaking rules. Who knows how much damaged you just caused to the boat!"
I sighed. Yukimura was smart, there was no denying that. But he constantly failed to walk the fine line required to truly be intelligent. What people refer to was wisdom, I simply believe to be intelligence combined with rationality. Being able to reason, to logically analyse a situation and make a good choice. Yukimura went beyond that, allowing his mind to run wild, wherein it immediately reached for the most dangerous conclusions. It wasn't a bad habit to have, but if left unchecked, like he did, it would hinder his ability to ever properly analyse a situation.
"It's fine. There's no evidence and no one saw us do it."
He rubbed his forehead, face contorted in a frustrated expression.
"Whatever. Just don't drag me into your problems again."
You were the one who followed me.
Yukimura turned and walked off, heading towards the restaraunts. It was almost lunch time now, so like most people, he would be starting to get hungry. I was too, but before I could eat I needed to see the results of my efforts.
I turned and moved in the opposite direction, down a level towards the cabins, before heading along the boy's side towards my cabin. It had been about half an hour since I closed the valve, so if it was going to work, it should be sometime soon.
And just as I was thinking that I could hear some yelling coming from the cabin opposite mine.
Arguments and accusations, most of it illegible through the closed door, began to spill out into the hall, before being followed by three boys, and a disgusting smell.
Ike, Yamauchi and Sotomura tumbled out, desperately trying to escape from their room. Looking in, I could see a pool of brown water flooding the ground around their toilet, the rooms being small enough to see from the open door.
"What did you manage to do now?"
"You shut up Ayanokouji! Our toilet's all backed up, it's horrible! Let me use yours."
Yamauchi made a dash for my door, trying to force his way in, but luckily for everyone staying in that room it was locked, and Hirata wasn't in the mood to open the door.
"Maybe go find a teacher and let them know. Someone'll have to come and fix it, I guess."
Ike grabbed Yamauchi, pulling him away from clawing at my door. He shouldn't even need to go to the toilet, since it wouldn't have backed up unless someone flushed it, but even so his pride wouldn't allow him to stop acting angry to me.
"See you around, Ayanokouji."
Ike gave me a short farewell as he dragged Yamauchi away, which I disregarded entirely, instead waiting for Sotomura to pick himself up from the ground and reorganise himself. Straitening his glasses, he gave me his classic greeting, of convoluted meanings.
"Ah, Ayanokouji-dono, it seems you have stumbled across me at a rather inopportune moment."
"Not at all, in fact I was actually looking for you."
I had been meaning to speak with him for a while, however, with the island exam and him barely leaving his room too distracted by anime, I hadn't had a chance. This was another reason for forcing the boys out of their room.
"Oh? And for what possible reason could our very own master of mystery have to speak with me? Could it perhaps be an inquiry into our special project?"
It was my project, but I had included Sotomura simply to give him something to do, to fill his fantasies of being a secret agent, or whatever delusions he harboured. Most people might overlook him, but Sotomura was a wild card thanks to his knowledge of technology. I had no idea when I might need his help, but it would be much easier if he was already enamoured of me.
"Yes, that's right. I haven't had a chance to ask you since before school ended, so I'd like an update. Remember, we can't put any of this into texts, since the school could read it and find out."
"Of course, I would never forget such a crucial element. It's like an uprising against the dictatorship is about to begin, with me coordinating our forces from my computer flawlessly."
What we were doing was probably against school rules. It was never explicitly stated, but I suspected it wouldn't be looked kindly upon.
"So?"
He had gotten off track again, lost in his daydreams.
"Ah, yes. Unfortunately, I have been unable to make any further progress since last time. It seems I lack a crucial element of my experimentations, so if you could procure that for me it would certainly become a profitable endeavour."
After he told me what he needed, I thanked him for his continued work, along with a promise to get what he asked for, then sent him on his way to find his friends and report the state of their cabin.
What I had him working on was definitely something I could have done myself, but really, why bother when you can outsource.
Having finished my business with the cabin across from mine, I took a moment to contemplate what to do now. I was hungry, and it was lunch time, but those two facts were contrary to each other. Most of the grade would be moving towards the restaurants and buffets right now, leaving it a busy and crowded environment, with long wait times for food.
On the other hand, I had no desire to simply rest in my cabin. Hirata had holed himself up in there, only coming out once or twice a day for meals. It was a rather depressing environment, one built from self-pity and a lack of interest in anything. Something would have to be done about that before next term, and while I was sure the opportunity would present itself to solve that problem, I had no inclination to deal with him right now.
I decided to grab a pastry from a smaller café on the boat, and so I moved up a few levels, and headed to the front of the food and entertainment level, leaving the other end with the main restaurants and noise of uncultured animals.
Surprisingly, as I made my way along, I noticed a rather unusual sight. It seemed I had located the missing boy from the cabin across from me, and he was in a situation I never would have expected.
Sudou was having lunch with Horikita.
Even emotionally stunted as I was, I could tell just how excited and nervous he was, by the way he was moving his hands, and trying his best to act refined. Horikita, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious to this, and continued to rapid-fire words at him, not noticing that they simply went in one ear and out the other.
It seemed she had taken my advice to heart and was making an effort to gain allies. To be honest, I hadn't thought she would recognise what I said to her and would dig her head further into the ground with that stubborn superiority, but apparently, I had gotten through to her.
This was a development I would have to keep an eye on.
Horikita undoubtedly held a grudge against me for my actions, and I couldn't trust her to move on from what had happened. It was a fine line I had to walk, pushing her into a leadership position to manage the class so I didn't have to, but not give her enough power that she could actually move against me.
I didn't have confidence in her ability to move secretly, to plan and scheme without me finding out about it, but power was in perception. If enough people believed she was our leader, then she would become the true leader, making it all the easier for her to strike back.
That wouldn't be a concern for a few months at least, though. Currently all she had was the loyal love of Sudou, and the hesitant faith of my classmates, if that. For now, I could allow her to act as she wanted. I was interested to see what she was capable of.
I reached the patisserie, and just as I had picked out a jam-filled croissant, something I had been very interested in trying like the butchered treat it was, when I was ambushed by my former pawns from Class A.
"Well, if it isn't Ayanokouji. What a coincidence!"
Hashimoto had approached me, pinching the croissant out of my hand before I could try it, and took a bite out of one end, some jam getting stuck on his cheek as he did so.
"Do you mind? I was looking forward to that."
Hashimoto grinned at my whinge, and passed the croissant back to me, wiping the flaky crumbs off his shirt. Obviously, he had no regrets about his actions, after enjoying such a delicious treat. Since they obviously had business with me, I didn't bother to continue the conversation, allowing them to do so, while I took my first bite of my delicious treat.
It was an affrontment to all French cooking, but the jam was a delicious hint of sweet, inside the buttery air-like bread. Delicious.
I turned my attention to the person standing behind him, the second of the duo, who had a rather unimpressed look on her face. Kamuro had her phone in hand, holding it out to me, a call currently in progress. It seemed, based on how she was glaring at me, I'd caused her another problem, although I didn't know what I could possibly have done.
"It's for you. Next time just give someone your number, we've spent ages looking for you, dumbass."
Her usual brand of disinterest combined this time with a little annoyance. It seemed I had run them around the boat without realising.
I took her phone, having a good idea of who would be calling me. There was only one person not on this boat that would have a reason to contact me, and it made sense that she would use Kamuro to do so.
As I grabbed it, I noticed the strange caller id displayed on the phone. 'Flat bitch'. A small act of rebellion coming from Kamuro, although from all of their interactions, there was still a sense of loyalty. Despite most certainly being blackmailed into helping her, Kamuro probably still supported her master to some degree. After all, betraying Sakayanagi was tantamount to dooming Class A.
"Sakayanagi."
"Hello, Ayanokouji-kun. Impressive work in the special exam."
I had suspected the reason for the call, but if she was calling me just for this, then I would really be upset. You can't eat a croissant and talk, and Hashimoto was making eyes at it, probably wanting to have some more.
"I suppose I should thank you for lending me some help, although if you really wanted to bring down Katsuragi you need better aids."
"Oh? Do explain."
It seemed the two of them had left out the finer details of what had happened. Hashimoto was shaking his head, whilst simultaneously trying not to laugh, whilst Kamuro looked furious. It seemed she was going to be taunted some more for this mistake.
"The things I had them do were rather obvious. Any half-competent student could have doomed their class, and to a far greater extent than I did."
"Hmm, it seemed they left out some of the details of what occurred. Thank you for informing me, Ayanokouji-kun."
I pulled the phone away from my ear, before turning back to Hashimoto and Kamuro.
"You're in trouble."
At my words, his fit of laughter redoubled, forcing him to lean against the wall to keep upright. Apparently, Hashimoto was always looking on the bright side of life, keeping a positive image, whilst simultaneously ensuring he would graduate from Class A.
Kamuro just huffed and turned away. Apparently this was nothing new.
"I assume this isn't the only reason you called. Although I'm surprised you don't have my number already. I could have spared Kamuro the effort of tracking me down."
"Fufufu no, I rather enjoyed hearing her complaints as she tried to find you for the last hour, it was an enjoyable way to pass the time." I glanced at the phone, and noticed the call had indeed been running for 1:15:21. "It's quite dull being alone at school, although I have found a chess partner in the student council president. He recommended I play you, actually."
"How thoughtful of him."
"Quite. But no, I must say you've done a rather good job of protecting your phone number. I expended quite the large amount of effort to find it, to no avail."
Ever since the first day of school, I had kept my number private. There were only a few people in the school who had it, all of whom I trusted not to spread it. If I needed to contact someone, I did it with caller id disabled, meaning that unless I wanted them to, they wouldn't have it. It was wise to copy Kiryuuin in that regard.
"I'll make sure to give you my number. I suppose it wouldn't hurt for you to have it."
"Many thanks for that. Now, onto the main reason. I think you've had my pawns for long enough. From this point on, Masumi and the snake no longer work for you. Unfortunately, I can't allow you to continually sabotage my class."
I had expected this, but it would have been remis for Sakayanagi to not explicitly state this. She wasn't going to allow me to keep beating her easily, especially with her own classmates.
"Obviously. I'll be looking forward to our competition."
It wasn't a lie. I was genuinely looking forward to battling Sakayanagi. So far, this school had been rather underwhelming. While I had never had any doubts of the outcome, I hadn't expected to crush the other classes that easily. Perhaps Sakayanagi would provide me with a challenge, or maybe I would be stuck battling Kouenji. Either way, there was no one else that could reasonably provide me a challenge.
"As will I. Enjoy the rest of your cruise, Ayanokouji-kun."
With that, she disconnected the call. Despite our conversation being over, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was missing something. Why would Sakayanagi choose now to call. As far as I was aware, this was just a holiday, relaxing after our exam. Yet, she had made a point to contact me now, explicitly stating that I would no longer be receiving her aid. Something about that stuck me as odd, although I couldn't quite figure out what.
She mentioned she'd been in contact with Manabu. That was what had been annoying me. If she had...
I was dragged out of my thoughts by Kamuro snatching her phone out of my hand.
"Are you too done flirting?"
"Eh?" Were we?
"Whatever. You got the message, right? We're done now, thank god. Now I've only got one freak bossing me around."
"Ah, it's a shame, but it seems we are now enemies, boss. Go easy on me, won't you?"
Despite his carefree words, there was a glint in Hashimoto's eyes. Something about what he said told me he was looking forward to going against me, even if he thought I would win. Did that make him a masochist? Perhaps it was more nuanced than that. Whatever he was thinking, I couldn't figure it out.
"Thank you for that. I'll let you get back to your day."
I had a lot to think about. Perhaps it would be worth retiring to my room. At least Hirata's gloom made it quiet.
Author Notes:
Holy shit guess who's back. Arc 4 is here, the fic didn't end up on infinite hiatus in an abandoned state, mostly because of the pure rage i feel towards fics where that has happened.
This one was a lot of fun to write, a bit of simple chaos, trying to for once live up to the title of the fic. It's diverted somewhat from my original idea, so dragging it back a little for this chapter.
Over the week a bunch of stuff happened. I nailed my exams, especially the math one. It was honestly kinda disappointing, it was too easy, I was kinda looking forward to the challenge. That sounds a bit boastful i realise, but you ever put in a lot of work and it turns out to be wasted, it's kinda frustrating. I would have preferred to struggle with a question, not know how to do everything in perusal, you know? Anyway that's beside the point.
I finally read Y2V5. And honestly... i don't quite understand all the hate for Horikita. Perhaps I'm attached to Kushida from writing this, yeah, but honestly it seemed like the right choice to make in the situation. I don't really see whats so wrong about it. Maybe it's because she made the choice for the wrong reasons, but really, in the end the outcome was as good as it gets.
Watched arcane on Nexflix, and as a league of legends addict, it's pretty good. Highly recommend watching it, even if you don't play the game.
I have been on a cruise before, once, about five years ago so I don't remember it too well. I've done my best to recall what it was like, and while it won't be too accurate, I have fond memories of young me running through the service corridors to get to places quickly with my friends all cackling to ourselves at how naughty we were. Ah, better times.
Anyways, as always, hope you enjoyed! Bi-daily upload schedule is back in business, so see you all again in two days.