Mochizuki's POV
The ship's interior had many luxurious facilities, but towards the bow there was only a large deck, which provided a good view of the water. Because of that, it was unusually quiet, which was to my liking of course. There didn't seem to be anyone else around until I saw someone behind a pillar in the corner. Isn't that Sakura Airi? What is she doing in a place like this alone? She kept murmuring things while I stood there pondering my options.
On one hand, I can approach her, start a conversation and mainly observe her behavior. On the other hand, I can completely ignore her and go about my day. Downside is, I can get any information I want. Eh, whatever. There aren't consequences if I mess up.
As I came closer, I thought she might have been talking to someone but no one else was around. She didn't have her phone out, either, so the whole thing was creepy.
"Hey, what are you doing out here? Summoning spirits?" I greeted, not trying to surprise her.
In response Sakura yelped, practicality jumping.
"H-huh? W-w-why are you d-doing here?" She frantically looked around at her surroundings as if she was expecting someone else.
"Oh? You're going to meet with someone?"
"Y-yes." She averted her eyes, not making eye contact.
"It's kind of rude to not look into someone's eye when talking." I spoke, softly looking at her as a frightened animal.
When she barely glanced at me, she seemed to be surprised for some reason. After staring at my eyes for a bit, she stopped and began relaxing a bit. All of this confused me to be completely honest.
"Since you're meeting with someone, I'll leave you be." I said, as Sakura nodded.
Currently Hirata, Horikita, and Kushida are about to start discussing the exam. Out of all the rooms they chose Hirata's which was fine by me as I don't want people to gather in my room.
"Before we start, I would like to ask something."
"What is it?" Kushida asked.
"I'm not one to beat around the bush. So I'll get straight to the point. Why am I here?"
I need to know how much they are willing to include me in their class discussions. It's necessary for me to be included a certain amount if I want my future plans to work. If I still don't have enough influence over the class then I'll force an incident where they'll need me to slice it, just like last time. I'm willing to cooperate with them for a bit if it means making my schemes work how I want them to.
They all exchanged looks of confusion. Seeing them not understanding my words, I continued.
"Is it because we're in the same group? Or is it that my newfound influence that I'm now worth including?"
Plus I also want to witness how the best of our individuals in this class can work individually or together compared to the other classes. Are they worth being in Class A? Or do they grow more to actually be able to compete. Even if they will never be able to, what matters to me is how much they'll improve over these three years.
"I mean, why would we exclude someone when we're discussing something in a group? Wouldn't keeping you in the dark make things worse?" Horikita answered, slightly annoyed due to my question.
"You do have a point there."
"Anyways, we should begin." Hirata said which everyone nodded.
"Do we know all the VIP's in our class?" I inquired.
Let's see if I can figure out the pattern just by having names of three out of the twelve VIP's. Even if I can't, I'll have a basic idea.
"Well, we asked our classmates and got the names of our class VIP's." Kushida showed us her phone with the names.
Rabbit Group VIP: Karuizawa Kei. Horse Group VIP: Minami Setsuya.
"How about the last one?" Horikita checked again in case she missed it.
"That would be me, hehehe." Kushida scratched her cheek, chuckling sheepishly.
That's good to hear. As long as it was someone from Class D who was the VIP for the dragon group, it would work out fine.
"That could be problematic." Hirata mused.
"Yes, hiding the identity could prove quite difficult." Horikita shifted the topic to the dragon group specifically.
"Since we hold most of the options due to having the VIP in our class, I would recommend for us to choose which outcome we should strive for." I stretched my arms, moving backwards.
As anyone, outcome 1 is the best one for us. I should be able to make it so we can all receive private points. As long as Kushida doesn't try anything, which she probably will, knowing her.
"I would like for outcome 1." Kushida immediately answered.
"I agree, however." I paused, scanning to see their reactions.
"However?" They all spoke at the same time.
"The chances of them figuring out the VIP are not in our favor."
"After all, all the class leaders are in the dragon group." I dropped an obvious hint.
"Speaking of the class leaders, don't you think that the placement has been arranged rather than a random selection?" Horikita picked it from there without the need for me to say it.
"What do you mean?" Although Kushida and Hirata understood what she meant, they wanted her to elaborate further.
"There's no way that it's a coincidence, there has to be certain conditions when they put the students in groups."
"How are we supposed to figure it out? Looking at the three VIP's there doesn't seem to be anything suspicious about it." Hirata commented.
"Maybe we need to know more than 3 VIP's?" Kushida slightly tilted her head.
"If that's the case why don't we join forces with Class B?" Hirata suggested with a smile.
"We both exchange our VIP's to figure this test out, is that what you're saying?" Horikita's eyes narrowed.
"Yes, is there something wrong?" Hirata innocently asked.
"No." She quickly denied.
"Then it's decided! We'll speak with Class B tomorrow after the third group discussion." Kushida happily clapped her hands.
Seemingly agreeing to this idea, everyone was about to leave when my phone rang. They all looked at me curiously.
"Okay, look. If you want to see who it is just ask."
They just kept staring at me, which meant they probably wanted to know who called me. Normally, I would dismiss their opinions since it doesn't concern them. Nonetheless, I won't lose their trust over something so simple. I put my hand in my pocket, taking out my phone. Checking the name was when things turned amusing. It was an unknown number.
"Unknown number." I showed them my phone.
Seeing that they let me go, I closed the door on my way out. Then I answered the call. Waiting for them to speak first, the silence continued until they did.
"Hey." It was the voice of male student.
"Wrong number." I ended the call when it rang again.
"What?"
"At least listen to what I have to say."
"No." With that I once again ended the call, blocking my phone from calls for the time being.
I'm currently looking for someone to be my right hand, not that I need one. Kiyotaka is one of the only people I can call a friend, not sure if he feels the same way though. Heh, I do think he does since he hasn't really done anything to expel one, or he perhaps knows that I will help him regardless of the circumstances. Well, Kiyotaka has and will also do that for me.
Back onto what I was previously talking about, I want to obtain a new tool. Someone who is the worst in Class D. A person who is the worst academically and physically wise and nobody would care that they gets expelled aside from two to three people. A student that's useless to the class. To train them into the type of person I want them to be. Of course, it will be for the better. Both me and them will benefit from it. I gain satisfaction and a new pawn while they become a better person overall.
To do this I'll need to get something that I can use to expel them anytime I want in case I fail, which is highly unlikely.
Just like Kiyotaka, who was one of the worst at his time, I'll improve them so much that they'll look back on their past in disgust. I can't wait to see the class reactions to it! I look forward to it! Although I will have to wait for the reveal, it will definitely be worth it!
Now, I already have a few candidates for that position. One of them is this shy girl whose name is Sakura Airi. If I remember correctly she was the one who was the witness for Sudō's case. From what I've observed she easily becomes nervous when interacting with other students. While keeping an eye for Kushida, I noted that Sakura is wary of Kushida, for some reason.
That's what interests me about her, there must be a reason why she's wary of Kushida and I doubt it's because she saw her other side. The only problem is that she seems to have fallen for Kiyotaka. Which is troublesome because I have to go all of my way out to switch her feelings from Kiyotaka to me. Well, I already have been doing that.
*Cough cough*, Mii-chan, *cough cough*.
Even Kiyotaka doesn't have any plans for her, so that's acceptable for me to do whatever I want. Another reason is that her physical and academic abilities are below average. What came to my attention was that Sakura wore fake glasses making me do some research online and found out that she was a gravure idol using the alias Shizuku. The interesting thing about it we're not the pictures itself but what she can become if she's more confident in herself.
Another candidate is Sotomura Hideo. I'm pretty sure Kiyotaka asked him for help with some electronic devices. So it appears that he's good with computers and technology. He also surprisingly had a score of 75 during the mid-term exams.
However, his physical ability is atrocious. He also speaks in this dialect due to watching too many anime. If he improves his physical abilities just a bit he should be more useful. The problem is that his worth won't be used until we graduate from this school. Other than that he should be a good option but not the best out there.
Another candidate I thoroughly considered is Ike Kanji. Similar to the previous options his academic and physical abilities are below average. While his intelligence is comparable to Sotomura's physical abilities, which is saying something, his communication skills are excellent.
Putting aside his perverse side, he was a major factor for the island exam. He was even shown to be willing to acknowledge his faults. So it shouldn't be too hard for him to realize what he needs to fix. The only major obstacle should be getting rid of the perverted side. Luckily, it isn't as bad as someone else.
In my careful consideration I discarded many of the students since there were not anything impressive. One of those being Shinohara Satsuki. Her attitude is almost as bad as Horikita so that is already a pass for me. She is below average in both academic and physical abilities just like the rest of the people I mentioned before. Unlike the others who at least have something going for them, example being Ike's communication skills, Sotomura skills in technology, Shinohara doesn't have anything like that. Which ultimately makes my decision to not bother with her. That's most of the conclusions I came up with for the rest of the Class D students. Most of them are defectives, after all.
There are many who I still haven't got many interactions with, meaning that it's hard to judge them when I don't have enough information.
And lastly the number one candidate is Yamauchi Haruki. He's like Shinohara but worse. Academic ability, horrible. Decision making, terrible. Physical ability, barely average. Cooperativeness, decent. Personality, by far the worst. Everything about him disgusts me. The whole class probably also hates him. But! That's what makes him the best choice! Imagine their faces when he becomes more useful than them.
One of the positive things is that he had a tendency to lie. Why is this a good thing, you may ask. Well, this is my opinion on this matter. If they know he has a tendency of lying that means it's easy to tell when he is. While I can figure out if someone's lying better than most people, it'll just make things go way smoother. Nevertheless, what matters to me the most is how he inflates his sense of importance. In other words pretending to be more impressive than one actually is.
What an excellent thing to do. It's of great importance to be confident in any situation possible. Unfortunately he's not capable of backing it up, yet. I don't think you know how much potential this guy has, if he's trained in the right circumstances. And it just happens that I can create those circumstances.
A/N
I would have like to update a week ago, but it took a bit longer to write this chapter.
The end was more to describe what the mc thought of some of his classmates and the plans he has for them.
I know I left it on a cliffhanger when Matsushita was about to talk to Sudō but that was because I wasn't sure if you guys wanted to read it.
Should I write it or just summarize it?