The second year students had to take a special exam in which they had to pass a copy of the next written exam to the first year students without getting caught, otherwise they would be expelled.
To do this, they decided to befriend the first year students and drop subtle hints that the previous exams were the same and that the next one would be too.
This was the best method to achieve success on this exam peacefully. The classes were going to win as long as they were completely secretive. In other words, this exam needed as little information as possible.
This simple fact also meant that whoever had the information for this exam was in control. Such an existence was terrifying for all the classes involved. It was an exam based on the principle of the prisoner's dilemma. No one knew anything about anyone and no one dared to collect information from anyone because it only took a little evidence against someone to expel them. So the best thing to do was not to take any risks.
Thus, when a student, who had all the information in the game, walked into a class as a representative of Class D and threatened to expose everything unless they bought his silence, it was the start of hell for Class D of the second year.
They could have called the bluff at first, but when the next day the student council came to all the classes and announced that the exam was finally cancelled because it had been exposed, it was a different story. The student council was investigating the class responsible and class D was under enormous pressure.
They didn't know what information Sora had on them, it was possible that he would denounce them at any time. That's why they decided to give in to Sora's request. 1 million private points to transfer to his account.
Because of this incident, even the next exams of the first years had been changed.
How did Sora know about this whole system? His answer was simple.
"We beat Horikita Manabu."
He had said to Suzune, who was looking at him in such amazement that the words had taken a few seconds to sink into her brain.
"W-what...?"
Everything Sora had constructed was so complex and far-fetched, she couldn't in the least see a connection between all these events and her older brother.
One couldn't blame her, Sora's plan was really unique and well-thought through. There was once an excellent chess player, and certainly one of the most entertaining, by the name of Mikhail Tal who once said ""You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."
This was what Sora had done. He had dragged everyone with him into a dark forest, where everything was meticulously detailed and all the events were intertwined so that no one would make it through. No one but Sora.
"You beat... my brother? But how..."
"Unfortunately, we can't give you that answer. Perhaps as you grow in this school, you will one day manage to remember this story and make the connection on your own."
The clues were there, but they were small.
"Wait... you can't just say you beat my brother and leave it at that. You couldn't possibly think that this affirmation is enough to convince me?"
Two weeks ago, Sora and Suzune had made a promise to each other. Suzune had agreed to challenge Sora and her own brother if Sora could show her that he could be beaten.
Today, Sora was claiming such a thing, loudly and clearly, but there was no proof of it.
"Wait for us today at 5pm in this classroom. You'll get your proof."
Suzune was again eager to ask them questions, to ask them why such an hour. She wanted to know what they were up to, but she knew she wasn't going to get an answer. Sora and Shiro had a habit of sharing a lot of information without saying much.
Chabashira-sensei eventually came into the class so the conversation was going to have to break down in any case. Suzune had received a lot of information today, she had understood a lot of things. However, the only information she really valued was not obtained.
She still didn't know what Sora's plan was that would allow everyone to pass their written exams. How was he going to get an entire class to pass by making everyone fail?
And secondly, she still didn't know if he had succeeded in beating his older brother Horikita Manabu. And if he had succeeded... how had he done it?
What had happened in the last two weeks...?
.
.
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***Two weeks earlier. The day after the confrontation between Sora, Manabu and Suzune.***
Horikita Manabu was on the roof of a building under construction. On the top were Sora and Shiro.
"A sealed envelope. I must acknowledge a certain creativity. However it was quite risky to slip it under the door of the council office, someone else could have read it."
Said Horikita Manabu, showing the envelope in his hand. Sora had slipped it under his door early in the morning.
"I had marked on it that this letter was addressed to you. I think the students fear you enough to keep their hands off it."
Sora replied, a soft smile on his face as per usual.
Manabu walked towards the two. He stared at Sora for a long time, a piercing gaze. A soft wind passed between their hair. There was only them on this roof, and the area was not monitored by any agent or camera. It was the perfect place for hidden conversations.
"Last night...the video I deleted from your phone. It was a distraction, right?"
Manabu asked the question directly, not even trying to find out if Shiro was aware of the situation. He already had his answer.
"Ho..."
Sora showed slight surprise, his arrogant smile turned into a curious one.
"As expected of the Council President, you're much brighter than the average person."
Manabu sighed.
"So that's what it was. You had recorded me before and sent the correct video to your sister. Then you shot a second video in front of my eyes to make it look like I got rid of the evidence."
"Bingo. Even though it was dark, the streetlights did show the cruel face of the council president abusing his little sister's abdomen. You let your emotions get the better of you and exposed yourself to a lot of weaknesses."
"If you're going to use this video to blackmail me, I want to let you know that it's a foolish idea."
"Ho? Why is that?"
"If you want to blackmail me, you know as well as I do that you won't be able to use any electronic means to contact me, because that would be enough evidence for me to report you to the administration. You will then have to use me by meeting me physically, but I will refuse to come to all your meetings. If I don't come, your blackmail will be rendered ineffective. You won't be able to share and publish the video either, because from the moment it becomes public, it will be traced back to you, and brought to justice."
"Not only did you anticipate the reason for our meeting, but you also prepared an ironclad argument to counter my demands. That's clever, Horikita Manabu-kun."
Sora began to clap his hands in a slow, mocking rhythm.
"However, your way of thinking is a bit naive. For starters, there's nothing that says I'm going to share this video publicly, the fact is that the video exists, and I could use it to report you to the administration at any time. Physical abuse towards his little sister, I'd be surprised if they would still let you inside these walls."
"I didn't consider it because I don't see the benefit it would give you. It would only hurt my sister, who is a classmate of yours. Why would you want to weaken a member of your army like that?"
"It was simply to remind you what the balance of power is here, Horikita Manabu-kun. I certainly have no concrete advantage in expelling you from this school but stop acting like we're on equal footing."
" ... "
You could clearly read in Manabu's eyes that he wanted to use violence against them. However, he knew that even if he abused them to the point of making them spill the beans, it would be useless. After all, if they had come to the roof together, the video should not be on their phones. They had certainly used the school's cloud systems to store their file.
The reason why the three of them were here was something else and Sora had not revealed it yet. Manabu had realized that he had an ultimate weapon.
Sora and Shiro did not speak for several seconds, they just continued to observe him. Sora walked over to a plastic bag that he had set aside and took out a fresh can and began to drink it.
"You have a very prestigious status Manabu-kun. It seems that the student council in this school has a rather important role. It's a place of power and influence."
"What are you getting at, Sora?"
He asked in a calm but irritated tone. Sora was speaking to him in a very familiar and disrespectful tone.
"I'm just saying that many people must be dreaming about taking your place. Some probable just think about it twice a week but there must be others that have a much stronger ambition about it."
Manabu's eyebrows furrowed.
"So that was the last card you wanted to play."
"When you are in the king's place, there is more than one citizen who wants to replace you on the throne. And among those citizens, some even create a small army."
"Do you think that will be enough?"
"I don't know yet, all I know is that I could provide some pretty powerful ammo for that army."
When one was in the place of the King, one was in a place of power and influence, it was a throne that many people desired. Among those people, some had much more effective strategies than others. Every king had an enemy lurking in the shadows, who at the slightest slip was ready to attack.
"It was not hard to guess that more than one student would like to see you fall to take your place. How long will it take me to find him? That student who is only waiting for one misstep from you to put a critical hit on you."
Sora didn't know him yet but a clear face appeared in Manabu's head. It was Nagumo Miyabi's. If Sora started to rummage through the internal affairs of the 2nd and 3rd year students, he would inevitably end up finding Nagumo.
Sora alone could do nothing with the video he had in his hands, however it was a different story if Nagumo was in charge. A man who in the shadows had slowly taken control of the second years and continued to increase his influence.
If Nagumo ended up getting such evidence against Manabu, he could very well topple him from his throne. Sora's blackmail was not just a bluff, it was real.
Manabu was for the first time overwhelmed. all it took was for him to be vulnerable just once in front of his sister and here he was facing real and substantial dangers. He closed his eyes and sighed, his face turned towards the sky. As if he was disconnecting from reality for a moment, trying to take a step back and put things into perspective.
He took a deep breath and looked back at Sora.
"It was a very simple technique, which paid off because I was very careless. Sora and Shiro... I must admit of you two being a pretty terrific existence. I accept my defeat."
"What does 'accepting your defeat' mean here Manabu-kun?"
"You said earlier that I occupy a place of power and influence. I guess you want to make use of it."
"Always so perceptive. Here's what I want you to do."
.
.
.
This was how Sora and Shiro had ended up using the Student Council, in fact Manabu was the only person who knew what was going on behind the scenes. From the exterior eye, whether it was the second and third year students or the other members of the Student Council, it was just another special exam that the administration had agreed to put in place because they considered discretion an important skill to develop.
Manabu, Suzune, Sora and Shiro were the only ones who knew that this special exam had been set up, that Sora had planned in advance to expose it to the public in order to have it cancelled, all in order to extort private points from a second year class.
In other words it was a simple blackmail strategy, a cruel one that Sora had used for personal gain. He had conned a class and manipulated a man, all for private points.
At least that was the conclusion one could come to with the current facts. But Sora was not a manipulator, nor a strategist. Strategy and manipulation were simply part of the many skills he had to excel in his one and only job: being a gamer.
The goal remained the same, he had to beat this school to win the game. Every action he took was in that direction. To win the game.
And it was also in respect to that objective, that he had organized this meeting at 5 pm.
Sora, Suzune and Shiro were in the classroom.
"Remind me why we are meeting here?"
Said Suzune, who could already see the minutes passing, it was 5:02 pm.
"Patience."
Added Sora, who was on his portable.
Shortly after, the door of class D slid to the side and someone entered the classroom.
It was Horikita Manabu.
"Nii...!"
Suzune was so surprised that she quickly stood up from her chair.
"Forgive me for being late. I had to wrap up a meeting."
Horikita Manabu, as perfect as he wanted to appear, apologized even for a mere 3 minutes late.
"What are you... doing here?"
Suzune's voice faltered at the end of her sentence. At their last meeting, she had been physically abused. She must have felt a very particular mixture of emotions inside her.
Manabu did not answer her immediately and simply walked towards them. He looked at Sora and Shiro for a long minute in silence before turning to Suzune.
"I'm sorry about last time. I shouldn't have gotten so carried away."
Manabu apologized in a monotone voice, keeping his serious airs, one could hardly see any sincerity in his voice, but simply hearing those words had to be enough for Suzune at the moment.
"I... it's nothing..."
"I still don't think you should have come to this school. However, I don't have to tell you how to live your life. Mind your own business, I'll mind mine."
He continued on, although his words may have sounded harsh, they were still spoken with a certain gentleness.
"That's a very awkward way of telling your sister that you'd like to see her more independent."
Suzune and Manabu looked in Sora's direction for a second, Suzune hadn't understood that this was the real purpose of her brother's words. The reason why he was so distant and cold with her was to make her disgusted of him, so that she could make her own steps instead of walking in Manabu's ones.
"I said what I had to say. Interpret those words as you wish. I'm finished."
Manabu walked towards the exit of the classroom.
"That's not why I called you here, you know?"
While Suzune didn't know what to say and was lost in her own emotions, Sora took the opportunity to draw attention to himself.
"If you have something to tell me, I don't think this is the right place, Sora."
Manabu added. Given their situation, he knew that they had to be completely discreet if they wanted to talk to each other.
However, Sora was not of the same opinion. He looked in his direction and with simple words he added.
"I won't use the blackmail video I have against you."
Manabu's face softened, he turned to Sora and looked at him for a good minute. Those words spinned in his head a hundred times.
He continued to stare at him and his arrogant smile, then from the corner of his eye, he noticed it for a moment. That object present in every classroom, of which he had forgotten the existence. It was a camera, which constantly recorded everything that happened and was said in class.
Manabu then understood Sora's intention. It was such a simple and effective strategy that he couldn't help but laugh inwardly, concealing his face and looking towards the door.
"You are truly a foolish one Sora-kun."
Sora looked at him with a tender smile and replied in a cheerful voice.
"I'm glad you noticed that."
Manabu added two simple word, his back turned to them.
"Thank you."
Then he left the room.
"What kind of talk was that? I can't follow you at all. And what blackmail video are you talking about? Did you want to blackmail my brother with the video taken the other night? It had been deleted, right?"
Suzune came to her senses when Manabu left the room. She tried to understand the logic behind their conversation, but everything escaped her.
"It's nothing. It's a story that only the two of us and the Council President know."
"Huh..."
Suzune was a little irritated but considering all the emotions she had been through today, she had decided not to add to it. She was already happy enough with the mere idea that her brother had apologized and was going to be content with that.
A blackmail video had indeed existed, it had been stored by Sora and Shiro and as long as it was stored somewhere then Manabu Horikita remained under their control. However it had never been Sora's goal to manipulate Manabu to the very end. The reason why he did all of that was to teach Manabu humility, so that Manabu could soften his mind and learn how to bond with his sister in a different way. When a person was completely beaten, when a person finally understood that their intelligence had not been enough, that there had been someone better than them, then that person's own self-image was destroyed or altered.
Manabu Horikita had come to understand that he could be as weak and vulnerable as any other human. Meaning, he didn't have the same self-confidence that he had before and without that self-confidence, his arrogant attitude against Suzune dissapeared.
That was the reason why he had decided today to have a different and more direct approach, although clumsy.
Did he really see his sister as inferior or did he do all of this to push her to grow on her own thus protecting her, Sora didn't know. He would surely never know the answer. One thing was certain, the defeat of Manabu had allowed their relationship to progress. It had allowed both of them to grow.
Thanks to this, a spark ignited in Suzune's mind, who would now find reasons to move forward, to progress. If her own brother had been beaten, then she had no reason to believe that she couldn't be beaten too. So teaching Manabu humility meant teaching Suzune humility.
And through humility, Suzune would be able to open furthermore to others and learn from her mistakes by walking together with her class, rather than isolating herself.
These were all effects that Sora wanted to produce through his strategy. All of this was to make Suzune one of the future leaders of Class D.
This mission being successful, he didn't need to threaten Manabu anymore. That was the reason why he had declared in front of the class camera that he was not going to use the blackmail video he had on Manabu.
The sentence itself was not the important element here, what mattered most was what it implied. By saying this, Sora acknowledged that he had a blackmail video and that he wanted to use it against the Student Council. Thus, Manabu could, by obtaining the camera footage from the class, use this part of the video to report Sora to the administration and expel him.
However, if Manabu reported Sora to the administration then Sora would have to release the video he had on Manabu so the two students would be mutually expelled.
This meant that both Sora and Manabu now had a way to destroy each other. In other words, they were on equal footing.
Sora was the person who had given Manabu this ammo, for a very simple reason, he had decided to make peace. As long as he kept Manabu under blackmail then Manabu would seek to eliminate Sora, it was a thorn to carry with him. Sora was neither interested in manipulating and blackmailing people, nor was he motivated by the idea of having to deal with the Student Council throughout his school career.
So he decided to reset the situation with a very simple strategy.
A stalemate.
"It's information."
"Mh?"
Sora turned towards Shiro who spoke a few words in her feverish voice.
"Two weeks ago you had asked me what the most dangerous weapon in the world was. The most obvious answer would be violence, but in reality it's information."
"Bingo."
Sora was proud of his little sister and stroked her head. Information. It was inevitably the most dangerous weapon in the world. If you could know everything about a person then you had all the cards in your hand to be able to manipulate them.
It was because Sora had information that he had managed to manipulate Manabu and by extension it was because he had information that he had manipulated and blackmailed an entire class of second year students.
It was thanks to information that he was going to receive 1 million private points.
"Nii... you got rid of the Council President's threat, but you still blackmailed the second year D class... they'll want revenge..."
Shiro added. In this story, there was indeed a victim, who had been conned by Sora.
"They won't attack me personally, they know I'm only a representative of class D. Besides, considering how dangerous this exam was for them, I think they would rather forget about the whole thing and not talk about it in the future. If this story were to eventually surface again then Class D of the second year could see themselves expelled."
"What about other exams... they may seek revenge on other exams..."
"In that case..."
Sora rested against the wall and blew out a deep breath, admiring the sunlight beating down on the ceiling.
"We'll just have to face them. This school is still a war between kingdoms, our kingdom must attack the other ones and defend itself. This blackmail was just one attack among many."
"You're right... we must remain focused on our objective."
Shiro's eyes were fiery. This school was still a war zone and if they had to use manipulation and blackmail to succeed, then they would.
Suzune who had been deep in thought for a while and ignored their little discussion came back to reality.
"Sora-kun, I gave up trying to figure out the whole story anymore, however there's one last thing I want an answer to."
"How is our class going to do tomorrow, right?"
"You said we were going to succeed by making us all fail together. You don't think the school is going to allow us to stay here if we do that, do you? They'll probably kick out the whole class."
"Yes, you're probably right. However, Suzune, there's a little problem in your way of thinking."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember the rule for passing the exam?"
"Yes... if I remember correctly, the rule said that in order to pass an exam, you had to have a grade worth half the class average."
"Precisely. In other words, if the class average is 50 then you would need to have at least 25 points to pass."
"Are you saying that..."
A big smile appeared on Sora's face.
"Exactly. The school never said that having 0 was fatal, they just required that you have a grade worth half of the average. And half of a zero average is...0."
A/N : Greetings ! Sorry for the late chapter, it had been a month and a few that I hadn't written, all of my exams were from start to december until the middle and this week was the first free one during which I could write a chapter, so I decided to reward you with a 4k words chapter !
I took the time to explain the whole plan behind this mini-arc so that you'll understand everything, I'm quite proud of the way I've handled these characters and would genuinely love to know your conclusion to this confrontation.
Also please drop reviews overall, I don't get anything else from this aside your words of passion and encouragement so reading them is truly important for me.
And don't forget to follow me on Fanfiction.net, I've shared my story there too ! FFnet: LogposeOP. We reached 10k views on that website !
ALSO CONGRATULATIONS WE REACHED 2.7K VIEWS ON HERE ! I've never had these many readers I'm truly thankful. I hope the chapters are entertaining because that's the core of No game no life : ridiculous strategies to entertain the readers. And I'll give you that.
Edit Note : Updated the chapter to correct a few sentences that had some weird syntax and a few other mistakes.