7th August
"Yo, Kiyotaka. Our classmates are calling for you. Everyone's already gathered at a function room Hirata reserved."
"Does any part of my demeanour show concern for their plans? I want to sleep and nothing is going to stop me."
People really gotta learn how to read in between the lines... I want my alone time as well, you know? Even robots need recharging.
"They have your phone, since you didn't collect it from Chabashira-sensei when boarding."
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"What do you guys want?" I said the minute the door opened.
I'm questioning if my classmates deserve human rights and or oxygen after requesting for me at the octillionth of a millisecond that my body begins to shut down as I drift off into the realm of unconsciousness with the intention of rejuvenating my body for another day of having to deal with their chaotic messes, just before the chemicals in my body could travel to their designated areas to induce the state of sleep, due to the threat that they are in possession of my mobile device which leaves me vulnerable as my privacy is at risk of being exposed.
"Yay! Kiyotaka-kun's finally here!"
Don't celebrate, Kikyou. I'm on the verge of choking you till your epiglottis cartilage breaks, leaving your larynx vulnerable and taking advantage of said vulnerability by instilling laryngeal fracture onto your now weak throat to ensure that you suffer from significant problems with airway patency, voice production, and swallowing.
"So, basically, we've called you here because we all decided to play a little game!"
"What game?"
"I'm glad you asked. Chabashira-sensei has just handed us back our phones that are inside this little box." She held up the box that Sae-sensei used to store our devices.
"And since we've all shut down our phones, we are all bound to get some notifications after being gone for a week, right? So, the game is, whoever has the most notifications when their phone gets switched on, wins!" She pumped her fist in the air to display excitement.
"And what does the winner get?"
"1000 points from everyone in the class."
That would amount to around... 39, 000 points for the winner. Low risk, high return game. I like the sound of that. But, I've not forgiven them at all for what they did.
"Ah, Kanji and I already switched on our phones..."
"And as punishment, they would all be giving 10, 000 points instead." Kikyou gave a thumbs up with a wink."
"Damn it! I was about to subscribe to another onl... online tutoring lesson."
So, it would now be 57, 000 points. Even better. Thanks for being so charitable Ike, Yamauchi.
"However!" Kikyou suddenly exclaimed and stopped to create suspense. "Since the winner is getting a lot of money, the runner-up will get to read some of their notifications aloud for 5 minutes..."
So it's high risk, high return, huh? Our privacy in exchange for 57k. Guess it's worth the little compromise.
"So, how does it work?"
"As you can see, we've already laid out everyone's phones on the floor, so the owner would just switch it on and in a few minutes, everything should be decided. Yours is the one nearest to you, in between Eichiro-Kun and Hirata-kun."
I dragged my legs towards my phone and placed my finger on the power-button with the phone still on the floor just like the rest.
"Kiyotaka-kun, if I win, I'll treat you to instant ramen, ok?" Itsuki winked at me.
"Hey, that's not fair! I can treat him, too!" Satou interjected.
"Alright, quiet down, everyone! We're going to begin in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Switch your phones on!"
One-by-one, each cellular device lit up and the vibrations of the devices reverberated in the room. I was a tad bit slower cause I was busy watching everyone else.
...
This is annoying. It's only been 30 seconds, and the only phones still receiving notifications are Kikyou and mine.
"The hell!?"
"Their notifications are going crazy!"
A minute passed... and Kikyou's phone went silent. Mine on the other hand...
"It's still going!?"
"It's all messages! How many people have been texting him while he's gone!?"
To put into perspective just how crazy things are, I've received around 500 messages so far... and the number's still rising.
3 minutes later...
"It's... finally stopped."
"A-And the winner is... Ayanokouji-kun... With over 5 thousand notifications... excluding any non-communicative applications." Hirata announced, his voice a little strained.
Basically apps that are not meant for communication like video games or Netflix.
Ding!
"Oh, he just got another one."
Ding!
"And another..."
"I'm not proud of this, but cough up all the money now."
57, 000 points over a mini-game like this was a lot. But, it cost me a lot as well...
"The runner up is Kushida-san with... 400 notifications. So, Ayanokouji-kun, if you would kindly hand over your phone to Kushida-san... No peeking from anyone else, alright? Let's respect the terms of the game." Hirata finished off, still in shock.
"The gap between first and second is wider than the second and the last..."
"It wasn't even a contest..."
I'm not enjoying this victory in the slightest.
I handed my unlocked phone to Kikyou who received it with her hands still shaking from the amount of messages I received. As she opened up my messages, her eyes snapped open in disbelief.
"These... are crazy!"
"What is it!?"
"The cheerleading captain!? That senpai!? And that senpai!?"
"It's all girls, isn't it!?" Ike and Yamauchi cried out, broken hearted.
"I can't believe this-! Why are they sending you these!? What kind of messages have you been getting!?"
I'm not proud of it... but, blocking them would be worse, since each student has a mailbox and mine's always full by the end of the day. It's better if I do respond and chat with them. Otherwise, they might come by my room personally.
"How did so many people even get your number!?"
If I were to guess, then it's probably because of the advertisement of my platform back when school first started.
" [H-Hurry up and come back, Koji-kun!? I-I'm longing for you~]!? A-And this picture!?"
Matsuri Fukui, year 2...
"W-What picture!? Lemme see!"
I will kill you before you even get your breath near my phone.
"No, this is Kiyotaka-kun's privacy! And this girl's chastity!"
She says chastity... but these girls do not seem to pay any mind about it when sending me these...
"S-Same senpai: [Just got my hair done, how'd you like it~]!?"
"This photo could not have been to show her new hairstyle!"
She was definitely not emphasising that, I'm guessing.
" {This is all for you, sweetie~} !?"
Mihara Riko, year 3...
This is probably the most daring photo of the bunch...
" [How are you liking your sneaky shinobi's new uniforms~] !?"
Uno Kazume, year 3...
That can't be a shinobi's uniform...
"{Booked a private pool to make sure only you get to see the swimsuits I'll never wear in public} !?"
Ashikaga Hoshi, year 2...
Yeah, please don't wear these in public... In fact, girls should not be wearing something as revealing as a bikini despite how normalised it is.
" {Hoshi only got two new swimsuits? Pftt, that's weak! I got 4 and they're definitely much better, aren't they, Ayanokouji-kun~} !?"
Morino Mi, year 2...
" {They say the hearts are connected. I'm missing you dearly, did you sense it?} !?"
"That girl's trying to use poetic rizz!?"
Yasui Sumiko, year 2...
"Nope! No more! I'm not looking through any more of these!" Kikyou switched off my phone and promptly shoved it back to me.
The atmosphere seemed to have gotten more tense... Looking around, I concluded that it was the opposite gender's doing...
"Those woman..."
"They have no shame and sent Kiyotaka-kun those types of messages..."
"Kiyo's been receiving those...?"
Yeah, I'm not dealing with any of this for much longer.
"Well, nice game. Going back to sleep now. Good evening." I swiftly exited the room and made my way back before I could be questioned about the contents of my phone.
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7th August,
A couple hours have passed since the conclusion of the special exam and I am finally able to savour a good sleep. However, as always, I can't seem to ensure that things go my way.
Smooch~
I felt a pair of lips kissing my own. What started of as a soft peck on the lips eventually turned more aggressive as I could feel the other party trying to force their tongue into my mouth.
Smack!
"Oww! What'd you do that for!?"
"No, what are you doing, Kikyou?"
She truly deserves that slap for trying to take advantage of an unconscious boy.
Kikyou got on top of me and rested her head on my chest. "I did that because you weren't responding to my calls or messages and refused to wake up."
"That's besides the point. What do you want?"
"Explanations."
"Couldn't it have waited until after I woke up?"
"Nope. I want it now, please! Come on, let's go." She took hold of my hand and tried dragging me out of bed.
"Let's move quickly to prevent anyone from seeing this."
"I know, I know."
She brought me to the lowest level of the ship. There was no reception here, so contacting people was out of the question if you needed to.
Kikyou brought me to a small corner further down the aisle and sat on the floor.
"This is the spot you chose?" I questioned her, but sat down either way.
"Yup. No one comes down here since there's nothing. So, anytime you want to have a secret rendezvous~..." She glided her hands up and down my chest in a pitiful attempt to fluster me.
"Just shut up and stop it, will you?"
"You're no fun~ Now then, how'd you do it? Did things go like how you wanted?"
"I'm drowsy and not in the mood to talk much, so I'm going to summarise it as short and simple as I can."
"That's fine by me."
"To start, the pier was on the southern beach of the island. When the classes were given supplementary instructions, Class A to D was positioned from west to east, respectively. I had allowed the girls and guys to argue for a while to kill some time because I wanted to figure out which part of the island the other classes were planning to explore."
This special exam, if you think about it, was basically a points giveaway to us, because the risk of point deductions were 0%, and the school already supplied us with 300 points to begin with.
If everyone in the year wanted free points, then a simple, unspoken rule of 'no aggression' will be on the back of everyone's minds. Therefore, to ensure that each class wouldn't get in each other's way, we would explore different parts of the island.
Class B explored the west, Class C the north, our class the east, and Class D didn't even move.
"I didn't particularly care where we decided on our base, so I allowed you guys to handle it while I went to meet up with Koeunji."
"Oh yeah, speaking of him, what'd you want with that guy at the start?"
"After reading up on the rules, I noticed a loophole regarding the leaders."
"Which is?"
" 'It is impossible to change the leader without suitable justification.' What does that mean?"
"It means... if there's a good reason, the leader can be changed...?"
"Precisely. Knowing that Koeunji was going to retire anyways, I decided to use that by making him the first leader, followed by me. That allowed me to have two keycards."
With it, anyone can easily deceive another class into believing that Koeunji was our leader, if they saw the keycard. That is provided they didn't know about the loophole.
"Hmm... but, you were gone for an awfully long time, weren't you?"
"Yeah, that's cause I went to the cave I guessed Katsuragi was after."
"How'd you know Class B was headed for the cave? The exam just started and you didn't have a chance to speak with him. In fact, did you even speak to him?"
"Class B went to the west side, where the cave is. It could be spotted from aboard the ship if you were paying close enough attention. The school already gave us hints about the locations when we were sailing around the island. While you guys were busy imagining what to indulge yourselves with, I saw Katsuragi's calculating expression and guessed that he was onto something. Therefore, I decided to track him down and figure out what."
It's precisely because of how good a spot the cave was that I deduced Katsuragi was targeting it.
"So, what'd you find?"
"I'd intended to explore various things, but in the end I discovered their leader's identity."
"That quickly? Katsuragi-kun's more careless than I thought."
"Nope. There was that guy, Yahiko, remember? The one following Katsuragi around. He was the leader. I saw Katsuragi and Yahiko enter and exit the cave from outside, but I couldn't see the moment they occupied it as I couldn't risk getting spotted. After the two of them walked away, I checked and saw that the cave had already been occupied." I explained the situation.
"Wouldn't you have mistaken Katsuragi-kun as the leader?" she asked.
"Do you think that the leader would have shown off the card so carelessly in front of people?"
"Well no... then that means Yahiko was holding the keycard, got too excited when he saw that the cave was a good spot, and rushed in to claim it without waiting for Katsuragi-kun's signal." I nodded at her.
"When Katsuragi found the cave, he didn't intend to occupy it. Nevertheless, he was holding the space down, probably because Yahiko had been careless. Even though he thought no one would be watching them, he'd probably wanted insurance. By holding onto the card and displaying it, even in the unlikely event that a witness was present, he could mislead them into thinking that he was the leader."
Even without that deduction, Yahiko's identity as leader would still be discovered by me when he went to claim the hut.
"So, aside from their base, Class B held down at least two spots, but I didn't confirm how many they were occupying by the end of the test. However, none of it would have mattered if I correctly guessed the identity of their leader as I could invalidate all of their points at once."
After I'd narrowed it down to Yahiko, putting effort into anything else would've been a waste of time.
"So once Class B's leader was discovered, there was no point paying attention to them."
"At least not for a while. Once I've finished off Class B, I turned my attention to Class D. Katsuragi is a simple and straightforward person, but Ryueen was a different story. If I wasn't in the picture, I'm confident the dragon would've won. He had already figured out the identities of the other leaders."
"Really? Well, I suppose the bastard is quite cunning. I understand our class not getting penalized, but what about Class C? They finished in 2nd place with a bunch of points as well."
"We have a contract with Class C. If we help them retake their position as Class B again, we get 800,000 points a month. I believe that this exam was a good stepping stone for that."
"Oh, I forgot all about that contract. I still wonder why they agreed to a contract like that. Seems like it's full of disadvantages to me."
"I pressured them a little, and made some promises here and there."
When someone's fallen from a high position, desperation to climb back up could entice them if the correct buttons were pushed.
"Hmm... I guess that makes sense. If you were the one I'm allying with, I think that cost is quite the bargain. Anyways, how'd you help them?"
"On the 4th day, I sent Chiaki away, remember?"
"Yeah, she didn't join us to look for food."
"I had sent her to infiltrate Class C and figure out their leader."
"... What? Why'd you want their leader? It's not like you were going to write it down... and, why not just ask them? You are helping them, so shouldn't they cooperate?"
"It's not as simple as that. I couldn't ask because I needed to be convincing to them."
"Convincing for what?"
"Convince them of the danger they're in. Kaneda was staying with them, just like how Ibuki was staying with us. I wasn't so good-natured as to believe that two people just happened to be saved by two separate classes completely by chance, so I deduced that they were spies sent by Ryueen to sniff out both our leaders."
This kind of plan has Ryueen dyed all over the canvas. Even if I hadn't found Ibuki's camera and walkie-talkie, that would still not have convinced me that she was not a spy.
Reason being, she didn't retire alongside the rest of her classmates or when Ryueen used up all their points. If she really did get chased out, why suffer by staying on the island when you can just retire and relax on the cruise?
She could say that it's because she didn't want to see her classmates' faces, but compared to living in frugality, it's obvious which is the better option.
"I was confident that Kaneda already figured out their leader, so I needed them to change to prevent them from losing points. If I had simply asked, Honami might've told me, but then I won't appear convincing when I tell them that the other two classes have already figured out who their leader is."
"That's true..."
If a person whom you never told a secret to, went up and told you that other people have discovered that secret of yours, I'm sure that you would certainly believe it, precisely because they themselves shouldn't have had that information to begin with.
You would probably be thinking to yourself 'if they managed to find out, what's to say others have not?'
"But, how did Matsushita-san figure out their leader?"
"I did not ask for her methods. All I know is that she would never give me false information or one that she's not 100% sure of. Chiaki's loyal and reliable like that."
Well, the moment I informed her about what I wanted her to do, she sprinted at full speed and purposefully fell to injure herself. Before leaving for Class C's base, she kept the mini palm-sized binoculars she brought along for 'bird-watching' in her pocket.
I'm guessing she used that to get a peek at their leader when they renew the rights of possession for their base. Or, who knows what other methods she used. Point is, I've trained that girl well and understand her abilities better than anyone. The likelihood of her failing is extremely slim.
"So, you sent a spy of your own, huh? Only this time, you sent it to your allies."
"I believe it was necessary."
"If you thought it was, then you're probably right. Speaking of spies, you allowed Ibuki-san to stay at the camp precisely because you planned to deceive Class D, right?"
"Mhm."
I allowed Ibuki to stay at the camp, knowing full well that she was a spy to make Class D write down Koeunji's name to seal 50 points for us.
"That means you've gotten Class D to write Koeunji's name down, but what about Class B?"
"To explain that, I would first have to begin with how I convinced Class D to write down Kouenji's name."
"I'm guessing sweet talking Yamauchi into sacrificing his future generations was part of the plan. I may not like Horikita much, but I definitely enjoyed that nutcracker."
Kikyou convinced Yamauchi to pull a prank on us by pushing Horikita into me so that we would fall in the mud, giving us a reason to wash up and change our clothes.
Keeping in mind that Kei's group also went to search for food and knowing they spend the longest in the shower, it was not hard to assume that Horiktia would get restless and decide to wash up in the river, giving the perfect opportunity for Ibuki to steal the keycard.
"I don't understand. Why did Ibuki-san do something as risky as stealing the keycard?"
"Well, she had a camera in her bag to take a photo of it, but unfortunately she didn't have enough time to retrieve it as the storm was fast approaching."
She would have to rush everything in the rain, which could risk damaging the camera. If that happens, then all her work and patience would've been for nothing. The safe bet would be to just take the keycard.
"I understand that... but, why not just take a look at it and inform Ryueen of the name she saw on the keycard? Did he not trust her at all?"
"If he didn't, then he wouldn't have asked her to be a spy."
"Then, why?"
"This is where I no longer have any proof. All of this is just based on my own inferences." I began.
"I surmised that Class B had 270 points at the end of the test, meaning they hadn't spent a single point."
"Not a single point? Didn't they need to shower and use the toilet? They couldn't have all shat in the same cardboard toilet. That's disgusting."
Yeah, I don't even want to imagine a scene like that. That's way too disturbing.
"Class D and Class B were working together behind the scenes. From simple calculations and estimations, I noticed that Class D didn't spend all 300 of their points for indulgements. Class D not only bought whatever Class B needed, but also gave them ours and Class C's, luckily, expired keycard."
With that, Class D and B awarded both Class C and my class 100 points for guessing our leader incorrectly.
"Woah. So not only did you bring the both of them down, but you also brought Class C up with you as well."
"Basically."
"So, we get 100 points for them guessing our leader incorrectly and 50 points for guessing Class B's leader correctly. That's 150 points... 122 points left plus 150 is equal to 272... where's the other 102 points?" Kikyou did some calculations using her fingers like a little preschooler. It was quite a cute sight to behold, seeing her focused like that.
"52 provisional points and 50 points for guessing Class D's leader."
"That's quite an impressive number of provisional points. No wonder you barely slept. My poor Kiyo~kun" Kikyou pulled my head into her chest and caressed it affectionately, like a mother putting their child to sleep.
"Now, how'd you find Class D's leader? And who was it?"
"On the 5th day, a few hours past midnight, I went to reclaim some spots while also conducting my own investigation. Tell me, did you really believe everyone in Class D retired?"
"Considering how much of a deceitful asshole Ryueen is, no. I did not think so."
"Correct. At a time past midnight, on an island with no light pollution, when it gets dark, it gets ridiculously dark."
There are no traffic lights or street lamps anywhere here. There was no other way to get light except at the teachers tents or a campfire.
"By the 5th day, it was already obvious where the other classes would be spending their remaining time. Therefore, any light source other than the ones I've been familiar with, are not from a class, but by individuals. And the only ones who were no longer moving as a class were?"
"Class D!" She exclaimed excitedly as I nodded at her.
"There were two unknown light sources, so I investigated both. The first one was Ryueen. He was sleeping peacefully on a hammock when I found him."
"So, he was the leader?"
"No. There were two light sources, remember? Ryueen was too busy making deals with Katsuragi. The second light source I went to was where I found their leader. Like Ryueen, Albert was so comfortably tucked away in his little hammock."
"Albert was their leader? How'd you confirm it?"
"Elimination method. Ibuki and Kaneda were both spies. Ryueen had to stay to negotiate with Katsuragi. Any of these 3 would've been a great choice for leader, seriously. If it was any of them, it would've made it a lot harder for me to find Class D's leader."
"Why would it be harder when there's lesser people? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
"It's because each of them had a role in Ryueen's plans. Which is why that would've been a reason for Ryueen to keep them on the island. Albert is a different case. He didn't have any other special role for this test. Not that I know of at least. And yet, he was still remaining. That could only be for one reason, isn't it?"
"Because he's the leader..." Kikyou muttered in awe.
Ryueen had specifically assigned Albert the role of collecting as many spots as possible to collect provisional points. No one else that remained could've done it.
"If Ryueen had just given the role of leader to Kaneda, Ibuki or himself, then Class C and us would've been short 50 points."
Yet, he still wouldn't have won. Either way, Ryueen has been devoured. Kaneda and Ibuki wouldn't have been able to get provisional points because they were being watched. And him being the leader would've been so obvious, since there were only 3 people left.
"Guess your, so called 'lazy' plan worked nicely for us. We're so fucking far ahead and it's only been 4 months and the first of these special exams!"
This is how the current class points tally look like:
Class A: 1874 (+374)
Class B: 1114 (+70)
Class C: 994 (+331)
Class D: 242
Due to the fact that we had special exams, which would greatly affect our point tally, we have not yet received our points for the month of August.
"By the way, you've got some real explaining to do, Kikyou."
"Hmm? Regarding what?"
"Why the hell did you steal my underwear and framed Azuma for it?"
"Oops~ guess you've figured that out, already. Teehee~" she winked while showing a peace sign over her eye like an idol.
It's one of the most ridiculous and random things that I never expected would happen. Out of all the things I thought would occur on a deserted island, my underwear going missing was not something I had prepared for.
"Well, I was not happy that you were giving all your attention to Horikita, so I thought I should get back at you by causing some problems. I didn't specifically pick Azuma-chan, it just kind of happened... I just stuffed it into one of the girl's bags."
"So, you did it out of spite?"
"Mhm! Absolutely! Not only did it cause a fun chaotic mess, but Ibuki-san, Azuma-san, and the rest of the girls became suspects! I got to see all their panicked expressions when they thought you were going to leave them. It was enticing!" She giggled like a villain.
Something's seriously not right with this girl. It's like some of the wires up there aren't connected properly.
"Now then... I haven't asked about this, since I thought you would bring it up naturally... but you didn't, so I'm going to ask."
"What is it?"
"Horikita... did you do what you said you wanted to do? Did you destroy her?" She asked with a sadistic grin.
This was unavoidable. It's probably what Kikyou had been wanting to hear the most.
I gave Horikita the questionable role of guarding Koeunji's outdated keycard. I did this to give her a sense of responsibility. So that when she fails and it gets discovered by another class, more damage would've been done to her.
Horikita's pride would not allow for her to fail at something that could potentially crush the chances of victory for our class. It would certainly cause great hurt to her. Initially, what I had planned was far, far worse, but...
"You backed out!?" She cried. "Why!? You were about to absolutely destroy that fucking bitch for threatening to make you a slave!"
"That's none of your concern. All that matters is I changed my mind. That's all."
Horikita displayed kindness to me on the island. It felt... strangely comforting. I don't know why, but I did not want to hurt her any more than I already had by making her cry.
Unfortunately, by the time I had decided to change my mind, the domino effect of my plans had already begun. All I could've done was limit the damage it did.
"Come on! She literally insulted you! She underestimated you! Why did you change your mind when you were so close!?" She started shaking me with vigour to try and force an answer out of me.
"Stop." I commanded as I pushed her onto the ground.
My actions that she clearly didn't expect must've shocked her as she could only stare at me with her eyes wide and cold sweat trickling down her face. As my profile got closer to hers, her body started trembling.
"I changed my mind. Is that so hard to understand? Are you questioning my decisions?"
"N-No..." she replied with her lips quivering, causing a cute little stutter.
"From now on, you will not show hostility towards Horikita. You will try and get along with her. And, don't even think of launching an attack on her, you got that? If you do... well, I suppose you'll find out the conclusion of your life sooner than you expected."
She nodded her head in agreement rather quickly.
"Good." I got up and turned around, preparing to leave.
But, it seems like she had other plans as she latched onto my back.
"I'm sorry, ok!? I'm sorry! Don't be mad, please! I won't do it again, I swear!" She pleaded with tears streaming down her cheeks, staining the back of my shirt.
Jeez... what am I going to do with this girl?
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8th August
Once again, I have apparently been summoned. The sun hasn't even risen yet, and already I've got appointments.
As I opened the door to the ship's deck, I could see the caller staring at the ocean around us by the railings.
"What do you want, Ryueen?" I approached him.
"There you are!" He swiftly turned around and grabbed my collar.
Well, this was unexpected. Why's he getting so violent all of a sudden? He's a guy, so it can't be that time of the month...
"Why the fuck did you do that for, asshole!?"
"Do what? You've been saying this since yesterday, but I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about."
I genuinely have no idea what he was so angry about.
"Tsk. Stop playing dumb. I'm asking why the fuck you attacked Albert like that!?"
"Albert got attacked?"
He took out his phone and showed a photo of Albert lying in the medical bay of the ship. His head was bandaged with stains of blood on it.
"Don't test my patience, Ayanokouji. I'm not in the mood. Just give me the damn reason."
"No, I'm telling you the truth. I genuinely have no idea what happened to him."
"You... You really have no fucking clue, do you?" The words escaped from him and his grip on me loosened.
"None. Honest."
"Then, who the fuck did this...?" He questioned, his breathing getting a little shaky.
"Walk me through what happened. What you know at least."
He quickly took a seat at one of the tables nearby with me following suit.
"It was the last day. Me, Ibuki and Kaneda were already at the beach, waiting for the announcement. We knew that 4 people were supposed to remain on the island in our class. You already beat us, so there's no point hiding that fact."
Yeah, I already deciphered his plan a while ago.
"But, Albert was late, completely unlike him. We thought, maybe he's just tired and overslept, so we waited. 10 minutes later, he walked out the forest, with his jacket wrapped around his fucking head like a turban."
He was late to the meeting and had already sustained the injury... this meant that it was recent and probably happened on the last day, just before he met up with them, or the last night.
"The way he was walking... he was wobbling so much I thought he was a drunk Indian. Eventually, he collapsed, so we obviously rushed to check on him. When I got closer, I noticed an iron-like smell, from his head. And I knew immediately that it was blood. I took off his turban and saw a disgusting ass gash on the back of his head. The medics quickly helped carry him on board the ship's medical bay, and he's been resting there since yesterday."
"Any brain damage? Skull fracture?"
"Nah, it was a cut with some bruising around the area. Luckily they managed to clean it quickly, otherwise it could've gotten infected. The medics say that the injury most probably happened before sunrise."
"Has Albert said anything?"
"He has no fucking clue himself. As you probably know, Albert was our leader and for the last night, we already agreed that he will go all out for spot hunting. He said he felt something hit him and just blacked out. When he woke up, the exam was already over."
"I'm sorry to hear that. But, I seriously have no clue what happened."
"Usually, I would not believe your bullshit, especially because of the fact that his keycard was missing and your class got top spot. But, I honestly doubt you would take a stupid risk like this to figure out our leader when all you had to do was make small inferences here and there."
"Yeah. Besides, the work done on Albert was sloppy. If they were really good, there should not have been a cut. He should've been knocked out cleanly."
When blood gets spilt, things get taken to the next level.
"Now I don't know where the fuck I should start to solve this shit. Fucking hell. Whatever, see you around, Ayanokouji." Ryueen grumbled as he walked away, leaving me all alone on the deck, staring at the blanket of nothingness above.
It's true that I genuinely have no clue what happened to Albert. But, I have a little gift from the anonymous someone that, just like Ryueen, I'm trying to find.
I took out Albert's keycard from my pocket, inspecting it a little, before throwing it off the ship. When I was checking my bag on the last day, Albert's keycard was placed in my front zip by... let's call them Hearts.
I don't have a clue what Hearts want, and the little memo that they left for me wasn't much help, either.
Kiyopawn's point balance: 70, 371, 000
The points for the month of August have not been added.
Adding July, and the ones Horikita had to give him due to the deal.