Ichinose Honami POV
When I arrived at my dorm room, Karma-kun was already outside waiting for me. He was wearing jeans and a simple black shirt, so no uniform, which meant he didn't go to the student council room after I left the classroom. I wanted to believe he had been at Keyaki Mall with some of our classmates or maybe some friends of his, but hoping for that was like hoping for snow in summer. The fact that he had agreed to go bowling with us on the weekend was already a feat. So, in all likelihood, he had been procrastinating in his room.
"So?" he raised an eyebrow. "We're up against Class B?"
I arrived at his side and opened the door to my room with a sigh. "Seriously? That's the first thing you say?"
"What? We met like an hour ago."
Once inside, I offered some coffee or tea, but he refused. It was obvious he only cared for information on how the meeting with the other commanders had gone. So, he headed to the living room while I made myself some tea. After it was ready, I entered the living room and sat in front of Karma-kun who looked at me expectantly.
I took a sip of my tea and then recounted everything that had happened and what were my duties as commander.
"Hmm..." he mused in a contemplative manner. "So, we can go to the multi-purpose room if we want to?"
"The commanders can."
He brushed it off with a wave of his hand. "Details. The room can be visited, that's what matters."
"I assume we'll pay a visit then."
Seriously? That's all he got from my speech?
"No, I'll go alone... Thank you for trusting me, though."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you chose Class B—"
"Somehow, I have a feeling that would have been the result regardless. Chikujoin-san and Sakayanagi-san seemed very pleased."
"Sakayanagi and Magane's wishes would've meant little if you had chosen a class other than B."
"Maybe so..." I shrugged as I finished my tea and put it aside, I had drunk most of it during my little explanation after all. "In any case, I wish to know more about your plan, Karma-kun."
"What about it?" he cocked his head to the side, looking confused.
"Well, what are you really going to do? I can see how most of the events and the rules you added would be advantageous to us, but some of it concerns me... especially the rules of the boxing match."
If the class accepted Karma-kun's list of events, nineteen students would participate—if for some reason our five events were selected. Some rules were quite normal while others were funny, but those of the boxing match, the aikido event and the kendo event concerned me.
This exam was a war where the commanders would survey everything, but our capacity of action would be limited. Limited by my classmates' abilities and limited by the rules of the events. Even an unparalleled strategist like Sun Tzu wouldn't stand a chance of winning if he led an army of children against an army of full-grown adults. Though the commanders' ability to get involved in the events was key, there were some fundamental things I needed to know before we went into this fight.
I understood my classmate's potential, maybe even more so than Karma-kun. While he had planned, schemed, and devised strategies, I had dedicated time to know my classmates. Who did they like and dislike? What were they good at and what did they struggle with? I couldn't find the path to victory unless I understood how to group my classmates together. And among those I understood the best, was Karma-kun.
The rules for these fighting events weren't so far fetched that the school would reject them, especially with Nagumo-senpai's policy to be more lenient on violence. But I knew Karma-kun and if I allowed him to enter a fight with these rules, I feared for the result.
"I think it would be a fair fight," he shrugged.
"No."
"You don't think it's a fair fight?"
"I won't accept this event unless we change the rules." He opened his mouth to reply but I continued. "I mean it, Karma," I decided to drop the honorific and was looking at him as seriously as I could. "If you fight someone with these rules, you'll go beyond the limits of what's acceptable."
"...What do you propose then?"
"The commander will be able to put an end to the fight."
"No."
"It is non-negotiable."
"Ichinose—"
"You want to destroy someone's face? Be beat up and end up in the infirmary? Fine by me. But Horikita-san or I will put an end to it, because I know if I let you do as you please it won't end unless you or your opponent have an aneurysm!"
Karma-kun was looking at me as if it were the first time he did so. He looked so surprised by my words and my attitude that his face would have been funny in any other circumstances, but I was dead serious about this.
After his surprise passed, Karma-kun's eyes went down and then travelled through the room. Finally, he sighed.
"Have it your way then."
"Good," a smile returned to my face. "I'll make the changes."
He nodded and made to stand up, but I told him to sit down again. We were not done talking.
"What now?" he asked, his voice showing his annoyance.
My smile grew a bit. I had to admit, it was somewhat amusing to see Karma-kun trying to be tolerable, or at least, trying to not snap at you whenever you upset him.
"Yuki-san," I said simply.
He huffed.
"You two need to talk."
"No, we don't."
"Karma-kun..."
"Well then, if she wants to talk then tell her to meet me and apologize. It's about time she stops sulking, as if I had done something!" he finished, slamming his fist against the table, the empty cup falling to the floor.
Calmly, I stood up and picked up the cup, taking it back to the kitchen, I would wash it later. Back in the room, I sat in front of Karma-kun once again.
"It would help me, if you told me what happened between you two."
"Nothing happened. She's just being unreasonable."
"Karma-kun... while I can believe that Yuki-san is exaggerating, I doubt you're totally blameless."
"And what would you do if I just walked out of here?"
I shrugged. "Maybe I'll follow you. Maybe I'll try to speak to Yuki-san tomorrow. Maybe I'll force you two to meet somewhere where you won't have any other choice but to talk. Thankfully, I don't have to think about any of that."
"And why is that?" For the first time in a while, Karma-kun smirked and I couldn't understand this reaction, was there something amusing in my words?
"Because you will tell me why you and Yuki-san are quarrelling."
Although I said those words with seriousness I had been speaking with for a while now, Karma-kun burst out laughing. He wasn't mocking me or something like that, it was a genuine, amused laugh.
Placing an elbow on the table, I rested my head on my hand.
Is this what Ayanokouji-kun, Nao-san and Misaka-san feel when dealing with him? I wonder.
When he calmed down, Karma-kun took a breath and mirrored my position. He was looking at me with a glint or mirth and amusement in his eyes and his smile lacked all the haughtiness and disdain it usually had.
"Now, whatever happened to good old kind and compromising Honami?" he wondered.
"Huh?"
Taken aback, I didn't understand his meaning at first.
Then, it sank. Before today, before the class poll, I wouldn't have tried any of this, I probably would have spoken with Karma-kun and Yuki-san to come to an understanding. I would have tried to be civil and tell them how they were best friends and shouldn't treat each other like that even if they had argued. An apology should suffice, right?
Instead, tired of their pettiness, I called Karma-kun to meet me here and after forcing him to accept my terms on his boxing event idea, I am now forcing him to tell me why he and Yuki-san are being so petty. I was the one holding the cards, after all, I was the one liked by our classmates, the one our classmates would follow and Karma-kun needed me for that, so, why not use it?
So, understanding the meaning of his words, I couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle as well.
Looking at his amused expression, I shook my head, jovially.
He can be a true idiot sometimes.
Leaning forward, I rested my head on both my hands and met Karma-kun's eyes.
"So, tell me, Mr. Pettiness. Why are you and Yuki-san fighting?"
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka POV
After classes ended and Suzune left with Chabashira for the meeting with the commanders to define our match-up, I left the classroom accompanied by Chiaki.
So, right now, we were at a café calmly drinking as Chiaki and I finished reading our copies of the handout. Suzune would probably be in that meeting for the next hour, so Chiaki and I had time to go over the rules of the special exam.
"So!" Chiaki started happily, placing her handout on the table. "How are we gonna do this?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"Well, we need to come up with events. Maybe we'll find something interesting in the proposals of our classmates, but what do you think? Any ideas?"
I shrugged. "Not really. We'll have to wait to know who we're facing and discuss everything with the class."
We would be facing Karma's class and undoubtedly he already had a plan. If we wanted to have a chance we needed to strike a balance between what our classmates could do and what Class D could throw at us. Things like Basketball for Sudou and Archery for Akito could prove useful as long as we considered who could participate from Class D, considering their events would also be necessary.
"You say that but I'm sure you've already thought of a few possible events," she pouted.
"Who do you think we'll be facing?" I asked, taking a sip of my coffee.
"Hmm? Probably Class D."
"Why do you think that?"
She gave me a look as if asking: are you seriously asking me that?
"Everyone knows about the conflict between Sakayanagi-san, Tomori-san, and Chikujoin-san. Class A and Class C will go against one another."
"Then, if we're facing Class B, we can suppose Karma already has a plan."
"You think he still has influence?" Chiaki looked doubtful. "I mean, Ichinose-san is the leader now, is she not? And everyone hates Karma."
"Everyone except the leader. Ichinose will hear advice from Karma."
"So, Karma is going to be what Nao-san is to Sakayanagi-san?" she wondered.
"Only that Ichinose will listen to Karma."
Chiaki chuckled at my joke, and I felt a little proud that it worked.
"Winning is not going to be easy, then," Chiaki mused after a moment. "But you're going to participate, right?"
"Karma will most likely create an event for the two of us to face each other, so yes, I'll participate."
"But in the planning. Will you help us with the planning?"
I paused, studying my answer for a second.
Finally, I replied with a: "I might propose an event during the discussions tomorrow."
She laughed before taking a sip of her smoothie. "Well, at least it's something." She paused to drink some more but then stopped, taking a hand to her head. "Cold! Ow!"
"Don't drink it too quickly."
She glared at me.
"Just saying..." I shrugged while taking another sip of my coffee.
"Whatever," she said. "Now, I thought we could try some events that rely more on luck than anything else? I'm not saying all our events should be like that but maybe one or two?"
"That's an idea, I suppose."
We'd have to gamble on the possibility that five of the seven events we'd be competing in would be the ones proposed by Class B, not to mention being lucky enough to win four or more of those events. If we assumed we had a fifty percent chance of winning each individual event, and used that assumption as a baseline to calculate the probability of winning overall, then...
I calculated the probability in my head.
The chances that the seven final events would include a full five events chosen by our class was 8.33 percent. And if our chances of winning each event was fifty percent, then our chances of winning four or more events overall would be 18.75 percent. If we wanted to fulfil both those conditions, then the end result was that we'd have a 1.56 percent chance of pulling everything off.
It was actually a far cry from five percent. It was hard to call relying solely on luck a good plan. That being said, this was just me examining simple hypotheticals, calculating our chances of winning four or more games based solely on luck. In reality, those chances would fluctuate due to a variety of contributing factors and Chiaki pretended to only add one or two events based on luck which could work to either throw off Class D or have a chance to reshuffle the stakes of the exam should we decide to include one of these events among the five.
So, with that in mind, we should choose events in fields that we excelled in, even if that meant taking on the risk of losing. The fewer events where we had to rely on a fifty-fifty chance solely based on luck, the better.
"Well if you don't like it, you just have to say so," Chiaki said. "By the way, do you know anything about Hirata-kun?"
"Yousuke? No, why?"
"I just wonder what's wrong with him. Look."
I looked in the direction she was indicating and saw Yousuke walking outside the café, a bag in his hands. His gait was slow, heavy, and wobbly. He moved like a zombie, or a ghost. His eyes looked empty, in stark contrast to his usual bright, cheery self.
Earlier when classes ended, he immediately got up from his seat and left. Wang Mei-Yu, whom everyone called Mii-chan, went after him. I doubted she obtained any positive results, though. Now, he seemed to be going back to the dorms after a visit to the store.
Ever since the class poll, Yousuke had been acting like that and no one had managed to get through to him, not even his girlfriend Karuizawa Kei. Several of our classmates besides Kei and Mei-Yu had approached him too. If anything, it seemed they'd just deepened the wound by trying to broach the subject with him.
"I don't know. It seems Yamauchi's expulsion really affected him."
"But why?" Chiaki didn't seem able to comprehend what was going through Yousuke's head. "Yamauchi was an idiot, and his expulsion didn't cost us anything."
I shrugged, not having any real answer.
Yousuke had been one of the main contributors to the class. He always acted with the class's best interests at heart. His efforts had been invaluable, and he was loved by many students inside and outside our class.
"That's something only Yousuke knows. What's for sure is that, in that state, he will be of little help during this special exam.
"Hmm... There's nothing we can really do, is there?" Chiaki mused thoughtfully before her brain froze again because of her cold smoothie.
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So, Chapter 12 is supposed to be Class B vs Class D, but I don't know if the chapter should be the entirety of the match-up or if I should have Kiyotaka vs Karma in another chapter. Same thing for Chapter 13: Class A vs Class C, but I don't know if it's better to have Sakayanagi-Nao vs Chikujoin in that same chapter or another one. In any case, chapters 12 and 13 will or should be long. What do you think? Should I push these to a chapter 14, maybe even 15 to separate them or just have all of the B vs D on chapter 12 and all of the A vs C in chapter 13?