"Sakura-san... The VIPs from the three groups... they're all from Class D," Hirata revealed, making Sakura's eyes widen.
"A- are you sure? How do you know anyway?" Sakura wondered, to which Hirata smiled sheepishly.
"Well, they told me as they didn't want to hold onto the secret all alone. It can be difficult to be the VIP. There is so much pressure on you from all sides, right? The VIPs were Karuizawa, Kushida-san and Minami-san, in case you're wondering."
Sakura, however, only stared blankly at the wall next to Hirata's head. This felt like a personal attack against Class D. Why did the person only end the exam for Class D VIPs? That didn't seem like a coincidence.
"We need to find out which class did it, and we need to guess all of their VIPs," Sakura decided finally, a fierce look on her face.
"That way, we can negate our point loss for having the VIPs guessed, and we can ensure that the class that did this won't come on top with 150 points or more," Sakura said.
If this class had figured out the system, she had no idea why they hadn't submitted more VIPs than those from Class D. However, she'd rather act fast before this class or person made up their mind and finished the job.
"H- huh? Is that even possible?" Hirata wondered. Sakura herself didn't know, but she knew she had to find out.
"Hirata, you've talked to the others in our class about their groups, right? Could you send me a list of all the groups and their members later today, please?" Sakura requested, a plan already forming in her mind.
Hirata, seeing she was serious about this, was determined to help her in any way he could. "Of course, I'll get them but, Sakura-san, are you sure tou don't need more help?"
Sakura shook her head.
"I'll talk to you later, Hirata. I need to talk to someone," Sakura told Hirata, already walking away, ignoring his stunned look.
Now, she had three options. Talk to Ryuuen, Ayanokouji, or Hatake? Which one would most likely help her somehow?
With a pained grimace, she made her way to where she suspected Class C's room were. She'd talk to Ayanokouji later, and maybe even chat with Hatake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ryuuen," she greeted him flatly, bumping into him on her way to where the dorms were.
If he was surprised, he didn't show it. "Sakura, great to see you. Did you by any chance make up your mind?" He asked.
She shrugged. "I'm not sure if I can rely on you and work with you, but I do want to know something. Do you know the names of any VIPs outside your class? I don't want their names, just need to check something," she asked directly, to which Ryuuen eyed her in amusement.
"I have no idea why I should give you that information, but yes. And I know exactly which class suffered the most from the test ending for those three groups in particular. It seems like there's another mastermind out there, and this one is even better than you, Sakura," he told her, looking eager to learn more about this mastermind.
"Ku ku ku, are you even a mastermind at all, Sakura? I'm starting to become convinced that someone pulled your strings too," Ryuuen hummed thoughtfully.
Sakura rolled her eyes at his theatrics. Honestly, mastermind sounded so corny... Not to mention he was making her out to be some genius, which Sakura didn't like all that much. It would probably be better if her enemies underestimated rather than overestimated.
"Whatever. Last quesiton. Am I right in assuming that each class has three VIPs?"
Ryuuen looked at her seriously. "I have no idea why I should tell you that, but on the other hand, I want to see if you'll be able to do something with the information... Yes, every class has an equal number of VIPs. I'll submit the Class A leaders soon. If you want points, focus on Class B," he told her curtly, no longer smiling.
Sakura was very surprised to hear him telling her about his plans. She hadn't expected it at all.
"Oh, and if you even think about submitting Class C's leaders, I will destroy you and then your class," he added with a mocking smile, before turning around and walking away to where his dorm was.
Sakura shivered at the warning. She didn't think she and her class were strong enough to face Ryuuen yet. If anything had been revealed to her today, it was that he was a huge threat and dangerous.
Sakura also realized that by no means was she ready to lead her class yet.
Unfortunately, she didn't think anyone else from her class was any better, which meant that she had to up her game soon, or she'd be defeated by people like Ryuuen and the mysterious person that had figured this exam out.
"How troublesome," she muttered, tugging at her pink hair in frustration. She idly thought about cutting it, but decided otherwise.
'I'll cut it once I become a good leader of Class D that can fight against the likes of Ryuuen,' she decided, solidifying both her desire to lead the class, and to work towards improving herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sakura felt like tearing her hair out once more.
She'd spent an hour pondering over the rules of the exam and the meanings behind each Zodiac.
She'd tried using compatibility charts, but there were no apparent relations between Horse, Dragon and Rabbit. She'd also looked into the years each zodiac sign corresponded with, but no clues there either.
How could she reach Class A when she couldn't even figure this out?! Two people had figured it out. What hopes did she have reaching Class A if she couldn't beat these two people?
Not even the meanings of the zodiacs set any bells off in Sakura's mind.
She was currently in the library located on the cruise, using the library's laptop to write down information on the exam, using the books to research the zodiac signs while at it.
Sakura was beginning to think that the solution was much easier than she was making it out to be. She doubted the school expected the students to waste their holidays away in the library trying to crack their exam. The answer had to be simpler.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Her workflow got interrupted by an exasperated Hatake.
"I've never seen you in the school library. Since when do you read books?" He was talking about the stack of books next to the laptop she'd spent a lot of time skimming over.
"Huh? Did you think I'm too dumb to read or what?" Sakura grumbled, tired from reading so much. She wouldn't be complaining if it was something fun, but she didn't find Chinese zodiac signs particularly amusing.
"Don't get grumpy so fast, Haruno. It was just a question," Hatake defended himself, plopping down into the chair next to her.
"Oh? Chinese zodiac?" He asked as he took a look on one of the books on her desk.
"Isn't it a bit too late to try to figure the exam out?" He asked again, sounding amused.
"Shut uuuup. I'm trying to concentrate, dammit," she bemoaned, hitting her head against the desk in frustration.
Sakura stared at the names of the members of the three groups whose VIPs she knew in bewilderment. How the heck did this make any sense?
Hatake didn't heed her warning. Instead, he peeked over her shoulder at the screen of the laptop, quickly scanning what she was doing.
"Ah, were those the VIPs of those three groups whose exam ended today?" He pointed at the three names which were highlighted in bright, aggressive red.
"Yup. All from Class D. That's minus 150 points we get because of some jerk singling us out," Sakura sighed tiredly, deciding to vent out some of her frustration while at it. She'd heard that talking really helped.
"I don't get it, Hatake. Class D is at the bottom of the ladder. We've got so few points. We just got our first win which was only thanks to everyone underestimating us... Yet someone still decided to target us, not classes that were more of a threat to them. Why?" She asked, not quite sure if she was mad or sad.
Hatake shifted in his seat, his expression guarded.
"Why indeed? Maybe someone thought you were a threat to them," he suggested, making her look at him in credulously . Her? A threat?
"Your plan on the island was rather interesting and played everyone. It completely messed with everyone's plans and threw a wrench in them that caused those plans to become self-sabotage for the classes. Even if the others didn't underestimate you, the plan still would've had a high chance to succeed," Hatake explained, which made Sakura glare at him.
"Are you justifying the idiot that did this?" She asked angrily, to which Hatake shrugged.
"Don't be naive, Haruno. This school is a battlefield. People will constantly try to strike you down when they have the opportunity. Feeling butthurt over it is ridiculous. After all, you'll have to do the same if you want to achieve the goal every class wants to achieve, which is graduating as Class A. You understand that, right?"
Sakura sighed and nodded. "I guess, but I just didn't expect anyone to care about my class so soon," she admitted, looking at the laptop blankly.
"I've looked through so many books, but I still have yet to find any connection between the Dragon, Rabbit and Horse zodiacs. It's as if they have nothing in common at all!" She ranted, glaring at the books that were lying on the table innocently.
"That's the point. They don't have anything in common," Hatake said so quietly that she almost didn't hear.
"Huh?" Sakura wondered, to which he just sighed and got up.
"It doesn't matter, I'll get going now. Good luck," he said softly and left without waiting for her response.
"O- oi, get back here, Hatake!"
Her call fell on deaf ears.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took her a while, but she finally thought of a way to get the VIPs. By using the zodiac sign order, she could likely come up a reasonable solution.
Personally, she used different orders of names and classes. Alphabetically first and last names, by name length, by class...
In the end, only sorting the names of group members alphabetically by their last name and then using the order of the respective zodiac their group was named after allowed her to reach the three names she'd wanted to reach all along.
Then, to test the solution, she'd applied it for all of the other groups and got what she wanted; 3 VIPs from each class.
She thought it was the most likely solution. It made perfect sense.
One thing did gnaw at her however.
Hatake's stray comment about the three zodiacs she was looking into not having anything in common. It had really sounded right then that Hatake knew exactly what the exam was about, and he'd come up with a solution for the VIP names by using another method.
She didn't know what it was, but she hoped hers was correct as well.
(Sakura honestly didn't like the implications behind Hatake possibly figuring the exam out, so she didn't want to think about it deeper. What if he'd been the one to target her class?)
For once, Sakura wished she had someone else with whom she could discuss class plans and whose input she could get in times like these, when she thought she had a solution to something but being wrong could wreck her class.
Ultimately, unless she found a more convincing solution, she'd have to risk it and submit the three Class B VIP names.
Well, two, since one was from Monkey group, which was the group for which the exam had ended on the first day mysteriously.
Sakura knew that even if her solution was correct, she wouldn't feel too happy. Because there were still two people that got it before her, and she still felt like she didn't figure the theory behind choosing the VIPs entirely, either.
That was two people who were ahead of her, if not more. That didn't sound nice at all for her odds of making it into Class A.