Morning 7 am, in front of Keyaki mall.
I came here before them and silently waited for them.
As the one who caused the chaos, I thought it'd be better not keep anyone waiting, especially today.
"I've arrived too early…"
The clock right now pointed to 6:30.
Even so, I didn't find waiting to be painful. Rather, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to call it one of my special skills.
It was nice to have some time to empty my mind.
However, although it wasn't a small price, things changed into something troublesome.
In other words, me being alone would attract attention instead. Other than the 3rd years, my grades could be seen by everyone, so the entire year's attention will soon be on me. I'm afraid that the inquisitive eyes of my senpais and kouhais will be on me for a while.
I had nothing to do for the time being, and so I just stood there. Suddenly, my phone vibrated, and so I took it out, noticing a message from the Ayanokouji group. Airi said that she was leaving the dormitory now. The other 4 had all read the message.
I haven't told them I was already here, and so I just skimmed through their respective statuses.
"Ayanokouji-kun, are you waiting for someone?"
I wasn't paying attention since I was immersed with my phone. It was Ichinose who called out to me, so I lifted my head.
She was accompanied by her classmate Kanzaki. Although the school prided itself on it's large school area, the places students went to were limited. As a result, if you waited at the Keyaki mall entrance, a place where many students frequented, bumping into people you knew was normal.
"I'm waiting for my friends to go eat. How about you guys?"
There was nothing to hide about it, so I answered honestly.
Ichinose and Kanzaki replied in time with each other, without even exchanging looks.
"We're doing something similar, aren't we?"
"Yes."
Kanzaki curtly replied. But his gaze was more focused on Ichinose than it was on me.
Something similar, eh? But even if something was similar, it was also different.
"Say, I've seen your exam results. You actually got a perfect score in math, that's amazing!"
"Judging from last year's OAA, you shouldn't have the strength to get a full score."
Ichinose didn't raise any questions about me hiding my strength. Kanzaki, on the other hand, opposed her, not hiding his displeasure in his words in the slightest.
"There's a lot of reasons for this. It was only after discussing with my comrades that I decided to hide the fact that I'm good at math."
I explained it like that. If it were Ichinose and Kanzaki, they would understand the situation to an extent.
They should be able to use their imaginations to reinforce what I've said to make it more complete.
Usually, explaining it like that would be enough. But this time, Kanzaki's sharp glance didn't fade.
"So you're saying that you've been hiding it all this time. It looks like you're even more of an issue than I thought."
"Kanzaki-kun, don't say it like that. No matter what class it is, they'll have their own ideas, and of course, their own strategies."
Kanzaki accepted Ichinose's criticism as a matter of course.
"That's true. He didn't use dirty tricks as Ryuuen did as well. Still, there's a few things I don't like about him. Ichinose, you should be very aware of the fact that it's not at all easy to be able to solve that extremely difficult question to get full marks. He says he's following his comrade's instructions but-"
Kanzaki was about to continue, but Ichinose stopped him with a rare forceful tone.
"Ayanokouji-kun is not our enemy."
Ichinose was very dissatisfied with Kanzaki's thorny, hostile attitude. It's true that that sort of attitude was rare for Kanzaki, but if I had to choose who had the correct attitude, I'd definitely select Kanzaki, who was on guard.
"Our alliance has been dissolved. There's no doubt that Class 2-D is our enemy."
"That's…but there's no point for us to engage in a pointless dispute!"
"This isn't a dispute. It's just necessary for us to know the true strength of our opponent."
"Ayanokouji-kun did indeed hide the fact that he was good at math; this was a fact that had been hidden."
Kanzaki took a step forward; now the distance between us was less than the distance between him and Ichinose.
"Then, what else? Is it just math? No, it can't be just math. What other abilities are you hiding? Did you hide those legs you're so proud of during last year's sports festival because of orders from your comrades? To Class B… No, Class C, the worst thing is that you still have other strengths hidden away."
"However, there's a limit to test scores. No matter how good you are at studying, the max you can get on a subject is 100 points, and the highest grade is an A+. Even if he gets full marks in all of them, there's not much of a gap between him and Sakayanagi-san, the second in the year."
In reality, there was only a 9 point difference between Sakayanagi-san and me.
Even if we had the same difference in all five subjects, it would only add up to 45 points. Ichinose didn't think that was much of a threat.
"Our overall scores in Class C are much higher than that. The point difference from Ayanokouji-kun after showing his true strength, we just have to make up for that with our whole class.
"That might be true if it's just a written test… but-"
"We should stop here, Kanzaki-kun. You also know that this isn't a thing we should be arguing about heatedly here, right?"
Ichinose, who had always been a pacifist, was worried that if we kept arguing intensely in front of Keyaki mall, which was a crowded place, it would sooner or later descend into chaos.
"It seems like I've indeed lost my cool."
Kanzaki, perhaps thinking that continuing the argument here wouldn't solve the problem, shut his mouth, and helplessly averted his gaze.
"I'll go first."
With that, Kanzaki left Ichinose here, and quickly disappeared into Keyaki mall.
We quietly looked at him leaving.
"I'm sorry, but given the current situation, Kanzaki-kun definitely doesn't have much legroom."
Class B, which had always maintained its position, had now fallen to Class C.
Given the failure of the style of fighting that had worked so far, the entire class had no choice but to change its direction. In this situation, it was understandable that he was like that.
Or rather, the Ichinose who was still able to be pleasant to me in this situation was the one who was different.
Kanzaki was starting to think they should abandon their naivety in the future, and he was right.
"Was it me that's wrong…?"
Ichinose wasn't completely unaware of what Kanzaki was thinking.
But even if she did, she still decided to follow herself.
There was a world of difference between that and knowing nothing but obstinately clinging to one's course.
"Do you remember what I told you before?"
"Yes, you told me to stick with my classmates and go forward, right, didn't you?"
"There may be students who want to change their own class appearing from now on, just like Kanzaki. Or there may be some that are dissatisfied with you and want to stop you. Maybe even some that will betray the class too. It won't be surprising to think some will do whatever just to make a change. Class 1-B, the class that only you protected, that class doesn't exist anymore."
Of all students of 2-C, those words were likely to resonate with Ichinose the most.
"No matter what happens from here, I want for you to trust your classmates, put their safety first and continue the fight."
"It's okay. I'm definitely going to protect them. If there comes a time someone from my class has to leave, I think I will be the first one."
She wasn't putting up a bold front, Ichinose will certainly do so.
She would take responsibility for the class' recession and choose to leave the school first.
"I'm relieved to hear that, but there's one thing I'm dissatisfied with."
"Dissatisfied…?"
She somehow didn't take the hint as she tilted her head slightly.
"I won't ever let you get expelled."
There was a need to make her remember the most important thing.
For this year, it was of utmost importance that she will continue running forward without ever stopping.
I looked her in the eyes, lighting a blazing fire inside the depths of her pupils.
What she received wasn't darkness.
It was a light that would never fade.
If there was a possibility that light would spread in the wrong direction, I would take it myself.
"T-that… y-yeah… I'll …definitely…stay."
She looked up at me and mumbled, embarrassed.
"Y-you…. Are really amazing, Ayanokouji-kun…" To think you managed to get a perfect score at such a difficult exam."
She said while looking another way as if trying to change the subject.
"It may be my only redeeming feature at school, though."
"Even so that's still amazing. It just means you have a weapon that won't lose to anyone else."
"You are the same too. You certainly have such a weapon yourself."
"That would be nice, but…"
But there was a lack of people around her who could proficiently wield it.
It wasn't that she wasn't blessed with good classmates.
It was due to the cons of this weapon.
Ichinose's ability to include people was strong enough to kill off her own classmates' individualities.
They would depend on others. Thus the vicious circle made them lose even more of their individualism.
"…I need to leave soon. We're standing too much out here, and I feel bad letting Kanzaki wait for me."
I nodded slightly and saw her off, watching her trailing figure.
Thinking that it was almost time to meet up, I pulled out my phone again to confirm it.
"What were you talking about with Ichinose-san just now?"
Suddenly, Haruka's voice came from a little bit away.
I looked over, and Akito, Keisei, and Airi had all arrived, looking over at me uniformly.
It looked like the other group members had already gotten together while I was talking to Ichinose.
"My perfect score in math."
"No wonder. After all, the better you are at academics, the more they would be conscious about it."
As soon as I explained it with a sensible reason, Keisei immediately looked like he understood.
But there was something off about Haruka.
She didn't ask further, and quickly returned to her usual expression.
Tomorrow, starting from the 2nd of May, we were about to welcome the arrival of the Golden Week.
The students had all passed their special exams without a hitch, so I'm sure we'll all be enjoying the holiday carefreely.