After school, the cell phones of the students who had excellent academic or physical abilities rang at the same time. Horikita approached me as she watched the situation.
"It seems like everyone's quickly making their move. After all, it's natural to want to bring the outstanding students into one's group."
Regardless of the strategies of the class to which you belonged to, the first to make their move wouldn't lose anything.
"Did you not get any messages, Horikita?"
"No, I didn't."
"I see. After all, there are only very few people who know your contact."
"You knew it already, and you still had to mention it deliberately. You're a nasty guy. So, did anyone contact you? Ayanokouji-kun, who got a perfect score in math? Your cell phone is surprisingly quiet."
Horikita asked me back, so I decided to look at my phone, which hadn't made a sound yet.
"Unfortunately, my battery's dead. I haven't charged it for two or three days."
"If you don't use your phone frequently, you'll charge it less often."
No, although I would like to deny that it didn't happen, she wasn't wrong. If you didn't use your cell phone much, you might unknowingly forget to charge it.
"Don't you need to pay more attention to our classmates? It'll be really troublesome later if they hastily form groups."
"I've already instructed them on what they should do earlier. I summed it up in an easy to understand way and sent it to everyone. But you didn't seem to notice it, since your battery's dead."
While Horikita said that, she turned her cell phone screen towards me.
-Please don't form a group before Class D reaches an agreement.
-Nevertheless, if you absolutely want to decide on your group as early as possible, please contact Horikita.
It seemed like Horikita had anticipated this situation, and set up some minimum regulations.
"This is not enforced, because this matter ultimately depends on personal judgement."
With whom to group up with or not was indeed a matter of personal choice. You couldn't form a group with people who didn't fit your personality, which would affect your chances of getting expelled. Even if all four classes work together, there was no ideal combination of groups where no one would get expelled.
Due to that, we could only make some suggestions.
I always carried my phone charger with me, so I plugged it in and left my seat.
Because there might be students in the classroom eavesdropping on our conversation.
"Has there been communication from Ichinose? It wouldn't be strange if she proposes a plan for the whole year to help each other."
"There doesn't seem to be contact yet. Neither Class A nor Class B has made any proposals. If all the 2nd years had the thought of wanting to come together, then there probably should be some communication between them at this stage."
If people grouped up without permission based on their own preferences, cooperation would become more and more difficult. If there were no plans for a peaceful discussion from the beginning, it would end up with all the 2nd years fighting with each other. If Horikita wanted to establish a cooperative relationship between the classes, she would probably have taken action.
Horikita didn't show any particular signs of displeasure from me leaving my seat and instead followed me.
It seemed like she still had something to say.
After walking into the corridor, and confirming that no one was around, she spoke to me again.
"This time's uninhabited island exam… Can you get first place by yourself?"
"Leave me alone. The only thing we know now is that it's an uninhabited island special exam."
"I was wondering if you, who got a perfect score in math, even needed a group."
What kind of reasoning was that? Are her forceful words her way of trying to express what she wanted to say?
"If we come in first place, our Class D will gain points for certain. We can let the 1st and 3rd years fight for the 2nd and 3rd place. Better than letting the other 2nd years get it."
Easier said than done.
"If that is the case, we can form the groups with the core objective of avoiding any dropouts, and forming the groups would be easier ."
If we shifted our direction to forming strong groups to win, then weak groups would inevitably be created.
"Not everyone can afford to pay the private points for relief."
"Yes. For the students who are a little worried, I would like to collect as many private points as possible, but if the student who lends me points receives the penalty of expulsion, there's no helping it."
There's nothing more futile than saving someone else while falling down yourself.
"If you don't want that, then you can only ask students with a points surplus."
That would work, but there were a limited number of such students.
"Although a method that would result in no dropouts exists, I don't think anyone would want to do it."
"The plan to withdraw intentionally from the start?"
It seemed like that Horikita had already noticed a loophole in this exam. According to the rules, only the first 5 groups to withdraw would get expelled. In that case, if we intentionally prepared 5 sacrificial groups and let them withdraw, the rest of the students wouldn't have to worry about getting expelled. However, to do this, a total of 30 million private points would need to be prepared, not to mention the fact that the years of the top three groups would take class points from the years of the bottom three groups. Even if the students in the sacrificial groups were from the same year, because the rewards were reduced, we wouldn't be able to recover from our losses. The fact that the top three and the bottom three groups were linked together could be considered as the school's way of trying to prevent improper behaviours.
"It feels like we can only rely on our own strength to survive."
"That's true. Can I consult you again?"
Horikita, who had stopped walking, said that.
"If it's within the acceptable range."
"That's enough, thank you."
It seemed like Horikita had something to talk about, as she returned to the classroom.
I watched Horikita's back as she left, and decided to head for the elevator.