[Ayanokoji Pov]
[7th August, 12.00]
"Sensei, why isn't any student of Class D here?" Hirata asked, gaining the attention of everyone.
"All forty students of Class D have retired. Which means, we can start with the announcement."
All students have retired? So he has retired as I thought, huh?
Perhaps he also transferred the leadership to someone else before the exam.
It's good that I didn't submit Ryūen as Class D's leader. It was because of this ripped paper on the beach and some other question worthy aspects I found out.
"Now, we will announce the rankings. The lowest class is Class B, with 90 points."
All Class B students became shocked after that announcement.
"In third place is Class A, with 120 points. Coming in second place is Class D, with...121 points."
"And then, Class C..."
For an instant, Mashima-sensei's movements stiffened. However, he soon resumed speaking.
"...has come in first with 195 points. This concludes the announcement."
All of the students in Class D, save Hirata, were probably more confused than anyone else. Even Hirata, who was the only one in the know, was still almost unable to believe it. He wore an exuberant smile.
-
For a simple overview again:
[Class C Expenditure:]
[8 class unit food ration (-80)]
[Pillows: (-12)]
[Portable Toilet: (-20)]
[Boys Tent: (-10)]
[Shower: (-20)]
[Fishing rods: (-8)]
[Koenji's retirement: (-30)]
[Horikita's retirement: (-30)]
[Kurushima's retirement: (-30)]
All: 60 S-Points remaining
-
[Class Earnings:]
[Class A's leader guessed: (+50)]
[Class B's leader guessed: (+50)]
[Spot occupation: (+35)]
--
[Class Ranking:]
[Class A – 1124 (+120)]
[Class B – 795 (+90)]
[Class C – 877 (+195)]
[Class D – 722 (+121)]
--
[New Class Ranking:]
[Class A – 1124 - Sakayanagi]
[Class B – 877 - Kurushima]
[Class C – 795 - Ichinose]
[Class D – 722 - Ryūen]
---
After I returned to the ship, I saw an exhausted Hirata speaking to Kurushima.
"Kurushima-kun, I'm sorry. You were right all along. Horikita-san explained everything to us. Ibuki was a spy. I should have warned the class after you went after Ibuki-san...and then suddenly were forced to retire due to the snake bite..."
"I'm...really sorry."
"Don't mention it, Hirata. I should have been more careful where Ibuki-san was leading me. But since I acted on my impulses, I only after seeing the armies of snakes realized Ibuki-san wanted to force me to retire since I, at the confrontation of her, realized their strategy."
"You realized their strategy?!" Hirata asked, his tone completely surprised.
"Yeah, but my knowledge hadn't any use because of my impulsive actions."
"But since Horikita-san was able to solve everything, I guess these worries are now unnecessarily."
"Yeah, I'm just glad you are alright, Kurushima-kun. Ah, Ayanokoji-kun, how long are you standing there already?"
"Just since now. Uh, Kurushima, are you alright?" I asked.
"I guess I am. Although the doctor said I should stay in bed until tomorrow, though." Kurushima said, painfully laughing, whilst scratching his head in awkwardness.
"I see. I am glad that you are fine. Well, I'm going now. Until later."
I said, after changing my clothes.
"Until later, Ayanokoji-kun."
Both of them said synchronously, causing a small laughter erupting between these two.
I looked for a small moment on my phone, only to see my call history being filled up by Horikita.
Huh, how bothersome...
--
[Third Person Pov]
"Tch...Ryūen how did you do it?" Ibuki started talking, disrupting Albert from shaving Ryūen's beard.
Ryūen showed him a hand sign to continue. "Where should I start, huh?"
"The change of my strategy started on the day I received these two leave messages. Kaneda, show it to her."
"Yes, Ryūen-san."
Ibuki started to look at them. "Why are they written in blood? And what is "Grace the hidden heel" and "Look at the layout here" supposed to mean?"
Kaneda, from the side, adjusted his brill and began speaking. "These two messages are referring to a warning. "Grace the hidden heel" is a warning to us about the person who controls the exam throughout the shadows. In short, a mastermind. Meanwhile, 'Look at the layout here" should warn us about the people near to us and our surroundings."
"Warning? Is that why you told me to locate the digital camera and the wireless transceiver somewhere else?"
"That's right, Ibuki. And you Kaneda, you forget the two other messages hidden behind these phrases."
"Two hidden messages?! Kaneda and Ibuki said, at the same time. "If you don't mind Ryūen-kun, could I explain it to them?" Hiyori asked, who until now just sat quietly in the back while reading her book.
"Do whatever you want."
"Ibuki-san, Kaneda-kun, these two phrases are anagrams. Once you are able to solve this anagram, you will get two other hidden messages behind these phrases."
"An anagram, huh? We must have it to do with a very intelligent and witty person, huh?" Kaneda exclaimed, adjusting his brill.
"An anagram? What's that?" Ibuki asked.
"It's a rearrangement of letters on phrases to convey a new rearranged different phrase," Kaneda said, interrupting Hiyori.
"Kaneda-kun is right. These two phrases could be rearranged. If you did it for both of these phrases, these two new phrases would come out. For "Grace the hidden heel" the phrase "Change the leader" would come out if you add the additional letter A in the phrase. It took me some time to realize it on the island, but once I saw that the leaf resembled the letter A, more or less, I decided to use that, instead."
"For the other phrase "Look at the layout here" the phrase "Look at the rules" comes out."
"Ryūen-kun and I had looked at that moment in the manuals after the rules and found this certain one out: Leaders cannot be changed without legitimate reason. From here on, the plan began, of how I became Class D's leader."
"You are our leader?!"
Both Kaneda and Ibuki asked in shock. Even Albert, who was until now shaving Ryūen's beard, had a moment of silence.
"Oh my God..." Albert muttered, his jaw wide open.
"Yes, I changed our leader. Hahaha, thanks for providing that hint, Y."
"Who's Y?"
"The one who saw through X's strategy."
Ibuki has an even more confused look. "X? Y? What the hell are you talking about?"
Hiyori spoke up. "X is the person whom we are referring to as the current Class B's hidden mastermind. Y is the person whom we think might be the mastermind of Class C, Ichinose's Class. But we aren't sure about Y, though."
Ryūen made another hand sign to Albert, who stopped shaving his beard. "Y remains a mystery for now. The only thing we know is that they figured out X's strategy between the second and third day."
"And they must be a student of either of these two classes: Class C or B. Class C might be likelier, but I am not sure about that. If they were really a student there, they deliberately made their class lose. What a crazy bastard they must be for doing that. If they are from Class B, they want me to defeat X. If not, nothing else would make any sense."
Ibuki tried to have an understanding look, but hers didn't change a bit. "I still don't understand anything at all."
"You don't need to. Just be aware that we have two enemies currently: X and Y. Asking anything more from you would be too cruel of me."
"Ryūen... You..." Ibuki muttered, frustrated and infuriated by Ryūen's insult. Ibuki quickly gained her composure.
"But when did Shiina become our leader? And how could you even retire?" Ibuki asked.
"Ibuki, didn't you pay any attention? Leaders can't be changed without a legitimate reason. But if you do have a legitimate reason, you can change leaders. It's the exact strategy X used to become the leader. Hiyori and I just used the same strategy. I decreased my health condition enough so that I could retire and transfer the leadership to Hiyori. Nothing more, nothing less."
"But why did you stay on the island for six days then? You could have retired just like that."
"It was to trap Katsuragi and X. I wanted Katsuragi to submit me as the leader so that their S-Points would be reduced even further. As for X, we had the intention of figuring his identity immediately, in case Y was right. In that sense, I left a piece of paper there, with one phrase, while Hiyori, Ichizaki, and Albert were to observe our camp spot with the telescopes on the Cruise Ship..."
"But... Kukuku, who would have thought, the Cruise Ship would be moving somewhere else, out of sudden. X was really lucky, through that."
"Hahaha, how interesting..."
"What?! So we could have won, if we wanted, Ryūen?" Ibuki asked aggravated.
Ryūen smirked slightly. "I guess, you could formulate it like that. But where's the fun in that, Ibuki? The only reason we'd have won is because we're being manipulated from Y, the person that predicted X's strategy, and knew we'd be able to solve this. Why should I act like the way they want? If I'm being manipulated, I'll act like the way I want."
'Besides, defeating X like that would be disappointing. But I wanted to get the identity of that person, under any costs, if I already take the 2nd Place.' Ryūen thought.
"And while I did that, I calculated Class A's Class Points if X and I submitted that green-haired guy as their leader. Theirs should be around 120 Class Points after hearing that, this Hashimoto guy misused one spot and told me their leader."
"So I made our Class Points at the end of the exam 121 Class Points."
"Kukuku, how humiliated Katsuragi must feel, currently. Not only do we get 780,000 Private Points per month, but I also questioned every ounce of leadership he has."
Ryūen couldn't help but laugh. "Hahaha, Omoshiroi."
Ibuki decided to ask once more. "How did we even get bonus points?"
"By claiming the spots. Ibuki, the acquired bonus points don't get nullified if your leader isn't submitted. I could claim the spots on the island the whole day and could, at the end, just change our leader, and no one could do anything."
"Hahahaha, Y is great. Because of him, my Zero-Point-Strategy became almost invincible to conquer. If I had known that on day one, I might have gone around the island and claimed spot after spot."
"Ibuki, you have another question?"
"Yeah. Why did you even believe that Y's words?"
"Who said I did?"
"What?!"
"I was just trying to amuse myself. And Y did provide this amusement. Even if there wasn't anything Y said is true, like the existence of X, I certainly knew that person must be an interesting person to fight."
Ryūen said, crazily and sinisterly chuckling.
Ibuki stared at Ryūen, not understanding anything he said. "You crazy bastard."
"Kukuku, can't deny that." Ryūen exclaimed.
Kaneda raised his hand. "Kaneda, what is it?"
"Ryūen-san, why did you make some of our students appear nearby the previous Class B camp spot?" Kaneda asked.
"For two reasons. The first one was to deliver Y, if he was there, that I acquired and deciphered his message. The other reason was to test what X would do if they had this information at their disposal. But X was also able to solve this, too, huh?"
"Y..."
"For now, I'll play after your game and destroy X..."
"But after that, you're next..."
"That'll be the price of thinking you can manipulate me..."
--
[Kurushima Pov]
It seems like the anagram wasn't that hard after all. Good to know. Perhaps in the future, I might do similar things by messaging Ryūen or someone else from Class D.
And regarding Ayanokoji....
I have figured out more than I initially needed in this exam. In the exam with my confrontation with Ibuki on the fifth day, I had thrown three stones, making them collide with each other to figure out whether someone was hiding behind a tree.
And...
Ironically, the moment some medical staff transferred me back to the cruise, we crossed the way where Ibuki and I were talking.
While being transferred through the woods with a rescue mat, we also crossed the tree where I suspected someone to be hiding when Ibuki and I had our confrontation.
To be more precise, it was Ayanokoji, whom I thought would be hiding at that time there. That's also the reason why I muttered Ryūen's name before running after Ibuki.
I wanted to make Ayanokoji under the misconception that I thought Ryūen was hiding. If he was there, I wanted him to see my perspective.
Someone who has figured out Ryūen's strategy and could endanger everything of Ryūen's plans.
If he was listening, he would also know that I was under the misconception that Ibuki already known our leader and wanted to give it to Katsuragi. Which is why I made the best strategic move someone could do at that moment.
The destruction of Ibuki's camera, so the deal between Katsuragi and Ryūen would fail. Not only would I have nullified Ryūen's whole purpose in the exam, but I would have also protected Class C from Ryūen gaining a big advantage over us.
Katsuragi wouldn't have submitted Horikita as a leader, which means only Ryūen would have done that. Without my retirement nor that of Horikita's, we would have been at 120 S-Points.
In this specific case, it would have meant the loss of all Bonus Points, we have acquired, assuming our leader wouldn't be changed. A 50 S-Points decrease, leaves Class C during this exam with a profit of 70 Class Points.
Neither do we gain too much, nor too little. We increase our points with the other classes but aren't a high threat, nor at the focus since we would have been still at Class C. It was the perfect position to be in, considering that this is the first special exam.
Depending on the situation, we could have come to 90 and more S-Points if we had the chance of finding food for the fifth and sixth day.
And the reason why I can say now that Ayanokoji was at that time there is...
Because I saw a small and subtle blood drop on the ground...
The trap of my three stones has slightly injured him...
If it wasn't for that small blood drop, he would have fooled me easily into thinking no one was there. These three stones moved at a speed so high that even I would have problems dodging them.
Yet, he was able to do this easily, without the slightest noise, while dodging the stone from the incoming call left and right. The three stones were also at their perfect position, without a slight change of their altercation...
Ayanokoji...
This exam helped me a lot in determining your abilities...
And now I can say one thing for sure...
As long as the endangerment of your presence for my plans exists, I might never be able to make my revenge flawlessly happen...
I'll not let your presence ruin my plans...
For my sake...
For that of my family's...
Perhaps, you're better off...
Gone...
--
A/N: I am really curious, but how did you like the dialog between Ryūen, Ibuki, Kaneda, Hiyori, and my boy Albert?
Although I know that Ryūen isn't at this stage trusting anyone partially, but for the means of winning, he would entrust Hiyori, being the leader.
Also, Kurushima was now able to figure out Ayanokoji's threat level, both intellectually wise and partially physically wise, due to the stone trap from the prior chapter.
I was hinting the stone trap already at chapter one of the Island Arc, with "Besides the Beach is just three stone throws away."
Well, that's all. Hopefully, you liked this chapter. Please leave a comment and vote there.