[Ayanokoji Pov]
「11th August, 8.11 」
Just when Ryūen left the scene, I saw Horikita releasing a shout out. "That damn…"
"No, I won't let the likes of him provoke me," she said, composing herself again.
"Ayanokoji-kun, what else have you hidden behind my back? You didn't explain to me anything about this leaf message nor about someone realizing your strategy. I want answers. Now!" the girl in front of me said, unable to deduce the correlation between everything.
She did not even take herself the time to analyze the leaf and the potential anagram behind it, despite Ryūen's attempts to make her aware of the hidden message behind the phrase.
It seems like I have overestimated her abilities, huh?
Perhaps she isn't the one destined to beat me, but someone else. Either way, I won't make my judgment based on this single scenario.
I'll observe her for now further and do my judgment when the time comes.
"Are you that useless?" I asked, my stoic tone encroaching in her ears.
She looked at me in surprise. "Useless? Me?!"
"Who else would I be talking to? It's just you and me here."
Horikita, even during the Island Exam, you weren't pressured that much. Despite being chosen as the leader, everyone relied on Kurushima when problems occurred.
And once he was gone on the fifth day, the class began to battle themselves all the time. You were not able to stabilize the situation. And worst of all, you deemed it as useless trying to stabilize the situation.
You had given up already.
But you weren't pressured at all about the advancement to Class A. Why?
Because you did just what everyone else did. Relying on Kurushima's abilities.
You thought with his presence, even if that means losing this exam, you would still, regardless, be able to advance up to Class A.
No matter how harsh Ryūen's words appear to be, they are one-hundred percent the truth. Right now, you are absolutely useless.
You have not benefited the class even once.
She looked at me angrily. But before she could speak and demand any further answers from me, I spoke up.
"If you are not able to figure this phrase and the hidden message behind it on your own, go to Kurushima and ask for his opinion regarding this phrase. It would be the least useful thing you could do, by running an errand between me and him. Please do tell me, however, about his opinion afterward. After all, he might catch up to things that I ignored."
With that said, I left the scene. I slightly looked back with my eyes at Horikita, who had her right arm stretched out.
"Ayanokoji-kun, don't go. Please don't leave me just like Niisan," she muttered in such a quiet tone that an ordinary human would not be able to hear her at all.
Well, I just heard her out of luck, though. It's not like I am far beyond ordinary or anything like that. I'm just your average high school student.
[Horikita Pov]
"Ayanokoji-kun, don't go. Please don't leave me just like Niisan," I muttered.
Ayanokoji-kun…
Just like Niisan, you seem out of my reach to achieve. You, Niisan, and even Kurushima-kun, I can see all three of you walking ahead of me.
I want to walk in the direction next to the three of you, but no matter how hard I try to catch up, I always remain in the same position.
Why? Why can't I walk next to you three? Why?
I don't know…but what Ayanokoji-kun said must be true, right? We have reached our current class position only because of Kurushima-kun and Ayanokoji-kun.
If it weren't for them, we wouldn't have…reached it…even if I tried…
Is that how far our abilities lay in distance?
Can I ever catch up to these two?
I don't know…
But I should perhaps identify the leaf message first. If I can't even do that, then I can't deny the things Ayanokoji-kun has said to me.
In the next ten minutes, I tried to identify the hidden message behind the phrase, but I wasn't able to identify anything at all.
I continued for more than twenty minutes, yet the only thing I knew was that someone tried to warn Ryūen about Ayanokoji-kun.
Did both Ayanokoji-kun and Ryūen try to fool me with a hidden message behind this phrase?
No matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to decipher anything. So I assumed that these two simply were trying to fool me.
But since I wasn't sure and I didn't want to go back to Ayanokoji-kun, I went to Kurushima-kun, who should be sleeping currently, from what Ayanokoji-kun said before the E-Mails from the school arrived.
It's pretty evident that Ayanokoji-kun knows where Kurushima-kun is. After all, the two of them share a room together.
Slowly, I began to walk towards the room shared by Hirata, Koenji, Ayanokoji-kun, and Kurushima-kun.
Although I thought of it as a waste of time since there wasn't any hidden message behind the leaf, I walked to their room.
Arriving there, I knocked a few times on the door, seeing a half-sleeping Kurushima, with messy hair opening the door, who looked for a small moment surprised.
"Ah, Horikita-san, what are you doing here? Were you perhaps looking here for Ayanokoji-kun? He isn't here, though, so if that's the reason for your visit, I'm sorry to disappoint you," he said, in between speaking his sentence several times yawning.
"No, I am not here because of Ayanokoji-kun, but because of you."
"Me?" he looked bewildered. "Ahm, how can I help?" he asked.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm not like the other girls in the class romantically interested in you. I was just curious about your opinion about this leaf and if there is possibly a hidden message behind it," I said, giving him the leaf message, seeing him taken it for a small moment and inspecting it.
"Dried blood on a leaf, huh? Horikita-san, is this from you?" he asked, slightly misunderstanding something.
"No, it's something Ryūen gave me. He said Kaneda from his class had gotten it suddenly while he was staying at Ichinose's class. The only other information I have is that Ryūen has still has another leaf, which contents, however, are unbeknownst to me. He did say there is a hidden message behind the phrase, but I don't believe it. But, I just wanted to affirm it that there is nothing. So I visited you. Nothing more," I elaborated.
"I see," he answered, tilting his head to the side. "The phrase "Grace the hidden heel" itself seems to be pretty clear. It's a simple reference that Ryūen should be beware of a certain person's actions. Nothing more. As for the message behind this phrase, by rearranging the letters, you get quite a unique message out. Which is, "Change the Leader," if you happen to add the additional letter A inside the Anagram here."
Kurushima analyzed, in less than thirty seconds, by simply looking at the message once.
"So there really is a message behind this phrase, huh? Seems like Ryūen wasn't lying to me when he said this. But this only affirms it…" I said, muttering the last part quietly.
But before I could express my gratitude, I heard Kurushima speaking.
"Horikita-san, I didn't have the proper chance for this, but I really need to ask you this. You weren't our leader in the Island Exam, correct? After hearing Hirata's story about everything that happened after I was gone, I came to the conclusion that you weren't our leader anymore."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to remain clueless, remembering my promise to Ayanokoji-kun, keeping his interference a secret.
"Please don't try to lie, Horikita-san. After hearing about the events that happened after my forced retirement, I heard Ibuki came back to the camp, and one day later, your keycard disappeared, while the manual burned down in a fire. I know as a matter of a fact that Ibuki-san had a wireless receiver and a camera, as I had trailed her due to some of my suspicions on the fifth day, where I confronted her with the situation. At the end of the day, I didn't pay attention to the fact that she was leading me to the snake biotope, which caused me to forcefully retire from the exam."
"But, if she had the camera, why forcefully steal the leader's keycard? There are more risks involved in keeping it, instead of simply taking a picture, right? The answer is simple. She couldn't, because the camera was broken, right? The reason for Ibuki doing a campfire on our camp, burning the manual, was so that she could search for the leaders keycard and steal your keycard during that time, right?"
"The way I derived at this answer is quite simple. I had the chance of hearing Ryūen-kun talking about a hidden mastermind in our class, since both Ryūen-kun and Katsuragi-kun seemed to be sure that you were the leader, inclining that Ibuki-san must have shown evident proof to them which was impossible to fool them in that regard. But if these two knew all along that you were the leader, why do we have 195 Class Points more instead of 0 Class Points, which we originally should have earned."
"As I said previously, it's because you aren't the leader of our class, right? There was a single rule in the manual, which I happen to remember quite well, that said, "Leaders cannot be changed without suitable reason", which inclines, that if you have a suitable reason, you can change the leaders. One suitable reason would be the condition of a leader, which is why I need to ask you this, were you perchance sick or have you deliberately eaten fruits like Holly berries in combination with Buffalo berries, so that you could be able to retire from the Exam, due to effect these berries have to each other, if consumed in large amounts? I heard Hirata only saying that you weren't at the camp anymore, so that's as far as my deduction goes as possible, without any further instances of details."
"The only thing I can say is that another individual in our class was behind the victory of the Island Exam, whom Ryūen searchs and calls X."
Kurushima explained, leaving me completely bewildered standing there, that he was able to deduce almost everything Ayanokoji-kun told me he had done during the exam.
"How did you figure that — no, that's a stupid question. You simply deduced it, based on the information's at your disposal. Although, I still can't comprehend how…" I muttered in depravity, seeing how far the difference between Kurushima-kun and me is.
"Ah, don't mention it. I always had a small forte for observation, deducing, or analyzing. Anyways, I suppose X, or if they propose a better name for them, wants to remain in secret, right? Seeing that you didn't initially plan to reveal them, it's the most logical conclusion I made."
"If you could, please express them my gratitude. I would love to thank them personally, but if they prefer to remain in the shadows, nothing can be done. Also, please do tell them they're not in need of interfering anymore, I won't make such a crucial mistake in the future anymore."
"Okay…I'll tell them that. Thank you for helping me, Kurushima-kun," I expressed, feeling myself flushing a bit.
"Ah, before you go, Horikita-san, why did you come to me, instead of going to them? I feel honored that your first thought was coming to me, but wouldn't it have been appropriate if you went to them?" he asked, slightly curious.
"I didn't want to visit them — No, I didn't want them to see me as someone who can't do anything without their help. That's the reason," I answered, deciding to tell him the truth.
"I see…" he answered. "But I think you are great yourself, Horikita-san. Please don't sell you under your worth. You have done many achievements of which you can be proud of. If they say otherwise, don't listen to them, I think you are doing great. Because of you, one of my best friends, Sūdo, who I didn't know would become one of my closest friends, choose to study, out of his own accord. Even Ike-kun studies because of you out of his own accord and tries to change."
"As for Yamauchi-kun…"
"Anyways, I think you have done many things of which you can be proud of. Don't let anyone affect you negatively by saying otherwise."
Kurushima said, with a kind-hearted gaze, causing me to have a sudden heartthrob out of embarrassment.
He was completely different from Ayanokoji-kun. If I had to describe their differences, it would be that Ayanokoji shows through his facial expression simply indifference, while Kurushima is eagerly trying to help me and encourage me because of what I had told him.
I could see from his facial expression that he took my words to his heart, which I didn't know how to respond to. I didn't particularly treat him well, yet he was still so kind to me.
I remember that I accused him of being romantically interested in me on the first day or that I never really appreciated or expressed my gratitude he gave for the help of our class. Same thing with the arguments he gave me where I should be centered at once the Sūdo trial began.
And…
The fact that I was jealous of Kurushima-kun, because he was able to do something I always wanted to achieve; getting the praise and acknowledgment from Horikita Manabu, my older brother
At day three already, he had been admitted to the student council and was even recruited by my brother himself to the point. At that point, I slightly began to develop something I shouldn't have.
A small fragment of jealousy incarnated in my heart, which had mostly contributed to my rather distanced attitude towards him, I believe.
But that was one time. It isn't like this anymore. I feel rather now gratitude for how far Kurushima-kun would even go for the insurance of our class victory.
I heard from Ayanokoji everything, as he followed Kurushima, who instantly narrowed down Ryūen's strategy by seeing a camera and discovering a wireless transceiver.
The one and only crucial mistake of Kurushima was assuming Ibuki had token a picture, which was itself a viable reason to suspect given the current situation that Ibuki could have used the situation during the disappearance of Karuizawa's underwear to avoid inspection and flee from our camp, without anyone noticing.
He even went to the point of destroying the camera from Ibuki so that Ryūen's plan would fail. Unfortunately, Kurushima has been made to forcefully retire from the exam.
Despite all that of what he achieved, he apologized two days ago, when our whole class was meeting up to celebrate his release out of the bed.
I just really can't comprehend him…
To begin with, it wasn't even his mistake. I should be the one apologizing, that I wasn't even able to fulfill my duty as the leader during the Exam, not him.
I really am useless…
Ayanokoji-kun, you were right…I didn't do anything in particular for our class ranking.
I didn't contribute even once. But…I plan to change that…
I don't want to be this little girl anymore, who's in need of the help of either you or Kurushima-kun.
I really want to change…
[Third Person Pov]
「11th August, 21.43 」
"Kikyo, come out. I don't have the patience playing your small hide and seek game," Ryūen said, looking at the clock watch on his arm.
"It seems like I got discovered, huh? Well, it doesn't matter anyway," Kushida expressed, coming from her location out.
"So what's your gift? Your body? Doesn't sound like a bad option, but I am currently interested in Suzune. But…I guess if you were to offer that, I wouldn't mind doing that with you."
"Damn perverted Bastard! It's not my body, but something else that you really want. But there's a condition, if I am going to tell you that."
"Something that I want, huh? I wonder what that could be…" Ryūen muttered, realizing what she would be offering, though he was nonetheless amused.
"I'll give you one of the identities of Class B's VIPs, and in return, I want you to cooperate with me in the future, and don't submit the person I am going to tell you as the leader in that group. It should be quite beneficial for you, right? Gaining aside from your class's VIP'S one another, for possibly solving the pattern in this exam."
Kushida said, clapping with both her hands, instantly at that moment revealing her true eyes.
"Hehehe, fine, whatever, we have a deal. So who is it?"
"Stop…before I am telling you anything, I want your signature on this contract. Just as a small safety measure, you surely understand it, right?"
"Smart girl," Ryūen exclaimed, going over to Kushida, taking the pen from her hand, signing the contract. "Now that you have the contract, who's the VIP?"
Kushida decided to show her smartphone, causing Ryūen to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "So you are the VIP in the Dragon Group, huh? So? What does Kurushima intend to achieve in the Dragon Group?"
"Our class will aim for Outcome 1, where everyone benefits."
"I see. Doesn't seem so bad earning some additional points," Ryūen said, walking away from the deck to his room.
Four hours later, he has gotten another message.
「12th August, 1.46 」
[Ryūji Kanzaki:]
[Ryūen, I need to talk to you tomorrow. Come at 9.20 at this location. It'll be surely beneficial for you. (01.46)]
[Sure, whatever. Just tell me one thing – Is what you want to tell me something relative to this exam? (01.47)]
[Yes. (01.47)]
[Kukuku, I see. Hopefully, it's something good, Kanzaki. (01.48)]
[Don't worry, it is. But we'll discuss the details in the morning further. (01.49)]
------
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「12th August, 10.24 」
Ryūen was casually sitting in a rather soulless location on the cruise, waiting for Ryūji Kanzaki to arrive, just as they had agreed one prior day ago.
Ryūen had already deduced why Kanzaki must have requested his presence. It was because of a single student that stood so much out, yet did nothing to help his class, that everyone in the year had a negative opinion regarding him.
But…
That single student decided to submit as the first one yesterday the identity of an VIP, and must have hit bulls-eye if Kanzaki arranged a meeting between the two of them, making it clear that one of Class C's VIP'S have been submitted.
Suddenly, from the sidelines Ryūji Kanzaki appeared, sitting opposite to Ryūen. "Ryūen, I'll give you Class C's VIPs if you ensure that you'll not submit the two remaining VIP'S in Class C."
Kanzaki said, taking from his bag a contract and a pen out, sliding it over to Ryūen.
Ryūen couldn't help but laugh about Kanzaki's strategy in this exam. "Hehehe, if you decided to give me your two remaining VIP, there must be surely an objective you want to achieve, right, Kanzaki?"
"You want me to figure out this pattern, submit both Class A's and B's VIP'S, and decrease the amount of Class Points from A and B, so that your class has better chances of advancing up to Class A."
Ryūen looked amused about Kanzaki's strategy.
"A very strategically move, indeed. Not bad, really not bad. I thought that no one in Class C would be competitive, but it seems like I am quite wrong. Kanzaki…I'll spare your class for this exam, but I will crush your class. That's where you can be sure of."
Ryūen exclaimed, signing the contract again, just like he did yesterday with Kushida Kikyo.
"So, who are the VIPs in your class, Kanzaki?" Ryūen asked.
"The first one Chihiro Shiranami, from the Monkey Group. The second and third are…" Kanzaki announced, telling Ryūen the VIPs identities.
"I'll be going now. Pleasure doing business with you, Kanzaki."
Once Ryūen left, Kanzaki simply muttered one small sentence. "I wanted him to submit one of our VIPs wrong, additionally adding that to one of the clauses, but considering our dire situation here, he wouldn't accept it."
"Besides...if I can ensure that both Class A and B lose 150 Class Points, then a simple loss of 50 Class Points is nothing. Also…Ryūen will be becoming the target of all three classes once Class D advances up to Class A with 1022 Class Points."
Kanzaki exclaimed out of relief for a small moment. "We'll be safe. That's all that matters."
***
A/N: Did I underestimate Horikita here a bit regarding the question of whether she could solve the Anagram herself?
I don't think so, in all honesty. Perhaps Year 2 Horikita, but Year 1 Horikita couldn't solve it, in my opinion. Then again, she was also clearly convinced that there wasn't a hidden message at all, so her stubbornness is also another reason for her not being able to solve the Anagram.
The Zodiac Exam will fully begin at the next chapter, so I'll be trying to make it a bit more thrilling. I'll think it might be interesting since Kurushima is still not interested in showing his full capabilities to anyone, but is planning to win this exam. So, how does he plan on doing that without overly revealing too much?
Well, that's all from my side. Please leave a comment and a review. It would be highly appreciated.
Have a good day