'...': Writing
'...': Sign language
Kagurazaka's POV
I watched as it rained when I saw Chabashira-sensei carrying Horikita. I got up and made my way over to her.
"Kagurazaka. If you couldn't tell, I'm a little..."
"I can carry her..." Chabashira-sensei looked at me with wide eyes before relaxing.
She didn't say anything as she stared back at me. A sigh escaped her lips, "Fine, but I'll come with you since I have the keys, and I want to make sure you don't try anything."
Chabashira-sensei handed Horikita over to me, and she was light.
I carried Horikita through the hallways until we arrived at her room. Sensei unlocked the door.
I brought Horikita over to her bed and gently laid her down.
'I'll take care of her.'
Chabashira-sensei looked at me before sighing, "I don't think I can change your mind, but I'm warning you... If I hear that you did something to her, I'm expelling you."
I nodded.
She started to walk out the door, closing it before she stopped, "I'm proud of your progress, Kagurazaka."
The door closed, leaving me alone with Horikita.
I heard Horikita let out a groan as she slowly opened her eyes. She looked right at me, "Kagurazaka... kun..."
I nodded.
"It looks like... I retired..."
Tears started rolling down her cheeks, "I'm sorry...! You... trusted me... and I failed... you!"
She wiped the tears away, "I'm an incompetent leader... an incompetent person... I feel like a failure."
"I disappointed my brother... my classmates... sensei... you... I disappointed myself..." Horikita buried her face into her pillow.
3rd POV
Kagurazaka walked over to Horikita and pulled her into a hug. Horikita felt stunned momentarily before relaxing and burying her face into the crook of his neck.
~Timeskip~
Kagurazaka's POV
I managed to calm Horikita down, and she was taking a bath.
Let's see... soup, water, and medicine. Yup, I got everything.
I was in the small kitchen area, making Horikita some soup, when I heard her call out to me.
I walked over to the bathroom door and saw her head peeking out.
"Kagurazaka-kun... I prefer to ask something else, but... Could you bring me a pair of my pajamas and..."
"Panties..."
...
...
...
This is not a big deal... All I have to do is bring Horikita her pajamas and panties...
She hurriedly closed the door after grabbing what she needed and giving it to her.
I'd appreciate it if you could check on the soup.
It didn't take long before the soup was finished, and I placed it on the nightstand beside her bed with the bottle of water and medicine.
I heard the bathroom door open, turned around, and saw Horikita wearing cute pink pajamas.
She went over to her bed and lied, "Thank you..."
Horikita started eating the soup while I was distracted by the sound of a light tapping. It was coming from the door. I made my way over and opened it. Brave flew and landed right on my shoulder.
"Kagurazaka-kun... what's with... the bird?" Horikita asked.
'Taking out the competition.'
Exam over
Last day
Ayanokouji's POV
Finally, our brief existence on the deserted island was coming to an end. Did our small joys in this harsh survival provide any comfort?
There was still no sight of Mr. Mashima and others when noon arrived. It was time to end.
"I'll announce a tally of the trial's result. Please wait for a moment. Due to the trial being over, we kindly ask people wanting to use toilets or drink to use the rest spot."
Under a temporary tent, tables and chairs were set up at the rest spot where students gathered. Sudou looked up at the cruise ship, but Koenji, Horikita, Kagurazaka, and the other retired students were nowhere to be found.
"Ayanokouji. You're close to Horikita. How close?"
Rather than getting mad or making a fuss, Sudou seriously wanted to know.
"There's nothing between us. We're just friends. Not more, not less."
"Even that makes me jealous. I'm still treated as a friend," Sudou seemed slightly disappointed. Maybe because he was irritated, he couldn't find the girl.
"But even Horikita noticed you for a moment on this occasion?"
I acted in the class's name while keeping Horikita in mind, without causing trouble - a considerable improvement.
"I hope so. After all, she couldn't call me by my first name."
"Good job, both of you. Thank you for everything this week. You saved us."
Hirata appeared and handed me a paper cup, its coldness crossing my palm. Sudou received the other cup.
"It's me who should be thankful. You followed me, a classroom outsider. Moreover, you covered that Horikita retired."
"I couldn't condemn you when I heard the reason. Besides, Horikita-san gave us big information."
"Do you believe what she said?"
"She isn't the type that would say irresponsible stuff. That's why you got close, didn't you?"
This guy would protect a colleague even if he had to gamble his pure reputation.
"I'd be lying if I said there's no risk, but I must act for Horikita."
"That's my friend," said Hirata softly. His profile was like that of a phantom. As if there was a non-comprehensive part in our dialogue, Sudou tilted his head.
"Information? What's that about?"
"I think you'll figure it out soon. Even so, C class is strange... On a whole other level."
During roll call on the second day, all Class C students retired, leaving no one in the spot. Ibuki was nowhere to be found on the sandy beach as if she had also retired. Ahead of us was only the bizarre sight of Ryuuen.
"Why is he... Why only Ryuuen hasn't retired?"
From a distance, Hirata and I saw him turn his head toward us as if he sensed our presence. He then started moving closer, creating a tense atmosphere.
"Oi, stalkers. What happened to Suzune?"
Ignoring Hirata's presence, Ryuuen came closer with a paper cup. Hearing "Suzune" coming from Ryuuen's mouth, I became aware of Sudou's head vein pulsing due to his glare.
"It'd be a problem if you hear it from us."
"I know you chased around Suzune's ass. We were together before that."
Having drained its content, Ryuuen lightly crushed the paper cup and threw it at my feet.
"Throw that thing for me."
Sudou, after ignoring it with all his strength, kicked the paper cup covered with sand back.
"What a childish thing to say. Pick up your garbage."
"Picking up garbage suits well with defectives."
Unlike Sudou, who was radiating intimidation, Ryuuen didn't show signs of caring about anything.
"Calm down, Sudou-kun. I'll throw the garbage away."
When Hirata quickly picked up the trash, Sudou clicked his tongue and kicked the sand. Ryuuen slowly looked away, covered in dirt and mud. I didn't think he had given up.
"You didn't retire, Ryuuen-kun."
"Who are you? And where is Suzune? I thought of sweetly grabbing her ass."
The second time he said "Suzune," having associated it with an insult again, Sudou approached Ryuuen while kicking the sandy beach and grasped his collar.
"What are you doing?"
With zero agitation, Ryuuen accepted Sudou's intense gaze straightforwardly.
"Next time you say something stupid, I'll kill you."
"Huh? What is it, punk, getting excited all by yourself."
With even Hirata slipping away from a fight that was about to start any second, Ryuuen was tearing off Sudou.
"Horikita-san retired yesterday. She's not here."
"Retired? Suzune? She doesn't seem like a girl who would retire."
"That's..."
The sound of the speaker's switch-on filled the beach as Mr. Mashima appeared. The first years hurried to form a line but were stopped by Mr. Mashima's hand gestures, "You may relax now. The exam has already finished. Now, this part is our summer vacation. It is alright to act more freely."
Even so, the students were still naturally tense, and their chatter disappeared instantly.
"This past week, We, the teachers, were able to keep an eye on your efforts in the special examination—some students exam directly up front and those who scheme abilities into this exam. Various things happened, but the test results were splendid overall. We appreciate your hard work."
The students felt relieved hearing the praise from Mr Mashima. Finally, we started feeling like we had finished this one-week exam.
"Well, without further ado, I would like to announce the final result of the special exam."
Perhaps no one, including our homeroom teacher, had seen through the results of this test.
"We will not accept any questions or inquiries about the test results. You should accept the outcome of the exam, and then we would like you to analyze them and use them to help you for the next exam."
"It is what it is. Do not lose your temper. Accept the reality properly, alright?"
"It is you guys from Class C that should be worried. You used all your points, right? Ridiculous!"
Sudou made fun of the well-known recklessness of Class C.
"We are left with 128 points, including the accumulated bonus points. I think that we are going to be fine."
Hirata may have felt a little irritated by Ryuuen's unreasonable provocation. So he answered with a sense of pride. Ryuuen, on the other hand, acted disgusted towards Hirata's immature words and made a gesture like vomiting.
"Oh! I envy the nerve of the small fry when they are satisfied with such a small amount of points."
"It does not matter what you say; Class C still gets 0 points."
"Oh ho ho. You are not to decide on your own. Certainly, we have used up all our 300 points. However, have you forgotten the additional rules of this exam?"
"You are saying that you will expose our class leader. That's what it is."
"That's right. I wrote it on the paper, didn't I? The name of the leader of your Class D!"
Hirata and I tried not to show emotion, but Sudou felt the shock of these words on his face.
"And I did the same thing to our colleagues from Class A and B. Do you understand what that means?"
"Wait a minute. What do you mean? Hey!? If this is true..."
"Your false assumption against Class D, along with your other wrong guesses, will result in a penalty, and you will lose 100 points."
That moment, I heard Mr Mashima's voice from the loudspeaker.
"Well, now we will announce the ranking of the special exam."
"Class C... Disqualified for violence!" Mashima-sensei announced.
"What?!" Ryuuen yelled, looking shocked.
A lot of students were shocked to hear about this.
Mashima-sensei continued with the announcement of the results without hesitation.
"In 3rd place is Class B with 210 points. In 2nd place is Class A with 220 points..."
A commotion broke out. They were rankings and points that no one had expected.
I wondered if it was because they couldn't hide their embarrassment about their mistake with the numbers they calculated.
"And Class D..."
Instantly, Mr Mashima's movements stiffened. However, his speech soon resumed.
"Claas D got first place with 241 points. This concludes the announcement of the test results."
The students of Class D, except for Hirata, needed clarification on this situation. Even Hirata smiled excitedly, unable to believe it either, even if he was the only person aware of the situation beforehand.
"What is the meaning of this, Katsuragi?"
From the other side of the rest area, voices echoed as the students of Class A encircled Katsuragi.
"Something is wrong..." Katsuragi muttered.
"Yahoo! We did it! This serves you right!"
~Timeskip~
Kagurazaka's POV
I didn't know what was happening because I got a text from Horikita saying she had something important to talk to me about.
Arriving at the area where she told me to meet her, I found her sitting at a table with Ayanokouji. She was glaring at the young man.
I sat down.
Horikita turned her attention away from Ayanokouji and brought it to me, "I'm glad you could join us."
"Ayanokouji-kun will be telling us everything," Horikita stated.
"What are you... Alright, I'll tell you everything. Please put the compass away," Ayanokouji said.
I looked at Horikita, who was putting a compass away into her pocket.
"What is the meaning of the test result? What on earth is going on?"
"You got an expression like you do not have the slightest idea," Ayanokouji stated.
I don't know what the hell is going on.
"Yeah, I can not comprehend it. I can not comprehend it at all. There are many things I want to ask you," Horikita said.
Horikita ordered drinks from the barman, who was standing right in front of us. I began talking without waiting for her reaction.
"I'll tell you everything. However, the minimum condition is that you stay silent about this. I won't compromise otherwise."
I nodded.
"Fine, I won't say anything," Horikita said.
"Where do you want to begin with?" Ayanokouji asked.
"What were you doing on this test? Tell me about it," Horikita demanded.
"When this special examination was announced, I didn't pay attention to anything but the additional rules. Managing 300 points was simple, not something you could manipulate personally."
"But the additional rules were complicated to follow."
"Even if you followed them religiously, you still couldn't identify the leaders. Right?"
"Indeed. So, first of all, I raised my hand and volunteered to search for a base camp. I planned to search spot by spot to get ahead of everyone else and be free to act when needed."
"To put it simply, so that no one else could have known the position of the spots."
"That's not the case. You didn't understand because you were feeling sick, but the school gave you clues about possible spots while the ship was still sailing."
"When I reached the cave, I thought it was the best base with the most important location."
"The cave as the best base? Don't you think rivers and water wells would have been more convenient?"
'It was the cabin and tower, right?' Ayanokouji nodded.
"But what is the advantage you've got in the cave when you don't have the keycard?"
"Well, I intended to explore various things, but it turned out that I found out the true identity of the leader," Ayanokouji said.
"Katsuragi was so careless that he made you realize he is the leader."
That wouldn't be the case. Katsuragi gives off a vibe that he plays defensively.
"There was a guy called Yahiko, right? The guy who always follows Katsuragi. That guy was the leader. I saw Katsuragi and Yahiko close to the cave, but I didn't see them clearly at that moment to confirm that they were indeed the ones that occupied it. I was sure they were occupying the cave after they left."
Ayanokouji explained the situation where he saw them; Katsuragi was standing at the entrance, carrying the keycard. Yahiko, who came out of the cave, joined him, and they left together.
"So, by looking at this sight, wouldn't it be natural to mistake Katsuragi as the leader?"
"Really? Do you think a leader would show the key card in such a careless way in public?"
I could understand how foolish she was and couldn't carry out that role.
"But why...? Why bother to have the card in his hand?"
"Because he had to do so. As far as I examined, Katsuragi is calm, composed, and extremely cautious. There is no reason he didn't understand the high risk of occupying such a spot as soon as they found it. In other words, the one who occupied it was the one who was caught in the act of immediate greed."
"That... Requires the presence of another person."
"So it seems. When he found the cave, Katsuragi didn't intend to occupy it, but he kept it all to himself, which may have been because Yahiko had taken possession of it beforehand by mistake. He thought nobody was watching, yet he insured himself just in case. By holding the key card in his hands, he thought he could mislead any possible witnesses that he was the leader."
"Class A had two spots except for their base, but I didn't know exactly how many spots they occupied at the end of the test. If I just guessed their leader, all their points could be invalidated."
"I'm not quite convinced. If he had marked such a spot at an early stage, wouldn't it be easy to avoid such trouble if he had used help from his classmates? It would have been a sufficient claim on his right of possession to allow him to keep a watchful eye upon the cave. Why occupy it exclusively..."
"That's the disadvantage of Class A."
Their class is in a civil war, so they are divided. Katsuragi would only be able to get a little help from a small group.
"Their class, which looks perfect on the surface, has a big hole."
"So, at this stage, I excluded Class A and turned my attention to Class C's movements. Katsuragi was an easy-to-understand type, but there was quite an unknown quality about Ryuuen. He was gathering more information than I was, and he saw through the leaders of all the classes."
"Wait. He was able to see through all the classes. Not only Class D, he also knew Class B and Class A leaders. But that's odd. Aside from receiving a penalty, we were ranked first by a large margin, except for being ahead of Class B by one point. How are you going to explain this?"
Kagurazaka-kun can explain that.
Me?
Horikita was waiting patiently.
How did all of this start in the first place?
Hmm...
'It started when I became an outcast because of the underwear incident.'
Horikita couldn't hide her surprise while Ayanokouji nodded to confirm my words.
'I understand that Ibuki stole the underwear, but I don't think I was the target. Kushida was the one to put it in my bag.'
"Eh?!"
Ayanokouji asked me, "How do you know who was involved?"
'I didn't trust Ibuki-san.'
'Kushida-san had a wicked smile on her face while I was leaving.'
"The event triggered because Kushida wants to connect with Class C, probably with Ryuuen," Ayanokouji explained.
"How could Kushida and Ibuki keep in contact with Ryuuen? Wasn't he hiding for the last few days?"
"They were using a transceiver to talk to each other, and Kagurazaka gave us a tip confirming that Ryuuen was still on the island."
"Ibuki must have put Karuizawa's underwear in a random bag when Kushida was on guard duty," Ayanokouji explained.
I agreed with what he said, but there was more to it.
'Ibuki-san seemed genuinely shocked about the underwear being in my bag.'
"Kushida deliberately took the underwear out of Ike's bag and put it in your bag," Ayanokouji explained.
"What I don't understand is how Kagurazaka-kun's name was on the card," Horikita said.
'After retiring, I used private points to keep my name on the card.'
'I have a question, though. What happened to the map I sent out?'
"I was the one to retrieve it, and I was going to use it, but with everything going on. I decided not to," Ayanokouji answered.
You could've said that you were too lazy to retrieve the spots.
"Oh, I forgot to return this to the school," Ayanokouji said, pulling a card out of his pocket and handing it over to Horikita.
"This keycard. Why do you...?" Horikita was astonished, "Why does it have your name?"
"What would happen if the leader retired because sick?"
"That's... The leader will be absent. So the right of exclusive possession will also disappear."
"You're wrong. In the manual, it was written like this? The leader can only be changed for a legitimate reason. Don't you think that? Retirement? Is a valid enough reason?"
'I told Chabashira-sensei to keep the name on the card the same if Horikita-san retired because I put her as second-in-command.'
"What if I didn't retire?" Horikita asked.
'Then we would lose 50 points since I disqualified Class C.'
She turned her attention to Ayanokouji, "I don't like this. You completely used me like a pawn."
"Well, I will be heading back to my room now. I'm tired," Ayanokouji said.
"Wait, we are not talking," Horikita stated.
I wanted to leave also and relax in my room.
"After explaining everything, we still need to talk about some things, right?" Horikita said.
Is there, though?
"Well... Like what?" Ayanokouji asked.
"The reason why you participated in this special test. Was it to fight alone? I don't care that you used me, but I want to know why you put in the effort when you dislike trouble," Horikita said.
Hearing what Horikita said piqued my interest. It would be nice to have an explanation about it.
"I don't have any room for doubt. I understand your talents now. If you help me aim for Class A seems realistic enough, but what are your principles? Why did you do this?" Horikita asked.
"Because I was touched that you tried to fight all alone when you were ill," Ayanokouji said with no emotion.
What a terrible lie, Ayanokouji. It seems Horikita doesn't buy his lie, either.
"Well, what I mean is I don't feel like explaining it," Ayanokouji said, standing up and stretching out his hand, "I don't mind helping you get up to Class A, but I have one condition. Do not investigate me. If you promise not to touch on the subject ever again, I will help you."
You're making yourself sound mysterious and suspicious, saying that, Ayanokouji.
Leaving those two alone, I started walking away.
Class A - 1254 cp (+220)
Class B - 1080 cp (+210)
Class C - 562 cp (+0)
Class D - 328 cp (+241)
Class D's Points total up:
-90 points for Koenji, Kagurazaka, and Hoikita retiring
-82 points for buying stuff from the manual
+50 for guessing the leader's name
Final Score: 178 points
Accumulated bonus points:
8 hours = 1 point
16 hours = 2 points
24 hours = 3 points
1st day - 3 points
2nd day - 12 points
3rd day - 12 points
4th day - 12 points
5th day - 12 points
6th day - 12 points
63 points
Final Score: 241 points