Blaze: "Now time for you all to see what really happened on your 1st Unhabitated Island Exam and what lead to Class D's victory."
Ryuuen: "*looks at Ayanokouji* Kukuku, its time to see the skills of the true mastermind kukuku."
Defects: "Finally! We can see how Horikita-san won!!"
Matsushita: 'Finally, I can get answers! I haBlazed a feeling it wasn't Horikita-san who won us the exam, when we asked her about it she seemed confused.'
Blaze: "Then let us begin."
Ayanokouji POV
After I returned to the ship, I went back to my room right away. An exhausted Hirata was there, asleep on his side. I changed my clothes quietly so I wouldn't wake him and headed into the hall. When I turned my phone back on, the ringer started buzzing repeatedly. My call history had filled up. They were all from Horikita. Scary. For the time being, I just answered emails and relaxed in the lounge while I waited.
Hondo: "Why is it in Ayanokouji's POV?! Isn't it supposed to be Horikita-san's. Since she was the one that won us the exam?!"
Defects: "Yeah!"
She probably wouldn't be convinced unless I explained things. Soon, a quite angry Horikita met up with me, radiating a silent pressure.
"What do these test results mean? What in the world happened?"
Shinohara: "What do you mean by that Horikita-san?! Weren't you the one that came up with the plan that got our class to victory?!"
Defects: "Yeah!"
Horikita: "*sigh* just watch the video."
Matsushita: 'Are they serious right now?! The fact that its in Ayanokouji's POV indicates that he was the one that came up with the plan that got us our victory! *sigh* why am I even friends with these defects in the first place...'
Blaze: '*looks at Matsushita* I pity her, I can't imagine how can she handle being with these defects since day one up till now.'
"You look like you don't have any idea at all."
"I just can't imagine it. I don't understand it at all. I have a mountain of questions."
The defects just stayed silent gobsmacked at what they're watching right now, while the rest pay attention to see the truth how Class D won the island exam by a large margin.
Horikita ordered a drink from an attendant. I started talking.
"I'll tell you everything. However, my one condition is that you stay quiet on this matter. I won't compromise on this."
I'd assumed it would come to this, considering Horikita hadn't retired
of her own will. This story was for Horikita's ears only.
Ike: "Not anymore!"
"What would you like to ask?"
"What were you doing during the test? Tell me," she said.
That was a much better question than I'd expected. She wanted to hear everything at once.
Random student: "What do you expect, she has no idea what happened, so of course she wants to know everything all at once."
"When the special test was announced, I didn't focus on anything except for the additional rules. I roughly understood how to manage the 300 points, but you couldn't manipulate them as an individual."
"But the additional rules were really difficult to understand. If you did
things normally, you wouldn't have been able to identify the leaders. Right?"
Ichinose: "Yeah, it was difficult to understand, its amazing you understood it Ayanokouji-kun!"
"Yeah. First of all, I volunteered to join the search for the base camp. Able to move freely, I planned to search out spot locations ahead of everyone else."
"You make it sound simple, but no one should have known the spot locations."
"That's not true. You didn't understand because you were ill and holed up inside the ship, but the school already gave us hints about the locations when we were sailing around the island."
Katsuragi had also noticed this when the ship circled the island at an
unusually fast speed. Horikita fell silent. The ship had been traveling nearly three times faster than a usual cruise ship. Besides, if it were just for sightseeing, it wasn't normal to use a strange expression like "significant
scenery."
Katsuragi: "*looks at Ayanokouji* I'm surprised you knew I noticed it as well."
Ryuuen: "Kukuku, of course he would Johnny Kukuku."
Kouenji had noticed this hint, too. Well, it was probably a waste of time thinking about Kouenji, anyway.
Kouenji: "*holding a mirror admiring himself* Nonsense Ayanokouji-boy! A perfect existence such as myself is never a waste of time."
"Then, I reached the cave. I thought it was the most important base."
"The cave was the most important base? Don't you think that the river and the well would have been more convenient, though?"
Ike: "Even Horikita-san says so!"
"The spot itself wasn't what was important. Its location was."
Shinohara: "Now you're just spouting nonsense!"
There were no spots close to the river or the well. However, there were two spots near the cave: the hut and the tower. It was the perfect place to exercise control. Horikita looked like she understood once I explained.
"But what advantage is there in going into the cave if you don't have a keycard?"
"Well, I'd intended to explore various things, but in the end I discovered the leader's identity."
"Well, I suppose that Katsuragi-kun was careless."
Defects: "Yeah!"
No, that wasn't it.
Defects: "Huh?!"
"There was that guy, Yahiko,remember? The one following Katsuragi around? He was the leader. I saw Katsuragi and Yahiko at the cave, but I didn't see the moment they occupied it. After the two of them walked away, I checked if the cave was occupied or not."
Katsuragi: "*mutters* Yahiko..."
I explained the situation. When I saw them, Katsuragi had been standing near the entrance with the card in his hand. Yahiko came out of the cave, and they left together.
"Wouldn't you have mistaken Katsuragi-kun as the leader?" she asked.
Arisu: "Fufufu, what a stupid question to ask Horikita-san fufufu."
"Do you think that the leader would have shown off the card so carelessly in front of people?"
Horikita should have known how unbelievably stupid that was,
precisely because she'd been appointed as the leader.
Manabu: 'I wonder how much was he holding back during the exam.'
"But why? Why bother deliberately holding onto the card, then?"
Manabu: "*sigh* I'm disappointed in you Suzune, its obvious why he did that."
Horikita just looked down.
"Because he didn't have any other choice. As far as I can tell, Katsuragi is a calm and collected man, excessively cautious. There's no way he didn't understand the high risk of occupying a spot immediately after finding it. In other words, the person who occupied it was enticed by short-sighted greed."
Ichinose: 'Amazing, he figured out what kind of person Katsuragi-kun was just by the small information I gave him.'
Arisu: "Fufufu."
"That's…why there was another person."
"Yes." When Katsuragi found the cave, he didn't intend to occupy it. Nevertheless, he was holding the space down, probably because Yahiko had been careless. Even though he thought no one would be watching them, he'd probably wanted insurance. By holding onto the card and displaying it, even in the unlikely event that a witness was present, he could mislead them into thinking that he was the leader.
Katsuragi just stayed silent due from shock.
"So, aside from their base, Class A held down at least two spots, but we didn't confirm how many they were occupying by the end of the test. If I correctly guessed the identity of their leader, though, I could invalidate all of their points."
After I'd narrowed it down to Yahiko, putting effort into anything else would've been a waste of time.
Kanzaki: "He just defeated Class A just like that." 'He's dangerous but I think it would be better if he was an ally.'
(A/N: I'm getting tired of writing Kanazaki saying Ayanokouji is an enemy bullshit, I'm giving him a character development arc.)
Amikura: "Ne, Honami-chan your boyfriend is pretty amazing."
Ichinose: "*blushing* H-h-he's not my b-b-b-boyfriend!"
Kanzaki: "*mutters and looks at Ichinose* I wonder if Ichinose can bring him to our class."
"I'm still not convinced. If he figured out the spot's location at such an
early stage, and if he were acting alongside a lot of other people, shouldn't he have avoided trouble? Even if he just had someone standing watch by the cave, it should have been sufficient claim of ownership. Why would they occupy it?"
"That was probably Class A's disadvantage."
Hasebe: "What do you mean by that Kiyopon?"
Ayanokouji: "Just watch I said it in the video."
Their overall points on the test were high, and they didn't receive a negative assessment due to behavior in class like Class D. However, their class was divided internally. In other words, there was a reason why Katsuragi couldn't rely on other people.
"Their class appears perfect at first glance, but it actually has a huge schism in it."
Hasebe: "I see."
Keisei: "His basically saying that the class is divided into 2 factions, the Sakayanagi faction and the Katsuragi faction."
Hasebe: '*pouts* I know what he meant Yukimu hmph."
That was why my methods had revealed Class A so easily. Well, that was simple luck. It was like getting a good score by exploiting a mistake. Class A wasn't vigilantly watching for a surprise attack from overhead, so
there was nothing to be done.
"That's why I excluded Class A at that stage, and turned my attention toward Class C. Katsuragi was easy to understand, but with Ryuuen, there were many unknown variables. To tell you the truth, he was gathering more information than I was. He'd found out the identities of all of the leaders."
Class D: "Really?!"
Ryuuen: "Kukuku, Indeed I have kukuku."
Sato: "How did your class get 0 points then?"
Ryuuen: "*points at Ayanokouji* Ask the monster."
Everybody started looking at Ayanokouji.
Ayanokouji: '*sigh* This is why I wanted to have a low profile.' "*sigh* Just watch the video."
"W-wait, he found out the identities of all of the leaders… So not only Class D, but also the leaders for Classes B and A? But that's strange. We were far from being penalized; we ended up getting first place by a wide margin. How do you intend to explain that?"
"This is a little difficult to explain, but the reason I made you retire is the answer."
"Wait, the answer is you made me retire? What in the world did you do?"
"Oh, that reminds me. I didn't return it to the school yet."
I took a single card out of my pocket and handed it over to Horikita.
"This is a keycard. Why do you…?!"
Horikita was astonished when she saw the letters engraved on the card.
"Wait, why does…?"
The name read "Ayanokouji Kiyotaka."
Everyone: "EHHHHH?!?!"
Defects: "HOW?! ITS NOT ALLOWED TO SWITCH LEADERS RIGHT?!"
Blaze: 'Huh its the first time I see them use their brains. Well if they had one to begin with.'
"The test had to be fair. The rules were fundamentally created to be fair."
That was quite natural, something you would have seen if you'd carefully confirmed the additional rules. Only one person could be chosen as leader. The leader could not be changed. Only the leader held the rights of exclusive possession.
"What do you think would happen if the leader retired because of poor health?"
"That's… The leader would be absent. So the rights of exclusive possession would disappear…"
Ike: "Yeah, isn't that correct?"
"Wrong. In the manual, it says, 'It is impossible to change the leader without suitable justification.' Don't you think that retirement is suitable enough justification?"
Everyone has gone silent, not a single person utter a word.
Manabu: '*smiles* You're truly amazing Ayanokouji, I'm looking forward to see what kind of mark you're gonna leave in this school.'
It seemed like the additional rules had been made to be broken if someone were absent due to poor health or injury. I could predict setting up a new leader. I was able to figure this out by looking at the other rules. For example, we couldn't change the base camp without suitable justification after we'd first decided where it would be, but there were suitable reasons.
Arisu: 'Fufufu, as expected of the masterpiece.'
Yagami: 'I can do that as well.'
We'd occupied the riverside area, but if we were careless and it was taken by another class, then that would have counted as "suitable justification." You couldn't stay in the base itself, so if there wasn't a system where you could search for a new base camp, everything would collapse.
"So then, you made me…?"
Horikita Suzune had retired, and I was appointed in her place. Of course, that meant that I was the leader they were supposed to guess at the end of the test. There can only be one
Kushida: 'I need to find a way to expel him and fast.'
"That's why even though Class C knew you were the leader, we avoided penalties."
"But wait. Ibuki-san stole my card, but what if I'd protected it really thoroughly?"
Horikita recalled the day of the accident.
"Did you drop the card on purpose back then? Well, I suppose that Yamauchi-kun's actions might have provided Ibuki-san the opportunity to hatch a plan to steal the keycard…"
Ike: "YAMAUCHIII!!"
Sato: "Yama- who?"
Ike: "You guys know him, Yamauchi Haruki, he was our classmate before he got expelled!"
Onodera: "I don't think we had a classmate like that."
Karuizawa: "Beats me, he sounds like a perverted idiot."
Shinohara: "The name sounds familiar, eh sounds like a dead man"
Sakayanagi: "Hashimoto, do you know this person they're talking about? Fufufu."
Hasimoto: "Hime, they are talking about the one you expelled. I think his name was Yamadead."
Sakayanagi: "Fufufu."
I'd been holding onto the muddy Horikita, so in that sense I had no choice but to give up the keycard.
"Unless I knew what Ibuki-san was aiming for right at the start, I couldn't have done anything…"
Right. Ibuki had been picked up by Class D purely by chance. I'd been almost convinced until I heard about the guy named Kaneda in Class B. He'd been sent as a spy by Ryuuen. I wasn't so good-natured as to believe that two people just happened to be saved by two separate classes completely by chance.
Kanzaki: "*sigh* I really need to teach my classmates to be cautious when picking up people."
"Besides, Ibuki has a habit of looking people in the eye when she's lying."
Ibuki: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING?!"
You could say that the bigger the lie, the more obvious the habit.
"Wait, when she lied she would look the person in the eye? Isn't it usually the opposite?"
Random student: "Yeah."
"Generally speaking, you avoid eye contact if you have a guilty conscience. However, it was the opposite for her. I think that she made eye contact to make the person think that the lie was the truth. She probably didn't even notice it herself."
Hiyori: "Wait, isn't this the first time Kiyotaka met Ibuki-san?"
Everyone: "HUHHH!"
Hiyori: "How come Kiyotaka knew her habit that even she didn't know about it?"
Everyone: 'Is he a fucking lie detector?'
Even when we were talking about the underwear theft, she looked me
straight in the eye.
"Her goal was probably to find the keycard, but she might have intended to disrupt Class D at the same time."
What had happened to Karuizawa, and the underwear in Ike's bag, might have otherwise been seen as mere coincidence.
Shinohara: "I knew it was in Ike's bag *glaring daggers at him*"
Ike: "L-like Ayanokouji said it was c-coincidence!"
"But I have to wonder why Ibuki-san specifically stole my keycard. All
she needed was to check my name."
"That was likely Ibuki's intention from the start. However, she ran into
unexpected trouble."
That was the catalyst that led to verifying the leader of Class C.
"Ibuki had a digital camera in her bag to take a picture of the keycard."
"To take a picture…with the camera? Why would she go so far?"
"If she had a picture, then the leader's identity would have been clear for anyone to see, right? If she had convincing evidence, she would have profited."
"I don't quite understand… Did Ryuuen-kun not trust Ibuki-san?"
"That wasn't it. If the discussion only stayed within Class C, then there shouldn't have been any need for her to take a picture with the camera or steal the card."
In other words, that meant there had been people involved who didn't trust Ibuki's words alone; they'd wanted reliable evidence.
Katsuragi: '*sweating bullets* don't tell me he knew our negotiations as well?!'
"From here on out, I don't have any evidence of what I'm saying. Think of it as my intuition, which I derived from the test results. At the end of the test, Class A had 270 points."
In other words, they hadn't used a single point during the test.
"Classes A and C were connected, working together behind the scenes.
Class C sacrificed their own points and bought whatever Class A needed. Also, by taking all of C's tools, Class A was able to spend the week without
using any points."
Everyone was just shock at the information they heard.
Katsuragi: 'How the fuck did he know that?! He is a dangerous opponent!'
Yagami: '*clicks his tongue* tch, I would've known that as well.'
Ibuki had obtained evidence and given it to someone in A Class.
"By the way, I became aware of Class C's leader after half of the students retired. It was certain that the leader would have remained on the island, right?"
"Even so, we weren't supposed to know who was left."
"No, I was almost one hundred percent sure that Ryuuen was still on the island."
Ryuuen: "Kukuku, do tell monster."
Everyone was confuse for a while now why Ryuuen kept calling Ayanokouji, monster.
I figured it out when I saw Ibuki hiding a wireless transceiver in the ground. Ibuki had used it to stay in contact with Ryuuen. Retired students shouldn't have been able to use a transceiver. In other words, someone was left on the island for her to communicate with.
Ryuuen: "Ibuki, you could've done better at hiding it. Kukuku."
He'd casually set the transceiver on top of a table while enjoying his vacation. No one else was controlling it, just him. His mistake was that he didn't trust anyone.
Ibuki: "HA, WHO'S THE DUMB ONE NOW!"
Ryuuen: "*clicks his tongue and looks at Ayanokouji* mark my words monster, I'll defeat you next time, kukuku."
Hosen: "HAHAHAHA WHAT A PATHETIC WAY TO LOSE!"
Horikita was trying to hold back her laughter.
Sudo was laughing so hard that he started rolling on the ground.
Arisu was fufufuing so hard.
While the rest of the audience are either holding their laugh, chuckling or just burst out laughing.
"My god… I don't even have the words," Horikita answered, facing the truth.
Everyone: "You're not the only one that's speechless."
If I were to summarize this test, I'd say that Class A's first mistake carried through to the end. They didn't function well due to an internal rift. Class B went through the test with a thoroughly defense-oriented strategy,
which did neither harm nor good. Their only mistake was that, because there were so many good-natured people in Class B, they'd permitted Kaneda to stay, and they'd believed him.
Shibata: "His analyzing our mistakes."
I don't know how Kaneda got the evidence, but he'd obtained something, and probably told Ryuuen. If you looked at the fact that Class A didn't get any points, you might think it was because they hadn't obtained any physical evidence. Then there was Class C. We were able to avoid damage because I'd been appointed as the leader. In addition to sending people off as spies to find out the identities of the other leaders, Class C had profited from some kind of negotiations with Class A. Ryuuen might be our number one enemy.
Ryuuen: "Kukuku, hear that crippled loli, I'm his number one enemy kukuku."
Arisu: "Fufufu, not for long, I'll be his number one enemy soon fufufu."
"I don't like this. You completely used me, like a pawn."
Arisu: 'Fufufu, what do you expect, you were his pawn from the beginning fufufu.'
"Yeah. I can't deny that. I wouldn't be surprised if you never want to speak to me ever again."
I was aware of what I'd done.
"Well, I'll be heading back to my room now. I'm really tired," I said.
"Wait. We're not done talking."
"What? I just want to relax in my room, if possible."
"After you explain everything. There are still some things we need to talk about, right?"
"Well…like what?"
"The reason why you participated in this special test. Was it to fight alone? I don't care that you used me this time. I want to know why you put in the effort when you dislike trouble."
"I wonder."
Perhaps the explanation I had given so far had been less important to Horikita.
"I don't have any room for doubt. I understand your talents now. If you
help me, aiming for Class A seems a realistic enough goal. But what are your principles? Why did you do this?"
Of course, I didn't want to talk to Horikita about my personal problems. I'd only participated because of a commitment I made to Chabashira-sensei.
Ryuuen: "Kukuku, I gotta give the credit to your homeroom teacher, without you the exam would've been boring kukuku."
Arisu: "Fufufu, I have to agree with dragon boy fufufu."
Ryuuen: "*glaring at Arisu* stop calling me that you crippled loli."
Arisu: "Fufufu, it seems dragon boy is way past his bedtime fufufu."
Ryuuen was glaring daggers at Arisu, her comment made him pissed even more.
"Because I was touched that you tried to fight all alone when you were ill."
"You wouldn't normally say that kind of thing. It's easy to spot the lie."
"Well, what I mean is I don't feel like explaining it."
I stood up and stretched out my hand.
"I don't mind helping you get up to Class A. However, I have one condition. Do not investigate me. If you promise not to touch on this subject ever again, I will help you."
Horikita took my hand without hesitation.
"If you don't want to talk, there's nothing I can really do about that. If you'll help, I have no reason to refuse you. I'm not interested in digging things up that are better left buried. After all, you dislike trouble."
Horikita's handshake was firm. I work for me. You do things for yourself. The battle to raise our class up from the very bottom was about to begin.
Blaze: "And that's the end of the video, any questions?"
Manabu: "How much strength did Ayanokouji used on the exam? I could tell he was holding back."
Many were surprised by his questions and couldn't believe that Ayanokouji was holding back in the island exam.
Blaze: "Well he was using roughly around 4% of his true strength."
Silence filled the room when they heard this, not a single person can utter a single word. They couldn't believe that Ayanokouji was holding back THAT much.
Kushida: 'Shit shit shit shit, I messed with the wrong person, he could've expelled me then and there the time I blackmailed him.'
Hosen: '*clicks his tongue* tch it would be impossible to expel this monster.'
Manabu: '*smiles* Amazing just amazing, you're the strongest student in this school Ayanokouji, no doubt *grins* and I made no mistake letting you handle Nagumo.'
Mashima-sensei: 'Truly outstanding, winning a whole exam by himself while holding back. Why the hell was he placed in Class D then? He's supposed to be a Class A student.'
Hoshinimiya-sensei: 'What were the higher-ups thinking placing him in Class D?! Sae-chan you cheater! Having a strong student like Ayanokouji-kun! I need a plan to bring him to my class.'
Yagami: '*clicks his tongue* What a waste of time and strength! And you're the so called Masterpiece of the Whiteroom? I'll be taking that title when I defeat you!.'
Blaze: "Take your time to process everything you've watched, I'll give you time to relax."