Vol.11 Chapter 8

[Introduction]

While Class A and Class C were still in the process of having their Math tests graded for their third event…

The outcome of the fourth event in the battle between Class B and Class D had already been decided.

"After tallying up the results, Class B ended with 601 points, while Class D ended with 409 points. Class B wins the fourth event."

After hearing Mashima announce the results, Ichinose let out a sigh of relief.

The event had been an academic test that Class B had suggested, so it would've been nearly impossible for them to lose.

"Well ain't you a lucky one, Ichinose. You should be grateful we keep drawing Class B's events."

"…Yeah."

Despite having won, Ichinose was still clearly distraught, whereas the loser, Ryūen, seemed perfectly composed.

Moreover, this was only natural. Out of the four events that had been drawn so far, three of them had been suggested by Class B. However, those four events hadn't ended up playing out as expected, as the score was tied with two wins apiece between Class B and Class D. During the third event, Class B had lost at their own game, the Chemistry Test. Furthermore, the reason for their defeat was obvious.

"Sensei… Have the students with stomach aches come back from the bathroom yet?"

At Ichinose's request, Mashima got in touch with the classroom to check on the situation in Class B.

"No, two of them still haven't gotten back from the bathroom yet, and it seems that several of the others have also started to feel unwell now."

"Is that so…"

The reason why Class B had lost the Chemistry event was because a portion of their main fighting force had unexpectedly fallen sick.

But, that wasn't the only reason. On the day before the exam, some of Class B's students had gotten into a dispute with Class D, which had also had an impact.

Although a complaint had been made to the school, neither of the two classes had been penalized as it was nothing more than a verbal argument.

These underhanded actions had undoubtedly been orchestrated by the man seated on the other side of the table, Ryūen.

Ichinose took a few deep breaths in order to compose herself once again.

"Haa… It's okay, it's okay."

They hadn't given up the lead just yet. Ichinose had lost her presence of mind ever since her defeat in the Chemistry event, but now she was slowly beginning to return to normal. While it was true that problems kept popping up one after another, Ryūen's actions were limited. As the commander, he wouldn't be able to do anything that she couldn't do also.

Ichinose desperately tried to regain her confidence. To tell herself that, as long as she continued to fight hard, they wouldn't lose.

"Oi, you teachers. Hurry up and start the fifth event already. Those chumps in Class B weren't even able to take care of their health on the day of the exam. Are you really gonna make concessions for a naive bunch like that?"

"Mind your language, Ryūen."

Despite Chabashira's warning for his arrogant language, Ryūen didn't seem to care.

In fact, he even turned it up a notch.

"I dunno if they're on the toilet or whatever, but they could totally be using this time to iron out their strategy. Plus, it's strange that multiple people just so happened to get sick all at the same time. What kind of sinister tricks are you playing at, Ichinose?"

"I-I didn't…"

Ryūen drew suspicion to the fact that several people had reported feeling unwell at the same time.

Even though Ichinose knew that there had been absolutely no wrongdoing on her part, she had no room to refute it either.

"Either way, let's just get on with it already, aight teach'?"

With a grin on his face, Ryūen shot a look at Chabashira for confirmation.

"Ryūen is certainly right about that. Mashima-sensei, please proceed with the fifth event, if you would."

Mashima began the drawing for the fifth event.

『Karate』 Required Participants: 3 ・ Time: 10 Minutes

Rules: Each match will take at most 3 minutes, using a non-contact, Sundome Karate ruleset. The matches will adopt a "Loser Leaves, Winner Stays" tournament style.

Commander Intervention: The commander may, at any point, call for one of the matches to be redone.

"Sweet, it's one of our events this time. We'll take on anyone, doesn't matter who."

Ryūen chose Suzuki Hidetoshi, Oda Takumi, and Ishizaki Daichi for his three participants. The rules regarding commander intervention were perfect for him as well, granting him the ability to call for a rematch just in case something unexpected were to happen and they lost one of the matches.

On the other side, Ichinose chose Sumida Makoto, Watanabe Norihito, and Yonezu Haruto. Back when the opposing class's events were announced, she had tasked these three with practicing for the Karate event, but they pretty much had their hands full with just remembering the rules.

As a result, Class B suffered two staggering back-to-back losses. Even when Ichinose tried to make use of her powers as the commander to call for a rematch, it still didn't manage to change anything.

The fifth event had been one of the quickest and most decisive losses so far.

At this point, Class B didn't have any more leeway. If they lost the next event, the sixth, they would lose the entire special exam.

"It's funny, isn't it, Ichinose?"

As they waited for the drawing to pass judgment, Ryūen called out to Ichinose, who had gotten quieter.

"When it was decided that you'd be going against Class D back when the special exam was announced, I'll bet you guys felt like you had an absolute advantage. But looking at you now, it's like the only thing you can do is sit there and pray to the heavens. Kuku."

Ichinose's strategies were by no means naive.

If they were competing under normal circumstances, Class B would be at 3 wins and 2 losses right now.

But instead, a sudden accident happened that had thrown everything out of order.

If they didn't draw one of their own events here, they wouldn't stand a chance.

And then it was chosen, the sixth event.

『Judo』 Required Participants: 1 ・ Match Time: 4 Minutes (Up to 3 Matches for 12 Minutes Total)

Rules: Standard judo rules apply.

Commander Intervention: The commander may choose to invalidate the results of one match and call for a rematch.

A one-on-one event. For Class B, the event that had been chosen was the worst possible outcome imaginable.

This was the first time Ichinose had ever truly felt the sensation of being plunged into darkness.

"Kukuku. Judo? Judo, eh? For THAT to get chosen out of all things. Lady luck ain't smiling down on you, Ichinose."

"How…"

"If the last two events had been from Class B, you wouldda still had a chance at winning!"

Ryūen locked in Yamada Albert without hesitation.

Just like in the Karate event earlier, the rules regarding commander intervention were an ultimate insurance policy that practically guaranteed that he wouldn't lose.

"Even though your opponent is Albert, don't let it get to you. The strongest guy doesn't always win, so ya never know until ya give it a shot."

The result was already as clear as day. It would be extremely difficult for Class B to beat an opponent whose physique and skill far surpassed their own.

It was the only event that Class B had given up on, where they wouldn't be able to win no matter what. Ichinose had to select a single person, and she was only given thirty seconds to decide who that would be. But now, Ichinose couldn't even make the choice to nominate someone anymore.

The seconds ticked away mercilessly until the timer finally reached 0. As per the rules, a student would be chosen at random if the commander failed to make the choice in time, but after considering the danger of the event, Mashima passed the ruling immediately instead.

"Class B loses this event by default. And, this marks the fourth win for Class D, making Class D the overall victor for this special exam."

At Mashima's merciful declaration, the outcome of the battle between Class B and Class D had been set in stone.

[Intro end]

[Part 1]

From here, the story turns back to the day the special exam was first announced.

Alone, Ishizaki chased after Ryūen as he headed off to eat his lunch. Class D had already decided on making Kaneda their commander, but they were having problems coming up with what events to choose.

The reason being that nobody in Class D was capable of coming up with any original ideas.

Ordinary events, ordinary rules, ordinary fighting styles.

They were only able to come up with simple, ordinary ideas that anyone would be able to think of.

If they couldn't come up with anything better, their chances of winning against any of the other classes were effectively non-existent.

Submitting ten casual, ordinary events was simply the easy way out.

In Class D, the current opinion was that they should avoid facing off against Class A because their abilities were just too overpowering. Similarly, they came to the conclusion that it might be even more crucial to avoid Class B.

So, naturally, everyone wanted to go after the up-and-coming Class C. That is, everyone other than Ishizaki.

"Uhh─ could ya spare a moment, Ryūen-san?"

Despite his fear of doing so, Ishizaki checked his surroundings to make sure that there were no other first-year students around before he proceeded to call out to Ryūen.

"Hm?"

With just a mere glance from Ryūen's harsh eyes, Ishizaki froze like a frog that had been seen by a snake.

But despite his body freezing up on him, his mouth still managed to speak.

"I beg of you─ please give me some of your time!!"

"Oh, so you've gotten big enough to oppose me now, huh?"

"N-no, that ain't it…!"

"Kuku. Well, whatever. You're practically the leader of Class D right now."

Ryūen felt like he was only prolonging the inevitable right now. That this was nothing more than extra time at a school where he was going to get forced out eventually, so he had plenty of time to kill. The two of them began walking outside with Ryūen in the lead.

Even if someone were to witness the two of them, it'd probably seem like Ishizaki had called Ryūen out or something.

Once they made their way out of the school building and got to an area where no people were around, Ishizaki promptly got down on his knees.

"Ryūen-san, please… lend your strength to Class D for this special exam!"

From the moment Ishizaki called out to him, Ryūen had a solid idea of what Ishizaki wanted. However, he didn't say a word about it. He just looked down upon Ishizaki prostrated on the ground before him.

"You're dribbling out nonsense, Ishizaki. I stepped down. I've told you that already. You really think I'll help you?"

"That─ I know that. But with how we are now, we hardly stand a chance against the other classes!"

"Yeah probably."

Ryūen didn't deny it either.

After all, he had already thought about it. When it comes to sheer competitive potential, Class D was overwhelmingly inferior to the other classes.

"Kaneda stepped up as the commander, so even if we lose nobody will get expelled… But, if we lose at this point, our class points will be all but gone!"

"Well, that's what you get if ya lose seven events straight, eh?"

Class D currently has 318 class points. If they lost all seven matches, they'd be down to 100 points total. While that was the worst-case scenario, it wasn't all that unlikely given the current trajectory of the class.

"So you want me to be the commander? Who would agree to something like that?"

"That's─"

In order to get Ryūen expelled, they'd have to make him the commander. And furthermore, they would need to lose.

However, the class would have to suffer a huge loss just to get one person expelled, and nobody was very eager to make that tradeoff.

Should their class points ever drop to 0, it'd be effectively impossible for them to ever reach Class A.

Not only that. It'd be nearly impossible to live a stable life at this school anymore.

Class D's optimal outcome was victory. Second to this would be to lose and force Ryūen's expulsion.

But no matter what, they had to avoid getting crushed and losing their only protection point at the same time.

Ishizaki wanted Class D to win, but he also didn't want Ryūen to get expelled.

And, if anyone in the class could make that happen, it'd be Ryūen himself.

"…So what should we do? Should we go for Class C after all?"

Under normal circumstances, Ishizaki would've been fully behind choosing Class C, but the problem with that was Ayanokōji.

Ishizaki's hesitation stemmed from the fact that he was one of the few students who knew the true nature of that man.

"Don't go asking for my opinion all willy-nilly like that. Who told you I'd cooperate?"

For Ishizaki, this was all or nothing, but Ryūen's words made it clear he had been too reckless. But even so, he still wasn't going to stop prostrating himself. He was prepared to keep it up until the moment Ryūen left.

"You're right that Class C isn't very unified. They've got a monster like Ayanokōji, but in the end, he's just one guy. You might even be tempted to think you'd stand a chance because it's a team competition… though, you'd be wrong."

"Wha?"

Ryūen, the very man Ishizaki thought he had no chance of convincing, unexpectedly decided to share his thoughts.

"Put me as the commander and I'd avoid facing off with Class C. I dunno the whole process of how we choose our opponent, but that class isn't one I'd want to be challenging voluntarily."

"B-but other than Ayanokōji─"

"That's got nothing to do with it, blockhead."

Ishizaki recoiled a bit.

"Even though Class D is full of incompetent morons like you, we've still got the tools to succeed in other ways. But, Class C isn't the best option we've got available. No, there's only one class suitable enough to be our opponent."

"Wh-which one is it!?"

"Class B."

Ryūen spoke the name of the class without even looking at Ishizaki below him.

"If you're lookin' to win this exam, Class B is your only option."

He proposed Class B, a class that everyone in Class D had wanted to avoid.

"Even an idiot can be useful depending on what ya do with 'em."

With that, Ryūen turned his back on Ishizaki and began to leave.

"P-please wait! How, how could we possibly beat Class B!?"

Ishizaki scrambled to his feet and called after him.

"Ryūen-san! Ryūen-saaan!"

But Ishizaki's cries didn't stop him from walking away.

[Part 1]

[Part 2]

As the one accredited with overthrowing Ryūen, Ishizaki's influence within Class D wasn't exactly low.

However, that didn't mean that there weren't any problems.

The one who should've been expelled during the provisional exam, Ryūen, was still here. The class had focused their censure votes on Manabe in order to threaten her a little, but she ended up being expelled instead. Naturally, many students felt suspicious of this.

Of course, the first question in everyone's mind was: 'Who exactly was it that cast such a large number of praise votes for Ryūen?'

Had someone within Class D voted for him? Or, if it was another class, which one?

A lot of theories were repeatedly being tossed around as Class D tried to reason out what had happened.

Due to the high degree of anonymity of the provisional special exam, it had been impossible for them to figure out the exact answer.

In reality, Class B's Ichinose had indirectly struck a deal with Ryūen, offering a large number of praise votes in exchange for Ryūen's stockpile of private points. While that was what had happened, Class B would never tell that to anyone. As Ichinose had asked to keep it a secret, her classmates obediently followed suit. Class B would've listened to her either way, but in this case, it had been part of a strategy to prevent one of their classmates from being expelled, so everyone was eager to comply with her.

Meanwhile, Class D was enveloped in paranoia.

However, a few of them knew the truth. Ishizaki and Ibuki had taken action in order to prevent Ryūen's expulsion, and Shiina Hiyori had collaborated with them.

Given that it wouldn't be strange if everything came to a standstill at this point, Shiina played the very important role of making use of the advice that Ishizaki had received from Ryūen.

She worked diligently to ensure that her class would be matched against Class B.

In a private conversation with Kaneda, she subtly guided him to come to the conclusion that Class B was their best choice.

However, that didn't mean the problem had been resolved.

Shiina herself was well aware that, without any leadership, Class D's chances of winning would be as thin as paper if they were to face off against Class B right now. She knew that falling behind, even slightly, would lead to defeat.

So that very same day, after the class matchups had been decided, Shiina immediately put a certain plan into action.

"Dammit. What should we do…?"

Inside a rented room at the Karaoke parlor, Ishizaki vented his frustration.

"Dunno. Why exactly did you call me here again? What kinda group is this?"

Ibuki glared at Ishizaki before proceeding to give Shiina a similarly harsh look, who was seated right beside him.

"How shall we put it… This is Ishizaki-kun and his merry band of friends?"

Ibuki slouched down in her seat as she glared at Shiina for her silly answer.

"Haa… My head hurts."

"As the three people who best understand the current situation, I think we'll be able to come up with some ideas by gathering up like this. Manjushri speaks to three, as they say."

"Man Juice speaks to Thee? Heh. What's that about?"

"You said that on purpose didn't you?"

"Ouch! Ibuki, you bitch! Stop pinching the skin on the back of my hand like that!"

"Nice and lively. I knew meeting up in a karaoke room would be a good decision."

Upon seeing the interaction between Ibuki and Ishizaki, Shiina clasped her hands together happily. Ibuki, however, was having none of it.

"We can't have a decent discussion with a group like this. I'm outta here."

"Ah, that would be problematic. Ryūen-kun is going to show up after this."

""What?""

Ishizaki and Ibuki both spoke the same thing at the same exact time.

"Ryūen-kun is absolutely essential to winning this special exam. After all, he's the only one who saw potential in facing Class B when everyone else wanted to avoid them."

Shiina had set off one hell of an unexpected bomb.

She didn't seem to understand the sheer weight of her own words.

"You, what did you just say?"

"Eh? I said that he's the only one who sa─"

"Not that. What you said before. Who'd you say would be showing up here?"

"Ryūen-kun."

Ibuki looked at Ishizaki. Ishizaki looked at Ibuki.

"S-seriously? Ryūen-san? Here???"

"Yes. I've already invited him."

"This is going to be one of the worst karaoke meetups I've ever seen… but, did you tell him about us?"

"I told him you'd both be here, of course."

"Yer tellin' me that he knows we're here and he's still gonna come…?"

Ishizaki had already attempted to get Ryūen to cooperate and got turned down, so it was only natural that he'd be suspicious.

"I'll ask just to make sure, but what time did that guy say he'd get here?"

"4 o'clock."

"…Huh?"

Ibuki took a look at the clock on the wall.

The time was just past 5:05 PM.

"It looks like he's just a tiny bit late."

"It's been more than half an hour! That's not called being late! That's called being ignored!"

"Calm down and help yourself to some of this melon soda. Let's just be patient, shall we?"

Ibuki completely disregarded the can of melon soda Shiina offered her.

"I don't have the time for this…"

As Ibuki was about to get up, Ishizaki stopped her.

"I'm gonna wait. Ryūen-san will definitely come… maybe…"

"Are you retarded? No way in hell that guy's gonna keep his word."

In fact, he was already substantially late. Unwilling to get involved in this, Ibuki spat out a superficial apology and began to walk for the door.

But this time, a slender, white hand reached out and grabbed Ibuki by the arm.

"Let's wait, Ibuki-san. He may not seem like it, but Ryūen-kun is an earnest person, wouldn't you agree?"

"…You… What do you know about him?"

"I don't know very much. Honestly, I've only ever spoken to him a few times."

"Then why?"

"I've just got a feeling that he is."

"So it's baseless. How sweet."

"You could say that."

Shiina responded with a pure, harmless smile that Ibuki found herself getting caught up in.

"Besides, I'm having tons of fun spending time with you two. Won't you stay?"

"…Idiot."

Ibuki sat back down, exasperated.

"If he doesn't show up soon, I'm out of here, alright?"

"Alright~"

[Part 2 end]

[Part 3]

"I can't take it anymore! I'm at my limit!"

Although Ibuki had been more than patient, the time was now just past 8 PM.

She was beyond irritated. The word 'late' hardly even applied anymore; This could only be described as being stood up.

"Oho. You say that, but haven't you only sung like 10 songs?"

"You still haven't hit your limit yet, Ibuki-san!"

"I went past my limit a long time ago! I'm sick of this!"

"Then let's do our best to try and surpass your limits altogether!"

"I'm not joking around here!"

"Jeeze, yer pissy… Aren't you tired of being angry all the time?"

"One look at your ugly mug would make anyone a million percent more tired."

Ishizaki reached out to try and stop Ibuki, but she shook him off and began to leave.

However, just as she reached for the door handle, the door opened all on its own.

"The hell? Did you guys seriously wait here thinking I'd show up eventually?"

A man, Ryūen, entered the room with a grin on his face. As if by impulse, Ishizaki and Ibuki froze up entirely.

They never thought that he'd actually come.

"You're late, Ryūen-kun."

"You say that, but it looks like you're enjoying yourself."

"Yes. I've never been to karaoke before. I'm having a great time."

"Then I'll get out of your hair. Make sure you enjoy yourself, Ibuki. Sorry for bothering you all."

Ryūen sneered as he tried to close the door behind him, but Ibuki stopped him.

"I'll kick your ass if you leave me here in karaoke hell any longer."

"Kuku. How scary."

Ryūen was then pulled into the room by Ibuki and had Ishizaki order him some sparkling water.

Then, he sat down and began to play with his phone without saying anything.

"…So?"

Ibuki questioned him, urging him to speak.

"So? What do you mean?"

"You kept us waiting for this long and you're not even gonna say anything?"

"I just came by to see if you guys were still wasting your time waiting here for me."

He took a sip of the sparkling water Ishizaki had ordered for him.

"That's all there is to it."

"Shiina's forced me to stay here for hours now. I've run out of patience."

"Ain't my fault."

"Of course it is!"

Pounding her fists on the table, Ibuki scowled at Ryūen.

"O-oi, calm down Ibuki. Snapping at Ryūen-san won't do ya any good."

"For crying out loud, how long are you gonna just sit there and wag your tail for him?"

"How long? I… I've already decided to follow Ryūen-san."

"You shameless mutt. You hated being his lackey at first."

"D-don't go saying unnecessary shit like that!"

While the two of them were busy going at each other, Shiina was focused on selecting a new song.

"We ended up throwing away our right to choose our opponent because this idiot got caught up in your smooth talk."

"Sure seems like it."

Ishizaki curled back. If they had gone with the class consensus, they would've chosen Class C. It was the one class they thought they'd have a chance of defeating.

However, Ishizaki's actions had changed things, and they didn't have the slightest clue about how they would win.

"This buffoon listens to anything that comes out of your mouth. That means you're also partially responsible for saying it."

"Kuku, I can't blame ya. I said something stupid too."

With a smile, Ryūen began to open up.

"Do you remember what I did to Class B back at the start of the year?"

"…If I recall correctly, you tried to get them to split up, yes?"

At Ryūen's instruction, he had started a dispute with Class B where he tried to get them to have a falling out.

To check the potential of each class, he had intentionally sparked a fire.

It had happened around the time back when Sudō had gotten into a brawl and when he had secretly made contact with Katsuragi.

"Remember what the result was?"

"It didn't have any effect. Class B became very unified quite quickly. Right?"

"Yep. Those guys've got more cohesion and unity than any other class."

"Isn't that why we should've avoided going up against Class B in a team competition like this?"

"I agree with Ibuki. It'll be difficult to go against Ichinose and her army of admirers."

Ibuki and Ishizaki both shared the collective opinion of Class D.

"Shiina, what's your take on Class B?"

"Let's see… As Ibuki-san and Ishizaki-kun have said, Class B is indeed strong. All of their abilities are above average as well. It's quite enviable that they are so very harmonious with one another, but… you could say that's all they really have going for them. They have no particular threats, they're just a close-knit class."

After Shiina finished giving her analysis, Ibuki quietly commented.

"You've got such a gentle face, but your words are almost heartless."

After hearing everyone's opinions, Ryūen gave his own evaluation of Class B.

"If you ask me, their biggest flaw is Ichinose… Scratch that, it's their lack of a leader."

"H-hold up. I don't understand what you mean. Ichinose is their leader, isn't she?"

"Between Ichinose and Kanzaki, neither of them are natural-born leaders. They're the type of people who're better suited to support a leader. Instead of placing someone like her in charge, they'd be way better off with people like Suzune or Katsuragi. This is the reason why our rotten Class D stands a chance at winning."

"But the fact that it's an incompatible matchup still hasn't changed, right? Class D is below average at almost everything, so in that sense, you could even say that they're the worst possible opponent for us right now."

"I'd say we've got pretty low chances no matter who we fight against."

"…D-do we really suck that much?"

While Ishizaki was completely stunned, neither Ryūen nor Shiina were very affected by his reaction.

"But─"

Ryūen picked up his empty glass of sparkling water and looked at Ibuki and the others through it.

"With a bit of trickery, our low chances'll be closer to 50%. And depending on the situation, it might shoot up even higher than that."

Ryūen took out a sheet of folded paper and handed it over to Shiina.

Written on it were the names of ten different events, five of which had been marked as favorites for the events they'd actually be choosing.

As Shiina read through it, Ibuki and Ishizaki both leaned in from the side to take a peek as well.

"When the day comes, we'll smash this exam."

"Wait a second, these are all-"

"That's right. Those events are all based entirely around forcing your opponents to surrender through brute force."

Ten physically demanding events, including Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, Kendo, and Wrestling.

"Hold on. It's true that, uh, there are several people in our class who can hold their own like me, Albert, Komiya, and Kondō. Ibuki too… but some of the others can't."

Ishizaki was saying that, even if the stronger students could pick up the win in one or two events, there was no way of telling how the rest of the events would play out.

"Yeah. Class B's got plenty of athletic people of their own. It'd be different if we could get them to compete one-on-one, but doesn't the rule involving the required number of participants kinda get in the way of that?"

Ibuki shared Ishizaki's uncertainty. Even if they were to leave everything to the luck of the draw, there was no guarantee that they'd win all of them. However, Ryūen responded flatly.

"So what?"

"Eh?"

"Don't get so caught up with shit like participant numbers. It doesn't matter."

While Ishizaki was having a hard time trying to grasp Ryūen's intentions, Shiina caught on immediately.

"I see, so that's how we should look at it? It doesn't matter how many participants an event might have, it all depends on the rules. If we make use of tournament-style knock-out rules, we can win with only one person."

"Exactly. Let's say we did a ten-on-ten Judo event. Just having Albert would be more than enough."

"But… would the school even allow that? Tournament-style knock-out rules?"

"It'd prolly be impossible to use knock-out rules in a written test or some sort of ball game. But in sports like Karate and Judo, tournament-style rulesets are fairly standard. They wouldn't be able to say they're unacceptable. For events like Karate, it should be fine as long as we use the non-contact Sundome ruleset in order to tone down the danger. Even if the school rejects one or two of 'em for being too dangerous, it should be fine if we can somehow get at least five through the process."

"We can do it! With this, we can really do it Ryūen-san!"

Having finally put together all the pieces, a glimmer of hope flashed across Ishizaki's eyes. However, Ibuki still had her doubts.

"With this, it's true that we'll be able to win our own events, but… what if we don't get lucky? What if more of Class B's events end up getting drawn?"

"There's a 50% chance, can't you just be happy with that?"

"…If I'm gonna cooperate with you, I'm gonna have to demand that you secure the win."

"Kuku, of course. I've got a plan."

Based on raw ability, Class D was in no position to even think about winning the events Class B would propose right now.

Ryūen was saying that they needed to come up with another method to shorten the gap.

"─What do you want us to do?"

Little by little, Ibuki began to understand the situation.

"Sin to win."

Ryūen smiled.

"You'll be picking on some of those Class B guys day in and day out from now until the exam. At first, all you've gotta do is follow 'em around. They'll notice what we're doing sooner or later."

"The heck? You really saying something tiny like that is gonna stress them out?"

"Class B is probably gonna laugh at us, calling our actions childish. As long as we don't actually do them any harm, they'll just choose to drop it. That's the type of person Ichinose is. In the end, she won't even notice what we're doing."

"…What we're doing?"

"Either way, that's just the plan for the first week. Once their ten events get announced, we'll start cranking up the heat. Any petty little thing'll do. Taking their seats in the cafeteria, glaring 'em down, accusing them of being loud. Anything goes, really, just don't go overboard. You guys know the perfect people to do this, right?"

Ryūen was saying that they should include the people who can hold their own in fights like Ishizaki.

"Does… Does that mean you want me to get into fights with them?"

"Our goal is just to interact with them more. Don't even think of threatening or fighting them at this point. We'll save that as a trump card we can pull on them at the very end."

It was necessary to keep everything they did as vague and abstract as possible.

If they went about creating a bunch of one-sided problems, there'd be no way of preventing the school from intervening.

"The most important part of all of this is information. Throughout all our interactions with 'em, we'll steal their intel and get a head start on figuring out which events they're gonna choose on exam day. It's natural that they'll come to some sort of consensus on their 5 events from pretty early on. Then some dumbass'll discuss these events over email or group chat. It's the same kinda shit you guys'll be doing in Class D, right?"

"Y-yes. We've also tried to find a good time to discuss which events we'd be going with."

"There you go. Even if their lips are sealed, their phones will be left defenseless. After all, they probably think there's no way somebody would snoop through them without permission. And, their policy will become more solidified as the exam approaches. We may even be able to find out who'll be participating in each event."

"That's easy to say and all, but… is it actually going to go that smoothly?"

"We won't be relying on luck, I'll be guiding you guys through the specific details. The groundwork for all of this is the shit we start with them tomorrow. Besides, we'll also be taking some other measures aside from just stealing info from 'em. Like using this."

"What the… is that a laxative?"

"This is a slow-acting laxative that begins to take effect after 48 hours. If we can trick some of 'em into taking one of these, one or two of 'em might not be feelin' that good on exam day, eh?"

"Y-you. This type of crap is against the rules! What if it gets exposed!?"

"Who gives a shit?"

"…!"

"You really think I'm the type of person who cares about something like that?"

"Haa… Right, I remember now. That you were the type of guy who'd do anything to win."

"If something happens then I'll take full responsibility. Simple as that."

Regardless of whatever penalty the school might impose on him, Ryūen wasn't concerned in the slightest.

Even if the class ends up taking damage for it, they would still suffer a crushing defeat anyway.

"You only came up with this cuz you've already given up on being here before…"

"Earlier, when you said we'd save fighting as a trump card for later, did that mean you'd be willing to use force if things took a turn for the worse?"

"Yeah. It's fairly typical for fights to break out amongst brats over petty random shit. It also wouldn't be that bad if some of the people they're planning to use in their events got into a fight with some of our incompetent classmates. That way, we'd prolly have an advantage on exam day, right?"

Now that he had set his mind on it, Ryūen definitely wouldn't be easing up on Class B.

"I'll become the commander on the day of the exam. It'll be important to make Ichinose lose her cool as well."

"You're brutal…"

"I'll take that as a compliment. Let's give 'em a taste of what Class D's capable of, aight?"

"Y-yesh!!!"

"What kind of noises are you making?"

Ibuki let out a sigh, exhausted by the outrageous mess this had all turned into.

And yet, she found that she didn't hate it for some reason, a feeling that disgusted her.

"But… Why are you doing this, Ryūen-san? It's not just because you pitied us, right?"

"Hm, why indeed?"

Ryūen leaned back on the couch and shut his eyes. He had no lingering attachments to this school. At least, that was the case at first, but now that he was here, something in him had started to change a little.

Ayanokōji Kiyotaka. Ever since he lost to that man, he felt frustrated with the idea of leaving the school. By becoming the commander and forcing himself into a situation where he couldn't look back, he was looking to confirm whether or not this frustration meant he wanted a rematch with Ayanokōji. If he really didn't have any lingering attachments, he could just select people at random for the events and lose the exam on purpose.

But… if he still had regrets… if he felt a true, growing desire to face Ayanokōji again, he would find a way to survive. He wanted to know for sure which option he'd choose.

[Chapter 8 end]