Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Ayanokōji's POV

"Wait!"

I stopped walking just before our class entered the dense woodlands. They all halted too, and turned to look at me.

"What is it?" Light asked.

"I just had a thought. When we select our leader, the teachers are likely going to create our key card here. We should get it done now before we move too far away, in order to get the ability to occupy spots as soon as possible."

I glanced at Ishihara-sensei, who was trailing us from a fair distance. According to the rules of this exam, our homeroom teachers would accompany us for the entire duration. That meant that, once we'd decided on our leader, this woman would be the one to return here and get our key card created.

This island was approximately 500,000 meters squared in size which meant that, if it was a perfect square, it would be just bigger than 700x700 meters. In other words, walking in a straight line across this island would probably take somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes, if you take into account the difficulty of moving in shrubbery.

You could probably traverse the entire island's diameter in around five minutes if you were athletic and ran, but somehow, I felt that our teacher wouldn't go to those lengths for us.

If our spot happened to be on the far side of the island, we could be stuck waiting upwards of thirty minutes for Ishihara-sensei to return with our key card after we chose a leader. That's why it'd be best for us to get our leader sorted now.

"I see... You do certainly have a point." Sora mused, nodding his head.

"If nobody has any objections, I'd like to be the one to get our key card, also. There's a little something I'd like to try." I declared my intentions.

"I'm fine with anybody being the leader except for Lelouch," Ryuzaki replied, his long black hair blowing gently in the wind.

"Why me excluded in particular?" Lelouch asked, raising his eyebrow.

"You're too inconspicuous. Not only are you our representative now, but you're also the most popular one in our class." Light pointed out.

"Yeah, I'd agree. I was just checking that your reasoning was sound."

Choosing Lelouch as our leader would have one of two outcomes. Either it gets guessed because he's the most obvious choice, or the double bluff works and he gets suspected the least. It probably wasn't a risk worth taking, though, since a lot of students wouldn't think this far about it.

"So, can I take it that nobody has any objections to me taking the role of key card user?" I asked, moving things along.

Everybody simply replied by nodding affirmatively. That settled it, then, and I turned around to approach Ishihara-sensei. Just before I left, though, I turned to say one more thing.

"You guys carry on, I'll catch up. I know where you'll be, anyway."

"Huh? How will you know where we are?" Kururugi asked in confusion.

Shiro wore a similar perplexed expression, but the other four seemed to understand what I was getting at.

+

"Good, that saves us a lot of trouble. Let's get going now, then. See you later, Ayanokōji!" Lelouch bid me farewell, and I watched as his silhouette disappeared into the thicket along with the rest of my classmates.

"Very impressive," A voice said.

I looked back towards the beach, and the source of the voice. The woman with long, pale green hair and piercing blue eyes shot me a dazzling smile after giving me words of praise.

"Impressive?" I queried, not quite sure what she was getting at.

"I was referring to the fact that the five of you can pretty much communicate telepathically. Excluding Suzaku and Shiro, everyone grasped what you meant, right?"

"So you noticed it too, sensei?"

"Of course!" She pouted, as if to say, 'were you expecting me not to?'

"Also, 'Suzaku?'" I asked, changing the topic.

"Isn't it normal for a teacher to get closer to her students? That's why I used his first name."

"Does that mean you're going to be calling me 'Kiyotaka' too?"

"Hmm... Do you want me to?" Ishihara-sensei gave me a smug grin.

She began walking back onto the main beach, towards where the staff were set up, as if to imply that she already knew what I wanted to do. I quickly caught up and matched her pace.

"I don't mind either way," I responded indifferently.

"Hm. Okay, Kiyotaka-kun, what's your opinion on this school so far?" She asked me as we walked across the sand.

"I guess... I'm thankful for its existence." Ishihara-sensei put on a thoughtful face as she digested my words. "What about you, sensei?"

"This school... It's pretty fun~!"

"I see..."

That was certainly a strange way to describe your source of livelihood, but then again, everything about this woman was strange.

"Akiko-chan!"

A woman called out to Ishihara-sensei jovially. She was Class B's homeroom teacher, Hoshinomiya-sensei. An always cheery woman with chest-length light-brown hair which curled at the ends with bangs swept over to the right side. She had deep purple eyes and a slim, yet well-endowed body.

According to Lelouch, she has a 'minor' alcohol addiction.

"Chie-chan!" Ishihara-sensei squealed in delight and the two teachers lunged at each other.

The two women held each other for a short time while rubbing their cheeks against one another. The realization hit me that these two teachers were quite similar, yet also strangely different at the same time.

"Huh?" Suddenly, Hoshinomiya-sensei paused and looked over Ishihara-sensei's shoulder as she embraced her, straight at me. "Ne, ne, Akiko-chan, who is this handsome student you're alone with? You weren't planning on sneaking off somewhere together, were you?"

"That's something only you'd do, Chie-chan." Ishihara-sensei pouted in reply.

Hoshinomiya-sensei broke their hug and bounded over to me. She looked me up and down, before beginning to run her delicate hands over all of my muscles. She felt around my arms, before moving down to my stomach and tracing her finger up to my chest.

"Stop trying to steal my student!" My teacher appeared, like an overprotective mother.

"But you haven't claimed him yet, Akiko-chan. See?" Hoshinomiya-sensei made a show of grabbing my left hand and pointing to my bare ring finger.

"S-stop projecting your fantasies onto me and let go of my student!" Ishihara-sensei cried, and began wrestling with Hoshinomiya-sensei, who was still intertwined with me

"A-Akiko-chan?!" Hoshinomiya-sensei said in panic as she lost her balance.

Due to the fact that Ishihara-sensei and I were still interlocked with her, we were dragged down to the ground with her. I dropped to the floor and, after one beat, felt a weight drop onto my back.

"Ah!" I coughed in pain as Ishihara-sensei fell on top of me.

"Chie-chan! It's not good to delay other classes during a special exam! Hmph!" Ishihara-sensei pouted at Hoshinomiya-sensei, who was lying on the ground next to us.

"Hmm... I think you're the one delaying your class, Akiko-chan. You are in a compromising position with one of your student, after all." Hoshinomiya-sensei pointed at me.

Ishihara-sensei slowly looked away from Hoshinomiya-sensei and down to me, who she was still lying on top of. I stared back up at her blankly for a few seconds, until...

"H-huh?!" She scrambled to get off of me, earning a giggle from Hoshinomiya-sensei.

"Sensei," I said as I stood up, acting as if nothing had happened. "Can we get a move on? I don't want to waste more time."

Ishihara-sensei nodded silently in response, and we began walking towards where all of the school's equipment was set up. Of course, though, the troublesome teacher behind us had to leave us with one last remark.

"Don't do anything lewd, you two!" She shouted, drawing attention from the students who were still on the beach.

They all began staring at us, and Ishihara-sensei quickened her pace in response. She clearly wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Honestly, that Chie-chan is so mean." She muttered as we walked, still looking flustered.

Before long, we arrived at our destination. A little stall set up away from the main area of the beach. There was an official at it, a middle-aged man who I'd never seen before. Presumably, this was where the leaders were assigned.

"We're here~!"

Ishihara-sensei was back to normal, apparently. That was good. I needed her to be level-headed so that she could answer my very important question.

"Sensei, can I confirm something with you? It's about the exam."

"Hmm? Of course, go ahead!"

The answer to this question would be the deciding factor in my plan. I thought that I might as well try something while I have the chance. There was no point trying to lie low at this point, and it would be interesting to see if anybody sees through my scheme or not