70 Chapter 70

Chapter 70

Ayanokōji's POV

Early in the morning, around 6 am, I did my round-trip of all of Class D's spots. It was much harder than usual, because the weather had taken a turn for the worse.

It was overcast outside, the skies cloudy and grey. It must have rained last night, because puddles and patches of mud were here and there on the ground. It looked like it was going to start raining hard, probably in the early afternoon. Of course the weather got stormy right at the end of the test. Just a light rain would have been fine, but there might be heavy rain and strong winds.

I dragged by sluggish body forward, inch by inch. It'd now been three whole days since I last slept, and it was starting to catch up to me. All humans would take a hit to their performance if they don't sleep – sleep is an essential factor for humans, after all.

However, I chose to go without it nevertheless. It made life harder, sure, but I still judged it to be the easiest and convenient way to do this. That was because of the conclusion I'd come to right at the start:

To win this exam, I don't even need to be anywhere near my best.

My pace was slowed down because I had to make sure to avoid losing my footing as I traversed the muddy and slippery ground. The shrubbery was wet, too, which caused me to garner wet patches on my clothes as I pushed my way through the wilderness.

It would be dangerous for any normal person to travel the island under these harsh conditions. I supposed that's what our wristwatches were for.

As I was on my way back, I stumbled upon an extremely interesting grouping. Ichinose, Kushida, Horikita, Yamauchi Haruki and Sakura Airi. I'd heard from Lelouch that, when he went to use his 'advanced negotiation techniques,' he'd discovered that Class B and E were now camping together. It was no wonder that they were out here together too.

Near them, not strictly part of their group but definitely travelling around in their company, were Katsuragi Kōhei and Yahiko Totsuka, of Class 1-A. I hadn't seen Class A in a while, as they seemed to have moved their base camp somewhere secretive.

These two groups must've stumbled across each other while searching for food.

"Hm? Ayanokōji-kun?"

Ichinose noticed my presence and waved to me.

"Tch. This guy." Horikita scowled at me.

"Now, now, Horikita, that's not a very nice thing to say when you see your friend." I said jokingly.

"You were never my friend!" She shot back coldly.

"You wound my heart."

Ichinose, Yamauchi and Kushida began giggling as I said that in a completely monotone voice.

"Hey man, I don't think we've met," Yamauchi said to me in greeting. "I'm Yamauchi Haruki, the gem of Class E! Nice to meet you."

"Uh, right. I'm Ayanokōji Kiyotaka..."

I responded to his introduction awkwardly. To put it nicely, Yamauchi was very... energetic.

"So, what are you doing all the way out here, Ayanokōji-kun?" Kushida asked.

"Isn't it obvious?"

I took out the key card from my pocket and waved it at them briefly before returning it to my pocket.

"I still can't believe that you're being so careless with your leader's identity." Katsuragi stated, baffled.

"Me neither," Horikita narrowed her eyes at me. "Did you miss the rule that clearly states 'having your leader guessed nullifies all bonus points earned from spot occupation?' This strategy of yours makes no sense."

"What? There's a rule like that?" I asked, trying my hardest to sound shocked.

"Y-you..!"

Horikita's eyes slowly widened, before she shook her head and returned to her normal, cold expression. The rest of them looked similarly incredulous.

"Anyway, you guys are looking for food, right? Mind if I join you for a little?" I asked.

"Sure! The more the merrier, right?" Ichinose gave a vibrant smile.

It seemed that, even though I was directly responsible for her class' situation, Ichinose didn't harbour any ill will towards me. I wondered whether that had anything to do with Lelouch smoothing things over with Class B and E yesterday.

"Mhm~! We'd love to have Ayanokōji-kun come along!" Kushida gave an equally captivating smile.

With that, our group set off on a trip through the forest, collecting various foodstuffs as we went and making idle conversation.

"Why are you even with us, Kushida?" Horikita asked coldly, after a while of silence. "What happened to your usual friends?"

"Oh, eto..." Kushida leaned in to Horikita and whispered something that I couldn't hear.

"I see... But still, why did you choose our group to go with? Many groups are out looking for food right now. You must've had other options."

Horikita and Kushida didn't get along. That much was obvious. In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they hated each other beneath all the formalities. The question was why?

Who hated who first? And for how long have they hated each other? What sparked the hatred in the first place?

These questions must have answers, answers that're shrouded in mystery. Uncovering them eventually could be beneficial to me.

"I wanted to talk to you, Horikita-san, and thought this was a good chance. You know, we haven't really talked at all during this trip, have we? Well, as soon as it gets dark out, let's head to bed."

Even though Kushida understood that she was disliked, and dislike Horikita in turn, she wanted to try making friends with her. When I first met Kushida, she'd mentioned that her goal was to make friends with everyone.

Even after learning of her dark side, I still thought that making friends with everyone was her true goal. Only the motivation for that goal was changed by my shift in perspective.

As a result of this, Kushida couldn't avoid dealing with Horikita, no matter how much she wanted to.

"I don't have enough free time to spend it with you unnecessarily."

"You're so mean, Horikita-san. Even though your face is so cute when you're sleeping."

Horikita seemed a little annoyed by Kushida's odd teasing.

"So... Do they like each other or not?" Yamauchi scratched his head in confusion.

"Hard to say," I lied in response. "Some friends have this kind of playful and teasing dynamic, but there's also a possibility that Kushida and Horikita genuinely despise each other."

"Despise?! That's a strong word!" Ichinose cried in shock.

"Yeah, you shouldn't use words like that when talking about people like this, Ayanokōji-kun!" Kushida scolded me.

"I see... My mistake."

Apparently, there are numerous social nuances that I'm out of the loop on.

"The forest is kinda eerie... Or maybe I should say that it's scary, plus hot and humid."

The sky was cloudy, and the forest was completely different from yesterday. Visibility was especially poor. Yamauchi, with great sweat stains under his armpits, dejectedly flapped his gym clothes to fan himself.

"Aren't you hot, Sakura?" he asked.

For the first time, I looked at the pink-haired girl trailing along at the back of the group. Her name was Sakura Airi, a Class E student who had an extremely low profile. If it wasn't for Sora and Shiro's extensive intel gathering on the students at this school, I would never have known who she was.

Yamauchi was clearly scheming for a way to talk to Sakura. But his eyes were focused on her breasts, and it was easy to see that he simply wanted to look at her boobs.

"Eh? O-oh, it's okay. I'm fine."

Sakura leaned forward, as if to indirectly avoid Yamauchi's gaze. It's said that girls are sensitive to the lascivious male gaze.

Everybody was focused on the interaction between Yamauchi and Sakura, and it was quite an uncomfortable interaction to say the least.

Kushida, while everyone was distracted by the two, sent me a discreet face of disgust, as if to say, 'do you see now why I hate him?'

"Yamauchi. It'd be good if you paid attention to the treetops. They might have fruit. Also, we're pretty tall, so we need to be careful around here," I said.

"Y-yeah. Of course."

Thus I prevented Yamauchi from gazing lustfully at Sakura, at least somewhat. Still, a supremely horny guy wasn't going to run out of steam.

Sakura gave me a look of appreciation. I'd judged her to be the type to find social contact difficult, but strangely, she was able to look into my eyes without a problem. I wonder why...

"Sakura, right? My name is Ayanokōji, although you probably already knew that. Nice to meet you," I said in greeting.

"Oh, uh, yes, nice to meet you too, Ayanokōji-kun."

Sakura fit with the theme of Class E that we'd discussed yesterday. Like Horikita, her defect was obvious – she was inept socially, and didn't compensate for it with any other abilities.

We looked for food while walking quietly. Kushida alternated between looking at Horikita and me, while appearing lost in thought. Of course, Horikita ignored everything.

"What's the matter, Kushida-chan?" asked Yamauchi, who'd noticed Kushida's odd behaviour.

"Ayanokōji-kun and Horikita-san were on pretty good terms at the beginning, right? But now they look a lot more distant from each other. I was trying to think of what the reason might be."

"Good question! Did you guys fall out or something?"

Kushida had opened a troublesome subject.

"We never got along in the first place." Horikita denied coldly.

"That's not strictly true. We were on pretty good terms until you discovered that I'm better than you." I retorted smugly.

She shot me an icy glare.

"And since when were you so overconfident?"

"It's not overconfidence when it's true. That's just faith in one's own ability."

Ichinose blinked, and stared at me curiously. "Is that really true, Ayanokōji-kun?"

"Yes. In terms of overall ability, I don't think I'll lose to anybody in this school."

That was my honest opinion. I was most definitely outclass in some respects by other students at this school – for example, Shiro's mental specs far surpassed my own. However, when taking into account every element and skill, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't surmounted by anyone.

"Hmm... Ayanokōji-kun, you're not exaggerating to make yourself look cool in front of girls, are you?"

Kushida teased me like that. I found myself wondering if she actually believed me or not, since she knew about my other side.

"Of course not. I don't care about that."

"Is that so..."

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, while Ichinose let out a giggle, clearly amused by our interaction.

"But Ayanokōji-kun and Horikita-san are quite similar, aren't they?"

"I think so too!"

Ichinose and Kushida seemed to find some kinship in each other as they discussed my and Horikita's apparent similarity.

"What about me is so similar to this guy?"

Horikita wore a stern expression. She probably found it distasteful to be compared to me, for whatever reason.

"Well, for one, I've never seen either of you wearing a smile before."

Kushida had pointed out something rather unexpected, thinking that we'd merely accept her word. Regarding Horikita, though, I'd seen her smiling a few times in the past, when she was making fun of me during the first month. Her smiles never contained any genuine affection, though.

"I simply see nothing worth smiling about."

"Aww, don't be like that, Horikita-san! There are plenty of things worth smiling for!"

Ichinose flashed us a vibrant, beaming smile. Kushida nodded in agreement at her words.

"Mhm! I'm quite sad for you, Horikita-san, if you never see anything to smile about." Kushida adopted a melancholic look. "What about you, Ayanokōji-kun? Why do you always look so, so... so blank?"

I had mixed feelings about being called 'blank.' It was slightly hurtful to hear but, when I thought about it, such a description wasn't wrong. My life is a blank slate. It always has been.

"This is just how I am. I can't express myself very well."

I gave her a vague answer. It should suffice for now. I had no desire to get into the specifics, after all.

"So you do actually feel emotions, then?"

"I suppose so,"

"Ah, that's good then! People have started viewing you as 'the emotionless genius,' of the school, you know."

The emotionless genius? Apparently, I'd been given a widespread title like that.

"Is that a good thing?"

Unexpectedly, Ichinose, who was at the centre of the school's social network already despite being a first year, answered instead of Kushida.

"Well, Ayanokōji-kun is viewed by the girls as quite handsome, so the stoic genius exterior also gives you an aura of mystery and aloofness, which some find cool and attractive. Unfortunately, though, it also makes you quite difficult to approach."

Her words were very insightful to me. So basically, I was seen as attractive in a different way to people like Light, who is popular because of his charisma and easy-to-talk-to personality.

"Is that so..."

"Mhm~! But Ayanokōji-kun is also quite easy to talk to once you actually get to know him!" Kushida interjected with a smile.

After a little more time of idle chatter and looking for food, I decided to depart.

"Say, I'm going to go back now. I have some things to do, after all."

"Okay! Goodbye, Ayanokōji-kun!"

"Make sure to meet me after the exam so we can exchange contact information, Ayanokōji-kun!"

Kushida and Ichinose waved me off brightly, while I received a jealous glare from Yamauchi.

After I disappeared into to the forest, in the direction of my class' camp, I turned back, and headed the opposite direction. I didn't go back to my camp.

I walked for a bit, taking care not to bump back into the group that I'd just split off from, and swiftly arrived at the beach.

I scanned my eyes across the sand, and spotted the two people that I had business with.

Initially, we'd intended to just follow Ryūen on the last day to overhear Class B's leader, but we had a change of plan.

Our plan had to be changed due to it conflicting with the plan I'd executed involving the spots.

What I was about to do was about that new plan.