Chapter 97

Chapter 97

In that case, the bonus class points he'd gain from acting as a traitor in this exam would probably be lost, rendering it completely pointless to even consider doing. It would only be harmful to Class C in the big picture.

"Even if you rationalise that, it's well known that Ryūen is an incomprehensible existence. Even saying all that, you could end up betraying us anyway," Horikita argued stubbornly.

"Kuku, feel free to think that, Suzune. But it won't get you anywhere." Ryūen retorted with a smile.

"If you want my cooperation, I suggest that you stop calling me that."

Horikita glared at Ryūen coldly, her words almost said like a threat. Ryūen, however, seemed to only derive amusement from her reaction.

"You don't seem to understand," Ryūen replied. "While it's true that keeping things as they are now is bad for Class C, it's still much worse for Class E, who are shitting the bed with less than 300 class points. I can afford to pass on this exam if necessary, but you don't have that luxury, unfortunately for you, Suzune."

Ryūen retained his condescending attitude, knowing that he held all the cards. His reasoning was good – it was all right before, since Class D and Class E were quite close together, but Class D had ran away with the lead on them due to the results of the island exam.

In other words, Class E were currently isolated from the main battle at the bottom. There is less than 250 points between Class A, Class D and Class B as it stands, and Class C could easily jump into the midst of the fray with one good special exam result also.

Class E had to do something, otherwise their position as the lowest class would be more or less sealed. Ryūen understood this, which is why he was able to act so disrespectful in the current situation.

Horikita bit her lip and scowled in frustration. While it might not seem like much, this was actually a big improvement for the girl.

Horikita at the start of the year would've undoubtedly been blinded by her pride and walked away just now, but this Horikita had matured enough to realise that she should just ignore Ryūen's provocations and work with what she could.

She let out a deep sigh of admission. "Fine. I'll work with you on this, Ryūen. But be warned, if you betray me, you'll come to regret it."

Was it a threat, or was she merely referring to the fact that betraying here would only result in the traitor becoming alone in every future battle? Kanzaki wasn't sure.

"Obviously, for this to work, you must have control over your class. I already know all the VIPs that Class C has, and can make my classmates submit answers whenever I want. Can you two say the same?" Ryūen asked, getting straight down to business.

"I know all of Class B's VIPs, and with Ichinose's support, there won't be any trouble betraying groups." Kanzaki answered matter-of-factly.

"I do know all of our VIPs. But I'm not sure if my class would listen to me or not if I told them to submit guesses," Horikita admitted dryly.

"Hm, perhaps you can do a grand speech about how you will lead Class E to victory? Then they might put their belief in you." Ryūen suggested half-jokingly.

"Well, whatever, I can probably sort something out to get someone to guess for me. Moreover, how do you plan to attack Class A and D once we've shared information?" Horikita asked him suspiciously.

"I presume that Ryūen intends to identify the Class A and D VIPs, and have each of us betray those groups. That way we can attack them while splitting the profits amongst us." Kanzaki surmised.

Ryūen's eyes widened a fraction.

"I didn't expect that sort of thinking from you, Kanzaki. Maybe Class B is more dangerous with you leading them after all," he said, flashing his teeth in a wide smile.

"W-wait, what do you mean?" Horikita asked in confusion. "Even if we share VIPs, we only narrow down the Class A and D VIP identities to four or five people per group."

Indeed, if you simply rule out all of the Class B, C, and E students from each group, you're still left with four or five candidates for the VIP, made up of the remaining Class A students.

However, this wasn't the approach Ryūen had in mind.

"Read this, Suzune."

Ryūen pulled out his phone and pointed the screen such that Horikita could read it. On it, the mail that the students had received from the school this morning was displayed.

"Ah, I see now. You're assuming that because of the wording of this mail, there must be some sort of deliberate selection process for each VIP."

Horikita deduced that much as she recalled her conversation with Yagami Light earlier in the day, in which she'd exchanged one of Class E's VIPs in return for 50 class points.

"By knowing all the VIPs of our three classes, we will have more than enough information to figure out how the VIPs are allotted." Kanzaki said with confidence.

This strategy of Ryūen's was effective, however it's not clear how damaging it will actually be. The uneven spread of classes to groups, and groups to students meant that there was a good chance that Class D doesn't even have one VIP.

If that happened, Class D would come out unscathed, and would inadvertently benefit from the hit to Class A.

Additionally, even if they do have one or perhaps even more VIPs, the strategy is not cut and dry. If Class D catches wind of what these three classes are doing, they might propose an alliance with Class A.

While Katsuragi is normally extremely cautious, he would have no choice but to make a move when threatened this much. If Class A and Class D share VIPs and figure out the pattern, they will be able to strike back at the groups with Class B, C and E VIPs, which would actually result in a net gain for them.

Class A and D likely only have three or four VIPs between them, which means that they would only lose up to a net 200 class points from this outcome. However, they could gain up to 450 net class points by guessing the eight or nine VIPs held by the other three classes.

Resultantly, it was paramount that Class D did not discover the alliance between Ryūen, Kanzaki and Horikita. If they did, they would walk away with yet another strong victory under their belt from this exam.

"By the way," Ryūen said. "Earlier today, the exam ended for the Rooster group before even the first discussion. Know anything about that?"

"I did that," Horikita answered, to which Ryūen raised an eyebrow. "I made a deal with Yagami-kun; he would answer a group with a Class E VIP wrong in exchange for the identity of that VIP."

Ryūen narrowed his eyes sharply as he processed this information.

"So, Class D are also chasing the pattern, huh... while the deal you did was decent, Suzune, I'll have to tell you to not give them any more information whatsoever," Ryūen asserted, leaving no room for argument.

Horikita gritted her teeth in response. "Yeah, I wasn't planning to."

"Is this all for now?" Kanzaki asked.

"Might as well be. I'll meet with you dipshits again tomorrow to discuss our strategy. In the meantime, I'll make a group chat, where I'd like you to each send the identities of your VIPs. We should be able to find the pattern in no time."

One thing that Horikita and Kanzaki must've noticed is how easily Ryūen was able to take charge, even when with leaders of other classes.

Going with his flow, the two nodded, and the trio dispersed from the scene shortly after.

Ayanokōji's POV

"So, is anybody planning to talk this time?"

A laughing voice broke the silence – it belonged to Hashimoto Masayoshi, a Class A student in the Snake group we were assigned to.

He was referring to what had happened in the first discussion earlier today. The Snake group didn't contain any leader figures, which meant that nobody in particular was comfortable with taking charge.

Consequently, discussions moved nowhere for the full hour last time. The most we'd gotten about the group's strategy was introductions and Class A's declaration that they wouldn't discuss anything.

Kamuro Masumi and Yahiko Totsuka – the other two Class A students in the Snake group – seemed to abide closely by their pronounced philosophy of keeping silent. Hashimoto, however, had no qualms about speaking up about various things.

"To be honest, none of the personalities here seem the type to strike up a deep and insightful conversation about this exam. Moreover, nobody here is a particularly influential figure in their classes, either. It's unlikely that this group has the ability necessary for independent action."

Another boy spoke in response to Hashimoto. His name was Miyake Akito, a Class E student. Due to the nature of this school, one imagines a Class E student as being lesser than others, but Miyake seemed reasonable enough. His point was backed by sound reasoning.

People like Light, Hirata and Ichinose would have no issue bringing the group together and leading the discussions, which greatly boosted the efficiency of the group as a whole due to the nature of this Zodiac exam.

However, there was no one like that in the Snake group. As a result, things had quickly ground to a halt, locking us in a seemingly everlasting standstill.

"Hm, but we can at least try to all get along and talk about the exam, right? It's best for everyone if we cooperate."

Speaking the signature line of Class B, Amikura Mako suggested that we forget about stuff like hierarchy and simply try to talk as a cooperative group.

Shiranami Chihiro, who had been Class B's leader during the Desert Island Exam, nodded her head in agreement with Amikura's words.

Curiously, though, the other girl in the group looked away from the two. Her name was Himeno Yuki, and she definitely gave off a less approachable vibe than your average Class B student.

"I already told you, didn't I?" Kamuro intervened. "Class A won't be trying to get along with you, talk about the exam or cooperate. Sorry, but that's simply what we've been told."

Katsuragi had been the one to devise this all-out defence strategy, intending to simply do his best to retain Class A's position at the top. It was a fair approach, seeing as Class A didn't strictly need to gain any more class points.

Amikura pouted at Kamuro. "Class A is mean! What about everyone else? We can still talk even if Class A ignore us, right?"

"Class E is willing to talk," Miyake answered. "Right?"