Chapter 28 - D Visitors

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I hope everyone enjoys the chapter. Powerstones are greatly appreciated, and so are reviews I would really appreciate reviews.

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"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ~Robert D. Richardson Jr

I was a bit far off, but both seemed to notice me. The distance probably made me easy to spot on an empty beach. As I slowly moved to meet them, it seemed they had just arrived. While I was approaching, a member of Class C who was close to Ryuen began to run towards them.

It seemed Ryuen noticed their presence and was calling them forward to talk. I continued moving slowly towards camp to let things play out a bit. The Class D duo quickly made it to Ryuen. They seemed to be talking about the camp, and I could make out Ibuki's name. Not long after their conversation began, I arrived.

"Good afternoon, it's Horikita and Ayanokoji, right?" I asked, extending my hand towards Ayanokoji for a handshake.

As I did so, Ryuen said jokingly, "You take time to memorize the names of random Class D garbage? I thought you were above that."

"Don't listen to him. Ryuen can be quite the sadist," I said, keeping my hand extended, trying to improve the mood.

Ayanokoji finally extended his hand and shook mine lightly. "I see. Well, it's nice to meet you formally, I suppose," he said, letting go.

"Same here. It's unfortunate our previous encounters weren't as pleasant," I responded before turning to Horikita offering a handshake.

As I did, I took a moment to analyze her. She was trying to hide it, but something was off about her body language. Usually, she stood confidently, but now her stance was more closed. I couldn't tell exactly what was wrong, but something was definitely up.

"No offense, but I prefer to avoid physical contact if possible," Horikita said. Hearing that, I quickly put my hand down.

"That's understandable. I just wanted to greet you properly, but a handshake isn't necessary."

Horikita scanned our camp and commented, "Tch… Two incompetent leaders in one class. I can't understand how you got into the student council, but soon it seems you'll both be marked as failures."

As she spoke, I noticed more signs that something was wrong—not just her body language but her tone as well.

Ryuen, on the other hand, seemed less interested in Horikita. He took a cup from his table and saw it was filled with water. "That idiot… ISHIZAKI!" Ryuen yelled across the beach, causing a panicked Ishizaki to run towards him.

"Yes, sir!" Ishizaki responded quickly.

"What did I tell you about consistently refilling my cup with ice?" Ryuen said, splashing the water onto Ishizaki's face. "Refill it, and don't forget again."

As Ryuen spoke, I continued glancing at Horikita, noticing the sweat on her forehead. Then it hit me. She seemed overdressed for such a hot island. Even Ayanokoji had his tracksuit unzipped, but Horikita was completely bundled up while sweating bullets; it didn't make sense. Her voice was also slightly off.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Ishizaki, but could you please get two bottles of water for our guests?" I asked.

Ayanokoji responded, even though my words weren't directed at him. "That's not necessary. We are not—"

"You may not be thirsty, but you still have to get back to your camp. And look at your classmate; she's sweating bullets. I don't want her to be dehydrated," I responded.

Hearing me, Horikita remained silent while Ayanokoji turned his head slightly to look at her. Noticing the sweat on her face, he sighed and relented. "I see. I guess you're right. Thank you for your hospitality."

"What are you still doing here, idiot? Didn't you hear us?" Ryuen said to Ishizaki, who gave a quick "Yes, sir" before running off.

"Class A, B, and D, you three are all the fools. For just one or two hundred class points, you're willing to starve and struggle. I'm above such things," Ryuen explained.

"And here I was, actually expecting something from Class C. You're right, how foolish I am," Horikita retorted.

"No one can dictate my actions, Horikita. Class C is my class. I do what I want when I want," Ryuen shot back.

The tension between Horikita and Ryuen was rising. Now was the perfect time. They were both focused on each other. It was time for my foolproof plan. Well, maybe not foolproof, but the chance of success wasn't low, although it would only work once.

"Horikita, you're the cardholder of Class D, aren't you?" With just those nine words, the focus of the previous discussion completely shifted to me. Horikita, Ryuen, and even the usually disinterested Ayanokoji turned their gaze to me.

"What are you going on about?" Horikita asked.

"I was just making an observation," I responded, not elaborating.

"Baseless conclusion. Hmph, believe whatever you want. It's not like it affects me," she responded as Ishizaki returned, handing a cup of ice to Ryuen.

As he did, I walked towards him, taking the two chilled water bottles from his hand and walking towards Ayanokoji.

"Here you go," I said, handing him a bottle, which he extended his hand to take. "I'm sorry if I've offended either of you or Class D. Please know that wasn't my intention," I said with an apologetic look, walking to Horikita with the water bottle in my hand.

Horikita slowly extended her arm to reach for the bottle, but as her hand got close, I dropped it. It fell to the floor, distracting Horikita as her gaze shifted downwards. In that instant, I grabbed her arm and forcefully pulled her close to me.

Realizing her situation, Horikita quickly attempted to respond with a kick to my stomach, but the distance between us was now virtually nonexistent. There was no momentum behind her kick. Even then, it still hurt, but that was all.

With Horikita temporarily immobilized, I quickly reached into her right pocket, planning to empty it completely. But there was only one thing inside.

A card.

Releasing Horikita's arm, I quickly tossed the card backwards towards Ryuen. In that quick encounter, I learned something. Horikita's physical capabilities were not behind Ibuki's. No, she was sickly right now. At full power, she might easily overpower Ibuki.

It's a good thing my only objective was to get my hands on the keycard in her pocket. If I hadn't made her lower her guard beforehand, that could've gone very differently.

Turning around, I noticed all of Class C was now focused on me, Ryuen, and the Class D visitors.

Horikita hadn't moved a muscle since I took the Class D keycard from her and tossed it to Ryuen. She was completely motionless, nearly all the color drained from her face.

"It's the real deal," Ryuen said, looking at the card intently and flipping it over. With a smile, he read the name on the front, "Suzune Horikita."

Ignoring him, I bent down to pick up the water bottle I had purposely dropped in front of Horikita. "I'm sorry," I said, standing back up to hand her the bottle.

She slowly took it, but I could tell she was baffled, not knowing what to do until some life returned to her eyes. "I'll report this to the teachers. Violence… violence is prohibited in this exam," she said confidently.

Ryuen then took the lead, curiously gazing at Horikita before loudly speaking up, "Violence? What violence? I didn't see any violence. Did anyone else see any violence?" His voice echoed throughout the Class C camp.

Manabe was the first to respond, "Violence? I didn't see anything. What it seemed like to me was that Horikita got careless and had her keycard stolen. I mean, look at her; she doesn't have a scratch on her."

"HAHAHA! Yeah, that's what I saw, too!" Ryuen exclaimed loudly.

Ishizaki was next, "Yeah, I never even saw Yagami lay a finger on her."

Quickly, the class caught on.

"Yeah, Horikita just got too careless."

"Yagami just has some quick fingers."

"To me, it looked like Horikita was the one who employed violence."

"Yeah, she must've really underestimated our class."

At the incoming comments, Horikita's eyes began to shake while Ayanokoji temporarily closed his, letting out a quick breath. It seemed they both understood the current situation was in no way advantageous to them.

Ryuen seemed to be really enjoying himself. "You know, I could sell this to other classes for points. Class B might be tempted, and Class A would undoubtedly capitalize on an opportunity like this." He said in hopes of pressuring Horikita and Class D.

"W-what do you want?" Horikita responded, defeated. This would be the third time her class would be seemingly robbed by Ryuen.

This was enough. Obviously, in this scenario, I could be seen as a villain to Class D from a certain lens. It's a good thing Class C has someone many times more vile than me to help me maintain my appearance as a saint.

"That's enough, Ryuen. Just hand back the keycard."

"Oh? Yagami, we talked about this. But you've earned your keep, so I'll give you a chance. Why should we let an opportunity like this slip through our hands?" Ryuen asked.

"Sadly, appealing to your morality won't work, so I'll do this differently. There's nothing to gain by selling this information to Classes A or B. Class B is allied with Class D, and knowing them, they won't use this information against their allies. And while we could get maybe a couple hundred thousand points from Class A, we'd just be giving our main competitors a bigger lead against us for some points that both of us can obtain easily. And, well, I think you know Class D is in no position to offer us anything for their keycard back." Ryuen looked at me, interested but unconvinced. We had our deal with Class A for information and materials, and Ryuen seemed to be someone who kept his side of deals, so I continued.

"And who knows, if you still decide to go on with this, some unhappy student may decide to sell out Class C's leader." Ryuen focused on me as those last words left my mouth.

"Can't even have some fun around here. Fine, have it your way," Ryuen said, throwing the keycard to the ground in front of Horikita.

Horikita, after a moment, collected herself and picked up the keycard. "How did you know? It couldn't have been Karuizawa. You two have been close, so I've kept an eye on her," she said, looking at me.

"I wasn't sure you were the cardholder, honestly. It was a 50/50 chance," I explained.

"50/50? How did you come to that?" she asked.

"Well, in my mind, there were three possibilities. Class D's leader was either Kushida, Hirata, or someone else. I eliminated Kushida because, after midterms, she lost some influence in Class D. Some might have reservations about handing over power in an exam to her after what happened with the incorrect exam answers. Hirata is an obvious choice for class leader, but thats is also a good cover. Hence, the only options left were Hirata or some random member of Class D. The question is, who is the best student to hand power over to other than the two popular students in Class D? The answer was obvious to me—it was you. You haven't been an outright leader for Class D, but you've played a central role. You are the qualified student to be the cardholder."

Of course, there's more that I'm leaving out, but I'm sure Ryuen has caught on by now. The shadow leader of Class D has been using others to achieve their goals. It's likely that very figure is behind Horikita, given the roles she's played in her class so far. The puppet master would want the keycard in his puppet's hand, given how he operates. And the fact they've stopped using Kushida, another possible good puppet, is interesting. The true leader of the class has stayed away from her recently.

"But just because I can come to a deduction doesn't mean it is correct. Hirata was still a possible candidate, and I couldn't ignore the chance that Class D chose someone completely random. So I wanted to make sure. And I know you're smart, Horikita. While I was arriving here earlier, I heard you mention Ibuki being in your camp. That's when I was confident. Given your intellect, if you were the leader of Class D, you'd definitely have the keycard. You would never leave it at your base, knowing there could be a possible spy after it. It may be harsh, but even I would do the same—keep the keycard out of camp and bring it with me. So I decided to check for myself if you had the keycard."

Horikita clenched her fist, hearing my words. "How smart can I be? You read me like a… No, you read our whole class like a book… So what now? Does Class C now plan on voting for me at the end of this exam?"

"Sadly, I'm not the leader of Class C, so I can't answer that question," I said, looking at Ryuen.

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So, what are your thoughts? Did you enjoy this chapter?

Moreover, I'm curious: how did you feel about this scenario? Do you think this is a realistic outcome? Let me know.

Also, I want to go on a little rant; I'm surprised this story hasn't performed as well as my L one with more chapters. Sure, I've had 2 long pauses of inactivity, but the same is true of me during my L story; not only that, but I feel like this story is better written than that one.

Idk in the first couple chapters of this story, there are a lot of complaints about Light being in class c I'm not sure if that turned people off from this story, but class d would've been boring, class b would've been fun, but I feel it is overused in Fics and class A I feel like would've also been boring.

There were also many complaints about Light not being an unstoppable fighter in this story, but I can only find non-cannon material that supports the idea that he is a skilled boxer. Additionally, this story isn't focused on action; the main focus is supposed to be on intelligence, which I feel is the main focus of COTE in general.

Anyway, I still love writing this fic just wanted to rant.