Chapter 1 Part V

"This…feels a lot older than I thought it'd be."

The small groups were each brought to their rooms. Inside each room, there are wooden bunk beds that would either increase or decrease in number depending on how many people we have. Ishizaki immediately walked over to the bunk bed at the very end of the room and used the ladder to climb up to the top bunk.

"This is mine."

"What are you talking about? You're hogging it all to yourself, that's unfair."

Yahiko angrily said so in response to Ishizaki calling dibs on it.

"Early bird gets the worm."

Ishizaki laid down on it while laughing and looking down at Yahiko.

"We should decide who gets what after discussing it first."

The leader, Keisei, also gives a warning that selfish actions won't be tolerated.

And just like he did with Yahiko, Ishizaki probably intended to ignore him, but since I was standing beside Keisei, our eyes met for a brief moment. He had been doing his best to avoid making eye contact with me but since we're in the same group, there's no avoiding it forever.

"..."

For a moment there, Ishizaki looked like he was terrified and panicking. He panicked and jumped off the bed.

"By discussing it...how exactly do we decide then?"

Keisei tilted his head in confusion at Ishizaki's sudden change of heart. He may have interpreted the warning from Keisei as being a warning from me.

If so, that's an insane amount of paranoia.

Because I don't really think it's that strange for us to decide our beds on a first come first served basis. Of course, it would be best if we can decide it smoothly after holding a discussion though.

"Fufufu. If you have no need of it then shall I relieve you of it?"

Kouenji said so and then leaped onto the bed that Ishizaki had been occupying.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

Ishizaki came to his senses and he barked that out at Kouenji, who's now relaxing on the top bunk. But the guy he's talking to is Kouenji and common sense doesn't work on him. He didn't even listen and in a few seconds, he's already making himself comfortable as though it were his own room.

"Fuck, screw the discussion."

Starting with Kouenji, a few of the students called dibs on their beds. Ishizaki too, stopped quarrelling with Kouenji and instead called dibs on the top bunk of a different bed.

The one thing all students had in common is that they all preferred the top bunk of the bed. Only Albert, whose large physique makes it hard for him to climb to the top bunk, settled on the bottom bunk beneath Ishizaki without any complaints and sat down there. The atmosphere's already changed to one where there's no need to decide via discussion.

"I have no choice but to go there then."

Keisei said so as he called dibs on the bed beneath Kouenji which no one else wants to take. The others took their time realizing it but it's really great to have a comrade willing to do things no one else wants to do.

By the way, I too settled on the bottom bunk. Above me is Class A's Hashimoto.

"It's a pleasure, umm…"

He reached out from the top bunk to greet me but he doesn't seem to know my name.

"I'm Ayanokouji. Pleasure."

"I'm Hashimoto."

We gently shook hands as though promising to be great friends with one another.

As for today, we're free from now on. As such, we didn't act collectively as a group but rather we chose to do our own thing. If we had a leader like Hirata with us we may have been making an effort to know each other better now but...as for me, I have mixed feelings on the matter. It's regrettable that I won't have a chance to get to know students from other classes better yet at the same time, I'm relieved that there won't be any troublesome back-and-forths.

"Hey, this may be a straightforward question but do you think Albert can speak Japanese? He does understand Japanese, right?"

Hashimoto, from the top bunk, asked me that question regarding Ishizaki and Albert himself.

"Obviously. Right, Albert?"

Ishizaki leaned out of the top bunk and looked down at Albert in reply to Hashimoto. However, Albert did not answer and only continued to stare straight ahead.

"…could it be that he doesn't understand you?"

"Aren't you guys classmates?"

Hashimoto said so while laughing and Ishizaki added this in frustration.

"It can't be helped, right? Ryuuen-san's the one normally giving him orders after all."

"Ryuuen-san, eh?"

Ishizaki casually ended the '-san' suffix to his name. However, as of right now, that would lead to a strange contradiction.

"The rumor about you having a fight with him and overthrowing him from his position of leader, is that true?"

"Shut it. Of course it's true. Right now...was just old habit."

Far from working on the group's unity, it appears we've already begun sounding each other out. The rumor about Ryuuen having stepped down is one whose authenticity everyone doubts. Giving a side glance to that quickly brewing conflict, I decided to take a walk into the building's interior.