#31 Results

Finally, the last day of the survival test arrived and we will be guessing the leaders of other classes the next morning.

There weren't many people inside the camp so Karuizawa decided to approach me.

"Hey, I heard what you said when you were arguing with Shinohara-san" She said with a slightly angered expression.

I guess she means how I kinda ended up insulting her, well...more like insulting her underwear.

"What about it? I simply said aloud my honest thoughts" I calmly responded.

"You-! *sigh* Forget it...I will forgive you if you will tell me how the hell did you get into Class D. You used to be really smart and I don't get how you ended up here" She asked me in a domineering tone but for me, it felt more playfully than bossy.

*sigh* "Kei-chan, you used to be smart too, so why were you assigned to this Class?" I playfully answered with a question.

"...You already know the reason. And stop calling me like that, it's too embarrassing and it could cause misunderstanding..." She said with a small delay and then looked around if someone could hear our conversation.

"So I am allowed to call you like that when we are all alone. Am I right?" I said with a teasing smile.

"Of course n-" I stopped her before she could finish and frowned because of what I saw before me.

Horikita, Ayanokoji, Yamauchi, Sakura, and Ibuki came back to camp much earlier than I anticipated but that wasn't the reason why I frowned. Horikita's head was fully covered in mud which definitely didn't feel good combined with her fever.

Karuizawa noticed the situation and wanted to add salt into injury by saying something rude but she stopped herself and turned at me for a little while then she left and went to join a line for a shower.

This girl really doesn't like Horikita...I guess she is a bit jealous. Although she didn't say anything, she still wanted to make it worse for her by making the line for a shower much longer.

I got up and approached the group

"What happened?" I asked Horikita who looked really bad and I don't mean her appearance.

"Some idiot decided that he wants to play with mud" She said with an angered expression.

I immediately looked at Yamauchi and he looked downwards upon meeting my eyes.

He wouldn't do such thing without a reason... After all, he is one of the little perverts in this class and Horikita is still considered a beautiful girl. Unless someone asked him to do that and offered a good reward... I redirected my gaze at Ayanokoji and he calmly met my eyes.

What's your plan?

"I don't think you will be able to use a shower unless you ask them very nicely" I pointed at fairly long line for the shower

Although there aren't that many people, they are still girls and they tend to spend a lot of time inside the shower and Horikita wasn't the most popular one inside the class so I guess they wouldn't let her go first unless she would do something for them. Knowing her personality, she wouldn't want to show any weakness before them.

"How about the river? You still have the swimsuit with you, no?" Ayanokoji asked

Even though it is summer, the river is quite cold, not to mention her fever.

"You should definitely clean yourself up as soon as possible" I told her and went back to our tent.

What are you up to, Ayanokoji? Ibuki said that she will use the river too if we will give her our permission. This is the last day before the voting, she will probably make a move tonight or during Horikita's "bath"

She probably already guessed that Horikita is our "leader" but she still needs the evidence. I can't also wait for what will happen between Ryuen and Katsuragi since their agreement got fucked up a little bit because of me. But there is no clear evidence that Ryuen is the one behind it, so I guess he won't get into trouble with school.

There isn't much to do now so I guess I can just lie down for the rest of the day and then go for some spot hunting during the night.

..

After 20 minutes passed, Hirata entered the tent and looked at me.

"Horikita-san wants to talk to you"

Why didn't she come here? Ah, yes...We have that dividing line between boys and girls rule.

"Okay, thanks for letting me know"

"No problem" He smiled and left to help some girls.

..

"What's the matter?" I said with a low voice.

"It's gone..." Horikita said with an embarrassed and angry expression.

"I see..." I wasn't surprised at all since I was expecting that.

"What do you mean "I see"? What s-"

"Have you forgotten the fact that your card is fake?" I said to calm her down, I guess she was a little slow due to her fever worsening each second.

"Sorry, I got a little carried away" She calmed down but she was breathing heavily.

"You did your job, you should just go back to ship" I said gently

"But that would mean 30 points less for our Class. It's only 1 more day, I won't give up!" She said with almost fire visible inside her eyes.

*sigh* I guess I won't be able to convince her.

"Do what you want, I won't force you to retire. By the way, does Ayanokoji-kun know about you being the fake leader?"

"No, I haven't told him yet. Why?"

"If you are planning to go tell him about the lost card then don't mention that it is a fake card"

"Why do you think that I want to go tell him?" She frowned

"Because you trust that he is a capable person and even though it's just a fake card, you probably feel pretty humiliated right now and want to get that card back. I don't mind you doing so but you should be aware of your condition before taking any action" She seemed pretty surprised after I described how she felt right at that moment.

"I promise that I won't tell him about the fake card but I will do whatever I think is best" She was preparing to leave.

"Before you go...be so kind and give this paper to Hirata-kun and let him do the voting the next morning" I handed her a paper with names.

"This is..." She was too surprised to even speak for a while.

"Are you sure about Class C's leader? And why do you want to guess Class B's leader too?"

"I am sure about every one of them. As for Class B and our cooperation, their leader will be guessed by the different class so there is no need for us not to use them as our bonus points. Their bonus points will be nulled anyway. Don't ask any questions right now...I will explain everything when you get better and your head won't be muddled"

"...Fine but you owe me one" She said with a dissatisfied expression.

Huh? I am the one helping you get closer to Class A. If someone owes to someone then it is you who owe me.

..

Later in the evening, I was resting in the tent when I heard a commotion outside. I got up to check out what it was about and when I exited the tent I saw fire right behind the toilet.

I came closer and immediately searched for Ibuki with my eyes. When I saw her on the scene with a surprised face I already knew that it wasn't her handiwork. If she did it, she wouldn't wait here but instead of asking who did it. I am more confused about why she didn't just take a chance and run away. Was she so surprised that she forgot that she needs to sneak out? Heh.

We quickly extinguished the fire.

"Isn't this our catalog?" Horikita asked

"Well, at least used to be..." Ike muttered when he looked at the mostly burned catalog.

"Why? One thing after another. Why can't we just get along!" Hirata was slowly losing it.

I guess being a leader and peacemaker is tiresome.

Ayanokoji tried to calm him down but I saw that he wasn't able to see us or hear us...He was in a completely different dimension with his thoughts.

Everyone started to argue, guessing who is the traitor and this gave Ibuki a chance to run off.

It also started to rain so I quickly hid my luggage inside the tent but when I came back, I noticed that Ike was asking Hirata what should we do but he wasn't answering. He just stood there like a statue with a pale face and lifeless eyes.

"Hey, Hirata?!" Everyone seemed a bit surprised by this but no one dared to approach him and shake with him to wake him up. The atmosphere was getting heavier, same with the rain

*SLAP* Everyone gasped aloud

Hirata woke up from his thoughts and touched his right cheek that was swollen and then looked at me with his lifeless eyes.

My eyes became lifeless too, exactly the same as the few moments before I died.

"Life is a shitty thing and sometimes more of a torture than life. But the essential thing is that you keep going forward, no matter how shitty your life becomes. Be tortured by your mistakes and use them to your advantage, not to repeat the same mistakes ever again" I said with emotionless face in low voice but that didn't really matter because everyone was extremely quiet from what just happened so they could hear everything.

"...I am sorry everyone" Hirata bowed to everyone and they quickly apologized to him for making him carry too much burden alone.

"Thank you for waking me up, Walker-kun" He thanked me with a sympathetic smile.

Hopefully, this helped him a bit. After that everyone calmed down and most of them even forgot that I actually slapped Hirata.

"Where is Horikita-san, Ayanokoji-kun and Ibuki-san?" Yamauchi asked aloud.

"Now that you mention it, wasn't it Ibuki who started the fire?" Sudo added.

"They probably went to find Ibuki-san, let's forget about them for now. We should take care of our luggage before it gets soaked" Hirata said with his usual smile and started to move our things inside the tents and others followed after him.

-----(Ayanokoji's POV)-----

Right after Horikita lost consciousness

I am sorry Horikita but I never thought of you as my friend or as an ally. The same applies to all of my classmates. All people are nothing but a tool and winning is everything in this world. I don't care about the method as long as I win, I am ready to sacrifice anything or anyone. You were useful to me Horikita

"What happened, Ayanokoji?!" Chabashira-sensei asked with surprised expression when she saw unconsciousness Horikita in my hands.

"She has passed out due to a high fever. Please take her back to ship."

"...Are you alright with her retiring though? Your class will lose points" She asked me with a serious expression while checking Horikita's condition.

"Yes, here you go" I tried to give her Horikita's card but she didn't accept.

"? What's the matter? Shouldn't changing of the leaders be allowed under the special conditions?" I asked with a slightly confused expression since she didn't want to take the card.

"It is allowed but you can keep that toy..." She said with an amused smile, it almost felt like she was mocking me.

toy?

"HAHA, it seems that he was able to fool everyone in the end. Anyway, your class loses 30 points for Horikita's retirement" She laughed upon seeing my confused expression.

30? Penalty for losing a leader is 50...if Horikita isn't the leader then why did she try so hard to get that card back?

......Felix Walker, huh?

-----(Ayanokoji's POV END)-----

*sneeze* Is someone thinking about me? I thought while wiping my nose with a tissue.

"Walker-kun, I am a bit worried about them" Hirata said with a worried expression. It was already a few hours since Ayanokoji, Horikita and Ibuki disappeared.

"They will be fine, this island isn't that big to get lost anyway. You should just focus on getting enough rest after what happened today" I suggested and he thought for a while before nodding.

----Next morning----

I noticed that Ayanokoji was intensively looking at me like he was trying to see through me.

He came back to the camp yesterday in the evening without Horikita and explained how she had to drop out due to fever.

We already voted for other class leaders on the paper given to us by Chabashira-sensei.

"The survival test ended and I will now declare the points gained by each class!" Class A's homeroom teacher Tomonari Mashima announced.

"Hey, don't end it without me!" Ryuen said in an arrogant and mocking tone.

Everyone was surprised when they saw him because they thought that entire Class C retired but Katsuragi just glared at Ryuen with an angry expression. Who wouldn't be angry...a lot of his classmates retired so he lost a lot of points and he thought that it was all Ryuen's fault.

...Mashima-sensei started to announce the points after the commotion calmed down.

"Class C...zero points!"

"Next, in the third place, Class A with 30 points!"

"In the second place, Class B with 140 points!"

"And, in the first place, Class D with 335 points!"

Everyone was completely shocked, not just because of the Class D taking the first place but because of the amount of the points gained.

I had to place my palm over my face to hide an evil creepy smile that crept on my face.

I also noticed how Chabashira-sensei was looking at me with a wide smile.

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Class A - 1034 points

Class B - 803 points

Class C - 492 points

Class D - 422 points