Chapter 88

Chapter 88

Ayanokōji's POV

It was currently 20:30, around ten minutes before Lelouch's meeting was set to begin, and I'd decided to accompany him out of boredom and mild curiosity as to who would be in his group.

All groups have all their students going to various rooms at the same time – in other words, any students that come here now will be in Lelouch's group.

Around one hour ago, I'd gone to my meeting, which surprisingly had Ishihara-sensei in there ready to explain the exam.

I'd found out some minor nuances that Light's general explanation hadn't covered, such as exactly when and how we would be assigned our VIP status. Tomorrow morning, every student would get mail to their phones telling them whether or not they were the VIP.

After that, I'd also been given the names of the students in my group, which was the 'Snake' group. I'd made a note of it on my phone, which read as follows:

Snake Group

· Class A: Yahiko Totsuka, Kamuro Masumi, Hashimoto Masayoshi

· Class B: Himeno Yuki, Amikura Mako, Shiranami Chihiro

· Class C: Ishizaki Daichi, Shiina Hiyori, Yoshimoto Kōsetsu

· Class D: Ayanokōji Kiyotaka

· Class E: Miyake Akito, Hasebe Haruka, Onodera Kayano, Miyamoto Soshi

The only ones I was really familiar with in my group was Yahiko, who was the leader during the island special exam, and Shiina, who had stayed in our camp during the duration of that same special exam.

All in all, though, there didn't seem to be any particularly influential figures within the 'Snake' group.

It wasn't a very favourable group to be in, to say the least. For me, who isn't very good at things requiring social skills, a discussion-based exam with nobody I really know in my group is one of the worst possible challenges.

Class D's current idea is to hope to get assigned a VIP of our own, figure out one or two from our groups and then negotiate for the rest in order to deduce a theoretical pattern.

Currently, however, this strategy was not viable.

For one, there were people like me and Shiro that would have problems socially controlling a group of strangers. There were plenty of methods I could use to determine somebody's nature and suspicion of being the VIP student, but it would be difficult for me to employ such methods in a room of strangers.

Secondly, the strategy was currently far too risky. In the event that it turns out the VIPs are selected purely by randomness, it would be too late for us to recover.

In other words, what Class D needed to do now was wait to see which VIPs we could find out on our own, and we also needed to deduce for sure that the theorised VIP selection method did actually exist.

"Ooh, look at this, quite an interesting gathering, eh Ayanokōji?"

Lelouch's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I followed his pointing gesture.

Katsuragi and Horikita were seemingly having some sort of altercation – by the look of it, it seemed to be an exchange of provocations.

"Just because you got lucky and did well once, I'd like you not to get arrogant and think we're equals now."

Katsuragi's voice echoed off the walls of the corridor as he spoke down to Horikita.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Horikita asked him in response.

"What I'm trying to say is that there is a time in everyone's lives when they get lucky once and manage to close the gap a bit. But don't get in over your head because of this one lucky incident. The difference between our class points is still a tremendous one." Katsuragi told her.

I see, it seemed he's saying the results of one test won't affect the standings of the classes all that much. Of course, Horikita surely knows that as well.

The difference between Class A and Class E remained as over 700 class points – it was not an easily surmountable gap.

The amethyst-eyed boy standing beside me finally decided to interject his opinion into the conversation.

"Oh my, it seems that 40-point-kun is feeling rather self-confident today, huh?"

The two of them looked over to Lelouch's approaching voice, and Horikita let out an "Ugh," as she saw who it was joining them.

"Of all the people..."

"Lelouch."

Katsuragi narrowed his eyes as he spoke that name.

"The one and only. I hope you aren't getting too cocky, Katsuragi. We'll be overtaking Class A soon enough."

"..."

Katsuragi remained silent, seemingly unable to come up with a rebuttal.

Unlike Class E, who was still 700 points away from Class A, Class D had jumped up to a mere 200 class points behind after the most recent special exam. At this rate, we really would surpass Class A soon.

"And what about you, Lelouch-kun? Aren't you also getting cocky after just one exam? You know, there's also the chance that you just got lucky as well."

"Ah, right, that's true."

The silent Katsuragi agreed with Horikita, who had spoken up on behalf of his argument.

"Hmm? Katsuragi-kun, Horikita-san, Lelouch-kun and Ayanokōji-kun?"

A sweet voice rang out from behind me.

I turned around and was met by two Class D students approaching us – Hirata Yōsuke and Kushida Kikyō.

It seemed that they too were in the same group as Lelouch.

"Hmm, this is a rather astonishing coincidence, isn't it? Just look at how many class representatives are gathered here." Lelouch laughed as Kushida went around greeting each person individually.

"It is rather amazing," agreed Horikita with narrowed eyes.

Katsuragi cleared his throat. "I still believe that we should talk to each other amicably, since we'll be cooperating with each other for the next special exam."

"I agree,"

Yet another new voice appeared in the conversation. Kanzaki Ryūji of Class B, who seemed to be Ichinose's right-hand-man when it came to class affairs. It appeared that he too was in this group.

"Kanzaki-kun too?" Hirata murmured with wide eyes.

"For an exam based around cooperation within groups, arguing won't get us very far, don't you think?" Kanzaki followed up as he joined us.

Kanzaki repeated what was basically the mantra of Class B at this point, filling in for Ichinose's absence.

Speaking of, I couldn't help but be curious as to the reason for why Ichinose was in the 'Rabbit' group, with Sora.

This collection here – all the big figures from every class – was clearly deliberate. So, why was Ichinose left out? There must be a reason...

"I have no interest in cooperating with those that looked down on me just a few days ago," Horikita denied Kanzaki firmly.

"Isn't it alright to forgive and forget, Horikita-san?" Hirata pleaded with her.

"Nonsense. I approached Katsuragi-kun to talk on the island, and he brushed me aside because of my class. Give me one good reason why I should bother with him." Horikita spat back.

Hirata simply slumped his shoulders in defeat, while Kushida frowned, clearly upset by the atmosphere that had been created.

"There's no point in arguing. The situation is what it is," Kanzaki stepped in as the mediator.

"Mhm, that's right, Horikita. Just fall in line like a good little girl," Lelouch said provocatively with an arrogant smirk.

"What did you just say?"

Horikita shot him an icy glare, but Lelouch just shrugged it off with a nonchalant laugh.

"Kukuku. It looks like there are quite a lot of weaklings gathered here, I suppose I can have some fun."

It was Ryūen, yet another big name, who had stepped into the ring, two of his classmates trailing behind him.

"Ryūen, huh."

Katsuragi lost his previously calm expression and even Kanzaki's expression changed to one of alertness.

"Have you been allocated to this room? Or did you just happen to be walking by?"

"Unfortunately I'm with you," Ryūen instantly replied to that question while the other two students walked obediently behind him.

It almost seemed like a situation with a king and his servants. The students behind Ryūen had terrified expressions on their faces and moved quietly with obedient movements.

"How about you put on a show for me? Beauty and the Beast could be the title." Ryūen said as he looked at Horikita and Katsuragi respectively.

Having realised the obvious provocation, Katsuragi returned to his normal, calm self.

"I originally thought our group would have students with high academic ability but after seeing you and your lackeys I can see this clearly isn't going to be the case." Katsuragi fired back.

"Academic ability?" Lelouch echoed in confusion. "Who the hell cares about that?"

Katsuragi raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Lelouch? Being one of the top students academically at this school, I would've thought you'd value it."

Lelouch placed his knuckles against his palm and cracked them one by one.

"Who cares about academic ability? It's such a dull thing," Lelouch said with a sigh.

"Also, this is a discussion-oriented exam. I don't see how knowing the answer to hard math questions will help us," he added with a mocking laugh.

"Hearing that from you is a shame, academic ability is the most important factor determining your future success in life and your ability to impact the future. It is even said that Japan is built on a society of academics." Katsuragi chided him for his remark, but Lelouch seemed unfazed.

"You're such an idiot, Katsuragi." Ryūen chuckled. "Our future success or whatever has nothing to do with the current situation. You're just bringing up the only thing you're good at in your shitty life, even though it's completely irrelevant."

Ryūen laughed after dropping a particularly brutal remark.

"I won't forget this insult."

"Huh? Insult? I don't recall having done anything like that, care to refresh my memory?" Ryūen mocked Katsuragi.

"It doesn't matter, since we're in the same group we should have the opportunity to talk at length later."

Katsuragi ended the conversation seeing how the explanation for their group was almost about to begin.

"Hmm, it looks like something difficult is about to start," said Kushida to Hirata.

"It looks like it," unexpectedly, after saying that, Hirata turned to me. "Are you in this group too, Ayanokōji-kun?"

"Uh, no. I just came here out of curiosity." I answered awkwardly, caught off guard by the sudden question.

"Ah, right, that reminds me," Ryūen turned his attention to me. "After I'm done with Suzune, I'm going to crush you next, Ayanokōji. Look forward to it."

Ryūen slapped my back with a haughty laugh.

"Me? Why the sudden interest?" I questioned.

"I bet you're proper smug after your little trick on the island. I don't like when people get in my way, so I'll destroy you personally as a courtesy."

Apparently, Ryūen had placed his sights on me after the island examination. It looked like my strategy had garnered me some unwanted attention.

"Ryūen knows he's far too weak to match up to Class D, so he's targeting Ayanokōji alone? Ha ha! That's pretty funny," Lelouch mocked Ryūen with a laugh.

"Don't you get cocky, Lelouch. I could make you submit to me right here if I wanted to. You don't have your precious Kururugi here to protect you this time."

Ryūen made a gesture with his fist, insinuating that he wouldn't hesitate to wield violence to make ends meet.

"That would be extraordinarily stupid, even by your standards."

Even though he is physically weak, Lelouch stood firm before Ryūen's intimidation, shooting a remark back without any hint of hesitation or fear.

Well, that was just the kind of person Lelouch was.

"I'm not going to stay here for this stupid conversation, I'll be going ahead. It's almost time."

Horikita simply shook her head and turned her back to us, but not before looking coldly at Ryūen and his group.

I had to praise Horikita on this. People with a weak will tend to lower their heads and ingratiate themselves into the group and treat themselves as the lower one in the hierarchy. Horikita, on the other hand, without missing a beat, coldly rejected them all and remained the way she has always been.

"Kuku. She's quite the aggressive woman. Well, I don't particularly dislike her type," Ryūen said as he started moving, intending to follow Horikita.

He stopped briefly as he passed me, and we stood shoulder to shoulder facing opposite directions.

"Watch your back, Ayanokōji."

The rest of us watched him and his group depart towards the room he was assigned to. When he was gone, Lelouch chuckled to himself.

"Ooh. Scary." He seemed unfazed by Ryūen's threats.

I don't know if I'd personally be able to stand the various attitudes of the people in Lelouch's group.

Regardless, having nothing more to do here, I began walking away from the scene at the same time as Lelouch, who started walking towards his assigned room.

"Well, good luck, I suppose." I called out to his departing back.

"Don't need it."