Chapter 1 Part III

Once I had returned to my room, I then struggled to sleep. I noticed a noise and looked up although I did not see my roommates Yukimura and Kouneji. However. "Sorry, did I wake you up?". It was Hirata who said that as he organized his luggage neatly while looking at me apologetically. It looked like he was preparing to leave the room since he was putting on his uniform. "No need for apologies, I wasn't sleeping anyways. Just thinking. I was about to go out for a drink anyways since I'm thirsty" I tell him. Of course, I did not mention this to Hirata, but I was on my way to check on Horikita's state. "Might I accompany you? We received the mail from the school and it's almost time anyways" Hirata says to me. The time was close to 20:30 the same time that Horikita's mail instructed her to gather for the meeting.

"It seems a rather unusual exam is about to begin, at least that's how I feel" Hirata tells me. It seems Hirata already knows what the exam will be about after hearing it from a previous student who received the explanation before him. "It's Yukimura-kun. He told me in the cafeteria earlier. About your (Rabbit) group and how everyone was receiving explanations one after the other" Hirata admits. Yukimura doesn't like Hirata very much, but he still told him because it might raise the chances of our class's success even by a little? Either way, if you know the contents of the exam before the explanation it will be easier to gather hints from the explanation itself. In this case, by cooperating with a more popular person like Hirata it can be advantageous to you. "If there's anything you've figured out, Ayanokouji-kun, please do share it with me" Hirata tells me. "I wonder about that, unlike Horikita, you or Yukimura I'm not particularly smart so I haven't been thinking much about this exam at all...in particular" I reply to him. Of course, there was no way I would tell Hirata any more than necessary.

"I was wondering why they would go to all the trouble of separating us into groups to explain the same thing to us separately" Hirata freely tells me. Indeed as Hirata says, it would be far more efficient and less time-consuming to explain to all members of a group gathered at once then separately. The school is using an obviously inefficient method, but it's most likely not just on a whim. There is more likely than not a reason behind this method. Perhaps the 'thinking ability' assessed in this exam is part of that. "I'm planning to ask sensei about it later on though" Hirata admits. I wonder if the gears will turn efficiently in this case. I wonder if Hirata, who nominally represents Class D, will be able to work efficiently with students of other classes considering all the rules we have to abide by in this exam.