Chapter 3: Trapped

I woke up from the beaming sunlight warming my face. I lay down in my bed, cherishing the peace and silence, or so I wanted to.

"KISHIMOTO!"

What did he do this time?

I got out of my bed and exited my room, after closing the door.

The doors could only be opened with the fingerprint of the owner of the room. If anyone other than the owner tried to open the door then it wouldn't be opened and these doors were on the same level as military doors so the chances of them being broken were extremely low.

"What the hell is going on?" I muttered while scratching my head and yawning. After my vision cleared it came to my attention that they were playing games. "So early in the morning."

"Oh, you're awake." Nakamoto said before putting her full attention on the game in which she was losing.

"Nakamoto-san, you should stick to whatever you did before because games aren't your thing." Akito mocked.

"It's only…HALF PAST EIGHT!" Nakamoto shrieked as she stared at her phone.

"Where're the others?" I asked.

"Ikeda, Yanagizawa, and Kaori-chan are already at the school." Nakamoto replied.

"Yatogami is still asleep." Akito added. "Go wake her up."

I saw no point however I did want to experiment with something.

I walked to Yatogami's room and her door was closed. I thought for a bit then pushed open the door. For a military-grade door, it was extremely weak. I closed the door and knocked on the door. I had put some strength into it however I stopped when I realised there were dents in the door.

"Yatogami-san!" I called. I then heard movement from behind the door. The door then opened and there wasn't any sign of anyone behind the door. "Yatogam—"

I felt a heavy blast of water on me. I then realised what had just happened. Yatogami had put a water gun through the narrow gap in the door and had sprayed water on me.

The door was then opened completely and it revealed Yatogami who was standing at the doorway giggling however once she caught a glance at me her face changed.

"Tadashi…" I found Nakamoto standing around a meter from me.

"Oh my, Tsukamoto-kun, you're seriously built!" Yatogami exclaimed as she poked my stomach. "Do you work out or something?"

"I did a few sit-ups." I replied.

"Change your clothes, Tadashi-kun." Nakamoto said however she avoided looking at me and I could tell she was blushing slightly.

Oh well.

* * * * * *

There were slight changes to our homeroom teacher.

"Good morning!"

"Good morning, Tanaka-sensei!" The majority of the class replied to Tanaka Eriko's greeting. A student then put their hand up however they put their hand down after a few seconds.

I'm sure she was going to ask about Nagasawa-sensei however it turns out that Nagasawa-sensei sexually assaulted a male student so she was kicked out of the academy and sent to prison and was replaced by Tanaka-sensei.

Homeroom ended and we were all given information about our classes.

"Tsukamoto-san, Tomiko, and I have the same class." Yamada said.

"I'm with Kaori and Ikeda-chan." Nakamoto added.

"You're with us, Akito-san." Kitamura said.

We all went our separate ways.

We left the building and walked to the next. Our class was science and it was the higher level classes.

"Oh, Yamada-kun!" A student pulled Yamada over to him and put his arm around his neck. "Oh you brought your girlfriend and…"

He didn't say anything. I didn't know I had beaten him that badly. The student who Yamada seemed to not defend himself against was none other than Ochiyama Ryuuji, the "Ogre".

"It's been some time, "Ogre-kun"." I said. There wasn't any response. I walked towards him and as I got close to him, the more Ochiyama started to get scared.

I could see the fear in his eyes as I got closer and closer to him. I looked up at him and grabbed his necktie and pulled him down to me which freed Yamada from his grasp.

"I need you to do something for me, Ochiyama Ryuuji." Ochiyama didn't look like he was going to refuse. "I'm sure you have my number so you will wait for my call until then you are to stay at your house and not leave."

I let go of his necktie and kicked his leg, the kick made him fall over on his back. I then glared at Yamada and Shimoda which made them switch their attention from Ochiyama to me. I didn't need to say anything and they followed me.

"What did you do to Ochiyama-san?" Shimoda asked.

"I just beat him in a fight, that's all." I replied.

Shimoda didn't look satisfied with my answer however she didn't seem to say that she didn't believe me.

We called the elevator and waited until the elevator doors opened after the ping sound. We entered the elevator and chose the floor we were going to get off at. The elevator lights then stopped working and the elevator went dark. Shortly after the light went out the elevator came to a sudden halt.

"I'll try to open the doors." Yamada said before he went back a little and before he kicked the elevator doors open I stopped him.

"Wait, we might be able to skip a lesson with this." I said.

As expected of Yamada, to act as soon as anything happens.

"What?"

What Yamada didn't understand was how much we could get out of this situation. Getting stuck in an elevator in one of the most prestigious academies in the world wasn't something that happened every day which meant that either the elevator had an issue or this didn't happen naturally. Either way, this was a good thing that happened.

"He's got a point, Yoshio-kun." Shimoda said, defending me.

"Alright then." Yamada said before he sat down on the elevator floor. "So what do we do now?"

We can't do anything stupid, that's for sure.

"How about you two arm wrestle?" Shimoda suggested.

Yamada and I both looked at Shimoda, both of us thinking the same thing.

"Are you insane?" We both said.

"Oh come on, you two want to fight and this is a good time to test your strength."

"Alright then." Yamada said as he took off his blazer and gave it to Shimoda to hold. He then unbuttoned his sleeve and pulled his shirt sleeve to his elbow. "Go full out."

"Alright then." I said before doing the same.

We both placed our elbows on the elevator floor and locked hands. Shimoda then held our hands and counted down.

"3…2…1…GO!"

I won instantly however the pressure from our match broke whatever held the elevator and we came crashing down until we hit something. Luckily no one was hurt.

"I won." I said to which Yamada reacted by punching the elevator doors. I then got out my emergency flashlight (my phone) and shone it on the ceiling of the elevator.

"We're stuck."

"What a genius." Shimoda said mockingly.

"You guys." I said and instantly I got their attention. "Do you guys know how to play Crazy Eights?"

* * * * * *

"So what are the scores now?" I asked, mockingly.

"Tsukamoto Tadashi, 27 wins, zero losses; Shimoda Tomiko, two wins 27 losses and me, Yamada Yoshio, one win, 26 losses."

"I thought you guys were unrivaled geniuses." I mocked as I placed down my last card. "28 wins, zero losses."

"This is getting boring." Shimoda mumbled. "Let's play…poker!"

Since we didn't have any discs, we altered the game rules. After twenty games of poker, we eventually stopped.

"I…lost…twenty times!" Shimoda muttered to herself, staring at mine and Yamada's faces. "How…HOW ARE YOU SO GOOD?!"

"I'm not good, you guys are just that bad." I scoffed.

"Next game." Yamada said as he pulled out a travel-size chess set from his backpack. "Chess."

"Oh, Yamada-san, I'm good at this game as well."

"You cannot be as good as a super Grandmaster, Tsukamoto-san."

After two hours, more than a hundred games were played. We played around fifty ten-minute matches and the rest were either three-minute or one-minute matches.

"Did you count how many games were played?" I asked Yamada.

"The number of games played was 187 games. Tsukamoto Tadashi, 187 wins and zero losses; Yamada Yoshio zero wins and 187 losses." Shimoda said while giggling at Yamada. "Yoshio-kun, where have your skills gone?"

"Tsukamoto-san, I don't think I can beat you in anyth—"

"I think I found them!" Someone yelled.

"Took them long enough." Shimoda muttered.

"We've been down here for almost four hours." I said.

It took around twenty minutes to get us out of the elevator and safe on one of the floors with a teacher supervising us.

"Which of the three of you will take the blame for the destruction of a military-grade elevator?" Fukuwara-sensei said in her usual stern voice.

We looked at Fukuwara-sensei's face. She wasn't joking. I could see fear slowly creeping into Shimoda's heart however Yamada tried to keep his composure.

"Fukuwara-sensei." Yamada said. "How could three 16-year-olds destroy a military-grade elevator? If anyone should be blamed then it should be the school for their lack of decent elevators. A military-grade elevator wouldn't stop so abruptly mid-air and then fall so I'm sure it wasn't a "military-grade" elevator in the first place."

"Well you could say that it was the school's fault however could you explain why there were the exact tools to meddle with these elevators in your blazer in the first place?" Fukuwara-sensei said before throwing him his blazer which Shimoda left on the elevator floor.

"It can't be Yoshio!" Shimoda pleaded. "He would never do such a thing!"

"Well, Shimoda-san, if you are defending him then you are also guilty. Perhaps you are working with him or you did it yourself and put the tools in his blazer to frame him, regardless someone has messed with our systems and you three are the only suspects as of this moment."

It was obvious who it was however Shimoda isn't that stupid to be caught just like that. It must be her plan. Yamada would realise if his blazer was heavier than usual. Shimoda must've planned it all out however it wasn't great planning in the first place. Anyone with a decent amount of intelligence would be able to figure it out however the reason she did it wasn't clear.

Yamada is her childhood friend so there was no reason to just plan out something that would trouble him and he is an important member of her group. Yamada isn't an idiot so he must've seen through her plan or they are cooperating. It must be exactly as I had initially thought from the beginning.

I could say that it was someone else and with the "proof" I had planned out at the beginning of the first semester I could get them expelled or have some sort of punishment instead of Shimoda taking the blame.

If I did that then it must've been Shimoda's plan. Her plan must've been to find out what I was capable of and how I could make someone take the blame also there is another thing. Shimoda could've done this to see if I would help her or not which could also benefit her so that she could use that information in her future plans however if I don't try to protect her she might try to destroy me. Not that I fear that she could it is just that if she does see me as an enemy then my goals wouldn't be as easy to achieve.

"To say they were the cause of it wouldn't make much sense because they both aren't the type to just cause trouble for others. Fukuwara-sensei, I know a few people who might be the cause of this."

They all looked at me, confused.

"The fact that it wasn't anyone else apart from us three means a lot. The person who was probably behind this must've known that we had the same class together and what time, building, and subject it was. They must've also tried to wait until we were together." I explained. "This school would probably later have each year competing against each other and if some of the first-years have worked that out then I'm sure second and third-year students who have much more experience than us must've worked that out or it has happened to them before—"

"They want to get rid of or slow down the growth of the top students." Shimoda said, finishing my sentence.

"So you've already worked it out then, that you will compete against other years." Fukuwara-sensei laughed.

"Oh, Fukuwara-sensei, did you forget the rules?" Shimoda hissed. She stared at Fukuwara-sensei almost as if she was staring into her soul. "None of the teachers can give any help to the students other than academic-related work so that would mean, you just violated one of the rules."

"Oh my, did I? I'm sure the tone you're speaking with now means you think you won because you are probably recording this conversation, aren't you?" Fukuwara-sensei had seen through Shimoda's plan again. "From that silence, I guess I'll say I'm right. You guys are seriously smart but you have room for improvement so I'll let you off for now."

"We won in the end—"

"Yo."

I looked to my left to see a male student centimetres from my face. The student then leapt back and was standing next to another student who was around Shimoda's height.

"Who the hell are you guys?" I asked.

"We're from the Student Council and we've been ordered to bring you three in." The male student replied. "I'm Kishimoto Takuya and she's Yukimura Shiori."

The girl named Shiori didn't do anything but nervously smile and wave.

Kishimoto Takuya had dark brown hair, and green eyes and wore glasses. Yukimura Shiori had silver hair and blue eyes.

We followed the two students to a building. The building was mostly made of glass windows most probably tempered glass. The building was around 10 stories high and each floor was around the same size as an apartment block.

We went inside the building and there was a reception. We didn't need to go to the reception as Kishimoto Takuya and Yukimura Shiori were members of the main Student Council.

We went to an elevator and the button for the tenth floor was pressed.

"Shimoda-san, you're the President's sister aren't you?" Yukimura said.

"Yes." Shimoda replied.

After that the elevator got awkward.

We reached the tenth floor and when the elevator doors opened another student was there.

"Tachibana-san, what are you doing here?" Kishimoto asked.

"Tachibana?" Shimoda muttered. "Tsukamoto-san, she's one of the Elites."

Tachibana didn't look like they were from our school. She had the same silver hair as Shiori however her blue eyes were much darker than Shiori's. They also had similar appearances. She wore a white blazer with a black miniskirt and white calf-length socks.

"Oh, Kishimoto-senpai, I was here because Shimoda-senpai called me here." Tachibana replied.

We then came out of the elevator and Tachibana went in and then the doors of the elevator closed.

* * * * * *

"We got them." Kishimoto said. Shimoda's brother then looked up from whatever was on his desk and stared at us.

His hair was jet black and his eyes were pure emeralds. He had a muscular build however it wasn't like Ochiyama's. Shimoda Yoshido looked much stronger than anyone I have encountered in this school so far although he wasn't as big.

"My sister, Shimoda Tomiko, Yamada Yoshio, and Tsukamoto Tadashi." Yoshio said. "Are you guys the Big Three of the first-years?"

"Was that sarcasm?" Yamada asked.

"Yes, yes it was, Yoshio-kun."

The President didn't seem to be as serious as I thought he'd be.

"Tsukamoto-san." Shimoda Yoshido seemed to be more serious now. "I heard you beat my sister in almost everything."

"I guess I did."

"Join the Student Council."

Everyone gasped at the unexpected request of Shimoda Yoshido. Everyone waited for my answer however as much as everyone wanted me to accept it some didn't and Shimoda and Yamada both knew my answer.

"No."

"I guess you have your own reasons. You may leave—"

"What the hell are you guys doing with these first-years?" We all turned out heads to look at the person behind us. "TADASHI!"