Followed

I was silently sitting on my chair, staring out in the air. Horikita had left the café after she had left the restroom. The third-year students did not seem to care about her leaving, since none of them had followed her. They were still just sitting there, staring at me. I just sat still, waiting for the right opportunity to leave.

I drank the rest of my black tea; it had tasted pretty good. Maybe I should come here more often. I rose from my chair and took my leave. After I had gotten out of the store, I had noticed that the third-year students were following me once again.

Some time had passed since my brief conversation with Horikita, which was interrupted somewhat by the third-year students. I looked at my phone; the clock was still only 8:30 AM, so there would be some time I had to kill before then.

I went to watch a movie. There had been a movie in the theaters, that I had been interested in, after seeing an advertisement for it and it had gotten my interest. The trailer had started with a speech by one character, just like every action movie. What had gotten my interest in the movie was the fighting scenes that were shown in the trailer. They had looked pretty intense.

I had looked at some reviews online to see how many stars people had given it. I would usually look at how many stars a movie had gotten to see if it was worth watching. The movie had gotten 3.5 out of 5 stars, so it was likely worth a watch. I went down to the theater and ordered one ticket for the movie. The movie would start at 9:00 AM, so there were 25 minutes before it would start.

The third-year students had also come down to watch the movie, the same one as me. Not a coincidence. The movie was an American thriller movie, and the director had instructed some great movies in the past, so I was a little excited to see it.

The third-year students had also bought popcorns and something to drink, so they were also going to watch the movie? Time slowly passed, and I made my way down to the cinema and sat down in my seat. It was right next to the door, before you entered the cinema, so it would be easy to go to the toilet since I probably would have to go since I had drunk black tea before coming here.

Then the movie had started with the main character being one of the best martial art fighters in the world and then some flashbacks came to show how he got to that point. It was honestly somewhat mediocre, and it seemed like they tried to make the flashback look motivational with the sound effects, but it had honestly just been more comedic than motivational.

Though the third years seemed to enjoy the movie so far, they had seats in the middle of the cinema and was not focusing on my movements, but the movie itself, so I slowly made my leave from the cinema, silently, not even making noise and since I had been sitting in the back, right beside the door, they would not notice if I left.

As I left the cinema, I saw the clock was now 10:00 AM, so there still was some time before the meeting would start, so I just had to make sure that nobody was following me. I should probably just leave the mall entirely before they notice I left.

More people had walked around the mall after I had spent one hour watching that movie, but it was still not, that many compared to what, there normally would be, there were some third years, but they were doing their stuff and had not noticed me yet, so I slowly, made my leave and I got outside of the mall.

As I started walking towards a secret path that leads to the dormitory, I saw Yosuke sitting alone on a bench and I sat down next to him. He had a somewhat dark expression on his face while looking down at the ground. When I sat down, he instantly noticed me and moved his gaze towards me.

"Kiyotaka?..."

"I had been looking for you, but you were not in your dormitory room."

"Did you need something from me?"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about this special exam. I just cannot... accept how this exam is structured.. with the high altitude... and dangerous terrain..."

He was likely not happy with the fact that if you wanted to earn points; you had to climb the mountain and take the risk of getting altitude sickness or injuring yourself.

"You might see it like this when we graduate from this school and we get a job. We will have to take calculated risks to do our best for the company's sake. Sometimes your choices will fail with big consequences and sometimes they will work perfectly."

"I still just can't accept it.. couldn't it just have been something different, where there also were consequences with your choices.. but not to the point, where it could hurt people.."

People could get hurt if they tried to climb the mountain recklessly, but the people, that made those choices without calculating the risks were not fit for Japanese society. Their consequence in the exam would be retirement, which would lead to a lower class score and the class would be less likely to get many class points and therefore likely not advancing to Class-A, that you would have to reach to get jobs with high authority, where the decisions meant a lot.

"But if the consequences, just were about class points, then you would not think too deeply about your decisions, but if there are genuine threats, then you will consider every little detail and start coming to better decisions overall. Also, most students will face nothing major, if they do not act too recklessly. Altitude sickness is given, that it will most likely happen, but you can make choices, that bring those risks down, by, for example, splitting up into different groups based on how people's stamina is, etc. But you can never rule out the possibility of it happening."

As I spoke up, Yosuke's expression lit up a bit. He had likely known that was the case, but wanted someone else to tell him that those things would end up happening.

"Thank you.. it would be pathetic of me... if I keep acting like this.. instead of helping the class. If I don't help to bring the class together and make decisions, then the consequences will be worse, than if I keep acting pathetic."

Yosuke was important for the class' sake. He could bring the entire class together. It was something nearly only he could do. There was also Kei, who could bring the girls together, and Kushida, who had a good social network, but Yosuke was the only one who could bring the entire class together, including the boys and the girls. The class would be worse off if he kept acting like this every time a new tough special exam would appear.

"I don't think, I can make those tough decisions on the spot, that Chabashira mentioned, but if I don't, then who will. I don't want our class to lose in this exam and face expulsion."

If we were to place in 7th or 8th, then one from our class would face expulsion. I couldn't imagine what Yosuke would look like if that were to happen. It was probably best, if that did not happen, if that were to happen, then it could in all possibility lead to a domino effect, that would ruin the entire class. Was it Nagumo's goal to make us come in 7th or 8th place? Did he know about Yosuke's lack of ability to make decisions in tough spots?

It would not be unthinkable, if he knew it, since they had played together in the soccer club, but they did not have many interactions together, but Nagumo was likely great at cold reading.

As we were talking, I saw some people looking confused around the area in front of the mall. I had left the theater a good amount of time ago, but they had noticed that I left the cinema before the movie had ended.

"Excuse me, I have somewhere to go, before the meeting in our classroom."

In reality, I had no plans until the meeting; I had just wanted to head back to the dormitory to rest until then, but I had to take my leave before they noticed me. It would be painful if they did.

"Kiyotaka, if you don't mind, but would you like to eat lunch together?"

I really had no reason to decline, but if they noticed me, I would have to get rid of them again, but then again, if they could not find me, then they would likely go to my dormitory room since it was most likely there, I would be if I had left the mall.

In the end, I accepted his offer to eat lunch together. The clock was 11:00 AM now, so early lunch, I guess. There were still two hours until the meeting would officially start, but I had planned to come a bit earlier to the classroom.

We headed towards Pallet; I had led the way towards Pallet and chosen a slight detour that few people knew about, and most people did not come this way, since it would mean wasting time. I did this since I was being followed, so I could not afford them to notice me.

There were other students in the café, but it did not seem like there were any third years, so I was safe from trouble, for now at least. We had made our orders before we sat down, with no one close to us, so it would be unlikely that somebody could overhear this conversation.

After, I had consoled Yosuke last time, after he had gone into depression after they had expelled Yamauchi. After that, he never had more of those moments with dark expressions until now, when I had approached him outside of the mall. He also wore his optimistic smile again after my talk with him after the class poll, but he was not wearing it now. It was something else.

When I met him on the bench outside, that had been my first time seeing his optimistic radiant smile gone completely since the Yamauchi incident. After I had talked to him for a moment, he eased up a bit and his expression also lit up, but it seemed like there was something he was hiding. Could it be that Nagumo had said the same words to him, as the ones he told me? If he did, then that would explain everything because, for Yosuke, the class meant everything and if Nagumo told him, the class would get crushed, then he would surely get scared by him saying those words.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I guess, I just was down after Chabashira had explained the exam to us, but I feel better after having talked to you."

Yep, he was trying to hide something, but I couldn't just ask straight out if Nagumo had said that to him because I did not want other people to worry about my battle with Nagumo. It was something that I had to settle myself.

"Are you sure, there is nothing wrong?"

I tried to push a bit, but I did not want to push too much, since that could make the situation worse than initial. Since he had been looking for me, he had likely wanted to talk about "that", and not the exam itself, but it was likely hard for him since Nagumo always had appeared like a nice guy to him.

"Yes, there is something, I wanted to tell you, it is.."

"It's?"

"It is about Nagumo."

As I had expected, Nagumo wanted to spread fear and Yosuke was the perfect victim for exactly that. Most students would just take it as a joke, but Yosuke would take everything that concerned the class seriously.

"What did he do?"

"He said that... the class.. would.. be.."

"Crushed?"

"How did you know that?.."

"Nagumo is the type of guy, that will do everything to win. He will use any method to win. The reason, that he told it to you, is because he knows about your lack of ability to make decisions in tough situations, so he wanted to plant a seed, that will eventually make you go into a state of depression, like after what had happened to you after Yamauchi faced expulsion. That is why, it is important, why you do not fall for his cheap tricks. The only way to counter it is by giving it your best and pulling everyone in the class together, if his trick ends up working and you don't get the class together, then it will just end up being the first step for the fall of the class, so tell me, that you won't fall for his tricks and that you will do your job, bringing the class together. If you don't, then the class will get crushed, as he said."

If Yosuke did not do that, then it could mean that we were doomed from the start of the exam. We had to avoid that at all costs. After our talk about Nagumo, we talked about the class, the school, and many random things over our lunch. I looked at the clock in the café; it was already noon.

"Sorry, but I'll have to leave now since I have to get ready for the meeting in the classroom."

"It has been fun talking to you, Kiyotaka, but see ya then."

"Likewise."

Then I made my leave and headed back to the dormitory and headed inside my room. I could not seem to sense any third years around, so they had probably given up on waiting for me if they had waited outside my dormitory room. I changed to my school uniform since the meeting would take place inside the school and you needed to be wearing your school uniform. This was another reason they picked the school as the spot for the meeting, since most people were just wearing casual clothes on a Saturday.

I left my room and headed towards the school; I took a slight detour, so nobody would notice me and start following me, it took longer to walk, but I had a good amount of time before the meeting would start since I needed to do something before the meeting with the whole class except for Koenji would start.

I arrived at the school at 12:30 PM, just enough time.

The man I had asked to meet stood right in front of me.