19 Chapter 19

Ayanokōjis' POV

"So we'll finally get to see what Kururugi's doing in this class, huh?"

"That's right. I've been wondering about that as well."

Arriving to class, Sora and Light exchanged casual conversation while Shiro silently held Sora's hand - mainly, they were talking about Kururugi, who was talking to Lelouch just next to me. Light and Blank arriving together was certainly unusual - it had been one week since the opening ceremony and so far everyone had arrived to class alone, save for Sora and Shiro.

Today we had swimming class, which meant that the physical attributes of Class E were going to be evaluated. Thinking about it, I wondered where I ranked within Class E - my classmates all knew about my mental capacity by now, but everyone was still in the dark about each others athletic prowess.

"Hey, Sora, will you and Shiro be all right?" I decided to call out to him.

"What do you mean?" Kururugi asked. "Are you asking if they can swim or not?"

"No. I've noticed that Sora and Shiro heavily rely on each others presence to function over the past week, and swimming isn't really something you can do while linked to another." I explained.

"Nii and I are fine as long as we're in the same room." Shiro replied monotonously.

"That's a weakness you guys should really work on. What is the reason you're so reliant on each other?" Lelouch said.

"We'd-- Rather not talk about." Sora said as he sat down at his desk.

I recalled the darkness that had seeped out of Sora's eyes when he looked into mine six days ago. Something had obviously happened in Blank's past to make them this way, to be so dependent on each other while carrying such a heavy burden.

"Alright, let's place bets! Ryuzaki has kindly prepared a spreadsheet for us to use for both the fastest and slowest swimmers! 1000 points to enter!" Sora declared, clearly changing the subject.

We all gathered around his desk as he got out a tablet and opened a spreadsheet. All the Class E students' names were displayed, and there were two columns of numbers, presumably representing betting odds, accompanying them labelled 'Fastest' and 'Slowest' .

As of right now, Kururugi had the lowest odds of being the fastest swimmer at one to four while Shiro had the lowest odds of being the slowest with one to eight. The odds assigned to me were two to three for being the fastest and twenty to one for being the slowest. In other words, the odds are low that I'll be the fastest and the odds are high that I'll be the slowest.

This meant that Ryuzaki had evaluated me quite highly. In fact, after Kururugi I had the lowest odds of being the fastest and I also had the second-highest odds if I was bet on being the slowest. If someone was to bet on me being the slowest and I was, then they would win a payout of 20,000 points. Conversely, if someone bet on me being the fastest and I was then they would only win 670 points - in other words, Ryuzaki thought it was likely that I'd be in the top two for fastest time and was almost guaranteed to not finish last.

"Can I add one rule?" Lelouch asked.

"What is it?" Sora queried in response.

Lelouch looked straight at me. "So that the betting is fair, no one is allowed to purposely lower their speed."

"Ah, so the compulsive gambler is worried about the results being skewed by ordinary-student-kun, is that it?" Sora mocked both Lelouch and me at the same time, looking smug.

"My holding back will depend on whether only Class E is present at the pool or not." I interjected, attempting to set clear conditions to my participation.

Everyone seemed satsified with this compromise. Thankfully, the atmosphere hadn't changed at all since the events in the karaoke room - if anything I felt like I fit in with the group more than before. Everyone seemed to understand my position and agreed to let me live normally until May rolled around.

Looking back at the spreadsheet, I decided to place my bet on myself. Some of my classmates raised an eyebrow at this, but nobody said anything.

"Let's just get this over with," Sora sighed exasperatedly.

After lunch had ended, it was finally time for swim class. Sora, Shiro and Lelouch had faces that made me think of a new soldier about to go to war for the first time, while the rest of us had neutral expressions as we headed into the locker room.

Kururugi promptly removed his uniform and began changing, like you would if you were alone in your room. As I expected his physique was excellent, the kind you could only get through rigorous training. While everyone else was wrapped in bath towels, he stood there in nothing but his underwear completely unabashed. I couldn't keep myself from blurting something out.

"Kururugi, you're pretty bold. Aren't you nervous being around other people?"

"In the military, we had to do all sorts of things in front of each other including showering. If you tried to hide and be sneaky about it, you would only be noticed more."

That was likely true in places like this as well - sneaky guys get mocked.

"I'll see you all at the pool."

A moment later, Kururugi left the locker room. I quickly finished changing as well and followed him out around half a minute later.

Upon seeing the fifty-meter pool, Light raised his eyebrow. "This school is definitely luxurious. Even city pools aren't as good as this." The water was clear and beautiful, and because it was indoors, we didn't have to worry about the weather. The perfect environment.

"It looks like only Class E will be here after all, eh Ayanokōji?" Lelouch said as he came out of the locker room as well.

"Looks like it," I sighed in defeat.

I had secretly been hoping that we would be joined by another class, so I could justify hiding my ability. Sadly, it looked like I wouldn't be granted a reprieve.

A moment later, Sora emerged from the locker room. He was, to put it bluntly, a spinless cowering wreck. His whole body was shaking and his eyes darted around the room in apparent terror. I had never seen him like this before.

"S-Sora? What's wrong?" Kururugi asked, but he didn't get a response.

Around a minute later, Shiro emerged from the girls' locker room in a similar state. They both shuddered and hid themselves as best they could in this open swimming pool. When they saw each other, they immediately brightened and lunged towards one another.

"Nii!"

"Shiro!"

They wrapped each other in a tight hug and were literally crying with joy. They didn't seem to pay any mind to the fact that their bare skin was rubbing against one another - if I didn't know that they were siblings, this scene would definitely give me a lewd vibe.

"That was so scary!"

"I never want to do that again!"

They cried to each other. I felt an air of bewilderment fall over the rest of us like a blanket. I glanced around my four other classmates and they all had similarly incredulous expressions.

"To think that it's that bad..." Ryuzaki muttered under his breath.

"Oi, you two. You're really gonna have to work on that. What'll you do if there's a time when you can't be together?" Lelouch broke into Blank's heartfelt reunion.

"It's scary!" Sora protested to no avail.

"We aren't telling you to stop depending on each other and we're not telling you to suddenly change the way you've been your whole lives but... Can't you at least try to get to the point where you can function independently?" Light asked them.

"I suppose... We can try to get to that point, eventually..." Sora said heavily as he walked over to us.

"I guess it's lucky that Shiro is the only girl in our class, otherwise she would've had to change in front of people in that state." I pointed out.

Shiro visibly recoiled in response, which made me feel bad. I should be more sensitive towards them in the future, I thought. I apologized to Shiro in my head.

"On another note, your physique is unexpectedly good Ayanokōji. You must have done heavy training to get that body, right?" Kururugi asked me.

I thought about shrugging it off, but Kururugi would probably see right through me. He was no doubt very experienced in what kind of builds different levels of training produced, after having been in the military.

"Yeah, something like that." I replied ambiguously.

"Hm, that's definitely suspicious ordinary-student-kun." Lelouch mocked me.

"Can you guys stop calling me that?"

Really, it was beginning to get troublesome. It seems that me trying to act like a normal high-schooler had in fact brought more attention to me than just being myself would've. I hoped that they would eventually forget about it and drop the nickname.

"Ayanokōji clearly had his reasons for trying to appear ordinary so I think we should let it go."

The godsend himself, Kururugi Suzaku, spoke up on behalf. Thank you, Kururugi, you are truly my saviour. I knew the school made the right call by putting him in our class.

"Yes, I think you guys should leave Ayanokōji alone." Light also backed me.

"If you all say so," Lelouch responded, looking disinterested in my turmoil.

"All right, everyone, line up!"

A macho-looking middle-aged man, the kind of guy who apparently devoted himself to sports, gathered everyone together and started the class. He looked like a PE teacher, but also the kind of guy who was attractive to men and women alike.

"There's only seven of you, huh? Shouldn't there be more? Are there people skipping the class?"

Our instructor clearly hadn't been told that Class E only had seven students and thought that most of our class had ditched swim class. He didn't seem particularly frustrated though, even knowing that.

"Uh, actually sir, this is our entire class." Sora said slightly sheepishly.

"R-really? Ah, whatever. It's all right either way. After you warm up, I want to see what you can really do. Swim for me," the coach said.

At that, everyone started their swimming exercises. One thing I noticed was that nobody in our class seemed interested in Shiro, even though she was a girl in her swimsuit. I wondered whether it was because she wasn't deemed attractive or if it was because her brother was present. Or maybe, they just simply aren't interested in girls.

The teacher asked us to swim for about fifty meters. Students who could not swim were allowed to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet. I hadn't been in a pool since last year. The water must have been temperature-controlled, because I didn't feel chilled when I entered and adjusted right away. After getting in, I started to swim lightly.

After fifty meters, I waited for everyone else to finish