Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Sora's POV

The four of us - Me, Shiro, Light and Lelouch - were lounging around, doing nothing in particular, within the cave we'd occupied. We only got the chance to speak about trivial things for a short while, though, because only a few minutes after the other three left, some visitors turned up.

I lifted Shiro off of my lap and, grasping her hand, walked to the mouth of the cave with Lelouch and Light. When we reached it, we looked out over the open area before us, the soothing sound of running water was the only sound that could be heard.

Standing before us was ten individuals. I didn't recognize any of them, but I had a suspicion of who one of them was.

"Shiro, do you know who they are?" Lelouch asked.

He'd probably asked Shiro because she definitely knew. She'd said that she'd already memorized every first-year student, after all.

"They're all Class A. The bald one is Katsuragi Kōhei." Shiro replied.

"Class A, hmm?" Lelouch took his eyes off of my sister and turned to address the group of Class A students. "You, Katsuragi, you're one of the Class A faction leaders, aren't you? Can I take it that you also spotted this cave from the ship?"

"It's nothing like that. We just happened to stumble upon this place while searching for a spot."

He said that, but he couldn't hide his slight surprise in his voice. I was almost certain that he'd planned to come here right away, but we had beaten him to the punch.

"I believe this is my first encounter with your class. It's nice to meet you all. I might as well formally introduce myself; I'm Katsuragi Kōhei, Class 1-A."

"I remember you, Katsuragi, from when I visited Class A a while back. I'm Yagami Light, Class 1-D." Light said politely in response.

"Sora, and this is my sister, Shiro." I stated flatly. I wasn't particularly interested in making a good impression.

Lelouch smirked arrogantly before starting his introduction. "If you haven't already heard of me, I'm Lelouch, future Class A graduate. The pleasure is all yours."

"Arrogance is not an admirable trait." Katsuragi said as his classmates all glared distastefully at us.

Of course, I knew that Lelouch was being intentionally provocative, and that he wasn't actually that arrogant. However, by acting like this, he could potentially cause the Class A students to cloud their judgement regarding him.

And also, it sounded much cooler than a polite introduction.

"I see. I'll definitely bear that in mind." Lelouch said neutrally.

If I had to guess, Lelouch probably did actually intend to ensure that he doesn't become overconfident.

"Katsuragi. Are you sure that you didn't come here on purpose? Finding this place straight away would be quite the coincidence, considering where it's located." Light asked skeptically.

"Are you implying that your class came here on purpose?" Katsuragi responded cautiously, trying his best not to leak any information.

It was all for naught, though. I was already certain that Katsuragi knew of this spot before the exam even started, just based off of his reaction to our presence.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, actually. We all noticed this spot from aboard Speranza." Light answered.

"I see. Well, in that case, we should get going. It will be bad if we don't find a spot soon."

Katsuragi rallied his classmates, and prepared to set off once more into the wilderness. Just before he departed, though, I decided to shout out to him.

"Oh, and, don't bother going to the hut or the tower, either. We've already claimed those as well."

In reality, we didn't have those two spots yet. Ayanokōji had only left a short while ago to go and claim them, and he had almost definitely not done so yet. However, by saying that we had, I greatly reduced the chances of Class A going to check them, and so, also reduced the chances of those spots getting stolen from us.

"The tower and the hut? What are you talking about?" Katsuragi asked, turning to face me.

Katsuragi played dumb. It was probably to stifle any questions coming from his classmates. After all, he would probably lose support within his class if the other students found out that he'd hidden this information from them. I was under the impression that Sakayanagi was the antithesis of Katsuragi, so I had no doubt that she'd take the opportunity to make herself out to be more transparent to her classmates. It certainly seemed like hard work, being involved in class politics.

"Oh, it's nothing. Don't mind me." I waved him off, and returned to the cave, shortly followed by my classmates.

"He definitely came here with the intention of occupying this cave." Light remarked as we sat down once more.

"Yeah. We'll share our findings with the others before coming up with our plan." Lelouch declared.

"Plan?" Shiro murmured unconsciously.

"They just gave us a massive hint. An easy way to guess their leader, should I say." I said, pulling Shiro into my lap.

"They did?" Shiro asked as she laid her head on my chest.

"Yeah. Think about it for a second - Katsuragi definitely came here on purpose, with the intention of occupying this spot. What does that tell us?"

"Hmm... The leader was among that group?" Shiro responded, seemingly catching on to the implications.

"Exactly." I stroked her head lightly.

A tranquil silence befell our group. To be fair, there was nothing for us to do until the others returned. For a while, the only sound that could be heard was the scratching of a pencil on paper, until somebody spoke up.

"Oi, Shiro, can you give me a hand over here?" Light asked, raising his gaze from the paper and setting the pencil down.

"Huh?" Shiro looked visibly shocked.

She wasn't used to this kind of treatment. She'd spent pretty much her entire life being abused by almost everyone she'd ever met. To be wholly accepted by a group such as this was definitely an alien experience to her. I gave her hand a squeeze to reassure her, and she resolved herself in response.

Shiro shuffled over to Light, who was kneeling over a piece of paper which he'd laid down on the rocky floor. She sat down cross-legged opposite him, and peered down at the page.

"I decided to map out the island in detail, including all of the spots we were shown from the ship, but I'm having trouble making sure it matches up with the islands topography. Do you think you can help me fill it in?"

Nobody except for me had ever asked for Shiro's help before. It made me think, perhaps this school isn't so bad after all. Even though Light had probably only asked her because he'd thought she would have remembered the islands details the best, I was still grateful that he was willing to reach out to her.

I realized that this was an extremely depressing thing to be this happy about.

"Yeah," Shiro took a moment and closed her eyes. She was probably reconstructing a model of the island in her mind, taking into account everything she'd seen and learned up until now. "This whole area will be the beach..."

Shiro began tracing her finger over the page, and then Light went over it with the pencil. This process went on for an indeterminate number of minutes, Shiro pinpointing various features and details as Light added more and more to the map.

When they were finally done, Light picked up the map with his hand and raised it into the air. He looked it over for a few seconds, before nodding in satisfaction and turning it so that Shiro could see.

"It's perfect. Thank you." He gave her a warm smile.

I felt my face, which normally wore a condescending expression, shift into a gentle one. I glanced at Lelouch who, for once, looked genuinely content as he watched the scene. It was surprising, seeing as how he was usually either smug or apathetic.

"See? That wasn't bad, was it?" I patted Shiro's head as she returned to my side.

Shiro didn't respond, but she didn't even have to. I already knew exactly what emotions were coursing through her. The feeling of being accepted, of being at ease. Being able to become properly a part of a group. Feelings that she'd never felt before.

"Maybe I can accept this school after all."