Chapter 67

Chapter 67

Ayanokōji's POV

"Shiina, can we ask you to wait outside for a little while? We wouldn't want any spies listening in on our class discussions, right?"

Kururugi asked her that respectfully, to which Shiina happily obliged, and left the cave. After she disappeared out of the mouth of it, we all looked back to each other.

I was sitting on one side of the cave, against the wall, with Kururugi next to me. Next to him sat Lelouch. The other four were opposite us.

"So, let's do some theory crafting!" Sora said enthusiastically.

"It's been quite some time since we all got together and put our collective deductive ability to the test." Light added with a smile.

"So, starting off, which leaders do we currently know?" Lelouch kicked things off with a general question.

"I know all but Class B's." I answered in monotone.

"What? You even know Class E's? When did you figure that out?" Kururugi looked at me in astonishment.

"In a really stupid way. Honestly, I'll feel embarrassed if I say it here..."

In truth, the way in which I found out Class E's leader was extraordinarily stupid.

"I'll explain everything in one go at the end," I added.

"Hmm, looks like ordinary student-kun has been doing some not-so-ordinary things behind the scenes." Lelouch laughed.

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" I sighed.

"Anyway, getting back on track," Ryuzaki interrupted, chewing his thumb. "All that's left for us to do now is figure out Class B's leader, right?"

"Indeed. Once we do that, we're set for a big promotion! If all goes well, we should be Class B by the end of the exam." Sora said.

"Class B? I thought we'd only get Class C." Kururugi responded, a little confused.

"We've currently spent 80 of our 300 points," Shiro answered him quietly. "That means we have 220 left. As long as we don't lose any spots now, we'll end the exam with 134 bonus points from spot occupation, as well as the 200 from guessing every other leader. That's a total of 554 class points gained, which would put us above Class B in the rankings."

"That many?!" Kururugi exclaimed in disbelief.

"Of course. Ayanokōji wouldn't go to these ridiculous lengths unless it'd result in such an outcome," Light affirmed with a grin.

The 'ridiculous lengths' Light was referring to were probably the fact that I'd decided not to sleep for the entire duration of the exam. To consistently be present to renew every single spot, I couldn't miss even one eight-hour interval. I supposed that I could just take naps throughout the day and have my classmates wake me, but I decided that it wasn't worth the risk.

My body could function just fine with no sleep for a few days, after all. I'd just take a big rest after I got back to the ship.

"You know, I never thought that I'd see somebody decide to pull three all-nighters in a row 'for convenience's sake,' but here we are." Lelouch chuckled.

"Don't be stupid. This is nothing. Shiro and I once stayed up for a week straight just to break the world record on a game. It was a record for 'most enemies slain in one run,' but we only had four accounts playing when the maximum was twelve in one run, so it took us an unexpectedly long time to beat the record since we only had a third of the optimal manpower." Sora informed us.

To be honest, I was slightly lost. I'd never played a video game before, so my understanding of what Sora was saying was very shallow. I vaguely understood that Blank held a world record, though, which was rather impressive. Somehow, I felt that they held quite a lot of records in the gaming world.

"Yo, you say that you guys have never lost a game together, but what kinds of games do you even play? You have a world record in a video game, but you also have an ungodly level of strength at chess, too, which is completely different." Lelouch asked, shooting him a suspicious look.

"All kinds," Sora answered immediately. "Blank is the best gamer in the world. We wouldn't be able to give ourselves that title if we hadn't mastered every kind of game imaginable."

Even I could understand that being world-class at every genre of game in the world is an amazing feat. Not only that, but both Sora and Shiro possessed extraordinary mental capabilities. If physical abilities are discounted, Blank may well be stronger than any other individual in Class D.

"That's some dedication you got," Light complimented.

"Anyway, we're getting side-tracked again," I cut in, bringing us back to the main topic.

"Oh, right, we need to find Class B's leader. Any ideas?" Lelouch asked the group.

"I actually do have one idea for that," Sora replied with a smug grin.

"Go on,"

"Well, why not just piggyback off of the things we already figured out? We know that Ryūen is the Class C leader, based off the interaction that Ayanokōji had Kururugi witness yesterday. Additionally, we also have a hunch that Ryūen made some sort of deal with Katsuragi."

Two days ago, I'd taken a tour of the whole island along with Light and Ryuzaki. At Class A's camp, we observed that they had bottled water, purchased using points. We figured that it'd be stupid for Katsuragi to choose to waste points on water when he had a spot with easy water access, which led us to the conclusion that some other class bought the water for them.

"Ryūen's class spent all their points on the first day. There's a good chance that Class A's supplies were part of their expenses." I supplemented.

"Class B and E have both employed a strictly defensive strategy. They're not trying to figure out any leaders – they're just trying to keep their own a secret while getting by using as little points as possible. In other words, they're going about this exam in the most conventional way possible." Ryuzaki analysed.

"It's extremely unlikely that one of them is playing some sort of advanced trick, and faking all of that while making a deal like this behind the scenes. The only viable option for Class A's sponsor is Class C." Lelouch continued.

"The question is, what exactly is the deal? We know that Class C is paying Class A's expenses, but is that all they're giving Class A? And what are they getting in return?" Light stated the main mysteries on our minds right now.

We all went silent for a while, mulling over various possibilities and theories in our heads.

"I think I see what you're getting at, Sora." I said.

"Oh?"

"You think that Ryūen might be giving Katsuragi the identities of the leaders he discovers with his spies. If that's true, we can use the spies against him. It's highly likely that Ryūen arranged meeting times with his spies beforehand, just in case they ended up losing their radio transceivers. We can have Kururugi return to the place that he found by trailing Shiina, and monitor Ryūen. That way, when he meets with Katsuragi right before the end of the exam, we'll be able to simply listen in on their conversation, and then we'll know who the Class B leader is. We don't even have to do anything. We can just let his spies do all our work." I elaborated my theory.

"That's based on a lot of assumptions, though. What if Ryūen's moved?" Kururugi asked.

"He must've set a new base camp location, so he'll probably be there still. The homeroom teachers take roll call at the base camp location every day, and they also take in the names of your leader guesses at roll call on the seventh day. In other words, Ryūen can't stray too far from his new base camp, otherwise he risks losing his entire strategy if he can't make it to roll call for whatever reason." Light explained thoroughly.

"I see... But what if Ryūen isn't even giving Katsuragi the leaders?" Kururugi inquired.

"The clue is in Shiina's luggage," Ryuzaki pointed to Shiina's bag. "What did we find in her bag, other than the transceiver?"

"A camera?"

"Precisely. Why would she need a camera? Ryūen is distrustful, but he wouldn't make it a requirement for his subordinates to get photographic evidence if that was all there was to it. No, the person he's supplying with information wants photographic evidence." Ryuzaki surmised for him.

"Ah, I get it. Katsuragi probably wouldn't trust Ryūen's words, so he added 'photographic evidence' as a clause in their agreement." Kururugi finally understood the theory.

"Precisely."

"We'll have you return to the place Shiina led you to tomorrow, Kururugi. Even if we turn out to be wrong, it's not like we lose anything by doing this, anyway." I said.

"Understood." Kururugi said resolutely.

So, now we had a plan set in motion for discovering Class B's leader. Ordinarily, I'd prepare a backup plan, just in case it turned out that Kururugi failed, but I was 99% sure that Ryūen would in fact turn out to be giving Katsuragi the leaders. I was also confident that Kururugi wouldn't fail his task.

"Onto the next piece of business," Ryuzaki said, moving us on. "If possible, I'd like for us to attack Class A a little more."

"I see. They are the only class that will end up anywhere close to us in points by the end, due to them having evaded the need to buy their own things." Lelouch nodded.

"Right. If we use an estimate of around 140 points spent in total throughout the exam, then we can calculate Class B to have around 10 by the end, after being guessed by us, Class C and Class A. The same is true for Class E. Class C will end with 0. Class A, though, even after being guessed by us, will still have 220 points by the end." Light calculated aloud.

"In other words, we should leak Class A's leader to somebody else. Class C would be our best option." Sora mused.

"Yeah. They're going to get 0 regardless of what we do, so the 50 they'll gain from guessing Class A's leader won't actually be gained for them. It's a win-win for us." I affirmed.

"Unfortunately, that won't be possible." Ryuzaki shot the idea down. "If we arrange to meet with Ryūen, then that'll mean he'll have two background deals going on at the same time. In that case, he'll be extra vigilant in making sure that those two deals don't cross over, and he'll make sure to move his meeting location with Katsuragi. That would ruin our plan to find Class B's leader. Of course, that isn't guaranteed, but there's a good chance that someone like Ryūen would do that."

If I were Ryūen, I'd do that. If I were to make a deal involving the leakage of Class A's leader, I wouldn't risk Katsuragi finding out about it. I was sure that Ryūen was the same.

"If not Class C, then how about Class E? Them and Class B are both likely to end the exam on an extremely low amount of points too, but Class B are less likely to accept our offer." Lelouch suggested an alternative.

"But Class E are hard to approach and make deals with, since they don't actually have a leader." Sora retorted.

"Neither do we, to be fair," Kururugi chimed in.

"But we have a representative, even if it's only on paper."

Light looked at Lelouch as he said that, causing Lelouch to give us a little wave.

"We could always approach Bitch-san. She seems desperate to win, so she'd likely accept our proposition." Lelouch commented.

"It's not nice to call a girl that, Lelouch." Kururugi scolded