74 Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Ayanokōji's POV

After I complete my final path around the island, to get 10 last bonus points before the end of the exam, I returned to the base camp where I discovered that Shiina had vanished.

She'd probably dropped out on Ryūen's orders. There was no point in her remaining here, after all.

The results of the exam would probably be announced in about an hour or two, so I decided to go and talk a walk to Class B and E's base camp while I waited for everyone to wake up.

Two days ago, Lelouch had successfully struck a deal with Class B and E, stating that we would give them the identity of Class A's leader with no strings attached. This was because Class A was in a much better position than Class B, C and E, so we decided to attack them a little.

The only condition on the deal was that us in Class D would allow Ichinose Honami and Horikita Suzune to watch as we wrote our guess for Class A's leader. This was to ensure that we weren't lying to them.

I decided to go and fetch Ichinose and Horikita now. By the time I'd walk all the way to the starting beach, do my business with two of them and walk back, everybody would likely be awake. Roll call would come not much longer after that.

The only issue was that Ichinose and Horikita couldn't afford to be absent during roll call. This meant that I'd have to coax Ishihara-sensei into allowing us to fill in the section earlier than usual.

The homeroom teachers will all be at the beach at this time. Therefore, it made sense to approach Ishihara-sensei there.

It was still quite dark, as the rain clouds from yesterday's stormy night had not yet fully cleared. The blue skies were dark and overcast. As a result, traversing the forest was harder than usual, especially since it was still damp from the earlier downpour.

"Yahoo! Kiyotaka!"

I swivelled my head to the side, towards the source of a voice which called out to me from across the clearing I was in, and immediately spotted a familiar figure.

"Speak of the devil and she will appear..." I muttered.

I'd just been thinking about her, and then here she was, clad in her signature casual clothes. Amazingly, even though it was cold, windy and damp, Ishihara-sensei had no qualms about wearing a skirt.

The remnants of last night's storm caused her pale green waist-length hair to flutter to the side, producing a particularly wonderous effect. Her piercing oceanic eyes, which matched her outfit, beamed brightly as she skipped over to me, clipboard in hand.

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

On the first day of this island exam, Ishihara-sensei had began calling me 'Kiyotaka,' rather than 'Ayanokōji' because she wanted to become closer to her students. I didn't have any particular objection, so I'd allowed it. I hadn't really seen her since, though, so hearing someone refer to me by that name was unexpectedly jarring.

"Ishihara-sensei. What are you doing here?"

"Hmm, all the other homeroom teachers decided to get a move on now for maximum efficiency, see~?"

"I see. I suppose the school wants to get the results announced as soon as possible so we can board the ship again."

"Exactly. So, where are you running off to this early in the morning, Ki-yo-ta-ka-kun?"

She poked my chest playfully with her finger on every syllable of my name. I understood that she was teasing me.

"Is it unusual to head out this early?"

"Of course! It's still dark out! I wonder who the lucky person you're out to meet up with is?"

"I'm going to see Ichinose and Horikita."

Ishihara-sensei raised her hand to her mouth in shock. "Kiyotaka! How scandalous!"

"Stop imagining weird things, sensei."

She was leaning towards me and looking up into my eyes, so I couldn't resist reaching out and flicking her forehead with my finger.

"Ouch! You're mean, Kiyotaka!"

She squealed loudly and rubbed her forehead, and mimed wiping a tear after she spoke. It was rather cute.

"Speaking of, Ishihara-sensei, would it be too much trouble for me to request that you accompany me?"

As I said that, she paused and blinked her eyes open, letting out a soft "Huh?" sound as she did so.

"Hmm? Me? What do you need me for?"

"Convenience." I stated.

She showed visible confusion, but I resumed my walk, causing her to forget it and scramble to keep up with me.

"Where are we going?!"

"To the beach. Class D struck a deal with Class B and E for this exam."

I explained no more than that. Mysteriously, I felt that Ishihara-sensei would understand even without any further elaboration.

"So, do you think your plan worked?" She asked, changing the topic.

"I hope so. If not, I'm going to get lynched by my classmates for sure."

"Ooh, scary. Aren't you nervous~?"

She grinned sadistically, clearly deriving enjoyment from my precarious situation.

It was no laughing matter, though. If the results are announced and we in Class D end up with 0 points, I really will get killed.

"Nervous? I suppose so."

Ishihara-sensei narrowed her dazzling blue eyes at me suspiciously.

"You don't look it,"

"I'm just not very good at expressing myself."

A brief silence ensued as we followed the path to the beach, which was well-trodden by now from all the trips back and forth that'd been taken.

Eventually, Ishihara-sensei spoke, a more serious look on her face than her usual, playful one.

"Can I ask you a question, Kiyotaka?"

"Go ahead. Whether I'll answer is a different story, though."

"Hm, 'kay~," she paused to think for a second, before continuing. "Your entrance scores. You got exactly 50 in every subject. That was clearly intentional. I presume that you were trying to appear average?"

I had to stop to think out my answer for a moment. I had to be sure to choose my words carefully.

"You may assume that that's the case."

"Hm, so leading on from that, I can deduce..." she placed her thumb to her lips, imitating the familiar thinking pose that Ryuzaki always used. "You originally intended to live the life of an ordinary and quiet student, correct?"

"I guess so,"

"The only reason I can think of for why someone with such astounding capabilities would lower themselves to an ordinary level is because they were deprived of such normalcy in their prior life."

She gave a scarily accurate assessment of my past, but she probably didn't even realise it. Just how much did this woman know?

"But that's not even what I want to know right now. Kiyotaka, what do you plan to do now? You've made yourself the centre of attention with this stunt you've pulled, which clearly contradicts your earlier ambitions, no?"

I had to think of a satisfactory excuse that also sounded convincing. As a result, I'd have to tell a truth, but just not the whole truth.

"Well, it's not like I could hide behind a façade of mediocrity for long, me being a part of the so-called 'genius class.'"

That probably wouldn't be enough to satisfy her curiosity for now, though, so I decided to add a little more.

"When I first enrolled at this school, I don't think I was a fully formed person. I may still be in the process of being moulded as we speak. As such, it isn't too surprising that I've began to change a little compared to when I took the entrance exams. I've even caught myself saying some things a few times that I'd never thought I'd say. It must be those guys rubbing off on me."

The faces of Sora, Lelouch, Light and Ryuzaki flashed through my mind. They were definitely the more influential figures close to me, compared to Shiro and Kururugi, who didn't come off nearly as strongly.

I contemplated whether being influenced by them was a good thing or a bad thing. Ultimately, it was impossible to know at this stage, so I just let it go.

"I see... Well, my curiosity is sated for now, 'kay~! But more importantly..."

"We're here."

We stepped out onto the soft sand, which was glowing slightly as the rays of the golden morning began to crack through the dark clouds up above.

Class B and E seemed to have roused earlier than my classmates, as they were all already up, lively chatting amongst one another and eating breakfast. If somebody saw this scene who didn't know any better, they'd think that these people were having the vacation of their lives.

I skimmed my focus across my field of vision, until my eyes landed on one of the two individuals I was looking for. Ichinose Honami. She had a bubbly demeanour, as usual, and was smiling brightly while eating with her friends.

She noticed us as we approached her, and waved to us, causing all of her friends to look over as well. I raised my hand back, and Ichinose said something to her friends before standing up and making her way over to meet us.

"Ayanokōji-kun! I assume you're here because of our deal?"

"That's right..." I averted my gaze and looked over the beach once more. "Where's Horikita? I don't see her anywhere."

"Oh, Horikita? She's been battling illness for a few days now and has been hit particularly rough today. She's resting in that tent over there. I can take you to go and see her if you like."

Ichinose pointed to a tent which was set up some distance away on the other side of the beach.

"No, it's alright. I wouldn't want to disturb her if she's recovering. Besides, that girl can be quite scary when she wants to be."

Ichinose giggled at my joke, before adopting a slightly more focused expression.

"So, how are we going to do this?"

"Well, you're fine with acting as the sole witness and passing the information on to Class E, right?"

"That sounds fine to me."

"Right. Now..."

I turned around to look at the teacher beside me, who was watching our interaction curiously, an inquisitive look on her features.

"Ishihara-sensei... Ishihara-sensei?" I called her name, snapping her out of whatever daydream she was having.

"Oh, right. What is it?"

"That clipboard. I assume that's the one we'll be using to fill in the names of our leader guesses, right?"

"Ooh, impressive deduction, Kiyotaka!" Ishihara-sensei exclaimed excitedly.

"Hmm, wasn't it pretty obvious, though? I mean, what else would you need to write down on the final day of this exam..." Ichinose looked at her with confusion.

Ichinose also looked pretty baffled by the fact that Ishihara-sensei had called me by my first name.

Ishihara-sensei and Ichinose stared into each other's eyes for a short while, before both bursting out into laughter for no apparent reason.

I found myself considerably lost by their antics.

After they calmed down, I decided to move things along swiftly.

"Will you allow me to fill in Class D's guess for Class A's leader now, Ishihara-sensei?"

"Hmm, well, I don't see a problem with it. There's no rule saying you can't fill in your guesses early..."

I suspected that we could've filled in our guesses on the first day if we really wanted to. Guessing limitations were never specified in the explanation nor the manual.

"Do you have a pen, sensei?"

"Here,"

I took the pen and, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ichinose to ensure that she could see clearly, wrote the name Yahiko Totsuka in the blank space at the top of the page.

"I presume this will suffice? It's written in ink, so we can't erase it and, just to be completely sure, there are no extras or anything hidden behind this page, either."

I clearly lifted the page to show that it was the sole paper in the clipboard, causing Ichinose to nod in approval.

"Mhm. That's all good! I'll inform Horikita-san and Hirata-kun."

Somehow, I got the impression that Ichinose would've trusted my word even if I didn't go to the effort of showing her my writing of the name. She was just that kind of girl.

"Well, I'd love to talk more, Ichinose, but I've got to get back to the Class D base camp in time for roll call. It's quite some distance from here."

"Ah, right, I won't keep you then. Goodbye, Ayanokōji-kun! And thank you!"

I waved goodbye to Ichinose, and set off once more into the forest, a troublesome teacher trailing just behind me.