Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Ayanokōji's POV

"Aagh! That's one of the worst things I've ever had to go through!"

Kushida spat venomous words as she fumed, sitting on the bed opposite mine.

We were currently alone in the room that I shared with Sora and Shiro on the ship. They'd both gone to play games with the rest of our classmates, but since I hadn't slept in four days, I was both mentally and physically exhausted, and retired to my dorm for the day.

I'd received a text from Kushida shortly after we had our phones returned to us. She said that she wanted to meet with me alone, so I invited her into the room since it was currently vacant. People would definitely get the wrong idea if they saw us, but Kushida didn't seem to pay it any mind.

"Ike and Yamauchi both, they should just shrivel up and die already! Disgusting fucking perverts! I was stuck camping with them for a whole week! They wouldn't stop staring at my body, it was honestly repulsive! But I can't say anything about it, either, because then everyone would become disillusioned of me!"

She struck her fist down on the bed below her in anger.

Recently, Kushida had decided that I was now the outlet for her to vent her frustrations. She'd reasoned that, since I'd said I wanted to help her and I knew of her secret already, she might as well make use of me.

It was smart on her part, though. She'd probably realised from our encounter that shouting her annoyances out loudly on the rooftop could result in her being heard, so she'd decided to use me instead.

I had no qualms about it, since it would be beneficial for me to increase Kushida's trust in me, and make her more dependent on my existence.

Besides, I do genuinely want to help Kushida, and see her grow over these three years.

I listening in silence for a while as Kushida told me about all the things that had made her angry or frustrated over the past week. This went on for around ten to twenty minutes, before she finally finished, and laid fully down on the bed, exhausted.

I got up, and made my way towards the kitchen that adjoined the bedroom

"Do you want anything to drink, Kushida? All of that talking must've made your throat dry. We have—"

I was cut off by a sudden movement. Kushida sat back up as I passed by her and reached out, grasping my hand in hers.

"Ayanokōji-kun."

I turned and stared are her silently, my mind going blank.

"... What is it?"

"What did you really want, when you recorded me and forced me to become subservient to you? At first, I thought you were just some pervert like the rest of those disgusting boys who'd gotten hold of my weakness, but... you haven't asked me to do anything since then. Why?"

I thought for a moment, choosing my words carefully before speaking.

"Let's see... I thought that there's no way you'd let me off easily if I did nothing so, to compromise, I also showed you my hidden side, that nobody else has seen, and offered this arrangement to you."

"Nobody else knows of that side of you? I'm the only one?"

She looked at me with eyes of confusion, accompanied by a faint trace of hope on her features.

"That's right. You are the only one."

"I see... I'm glad..."

With my hand still in hers, I walked over and sat down on the bed beside her. I looked into her eyes silently for a few seconds.

"Kushida."

"... Hm...?"

"What are your honest thoughts regarding me?"

"I... don't know what to think, Ayanokōji-kun. It's... scary. The fact that you hold my entire life in your hands..."

Her voice quivered as she spoke. It was understandable, though – even for someone like Kushida, this situation must be terrifying.

"Kushida, from the start, I never intended to hold your life in my hands. I'd intended for us to become allies, but the recording was necessary to allow me to build on our relationship first. Even if you get me expelled, I have no intention of releasing the recording."

She removed her hand from mine and glared at me coldly, clear suspicion present in her icy eyes.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No. That's why I'll prove it to you in due time. Once you trust that I truly am on your side, you can delete the recording yourself."

Her eyes widened as I said that, and she stared at me in confusion and shock. After a brief silence, she let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh.

"Trust, huh. You should know, Ayanokōji-kun. I can't even remember the last time I trusted another person."

"Make no mistake, I'm not telling you to suddenly become a trusting person, Kushida. I don't trust people, either. That's why I recorded our altercation in the first place. However, you need at least one ally. You'll end up destroying yourself at this rate?"

"Destroying... myself?"

"You must've known it, deep down. You can't live a life of solitude and hatred forever. Do you want to be all alone, until the day you die?"

"No... I..."

"Then, I'd like you to place trust in me. Of course, I'm not expecting anything straight away. However, from now on, you can start building a real relationship with me, not a fake one like the ones you have with everyone else."

"A real relationship... I may not be capable of that anymore, you know."

She looked down, repenting herself. If there were a list of people who Kushida hated, it wouldn't surprise me if her own name was written somewhere in it.

"Do you not find my existence beneficial to you, Kushida? I promised to help you protect your peaceful life here, and I'm the only one you can be your true self around."

"Well, I'll admit that it's better than I thought it would be, to be able to express myself and vent to Ayanokōji-kun. However, I can't view it as a positive while you have that recording. Sorry, but merely allowing me to vent to you isn't enough to move me."

So, she was saying that she expected my actual help with something before we could see eye to eye. Well, it wasn't entirely unexpected. I'd sensed that something had been bothering Kushida for a while that she'd refrained from mentioning to me.

"When you call for me, I will help you. Whether it be by protecting your secret, or eliminating your enemies, I'll help you. For now, though, I simply want you to consider building a real bond with me, Kushida."

She went silent for a short while, pondering what I'd said. Eventually, she seemingly had an idea, and looked up and into my eyes.

"Well, Ayanokōji-kun, if you want me to trust you, how about you tell me all about how you won the special exam today, hmm?"

Normally, you wouldn't explain your strategy and exploits to your enemy, but if it was Kushida, I could make an exception.

"That's fine with me. What do you want to know?"

She sat up straight and swung her legs back and forth off the side of the bed.

"Everything, I guess. I have no idea how these results even happened at all."

"I see. Then I'll go from the start. The very first thing we at Class D did was rush to the cave, tower and hut, which were a group of three spots which were the most important base on the island."

Kushida tilted her head to the side.

"What about the well that Class B had, or the spots near the river? Wouldn't they be better bases because of the convenience?"

"The spot itself wasn't what was important. Its location was."

There were no spots close to the river or the well. However, there were two spots near the cave: the hut and the tower. It was the perfect place to exercise control. Kushida looked like she understood once I explained.

"But how did you know they were there? Weren't the spot locations a mystery to us?"

"No. You probably didn't notice, but the school already gave us hints about the locations when we were sailing around the island."

Katsuragi had also noticed this when the ship circled the island at an unusually fast speed. Kushida fell silent. The ship had been traveling nearly three times faster than a usual cruise ship. Besides, if it were just for sightseeing, it wasn't normal to use a strange expression like "significant scenery."

"Shortly after we occupied the cave spot, Katsuragi showed up with nine of his classmates in tow. He'd obviously also noticed the hint and rushed to the cave, but was slower than we were. We were able to narrow down the Class A leader to those nine people he brought with him because we deduced that he'd come with the intent to occupy the spot. It wouldn't make sense for him not to bring the key card and leader with him."

Kushida narrowed her eyes as she listened to my explanation.

"I see... The logic makes sense, but I don't think I would've been able to think of it at the time. That doesn't explain how you were able to figure out their leader, though?"

It looked like Kushida was aware of the deal between us and Class B and E, because she knew that we'd figured out Class A's leader. I wasn't surprised about that fact, though.

"After I encountered you, Kōenji and Horikita at the tower, I took a quick look around the island, which served two purposes. The first was to allow me to collect some berries along the way, in order to sell the lie to Shiina, the spy Ryūen had planted in our camp. The second was to get a quick look around the various spots."

Before the fourth day, it was crucial to make sure that Shiina didn't catch on to our plan of occupying every spot. We needed to subtly hint to her that I was the leader, to make her believe that she'd figured it out undetected. Sora had realised this too, which is why he pretended to slip up his wording when I first brought Shiina back to our camp.

"While touring the island, I noted that Class A had, as expected, occupied the two spots closest to the cave. These spots were in a specific location, wherein we could see the path between them from our tower spot. Ryuzaki and Light took on the task of monitoring the movements between their two spots and, by comparing the movements over a twenty-four hour period to the approximate spot renewal times right from the start of the exam, they were able to narrow down the Class A leader even further, to just 2 students."

Kushida took a moment to process what I'd said, visualizing my explanation of our observation point in her mind, before nodding in understanding.

"I see. So, how did you figure out which of those two it was?"