Chapter 79

Chapter 79

"They'd opted to use a more out-of-the-way spot that had no water access instead of their main one, and use bottled water. This would make no sense, unless they had a sponsor. At the end of the test, Class A had 270 points."

In other words, they hadn't used a single point during the test.

"Classes A and C were connected, working together behind the scenes. Class C sacrificed their own points and bought whatever Class A needed. Also, by taking all of C's tools, Class A was able to spend the week without using any points."

The cameras were there so that the spies could obtain evidence and give it to someone in Class A.

"That was Ryūen's strategy. His main priority wasn't to win – no, it was to secure some sort of deal with Class A. I don't know what Class A is giving in return for the leaders identities and all of Class C's S-points during the exam, but it must've been something worth enough to make Ryūen choose to sacrifice points in this exam in return for something greatly beneficial long-term."

Our main theory in Class D was that it was some kind of contract involving a cash flow from Class A to Class C. By bolstering his economy like this, Ryūen will have much more options down the line.

His strategy in the exam was cunning, and he had also profited from some kind of negotiations with Class A. Ryūen might be our number one enemy.

Katsuragi, on the other hand, was in an extremely precarious position. Not only had he achieved miserable results in this exam, but he'd also signed some sort of contract with Ryūen that would cause Class A to bleed long term.

I wouldn't be surprised if Sakayanagi was able to gain majority control of Class A just from this, if the intel Light and Ryuzaki had gathered on her was anything to go by.

"So, let me get this straight." Kushida said, holding her head. "You saw through literally everything Ryūen was doing, just by seeing a walkie-talkie and some fucking water?"

It seemed that Kushida was so astonished that she let profanity slip out, which she usually refrained from until she removed her mask and vented her frustrations.

Not that I minded, though. Her letting things like this slip even when not venting showed that she was beginning to feel more comfortable around me.

"As for finding out that Horikita was the leader, well... I climbed a tree. On the second day, I stumbled across Class E's second spot, but noticed that it was unoccupied at the time. I decided to climb up a nearby tree, which was relatively high, and wait to see if anyone would come and occupy it."

It was a simple yet effective tactic. In fact, I was not the only one doing this. Class A students were doing similar things, which was evident when the two boys jumped me at the tower when I went to occupy it on the second day.

"Eventually, Class E did come and occupy it. You guys decided to surround the apparatus with students before occupying it to hide from any prying eyes which, while it exercises good caution, was ineffective against observers from above."

"To be fair, we didn't think there'd be any monkeys in the trees like you when we thought of that idea." Kushida retorted with a genuine chuckle.

Kushida was actually enjoying herself, which I found surprising. It made me a little happy, though.

Kushida was a very troubled person, someone who spent every day bottling up their feelings and acting as a person that they're not. It was good that she could drop it all and entertain her true self every once in a while.

"The fact that the spot was unoccupied when I found it is actually what shaped the spot claiming idea that I executed on the fourth day. I thought that, if classes were being this carefree about their spots, then it would be easy to capture them all in one fell swoop."

Someone like me takes into account every detail, thinking carefully about every action. As a result, I sometimes don't immediately notice obvious mistakes that normal people make that can be exploited.

Stuff like not even being vigilant about your spot timers. That was unfathomable to me, how somebody could forget something so basic. That's why I didn't think of it right from the start.

"On the third day, I invited Ryuzaki and Light to join me on a trip around all the classes. Sora was going to execute his stunt in front of Class A on that day, so Light and Ryuzaki just assumed that I was going to check out the other classes camps to kill time."

I couldn't afford to do that, though. Visiting the camps did actually end up bringing us some useful intel, the fact that Class A had water bottles, but Sora would've spotted that himself anyway.

I was planning to not sleep for four days. Doing a lap of the island just to see how the other classes were trudging along would be a wasteful expenditure of valuable energy.

"However, my real intention was something entirely different. By taking this round trip of all the spots, I was able to discover the exact timings of every spot. Each time we arrived at a spot, I made sure to get a glance at the spot monitor and mentally store the timings of each and every spot. From this, I was able to map out the best path to take during the night, based off of the remaining time I calculated each spot to have by the time nightfall rolled around."

Not only memorising the timings of 10 separate spots, but also calculating the exact time that would be left the next day is a feat that no sane person would attempt because of how ridiculous it sounds,

But, for my supercomputer-like brain, such a task was trivial.

"I also decided to not sleep once I'd captured every spot, for convenience's sake. Taking carefully planned naps between every eight-hour interval would've been a hassle."

"Y-you haven't slept for three nights straight?!"

"No,"

"O-oh... I'm sorry if I disturbed you when you wanted to rest," Kushida apologised sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. My body and mind are not so fragile as to be ailed by something like this." I reassured her.

"Well, if you say so. How'd you find out Class B's leader?"

"That actually had nothing to do with me, but I'll tell you about it anyway. This was all Lelouch's plan. After I'd broken all the cameras of Ryūen's spies in order to prevent any proof of me using the key card from getting out, it caused a side effect. Namely, Ryūen's spies were forced to steal the cards themselves as evidence."

For Ryūen, it was a great inconvenience, but for us, it was a win-win scenario. We got to avoid any penalties, and also got given the Class B leader as a result of Kaneda stealing the card from Ichinose.

"Lelouch decided to help Ryūen out with that. He purchased 30 points worth of fireworks. Him and Kururugi set them off in a nice, spectacular pattern, which captured the attention of nearly every single student on that beach. It provided the perfect distraction for Ibuki and Kaneda to make their move."

Distraction by wonder was certainly one way to do it.

If it were me, though, I would've gone about it differently. I would've caused a distraction not through wonder, by via panic.

By using fireworks, you run the risk of people like Horikita not being fully distracted, which is what happened. By causing a mass panic, though, even Horikita would be unable to think clearly. In other words, it would be harder to execute properly, but more effective if done so.

"I don't get it, though. How did you causing a distraction for Ryūen help Class D find Class B's leader?"

"That's simple. Ryūen is quite a cunning and intelligent individual, more so than he's given credit for. As Lelouch predicted, he was quick on the uptake, and recognised our contribution. In return for helping him steal the key cards, he allowed Lelouch to look at them too, as courtesy."

"I wouldn't have thought Ryūen capable of negotiation if you hadn't told me about it. In fact, I didn't think him capable of anything except violence."

I couldn't blame Kushida for that. Most students in the first year viewed Ryūen as nothing more than a violent, delinquent tyrant.

If I were to summarise this test, I'd say that Class A's first mistake carried through to the end. They didn't function well due to an internal rift. Class B went through the test with a thoroughly defence-oriented strategy, which did neither harm nor good. Their only mistake was that, because there were so many good-natured people in Class B, they'd permitted Kaneda to stay, and they'd believed him.

Class C fell because Ryūen didn't trust anyone. We were only able to discover his identity as the leader because of that fact. If he'd appointed some random Class C student as the leader and kept them hidden somewhere on the island after the rest of Class C dropped out, we would've been wrong. Class E operated similarly to Class B, in the sense that they didn't do anything aggressively – they just tried to conserve points and hide their leader. Their mistake was similar to Class B's, except with Ibuki instead.

Class E was probably overall less efficient than Class B too, since they were less unified. Unexpectedly, though, Class E ended the exam with 209 points, much more than what they should've had. Somebody intervened from the shadows, someone whose identity would be immensely difficult to confirm.

"In the end, everybody in Class D played their part. Everybody left me to do my thing with the spots, while Sora, Shiro, Light and Ryuzaki operated independently to deduce Class A's leader. Lelouch and Kururugi were the sole two who took on the task of finding Class B's leader. A pretty good result, all in all, even if we did make one oversight when it comes to Class E."

Kushida stared at me silently for a while, seemingly thinking over everything I'd told her. After a while, she spoke with a slight grin.

"For a guy who says he doesn't trust people, you certainly trust your classmates a lot, don't you?"

...

Trust, huh?

Well, I suppose it's true that I trust those guys as friends. And I trust in their ability. However, as an ally, I don't trust anybody. Not a single person. Not even them.

I've never thought of any of them as an ally. Classmates, accomplices, acquaintances, you can call them that. Perhaps friends is even an adequate description.

But, in this world, survival is everything. Victory is paramount. The method is irrelevant. As long as I win in the end, that's all that matters.

Yes. That's right. If it comes to it, I'll sacrifice all of you without hesitation.