Chapter 87

Chapter 87

"So, our only obstacle is actually figuring out who the VIPs are." Light said.

"Mhm," Ryuzaki shifted. "For those who are good at reading people like Sora and I, we may be able to deduce it just by observing behaviour. For people who can't do that, or if the VIP is particularly good at deception... we may have to use a different method."

"Diplomacy!" Sora exclaimed, striking his fist against his palm.

"Nii, you just plan to con people."

"I-isn't that the nature of all negotiation?!"

"Well, depends what you're negotiating I suppose. Most of the time the deal struck is supposed to be mutually beneficial to both parties. It's not our fault if the other party agrees to a deal which only appears to be mutually beneficial."

Lelouch agreed with Sora's machinations, seemingly unfazed by the prospect of purposefully shoving the other classes down in order to rise himself.

"Isn't it a little unsportsmanlike to do that, though?" Kururugi disagreed.

"Yes." Sora and Lelouch said in unison, before laughing.

"What will you do if the other parties don't fall for your tricks, though?" Light asked after the laughter died down.

"Uh... pray?" Lelouch suggested.

"Actually, I had a thought about that," said Ryuzaki. "I wonder if there's a method for how the VIPs will be selected?"

"Hmm, I see. Everyone will assume that the VIPs are chosen randomly, but it could very well be deliberate." Sora added.

"It would be possible to conclusively deduce the selection algorithm if we knew at least half the VIPs, if one does exist." Shiro said.

For Shiro, it would be a trivial matter for her to take a look at all our known VIPs, run through all the possibilities in her head and figure out the only one that works.

"The only problem would be how to actually go about finding half the VIPs in the first place. Moreover, it seems pretty pointless for us to figure out the selection method." Lelouch disagreed with the idea, however.

"Huh? But surely if we figure out the method behind the VIP selection, we will be able to guess correctly in all our groups, right?" Kururugi asked.

"Well, yes, but if we actually knew half the VIPs, there's a good chance we'd already know most the VIPs of our groups, since that's where most of them would come from. Going out of our way to figure out the pattern seems pointless as we'd probably only learn like one relevant VIP, anyway. Not only that, but I'd wager some traitors will crop up in our groups before we even have the chance to guess or figure out the VIP. The only thing we could do with the pattern is sell it to someone, but finding a buyer would be hard, and they would likely be reluctant to give us anything of actual value."

Lelouch gave a deeply insightful examination of our situation. Once again, the problem seemed to stem from the fact that we only had seven people.

If we had a student in every group, finding the pattern would be worthwhile as we'd only need to know six of the twelve and could figure out the rest.

However, in our current situation, we'd know six of seven, so we would only actually learn one new VIP, and that's assuming none of our groups end early.

Wait—

There is one good way to do it, though.

"We could propose a trade to the other classes," I suggested.

"A trade?"

"Yes. We could ask for the identities of all the VIPs they have among the five groups we don't have a student in. That way, there's no risk involved on their behalf – we can't betray them when we don't even have anyone in that group, after all."

It is actually possible to use the fact that we only have seven students to our advantage. Ordinarily, it would be extremely difficult to get the other classes to willingly give up the names of their VIPs for fear of betrayal, but if we don't even have the ability to betray them, it becomes far easier to negotiate.

"They still may not trust us, though." Light pointed out. "There is the possibility that we could pass on the names they give us to another class that is in one of those groups, after all."

"But nobody would trust us easily if we did that. Anyone we tried to pass the names on to would be suspicious of how we found out the information given that we don't even have a student in the group. Even if we told them for free, they likely wouldn't act on that information." Sora countered.

"While that's true," Ryuzaki interjected. "Not everyone thinks as deeply as you do, Sora. In fact, most people don't. Most people will still be distrustful, even if you rationalised what you'd just said to them."

"Tch."

Sora clicked his tongue in annoyance, unable to come up with a rebuttal.

Ryuzaki had made a good point – finding somebody who would actually go along with the idea would be difficult.

Additionally, we may have to make more that one deal. There's a chance that the class we negotiate with only has one student among the five groups we aren't in.

If that was the case, we'd have to negotiate with another class as well, to supplement their information. If we didn't, it would be unrealistic to expect to come up with the names of six VIPs. We'd probably only be able to figure out one or two VIPs from our own groups.

"Wouldn't it actually be good for us to get given a VIP or two, then?"

Unexpectedly, it was Kururugi who came up with a good point.

"Hmm... yeah, I think you're right about that." Light agreed. "The more VIPs we get given, the less we need to find out ourselves. If we get given two VIPs, and figure out two on our own from the other groups, we'd only need to get told two more from the other five groups."

In that scenario, it would be possible to discover three new VIPs, which would be a net gain of 1,500,000 private points and 150 class points.

However, the chance of us getting two VIPs and the class we negotiate with having 2 out of the 5 groups' VIPs is extremely small. In reality, it will likely get much more complicated than that.

"That's just wishful thinking, though. We should prepare some extra measures, too. What if we get 0 VIPs, and the class we negotiate with only has one to give us?" Sora said.

"Well, we can't really plan for that. We'll just have to see what we can do with the situation we're given. There are tons of different possibilities for which classes could get which VIPs. And each class would have a different chance of actually accepting our terms of negotiation, too. There are too many volatile variables to plan it all out now." I said, digressing from the current line of discussion.

"Well, I suppose so."

A brief silence set in, as we'd exhausted the main line of thinking.

"Say, Sora, who's in your group?" Light asked.

"Hm? Oh, one sec,"

Sora pulled out his phone and tapped the screen for a brief while before throwing the phone across the room to Light.

Light skimmed his eyes over the screen.

"Your group has a few relevant figures, huh."

Light passed the phone over me so that Ryuzaki and I could look at it. On Sora's phone was written the following:

Rabbit Group

· Class A: Machida Kōji, Takemoto Shigeru, Morishige Takurō

· Class B: Ichinose Honami, Hamaguchi Tetsuya, Beppu Ryōto

· Class C: Ibuki Mio, Manabe Shiho, Yabu Nanami, Yamashita Saki

· Class D: Sora

· Class E: Karuizawa Kei, Sotomura Hideo, Yukimura Teruhiko

Ichinose Honami and Ibuki Mio were the two names I recognised from the list. During the island exam, Ibuki had successfully infiltrated Class E's camp and stolen the leader key card from Horikita, under Ryūen's orders.

Ichinose was the current leader of Class B, which meant that Sora's group would likely be quite influential as far as groups go.

Ryuzaki picked up the phone oddly – he gripped it at the corner using only his thumb and index finger. I'd never seen anybody hold an item like that before.

After reading the contents, he tossed it to Lelouch and Kururugi.

"What about you, Light?" Sora asked.

"Ah, I already have that prepared. I noted it down as soon as I left the meeting room." Light reached into his pocket and clicked his phone on. "Here,"

Light stood up and walked over to Sora, handing him his phone. Well, at least there was one person who didn't throw it across the room.

Like Sora's, Light's phone was passed around the room until it eventually got to Ryuzaki and I at the end. Ryuzaki placed the screen in the middle of us on the bed such that we could both see it. It read the following:

Horse Group

· Class A: Ikkei Shimazaki, Shinobu Fukuyama, Satonaka Satoru

· Class B: Minamikata Kozue, Shibata Sō, Sumida Makoto

· Class C: Yamada Albert, Komiya Kyogo, Suzuki Hidetoshi, Kaneda Satoru

· Class D: Yagami Light

· Class E: Minami Setsuya, Satō Maya, Ijūin Wataru

After the pass-around was done and the phones were returned to their original owners, Lelouch spoke with a giggle.

"Not going to lie to you, Light, but I have no idea who any of the people in your group are."

"There is that one guy, Yamada Albert. He was the guy who beat Ryūen up when we went to Class C on the second day, remember?" Kururugi prompted Lelouch's memory.

"Ah, right. The same guy you fought just before the island exam. Well, he never even talks, so he's basically irrelevant for a discussion-based exam."

Lelouch spoke some harsh yet true words, discounting the importance of Albert.

Sora stretched his arms above his head and let out a groan. "This exam is a lot more complicated than it first appears, huh."

"It's not complicated in and of itself – it's more like, the way to solve the problem it presents is complex." Ryuzaki corrected.

"This special exam is probably one of the simplest we'll ever face – all it is is just one student is a 'VIP' and we have to work together within our groups to find their identity and guess them as one. The problem stems from the fact that the students won't be able to work together easily." Light agreed.

"Isn't it the same with any special exam, though?" Lelouch said. "The most important element in any battle is the human one."

I thought he was right about that. If every person in these special exams were replaced with a powerful artificial intelligence, things would be much simpler.

In the island exam, none of them would even bother about the leader stuff, because it could just be changed.

The results of this exam would be more intriguing, but I suspected that the AIs would all cooperate with each other, and every single group would achieve Outcome #1.

In other words, the complexity of these exams was derived from the fact that humans are selfish, untrusting creatures, who make a multitude of mistakes.

"Well, I think that's all for now, right? Ayanokōji's meeting will be starting in twenty minutes or so. We should meet again once the VIPs of the groups have been assigned." Ryuzaki said.

"Yes. Once we know how many VIPs we have to work with, we can start strategizing from there." Lelouch agreed.

I stood up. "Well, my meeting is in around twenty minutes, so I'll go now, in case I get held up along the way."

With that, I left the room and closed the door behind me.

Now, I guess I'll have to experience the same explanation that I'd just been told by Light. Of course, the official one would likely be more detailed, but I already knew the general gist of everything.

However before I do that, there is some other business I need to attend to.

With that thought, I began walking in the opposite direction to where the meeting places are located.