89 Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Breakfast time. We made sure to avoid the areas popular with the students. On the deck of the ship there was a café called 'Blue Ocean' where hardly any students go. Class D chose to sit there at an empty table in the shade, and called for a waitress.

The current time is 7:55 AM, five minutes before the designated time we'd be receiving mail from the school about the group VIPs.

"This one... may be too tough for Shiro."

The spiky maroon-haired boy spoke, nodding down to the girl who was curled up tightly on his lap, head buried in his chest.

Yesterday, Shiro had been completely paralyzed by fear when she went for her meeting, so much so that she didn't even find out what group she was in.

Sora had waited outside the room for her, and had to go in to fetch her because she had curled up into a ball in the corner, attempting to make herself as small as possible.

Shiro was unable to function whatsoever even when it was just her and a teacher. She would definitely not be able to operate in the group environment with other students that begins today.

Light let out a sigh, and looked at Shiro with clear sympathy on his face. "If she can't do it, then..."

"Then there's only one way to solve the problem," I finished.

Lelouch glanced at the two of us with an unusually gentle expression on his face.

"You're talking about having her make a guess at random to end her group early, right?"

Light gave him a silent nod.

Lelouch was a normally aloof person who valued results over the method – in other words, an ideology which would in theory suggest making Shiro go to the discussions at her expense, in order to avoid losing 50 class points.

As such, it was easy to forget that Lelouch, like everybody else, had a large human aspect to him too. Realistically, even somebody with his ideals wouldn't force such suffering on their classmate just for a measly 50 class points.

"I guess there is no other way." Lelouch agreed.

"B-but! I can't be a burden to Nii and the others..."

Shiro protested weakly, causing Sora to smile and run his hand through her hair.

"There is no need to force yourself to do something you can't do." Sora reassured her softly yet firmly.

Shiro looked up at him for a brief second, before closing her eyes in resignation and burying her face back in his chest.

"This isn't a favourable start for us, huh." Ryuzaki murmured with narrowed eyes.

"Rather than blame the person, I'm glad we can move past that part quickly. We should start thinking about what to do now." Kururugi said.

Everybody understood that arguing about what to do with Shiro would get us nowhere. For now, it would just be treated as yet another disadvantage for our class.

"In this exam, we're greatly disadvantaged as is, plus we'll be starting out with a 50 class point deficit." I reasoned aloud.

"We don't have enough students to allocate one to every group, and due to only having on student in the groups we are in, Outcome #1 doesn't actually gain us any more class points than Outcome #3 does, which means we can't work together with our group members. Additionally, because of the results of the last special exam, the other classes will be wary of us, so negotiating will be difficult."

Lelouch gave a brief summary of our current situation. To say the least, it definitely didn't look good for us.

We couldn't be blamed even if we ended up with a huge loss in this exam. That was how much the odds were stacked against us.

"Also, we only have one possible strategy that makes sense for us to use. This means that even some idiot like Horikita will be able to read our movements without much difficulty." Sora added with a frown.

"It'll be impressive if we even manage to break even at this rate. Gaining more class points than anyone else would be nothing short of a miracle." Light sighed in exasperation.

Just then, as the clock hit 8:00 AM, all seven of our phones vibrated at once, without even being a second apart. Immediately, we all confirmed the arrival of the mail. It read the following:

After a period of thorough consideration, you have not been chosen to be the VIP. Please remember to be a team player as your group tackles the challenges of this test. The exam begins today, and will be held over a period of three days. Members of the Snake group should gather in the Snake room located on the second deck.

"'After a period of thorough consideration...' is that a hint?" Sora muttered as he read his mail.

"If the selection method is truly random, there shouldn't be any need for a period of 'thorough consideration.'" Ryuzaki surmised.

If there's one thing I've learned about this school, it's that they have a tendency to drop subtle hints in these kinds of announcements and mails. The wording here was very specific... and most likely deliberate.

"Anyone got assigned as the VIP?" Lelouch asked as he clicked his phone screen off.

"I did."

We all turned towards the phone, which was placed in the middle of the table, and read the mail.

After a period of thorough consideration, you have been chosen to be the VIP. Please remember to be a team player as your group tackles the challenges of this test. The exam begins today, and will be held over a period of three days. Members of the Cow group should gather in the Cow room located on the second deck.

"So, we have one VIP, which is Kururugi..." Light said as he skimmed his eyes over the phone.

"Well, at least now we can rule out of the possibility of the selection being qualification-based." Lelouch said half-sarcastically with a laugh.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Lelouch is saying that if the period of 'thorough consideration' was the school considering which students were capable enough to be the VIP, you'd be the last person they'd choose."

Sora poked fun at Kururugi with a laugh.

"Actually, Kururugi, who is even in your group?" Light asked.

Ah, that's right. Since we hadn't met back up since the meeting yesterday, nobody knew the contents of the groups that came after Sora and Light's meetings.

"Uh, here."

Kururugi tapped his phone, and opened up a note document that he'd written.

I found myself a little surprised that he'd actually remembered the names of every member of his group. I suppose that it's easy to forget that Kururugi himself is actually on the higher end of the intelligence spectrum, due to the people he's surrounded by that overshadow him.

In the note document, the following was written:

Cow Group

· Class A: Sawada Yasumi, Shimizu Naoki, Nishi Haruka

· Class B: Kobashi Yume, Ninomiya Yui, Watanabe Norihito

· Class C: Tokitō Hiroya, Nomura Yūji, Yajima Mariko

· Class D: Kururugi Suzaku

· Class E: Sakura Airi, Ike Kanji, Sudō Ken, Matsushita Chiaki

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any particularly cunning students in Kururugi's group. In fact, there were multiple students that one couldn't exactly call smart – namely the Class E students – that even Kururugi may be able to manipulate.

A sudden bang resonated in my ear drums, which also caused a few of my classmates to jump in surprise.

"Agh! This is stupid! There is pretty much nothing we can do in this shitty exam!"

Apparently, the loud bang was caused by Sora, who'd slammed his fist against the table in frustration.

"I wouldn't go as far as saying nothing..." Light murmured.

"Oh really? Let me tell you exactly what's going to happen," leaning forward on his chair, Sora spoke in an edged tone. "The other classes will all realise that due to our class' number, the only thing we can do is go for Outcome #3; yes, even someone like Horikita could make that simple of a deduction. After that, they'll all wordlessly agree not to help us, greatly restricting our movements. Without the chance to even try to strike a deal with the other classes, the only thing we can do is damage control!"

It was likely that a selection pattern did actually exist, based off the wording of the mail we'd all just received. However, to deduce with certainty what it is, we would likely need to figure out at least half of the total VIPs' identities.

Being unable to strike up a negotiation with another class makes it as good as impossible for us to ever hope of finding out what it is.

Our best move at this stage is to work independently from one another and try to steer our individual groups towards the best outcome.

If you assume that the other classes will approach this exam with sound logic, we quite literally have no moves to make from a class perspective.

"You say all that, but you guys will probably end up coming up with some incredible strategy regardless," said Kururugi, a hint of scepticism in his voice.

"Well, as of now, the ball is in your court, Kururugi. If you get found out to be the VIP, our doom will pretty much be sealed for this exam." Ryuzaki pointed out, placing his thumb to his lips.

"Yeah. You'd better not screw up, Suzaku." Lelouch said with narrowed eyes.

Unlike the island exam, in which our whole class could work as one unit and cover for each other, there is no way for us to do anything if Kururugi makes a mistake. Such was the nature of this Zodiac exam.

"Well, we might as well think optimistically about this. There's a chance that not every other class will approach this exam with utmost solid reasoning, which could leave some gaps for us to move in. I say we see what happens in our groups' first meetings, and go from there."

Light brightened the mood, inputting a more positive outlook on the situation as a whole. He must've concluded that assuming the worst would get us nowhere here, and that it was best to look for things we could do.

"Right," I agreed. "The first meetings for each group will give us an indicator of how each class intends to tackle this exam."

"So, you want to meet back up after our meetings later? Well, I suppose there is nothing left to discuss right now." Lelouch affirmed.

"Well," Sora interjected. "I think we should deal with the matter of Shiro right now."

Sora reached down to grab Shiro's phone, and tapped his finger against the screen as he presumably navigated to the mail we'd just been sent.

"Nii... is it really okay?"

Despite her clear inability to face this exam as she was now, Shiro looked uncertain about sacrificing 50 class points to give up.

"Relax, Shiro. Nobody will hold it against you. Right?"

Sora and Shiro looked to us for confirmation, to which the five of us gave a reassuring nod.

"According to the mail you're in the Rooster group, huh... do you know anyone else in that group?"

Shiro shook her head slowly, disappointment evident on her face.

"Wait!" Light exclaimed as he apparently ame to a sudden epiphany.

Sora froze his operation of the phone and tilted his head towards Ryuzaki. "What is it?"

"Before you do that... I'd like to try something."

"Hm? Try something? Well, I suppose we don't need to rush to guess Shiro's group wrong right now, but why delay it?" Lelouch asked sceptically.

"I have a little idea."