Chapter 94
Chapter 94
At least, that's what they think.
I took a glance around, and it seemed that a number of students had begun to agree with Katsuragi's proposal. Namely, the Class E students and one or two of the Class B students.
Hmm... the true VIP would immediately jump on this opportunity. It's a way for them to guide the group to silent discussions so that they can hide their identity, without drawing any suspicion to themselves.
Does that mean the VIP is one of these students?
The two Class B students other than Kanzaki, who remained sceptical, and the three Class E students...
"Honestly, I'm disappointed in you, Horikita," I finally decided to speak, and mocked Horikita.
"What?" She narrowed her eyes at me angrily in response.
"Heh, that's funny. I was just thinking the same thing." Ryūen agreed with a chuckle.
Horikita glared at me in silence, as if expecting an answer.
"You agree with a strategy that changes nothing? You know, maintaining the status quo is only beneficial to the class on top. There is no reason for the class at the bottom to want to keep things the same. Unless, of course, the VIP of the Dragon group is a Class E student?"
I'd expected her to kick herself in frustration or something, but contrary to my expectations, she merely gave me a smug smirk.
"Well, it seems that you should be disappointed in yourself, Lelouch-kun. I already thought of that."
What? This girl already considered this, but still deemed Katsuragi's strategy to be the best course of action? Does that mean Class E does actually have the VIP? But that wouldn't make sense... she wouldn't make such a show of it if that were true. Could it be a double bluff?
I looked once more at the ever-cold, stoic girl sitting a couple of seats from me. She wasn't somebody who could be read like a book, unfortunately, which meant I had no chance of squeezing any information from her.
"Hey, are you guys really all right with this? Just allowing Class A to remain in complete control at the top? Don't you want a chance to catch up to them?" Kanzaki asked in slight alarm.
"Well, it's as Horikita-san said," Kushida answered. "Class A and D intend to do similar things in all the other groups too, right? That means there's no point in fruitlessly trying to discover the VIP's identity through discussion. It's best for us to also stay silent, so that we can disguise where our VIPs are located too, no?"
This Kushida Kikyō is also more perceptive than she first appears. I somehow knew this group would be troublesome. There were many powerful adversaries within it.
The combined force of Class D is enough to crush any opposition that stands in its way, but this is different. This time, I'm alone.
I don't have those guys backing me now. However, on my own, I also don't have enough pull to actually swing this in my favour. And even somebody like me can't accurately predict the movements of so many strong opponents at once – Ryūen, Katsuragi, Kushida, Horikita... there are simply too many moving parts.
If this plan of action actually goes through, then that means Outcome #2 will be the result of every group, and every VIP will gain 500,000 points alone. Every class will gain around 1,500,000 private points total from that, whereas Class D will only gain 500,000, since we only have one VIP.
No matter how you look at it, this outcome is awful for us. But, but...
There's nothing I can do to stop it!
Not only Class A and Class E, but now Kanzaki is looking convinced too... Ryūen probably won't be of much help, either. Out of everyone, he's the least likely to cooperate with Class D now, after the island exam results.
If every other classes goes completely silent... what can be done? The VIP cannot be discovered through discussion, and all negotiation is closed off, since every class will unanimously realise there is no merit in joining hands in such an environment.
Even if two classes align with each other, if every other classes is refusing to cooperate still, it won't even help!
Do we really just have to sit here and watch as we fall behind in private points?
Well, if there's a bright side, it's the fact that it's private points not class points. However, I can't help but feel frustrated by this revelation.
"I see... if that's how it is, then so be it. I don't like passing up this opportunity to close the gap to Class A, but it seems that there's no other choice," Kanzaki gave in and also agreed to Katsuragi's proposal.
"Well, if that's what you idiots want, then be my guest," Ryūen said with a snort.
I bit my lip as silence enveloped the room.
In the end nothing got done, and the hour we were asked to partake in was spent mostly in silence. The announcement came that we were free to go, and all the classes' students left right away.
The consensus among the whole group seemed to be to accept Katsuragi's strategy because of the fact that two of the classes had already refused cooperation. As such, nobody saw a need to stay behind after the allotted time was up.
As I departed, a buzz came through my phone – a message in the Class D group chat.
Sora: [Anybody else have a completely pointless one hour?]
Well, I might as well respond to him here. There's no urgent need for us to meet in person anyway.
Lelouch: [Dragon group was completely silent the whole time.]
Light: [Same with mine.]
Ryuzaki: [My group tried their best to discuss for about half an hour and then gave up after they got nowhere.]
Ayanokōji: [My group had a similar fruitless discussion.]
Kururugi: [I tried my best to work with people but in the end it didn't work out.]
It seemed that, because of Class A's strategy and the fact that Class D won't cooperate for Outcome #1, every group had already come to a grinding halt in progress.
At this rate, it seemed highly likely that Outcome #2 would be the universal result in Class D. In other words, all we'd gain from this exam would be 500,000 private points.
While it's not the end of the world, it certainly felt like a wasted opportunity.
Well, the nature of this exam caused us to be massively disadvantaged right from the start. I suppose it's inevitable that such a result would occur.
Distracted by my thoughts and phone, I jumped when I was shoved rather roughly out of the way.
Stumbling and looking up, my eyes fell on a girl with ponytailed blonde hair who stomped past in a rather frightful mood.
If I wasn't mistaken, she was a Class E girl.
A bit further away, three girls were whispering to each other while looking harshly in her direction.
"What the hell is going on here...?" I murmured to myself.
"There's no point thinking about them. They're just stupid."
A voice rang out from beside me. Apparently, somebody had heard my mutterings.
I spun my head back around towards the source of the voice – a girl with short, blue hair and a rather harsh facial expression.
Ibuki Mio, huh? She was one of the spies sent to the camps of the other classes during the deserted island exam. She'd also displayed her rather frightening fighting skills by beating up that bitch from Class E.
While I wasn't formally acquainted with Ibuki, I found myself holding a certain degree of respect for her. She was strong, and didn't hesitate to do what needed to be done to win.
"Stupid?" I echoed.
"Yes. Stupid." She affirmed with a nod.
"So, I take it you're involved in whatever is going on with them, Ibuki?"
"Of course not. I'm calling it stupid because I'm an outsider to their little squabble."
I see. So it's because Ibuki is not involved that she can look at the situation as a neutral whole and call it stupid. I suppose that makes sense.
"So, those three girls are from your class? And they've got a bone to pick with that Class E girl?" I presumed.
"The one that looks like the leader of their little group is Manabe. The other two are Yabu and Yamashita," Ibuki informed me with a distasteful look.
From what I could read, Ibuki wasn't their biggest fan, to say the least.
"You seem to dislike them," I observed.
"Obviously. Their whole spat with that girl, Karuizawa Kei, is because she apparently pushed one of their other friends called Rika. Like, really, who cares if somebody got pushed once?"
That in itself spoke volumes about the nature of Manabe and her friends. They were a prime example of the kind of people that invoke the strong urge in me to stay away from the mundane.
Mundane means average people. And, more often than not, average people resembled Manabe and her friends in nature. The kind of people I deeply wish to avoid.
"Hmm... what about the Karuizawa girl?" I inquired.
"She's just as bad," Ibuki answered immediately. "Rather than just take it on the chin and apologize to them and get it all over with, she's acting all stubborn. Honestly, those gyaru types piss me off."
"Well, I can't say that I disagree," I replied with a small smirk.
Ibuki Mio didn't like socializing, and most definitely preferred to work alone – at first, I'd chalked it up to her not being very good at socializing with people, but that didn't seem to be the case.
While talking to her now, it didn't feel awkward, and it didn't seem like she had any issues speaking to me either. In other words, she has satisfactory social skills – she just chooses not to socialize.
To be fair, if Manabe was my classmate, I'd do the same thing.
"Say, being Ryūen's right hand and all, your position in the Class C hierarchy must be quite high. Can't you just tell them to shut up and leave it be?" I asked her.
Ibuki was one of the few people who hadn't fully fallen into complete obedience to Ryūen. I'd learned this after witnessing her altercation with him just before the island exam, on this very ship.
What this meant was that she was probably one of the highest in the pecking order in Class C. If she ordered Manabe and her friends to stand down, they would likely have no other choice than to obey.
"Well, yeah. But I feel like I'd lose self-respect and dignity if I involved myself in something so petty," Ibuki answered.
The two of us wordlessly began to walk down the corridor side by side, as we realised that we were blocking the path for other students by standing idly.