For the moment, she wasn’t an entity that could be judged so simply as friend or foe.
“If you’re the one asking, then of course I’m all in, senpai. If you want, I can get her expelled,” said Amasawa.
“There’s no need to be that enthusiastic. As long as you gather information appropriately, that’s good,” I told her.
“Okey dokey. Read you loud and clear,” said Amasawa.
There wasn’t really any need to ask Amasawa to get information about Nanase, because it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with her at any given moment even if I were forced to handle her immediately. However, if carrying out this favor for me could keep Amasawa here at school, then it wasn’t a bad move.
“I have an appointment after this, so I’ll be seeing you later. Make sure you cooperate with your own class at least somewhat for this End-of-Year Special Exam too,” I told her.
“If you’re the one asking, senpai, then of course I will,” said Amasawa.
Amasawa suddenly gave me an exaggerated salute, and then I started to walk past her.
“…Thank you, senpai,” she muttered as we passed by each other, just before she pulled away.
“So she figured it out after all, huh?” I remarked.
It wasn’t as though she was getting excellent results in the White Room just for show, of course. It seemed as though she could easily see through me, to my true intentions.
3.2
KARAOKE ROOMS WERE THE go-to choice for students to hold private meetings, as they were the ideal place for it. Following the messages we had already exchanged, I followed the numbers and arrived at the room. When I opened the door, I saw a single student sitting upright with his legs crossed in the silent room, casually moving only his eyes in my direction.
“I see that none of your cronies are with you today,” I remarked.
“Hah. Now that’s unexpected. What, you wanted a little excitement?”
“I just felt like if Ibuki or Ishizaki were here, this oppressive atmosphere would’ve been a little bit better.”
I replied jokingly, but Ryuuen only snorted in response.
“That’s quite a thing to say seeing as yer the one who invited me,” he spat.
“Yes,” I conceded. “I suppose you’re probably right.”
“Well, whatever. I was gonna contact you myself anyway, so I forgive you,” said Ryuuen, with a faint chuckle.
“If that’s the case, then I imagine it was about the same topic,” I replied.
“So get on with it,” said Ryuuen, urging me to speak.
“I heard about the wager between you and Sakayanagi,” I told him, still standing in the doorway.
“Oh?” replied Ryuuen.
I’m sure that Ryuuen would have expected that this meeting was about the special exam, but from his reaction, it seemed like he had half expected that this was the first point that we would be touching on.
“I heard that the stakes are that the loser drops out of school. If so, then I may not have the opportunity to see one of you again. I thought I’d at least come see you face-to-face,” I explained.
“If that’s what yer worried ’bout, then go visit Sakayanagi before you can’t see her anymore,” said Ryuuen.
“I intend to, but I’m sure that Sakayanagi will most definitely say something similar,” I replied.
She’d likely say something about how I should meet with Ryuuen before he leaves. As expected, neither side had even entertained the thought that they would lose, not in the slightest.
“Don’t be shy. Sit,” commanded Ryuuen.
We met because we both had something to talk about, but it was sounding like he had already claimed leadership over the meeting.
“I’d prefer not to, if possible. Are you planning to try to splash me with grape juice this time?” I asked.
Ryuuen was sitting across from me, and my eyes were drawn to a suspicious-looking purple glass that was within reach of his right hand. Not only did Ryuuen not seem the type who normally drank that kind of thing, it also appeared to be untouched.
“You’re readin’ way too much into it,” said Ryuuen. “First of all, knowin’ you, you could always avoid it anyway if you wanted. Right?”
“Don’t treat me like I have psychic powers. There are lots of situations where I can’t avoid things,” I replied.
“Such as?” asked Ryuuen.
“Such as… All right, I’ve got it,” I started, looking at the place that Ryuuen urged me to sit, which was near the doorway. “If an employee came in here bringing something, then I wouldn’t have any means of escape. If that happened, it’d be impossible for me to avoid it.”
And on Ryuuen’s end, if he tried to splash me in that situation, he would try to cover a wide area.
“You sound rather suspicious of me,” said Ryuuen.
“That said, you don’t sound too amused by the idea,” I replied.
Well, in that case, I guess I’ll just do as he says and have a seat, I thought to myself. It was incredibly surreal, but we two men were facing each other in this spacious karaoke room.
“You’ve taken the plunge on a major gamble. If the next special exam had been focused on academic ability, it would be almost 100 percent certain that you would lose. Even if you were to take some risks and make dodgy deals behind the scenes, Sakayanagi would have likely thoroughly prevented you from doing so, unlike the good-natured Ichinose,” I told him.
“It’s the one do-or-die game in a year. It’ll definitely be a game that even folks who can’t use their brains’ll have at least a chance of winnin’. If the school was so completely lackin’ in entertainment, I’d be beggin’ to get kicked out, rather,” said Ryuuen, punctuating his words with a laugh, but judging from the way he looked, he didn’t seem to think it was really an all-or-nothing situation.
Horikita Manabu’s generation, which already graduated, Nagumo’s generation, and ours. If we looked at the trends for past end-of-year special exams, we could see that it wasn’t just academic ability that was required. I figured that Ryuuen was convinced that the school would choose exam content that would give even his class a fighting chance.