Chapter 6:
Katsuragi’s Counterattack
AROUND THE TIME that Hirata and Hamaguchi’s battle was about to begin, another battle between representatives was also about to start. The two representatives were staring intently at the participants who had entered the discussion room.
Discussion No. 1
Participants
Class 2-A
Shimizu Naoki, Machida Kouji, Yoshida Kenta, Fukuyama Shinobu, Motodoi Chikako, Yano Koharu
Class 2-C
Sonoda Masashi, Oda Takumi, Yamada Albert, Yoshimoto Kousetsu, Isoyama Nagisa, Yamashita Saki, Kinoshita Minori
It was Class A vs. Class C, with Nishino and Sanada going up against each other as vanguards for their respective classes.
“Hello. Let us both give our best efforts, Nishino-san,” said Sanada.
Once the two of them were all alone in the classroom, Sanada, feeling slightly nervous, greeted Nishino politely and took his seat first. Sanada, who always endeavored to maintain a polite manner of speaking even when engaging with fellow classmates in his same grade level, showed no change in his usual demeanor even in the face of his enemy. Nishino, however, didn’t look very kindly upon Sanada’s type. By her own admission, she acknowledged that she had a coarse, ill-mannered personality, she wasn’t fond of speaking in polite expressions, and she primarily spoke informally. That was why she assumed that she wasn’t very compatible with people who used such formal, almost ceremonious language.
However, insignificant feelings of like or dislike were nowhere to be found right now. Rather, she was instead feeling incredibly nervous over being entrusted with the responsibility of acting as vanguard for such a major event, and her body went rigid. Even someone like Nishino, who wasn’t afraid to deal with hooligans like Ryuuen, wasn’t accustomed to the atmosphere of these serious exams at all. Though her role was called vanguard, she was playing a part in the class competition.
Nishino couldn’t help but feel the intense pressure. A representative who thought that this whole thing had nothing to do with her, she was handpicked by Ryuuen out of the entire class, without any warning. She bitterly regretted her decision to simply accept his selection without giving it more consideration. It was clear from the way that she stood there stock still, forgetting even to sit down in the chair, that she wasn’t in her normal state of mind.
Sanada felt a little bewildered, wondering if he should offer her a helping hand.
“Nishi—”
Just as he started to call out her name, Sanada suddenly cut himself off. He reminded himself that such careless kindness on his part could come back to haunt him. If his adversary was feeling overwhelmed here, then his only real option was to make use of that. Sanada quietly took deep breaths, suppressing his feelings of guilt. When Nishino finally sat down in her chair, the exam began, as though it had been waiting on her.
“The discussion will now commence.”
Along with that announcement, audio could be heard coming from the monitor.
“The End-of-Year Special Exam will now commence. Each student’s role is displayed on his or her tablet. Please check your assigned role before starting the first round of discussion.”
On the other side of the cold, sterile monitors that were set up in the room, the participants had taken their seats. Then, the discussion began with no time to even compose themselves. The tense Nishino, who hadn’t relaxed in the slightest and whose vision had narrowed, continued to stare intently at the monitor without even once checking on how Sanada was doing.
“U-um… So I guess everyone’s already confirmed their roles already…?” wondered Nishino, aloud.
Nishino couldn’t recall what had just happened in the room prior to the moment when the participants were confirming their assigned roles. It felt like the discussion had begun before she had even realized it, causing her to panic a little. However, the video playing out in front of her eyes was proceeding in real time and couldn’t be paused or rewound. The hectic, rapid conversation from the participants reached Nishino’s ears, regardless of whether she wanted to hear it. From the right to the left. She couldn’t keep track of the conversation in her head and couldn’t even understand the contents of the conversation whatsoever.
“Please nominate or pass, starting now. You have one minute.”
“Huh? Wait, has, uh, five minutes passed already…?” stammered Nishino.
The signal for the end of the first round had been given without Nishino managing to make heads or tails of anything that was going on. As a conditioned reflex, Nishino hurriedly looked down at her tablet in a panic. On the screen were the names of the fourteen participants, displayed together neatly. Normally, if you didn’t understand what was going on, one would expect that it’d make sense to pass that turn. However, Nishino continued to look at the names of the students, her thoughts a confused mess.
The nomination time limit ticked away without stopping. Then, once her eyes focused on Yoshida’s name, she recalled the discussion earlier. She could hardly remember anything, but she had the feeling that there was something suspicious, somehow. It was a vague memory, but it flashed through her mind with unusual clarity. Though she wasn’t sure whether it was true or not, the way Yoshida had been acting and the things she said seemed to be telling Nishino that she was the model student. Though Nishino felt like she was in a daze and about to faint, she managed to use her tablet. Somehow, she entered her choice on the tablet before the time limit was reached, but then…
“Because Nishino-san has nominated erroneously, she will lose one Life Point.”
It was a reckless, impulsive move, to suddenly nominate someone as the model student. As a result, she lost one Life Point. Sanada, watching Nishino silently, had calmly avoided the option of nominating, counter to Nishino’s example.
“They weren’t the model student… Huh. I don’t get this at all…” murmured Nishino.
Perhaps it was from feeling flustered, but Nishino spoke to herself loudly, her words even reaching Sanada’s ears. Because the teacher used their power and succeeded in blocking the nomination from the model student, only one student was removed from the room this round. With the number of participants reduced to thirteen, the second round of discussion began, but Nishino’s mental state had remained essentially unchanged, and she showed no signs of improvement, letting the time pass in vain.
Nishino, not knowing what to do, pulled her eyes away from the monitor and tablet for the first time, and looked over at Sanada. Up until now, she had only looked back and forth between the monitor and her tablet. Sanada noticed Nishino’s gaze but pretended not to and, while acting as though he were about to make a nomination, chose to pass once again. Sanada wasn’t good at acting by any means, but it was effective enough on Nishino right now. As if to demonstrate proof of this, Nishino once again pushed ahead with an unsubstantiated nomination.
“Because Nishino-san has nominated erroneously, she will lose two Life Points.”
Nishino had once again misidentified the role. The sequence of events was exactly the same as the first round, which just made the wound even deeper. Fukuyama, after being nominated, was ejected from the room. After this round, Nishino had lost a total of three Life Points and was now pushed into a position where she could be unceremoniously defeated all too easily if Sanada correctly nominated any specific role, not just the model student.
Sanada decided that he should continue to fight mainly by passing, based on the consideration of the possibility that Nishino would self-destruct and defeat herself. However, once they entered the third round, Nishino had already lost most of her courage to nominate anyone. For that reason, both representatives decided to pass, and Isoyama was ejected from the room after being nominated by the model student.
Sanada, who had been watching the participants’ discussion intently thus far, noticed that Nishino’s gaze on the monitor screen was focused only on the participants from Class A, her rival class. She was unable to see the whole picture, held captive by the absolute that was “Class A vs. Class C.” However, Sanada realized that it was also important to consider class alignments and loyalties separately, and he deliberately discarded the idea of focusing his attention on the students from Class C. If Nishino was only looking at Class A, then Sanada would have an overwhelming advantage, since he knew those students better.
Then came the fourth round. There was a major development in the discussion when Shimizu, who came forward and self-identified as the graduate, declared that Kinoshita was not the model student. However, at that moment, Yoshimoto came forward and claimed to be the real graduate, and that Kinoshita was the model student. At this point, one or both of them had to be lying.
The time had come for the representatives to make their nominations once again. Here, Sanada chose to pass for a fourth time, using almost all of the time available to him, just barely squeezing it in before the time limit was up. That was because while he was tempted to make a nomination, he hadn’t yet come to a solid decision.
As for Nishino, who had her back against the wall, some valuable information had finally come her way. She didn’t want to let it go to waste. If Sanada had discovered what the roles were, there was a strong possibility that she would lose. Still, she had no choice but to push ahead and make a nomination, even if it were risky. Nishino figured it was fine to declare that Shimizu was the graduate, since she had come forward first and said as much, but she chose to keep her evaluation of the position to herself, just in case. And the results showed that…
“Because Nishino-san has nominated erroneously, she will lose two Life Points.”
Shimizu, who had proclaimed to be the graduate, was actually the model student. In believing her, Nishino had ended up majorly self-destructing. Sanada, on the other hand, had succeeded in defeating Nishino, the opposing vanguard, without losing a single Life Point.