“There were some students who seemed suspicious among the participants, but you didn’t seem to notice,” remarked Katsuragi.
Katsuragi was doing the same thing that Nishino did, but they were wildly different in terms of precision.
“…You discarded half of your field of vision?” asked Sanada.
“The people that I had chosen to participate in the discussion group are the students who can act reasonably well. I assumed that they would not do something that would give themselves away so blatantly within the first five minutes. That does not, however, appear to be the case for you. Did you fail to notice the look on Morishige’s face, which indicated that he had been given a special role?” replied Katsuragi.
In truth, Morishige had been restless from the moment he entered the room. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone in particular, and only raised the corners of his mouth from time to time. Katsuragi, who had only been focusing on the participants from Class A, didn’t fail to notice how Morishige looked as he scrutinized the students to determine their roles. Of course, there were no actual guarantees, and it was impossible for Katsuragi to have narrowed it down to what role Morishige was in, exactly. However, Katsuragi prioritized the importance of reducing his opponent’s Life Points in his first move and decided to nominate Morishige as a position holder.
“You certainly did very well to pull one over on me. But I will not allow it to happen again,” said Sanada.
Sanada, steeling himself once more and regaining his composure, stared intently at the monitor before the second round began. However, his mind was in turmoil, and he hadn’t yet decided where he ought to be looking. Should he look only at Class A, like Katsuragi had done? Or should he focus on Class C, precisely because he had so little information? Or should he carefully observe the entire group like he had before? Before he could settle on a course of action, the five-minute discussion period started once again.
“I can more or less predict what your tactics were, from the time it took for Nishino to lose, and from the fact that you had completely shut her out. I would say that, in all likelihood, you didn’t make a single nomination, and the match-up ended with Nishino self-destructing, correct?” asked Katsuragi.
Sanada could only respond with a wry, bitter smile at Katsuragi sharply describing what had happened. And although he tried to concentrate on the discussion currently happening, miscellaneous thoughts had inevitably come pouring in. Then, five minutes had passed.
“Please nominate or pass, starting now. You have one minute.”
“I will pass,” announced Katsuragi.
As soon as the announcement was made, Katsuragi deliberately made a public statement, and finished using his tablet in an instant. Sanada pondered whether he could trust Katsuragi’s statement.
“I’m being forced into a difficult decision here,” he remarked.
No new information had emerged clearly from the discussion, though there were some students that Sanada found slightly curious. It was hard to imagine that Katsuragi had failed to notice the same things he had. Considering Katsuragi’s initial determination, Sanada figured there was a possibility that he might nominate a student as a position holder again. In other words, Sanada couldn’t dismiss the possibility of lying.
He stared at the tablet.
Sanada knew that being the first one to lose points was unexpectedly damaging, mentally. In that case, he figured that he should go ahead and attack, even if it meant taking on some degree of risk—that was his mindset now. The person who nominated would only lose one or two Life Points, no matter the worst-case scenario a nomination resulted in.
“If you are pulling back this time, Katsuragi-kun, then… I suppose I will make a move,” said Sanada.
With that, Sanada decided to go on the offensive and nominate someone, just as Katsuragi had done in the first round. The number of participants had been reduced to twelve. One participant with a position had most definitely been removed from the pool, but even so, there was a good chance he could be successful. Now all that was left was to decide whether to go for the model student, or to play it safe and nominate someone as position holder. Or, perhaps, he could attack by aiming for a specified role.
Sanada wanted to get the model student and reduce his opponent’s Life Points by three, so that he could level the playing field. Class 2-C, Morofuji Rika, model student, confirm. Sonoda tapped his choices on his tablet, followed by the confirmation button. After the data was transmitted, there was a brief moment of silence before the decision was made. And then…
“Because Sanada-kun has nominated erroneously, he will lose two Life Points.”
“Ugh… Guess I was wrong,” sighed Sanada.
The cruel results showed that his effort had been in vain. Morofuji left the room, seeming exasperated. The results were unfortunate because Sanada had been correct in his thinking that Morofuji was assigned to a specific role. He now had only two Life Points left.
“That is rather unlike you, Sanada, to go ahead with uncertain information,” commented Katsuragi, speaking as though he and Sanada were still classmates.
“It was because I found Morofuji-san’s behavior to be a little suspicious, I suppose,” said Sanada.
“That might be true. But how much do you know about Morofuji? Perhaps you don’t really know anything about her, do you? You ought to think very carefully about where the behavior is coming from. If Morofuji was the model student, that means that she has an ally. One or two people would have made a significant difference in Morofuji’s state of mind. If it were me in your position, I would have nominated as position holder, if I attacked,” said Katsuragi.
Sanada, while listening to Katsuragi’s comments that bordered instructions, somehow managed to suppress his disarrayed thoughts. It certainly wasn’t a minor mistake, to be sure, but Sanada hadn’t run out of points yet. A successful nomination in the next round would be enough to inflict a serious blow on his opponent. However…
The match continued into the third round. Two girls, Inoue and Tanihara, started arguing back and forth with each other, asserting that the other was the model student, based on substantiated comments. They simply quarreled back and forth, arguing which one of them was suspicious and which one wasn’t. From there, the discussions increasingly veered irrelevant topics. Suddenly, the conversation had gotten all over the place, but there was no rule against getting off topic, and the school wasn’t going to interrupt the discussion unless there was a violation of the stipulated rules.
Sanada couldn’t act recklessly here, and he reluctantly chose to pass in the third round. Katsuragi, on the other hand, deliberately chose to nominate Tsukaji rather than the two students who had stuck out in the discussion. But his attempt was a swing and a miss, and so his Life Points dropped from seven to six. Afterward, although it seemed likely that either Inoue or Tanihara would be nominated by the model student and disappear, it turned out to be neither of them. Rather, it was Satonaka who was ordered to leave the room.
Round four ended with the conversation mostly having been between Inoue and Tanihara. Then, once more, someone other than those two was selected by the model student to leave the room: Okabe. Now, seven students remained. But since little progress had been made in the discussion, it was unclear what the representatives could even do. If a representative nominated a participant as a position holder, they would know whether that participant had a position or not, but if the student ejected from the room by the model student was an average student or in any other position, that information wouldn’t be disclosed. In other words, it was impossible to determine how many position holders currently remained in the room.
Sanada wanted to win here, but now the situation was such that a single mistake would weigh heavily on him. He wanted to see how things looked after one more round; he figured that then, he might be able to narrow it down. Sanada was certain of it, even more than he was in the previous round, and he was sure that Katsuragi was on the same page. He imagined such a convenient development without really thinking it through.
He was overcome by the feeling of wanting to pass. Spurred on by this emotion, he tapped the pass icon displayed on the screen and made his selection. Then, the final confirmation screen appeared, and he was presented with two choices.
“It would appear that you have chosen to pass. In that case, I believe I will go ahead and attack,” said Katsuragi.
Just then, when one more tap on the touchscreen would have confirmed his selection to pass, Katsuragi’s words made his fingers stop. A report made preemptively, out of the mistaken belief that Sanada had completed entering his choice to pass. Now that Katsuragi was making a move, Sanada might not have any more turns to attack if Katsuragi gave a correct answer. Sanada hurriedly canceled the choice he made before, backing out of the confirmation screen, tapped the name of the student he had been thinking of as a possibility, and then simply entered “as position holder” and confirmed his selection.
“Because Sanada-kun has nominated erroneously, he will lose two Life Points. Now that Sanada-kun’s Life Points have been depleted, we ask that he please leave the room at this time.”
An announcement was made, and Sanada suddenly saw the discrepancy between Katsuragi’s statement and the results.
“The model student… It backfired again? But, Katsuragi-kun, what about your nomination? Was it right or wrong?” asked Sanada.
“You thought you were making a wise choice, but it would appear that you got swept up in the moment, Sanada,” said Katsuragi.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Sanada.