Chapter 7:
Bitter Tears
THE TEN-MINUTE COUNT for the interval had begun. On the monitor, the digital timer was counting down the seconds. Horikita, after defeating Hamaguchi and coming out unscathed, sat in her chair and waited for Kanzaki, the center. Even if Kanzaki came in within the ten-minute period, in essence, this was a break time until the countdown reached zero. In the meantime, Horikita was going over the rules for the special exam once more in her mind.
Centers started with seven Life Points. Excluding mistakes made by your opponent, up to three points could be taken away in a single move. While it was exceedingly natural to want to make the first move, there was risk involved in nominating at an early stage. That said, it was also true that if you passed consecutively, it meant you’d be falling behind. In fact, it was Hirata endeavoring to maintain a defensive stance that had led to his defeat. Horikita thought about what type of person Kanzaki Ryuuji was. It looked like he was, essentially, the same as Hirata and Hamaguchi, someone who emphasized defense, but…
“But there’s a good chance that he will launch an offensive to turn the tide…” mused Horikita, the words slipping through her lips unintentionally.
If an opponent were prepared to keep nominating regardless of the damage they’d incur, it would be difficult to avoid losing any points. If that happened, then Horikita’s battle with the general would become even tougher. Horikita put her mind to work, trying to produce some ideas to defeat Kanzaki while coming out unscathed. However, no matter how much thought she put into it, her options were limited.
Ultimately, you could say it was up to the eye whether one could spot who was cast into what role in the discussion to come. Or Horikita supposed that if she could guide her opponent well, and continue to cause them to pass…
Then, while Horikita still hadn’t solidified her plans for the next battle, the classroom door opened and Kanzaki appeared with just under four minutes remaining on the timer. Kanzaki, without a word, took a look around the classroom, sat down in an empty seat, and then took a breath.
“Hello. Let’s do our best,” said Horikita, essentially thinking that she ought to offer him somewhat of a greeting, but Kanzaki looked at Horikita with a grim expression on his face.
“Whose idea was it to have Ayanokouji be general?” he asked.
“That’s a very sudden question,” replied Horikita.
“Was it yours, Horikita? Or was it Ayanokouji’s, perhaps? Why did Ayanokouji accept? When was it decided?” asked Kanzaki.
Kanzaki interrogated Horikita intensely, sounding like he was going beyond the realm of asking questions, while staring at her so intensely that it seemed he was about to take a bite out of her.
“Our class is free to have whomever be the general, for whatever reason, chosen at any time. Isn’t that so?” replied Horikita.
“The Ayanokouji I know isn’t the type of person who would have voluntarily come forward publicly. That’s not his personality. Someone must have convinced him to do it. Am I right?” Kanzaki pushed.
“I’m not so sure about that. I think he might be changing, little by little,” said Horikita.
Although Horikita wasn’t going to mention it, she had wished for Ayanokouji to appear as the general, and she was the center for her class because she had accepted his proposal. Of course, part of that deal was that Ayanokouji didn’t wish to actually have to appear on the front lines even in the later stages of the exam, so Ayanokouji wasn’t actually extremely far removed from the Ayanokouji that Kanzaki knew, after all.
“Are we done here? I’d like to focus on the exam,” said Horikita.
“I suppose,” replied Kanzaki.
An announcement was made, declaring the beginning of the discussion, and Horikita lowered her eyes to her tablet. She then selected a new group from those assembled. The further the rounds progressed, the more naturally the participants’ roles would be exposed over the course of conversation. However, the more exceptional the student and the better they were at conversing, the better they tended to be at hiding their role.
On the other hand, the opposite was true for students who were poor liars or who didn’t find conversation to be their forte. Representatives could either choose students who were difficult to unmask, or they could deliberately choose students that were easy to unmask. Preferences varied depending on the representative. The match was basically decided once the representatives chose who to assign into their groups of seven.
Discussion No. 1
Participants
Class 2-B
Ijuuin Wataru, Sudou Ken, Miyake Akito, Ichihashi Ruri, Onodera Kayano, Nishimura Ryuuko, Matsushita Chiaki
Class 2-D
Watanabe Norihito, Yonezu Haruto, Sumida Makoto, Aragaki Itsuki, Iguchi Mashiro, Himeno Yuki, Ninomiya Yui
Horikita had chosen a group of seven who were well suited for debate and who could fight, with a group made up of students who were calm, students who were gutsy, and students who had a poker face.
On the monitor, she could see the fourteen students take their seats around the round table, as they were instructed. The participant’s respective tablets placed at their seats now displayed what their assigned roles were. Both representatives would check everywhere and everything over the monitors, poring over the available information to see if there were any students behaving suspiciously or if any of the participants made eye contact with a particular student.
However, not a single student acted in such an obvious way; all of them acted appropriately and reliably, looking around with a straight face. Horikita suddenly felt a surge of unexpected happiness when she saw Sudou on the other side of the screen, keeping his expression calm. In the past, he would have been a completely inappropriate choice of candidate for a group like this. Sudou had grown quite a lot over the past two years, and for a moment, Horikita was enveloped in a warm, almost parental feeling. She continued to watch over Sudou with stern affection, though she also kept her eyes on the entire discussion group as the five-minute period counted down.
Perhaps because many of the students in the discussion were on the safe side, few of them let anything slip even though it was their first round of debate, and so Horikita and Kanzaki both chose to pass. Little progress was seen in that round or the next, which resulted in only two students being ejected from the room by the model student. However, the representatives couldn’t just sit back and watch forever.
Then came round three. Miyake, who came forward and announced that he was a graduate, said that Watanabe was a model student. Inevitably, that resulted in a debate with Watanabe, who denied the assertion, and it was now time for the third nomination.
A pass here was highly likely to entail a great degree of risk, but at the same time, it was also an opportunity. The first point to consider was whether or not to trust Miyake, the self-proclaimed graduate. Kanzaki determined that Miyake was the graduate and nominated Watanabe as a model student. Horikita, on the other hand, concluded that Miyake was a model student, and that Watanabe was something else, and so nominated Miyake as a model student. The two representatives, both forgoing a pass in order to act on their opposing conclusions.
“Announcing the results. Horikita-san identified Miyake-kun as the model student, so Kanzaki-kun loses three Life Points. In addition, because Kanzaki-kun has nominated erroneously, he will lose one Life Point.”
With only a slight difference in judgment, a sudden change was brought about, resulting in the Life Point totals going from seven-to-seven to seven-to-three. The results showed that Miyake was a model student and that Watanabe was not. Now, there was only one model student left. The participants realized something from this development. Unlike in other, similar games, this discussion wasn’t limited to cases of someone coming forward and announcing their role, and the situation might not unfold as expected.
The only risk for a position holder in coming forward themselves was the risk of being nominated. Also, as it was extremely difficult for the model student to win, another strategy could emerge if someone holding a position could be nominated by the representative or even themselves, so that they could access information for their own convenience. Miyake seemed to have indicated a plan for going for that reward this time. However, the main focus was the special exam, and only the special exam. The real goal was to have the representative win, rather than have the participants get Private Points from their victories, and by having those who hold a position come forward and announce themselves, it stimulated discussion and prevented stalling out.