Katsuragi felt a twinge of annoyance at Sakayanagi’s emphasis on the word “whatsoever.” It was impossible for him to not be eager at all, of course, but his instincts were telling him that he couldn’t admit to being even a little eager here.
“None whatsoever. While it is true that I am here to defeat you, that does not mean I intend to fight with my personal feelings at the forefront, as Kitou did. This is a team fight,” said Katsuragi, asserting that he was not eager at all, as though that was the way things ought to be.
“Heh heh heh.” Sakayanagi, chuckling as though she found something comical about this, slowly raised her thin arm and pointed at the base of Katsuragi’s throat.
“What…?” asked Katsuragi.
“‘None whatsoever.’ You must be joking. In truth, your emotions are running unabashedly high, and you want to think of nothing else but beating me. You do not care one whit about your classmates or anything like that; you just want to fight as you please and bring me down directly, by your own hand. Is that not what you’re thinking?” asked Sakayanagi.
“I’m not going to fall for your tricks, Sakayanagi. I’m sorry, but your judgment of me is incorrect,” said Katsuragi.
“Oh, is that so? In that case, why don’t you straighten that sloppily tied necktie of yours?” asked Sakayanagi.
“My…necktie?” asked Katsuragi.
Katsuragi lowered his gaze and pulled back his chin to look at his tie around the base of his neck. When he did, he realized that his tie, which should have been fastened tightly, had loosened a great deal. When did that happen? He wondered as he took a breath and casually tightened his tie around his neck.
“If you had been your usual calm and collected self, you should have noticed your messy necktie straight away, Katsuragi-kun. However, before your sworn enemy had arrived in the room, your gaze and attention had been focused on the doorway for the entire time. You must have spent the entire not-so-short interval period of ten minutes just staring. Didn’t you?” said Sakayanagi.
Sakayanagi had looked at the state of things in minute detail over the security camera. After saying as much and displaying her powers of perception, Sakayanagi smiled.
“I cannot believe you would say that you are not at all eager. Honestly, that is a transparent lie, isn’t it?” said Sakayanagi.
“That is just convenient conjecture on your part. There is no way you could know something like how long my necktie has been loose,” said Katsuragi.
He pretended to be calm when he responded, trying not to let her set the pace. However, Sakayanagi had anticipated that response from the start.
“I can see that, apparently, you have been eager for a while, and it is leaving you upset and shaken. First, you ought to calm down and think it through. What was the cause of your necktie being loose? Kitou-kun, who had been entrusted with the position of center, lost, and he flew into a rage and grabbed you, didn’t he?” said Sakayanagi.
“Because his goal was to defeat Ryuuen directly, from the sound of it,” replied Katsuragi.
“Yes. However, did he do such a thing solely out of frustration? What if, in fact, that was not the case, and I had instructed him ahead of time to rustle up your tie once his defeat was certain?” asked Sakayanagi.
The representatives stepping into the room as a new challenger couldn’t possibly know what kind of battle had taken place in the room before. Therefore, in regards to information warfare, they would be forced to start from a position one step behind the representative who had already been fighting. So, as a countermeasure, Sakayanagi had laid a small trap. Namely, that if Kitou were defeated by Katsuragi, he was to grab his tie, which would easily be considered a blind spot, and mess it up. There was no great significance in messing up Katsuragi’s necktie in itself.
However, that changed when it could be used as evidence to reveal a gap between Katsuragi’s official stance and his true feelings. Even if Kitou wasn’t much use in the actual exam, this plan showed the meaning behind his being selected. A student like Sanada couldn’t possibly fill such a role. Up until this point, Katsuragi had conducted himself more calmly, a cut above his opponents Sanada and Kitou. He wanted to fight against Sakayanagi on equal or better terms and had tried to keep that momentum going, but at the end of the first round, any mental leeway that he had was buried thanks to this conversation, and now the tables had been turned on him. The powerful enemy before him saw through everything, and he was forcibly made aware of that. With a big smile still on her face, Sakayanagi looked at the scene on the other side of the screen.
“Now then, since neither one of us knows what is going on yet, let us proceed to the second round, shall we?” said Sakayanagi.
They could now hear voices come through the monitor, and the discussion began once again among the group, which had shrunk to thirteen participants.
7.2
AROUND THE SAME TIME, Horikita triumphed over Kanzaki. Fortunately for Horikita, even after three rounds, including her match-up against Hamaguchi, she hadn’t suffered any damage. Especially in her third battle, since Kanzaki was unable to concentrate on the exam, she hadn’t even really had an honest-to-goodness match. After about five minutes had passed, the door to the representative’s room had opened, and Ichinose finally appeared.
“That was amazing, Horikita-san. I didn’t think you’d defeat both Hamaguchi-kun and Kanzaki-kun without taking any damage at all,” said Ichinose.
“It just happened that way,” said Horikita.
Horikita was being humble. Ichinose smiled warmly at her as she took her seat. Horikita couldn’t detect any impatience or tension in her, at the very least. Nor could she see any anxiety about the fact that her class was sending out their general first, before Horikita’s class.
“Let’s both give it everything we’ve got and do our best, okay?” said Ichinose.
“Yes,” replied Horikita.
Horikita, who had already experienced the discussions before Ichinose did, ended up becoming awfully stiff. Horikita wondered if, before now, Ichinose had talked to Kanzaki and asked him about what had happened. There were only a few minutes left in the interval, but it was possible that he could have told her the details about how he had lost when they passed each other. Horikita didn’t know if Kanzaki would have been honest about it all though, as it was tantamount to practically giving up. Horikita figured that, no, it was probably more likely that he didn’t say anything about it to Ichinose. In that case, Horikita thought that perhaps she could use that as a means to upset Ichinose, and—
“You know, come to think of it, lately, I get the feeling that your vibe has kind of changed a little from how it used to be, Horikita-san,” said Ichinose.
When Horikita was lost in thought, Ichinose spoke to her as though she were just making friendly idle chitchat.
“I have to wonder about that. I don’t really think anything about me has changed, though. If anything has changed from before, the only thing I can think of would be the length of my hair?” said Horikita.
“Nah, not that. I mean stuff other than physical appearance. It’s like, your aura has gotten gentler and kinder, I think. Like, you’ve gotten a lot more approachable than before,” said Ichinose.
“I’m…not so sure. I didn’t mean for that to happen at all, though,” said Horikita.
“But you’ve been getting more opportunities to talk and hang out with both guys and girls than before, right?” said Ichinose.
“Well, that’s… Yeah, I have. Sure, compared to the old days, that might be true,” said Horikita.
That wasn’t something that her old self would have considered. In that sense, Horikita felt she could accept the idea of it.
“I’ve been hearing a lot of things about you lately too, Horikita-san,” said Ichinose.
Both Ichinose and Horikita had each chosen their groups, and now, a new discussion was about to begin.
“Hearing a lot of things about me? From whom, exactly?” asked Horikita.
“Hm? Who? Everyone, really,” said Ichinose, smiling warmly as she looked at the monitor. “I think that it’s wonderful to get closer to your classmates and deepen your friendships. I myself have reached out to everyone to try to get to know them better and be friendly. It wasn’t that I wanted to make use of that, of course, but I guess I realized that sometimes, the things that you do day in and day out can pay off.”
What Ichinose said really was nothing more than small talk. But even so, Horikita couldn’t help but feel unsettled. Now that the discussion had begun in earnest, Ichinose and Horikita were no longer exchanging words with each other. For five minutes, they just quietly watched the fourteen people converse. There was no particular difference between how things were before, when Horikita was up against Hamaguchi or Kanzaki; it was still the same special exam. Horikita was observing carefully, but of course, she still hadn’t arrived at a conclusion about the roles yet.
Horikita thought that she would simply pass in the first round, of course, but even so, her first step was to see what Ichinose’s approach would be. Should she gesture like she was going to nominate, or should she pass without hesitation? In either case, Horikita decided that she would choose to pass, since nothing that seemed like usable information came out of the initial round. After waiting for a while, Horikita chose to pass as planned, since time was running out. However…