chapter 3 part 3

After school, the cell phones of the students who have excellent academic or physical abilities rang at the same time. Horikita approached me as she watched the situation.

"It seems like everyone’s already quickly making their move. After all, it's  natural to want to bring  the outstanding students into one's group."

Regardless of the strategies of the class to which you belong, the first to make their move wouldn't lose anything.

"Did you not get any messages, Horikita?"

"No, I didn't."

"I see. After all, there are only very few people who know your contact."

"You knew already, and you still have to deliberately mention it. What a nasty character you have. So, did anyone contact you? Ayanokouji-kun, who got a perfect score in math, but your cell phone is surprisingly quiet?"

Horikita asked me back, so I decided to look at my phone, which hadn't made a sound yet.

"Unfortunately, my battery's dead. I haven't charged it for two or three days."

"If you don't use your phone so often, you won't have to charge it that much."

No, although I would like to deny that there's no such thing, she's not wrong. If you didn't use your cell phone much, you might forget to charge it.

"Don't you need to pay more attention to our classmates? It'll be really troublesome if they hastily form groups."

"I've already instructed them about what they should do earlier. I summed it up in an easy to understand way and sent it to everyone. But I don't think you noticed, since your battery's dead."

Horikita said that while showing her cell phone display to me.

-Please don't form a group until Class D reaches an agreement.

-If you want to decide on your team as early as possible, please contact Horikita.

It seemed like Horikita had anticipated this situation, and set up some minimum requirements.

"I can't enforce this, because this ultimately is just a matter of personal judgement."

It was up to the individual to decide who to group up with.

If your personality didn't fit in with someone else, you couldn't form a group together, which might affect your chances of getting expelled. Even if all four classes work together, there's no such thing as an ideal team with no chance of getting expelled for anyone.

Because of that, we could only make a suggestion.

I always carry my phone charger with me, so I left my seat to plug it in.

In addition, there might be students in the classroom who might be listening to our conversation.

"What's your relationship with Ichinose? If it's her, proposing the whole year to help each other wouldn't be strange."

"I don't think we've had any contact recently. Neither Class A or Class B has had any proposals. If all the 2nd years have their own ideas, this period should be used for communicating, then."

If you grouped up without permission based on your own preferences, it would make it harder and harder to cooperate. If you didn't have plans for a peaceful talk from the beginning, you'll end up with all the 2nd years fighting with each other. If Horikita wanted to establish a cooperative relationship between the classes, I think she would have acted.

Horikita didn't show any signs of displeasure from me leaving my seat, and instead followed me.

It seems like she had something to say.

After walking into the corridor, and confirming that no one was around, she said to me once again.

"This time's uninhabited island exam... Can you get first place by yourself?"

"Leave me alone. The only thing we know about it is that it's an uninhabited island exam."

"I wonder, you have a perfect score in math, so does that mean you don't even need that team?"

What kind of reasoning was that? Is her forceful words her way of trying to express what she wanted to say?

"If we come in first place, we'll get extra points for Class D. We can let the 1st and 3rd years fight for the 2nd and 3rd place. Better than let the other 2nd years get it."

Easier said than done.

"If we can do that, we can then form the groups with the core objective of avoiding any dropouts."

If we shifted the groups to create strong ones for the purpose of winning, then weak teams would also inevitably be created.

"Not everyone can pay the private points for relief."

"Yes. I would like to collect as many personal points as possible for the students who are unstable, but if a student who lends me points gets expelled, then there's no helping it."

There's nothing more futile than saving someone else while falling down yourself.

"If you don't want that, then you can only ask a student with a points surplus."

That's fine, but there was a limited number of such students.

"There are methods that would eliminate any drop outs, but I don't think anyone would want to do it."

"A plan to withdraw from the start?"

It looks like Horikita had already noticed a loophole in the exam. According to the rules, the first 5 groups to withdraw gets expelled.

If that's the case, if five people are deliberately prepared as a sacrificial group and they withdraw, the rest of the students won't have to worry about getting expelled. However, to do this, you will have to prepare a total of 30 million private points. Not to mention the fact that the year from the top three teams will steal the points from the years in the bottom three teams. Even if they are from the same grade, because the rewards are lessened, we won't be able to recover from our losses. The link between the top three and the bottom three, can be said to be the school's way of trying to prevent wrongdoing.

"It feels like the only way is to rely on my own strength to survive."

"That's true. Can I talk to you for a bit?"

Horikita, who had stopped walking, said that.

"If it's something in the acceptable range."

"That's fine, thanks."

It looks like Horikita had something to talk about when she returned to the classroom. I watched Horikita's back as she left, and decided to head for the stairs.