Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Self-Test

"Well, the reason why we scored so many points is simple. First, we managed to protect our leader's identity, which was Horikita. And second, I figured out that Class A's leader was Totsuka Yahiko."

My classmates nodded understandingly. It was a pretty straightforward and easy-to-grasp explanation.

"Then how did Class C only get 140 points? I thought they weren't spenders like Class D and they also had their own spots," asked Ike.

"Yes, and how did Class D manage to get so many points with everyone retiring apart from Ibuki-san?" added Matsushita.

"And most mysterious of all, how did Class A place fourth with such a low amount of points?" followed Professor.

I glanced at Horikita and left it all up to her. We've been friends for so long that I think she'll know what to say and not say.

Our classmates turned to her with looks of anticipation.

"First, I would like to address the issue with Class A. They scored so low due to two classes guessing their leader, which yielded 100 points worth of deduction. The ones who guessed their leader were Class B and Class D. The other 50-point deduction was caused by them incorrectly guessing one of the other classes' leaders. Of course, their provisional points were lost, too."

"Could you further explain why Class C is out of the picture, Horikita-san?" asked Hirata.

"Yes. But before that, I want you to understand that the other two classes lost all of their provisional points, unlike Class B and D. According to the data that Class C had provided us, their supposed final points would've been 190 points plus their provisional points from spots. However, one of the classes, Class D, guessed who their leader was. That's the reason why they lost 50 points, provisional points included."

"S-So we know that Class D has 0 points, right? If they guessed Class A and C's leaders, then that would be 100 points... and the remaining 26 points would be from their spots...?" Mii-chan asked timidly.

"That's correct, Wang-san. We believe that's what happened," nodded Horikita.

"But Horikita-san, there's still one more mystery," said Matsushita.

If anyone were to ask that question, I thought it would be her or Nishimura. Apart from Horikita and Hirata, they were probably the sharpest critical thinkers in Class B.

"Yes, Matsushita-san?"

"If what you're saying is true, then wouldn't it mean that Class A still had 270 points by the end? They didn't spend a single point during the entire exam?" she asked.

Our classmates gasped after realizing what happened.

It was simply impossible for a class to not spend points for a week. It's just not feasible even under the best scenario. Since there were 40 students in the class, foraging food will never be enough without hogging many vegetation spots. Even Class B and C, who did their best in that regard, still had to buy the meal sets from time to time. Of course, sanitation facilities like the shower room and toilet were practically mandatory.

"Ayanokouji-kun, would you like to explain your deduction?" Horikita turned to me.

"Sure, I guess."

"You figured it out, Kiyotaka?" Ken asked in surprise.

"Shhh, Ken. It's Kiyopon. Of course, he figured it out." Haruka gestured for Ken to stay silent.

"O-Oh... I guess you're right."

Our classmates watched the exchange with bitter smiles.

Oh no, my mental state is slowly declining because of their high expectations. I might just want to step down from being the leader... again... and permanently.

"Matsushita, do you remember when we visited Class A's base camp?" I asked.

"Yeah..."

"Then, you would also remember that they had temporary toilets installed outside their cave, right?"

"Oh, you're right! They did have those... Wait, but if that's the case...— Ah-!" Matsushita finally pieced the puzzles together.

"Whatever your conclusion is, it's probably right," I said, before facing everyone. "To put it simply, Class D spent all of their points very early on. If my understanding is correct, and with that in mind, they must've lent a certain amount of those points to Class A. That's the reason why they didn't need to spend anything on the exam while Class D's points got burned very quickly."

"Then what did Class D ask in exchange? Someone like Ryuuen won't just do that without getting anything in return," asked Akito.

"You're right, Akito... However, the details of their deal aren't something that I know of. We'd have to ask Ryuuen or Katsuragi personally if we wish to know," I shrugged.

"Wouldn't Class D just ask Class A to deliberately have their leader guessed?" mused Yamauchi.

"That would've been a reasonable deal if it weren't for the imbalance in profit. Not only that, when I scouted out Class A's territory, they had occupied at least three spots, and I'm sure they had way more. That in itself wouldn't make sense if they knew their provisional points would disappear in the end."

Sure, it might also be to prevent their neighbors, Class C, from obtaining more spots to monopolize, but protecting their leader should be the top priority due to the penalty.

Our classmates nodded to my explanation. After pondering my words and determining that everything made sense, all of them seemed satisfied.

"Great job, Ayanokouji! Class A got destroyed on this one!" said Miyamoto.

"You're right! Nothing less from you!"

"I'll take the credit for the final push, but everyone deserves the praise. Especially you, Hirata. Everything wouldn't have gone so smoothly if it weren't for you, Kikyou, and Karuizawa keeping everyone together."

If there's one thing that I've learned from Hirata and Kikyou, it is the act of accepting and returning compliments. It's one of the main reasons why the two of them are very well-liked. Well, I'm not really aiming to be well-liked, but it's better for everyone to have a nice impression of you rather than the opposite. It's a nice perk if I want to avoid trouble in the long run.

"That's right!"

"We all did great!"

"Thank you, Ayanokouji-kun. I couldn't have done it without everyone's help." Hirata accepted the compliment with a smile.

Class B hung out until the reservation time ended. We watched a movie, talked with each other, enjoyed the food, and generally just relaxed. All of us had a great time inside the luxurious hang-out lounge and it seems like the entire class got closer to each other after everything that's happened.

I'm glad this wasn't a karaoke box, though. I'm really glad. Thank you, Hirata.

"Sorry for asking you to indulge in this request of ours, Ayanokouji-kun. You worked really hard to occupy those spots and you even got injured. I felt guilty after thinking about it. Maybe I should've let you rest first."

"It's no problem. I think this is better than just sending a crappy message in the group chat. That's honestly more tiring than just telling everyone straight out," I shrugged. "It's also your way to have everyone rest together, right?"

I'm not really the type of person who wants to relax with other people around, but I think I've become familiar enough with my classmates to not consider them a drag. And I have to admit, relaxing in a suite like this is much better than lying dead inside our room.

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"Goodbye, Ayanokouji-kun, Hirata-kun, and the rest of you!"

"We'll see you later, Karuizawa-san!"

"Bye-bye, Kikyou-chan! Horikita-san, too!"

Our classmates started taking their exits around 4:30 PM. It was decided that a few of us would stay and analyze the results in a more in-depth manner. Most of them wanted to take it easy in their rooms while the others decided to go all out and explore the ship some more.

"We'll be going ahead, Kiyopon~!" Haruka and the rest of the Ayanokouji Group stepped out as well.

It wasn't long until only a handful of people were left inside the lounge— namely; Kikyou, Hirata, Horikita, Matsushita, Yukimura, Karuizawa, and me.

"So, what's the big idea, Ayanokouji?" Yukimura fixed his glasses upon asking.

"Ayanokouji-kun and I believe that all of you might want to hear the nitty-gritty details of what happened," replied Horikita.

"The details, huh? I see... But may I ask why I'm here?"

"That's a strange question, Yukimura. You're one of the academic cornerstones of Class B. It's not at all weird for you to be included in meetings like this," I said.

We have Horikita, who's the second-in-command behind me, Hirata, who's around the same position as her, Yukimura and Matsushita with their intellect and wits, Karuizawa, who's in charge of the girls, and Kikyou, with her massive social connections. Each and every one of them make up Class B's foundation.

Even if I were to disappear, our class would stay as a force to be reckoned with.

Horikita knew everything so she appeared calm, but the other three girls looked pretty nervous. Even Hirata couldn't fully assess the current situation.

"Well, I think it'll be fine as long as you guys listen carefully. I'm pretty sure you'll understand after I finish narrating everything that happened from the very start."

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1st Day, 6:10 PM.

I was naturally suspicious of Ibuki the moment I met her at the camp. I saw how dirt-filled her nails were, so I wanted to investigate the place where Hirata and his group initially found her.

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2nd Day, 4:30 AM.

I woke up earlier than anyone else to check Ibuki's bag. My intuition didn't betray me since I actually found something suspicious, which was the camera. It would also strengthen my theory about Class D working with Class A because if Ibuki's only purpose was to identify our leader's identity, she wouldn't need to use the camera. If Ryuuen couldn't trust Ibuki, he wouldn't have sent her in the first place. In other words, they needed evidence for someone else.

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2nd Day, 9:00 AM.

We met up with Ryuuen on the beach. Given his personality, I assumed that he had something in mind. My suspicions only grew when he said that another Class D student was sent off after getting "punished" by him. Of course, everything was confirmed the moment I saw the student, Kaneda Satoru, staying with Ichinose's Class C.

I also noticed something strange on Ryuuen's table. However, since there wasn't technically anything there, I couldn't come up with a solid deduction. That is, unless, I investigate the root of my suspicion with Ibuki.

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2nd Day, 1:35 PM.

After asking Hirata to scout out the southern parts of our current location, I immediately started investigating the area surrounding the tree where they first found Ibuki. I dug up the ground and discovered a walkie-talkie inside a zipper bag. This was the reason why Ibuki's nails were dirty. And Ryuuen's own walkie-talkie was the box-like shape that I noticed in the table formed through water adhesion.

All of those things basically shed the light on his true plans.

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3rd Day, 6:45 AM.

I was talking with Haruka when I noticed Ibuki eavesdropping on us. It was the only time where I didn't ask Kikyou or Karuizawa to distract her or occupy her time. After all, I wanted her to hear what I wanted to say. Of course, it's about the fact that I'm Class B's assigned leader.

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3rd Day, 1:15 PM.

I joined everyone while swimming after asking Horikita to take a rest. I deliberately gave Ibuki the chance to rummage over my things so she could take a picture of my key card.

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4th Day, 3:45 PM.

Since Class D has retired, I also got rid of Ibuki since she had no reason to stay in our camp any longer. Consequently, it would be hard the execute the rest of my plans if she's around.

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5th Day, 1:30 AM.

I immediately noticed the light coming from the southern part of the island and deduced that it was where Ryuuen was camping out. At first, I really thought he made a mistake— that he thought he'd be safe from exposure given that it was already past midnight. However, I immediately discarded such thoughts because I was aware that Ibuki knew about my rotation pattern. There was no way that she wouldn't tell Ryuuen about it.

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5th Day, 2:30 PM.

"So you see, these are called 'muscadines'. They're like mini-mangosteens, appearance-wise. These are salmonberries. They kinda look mini-strawberries cuz' of their shape and color." Ike has been giving us a rundown of the edible berries we found today. "We've covered the rest in the past days. You remember them, right?"

"These are huckleberries, right?"

"Yep!"

"These are chokeberries!"

"Correct!"

"And these are buffaloberries!"

"Nice!"

Everyone proceeded to do their own thing but Ike said something that one would usually brush off as a friendly reminder.

"Ah, Ayanokouji, you were the one who found these buffaloberries, right?"

"Yeah, is there a problem?"

During this fifth day, I scouted out the central parts of the island and found these berries. I didn't want to push the southern area just yet, so I don't know if new types of berries could be found there.

"Well, I just thought I'd remind you since there are tons of nonnative and out-of-season plants around here. These buffaloberries are nice, but there's another type of berry that looks just like it." Ike grabbed a buffaloberry and emphasized its shape and color. "It's called a holly berry."

"Holly berry?"

I think I'm at least aware of its existence.

"Yep. Buffaloberries are edible, but holly berries are really poisonous. There's a chance that you might accidentally bring some in here, so I'll tell you all the differences that I can remember."

The main differences are the bushes that they were attached to. Buffaloberries had rounded leaves while holly berries had pointed leaves. Buffaloberries are also found in bigger clamps than holly berries.

Those are very helpful, but how would I distinguish the berries themselves from one another? Fortunately, Ike told me about them. Buffaloberries appeared with a brighter red color than holly berries. He also said that while buffaloberries looked like very small tomatoes, holly berries looked similar to red candies. Other than those very subtle differences, the two are practically identical to each other.

After that, Ike continued giving me trivia about poisonous berries that I might want to look out for. Some of them were ivy berries, pokeweed berries, and junipers, among many others. He was quite knowledgeable about them.

Those were the information I didn't know I needed at that time. It was an unexpected joker card hidden within my deck.

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6th Day, 2:15 AM.

I finally got to be face-to-face with Ryuuen. Surprisingly, Hashimoto from Sakayanagi's faction was also there. In the end, we got the name of Class A's leader from him so Katsuragi's reputation inside the class suffers.

The entire conversation was nothing but a farce. We both knew what the other person was thinking. However, Ryuuen didn't know that I was also aware of his bait. His real goal was to make me think that putting his name as Class D's leader was a winning move.

Of course, I was only suspicious at first, but two pieces of evidence made me confirm that I was lured to his camp.

I became a hundred percent sure that Ryuuen wanted to change leaders after seeing the berries in his food stash. He carefully and meticulously mixed the buffaloberries with a few holly berries. Apparently, some of them could be found in the southern parts of the island, where Ryuuen had stayed. If it wasn't for Ike's advice, I might've just fallen for Ryuuen's trap.

I tried to cause a commotion by letting Ryuuen throw a few punches at me. My goal was to find out who the other person was. But in the end, I barely managed to detect the presence of the person behind a tree. I didn't know that it was Ibuki at that time. Her identity was the last piece that I missed.

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Everyone's eyes trembled while listening.

"You've seen through everything... right from the start...?" said Karuizawa.

"This is ridiculous... Ayanokouji..." Even Yukimura couldn't keep his calm.

Hirata stared at me with conflicting looks.

"I'm sorry, Hirata. I know I chose to hide many things from you, so I can totally understand if you stop trusting me completely after this."

"It's true that you kind of deceived me and some of our classmates, but I couldn't care less about that." Hirata looked up and gave me a sharp look. "Beyond all of this, your goal was to preserve all of our provisional points, right?"

Horikita looked down and bit her lip. At the same time, Matsushita looked at me with a worried gasp.

"That's right..."

"Don't tell me..." Matsushita muttered under her breath.

"But Ryuuen-kun used Ibuki-san to find out your identity. You baited her into knowing about you, so you can sabotage Ryuuen-kun's guess on the last day," said Hirata.

"It was your plan to retire from the start..." added Yukimura.

"Kiyotaka-kun... Did you... intentionally hurt yourself...?" Kikyou asked nervously.

"If you did, then it's something that I'm not alright with. If getting hurt is what it takes for us to win, then I'm fine with losing. Please never do that again." Hirata humbly bowed his head.

I didn't really want to tell them about that, but I guess it's inevitable. Hirata was a genuinely good guy and I appreciate his concern for me. I can only apologize in return.

"I'm sorry, Hirata. I'll try my best to find other ways next time." I lowered my head in response.

They listened to my apology in silence.

"I'm also sorry... Ayanokouji-kun told me about his plan, but even though I was against his self-harming methods, I couldn't think of any other alternatives..." Horikita slightly bowed her head beside me.

Like Ryuuen, I also considered poisoning myself. However, even Ike didn't have any detailed knowledge about the harmful effects of poisonous plants, which made it too risky.

My first attempt to gain an appropriate reason for a leader change was to catch a cold when I slept outside with Haruka. However, my immune system managed to prevent that from happening. My second and last attempt was to make Ryuuen injure me, but his blows wouldn't be strong enough unless he seriously tried to hurt me. However, if I let him beat me up, he'll immediately catch on to what's happening.

In the end, the head injury method that I came up with on the third day proved to be the most practical course of action.

"Everything was okay in the end, so you don't need to keep apologizing. The class has been in its most united state after the exam, so let's just do our best to maintain that." Hirata addressed us with a gentle smile.

"Yep! It's our summer vacation. We deserve to enjoy the rest of this luxurious liner before everything's too late!" Karuizawa lifted the atmosphere with ease.

"M-Mhm, Karuizawa-san's right." Kikyou agreed with her before facing me. "Kiyotaka-kun, hurting yourself isn't good just like Hirata-kun said earlier... Please don't do that again..."

She forced a smile after advising me.

"I didn't expect you to do something so reckless, Ayanokouji-kun..." Matsushita shook her head with a bitter smile.

"Say it again, Matsushita-san. Your plan was incredible, Ayanokouji, but I also think it's better to prioritize safety. What if things went wrong?"

"Yeah, you guys are right. It was really my bad."

At that moment, our little meeting ended on a pretty leveled note.

There were a bunch of layers involved in my plans during this special exam, so I'm curious as to what the school has in store for us for the next ones.

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Last Day, 1:23 AM.

As the two of us went down the dangerous paths along the hillside, Horikita grabbed me by the wrist, looking worried.

"Do you really have to do it, Ayanokouji-kun? Won't it be too dangerous?"

"I'll be fine, Horikita. In fact, it's not just the fastest, but it's also the safest way to go about the plan."

The genuinely concerned look on her face made me slightly happy. Horikita doesn't usually show these kinds of emotions. Her pride doesn't allow it. To be honest, I don't think Horikita is fully aware of how worried she looks on the outside.

"I'm counting on you, Horikita."

"I... I understand."

We walked along the forest and passed through a muddy ridge. This was the place where Horikita and I had agreed to execute the plan.

"Here we are..." she muttered.

"I know you've got the plan memorized down to the tee, but I'll summarize it again just to be sure." I turned away from Horikita and pointed out the key places she would need to note. "We'll collapse the wall of this ridge to make it seem like a small landslide occurred."

We jumped down and arrived near the tree below. I grabbed the rock that the two of us found during our first round trip. It was about the same size and shape as the one I observed by the river.

"Just like we planned, I'll smash this rock against my head." Horikita's eyebrows twitched as soon as I repeated that point. "Don't worry. Like I told you before, it would be serious enough to inflict a head trauma and a decent cut on my scalp, but mild enough to not cause a concussion or any long-term damage."

Horikita responded with silence so I continued breaking everything down. It wasn't long until the two of us acted like we really fell off the ridge.

*Splash*

And just like that, mud was smothered all over our clothes. Marks of our bodies' weight could be seen on the ground, as well.

After that, we dug out and struck the soft partition of the ridge until it sagged and finally gave out.

"As the story goes, I managed to stay awake due to the adrenaline rush, but after a while, I slowly lost my strength and consciousness," I explained. "We've already simulated the crashing motion, so you can leave the rock as-is. Since we landed near the tree, you can smear my blood on some roots if it helps prove the event."

I wouldn't go through all of this if staging an injury was easy. However, according to Chabashira-sensei, an investigation will still be held after the injured student has been attended to. It wasn't just to record the details of the incident. It was also to make sure that the accident really was an accident. It's especially suspicious since I am the class's assigned leader.

That's why we have to make sure that everything's in place. That passing storm was a real stroke of luck. Making up a convincing story wasn't too demanding because of it.

"Let's get this over with. I'm sure you want to wash up and change as soon as possible."

Horikita closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

"Mn," The look of reluctance disappeared from her eyes as she nodded in response.

"Excellent." I held the stone in my hand and faced the girl beside me. "I'm leaving everything in your hands, Horikita."

Using the right amount of force, the hard surface of that rock slammed against the right side of my head.