At this moment, Sudo's brows were tightly knitted, a very serious and earnest appearance, "Mm, that's about it."
[I don't get it at all! What are they even talking about? Can a little quiz really be this complicated? But I'd better just pretend I understand! That way they'll definitely look at me in a whole new light!]
That's what Sudo was thinking to himself.
[Sudo definitely didn't understand a thing, did he.]
And Suzune realized almost instantly that Sudo was just bluffing, but she couldn't be bothered to expose him.
"The partner pairings for the final exam must follow some rule. In other words, if we can figure out the rule, then we can play a card that works to our advantage in the finals."
At that moment, Ayanokoji suddenly spoke up.
'This flavor is really good, the sweetness is just right, it doesn't feel overwhelming.'
"What do you mean?"
"I think this quiz decides the partner list for the final exam."
"I think so too." Suzune nodded.
[Crap, I totally don't get what they're talking about…]
A bead of sweat slid down Sudo's forehead, his eyes flashing with panic.
"Like, maybe students with similar scores get grouped together? Is that it?"
Karuizawa managed to more or less grasp the conversation, pointing out one possible rule.
"Or like when they get similar questions right or wrong, isn't that also a thing?"
Hearing that, Sudo forced his brain, which was barely any bigger than a walnut, to spin as fast as it could. He finally managed to catch up a little to everyone else's thinking and blurted out the rule he'd come up with.
"But if we don't guess the rule correctly, the consequences could be really serious, right?"
Hirata's expression gradually turned serious.
"What you're all saying makes sense. I think the core of this exam is figuring out the pairing rule. It's just a hypothesis."
"But like Hirata said just now, if we don't see through the rule behind how partners are chosen based on the quiz results, it could easily lead to devastating consequences."
"Whether she meant it literally or not, Chabashira-sensei said so, in past exams there were students who got expelled. But usually only one or two pairs drop out. Don't you find that a bit suspicious?" Suzune took another sip of milk tea, then continued.
"Horikita-san, what you mean is, 'The school set it up so that even if we don't see through the rule, the finals won't be too severely affected,' right?"
Hirata immediately replied.
"That's right. If the pairing was purely based on similar scores, then all the weaker students would end up with one another. In that case, tons of students should have been expelled. But in reality, that's not what happened."
"Totally… can't keep up…"
Sudo seemed to give up pretending any longer.
"The only rule that would fit this situation… there's only one… hey, Saiki-kun, did you hear what we were saying just now?"
Suzune furrowed her brows, and everyone's gaze turned to Saiki.
While the others had been in heated discussion, Saiki had been carefully savoring the pudding in front of him, his face unconsciously showing pure enjoyment.
"Mmhmm."
Saiki snapped back to reality and quickly nodded.
"The next quiz's results will affect the pairings. 'High-scoring students get paired with low-scoring students.' Only that kind of balance would keep the dropout rate low…"
He hadn't really been listening to their talk. Whenever he ate sweets, his attention went entirely into that. But he still used telepathy to pick up on the general progress of their conversation.
"Mm."
Suzune seemed displeased with his behavior, but after hearing him clearly state her exact thoughts, she still nodded.
"I see…"
Everyone nodded as well, showing agreement with Suzune's words.
"As long as we confirm the purpose of the quiz, then we can better prepare for the final exam. But what concerns me is the other matter, which class we should target in battle. My answer is simple, I want to aim for Class D."
As she spoke, Suzune's eyes met Kushida's.
To Suzune, no matter what, she had to defeat Kushida and Ryuen.
"The reason goes without saying, it's about overall academic ability. Compared to Class A and Class C, Class D is weaker. That's all. Do any of you have questions?"
Although she said that, her true reason was far from so simple.
At that moment, Kushida's face carried her usual sweet smile, her gaze landing on Suzune.
"If that's what Horikita-san thinks, then I absolutely support it!" Kushida said with a smile.
But in her eyes, a flash of killing intent flickered, one only Suzune could catch.
[Suzune, this exam, I'll make sure to bury you.]
Her inner voice was heard loud and clear by Saiki.
And not only that, Saiki picked up many other thoughts as well.
"I support Horikita-san's idea."
Hirata nodded, and the others also voiced agreement.
'Class D, huh… they'll definitely make some move, won't they…'
Though Saiki had no desire to get involved with Class D, just to avoid the hassle, since everyone else already agreed, of course he couldn't cast a dissenting vote.
"As for the quiz, I'll also ask some of the upperclassmen in my club about it." Hirata said to everyone.
"So let's end today's meeting here. You all really worked hard."
Everyone then left the café one after another.
Sudo and Hirata headed to club activities, Suzune and Ayanokoji seemed ready to return to the dorms, Kushida went in another direction, and Karuizawa wanted to take Saiki to a movie, but he turned her down, saying he had something to do that evening.
After parting ways, Saiki went somewhere deserted, activated his invisibility, and quickly followed behind Kushida.
During the meeting, he'd heard her inner voice, she and Ryuen planned to meet and talk about the exam.
Those two together definitely wouldn't mean anything good.
To prevent trouble, Saiki decided to shadow Kushida and see what they were up to.
While tailing her, he also noticed another person secretly following her, Class D's Ishizaki Daichi. But because Saiki was invisible, Ishizaki hadn't noticed him.
Before long, Kushida arrived at the meeting spot with Ryuen, a blind spot on campus with no surveillance cameras.
Even though cameras were set up in over ninety percent of the school, blind spots still existed. Saiki couldn't help but suspect the school had done that on purpose.
"You came, Kikyo."
Seeing her arrive, Ryuen smiled faintly.
And a few seconds later, Ishizaki Daichi, who had been tailing her, stepped out as well, "Ryuen, I checked just now. No one else followed her."
Ishizaki Daichi had been following Kushida under Ryuen's orders, his real task being to check whether anyone else was secretly tailing her.
If Yamauchi Haruki or any of Ryuen's other lackeys were spying on her, they'd be lured into this surveillance-free spot, and then they could be dealt with however Ryuen pleased.
But clearly, that hadn't happened.
"Maybe you missed them, or maybe they saw through it long ago. Doesn't matter. It was just a little test."
Ryuen didn't care about the result.
Ryuen looked at Kushida, his lips curving upward as he asked, "Has anything unusual happened in your class lately?"
"Not really. We just discussed the upcoming quiz, nothing else."
Hiding behind her cute, usual smile, Kushida replied, "They said this quiz's results will affect the final exam pairings, weak students will be paired with strong ones."
"Just as I thought. And if I'm not mistaken, the class you plan to target is us, Class D, isn't it?"
"That's right." Kushida nodded.
"Suzune said your class has the lowest academic level, so you're the most suitable target, "
"Ahahaha! If you only look at class points, that's true. Probably Class A and C are also eyeing us. But we have our target too. I already said, I'll crush Class B along with Suzune. If our class chooses B, it'll end up as a showdown between us."
"You say you'll crush Suzune, but during the sports festival you couldn't pull it off, could you."
At that moment, Kushida's expression changed. She stepped closer, locking her gaze on Ryuen.
"I don't want you to be worthless to me, Ryuen-kun."
Murderous intent seeped out of her.
[This girl, how dare she talk to Ryuen like that?!]
Ishizaki Daichi was dumbfounded, never expecting Kushida to act that way.
"Oh? Kikyo, you've got guts. You're the first woman who's ever dared to talk to me like that."
Ryuen kept smiling, not even slightly offended.
Though he often used violence, he was a rational man. Violence was just one of his tools.
He understood well, right now, he and Kushida were on the same side, "allies."
On the matter of crushing Suzune, their goal was the same.
Kushida wanted to use Ryuen, and Ryuen also wanted to use her.
To destroy Horikita and Class B, cooperation was necessary.
"After the sports festival, Suzune found out. She already knows about our partnership." Kushida continued.
"That was bound to happen sooner or later. Anyway, Kikyo, this exam's questions are written by the students. That's our chance."
Ryuen narrowed his eyes.
"You need to get ahead of everyone, write the questions first, hand them in to your homeroom teacher, and make sure your teacher refuses to accept anyone else's after that."
"Then give the test questions to us. That way, Class D will definitely have the last laugh in the finals."
"Mm, I understand."
Kushida nodded. After discussing a few more details about Class B, she left first.
'Yare yare… those two really are a pain.'
After their conversation ended, Saiki went somewhere deserted and released his invisibility.
'Feels like I can't just leave this alone.'
He glanced off into the distance. Though he always wanted to avoid pointless hassle, Kushida and Ryuen secretly planning the exam questions weighed on his mind.
'If I tell Ayanokoji later, he should be able to handle it. For now, I'll head back. Yare yare… maybe check another sweets shop, see if they've got new cakes…'
———
[The Next Day, in the Morning]
Chabashira Sae gave an entire class period over to the students, letting them hold their own meeting about the upcoming exam.
Suzune took the initiative to walk up to the podium and, with a stern tone, said to everyone,
"Thank you all for your efforts. Whether it was the sports festival, the earlier quiz, or the midterms, we've achieved very good results."
[Compared to when she first entered school, Horikita has really changed a lot.]
Ayanokoji rested his cheek on one hand, his gaze fixed on Suzune.
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