---Notice---
Hi, it has been a while. In return for my long absence, I've made this chapter 8k words, so please do enjoy it. I put a lot of time into it, and it concludes the paper shuffle.
My Discord (Best server in the world): discord.gg/MhxUErPZM
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"The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty." ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
It didn't take long for us to reach the infirmary. Ryuen didn't say anything on the way there, but given his condition and everything that had just happened, I wasn't surprised.
The nurses gave him a bed the moment they saw the state of him. One of them quickly got to work, and I stayed until he was properly settled. Once he was, I turned toward the door.
"Wait."
Ryuen called out just before I reached the door. His voice sounded weak.
I looked back at him. "Hmm? What is it?"
"The class..." He stopped, took a breath, tried again. "Is it really over?"
"Ah. You're asking about the Paper Shuffle."
"Class B is full of dumbasses." He lifted his head off the pillow to look at me properly. "I told them not to study. It fit the plan with Kushida, so there was no reason for them to waste the effort. Now the plan's dead, and Ayanokoji knows every piece of how I built it." He breathed. "They're idiots. Part of that's on us. We've solved every real problem for them all year, so none of them ever learned how. Horikita won't go easy. She'll hand us an exam that will bring us down. Many of our pairs won't clear the minimums. That means expulsions. More than one."
He was right. I'd come to the same conclusion a while ago.
"That's true," I said. "There will likely be many expulsions."
I said it casually, as if the possibility didn't bother me at all.
"The hell do you mean, 'that's true'?" He pushed himself up further to see me straight on. "Aren't you going to do something?"
"Why would I?" I replied casually. "It's close to an impossible situation. And you were talking about dropping out yourself. That alone costs Class B a pair. Add the others who'll flunk, and our class points are gone regardless. So what would be the point?"
"You're lying." His eyes stayed on me. "You want to reach Class A. You wouldn't just fold."
"Why not? At some point, I have to ask whether the effort is worth it." I looked at him. "I can gather twenty million private points far more easily than I can carry this whole class to graduation. One of those is a one-time purchase, the other is essentially a life sentence."
Ryuen's expression tightened. Frustration? No, that wasn't exactly it. He looked desperate.
And that was enough for me to understand.
Despite everything Ryuen said about his classmates, despite how often he insulted and threatened them, he obviously cared about what happened to them. Maybe not in the same way someone like Ichinose cared about her class—but there was still a sense of responsibility there.
"For all the times you call them dumbasses," I said, "for all the times you bully them, threaten them, remind them how far beneath you they are... You feel responsible for them. You want them in Class A. At the very least, you don't want to watch them go out like this."
Of course, I wasn't trying to hide what I was doing. There wasn't much point in doing so—Ryuen was intelligent enough to understand that I was using his concern for the class to convince him to stay.
But that didn't make what I was saying dishonest.
I wanted Ryuen to stay at this school—and Ryuen wanted to protect Class B. Our interests aligned. It was as simple as that.
"What do you want?" Ryuen asked.
I smiled slightly and held out my hand to him.
"Don't drop out. Stay, graduate from Class A, and help me lead. That's all. A simple request, isn't it?"
"Tch." He turned his face to the ceiling and studied it. Then, softly, "Why?"
"Why what, Ryuen?"
"You know damn well what I'm asking." Harder now. "You've already proven you can run the class without me. You've got a dozen pawns in Class B who could stand where I stand. Ibuki. Ishizaki. Take your pick. So why does it have to be me?"
"Because none of them can replace you," I replied. "Ibuki and Ishizaki are useful, but they need direction. You don't. I can push you slightly in one direction and trust you to create something useful from it yourself. If I did the same thing with Ishizaki, he'd probably come back and ask me what to do next."
Ryuen didn't answer, so I continued.
"You think I've been controlling everything you've done since the start of the year, but that isn't true. Most of my interference has been small. I've given you information, or pushed you slightly in a certain direction—but you were still the one who acted on it. That's precisely why you're useful to me, you can think and act independently." I paused for a moment. "Even earlier this year, against him, you lost exactly once. The cruise ship exam. And I only found the mastermind before you did because the council made it easier for me to get cameras in my hands. Take those away, put me in your position with only the information you had, and he probably would've caught me the same way he caught you. I know that. You should too."
For a while, Ryuen said nothing. He simply stared at the ceiling.
"Fine," he said at last.
"So, I've told you what I want." I lowered my hand. "Now it's your turn. What do you want in return?"
Ryuen was quiet for a moment. Then, "Prevent any expulsions in Class B. I don't care how impossible it sounds. Do it. That's all I want."
"It isn't a simple task." I turned toward the door, then turned back. "I suppose I'll have to get it done, though. Actually, one last thing. Your points. I need you to do something with them."
He looked at me, curious. He didn't argue. After a little back-and-forth, he gave me a nod and reached for his phone.
And I left.
***
After leaving the infirmary, I made my way toward Suzune Horikita's dorm.
Ryuen's request was troublesome. Preventing every expulsion in Class B, especially after most of the class had wasted all this time not studying, would be close to impossible under normal circumstances.
But, of course, normal circumstances didn't matter much here.
I didn't have the complete answer yet. That was fine. Since I wasn't participating in this exam directly, negotiating with other classes and buying promises would be difficult, but that was only true right now. Before I did anything else, I needed to understand exactly what options were available to me.
I knocked twice. Shuffling came from the other side, and the door opened.
Horikita stood on the other side, looking at me with mild confusion. Understandable, considering I had shown up at her dorm without warning.
"Do you have a moment to talk?" I asked.
"About what?" Her gaze slid past me, checking the hall.
"The Paper Shuffle, of course."
She thought about it. Then she stepped back and let the door swing wide. I removed my shoes, went in, and closed it behind me.
"Sit." She settled at the low table in the middle of the room and gestured to the far side. "You said you wanted to talk about the Paper Shuffle."
I sat where she pointed. "I did. Though it's more accurate to say I wanted to talk about Ryuen."
"Ryuen." Horikita frowned slightly. "What about him?"
"He's finished. Not officially, not yet, but soon the news will spread like wildfire, he's spent." Horikita listened without interrupting. "When a man like him steps back, it leaves a hole in the class. Someone has to fill it. Ibuki has the nerve for it. Ishizaki is also technically capable of filling Ryuen's tyrannical role in Class B. And there are quieter names in the mix. Kondo, for one."
"Kondo." She repeated it without any expression at all. "I don't know that name."
"He isn't that well known."
"Your own name isn't on that list."
"No. The council takes what time I have. The role of Class B leader will go to whichever of them wants it most. I'm not in that line."
"Then why are you talking to me?" Her eyes came up to mine, sharp. "And why would you name a student no one has ever heard of as a contender to lead your class?"
"You know, the quiet ones are the ones everyone underestimates." I let the point sink in. "You, of all people, should understand how useful that is. Class D has its own mastermind that not many know of."
Horikita's expression didn't change.
Of course, I hadn't expected her to openly react to a comment about Class D's supposed mastermind. But whether she showed it or not, I knew she understood what I was referring to.
"You're not here to gossip about my class or yours," she said. "Say what you came to say."
"All right." I folded my hands. "Your class is facing my class in the Paper Shuffle. I'm just here asking you to write soft. It's nothing the faculty wouldn't approve of, and it costs you very little."
"It costs me a chance to help my own class rise and level the playing field between classes." She almost laughed. "You want me to spare the class that's spent all year stepping on mine, in the one exam where you're finally scrambling. Class D sits at zero, Yagami. I don't have the luxury of mercy, and I certainly don't have it for Class B."
"I thought you might say that."
"Then why ask?"
"Because it was the cheap way." I stood and reached for my bag. "I prefer the cheap way when it's available. Sadly, it isn't always."
She rose with me. Horikita obviously wasn't the type to let someone stand over her in her own room. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Only that I'll have to do this the hard way." I gave her my ordinary, pleasant smile, the one everyone knew. "Thank you for the time, Horikita. I'll see myself out."
And just like that, I left her room. Horikita didn't follow me to the door.
***
That night, I called Sakagami.
He picked up on the third ring, and I heard him shift—he sounded as if he had been on his way to sleep. "Yagami. It's late, and you've called in private. That's rare for you." A short pause. "Which usually means you want something."
"You know me too well, Sakagami."
"I know your habits. Ask what you called to ask."
"The Paper Shuffle. I want to understand it. Suppose a student wanted the answer key ahead of time. Is there any legitimate way to buy it?"
"No." Immediately. "The keys don't exist as a document until the finals are printed, and printing is handled by independent personnel. There's nothing to purchase. Nothing to steal, for that matter."
"Then the school's own market. Points are supposed to buy anything on this campus, and old exam papers have changed hands here before. There's no way for me to get my hands on the answers for whatever Class D preps for us?"
"You've answered it yourself." He sounded almost bored. "Old papers circulate because the regular tests draw from the same well every year, and the school doesn't much mind who drinks from it. Study is study. The Paper Shuffle has no well. The questions Class B will receive will be written fresh by Class D, used once, and then forgotten. There is no way to get the answer key or exam legitimately."
He was right.
"Then the questions. Each class writes the exam another class sits. Class D has been assigned to attack Class B; whatever Horikita's class submits becomes our test. There's no way those submitted questions can be seen before the day?"
He was quiet for a moment. When he answered, his tone had cooled a degree. "The submissions are sealed with the faculty until they're approved and distributed."
"Approved by whom?"
"A review panel. Question difficulty has a ceiling after all."
Sakagami continued after a moment. "For a student to see the questions early, someone on staff would have to hand them over. Do you understand what you're describing?"
"Paying a teacher to steal it."
"Paying a teacher to end their career, and to end yours the moment it surfaced. Cheating is expulsion for the whole pair, and it does not stop at the pair if the school decides to make an example." He takes a deep breath. "I'll say the obvious thing, Yagami, it's a stupid idea. Is it possible? In the narrow sense that anything is possible if a willing person exists to do it, yes. But you would need that person to be willing. I am willing to do a lot of things, but I'm not willing to attempt a miracle. And no sane member of staff would be, for any price you could name. It's a virtually impossible task with all the cameras in this school."
"I see."
"Do you? Because I'd hate to think you called me at this hour to talk yourself into something foolish."
"No." I let the word settle. "You're right. Stealing what Class D submits would be stupid."
I meant it. Even if I somehow got the questions in advance, stealing them would solve a problem I didn't have; my problem had never been knowing the answers. Why would it be for someone like me?
Still, the call had been useful. Getting anything directly through the school was practically impossible. Sakagami wouldn't help me, given it would be suicide, and judging from his reaction, finding another teacher willing to risk their entire career would be difficult, unnecessarily difficult, actually.
That eliminated one path completely.
For now, that was enough.
"For what it's worth, the call had a purpose. I learned a lot, thank you, Sakagami."
"Hm." He didn't sound convinced. "Then we understand each other. Get some sleep."
The line went dead.
"Hehehe." Ryuk floated into my view with a wide grin. "That's a dead end, isn't it, Light? The teacher won't play, and the smart move's off the table. Bad night for you."
I set the phone down and said nothing.
Ryuk tilted his head. "Huh. You don't look like you're done yet."
I turned off the lamp.
***
Ryuen's seat was empty the next morning.
I had ensured the news of Ryuen's withdrawal had spread, and the class had noticed the absence of his presence immediately. Normally, even when Ryuen said nothing, everyone understood one thing: he was still the person in control. Without him there, people kept looking at his seat, then at each other, waiting for someone to say what we were supposed to do next.
It was almost amusing. For all the complaints people made about Ryuen, the moment he disappeared, nobody knew what to do.
"Oda and Yabu," Kaneda said under his breath, mostly to himself. "Neither of them breaks forty even on a good day. Combined, on eight subjects, against questions Class D wrote to take us down…" He didn't finish.
There were only three students who were completely safe in any honest version of this exam: myself, Shiina, and Kaneda. Everyone else had some level of risk, and a few students were almost guaranteed to fail if nothing changed.
"So what?" Ibuki had her arms crossed, her voice cutting across the whispers. "We just wait for Ryuen to stroll back in and fix it? He's not coming. Somebody in here needs to actually think for once."
"And that's you?" someone muttered.
"You got a better option?"
"Fighting about it isn't the option." Ishizaki, loud and earnest and useless, looking around for someone to agree with. "Ryuen always had a plan. There's gotta be a plan."
"There's no Ryuen, so there's no plan, so shut up about the plan."
The room quickly became louder as more students started arguing.
"Everyone, calm down."
The voice wasn't loud. Kondo had stood up, and he waited until the noise dropped before he went on.
"Fighting over who's in charge doesn't get anyone through the exam," he said. "We've got a few days. We figure out who's actually at risk; we've already put the strong ones where they'll do the most good; we just need to make sure everyone is in the right mindset to perform optimally; and we need to stop acting like the future is inevitable. That's it. That's all we do for now."
His idea wasn't anything brilliant, actually; it was extremely basic. But at that moment, the class didn't need some genius plan. They needed someone who could stay calm and give them something to do.
Kondo had done exactly that.
I stayed in my seat behind Ryuen's empty one and watched quietly. He'd said exactly as much as I needed him to say, and nothing more. For now, that was enough.
***
I spent the next afternoon in the student council room, working through paperwork. Needless to say, it was boring.
President Horikita was at the head of the table with a folder open in front of him. Tachibana stood at his side, as she almost always did.
"There was an incident in the third-year classes yesterday," Manabu said, not to me. "Class D. I'd like the footage before I decide whether it needs the council's attention at all. Tachibana, go to the security office and have them pull the recordings from the east wing."
"Of course," she said.
I capped my pen. "I've been sitting for three hours. If it's all the same, I'll walk with her. I could use the air, honestly, all this paperwork is bringing me close to sleep."
Manabu looked at me, then returned to his folder. "As you like."
The security office was located at the end of the teachers' wing. Tachibana knocked on the door, and a bored voice from inside told us to come in.
The room was colder and much smaller than I expected. One wall was covered in monitors showing different parts of the school, the hallways, staircases, lobby, cafeteria, dorm entrances, and several other places I recognized. Most of the screens were split into multiple camera feeds.
Ryuk had once mentioned that this school had over a thousand cameras. Looking at everything in front of me, I really began to feel that number sink in. He had already drifted ahead of us and was now staring at all the different screens himself.
There was only one guard behind the desk. When we entered, he quickly turned off whatever he had been watching on his phone. I only saw the screen for a moment, but it looked like some sort of boat sports event.
The man's name was Tomita. He looked to be in his fifties, and judging from his expression alone, he didn't seem particularly interested in his job.
"Council," Tachibana said. "President Horikita wants the east wing recordings from yesterday afternoon. Third floor."
"Sign there."
Tomita pushed a clipboard toward her without a second thought.
As Tachibana filled it out, I looked over the information she was required to provide: the date, time, her name, and the area of the school she wanted footage from.
Every request for footage was recorded.
Tomita took the clipboard back and turned toward the computer beside him. The monitors on the wall were mainly used to watch live footage. The older recordings were accessed through his terminal and stored on the servers on the other side of the room.
"Quiet in here," I said pleasantly while he worked. "Long day?"
He nodded. "Yeah, you know the deal, stuck here till eight." He didn't look up from the computer. "Then the next guy. School this size, you'd think they could give us better hours."
"You'd think," I agreed.
While we waited, I continued looking around. There were the screens, the servers on the other side of the room, the clipboard that recorded every request for footage, and only one entrance. I also noticed a sports newspaper on Tomita's desk, opened to the racing section and covered in pen.
Eventually, Tomita copied the footage onto a drive and handed it to Tachibana. She had spent most of the wait staring at the progress bar.
"Thank you," I said.
He only grunted in response.
We walked back to the student council room. Tachibana handed the recording to the president, he thanked us for the errand, and I returned to my paperwork.
Back in my dorm that same evening, I opened the message thread with Kondo.
'You handled the class well today,' I wrote.
The reply came almost immediately.
'It was enough. Tomorrow I need you to tell them something else.'
A longer pause this time. 'Okay. Tell me what?'
I typed out the instructions plainly so there could be no confusion. I didn't explain any part of why.
Kondo didn't ask me to, either. That was one of the reasons he was useful; he could follow instructions without needing to understand every detail behind them, something not everyone in Class B could do.
After a moment, three dots appeared, followed by a single response.
Got it.
I put the phone face down on the desk.
***
Kondo stood up again the next morning, and this time the room quieted for him without anyone being told to.
That was the advantage of having influence over so many different people in Class B.
Ibuki, Ishizaki, Shiina, Albert, and Manabe all had some level of influence over different groups in the class. Some were respected, some were popular, and others—like Ibuki—were simply difficult to ignore. With influence over all of them, getting the class to accept Kondo wasn't too difficult.
I didn't even need all of them to openly support him. Actually, that would probably make things more suspicious. Opposition could be useful too. If someone argued against Kondo before eventually accepting his plan, then, to everyone else, it would look like Kondo had actually convinced them.
Of course, he hadn't.
But the rest of the class didn't need to know that.
Because of this, pushing Kondo into a temporary position of authority had been surprisingly simple.
"I've got a way through this," he said. "All of us. No expulsions, no one dropped. But it only works if everyone does exactly what I say, exactly when I say it."
"So say it," Kaneda said. He had his pen down, which was essentially a confirmation of his full attention.
"During the finals, nobody answers a single question until I give the signal. Not one mark on any page. You sit, you wait, and you watch me. When it's time, you'll know. Until then, you do nothing." He put his hands flat on his desk. "I know how that sounds. I'm asking anyway."
The class was silent for a moment.
Then, almost at once, several students started speaking.
"That's it?" Yabu's voice climbed. "That's the whole plan? Sit and stare at a test that can get us expelled, and wait for you to wave your hand? Why? Why would that work?"
"You don't need the why. You just need to trust it."
"Ryuen never made us run in the dark like this." Ishizaki was half out of his seat, loud enough for the back row. "Say what you want about the guy, he told people things. Ibuki knew things, I knew things. Somebody always knew the plan." He looked around for backup and found plenty of it. "My scores are garbage on a good day. If this thing goes wrong, I'm not failing a test, I'm getting expelled!"
"He's not wrong," Oda said, quieter. "Some of us are already under the line. You're asking the people with the least left to bet all of it on a hand nobody's seen."
"Trust it." Kaneda again, level and cold. "You're asking forty people to risk expulsion; if your plan isn't foolproof, you don't just fail one pair. You fail all of us at once."
"He's got a point," someone said.
Another student spoke from the window side. "What about the clock? We just sit there, not writing, while time runs by? That's the plan?"
More students started agreeing with Kaneda. His concern was reasonable, after all, Kondo was asking forty people to gamble their school lives. And he'd given them nothing except a request to trust him.
"If I could explain it, I..." Kondo stopped himself. "The signal isn't the plan. The plan is bigger than the signal. That's all I can say."
"That's all he can say," Yabu muttered while looking down at her notebook.
"You want us to just believe you?" Ibuki said. "You? Since when do you have a plan for anything?" She didn't bother raising her voice. "Ryuen never explained himself to everyone, but the difference is he'd won things first. What have you won?"
I let the argument continue for another moment before finally speaking. I didn't bother standing.
"Let's give Kondo's plan a try. If he's planning what I think he is, then he's right; there's a very high chance we will pass."
Several students turned toward me.
I hadn't actually argued against any of their concerns.
But I didn't need to.
That was the advantage of the reputation I'd built in Class B. Kondo hadn't earned enough trust to make the entire class follow him, but I had.
"I've listened to everything said in this room," I went on. "If anyone has a better plan, a real one, I'd like to hear it now. Not a complaint, Kaneda, but a plan."
No one had one.
Kaneda's objection was correct, but it was also completely useless. Being right about the danger didn't give anyone a way around it.
"Then we do what he says." I looked back down at my desk.
"If Yagami's in, that changes things," someone said, low, not quite to anyone. "He's got the most to lose here."
"... He's got the least…" Kaneda whispered. But he picked his pen back up.
"I don't mind waiting," Shiina said without looking up from her book.
Unlike most of the class, Shiina had little reason to worry about the exam. The fact that someone in her position was willing to support Kondo's plan seemed to calm a few more students.
Kondo nodded as the class finally began to settle down. His hands were still flat on the desk.
"I guess if Yagami's good with it, I'm good with it," Ishizaki said and sat down.
"Tch." Ibuki dropped back into her seat. "Whatever."
"Fine…" Yabu muttered as she glanced in Manabe's direction, who was also nodding in agreement.
***
I caught Sakagami in his office after the last period.
"You told me once," I said, closing the door, "that you would do whatever it took to see this class rise. I'd like to know whether you meant it."
He set down his pen. "That depends entirely on what you're about to ask. The last time you opened a conversation this carefully, you were considering something very stupid. I'd hoped that was the end of it."
"It's not the same thing. I'm not asking you to do anything."
"You've lost me already, then." He leaned back. "If you want nothing done, why are you in my office?"
"Because doing nothing is the part I need from you." I stayed by the door. "On the day of the finals, you'll be the one proctoring Class B like always. Whatever happens in that room while you stand at the front of it, I want you to do nothing at all. You see nothing. You report nothing. You raise nothing with the faculty, then or after."
For a moment, Sakagami didn't say anything.
His reaction was understandable. The last time I'd spoken to him about the exam, I'd asked about illegally obtaining the questions, but now, only a few days later, I was asking him to ignore whatever happens in our classroom during the test. Even without knowing my plan, he could probably understand how dangerous that request was.
"Yagami," he said slowly. "What is it you think is going to happen in that room?"
***
The mall was crowded on Saturday, which was exactly why I chose it.
I already knew where Kushida would be and roughly when she would be there. For someone as social as her, predicting that she'd spend part of the weekend in the mall wasn't difficult. And because she had so many friends, learning the details of her plans was even easier.
So when she stepped out of a store with a bag on her arm and nearly walked into me, it looked like a completely normal coincidence, two students from the same year happening to meet at the mall.
"Yagami." Kushida looked surprised before smiling. "What are the odds?"
"Small, I'd think." I smiled back. "Do you have a minute? There's a quieter spot just past the escalators. I won't keep you long."
Kushida continued smiling, but I could tell she understood why I wanted to speak privately. Our last conversation had made our relationship clear enough, after all, and since then, she'd also watched everything that happened to Ryuen.
"Of course," she said sweetly. "Anything for a classmate."
We moved to a quieter area past the escalators, somewhere nobody was standing close enough to hear us. As soon as we were alone, Kushida's expression changed.
Of course, there was no reason for her to maintain that act around me anymore.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"You've been spending time with Class A lately. I hear Sakayanagi keeps very tidy paperwork."
Kushida froze for a moment.
"I don't know what you think you know."
"I have a copy," I said. "The agreement you signed. What you'd provide her, and what you'd be allowed to say about it afterward. Your signature is beautiful, you know. Sakayanagi let me have one, and since her own name appears nowhere on it, showing it around costs her nothing at all." I paused. "It costs you a great deal, though. Selling out your own class to Class A, in writing. And that's before anyone asks what you and Ryuen agreed about Horikita, but I guess thats just hearsay, a physical contract is way more damning, right?"
"You can't use any of that." She spoke quickly. "The moment you show that paper, everyone asks how you got it. You'd be exposing yourself too."
"Asking questions about me isn't the same as holding evidence against me. You of all people should understand the difference." I kept my voice relaxed. "There's no document in this school with my name on it that you can use to blackmail me, Kushida. But there's one with yours. I didn't even have to go looking for it. It was handed to me."
"I played it your way." Her voice became quieter. "Every call. Every errand. I let go before he went down, exactly like you wanted. That was supposed to be the end of this."
"It ended Ryuen's claim on you. You should've understood this, Kushida. My claim on you was never tied to his."
Kushida took a slow breath.
"You're enjoying this."
"Not especially. Enjoyment would mean it was difficult."
Her expression changed again. Just like that, the anger disappeared, replaced by the calmer and more reasonable version of Kushida that most students were familiar with.
"Then make it worth something," she said. "I'm better as a partner than someone you only come to when you need a favor."
"I don't need a partner," I replied. "I need one thing done once by someone who has every reason to keep it secret afterward. That's all."
Kushida stared at me.
I snapped my fingers once.
"Remember, Kushida. This is how quickly I can destroy everything you've built here. So after you do this, you're going to forget it ever happened."
She tried another approach.
"I could go to Horikita. Tell her you're planning something. She already doesn't trust you, and if enough people started asking—"
"Asking what?" I interrupted. "That the boy who isn't even participating in the exam requested a favor you can't describe? Horikita needs proof to act. The only proof standing in this corner is you."
For a while, Kushida looked toward the crowd instead of me.
I could understand what she was thinking. She could refuse, of course. She could even go to Horikita, Hirata, or Chabashira and tell them everything she thought she knew about me.
But what did she actually know?
She could spread rumors, but rumors wouldn't be enough to remove me from the school, certainly not by themselves. Kushida, on the other hand, had put her own actions in writing. I had something that could destroy the entire life she'd built here, while she had nothing similar against me.
I was asking her to sacrifice a few hours of her weekend.
The alternative was risking her entire school life.
It wasn't a difficult decision, and she knew that, too.
"One favor," she said finally. The sweetness was gone from her voice. "One. And afterward you also forget about me."
"That depends on how cleanly the favor goes."
"What do you want?"
"A small thing. Well within what you're good at." I smiled. "You buy things all the time, Kushida. No one thinks twice about it. That's all this is. You're going to buy a few things for me."
Her jaw tightened. "And if I'd rather not spend my weekend running errands for you?"
She held my gaze for a moment before looking away.
"Fine," she said. "What am I buying?"
I told her.
As she listened, her expression slowly changed. It seemed she was beginning to understand exactly how large the request really was.
"You'll have the points before you need them," I said. "Do it cleanly. You know how."
***
Kondo came to my room that night because I'd asked him to.
He stood just inside the door with his hands pushed into his pockets.
"There's one more piece," I said. "I need you to transfer the four million points to Kushida. Tonight."
His head came up. "Four million... To Kushida? She's Class D."
"She is."
"Yagami." He shifted his weight. "Look, I've done everything you've said. I stood up in front of the class. I told them the thing about the signal. I didn't ask why, because you told me not to. But I'm about to move four million points to a student in another class, and I still don't actually know what any of this—" He stopped himself, and started again, quieter. "Are you sure about all of this? Really sure?"
I looked at Kondo for a moment. It was obvious what he needed to hear.
"Every student in our class is going to walk out of the Paper Shuffle," I said. "All of them. No expulsions. Not one. You have my word."
I smiled when I said it, the same warm and easy smile I had used around everyone all year round.
Kondo let out a breath and took out his phone. A few taps later, four million points had been transferred from his account to Kikyo Kushida's.
And with that, everything was finally in place.
"Okay..." he said. "Okay. I trust you."
"I know you do."
***Suzune Horikita***
Chabashira-sensei read our results out to us on Tuesday in the same emotionless voice she used for almost everything.
Class D had survived. There were no expulsions, which was already a relief by itself, and our defense had held in most subjects. It wasn't a perfect result, but considering everything that had happened leading up to the exam, it was one I could accept.
Then Chabashira-sensei moved on to Class B.
"Class B's results were the highest recorded in the school's history for this exam. A full score. Every student, in every subject."
For a moment, I thought I'd misheard her.
A full score...?
No. That wasn't possible.
I knew the questions my class had submitted. I'd checked and written most of them myself. They weren't impossible, but they were deliberately designed around Class B's weaknesses, and several students in that class struggled academically even under normal circumstances.
And now every single one of them had scored one hundred percent?
There had to be another explanation.
Maybe they'd spent every remaining day studying? No. Even if I accepted that possibility, it still wouldn't explain a perfect score from every student in every subject. Studying could improve someone's score, but it couldn't suddenly turn every weak student in a class into a perfect one.
And their partners couldn't have carried them either. That wasn't how the exam worked. A stronger student could raise a pair's combined score, but they couldn't answer the questions on their partner's paper.
I continued thinking, trying to find something I had missed.
There was nothing.
Class B had cheated.
I couldn't prove it. I didn't even know how they'd done it. But there was no other explanation I could accept.
Still, one part of the result bothered me more than anything else. If someone had cheated, why make every score perfect? Why not miss a few questions on purpose, something simple? A few intentional mistakes would've made the result much easier to defend. It would've given them something to point to if the school had investigated.
Unless they simply didn't care about being suspected.
Suspicion wasn't proof, after all.
That thought bothered me.
There was another consequence too. Because Class B had achieved a perfect defense, our attack had earned nothing. The questions we'd spent so much time preparing had given us zero class points.
I thought of Kondo.
Before Yagami visited my room, I'd never even heard the name. He had casually mentioned Kondo as a possible candidate to replace Ryuen, and now people in the class were already whispering that Kondo was possibly responsible for Class B's result.
Then, naturally, I thought of Yagami himself.
He'd asked me to make the exam easier. I refused.
He told me he'd do it the hard way instead.
Was this what he'd meant?
My eyes moved toward Ayanokoji. He was staring at the board, his expression unchanged. I couldn't tell whether he'd reached the same conclusion I had, or whether he knew something I didn't.
Either possibility was troubling.
Around me, the rest of the class was beginning to react. Sato said the word cheating out loud, and several other students immediately agreed. Others argued that the school must have made some sort of mistake.
I stayed quiet.
Whatever the rest of the class thought, I was already convinced.
***Honami Ichinose***
"A hundred percent," Kanzaki said again, as if repeating the number would somehow make it more believable. "Every student. Every subject."
Our classroom had been loud for almost ten minutes. Our own results had been discussed for less than one. Nobody seemed to care about them anymore.
Someone behind me said it had to be a reporting error.
"There's no preparing your way to that score," Kanzaki said. He didn't sound angry, just certain. "Maybe one student, on their best day, in their best subject. Not forty of them, on all eight. No class scores like that honestly."
"We don't know that," I said. "Maybe... maybe they found something nobody else thought of. Ryuen's class has been surprising people all year."
It sounded reasonable while I was saying it.
But even I wasn't completely convinced by my own words.
Some students were saying that a boy named Kondo had led the class through the exam. The name meant nothing to me. I couldn't remember ever talking to him, and I wasn't even sure I knew what he looked like.
The name I kept thinking about was Yagami.
The Yagami I knew remembered our promised dinner and stood there smiling while I complained to him about it, the same Yagami who could act completely normal around me. He could be kind… Strange sometimes, definitely, but still kind.
But that was still the same Yagami I'd spoken to on the cruise ship, who had also told me that winning was the only thing that mattered. He hadn't been joking then. I knew that much.
For months, I'd been trying to understand how both of those people could be the same person.
Maybe this result had something to do with him. Maybe it didn't. Honestly... I didn't know what I wanted the answer to be.
If it was him, then what exactly had he done?
And if I asked him directly... would he even tell me the truth?
I shook the thought away. There was no point questioning him inside my head when I could simply ask the real person.
Tomorrow, before class.
I would ask him directly.
***Arisu Sakayanagi***
The news reached our classroom through Hashimoto, who rushed in to deliver the results before most of the teachers had even announced them.
A perfect score. Every student in Class B.
For a moment, even our classroom became quiet. Katsuragi immediately asked whether the information was accurate, while several others started questioning Hashimoto at once.
I sat with my hands folded over my cane.
I wasn't surprised, although I was certainly curious.
Class B had somehow achieved a perfect score on an exam they shouldn't have been capable of passing so easily.
Of course, I couldn't prove something fishy happened behind the scenes.
But moments like this were always interesting.
I didn't know exactly how he'd done it, and guessing without enough information would be pointless. What interested me more was the decision to make the result perfect.
A few incorrect answers would've made the outcome easier to defend. Instead, whoever planned this had chosen a result that practically invited suspicion.
Carelessness?
No. I didn't believe that.
It was more likely they simply understood something obvious; suspicion alone couldn't harm them. If nobody could prove how the result had been achieved, then it didn't matter how many people believed something dishonest had occurred.
Kondo-kun...
An interesting name, perhaps. But I had no reason to believe he was truly the person responsible.
"Yagami-kun," I muttered quietly.
I had come to this school expecting to find one person worthy of my complete attention. Now, it seemed the year had decided to give me another.
I tightened my hands slightly over my cane, unable to stop a small smile from forming.
This would be enjoyable.
***Suzune Horikita***
I took the long way back to the dorms that evening.
For some reason... I couldn't stop thinking about Yagami's visit.
He'd asked me to make our exam easier. I refused. Then he'd smiled and told me he would do it the hard way.
At the time, I thought it was simply an attempt to make me nervous, maybe an empty threat meant to make me second-guess the questions we'd prepared.
Obviously, I was wrong.
Whatever Yagami had done, I refused to believe he'd accomplished it without leaving anything behind. There had to be something. A transaction, a conversation, a mistake, anything that could explain how an entire class of students had achieved a perfect score.
I simply hadn't found it yet.
Still...
There was something else bothering me.
Something I hadn't wanted to think about since Chabashira-sensei announced Class B's results.
My brother.
Ever since Yagami joined the student council, the thought had stayed somewhere in the back of my mind.
My brother had recognized him.
Before me.
I disliked thinking about it that way. It sounded childish. As if I were simply jealous because another first-year student had received my brother's attention.
That wasn't it.
At least, that was what I'd always told myself.
My brother didn't make decisions based on personal feelings. If Yagami had been allowed into the student council, then he'd obviously done something to prove he deserved to be there.
I understood that.
But understanding something didn't mean I had to like it.
For as long as I could remember, I'd wanted my brother to acknowledge me.
At first, I thought following him would be enough.
Then I thought becoming like him would be enough.
After coming to this school, I finally began to understand how foolish both ideas were.
My brother didn't want me following behind him.
He wanted me to become someone capable of walking forward on my own.
At least... I thought I understood that now.
And yet, while I was still struggling to prove I could do exactly that, Yagami had somehow managed to join the student council and earn my brother's recognition.
I remembered seeing them together.
Yagami sitting inside the student council room as if he belonged there.
Speaking with my brother normally.
Working beside him.
It shouldn't have bothered me.
But it did.
Maybe because Yagami never seemed particularly desperate for any of it.
He didn't follow my brother around.
He didn't spend years trying to earn his attention.
As far as I knew, he hadn't even come to this school with the goal of joining the student council.
And yet...
He was there.
While I wasn't.
I stopped walking for a moment.
How stupid.
Was that really what I was upset about?
Because Yagami had something I wanted?
No...
That wasn't quite right.
If this were only about the student council, I wouldn't still be thinking about it now.
I looked down at the path in front of me.
The problem was today's result.
Until now, I could tell myself that my brother had simply recognized Yagami's potential.
That Yagami was intelligent. Socially capable. Reliable enough to be useful to the student council.
There were plenty of reasonable explanations.
But this...
Class B had been facing multiple expulsions.
Ryuen had disappeared.
Most of their students hadn't been properly prepared.
Yagami came to my room and asked me for mercy.
I refused him.
Then he left after telling me he would find another way.
And a few days later, every student in Class B received a perfect score.
I still didn't understand how.
That was the part that bothered me.
My brother had recognized Yagami before I understood what he was capable of.
And now, for the first time, I couldn't help wondering...
Was this what he'd seen?
The thought made something in my chest tighten.
No.
That was impossible.
My brother couldn't have predicted this specific result.
But maybe that wasn't the point.
Maybe he'd simply understood that Yagami was capable of things I hadn't noticed yet.
Maybe, once again, my brother had looked at someone and understood them long before I did.
I hated that thought.
Because if that were true...
Then today hadn't only been my loss against Yagami.
It had proven my brother right.
And me wrong.
Again.
I started walking.
For so long, I'd wanted to prove that my brother was wrong about me.
That I wasn't weak.
That I wasn't someone who needed to be protected, ignored, or pushed aside.
I wanted him to look at me the way I'd always looked at him.
Maybe not as an equal yet.
But at least as someone capable of becoming one.
Instead, someone else had received that recognition first.
And now...
I had challenged that person directly.
Yagami had come to me asking for help.
I'd refused.
Maybe some part of me had even wanted to see what he would do afterward.
To see whether the student my brother had accepted into his council was really as capable as everyone seemed to believe.
I hadn't thought about it that way at the time.
But perhaps...
Perhaps I wanted him to fail.
The thought stopped me again.
I didn't hate Yagami.
I had no reason to.
He'd never treated me badly. Even when we disagreed, he was usually polite.
So why did admitting that feel so uncomfortable?
Maybe because I already knew the answer.
I wanted him to fail because if he did...
Then maybe my brother had been wrong about him.
And if my brother could be wrong about Yagami...
Then maybe he could've been wrong about me too.
For a moment, I looked up at the sky and let out a deep breath.
There was nobody around me anyway.
How pathetic.
In the end, even after everything that had happened this year, was I still measuring myself through my brother?
Had I actually changed at all?
I didn't know.
But one thing was obvious.
Yagami hadn't failed.
I had given Class B the hardest exam I was allowed to create.
And he'd answered me with a perfect score from every student in his class.
I had no idea how he'd done it.
I couldn't prove he'd even been responsible.
But deep down...
I didn't believe Kondo was the person who had defeated me.
Maybe that was unfair.
Maybe I was giving Yagami credit for something he hadn't done simply because of my own feelings toward my brother.
That was possible.
But I didn't believe it.
Yagami had told me he would do this the hard way.
Then he'd done something I couldn't explain.
For now, that was enough.
My brother had recognized him.
Today, Yagami had shown me why.
I hated admitting that.
But ignoring it wouldn't make me stronger.
Maybe that was another thing I'd misunderstood for too long.
Proving myself didn't mean proving my brother wrong about everyone else.
It didn't mean waiting for Yagami to fail.
And it certainly didn't mean pretending I hadn't lost simply because I couldn't understand how it happened.
If I wanted my brother to recognize me...
No.
I shook my head.
That was wrong too.
I needed to stop thinking about what my brother would recognize.
For once, I needed to think about what I would recognize in myself.
Today, I had been defeated.
I didn't know how.
I didn't know when Yagami's plan had started, how many people were involved, or whether the conversation in my room had even mattered.
But I would find out.
Not to prove my brother wrong.
Not to prove that Yagami didn't deserve his recognition.
But because I refused to remain someone who could be defeated without even understanding how it happened.
Yagami had shown me the difference between us.
For now.
I continued walking toward the dorms.
However long it took, I would learn what Yagami had done.
Even if I had to do it the hard way.
And when I did, I would return his visit.
I would stand in his doorway, look him directly in the eyes, and thank him for his time.
**************************
For real, give me your thoughts on this chapter. I experimented a lot when writing it, which was one reason it was difficult to write, so I want to know if it was actually enjoyable and or liked, just honest opinions on the chapter writing, etc. If you're lazy, just give it a 1-10.
Now, of course, I want to hear all the theories everyone has about what happened in this exam, so please be my guest and write them here; this is my favorite part of these kinds of chapters.