4 Chapter 1.2: Ayanokouji Pow Part 2

In order to strengthen his relationship with Horikita, it seems like Hirata wants to befriend her first by asking me for advice. I think that's the right attitude to take and if there's something I can do I'd like to lend him a hand. "Let me refute one of your points. It's not like I'm getting along with Horikita well or anything too, it seems like she doesn't even recognize me as a friend" I point out. "But it seems like Horikita only gets along well with you, Ayanokouji-kun". So that makes me special because I'm the only one able to get along with that one person. Or perhaps that's something a man who's easily able to befriend 40 people says. Because of the frustration he feels from not being able to befriend this one particular person.

"Don't be so impatient, we've just finished the first semester you know?" I tell him.

The cohesion of the class is directly correlated to the time spent together. Or in some cases, when they're pitted suddenly in harsh conditions like during the island test. Of course you can force cohesion in the class by acting towards your fellow classmates but that sort of cohesion is very fragile and easily crumbles away.

"I should also add that Horikita is not the type to make friends easily" I said. I said it simply so that Hirata could understand that the fastest. "...that might be true". Perhaps he might have been impatient on that regard but Hirata's face showed a reaction. "I admit I wasn't thinking of her feelings but rather only my own desire for cooperation" Hirata told me with a smile while nodding. I'm sure he understands now. "I'm sorry, I invited you out here only to listen to my selfish request, let's eat shall we?" Hirata tells me.

Perhaps he noticed too, but after a while Hirata also became aware that someone was approaching us and looked at me with an embarrassed face.

"Ah...so you were here after all, Hirata-kun. Let's eat lunch together!". A happy voice called out to us. It was Karuizawa who was approaching us.

"Umm...Karuizawa-san, I'm sure I called you a while ago to tell you about cancelling the lunch, but..." Hirata was stumbling over his words. Karuizawa and her friends pull another table, joins it with our table while Karuizawa quickly pushes me out of the group. The lunch suddenly became rather noisy and I, of course, have trouble socializing. But I don't need to worry. I'm used to situations like this already. In this case I will need to use my special skill "Quickly escape the scene".

I picked up my food and quietly left. My eyes met with Hirata's for a moment, but soon he was surrounded by Karuizawa and the other girls and I could no longer see him.

I guess that's one of the downsides of making too many friends. You lose the time you could spend on yourself by having to spend it on others. Even if Hirata has any personal problems he needs to consult someone on, I'm sure he cannot ask Karuizawa for advice so he'll have to keep them shut up inside.

Having abandoned Hirata to Karuizawa, I decided to return to my room having no one to hang out with or talk to. I used the stairs instead of the elevator to go back down into the ship to the third floor where my room is. There were wet stains in the corridor, I noticed. It wasn't just my room but the stains stretched through the whole corridor. I walked along the stains, following them and noticed a man walking gracefully through the corridor wearing nothing but swimpants. His entire upper body was naked.

"S-sir! This is a problem for us, if you walk through the corridor while you're wet!" One of the staff, noticing the emergency situation, rushes down to talk to the man. The staff was already carrying a towel in his hands, as if he's always been carrying it for situations like this.

"Ha Ha Ha. It looks like you've found me" the man declares.

"Yes, sir. It's the fourth time I've found you like this. I've told you countless times before but please wipe your body off before returning to the ship. D-doing something like this will greatly inconvenience the other guests" the staff seemed to be saying.

So this is why the staff had prepared the towel in advance, he'd already seen this happen many times before.

"I make it a principle to never wipe my body down" Kouenji said while water droplets dripped from his whole body. Suddenly he stopped walking. "Do you happen to have pen and paper?" he asked the staff. "Huh?...uh I do have a notebook and a pen" the staff quickly replied to him without understanding exactly where he was going with this while awkwardly taking out a pen and his notepad. "Do you know that the signature of a celebrity can unexpectedly have a premium price, sometimes being worth tens of millions abroad?" Kouenji told the staff. "And...what of it?" he asked Kouenji in reply. Once he had finished scribbling something in the notepad with the pen, Kouenji swiftly handed it back to the staff. It was from a distance so I couldn't see properly but it seems like he had written his name 'Kouenji Rokusuke' on the notepad. "W-What is this?" the staff meekly asked him.

"Is it not obvious? It is a signature. A signature. Although it is written on such a cheap note, in the future it shall most definitely have tremendous value. I shall give this to you as a present. Accept it gratefully" Kouenji told the staff. It seems Kouenji is not such a bad guy after all, he gave the staff his signature in the hopes that it will be of use to him as a means of expressing his gratitude. But I somehow doubt it will be of much use to the staff, most likely it was just a waste of good paper and ink. "Do not make me look to be a fool, I am the man who will carry Japan's future on his back in the future. As thanks for helping me, I will allow you to work on a much larger luxury ship then. One large enough to make this one look like a commoner's ship" Kouenji declared to the staff. Personally I thought, I'd rather not have the ship be too large and run a Titanic risk of sinking. However, Kouenji seemed to be laughing satisfactorily. The staff seemed to have lost his resolve to stop this man and only stared at the now-wet floor dejectedly.

Rumors have it that classmates actively avoid Kouenji due to this very selfish personality of his. It seems like several of my own classmates have already experienced what this staff boy had just experienced. I'm sure if it's Hirata, he would make sure to call out to Kouenji even if he gets brushed aside like the staff just now. But the man named Kouenji is like poison, and those who interact with him, friend or foe will suffer for it. To avoid such a problem, I simply and quietly walked past the two of them. "Oh. If it isn't Ayanokouji Boy? What a coincidence" Kouenji suddenly calls out my name. Unexpectedly hearing my name being called out like that, I looked back at him to see the staff boy happily smiling that the target of Kouenji's whims had shifted from him to me as if to say 'I'm finally free' to me. Indeed, Kouenji seemed to belong to some violent alien species that would greedily devour all the native species in a river. "Do you have some business with me?" I calmly ask him.

"No, no. No such thing. I am simply calling out to you as a fellow classmate. After all, you do happen to be my roommate" Kouenji replied to me as a matter-of-fact. Then he swiped down his hair and almost like a shotgun, water droplets flew off his hair and landed on my face and my uniform.

Of course, Kouenji seemed to be so absorbed in himself he did not even realize my predicament. "Then I will excuse myself" the staff boy, who was previously watching the spectacle unfold, quickly said and shuffled away, quite clearly not willing to get any more involved in this matter. Of course, I also do not wish to be alone with Kouenji in a situation like this. "What were you talking with Kouenji about?" I asked him swiftly. For a moment, the staff boy seemed to have been slightly angry at being denied a chance to escape Kouenji but dutifully replied to me "It seemed he was wet, so I thought to provide him with a towel...but it seemed I have troubled you both, please excuse me" he told me as he rushed off from the scene.

"I see. So he was making an attempt to take care of me?" Kouenji noted. "Y-yeah, that seems to be it" I quickly told him in response. Somehow it seemed I had managed to get away from Kouenji and made it all the way back towards my room. "Still, what a coincidence. Meeting up with Kouenji on my way back here". Still, even though it was uncomfortable, I suppose it was still going to happen either way considering the troublesome lack of space being packed on this ship together. Desiring to avoid another awkward encounter, I instead opted to turn right instead of left and chose to return to my room some other time. Hirata and Yukimura, who also share the same room as me, should be returning shortly. I instead went to the nearby guide board on which the map of the ship was illustrated in a clear-to-understand manner describing the various escape routes in case of an emergency. As I listlessly walked through the corridors on the second floor area, it seemed there were not many students here at this time. Then the mobile phone in my pocket vibrated. I took it out to see that I had mail. A certain girl had called me out. Since I had nothing better to do at the time I decided to accept and headed out to meet her.

"Hah...hah...hah". By the time I approached the girl who sent me the message, Sakura, I could hear anxious sighs coming out of her mouth. "What's wrong?" I ask her. "Waaah...A-Ayanokouji-kun?". I seemed to have surprised Sakura, since she quickly panicked and called my name with a shocked voice. "Sorry for surprising you" I told her. "N-no...I-I was just being slightly nervous". If she's this nervous about meeting a mere friend like me, her life must be pretty tough I thought. "Ayanokouji-kun, your roommates are Hirata-kun, Yukimura-kun and Kouenji-kun...right?" she asked me. "Yeah, is something the matter?". I was surprised to hear her ask such a thing. "Umm...about that...I was slightly worried about the people I'm sharing my room with..." she trailed off. It seems like Sakura isn't getting along very well with her rommates, since she was never good at socializing in the first place. By looking at her worried expression, I can understand the severity of her problems. "Are you worried that you won't be able to get along well with them?". "I'm not sure. I do feel like I want to be friends with them. But there's a part of me that wants to be alone too. I'm hopeless aren't I?" Sakura tells me.

Her voice trailed off weakly, but unless I know who Sakura is sharing her room with, I cannot give any proper advice at the current stage. "So, who're your roommates?" I ask her. "...it's Shinohara-san, Ichihashi-san and Maezono-san..." she replied with a dejected voice while giving me the names of her roommates. It's a gathering of girls with very strong and distinct personalities unlike Sakura. Speaking of Shinohara, she's a girl who's close friends with my fellow classmate Karuizawa. She's a headstrong girl who frequently quarrels with the boys and doesn't hold back against people she doesn't like. I don't think she'd hold anything against Sakura, but I doubt they'll be raring to make friends either. Ichihashi is usually more mature, but still has a somewhat headstrong attitude at times like Shinohara. I don't know much about Maezono, but she definitely seems to have somewhat of a bad attitude and certainly left a bad impression on me. For Sakura, this must be like being thrown into a den of lions. I wanted to pat her head to cheer her up even a bit. "But why ask me for help in particular?" I asked. "....I thought if it's Ayanokouji-kun...I might be able to get some good advice..." she said.

It seems she's quite dependent on me, but she quickly apologized to me for it. "I-I'm sorry, Ayanokouji-kun must also be busy, sorry for depending on you like this" she said. "No problem, I don't mind being asked for advice, but I have doubts on my ability to help you" I swiftly replied. Sadly, I don't know any one of the girls Sakura just named so I probably won't be of much help to Sakura. While I was thinking of my answer, the door to the room opened. "Oh. It's Ayanokouji-kun and Sakura-san, what are you two doing here?" . It was another one of my classmates, Kushida Kikyou, who came into the guest lounge to greet us. Sakura's previously bright expression quickly darkened and the atmosphere turned awkward.

Although Kushida was clearly not aware of it, the usually antisocial Sakura rejected her presence and withdrew back into herself. Of course, Kushida kept talking without a care in the world.

"It's ok, I'm not going to disturb you two. I was on my way to meet some friends anyways" Kushida told us. "I-I'll be going back then..." Sakura weakly told me. Although Kushida was trying to excuse herself, Sakura got back up and ran back towards her room. "I'm sorry. Perhaps I came at a bad time? Should I not have called out to you?" Kushida tried to apologize to me. I thought there was no need for such apologies, Sakura is naturally bad at socializing like this anyways. "Anyways, I haven't talked to you ever since getting back to the ship, Kushida. You were out with quite a lot of friends after all" I told her. Kushida is the idol of the class. Naturally she's the most popular girl. She was genuinely living up to her words of wanting to be friends with everyone with the exception of a few loners like Sakura. "I'm going out with Class C today, do you want to come with me, Ayanokouji-kun?" Kushida asked me. "Err...can I join?" I asked. "You're coming?" she sounded surprised. This is shaping up to be a bad day indeed I thought. Kushida seemed slightly puzzled by my response. I quickly thought I needed to decline this invitation. "I'm joking, you know I'm not the type to hang out like that" I told her. "Hmm...I was surprised for a bit, Ayanokouji-kun you're very funny" Kushida told me. "R-really?" I asked. I don't think those were her real thoughts, her true thoughts would definitely be a lot scarier than that.

"Then I'll be off" she told me. Just as she said that, both Kushida's and my phones vibrated at the same time. Even in silent mode the tone still rang out clearly, this must be important instructions sent by the school to all students. "I wonder what it is" she muttered.

Despite the various instructions we've received after starting school, this is the first time we were contacted in such a manner. This summer vacation is the first time receiving instructions like this. At the same time, an announcement started over the ship's speakers. "This is an announcement to all students, you will have received a mail to your phones earlier. Check the contents of the mail and follow those instructions closely. If you have not received the mail, please contact your nearest available faculty member. This is a very important announcement so please make sure to not miss it. I repeat---" the voice repeated the message. "...it's the mail we received just now right?". "Probably".

The message from the school arrived to both our phones simultaneously after all. The following was written on the mail in my phone:

"A special examination will be starting soon. Gather at the designated time in the designated rooms. Students who are more than 10 minutes late for the meeting will receive a penalty. Go to room 204 on the second floor by 18:00 today. Since there is only 20 minutes left until then, please wash your hands and keep your phone in silent mode or turn it off entirely."

So it's going to be a 'special test'. This is not going to be like the paper examinations we received nor a physical fitness test. Just like the island test, this is something normal schools wouldn't do. Only our school would test us in such a way. Nothing else about the exam was written. Is it something we can infer from the mail or is the exam itself still unknown. Either way, there's only one way to find out. The gathering point seems to be room 204 at 18:00. There's only 20 minutes in between. "Can I see your mail?" Kushida asks me. I show it to her. She shows me her message too, but despite the basic structure being the same, the gathering point for her was two rooms down from mine and the gathering time was 20:40 instead of 18:00. "I wonder why they'd give us such strange instructions?" she wonders. "....no clue". The only certain thing in my mind was a bad feeling I had about this.

I never expected our cruise to have this sort of exam set up, but it seems to be reality indeed. Giving us free reign to pursue movie theaters, party venues and buffet restaurants all of our own volition. I tried looking back on all that to attempt to guess the contents of this mysterious examination, unfortunately, I was unable to gather any clue. I quickly send a message via mail to Horikita and she replied to me almost instantly. "Did you receive a mail from the school just now?". "I did". "I was appointed to meet at 18:00. What about you?". "Mine's at 20:40. It looks like our gathering times are assigned differently". "I see. At 20:40 huh?" I said. The same meeting time as Kushida. I briefly wondered if they were going to split up the boys and the girls. But that can't be, I was told in my mail that the exam starts at 18:00. "I'm curious about this difference in starting times, this could give rise to a feeling of unfairness between the students of different groups". "I can't say for sure at this point". We sent messages back and forth but soon a message arrived from Horikita. "There are things I'd like to discuss further but there's no time it seems. Since your gathering time is earlier. Please make sure to report back to me" she said simply. "Got it" I replied to her. I then shut my cell phone off.

"Ayanokouji-kun?". While I was focused on chatting with Horikita, Kushida was staring at me as if to ask me what's wrong. I thought briefly whether I should tell Kushida about the same meeting time as Horikita, but it would be a bother to do so. I decided to wait and see how things played out. It should not be too late even if I acted after getting more information.

I received a mail from the school giving me the designated meeting point and location. 5 minutes before the designated time I arrived at my destination. Room 204 on the second floor. Students in the corridor were all shuffling into their respectively assigned rooms. I could not identify each and every one of them, but students passed by me back and forth and went into their assigned rooms. "Students from other classes, huh?" I wondered out aloud. I thought of waiting outside the room at first but thinking again, I thought the meeting might have already started inside without me and so I hurried towards the room. I gave a knock and received a quick reply. "Enter". Apparently I'd been given permission to enter, I then stepped into the room. There I saw the homeroom teacher for Class A Mashima-sensei sitting on a chair. There were two male students sitting before Mashima-sensei as well. Both were from Class D and people I recognized. "Ahh. So one of the remaining 2 from our group is Ayanokouji-dono. Kopo!". The student that let out this declaration ending with this strange onomatopoeia was none other than Sotomura. A geek-type boy from our class who is as otaku as he looks like. A person familiar with machinery and history as well as other bits and pieces of trivia although he unexpectedly is bad at communication.

"Isn't this strange, Ayanokouji?" the one who asked me that question was the one sitting next to Yukimura named Sonomura. Sonomura and Yukimura. I never really noticed the relationship between them. Looking back I wondered how their particular friendship started. "What are you doing? Have a seat" we were instructed to sit by Mashima-sensei. As such, I sat silently beside Yukimura who himself sat beside Sonomura. The strange thing that slightly worried me was that there was another chair right beside me that was still empty. It seems to be that we were being put into groups of four students from the same class with one teacher supervising us. "There's one more person who will be joining us, we will quietly wait for them to arrive first" Mashima-sensei told us. Judging from the tone he told us this with, this person being late is not much of a problem even if we have to wait. Of course, to ensure fairness for all students, it makes sense to give us the explanation for the exam when all members of the group are gathered.

Regardless of whether it is a written exam or surviving on an uninhabited island this remains the same. However, this exam seems as though it will be taking place in this small room. What is the meaning of this, I wondered. Or perhaps I'm just worrying too much about this. In either case, I'll be getting my answers as soon as the last member of our group arrives. Sitting down in the chair, I thought there was no need for further conversation until then. Waiting for our last member, a heavy silence fell upon us. The scheduled time is already here so personally I'd like for our last member to show up as quickly as possible. The ticking of the clock was the only sound that filled the room. Soon the clock hand struck 18:00 and Mashima-sensei looked at the clock only once before a knock was heard on the door. Like in my case, the teacher told the person to enter. "Excuse me" a voice was heard as the last member of our group joined us at last. It was Karuizawa Kei who came into the room and sat down in the chair next to me.

"Eeeh...why are Yukimura-kun and the others here?" Karuizawa asked. That's what I'd like to know too. I was feeling slightly embarrassed at this point. Sonomura wasn't thinking about the situation at all but Yukimura seemed slightly strange. "I thought the mail told the students to all be punctual, you're late" Mashima-sensei reprimanded Karuizawa. "Sorry" Karuizawa shortly replied to him. Karuizawa seemed to be dissatisfied by Mashima-sensei's words and our existence in general. My eyes met Karuizawa's for a moment and she quickly lifted her chair and placed some distance between us. Even if it's just 1mm of increased distance between us, I felt slightly depressed she hated the idea of being close to me. "Sonomura, Yukimura, Ayanokouji and Karuizawa. I will now explain the contents of the special exam" Mashima-sensei told us. I was able to somewhat guess this would be the case from the mail we received, but I was slightly curious as to what the exam itself would be.

But the team makeup of 4 students and 1 teacher was still confounding me. I had a troublesome feeling regarding this exam. "Ok, wait a minute. I don't understand what the meaning of this is, what do you mean by explaining the exam? The exam's already over right? And what are these people doing here? Isn't this strange" Karuizawa immediately shot off a barrage of questions towards Mashima-sensei. I wondered if she can't just keep quiet for a while. I thought to myself if she even bothered to read the mail properly before coming here. "I'm not going to be answering any more questions at this stage, so listen quietly" Mashima-sensei instantly responded to Karuizawa like that while glaring at her sternly. Obviously, the faculty teachers had no intention of answering such questions at this point. Mashima-sensei is seen as being a cold and strict teacher by the students, it seems this is also true of him now. Chabashira-sensei was the lenient type of teacher who taught with calmness. On the other hand, it seems like Mashima-sensei is always decisive and flat in his tone.

"In this special exam, all the 1st year students will be divided up into groups based on their zodiac signs and the entirety of the examination will be conducted in groups of students sharing the same zodiac sign like the four of you here. The purpose of the test is to assess your 'thinking ability'." Mashima-sensei explained to us. So according to the zodiac signs, huh? So 12 groups will be formed of all the 1st year students. So Class D itself will be split into 3 groups and added to the mix of the other classes to form the required 12 groups for each zodiac sign? I thought that. And what did they mean by 'thinking ability'? If I interpret it literally it would mean it would be testing our ability to think.

"What do you mean by 'thinking ability'?" Karuizawa who was just asked to stay quiet started asking questions again. It must have been on reflex but it looks like she won't listen to Mashima-sensei's words. "I've already told you I won't be answering questions" Mashima-sensei sternly told her again. Even Karuizawa seemed to now understand the gravity of the situation as she fell quiet. Of course I gazed at her and she seemed to have a dissatisfied expression on her face. But I chose to keep quiet and listen. Yukimura and Sotomura must also be taking the situation quite seriously as they were also listening to Mashima-sensei intently.

"There are three required attributes that people who function well in society are required to master: Action, Thinking and Teamwork. These skills are necessary for you all to become successful adults. The last test on the island emphasized teamwork quite heavily, however, this one will emphasize your thinking. The ability to critically think, analyze the situation at hand and resolve the problem given will be tested in this exam. The ability to work creatively with imagination and work determinedly towards resolving the problem, such traits will become vital for this task." Mashima-sensei explained the overall gist of the exam to us. Of course, I still had several questions regarding this exam I'd like to ask him. Many aspects of the exam are still unexplained and unclear to me. "Therefore this exam will be conducted with 12 groups split up according to their zodiac signs and the exam will occur under those conditions" Mashima-sensei continued. "Are there any questions?" he finally said. "I don't understand at all, explain it in a clearer way. I get the fact that we're split up into 12 groups but why the hell am I with these guys? Where's Hirata-kun? Where are the other girls? I still don't get the exam anyways" Karuizawa said again.

She at least refrained from addressing Mashima-sensei bluntly and added the honorifics in at the end, no matter how half-heartedly. However, I believe Karuizawa's complaints have some merit to them. The contents of the exam are still largely a mystery and a lot of the information we were given is mostly ambiguous and can be interpreted in multiple different ways. If our class is indeed split up into 3 groups there should be at least 12 to 15 people in this room and not just 4. Perhaps it's because of the size of this room and there are more groups than just 12? I wondered silently. No. There should have been rooms in this ship large enough to contain that many students, but this small room was chosen in particular. That means even though we were divided according to our zodiac signs, there must be more groups than just 12?

"Firstly, the four people here will henceforth be considered part of the same group for the remainder of the exam. There are other rooms with other students too, receiving the same explanation you are receiving now. Some of them might later also become part of your team" Mashima-sensei continued explaining. Students that could later be on the same team as us? There are only four of us in this room right now. Perhaps the remaining members are divided into several other rooms much like this one and...the purpose of the exam is to form allies between different groups of students? I wondered while Mashima-sensei continued the explanation.

"If that's the case, why don't you gather all the members here and explain it all at once. Also, why are these three guys in the same team as me? Why do I have to team up with these three disgusting boys? Honestly I really dislike the whole situation. I would much prefer to be with Hirata-kun" Karuizawa went on describing her selfish desires but it seems Yukimura's patience with her has run out. "Shut up for a while and listen will you? It seems the exam has already started. If you say selfish things like this and our team receives a negative evaluation, will you take responsibility for it? Even back on the island, you were the weak link in the chain holding the class back. Don't hold back the class anymore than this" Yukimura coldly lectured Karuizawa on this.

"Huh? When the hell did I hold the class back, huh? You're really pissing me off" Karuizawa retorted to Yukimura. The sight of the two of them arguing overwhelmed me and Sotomura and we both fell quiet. "Both of you calm down, firstly Yukimura, your concerns are unfounded. The exam has not yet started in earnest and as such, nothing negative will happen to our team. Besides, this exam is not concerned with your attitude in the first place so you won't be scored in that aspect" I intervened quickly. "See? Now you understand, don't you?" Karuizawa looked at Yukimura proudly as if it was her victory. On the other hand, Yukimura looks at me with disappointment for choosing Karuizawa's side. But Yukimura, I had no choice but to intervene you know, I thought silently. "However, Karuizawa, you also need to change your attitude towards teachers, you know? If you keep this up, it could be a stain on your academic records and you do understand that's not a good thing right?" I gently chide Karuizawa. This time Yukimura picks his nose while laughing at Karuizawa. Mashima-sensei was staring at us like we were a bunch of elementary school children arguing with each other.