6 Chapter 6.6: Epilogue: Contrasting Decisions (5)

"You're late, Kikyō. Were you having trouble slipping away from your classmates?"

"What do you mean by that, Ryūen-kun?"

Kushida appeared on a remote rooftop. She drew closer to Ryūen without trying to conceal her true nature.

"Ah?"

"The questions and answers you gave me turned out to be completely different from the ones on the exam."

"Oh, yeah. I switched out the questions right before the deadline. What about it?"

He laughed a bit scornfully before taking a drink of mineral water from his plastic bottle.

"Like I told you. I will force Horikita to drop out no matter what I have to do. Solely for this reason, I betrayed my classmates and secretly submitted Class D's exam questions. The condition was that I'd get the questions and answers for Class C's math questions in return. If you had kept your promise, Horikita would've voluntarily withdrawn herself from school by now. And yet, you betrayed me."

"What? Are you mad about something like that?"

"Something like that? You come out ahead against Class D, and you're just going to end it with that?"

"You're fundamentally misunderstanding the situation, Kikyō. The questions you made weren't used on the exam."

"Huh? What are you talking about? I turned in the exam questions as soon as possible just as you instructed. I also confirmed everything with Chabashira-sensei. There were no mistakes."

"You haven't noticed yet? Suzune took the steps ahead of time to prevent your exam questions from being formally adopted. Thanks to that, we not only failed to come out ahead, but also narrowly avoided expulsion. The whole class was depending on this strategy."

"Wait a second...... Ahead of time? Such...... No way......"

"Just wait for the results of the exam if you don't believe me. Ten to one, Class C lost to Class D. In other words, our agreement is invalid. I can't afford to show you the correct answers to the exam questions if I don't receive anything in return. That's the natural turn of events."

"Tsk......!"

"Though I'll tell you this, Kikyō. You have no right to bear any grudges against me so how about thanking me instead?"

"Thanking you!? I lost to Suzune, you know!? What do you want me to thank you for!?"

She thought back to the humiliation of being forced to declare defeat before Horikita. It was enough to make her blood boil over in anger.

"For you to get caught in this trap without even knowing it, you sure take things easy."

Ryūen drew close to Kushida and grabbed her uniform.

He then forcibly unfastened the button of her blazer and began to reach inside.

"Hey! What are you doing!?"

Ryūen smiled as Kushida pushed away from him in a panic.

"Jeez, I'm not going to do anything. Search inside your pocket."

"......Inside my pocket?"

While still on guard, Kushida slowly reached into the inner pocket of her blazer.

There was a paper feeling that she wasn't expecting to come across. After taking it out, she found a folded piece of paper.

"What is this......"

Ryūen shouldn't have had the time to put something inside just now. In other words, it had already been placed there beforehand. When she opened the paper, she found a list of questions and answers for the recent math exam.

However, these weren't the questions that were on the exam that was given today. Instead, they were the ones that Ryūen originally said he would submit.

"Why is something like this in my blazer......"

"There'll probably be more than that. There should be several cheating materials scattered throughout your personal belongings. You'll find them if you try looking for them later."

"I don't understand what this means."

"Someone in Class D was prepared to take you out. What would happen if you were accused of cheating during or shortly after the exam? What if I decided to use those questions after all? What do you think would happen if they found that paper on you after you had done well on the exam?"

"I'd be expelled? Even if I didn't cheat? That's stupid!"

"There should be some way to prove it if you're truly innocent, but it's also true that you got the answers beforehand by joining forces with me. So even if you're determined to be guilty, it can't be helped."

Of course, it's possible for her to claim that the situation was designed by somebody else. Although she's more innocent than guilty, she'd still be tainted with suspicion. This is because of the undeniable fact that Ryūen had supplied her with the questions and answers for Class C. Even though it's not against the rules to give these to another class, the suspicion still wouldn't disappear. Even if she managed to avoid expulsion, suspicions of guilt would still remain and the results of the exam would become invalid. Even though these suspicions would never be anything more than speculation, Kushida would've also jeopardized Class D's position, and the trouble would downpour onto Class C as well.

"When did this cheat sheet manage to......"

"You don't have any idea? Have there been any strange things going on around you recently?"

"It's possibly...... no, but...... I went to the final strategy meeting with Horikita and the others at Karaoke last week. I suppose something a little strange did happen then. It's not clear why, but a girl began to throw accusations around and then poured her juice on me out of anger. After that, she insisted on taking it to the dry cleaners to make up for it. It's understandable given the situation...... and I don't think there's any connection...... but it's somehow still on my mind."

"I'll take a guess at who that girl is. Karuizawa Kei, right?"

"......How do you know that? Don't tell me you saw it?"

"How could I have possibly seen it? The reason is simple."

Ryūen tapped his finger against the side of his head to emphasize his deductive capability.

"Explain it in detail, starting from the beginning."

Though Kushida still felt dissatisfied, she fully explained the details of the incident at the Karaoke box. That Horikita and Hirata summoned everyone together, that she had been seated at the table with Ayanokōji, Sudō, and Karuizawa, and that in the middle of the discussion, Karuizawa had picked on her and ultimately poured juice onto her blazer.

Having listened to her in silence, Ryūen connected the reasoning a step further.

"No doubt, that was a set-up."

"Not possible. I gave my blazer to the laundromat, but I definitely checked the pockets when I handed it over. Besides, the store would have told me if there was anything I missed when I came back to get it. So even if Karuizawa had tried to set a trap back then, wouldn't it have been meaningless?"

"Indeed, that feat would be next to impossible to pull off at that point in time. However, that wasn't her goal. Didn't someone want to know whether or not you had a spare uniform?"

"Spare? Even if that were the case, it's still impossible."

"What makes you so sure about that?"

"Are you saying that everyone there had set a trap for me and I wasn't able to see through it? I'm not an idiot. I'm always observing the behavior and conduct of the people around me. I definitely would've felt something out of place if they were all lying to me."

"Well, that's probably right. However, the number of people who were lying to you was one or two at most."

"Haa? How did something like that-"

"There's nothing to worry about. If there was someone who read the situation perfectly, deceiving you is just par for the course. Someone able to trace everyone's thought patterns, characteristics, habits, and reactions to what's going on around them. What kind of remarks you would make. Someone who managed to completely predict everything. Someone who planned out the script to your story as you wrote it."

As Kushida thought back to that time, she began to think all of this might be possible. In particular, Hirata's had a way of thinking that was consistently pacifist. He would be concerned if the blazer got stained, and he would also want to deal with Karuizawa's unreasonable anger. Since it was just before the test, he would definitely want to ask whether or not she had a spare uniform as well. She began to think that might just be the case.

"Once they learned that you only had one blazer, the only thing left to do is plant the cheat sheet in it during gym class or something. It isn't strange that you didn't check the inside pocket of your blazer during the one or two days after you got it back from the cleaners. I suppose that there were a lot of other times where they could have tampered with it too. Nevertheless, the important question here is who thought of it. Not Suzune or Karuizawa, at least. They're not the type who could do something like that."

"So you're saying that I was ensnared by them?"

"Not long before the exam, there was a letter that charged Ichinose with illegally getting her points, right?"

"It's the one where you set her up. Why was that? There didn't turn out to be anything illegal after all."

"It's a strategy that adequately shows what type of person the mastermind is."

"What?"

"I'm not the one who sent out that letter. The guy in Class D who set you up did."

"I don't get what you mean."

"Do you think I would bother putting a letter preaching of Ichinose's suspicions in every first-year student's mailbox and print my name on each one? No, I wouldn't, but since my name was written on the letters, it's only natural that everyone will think I'm the principal offender."

"You should've denied it if wasn't you."

"Do you think I would?"

"......No."

Kushida understood right away. Ryūen has always had a tendency to pursue the exciting. He would've definitely found the situation amusing if someone sent out letters in his name. Furthermore, since he'd never heard of the suspicions against Ichinose, he'd also want to know the truth.

Then, why did they specifically write Ryūen's name as the sender of the letter? Because if the sender is unknown, the credibility of the message would be greatly reduced. This doubt might cause the situation to be handled even more irresponsibly.

"But what was the point? They leaked out strange information, and also put you on guard."

"I don't know...... I've thought about it, but it's unclear. Did he simply want to know for a fact about Ichinose's large quantity of points? Or...... No, that's not possible. It can't be for such a stupid reason."

Ryūen was about to say it, but then he stopped himself. It was simply too out of touch with reality.

"Hey, Kikyō. I don't know about your past, and I'm not really interested in that sort of thing. However, if you continue persistently trying to have Horikita drop-out of school, you're going to be wiped out."

This strategy was prepared with great care and executed without mercy. This was definitely the character that Ryūen is looking for, X.

"Things aren't looking good for you either. Isn't it bad for Class C to lose this special exam?"

"That's right. With this, your Class D is now within reach of promoting to Class C."

"How do you feel about getting dropped down by that defective Class D?"

Ryūen didn't feel anything in particular, even in response to Kushida's relentless question.

This was because he never had any interest in such trivial matters from the very beginning.

"It feels fantastic. Whether it's with class A, D, or whatever, the showdowns so far have only scratched the surface of what there is to reveal."

"......What does that mean?"

Of course, Ryūen wouldn't answer. However, his objective still hasn't changed since he entered the school. While there've been times when things haven't gone according to plan, preparations for promotion to Class A have been well underway.

"Do the best you can and aim for the upper class."

Ryūen said this and then turned around, intending to leave.

"This cheat sheet......!? Wait! Isn't there something a little strange!?"

"Kuku......"

Kushida had noticed something inexplicable after looking at the cheat sheet.

"Tell me what's going on, Ryūen."

"You noticed?"

Some contradiction. Something that shouldn't be there. A new problem had swelled up.

"Why does someone in Class D have the test questions that only you and I should have? I can't think of any reason."

"That's right. The reason why X was able to use these questions is because I gave them to him."

"So you betrayed me."

"That's not true. It was a necessary deal to make with him."

Ryūen took a look at his cell phone. There were pictures of the questions and answers before he changed them out.

Ryūen sent these pictures to someone's unidentified email address.

"However...... He understands me well."

Before Ryūen sent the pictures, he had received several messages from X.

The first one had a title that read 'Transaction'. The content of the message was this:

[Provide Class C's finalized questions and answers for the end of term exam.]

[Otherwise, make significant changes to the questions and answers you provide Kushida Kikyō.]

This was the message that Ryūen had received.

Usually, Ryūen wouldn't respond to something like this.

However, X had given him useful information that benefited Class C with no strings attached.

The information was that Horikita Suzune had seen through Ryūen and Kushida's tactics, and had made a preemptive strike. This had come out of the blue for Ryūen, who had been anticipating complete success with Kushida's replacement of the exam questions.

If not for this information, some of his classmates who were behind in their studies might have had to drop-out. Knowing this, Ryūen had three options available to him as to how to proceed.

The first was to disobey X and let Kushida win. However, this was something that Ryūen, who didn't want Horikita to drop out of school, wanted to avoid as much as possible. The second was to not change out the exam questions and let X expose Kushida for cheating and make her drop out of school. However, it wasn't fun to abide by X's ideal progression of the situation, so he didn't consider this option.

Ryūen's final option was to change out the exam questions and let Horikita win the exam.

"So he managed to protect Suzune, while sealing off Kikyō's options at the same time?"

Suzune was fighting on the surface, and someone else was controlling things behind the scenes.

Ryūen couldn't help but laugh as he thought about how his strategy of using Kushida was in turn, used against him.

"But I'm about to push him over the edge. If he doesn't show his true colors-"

He opened up the image file that he sent to X once again.

"At that time, I'll just have to destroy him."

Ryūen was convinced that the person in that photograph is an important piece to the puzzle of uncovering that person's identity.