Light Novel 2nd Year Volume 4/Summary

Prologue
Ichika Amasawa gives a monologue introducing herself as a "test-tube baby", a human born through In vitro fertilisation (IVF). However, she does not know anything more about her origins or why she was put in the White Room, apart from the knowledge that her parents are extremely talented people. Yet, she has never seen their faces once nor is she aware of where they've gone, though one thing was for certain, she isn’t concern in finding the answers to these questions.

She mentions how through her existence, she was blessed with excellent genes, however, this runs into conflict with that of the White Room philosophy which was a facility aiming to prove that human's limits are decided by their environment rather than genetics. She has doubts in the facility's attempt to treat everyone as the same, using herself as proof, and questions whether she really wants to dedicate her life as their experiment. She determines that she would hate living her life being locked up like that of a slave and yearns for freedom, though those are just fleeting thoughts for now.

She then talks about Kiyotaka Ayanokōji, the White Room's successful product, whom she was skeptical of at first. However, after seeing his data and meeting him in person, she has come to understand how special he truly is. She gives an apology internally to Kiyotaka, as she cannot take his side and become his partner despite desiring to. The duration she spent in the White Room was far longer than what she had with her beloved senpai and so, she resolves herself to watch him from afar, as an admirer until 'that time' comes. It seems she was much more benevolent than she once thought herself to be.

Chapter 1
Kiyotaka and Tsubasa Nanase suddenly notice the presence of Amasawa from behind, who doesn't have any backpack or tablet in her hand. As there isn't any other student nearby, Kiyotaka thinks about the two possibilities of her making the way up there. One is that she has hidden her items somewhere nearby before approaching them, while the other being that she could have been tailing him or with the help of someone else using GPS. He wonders if she wanted to take him by surprise but ponders the fact that he could sense her approaching so easily despite an ideal weather to erase one's presence.

Amasawa has a wooden stick on her left hand, which he deems more than capable enough of being used as a weapon to take someone down. The still exhausted Nanase reacts by telling Kiyotaka to get behind her. Amasawa playfully asks for the sudden hostility despite being from the same group and throws away the stick, telling them she just wants to chat, but Nanase still keeps up her guard, saying she cannot be trusted. Kiyotaka had a hard time discerning Amasawa's demeanour, so much so that to him, it isn’t an exaggeration to say that her exceptional acting skills could make anything come into fruition. That said, he was still unnerved by how weary Nanase was and how nonchalant Amasawa was. Amasawa declares that she isn’t his enemy which Nanase immediately rejected.

Nanase tells Kiyotaka about how someone was watching them back when Shinohara's group were attacked. After Kiyotaka and Ike left the scene, she tried chasing after that person, who was none other than Amasawa. Amasawa denies Nanase's accusations of being the one responsible for pushing Komiya and Kinoshita off the cliff, asking Nanase what she would do if it was indeed her which threw off Nanase's momentum of questioning. When Nanase in turn questions her about how her GPS signal not being detected, Amasawa answers that it was a no-brainer to destroy her watch to turn off the GPS since it can be replaced for free afterward. Although suspicions would arise, the school main priority would be the student's safety. Kiyotaka understood Amasawa's well-placed confidence as there were still more than 400 other GPS signals around the island and there won’t be enough evidence to tie her to Komiya.

Nanase was determined to pin her as the culprit but the school would avoid any and all legal actions which would drive Amasawa to expulsion based on false testimonies. Kiyotaka agrees that as far-fetched as Amasawa claims are, it isn’t wrong when she declared that rules are meant to be broken and nothing could be done if compelling evidence isn’t shown. Additionally, based on public's perception, she isn’t aggressive like Ryuuen or Hosen but is seemingly just an innocent first-year girl. With all that, vague statements from Nanase and Shinohara would be moot.

Seeing how the two girls wordplay had no end in sight, Kiyotaka decides to interject and asks why and how Amasawa found them. Amasawa tells him not to be hasty as they should get to know each other better, possibly setting up a tent for just the two of them. She alleviates his concern that the school couldn’t monitor and enforce every rule they imposed as she slowly approached him. Nanase immediately grabs her arm which she commands her to remove, obviously understanding how Nanase had switched allegiance. Amasawa wants them to be alone as its regarding the White Room and that outsiders shouldn’t interfere. Kiyotaka orders Nanase to let go, leaving her dissatisfied as she obeyed, which causes Amasawa to call her a good girl. She then tells her to go further and that she shouldn’t eavesdrop on the sensitive information.

Kiyotaka was still apprehensive as it was incomprehensible for a White Room student to reveal their identity so easily when they should had been trying to expel him. Amasawa reveals his past feats such as passing base five construction theorem and learning theory of relativity at age 10 and 11 respectively, and that she also took the test, thus she remembered it clearly. Kiyotaka knows that Tsukishiro wasn’t the type to leak details of the White Room and so, he could conclude that she was indeed the perpetrator. He asked for her motives which she answers that she wants him to know that she isn’t his enemy and that the White Room chose poorly when deciding on who to expel him.

Furthermore, she only revealed it now since she had to be sure that only through physical interactions and experiences could she conclude that he wasn’t a bad person. Her reasoning became more and more solid as she could had rejected him if her evaluations was poor. Amasawa shares how she wants the other White Room students to also enjoy this type of life as an ordinary student, which he agrees with. Amasawa reveals that although she has the skills that only the fifth generation and lower like her could have, she isn’t the best at making friends and there are limited people she can converse with. Kiyotaka felt a sense of connection with her and felt like they were similar as he remembered his first year.

Kiyotaka accepts her pedigree but still can’t believe her reasons for revealing it. Amasawa asks if he thinks she doesn’t pose a threat to him which he fell silent on. Amasawa smiles as an implication that just accepting the fact she was a White Room student is enough. Kiyotaka was still perplexed as he asks what's she thinking, which she chalk it up to extreme admiration. She gently caressed his cheek and tells him not to get crushed without her permission as she leaves.

Nanase checks up on Kiyotaka who tells her not to worry. He examines Amasawa's footprints and deduced that they were of similar sizes to the Komiya incident he found earlier. That said, it isn’t enough for him to suspect that she was the one guilty. Kiyotaka dispels Nanase's adamancy since she didn’t distinctly see Amasawa doing the act nor was their previous encounter suggestive in any way. He tells her that Amasawa was aware she had seen her and wonders whether she deliberately did so. Kiyotaka fastidiously traced back Amasawa's steps and found another footprint that was of a bigger size.

Kiyotaka inspects the stick she once held and found it to have been chipped. He eliminated the possibility of her using it to attack him since he sensed that she meant no harm and even wanted him to notice her presence. He concludes that the 'mystery person' was the one responsible and that Amasawa was instead protecting him, much to Nanase's disbelief. Nanase insists that it is much too soon to decide that she was an ally based on this alone and ponders the mystery person's motive.

He then decides to perform a GPS search to determine whether that perform is someone other than Amasawa much to Nanase's resistance. He added that this perform probably wanted them to suspect Amasawa and so hadn’t broken the watch. If so, he wouldn’t have to fear this person if they couldn’t even consider the current possibility. Nanase was still slightly opposed, thus, Kiyotaka decides to help her set up the tents first. As they finished setting up, they received information from the school that the exam was suspended for the day due to the torrential downpour and that compensation are being discussed.

Kiyotaka was displeased as he intended to get serious on the latter half of the exam when most students were tired, however, this break was disadvantageous for his plan. At that moment, Nanase called out to him and asked if she could enter his tent. Kiyotaka allows her as he remarks that they no longer have to be hostile to each other. They then discuss about Amasawa and the culprit potentially knows one another. Kiyotaka was feeling awkward and refrained himself from asking questions as Nanase's odour diffused around his tent.

Kiyotaka allows Nanase to check his tablet which surprises her as his points was lower than expected. Kiyotaka was suppose to have 88 points but currently only has 78. Seeing how she hasn’t deciphered the reason, he explains that doing a GPS search has a cost and the different methods he employs to be productive. Furthermore, he elucidates how it also provides extra information regarding how others are moving, particularly Nagumo's group. They could clearly see how his group monopolises the most first-place by using the lower third year classes, and that he already had complete dominion over his entire year, a true dictator in every sense of the word. He suspects that Nagumo has a backup-plan if this had failed while also offering the other students promotions to his class if they assist him. That said, Kiyotaka mused how they the second years collectively would not allow Nagumo to do as he pleases.

He had personally offered Sakayanagi and Ryuuen an alliance which both immediately accepted since they knew the stakes at hand, something even he had to praise them for. Although he hasn’t given up on reaching the top, Kouenji was doing a fine job competing with Nagumo's group by himself, giving Kiyotaka more leeway. He decides to trace back Amasawa's movements and found it to be extremely fast. She covered a vast distance in one hour while also having ample time finishing the tasks assigned. Nothing suspicious was seen during the exam but Kiyotaka had no doubt that she seen some action outside of the exam hours.

The school announce that for the final day, every event and action would double in points as compensation. Nanase was falling asleep and so they decide to rest for the day. Before returning to the tent, Nanase informs him that she would be tracking Amasawa as soon as possible, especially since she is a White Room student. Kiyotaka warns and caution Nanase that since Amasawa endured the onerous trials of the White Room until that age without any difficulty, she is someone threatening and shouldn’t be underestimated. He compares her prowess to be far beyond the likes of Ryuuen and Sudou, and that Nanase even with all her strength, wouldn’t stand a chance.

Thus, Kiyotaka tells her to prioritise her safety first. She replies that she isn’t afraid of expulsion and that she'll do anything to protect him. Kiyotaka then changes his phrasing of how her risky actions would cause him unnecessary trouble and harm. Nanase immediately relents as she promises to be careful. He then checks his tablet to see that Kouenji has a slight 2 point leader over Nagumo, while 10th place current has 101 points. Kiyotaka resolves himself to get serious starting tomorrow, and that the gap to Kouenji wasn’t unreasonable for him to close, as long as no unforeseen predicaments occurs.

Chapter 2
As dawn breaks, the rainclouds had vanished. Nanase and Kiyotaka was feelings fatigue from the lack of food. Nanase has forsaken the idea of tailing Amasawa and decided to accompany Kiyotaka back to the first designated area. Nanase checks her point usage history and finds that it hadn’t gone down since the morning of day 7, signifying that Ichika somehow tracked them without using GPS. After arriving at the following designated area, Nanase and Ayanokouji separates.

Just before 4 PM, when Ayanokouji was just about to leave from the task area he was at, he unexpectedly ran into Horikita. Horikita was still alone and commented that although there were many difficulties in acting solo, there were also many benefits. Seeing that their next designated areas were close to each other, they decided to walk together until halfway and share information.

Horikita had met Sakayanagi, who had told her that Komiya and Kinoshita had retired. Sakayanagi also relayed Ayanokouji’s strategy to her. Various other unimportant information was exchanged with Ayanokouji hiding the fact that Amasawa was present at the crime scene. They find a new task with food given as a reward, and since both of them are running low on food supplies, they both decide to take a slight detour and participate. They also used their time at the Task to mingle with some of their other classmates to exchange information.

On Day 8, Ayanokouji earned 18 points and jumped up into 23rd place with 96 points while 10th place had 111 points. With his information collection done, Ayanokouji sets up camp for the night. He contemplates on his next action and desire to see Sakayanagi soon as he fell asleep, hoping that the next designated area would be near the starting point.

Chapter 3
Ayanokouji wants to talk to Sakayanagi but he hasn’t had an opportunity to go to the starting area. He tried calling out to some Class 2-A students, but none of them had a transceiver. At the end of Day 9, Ayanokouji had 112 points, with the 10th place group having 123 points. Here Ayanokouji reveals that he was aiming for 11th place until at least the 12th day. If he appears in the top 10, rivals will be on watch and the possibility of him getting sabotaged increases. For that reason, it was important to never appear in the top 10 for even an instant. Right now, Ayanokouji was in 13th place. Ideally, he would like the top 10 to all be together as one large cluster so he could climb up the rankings on the very last day.

As he finds a good place to camp for the night, he finds Ibuki, who had set up her tent next to his. As he opens her tent, he finds Ibuki eating dried meat. Dried meat wasn’t in the purchase manual which indicated that it was made from raw meat. Since Ibuki was actively challenging Horikita, she wouldn’t have the time to make dried meat. Thus, Ayanokouji theorises that there was a group making enough dried meat for the entirety of Class 2-B. Since Ibuki probably wouldn’t perform well in academic tasks, she most likely primarily aimed for the arrival ranking rewards. Hence it was visible that she was suffering from fatigue and had shadows under her eyelids. She was pushing herself to compete with Horikita. Ayanokouji advices her to talk to people like her classmates, which she rejects as she doesn’t regard them as friends.

Thinking that it wouldn’t be good to stay in a girl’s tent for too long, Ayanokouji leaves but Ibuki follows after him and tries to get him to reveal his score but Ayanokouji keeps his lips tightly shut. Ibuki then asks for him to say whether it was higher or lower than her score. Before she could vocalise her score, Ayanokouji restrains her and apologies as he can’t give her any hints. Ayanokouji mentions Horikita's name and how she is her rival and not him. Ibuki then shows him her middle finger and tells him to notify Horikita that she won’t beat her. Ayanokouji accepts her request and inquires why she displayed such a gesture, which she answers that both of them are the same.

Ayanokouji tells her to stop before slowly walking towards her and reaching for her arm. Ibuki immediately becomes weary and readied herself for a fight. Before she could react, Ayanokouji grabbed her wrist and hoist her up, leaving no room for escape. She tries kicking him but she deftly blocked with his other hand. Thinking she might try again, Ayanokouji was surprised to see her avert her gaze and give up, seemingly drained of her energy. She admits she can’t beat him but swears to defeat him one day after asking if Horikita put him up to this. Seeing how she had no hope, Ayanokouji states that her pulse is quickening and her lips are dry, showing obviously signs of dehydration.

Ultimately he sees that Ibuki has run out of water and is in a pretty poor physical state. She was defensive of letting him see her backpack but was powerless to stop him. Ayanokouji reflects that she probably suppressed the alert sounds of her watch. Ayanokouji proposes a trade between some pieces of dried meat for his water. Ibuki tries to interject but was swiftly halted when Ayanokouji says she'll be forced to retire and lose to Horikita if she continues on, causing her to finally accept. Noticing how her food is limited, he only asks for half of it. Ayanokouji then gave some advice to the sensitive Ibuki such as to recover her strength first or use her points to require victuals before continuing the exam. Ibuki angrily tells him to stop joking and declare that she is only working hard to beat Horikita, and not for fear of being expelled. Ayanokouji internally remark that he knows and he’s only giving Ibuki advice to increase her odds of winning. He knows that the person she abhors the most is him after his identity as X was revealed, hence, his true intention was not conveyed to her. They then returned to their tents as he reflects how she should be fine on her own now.

The following day, Ayanokouji does a GPS search just to consume a point so he won’t enter the top 10. When he arrives at his first designated area, he runs into Kiryuin, who comments that he arrived fairly late. Kiryuin speculates that Ayanokouji was the one from their schedule fiercely competing with her for the arrival rankings. Ayanokouji notes that Kiryuuin had climbed to 9th place that morning. Ayanokouji questions her on whether she’s planning on fighting for 1st place to which she replies that the competition for the podium spots is too fierce so she’s planning on just continuing at her current pace. However, she might change her mind if something happens to Nagumo and Kouenji. She comments that since Nagumo’s true strength is in numbers, it makes sense for him to start making moves against Kouenji. And that in such a situation, it was possible for both Nagumo and Kouenji’s gains to slow down. Overall, Kiryuin’s intuition is fairly sharp and Ayanokouji has a lot of difficulty deceiving her.

After 9 PM on the 10th day, Ayanokouji notices a torchlight flickering outside his tent. He finds Class 2-C’s Shiranami looking for her friend Yume. Even though he’s barely interacted with her, Ayanokouji notices that she sounds fairly relieved when she sees him. She had separated from her group and gotten lost. Ayanokouji helps her out by using his GPS search. When she asks him why he’s helping her, he replies vaguely that if he were to pick a reason, it’s because she’s in Ichinose’s class. Shiranami’s face becomes a bit gloomy at this statement, making him recall what Ichinose’s classmates had teased him about a few days ago. They meet up with Shiranami’s group members who were also probably using GPS search to find Shiranami and express relief at seeing her before thanking Ayanokouji. Class 2-A’s Takemoto, Shiranami’s group member, happens to have a transceiver that Ayanokouji borrows to contact Sakayanagi. After talking with her for a while in private, he returns the transceiver to Takemoto who later hands back the transceiver, saying that Sakayanagi instructed to give Ayanokouji one.

Chapter 4
Kiriyama has received a message via transceiver detailing Nagumo’s orders to interfere with Kouenji. At the moment, Nagumo’s group has 236 points, Kouenji has 230 points and, Kiriyama’s group has 188 points, with the gap beginning to widen between 2nd and 3rd place. Kiriyama’s group member confides with him that it might be a good idea to hold off and let Kouenji win since doing so will damage Nagumo’s reputation if his group of 7 people lost to a single 2nd year. Because of Kouenji’s widespread reputation of buying private points with money and not putting in any effort, he hadn’t registered on Nagumo’s radar as a threat.

Still, for some reason Kouenji was putting in his utmost effort for this exam. If he was left alone, it was certain that he would finish within the top 3. At this rate, the possibility of Nagumo losing had also arisen. It would be an extreme embarrassment for Nagumo to lose to a 'group' that comprises only of a single student. Kiriyama has six free groups from Class 3-B to 3-D that he can use as interference. Kiriyama knew that Nagumo was most wary of Ayanokouji. However, his group had never entered the Top 10 even once over these past ten days, which made the likelihood of Kouenji combining groups with him extremely unlikely. Since bringing down Kouenji leads directly to his own rank going up, Kiriyama decides to run interference with Kouenji personally.

At 6:30 AM the next day, Kiriyama moves to attack Kouenji along with 6 free groups. They waited for Kouenji to leave his tent and after confirming that there were no teachers around, the 18 people surrounds him. Kiriyama tells him that he has been earning too many points and tells him to stay in this place for the entirety of today. Kiriyama talks a load of garbage about Kouenji eventually tiring and that he won’t be able to compete in the 2nd half against his and Nagumo’s 7 and 6 person groups. Kouenji laughs and responds, “if that is the case then there should be no need for you to interfere with me”. Kiriyama says that simply competing with them is unacceptable considering their standings as 3rd years. He says that if Kouenji backs down, he will receive the protection of student council president Nagumo and lead a much more comfortable school life.

Kouenji ignores him and simply confirms his first designated area before running past the entire group with a burst of speed. Kiriyama and co decide not to panic and instead catch up to Kouenji at the task areas he participates in. They find Kouenji stopped at a place that doesn’t have a task and finally catch up to him 6 hours later. Apparently he had decided to take a midday nap. Kinugasa comes up with some more BS. Kouenji supposedly only needs 6 hours of REM sleep instead of normal humans 7-8 hours. Whilst Mikitani in Kiriyama’s group wants to deal with Kouenji more directly, Kiriyama decides to temporarily back down and instead choose a strategy of spreading out in a circle around Kouenji and arrive at all the task areas before him.

However, the plan starts collapsing because the 3rd year can’t keep up with the pace of Kouenji’s walking. The speed at which Kouenji was walking was reminiscent of that of race-walking. They would have to run just to keep up with his pace. Mikitani loses his patience and shouts for the 3rd years to surround Kouenji and not let him escape. Kouenji easily sprints past their encirclement. Kiriyama thinks rationally and reasons that Kouenji must be hurrying to either the next designated area or a task area. The only task area close-by is an English test that grants the winner 8 points. Kiriyama thinks that one usually would go for the 10 points for arriving 1st at the designated area but it was difficult to pin down Kouenji’s actions with the logic of a normal human. Kouenji goes for the English test and is the last entry, meaning that Kiriyama and co. are unable to enter and can only wait for him to finish. A talented 3rd year takes 1st place while Kouenji takes 2nd, giving him 4 points. Since there were teachers there, they couldn’t get too close and could only watch from a distance. Kouenji immediately takes off again for his 3rd designated area.

Despite spending the entirety of the 11th day trying to run interference on Kouenji, they were unable to impede him. The pride of the 3rd year students had been torn to shreds. Kiriyama warns him to not do anything tomorrow as if he could restrain Kouenji for one whole day, Nagumo’s group would surely come out victorious. Mikitani interjects by reminding Nagumo's orders to restrain Kouenji for 2 days. Kiriyama replies that if they intervene with Kouenji for any longer than one day, they will no longer be able to confirm their own positions near the top of the standings and that they should focus more on improving their own scores than holding Kouenji back. If they only interfered with Kouenji for one more day, it was highly possible that Kouenji would retain the 2nd or 3rd place ranking. However, they couldn’t afford to hold back Kouenji for 3 whole days as there was a risk of falling from the podium positions. Mikitani decides to do it the old fashioned way and says that if Kouenji didn’t listen, they will make him make him submit using violence. The next day, Kouenji once again nonchalantly wakes up at the same time. Mikitani and co. surrounds him.

Kouenji pushes aside those who are trying to stop him but one of them theatrically shouts that he thinks his arm is broken. With this, Mikitani tries to argue that Kouenji will be in trouble if this was reported to the teachers but Kouenji scoffs at him and says that the only ones losing face will be the pack of seniors who tried to impede their junior’s progress. Mikitani decides to fight him to which Kouenji urges him to hurry, saying that time is money. But none of the 3rd years actually wants to be responsible for seriously injuring Kouenji. Kouenji gracefully dodges all their attacks and leads them into colliding into each other. After a while, all the 3rd years collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. The fact that they were unable to land a hit on Kouenji made them depressed.

Kouenji leaves since no one can stop him any more. Mikitani murmurs and questions whether he really is a high school student. Kiriyama says that there are always people who aren’t bound by common sense and compares Kouenji to Nagumo. Kiriyama comes up with a plan that involves making Kouenji underestimate the 3rd years after wrecking such a large group.

Meanwhile, while everyone else is playing chess, Ayanokouji is still playing checkers. He notes that it’s surprisingly difficult to stay in 11th place because he needs to reach the designated areas to avoid being penalised. He runs into a bunch of Class 2-B students including Hiyori and Ishizaki. Although they were originally from different groups, they combined together to form a 6 person group. The reason being that there were many students who are more physically inclined while lacking in brains. Ayanokouji notes that the presence of Hiyori makes it a well-balanced group. Ayanokouji has some light conversation with Hiyori, asking about each other’s progress in the exams. Ishizaki finally notices Ayanokouji and calls out to him before trying to walk over but is held back by his classmates who tell him to read the mood.

Ayanokouji decides that it wouldn’t be good for a Class 2-D student to listen in on them too much and stands up to leave but Ishizaki tells him to stay around for a while, saying that there were no more exams today so he may as well camp with them for the night. No one voices any disagreement to his inclusion and Ayanokouji feels like the atmosphere of Ryuuen’s class has started to resemble that of Ichinose’s class.

At 2:30 AM whilst he was asleep, Ayanokouji was woken up by a panicking Nanase. Nanase says that she actually saw him from a distance in the evening but since she was together with Housen, she decided to avoid contacting him. Apparently the previous day, a group of 12 first years including Housen had decided to make a big move against Ayanokouji. The plan was to attack all the higher grade students who were acting independently and forcibly make them retire. However, Housen only agreed to the plan on the surface and was only pretending to cooperate. As a result, the details of the operation hadn’t been told to Housen which meant that Nanase also didn’t know the specifics. All she knew was that the person on the other end of Housen’s transceiver was Tsubaki.

Nanase speculates that Tsubaki might have been used as the negotiator because Utomiya and Housen were not on good terms. Ayanokouji urges her to return before Housen finds out. Nanase offers to come tip him off again if she learns any new information but Ayanokouji says that what she has done was enough for the current island exam. He doesn’t want her class to find out because he wouldn’t be able to acquire information from her in the future which would severely reduce her future value. Since Ayanokouji had always assumed the first years would try to claim the bounty on his head and so, he had been prepared for an attack from day 1.

The next morning, Ayanokouji heads out with Hiyori and co. Hiyori asks whether he feels lonely by himself but Ayanokouji simply replies that he feels more relaxed this way. Ishizaki once again comments that the two of them seem really close to each other, to which Nishino once again pulls him back so that he won't be a nuisance. Ishizaki says that the two of them should just start dating and after which, Ayanokouji should come to their class. Nishino hits him on the head and rebukes that if anything, Ishizaki was the one obsessed with Ayanokouji. There was nothing strange with their observation considering that Nishino didn’t know about the 1st year incident.

To her, it looked like Ayanokouji was being excessively solicited by Ishizaki after just scoring full marks on a maths test. After confirming that their designated areas were different, they parted ways and Ayanokouji once again ran a GPS search every hour but found no peculiar movements of the 1st years. He wonders whether Ichika had leaked Nanase’s betrayal which would result in a cancellation or change of plans. As a result of the continued GPS search, Ayanokouji’s rank dropped to 16th.

Chapter 5
Day 9th of the exam, the day after Nanase separated from Ayanokouji, she returned to Housen and reported that she was no match for Ayanokouji. Housen spitefully remark that she could had used her woman weapons but from her reply, it was obvious that she was clueless to his hints. Since her plan failed, she offers to help with Housen’s plan but Housen shoos her away, saying that he can handle it by himself.

Afterwards, Class 1-C’s Katagiri shows up and timidly hands over a transceiver to Housen. Utomiya speaks through and asks for Housen’s cooperation in a plan to rescue the 1st year students. Out of the bottom 10 groups, 4 of them are currently occupied by 1st years, two of which are from Class 1-D. Housen says that he doesn’t care about those trash and rejects the conversation. Utomiya attempts to cut their call but Housen says he's willing to lend a hand if he comes and beg, which sets off a series of sarcastic remarks from both sides.

He runs a GPS search and finds Tsubaki together with Utomiya. He hands up on Utomiya who tries to continue the conversation. Housen calls out for Tsubaki to talk to him since he realises that she was giving instructions. Housen threatens to half-kill Katagiri and send her back lol. Housen essentially chases Katagiri out whilst forcefully keeping the transceiver. Tsubaki states that the higher grades are already using strategies such as absorbing low ranked groups into higher ranked groups. She plans on first getting rid of some groups first so that the retired groups positions will be quickly filled up. Subsequently, she proposes that the easiest way to do this is to forcefully retire those going at it solo. Since this also coincides with Housen’s objective of retiring Ayaokouji, she proposes that he get rid of him using violence.

Tsubaki states that it’s difficult to corner to corner Ayanokouji alone so she will cooperate by forming a large siege group to help him encircle Ayanokouji. Tsubaki says that she will take responsibility as the inventor of the plan and says that she has no resistance towards dropping out since she has no attachment to the school. Utomiya feels that it was no coincidence that Ayanokouji was the target of the bounty and feels like he is a fairly special existence. However, if Tsubaki is willing to take responsibility, he has no objection to the use of violence. It was possible that they would be penalised but the school wouldn’t expel dozens of students at once.

Using his tablet, Housen records Tsubaki’s confirmation that she was the original creator of the plan to make Ayanokouji withdraw from the exam. And with his evidence in hand, Housen agrees to cooperate with Tsubaki’s plan. Tsubaki is unable to trust Housen, and so she’ll only give him the information via transceiver at the last minute. Nanase says that she also wants to protect Class 1-D’s students so asks to stay by his side until the information comes from Tsubaki. Housen lets her to do as she wishes.

Utomiya and Yagami doubt each other. Utomiya questions Yagami on what he was doing when his whereabout became unknown a few days ago, to which Yagami simply replies that his watch broke. Utomiya doubts him because it was the 2nd time, but Yagami conversely says that Utomiya’s watch also broke a few days ago. Tsubaki asks them to stop. Yagami reveals that he has found out which table Ayanokouji belongs to by repeatedly using GPS search and then matching him to a classmate of his who had the same table. Thus, they won’t have to consume so many points looking for Ayanokouji as they can simply arrive ahead of time.

Since 1st to 3rd place positions are looking hopeless, there is no longer any real meaning behind the points that they gather so Yagami was using them frivolously on GPS search. As an insurance plan, Yagami proposes that they interfere with Ayanokouji from reaching his designated areas on the final 2 days so that he repeatedly receives penalties. They propose that since he is alone, he most likely doesn’t have very many points and he was also frequently scouting out the possibility of their attacks using GPS search. They can probably make him drop to the bottom 5 groups after deducting 28 points via being penalized 7 times. Utomiya enthusiastically wants to jump on Yagami’s plan but Tsubaki isn’t as enthusiastic. Tsubaki reveals she already had an extra tablet with the same table as Ayanokouji. Hence, she already had all the information Yagami was offering. Yagami says since his information wasn’t useful, he’ll just watch from a distance.

Afterwards, Utomiya questions Tsubaki on why she’s okay with dropping out. When the special exam to expel Ayanokouji was first announced, Utomiya was disgusted with it but after repeated persuasion by Tsubaki, he agreed to cooperate for the sake of Class C’s future. Tsubaki says that she has grown fond of Class C and thus if her suicide bomb strategy works, she would like Utomiya to use the 20 million to help Class C. Utomiya doesn’t seem exactly convinced but doesn’t say anything more.

The next day at 7 AM when Ayanokouji ran the GPS search, he found that he was surrounded in a circle by many first year students who had been scattered all over the island until yesterday. Many of them were also belonging to all sorts of different groups. He instinctively realised that today was the day of the operation Nanase talked about. He had thought it would only be a small number of capable fighters who would confront him so the sheer number of students took Ayanokouji by surprise. Ayanokouji concluded that if the first years were to attack him in this situation, the school would likely take up a position of defending Ayanokouji’s actions. But his abnormality and out of spec strength would be revealed to everyone. In this situation, Ayanokouji decides that the best course of action would be to move away from the designated areas.

Afterwards, Ayanokouji and Tsubaki play a game of cat and mouse with both of them checking the GPS every 10 minutes while Tsubaki gives instructions and Ayanokouji takes counter actions. After a while, Tsubaki notices that three of the groups had stopped moving. At this rate Ayanokouji will be able to exit B3. She checks the GPS again 5 minutes later and they still hadn’t moved. She talked to them through the transceiver but there was no response. With this, Tsubaki understood that it wasn’t just a mere accident. She notices the signals of second year students in the vicinity but hadn’t paid it much attention and after another two groups stopped moving, she finally came to the conclusion that she was being hindered by some second year students.

The students involved seemingly had no connection to each other and were from all classes. Tsubaki and Yagami theorise that the entire second year was protecting Ayanokouji for some reason. And that most likely the students themselves were cooperating without knowing the objective. But their movements were coordinated too well, almost as if there was someone looking over all of them using a map and giving instructions like Tsubaki. Yagami proposes that they suspend the operation. Tsubaki thinks about the possibility of Ayanokouji giving out instructions while running away but rejects the idea because Ayanokouji doesn’t have enough influence amongst the second years.

Meanwhile, Sakayanagi is looking out at the dazzling sea whilst sipping water. Holding a tablet in one hand and a transceiver in the other, she relayed instructions one after another. She had done GPS searches on the night of the 11th day, 12th day and 13th day. In order to encircle Ayanokouji, the only possibility was that the first years would have to move outside of exam hours. She theorises that it the mastermind behind the operation wouldn’t have moved and finds the GPS response for Yagami, Utomiya and Tsubaki hadn’t moved since 7 AM at the start of the day. She casts her mind back to the night of day 10 of the special exam.

After having a light conversation on trivial topics, she tells Ayanokouji that Ichinose’s mental state for the last few days had been a little strange. Ayanokouji informs her about Nanase’s past and informs her that it is highly likely that Amasawa Ichika is from the White Room. Sakayanagi sighs in disappointment because if she had known earlier, she would have liked to have played with Ichika a little. She asks Ayanokouji whether he wants her to crush Ichika which Ayanokouji hurriedly denies. He tells her about the 20 million private point bounty set by Nagumo and Tsukishiro. Ayanokouji is relying on her because she is one of the only people who knows about his background. But until now, he has refrained from relying on her too much because he didn’t consider her an ally.

At this school the concept of allies did not extend to people from other classes. It was possible that Sakayanagi would use the information on the White Room as a weakness to defeat him. But after a lot of interactions, he came to the conclusion that the risk of telling her was not very high. By weighing the risk and reward against each other, he came to the conclusion to depend on her. He tells her that it is highly likely that in the near future, first graders would take action aiming at expelling him and asks for her help. Putting aside the possibility of white roomers, she feels like it is very inconceivable for other ordinary students to corner Ayanokouji if he takes brute force countermeasures. But this countermeasure would lead to Ayanokouji’s name spreading and Sakayanagi is unsure whether she’s happy or sad about that possibility. At the end, she agrees to help protect him.

By spreading the usage of GPS points to groups which are neither in danger of entering the bottom 5 nor have any possibility of aiming for the top 10, she is able to efficiently cover for Ayanokouji through to the final day of the exam. It was a strategy which was realised by Sakayanagi’s perfect control over Class A combined with the unwavering loyalty of Ichinose’s Class C. Sakayanagi confirms that since this is too big of a deal to count as returning the favour of helping Takemoto, it will count as Ayanokouji owing her a new favour. Ayanokouji agrees to this condition. He also asks to keep the transceiver so that they can keep in touch. She agrees and tells him to hand it to Takemoto so she can officially tell him to hand it over.

Yagami asks Tsubaki about her next course of actions now that her 5 groups have been caught. She says that rather than the 5 groups being caught, she caught the opponent’s groups. With Yagami she explains that since Ayanokouji is rumoured to have physical ability similar to Housen, it was impossible for those 5 groups to catch him. The current course of actions was to send them out as dummies to smoke out Ayanokouji’s thought patterns. Her conclusion was that Ayanokouji didn’t want to come into contact with first years and would rather avoid the designated areas.

She believes that he’s the type of person who hated standing out and would be willing to accept a penalty if it meant he could avoid such an outcome. Most importantly, she found the location of the groups trying to protect Ayanokouji. Since the only people who could make Ayanokouji withdraw were Housen and Utomiya, she needed to gather information so that those two would have a higher success rate for completing the task. Yagami is startled and searches for the GPS signal of Housen but can’t find it anywhere. Tsubaki’s true aim was to create a scenario where a 1v1 vs Ayanokouji could be orchestrated.

Housen had moved in cooperation with Tsubaki until now because there were many advantages to having someone else do the GPS search but with his target now close by, he tossed away the transceiver. He did the final GPS search himself and found Ayanokouji’s signal roughly 300 metres away. He rejoiced in the fact that he was the closest first year and was already in glee at the thought of being able to fight straightforwardly. There was another GPS signal between them but Housen thought of it as a coincidence and didn’t pay it any mind. He found Ayanokouji in his line of sight and called out to him in excitement. He reveals that he knew about Nanase leaking to Ayanokouji the information in the middle of the night and that he deliberately leaked the information to her to create an opportunity where they can fight without any interferences.

Just as Housen was getting ready to fight, Ryuuen interferes and tells him to piss off. Meanwhile, Ayanokouji escapes. Housen asks Ryuuen why he’s there. Ryuuen says that’s his line since Housen shouldn’t have any business with Ayanokouji. Housen realises the truth behind why all the other first years sent by Tsubaki had stopped moving. He fights Ryuuen and initially holds the advantage. Housen laments that he overestimated Ryuuen and says that Ryuuen isn’t a match for him. Ryuuen scoffs and says that he doesn’t think anyone is a match for him. Housen says “There is. The happy go lucky Ayanokouji who just escaped from behind you.”

After hearing these words from Housen, Ryuuen stops smiling. He realises that Housen knows Ayanokouji’s other side. Ryuuen becomes interested in Housen and asks him when and where he fought Ayanokouji along with the result of that fight. Housen realises that Ryuuen is also obsessed with defeating Ayanokouji. Ryuuen is only staying in this school for the sole purpose of defeating Ayanokouji. As long as that is the case, Ayanokouji can not be allowed to lose. Ryuuen directs his bloodlust towards Housen but Housen simply tells Ryuuen the truth. Housen and Ayanokouji never actually fought; he’s only interested in Ayanokouji because he was the only people to ever nonchalantly stop his punch along with not even feeling pain from being stabbed by a knife.

Ryuuen instantly connected the word knife with Ayanokouji’s bandaged hand and scar. They began fighting and Housen starts beating Ryuuen up. Ryuuen grabs a handful of soil and throws it as Housen’s face. Housen blocks it with his hand before Ryuuen was able to throw the sand held in his other hand. Housen throws a few more blows at Ryuuen before Ryuuen’s watch’s alert starts ringing. Housen turns to leave but Ryuuen stands up again and says that he never admitted defeat. He doesn’t turn off the emergency ringing alert of his watch. Housen realises that if the teachers come now, it’ll look like he one sidedly beat up Ryuuen. He proceed to call Ryuuen pathetic. He says that his GPS signal has already been turned off and even the school authorities would have to take at least 30 minutes to arrive. He just has to finish Ryuuen off before then. As he pulls his right fist in for a punch, suddenly both of his arms are grabbed from behind.

It was Ishizaki and Albert. Housen is surprised because when he ran a GPS search earlier, he only found Ayanokouji and Ryuuen in the surrounding area. Housen is unable to throw off Albert who is similar in strength to him. Ishizaki and Albert had disabled their watches and accompanied Ryuuen. Housen complains about it being 3 on 1, but Ryuuen throws punches at his face. Despite desperately struggling, he is unable to break out from Albert’s grasp and instead questions why such a strong person is obeying Ryuuen as a subordinate. Ryuuen says that pure strength is not everything.

Finally, Housen faints. Ryuuen urges Ishizaki and Albert to leave before the teachers arrive. He is no longer in any state to continue and decides to retire from the exam together with Housen. If Ryuuen left this scene, there was a possibility of the blame being pinned on Ayanokouji. Ryuuen decided to proceed in the direction of explaining this as the result of a 1 on 1 fight with Housen. Ishizaki feels regret since the Ryuuen and Katsuragi group had been in 5th place and still had the possibility of climbing even higher. Ryuuen reassures them that they have nothing to worry about and urges them to leave.

In order to for Ishizaki and Albert to survive, it was imperative that they restore their watches and join a group as soon as possible. For that reason, they must return to the starting point as soon as possible. After Ryuuen shoos them away, he sat down, using Housen’s unconscious body as a bench.

Tsubaki is dissatisfied and analysing why her plan failed. Yagami tries to cheer her up by bringing up the point that they can still target other soloers to make the first graders 100% safe. Tsubaki says that there’s no point in forcefully trying to save groups in danger because sooner or later they won’t be able to survive. Tsubaki regrets the fact that she was unable to put her trust in her first grader peers and says that she could have done much better if she worked alone. At that moment, Tsubaki suddenly notices the absence of Utomiya. She looks back at the picture of the GPS from 10 minutes ago and finds Utomiya’s signal 400 metres southwest, standing next to Class 2A’s Kitou.

Kitou had been ordered by Sakayanagi to uncover the first years’ mastermind. As he ran towards the location of Tsubaki/Yagami/Utomiya, he discovered Utomiya standing in his way. Utomiya throws a punch at Kitou which he dodges. Kitou asks for his name which Utomiya gives. Kitou deduces that if he’s here, then he must not be the commander giving instructions. But Utomiya’s transceiver slips out of his pocket and Tsubaki’s voice is emitted from it. Tsubaki questions him on why he isn’t following her orders. Inadvertently revealing the identity of the commander to Kitou. Kitou decides that his mission is accomplished and turns around to return to Sakayanagi. Tsubaki warns Utomiya not to get involved in any fights with the second graders. Utomiya says that he understands and then switches channels to talk to someone else via transceiver. This person tells him that Tsubaki’s plan failed just like he wished, further revealing that they had given Ayanokouji a warning in advance. This reveals that Utomiya betrayed Tsubaki.

Chapter 6
On the day of the first graders’ attempted attack, Ayanokouji failed to reach any designated areas and took a total of 4 penalties whilst gaining minimum points. He and Sakayanagi both remained on high alert but it looked like all the first graders had returned to their usual exam activities. Talking on the transceiver, Sakayanagi worries over the fact that Ayanokouji had spent a lot of time moving around last night to approach his next designated area. She also reveals that Ichinose had disappeared at sunrise. Sakayanagi says that it was a voluntary action on her part and that she had seemed a bit strange for a few days now.

Apparently when Sakayanagi did a GPS search earlier, Ichinose was in the same area as Ayanokouji, albeit on the opposite side. Furthermore, Sakayanagi says that she lost one point in the morning. Since none of the other group members used GPS search, it was clearly Ichinose who used it. Sakayanagi speculates that she might be looking for Ayanokouji but Ayanokouji has no idea why she would have any business with him. Since Sakayanagi’s group was in 4th place, it was very bad timing for Ichinose to go AWOL on the last day. Ayanokouji wants to use a GPS search to confirm Ichinose’s position, but considering the danger of weak groups joining into strong groups on the final day, he can not carelessly spare his points due to the fear of being expelled.

As he managed to reach the first designated area of the day, he stopped the penalty bleed and saw that his second designated area was I2. I2 was the northeastern end of the uninhabited island. Most of the tasks are near the southern side of the island near the starting point. Hence, I2 was a really inconvenient designated area. Strangely, Ayanokouji notes that he hasn’t seen any other students on the way to I2. But as he’s walking along, he hears Ichinose call out his name. Ichinose was covered in mud and out of breath. Calculating the time and distance, Ayanokouji realises that Ichinose had been walking for 4 and a half hours at a fairly fast pace without any breaks. With the two of them separated by a river, Ayanokouji notices Ichinose’s weak physical status and decides to cross over to meet her. She basically collapses towards him with no more strength in her legs. She tells him that she has something she has to tell him.

She says that she had been worrying about her classmates and friends all this time but ultimately still decided that she needed to tell Ayanokouji. She tells him that when her watch broke and she went back to the starting point to get it replaced, she overheard Director Tsukishiro and Shiba-sensei saying that if Ayanokouji was still safe by the final day, they would call him over to I2 and finish him there. Despite threatening her with her classmates expulsion, Ichinose still chose to tell Ayanokouji over protecting her friends.

Ayanokouji says that she shouldn’t have gone to such lengths for an enemy. But Ichinose shakes her head and insists that Ayanokouji isn’t her enemy. Ichinose then confesses her feelings for Ayanokouji. Having instinctively said it without meaning to, she immediately averts her gaze and began to panics. She then asks Ayanokouji to repeat for her what she said as if she had lost her memory. When Ayanokouji asks her whether it really is okay to say it, Ichinose panics and says “never mind I remembered!”

Ayanokouji thanks Ichinose for choosing to prioritise him over her classmates and her exam group. As Ichinose is still panicking and tries to say that it’s a misunderstanding, Ayanokouji tells her that if it’s a misunderstanding, she should clearly deny it right now. In a small whispering voice, Ichinose finally admits that she likes him and said it was not a misunderstanding. Kiyotaka thanks Ichinose but did not give her a reply. She then says that she understands why he’s rejecting her and that someone like her isn’t suited for him. Kiyotaka says that’s not it and says that there’s still things that need to be resolved before he can clearly give her a yes or no. He decides against telling her about Kei for now. Even if she will resent him for it later, he couldn’t afford to drain her fighting spirit in the middle of the uninhabited island exam. Ayanokouji tells her that he still plans on heading for I2 much to Ichinose obstinate. He reasons that it's the only way to protect her and her classmates. Whilst petting her head and seeing that she accepted his decision, he tells her to head back to her group after taking a long leisurely break.

Whilst he does want to confirm that all the other people from his table have a different designated area, Ayanokouji can’t afford to spend a point on GPS search just for that. But just as he thought there wouldn’t be anyone else, he met Nagumo. Apparently he had been playing beach volleyball leisurely whilst all the other students were working with blood, sweat and tears. Nagumo pesters him about what he was doing with Honami since there were no designates areas or tasks here.

Since Honami wasn’t with him, Nagumo theorises that he still has something to do in I2. Nagumo reveals that the idea and the private points for the 20 million bounty came from Tsukishiro. He only leant his name to add credibility as the student council president. Ayanokouji questions why Nagumo didn’t refuse such a special exam as the student council president. Nagumo reveals that he would have done so if it were any other student. As Nagumo keeps pestering him for what he’s about to do, Ayanokouji wants him to just leave already because he wants to save time. Nagumo tells him to show the ability which lead Horikita-senpai to hold such a high evaluation of him.

Kiyotaka previously thought Nagumo was on bad terms with Vice President Kiriyama but it seems like that was not the case. Nagumo explains that if Kiriyama ever hopes to graduate from Class A, he has no choice but to link up with his hated enemy. Kiyotaka comments that aside from Kōenji, ordinary students wouldn’t dare rebel against Nagumo. Nagumo calls off his bluff as he remarked how Kiyotaka probably assume that he's only using the third years to win. He then declares that he will display his supernatural abilities.

Nagumo confidently guesses that Ayanokouji’s rank is 11th place but due to have using GPS search extensively against the first graders, his rank had dropped to 16th. When it seems like he got it wrong, Nagumo revised his guess to 15th-16th impressing Ayanokouji with his deductive skills. Nagumo surmised that Ayanokouji was deliberately holding out on positions just outside of the top 10 so that he wouldn’t stand out and if he and Kouenji were to collide head on, there would be a possibility for Ayanokouji to make a comeback. Nagumo says that he secured 10th place by installing the 3rd year Kuronaga. He was tasked to kill off any possibility of someone outside of the top 10 trying to make a comeback.

Nagumo was previously unconvinced that he was someone worth destroying but after the incident, he praises Kiyotaka and tells him to rejoice for being targeted by him.

Due to having the 3rd years as his eyes everywhere, Nagumo was able to clearly know exactly how many points a group would have despite everyone’s current scores being unknown. If he wanted to, he could easily control it so that he dramatically won against Kouenji by one point. Nagumo says that he doesn’t care about Kouenji any more and that currently, his end goal at this school was to devour Ayanokouji. Even though Ayanokouji insists that he has no intention of fighting on the front stage and that the leader of Class 2-D was Horikita, Nagumo says that he will drag Ayanokouji out using things such as bounties. Ayanokouji tries to leave, but Nagumo chases after him trying to get Ayanokouji to promise to compete with him.

Ayanokouji finds him annoying and pushes him to the ground. He tells Nagumo that although he respects him as an accomplished senpai, there are certain lines that he must not cross. Nagumo is stunned because he never expected Ayanokouji to openly defy him like this. Ayanokouji's glare contains pure bloodlust. In order to hide his fear, Nagumo stands up and replies that this was the first time he had ever been looked down upon so much. A call comes in from his transceiver reporting the success of the operation to hold Kouenji back. But Nagumo doesn’t answer and hangs up. He tells Ayanokouji that he doesn’t care about Kouenji but will make sure that as his final act as student council president, he will thoroughly crush Ayanokouji. But Ayanokouji didn’t let him finish and slammed a fist into him, causing him to faint.

At 10 AM on day 14, Horikita Suzune was heading towards I2 rather than her designated area of I7. The reason was because she had discovered a small folded piece of paper when she woke up in her tent that morning. On that paper were the words noon, K A, withdrawal and I2. Pens and paper were not included in the free supplies distributed to everyone so they needed to be purchased with points. Someone had taken the time to buy pen and paper just to send her this message. The meaning might have been cryptic to most other students but when she saw KA, she instantly understood it was about Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

Originally Horikita was planning on ignoring this but out of curiosity she used GPS search a few times and found Ayanokouji moving in the direction of I2. It was entirely possible that the piece of paper was telling the truth since Ayanokouji had a bounty on him. Hence, Horikita decided to also move to I2. But as she was on her way, Ibuki called out to her from behind. Ibuki demanded that Horikita compare scores with her. Apparently Ibuki had used GPS search 3 times just to catch up to her. But despite the fact that Ibuki says she scored 133 points, Horikita still refuses to tell Ibuki her score. Ibuki still tries to provoke her by saying that she’s scared of answering because she’ll lose. Horikita says whatever and goes with whatever Ibuki says just to satisfy her so that Ibuki will leave her alone but Ibuki isn’t happy with this response.

When Horikita keeps walking towards I2, Ibuki chases after her. Exasperated by Ibuki’s persistence, Horikita caves in and tells her she has 145 points. While Ibuki asks for proof and Horikita takes out the tablet, Ichika shows up and greets them. Ibuki tries to shoo her away since Horikita can’t freely show her score with Ichika around. But she sticks around and ignores Ibuki while only talking to Horikita, making Ibuki irritated. When Ichika asks where Horikita is heading, Horikita lies and says F3 is her designated area but Ichikai says that she’s lying and reveals she already knew Horikita’s designated area is I7. Horikita shows her tablet to Ibuki and tells her to go to her own designated area since she still has a chance of making a comeback win since Horikita won’t be earning points herself. When Ichika asks whether Horikita is heading for I2, Horikita suspects Ichika was the one who sent her the paper. When she questions Ichika over her intentions and then shows the paper, Ichika murmurs “Good grief, just how much do you like playing games?”

Horikita continues to believe that Ichika was the one who sent her the paper and proceeds to continue walking towards I2. Ichika provokes her saying that she despite being classmates and allies, she doesn’t know anything about Ayanokouji. Horikita suspects that Ichika might be a junior high acquaintance of Ayanokouji, similar to the relationship between herself and Kushida. Horikita thinks back on her observation of Ayanokouji over this past year. She acknowledges him as the first friend she made when entering this school. At first she thought he was just an ordinary student but he was a lot smarter than he let on. Horikita tells Ichika that from now on, until they graduate, she will gradually get to know Ayanokouji better, as a classmate and as a friend, until she knows him much better than Ichika does.

Even though she had experienced many hardships until now due to him, he was an important person for the class and an ally who she couldn’t afford to lose. That’s why Horikita had decided that if he was in danger, even if she were to abandon her own designated area, she would head over to help him. Ichika mocks her, asking if she thinks she’d be on any help. Horikita agrees that right now she wasn’t strong enough but she reinforces her intention of becoming an existence who can help him when he is in trouble. Ichika stops smiling and looks at Horikita with bloodlust in her eyes. Horikita says that she realised from their conversation that (a) there was something going on for which Ichika was desperately trying to stop her and (b) the fact that Ichika was trying to stop her meant that she wasn’t sender of the message. Ichika says “Don’t make me laugh. Horikita-senpai isn’t the type of person Ayanokouji-senpai would turn to for help.”

Horikita says that the more Ichika tries to stop her, the more she has to go. She became convinced that something was happen to Ayanokouji. Ichika tells her that she’ll give Horikita time to put down her belongings first. Horikita warns her that she has is trained in martial arts. Ichika says she knows and also says that it’s better that way because she’s super strong. She instantly throws Horikita onto her back on the ground before Horikita even properly realises what’s going on. Horikita realises that she had been naive. She thought that as long as Ichika was also a woman, any difference in their fighting strength would be small. Ichika says that she’s free to take a 5 or 10 minute break if she wants. Horikita retorts that would work in her favour if her aim was to prevent Horikita from linking up with Ayanokouji.

Ichika says that there’s no need for her to push herself. Horikita realises that since she’s doing it solo, if she were to be seriously injured here, it would mean her expulsion. She also once again realises that simply knowing martial arts doesn’t make her a strong fighter. She readjusts her mentality of fighting a junior and switches to the mentality of fighting an opponent stronger than herself. She couldn’t afford to hold back anything against such an opponent. But once again, she was unable to do anything against Ichika and was sent rolling on the ground. This was the second time she had felt such a despairingly large difference in fighting strength. The first time was against Housen. Horikita feels like at this rate she was going to lose her self-belief. Horikita asks “Who are you and why do you know Ayanokouji?” The strength that Ichika demonstrated was just as eery as the strength that Ayanokouji displayed when fighting Housen and Horikita’s brother. As if peeking into Horikita’s heart, Ichika tells her “To be honest, I’m a little disappointed. Horikita-senpai, you aren’t as capable as you think you are. That’s why Ayanokouji-senpai doesn’t tell you anything.” Horikita says that might be the case, but rather than hearing it from Ichika’s mouth, she’ll wait for Ayanokouji to say it. Ichika says that she’s irritated and decides to end the fight. But as Horikita is wavering between whether to block the punch or dodge it, Ibuki comes in and blocks it for her.

Ibuki says that she will be the one who will defeat Horikita and refuses to let her lose to some unknown first grader whose name she doesn’t even know. She says that there’s no meaning to an empty victory where she wins after Horikita gave up on going to her own designated area. Horikita warns her that Ichika is crazy strong and that Ibuki probably can’t win. But this just gives Ibuki more motivation. Ichika asks which of them is going to fight her so Horikita and Ibuki start quarrelling. Horikita says that she was just trying to be polite earlier but that there’s no way Ibuki stands a chance. Ibuki tells her not to make that decision before she even has a go. Horikita says that if she must fight then the condition is to form a group with her. If either of them is unable to continue, then the other must retreat. That way neither of them will be expelled. Ibuki hates the idea but agrees that the idea of Horikita being expelled after just one year isn’t fun.

The two of them link watches whilst Ichika just watches over them with an amused expression. She says that Horikita made a miscalculation. Whilst it was true that they would no longer be expelled if either of them were to be made to withdraw from the exam, it meant that Ichika was now free to break either of them. Ichika casually dodges both of their strikes. They don’t stop attacking but Ichika stops both of their fists. Despite it being 2v1, Horikita and Ibuki were the side being suppressed. Horikita becomes even more aware of the difference in strength and realises Ichika was just playing with them all along. She shudders at the thought of what would have happened if she were fighting seriously. She tells Ibuki that surely she understands Ichika’s abnormal strength by now, and asks Ibuki to listen to her instructions if they want to have a chance of winning. Ibuki obviously rejects her. Horikita thinks about how Ayanokouji would go about persuading Ibuki were he in the same situation.

Horikita says that even though Ibuki’s fighting sense is a bit better than her, she has no sense of how to cooperate in a 2v1 fight. She can’t study, can’t lead her class and can’t cooperate with others. With so many lacking components, Horikita says that Ibuki is unworthy of calling herself Horikita’s rival. Ibuki finally relents and agrees to follow Horikita’s instructions but only for this fight. With Ibuki’s cooperation, they finally manage to win. Horikita says that she has exploited Ichika’s weakness. There was a deep bruise which was on a completely different level to any kind of injury that she or Ibuki would have been able to give her. With such an injury, Ichika originally should have been struggling to even walk. But even in such a state, she was in an advantageous position against Horikita and Ibuki. At the thought that there existed someone who could inflict such an injury on a healthy Ichika who was in perfect condition, Horikita started to feel dizzy.

Even with the boys included, Horikita thought only Housen would be able to do something like this. Ichika asks “Do you want to know who did it? Perhaps Housen-kun?” Horikita agreed that it was possible for Housen to beat Ichika despite her extraordinary strength. But from her interactions with Ichika, she understood that this person wouldn’t answer her honestly. Hence, this implied there was someone at the school other than Housen who could inflict such a grievous wound on Ichika. Horikita thought of Albert but decided that he wasn’t the type of person to do something like this. But as Horikita let down her guard after seeing Ichika’s injuries, Ichika managed to escape again. Just as she prepared herself to fight once more, Ichika took out her tablet and said that it was over. She opened the path for Horikita and said she could pass. She says that there probably is no longer any need for Horikita to chase after Ayanokouji. Horikita decides that she needs to confirm with her own eyes. Ibuki tags along saying that if Ayanokouji were in a pinch, she needs to be there to watch and laugh at him.

When Ayanokouji arrived at I2, he didn’t receive the designated area arrival points. Instead, Tsukishiro and Shiba were waiting for him on the beach. There was a boat next to them. Tsukishiro asks Ayanokouji to obediently board the boat with them. Ayanokouji refuses. Tsukishiro says that getting him back in one piece was his mission, and thus he will use his fists rather than any weapons. God this part is so cringe. Tsukishiro says some BS about the aim of the White Room being to eventually rule over Japan and the world. He reveals that Ichika was a traitor who never had any desire to bring Ayanokouji back to the White Room. Tsukishiro cuts short the pointless chatter and he and Shiba start moving to take on Ayanokouji 2v1. Tsukishiro and Shiba focus on dodging Ayanokouji’s attacks and wasting his stamina through the unstable sandy footing beneath him. If Tsukishiro were a 4 in fighting strength, Ayanokouji analyses that Shiba would be about a 6. Shiba’s strikes also have just as much power as his own.

But just when he thought he had analysed Tsukishiro, he suddenly moved with a faster burst of speed that Ayanokouji thought was possible for him. Ayanokouji realises that the other side had baited him into that conclusion. Ayanokouji starts feeling panic in a fight for the first time in years. But at that time, Kiryuuin shows up and condemns the acting director and teacher for fighting a single student in a place with no people. Her watch was broken and hence she wasn’t detected on the GPS radar. Normally, Tsukishiro would withdraw here but since this was his final opportunity in this exam, he merely included Kiryuuin in the list of people to eliminate. Kiryuuin jumps in to help Ayanokouji as a senpai protecting a Kouhai despite not knowing the circumstances. Apparently Kiryuuin was interested in the fact that yesterday he had been surrounded and chased around by first graders. She was curious about the situation and wanted to ask him for the details since she thought it would have been very difficult to escape such a situation. As a result, today she wandered into a rather interesting situation. She says that she’ll try to buy a minute or two of time against Shiba-sensei. Kiryuuin tells him to take a cool fighting pose. With a grin, Kiryuuin also makes her own fighting pose. The following conversation goes like this:

“Do you have any experience fighting anyone?” “I’m a lady, you know? Of course I don’t.” “…Seriously?” “Don’t worry, I’ve always wanted to try hitting someone.”

The battle shifts into 2 1v1’s. Tsukishiro is trying to buy time for Shiba to beat Kiryuuin. He grabs at the sand on the ground and then swings his fist at Ayanokouji. But Ayanokouji doesn’t block his blow but rather grabs his arm and stops it. Tsukishiro stops smiling. In his hand was a stun gun. He asks Ayanokouji how he found out. Ayanokouji responds that he felt it was unnatural when Tsukishiro looked down at the ground earlier. If he merely wanted to throw sand, there was no need for him to look down. Meanwhile, Shiba has completely restrained Kiryuuin. Tsukishiro says he didn’t want to have to use this trump card but Ayanokouji has forced him into using it. He raises his hand and calls a small boat to land. But at the same time, Chabashira and Mashima appeared in another boat.

Tsukishiro asks him how he called them. He had taken measures so that the teachers wouldn’t interfere. Ayanokouji reveals that he had prematurely make a report that a Class 2-A and Class 2-D student were collapsed in I2. Naturally, the teachers who arrive to check the situation would be from those two classes. Thanks to Ichinose telling him the situation, he was able to get in contact with Sakayanagi to request assistance to report to the teachers and make the appropriate preparations. With this Tsukishiro admits defeat and says that he will withdraw for now. His wording implies that he will still be back. Since he changed the designated area of just a single student, this could be taken as evidence of meddling in the students’ exams.

Lastly, Ayanokouji asks Tsukishiro if he was seriously trying to expel him. He feels that if he were in Tsukishiro’s position, he would have taken much more reliable measures. He didn’t think the man in front of him was an idiot who couldn’t even do that. Tsukishiro says he tried his hardest but Ayanokouji feels like he had other aims. Tsukishiro asks Ayanokouji to pass a message on to Ichika. Amasawa Ichika who continuously disobeyed her orders has been branded as a failure. She wouldn’t have a place for her to return to and can choose freely whether to remain at the school. Ayanokouji is not sure whether Tsukishiro lied or said the truth but he is sure that there was no way the White Room would let go of Ichika that easily. Hence, he was confident that the case regarding the White Roomer was not yet resolved. Tsukishiro turns to Mashima and says that he and Ayanokouji were just having a little chat. Mashima asks him whether he thinks he can really write it off like that but Tsukishiro replies that regardless of the truth, teachers like them had no right to disagree with him.

Kiryuuin praises Ayanokouji for his battle. She tells him that she won’t tell anyone else about this case but there are many things she’s curious about. Ayanokouji replies that it was just some complicated family circumstances. He left I2 together with Kiryuuin. When they reached I3 they ran into Horikita and Ibuki. Horikita immediately asks if he’s alright. He deceives her by saying nothing happened and he was just taking a break after the tiring two weeks exam. Horikita had an incredulous expression while staring at him closely. Kiryuuin backs him up on his made up story. Horikita is still has suspicions but decides that she’ll only bring up this talk again once she has collected more information on the situation. Ayanokouji changes the subject and asks why she is together with Ibuki. Horikita and Ibuki starts arguing again about who won while Ayanokouji is surprised to see that the two have become a little friendlier with each other.

Epilogue
After two long weeks, the exam has finally concluded. To avoid it being a public execution, the bottom 5 groups are notified in advance and asked if they were able to save themselves. Those lacking sufficient funds to save themselves would board a smaller ship. The school still had the students' phones, thus, Ayanokouji decides to walk around the ship. At the front of the deck, he finds Ryuuen talking with Sakayanagi. He overhears Ryuuen telling Sakayanagi not to forget her promise nor the money. Sakayanagi smiles and says “Of course. Please tell me when the time comes.”

Apparently, Sakayanagi had hired Ryuuen as a mercenary to scout the first years but he wasn’t the type of person who would work for free. Considering that Ryuuen was withdrawn from the exam as a result, the price was definitely not cheap. Ayanokouji whispers and asks if it was really okay to make a promise like that. Ayanokouji thanks her for her cooperation and says that he will definitely pay back that debt. Sakayanagi says that her only wish is to have a serious competition with Ayanokouji where no one interferes. She understands that such a situation would be hard to come by, but as long as that singular opportunity presents itself in the year and a half they have together, she would be satisfied. She tells Ayanokouji that there’s no need to be impatient till then and that she understands why he wants to spend his days peacefully without standing out.

The exam results were that the bottom 5 groups were all 3rd years, including Mikitani’s group. Ayanokouji thought that perhaps Nagumo had intended for these 5 groups to drop out but looking at the shocked faces of the 3rd years, it seems that was not the case. Perhaps the fight he had with Nagumo influenced this time’s results. Tsukishiro declares that 3rd place is Sakayanagi’s group with 261 points, 2nd place is Nagumo’s group with 325 points and 1st place is Kouenji’s group with 327 points. When Nagumo’s name was called out in 2nd, rather than cheers, the room was filled with surprise. Kouenji ignores the questioning looks from the other students and turned his gaze onto Horikita who gave a small nod. With this, he helped gained 300 class points, 1 million private points and secured 1 protection point. Horikita acknowledges Kouenji’s victory and despite some reluctance, ensures Kouenji’s free will until graduation.

Ayanokouji recalls how Nagumo went out of his way to find him and if he had answered his transceiver, the positions would had been exchanged. His final thoughts concerns Amasawa who seems to be allying herself with him. He wonders if it is a premeditated plan or truly an act of betrayal against the White Room like himself. With all these mysteries running rampant, this summer break might not end smoothly at the current pace.

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