The final day of the exam had begun. And unlike the time on the uninhabited island, time passes quickly in the luxurious ship. Furthermore, each day two hours of discussion time passed without much content actually being discussed.
While both Ryuuen's united front plan and Katsuragi's fortress plan proceeded as usual, Class B's Ichinose Honami spent her time without being able to come up with a counterattack against those strategies.
"Waah. I pulled it again! Maybe I'm just bad at Old Maid?" Ichinose says while scattering the cards in her hand in front of me. Despite this being the fifth discussion period we've had, Ichinose once again suggested playing cards. I would have questioned this approach, but it seems no one in Class A is willing to come forth for the discussion. So only a small group of people who thought it would be better to play than spend time aimlessly joined in the card games.
Manabe and the others' contact with Karuizawa was a bit worrying, but it seems the effect of sending her those images worked excellently. And now they're obediently steering clear of her. Karuizawa also believed in that and acted normal as usual
On the other hand, looking it from Manabe's perspective, the mysterious person who sent the chat must have been either me or Yukimura who were both present at the emergency staircase incident. I did add in the chat that I received the images from a fellow classmate, but it's clear that either one of the two who were present there must have been the one to have taken the pictures.
Either that or those pictures must been spread around to the mysterious person who sent the chat as something interesting. Manabe must have gotten that sort of idea from all this.
As long as she cannot ascertain for sure that it was me who was responsible for that, she cannot take action against me. Because there's no point in figuring out the identity of the person who took those pictures after all.
"Is it ok for me to stay here like this?..."
Yukimura said that while sitting next to me with a gloomy, depressed expression.
"You're being gloomy, Yukimura-kun. This is where you play your heart out and shake out your anger. Rematch. Rematch!".
"I'll pass on that. I don't feel like it anyway. More importantly, is this fine, Ichinose-san? Ending the exam like this. I thought you were the one holding the reins to this group and guiding us all through the dialogue" Yukimura asks Ichinose.
And in response to that, Ichinose, whose hands had been holding the cards, briefly stopped.
"Isn't that being too convenient for yourself, Yukimura-kun? If you really want to win, don't rely on someone else to do it for you and use your own power to win" Ichinose retorts to Yukimura.
"...I understand that much. I understand" Yukimura replied.
The fact that he cannot afford having that responsibility thrust onto him, I'm sure Yukimura is also aware of that fact. But despite knowing, I suppose he still wanted to change this resigned atmosphere.
Yukimura, who holds top level grades, would be one of the most reliable ones if the exam were purely measuring our academic prowess. But just because you are gifted academically, that doesn't not always translate into raising people's spirits up. It's not like they can come up with novel ideas just like that. There are things in the world that cannot be done simply by memorizing words and equations.
Over the summer holidays, the two special exams we've had, even Horikita was forced to confront her powerlessness in the face of that.
I wonder whether in this stalemate of a situation, Ichinose and Machida and the others also feel this irritation.
However, even that frustration, as long as it does not end up breaking your spirits, can eventually be used to power you.
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