Chapter 11

Kiyoko POV

    I called Ryuen-kun to meet with me in the morning and he did. Approached a bush which he directed to on the transceiver, “how much do you know?” he questioned me, he did not sound upset or distraught at all, he was more amused about how I found the transceiver and linked it to him

“I know everything, from the spying to how you plan on winning this exam”

“If you knew about it why didn’t you just play along and crush me in this exam, or are you too afraid of Class A to go on an attack?” he grinned as he said those words, however, they did not affect me.

“If you are saying such words, then you understand I plan on making a deal with you”

“Oh? And that is?”

“Crush Class A and B with me, you have already committed to your strategy. If you tell me everything that has happened so far, then I can revise that strategy into something that can even crush the strongest of those on top.”

“And if I decline?”

“I will go to Class B with this exact same proposal, though, I don’t want to do that. You are the only one I want to work with”

“It doesn’t seem like I have a choice, I have committed to this strategy after all”

    Ryuen-kun and I then talked for a while. Eventually, Ibuki-san ran up to the place where Ryuen-kun directed me. She was extremely flustered at first, though Ryuen-kun informed her about how we revised the strategy, and both of us returned to our base camp.

    We were questioned about where we had gone, though I just said I did some exploring and Ibuki-san came with me.

    I had spent the rest of the day exploring on my own, I found a ladder that descended a cliff and reached a hut that was built into the cliffside. I waited there for 5 hours when I heard footsteps coming.

    I stayed in the bush that I hid, I saw 4 figures approaching, I recognized them to be Nishi-san, Hashimoto-kun, and Machida-kun, and Naoki-san. They all descended the latter immediately after approaching it.

    It took them 20 minutes before coming up, and once they did they left to go to their next spot right away. I decided to head back because it would take until dinner time to return. Once I did I found Horikita-san sitting alone,

    I sat next to her and told her all about what I was scheming. She did not approve of me making moves without her, though it was too late to turn back now and she played along with it. Though I did not want her to make any moves alongside me.

    I did not want to retire Horikita-san without a valid reason, so I decided to keep her on the down-low. She agreed with what I was saying and agreed to stay in the camp area and protecting the card with all of her might.

    I noticed was looking kind of sick, this wasn’t entirely bad because if I did need to retire her I could justify it by pointing out her illness, I could even rough her up a bit before retiring her in order to prove my point.

    After dinner, I left once again to the meeting spot that Ryuen-kun and I were at before. This time he was accompanied by Ishizaki-kun and Albert-kun. I told him about my discoveries and he informed me of his current situation.

    He had all of the members of his class except his two best fighters retire, and he used 40 points on enough food and water for them to last the rest of the exam.

    I headed back to the camp with my new information in order to start preparing for the future. I was worried about not having enough manpower though, so I went up to Sudo-kun, and using the trust I had built with him and some bullshitting I secured his aid.

    The next couple of days were fairly uneventful, Ryuen-kun and I managed to identify the leader of Class B. At 12 pm on the seventh day of the exam is when it will end, which means I will need to take action on the sixth night.

    On the fifth night of the exam, I went to check for the last time and the same pattern occurred as per normal, at exactly 8:30 pm the 4 teachers had a meeting in order to speak among themselves about what has happened during the exam so far and make sure there had been no foul play.

    After dinner on the sixth day I checked up on Horikita-san and then I left, I know for a fact that Kiyo-nii has discovered her identity as a leader. I would need to forcefully retire her at the last minute.

    I left and walked for about fifteen minutes until I reached the spot that Ryuen-kun designated to meet up at. It was Me, Sudo-kun, Ibuki-san, Ishizaki-kun, Ryuen-kun, and Albert-kun.

    Ibuki-san and Ishizaki-kun left for Class B, While the other 4 of us went to where the more difficult battle would take place.

    I saw Mashima-sensei leave and all of us took that as the cue, we went to the point where we laid our ambush and found the four walkings back towards their base. We were a 20-minute walk away from their cave, no screams to be heard, and no friends around to save them.

    Ryuen-kun was the first to run at them, he threw a punch at Hashimoto-kun who barely dodged it, though he was thrown off balance. The next knee which Ryuen-kun rocketed in his direction. Hashimoto-kun kneeled on the ground, gasping for air, as the next kick knocked him out cold.

    Everyone else in that group saw this and freaked out, while they were freaking out Sudo-kun took action and tackled Machida-kun, and started punching him in the face until he was also unconscious.

    The next ones to fall were Nishi-san and Naoki-san, both of them put up a pretty good fight. Albert-kun attacked them, but both of them were nimble enough to outmaneuver his slow and heavy attacks. They did not last very long after that though, because Ryuen-kun reaped the consciousness of Nishi-san and I did the same to Naoki-san.

    I found what I was looking for on Naoki-san’s person, it was a keycard with her name engraved upon it. The four of us arrived at the rendezvous point where we waited for Ishizaki-kun and Ibuki-san to arrive with Class B’s key card, they ended up being 20 minutes late, and they arrived red and swollen.

“What the hell happened to you idiots? Could it be that hard to steal candy from a little girl?”“I did as you said, called her out like it was a romantic confession, but for some reason when she arrived that bastard Kito and Kanzaki were there also” Ishizaki-kun replied

    Everyone was confused, I was also confused because it wouldn’t be hard for him to beat those two, or he could have sent more backup for them, or gave Class B more of a warning instead of just Kanzaki-kun. I also wonder what he was up to, I knew for sure he would see through my strategy, which is why I brought so many strong fighters with me. I decided that if I could not outsmart him I would rely on brute force.

    While I was lost in thought and processing this Ryuen-kun started laughing, this pissed me off quite a lot, in these circumstances he was laughing?

“You haven’t figured it out yet? Kiyoko, we have been standing in this exact spot for twenty minutes. What do you think he has been doing with that time?”

    It suddenly dawned on me, a tidal wave of panic, fear, other emotions came crashing down on me. I heard some rustling in the bushes to our left, at first I thought it was a bear, then I thought it was the Grim Reaper, and then I thought it was god himself, but I was forced to realize it upon seeing his face, that this was an existence much, much more terrifying… My apathetic older brother stepping into my line of sight.

Kiyotaka POV

    I spent most of the first six days away from our cave, from stalking Kiyoko, to observing Class D, I had gained enough information to make a final decision on what I needed to do.

    At the beginning of the sixth day I informed Kito that he needed to go to B camp and with the help of Kanzaki fight back against the attempt to steal their key card, however, he had orders to do nothing except stall. If I am reading this correctly then they should send a strong enough fighter to beat at least Kanzaki and all Kito has to do is hold back enough so that the Class C or D assaulter wins the battle. Then after faking unconsciousness follow them after they leave and notify me over the transceiver I bought if their meetup position had changed. If his location were to be discovered while following them, fight back and try to steal the keycard if possible.

    I then waited, I casually snacked until the clock hit 8:00. I had noticed before that the teacher meeting was the perfect time to ambush my classmates, based on their location and where the teachers were, and it was the only time that you could guarantee that an opponent would not have their teacher wait at the ambush site. If you did that then the other teachers would notice their absence and get suspicious about what was happening and take actions to lock down their classes, effectively halting the examination that was taking place during the day before it ended.

    Once the clock hit Eight I left to go to D Camp and when I arrived I spotted my target. She was sitting all alone near a campfire, I concealed myself in a wooded area and whistled enough times to get her attention, and when she noticed where I was she walked towards me alone, she probably thought I was another one of her idiot classmates.

    When she arrived I hit her one time very hard in her temple, after this blow she fell unconscious, I quickly grabbed her keycard and dragged her unconscious body out of the bushes and into the visibility of her classmates before running away.

    I was notified over my transceiver that they had changed their meetup spot and followed Kito’s directions to where the meetup was happening. Once I arrived at the spot I instantly revealed myself and everyone put their guard up at me.

    There stood 6 warriors, of equal strength, all getting ready to fight me. I entered my stance and waited for the first attack to come.

“What's going on Kiyoko?” asked Sudo

“All you need to know is that guy is a Class A student who outsmarted us and is currently in possession of our key card,” said Ryuen

    These words were enough to throw him into a rage and attack me with great ferocity. I dodged his first punch, but he immediately regained his footing and attacked again. He acted without any sort of hesitation, this did not phase me though, I dodged another attack and kicked his leg out, he kneeled down and I hit him hard enough to knock him out, he was very resilient. It took another hard blow to reap his consciousness, though he inevitably fell.

    I got up and faced off against Ibuki and Ishizaki who attacked in synch, I could tell they were good at working with each other as they combined their attacks and tried to overwhelm me with speed. I managed to keep up with their attacks and parry each one of them, but this gave Albert enough time to get behind me and launch his own attack. They had surrounded me, though, this meant nothing. The first one to attack was Albert behind me, he threw a heavy punch with all of his body weight. I dodged and used his momentum to trip him forward, he crashed into Ishizaki which disabled them for a few moments that I used to attack Ibuki, I punched her in the face, kicked her in her stomach, and hit her hard in her face once more, knocking her out.

    My next assault was on Ishizaki, I had to outmaneuver Albert for a second, in the end, I managed to land a strong enough hit on him to knock him out. After that I attacked Albert with an onslaught of punches and kicks, he defended very well, his big frame absorbed attack after attacks leaving behind damage, but not enough to cause significant problems. I still managed to beat him though, with a roundhouse kick to his head I knocked him over and took his consciousness.

    My focus next arrived on Kiyoko and Ryuen, before doing so I searched the pockets of Ibuki to find nothing, then after searching Ishizaki I found the Class B keycard. It was easy to see that those two fought against Kanzaki and Kito based on how injured they were compared to the others. I decided to have a bit of a chat with my sister while I have the time

“Kiyoko, I would like to thank you for rounding up the keycards for me, I can now obtain evidence of Class B and C’s leader without investigating them at all.”

“Don’t think taking the key card will be easy, Kiyo-nii. In the end, we got the same training, and it’s still a two against one”

“My weak little sister playing the grownup’s game still” I sighed “compared to me you are as insignificant as a water flee, quit pretending we are still in the same league”

    I grabbed her hand, but as I did that Ryuen grabbed mine. He called me a bastard, threw a couple of attacks and I took my distance.

    Fighting both of them at once will be difficult, but I could do it. I blocked a high kick from Kiyoko while also dodging a punch from Ryuen. At every opportunity I hit them, I never got a good enough opportunity to land a heavy blow, but I was wearing them down.

    As a lumberjack does to a tree I slowly broke them down, one swing at a time, and eventually, they started to slow down.

    Eventually, my time came when Kiyoko got antsy and sprinted at me, she attacked without the backup of Ryuen and gave me the opportunity to slam her to the ground, pin her and land hit after hit. My eyes showed an intense glare that I wished to burn into her memory, and it did, I left her to tremble a few moments before she passed out, I instilled more fear into her and showed once again how huge the gap in our abilities was.

“How can you do that to your own sister? You monster”

“I refuse to accept a weakling like that as my sister”

    With great anger at what my words and actions he attacked, they were ferocious to the point that I could mistake such strength and determination for something that I faced in the White Room, however, there was nothing in that place I couldn’t overcome. There is no way I can’t overcome this either.

    In a half of a moment that it took to regain his footwork, I found my opportunity. I launched my final attack. I hit Ryuen once in the stomach, threw him on the ground, and hit him over and over, he clung to his consciousness and continued to fight, but it was not enough. I knocked him out and stood up, leaving all six of my opponents in the dirt.

    After searching Kiyoko and Ryuen I found the other two key cards, leaving me in possession of all four of them. I left them and returned to the cave camp, before doing so I looked back at the six I was leaving behind. It was a good effort, but not enough to beat me. You will need to grow a lot more in order to reach my level, Kiyoko.

    By collecting the three cards of the other classes I can guess the leaders of the other classes with 100% accuracy. There is likely some panic in our base camp, though it will be quickly resolved when I arrive.

    I was correct about the panic, when I arrived there was arguing, shouting, and anger at the three accompanying the leader for not protecting the keycard well enough. I was quickly approached by Katsuragi.

“I'm sorry to say this Kiyotaka, but, it seems like our keycard was stolen”

    Everyone got silent, wondering how I would react to my subordinates’ failures. Though I simply reached into my pocket, pulled out the keycard, and shock arose on everyone’s faces.

“W-wait, what does this mean, Kiyotaka?” Katsuragi seemed confused

“While I was out I discovered that a Class D student saw through his plan and the flaws within it. They adapted their plan to one with a higher success rate and a lower gain, this plan was one of keycard collecting. I found out more details about it and took action, by using the fact that a couple of people at one point would be holding onto all of the keycards in this exam to my benefit, I managed to steal all the keycards from those people”

    I pulled three other keycards out of my pocket and showed them to everyone. And a loud cheer broke out. However, Katsuragi did not join in on these celebrations.

“This doesn’t change the fact that the other classes now know are leaders, how are you going to deal with that?”

“By making Naoki retire, you can change your leaders as long as you have a valid reason. Katsuragi, is retirement, not a valid enough reason to change your leader?”

“I suppose it is… Kiyotaka… the level of intelligence and ingenuity you showed during this exam goes far beyond a normal person, who are you?”

“I have been dealing with Arisu my whole life, basically every week she would set up a new trap or find another extremely complex way to mess with me. I got pretty good at adapting to others strategies through her games”

    Naoki, Kito, Kamuro, and I all went to the ship and got Naoki to retire, I then gave leadership to Kamuro and we went back to the cave to sleep. When morning came we all went to roll call and then relaxed a bit before heading to the beach.

    On the beach the atmosphere was extremely tense, everyone already knew what the results were, some showed visible shock about the Class C students existence, though that was quickly overridden by the defeat they felt.

“I will now announce the result of the exam, in last place is Class C, with zero points. In third place is Class B, with 40 points”

    Class B’s result was unfortunate, it seems like Ryeun and Kiyoko decided to guess their leader and drag Ichinose’s class down with them.

“In second place is Class D, with 70 points. And first place is Class A with... 470 points”

    Class A celebrated, while all the other class’s stared at the sand beneath them in shame, some were badly bruised. And the others were just depressed, this exam was extremely violent and close, though, in the end, I got victory, that was all that mattered to me.

    When I got on the ship my classmates offered to throw a party with me, though I told them I couldn’t, because I had someone to meet with on the deck of the ship.

“That was a good win, Kiyotaka. I heard of the results, and I just want to say I couldn’t be more impressed”

“It was nothing, Arisu”

“That aside, in light of your victory I would like to give you an offer… stay by my side even after you leave this school”

“I refuse, unfortunately, outside of this school, there is nowhere that man cannot reach me”

“So you will just give up freedom even before fighting for it?”

“I’m not giving up, just making the most reasonable decision”

“There is someone who I think could protect you from your father”

“That being?”

“My father”

“You understand what you’re saying, right? This would create an all-out war between me and him, your dad would receive a great amount of collateral damage”

“I have no doubt that my father wouldn’t receive that collateral damage with a smile if it for the sake of his son-in-law”

“Calling us family is a bit of a stretch”

“I could change that” she was grinning a lot and looking into my eyes

“It would be foolish to start a war without pondering the risk of doing so greatly, give me time to think”

    I walked off, I didn’t know what to think, do I fight for freedom knowing that I will likely lose the battle, and be left with years worth of reparations to pay. Or go quietly, and never even fight for something I so greatly desire.