Kikyo Kushida's body trembled violently. Natsuki Subaru's gaze, ice-cold yet filled with expectation, along with the tactile sensation of his fingertips touching her chin—like a venomous snake slithering across her skin—brought her final shred of rationality to the brink of snapping.
Those eyes, which always carried a gentle smile, were now bloodshot. She stared dead at Subaru, her gaze churning with extreme hatred, fear, and a trace of... the creeping horror of being observed as an "exhibit."
"Disappointment...? You told me not to... let you down...?"
She muttered the repetition, her voice hoarse and broken. Suddenly, a smile bordering on madness twisted the corners of her mouth.
"Fine... Natsuki Subaru, isn't this what you wanted to see? You wanted to see how far I could go?"
She abruptly pushed Subaru's hand away and struggled to crawl up from the ground. Although her footsteps were unsteady, she straightened her back. Tear stains remained on her face, but her eyes were frighteningly bright—it was the madness of completely casting aside all disguises and scruples.
"Don't you not care if the class falls apart? Didn't you say you only want to win, or only want to see 'interesting' things?"
She looked around at the classmates who were viewing her with disgust, fear, or complex emotions. Finally, her gaze locked onto Subaru, and she spoke, articulating every word:
"Then I will withdraw from this exam right now."
This sentence was like a thunderclap, exploding within the silent camp.
"Withdraw from the exam?!"
Yosuke Hirata cried out in loss of voice.
"Kushida-san, you..."
"According to the rules, if an individual voluntarily withdraws from the exam, 30 class points will be deducted."
Kikyo Kushida's voice was unusually clear, carrying the ruthlessness of someone who has smashed a cracked pot just to break it completely.
"Our class points aren't much to begin with right now, are they? Deducting 30 points—how much impact will that have on our final ranking? Natsuki Subaru, as the Leader, you should be very clear about this, right?"
She stared dead at Subaru, wanting to find even the slightest waver, concern, or anger on his face.
This was her final weapon, and the only way she believed she could sting this seemingly invulnerable man—threatening him with the "interests" of the entire class.
"To force me to this step, to satisfy your disgusting desire for observation, are you willing to pay the price of letting the class lose 30 points?"
The corners of Kushida's mouth hooked up into a cruel arc.
"Or is it that you actually don't care about the life or death of the class at all, just as I said earlier? If it's the latter, then on what basis do you act as this Leader?"
She threw the difficult problem back at him.
If Subaru stopped her, it would prove he didn't completely disregard the class, and she might still seize a sliver of initiative or room for negotiation; if he didn't stop her... then he would confirm the accusation of "disregarding class interests," and what would the other students think?
Suzune Horikita's expression changed. She rapidly calculated the gains and losses.
30 class points was indeed not a small loss in the early stages of the exam; it could directly affect the final ranking.
She looked at Subaru, waiting for his reaction.
The other students also held their breath.
They detested Kushida's betrayal and viciousness, but the loss of 30 class points was tangible, relating to everyone's interests.
For a moment, complex gazes focused on Subaru once again.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji analyzed calmly:
'A typical self-destructive threat. Kushida has already lost all her image, trust, and value as an insider. She is attempting to use her last bit of destructive power to prove her existence and create a difficult problem for Natsuki. The key lies in Natsuki's true attitude toward class points and victory.'
Airi Sakura clenched the hem of her clothes nervously. She looked at the two people in confrontation, her heart filled with unease.
Under everyone's gaze, Subaru slowly retracted his hand. The faint trace of disappointment on his face seemed to deepen a little.
He did not look at Kikyo Kushida, but seemed to be pondering an irrelevant question.
"...30 points..."
He repeated the number, his tone chillingly flat.
Then, he raised his head, his gaze sweeping past the pale-faced Kushida to look at the jungle further away, as if assessing something.
"So, this is your 'final color'."
Subaru's voice held no joy or anger, only a kind of confirmation bordering on boredom.
"Threatening with self-destruction, attempting to leave a final, painless scratch on the chessboard... is that it?"
He cast his line of sight back onto Kushida. Within those deep grey eyes, there was none of the emotional fluctuation she expected, only a bottomless indifference.
"I originally thought you would bring me more surprises. In the end, is this level of threat all there is?"
"What are you saying?"
"I thought you would be able to explode with some explosive revelations. If I were you, I would have mixed some lies into the true secrets to make the lies become realistic, or even make the students in the class transfer their hatred onto me. But you almost didn't think of this point at all."
Subaru shook his head.
"Kikyo Kushida, you seem to have mistaken one thing."
Subaru spoke slowly again.
"I agreed to lead this class to win because I felt that doing so might be a little interesting, or rather, it is a way to let the game continue for now. But winning itself, and the so-called 'class points'..."
He paused, the corners of his mouth hooking up into an extremely faint, almost mocking arc.
"...have never been my objective, nor are they things I care about."
"Whether you withdraw from the exam and deduct 30 points, or stay and continue to cause trouble, makes little difference to me."
His gaze swept over the other students.
"As for whether you all question my leadership because of this, or feel the loss... that also has nothing to do with me. My rule is simple: Obey, and then win. Everything else is noise."
He looked at Kushida, whose face had instantly turned as pale as paper, and added a final sentence, like a final judgment:
"So, if you want to withdraw, please go ahead."
"You only need to know that the moment you press the withdrawal button, the last thread of connection between you and this class, as well as this exam—that might have made you feel interesting or meaningful—will be thoroughly severed. You will become the first... clown in this game to exit early due to a boring self-performance."
After speaking, he no longer looked at her and turned to walk toward the center of the camp, as if the threat just now and the possible huge loss were merely a negligible breeze blowing past.
He used words to provoke Kushida, but the latter gave no reaction throughout.
The camp was deadly silent.
Kikyo Kushida froze in place, like a statue whose soul had been instantly extracted.
Her final threat, the bargaining chip she thought could sting the other party, appeared so ridiculous and so pale and powerless in front of Subaru's almost absurd "lack of care."
He didn't fear the class losing points, didn't fear internal questioning, and even... he seemed to expect her to make a more interesting move, while a self-destructive exit was just a boring conclusion in his eyes.
A massive sense of defeat and emptiness drowned her like icy seawater.
Everything she had meticulously planned, the final counterattack she launched even at the cost of exposing her true nature, didn't even count as a "confrontation worthy of being taken seriously" in the other party's eyes.
"Clown..."
Her lips trembled, repeating this word. The light of madness in her eyes gradually extinguished, leaving only endless hollowness and ash-gray defeat.
Suzune Horikita looked at the soul-lost Kushida, then looked at Subaru, who had already begun commanding everyone to act. Her heart was filled with mixed flavors.
She could not agree with Subaru's contemptuous attitude toward class points, but she was also clear that at this moment, any retention of Kushida or questioning of Subaru would be to no avail. The urgent task was to stabilize the remaining team.
Yosuke Hirata sighed painfully, and eventually walked toward the other classmates to start helping with the organization.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji observed silently.
'Complete disregard is more destructive than any punishment. Natsuki... he holds the definition of value completely in his own hands. Kushida's threat has zero value within the game rules he has set. This is more despair-inducing than direct violent suppression.'
Airi Sakura looked at the isolated and helpless Kushida, who seemed abandoned by the whole world, and then looked at Subaru, whose back was indifferent yet incomparably powerful. An indescribable feeling swept across her heart.
Finally, in the dead silence, Kikyo Kushida seemed to use up all her strength. Staggering, step by step, she walked toward the direction of the teacher responsible for supervising the exam.
She did not look back again; her back was filled with utter failure and gloom.
Subaru didn't even watch her leave.
Kushida walked to the location of Sae Chabashira, who was staying near Class D. The expression on her face was incomparably dark.
"Is there something the matter? Kushida-san?"
Sae Chabashira crossed her arms over her chest, seemingly not feeling surprised by the other party's appearance.
Back when Subaru sought her out to exchange for things earlier, Chabashira had already guessed this ending.
Even as the homeroom teacher, Chabashira hadn't known Kushida's true face before.
Until just now.
And Subaru had ruthlessly torn open the other party's true face.
Choosing to do so at this time would clearly only make the class more chaotic.
"Sensei, I don't feel well. I want to withdraw from the exam."
Kushida raised her head and looked at the teacher.
Even if her heart was already in despair, Kushida could only take this final action as her last revenge.
"I see. Then, specialized personnel will take you off the island and return you to the ship."
"Class points will be deducted, right!"
Kushida said.
This wasn't just to take revenge on that damned guy, Subaru, but also to take revenge on the other students in the class.
However...
It was more like it was for the sake of her own negligible self-esteem.
"No. They won't."
"I see... Wait... What?"
Kushida thought for a moment she had misheard and looked at Sae Chabashira with a face full of astonishment.
"Points won't be deducted? Why?!"
"Because Natsuki-kun has already spent all the points."
Hearing Chabashira's words, Kushida stood blankly on the spot like a shell without a soul.
Could it be that...
Had Natsuki Subaru calculated this point precisely from the very beginning?
"It's time to depart, Kushida-san."
After Kushida followed the staff and left in a daze, the Class D camp fell into another form of silence.
It wasn't the depression of being shrouded in invisible fear like before, but a kind of uneasiness mixed with shock, confusion, and uncertainty about the unknown path ahead.
Subaru used thunderous methods to clear out the traitor, yet treated the loss of class points with an attitude bordering on disregard. This contradictory and formidable style of conduct made most students feel at a loss.
Horikita and Hirata strove to maintain basic order, organizing everyone to continue sorting supplies and preparing to move to the next target area according to the plan.
But the content of the whispers filling the air had quietly shifted from dread of Class C to complex discussions about the Leader, Subaru himself.
"Does he... really not care about points?"
"But didn't Chabashira-sensei say..."
"Then what if points really get deducted in the future?"
"Kushida-san, she... really left..."
"She deserved it! But Natsuki-kun, he..."
Awe and fear remained, but the seeds of doubt and unease had been quietly sown by Kushida's final struggle.
It was just that no one dared to show even half of it in front of Subaru.
Ayanokoji silently replayed everything that had just happened in his mind.
'Spending all the points... Was it a coincidence, or intentional? If it was intentional, that implies he had long calculated that Kushida might threaten with withdrawal, and he eliminated the substantive damage of this threat in advance, incorporating every reaction of the opponent into his calculations... This kind of control...'
He looked at that back standing at the edge of the camp, seeming out of place with the busyness around him, and the evaluation in his heart rose continuously.
'It's not just power or insight, but a kind of... grasp of rules, human nature, and the direction of events that borders on prediction.'
Airi Sakura quietly moved to the edge of the crowd, a place neither far nor close to Subaru.
She sat down hugging her knees, her gaze somewhat wandering, but it always drifted unconsciously toward Subaru's direction.
In that storm just now, she was the core target, and also the object indirectly protected by Subaru.
A strange feeling bred in Airi Sakura's heart.
That was a trace of twisted dependence that even she couldn't understand.
It was as if as long as that figure was there, those terrible gazes and threats... would ultimately be unable to truly touch her.
Subaru seemed deaf to the disturbance behind him. He stood with his back to the camp, facing the southwest direction where the Class C base was located, his fingers still unconsciously tapping lightly on the hard cover of the guidebook.
Deep in his eyes, the boredom and disappointment that had risen due to Kushida's faded performance were being replaced by another kind of expectation.
Kushida's role was over. The final ripples she left behind—the cracks created in the class—were not worth mentioning in his view.
Clearly, she hated him so much, yet in the end, she faded due to despair. It was truly a pity.
If she had just continued to hate him and held onto the thought of taking revenge on him at all costs, Kushida might have ushered in another ending.
Anyway, forget it.
Having cleared away an unstable internal noise source, the stage was finally a bit quieter, and he could wait for the true protagonist to appear.
He thought indifferently in his heart—
'Then, Ryuen... it's your turn. Don't let me wait too long.'
____
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