With Class A eliminated, the atmosphere in the room shifted once more. Kamio Tatsuya glanced at Ayanokouji beside him, and Ayanokouji happened to be looking back.
This was a signal.
With the first class eliminated, Class D would have no more chances at wins from here on, unless Class B chose Class C, Class C refused, and Class D stepped up to take the blow in C's place.
As for whatever event Class D drew next, it was to name Class C unconditionally, and then lose to Class C.
This had been agreed from the very start.
Still, there was no need for too much despair, with a bit of luck, Class D wasn't entirely without further chances at wins.
Class A's departure didn't faze the other three commanders in the slightest. Kamuro was waiting for chess to appear, and Kamio Tatsuya had been waiting for this moment all along.
Class D's drawn event appeared soon enough: basketball.
Event: Basketball (Class D)
Required participants: five.
Rules: standard basketball rules apply; time limit of twenty minutes (two ten-minute halves).
Commander: may substitute a player at any point in time.
"I designate Class C as the opponent."
"I accept."
The two sides confirmed the matchup at once, and then...
Both began choosing their participants, but strangely, the people both sides picked were ones with hardly any ability to speak of.
One thing was certain: the people on that list had either never played basketball in their lives, or were nowhere near good at it.
Take Class C's Yamawaki, or Class D's Shinohara, what on earth was this collection of bottom-feeders?
What in the world was going on?
Most people found it baffling, but that didn't mean nobody saw through it.
"Could it be..."
"Class C and Class D are actually on the same side?"
Ichinose, who had left the classroom, and the students of her class who were watching on standby, all arrived at that same thought upon seeing this.
And what happened next only proved them right.
"For this event, Class D concedes."
An uproar!
In the multipurpose classroom, Ayanokouji said it flatly, and while quite a few teachers were startled, they understood at once.
"Class C and Class D have joined forces?"
Even Kamuro, whose head was not the sharpest, caught on.
"That's right. The two of us were in cahoots from the very beginning."
"And the kyūdō just now, did Class D throw that on purpose too?"
"No, that one was a contest of pure skill. We had an agreement, you see: until one class was sent packing, Class D could fight for wins as hard as it liked, even if its opponent was Class C.
"But in exchange, once one class went out, every event Class D drew afterward had to go to Class C unconditionally, and end in a loss."
In fact, during the 100-meter dash just now, Ayanokouji had considered whether it would be better to have Class D lose to Class A, that way, Class A at least wouldn't be eliminated right then and there.
In that case, D would have had further chances to take wins off Class B.
But after running the numbers, Ayanokouji found that D's final haul of wins would come to roughly three or four either way, hardly different from now.
So Ayanokouji had sent out Sudou without hesitation, and won.
With Class D conceding directly, and Class A out, it was soon Class B's turn.
At this point, the eliminated Class A stood at 1-4, Class B at 0-2, Class C at 5-0, and Class D at 2-2.
From here on, Class D would name Class C for every event and lose on purpose; the only way left to snatch a win was to catch the moments when Class C refused Class B's challenges.
And to send Class B out, Class C would surely name Class B for all of its events, and against Class C's combat events, Class B truly didn't have many people who could answer the bell.
Kito Hayato was one; Hashimoto Masayoshi was another. The rest...
Kamuro sighed inwardly.
The chances were running out.
As for Class B, three events remained: chess, billiards, and the Japanese test.
The written events were probably hopeless, heaven knew how Class C had gotten its hands on the questions; a written test against them was just handing over points.
If the Japanese test came up, Class B's road in this exam would end right there, because once B lost it, Class C would show no mercy in the events that followed.
Ishizaki and Yamada hadn't even taken the stage yet, and Class B looked, by any reading, like a class without a chance.
So if B wanted to hold on, it had to place its hopes in one of the two: chess or billiards.
With that weighing on her, Kamuro drew Class B's event, and the instant she saw it, she relaxed.
Event: Chess (Class B)
Required participants: one. Thinking time: one hour (loss if it runs out).
Rules: standard chess rules apply, except that no additional thinking time is granted after the forty-first move.
Commander privileges: may draw on the thinking time at any point to issue instructions during the game.
Wonderful. Even if they lost from here, at least Sakayanagi's long-cherished wish would be fulfilled.
At this point, Kamuro no longer held any hope of Class B taking the final victory in this exam.
So her whole aim had been to draw chess, and let Sakayanagi fulfill the wish she had waited so long for.
And now, she really had managed it.
"I designate Class D."
Kamuro named her opponent without a second's hesitation.
Ayanokouji fell silent for a moment, then accepted the match.
In her classroom, Sakayanagi's face bloomed into a smile the instant she saw Class D take up the challenge.
Finally. Finally, finally, the moment had come.
I can hardly wait any longer!
At the thought, a faint, unhealthy flush rose to Sakayanagi's cheeks, and her heart began beating in a way it shouldn't.
No, no, I mustn't collapse here.
Sakayanagi took two deep breaths, steadied herself, and stepped into the match venue.
On the other side, Ayanokouji had chosen Horikita as his proxy, and the match began.
"This is not the matchup I hoped for, but even so, getting to settle things with you like this, Ayanokouji, already leaves me more than satisfied."
In the chess event's room, Sakayanagi looked at the camera, a smile on her face.
The room was quiet enough that her voice carried through the screen.
"Well, I suppose you can hear me, Ayanokouji, but you have no way to answer me. What a pity."
"Sakayanagi, you're rather talkative today."
Horikita yielded not one inch to Sakayanagi.
"Am I? I can't say I feel it."
The smile never left Sakayanagi's face, though no matter how one looked at it, there was something sickly about it.
"Now then, the event between Class B and Class D, chess. Players, please take your seats."
At the presiding teacher's instruction, Sakayanagi and Horikita sat down on opposite sides of the board.
The teacher then took a white piece and a black piece from the board, shuffled them this way and that, and held out a hand before each of them.
By the ordinary rules of chess, White moves first, and the first move carries a certain advantage, the teacher's little performance was to let each side choose her color.
"White moves first."
Seeing this, Sakayanagi smiled once more.
"Please, Horikita."
Truth be told, Horikita had trouble handling Sakayanagi at the best of times, so she chose silence as her answer.
"I'll take the left hand."
The teacher opened the clenched left hand: the white pawn. That meant Horikita would move first.
"Horikita takes white and moves first. The match begins."
The pieces were set back on the board, the match was declared underway, and the clock started running.
But Horikita didn't move. She was waiting for something.
Just then, a speaker in the room crackled to life, a synthetic electronic voice.
"Pawn to E4."
Seeing this, a smile tugged at the corner of Kamio Tatsuya's mouth. So his suggestion had worked.
The earlier events needed no worry, but in chess, the instructions might just get tampered with, you see.
So the school had adopted this arrangement: that way, whether it was Ayanokouji's instructions going in, or the instructions being read out in the room, everything was monitored.
As long as the instructions on both ends matched, no one could play tricks in the dark.
Ah, Sakayanagi, Sakayanagi, to give you and Ayanokouji a fair match, I've truly spared no effort.
Hmm. Looking at it that way, I really am a good person, aren't I.
The moment she heard that voice, Sakayanagi understood exactly what was going on.
She had never entertained the possibility before, but given that the acting chairman was that Tsukishiro...
That man had thrown together one outrageous exam after arriving at this school.
It wouldn't be beyond him to meddle inside an exam, either.
Thank you, Kamio. My impression of you has improved, just a little.
So you do know how to treat people kindly after all?
Though with this, Ayanokouji's strength at chess had been laid entirely bare.
As Ayanokouji's instructions came down, Horikita responded at once, while Sakayanagi picked up her pieces with a smile.
And so, Ayanokouji playing through Horikita's hands, Sakayanagi playing with her own, with almost no thinking time between them, the game flashed more than a dozen moves deep.
The opening had been conventional enough, but from move ten onward their play grew stranger and stranger, until even those who understood chess were utterly lost.
What are those two doing?
Horikita, the one at the board, was completely lost herself, she couldn't follow what the two of them were doing at all.
But judging from the smile on Sakayanagi's face, neither of them was messing around.
Whatever. I am but a heartless substitute machine, whatever move comes down, that's the move I play!
Kamio Tatsuya had dabbled in chess himself, so he could just barely follow what the two of them were doing.
Let it simply be said: the two of them possessed real depth in this game.
Enter them in an official chess tournament, and they would likely come away with a very respectable placing.
Considering Sakayanagi's health, though, this girl could probably only ever manage fast games, her body absolutely could not withstand long stretches of thought.
In fact, Ayanokouji, the player himself, was rather astonished.
As the White Room's crowning masterpiece, he considered himself second to none at chess, yet this girl called Sakayanagi was holding even with him.
He had quietly laid several traps by now, and every one had been brushed aside with ease.
It was only probing, granted, but her instincts were sharp indeed. It seemed he could not treat her as an ordinary opponent.
A player at my own level. Even at full strength, I'd give myself no better than even odds...
Interesting!
Interesting?
So this is what it feels like.
With that thought, Ayanokouji began his attack.
The instant his play changed, Sakayanagi noticed.
"Yes, that's it. That's exactly it!"
A single move, and Sakayanagi sank into deep thought.
And when Sakayanagi was the first to stop and think, every spectator quietly breathed a sigh of relief. What on earth had any of that been?
"What manner of play is this, from some other dimension? It's a bit too brilliant, no?" Hoshinomiya, watching from the multipurpose classroom, said with a trace of emotion. "But to match that Sakayanagi move for move, and even be the first to drive her into thinking...
Ayanokouji really has been hiding his light. He's nothing like a Class D student at all."
And with that, she cast a glance at Chabashira Sae, who still remained in the classroom.
Which was as much as to say: the school's class-assignment system must be broken.
"Hoshinomiya, please refrain from improper remarks."
At Hoshinomiya's plainly pointed words, Mashima Tomonari warned her at once, even Okabe turned to look her way.
"Yes, yes, I understand."
Before long, Sakayanagi emerged from her long think and picked up a piece.
"Ah, what a delightful stretch of time this is. This game is the finest battle of my life thus far."
Sakayanagi's voice floated out of the screen, and the faint excitement in it sent a chill down the spines of everyone in the multipurpose classroom.
As the black piece came down, Ayanokouji's hands, which had been flying over the inputs, went still, and he sank into thought.
Well, she was that Sakayanagi, after all.
There was plenty about her that Kamio Tatsuya looked down on, but when it came to chess alone, he granted her full credit.
He certainly couldn't beat her, he didn't even count as an amateur.
While Ayanokouji thought, no one in the multipurpose classroom disturbed him.
As for Kamuro's side, Sakayanagi had said she wanted a fair match, so she would not interfere with Ayanokouji.
And Kamio Tatsuya's side, naturally, hoped Ayanokouji would win.
Class B stood at 0-2 and Class D at 2-2, so no matter who won or lost, Class C could pick up at most three more wins.
If Class B won, then C would need to beat Class B twice more, and regrettably, when it came to Class B's billiards event, Class C had little confidence of winning.
They might even drop another match.
But if Class D won, then C would need only one more win over Class B.
In that case, Class C could go all-out in the events to come and send Class B straight out the door, and once B was gone, the remaining events wouldn't even need to be played.
Mm, perfect timing, too. It was just about lunch.
So from every angle, it was better if Ayanokouji won here.
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