Starting in class C: not completely defective.

Arc 10 chapter 7: shared trauma

We won the basketball game, but only just. Even though Komiya and Kondou are good basketball players, so were Onodera and Makida from their team.

The second event was about to begin. The result of the drawing was...

Typing Skills.

1 person.

I instantly put Kaneda's name into the box. He was the only one who had any sort of computer knowhow in our class.

I could already guess who Horikita was going to put forward.

Yep, they chose Sotomura Hideo, AKA the professor. I had my doubts whether Kaneda would win this one.

He was probably the biggest computer person in the first-year. He spent most of his days typing, whereas Kaneda at least had a social life.

And the results were...

"Class D, Sotomura Hideo, ninety points. Class A, Kaneda Satoru, eighty-five points. Class D wins," announced Mashima after the exam was over.

A difference of a mere 5 points? I wasn't even too angry at Kaneda. He'd tried his absolute best, after all.

And so, the score was 1-1 in the class A vs class D battle. So far, we hadn't had any of our events selected, but...

Judo
7 persons (best of 7)

Now we could start cooking with gas here.

I put Albert into the name box first, along with Ishizaki. Ishizaki wasn't exactly a Judo pro, but he was fit, at least.

We won pretty easily. The boy who was up against Albert gave up as soon as the match began.

Then it was

Karate
3 persons

We were on a role now. I was confident we could take the dubski for this one too. I put Ibuki's name on the board.

I was right. We won in a landslide again. Ibuki's match ended pretty quickly.

It was now 3-1 in our favour. If we won another match, we would have the overall victory, and Horikita would be stripped of her protection point.

Now, the fifth event was drawn.

Archery
5 persons.

Oof. We had practiced archery, for sure, but I knew that class D had Miyake Akito, who was pretty damn good at the game.

I selected the people who I thought would have a good chance at aiming straight. I also decided this was a time to bring Hiyori in. I know she had a steady hand because of her duties in the tea ceremony club, and I trusted her to be able to score fairly high.

In the end though, the win went to class D. Miyake had scored a bullseye as well, which put him ahead of pretty much everyone.

3-2

The next event was...

Tennis

I wasn't all that confident with this one, either. The only athletic people we had left was Kinoshita and Ayanokouji, who I was saving for the last event.

I put Kinoshita's name in the box.

It wasn't enough, though, and we barely missed the win.

The final event was

Chess.
1 person

Well, it was a good game, but ultimately we would take the victory.

I put Ayanokouji's name in the box.

Ayanokouji pov

I sat down at the 8x8 board, and waited for my opponent to come in.

The doors on the other side of the room opened, revealing a girl who I knew to be Kei Karuizawa, one of the gyaru types from class D.

"You must be Ayanokouji," she said.

"Yes. Pleased to meet you," I said, extending my hand in greeting. She looked away in what seemed to be disgust. A tad harsh for our first meeting, but I'll let it slide.

"Shall we?" I asked, gesturing to the board. I decided to let her play white.

"There's something I need to ask you, Ayanokouji-kun. Why did you do those things to Kushida-san? What did she ever do to make you do that to her?" She asked.

Well. That was rather sudden. It seemed she wasn't really interested in the game, but rather in me. It seemed that I wasn't yet rid of the thorn in my side that was Kikyou Kushida.

I sighed.

"Let me guess. She told you that I kidnapped her and hurt her in some way, right?" I asked.

"So you admit it?" She asked.

"I never said that. I just assumed that's the kind of thing that bitch would say," I said.

Karuizawa was stunned for a moment.

"How dare you say that? Kushida came crying to me a few weeks back, telling me that you had kidnapped her and...and...and raped her!" She accused.

Really Kushida? That was the best you could come up with?

Matsushita was a very valuable pawn of mine. I had her tell me about all the leaders in class D, and everything about them. I knew that Hirata had had a small mental breakdown during the in class voting exam, and I knew that Horikita could often be seen stalking her brother. I also knew that Kei Karuizawa had a small mark on her ribs that looked very suspiciously like a stab wound. I decided to take a risk. I stood up, turned around and lifted my shirt, so that Karuizawa could see the wound that Kushida had given me.

Karuizawa made a small gasping sound, but then stopped.

"Kushida did this to me, simply because she didn't like the school we went to as children," I said, leaving out any details about the white room.

"Kushida...knew you before high school?" She asked.

"Yes. Although we didn't interact that much, and I didn't really remember her when I first came here. The teachers at our school were...rough. And Kushida decided to blame me for that," I said.

"So...we're the same..." she muttered. I could see the gears whirring in her head, and her stare had gone blank.

Just then, a man came into the room.

"Class D's commander is now using their privileges to communicate with the participant," he said, carrying a headset, and placing it on Karuizawa' head.

Karuizawa, still shaken by the revelation I had shown her, moved her pawn to D4.

"Hello, Ayanokouji-kun. You're currently speaking with Horikita Suzune," said Karuizawa.

I see. So Horikita intended to speak to me through Karuizawa.

1038 words
I don't think I really did this exam justice. Too quick.
Not much else to say really
Hope you're all doing well and I hope you enjoyed