Outsider : Classroom Of The Elite

Chapter 1.7 - Knife's Edge

"What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear someone say the word 'underwear'?"

"Indecent thoughts." Horikita clicked a little bit of the blade from her NT cutter and pointed towards me.

Sigh.

In the end, Horikita caught up to me, the NT cutter almost stabbing my arm. Fortunately, I ran towards Keyaki mall where it was crowded. I figured that she wouldn't dare to assault me if I was in a public place. It was also my scheme to invite her to the café in order to cool her down and talk things through. Horikita ordered a cappuccino while I ordered a cup of tea.

I took a sip from my cup, progressively organizing my thoughts.

"Alright, first of all, when you think about the word "underwear", the first thing that comes in your mind should be a piece of 'cloth', right?"

"And your point is?" Horikita gave me an even sharper glare than before.

"When you think about 'clothes' in particular, like before a game of rock-paper-scissor, what would be the first thing that crosses your mind?" I continued.

"I don't think I understand the point you're trying to make."

"Think harder, Horikita-san. 'Clothes' and 'Rock-paper-scissor', there's an obvious similarity between them."

After I gave her a hint, Horikita thought to herself for some moment. There was an obvious reason behind the action I took earlier.

To ask someone specifically about a 'clothes' before a game of rock-paper-scissor could only mean one thing.

"Ah." it seems she had finally found the answer.

"When you think about clothes, you also think about scissors, is that what you were trying to say?"

"Indeed." a classic psychological trick for winning a game of rock-paper-scissor.

"But even if you say that, something's not adding up. Why did Ayanokouji-kun choose paper instead of scissor then?"

"That's simple. Ayanokouji already knew about the trick."

"Huh? Ayanokouji-kun did? Aozaki-kun, are you sure you're not bantering some random nonsense?"

I put my cup down on the table.

"Horikita-san. In order to counter a scissor, you need to play a rock. And to counter a rock, you need play a paper.

It was no coincidence when he chose paper and why I chose scissor."

"I-is that so?"

Yes, in the end it was just a battle of wits.

"But how could you have been so sure that Ayanokouji would choose to play paper and nothing else?"

"That's easy, it was a gamble."

"What? So you're saying that everything was pointless?" Horikita was getting bewildered everytime I revealed a new piece of information.

"I didn't say that, Horikita-san. The results weren't completely up to the binomial distribution after all. In the end, I had two absolute choices.

Either, he would play scissors and I would play rock.

Or, he would play paper to counter my supposed rock, while I would play scissors to counter his paper again.

It was a 50-50 chance, I merely picked the one that seemed more logical."

I picked up the cup, took a sip from the lukewarm tea. That was too much detail for a simple game of rock-paper-scissor.