Our entire class, except for Kouenji, who was still unavailable due to his chase for physical beauty, assembled in one of the many accessible karaoke rooms on the ship, which were allocated on and spread out over most of the decks. The one we had gathered in was the ninth suite on the third deck, labeled '39', as per the ship's easy to guess numbering scheme.
Chiaki explained how Kikyou managed to solve the problem with the support of Sakura, Mii-chan and her, as soon as everyone arrived. My queen might have worked out most of the intricacies, but she helped the others into the limelight with kind remarks and similar charitable observations, which earned the whole squad multiple rounds of awed praises.
Sakura was still too timid, too easy to intimidate, and needed this modest confidence boost to crawl out of her shell. She had done little in the grand scheme of things, but her statements had brought us closer to the solution. Kikyou reiterated that she couldn't have solved the exam without their guidance, which prompted most of our classmates to thank them.
The VIPs were revealed, together with the secret pattern.
Class D's reward of 4.5 million private points would be pooled together in Kikyou's account after their distribution on the final day of the exam. Everybody would receive their respective cut, consisting of 115.384 points, while the remaining pocket change would stay with her, as the amount was so miniscule that nobody cared about it. These values would be adjusted, depending on the additional points we might earn from our remaining VIPs.
A short celebration followed, as the explanation concluded.
Nothing was official since the results weren't out, but none of my classmates seemed to mind this when they began to sing a few well-known songs and sipped on their orange juice. Chiaki was confident in the solution that our angel had provided us with and allowed everyone a brief time to enjoy themselves now that we had reached Class A.
Suzune and Yukimura were caught off-guard by this behavior.
The former kept quiet, as usual, while my bespectacled roommate complained about our relaxed attitude. According to him, we should have kept the solution and our VIPs a secret until the end, since the other classes were still a danger to our point balance. If the current Class A managed to figure out our leaders, then we would lose our spot and drop back to B.
His protests, albeit justified, were drowned in the festivities.
"Airi!"
Hasebe, also known as 'Mommy Milkers', if one were to ask Kikyou, jumped at our equally stacked pink-haired companion in visible delight after she had heard about the girl's crucial role in this triumph. Sakura, who wasn't comfortable around people and thus easy to scare, almost splashed her drink onto poor Sudou in front of her.
"H-hey Haruka-sa... ah no..."
"She did good, right? Tell her Sudou-kun!"
"What? Yeah, I mean —"
"AIMAI NA KYOUKI GA!"
The rest of their conversation was drowned out by Ike's deafening attempt to perform the anime opening Sotomura had chosen. Okitani and the other guys cheered him on while another group of girls was already browsing for the next song.
Kikyou shone brighter than everyone else.
Back then, I had promised to take care of her — assured my bewitching, beautiful queen that she would be even more loved, cherished and admired by her schoolmates. Now, I had gifted her a small but convincing glimpse of this rosy future. She was beyond ecstatic and hopped through the whole room with her closest friends right next to her.
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Classroom of the Elite: Checkmate
FanfictionEver since Ayanokouji Kiyotaka had been a child, he played a lot of chess. From grandmasters to engines, he beat them all time and time again. There was no person or program in the White Room or anywhere else that could hold a candle to him. Then so...
