Running away from the past (Year 1)

27- A dangerous foe

(Y/N) pov

Breakfast time.

I avoided a popular buffet of the cruise that was always crowded and headed toward a café called "Blue Ocean", which was located on the ship's deck.

I arrived got there at 8:05 AM. I was supposed to meet Horikita there five minutes earlier, but I overslept. I spotted her seating nearby and joined her.

Horikita: "You are late."

(Y/N): "Sorry."

I thought that she would scold me or something, but she just sighed and changed the topic.

Horikita: "Anyway, let's resume yesterday's talk."

(Y/N): "I suppose that you received the same explanation as my group."

Horikita: "Yes, it's as you told me. 12 groups with 4 possible outcomes and the 'target' being announced today at 8 AM."

Just as she said, I had already received the email from the school five minutes earlier.

(Y/N): "Who are the members of your group and how many are them?"

Horikita took out a piece of paper from her pocket and showed it to me.

Class A: Katsuragi Kohei, Nishikawa Ryouko, Shita Shinji, Koharu Yano.

Class B: Ando Sayo, Kanzaki Ryuuji, Tsukabe Hitomi.

Class C: Oda Takumi, Suzuki Hidetoshi, Sonoda Masashi, Ryuuen Kakeru.

Class D: Kushida Kikyou, Hirata Yousuke, Horikita Suzune.

This was Horikita's group, called Dragon. Names like Katsuragi, Kanzaki, Ryuuen, Horikita and Hirata stood out.

This group was formed by many notable students, while mine was formed by more average students. But there was something strange here. Why would Ichinose be in my group and not in this one? She was probably the best student out of all from my group.

Horikita: "You are worried about Ichinose-san, aren't you? At this moment, only her class knows what her true abilities are. The most outstanding student of a class isn't always the leader."

There was definitely a reason why Ichinose was sorted into my group, but I decided that I shouldn't worry about it for now.

Horikita: "Anyway, you received the email from the school too, right?"

(Y/N): "Yeah."

Horikita showed me her phone, with the email from the school in the screen.

After a period of exhaustive consideration, you have not been chosen as the target.

The exam will last 3 days starting today.

If you belong to the group (Dragon) please head to the designated room on the second floor at 1 PM today.

It was the same message I had received, the only difference being the name of the group. (Mine was Rabbit.)

I showed her the email I had received so she could confirm that I wasn't the target of my group either.

Horikita: "Apparently none of us has been chosen as the target. I don't know if I should be happy or sad."

I have to admit, I wanted to be the target. Out of four possible outcomes, there are three where I would get at least 500,000 private points. But there was no point in thinking about that right now.

(Y/N): "There's something weird on this email, don't you think?"

Horikita: "What do you mean?"

(Y/N): "At first I thought that the target would be chosen randomly, but that doesn't seem to be the case. The way it's written... It says after careful consideration, which means that there is something we don't see. There must be something that determines whether a student meets the criteria to be the target or not."