Meanwhile, in the match between Katsuragi and Sakayanagi, the discussion progressed smoothly, and the first round ended without incident.
Katsuragi carefully observed both classes but couldn't grasp any decisive information.
"Everyone in the discussion is acting quite convincingly. It seems difficult for both of us to narrow down the roles from the current situation."
"...Perhaps so."
Sakayanagi also seemed to be at a loss, something that would normally bring relief. That was good—the opponent hadn't been able to grasp anything yet. But the opponent was none other than Sakayanagi. It wasn't easy to discern what was true and what wasn't. Thinking that, Katsuragi discarded any feelings of relief.
"If you think you're being lenient towards me, you'd better stop."
"I see. So you're suggesting that I might've already deduced the roles, keeping it in the back of my mind."
"Our positions may differ, but if you let your guard down, you'll be swept off your feet."
"If that's what you think, then there's no need for you to go out of your way to warn me, is there?"
Katsuragi tried to probe Sakayanagi to draw out clues from her behavior, but it wasn't easy.
He judged that it was dangerous to carelessly enter the opponent's territory and decided to step back.
Katsuragi still had plenty of lives left—it wouldn't be too late, even after examining Sakayanagi's moves.
"Unfortunately, I got too few hints in this round. I'll let you take the first move."
Katsuragi, holding cautious views, also withdrew his hand early.
"That's typical of you. When it's difficult, you play it safe. You want to defeat me with your own hands, yet even with the advantageous experience of this being your third battle, rather than being prepared to self-destruct while going for the victory, you're going to shift to steadily reducing my life."
"That's the standard for me. Getting worked up leads to carelessness."
"How very noble of you. You're not getting worked up at all against me, are you?"
Katsuragi felt slightly caught by her emphasis on 'at all.' It's not like he wasn't getting worked up at all, but his instincts told him that he couldn't admit here that he was getting even a little worked up.
"Not at all. It's true that I'm here to defeat you, but unlike Kitō, I don't intend to fight with my personal feelings at the forefront. This is a team battle."
He claimed that he wasn't getting worked up. That was how it should be here.
"Fufufu."
Sakayanagi, laughing amusingly, slowly raised her thin arm and pointed at Katsuragi's neck.
"What...?"
"Such a joke, saying you're not getting worked up at all. You actually want to let your emotions surge and defeat me without considering your teammates, fighting as you please, and directly taking me down yourself. Isn't that what you're really thinking?"
"I won't fall for that, Sakayanagi. Sorry, but you're mistaken here.."
(TL NOTE: you're (貴様) is a particularly aggressive way of saying 'you' here.)
"Is that so? Then, for now, how about you straighten that sloppy tie?"
"...Tie?"
Katsuragi looked down, pulled back his chin, and noticed his tie.
Then, he realized that the tie, which should've been tied tightly, had become terribly loose.
When did that happen? While thinking so, Katsuragi took a deep breath and gently tightened his tie.
"If you were the always calm and collected Katsuragi-kun, you would've noticed that your tie was a mess immediately. However, when faced with your sworn enemy, who was yet to enter, your gaze and attention were constantly on that doorway. During the not-so-short, ten-minute interval, you spent all that time just staring at it, right?"
Sakayanagi laughed, showing off her insight as if she had been watching through the surveillance cameras.
"To say you're not getting worked up at all—what a transparent lie."
"...That's a wild guess. You have no way of knowing when my tie loosened."
Katsuragi answered, trying to maintain his composure.
However, Sakayanagi had anticipated Katsuragi's response from the beginning.
"It looks like you're getting agitated, following you getting worked up. You should calm down and think about what caused your tie to become disheveled. Was it because Kitō-kun, entrusted as the middle guard, was defeated and lashed out at you in frustration?"
"Ryūen was his direct target. That was his goal."
"Yes, but did he act out of mere frustration? What if it wasn't just that? What if I had instructed him to mess up your tie when defeat was certain?"
The new representative wouldn't know about the battles that took place before in this room. Therefore, they would be one step behind the representatives who fought earlier in terms of information warfare.
Anticipating this, Sakayanagi had set a small trap in advance. If Kitō were to lose to Katsuragi, she had instructed him to grab and mess up the tie, something easy to miss.
Messing up the tie itself wasn't significant; rather it was used as evidence to expose Katsuragi's true feelings and motives. Even if it didn't help in the match, this move was connected to the meaning behind Kitō's selection. A student like Sanada could never substitute for this role.
Katsuragi had managed to stay one step ahead, calmly handling both Sanada and Kitō.
He tried to fight Sakayanagi on equal or better terms with that momentum, but that mental leeway was, in turn, buried with this exchange by the end of the first round, and the tables were turned.
The formidable enemy before him seemed to see through everything, and he was made to become aware of this.
Sakayanagi smiled and looked toward the monitor.
"Then, as we both still don't know anything, shall we proceed to the second round?"
Voices could once again be heard from beyond the monitor, and the discussion among the 13 participants resumed.