Right after Sakayanagi notified the teacher of the second attack's five nominations from Horikita's class, Hashimoto stood up and walked towards Sakayanagi.
His expression wasn't the usual slight smirk, rather, it was quite stern.
Everyone except Hashimoto was in their seats, making his behavior conspicuously unusual.
"What's wrong, Hashimoto-kun?"
"I thought I'd remind you about last night, just in case. You have no intention of using the information I gave you?"
Category 'Gourmet Food' Difficulty 1
Offensive's Nominees:
'Kōenji Rokusuke,' 'Hasebe Haruka,' 'Hirata Yōsuke,' 'Yukimura Teruhiko, 'Onodera Kayano'
He pointed with his thumb to the names of the students displayed on the monitor behind him and voiced his dissatisfaction.
"Does it look that way to you?"
"Yes, it does look that way."
"Indeed, your phone call last night was a little bit too meddlesome. However, the information received is still information. Of course, since it has been etched in my brain, I don't intend to just pointlessly ignore it."
"So… why did you target Kōenji?"
"You said that Kōenji-kun is the one that I should avoid targeting the most within Class B, huh?"
"He has a promise with Horikita. In other words, he might be one of the protected students, and if you target him, there's a good chance that they'll automatically receive a point. I thought among the several pieces of information I gave you, this would serve some use."
He thought it would be useful, but his patience ran thin when it was trampled on so soon. Sensing a change from his usual cheerful demeanor, Kitō slowly pulled back his chair.
"Don't worry, Kitō-kun. Hashimoto-kun has a dry tone."
Sakayanagi quietly chuckled after and explained why she had targeted Kōenji, who would most likely be protected.
"Horikita-san and Kōenji-kun might have an agreement, however, it's only to prevent expelling him and letting him do what he pleases."
"I see..."
"There's no point in continuously protecting him and wasting a valuable protection slot. We should wait and see, at least until he gets a problem wrong after being targeted. In order to win, we must do at least that much, don't you think so?"
"But Horikita is an upstanding person. If her class finds out that she didn't protect him, they'll be in disarray."
"Well, if they're going to be perturbed by that, let them be. Additionally, while fulfilling the promise is important, continuously wasting a valuable protection slot on Kōenji-kun would cause others to question her qualifications as a leader."
As she explained, Horikita's class had apparently decided on which five people they'd protect, and the monitor's display switched.
There were no successful protections, and the five people Sakayanagi targeted would proceed to attempt the question.
"What do you think? As expected, Kōenji-kun wasn't given a protection slot."
Seeing the results, Hashimoto couldn't make a strong argument on the matter.
"...Well, I suppose. But is there a point in trying to get a point out of Kōenji? He's got a weirdly sharp head, right? The probability of him answering correctly compared to the small fish is high, isn't it?"
"Do you really think so? He's an unquestionably free man. He can't be obligated to seriously answer since he's even managed to get Horikita-san's approval on this. He might deliberately answer incorrectly."
As if she could see into the future, Sakayanagi's conviction didn't falter.
Hashimoto, in disbelief, waited for the monitor to switch.
As a result, just as predicted, Kōenji answered the question incorrectly and was one step closer to elimination.
"You took a bit of a risk, but you scored a point. Well done, Princess."
Hashimoto was relieved for the moment, but that relief would soon vanish in the next turn. The moment her turn as attacker began, Sakayanagi immediately called out Kōenji's name.
It was also the same category, as if she was confirming that she was targeting him intentionally.
Not only Hashimoto, but the classmates who had been following the flow of selections also began to stir.
"What's going on? It's the same category, and they're just going to protect Kōenji."
Kamuro, also unable to understand Sakayanagi's actions, retorted.
"You're not going to tell me he won't be protected next time, are you...?"
"I believe that will be the case. That's why I specifically nominated Kōenji-kun."
Although he thought it was a ridiculous prediction, he didn't leave his seat and stared at the monitor, waiting to see what would happen next.
Defensive's Successfully Protected Members:
None.
"Seriously... What is Horikita thinking?"
Hashimoto grumbled at the fact that Kōenji was once again unprotected.
Moreover, Kōenji did the unthinkable and made the same mistake again.
"I don't want to side with Hashimoto, but why'd you think he wouldn't be protected the second time around?"
"It's the same logic as the first time. Since you're allowed to make two mistakes, there was no need for her to go out of her way to protect him. If she knew that she had to protect him in the end, she'd leave it until the last minute. Though, Horikita-san probably wanted him to get the correct answer."
"I see. So Horikita has no choice but to protect Kōenji now."
Having understood those words, Kitō muttered so.
As long as Horikita deemed that he had room to make mistakes, she wouldn't allocate a protective slot to Kōenji.
In other words, Sakayanagi took a risk in order to ensure that the opponent lost one slot in the later turns.
That was how it was interpreted.
It couldn't be helped that the two consecutive 'Gourmet Food' questions were easy.
Every class was currently learning the difficulty level for each category.
"I apologize for doubting you, Princess. So there was a plan. However, couldn't you have targeted Kōenji from the first turn? Then you could've destroyed the opponent's protection slot for the remaining eight turns. That's one turn wasted."
"I was 99% sure that they wouldn't protect Kōenji-kun, but I decided to do it on the second turn to ensure that they wouldn't protect him. It's also important to lay the groundwork to invite his second mistake. What would happen if I had started from the first turn, and Horikita-san had decided to protect Kōenji-kun? After that, it would be hard for me to make a move."
There was a risk of being tossed about by the deceptive protection slots. If the defense succeeded consecutively, there might be room for complacency, leading to the risk of handing over the momentum to the opponent.
"Moreover, thanks to him making a mistake on the first easy question, I was able to determine that there's a higher possibility of him making a wrong answer the second time as well, so the results are satisfactory—all thanks to the information you provided."
With the emphasis on the part that it was indeed useful, Hashimoto also felt relieved and nodded, taking his seat.
"Now, let's finish with Kōenji-kun, shall we?"
In the fourth turn, Sakayanagi selected Kōenji's third nomination first, surprising everyone again.
"We must be diligent. This will act as a threat that we'll target him whenever we see an opportunity. Thanks to Hashimoto-kun's intelligence gathering, we know the inner workings of Horikita-san's class, however, the opponent doesn't know that the promise with Kōenji-kun has been leaked."
"I see... Certainly, that would make them feel like they have to keep protecting Kōenji."
She chose the same 'Gourmet Food' category, but raised the difficulty level to 2 to observe the increase in difficulty.
Hashimoto thought that Kōenji would be protected, but he didn't bother to point it out.
But here, a development that not many anticipated took place.
Defensive's Successfully Protected Members:
'Shinohara Satsuki,' 'Sudō Ken'
Horikita made an unthinkable decision not to protect Kōenji.
"Why didn't she protect him?"
"Was the promise you told me about misinformation?"
"There's no way...! Horikita definitely promised to protect Kōenji!"
In the end, Kōenji answered correctly and avoided elimination. However, Hashimoto was still confused.
On the other hand, Sakayanagi managed to grasp the situation. Horikita didn't use up a protection slot on Kōenji, so after answering incorrectly twice, he answered correctly in order to avoid elimination.
"So Horikita has abandoned Kōenji..."
"Then it's our chance. We can crush him in one go."
Rather than thinking negatively, Kitō advised that they should target Kōenji from then on.
"That's right, that might be a good idea. Horikita's credibility and morale would be damaged."
Hashimoto thought the enemy class was in disarray because Horikita chose not to use the protection slot.
On the other hand, Sakayanagi came to a different conclusion.
"I was thinking they might protect him unconditionally, or better yet, we could just eliminate him... but it seems Horikita-san has a different plan. If we keep targeting Kōenji-kun, it would just be pleasurable for her."
With a slight laugh, Sakayanagi turned on her phone.
"Anyway, I'm impressed that she's carefully thought about how to fight me."
Sakayanagi wondered whether Ayanokōji was lurking behind Horikita or not.
Who had been the driving force behind these tactics?
"He's definitely not involved."
If Ayanokōji had been pulling all the strings, she would have felt it beyond the classrooms.
The unusual and bizarre feeling would pierce Sakayanagi. She didn't feel that.
However, there was a faint hint of Ayanokōji in Horikita's way of thinking.
"It's only natural that she grows. She sees his back closer than anyone else."
She could see the trend. Sakayanagi wouldn't be lagging behind Horikita in this tactical battle.
"The problem is—"
(Illustration)
For Sakayanagi, who was in charge of Class A, the most alarming thing wasn't a specific class.
Whether two or three classes were secretly teaming up… that was more problematic.
That was Sakayanagi's only concern.
Although she had conducted some investigation and surveillance since the special exam was announced, there had been no signs or reports of such movements. However, it was easy to form alliances in secret.
Therefore, although she could only judge whether there was an alliance during the exam, she thought that the probability of being teamed up against currently was near zero. There was nothing unnatural in the other classes' offense and defense.
"Shall we go claim first place?"
Sakayanagi had won 29 points by the end of the first half and was in the lead.
Being in first place was pleasing, but right behind her was Class B, trailing by only one point. Hashimoto, who forgot to get up from his seat, was staring at the results displayed on the monitor and the remaining time they had left for the break.
"Masumi-san, would you like to join me for lunch? Since you were eliminated, there won't be a problem, right?"
"I don't mind, but you really don't care about your opponents, do you?"
While Sakayanagi wasn't praised, she still smiled happily and started walking with her crane.
When they stepped out into the corridor, Kitō quietly moved aside upon seeing the two.
"When did you invite her?"
"Over the phone just now."
"Hmm. And Hashimoto doesn't need to be invited?"
Whenever Kamuro and Kitō were together, Hashimoto was almost always with them. It seemed they were concerned about this.
"I did properly invite him, but he declined. He's also being targeted by Ryūen-kun, and he's made two mistakes. It's only natural that he wouldn't want to be eliminated."
Imagining Hashimoto desperately scouring for information on his phone, Kamuro let out a dry chuckle.