Capítulo 31: Exam begin!

// Sakayanagi's POV, 2 days later //

Myself, Kamuro, Hashimoto and Kito where eating lunch at a bench by a convenience store, it was lovely weather and the noise was the wind blowing past us. That is until the sound of whistling was introduced to our ears, I turned to look at the person responsible for it and lo and behold it was Lucy Hall.

Lucy was walking out of the convenience store with a girl who was tapping away on her phone and holding a white, plastic bag, she had brown hair with light blue strands, that girl is Yuki Himeno. From what I know she is Lucy's 'right hand man/woman', that girl looked up at me and then back down to her phone seemingly disinterested in the conversation that will ensue.

Instantly I see Hashimoto tense up, I know why of course. He told me what Lucy had proposed to him in the island exam, truly a heartless monster she is.

I waited to speak until the two had walked to our table, Lucy just stood there looking at me while still whistling. I suppose I can indulge her, "Tell me, what song are you whistling Lucy?"

She stopped her whistling and pulled out the lone headphone that she had in, "It's called Binks no sake, it's a song from a popular anime."

One thing that I have observed about this girl is that the more you indulge her apparent childishness, the more smoothly your conversation will go. "I see, very interesting, I might have to listen to it later. Now, what do I owe the pleasure?"

Lucy tilted her head to the side, "Me and Himeno just wanted a place to sit and eat, may we?"

I looked at the vacant seats on the bench and nodded, "Of course, I would love to chat with you Lucy."

*tch* Hashimoto clearly didn't like that he had to shuffle over for her just so the two girl could sit opposite me.

Lucy on the other hand just smiled happily and sat right next to him, not a care in the world. "Himeno sit next me!"

The girl sat where Lucy had patted the bench seat next to her, which was directly opposite me, this shows she doesn't want Himeno to sit next to Hashimoto. "Okay, hey Lucy look at this video Chihiro sent me. Isn't that hairstyle like super cute?"

She dresses and talks like a gyaru, how insufferable. I sat there eating my egg sandwich as I listened in on the two girls conversation, meanwhile the others sat there looking uncomfortable. They know however not to upset a woman as seemingly dangerous as Lucy Hall, especially with me here so they didn't say anything.

Once I had finished half of my sandwich Lucy decided to speak with me instead, "So Saka-chan, how goes it?"

Saka-chan? Is that a way to subtly put herself above me? Oh well, she knows it's not true. "I'm fine, and you? How does it feel to be in class A?"

"Hmmm," She looked up in thought, "It's okay I guess? I mean, I don't exactly feel very different you know? I guess it's just where I'm supposed to be. Hahahaa!"

"Fufu, I will be taking that spot back you know? Katsuragi failed and we were demoted, a fault of my own I'll admit, he simply wasn't capable." Although I'm fine indulging, I will make sure she knows I'm coming for her.

In a moment it looked as if she lost that whole childish personality of hers, "then come for me, in the next exam class A vs class B. This exam however, class A will be playing class D I'm afraid. Do me a favor and target class C for now?"

Fufu, "250,000 points and I'll target class C, how about that?"

"100,000 points" (Lucy)

"250,000" (Sakayanagi)

"150,000" (Lucy)

"225,000 I'm doing you a favor you know?" (Sakayangi)

"Hmmm, 200,000 and you have take me out to lunch 2 times in the near future." (Lucy)

"205,000 and one lunch" (Sakayanagi)

"deal!" (Lucy)

She stuck her hand out and I shook it, "Now you just have to convince class D to fight you and I'll convince class C to fight me."

She gave me a huge grin, "I think you misunderstand something Sakayanagi, this isn't a fight. I'm just merely entertaining myself."

So she has money and a secure future, she must also have some sort of influence within the government or inside information about this school. It's clear she knew what she was getting herself into when she applied here. Of course she just chose a random school and it's just a coincidence but I highly doubt that.

"Sakayanagi, what do you think happens after death?" Her face was devoid of emotion.

What a random change of topic, maybe she has a fear of her mortality? For the first time in a while I am truly confused, why would she ask me that? "Hmmm, Nothing. Absolutely nothing, our consciousness simply doesn't exist anymore."

I could see everyone was listening intently to our conversation, even that Himeno girl put her phone down, "So you don't believe that the soul exists?"

"I don't, we are simply a mess of genes and what makes up our anatomy. There is nothing more than that." The existence of souls is just a scape goat that people have made up to give them hope for after death.

I could practically see the cogs turning in her head as she was processing my answer, "If you were reborn with all your memories in a different world slightly different to this one, what would be your main goal of that life?"

What's with these questions? Is she afraid of her own mortality? Looking toward religion maybe? "I would live it out and try to become as successful as possible of course. Why are you asking me these questions Lucy?"

For a moment I saw a flash of a sad, exhausted smile before it became a full grin, "Your pretty boring Sakayanagi. Come Himeno, let's go."

I watched her back become smaller as they left our group.

"She's so weird, like who asks a person that out of the blue?" Hashimoto and the others began to converse.

Hmm, I've never been called boring before. She completely ignored my question too. "Fufu. What an interesting girl."

// Horikita's POV, the next day //

Chabashira sensei entered the room and everyone sat down and went silent... Well besides Ike, "Sensei, the special exam starts today right?"

Sensei ignored Ike's question and put a poster up on the white board, "As all the classes unanimously agreed on who they will be up against in this special exam there will be no lots to be drawn to decide. As the poster I just put up says; class A will be against class D and class B will be up against class C."

I instantly catch Ayanokoji's eye on me, "What did you do?"

I ignored him, I need to think. I told Sensei that we want to fight class C, so why are we against class A? I can't ask why were against class A publicly as that would imply that there's a traitor, so I have to play it off like it was my idea.

I can see the back Kushida's head, I know it was her. But why? What's her angle? How does this benefit her? She must have made a deal with Lucy. It's the only explanation I can think of, probably to get me expelled.

Hirata stood up, "Sensei? Are you sure there wasn't some sort of mistake? I'm sure we agreed to attack class C. Horikita, did you know about this?"

*Sigh* So many problems... "I'm sorry Hirata but it was a last second decision, it hit me when I was thinking about our last exam in the sports festival that Ryuen is sure to play dirty. Then it was between class A and B. From what I know, the current class B far outmatches class A in terms of studies so I thought it was the best option."

Hirata nodded but still gave me a hard stare, "But even so, you should have told us."

I have no option, I bowed, "I'm sorry but it was when I was just telling Sensei who we wanted to attack and as you know yesterday was the deadline so I didn't have time. Again, I'm sorry for making this decision by myself."

This seemed to make Hirata shocked, "It's okay, you don't have to bow. You did what you thought was necessary and I trust in your decision. I can't speak for anyone else though."

Kushida practically jumped out of her chair, "Wait! Horikita please don't apologize, you where just doing what you thought was best for us right? We all support your decision don't we guys?"

Any apprehension my classmates had before was wiped away, there where many sounds and words of approval after Kushida and Hirata's speaches. "Thank you everyone."

I bowed once more and sat down, of course Ayanokoji wasn't buying that story. I'll have to talk to him after class, try and figure out what Kushida's doing.

"Please take your seats Hirata and Kushida. Okay now that that's settled, you have 3 days to submit a set of questions for each subject that you will 'attack' class A with. Your questions will be reviewed by staff and we will decide whether they are acceptable and within capability of answering You may submit as many times as you want until I am told that they are your final submission.

Also please remember that if any pair scores under 60 points in any of the eight subjects then both students will be required to drop out of school."

I heard a few audible gulps from some of the less intelligent students in here, they shouldn't be worried though because we carefully scored on our first test so the pairs are fair and everyone is able to score over the threshold.

"Now please use the rest of the hour to discuss your strategy for the upcoming exam." Chabashira sensei left the room with the click of her heels on the floor.

*shut* The moment the door closed I stood up and walked to the podium, "The first point I would like to raise is the continuation of the study groups, I don't want anyone to drop out in this exam."

Hirata stood next, "I agree, I think we should dedicate an hour after school everyday to study in our already made groups."

"Yeah I think the same!" Kushida shouted.

And just like that the paper shuffle exam has begun!

// Miyu's POV //

Fighting class A is possibly the worst outcome we could have gotten out of this, Lucy will utterly destroy us without any intervention. Of course I will do my best to help my class, the only problem is... it's simply not possible to have Lucy expelled during this exam. There is no way we can come up with 'acceptable' questions to give class A that Lucy won't be able to answer.

I need to think of a way... how can I make this exam hard for her?

A couple rows back and to the left sits Horikita, maybe I should have a word with her?

// Lucy's POV, 7:30 PM //

I'm sat on my bed, feet off the edge. Between my legs is Kushida Kikyo on her knees and facing away from me as I play with her hair, "Your hair is really nice you know? Have you thought about growing it out at all?"

I'm not cruel enough to make her kneel on the hardwood under the thin carpet of my floor by the way, I bought a very thick carpet that stretches across my whole room.

She nodded, "I have but I would hate to have long hair while Horikita does, it just makes me feel sick thinking about it." She feels really strong about Horikita huh?

To hate someone so much that you wouldn't grow out your hair because they have long hair? That shows true dedication to your hatred, "I see, I can respect that. OH! I almost forgot..."

"Hm?" Kushida turned her head to look at me whilst I leaned to reach into my bedside draw.

"Close your eyes! Don'e open them until I say so okay?" I covered the box so she couldn't see it until she closed her eyes.

"Erm, okay?" She seems so confused hehe, it's cute.

I opened the box and gently pulled out the item...

// Kushida's POV //

I feel really nervous with my eyes closed like this, it makes the dead feeling in my legs more prominent for some reason. I must have been kneeling for over and hour and a half now, for some reason though... I don't mind it.

Suddenly I was broken out of my thoughts when I felt something cold slide around my neck, it's thin and feels like a necklace? "Aaaaand open them up! Go look in the mirror."

I crawled over to the full sized mirror in the corner of the room and blushed. OMG! It was a necklace, and it's rose gold! I like rose gold a lot... but, "Are you sure you can give me something this expensive?"

On the end of the necklace that feels only slightly loose around my neck was a sort of O ring, I felt it with my finger and started fiddling with it. "Well my first thought was to just buy you a normal dog collar."

"HAA! E-erm, I-I uuuh. HUH!?" I turned my head so fast I fell I may have gotten whiplash pluss the fact that I'm blushing so hard right now! LIKE WHAT?!

Lucy nodded sagely, "Yeah but then I thought were not allowed dogs so it would be hard to find one for sale, plus the fact you wouldn't be able to wear it at school."

I blushed even harder! Just imagine it! OMG! I would never live down the shame...

"Yeah so I thought I'd go for something more subtle, look it's pretty tight around your neck and the O ring means I can tie a leash around it."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My fave feels like it's on fire! I just know I'm so red right now!

"Hahahahhaa! You should see the look on your face! Your bright red! Bwahahahaa!

But anyway, seriously now. My pet needs to have a collar right? It's subtle, so you can get away with saying it's just a normal necklace that you thought looked pretty. Sooo, do you like it?"

"mmmm..." I don't know what to say!

I felt a hand rest on my head, "Come on use your words."

"I like it a lot..." I mumbled. It really is nice and it's comfortable.

"Good! Now onto other matters, the paper shuffle exam! I assume you have a way of eliminating Ayanokoji by now?"

// Lucy's POV //

Honestly she looks really pretty when she has that necklace on, it shows she's mine. BUT ENOUGH OF THAT!

My main goal for the paper shuffle exam to show my pet what utter failure feels like. Kushida will never be able to get Ayanokoji expelled, and to be honest? I don't want him to be, this school would be so boring if he were.

That's why this exam is going to be used to get him to set his targets on me for the future. Sure I have the likes of Ryuen, Sakayanagi and Miyu on my back already but none of them come close to Ayanokoji. The reason I came here was for the most thrilling challenge of my life, namely one Ayano-god!

I felt Kushida slump back between my legs, "I have, I'm going to challenge him in this exam. Who ever scores lower in a subject of choice has to drop out, and of course with you backing me I won't lose!"

I smiled, 'but you will lose though'. "I think that's a great idea! I want to change it slightly though if you don't mind?"

Naturally I can't have her drop out, that's a big nono!

"What do you have in mind?"

"First of all come up here," I patted my bed and she kneeled on my mattress while I sat. I looked her in the eyes, "I want you to propose the idea to Horikita as well, you know a two for one deal. Don't worry, I'll give you all of the answers to the paper so there's no way you'll lose."

"M'kay! I'll do that then!" She smiled back in a cute way while her hands fiddled with her new jewelry.

"hehe, so obedient." She blushed and looked down and pouted, "Oh and one more thing, tell them that I'm the reason that class D is against class A please."