Chapter 152: Volume 4.5 Chapter 4 Part 5

On the same day. 2 in the afternoon, past 10 minutes.

Most students had finished eating and were now spending all of their time hanging out.

While waiting for the person whom I called, I stared at the sea in silence. I took out my phone, clicked on my name: Horikita Suzune, and opened the OAA. I thought that there would have been some difference in my test results, but it looks like there aren’t any somehow. Teachers were always individually monitoring the students, so that might have reflected here.

Then after that, I held her OAA in my hand and examined it, but as expected there were no changes.

Right after that I closed my phone and stared at the sea by myself, in silence.

After that cruel Uninhabited Island Test with no sense of reality, it has been a fast few days.

I’ve discarded my body’s exhaustion, but being on a luxury cruiser my sense of normalcy is still thin.

“Geh, you’re already here?”

A voice came to me from nearby. Before I turned around I returned those words.

“Could you not use other people to call me? You will make them misunderstand that we’re close.”

The one I spoke to was from her class, Yamaga-san.

“Sorry but I had no way to contact you but that. Or did you want me to call you when many people were around at lunchtime?”

“That’s horrible. But being called out like this today was almost just as horrible.”

“If that’s the case then could you please tell me again how to contact you in case I want to talk to you?”

“It’s best if you don’t want to talk to me.”

Ibuki-san made an unpleasant face after coming 10 minutes later than the appointed time.

Without a single word of apology, she spoke out her growing dissatisfaction.

“You don’t seem to have been late because of special circumstances. Did you intend to be like Miyamoto Musashi?”

“Hah? I don’t get it.”

To anger me – didn’t seem to be her intention.

Well, if that was her goal then she should have been late by 2 hours instead of 10 minutes.

“If you didn’t want to soil my mood then would you please tell me why you’re late?”

“Haa? Personally being called by you has soiled my mood.”

“Yes. That’s true.”

After I replied honestly, she sighed as if she was exasperated.

“After I ignore your call you make it look like I ran away. What is the meaning of this? It’s annoying.”

“Even if I called you, you would ignore it wouldn’t you?”

“Well yeah. Would I have to meet you just because you went and called me out?”

Even though she was considering ignoring it altogether, she came, albeit late.

From her viewpoint she probably didn’t like losing to me at all. Phrasing the invitation like a challenge was correct.

“Ah- I get it already.”

If you have something to say then say it already. She showed a hurrying attitude along those lines.

I do want to be considerate of her feelings, but the circumstances don’t allow it.

“Let us talk while walking. It would take the same time as talking while standing in one place, and we’d stand out here.”

This was suitable to meet at, but not for a confidential discussion.

“Haa? …Good grief.”

Though she was annoyed, she followed me relatively easily.

She was personally frustrated over the fact that I beat her on the island in terms of accumulated points.

It would be no wonder even if she came here to look for a chance at revenge.

Having been able to blend in with the hustle and bustle of our surroundings after starting our walk, I started talking.

“It has something to do with Amasawa-san, the girl we fought on the island.”

“…Aah, that damn cheeky 1st year.”

Since she was walking from a short distance behind me, I wasn’t able to see Ibuki-san’s expression.

“It’s a bit difficult to discuss so could you raise your walking pace a little bit?”

“Shut up. I decide what pace I should walk at.”

“Yes if you’re alone.”

I stopped my feet and turned around.

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“You want to end this quickly. So I also want to settle this as quickly as we can. But for that I need your cooperation.”

“Yes yes, I get it, I get it. I’ll walk faster.”

She said and walked, fast enough to overtake me. As if she were racewalking.

How should I say this? This girl is childish in a bad way. Of course there’s no such thing as being childish in a good way, so it’s not a good thing. Harboring that impression in my heart, I looked at Ibuki-san’s back with exasperation. She turned around with a scary expression.

“Not coming!?”

“Going too fast is also a problem. Could you walk at an appropriate speed?”

“Ah-, my goodness!”

She scratched her head and returned.

“I’ll listen to what you have to say, but respond to my revenge match! Got it!?”

“Okay. I’m expecting a sports festival in our second term – depending on the situation I can grant it.”

After digesting the meaning of my words for just a little bit, Ibuki bit her lips looking dissatisfied.

“In other words, depending on the situation you won’t accept it, is what you mean.”

“Ara, your brain can unexpectedly understand that much. Good job, good job.”

When I clapped with a pachipachi, as if she thought that I was making a fool out of her, she knocked my hands and made them fall.

“How violent.”

“Shut up! If you don’t promise that you’ll accept it then this conversation ends here!”

“I wouldn’t mind, but then the revenge match you so hope for will never come true.”

“Hey-“

“I can’t promise here, but depending on your actions I could set aside the possibility. Don’t you think that’s very important? I don’t think I’ve lost to you. So until we graduate… no, even after we graduate, you’ll be left with regret.”

“Gu…!”

“So? Will you listen or will you not listen to me? The choice is yours, Ibuki-san.”

“I get it, I get it! I’ll listen to you!”

“If you had been obedient from the start then this talk you don’t like would have been shorter. This makes it easier for me.”

Next I gave her advice for the future. Ibuki-san wants a revenge match, but that really depends on what happens next. Of course, if it doesn’t coincide with the direction of my class then I could never fight her. Though even if I say that here it wouldn’t be anything but a minus, so I didn’t.

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Because I gave the scope for me to accept her revenge match, she’s more or less satisfied right?

Ibuki-san stopped moving and started walking along with my pace.

“So? What about that damn cheeky 1st year?”

“How did you feel after meeting fists with her?”

“How did I feel…”

“She was stronger than anyone you had ever fought with until now. Don’t you feel that way?”

“Well… that didn’t go perfectly so I have no choice but to say that.”

Whether for me or Ibuki-san, Amasawa-san’s power was so different from ours that we wouldn’t be able to win even if she were in a handstand.

“Yeah, that 1st year Amasawa was too strong. There’s no doubt about that. Ah-, when I think about that I get annoyed so I don’t like it.”

“Please don’t say that. The only one who currently needs to talk about this is you.”

It’s exactly because she faced off against her directly that she knows that. If we were to talk about Amasawa-san’s strength to someone who doesn’t know, they wouldn’t be able to gain even a millimeter of understanding.

“It happened in a weird way, but you might have gotten some sort of wound too. I think I should apologize for that in advance.”

“Wound?”

As if she didn’t understand, Ibuki-san knitted her eyebrows.

“After this, I’m thinking about looking into Amasawa-san’s past.”

“So cut into her neck? Wouldn’t it be better to not? She seems to have a few screws loose in her head. She’s the type of person we don’t know how to deal with.”

Amasawa-san held a strong enough image to make Ibuki-san say that.

“She is indeed dangerous. But if we let her go I feel that bad things will happen from now on.”

“I don’t think she had any interest in you though?”

“Not me. Ayanokouji-kun.”

Hearing that name, Ibuki-san looked like she understood and moved her gaze to the ocean.

“Ayanokouji, huh. I don’t really get it, but she felt like she knew a lot about him.”

Yes. Amasawa-san knows about Ayanokouji-kun.

It didn’t look like she knew about him just as a junior from this year.

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“He’s my classmate. If I can do something then of course I’d want to lend him a hand.”

I myself thought that there was something behind it.

If myself from when I had just enrolled in this school were to hear this, her skin would tingle and she would deny it with all her might, right?

“But if she notices that you’re investigating her, she would more or less come and do something. If that happens you wouldn’t have any chance of succeeding, would you?”

“Her strength is, how do I say… I feel like it’s on a different dimension from the world we live in.”

“Don’t just go and say that on your own, is what I want to say, but she might really be different.”

“You mean there’s no one as strong as her even in your memories.”

“If it’s the 2nd years I’m the strongest. That went for when I was in middle school too. There aren’t many girls who practice martial arts, and I’ve never lost to someone who’s only dabbled in it. In other words, I have always been the strongest person I knew.”

“Okay. Your strength is the second strongest in the 2nd years next to me. I won’t deny it.”

“You’re definitely denying it. So you won’t recognize my strength?”

“Nobody is saying that. I just don’t think I’m weaker than you.”

“No no, I’m definitely stronger.”

“Wherever on earth that self-confidence of yours comes from is a mystery. Your basis?”

“My intuition?”

“Completely inaccurate. Your analysis is biased. Neither of us have fought the other at full strength. We don’t have any basis to make us conclude for sure that either of us is stronger than the other, do we?”

“Then I’m tentatively 1st place. Why would you make me be 2nd place?”

“It’s the result of my objective evaluation.”

“I don’t get it.”

We arrived at one of our objectives, the cafeteria.

“This will take a little time, so let me buy drinks. What would you like?”

“Anything is fine, but… ice lemon tea please.”

I took Ibuki-san and my order and settled it via phone. With two drinks it was 1400 points, how expensive.

We took both of them from an employee after it was finished.

“Go ahead. It’s my treat.”

“I kinda get a complicated feeling being treated by you though.”

“You should accept gratitude honestly.”

“Well, it’s okay.”

Ibuki-san took the cup in her left hand and took a sip while looking beyond.

From there we moved a little bit to a place that wouldn’t be noticed by people.

“I understand that because you’ve fought with her, you feel similarly to me about her strength. So then have you felt any weak points or habits in the way she fought?”

“She’s not that easy to analyze like that.”

“…Yeah.”

It would be best if we never fight again, but… if she chases me I don’t know what would happen.

“Alone you’d just have the tables turned on you and beaten. I don’t think you could reverse that result.”

It wasn’t to discourage me. Ibuki-san was saying that as mere fact.

As for me doubling down on my training from here on out, it would only end as she said.

“It’s up to you to think about this and that, but isn’t it best to just leave it?”

“Have you been listening to me? Ayanokouji-kun-“

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Facing the hand which held her cup towards me, she interrupted my words.

“If it’s that guy wouldn’t he deal with Amasawa-san on his own?”

“…What do you mean?”

Ayanokouji-kun is indeed an excellent person.

That is something I saw in my 1st year beside him, and something I’ve gotten to see little by little.

But there are still many questions. I don’t completely understand his academic ability nor his physical power. That’s the case for me even though I’m in the same class. Ibuki-san who’s in a different class shouldn’t know more.

He’s only good at math and decent in his reflexes. That’s all the information about him from outside.

“I’ve felt you almost asserting it from the way you spoke, but you seem to think quite highly of Ayanokouji-kun.”

“Whether I think highly of him or whatever, if you think of how strong that guy is anyone would understand.”

If you think of how strong he is you’d understand, Ibuki-san said clearly.

“Could you have heard about the affair with Housen-kun from somewhere?”

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“Hah? Housen? Who was that again? …Ah-, that gorilla guy, right?”

With us having been on different pages, though just a little bit I was engulfed by a sense of accomplishment.

“You said that Ayanokouji-kun is strong. Where did you hear that information from?”

“Where…”

Choosing her words, she made a face that said she messed up somewhere.

“Did they tell me to keep my mouth shut about that? Did they not? I forgot…”

As if she was trying to remember something, Ibuki-san closed her eyes and linked her arms with an u-n.

“Something happened somewhere I don’t know, didn’t it?”

I tried to give a little push here.

“No, you didn’t know anything?”

“Nnn… it’s not like I don’t know but it’s not like I do know either.”

I threw her off and advanced the conversation as fast as I could.

“It’s necessary to compare our memories.”

“I don’t want to though.”

“You have to. Now that we’re here, tell me everything you know. About the Ayanokouji-kun who you know that I don’t.”

This is a sort of once in a lifetime opportunity to collect information.

Something, anything was fine. If Ibuki-san knew anything then…

“Well, okay. So what do you not know?”

Had she not decided what to disclose? Ibuki-san asked as if she found it bothersome.

“Of course you would ask that… I’m curious about what you were talking about earlier.”

“The thing I thought I’d say earlier was the incident between Ryuuen and Ayanokouji on the rooftop. You know, the time we called Karuizawa there and did some water torture.”

“Hmm-eh? Wait, what are you talking about? I don’t understand at all.”

Ryuuen-kun? The rooftop? And Karuizawa-san? Water torture?

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Question marks floated inside my head one after another.

“Ah~, you know. Since that guy doesn’t talk with anyone from his class.”

As if Ibuki-san understood something before me, she nodded to herself in comprehension.

And then she started talking about the Ayanokouji-kun I don’t know.

In the time I heard her speak, I stared out into the ocean and took care not to get roused up while organizing my thoughts at the same time. In looking for Ayanokouji-kun who had been hiding in our class, Ryuuen-kun zeroed in on Karuizawa-san. In saving her, Ayanokouji-kun proceeded to the rooftop alone.

There he showed overwhelming force and suppressed Ryuuen-san and the others.

I thought that I had understood him to some degree, but even so, I was exceedingly surprised a number of times.

“…There was a time when Ryuuen-kun stopped making moves on our class. I didn’t know any of this.”

“Anyway, you understand now right? That guy is abnormally strong.”

“Yes, yes that’s right. He holds something unfathomable… from your viewpoint, having fought both of them, if they were to fight, who do you think would win?”

“Dunno. I haven’t seen either of them being serious. I don’t want to say that he’s a man or that she’s a woman, but all things considered, isn’t Ayanokouji-kun stronger? With that, there’s no need for you to stick out your neck.”

Even if Amasawa-san did something to him, he might at least have enough power to deal with her.

“But having physical strength doesn’t make him completely safe. It doesn’t mean that he can avoid being expelled from the school. It’s possible for that strength to backfire instead.”

Amasawa-san acted as violently as she wanted to on the island, but that can’t happen inside the school.

“Thank you Ibuki-san. Your information might be more useful than I thought.”

“You won’t tell Ayanokouji about this?”

“Not yet. To begin with, it’s him. It’d be no wonder even if he guessed to some extent.”

Amasawa-san in particular has met him directly a number of times before the Uninhabited Island Test.

“The next problem is the paper…”

“Paper?”

“There’s something I’ve been wondering about after the test aside from Amasawa-san.”

I explained that a single piece of paper had been inserted into my tent.

It looked like Ibuki-san understood why I was northeast on the last day.

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“I see. Someone aside from Amasawa-san sent an advance notice that suggested for you to go there.”

“You know a word like suggest.”

“Can you not look down on me?”

Ibuki-san had a low academic ability in the OAA, but she understood more than I expected.

There’s no discomfort from talking to someone who’s obviously lower than my level.

“At that time, Amasawa-san tore that paper into small pieces after I gave it to her. That has constantly been on my mind since. I wonder if she didn’t want to leave any traces of the handwriting. Anyway, the only thing I remember clearly is that it was nice handwriting.”

“Nice handwriting?”

“Yeah. It’s impossible that there are many people who can write on that level.”

“I see. So there’s a possibility that the person who wrote it is part of an intrigue. But searching for them just from this would be difficult wouldn’t it? Even the evidence has been destroyed.

“One more thing. This doesn’t have much proof to it yet but the one who wrote this letter might have high physical ability. Like Ayanokouji-kun or Amasawa-san, they might be exceedingly strong. And there’s a high probability that it’s a 1st year.”

“If Ayanokouji and Amasawa are concerned, they might indeed be strong. But what’s your basis for saying they’re a 1st year?”

“Amasawa-san was familiar with the handwriting. That makes it improbable for it to be a 2nd or 3rd year.”

“I see.”

Ayanokouji-kun, Amasawa-san, and a 3rd party.

What kind of relationship did they have with each other? I can’t see the full picture yet.

But I can’t let it go.

“You don’t intend to get injured, but if I’m taken down then I can’t guarantee that. If Amasawa-san shows strange movements, don’t hesitate to leave the-“

Kan. A light noise echoed on the deck.

Ibuki-san had clinked the cup of black tea she was holding with the handrail.

More than half of it still remained. Some of it leaked from her mouth and she wiped it with her hand.

“What is it?”

“If you’re taken down? The one who will take you down is me.”

“I don’t intend to be helplessly done in myself. But aside of Amasawa-san, an invisible enemy is doing something I don’t know, so-“

“If the opponents are two, then we should go after them with two shouldn’t we?”

“That…”

“If you can join me, the strongest of the 2nd years, it’d be a different story. If you’ll do it anyway, there’s no helping it so I don’t mind lending you a hand you know?”

After she said that, she took her cup in her other hand and licked the lemon tea from the back of her palm.

“What do you intend to do? To think that’d you’d give me your cooperation for a second time.”

“I don’t wanna leave after having a 1st year make fun of me, and you losing to someone who’s not me is hard to stomach. And – you yourself actually came here because you wanted my help right?”

Ibuki-san looked into my eyes directly.

“No, not at all?”

“Hah? Why not be honest with that at least? Ibuki-san’s cooperation is necessary, like that.”

“I’ve never thought that even once though?”

“…Fine then! I won’t try to lend you a hand again! Bye Bye!”

Just when Ibuki-san looked like she was about to walk away out of anger, I grabbed her left wrist.

“What!?”

“In compensation for the drink I bought you just now, I will have you work for me free of charge.”

“Haah? Even though you said you’d treat me, you’re trying to collect my debt now?”

“It’s just that there’s nothing worth collecting more.”

“Then tell me now.”

Ibuki-san took out her phone and handed it to me.

“If that’s what’ll happen then won’t you give me 3,000,000 points?”

I scowled and shook my head, not being able to understand her meaning.

“I treated you. Don’t you think that’s worth something?”

“I don’t think so at all! That was 700 points!”

“If you don’t have the means to pay, then I’ll cancel your debt if you lend me a hand.”

“Look here… I’ll say it again. Won’t you be honest?”

“If there’s a need to, I will.”

For some reason it was embarrassing to ask for Ibuki-san’s help, so it became like this.

But I kept acting as I always did and continued pressuring her.

“You’re a really unpleasant person.”

“That goes for both of us, Ibuki-san.”

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Both of our gazes met and Ibuki-san exasperatedly finished her cup.

“What an expensive lemon tea-“

A complaint like that was somewhat funny. I ended up smiling just a little bit.