It happened right after we'd finished dinner on the second day and were heading back to the shared rooms.
Some kind of minor commotion was going on in the hallway—several guys and girls clustered together—so I hung back and watched the scene unfold.
"Sorry, my bad. You alright?"
"Yeah… I'm fine, really."
Yamauchi from our class reached out to the girl he'd knocked over—Sakayanagi—with an apologetic hand.
The whole crowd had gathered because the two of them had collided.
Sakayanagi ignored his hand completely, gripping her cane instead and rising slowly to her feet.
The way she couldn't stand without it and had to brace herself against the wall made it brutally clear just how serious her condition was.
"Uh, well… I'll catch you later?"
Yamauchi pulled his hand back, looking awkward as hell, and left it at that.
"Yes. Please don't trouble yourself over it."
Sakayanagi gave him a small smile, then looked away.
Everyone else, relieved the whole thing hadn't blown up, started drifting off in different directions.
"Damn, Sakayanagi-chan's cute as fuck, but she's clumsy as hell, right?"
Barely out of earshot, Yamauchi was already back to shooting the shit with his buddies, not even considering for a second that the crash might've been his own damn fault.
"You okay?"
Our eyes met, so I walked over and asked.
"Thank you for checking on me, but it's nothing serious."
"I'll have a quick word with Yamauchi later."
"He didn't mean to do it, and it was only one little tumble."
Sakayanagi said it with a thin smile, but her eyes stayed ice-cold.
She bowed politely, turned to leave, then paused like she'd just remembered something and looked back at me.
"There's one thing I need to tell you."
The smile was gone; her face was dead serious now.
Was this about the exam? Or…
"You said before that you've never seen Izuru-kun… at that place, right?"
"Yeah. Not once."
She'd glossed over it as "that place," but the conversation made it obvious—she meant the White Room.
No one was close enough to overhear, and she was being careful for my sake.
Looked like she still had no plans to spill my past.
"…Then this information should help you.
Keep it in mind. Izuru-kun knows the name of that place.
And it seems he heard it from… your father."
"What the hell? Explain."
The unexpected bombshell made me press her instantly.
Kamukura Izuru knew about the White Room—and he'd learned it from my old man?
Depending on how this played out, I might have to prepare for the absolute worst.
"It started when I was chatting with him to get more details about the rooftop thing.
That's when he got suspicious about your abilities and asked me the name of that place."
"So Kamukura knows the name, but not what actually goes on there?"
"Correct. He said a visitor he met at this school told him the name."
Sakayanagi's story boiled down to Kamukura randomly running into my father during one of his visits here and hearing about the White Room.
A coincidence like that was hard to swallow, but her deadly serious expression didn't look like a lie.
"I asked Father about the visitor using my position as his daughter, but he wouldn't say a word.
Still, he didn't seem to be lying to me. Ayanokouji-kun, has your father visited this school before?"
"…He has."
I hesitated for a second, then answered straight.
Sakayanagi was handing me intel I couldn't have known on my own—I figured she was on our side for now.
"I see. Then Izuru-kun wasn't lying after all."
Sakayanagi let out a relieved breath.
Everything lined up, which gave Kamukura's story credibility and let her rule out any White Room connection on his end.
"But please be careful. Right now I see him as an ally, but as you know, he's a genius.
He's been acting ever since he got here, so we can't completely dismiss the chance he's an assassin sent after you."
"Yeah. With any link at all, I have to stay on guard with Kamukura."
Given what the guy could do, "assassin" felt more accurate than anything else.
Still, way too many pieces didn't fit.
If he really was here to take me out, I should've been expelled ages ago.
He'd had endless openings to fuck me over.
"Why not talk to him yourself?"
"That's one way to play it."
Of course, opening up about the White Room would be risky as hell—especially with Kamukura on the other side.
I'd have to pick the timing perfectly.
"That's everything. Now, if you'll excuse me."
She gave a graceful, ladylike bow, then headed toward the girls' dorm.
Sakayanagi had just handed me solid gold intel—she was pure white in my book.
I made that call and went back to my room.
...
Second morning of the Forest School—third day of the special exam.
Saturday was normally a day off, but while we were stuck here, classes were still on.
The schedule was different from weekdays, though.
Morning classes only, then free time the rest of the day.
The only window to interact with the girls was dinner; everything else was whatever the hell you wanted.
"Fuuuck, I'm so goddamn sleepy…"
A little past five in the morning, Ishizaki rasped out the complaint.
"It's the same for all of us. Just don't fuck up because you're half-asleep, alright?"
"Y-yeah, got it."
I passed him the breakfast menu the teacher had handed over and made him grab the seasonings.
"…Shit. If I hadn't lost that goddamn old-maid game last night, I could've slept another hour."
Tokito from Class C was fighting to keep his eyes open while he chopped vegetables.
Out of the seven nights and eight days of this exam, first-years had breakfast duty today and tomorrow.
The fight for those slots had gone down in last night's game, and Tokito had lost.
Technically it wasn't full cooking duty on the line—everyone here was involved anyway.
It was specifically a match to decide who'd handle serving.
I'd already set it up: ten on cooking, five on serving.
"Keep your guiding hand steady."
"…As long as it cuts, who cares?"
Tokito glanced around before griping.
A couple other students were using sketchy techniques too, and he clearly hated being the only one called out.
"Sure, but if you're gonna do it, you might as well learn the right way—it'll help later."
"…Tch. Of course you can do it perfectly, huh?"
He looked like he wanted a demo, so I took the knife from him and sliced through the vegetables in a blur.
"…Kamukura, normal people don't leave afterimages when they cut vegetables."
"Haha, I'm way past surprised—I can only laugh at this point. Damn, these are super fluffy."
While Tokito-kun stood there stunned, Kaneda-kun and Sonoda-kun jumped in with their own jabs. The two of them were also on vegetable duty, so they must've been listening in from nearby.
"…Kaneda, Sonoda. You guys are pretty damn skilled too."
"Well, we basically cook for ourselves all the time."
"Same here."
The pair worked with practiced ease. Their cuts were uniform in size, clear proof they did this shit regularly.
"Albert's handling it too. Surprisingly dexterous for a big bastard like him."
Albert was expertly flipping a frying pan over the cassette stove. I already knew he cooked often and his food didn't suck, so I had him banging out rolled omelets nonstop. We were prepping breakfast for all three school years—roughly forty portions. So we needed them pumped out fast.
"Albert, here's the next batch."
Komiya-kun and Ishizaki-kun handled assistant duty, hauling over the chopped vegetables and beaten eggs. Those two had almost zero cooking experience and weren't the most coordinated, so I stuck them with the grunt work. They usually scurried around under Ryuuen-kun, which made them surprisingly useful. And me? I was supervising while knocking out the miso soup.
"Kamukura-san, make some omelets too~! I wanna eat your cooking every single day!"
"If I do everything myself it'll get boring as hell, won't it? Dividing up roles is important. Also, move your hands instead of your mouth. Komiya-kun looks like he's struggling."
I cut off Ishizaki-kun's begging in one shot and focused on the miso soup. Perfect measurements, perfect simmering time, and from there—perfect fucking flavor. Since I was bothering with it at all, anything less than flawless would just be a waste of time.
"Izuru, I don't agree with his suggestion, but I also think you should make some omelet1"
Just as I'd finished the miso soup prep and only had to wait for the right moment, Albert hit me with his take. Coming from him—the guy who never bitched about any order—it was seriously rare.
"Why?"
"Because you have made a promise to Koenji2"
He answered with that same deadpan expression as always. He'd remembered my promise to give Koenji-kun the VIP treatment during this exam, thought it through himself, and dropped the suggestion. Exactly the kind of advice that hit the perfect spot. He had way better awareness of the situation than Ishizaki-kun or Komiya-kun and actually knew how to read the room.
"That's fine. I'll make the others. And I'll prepare one for you in return for your good offer3"
The second I agreed, he gave a pleased little bow in thanks. Right after, he shot Ishizaki-kun a mocking snort through his nose and started playfully roughhousing with the pissed-off guy. Makes sense—even the quiet one was starting to mesh with the class.
I tapped into my cooking talent and wrapped up the rest of breakfast.
...
Time passed without a single hitch until we reached the final morning class. This was moral education, and today they were dropping something big for the exam.
"Next, you'll all be practicing speeches. This isn't just some basic self-intro—it ties straight into the exam on the final day. The speech themes differ by grade, but the four judging criteria are 'volume,' 'posture,' 'content,' and 'delivery.' Keep those in mind while you practice."
The word "speech" had shown up in the materials I read on the bus. The extra-detailed explanation made it crystal clear this was one of the final exam subjects. For anyone shit at communication, it was gonna be a brutal test.
"The theme for the first-years is 'What have you learned at this school over the past year, and what do you want to learn going forward?'"
The teacher kept rolling, announcing the upperclassmen themes too. Both were future-oriented—careers, jobs, all that crap. For a school where only Class A gets the path they actually want, the irony was thick as hell.
"Man, what a pain-in-the-ass exam."
"Does it? For you guys, I think it's a great chance to reflect on your year so far."
Thanks to my talents, Class C's base abilities had skyrocketed since enrollment. Some were grinding hard, others were slacking off. Those differences were starting to show crystal clear, and it was about time we saw who'd actually grown. I hoped this speech would force them to look in the mirror and spot their own arrogance. Well, most idiots never notice that shit themselves, so I'd probably have to spell it out.
"Hahaha, a speech! You're all incredibly lucky to witness my magnificent oration up close. Don't you agree, my friend?"
"Well, a live speech from an heir of your caliber is indeed quite fortunate."
Once the explanation wrapped and break time hit, Koenji-kun tossed me the topic, so I answered straight.
"…Lucky? From this guy's speech?"
Ishizaki-kun sounded pissed.
"You know about his family's company, right? One of Japan's top conglomerates—that title isn't just for show."
A quick search of his company online would pull up all the details immediately. It was that famous a zaibatsu, so stories from the young heir's early days probably held some value.
"Still feels shady as hell."
"Oh my, little subordinate boy, I can't just let that slide~ I am the genuine Rokusuke Koenji."
"Shut the hell up. There's no way I could deal with two ridiculous bastards like you."
Ishizaki-kun's words were harsh. He was taking this exam seriously, so Koenji-kun's laid-back attitude clearly rubbed him the wrong way.
"Hey, chill out, Ishizaki. He's not gonna fuck around during the actual speech. No need to get so worked up."
Hashimoto-kun stepped in to mediate. As expected, his communication skills stood out among the first-year guys.
"…Shut it. I already know that."
He pursed his lips and answered in a small, sulky voice. The fact he didn't snap back showed he'd grown at least a little.
"And what the fuck is 'little subordinate boy' supposed to mean?! You damn rich brat!"
"Man, your comeback's way too slow."
The tense atmosphere lasted only a moment. The two of them started bantering like a comedy routine, and our group spent the break time chatting loud and rowdy like regular students.
(…Though the fact that names like Togami or Towa don't even show up online among famous heirs makes me question how believable any of this really is.)
"Your group is surprisingly well-behaved."
While I was pondering the questionable points of this world, Horikita Manabu called out to me. At the same time, he scanned the usual troublemakers one by one—Ryuuen-kun, Ishizaki-kun, Koenji-kun, and the rest.
"We need points in this exam. That's why I'm having them cooperate."
Ishizaki-kun was taking things seriously because he didn't want to drag me down.
Ryuuen-kun was tackling the exam in silence purely to observe my abilities.
Koenji-kun wasn't listening to class as usual, but thanks to his promise with me he hadn't done anything flashy at all.
As a result, no issues had even come up that would cause point deductions in daily life.
"Ryuuen aside, how exactly did you convince Koenji?"
"I'm not making him obey me. I simply asked, and he accepted the request."
Getting him to follow orders would be a hassle even for me. But to gain cooperation, it wasn't necessary to force subordination. There were plenty of other ways. That was all.
"I see. That's a welcome surprise for us too. In past years, during mixed-grade exams, first-years often dragged everyone down due to the experience gap. But at this rate, we actually stand a good chance at taking first place."
"Of course. Since I'm lending my power, I'd be in trouble if you didn't win. Both in this exam and against Nagumo Miyabi."
"You really are something else. It's a shame I won't be around to see what you achieve in this school."
Horikita Manabu was graduating this year, so there wouldn't be many more chances to talk with him.
I felt no sorrow whatsoever, not even the slightest emotional ripple.
It was simply the ordinary experience of a senior graduating—something any normal person would go through.
I didn't feel even a shred of satisfaction.
"I can still hear about it from your sister after you graduate."
"Hah. I'll look forward to that."
The chime signaling the end of break rang out, and we resumed moral education class.
The remaining time was allocated to drafting our speech manuscripts, with full-scale speech practice beginning tomorrow.
I spent it correcting and refining my classmates' speeches in preparation for the final day's exam.
...
On the Forest School grounds, the group centered around Class C with Shiina Hiyori in charge was diligently working through basic physical conditioning class.
This was training for one of the final exam events—the ekiden—and the content was brutal for students with poor athletic ability.
In the actual test, small groups would run a designated distance, with each student required to cover at least 1.2 km.
That's why those bad at sports needed to build up their bodies right here.
"…Hah… hah…"
The one breathing heavily, repeatedly sucking in and blowing out air, was the person in charge herself—Shiina Hiyori.
She was one of the least athletic students in Class C, yet she was throwing herself into the class with everything she had for the sake of the exam.
Instead of placing her hands on her knees, she rested them on her hips; her face was twisted in pure agony.
Even her distorted expression held a certain charm thanks to her pretty features, but normally worried students would come rushing over.
"Shiina-san, are you okay?"
The one who called out was Yajima Mariko, who held the vice-leader position in this group.
Yajima, a member of the track club, was focusing on taking care of the struggling students during this class.
"I-I'm… fine…!"
Her voice sounded like a groan despite her best effort.
However, contrary to that voice, her breathing gradually steadied and she lowered her hands from her hips.
Shiina didn't usually exercise, but through the sports festival she had grown physically stronger than when she first enrolled.
She couldn't hide her exhaustion, but she was still clinging desperately to this lesson.
"As the leader, I have to push myself. If the person standing at the front collapses, it affects the entire group's morale."
Until now she had thrown herself fully into exams for her own sake, but now she was moving for the sake of the collective.
It was something unthinkable. An action unimaginable from the girl who had no real friends until high school.
What was driving her was expectation—an overwhelmingly powerful force spurring the girl onward.
"Don't carry too much by yourself, okay? We'll all support you."
"…Thank you."
Her dark expression started to brighten.
The reason she could avoid shouldering too heavy a burden despite the responsibility was because there were people around her reaching out a helping hand.
The advantages of the group were being used to their fullest.
"First-years, that's all for today's class. Tomorrow is a rest day, and the special exam resumes the day after tomorrow.
Until then, you're free to act as you wish, but please behave with moderation."
When the end-of-class chime rang, the female teacher in charge gave the signal to dismiss.
Today was Saturday, so all morning classes had ended. Tomorrow, Sunday, was completely free.
The exam would resume on Monday, with the final test on Wednesday deciding everything.
"Shiina-san, want to go take a shower?"
Yajima suggested it as the group was breaking up.
Their bodies were sweaty from the exercise, and they wanted to wash it all off.
"Is it open? I thought it was closed outside designated hours."
"During free time you can use it whenever you want~"
Shiina was skeptical about the source, but when other classmates who overheard Yajima agreed, she judged it to be true.
Since the conversation had been heard throughout the group, members started gathering to confirm the information.
"Oh, then should we all go wash off our sweat together?"
"Yeah, let's go as a group~"
Kinoshita agreed enthusiastically with Yajima's proposal.
No one objected to washing their dirty bodies, and the rest of the classmates followed along.
The decision came together instantly, and the Class C group started heading back toward the dorms.
"Ibuki-san, you're coming too?"
"…It's not like that. I just want to wash my sweat off. Our paths just happen to be the same."
Even within the group, Ibuki's prickly presence was visible.
She had a strong lone-wolf nature and almost never participated in these kinds of group activities, so her joining was somewhat surprising to Shiina.
"Jeez, Ibuki-san, you're such a tsundere."
"Hah? I'm not a tsundere."
When Yajima said it with a laugh, Ibuki replied curtly.
Ibuki's tendency to stay isolated stemmed from her aggressive personality and sharp tone.
Even though she meant it as a light denial, her thorny way of speaking gave a bad impression.
That's why she often felt out of place in Class C.
However—
"Where's the 'dere' part exactly?"
"That'd be with you, Shiina-san. She talks to me and the others the way she just did, but with you, Ibuki-san makes a much softer expression. And also…"
Yajima didn't continue, instead giving Ibuki a suspicious, teasing grin.
"What's with that face? If you've got something to say, say it."
Not understanding why she was making that expression, Ibuki spoke again, sounding irritated.
But that permission only made Yajima's smile even more playful.
"Alright, no holding back then. Ibuki-san, you show way more 'dere' when you're around Kamukura-kun, don't you?"
"…Huh?"
Ibuki's voice rose at the end.
The name that came up was Class C's top weirdo and the leader only for mixed exams—Kamukura Izuru.
To Ibuki, he was a friend, and the first real bond she'd formed since coming to this school.
"Of course your attitude changes a little when you're with friends. But I'm not getting all dere or anything. That's your misunderstanding."
"It feels more like she's just being her natural self rather than acting dere, honestly."
"I see~"
Yajima accepted Shiina's correction.
Ibuki thought the topic would end there now that she'd shown understanding, but for high school girls, talk about boys was something that could blow up instantly.
The lone wolf Ibuki had no idea that what started lightly would expand massively.
"But that means you let your guard down around him, right? Isn't that being dere?"
Kinoshita, walking behind them, joined in with an amused look.
"I'm not being dere. You act natural with your friends too, don't you?"
"I wonder. I can only truly let my guard down with people I'm really close to. I can't be my natural self unless it's a best friend or my boyfriend."
"…You have a boyfriend?"
"Of course. So for you, Ibuki-san, is Kamukura-kun your boyfriend?"
"I said he's a friend, didn't I?"
Ibuki clearly didn't like Kinoshita's relaxed tone.
Still, there was no hostile atmosphere. It was like cats playfully messing with each other.
While they chatted, the group arrived at the dorms.
"It's the eternal debate, isn't it~ Whether true friendship between men and women can actually exist."
They quickly gathered what they needed and headed back outside.
Everyone was in complete agreement about wanting to shower.
"Mariko, which side are you on? I vote it doesn't exist."
"Hmm, I'm probably on the 'doesn't exist' side too. But I also wish it could~ Drawing the line before it gets physical seems tricky though."
Yajima and Kinoshita continued their conversation. The girls close to them noisily threw in their opinions.
This was the girls' dorm, with no boys around and during exam break, so everyone was being completely shameless.
"…I-Is this what normies' views on romance look like?"
"You're overthinking it. Just ignore them."
Shiina, inexperienced with this kind of talk, blushed. Ibuki let out a sigh.
"Hey Ibuki-san, tell us about Kamukura-kun while we're in the bath. Ever since his makeover, more girls have been after him~ I want to collect some intel too."
"No. Ask him yourself."
"Don't be like thaaat~"
Ibuki rejected Yajima's plea, but again, there was no real hostility.
In previous Class C, there had been much sharper caste differences among the girls, but that was gone now.
The reason was that they had cooperated to overcome the previous special exams together.
Through that harsh process, they had learned tough lessons.
Because of that, the group's overall level had risen, and bonds between classmates were growing closer.
***
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