Chapter 43: Chapter 7 (Volume 2) -The Mastermind

------------------------------------------Dante Kaneko's POV---------------------

Heh? A fire alarm. I knew I smelt smoke in the bathroom when I went to wash my face.

Anyway, I should probably head to the muster point.

I checked my phone and a text message came in.

From: Yuka Higashi

Subject- Meet at Muster Point.

The clash is paused until they determine whether there's a fire or not.

Ok I see. I'll do that then.

I made my way out of the school and into the parking lot.

Majority of the student body is outside already inclusive of my brother Yuu Kaneko.

I spotted my brother Yuu Kaneko, he did not notice me because of the distance and the constant flow of students passing in front of me.

Making my way to my class now. I spotted Yogi and the others but no Minori.

Yogi said, "What the hell happened in there in regards to the clash?"

"I have no idea, the questions were a bit too tricky to solve under that time limit."

Yogi inhaled deeply, "This clash is going to end in a draw which means one of us will be getting expelled."

I sighed, "My bad guys, it's my fault."

Sena replied, "No it's not. The list was leaked and you guys tried your best to combat it but it wasn't enough but still thanks for trying."

I scratched the back of my head and laughed nervously, "Yeah, it was all Yuka's idea to switch the list at the last minute so you guys should be thanking her instead of my air headed ass."

Sena glanced at me as I said that. She doesn't believe me one bit.

Genji smacked me on my back and added in, "This clash is an entire mess right now. So we really can't blame anyone but class 1-2."

We waited outside for around 20 minutes before Mr Yagi Akira addressed the school population.

"It appears that something minor tripped off the fire alarm. There isn't any danger so you guys can go back to class now."

Strange but if he said that's the case then that is what we will roll with. It's not like he is going send us back into a burning building.

Ok, so the clash is about to resume and we're going for a tie. How sad is that?

I made my way back to the conference room and surprisingly I was the first one there.

Taking a seat now, I waited on the others who arrived in the order of Asai, Yuudai and finally Yuka.

They each took their respective places and awaited the teacher who is in charge of this event.

After a few moments, the door swung open and he walked inside holding one navy blue envelope in his hand.

He then spoke. "This is class 1-1 and 1-3's submitted question which was dropped off in here after the fire alarm sounded. Well that's what I believe because when I came into the room, it was just there waiting for me. We are waiting a few moments for the other classes question."

 

--------------------------------------Minori Takeda's POV---------------------------------

We were back in the conference room and there is actually a panic.

During the fire alarm commotion Ayano seemingly misplaced the envelope we needed to submit the 10th question in.

"Shit, we need to find it. If we don't then we'll forfeit the round and we'll lose on default."

Genji in a loud voice said, "I knew you guys were going to sabotage us. How could you lose something that important especially doing a time like this?"

Both classes started arguing about who is at fault here.

When at a moment's notice we became quiet.

Our eyes were glued on the monitor that was displaying the class clash.

The teacher in charge opened the door and started to speak with a student whose face we couldn't see.

Shortly after, the student gave the teacher a navy blue envelope.

Ayano briskly walked to the screen and said, "If that's our envelope, which just got submitted to the teacher then we lose because it's going to be empty."

 

---------------------------------------Dante Kaneko's POV------------------------

The envelope for our mixed class finally came in. Surprisingly a student said that he found it on the floor outside the door.

Pretty careless on whoever dropped it.

Yuka turned to me and said, "It's going to be a tie. So get ready."

I yawned and replied "That's unfortunate"

The teacher opened our envelope first and pulled out a piece of paper with the question neatly written.

Upon viewing it, both Asai and Hori hesitated then calmly passed.

They are certain, it's going to be a tie and all the current rankings will stay the same.

Finally it is our turn. Both our opponents are comfortable because they are positive that they gave us an equally challenging question that will force us to tie.

The teacher opened the envelope and revealed the question.

2+2-1

Heh? Is this a joke?

Yuka quickly submitted the answer.

Final score 2-1 in favor of us.

Yuudai said, "What the hell is this?" and grabbed the paper with the question.

Asai stayed silent and walked out of the room.

 

---------------------------------Yusuf Machi's POV--------------------------------

That isn't the question we originally submitted. What the hell is going on?

I knocked over my chair and said "Is this a joke? We settled on a hard question in order to tie the event so tell me how did they get that question?"

Mika Seno pondered on it for a moment and said,

"During the fire alarm, someone must have swap them out during the confusion. Which doesn't make any sense because that means the person would have needed an additional envelope which shouldn't be possible because we were only given one."

I stared at Jean Muto and asked, "Did you do this?"

Jean got up and said, "Maybe you're the one who did it after all your class is the one who kept the tightest grip on it."

Mika laughed and said, "That's rich coming from a person who only won the last clash because of a snake in class 1-4."

Jean paused and then got angry. "I won that clash on my own merit."

Asai entered the room and said, "What the hell happened? What was that question? This win was supposed to be a shoe in. We got the list of questions from a person who sent it to the wrong email address but it turned out to be a fake even though it seemed very official. We were still expecting something along those lines. Even so, for the 10th question it is supposed to be a tie."

Kaya Harumi chuckled and said, "We all got played by someone in this very room."

 

------------------------------------Yagi Akira's POV------------------------

Meanwhile in the principal's office.

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I got a call from Mr. Kaneko asking how did his son's class do.

After telling him that class 1-4 and 1-2 managed to win, I then hung up the phone.

Mr. Maruyama who sat in a chair, crossed his legs and said "What do you make of this Mr. Akira?"

I thought about it for a moment and said, "I am not sure how this entire event turned out to be in class 1-4 and 1-2's favor."

A voice said, "The fire alarm was the signal for everything to fully play out."

Mr. Maruyama turned to his daughter and replied "Explain."

Kadae Maruyama is roughly 5'5 with black waist length curly hair and ice grey eyes. She was dressed in our sister school Saikoyo Prep's uniform which consisted of a blue and white plaid skirt, a white long sleeve shirt and a short blue tie.

She placed both hands on her hip and said, "The entire event played out in his favor. If the entire fire alarm was just a lucky break or his doing, is up for debate. Where did the alarm go off from?"

I answered, "The bathroom."

Kadae retook her seat and said, "Interesting. I wish my dad will let me transfer here, this school has interesting people and events."

Mr Maruyama laughed a bit and said, "You just recently started your first year so give it some time."

Kadae sighed, "But I am bored already."

 

-------------------------------------------Dante Kaneko's POV----------------------

The night before

The time is 6:25pm.

I walked inside of my empty classroom and spotted a maths textbook which sat on my chair.

Picking up the textbook, I flipped to the middle page and pulled out two navy blue envelopes.

*vibration*

It was my phone. I checked my text messages and opened the recent one.

From: A.A

Subject:

Just some smoke would be required.

Interesting. I'll keep that in mind.

15 minutes later

I exited elevator when it stopped on the 5th floor and walked towards my door.

Minori is waiting outside for me.

I gave her one envelope.

She seemed a bit confused at first then she opened it.

"Huh. There's something inside already."

I turned my door handle and replied, "Use your brain and don't screw up."

3 hours later

I stood at a drinks vending machine holding two canned beverages in my hand. One was juice and the other is coffee.

A person approached me.

"I am surprised you called me out here."

I gave the person the canned coffee and said, "It won't be a regular thing Asuka."

Asuka opened the can and replied, "If you're hoping that I'll leak the question list, you're about to be disappointed. Yusuf made us put our phones where he could see them so I couldn't take any pictures or even intercept an email because class 1-1 is keeping it in their inner circle."

I drank from the can of juice, "There's no need for you to do all that. I just need you to do one thing alone."

I then handed her the second envelope, "You won't be able to contact me while you're in the conference room so wait for my signal."

Asuka replied, "How did you get an extra envelope?"

I side eyed her and replied, "Don't pry too much into my activities and don't tell anyone about what is going to transpire tomorrow, especially Kaya Hamuri. I don't need Mika or Yusuf from 1-1 catching onto anything. As along as you keep proving that you're useful, I'll uphold the end of our agreement and bury class 1-3 whenever the time is right."

Asuka glared at me, "I don't like people who operate in a shady manner."

I glared back at her, "I guess you dislike my entire existence."

She kept quiet.

The day of the clash (waiting for the submission of the 10th question)

I made my way to the bathroom and walked inside of it.

The bathroom is actually empty and no one will be coming soon because the area is surprisingly empty.

I opened one of the bathroom windows in order to air out the room and then rolled up a piece of notebook paper.

Pulling a purple lighter from out of my back pocket. I lit it on fire and waved the paper by the smoke detector.

Instantly it went off.

*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep*

I then extinguished the flame before flushing both the lighter and the piece of paper down the toilet.

Present time

Yuka turned her head towards me and said "Not bad but I am still annoyed that you kept me in the dark when it came to your plan."

I rubbed my left eye and replied, "I still consider you an enemy at times, so no hard feelings."

After our conversation. I left the room and headed back to my dorm room.

I didn't have the energy to deal with the others right now.

Minori stood there waiting by the exit I am planning to take.

Does she have a tracker on me or something? How does she know where to stand up and wait?

She glared at me and said, "How did you manage to do that?"

I yawned then replied, "Just use your imagination. I think I am ready to call it a day."

As I walked off. Minori grabbed my right arm and said "I am serious. There's no way you could have pulled this off without someone inside class 1-3 or 1-1. So who is this person and why are you keeping secrets from me? We're supposed to be allies."

I paused "A few secrets will always be necessary. I'm sure you keep your fair share from me as well."

She kept silent while still holding onto my arm "At least tell me if you're the one who leaked the list to the other classes."

I sighed and kept looking straight forward.

"Yes I did leak it. In order to force a tie in the ninth round, I sent the incorrect question list to someone in class 1-1 under the guise of a mistake and passed on every round expect for the one where Yuka answered correctly. I made sure that Yuka and I signed the bottom of the paper before scanning the document then sending it, so the list would look more official. After that, I emailed my personal list to Yogi then emailed the official list to the Examination Unit. In hindsight, this worked out perfectly. Class 1-1 and 1-3's alliance will be on pause until they figure out which class betrayed who. Class 1-2 will start to suspect each other over a leaked list but it won't lost forever because Yuka will sort the entire situation out. During this time when other 3 classes are in disharmony. We will use it as an opportunity to work on our unity."

Honestly. This is cutting it too close, I had to depend on those two in order to pull this off. Minori using a upper year student to deliver the envelope under the guise of 'finding it on the floor' is something she came up with on her own. Asuka playing the role of clueless student to get close enough to swap out the envelopes during my signal was pretty good. If I can get a dependable piece in class 1-1 and officially secure a piece in class 1-2, I'll be able to manipulate the placements for each of these class clashes or at least handicap certain classes when the time is right.

Minori tighten her grip on my arm and asked, "Who are you really."

I kept silent for a few moments.

"I am whoever or whatever you perceive me to be."

Minori released her grip and then walked away from me.

Minori Takeda, maybe one day I'll let you in. However, right now I need to keep you at an arm's length.

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