Saiki was momentarily stunned. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka suddenly bringing up this topic caught him slightly off guard.
For the future development of Class B, Kushida Kikyo was undoubtedly a liability—at least until Kushida Kikyo eliminated Horikita Suzune, her actions would hinder the class's progress.
For Saiki, aside from accidentally encountering Kushida Kikyo venting her emotions one night, she had at least been decent to him on the surface.
'Wait... no... Ryuen caused me a lot of trouble earlier because of Kushida!'
Saiki finally remembered that he was the indirect victim of Kushida Kikyo's various schemes.
"Saiki, what do you think?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's gaze fell on Saiki.
[Sakayanagi from Class A seems to know my past, and Chabashira-sensei has also threatened me with that man's words. Although Saiki has already told me that she's just bluffing, given the current situation, I need to prepare for the worst. Horikita is a suitable candidate. If I can nurture her, she could become a powerful weapon against these people—but the prerequisite is to eliminate Kushida Kikyo. If Kushida Kikyo isn't removed, Horikita Suzune won't even be able to stand on the starting line.]
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka seemed somewhat fixated on expelling Kushida Kikyo.
However, for Saiki, Kushida Kikyo wasn't a significant concern. Whether she was expelled or not didn't matter to him. He didn't want to get involved in more trouble.
"Do whatever you want. Just act according to your own plans."
Saiki replied immediately.
"Understood."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka nodded, and in that moment, countless methods of expelling Kushida Kikyo flashed through his mind.
'What a strange guy...'
Saiki looked at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, feeling somewhat resigned. Fortunately, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and he were on the same side now. Otherwise, this guy might have caused even bigger trouble.
"Let's head to the café and meet up with Hirata and the others."
"Sure."
...
Soon, Saiki and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka arrived at the café. Hirata Yosuke, Karuizawa Kei, Kushida Kikyo, and Sudo Ken were already there. Horikita Suzune arrived last.
'Yare yare, you guys could've just had this meeting without dragging me into it.'
Saiki inwardly complained, then shifted his gaze to Sudo Ken.
'But about the exam... aside from Karuizawa being here, even Sudo is here?'
For some reason, Saiki felt a sense of dissonance seeing Sudo Ken in this setting. It felt like no matter what the others discussed, Sudo Ken would have a hard time understanding.
[I must look very serious right now.]
Sudo Ken sat upright in his seat, his gaze fixed on the others.
Saiki had just found a seat when Karuizawa Kei, who had arrived earlier, stood up from her seat and quickly sat down next to Saiki, pushing a plate of dessert toward him.
Before Saiki arrived, Karuizawa Kei had already ordered dessert for him.
'Well done, Karuizawa!'
Saiki inwardly praised.
"Let's start by discussing the upcoming small exam."
Horikita Suzune took a sip of her milk tea and spoke seriously.
"Shouldn't we not worry too much about it? The study sessions after the midterms have been a huge burden for everyone, and the school has assured us that this small exam won't affect our class points."
Karuizawa Kei chimed in.
'This pudding is a new flavor.'
Saiki's attention was completely off the meeting, his gaze fixed on the pudding in front of him.
'Horikita already had her milk tea, so it's fine if I take a bite of this pudding now, right?'
"That's right. I don't plan to force everyone to study, but I don't think the school is holding this small exam purely to assess our academic performance. We just had midterms, so having two exams in such a short time is meaningless."
Horikita Suzune seemed to have picked up on the hints in Chabashira Sae's words.
'Hmm, this tastes good.'
Saiki had already started enjoying his dessert.
"So, you're saying the small exam itself has meaning? It has a purpose beyond testing our academic abilities?"
Karuizawa Kei, whose brain clearly wasn't as sharp as Horikita Suzune's, still looked confused.
"If the reason for holding the small exam isn't to assess our academic abilities, then it must mean the results will affect the pairings for the final exams. That's probably it."
Hirata Yosuke immediately grasped Horikita Suzune's meaning.
"Do you understand, Sudo?"
Horikita Suzune turned to Sudo Ken.
At that moment, Sudo Ken's brows were furrowed, and he looked very serious:
"Yeah, pretty much."
[I have no idea what they're talking about! Is a small exam really this complicated? But I'll just pretend I understand! That way, they'll definitely think more highly of me!]
Sudo Ken thought to himself.
[Sudo definitely doesn't get it.]
Horikita Suzune almost instantly realized that Sudo Ken was just bluffing, but she didn't bother calling him out.
"The pairings for the final exam must follow some rules. In other words, if we can figure out the rules, we can use them to our advantage in the final exam."
At that moment, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka spoke up.
'The texture is great, and the sweetness is just right. It's not too heavy.'
"What do you mean?"
"I think the results of this small exam will determine the pairings for the final exam."
"I think so too."
Horikita Suzune nodded.
[Crap, I have no idea what they're talking about...]
Sudo Ken's forehead was slightly sweaty, and a hint of panic flashed in his eyes.
"Like pairing students with similar scores together? Is that it?"
Karuizawa Kei somewhat accurately understood the conversation and suggested a possible rule.
"Or maybe pairing students who answered similar questions correctly or incorrectly? Isn't that a thing?"
Sudo Ken, hearing that, tried to make his walnut-sized brain work overtime and finally managed to somewhat keep up with the others' train of thought, suggesting a rule he had thought of.
"But if we guess the rules wrong, the consequences could be serious."
Hirata Yosuke's expression grew more serious.
"What you're saying makes sense. I think figuring out the pairing rules is the core of this exam. Even if it's just a hypothesis, as Hirata said, if we don't figure out the rules governing the pairings based on the small exam results, it could easily lead to disastrous outcomes. Whether it's just lip service or not, Chabashira-sensei mentioned that in past exams, one or two pairs have been expelled. Don't you think there's something fishy about that?"
Horikita Suzune took another sip of her milk tea and continued,
"Horikita-san, are you saying that 'the school has set it up so that even if we don't figure out the rules, it won't cause serious damage to the final exam,' right?"
Hirata Yosuke immediately responded.
"Exactly. If students with similar scores are paired together, then the weaker students would all be paired together, leading to a large number of expulsions. But that hasn't happened."
"I'm... completely lost..."
Sudo Ken seemed to have given up on pretending.
"The only rule that fits this situation is... Hey, Saiki-kun, were you listening to us just now?"
Horikita Suzune frowned, and everyone's gaze shifted to Saiki.
While the others were passionately discussing, Saiki had been savoring his pudding, an expression of pure enjoyment on his face.
"Uh-huh."
Saiki snapped back to reality and quickly nodded.
"The results of the next small exam will affect the pairings. 'High-performing students will be paired with low-performing students.' Only this way can balance be achieved, and the expulsion rate will be lower..."
Saiki hadn't been paying close attention to their discussion. Whenever he was enjoying food, he focused entirely on it. However, he used his telepathy to catch up on the general progress of the discussion.
"Right."
Horikita Suzune seemed slightly dissatisfied with Saiki's behavior, but after hearing him accurately summarize her thoughts, she nodded.
"I see..."
Everyone nodded in agreement with Horikita Suzune's words.
"Once we confirm the purpose of the small exam, we can better prepare for the final exam. But I'm concerned about something else—which class we should target. My answer is simple: I want to aim for Class D."
As Horikita Suzune spoke, her gaze met Kushida Kikyo's.
For Horikita Suzune, no matter what, she had to defeat Kushida Kikyo and Ryuen Kakeru.
"The reason is simple: it's a matter of overall academic ability. Class D is weaker than Class A and Class C academically. That's all. Any questions?"
Although Horikita Suzune said this, her reasons went far beyond that.
At that moment, Kushida Kikyo maintained her usual cute smile, her gaze fixed on Horikita Suzune.
"If that's what Horikita-san thinks, I fully support it!"
Kushida Kikyo smiled.
However, a hint of killing intent flashed in her eyes, something only Horikita Suzune could detect.
[Horikita Suzune, in this exam, I'm going to bury you.]
Kushida Kikyo's thoughts were heard loud and clear by Saiki.
Not only that, but Saiki also heard more.
"I support Horikita-san's idea."
Hirata Yosuke nodded, and the others also expressed their agreement.
'Class D... They're definitely going to make a move...'
Although Saiki wanted to avoid trouble and stay away from Class D, everyone else had already agreed, so he couldn't exactly vote against it.
"I'll also ask the seniors in my club about the small exam."
Hirata Yosuke said to the group.
"Then let's end today's meeting here. Thanks, everyone."
The group gradually dispersed from the café.
Sudo Ken and Hirata Yosuke had club activities to attend, Horikita Suzune and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka seemed to be heading back to their dorms, Kushida Kikyo went in another direction, and Karuizawa Kei wanted to take Saiki to watch a movie, but he declined, citing evening plans.
After parting ways with the others, Saiki went to a secluded spot, activated his invisibility, and quickly followed Kushida Kikyo.
During the meeting, Saiki had heard Kushida Kikyo's thoughts. She and Ryuen Kakeru were planning to meet later to discuss the exam.
Those two together were definitely up to no good.
To prevent any unexpected incidents, Saiki decided to follow Kushida Kikyo and see what they were planning.
While tailing Kushida Kikyo, Saiki noticed that someone else was also secretly following her—Ishizaki Daichi from Class D. However, thanks to Saiki's invisibility, Ishizaki Daichi didn't notice him.
Soon, Kushida Kikyo arrived at the agreed-upon meeting spot with Ryuen Kakeru—a blind spot in the school's surveillance.
Despite the school having surveillance cameras covering over 90% of the campus, there were still blind spots. Saiki couldn't help but wonder if the school had done this on purpose.
"You're here, Kikyo."
Seeing Kushida Kikyo arrive, Ryuen Kakeru smiled.
A few seconds later, Ishizaki Daichi, who had been tailing Kushida Kikyo, also emerged:
"Ryuen, I checked. No one else was following her."
Ishizaki Daichi had been ordered by Ryuen Kakeru to follow Kushida Kikyo. His real purpose was to see if anyone was secretly tailing her.
If 'Yamauchi Haruki' or his other lackeys were secretly following Kushida Kikyo, they would be lured into this surveillance-free area, where Ryuen Kakeru could deal with them using various methods.
But clearly, that hadn't happened.
"Maybe you didn't notice, or maybe he already saw through the plan. But it doesn't matter. It was just a small test."
Ryuen Kakeru didn't seem too concerned about the result.