It would be the final time we eat breakfast at this outdoors school as well.

I got my tray of food and sat down at one of the tables in the corner to begin eating by myself. I had no interest in eating with my group, and Yukina wasn't at the dining hall yet, so there was no point in waiting around and letting my rice go cold.

This meal would be the last time I get to have a moment of calm before the storm... as much as I wanted to savour the moment and take in its tranquility, I just felt more sluggish than anything knowing that we were nearly at the end.

With my main goal of this special exam complete, whatever happens here on out is in the hands of fate. I didn't come up with any other plans, so I had no way of securing victory or anything like that.

After last night's performance however, Yahagi's group has become a considerable threat. Since the school doesn't announce all the scores of each group at the end of each day, I don't think everyone truly realises just how many points they've racked up so far.

As much as I want to say Akihiro's group is also threatening, since they jumped from 6th to 2nd place yesterday, today's challenge would give every group an opportunity to rapidly climb up the rankings like they did, so their position was still very unstable.

In any case, it's bad for every class except A Class if Yahagi's group steals the show now, especially at such a crucial turning point. With how far ahead they are, if they gain any substantial amount of points from today's challenge, it'll be over for the rest of us.

As for my group, we were still barely clinging on to our top three position by a thread. However, considering who we have left, and how much turmoil we've been through, I don't think we'll get very far in today's challenge.

With all this in mind, it was obvious what I needed to do today. Even if it's a game plan cobbled together at the last minute, it was still better than letting A Class take back the gap our class worked so hard put a dent into last month.

"T-Takanori-kun."

While I was deep in thought, a voice coming from my right side interrupted me. It was Nora, holding his tray of food.

"...Nora-san?"

"Umm... I-I was wondering if it was okay to sit with you..."

When I looked around the cafeteria, I noticed none of his group mates were here. It looks like they still haven't woken up yet.

"Yeah, that's fine."

Nora smiled a little and sat down next to me. I scratched my cheek, looking away a little. Since he was here now, the atmosphere changed a little for some reason.

On one hand, I was glad that he wasn't sitting across from me, since it would feel like a date. On the other, I was surprised that Nora wanted to be next to me. The gap between our shoulders was so slim, they might as well have been touching.

"Itadakimasu..."

With a yawning voice, Nora broke his chopsticks and started eating his meal.

"Still sleepy?"

"Ha ha... maybe just a little."

Even with dark bags under his eyes, Nora still looked adorable. In some ways, they just added to his endearing charm. Seriously, why were you born a guy?

"I feel you. I've barely gotten any sleep as well."

It's gotten so bad to the point where it's affecting my taste. As I bit into the simmered beef, the flavour was extremely diluted. I could just about taste the onion, but that was about it.

"Yeah... but I'm going to be sad when everything ends."

"You will?"

Nora nodded, looking up. As he did, his small smile widened.

"E-even though all the challenges were hard... and even though everything was really tough... and even though our group probably won't win... I've had a lot of fun taking things head on with everybody. I've ended up making a lot of precious memories that I'll treasure for the rest of my life. Even now, spending this time together with you.. it's a treasured moment for me."

When Nora said those heartfelt words, I put down my chopsticks.

...that's right.

This was the point of the special exam.

It was to make a group with your friends, throw yourself headfirst into the challenges, and have fun doing it.

There was no need to complicate it.

In the midst of all my planning and thinking of how to win, I had lost sight of that.

It's probably something stupid to be envious of, but I wish I could've experienced what Nora... no, what Mitsuba's group had gone through in this special exam.

Even though they had their downs, like Yukimura's outburst on the fifth day, they also had their ups, like when they unexpectedly won the cooking contest on the second day.

If the glimpse I got from when I hung out with them is true, then it seems they've had a great time.

It's no wonder why Nora will miss this.

But for me...

"...personally, I'm going to be glad that it's over."

I haven't enjoyed a single moment of this.

And I wasn't allowed to enjoy any of it because of the Underworld.

The peaceful school life I dreamed of had been robbed from me again and again by them.

Even though I stopped Shimada and Nakajima today, there's no telling when they'll strike again to try and kill me.

As long as they're around, I won't ever truly get to experience a normal high school life, like I dreamed of.

I resented that, but I was powerless to change it.

All I could do was survive, lying to myself that I'm protecting my peaceful life.

But I know that's not true.

My life has never been peaceful ever since I thrusted myself into that world years ago.

If things were going to end up like this, I would've never chosen it.

But now, I've got to live with the foolish decisions the me of yesterday had made.

Even if it ends up making the me of tomorrow come closer to dancing with the reaper someday.

"T-there is one thing I'm worried about, though..."

Pulling me out of my self-deprecating thoughts was Nora's cute voice.

"What is it?"

"We've spent this entire special exam having fun, meaning we've kind of lost track of trying to actually win... at the beginning, I was trying to keep track of everyone's scores, but after awhile, I couldn't... however, even I could tell that the outcome of yesterday's challenge is really bad for our class... isn't it, Takanori-kun?"

Despite not knowing the exact score of each group, by keeping track of how each group has been placing in each challenges, Nora was able to identify the current main threat on the boy's side.

"Yeah. Yahagi-san's group is becoming a real issue."

Originally, everyone was focused on suppressing our group and Ryouta's group since they were perceived to be the strongest. However, this meant no one kept an eye on Yahagi's group, letting them go unchecked this entire time.

After our group, the ones who usually kept them suppressed, crumbled due to internal strife yesterday, Yahagi's group were able to push through and rocket up to first place off their unexpected victory.

"N-no one has really singled them out as a threat or anything, which I found strange since it's a majority A Class group and they've been placing consistently in the top slots... since the special exam is nearly ending, I was just thinking... what if they snatch a surprise victory out of nowhere, like they did yesterday with Aki-kun's group...? If that happens, then A Class..."

"...they'll recover everything we took from them, and gain some more on top of that if Ryouta-san's group also places in the top three. Personally, I don't mind if Ryouta-san's group wins since we'll benefit from it as well, but Yahagi-san's group winning will be a big problem... not just for us, but for all the other classes too."

Nora nodded in agreement.

"T-that's why I was thinking... is there any strategy or measures we can take to prevent them from winning in today's challenge?"

"...there is, but I don't know if the two of our groups working together will be enough."

"If two ain't enough, then how about three?"

Approaching us in the midst of our conversation was Akihiro. Nora's eyes widened in glimmering awe.

"A-Aki-kun..."

"Yo, Nora. Takanori. Sorry for eavesdropping, but I couldn't help it after hearing Yahagi's name be mentioned."

He pulled up a seat and sat down across from us.

"It's fine. If you were listening in, then you understand the situation, don't you?"

"Yeah. In fact, I understand it better than anyone else, since Tetsuya's been keeping track of the scores. Yahagi's sitting on top, your group is sitting in second, and we're sitting in third."

Since they don't know about the twenty point penalty we've incurred from losing two members, Akihiro's group mistakenly believes we're in second. It doesn't really matter, but I think their confidence would go up if they knew they were in ahead of us.

"Since we're the top dogs after Yahagi, I say we make an alliance to crush their group in today's challenge. Of course, your group can join too, Nora. After losing out to his group yesterday, I'm itching to get back at that bastard for beating us..."

"...you took the words right out of my mouth. If the other groups want any sort of shot at winning now, we all have to band together to stop Yahagi's group from advancing any further as much as we can."

"So our strategy is to just beat them...? It sounds simple on paper, but also really difficult to actually execute in practice... e-especially since we don't know what the challenges are going to be like."

"Well, about the challenges..."

I thought about telling them about what was to come, but at the last second, I changed my mind and kept quiet.

"...having three groups work together to stop them should be enough, regardless of the contents. So far, all the challenges in this special exam have been competition based, meaning that if we work together to hamper their progress, we can at least stop them from winning. The cost is probably sacrificing our own placements though."

When I said that, both Nora and Akihiro had slumped looks on their faces.

"Sacrificing our own placements, huh...?"

"I-I don't know if that's a good idea... especially for our group..."

"Yeah, you guys are in a precarious position... if I remember correctly, Tetsuya said you guys are in sixth. If you lose out in this challenge, Mitsuba might end up sinking to E Class. Or worse, Mitsuba and someone else."

"Oh god..."

"If that's the case, why don't we have our groups work together to help bolster Nora-san's group? Since we're in second and third place, so as long as we earn enough points to stay afloat, we don't necessarily have to win today's challenge. That way, we can dedicate our resources to stopping Yahagi-san's group, even if we hurt ourselves in the process."

"That sounds feasible. I'm not sure about bolstering their group, since it has so many D Class members in it... but I don't want them to fall to the bottom, so at the very least, I'll try my best to help them get a higher placement than Yahagi's group."

"I-it's okay Aki-kun... I know I'm speaking on behalf of the group, but I'm just glad you guys are being considerate of our situation as well. T-that's more than enough for us."

"Hey, don't sweat it. We used to be classmates before."

Akihiro smiled and pat Nora on the head.

"Is there any chance we can get more groups on board for this?"

"...it'll be a hard sell. Ryouta-san's group is lead by another A Class member, so he probably wouldn't want to impede on their class's progress. Yamaguchi-san's group has gone off the deep end, so they'll be useless. And Koishi-san's group seems to be on good terms with Yahagi-san's group due to how they made their trade on the fourth day, so they'll probably be another obstacle in our way."

"W-what about the others...?"

"Handa-san's group has been doing really poorly, so I don't think they'll want to risk their own positions just to stop Yahagi-san's group. They already have their hands full as is trying to survive. As for Kirishima-san's group... I think there's potential."

"Yeah, from what I've heard, Kirishima's group is about keeping everyone safe from being sent to E Class. As long as it doesn't hinder that goal, I think his group might agree to join."

"There's no harm in asking. Since you're a group leader, could you try for us?"

"Sure thing. I'm friends with him anyways, so that'll make it more likely his group helps us."

"That's great, thanks. If we include Kirishima-san's group in the mix... that'll be half of us aiming to stop Yahagi-san's group. If we pool all our resources together, I think it'll be enough."

"You can gather as many groups as you want to stop us, but you're not going to succeed."

Looming over the three of us was Yahagi and Mitsumori, two members of the Yahagi group. Being group leader, Yahagi looked down on all of us, a confident smile branding his exceedingly mature face.

"After all, all three of you were put into E Class when you started here, weren't you? No matter how many ranks you climb, you're still bottom feeders at the end of the day."

Akihiro narrowed his eyes and returned Yahagi's scornful look right back at him. Nora looked away, lowering his head and trying to ignore those scathing words. I continued observing, staying quiet as to not get myself entangled in Yahagi's obvious provocations.

"Yeah, and all of us climbed out of E Class at least once. You can't degrade us with that lame insult, we've already proved our worth in the school's eyes."

"You haven't proven anything from moving up a single class. If you can claw yourself all the way up to A Class, then fine, I'll acknowledge your efforts. But so far? All you've done is the equivalent of moving from a dumpster into a trash can."

"Huh?"

"As someone who actually lives at the top, let me give you some advice. To us, there's no difference between whether you're in D Class or E Class, or even C Class for all that matter. You're all so far down the food chain, you start to blend in together and all look the same. The colours of green and red is an arbitrary difference created by the school to try and make you guys feel better about your inability to succeed, and to give you a false sense of accomplishment when you move up the ladder from figuring out how to do the most basic things. But the truth is, you haven't even climbed up a single rung. You can lie to yourself and say that there's a difference in ability between D Class and E Class, but if you look at our system objectively, the answer becomes painfully obvious."

Yahagi dropped down to Akihiro's level, looking at him dead in the eye.

"You're all worthless trash left to rot at the bottom."

Nora covered his head, his shoulders shuddering. Akihiro's eyes widened briefly, before snapping narrowly as he stood, causing Yahagi to also rise and back up.

"If you think there's no difference between D and E Class... then I think you're the stupid one here, Yahagi. But you're so far up your own damn superiority complex, you can't see it. What happened to nuance? I thought you guys in A Class were meant to be smart!"

Akihiro, who was a similar height to Yahagi, stood head to head with him, closing the gap between them. Yahagi sighed, shaking his head.

"I should've known this was going to be a waste of time if you're going to try and rebuke me with these paltry insults. Of course there's a difference between them, but the differences are so minuscule, they might as well not exist. If they combined D Class and E Class right now, there wouldn't be any difference to the system. That's how bad you guys are."

"I'm pretty sure we'd kick your asses and then some if our classes joined up together. Both D Class and E Class have fantastic people who can rival even you guys in A Class, like Zyriot and Takanori! Or Tetsuya and Nora!"

"You picked the two leaders and the two smartest students in each class as an example while ignoring everyone else who's useless, such as Mitsuba, Yukimura, Takemoto, Yoshimatsu, etc... I could go on and on about all the filler in all your classes, but that's not the point here. Sure, you might have a few impressive people, but A Class is filled to the brim entirely with those sorts of students. In every conceivable sense, we are better."

With how thorough he was being in his responses, Akihiro stood no chance at rebutting Yahagi's precise explanations. He simply bit his tongue, scrambling to try and find anything to say back, but his mouth ran empty.

"To be honest, it's pathetic. Despite believing your classes are different, you all still act buddy-buddy with one another, despite the fact you should all be enemies under your logic. Since you're all banding together to try and make up for your own weaknesses, I think that succinctly proves my point about there being no difference between your classes. Wouldn't you agree?"

I stood.

"Let's go, Nora-san, Akihiro-san. Yahagi-san's just trying to stop us from strategising. If he's come here personally to interrupt us, then that means he's terrified of the thought of our groups working together to pin him down."

Yahagi laughed, shaking his head.

"Sorry, but that conjecture is simply incorrect. It was such a sad sight watching all of you start to falsely believe that you could beat us, I wanted to take pity and come here to say that it's not worth it. To think I'd be treated with such disdain... once an E Class student, always an E Class student it seems."

Talking back to him is exactly what Yahagi wanted, so I disengaged and tried to walk away. However, as I did, my path was blocked off by Koishi, who just appeared. Considering the Machida faction's connections to Yahagi, it seems he was hired muscle.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm leaving. This is a pointless discussion."

"You must be terrified if you don't even want to continue this discussion with Yahagi-san."

Coming to my left side was Ukishima, who was smirking. Assisting Yahagi in boxing in Akihiro was Ritaka. Sitting down next to Nora was Kasai, who kicked his feet up on the table.

"Yo, is this a party or what?"

Following them was Takizawa and Keisaki, two more members of the Yahagi group. They also hijacked our table, surrounding us to trap us in even more. On all sides, we were surrounded by hostile students looking to stop us from leaving.

"What the hell are you guys trying to do?"

Akihiro tried shoving Ritaka and Yahagi away, but Yahagi used his forearm to stop him.

"What are you trying to do? Your first instinct when you're being pressured is to resort to violence. Aren't you embarrassed? Learn some self control."

"Huh? Just get out of our way. You're the weirdos for trying to stop us from leaving!"

Akihiro ignored him and tried pushing through, but it was pointless. Yahagi's sturdiness was like an iron wall.

"You can leave by just walking between us. I don't know why you're making such a huge fuss out of this."

While it wasn't completely true, it wasn't a complete lie either. Between everyone surrounding us were gaps wide enough for us to squeeze past. Akihiro was just choosing the path of most resistance by trying to get out from the box Yahagi and Ritaka created.

"If we try that, you'll just move in front of us... I mean, just look at Koishi. Each time Takanori moves, Koishi matches it. It's obvious you guys are trying to stop us from leaving."

"That's just Koishi-san. Everyone else is standing still, me included. Why don't you try before you start making false accusations?"

Akihiro gritted his teeth and moved his hand away from Yahagi. He looked at the slim gap between him and Ritaka, before trying to squeeze through.

Yahagi sidestepped, letting Akihiro get past him. However, Ritaka moved closer towards Akihiro, causing them to bump into each other.

"Ah!"

Ritaka stumbled back, falling to the floor. Akihiro growled, looking down at the fallen Ritaka.

"Oi..."

"Sorry, sorry! It was just an accident, I swear! I'm bad with directions, ha ha..."

Ritaka laughed while getting up. He then stepped to the side, gesturing the place where Akihiro could leave. Giving him a nasty glare so he wouldn't try something again, Akihiro successfully passed by Ritaka, exiting the circle.

"See, what did I tell you?"

There was a smug look on Yahagi's face as he had both embarrassed and made a fool out of Akihiro. Now it was just me and Nora left.

"Alright, now let the others go."

"You heard him. Let Takanori-san and Nora-san walk past you guys."

Despite nodding at the command, when I tried to step past Koishi, he got in my way again. He was blatantly disregarding Yahagi's orders to make it look like this was his own choice, rather than something Yahagi requested him to do.

"Koishi-san, what do you think you're doing?"

"Sorry, but I'm doing this for my own reasons."

Seeing as this was a dead end, I tried to leave by walking past Ukishima, the other person blocking me in. However, as I tried, Ukishima got in front of me, grinning wildly.

"Hey, hey, what's the rush, Takanori-san? I just want to have a friendly chat with you, my exalted leader. You can spare me some time from your busy schedule, can't ya?"

I sighed. There was no point trying to entertain his mockery of me either, so I turned away from Ukishima and tried to exit through Yahagi. However, before that, I had to help Nora get past Kasai, who was still trapping him in.

"Kasai-san, could you put your feet down so Nora-san can leave?"

Kasai, blatantly ignoring me, stretched out his legs further so they completely covered the table. He made a kicked back pose, smiling thinly.

"Could you move, please?"

I tried asking again to be courteous, but Kasai wasn't having any of it. He yawned, causing Ukishima and Koishi to laugh behind my back.

"Kasai-san, are you even listening to me...?"

The moment the topic got away from moving however, Kasai finally acknowledged my words.

"Hm? Oh, apologies. You're so quiet, I didn't notice you were there."

"I see. Can you move please?"

Now that his attention was explicitly on me, he couldn't pretend not to hear it anymore.

"Sure thing."

However, instead of moving out of the way, Kasai instead moved his feet on top of Nora's head. At this point, Ukishima, Ritaka, and Koishi were howling with laughter.

"Oi!"

Seeing this, Akihiro stepped back in, grabbing Kasai by the collar. Kasai narrowed his eyes at Akihiro, his smug smile dissipating.

"What? Get your hands off me."

"You started it by putting your dirty feet on somebody else. Takanori's asked you three times nicely to move now. You can do that much, can't you?"

"Jeez, chill out. I was just messing around."

Kasai, feeling the pressure of Akihiro's terrifying face, slowly removed his feet from Nora's head. In exchange, Akihiro let go of Kasai's shirt.

"Now scram. I ain't playing around either."

"You're willing to throw hands over this? You guys really are short tempered..."

Even on his way out, Kasai had the gall to throw some shade our way. Akihiro sighed, tapping Nora on the shoulder.

"Hey, let's go before these assholes start up again."

Nora's eyes scanned the area, before landing on Akihiro's face. He gave a light, albeit dejected, nod and slowly rose.

Together, as a group of three, we walked past Yahagi, who didn't do anything to stop us. Koishi tried moving in to block me, but Yahagi held him back.

"It's fine. Takanori-san's my prey anyways."

As I walked past him, Yahagi said those ominous words while glaring at me. He really doesn't like me for some reason. Was it due to my relationship with Yogen? Or because I was now the leader of D Class?

Once we were out, the Koishi group hijacked our table, while the Yahagi group walked away to eat on a separate one. We didn't even get to finish our breakfast before they kicked us off...

"Nora-san, are you okay?"

I looked over to Nora, who stayed silent. I've seen him sad before, but this was a different kind of sadness. He was pale and looked hollow, almost like he was empty.

"Those idiots... how do they get off on pulling this sort of crap on us?"

Akihiro sighed as he took a seat at a brand new table. Me and Nora sat as well.

"I guess Yahagi-san's more shaken up from the idea of our groups banding together than he lets off. If he was actually confident about his group's victory today, he wouldn't be doing something like this unnecessarily."

"I guess that's one way of seeing it. But that doesn't explain why the Koishi group also started butting in. Machida didn't even order them to do that crap, yet they started it on their own."

"Yeah... I have no idea what they're thinking, but we can safely assume they're also our enemies."

While me and Akihiro were talking, Nora quietly rose from his seat and turned away from us.

"Sorry... I-I'm going to go back to my room..."

"No worries, we understand. Good luck on today's challenge. Let's beat Yahagi's group together!"

To try and cheer Nora up, Akihiro put on a wide grin and bashed his fists together. However, all he got in response was a nod before Nora left. Seeing his back disappear down the corridor, a frown slowly emerged on Akihiro's face.

"I wonder if we'll actually be okay..."

"We'll be fine."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Akihiro laughed a little.

"Jeez, where was all this confidence when we were still in E Class together? You seem like a completely different person now."

"I do...?"

"Yeah you do. I mean it. Even though you're still the same quiet and awkward person I first met, you're also way more assertive and unfazed than before."

"...trust me, I'm just as nervous as you are. This our the last chance to win the special exam, after all. I'm just hiding my self-doubt."

"You're one damn good actor then, because I can't even sense any nerves coming from you right now. You didn't even seem shaken up when Yahagi said he was going to go after you."

"I mean, it makes sense... if he wants to prove his point about superiority, then defeating the leader of D Class is the best way to go about it. Chances are, he's probably going to go after Zyriot-san as well for the same reason."

"Well, he can bring it on then. I know Zyriot won't lose against a bastard like him!"

"Yeah. I can't imagine Zyriot-san losing to him either."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ryouta watching me and Akihiro from a distance.