The Island Exam Ends / Airi-chan

Ryuen: "..."

"I call this way of dying a burial at sea while you're still alive."

Even Ryuen's heart trembled violently at the chilling way of dying.

He couldn't move now, and once the seawater came up, he wouldn't be able to move at all.

No, he didn't want to die yet. He didn't want to die such a pathetic death.

"Aren't you afraid someone will find out?" Ryuen said in a low voice. "If you really kill me, you'll never have a good life again."

Even now, he still clung to a sliver of hope. It was his greatest reassurance.

The other person wouldn't dare kill him.

But what he said next sent Ryuen plunging into despair.

"How would they find out?" The Joker pulled down his sleeve and showed Ryuen his hands. "Look. There's nothing on my hands."

"How could that be?"

Ryuen was shocked.

The watch that had originally been on the other person's wrist had disappeared. No, he hadn't even noticed whether the other person had been wearing one in the first place.

As far as he knew, the only time students could take off their watches was when they boarded the ship.

So it was common knowledge that every student on the island had a watch.

But now, everything he thought he knew had been overturned.

Looking at Ryuen's face, twisted with panic, the Joker picked up the hat beside him and plopped it onto his head.

"Struggle. The things that can't kill you will make you even more—insane."

He turned and walked away.

He casually tossed the clown mask into the sea, too.

The handsome face beneath it was revealed.

Goodbye, Ryuen.

Just kidding.

Island Exam Ends

At noon on the final day, Mashima stood onstage with a megaphone in hand.

Below him, all the first-year classes had gathered.

"We'll now announce the results of the Island Exam."

But the students soon noticed that there wasn't a single person in Class C's spot.

Quite a few students laughed.

The other classes had known about Class C's plan to spend all its points, and everyone had expected this outcome. Only Katsuragi of Class A and his lackeys looked unhappy.

Things hadn't gone quite as they had expected. Ryuen hadn't sent them the photos of the leaders of Classes D and B as agreed, and he had gone missing early that morning.

Eito already knew the answer, though.

To keep Ryuen from actually dying at sea, he had specifically told Yamauchi to keep watch from five in the morning.

A helicopter patrolled the area in the morning. If it found Ryuen stranded, it would rescue him immediately, but he would lose his eligibility to continue the exam.

According to Yamauchi's report, Ryuen had already lost consciousness by the time he got there. It was clearly the result of struggling too much and exhausting himself.

Yamauchi had even helped call for a rescue. Otherwise, Ryuen might really have died out there.

Mashima continued speaking into the megaphone.

"Fourth place, Class C, zero points."

The result was just as expected. Not a single person remained, so of course they had zero points.

"Third place, Class A, 170 points."

Excluding the points lost because Sakayanagi hadn't participated, Class A had originally had 270 points. Now they'd lost 100, which meant one of the other two classes present had guessed their leader correctly. As for how, Eito guessed Ryuen had already sold out Class A and discovered the leader's identity himself, then leaked it. Or perhaps Ayanokoji had done it.

"Second place, Class B, 180 points."

Although Class B had guessed Class A's leader, just like Class D, Ryuen had sent Kaneda to hide among them. Ichinose, who was known for her kindness, and the other students in Class B had kindly taken him in, only for their leader's identity to be discovered.

The photo of Class B's leader, which should have been with Ryuen, had been found by Ayanokoji. As a result, the points they'd gained and lost canceled each other out. Class B earned no points for identifying any leaders, and the points from their base were invalidated after their leader's identity was guessed.

The students of Class B were pretty satisfied with this result.

Finally, there was—

"First place, Class D, 380 points."

As soon as he said this, every student was stunned.

"Class D got 380 points? How is that possible?"

"Are you kidding? He must've added it up wrong."

"Just Class D, and they got that many?"

It wasn't just the students from Classes A and B who found it hard to believe. Even the students of Class D themselves couldn't believe it.

"Ike, I'm not dreaming, am I? We actually got 380 points! This is great! We can finally live happily from now on!" Yamauchi excitedly wrapped his arms around Ike.

With the 90 points they already had, Class D now had a total of 470 points.

With that many points, they could basically say goodbye to living in poverty.

Sudo, in particular, had already gone to taunt students from the other classes.

"Hey, you call yourselves Class A? We're more than 200 points ahead of you. You're a bunch of useless losers."

Sudo had already had enough of being mocked by the other classes, so of course he took the chance to mock them back.

"You got lucky, that's all." The students of Class A were unconvinced, but they didn't say anything. More than anything, they were bewildered.

What had happened for Class D to get so many points?

Eito had a rough idea.

As Class D's leader, Ayanokoji had not only guessed all the other classes' leaders, he had also earned close to 80 points by occupying at least four bases.

And his own identity as leader hadn't been exposed.

There was one other question.

Why had Ibuki known Ayanokoji's identity? Because he had let her find out on purpose.

He'd deliberately allowed her to discover it, then left behind a clue. Since Ayanokoji had appeared where Ibuki and Ryuen had been talking the previous night, Eito could guess that he'd been following Ibuki all along, waiting to find a weak point in their conversation so he could identify Class C's leader.

The last person left on the island had to be the leader.

As for revealing his own identity as leader, Ayanokoji had probably planned to injure himself at the end, giving himself a reasonable excuse to withdraw from the exam. Once he withdrew, the leader would be chosen again.

That way, even if Classes A and C got information about his identity, they would lose points for guessing wrong.

But this time, because Ryuen had withdrawn, Ayanokoji had kept his position as leader.

That was how Class D had ended up with a whopping 380 points.

It was the combined result of coincidence and careful planning.

Eito admitted that he had played some part in it, but even if he hadn't revealed a single thing or lifted a finger, Ayanokoji could still have earned close to 300 points.

That was the full story behind the exam results.

The girls of Class D were just as excited. Points mattered even more to them.

But someone raised a question.

"Chabashira-sensei, who was our leader? They're amazing!"

Chabashira only smiled and said nothing.

"I promised that person I'd keep their identity secret. If you want to know, you'll have to figure it out yourselves."

"Aw, come on! That's so unfair!"

"Could it have been Hirata? I remember he arranged who the leaders would be."

Hirata stepped forward to clear things up.

"Sorry, I wasn't the leader. Besides, I was in the class most of the time. I didn't have time to occupy bases elsewhere."

"Then who was it? Hirata, who did you make the leader?"

Hirata quickly glanced around at his classmates. His gaze paused briefly when it reached Eito, but when Eito shook his head, Hirata understood what he meant.

Although he knew Ayanokoji was the real leader, he thought Eito had arranged everything. So the real mastermind had actually been Eito.

"Sorry, everyone. I can't tell you, because he doesn't want anyone to know either."

"What? Why are you just like Chabashira-sensei?"

Although they were disappointed, the students of Class D came to a conclusion.

There was a hidden genius in their class. This genius had helped them earn more than 300 points in the Island Exam.

The news greatly boosted Class D's spirits.

They already knew they were considered defective products, and they desperately wanted a genius leader to lead their class to victory over the other classes.

They didn't want to keep stumbling around like headless flies, with no idea what they were even doing.

Hirata was technically Class D's leader for now, but many people understood that he wasn't suited to be a proper leader. He was better suited to being a peacemaker.

Although no one knew the leader's identity, the more curious students started making their own guesses.

They began eliminating candidates.

Based on how people usually acted, they narrowed down the classmates most likely to be the leader.

The ones they came up with were Kikyo, Hirata, Karuizawa, Shinohara, and even Suzune.

Suzune spoke rather bluntly, but her grades, athletic ability, and other strengths were there for all to see. So even many people who disliked her didn't underestimate her.

But the most likely candidate was—

"Me?"

When a classmate asked him, Eito pointed at himself in disbelief. "Why would you suspect me?"

"Because you drew that map of the island, didn't you? Thanks to you, our class saved a lot of points. And you're always disappearing, so we think you're mysterious. You've got to be the mysterious person!"

"Fine... But I really wasn't. I swear on the chastity of my future wife."

"Uh... I see. I might've been mistaken."

The classmate looked uncomfortable, probably at a loss after being hit with his lame joke.

"So what's your name?" Eito asked.

"Miyake... Miyake Akito. You can call me Miyake."

"Okay, Miyake."

He remembered this guy. He used to be a delinquent, but had since turned over a new leaf. He liked sports and was in the school's Archery Club. He seemed like a passionate young man, but because he was too direct when he spoke, he didn't have many friends and usually kept to himself.

There were quite a few people like that in Class D, such as Hasebe Haruka, who could get along peacefully with other students but still preferred to be alone.

And the guys often talked about her breasts, too.

After Miyake left, the person who came over to talk to him was exactly who he'd expected: Suzune.