The café was softly lit, and gentle background music drifted through the air. The two sat by the window, surrounded by the rich aroma of coffee.
"What do you think of this exam, Uesugi?" Sakayanagi Arisu asked softly, her gaze probing.
"Protect the VIPs in your own class and attack the VIPs in other classes." Uesugi Hara lifted his juice and took a small sip. "Of course, achieving Result One would be pretty good, too."
"Then how do you identify the VIPs?" Sakayanagi pressed, drawing him out.
"Sakayanagi, I really don't get it." Uesugi Hara set down his glass and looked at her. "Why do you like asking me questions when you already know the answer yourself?"
"Isn't it because I'm curious about what you think, Uesugi?" Sakayanagi Arisu replied with a soft laugh. "Who knows, perhaps we're on the same wavelength and think alike."
Uesugi Hara's mouth twitched. On the same wavelength? If we wrote the same answer to a question, would that count as being on the same wavelength, too?
"Find a pattern, or talk to people and figure out who the VIPs are." He avoided her gaze and looked out at the night beyond the window. "Don't ask me what the pattern is. I don't know."
"I don't know either," Sakayanagi replied softly.
The school had carefully adjusted the VIP assignments.
That was the answer to a question someone had asked yesterday.
In other words, the school hadn't selected the VIPs at random.
That meant there was almost certainly a pattern among the VIPs, and every class had the same number of them: three.
"Uesugi, do you have any thoughts?" Kushida Kikyo's voice interrupted his train of thought.
"I don't have any thoughts," Uesugi Hara replied flatly. "I don't have a single opinion about this exam before