Mastering the Pattern

"Can you two see anything here?" Sawahara asked while organizing the clues he currently had in his mind.

"How could there possibly be any connection between these?" Ibuki looked at the list in her hand and couldn't help but complain.

"Perhaps the order of the list is the problem, or maybe we've missed some clue." Shiina frowned slightly; the list in her hand was sorted by class.

"Clues..." Sawahara recalled the unimportant clues he had categorized earlier: the groupings.

"The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches—why would the school use this method to name the groups?" Sawahara threw out the question.

"Could it be that the VIPs were chosen based on the zodiac signs?" Ibuki gave her straightforward interpretation, only to see Ryuen looking at her as if she were an idiot.

"What's with that look? Want to fight?"

"Who told you to say something so stupid? How could students in the same grade possibly have an eleven-year age gap?" Ryuen rolled his eyes. He wondered why he had to bring this idiot along whenever brainpower was required.

Regarding this, Sawahara's view was that the world seen by an idiot is different from that seen by a smart person; perhaps switching to an idiot's perspective could broaden his train of thought. Of course, he didn't tell Ibuki that.

"Ugh." Ibuki's face flushed red from Ryuen's remark, and she realized the flaw in her own words, but she still stubbornly argued, "Maybe they used the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to calculate the months? After all, there are twelve of each, so the students whose birthdays correspond to those months are the VIPs."

"..." Ryuen was speechless. Hadn't they already established that the key was in the names? Why was she still dragging birthdays into this?

Seeing Ryuen and Ibuki start to argue, Kaneda felt a headache coming on. He felt that these two were so noisy that he couldn't think properly, even though he hadn't figured anything out yet.

"I see." Although Ibuki's words were foolish, they reminded Sawahara of one thing: the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches likely represented a rank or position.

"Shiina, who is the sixth person in the Snake group?" Sawahara asked Shiina to verify his line of thinking.

"Amikura Mako from Class B." Shiina quickly found the name for the sixth position in the Snake group. "Sawahara-kun, are you thinking that the grouping represents the order of the VIP within their group?"

"That is my hypothesis." Sawahara nodded.

"If this hypothesis is correct, then the list definitely wouldn't be sorted by class." Shiina quickly spotted the problem; the VIPs from Class C were in positions 6, 8, and 10.

Since each class selected three to five students, the VIPs for Class C should have been in the Horse, Sheep, and Monkey groups.

"Sorting, huh... Let's go. Let's head to the internet cafe." Sawahara pondered for a moment and then proposed.

The entertainment facilities on this ship were quite complete, and an internet cafe did exist, though not many people came here. After all, going to an internet cafe to play games while on a trip? It always felt a bit baffling.

"Using Excel on a computer to sort is much faster than doing it by hand." Sawahara opened Excel on the computer and skillfully entered the list.

"Let's try sorting by the 50-character Japanese syllabary first," Sawahara said. "Shiina, you check to see if it matches the VIPs."

"Mm. Snake group, Sheep group, Dog group... they all match." A look of astonishment appeared on Shiina's calm face. It only took one try and...

"Eh? Does that mean..." Ibuki stood there, stunned. Even if she wasn't particularly smart, she knew what this represented.

"Heh, it looks like this exam is already over." The corners of Ryuen's mouth curled up involuntarily.

Sawahara looked at the screen, not getting carried away by the joy. "This is just one possibility. Let's try a few other sorting methods."

Sawahara tirelessly arranged the list according to different sorting methods, and in the end, only one other method matched.

"Do you really think this bizarre function you used is the correct sorting method?" Regarding the second matching method, Ryuen couldn't understand it at all. What kind of sorting required such a complex function?

"I also feel that this possibility is unlikely." Shiina also felt that the school shouldn't be that deranged.

"Then it seems the rule is this: the students in each group are sorted according to the Japanese syllabary, and the VIP is the student at the sequence corresponding to the group's zodiac animal."

Once the selection rule for the VIPs was mastered, this exam could be forcibly ended at any time.

"This time, we really owe it to Ibuki. Without her reminder earlier, it probably would have taken quite a while to figure out this rule."

Sawahara didn't hesitate to give his praise; this sort of thing was quite effective for this slightly dim-witted girl.

"Heh, I guess even fools have their own luck." Ryuen curled his lip.

Ibuki, who had just heard Sawahara's praise and hadn't even had time to be happy, instantly flared up upon hearing Ryuen's words.

"Who are you calling a fool!"

"You know exactly who."

Just as Sawahara and his group were investigating the rules for selecting VIPs in this exam, other classes were also facing this exam in their own ways.

Class A

"Katsuragi-kun, do you have nothing to say about this exam?" Hashimoto looked at Katsuragi with a smile.

"I am no longer the leader of the class." Katsuragi responded indifferently, then began to close his eyes to rest.

"Don't say that, Katsuragi-kun. Didn't you say before that you would step down from the leadership position next semester?" Hashimoto Masayoshi's words were full of the implication of an old cadre telling someone not to rush into retirement and to put in a little more effort to squeeze out some remaining value... cough, to contribute a bit more.

"You also know that Ichinose from Class B and that Sawahara-kun from Class C are not easy characters to deal with. Currently, Class A's advantage isn't that great. If we lose this exam as well, we might not be Class A next semester. You wouldn't want to see that happen, would you, Katsuragi?" Hashimoto analyzed the current situation seriously.

Katsuragi opened his eyes and looked at Hashimoto. Who do you think is the reason for this? If it weren't for you guys causing trouble in the last special exam, would our class be in this state? Katsuragi's eyes carried this meaning, yet Hashimoto didn't care at all; his thick-skinned nature was astonishing.

Subsequently, Katsuragi looked at the other students in Class A. The classmates in the room, facing his gaze, either turned their heads in embarrassment or met his eyes with a hint of expectation.

For the sake of the class, Katsuragi ultimately took on the leadership position once again, even though he knew that the students in the class were mostly just hoping for him to take the blame.

Class B

"Everyone, let's do our best in this afternoon's exam." Ichinose encouraged her classmates, looking full of fighting spirit.

After most of the students had left the classroom, Ichinose and Kanzaki remained behind.

"Kanzaki-kun, you've really had it tough. Katsuragi-kun from Class A and Sawahara-kun from Class C are both formidable people." Being grouped with such individuals would be incredibly stressful no matter how you looked at it.

"I will do everything in my power," Kanzaki said with a solemn expression.

"You don't have to put so much pressure on yourself, though," Ichinose said, waving her hand. "After all, it's normal to lose when facing them, so don't take it too much to heart."

Kanzaki opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't say anything further.

Would it really be okay if he lost?

Class D

And so, the time for the first group discussion was about to arrive.