"Can any of you see a pattern?" Sawahara asked, sorting through the clues they had so far in his mind.
"What connection could there possibly be?" Ibuki complained as she looked over the list in her hands.
"Maybe there's a problem with the order of the list, or perhaps we've missed a clue." Shiina frowned slightly. The list she had was sorted by class.
"A clue..." Sawahara recalled the unimportant clues he had sorted through earlier: the groups.
"Why did the school use the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to name the groups?" Sawahara posed the question.
"Could the VIPs have been chosen based on their zodiac signs?" Ibuki offered her straightforward interpretation. Ryuen looked at her as if she were an idiot.
"What's with that look? Want to fight?"
"You're the one saying stupid things. How could students in the same grade be eleven years apart in age?" Ryuen rolled his eyes. Why did they have to bring this idiot along when they were trying to think?
Sawahara's take was that idiots saw the world differently from smart people. Maybe looking at things from an idiot's perspective could broaden their thinking. Of course, he didn't tell Ibuki that.
"Urgh." Ryuen's retort had left Ibuki's face bright red. She realized the flaw in her argument, but stubbornly tried to defend herself anyway. "Maybe they used the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to calculate the months instead. There are twelve of them, after all, so the students whose birthdays fell in those months could be the VIPs."
"..." Ryuen was speechless. Hadn't they already established that the names were the key? How had birthdays entered the discussion?
Watching Ryuen and Ibuki argue gave Kaneda a headache. They were so noisy that he couldn't think properly, though he hadn't thought of anything anyway.
"I see." Ibuki's idea was stupid, but it had reminded Sawahara of something: the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches might represent the order of the students.
"Shiina, who's sixth in the Snake Group?" Sawahara asked, testing his theory.
"Amikura Mako from Class B." Shiina quickly found the sixth person in the Snake Group on the list. "Sawahara, do you think the group names indicate the VIPs' positions within their groups?"
"That's one possibility." Sawahara nodded.
"If that's right, the list can't be sorted by class." Shiina quickly spotted the problem. The VIPs from Class C were in positions six, eight, and ten.
Each class had between three and five students selected, so the Class C VIPs should be in the Horse, Sheep, and Monkey Groups.
"Sorting, huh... Let's head to the internet café." Sawahara pondered for a moment, then made the suggestion.
The ship had a full range of entertainment facilities, including an internet café, though hardly anyone came here. After all, who went on a trip just to hang out at an internet café? It was a baffling thought.
"Sorting with Excel is much faster than doing it by hand." Sawahara opened Excel and entered the list with practiced ease.
"Let's try sorting by the Japanese syllabary first," Sawahara said. "Shiina, check whether it matches the VIPs."
"Okay. Snake Group, Sheep Group, Dog Group... They all match." Surprise crossed Shiina's serene face. It had worked on the first try...
"Huh, does that mean..." Ibuki froze. Even she knew what this meant, despite not being particularly smart.
"Heh. Looks like this exam's already over." Ryuen's lips curled into a smile.
Sawahara studied the screen, not letting excitement cloud his judgment. "It's only a possibility. Let's try a few other sorting methods."
Patiently, Sawahara sorted the list in different ways. In the end, only one other method produced a matching result.
"Do you really think that bizarre formula you used is the correct way to sort them?" Ryuen couldn't understand the second matching method. What kind of sorting required such a complicated formula?
"I don't think it's very likely either," Shiina said. She didn't think the school would be that sadistic.
"Then it looks like this is the pattern: the students in each group are sorted by the Japanese syllabary, and the VIP is the student whose position corresponds to the group's zodiac animal."
Now that they had figured out how the VIPs were chosen, they could bring the exam to an end by force whenever they wanted.
"We really have Ibuki to thank this time. Without her reminder earlier, it might have taken us quite a while to find the pattern."
Sawahara didn't hold back on his praise. It was just the sort of thing that worked on this somewhat dim girl.
"Heh. Guess even an idiot can get lucky," Ryuen said with a sneer.
Ibuki had just heard Sawahara's praise and was about to feel happy when Ryuen's words instantly infuriated her.
"Who are you calling an idiot?!"
"You know perfectly well."
While Sawahara and the others investigated the pattern behind the VIP selection for this exam, the other classes were dealing with it in their own ways.
Class A
"Katsuragi, don't you have anything to say about this exam?" Hashimoto asked, smiling.
"I'm no longer the class leader." Katsuragi replied coolly, then closed his eyes to rest.
"Come on, Katsuragi. Didn't you say you'd step down as leader next semester?" Hashimoto Masayoshi's words carried the meaning of an old cadre telling someone not to retire just yet and to put in a little more effort while he still had something left to give... ahem, to make the most of his remaining time.
"You know that Ichinose from Class B and Sawahara from Class C are both formidable opponents. Class A's advantage isn't all that great right now. If we lose this exam too, we might not be Class A next semester. You wouldn't want to see that happen, would you, Katsuragi?" Hashimoto earnestly analyzed their current situation.
Katsuragi opened his eyes and looked at Hashimoto. You think this is anyone's fault but yours? If you people hadn't caused trouble during the last Special Exam, would our class be in this position now? Katsuragi's eyes conveyed all of this, but Hashimoto didn't care in the slightest. His shamelessness was astounding.
Katsuragi then looked at the other students in Class A. When they met his gaze, some awkwardly turned away, while others looked back at him with a hint of hope.
For the sake of the class, Katsuragi once again took up the position of leader, even though he knew that most of his classmates simply wanted him to take responsibility.
Class B
"Good luck on the exam this afternoon, everyone!" Ichinose encouraged her classmates, and they returned the enthusiasm with fighting spirit.
After most of the class had left, Ichinose and Kanzaki were the last to remain.
"Kanzaki, you've really been working hard. Katsuragi from Class A and Sawahara from Class C are both very capable people." Being grouped with people like them would put anyone under considerable pressure.
"I'll do everything I can," Kanzaki said solemnly.
"You don't have to put so much pressure on yourself," Ichinose said, waving her hand. "We're up against them, so losing would be perfectly normal. Don't take it too hard."
Kanzaki opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't say anything.
Would it really be okay if they lost?
Class D
And so, the first group discussion was about to begin.
Before you continue