Grouping

"What's there to say about it? We already bought them anyway."

If we're talking about unnecessary purchases, he'd already taken Sakura to the beach before and directly asked Teacher Chabashira to use some exam points to buy her two swimsuits—that was way more unnecessary than this.

Seeing Takahashi put it that way, Horikita stopped arguing with him and turned her gaze to Ayanokouji. "Karuizawa informed Hirata, so without a doubt, Hirata knows about it. But since you two didn't know, that means he didn't report it to anyone else. Spending everyone's shared exam points on something like this should, in principle, be information that's shared with the class."

"Hirata probably kept it quiet to avoid causing more conflict in the class."

"I understand what you're trying to say, but I don't have anything special to add. Like Takahashi said, we already bought them, so there's nothing to discuss. Besides, there aren't many exam days left. I doubt Karuizawa and the others will waste any more points unnecessarily." Horikita crossed her arms and glanced toward Karuizawa, then spoke again:

"If the panties theft incident isn't properly resolved, they'll keep causing all sorts of problems. Listening to them bicker with the boys over trivial things every day is already a headache."

"So, you want us to help find the panties thief?" Takahashi asked.

"That's right. The relationship between the girls and boys is a mess right now. There's a lot I can't handle on my own."

"Then you two have fun with that." Takahashi finished speaking and walked back to the campfire, sitting down and tossing more wood into it.

He couldn't care less about the panties theft. What he cared about was Ayanokouji. Ayanokouji might not actively go after the panties thief, but Horikita, who's always aimed for Class A, would! And the only person Horikita could use was Ayanokouji. This was a chance to test him.

After a while, Ayanokouji came alone to sit by the campfire.

"You agreed to Horikita?" Takahashi asked first.

"Yeah, I already promised Hirata before."

Ayanokouji, I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll do.

On the morning of the sixth day of the special exam, the sky was gray and overcast, as if weighed down by heavy lead blocks, hinting that a storm was about to break. It had rained the night before, leaving puddles in the hollows of the ground and mud everywhere. The Western Zhou area carried the scent of more rain to come, likely falling after noon. As the exam neared its end, the weather had turned. A light drizzle wouldn't be a problem, but there was no telling if it might pour or bring strong winds.

"Everyone, gather up." Hirata called the class together for a final announcement. "Today is already the sixth day, so I'm thinking we should split into groups to search for food. If we can gather enough for just today, we can save the exam points we'd otherwise spend on buying food."

As long as they got through today, skipping a meal tomorrow wouldn't matter. Everyone wanted to increase their personal points, so no one thought going hungry for a day was a big deal.

In the end, the group consisted of Ayanokouji, Horikita, Takahashi, Sakura, Yamauchi, and one unexpected person—Kushida. She'd usually been moving with her friendly solidarity group.

"Looks like you've got a fever again." Takahashi said to Horikita, who was walking around pretending to be fine. Before disembarking, Horikita had a slight fever, so Takahashi had given her some medicine, but it didn't seem to have worked.

"I'm fine."

"Stubborn as always." With that, Takahashi dropped the matter.

"Little Kushida, I never thought you'd end up not teaming with your girlfriends." Yamauchi said with a shocked expression.

"Well... um... Little Mi isn't feeling well, so the other friends are looking after her in the tent." Probably because there were quite a few boys around, Kushida was too embarrassed to say it was her period.

"Rather than 'not feeling well,' it's a normal physiological condition, so there's no need to worry. But why did you specifically come to this group? You should have had other options." Horikita said coldly. She didn't mention Yamauchi, probably because she really disliked Kushida.

Horikita basically hated everyone, but if there was one person she hated the most, it was Kushida. Why did Horikita hate her so much? The reason was simple—because Kushida hated Horikita too.

Kushida didn't get angry at Horikita's words. Instead, she flashed an angelic smile and said, "Because I want to talk more with Horikita. It's rare to get a chance to chat with you, you know? We haven't really talked much on this trip, have we? As soon as night comes, you just go straight to sleep."

"I don't have time to chat with you."

"Horikita, you're so cold! You look so cute when you're sleeping, though."

Kushida teased Horikita, but Horikita seemed a bit annoyed.

Anyway, without any more small talk, they set off together to search for food.

As they started out, Ayanokouji spoke to Ibuki, who was resting in the shade under a tree not far away. "Ibuki, want to join?"

"Me?"

"The exam's almost over. If you don't want to, that's fine."

"No, I've received quite a bit of help from your Class D. I'll pitch in."

Ibuki got up to grab her bag and joined the group.

Yamauchi looked overjoyed, raising both hands and shouting, "Yeah! Awesome! Feels like I'm building a harem!"

With the increasing ratio of girls, Yamauchi's enthusiasm visibly rose, and he kept cheerfully chatting them up along the way.

Until he tried to hit on Horikita...

Yamauchi leaned his face close to Horikita, grinning as if to say something, but before he could get a word out—

"Slap!"

Horikita's merciless palm struck Yamauchi's face, a clean and crisp swing. Of course, the sound of the slap was just as sharp.

Yamauchi crouched on the ground, clutching his cheek, and shouted at Horikita:

"What... what was that for?!"

Horikita, on the other hand, didn't even bother to answer him, let alone look his way.

"You got too close to her! She's got a serious territorial thing." Ayanokouji walked over to Yamauchi and said.

"Yamauchi, are you okay?" Kushida stepped forward.

"You're... you're still the kind one, Little Kushida."

Yamauchi grabbed Kushida's outstretched hand and stood up, face red.

Ibuki watched their interaction with some surprise. In Class C, you probably wouldn't see such foolish behavior.

"Alright, we're not here on a trip! Let's talk about finding food now."

Horikita spoke in a stern, forceful tone, then ordered everyone to split into groups to search for food.

The groups were quickly decided: Ayanokouji and Horikita, Takahashi and Sakura, Ibuki and Kushida, leaving Yamauchi standing there, looking from one group to another, unsure where to go.