A Truly Boring Trick

Clearly, in the eyes of most people, Ayanokoji is Horikita's tagalong.

"Um, actually I came to see you Kushida."

"Huh? You're looking for me?" Kushida immediately put on a flattered expression, because the two of them weren't actually that familiar with each other.

"Well, because of this exam, Karuizawa and I were both assigned to the Rabbit Group, but Karuizawa doesn't seem very willing to cooperate, so I wanted to ask you about Karuizawa."

As Ayanokoji spoke, she naturally sat down.

Shuichi Kanda nodded knowingly.

As the know-it-all of her class and even the entire grade, Kushida Kikyo has connections with almost everyone in the grade, both boys and girls. So if you want to get information, asking Kushida Kikyo is definitely the best choice.

"I already ran into Horikita when I arrived, but it seems she doesn't have any connection with Karuizawa." Ayanokoji scratched his head, looking helpless.

Watching Ayanokoji's performance, Shuichi Kanda silently picked up his still somewhat cold cola and drank it down.

"Actually, although Karuizawa and I are friends, I don't know much about her past. I just feel that she's a rather strong-willed person when we're together. Is that helpful to you?"

Unfortunately, Kushida didn't know much about Karuizawa either.

However, on the other hand, someone who could make even Kushida down must be incredibly difficult to deal with; to be assigned to the same group as someone like that...

Shuichi Kanda gave Ayanokoji a "take care" look.

"I see. You've been a great help. Thank you so much, Kushida." Ayanokoji nodded and then looked at Shuichi Kanda.

Why are you looking at me? I'm not even that close to her. Shouldn't you be talking to Hirata about this? Karuizawa is Hirata's girlfriend.

However, seeing that Ayanokoji was staring at him, Shuichi Kanda immediately finished his drink.

"I'm going back to my room now. Would you like to come with me, Ayanokoji?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling a bit hot too. I'm going back to cool off."

They're lying again!

You didn't break a sweat at all!

However, Shuichi Kanda couldn't expose him at this time.

After saying goodbye to Kushida, he returned to the guest room on the third floor with Ayanokoji and led Ayanokoji to his room.

"Speak, what is it that you can't let outsiders hear?"

The rooms here are very soundproof, so once the door is closed, the room is completely safe and you don't have to worry about being eavesdropped on.

Even if someone comes in, it will only be Miyake Hirata. Miyake won't blurt out any information he hears, even though he now has Shuichi Kanda friend and his personality has gradually become a bit silly under Hashikura's influence. But in front of outsiders, he is still the kind of person who is very aloof and won't gossip everywhere.

As for Hirata, there's even less reason to worry. In fact, it would be better if Hirata returned, because no one knows more about Karuizawa than him.

"I found Karuizawa's behavior today to be very strange."

Shuichi Kanda remained silent after hearing Ayanokoji's words.

Putting aside whether Karuizawa is strange or not, Ayanokoji, your behavior today is also very strange. Weren't you uninterested in advancing in class? Why have you suddenly become so enthusiastic?

Clearly, Shuichi Kanda was unaware that Kiyotaka Ayanokoji had been threatened by Sae- chan, and Ayanokoji wouldn't go around spreading this information.

So Shuichi Kanda always felt that Ayanokoji was up to something. You wouldn't be thinking of cuckolding Hirata, would you?

No, how can I agree to that?

"Ayanokoji!" Shuichi Kanda's expression turned serious, leaving Kiyotaka Ayanokoji bewildered. What... did I say wrong?

"Uh, what's wrong?"

"You don't have feelings for Karuizawa, do you? She's Hirata's girlfriend. Even if you like her, you should wait until they break up before making any plans!"

Hearing Shuichi Kanda's righteous words, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji was also rendered silent.

I was clearly thinking about my exams, so why did it turn into romantic relationships? While I'm somewhat interested in those things, now is obviously not the time, is it?

"Kanda, you've misunderstood. I just think Karuizawa's behavior today is very unusual, and if we leave it unchecked, it might cause a big problem."

Ayanokoji decided to explain himself. Although he had never been in a relationship, the idea of stealing someone else's partner seemed rather inappropriate no matter how you looked at it.

Therefore, he firmly stated that he could not take the blame.

"You really don't like Karuizawa? I think she's quite cute?"

"But didn't you say she's Hirata's girlfriend?"

Snap!

Shuichi Kanda's expression turned serious, then he slammed his hand on the table. "And you still say you have no interest in Karuizawa!"

Now Ayanokoji was certain that Shuichi Kanda deliberately teasing him.

Seeing Ayanokoji's rather speechless expression, Shuichi Kanda secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, enough joking around." Shuichi Kanda's serious expression vanished, and he smiled. "I called Hirata on my way back; he'll be back soon. Asking Karuizawa directly won't get us anywhere, but asking Hirata should be helpful."

"I see, "Ayanokoji nodded, but soon he hesitated again.

But should I really tell Hirata that?

Meanwhile, Shuichi Kanda was mentally analyzing what kind of person Ayanokoji really was.

Part of what happened just now was a deliberate act by him to test Ayanokoji, just to see his reaction.

If what he just witnessed was true, then Shuichi Kanda felt that Ayanokoji was actually not in that much danger.

Ever since noticing Ayanokoji's unusual behavior, Shuichi Kanda had been consciously or unconsciously maintaining a distance between them, not so much that they were strangers, but certainly not as familiar as they were with Hirata.

Although he can joke around occasionally, when it comes to important matters that need to be discussed, Shuichi Kanda's first choice is Miyake, and his second choice is either Hirata or Kushida.

Hirata's actions stemmed from his personality; he would definitely help if he could. He sought out Kushida because he had leverage over her and wasn't afraid she would deliberately sabotage things.

Although Miyake was often of little use, he would always end up going to either Hirata or Kushida.

The third choice after that is Horikita, while people like Ayanokoji are at most the fourth priority.

However, after this small test, Ayanokoji can be moved up a priority level and placed on par with Horikita.

After waiting for only a few minutes, Hirata returned to the room, bringing with him the group lists he had collected from each group.

"Good afternoon, Ayanokoji. And Kanda, I've collected all the group rosters." Hirata handed over a notebook containing the names of all the members of the twelve groups.

"Yes, thank you for your hard work."

Shuichi Kanda took it and casually flipped through it. He could look at this later; there was no rush. Right now, he needed to address Ayanokoji's questions first.

"By the way, I heard that the students in Class C also wrote down this list."

"That's normal." Shuichi Kanda nodded. "Ryuen must also be trying to deduce the selection rules for VIP."

Hirata nodded. "Yes, I also think Ryuen won't give up easily. So, what did Ayanokoji want to talk to me about?"

"Actually, it's about Karuizawa. She's your girlfriend, right?"

Ayanokoji didn't directly say what it was about, but instead asked Hirata about a question that everyone in the class already knew.

"Yes, Karuizawa and I are boyfriend and girlfriend."

Hirata replied gently.

However, this answer made Ayanokoji hesitate, unsure whether he should tell Hirata about it, wondering if it would be a blow to him.

However, after only a brief hesitation, Ayanokoji recounted the entire incident.

During the Rabbit Group's exam this afternoon, three girls from Class C had a conflict with Karuizawa.

It all started one day before summer vacation in Karuizawa, outside a cafe or some other shop.

Karuizawa apparently knocked their classmate, a girl named Rika, flying while trying to cut in line, and didn't apologize.

Given Karuizawa's assertive attitude, an apology is highly unlikely.

As a result, the female student named Rika complained about this to her best friend, Manabe Shiho from Class C.

Coincidentally, Manabe Shiho from Class C and her classmates were assigned to the same exam room as Karuizawa. After they met, Manabe Shiho started a fight based on the previous incident, and a small conflict ensued.

However, Karuizawa was only one person, and she was no match for the three of them, so she sought help from the students of Class A.

The strange thing is that, logically speaking, a strong woman like Karuizawa shouldn't back down even if there were three more people, let alone three.

If it were Ichinose facing these three, she would never need to ask for help. No, if it were Ichinose, these three wouldn't dare to provoke her at all, and Ichinose wouldn't do something like knocking someone flying without apologizing.

Chapter 131 What a boring trick!

I thought Hirata would waver after hearing about this, but to my surprise, he simply nodded calmly, indicating that he understood.

"I'll handle this. Thank you, Ayanokoji."

This left Shuichi Kanda somewhat confused. What exactly was going on between Hirata and Karuizawa?

However, since Hirata had already said so, Shuichi Kanda didn't intend to delve into it further. Instead, he picked up the list of all team members that Hirata Yosuke had just handed him and began to look at it.

The list Hirata provided was different from the one provided by the school. Although the order was from Class A to Class D from top to bottom, the students' names in each class were not arranged in the Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana).

Why are the names of students in the same class listed in Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana) on the name cards provided by the school? Is it because the computer automatically sorts them?

Shuichi Kanda let his thoughts wander freely.

"By the way, Hirata, do you know who in the class brought a computer out?"

Since the school uses computers for sorting, Shuichi Kanda decided to replicate the school's process.

"Well, it seems not. Our backpacks are all quite small, so no one brought a laptop."

Having a source of information for the whole class is great; it also saves Shuichi Kanda searching for the computer.

Since there are no computers, we have to operate it manually.

Meanwhile, Ayanokoji had already gotten up to say goodbye. He didn't have anything else to do; he had only come here to get some information about Karuizawa.

Then Hirata left because he had something to do, leaving Shuichi Kanda alone in the room.

After the two left, Shuichi Kanda tore two pages from the notebook Hirata had brought back, put them together, and then used tape to stick them together to form a square.

Then, they were arranged horizontally according to the Heavenly Stems, which is the order of the twelve zodiac animals, and vertically according to the order of the first character of each group member's name in the fifty-tone system. They were written down one by one.

It took Shuichi Kanda almost half an hour to finish working on 159 names, plus the order of each group of names.

After checking it again, I finally breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to take a break.

If you have a computer, these tasks are much simpler. Just enter the list of members for each group into a table in the same column, and then sort them alphabetically by the Japanese syllabary (hiragana and katakana).

Next, Shuichi Kanda circled the names of the three VIP in Class D.

The group at the front is Karuizawa from the Rabbit Group, followed by Kushida from the Dragon Group, and finally Minami from the Horse Group.

In just a moment, Shuichi Kanda saw through the rules.

The Rabbit Group is the fourth in the Heavenly Stems.

Karuizawa, VIP, was also ranked fourth in the Rabbit Group.

Next is Kushida from the Dragon Group. Dragon ranks fifth in the Heavenly Stems, and Kushida is also fifth in the Dragon Group. The four ahead of him are Ichinose Honami, Katsuragi Kohei, Shuichi Kanda, and Kanzaki Ryuji.

In the Horse Group, which is the seventh of the ten Heavenly Stems, Nan is also ranked seventh.

After seeing all this, Shuichi Kanda covered his forehead and laughed. What childish behavior! Do you know how many of these ridiculous puzzles I did in my past life?

Find the pattern?

Those are questions we started doing in elementary school, you bastard!

What a lousy school! Are you looking down on me?

Shuichi Kanda, who had initially been looking forward to the exam, suddenly lost interest.

As for whether it was a coincidence, Shuichi Kanda no doubt whatsoever. Because how many coincidences are there in this world?

Besides, whether it's a coincidence or not, wouldn't it be easy to find out by simply verifying it?

So Shuichi Kanda marked all the VIP on the paper, then found the three from Class B, who belonged to the Ox Group, Monkey Group, and Dog Group, and entered them into his phone.

Furthermore, to prevent Ichinose from misunderstanding, Shuichi Kanda specifically marked out her group.

Then, less than three minutes after the message was sent to Ichinose, Ichinose Honami called directly.

"Yo, good afternoon, Ichinose."