Of the bottom five groups, aside from Kouenji firmly occupying last place, three were from the third year, and the remaining one was a first-year group.
Although the first-year groups had consistently trailed the pack during the second half of the exam, on the final day, they gathered groups that were outside the danger zone to help those at the bottom. They quickly filled the available slots for challenges, then deliberately lost to feed points to the lowest-ranked groups. The third years, embroiled in an all-out internal war, had no such strategy for supporting one another.
Class 3-B, Class 3-A, and Third-Year Class D each had one group expelled. Clearly, they had not prepared enough private points to exempt those groups from expulsion. The first years, however, did not have to worry about that, since their penalty rules were more lenient than those for the second and third years.
With the lowest-ranked groups announced, the top-ranked groups were next.
Sasaki stepped down from the podium, and someone else took his place at the front.
Tsukishiro Tokinari had changed into a well-tailored suit, and nothing about his appearance seemed amiss. No one could have guessed that Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had given him a savage beating at noon.
"Now, I will announce the top three groups in the uninhabited island special exam."
"Third place: Class 3-A, Tonokawa's group, with a total of 259 points."
Tonokawa, who had been responsible for negotiating with Shiraishi Makoto and Kiriyama Ikuto during the mixed training camp exam, seemed to have become Class A's current leader. His group had also secured an impressive third-place finish.
"Second place: Class 3-B, Kiriyama's group, with a total of 267 points."
Having classmates expelled certainly gave Kiriyama Ikuto a headache, but overtaking Class 3-A in the final showdown was still a reasonably