Saving a Wayward Girl (Ahem)

"How does it feel now that you've woken up from your dream?"

"Dreams always have to end eventually."

Was this the difference between reality and dreams? Yesterday, I'd been pretty excited to see Sakayanagi, but after today's match, that passion was nowhere to be seen.

"Actually, it's pretty simple to beat him. You just need to set a test on something outside his frame of reference. To put it bluntly, there are plenty of people in Class D who could beat Ayanokoji."

Beating Ayanokoji was easy enough. He was only human, after all—not omniscient.

"Like what?"

"Have Ayanokoji compete against the otaku in Class D on their knowledge of otaku culture. He'd be utterly crushed. But he's kind of like a Saint Seiya character—he won't fall for the same trick twice."

All you had to do was set up an oddball competition that played to Ayanokoji's weaknesses. Road Tyrant wasn't going to fill Ayanokoji's head with this kind of knowledge. These obscure facts served much the same purpose as questions that contaminated a test bank.

"A Saint Seiya character who won't fall for the same trick twice? That's a very vivid description."

As she sipped her tea, Sakayanagi glanced at the deck of playing cards in my desk drawer.

"He's a fast learner, so there's nothing wrong with calling him a genius. But I can't see a future for that guy.

"Become a teacher in the new White Room? I don't think he has what it takes to be a qualified teacher. At the very least, he could never reach the teaching level of Mashima, your Class A homeroom teacher.

"Knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it are two different things. You can't achieve the latter just by being a fast learner.

"Go into politics? I can't help laughing at the suggestion. Anyone can see what would happen to someone who only knows how to 'learn' emotions if he entered the political arena.

"Politics isn't like an institution or a school. No one's going to keep giving him second chances. A single minor failure could define his entire future. Besides, if he really were to go into politics, they'd be better off training an AI, putting a skin on it, and sending that in instead."

In my eyes, Ayanokoji couldn't even measure up to an ordinary laptop. Of course, if it came to a fight, Ayanokoji would win easily.

What good was being both book-smart and street-smart? This wasn't some strange world where you could bring a knife to a gunfight. At a distance, the gun was faster; up close, it was both faster and more accurate!

"Let's play a round."

"Huh?"

Sakayanagi's sudden suggestion caught me off guard.

"Let's play a round using the rules of this Special Exam."

Sakayanagi leaned forward and took the deck of cards from my desk drawer.

"Ryuen, would you mind refereeing?"

Sakayanagi handed the cards to Ryuen.

"You're actually choosing me to be the referee?"

As he drew cards from the deck, Ryuen marked them with a pen.

"Cards with a circle drawn on them are black cards. The rest are white."

Ryuen and I switched places, and I sat across from Sakayanagi.

"No need to flip a coin. I'll take a slight disadvantage."

After looking at the cards in my hand, I shot Ryuen a glare, then stopped him from flipping a coin and chose to play a card right away.

It was a K with a circle on it. I wanted to see what Ryuen was up to.

"Masaryu going first is a rare sight. I'll counter with this 7."

Sakayanagi really did pick a 7 from her shuffled hand and handed it to Ryuen.

"Too bad. Sima wins this round, one to zero."

After announcing the result, Ryuen put the two cards back into the little box.

"So it looks like Sakayanagi didn't play a 9."

I could say whatever I wanted about my own cards and make whatever claims I liked about the match. If Sakayanagi played an unmarked card, I could say she hadn't played a 9. If she played a marked card, I could say she hadn't played an 8. Ryuen just had to avoid making a mistake.

"Masaryu's choice certainly surprised me."

After hearing the result, Sakayanagi seemed impressed by how bold my play had been. Losing a round to a trick didn't really upset her. That was just how this game worked. You got used to it.

"Then I'll play this one."

I handed Ryuen an unmarked K.

"Then I'll play this second 7."

Sakayanagi handed Ryuen a 1.

"Sima wins the second round too. Two to zero. Sakayanagi, you're not very good at this, are you?"

Ryuen was even more devious than I was. Of the nine cards he'd given me, there were three Js, three Qs, and three Ks. If I understood correctly, they represented loss, draw, and win respectively.

This kind of childish competition was really boring. I also had a hard time understanding why Sakayanagi was so fixated on beating Ayanokoji in a competition.

"In the end, the match finishes three to three. It's a tie! Congratulations, congratulations!"

Ryuen manipulated things so that Sakayanagi and I ended our match in a three-to-three tie.

"Ryuen, could I inspect that deck of cards?"

Sakayanagi wore an extremely pleasant expression now. She must have realized something was off, since Ryuen had stopped even pretending in the later rounds.

"If you want to inspect it, go ahead. First you ask me to referee, and now you doubt my impartiality. The world's really gone downhill."

Putting on an exaggeratedly disappointed look, Ryuen handed Sakayanagi another deck—the one we'd used to play with in the Activity Room.

It was identical to the deck we'd just used, right down to the shape of the markings.

"This isn't the deck we were using just now, is it?"

Sakayanagi rubbed the cards between her fingers, feeling the difference.

"It's not the deck we were using just now. I warned you from the start that I'd be at a disadvantage in such a boring match."

I wasn't too happy as I said that either. Seeing Sakayanagi acting a little dazed, I almost wanted to take her cane and whack her with it again.

"Tell me, Sakayanagi. Did you realize anything from the setup we just pulled?"

To put it bluntly, it was already impressive that the Ayanokoji family had managed to rise to prominence. The fact that they kept climbing in the story was downright absurd.

"Two people ganging up on a little girl—is Masaryu telling me that I should do whatever it takes in a fight?"

Sakayanagi looked a little confused, too. The prank hadn't been fun at all.

"Sakayanagi, you come from a prestigious family, don't you? What era do you think this is? It's been over a thousand years since armies settled things by having their champions duel before a battle.

"Or do you think the advantages your family background gives you are a burden? Do you believe that fights between people have to be absolutely fair?"

Even if Sakayanagi beat Ayanokoji one-on-one, so what? What would that prove? How many people had the White Room even trained?

No matter who won their match, Sakayanagi would still lose.

The two sides weren't even close in population. Even if Sakayanagi crushed Ayanokoji, all she'd prove was that she could defeat one exceptional graduate chosen from an institution of a few hundred people.

It would only prove that Sakayanagi was formidable, not that there was anything wrong with the White Room. And if Sakayanagi won but didn't crush him, it would be like a publicity stunt—her future achievements would be endlessly used to promote the White Room.

And if Sakayanagi lost, she was done for. She'd become a stepping stone for the other side to make a name for itself.

How could a fight where you lost the moment you so much as looked at him drag on for so long?

Wouldn't the best approach be to use the resources at your disposal and tear the whole White Room apart? If you couldn't destroy the White Room, surely taking down Ayanokoji would be easy enough.

With a family background like Ayanokoji's—a political upstart's family, if ever there was one—it would only take a couple of slaps to knock him back down. The help was still trying to sit at the grown-ups' table. What a joke!