" Hoshinomiya-sensei, would you be willing to be our shadow leader?" Kitahara asked slowly.
"Huh?" Hoshinomiya was so startled by Kitahara's astonishing suggestion that she nearly jumped. She quickly stammered,
"Th-this... this would already be against the rules."
After hearing her response, Kitahara merely smiled. He knew that rules were the last thing anyone should talk about at this school.
If they simply followed the rules, would the lower-ranked classes ever have a chance to rise?
So Kitahara continued, "Sensei, you just said that the Key Card would be given to the leader by the homeroom teacher, but you never said the homeroom teacher couldn't hold onto it temporarily."
"Although that's true, there's no rule against it, I can't get involved as a teacher." Hearing Kitahara's words, Hoshinomiya quickly tried to dissuade him.
At Hoshinomiya's reply, Kitahara smiled as if he'd gotten his way. "So you're saying it'll be fine as long as you're not a teacher, right?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" The three of them all looked confused by Kitahara's answer.
Seeing their puzzled expressions, Kitahara explained slowly, "I want to buy your identity as a student for seven days, Hoshinomiya-sensei."
"You—you—you're not thinking of making me a student for seven days, are you?" Hoshinomiya stared at him in shock.
Kitahara nodded. "That's right. If you join us as a student, it won't count as breaking the rules."
"So please tell me how many points it'll cost."
Hearing Kitahara's idea, Hoshinomiya hesitated. She hadn't expected him to be so audacious as to come up with a way to make a teacher into a student.
But this method really did circumvent the rules of the exam, and would basically make them invincible. After all, no class would ever think that the homeroom teacher was the leader.
Ichinose and Kanzaki, standing nearby, were in much the same state as Hoshinomiya. They now understood what Kitahara had meant when he said they should take a gamble.
At the same time, they realized that if they actually went through with Kitahara's plan, Class B would be unbeatable in this exam. But all of that depended on...
They turned their eyes to Hoshinomiya, who was still hesitating.
After a while, Hoshinomiya said helplessly, "Kitahara, you've certainly given your teacher a difficult problem. I'd really like to agree, but I'll need to ask the school for approval before I can decide."
Hearing Hoshinomiya-sensei's reply, Kitahara remained confident. "Sensei, I'm sure the school will agree, so please go and ask."
Looking at Kitahara's determined gaze, Hoshinomiya sighed. "All right. I'll give it a try." With that, she hurried off again.
Watching her leave, Ichinose said worriedly, "Kitahara, do you really think the school will agree?"
"Don't worry. Even if the school doesn't agree, I still have a second option, don't I?" Kitahara reassured her.
Then he looked at Kanzaki and continued, "While Hoshinomiya-sensei is gone, let's confirm what supplies we'll need."
"Okay," Kanzaki replied with a nod.
"Right, Ichinose, could you first collect everyone's suggestions? We'll make a decision afterward." Kitahara turned to Ichinose.
"Sure..." Ichinose replied.
After Ichinose left, Kanzaki turned to Kitahara and asked, "Kitahara, if this plan doesn't work, what's your second option?"
"My second option..."
Kitahara sighed before answering, "My second option is to become the leader myself."
Kanzaki was a little surprised by Kitahara's answer. He hadn't expected the second option to be Kitahara himself, especially since Kitahara had already pointed out the risks of the three of them acting as leaders.
But he soon felt reassured, because he knew Kitahara wouldn't take a gamble without being sure of the outcome.
(Except when he's always breaking up the team while playing games.)
Kanzaki silently added that to his thoughts.
Seeing that Kanzaki had no more questions, Kitahara didn't explain his reasoning. He simply turned his gaze toward Ichinose, who was talking with everyone in the distance.
He then realized that this second plan should have been the first one he'd brought up.
In fact, he'd already made his plan long ago, intending to help Ichinose awaken sooner: he would make her the leader.
He already knew Class B would eventually take in students from Class C, which would lead to their leader's identity being leaked. And with him around, they probably wouldn't ally with Class D.
That meant Class B would be caught in a situation where it was attacked from three sides during this Special Exam.
But that alone wasn't enough, so he'd been planning to make things even harder. He'd even considered giving Class C a push from behind the scenes.
After all, the two classes were only a little over 400 Class Points apart.
But after hearing Hoshinomiya's explanation just now, Kitahara decided to change his plan. He'd thought of a way to help Ichinose awaken while earning points for the class.
And so Plan B had replaced Plan A.
By the time Kitahara came back to his senses, Ichinose had finished gathering everyone's suggestions.
Pointing to the items in the handbook, Ichinose said to Kitahara and the others, "The first thing we need to deal with is food. Since there are so many of us, buying enough with points would leave us with very few points in the end."
"So after discussing it, we thought we could get food from the forest or along the coast near the beach. The teachers said the whole island was within our permitted range of activity."
"That would save us a lot of points, but we'd still need to buy some basic cooking utensils to prepare the food we find."
"Wait..." Before Kanzaki or Kitahara could speak, Ichinose continued,
"After dealing with food, we'll also need to take care of water. But that should be easy enough to solve, since we're on the coast."
"And..."
Just as Ichinose was about to continue, she finally noticed the slightly complicated expressions on Kitahara and Kanzaki's faces. Her voice gradually weakened.
"Um... is there something wrong with my plan?" Ichinose asked uneasily, closing the handbook.
"No, no, Ichinose, your plan is perfect. We just wanted to ask if you'd considered safety. Most people are doing this for the first time, and they might not be able to tell whether some foods are poisonous..." Kitahara reminded her carefully.
At Kitahara's words, Ichinose nodded slightly. "You're right. I didn't think it through."
"I'll ask the students with relevant experience to keep an eye out. When we split into groups, I'll try to pair experienced students with beginners so they can look out for each other."
"Good. That makes it perfect," Kitahara replied.
"Go on and tell us what else we need to prepare."
"Okay."