"And Ichinose-senpai," Ichika continued her analysis. "She probably thought the same way. She wanted to spend as much time together as possible during this final year because she knew she would lose."
"Huh?" Yukino was slightly taken aback.
Because—
Ichinose-senpai had actually already accepted that she would lose?
Then—
If Ichinose-senpai lost, Amasawa's chances should have improved. Yet Amasawa seemed to be approaching this somewhat negatively.
Then Ichika Amasawa continued,
"I don't like losing."
"The environment I grew up in taught me that losing meant being completely denied."
"Of course, losing at a time like this might not be so terrible."
"But I came up with a plan," Amaza said. "A plan I can accept. I think both Kushida-senpai and Ichinose-senpai can accept it too. The question is whether Sakayanagi-senpai can."
"What do you mean?" A voice interjected at that moment. It belonged to Morishita, who had finished handing things over to Yukino earlier but had not yet left.
Morishita and Sakayanagi Arisu were in the same class. She had hurried over as soon as she received instructions, so in a sense, she was one of Sakayanagi's people.
And neither Ichika nor Yukino had avoided speaking in front of her just now.
In other words, Amasawa had something she wanted to convey to Sakayanagi-senpai.
So what was that message?
"It should be a choice for Sakayanagi-senpai," Ichika said. "Because if I withdraw, her chances of winning will improve as well."
"I can choose to withdraw, but she has to agree to one condition."
"I've already sent her the specific condition."
But wasn't Ichika's way of thinking a little too abnormal?
Sitting in a private dining room on the third floor, Sakayanagi Arisu stared blankly at her phone.
Because—
At that moment, Sakayanagi understood clearly that the fact Ichika had