The True Elites

Chapter 3-6: Deductions On A Desert Island

Ayanokōji's POV

"Shiina, can we ask you to wait outside for a little while? We wouldn't want any spies listening in on our class discussions, right?"

Kururugi asked her that respectfully, to which Shiina happily obliged, and left the cave. After she disappeared out of the mouth of it, we all looked back to each other.

I was sitting on one side of the cave, against the wall, with Kururugi next to me. Next to him sat Lelouch. The other four were opposite us.

"So, let's do some theory crafting!" Sora said enthusiastically.

"It's been quite some time since we all got together and put our collective deductive ability to the test." Light added with a smile.

"So, starting off, which leaders do we currently know?" Lelouch kicked things off with a general question.

"I know all but Class B's." I answered in monotone.

"What? You even know Class E's? When did you figure that out?" Kururugi looked at me in astonishment.

"In a really stupid way. Honestly, I'll feel embarrassed if I say it here..."

In truth, the way in which I found out Class E's leader was extraordinarily stupid.

"I'll explain everything in one go at the end," I added.

"Hmm, looks like ordinary student-kun has been doing some not-so-ordinary things behind the scenes." Lelouch laughed.

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" I sighed.

"Anyway, getting back on track," Ryuzaki interrupted, chewing his thumb. "All that's left for us to do now is figure out Class B's leader, right?"

"Indeed. Once we do that, we're set for a big promotion! If all goes well, we should be Class B by the end of the exam." Sora said.

"Class B? I thought we'd only get Class C." Kururugi responded, a little confused.

"We've currently spent 80 of our 300 points," Shiro answered him quietly. "That means we have 220 left. As long as we don't lose any spots now, we'll end the exam with 134 bonus points from spot occupation, as well as the 200 from guessing every other leader. That's a total of 554 class points gained, which would put us above Class B in the rankings."

"That many?!" Kururugi exclaimed in disbelief.

"Of course. Ayanokōji wouldn't go to these ridiculous lengths unless it'd result in such an outcome," Light affirmed with a grin.

The 'ridiculous lengths' Light was referring to were probably the fact that I'd decided not to sleep for the entire duration of the exam. To consistently be present to renew every single spot, I couldn't miss even one eight-hour interval. I supposed that I could just take naps throughout the day and have my classmates wake me, but I decided that it wasn't worth the risk.

My body could function just fine with no sleep for a few days, after all. I'd just take a big rest after I got back to the ship.

"You know, I never thought that I'd see somebody decide to pull three all-nighters in a row 'for convenience's sake,' but here we are." Lelouch chuckled.

"Don't be stupid. This is nothing. Shiro and I once stayed up for a week straight just to break the world record on a game. It was a record for 'most enemies slain in one run,' but we only had four accounts playing when the maximum was twelve in one run, so it took us an unexpectedly long time to beat the record since we only had a third of the optimal manpower." Sora informed us.

To be honest, I was slightly lost. I'd never played a video game before, so my understanding of what Sora was saying was very shallow. I vaguely understood that Blank held a world record, though, which was rather impressive. Somehow, I felt that they held quite a lot of records in the gaming world.