Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V3: Chapter 6 - Divided We Fall

Hashimoto Masayoshi POV

On the fourth day everyone woke up in a sour mood.

Yesterday five students had retired due to food poisoning making us lose 150 points. Tomori was among those students. It passed as an unfortunate event to all of us. Despite that, the sour ambiance couldn't be avoided. Katsuragi had tried to cheer us up, saying that we could still win and more things along those lines.

Even if he told us he had a plan to make up for the complications, this was already the third setback we faced. The thirty points taken because Sakayanagi wasn't here, Class B taking the cave before us and now the food poisoning. It was understandable if our class moral was on the ground.

We were only hopping for the end of this exam and for these last days to go as uneventful as possible.

Well, I suppose I shouldn't include myself in there. After all, I found the whole situation a little entertaining.

Before leaving, Tomori had instructed me to meet Ryuuen in a specific place of the forest tomorrow night. I assumed she would take care of contacting Ryuuen. This made me think that she had something to do with the food poisoning but couldn't be sure, she had retired after all. I also assumed sabotaging our class by selling out our leader had something to do with a plan of the Princess to finish Katsuragi, so I decided to roll with it.

Being in the Princess and Tomori's side was by far the better choice.

After breakfast and roll call were done, I was going to start with my chores when a scream came out of one of the tents.

"What the hell, Satonaka!"

I immediately recognized the voice as Shimizu Naoki's, one of my closest friends. He held a bag of snacks in his hands and looked furious. He walked directly toward Satonaka.

"What's the meaning of this?!" he questioned putting the bag of snacks froward.

"Eh? What's the problem, Shimizu? Where did you get that?"

"Don't try playing dumb! I found this hidden among your things! You bought this on our back. How much points have you spent?!"

"What are you talking about? It's the first time I've seen that bag. And why were you digging into my things?" Satonaka spoke calmly but a frown on his face showed that he wasn't comfortable at all with the situation.

"That's beside the point and I told you to stop playing dumb. How much had you spent? Are you the only one that has been spending on the others back? It wouldn't surprise me if you were buying for your little group.

"Hey! You're going too far, Shimizu," Machida intervened.

"Oh, shut it Machida! Of course, you would defend him!"

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Take it as you will, I believe my point was very clear."

The tension just kept increasing and it seemed like a fight could break at any moment. Sensing the dangerous atmosphere Katsuragi intervened.

"Shimizu, I understand it upsets you but—"

"Upsets me?! Of course, it does! I followed your plan because I trusted you would lead us to victory but it's just being disaster after disaster!"