Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ✔

Chapter 23 - The Zodiac Exam, Part 2

That night, I received a message from Horikita, asking me to meet her at the café on the first floor of the deck the next morning. I assumed this was to discuss the groupings that were made a few hours back.

The next morning dawned upon me, and I headed out to the café. Ayanokoji wasn't in the room when I woke up, so I assumed he would be there too. And surely, he was there, but Horikita herself was missing. Preposterous.

"Yo."

"Oh.. good morning, Takeyama," Ayanokoji said, while sipping a cup of coffee.

"I'll take one as well," I said to the waiter, and he diligently went ahead to prepare my morning brew.

"The ice queen hasn't arrived herself. What a shame," I said jokingly.

"I wasn't expecting her to arrive early anyways," Ayanokoji shrugged. "She's a sadist."

"I heard that," Horikita-san took her seat in between me and Ayanokoji, giving both of us a menacing look.

"Talk about timings," I murmured. Ayanokoji hummed in agreement. "So, I assume it is about the Zodiac Test?"

"It is. My group turned out to be extremely irrational, almost to the point where I can't even call it a coincidence," Horikita stated, as she drew out a piece of paper with the names of all the students in her group. She must have memorized them while they had passed around the sheet yesterday.

If you think about it, the odds of Horikita's group being formed with its current members is almost nil. Almost all the Class Leaders are present in the Dragon Group. From Class A, there is Kohei Katsuragi; from Class B, Ryuji Kanzaki; and Ryuuen from Class C. Even our Class had Hirata and Kushida, 2 honor students. It would inevitably form a very strong group, where it would be hard to cooperate for winning or losing.

"It doesn't look like a coincidence," Ayanokoji said, scanning through the list. "It's so conspicuous."

"But why isn't Ichinose Honami a part of this group then?" I asked. "She would be a better representative than Kanzaki-kun for Class B, don't you think?"

"It did strike me as odd," Horikita said. "Ryuji Kanzaki could might as well represent Class B, it doesn't really make a difference. After all, even Class A is divided into factions, one for Katsuragi-kun, and the Sakayanagi faction. Sakayanagi isn't part of the group, so it proves my point. Furthermore, just because she is the face of the class doesn't mean that she is the leader of the class."

"I don't think Sakayanagi-san is a part of this exam," I said. "Mashima-sensei said there was one missing student in the exam due to 'weak physical constitution', so I assumed that would be her."

"Ah. But my second point still holds."

"What about the rest of the people in your group?" Ayanokoji asked.

"Normal. Nothing special about those." I snatched the paper from Ayanokoji and looked through the names.

---Class A: Katsuragi Kohei, Nishikawa Ryoko, Shita Shinji, Koharu Yano

---Class B: Ryuji Kanzaki, Ando Sayo, Tsukabe Hitomi

---Class C: Oda Takumi, Suzuki Hidetoshi, Sonoda Masashi, Ryuuen Kakeru

---Class D: Hirata Yosuke, Kushida Kikyo, Horikita Suzune

The only other person I knew apart from the Class Leaders and Class D was Nishikawa Ryoko, because I remember hanging out with her and Nishi Haruka before the start of the Island Exam. Everyone else was an unfamiliar name.

"I believe it will be time soon for the mail to arrive," Horikita said impatiently. As soon as the clock struck 8:00am, all 3 of our phones vibrated, not even a second apart. I quickly took it out, and scanned my email. Horikita pushed her phones on the table and allowed us to see her mail.