The Odd One Out

Chapter 5.3 - To Hide In Plain Sight

It was now the second day. The meetings we had the day before were unproductive.

Horikita had asked me to meet up with her to discuss the pattern after the morning meeting.

"Have you figured out the pattern?" I asked her.

"No... not yet, I feel like I'm close, but with only three VIP names, it's difficult to do so."

"Do you know who the VIP is in our group?"

"No, do you?"

"Yeah I do."

"What? Tell me then."

"I want to see if you can figure out the pattern first."

"Are you serious? So you're telling me you know the pattern?"

"Yes."

"Then why aren't you helping us?" Horikita slightly raised her voice.

"Horikita, what will we do when we discover the pattern?"

"That- I don't know."

"Knowing the pattern is one thing, but deciding what to do with it is another."

"What do you think we should do?"

"It's obvious that if you have the pattern, you can correctly guess all of the VIPs and gain a large amount of class points. However, many things come in play. Alliances, future conflicts, you name it. It's safe to say that if we were to correctly guess the Class A VIPs, it would be the end of our alliance."

"That's true... what do you suggest we do?"

"I don't plan on getting involved, Horikita. What the class will do is up to you and the others. What would you do?"

"I might attack Class C and Class B."

"What happens if they discover the pattern? They would simply attack Class D back."

"What are you trying to say?"

"In this exam, if you attack a class, that attack can be completely canceled out with that class attacking you back. Of course, that's assuming everyone knows the pattern."

"So?"

"Knowing that, there exists a way that won't change the class rankings and that will make it impossible to drop class points."

"Outcome 1 you mean?"

"No. Outcome 1 has a big risk. If someone decides to betray the group a few moments before the designated answer time, it would make it difficult for the others to fight back."

Horikita was seemingly deep in her thoughts.

"The way for everyone to avoid to drop class points is to have each class guess a certain class' VIPs and have each class have their VIPs guessed by the class they attacked."

"I see... that does seem like the best option. If we were to attack all classes, we would be making ourselves everyone's enemy. Do you think we use your strategy?"

"That's up to you to decide. I've already said more than enough."

We soon parted ways after.

********

Hiyori
11:17 AM

[Hey Kiyotaka-kun!]
[Do you have any plans for lunch?]

[I don't really have any plans]

[Do you mind joining me for lunch?]