COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 4:Part 2

Once the rain passed, I woke Nanase up, and we gathered our things. I scanned the area again and headed in Haruka's direction. It was currently 7 p.m., and the leader boards would be revealed at midnight. Meaning my ranking would be public all night. Since I woke up earlier than most, I could meet up with Haruka early and manage to combine groups before anyone sees.

Nanase and I walked in silence as we usually did, but I could notice her glancing at me a couple of times. She probably felt guilty about attacking me and confused about our newly established friendship. I didn't say a thing, and we kept walking.

"Let's rest here. They're close by, so we can make it to them tomorrow."

"Why don't we go over there now instead, Ayanokoji-senpai? Why are you taking such a risk by waiting?"

"It would be even more strange if I suddenly appeared in front of them right around midnight."

Nanase nodded while thinking it over.

"It's a good thing you can add two members to your group. If you hadn't won that task, we might've been in trouble now."

I nodded at her and started setting up my tent.

I won a task a few days ago that allowed me to add two members to my group. I took part in that task on purpose so I could carry out my plan.

I only started this exam alone in order to observe the rules and find out everything I could first. My plan was to originally join Kei, but I noticed that she's been doing well when we met up, so I thought I'd leave her alone. If this exam helped her grow, then I couldn't interfere.

We woke up on the 8th day and immediately made our way towards Haruka. I checked the leader boards, and I was ranked Seventh. The leader board was as follows.

1st=Nagumo:171 points
2nd=Koenji:168 points
3rd=Kiriyama:157 points
4th=Yagami:150 points
5th=Ryuen:148 points
6th=Sakayanagi:141 points
7th=Ayanokoji:137 points

It seemed that even after what Nagumo said, quite a lot of second years made it to the top. Koenji was only having fun and still made it to second. Yagami being in the 4th was quite interesting. I learned from Nanase that he formed an "elite" group with other first year representatives, but I was still impressed. Sakayanagi and Ichinose were on the same team and were barely out of the top 5.

Even though I haven't been going all out and had tried to lower my points, I was still ranked seventh. If someone like Nagumo were to see my ranking, it would be quite troublesome, so I needed to hurry.

I also checked some other groups. Shinohara's name was gone, which meant she probably managed to join Sudo's group, which was in the top 50%. Kei's group was in the top 25%. Horikita and Ibuki were barely in the top 50%. If they were working together, they'd probably be a lot higher. However, Keisei's group and Haruka's group were both near the bottom ten.

We finally reached Haruka's tent, but she was sleeping. It was 6 in the morning, so I couldn't necessarily blame her, but I needed to hurry. I managed to wake her up, and she was staring at me in confusion.

"Huh? Kiyopon? What are you doing here? And who's this?"

She was rubbing her eyes, trying to wake herself up.

"Please wake up. it's somewhat urgent. And bring your tablet."

I waited outside with Nanase's alongside me and then saw Haruka get out. Airi also woke up probably because of the noise but hadn't left her tent yet.

"Is something wrong, Kiyopon?"

She looked towards Nanase again.

"And who's this?"