"Alright, everyone. Because we're all new to this, let's work through this together slowly."

Matsushita was talking to everyone else, and pulled up the map of the school.

"Firstly, before I suggest my idea, would anyone like to share their ideas?"

Everyone was looking at each other with anxiousness. Since it was the first time doing this, we were like lost lambs. While the explanation was clear and the goals were easy to understand, trying to apply these concepts to something we've never done before was difficult.

It seemed like Matsushita quickly formed an idea in his head as to give us all a direction on where to go for our strategy. I too began thinking about what to do with the rules given, and ultimately reached a conclusion.

I had a general idea of a possible strategy, but I didn't want to speak out just yet since it wasn't fully developed and I had no clue if it would actually work. Since I didn't want to trouble anyone, I decided to keep quiet. My idea was outlandish anyways, so I didn't want to be called an idiot.

Chabashira-sensei stood next to the machine, and was assisting Kawaguchi in uploading his deck into the visor.

"Yeah, I got something." Akihiro raised his hand.

"What is it, Akihiro-kun?" Matsushita said.

"Let's first gauge how good everyone is."

"Good idea, but I feel like that would be too time-consuming, trying to determine everyone's skills right now. To narrow it down, let's try another approach. Who here likes playing Vanguard?" Matsushita said, raising his hand.

About half our class raised their hands afterwards, me included.

"Okay, so the ones who didn't raise their hands don't enjoy it, or?"

"I don't have any interest in it." Yamaguchi said. "I'd much rather sit out of the war."

"Right? Me too." Fujimura said.

Yukimura nodded along with their opinions.

Of course, those type of people had no interest in Vanguard. For Yamaguchi, he was usually seen hanging out with the troublemakers, and Fujimura was a gyaru. Gyaru's aren't known for their love of Vanguard, after all. Yukimura was exclusively invested in football and basically failed in every other aspect.

I did see him play Vanguard with Mitsuba once, but he was doing really badly at it. Since our war was being broadcasted live to the entire school, this could potentially be embarrassing for those who aren't good at Vanguard.

"I see... then, in that case..." Matsushita rubbed his chin, mulling over the options. He looked like a real leader, but an overly cautious one.

"Isogai-san, let's split everyone into two groups. Those who want to go to war, and those who don't. It'll make communication easier." Sakigamiya said.

"Yeah, let's do that. Everyone, if you want to go to war, please come to the front. If you don't, please go to the back."

The class began to switch seats. I decided to sit with those at the front.

Matsushita observed his classmates and nodded. "Alright, this makes things more clear for me now. May I have everyone's attention for a second? I'd like to explain my strategy."

Everyone turned to listen to Matsushita, even Chabashira-sensei.

"I think that we should split into two groups, attackers and defenders. The attackers will be hunting for Mikazuchi-senpai, and the defenders will be protecting me. My idea is that I'll hide in a difficult to access room, and the defenders will battle those who are trying to kill me. That way, the risk of me going into battle and losing will be decreased, and I won't fight unless absolutely necessary. How does that sound?"

While the concept of it was solid, I felt that the idea was too simple. That idea popped into my head first after hearing the rules, but it seemed too straight-forward.

In addition, A Class would have already thought of that and would be planning an appropriate countermeasure. After all, we have to factor in their veteran experience compared to our first time.

However, the class was quite happy and contempt with this strategy. Due to the outlandish thinking needed for the war, no one else could think of another strategy, or they were keeping quiet like me. Matsushita then added to his explanation.

"Those who do not like Vanguard can be my defenders, as numbers will be a key strength in defence. Those who do like it can actively seek battle and try to fight the King. Of course, I'll need a couple of you guys to be my defence so we aren't too fragile, but my strategy is trying to account for everyone's preferences. Those who don't like Vanguard won't do much, and those who do get to do a lot. It's a win-win for everyone involved."

Matsushita placed a lot of emphasis on his classmates. He cared a lot about everyone's opinions, and formulated a strategy around it. While this is fine, I thought it was an extremely narrow way of thinking. By only focusing on the cards available to him, Matsushita's completely failed to recognise that the opponent will also be making a move to counter him.

I decided that I should speak up before the strategy gets fully implemented. Even though my idea wasn't that great either, it would probably help get us another avenue of ideas being talked about. since no one else had anything different in mind.

However, before I could give my input, Sakigamiya interrupted me.

"I like this idea! Let's go with it!" Sakigamiya said. "Everyone, let's split up into attackers and defenders. Isogai-san, if it's okay with you, may I lead the attackers?"

"Of course. Having a leader for both groups would be ideal after all."

"Alright. If you want to defend, go to Isogai-san. If you want to attack, come to me."

My classmates began scattering into two groups. I groaned to myself, failing to say my piece. I really need to increase my communication skills. I stood up and went over to Sakigamiya, because I wanted to be an attacker.

I stood next to Yukina, who also chose to be an attacker. Akihiro decided he wanted to be a defender. Seemed fitting, since his deck was a Protect deck.

"You don't have any other strategies in mind?" Yukina asked.

"Well... I do. But I wasn't able to speak up about it."

"What did you have in mind?"

I scratched the back of my head. I was embarrassed to suggest this quite honestly.

"I think everyone should move together in one big group with Matsushita-san in the middle."

The moment I blurted those words out, everyone in the class had turned to me. Yukina smiled as I caught all of my classmate's attention.

"Can you explain some more, Yuu-kun?" She asked.

I can't help but feel like I was set-up a little. Despite that, Matsushita turned to me with a warm smile, as if encouraging me to speak up.

"Let's hear it Takanori-san. It could be better than the strategy we're formulating right now."

"Well... splitting up is fine and all. But.. why have two groups when you can have one big group that both attack and defends? As long as people huddle around Matsushita-san, we can block them from attacking him, and at the same time, since we're moving around the school, it would mean Matsushita-san isn't staying in a single place which makes it harder for A Class to find him. Plus, if we move as one, when we find Mikazuchi-senpai, we can attack him one after another consecutively. He can't run away and must face us head-on."

I explained my idea and looked away sheepishly. Matsushita's face lighted up.

"I think that's a great idea, Takanori-san! There's a lot of advantages to that."

"No, I don't think so." Sakigamiya said. She shook her head. "Moving around as a group will severely restrict our mobility. Say we get ambushed. A Class can take us down in one single swoop. Not to mention it'd be inefficient time wise. We have two hours to find and kill the King. If we can't, then it's the number of wins the class has that will determine who wins the war. By staying together, we lower the chances of that back-up victory plan. The strategy Takanori-san suggested isn't feasible at all."

Well, my idea got shot down pretty quickly. I'm impressed that Sakigamiya managed to find all the holes so quickly.

"If neither of us can kill the King, it'd be a good thing, right?" Akihiro said. "We just have to win more games than them in Vanguard. It's easier than trying to hunt for one specific person."

"The unknown skill level of our class will damper that. A Class could have better cardfighters than us, so that strategy would actually work in favour of them. But, in the case that we are better, then we can use that as a strategy as well." Sakigamiya said.

Despite Matsushita being our leader, Sakigamiya was slowly taking that role away from him. Her decisive personality and strong words were qualities that E Class needed more right now than Matsushita's kindness and compassion.

I realised that my idea wouldn't come to see the light of day assuming Sakigamiya takes control. I didn't want to cause an unnecessary argument, so I let my idea be discarded.

Losing interest in the discussion, I headed over to the machine after Nora had submitted his deck. He bowed shyly at Chabashira-sensei, then scurried off to Matsushita's group of defenders.

I stood in front of the machine and had both my deck and visor in my hands.

"Uh... how do I use this, Chabashira-sensei?" I asked.

The machine had a screen and two depositories. One depository was labelled with "Deck", the other was labelled with "Visor" and had a moulded interior for the visors specifically. They were comparable to little drop-boxes. Chabashira-sensei pointed at the visor depository.

"Firstly, place your visor in the visor depository."

Listening to Chabashira-sensei's instructions, I slotted my visor into it, and the machine closed the slot. It then scanned my visor, and the screen popped up with information about me and my visor.

"Then, place your deck into the other depository. The machine will scan that and upload your deck."

It was extremely simple. I placed my deck into the small hole, and the machine closed it, scanning through the cards. On the screen, a list of my deck was being materialised.

As I waited for this to happen, I watched Matsushita and Sakigamiya round up the class in order to implement Matsushita's original strategy.

After confirming both groups, Matsushita began discussing with his defenders separately while pointing at the map. It seemed that they were deciding on a place to hide in.

The Sakigamiya group was on the other side of the table, and each person took out their Vanguard decks and laid them on the table. It seemed like Sakigamiya was trying to evaluate her group's strengths and weaknesses.

Me and Chabashira-sensei stood at the machine in awkward silence. Her arms were crossed as she looked out at her class. She's such a serious person, but that too has it's appeal.

The machine finished uploading my deck to my visor. After confirming this action, the depository opened and I took my deck out of the hole. I then took my newly updated visor as well, and slid both into my blazer pocket.

Just as I was about to leave, Chabashira-sensei turned to talk to me.

"I believe your strategy was on the right track."

I stopped and looked at her over my shoulder. Despite not participating in our discussion, Chabashira-sensei was listening into it and had apparently thought my idea was closest to her own strategy.

Well, she is a homeroom teacher after all. She would be in this room assisting us during the actual war. No one had bothered to ask for her guidance, however. Not even Matsushita, who appeared to have good relations with her due to his class representative nature.

"What do you think the correct strategy is, Chabashira-sensei?"

"There's plenty of ways to fight in this war. But considering your opponents, I'd have you all stay inside a classroom and let A Class come to you."

What an interesting approach. Instead of attacking, we would be completely defensive. Did she think the gap in our abilities were that large? I'd only ever consider this option if we were guaranteed to horribly lose.

Perhaps, she was hinting that Mikazuchi was an aggressive man who would attack regardless of being a King. It'd make our lives a lot easier if he did come to us, but I doubted he was such a careless man.

If both classes went defensive, then no one would win the war. One of us was going to have to attack. Was Chabashira-sensei trying to say we should force our opponents to attack first? Her words were still a riddle to me.

"I see."

I walked away from her and sat down with the Sakigamiya group. The group was nine in total, including me. People like Yukina, Kawaguchi and Mitsuba were present.

"Takanori-san, welcome back. Can I see your deck?" Sakigamiya said.

I whipped out my deck and handed it to her. Sakigamiya began looking through the cards, nodding with a smile. "Well, I'm impressed. You're a good cardfighter, aren't you?"

"Not really. I'm just average."

"Your deck is extremely optimised. No way you aren't a good cardfighter." Sakigamiya handed me my deck back. "Okay, I'd like for everyone to play a game of Vanguard. This will help me see where everyone's power scale is. Partner up and get fighting!"

I awkwardly turned to Yukina. I only felt comfortable asking her for a game.

"Let's play Vanguard?"

"Sure."

Ah, this brings back memories of middle school. I would play Vanguard with Yukina during break because I didn't have any other friends.

We both know each other's decks like the back of our hands. At the very least, I'm aware of what I'm walking into...

...and it's not nice.

"Stand up, Vanguard!"