In conclusion: even when it came to his male parts, Nora was still undisputedly the cutest.

"That... that was Nora-chan, right? That was definitely, absolutely, 100% Nora-chan, right?"

"Yeah, that was Nora, alright... to be honest, I don't know whether I'm more pissed or disappointed at him."

An air of depression hung over Mitsuba and Yukimura as I walked with them back to their group's room.

"I have no clue how I'm gonna approach him now after seeing that though..."

"I get what you mean... I used to just think of Nora as a girl, but now that's gonna be the only thing on my mind when I talk to him."

"Heh... Fudou-san, my brother in arms, I'm have to confess something to you..."

"Oh god, don't tell me you whacked one to him or something. Keep that crap to yourself!"

"Don't be ridiculous! The only girl in our year I've jerked it to is Kazuraba-san! And Ichinose-san! And Yogen-san!"

"That's more than one girl, dumbass. You better have not done it with Sakigamiya-san in mind too!"

"...no comment."

"Oi, you totally have!"

"Ahh, I'm sorry! I've always wanted to bang a foreign girl!"

Yukimura roared, chasing after Mitsuba as he sprinted away in fear. However, it was pointless as Yukimura easily caught him, knotting him in a chokehold under his arm. This is what male friendships look like, huh...?

"I give, I give! Fudou-san, stooooop!"

"You've finally learnt your lesson, huh? Don't jerk off to my girl again, you hear!"

"I understand! I understand! It hurts, so please let go!"

In the first place, they weren't even dating... regardless, Mitsuba cried desperately, begging for sweet release from Yukimura's death grip. Eventually, Yukimura let go, tossing Mitsuba to the floor with a cruel smirk.

"Guu... one of these days, I'm gonna have a real reason to report you for aggravated assault..."

"Shut up, I'd never take it that far. Not my fault you're so scrawny anyways. Why don't you work out, huh?"

"I work out my right hand and crotch every day, thank you very much."

"That isn't working out, that's self-pleasure."

I was starting to get uncomfortable as these two somehow managed to impressively circle back to the topic of masturbation. Was that all Mitsuba ever thought about?

"You get pleasure from working out, so it's the same thing."

"Don't try to backwards logic your way outta this one, asshole!"

"You know I'm right, Fudou-san!"

"Just because you're right doesn't mean you're correct!"

Between their walking and arguing, these two arrived at their room. Just before Yukimura was about to open the door, he stopped.

"Oh yeah. What were you gonna say about Nora earlier?"

Remembering that Nora was already back in their room, Yukimura decided to broach this topic again while their friend wasn't present to hear it. Mitsuba clicked his fingers.

"To be honest, I thought Nora-chan was a girl who identified as a boy! The only reason I didn't ask him out was because I wanted to respect his decision to transition as a man!"

Me and Yukimura both stared at Mitsuba unimpressively.

"Did the whole first month of school escape your mind, you absolute head empty moron?!"

"There was also the whole mystery of who was Cinderella back in May."

"Uwa, did I say something so bad that even Takanori-kun decided to speak out....?"

Mitsuba grimaced as he realised just how big his misassumption of Nora was.

"Yes, it was that big! Also, I didn't even realise Takanori was still here... sup man."

"...hey."

"T-to be fair to me, Nora-chan was completely forgettable back in April! He was an NPC, a background character! I had no clue who he was or why he ate lunch with us, even after two weeks! It wasn't until his makeover I started realising how erotic he was!"

"You really do let your lust do the thinking..."

"Maybe you shouldn't be putting me in headlocks so often. You know that oxygen deprivation can kill brain cells, right?"

"That's it. No wonder you're such a dumbass! I'm sorry for making you the dumbest person in D Class, Mitsuba!"

"Oi, if you're gonna apologise for it, don't do it backhandedly!"

And they were back to arguing just like that. I sighed and knocked on their room's door. Answering it was Albert, though he didn't say anything.

"Hey. Mitsuba-san invited me to join you guys tonight, is that okay?"

Albert nodded, stepping to the side to let me through. I nodded back in appreciation and entered their room.

Compared to our group's room, it was way more messy, but it made the atmosphere more inviting too, as you could sense the tight bond knitted between everyone here.

It was a unique warm and fuzzy feeling that could only be recreated by friends. Even their futons, which were normally spread out, had been moved to be closer to each other. Some were even right next to each other.

Already in their room was Tanaka, John, and Nora. Aside from Albert and the two arguing outside, the only person missing was Mikitaka. I wasn't sure where he was or what he was up to.

I decided to approach Nora, who was huddled up in his futon while reading a book.

"...I'm surprised you have the covers on you when it's so hot today."

"A-ah, Takanori-kun... h-hello..."

"Hey."

I sat down besides him. Nora popped his head out like a turtle.

"I get really cold easily... that's why."

"Huh, I see. What are you reading?"

"Oh... it's a really famous light novel. A guilty pleasure of mine, actually..."

"Hm? The cover looks familiar. What is it?"

"It's Is It Wrong to Make a Harem of God's Slaves? by Takatsurugi Yagitsune..."

My eyes widened when Nora uttered that name.

I scrambled to tune out the rest of what Nora was saying and replace it with white noise. I could feel my brain collapse into scratchy static as my mind went blank with blood.

What should've been a comfortable conversation quickly turned into a mental battle to stay afloat amongst the nauseating madness spreading through my head, mouth, and nose.

It felt like my brain was being stabbed repeatedly as I tried to drain the name, memories, and feelings out. I tried to think of other things, things that I liked, things that I hated, mundane things, important things, other people, but it all led me back to him.

It was an inescapable nightmare.

I tried to scrub it all and erase it from my mind, but everything I tried doing only made the disgusting memories stronger. I couldn't forget. I wasn't allowed to forget. Because I hated it that much, my mind wouldn't let me kill the thought.

"T-Takanori-kun... Takanori-kun?"

I was dragged out of my own mental prison when I heard Nora call out my name.

"Are you okay...? Your face is all pale..."

Behind my closed lips, I grit my teeth. For a moment, I almost let my guard slip.

I almost revealed my hatred in front of them.

I nodded.

"I'm fine."

I'm sinking.

This isn't like me at all.

I've always considered my face a blank piece of paper.

That's why, when I think about him, it always feels like pitch black ink is being splashed on my face.

Ink that drips down, fades away, and peels back to uncover a person that's not me hidden inside.

I stare back at that black reflection and wonder just how long I can keep up this poker face.

I'm like a shackle, restraining the me of the past.

I've locked myself away with a curse I can't get rid of.

If it weren't for her saving me, I'd never cast this lock on myself in the first place.

I sound like a real hypocrite right now, don't I?

"Geez, you look even more depressed than usual. What happened, did your dog die?"

Yukimura slapped me in the back of the head while saying those words. I looked up at him.

"I think he's depressed that he's spending the evening with us, de gozaru..."

"Huh? You didn't have to accept that blockhead's invite if you didn't want to come here, y'know."

I rubbed the back of my head, shaking it.

"It's not that. I do want to spend some time with you guys..."

"Then what's on your mind man?"

"Yeah, you look gloomy as hell. It's weird when you look this sad!" Mitsuba said.

"Do you want to talk about it...?" Nora said.

"If a deep darkness from the past is troubling you Takanori-dono, please call upon yours truly, Lord Tanaka Doom-sama of the Legendary Sixty Fifth Aodenki Akuma clan, to dispel those evil spirits with my ancient quake technique, de gozaru! The light of electric yonder shall relight a path towards your soul's salvation from the beast with two back's temptations, de gozaru!!"

"Da mandem are here for you bruv."

"You've done a lot for our class, so it's the least we can do for you, brother."

Mikitaka stepped through the entrance and held out a can of lemonade for me. I gratefully accepted it.

"...you guys are weirding me out with how nice you're being towards me today."

"Eh? Do you like getting badmouthed by us?"

"You dirty masochist..." Yukimura said.

"Time to bust out the rumours again, ha ha ha ha!" Mitsuba said.

I looked at all of them with a deadpan stare.

"I take back what I said, continue being nice to me."

The six of them laughed, punching me in the arms playfully (except Nora).

"Seriously though, we really appreciate the help you've given our group, both today and on Monday." Mitsuba said.

"Exactly, de gozaru! Thanks to the devious tricks of Takanori-dono, our group have sneakily gotten the second most amount of points with a cumulative nature, de gozaru!

"You're the best leader we could ever ask for. Way better than that loser Matsushita!"

I scratched my cheek a little. I've never been complimented or praised this much by my fellow classmates before. Is this the feeling of embarrassment...?

Even though I was leader, I always kept some distance between me and everyone else. I could only truly call a few people my "friends", while the rest were just "acquaintances" to me.

But... seeing their kindness towards me changed my perspective a little.

To be honest, I thought these guys would be the last to say anything sappy like this. Even though I was practically a stranger in their friend group, they still treated me like an equal because of what I did to help them.

In the first place, my intention was never to make them happy. I was only helping their group for my own benefit. I never realised they appreciated it this much.

Maybe Yogen was right... maybe I only did move for someone else's sake, whether I realised or or not.

"T-thank you, Takanori-kun... I'm really h-happy... that you're here."

Nora tilted his head while smiling at me. My heart squeezed with an indescribable joy.

"...ah, this is dangerous. Too dangerous."

I popped open the lemonade Mikitaka gave me and began drinking it to hide my embarrassment. The guys laughed at me. Even the usually stoic faced Albert seemed amused by my reaction.

We spent the evening playing King's Game. A few notable events happened, like Mitsuba getting punched in the stomach by Albert and Yukimura, Nora stripping down to his underwear, and John shanking Tanaka in the thigh.

The only people who came out relatively unscathed were me and Mikitaka. Although, I did have to punch Albert in the balls, which was kind of awkward... and I want to forget about the time Nora was ordered to ride Mikitaka.

"Ah... that was a lot of fun."

I ended up muttering those words to myself while heading back to my group's room. I knew the air was going to be way less lively in there, but I was so drained of energy after spending my entire evening with them, I don't think I would notice a difference.

Since my throat felt a bit parched, and my head was pounding slightly, I took a detour to the living room to get a cup of water from the fresh water dispenser. However, I noticed there were two people there, and hid around the corner.

It was Shimada and Nakajima.

I leaned forward to the very limit so they wouldn't see me, and pushed out my ear so I could listen in on their conversation.

"...due to Yukada-san's retirement, our group lost 10 cumulative points."

"That much, huh? It was sneaky of the school not to disclose that in advance."

Thinking back to what I read in the extended rulebook for this special exam, Shimada was right. There was no mention of a penalty if a student was retired from a group.

"Well, they have a knack for not giving us all the information. Even at school they don't tell us about everything."

"That's the S System though. Usually they throw everything out in a special exam."

"In any case, it's best if we don't let any other groups know about this. If it got out we dropped from 1st place because of you, the other groups would make a mockery out of us."

"Who cares? Our intention in this special exam was never to win."

"While that's true, after seeing how these first three days went... I feel like we can win on top of retiring Blade-san."

"A complete victory, huh?"

Shimada broke out into a grin and began laughing.

"I like how you think, Rokurou. Fine then, let's win and kill that Masterpiece all at once."

"If we want to reclaim our position at the top, we have to win the next two challenges and keep Mitsuba-san's group out of the podium positions. Think you can do that?"

"Piece of cake. Yuuto won't be able to help that group in the next challenge anyways. For the rest of this week, they're dead."

"Makes sense. We should also prepare countermeasures against Ryouta-san's group too."

"Unnecessary. I've already planted a mole in their group. He'll mess 'em up on the inside for us."

"You have?"

I narrowed my eyes.

"Yeah. It's that bitch boy from B Class, Kouta."

I walked away, returning to our group's room.

"You're back late again."

Matsushita greeted me as I entered the room. It seems everyone else had turned in for the night. He was the only one still awake.

"Yeah. Did I miss anything?"

"Quite a lot, actually... you should be glad you weren't here for it."

"Why's that?"

"Everyone got into a pretty heated argument about Ryouta-san's decision today, which then devolved into an argument about who was the traitor among us."

"You mean the one about him giving Shimada-san's group second place?"

"Yeah. Machida-san was the one who kicked off about it since Yukada-san still got beat up anyways. I heard he got retired."

"...of course it's him who started the argument. And yeah, Yukada-san did."

"Typical Machida-san behaviour. But to be honest... I kind of got where he was coming from."

"You did? I'm surprised."

Matsushita, now feeling obliged to defend his opinion after my lukewarm reaction, began to spout out reasons to justify his hot take.

"I mean... it's like this. I get why Ryouta-san did what he did, but he should've known better. Shimada-san would've hurt Yukada-san either way, since the thing that got him pissed off was Yukada-san going against his authority, not the fact they would lose. Not only did he throw away the biggest chance to cripple the first place group's position, but he had also inadvertently caused more damage to B Class, as one of their classmates have been retired, and the group that's currently in first place has no members from that class."

Little did he know that due to Yukada's retire, the new first place group was Mitsuba's group, which contained no B Class students either.

"I can't imagine Machida-san taking that well. Especially since Ryouta-san's from A Class, the class above him."

I wonder if Shimada had also calculated giving Machida this opportunity to stir the pot when he set up Yukada to betray him. Since they were in the same class, it would look natural if he sabotaged this group out of revenge over Ryouta's actions.

"I think the next challenge is going to be the toughest one for us yet... simply because the divide between our group is bigger than ever before."

"...did anyone side with Machida-san?"

"No. He was completely by himself. At one point, he also began blaming Satou-san for not stopping Ryouta-san."

"That's one way to make an enemy out of everyone... so, how did it devolve into the traitor talk?"

"Midway through the argument, the letter containing the praise vote and blame vote distribution came in. Take a look for yourself."

Praise vote distribution
● Takanori Yuuto - 5
● Machida Kouta - 2
Blame vote distribution
● Zyriot Feirbuster - 5
● Ikeda Arata - 1
● Ryouta Hane - 1

"There's another vote for Ryouta-san..."

"Yeah. Like how we talked about it yesterday, Satou-san started accusing Machida-san for being the traitor."

"Satou-san, huh? He's usually so quiet, I'd never expect him to act so boldly."

"Says the guy who speaks even less but does things even more recklessly."

"When I do though, it works, doesn't it?"

"I guess I can't argue with that... anyways, Machida-san has been getting on Satou-san's nerves for awhile now. You can just tell by the way they look at each other."

"Yeah... I'm worried for the future of our group."

"You? Being worried about something? You're kidding, right?"

"I'm being totally serious."

"Even if you were, I know you've already come up with an insurance plan in case something like that ever happened."

"Nope. I haven't thought of anything."

"Wait, you haven't? Why not?"

"Because the glue holding our group together is Ryouta-san. He's the one who got us all to cooperate with one another in the first place. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. That's why, if for some reason, we lose him, or our faith in him, the entire group would crumble and fall to the bottom, as our individual prerogatives would override the group's priority. There would be no recovering from it."

"...that's a scary thought. We'd end up just like Handa-san's group, where no one actually works together."

"Exactly."

"So... aren't you going to do anything about it?"

"The only way you could reasonably fix that kind of situation is to find a new peacekeeper, but there are two problems with that. Firstly, it'd be a waste of resources when we only have four days left. Secondly, aside from Ryouta-san, there's no one else here suitable for it."

"Hmm... I don't know about that."

"Think about it. Machida-san is too controversial, Ikeda-san is only a leader in name, Satou-san is better off as an assistant, and Zyriot-san's an E Class student. The very idea of being lead by a student beneath all of us would make everyone feel uncomfortable. Even more moderate people like Ikeda-san would begin to feel resentment against Zyriot-san if he suddenly began leading the group."

This also applied to me and Matsushita, since we were from D Class, the second lowest rank in the caste. Subconsciously, because of the uniform we wear, we're all still highly aware of our standings at this school.

That's why I've kept the two of us out of the way and worked in the background. Group harmony is a tricky balance, but it can be easily achieved if everyone is satisfied within the group.

Whether they're self aware their own resentment towards the lower caste or not, I didn't want to upset anyone here by disrupting the "natural order" the school set up for us. It's better if the high ranks still believe they're mighty, even if they're not.

"I don't think so. Zyriot-san is well respected, isn't he?"

"Having a label is a very powerful thing. It can end up as someone's master status, causing them and everyone around them to believe that's what they are. You can see it with Zyriot-san's behaviour this special exam. He's realised in position in the school hierarchy and subjugated himself to supporting roles."

"But he lead us today while Ryouta-san was away. Everyone listened to him then."

"He was only a leader in name. He never suggested a plan of action. Instead, he asked for everyone else's opinions on what to do. If anything, I was more of a leader during that round. If this was the Zyriot-san from D Class, he would've made us follow his lead."

"Ryouta-san also does that. He asks for everyone's opinion then chooses one of them to follow through with."

"That's the difference. Ryouta-san uses his authority to push through the most popular decision. Zyriot-san folded to the first ideas thrown at him. There was no room for discussion."

"Then, that just means your plan was that good."

"Was it really? I never mentioned the fact I was going to work together with two other groups to rig the points. Zyriot-san just sent us off in the blind hopes we'd win without any sort of game plan. That's not something a leader would do, right?"

"I think it is. It shows he has faith in you, your critical thinking, and your autonomy!"

"That's just a nicer way of saying "I don't have a clue what I'm doing, so I'll leave it to the rest of you to figure out!". It's lazy and shows your incompetence. How can you expect to lead your followers if you don't even understand the task at hand yourself?"

Matsushita was taken back by my harsh words. Part of him must've felt hurt by this, since that's exactly how he used to lead our class.

"We've both seen firsthand what Zyriot-san can do when he truly leads his people. That war against D Class was a humiliation for us. It's a shame he's lost his edge just because we sent him down to E Class."

On the off chance Zyriot was eavesdropping, I said that part loudly with emphasis, to get him to act like his normal self around us. We could do with another strategist in our group other than me and Machida.

"If we had to bring in a new leader, it's best if our group crumbles tomorrow."

"Why's that?"

"Because on the fourth day is the trade window. If our group unanimously agrees that Ryouta-san is no longer a good leader, we could trade him out for someone else."

"Right, so it's like a last ditch effort... I hope it doesn't come to that."

"Me too. But at the same time, it's our only opportunity to get rid of the traitor in our midst."

"Can we even find him before the end of tomorrow? It seems impossible..."

"Sure we can. In fact, I'll promise you right here and now."

I looked down at Matsushita.

"I will find the traitor and expose him."

In fact, I already knew who it was.

"...that seems way out of your league, even for you."

"You said the same thing when I told you I'd rock our class from the bottom to the top. And look where we are now after one semester."

"Heh... that's true. Maybe I shouldn't underestimate you so much."

Matsushita sighed, smiling a little.

"For now, just try to endure working together for four more days. After that, it'll be all over. Think you can do that much, Matsushita-san?"

"...if I'm in your group, then I don't have a choice. I hope things go well for us at the very least."

"Yeah."

I knew for a fact it wouldn't.