Volume 12, The Seventeenth Question

Volume 12, The Seventeenth Question

Please fill in the answer to the following blank:

Light is made of waves, and ( )

Himeji Mizuki's answer:

Light is made of waves, and (particles).

Teacher's Comment:

Correct

Tsuchiya Kouta's answer:

Light is made of waves, and (I am a cat).

Teacher's Comment:

I do find it amazing that it reads so smoothly.

Yoshii Akihisa's answer:

Light is made of waves, and (a hero's armor)

Teacher's Comment:

Now that is the Yoshii-kun I know of.

“Alright, I'm going to explain the strategy right now.”

I gather the few remaining survivors in front of the old school building to stand guard, and say to the other participants in the operation gathered in D class on the 4th level of the building,

“F class really is amazing to not give up even in this situation.”

“…I think that's class F's strength.”

“We're not strong at all!”

It just feels a little strange, but I wonder if those A class girls are praising us or looking down on us. This is our only strong point thought; some may think of us as being stubborn, and others may think of us as having strong wills.

“What's our situation now, Sakamoto? I don't know at all because I was taking the replenishment tests just now.”

“Well, you're right. Let's explain the situation before the operation begins.”

“In that case, Sakamoto-kun, please allow me to explain.”

Kubo offers to explain the current situation in my place. As I've been going around preparing for the operation, this guy and Shouko are more aware of what's going on now.

“Is that so? My bad. I'll leave it to you, Kubo.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Kubo uses a hand to hold the note containing the remaining fighting strengths, and starts to explain,

“First, our remaining forces. Our class A still has half its members left.”

Other than those protecting Shouko, our year representative, everyone else had been outside the old school building preventing the enemy from attacking. We had been keeping A class' fighting strength up till now, but seeing how even they're being worn out, I can tell that we're really being beaten quite badly.

“And then, there is a group of B class students taking part in the replenishment tests…about 20% of them survived.”

Nemoto ended up on standby at the back because of an unfortunate incident, and thanks to that, B class still managed to survive.

“Unfortunately, classes C and E were completely annihilated. D class has around 10% left.”

The representatives of C and E classes were defeated in battle, and had to be withdrawn. D class is currently about to be defeated because of the defeats from those two classes.

After explaining till this point, Kubo checks the details on his note, and nudged his glasses, saying,

“And finally, class F—has 60% of its members still alive and active.”

“6-60%!?”

“Class F was fighting on the frontlines, right? Why're they able to last so long and even come here here alive!?”

Kudou and the older Kinosheeta sister are really surprised.

“There's nothing surprising about that.”

“That's our strength after all.”

Sugawa and Fukumura are gathered here for the upcoming operation, and grin haughtily as they face their shocked looks.

“But no matter what—”

The older Kinosheeta sister's still in shock as she says,

“Maybe you don't understand what our F class' strength lies in!”

It's a cliché to say what it is. I won't explain things here.

However, we do have a strength others can't copy,

“““Don't underestimate our kneeling!!”””

“Why did you say it when I tried to change the topic!?”

“…Ah, they have some dirt on the foreheads.”

“Ahaha…you basically begged for them to let you go, didn't you…”

“We really can't learn from them though…”

I suppose giving up on their own prides to survive can be considered some sort of strength…right?

“An-Anyway! The current situation is as Kubo has said! I'm going to explain the strategy now.”

I shout to change the awkward atmosphere here. Shimada sensed my intents goodness gracious and seems to say this as she adds on,

“Right now, we can only attack the opposing representative if we want to win. What do you intend to do?”

“I intend to sneak amongst the enemies and attack.”

A frontal attack's impossible now, so we can only bet everything on this.

“…Sneak amongst the enemies?”

“But no matter what you say, they're standing guard right now…”

Shouko and Kudou simply thinks that we're able to break through the enemies just by sneaking it. There's no strategy for us to take such a simple plan though.

“That's why we need the guys from F class, and Hideyoshi.”

“Kinosheeta…ahh, I see how it is.”

“…To think you can think of it every single time.”

“““???”””

I see that there're different reactions from the usual, and ignore them as I continue,

“The strategy this time is simple. We're going to take on the attackers and beat them. Hideyoshi will then use some make-up to turn Sugawa and the reason—”

“We'll go take on Takashiro with that 'we're back from our replenishment tests' look, right?”

“If we defeat him like this, we're be the MVP!”

“Yeah, that's right.”

These guys are used to fighting, and they won't falter even when enemies surround them.

“Hideyoshi's preparing the make-up in another classroom. Just get ready to go on further instructions.”

“Seriously, looks like we have no choice here.”

“We'll leave it to you, the shining beacons for us second years.”

““Leave it to us!””

Sugawa and the rest leave this D classroom with enthusiasm.

They do have ability and guts—and most importantly, they're stupid, which makes them easy to use.

“Then, Sakamoto, what do you intend to do after using Sugawa and the rest as pawns?”

Shimada watches them leave in amazement, and then asked me this. Pawns? Isn't that such an ugly term to use? We should call them the foundation for our futures.

But it's a fact that they'll be sacrificed.

“Do you know what Takashiro's personality is like?”

“Eh? I do know he's easily bluffed…”

“Yeah. I couldn't really tell here, maybe because he's all tense in this summoning war. This fact however won't change though, or rather, it'll be better for us if he's being wary for us.”

“…Why?”

“What should be his allies are actually enemies in disguise—if this ends up happening again, how would someone easily fooled react?”

“(Nods)…I see.”

“You really thought about a lot of things, Sakamoto.”

“I'm honored to be praised by you.”

Takashiro understands very well that he's easily bluffed. What'll happen if someone like him can't trust anyone around him?

“In that case, just leave me alone and not have anyone defend me.”

Kudou clapped her hands. She's right; there's only one objective here, to create a situation where Takashiro's not defended by anyone.

And for this say—

“It's best if we can disguise ourselves as those that can approach Takashiro easily. The Toko-Natsu pair, for example.”

We'll first disguise ourselves as those guys and attack Takashiro a few times. Once he starts to be imprisoned by his own doubt, he'll think that everyone around him are all his enemies, and in that case, Takashiro will be alone again. This works better on someone who knows that he's eaisly bluffed.

“In other words, we have to beat the ones we have to disguise.”

“Right.”

There's a need to restrain those we need to disguise and rob their freedom. The best method of doing this is to beat them in summoning battles and send them to the detention room.

The problem is that those guys are strong A class members…

“Are you fine with taking on those guys, Shimada?”

“Of course, I can't possibly let it end after having lost all this while.”

Shimada answers without hesitation even though her opponents are the 3rd years from A class. Good answer.

“Next, Muttsurini and Kudou. I'm going to make you two guard the gate using your specialty subjects. I don't plan to let anyone else stay here.”

“Eh? Erm, though I'm okay with that…”

Kudou looks a little glum.

If these two are together in a battle of health education, there's no way to break through them…as long as the enemy isn't something they can't get along with.

“Are you sure about that, Sakamoto-kun? If Aiko and Tsuchiya-kun are at such an obvious place.”

“Right, a woman, like that Kogure for example, will appear there.”

It's very important to break through us head on if they want to break through to this old school building we're defending with all our lives, and as the other sides are all very narrow, the only way to send in a large number of people is to go through the front entrance. If those two are the ones defending such a place, I'll send her in too if I were the opponent.

“But that's just what I want. If we're going to execute this plan I just mentioned, it's very important to lure away that woman, who's always with Takashiro, since she's able to see through this strategy.”

“That's not what I mean, Sakamoto-kun. What I'm saying here is that Muttusurini-kun will be deceived by her!”

“…Understood. I accept this mission.”

“Muttsurini-kun!?”

Muttsurini cuts off Kudou's words as he nod indifferently, like it's not a big deal.

“I'll leave it to you, Muttsurini.”

“…(Nods).”

“Now's not the time to nod! I think it's better for Muttsurini-kun to go somewhere else after all…”

“…I refuse.”

Muttsurini again cuts off Kudou's words.

“……Humph.”

And so, Kudou stares at Muttsurini intently.

“…Why're you giving me such a look.”

“Are you actually thinking that if you accept this mission, you'll be able to see that upperclassman in her lewd getup again, Muttsurini-kun?”

“…! (Panics)”

Muttsurini denies it with that usual action of his, and I continue to explain,

“Right. Up next is the positions of the other members. If we're going to last till the end of the replenishment tests, there's a need to block the path leading to Shouko with all our might. The details are—”

I draw a simple map on the blackboard, pick the names from the namelist Shouko and Kubo made and position them. We lost quite a lot of people, but it still took us some time explaining things to everyone.

………

……

…

“Understood, Sakamoto-kun. Is there anything else you need us to do?”

“Hm…what exactly?”

The older Kinosheeta sister asked, and I answer with a hand on my chin. As for what else to do…

“Nothing.”

“…Huh?”

“All that's left is to waste time until the enemy comes. Just chat all you want.”

The older Kinosheeta sister, who has a serious personality, doesn't seem too happy about this as she watches me wordlessly,

“I say, Sakamoto-kun…it's late given that we left everything to you, but is this really alright?”

“Yeah, it's alright. The instruction to sneak into the enemy has been given. Those people here just need to buy time for Akihisa to take the replenishment tests.”

The enemy hasn't intended to attack us seriously, and if we all go take our replenishment tests, we won't be able to handle them if they attack us. There's no choice other than to wait.

“Hm…but you want us to chit-chat in such a situation…”

“…It's troubling.”

“Ahaha, to put it, it somehow feels weird. We have nothing to do even though a great battle's about to being now.”

A class isn't used to such a situation, and while they're murmuring away, someone pushes the classroom door aside and enters.

“What's with you people? I thought you're being cornered, but you look rather relaxed here.”

“Hideyoshi, are you done with the disguises?”

“Call it make-up instead of disguise. It's basically okay.”

Hideoshi nods and walks into the classroom. What we have to do now is to immobilize the ones we're disguising, and the only thing we can do is to wait for the enemy to attack.

“Then, Yuuji, are you really able to handle this calmly?”

“Not at all.”

“Well, I guess so.”

Right now, the enemy only has to wait for us to be worn out, and what they have to do is to formally attack once we're battered and beat the representative Shouko. Once they do that, everything will be over. Our second years facilities will be degraded, and Himeji will be advised by Akihisa and her parents to go overseas. Such an outcome is easy to understand.

“Normally, we would have given up~”

“Right. If I'm in the 3rd year, I'll be thinking of what to do after this war.”

Kudou and Kinosheeta said. It's as they said, Takashiro's victory and our loss is clear for all to see.

The blueprint Takashiro drew is almost a reality. That guy must be laughing away, since the plan he spent so much time, thought and effort on is about to bear fruit.

“…But I won't let him get what he wants.”

If it's almost there, it means it's still not complete.

We let that bastard do whatever he wanted for so long. He interfered in our battle against C class, got in the way of our wish of beating A class, toyed with Shimada and Himeji's hearts…and made Shouko cry. I won't be able to die a peaceful death if I let it end like this.

“““…”””

Everyone present start to ponder. Each of them has their reasons for not wanting to lose.

For their friends, love, for pride. To any bystander, fighting for such reasons may be laughable. A student's duty is just to study, and in this sort of situation, we might end up being scolded. We might even end up being scorned upon, seen as idiots.

But everyone here does not want to back down now.

“Sakamoto, the enemy's here! They're finishing attacking at full strength!”

Our whistle blower classmates raced into the classroom, along with the ones Hideyoshi did make-up on. It looks like the time to settle this has come.

Now then, how will this summoning war between school years end up? Will we win, or the 3rd years win? One has to win here, and there is no overtime.

“Listen up, you guys! This is the final battle! Grit your teeth and get ready to go with all your might!”

“““WOOOH!”””

“We're only aiming to win! It doesn't matter whether we're idiots or ordinary people or smart people! Everyone's to do whatever they can do!”

“““WOOOH!”””

“We're definitely…going to win this battle!”

“““Alright!”””

Just watch, 3rd years…! I'm going to smash those heads of yours and show you how capable these idiots you look down on really are!