Chapter 74 Fear Tension And Apathy - Part 2

I still couldn't be sure that they were the culprit. I did not get an opportunity to analyse him further throughout the rest of the exam.

I would have to try again during the next exam.

We were given a short ten-minute break as everyone was let out to have a snack and some water. I tried to glimpse at the students as we entered back into the exam hall. However, I didn't get any information due to the flood of people entering the hall. There were also a very large amount of people who didn't have their student cards due to them being stolen, so I couldn't gather any useful information.

Throughout the next exam, English, I was unable to identify any suspicious people.

We were once again let out for our ten-minute break, and I wondered if there was a better method.

At first, I didn't want to get involved in any of this. I had no reservations about Kobayashi and didn't really care if she was dealt with by Fukuda. However, a day or two ago, I managed to get a glimpse of his true intentions. Kobayashi was not his main target. He was trying to force Kaoru's hand and destroy the unity of 2-C. He may have also decided to transfer into our class.

Kaoru and Kobayashi's friendship was what he was targeting.

That would have caused a lot of trouble for me.

In order to keep my life as quiet as I could, for the time being, I would need to temporarily protect Kobayashi from Fukuda.

Thus, during the third exam, Science, I scanned the entire exam hall again. In the corner of my eye, I noticed a girl who had answered the first five questions wrong and in record time at that. Still, that wasn't enough to incriminate her, though.

However, as I subtly watched her pencil movements on the page, I managed to locate a secret message.

I feel bad for you Lucy <3

She quickly rubbed it out and very subtly showed signs of laughter. I managed to witness her answer the next six questions incorrectly before a supervisor blocked me.

**

At the end of the exam, I approached one of the staff members and reported the incident, citing the exact student. I was forced to make up some contrived reason for why I suspected them, and then they were quickly investigated.

Kobayashi was allowed into the examination hall during the last exam, Humanities.

There was nothing I could do to boost her score, so she needed to do as well as she could without any support from me. It didn't matter that much, though. All I needed was for her to attend the exam.

I had already guessed that her score would have been the lowest in the class no matter how well she did on this last exam due to the zeros or very low scores on her previous exams. I needed to keep Fukuda away from her no matter what.

I had already made preparations for this, and to do so, I was forced to choose a sacrifice—someone in the class needed to get a zero.

***

Through the simple process of elimination, I decided that Takeuchi would be the best candidate.

My time was extremely limited, so he was basically my only option.

I considered several methods of possibly removing him from testing. Due to the harsh security of the school, retakes for missed exams were not allowed to discourage cheating, even if you had a reason for not attending. Thus I decided that giving him food poisoning or another illness to cause him to miss the exam was the best option.

It was a few days ago when I pulled out my phone and texted him.

**

"You didn't respond to my texts for so long that I assumed that you didn't want to talk to me." He said as we walked towards the mall.

"Sorry, I must have missed them."

'It's fine! Anyways where are we going?'

"There's this café at the mall."

"Ooh, I'm pretty hungry right now.?

For the second time in a week, I was standing at the entrance of The Outcome, the most popular café at National High School. Luckily for us, there were a few empty tables, so we weren't forced to wait like I had to last time.

"Order whatever you want. It's on me."

"Seriously? I've been craving some good food recently!"

After some thought, Takeuchi decided on a rather large club sandwich and a cup of orange juice. Since we were in the cafe, the prices of everything were rather extravagant. However, this was a situation where I had to use my points. Anyways, he's going to be suffering quite a bit after this exam.

A few moments later, the waiter returned with Takeuchi's order.

"Ah, Mizuhara, are you not getting anything?"

"I'm still deciding. There's not much here that I like."

"Oh, alright then, well, I'll start eating first."

"That's fine."

Takeuchi was enjoying his meal. However, I needed to distract him for a few seconds. Looking around, I decided that I'd use a rather crude method.

"I didn't expect Fujiharu to be here."

"Eh?! F-fujiharu? Where is she."

Takeuchi quickly turned around to scan the nearby area. As he looked away, I quickly crushed some laxatives in my hand and scattered them throughout his food. Noticing that she wasn't actually nearby, Takeuchi turned back around.

"I didn't see her; where was she?"

"Never mind, it was a mistake."

"Oh man, I wanted to have a look at her..."

Awkward.

Takeuchi ignorantly ate the rest of his meal, happily munching down on the expensive food that I purchased for him. Dropping some crumbs around the table, he scoffed down the last of his sandwich.

"Ah, that was so good! I've been pretty low on points, so I haven't been able to eat something like this in a while. Thanks!"

"I'm glad you liked it."

"So, what are we doing now? We could go look for—"

"Sorry, I have some business with my roommate."

"O-oh... alright then... well, I'll see you later."

With that, I left the table.

The next day, Takeuchi did not show up for any of the exams.