cruise ship exam end! Time to relax

The results of the vote were 1 in favour of letting me become the traitor myself, 1 in favour of making a random guess, 3 in favour of entering a bidding contest and 4 in favour of sharing the Vip's identity.

This did bring a smile to my face, "Now if everyone would like to sign the outcome 2 contract, that would be great!" I made sure not to hide My smile as I knew it would piss of the other classes.

Ryuen threw the contract on the table before asking the big question, "So, who is it?"

I wanted to build up the anticipation of this as much as I could, I stood up in the silent room making sure for my chair to scrape against the floor. "The VIP of the dragon group is!..."

They all looked at me waiting for what was to come next but I just stood there, creating and increasing the awkwardness they all felt.

Katsuragi made his irritation clear, "Get on with it, We all want to leave."

~Sigh~ "Ruin my fun, why don't you? Well the VIP is Kikyo Kushida!" I said excitedly and with jazz hands.

Kushida felt everyone's eyes on her in that moment, "Sorry I didn't tell everyone sooner, we were still thinking about how to ensure we could trust everyone enough to share my identity of VIP"

I walked over to her and swung my hand over her shoulder, "Well no need to stress any longer my good friend! We are finally done with this exam!"

I could feel her shoulder shake slightly, is that anger I sense? Hehe. I love an angry enemy, they're so much fun.

// Ichinose's Pov //

We were half way through a game of black jack when everyone heard a notification on there phone saying, 'Dragon group has finished there exam'

One thing I did notice is that it didn't tell is how it finished, putting down my phone I looked up at everyone else's reactions and only one person's expression was out of place.

It was Ayanokoji, he simply didn't react as though he knew it would happen.

I sent a text to Lucy asking her what happened, and was met with a quick reply: We shared the identity of the VIP.

~Sigh~ If anyone can get a group to do that it would be her. She's so capable.

Now back to the current situation, "draw or stay?"

Ayanokoji was on 20, 1 off of 21. Anymore than an ace would be a 'bust'. The chances of that happening are slim. "stay." That is the safe option.

// Ayanokoji's POV //

"Stay." The next card not an ace, iv'e been counting the cards and the next card is a 'high' card. Meaning that I would go 'bust' if I chose to draw.

Back to the dragon group, they most likely shared the identity of the VIP. From what Horikita has told me of the situation, it's the best option for everyone. Especially us, that's why I had to make sure the end result ended up coming to a vote.

// Last night, 1 AM //

I had been standing in front of the rail of the ship for 10 minutes now, waiting for a specific person to show up.

~Tap~ ~Tap~ ~Tap~ Behind me I could hear Lucy Hall waking toward my direction. "I hear you want to meet me?"

I glanced in her direction, "Yes I did."

She walked around so she could see my whole face, "Who are you anyway? I don't think we've met, besides it's a bit creep you want to meet at this time." She drew back away from me.

~Sigh~ "Horikita was tired so she sent me to meet up with you instead, i'm Ayanokoji Kyotaka." I had prepared this excuse in advanced of course.

A frown appeared on her face, "Huh? She couldn't be bothered to meet me face to face? Forget it, I don't care what she wants anymore." ~Yawn~ She stretched her arms before beginning to walk away, "Besides i'm tired."

"Miyu Abe." She stopped walking and turned around, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "You care about her don't you?"

She walked up to me slowly, when she was close enough she struck out a fist toward my face. That was fast. I dodged it by leaning backward and threw a punch of my own toward her left ribs as they were wide open, I was mildly shocked when I didn't make contact.

She was on my right before I knew it and an a fist was aimed at my temple, I caught her hand but I noticed an elbow coming at the arm I was holding her with. I brought down my arm so she would hit her own arm instead of mine. She managed to stop her arm but quickly threw kick at the back of my knee, she made contact but I had time to stabilize myself enough so it didn't effect my footing.

She is fast, faster than anyone I have fought before. Many blows were traded, dodged and deflected but neither of us backed down. She has a good pain tolerance as well, I have hit her arms multiple times but she's barely slowed down at all.

I decided it was time to end this when I grabbed her by the neck a moment after I landed another blow on her left arm, I held her over the edge of the ship so her back was resting on the rails and I held one of her arms by the elbow to stop any other attacks. She can't use her legs as she would go overboard.

I stared her in the eyes, "Are you ready to listen now?"

She smiled and signaled me to look down with her eyes, I have not felt fear but this may be as close as I will ever get to it. There was a knife inches away from my left ribs and ready to stab me and puncture my heart.

~Giggle~ She giggled at the situation, "You drop me and I stab you before falling, trust me i'm fast enough. I stab you and you drop me overboard. It seems we're in a tough spot. It's exhilarating isn't it?"

It's obvious she would be able to dig that knife deep enough into my side before ultimately falling to her death, so the only option was to pull her toward me disarm her weapon and push her away from me. In that motion she managed to kick the butt of the knife so it fell into the water below us as I pushed her away from me.

We stood a meter apart from each other, "When did you draw a knife? I didn't see. More importantly why did you have one on you in the first place?"

~She giggled again~ "You should never meet a boy alone in the dark, so brought my trusty friend with me. I pulled it out when you last hit my arm, I used the momentum of you hitting it to quickly grab it from the waistband of my trousers."

"I see, so that's why you were only kicking with your left leg. You may have stabbed yourself in the leg if you were not careful." She nodded at my words.

A smile grew on her face, "Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, I know what you want and don't worry I'll make sure the identity of the VIP is shared." The smile was gone in an instant, "But the next time you threaten one of my precious people again, I don't care if I die in the process, you will lose your life." I stood there with a passive face but I knew she was serious.

All of a sudden the smile was back, "I'm dead serious. Get it? Get it? Because I said I would kill you! Hahahaha. Good night Ayanokoji." She waved as she walked away.

// Present time //

Ichinose spoke up, "Looks like Ayanokoji wins, everyone else went bust trying to hit 21. Shall we play again?"

I wanted to start up a conversation about Lucy Hall so I decided it would be in my best interest to play another round, "I don't mind playing again."

Everyone agreed and another round started, "So Ichinose, what is your class like?" I thought this would be the best question to get to what I want, it's also good because she asked me the exact same question a while ago.

She smiled at the question, eager to talk about them. "Everyone is great and we all look out for each other, we all have everyone's best interests in mind so communication is smooth and there are not many conflicts. Lucy does all she can for the class and I help her do it. All in all we are all there to help and support one another."

I looked her in the eye to see if she was telling the truth and it seems she is. She truly believes that Lucy is kind and looking out for her class, I wonder how she would feel if she knew she would sacrifice her own class if it meant helping someone from a different class at the drop of a hat.

"I see, you truly like everyone in your class don't you." I asked, Ichinose is just that type of person.

She nodded enthusiastically, "I do. They are very important to me."

The other students in the room gave Ichinose all their attention and her sincerity may have just captured all their hearts. I know it caught Sotomura's, he's looking at Ichinose with hearts in his eyes right now.

I nodded at her, "That's nice."

It won't get her far though, if you can't make the sacrifice then you'll be in a lot of trouble soon.

// Lucy's POV //

It was currently 13:29 and all the groups were in their group discussions, except for the dragon and monkey group that is. That's right, Koenji had given the monkey group's VIP identity and and got himself 500,000 private points and 50 class points. I remember this from the light novel.

I found a gym in on the ship, I had spare time so I decided to get some training in. I don't have any real opponents right now but this punching bag will have to do.

I've also tried the leg press machine for the first time and pressed 170 kg, if I were a boy I would be able to do a lot more I think but biology is a bitch. I am still in puberty though so give it a few years and I will be in my prime.

Once it hit 14:12, I left the gym and went to shower but I saw the inside swimming pool. I took a shower in the changing room before going to the shopping store right next to it and buying a swim suite.

I sent a message to Miyu and Himeno to meet me here, and bring some swimming suits as well. When they got here I could only look on in jealousy, there 'chest' sizes were marginally larger than mine. I decided life just isn't worth it anymore and stopped floating.

Slowly I sunk until my whole head was submerged, after what felt like forever Miyu grabbed my arm and pulled me up. "It's okay Lucy, someday they will grow to be just as big as ours."

Himeno was the same, "Yhea they might even be bigger." She distanced her hands from one another to show how big.

That's easy for them to say though, "Lucy don't get all moody on me now." Miyu's voice got stern, "You know why they're as small as they are. When the female body has no where else to burn fat, it takes it away from the breast area. On the bright side you have a very athletic body and even a nice flat belly."

I do have a very athletic body, but at what cost? Was it even worth it? ~Sigh~ Okay i'm over it. "Anyway, the reason I brought you here is to relax and have fun!" I said as I splashed Himeno with water.

She screamed and went to splash me back but I went underwater and popped up behind her splashing her successfully. "Hahahaha! You can't get me if I had no legs!"

Himeno seemed to get ticked off at that, "Oh yhea? Watch me try!" And so for the next 2 hours the 3 of us played all sorts of games and just relaxed.

Miyu spoke after 5 minutes of comfortable silence, "So Lucy, are you going to tell me why no one has tried to come in for the whole time we were here?"

I didn't think she would notice but I guess i'm not omnipotent, aww. "Well little Miyu," She looked very affronted by that statement but I carried on speaking before she could retort, "I had a spare 50,000 points lying around."

Himeno blanched at that information, "50,000? That's a lot of money you know!"

Is it though? It might be in this school but outside of school it really isn't much. I got much more than 50,000 Yen in a single 'transaction'.

Actually now that I think about it, wasn't Ichinose's family really poor? I wonder how they're doing, must be easier now that they have one less kid to feed.

"Himeno? How is your family? Financially I mean." I was met with a chop to the head, "Ouch! What was that for?"

Miyu was the bane of my existence sometimes, "Don't ask such insensitive questions out of no where!"

Himeno did't seem to mind though, "No it's fine, we weren't that bad off. We were stable enough with my dad being the manager of a bakery. My mom worked an office job and I'm an only child so we weren't doing too bad to be honest."

Miyu didn't stop giving me 'that' look, I knew she wasn't happy with me right now, no disappointing is the right word, so I gave her and a hug.

I looked over Himeno and she was pouting so I signaled her to join in and she did so with a smile.

After another shower to wash the chlorine off of us, we headed back to my room. I sat on my game for the next hour or so before Miyu spoke up, "I'm bored of card games now, can we go do something? Like lets go out and eat, there's this restaurant that some girls in my class won't stop talking about so I want to go."

This restaurant looked really nice, i'm surprised that it's all payed for by the school. They even have all the different forks and spoons, this just screams expensive.

I noticed Himeno looking nervous, "Himeno, just copy me. Don't worry, I know what to use and when." My father taught me when I was younger as we were to have dinner with another aristocrat family and he wanted to use me to impress them. Naturally I turned out way more mature than their kid who was a year older than me.

As the dishes came and left Himeno ate with elegance, we attracted a small bit of attention from some class A students including Katsuragi. Maybe they thought they were too good for us but realized that they are just scum? Maybe, maybe not. I don't care, I just want to enjoy my dinner.

After another day of relaxing, more and more groups were finishing up including the rabbit group. It was 21:59 and the exam was just about to end, I was with Ichinose, Kanzaki and Himeno. We knew that we wouldn't get the actual results until half an hour later but we thought it would be good for us to be together as the main four people of our class.

~Ding~ x4, all our phones received a notification indicating that the exam was over. I spoke up first, "Well, my group ended by sharing the identity of the VIP."

Ichinose was next, "We finished with the fourth outcome, a student from class A guessed the VIP's name wrong and lost their class 50 points."

HImeno was next, "The rat group ended up with class A also guessing the wrong name, how unfortunate."

I smiled, "Yes how unfortunate."

------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Lucy Hall

Class: 1 B

Class points: 1,045 --> 1,045

Private points: 2,419,461 --> 3,311,461

------------------------------------------------------------------

Kohei Katsuragi

Class: 1 A

Class points: 1,080 --> 880

Private points: 331,385 --> 796,385

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakeru Ryuen

Class: 1 C

Class points: 340 --> 490

Private points: 215,892 --> 580,892

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Kikyo Kushida

Class: D

Class points: 314 --> 364

Private points: 32,765 --> 997,765