The Secret Rule

"Phew…"

"Yay, you did it, Arina!"

"Just what the hell was that, Yuki!? Couldn't you just have helped me?!"

"Calm down, Arina~ Don't you feel proud of your achievement? If I would've helped, you would never have known if you could have done it by yourself. And I think you have grown alot through this fight!"

"…Yeah, I guess… Thank you, I suppose…"

"Haha, you're welcome~! Now, three teams left… One is from Elara… The other two consist of three boys and three girls each I think."

"Wait, shouldn't we get back to Yamato? Where is he anyways?"

"Ah, he's already back at our camp."

"You know that how?"

"I went there for a moment earlier before I came to watch and cheer you in your fight.

She jumped down from her tree and began picking up the armbands of team yellow.

"One, two and three~! Only nine more to go!"

"Yeah… Anyway, we should get back to our camp too. It will get dark soon."

"Looks like it… Let's go then~!"

Even though Arina had many questions, she realized that she would not get any answers out of Yuki. So they went back to their camp, where Yamato was waiting for them.

"I see you won against team yellow. Congratulations."

"Yeah, thanks for your help!"

"I wouldn't have been of much help anyway. And I knew you guys would win, so I chose a more productive way to spent my time."

"And what would that be?"

Arina was visibly still annoyed at the fact that Yamato just left, but then she realized a wooden box behind Yamato.

"What's in there?"

"It's a supply box. With food and water for three people. It'll last until tomorrow. I assume tomorrow there will be new supply boxes. Maybe less to encourage us to fight for them."

"So that's what you've been up to!"

"Yes. I figured since you already searched the area near by, if there were any, they would be further away from our camp. Which would require more time to search for it, thus the decision to start as soon as possible."

"Ah… Now I understand. You are pretty smart Yamato!"

"Thanks, but it's nothing. I have to make up for leaving the fighting to you after all."

"Haha, I guess so!"

"About that, how did it go?"

"Ah, I had trouble at first… But thanks to Yuki I was able to figure out a strategy to defeat Mikio. It was amazing, she just completely figured him out like that!"

"Sounds fun. You should tell me all about it some time in detail. Now we should eat and drink enough before going to sleep and getting ready for tomorrow."

"Okay. But what if some students decide to surprise us at night?"

"Don't worry, I'll notice if it cones to that and wake you guys."

"I guess I will just take your word for that…"

After they consumed their supplies, the wooden box disappeared into thin air. Yuki informed Yamato that all the remaining teams hadn't been fighting and they were the only one that came into contact with another team.

The forest was quiet at night. There was no sign of animals near by, or anywhere. The area must have been prepared in advance just for this exam. Which was weird considering it seemed so spontaneous at first. But due to that, the night was uneventful. Though Arina thought she heard Yamato tell Yuki something when she was half asleep. But she probably just imagined that.

When Arina woke up, Yamato was still asleep. But Yuki was no where to be seen. She looked around a bit but still no sign of her. Getting worried, she was about to wake Yamato up, but that's when Yuki came out of some bushes.

"Ah, Arina, you're awake! But… What are you doing there?"

Arina looked at Yamato again. She realized it looked like she was about to pat Yamato's head, because she stopped in her motion to wake him up when she saw Yuki. Getting embarrassed, she pulled away from him.

"Ah, that's just, I wanted to wake him up since I couldn't find you anywhere!"

"Ah… That makes sense. Well, I just woke up too and thought I heard something from over there. But it must've been the wind or something. So no worries~"

"Ah… Okay then."

Their talk woke Yamato up, who sat up straight on his bed of leaves and looked over at the two of them.

"Ah… Good morning."

"Good morning~!"

"Uh, yes, good morning, Yamato."

"Did anything happen last night?"

"Uh, no… Hey, didn't you say you would notice if something happened and wake us up!?"

"Well, I lied. I was sleeping after all. How would I have noticed anything?"

"You're the worst! And I trusted you!"

"Calm down. Yuki would have noticed something if anyone would have been approaching us."

"Of course I would have~!"

"Well, you still lied!"

"Okay, I'm sorry. But anyway, we should go look for another supply box. We should try to find at least two a day. So we should start looking as soon as possible. The other teams will do the same."

"I guess…"

"We should look near the river you spotted yesterday. That is where I found the last one. I don't think they are all going to be at one place, so we shouldn't focus on just that spot."

"Should we split up then?"

"No, that's too risky in case another team crosses paths with one of us. I only did that yesterday because we really needed supplies and we didn't even know for sure if there were any. Now that we now that they exist, we should search them as a team."

"Okay."

They walked along the river, it lead towards the center of the barrier. Probably into a lake, Yamato thought. As luck would have it, they found another supply box. With again, enough supplies for the three of them. After using it as their breakfast, they Arina noticed a handwritten note at the bottom of the box. It read the following:

"Attention: Special Rule! Out of each team, one of the three students will, at the end of the exam, be decided team leader. This will be determined by the impact they had in their team and on the overall exam. The team leaders will compete in another speperate exam against each other and the winner will be allowed to switch places with a student from class 1. Meaning they will rank up and leave class 3, while one student of class 1 will drop into class 3."

After the note was removed, the box disappeared like the previous one. Arina looked towards Yamato and Yuki unsure of what to make of this.

"Uhm, guys, what now?"

"What an interesting concept… It allows not only for one of our class to rank up, but also for our class to gain a class 1 student. I imagine class 1 has a similar exam where their competition is about who will rank down. Their group leaders compete like our class leaders, and the loser of class 1 gets traded for the winner of class 3, or something like that. It's probably to balance the classes."

"Ah… That makes sense…"

"Meaning we could make someone win intentionally, someone who holds the class back."

"That's… really mean, Yamato."

"I'm not saying we should do that. But others might think of the same and actually want to go through with it."

"So you just meant it as a warning… I think we should just ignore it for now!"

"I agree."

"I also agree~!"

They threw the note into the river, and continued searching for as much supplies as possible for the rest of the day and tomorrow. They were extremely lucky, and found three more supply boxes. Each of them had the note at the bottom.

"So every box of today has them… I wonder how the other teams react to them. What do you guys think?"

"Who cares, look how much yummy food we got~"

"…I think being team leader is quite appealing to some people. After all, being in the best class is tempting."

"That… Yeah, I guess…"

"But don't worry. I'm sure it will be fine."

"Yeah… If you say so…"

The note seemed to bother Arina a lot. Yamato expected as much. After all, it wasn't in her character to just trade people to get stronger. She wanted to reach class 1 with her own strength. Not by being transferred.

"Uhm, I'm sorry to disturb your discussion but a team is closing in on us. Actually, it's two! But they are walking… Together?"

"What!? So six people are on their way here!?"

"It appears so."

"You help us this time, Yamato!"

"Fine. If you end up really needing my help, I'll give it to you. But let's just see where it goes. Yuki, how close are they?"

"Uhm, like right there."

She pointed into a direction, and sure enough they were already there. It was team purple, which was the team of Elara and her two friends and team red consisting of three guys with about average skills. No wonder they teamed up with Elara if she promised them some sort of protection.

"Long time no see, Yuki."

"Hey, bestie~!"

"I'm afraid with have to fight now… Since you already took out team yellow, you are the biggest threat right now. But we can have a tea party once the exam is over!"

"Hm… Sounds good. Am I still invited if I win?"

"Sure, why not? I doubt it sill come to that though."

"Oh? So sure? You should know, Arina here beat Mikio all by herself!"

"Ah, me!? Uhm, yes I did! I'm gonna beat you guys too if that's what you want! Then we take your armbands and then we have nine out of twelve! Then this exam is basically won already!"

"Oh, but you're mistaken. Whoever wins this gets six armbands. Obviously, I will not hold back on you just because we're friends, I hope you understand."

"That's okay~ Arina won't hold back either!"

"Stop treating me like a triumph card or something! It's embarrassing…"

And so they stood face to face, Arina and Yuki next to each other and Yamato behind them.