~Strings of Yamato~

Yuki landed next to Yamato. Who now wore his original armband again, just like Arina. In front of them was team green consisting of Ohta Yuudai, Yamane Masayoshi and Kunio Uyehara. All of them seem to be academically above average but Ohta seemed to be the most dangerous out of them all.

"It has come to this now, huh. The final two teams remaining and I have to decide whether I want to win this exam or not. Was there even a benefit to winning? I already have all the information I wanted about my classmates, except about team green of course. But I would gain the information either way, so there was really no excuse to going for the win except simply wanting to win. If I were to ask Arina or Yuki, they both would probably say they wanted to win. Although Yuki would just as well say she didn't care if I said I didn't. But Arina would probably insist on winning…"

Yamato's thoughts were interrupted by Ohta's voice.

"Quite the spectacle you guys performed here, I have to say. I have some scary classmates… Especially Yuki over here. That water against fire thing she did earlier. I mean, wow. She countered the magic of six people combined all by herself. I mean, how is she not in class 1, right?"

Yamato knew where this was going. Ohta meant trouble, he could tell.

"Unless… She has some special circumstances. She wasn't at the entrance exam at least. And you weren't either, Yamato. What is that all about?"

"What does it matter to you?"

"Oh, I just like uncovering things. I have this curiosity I can't seem to satisfy, y'know?"

"No, I don't know…"

"That's a shame. I can't imagine living without it. It brings me so much joy."

"Good for you."

"Y'know, my strategy was to wait out until the third day and then beat the team with the most armbands, forcing all the remaining teams to come after me and then just eliminate them one by one. But you guys just destroyed every team you came into contact with and now we are in the finals on the second day already! That has to be a new record for this school, don't you agree?"

"Whatever."

"Oh, but it's not. You clearly stand out. It makes me all the more curious!"

Yamato let out a deep sigh at that. Ohta was perceptive. Although they didn't do the greatest job at keeping a low profile either.

"This is bad… Ohta is something else. I have to do something… Luckily I prepared for something like this just in case.

"So? What now? Will you keep rambling on about how curious we make you?"

"I guess we have to fight eventually, huh…"

"Well, I sure don't."

"Oh, how did you figure that?"

"Have you already forgotten about the special rule? I'm sure you found supply boxes with the note inside. And I basically beat two teams by myself. The position of group leader of team blue is pretty much mine. Meaning this exam was already a success for me, as I get to participate in the team leader exam and possibly rank up. What about you? Who from your team will be team leader, what do you think?"

"…"

They looked towards each other. Yamato was right. Arina was about to say something but Yuki stopped her.

The true meaning of this exam had to be the qualification for the team leader exam. If that's the case, then whoever wins the fight they are about to have is irrelevant. What matters is whoever contributes the most out of their team.

"If I had to guess, I'd say collecting armbands counts probably the most to contributing to your team, right?"

"That would make sense, yes…"

Ohta replied quietly, thinking about his options.

"Then how about I give one of you all these armbands? That person would then of course qualify most as team leader, right?"

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I don't need them, obviously. I already qualified after all."

"Yamato, stop! I want to win too!"

Arina shouted, but Yuki took her armband off and threw it at Ohta. Making Arina disappear. A voice echoed through the barrier.

"Student Arina Estrela Caída; Disqualified!"

Ohta look taken aback by her action.

"What the hell!?"

Yuki just shrugged at him.

"Looks like Ohta is in the lead now!"

"…"

Yamato showed them the nine other armbands he had.

"Whoever takes these will definitely become team leader and get the chance to rank up to class 1… Do you want them, Ohta?"

"Of course I want them, what a question."

"Hey, now, why should you get them and not one of us!"

"Yeah, you can't just decide that!"

Yamane and Kunio complained.

"Well, because we only made it this far because of my strategy!"

"Strategy of waiting, oh wow, like we couldn't have came up with that ourselves!"

"It's obviously me who deserves to be team leader the most!"

Ohta wasn't budging, now turning on Yamane and Kunio.

"Do you really want to go there!? We are two and you are alone! Either we decide that diplomatically or we will have to make you!"

"Oh? You want to make me? I'd really love to see that!"

Yamane and Kunio looked at each other and then determined back at Ohta. They then both summoned giant fira balls which they threw at Ohta.

"Oh, okay, you wanted it this way…!"

Ohta created a barrier out of pure mana around him. An indestructible force that requires a lot of talent to form, and even more to retain. The two fire balls just disappeared into thin air as soon as they came into contact with the barrier, but Yamane and Kunio didn't stop there.

"You idiot, you told us earlier how your shoeld works when we strategized! You can't move while you have it active and you can't use any other spells either!"

They shot another wave of fireballs, this time directly infront of the shield, hitting the ground and destroying part of it, causing Ohta to fall down and his shield being deactivated momentarily.

Kumio quickly used that moment and used a lightning bolt spell due to its speed and it hit Ohta directly. Causing him to disappear and drop his armband on the ground.

A voice echoed through the barrier.

"Student Ohta Yuudai: Disqualified!"

Yamane and Kunio took a deep breath and calmed down a bit. However their relaxation was short lived since at the next moment…

A voice echoed through the barrier.

"Student Yamane Masayoshi: Disqualified! Student Kunio Uyehara: Disqualified!"

It was Yuki, who sneaked up behind them while they attacked Ohta and she stole their armbands, causing them to disappear.

"Phew~ Y'know, I was really worried for a sec when I saw them down here at first. After all that fighting before, I wouldn't have had enough mana to figure out Ohta's ability or hold up against Yamane's and Kunio's attacks!"

"Well, it worked out just fine in the end…"

Suddenly Yamato and Yuki both disappeared as well. They appeared at the camp that Arina mentioned earlier, with all the students gathered in front of prof. Reed and prof. Isaac, who stood before them on a pedestal.

"Dear Students, I now announce the winner, even though you might know it already. It's a formal thing, y'know? Anyway, team blue won by a mile, actually having defeated every team by themselves more or less."

The responses in the crowd were mixed, but a little more positive than negative.

"Can you read us the team leaders now?"

"Yeah, we wanna know who gets to participate in the next exam!"

Some students yellled in. Prof. Reed just tilted his head at that.

"Team leaders? I'm sorry, I don't know anything about that. But anyway, this exam preparation is over. If you have any questions, you find me in my office. You don't have anymore school today and tomorrow also since the exam was planned to go until then anyway. Have a nice day!"

"What!? What are you talking about!?"

He snapped his fingers and all the students were in front of the dorms. The students argued a lot outside but Yamato just went inside towards his room. He sat down on his bed and just relaxed.

"I'm really glad I fabricated that whole thing with the special rule, otherwise it would have been way more difficult to get Elara and her team to act so aggressive and seek conflict. And of course, manipulating Ohta's team into fighting against themselves. I really used Yuki a lot in this exam… I'm glad she is so useful. That she was able to duplicate the letter I gave her, and track down every supply box in the exam to then place the notes in them like they were part of the exam. All that in one night. I have to properly praise her for that tomorrow… although Arina almost caught her when she came back, her excuse seemed to work out. Ah, Arina is probably mad now since Yuki took her out… But I'm sure she will understand that the only way to beat Ohta in our exhausted state was to make them focus on something else. Her confrontational nature would have caused them to fight against us instead of each other for the armbands. All to become team leader… A title that doesn't even exist. Ironic in a way. Betraying your team to become leader of said team. I mean, what kind of leader does that? But Ohta seems like he is onto Yuki and me… At least he suspects something. Maybe I was too careless in allowing Yuki so much freedom. She will need to take it a little slower from now on… At least until Ohta stopped being so curious about us."

Suddenly the door rushed open and Yuki entered without knocking or a key.

"Hey, Master~!"

"Hey, Yuki…"

"I'm here to be praised!"

"Yeah, I thought so… You did good during the exam. I'm proud of you."

Her eyes beamed with happiness and fulfillment. She was clearly very proud of herself and walked back to her dorm happily.