Horikita returned to the stern where Amane was, somewhat dejected.
Amane was leaning against the railing, wearing a black shirt. Her school uniform, which she had been wearing properly before, was now tied around her waist for some reason.
Horikita walked towards Amane with a heavy heart, unsure how to explain things to her.
Amane had told her to apologize to Sakura, and she had indeed gone and apologized to Sakura. But did her actions truly count as an apology? Sakura hadn't said she forgave her, and she didn't even want to discuss the matter further.
As soon as Horikita got close to Amane, she smelled a pungent cigarette odor and couldn't help but wave her hand.
"Why is there smoke here?"
Horikita looked around strangely. Since it was the deck at the stern, it was naturally unlikely to have trash cans or similar items. There were no cigarette butts on the deck, so they couldn't have been thrown into the sea, could they?
"I just ran into Chabashira-sensei and chatted with her for a bit."
Hearing Amane say this, Horikita immediately felt relieved. In her impression, Amane didn't seem to touch cigarettes either. However, she often saw Chabashira-sensei secretly going to the rooftop to smoke alone. The heavy smell of smoke here suggested Chabashira-sensei must have been here for quite some time.
"Did Chabashira-sensei have something to tell you?"
In Horikita's memory, Chabashira-sensei rarely bothered with class matters anymore. Even if there was something, it was just some routine reminders. From the intensity of the smoke, it could be judged that Chabashira had been there for at least thirty minutes. Horikita found it hard to believe that Chabashira-sensei was just passing by and came to chat with Amane.
Amane noticed Horikita's unusual interest in these matters and was at a loss for words. She had once heard a saying that if a person tells one lie, they need countless lies to cover it up. Amane used to scoff at this idea, thinking that only imperfect lies needed covering up, and truly perfect lies were always hidden in the most inconspicuous corner of real information. Only a mix of truth and falsehood wouldn't be seen through at a glance.
Amane also used this method in her conversation with Horikita, trying not to let Horikita realize that she had been smoking there. But her somewhat perfunctory answer aroused Horikita's suspicion? No, it should be something like interest, such as why Chabashira appeared here.
Putting herself in Horikita's shoes, if Horikita had chatted alone with Chabashira-sensei for dozens of minutes, Amane would also be very interested and come over to ask.
But the key was... Amane couldn't relay what Chabashira had said to Horikita. Imagine Amane telling Horikita that Chabashira-sensei was dressed particularly sexily just now, came over and seduced her, and even wanted to teach her knowledge not found in books. Fortunately, Amane's will was strong, preventing Chabashira-sensei from taking advantage, and she even foiled Chabashira-sensei's attempt to make her rub *that* to leave fingerprints, ultimately achieving a great victory.
What would Horikita's reaction be? According to Amane's past behavior, Horikita probably wouldn't believe a single word.
Rather than getting into a lot of trouble later, it was better to refuse to continue the topic from the start.
"Let's not talk about Chabashira-sensei for now. How are things with Airi?"
Amane successfully diverted Horikita's attention by using Sakura as a shield. Originally, she was just casually curious, and whether there was an answer wasn't that important.
But Sakura's matter was the most important thing at the moment.
At the mention of Sakura, Horikita's expression turned ugly.
"I apologized to Sakura-san, but it seems she..."
"Hasn't forgiven you, Suzune?"
Seeing Horikita's expression, Amane was a little surprised. Because according to her prediction, Sakura's personality would most likely choose to forgive Horikita, even after what Horikita had done to her... Sakura would probably still choose to forgive for the sake of class stability, at most scolding Horikita a few times or giving her a slap.
But from Horikita's performance, Amane seemed to have thought too simply.
"I don't know either."
Horikita's answer left Amane unsure how to react.
Forgiveness is forgiveness, and not forgiving is not forgiving.
How could Horikita give Amane such an absurd answer as "I don't know"?
Seeing Amane's expression change, Horikita quickly began to explain.
"I apologized very sincerely to Sakura-san, but she only replied that she understood and then went back to her room. I don't know if Sakura-san will forgive me."
Horikita lowered her head, the anxiety deep within her almost written on her face.
Amane seemed to understand a little now; perhaps for someone like Karuizawa... this was equivalent to a chance to restart her life.
"Amane, what's wrong? You look... a bit unwell."
Karuizawa was just about to get up to pour some water when she was suddenly hugged by Amane.
"Eek!"
Caught by surprise, Karuizawa let out a cute yelp.
But Amane, whose head was a mess, was not in the mood to tease Karuizawa.
"Good night, Kei."
"Eh? Sleep, A-Amane, are you going to sleep? Good night, Amane."
Karuizawa said softly, not understanding what was going on.
Why did Amane, who had been full of energy just a moment ago, look so exhausted? Could she be overexerted?
Many unspeakable images floated into Karuizawa's little head, and before long, her entire face was burning hot.
Shy, Karuizawa hurriedly grabbed the blanket to cover her face, and then drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
The next morning, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka arrived at the Rabbit Group's discussion room on time.
The only discussion groups that had not yet finished were the Rabbit Group, sheep group, chicken group, and pig group.
He had originally thought the snake group would also participate in the final showdown today, but to his surprise, the snake group had suddenly finished the exam yesterday. Ayanokoji immediately sensed that Amane had made a move, though he did not communicate with her.
Ayanokoji knew very well that since Amane had made a move, there was at least an eighty percent chance of success. However, the timing of her ending the exam was a bit strange; she neither chose to end it today nor did she sneakily end it amidst the chaos of the many groups from Class B finishing yesterday.
The reason for this was probably similar to what he had guessed before: Amane must have discovered the favored person long ago but was waiting for Class B to make a move. After Class B took away a large wave of discussion groups, the remaining groups would mostly be those where Class B was the favored person, so the favored person for the snake group must have been someone from Class B.
As soon as Ayanokoji entered the room, he saw his companions already asleep. He wanted to wake them up and urge them to hold on, but it was easy to tell from their dark circles that they had played very hard last night.
'Could it be that they mistakenly thought the Rabbit Group's exam had already ended last night?'
Such a bizarre thought surfaced in Ayanokoji's mind.
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