After walking for quite a while, Yamato and Yuki arrived at the remains of their camp. Looking up at the hill where Yamato was hit by the avalanche, it all melted already at sunrise. So now the ground was soaked and muddy, despite there still being visible burn marks from the fire attacks from the class 1 students. There was no one else there besides them, which was good. Since the position was known by class 1, staying here would be like an invite for round two. Elara and the rest must have retrieved into the woods, which would make it difficult for Yamato and Yuki to locate them since it would probably not be near by. Although Yuki could probably locate them with her magic, that wasn't Yamato's goal anyway.
"Okay, let's go, Yuki."
"…"
"What's wrong?"
"My other drawings which I made for you are all destroyed!!"
"Other drawings…?"
"Of course I didn't just do one! I had a lot of spare time, y'know? I put a lot of work and love into them! Class 1 will pay for this!!"
"One of them already payed with his life, isn't that compensation enough?"
"No! I want everyone to drown in their own blood!"
"…Maybe a little much. How about we just win the exam instead?"
"But… You said we had to lose to avoid suspicion!"
"Yeah, I know what I said. I lied. See it as punishment for your impulsive behavior."
She gasped dramatically, pouting slightly though visibly not offended.
"How could you!"
"Please just don't kill any more of our classmates in the future…"
"It was an accident! And he wasn't even in our class, nor a friend!"
Yamato sighed in defeat, choosing to let go of the matter and just hoping for her to behave.
"Why were you fighting him so brutally anyway…"
"Because-…! I found him repulsive… Every word he spoke made it worse! Some pathetic deep and sad backstory that he used to try to bond!"
"Yes, you told me about it earlier… "
"I did it for you!"
"How so?"
"He was insulting you! And he was just causing a bunch of problems! He was impulsive, narcissistic and hardly of value to us! I… I hate when people don't understand why I love you so much… I… Just want it to be the two of us…"
Now Yuki looked genuinely sad, afraid of disapproval and disappointment, even if Yamato literally helped her cover it up. Yamato felt the need, the obligation, to pat her head?
"Hey, get it together… It's usually just us anyway, right? It was just us in the cave. It's just us now. It will be just us most of the time in the future."
"I guess that's true…"
"I was able to bait intimacy! Another victory for the main love interest!!!"
After that her mood just went back to happy and carefree. She was unsure if Yamato saw through her trick and jsut played along, or if he genuinely tried to cheer her up. It was a win in her eyes either way though. Yamato, closely followed by Yuki, walked back up the hill where his plan to end up winning after all would unfold.
"So… What are we doing back here?"
"Nothing."
"Not again, Master!"
"No, not like that. We just need to wait here."
"For…?"
"Shin and the rest of the class 1 students."
"Ah, because they will come here looking for us! But what if they know where Elara, Arina and the rest are, and are following them instead of coming here?"
"Then they will find that none of them are in possession of the objective, forcing them to ultimately come back looking for us."
"That would result in the rest of out class being disqualified most likely…"
"Problem?"
"No. Just pointing it out. You're so cruel~ All to win a silly competition~"
"Sure…"
"Actually it is so you get a win and don't go on a killing spree out of frustration… Though this might rank up our class, so it does just help us too."
Sadly, Yamato's table and chair were destroyed during the avalanche, and they didn't want to sit down on the ground either becauseit was so mudy. Yamato didn't seem to mind, but Yuki got annoyed after a minute of standing and doing nothing so she cut down a tree and made a bench out of it in just a moment.
"Thank you…"
"You're welcom, Master!"
She seemed proud of it. After a couple of hours, Yuki just dozed off into sleep. Leaning against his shoulder, clingy as ever. Yamato just sat there and enjoyed the quiet, relaxing moment. But of course that did not last long. Shin, surprisingly alone, flew up there after noticing them, just as Yamato said he would. He took off the jacket of his school uniform, and placed it beneath Yuki's head as he sat her down on the bench. He then walked up to Shin, who had not said a word after landing.
"You must be Shin. Yuki told me about you."
Yamato stopped right in front of Shin, his hands in his pockets as usual. Not seeming to be threatened by Shin at all, who talked with a smile.
"This has turned out much more difficult than I had anticipated…"
"You seem to have a pattern with making mistakes of that kind. Yuki also told me that you underestimated her and basically told her who had the objective, just to run off when it got dangerous."
"Direct, huh… You don't know me. You have no idea what I'm capable of. But I know you. The little stunt you pulled off during the test exam made you quite popular, you know?"
"How would you know about that?"
"Oh, well every class helt a test exam. Class 1 just happened to finish one day before class 3, so I thought it could be fun to watch."
"And that was allowed?"
"Haha, of course not. It would give an unfair advantage in this exam, to know about the strategies of the opponents, wouldn't it?"
"You don't seem too bothered by the unfair advantages that you gained through that."
"I guess not. Who doesn't like it easier sometimes? Especially if the opponent is someone like you."
"Like me?"
"Someone special. Extraordinary."
"You flatter me. I wish I could say the same about you."
"Maybe your opinion on me will change soon… I do hope so."
"You better get used to disappointment."
"Well, we shall see… I do wish you will see me in the same way that I see you in the end."
"I doubt the way you see me is in any way accurate. You will probably never see me, I'm afraid."
Yamato didn't even bother putting up a friendly facade. Shin seemd to know at least to some extent about his methods and behavior, so he would probably see through it. Yet Yamato was unreadable in his lack of expression. Shin, who had been facing him until now, turned away and looked at the sky above.
"I will see you… As clearly as this sky is."
"Well, good luck with that. There's only one person who sees me clearly and she's a little messed up in the head."
"Hey, I'm not messed up!!"
Yuki jumped up, and threw Yamato's jacket at him.
"Eavesdropping, are we?"
"Ah… You did that on purpose!"
"Caught me. You didn't have to pretend to sleep in the first place though…"
"But I liked it!"
Shin, who unlike Yamato, did not notice Yuki being awake looked away from the sky back at them.
"Not to interrupt your… Productive conversation… But I'm here for the objective. And you will hand it over"
"Hm… I don't think I will."
"We found the new camp of class 3. We could attack any moment, and I guarantee they will be badly hurt after we are done. You could avoid it by just just handing it over."
"…Oh no."
Yamato's sarcastic voice was so serious and cold that it was hardly recognizable as sarcasm. Though it became clear regardless that he did not care about Shin's threat at all. He instead just spoke in that same voice.
"How about we play for it?"
"…What now?"
"A game. Winner gets the objective of the loser. It's as easy as that."
"…Why would I do that?"
"Because otherwise, Yuki will hurt you even worse than what you would have done to our classmates if you went through with your threat. I'm guessing you came alone because you thought Yuki was not with me and still at the area around the camp of class 1. And you can't really spare people because our class was stronger than you expected, and you needed everyone left to be able to make your threat reality."
"…I accept playing a game for the win. But what game?"
"Let's flip a coin."
"…Are you mad?"
"Don't like it, huh…"
"I'm not letting luck decide the outcome of this exam."
"How about rock, paper, scissors?"
"Still luck… But I guess less luck involved then with a coin toss… Fine."
"Great. Let's get right to it then. And also… I know you don't even know were your objective is right now. Trying to scam me? Don't answer that. Just play."
"Poor fool… Taking the 50/50 would have been the highest chance of winning you could ever hope for."
That threw Shin off completely. He had no idea where Satoshi was, and did not know if her was able to fulfill his side of the bargain in case he lost. His initial plan was to just tell them to cry about it and just leave and have his class attack the new camp of class 3 anyway. But now he got nervous, feeling as though Yamato saw right through him. As they were about to begin, Yamato said just before they were about to reveal their choice.
"I pick rock."
Shin, out of pure reflex with no thought behind it and being thrown off by Yamato's sudden call, combined with the stress induced earlier, picked paper last second. But Yamato… picked scissors.
"…T-that's cheating!"
"How so?"
"You know what you did!"
"Yeah, I won. Now hand it over. Hop hop."
"L-like you said, I don't have it nor know where it is!"
"Well, I'm afraid you have to give up then."
"What do you mean give up?!"
"What do you think it means? Willing accept us as winner of the exam and give up."
"How would I even?!"
"I'm sure we can just call for him… Professor Reed!"
Appearing right next to them, was prof. Reed.
"I've been called?"
"Yes. He bet for his entire class that if he lost at rock, paper, scissors, he'd hand over his objective. And he lost, yet refuses to."
"Is that so?"
Shin, slightly confused by the situation, stuttered slightly.
"No! I mean, yes- I… It's not that I refuse, I'm unable to!"
Yamato refuted.
"Then why did you bet something you were unable to give?
"He's right, Shin…"
"I… So what?! I don't give a fuck! I don't have to do anything here! I don't have to keep my promise! I don't have to do any-"
Yamato cut him off.
"-Well, I hate to be that guy… But you do actually. According to school regulations "Duels may be held with the agreement of both parties, and any promises made before or during the duel, such as bets or rewards for winning, cannot be broken." Meaning, as long as our rock, paper, scissors game counts as a duel, you are obligated to either resign or hand over the objective."
"That's not a rule! He made that up!"
Professor Reed just shook his head.
"I'm afraid Yamato is right. It is an official school regulation… Even though duels usually only happen during second year students as part of official training, therefore students are only then officially informed about these rules, they still apply for first year students and during competitive exams. And what you had definitely qualifies as a duel, considering the stakes."
"Tha-… I… No… How does he even know…"
"Just some research I did. Should be irrelevant though."
Well, Shin, if you have nothing further to say…"
"Wait! I can't have made that bet! I would need approval of all class 1 students to bet the entire outcome of the exam! As long as I didn't have that, you can't punish them for it! It's literally betting away someone elses rights!"
"Yet you are clearly the team leader, are you not? As such it is within your responsibilities to make decisions for the team. Your decision was to bet it all on winning or losing. With that, I disqualify class 1 from the exam. And the winner is therefore, as last remaining, class 3!"