Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

It was the next morning.

I was awoken by the sound of knocking on my door.

"Who's here... this early...?" whined Kimura.

"An acquaintance of mine."

"Ah, I see~ alright, do what you need to."

***

The sun had yet to rise above the horizon. The outside of the dorm building was lit up only with dim lights on the path. With the chilly wind brushing against us, Tachibana looked up at me with an unpleasant expression.

"Ayato, what did you do."

"What do you mean?"

She furrowed her eyebrows and glared at me.

"Mana Ichikawa is in the losers' group. She was partnered with Kimura, who's very reliable. I know you have something to do with this."

I, in fact, did have something to do with this.

*

A few days ago, I offered Kimura a very simple offer.

[If you purposely lose and bring Ichikawa down until I'm excused from the exam, I'll give you at least a top 2 winnings from the Finals Heat. Make sure you place fourth in the group stage.]

He was a little hesitant at first, but my Lateral Thinking Capacity rank was out there for everyone to see. After checking Preseqta, he agreed to my offer.

"No reward without risk, am I right?" he commented.

"That's for sure."

Fast forward a little.

*

I had a very simple plan, and it related to the placements of the Extended Stage tournaments.

"Your mistake was not partnering with Ichikawa," I stated.

"You may think you're slick, but now that I see what you're doing, I'll just stop it with points."

"But can you, though?"

"What's stopping me?"

"Check Preseqta."

Tachibana was about to notice something that she would not be happy about. There was a specific reason why I asked Kimura to place fourth during the group stage.

-

Chess Tournament Special Exam - Extended Stage

Your result: Losers' Group and 30-second time deduction

Losers' Group Tournament:

...

(Other matches)

...

...

9. Ichikawa Mana and Kimura Haruto vs Kinoshita Chitose and Katsuki Andria

—

10. Tachibana Emi and Mizuhara Ayato vs Yamada Nendo and Tamura Ritsu

...

-

For a genius like Tachibana, it wouldn't take long for her to figure it out.

Basically, if Tachibana continued to try to purposely lose our matches, we would eventually end up playing against Ichikawa. Now, I asked Kimura to place them fourth. This would mean that my opponent would be Ichikawa, and Tachibana's opponent would be Kimura.

When we play against each other, Kimura will stall Tachibana. This means that I'll have an opportunity to defeat Ichikawa, allowing me to complete the exam and put Ichikawa in more danger of expulsion.

Knowing Tachibana, she would definitely not want to risk this outcome. Because even with her purposely trying to lose, there's still a chance that I could checkmate Ichikawa. If that were the case, it would be exceedingly difficult for Tachibana to protect Ichikawa from expulsion.

This means the only way for Tachibana to prevent this outcome is to win our next match.

"I've underestimated you... Ayato..." she glared at me.

Ah, I really don't like having to constantly take action like this. It's a hassle.

***

???

9:39 am.

Extended Stage: Losers' Group.

A very unhappy Tachibana sat beside me as we prepared to face Yamada Nendo and Tamura Ritsu. The room was completely silent as we were the only match that was scheduled for this time. Listening to the quiet whistling of the wind outside, I looked down at the black and white chessboard.

Eventually, the game began.

9:45 am.

The clocks started ticking down.

Looking over at Tachibana, she was actually playing properly for once. With smart, calculated moves, she quickly overwhelmed her opponent.

I simply sat back and relaxed, playing a move every once in a while. Slowly adjusting my pieces around, I didn't need to pay that much attention to the game. Eventually, I decided to stare out the window as I waited for Tachibana to win.

"Checkmate."

After only three minutes, the game was over.

Even without any support from me, Tachibana very easily beat her opponent.

Well, that was it then.

***

We all left the room, and I decided to make my way back to my dorm. The Finals weren't on until the next day, but they would be sending out the list tonight. I wasn't sure how they would calculate our 'derived elo', but it didn't really matter to me. Aside from losing some faith in Kimura, there weren't any big consequences if I didn't get selected.

However, based on the weird information system that the school had, I wouldn't really be surprised if I was put in the finals.

Gently sliding open the door to my dorm, I saw Kimura sitting on his bed. Hearing my entry, he turned toward me and laughed.

"How'd you go?" he asked.

"I won."

"So we're both excused from the exam then."

"It would appear so."

In the end, I never asked Kimura to lose the first match of the Losers' Group. This was mainly because I didn't want to make it unclear how far I wanted him to go. It was the best way to negotiate at the time. Granted, if Tachibana had decided to forgo protecting Ichikawa and continued to lose purposely, I might've been in some strife.

However, alls well ends well.

And I was never really in a position where I could've been expelled.

Taking a seat on my bed, I lay down, staring up at the roof as usual. For the time being, I can rest assured now that I was excused from the exam. I saved myself from losing points in the Losers' Group, which would've been annoying.

Now, I was just waiting to see who was in the Finals.

***

A few hours later, I received a notification on my phone.

-

National High School

The Extended Stage of the Chess Tournament Special Exam has concluded. Five students have been expelled due to their point balances falling below zero. We will now begin the Finals Round. The following students have been selected to participate (in no particular order):

1. Tachibana Emi - Class 2A

2. Fujiharu Sara - Class 2A

3. Hasegawa Mio - Class 2A

4. Hamasaki Ester - Class 2A

5. Sasaki Junpei - Class 2A

6. Mizuhara Ayato - Class 2C [You]

7. Kanako Hanae - Class 2D

8. Murakami Akio - Class 2D

-

Well, that was about what I expected.