The second day, Friday, the first day of the actual exam, as soon as six o'clock in the morning arrived, cheerful music began to play from the speakers in the room.
However, for the students who hadn't woken up yet, it sounded like a death knell.
Most of the students in the room got up from their beds like zombies.
"It's so loud! What's going on?"
Ishizaki was jolted awake from his sleep and buried his head under his pillow.
Kamio Tatsuya, also woken up, yawned and sat up. He fumbled in the dark for the switch by the door. With a click, the room lights turned on.
Everyone lying on the upper bunks instinctively covered their eyes from the harsh light, but the students on the lower bunks didn't have this problem.
"Alright, time to get up, everyone. Starting today, we'll probably be waking up at this time every day."
In fact, Kamio Tatsuya had slept quite well yesterday. Without their phones, the only thing to do in bed was sleep.
Moreover, it was the first day for everyone, so basically, no one was talking.
After getting out of bed, Kamio Tatsuya noticed that Koenji, who was on the innermost bunk, wasn't there.
He should have been resting in bed when the lights went out last night.
He must have gone for a workout. When Kamio Tatsuya and Koenji shared a dorm during the deserted island special exam in their first year's summer vacation, Koenji seemed to have this habit then.
As expected, while the students inside were getting up, Koenji pushed the door open and walked in, lightly dressed.
Seeing the slight sweat on Koenji's forehead, Kamio Tatsuya knew his guess was correct.
"Koenji, I don't mind you getting up early to work out, but at least pay attention to keeping warm. I don't want you to be unable to participate in the final exam because you get sick. If you fail the exam, I'll be the one who gets expelled."
"Thank you for your concern, but as a perfect human, I never catch a cold," Koenji said with a bright smile.
He then walked into the room, picked up his towel, and began to wipe off his sweat.
Regardless, Kamio Tatsuya had already given his warning.
"Alright, everyone, after you've tidied up, head to the classroom on the first floor to gather. I don't want us to lose points for being late."
After changing into his clothes, Kamio Tatsuya reminded the students in the dorm who were still lying in bed.
As for whether they would get up now or not, Kamio Tatsuya couldn't control it and couldn't be bothered to.
Kamio Tatsuya's reminder was merely his duty as the leader. Whether others got up was their right, and at most, if they failed to pass the exam on the last day, he could drag anyone down with him.
This was the attitude Kamio Tatsuya was displaying in this exam, and it was what he wanted others to see.
After tidying themselves up, Kamio Tatsuya and a few other students who had already finished went to the designated classroom.
When they arrived, the second and third-year students were mostly already there.
However, when they noticed that the first-year students hadn't arrived together, a boy stood up. He was a third-year B-class student named Matsui.
As a student from third-year B-class, he had good interpersonal skills and, at the last moment, chose to step forward to lead the students who were not as capable.
"Junior Kamio, you didn't come with your group?"
"I've already reminded them and fulfilled my duty as the leader. Whether they arrive on time is their own business."
"Aren't you worried about losing group points for being late?"
"Not at all. I doubt they'd be so out of line as to make the group's average score fail," Kamio Tatsuya said with a chuckle. "Besides, if we lose points for being late, then they've already become one of the reasons for the group's failure when they were late."
In other words, if the final exam score was a failure, Kamio Tatsuya could freely pick someone from those who were late to be sacrificed.
The school wouldn't even need to investigate; they would simply deem the sacrifice valid.
Kamio Tatsuya understood this, and the others in the group understood it too, so they wouldn't risk it.
Oh, right, maybe Ishizaki didn't understand, but Ishizaki was one of their own and wouldn't cause trouble for him. Otherwise, Ryuen would deal with him immediately.
As expected, before the assembly time limit, all the first-year students had arrived.
Then, the teacher in charge of this large group arrived. He was a middle-aged man they hadn't seen before.
"I am the homeroom teacher of third-year C-class..."
This teacher briefly explained the upcoming tasks for Kamio Tatsuya and the others. Every morning, they would be responsible for cleaning the school buildings and the sports field.
If it rained, the sports field wouldn't need cleaning, but the cleaning time wouldn't be shortened.
However, cleaning wasn't an unfamiliar task for the students. They also had to clean their rooms at school and occasionally take turns cleaning the classroom as monitors.
Perhaps because a teacher was supervising on the first day, everyone was cleaning quite diligently.
After the morning cleaning was finished, the students faced their next task—meditation.
Another teacher was in charge of this subject, a very serious-looking male teacher.
"Starting today, you will meditate here every morning and evening."
After explaining the purpose, this teacher immediately began to explain the rules for meditating.
It was important to note that whether meditating or standing up to walk, one had to form a fist with either the left or right hand and hold the fist with the other hand.
Furthermore, the fist had to be raised to the height of the heart.
The teacher said this while demonstrating for the students.
"This posture is called a cupped fist. Some students prefer to make a fist with their left hand, and some with their right. There's no specific requirement for that."
"Next is cross-legged sitting. Place each foot on the opposite thigh. The formal name for this posture is full lotus position. The standard of this sitting posture on the final day of the exam will affect whether you finish your exam, so be sure to learn it."
The students in the group began to imitate the teacher's movements.
It seemed quite simple.
Of course, it was simple for Kamio Tatsuya. His body had been strengthened, and his agility at the human limit allowed for a certain degree of flexibility.
So he managed it easily, but there were members of his group who couldn't.
Rather, many people in the group couldn't do it. Looking around, besides Koenji, everyone else either had an improper posture or couldn't do it at all.
Not just the first-year students, but it seemed like some second and third-year students also struggled.
Huh?
Could it be that they had never seriously participated in similar special exams before?
"Ouch, ouch, ouch..."
Some people were even groaning softly in pain.
"If you can't do it at first, it's okay to just put one leg in the half lotus position," the teacher said, providing a suitable suggestion after seeing the situation.
Many students followed the teacher's advice and chose the half lotus position.
Seeing Koenji meditating obediently, Kamio Tatsuya felt a little surprised.
Once seated, the students were asked to meditate, meaning to close their eyes quietly and imagine things.
The most important thing was to be quiet and suppress any restless feelings in their hearts.
Unfortunately, many couldn't achieve this. After all, they had all been enemies before, and now they were being asked to meditate together.
After the short meditation session, the time was seven o'clock, which was breakfast time. However, the dining location was not the large restaurant they had visited yesterday but an outdoor area outside the building, where multiple kitchens were set up.
"Breakfast today is provided by the school, but starting tomorrow, breakfast will be prepared by each group internally. Remember to discuss the number of people and task allocation together."
As the teacher finished speaking, many students became restless and started whispering to each other.
"No way, I have no cooking experience."
Clearly, many of them didn't know how to cook.
However, Kamio Tatsuya looked around and estimated that most of the students who didn't know how to cook seemed to be first-year students. The third-year students, on the other hand, didn't seem shaken.
While eating breakfast, Ishizaki sat next to Kamio Tatsuya.
"Kamio, I don't know how to cook, what should I do?"
Kamio Tatsuya glanced at him and shook his head helplessly.
Seriously, why are you in such a hurry? Are you going to starve...
However, since Ishizaki had brought it up, it wasn't a bad idea to confirm the situation in advance.
"Everyone, please excuse me for a moment. I'd like to confirm who among our group has cooking experience."
Hearing Kamio Tatsuya's words, the students from Class A and Class B looked at each other. Then, four people raised their hands, followed by Koenji.
Hmm, this guy seemed unaffected, just keeping his head down and eating.
However, what surprised Kamio Tatsuya was that Yamada Albert raised his hand.
He could cook?
Appearances can be deceiving.
With twelve people in a group, only half of them had cooking experience.
Seriously, did they sleep through their home economics classes in elementary and middle school?
Kamio Tatsuya's large group had thirty-six people. It was too much to ask for six people to prepare breakfast for thirty-six people before the morning class.
Although waking up early could solve this problem, why should they feel entitled to enjoy the breakfast prepared by others just because they couldn't cook?
While Kamio Tatsuya and his group were struggling with the breakfast preparation, the third-year students seemed to have already discussed a solution.
"If we distribute it equally, how about each grade taking turns for one day?"
"That's fine with me. Let's start with the first-year students."
The third-year students made their suggestion. The second-year students did not object, and the pressure immediately fell on the first-year students.
"Before we do that, I have a question I'd like to clarify."
Kamio Tatsuya said this, then looked at the teacher who was dining nearby.
"Teacher, for tasks like cooking or cleaning, there's no rule that everyone must participate together, right?"
"That's correct. It's not just cooking; cleaning is the same. We only look at the results. As long as the task is completed, how you allocate manpower is up to you.
Similarly, if breakfast isn't prepared, you'll be the ones to go hungry. If going hungry causes problems with subsequent tasks, we will also deduct points."
"In other words, the only morning task that all students must participate in is meditation. If you don't participate in cleaning, you just need to be at the dojo when meditation time begins, correct?"
"That's right. Exactly."
I see. If that's the case, it's not that difficult.
After getting the answer, Kamio Tatsuya returned to his group and agreed to Matsui's proposal that each group would be responsible for two days of breakfast.
"Everyone, the first-year students will be responsible for preparing breakfast for two days. However, only half of us can cook.
But those who can cook are not obligated to cook for others. So, for fairness, I propose that on the two days we cook, the other six people in the group will be responsible for the cleaning work."
Kamio Tatsuya's proposal was reasonable. After all, you couldn't say you wouldn't cook just because you didn't know how to. That would be unfair to those who could cook.
Why should we cook for you for free? Is being able to cook a mistake?
So Kamio Tatsuya wanted to compensate them elsewhere. After much thought, cleaning was the only work that could be excused.
There was no opposition to Kamio Tatsuya's proposal within the group, thanks to the complex composition of the group.
Class A had the most students, and Totsuka Yahiko was an collaborator. He would not blindly oppose Kamio Tatsuya. As for the other few people, they dared not, because they were afraid that if the group's performance suffered, they would fail the exam.
If they failed the exam, Kamio Tatsuya had a scapegoat, but what did they have?
Nothing. Sakayanagi might not necessarily save them with the private points obtained in the preferential treatment exam.
The students from Class B, influenced by Ichinose, had relatively gentle personalities, so they also remained silent.
Class C were their own people, so they naturally wouldn't undermine Kamio Tatsuya. As for Class D, there was only Koenji, and he seemed uninterested in these matters.
Although he cleaned obediently today, it was uncertain if he would be as obedient tomorrow.
However, it didn't matter. Kamio Tatsuya wanted him to be disobedient.
As for those who would be cooking breakfast, although it seemed unfair, anyone who had cooked knew that cooking itself didn't take much time. The most time-consuming part was the preparation of ingredients.
Stir-frying a dish only took a few minutes; washing and cutting the vegetables were the most troublesome.
The breakfast menu was fixed: rice, three dishes, and a soup. The soup referred to miso soup, and the three dishes were a main dish, a side dish, and pickles.
As long as the ingredients were prepared the night before, the only thing that might be troublesome the next day would be steaming the rice.
With the ingredients already prepared, one hour was enough for six people to prepare over thirty servings of dishes.
Compared to ordinary students, they would only have to wake up half an hour earlier.
There was also no need to worry about ingredient storage, as the kitchen was equipped with refrigerators.
After breakfast, Kamio Tatsuya and his group were led to a classroom, seemingly to learn something.
The classroom was slightly larger than a regular school classroom. Since there was no instruction on where to sit, students sat down as they pleased upon entering.
However, because the students from different grades were not familiar with each other, groups from the same grade generally clustered together.
The only exception was Koenji, who sat alone by the window, appearing somewhat out of place compared to the others in the classroom.
After the morning lessons concluded, it was lunchtime. The good news was that lunch did not need to be prepared by the students themselves.
After lunch was a short break, followed immediately by the afternoon lessons.
The afternoon session started with long-distance running. Although Kamio Tatsuya had no problems, the students from Class A and Class B in his group didn't seem to be very good at sports, panting heavily and looking exhausted.
After the long run, the school gave the students half an hour, and then came the last lesson of the day—meditation.
This meditation session was different from the morning one. The morning session lasted only five minutes, but this one required them to maintain the posture for half an hour.
A meditation session lasting as long as thirty minutes was difficult even for Kamio Tatsuya to endure, as maintaining a single posture motionlessly was very tiring.
The moment it ended, Kamio Tatsuya immediately stretched his legs. After nearly half a minute of recovery, Kamio Tatsuya managed to stand up from the floor.
However, he believed that with familiarity, he should be able to adapt better later on.
In reality, numbness in the legs due to poor blood circulation for half an hour was normal. Those like Koenji, who quickly left the dojo immediately after finishing, were the anomalies.
Compared to Kamio Tatsuya, many others were in pain, such as Ishizaki, who was leaning forward, writhing in pain on the ground.
"Damn it, I'm taking a bath after eating! I need a bath! Help me out, Albert."
Yamada, who silently walked over, grabbed Ishizaki's arm and pulled him up from the ground.
"Ugh! Can't you pull me up more gently! Let go of me!"
Then, Yamada, fulfilling Ishizaki's request, let go without warning, and Ishizaki sat back down on the ground with a thud.
Ishizaki's legs were already hurting, and then this happened. Just imagining it felt quite painful.
It was like sleeping with your head on the desk at noon, waking up to find one leg numb, and then stomping that numb leg hard on the ground.
"Hahaha! You brought this on yourself."
Kamio Tatsuya couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey, Kamio, don't gloat. If you have nothing else to do, at least give me a hand."
Having been in Class C for nearly half a year, and with everyone connected by Ryuen, Kamio Tatsuya and Ishizaki were quite familiar with each other.
So he reached out and pulled him up.
"Alright, time to go eat."
"Eat, eat, I'm going to take a bath after eating!"
Ishizaki said this and ran out of the dojo.
Watching Ishizaki run as if nothing was wrong, Kamio Tatsuya had a question: were this guy's legs alright?
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