COTE :  Oh No, I've Become the Substitute

Inside a girls' cabin on the luxury cruise ship.

Fuyuji wrapped himself around Kamuro Masumi's fair, long leg like a koala, his cheek pressed firmly against her smooth skin. With tears and sobs in his voice, he wailed.

"Bro, respect the fruits of my labor! At least let me finish explaining my operational methods before you leave!"

Kamuro, holding a change of clothes in her hands, gave her thigh a forceful tug. Discovering she couldn't pull it free, she resignedly dragged the large accessory attached to her foot, step by halting step, towards the bathroom. Even as she walked, she strained to force her voice out of her throat.

"I already told you—I'm not interested in this. We've already won anyway. Let go. I want to take a bath."

Her athletic, powerful legs pushed forward with even greater force. Fuyuji, like a rubber eraser, was dragged across the floor. The contest of strength between the two traced a crooked, zigzagging arc across the ground.

"No!" Fuyuji nuzzled his cheek against her thigh and cried out at the top of his lungs. "Are you still my pal or not?! This is a stratagem I racked my brains to come up with!"

"Liar..." Kamuro still stubbornly fixed her gaze on the bathroom, grinding her teeth. "You came up with it on a whim. I saw you that day—the moment you finished your call with Mashima-sensei, you ran off to play."

"This is worth a lot, you know. If I sold it, Ryuen would pay at least 200,000 points!"

"That has nothing to do with me. You're the one paying for everything anyway!"

Before the bathroom door, the two were still tugging and pulling, entangled in an unresolved struggle.

"So..." Shiraishi Asuka, who had been assisting all along, broke apart the peeled tangerine in her hands and slowly walked over to Fuyuji. She crouched down and asked with a beaming smile, "What kind of method did you use? Ah—"

"More importantly than that, Fuyuji Mikage, could you perform that thing again? You know the one—'It's all Katsuragi Kohei's fault! All the school's fault! All Hashimoto Masayoshi's fault!'"

Morishita was wrapped from head to toe like a silkworm in a thin, pure-white bedsheet, only her little head poking out. Her large, dark, glistening eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"The great Morishita didn't get to see it. It feels like a bit of a pity."

In the entire room, only Yamamura Miki sat with her hands resting properly on her lap. With a serious expression, she raised a finger. "It must have been confirmed after eight o'clock, when the school sent out the text messages. Because Fuyuji was with us the whole time that day and didn't make any moves at all."

"Miki..." Fuyuji was somewhat moved. "You're the best..."

After a bout of utter chaos—

To prevent a certain shameless individual from following her into the bathroom—

Kamuro could only stuff her change of clothes into Fuyuji's hands. She sat back down on the bed with a cold, cutting air, crossed her long legs, folded her arms, and spoke in exasperation.

"Out with it. What kind of deceptive trick did you pull this time?"

"Hmph hmph!" Fuyuji cleared his throat and grinned smugly. "Naturally, it was—"

"I know! It was a time differential!"

In the blink of an eye, Morishita flung aside a corner of the bedsheet and launched a Rider Kick, thrusting one foot into the conversation, her hand raised high.

"Oi, Morishita! Those are my lines!" Fuyuji exclaimed in exasperation.

"A time differential?" Yamamura tilted her little head, her navy-blue side ponytail swaying.

"Yes. A time differential." With the speed of light, Fuyuji clapped a hand over Morishita's mouth on the bed, silencing the little mouth that wanted to continue spoiling the reveal. His voice became measured and rhythmic.

"That day, I called Mashima-sensei and asked, 'What happens if a phone is turned off when the school sends out the text messages?'"

"His answer was that the text message would be delayed. On that basis—first, Class A's phones were used to randomly swap SIM cards within their respective groups. Class B's phones were turned off. Taking advantage of this window of time, I used the three VIP names from Class A, combined with a bit of my own metaphysical operations, to roughly deduce the VIP pattern. Then I had Class B insert the SIM cards of the true VIPs into the phones of the already-arranged false VIPs. Once the text messages were received, they swapped them back!"

Fuyuji concisely, at breakneck speed, spilled the entire secret in one go, terrified that Morishita might jump in at any moment and interrupt his declaration of victory.

"Because when a phone is turned off, the text messages sent by the school are temporarily stored in the SMS center for 24 hours. Only when the phone dials in to the network again does the service center resend the text message. In other words—one can, in fact, artificially choose to delay the time at which the school's text messages are sent, you see."

Shiraishi, who had been helping Fuyuji with the entire operation from start to finish, also jumped in at this moment with a smiling face to add a supplementary explanation.

"Artificially delayed?" Kamuro's brow quietly furrowed.

"Yes. Artificially delayed to create a time differential." Fuyuji nodded.

"First, turn off the phones of the Class B students to delay the school's VIP text messages. Within this window, identify the VIP pattern. Then fabricate a false pattern and carry out the SIM card swap operation."

That morning, after collecting all the classmates' phones, he had recorded the original owners of each SIM card. Then he had the SIM cards inserted into the phones of other members of the same groups, thereby identifying the names of the three original VIPs.

Coincidentally, Kito, who was in the same Rabbit Group, had been selected as the VIP. The text message had been sent to Fuyuji's phone.

Thus, the names of Class A's three VIPs became known to Fuyuji.

Coupled with Senpai's metaphysical conjecture and, later, Cha-Cha's read-but-no-reply confirmation of his VIP deduction, Fuyuji already had considerable confidence that the fifty-sound chart was indeed the answer to this exam.

Next came the most critical part.

Having made his preliminary deduction, Fuyuji had Ichinose—who had already agreed to cooperate with Class A from the moment the exam rules were announced—turn off all the Class B phones during that same window. Their SIM cards were likewise unlocked and removed.

Using his own identity as a false VIP, combined with Class D's three VIPs, he artificially created a pattern of comparable difficulty. Then he had Ichinose insert the SIM cards from the VIP list into the corresponding phones of the false VIPs.

The phones were turned on. If the school's VIP text messages appeared on the selected false VIP list, then it confirmed that Fuyuji's earlier fifty-sound chart conjecture was correct.

At the same time, an artificially constructed VIP list—yet one whose text messages had genuinely not been forged, duplicated, or altered—was thus brought into existence.

Finally, the remaining two Class A VIP names were deleted. Combined with the fact that Class C's VIPs had also been deleted by Ryuen, across the entire first year, only seven VIP text messages now remained.

Thus, Sakayanagi Arisu of Class D, if she wanted to know the VIPs of the other classes, could only choose from among the false VIPs Fuyuji had arranged in advance—namely, the three false VIPs from Ichinose's Class B.

No matter how she searched, she could only find the pattern Fuyuji had laid out for her—not the original fifty-sound chart!

A long moment passed.

Kamuro, seated on the bed, sorted through her thoughts. She let out a long sigh and covered her forehead in chagrin.

"How could Sakayanagi possibly have beaten you? I told you—from the very beginning, she had no chance of winning— Wait!"

Kamuro's expression shifted. She narrowed her eyes and stared at Fuyuji. Without sorrow or joy, she spoke.

"You promised me earlier that you'd go easy on her. Now, looking at this... where exactly is the 'going easy'?"

"Daijoubu!"

Still locked in combat with Morishita, Fuyuji extended his one remaining hand, raised a thumb, and revealed his bright, cheerful grin.

"I called the ship's doctor for her!"

...

The moonlight was like a white silk ribbon, flowing quietly across the pitch-black surface of the sea, shimmering with rippling light.

On the other side—in a room no more than twenty meters away from the Class A girls' cabin.

Horikita Suzune, who normally kept everyone at arm's length, had, against all precedent, come to Sakayanagi's cabin as a guest.

"Sakayanagi-san... do you truly believe you've won?"

Horikita sat properly in her chair, her back ramrod straight, her long, straight black hair cascading over her shoulders. In a cold voice, she repeated her question once more.

"I have indeed won."

Sakayanagi, toying with her phone, didn't raise her head. Her attention was focused on the chess records displayed on the screen. She replied with a smile.

"Horikita-san, you yourself endorsed my plan at the time, did you not? Since you chose to support me, then please trust in my judgment. And besides—the list brought back at the end was checked by you. It was only after confirming there were no issues that we sent it, wasn't it?"

Horikita pressed her lips together. Her hands, resting on her lap and wrapped in black knee-high socks, clenched subconsciously, then quietly released.

Indeed. Sakayanagi's plan had been the most ideal that Class D could achieve at the time. Even Horikita had to admit this.

But deep inside, she still faintly felt that something was off.

Especially when she heard the returning classmates describe a certain someone's mournful wail—like the death throes of a defeated man—the great stone in her heart had suddenly been hoisted up.

The truth was, she understood Fuyuji far too well.

Whenever a certain someone started acting up, it invariably meant something was wrong.

Sakayanagi leaned on her cane and rose to her feet. She strolled unhurriedly to the chessboard on the table. "Horikita-san, allow me to offer you a friendly hint." She lifted a chess piece and brought it above the king. "Once you have predicted all of your opponent's moves, victory becomes nothing more than a matter of course."

The white queen came crashing down with a heavy thud. The clear, resonant impact echoed throughout the room.

True enough... Since she had chosen to support that plan, at this moment, no matter the result, she could only face it head-on with dignity.

Drawing a deep breath, the salty, briny sea breeze seemed to clear her mind a little. Horikita swiftly adjusted her emotions and continued speaking, as if casually.

"In that case... are you going to find that person hidden in Class A next?"

She still remembered that Sakayanagi had apparently come to this school to compete against a certain someone.

"No."

Unexpectedly, Sakayanagi refused this with crisp, clean finality. Tap-tap-tap, leaning on her cane, she made her way to the balcony.

The bright, pure moonlight illuminated the pitch-black water, casting a faint, feeble silver glow.

"I typically lose interest in opponents who have already lost to me. Of course... as a toy, he was still fairly decent. I will probably remember him firmly in my heart and, should the opportunity arise in the future, take him out again to pass the time."

"What do you plan to do next?" Horikita also rose and walked to the balcony door. Standing a few steps away, she watched Sakayanagi's profile beneath the moonlight.

"I don't know. Let me think... Probably—"

Halfway through her words, both their phones vibrated simultaneously in their pockets.

"Ara~ Has it already become eleven o'clock without me noticing?"

Sakayanagi leisurely took out her phone. She extended a slender finger and lit up the screen. The moonlight and the glow of the phone screen intertwined across her face. An elegant smile surfaced naturally at the corner of her lips.

"Well then... Horikita-san, together with me, bear witness to the victory of this exa—"

The upturned smile froze solid in an instant.

[Rat (Mouse) — Due to a traitor answering incorrectly, Result Four.]

[Ox (Cow) — Due to a traitor answering incorrectly, Result Four.]

...

[Snake — Due to a traitor answering correctly, Result Three.]

...

Her mind went blank in an instant. Her pupils dilated. Sakayanagi's gaze instinctively, rigidly, continued downward.

Based on the above results, the changes in class and private points for this special exam are as follows.

[Class A... +250 cl, +2,500,000 pr]

[Class B... +200 cl, +2,000,000 pr]

[Class C... +150 cl, +1,500,000 pr]

[Class D... -600 cl, no change]

Such a neatly arranged permutation. It didn't look like exam results. Rather, it resembled the mocking, jeering taunt sent by some mastermind lurking behind the scenes.

In just a few seconds, cheers and wild whoops brimming with ecstasy exploded from the balconies on every deck of the cruise ship!

The sound pierced through the night and poured clearly into the balcony where they stood.

"Ha ha ha! Even though I have no idea what happened, even though we only got third place, the result's still pretty good!"

"As expected! Our Class A is the strongest!"

"Whoa! Let's all go out and celebrate together tomorrow! It's a shame we didn't close the gap with Class A, but everyone worked really hard!"

...

And amidst these cheers, Sakayanagi's ears precisely caught the despairing wails and bitter complaints of Class D.

"What's going on?! Didn't Sakayanagi-san say we'd win over 500 points in this exam?!"

"Argh! I don't want this! I've gone so many months without any points to spend! We finally scraped together 42 class points, and not even one month's payout came through—now it's back to zero!"

"It's all Sakayanagi-san's fault! If she hadn't chosen that plan, our class definitely wouldn't have lost!"

"And here I thought she was so incredible, a genius... Heh... turns out she's nothing but a fool."

"Argh! My 50,000 points are gone! It's all Sakayanagi-san's fault for proposing that plan! It's all the school's fault for setting these exam questions! That's right—the school should compensate me 50,000 private points!"

...

The despairing wails, thick with resentment, slithered into Sakayanagi's ears like venomous serpents. The color drained from her face in the blink of an eye.

[Once you have predicted all of your opponent's moves, victory becomes nothing more than a matter of course.]

For reasons unknown, the very words she had just spoken echoed once more beside her ears, reverberating through her mind in an endless, looping playback.

I... actually lost?!

Sakayanagi gripped her phone and once again replayed every detail of this exam in her mind. Within her small, frail body, her originally fragile heart began to pound fiercely. Each violent beat brought with it a sharp, piercing wave of vertigo.

So that's how it was...

From beginning to end... I was being toyed with in the palm of his hand.

She let out a soundless laugh. In the very next instant, the world before her eyes plunged into darkness. Accompanied by a startled cry of "Sakayanagi-san!", her entire body lost consciousness.

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