Book 13: Chapter 5: Intro - An invitation
As the prelude of the Uninhabited Island Special exam came to an end, skirmishes flared up from place to place, However these were but the final remnants of what was an extremely tense period. With only one week left, the group formation stage was entering its climax. By this point, more than 90% of the students at the school were in small groups of 2 or 3, and now their fates were bound together. Ishizaki, Matsushita, and the others who had invited me to join their groups had gradually given up on trying to do so. After all, the later you formed a group, the more danger you’d be in.
I wonder what the remaining 10% will decide to do by next Friday. While I was pondering upon that, I received an email. It was a little after 9:30 AM on a Saturday morning, and the sender was Ishizaki from Class 2-B. I’ve been in touch with him a lot lately, but this time, the content was different from what I usually received from him. He asked me to come to the cafe as Ryuuen was calling me. The wording of the email didn’t make it seem like a request, so I guess they weren’t giving me a choice in the matter..
Of course, I could have turned him down, but then they would hold Ishizaki responsible for that. Although I had plans to hang out with the Ayanokouji Group today, they were thankfully for around 1:00pm, so this probably wouldn’t affect that. So I got ready, and 15 minutes later, I was on my way to Keyaki mall.
15 minutes would be enough to get there on time. As the group formation stage was just about coming to a close, it seemed like Ryuuen was breaking the silence he had maintained and was finally making his move.
As of now, Ryuuen hasn’t formed a group with anyone. It is possible that he would invite me to his group, but I don’t think it was likely. Following this line of thought, I’m interested in what he would say beside that.
On my way to the Keyaki mall, I ran into Kanzaki, who was probably on his way back from the convenience store.
Two 2-liter plastic bottles could be seen in his plastic bag.
“Going to Keyaki mall at this time?”
“I won’t have any time to relax after the exam starts, after all.”