Exposing the defective mastermind (COTE)

It has been a while, since the existence of Ayanokouji Kiyotaka has caught my attention. However, if you were to ask me exactly what it was about him that caught my eye, I wouldn't be able to give a precise answer.

It's just in the way he seems to always be involved with the important players of major events, yet no one seems to have caught on. Who knows what level of influence he had in those events? That is what seems most mysterious to me. That, on top of his incredible speed during the relay and his impossible math score today, it tells me he is holding back more than he let on that time at the mall.

Thinking back on our first year, our special exams have had some strange and unexplained outcomes. There are just some things that don't add up at all with the way the classleaders explained them to us. For example, things like, Horikita being unable to properly explain how we won the island exam back then. In the next few days I must backtrack these special exams and see if I can find out what his role was in them.

Now that I sit next to him in class, It might give me some opportunity to find out more about him. The same way Horikita seems to know more about him than she lets on.

But for now, I need to confirm what happened today. Ayanokouji-kun has been called away by Chabashira-sensei, right after we learned about his math score. Is it because he has been caught cheating? Impossible, Ayanokouji doesn't strike me as a person that would cheat. Besides, the teacher would have said something if that was the case. Just like she did with Sudo after the first mid-term. She does seem to know more about him though. I have felt her eyes linger in this, or rather, HIS direction a lot. I bet it has something to do with him. I wouldn't have been able to notice this if I weren't sitting beside him.

-------------------

Meanwhile, the class had been totally silent since Ayanokouji and Chabashira left the room.

The shear amount of new information about their gloomy and quiet classmate left most people overwhelmed. Usually most classmates would have left by now, but today everyone stayed behind. Some were still staring at their phones or tablets in shock, unable to comprehend the truth. Others were looking around to their classmates for confirmation.

The silence was broken bij Haruka talking to a trembling and red Yukimura.

"Calm down, Yukimu. We will just ask him when he gets back, okay~?"

"I can't calm down! Listen, you don't understand... What happened here, it's ... impossible. This implies so many things. I can't even begin to explain the scope of the issue."

"Then, can you help us understand?"

The conversation was gathering quite a lot of attention. I decided to listen in for now, gathering as much opinions as I can before drawing my own conclusion.

"First of al, the last questions of this exam were not designed for students of our level. No, not even third years should have been able to answer them. It's like the school didn't even want us to be able to get a perfect score."

"Wow, and to think Kiyotaka-kun was able to solve it then. He sure is amazing."

Sakura was trying to lighten the mood by paying Ayanokouji a compliment.

"I have worked really hard to be able to get a grasp of everyone's academic abilities. Him being able to do this, it means he has been lying to all of us. He has definitely been holding back."

"Even so, he must have had a good reason, right? Knowing Kiyopon, he is always so calm and collected."

While Yukimura's friends were trying to defuse the situation I started thinking about the implications of Yukimura's opinion. I had already verified the difficulty of the exam myself but hearing it from my classmates confirmed it for me. Even with the solutions online I have had trouble understanding what was asked. If Ayanokouji really was able to solve such difficult problems then that would explain what happened during the flash mental arithmetic in last years final exam.