Another Like Me - Part I (CoTE x OC) ?

Chapter 14 - Deserted Island Special Test, Part 1

Yamauchi understood how stupid his point was, and hung his head in shame.

"But, Horikita-san, I'm not sure if that is entirely correct", Yukimura added.

"Why do you think so?"

"It's exactly because Hirata is our class representative that we can afford to have him as our leader. The other classes would never think of appointing their own class representatives as leaders, so when they guess, Hirata will be the last person that comes to their minds. It's reverse psychology", he elaborated.

Yukimura's words passed over the heads of some of my academically weaker classmates, but most of them had understood his point.

"Then, in that case, who do you think we should appoint as the leader?", Hirata asked nobody in particular.

I thought about it for a while. Reverse psychology has its own limits. A coin has only 2 faces, a head or a tail. Similarly, a statement can be classified into only 2 categories: either it is the truth, or it is a lie. Reverse psychology works on these same principles. If one person thinks of event A, then psychology would predict you go with event B. But reverse psychology would demand that you do the opposite to fool your enemies, so you revert back to event A. This cycle continues, and you only keep switching between events A and B. That would mean essentially there was a 50% chance that event A was chosen, depending on how far you continue the reversing. A 50% chance that the other classes would guess the class representative of the class, Hirata Yosuke himself.

50% chance per class to guess the right leader. A 7/8, or a 87.5% chance that at least one class would be able to guess our leader correctly. This number was rather high. It would be better to go ahead with choosing someone other than Yosuke.

"I think we should go with someone other than Yosuke, Karuizawa-san and Kushida-san. They are the 3 students in our class that stand out the most. It is unwise to choose them", I said.

"But what about the reverse psyche thing that Yukimura-kun just mentioned?", Miyake-kun asked.

"We cannot rely on things like reverse psychology during these exams, because it is not known how far students from other classes will think. Let's say Yosuke is the leader. Then that makes it a 50% chance that a particular class, say Class C, guesses our leader correctly. Since all the other 3 classes have the same options, it would effectively mean that there is almost a 90% chance that some class will guess Hirata-kun as the leader. It is too risky a strategy to execute."

"I swear I can't understand anything that's going on!", Sudo wailed, "aren't we wasting time thinking about it right now?"

"Sudo-kun has a point. I think we should decide quickly. Is it alright with the class to have Takeyama-kun as the leader instead?", Hirata asked.

Wait, me?

"Yeah, I think Takeyama-kun is a wise choice for leader!", Sato-san added herself into the conversation, "he's responsible, he's smart and he's well suited for the leadership role!"

Am I?

"I don't have any problems with that", Horikita-san added in. Slowly, everyone in class agreed to me being chosen as the leader. How troublesome. Well, I guess that's what you get for involving yourself too much in the discussion.

"That's settled then! Takeyama-kun will be the leader!", Hirata concluded the session admirably. He offered to stay back with me while I issued my card alongside Chabashira-sensei, while the rest of the class headed into the woods to find a suitable spot for setting up camp.

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Me and Hirata made our way through the dense shrubbery and trees. The canopy above provided sufficient shade for both of us to move without being tanned. However, the intense vegetation meant extremely high humidity, and I found myself drenched in sweat almost instantly.