"Great, now that the groups have formed, we can begin the second phase of the exam. For the next part I'm going to need each group to come forward and draw marbles from this bag. The bag will contain only black marbles, besides one green marble. The total amount of marbles will equal the amount of members in your the team. So in this case, the first group consists of three students. So their bag will be filled with two black marbles and one green marble. The second group consists of 42 members, thus receivs a bag containing 41 black marbles and one green marble.Once you picked one at random, you show your marble to me so I can varify the color you received. After that, the marble is not put back into the bag, but placed into a different bag, so you can't see if the green one has been drawn already. There is but one exception to this, and that is the person that started the group. That person after drawing is allowed to place the marble back into the bag and draw again. However they can do this only once. You should not show your color to anyone else until the next step is explained. The group containing of the following students, Yamato, Anrew and Lily, please come forward."
As asked, Yamato and the twins stepped in front of professor Reed to draw from their bag. Yamato was first to draw, though his expression was unreadable to the outside, so it was impossible to tell if he got green or black. It was hard to tell already since the meaning was not explained yet, so it was difficult to predict which emotion or expression would stand for black and which for green, though Yamato felt like he could still predict it correctly with most of the students here. He also thought Yuki could do the same if she wanted to.
Next in line was Lily, drew with her eyes closed and showed her marble to professor Reed without looking at it herself. Which seemed to irritate professor Reed a bit but he just continued anyway. Andrew did the same, leaving Yamato as the only one who knew about his color, but both Liliy's and Andrew's colors were a mystery to everyone except professor Reed. No one understood why they did that, but there was no way of figuring it out without more context. The drawing of group two began now, and the bag was filled with an additional 39 black marbles, so in total 42. After everyone had finished, professor Reed began with the next explanation.
"Alright, now that that's behind us, we can move on to the final set of rules, regarding the objective of the exam. One person of each group is now the target. And as you might have guessed, target is the person that drew the green marble. Target in this case means main objective of the other group. So you win if you can disqualify the target in the opposing group. You do that by taking a card of them and ripping it in half. Whoever has the card is your target, both literally and name wise. Said target card will be given to the target once you all enter the exam area, everyone else will be protectors, and as the name implies, your job will be to protect the target in your group. However the target is not forced to reveal themselves as the target, not even to their own group. I believe that would be all… Ah, and the exam lasts one full week. In the case that up until then the target has not been disqualified, both targets will be revealed to each other and have a duel, without interference of the protectors, whose winner determines the outcome of the exam. And there will be a surprise on the fith day, if it goes that long. That's it, I wish all of you the best of luck and fun!"
With that, everyone was teleported away into a completely new environment. A canyon approximately 200 meters wide and 3 kilometers deep, long enough that one could not see the end on either side, with walls covered in vegetation and a river going through its middle. Yamato and the twins started on the ground, on a small piece of land which was completely surrounded by the river flowing on either side and reuniting behind it again. However Lily seemed to have a lot of questions, none of them regarding the geology of the canyon.
"Yamato? Did we do well when we drew the marbles? We did it like you told us too."
"You did it just right. We couldn't risk Yuki reading your reactions. This was the safest way."
"Isn't it weird that we are in your group now though? Shin is probably not so happy with this. And why do we need to worry about what Yuki sees in our reactions? Why isn't she in our team anyway? Have you broken up? She doesn't seem like a person you can safely break up with, y'know…"
"You don't have to worry about Shin. There are a million reasons why you would join my team, purely with the intent to benefit your own class. Or you can play innocent and scared child, I'm sure that will work on him wuite well. And it's nothing like that… The only thing that matters right now is that she is going all out against us, so we can't allow ourselves any mistakes, you got that?"
"Alright, I guess… But how are we going to do that? They outnumber us 14 to 1. And Yuki alone counts as like… At least 20, right? I don't think we can win a direct confrontation."
"You're right, we can't win that… But don't worry, I have a plan."
Meanwhile, somewhere else in the canyon, Yuki and the rest of her group appeared, making it rather crowded so each class gathered in a different spot so they could organize themselves.
Both Yuki and Arina were a little farther away from the rest of class 1.
"So… What now, Yuki?"
"What do you mean? Why are you asking me?"
"Huh…? Oh, I just thought… With Yamato gone you'd be the one organizing now… And since he is our opponent for the exam, you, knowing him best, seemed like the most logical leader choice… You were the one that convinced the other classes to join us too, after all. I'm sorry if that assumption was wrong…"
"Oh, no that makes sense. But I only managed to convince them by playing on their desire for revenge against Yamato, and by promising them that they can act independently from us. Don't worry though. They won't cause us any trouble."
"Ah, so that was how you convinced them…"
"Yeah. And to defeat Yamato, we need the advantage in numbers. If we play smart, we can't even lose from here. Alone the options of targets is so much larger from their perspective. If they attack at random, they only have a 1 in 42 chance to get it right. While we have 1 in 3. Of course, neither of us will pick at random, but it's just to showcase what a major advantage we have over them right now."
"You already sound like a leader, haven't you noticed?"
"I guess my qualities as a leader can no longer be downplayed~"
Yuki said proudly as both class 2 and 3 left to go along the canyon. Obviously, Yuki knew that splitting up like that only gave away the advantage they had in numbers. However finding Yamato was the highest priority right now, since if he managed to hold out until day seven, his chance of victory would increase drastically, depending on who the two targets were. Suddenly a voice echoed through the canyon.
"Now that you all have seen the location, note that flying above the walls is prohibited and since the target is now in possession of the card, they cannot just hide it in a bush or something, it must he carried at all times, thank you!"
Professor Reed's short message seemed directed specifically towards a couple of class 3 students who were flying quite high already. It would have been Yuki's first instinct as well, if there was not a big problem at hand. They could go both left and right, and Yamatowas only in one direction. Most likely. Unless the canyon was a circle, which it did not seem to be. So they had to either split, or start of the exam by gambling on a 50/50. However, "Who needs luck, if they have love?!" Is what Yuki thought. After all, she was destined to be with Yamato. Surely, if she prayed for it, wished for it, she would pick right. So she did what any sensible person would and threw a leaf into the air, hoping for the wind to carry it to Yamato, since she threw it and everything coming from her has to lead back to Yamato automatically, obviously. The leaf was blown to the right, which was where class 3 was headed as well, whereas class 2 was headed left. Of course, she could still split up her class, but that would mean she was not confident in her universal connection with Yamato and that she would be guided to him by faith alone. So she, followed by the entirety of class 1, went right. Though she did not tell them that her decision to go into that direction was based on a leaf, but rather told them she could sense his mana in that direction, which was not true at all since she could not quite sense anything from this distance. But it would be alright because of love!
"Ah… Yes, I still have a long way to go, haven't I, Master? After all… I promised you that I would beat you in this exam. And as per your request, I will give it my all! To show you my love, my ever lasting devotion, so you may experience what you so much desire! You will be so proud, even if I only achieve it through such a massive starting advantage, that you intentionally gave me, I will be praised. This exam will be what makes you fall in love~!"