Katsuki stands up solemnly. Now isn't exactly a good time to puzzle over something like this considering we still have four unconscious classmates waiting for us to save, but for brainiacs like Katsuki, once a problem arises it's impossible for him to not want to tackle it.

"I wonder if they kept the tests of those thousands who didn't pass," he says thoughtfully. "Perhaps if we compare theirs with ours, we could figure out why we're different and why we were chosen?"

We immediately get to work. It doesn't take long; within three minutes Yukiya has proudly laid on the desk a gigantic pink file that holds god knows how many papers.

"Can't believe they still kept this. Thought they'd have tossed them into the paper recycling bin by now," Katsuki remarks as he browses through the tests, with Daisuke's by the side for comparison.

He stops.

"The back," he says slowly, flipping over the test paper he is holding in his hand. "There are questions on the back side of the paper."

"And?" Ririka prompts.

"And none of the people who didn't get in answered them," Katsuki says simply. "They didn't realize that there were additional questions in the back."

"What, are they stupid?" Yukiya laughs, loudly and brashly like he is apt to. "Of course there would be questions in the back. It was obvious, wasn't it?"

"Actually it wasn't," Katsuki refutes. "The test says 50 questions. The front page has 50 questions. There's literally a little line at the bottom that says the test is finished. And the questions at the back were printed with much lighter ink, so even if someone flips to the back, they'd think it was a mistake."

"Then why," Yukiya asks, "did all of us answer the questions in the back?"

We all stare.

That was how we passed the test. Simply because we answered the questions on the flip side of a test paper.

"I can't remember," Ririka murmurs. "I just knew that there were questions in the back."

"Yeah, I just knew," Hiroki concurs. "There's no better way to describe it. I just knew."

Katsuki mulls over this a little, all the while spinning a pen in three different ways because he's a multitasker like that. Finally he speaks.

"What if—it's a big 'what if' but—you guys remember that we had to stay in the school overnight before taking the test, right? What if when we were there that night, they did something to our brains, something that told us 'there are questions at the back'?"

Ririka continues to look confused. "But... why us?"

"Not just us," Katsuki corrects, speaking faster and faster from excitement. "Everyone. You guys said there was a machine in our dorm basement that slowly brainwashes us, right? What if they used the same kind of machine on everyone, in our sleep? And then, of course, when grading the tests, they'd know that the brainwashing didn't work on those who didn't fill out the back of the test, while we did fill out the back of the test, which meant that we were successfully brainwashed, and therefore we were selected for this school because we were more susceptible to brainwashing. You get me?"

Everyone stands there in stunned silence, except for Hiroki who's sitting on the floor. But he's just as stunned and silent as everyone else. He gets it. I get it too. No wonder I felt such a headache that night. I had attributed it to excessive worry over the test, and loneliness from being in a huge crowd with so few familiar faces. Turned out it wasn't worry or loneliness.

It was a machine. Brainwashing us.

The same thing probably had happened to our seniors. To the teachers who weren't involved, even. Asked to stay overnight, then asked to take a test. A test that didn't even have to be graded. All Mr. Yamada and co. needed to do was to flip the test over, and they would know who to recruit and who to not recruit.

A very simple system, but so effective.

"If that's the case—" Shun begins, then clamps a hand over his mouth in sudden horror. "Tomomi, come here for a bit."

I move over to his side, and he pulls me into a corner, between the bookcase and the wall. It would have been a totally exhilarating teenfic-worthy experience—being forcefully pulled into a tight little corner by your crush, I mean—but as you can all see this isn't exactly the best time to be thinking about crushes.

My heart is still hammering, though, because Shun looks completely serious and I feel like this would be the onset of something bad.

"Tomomi," he whispers, "do you remember what happened when you took the test? Did you know you had to turn the test over to finish the questions at the back?"

I sense the urgency in his voice and feel slightly apprehensive, not quite sure where this is going. "I can't remember, but I suppose I did, right? Since according to my test papers I did finish the questions at the back. It's my handwriting all right."

"No." Shun shakes his head. "No, I mean, did you know there were questions at the back to begin with, or did you only flip to the back because I told you to?"

For a second I don't understand the question.

Then I remember.

Then I remember that day of the exam. I felt so lonely then, squished in the midst of so many aspiring students, all of them probably brilliant geniuses, people I couldn't ever compare to even if I studied my head off. Jin was the only one who said hi to me. Everything felt so cold, so big, so different from cozy little Fukuoka, so different from what I had been used to.

The test didn't take long for me to finish. Just fifty questions, and I was already spent. I didn't get a good night's sleep because of the headache, and the whole classroom, the rows of boring seats, the rows of boring desks, the whitewashed walls, all of it made me tired. I didn't want to think. I didn't want to use my brain. I wouldn't ace the test, anyway, I thought. The others would of course get better scores than me. Shun, for example, had always gotten great scores so easily at school. He probably finished the test much sooner than I did.

I wanted to talk to him. Wanted to talk to him before he got accepted to this prestigious academy and I didn't and I'd never see him again.

Of course, I couldn't do so while in the middle of an exam; that would have gotten us both kicked out. But there were always other ways.

Some other students coughed from time to time. The clock on the wall ticked, too loudly. The teacher in charge walked around the room, her high heels clacking. Just the right amount of noise, not too much, not too little. The perfect cover.

I tapped my pencil on the edge of the wooden desk. I-M D-O-N-E I-M B-O-R-E-D

The reply came discreetly, somewhere near the front of the classroom.

S-O F-A-S-T-? H-A-V-E U D-O-N-E T-H-E O-N-E-S A-T T-H-E B-A-C-K Y-E-T-?

I flipped the paper over and tapped a grateful reply. O-M-G D-I-D-N-T N-O-T-I-C-E T-H-X.

So that was it. That was what happened.

I stare at Shun, mouth half-open. I probably look stupid, but I don't care. He stares back, face full of all kinds of emotions.

"That's why you don't belong here, Tomomi. That's why you weren't able to hack minds. That's why the brainwashing has no effect on you. Your 'test' was a fluke."

He looks so sad. Why does he look so sad? I don't want him to look sad.

"I'm grateful that this happened, of course, because if you didn't get into this school no one could have saved us from being brainwashed like those, er, sleepwalkers outside. That's great, I'm glad you're here, but—" his voice breaks. "But don't you see? It's my fault. I dragged you into this. You should be happily in some Fukuoka High School right now, passing notes in history class or something, not here, not going through all this danger—"

All the others are looking at us now. Hiding in the corner doesn't do much good when you're speaking as loudly as Shun is.

So I put on my best offended look and punch him lightly in the shoulder. "Don't be silly. There's no place I'd rather be."

And it is true. Here, with my friends, is where I belong.

–

As we all head back to our mindhacking secret base where our still unconscious friends are waiting, I can't help but wonder over one thing.

So I'm a fluke. I'm the anomaly. I, like the thousands of students who didn't fill out the answers at the back, wasn't supposed to be accepted into this school at all. The only reason I'm here is a pencil code—we didn't even cheat with it; it's not like Shun told me the answers. He just reminded me that there were questions on the flipside. Which just (fortunately, or unfortunately) happened to be all I needed to get into this school.

That's why in mock-missions, when Ririka was soaring around on clothes, when Yukiya was throwing fireballs, when Shun was shooting things with his invisible guns, I was unable to do anything, even though I tried so hard to listen to all my teachers' advice.

That makes sense. But what happened these two days doesn't.

If I'm not even mindhacker material, how come I can conjure and use an elega in someone's mind so easily?