Chapter 6: The Second Sports Festival

Chapter 6: The Second Sports Festival

Chapter 6:

The Second Sports Festival

T HE NEXT MORNING . I watched from the faculty side as all of the students gathered on the field. Student Council President Nagumo was standing near a podium that had been set up, giving his opening address. The guests that had been invited from outside campus were watching over the students as well. There weren’t that many guests though, just a few dozen or so. Even so, the students seemed uncomfortable at the sight of unfamiliar outsiders.

The students were still in a state of restless excitement; they were about to thrust themselves onto the stage, so to speak, about to dive headfirst into the Sports Festival. The student council had told me in advance about the guests that were going to be invited, but the people present were much more imposing than I had expected. They were from political circles and similar who were involved in creating this school.

There weren’t any politicians present that I had seen on TV before, but I was sure that these people weren’t very far off from being on television themselves. They were dressed in suits and wore stern expressions on their faces as they watched. It was almost as though they were monitoring prisoners. But even in a situation like this, President Nagumo remained unperturbed, making a dignified speech. He was fulfilling his role in a manner comparable to my older brother, giving the students the kind of wonderful performance my brother had in the past. After President Nagumo’s speech was over and the students applauded, the baton was passed to the teachers, and we were once again reminded of things to note during the Sports Festival.

Now, the time had come for the main event to begin. From this point onward, we were free to do as we pleased. As long as they abided by the rules, students could participate in any competition they were currently registered for. Alternatively, they could abstain from an event and choose to enter another competition instead if they decided as such after seeing what kind of opponents they’d be up against and that they’d be at a disadvantage—although they would need two points in order to do so. And we couldn’t forget that students who had completed all of their competitions and were not planning on participating in any more had to go cheer in the designated area. If you were seen aimlessly chatting with people, resting, or slacking off in an unrelated area, you would be disqualified from the event and your points would be forfeited.

My class had formed a cooperative partnership with Ryuuen-kun’s class. We had made adjustments to spread students out as much as possible in individual competitions in order to avoid clashing with his students. As for team competitions, we had hand-picked students from both of our classes who could win easily. We made sure there were equal numbers of students from each class, and we also made sure that the same number of points would be distributed to our two classes regardless of whether those teams won or lost. However, no matter how exceptional a student was, the maximum number of people you could enter in a team competition was fixed. There was a measure to prevent either side from using outstanding talents like Sudou-kun and Yamada Albert-kun for extended periods of time.

Additionally, we had a contract in place that allowed for each person to enter into a maximum of three events so they could lend a hand in group competitions if needed. This arrangement was limited to events that could be registered for in advance, however, and we had made sure to include that in the contract. It would’ve been nonsensical for us to have disputes on the day of the Sports Festival and have students yelling and screaming at each other to help them out with this or that.

Furthermore, we didn’t have any firm restrictions against working together with students from Ichinose-san’s or Sakayanagi-san’s classes. If there were any competitions where we could make use of their students, then for the sake of convenience, we were willing to allow some cooperation. I wasn’t worried about there being any problems because Katsuragi-kun and I had bounced ideas off of each other back and forth quite a few times.

There was less to worry about at the start, since at this point, most students would just be participating in competitions that they had registered for in advance. Having said that, I needed to remember to check in with my classmates every hour and make adjustments as necessary if any problems arose.

The first event I was going to participate in myself was the 100-meter dash. The start time was fifteen minutes after the event began, so there wasn’t any need to rush. It was still a good idea to arrive early though and check out the competition that was already—

“All right, Horikita! You and me are gonna have a showdown!!” shouted Ibuki. She came running at me at full speed immediately after the crowd disbanded and the students were free to go about the grounds. She glared at me while stopping to catch her breath.

“Are you an idiot?” I asked.

“Wha-?! What the hell was that for? What, you scared you’re gonna lose to me? Is that it?”

“No.” I rejected her in a split second. “What competition are you about to go to? Take a deep breath and then answer me that.”

“Huh? The 100-meter dash, obviously. That was the deal we made, and I wouldn’t forget that,” said Ibuki.

“Yes, exactly. The 100-meter dash. And our agreement was that we registered for the first race. That means that we’re going to start running right away. And if that’s the case, why were you recklessly running here at top speed a moment ago? You know that we’re going to have our competition soon, so you should be waiting patiently in the designated place. There shouldn’t be a need to explain any of this to you.”

She must have realized it now that I had explained.

“Damn it,” she mumbled under her breath. “A-anyway, you still better race me!”

“Relax. I was planning on it, without you even having to tell me.”

Ibuki-san wasn’t an easy opponent to go up against. I won the 100-meter dash last year, but only by a slim margin. I would’ve normally wanted to avoid challenging her, but I was also greatly indebted to her. If Ibuki-san hadn’t helped me recently, then it was possible Kushida-san still might not have come back to school. Even so, I couldn’t lose to her.

I knew she wouldn’t want me to just let her win either, so I was going to give her a real race and we’d compete fair and square. Ibuki-san didn’t seem to like walking next to me, so she put some distance between us as we headed over toward registration for the first event. I could feel a pleasant kind of tension building, and this would be a battle just between second-year girls.

Not much had changed from when the advanced reservations were made, and my only potential rival was Ibuki-san, but it would’ve been foolish of me to interpret that as a stroke of good luck. If I had an easy battle ahead of me, that just meant that there would be stronger rivals to face in other competitions.

6.1

T HE 100-METER DASH was held immediately after the opening ceremonies, and in that first race, I had my showdown with Ibuki-san. It ended in a narrow victory for me. Oddly enough, I won by about the same slim margin that I did last year. After we crossed the finish line, Ibuki-san kicked the dirt in apparent frustration and made excuses for losing, saying it was because she stupidly ran over to me as fast as she could before the race even began.

My next battle with her would be in my fourth event of the day, the running long jump. The two contests before that were our own individual pursuits. My second event was a steeplechase, in which I placed first. The third was a team-based tug-of-war contest, and my team won third place in that. So far, I personally had accumulated a total of twenty-one points: I had gained five points at the start of the Sports Festival, ten points for placing first place twice in individual competitions, three points for placing third in the team tug-of-war competition, and another three points for general participation. I could confidently say that I was off to a great start.

Then, at around ten o’clock, it was time for my second showdown with Ibuki-san: the running long jump. I finished my turn with an impressive leap, and my jump was recorded as 5.79 meters. Not bad. Setting aside the fact that this was a situation where there was no room for failure, I thought I might have just set a personal best.

Ibuki-san was three spots behind me and was breathing heavily as she looked at my record. In all, there were three jumpers left. I felt that now that I was, at least tentatively, in first place for the event, I was one step closer to scoring points.

As I watched the next contestant, I heard someone call for me from behind.

“Suzune! Found ya!”

When I turned around, I saw Sudou-kun running up to me with Onodera-san behind him. I had high expectations that the pair of them would be top scorers in this Sports Festival.

“From the looks of it, you’re doin’ pretty good!” said Sudou-kun.

“You’ve won three competitions in a row since the day began, Sudou-kun,” I replied. “And on top of that, you’re looking totally relaxed. I’m impressed.”

“Well, y’know, I’m tryin’. Anyhow, Onodera competed in two events and got first place in both of ’em too. Right, Onodera?”

“Well, I just happened to get lucky in a few ways,” she said.

Onodera had no equal when it came to swimming, but she had made a good show of her talents in track-and-field events as well.

“You know, when we first started school, I didn’t have the impression that you were that fast. When did that happen?” I asked. I was particularly curious about that because I had seen her in gym class.

“Well, to be honest, I don’t like running all that much,” she said. “I’ve never really been interested in anything besides swimming. I guess it’s just like, before, I just kinda did it without really putting in an effort.”

“She said she’d never do long distances,” said Sudou-kun.

“Well, it’s super exhausting. I can’t run that far, and it’s not really good for you.”

Apparently, the two of them had been practicing together day after day ever since they decided to team up. It seemed they made an even more natural pair than I had imagined they would.

“Still, to tell ya the truth, I’d love to go up against Kouenji if I got the chance,” said Sudou-kun. “He’s won three events in a row and got first place in all of ’em too. It looks like he’s gonna keep the wins comin’.”

“Absolutely not,” I told him. “It’s not a good idea for our classmates to try and destroy each other. You understand that, right?”

Sudou-kun and Kouenji-kun both had the potential to get first place. I understood that Sudou-kun wanted to compete against him, but we had to prioritize the overall class.

“I-I know, I’m just jokin’,” he said.

“Don’t worry,” said Onodera-san. “I’ll keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t get out of line, so you can relax.”

“Thank you,” I said. “The more I can leave to you, Onodera-san, the less I’ll have to worry about.”

“It’s like you don’t got any trust in me at all. Man…”

Sudou looked disgruntled, but when I turned to look him in the eye, he averted his gaze awkwardly. That was a sign he was reflecting on how he had behaved in the past.

“Well, I’m sure that you two are planning on competing in more competitions still, Sudou-kun, Onodera-san. Good luck to you both.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna keep up this winnin’ streak,” said Sudou-kun.

That was encouraging to hear. Just then, I noticed that the final competitor in my event had taken the starting line. I stopped the conversation there and turned my attention toward Ibuki-san.

“Let’s not bother her anymore,” Sudou-kun said to Onodera-san. “How about we go check out the next event?”

“Yeah, let’s. See you later, Horikita-san,” said Onodera-san.

“Yeah,” I replied.

I casually watched them go from the corner of my eye, but my gaze was mostly focused on Ibuki-san since she had started her run. I understood very well that her abilities were close to my own. In other words, it was conceivable that she could surpass my own record. I was feeling two emotions at that moment: I wanted her to fail, but I also wanted her to give it her best and make this a good fight.

I was sure that she must’ve been feeling intensely pressured, but her movements were nimble and graceful. She leaped forward and landed on her feet, but she ended up pitching forward and falling. Even though she had a face full of dirt, she quickly looked up and turned her eyes to the scorekeeper.

5.81 meters. It was just two centimeters different, but even so, those two centimeters made her jump better than mine. I had lost.

“Yeah!!!”

Ibuki-san pumped her fist in the air, looking as gleeful as a child. If she had lost this competition, she would’ve lost our little best two-out-of-three showdown already. Instead, she had made a brilliant leap and won.

“You see that?!” she yelled. “I won! You lost!”

I could tell that she was happy, almost to the point of being obnoxious. It was actually making me feel a little irritated.

“I have to wonder if you had an advantage over me because you have slightly less air resistance than I do…” I mused. If our abilities were about the same, then that would be the only difference…

“Huh?” she blinked. “Air resistance?”

“Never mind.”

“Don’t make weird excuses. Just admit you lost.”

“Don’t get carried away,” I told her. “This just means we each have one win and one loss. We’re back to being even. That’s all.”

Even though I warned Ibuki-san not to get overly excited, she still had a huge grin on her face that wasn’t going away any time soon. I suppose I should have regretted the fact that I missed out on getting first, but seeing her look so happy, I suppose I just couldn’t help but…

“I won! I won! I won!” she exclaimed.

…Yeah, no. I did regret not getting first. If anything, the amount of mental and emotional stress I was feeling suddenly increased. I now had one win and one loss. I would have loved to get to our third match right away, but there were several team competitions worth a lot of points coming up after this. I had to wait until the balance beam event later that afternoon to settle the score with her.

6.2

T HE SPORTS FESTIVAL had started without Ayanokouji-kun. An electronic scoreboard was set up on the field so that we could see how each class was scoring and confirm their respective results at any time. Although Ryuuen-san’s class started off at the top of the rankings, we, now Class B, overtook them in short order and took first place for ourselves. We had been holding onto it ever since. Our ideal final ranking would be Class D in second, Class C in third, and Class A in fourth.

I was hoping that things would continue on like this all the way until the end without any trouble. Since I had some time until my next competition, I headed over to the cheering section to kill some time. There, I was approached by Yagami-kun from Class 1-B.

“Great work out there, Horikita-senpai,” said Yagami-kun.

“It seems like your class is putting up quite a good fight too, Yagami-kun. You’re in a very close second in your grade right now.”

“But you’re in first place in your grade, aren’t you, senpai? I can’t believe that you started in Class D last year.”

“Was that a compliment?” I asked. “Or was there some sarcasm mixed in?”

“Heavens, no. I genuinely respect you. Not as much as Student Council President Nagumo, but still.” Out of the corner of his eye, Yagami-kun saw the instant that Student Council President Nagumo cleared the finish line. “I heard some third-year students talking earlier. Apparently, that’s his fifth first-place finish in a row.”

Some girls cheered for him, and several of the guests turned their attention to President Nagumo as well. However, Nagumo walked away with a blank expression on his face without so much as a word to any of the cheering girls. He put some distance between himself and others, making it clear that he wanted to be alone.

“Knowing President Nagumo, I expected him to say something, but he doesn’t look even the least bit happy,” I remarked.

“Well, win or lose, he’s already guaranteed to graduate from Class A, I suppose,” said Yagami-kun. “Perhaps he’s just not feeling too enthusiastic?”

It was certainly true that the Student Council President had a solid position. From his perspective, the Sports Festival rankings really must’ve meant nothing. I wondered if he was aiming for first place in this event simply because he couldn’t afford to be lax in front of the current students and the guests.

“I think I’ll have a little chat with the President,” I said.

“I see,” said Yagami-kun. “Well, my next event is coming up, so if you’ll please excuse me.”

With that exchange behind me, I decided to approach the Student Council President. Another third-year girl was standing next to him and seemed to be talking to him. It was Kiryuuin-senpai from Class 3-B. I heard rumors about her from time to time from my interactions with other third-year students. I also knew that she had incredible scores in OAA. Not wanting to interrupt their conversation, I decided to just give them a slight bow and wait.

“Congrats on your fifth win in a row, Nagumo,” said Kiryuuin-senpai.

“What’d you come here for?” he asked.

“No need to be so unkind, is there? I was just concerned for you. You don’t seem to be very happy, even though you won. And it looks like more than a couple people are cheering you on too…”

“Don’t make me laugh,” he scoffed. “How could I call winning a contest like this an accomplishment?”

“Well, it would have been easy for you to just gather up weak opponents to face so you could steal first place by force. But looking at the people you were racing against just now, it didn’t seem to me like that’s what you did.” She was pointing out that he didn’t appear to be cutting any corners in the event.

“I heard through the grapevine that Ayanokouji is absent today,” she added. “Is that perhaps the reason for the long face?”

Ayanokouji . His name was popping up again, even in a place like this.

The Student Council President sighed quietly, without so much as looking at Kiryuuin-senpai. “I thought he’d satisfy me, but I guess I was wrong.”

“Aw, poor you,” said Kiryuuin-senpai. “In that case, how about I be your opponent?”

Student Council President Nagumo directed a sideways glance at Kiryuuin-senpai in response to her provocation, looking at her for the first time. But when he saw the smirk on her face, he turned away from her once more.

“A cheap lie,” he said. “Even if I wanted to go up against you, I can’t imagine that you’d actually compete with me. I’m right, aren’t I?”

“ Fu fu fu. Guess I’ve been found out,” she admitted. She shrugged her shoulders and drew closer to Student Council President Nagumo. “After just one more event, I’ll have fulfilled the minimum required of me. Once that’s done, I plan to just relax and watch.”

“Yeah, I expected as much,” he said.

“You shouldn’t care about your juniors anymore,” Kiryuuin-senpai advised him. “At the very least, you have total control over your grade and your position in Class A is secure. And on top of that, you have your track record as student council president. That’s enough, isn’t it? I suggest you just quietly graduate.”

“Wow, you’re really giving me advice, huh?” said President Nagumo. “What brought about this change of heart? You’ve talked more in the past six months than the two years before Ayanokouji came into the picture.”

“You may be right about that,” she said.

“Relax, Kiryuuin,” he told her. “I know that I’m done playing with Ayanokouji, you don’t have to tell me that. He chose not to fight me. There’d be no point now, even if I pushed it.”

“If Ayanokouji lost in a direct confrontation with you, he wouldn’t be able to remain as composed and low-key as he has been all this time,” Kiryuuin-senpai said. “You have to consider his desire to run away from that. He has a cute side to him too, I think.”

Fighting against Student Council President Nagumo? Ayanokouji-kun? I did wonder why he was called to the student council office the other day. I guessed it was to challenge him? That also lined up with the message that he had given to me.

Kiryuuin-senpai casually glanced over at me, but then she walked away without really saying anything in particular.

“Sorry to have made you wait, Suzune,” President Nagumo said. “You need something from me?”

“Well, no. It’s just that I was going to ask you the same thing that Kiryuuin-senpai did,” I replied. “I saw that you took first place, but you didn’t look happy at all. And also… You apparently had Ayanokouji-kun agree to compete with you in the Sports Festival?”.

“In the end, it didn’t happen,” he said. “He’s absent, so it’s over.”

Ayanokouji-kun said that his absence wasn’t due to illness, but part of his strategy to make sure that Sakayanagi-san was absent too. It seemed like Student Council President Nagumo was unaware of this fact, so I reasoned it would be best not to let him find out.

“When it’s time for break at noon, come see me for a bit. I’ll be waiting for you at—”

Even though he was asking me to do something without giving me many details, I couldn’t refuse, and I accepted his offer.

A short time later, it was time for lunch, and I looked over the lunch boxes provided to us on the field. I could choose whatever I wanted from the array of food. There was a varied lineup of options, ranging from light meals like sandwiches to more substantial meals like katsudon, meant for restoring your strength and stamina.

I was both impressed and astonished by how incredibly scrupulous and thorough this school was. Students were required to completely finish eating whatever they chose, and they were allowed to select multiple items too. Most of the students just chose one thing, but I observed that there were some boys here and there who took multiple things. I also saw a larger student among them happily holding three or four items against his chest. He was a first-year student, and someone I had seen before… If he was going to eat all of that and still take on competitions in the afternoon, he was either underestimating the competition or was just that much of a big shot.

Just as I reached for one of the lighter meal options, I was approached by Student Council President Nagumo again.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” he said.

“What did you want to see me for?” I asked. “I do want to let you know that I have a meeting soon, so I would sincerely appreciate it if we could keep this brief.”

“Sure. I just wanted to know about Ayanokouji. I heard he was out sick, but did he just suddenly fall ill or something?”

Although Student Council President Nagumo didn’t mention anything earlier, he was apparently suspicious of Ayanokouji-kun.

I decided to lie. “Yes, he did. He informed me of his absence this morning and said he was quite sorry. After all, one person being absent means that our class is losing ten points. But even so, if he’s not feeling well, I can’t force him to participate.”

Of course, that was the only sort of answer I could give. I was the only person who knew that he was absent for another reason.

“Well, if he really is sick, then I suppose that’s good,” said President Nagumo.

“What do you mean by that?” I couldn’t imagine that President Nagumo suspected anything from what I had said. I wondered if he had any reason that led him to think something was up.

“You heard what Kiryuuin and I were talking about earlier, didn’t you? That maybe he shut himself away in his room because he didn’t want to be humiliated.”

“I did hear that.” I decided to give President Nagumo a safe answer, so as not to provoke him.

“I don’t think I can say for sure that Ayanokouji-kun didn’t do something like that, certainly.”

“Maybe I’ll cause trouble for your grade then,” said President Nagumo.

“What do you mean?” I asked again.

“Well, I’ll just have to make someone else pay the price for him running away. Yeah…” President Nagumo was muttering to himself instead of answering my question.

Then, he gave me a casual wave of his hand, signaling to me that he was leaving. He walked away without taking a lunch.

“Pay the price…? Make trouble for our grade? What was that all about…? Even so…”

It seems like Ayanokouji-kun’s reputation preceded him—he really was highly regarded by many. I was once again impressed by him today, at the festival. I was nervous about what was going to happen when he told me that was going to be absent, but as it turned out, Sakayanagi-san was indeed absent as well. Without a doubt, Ayanokouji-kun really had been able to do something to contain Sakayanagi-san.

The results of that were evident in Class A’s current ranking and score. I supposed it wasn’t surprising that they couldn’t coordinate well if their commander was suddenly unable to be down on the battlefield. I felt a little sorry for them, but this was serious business. I was going to make sure that we accumulated wins while we had the opportunity to.

6.3

A FTER THE MIDDAY BREAK was over, the Sports Festival continued, going into the second half. More than half of the students had already completed the requisite five minimum events, and those who demonstrated confidence in their athletic prowess were continuing on in their sixth and seventh events. Matoba and Shimizu from Class A continued to struggle desperately without their leader as they fought against Horikita and Ichinose, both of whom were assessing the status of the competitions and their players from minute to minute.

“Next is ping-pong doubles in the gymnasium,” said Shimizu. “Satonaka reported earlier that there don’t appear to be any strong contenders. There are only two spots open, so there’s a good chance we can make it.”

“We need to rack up some wins,” said Matoba. “Or, at the very least, make sure that we don’t come in last place.”

Sakayanagi’s absence had cast a dark shadow over Class 2-A and many students were feeling discouraged. On the other hand, however, there were more than a few students who felt even more motivated by the situation. After Shimizu and Matoba heard that there were openings in the ping-pong doubles match coming up and that the deadline to enter was just ten minutes away, they decided to give up on the penalty kick event that they had planned on doing and hurriedly made their way to the gymnasium.

Ishizaki was walking toward the two of them with his gaze directed downward, not paying attention to what was in front of him. As he approached, Shimizu moved to his right to try and avoid bumping into him, since he was blocking the path forward. But at almost the exact same time, Ishizaki moved to his left.

Shimizu tried to avoid a collision as quickly as he could, but he wasn’t able to get out of the way in time and their shoulders collided. The force of the impact was twice as strong as Shimizu had expected it to be, and there was no way it could’ve been an accidental collision. Having determined that Ishizaki rammed into his shoulder forcefully, Shimizu tried to speak up and say something, but then…

“Ow! Watch where yer goin’, dumbass!” Ishizaki shouted angrily, flaring up at Shimizu before he could even say anything. “Why don’t ya look in front of ya when you’re walkin’, huh? You slammed into me!”

Shimizu from Class A and Ishizaki from Class D glared at each other.

“ You were the one who wasn’t looking where he was going!” said Shimizu.

“Huh? The hell are you playin’ at, tryin’ to play the victim here…? You obviously slammed into me on purpose, didn’t ya?”

“Wait, what? No, anyone with eyes could see that you were the one who slammed into me on purpose. Right?” Shimizu turned to Matoba for back up, hoping that he’d help him out.

“He’s right,” said Matoba. “You weren’t looking ahead at all, dude.”

“Hey man, I wasn’t lookin’ the other way or nothin’. You two are just makin’ stuff up. That’s playin’ dirty.”

“Whaddya mean playing dirty? Anyone would agree you’re the one in the wrong here,” argued Shimizu.

“The hell?” barked Ishizaki. “ Me? You guys were just too caught up in your little conversation so you didn’t see me, that’s all.”

Both sides continued to foist blame onto the other, and the clock ticked on with no sign of Ishizaki making any attempt to apologize.

Matoba, even though he was convinced that Shimizu was in the right, was also in a rush to get to the next competition. He urged Shimizu to calm down.

“Come on, man, just let it go. He’s not worth it.”

“I can’t let this slide, though,” replied Shimizu.

“Dude, I know, but we got other priorities right now,” said Matoba.

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

Matoba sympathized with Shimizu, but he also reminded him that they need to sign up for the competition and win. Shimizu reluctantly nodded in agreement. He glared at Ishizaki as he walked away.

“Watch where you’re goin’ next time,” he spat.

“Ow!” Ishizaki suddenly cried out.

“Huh?”

Just as Shimizu and Matoba tried to move past him, Ishizaki suddenly clutched his left shoulder.

“I got all riled up so I didn’t really notice it, but damn… I think you might’ve broken somethin’,” he muttered.

It took a moment for Shimizu and Matoba to realize what Ishizaki was saying, but then they suddenly understood what was happening. Ishizaki had sprung a cheap trap on them. They exchanged looks and let out scornful laughs. However, the situation then took a sudden turn.

“Damn, sounds like quite the commotion over here,” said Ryuuen, who just so happened to be present as this dispute was breaking out. “What’s the matter, Ishizaki?”

“Ryuuen-san! Listen! These guys just slammed into me for no reason!” wailed Ishizaki.

“Ryuuen… Pfft, now a pain in the ass like you is involved, huh…” Shimizu grumbled. “I didn’t expect that you’d use such an obvious trap.”

“Huh? What’re you talkin’ ’bout? I just so happened to hear this tussle goin’ on and came to check it out and all.”

“Quit messing around. You’ve got a history of doing this kinda thing,” protested Shimizu.

“A history?” said Ryuuen. “Hm, a history, huh… Well, I guess it’s true we might have a history of doing things like this, sure.”

“So, you do get it,” said Shimizu.

“But! Even if I do have a history as you say, that’s got absolutely nothin’ to do with what happened this time. I mean, it’d be a big problem if my precious wittle follower Ishizaki here got hit and maybe even, heaven forbid, injured by an underhanded move by one of you Class A folks.”

“‘Precious wittle follower,’ what?” Shimizu repeated in disbelief. “I bet you’re the one who told him to do it. Isn’t that right? Just cut the crap already or I’ll call a teacher and…!”

“Ku ku,” Ryuuen laughed . “Yeah, I guess you’re right, when you’re in trouble, you just gotta call the teachers. Hell, I welcome it. After all, we’re the victims here, yeah? Don’t you worry, I’ll make sure we get the teachers thoroughly involved. Ain’t that right, Ishizaki?”

“Yeah. I’m the victim here.”

“Seriously, how’s he the victim? These guys aren’t even taking the Sports Festival seriously… Hey, can you go ahead and call the teachers?” Matoba whispered into Shimizu’s ear, having decided that there was no avoiding the inevitable.

With that, Matoba sent Shimizu off running somewhere. Shortly afterward, Shimizu returned from his attempt to call the teachers, looking clearly depressed.

“What’s wrong? What’d the teachers say?” asked Matoba.

“Well, it’s—”

Shimizu hadn’t brought a teacher back with him, but rather, a student from his same class—Hashimoto Masayoshi.

“I saw Shimizu runnin’ and I could tell from the look on his face he was pretty pissed,” said Hashimoto. “I asked him what was up. If you guys talk to the teachers, it could make this into an even bigger mess. If you have the teachers make a judgment call here, you might not be able to compete.”

“But!” protested Shimizu.

“Look, man, I know. But Ryuuen’s trying to make this into a big mess. Don’t play into his hands.” Hashimoto placed his hand on Shimizu’s shoulder, urging him to relax. “I’ll try talking to them for the time being.”

“…Got it,” said Matoba. “We’re counting on you to wrap this up quick.”

Matoba had no other choice but to leave the task of resolving the situation to Hashimoto. He decided to watch from a short distance away. After hearing the whole story, Hashimoto walked forward and approached Ryuuen and Ishizaki calmly and slowly, despite the commotion.

“Let’s wrap this whole thing up peacefully, eh, Ryuuen?” said Hashimoto.

“What?” Ryuuen scoffed. “You were the ones who hit us. We’re just respondin’ in kind, since they were apparently fixin’ for a fight.”

“I know, I know. But you know, if you don’t pull back, we’re really gonna be in a bind here. These guys are our breadwinners in the Sports Festival. You’re keeping our main guys tied down. I hate to say this, but Ishizaki can’t exactly offer that much in terms of getting your class points, y’know?”

No matter who you asked, it was obvious that Ryuuen’s side engineered this situation. Hashimoto was pointing that out, trying to make it clear to Ryuuen that he had him figured out, so Ryuuen couldn’t push the matter too aggressively.

“Hey, don’t look down on my guy,” Ryuuen said. “Ishizaki’s been pourin’ his blood, sweat, and tears into this day. He’s been showin’ that he’s got the potential to compete on equal footin’ with your so-called breadwinners. Ain’t that right?”

“Yeah!” said Ishizaki.

Hashimoto had seen Ishizaki messing around many times before and on a regular basis. He was completely exasperated by what he was seeing.

“Oh, for the love of… Man, you guys are always pushing the envelope.” Hashimoto knew that he wouldn’t be able to have an actual, proper discussion with Ryuuen and Ishizaki about this, much less win, and so couldn’t help but scratch his head in frustration.

“Gotta say, it’s pretty clear to me now though,” he added. “You guys are seriously going to crush us in this Sports Festival. And I’m sure you’re the ones who instigated this whole thing with the best first-years sticking to us like glue to throw us off, huh?”

Hashimoto noticed early on that the more physically gifted first-year students had been following Class 2-A’s more talented students around, joining competitions that they were taking part in. However, it wasn’t like Hashimoto had any way of stopping those junior students from entering events after he noticed what they were doing. The end result was that his class was now getting even worse results than he had originally expected.

“Look, we’re trying desperately hard to keep out of last place since Princess is absent today,” Hashimoto said. “If we make you guys our enemies, we’re not gonna stand a chance. How about we just settle this peacefully and call it a draw?”

“A draw?” repeated Ryuuen. While he had been acting relatively friendly up until that point, his demeanor changed completely. Ryuuen’s smile disappeared. “I don’t care what’s goin’ on in Class A. We’re Class D. I’m doin’ everything I can to crawl up from the bottom of the rankings here. If you’re gettin’ in the way of that and think for one second that we can just shake hands and be pals, then we’re gonna have a big problem.”

Hashimoto had been wearing a faint smile during this entire conversation, but now he froze, feeling like he was about to be attacked.

“Okay…” he said slowly. “In that case, what do you want us to do? What if we offer something to show that we’re sorry?”

“I don’t know and don’t care. I don’t want your money. I just want a sincere apology for him, is all. Ain’t that right, Ishizaki?” said Ryuuen, turning to his classmate.

“Yeah, man. I guess the pain in my arm’s gone away a little bit, so a ’pology would be good enough for me,” said Ishizaki.

Losing more time was the thing that would hurt them more than anything else. So, once Hashimoto had confirmed that Ryuuen wasn’t making any special demands for money or anything like that, he decided to accept their request for an apology.

“Give me a second to talk it over with my guys,” said Hashimoto.

“Better hurry,” Ryuuen warned him. “We’ve got our next competition comin’ up too.”

More than five minutes had already passed since this scuffle had started. If they apologized immediately, they might still have enough time to make it before the deadline if they ran to the gymnasium. But even so, the clock was ticking.

“Listen up. I know it doesn’t seem fair, but the best thing you can do is sincerely say that you’re sorry,” Hashimoto told Shimizu.

“That’s a load of crap,” Shimizu snapped. “You said you’d take care of it so I stayed quiet and listened, but now you’re telling me to apologize to him when he’s the one who started this? No way!”

“Then are you okay with not winning?” said Hashimoto. “If you’re stubborn and hold your ground here, all you’re gonna accomplish is protecting your pride. But if we end up losing the Sports Festival by five or ten points, are you gonna be happy with the decision you made?”

“W-well, I…”

“What’s important right now is that our class wins, right? Just think of this situation like stepping in dog crap by accident: it sucks. That’s all it is.”

With just one brief apology, he could jump back into the competition. That’s what Hashimoto was urging him to do.

“Damn it! Why do I…”

Shimizu was intensely irritated, but after he regained his composure, he reluctantly agreed. He started walking over to apologize to Ishizaki.

“Hold up, Shimizu,” Ishizaki said. “Matoba over there is just as guilty as you. He assumed I wasn’t lookin’ either.”

“…Matoba,” said Shimizu, turning to his classmate.

“All right…”

The two students had no other choice but to stand side by side and apologize. They both gave Ishizaki a slight bow.

“We’re sorry, we were in the wrong… So, are we good now?” asked Shimizu.

“Hey, Ryuuen-san… Y’know, I don’t really feel like these guys really mean it,” said Ishizaki.

“Well, of course not,” Ryuuen agreed. “They ain’t actually willin’ to bow and apologize for real, they’re only bowin’ a little bit. They clearly don’t wanna. Deep down, they’re practically spittin’ on you, Ishizaki. It doesn’t seem like a clear apology at all, does it? It’s nowhere near sincere enough.”

“Have you lost your mind, Ryuuen?” said Hashimoto. “We’re not gonna give you anything more than this.”

Hashimoto had been keeping Matoba and Shimizu in check before, but now enough was enough. Concluding that there was no other option but to get a teacher to meditate, he quickly ran over to where the faculty were. About a minute later, he returned with a teacher in tow.

“Now, what in the world is going on here?” asked the teacher.

“The truth is—” Hashimoto started to speak, but just as he was about to tell the teacher what was going on, Ishizaki made a declaration.

“Apology accepted,” he said. “I’m sorry, Ryuuen-san. I deeply appreciate all the advice you gave me, but I think it’s pretty childish to make a big fuss over this, about just a little bump on the shoulder… I mean, I think we should just pretend this whole thing never happened now that these two guys have apologized to me. That okay?”

“Hey, it’s all right, ain’t it?” Ryuuen said. “If you’re satisfied, then there’s nothin’ else for me to say when it’s not my business.”

Ryuuen and Ishizaki moved to bring the argument to a close just as the teacher arrived, and the teacher was now trying to make sense of the situation. Since Hashimoto brought help back with him because he felt that it was a necessary step in solving the problem, he was puzzled about what was going on.

The teacher drew a conclusion after only having seen this part of the incident. “You two bumped into Ishizaki and apologized. And he accepted your apology. Do I have that right?” asked the teacher, making it sound as though the situation had been resolved already.

“Hold on, that’s—”

Just as Shimizu was about to protest that version of events, Hashimoto stepped in.

“Yes, that’s what it seems like, from the sounds of it. It’s been resolved.”

“Well then, that’s good. Anyway, try and avoid causing any more trouble during the Sports Festival, okay?”

Shimizu and Matoba were about to explode in anger, but Hashimoto urged them to leave so that they’d get away from Ryuuen and Ishizaki.

“Get going while the teacher is still watching. Okay?” said Hashimoto.

Shimizu and Matoba looked back several times to glare at Ishizaki and Ryuuen, but they eventually made their way toward the gymnasium and blended into the crowd. Ryuuen and Ishizaki dispersed at the same time.

When Hashimoto saw that no one was left nearby, he let out a deep, sad sigh.

“Jeez, doing somethin’ like that in front of this huge crowd of people… Seriously? He is not somebody I wanna make an enemy of.”

Hashimoto was terrified, but at the same time, he was smiling happily to himself as he said that.

6.4

I T WAS 3 P.M ., and the Sports Festival was nearing its end with less than one hour left to go. We had entered the final phase of the event and essentially had to defend our position in first place. We were only seventeen points ahead of Class 2-D, who was closing in behind us in second. Ryuuen-kun was even more persistent than I had imagined, and I reasoned it would be best to assume that he had some kind of unseen strategy in play. Even so, there hadn’t really been any particular issues between the second years, and we had functioned well as an alliance so far.

Still, if we didn’t rack up more points in the next hour, there was a strong possibility that there could be an upset in the rankings…

I was standing in a corner of the gymnasium, staring intently at the list of remaining competitions along with their rules and schedules. Then, a visibly irritated Ibuki-san came over to me.

“Showdown, showdown!” she shouted.

“That’s an odd thing to say,” I replied. “I already won our contest with two wins and one loss, didn’t I?”

“But I wasn’t even there for that one!” she protested.

“I don’t care. It’s not my fault that you didn’t show up at the designated time.”

“Ugh! I… I just got the time wrong…”

That’s right. Our third competition, the one that would’ve been the deciding factor, was the balance beam event. Registration for that event closed at 1:20 p.m. and Ibuki-san had been unable to participate in the event as she hadn’t made it in time to sign up. Of course, I didn’t miss registration. Although I failed to take first place, I did end up getting second, and I earned three points for my efforts.

“I know you’re not happy about it, but in the real world, that’s called a loss by default,” I told her.

“It’s still just one win and one loss! You didn’t settle things with me yet!” Ibuki-san continued screaming in my ear. It looked like she wasn’t going to be backing down any time soon.

“I’ve participated in a total of nine events,” I said. “I can sign up for one more event, but I haven’t decided yet…”

“That one, then!” exclaimed Ibuki-san. “Tell me what you’re gonna do!”

“If you’re going to beg me to compete with you, you need to fix that attitude and ask me more nicely.”

“Grr…!”

“You want to compete with me, right? Or don’t you?”

“P-please…h-have…a showdown…w-with…me!!!” Ibuki-san was shaking with anger as she pleaded with me through gritted teeth. She was so upset that it seemed like she was going to start spewing fire from her mouth. “There! Happy now?!”

“I suppose so. That did make me feel a little better.”

The situation was changing every minute and spaces for competitions were filling up. Should I do as I originally planned? Or should I aim for even more points, to get a higher score?

“Out with it!” yelled Ibuki-san. “Tell me what event you’re gonna do!”

“Can you be quiet for a second?” I asked.

“No, I can’t!” she replied immediately.

She was repeatedly making a gesture with her hand in an attempt to provoke me, holding her palm out flat and bending her fingers back. I didn’t want to deal with her, but if I ignored her here, she’d only get even more annoying.

“I was originally planning on entering the shuttle run,” I informed her. “I’m considering that one.”

“Shuttle run? That’s the one where you run back and forth endlessly ’til you drop out, right?”

“Yes, the very one. It’s also called the round-trip marathon run.”

“I think I remember doing somethin’ like that in junior high. All right. That’ll be perfect for our final battle. Bring it.” She nodded in satisfaction, turning to run over toward registration.

Then she looked back at me, noticing that I wasn’t moving. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“If you want to do it, go ahead,” I said.

“Wait, hold on, you’re doing it too, aren’t you? It doesn’t make any sense unless you’re doing it with me.”

“I just said I was considering it. I haven’t made my decision yet.”

“What?” she balked.

“To be honest, I think that I want to do volleyball as the final event I compete in.”

“Volleyball?” Ibuki-san repeated. “But volleyball needs six people, right? I mean, it sounds like you just came up with that on a whim, not like you actually planned for it in advance or anything. Trying to get people together for a team now is probably impossible.”

Volleyball was one of the events that was announced today at the Sports Festival itself. It was an event where men and women competed separately, but it was open to all grade levels. My class had originally planned on skipping the event because it required you to have six competent players, but other classes may have been thinking the same thing. I got the impression that the people currently registered were rather lacking.

“There are only ten minutes left to register, but there’s still space for three teams,” I said. “And from the looks of it, there aren’t many strong players on the currently registered teams. If we can win this competition, then it would be worth abandoning the shuttle run in favor of it. Since we’re not going to have any other choice but to quickly throw a team together though, our chances will largely come down to how capable the students we can get are. If we can get one or two students who are sure of themselves, then we’ll have a better chance of winning.”

“Wait, hold on, what about what I was asking you for earlier?”

“Unfortunately, you’re going to have to give up on that.”

Ibuki-san was visibly aghast. I expected her to get angry again, but she instead appeared discouraged and resigned. This was all because she had gotten the registration time wrong, as she had stated earlier.

“Well, guess that means our showdown isn’t happening,” she sighed. “It’s all over…”

“You’re not going to play volleyball?” I asked.

“I’d need five people to play against your team. There’s no way I could get that many people. Pass.”

“Because you don’t have any friends,” I reminded her.

“Hey, you’re not any different,” she retorted.

“I would think that you at least have classmates that would help you if you asked them.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that. I wanted to settle things with you, but I guess it’ll have to wait for another time,” said Ibuki-san.

For the record, our contest technically had been settled. I won, but…oh well.

“Aren’t you going to register for the shuttle run?” I asked.

“The only thing I’m interested in doing is settling our contest,” she replied. “I am not planning to go out of my way to help Ryuuen.”

“Well, that’s convenient for me,” I said. “The fewer points you score for your class, the closer my class will be to winning.”

I thought it would’ve been better to just let this be without carelessly provoking her. Or that’s what I thought, but for some reason, Ibuki-san didn’t seem to be leaving.

“What are you still doing here?” I asked.

“If you don’t get enough people for volleyball, you’re going to do the shuttle run, right?”

The deadline for volleyball registration was 2:20. The shuttle run registration deadline was 2:25. I had deliberately refrained from mentioning that, but Ibuki-san had apparently noticed it regardless.

“Apparently I said too much. I didn’t realize you could actually use your head.”

“Ugh, shut up . Anyway, this means I’m gonna hang around you for a bit.”

I supposed this meant that in the worst-case scenario, if I couldn’t get enough people for volleyball, I’d be facing Ibuki-san in the shuttle run event. Well, that might not be so bad. I figured I’d take a look at the girls from my class who were over in the cheering section right now to see if there was anyone I could recruit. Unfortunately, it turned out that I wasn’t able to conveniently find a group of good potential teammates and time continued to pass. Before I realized it, Ibuki-san was sitting beside me, yawning. She was giving me a look that seemed to say, “Just give up already and settle things with me in the shuttle run.”

“Oh my, what’s this? Is that Horikita-senpai and Ibuki-senpai I see? Why hello there, you two.”

While I was waiting around to find potential teammates, the first-year student Amasawa-san approached me. In that instant, Ibuki-san suddenly shot straight up and glared at her.

“Oh no! What an angry face you’re making… Could it perhaps be your time of the month?” said Amasawa-san mockingly.

She was teasing Ibuki-san, but it seemed like Ibuki-san didn’t hear half of what she said.

“If you can still compete in any competitions, I’ll throw down against you, if you want,” said Ibuki-san.

“Come to think of it, I don’t think we ever competed against each other today,” said Amasawa-san. “Well, I suppose that’s to be expected, since we don’t have many chances to go up against each other, being in different grades and all. But don’t you think it’d be a better idea to just drop the idea of competing with me? You’re going to lose, you know.”

“Don’t underestimate me,” Ibuki-san replied. “You better be grateful that you haven’t run into me yet.”

“My my, you’re as confident as ever. By the way, what are you two doing here? If you’re not competing in anything, you’re supposed to be cheering. Otherwise, you’ll get in trouble.”

“You participate in the shuttle run too, Amasawa. Then we can have ourselves a showdown,” said Ibuki-san.

“Oh, you’re planning on competing in that event? Well then, I—”

“I finally found you.”

Just as Amasawa-san was about to finish her sentence, Kushida-san suddenly appeared. I thought that perhaps she had some business with me, but instead of looking at me, Kushida-san was staring at Amasawa-san.

“I felt like someone was chasing after me,” Amasawa-san said. “Turns out it was you, Kushida-senpai. What is it? Oh, you don’t mind that Horikita-senpai is here too though, do you? To overhear our conversation?”

“Horikita-san…? Oh, you’re here too,” said Kushida-san.

Kushida-san seemed so entirely focused on Amasawa-san that she completely failed to notice I was even there.

“Oh, sorry, Kushida-senpai, it seems like my friends are all here. I guess I’d better be going,” said Amasawa-san.

As she said that, she pointed over toward another nearby first-year student, Nanase-san, along with four other girls I didn’t recognize.

“I came to the gym to sign up for the volleyball tournament,” she said. “It’s my first time ever playing volleyball, you know.”

She apparently was planning on entering the tournament. I supposed this meant that the first-years were making a move on this event as well after seeing that the competition was light.

“Anywho, see ya later. Break a leg in the shuttle run, okay?” said Amasawa-san.

After having come over and saying everything she wanted to say to us, Amasawa-san went to join up with her group.

“She’s gonna play volleyball?” said Ibuki-san, while glaring at Amasawa-san’s back.

“Sounds like it,” I replied.

“Then I’m gonna play too. There’s no way you’re gonna find five people to join your team on your own anyway.”

“Huh?” I blinked.

“I said I’m gonna play. As much as the thought of teaming up with you annoys me, this is my chance to beat that stupid, arrogant little first-year.”

If Ibuki-san was willing to work with me, then I certainly had no complaints. She was a capable player. However…

“Don’t just go deciding that on your own,” I replied. “I haven’t said whether I’m going to accept you as part of my team.”

“What? Even though you haven’t even found one single person yet?”

“In team competitions, points are distributed equally to each class represented,” I told her. “So I’d obviously want to fill my team with people from my own class rather than people from other classes, wouldn’t I?”

Even if I managed to score points from this competition by having Ibuki-san on my team, her class was currently in second place. In other words, it wouldn’t change the rankings at all.

“Who the hell cares? I’m fine with playing just as long as I can see Amasawa looking all sad and upset.”

“That all depends on what other teammates I can find. My condition for participating would be that there’s a higher ratio of players from my class. That’s nonnegotiable,” I answered.

“Then in that case, will you let me be on your team?” asked Kushida-san. She was still staring at Amasawa-san’s back.

“What are you planning, Kushida-san?” I wondered aloud. “It doesn’t look to me like you’ve had a change of heart and you want to work together with me.”

I honestly told her what I thought, and Kushida-san didn’t deny it. However, what I really found curious was that Kushida-san’s intense gaze was focused not on me, but on Amasawa-san.

“I owe that first year. Amasawa-san,” she said.

“Wait, you and her…?” I asked.

“You too?” said Ibuki-san.

“I’m not going to tell you the reason why, but I’d be more than happy to help you out if it means I can give her some payback,” said Kushida-san.

“In that case, welcome aboard,” I told her. “I’m not going to complain about having a classmate join the team. That’s perfect.”

As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Unexpected allies were falling into my lap.

“But she is most definitely a formidable opponent,” I added.

“You got that right,” agreed Ibuki-san.

Ibuki-san immediately started warming up with some stretches, psyching herself up. Amasawa-san looked back at us from afar and smiled, apparently finding something about this funny. Amasawa-san’s abilities were incredible—Ibuki-san and I had experienced them firsthand—but the other people on her team were an unknown quantity. Going just by the OAA values that I could remember, I recalled that Nanase-san had a relatively high score in physical ability, but I didn’t have any impressions of the other students.

I was sure that I remembered all the names of students with scores around A, so I reasoned that they could have Bs going by the highest estimate, or perhaps somewhere below that, but… At any rate, the problem was that I was still three people short. Analyzing my opponents when I didn’t meet the requirements to even sign up would be counting my chickens before they hatched.

“What are your conditions for the remaining three players? Just that they’re not from Ryuuen-kun’s class?” said Kushida-san, asking me about my requirements for the team.

“Yes, exactly,” I answered. “I’d like to have as many people from our class on the team as possible. But our priority is winning and making sure we have good players.”

“Got it. Wait here a minute.”

And with that, Kushida-san walked off.

“She said, ‘Got it,’ but what is she gonna do?” said Ibuki-san, puzzled. “There’s no way people are gonna help us that easily.”

I traced Ibuki-san’s curious gaze as she watched what Kushida-san was doing. Kushida-san had gone to talk with Rokkaku-san, a student in Sakayanagi-san’s class. After chatting for a while, the two of them went on over to see Fukuyama-san, also from Class A. After that, they went over to talk to a student from another class who was cheering for her classmates in the gymnasium.

“That’s Himeno-san from Ichinose-san’s class, isn’t it?” I muttered to myself.

Kushida-san, the two students from Class A, and the one student from Class C talked for less than a minute. Then, Kushida-san came back over with those three students in tow.

“These girls said that they’d play with us,” she said. “Volleyball isn’t really Himeno-san’s thing, but she agreed to play as long as the five of us back her up. I told her that if she left the hard part to us, it’d be okay.”

Kushida-san had apparently spoken to Himeno-san using her usual “Kushida-san Mode” that she didn’t ever use with me. I especially couldn’t hide my surprise over the fact that she had convinced two students from Class A to lend us a helping hand with no questions asked.

“We’re in panic mode right now ourselves since we’re probably about to lose the Sports Festival,” said one of the girls from class A. “But even so, we want to at least contribute something to our class, even if the worst is happening, right?” She turned to her classmate, who nodded in response.

These two girls wanted to achieve something precisely because they were in Class A, which was currently dead last in the Sports Festival. Kushida-san recognized that mindset, and at the same time, instantly picked out which students were talented players. Even if she didn’t exactly remember what their scores were in OAA, being Fukuyama-san’s and Rokkaku-san’s friend, Kushida-san had a solid understanding of how physically capable they were.

“She pulled off a feat you could never achieve in your entire life, Ibuki-san,” I teased.

“Shut up,” she snapped. “You weren’t able to find anyone either.”

“Well, there are still about five or six people in the gym that we could probably talk to about joining the team, but…this is probably the best possible team we could make right now,” I said.

At any rate, while it was doubtful whether we’d actually be able to register still, I had managed to get a full team together for volleyball. Sure, one person on the team was from Ryuuen-kun’s class, but that was okay. Winning the volleyball competition and earning ten points from it was overwhelmingly more valuable than competing in the shuttle run, which would only net me two or three points. And even if we lost this competition, the gap between my class and Ryuuen-kun’s class wouldn’t change either, which was another benefit.

Ibuki-san and I were positioned at the front as the top players on the team, and we had Kushida-san, Rokkaku-san, and Fukuyama-san as capable players backing us up. Himeno-san rounded out the team, and although she might drag us down a little bit, we had more than enough skill to make up for it.

6.5

W E TOOK ON OUR FIRST MATCH without any difficulty. Right now, we were watching Amasawa-san’s team play. Nanase-san was the one who really took control of the match. She was head and shoulders above than the other players both offensively and defensively.

“This Nanase girl pretty much flew right under my radar, but don’t you think that she isn’t really that big a deal as we thought she’d be?” Ibuki-san was, of course, referring to Amasawa-san.

“You’re right, I don’t get the feeling Amasawa-san is so good that we need to be wary of her,” I agreed. “I assumed she was joking about her lack of volleyball experience, but now I’m not so sure…”

It was possible she had been deliberately holding back so far, but I didn’t get that impression from what I saw. The students that they were playing against weren’t all that good, and Amasawa-san was still better than them both on offense and defense. I didn’t see Amasawa-san as that much of a threat.

However, after the midpoint of their match, the situation gradually started to change.

Ibuki-san had been watching the game somewhat listlessly up until that point, but she started to pay attention more closely as well. In less than ten minutes since the match had begun, Amasawa-san was visibly showing signs of improvement. She had incredible adaptability and intuition, the likes of which could not be explained away as mere innate physical ability. But just as Amasawa-san was beginning to show us a glimpse of her talents, Nanase-san spiked the ball, ending the game.

“They’ll be playing us after our next game,” I remarked. “She might be even better by then.”

“Just a couple matches worth of experience is nothing,” said Ibuki-san. “We can totally beat her.”

It was dangerous to be overly optimistic, but it was true that their team had really won the game without Amasawa-san even touching the ball that much thanks to Nanase-san taking the lead. When our turn came, we won our game too, seizing a decisive victory at around 3:40.

In this Sports Festival, there were many differences in the rules compared to a normal competition, and this volleyball tournament was no exception to that. There was no rotation in who served, and you could have any player of your choosing serve the ball. The winning team was either the first to score ten points overall or the team who scored the most points by the ten minute mark. If the score was tied when time ran out, the game would go into overtime. If that happened, the side that scored last and tied things up had the serve, and the first to score a point won.

“Looks like it’s time to see what kinda face you make when you lose, huh?” said Ibuki-san, staring Amasawa-san down.

“Will settling things with me on the volleyball court really make you happy, Ibuki-senpai?” replied Amasawa-san.

“First, I’ll beat you in volleyball,” Ibuki-san replied. “Then, I’ll beat you in a fight.”

“Aha ha ha! You know, I don’t hate your way of thinking,” chuckled Amasawa-san.

They weren’t wishing each other good luck in their upcoming match, saying that they hoped it’d be a good game or anything like that. Instead, the sparks were flying between them as they waited for the signal for the match to begin. Amasawa-san’s presence was unsettling for sure, but Nanase-san was the one that we really needed to be wary of.

“I’m gonna be the attacker, just like in our last game,” Ibuki-san declared confidently. She sounded more fired up than before. “I’m gonna slam the ball into their side of the court with everything I’ve got.”

Though she had some difficulty controlling the ball, I certainly couldn’t complain about Ibuki-san’ spikes. Their destructive power was second-to-none. When the match began, Ibuki-san served the ball, and we quickly scored a point. I thought we’d carry that momentum forward, but Nanase-san quickly spiked the ball back, and her team scored a point on us. After that, I was expecting it to be an even closer game at the start, but we held a slight advantage and established a small lead in the first part of the game with a score of 4 to 2.

As I anticipated from watching her play, Nanase-san was an even match for Ibuki-san and me, but apart from that, my team had a slight advantage. The situation changed in the middle of the game though, when there were five minutes remaining.

Ibuki-san took three steps in her run-up, leaping up into the air, and spiked the ball.

Up until this point, Ibuki-san’s spikes had sailed past the net and earned us sure points. But this time, Amasawa-san appeared and blocked the shot. Actually, no, that wasn’t quite right. Amasawa-san slammed the ball back down on our side of the court, with the same amount of momentum. The ball hit our side and the first-years’ team earned one point.

“Too bad, huh, Ibuki-senpai?” gloated Amasawa-san. “Hey, Nanase-san. What do you call that kind of play again?”

“I believe that’s called a ‘roof,’” Nanase-san replied. “I’m not too familiar with the terminology though.”

“Well, senpai, since I can see what your attack pattern is like, I’m afraid you’re not going to be scoring anymore,” Amasawa-san taunted.

“Like hell!” Ibuki-san yelled. “Next time I’m gonna score against you for sure!”

“Calm down,” I told her. “She only happened to block you this one time.”

“Shut it. Pass the ball to me again.”

Now, the score was 5 to 3 and it was our serve. This whole thing would’ve been much easier on us if we could finish the game now, but… The rules stated that if a player went out of bounds, one point was immediately awarded to the opposing team, so players couldn’t go about the court recklessly. If you served the ball from a standard position, it was only natural that the other team would return it. At any rate, we had defended well until now. I gave the ball over to Ibuki-san.

“This time for sure!” she shouted. “You’re goin’ down!!!”

Ibuki-san changed up her rhythm, leaping high into the air after two steps for her run up. She then made the best spike of the day. The two first-years who jumped into the air to block weren’t able to get a hand on the ball, and it headed straight for the ground on their side of the court. However, Amasawa-san stopped it from landing. It was almost as though she knew exactly where the ball would land; she received it beautifully and completely stopped it, pushing the ball back up into the air on their side of the court, in enemy territory.

Nanase-san jumped high into the air with her golden hair flowing behind her. She spiked the ball, sending it straight towards Himeno-san. Unable to move, Himeno-san froze, and Kushida-san quickly raced over to try and receive the ball. Unfortunately, she was unable to control its momentum.

The first-year team were starting to catch up with us, slowly but surely, and when we reached the final stage of the match, we were neck and neck.

The score was 6 to 6. With the way things were going and with only about two minutes left on the clock, it was entirely possible that the game would end in overtime.

“Get it to me again!” Ibuki-san shouted furiously.

Ibuki-san had been blocked by Amasawa-san twice now, but she was determined to score next time. I instructed our teammates to get the ball to Ibuki-san, and the game resumed. After both sides exchanged the ball back and forth, Amasawa-san was poised to spike for the first time.

“No way am I gonna let you of all people score,” hollered Ibuki-san, jumping to block.

But, immediately afterward, I saw Nanase-san behind Amasawa-san.

“Too bad for you!” teased Amasawa-san, smiling.

She had faked us out with a decoy. They had been planning to have Nanase-san spike from the very beginning.

Ibuki-san was caught completely off guard. She tried to reach for the ball, but she couldn’t get a handle on it. The ball was heading straight for the ground on our side of the court, traveling at a sharp angle…but Kushida-san slid over in the nick of time, making a risky move to receive the ball.

“Ibuki-san!” she shouted, setting the ball up for her.

Everyone’s attention turned to Ibuki-san, and the first-years rushed to take the necessary positions. Amasawa-san readied herself to receive an attack from Ibuki-san with a completely relaxed look on her face.

Ibuki-san took aim, looking to risk taking a spike despite the tough situation, but she couldn’t find a good opening. Even so, Ibuki-san had the ball and had to do something with it, so she gritted her teeth and instead set the ball. I took in Ibuki-san’s determination and unleashed all the power that I had been conserving all this time into spiking the ball. It slipped right past Amasawa-san as she attempted to block and went straight for Nanase-san, who was ready and waiting.

However, Nanase-san was too exhausted to scoop the ball back up, and she ended up causing it to sail out of bounds. If Nanase-san had been at full strength, she might have stopped it beautifully. At any rate, the score was now 7 to 6. We secured a one-point lead when time was nearly out. And whether their team liked it or not, there was only a minute or so until time ran out, and we had the next serve.

“Okay, now I think it’s time I take this seriously,” said Amasawa-san.

It was almost as if she was suggesting she was just playing around until that point.

Nanase-san deftly blocked Ibuki-san’s next serve. The ball was robbed of its forward momentum and was sent sailing high up in the air, and we all stared at a single point where it was likely to go.

“I’m going for it!” I shouted.

The ball was rocketing toward me with intense speed. Despite my efforts to focus my reflexes, my reaction was delayed, and the moment I tried to reach for the ball, it was already too far away for me to reach. The sound of the ball hitting the floor echoed violently through the gym.

“Out!” shouted the referee.

I supposed that my delayed reaction was a blessing in disguise, so to speak. The ball had partially landed on the white line that indicated what was in bounds on the court.

“Aw,” said Amasawa-san. “Sorry, Nanase-san, it went out. It sure is hard to control the ball perfectly, isn’t it?”

“Whew, that was a close call,” I muttered. “Still though, we definitely shouldn’t underestimate her potential after all…”

Even though I had to tip my hat to Amasawa-san’s unfathomable ability and intuition, we had essentially narrowly escaped from certain death just then. The one-point gap between us widened to a two-point gap. Shortly afterward, their team scored another point on us, but just then, the whistle blew. Nanase-san was just tossing the ball into the air when she heard it and looked suddenly startled. Amasawa-san had just been about to knock the ball over toward our side of the court again, but she simply landed back down on the ground without taking a swing at the ball after all.

“Aw, time ran out,” she said. “And things were just starting to get interesting too.”

There wasn’t the slightest hint of regret or frustration in her voice. She was simply saying that she had fun playing volleyball, and that it had been a good game. After having a quick chat with Nanase-san, she left the court.

Even though their team lost our match, they still earned points for taking second place in the volleyball tournament. Of course, since we had taken first, we successfully managed to claim a large number of points.

“Y’know, I’m not really happy with what just happened… It’s like, it doesn’t feel like we won ,” said Ibuki-san.

“They were pushing back on us pretty hard at the end,” I replied. “I shudder to think what might have happened if we didn’t run out of time.”

We should have been feeling good about ourselves after our win, but we were left uncertain and gloomy, like things were still unresolved. Even so, this was a big win for us, and it was the sort of hard-fought battle that felt like a fitting end for the Sports Festival.

It was only then that I noticed that there were quite a few people who had been watching the game, and though it was sparse, we were getting some applause.

6.6

A T LAST , the Sports Festival had entered its final stage. The gymnasium was filled with an odd kind of excitement as students entered into the final, decisive rounds of various team competitions.

“We’re just about to start playing, Sudou-kun,” said Onodera. “Are you ready?”

Sudou and Onodera had teamed up to take part in many competitions together as a pair during the day’s event. They were now about to begin the finals for their tenth competition, mixed boys-girls tennis doubles.

“…Yeah,” replied Sudou.

Onodera felt like there was something slightly off about the way he responded. Sudou sounded distracted. Even so, she continued on, making conversation.

“I have to say though, don’t you think we make an amazing team? So far, we’ve been in four competitions as a pair, and we’ve won four times. I’m sure everybody in class is going to be surprised,” said Onodera.

In the two tennis matches before the one they were about to begin, one was against students from their own grade level and another against third-year students. But Team Sudou-Onodera won both without any trouble whatsoever. They were now poised to win five straight team competitions if they took the finals here. If one included individual competitions Sudou had taken part in, he had won nine in a row, which meant he was on the verge of his tenth consecutive win. Onodera hadn’t placed first in all nine of her competitions, but she had still maintained her position.

Even though Sudou indicated to Onodera that he had heard what she said, his gaze was directed elsewhere.

“Is something up with that first-year?” she asked. “You’ve been staring at him for a while.”

“Huh?” said Sudou.

“That’s…Housen, right? He’s so huge it’s hard to imagine he’s a first-year, and he’s got that kind of crazy vibe about him. But for some reason, I kind of get the feeling there’s some other reason you’re paying attention to him, Sudou-kun. Is something going on?”

“Nah, it’s nothin’. Don’t worry.”

Housen and his partner had just been playing as well, and they won in a landslide victory. That win meant that Housen would be Sudou and Onodera’s opponent in the finals. Sudou continued staring at him as he replied absent-mindedly to Onodera, but Onodera was staring at Sudou from the side. Sudou had been taking all of the competitions thus far seriously without getting too lost in thought in any of them, but this time, he was clearly shaken.

It wasn’t just today that Sudou and Onodera had spent together. They had been working alongside one another for most of the time they’d spent in preparation for the Sports Festival. They had been meeting up and doing all sorts of training at all times of the day—during normal practice time, during lunch, and during their morning commutes to school. As a result, Onodera had learned to pick up subtle changes in Sudou’s expressions.

Though Sudou was an unparalleled athlete, he did have a number of flaws. He had a crude personality and got carried away quickly. He was also prone to losing his temper. Those things had occasionally been a hindrance to Onodera and Sudou as they worked together.

A staff member approached Sudou and Onodera as they were sitting down, resting their bodies.

“We’ll now begin the final match,” the staff member told them. “Players, please take your positions.”

“All right! Let’s settle this fast and get ourselves a victory,” said Sudou, pretending to be calm.

Both he and Onodera tried to empty their minds as they headed into the match. Onodera figured that even if there was something going on with Housen, it would be fine as long as it didn’t interfere with the event.

“Okay,” said Onodera as she proceeded to pick up her racket. She was replying to Sudou, but she also spoke as though she were reassuring herself as well.

Sudou and Onodera’s classmates started showing up at the gym one after another, hurrying over so they could cheer them on. Even the adults must have been very interested in seeing the finals because they stopped to watch as they passed by.

“It kind of feels like an actual tournament,” observed Onodera.

“Yeah,” Sudou agreed. “It’s like, a good kind of nervousness. Makes you feel all fired up.”

No one needed to worry about the likes of Sudou or Onodera getting stage fright at a time like this as they were capable players when it came down to it, including during their club tournaments. However…

“Heh. Never thought I’d be goin’ up against you of all people in the finals, Sudou- paisen ,” remarked Housen.

“Housen,” replied Sudou.

The mood in the air changed when Housen spoke to Sudou from the other side of the net.

“You really think you can beat me in tennis?” Housen sneered. “I’m gonna destroy you, so I hope you’re lookin’ forward to what’s coming.”

The doubles tennis match then began. There was a time limit and there were four points to a game. The match had a total of three games, and the first to secure two wins was the overall victor. The right to serve didn’t change on a per-match rotation. Rather, because of the short length of the game, there was a special rule in place so that the side that scored earned the right to serve. Also, players on a given team didn’t need to alternate, and any player could repeatedly serve at their own discretion.

The match started with a furious assault from Housen. With his huge frame, he delivered vicious serve after serve, shooting the ball straight to the other side of the court with ease. Sudou’s serves, on the other hand, were lacking in comparison, and they were returned one after another with Housen’s team scoring. In less than a minute, the score was three (40) to zero (love), with Sudou and Onodera’s team on the losing end.

“No way,” said Onodera. “This is happening way too fast… He’s gotta be an experienced player, right?”

It was no wonder she was flustered. When Housen hit the ball, it slammed into the court with such speed that it was legitimately terrifying.

“What’s the matter, Sudou?” crowed Housen. “Looks like you ain’t a match for me, are ya?!”

“Damn it!!!” Sudou tightened his grip on his racket and raised it up in the air, intending to smash it on the ground.

“Sudou-kun, no ,” said Onodera.

“Wh—”

“Don’t you know that whenever you lose your temper like that, you start making mistakes?”

“B-but!”

Sudou was rapidly getting more and more stressed out because he didn’t have a way to vent his frustration. Housen, watching the situation from the other side, snickered at the sight.

“I mean, I can’t exactly talk a big game myself as I haven’t been able to return his serves either,” Onodera said. “But you’re clearly playing worse than you did in our previous matches. Don’t you think so?”

She rightly pointed out that Sudou was moving with less precision because he was so fixated on the first-year.

“I can’t let you serve as you are right now, Sudou-kun,” she added, ball in hand. She wanted Sudou to be on defense as she served.

Onodera launched the ball with the kind of power and sharpness that one might not expect from a girl, much less one with no tennis experience. Housen quickly managed to close the distance between himself and the ball and responded with beautiful technique, as if the racket were a part of him. Sudou reached out to return the ball, but despite his valiant efforts, he managed to just nick the ball with the edge of his racket, and it landed on his side of the court.

The first-year team won the game without Sudou and Onodera scoring a single time.

“Guess you ain’t too hot after all, eh, Sudou?” Housen sneered. “You’re like a whiny little yappy dog. A loser.”

Housen was deeply enjoying this game, but the girl he was partnered up with couldn’t hide how frightened she was. Still, during the game, Housen handled almost everything himself and it was practically a two-on-one battle.

However, while everyone expected that Housen would keep up this furious, one-sided onslaught in the second game, there was an unexpected turn of events. When he hit the ball, it didn’t have the kind of momentum behind it that it did before. Onodera managed to react to it and send it back.

At that moment, she wondered if perhaps Housen was getting tired. But as those thoughts were running through her head, Housen swung wide and smashed the ball hard, sending it flying as fast as a speeding bullet. It shot straight for Onodera, who was protecting the front of the court. After the ball grazed her cheek, she winced in agonizing pain. Out of surprise and fear, she unintentionally dropped her racket, letting it fall to the floor.

“The hell?!” Sudou snarled at Housen. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?!”

“What? Hey man, it’s only natural to aim for your opponent’s body in tennis,” Housen scoffed, proudly asserting the legitimacy of his move. “You aim too far from the body and the person’s gonna send it back. Come on, you’re just whining over one little shot, anyway.”

“Damn it!!!” huffed Sudou.

Onodera hurriedly picked her racket up off the floor. “Don’t worry. It just grazed me a bit… Besides, he’s right. In tennis, you’re supposed to aim near your opponent, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what people who play tennis say. But this is the Sports Festival, ain’t it?” Sudou complained irritably, as if to say he couldn’t care less about how people normally played the game.

It was once again Sudou’s turn to serve, but it was a fault and landed outside of the court. On his second serve attempt, the serve was in bounds, but Housen returned it easily. The ball didn’t have much force behind it, and Onodera caught it beautifully with her racket and sent it back. After knocking the ball back and forth two or three times, Onodera came to the front again, returning it back. But after closing the distance between himself and the net, Housen swung down hard and spiked the ball directly back at her.

“Kyah?!”

Onodera stiffened, unable to swing her racket in time at the blazing fast ball, which was just as speedy as the one that had terrified her before. The ball grazed her side this time, but Sudou gritted his teeth and went for it, managing to hit it back. All the same, Housen continued his relentless volley and focused only on the area around Onodera. It was as if he were toying with her.

Eventually, the score came to Team Sudou with 3 points (40) and Team Housen with 2 points (30). Onodera still kept trying her absolute hardest, but after being shaken by another ball sent near her face, she twisted her left ankle and collapsed on the spot.

“Onodera!!!” shouted Sudou.

Onodera wasn’t able to stand up. Sudou raced to cover her and returned the ball back to Housen. Sudou only barely managed to get the ball to land in bounds, but it still counted, and so Sudou’s team had taken the second game.

But Sudou wasn’t thrilled at his victory. He exploded in anger.

“What the hell is your problem?!” he yelled. “Can’t you play fair?!”

“Dude, how many times do I gotta tell you this?” scoffed Housen. “It’s just that your chick there sucks at this. She plays like crap. What a useless partner.”

Onodera was unable to get back on her feet, but she spoke up quickly from where she was sitting on the floor to try and calm Sudou down. “Don’t, Sudou-kun. It’ll just be a repeat of before.”

“I know, I know! But how the hell can I let him keep doin’ this?!”

“It’s true that even the judges are suspicious of him,” she said. “But Sudou-kun, you understand that your mindset is getting in the way of your skills, right?”

It was clear that Housen had changed the way he was playing, focusing on tormenting Sudou instead of trying to win. The first-year figured he already had this tennis competition in the bag. Housen’s goal had simply been to instill fear in Onodera, trying to get her to injure herself with just a single misstep.

“You gotta calm down, Sudou-kun,” Onodera said in a kind but firm tone, despite the pain she was in.

Sudou, still angry, shot Housen a glare, but when he saw Onodera wincing in pain, he remembered what his priorities ought to be. He quickly rushed to get Onodera patched up since she had twisted her ankle.

“Aww, too bad. You lose. Oh, but wait, we have one more game to play, don’t we. Guess that means you’re gonna see hell, huh?” Housen casually mocked Onodera and Sudou with a yawn before turning to his partner.

“That son of a… He’s going that far just to harass us; he totally did that on purpose… But are you okay?” Sudou asked, worried, as he looked at Onodera’s left ankle.

“Yeah, more or less, I think,” she replied. “But wow, I really am pathetic, huh… I got scared of the ball and tried to dodge, but I ended up slipping and twisting my ankle.”

She gave a self-deprecating smile as she lightly tapped her leg, which was wrapped in tape.

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it,” Sudou told her. “That guy pisses me off so bad I could die, but he is an incredible athlete.”

Even Sudou was terrified of the high-powered volleys that Housen could unleash with his superior physical strength. Unless you were an experienced tennis player or an active part of the tennis club, there was no way you’d be able to get over that fear so easily.

“You know, I… I’ve always really admired you, Sudou-kun. Ever since I started school here,” said Onodera.

“Huh? Wait, what’s this all about, all of a sudden? Just sit tight and let me keep patching you up.”

“This might be a good thing, actually. Me getting hurt, I mean. It means that you’ve been given a little time to cool off , ” Onodera noted.

“You’ve got a lot of guts, Onodera… Wait, hold on, you admired me? Even the old me?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “But back then, you were the number one person I didn’t want to associate with. You used to be so prickly.”

“Ugh…” muttered Sudou, embarrassed.

“But still, even though other people around you criticized you for your behavior and your inability to study, I do respect people who really try their best at club stuff. Sudou-kun, you’ve got a lot of talent. And you try really, really hard,” said Onodera.

“How do you know?” asked Sudou.

“I know,” she insisted. “Sometimes when I headed back to my dorm late after club, I passed by the gym. And every time I took a peek inside, wondering if anybody was still there, I always saw that you were the last one practicing. You’d always clean up afterward too. You took it very seriously.”

“Wh-what, you saw all that?” Sudou said. “I’m…kinda embarrassed…”

“But…you’re never going to be appreciated by others, Sudou-kun, not with the way you are right now.”

“…Huh?” he said, blinking.

“You got mad for my sake. I’m not saying that I’m upset about that, I don’t hate it. But it still doesn’t change the fact that you tend to lose your temper. If you don’t change that, then someday it might land you in more trouble than ever before.”

“…Well, I…”

“It’d be better for you if you fix that bad habit of yours.”

“Y-yeah, I know, but…” said Sudou.

“You make even more mistakes when you’re frustrated, right?” Onodera said. “Even in sports.”

“Well… Yeah, I do,” Sudou conceded. “Like, my success rates for shooting go way down and stuff…”

“It’s the same for me,” she told him. “When I get frustrated, I try harder and harder to get better, but then it just seems like I end up slower than normal. Not much good comes out of it.”

“Wait, Onodera, you’re like me too?”

“One time after I lost this big, important competition, I got so frustrated. ‘What do I do now?!’ And when I got to the locker, I was so mad I forgot to change, and just kind of went berserk… I ended up hurting my hand. It was pretty rough.”

Onodera looked back on those days with some degree of fondness, but she also seemed embarrassed about it. She stuck her tongue out playfully.

“I realized back then that nothing good came out of being angry,” she said. “Anger just comes back to bite you.”

“How were you able to get your anger under control?” asked Sudou.

“Well, actually, from a magic spell that my senpai taught me.”

“M-magic spell?” sputtered Sudou.

“Yeah. And I’ll teach it to you, Sudou-kun. A magic spell to get your anger under control.”

“H-how does it work?”

“Well, you know, anger flare-ups are actually kind of surprisingly short. They’re generally a few seconds at most. So, whenever I feel like yelling angrily, I just let it out inside, in my mind. Then, I’ll take a deep breath and count to ten.”

“So, like…you just count to ten whenever you get mad?” Sudou blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Onodera nodded. “I think that’ll really make all the difference. You should give it a try.”

“…Okay.” Though Sudou was skeptical, he committed what Onodera told him to memory.

“I wanted to team up with you because I admire you, Sudou-kun,” she added. “Don’t betray the faith I have in you.”

“Onodera…”

After they finished wrapping Onodera’s ankle, she tested how it felt and then stood up.

“It’s all right,” she said. “Anyway, this tournament all comes down to this one last game whether we like it or not. If we lose this game, we lose the tennis tournament. But if we win it, the tournament’s ours.”

“…Yeah,” said Sudou.

The third game would be the deciding factor.

Housen continued targeting Onodera relentlessly now that the injury to her left leg had dulled her movements. Even in cases when Housen actually ended up getting scored on because he took it too far, he still showed no sign of letting up his assault on her.

Despite that, Team Sudou was leading now, with the score 3 (40) to 1 (15). Housen knew that if Team Sudou scored on him just one more time, the game would be over. Even so, he targeted Onodera once again, sending the ball hurling her way at high speed. This time, Onodera was unable to avoid it, and it smacked her directly in her right upper arm. Onodera crouched down, in pain.

“That’s not how you’re s’posed to play,” Sudou snarled. “Enough of this—!”

Sudou was so angry that he felt like his blood was coming to boil. But then he remembered the magic spell that Onodera had taught him moments earlier. While glaring at Housen, the source of his repeated frustrations, Sudou let out silent shouts of anger in his mind. Ten seconds of anger. He just had to hold it for ten seconds. He began counting, 1, 2, 3, and so on, and then took a deep breath to help get his emotions in check.

8… 9… 10…

Sudou took those insults that he wanted to hurl at Housen and kept them inside, swallowing his worlds back down. Although his irritation hadn’t completely disappeared, he succeeded in taking a step back, calming down, and looking objectively at the situation. He took stock of everything: the judges’ suspicious eyes, Onodera’s gaze, the fact that this was a game that needed to be won, and their remaining time. Sudou knew that if he got into it with Housen again, he’d naturally be put in check himself.

“Onodera, do you believe in my strength?” he asked.

“Of course I do,” she replied after a moment. “I’m playing together with you because I believe.”

Sudou took a deep breath and centered himself again. Then, he tossed the ball up into the air and made the best serve of the entire day. Without missing a beat, Housen returned Sudou’s ball, and from that point on, Sudou and Housen began knocking it back and forth, back and forth, like something out of a sports manga. Both players kept hitting the ball with incredible intensity, not letting up one bit. But one time, Housen was a little lacking in his return, and Sudou didn’t miss his chance. He smashed the ball back into Housen’s side of the court.

“Yeaaaaaahhhhh!!!” Sudou, still holding onto his racket, let out a victorious war cry that carried all throughout the gymnasium.

“We did it!” shouted Onodera.

Having been dominating for so long only to slip up and lose in the endgame because of his carelessness, Housen was immensely frustrated. He slammed his racket onto the court hard, snapping it in two.

“We won, Onodera! It’s all thanks to you!” Sudou, still in a total adrenaline rush, excitedly ran over to Onodera and hugged her intensely, sharing his enthusiasm.

“Wh-wh-wh-whah?!” Onodera didn’t understand what had happened and was flustered. “Wai—ouch! That hurts, Sudou-kun!!!”

When Sudou heard Onodera shout out in pain after he hugged her tightly with his thick, burly arms, he quickly regained his composure.

“S-sorry! My bad!”

Perhaps Sudou was just so happy that he had been able to control his anger in addition to achieving victory, but he had the biggest smile of the day on his face at that moment.

“Congratulations on the victory, Sudou-kun,” said Onodera.

“Thanks, Onodera. We definitely would have lost if it weren’t for you, though.”

“That’s not true. If anything, I probably held you back…” she replied.

“I don’t wanna say it was a good thing that you got hurt and all, but when it happened and I lost my temper, I really thought we were gonna lose then,” Sudou admitted. “But you brought me back from that.”

“I see,” said Onodera. “In that case, I guess…that means we’re good partners, huh?”

“Yeah. You’re super easy to play with, and you’re dependable. You’re, like, the best partner, Onodera, for real! Oh, I sure hope that Suzune’s around here somewhere and she saw our win just now…”

There were quite a few guests and students around, though, and Sudou wasn’t able to find Horikita right away.

“Suzune, huh…” murmured Onodera.

“Huh? Where?” exclaimed Sudou. “Do you see where she’s at?!”

“Oh, um, um, sorry. Wrong person, I guess.”

“Damn. Welp, maybe she’s out on the field or somethin’…”

“Hey, um… How about we get dinner together sometime? Like after we’re done with club stuff and heading back to the dorms?” asked Onodera.

“Huh?” said Sudou. “Oh, sure, that’s fine with me. Anyway, though, help me find Suzune. Where the heck are ya? Suzune!”

“Aha ha ha, sorry, but I’ll pass on that,” said Onodera.

Despite the fact the game was over, Housen must not have been satisfied, because he strolled up to Sudou. “’Sup Sudou. Don’t get carried away after winnin’ a game like this, got it? You do realize that if I had actually taken this seriously, I would’ve beaten you into the ground, right?” he said. “I think I wanna settle this with you outside, so follow me.”

“Hey, hold on just a—”

Onodera was about to step in and say something to Housen now that he was here trying to pick a fight, but Sudou quietly held her back.

“Truth is, I got some beef with this guy from a little while back,” Sudou said. “I ain’t surprised he’s trying to get in my face.”

“B-but!” protested Onodera.

Onodera wanted to protect Sudou and keep him from getting into trouble, but Sudou just smiled back at her. He then turned to Housen.

“Sorry, but I don’t feel like goin’ along with whatever this is,” he told him.

“Huh? Who said anything about you goin’ along with it or not?” Housen scoffed. “Startin’ now, you’re gonna be my punching bag.”

“Sorry, not interested, dude.”

After Sudou rejected his demands for a fight, Housen shoulder-checked Sudou and drove his clenched fist right into Sudou’s abdomen. Struck by Housen’s powerful punch, even though Housen hadn’t even wound up his arm for it, Sudou fell to his knees.

“Sudou-kun!” exclaimed Onodera, worried.

However, Sudou gestured to her to stay back with a wave of his hand and slowly got back onto his feet. A teacher rushed over to see what the matter was, but Sudou simply said that nothing had happened, and the teacher left.

“Ow. Ah… Dude, I already know you’re good in a fight,” Sudou said. “I can’t complain too much because I was in the wrong back then too. But y’know, if you go any further with this, I’m really gonna have to let the teachers step in.”

“God, you’re pathetic,” sneered Housen. “So what? You were way more fun when you came at me before, y’know?”

“Maybe, I dunno,” replied Sudou. “Let’s go, Onodera.”

“Y-yeah,” said Onodera.

“Ugh, you’re such a boring little brat. Don’t you ever get in my face again,” snapped Housen.

If anything, Housen telling him that actually came as a relief to Sudou. It meant that if he didn’t do anything to bother Housen himself, there wasn’t going to be any more trouble. Sudou learned that by not giving in to his anger, he had been able to turn the situation around into something much more positive.

“Y’know, I guess I ought to be grateful to Housen too,” he said. “When I see him like that, tryin’ to pulverize anyone and everyone around him, I realize how seriously lame I must’ve looked. It makes me cringe so hard, it hurts. I can’t really put this into words too well, but… When I tried that trick you taught me, it’s like somethin’ inside me just suddenly…stopped. It’s like, why was I so angry all the time? It’s almost like there was some evil spirit that was in me and now it’s gone.”

While Sudou was grateful for winning all ten competitions he had been in consecutively, he was just as appreciative of the Sports Festival overall. And, of course, of Onodera too.