Volume 17, Chapter 5 Introduction

It was morning. All the students were gathered at the grounds, and I was watching over them from the faculty area. Student Council President Nagumo was making the opening remarks from a podium which had been set up. Watching him were the guests who had been invited from outside. There weren’t that many of them, just a few dozen. Despite that, it seemed like the students were restless in the presence of outsiders they weren’t used to seeing. They were wired and eager to throw themselves at the field set for the Sports Festival.

We had been informed about the guests beforehand by the Student Council President, but—despite their numbers—we felt so much more pressure than we’d imagined. They were people from the political or other circles which had been involved in the foundation of this school. There weren’t any politicians you’d recognize from having seen on the TV before, but they weren’t too far from that status either. They were all dressed in suits and wore stiff expressions as they watched; it was almost like they were monitoring prisoners. And even with all of that, President Nagumo continued to speak boldly without quivering even a bit. He was fulfilling his role, in no way inferior to the splendid image my brother had shown to the students. After he concluded his remarks and the students gave him an ovation, the baton was passed to the teachers, who then reiterated the key points about the Sports Festival. And then we approached the time to start.

After this, students were free to do whatever they wanted. So long as they followed the rules, they could participate in a competition they had entered, or they could check out their opposition, decide that it wasn’t a good deal and withdraw from the event at the last-minute to participate in some other competition, provided they had two points. And we had to keep in mind that, as a rule, once a student had finished participating in all of their matches and had none other they were scheduled to participate in, they would have to go to a designated area and were assigned the duty to cheer for their class. If they were caught chatting or resting at some place they weren’t supposed to be in, or playing hooky, they would not only lose their right to participate, but would also be stripped of their points.

Further, together with Ryuuen’s class, which we had joined in a cooperative relationship, we made adjustments to avoid facing each other in individual events as far as possible, and structured teams for the team matches such that both classes selected students who could win with ease. We then split the number of students fifty-fifty, and ensured that both classes would get the same number of points regardless of whether they won or lost.

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And then, no matter how capable a student was, we decided on an upper limit for the number of team competitions they participated in. This was a measure to ensure that the outstanding athletes such as Sudou-kun and Yamada Albert-kun weren’t bound for a long period of time, and so we agreed that one person could help out in at most three team matches. In the contract, we restricted this agreement to events they signed up for before the day itself.

It would be ridiculous for them to fight and say “help out here” or “help out there” on the day of the Sports Festival itself. Also, we didn’t enforce a hard and fast rule that they couldn’t team up with students from Ichinose-san’s class or Sakayanagi-san’s class either. If they could make good use of it in a match, we were accepting of them teaming up on a case by case basis. I wasn’t worried because I worked on this with Katsuragi-kun over and over again so that it wouldn’t become an issue.

I didn’t have much to worry about at the beginning of the competition as many would be participating in competitions they had signed up for in advance. I must not forget that I should debrief my classmates every hour, and keep tabs on whether issues come up and make minor adjustments when required.

The first competition I was participating in was the 100 meter race. It started fifteen minutes after the festival opened, so I didn’t need to hurry, but I wanted to get there early and check out the other particip─

“Come, Horikita! Fight me!!”

The person who ran up to me at full speed the moment after everyone had been dismissed to do whatever they wanted was Ibuki-san. She kept glaring at me even though she was panting.

“Are you stupid?”

“Huh?! What are you saying? You scared of losing to me? You are, aren’t you?”

“Not at all.” I rejected her instantly. “Which competition are you in right after this? Pace your breath before you answer.”

“… Huh?! It’s the 100 meter race, of course! I won’t forget it, we decided this together.”

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“Yes, the 100 meter race. And we are registered for the very first race. That’s what we decided. Therefore, you will have to run soon after this. And despite that, why are you sprinting around at full speed just before you have to participate? I shouldn’t have to tell you that we’ve already decided that we’ll be facing off, so what you should do is to go to the designated area and wait.”

“Sh*t,” she muttered, making it obvious that she only understood the situation she was in after I told her. “A-anyway, fight me!”

“Relax. You don’t need to tell me, I will fight you.”

Ibuki-san wasn’t going to go down easy. Last year in the 100 meter race, I won only by a small margin.

If possible I’d have liked to avoid you as an opponent, but I had something to be very grateful to you for.

If Ibuki-san hadn’t helped me, Kushida-san might not have started going to school yet. But that didn’t mean I could give her the win. I’m sure you don’t want that either, so I’ll win fair and square. Ibuki-san, unhappy at the prospect of walking with me, made some distance and set off for the first event at the same time I did. A pleasant tension rose within me.

First up was a match with only second year girls. Sticking close to the conditions we had agreed on in advance, the only person who could be my rival would be Ibuki-san. But it would be foolish to think that that was good luck. If I was getting an easy fight, that meant some other person was going to face off against a tough enemy in some other fight.