Ryuen, Are You Into Horikita? Or Do You Like Her Points? (Continued)

At the opening ceremony, Fujimaki- senpai from Class 3-A delivered the opening declaration.

With a commotion, the students dispersed into the red and white teams.

The competition is very tight, with no other time-wasting activities, meaning all 13 events will be completed today.

Not only that.

Starting with the first-grade boys, they are now being tested in 100-meter races, with groups of eight boys each.

The races proceed in the order of first-grade boys starting and ending with third-grade girls, after which each event concludes. A short 10-20 minute break is then inserted, followed by the reverse sequence, starting with first-grade girls and ending with third-grade boys, and so on. It's very fast-paced.

With a large number of first-grade students, they can be divided into 10 groups of boys and 10 groups of girls, based on 8 students per group.

As for Class 1-D, although they were tricked into coming out to increase their popularity, Kushida still made some arrangements. For example, he arranged for Sudo to take the lead and win the first victory to boost morale.

Hirata, however, also supported this approach.

The first group is now in position.

Bump!

As the starting gun fired, Ken Sudō dashed off like lightning, securing first place with an outstanding performance, overtaking the second-place finisher by ten meters.

As expected of someone with superhuman athletic abilities?

All the students who were focused on the start noticed Sudo's explosive impact. This is the kind of person you'd call a "sports cheat."

Then comes the second group.

Before there was even a moment to give people enough excitement, the second group was already in position.

However, during the third group, a commotion broke out among the students.

"This kind of competition is so boring--"

Although he came to the playground according to his class and even saw Sudo's good performance, Koenji Rokusuke chose to forfeit. He left the field on his own.

"It seems Class D will lose if they don't even fight."

Within Class C's ranks, Ryuen Kakeru observed from afar, lost in thought.

As he predicted, Koenji abstained without any surprise.

Class D' s fighting strength was immediately reduced.

If Ken Sudō gave Class D a winning start, then Koenji Rokusuke Koenji's withdrawal in the third group was a huge blow to Class D.

After about twenty days of training, although there wasn't much improvement, most people still believed that Kushida Hirata's tactics could help them achieve good results, at least not at the bottom.

But now.

Koenji abstained from the contest.

He has only withdrawn from the 100-meter race, but there are still 8 other mandatory events, which means that Koenji has not earned any points in any of the events.

This is not...

That's great... No, isn't this going too far?!

This was an outrageous act in the eyes of someone like Sudo, who was determined to help his class win. But for the average sports idiot, it simply meant that one of the bottom ten spots would be taken.

The students in Class B had already promised to let them win, but now that Koenji has abstained, it's even more reassuring.

Not only that.

So far, it's confirmed that Sakayanagi Arisu from Class B has withdrawn from the competition. It's said that she has health problems and is therefore unable to participate in any sports events, so she has forfeited all of them.

In other words, the bottom ten students in the whole school now occupy two of the spots.

Some students in Class D even looked relieved.

Bump!

The teacher's starting gun was still firing.

The fast-paced 100-meter test has continued.

Even if he wanted to stop Koenji, Hirata- kun was about to start his match.

Then there are still people who can stop it.

For example, Kushida was talking to someone and seemed not to notice what Kushida happening here. This was not surprising, as it seemed that on the bus before she entered school, Kushida still had a grudge against Koenji over giving up her seat on the bus. She felt that Koenji was unreasonable and lacked empathy.

He's practically number one on her blacklist, so naturally, she wouldn't go out of her way to help him.

Kushida is the type who holds grudges even more than Nakano-kun.

Other girls who were free, such as Horikita.

However, under Nakano Yu's plan, Horikita didn't drag down a Class D like in the original story; her performance was purely based on her own good behavior. Besides, what need was there to save a class with a score of 0, given the class evaluation scores?

Or perhaps, since Koenji is a rational person, he had to accept the consequences of his actions. He initially chose to abstain upon hearing the rules of the Sports Festival Koenji, and Hirata and Sudo tried to persuade him for almost a month without changing his mind.

Therefore, Horikita is currently in a very aloof state.

As for Nakano, he's currently competing.

He was assigned to the same group as Hirata.

Bang!

As soon as the starting gun fired, Nakano-kun and Hirata were already running off. Hirata was very fast, and as agreed with Class B, this group didn't send any seeded players. After all, Hirata was considered a seeded player for Class D, so Class B was basically letting them win. The two players from Class C were decent, but they were no match for Hirata. Thus, despite being cannon fodder, because the other students were also cannon fodder, Nakano managed to get fourth place.

That's truly amazing.

Because of this arrangement, it can be basically confirmed that the competition schedule for Class D is now public information.

Therefore, not only Class B, but even Class C will arrange their personnel according to this competition form.

After the match, Nakano Yuu Hirata returned to the lounge together, but were somewhat surprised to find that several students were missing, including not only Koenji, but also Sudo and Ike.

Could it be that—

Hirata had a bad feeling.

Nakano Yuu Yuuki also had a bad feeling.

Because of Sudo's fiery temper, if he were to fight with Koenji, he might be forced to withdraw from the competition due to the brawl, and the entire battle plan revolves around the idea that Sudo can score a lot of points.

It would be terrible if he just made a brief appearance and then withdrew.

"Koenji!"

Meanwhile, Sudo roared angrily at Koenji, who was sitting in the small water room, combing his blond hair in front of a mirror.

But someone stopped him.

It seems there's still time.

Seeing that Ike and the others had subdued Sudo, Nakano Yuu breathed a sigh of relief.

If a fight breaks out suddenly, that's a minor issue. What's truly worrying is if the situation escalates to the point where Sudo is suspended from the competition.

Because.

Sudo, we can't just throw our lives away here.

Ryuuen hasn't been touched yet, so it would be a shame for Sudo to give it away now.

Seeing that Sudo had been properly persuaded to calm down, Nakano Yuu handed Sudo over to the trustworthy and all-powerful Hirata- kun, and then returned to the White Group's rest area.

The 100-meter race was very fast in each group, and by the time he Hirata left the track, the girls' race was already underway.

Only a few minutes have passed.

I wonder if we'll ever see Horikita play again.

"Naka, Nakano-kun-- "

However, just as Nakano Yuu returned to the rest area, a girl with a white headband running up to him, panting heavily. This was Sakura Airi.

Airi placed one hand between their hearts, "Nakano-kun... did you watch my match?"

Forehead.

Forehead.

Forehead.

You've already run? And finished running?

Airi had come to him seeking a response.

Airi tried her best.

She knew she was physically weak, but during this training period, she and her best friend Boliujia worked hard every morning. She even passed by his room and wanted to knock on the door to invite him to join her, but she was afraid.

And now.

The match finally started, but Nakano Yuu... ran away.

Because he was worried that Sudo would just feed the enemy kills, Nakano Yuu went to the water room and didn't see Airi's match at all, or rather, he completely missed it.

"Hmm--"

So, how should I answer this?

Airi looked on expectantly, as if she wanted to get a response from him.

"Airi ..."

Nakano Yuu said, "You've already worked really hard! I'm so glad."

He ultimately used this vague answer.

This is based on analysis. If he ran very poorly, then Airi wouldn't have come looking for him, right?

"Uh-huh."

Airi nodded, clasped her hands together, and then announced that she had finally come in fifth place, instead of last.

There were eight people in the group. Although one of them, a student from Class B, withdrew, getting fifth place was still commendable for Airi.

Don't push yourself too hard.

Nakano Yuu said again.

Then Airi nodded like a little animal, and returned to her seat to rest with a smile and flushed cheeks.

That's great.

Nakano-kun thinks that sometimes having both cats and dogs isn't such a bad thing.

Considering the possibility of a situation like Airi's, Nakano Yuu went to check on the next group. Airi was in the fifth group of girls, but Horikita was in the sixth group.

Although I don't think Horikita is the kind of person who expects people to watch her matches, she just watched her own match, and if people don't watch it and she's in a bad mood, then she'll find an excuse to lash out.

Nakano-kun noticed that Horikita has been using tact and diplomacy with him lately, which is not a normal sign.

Looking over from afar, Nakano Yuu nodded when he saw the members of Group Six.

Horikita was in the third lane, while a familiar face was standing in the second lane.

Ibuki Mio from Class 1-C.

Slender, petite, with short hair.

This poor girl was sent out by Ryuuen as a spy during the Uninhabited Island Exam, then he saw through her, and now she's developed PtSD regarding the underwear issue.

Ibuki's physical fitness should be very good. That's my intuition.

The match hadn't started yet, and she seemed to be talking to Horikita about something, but judging from Horikita's complete indifference, it was probably something like Ibuki Mio wanting to challenge her.

Judging from Ibuki's confident demeanor and her flirting with Horikita, doesn't this mean... she already knew Horikita would be assigned to Group Six?

In other words, just as expected, Class C received the assignment from Class D.

Very good.

He liked this class, which was riddled with holes like a sieve.

As the gunshot rang out, all the players rushed out, with Ibuki the lead and Horikita reacting slightly slower.

Just like in the trade, Horikita is playing as a seeded player in this group, while Class B didn't send any seeded players. So now it's just Horikita and Ibuki a fierce battle.

Although Horikita started a bit slow, she was still very fast. She continued to exert her strength during the acceleration process and gradually caught up with Ibuki.

Ibuki was very concerned about Horikita, and during the run Horikita, she looked back to check the distance between them. It seems that because this action was rather foolish, she became nervous and slowed down, and then quickly lost her advantage and became even.