Class 1-D vs. Class 1-B

Although Class 2-A lost their match against Class 1-B, the students of Class 2-A suffered almost no physical loss under his strategy, and they were still at their peak. Meanwhile, Class 1-A had just finished their match against Class 3-D, and the students' condition would definitely be affected.

From this perspective, Class 2-A has a significant advantage.

The key now is how to deal with any unexpected moves the opponent might make.

[Specific programs for Class 1-A have been confirmed]

[The first item is now: High Jump]

[Both Commander please confirm the participating players]

Miyabi Nagumo was slightly taken aback. Class 1-A had also chosen the high jump, but that cat was a student from Class B of the first year, and temporary substitutes from other classes were not allowed to be borrowed in individual events. Therefore, she was a little unclear about what the other party was up to.

However, he still hooked up the prepared Hirakawa Takuto.

[Confirmation complete]

[Please proceed to the high jump area on the playground and take your positions.]

Then, Miyabi Nagumo saw Hirakawa Takuto easily defeat his opponent.

It wasn't until the words "[Class 2-A defeated Class 1-A in the high jump and is currently leading 1-0]" appeared on the screen, and Hirakawa Takuto's cheers came through his earpiece, that Miyabi Nagumo reacted somewhat surreally.

They won so easily... just like that?

He stroked his chin, looking at the 1-0 scoreline again and again, a slow smile creeping across his face, before nodding.

This is the proper way for second graders to teach First Year; the success of Class 1-B is something other classes simply cannot replicate.

Following that, Class 2-A scored consecutive points in the [Women's 2000-meter race] and [Men's standing long jump] events, widening the gap with Class 1-A to three points.

With four match points in hand, Miyabi Nagumo finally returned to her previous confident state, and the morale of Class 2-A also surged with these three consecutive victories.

However, just as Miyabi Nagumo was starting to feel better, the situation on the field suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse. In the last two rounds of the individual events [Freestyle Fighting] and [women's 3,000-meter race], Class 2-A suffered consecutive defeats.

In the first match Class 1-A sent out Kito Hayato, whose physical ability was rated [A]. Of the two better fighters in Class 2-A, one is still out of contact and the other was just toyed with by Yamada Albert of Class 1-B for nearly half an hour and is still recovering. The third fighter who stepped up was ultimately defeated in the fierce battle and lost a point.

In the [Women's 3000m race], Asahina Nazuna, the girl with the best physical fitness in Class 2-A, had already run a grueling 2000m race with Class 1-B in the morning. She was then sent by Miyabi Nagumo to participate in the second event, the [Women's 2000m race]. She was unable to compete again due to both the rules and her physical condition. The girl who replaced her was also at a complete disadvantage against Kamuro Masumi, whose physical ability was rated [B+].

After all, among the currently available data, the only girl with an A-level physical ability is Kiryuin Fuka from Class 2-B, followed by Kamuro Masumi and Horikita Suzune.

In terms of mentality, unlike Kamuro Masumi who gave her all in the do-or-die match, the contestants from Class 2-A had a sense of complacency due to their class's current 3-1 lead. In addition, they were indeed not as physically fit as Kamuro Masumi, and ultimately lost a close match.

Even though Class 2-A still leads 3-2 despite losing this game, Miyabi Nagumo has a bad feeling.

Because they were moved to the remaining two group projects.

However, Miyabi Nagumo wasn't too nervous this time. Having anticipated this situation, he had already contacted the remaining three classes in the second year and ordered them to have their top athletes refrain from participating in matches against other classes, as previously agreed, and to conserve their energy for Class 2-A.

This behavior, which completely disregarded the other classes, caused a small amount of dissatisfaction among classes B, C, and D. However, Miyabi Nagumo, who was about to become the Student Council President, truly held absolute power in the entire second year. Even in Class 2-B, which had just been tricked by Miyabi Nagumo, Kiriyama hesitated for a while before finally agreeing.

Miyabi Nagumo didn't care how much the other classes complained about his actions. For him, the most important thing now was to defeat Class 1-A. If he suffered two consecutive defeats against the First Year, then even if he successfully challenged Class 3-A in the afternoon, it would not be enough to offset today's humiliation.

[Next, we will move on to the sixth item: group rock climbing]

Miyabi Nagumo's vision went black.

Although the school had previously announced a bizarre project called "rock climbing," which sparked widespread discussion across the school, everyone ultimately just assumed that some class had discovered a prodigy and created this rather strange and even somewhat funny project specifically for him.

What surprised everyone even more was that the school actually approved it. It was only later, through a public announcement, that we learned the school was planning to introduce indoor rock climbing to improve students' simulated wilderness survival skills. As for its intended use...

Students who have just taken the Uninhabited Island survival test can roughly guess, especially second- and third-year students who have experienced two or even three more difficult Uninhabited Island survival tests.

However, Miyabi Nagumo did not expect that the rock climbing here was actually a team activity.

Group climbing:

Each class will send no more than ten and no fewer than two participants, regardless of gender, to pass through the rock climbing obstacle set up by the school within a specified time. If neither side completes the task by the time limit, the class with the greater progress will win.

On Miyabi Nagumo's projection screen, the climbing area set up by the school was displayed, which was roughly divided into four small obstacles: a ten-meter-high cliff covered with artificial rock protrusions, a platform about five meters high that needed to be climbed by stacking people, five three-meter-high steps on each level, and a four-meter-high concave wall at the end.

But none of that really mattered. Miyabi Nagumo didn't even have any ideas about troop deployment. He simply spoke softly into his headset:

They have cats.

If you do the math, this should be the third point that Class 2-A lost to that cat.

Compared to humans, cats are almost maxed out in agility. With a wall several meters high and its surface full of concave and convex points for footholds, Miyabi Nagumo couldn't even imagine what kind of lineup Class A would send to compete with a cat in climbing speed.

Class 2-A naturally understood this as well, since the fact that the cat from Class 1-B had just scored two points against them was too memorable.

It was only at this moment that Miyabi Nagumo suddenly realized that if the First Year wanted to, they could easily score a lot of points just by relying on that cat.

For example, the previous [high jump], this time the [team rock climbing], and even a [tree climbing] project could be designed specifically for cats.

Perhaps we shouldn't have provoked the First Year in the first place.

For the first time, a bitter feeling of regret welled up inside her, but Miyabi Nagumo didn't want to directly damage the morale of her class, so she could only force herself to speak to the students of Class 2-A through her earpiece:

"Giving up this game would only make it three to three."

There's still a chance.

In fact, even he himself felt that the hope was somewhat slim, because if he were in Kitagawa Ryo's position, all the team events could be deliberately set up to be 100% winning events that were advantageous to the cats. In other words, in this Sports Festival, as long as the First Year students faced the upperclassmen, they would automatically gain a two-point lead in the team events.

The rules you designed were completely seen through by the other party, and thus became a weapon used by the other party to attack you.

Aside from Horikita Manabu, this was the first time Miyabi Nagumo had felt this sense of powerlessness. No, even when facing Horikita Manabu, he was confident of victory.

Having secured the point without firing a shot, Class 1-A finally revealed their final project selection.

Miyabi Nagumo's pupils dilated slightly.

Sakayanagi Arisu smiled mischievously with narrowed eyes in the multi-purpose classroom. She understood Kitagawa Ryo's thoughts very well; in this respect, they were practically the same kind of people.

For example, in the matter of giving people hope first and then giving them despair.

For example, one must always face off against their opponent fairly and squarely.

For example...

[Next, we will move on to the seventh item: Football]

[Both Commander please confirm the participating players]

Miyabi Nagumo took a deep breath and almost roughly clicked the mouse:

[The Commander of Class 2-A chose to intervene directly.]

"Get everyone here!"

He gave instructions into his headset. This was a soccer team he had originally intended to use against Class 3-A, composed of all the athletic elites from the second year, whom he had secretly trained for several months.

Miyabi Nagumo didn't believe this football team had any rivals; this was his last and most proud moment of confidence.

In his view, Kitagawa Ryo's decision not to use [Hotaru] to win all the team events was a complete blunder.

He will give the most thorough response and make Kitagawa Ryo pay the price for looking down on him.

Miyabi Nagumo also knew that he would be facing all the elite students of the First Year.

However, he was no longer afraid.

This will be the ultimate battle between second-year students and First Year.

Then, he saw Horikita Manabu's back in his jersey.

Kitagawa Ryo said with a smile:

"What a coincidence, you changed teammates too?"

Chapter 74: Class 1-D vs. Class 1-B

If Miyabi Nagumo could travel back to the day a month ago when she triumphantly implemented the new rules for the Sports Festival, she would probably slap herself hard across the face.

The rule of temporary substitutes was a loophole he deliberately created so that the second-year students could form a cohesive unit to help him deal with Horikita Manabu from Class 3-A. However, Miyabi Nagumo did not restrict this rule of temporary substitutes to students within the same grade.

There are two reasons. First, he plans to find an opportunity to help other third-year classes trip up Class 3-A. Second, in his original plan, Class 1-C, led by Ichinose Honami, should struggle and fall into a desperate situation during this Sports Festival. At that time, he can lead the second-year reinforcements to descend like gods, and whether by coercion or bribery, he can achieve his dark idea.

However, the progress of this Sports Festival has exceeded all of Miyabi Nagumo's plans so far.

Whether it's the First Year students' united attack on the upperclassmen, the extra cat, the inexplicable disappearances of students in the class, or Ryuen Kakeru's betrayal, all these factors combined have turned this Sports Festival into a stage of unknown Fate. However, the only thing that is certain now is—

Miyabi Nagumo looked at the composed Horikita Manabu with a sullen face and said in a low voice:

"I never expected that you, Horikita-senpai, would actually volunteer to join."

"I just want to give this school another possibility for the future."

Horikita Manabu stared directly at Miyabi Nagumo. The previously noisy environment quieted down. It was a formal showdown between the Student Council President and vice president, a life-or-death battle between classes, and many students from other classes were even gathering in this direction.

"You really want to change, you want to change this school."

Horikita Manabu calmly explained that the first round of competition between the classes had basically ended, meaning that in just one morning, the school had gained six more dropouts.

Perhaps one or two of them will be able to stay in their respective classes, but most of them will have to say goodbye to this place.

It was less of Sports Festival and more of Special Exam where each class fought fiercely.

And all of this was the work of the man in front of me— Miyabi Nagumo.

"The Student Council has been so boring lately, too rigid in adhering to tradition. They say stern things but never forget to provide relief. There's no way we'll have any naive rules about dropping out; we don't need those anymore. So, I just need to create new rules."

Miyabi Nagumo chuckled and looked at Horikita Manabu, saying:

"Didn't Horikita-senpai just defeat Class 3-B? That means some students in Class 3-B will drop out, right? If Horikita-senpai thinks that's wrong, then why did he defeat them in the first place? Or, if he didn't want any students to drop out, Horikita-senpai could have spent Twenty Million Personal Points to help them himself?"

"You know I won't be fooled by your sophistry."

Horikita Manabu shook his head:

"The reason I didn't stop you when you proposed all the rules for this Sports Festival was because I felt it was also an opportunity."

"You will succeed me as Student Council, and this is the power of the new generation."

He turned to look at Kitagawa Ryo, his eyes filled with praise and satisfaction:

"Then you must also realize that a new generation will emerge to challenge you."

"What I initially wanted to do was simply protect them from being destroyed by your methods before they fully matured, but I didn't expect them to do it even better than I imagined."

"Are you really going to condone such petty tricks and shortcuts?"

Miyabi Nagumo seemed unable to accept that Horikita Manabu had given a freshman a higher evaluation than his own, and he was quite agitated and prepared to argue.

"Even if the First Year lose this competition, it won't affect my evaluation of them."

However, Horikita Manabu spoke up to stop Miyabi Nagumo from making her emotional statement:

"This football sport is a team sport involving eleven players."

"Besides me, the rest are Hashimoto Masayoshi from Class 1-A, Kitagawa Ryo, Ryuen Kakeru, and Yamada Albert from Class 1-B, Shibata Sō and Kanzaki Ryuji from Class 1-C, Kanzaki Ryuji Koenji Rokusuke, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Ken Sudō, and Hirata Yosuke Class 1-D."

"So what? There are also students from various second-grade classes behind me..."

"Nagumo, do you really think these are the same thing?"

For the first time Horikita Manabu sternly reprimanded Miyabi Nagumo. Unlike his usual demeanor, he now truly displayed the authority of Student Council and senior.

"If this had happened six months ago, you might actually have succeeded."

He looked at Miyabi Nagumo and the players behind her:

"The soccer club of Tokyo Advanced Nurturing High School, your class had the best and most promising players ever. As the ace of the soccer club, you used many new ideas in training and ultimately won the Summer Tournament with great flair."

A faint smile appeared on Miyabi Nagumo's face because of Horikita Manabu's praise. Soccer has always been one of his proudest things, which is why he often goes to the soccer club even after joining the Student Council.

"But."

Horikita Manabu paused for a moment:

Of the teammates who participated in the Summer Tournament with you back then, how many are still standing behind you now?

Miyabi Nagumo's smile froze on her face.

"Those students in your year who were dissatisfied with your style of doing things were first forced to leave the soccer club, and then they left the school."

"But you don't care because you Classroom of the Elite Studio, and you don't feel sorry for students who aren't good enough, even if they drop out."

"However, is the team behind you really stronger than the one you used to be?"

After saying these words, Horikita Manabu turned and left, leaving only Miyabi Nagumo standing there with an uncertain expression. Her companion, Mizowaki, seemed to want to come up and say a few words of advice, but was stopped in place by a glare from Miyabi Nagumo.

"Three, two, one, go!"

Back in the First Year group, Horikita Manabu was pulled into the players' room by Kitagawa Ryo. Students from the First Year classes, plus this third-year senior, each extended one of their hands. Even Koenji Rokusuke stood out from the crowd, seemed quite excited about the strange sight before him, marveling at its stunning beauty while pressing his large palm on top.