So.
With that thought in mind, Ichinose continued, "Then I'll leave it to you, Hachiman."
"Yeah." Hachiman nodded.
His physical ability was rated B, as had already been confirmed during the previous Sports Festival and the uninhabited island exam. His endurance was not bad either, so adding another five hundred meters or so was no great difficulty.
But.
"Everyone has things they're good at and things they aren't," Hachiman said. "And I don't think relying on others is a bad thing. If anything, that's just how humans are. We always trouble other people. That's what makes us human."
"Thank you," Ichinose said sincerely.
Over the past few days, they had spent time together as members of the same group, attended classes together, and she had even gone out to eat with Hachiman.
Yet she had always felt as though she were intruding on the world that Horikita and Hachiman shared between themselves.
But now, it seemed Hachiman still cared about her.
The gloom that had hung over Ichinose's heart for several days seemed to have been swept away all at once.
"I think us boys can take on more," said a boy from Class B at that moment. "How about all of us boys run one thousand meters, while the girls' distances are reduced?"
Eight people from Ichinose's class had joined Hachiman's group. There were four boys and four girls. Besides Ichinose, the girls included Asako Amikura, who was skilled at tennis. Among the boys was someone Hachiman knew—Watanabe, who had been assigned to Hachiman's team during the previous school trip.
These boys were not as outstanding as Shibata, but their physical ability was still rated C+. The one speaking now was Watanabe, who wore glasses.
As students from Ichinose's class, they naturally knew how capable Ichinose was at sports.