"Accident"

The event after the boys' 100 meters was the girls' 100 meters.

"Good luck, Kamuro. When you're on the track, think about what I would do," Lezheng encouraged her.

"Who'd want to think about you? You're way too full of yourself." Kamuro looked disgusted.

"Good luck. I have faith in you."

"Just wait. I'll bring you back a championship."

While they were talking, a tall girl approached from the second-year section, an arrogant, unrestrained smile on her face. She strode up to Lezheng and Kamuro.

"Lezheng Youyan, how many A-pluses do you have in your student profile?"

"The school does those evaluations, so I'm not sure either." Lezheng shook his head.

"I'm very interested in you." Fuka Kiryuin's gaze burned with intensity.

"Kiryuin-senpai, you don't look ordinary either. You clearly had the ability to crush Nagumo, so why did you suddenly give up leading Class A afterward?" Lezheng blinked.

"It was too boring. Like playing house." Kiryuin spread her hands.

"Your style reminds me a lot of someone."

"Oh? There's someone else with as much individuality as me?"

"Koenji from Class D."

"Hahaha, that explains it. He certainly is an interesting guy too." Kiryuin laughed loudly.

"You know him, senpai?"

"The Koenji Conglomerate's only son. Surely you know that?"

"Of course I do. Which means your family background certainly can't be bad either, Kiryuin-senpai."

"Quick on the uptake, but I refuse to answer. I'm off." Kiryuin turned and left.

"You know her?" Kamuro was a little curious about who this distinctive upperclassman was.

"I heard a little about her from Kiriyama-senpai." Lezheng nodded.

Kamuro had wanted to ask more about Kiryuin's story, but unfortunately, this clearly wasn't the time. Her race was about to begin.

The competitors in Kamuro's heat made their way to their respective lanes one after another.

Kamuro looked over the other five and found no opponents she needed to watch out for.

She couldn't help relaxing as a result, and in the end, she did advance to the final in first place in her heat.

The girls' finalists were Ibuki, Horikita, Kamuro, Kiryuin, and two third-year girls.

Ibuki stared hard at Horikita beside her. Clearly, the two had developed a grudge since the Deserted Island exam, the kind where neither could stand the sight of the other. Kiryuin still wore that same confident expression.

Although Kamuro, Horikita, and Ibuki were already among the most athletic first-year girls, unfortunately, they had encountered someone even more extraordinary.

For the first twenty meters, Kiryuin gave them the illusion that the upperclassmen weren't all that impressive, then she began leaving them in the dust.

After crossing the finish line, she fixed her gaze on Lezheng and gave him a meaningful smile.

Kiryuin had enjoyed showing off, but Nagumo had already begun breaking out in a cold sweat. Losing to Lezheng had put him in a bad mood, and only seeing Horikita Manabu lose as well had made him feel a little better.

But Kiryuin had suddenly become aggressive, reminding him of the shadow cast by her crushing him when he first enrolled.

Compared with Nagumo's fear, Kiriyama looked extremely excited. He desperately wanted the Kiryuin who had once led Class A to return, so he would no longer have to bow to Nagumo's whims.

Kamuro ultimately took second place by a narrow margin, but she couldn't feel happy. Her boast had barely left her mouth before it fell apart.

"You haven't shut down, have you?" Lezheng waved a hand in front of Kamuro's face.

"My mental state is perfectly fine." Kamuro swatted his hand away.

"She's a year older than you. There's no shame in losing."

"So are you praising yourself?"

The second event consisted of separate competitions for boys and girls, and everyone had to participate.

The pole-toppling competition was purely a contest of physical ability. Whichever side pulled out the opposing team's pole first would win. Since physical contact was unavoidable in this sport, the school prohibited taking advantage of it to hurt others.

But Ryuuen didn't see it that way. Since there was physical contact, bumps and collisions would be hard to avoid. He chose a strategy of weak defense and strong offense.

Blocking Lezheng were Class B's fighters, led by Yamada, while Ryuuen took some of the others to raid their base. Fortunately, Class A's students pulled out the flagpole defended by Class C first, but Sudo ended up with several extra footprints on him.

"Damn it, that bastard!" Sudo glared furiously at Ryuuen.

"Calm down, Sudo." Hirata tried to soothe him.

The moment the starting whistle blew, Hirata knew his attempt had failed. Sudo charged ahead of everyone toward the flagpole defended by Class B, but unfortunately, Yamada stopped him single-handedly, and Ryuuen took advantage of the chaos to land a few more kicks.

In the subsequent events, every second-year on the red team matched against a second-year on the white team would inexplicably lose, putting the white team slightly ahead of the red team in points.

Horikita still wanted to push for it, but Hirata handed the matter straight over to Class D's students to decide, and she ultimately backed down.

Lezheng didn't know whether he was imagining it, but he kept feeling that Hirata was targeting Horikita.

"Lezheng, can you take the final leg?" Hirata asked.

"Sure. Run as hard as you can. As long as the gap isn't ridiculously large, I can make it up," Lezheng encouraged everyone.

Their team's running order was Sudo first, Onodera second, Ayanokoji third, Horikita fourth, Kamuro fifth, and Lezheng sixth.

"Tweet!"

Sudo took off, racing toward Onodera. He was fast, pulling several body lengths ahead of the other teams' runners, and over the final 100 meters, he extended the gap to more than ten meters before passing the baton to Onodera.

Onodera was Class D's fastest girl over 100 meters. If she hadn't encountered Kiryuin in her heat, she would have been a strong contender for second place. Ayanokoji's third leg was unremarkable; he neither extended their lead nor fell behind.

Everything had been looking good, but an accident occurred during Horikita's leg. As she ran the final 100 meters, the second-year girl in the lane to her left suddenly stumbled toward her. Horikita instinctively dodged right, only to collide with the runner on her right.

Horikita Manabu, who had been watching his younger sister the entire time, turned a sharp gaze on Nagumo.

Nagumo looked innocent. "Horikita-senpai, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nagumo..."

Horikita Suzune stood up, a sharp pain shooting through her right leg. The physical injury combined with the psychological pressure made her want to abandon the relay, but when she saw Horikita Manabu watching her, she still slowly made her way toward Kamuro.

Kamuro took the baton Horikita handed her and sprinted toward Lezheng with all her strength.

Since Nagumo's red team had been knocked down by Horikita, he simply gave up on the race. Horikita Manabu's red team was also knocked down on the fifth leg by a student from Class 2-B, so the only runners now sprinting toward the finish were Ishikura from Class 3-B and Yamada from Class 1-B.

This time, we of Class B will seize victory-with my own hands. Ishikura had begun celebrating inwardly.