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Volume 5, Chapter 5: Raising the Curtains Part 1

"The 100 meter dash, which group were you in again?".

"The seventh group".

I answered while looking at the simplistic programme table (the paper on which the order and time of the contests are written).

"It\'ll be for the better if a formidable opponent does not show up. For the sake of the class, I\'ll slightly be cheering you on".

"I\'ll try my best to not place bottom".

After voicing my unambitious goal, we 1st year boys headed out to the grounds for the contest.

Contests such as the 100 meter dash are all held in order starting from the 1st years. Starting from the 1st year boys and ending with the 3rd year girls is the entirety of the event. Then with the break sandwiched in between, it\'ll switch over and start again with the 1st year girls and end with the 3rd year boys. The contest was about to begin using the printouts each class had submitted beforehand as a basis to decide the pairings.

Since the actual day of the event began, it became clear who would be running in which order from the other classes.

From each class, the selected two making up a total of eight people lined up as one. My turn, as I had told Horikita earlier, was seventh. In total, the 1st year boys formed up into 10 groups.

It was now Sudou\'s turn, as he would be running in the first group. All the students of Class D watched while holding our breath. The outcome of the sports festival will depend greatly on Sudou. First of all this first event, we\'ll use Sudou\'s debut in the race to crush the opponents. The plan is to get everyone pumped up with that same vigor. If Sudou finishes with disappointing results here, there is the possibility that it will have lasting effects.

"From what I can see it doesn\'t seem like there\'s anyone worth their salt here. There are many fatties and garish guys here. It\'s guaranteed Sudou\'ll place 1st".

I couldn\'t see any notable students in our school year from the other classes. Like Ike said, it\'s probably guaranteed already.

"On the contrary, depending on how you look at it, it could also be seen as a loss".

Ideally speaking, for someone with physical abilities like Sudou\'s, it would have been better if someone fast had been competing.

"But this alone is something that can\'t be helped, it\'s up to luck after all".

There was something about the figure of Sudou, in a crouching stance at the starting line, that inspires absolute confidence. Even if he happened to tumble mid-race he could still turn it all around, he gave off the feeling of having such a composure to his surroundings.

Then, as the signal rang out, Sudou rose up perfectly simultaneously and shot forth. Sudou, who had passed a person from the very start, outraced all the other boys as though shaking them off and left them in the dust.

He reached the goal with an overwhelming gap with no one being able to keep up with him. There\'s nothing more to say about that. As the entire student body watched, as the first runner in the first contest, Sudou seized 1st place as expected.

At the same time, the Professor who had been selected too, properly managed to secure last place as expected but......

Not even giving us time to bask in the afterglow, the signal for the next group to start came. The signals came at 20 second intervals. Approximately 4 minutes would be required for all the 1st year boys to finish running. Since this will be repeated by boys and girls for all the school years, the 100 meter dash would be completed in about 30 minutes according to calculations.

"As expected of Sudou-kun I guess".

Hirata, who\'s paired up with me, praised him as though he were impressed.

"Yeah. It feels like the other classes have been taken aback too".

He didn\'t simply take 1st place but also unmistakably left a strong impact. We, the seventh group up, like Sudou and the Professor, also have our roles properly cut out for us.

Hirata, who belongs to the soccer club and is a fast runner, will have a high rank. And as for me, I\'d take a rank that\'s higher even if it\'s just by one, in other words, it can\'t be helped even if I lose. Then also there\'s the matter of standing out and remaining inconspicuous. There are several students from other classes we should be keeping an eye on but amongst the ones I know, those who give off a strong presence like Ryuuen and Katsuragi and the athletic ones like Kanzaki and Shibata, I wonder what group they\'re in.

The third group shuffled up to the starting point.

"Ohh, baldie....no, I mean Katsuragi is on the first course".

Ike points at his head. The skinhead bathing in the rays of the sun glowed blindingly. Beside Katsuragi, a man I\'m familiar with was staring at the goal point with a calm expression.

He\'s Kanzaki of Class B. So Katsuragi and Kanzaki will be competing against each other, huh?

Meanwhile, the man who\'s first on the list of those to watch out for, Kouenji of Class D, is also part of the third group but.....

There\'s no sign of Kouenji on the fifth course he had been assigned to. However, the school did not bother searching for the missing Kouenji and instead treating it as absence, they ended up starting the match right away.

The third group was a free-for-all but it appears as far as speed goes, Kanzaki surpassed them all.

Katsuragi too was by no means slow but it was simply beyond him, and without much fuss, the race ended. Kanzaki took 1st place and Katsuragi took 3rd place. As the race steadily progressed, Hirata realized something.

"Ayanokouji-kun, look there".

What Hirata had noticed was in the direction of the cottage. As I strained my eyes to look, inside it I could see Kouenji who was arranging his hair. He\'s already finished running, surely that\'s not the case. But even so, he\'s way too quick to withdraw.

"He\'s not participating, it seems".

Up until the opening ceremony he had been honestly obedient or so it seemed but ultimately, it appears he won\'t be participating in the contests.

Kouenji will probably make the excuse that his feet hurt or that he\'s not feeling well to wriggle his way out of it.

Since the thought that he would place bottom if he skipped out on all the contests did not even enter his mind, the liability he\'d be lies heavy on the class as well as the Red Team.

Class A too, despite having a legitimate reason, also similarly has someone who will be skipping out on all events in the form of Sakayanagi. Assuming Class C and Class B has no absentees then the Red Team will simply have to fill in the hole left by those two people. Quite a handicap.

The contest progresses smoothly.

One after another the groups get finished up and in no time, our turn as the seventh group came. I entered the fourth course and beside me, Hirata entered the fifth course.

Other than us, the other members included Class A\'s Yahiko but the rest are boys I\'m not familiar with. The first ever sports festival of my life. I started off with a starting dash that was neither fast nor slow. Hirata, who ran beside me, slowly but surely passed me by and joined up with the top runners. On the other hand, in front of me were the backs of four people, hence I took 5th place.

Perhaps it\'s because there wasn\'t that overwhelming of a gap between speeds, we all ran in a crowded state. Then, without changing up the order, I finished in 5th place. As for Hirata, by a narrow margin, he shone in 1st place.

"Fuu. Good job".

Hirata, who had reached the goal before anyone else, lightly sighed and gave me such words of appreciation.

"Sorry, for being a burden".

"No such thing. It was a good match, everyone was fast too".

Hirata did not blame me, even after my disappointing results, and greeted me with a smile. I hurriedly got off the track and returned to the tent. Because the next group up will be starting one after another and I\'ll only be getting in the way.

The 1st year boys, after having finished with their 100 meter dash, returned to their seats and focused on the girls\' race as though devouring them.

There\'s also the outcome of the matches, but they probably just wanted to see the running figures of the girls and couldn\'t help it.

"Where\'s Sudou?".

I couldn\'t see Sudou, who should have returned to his seat.

"I don\'t know. Toilet probably, right? More importantly, let\'s see those swaying breasts, you know, the breasts".

Ike was upbeat, but I immediately had a bad feeling about Sudou\'s absence. He seems like the type to cheer Horikita on here, but that I cannot see him is strange.

"...it can\'t be".

I looked towards the cottage.

As though my premonition had been realized, I saw Sudou drawing closer to Kouenji.

"This isn\'t looking good. I\'d better stop them".

"Right".

Hirata, who noticed that too almost simultaneously, panicked too and headed towards the cottage. It appears things have already heated up there and Sudou, gripping his fist tight, confronted Kouenji.

"You bastard, being absent and all, don\'t fuck around with me!".

As I opened the door, I could hear Sudou\'s intimidating voice from inside.

Sudou had closed the distance to the point where even now, it seemed as though he was about to take a swing, but it almost seems as though Kouenji has not even noticed his existence yet.

He\'s looking bold as he admired his reflection in the glass of the window. But that attitude of his only ended up adding fuel to the fire and stoking Sudou\'s anger.

"Looks like you won\'t understand unless I beat you up, Kouenji".

"That\'s no good, Sudou-kun. If the teachers found out---".

Hirata, of course, stops him but he\'s not the kind of man to be deterred by something like this.

"Shut up. This problem is our class\'s internal affair, right? Doesn\'t matter even if I beat him up. It\'s only if this guy doesn\'t go crying to the teachers about it though".

"As usual, you are an unsavory man. I came here because I wanted to quietly spend time alone though. As you can see, today I\'m feeling ill. I declined so I wouldn\'t be a bother".

"Don\'t lie to me! Leaving aside practice, you\'re skipping out even on the actual event!".

It\'s understandable to want to shout out like that. No matter how you look at it, Kouenji\'s the picture of health itself.

"No, Sudou-kun!".

Before Hirata, who was at a distance, could panickedly draw near, Sudou could no longer stand it and raised his fist. He probably intended on punching Kouenji once to open his eyes. However, the man who was beyond expectations and normal standards, Kouenji, caught the powerful punch in the palm of his hand.

\'Pan\'. And a dry sound like that reverberated within the cottage. Kouenji starts talking without looking at Sudou\'s face.

"Stop it. Someone like you cannot beat me".

It didn\'t seem as though Sudou had been holding back on a fellow classmate. It was a fist swung with all his might.

And it had been blocked all too easily. Sudou probably felt Kouenji\'s high potential anew. But rather than be frightened by it, Sudou appears to have gotten serious.

"Then bring it on. I\'ll break that pride of yours".

"Good grief. Both you and her, it sounds like you both want to tell me I\'m unreliable".

"Her? Who\'re you talking about?".

"That Cool Girl that you\'re so passionate about. She\'s been emphasizing it quite a bit until today, to make sure I participate seriously in the sports festival".

"Horikita, you mean.....?".

Apparently, Horikita had foreseen the possibility of Kouenji being a no-show from the start. Well, I suppose it\'s natural to have misgivings about him seeing how he retired straight away back on the uninhabited island.

Even so, I didn\'t know she had been working on Kouenji behind my back.

"In any case, leave. I am not feeling well".

"You bastard---!".

To prevent it from happening again, Hirata got in between Sudou and Kouenji and tried to arbitrate.

"I think it\'s better to calm down a bit. Kouenji-kun\'s attitude is also a problem but since he\'s saying he\'s not feeling well, he should have the right to rest. Besides, no matter who it may be against, violence is bad".

"That\'s definitely a lie. He said the same thing back on the uninhabited island, didn\'t he?".

"A baseless accusation. It\'s just that my bad health doesn\'t show up well in my attitude".

"You planning on skipping the rest of the contests? Huh?".

"Of course, I will participate if I make a recovery. If I make a recovery, that is".

Sudou could no longer hold in his anger but it\'s also a fact that he cannot afford to be hung up on Kouenji forever.

"The next contest is going to be starting soon, Sudou-kun. If you\'re absent as our leader, it\'ll affect our morale too".

Hirata switched over to a different approach to convince Sudou.

".....I get it. I just have to go back right? Go back".

As if accompanying him, Hirata left the cottage together with Sudou. I also followed soon afterwards. Grumpily returning to Class D\'s tent, Sudou sat down on a pipe chair.

"Shit! Next time I\'ll seriously send that bastard flying! Shit!".

His anger, rather than abate, only welled up and scattered out". A wise man keeps away from danger, and people back away from Sudou one after another. Sudou unleashed his wrath on anyone approaching him by snapping at them.

But Ike, who was engrossed in the girls\' race, did not notice Sudou\'s anger and cheerfully approached him. When I realized it, it seems the girls\' 100 meter dash has also reached its climax, as the last group had just entered the course.

"What have you been doing, Ken? You just came back? Your favorite girl\'s match is about to start".

He slapped Sudou on his back. In that instant, his hand was grabbed and he himself was caught in a forceful headlock.

"Gyaa! What the hell!".

"Stress relief".

"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! I give up, I give up!".

I have nothing to say about this except that it\'s misfortunate and pitiful. Anyways, after having attacked Ike in anger and as Horikita\'s race approached, it seems Sudou\'s regained a bit of calm.

Horikita enters the course as the last round of the 1st year girls was at hand.

"At least there\'s healing in watching Suzune I guess.....".

If he can be healed by watching that, then by all means I\'ll have him heal up.

As I watched Sudou in turn, Sakura breathlessly came back to my side.

"Haa, haa......p-painful.....".

She must have been running at her best as she\'s repeatedly breathing in and out seemingly in extreme pain.

"W-Were you watching me, Ayanokouji-kun?".

She looked up at me with sparkling eyes from behind her glasses. Unfortunately, Sakura\'s contest had ended while I had been chasing Sudou into the cottage and so I don\'t know how it went. But if I tell her I hadn\'t been watching then Sakura will probably become severely depressed.

"You did well".

I said so briefly yet I put my feelings into those words. One thing certain from the facts I understand right now is that Sakura gave it her all in the race.

"T-Thank you! This is the first time I wasn\'t in last place".

She said so with a smile. Sakura had decisively been the slowest one in both classes and in practice but apparently it seems like she\'s beaten someone. Furthermore, judging from the looks of it, it doesn\'t seem like her opponent simply fell or something either.

"Be careful not to push yourself. If you get in over your head, you might fall and hurt yourself".

"O-Ok!".

Smiling again while breathing heavily, Sakura looked out at the next girls race from beside me. I also focused on the other girls who would be running against Horikita.

On the third course was Ibuki Mio, a student from Class C.

For Horikita to be in the same group as Ibuki, who views her as a rival. What a strange coincidence. Horikita did not even look at her but it seems a spark\'s already been lit in Ibuki.

Even from afar, I could see her resolve to not lose against Horikita no matter what.

"I wonder if Ibuki-chan\'s good at sports?".

"Hell if I know. There\'s no mistaking though that Horikita\'s going to be the winner".

There\'s no way the other boys could have known but Ibuki is highly athletic. I only have the bare minimum knowledge but I cannot say with certainty who\'s going to win between them.

At the same time as the starting signal, seven girls shot forth. Between the two I had been paying attention to, the one who had the better start was Ibuki. There had been a slight delay in Horikita\'s reaction and she lagged behind.

But she immediately accelerates, and with a beautiful form she catches up to Ibuki. On the other hand, Ibuki had succeeded in gaining a headstart but perhaps she got curious about Horikita, who ran beside her, as she became distracted looking back. Due to that, their distance lessened and perfectly seizing the middle position and without being shaken off or leaving, she kept that position and continued.

Then, nearing endgame, I could see Ibuki\'s expression stiffening. As they lined up side-by-side, almost indistinctly Horikita took the lead. It was by a narrow margin, but giving off a feeling of self-confidence, Horikita ended up taking 1st place.

"Is this bad.....?".

That whispered premonition of Sudou\'s turned out to have hit the mark. It was truly bit by bit, but the distance between Horikita, who had the lead, and Ibuki, slowly decreased.

In response to Horikita, who tried to shake her off, Ibuki drew ever closer.

The one who cut through the goal tape first was Horikita.

After the big match that no one would\'ve considered strange even if it required a video to make the call, the audience went into a slight uproar.

Beside Horikita, who was catching her breath, Ibuki kicked the ground in frustration. But I feel like if she hadn\'t been so worried about Horikita, then then ranking may have been different.

A slight gap in her awareness was the cause of victory.

"But even so, it was a match the two of them dominated".

Sudou, who was watching Horikita after she had finished running, also felt the same way. Leaving aside her evenly matched race against Ibuki, the other 4 girls excluding Class D honestly were of a pretty low level.

After the completion of the 100 meter dash for the 1st years, we report our results to each other.

The ones who boasted high athletic abilities like Sudou or Horikita as well as Hirata, managed to secure 1st place. However, on the other hand, I could see that the main body of the class that were expected to win had ranked badly and had an unsatisfying start.

"Keep it together, you lot. Especially you, the only pride of yours is your speed right?".

"E-Even if you say that, that Shibata guy\'s really good".

"It can\'t be helped. Because Shibata-kun\'s faster than me".

As a matter of fact, during club practice, there were several instances in which he seemed faster than even Hirata after all.

Despite our good start, from now on the calculations will become more and more complicated. There are no notebooks nor phones here. Even if we verbally convey the results of the contests to a certain extent, it\'ll be difficult to grasp all of it. We don\'t know the circumstances of the other classes in detail either.

I approached Horikita, who had returned, and called out to her.

"That was close".

"...that\'s right. I was surprised. Ibuki-san was faster than I had expected".

Perhaps she noticed Ibuki approaching, Horikita breathed a sigh of relief.

"I understand you\'ve been reaching out to Kouenji".

"Who told you......? It seems to have been meaningless from the start though".

For just a brief moment, Horikita looked at Kouenji, who\'s elegantly spending time inside the cottage.

"I had misgivings about him skipping out but ultimately it ended up that way".

"In a certain sense, more than anyone else, he\'s the one most disinterested in Class A".

As long as he isn\'t expelled, he will enjoy the rest of his time here. As long as he\'s decided on that, there\'s no moving him to action.

But it seems a feeling of being unconvinced had started to sprout inside of Horikita.

"If I were like Kushida-san, a person well liked by the class, I wonder if I could\'ve moved him into action?".

"I wonder. I don\'t think he\'s the type to comply with Kushida or Hirata\'s persuasion though".

Then again, the two of them wouldn\'t try to forcibly persuade Kouenji in the first place. As for why, even if it\'s only self-proclaimed, they wouldn\'t call someone who claims to be sick a liar.

"To think you\'d say something like \'if I were like Kushida\'".

"I never hated her or anything in the first place".

After a natural conversation like that, Horikita realized she had made a verbal slip and sealed her lips tight.

"Pretend you didn\'t hear that just now".

Saying that, she ended the conversation. Then she turned to look at the 3rd year contests that will be starting soon.

For her, Class D is something to worry about but in the same vein, the existence of her brother is also probably a similar worry. Of course, it\'s not like her brother, who\'s the student council president, is affected in any way by his sister\'s feelings.

Horikita\'s brother, who started as part of the second group, naturally took 1st place.

"He\'s as fast as I imagined him to be".

"It\'s because nii-san is perfect. No matter what he does, he\'s always number one".

Rather than a boast, it sounded more like it was a matter of fact. As all the school years finished with their 100 meter dashes, the total count began.

Before the next contest begins, the first points for the Red Team and the White Team will be announced.

Red Team: 2011 points. White Team: 1891 points.

The contests have just begun but the Red Team was slightly dominant.