PART ONE
"Take your seats!"
It was the first thing Misaki-sensei said when she entered the classroom. Everyone started heading towards their designated tables.
"Today is the second part of the exam that will determine who will join the first year's school team. The five highest scores from the last written exam were from Nage Gazo, Sakai Rumi, Yoshi Min, Okamoto Kazue, and Matsuda Iwao. You five students have the chance to join the team."
After that introduction, we were sent to an open field to join the other ten students from Classes B and C. From Class B, I recognized; Kojima Naoko and Obara Shou. They became warier the moment they noticed me.
"The undercover lover, I didn't expect to see you here. When did it start?" Kojima-san said to me from a small distance.
When did it start? What? I didn't have any clue what she meant.
"What do you mean by that, Kojima-san?" I asked.
She showed a little grin and replied, "Fufu— I don't remember you being that competitive. If you are here, that means that you want to join the school's team."
She was correct; I would never compete in something like this on my own. It's only because of my deal with the Director that I'm doing this.
"How do you know him?" A girl from Class C asked.
It was Medo Umi, Nakata-kun's girlfriend, that asked Kojima-san that question. She was also here to compete for a place on the team; next to her was Sashi Mai, her best friend.
"Gazo and I go way back," Kojima-san said in a slightly envious tone.
After the two girls heard that from her, they immediately started to look at me and wanted answers.
"G-Gazo…— Why does she call you by your first name, Nage-kun?" Sashi-san asked me.
It felt like everyone looked at me as if I was some sort of villain.
"Kojima-san and I were going to the same school. There's nothing more than that."
I said it like that so they won't pry more than necessary. But Kojima-san didn't like my response and made it noticeable by creating a soft but clear noise, "PFFF."
PART TWO
The secretary from the school started speaking, "We will do two tests and count them together for a number; a higher score means that you will be chosen as a student to join the school's first years team. To make it fair for the girls, we multiply their final score by 1.25, which means a 25% bonus. The first test is an endurance game called the beep test."
The beep test is a test that you will have to continue to run in a straight line and turn back on the same line till you can't go anymore, the beep will start to go faster, and if you aren't at the end of the line within the beep sound, you're out.
We were lined up next to each other, a little more than a meter apart. After a small moment, the music started playing in essence, and we began.
Initially, it was easy to keep up with the beep sound, but after a minute or so, the pace started to kick off. After 11-12 minutes, the first person dropped out, a boy nevertheless.
After the first person, more and more students dropped out rapidly. After a while, Matsuda-kun and I were the only ones still running.
"You keep surprising me, Nage-kun," Matsuda-kun said to me while still running. I could see that he was almost out of breath while sweat dripped from his forehead.
"You're not bad yourself," I replied.
After that, he couldn't go anymore and dropped out. I could go on for a couple more minutes but decided it was good enough.
Then all the students were given a score:
Class A,
Sakai Rumi - 8
Nage Gazo - 12
Yoshi Min - 8
Okamoto Kazue - 7
Matsuda Iwao - 11
Class B,
Kojima Naoko - 9
Obara Shou - 10
Girl1 - 5
Boy2 - 7.5
Boy3 - 7.5
Class C,
Medo Umi - 6.5
Sashi Mai - 7
Boy4 - 6
Boy5 - 4
Girl6 - 4.5
"That's the result from the beep test. We are now doing the second test, called the strength test. You will get a device, and you have to put all your strength into that device by gripping it tightly with your hand to get a score."
First, the boys were chosen to do this test. After all the boys had finished, the girls followed.
The results:
Class A,
Sakai Rumi - 8
Nage Gazo - 16
Yoshi Min - 7.5
Okamoto Kazue - 7
Matsuda Iwao - 12
Class B,
Kojima Naoko - 10
Obara Shou - 11
Girl1 - 6
Boy2 - 6
Boy3 -6.5
Class C,
Medo Umi - 5
Sashi Mai - 7.5
Boy4 - 5
Boy5 - 6
Girl6 - 4
"That were the results of the strength test." the Secretary of the school stated.
Everyone started to calculate in their heads who were placed in the first year's team. But were disturbed by the secretary who named the winning students.
"The team members are Sakai Rumi, Nage Gazo, Yoshi Min, Matsuda Iwao, Kojima Naoko, Obara Shou, and Sashi Mai. Congratulations, and we hope you will win the school's best prize!"
The winning students were happy to hear they'd won a place on the team, while the losers were told to follow the secretary back to the classes.
Then we were sent to the team room to spend time with each other to learn more about ourselves.
A start to building chemistry.
I was following our group to the first year's room from behind and suddenly, I noticed Sakai-san dropping behind the group. She wanted to have a little chat with me.
"Why?" she asked.
The only thing that I could think of what she meant was that she wanted to know why I joined the team.
"I like to have a chance to win a scholarship to the best university," I replied.
She looked at me to see if I was bluffing; of course, I didn't budge.
She knew that wasn't my reason as that just wasn't my persona. There was another reason, a reason I couldn't tell her; the sadistic devil.