[6th October]
[Kurushima Pov]
Once I arrived at the nurse office, near the Sports Tent, Hiyori being in my arms, I put her on the bed. "Please take care of her."
The school nurse nodded.
"Kaoru, don't worry. I'm not the one who twisted my ankle. I'm fine. I got a bit bruised, but that's it. There's nothing to worry about."
"No, you should rest. You have to recover."
She slightly giggled. "Says the right person. Aren't you all bruised up, currently? I don't think you should be the one to tell me that."
"I can't argue against that, can I? But I don't think anyone would take it against you if you were to rest a bit. If they do, I'll convince them otherwise."
"How exactly do you want to do that, Kaoru?" A bit amused, she asks me that question.
"Who knows?"
She pouted, unsatisfied with my answer.
"Okay, okay, I'll try on using my charm. Until now, it has never failed me."
She shakes her head. "I don't like that idea, Kaoru."
"Are you perhaps jealous, Hiyori?" I asked her a bit teasingly.
Out of embarrassment, she slightly nods her head. She's a bit too honest. I was just teasing her a bit, actually.
"But don't worry, you're the only girl I laid eyes on. I can't imagine myself being together with someone else, aside from you."
A bit embarrassed, Hiyori nods her head. "Me neither. I'm really happy that we're together, Kaoru."
"Likewise. It's been a long time, since I've been so happy. You're someone, my mother always mentioned finding. I never really believed her back then. Now I do. It's reassuring, honestly."
"But anyway, I should let you rest for a while. I'll come back later."
"You don't really have to. You must be quite busy during the Sports Festival."
"Don't worry. I have a decent overview of my time."
A bit embarrassed, she nods her head. "If you say so."
Leaving the tent, I saw Class C's leader, Ryūen Kakeru.
"Ryūen."
"Kurushima."
"How is she?"
"Good. It's not something you'd particularly care about, right? After all, it's quite uncommon to see an accident happen in a three-legged race. It's almost as if it's done—intentionally."
I put an emphasis on the last part of my sentence.
"I might have provided her with your competitions, but I wouldn't even think of giving hers, Kurushima. As someone who represents me in case of emergency, Hiyori is a very valuable asset in my class."
"I know. I wasn't hinting anything towards that. I'm just saying something else."
He couldn't help but laugh. "Ahahaha, a traitor? In my class? Who would be foolish enough to do something like that."
"Who knows?"
"Anyway, I'd like that you prevent Hiyori from participating further in any more competitions. Although your class affairs really don't bother me much, if Hiyori gets involved, I'll also get involved. If she's targeting her to crush me, I'll have to decline that. She won't injure her. I won't let that happen."
"You're proposing to me something impossible? Why should I reduce our chances of winning the Sports Festival? Are you stupid, Kurushima?"
I took my phone out, tipping an amount of 250,000 Private Points, transferring it to Ryūen's Student ID.
"That should be enough for you to reconsider my offer, right?"
"Hahaha, you're going this far. Why?"
"Because for me, she's an existence far too valuable. If anyone tries to hurt her, I'll pay them the amount four times back. It's not something you could understand... I didn't understand it either a couple of months ago."
"If that's so, why don't you just join our class, then? You could be together with her, couldn't you?" He asked amusingly.
"I'll have to decline... For now..."
As I walked past by him, he said something. "I didn't have the intention of letting her participate, either way, Kurushima. I'm not stupid. But at least I got somehow compensated for it."
Hahaha, what a guy.
But it's good to know that Hiyori is in great care under him. He isn't a bad class leader, despite all these rumors spreading about him.
With a slight smile, I walked back.
Before I moved back to our tent, I crossed at another Tent however by.
"My, my, Kurushima-kun, how can I help you?"
"Help me? You can't help me, in particular. You did rather the opposite, Sakayanagi. But know this: soon enough, you'll regret what you did today."
"Oho, is that so? I'll have to see that."
"Don't worry. It won't take particularly long."
As I walked past her, the blonde-haired guy approached her.
His name was Hashimoto, her right-hand man.
Unlike her, I'll deal with them alone.
I don't need anyone to help me deal with them.
Everything I have done so far has been through my own efforts.
My revenge, my burden.
I can't let anyone else be drawn into it. In particular, not Hiyori.
As for the class battles, I think relying on my class would be better, right?
I guess...
--
"Princess, was it alright for you to provoke him? It's not just Kurushima whom you have against you now, but Ryūen, too."
"The moment these two aligned themselves on the Zodiac Exam, they aligned them against us. Although Ryūen won't attack us for a while, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be careful. He'll attack Ichinose, then us, and at last, Kurushima. I can understand his thought process quite well."
'I also want to have fun in crushing the other classes first before moving on to the final opponent. Kurushima and Ayanokoji are two very amusing opponents. One is a False Genius; the other is just like me, a Natural-born Genius.'
'But I do wonder...'
'What were you thinking, Ayanokoji-kun?'
'After all, it was clearly you who provided me the competition list of his girlfriend...'
--
[Third-Person Pov]
As the three-legged race came to an end, the cavalry fight began. Each class had four groups, with four people each. In total, that makes 16 people. Girls and Boys were separated, and it was a total of 8 vs. 8 horsemen.
Class A and D versus Class B and C, Or Team Red versus Team White, however, you might refer to it. Clearly, the current Class A was at a disadvantage.
Not only were they the original Class D, but they also had a very good amount of very mediocre athletic students. In comparison, classes B and C had highly athletic students.
However, they were in a Team with Ichinose's Class, which almost only consisted out of athletic students, so it wasn't like a one-sided battle, either. Now that Class B had completely worked together, they emancipated a much greater threat when they were split up into two fractions: that of Sakayanagi and Katsuragi.
Their position was taken away from them, and in particular from Class D, the worst class, the defectives. No, they are in Class A now.
Although they knew not many people in particular were contributing to it: Horikita and Kurushima, or in Sakayanagi's case, Ayanokoji and Kurushima.
Of course, many believed that it was, in fact, Horikita. But if you'd think further about it, it becomes evidently clear that it wasn't her.
Horikita was nothing more than a mere ant that'd become too boring to crush. The only special thing about her was her brother; so is how Sakayanagi thinks. If in case anyone ever tried to expel her, her brother would most likely protect her.
The White Team, consisting of Ryūen and Sakayanagi, won. Only Ichinose's class was considered to be a threat to them. However, when it's 7 versus 4, it's quite hard on winning itself.
Karuizawa Kei was able to get one headband, but that was it. The rest of the girls from Class A were immediately annihilated by the opposite Team. Ichinose's class was able to get two headbands, but failed because of the amount of opponents.
Kurushima, seeing that his girlfriend didn't participate, knew that she was one of the four substitute students. He knew she wasn't athletically that good, so Ryūen naturally wouldn't let her participate, even if she were not injured.
A couple of minutes later, the cavalry fight for the boys began.
Sudo and Kurushima were in two different horse groups, to ensure the defeat of the opposite classes the best way as possible.
Although Kurushima weighed a bit more than Hirata, he was still in another group. Of course, it was wiser to have them in different groups.
If one of them were to be eliminated, the other one would at least still have a chance. The other two horse groups consisted of the lighter students, like Ike, for example.
They didn't want to risk their two aces immediately, since they'd surely be targeted. While the horse group of Sudo consisted of Hirata, who was the jockey, and Ayanokoji, Miyake, and Sudo being underneath, Kurushima's horse group consisted out of the less athletic students.
But he didn't think his classmates should have much trouble carrying him. He admitted that, in comparison to Hirata he does weight more, but it's not that much. His weight was around 72 kg, so no big deal, he thought.
He also preferred to be one of the people supporting underneath, but apparently nobody from them wanted to confront Sudo in case they lost, so they were more than fine with him being the jockey.
Since Sudo is a bit too heavy, Hirata was the next best option as the jockey.
"I hope, it's not too troublesome for you to be carrying me."
"Don't worry, Kurushima-kun, it's not a big deal. We practiced it already."
"Okay, then let's support Sudo and his group!"
"Yes!" They enthusiastically shouted.
As long as they were not in a group with Sudo, they were fine. No matter what happened, Kurushima never took them anything bad. He was a person with whom everyone in the class could work together, under any circumstances.
For a bit of time, everything was going smoothly, until Sudo fell for Ryūen's provocations, and in the end, their group lost their headband to Ryūen.
"Surround Kurushima."
Ryūen shouted, two groups surrounding them. One from the front, one from behind. The rest were dealing with Class D, Ichinose's class.
He was able to get one headband, but because of Ryūen's tactics, he, too, failed. With that, all four horsemen from Class A were out.
Going back to their Tent, a situation seemed to have occurred.
'That didn't end well. But well, I don't care that much, anyway. I want us to get at least the 3rd Place, with Sakayanagi being the 4th. Since I expelled four people, all four of them physically capable, the current Class 3-D was terrible in all the competitions. The winning chances of our Team winning have drastically decreased because of what I did, expelling four people who were in the same class. Actions have consequences, after all.'
Kurushima was aware that what he did would most likely result in Team White winning, most likely. But he didn't mind it at all.
He'd try to get Sakayanagi at the last place, so she gets a 100 Class Points deduction. As for his class, it'd be around 150 Class Points, if they placed 3rd place. But then again, certain actions have consequences.
Him expelling these four greatly reduced their morale, and also, they were actually in Class C again, but he demoted them, once again into D-Class.
As such, for Team Red, they were quite the drag.
Looking slightly around, Kurushima saw Karuizawa and Ayanokoji.
Of course, they were doing it unnoticeably, but it was clear to him that they were conversing. He wondered, How come she was suddenly so often around Ayanokoji now, when previously she wasn't?
He did notice it a couple of times, but not often enough to form any conclusive conclusion. But he had gained a bit of information, from Yukimura, for example, who told him what happened between her and Manabe's group.
He also had information about her past, her being bullied, and he also knew she was thinking of asking him to be her 'boyfriend' for Status. But she probably chose Hirata because a couple of friends of her liked him.
Perhaps she thought they wouldn't hold together with her, if she was 'together' with him. It didn't concern him, either way. But considering the development, he put the pieces slowly together, after a bit of thinking.
Ryūen has a traitor in the class; her bullying past never spread further, despite there being Manabe and Co., who seemed like people that didn't mind sharing that information among the school, but didn't, and then her sudden reliance on Ayanokoji, as if she was attaching herself to him now suddenly.
As to why, all of it happened, he guessed it was because of Hirata.
He already concluded that Hirata is a person with Cognitive Dissonance, who wants the best for all people, due to several things he noticed in his personality. One example: he's becoming extremely protective when something like expulsion comes immediately in line, out of no apparent reason, not just for his class, but that of the other classes too.
Something he noticed in particular in September, when he expelled a person from Class 3-D, and Hirata suddenly found it out. His face was not looking good either, and his behavior was a bit aggravated.
He had far more grounds to determine this, like in the Island Exam, when he didn't want to reveal the culprit who stole the underwear, for their own protection, as they'd surely be blamed and ostracized by the class.
Depending on the person, they might drop out, or do some other things, if this were to go public.
So if Karuizawa had confronted him with the problems with her and Manabe, where they might be under the case of expulsion, he might have prevented it, in the fear of that happening.
Then again...
Kurushima would have normally said that it didn't matter to him, what Ayanokoji and Ryūen were doing since they weren't his problems, at all.
But it was, now...
Since Ayanokoji, who seemed to have gotten a hold of something substantial from Manabe and her group, that might get them expelled, also did something he shouldn't have done at all...
He leaked his girlfriend's competition's list to Sakayanagi, who had aimed to 'injure' her...
In short, he committed the unforgivable act of hurting his loved one.
'You'll regret your decision, Ayanokoji. Even if you did it to test what I'd do, I'll make sure to hold you responsible for it. You could have just been quiet, for the remaining months, but you had to ruin your future, by doing this.'
--
[At the Class Tent]
"I'm the leader during the sports festival. Obey me, Hirata, let's gang up on Ryūen together."
"I'm not denying that you're the leader. Considering this sports festival, there's no doubt that you're the leader. But I want you to look around. Just how many people right now acknowledge you as their leader?"
Sudo looks around.
Starting with Ike and the others, who cowered before his anger, most of the students kept their distance from the irritated Sudo.
They're all keeping their distance so as not to incur his wrath. Horikita too, was looking at Sudo's speech and conduct with exasperated eyes.
This is the current state of Class D. It's something we need to accept and improve upon.
"I'm desperately trying for the sake of the class....."
Sudo squeezed those words out angrily, but all the other students except Hirata raised their voices.
"Is that really so? Rather than wanting the class to win, isn't it just that you want to show off? Isn't it just that you want to show us just how amazing you are? At the very least, I think so. You're just being swept along by your emotions, and you decide usefulness and uselessness based on that. You get angry. If the class could win with just that alone, we wouldn't even be having trouble. If you're going to throw your weight as a leader around, you need to make rational decisions and give accurate advice. If Kurushima was the leader, we wouldn't have these kinds of problems."
Yukimura decided to speak openly up to Sudo, releasing everything that was on his mind. Although he suffered from his own results, he was putting efforts into it. "Shut up.....".
"I feel the same way too, Sudo-kun. It's precisely because we're relying on you, Sudo-kun, that I want you to see the bigger picture. And I want you to respond to the feelings of all your comrades."
"Shut up...".
"You should be able to do that, Sudo-kun. That's why---".
"I'm telling you to shut up!"
Just as Sudo threw a fist at Yukimura, Hirata intervened, jumping in front of him and closing his eyes.
But you could hear a 'Pan' sound as someone blocked his incoming fist.
"Kurushima-kun?" Yukimura said it in disbelief.
'Wasn't he just now still on the field?' Yukimura thought.
He was, but he had seen the dire situation and sprinted to the Tent.
"Sudo, calm down. Cool your head down."
Even though he said it, it was easier said than done.
"Tch...."
Releasing Sudo's hand, he wanted to speak, but he walked away, not even giving him the chance to do so.
"Do whatever you want. Go ahead and lose, you small fries. This sports festival can eat shit".
Sudo Ken walked away, leaving the class here standing in awe.
"Thank you, Kurushima-kun. If it weren't for you, we might have been in serious trouble." Hirata exclaimed, expressing his gratitude.
"What should we do, Kurushima-kun?" Yukimura asked.
"Without him, our winning chances are bad. Also, looking at how the score board currently looks..."
"We might as well end up with a deduction of 200 Class Points...."
Currently, the score for the Red Team is 6.636 points; in comparison, the White Team was at 7033 Points. A difference of 397 points is something that is hard to recover by now.
For both Year 2 and Year 3, Class A had a huge difference against the other classes, both being in 1st Place, but the 1st Year Class A was currently, with a couple of Points behind that of Class B.
All because Kurushima decided to further decrease the morale of Class 3-D, which had been in last place, with 407 Points.
"Yukimura-kun, we still have a chance. We just have to win the next following Only Recommended Competitions."
"You're right...."
"Right now, I shouldn't think of being pessimistic. You aren't pessimistic either, Kurushima-kun, despite being clearly participating in every competition and being targeted by Class B, so I shouldn't be either."
"Koenji, you haven't forgotten our deal, haven't you?"
"Don't worry, I'm aware of it. If you beat my time, I'll participate in Tug of War, seriously," Koenji said, emphasizing the last part.
"But I do wonder, can you beat me, in this state?"
Kurushima lifted his shirt up, seeing blue and red stains, in many locations. However, Koenji wasn't referring to that. He must have also noticed it. The injury, Kurushima got, from his reckless behavior, in one of the competitions.
"It's nothing extraordinary. Just a couple of bruises. Nothing more."
"Hm, if you say so. I'll be warming up myself."
"So many stains and bruises..." Yukimura murmured under his breath.
Unlike Sudo, he never tried to show off with his Performance, nor was he ever seen to have been able to properly catch a break at all.
If he wasn't here, he checked his girlfriend's condition, which seemed to be a bit more serious than what was said to him. He truly couldn't catch a break, yet he intended on beating Koenji in his current state? It's been almost four hours now, since the Sports Festival started.
Yukimura really felt ashamed, because he wasn't any help at all.
"Kurushima, are you really feeling fine?" Ayanokoji asks.
"Don't worry, I'm okay. It's nothing more than a couple of injuries. I should better warm myself up, too, for the remaining three minutes, until the 200-Meter Dash begins. If Sudo doesn't return, I'll have to at least get Koenji to support us in the Tug of War later."
Ayanokoji nodded. 'If Kurushima were to truly win, bringing Koenji into the Tug of War was naturally the best choice. We're weakened, while our opponents are aren't. If Horikita could bring Sudo back, at the very least, it'd be good for us. Although, after the 200-Meter Dash there'll be a 50-minute break, so we could get Sudo until then back here.'
A couple of minutes later, the race began. As expected, Sudo, who was supposed to be in Group 1, didn't participate. Ryūen, who was in the same group, got himself first place.
After a bit of time, it was now time for the 4th Group, where Koenji participated. His group was quite extraordinary, truthfully.
Koenji's group consisted out of Katsuragi, Kanzaki, Yahiko, Albert, Kaneda, Yamauchi, and Beppu, a student in Class D.
"My, my, what a boring group, I have. I thought I could at least get a challenge here, but it does not seem to be the case."
"Koenji, so you're participating now, too?"
"Not quite, Kanzaki-boy. Kurushima and I made a bet. That's all you have to know."
Taking a crouching position, Koenji waited until he heard the signal start 'Pang'. The moment the signal was shot, you could see that he ran faster than anyone else in his group. And within no time, he finished the 200-Meter Race.
"21.04 seconds, huh? I don't seem to have warmed myself well enough. Well, well, there's nothing I can do about that now."
"Kurushima-boy, let's see whether you beat my time."
Sitting near the finish line, he watched out for Kurushima. He was in the sixth group, so he had to wait a while. After the 5th Group finished the race, it was time for the 6th Group.
"Hello Kurushima-kun. Let's have a good race."
"Sure."
'Shibata Sou, huh? I heard he's the fastest runner in Class D.' he thought.
Moments later, they heard the 'Pang' sound, signaling the start of the race. Kurushima ran, despite slightly feeling that his legs were a bit more numb than he'd like to admit.
He kept his pace, and with an overwhelming difference, he beat them.
Once he reached the finish line, Koenji laughed. "My, my, I lost. Quite impressive, Kurushima-boy. Even though you're injured all over your body, you're still able to beat me with such an impressive time."
"Impossible? Is this really... for real?"
"He's got a time of... 20.84 seconds."
"Hahaha, you beat me, Kurushima-boy. I knew you were pretty good. You make yourself quite a worthy opponent."
"You aren't bad either, Koenji."
"As promised, I shall participate in one of the four Only Recommended Contests."
"You already know which one I choose, don't you?"
"Of course, Kurushima-boy. I'll be there, when the tug of war starts."
Saying that, Koenji walked away.
Exhausted, Shibata Sou approached me.
"You're really amazing, Kurushima-kun. I'm hardly getting a time of the higher 22 seconds in the crouching stance. Especially, because we can't use starting blocks, but you can even go further than that."
Despite the predicament his class was in, he still complimented him, considering his manners. "I trained a lot. That's all there is, too."
Although he intended on leaving now, he heard something pretty interesting from Shibata Sou.
"I heard that for this Year's World Championship, the qualification for being able to participate is having a time of 20.50 seconds in the 200-Meter Dash. With a starting block, and a bit of training, you should be able to get that time and qualify there. Are you interested, perhaps?" Curiously, Shibata asked.
"World Championship, huh? I never put much thought into that until now. Is it even allowed to leave the school so far?"
He nods his head. "Of course. The school makes all expenses. It's just that... it was in the summer this year, in the corner of July, so you'd have to wait until next year, if you were truly interested in participating."
"Ah, I see..."
'I thought I could at least check how everything outside is going on, while I'm here, preparing my necessary steps for my revenge. It doesn't seem to be the case.' he thought, unsatisfied.
"Well, although I think you heard it quite often, are you perhaps interested in joining the athletic club? I'm also a part in it."
"Currently, not. As for what the future holds... I cannot tell."
Holding his left hand on his right rib, he heard Shibata talking further.
"Is everything fine, Kurushima-kun?"
"Yeah, I'm just a bit exhausted. Nothing more."
"Me too. Running the whole day, is quite strenuous."
"That's true."
"I'd like to talk further, but I'll have to go back to my class now."
"Sure. I'll do the same."
Shibata left, and Kurushima walked back.
'I have injured myself more seriously than I thought. But that's the price of being so reckless. Anyway, it won't prevent me on participating further.' he thought.
--
A/N: And this concludes the chapter.
Honestly... I couldn't sleep today, because of Kinu...
I woke up in the middle of the night, opened reddit, and there I saw Hiyori's SS Chapter Title for Y2V11.
Once again, there might be a red flag for Hiyori.
But it's different somehow, this time, unlike the previous Volume. Kinu said a major character would be expelled...
I thought of Morishita Ai, but she got introduced in Y2V9...
Hopefully, he doesn't do what I think he does...
Don't cook Kinu, please don't cook. I said I'd let you cook, but I thought it were other characters... Ike, or idk whoever.
If he does that, my heart's going to be shattered in literal pieces...
Nah...
I don't want to imagine it...
Anyway, because of that, I couldn't sleep properly anymore, and since I'm sick, I instead decided on writing a new chapter in the middle of the night.
Here you go.
I have a really crazy update schedule. In 10 days, 9 Chapters. These 9 Chapters itself have around 40k words, so goddamn.
Season 3 Hiyori brought me back to writing this fanfic and now she might be... Nah... Mate, if that happens, I'll create my own happiness with this fanfic then.
I'll just copy the future exams and that's it. Nah...
Arisu, you'll be humbled here by Kurushima so much...
Only the little girl could target our angel.
L Arisu
Goodbye. I hope you have a great day.
I'll be trying on sleeping now.