The sports festival is half done,and the final event is very close so I thought that Kiriyama's father would be here already
"why isn't he here?"
"I don't know... he never said he will come I just assumed it because he always did, maybe he's tired of seeing me lose every year?"
I don't know what to say, I can't do anything when it comes to family problems
"what about calling him? something could happen to him"
she didn't respond so I don't think calling him is an option huh?
"you don't have to worry about it Aru! it's just my usual luck"
she's smiling but I can feel how empty this smile is but I can't say anything to help her, I can't think of anything to say and just like that she dissappeared from my eyesight.
while walking back to my seat I asked the system to find Kiriyama's father but it's going to take time so it's not a guarantee
"Are you fine Sawano-Kun?"
Watanabe is worried since I returned to her with such a sad face
"Don't worry it's just a small problem"
after holding my hand with both of hers she replied with a smile
"if there's anything I can do to help you, please count on me"
is it really okay to ask her for help? I'm her bodyguard so I should be the one to help her
[Kiriyama Naru's father is located]
[Detecting problems in his car]
when I checked the notifications I understood what happened, even without his car I can see that he's moving on the map, he's running.
am I going to let this end here just because of my stupid pride?
"I need your help"
after hearing me Watanabe smiled, she's really just a good girl.
after explaining the situation briefly to her I showed her his location
"I sent my personal driver to pick the man so he should be here before the end"
"I really don't know how to repay you, just ask for anything when you need to okay?"
"anything?"
damn it I messed up, saying anything is the worst thing to say, but I really mean it so I nodded
"then please call me Emma"
"huh?"
she got flustered because of my reaction and started to explain
"it doesn't have any deep meaning! everyone in my previous school used first names so calling me by my family name feels weird"
"are you sure that what you want?"
she nodded embarrassingly, she could ask me that even without the favor and I will accept it but since that what she wants no I won't push the matter
"I see, thank you again Emma"
***
the events resume and the next event I'm participating in is the Scavenger hunt race
since I'm faster than all of the participants I had the advantage, I read the thing I'm supposed to bring but my brain stopped working, there's no way to bring this before the res-
suddenly a bright idea stroke me and I started running
"Suzuki can you come with me?"
"E-Eh?"
she's hesitant but there's no time for that, I took her hand and reached the goal
"team red is first one to finish their hunt! but let's see if the referee accepts it!"
I handed the man a piece of paper with a confident smile because after all what's written is-
"a cute animal...?"
the guy looked me with the most confused face I've ever seen
"she's the cutest thing on school you can't refuse it can you?"
Suzuki is about to die from embarrassment, of course she would feel like that since she hate attention but you need to take one for the team!
"the cute thing is okay but what about the animal?"
"humans are talking animal aren't they"
"sure but that's not the intended...."
"it's not my problem is it?"
"?"
the guy is having a hard time accepting it, that's good because I wanted to stretch this event as far as I could so the relay is delayed
after about a minutecof thinking the referee opened his mouth but I stopped him
"let's leave the animal part, she definitely deserves a point for cuteness right?"
"..."
he just flipped a coin
"heads, it counts congrats (monotone) "
I never seen a win that dead in my life، but it's win so I'm happy
"Sawano-Kun..."
the other winner isn't happy though I wonder why.
***
there's ten minutes left until the relay starts Kiriyama's father should be here by then so I'm kinda relieved about this aspect.
in the relay every grade have two teams which means there's six teams of six people running the same distance Kiriyama is the the anchor of the first year red team
I'm the first runner to have a good start but there's a problem..
"so you are the first too Sawano Aru"
Hiragi-senpai is stretching beside me, when it comes to speed she's not a human at all so I should put more efforts if I wanted to win against her without looking like a monster
"let's do our best Senpai!"
I took a breath and prepared myself to run
*boom*
it's the signal, both of us started running leaving a huge gap between us and rest four,no matter how good her agility is senpai can't surpass the level gap between us too.
even if we look equal to the audience, senpai must feel that she can't win at all.
this the first time I experienced the wind's resistance this much since a long time ago, I can't help but to smile
"I'll go faster senpai can you keep up?"
I passed the baton five seconds faster than senpai, it doesn't look like a huge difference but out turns took less than a minute so seconds are important
"you are fast"
"you're fast too senpai it was a close match"
"you are not even sweating"
unlike senpai who's having a hard time breathing I don't feel tired at all so there's no way she could believe that was my max
"this is the first time I lost in a race"
I would normally let her win but I couldn't since I wanted to give Kiriyama as much advantage as I can.
I took a seat close to senpai to watch the rest of the relay, our team is still on advantage but the gap is getting lesser so I doubt ww can keep it for long
we're already in the second place when the baton reached Kiriyama's hand, but she didn't give up but started to run even faster than usual but that's not enough..
"she can't close the distance at all "
I can see tears forming on her eyes, am I really going to let everything end like this?
I raised my hand, if I used a buffing spell on her now she will win, I can't allow her to lose not when she worked so hard!
"Stop"
Hiragi-senpai held my hand tightly to stop me, did she notice what I was going to do?
"I'm sorry senpai but even if you want your team to win-"
"That's not it"
she pointed toward someone, a noy shouting as hard as he could
"you can do it Naru! go faster!"
Makoto didn't give up at all, he's cheering her even when she's losing, standing beside him is a middle aged guy that I don't recognize so he should be Kiriyama's father..
I smiled a bit and started to shout with the crazy boy and then everyone followed us
in that instant Kiriyama started to go faster and winning wasn't impossible
that's right, she wants to win using her own power so helping her will just be disrespecting her will
put alone helping her I won't be able to stop her even if I tried to. a few seconds are separating us from the results both the anchors are putting their everything.
"THE WINNER IS FIRST YEAR RED"
she won, even if this is just a school festival she took her first win.
everyone is exited about it, only a single man is trying to escape.
"Kiriyama-san right? can I ask why are you leaving?"
the man looked at me with calm eyes, and answered without thinking
"she doesn't need to see her pathetic father right now, she would be happier with friends"
huh? what the fuck is he saying?
"you wha-"
"but, who are you? how is this any of your business?"
"Huh? I'm her friend I ha-"
"so friends nowadays interfere in family matters?"
why is he being like this...even though she did everything so you can see her..I hate it
I had too many things to say but I couldn't say anything, it's true that friends shouldn't just interfere with family matters and we're not that close but...
when I was trying to think about anything to say, someone else jumped into the conversation with a pissed face
"why the fuck are you acting like a piece of garbage"
this is the first time I've ever seen Makoto this angry, he grabbed the man's collar as he continued to talk
"friends can't interfere my ass, you're a fucking adult so why are you running away?"
unlike the the angry Makoto, KiriyaPapa didn't move a single inch
"thanks for being with my daughter always Makoto, but don't you think she would prefer tou talking to her instead of wasting timd with a garbage like me?"
"What do you know about Naru? you are never home! you always make excuses to dodge her, you don't know anything about her so stop acting like you understand her feelings!"
there's a huge crowd around us right now but that didn't stop Makoto from going for a headbutt, slaming his head as hard as he can he left a red mark on the man's front
"Wake up already! go face your fucking responsibility as a fucking father should"
Makoto released the collar, damn he really made a show out of this, but that's why I like him he's going to do the things I find hard to do without thinking about the consequences
"Father?"
of course she would notice us when we're doing this much noise, Kiriyama approached us with a shocked face
"your forehead is bleeding!"
she ran toward him even though she's tired, after seeing his daughter react like this, KiriyaPapa started crying
we decided to leave them alone to do their family things, surprisingly the crowd also started disappearing
"I didn't want to hit him that strong..."
Makoto regretted making Kiriyama's father bleed, I kinda gave him a buff when I saw him hitting him so it's my fault too
"don't worry about it he deserves it"
"I guess so"
the sports festival ended peacefully, Makoto got a lot of lecturing for starting a fight, but nothing happened me so it's fine.