DISCLAIMER: Here's the usual I don't own the characters or the series. Kagerou Project is just too fun to not write fanfiction about.

No. She did not jus- She did. He knew it but didn't want to believe it. He wanted to hide his face, crawl in a hole in frustration. Why did she choose now of all times to gain a burst of assertiveness? Why did she choose today to stand up and raise her hand?

"Alright then. So this will be able the final roster for the athletics festival."

He didn't want to read the roster. He already knew where his name was on it: right at the bottom, beneath her name. She had volunteered the two of them. He couldn't refuse, lest he be judged for rejecting her when the two obviously weren't dating.

"Isn't this great, Shintaro? We'll be doing the three legged raced together," spoke the source of his misfortune with a blissful "this-is-the-best" smile plastered on her face. The culprit, with her signature red scarf wrapped around her neck, was Ayano.

"I told you I was going to be home sick on that day," Shintaro spoke, trying his best to calm his shaking body. His frustration showed on his scowling face. "You're going to be without a partner, y'know?"

Ayano tilted her head, acting innocently. "What do you mean, Shintaro? You don't know you're going to be sick yet. You look pretty healthy to me."

She knew exactly what he was meant. That was why she volunteered the two of them in the first place. Shintaro was certain of that fact. His classmate wanted him to participate. She had been going on about the athletics festival all week when he said he wouldn't be taking part. Now, she had her wish. The judgmental eyes that would be on him for leaving her on the day of the festival were not something he wanted to face. It was just impossible for him to say no when she was serious. He knew that much from being acquainted with Ayano.

"Don't be so mad, Shintaro. It'll be fun! You'll see! There's nothing better than a little exercise to get the blood flowing. It's so motivating," Ayano attempted to reason with him. He had heard those words for a week already. Shintaro only shook his head as he turned to look out the window. It wasn't likely for there to be any rain come the athletics festival.

"Such a pain…"

It couldn't be helped. At least he could find people who shared his pain. He knew one other person who probably did not want to take part in the events…

… Unfortunately said person felt neither pity nor sympathy for him.

"The athletics festival? We're not attending," spoke a twin tailed girl with a sharp yet tired gaze. The girl, Takane, was eating lunch with her classmate, Haruka, in the study room Shintaro and Ayano sometimes spent time with them in.

"Eh? But it's the athletics festival! A festival! You have to come!" Ayano was in just as much disbelief as Shintaro was. The one person who could possibly understand his misfortune wasn't attending.

"Ayano-chan, stop clinging like that! Please!" the Enomoto girl struggled to pry Ayano off the arm that she held her curry bread with. "It's not like we're not going to school. We just can't take part."

"Can't? Why are you so lucky?" frowned Shintaro as he took a seat at the table next to Takane.

Munching on a large sandwich, Haruka replied for his friend. "Muffuu-muffu-muffu-muffu-muffu-muffu~!"

"Haruka, eat or talk! Don't do both!" Takane lectured. She had somehow managed to escape the Tateyama girl's grasp. Translating Haruka's muffled speech in terms the other two could understand, she said with a sigh, "Let's just say Tateyama-sensei owes us."

"A-Ah…," Ayano took her seat solemnly. Tateyama-sensei, Ayano's father, Kenjiro… his name silenced the group of four. Shintaro did not know the man very well unlike his daughter and students, but he was well aware of Ayano's and Takane's strained emotions about his actions. Haruka was fine with the man, but he had stopped talking, choosing to eat instead of talk from his classmate's choices.

"In any case," Takane tried to bring the conversation back to its original pace, "You two are doing the athletics festival, huh? What event?"

"Well…"

"The three-legged race!" beamed Ayano. "We're doing it together!"

"That sounds fun," spoke up Haruka after swallowing his food. The boy in the green cardigan uncapped his water bottle for a sip. "Maybe if we participated, we could do that, Takane."

"I- Idiot! We'd have to be tied toge-" Takane stopped talking for a moment, biting her lip. Her ears immediately turned red as she stood up from her chair and backed away from her eating classmate. She did not want to continue down that path of thinking. "I mean, you're too tall! It'd be a pain doing that event with you."

Haruka did not appear to have absorbed the first part of Takane's shouts. There was a small frown on his face, however and his voice held mild disappointment. "Is that so? Well, there are other events, aren't there?"

"Y-Yeah. Of course! But not that one! Haha… Ha… Ha…," the Enomoto girl slowly returned to her seat, her face still red from Haruka's suggestion.

Shintaro and Ayano watched the scene from the sidelines eating their lunch. The sight was routine for them. Although Shintaro paid it no mind, Ayano watched the pair intently. Takane's reaction was too quick. The embarrassment was obvious to Ayano. She could see what was beneath Takane's glaring eyes and sharp tongue.

But she let it go for the moment. She was more concerned about Shintaro.

"Shintaro says he's going to be sick on the day of the festival. He doesn't want to have fun with me," she pouted, tugging on the boy's school uniform.

Shintaro could only frown as he opened the can of soda he had bought before coming to the study room. Even drinking the carbonated elixir could not calm his nerves. Ayano was Ayano. There was no way he could change how she was, and that meant he could do nothing but accept his fate. It would be better to not prolong his suffering. Going along with Ayano meant hearing less of her pleading.

"Fine, I'll go," he reluctantly said. He chugged down half the can of soda with a single breath, slamming the can on the table, shocking the other three. "Just don't complain when we lose."

The lazy genius student saw his friend's expression glow happily with his response. She cupped her hands in front of her mouth, gasping in surprise and joy. Then, with a giddy smile and a quick adjusting of her bright red scarf, Ayano declared. "Don't worry! We'll train with all we've got, Shintaro."

"That's good to hear," Shintaro said, tuning out the world around him. Ayano appeared happy, and compared to her pouting earlier, she had quieted down. Shintaro had won his well deserved silence. Basking in his victory, he took another sip of his soda. Something was off however. It was taking him some time for Ayano's words to fully sink in. "Wait… Training?"

The day of the festival itself was one problem, but training up until then was one thing Shintaro had forgotten to take into account.

"Alright! Intensive training day one! Start!"

It was early in the morning before classes. Ayano punched the air with an explosive burst of energy. Clad in the school's red tracksuit and her long red scarf, the girl was undisturbed by the cold morning air. In fact, she welcomed it as the wind blew her scarf so it fluttered in the wind heroically.

Crouched on the floor hugging his legs, Shintaro watched his energetic friend do her warm up stretches. The dark rings under his eyes had multiplied. Having to wake up early to "train" for the three-legged race was uncalled for in his honest opinion.

"Shintaro, you need to warm up too. It wouldn't be good to have a cramp for working out, y'know," lectured the Tateyama girl.

"I'm fine," he did not want to put in any extraneous effort. "Let's just get this over with."

"Okay!" Not taking Shintaro's acceptance for granted, the girl nodded. She pumped herself up as she pulled a rope from the pocket of her jersey. "I got some from rope from sensei so we could try tying ourselves together. He said to give it our all."

Shintaro could only hope Ayano had properly phrased things to their teacher when she asked for the rope. Choosing to not think about it, he walked up to her and let Ayano tie their legs together: his right leg and her left leg.

"There, it's not too tight is it?"

"Fine by me."

"Good. Then let's go!"

Shintaro reached into his jersey for the stopwatch they would be using to time themselves. The two students prepared to start running. Ayano's gaze was focused at the end of the track.

"Ready… set… g-gak!"

"Uwah!"

Shintaro started the timer. The duo began to run, but they didn't get far. Ayano tripped from the very beginning. Shintaro's foot had been on the long scarf which dangled down to the ground. The moment Ayano moved, she was pulled back by her trademark muffler. They fell together without even finishing their first step.

"Ouch…," was what Ayano mumbled as she rubbed her nose. She was uninjured. After all, she had fallen on her friend who did not know how to react to a girl who had fallen on top of him. "Are you okay, Shintaro?"

"Heavy…," mumbled Shintaro.

At that forbidden word, the maidenly said of Ayano huffed. Puffing her cheeks up, she remained on top of the high school boy, putting all of her weight on him. "I'm not heavy at all. You see?"

"H-Hey! Get off!" he demanded, but their legs being tied together made the ordeal even more troublesome. He was thankful when Ayano finally did and they stood up by their starting position again.

"Come on, Shintaro. Falling on the first try means we just have to keep practicing."

"Tch. Fine," Shintaro clicked his tongue. He was desperate to get the practice over with.

"Okay. On the count of three!" Ayano pumped her fist into the air. "One…! Two…! Three!"

Again, the two students started to run. This time, they were able to take three steps before the wind began to blow on Ayano's muffler. The loose red scarf smacked Shintaro in the face and obscured his vision. It was so sudden, he froze, causing Ayano to trip again. The girl fell forward while Shintaro was knocked backwards.

"Oww… Not again…," moaned Ayano. She had caught herself before hitting the ground. Shintaro on the other hand had hit his head pretty hard on the ground. "Shintaro! Why did you stop?"

"It's not my fault," the dark haired boy got up with a hand from his friend. He pointed at what he believed to be the cause of their problems. "It's that hot looking muffler of yours that's screwing us up."

Ayano did not seem to have realized the problem. She tilted her head in confusion as she ran her hand through the red cloth. "My muffler? How could that be?"

"It's too long!" shouted Shintaro. "Do something about it! At least take it off!"

"A-asking a girl to strip is really bold of you," blushed the high school girl.

"W-Wha-?!" That was completely not what he was suggesting! Embarrassed because Ayano was also embarrassed, Shintaro stepped back in surprise. He was still tied by the ankle to Ayano however so doing so caused him to trip and fall again. He was somewhat thankful that she was wearing a tracksuit instead of a school uniform because the misunderstanding would only be worse if he caught a glimpse of her panties. "What are you saying?"

Still doing things completely at her own pace, Ayano narrowed her eyes at Shintaro. "You pervert. You're a real pervert, Kisaragi-san." The sudden distance between them by her manner of addressing him surprised the boy. He was about to start panicking but quickly realized that she was just joking around. The thought that she was still playing around irked him to know end.

"Why you… Stop messing around like that!"

"But my little Shintaro finally started to speak up," laughed Ayano. She spoke like a mother whose child finally stopped being picky with his vegetables, although in Ayano's case, big sister may have been a better term. "Sure he's asking something so crude, but Onee-san will do her best to accept him for who he is."

The act was getting a little… much… Really, he didn't want to take part in the festival in the first place. It was all Ayano's fault that he had to attend. That girl, he just didn't know how to deal with her.

Deciding they probably weren't going to be making any progress, Shintaro chose to change the subject before Ayano could get even deeper into character. "Hey. Why do you want me to be in the athletics festival so bad?"

"Why?" the sudden question surprised the girl. She sat down as her friend started to untie the rope. "Isn't it just because it's fun?"

"Fun?" Shintaro really couldn't call being forced to run 'fun' or synonym of the word at all.

Ayano nodded, slowly standing up. She looked up at the sky and punched her fist into the air. "Putting all your effort into a race, wanting to win and striving to do your best, isn't that what youth is all about? I think it's fun to be able to give your all."

The only time he'd give his all would be while gaming… maybe… Actually, he hadn't been doing that much lately because most games had been so easy for him.

"But you know, Shintaro…" A sudden gust of wind caught Shintaro's attention. Ayano was blocking it with her body, but her scarf flew in his direction. "The main reason why I wanted you to join was because I wanted to do something with you."

Shintaro froze, wondering if he had misheard.

"What?"

"Are you going to make me say it? I-"

The breeze blew even louder, as though a sudden typhoon had arrived for that very second. Shintaro could see Ayano's lips still move, but what was said was lost in the wind.

"Sorry…," the boy frowned. "I didn't hear that second part"

The smile on Ayano's face grew at the boy's words. She couldn't hide her red face. She could only help that the glare from the morning sun behind her made it difficult for Shintaro to see. She extended her hand out to pick him up, which he took cautiously. Immediately after, she unraveled her scarf and then wrapped it around both of them.

"There!" she was content with her deed. "If the muffler's too long, we could wear it like this so it won't touch the ground. Isn't this a good idea?"

"H-Hey. Isn't this a little embarrassing?" blushed the high school boy.

Leaning down to tie their legs together again, Ayano ignored him. When she was done, she gave him a beaming smile filled with determination. "I want to run together with Shintaro, but tripping every step would be bad, wouldn't it?"

There was no use arguing with Ayano, Shintaro knew that much. Always dragging him along with her whims, he was unable to fight her. After all, how could he predict the girl who would so readily wrap her muffler around him like it was a normal thing to do? It was embarrassing.

Additionally, his mind was still hovering over that the girl had said to him earlier. She wanted him to attend just so they could do something together. As innocently as she had put it, he couldn't help but wonder if there was an agenda behind her actions. Pondering what kind of agenda a high school girl could have while tied to a high school boy strained Shintaro's mind.

Of course, Ayano's smile cleared the young boy's head of his concerns.

"Fine," Shintaro gave up thinking. "But we better win first place with all this training we're doing."

"Roger that!"

Ayano and Shintaro took off. Although their first few steps were unsteady, they did not fall. The two were in sync. Halfway through, they stumbled, but that was fine. They ran together with the one muffler wrapped around their necks. It was only their first day of practice after all. They would get better. They had plenty of time left before the festival.

Takane (shouting from the school building): Get a room, you two lovebirds!

Really, Shintaro and Ayano seem to flirt a bit too much, don't they? Well, I love them. Sports Day is going to have multiple parts (not just the Yuukei Quartet either), so keep an eye out. Yes, the anime is over, but the series just sticks with me. The music compels me to write and the characters all need love (waiting for releases of all the insert song versions). A lot of people seem disappointed by the anime. To be honest, I enjoyed the whole thing. Shintaro and Ayano make me squeeeeeee! Then again, Haruka is so cool too. And then there's... Okay, I'm too hyped up from that final episode. I'm willing to watch the series all over again and I'm hoping of improvements later on like how Shaft did with Madoka too.

Also, I haven't touched on Marry and Seto yet. I'm thinking of doing either a Kozakura Case Files story (Kindaichi detective Marry!) or a classic summer festival story. Maybe I'll do both, but I wonder which one I should focus on... :3c ~Richi