Changed Perspectives
New Challenge
2-1
It was fortunate that it was decided to hold a meeting between the students across all years in their second homeroom period. Yes, he had predicted the reaction he had gotten from his classmates, especially the boys, but that didn't make it any less bothersome.
At least he could now confidentially say that he wasn't born to be one of those super popular students. This conclusion made his respect for Hirata, who was always surrounded by others, grow a bit.
From what Horikita had told him about the upcoming sports festival, it wasn't officially called a special exam even though it was basically just that. A special exam in everything but name, so to say. The most important things to note were that there would be no points awarded for the various winning teams, their only reward being that they didn't lose any points, and that students across all years were divided into two teams: Classes A and D would be in the Red Team while the other classes would be in the White Team.
Talking about Horikita, she was visibly trying to restrain herself, but he could see just how tense she was because he stood right next to her. It was understandable, of course, as the conditions of the sports festival meant that they would cooperate with their classmates from the upper years, including her brother. She had avoided him so far from what he knew, their only interactions being initiated by him instead. She must be really nervous about possibly causing him trouble right now.
"I am Fujimaki from Class A of the thrid years," a sudden voice came from the front, catching the attention of all the assembled students. "It has been decided that I will be taking charge of the Red Team for this event.
First of all, I'll give the first years a bit of advice. This may be unnecessary to a portion of you, but I'd like you to keep in mind how critically important this sports festival is. The experience you will gain from it will definitively be made use of on a different occasion as well. In future exams, there will be times when parts of it feel like games to you. However, each and every last one of them are battles on which you bet your survival in this school!" He paused for a moment to let them grasp the reality of his words.
"Since you don't have a feel for it yet, maybe you might not be motivated right now, but since we're doing it anyway, we'll be aiming to win! Hold strongly onto that feeling! That alone is something everyone should keep in mind." He then turned specifically towards them. "The only event in which all the school years will be participating in is the 1200 meter relay at the end. Other than that, all the events will have the various grades divided. After this, please assemble according to your school years and discuss your strategy going forward."
They did so immediately, creating a rowdy atmosphere as so many classes tried to get to their allies at the same time during which he felt a new presence plop up beside him.
"Sounds interesting, doesn't it?" Chiaki said. "We should have a good chance of winning since we cooperate with Class A, right?"
Well, she definitively knows how to act as if we're already familiar with each other, he thought while simultaneously ignoring the glances from Horikita and many of his classmates. "We can still lose a lot of points even if Class A gets the first place, though."
She rolled her eyes good-naturally before gently slapping his shoulder. "Yes, yes, I know. But as long as we do alright, every victory of Class A will help us as well. We should be fine as long as we do our best!"
Saying some generic stuff that doesn't make her stand out while also subtly hinting at their working-relationship; she might not be as intelligent as Horikita, but Chiaki's personality made her certainly more suitable for certain tasks than her. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses, after all.
"Hey," she suddenly whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "Do you know who that girl is?"
Following her glance, he saw a petite, silver-haired girl with a cane looking in their direction. Of course, when he said 'their', he didn't mean himself and Chiaki but Hirata and Katsuragi who were talking with each other at the moment.
He considered it from several perspectives for a moment before he decided to give an honest answer. "She's the other leader of Class A aside of Katsuragi," he said in the same volume as her.
"Wait, there is another leader?!"
"The class is split between the two of them, yes, but from what I have seen, it appears that Sakayanagi" –he nodded towards the girl in question to let Chiaki know he meant her- "has recently gotten more support than him."
"I didn't even know that the class was split…"
He shook his head. "Not many do. In our class, the only one besides me who knows that is Horikita."
"And now me as well."
While she tried to hide it, he could see that she was happy about that. After all, it was only natural that being included in a secret would make one feel good and important, not to forget that it also created trust.
"So you don't intend to cooperate with us?"
A girl's voice echoed through the gymnasium, making everyone look into the direction it came from. He immediately recognized Ichinose Honami, Class B's leader, as well as Class C's leader Ryuuen Kakeru.
"You know that I'm leaving out of goodwill, right?" the latter said with a lazy grin on his face. "It's just a waste of time to argue with me."
"I see. So you were just thinking about saving us time?"
He laughed. "Yeah, that's precisely it. You'd better be grateful."
Having finished what he wanted to say, he started to leave, the rest of his class following him like little ducklings. However, Ichinose hadn't finished yet.
"Hey, Ryuuen-kun. Are you confident that you can win this time without cooperation?"
He answered without even stopping or turning around. "Kuku. I wonder whether I can."
Rather than watching the departing Class C, he threw a glance towards Karuizawa.
From her gloomy expression, he could tell that she wasn't looking forward to fighting against Class C. Of course, that was to be expected since some of its members, that being Manabe and her group, have bullied her during the cruise ship, reminding her of her past.
That he was kind of responsible for that as well didn't matter.
For just a moment, Manabe turned around and glanced at her. But only for the briefest of moments; she immediately averted her eyes as though it never happened and continued to follow Ryuuen.
He would need to look into that later.
"Well, that was intense." Apparently Chiaki had noticed it as well, though she had no way of knowing the meaning behind it. "Care to fill me in?"
"I would rather not."
After dealing with Horikita and Karuizawa for a while now, it was somewhat of pleasant surprise that she didn't pressure him for more details immediately. That didn't mean that she wouldn't do so later, but it was nice nonetheless.
Katsuragi suddenly addressed Horikita. "Since we're allies for now, this time, I will give you a warning. Don't underestimate Ryueen. He can laugh while sliding up to you and leap to attack without warning. You will suffer severely if you let your guard down."
"I'm grateful for your warning, but the way you said it makes me wonder if that comes from your personal experience."
"… I have warned you."
As he walked away, he was replaced by Sakayanagi. "I fear I must apologize in advance for being an inconvenience in the upcoming festival. It is unfortunate, but I will not be of much use to you in the competitions as I will lose every one of them due to absence."
Though she apologized for the weakness of her body in front of dozens of students, admitting to being a burden to all of them, she stood strong with her head held high. She possessed a faint, yet strong will.
"I don't think it's anything to apologize for. No one is going to hound you on that, after all." It was Horikita who said that and nobody argued against it. Even Sudou, who wasn't known for being understanding, stayed silent. Everybody understood that it wasn't her fault and that it couldn't be helped.
"I'm most grateful for your kindness."
Having said what she had come for, Sakayanagi walked back to her own class.
"I can see what you mean," Chiaki, who had stayed silent for a while now, said. "Class A looks united, but most students seem to flock to Sakayanagi rather than Katsuragi."
It was probably invisible for normal students, but it was obvious for everyone who knew where to look for it. If he would take a guess, he would say that Katsuragi's defeat during the last special exams had only worsened his situation even further.
Chiaki opened her mouth to say something else but closed it again when Horikita walked towards them. She threw a suspicious glance at the other girl at his side before ignoring her entirely in favour of focusing on him. "It seems that this time's competition focuses solely on one's athleticism. If I were forced to name one other factor, then it would probably be luck."
Even though it was clear that Horikita didn't mean to include her in the conversation, Chiaki acted obliviously and spoke up anyway. "Luck, huh? What makes you say that?"
"Even if you're better in sports than 80% of your opponents, you would still lose if you were to fight against those other 20%." He decided to speak up before Horikita could do the same to prevent a fight. "Similarly, if someone rather unathletic happens to fight against someone even worse than them, they would still win."
"Even so, compared to the last special exams, the possibilities here are much more limited. This time, there must be a more straightforward strategy that doesn't rely on luck, that's how I feel. Because of that-"
After being disappointed by her own performance during the last special exams, it seemed that Horikita was more obsessed with winning than ever before. Unfortunately, however, she seemed to miss something essential. Was this one of the situations where the expression 'not seeing the forest for the trees' would be used?
"Horikita," he interrupted her, "what do you think is the big difference this time compared to the exams on the uninitiated island and the ship?"
She was visibly thrown off by the question, though it was impossible to say whether that was because he interrupted her, the question itself, or the presence of Chiaki. After all, she didn't know about his relationship with her, so it would look as if he demonstrated his abilities in front of someone not in the known.
"… difference? I think it's the same kind of special exam."
"Indeed, I won't deny that it's similar. However, the school absolutely won't acknowledge it as being the same."
"Because there is a cooperative relationship with other classes? But even on the ship-"
"That's not it. In the first place, the basic premise is different." Seeing that she grew frustrated, he decided to tell her what he had already realized. "In regards to this school festival, the school has never once said it was a 'special exam'. We first years have been calling it such, but including Chabashira-sensei, the other teachers and even Fujimaki never called it that."
"Even so, aren't the mechanisms behind it still the same?"
"Certainly. There is not much difference in their contents, but their true natures are different. For instance, on a regular written exam, leaving aside the buying and selling of points in secret, the majority of it tests your skills. Similarly, this sports festival too should basically be seen as looking for your physical abilities and sense. There would be no impact by just by executing a clumsy trick. No, it has been structured so that this can't happen. I think the class that genuinely challenges this will be able to exhibit their true worth."
That does of course not mean that tricks are impossible or meaningless. It only meant that challenging the general situation was just as useless as it would be to challenge a written test while you're in the middle of it.
"The essence of this sports festival is to properly prepare before the actual event. And, to leave behind results during the event, that is all there is. Simple is best."
She seemed confused by that. "That's what I want to do, though?"
"No, you want to find and explore loopholes. That's different from making preparations."
"So you're saying that it's necessary to fight openly and win that way?"
Regardless of what approach Horikata will choose, he had no intention of affirming or denying it. There was no one perfect way, it was never that simple, and everyone needed to decide for themselves what fit their type. He wouldn't make that decision for her, she needed to do that on her own.
He would be lying if he said that he wasn't looking forward to what she would do, or of just how far she was capable of thinking.
"What is the relationship between the two of you?" Surprisingly, Horikita changed the topic.
I wonder what of the things she said was only for the sake to see how much I would reveal in front of Chiaki and how much was genuine confusion. Well, he had a pretty good idea. After all, he understood the person she currently was very well.
"What do you mean?" Chiaki said with a tilt of her head, looking for all the world to see completely confused. Especially for a person like Horikita who didn't have much experience in talking with people, her mask was impenetrable. "We're just friends, right? You really don't need to be jealous."
She narrowed her eyes at that comment but didn't react any further. "This person wants to stay unnoticed. There is no way he would say this much in front of someone else."
"But I'm not just 'someone'," Chiaki replied. "As I said, we-"
"I would know if you two were friends and I'm completely sure that you never even talked before today."
Chiaki decided to change strategies. "Oh~, would you now? Are you sure you're not just jealous? Because you seem rather possessive, you know?"
He decided to intervene again before they could actually start to fight and gain a lot of attention. Hopefully this will not become the norm. "I will tell you later, but for now, just know that you can talk freely in front of her."
"Talk freely…?"
Fortunately, it was then that the bell rang, signalling the end of the gathering and allowing him to flee before Horikita could demand more answers.
