Michiru and the rest of the 3rd years bowed to the track club. Their time in middle school track had actually come to an end. Their coach led the rest of team in returning their bow. Tomorrow there would be no club activities for the first time in three years.
It would be nice if they could participate in the spring interhis,but their priorities were now on passing high school entrance exams. Michiru looked around for Chihaya The two of them had already signed up for cram school together.
She and Chihaya were both aiming for Mizusawa. That meant tough sledding ,but Chihaya had surprised her already by keeping her grades at an acceptable level for Mizusawa. Studying together and running together made them best friends.
To think Chihaya thought only about karuta when she first met her. It had been the race with Yamabe that caught the attention of her coach. Chihaya had tied with Yambe in a 200 meter race dressed in her uniform. The coach nagged Michiru to get Chihaya to join the track club
Eventually Chihaya gave in the fall of their freshman year and joined the track club. Michiru had been surprised that Chihaya gave up after school and weekend karuta to run track. When Michiru asked she said that she was training for karuta with the starters gun and the exercise
Michiru accepted Chihaya's explanation at face value. It was still hard to believe that someone who was such a karuta baka that noone but Michiru would befriend her She was just happy that Chiahaya had chosen to be Michiru's side.
Chihaya still might not like track and field but she was good at it. Her times gained her a lot of respect from the coaches and her teammates. The tema benefited because they knew that Chihaya was there to win the sprints in most dual meets and anchor the relays.
The last year they made it all the way to the Tokyo Middle School Championship with Chihaya leading the way. Michiru had enjoyed being with Chihaya and considered Chihaya her best friend. This was not goodbye. They would spend months at cram school now so that they could spend the next three years at Mizusawa together.
Chihaaya had grown up. When she met Chihaya she was a little girl sick in bed. Now she was a confident young lady. The tomboy was still there in that track suit, but growing her hair out changed her into a beautiful woman.
Chihaya hugged Michiru "Thank you for being my friend. You were there when I could not find any karuta friends Without you I would have been totally alone."
The two of them cried together Michiru was surprised that Chihaya thought of her as her only friend. It was too bad that their time in track was ending,but a bright future lay ahead at Mizusawa. Together they would boldly go into that future hand in hand.