The entire gym, and in the special teaching building Sakayanagi, Mashima, and Sakagami—everyone except Yukio and Ryuen—were all dumbfounded, minds buzzing.
So what he's good at isn't "rock–paper–scissors," it's "taking apart the fist"?
Seeing the scene before them, then hearing Machida's pained wail, the girls in Sakayanagi's class all went pale along with him, while the boys shot to their feet and shouted in fury. "What kind of joke is this! Foul! That's a foul!"
"Despicable! Despicable, Ryuen! Can't win at rock–paper–scissors so you resort to such a shameless method? This is a special exam project—how could you be allowed to use violence?!"
"Referee! With such an obvious foul from Ryuen, that means our class wins, right?!"
The referee, expression blank, first made the ruling: because Ryuen did not throw this round, he loses; Machida is credited with a second straight win—eight more to go.
Only after announcing the round's result did the referee turn his head.
He looked toward Sakayanagi's class. "Please keep quiet. While we won't police outside factors, conduct like this will be recorded in your personal files and will affect your individual evaluations."
"Now, the event continues. Prepare for round three."
At that, many of Sakayanagi's students hurriedly sat down. They considered themselves honor students and cared very much about files and individual evaluations.
Sakayanagi reacted now as well. "How very… interesting, Yukio-kun. To think you let me overlook it so easily. With simple, rough rules like this—the fewer the rules, the more moves you can make."
"Exactly." Yukio answered Sakayanagi at his ease. "Those are the rules for rock–paper–scissors. When people see so few rules, they don't doubt them. It's something everyone thinks they understand, so they subconsciously ignore the corresponding loopholes."
Sakagami's old face had practically opened into a blossom with laughter, while Mashima's expression was very ugly. After all, Machida was one of his students; seeing him injured like that, of course he felt bad.
The look he cast at Yukio held even deeper wariness.
On the floor, Machida was enduring unbearable, stabbing pain. Beans of sweat rolled down from his brow, already blurring his vision. Hearing the referee say the event would continue, he wanted nothing more than to give the ref a left hook!
What a joke. His wrist was dislocated—continue what?
Just then, Sakayanagi's voice came through the headset he wore. "Machida-kun, please forfeit."
"Huh?" Machida actually wanted to forfeit, but this was a very important event—the first one. Whoever won would definitely boost morale and affect the six events to come.
Thinking it over, after the initial, acute agony, his right wrist now had only a constant ache—one he could barely endure.
With that in mind, Machida clenched his teeth; from his throat he squeezed out a defiant voice, ragged with breath. "Sa–Sakayanagi-san… huff… huff… I—I can still use my left hand… huff…"
"Don't be naive, Machida-kun." Sakayanagi's voice was still elegant, but to Machida's ears it sounded like a rebuke. "So what if your left hand can still throw?"
"If Ryuen-kun can disable your right wrist, do you think he can't disable your left? Once you can't throw at all, then in all the remaining rounds, you'll be ruled the slower throw."
"What meaning is there in staying? It's better to head to the infirmary early."
Machida realized the logic at once! That searing pain from Ryuen's ruthless twist—was his left wrist going to experience it again?
Thinking it over even for a moment made both wrists seem to throb in sympathy. Machida hurriedly raised the only hand he could still use—his left. "Ref! I—I forfeit!"
With that, he ducked his head in shame and rushed off, not daring to remain before Ryuen a second longer.
To be honest, the pain in his wrist, once he started to adjust, was just that—but the pain in Machida's heart felt worse than his wrist!
Thinking back to how, before taking the floor, he'd boasted in front of his classmates that he could beat Ryuen at rock–paper–scissors—every word of that sentence felt like an invisible slap, one after another, right across his own face!
And after the first round, the way he "kindly instructed" Ryuen on how to play—he was nothing but a clown! A laughingstock!
With that mindset, Machida didn't want to stay another second. He just wanted to run far away, out of sight.
"Tch, that's it?" Ryuen sneered. He'd thought the kid was something special—win by earnestly playing rock–paper–scissors? You're underestimating how unscrupulous our Yukio Class can be.
The referee immediately announced. "First event, victory to the Yukio Class!" At the same time, the screens in front of Yukio and Sakayanagi, and the big screen in the gym, all displayed the score: 1–0.
"Oooh-ooooh!" Ishizaki, not the least bit reserved, sprang straight up from his seat like an excited fan, one foot on the back of the seat in front as he pumped both arms and whooped, "Ryuen-aniki, that move was so cool!"
The other members followed Ishizaki, cheering for this morale-boosting opener Ryuen had taken.
Under the cheers from across the way, Machida could only slink back to his class's dead-quiet side. He bowed to his classmates to apologize, then hurried out of the gym, heading to the nurse's office.
After all, each person could only participate in one event. Now that Machida was done, he was free to leave. In other words, among the first-years, Machida's year-end special exam was already over—he was the first student to officially start spring break.
After Sakayanagi ordered Machida to forfeit, Yukio looked her way. Because they were both seated at command stations and separated by the big screen, he couldn't see her exact expression, but he could easily imagine that she was wearing her usual faint smile.
He could also understand why she had given that order—not out of concern for a classmate. Sakayanagi wasn't Ichinose. She'd given the command simply because she didn't want Machida to keep embarrassing himself in the gym.
Soon, he pulled back his wandering thoughts, because the second event had already been drawn at random. This time, luck favored Sakayanagi—it was one of her events.
The big screen showed the specifics:
[Mathematics. Total required participants: ten. Time limit: one hour.
Rules: follows the format of a final exam. Question scope: first-year high-school curriculum.
Win condition: five students per side; the higher total score wins. If totals are equal, the side with the shorter total time wins.
Commander intervention: may guide any one teammate to solve any one problem; limited to one time.]
When this event was drawn, the students of Sakayanagi's class all visibly let out a breath. In academic events, they were extremely confident.
What's more, their rules spelled it out plainly: following the final-exam format meant shutting down all of the Yukio Class's little tricks. Whether violence or attempted cheating—under the standards of a normal exam format, you'd be disqualified on the spot.
That instantly put many people at ease. At least for this event, they didn't have to worry about Yukio's Class.
....
For every 50 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.
Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon! [patreon.com/METARLN]