At the shoe lockers of Gymnasium No. 2, Yukio set Sakayanagi down. Just now, Yukio had been carrying her princess-style; the two of them had strolled through the empty campus like that for quite a while. Both felt it was wonderfully romantic.
Sakayanagi's pretty face was still flushed, and they'd agreed that, whenever there was a chance, Yukio should carry her more often. Not wanting to let Sakayanagi down, Yukio readily—almost eagerly—agreed.
When they went inside, they found Ryuen, Katsuragi, and others had come with their class members to watch. Ichinose's class and Class D were locked in a fierce battle.
On the big screen, the overall score was 2–2. They were in the fifth event, [Typing]. Ichinose's side had sent her close friend, Mako Amikura, while Class D's pick was a rather chubby boy, Hideo Sotomura.
The two sat at separate laptops, fingers rattling across the keys as they raced to transcribe the text the school had provided. The entire gym was dead silent—no one dared make a sound to disturb this bizarre, grating "piano mash-up."
Yukio was a bit surprised. He walked over to Ryuen and shot him a look. Ryuen, behaving? Seriously? Shouldn't Ryuen be goofing off and heckling both classes?
Ryuen seemed to get what that look meant and lowered his voice. "The judges are watching us. We were warned before we came in—spectating is fine, interference is not."
Putting that together with how Ryuen had been allowed to drug opponents earlier, Yukio inferred the school's logic: competitors currently in a match could interfere with each other—even use laxatives—whereas students whose exams had concluded could at most come and watch.
Looked like the school had drawn the line… quite neatly.
Sakayanagi returned to her class's side to chat with Hashimoto and Kamuro.
On the floor, Sotomura and Amikura were nearing the finish. Their hands flew, leaving afterimages over the keys, the staccato clatter loud and relentless in the gym.
The results finally popped up—Sotomura's accuracy edged out Amikura's. Class D took another event.
Next up was the sixth event: a ten-person tug-of-war custom-picked by Ichinose's class.
Ten students on each side gripped the thick rope. Clearly they'd trained for this—everyone assumed the optimal posture, hands tight on the rope. At the judge's signal, they all heaved!
They stalemated almost immediately. Both sides were evenly matched; in tug-of-war, neither Ichinose's class nor Class D seemed to have any obvious advantage.
Ryuen frowned, puzzled, and muttered, "This… is it? I thought if Ichinose's class dared to choose something like this, they'd be experts. But this is it?"
Obviously, in the Project Selection Exam, each class was supposed to tailor events to its strengths—Sakayanagi's class picked academics; Yukio's class picked combat—picking what best suited your own class.
But with this tug-of-war, it was hard to see where Ichinose's class held any edge.
Yukio, however, spotted it in their footwork. "Ryuen, look at their feet."
In another control room, Matsushita watched the feed showing the deadlock and let out a long breath, relaxing a little. "Ichinose-san, looks like it's still too close to call."
She and Ryuen had the same initial thought—she'd assumed Ichinose's class would be great at tug-of-war, but once it began, they looked neck and neck with Class D. That was reassuring… or so she thought.
"Just call me Honami~" Ichinose, still the ever-kind angel even mid-competition, smiled brightly. "But the event our class chose isn't that simple!"
"We're definitely taking this one!"
Seeing Ichinose so confident, a flicker of worry crossed Matsushita's eyes. Ichinose wasn't the type to bluff; if she said that, she must have a sure-fire plan.
Where would that plan show itself? The more Matsushita thought, the more anxious she got. She leaned closer to the screens—almost sticking her head into the monitor.
Finally, she caught the oddity in their footwork. "Their shoes?!"
Ryuen noticed it around the same time after Yukio's hint. The ten students from Class D were scrambling their feet backward, constantly shifting to generate force and pull the rope over.
By contrast, the students from Ichinose's class looked relaxed—they didn't budge. With their bodies leaning back, they stood rock-solid, barely moving an inch, almost as if they were intentionally letting Class D wear themselves out.
Ryuen's sharp eyes picked out the trick at a glance. "If they aren't moving even while Class D is going all-out, then the problem has to be the shoes."
In the control room, Ichinose smiled sweetly. "So you noticed~ Before the exam, we used class funds to custom-order ten pairs of anti-slip cleated shoes with maximum grip."
"That way, we'd have a huge advantage in tug-of-war!"
Matsushita's eyes flew wide. This was beyond her expectations. When she'd sent Class D members to gather intel on Ichinose's class, they'd found no special preparations—just straightforward training and a plan to win honorably through unity. So Matsushita hadn't paid that angle much mind and didn't think Ichinose would pull any tricks—hence why this hit her so off guard.
Hoshinomiya-sensei, proctoring Matsushita, suddenly found something to enjoy. "Matsushita-san~ Ichinose is very pure, yes—but being pure doesn't mean she has zero little tricks up her sleeve~"
"I recall there's a phrase people use for girls—something like 'silly-sweet.' Treating Ichinose as sweet is perfectly fine~ But if anyone adds the 'silly' and treats her as a true silly-sweet, they might suffer just a teensy bit~"
"Hoshinomiya-sensei." Hearing her homeroom teacher's commentary, Ichinose called out, embarrassed. She wasn't as amazing as Hoshinomiya made her sound, was she?
Chabashira stood quietly behind Ichinose, eyes locked on the screen, her expression so complex it was impossible to guess what she was thinking.
When she saw the student trying to provoke Chabashira and the teacher didn't react, Hoshinomiya just rolled her eyes and fell silent.
Matsushita understood the situation now—they'd been led astray by Ichinose. Seeing Ichinose's class making no underhanded moves and fighting head-on, Class D had also chosen to train hard and compete openly.
Then Ichinose suddenly spent money on gear and flipped the table on this event, leaving Class D to eat the loss. "We lost this round. But there's still the final tiebreaker!"
As Matsushita said that, Class D, already running on fumes, couldn't match the fully fresh students of Ichinose's class. In a flash, the rope was yanked over—Class D lost the event.
And on the big screen, the last event was selected at speed—Old Maid.
....
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