"Saiki-kun…"
And just at this time, Sakura, dragging an incomparably exhausted body, slowly walked toward Saiki.
Her whole body was covered in sweat, in her gaze was full of exhaustion, and her whole body was a little shaky and about to collapse. Sakura had just now finished an event of the sports festival.
'Hey hey hey, you just participated in one event, so why have you already become like one of those righteous-and-resolute characters in anime or movies who are prepared to sacrifice themselves? And also your eyes have become hollow? Are you really okay?'
Saiki was just about to open his mouth, but Sakura spoke first.
"Saiki-kun… did you just watch my match?"
'Without a doubt, I did not watch it.'
Saiki thought this in his heart, but he was very clear that he absolutely could not say it out loud, so he hurriedly nodded.
"Mm, I watched, being able to persist until the end is already very impressive…"
"This is my first time, the first time I wasn't in last place!"
After hearing Saiki's words, Sakura's eyes seemed to shine with light, her strength instantly filled up, and at the same time her face carried the smile of a victor.
"Mm… second-to-last is also very good."
Saiki nodded, while the Sakura before him wore an expression as if she had fulfilled all the wishes of her lifetime, closed her eyes, and fell forward.
Saiki quickly supported her, and then immediately used telepathy to call for Ai Urana to come help.
Fortunately, Sakura was only exhausted of physical strength, and having Ai Urana feed her a little sports drink should be able to restore her a fair amount.
After handling Sakura, Saiki continued walking forward, entered the restroom, then activated his invisibility ability, and went toward another place.
Class D's rest area.
Ever since the pole drop competition ended, Saiki had been paying attention to matters concerning Ryuen, even using clairvoyance to observe Ryuen's actions.
Because earlier he had clearly heard Ryuen's inner voice, knowing that the other party still had other moves in mind, but at that time Saiki had already drawn much attention, so he could not further observe Ryuen's actions.
After all, doing a stare-into-eyes action in front of a big crowd feels like something that any brain-well-developed person would never do.
Oh no, on second thought, it seems there aren't many people in this school whose brains are normal.
But no matter what, Saiki would not do such a stupid thing.
Saiki very quickly arrived near Class D's rest room, and he could clearly hear Ryuen's voice.
"Listen up, our next target, I'll tell you now how to frame and crush Class B's Horikita Suzune, Kinoshita, later you'll be in the same group as Horikita Suzune, right?"
"Then later just directly run into her, just like we practiced before, disguise it as if you were hit by her, make it look like an accident." Ryuen said to his classmates.
Before the sports festival officially started, Ryuen had his class members practice the relevant things, if injuring someone else, how to fake your own injury, how to make it look like you naturally fell down.
"You must injure yourself, the heavier the better, if it's not heavy enough, then I'll personally make your injury worse."
Ryuen said to a girl with the surname Kinoshita, his tone full of command.
"That… isn't that not too good…"
The girl called Kinoshita's voice was trembling, she was very clear how terrifying Ryuen's hand could be.
Earlier on the deserted island, in order to have Ibuki Mio successfully infiltrate Saiki's class, he had even struck Ibuki Mio very hard, the kind of injury that couldn't be healed in just a few days' rest.
"Don't worry, after it's done, I'll compensate you with five hundred thousand personal points."
"Five hundred thousand?" Kinoshita's tone changed.
"That's right, I don't want to ask a second time, I'm sure there'll be someone else willing to take this task."
Ryuen's face revealed a meaningful smile.
Although not many people would want to injure themselves, if there's five hundred thousand points compensation, it's different. For an ordinary student, that's not a small amount.
And Ryuen did not intend to pay these points himself, at that time he could use this chance to extort Horikita Suzune.
At the same time, Ryuen's brain was still spinning quickly.
[Manabe is a potential traitor, this time's meeting I found a suitable reason not to let her attend, avoiding being recorded.]
[As of now, Kushida may already be exposed. Because she is inside Class B, no matter what happens in Class B, she should report to me immediately.]
[For example changing participant lists and so on. To be safe, I specifically tampered with the pole drop competition, but still it was seen through by the other side…]
[The other side not only saw through my plan, but also responded to it, such an arrogant guy. But I'll definitely give you a good "hospitality"! Yamauchi!]
'Yare yare, looks like Ryuen's hatred toward Yamauchi has gotten even higher.'
Still in invisible state, Saiki narrowed his eyes slightly. While secretly eavesdropping just now, Saiki had already quietly taken out his phone, recording those words.
'Consider it prevention, if I deliver this to the student council, I'm sure Ryuen will be punished.'
After preparing everything, Saiki took a slightly longer route, pretending nothing had happened, returning to the class's area.
Sakura had now finally recovered, forcing a smile onto her face, and nodded toward Saiki.
Ai Urana had just been standing beside Sakura the whole time.
"Later it seems there's the girls' obstacle course, Horikita-san… seems to be participating."
Sakura said to Saiki.
"Mm."
Saiki responded, then turned his gaze toward the sports field.
Horikita Suzune at this moment was warming up on the track, and next to her was the girl who had earlier made an arrangement with Ryuen.
From the participants list, Saiki learned the girl's full name, Kinoshita Minori, apparently also a member of the school's track and field club, and in earlier events had achieved good results.
You could say Kinoshita Minori was one of the strong contenders for the top three. Without accident, she should be able to get a good placement.
But for Class D, making Horikita Suzune suffer a setback was more important than anything else.
The race quickly began, the leader being a girl from Class C, whose speed was far ahead of the others, even Horikita Suzune couldn't catch up to her. But Horikita knew very well each person's ability; her main goal was to compete for second place.
Horikita Suzune kept a very fast pace following right behind first place, maintaining second position—
But behind her, Kinoshita Minori was clinging tightly to Horikita's back, making Horikita involuntarily turn her head to look.
However, turning back to look at your opponent is a big taboo in track events, and so Horikita's speed dropped.
The distance between them became smaller and smaller, almost touching.
[Now! Just crash into her!]
Kinoshita Minori thought this in her heart, then suddenly lunged toward Horikita Suzune's direction.
At her speed, she could actually be slightly ahead of Horikita, but to achieve this goal, she had purposely slowed down earlier.
Kinoshita Minori had practiced countless times before, colliding while making it look like she was the one knocked down, to frame the other person.
The distance shrank in an instant.
'Yare yare, can't let you succeed like that.'
Not far away, Saiki narrowed his eyes slightly and used his psychic power to loosen Kinoshita Minori's shoelaces.
Plop!
With a crisp sound, Kinoshita Minori lost her balance completely, and fell down.
"What?!"
Everyone present was dumbfounded, completely not expecting this to happen.
"This section is flat ground, right?"
"Did she not tie her shoelaces properly?"
"Wasn't Kinoshita in the track club? She actually made this kind of mistake?"
The crowd talked in a buzz.
At this moment, Ryuen's face had already turned somewhat purple. He had never thought things would turn out like this.
Clearly Kinoshita Minori was just about to fake an accident with Horikita Suzune, but at just one body's distance, she fell herself.
Although the gap was close, everyone could clearly see there was a space between Horikita and Kinoshita, so no matter what, it could not be blamed on Horikita.
[Damn it, how could this happen?!]
Ryuen clenched his fists in anger, his finger joints making crisp sounds.
[Just now, that person was trying to bump into me?]
Ayanokoji had caught the moment of Kinoshita's movement, noticing something unusual, but he was not surprised, this was Ryuen's style.
On the track, Horikita Suzune only heard a loud noise behind her, Kinoshita Minori had fallen to the ground, leaving no competitor behind her, so in the end she still achieved second place in this event.
[Bad… this is bad…]
At this moment, Kinoshita Minori had just gotten up from the ground, knowing clearly she had missed her best chance.
She turned her head toward the other side, and happened to meet Ryuen's gaze full of anger.
Fear spread instantly in Kinoshita Minori's heart.
[In this sports festival, there hasn't been even one thing going smoothly!]
[Was this all a setup? No, shoelaces coming undone is just an accident…]
[Must think of another way! Damn Class B!]
Ryuen cursed hard in his heart, his face now completely without the earlier confidence he had had in the sports festival.
'Yare yare, whatever method you plan to use, it's impossible to succeed.'
And he did not know, all his inner voice was heard clearly by Saiki.
'Angering a psychic is not a wise thing.'
"Horikita, being able to compete evenly with a track club member, impressive."
Ayanokoji walked up to Horikita Suzune, who had just crossed the finish line, spoke with no expression, and handed her a bottle of water.
"This isn't something worth bragging about. On one hand, a Class D student was accidentally injured, and in the end I didn't even get first place, only second."
Horikita spoke while taking the water, drinking several gulps. The event had indeed used up much of her stamina.
But Horikita seemed to have no big emotional reaction to the result; it was within her expectations.
"Maybe it was an accident, but you didn't notice the movement of the girl behind you."
Ayanokoji spoke as he looked into the distance, Kinoshita Minori was already leaving the track supported by her classmates.
"She just now seemed like she wanted to crash into you."
"What?"
Surprise flashed in Horikita's eyes; she seemed to find it hard to believe Ayanokoji's words.
Ryuen's plan was within Ayanokoji's expectations, he had guessed Ryuen would use such a method, trying all ways to fake an accident with Horikita Suzune.
[Perhaps his goal wasn't to injure Horikita, but to use that Kinoshita girl's injury to frame Horikita.]
[If no one had intervened, Class B would likely have suffered a huge blow in this exam, possibly being tricked by Ryuen in many events, like in the earlier pole drop and now the girls' obstacle course.]
[Theoretically, our class should have had a very heavy failure, and Sudou and Horikita are the kind whose emotions are easily swayed by others and by the match situation, so it's possible the class would fall into chaos or even infighting.]
[But it seems because the class has always been in a winning state, such a thing hasn't happened. Is this the situation Saiki created?]
[I had originally planned to let Horikita wait here to grow, but since Saiki made this choice, there's no need, I'll just directly remind Horikita.]
While thinking this, Ayanokoji focused his gaze on Horikita, then continued, "Probably Ryuen's order."
"Earlier during the pole drop, I already noticed Class D's movements were strange, as expected…"
Horikita's expression became more serious.
"But to go this far, they must have prepared quite a lot… and to make a move on me on the track, it would at least have to be someone whose speed could match mine… Kinoshita being grouped with me, was that not coincidence?"
Horikita now realized the problem.
It wasn't that because Kinoshita was grouped with her, Ryuen told her to do this.
It was because Ryuen intended to target Horikita that he had Kinoshita placed into her group.
This was absolutely not a decision made at the last minute.
"But… how did he know what events I would participate in? Unless… Ryuen knew our class's participant list!"
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