Same day
Each class, or rather all the grades, are in full swing for the sports festival. As was the case last year, some of the events were already known, so the students made time to start practicing as if they were the real thing, using the ground and the gym during lunch break. They would want to spend as much time as possible practicing, especially for team competitions where more than two people compete.
The gymnasium I came to scout was filled with the sound of many energetic voices. It seemed that the gym was carefully equipped so that all the students, from the first year to the third year, had a certain amount of free space and could practice fairly. Today's second-year students seemed to be playing volleyball and table tennis.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the large number of participants in one of the classes, as well as the unusually high level of enthusiasm. They were raising their voices and actively discussing the tips and tricks of the game.
"You can see how serious Class A is."
"Yeah."
I was here with Yōsuke, and we calmly analyzed the students and said so.
"Purely class-based sports competitions aren't Class A's strong suit, you know."
"Yeah. For better or worse, there are a lot of students with average physical abilities, and only a few of them can get top prizes."
Because they know that they are at a disadvantage in terms of overall strength, they are working together to raise their abilities as quickly as possible. He's planning to practice and aim for competitions where he can earn points for his experience.
I can't confirm her appearance, but I'm pretty sure it's first and foremost Sakayanagi's instructions.
There are also students from Ichinose's class and Ryūen's class, but they still seem to be in limbo. I was hoping that one or two of them would show up, but even if they did, they would just be standing in a corner, unable to do anything under the circumstances.
"We're not out of the unanimous special exam yet. It's not going to be easy to try to practice under those circumstances, is it?"
"You're right, there's still a lot of uncertainty. But it's not necessarily all doom and gloom."
I tell Yōsuke that Sudō and Onodera have teamed up to become the number one male and female sophomores. The few pieces of good news made his cheeks relax, if only a little.
"If we keep getting first place in both the single and pair competitions, we should be able to get enough top places."
"Those two have a good chance of winning, don't they?"
There was a great deal of hope, but it still took more than just the two of them to win the class. A system that can temporarily cooperate with them is urgently needed, even if it's full of joints.
"Speaking of which, Sudō-kun asked me to meet him after school today, before club activities. Could it be that Kiyotaka-kun is involved behind the scenes?"
"I didn't do anything. I'm sure Sudō thought about it himself and decided to ask for help."
"It's probably something related to Shinohara-san, right?"
"Sudō probably thought that she couldn't leave it like that."
"But what about Mii-chan?"
"I think I'll take care of that one."
"Kiyotaka-kun?"
If I tell him that I'm going to leave it alone or leave it to the right people, Yōsuke will have a hard time accepting the situation. The reason why he's still sticking to Mii-chan in this mess is probably because the element that he feels is 'his fault' is stronger than the other students. Of course, it's not Yōsuke's fault at all.
While I remained quiet, I decided that Mii-chan was the one who could use a little push. The inability to use Yōsuke as a key is one of the reasons for this.