Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V8: Chapter 12 - What Is Lost

Kanzaki Ryuuji POV

It was early in the morning on the seventh day.

The last full day. The final test would be held the next morning and we were in quite the quandary.

After Sotomura fainted the other day, it was better to not let him run in the long-distance relay tomorrow, which meant we were forced to find other solutions. Even if we had a student missing, we had to operate as if he was going to run.

"I want to talk about the long-distance relay tomorrow. Please hear me out."

Everyone, still in their beds, looked over at me.

"Since Sotomura won't be able to run, that means, there's only eleven of us. We must all shoulder our part of responsibility. But depending on how things play out, we might be able to turn this to our advantage."

"What do you mean? Isn't it better to have more people, so each of them has to run a shorter distance? Wouldn't that be easier?"

"It's certainly true that if fifteen people had to split the burden equally, each person would have less to do. But the larger the group, the higher the probability that you'll have slow students on your team. I can count the number of people who are good at running long-distance marathons on my fingers."

"Yeah, you've got a point."

"In other words, this is our chance to close the gap."

"But our entire group isn't athletic."

Ryouta looked around. He and I could be classified as athletic, Sou and Eiichiro were also quite athletic, and Sudou was among the best athletic students in the year. But the rest... we didn't exactly have a surplus of speedy people. Still, five out of eleven people wasn't a bad number.

"Yeah, I probably won't be of any use," said Ike.

Ijuin, Tetsuya, Norihito and Miyamoto joined Ike. They knew their limitations best. Of everyone in the group, they had the worst stamina and speed.

"The long-distance relay is eighteen kilometres. The rules state that every person has to run a minimum of 1.2 kilometres. So, in a group of fifteen, everyone would have to run the same distance: 1.2 kilometres each. However, in a group of eleven people, you can make significant changes to how you allocate the distances."

"I suppose saying we have two more injuries and not participating would be quite the stretch, huh?" Norihito commented.

"We already have an absence and that will result in a penalty. Not only will that cause more trouble for the remaining people, it also costs us time. That's no good. Plus, the changeover point has to be every 1.2 kilometres."

The school was working hard to squash any loopholes. Students would have to do what was required of them. So, the likes of Ike and Miyamoto, who lacked confidence in their speed, would have to run the minimum distance of 1.2 kilometres. Tetsuya and Norihito would have to be placed at that bare minimum too.

Which meant the five of us left would have to run the remaining 10.8 kilometres. It seemed feasible.

Everyone else in the group would have to run an average of 2.1 kilometres. Students who were skilled in long-distance marathon running might very well be capable of that.

"Eiichiro and I will run 2.4 kilometres," Sou declared.

Another person raised his hand.