Third Person POV
It was time. Kamuro, ibuki and Horikita had taken their respective positions. One could obviously sense the tension between two of them. Ibuki and Horikita were practically glaring daggers at each other. Horikita and ibuki had met earlier during the uninhabited island test and Horikita had lost the card because of her. In one way this could be considered as a defeat for Horikita. So, this was a chance to defeat ibuki and have revenge. For Ibuki it was a different thing.
If Ibuki were to be honest, she was not sure what exactly were her feelings about Ayanokouji. Being as new as Ayanokouji in the subject of love didn't help her cause. But she did feel a certain level of pull towards Ayanokouji and she didn't deny it. She had refrained from attaching herself with any boy due to her hatred for father. She came into this school only to leave away from her father. Her father wasn't hard on her like before after his wife died but still didn't have the courage to acknowledge ibuki. He was as ibuki called him, a spineless coward. Ayanokouji was one of the few boys whom she held respect for.
The real reason ibuki wanted to win this race was because she was jealous of Horikita Suzune. She wanted Ayanokouji to see that she was better than Horikita. The world may call Ibuki's reason stupid.
But Ibuki didn't give a damn about how the world thought of her. Because she had been betrayed by the people who were the world for her, she had lost the ability to care about some billion strangers.
Kamuro was in conflict with her feelings. She had earlier thought that she was in love with Ayanokouji but she thought again about it. Was this really love. Or was she just looking for someone to rely on? She sighed. She had only one task to do in this school. Love will only hold her back. She was going to try her best to surpass Ayanokouji or at least stand at equal terms with him.
The three girls took their lanes and adjusted their posture. Three other people were in the race. One being Nishikawa from class A.
Mashima sensei brought the Automated clap closer to the megaphone.
Clap!
With that the three girls sprinted as if there was a devil on their tail. The other three girls didn't even bother to run and let Ibuki, Horikita and Kamuro compete.
Ibuki was leading Horikita by a little distance... Kamuro was just a toe length ahead of Ibuki
Ayanokouji was watching the race but unconsciously his attention went over to Kamuro. More precisely her chest. It was hard not to notice as while running it was quite evident that it was quite huge. Her chests were more developed than the other two flat chested beauties. It wasn't just Ayanokouji, all the boys watching the race had their eyes on kamuro's chest. Ayanokouji began comparing it with another girl in his class Hasebe Haruka.
In all this thinking he forgot about the race. He was snapped from his dazed state when ibuki pinched him. Besides her was Horikita.
That's when Ayanokouji realized, that he had messed up very badly. He didn't even know who had won the race. His thoughts were occupied with kamuro's breasts the whole time.
"Oi pervert did you see the race?" Ibuki asked him while she had her arms closed. It was ironic how ibuki had called him a pervert. Ayanokouji wondered whether she was a psychic to read his inner thoughts.
Horikita just looked at him with her eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion.
"Ur yeah it was quite good, I guess. You all were very close." Ayanokouji said, trying to get out of the blunder he had made.
Ibuki smirked, "Then why do you look like you had seen something terrifying.
It wasn't terrifying but it can be counted as sexually stimulating, thought Ayanokouji but decided to reply,
"Yeah, it was terrifying to see three people in such close battle."
Horikita stopped ibuki from speaking. Ibuki was annoyed by the action and was about to speak but Horikita beat her to it,
"Ayanokouji Kun, if you did saw the race. Could you tell us who won it?"
'Damn it Horikita. How can you read me so easily?' Ibuki also looked at Ayanokouji expecting an answer from him.
Now he had to use his brain to guess the winner. When he was previously watching the race, ibuki was second with Kamuro in the first. So, there was no chance Horikita could have won. He knew Horikita's speed, when he had followed her in the uninhabited island. It definitely looked like Kamuro had won the race. But,
"Ibuki came first right."
Horikita sighed and went away leaving ibuki and Ayanokouji behind. Ibuki was smirking looking at her retreating form and said, "Tch, jealous."
Now how did I know ibuki was the winner? It was quite simple actually. If Ibuki had lost she would have taken out her anger on me. I doubt I would have been alive now. The fact that Ibuki smiled when she came to meet him was enough for him to convince that she must have won the entire race, or against Kamuro.
In reality Ibuki had come first and Horikita second while Kamuro came third... Horikita had sprinted harder this time. But it didn't matter now as he was out of the mess.
He didn't even see ibuki and Horikita run. His entire attention was on Kamuro.
If one was to say, Ibuki had won the battle but lost the war to Kamuro
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ayanokouji POV
After the 100-meter dash races were completed. The results were announced.
Red Team: 2011 Points
White Team: 1891 points
It seems the red team had already taken the lead. The next came the hurdle race. Sudou seemed still angry and was openly ignoring me. Well, I really didn't care.
Sotomura looked even more nervous now. I put a hand on his shoulder. He thought that I was encouraging him as he gritted his expression with determination.
But in all honesty, I was pitying him.
In the end sotomura didn't clear any hurdles and ran into another student. All the students in class D sighed knowing him. Shibata had come first without any difficulty and had become Sudou's main rival.
The race between Sudou and shibata was quite interesting. Sudou was running as if this was his last race and shibata was enjoying the competition. Which one of them would win?
In the end it was Sudou who won the race with shibata slightly behind. Sudou was happy at his performance. The entire class D was happy and glad that they had Sudou with them.
It seems I wasn't chosen for the next event. Well, that works out nicely for me. I looked at matsushita and she nodded. She had indeed done her job. I wanted to avoid coming face to face with Ryūen at any cost. And the game where we had to capture the flag was a condition where I had to directly confront him.
Horikita came to me, "Why aren't you in the capture the flag?"
I sighed, "Who knows. The traitor might have an idea about that."
She groaned and touched her head in frustration.
"We really have been betrayed haven't we. I still can't accept that someone would do this to their own class."
I looked at her and said, "Horikita it is no longer the question whether you accept it or not. It all depends on what you do from now."
"Huh, what the hell do you mean by that?" She asked me.
I looked at the battle between class D and Class C. Ryūen had kicked Sudou but it was difficult to see as the class C boys had covered them. I was able to catch from a little gap, and it was not even clear. But I was sure about one thing. Ryūen had resorted to unfair tactics to win this competition.
Well, it didn't matter as I have already predicted the results of this festival to some extent. I never planned or took in consideration that Class D to win.
"What do you think would happen if we were to lose Sudou?" I asked her,
"Huh, what does lose him mean?" she asked me.
"Horikita weren't you the one who was going to abandon him during the midterms. "I asked her.
Her eyes slightly titled in confusion.
"You just thought of him as an extra burden for the class. But what do you think now?" I threw a question at her.
"That..." She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
It seems she still hadn't realized,
"Horikita what do you think would have happened to our class these sports meet if he wasn't with us?"
At this her eyes widened and she looked at sudo. Sudou was arguing with the referee saying that Ryūen had cheated, but no one was believing him. It might be due to Sudou's past record. He isn't what you would call trustable. His tyrant like behaviour is known by everyone in the school.
"The... Then why are you telling all this to me. Why not matsushita?" She asked me.
It seems Horikita had misunderstood somethings.
"Horikita, I'll be honest with you this time. You are the person I trust more than matsushita. That's why I believe that you should be the leader of the class."
I said my true thoughts about Horikita to her. I had never thought about matsushita more than a disposable tool. It was true that she had some abilities, but I have never valued anyone's abilities. I have never cared about their talents.
It has nothing to do with me.
Because talent isn't the only thing you need if you want to climb the ranks.
Horikita all this time, you were my focus. Matsushita was just fooled by me. Did she really think I would make her into a leader? She was a type of person who cared about herself. So, she would definitely try to reach class A on her own by exploiting the class.
I had Horikita entirely figured out. The real Horikita was the one who wanted to climb the ranks of class A on her own.
That was what I was aiming from the day I started talking with Horikita. I was shaping someone who would lead the class.
"Now you have the choice, Horikita. Matsushita is now the leader of the class, so you must have noticed she is showing more of her abilities. Now if you were to become the leader of the class, what do you think would happen. She would have to follow you no matter what with no way to hide her abilities as she had already shown them" I said to her.
She needed tools of her own if she was going to take over this class from Matsushita. Sudou was just the first link in it. Matsushita was still favoured by people as she was more approachable and everybody believed that they won the island test because of Matsushita's plan.
It was about time the real Matsushita Chiaki was exposed. She had run into my trap. Now I have to gain one more element for my plan to succeed.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A.N. Dark Ayanokouji has trapped all the reader in his masterplan.
Dark Ayanokouji grins lol.
This would be longest volume till now I guess. But don't worry it has only three more chapters left before the next volume starts.