We all headed to the locker room to change into gym clothes before meeting up again.
"Hey, we look nice, huh Shuichi?!" Momota smirked as the two approached me and Harukawa.
"I-I guess??" he agreed.
"Jeez, Momota! You forgot about me, your favorite!~" an annoying voice cooed as he came from behind us. "Or I guess, I'm so important that you didn't need to ask me, huh?"
We looked behind us to see a familiar supreme leader, hands behind his head as he walked out with his gym uniform.
"You just tripped me, you bastard!" the astronaut pointed to him while gritting his teeth.
"You can't blame me... It was an accident!" he snickered as he swung his foot.
"Well, there's no harm allowing Oma to come!" I smile.
"Kaede... Are you serious?" Shuichi gives a worried look.
"Thanks Akamatsu! I'm so glad I have one person on my team!" Oma ran at me with open arms in which I dodged him.
"Our group got significantly larger." the assassin sighed.
"It's one person. One." Oma put one finger up. "Are you that dumb that you can't process numbers?"
Harukawa gave an icy glare to the supreme leader but he didn't care at all.
"Well, no problem in that. Let's go!" Momota commanded as he wrapped an arm around her. She immediately flared up and tried to claw his hand off, but eventually gave in. Yet, her face was still red. They really are cute together... I look to my boyfriend as well if he would try anything.
He was facing forward without any care in the world, following behind Momota.
"Well, how about me?" I look to the oblivious Shuichi.
"Huh? What about you?" he looks at me. I pout in response.
"J-Jeez, do I gotta spell it out?" I tilt my head towards the other couple.
"Oh." a blush arises on his face once he realizes. "Ohh."
"Yea. B-But, of course you don't have to!" I quickly explain as I wave my hands around.
"W-Well, it's a little embarrassing but..." he grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. "Even if it's around other people, holding hands is alright!"
I just stare blankly at our intertwined face until the blood finally rushes onto my face. "Y-Yea, it's fine! Even if there's people around!"
"God, you two are so embarrassing I wanna die." Oma sighed dramatically. We both turn to him and scold him as he laughs.
"Well, I feel hella single now!" he sighed dramatically. "Hey Akamatsu, let me scoot into your relationship real quick. Y'know, threeway."
"What the heck!?" I shouted. "No!"
"Ugh... You're so boring!"
...
"Woww..." Oma exhaled as he observed the area. There were multiple students just walking around and some doing their events. We haven't even chosen ours yet... What did Momota say he wanted to do again? Table tennis?
Maybe Hoshi'll be there!
"Oops." Oma purposely ran into another short guy.
"O-Oma, look where you're going!" I seethe as I stare at the boy.
"You tryna start a fuckin' fight, you bitch?!" the boy yelled out.
"I-I'm sorry!" I apologize to the angered boy. There's no way Oma would willingly apologize! He was wearing an eyepatch and had crew-cut blonde hair.
Oma stops in his tracks to face the angered boy. I had a really bad feeling about this.
"Oh, aren't you the Ultimate Yakuza? It's great to see one of my underlings! You know, because I'm the Ultimate Supreme Leader. I rank higher."
"Asshole, the hell's that supposed to mean?! Your underling? Don't get fucking cocky, you're like a preschooler." he huffed.
"With that face? Aren't you the preschooler?" he tilted his head. I don't know why, but I felt a sharp gaze come through from somewhere hidden.
"You fucking piece of shit!"
"O-O-Oma!" Shuichi stuttered as he pulled him back. "Why are you trying to provoke a fight!?"
"Well, it's because!-" he pointed behind him as 2 familiar boys walk to us.
"Oh, Kuzuryu! You met our underclassmen!" the white-haired boy smiled as he walked up to us.
"Because of them! I saw them approaching and I already know they're great friends with him, so I thought it'd be a good first impression!" Oma laughed. "He's an interesting person too!"
"...I don't know how good of a first impression that is." I gently laughed, though my voice was full of nervousness.
"How do you even know they're friends...?" Shuichi gave a worried look.
"I don't need to be labeled as interesting from a piece of shit like you." Kuzuryu pointed to Oma with a glare. "You know this dickhead?"
"Ah! It's him! It's the annoying kid I was telling you about!" Soda exclaimed. "He was constantly messing with me during the getaway, he was worse than you!" he pointed to the white haired boy.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't do things like that. That would get in the way of your hope, there's no way trash like me would willingly prevent that development." Komaeda crossed his arms in offense.
"You try not to be annoying but you are!" the mechanic seethed.
Momota jogged back with Harukawa still in his grasp. "Guys, why'd you stop?! I had to walk back a whole mile!" he complained.
"It was only 8 meters at most..." Harukawa sighed, still with a flushed face. She finally got released from Momota's grasp (though she looked disappointed about it).
"Ah, we were just talking to some guys we met at the getaway." Shuichi smiled at him.
"Oh, forreal? Who're you guys?! I'm Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars!"
Oma answered for them as he pointed to each of them. "Komaeda is useless other than his luck," Komaeda smiled and waved, "Soda is a mechanic I think," Soda cried a little bit, "Kuzuryu is a really mature and good-looking mob boss! Just kidding, that's a lie."
"Damn it, I'll show you hell!" Kuzuryu rolled back his sleeve as he stomped over to the Supreme Leader. Harukawa seemed to not do anything in response to this (almost as if she was looking forward to this).
"Guys, what are you doing? I heard a ton of cussin-" a familiar brown haired boy went in between them but stopped once he saw us. "Oh, Oma, Saihara, Akamatsu! I haven't seen you in a while!"
"Naegi!" I smile as I see the boy. "I'm glad to see you not expelled!"
"Well... Thanks." he chuckled as he humbly scratched his chin.
"Ah, a shitload of stuff just happened!" Momota shook his head. "Okay, okay. Who is this kid? He seems like sidekick potential!" he pointed to the brown-haired boys with a ridiculous amount of hair sticking up. It's kinda hypocritical of me to say that because of my own strand of hair sticking up too...
What's up with that?
"You can't appoint everyone as your sidekick, Momota..." Shuichi chuckled.
"S-Sidekick potential?" Naegi seemed dazed from his suggestion.
"I... Don't know." Soda shook his head.
"Well, um... my name is Makoto Naegi." he smiled at the astronaut.
"What are you guys doing gathering here?" I change the topic.
"We're about to move to our event." Komaeda explains with a smile. "We were thinking of doing it all together.
"I was gonna wait for them in peace until a certain asshole ruined my quiet time!" Kuzuryu gritted his teeth. "I don't even understand why I'm here."
"Come on, it'll be fun! I heard miss Sonia's gonna be doing track, she'll be in her gym uniform and you know..." Soda whispered into his ear.
"Dude, I don't give a shit about that! Stare at her tits or whatever but that has nothing to do with me!" he swiped his arm before coughing. "But uh... If you want me to come, I'll come. I got nothing better to do anyway." he adjusted his tie.
"I'm glad to see you opening up, Kuzuryu!" Komaeda commended him.
"Shut the fuck up."
"Well... It's nice to meet everyone. I'm Kaede Akamatsu." I pointed to myself with a smile as I pointed to everyone else. "That's Shuichi Saihara, Kaito Momota, Maki Harukawa, and..."
"Kokichi Oma! Ultimate Supreme Leader!" Oma interrupted.
"Yea..." I sighed as he interrupted me.
"By the way, Naegi. What was that thing with Ultimate Hope? Did you get appointed?" I turn to the boy.
"Huh?" as he processed the question, he humbly scratched his chin. "Well... Yea. They officially updated my title but... I still don't have much other than luck. It sucks I got this talent from just chance too..." he hung his shoulders.
"Nah, don't worry about it! If Hopes Peak chose you as Ultimate Hope or whatever, you totally deserve it!" Momota smirked as he gave him a thumbs up. He's motivating another self downer... "There's no way they'd get something like that wrong!"
"Thank you." he smiled at the astronaut. He gave a cheerful one back.
"Naegi! What are you doing?" a blue-haired girl called to him.
"Ah! Maizono! Sorry, I got distracted..." he laughed as he scratched his hair. "These are our underclassmen."
"Oh... Really?" a red hair boy walked up to us too.
"Sighhh," he said the word 'SIGH' out loud, "I gotta do introductions again?" Oma yawned as he pointed to each of us. "Akamatsu, Saihara, Momota, Harukawa,"
"And me, the leader, Kokichi Oma." he smiled as he pointed to himself.
"Well, nice to meet ya!" the red-haired boy smiled. "The name's Leon Kuwata!"
"I'm Sayaka Maizono!" the other had a light smile.
"Nice to meet you all..." Shuichi bowed.
Wait... Sayaka Maizono...?"
"Ah, you're that idol!" I excitedly grab her hand. "I saw some of your performances! You're great!"
"Ah, thank you!" she smiles back as she grasps my hand too. You're Kaede Akamatsu, right?"
"You know me?!" I fangirled. Maizono was a really popular idol, I completely forgot she went to this school! It's so cool for someone related to music to be here.
"Yea, it's because I'm a psychic." she replied quickly.
"Wha?!-" I yell out in shock.
"I'm just kidding." she laughed into her hand. "I saw your performances too on TV!"
"W-Wow, I'm so honored!" I joke.
"By the way, Naegi. Where's your purple haired girlfriend? Or is this your girlfriend?" Oma interrupted the moment with an annoying grin.
"Wh-What!?" he blushed. "None of them are my girlfriend!"
"Yea, no way Naegi's dating Maizono! Right?! Right?!" Kuwata looked at the two of them frantically.
"Well... No." the idol giggled.
"Ahh, my bad! Maybe you're dating the rich glasses kid!" Oma snickered but Harukawa grabbed his head to get him to shut up.
"Alright, be quiet now."
"What are you gonna do, kill me?" he turned back to her with a mocking grin.
"I'm thinking about it." her intense gaze pierced his soul. He didn't seem too bothered though.
"Anyway," Kuzuryu crossed him arms, "can you guys get the hell out of our way already? We're off our way to our events. You dicks wasted a lot of our time already."
"Wow, calm down Boss Baby!" Oma said in a comforting tone. "Don't get such a tantrum! But I guess with a face like that, it matches you!"
"Jesus Christ, you're so goddamn annoying!" he groaned as he clenched a fist. "I'm gonna kill this fucking asshole and none of you can stop me."
"W-Well, don't do that! Oma's just an idiot!" I cover the uncontrollable child's mouth. "Please, don't mind him!" I whisper into his ear quickly.
"Please, stop."
"Mmph." his response was muffled from my hand.
"Haha! You guys get along well already!" Komaeda laughed.
"In what world do we get along?" Harukawa sighed.
"Ahh... I'm exhausted already." Soda sighed, holding his head. "How did we even get into this... We were just gonna move to our events and leave..."
"Well, that's not my fault! I'm just following Naegi!" Kuwata pointed to the boy.
"S-Sorry!" he quickly apologized.
"Come on guys, we don't need to get so heated." Shuichi tried to calm us down.
"Yea, it isn't so bad! Ahh, to see the unique Ultimates from other classes interact with each other. In a way, it's like a crossover right?" Komaeda gently laughed.
"I don't know what that means..." Maizono laughed.
"Ignore him." Kuzuryu crossed his arms he looked to the side. "He says stupid incomprehensible shit sometimes."
"I apologize. Agh... Trash like me really needs to know when to shut up, I won't inconvenience you with my voice anymore-"
"No just fucking-" he clenches his teeth and puts a fist up before sighing and calming himself down. "Just talk but don't say weird shit."
"Okay." he smiles as he puts his arms up. "But I would just like to add that to see all of us here... It's pretty rare, right? We don't get to see each other often... We're usually busy in our own classes."
"Dude, I just said not to say stupid shit!" Kuzuryu clenched his fists angrily.
"Sorry, sorry." he laughed as he put his hands up. "Just wanted to add that."
"It's getting pretty late..." Harukawa sighed as she turned to the others. "It was nice meeting you. We've gotta head to our events now."
"Thank god! I was getting bored of talking to them!" Oma smiled.
"Alright then. We've probably gotta go too. We'll see you later guys." Naegi smiles as he walks away.
"Hold on." Kuwata grabbed him by his hoodie, his eyes were menacing...
"Wh-What?" Naegi held his hoodie collar as he got dragged back.
"What Komaeda said is true... We don't get opportunities like this a lot!" he lets go off Naegi's hood with an excited smile. "To see everyone, you know?!"
"What are you getting at...?" Maizono stared at him strangely.
"You're wasting more time. Get to the point." Harukawa glared at him which made the red-haired boy flinch.
"Maybe we could all play games together and compete, y'know? That'll be pretty fun." he looked at us frantically. "We all haven't met and maybe some friendly competition can pull us closer!
"Ah, no. I'm sure you're just saying that because Maizono asked you to help her play baseball and you're just making an excuse." Naegi chuckled.
"D-Don't expose me like that! The game's boring, I don't wanna waste my time on that, okay?!" he seethed.
"Ehh... You don't like it?" Momota scratched the back of his head. "I think it's pretty fun. What's your talent? Soccer player?"
"Ah, he's the Ultimate Baseball Star." Komaeda answered for him.
"What the hell?! That doesn't make sense?!"
"Yea, I think so too!" Kuwata agreed with him with a yell.
"You could've just told me you didn't wanna play baseball." Maizono sighed.
"I-I can't just disappoint you like that!"
"Well... I don't see the problem in splitting up as long as I get to play basketball." Soda shrugged. "Plus we can just do our plans for the next event..."
"Ah yea, I remember Sonia is there." Komaeda told him with a gentle smile.
"W-woah, what a coincidence! B-Because I just like that game and not because miss Sonia is gonna be there!" he faked his surprise. I'm pretty sure everyone saw through it.
"Well, now that we know Kuwata is a crybaby that can't play a simple game like basketball, I guess we can't play that.~" Oma hummed.
"Shut the hell up!? Who does this guy think he is?!" Kuwata raised his voice angrily.
"Sounds good. Guess we'll get to meet new people, huh, Maki Roll?!" Momota wrapped his arm around her once again.
"Shut up." she scoffed.
"Well... I don't mind." I smiled. "Sounds fun. I haven't really gone to know anyone here yet so... This'll be fun!" I pumped my fists.
"Aww, is Akamatsu excited to make more friends?" Oma patted my back, but it was more like he painfully slapped me. "I'm so glad! Now, you won't have to bother us with your piano references that nobody gets!"
"O-Oma, shut up!" I flush as I let go of Shuichi's hand to chase after him. He runs away laughing as Shuichi stands there in worry.
Thankfully, Harukawa got him for me and tripped him to fall on the floor.
"Using the Ultimate Assassin is cheating!" he whined as he was on the floor. "I'm a leader, not a fighter! Do you feel satisfied for beating up someone as weak as me...? I have no strength at all!"
"Yes." Harukawa clapped her hands together.
"Well, there's too many of us to play one event, right? How about we split up? You know, based on classes. One person of each class in a separate event." Komaeda suggests with a gentle smile.
"It's uneven. There's 5 in Oma's class, 3 in ours, and 3 in Naegi's." Kuzuryu sighed. "It's not gonna fucking work, unless we exclude Oma and someone else."
"I like how you referred to my class as 'Oma's class,' it really makes me feel important." Oma gave a smug look as he picks himself up from the ground.
"Shut the fuck up, you're just the one that talks the most so of course I'm gonna say your name!"
"Well," the supreme leader ignored his words, "what if we just excluded good ol' Saihara and Akamatsu? That'll give 3 vs 3 vs 3." he snickered.
"W-Why are we getting excluded?!" Shuichi retorted.
"Becausee!~ You love each other sooooooooooooooo much and can't last a minute without each other, if we're gonna go through with this plan you're gonna be like 'Oh no, I'm not with Kaede! I'm going to cry and lose my confidence!' It'll just make things totally unfun, you know?"
Shuichi and I immediately show our frustration at the boy through yells as a smug smile remains on his face.
"Now, we don't have to do that! We can get two more people from each class. Follow me, I can get someone." Komeda smiled as he walked away. Instinctively, we all followed him. We had some time before events started anyways...
...
"Here he is." Komaeda pointed to another spiky brown-haired boy drinking some juice on a bench.
"Huh... Who's that? How'd you know they were here?" Momota turned to the white-haired boy.
"Ah, it's simple really." He gently smiled as he explained, "I sensed his hope and I got attracted to it. Like a magnet."
"What the hell!?"
"Don't fall for his words, Momota." Shuichi tried to explain to his friend.
"I'm serious though." the lucky student cut in with a blank expression.
Before we could even react to his strange words, the brown-haired student noticed our prescense.
"Huh? What are you guys doing here?" he tossed the juicebox into the trash can as he stared at all of us approaching. "And who are those two?"
"Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars!" he beamed.
"Maki Harukawa."
"...Interesting." he directed his attention away from the overbearing man.
"Hinata, come do an event with us. We need equal players." Komaeda smiled.
"What? I'm not from the main course though... It might not work. Also what game requires more than 10 people...?"
"Come on, don't worry about that type of stuff." Soda sighed. "Pretty sure no one will care. Come on man, do it for your soul bro!"
"...Well, I might as well just go for it and stop thinking!" he got up from the seat with new motivation.
"Alright!"
"Ah, Hinata the talentless! Welcome to the Ultimate Convention, what's your first question?" Oma chirped as he pumped his fists in front of him.
"Sh-Shut up! You came to me! Why am I getting insulted when I was just hanging around?!" he groaned.
"Yea, Hinata isn't so bad." Komaeda defended him. "He may be talentless but I can sense there is hope inside him, befitting of an Ultimate."
How comforting. Except Hinata cringed at him.
"Well, whatever what my buddy Nagi-Wagi says, I'll agree with!" Oma smiled as he put his arms behind his head.
"Can we hurry up? First events start in 15 minutes..." Harukawa sighed.
"Now, now." Komaeda let out a soft laugh. "She's right over there. See?" he pointed a thumb behind him.
...To see Nanami fallen asleep on the pavement.
"The hell?" Harukawa's eyes furrowed in confusion.
"Wh-What the?!" Hinata gasped. "When did she get there?"
"Ah, she's been there! I saw her right behind you, I thought you had her there for some weird kink though." Komaeda laughed.
"I-I wouldn't do that!" he frantically explained himself as our eyes showed disgust to him.
"Ah... What happened?" she got up, rubbing her eyes. "I was taking a quick nap before the events... I stayed up all night playing video games."
"Well, there's our next member." Komaeda smiled as Nanami joined us.
"What a strange introduction." Harukawa shook her head.
"Nanami, wanna join us? We're gonna be doing events with everyone." Naegi offered to her. "I mean... Separately. With one of each person in a class."
"Okay." she quickly yawned. She was quick to agree. It made it easier for us though!
"Now we need to find the rest of the 78th class's members~" Oma hummed. "I'm getting bored of this and want to just start, so can you hurry up already? Just grab the first people you see."
"Ah." I see a blonde boy walking past.
"Ah, it's Togami!" I point to the man with blurred out glasses. It seemed he was trying to tip toe away from us. He sighed as he gets caught, pushing up those blurry glasses while clicking his tongue.
"What is it?"
"Out of everyone..." Kuwata sighed, shaking his head before yelling out to the boy. "Yo, join an event with us! We're all competing to see who will do better in each one!"
"No." he replied quickly. "I don't see the need to."
"Come on! Don't be like that!" Momota put a fist up. "Your classmates are calling for you? You just gonna reject a challenge like that and not be a man!?"
"I didn't get challenged by anyone. I see no need to join, so I won't. They're just a waste of time."
"Then, why are you wearing your gym uniform?" Naegi pointed out.
His mouth remained open struggling to find a response. Eventually, he did.
"Fine." he sighed. "If you'll leave me alone after this, then sure. Besides, I don't lose to anyone. I won't reject a challenge and seem lower in class than this pleb." he pointed to Momota.
"Who are you calling a pleb?!"
"Hmm... We need one more." Maizono hummed as she looked around. "Ah, it's Kirigiri! Heyyy!" she waved at the purple-haired girl walking past.
"We're meeting a ton of new people right now, Maki Roll." Momota whispered into his girlfriend's ear. "You intimidated?"
"What the hell are you talking about? Are you?" she cringed at him. "I thought you were supposed to be the hero type that greets everyone with a smile."
"Wh-Why so harsh?" Kuwata seemed shocked by their conversation. It seems Momota has gotten used to this treatment... Though, I don't think that's a good thing.
Kirigiri had a blank expression as she walked over to us. "I was just heading to my event. What do you need?"
"Ah, perfect!" Oma grinned. "What event are you doing?"
"...Track Race."
"Okay, great! We have everyone. Since Kirigiri's going to track, how about someone joins her?" he turned around, away from her, and commanded us.
"Why are you talking like you control us? You think you're a leader or something, fuckhead?" Kuzuryu seethed.
"Yea."
Kuzuryu threatened to punch him in the face but luckily Soda and Hinata grabbed him under his shoulders to stop him.
"Well... I guess I can join her." I offer with a smile.
"I can join too." Nanami put a hand up.
"Great! The girlfriends with no personality other than to be the interesting one's support!" Oma cheered.
"Oma!" I glared at him as I cross my arms.
"Sheesh... You already know I'm a liar... I'm j-just making a joke... You're embarrassing me in front of the classmates we've just met by yelling at me...! W-WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he started sobbing in front of everyone. To be honest, I've gotten used to this...
"Ahh... How great it is that we got everyone!" Komaeda puts his arms out with an excited smile. "I'm glad that trash from me actually convinced Kuwata to motivate everyone to do this! I'm so happy you did exactly what I intended! You know, with competition, a new type of motivation comes forth, bringing hope! Imagine the amount of hope that comes in with all these different Ultimate Students competing with each other! How unfortunate that I can't see it for myself, but I'm so happy tha-"
"I said don't say stupid shit!" Kuzuryu stomped his foot as he yelled at Komaedae.
...
After a little bit of discussion, we sorted out who was doing what.
Kirigiri, Nanami, and I were going to run track.
Shuichi, Komaeda, and Kuwata were going to play table tennis.
Harukawa, Maizono, and Kuzuryu were gonna play scavenger hunt.
Momota and Oma, Soda and Hinata, and Togami and Naegi were gonna play basketball. I wasn't sure how they were going to compete in that because there's 3 different opposers, but they insisted on playing.
As we all walked to our individual events, I smiled.
This is the beginning of our Sports Festival (for real this time)!
A.N: Did I add this chapter to stretch out the story so I can make chapter 53 something special?
...Maybe.
And at the rate I'm going, will I probably have to do it again?
...Yup.
But this chapter is also kinda important! I cut half of the chapter off when writing and just moved it to the next chapter LOL. I just realized last minute that "oh shoot I'm not gonna reach chapter 53 on time."
In fact, I had to rewrite it a couple of times so it came out later than I anticipated once I changed up what I was doing. So sorry about that.
You would think this means that the next chapter will come out soon, but nope. I have exams. So, I'm taking a 5 day-7 day hiatus to prepare for exams so I don't fail.
Sorry :C
Especially because I delayed this chapter so much, mainly because I had to study and do a bunch of projects. Busy past few weeks because it's the end of school, but at least I have time to focus on this! Unfortunately, I didn't achieve my goal to finish this fanfic before summer break but that's okay, now it'll be my goal to finish BEFORE THE END OF SUMMER BREAK.
Also, I'm aware that it's implied Kuwata and Maizono used to be Momota's sidekick. For funsies sake let's just say he's not LMAO.
I need to ask a question. Would you prefer for everyone to do two events each and have two different chapters for covering each event or just cover one event and timeskip to the class event? I can't decide myself because I don't know which one I prefer.
Also, it's one of my reader's birthdays today! Hooray! I don't know if they're comfortable with me saying it, so if you're the person I'm talking about, reply to this comment so ppl can wish happy bday :). Well, haha maybe not anymore because I posted late. Sorry :(
Thanks for putting up with my tardiness!