Alex's Pov
When it was time for us to use the grip strength machine I was really interested to see how strong I was, but I also didn't want to be in the top group, in the end I got 50 kg, that put me above average but nothing crazy. To be honest most of my training has been towards endurance so even if I went all out I wouldn't have got over 65 if I tried my hardest, I told Fuka I wanted to train endurance in preparation for the second-year island exam since I don't want to burn out.
For the three-legged race to my surprise Matsushita took it upon herself to volunteer as my partner, since she is better athletically than more than half the girls I can't complain.
In the end I was simply slightly above average in the view of my classmates, even if I tried my best I think I would only be slightly better than Hirata so it would be a pain to try hard.
When we were practicing the three-legged race I had an interesting conversation with Matsushita, I wonder how much she was stalking Kushida.
"Since you told me about Kushida it is really strange hanging out with her, but I definitely believe you. Every time someone praises Horikita the look in her eyes changes slightly, sometimes her dumb smile even falters momentarily, being around her makes me sick now. Unfortunately I haven't gotten any evidence about it though, she is really careful."
"I understand, after the next special exam I will have to take drastic measures. If we go into the Spring term with her still as a traitor it will only bring us trouble, even if other classes won't work with her. Exposing her would be one thing, even expelling her would be nice, but it would hurt our class a ton if we expelled her out of nowhere."
It would be possible for us to wait until the unanimous vote exam where Ayanokoji exposed her, I read about that in the free sample of Y2 V5. Personally I would like to do it before then, but it would be troublesome to do that, maybe I should ask someone about it.
After some more small talk and insulting Kushida the two of us finished our training for the day, the two of us as a duo were above average for our class, we would probably rank in the top 5 for our class. That is with neither of us giving it our all as well, I should be able to secure us some decent points this festival.
Since we are now Class C we are teamed up with Class B and Horikita and Ichinose are playing America and England during the World Wars with the way they are super up each other's asses. I don't mind, but the extremely large emphasize on team work is making my head hurt, I also noticed that a girl from Class B was acting similarly.
From my information she is Himeno Yuki, I don't know about her from the books other than she was a new character in the book I was reading when I was brought here, she had an illustration so I am sure she will become important sometime in the second year. I will have to keep an eye on her in the future.
When our class made the participation sheet for the festival I sneakily took a picture of it for reference, thankfully they submitted it before the last day so I had time to make my changes.
The day after they submitted it I made my own table that had the event that Sudo, Ike, and I changed. I had Sudo's events and Ike had mine, while Sudo had Ike's, I also changed Horikita and Kushida's so that she won't get framed. If that girl pays to substitute in that race and then gets injured and claims it was intentional that would be very suspicious. I have a feeling they will definitely still try something though; Ryuen is not one to give up and relent so easily.
I will leave the rest to Ayanokoji, she is his tool after all, I don't need her specifically in the future. Sure if she got beaten down now it would change the timeline more and make things complicated, but I could work around it. Ayanokoji has invest too much time and effort into her to let her go to waste this early if anything he is pragmatic.
The day after I turned in my sheet to Sae, it seems she expected the changes I made, she has also been telling me many interesting things about the school that will be helpful later. She has been very good ever since the cruise, I am very happy to have her.
I kept training with Fuka and she made me promise to try during my events so that she could gauge my improvements and "see my sexy ass beating those losers". She is really different from what I thought from reading the books, I guess she hasn't been developed a ton yet so I can understand that. I also told her that she should try somewhat to assert her dominance over the other girls because if not I might be seduced by the other girls strength. Obviously she knew I was baiting her so it would help White Team since she is in Class 2-B but she agreed to try at least a little.
To be honest I am pretty sure White Team is still going to loss but that is perfectly fine with me, I like my currently placing of my class.
Once it was finally time for the Sports Festival and we all arrived at the tent everyone started making a fuss, as to be expected with two of the most athletic people having their events switched with other people. Sudo was pissed and Horikita kept looking at Kushida with a cold gaze, most of the rest of the class was confused as to what was going on. Once Kushida saw the changes to the table she was shocked as well, she was getting nervous too, probably trying to think of a way to contact Ryuen to tell him.
I walked over to Matsushita casually.
"What do you think of my work?"
"I see, I thought it was you. Why do it though, the order for the mandatory events doesn't really matter that much, does it? Unless, unless someone leaked it to another class. I see, so Kushida gave our list to Class D and they made their plans by matching less athletic people with Sudo and Horikita and hard people against people like Ike and Yamauchi."
"You are mostly right, the were going to put everything they could into Horikita. Their goal here was to break her resolve by not letting her win, even if it hurt their chances at victory. If I had to guess they will also stage an accident and blame it on Horikita so corner her."
"I see, so you did this to foil their plans. Will it be enough though?"
"You are correct Matsushita-san, there is a good chance they will have an alternative plan, I will leave the rest on Horikita though. If I do everything for her she will soon become useless even as a puppet leader, I wonder if she will get out of here without any wounds."
"I see, well lets do our best in this festival Alex-kun, I hope we don't loss many class points."
In this festival it is very hard to gain points, the only way to do it is to get top for your grade and being on the winning team overall. It is almost inevitable that we will lose some, I don't want to move up to Class B here so that is fine.
With that the sports festival started, as to be expected some of my were hard, like the one against Shibata-kun, but most of them were against easy opponents. In the individual events I scored in the top 3 in all of them, I was very happy with that, almost all of my classmates were very surprised. It was weird having people gas me up like that, even Sudo who was really agro still hyped me up after I got a few 1st places. I am not someone who enjoys being praised so I was pretty uncomfortable, Koenji dropped out like cannon but our class was much happier because the improvements my changes made to our lineup. Ike was doing above what he was expected to do in the group he was moved to and Sudo wasn't getting super angry. Horikita was destroying everyone in her events and Kushida was getting completely clapped, I couldn't help myself from smiling at her getting destroyed.
When the team events came along is when I started doing not as good, in tug a war I did good but in things like Capture the Flag and Cavalry fight I was much less useful. I do not like high contact sports and I hate getting into situations where you have to push and pull-on other people, like I have said before I do not like direct confrontations. That lead me to play for lack of a better term, like a bitch, since I did good in the individual events none of my classmates said anything but I could tell they were a little frustrated with me and I can't blame them for that.
Once those ended we were in a comfortable spot, it seems like Ryuen will have to do something during the recommended events to Horikita if he plans to at all. The only event I think he had a real chance at doing anything in was the three-legged race in the recommended events, even if it only has a slight chance of working I decided to record the race on my phone, focusing on the Class D duo that was running next to Horikita. The girl from the book, Kinoshita was next to her which instantly made me think they would do it. I focused on them as I recorded the race, like I expected they took a fall into Horikita and her partner. I focused on their lower bodies, the way they fell was really masterful, neither of the Class D students landed hard and even took it more in a roll to prevent any real injuries.
If anything it looked like Horikita suffered a much more serious injury, I don't know what this will prove but as my last help to Horikita I will give this to her so she can try to prove Kinoshita is lying.
Once the race was over it became clear Horikita could not participate in the relay race, it seemed she was hurt worse then in the book. She made it much further in so our class did much better , a fine trade off. Ayanokoji was the one that took her spot in the relay, it seems he is going to go all out against Manabu still.
Since I wanted to watch I quickly walked up to Horikita while she was walking towards the nurse.
"Horikita I am going to send you a video that might prove helpful. Use is as you please, but remember, you told me to record it beforehand and I am your obedient pawn, ok?"
"Tch, whatever, cant you see I'm hurt and can barely walk? What does a video have to do with anything?"
"Ryuen had those two fall on purpose, he will definitely accuse you of doing it on purpose and try to extort you in exchange for dropping the case. Kinoshita-san will make something up like you saying something to her when you guys fell, since she will be more injured than you it will look bad. This video shows the fall perfectly and you can see that she landed perfectly to avoid injuries along with her partner, maybe this can help you to escape. If you can't get out of this than I will be very disappointed in you."
"Ok, I understand, but how did Kinoshita-san get so injured if she fell so perfectly?"
"You are slow some times Horikita-san, Ryuen broke her leg himself afterwards. That is the kind of person he is, don't get cornered or he will make you kneel and lick his boots. Kushida Is also a cohort working with him, that is why I changed the participation sheet after all, remember that you did that as well since you knew she was dirty already."
Despite her annoyance with me she listened to everything I said carefully, she clearly would rather respectfully hear me out than loss to Ryuen and Kushida.
If she hasn't already Arisu will be confronting Ayanokoji soon, things are getting more exciting.
Kikyo Kushida, after the paper shuffle I will show you despair, and I am not reckless enough to try to make you a pawn.
I have always disliked her but since coming to this world my feelings towards her have fallen even further.
In the end of the sports festival the results went how I expected.
1st Class B: -50
2nd Class C: -100
3rd Class D: -50
4th Class A: -100
With those results the gap between us and Class B widened slightly and our lead over Class D also shrunk a little. That is fine with me, we will wipe out Class D in the Paper Shuffle so it is fine.
Arisu wasn't in charge during this festival because she couldn't participate, so even though she now has an iron grip over her class she let the other play. This festival is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things so I don't think the class leaders were too focused on winning to begin with.
If I remember correctly Ayanopapa should be coming to school soon, speaking of which, it is a new semester so I should make another deal with Arisu like I did first semester. I wonder what I should tell her, maybe "that".