"Ok. Kiyotaka. We helped the janitor clean the yard between the lunch break, gave every single thing that the scavenger hunt racer asked, and changed Koenji's diaper. We did everything that you said it will increase the Poonya. But I still didn't get how we will win with this?" Karuizawa said. "And for the god's sake. What the Fxck is the excacitraitrecogzinator?"
"It's the excacitraitrecogzinator. " I answered.
I looked to the yard. The three-leg races were going to end. The last group was waiting at the start line. But Sudo and Horikita still didn't appear.
Sudo assigned his name in every representative competition. Since he couldn't compete, Hirata had to pay 300,000 points to put someone to replace him. I who became rich from the Zodiac test helped him for 100,000 points. But if Sudo and Horikita didn't come back for the last competition. I was afraid that I and Horikita couldn't take the burden anymore.
"Don't worry. It'll work. " I told Karuizawa a lie.
Lucky-chan, if you want to do something, please do it right now.
"If you said so. " She sighed. "But, Kiyotaka. What's wrong with Sakura-San? She kept looking at me for a while."
I turned my head to Sakura. She was looking at us with worrying eyes.
I bit my lips and sighed with tiredness.
"Being Harem protagonist is tired, you know?"
"What?"
"Nothing. Wait here. I have something to do."
"About Sudo-Kun and Horikita-San?"
I nodded as answering. Then, walking into the tents. I saw Inogashira was laying on a field bed.
"Um. Inogashira. Are you okay?"
"I never exercise this hard. " She mumbled. Her eyes looked so dead.
"Sorry for it. Can you help me with something? Please use your brain to figure it out where is Sudo?"
Inogashira blinked.
"I can't. I can't anymore. I ran out my energy. Now, I can't even count to 10." Her eyes opened wide. "Ah! That! That's the light! My great-grandfather is there, waving to me. I will be there right now, grandpa!"
"Oi. Stay with us! Come out of that light."
"Oh. It's beautiful. Sherlock-San and Poirot-San is there too!"
I slapped Inogashira to stop her from traveling to another world. But it didn't work. So I called Shinohara to do CPR.
After saving the great detective's life. I walked back to Karuizawa.
"Did it work?"
I shook my head.
Suddenly, I heard the intercome's announcement from the distance.
The boy with red hair's parents, come and get him at the director building, please.
"Finally. " I grabbed my hand so hard.
"Hm? It's Sudo-Kun, right?"
I nodded. "I think so. I will go and take him back here."
Karuizawa grabbed my hand before I would go.
"Wait. Your leg. I will go by myself."
I shook my head.
"No. You stay here. Horikita competes in Joint 1200m relay. If she didn't come, we had to find a new representative. You should stay here to spare. " I explained.
No one would ask me to substitute for the racing for sure. So I didn't worry if I couldn't come back in time.
"Oh. And take my phone. If it has to change the representative. Use my point for it. " I opened my phone and gave it to Karuizawa. "And don't transfer my points to your pocket."
"I won't do something like that! Who do you think I am? Thief?"
"A shopping addict gal. " I answered and walked out of the yard.
...
Under the shadow of the building. Amikura Mako and Horikita Suzune was standing there.
Two girls were confronting the most influential student in this school, Horikita Manabu, the student president.
Why were they be here?
We had to travel back to the nursing room, where Suzune first met Amikura.
"Why do Ayanokouji-Kun send you here?" Suzune asked Amikura after listening to her introduction.
"Well. I come here for a toilet. But Ayanokouji-Kun asked me if I can come to the nursing room to check you. " Amikura explained.
Horikita sighed and sat on the bed.
"Can you tell me about our situation right now?" She could ask since Amikura was on the same team.
"I can tell nothing. Both teams can win. Depend on this afternoon. But your class is in danger. " Amikura walked to the window and looked to the courtyard.
"What happened?"
"Sudo-Kun is disappeared."
Horikita sighed. "I know it! Sudo-Kun might be angry with something---"
"No. He thinks you have to go to the hospital."
Suzune raised her eyes and looked at Amikura. "Are you serious?"
Class B girl explained about that trick letter to Horikita. The girl became silent after hearing it.
Sudo Ken is impatient. This was the fact like the sun rises at the east. But what she didn't expect at all. It was Sudo ran out of the yard to find her.
"I think he's really like you. " Amikura said with a teasing tone.
"I don't think so. At our first month, he tried to punch me."
"At your first month. You tried to kill Ayanokouji-Kun. But now you don't do it anymore." She smiled. "Ayanokouji-Kun tells me."
Horikita pursed her lips and thought about it. Amikura was right. Sudo was changed. Not only him, everyone around her had changed--Almost everyone. Yamauchi was still a shitty pervert as always.
Sudo became calmer. Ike stopped doing a pervert thing around with girls. Karuizawa stopped bullying others. Shinohara didn't act annoying anymore. Kushida stopped trying to befriend her. Matsushita got her ear surgery. And Even Ayanokouji could talk with others like a normal human, not a mysterious awkward boy like the first day.
But she didn't notice. She didn't look around. She looked only in front of her, at her brother's back.
So it wasn't strange that she didn't see Sudo developing his feeling toward her.
What about her?
Horikita didn't change at all. She was still an arrogant and annoying girl, who could do nothing for her class. She couldn't figure Ryuen's plan out and had to pay for it.
"Will you go back to the yard?" Amikura asked.
"I have to---" Horikita tried to stand up but suddenly, she felt the suffering on her calf and fell down again.
"You don't have to force yourself. I checked your competition schedule. You will compete in a joint 1200m race, right? It's the last competition. You can rest for a while."
Horikita shook her head.
"I can't rest. If I don't show up in the yard, right now. My---" She stopped. "My classmate will think I'm weak."
"You mean your brother?"
Horikita flinched. "I don't know what you mean."
"You want to make your brother---to be more specific---the student president accepts your ability, right?"
Suzune couldn't excuse now.
"How do you know? Ayanokouji-Kun tells you?"
"No. Ayanokouji-Kun won't be telltale. My classmate, Ichinose-chan, was told this fact by the vice president, Nagumo Miyabi."
Amikura sat aside Horikita.
"Tell me, Horikita-San. Do you think you will use this sports festival to make your brother accept you?"
"Yes. The sports festival seems to be only about your strength. But actually, it asks for your arrangement ability, your social skill, your willpower, and your strategy. It's the best way to show someone that you have everything to fight with this world." Horikita sighed. "And I fail."
She was surprised that she could tell many things to this girl. Amikura had the same atmosphere as Ayanokouji but was less mysterious. It made her more trustable...
"Why do you think you fail?"
Horikita had to think about it for a while before answering.
"When I look at my friend, I realize that I was left behind. Everyone is changed. And I'm still an arrogant waffle addict bitch. I can't reach my brother when I was in a mid-school. Since I'm not changed from that times. It's impossible to reach him right now too."
"You're wrong."
Amikura suddenly answered.
"What?"
"You're changed. Ayanokouji-Kun told me. " Amikura said. "You know? He found that he's really hated you in the first few months--"
"Hey!"
"Sorry. But it's a fact. However, you're changed. You think about others and don't think you're better than your classmate like before. You show your real self to Ayanokouji-Kun. He even starts realizing you as a woman."
"Why do I feel like I want to kill him right now?" Horikita mumbled. But she realized that she was smiling and blushing.
What happened!?
"You can make Ayanokouji change the feeling toward you this much. Yes. I'm sure you've changed too."
Horikita looked at the mirror opposite her bed.
In that mirror, she saw a stranger---No, old friend.
She hadn't seen this girl for a long time. A short hair girl who smiled and laughed---
"But..." That stranger was gone. "I don't change enough."
"Changing is changing. There isn't enough or not enough."
"No, there is. I still can't reach my brother. He'll retire from the council this October. If I can't reach him now, I will never have a chance again."
"Did your brother tell you?" Amikura asked the strange question.
"Tell what?"
"Tell that if you can't reach him while he being the student council, you won't reach him again in this life."
Horikita shook her head.
"Did he tell you anything? Did he decide the deadline?"
She shook her head again.
"That's it! You don't have a deadline. Your competition will begin in an hour, not in 10 minutes. Your deadline--didn't even exist. And why do you have to rush yourself?"
Horikita couldn't answer.
Right. Why did she have to rush herself?
Amikura put her hand on Horikita's shoulder.
"For now. Rest for a while. Your leg is injured and only a fool will run with the injured leg."
Two girls rest in the nursing room until Horikita could walk properly. She didn't hurt anymore
Amikura smiled at her and walked with her new friend back to the yard. But when they reached the entry. They met someone walking into the building.
Horikita Manabu and his secretory.
Suzune looked at her brother. Her eyes had no fear. But her hand was shaking.
"Say something. " Amikura whispered to her. Suzune found that her hand stopped shaking immediately.
"Onii-San. " She said. "I can't reach you today."
The student president raised his eyebrows.
"So you know class D's situation?"
"Yes. I know. But---" Horikita breathed in. "I'll fix it."
She walked past her brother to the door. But then, stopped and turned around.
"And I will reach you someday."
She left her announcement and walked out of the building. Amikura smiled and ran following her.
...
Horikita Manabu looked following his sister before sighing with relief.
"She is changed, isn't she? Horikita-Kun. " Tachibana asked with a teasing smile. She reserved Horikita-Kun for this situation.
"Yes. Suzune is changed. " Manabu smiled, shedding his serious expression.
"But someone didn't change at all. " Tachibana giggled. "You have to compete in 10 minutes but still had a time for going into the building to take the paper?"
Manabu's face became red. "D--Don't be nonsense, Tachibana!! I really forgot the paper!" He tried to use his scary glare that always worked with his secretory. But it was powerless for now.
Tachibana shrugged her shoulder. "Ok. Ok. I believe you. You Siscon tsundere." She glared at him. "I don't hate that part of you though."
...
When I took Sudo back to the tent. Horikita was waiting there. Sudo dashed toward her.
"Horikita. Are you okay?" He cried out.
"I'm okay. " Horikita answered a bit annoyingly. "And why do you fall for that stupid trick?"
Sudo smiled for the first time today. "Well. I'm worried about Horikita. Naturally, I have to protect my important person, right?"
Horikita's corner of the mouth was lifted and became something that looked like a smile. She shed it immediately though.
"Don't forget that if you can't get the most score of our year, you can't call me with my first name."
Sudo hit his forehead and exclaimed. "Oh! I forget it!"
Karuizawa sneaked to stand beside me. "Hey, Kiyotaka. " She called me. "Where did you find him?"
"At the broadcasting room. He gets lost while finding the ambulance that took Horikita to the hospital. Luckily, a white hair senpai took him to the broadcasting room."
Karuizawa opened her mouth wide.
"What!? He gets lost in his school?"
"He said since everything is nothing. So he sees no difference between left and right."
When everyone was all together, Hirata stepped out and announced.
"Excuse me. Everyone. I want a volunteer for a 1200m race."
"Hm? Doesn't every representative is here?" Yukimura asked with curiosity.
"Miyake-Kun got injured so he can't run. Hondo-Kun has to be his substitute. But he's getting coma now." Hirata explained.
We looked around. Our class's representatives were Sudo, Hirata, Maezono, Onodera, and Horikita. Besides these people, we didn't have any speed man left.
But suddenly, Sudo raised his hand and announced.
"I have one person to take this job. "
"Who? Sudo-Kun?" Horikita asked.
"Ayanokouji. And he will be the last runner. "
Everyone became silent for a while before releasing their laugh.
"Are you serious?" Ike said while laughing.
"I'm always serious. " Sudo said. "This competition will decide my fate. I won't do anything for joking. "
When we realized that he was serious, Hirata asked him.
"Why does it have to be Ayanokouji-Kun? His legs are ---"
"I know how his legs are. But--Can someone tell me what I said when we practice running?"
"We should wear nothing but panties?"
"No. Kanji."
Doc clapped his hand. "I remember it, sir! Make yourself as light as you can, and you will run as fast as you think!"
"Exactly. " Sudo nodded. "Among us. Except for me, Ayanokouji is the lightest one here. Not about weight. But it's what he was holding."
I could understand Sudo's words. I practiced Zen since I was five years old. I wasn't into it as much as Sudo. But at least, I understood its simple philosophy.
You don't need to hold anything.
"He'll be the perfect man for winning this game. Trust me. " Sudo convinced everyone.
"Come on!" Yamauchi protested. "He can't even walk without his cane!"
"I will go. "
Everyone turned their eyes to me after I said that.
"What?"
"I will win this. With my legs. " I promised to them.
"But---"
I looked at Hirata's eyes.
"Hirata. Do you trust me?"
Hirata licked his lip and looked at my eyes again. I didn't know if he could see my mind.
Because I felt something in my heart.
Something that told me I would win.
It was a whisper of luck.
The wind of my feelings might touch Hirata's heart. He nodded seriously.
"Ayanokouji-Kun will be the last runner."
"Eh!!!" Our classmates screamed in a harmony. But Hirata didn't care he led me, Sudo, and other runners to the yards. His action was a decree. No one could oppose him anymore.
"Good luck. " I whispered to Horikita when walking past her.
"You too. " Horikita nodded while preparing herself as the fifth runner.
Suddenly, her eyes were frozen by something in front of her. I looked following her side and found Horikita Manabu standing there as the last racer.
It looked like I had to compete with him.
"Horikita. Are you okay?"
"I find. " Horikita held her breath and nodded confidently. "Oh. I have something to ask you later. About Amikura Mako."
"Hm? Are you jealous?"
"Jealous my ass. " Horikita pretended to punch me. I thought I had nothing to worry about her. So I walked to my place.
The other last runners looked at me with surprise. Kito even spit.
"Hey. Boy. Don't you think you should wait at the sideline? It's dangerous here." Kiriyama, a member of student councils asked with worry. I thought I met him before but where---
"Oi. You don't have to worry about him. You should worry about yourself. Look at class 1-C's fifth racer." Nagumo, the vice president, said.
Kiriyama turned back and flinched when he saw Horikita.
"S---Shit---" His body was shaken. I remembered now. He was the one who was attacked by Horikita. "C--Can I withdraw now?"
"Too late. Kiriyama. " Nagumo laughed.
Horikita Manabu stared at me but he didn't say anything.
From the sideline. Ryuen and the gangs were pointing and laughing at me.
"Oi. Oi. Why is class C so cruel? They sent the handicap?"
"Maybe the rest of them is weaker than the handicap."
"Sakayanagi. Your boyfriend is handsome, isn't he? Kuku. " Ryuen yelled. "Tell me if you leave him, Kuku. I will take care of him, Kuku."
"What did you say, Ryuen-San?"
"Nothing. Kuku. " He started sweating.
I turned my face to them. Because of my emotionless face, Manabu might think I was getting angry.
"Ignore them. Ayanokouji. Focus on the competition."
I almost laughed.
"Thanks for the suggestion, the president. But I'm not angry."
The president left his right eyebrows.
Ryuen didn't stop mocking me.
"Why are you in this yard, Ayanokouji, Kuku? Why don't you take your Loli girlfriend on a date, Ku---"
Suddenly, they flinched when I broke my cane with my knee and stood probably with my own. Everyone in the yard looked at me with shock.
"Urusai Baka. " I said with a straight face and threw my broken cane to the crown of class D.