"And so, I will officially begin the 13th sports festival of the Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School."
"Before we start the events, I have an announcement to make."
He then paused for a brief moment, catching the attention of the remaining students who were still busy with themselves.
"Unlike last year, this sports festival is a little bit different. Except for the relay race, students will only compete among their years. Nevertheless, this doesn't rule out the possibility of cooperation between students from different years to exist, since, in the end, you are part of a team with a common goal."
"Also, to make sure that we can squeeze all of the events in one single day, Multiple events will be held at the same time among various locations throughout the school, the details should have been sent through your phones."
The students then started checking their phones, the message contained a simple list of the events which contains the time and location.
"Make sure to submit the list of participants 10 minutes before the start of each event, you may now proceed with the sports festival. The relay race will begin today at 4:20 PM, please come back here by 4:00 PM." He then stepped down from the podium.
It was still 7:20 in the morning, and the first events would commence in 40 minutes, so most of the students were minding their own businesses, some girls were seen talking to each other while the more athletic people were stretching.
But something suddenly caught several students' attention, me included.
A bunch of students could be seen a little bit further from the school track. They were setting up something that seemed to be a makeshift headquarters. It was very well planned and organized. Food, water, and medical supplies were neatly put in boxes, above them were tents to protect everyone from the shade. Some people could even be seen operating computers. Not far from there, a bunch of students was lining up for something.
But to be able to organize something as massive as this must have required tremendous effort. First, you need to have the cooperation of students who'd volunteer themselves in setting up the base of operations. Then, there's the cost of buying all of the items, it must've amounted to tens of thousands if not more than one hundred thousand points. Whoever is in charge of this whole operation must be someone very influential.
"Oi! If you are from the read team, please gather over here!" Shouted one guy, he looked like a senpai.
His actions caused most of the students to flock to the makeshift base. Some students were hesitant at first, but seeing that most of their counterparts were following the senpai's order, they followed soon.
During the battle of Cannae, the Carthaginian forces led by Hannibal Barca were able to defeat the numerically superior Romans. Hannibal had intentionally placed his lower quality troops at the center of his ranks, while he put the more elite and experienced troops on both flanks.
This resulted in a wedge forming at the battleline since the poorer quality troops retreated backward while the elite troops were able to hold their own. As a result, the flanks of the Roman army collapsed and soldiers soon retreated, seeing that their comrades were fleeing, more soldiers soon joined the fleeing forces. A slaughter then ensued after that. It was believed that Rome lost a quarter of its male population at that time.
The mass retreat of the Roman forces was somewhat similar to what was happening there. This was known as the bandwagon effect. As an individual, humans are blessed with the ability to make rational decisions. But in a mass of people, that ability was significantly cut for most people.
In a crowd, humans are more prone to following whatever the majority does. This was caused because they thought that since so many people are doing it, then it must be the best course of action. Of course, this wasn't always necessarily the case.
"Kiyotaka, are you listening to me?" I was brought back to reality by a familiar voice.
"Sorry, I was lost on thought." I had just noticed Chiaki who was standing in front of me, waiting in the queue.
"So, what was saying is... Take a look at that guy." She said as she pointed to a tall blond-haired guy in the distance.
"What's up it him?"
"He seems to be standing out from the others. I have a feeling that he's the one who organized all of this."
"Hmm..." Now that I had observed him, he really did give off the feeling of someone in a leadership position. From his gestures, it looked like he was giving orders to his fellow students.
Chiaki sure is one observant girl.
We then had small talk for a few more minutes until finally, I was at the front of the queue.
"See you later, Kiyotaka." Said Chiaki as she left the queue.
"Yeah."
In front of me was a table where a senpai was sitting in front of a laptop.
"Hello there, can you tell me your name?"
"Ayanokouji Kiyotaka." They then proceeded to do something on the portable computer.
"Ayanokouji, please take out your phone and scan the QR code." They said pointing to the piece of paper on top of the table.
I scanned the code and it showed an invitation link to an open chat. Unlike regular line groups, users in open chat are kept anonymous.
"If you have scanned the code, please wait over there for a moment. There will be an announcement." They pointed at a place where several students were sitting on the ground.
As I was walking through the designated place, I noticed that the blonde-haired guy from earlier was talking with a senpai. He glanced at me for a little while before looking away.
Now that I got a closer look, his appearance was certainly not bad at all, he had a pair of blue eyes, his body was well-built, and he was quite fair-skinned. It wouldn't be a surprise if he was popular among the girls.
7:36 AM, and there was a little bit less than 15 minutes left before we have to submit the names of the participants for the first events. The school track was noticeably emptier than earlier since most of the students from the white team had already left.
"May I have your attention please, I know that there is not much time left so I will make this quick." Said the blonde guy.
"First of all, I want to thank everyone for your cooperation. My name is Nagumo Miyabi from class 2-B."
Several whispers could be heard from among the students.
"As we all know, even though we will be separated by years, we are all still part of one team with a common goal. That's why I have decided to make things more organized by setting up this place, we have everything from food and medical supplies, so feel free to use them as you want."
He used the word 'I' to make it clear that he was the person who organized all of this.
"I also would like your cooperation in maintaining this place as we need volunteers to keep operations running, that's why I hope you can spare some of your time to help things here." He continued.
"I have also invited you to a group, further details about how things will work have been sent there."
It was a link that contained several files. There was a spreadsheet that listed all of the thirty custom events with their rules, time, and location, it was significantly more detailed than the simple list the school had sent us, there was even a map of the whole campus to make things easier for us.
There was also a 'Guide' showing the basic things on what to do during the course of the sports festival. There was one 'Rule' saying that you are expected to 'Help' the others if you were not participating in an event.
It was somewhat a way for him to assume leadership without explicitly saying it.
"Since time is of the essence I won't waste any more of it, I wish you all good luck in the upcoming events!"
Chiaki's guess was spot on, it was as clear as day that this Nagumo guy was the one who organized all of this.
It is certainly true that things would get really chaotic really quickly in a sports festival where thirty events with almost 500 students participating were held only in a span of a few hours. Not to add that multiple events would be running at the same time across a place that's 600 hectares in size.
In a way, organizing things like this would certainly help us. From what I saw, Nagumo wanted to make things more centralized by setting up one single main base in the middle of campus.
But unfortunately, all of this was just a huge waste of time and effort.
Now let's say that a student was wounded in the swimming pool, one must travel about 500 meters (0.3mi) from here just to fetch medical aid.
Imagine a more decentralized system where everyone brought their own supplies, it was very likely that there was someone with medical supplies close by to the wounded student, this would save a lot of time and energy. This was most likely what the white team was doing.
Managing logistics at this sports festival might look like something very complicated on the surface. But truth be told, all you need is a simple schedule listing all the events you will be participating in and a large bottle of water. You could form small groups with whoever is close by to take turns taking care of food and medical supplies.
That's why I concluded that either Nagumo was very stupid, or he had some ulterior moves behind his actions.