I laughed as I saw Kiyotaka staring at the sky while Kushida was trying to make conversation and Suzune wants to leave. "Looks kind of painful, I guess awkwardness can cause pain." I commented. "But it also looks funny."
I was running about again as I wanted to and it was one of the other classes who were training today.
Someone stopped me from running by standing in front of me confusing me. "No." I frowned at him.
Manabu sighed. "Why are you running around? I know that isn't good for your condition."
"Because I want to." I explained.
"That's it?" He asked me.
"Why are you annoying me? Are you lonely like Suz?" I asked.
"No, I'm surprised you have no concern for your health." Manabu admitted.
"When you learn that you were supposed to die at any second of your life, you get bored of hearing about it. Dwell on the despair of eventually dying or playing basketball, what would you rather do?" I sighed.
He was confused and then laughed. "I see, you are starting to convince me that this isn't an act."
I ran off, and I wasn't in view of the others anymore, but Kiyotaka knew where I was. "You can be a little nasty Ayanokoji." Kushida admitted as they were all sat down together.
"Yeah, he took my cheese pie!" I landed behind them scaring Kushida and Suzune after I had jumped from the top of the stairs behind them.
"Cheese pie?" Kushida asked me.
"I didn't make one. Rekka keeps mixing her food together." Kiyotaka explained. "It also had some green on it."
"Hirata said it was healthy." I pouted.
"As I said before that's mold." Suzune pointed out. "Let me check your food first."
"Okay!" I sat behind Suzune so I could mess with her hair and she sighed, but just let me do it.
"I meant he was nasty by inviting me out since you and Horikita don't like me much." Kushida explained.
Suzune was quiet. "I find you interesting!" I reminded her. "Like Suzune's hair! Why does he want to eat it? It does smell like strawberries."
"Don't turn into that guy." Suzune demanded of me.
"I can't go that bad, I'm not creepy." I retorted making her smirk. "Also Kushida, this was Suzune's idea."
"Really? What a surprise!" Kushida let out.
"Kushida, I have no interest in you." Suzune spoke up.
"What a mean thing to say!" She gasped.
"But I want to ask you one thing. The one who leaked Vip information to Ryuen on the ship, was it you?" Suzune looked her right in the eyes and I pulled on Suzune's hair since she ruined my work.
I'm braiding her hair like how Kei taught me to. "No, sugar coats here." I hummed and Kiyotaka nodded. "I want a coat of sugar."
"You don't have to admit it." Suzune mumbled. "It's in the past, after all."
Suzune forgave her to easily. "What are you-" Kushida tried to act dumb still.
"But as a member of your class, I'm not sure if I can trust you from now on." Suzune glared at her.
"I don't know why you suspect me..." Kushida then looked at me and I smiled confusing Suzune. "But I want to work to reach Class A with the rest of you. You will trust me, won't you?"
"Very well." Suzune turned away from her.
"I can't wait for the sports festival!" Kushida exclaimed.
"Yeah!" I added. "Suzune, your hair is annoying, it got me stuck."
Suzune turned, and I went with her hair. "I said I'm stuck." I said confused. "Stop moving."
Kiyotaka got me out, and I don't like Suzune's hair at all now, it tried to take my fingers that I need to poke my plushes with.
The day of the Sports Festival came quickly and I was sitting outside under a tent with my umbrella up as well since I keep walking off and Kei would pull me back here every time while yelling about how I have an umbrella.
"Now, let's win this sports festival!" Sudo exclaimed. "Show me what all your training's been for!"
"He's even cringing me out this time." I commented surprised.
"Take a page outta my book and really put your back into it!" Sudo looked at Suzune happily then at me and I waved at him.
"What the heck? He's like a little kid showing off in front of his crush." Kei hit the nail on the head.
"Is that..." Kiyotaka was staring at Class A's tent where there were two people under it, and one seemed familiar.
"Sakayanagi Arisu." Hirata informed us of the girl's name. "One of the two central figures of Class A."
"Her hair?" I mumbled and Kiyotaka looked at me. "Oh, from there!"
"Hair?!" Suzune yelled.
"Seems she's starting to get trauma from Ryuen's addiction." I commented.
"How do you think it will go?" Kiyotaka asked me as Hirata went to go calm down Sudo who was holding up a frightened Yukimura.
"Sudo stands out, so he will be beaten down." I hummed. "Suzune is a target to, and she will collapse like those sad souffles. I wonder if you and I will get targeted to."
"You won't be in any events involving shoving, so you should be fine. No running in, even if you see an ice cream sandwich." Kiyotaka warned me and I whined.
"Okay, let's go and sweep this thing!" Sudo yelled.
"Don't sweep me up!" Yukimura yelled for his freedom.
"I can trade!" I added and Yukimura looked at me like I'm an angel.
Everyone was motivated by Sudo's attitude and words and we were ahead of Team White, but that will fall eventually.
"It's a promising start." Suzune commented.
"Yes, thanks to you and Sudo." Kiyotaka nodded. "You did well against that track and field club ace."
I got bored of watching and was just thinking about old memories that came up for no reason until..."What did she look li-" I paused as I felt like I needed to find something and I got up from the bench I was sitting on.
I walked off in a random direction, and I was looking around at everything.
I wandered around for a good little while, going through the paths around the school buildings that were empty. "It was here, I know the way." I mumbled as I searched for it. "Why isn't it here? It's always my reward. I get to watch it, I get to see it."
I looked into a window to see quite the blank expression on my face. "So this is what I look like during those times." I mumbled. "I'm not gonna find it, but I can't stop myself."
I just stared into the window at my own face like it was close to what I needed to find.
I heard someone walking in my direction, from the sound of the steps it seems to be Ryuen who is in a good mood. "Oh, isn't this intres-" Ryuen paused when I looked at him. "Where?" I asked him.
"Where what?" He frowned as I walked right up to him and he leaned back a little.
"Where?" I asked again as I grabbed onto the bottom of his shirt and he seemed unnerved. "Do I need to for-"
"That's enough." Kiyotaka put a hand over my eyes and an arm around my waist and pulled me back.
I grabbed onto his arm that he was using to cover my eyes and I dug my nails in and forced his arm down. I looked up at him, and he knew what I was asking. "Where?" I demanded to know, but he didn't answer and held my stare even Ryuen seemed to not be brave enough to speak since this reaction of mine seems to not be normal for people. "I can bre-"
"The usual room, I will take you." Kiyotaka informed me and I grinned brightly as I let him go and he let me free.
"There we go! That's why you're my favourite!" I twirled my umbrella on my shoulder happily. I ran off down a path then once I went around a corner I felt myself get put in a hold and I looked back at Kiyotaka who was holding me in place. "...wanna make a deal? Like that one!"
Kiyotaka made sure to keep me in place, but I dropped my umbrella and used my other hand to pry him off me. I was starting to overwhelm him, so he tripped me up and slammed me to the floor and kept me down using his weight.
I grabbed onto his face with my hand and went to apply pressure, but Kiyotaka was pinching me really hard on specific parts of my skin.
"Kiyo! Why are you pushing my teeth?! I'm not a keyboard, you mannequin!" I exclaimed then looked around as he hovered above me and I poked his nose curiously. "When did I get here? Oh, was it that? You slammed me like a pancake!" I laughed.
Kiyotaka got off me and stood up while I rolled over and sat up to see Ryuen come around the corner and he looked genuinely shocked. "I wonder what you saw." I laughed. "Oh yeah, Kiyo! I was trying to remember something I know that much!"
"She hallucinated?" Ryuen asked suspiciously. "What exactly was that? Her condition shouldn't involve that."
"She was in a daze and hasn't drunk any water today then she fell over just now." Kiyotaka explained as he helped me up.
"Yeah, I thought falling was running!" I laughed as I went on ahead and Kiyotaka made sure to keep up with me.
I slowed down when the train of thought that I had before I found myself on the ground came back. I didn't get far so we could still see Ryuen hasn't moved from his spot. "I won't be able to find it again." I mumbled to low for Ryuen to hear, but Kiyotaka looked down at me. "Wait...I can't remember her face..." I mumbled, and I felt something was wrong.
"Rekka, what's wrong?" Kiyotaka asked me.
"I remember her expression, but not her face...but that shouldn't be important..." I mumbled confused. "Kiyo, this is new...her face meant alot to me?" I grabbed onto his sleeve.
"You found her beautiful, right? So you must want to remember her." He explained to me, and he was touching my face making me notice that I was crying.
"I never cry." I sniffed.
"Let's get you back, so you don't dehydrate even more." Kiyotaka picked me up bridal style as I was using my sleeve to rub the tears away since they were getting in the way of my vision.
I saw Ryuen was still watching us, but he turned and walked away before I could see his expression.
"...could this be a kind of pain?" I grinned as I felt my hands shake. "Is it? Did I start to understand her?!"
"I'm sure you did." Kiyotaka reassured me.
I started to feel exhaustion settle in as he took me back to our group and my tears weren't stopping, but I kind of liked this new thing since that's what she did, she cried nonstop. "I'm just like her." I giggled.
We eventually got back to our tent. "Ayanokoji! What's happened to Rekka?!" Suzune ran over to us in a panic making everyone look over, and he put my head in the crook of his shoulder.
"Just fall asleep." Kiyotaka demanded of me and I closed my eyes but smiled to myself.
"Something even I don't understand." Kiyotaka answered Suzune's question. "She is actually happy, so don't try to stop it, she just needs time and rest."
I could hear many more voices of people asking about me and Kiyotaka made sure to keep a good hold on me so I can rest. I fell asleep eventually and woke up to find myself in the nurse's office.
I took my phone out of my jacket pocket which was folded and laid out on my bed nicely. I turned on the recording app and then left it under the bed. I threw on my jacket and picked up my umbrella and quickly left the room since there must be a good show of pain going on outside.
"Oh, our points are falling." I mumbled as I walked to our tent and sat down on one of the benches.
"Rekka!" Kei sat next to me.
"Hi..." I hummed while rubbing my eyes.
"You never have this low of energy." She commented.
"Suffered a loss you could say." I mumbled and she looked concerned.
"What happened?" Hirata asked me.
"Can't remember!" I laughed confusing them.
"Kiyo!" I yelled for him and he came over while Hirata had to go sort out something Kiyotaka explained everything that happened to me and it wasn't much.
"I said you were dehydrated, so you were in a daze and walked off on your own, and then you fainted in my arms." He explained, and Kei seemed suspicious of his words.
"Pretty much, what happened?" I downed a whole bottle of water in seconds impressing Kei. "I WANT A DINOSAUR HALLUCINATION!"
Kei laughed. "Seems you are fine." She grinned happily. "Hey, Kiyotaka. Are we in trouble?"
"...hmm, that's a base, right?" I asked. "Ike says there's a million."
"No." Kei sighed. "Anyway, I have started calling Hirata, Yosuke, so I figured I'd do the same with him. Rekka, is that your first name?"
"Yeah, no using the other it's boring." I hummed. "Suzune looks great!"
"She's in a bad shape..." Kei let out confused. "Oh yeah, you like pain."
"Is Sudo massacring chairs right now?" I asked.
"Not yet, he seems close to it." She answered.
"Look like they are the only targets." I commented and Kiyotaka nodded.
"You mean it's not just a coincidence that she keeps getting paired up with tough opponents?" Kei asked us.
"It's obvious, break down the leaders then your team will fall a part like an apple crumble." I explained.
"It isn't just Horikita. Our class participation list was leaked." Kiyotaka informed her.
"Leaked?" Kei looked ready to lose it.
"The traitor leaked it, to Ryuen." Kiyotaka looked over at him.
Ryuen was with Albert, and Ryuen was actually looking our way. "He's trying to do two things. One is pit powerhouses like Sudo up against his weakest players, and everyone else up against someone just slightly superior to rack up overall wins." Kiyotaka explained.
"He's gonna be hated even more." I grinned. "Also the other reason is to crush the Suz, and it's quite easy to do."
"Have you..." Kei cut herself off.
"Yeah! We have!" I grinned. "But we needed her to bounce back after and completely broke people isn't what I want to see. I want to see the pure pain at the beginning."
"Do we have any chance left to win?" She asked us nervously.
"Ha, no!" I laughed.
"We had no intention of winning from the start." Kiyotaka added. "Rekka got angry at first, but then saw how it will benefit her."
"That's why she yelled." Kei mumbled shocked, she probably thought I was just having a tantrum back then, and yes I was.
"The most important thing right now is not to do anything." Kiyotaka explained. "Our goal in this sports festival is to lose as much as possible. That will empower us later."
"Rekka, make it all fall down for a pretzel?" Kiyotaka offered me.
Kei looked between us very confused.