==========================================================
Intro
9:00am sharp. The hands inside the school's random clock tower hit their designated time and rang their bells, indicating the start to a day very special to Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School.
Students of all classes lined up at the front of the recently built stage outside by the school's field used for these festivals, waiting for the announcement of the start of the festival.
At that moment, the student council president, Nagumo Miyabi, walked up to the stage and stood in front of the microphone.
"Good morning everyone. Welcome to this year's sports festival. I hope you all have been training yourselves to be ready for this year's one because it's going to be different than what we're used to."
As he spoke, the attention on him grew. The confident smile on his face as he gave his speech contained a bit of taunting. His expression was saying "you won't beat us in this new sports festival." As the one who proposed and likely created a lot of the new methods this year's sports festival was to show, Nagumo wanted to have as much fun with it as possible.
"For this year, we also have some alumni visitors watching us. I'd like to cordially thank you all for coming to watch us even though a lot of you may always be busy with your jobs. I'm sure we students will make sure to not disappoint you with our competition this year."
Nagumo then looked at Kiyotaka in the background of the students. It went unnoticed by everyone, but the target in question easily saw it and narrowed his eyes.
"Now it's time to get the sports festival started. The first event will be the long and triple jumps, held within the exact same areas at around 9:30am. Pick what events to choose and make sure you arrive at them on time. Commanders should head to the designated building to set up. The Commander Events will be the very last events to be held in the sports festival. I wish everyone the best of luck."
As he left the stage, the students and visiting adults applauded, some even roaring that they were going to do well in the sports festival. Kiyotaka, who was quietly standing with his class, took a moment to look at the audience. His eyes scanned for a familiar figure, familiar features and most of all familiar eyes.
His personal radar, aka his intuition and very own eyes, appeared to be in complete condition as his target finally came into view. There, standing at the very back of the crowd, surrounded by a few bodyguards, was the man he was looking for.
Yatei Ayatouji.
Also known as Professor Ayanokouji.
And most importantly, his father.
The man had his eyes closed and arms crossed, seeming very bored right now. Kiyotaka wasn't that surprised by this, as his father was someone who had a lot of work. He was actually a little surprised he had a little bit of time to attend today's sports festival, but that wasn't too important right now.
On another note, in the crowd nearby to his father was Kouenji's father, the current CEO and Chairman of the Kouenji Conglomerate, one of the very companies which supported the building and operation of the White Room financially.
"Kiyotaka. We're going to our respective tents and events to participate!"
Kei's voice next to him brought him out of his thoughts and allowed him to look back at her.
"Right. I'll be heading over to the commander tower too."
"Mhm. Are we still going with your plan during the festival?"
Her tone was serious, and when she looked back at her friend group, Kiyotaka did the same. In the background were Mori, Satou, Matsushita, Shinohara and Haruka. Mei-Yu also joined them just a few seconds after. They appeared to be having an exciting conversation as they all smiled well.
"Yes. I will drop messages to you girls through the Fitbit wearables and you should know what to do from there. This will be the best for the class, so I hope you girls do well to make it look realistic."
Kei gave a smirk, something she never really did before. Kiyotaka couldn't help but find it kinda sexy.
"Have faith in us Ki~ yo~ ta~ ka~. We'll do what we can. I'm sure Hasebe-san will also make it look absolutely realistic," she said looking at Haruka, Kiyotaka doing the same. The girl in question felt the two of them looking her way and turned to them with a smile.
"I'll be going now. I can't be late to the Commander Tower."
"Ah. I'll be cheering for you in the Commander Events. So you better not lose!"
"Of course. In this situation, I won't lose. I can't lose."
With that said, he waved back at Kei and began walking towards the special building. On the way there, he bumped into Katsuragi, who was also heading in the same direction. It appeared he was chosen as the Commander for Ryuuen's class.
Speaking of which, the deal that Kiyotaka had with Ryuuen began to make more sense to him. If Ryuuen was going to be participating in the normal sporting events, then he wouldn't be able to fight Yagami Takuya. It was possible Ryuuen could mess with Yagami's classmates to get to him, but even Ryuuen knew that wasn't a viable option. He would need to attack Yagami directly.
But with Katsuragi chosen as the Commander for their class, his pacifist nature and ability wouldn't be enough to fight against Yagami. That was why Ryuuen came to Kiyotaka.
"Compared to last year's sports festival, where we worked as a team together, this year we'll be directly against each other. I don't plan to win the Commander Events, because from what I've heard about you from Ryuuen, you're out of my league. But Ryuuen chose me as the Commander to lead the others with tactics when need be, so I intend to win those normal events and lead our class's MVPs to the rewards and total victory."
Katsuragi's declaration was to be expected. He was a very cautious man, so he didn't want a direct battle against Kiyotaka. Kiyotaka wasn't sure how much Ryuuen told him about the rooftop incident and all of his methods to win, but it didn't matter too much to him since his focus this year wasn't Katsuragi or Ryuuen.
"Oi Ayanokouji!"
As the two of them were about to enter the special building, both turned around to see Kanzaki shouting and running up to them, more specifically to Kiyotaka. Kanzaki stopped in front of them, seemingly a little out of breath running up to them as he put his hands on his knees and panted a bit. Kiyotaka and Katsuragi looked at each other before looking back at Kanzaki.
"Ayanokouji. What have you been telling Ichinose!? She's been very stubborn for ages and now she's changed just a tiny bit and it seemed to be because of you. What is the meaning of this!?"
After catching his breath for a bit, the questioning began. It seemed Kanzaki found out that Kiyotaka told Himeno some advice related to their class and then told Ichinose who likely contemplated it and then decided to take on the advice. But if that was the case, Kiyotaka wasn't sure why Kanzaki was coming to him and questioning it. For now, he decided to play along and try to understand Kanzaki's issue.
"I just told Ichinose something she really wanted to hear. It was up to her what to do with it."
Ichinose had been looking for an answer for what she should do moving forward more than once. Back when they were on spring break before the start of their second year, she and Kiyotaka had met in his room to discuss whether what she was doing was correct and all he told her was to do what she believed was right and the answer would soon show itself.
And then the same thing happened again back on the cruise ship, when the two of them met up to answer her confession before the inevitable distancing. He gave her a little bit of an answer she wanted but he still tried not to help her too much.
This time, he inexplicably told her, through Himeno as advice, what he thought was best for her class so they could continue to move forward. It wasn't different to what she was already doing, rather it was there to help her continue doing what she had been doing but support her with it a bit better.
"It may be helping us but I can't fully trust you with that. Ichinose seems to really like you, but you're too mysterious and dangerous as of yet. I want to know your true intentions right now!"
"My true intentions?"
"I can tell. You wouldn't just do this if you were not getting something out of it. Are you looking to leverage Ichinose for your class? What is it you want with her? I want to know that now!"
[Ah so that's what this is all about...] Kiyotaka thought.
Like Katsuragi, Kanzaki was also quite cautious. His class had been depleting and downgrading ever since the Class Vote special exam last year. He had been trying to convince his class they needed to do something more to be more powerful against their opponents. But he wasn't someone who wanted this to be done from an outside party, especially when that outside party happened to be someone who had hid his abilities for the longest time and was now revealing how powerful he was.
Kiyotaka wasn't all that surprised.
But if he was being honest, it was true he was looking to get something out of Ichinose doing what she was doing now. However, it was not what Kanzaki was thinking. What he wanted was for Ichinose to show him whether her methods as a leader and a fighter were better than his own, than Horikita's, than Ryuuen and Sakayanagi's.
[In other words, is Ichinose doing what she's doing better than what we may get from the White Room?]
But he kept that part to himself and answered Kanzaki.
"It's nothing what you think of. I just want Ichinose to do well. As someone who cares for her too. I don't intend to use her to my advantage the way you're thinking. We should head inside or we'll be late. If you're Class C's Commander then you should come with us and focus on the sports festival."
"Wha- Hey-"
Kanzaki had no opportunity left to try and question him as Kiyotaka walked away to enter the special building. Katsuragi soon followed behind and, after sighing a bit and giving up, Kanzaki shortly after.
For the Commanders, a room was prepared for them to have access to communication equipment, computers and monitors overlooking the entire of the sports festival events. Kiyotaka noticed it as the exact same room as the one which they used for the Event Selection special exam from the end of their first year. However, to fit for watching more than just one event for this sports festival, more monitors were added rather than just the one from the Event Selection special exam.
"This is really big for this room..."
As Katsuragi noted, the large spaces for each Commander were quite large, bigger than a typical office cubicle. The room itself was a massive hall, but being an older building, it wasn't as large as the main school building's grand hall. One would even go to say that it was one of the smallest. It was a little surprising they managed to fit large Commander cubicle offices into this hall.
"Welcome Commanders. In just 15 minutes, the first set of events will begin and you will be able to communicate with your MVPs via your own and their own earpiece, and with your other classmates using your keyboard and their Fitbits. We will individually show you a demonstration of what you will be doing during the festival. Please make your way to your designated cubicle and we'll begin."
The chosen Commanders began making their way to their respective spaces. Each cubicle was set in a row set for their respective years. For example, Kiyotaka's cubicle was directly in the middle of the left side in the middle row. And...
"Fufufu. Fancy seeing you here, Ayanokouji-kun."
To his left was none other than Arisu. Turning to his right, Kanzaki was the next one and then Katsuragi was at the end of the row. It appeared their cubicles were sorted based on their class standings.
"I guess it is," was all he said in reply.
"Oh my. You don't sound too excited to be seeing me, even after what you told me a couple days ago. Hehe. Anyway, I shall keep my end of the bargain today so do not worry. You should be good."
"I see. Thanks for your help."
With that, they entered their own cubicles. As described earlier, the space had about three monitors, two of which were showing some of the areas where some of the events would be taking place. The other monitor showed a special menu, containing information about the standings, information on the rotas for students and their abilities, and some more useful information for the Commander. All of this was hooked up to a computer tower, powered by very high-powered specs.
There was also a mouse and keyboard available to operate the system, as well as a headset to communicate with the MVPs who would be wearing tiny earpieces. Everything required for the Commander to complete their role for this festival was available here for them. It was almost like he was controlling Air Traffic Control at Narita or Haneda Airport.
A teacher then entered Kiyotaka's cubicle and began explaining how to use the system and what to do to contact his classmates. After the explanation, Kiyotaka decided to read through the event schedule and his classmates' strengths and event participation. The first events were the long and triple jumps, and from the list of students in his class, the ones participating included Shinohara, Onodera, Ike and Miyake in the long jump, and Sudou, Horikita and Kei for the triple jump.
It wasn't a surprise that Onodera and Sudou were participating in the first two events already. Being the MVPs, they were allowed to participate in as many events as possible, so participating in both events was great for them. It was undoubtful that the two of them would aim for first place.
Soon, a whistle was heard, indicating the start of the sports festival. Kiyotaka, who was silently relaxing in his chair with his eyes closed, slowly opened his narrowed eyes and stared at the screens showing the long and triple jump events.
"It's time to begin the destruction..."
A/N:
And so the sports festival begins. But what were Kei and Kiyotaka talking about? What was his plan? What should they try to make realistic? And what is this "destruction" he is talking about? Keep tuning in to All or Nothing Volume 2 as we unravel the sports festival arc! See ya guys soon!
- rainy26541 (G-String)