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Part 3
Kiyotaka walked up to Court A this time around and saw Nagumo standing there waiting for him with a smirk on his face. It looked like Nagumo was looking forward to defeating Kiyotaka in this game.
"This time, I will defeat you. I'm really good at badminton so I look forward to your demise Ayanokouji."
The two of them got into their positions, Kiyotaka being given the shuttlecock to serve. As he raised it in the air and hit it towards Nagumo's side of the field, Kiyotaka was immediately caught off guard by the hard return of the shuttlecock to his side of the field. He had no time to react even if he wanted to as the shuttlecock hit the ground, giving one point to Nagumo.
"Heh. You'll have to do better than that, Ayanokouji. Come on. Entertain me."
The shuttlecock returned back to Kiyotaka to take his second serve before being handed over to Nagumo. Kiyotaka prepared the next serve and shot it over to the other side. However, instead of the shuttlecock being returned and hitting the ground again, Kiyotaka was ready for it this time and returned it with a hard forehand underswing.
Nagumo only just barely reacted in time, hitting the shuttlecock right back again. It bounced back between each court, rackets clanging as they kept swinging. The game continued on like this. Soon the score was tied 5 all. Due to the other block game finishing earlier and the fact that the winner couldn't fight anyone until the final, all the other commanders and spectators were watching the game between Kiyotaka, a supposed nobody who had a very cute girlfriend and was part of a band, and Nagumo, the current student council president.
"I must say Ayanokouji. I understood you were better than me at archery. I accepted that you beat me there. But I didn't expect you to be really good at badminton either. You really are making this enjoyable."
Nagumo received the shuttlecock and got ready to serve again. However, he stopped himself for a moment upon hearing Kiyotaka's reply to him.
"Are you proud of everything you have done to change this school, Senpai?"
"Huh?"
It wasn't surprising to Kiyotaka that Nagumo froze upon hearing his question. Being asked such a drastic question in the middle of an important tournament would obviously shock anyone. The very fact that Tsubaki had done this exact thing with Kiyotaka just not too long ago was proof of that.
"Since Horikita-senpai resigned from his position as the Student Council President last year, you have done a lot to change this school into a meritocracy. You assisted in the creation of special exams such as the Uninhabited Island exam and even a part of this sports festival. You made additions to this school that greatly assisted in the class competitions, such as the OAA. But you also have manipulated your ability as the president to do things you wanted. So I just wanted to ask, are you proud of what you've done as this school's Student Council President?"
Nagumo still hadn't sent the serve over to Kiyotaka yet. He stood there staring at Kiyotaka with a frown and almost a glare in his eyes. The audience and other Commanders were not aware of this or the conversation they were having, so they all watched in confusion as Kiyotaka and Nagumo temporarily stopped playing.
"Hey. Ayanokouji. I don't like that type of question you're asking. It's almost as if you're saying you don't like anything I've done and you're looking down at me from the place upon where the Gods stay."
"Is that so? I'm just asking you since you are a senpai who is worthy of my respect. But I wonder if you have actually earned it yet compared to Horikita Manabu-senpai." Kiyotaka asked back with raised eyebrows. That only seemed to piss off Nagumo more.
"Tch. You know, Ayanokouji. I really hate that your expression never really changes. Ever since our meeting on the island exam, you've been exuding an atmosphere that's been saying you're better than everyone here, even me and Horikita-senpai. The fact you gained his attention despite the fact you did nothing is truly annoying. I'm going to wipe that indifferent expression off your face and put you in your place in this festival. Be prepared."
Nagumo then sent a hard swinging serve towards Kiyotaka, who perfectly rebounded the shot with ease.
"In that case, can you truly show me what it's like to be a strong Student Council President who rules over people and wipes the floor with a cold loner that obviously isn't me?"
"I'll wipe that goddamn expression off your face!"
The game continued on, an even score between the two until it reached 7 points each. However, from that point onward, Kiyotaka began to be the favourable player as he alone racked up to 10 points. It was now a match point to Kiyotaka. Realising this, Naugmo gritted his teeth in frustration.
In order to prevent Kiyotaka from gaining another point and winning, Nagumo needed to do something. After Kiyotaka made a serve and the two returned each shot to each other, Nagumo found an opportunity to try to finally gain a point. With a warcry of the sort, he smashed the shuttlecock towards Kiyotaka's field using a forehand overswing, intending to grab the point there. It was a shot with great amounts of force, no one else could possibly perform.
However... unexpectedly to anyone in the sports hall, minus a certain few people, the shuttlecock flew past Nagumo at speed and landed just barely within the court behind him. Nagumo had no time to react to the shot, and the audience just watched on in silence. Finally realising what happened, Nagumo turned to see the shuttlecock on the ground, indicating the worst for him.
As he turned back to face Kiyotaka, Nagumo noticed that only Kiyotaka's back was facing him and he was in a certain position that told exactly what had happened.
Immediately after Nagumo had sent a quickfire hit, Kiyotaka was already in the position to conduct a hard backhand underswing. It seemed as though Kiyotaka had gambled on a prediction and successfully pulled it off to win him the final point as the shuttlecock hit the racket and zoomed past to land just shy of the line covering the court.
The silence finally subsided and cheers across the hall erupted like a volcano spewing its lava. Hearing the cheers, Kiyotaka returned to just a normal standing position and looked over at Nagumo, expressionless as always.
"You're even more predictable if you are unable to control your frustration."
"Grrr! Ayanokouji. You-"
It was safe to assume that all the questions and slight jabs sent at Nagumo earlier on were for Kiyotaka to rile up Nagumo and then make him more predictable. A double trap. When he thought about it, Nagumo was both frustrated and amazed that he fell for such an easy trap.
"It was a good game, President Nagumo. But just like how you had to do things to win in the Mixed Training Camp and in the Uninhabited Island exam, I must do my own things to win too. You already knew that from the start, didn't you?"
With that all said, Kiyotaka didn't bother to listen to Nagumo's reply as he walked off and waited for the final round to begin. He would be up against Yagami Takuya again, which meant this game was going to get more intense than the one with Nagumo.
After being given a nearly 5 minute break, the teachers announced the start to the final game. Both Kiyotaka and Takuya walked over to court B holding their rackets. Before taking their respective sides of the court, the two finalists met halfway, staring at one another with competitive expressions.
"This game will be very interesting, won't it Senpai? They don't know the whole aspect of our fight and just find it enjoyable to watch. So let's make sure to put on a show for them all. But unlike the archery event, you won't be winning this time."
"Indeed. I hope this goes well for the both of us."
The two of them went to their respective sides. Shuttlecock in hand, Takuya stared across the field to see Kiyotaka already proclaiming a focused stance, ready to do battle. Seeing Kiyotaka take him more seriously than the others he faced against, even Nagumo, Takuya couldn't help but smirk in amusement.
Raising the shuttlecock in the air, Takuya smashed it towards Kiyotaka's side of the court. Kiyotaka responded immediately and hit it back with just as much force. Back and forth the shuttlecock went, both fighters quickly manoeuvring in line with the shuttlecock's direction.
From the spectators perspective, it was like watching two olympic athletes compete against each other in the olympic games. Every single move they made was perfectly carried out with ease. Their footwork was like that of an A+ dancer from Dancing on Ice. Their swings were directly in line with the shuttlecock so that their aim was perfectly in line with where they were looking.
An intense battle to determine who was the better badminton player, who is the strongest Commander. The audience couldn't help but cheer at the game in front of them.
1:0 to Kiyotaka.
1:1 draw.
3:2 to Kiyotaka.
5:6 to Takuya.
7:8 to Takuya.
Kiyotaka and Takuya were completely evenly matched. It had already been more than 10 minutes since the round began, and it still wasn't immediately clear who out of the two White Room students was going to win.
The time since the game began was now nearly reaching 20 minutes, and there was still 3 to 4 points respectively until one of them would be crowned the winner for the Badminton event. The spectators, both outsiders and students, held on to the edges of their seats.
Kiyotaka finally got another point and evened the score to 8 points each. However, if the game continued on like it had now, Kiyotaka and Takuya would likely finish their match right at the end of the sports festival's given time limit, even before the final event could happen. With that in mind, before handing the shuttlecock to Takuya, the referee spoke up.
"Alright pause! Due to time constraints, whoever gets the next point will be crowned the winner. We need to move onto the final event before the sports festival ends. So its match point for either one of you. Understood?"
The two boys were a little surprised at this, but upon understanding the situation, they both nodded and agreed to it. After all...
They definitely didn't need to prolong this to prove who was better between the two of them. They also had one more event to prove it all too.
"Let's finish this game Ayanokouji-senpai," Takuya said as he raised the shuttlecock in the air and whacked it to Kiyotaka.
The shuttlecock flew back and forth once again between each half of the court. This was the final battle to decide the winner of the tournament. The audience sat in silence, not intending to distract the two players from their state of focus.
Even though the two of them had athletic abilities that transcended that of a normal human being, the intense workout, the intense battle, had used so much energy from both of them that they finally had sweat dripping from their foreheads.
"Senpai. I'll be honest with you. I really really hate you. I want to defeat you and prove that I'm the better White Room Masterpiece. But I have to admit that this is kind of fun. Two White Room students duking it out in events, going all out to prove who is better. Even if I hate you, I can't deny that this is the most fun I've had in so long. I will really destroy all those expectations you set and defeat you!"
Even though all he wanted was to get Takuya off his back by defeating him so that he could just live his life normally, even Kiyotaka couldn't help but think this was fun. Kiyotaka now understood how Ryuuen felt when the two of them fought on the rooftop or how Arisu felt when the two of them were in the chess tournament during the Event Selection special exam.
Whether you won or lost, if you had someone who rivalled you in power and put up a great match to make you go all in, you couldn't deny the fact that you were going to be happy and have fun. Feelings of hatred, sadness and anger would disappear and excitement and adrenaline would replace them.
However, with that in mind, when Takuya returned the shot to Kiyotaka's side with as much force as possible, Kiyotaka conducted a very unexpected move. The shuttlecock was directed towards the other side of where Kiyotaka was. He ran for it to try and hit it right back...
...But he completely missed the opportunity to return it and the shuttlecock fell to the ground.
"That's game! The winner of the Badminton event is Yagami Takuya!"
There was a short silence before the audience erupted in cheers. The long intense final round of badminton finally ended and everyone watching was left as satisfied as possible with the results.
However, the same couldn't be said with one of the two participants. Takuya had a shocked look on his face which then turned dangerous, but he quickly got rid of that expression in favour of keeping up an image for the time being.
"Now that the badminton event is over, everyone please make your way outside to the athletics field so we can conduct the final event. Ayanokouji Kiyotaka-kun and Yagami Takuya-kun, please take quick showers and freshen up before coming outside to join us for the last event."
With that, everyone left the gym hall at the front entrance to head over to the athletics field. Kiyotaka and Takuya, meanwhile, heeded the teacher's advice and headed over to the boys changing rooms to have a quick freshen up shower.
When the two of them took their respective shower stalls and started the normal showers, Takuya called out to Kiyotaka.
"Why did you do that!? You held back at the end there, Ayanokouji-senpai. No. More like you intentionally let the shuttlecock hit the floor and intentionally let me win. Why?"
Kiyotaka knew this question would be coming. At the end of the game, just before the shuttlecock hit the ground, Kiyotaka intentionally caused himself to trip up his running, and effectively made himself unable to hit a return shot. If he hadn't had done that, Kiyotaka would've been able to make the run and return the shot easily to continue the game.
But it was for that exact reason that Kiyotaka did what he did.
"Our game would've been continuing on for too long if I didn't do that. We were both having fun with that game, but I felt the best way to truly decide the winner between us two is to battle it out in the final event too. That wouldn't have been able to happen if our game continued on as it did."
A true ending for an important battle, like those in adventure stories. This was what Kiyotaka was aiming for. Once Takuya understood this, his harsh White Room tone lessened to a more normal one.
"I see... Well I understand in that case. But you do realise that you held back, something which if I didn't exactly know the reason why, I would've attacked you. This doesn't get rid of my hatred for you."
"I know. So let's end this battle in the final game once and for all."
Kiyotaka also intentionally left out saying that even if the game continued, Takuya probably would have won, because he knew that wouldn't change anything.
Takuya couldn't say anything else to that. He just continued his shower with Kiyotaka doing the same before the two left the boys changing rooms feeling refreshed and headed for the athletics field.
A/N:
Apologies for the battle being short. It's actually harder than it looks to write a long and intense badminton match without making it sound repetitive and boring. I wanted to do more for both battles but it was really not easy so I settled with this. Anyway, the next event will be the final one for the Commander events. Why did Kiyo intentionally lose you might ask? Maybe because, just one time, he felt like he wanted to have fun fighting against Yagami. Maybe that's the case. He's still unknown. Anyway, see ya guys for the next part!
- rainy26541 (G-String)