Classroom of the Elite: Free Will

V5: Chapter 7 - Foul Play

Matsushita Chiaki POV

It finally was our turn for the obstacle race.

I went to my place and began warming up just like everyone else. Although, there was someone missing...

"Chiaki!"

... Never mind.

Out of nowhere, Tomori-san's arms surrounded me in a hug and she buried her head on my chest.

"We're finally on the same group. Aren't you happy, Chiaki?" she asked looking up at me.

"Eh... Yeah, I am. Tomori-san—"

"Nao!" she reprimanded me.

Tomori-san has been doing this ever since I started contributing to the class again. I suspected she was keeping an eye on me directly, which I found weird since I didn't think someone like Tomori-san would get out of her way to survey me. Also, she was being painfully obvious. However, she wouldn't try to get information out of me or do anything suspicious, she would just talk to me normally as if we were best friends or something.

"Now, now, Tomori-san. Don't you see you're making Matsushita-san uncomfortable," Kocho-san who was next to us, declared.

"Eh? Is that true, Chiaki?" Nao inquired with a pout.

"...Well, I wouldn't put it like that, but I'd like to do my warm up, Tomo—Nao-san," I said.

Nao nodded slightly.

"You're right, warming up is very important. No one wants to get an injury like Eiichiro-kun," Nao commented with a smile.

Kocho-san and her exchanged glances for a brief moment, their usual smiles on their faces. The next second, as if nothing had happened, they turned away and went back to take their respective positions. Had something happened between those two?

"Well, good luck Chiaki-chan," Nao said waving her hand playfully.

"Let's do our best, Matsushita-san," Kocho-san smiled gently at me.

Ahhh!! I leave the game for over a month and it's like I'm entering a whole different school.

I looked around to see who else was competing here. From my class there was Karuizawa-san which was weird, up until now, Horikita-san, Kocho-san and Tomori-san had been in the same group. But there had been changes for the obstacle race.

Next to Kocho-san, from Class B there was Himeno-san. The other Class A student was Tanihara-san who wasn't particularly fast. Finally, from Class C, there was Kinoshita-san one of the fastest students from that class, I didn't recognise the other student. Noticing that Kinoshita-san was glaring intently at someone, I followed her line of sight to see that she was glaring at Himeno-san who was actually glaring back at her... They had been on the same groups so far as well, what were the chances of them changing groups and still being together? Actually, they would start right next to each other...

As the race started, everyone dashed forward, bolting straight toward the balance beam. Tomori-san and Kocho-san took the first spots in no time and completely left everyone behind. To my surprise, Kinoshita-san didn't take the third place immediately. Instead, the rest of us were running almost shoulder to shoulder as we were about to arrive to the balance beam.

The way Himeno-san and Kinoshita-san were running was on the verge of foul play judging by the way they were hampering the other one.

As I passed the balance beam, I realized that I was alone. Risking a glance, I saw that the other five had fallen and Karuizawa-san and Himeno-san were trying to stand up. I had no idea of what had happened there, but I just kept running towards the next obstacle. Since this was an obstacle race a fall wasn't something unusual, it was one of those unknown variables that could happen in this kind of competitions.