Starting in class C: not completely defective.

Arc 4 chapter 6: sports festival (part two)

The hurdle race came next. It was like the 100-metre dash in that it was based on speed. However, you also needed to clear the hurdles while running. If you knocked down or touched a hurdle, your time was penalised. If you knocked the hurdle down, the penalty was 0.5 seconds. If you only touched it, 0.3 seconds. There were ten hurdles in all, placed at ten-metre intervals. If you knocked them all down, you'd have five seconds added to your time. It'd be completely hopeless.

"Next up is the fourth group. Please get ready," said the referee.

I got into the same lane as before, and saw Kanzaki standing in the second lane.

"We meet again. Did you know that our participation table was changed at the last minute? None of us knew." Kanzaki said.

"Weird. Maybe there's a traitor in your class." I replied.

A boy from class D got between us, cutting our chat short. I had once again edited this group. I had placed Kanzaki and Sudou in this group.

When the signal came, I started running as fast as I did before. I cleared all the hurdles before the others, with Sudou finishing a few seconds behind me, knocking over the last hurdle.

The next competition was capture the flag. Though simple, it was still a fierce and dangerous event.

"All right. We're definitely winning this one, guys. Ayanokouji, Albert, you guys take point." Ryuuen said.

Although we were teamed up with class D, they weren't really cooperating with us, so Ryuuen and Hirata just agreed for as many people to play defence as possible. We were facing off against class B and C, led by Katsuragi and Kanzaki. Albert and I had a plan, and in this situation was our best shot. The class B and C defence was just them standing around in a line with no gaps in between. It would be impossible to get through.

Blatant violence, like punching and kicking, was naturally prohibited. However, the school would overlook a certain degree of rough-housing. Pushing, grabbing and such were expected.

I looked to Albert, giving him a thumbs up. He nodded in confirmation.

When the signal went off, Albert walked off towards the opposing side, completely alone. The class B and C students were laughing a little, and even the class D students we were teamed with found humour in the situation.

(The good the bad and the ugly theme starts playing)

When Albert was about 3/4 of the way to the enemy flag, he held up his hand. That was my signal.

I sprinted as fast as I possible could. Albert got down on one knee, and cupped his hands in front of him. When I reached him, I jumped onto his back, and placed my next step right into his hands. When I did this, he stood up and launched me over the white teams defence line. I rolled when I landed, and ran till I touched their flag. The game was won in a most spectacular way.

I saw the class B and C students shouting, calling us cheaters. I could also see the red team cheering for us.

With no time to rest, the first-year boys got ready for the tug-of-war. Meanwhile, the first-year-girls were making steady progress in their ball toss. The team competitions continued. I hadn't paid much attention at first, but the competition order was fairly arduous. It took a lot out of my less athletic classmates.

"How much of a gap between the teams do you think there is now?" Asked Ryuuen.

"Dunno. I can say for sure that the red team is winning, though," I answered.

"Yeah. We're a few steps ahead. It'll be even better if the girls win this one, at least," he muttered.

Because we were some distance away, we couldn't clearly discern how the ball toss would end. All I could think was that it looked like a close battle. The game finished soon afterward, and the teacher in charge counted up the points while clearing away the balls.

"With fifty-four points total, the red team wins."

The girls added to the boys good result in capture-the-flag. Our relief was fleeting, because the referee called us over to start the tug-of-war.

"All right, let's do this!" Said Ryuuen

A pure test of strength; our power and wits against theirs. Who would triumph? As the four classes gathered, we split into two groups, left and right. We lined up in order of height. By doing so, we could apply our strength without much unevenness. The opposing team would see this, but even if they tried to imitate us, they couldn't line up by height in such a short time span.

Just then, the signal went off, and we immediately pulled on the rope.

"And pull! And pull!"

The D/A coalition worked together with great vigour, shouting the standard tug-of-war battle cry. At first, it looked as though the two sides were evenly matched, but after a few seconds, the game started to shift in our favour.

"Go, go, go! Come on, easy!"

Before long; we heard the signal that the match ended, and that the red team had scored a point.

Now though, the opposite team had managed to copy our formation, and arranged themselves in height. We now formed a perfect bow shape.

Shibata shook his head, shouted words of encouragement to his class, and grabbed the rope once more.

"We got this. Don't worry." Ryuuen said.

"Don't be so certain. Everyone, keep your guard up. The next round won't be like the first," said Hirata.

The signal went off.

"And pull! And pull!"

The red team pulled, just like we did the first time. There was a new resistance on the other end on the rope, but we managed to pull through, and we scored our second and final point.

The red team was easily winning now. We could probably lose every other competition and still win the tournament.

Next up was the obstacle course race. It wasn't all that hard, and I still got the best time out of the first-year boys. We'd had a similar obstacle course in the white room, so I could almost work off of muscle memory.

We didn't have any time to slack off before we needed to prepare for the three-legged race. Meanwhile, it looked as though things were getting rocky for the first-year girls on the obstacle course. Ibuki was winning, and it looked like she had beaten Horikita.

Ryuuen and I were talking while he tied our legs together for the first-year boys' three legged race. The races followed right on one another's heels. It was incredible execution on the school's part, structured as effectively as a live television program.

Because a three-legged race meant two people per team, only a scant four teams could run at once. Albert and Komiya were ahead of us, and looked quite comical, due to their height difference.

We started the race. We were running against Kanzaki and Shibata from class C, and Sudou and Kouenji from class D. This would require Ryuuen to match at the very least Shibata, who was known for his speed. We had practiced daily, and I was confident in him.

When the whistle blew, I ran as fast as I could. Ryuuen slightly supported himself on me, so as to not drag us by trying to run. We finished second, after Sudou and Kouenji.

"Hm. Well, Ayanokouji boy. It seems you cannot match up to me when others are dragging you down." Kouenji remarked. I ignored him.

Authors notes
1293 words
I quite liked the CTF section. I originally envisioned Albert throwing Ayanokouji like a javelin, but that was too unrealistic.
Not much else to say really
Hope you're all doing well and I hope you enjoyed