A Normal High School Life (CotE Fanfic)

Chapter 9.4: Preparations

It had been a few days after the school had imposed a so-called "quarantine" on the students. During this time, I had been watching over Ryuuen who surprisingly, hadn't done a single thing to make a move on Horikita, especially since she had the upper hand, at least for now.

Had Ryuuen truly abandoned Kushida? Or is this another one of his schemes for us to let our guard down? If that's the case, just what is he planning to do?

All those questions were answered after I read the contents of an announcement posted by the school a few moments ago on our phones.

Announcement

After conducting further investigations on the case regarding the alleged use of violence during the sports festival, it was decided that Kushida Kikyou was guilty of sabotaging the red team by leaking their list of participants to the white team. Because of this, they will receive a one-month suspension and will be banned from participating in the marathon race. All decisions are final and irreversible by any means.

Regarding the race, it will be conducted tomorrow, all students are to assemble at the main gate by 06:00, anyone who shows up late would be banned from entering the race. The race would start at 06:35 and the cutoff time will be at 11:30.

Other than that, the announcement also contained a map showing the route of the marathon. Basically, the route is going to be a loop starting and ending at the school. Along the way, we would be going around the city of Tokyo. A water station would be stationed every kilometer (0.62 mi) along the 42.2 km (26.2 mi) route.

This would mean that for the duration of the race, we would be outside the boundary of the school. Of course, the school would not let the students roam freely since there will heavy security and surveillance along the entire route. Students who roam outside the designated route would also be heavily punished.

All things considered, everyone would not be guaranteed to follow the rules. Foul play and sabotage would still be possible.

As I finished reading the announcement, I got a message from an unknown number.

-Yo, it's been a while

They then sent a picture of someone whose familiar to me.

-What do you want?

Sigh... How troublesome

***

As soon as I finished my conversation with the sender, I quickly grabbed my phone to call Chiaki.
After a couple of rings, she picked up my call.

-What's up, Kiyotaka?

-We need to talk.

***

The next day...

I could see faint lights emitting on the horizon, the sun was steadily rising as students from the ANHS assemble in front of the school gate. It would be the first time in a while that we get to go outside the boundaries of the school, albeit only for a few hours.

The atmosphere of the vast majority of the students was tense with a couple of exceptions, notably Sudou. He was standing confidently, ready to show off his skills to the world. For the average person, running a marathon is a very difficult task.

If one were to utilize the time given by the school for training, that would only translate to several weeks of training. While the required minimum time for training for a marathon would be 16-20 weeks.

The marathon would start at 06:35 and end at 11:30, which means female students would get a mere shy of 5 hours time to finish the 42,2km run. For male students, we would be getting 4 hours and 15 minutes since the boys were scheduled to start 40 minutes after the girls. 

To make things worse,  we could see several drones flying above us. My guess is that these drones would be used by the school to monitor the race. Other than that, a helicopter was also flying above the school.

This was the first time in the school's history that the public are given the opportunity to spectate an event. Several journalists with their crews were standing outside the school, documenting the historical moment.

"Can I have your attention, please?" Said someone standing from the podium.

The already tense mood got even tenser than before, and the few chatters among the students went to complete silence upon hearing the man's words.

The person speaking on top of the podium was an elderly man. His appearance was unusual since he was wearing a tracksuit. This man was none other than Chairman Sakayanagi.

"I hope all of the students here are able to keep up with whatever the school puts on you because, in recent days, I hear reports of sabotage taking place during the first half of the sports festival. In this school, we give freedom to our students in achieving their goals. But I want you to remember that rules still exist here, and the school will uphold and enforce these rules."

"Whatever you do, I believe that all of you would be able to graduate from this school and put to use your skills and knowledge gained from the three years spent in this school for the development of Japanese society." He continued.

"That's all I have to say." He then stepped down and a muscular teacher took his place. Yes, he was our PE teacher.

"Now, I'm going to explain all the things you need to know during the marathon." Said coach-sensei.

"The girls would start the race at 06:35, with the boys going at 07:15. The cutoff time is at 11:30 which means that if you finish after 11:30, your participation would be deemed invalid. So make sure to manage the time given properly so that you can cover the entire route before the given time."

"Now the school staff would be giving you a wristband. Please put it on as soon as you receive one" He said as the school started distributing them to all of the students. The device looks similar to a smartwatch.

"You have to put this on during the duration of the race. Not wearing it means instant disqualification." He said with a stern face.

I guess this is another means for the school to monitor us, huh?
"The wristband contains your progress of the marathon. On there, you could also see the leaderboard of all of the students."

"Other than that, it also shows information about your body like your heartbeat, body temperature, and the amount of water in your body."

"You might have noticed a red button placed on your wristbands. That is the emergency button, press that and the nearest staff will come to pick you up. Remember that pressing the button also means disqualification from the race."

"If you have questions on how to operate the device, go ahead and ask the school staff standing near you."

"That's all, the race would begin shortly. All female students get ready on the starting line." He finished

A/N:

Yo, it's been a while since I updated this fanfic. This is the first time that I got back to writing after a couple of months so the quality of this chap might be worse than my previous ones.


So, when will the next update come?

I can't say that for sure, many things are currently going on in my life and I'm quite busy, so the next update might come in a few months, or possibly years. Just know that I plan to finish this story and I won't be discontinuing this series as long as I have the motivation to write.

See you!