Though Ichinose had advised Kaoru to quickly change the competition roster before hanging up, the forms had already been submitted.
Kaoru explained it was impossible now.
Since Class A's roster was tied to Class D's, they had to be submitted together.
As ti passed, September's sports festival finally comnced.
The weather had gradually cooled, the sumr heat mostly dissipated.
A golden slit split the morning clouds as a refreshing breeze swept across the athletic field.
After preparations the previous day, various sports equipnt now filled the grounds—data-recording scoreboards, caras for incident docuntation, temporary rest area cabins, and teachers supervising the entire event.
With limited ti, the school skipped an opening ceremony, simply having students march past the podium so administrators could observe them.
Walking in formation, Kaoru inadvertently glanced upward and spotted the man seated at the podium's center, an identification plate before him:
Sakayanagi Narumori.
The current chairman of this school was not particularly striking in stature, with a rather gentle deanor.
Despite coming from a prestigious family, he didn't give off any air of superiority and would unconsciously smile when looking at the students.
It was said that ANHS had been founded by his father, and he himself had only taken over the position as chairman in recent years, succeeding his father.
Today was likely the first ti Kaoru had seen him in person.
Kaoru averted his gaze because his daughter was sitting in the spectator stands, silently observing the entire sports festival.
He had expected Sakayanagi Narumori to say a few words of encouragent to the students, but after the principal finished speaking, the chairman simply announced the official start of today's competition.
Despite there being only a few hundred students, the schedule for the day seed rather tight, with 13 events in total.
Following a brief explanation of the basic rules by third-year student Fujimaki, each grade quickly moved into their respective zones—the Red and White teams—where they would remain separate except during competitions, including the first-year students.
Events like the 100-ter dash seed to start with the first-years, followed by the second-years and then the third-years.
The order began with the boys, then the girls, then switched to girls first in the next event before returning to boys, only to switch back again shortly after.
It felt oddly chaotic, like the haphazard scheduling of holidays in a certain Eastern superpower, all cramd together.
Since Kaoru was in the fifth group, he leisurely went through his warm-up routine while glancing toward the second-year area out of the corner of his eye.
There, he could see Nagumo Miyabi wearing an expression of extre displeasure, as if he had just eaten sothing vile, while those around him treaded carefully, not daring to make a sound.
Clearly, Kaoru's tactics had worked.
The day before, under the pretense of publicly announcing the competition roster, Nagumo had demanded that all second-years submit their participation forms, intending to reveal the finalized lineup at the very last mont.
His plan had been sound—given his influence, no second-year would have dared to defy him.
However, Kiriyama Ikuyo had submitted his form only to make an ergency revision at the last minute, citing that several classmates were feeling unwell and needed to switch their event order.
When Kiriyama handed in the revised roster, Nagumo nearly lost his composure.
He had already finalized the lineup and submitted it to the school, completely caught off guard by Kiriyama's maneuver.
There was no doubt about it—under normal circumstances, Kiriyama would never have dared to pull such a stunt, nor was this sly tactic her style.
It could only have been Kaoru Mitoma.
Realizing this, Nagumo had all but confird one fact.
Just as he intended to teach Kaoru a lesson, Kaoru similarly wanted to overturn him.
The key point was that Kaoru had been secretly approaching his childhood friend.
All in all, the more Nagumo Miyabi thought about it, the more disgusted he felt.
He could accept being a playboy himself, viewing won as expendable, but he absolutely could not tolerate his childhood friend becoming soone else's expendable.
Thus, on the day the sports festival officially began, Nagumo Miyabi was in an exceptionally foul mood, his gaze fixed intently on the first-year students.
Under his stare, Kaoru had already finished his warm-up, his expression unchanged.
On the competition field, a short whistle blew, and a black figure instantly shot out from the track, overwhelmingly leading by several body lengths before charging past the finish line in first place.
That figure was none other than Sudou Ken from Class D.
Kaoru could already hear the cheers from Class D, especially the shouts from boys like Ike Kanji.
"This guy is way too terrifying!" Totsuka Yahiko exclaid in shock.
Even though he had seen it many tis before, he still couldn't help but be stunned.
Not just the first-years—even students from other grades showed expressions of surprise.
This was likely the effect Class D wanted: to make a stunning impression right from the start.
Kaoru watched Sudou triumphant deanor and wondered whether he should use the Imitator Ga on him to steal that terrifying strength.
The original plan also included Kouenji Rosuke, Kito Hayato, Yamada Albert, and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
However, Kouenji Rosuke hadn't participated in practice, and today he seed unwilling to compete, pretending to be sick in the rest cabin.
Kaoru couldn't accurately gauge his abilities.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was similar.
Though he usually attended practice, he mostly just went through the motions.
Kaoru had relied solely on his observational skills to determine that Ayanokoji had undergone formal physical training and possessed explosive power, which was why he had been added to the list.
However, he didn't know whether Ayanokoji's physical abilities could match Sudou Ken's.
As for Kito Hayato and Yamada Albert, the forr wasn't as fearso as Sudou Ken, while the latter also seed unlikely to catch up to him.
Kaoru sighed.
He had made up his mind—he couldn't take unnecessary risks.
Class A's ranking needed to be second or third.
Soon, it was finally his turn to compete.
Each class sent two students.
The one paired with Kaoru from Class A was a boy nad Machida Koji, a mber of Katsuragi's faction.
Kaoru assud a standard starting position.
A few seconds before the teacher blew the whistle, for so reason, a sudden cheer ca from the side.
This school didn't even prepare for the opening ceremony, let alone arrange cheerleaders, so the unexpected shout nearly made Kaoru miss the whistle.
Still, by exerting a bit of his true strength, he ultimately secured first place, while his classmate Machida Koji ca in fourth.
After the race, Kaoru scanned the first-year crowd, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find the student who had cheered.
It was as if it had been his imagination.
No—even if soone had really shouted, it probably hadn't been for him, right?
The mont Kaoru returned to Class A's group, he noticed his classmates staring at him as if they had seen a ghost.
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