Chapter 142

After a few words from the principal, the student council president announced the official start of the sports festival. Sparse applause ensued. Fushimi alone was clapping like her life depended on it. She wore her gym uniform and a headband. “Let’s do this, Ryou!” She was all fired up. I, on the other hand, was only happy because we didn’t have classes that day. “Which event are you in, again?” “The borrowing competition,” I answered as we made our way to the first event. Thanks to the existence of the sports festival committee, we class reps didn’t have to organize anything; we basically had no work to do. The only bother was that all students had to participate in at least one event in addition to the general participation ones. “And you?” “I’m doing the relay race, the three-legged race…” Most of the people on the former were in sports clubs—it was one of the most hotly contested events in the program. For Fushimi to have wedged her way in, she had to be a model student, skilled both in class and on the field. Most of the events toward the beginning were essentially just games. The more serious competitions were all in the latter half. “Directooor, the borrowing competition’s about to start. Get ready.” I raised my hand at the festival committee rep to signal my understanding. “R-Ryou…! Relax…! You’ve got this!” Fushimi cheered me on. You make it sound like I’m taking my college entrance exams. I was nothing if not relaxed. “Thanks. I’ll do my second best.” The borrowing competition was hardly something to get so worked up about. Then, as I turned around toward the starting line, Himeji stopped me. “Ryou, you can rely on me if you need anything.” She puffed out her chest. “Will do.” I walked to my position. I glanced at the crowd and found Torigoe among them, in even lower spirits than usual. She looked like she’d try to bail at the first chance. Maybe she would rather have regular classes; she didn’t like sports very much, after all. My name was called; I was in the first group. I felt the gazes of the guys lined up beside me. “So this is Fushimi’s childhood friend…!” “I heard he’s also close with the ex-idol Himejima.” I could see in their eyes that they were all determined not to lose to me. I was just in this for fun, hoping it would all go smoothly, so I was more than happy for them to pass me by. The competition was announced, and all eyes gathered on us. I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous, despite myself. Bang! The pistol went off, and I ran. Soon, we came to a net that we had to crawl under. Then we had to jump over a few hurdles. Finally, we got to the table with the cards that told us what we had to borrow. The quick ones were there in a flash. I grabbed one of the ten or so cards. … What? “No, no. I don’t know anyone like that.” I was stuck thinking and wound up in last place. Oh… I guess I shouldn’t take this too seriously. “You can do it, Ryou!” A few yells of Director! and Prez! followed Fushimi’s cheering. I ran up to the place where everyone in class B was. Other people were grabbing microphones or teachers and getting ready to finish the competition. It has to be Fushimi or Himeji. Or I guess Torigoe works, too? Then my eyes met Fushimi’s. “Fushimi, c’mere!” “Huh?! M-me?! O-okaaay!” Fushimi came onto the field, and I grabbed her hand and led her toward the goal. “What? What did it say?” “I-I’ll tell you later.” “?” She tilted her head. Naturally, when we lined up at the goal, I was in last place. “Last place, eh?” she said. “It’s still early, we’ll be fine. These ones are never serious anyway.” “Geez!” she said, scolding me. “Why do you have to put yourself down like that!” The guys who finished first stared at us. They all looked dead inside. “So what did it say?” Fushimi asked. Just as she did, the announcer started revealing what each card said and what everyone had borrowed. For the card that said Madonna, a student had brought the old lady who taught classic literature, sending everyone into fits of laughter. “And in last place is class B’s Takamori, with the card saying Idol.” A stir went through the crowd. “Ryou.” “Oh, um, well…” “You think of me as an idol?” She fixed me with her innocent gaze. “Shouldn’t you have called for Ai?” She looked seriously confused. “Don’t take it so literally. I mean, you wouldn’t normally have a real idol for a classmate, right? You gotta go along with the joke.” “Is that so?” “Y-yeah. There’s no right answer. Just think of it like…you’re the idol of our school.” I looked away from her as I spoke, but then she moved over into my field of view. A giant smile was spread across her face. “I see. Mm-hmmm. So I’m your idol.” “That’s not what I—…” Just then, I felt a menacing aura emanating from the crowd of our classmates. “Ah…… I can feel Ai’s presence…” Fushimi gulped. The competition now over, we walked back toward the group, and, indeed, the source of the miasma was Himeji. “Ryou! I do not accept it. It should’ve been me! Sit down! There! Right now!” “C’mon, why does it matter? It’s just a game.” I set up a chair for myself and sat down. “Not on the chair. On the ground. On your knees.” “No.” “I told you to rely on me if you needed anything! Did you not even think about asking me?!” She started slapping my head and shoulders. Nothing I say is going to help, is it? Of course I remembered what she’d said and considered her. But Fushimi’s gaze was the first to meet mine. I figured there was no reason to insist on Himeji, so I just went with the flow. While Himeji was beating me up, Deguchi came up from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Himejima. Just so you know, you’re my number one idol.” Himeji glanced back at him but didn’t say a word. “…Nothing?” Deguchi left, looking a little sad. Thankfully, that took a bit of the edge off her anger. Himeji snorted in displeasure and left. Finally, the storm has passed. The general participation events followed, with tug-of-war and the ball toss. And then began the final activity of the morning—the cavalry battle. “Torigoe’s gonna be on top?” said Deguchi. I hadn’t realized until he said it. “Torigoe…” No wonder she was so down. You had to really pay attention when you were at the top. She must have lost a game of rock-paper-scissors. In contrast to Torigoe, who was pale and shaking in one corner, Himeji rose majestically atop the three other girls. I could hear her yelling confidently, “Everyone follow me! We will obliterate all enemies in sight!” I hope she remembers this is just a game. “Himeji’s turned into a warlord.” “I wish I was her mount,” Deguchi whispered. Bang! At the sound of the pistol, the battle began. Himeji came under fire right away. Not only did she stand out because of her looks, but after that little display just now, she’d made a lot of enemies. Six teams surrounded her. “Bwuuuuuuh?! Y-you can’t gang up on me! Th-that’s cheatingggg!” She fought back, but her headband was taken within ten seconds. The warlord has been overthrown… Not even she could take on six at once. It was too crowded for me to make out what happened after that. Torigoe, though, was sneaking around like a shadow, taking headbands from behind. In the end, Torigoe was way more successful than the conceited Himeji. Upon coming back, Himeji didn’t even let me say anything before she declared, “Th-that was my plan all along. I was bait.” “Sure didn’t sound like it at the beginning.” “…” “You really took the reins. ‘Everyone follow me,’ you said.” “So what?!” I decided it was about time to stop teasing her and dropped it. Then our other contender arrived. “You did great, Torigoe,” I told her. She shot me a victory sign, her face impassive. It seemed like she’d had fun, in her own way. After lunch break, there was a cheerleading competition and a performance by the brass band club. I had no more activities after noon, so I just took it easy. Then I heard an announcement saying, “Everyone in the three-legged race, please move to the starting line.” Fushimi’s running in this one, right? I started preparing to cheer her on, but just then, she ran up to me. “Could you run with me, Ryou?” “What? Me? Who was your partner?” “Ai, but she’s down after what happened and won’t come out of the classroom…” The cavalry battle hit her that hard? “You made fun of her, didn’t you?” she said. “She brought it on herself. What about Torigoe?” “She’s reading in the library.” In the middle of the sports festival?! I didn’t even know it was open. “Come on already.” Fushimi hurried me along to the starting line. Once there, she tied our legs together and timidly reached around my waist. “…!” S-stop looking embarrassed and say something. “Y-you gotta put your hand around me, too, Ryou…” “Yeah…” I reached around her shoulder. It was so thin and soft, it felt like I could crush it if I squeezed too hard. Because of our height difference, it looked like I was pulling her to my side. “W-we’re so close,” she said. “Th-that’s how this works.” It was hard talking with her face so close to mine… And it seemed she felt the same, because she said nothing until it was our turn. Once it was time to begin, we decided which foot to start with and received the baton. We counted one, two as we took each step. Somehow, we were faster than the others. We moved ahead of another pair and passed the baton at the same time as the front-runners. “We were totally in sync,” Fushimi said. “Lightning fast!” “Amazing what we accomplished without practice.” “It’s the power of childhood friendship!” “Maybe.” Thanks to our efforts, we ended up in first place. “We turned the tide!” she said, singing our praises. Then she smiled. “Thank you for joining me.” “You’re welcome,” I said. A thought struck me then—it was probably pretty normal for a boy and girl in our position to go out at least once, right? Though I supposed I didn’t really know what was normal. As I philosophized on the meaning of childhood friendship and normalcy, the sports festival came to a close.