The frontrunners: Nagase/Katori. The infamous power couple: Yaegashi/Inaba. These four were about to go head to head... or so they all thought! But lo and behold, Watase and I were still in the running!
Together, we observed the two other pairs from the shadows.
“Let’s see... According to my calculations, Yaegashi-kun has 112 flowers, and Nagase-san has 168. That accounts for almost all of the 301 total flowers.”
“Which means we’ve got the last 21... Shouldn’t we be disqualified or something?”
“Nonsense! We met the midday quota, so we haven’t broken any rules!”
By avoiding risky battles and only taking up challenges we knew we could win, we made it all the way to the top 3!
“Right. We haven’t broken any rules — we were just playing strategically! I don’t care if everyone else thinks I’m a coward... I’ll do whatever it takes to win this with you!”
I was truly delighted to have such a determined partner.
“For the thrilling finale, I’ve prepared a competition that’ll give even the strongest opponents a run for their money! Yes, that’s right! I planned this event, directed it, supervised it, and now I’m starring in it!”
“You’re a force to be reckoned with, Fujishima-san... I love it!”
Then, finally, Nagase and Katori walked over to Yaegashi and Inaba.
The path we took to get here was by no means an easy one, and now we would face our greatest hurdle yet... but knowing us, we had the strength to persevere.
“Here we go!”
“Hell yeah! I’m with you, no matter what!”
With Watase by my side, I could go the distance.
We ran out from behind the school building and cut through the crowd to the front — to the center of the ring, where the other four stood.
“Just so you know, we’re still in the tournament, too!”
And so an unexpected dark horse stormed onto the scene, garnering support as the underdog while single-handedly turning the finale into a fiery three-way match that was sure to... get the crowd... psyched...?
“What? Them?”
“I was watching Yaegashi’s battles. He’s had a lot of good ones.”
“Nagase and the President have been doing incredible, too!”
“The Free-For-All Quiz Show they did at the gym was hilarious!”
Ah, I see. After all those battles, both pairs had earned their fair share of support from the spectators.
“But Fujishima-san...”
“Did they even battle at all?”
“I saw them do a couple of easy battles this morning, but...”
“Yeah... We lost to them a while ago, but the battle itself was really weird...”
Wait, what? Where’s our dark horse fanfare?
“There were just so many awesome fights...”
“It just doesn’t feel right...”
Apparently the other battles were more exciting than I’d anticipated, leading our audience to prioritize quality over gimmicks. Especially since the majority of them were former participants themselves.
Oh dear. Perhaps it wasn’t wise to plan my strategy around battle manga tropes.
This wasn’t looking good for us. At this rate, things wouldn’t work out the way I’d planned...
“The gap between our flowers is astronomical, but whatever. I guess the most efficient choice would be to just let them take part in the battle with us,” Inaba sighed.
“Yeah, we might as well,” said Yaegashi.
“Yeah, I guess,” said Nagase.
“I suppose that’s just how it has to be,” said Katori.
Almost like they were taking pity on us!
With everyone’s eyes on us, I felt like... like... like such a loser. But as my spirit teetered on the precipice—
“Don’t worry, Fujishima-san... I’m right here with you!” Watase whispered reassuringly.
So I pulled myself together.
“W-Well, let’s make the finale a fair fight for everyone. We could add handicaps based on each team’s current flower count, for example.”
“Wh... Fujishima-san? Are you sure?” Watase asked quietly, clearly concerned.
“We don’t have a choice here. Seeing as I helped set up this whole event, people might start to think I cheated my way to the top, and I refuse to let that become the dominant narrative! I don’t want to damage the integrity of the tournament itself. It would tarnish everyone’s happy memories... I won’t let that happen!”
I didn’t want anyone to cast aspersions on Watase by association, either.
“...Alright then,” he nodded, looking awestruck.
“So, how shall we compete? Ideally it should be something we can all agree to,” said Katori.
“Why don’t we just draw from the Battle Box? It’d be fair that way,” Yaegashi suggested.
“But what if we end up drawing something boring? It’d be a real drag,” Inaba commented.
I could tell she was angling for something, but right now, I had no way of stopping her.
“So why don’t we—”
“Hey, guys! Why don’t we make this conversation loud enough for everyone to hear?” Nagase cut in loudly. “We can decide our battle through public debate!”
“...Uhh, sure. I don’t see why not.”
Naturally, no one was in a position to object, not even Inaba. Nagase had picked the perfect time to interrupt her, too. In a sense, this battle had already begun.
“We have no problems with that, either,” I told them. But because we hadn’t earned any public support from the crowd, it would now be even more difficult for us to advocate for ourselves. Was that part of her strategy, or just incidental?
“Okay then, somebody get me a miiiic!” Nagase called out in a singsong voice. A commentator from the Broadcasting Club then brought one over to her.
Instantly, her smile deepened. Call it my female intuition, but I knew she was plotting something.
“Don’t—!”
Inaba must have sensed the bad omen, too. She reached out to stop her, but it was too late.
“Hello, everyone! Thanks for hanging in there! This has been one heck of a five-hour marathon, huh?”
Just like that, it felt like Nagase had taken center stage, and the rest of us were merely faceless extras.
“Y’know, for an impromptu event, this turned out to be way more fun than I ever imagined! And I’m sure this year’s Sports Festival and Culture Festival are gonna be awesome, too! Big thanks to Fujishima-san for setting it all up!”
Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd. Some even whistled. It almost felt like the tournament was over already; I could feel my competitive spirit deflating.
Only Nagase Iori, the Yamaboshi diva, had the sheer star power to win over an entire crowd of six hundred students.
“We’ve all had our share of battles. Some of us won and some of us lost. But this tournament was never about winning — the real prize was the memories we made along the way!”
It was such a cheesy line, and yet it felt so apt, I couldn’t help but clap.
“Now we need to choose a final winner, and I think everybody should help us out! I mean, it’s no fun just watching, right?”
“Yeah!” the audience shouted back. All eyes were on her, enraptured. She had them all dancing in the palm of her hand.
“Well then, I say we should put it to a vote! Now let’s go to the gym and give our speeches for the Who Deserves to Win Election!”
And in this day and age, none of us could possibly object to the democratic process.
+++
And so it was that Nagase Iori and Katori Jouji were awarded all 301 flowers, as well as a slapdash “Student Representative Certificate” and a photo shoot with the happy couple. At last, Tanaka-sensei & Hirata-sensei’s Happy Wedding Bouquet Toss (Couples’ Battle Royale) had come to an end.
Some people were less than pleased with this particular outcome:
“Ugh, this sucks. Those two didn’t need any extra help getting into college...”
“Some people get everything handed to them, I swear...”
“They were just born lucky...”
But other than that, everyone seemed to accept it.
All three pairs received an equal amount of time to give their speeches about why they deserved to win, but to be frank, Nagase had won the battle the second this particular format was chosen — or rather, the second someone handed her a mic.
Admittedly, Taichi was a little disappointed he lost, but at the same time, he wasn’t that surprised. After all, Nagase and Katori had magnetic charm, influence, and the sheer talent needed to win dozens upon dozens of battles. And it was only natural that the students they beat would want them to win.
In the end, it kinda felt like the victory had been stolen from them without any actual competition, but he couldn’t pretend it didn’t make sense, since Nagase and Katori had acquired the most flowers anyway. That, and the school had required the event to end at a specific time, so they had to wrap things up fairly quick.