'Fourth place, fourth place.'
Saiki thought to himself as he overtook two runners, securing fourth place.
But he quickly realized something was off.
'Yare yare, the student council president's speed seems faster than I expected.'
Saiki noticed that Horikita Manabu's speed was faster than he had anticipated, and he had reached fourth place too early.
The eyes of everyone around were now fixed on Saiki.
"Saiki's so fast!"
"At this rate, he might even make it to the top three!"
"Go, Saiki!"
The students of Class B cheered loudly, rooting for Saiki.
'Yare yare, sorry, but I'm not aiming for a high ranking.'
Saiki thought to himself, then adjusted his speed to match Shibata So's pace. The dense crowd and noisy surroundings made it impossible for him to clearly hear the thoughts of those around him.
By now, Horikita Manabu had taken second place, while Shibata So had fallen to third.
[This guy is really fast.]
Shibata So was shocked when Horikita Manabu overtook him. The student council president's speed was astonishing.
[Catching up to him for second place is almost impossible. I'll just aim to maintain third place—]
As Shibata So thought this, he glanced back and saw that the biggest threat to his position was Saiki in fourth place.
[To secure a top-three finish, I need to widen the gap with fourth place!]
Shibata So pushed himself to his limit, accelerating again—but just as he thought he had left Saiki behind, he noticed that the distance between them hadn't changed at all.
[How is this possible?! Can he really keep up with that speed?]
'What's this guy doing? He keeps looking back.'
Saiki, unable to hear Shibata So's thoughts, had no idea why the other boy looked so surprised. Still, he maintained the same distance.
Soon, the race ended, and Saiki successfully finished in fourth place, as he had intended.
'Yare yare, what a tiring day.'
Saiki thought to himself, then turned to look at Shibata So, who was drenched in sweat and on the verge of collapsing.
'Did he overexert himself earlier? He shouldn't be this tired.'
As Saiki wondered about this, Sudo Ken and Hirata Yosuke approached him.
Seeing the slight smiles on their faces, Saiki had a bad feeling.
"Great job, Saiki! Even though you didn't make it to the top three, fourth place is still an amazing achievement."
Hirata Yosuke praised him.
"If I'm not mistaken, the others are from the track and field club, right?"
Saiki's expression remained unchanged.
"That's right."
"I knew it."
Saiki sighed inwardly. He hadn't expected such a cliché situation to happen again.
Meanwhile, Horikita Manabu had left the track and headed to another part of the sports field.
Tachibana Akane, the student council secretary from Class 3-A, quickly approached Horikita Manabu.
"Did you record it?"
Horikita Manabu asked.
"Yes, I recorded the entire final leg. You were amazing, President!"
Tachibana Akane smiled brightly.
"Let me see the footage."
Horikita Manabu took Tachibana Akane's phone and carefully watched the recording of the race.
His gaze focused on Saiki.
At the start of the race, Saiki had maintained the same speed as Horikita Manabu. Since Tachibana Akane was far away, Horikita Manabu could clearly see in the recording that the distance between him and Saiki hadn't changed.
"Is this guy deliberately matching my speed?"
The footage continued, showing Saiki slowing down after reaching fourth place, maintaining the same speed as Shibata So in third.
"Interesting. It seems he's intentionally aiming for fourth place."
"Intentionally aiming for fourth place?"
Tachibana Akane looked puzzled.
"In a race of this level, that shouldn't be necessary."
"No, this guy is very special..."
Horikita Manabu narrowed his eyes, his tone becoming more meaningful.
"We'll be graduating after this semester. If Nagumo takes complete control of the student council, the weaker students in this school might lose their last foothold. Earlier, Ichinose and Katsuragi from the first year applied to join the student council, but I rejected them. They're excellent, but not enough far from being able to stand against Nagumo."
"But if it's Saiki, he might be able to do it."
...
After the final relay race ended, the sports festival finally came to a close, and the school quickly announced the results.
Two large electronic boards stood on the field, showing that the Red Team had more points than the White Team.
The Red Team won!
The Red Team's victory didn't bring any significant benefits to the participating classes but as the losers, each class in the White Team would lose 100 class points.
The rankings for each grade were also displayed.
Class B came in first, earning 50 class points.
Class C came in second, but since they were part of the losing White Team, they lost 100 points.
Class A came in third, losing 50 points.
Class D performed abysmally in every aspect, losing 200 points.
The gap between Class B and Class A had narrowed further, while Class D was starting to fall behind.
"Next, we'll announce the best performers for each grade."
"First year—"
"Class 1-B, Sudo Ken!"
"Alright!"
Hearing the school's announcement, Sudo Ken cheered excitedly. As the best performer, he would receive a substantial amount of personal points as a reward.
"Great job, Sudo!"
"Nice work!"
"I'm impressed!"
The Class B students congratulated Sudo Ken, who had indeed delivered an outstanding performance during the sports festival.
[In the end, our class came out on top, didn't we?]
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka listened to the announcements, deep in thought.
.....
After the closing ceremony, the exhausted students returned to their classrooms and then went their separate ways.
Some just wanted to go home and rest, while others planned to celebrate. Regardless, Class B had achieved a significant victory.
However, the turmoil from the sports festival wasn't over yet.
After packing up her things, Horikita Suzune sent a message to someone and headed to an empty area behind the school building.
She had arranged to meet someone there.
"Horikita-san! What did you want to talk about?"
The person waiting there was none other than Kushida Kikyo.
Kushida Kikyo wore a bright smile, looking curiously at Horikita Suzune.
After the sports festival ended, Horikita Suzune had arranged to meet Kushida Kikyo here.
"You can keep pretending to be a good person if you want, but what's your goal? You leaked our class's participant list to Ryuen during the sports festival, didn't you?"
Horikita Suzune frowned, her sharp gaze fixed on Kushida Kikyo.
"...Oh, come on, how could that be? Didn't our class win big?"
Kushida Kikyo still wore an innocent expression.
"Ryuen targeted our class's participants with a detailed strategy, but for various reasons, it all failed. If not for those unexpected events, our class would have suffered a crushing defeat."
Horikita Suzune's expression didn't change.
Although Class B had won, Horikita Suzune felt there were too many inconsistencies.
Ryuen Kakeru had initially deployed various strategies, but they all failed. Was that a coincidence?
And Ryuen Kakeru had even given up on the sports festival midway, which left Horikita Suzune puzzled.
Ryuen Kakeru had said he would target Horikita Suzune during the sports festival, and he wasn't the type to change his mind easily.
Unless Ryuen Kakeru knew the outcome couldn't be changed.
Or he had discovered something more important.
"Who told you this? Hirata? Or—Yamauchi?"
"Yamauchi?"
Horikita Suzune was momentarily stunned, not expecting Kushida Kikyo to mention that name, but she continued,
"No, I figured it out myself. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Only you could have done it. Before school started, I saw you convincing Koenji to give up his seat on the bus. Honestly, I didn't realize it was you at the time, but I quickly remembered—I remembered there was a student like you, Kushida Kikyo, in my middle school."
Kushida Kikyo's expression changed.
Although she still wore a smile, it had shifted from her usual cute and innocent demeanor to a sly, almost sinister look.
"You remembered quickly. After all, I was a problem child in every way."
"That's not quite accurate. You're not a problem child. Right now, you're a trusted student in Class B, but—"
"Could you please stop talking about the past?"
Kushida Kikyo cut off Horikita Suzune. Now that her identity had been exposed, there was no need to keep up the act.
"You want to expel me from this school, don't you?"
"That's right. Knowing my past, you have to leave this school and not just you. Others will go down with you."
Kushida Kikyo's eyes gleamed with killing intent.
"But if I expose the truth, wouldn't that trouble you? Even if no one believes me, it would still raise questions. At the very least, the fact that we went to the same middle school can't be denied."
"In that case, I'll push you to the brink and drag your beloved brother down with me."
Kushida Kikyo directly threatened Horikita Suzune.
For the first time, Horikita Suzune's expression wavered.
To her, no one was more important than her brother, Horikita Manabu.
"We'll see about that. You, and the person pulling your strings I'll take care of both of you. You haven't even realized you're being used as a pawn, but I've already found traces of him."
After dropping this bombshell, Kushida Kikyo turned and left.
Horikita Suzune stood there, stunned, muttering to herself,
"The person pulling my strings?"
...
The special school building was a place that was usually deserted and one of the few areas in the school without surveillance cameras.
After the sports festival ended, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was invited to this place by a girl from Class A.
"Thank you for your hard work, Masumi-san. I'll be counting on you in the future."
A familiar, clear voice rang out as the girl who had led Ayanokoji Kiyotaka here Kamuro Masumi nodded and quickly left.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka turned to the source of the voice. The person was petite and leaning on a cane.
Sakayanagi Arisu.
"Was it you who called me here?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka asked, carefully observing Sakayanagi Arisu. He didn't know her.
"That's right. It's been a long time, Ayanokoji-kun. Eight years and 243 days, to be exact."
Sakayanagi Arisu smiled. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka knew she wasn't just throwing out a random number.
"You must be joking. I don't know you."
"That's true. It's just that I know you."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka shook his head and turned to leave.
"The White Room."
At that moment, Sakayanagi Arisu uttered a long-forgotten term, causing Ayanokoji Kiyotaka to stop in his tracks.
He thought for a moment, then turned back to look at her, certain he had never met her before.
"I didn't expect to meet you here, but now all the mysteries are solved. The incidents on the uninhabited island, the cruise ship, and the recent commotion with Ryuen's class it was all your doing, wasn't it?"
Sakayanagi Arisu smiled, her eyes narrowing as she carefully observed Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
"Sorry, but those things have nothing to do with me."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka immediately responded.
"At this point, I know your past. It's not wise to keep pretending."
Although Sakayanagi Arisu said this, a hint of doubt flashed in her eyes. She had revealed that she knew Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's past, so he shouldn't be lying about something so trivial.
"I'm not lying."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said slowly.