Chapter 107: Competence
"Is that your request?" Chabashira-sensei asked as she stood in front of me in the hallway.
"Ah… yes. I think you can do it without any Private Points."
I had thought about it before following her. As far as I knew, there was nothing outside the rules about paying for this.
"Yes. There is no need to pay. But are you trying to get one step ahead of them?" Chabashira-sensei asked with a smile.
"No. I just wanted to make sure…" I said, taking a step backward.
Seriously, what was with that smile?
"Fine. I'll tell you when the time comes. You can return to your class."
"Oh, thanks…"
I watched Chabashira-sensei walk away down the hallway before letting out a sigh of relief.
It was good that things had gone smoothly.
I turned around to open the classroom door, but the voices inside were loud.
A heated discussion must have been taking place.
"The selection should be based on competence! Competence! I know what I'm capable of, and I guarantee victory in every event I participate in!"
Sudo's voice echoed loudly even through the wall.
The enthusiasm had probably gotten the better of the giant boy.
I quietly opened the door, revealing the full picture of the classroom.
Everyone was confused and uncertain, but they had already understood the point Sudo was trying to make.
The right person had to be placed in the right position.
What was this? The situation looked like a company again.
Damn it.
I closed the door behind me and returned to my seat to listen to the rest of the meeting.
"I think that's the most logical choice…" said the bespectacled boy, Yukimura.
"If that's settled, I'll participate in all the optional events."
It seemed the class was heading in the right direction by making important decisions before anything even began.
"Wait a minute. I have no problem with selecting participants based on competence, but I have a suggestion. For each event, we should choose one highly skilled participant and then fill the remaining slots with people of lower ability…"
Horikita suggested as she stood from her seat at the back of the classroom.
I rested my cheek against my hand as I looked toward the back corner of the classroom.
It seemed Horikita wanted to focus more on the strategic side rather than simply guaranteeing victory.
"Hmm…"
The students exchanged glances, trying to determine whether Horikita's suggestion was actually sound.
"Wait a minute…"
Suddenly, a short-haired girl stood from her seat and turned toward Horikita.
"We wouldn't be guaranteeing victory this way, would we? The risks are pretty high, aren't they?"
"I don't know…" Karuizawa replied.
The atmosphere in the classroom froze for a moment, as if the path they had decided to take had suddenly been blocked.
Well, perhaps it wasn't a bad idea to aim for an overwhelming victory in one event.
But what about the rest?
"There is no need to guarantee victory if we choose the right participant," Horikita said, fiercely defending her idea.
"Really? But who will guarantee that we won't lose?"
"You…"
It seemed Horikita was having trouble explaining the point of her idea properly, especially to someone who didn't fully understand what she was getting at.
"All right, Shinohara-san. I understand that you want to guarantee victory, but Horikita-san's idea doesn't contradict that at all," Hirata said from the podium.
It was as if he understood that the intensity of the discussion might increase.
"I still think my idea will lead us to victory. What do you think, Yukinoshita-san?" Horikita asked, placing her hands on her desk.
Once again, everyone's attention shifted toward Yukinoshita, who was sitting at the front.
"Ah… well…"
Yukinoshita sat silently with her arms folded in front of her and her eyes closed, as if she would rather listen to their discussion than participate in it.
But in the end, she had been dragged into it.
"Shinohara-san, was it?" Yukinoshita said as she slowly opened her eyes and turned toward the girl in question.
"Y-Yes…"
"There is no need to look for guarantees of victory. It's like playing cards. Would you throw all your winning cards onto the table at once?" Yukinoshita said, seemingly agreeing with Horikita's idea.
That was the correct choice.
If we wanted to guarantee victory in every round by throwing all our winning cards at once, we'd end up exhausting our best participants.
We could go from simply guaranteeing victory in one event to struggling just to cover every event afterward.
"Ah… o-okay. That's somewhat true…" Shinohara said as she returned to her seat after finding no support for her idea.
"Then it's decided, right?" Hirata said, looking around for any other objections to Horikita's idea.
But apparently, everyone understood how things would proceed.
"All right. I think we've decided how we'll participate in each event. All that's left is training," Hirata said, scratching his cheek as he tried to come up with an initial proposal.
Yukinoshita raised her hand amid the silent crowd, looking for an opportunity to present her suggestion.
However, I felt a cold shiver run down my forehead.
Was she going to suggest that we run until we dropped dead?
That was terrifying, but it wasn't entirely impossible.
"We'll divide the training into three stages. The first stage will be an initial assessment. After that, we'll train to raise everyone's level before practicing the actual events and determining the final list of participants," Yukinoshita said.
"That sounds appropriate…"
"That's great, isn't it?"
Side conversations supporting Yukinoshita's idea spread throughout the classroom.
Her plan was based on making use of the time we had to improve—or at least attempt to improve.
"That sounds good, Yukinoshita-san. All we have to do is meet regularly in the gymnasium," Hirata said, nodding.
"I'll make sure you all train hard so we can crush the other classes!" Sudo said, raising both fists toward the ceiling like an excited child.
"There is no need to crush every class. Class B and our class are on the same team," Yukinoshita said as she stood from her seat.
"What do you mean? Enemies are still enemies," Yukimura said, clearly dissatisfied with Yukinoshita's words.
"Yes, they're our opponents. That won't change regardless of what happens. But training together won't necessarily make us weaker. Most of us already know the difference between our abilities and the gap between our levels. Training with people from another class could at least help us improve."
Everyone fell silent for a moment, giving Yukinoshita's new proposal some thought.
Perhaps training with eighty different students wasn't such a bad idea after all.
"What if they betray our trust and tell the others about our plans and the participants for each event?" Yukimura asked, still unwilling to back down.
"I don't think Ichinose-san would do something like that…" Kushida said as she stood from her seat.
She was defending one of her friends from outside the class.
Well, Ichinose might not do something like that.
But you might.
"I don't think we're stupid enough to tell them exactly what we're planning to do, are we?" Yukinoshita said as she returned to her seat with an almost dignified air.
"That sounds like a good option… Amazing, Yukinoshita-san. I think this could really help us," Hirata said with a cheerful smile.
The rest of the class agreed with us as well.
"Yeah. Yukinoshita-san is really smart. Even during the island exam, she already had a plan immediately after the rules were explained," Kushida said, smiling brightly at everyone.
"Yeah…"
"Ah… It's really nothing special," Yukinoshita said, pressing her palms against her skirt.
Cheerful conversations began spreading throughout the classroom as everyone grew excited about the next stage.
I leaned back comfortably in my chair, placing my hands behind my head.
So, we'd be cooperating with Class B.
It seemed like a decent idea, at least for making progress before the Sports Festival.
But on the other side, there were Ryuuen and Sakayanagi standing together on the same side.
Didn't that make this feel like a battle against hell?