Chapter 79: The Curtain Falls

I had finished the short-distance race. I wasn’t doing anything this morning apart from activities where the whole school had to participate, so I was going to go cheer everyone on to kill time.

Yuzuriha-chan and Renge-chan were participating in the three-legged race. The clear and precise Yuzuriha-chan and the gentle and quiet Renge-chan were in sync. I wondered if their athletic abilities were similar, but they were quite fast. As expected, athletic ability or the speed of your feet weren’t that important in the three-legged race; instead, the pair’s synchronization was more important.

The both of them were opposites, but, or rather, because of that, they were in sync. The two of them together saying “One, two, one, two” to keep time was very cute.

Akane-chan and Tsubaki-chan were participating in the centipede race with their other classmates. I didn’t know about other schools, but almost all of Touka Academy’s sports festival events involved the whole school. The centipede race also had representatives from each grade running one by one. The second-graders would go replace the first-graders.

It wouldn’t end at just one race; the first-graders ran, then the second-graders would swap with them, then the third-graders… the whole school ran like that, swapping turns. The relay was connected, so you’d be sitting on the edge of your seat while they were changing places with each other.

Akane-chan and Tsubaki-chan were fighting bravely, but this was a group activity that was formatted like a relay, so they won second place in the end. Well, that wasn’t their fault; they could’ve gotten any result and it’d be fine, but…

And Azami-chan and Satsuki-chan were rolling the large ball. The rolling was decided on different units per grade. Two boys and girls per grade would be the representatives. Once the four of them finished running, the race would end.

Since the order of the participants in rolling the giant ball were based on speed, the difference between boys and girls wouldn’t matter in theory. This was also different from normal running; when they practiced, they had timed themselves and used that to decide the order. Unexpectedly (but maybe saying that was impolite), Azami-chan was last. Satsuki-chan was third. The girls seemed to be faster than the boys among the representatives of Team Three.

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In the first place, even if she was adjusting to the situation, I couldn’t complain. I was holding back too, so maybe other people had their own situations.

After that, everyone’s morning events had ended, and the last morning event began. The events we’d be doing after this were different. It was a dance with the first, second, and third graders.

The sports festival wasn’t all events. There was also a cheerleading competition, and coordinated group gymnastics for the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. The first, second, and third graders were dancing,

The dance wasn’t that hard. We just held pompom-like things, lined up, and moved. We moved in a circle, the circle would get smaller and larger, and everyone would make different shapes and movements.

The first, second, and third graders entered the ground, separated, matched up to the music, then started moving. I was also participating, but as I was participating, I thought that the kids in front of me doing their best to dance were very cute. I wasn’t a loli or a p*do, but I thought that they were very cute and they healed my heart.

After the last programme ended, it was lunch time. You could go to where your parents were and eat with them, or eat in the cafeteria. You just couldn’t go eat outside like usual.

During these events, going out was allowed, but the cars congested the road. And there were also people who wouldn’t come back at the right time. Normally, there was a permit system where eating outside was allowed, but not a lot of people went to eat outside every day. If they were late, then they’d just be late to their own lessons.

Compared to that, if going out was allowed, then quite a lot of people would be planning to go out. Of course there’d be congestion, but there was thinking about if they wouldn’t be able to make it back in time. The fact that it was forbidden today was a rational and reasonable judgement.

Most of the kids around me were eating bentos with their family. Similarly, I was going to meet with the Kujou family and eat bentos with them.

“Then, everyone, see you later.”

“See you later~!”

“Then…”

“Uu… Sakuya-sama…”

Everyone separated and went to their own families, but Azami-chan was the only one who didn’t go anywhere. But I hadn’t made a good impression with the madam of the Tokudaiji family—Azami-chan’s mom—so I couldn’t ask if we could eat together.

I finally separated with Azami-chan, and when I was going over to the seats where the Kujou family had taken up positions…

“Kaya-san… why’re you here?”

“Because! I thought I’d get to hug you once you were finished running and covered in sweat, and guide you to stand in your order of arrival, but! I wasn’t even able to get you, Sakuya-chan; I was even far away from you and had to do busywork! Can’t we at least be together during lunch!?”

No… The way Kaya-san said it was weird, though…

Kaya-san was definitely far away. But the sports festival committee members had a lot of work, I thought she could see that… And just because she wasn’t in charge of me during the events didn’t meant that I had to spend lunch with her; that was weird and wouldn’t happen.

No, that was okay, though? If she wanted to be together, then that was fine. If someone apart from me agreed to it, then I wouldn’t complain. But it wasn’t related to this casual relationship, or rather, association, okay? I wouldn’t concede that, yeah?

“Well, isn’t that fine? It’s okay if you’re with Oogimachisanjou-sama, right? Sakuya.”

“I do not have a problem with it, but…”

At my brother’s words, my dad and mom glanced over. My dad was thinking “What’s this about the Oogimachisanjou family’s daughter?”. It was written all over his face. I couldn’t read my mom’s expression. I knew it wasn’t anything particularly good, though.

But my mom was also mistaken… I thought mom was aiming for Kaya-san to be my brother’s fiancée or spouse, but… Kaya-san wasn’t thinking that, you know? Even at the salon, she showed no interest in my brother… if I were to say useless things, the situation would be getting pointlessly complicated, so I didn’t say that, though…

But no one publicly opposed it, so in the end, I ate lunch with Kaya-san.

　　～～～～～～～

From the afternoon, the cheerleader competition and the high school coordinated gymnastics would begin. The other grades would be doing tamaire, and, after that, the PTA would be doing tamaire too. At the same time, the other graders would be doing tug of war, and the PTA would be doing events like tug-of-war to motivate everyone; the events where the PTA was participating increased. And, after that… the relay the PTA was doing, then… the last event, the mixed-gender relay, would begin.

The current standings were Team One in first place, Team Three in second place, and Team Two in third place. But when you thought about the points given in the relay, whoever won the last relay would be victorious. There was still a possibility that any team could win.

The heated battle would be unfolding until then. Of course, there were a lot of points given for the last relay, so you could say that any team could win. But… the close matches continued, and the point differences weren’t that large, so that was important. You could say that this year’s sports festival was getting very heated.

In the middle of the last loud cries, we entered the admission gate and took our assigned positions. We had to run a long distance for the relay. The first runner had to run one round that was a hundred meters. Compared to the short-distance race, that was long. Well, that was also on the short side, but… for first-graders, that was quite long.

“Kujou Sakuya! Absolutely win against Ibuki-kun!”

“Yes… let us win.”

Our conversation wasn’t meshing at all. The relay was a team event, so I was trying to convey to Nishigori that he should try hard too. Nishigori was talking about my race with Ibuki. We were doing one round around the grounds, so they didn’t have to distinguish a starting point, and stood at the same place.

“Then! It’s finally the last event. Each class still has a possibility to win! I wonder which class will win in the end!”

The broadcasting department was firing up the venue. The energy of the sports festival reached its peak.

“Take your positions… ready.”

The sound of the starting pistol echoed with a bang. The moment the first runner ran, I stood waiting at the start point. Right now, everyone was lined up side by side. We had the disadvantage since we were at the outer ring, but there wasn’t much difference in our running.

When they passed through the semi-circle… they went into the last corner… ah!

“Oh! The partcipant from Team Three has fallen! In that time, Team One and Team Two’s representatives are running ahead!”

Nishigori had fallen at the last corner… but… I had seen it. The girl on Team Two had tripped Nishigori. That movement was on purpose. The only person running behind the girl was Team Three. The girl from the other class was running ahead. Why had the girl on Team Two made Nishigori fall over? I didn’t get it at all. But the fallen Nishigori wasn’t getting up. That was… was he crying?

“Uu! Guh! *gulp*! Uwa…”

Everyone was whispering. Everyone thought that he was a kid who’d fallen and was crying from the pain. But that was wrong. I knew. Nishigori wasn’t crying because of the pain from falling down.

He’d ruined the race. He vowed that he’d win against Ibuki. In that race… the race came to nothing because he fell. I thought that, but Nishigori cried while his feelings were all jumbled. He was crying because of the chaos and that he couldn’t do anything.

I understood his feelings. He probably thought that there was no chance of winning. The other runners had passed their baton, and their second runner was running. But…

“What are you doing, Nishigori Yanagi! Stand up! Have you passed the baton to me yet? If you stay fallen over and crying forever, you will not be able to pass the baton! Hurry, stand and run!”

At my yell, everyone was getting into a commotion. But this wasn’t the time to pay attention to them. Nishigori! Hurry and stand!

“Nishigori Yanagi! Were you not going to win against Konoe Ibuki! If you have time to cry, stand up! Are you planning to end while being a loser!”

“*sniff*… guh… aah… AAAAAH~~!”

Alright! Nishigori stood up and had started running again. Of course, he was slow. His legs were wounded. His emotions were running high. But he earnestly ran to pass the baton to me.

“I have definitely received your baton…”

It wasn’t a beautiful pass like we’d practiced. He just handed it over to me normally . Even so… I’d definitely received his baton. Then I had only one thing to do.

“——agh!”

I accelerated to my top speed in one go, trying to catch up to Ibuki. The both of them were already at the halfway point. Ibuki was the fastest and at first place, Team Two was in second place, and I was a semicircle late. Normally, this would be a desperate situation, but… I wasn’t going to give up. I had definitely received the baton from Nishigori, so… I had promised, so…

“*gasp gasp gasp*”

This was my first time running to the limit in school. This was an everyday thing when I was with Master, though… I was rapidly narrowing the distance. I was entering the fourth corner from the third corner, and overtook the guy from Team Two.

Just a little more… just a little more until Ibuki… no! Just… Just a little more! At least… at least until we were five meters away…

“What an exciting race! Team Three surged forward and passed their baton to the second-graders in a close second! Even though an unforeseen accident had happened…

I could hear the broadcaster’s voice, but I couldn’t comprehend it. It wasn’t enough… Just one more step… We were at the exact same location… but I clearly didn’t catch up to him. You didn’t even need to check with the video; anyone could see that it was a loss…

“*gasp*… *gasp*… *gasp*…”

“…”

I had finished running, and, as I let out harsh breaths over and over again, I saw Nishigori Yanagi with clear traces of tears on his face.

“I am sorry… I could not catch u…”

“I am sorry!”

“…huh?”

While we were still in front of others, Nishigori faced me, apologised loudly, and lowered his head.

“I… I had just fallen… wah, waaaaah!”

“Hold on! Wait! For now, let’s stop crying…”

I tried to comfort Nishigori, who was crying loudly in front of me, but he had a lot of troubles. We were probably getting a lot of unnecessary attention, though.

I didn’t see the events that happened during the rest of the race, but in the end, Team One had gotten first place and was victorious, Team Three was in second place and finished second, and Team Two finished last in both the relay and the sports festival. Then, the curtain closed on this year’s Touka Academy sports festival.