Classroom of the Elite, Kusuo Saiki

'Wow, the student council president seems to be faster than everyone else.'

Kusuo Saiki realized that Manabu Horikita's progress seemed to be faster than he had imagined, and that he had reached fourth place a little too early.

All eyes were on Kusuo Saiki.

"Qi Mu is so fast!"

"Judging from this trend, they might break into the top three!"

"Go for it, Qi Mu!"

The students in Class B cheered together, encouraging Kusuo Saiki.

"Oh dear, sorry, I didn't intend to rank too high."

As Saiki Kusuo thought to himself, he immediately controlled his speed again, adjusting it to the same level as Shibata Hayate. The dense crowd and noisy sounds around him made it impossible for him to hear the thoughts of the other people around him.

At this point, Horikita Manabu had moved up to second place, while Shibata Hayate had been overtaken and fallen to second place.

Wow, that guy's fast!

Shibata Hayate was quite surprised when he saw Horikita Manabu overtake him; the student council president's speed was simply astonishing.

It's almost impossible to surpass him and get second place, so let's aim to stay in third place.

As Shibata Hayate pondered this, she turned her head slightly to look behind her. The person who posed the greatest threat to her was Saiki Kusuo, who was ranked fourth.

To maintain a top-three position, we must create a significant gap between ourselves and the fourth-place team!

As Shibata Hayate thought this, he pushed himself to the limit and accelerated again—just when he thought he had left Saiki Kusuo behind, he found that the distance between them had not decreased at all.

"How is that possible?! Could he even keep up with that speed?"

'What's this guy doing? He keeps looking back.'

At this moment, Kusuo Saiki did not hear what Hayate Shibata was thinking, and had no idea why the other party had a surprised expression on his face, but he still maintained the same distance from him.

Soon, the competition ended, and Kusuo Saiki successfully finished the competition in fourth place.

'Oh dear, what a tiring day!'

As Saiki Kusuo thought to himself, he turned to look at Shibata Hayate, who was drenched in sweat and nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

'Did you use too much energy earlier? You shouldn't be this tired.'

Just as Saiki Kusuo was wondering, Sudo Ken and Hirata Yosuke and a few others walked over quickly.

When Kusuo Saiki saw the slight smiles on their faces, he already had a bad feeling.

"Wow, Qi Mu is amazing! Although you didn't get into the top three, getting fourth place is already a remarkable achievement."

Yosuke Hirata praised it.

"If I'm not mistaken, these other people are also from the track and field club, right?"

Kusuo Saiki's face showed no change in expression.

"Yes."

"I knew it."

Kusuo Saiki felt somewhat helpless; he hadn't expected that such a clichéd plot would happen again.

Meanwhile, Horikita Manabu had already left the track and headed to the other side of the stadium.

Akane Tachibana, the student council secretary who was also from Class 3-A, quickly approached Manabu Horikita.

Did you just record a video?

Horikita asked.

"Yeah, I recorded the whole thing from your last leg, President, you're really amazing!"

Akane Tachibana's face was adorned with an incredibly bright smile.

"Let me see that video."

Horikita Manabu took Tachibana Akane's phone and carefully watched the recording of the match that had just taken place.

His gaze was fixed on Qi Mu.

At the start of the match, Kusuo Saiki maintained the same speed as himself. Because Akane Tachibana was quite far away, he could clearly see in the video that the distance between himself and Kusuo Saiki had not increased or decreased.

"Is this guy deliberately maintaining the same speed as me?"

The video continued playing, and after Saiki Kusuo reached fourth place, he began to slow down, as he maintained the same speed as Shibata Hayate in third place.

"Interesting. It seems he's deliberately maintaining fourth place."

"Intentionally maintaining fourth place?"

Akane Tachibana's face was full of confusion.

"In a competition of this level, it shouldn't be that bad."

"No, this person is a very special guy..."

Horikita Manabu narrowed his eyes slightly, and his tone became meaningful.

“We’ll be graduating after this semester. If Nagumo were to completely control the student council, those students who are in a disadvantaged position in the school would likely be deprived of even their last bit of space to survive. First-year students Ichinose and Katsuragi both applied to join the student council, but I refused. Although they are very good, they are not good enough and are far from being able to stand up to Nagumo.”

"But if it were Qi Mu, perhaps he could do it."

......

After the final relay races were completed, the sports festival finally came to an end, and the school quickly announced the results.

Two huge electronic bulletin boards stand on the playground, showing that the red team's score is ahead of the white team's.

Team Red wins!

The red team's victory did not bring any obvious benefits to those classes—but the white team, as the loser, would have 100 class points deducted from each class.

The ranking order of each grade and class was also revealed.

Class B ranked first and earned 50 class points.

Class C came in second, but because their white team lost, their class had to lose 100 points.

Class A is third, so 50 points are deducted.

Class D performed terribly in every aspect and was ultimately penalized with a deduction of 200 points.

The gap between Class B and Class A has been narrowed further, while Class D has shown signs of falling behind.

"Next, we will announce the best player for each grade."

"First grade—"

"First year, Class B, Takeru Sudo!"

"Okay!"

Upon hearing the school's announcement, Takeru Sudo cheered excitedly. As the best player, he would receive a substantial amount of personal points as a reward.

"Well done, Sudo!"

"sure!"

"I'm quite impressed with you now!"

The members of Class B also congratulated Takeru Sudo, who had indeed performed exceptionally well in this sports festival.

In the end, did our class achieve a resounding victory this time?

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji listened to the broadcast, looking thoughtful.

.....

After the closing ceremony, the exhausted crowd returned to their classrooms and were then free to do as they pleased.

Some people just wanted to go home and rest, while others wanted to celebrate. In any case, Class B had achieved a tremendous victory this time.

However, the controversy surrounding this sports festival is not over yet.

After packing her things, Horikita Suzune sent a text message to someone and then went to the open space behind the teaching building.

She had arranged to meet someone there.

"Horikita-kun! May I ask what brings you here?"

The person standing there was none other than Kikyo Kushida.

At this moment, Kikyo Kushida had a bright smile on her face and looked at Suzune Horikita with curiosity.

After the sports festival, Horikita Suzune had arranged to meet Kushida Kikyo here.

"It's fine if you want to continue pretending to be a good person, but what's your purpose? You're the one who leaked the information about our class's personnel list to Ryuen during this sports festival, aren't you?"

Horikita Suzune frowned, her sharp gaze fixed on Kushida Kikyo.

"...Oh no, how could such a thing happen? Didn't our class win a resounding victory?"

Kikyo Kushida still has an innocent and naive appearance.

"Longyuan must have made some significant strategic plans targeting our class's participants, but for various reasons, they all failed. If it weren't for those unexpected events, our class would probably have suffered a crushing defeat."

Horikita Suzune's expression did not change at all.

Although Class B won this time, Horikita Suzune felt that there were too many unreasonable circumstances.

Long Yuanxiang made various strategic deployments at the beginning, but they all failed. Is this a coincidence?

Ryuen Sho almost gave up on the sports festival in the end, which left Horikita Suzune completely baffled.

Ryuen Sho said that he would target Horikita Suzune at this sports festival, and he is not the kind of person who easily changes his mind halfway through.

Unless Ryu Yuanxiang knows it, the outcome cannot be changed.

Or perhaps he discovered something more important.

"Who told you this? Hirata-kun? Or—Yamachi-kun?"

"Yamauchi?"

Horikita Suzune was stunned for a moment, completely unexpected that Kushida Kikyo would utter such a name, but she continued speaking.

"No, that's what I felt myself, because I couldn't completely erase the feeling of awkwardness. Only you could do that. Before I enrolled, I saw you on the bus persuading Koenji to give up his seat. To be honest, I didn't know it was you at the time, but I immediately remembered—I remembered that I had a student like you, Kikyo Kushida, in my junior high school."