Chaoskouji

Arc 6 Chapter 2 - The Sports Festival Announcement

The next day, our afternoon class became a two-hour homeroom session. When Chabashira walked in with a pile of papers in her hand, I knew this was what Manabu had warned me about.

"Starting today, classes begin again. However, from September to the beginning of October, we will be holding more physical education classes to prepare for the school sports festival. We'll distribute new weekly schedules, so please review them carefully. In addition to the new schedules, we'll also distribute materials related to the festival. Students seated at the front, please pass handouts to those behind you, and so on."

The moment Chabashira uttered the words "sports festival," the class erupted in an uproar. Some students were undoubtedly excited by the prospect, but just as many loathed the idea of anything focused on physical exertion.

"The details on the printed handouts can be found on the school homepage as well. Please refer to them if necessary."

"Sensei, is this another one of those special exams?" Hirata cautiously asked.

Most students would probably expect a response of 'naturally', but it was clear that this was different just from the title.

"You're free to interpret this however you wish. In any case, this event will massively impact each and every class."

As expected, it wasn't an ordinary special exam, at least not to the school. It would have an impact, but not in the usual sense, like on the island or cruise ship.

There was a mixed response from the class, as students either became more or less excited at that new information. For some, being forced to do physical exertion in order to help the class was a horrible thought. Sotomura in particular was looking rather gloomy. Other sporty students though, particularly Sudou, were looking even more fired up. This was the chance for him and other less academically inclined students to support the class in their own way.

I looked over the paper, and my eyes were instantly dragged to the testing method. It was unusual, to say the least, for so much detail to be involved with a sports festival, but I was already considering possibilities to give my less-than-mediocre class an advantage.

"Some people have noticed this already, but for this year's festival, we're going to divide all the students across all grade levels into two groups and have them compete against each other. You in Class D are assigned to the Red Team. Class A is also assigned to the Red Team, so they will compete alongside you," explained Chabashira.

Classes B and C were assigned to the White Team. It would be Red versus White.

While this may seem like a balanced field, in the current school environment this was a large advantage towards the red team. In the first years, most classes were actually somewhat evenly matched, to the point where Class A would probably come last in terms of physical abilities. Class C was definitely the best, and Class A was no pushover, but I was confident in my ability to carry the class, along with powerhouses like Sudou and, if convinced, Kouenji.

It was the second and third years that gave a larger advantage.

In the third years, there was still competition, but Class A was far and beyond the best class. Unfortunately for the White Team, Class 3-D wasn't a pushover. Sure, they were out of the running for ever reaching Class A at this point, but their athletic ability was strangely high, managing to match Class 3-B and 3-C rather closely. In terms of an average strength, the Red Team came out on top in the third year.

Similarly, in the second year Nagumo was the leading powerhouse. It wouldn't take much for him to convince Class B and C to hold back slightly, or at least target key weaknesses and bribe them, giving Red Team another lead.