Chapter 48: Let's Have a Good Race

Lunch was a stroll through the food stalls outside the stadium. Since Masa and I had practically overstuffed ourselves during that wanko soba battle, we shared a bite with Maiha—who was in an almost can’t-eat-anything state—and filled our stomachs to our hearts’ content.

By the time we were satisfied, the morning events had already ended, and the lunch break had begun. For the record, the current provisional first place was Gehenna. Thanks to the huge score they earned in the eating contest, they had shot far ahead.

While waiting for Maiha—still looking a bit pained from the wanko soba—to recover, the three of us sat together in the shade, sipping tea and resting our bodies for the afternoon events.

"Maiha, how’s your stomach?"

"Mmm, it’s gotten a lot better~. But I don’t want to see soba again for a while…"

"Trinity doesn’t have many soba shops, so you can rest easy."

…Is that really the point? As we chatted and relaxed, a familiar figure approached.

"Hello, cadets."

"Good afternoon, Sensei. Is something the matter?"

Sensei, holding his jacket in one hand after taking it off, greeted us as we sat there.

"I just finished the scavenger race and realized I hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so I thought I’d go get something outside."

"I see. We already finished eating, so we’re resting before the afternoon events."

For the afternoon: Maiha would be running long-distance, Masa mid-distance. I had only entered javelin from the start, so I was finished—meaning the rest of the day was dedicated to cheering.

"Speaking of which, Aika, you got first place in javelin, didn’t you? Congratulations."

"Eh, um… yes. It wasn’t a very popular event, though…"

"Even so, winning is impressive."

The others had said the same, but hearing it from Sensei felt different. As he began walking off—probably to get lunch—I managed to murmur only a quiet “thank you.”

"Hehe, Aika, your face is bright red~. Was getting praised by Sensei really that nice~?"

"I—I mean… ugh…"

Maiha teased me, and I could only curl up with my knees to my chest and hide my face. Happy… I guess… maybe.

During the cheering contest, Sisterhood performed an oddly solemn, ritual-like cheer, plunging the entire venue into a bizarre atmosphere.

After a few more events, it was time for one of the highlights: the obstacle course. The runners lined up.

"By the way, I heard the baton this time is a hand grenade with a timed fuse~."

"The idea was that instead of leaving everything to the fastest runner, everyone would be forced to run at full strength, yes?"

I understood the reasoning, but it was still a very aggressive approach. I was seriously glad not to be participating. At the signal, the runners burst forward—and just as they cleared the first caltrop zone—whirr-whirr-whirr, like a fast-spinning caterpillar track—something approached.

"What is that? Another obstacle?"

"Ehh, was that thing on the map~?"

What appeared—along with several students in work uniforms—was a massive metal sphere with a protruding cannon barrel, caterpillar tracks wrapped around its midsection, and the Millennium emblem stamped on the front.

Yes, it was the support robot built by the Engineering Club. To quickly suppress incidents or terrorist attacks, the barrel was for response fire, the spherical shape reduced air resistance, and the omnidirectional track system allowed rapid travel in any direction.

Each idea was reasonable on its own, but combined, the result became strange and absurd. To put it bluntly, it didn’t look like a support robot at all—more like a giant spherical tank, a kugelpanzer. Even Chronos News had called it a tank.

Then the robot rolled into the obstacle course, spinning around wildly. From somewhere, an anti-tank rocket struck it—BOOM!—and exploded.

"Hm? Something seems wrong," Masa said.

The moment she spoke, the robot began attacking everything around it—not only the students running the obstacle course, but even the audience seats where we were.

"Aika, Masa, get down!"

"Right!"

We crouched low and used the barrier in front of us as a shield, barely protecting ourselves from the blasts. But this wall was only designed to withstand light gunfire. It wouldn’t last forever—we needed someone to deal with this quickly…

"Ah, looks like they’re fighting that tank thing. While it’s distracted…"

Maiha pulled out her beloved rifle, aimed, and fired. A 7.62mm NATO round struck the support robot, freezing its unnervingly nimble movements for a brief moment. She had forced it to hesitate, unsure whether to target the enemy in front of it or the one who had just fired.

"My rifle is… ah, I left it in my locker."

"I only have my handgun, and from here it won’t reach…"

Seeing Maiha’s shot, other students with long-range weapons joined in, firing to help suppress the robot. Thanks to their combined effort, after a while the rampaging machine finally went silent.

〈Attention. Due to an unforeseen accident, the obstacle course event has been canceled. After cleanup, the next event, cavalry battle, will begin as scheduled.〉

Well, obviously—no one could compete like that. And after the cavalry battle came the distance races, where Maiha and Masa would be competing. They headed to the field, leaving me to watch alone.

The cavalry battle was Hyakki Yakou versus Millennium. Using holograms and other “borderline legal” tactics without hesitation, Hyakki Yakou took the victory. Then came the next event: the distance races.

In standard track and field, short-distance races go up to 400m. But here, the short-distance category—the Kivotos Sprint—was somehow 1000m. Masa’s mid-distance event, the Kivotos Derby, was 2000m. And Maiha’s long-distance event, the Kivotos St. Leger, was 3000m.

"This distance division… is this horse racing?"

Well… it was probably just because the distances increased by 1000 meters each. Maybe I was overthinking it. As I looked across the Millennium-made artificial turf—almost indistinguishable from real grass—I noticed the starting gates were shaped in a way that looked awfully familiar. And then, for some reason… fanfare music began playing.

"This really is horse racing!!"

I whispered that to myself just as the gates burst open. The announcer launched into a full-blown horse racing commentary. Before I even processed my confusion, the short-distance race had already finished.

"…Let’s reset ourselves. Next is Masa’s turn."

I focused on her as she entered the gate wearing bib number 6, her blue hair swaying. And then—start.

〈All runners have made a clean start. The student to watch, number 6, is settling in with the front group and observing the pace. How do you interpret this positioning?〉

〈She placed second in the marathon this morning, and her stamina is exceptional. Perhaps she intends to wear down both the front-runner and the trailing pack, then slip past them.〉

Masa stuck tightly behind the Millennium runner who had taken the lead, pressuring her while gradually accelerating and widening the gap to the pack behind.

〈The first 1000 meters clock in at… 57.8 seconds! That is an extremely high pace! Everyone except number 6, who is setting the tempo at the front, is struggling to keep up! Meanwhile, number 4, currently leading, is already showing signs of fatigue!〉

They rounded the corner and entered the final straightaway. The front-runner burned out and began dropping fast. Masa pulled up, passed, and surged into the lead. If things stayed like this, she was guaranteed victory… but—

〈Number 6 remains in the lead—but wait! A tremendous late charge from number 12! A Gehenna student is storming forward!〉

Masa and number 12 drew neck-and-neck, neither giving an inch as the finish line approached with alarming speed.

〈Number 6 and number 12 cross the finish together! Number 12 may have a slight advantage—awaiting the photo finish!〉

The result came in: Masa had lost by the slimmest margin. Second place.

In the following long-distance race, Maiha blasted out of the gate as if going for a massive runaway lead—or so it seemed. In reality, she was setting a slow pace up front: a classic illusion tactic to throw off the pack’s rhythm. She lost steam at the end and was overtaken, finishing fifth, but she had absolutely delivered a spectacle.

By the way, Maiha is not actually particularly good at running. When I asked why she had entered the long-distance race, she said… since she was already competing in the eating contest, she wanted to participate in at least one running event to burn off the calories. Very ladylike, in a strange sort of way.

"Well done, both of you."

I handed each of them a bottle of sports drink as they returned.

"Mmm, thanks~"

"So frustrating… I was so close to winning."

The Gehenna student was apparently a third-year, so the fact that Masa nearly beat her as a first-year was impressive on its own. And when I asked Maiha why she had chosen that baffling illusion-race strategy:

"Well… yeah. I can run decently, but I’m not exactly good at it, so honestly that felt like one of the few ways I could win~. I guess I couldn’t hold on at the end, probably because of all that wanko soba…"

Still, everyone who finished above her was an upperclassman. Honestly, she did exceptionally well.

And so the afternoon events passed. Now, the finale: the School Relay. Normally, by the time this event arrives, the overall winner is already mostly decided. But this year—unbelievably—

〈Right now, the three schools—Gehenna, Trinity, and Millennium—are tied for first place in total points! That’s right, the overall champion will be decided by this very relay!〉

"Whoaaa~!"

Back in my previous life, when I watched this world through Sensei’s perspective, I didn’t really care who won. But now that I’m a Trinity student myself, of course I want Trinity to take the overall victory.

…Or so I felt, but—

"Ahhh…"

"Well, things like this happen."

Gehenna’s anchor, Akashi Junko, stumbled so badly at the start that people thought she was out—but she recovered instantly and unleashed a furious comeback, taking the win. With that, Gehenna secured the overall championship.

Meanwhile, Trinity ended up in sixth place, only a hair behind Millennium. But Hasumi—who had been working behind the scenes all day—ran with everything she had thanks to everyone’s cheers, so… honestly, that was good enough.

"Besides, we’re only first-years. Next time, we’ll be third-years. When that time comes, we’ll claim Trinity’s overall victory."

"…Yeah."

"Mm-hmm~!"

The three of us quietly set our next goal, and just like that, every event of the Kōrin Festival came to an end.

We didn’t really have anything else to do, so we were going to head straight home… but Maiha said she wanted to join the campfire folk dance. Since it was a rare chance, Masa and I decided to tag along.

And so we stood before the campfire at the afterparty, dancing to the lively rhythm of Korobushka*1. First, I faced Maiha and took her hands—push, pull. Release hands, spin once, clap. Then back to holding hands again. We switched partners midway, and I danced with Masa as well. Just as we were about to move on to the next song…

"Barbecue! Barbecue!!"

"Stop that! This fire is not for barbecuing!"

The Gourmet Research Society burst in carrying ingredients, a grill mesh, and even tongs. I really wished they would behave at least during the afterparty…*2

"Tch. These fireworks are pathetic… holograms or whatever—no impact at all. Perfect timing. Let’s chuck some aluminum3 and calcium4 into the campfire!"

"Hey—are you trying to blow up the entire area!?"

…What were we supposed to do? Better get out before we got caught in this disaster… I thought, and when I looked at Maiha and Masa, since we had already accomplished our goal of dancing the folk dance, obviously—

"…Let’s go home."

"Yes."

"I have no objections."

The three of us agreed in an instant and slipped away. As we walked back toward Trinity, we glanced behind us at the pillar of flame erupting with a thunderous boom, like lightning had struck.