- Part 6
The relay races were over. Since I wasn't giving it my all, our group came 2nd in the second race. There was a chance we could've came 3rd or 4th, but Shimada running as the anchor more than easily closed the gap I made.
1st) Ryouta's group +8
2nd) Shimada's group +7
3rd) Yahagi's group +6
4th) Mitsuba's group +5
5th) Koishi's group +4
6th) Ishima's group +3
7th) Kirishima's group +2
8th) Handa's group +1
9th) Yamaguchi's group +0
However, the space I created was just enough for Ryouta to sneak past, giving them the win. Shimada didn't seem bothered by it however, but he did kick Yamamoto and Kouji for not running fast enough.
Strangely, when it was time to take my half of the punishment, he didn't bother. He stole a glance and walked away, acting as if I wasn't even good enough to hit in the first place. Or maybe, he knew that trying to hit me was pointless.
Just like in the last race, Yamaguchi's group refused to run. Masamoto tried to crackdown on their behaviour, but it fell on deaf ears. At one point, Shibata and the others began openly laughing at him. Yamaguchi didn't join, but he was smirking the entire time.
"Tch, we barely made any improvement at all..."
Yukimura clicked his tongue as he glared at the whiteboard. Their group changed strategies this race, leading with the fastest runners first to get a head start, and placing their slowest runners last so all they had to do was continue the pace set for them.
While the other members of Mitsuba's group seemed happy that they improved, even if they were exhausted and gasping for air, for Yukimura, this slight improvement wasn't enough. He clenched his fists and rocked up to them with a growling face.
"What the hell are you guys cheering about?"
Mitsuba, the one most excited about their improvement, turned to Yukimura with an energetic glee.
"Dude, look! By changing the order of our runners, we managed to jump from fifth to—"
Yukimura punched Mitsuba in the arm, shutting him up.
"We just barely managed to beat Koishi and his stupid gang! If it weren't for Takenaka and Obama picking up slack for the rest of you guys, we would've lost to those stupid assholes!"
"Haaaa? Who you calling a stupid asshole, you salty gorilla?"
Ukishima, overhearing the insults leveraged at his group, responded indignantly to Yukimura. Standing behind him were Ritaka and Kasai, also laughing mockingly at Yukimura in an attempt to taunt him.
However, Yukimura wasn't having it. The three of them turned pale as Yukimura glanced over his shoulder, giving each of them a personalised death stare. Kasai ran off while Ukishima and Ritaka backed away slowly, albeit begrudgingly.
As much as the trio loved to cause trouble, even they could sense that Yukimura's anger was at it's limit, and that he was ready to snap with violence at any second. Simply put, they'd like to avoid getting killed today.
"Ow... I dunno man, I think you're being unreasonable. We should be happy to get that far, especially with Houji-san and Nora-chan in our group! No offence."
"None taken, de gozaru..." Tanaka huffed.
Even though Tanaka was lying on the ground, desperately trying to catch his breath, at least he could still talk. In comparison, all Nora could do was shake his head, as he was leaning against Mikitaka's body while panting to catch his breath.
"I didn't ask for excuses... I asked for a reason for why you're so goddamn happy! That reason is a whole load of bull and you know it! Scraping out a win now ain't good enough! Especially not when we're down in the dumps with the other trash groups! We were in third, maybe even second, but we blew it all away because you wanted to spend the money from last challenge on some shiny pieces of cardboard! I told you it was a bad idea, Nora told you it was a bad idea, even Obama told you it was a bad idea, but you went ahead and spent it anyways! And look at what position it put us in now!"
"Wha—?! Don't blame just me for this! Everyone here is an accomplice! Houji-san used the money to buy Preemie Quartz, Mikitaka-san used the money to buy tickets to France, and John-san used the money to eat some fancy ass fried chicken dipped in caviar!"
"Dat ting rite dere was value bruv! Bare worth da Ps my G! Chicken tit ting was juicer than mans wifey!"
"Shut up."
Yukimura punched John in the chest. John gasped, coughing.
"Oi, da fook was dat for bruv?! You mans asking for a shanking or what? Square up fam, mans not shivering at a fake big man like yous!"
John whipped out a broken plastic spoon from his pocket, charging with it pointed at Yukimura.
"Hey, that's dangerous! Stop it!" Mitsuba said.
"Suck yo mum!"
As John was about to shank Yukimura in the stomach, he suddenly stopped.
"Wot da bloody hell—"
Nora, sliding on the floor, grabbed onto John's leg tightly and held on, nearly tripping him up. Fortunately, due to his light weight, John didn't fall over, but it was enough to make him slow down just before he could do any actual harm to Yukimura.
"Bruv, dis trap is hugging on mans, get dis fruity wasteman off mans like Audi!"
"Oi, Takayuki-san was trying to stop you from injuring our best runner. Be grateful." Mikitaka said.
"Tch, but look at dis sheggery bruv! Mans was holding on mans like he was a koala or a drop bear or some ting like dat! Mans ain't having dis, mans was about to get his first kill uv da season bruv!"
"If you wanna kill me, then I'll gladly kill you back ten times harder." Yukimura said.
"Tmt, raaaaah fam, what you mans gonna do? Rise from da dead like a zombie ting and bite mans back down to hell? Nah bruv, screw dat, dat right dere is too fruity for mans yea, go find some uver babe to bite and eat and dat! Quit acting like a hard man bruv, you mans lookin like a bare pussy'ole right now, swear down on mans nan's life blud!"
"Looks like they're having a meltdown like we were yesterday."
Approaching me was Matsushita. Like me, he was also watching Mitsuba's group fighting amongst each other.
"This is just temporary. There's no way this much is enough to break their friendship."
"You think so?"
"It might be hard to believe, since you don't have any male friends, but guys usually solve their issues by butting heads with each other and laughing about it afterwards."
"Hey, I have plenty of male friends..."
"Like who? Kouji-san doesn't count."
"You're crazy to even suggest that I'd ever consider him a friend."
"You two have already butt heads. Twice. All that's left is to forget about the past and laugh about it."
"Somehow, you're more twisted than I remember..."
Matsushita, creeped out by my responses, walked away. Albert slotted himself between Yukimura and John, holding them at arms length away from each other. Nora continued to hold onto John's leg, but his face was becoming paler by the second.
In order to try and break out, John began stabbing Albert in the arm with his shank. However, Albert didn't even flinch at the pain, and in fact, it did very little damage to him except scoring the skin. Nora's arms around John's leg began to droop.
Realising it was a pointless endeavour, Yukimura had turned his attention away from John and redirected it back to Mitsuba. John clicked his tongue and put the shank away, while Albert kept hold of him just in case he tried doing something rash. Nora let go.
"You're the leader, you had the final decision on things. You could've easily said save the money, and we wouldn't be running around like donkeys trying to catch up now."
"Oh c'mon, don't act like you're innocent in this! You bought a new pair of Yeezy's with the money! Limited edition football yeezies, even!"
"That's because you gave me the go ahead to buy them! I didn't even spend the money on anything else."
"That steak dinner begs to differ."
"Everyone bought that!"
"You suggested it!"
"You're the leader, you had final say!"
"I'm only leader because the rest of you didn't have any balls to offer yourselves up as tribute!"
"Do you want D Class to get the leader bonus or not?"
"Obviously! But I didn't want to be one who's position in the class was threatened!"
"Hah, dumbass. You still haven't realised why we made you the leader?"
"Isn't is because I'm obviously more courageous than the rest of you?"
"Wrong. If you left the class, nothing of value would be lost!"
Mitsuba's face dropped. Yukimura had just called his best friend worthless. Everyone else was shocked.
"Huh...?"
"I've got the muscle. Nora's got the brains, Tanaka's got the computing skills, and Takenaka and John are from Zyriot's class. What the hell do you have to offer to D Class? Nothing. You're useless, Mitsuba! Absolutely useless! Not only do you suck at academics, but you also suck at sports too! You're good at nothing except jerking off and being horny! Get a life."
Mitsuba flinched, looking down. After shredding through him, Yukimura turned to Tanaka and Nora.
"Don't think either of you two are off the hook though... both of you are the real reason why we can't even hope to win this challenge! Tanaka you fat ass, stop gaming all day and walk outside, experience life, go take a hike, do anything except let your life rot away in front of a computer screen! There's so much more to this world than some cheap video games! If you weren't so obese, maybe you'd actually run fast like the rest of us!"
"D-de gozaru...?!"
Tanaka rolled over in pain.
"And you... you worthless at sports dead weight! For all your brains up there, can't you use it to figure out to get better at athletics, huh? I've kept this to myself for the longest time, but I hate how much of a slow, useless, borderline disabled, cry baby you are at sports! Every time I watch you in lesson, I physically cringe. It's pretty ironic you're living with Katsumi, huh? I thought maybe she'd rub off on you, but you're still the same as you were from the start... to be honest, you'd be better off as a cripple! That way, I won't ever have to watch you flail around on the pitch ever again!"
Nora couldn't respond. As much as he wanted to say something, no words would come out of his mouth - only wispy breaths that left in an irregular rhythm. His face turned bleak white as he curled up on the floor, gripping his shirt in pain.
"...Nora?"
Yukimura, noticing Nora's struggling state, staggered back with wide eyes. He turned around, shouting frantically.
"Oi, get a teacher! Get a doctor! An inhaler! Anything! Nora's gonna die!"
Immediately, Ryouta, who was watching everything, ran off to find help. Following him were Albert and Mitsuba, as well as Zyriot, Ikeda, and Kirishima.
"Takayuki-san!"
Mikitaka rushed over, scooping up Nora from the floor and cradling him in his arms.
"Hey... you can't be serious... Takayuki-san, stay with us!"
Shaking his friend to keep him conscious, Nora clutched onto Mikitaka's sleeve tightly. All he could do was look up at Mikitaka's worried face and focus on that as his lungs began giving up on him.
"Takayuki-san... my best friend, stay in there! We're getting help! You'll be okay!"
Within seconds, teachers and doctors all ran towards the spot where Nora was. At this point, everyone was watching by idly. Some were snickering, while some were concerned or horrified. However, most were indifferent about the situation.
After all, Nora wasn't someone of much importance to many people. Outside of D Class and some circles in E Class, he was simply someone known as being good at academics. The outcome of his condition was of little importance to the upper classes.
"Oi, is he going to be okay...?" Kouji said.
"If they get him immediate help, probably. If he's asthmatic, this might be a more troublesome situation than anticipated." Nakajima said.
"He's not. It's more likely that he just pushed himself too hard for the sake of his group." I said.
"Really? Hard to believe that after the earful Yukimura-san gave him..."
"Whatever view Yukimura-san has of sports is severely warped by his own abilities. You can take just one look at Nora-san and realise he did his best to try and get his group the win, even if he was bad at running."
The teachers carried Nora inside the outdoors school on a stretcher. Despite the terrifying thing that just happened to his teammate, a small sliver of happiness slipped through the cracks of Yukimura's face. He covered his mouth with his hand to try and hide it.
"You asshole..."
The rain started to get worse as Mikitaka muttered under his breath. Yukimura faced away, not letting anyone see his expression.
"You said all those horrible things to Tanaka-san and Mitsuba-san, and especially Takayuki-san... yet you still have the nerve to smile after it all. What the hell is wrong with you?"
The air between them grew chillingly cold. Yukimura lifted his hand away, showing the barely visible smile on his face after Nora had been taken away.
"Is winning in sports the only thing on your mind...? Have you ever stopped to consider those three were doing their best to try and keep up with the rest of us? Have you even bothered to open your eyes and see the state Tanaka-san and Takayuki-san were left after that second race, huh?!"
Yukimura's smile quickly vanished as Mikitaka confronted him.
"I told Takayuki-san to take it easy and leave it up to me, since he was already struggling to catch his breath after the first race, but he disregarded my words and selflessly ran his hardest in this race too, just so you'd stop being angry at everyone! He wanted to get first place for you, even if it meant destroying his own body! And look what happened! He ran so hard, he can't even breathe anymore!"
Yukimura continued to look away and stare at the ground. Everyone crowding around them began to whisper and mutter amongst themselves, agreeing with what Mikitaka had been saying.
"And what did you do? Repay his efforts by spouting nothing but abuse! No matter how angry or frustrated you are in the moment, that doesn't justify the vile stuff you say to others, especially your friends!"
"Shut up. You're one to talk about saying abuse to him... you spent two months straight bullying him! Don't think saying a couple of apologies and acting like he's your best friend is enough to make up for all the crap you've put him through in the past!"
"I know it's not enough, and I'm okay if he chooses to not forgive me over it. Even so, I've stopped being that way towards him ever since the war. The same can't be said to you. You shoved him the first time you ran on the cruise ship, didn't ya? Between me and you, you're the only one who hasn't changed. The only reason you can't feel any remorse over what you said is because you know Takayuki-san is kind enough to forgive you for it afterwards, with or without an apology."
"So what? That's the kind of person he is. I can't help it if he wants to be that way."
"That's not the point, Yukimura-san. Count your blessings and stop thinking only about yourself. You can't keep expecting others to bend over for you."
Yukimura narrowed his eyes at Mikitaka and muttered to himself.
"Like you have any idea what bending over for others feels like... damn sod."
The rain poured down harder. Mitsuba sighed, fixing his wet hair and getting up the floor.
"What are we going to do without Nora-chan then...? We have one less person than the other groups."
"If we go by the rules, then it means someone else will have to run Takayuki-san's 100 metres." Mikitaka said.
"...I'll do it." Yukimura said.
Despite having shouted at all of them and throwing a fit earlier, no one objected to this. After all, he was objectively their fastest runner, and it was him who wanted to win the most.
Just before the third race could begin however, a lightbulb idea flashed in Mitsuba's head. He smacked his fist into his palm and nodded.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Sensei, senseeeeeei! My leg hurts! I think I sprained my ankle! Owwwwwww!"
Mitsuba rolled on the ground, howling in pain while squeezing the base of his ankle. Yukimura and the others stared at him in confusion, before Tanaka realised what he was doing and joined him in rolling on the floor.
"D-de gozaru! Me too, de gozaru! My legs are cramping up, de gozaruuuuuuuuuu!"
"Oi... what the hell is going on... get off your asses you two, we've got a race to win!" Yukimura said.
"But Fudou-saaaaan! How can I run with a twisted ankle? I need to go to the infirmary, just like Nora-chan!"
That's when Yukimura realised what these two were trying to do. A wide grin sinisterly crept up on his face.
"Oi, sensei! These two are badly injured! They can't run the next race!"
However, no one responded to their calls. In the first place, it was way too obvious Mitsuba and Tanaka were faking it. Their acting was abysmal.
"A cheap strategy like that won't work so easily."
Coming over to the three boys was Shimada. While he looked like the type to be laughing at their current predicament, right now he seemed fully serious in engaging with them.
Yukimura, who had run into Shimada before and was aware of his monstrous strength, backed off instinctively. However, Mitsuba responded to him, naively unaware of Shimada's full capacity for violence.
"Eh? What do you mean by that?"
"If you're going to lie, at least mix some truth into it. That way, it's more believable."
"I-I'm not lying! I really do have a sprained ankle, I swear!"
"Earlier, you were standing around and hopping about just fine. You aren't fooling anybody with that sick note level of excuse."
"Crap, that's true... damn it, I was hoping I could get out of this race so Fudou-san could run my 100 metres!"
"Me too, de gozaru!"
A thin smirk appeared on Shimada's lips.
"Oh. If you want, I can help you with that."
"Eh, you can? How?"
Shimada knelt down and grabbed Mitsuba by the ankle. The moment Shimada's hand latched onto him, Mitsuba's entire body began shaking.
"All I have to do is twist it a little. That way, it'll be believable."
Mitsuba's eyes widened as he peered into Shimada's glossy, shining, wine red eyes. Looking up at them with taut intensity, Mitsuba silently gulped.
"So, what do you say?"
The whisper of a devil. Mitsuba screamed and desperately kicked to try and escape, but Shimada's grip clamped down on his ankle, keeping it in place.
"No, no, no! Get off me, get off me!"
As Mitsuba thrashed around on the floor, no one went up to help him. It was like Shimada's overbearing presence spread like a cold paralysis to everyone watching the scene.
"Get off me! I don't want my ankle to be sprained, I don't want it to be spraaaaaaained!"
Tears welled up in Mitsuba's eyes as Shimada's hand began moving. However, instead of twisting it forward like everyone thought he would, his hand calmly detached itself from his leg.
"If you say so. How about you, fatty?"
Tanaka quickly shook his head no, repeating the motion desperately until Shimada finally walked away. The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, but were still badly shaken up after this encounter.
Yukimura closed his hanging jaw and looked down at his feet. It was clear he felt worthless not being able to do anything, but at the same time, there was nothing he could do if he wanted to keep himself safe.
"What was that for?" Nakajima said.
"I just felt like messing with them a little." Shimada said.
"You know violence is forbidden. If you really did hurt Mitsuba-san, our group would've been penalised."
"They can take away 10 points, 15 points, 20 points from us, but it still wouldn't be enough to make us drop from first place."
"Just how confident are you...?"
"It's impossible to lose with me on this group. I'm the one carrying all of your asses."
Nakajima couldn't refute those bold words because they were true. Instead, he walked away, getting into position for the third and final race. Just as I was about to do the same, Shimada grabbed me by the shoulder.
"Run as fast as you can."
"...I'll try."
"If you don't, it'll be everyone else who takes a beating."
I raised an eyebrow. He let go of my shoulder and shoved me forward, like it was meant to be some kind of encouragement. I sighed and picked up the baton, slippery from sweat and the rain.
I looked over to Yamaguchi, who was standing at the end of the line up. Maybe I could use him after all.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: TruyenTop.Vip