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Two days after the Project Selection special exam was announced, the first-year classes submitted to their homeroom teachers their chosen commander, their chosen opponent class, and their list of events.
Before long, the homeroom teachers published all the results: Yukio's Class would face Sakayanagi's class, and Ichinose's class would face Class D.
Over on the Yukio side, everyone pored over the intel. Sakayanagi's ten events were quite complex: on the academic side there were Japanese, math, English, physics, chemistry, and even mental arithmetic.
For physical events they had volleyball and dodgeball; and on top of that, more intricate board games—international chess and go.
Plenty of Yukio Class members felt their scalps prickle. "Damn! Being good at studying really is something… six academic events all by themselves! They're banking on us being weaker overall in academics than they are."
"True enough—our ten events don't include any academics at all."
"But there are actually two physical events on their side—that we totally didn't expect. Maybe they've got some aces in athletics?"
Yukio studied the list, thinking through how Sakayanagi would play it, then called over Ryuen and Ishizaki, telling them to take some people over in the afternoon and look for trouble by any means necessary.
"I've got this! Leave it to me, aniki!" Ishizaki accepted, delighted. He didn't understand much else, but when it came to picking fights—back in middle school he'd done plenty.
That morning, the students of Sakayanagi's class analyzed Yukio's lineup and found it thorny: Yukio's list was almost entirely combat-type events, and these elite scholars really couldn't take that well.
To keep very high grades—aside from the geniuses who can play around every day and still get perfect scores—most students have to spend most of each day studying to secure top marks.
Which means, inevitably, that Sakayanagi's high-achievers weren't going to be especially strong in physical ability.
Even so, no matter how thorny it looked, a few casual words from Sakayanagi to lift morale restored everyone's composure.
By afternoon, they were either studying in the classroom or heading to the gym to practice their own events—or Yukio Class's events.
And that was when trouble came knocking.
Ryuen rolled up with Albert, Komiya, and a few others. Komiya whistled as he followed behind Ryuen's swagger, drawing annoyed looks from Sakayanagi's studious elites. (T/N: I almost forgot about Albert…)
Katsuragi stepped forward right away, expression dark. "What are you doing here?"
Ryuen smiled lazily. "Nothing much. Thought I'd come visit and… learn from the top students, y'know."
Katsuragi's brows drew tighter. "Then go to the gym. Don't disturb us here."
"What, am I disturbing you?" Ryuen took big, easy strides straight into the classroom. He didn't tell his guys to stay quiet; on the contrary, he let them chatter, laugh, and tease, going out of their way to stir people up.
Katsuragi moved to block them, but Albert's huge frame shifted like a wall to block him instead. Katsuragi's face grew uglier: if he kept pressing, it would look like he was the one picking a fight.
Ryuen pretended not to notice, hands in pockets, wandering between the desks and peering down. "Yo, doing a math paper? Mind if I take a look?"
"!" The student's fingers clenched tight in irritation, but seeing Ryuen, Albert, and Komiya's hard faces, he didn't dare say anything—just turned his head away in pent-up frustration, refusing to respond.
Katsuragi tried circling around Albert to come over quickly, but Albert was far more agile than he was. The moment he slipped aside, Albert took two sidesteps and blocked him again.
That made Katsuragi all the more anxious, but he still held his temper and kept his voice steady and weighty, unhurried: "Ryuen, obstructing and hindering others is already grounds for us to report you to the school."
"Don't make such a federal case out of it, Katsuragi." Ryuen drifted over to another Sakayanagi-class student. "Is student chit-chat already 'obstruction and hindrance' now?"
"You guys don't just stand there either—go on, have a nice exchange with these Sakayanagi-class elites, learn 380 from them. Katsuragi, if you still have complaints, doesn't that count as you obstructing our progress?"
At Ryuen's word, aside from Albert still blocking Katsuragi, Komiya and the others darted to different desks. Their giggling and banter made Sakayanagi's students want to tear their hair out; some even wanted to throw down with Ryuen's crew on the spot.
Even someone as steady as Katsuragi ground his teeth at this tactic. "Don't get cocky. I'm reporting this to the school right now."
He pulled out his phone on the spot, clearly planning to argue the point on the rule level and fight Ryuen that way.
Unfortunately for him… Ryuen first bent over laughing, shoulders shaking. Then his expression turned more and more teasing. "Is that so?"
"Put the phone down then. Don't call your homeroom teacher or the school. Just tell me—it amounts to the same thing."
"Conflicts between students are always handled by the student council. As the student council's vice president, I will gladly accept your report—and handle it 'with perfect fairness.' So then, Katsuragi, what exactly do you want to report?"
"…" Katsuragi's face went completely black, like the bottom of a pot. MMP!! He really wanted to swear. He'd actually forgotten about the student council! What a total day-ruined-dog moment!
The one picking the fight was Ryuen; the student council belonged to Yukio. What the hell was there to report now?!
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