CHAPTER 10
Pride and Stubbornness
“Let the sixty-sixth Autumn Heights Festival begin!”
With the president of the school festival committee’s announcement, Seirei Academy’s much-anticipated event began. Since the first day was for Seirei Academy students only, it wasn’t going to be total chaos for the school festival committee…or at least, that was what they naively believed.
“Kuze! The next performers aren’t going to be ready in time!”
“Where are they?”
“They haven’t even arrived!”
“How long do we need to stall?”
“Uh…”
“Please check and get back to me as soon as you can. I’ll handle things here. Host, once these performers get off the stage, I need you to buy us some time. Can you do that? Thanks.”
There were three stages set up for performances: the gym, the auditorium, and the schoolyard. For the most part, each stage was run by the school festival committee, the broadcasting club, and the drama club. In addition, the president of the school festival committee specifically put Masachika in charge of making sure everything went smoothly in the auditorium. Of course, they were working in shifts, so there were still two others who would take his place when he was on break.
“Kuze, I talked to the performers, and they need two more minutes.”
“Roger that. Host, try to buy us three minutes just in case. Cut the stage lights, leave the audience’s seats as is, and shine the spotlight on the host. This stalling is cutting into the next break as well, so I need the next props master to switch out with the current one while the host is buying us time.”
As he checked the task schedule and time schedule, Masachika used a transceiver to give instructions to the other auditorium workers, who quickly responded.
Although most of the others were older than him, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of disrespect in any of their voices, which was a testament to the trust that he’d built with them during multiple rehearsals. Although they ran into a few bumps along the way, thanks to his direction, the auditorium’s stage plans went smoothly, until it was time for their break.
“All right, I’m going to start my break. I’m counting on you.”
“Sounds good. Enjoy.”
After one of the third-year school festival committee members took over his shift, Masachika quickly washed his hands, then headed straight for the stage in the schoolyard. The stage area in the schoolyard was partitioned off with traffic cones of various colors, and there were around a hundred metal folding chairs set in front of the stage for the audience. Even though there were a few empty seats here and there, Masachika decided to stand behind them, close to the traffic cones. Shortly after that, two sets and a lectern were brought out onstage and set up before two familiar faces eventually stepped onto the stage.
“Thank you all for coming to watch the quiz research club’s very own quiz show!”
The final person to join them onstage was the quiz research club’s leader, wearing a silk hat and all. Masachika watched from afar as the club leader introduced the show, but it wasn’t like he was forced to stand so far away. This was a choice Masachika made himself so he could immediately take action if an emergency arose, since there was no telling what was going to happen on such a secretive trivia show. Ayano seemed to feel similarly…or at least, that was the conclusion Masachika came to when he suddenly noticed her standing as still as a statue nearby.
“Without further ado, allow me to present today’s two contestants!”
After introducing himself as the host, the quiz research club’s leader held out his hand toward the two competitors sitting in the center of the stage. A close-up shot of Yuki appeared on the screen above.
“Born into a well-known family that cultivates foreign relations, this young woman has the brains to become a diplomat herself one day! Politics, economics, pop culture, subculture—you name it! She knows it! But will she be able to utilize this extensive knowledge of hers during today’s quiz?! Give it up for Yuki Suou!”
The instant Yuki waved at the audience with a smile, the crowd erupted into cheers and whistling, which gradually attracted the attention of other students in the vicinity.
“Next up, we have the top of her class—a girl who has gotten the highest grade on every exam since she transferred to this school! There isn’t a single soul here who can deny that she is talented! She has both brains and brawn, and she is just getting started! Will she continue being the undefeated prodigy after this show?! Give it up for Alisa Mikhailovna Kujou!”
“Damn, he’s good,” commented Masachika as a close-up shot of Alisa was suddenly displayed on the screen. Alisa bowed slightly with a serious expression on her face. Her reaction was, in a way, the opposite of Yuki’s, so although she was welcomed with cheering and a warm round of applause, the audience did seem less enthusiastic.
Hmm… I was honestly expecting there to be a distinct, bigger difference in support…but maybe they liked her indifferent reaction. Some people like it when celebrities are cold and blunt, after all. Anyway, I’m glad I was wrong.
Masachika was pondering the audience response while clapping when he noticed the influx of spectators was starting to die down a little. It was already a huge crowd, perhaps because two of the most beautiful student council presidential candidates at school were about to duke it out, but the fact that it was lunchtime seemed to help as well. In fact, most students in the crowd had some sort of snack in hand, as if they wanted something to watch while enjoying their meal.
There’s not an empty seat left. Counting the people standing in the audience and those outside the venue peeking in, then you’d have around 130 people watching.
In other words, a little under 20 percent of the entire student body was currently here. While there was no way all of them were going to watch the entire show, there were still more than enough people here for details to quickly spread to every single student in school.
“Now, let the game begin! This competition will contain elements related to the election as well as elements you’d usually see on good old-fashioned quiz shows. So while most rules follow what everyone’s used to, there will be some rules like you’ve never seen before, too. Of course, our two contestants aren’t the only ones who can play. Everyone here is allowed to participate. All the questions will be multiple choice, and there will be no free response questions, since free response questions would be wayyy too hard to judge.”
The host added a playful note in his voice when explaining their reasoning, then continued:
“You get ten seconds to think after I read the question, then you have to give us an answer! There will be six topics with five questions per topic and a final question at the end, making a total of thirty-one questions. Whoever gets the most points wins. We have a very nice prize for our winner tonight, whether or not they are one of our two contestants, so give it everything you’ve got. Now, the question is: How do you participate if you’re not one of our two contestants? However, before I tell you all that, there is something important we need to discuss first.”
The host waited a beat before raising his voice loud enough for everyone in the venue to hear.
“Of course, this should go without saying, but I need everyone to be quiet during the show. You are not allowed to give the contestants any hints or answers, and if we find anyone cheating, they will be immediately kicked out of the venue. If that happens, we will have to start over and ask a new question. Is everyone fine with that? I’m counting on you all to keep quiet.”
The audience gradually got quieter until the area was completely silent, making the host smile with evident satisfaction.
“Thank you all so very much! Now, I need everyone to take out their phone and scan the QR code on the screen. This will take you to an answer sheet we made just for the show. We also have a few signs set up at each corner of the venue with the URL and QR code, so please use those if you need to.”
Masachika took out his smartphone just like those around him and scanned the massive QR code displayed on the screen.
This is really impressive… I can’t believe they did all this just for the show… What the—?
The web page that came up made him raise an eyebrow. Who do you think is a better fit for student council president? Under that question were the names Yuki and Alisa, which you could select as an answer.
The hell is this? Some kind of survey? Is this going to be used during the quiz? Are our votes going to be added like bonus points to their score?
When Masachika surveyed his surroundings, he noticed there were numerous others curiously looking around as well.
“Since I’m sure most of you are still opening the web page, I will use this time to explain the special rules for only our two contestants here. As I mentioned earlier, this quiz will contain elements related to the election. For example, our contestants’ partners, Ayano Kimishima and Masachika Kuze, will be able to participate as guests!”
Suddenly hearing his name made Masachika immediately look toward the stage.
“Each candidate pair is allowed to ‘phone a friend’ one time. One pair being Ms. Suou and Ayano Kimishima, with the other pair being Ms. Kujou and Masachika Kuze. I know it’s self-explanatory, but ‘phoning a friend’ means they are allowed to ask their partner for help. Therefore, if you ever want to phone a friend, you need to raise your hand and say, ‘Help.’ After that, you are allowed to talk to your partner on the phone for ten seconds tops. Oh, and you need to put your phone on speaker so that everyone can hear.”
Yuki promptly raised her hand. After the host acknowledged she had a question, she spoke into her microphone with a well-projected voice and asked:
“I have two questions. First, how does the time limit work when we phone a friend? Furthermore, if we put our phone on speaker, wouldn’t the other contestant also be able to hear the advice that was meant for us?”
“Oh, my apologies for being unclear. When you phone a friend, your rival’s answer will already be locked in. In other words, the ten seconds for answering the question have already passed. However, if you phone a friend, you get an additional ten seconds to receive help from your partner, then you get another ten seconds to answer the question.”
“Interesting. What happens if we both phone a friend about the same question?”
“Only one person may phone a friend per question. In other words, if one contestant declares first that they would like to phone a friend, then the other will not be able to call their partner anymore.”
“That makes sense. Thank you very much.”
“No, thank you for your wonderful question. By the way, it is against the rules for either of your partners to give you hints during the duration of this quiz with the exception of when you call them, but I’m sure that much was obvious. Please be careful, though.”
Hmm… So I only get one chance to help Alya if she gets stumped. Then again, if she doesn’t know the answer to something, I really doubt I would…
Masachika thought about the rules while shifting his gaze back down to the second choice on his phone screen.
Of course, I’m going to choose Alya.
After he tapped on Alisa’s name, another page popped up with the words please wait while the page was loading.
“Last but not least, I would like to explain how the point system works. Not all questions are worth the same number of points, and the general percentage of people who get the question right will affect the score.”
“What?”
When Masachika looked up, the host had just taken his eyes off the contestants and shifted his gaze toward the crowd.
“I’m sure everyone here has watched a trivia-based game show at least once before, right? Ordinary people are asked several questions, and then the show checks the average percent of correct answers that they had. Put simply, the more people who get the answer right, the easier that question is. Fewer people answering a question correctly means the question is harder. We, the quiz research club, have the technology to use our own personal surveys to calculate the percentage of correct answers. Normally, trivia shows have ten easy questions and twenty hard ones, but we will be using the formula one hundred minus the general percentage of correct answers equals the number of points! Put simply, if eighty percent of people answer a problem correctly, then the problem will be worth twenty points. However, if only five percent of people get the correct answer, then the question is worth ninety-five points!”
“That’s, uh…? I don’t know about that.”
In other words, easy questions were worth next to nothing, but difficult questions could create a massive gap in the score between the contestants in the blink of an eye. To make matters worse, it was a multiple-choice test…
You could make a lucky guess on an extremely difficult question and instantly get seventy points. If all the other questions are painfully easy ones that 90 percent of people get right, then there would be almost no way to ever catch up. It’s a scary thought…but I’m sure they worked on balancing the game before making it.
This point system seemed to be one of those unique rules the host mentioned earlier.
All right, to sum things up… There are thirty-one questions, and you get ten seconds to answer each question. Each question is worth a different number of points, which is based on how many individuals get the correct answer when they’re surveyed. Furthermore, both Alya and Yuki are allowed to phone a friend for help but only once.
Other than the scoring system, there wasn’t anything special about the rules for the most part and that included phoning a friend. The audience appeared to think so as well, seemingly getting sick of listening to all the rules. However, the host was not oblivious to this and proceeded by asking the contestants if they had any final questions. After they both shook their heads, the host faced the crowd once more and spread out his arms.
“Sorry to keep you all waiting. Anything goes in this battle between two student council members! Let the game begin!”
The host then moved to his lectern, where he began to use the opened laptop lying there.
“Your first topic is…social studies! First question!” shouted the host while the question was simultaneously displayed on the screen.
“Out of the Seven Summits, which of the following has the lowest altitude?!”
What the…?! Who the hell knows that?!
But despite his bewilderment, the multiple-choice answers were promptly displayed on the screen.
“One, Vinson Massif. Two, Kilimanjaro. Three, Aconcagua. Four, Kosciuszko. Your ten seconds starts now!”
“Oof! Seriously?!”
In the midst of his astonishment, a ten-second countdown appeared in the top-right of the screen, prompting Masachika to immediately rack his brain for ideas.
Uh… Okay, Kilimanjaro is definitely not it, and I’ve never even heard of Kosciuszko. The hell is that? Wait. Hold on. The Seven Summits are supposed to be the highest mountains, so size-wise, the smallest ones are somewhere like Australia or Antarctica, right? Wait. Antarctica is deceptively huge, isn’t it? Which leaves Australia… I’m pretty sure Aconcagua is in the Americas somewhere…but where is Vinson Massif again…?
Not even two seconds went by as those thoughts flew through his brain. But when he directed his gaze back to his phone…he froze.
“…? What’s this?”
Because there was something he was not expecting to see. Displayed on his phone’s screen under the timer in the top-right corner were the question and multiple-choice answers. This much was no different from what was displayed on the screen above the stage. However, there was something else displayed above the question on his phone that was nowhere to be found on the main screen. There were two square frames with Alisa’s name written above one and Yuki’s name written above the other.
Uh…? Oh, does this have something to do with that vote from a few moments ago?
Masachika tried tapping on the box and Alisa’s name, but nothing happened. The ambiguity even caused him to forget about the quiz itself for a moment. But when the timer reached the four-second mark, the mystery naturally solved itself.
“Hmm?”
The number 4 suddenly appeared in the box under Yuki’s name, followed by another 4 written in Alisa’s box one second later.
Wait. Don’t tell me these are their answers…
A wave of bewildered grunts stirred the crowd, provoking the host to tell everyone to settle down, which immediately silenced the audience.
This must be one of the features of the game… Anyway, I need to answer before time runs out. I guess I’ll go with Kosciuszko, wherever that is. Seems suspicious.
Seeing Yuki and Alisa choose the same answer gave Masachika the confidence he needed to tap the fourth multiple-choice answer. Another second went by, bringing the countdown to zero and locking in the answers.
“Time’s up! Now, let’s get straight to it! The correct answer was…number four! Kosciuszko! Congratulations to both of our contestants for getting it right! Furthermore, sixty-eight percent of you all got the correct answer, which means each contestant will receive thirty-two points!”
…? Don’t they usually check the contestants’ answers before telling us the right answer? Oh! Right. The contestants don’t have a screen in front of them, so I guess there’s no way to show their answers to the audience.
The two contestants had ordinary classroom desks in front of them, which were covered with a tablecloth to keep their tablets from getting scratched. It was an extremely simple setup, with the cloth hanging down in front of their desk, which was common with trivia shows, and there was no screen displaying their answers, either.
The questions and answers displayed on the main screen were likely made in advance, so they probably have no way of showing the contestants’ answers. That must be why they went with this answer form to show the contestants’ answers… But still, something feels off…
Although the next question was announced, most of Masachika’s focus was on the quiz research club’s puzzling solution to displaying the answers. It felt extremely unnatural and obtuse, which made him think there had to be something else he wasn’t seeing. So he decided to follow his gut and began racking his brain.
Common sense would tell me that this just allows everyone to base their answers on the contestants’ answers, right? But giving the audience such big hints only takes away from the fun of the game, right? Is this a feature where you’re supposed to just choose the same answer as the contestant you like? So the survey in the beginning was— Wait. No. If that were the case, then why show both contestants’ answers? Why not only show the answers of whomever you chose in the beginning?
“Time’s up! We have an incorrect answer this time! The correct answer was number two! Ms. Kujou got it right! Number three, which Ms. Suou selected, was unfortunately the symbol for steel cans.”
Masachika suddenly looked up when he heard the host’s announcement. It appeared that Alisa had already taken the lead.
Good job, Alya. You learn that from one of those trivia books?
There was no way Alisa would lose to Yuki when it came to knowledge that could be found in simple textbooks, but Masachika knew this wasn’t enough to win a trivia show. Therefore, when he had stopped by the quiz research club to discuss the trivia game, he casually memorized all the names of the trivia books he saw lying around. He then got copies for Alisa to study at a later date, which she ended up using to memorize every single fact in them like a sponge, exceeding even Masachika’s expectations.
They most likely pulled a decent number of problems from those trivia books… I’m sure they modified some of them, but it’s nothing Alya can’t handle!
Simply watching his dependable partner lifted his mood tenfold; he gazed at her with praise and support. Alisa, however, didn’t notice his stare, since she had her eyes glued to her tablet and wasn’t planning on letting her guard down for even a second.
…She still looks pretty tense, though. I really hope she can remain focused until the very end…
A bit of anxiety clouded Masachika’s heart when he realized that he missed how many points the last question was worth. Wondering how much of a lead Alisa was in, he immediately looked down at his phone…and discovered that their score wasn’t displayed.
What the…? Their score isn’t written anywhere onstage, either. Dammit. Is this going to come back and bite us in the ass?
He panicked somewhat until the host announced their score.
“All right! That does it for our first topic. The current scores are Ms. Suou, 148 points! Ms. Kujou, 192 points! It looks like Ms. Kujou has a slight edge over her opponent!”
“Oh, wow. She has an even bigger lead than I thought.”
Masachika honestly didn’t believe she would already be in the lead after the first five questions. Unexpected but greatly appreciated, he thought, but it was still soon to get comfortable yet because depending on the next topic, there was always a high chance of Yuki taking the lead in the blink of an eye. Alisa was especially ignorant when it came to subculture and pop culture, so all Masachika could do was pray nothing like that ever came up…
“Let’s move on to our next topic! Our next topic for the day is…”
Masachika naturally tensed in fear as the host began to announce the next topic.
“…cuisine! Here is your first question!”
After breathing a sigh of relief, Masachika returned his focus to the curiously displayed answers of the contestants, since he was sure that Alisa could handle the quiz itself without him.
This show contains elements related to the election…which means people can use the contestants’ answers to cheer on their favorite candidate. That seems like the most natural reason for doing this. So would that mean the survey in the beginning was to let the audience know this was to cheer on their favorite…? But wouldn’t this just motivate the audience to give their favorite candidate a hint if they end up selecting the wrong answer…? Then again, that is against the rules, so…
Or was it only against the rules if they got caught? Still, the issue here was that it was unlikely that either of the candidates had realized this mechanism even existed. Plus, the ten-second clock made it hard to have any sort of effective system set up for cheating.
On second thought, if you did manage to tell a candidate about this system, then it would be an easy enough system to abuse. The candidate could just slowly choose each answer until their accomplice in the audience gave them a nod when they picked the right answer. That should work, and it would be subtle enough for someone to pull off without anyone noticing, right?
A little cheating during the election race wasn’t a problem as long as you got away with it. You could even be kind of obvious about it if you left no evidence. In fact, it could improve your reputation if you did pull it off without the other person finding out how you did it.
But how am I going to tell Alya all this? That’s the issue. Plus, the problems are honestly really hard, so this might actually not help her at all.
Masachika had been making sure to look up each question until now, but most of them didn’t seem like they were something you could look up online and find an answer in under ten seconds. In reality, the accomplice would probably have only a maximum of five seconds to find the right answer online.
Hmm… I guess it wouldn’t really be feasible.
But even then, he turned his focus to Alisa onstage, since he figured letting her know about this was still better than nothing. Having said that, she was still completely focused on her tablet, never glancing even once in his direction.
…Alya?
A seed of anxiety and panic began to grow inside Masachika when he realized that she clearly wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around her.
Hold up. Relax… How is panicking going to solve anything? If Alya is nervous, then I need to be the calm one.
He shook his head, shifted emotional gears, and looked back down at his phone.
I should keep an eye on Yuki first. If she’s already cheating, then there has to be some kind of hint of it within her answers.
Once he reached that conclusion, Masachika peered hard at Yuki’s answer while glancing a few times at Ayano to see if they really were up to no good, but neither of them seemed to be doing anything suspicious.
They aren’t acting any different from how they were acting earlier… Besides, I doubt Ayano has it in her to cheat.
Maybe she could do it if Yuki gave her the orders, but Ayano wasn’t the kind of person who would even get the idea to cheat, let alone be able to pull it off. She was far too pure to do something so dirty.
“That does it for our second round. The current score is Ms. Suou with 304 points and Ms. Kujou with 390 points! Ms. Kujou is still in the lead!”
“Oooh!” Masachika exclaimed when he heard the host’s announcement. He immediately looked over at his partner with genuine admiration in his eyes, but Alisa was still far too taut with tension to notice.
Meanwhile…
I’ve answered every question correctly so far. All that studying has paid off. I can do it. I can beat Yuki all by myself.
The extremely short ten-second period for thinking, in addition to the subsequent anxiety and relief felt once the answer was announced, ended up being far more mentally draining than Alisa had imagined. The fact that this was only a third of the entire show made her slightly less confident that she would be able to focus until the very end. Nevertheless, she fought through her fears and focused on the questions before her.
…That is, until the host announced the next topic.
“Our next topic is trends! Here’s your first question!”
Alisa was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of danger that was almost immediately proved to be well-founded.
“Last year, the TV show Detective Family Holiday took the world by storm. Your question is: What did the protagonist famously say in episode eight during this scene?!”
…! I have no idea!
Although she had heard of that TV show on the news before, she had absolutely no idea what it was even about. At the very least, she thought she could guess which line was right based on the scene, but all the choices were extremely similar. The only difference was vocabulary used and the order of the words, but all the lines essentially meant the same thing.
Whoever wrote the question expects us to have a general idea of what the protagonist said, so the question is simply testing if we remembered it correctly… I basically just have to go with my gut and guess!
The option to phone a friend did cross her mind, but Alisa immediately ruled that out.
I’ll be fine. I can beat Yuki in any ordinary topic. Even if she gets the lead on me this round, I can still pull ahead in the later rounds.
She convinced herself of that while going with her gut to pick an answer, but when the time came for the host to announce the answer…
“The correct answer is…number one! Oh nooo! Ms. Kujou got her first answer wrong! Ms. Suou is catching up, folks!”
She got it wrong. The fact was like a heavy weight in her stomach. It was emotionally devastating whether or not she wanted to acknowledge it, but her iron will wasn’t going to allow her emotions to get in the way.
I’ll be fine. I have a one-in-four chance of getting the answer right, so even if I guess every time, I should still get at least one or two of them right. In addition, if I do get two of them right, there’s almost no way Yuki will outpoint me, even if she does answer every question correctly.
“Question number two! This mascot has been a huge hit on social media lately! But what city and prefecture is he originally a mascot of?”
It’s okay. Just two questions. As long as I get two correct…
“Question number three! This hot product is used for what?”
It’s okay. I can still…
“Whoa! Would you look at that?! Ms. Suou has finally taken the lead!”
Just one more question. If I get this one correct…
………………
“That does it for round three! Ms. Suou is now in the lead with 496 points, with Ms. Kujou still with 390 points! I bet everyone was as shocked and upset as I was to see Ms. Kujou getting every question wrong this round! This is major! Anyway, that does it for the first half of the game, so let’s see how our contestants are feeling! Let’s start with you, Ms. Suou. That was one impressive comeback.”
“Thank you very much. I was quite surprised by how difficult these questions turned out to be. Are the trivia questions you ask one another in your club always this difficult?”
“No, these questions are actually…”
Even though the host and Yuki were speaking, Alisa hardly heard a word. Her unfocused eyes stared at her tablet, and she gritted her teeth. Being stubborn ended up only putting her far behind in points, and it was going to take more than one right answer to catch up. Despite being prepared for a bad round, Alisa couldn’t help but curse her poor intuition after getting every single answer wrong.
“I try hard to keep up with trends in order to stay informed about others’ interests…but trends are seemingly unimportant to Alya. If I were her, I would have phoned a friend…”
Hearing Yuki call her out snapped Alisa back to reality. She looked up from her tablet and turned to face Yuki, who was staring in her direction with a very ladylike smile.
“Did you not phone a friend out of pride, even though you knew the topic would be difficult for you? Or perhaps you only plan on phoning a friend if I do so first?”
Pride… It was pride, but it wasn’t her rivalry with Yuki that made her too stubborn to ask for help. Alisa was doing this for herself, and her pride wasn’t going to let her back down.
“…Why did you agree to do this show?”
Yuki blinked in confusion, as if Alisa’s question had caught her off guard, but before she could even get a chance to reply, Alisa continued:
“I agreed to come on this show to demonstrate what I was capable of. I want to prove that I am fit for running for student council president and that I am fit to stand by Masachika’s side. And that’s why…”
Alisa grabbed her smartphone off the desk in front of her, then flipped it over as if to show that she wasn’t planning on using it.
“…I don’t plan on getting Masachika involved in this. Whether I win or lose this battle depends solely on me.”
Her determination was awe-inspiring, still shining even in the face of despair, and it was this great pride of hers that captivated the audience.
“I will not rely on anyone but myself to defeat you, no matter what.”
The perfectly still audience swallowed their breath when they heard just how determined she was. Even the host was speechless for a few seconds. Of course, Masachika was no different as he watched over Alisa from afar.
“Alya…”
He unconsciously muttered his partner’s name as she shone so brightly that he wanted to squint.
Heh… She’s so cool.
And he meant that from the bottom of his heart. She was putting everything she had into improving so she could become the ideal version of herself. Masachika truly felt that her single-minded pursuit was not only beautiful but admirable as well.
Ha-ha… I guess we don’t need to cheat…
He lowered his smartphone with a bit of shame. All he could do now was believe in his partner, trust that she could turn this around for herself, and watch over her.
Anyway…I had no idea she felt that way.
Masachika himself seemed to be the cause of Alisa’s unusual tension lately. In other words, although he hadn’t really taken what Yuki said seriously at the time, she turned out to be right.
I was only trying to help her with the election, since I have experience, but it looks like I might have ended up only making her feel cornered.
Looking back, he did feel like he might have been helping her too much. Perhaps his overprotectiveness made Alisa believe he didn’t trust her. Perhaps it made her feel like she wasn’t good enough to do anything on her own.
But you have nothing to worry about… You’re always going to be walking ahead of me and going farther than I ever could.
Masachika gazed at his partner onstage with a hint of sorrow in his heart. She was a brilliant star in the night sky, and he was but a single spectator watching her from the ground. It was as if this were some kind of metaphor for the future to come, which drained his heart, leaving him with a strange sense of loneliness.
“Now, let’s move on to the final half of the show!”
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