Despite being the second one to have finished changing, Ayano was still only halfway through the course, and although she was waddling as rapidly as she could, she was gradually being overtaken one by one. Alisa and Masachika watched with furrowed brows. Even the audience, which had initially watched with amused smiles, seemed almost worried, as if they were concerned that Ayano was going to collapse at any moment. When Yuki eventually caught up with Ayano with about a quarter of the course remaining, she seemed to have said something to her, took her dinosaur hand, and then started walking alongside her at a slower pace.
“Interesting. She really thought this through…”
The pair, hand in hand, was met with warm applause and cheers from the audience as they worked together toward the finish line. Although they had already secured last place, their confident strides, accompanied by cheerful waves to the crowd, somehow felt like a victory lap.
Hmm… I guess you could say that she didn’t win the match, but she won the battle? Looks like Yuki came out on top this time.
Although he didn’t say it aloud to Alisa, Masachika could tell that she felt the same way as she watched Yuki with a hint of frustration in her eyes.
“Alya, your face.”
“Ah.”
Once he pointed out that Alisa had been glaring at Yuki, she frowned uncomfortably, as if she suddenly recognized what she was doing, too. Therefore, Masachika decided to change the subject to lighten the mood.
“By the way, there’s one thing that’s been bothering me. How in the world did Ayano’s costume fit into that plastic bag?”
“Oh… The costume was actually inside the tent. The plastic bag just had a piece of paper inside it that said ‘dinosaur,’ and there was some cushioning? Or something inside to make the plastic bag look like it had an actual costume in it.”
“Ohhh. That makes sense.”
“I have a question, too. What did the commentator mean by ‘good ol’-fashioned comic book heroine’? The audience got really excited.”
“Uh… I actually didn’t get the specific reference, either, but there’s a common trope in comics where a girl has a slice of bread in her mouth while she’s running to school saying, ‘I’m going to be late!’ She usually bumps into a boy when she turns the corner, and that boy ends up being the one she’s destined to marry or something…”
“Oh? So that’s what the slice of bread was for…”
Masachika smiled wryly as he watched Alisa stare at the tooth-marked bread with a troubled expression.
“I guess you got yourself a free lunch, huh? Hey, check it out.”
The crowd erupted in applause as Yuki and Ayano crossed the finish line hand in hand while Masachika, as a member of the organizing committee, went over to greet them.
“Good job, you two—especially you, Ayano. I mean it.”
“Thank…you…”
Masachika offered his heartfelt sympathy to Ayano, who looked exhausted despite her expressionless face.
“What do you want to do? The changing room’s over there, but I can help you if you want. I could even get a cart and push you all the way over there.”
“No… I’m fine. I realized that I can keep my balance as long as I walk slowly.”
“Are you sure? Don’t overdo it, okay?”
Suddenly, there was a burst of cheers, drawing Masachika’s gaze to find the fourth girl from the second-year student lineup emerging from behind the curtains… And it was none other than Maria, dressed as a nurse, with a toy syringe and a binder.
“Whoa! Would you look at Kujou! Hellooo, nurse! Now, that’s some traditional cosplay, if you ask me! And check out how good she looks!”
The announcer may have been going wild, but the crowd was even more hyped, enveloped in an unusual and intense atmosphere of enthusiasm, despite the outfit not being all that revealing.
“Argh! My stomach! It hurts! Nurse!”
“My heart hurts… Is this lovesickness?!”
…Some students even started feigning illnesses. The enthusiasm for Maria was so overwhelming that you couldn’t help but feel sorry for the other three participants currently running on the track.
“L-look how thick she is in all the right places!”
The instant Yuki whispered her honest, blunt opinion, Masachika reflexively reached out to smack her…but then remembered she was still in costume and stopped himself. Regardless, one runner after another gradually emerged from the tent in costume…until there was only one left, and it was definitely one to remember, to say the least.
“Whoaaa?! It’s Kiryuuin! And what a dress! What an incredible dress!”
The ever-popular Sumire made her grand entrance, dressed in a voluminous gown reminiscent of a medieval noblewoman, complete with a wide-brimmed hat, a flamboyant fan, and her signature cascading curls.
““She looks too good in that.””
The brother and sister unintentionally uttered the very same words, but that was simply a testament to how good Sumire looked… She was incredibly fast, to boot.
“Look at the trails of fire following Kiryuuin! How do you even run so fast in that dress?!”
Sumire ran at an incredible speed, one hand holding her skirt as she used her fan to cover her mouth. She quickly overtook the other runners and made her way toward the front of the pack.
“How is she running so fast in that skirt?”
“Um… I really hope that I am seeing things, but is she wearing heels?”
The siblings watched in stunned silence as Sumire surged ahead right through the finish line, crossing it first. She then haughtily threw back her head and let out a triumphant laugh.
“Oh-ho-ho-ho! Victory is mine!”
“…She appears to really understand the role.”
With a newfound respect for his schoolmate’s dedication to fan service, Masachika turned his attention to guiding the second-year girls who had just finished the race.
“The changing room is on the first floor in the school building! Please go change after you are given your gym clothes!”
Maria crossed the finish line in fourth place in the middle of his announcement.
“Oh, hey. Good job, Masha.”
“Thank you, Kuze. Ah, I was so close to getting third place…”
“Having to hold that syringe and binder while you were running definitely didn’t help, either, I bet,” added Masachika while he approached her.
What the…? I don’t know if I’d call her thick…as much as I’d say she’s bursting at the seams.
After getting a good look of her up close, he noticed how stretched her pink nurse uniform was in some places, straining at the seams while making it hard for him to find a place to look.
“Whoa?!”
Something slammed into Masachika from behind, causing him to stumble, but when he turned around in a fluster, he found Alisa staring at him, with her shoulder forward and that piece of bread still in her mouth.
“Alya? What’s wrong? Wait. You still haven’t changed out of that?”
“…”
Although Alisa didn’t even reply to Masachika’s concern, the look in her eyes made it seem as if she knew that he was having impure thoughts about Maria, prompting him to break out in a cold sweat.
“Haaah… Come on, Masha.”
“Huh? But they still haven’t brought me my gym clothes yet… Oh, hey! Kuze! Do you have your phone with you?”
“What? Yeah…?”
“Then could you take a picture? Come on, Alya. You too.”
“…?!”
Just as Masachika reached into his gym uniform pocket for his smartphone, Maria grabbed his arm and pulled him toward her, then pulled Alisa as well, sandwiching herself in the middle.
“Ready. Go ahead, Kuze.”
“Uh… Are you sure?”
“About what? Oh, is the sun too bright where I’m standing?”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” he replied with a straight face, then shrugged before holding out his smartphone.
“Come closer, Alya. You’re too far.”
“But…”
“Come on, smile. Say cheese.”
“All right, you guys ready? Three, two…one.”
Masachika switched his phone to selfie mode and took a few photos, just as he was asked to. He also took a few shots of just Alisa and Maria as well.
“Thanks, Kuze. Do you think you could send those to me later?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Masachika nodded, feeling a mix of excitement and guilt at having inadvertently obtained photos of the two of them doing cosplay, when…
“Masachika, do you think you could take pictures of us, too?”
“Oh! Me too!”
“Would it be too much to ask to have my picture taken as well?”
Yuki, Nonoa, Sumire, and many others started to raise their hands one after another, suddenly creating what could only be described as a cosplay photo shoot (with only one photographer).
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login