Chapter 8: “Class B vs. Class D”
Intro
While Class A and Class C were still in the process of having their Math tests graded for their third event…
The outcome of the fourth event in the battle between Class B and Class D had already been decided.
“After tallying up the results, Class B ended with 601 points, while Class D ended with 409 points. Class B wins the fourth event.”
After hearing Mashima announce the results, Ichinose let out a sigh of relief.
The event had been an academic test that Class B had suggested, so it would’ve been nearly impossible for them to lose.
“Well ain’t you a lucky one, Ichinose. You should be grateful we keep drawing Class B’s events.”
“…Yeah.”
Despite having won, Ichinose was still clearly distraught, whereas the loser, Ry?en, seemed perfectly composed.
Moreover, this was only natural. Out of the four events that had been drawn so far, three of them had been suggested by Class B. However, those four events hadn’t ended up playing out as expected, as the score was tied with two wins apiece between Class B and Class D. During the third event, Class B had lost at their own game, the Chemistry Test. Furthermore, the reason for their defeat was obvious.
“Sensei… Have the students with stomach aches come back from the bathroom yet?”
At Ichinose’s request, Mashima got in touch with the classroom to check on the situation in Class B.
“No, two of them still haven’t gotten back from the bathroom yet, and it seems that several of the others have also started to feel unwell now.”
“Is that so…”
The reason why Class B had lost the Chemistry event was because a portion of their main fighting force had unexpectedly fallen sick.
But, that wasn’t the only reason. On the day before the exam, some of Class B’s students had gotten into a dispute with Class D, which had also had an impact.
Although a complaint had been made to the school, neither of the two classes had been penalized as it was nothing more than a verbal argument.
These underhanded actions had undoubtedly been orchestrated by the man seated on the other side of the table, Ry?en.
Ichinose took a few deep breaths in order to compose herself once again.
“Haa… It’s okay, it’s okay.”
They hadn’t given up the lead just yet. Ichinose had lost her presence of mind ever since her defeat in the Chemistry event, but now she was slowly beginning to return to normal. While it was true that problems kept popping up one after another, Ry?en’s actions were limited. As the commander, he wouldn’t be able to do anything that she couldn’t do also.
Ichinose desperately tried to regain her confidence. To tell herself that, as long as she continued to fight hard, they wouldn’t lose.
“Oi, you teachers. Hurry up and start the fifth event already. Those chumps in Class B weren’t even able to take care of their health on the day of the exam. Are you really gonna make concessions for a naive bunch like that?”
“Mind your language, Ry?en.”
Despite Chabashira’s warning for his arrogant language, Ry?en didn’t seem to care.
In fact, he even turned it up a notch.
“I dunno if they’re on the toilet or whatever, but they could totally be using this time to iron out their strategy. Plus, it’s strange that multiple people just so happened to get sick all at the same time. What kind of sinister tricks are you playing at, Ichinose?”
“I-I didn’t…”
Ry?en drew suspicion to the fact that several people had reported feeling unwell at the same time.
Even though Ichinose knew that there had been absolutely no wrongdoing on her part, she had no room to refute it either.
“Either way, let’s just get on with it already, aight teach’?”
With a grin on his face, Ry?en shot a look at Chabashira for confirmation.
“Ry?en is certainly right about that. Mashima-sensei, please proceed with the fifth event, if you would.”
Mashima began the drawing for the fifth event.
Karate? Required Participants: 3 ? Time: 10 Minutes
Rules: Each match will take at most 3 minutes, using a non-contact, Sundome Karate ruleset. The matches will adopt a “Loser Leaves, Winner Stays” tournament style.
Commander Intervention: The commander may, at any point, call for one of the matches to be redone.
“Sweet, it’s one of our events this time. We’ll take on anyone, doesn’t matter who.”
Ry?en chose Suzuki Hidetoshi, Oda Takumi, and Ishizaki Daichi for his three participants. The rules regarding commander intervention were perfect for him as well, granting him the ability to call for a rematch just in case something unexpected were to happen and they lost one of the matches.
On the other side, Ichinose chose Sumida Makoto, Watanabe Norihito, and Yonezu Haruto. Back when the opposing class’s events were announced, she had tasked these three with practicing for the Karate event, but they pretty much had their hands full with just remembering the rules.
As a result, Class B suffered two staggering back-to-back losses. Even when Ichinose tried to make use of her powers as the commander to call for a rematch, it still didn’t manage to change anything.
The fifth event had been one of the quickest and most decisive losses so far.
At this point, Class B didn’t have any more leeway. If they lost the next event, the sixth, they would lose the entire special exam.
“It’s funny, isn’t it, Ichinose?”
As they waited for the drawing to pass judgment, Ry?en called out to Ichinose, who had gotten quieter.
“When it was decided that you’d be going against Class D back when the special exam was announced, I’ll bet you guys felt like you had an absolute advantage. But looking at you now, it’s like the only thing you can do is sit there and pray to the heavens. Kuku.”
Ichinose’s strategies were by no means naive.
If they were competing under normal circumstances, Class B would be at 3 wins and 2 losses right now.
But instead, a sudden accident happened that had thrown everything out of order.
If they didn’t draw one of their own events here, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
And then it was chosen, the sixth event.
Judo? Required Participants: 1 ? Match Time: 4 Minutes (Up to 3 Matches for 12 Minutes Total)
Rules: Standard judo rules apply.
Commander Intervention: The commander may choose to invalidate the results of one match and call for a rematch.
A one-on-one event. For Class B, the event that had been chosen was the worst possible outcome imaginable.
This was the first time Ichinose had ever truly felt the sensation of being plunged into darkness.
“Kukuku. Judo? Judo, eh? For THAT to get chosen out of all things. Lady luck ain’t smiling down on you, Ichinose.”
“How…”
“If the last two events had been from Class B, you wouldda still had a chance at winning!”
Ry?en locked in Yamada Albert without hesitation.
Just like in the Karate event earlier, the rules regarding commander intervention were an ultimate insurance policy that practically guaranteed that he wouldn’t lose.
“Even though your opponent is Albert, don’t let it get to you. The strongest guy doesn’t always win, so ya never know until ya give it a shot.”
The result was already as clear as day. It would be extremely difficult for Class B to beat an opponent whose physique and skill far surpassed their own.
It was the only event that Class B had given up on, where they wouldn’t be able to win no matter what. Ichinose had to select a single person, and she was only given thirty seconds to decide who that would be. But now, Ichinose couldn’t even make the choice to nominate someone anymore.
The seconds ticked away mercilessly until the timer finally reached 0. As per the rules, a student would be chosen at random if the commander failed to make the choice in time, but after considering the danger of the event, Mashima passed the ruling immediately instead.
Part 1
From here, the story turns back to the day the special exam was first announced.
Alone, Ishizaki chased after Ry?en as he headed off to eat his lunch. Class D had already decided on making Kaneda their commander, but they were having problems coming up with what events to choose.
The reason being that nobody in Class D was capable of coming up with any original ideas.
Ordinary events, ordinary rules, ordinary fighting styles.
They were only able to come up with simple, ordinary ideas that anyone would be able to think of.
If they couldn’t come up with anything better, their chances of winning against any of the other classes were effectively non-existent.
Submitting ten casual, ordinary events was simply the easy way out.
In Class D, the current opinion was that they should avoid facing off against Class A because their abilities were just too overpowering. Similarly, they came to the conclusion that it might be even more crucial to avoid Class B.
So, naturally, everyone wanted to go after the up-and-coming Class C. That is, everyone other than Ishizaki.
“Uhh? could ya spare a moment, Ry?en-san?”
Despite his fear of doing so, Ishizaki checked his surroundings to make sure that there were no other first-year students around before he proceeded to call out to Ry?en.
“Hm?”
With just a mere glance from Ry?en’s harsh eyes, Ishizaki froze like a frog that had been seen by a snake.
But despite his body freezing up on him, his mouth still managed to speak.
“I beg of you? please give me some of your time!!”
“Oh, so you’ve gotten big enough to oppose me now, huh?”
“N-no, that ain’t it…!”
“Kuku. Well, whatever. You’re practically the leader of Class D right now.”
Ry?en felt like he was only prolonging the inevitable right now. That this was nothing more than extra time at a school where he was going to get forced out eventually, so he had plenty of time to kill. The two of them began walking outside with Ry?en in the lead.
Even if someone were to witness the two of them, it’d probably seem like Ishizaki had called Ry?en out or something.
Once they made their way out of the school building and got to an area where no people were around, Ishizaki promptly got down on his knees.
“Ry?en-san, please… lend your strength to Class D for this special exam!”
From the moment Ishizaki called out to him, Ry?en had a solid idea of what Ishizaki wanted. However, he didn’t say a word about it. He just looked down upon Ishizaki prostrated on the ground before him.
“You’re dribbling out nonsense, Ishizaki. I stepped down. I’ve told you that already. You really think I’ll help you?”
“That? I know that. But with how we are now, we hardly stand a chance against the other classes!”
“Yeah probably.”
Ry?en didn’t deny it either.
After all, he had already thought about it. When it comes to sheer competitive potential, Class D was overwhelmingly inferior to the other classes.
“Kaneda stepped up as the commander, so even if we lose nobody will get expelled… But, if we lose at this point, our class points will be all but gone!”
“Well, that’s what you get if ya lose seven events straight, eh?”
Class D currently has 318 class points. If they lost all seven matches, they’d be down to 100 points total. While that was the worst-case scenario, it wasn’t all that unlikely given the current trajectory of the class.
“So you want me to be the commander? Who would agree to something like that?”
“That’s?”
In order to get Ry?en expelled, they’d have to make him the commander. And furthermore, they would need to lose.
However, the class would have to suffer a huge loss just to get one person expelled, and nobody was very eager to make that tradeoff.
Should their class points ever drop to 0, it’d be effectively impossible for them to ever reach Class A.
Not only that. It’d be nearly impossible to live a stable life at this school anymore.
Class D’s optimal outcome was victory. Second to this would be to lose and force Ry?en’s expulsion.
But no matter what, they had to avoid getting crushed and losing their only protection point at the same time.
Ishizaki wanted Class D to win, but he also didn’t want Ry?en to get expelled.
And, if anyone in the class could make that happen, it’d be Ry?en himself.
“…So what should we do? Should we go for Class C after all?”
Under normal circumstances, Ishizaki would’ve been fully behind choosing Class C, but the problem with that was Ayanok?ji.
Ishizaki’s hesitation stemmed from the fact that he was one of the few students who knew the true nature of that man.
“Don’t go asking for my opinion all willy-nilly like that. Who told you I’d cooperate?”
For Ishizaki, this was all or nothing, but Ry?en’s words made it clear he had been too reckless. But even so, he still wasn’t going to stop prostrating himself. He was prepared to keep it up until the moment Ry?en left.
“You’re right that Class C isn’t very unified. They’ve got a monster like Ayanok?ji, but in the end, he’s just one guy. You might even be tempted to think you’d stand a chance because it’s a team competition… though, you’d be wrong.”
“Wha?”
Ry?en, the very man Ishizaki thought he had no chance of convincing, unexpectedly decided to share his thoughts.
“Put me as the commander and I’d avoid facing off with Class C. I dunno the whole process of how we choose our opponent, but that class isn’t one I’d want to be challenging voluntarily.”
“B-but other than Ayanok?ji?”
“That’s got nothing to do with it, blockhead.”
Ishizaki recoiled a bit.
“Even though Class D is full of incompetent morons like you, we’ve still got the tools to succeed in other ways. But, Class C isn’t the best option we’ve got available. No, there’s only one class suitable enough to be our opponent.”
“Wh-which one is it!?”
“Class B.”
Ry?en spoke the name of the class without even looking at Ishizaki below him.
“If you’re lookin’ to win this exam, Class B is your only option.”
He proposed Class B, a class that everyone in Class D had wanted to avoid.
“Even an idiot can be useful depending on what ya do with ‘em.”
With that, Ry?en turned his back on Ishizaki and began to leave.
“P-please wait! How, how could we possibly beat Class B!?”
Ishizaki scrambled to his feet and called after him.
“Ry?en-san! Ry?en-saaan!”
But Ishizaki’s cries didn’t stop him from walking away.
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