Chapter 107 – Inheriting Hope

 

Rion was running while screaming.

 

Sadly, she was easily overtaken by the football club member she just yelled at.

 

“ORAAAAAAAA!!”

 

Heartbreak Rion didn’t manage to voice her thoughts fully as she chased after the football club member. She was driven by her obsession as she gave her all. Because of this, her opponent was scared of her to the point that he kept giving her a glance as he ran.

 

‘Why doesn’t anyone accept me?’

 

She muttered back in practice.

 

‘I want to fall in love, that’s why I quit the cheerleader club, I dedicated my time to look more fashionable and even so, no one accepts me!’, she said. As time passed, it felt like she slowly turned to a yandere.

 

Honestly, I always thought that she was cute. She had rare wavy hair, was attractive, fashionable, her smile was nice and her status as an ex-cheerleader club member was a notable fact too. It was just, she was so quick to jump into conclusions about other people’s opinions of her. The fact that she kept acting like a desperate middle-aged woman looking for a marriage candidate also didn’t help her case.

 

Anyway, her desperation and passion paid off and she managed to maintain a second place during the race.

 

Once again, the audience roared.

 

Intelligent Takazo.

 

For a few days before the sports festival, he had been negotiating with the committee members.

 

The man managed to coax the committee members to loosen their requirements and various other things.

 

With his eloquence and intelligence, he managed to achieve his goal.

 

He brought a bicycle to the race.

 

Bicycle, the symbol of the going-home club.

 

He sat on his bike, getting ready in his zone while watching out for the correct timing to receive the baton from Rion. Normally, they wouldn’t allow something like this, but this relay was a little bit special. They allowed us to make a slot for a funny moment like this. That was why they allowed the computer club member on the first batch to bring their PC along.

 

When Rion arrived at the corner, he started pedaling. It was hard to accelerate on a passenger bike like his, so if he didn’t start pedaling early, it would be hard for him to receive the baton from Rion.

 

He managed to receive the baton almost at the same time as the football club. I guess all of our hard work was worth it, huh? The baton passing was one of our biggest hurdles in practice. Speed aside, passing the baton safely was quite hard. For Takazo and Rion specifically, they kept failing to pass the baton properly since they didn’t get along quite well and always argued after every failed attempt.

 

After Rion passed the baton over, she cried out, ‘Someone, please love me!’ and collapsed. I hope that you can find happiness.

 

Takazo accelerated rapidly and by the midway, he managed to overtake the football team and regained our first place.

 

But, after that, he started to slow down. Well, he couldn’t help it after all. There was no way that he could pass the corners in top speed, it would be impossible to pass the baton in that situation too. He managed to calculate the timing of when to slow down properly though.

 

Next was my turn. I put on my tomato cap and went into a stance.

 

No tricks were needed for me. I was an athletic person by nature, so I just needed to do my best.

 

This felt nostalgic.

 

The smell of the sand and dust.

 

I remembered the time of war, back when the bombers started dropping their bombs, creating a lot of pillars of dirt on the surface of the earth. Watching it felt like invisible giants started to walk toward where I stood. The sky shook and was covered by a cloud of dust. Even with ears covered, the impact managed to shake my brain. In the end, I was knocked down by it and my body was blessed by the pile of sand and mud. Some of them managed to enter my mouth. I will never forget that taste.

 

“ARINAAA!”

 

I shouted before receiving the baton.

 

Before you asked, no, I didn’t do this to confess my love to her. I swore to be single forever, besides, I was a coward, I wouldn’t make a public confession unless I knew for sure that the other party would accept it.

 

This was a way for me to tell Arina that I’d leave everything to her. She was our anchor. According to Eiji, she was the best candidate for this because of her speed and overall physical capabilities.

 

However, we all knew that there was no way that we could win this whole thing easily. That was why we did various things like awakening Masao, getting Rion to inflict mental damage to her opponents and making Takazo bring his bike over. Lastly, we planned to use Arina’s dazzling look to charm her opponents.

 

‘Eh, no… I said, no!’

 

Of course, she refused that plan immediately. If this was the poisonous rose, she might actually have done it, but with the way she was right now, there was no way that she could pull it off.

 

I received the baton from Takazo. Leave everything to me, Takazo!

 

[Nyan nyan nyan, it’s Arina nyan~ Everyone’s angel, Arina~ I love you everyone~ Think of me in your dreams, okay?~ Or I’ll hate you!]

 

Arina was probably dying in shame now. The choreography and the lyrics were made by Heartbreak Rion. The song’s name was ‘Magical Girl Arina-Nyan’.

 

It was infuriating to look at but, according to Rion, the boys would love it, so we proceeded with this. I gave this song a nickname of ‘Arifana’, as a homage to a certain well-known drug.

 

Why the hell did people get excited by this ‘nyan’ thing in the first place anyway?

 

When I asked Takazo about that, he told me that it wasn’t the word that made people go crazy, rather, seeing cute girls doing cute things did. In other words, as long as the one who did it was cute, people would love it. What a farce.

 

Back when she was practicing this, Arina would occasionally mumble ‘Arina-nyan’ like a broken record to the point that a dark shade was cast over her eyes. It was so painful to look at, but everytime she fell into that state, whenever I praised how cute she was, she would regain her vigor once again.

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any leeway to see her in action because I had to pour all my attention to the race. A computer club member that was behind fell over and managed to slow me down. The football club took advantage of this and overtook me at the last second. It was at the moment that I swore to myself that I would become the sworn enemy of the computer club.

 

The last straight line.

 

Arina was doing the cat pose while bending her hips. The football club’s anchor’s eyes were glued to Arifana instead of the goal.

 

“Arina!”

 

When I shouted that, Arina came to her senses before adjusting her stance. The Arifana addict shook his head, trying to erase the previous sight from his mind, but to no avail.

 

Arina started running. We had good teamwork, even in practice, we rarely missed our baton passes.

 

One meter… Half a meter… A few dozen centimeters left until I finally reached her…

 

Then I passed it over.

 

Starting with Eiji, the baton passed over to Masao, Rion, Takazo, me and finally, Arina.

 

She ripped her sash away. Her hair that was pulled into a ponytail, flew like a fierce dragon in the sky.

 

“AAAAH! I HATE THIS, I HATE THIS!!”

 

She screamed, trying to hide her embarrassment.

 

Her back moved away from me as the other runners passed me by one by one.

 

That was the end for me. I fell to my knees. When was the last time I had given my all for something like this? Probably never.

 

I couldn’t think clearly. With my elbows as a pillow, I collapsed onto the ground. Could Arina do it? I couldn’t even hear anything around me clearly because the sound of my pulse was ringing in my ears. I took a deep breath to calm my heart down.

 

With the little remaining strength that I could muster, I lifted my face. The sun shone so brightly today.

 

Then, I saw Arina. The first runner who crossed the finish line. The finish line tape was twisted around her body.