The night wind blowing across the roof of the Advanced Nurturing High School dormitory felt increasingly cold, as if scraping away the lingering remnants of summer's warmth. Beneath a starless sky, the lights from the school's facilities flickered like an artificial constellation, standing as silent witnesses to the conspiracy currently being woven high above.
Seiji Koroizumi stood in a relaxed posture, his back leaning comfortably against the iron guardrail. Before him, Kushida Kikyo opened her small, black-covered notebook. The dim light from the rooftop lamps reflected in Kushida's eyes, revealing the flash of pragmatic enthusiasm of a girl who had just hacked into the heart of the enemy's defenses.
"Excellent work, Kushida-san," Seiji praised, his voice flowing calmly and steadily. "Now, let us hear what strategies the rulers of the Red Team are playing... before we begin devising a counter-strategy to teach them a valuable lesson on the track later."
Kushida smirked, a faint sneer that bore absolutely no trace of the sweet persona she usually wore in public. This was her true face—the face of an informant who had mastered the art of social manipulation.
"Let's start with the tyrant of Class D," Kushida said, turning to the first page of her notes. "Ryuen Kakeru is planning something incredibly dirty, and he calls it the 'Zero Point Stamina' strategy."
Seiji didn't interrupt. He merely raised an eyebrow, signaling Kushida to continue.
"On the surface, Ryuen accepted Ichinose's alliance offer. He's receiving a subsidy of private points from Class A in exchange for being cooperative within the Red Team," Kushida explained, her index finger tracing her neat handwriting. "However, my intel—a Class D student sick of his dictatorship but too scared to speak up—leaked that Ryuen has issued an extreme participant roster."
Kushida looked Seiji right in the eye. "He is sacrificing almost all the physically weak and submissive students in Class D to compete consecutively in the first half of the events. Those students will be forced to participate in the hurdle race, obstacle course, and tug-of-war non-stop until their muscles practically snap."
"Using them as meat shields to absorb the fatigue," Seiji murmured, his brain rapidly visualizing the invisible chessboard of that strategy.
"Exactly. While those weak pawns are sacrificed, Ryuen is completely resting his main weapons on the bench. Albert, Ishizaki, Ibuki, and himself won't break a single sweat during the early and mid-stages. They are conserving one hundred percent of their energy."
Kushida closed her notes for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest. "Then, when the stamina of Class A and our class starts running on empty in the latter half of the event, Ryuen will unleash his fresh, main vanguard. His goal is to sweep the medals and the highest points in the final, highly physical events, like the Cavalry Battle and the 1200-Meter Relay."
"And naturally, he won't play clean," Seiji added, his tone more of a statement than a question.
"Incredibly dirty," Kushida nodded. "He has already instructed his subordinates not to hesitate in exploiting the 'gray areas' of physical contact rules. Elbowing when the referee's line of sight is blocked, tripping someone under the guise of stumbling, up to aggressive collision formations in the Cavalry Battle. His primary target is obvious. After what happened during the island exam, Ryuen has made you his main prey. He wants to use that veiled physical violence to drag you out and test the limits of your strength on an open field."
Seiji fell silent for a moment. The wind blew again, ruffling his black hair. In his past life as The Reaper, he was very familiar with this kind of pragmatic method. Letting the other side exhaust themselves first, then executing them when their defenses were at their lowest was the foundation of efficient elimination techniques. Ryuen had evolved from a mere schoolyard thug relying on cheap intimidation into a patient predator who knew when to sheathe his fangs. The strategy was smart, cunning, and perfectly suited to Ryuen's potential.
However, instead of feeling threatened, a faint smile slowly bloomed on Seiji's lips.
"A thug who has learned patience," Seiji chuckled softly. "A fascinating development. Ryuen assumes that all normal students will run out of gas in the second half. He didn't account for the anomaly variable of our recovery system."
"Of course he doesn't know," Kushida replied, shuddering slightly as muscle memory kicked in. "No normal class drinks your hellish herbal concoction every afternoon while being chased around like fugitives. Class B's current stamina is something that cannot be measured by common sense."
"So then," Seiji shifted his stance, leaning forward slightly. His dark eyes radiated a much deeper curiosity. "What about the leader of Class A? How is Ichinose Honami responding to the parasite residing within her own faction?"
Hearing that question, Kushida's smile morphed into an expression of awe mixed with disbelief. The shoulder-length-haired girl reopened her notebook.
"This is the craziest part, Koroizumi," Kushida said, shaking her head slowly. "At first, I thought Ichinose was being naive. I thought she was just throwing Class A's points away to bribe Ryuen for fake harmony, and would become easy prey for Ryuen's Zero Point Stamina tactic."
"But that is not the case?"
"Far from naive," Kushida asserted. "Ichinose knows exactly what Ryuen is planning. She knows Ryuen will save Class D's elite stamina for the final events. And instead of protesting or trying to change his mind, Ichinose actually sold that opportunity to Ryuen with a binding contract through the school system."
Seiji's eyebrows rose. "Sold it?"
"Yes. Ichinose drafted a point distribution contract," Kushida read the details from her notes. "Ichinose is letting Ryuen monopolize the right to win the final events, but in exchange, she demanded that Ryuen surrender all dominant participation rights in the first 8 events to Class A. Ichinose intentionally placed all of her elite students, including Shibata Sou, to fight all out in the early half of the competition."
Kushida looked at Seiji with a gaze that implied just how brilliant that calculation was. "Ryuen thinks he's fooling Ichinose by letting Class A exhaust themselves early on. But in reality, Ichinose has already calculated the mathematical probabilities. If Class A absolutely sweeps first to third place in the first 8 events—because Ryuen is intentionally deploying Class D's weak pawns and not competing—then the accumulated points Class A secures will create a margin that can no longer be caught up to."
Kushida closed her book with a soft thud. "Ichinose is intentionally throwing away prestige and letting Ryuen look like the hero in the climax events like the Cavalry and the Relay. Because based on the math, Ryuen's victories in the final two events won't be enough to surpass Class A's accumulated points from the first 8. Ichinose is sacrificing fleeting glory for the certainty of overall victory. She turned this sports festival into a cold business transaction."
Hearing that explanation, silence enveloped the rooftop. Kushida looked at Seiji, trying to read the young man's reaction. Usually, Seiji would respond with a soft laugh or an analytical murmur. But this time, his expression was completely different.
Seiji's eyes widened slightly. Pure astonishment flashed across his face, before finally melting into a warm smile full of pride. As someone who knew exactly how that girl's mind worked, Seiji was amazed to see how Ichinose executed her knowledge at the highest level.
Ichinose Honami knew exactly how to exploit the S-System without leaving any room for failure. With her sharp thinking, she was able to twist the school's logic, tame Ryuen's wildness into a binding contract, and convert this physical festival into a cold, profitable business calculation for Class A.
"Incredible..." Seiji murmured softly, his eyes radiating genuine intellectual satisfaction. "She truly integrated that strategy flawlessly."
And now, Ichinose Honami had executed that strategy on the actual battlefield with absolute efficiency.
The steps she took reflected the decisions of a cold, calculating chief executive. She monopolized the market by securing full points in the early events, locking in an absolute profit margin for Class A, and tactically threw the remaining, high-risk physical events in the latter half to the greedy Ryuen. Ichinose wrapped her class's total victory into a transactional ribbon that illusionarily appeared beneficial to the opposing side.
Kushida frowned slightly, feeling it was strange to see Seiji's emotional response be so positive toward an enemy's strategy. "You sound very proud, Koroizumi. Even though this strategy of Ichinose's is the biggest threat to the scenario we've created. If Class A dominates the early half, they will siphon points away from our Vanguard."
"I am proud, Kushida-san, because I am witnessing a validation," Seiji replied with a faint smile, his eyes radiating the satisfaction of an educator. "Ichinose Honami knows exactly how to use the scalpel of pragmatism without dirtying her own hands. She executed this strategy with a level of absolute precision."
Seiji bowed his head for a moment, letting the pride sink in, before finally straightening his posture once more. When he raised his face, that warmth slowly receded, replaced by the sharp, calculating, and dominant presence characteristic of a master strategist holding absolute control from behind the scenes.
His pride as a teacher had been conveyed in his heart. But now, he stood as the strategist for Class 1-B. And a good teacher must provide a follow-up exam for their excelling student.
"Alright," Seiji said, his tone turning cold and full of precision once again. "Your intelligence is incredibly valuable, Kushida-san. The battle map is now crystal clear. Within the Red Team, a division of function is taking place. Ichinose controls the early game, and Ryuen controls the late game."
Seiji began to pace slowly along the guardrail, assembling the architecture of retaliation within a brain capable of processing tactical information and probabilities at absolute speeds.
"Ichinose assumes that dominating the first 8 events will be easy because Ryuen won't be competing against her. She is wrong," Seiji raised a single finger. "This is exactly where our Vanguard lineup will shatter Ichinose's mathematical calculations. We will not let Class A monopolize the points in the first half. We will ram into them head-on, snatch those medals, and ruin the safe margin Ichinose is trying to build."
Kushida smirked, beginning to grasp the direction of Seiji's thoughts. "If we force Class A to fight desperately in the early stages, the stamina of Shibata and the other Class A elites will drain faster than Ichinose predicted."
"Exactly," Seiji nodded. "And that brings us to the second problem: the tyrant waiting in the late game."
Seiji stopped pacing, looking straight at Kushida.
"Ryuen assumes that by the time the Cavalry Battle and the Joint Relay arrive, Class B will be mouth-breathing, with legs trembling from the exhaustion of holding back Class A's momentum in the early stages. Ryuen thinks he'll just have to sweep up our remnants with a fresh Albert and Ishizaki."
"But the reality is," Kushida interrupted with a soft laugh that trembled with anticipation, "the extreme training from the pyramid strata you implemented guarantees that Class B will not run out of gas. Our front line has been conditioned to recover their stamina with an efficiency far above average."
"When Ryuen deploys his entire core squad with full confidence that they are ambushing dying opponents..." Seiji leaned his back against the railing again, crossing his arms over his chest. "...we will welcome them in prime condition. We will show Ryuen that the Red Team isn't ambushing prey, but rather stepping willingly into a much more lethal trap."
Kushida couldn't contain her cynical laughter. This plan was so elegant. So cruel in its efficiency. Class 1-B would fight Ichinose rationally on the front lines, and welcome Ryuen with physical brutality in the backlines. There were no blind spots.
"Koroizumi," Kushida called out, looking at the young man before her with a measuring gaze. "Seeing the way you read the movements of two classes simultaneously... being your enemy must be an incredibly troublesome position for anyone in this school."
Seiji merely offered a faint smile, his gaze remaining calm as he stared out over the night landscape below them.
"I'm simply making sure that everyone moves along the path they are supposed to, Kushida-san," Seiji replied casually, his tone light yet carrying an absolute resolve.
He turned his body, looking back toward the towering school complex in the darkness. Only a few days remained until the execution day in early October. The day when all these strategic calculations and political intrigues would have their efficiency tested directly on an open track.
Seiji recalled the lineup for the Joint 1200-Meter Relay. There, in the final position as the Anchor, his name was written. He had promised Suzune to be the benchmark of her strength. He had prepared the stage to face off directly against Student Council President Horikita Manabu, or perhaps even Nagumo Miyabi, if they participated in the climax event.
This sports festival was not just a venue to earn class points for Seiji. It was a demonstration stage. An open lesson for the entire school on how a 'Defective' from the former Class D, now occupying Class B, could invert the hierarchy without ever needing to raise his voice.
"Ensure The Shield and The Shadow maintain their dietary portions according to the nutrition table tomorrow," Seiji instructed, his tone indicating that tonight's secret meeting had concluded. "No more additional training loads that could trigger injuries. Starting tomorrow, we will only be doing muscle maintenance (tapering)."
Kushida nodded in understanding, slipping her black notebook back into her pocket. "Understood. I will coordinate with Karuizawa and Hirata to oversee them."
Kushida turned, stepping toward the rooftop door. But before her hand touched the iron handle, she looked back once more at Seiji, who was still standing quietly beneath the dim light.
"Hey, Koroizumi," Kushida called out softly.
"Yes?"
"On the day of the festival... don't hold back. I want to see how you tear down Ichinose and Ryuen's calculations on the open track."
Seiji didn't answer with words. He merely let out his signature low chuckle—"Nfuhuhuhuhu..."—a simple response confirming he was more than ready to execute the scenario he had devised.
Kushida pulled open the iron door, stepped into the dormitory corridor, and let the silence reclaim the rooftop area.
Now alone on the roof, Seiji looked up at the pale crescent moon hanging in the night sky. In his past life, that moon had been blasted to pieces. In this life, the moon was whole, silent, acting as a mute witness to the new destiny he was carving out.
"Preparations are complete," Seiji murmured to the quiet night. "Let's see which of you is ready to receive a valuable lesson on the track."
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