Despite being questioned, Houtarou's plan succeeded as Kei completed her task.
Looking over, we saw Suzune and Kayano had retied their bands and resumed practicing the three-legged race.
Instead of forging ahead on her own, Suzune was now deliberately matching Kayano's pace. Though their movements weren't perfectly synchronized yet, their mutual compromises suggested they would soon become an effective team.
How had Kei managed to resolve this situation? It hadn't been simple.
When she first received Houtarou's message — for which she'd set a special ringtone — she had been delighted. But her joy faded when she read his request to help bail out Suzune.
Houtarou had previously explained on the ship that he and Suzune were something like allies. Suzune had proven herself formidable then — not only fighting Shiho's group but also taking photos that had effectively deterred them from future confrontations.
Back at school, whenever that Rika girl appeared, she would quickly disappear. While being avoided wasn't pleasant, Kei believed this arrangement worked out for the best.
In a way, Kei admired Suzune for being Houtarou's capable executor.
But now, what misguided action had Suzune taken?
"What's going on?" Kei asked, approaching the scene as if she'd just arrived.
"Karuizawa!" Kayano burst out, still shocked by Suzune's words, "You won't believe this. Horikita was being completely unreasonable. During our three-legged race practice, even though she was going too fast for me to keep up, she demanded that I match her pace!"
Though absurd, this was exactly the kind of thing Suzune would say.
Kei understood the situation well. Since enrollment, Suzune had been perceived as aloof. While Kei deliberately maintained her distance from boys, Suzune's poor relationship with them stemmed from a different source — she would immediately rebuff any boy attracted to her looks with responses like:
"If you're seeking romance, please don't waste my time. I have zero interest."
"School hours are for studying."
"Dating just wastes money and time, and your grades are already poor."
"Besides, when the tests are this simple, why would you fail unless you're not even trying—"
And so on. After being rejected and made to feel inferior, the boys in class kept their distance.
While Kei found Suzune's personality unique, she suspected the girl had few friends and struggled to understand people's emotions or read social situations.
For Suzune to demand someone slower match her faster pace was remarkably bold. Human physical capabilities have natural limits — even improving one's speed by a fraction of a second can take years of dedicated training.
Minor conflicts between girls typically resolve in one of two ways — they either escalate or fade away. Often, a simple "I misspoke earlier" is enough to smooth things over. Suzune could easily defuse the situation by acknowledging her mistake.
"I was just stating my thoughts." Suzune said, "Besides, I don't think I'm wrong. I want to achieve results, and if Onodera can keep up with me, I'm certain we can get first or second place. I believe if she tries harder, both our individual scores will improve."
Kei realized that Suzune had completely missed — or perhaps failed to recognize — the opportunity to make amends.
Houtarou had certainly given her a challenging task.
However...
"Suzune, you don't have any experience with three-legged races, do you?" Kei asked, "I'm sorry, but your reasoning doesn't make sense to me either."
"Is that so?" Suzune slightly furrowed her brow, "Indeed, this is my first time doing a three-legged race with someone after reading the rules. Is there a problem? I don't think I misunderstood them."
When Suzune said this, the surrounding girls exchanged sympathetic glances.
But Kei knew momentary sympathy wouldn't be enough — they might later mock Suzune for being so isolated that she'd never even done a three-legged race with friends.
Houtarou had truly given her a difficult task, as they needed to protect this girl's reputation.
"Well, there's a problem — your pace is faster, but consider this: is it better for someone to catch up to your speed, or for you to adjust your pace to match Kayano's? It takes 10 days to form a habit and 21 days to stabilize it. Today is the 5th, and the Sports Festival is on the 27th — just 17 days away. Setting aside how challenging it is to improve physical ability, if this intensive training affects other exams, would that be acceptable?
Remember, Onodera is one of our class's strongest female athletes. Is your mandatory three-legged race with her really the most important event? Will it earn the most points? Most students in our class aren't athletic, so we depend on people like Onodera, Sudō, and Hirata to earn points in sports." Kei said.
The other girls nodded in agreement.
This was natural. The girls relied heavily on Kayano and the others to earn points in athletic events. Their own events would still require Class B's top athletes to go easy on them.
Suzune paused to consider this point.
She began thinking about which approach would be most efficient. On her own, she would have insisted that her faster speed was better — completing the race at maximum speed to achieve a good ranking.
However, the two books about efficiency that Houtarou had lent her had taught her something important: pure efficiency isn't enough; it must be both sustainable and adaptable.
Moreover, while Houtarou had prevented her from participating in the mixed-gender three-legged race, Kayano was still participating in the recommended events' race.
There, Kayano would be paired with either Ken or Yōsuke to earn points. As a girl, her speed couldn't possibly match the boys', who were essentially serving as support.
How, then, could she demand that Kayano match her pace? It would be impossible.
Her three-legged race with Kayano was merely a mandatory individual event — even a first-place finish wouldn't earn nearly as many points as the recommended events. If she pushed too hard and exhausted Kayano, she would become the class pariah.
Seeing Suzune finally working through this logic, Kei breathed a sigh of relief.
Despite her peculiarities, Suzune had her strengths. She was someone who neither understood nor cared about social atmosphere, which meant she wasn't held back by pride when admitting mistakes.
Additionally, Suzune had grown quite popular in class lately due to her demonstrated clear thinking during recent tests.
As long as she understood the situation, everything would work out.
And so it did.
"Then... I apologize, I spoke without thinking earlier." Suzune said, placing her hands on her knees and giving a slight bow to Kayano.
"Ah—"
Being treated this way seemed to surprise Kayano.
"No, I think I also said too much... I had no idea you had no experience with three-legged races…" She quickly said, "Let's continue practicing then, I'll work hard to keep up with your pace."
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