After Kei completed her task, Houtarou parted ways with Manabu. He knew she would have questions to ask him.
"Say, do you like Horikita that much?"
Using a break as an excuse, Kei left her group of girls and headed to the stairs by the school building. There she found Houtarou sitting next to the vending machine. Rather than sending a text message, she spoke to him directly.
"Want some water?" Houtarou offered. He had come to the vending machine since Masumi wasn't around to get water for him.
"..." Kei stared at the bottled water he held out.
The bottle was already opened, with visible signs that someone had taken a sip.
"Not going to drink?" Houtarou looked at her.
"Umm…"
Was he expecting her to drink from it? Was he planning to watch her do it?
She had originally meant to ask if he was rejecting her because of his feelings for Suzune. But now — was he trying to share an indirect kiss?
What was his intention?
"Umm…"
"Not drinking?" Houtarou asked again.
Perhaps she was overthinking it. Maybe Suzune was simply his collaborator, someone he needed because he couldn't intervene directly.
After all, Suzune was such a straightforward person, seemingly incapable of romance.
Maybe she had misunderstood...
If that was true, then his offering of water was exactly what it appeared to be — just offering water, not an attempt at an indirect kiss.
So she had just misunderstood, just misunderstood. In that case, it wasn't such a big deal after all.
Kei's hands grasped the water bottle.
"Umm…" Her face turned bright red like a tomato.
Houtarou, having handed the water to Kei, decided he would ask Honami for help if Kei questioned his stance on dating in high school.
Though he had drafted a message seeking Honami's advice, Kei — who had questioned him briefly when she arrived — didn't bring up the topic again. She just kept blushing.
His message to the angelic Honami remained unsent.
The day drew to a close.
After visiting his cat at Arisu's place, Houtarou returned to the dorm before heading straight home.
⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟
The school-wide Sports Festival had prompted changes to the curriculum — PE classes increased from twice to five times weekly.
After-school hours were now dedicated to class training sessions, with mandatory individual events to compete in.
While everyone trained diligently, Houtarou made different arrangements.
He would participate in just 20 minutes of class training daily before visiting his teacher Tomonari. At this school, ability was everything — with enough Points, anything was obtainable.
Tomonari frowned at the application form Houtarou had submitted, "Are you sure you want to rent this kind of thing?"
Though the school valued ability and permitted certain unorthodox actions to adapt to society's darker aspects, some items required special attention.
Specifically, Houtarou wanted to rent a voice recorder — a sensitive device that required homeroom teacher approval.
"Oreki, you should know that if you're not careful, these Points purchases could be considered dangerous items." Tomonari warned.
"I understand." Houtarou replied, "But I think it's necessary this time. And the school can fully audit how I use it."
"If you say so, then there's nothing I can do." Tomonari said, stamping his seal on the form.
⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟
While Houtarou went to rent the voice recorder, some students in class took a break.
Masumi was among them. She had committed to nine individual events, plus the 1200-meter all-grade relay and the mixed three-legged race paired with Houtarou.
"Good work, Kamuro-san..."
During her break, she spotted Arisu approaching the field with her cane.
Arisu wasn't alone — she had brought an orange cat with her, a hefty creature weighing 10 pounds.
To prevent the cat from gaining more weight, she regularly took it for walks after school as exercise.
As Arisu's loyal follower, Masumi knew the cat belonged to Houtarou.
He had paid to bring his pet from home to school but had entrusted its care to the little girl, apparently because Arisu was feeling lonely.
This made Masumi wonder about their relationship and whether they were actually dating.
However...
"By the way, Kamuro-san, haven't you noticed?" Arisu said.
"Hmm?" Masumi looked at her in confusion.
"The weather's getting colder."
Oh. That.
But it was only mid-July — wasn't this supposed to be the height of summer?
"My health isn't good, so I'm feeling a bit cold." She said.
Masumi noticed that Arisu wore only a white short-sleeved gym uniform without a jacket. Given her poor constitution, she might indeed feel cold even in this weather.
No, wait. Having been by Arisu's side all along, Masumi understood her personality better than their other classmates.
She knew this girl often left things unsaid or spoke in half-meanings, leaving others to piece together her true intentions.
And now, Masumi understood exactly what Arisu wanted. She took off her gym jacket and handed it over.
"Thank you." Arisu said, slipping it on, "I can feel Kamuro-san's warmth."
Hah. Yeah right.
But Masumi was concerned about these behaviors.
Just last week, when Houtarou's eraser had gone missing, she'd known Arisu had deliberately taken it when he left the classroom.
Clearly, Arisu had developed an attachment to personal belongings.
Now she was borrowing this jacket only because Masumi had been practicing three-legged races with Houtarou — the jacket would carry his scent.
Masumi worried about this growing habit.
"However…" Arisu said, seemingly with another request, "Speaking of which, where did Houtarou go?"
Where did he go?
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Of course, he had gone to complete something that needed to be done.
He spent 200,000 Points to hire Rokusuke, and another 100,000 Points to invite Ken.
And so.
"I'll start with the starting gun now." Suzune stood at the starting line, while Houtarou waited at the finish.
At the sound of the gun, Rokusuke and Ken burst forward.
Though Ken's speed was remarkable, Rokusuke proved even faster, quickly pulling ahead.
He maintained this lead all the way to the 100-meter mark. Despite Ken's excellent physical condition, running the distance once wasn't enough to tire him out.
However, Ken felt quite discouraged.
"Hey, Kōenji, are you really not participating in the Sports Festival?"
Despite being praised for his athletic abilities, Ken had struggled academically. Even with answers provided, he had failed his exams — missing the passing mark by just one point and nearly facing expulsion.
The Sports Festival should have been his moment to shine, where his athletic prowess could finally take center stage.
And yet... this Rokusuke guy... he was simply too strong.
"A Sports Festival? That's a competition for mere mortals. I won't be participating." Rokusuke said.
He stood at the finish line where Houtarou was checking the stopwatch.
"By the way, Oreki-kun, you specifically spent 200,000 Points to have me run this 100 meters. What exactly are you planning?" Rokusuke asked.
He knew Houtarou's physical abilities matched his own.
So why bring him here specifically?
If Houtarou had wanted to challenge him directly, Rokusuke would have accepted without payment. That would have been interesting — unlike this current situation of merely overwhelming Ken.
So what was Houtarou's true purpose?
The stopwatch showed 9.88 seconds for 100 meters — the limit of human capability.
Houtarou recorded the time.
While Rokusuke considered competing against ordinary people to be unfair, he realized that any competition he entered would be inherently unbalanced. Therefore, he decided to restrict himself to human-level speed for comparison.
And so, on July 27th at 7:50 AM, the Advanced Nurturing High School's Sports Festival began.
⍟⍟⍟
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