Chapter 40: THE TRACK OF RIVALRY (part 2)
Standing calmly in his place, Zixuan tracked the coin's trajectory with absolute precision against the blue sky.
The coin spun rapidly before landing flat on Takeshi sir's broad palm.
"It's HEADS!" Takeshi sir announced.
"So the girls will start first!
All girls, take your positions on the track without wasting any time!
NOW!"
On the massive outdoor running track, the girls began taking their respective positions.
A distinct, heavy tension could be felt in every single lane.
In Lane 1, the class monitor, Yoko Fujimoto, stood ready.
Her expression was completely cold, aloof, and intensely focused.
She tucked her silver-tinted black hair behind her ear.
The rest of the world and the other girls simply did not exist to her.
In Lane 4 was Miyu Inoue.
She adjusted her long, rose-white pink braid.
Her ever-present cheerful smile had now shifted into a remarkably calm and determined expression.
In Lane 7, on the outermost edge, stood the class's top student, Honoka Aizawa.
Her indigo eyes held a dangerous cold stare and a deadly serious expression.
In Lane 6, Himari Suzuki stood trembling.
She was incredibly nervous seeing so many people watching.
Her face looked highly anxious and awkward.
"O-Oh God... how am I going to run in front of everyone?
I'm definitely going to trip out of fear,"
Himari thought, terrified by the heavily competitive vibe.
But then, her gaze shifted and she saw Renjiro.
"Ah, Renjiro-kun is watching me.
If I appear weak in front of him, who knows what he might think of me...
No, I have to give my 100%!"
And in Lane 5 stood the unofficial bully queen of the class, Junn Tachibana.
Junn was standing on the track, but her cold eyes were locked entirely on Miyu in Lane 4.
A fiercely jealous and vengeful expression twisted Junn's face.
"I absolutely hate this Miyu Inoue," Junn thought to herself, grinding her teeth.
"Who the hell does she think she is, stealing the whole class's attention with that innocent act?
Today, I will easily crushing her arrogance!
I have to turn that fake smile of hers into a crying face, and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen!"
A little further back from the track, while the starting line-up was settling, Sayaka Shirogane was in a completely different mood.
Her lavender hair and emerald green eyes radiated a playful and manipulative energy.
She glanced at the crowd of boys standing by the sidelines and shot them a deadly, teasing wink .
She thought to herself,
*"It's so easy to make fools out of these boys... just look at them staring like absolute perverts, what idiots."*
A literal tsunami of chaos hit the line of boys standing outside the track.
"Sayaka-chan! We are 100% sure you will win in the end!" one boy screamed like a maniac.
Another boy yelled, "Look you bastard, Sayaka-chan just winked at me!"
A third boy violently pushed him, "What the fuck are you talking about, you loser?! Sayaka-chan winked at me, you dick!"
Sayaka laughed softly, a smug and cheerful expression on her face. "Hahaha... Bad boys."
Sayaka's gaze then drifted toward Renjiro, noticing how innocent he looked.
She ran her tongue playfully around her lips , looked directly at Renjiro, and threw up a two-finger peace sign right over her eye, striking a cute pose.
She thought,
"Oh my, he looks so adorable, just like a red tomato."
The rest of the boys thought she was posing for them and were losing their minds.
Suddenly, one boy, who had been staring at her a little too intensely, crossed the absolute limit of his excitement.
His eyes bulged out, and wiping his sweat, his mind overflowed with incredibly dirty thoughts:
"Oh Kami-sama... what absolute perfection!
Sayaka-chan's S-Class figure... that kawaii face, and those massive oranges...
I'm going to die! She is my ultimate waifu!"
Then, his eyes captured a slow-motion moment.
He saw that while stretching, the two massive oranges inside Sayaka's shirt bounced ever so slightly.
The boy's blood pressure spiked so violently that, in true anime fashion, blood erupted from his nose like a high-pressure fountain! "Blargh!"
He grabbed his nose and fell backward, passing out completely on the grassy sidelines with a rock-hard erection!
The other students standing around saw his condition and started clutching their stomachs, bursting into tears of laughter with Crying with Laughter expressions.
"Hahaha! Hey, somebody pick this perverted bastard off the ground!
The idiot's engine got too hot!"
Away from the screaming crowd, Satoshi Ichigaya hadn't opened his eyes even once.
His signature, creepy smile widened slightly.
"School life is usually so dull... but here, these girls look ready to tear each other apart.
Who will resort to cheating out of desperation?
Who will fall crying on the track?
Ahh... it's always so much fun to watch people fight each other over their egos.
Let's see whose mask slips first,"
he thought, treating the entire tension like a mere game for his own entertainment.
A few meters away, the 6.7-foot titan, Junpei Kurodan, stood like an immovable statue.
Completely ignoring the chaos, his teal-green eyes coldly scanned the track, purely analyzing the physical stamina and reflexes of his classmates.
Meanwhile, Yoshiro Kurosawa had one foot proudly on a bench, posing like an intimidating mafia boss while screaming with giant pink heart-eyes.
"Honoka, my darling!
Show them the power of my future wife!
Nobody can defeat you!"
he cheered passionately.
Taiki tugged at his sleeve nervously.
"Uh, Boss... she looks like she wants to murder you right now."
Yoshiro instantly smacked the back of his head.
"Shut up, you idiot!
That's just her unique way of showing her love to me!"
Not too far from that circus, the Iron Monitor, Tsuyoshi Taro, stood with his black-gloved hands crossed behind his back, glaring at the cheering crowd.
"These fools have completely forgotten that they are standing in an elite educational institution,"
he thought in cold disappointment.
Shifting his sharp gaze to the track, he locked his eyes specifically on Junn in Lane 5.
He knew her two-faced nature, and his sharp instincts warned him she was definitely planning something dirty against Miyu.
With one hand casually resting in his pocket, Zixuan Lee observed the track like a grandmaster scanning a chessboard.
"A race isn't won with legs, it's won with the mind,"
he thought, his ruby eyes rapidly processing their physical stances and breathing patterns.
"Honoka: Aggressive pride. She will maintain an unbreakable speed, but zero flexibility.
Yoko: Mechanically perfect posture, but too rigid to adapt to sudden variables.
Junn: Blinded by jealousy. She'll burn her stamina early on cheap sabotages.
Himari: Weakest physical specs. Her erratic breathing guarantees a physical collapse.
Sayaka: Treating the track like a stage. Zero strategic threat.
And Miyu... The wild card. A completely relaxed stance fueled by pure emotion. Her stamina output is highly unpredictable."
A cold, calculating smirk touched his lips.
"The variables are set. My calculations are absolute... the result was decided before they even stepped on the track."
At the back of the crowd, Renjiro Hoshino gulped, his heart pounding heavily as he watched the terrifying, cutthroat aura radiating from the girls on the track.
"If the girls are this scary... what kind of monsters am I going to face in the boys' race?"
he thought, his old insecurities desperately trying to claw their way back.
His anxious gaze momentarily landed on Miyu in Lane 4.
Seeing her face, that same cold shiver ran down his spine.
He remembered her sweet smile from the classroom—the exact same fake smile Meiko used to give before humiliating him.
His breathing hitched for a second out of sheer reflex.
But then, he remembered his promise in the corridor.
He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"No...
I won't let my past control
me anymore.
I don't care if her smile is fake or real.
I won't run away out of fear.
I have to face this."
Takeshi sir raised his hand high in the air and placed the whistle between his lips.
"ALL GIRLS, TAKE YOUR STANDING POSITIONS!"
The gossiping on the sidelines instantly ceased.
A pin-drop silence blanketed the entire outdoor ground.
Renjiro, with a mix of fear and hesitation, watched the track intently from the back of the crowd.
"READY!"
Takeshi sir lowered his arm.
"STEADY!"
PRRRRRRRTTTTT!
The sharp, piercing sound of the whistle echoed powerfully across the open sky.
CHAPTER ENDS