“So, so then, Yuuri will take the 400m and the mile, right?”
“Yes~. I’ll do my best.”
…Huh? Something about the class atmosphere feels a bit off…
Kayo, who’s running the meeting, keeps glancing over at me awkwardly as she writes my name under the ‘400m’ and ‘Mile’ columns on the blackboard.
???
Something’s strange with everyone. At times like this, I should ask Hina—――
“Tachibana Yuuri. Are you really okay with this? If you don’t want to, it’s perfectly fine to say so, you know?”
For some reason, Sakakibara-sensei (well, he’s our homeroom teacher, so of course he’s in the classroom) asked me something rather unexpected.
“Eh? It’s not like I don’t want to. Actually, I’m probably the fastest in the whole school. So I think it makes perfect sense for me to be in events that need running ability.”
By the way, saying I’m “probably the fastest in the school” is honestly downplaying it. If we’re talking just girls, I’m confident I’m the fastest in all of Japan.
If you include boys, I doubt I’d be number one, and even among girls, I probably couldn’t claim the world’s fastest. But against Japanese high school girls in a general course? I could win easily… Well, if I let my guard down against Reiko, I might lose, but still, isn’t it totally normal for me to volunteer for the 400m and the mile?
“You don’t have to force yourself just because you’re fast, you know?”
???
Sakakibara-sensei tries to gently reason with me. But I’m not being forced or anything?
We’re not on the same page. Why?
In my time at this all-girls’ high school, things like this have come up every now and then. It’s probably one of those girl-specific things. At times like this, I turn to my trusty Hina-emon.
“Hina-nee. Did I do something weird?”
“Hmm. Yuu-chan might not get it, but for girls, in situations like this, whether they’re fast or not, most of them just don’t want to run long distances. But you, Yuu-chan, went and volunteered for not just one but two long-distance events, so everyone’s feeling a mix of guilt and surprise, and Sakakibara-sensei’s worried that you might be getting picked on.”
“Why don’t they want to run long distances? If they’re in sports clubs, they run even more than that all the time, don’t they?”
“See, the fact that question even comes up means you just don’t get it, Yuu-chan.”
Really?? I don’t quite get it. Ah, but now that I think back to sports day in middle school years ago, the boys’ spots got filled up quickly, but the girls’ took forever.
In the end, the discussion never settled, so they did a lottery, and the girl from the go-home club who got picked started crying, and in the end, it went back to square one and the sports club girls ended up doing it.
Girls are kinda… complicated.
Wait, what about the other classes?
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
“That wasn’t even just a disagreement, it practically turned into chaos and it still wouldn’t get decided.”
After school that day. When I asked about how the other classes chose their participants, Mirai blurted that out right away.
“Tch. So in the end, Yuuri and Reiko are running the mile, huh. Then it doesn’t matter who else we pick, we’re not gonna win anyway, so I should’ve been put in something else!”
The girls from Class 4 (where Yuki, Mirai, and Kaori are) arrived late to club. Apparently, it took them forever to finalize their lineup for the sports festival.
Class 1 (with Reiko and Mana) managed to finish on time, but they also had issues with deciding on the mile.
In Class 4, Mirai is doing the 100m and the mile. She claims that, aside from me and Reiko, she has the speed to match or surpass anyone else. So she argued that she should be in a different event and earn points there for the good of the class, but they didn’t go for it.
“So, Class 4 has Mirai in the 100m and the mile. Kaori in the 200m and the Swedish relay. What about Yuki?”
“Yuuri, did you forget? The National Sports Festival is at the end of the month.”
“Oh, right.”
I forgot the timing of the Kokutai. I see. Yuki’s going to the national meet, so she won’t be participating in the sports festival.
“Right. Asuka, since everyone’s here, I wanted to ask—what are we doing about the club relay at the sports festival?”
“Of course we’re doing it.”
There’s also another event in the sports festival: the Club Relay (100m x 4R).
It’s split between sports and cultural clubs, and it’s the only mixed-grade event in the whole festival.
It doesn’t really matter whether you win or lose, but apparently, back in the day, this was how people decided which sports club was the strongest.
“I figured we’d participate, but who’s running?”
“First off, Yuuri-chan is confirmed. Rei-chan too, right? So that leaves two more—”
“Logically, it’d be me, right?”
“It should be me, right?”
“C’mon, I’m a lock too, obviously!”
“Maybe me?”
…
Hina, Asuka, Mirai, and Kaori each insisting they’re the best pick to run.
“Huh? What about Mana?”
“Well, I’m confident I’m above average, but I don’t think I can quite beat Asuka and the others.”
＝＝＝
And so, the day of the sports festival arrived.
[First-Year Class Relay Results: 1st place – Class 5. 2nd place – Class 4. 3rd place – Class 2—]
[With that, the morning events have concluded. Each class, please have lunch at your designated areas—]
The announcement echoed across the schoolyard. As expected, the relay is the highlight of the sports festival. It really gets the crowd going.
Even though I ran at nearly world-record pace in the 1-mile race earlier, the crowd barely reacted.
In contrast, the relay is a total hit. The cheers are on a whole different level.
“It’s probably about the journey more than the event itself. Since you completely dominated the 1-mile, there was no suspense to get excited over...
It’s not that you did anything wrong, Yuu-chan, but a back-and-forth relay makes cheering more thrilling.”
“…”
…It seems I was the problem after all.
By the way, that “…”, just now, came from Asuka, who’s sitting on my left with a pouty expression. She’s been sulking ever since she lost to Mirai in the 100m race about two hours ago.
I mean, it’s kind of impressive to stay in a bad mood for two whole hours just because of a 100m race.
If I so much as made a jab about it—
“Coming from someone like you or Hina, who gets moody all day just because of a quiz score, that’s rich.”
—I’d get hit with that, so I kept quiet. I’m learning.
This sports festival, even though there wasn’t any prior practice, still has that festive atmosphere. Like the cheer squad wearing school uniforms styled like gakuran (apparently bought with the cheer club’s budget a few years ago) showing up to cheer.
Also, the headbands are interesting.
I thought the only way to wear one was the standard forehead wrap, but wow—high school girls’ creativity is something else.
Some wear them normally, some tie them into ribbon shapes, some braid them into their hair…
It’s a whole world I never would’ve imagined as a guy.
For the record, Hina braided mine into my hair too.
Anyway, in the middle of all that lively atmosphere—
“We of Class 2 are, how do I put it... understated?”
“Well, yeah…”
Lack of flashiness is Class 2’s brand.
In our class, the only ones who could be called athletic are me, Hina, and Asuka. The rest aren’t hopeless, but they’re pretty average.
Besides us three, no one’s doing hardcore sports club activities either. Even the earlier relay—we didn’t lose by a huge margin, but we weren’t in contention for the win either. No dramatic falls or anything. Just... average.
But at the same time, we’re not terrible either. Like just now, we steadily pulled off 3rd place in the relay.
“Don’t compare us to you guys. We’re just normal high school girls.”
That was Kayo, who just ran in the relay, replying with a wry smile.
“More importantly, aren’t you guys going to change? The club relay is first up after lunch, right?”
“I’ll change after I eat. It won’t take long to get into our volleyball uniforms anyway.”
For the club relay, we don’t wear the school’s standard PE uniform but our own club uniforms. Technically, it’s just “allowed,” but every club goes with uniforms.
Strangely enough, the kendo club runs in full armor, and the flower arrangement club runs in kimono. Maybe it’s so they have an excuse if they lose?
Since changing takes time, we’re allowed to use the lunch break for that too.
puff
Oh no. Now Hina, sitting on my right, is puffing out her cheeks.
“Hina-nee, it can’t be helped. You lost to Asuka. That’s why you’re not running.”
“I beat her two out of three times in our races, though.”
“But the rule from the start was to go by best time!”
Backtrack to two Saturdays ago—after practice, we decided who’d run the relay using a time trial format.
There was an idea to make it a one-shot race, but after discussing it, we decided to run three times and choose the top four based on best times.
For reference, I clocked in at 10.45 seconds, placing first. Reiko came second with 12.23. Mirai was third at 12.88.
The last spot was contested by Hina, Asuka, and Kaori—and Asuka secured it with a time of 13.60 seconds.
Hina consistently ran in the 13-second range, but her best time was 13.72, just missing the cutoff.
Kaori also ran in the 13s but couldn’t beat Hina or Asuka.
For context, the average 100m time for a typical high school girl is around 17.5 seconds. So even though they didn’t make the team, both Hina and Kaori are plenty fast.
Honestly, it’s to the point where (somehow word got around) even the track and field coach, Tajima-sensei, came to recruit them:
“Why not run track with me?”
That’s the level we’re talking about.
But that kind of logic doesn’t satisfy Hina...
Well, guess I’ll have to comfort her.
First off, from my perspective, Hina was bound to lose. She’s well-developed, so physically speaking, she’s heavier. Compared to me, she’s over 10 kilos heavier, which means she needs more energy to move.
But—I’m learning. Using words like “heavy” or “big” would definitely get me punished, so I need to choose carefully.
“Hina-nee, it’s okay. You’ve got the best figure in the volleyball club, after all.”
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
"Hm? Yuuri, what’s with the messy hair?"
"Right before coming here, Hina messed it up."
"Because Yuuri said Hina had a good figure..."
"Seriously? Still haven’t learned your lesson, huh?"
Huh? How is this my fault? Why? I just gave her a compliment!
And yet, Hina went all, “Was that sarcasm?” and messed up my hair. I mean, it’s easy enough to change clothes, but it takes forever to fix long hair...
"Yuuri. That’s when you should’ve gone with something like, ‘I wasn’t feeling great’ or ‘I’ll do my best for Hina too,’ without mentioning her body."
As I was sitting there, still not really satisfied, Reiko offered the model response.
Oof...
So that’s what I was supposed to say.
It’s been over a year since I became a girl, and I still don’t get how girls think.
About an hour after Hina went wild on my hair.
We had lunch and changed out of the standard gym uniforms into our volleyball team uniforms, then met up with Reiko and the others.
Side note, only Mirai is wearing the basketball team uniform instead of the volleyball one. So technically, our team is officially called the "Volleyball–Basketball Joint Team."
"Changing the subject—so, we’re taking the relay seriously, right?"
Unlike the other events, this relay isn’t scored per class or grade. It’s purely a demonstration event.
Because of that, it's less about the competition itself and more about putting on a show.
The biggest example? The drama club. It’s basically a cosplay relay at this point.
Like seriously, how much time does it take to do all that dressing up and makeup?! That outfit!
The reason this club relay event is after lunch is definitely their fault.
"No matter how hard we try, we can’t beat them in sheer gimmicks. So we’ll stand out by doing it the proper way. Don’t even think about holding back—we’re going all-out and winning by a mile."
"But wait, doesn’t that mean we’re already guaranteed to win? Yuuri and Reiko are probably the fastest and second-fastest in the school at the 100-meter, and Mirai and I are way up there too?"
"Feels like we could win just by running normally?"
Yeah, that.
Mirai’s trying to fire us up, but realistically, the four of us are all fast. We could win just by doing our thing.
"Which is why our goal isn’t first place—it’s something else. Hey, Ninja. What was your 400-meter time this morning?"
"Huh? I think it was 46.83 seconds?"
"…Still inhuman, I see. Alright! We’ve got our goal time! The four of us are gonna beat Ninja’s time together!"
"What?!"
"Mirai, that’s not realistic. Even rounding down, Yuuri’s personal best is 10 seconds, you and I are at 12, and Asuka’s at 13. That alone adds up to 47—"
"Shut it! You really gonna say four of us combined are slower than Yuuri running a whole 400 meters by herself?! We’re gonna prove we’re fast even without her!"
Well, I am running the relay too, you know… but I’m not about to say that out loud.
Mirai really does have a gift for hyping people up. Asuka and Reiko are all fired up now.
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
“Next up is the club-versus-club relay event! In lane one, the softball club. Lane two, the soccer club. Lane three—”
Fueled by Mirai’s rallying cry, Asuka and Reiko are brimming with energy. Mirai was raring to go from the start. With all that, I can’t be the only one dragging us down.
The track team in the lane next to us is looking kind of pale after seeing our fire—but I’m sure that’s just their imagination.
"On your marks… Get set!"
Bang!
A sharp electronic starter pistol rings out! Our first runner is Reiko. She pulls ahead fast with long strides, taking full advantage of her height and long limbs!
I’ve been thinking this for a while—Reiko probably should’ve done rhythmic gymnastics instead.
Her long arms and legs would’ve made her movements look super expressive. According to Mana, her proportions would’ve even worked for artistic swimming, overcoming the typical shorter-limb disadvantage many Japanese athletes face.
Reiko of course passed the baton first, nice and smooth!
"All yours, Mirai!"
Reiko shouts!
Mirai, in contrast to Reiko, uses short, rapid steps to accelerate—what they call a pitch stride—and she pulls even further ahead.
She’s one of the smaller members of the volleyball team, but you’d never guess that from how powerfully she runs!
Mirai smoothly passes the baton to the third runner.
"Asuka, you better not mess this up! You’re the slowest of us! You screw this up, I swear—!"
Mirai shouts just after handing off the baton.
But Asuka responds with a sprint like she’s saying, watch me before you talk!
...Not saying where exactly, but things are definitely bouncing. If they popped off, I wouldn’t complain.
Asuka pulls way ahead and passes the baton to me.
"Yuuri-chan! The rest is up to you!"
Her voice clearly reached me from behind. After they all worked so hard, there’s no way I’m not giving it my all.
NUOOOOOOHHHHH!!
We won. By more than 10 seconds over second place.
But that’s not the big deal. The time is——
44.76 seconds
"YEAH!!"
"Yuuri, that’s a pretty bold way to celebrate."
"Either way—Ninja! You crushed it!"
"You really can do anything if you try!"
We were pumped, the four of us relay teammates.
Nearby, the track coach Tajima-sensei muttered softly.
"44 seconds... That’s a high school record... and on this field, in those shoes??"
The rest of the sports festival went on.
The tug-of-war, where people said stuff like “Team 2 is unbeatable with Yuuri!”—we lost that without much fanfare.
Thinking back, I guess I might be strong, but I don’t weigh much, so tug-of-war just isn’t my game.
The second-years’ cavalry battle was intense.
Like, are we sure this was a girls’ high school event?
The shouting and screaming was kinda terrifying…
And the third-years’ pole-toppling match...
Let’s just pretend I didn’t see that.
In my mind, the third-years—like Eri-senpai and the others—are supposed to be calm, refined, kind, and elegant seniors.
There’s no way one of them would tackle everyone in sight, fling classmates off the pole, or scream in victory from the top like some kind of barbarian.
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
A few days later
"Murai! Tachibana! Tohira! Maejima! Come do track with me! Please! You can dual-club if you want! You guys could break the high school record—no, the national record! Maybe even a world record!"
It’s been about a week since the sports festival, but Tajima-sensei is still trying to recruit us.
Now, what to do…
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