The coveted, or in Ishi’s case, dreaded sports events were about to begin. The major competition among the grades to see who would come out on top. Since its inception, the third years had always taken first place. Their mix of experience and age development usually aided them above the rest. Even when there was good talent among the younger years. Personally, Ishi was certain it was because the younger students threw their games to allow their seniors the edge.

There were three major games to be played that would determine who would come out the victor. Two that would be made up of only the girls, another pair with only the boys, and finally a mixed gender event that usually proved to be the deciding factor.

“So what are we playing?” Ishi asked as his class surrounded out in the middle of the soccer field. It seemed obvious considering where they were standing, but he wanted to ask to make sure. If there was one thing that life loved giving him, it was curve balls.

“We’re playing flag football.” Otoya answered him.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Hearing the word football lulled him into a sense of security given where they were standing. Then he played back the words in his head and didn’t understand the flag part. “Why do we need to wear these?” The boy asked as flag belts were handed among the group. There were three ribbons hanging around the two sides and back as he put it on.

“Sorry.” His friend chuckled at the misunderstanding. “We’re playing American football, not normal football.” Ishi was left dumbfounded as the boys produced the football that was used in the states. Why were they playing a sport that literally none of them had ever seen in person, let alone play?

This was basically another test for them to overcome. Being able to adapt quickly to unfamiliar rules during the midst of an important competition taught staying cool under pressure.

“Fine, what are the rules?” They explained among themselves how to play the game. There was nothing special or added onto this. It was the standard flag football rule set that any American would know about.

“I should be quarterback.” Izuru, the boy who was dating Fuma, requested. He wanted an opportunity to show off in front of the school, and this seemed to be the perfect chance for it.

“We’re on defense first.” Ishi shut him down. “Let’s just worry about that after we keep them from scoring.” In a traditional American football game, a touchdown equaled six points with a PAT afterwards to add on one. Since there were no goal posts to kick a ball through here, the game was to end after a team scored three times. “Hey big guy, can you be the one to rush their QB?” He asked the largest boy in their class, who went by the name Shimao.

“I don’t really know if I can do that.” The boy responded. Despite his appearance, he spoke rather softly, almost too difficult for any of them to hear. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You’re just taking their flags off.” He reminded everyone. “And besides, all you have to do is look scary and that’ll make them play worse. No one else knew about this gentle giant’s quiet nature, so all they’d see is a monstrous individual chasing after them.

Meanwhile, they weren’t the only ones attending to their event. The girls had their own challenges ahead of them, which Youna and Rinse stuck together for. They were tasked with the classic game of shot put. The rules were simple, the students that threw the furthest on an aggregate would win.

“All right, let’s do this!” Rinse cheered out to hype up the girls. Quickly, she took to her spot to be the leader and prepared to throw her shot put. It was a lot heavier than she was expecting, as the girl nearly toppled over from the loss in balance. “Whoa, they make it look easier on TV.” She commented in her fight to stay upright. Once she regained her composure, the girl took her spot and tossed the heavy ball with all her might.

Seven meters. Not anywhere close to the Olympics, but enough for a nonathletic high school girl. Her classed cheered upon seeing her perform well and it fired them up to win. If not for their class pride, then at least for the idol. Others came and went. The contest was considerably closer than was comfortable for the third years.

Then it came to be Youna’s turn. She gave it all her might to pick it up from the ground. That was already too much for her as she heaved the ball up over her shoulder with both arms.

“S-so heavy.” She struggled to keep up standing. Her feet left like they were sinking down into the dirt as she slowly walked to the starting spot. “Nyia!” She yelled out and threw with all her might.

“Maybe a meter?” The judge commented as they pulled out a stick. That was all she could manage and the girl gingerly walked back to the group. She didn’t want to look anyone in the eye after that embarrassing display of strength. That brought down her teams average a fair bit.

“Okay, we’re down to only a couple of girls.” Rinse said, looking over at the final participant, Ryugi.

“You can’t, like, honestly expect me to get my hands dirty?” Despite putting on the uniform, she wasn’t a fan of having to pick up a heavy ball and get all sweaty. It wasn’t like she had a choice, seeing as this was a requirement during sports day.

“Aw, what’s wrong?” Chinae came up to them as she returned from her turn at the shot put. “Our princess doesn’t want to break a nail?” She mocked the girl as she sat down for a drink of water.

“Why you…”

“Come on, we’re a team.” Rinse stood up before things got too heated. “Please, Ryugi we need you to give it your hardest.” Her supported words were very appreciated by the gyaru. The idol knew something about this girl thanks to Ishi. She wasn’t going to forget his unsaid words about this person. Ryugi was the type that needed to be motivated to do something she knew she could do, simply because she was too self-conscious to do it in front of people.

“It’s too late for that anyway.” Chinae was the one to rain on the parade. “Sorry, I couldn’t do enough to close the gap. Unless she can get 20 meters, it’s over for us.”

“Give me that shot put.” Fired up by the motivating done by Rinse, Ryugi stomped onto the field and picked up the ball with little effort. She got into a ready position and heaved the ball with all her strength, and there was a lot hidden behind those skinny arms as it went flying across the field.

“25 meters!?” The judge was in awe as they ran out to measure it. That would’ve shattered the shot put record The girl jumped up in cheer as they had pulled a victory for the third years. They ran up to Ryugi and picked her up to celebrate.

“Thank you, thank you.” She responded in joy as everyone showered her with praise. It was an unbelievable performance, but they couldn’t be too happy yet. The boys were still in the middle of battle against the second years. “Let’s go cheer on the boys!” She commanded everyone as they rushed off to the soccer field.

Unfortunately for the boys, they weren’t finding as much success as the girls had so far into their game. They had yet to get on the board, while their opponents were marching down the field to close out this game. They were in what was known as the red zone, where they were standing the middle of the mere meters between a win for the seconds years and a loss for them.

“Ah!” Another flag fell to the ground as Ishi dove to the ground to prevent the game losing score. Now there wasn’t even a meter left for them to give. The boys were really feeling the pain as his uniform was a dirty mess. A complete contrast to the girl’s clean white shirts as they came up. “Looks like they won.” He muttered as they huddled up again.

“The girls won? That’s awesome.” It reinvigorated some of the boys in his group.

“And they came all this way to cheer us on... Especially Rinse.” Said Otoya, who got a bit starstruck, which forced Ishi to knock him in the back of his head to bring the boy back to Earth.

“If they won, then it doesn’t matter what we do here.” Ishi was ready to throw in the towel after this debacle. His body couldn’t take much more of this torture. From the looks of everyone else, they felt the same way.

“Their morale is so low.” Rinse could sense their negative energy from all the way from the sidelines.

“And it looks like they’re getting stomped.” Ryugi commented on the scoreboard, which revealed the story to this tragedy.

“Guess they’re losing this one for us.” Chinae also threw in the towel, and she wasn’t even a part of it.

“Then what are we supposed to do?” Youna asked. They could help them physically, and it was unlikely that they could do anything even if they joined in.

“We gotta cheer real hard for them then.” Rinse suggested. “Come on, they need to know that we’re on their side no matter if they’re winning or losing.” She gave a short speech to the girls to hype them up during this difficult time. “Hey, Ishi!” She yelled out to him. He was a bit downtrodden to hear her scream out his name out in public like this. It only served to remind him that they were on a first name basis and that everyone around him didn’t like that.

“We’re trying our best.” He yelled back at her, but it wasn’t enough in her eyes.

“If you’re one of the boys playing, then I doubt that.” If this was her attempt at motivation, then he thought it was horrible. “Come on boys, it’s not over yet. So don’t even think of giving up even if we won for the girls. Don’t fall for Ishi’s downer attitude.”

“Yeah, Ishi’s a loser. Go out there and be winners!” Shouted Ryugi. Was this supposed to be cheering, or jeering at Ishi’s expense? They hadn’t seen what he was doing on the field, what did he do to deserve this?

“Yeah, go do your best.” Chinae wasn’t into it, but she also added on to the girls cheer for them.

“But I-Ishi… T-try your best too!” Youna somewhat quietly yelled to him, but it was enough to reach the boy’s ears. Ishi rolled his eyes from them yelling at the boys. These girls really turned this pitiful game to a real debacle. He went to turn and voice his discontent to the boys, but something about them was different.

There was an energy from them that he hadn’t seen all game from them. Hearing the girls cheer them on, Rinse most of all, had fired them up on the inside. Despite being mere inches away from losing the entire game, it seemed that they now all believed that victory was in their grasp.

“Ah geez.” Somehow, Rinse had found a way to make his life more challenging, but entertaining. “All right guys, listen up.” He drew the attention of all the boys, who had fire in their eyes now. “I got a plan.”