#93 Capture-the-Flag 1

When I returned back to our tent, I took my towel with a swift movement and sat down on the bench. I put the towel on my head to partly hide my face and focused on regulating my breathing. Although I wasn't that much tired from the previous event, I still wanted to recover as much stamina as possible. There is no way to say what could happen and I might need to use my energy for more things other than my eyes.

After something more than 5 minutes, my breathing was perfectly stable and even the energy I just used was almost fully recovered.

"Are you okay?" I heard someone's voice right next to me so I raised my head to look at the person in question.

"I am perfectly fine but thank you for asking, Horikita-san" I answered while returning my gaze at the track.

"Are you sure? You don't really look like you are fine..." She insisted with her arms folded while staring at me with a serious expression.

"You mean the towel, right? I don't want to get sunburnt, it's incredibly hot today. By the way, did you already finish your race?" I answered with an apathetic expression, however, she had a difficulty to see my face under the towel.

"Of course, I did...Are you even paying attention? When I saw you return here and sit down, I noticed that you were constantly watching the track, even when it was my time to compete, you were still looking in the same direction." She said with an annoyed tone.

"I was recovering my stamina, after all, I have to substitute for Koenji-kun plus I noticed that I am also in all recommended only contests." I answered with a slightly tired voice.

"That's what I want to talk to you about. Why did you nominate yourself to replace Koenji-kun when you are already participating in all recommended only contests?" She asked me with a confused expression, however, it was evident that she was also suspicious of me.

"Well...that was before even knowing that I am participating in all recommended only contests. But don't worry, I know how to divide my stamina evenly to finish everything without exhausting myself first." I reassured her, acting clueless about her suspicious gaze.

"...Do you know anything about the participation table? It's too strange...at first, I thought that the traitor appeared in our class but judging by the progress of just those 2 contests...we are probably winning which completely confuse me." She said, still standing next to me with her folded arms while sharply glaring at me.

"How should I know that? I am pretty confused too...why would anyone try to act so discreet when you aren't doing anything bad...unless..." I said with a thoughtful expression, however, at the end of my words, I opened my eyes wide open due to sudden "realization".

"Unless what?" She asked back with the same thoughtful expression as me.

"Unless we really have a traitor in our class but that someone actually figured it out and was forced to act discretely." I said in a deep tone with sharp eyes.

"What...?" Horikita also opened her eyes wide open when she heard my conclusion.

"But that still doesn't make sense how that person was able to make such good groups...Even if he knew everyone's participation table. He couldn't have known everyone's capabilities without very carefully observing them. Although we had more than 2 weeks of preparations, I doubt that the person responsible for this would be able to observe everyone's limits. Not to mention, combining all of it together is...simply inhuman." Horikita frowned and started to think aloud with a serious expression.

"True enough..." I agreed with her reasoning and nodded my head with a slightly puzzled expression.

"Anyway, the next contest is the Capture-the-Flag which is a team competition. Do you have any plans on how to win yet?" She asked me, changing the subject of our talk.

"I don't...First, I will need to talk with the guys from Class A. But I guess everyone will agree that each class will take offensive and defensive side once to make it fair for both classes." I answered.

In this Capture-the-Flag competition, The first one to succeed in taking the flag from opponents 2 times, wins the competition. This is also team competition, therefore, we will have to cooperate with guys from Class A but I predict that they will simply want to act on their own. Be it offensive or defensive side, they will only take one without mixing with us from Class D.

"Hmm...I agree, that's something Katsuragi would do. Good luck with your group, try not to tire yourself too much, you still have a lot of competitions before you." Horikita nodded her head a mercilessly said. Although she sounded cold, it was apparent that she wasn't worrying only about the results.

We talked a bit before she had to leave to join the Ball-toss game while I also had to go participate in the Capture-the-Flag.

When I arrived at the place where the contest was supposed to take the place, I already noticed a few guys from Class A. The place of the competition was something similar to the soccer field except for numerous obstacles installed in random places. Some of them were small, some of them were larger or longer like benches. It wasn't the ideal area like the forested area but hiding was still doable, pretty well organized I would say.

Rules were pretty simple, both teams are divided by the middle line and have their own territory where they have to hide their flag. Of course, hiding something while having others stand by it to protect it is not really smart so most people just leave it in the open area where they can have a good view of it. The attacking group mustn't intervene with the enemy team's attacking group, they are only to attack the defending group. Also, the Capture-the-Flag is not the nicest game, at least not this one, the "light" physical contact like grabbing and pushing is allowed however the blatant violent acts won't go unpunished. But who are we to fool, the groups are much larger this time than before and how is it possible for the referee to see absolutely everything? It's already granted that there will be dirty plays and knowing Ryuen then even if his plan failed he will try to do something during this contest. After all, this highly physical game is his area of expertise.

"Alright!!! Let's show them who is boss!" Sudo started to encourage students from Class D by shouting with his fist clenched and determined expression on his face.

"We meet again in such a short time..." Katsuragi approached me as a representative of his group and "greeted" me once again.

"I can see that all three of us are meeting again in such a short time. At least this time, two of us are actual allies and not enemies." I said with a small smile and my hands in my pockets while looking at the other side of the field where I found Shibata and Kanzaki leading their own class and a few meters standing away from them, Ryuen and his gang were standing there. I also noticed the large framed guy named Yamada being around Ryuen.

"What will your class prefer to do first? Attacking or defending?" He asked me while also looking at Ryuen with wariness visible in his eyes.

"So I guess we will be splitting our forces based on classes, huh?" I said with a helpless smile while shaking my head.

"That's how it should be. We will have the best teamwork when being inside the group with only your classmates." Katsuragi said firmly to show how much he believed in his statement.

Not too bad strategy but it's like abandoning offense or defense. The best way would be to mix our forces and create an ultimate attacking team and ultimate defensive team but I guess even the enemies won't cooperate with each other so whatever.

"*sigh* Alright, I understand. In that case, please start first with the offense, we will switch after the 1st round." I replied with a sigh. Although I didn't understand why would he talk about this to me instead of Hirata who is perceived as our representative together with Sudo, maybe it was due to our recent match so he felt more comfortable speaking with me since we already spoke together not long ago.

"Good, I wish your class good luck on the defensive side." Katsuragi said and left. Precisely said, he gathered his classmates and went with them to the front of the middle line dividing our and enemies' territory.

After watching them for a few seconds, I turned around and slowly walked back to where my classmates were.

When I arrived there, Sudo seemed to be performing some kind of speech in front of our not so athletic members.

"Walker-kun, what did Katsuragi-kun say to you?" Hirata immediately asked me when I returned, gathering all attention from other students, even Sudo stopped his speech in order to clearly hear my incoming answer.

"Not much, their class will go to the offensive this round and we will swap positions with them the next round." I told them while shrugging my shoulders.

"Should we try to hide our flag? It seems that the ones attacking will be Class C...they have much more athletic people than us. Not to mention that overly big tanned guy...I can't believe that he is around our age!" Ike immediately complained about a few things with a slightly scared expression when he noticed who we are up against.

"What?! Hide?! There is no way we can just hide it, we will meet them head-on. If they want to take our flag, I will make them regret it!" Sudo said with slight anger and excitement visible on his face at the same time, he was all fired up and ready to meet Ryuen head-on but I think that part of that anger and determination comes from Koenji's withdrawal and his antics.

"Hirata-kun, what is your opinion on this?" I turned at Hirata and asked about his opinion.

"Well...it would be good to hide it somewhere but we can't be too close to the flag once we will hide it because such action might arise the suspicion of the other team. And if we will keep our distance then there is a chance that someone might find it and we won't be able to catch that person in time. ...Maybe Sudo's 'tactic' is the best solution here." Hirata said with a thoughtful expression while holding his chin.

"See, let's do it the simple way!" Sudo said with a determination.

"Wait for a second please." I said to Sudo who was already too eager to place the flag in the open area.

"What is it again?" Sudo turned at me with a slightly annoyed expression but that quickly changed to his usual expression.

His reaction slightly surprised me...Maybe it's due to me stopping his punch from such a bad position. Perhaps he built some respect for me...but he is really short-tempered. If we do this his way then Ryuen will definitely try to provoke him, making him lose focus on what's important.

"Hirata-kun, can you tell me the rules once again?" Although I was slightly surprised by Sudo's reaction, I still turned at Hirata without any change in my expression and asked him.

"The rules? I don't think there is that much time for that." Hirata replied with a helpless smile.

"I only want to hear rules regarding our flag." I explained.

"Oh, I see. That will be much easier and quicker. First of all..." Hirata was slightly surprised by my so specific request but he still quickly told me everything about the rules regarding our flag.

"I see...So as long as our flag is possible to spot and is within our territory, we can hide it anywhere, right?" I asked him to confirm it one more time.

"Yes, that's exactly how the teachers stated it." He replied with a slight nod.

"Listen everyone, I have an idea..." I told everyone and motioned them to come closer, we formed a circle and I started to explain everything in a whisper.

"That...that's actually pretty smart, haha. Good job, Walker-kun!" Hirata immediately praised me with a small laugh.

"But will this actually work?" Ike asked with a skeptical expression.

"Yeah, if something goes wrong, we will have a pretty bad time protecting the flag." Sudo also added his doubts.

"Let's try it! I think it sounds pretty good and they won't expect that, making more time for Katsuragi-kun's class to steal the enemy flag." Hirata supported my idea and everyone else just went with the flow but in the end, we agreed on my tactic.

I took a quick glance at time and saw that I still have 3 minutes before the competition officially starts.

I quickly ran towards the teacher's tent, making every spectating students bewildered by my actions.

"Hello!" I shouted when I ran inside the tent.

"Wh- what do you want?" Sae-chan looked a bit surprised by my sudden appearance when it was just about the time for me to compete. It seems that she was also getting ready to go to watch our class.

"Do you have an adhesive tape on you?" I straightforwardly asked for what I needed.

"Well...yeah but why do you need it? ...Although it isn't a forbidden item, I doubt that you will be able to attach your flag to something, there aren't any good spots to hide it. If it was the forested area, that might work but otherwise..." She was slightly surprised by my request but she quickly understood my intentions, well...at least partly but even that is quite remarkable. While she was explaining those things to me, she was also rummaging through her things on the desk until she finally found a small roll of adhesive tape.

She handed it to me even though she had her doubts about my strategy.

"Of course, sticking it to the tree and defending that tree would be the most desirable position but that is impossible here. It's also impossible to hide it anywhere on the obstacles the school has set up in advance. But why should I stick it to something when I can stick it to someone?" I answered with an amused smirk.

"You-...Heh, I look forward to seeing your match." She seemed slightly surprised, it was evident that even she didn't expect that, however, she quickly collected herself and answered with the same amused smile.