#94 Hide and Seek phase

I left the tent together with Sae-chan, however, I was slowly running out of time so I had to part my ways with her and run back to my classmates at the field.

"I am back, guys, and look at what I have got." I said when I returned to everyone while discretely showing them the tape in my hand.

"Nice one! With this, we will be able to proceed with our strategy. Now the question is...how should we behave? Will we stay all together or will we form small groups?" Hirata frowned and asked with a cautious expression.

"...Even though at first I wanted to hide the flag, now it seems quite complicated. It's easier to know what to do when you have something to protect in your sight rather than trying to hide it from your opponents." Ike tried to think about what should we do but he quickly gave up with a tired expression.

"Walker, don't you have any idea? This was, after all, the strategy you proposed." Sudo didn't even try to think about it since he wanted to do it a simple way in the first place but he still asked me which wasn't the bad decision, after all, this was my strategy so he probably expects me to have more ideas in my mind.

Hearing his question, a mysterious smile crept across my face.

"Of course I have something planned." I said with a mysterious smile and they looked at me expectantly, anticipating some kind of crazy yet unpredictable strategy like the one with the tape.

"Just do whatever you want..." After a small dramatic pause, I said and released an amused smile.

"Huh? What do you mean Walker-kun?" Ike was the first one to ask me but it was evident that everyone was feeling confused by hearing my words.

"What do you not understand? You want to have a nap on one of the benches or simply sit down on the ground and talk with your friends? If yes...just do it. If you want to split into groups, do it... Simply said, do whatever you want." I said with a shrugged shoulders while shaking my head as if it was something simple to understand, which was but I guess not for them who are thinking too hard on how to win this.

Everyone's expression was mix of surprise, confusion, regret, and many others. It was indeed a sight to behold, some of them probably thought of me as crazy.

"But enough of planning we are running low on time, tape the flag on the back of my t-shirt." I ignored their stares and stuffed the tape into Ike's hand and urged him to help me tape it to my back.

"Ok...But why on your t-shirt? Wouldn't it be better to tape the flag under it?" He asked me while he was doing his job.

"Haven't you been listening during Hirata's explanation of rules? It must be visible, I have no idea how much the school will tolerate it but I doubt that you can completely lean your back against something or just lie on the ground to hide the flag. Perhaps, we can exploit this rule to the maximum...I will lean my back against one of the boxes that are more at the front while leaving a bit of space between my back and the box so the flag could be seen from a good angle. Therefore, tape it a bit lower otherwise I won't be able to do it." I told him and he just nodded in understanding and moved the flag a bit lower.

...

"Where is your flag?" One of the two referees came to our group and asked us with furrowed brows. There were two referees stationed on each side so they could have control of both sides, however, even they knew that two referees won't be enough to watch everyone once the chaos starts.

"Here" I turned around to show him my back and he was slightly taken aback by seeing this but after noticing that we aren't breaking any rules, he nodded.

"30 seconds remaining before the competition starts, so get ready. Once you hear the sound of the whistle, the competition starts." The referee said to us and quickly left to return to his post in time.

"Well everyone, do you best to relax and recover your stamina." I told to everyone and went to sit down on the ground near one of the boxes placed as obstacles.

Hirata said a few more words to everyone and then followed after me. Others split up into 3 groups and sat down either on the ground or one of the obstacles. Although a few students were still slightly confused about the entire situation, they quickly adapted themselves to the situation once they started to talk to each other.

*Whistle* One the sharp whistling sound resounded, both attacking teams moved to take the opponent's flag.

"I should have brought my phone with me..." Ike said with a sulking voice.

"Well, we can't do anything except for regreting but we can still talk about strategies we will use during the next time we will play together" Yamauchi tried to cheer his friend up while having a wry smile across his face.

Ryuen and others already arrived in our territory and they were able to also hear Ike's and Yamauchi's conversation. However, when they heard them and also saw us sitting leisurely around, they just froze in place and kept on looking at us with weird faces.

I ignored their presence and just took out a piece of paper from my pocket.

"Hm? If you don't mind me asking, Walker-kun... What is that?" Hirata also noticed how I have unfolded that piece of paper more than 7 times making it quite a big sheet of paper in the end.

"This? It's just a few pages of the novel I am reading right now." I answered with a small smile while focusing my eyes on that sheet of paper.

"I see..." Hirata answered with an absent expression.

---

'Does it mean that he already anticipated that we will use this strategy? It could also be that he has it with him just to relieve the boredom during the waiting before the competition starts...' Hirata thought while taking a look at what exactly Felix was reading with a curious expression.

---

"Are you kidding me?" Ishizaki from Class C muttered when he witnessed us sitting around and leisurely talking to each other.

"What are you standing still like idiots! Go and find the flag, don't be stunned by this pathetic facade!" Ryuen who woke up much earlier from the shock than others shouted at his team and everyone started to run around our territory, looking for our flag while Ryuen approached me and Hirata

"What kind of game are you playing?" Ryuen asked us with narrowed eyes and folded arms.

"Hm? Shouldn't you be worried about finding the flag instead of talking with me? Or is it that the king has no need to dirty his hands?" I looked up at Ryuen and asked him in a provocative tone and with an amused smile across my face.

"Hiding the flag...are you stalling for the time since you have discovered that you won't be able to stop us with a brute force? If yes, then you are more foolish than I thought." Ryuen looked at each member of our team and asked with an arrogant smirk, trying to provoke me but I just kept on reading from my paper.

"Look around yourself, there aren't that many obstacles, so the places where you could hide the flag, aren't that many." Ryuen said with his spread arms while having already victorious smile on his face.

"I am more foolish than you thought, huh? Just for your information, you and your entire gang were stunned for numerous seconds...How is that not a good stalling for the time?" I answered without even sparing him a glance and continued focusing on my own things.

"Not to mention that your rabbits seem to have "bad eyes" when it comes to finding the flag, wouldn't you agree with me?" I looked up from the paper and added with a smirk across my face while looking at Ryuen's confident smile with contempt.

"Tch!" Ryuen just clicked his tongue and left us to join his undependable rabbits in their search.

"...That was something else...Is it always so tense when you two talk to each other?" Hirata who remained silent during my entire conversation with Ryuen asked with a helpless smile.

"Tense?" I asked him with a puzzled expression.

"Didn't you feel it? Each passing second felt like you two were just about to jump at each other's throats." Hirata was surprised by my question.

"Not really...I have never felt like this when talking with Ryuen" It's more like talking to a puppy that can bite you and leave small marks on your skin. I wanted to add with a smile but I left that unnecessary comment to myself.

------

"What the hell are they doing?" The referee responsible for observing the Felix's group territory muttered while looking at them with a confused expression. He thought that they would try to play something similar to the Tag game while others would try to defend the person with the flag. In the rules, it is stated that defenders can't carry their own flag within their hands however there is no rule about taping it to your t-shirt.

'I was slightly surprised that they taped it on his back since it's easier to snatch because when you are running, you are showing your back to your opponent but it seems that their strategy was completely different. Interesting...' The referee thought with an amused smile while looking at the sight before him before his expression turned to pity one when he looked towards the opposite direction where his colleague had to carefully observe the chaos created by Class A's attacking team.

However, the referee wasn't the only one surprised at what was happening. Everyone was baffled at the sight where students from Class C were running like rabbits all around Class D's territory, trying to find the flag while the students from Class D were relaxing with smiles across their faces.

'You are stalling for the time...huh?' Sae-chan who was also watching it from the sidelines also had an amused smile on her face while looking at the sitting figure of Felix.

'But aren't you taking it too lightly? There are much better ways how to hide and to stall for even more time...Are you perhaps doing it so everyone else could recover their stamina?' Sae-chan narrowed her eyes while she was thinking hard about Felix's true intentions.

However, after a while, she had a sudden insight and she opened her eyes wide while looking at Felix.

'Is he...Does he perhaps want to tire out all other teams while his team will be the only one with the recovered stamina? This competition has no timer so it ends only when one of the two teams will succeed in capturing the enemy flag. Is his plan to tire everyone out so he could have a much better chance at the attacking phase? Not to mention that once someone wins the first round, there is no break between the second round. Maybe he is also using this to reserve the stamina of others for the following contests. By making everyone run around like fools he will considerably weaken them in their next contests while his class will only get stronger. It must also be extremely good for their morale.' Sae-chan thought with the wide-open eyes while looking at Felix in astonishment, however, she quickly calmed down and just released a "proud" smile with her eyes closed. Her face looked extremely peaceful at this time.

------

...

By looking at the opposite side, it looks like they are about to breakthrough Class B's defenses. While on this side, they are still looking for our flag.

"There is something wrong here. We have searched everywhere we could but we didn't find anything!" Ishizaki reported to Ryuen who seemed to be thinking hard about something.

After a small while, he narrowed his eyes and looked towards the direction where Ike and Yamauchi were sitting and talking to each other.

"Search everyone, if they will have some problems with moving from their positions, just push them away with force! The flag must be visible but it's not said that it can't be visible only from a certain angle." Ryuen shouted at his gang and everyone split up to search everyone while Ryuen and Yamada returned to me and Hirata.

"Now I see what you have done...I wonder whose idea it is." Ryuen said with a curious smile but he was mostly looking at me.

------

'It seems that hiding time is over...What will you do now?' Sae-chan thought while observing the situation with a slightly nervous yet curious expression.

------

"Forget it, you don't need to answer me...would you be so kind as to stand up and leave the area around that box?" Ryuen continued talking with once again a victorious smile once he noticed a small change in Hirata's expression.

"Why should we?" Hirata said with a slightly panicked voice.

Nice acting Hirata, hehe.

"Beca-" Ryuen narrowed his eyes and dangerously looked at him however before he could answer him he was interrupted.

"We found nothing once again, even around Class D's guys!" Ishizaki shouted. They were able to check everyone else much quicker thanks to them following my instructions. They were supposed to just do as guys from Class C say. At first, they were arguing that it would be much better if we simply all argue to stall for more time but I knew Ryuen's method, there was no need to risk any injury plus this interruption is also stalling for the time.

Ryuen directed his attention at Ishizaki and after looking at everyone else from his gang he knew they were telling the truth.

"It seems that this is your end." Ryuen turned at us and said with a cold smile.

"*sigh* Stand up, Hirata-kun..." I sighed and told Hirata to stop this act.

"...But-" After a short while, Hirata wanted to say more.

"No buts! We have already stalled enough of time" I said and smile slowly crept across my face.

Ryuen didn't urge us to move faster and instead, he was watching our arguing with an amused expression, however, when he noticed my smile, he narrowed his eyes.

I noticed Ryuen's confusion so I decided to stand up and slowly walk a few steps forward before stopping. Everyone from Class C was watching my back with surprised expressions. Seeing that the flag was almost within his hands, Ryuen wanted to see what I want to do.

I pointed my finger at the other side where the fight between Class A and Class B was ongoing and everyone followed with their gaze.

At that time, guys from Class A were finally able to breakthrough Class B's flawless defense. And even though it was flawless...every defense will eventually fall under the constant pressure of attackers.

"Do you think you have won?" I heard Ryuen's voice behind me and sensed incoming "attack" at my back.

I spun around Ishizaki's outstretched arm and when I was behind him I gently slap his back with the back of my palm while placing my foot in front of his own foot, ultimately making him trip over it.

"Well, the hide and seek phase is cleared. Are you ready for the final phase of this level, player?" I said with a cold smile while looking at Ryuen, completely ignoring Ishizaki who has just fallen down behind me.

"Wow, that was cool, Walker-kun! You sounded just like some kind of final boss, haha." Ike started laughing when he saw the one who tried to intimidate him, fall down onto the ground.

Ryuen was looking at me with wide-open eyes, surprised by this outcome. However, he quickly calmed down and an excited smile appeared on his face.

"Hahaha, bring it on!" Ryuen laughed in delight, he knew that it was probably already too late to win but he could still cause some damage. Unless Class A brings back the flag, the competition still continues.