Official Opening of the Sports Festival

In early November, the weather seemed to have received prayers from many and became a bit warmer.

Fall had clearly passed, and the lifeless branches stretched straight toward the sky. However, Shuchi'in Academy in the Minato District warmed the winter holidays into the fall season.

Fall was the sports season.

The school gates, usually cold on weekends, were bustling with traffic and crowded in the morning.

Like a transportation exhibition, all kinds of heavy equipment, limousines, sports cars, campers, buses, and tanks arrived endlessly. Some sped into the school, some parked on the roadside, and even helicopters hovered.

Today, Shuchi'in Academy's annual sports festival was finally open.

As an important festival allowing outsiders into the school, the security index in the school was several times higher than usual. All sorts of parents entered the school, including politicians, gang bosses, police officials, spies, ninjas, assassins, idol stars, noodle shop owners, kings, rich people, etc...

But this was all the same to a typical high school male student. Shinichi had no connection to it.

He had done what the student council president should do. At the moment, he was just an ordinary student preparing to participate in the sports festival. Security guards would handle fights outside the gate, and the disciplinary committee would handle fights inside. The entire process and control rules were managed by the Executive Committee of the Sports Festival, and it wasn't his concern.

Feeling a rare sense of relief, Shinichi spoke to his parents through his phone.

"Will you be here before noon? Okay, I understand... Actually, it's fine if you don't come. It's better this way. I'll figure out lunch on my own. You two can rest well at home and take care. It's cold, don't come here to catch a cold."

Of course, his sincere advice was rejected by his mother arbitrarily, and he could still hear the other side responding with a sneer.

"Son, give up. If you could survive the first year of middle school, you can't fail..."

"How ridiculous your school life is. Let me see with my own eyes—"

"Goodbye."

Shinichi smiled and hung up the phone.

Watching as he put down his phone, his smile disappeared, and he furrowed his brow, showing a sad expression. Beside him, Fumino asked with curiosity.

"Was it aunt on the phone?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Shinichi sighed and said wearily, "They'll come with lunch today and greet you and Rizu."

"Oh~ Right," Fumino nodded, and her gaze became peculiar.

"Wait, then... Will they also meet aunt?"

Fumino had a deep impression of her future mother-in-law... ahem, of Shinichi's mother. Since they had exchanged LINE messages, they would chat online from time to time, even exchanging pictures of each other.

She had just said goodnight to her last night, but her desire to make love to Shinichi was a bit... making things complicated.

Facing Kazumi, Fumino still couldn't say anything. Clearly, she had confessed here, but Shinichi wasn't satisfied with this and didn't want to agree directly.

What if Aunt Kazumi, who considered herself a prospective daughter-in-law, came to the school and found her son surrounded by beautiful women, everyone eager to call her mother-in-law, but her son acted ambiguous and didn't refuse, capable of navigating easily among the flowers, would she choose to kill her relatives for justice...

For some reason, Fumino wanted to laugh.

Although she was very embarrassed about Shinichi, from a girl's perspective, she really wanted to see a playboy punished by his relatives, but the idea was so bad that Fumino ultimately restrained herself and didn't laugh.

"That's right."

Shinichi was unaware of her mental activities, so he answered calmly.

"I understand what you mean; don't worry, this kind of commotion is just a minor issue for me, and I've made the necessary preparations."

"No, I'm not worried about you at all."

Fumino's face was expressionless, and she looked at him coldly, feeling quite angry.

Kashima happened to be talking to her, so she was too lazy to pay attention to Shinichi and turned to chat with others.

Shinichi stared at her back, and after a while, he looked out the window at the clear sky.

A rare cloudless day, and the warmth of the sun hanging in the sky melted the winter chill into the warmth of the deep blue sea. There was no weather more suitable for a sports festival than this.

After admiring it like a youth for a while, Shinichi lowered his head again and looked through the window down to the field below.

Chairs were arranged there, and the rest area was divided according to the location of each class. Many students in short-sleeved sportswear were strolling around. Some were assisting with the setup and final confirmation, and some were warming up for the next program. Just by looking from above, Shinichi could sense the increasing excitement and noise.

"The wind is quite noisy today..."

Looking at the aimless scene, Shinichi stopped and looked at a pair of green rabbit ear headbands and long, curving hair reflected in his eyes.

In the vast sea of people, Yotsuba's headband and Itsuki's ahoge always stood out.

△

Driven by the lively atmosphere of the sports festival, Itsuki always felt restless, so she left the classroom to take a stroll and visit parts of the school different from usual.

Arriving at the field, she happened to meet Yotsuba, who had come out earlier than everyone else. She came to greet and asked with curiosity.

"Yotsuba, how many events are you participating in today?"

Yotsuba thought for a moment and began counting with her fingers: "Since registration is only limited to more than one participant, I signed up for everything I could... 100-meter relay, 200-meter women's, three-legged, hurdles, shot put, bread-eating..."

"Please stop talking!" Itsuki interrupted with an incredulous expression on her face, "Why do you have to participate in so many competitions! Is this more than a cultural exchange meeting?"

"Ehehe... Besides, I was asked to do it..." Yotsuba scratched her head and giggled.

After the morning meeting, everyone knew that her physical fitness was almost at the peak of Tokyo high school girls, and it was natural for many to have expectations for her at the sports festival.

Yotsuba understood this but didn't act recklessly. She also didn't want to make everyone worried.

"Don't worry! I've scheduled rest time between each competition. If I can rest, this number is just a piece of cake for me! I can handle it if I work harder!"

Seeing her patting her arms to reassure herself, Itsuki still couldn't let go:

"You said the same thing during the cultural exchange meeting..."

"Yes, didn't I survive that time? So..."

"But you were clearly very tired that you fell asleep under a tree."

"Mhmmm..."

Yotsuba fell silent for a moment, but then her expression became serious again, and she earnestly said to Itsuki.

"I am now hundreds of times stronger than before! Itsuki, believe me!"

"The usual training I do with Asada-san in the morning is much more tiring compared to today's schedule!"

After hearing her mention that person's name, Itsuki's doubts gradually faded.

"So that's how it is..."

Although she thought of some unhealthy things because of her words, Itsuki shook her head and refused to let those negative thoughts bother her.

"I know the sports festival doesn't mean anything to you, but..."

She paused for a moment, looking left and right with closed eyes, and suddenly she approached Yotsuba's ear, whispering softly with a blush on her face:

"Menstruating today? It's better not to do too strenuous exercises..."

"Eh?!"

Yotsuba's eyes widened, her rabbit ear headband stretched upwards, and she blinked rapidly in panic like a frightened little rabbit.

"Itsuki, how did you know..."

Itsuki looked at her helplessly: "Did you forget? Our menstrual cycles are almost the same! Because I'm here, of course, you are too..."

After coughing, even as a sister, she felt embarrassed to say such words in public.

Yotsuba shrugged her shoulders and giggled with the same embarrassment.

"Ahaha, we are indeed quintuplets..."

"In short! Although there's usually no problem, on that day, if you don't pay extra attention, accidents might happen!

"So, go to the health room to rest if you feel unwell. Everyone in the athletic field will understand, right?"

Itsuki looked towards the playground, where some girls were looking in their direction. They were all familiar faces from the athletics club, and they occasionally greeted each other.

"Yes, just like what Nino said!" Her smile softened, Yotsuba nodded firmly at Itsuki and said quickly:

"I understand! Today, I will definitely protect my body and not worry everyone!"

"That's good," Itsuki smiled reassuringly.

After chatting a few more words, both parties said goodbye and left, and Yotsuba ran towards everyone in the athletics club.

"Everyone, I've been waiting~"

"It's okay, but we have to trouble you..."

"No, no, I'm a sports committee member from the student council! And I'm also on the executive committee of the sports festival, so I have to help."

"Really, if the president didn't order hundreds of cups of pearl milk tea for the whole school to drink, we wouldn't need to work as transport workers right now..."

"Ahaha, the president is kind too~"

Although Yotsuba couldn't hear what they were saying, she couldn't clearly see their expressions.

Upstairs, Shinichi still focused on Yotsuba, with a slight hesitation in his eyes. He squinted to check her walking movements, and his expression gradually became serious.

"Feeling unwell? You always seem a bit awkward..."

"That person advised her to rest well lately, but she still plans to showcase her strength..."

Daily practice, sports festival, student council, and school assignments, if these four things were added up, even an iron person would surely rust, let alone a foolish rabbit always trying too hard?

He had to be careful not to let her act recklessly.

With this thought, Shinichi made a decision.