#99 A Big Surprise

"*Whistle*" The Obstacle course race started once the referee's whistle resounded through the air.

...

Once the race ended, every spectator was looking at me with a surprised expression however, there was also jealousy, respect or some of the upper-class girls were even looking at me with sparks visible in their eyes. Simply said, too many emotions of the different kinds.

What had happened?

A simple thing...even though students from Class C were targeting me, they had no chance to even intercept me from completing the race because after a few first seconds after the start, there was already more than 5 meters gap between us. And the gap kept on increasing, they had no chance to catch up to me and the same can be said about the other participants.

I finished the race with a more than 10 meters gap between me and the guy from Class A who finished second.

...

"Haaah" Class C students that went against me, immediately kneeled in exhaustion once they finished the race while I was standing still and looking down on them with my cold red eyes.

Sweat was pouring down on my face and my hair was completely drenched. Of course, I couldn't end up like that just from a simple race so I did a little trick. The energy inside my body can adjust my body temperature and protect my body from outside temperature so if it's too cold outside, I can still feel like it's summer. I just circulated my energy across my whole body to increase my temperature so I would sweat much more.

"Heh" After a while of looking at this pathetic sight, I chuckled and turned around with a smirk across my face.

While I was returning to our tent, I noticed Ryuen who was looking at me so I released a small provocative smile. He noticed my smile, however, instead of getting annoyed, he actually smiled back and I perfectly knew why...

You really think that you managed to provoke me, do you? I inwardly thought with having an urge to laugh.

------

'What is he thinking? There was no need for him to go all out. He is just exhausting himself for no reason.' Sae-chan thought while looking at Felix who was fully drenched in sweat with her sharp eyes.

'I would call for him but there isn't much time for us to discuss anything...Maybe during the launch break? That would do, I am really interested in his reason behind his actions. The way he looked at the students from Class C with a contempt...They must have provoked him somehow, however, it's still strange because I know that he isn't someone who is easily provoked.' Sae-chan was thinking hard, however, her eyes never left Felix's figure.

*Sigh*

'He is smart so he must be aware that what he is doing will only exhaust him faster. Maybe this is also part of his plan...but what can you do with an exhausted body? You can partly recover your stamina during the launch break but it's not like your entire body will be rested. Your performance will drop down anyway.'

"Oh? What's up with that sigh, Sae-chan? Hmm...AHA!" Chie who was currently next to her also noticed her strange behavior and when she looked in the same direction as her friend, she immediately understood the reason behind her friend's behavior.

"What is it?" Sae-chan was slightly started by Chie's sudden exclamation. She was too focused on her thoughts and didn't pay attention to her surroundings.

"Hehe, naughty, naughty Sae-chan~! Now I understand why you were often so distracted as of lately, especially during this sports festival. You know that I will always support you but you also need to keep your urges in check and do your job seriously~!" Chie was lecturing Sae-chan with her finger pointing at her and naughty smile across her face while Sae-chan just watched with her eyes wide open in bewilderment.

It took her a few seconds before she finally woke up and frowned when she recalled Chie's words.

"Who the hell is naughty? You are the only one who needs to take the job more seriously!" Sae-chan countered with narrowed eyes to show her displeasure and then she turned around and left her friend standing there smiling like an idiot but not before taking a last glance at Felix.

'I don't have any urges...' Sae-chan kept repeating those words in her mind to calm herself down.

------

Eeh, maybe I overdid it with that temperature, even my hair is completely drenched...Well, I am still learning, these small mistakes will eventually lead me to perfect the control over this energy.

I thought while sitting on the bench and moving my hair backwards with my hand where they also stayed. Only a few strands of hair returned back on my forehead.

...I really need a shower.

Hm? I noticed that someone was standing near me and looking at me without saying anything for a while.

"What is it, Mii-chan? Did you run into any problems during your own race?" I asked with a slightly confused expression while looking at Mii-chan's absent-minded expression.

"Huh? Ah! I am sorry! Although there was something strange happening during our obstacle race, I didn't get distracted because of it so I was able to finish in 1st place! However because I wasn't distracted, I also don't know what exactly happened, sorry..." She panicked for a while when my voice woke her up from her thoughts but she quickly composed herself and informed me with a happy smile that also quickly changed to sad expression due to her inability to inform me of what exactly had happened.

Well if that wasn't the quickest changes of expressions within a few seconds then I would be surprised.

"Heh, why are you apologizing when you have won the first place? You are too tense...Am I not your partner? You can be more at ease with me, however, if you don't want to, I won't force you." I chuckled and replied with a friendly smile while looking up slightly to make eye contact with her since she was still standing and I was sitting on a pretty low bench.

"..." She started staring into my eyes with an absent-minded expression once again.

Are my eyes that mesmerizing? I thought inwardly with a helpless expression.

"Hello? Earth to Mii-chan!" I tried to get her attention with an amused smile because this has never happened to me and to be honest, I found it quite amusing. Of course, her absent-minded expression was also a sight to behold, pretty cute.

"Ah! Yes, I am sorry...again." When she woke up from her thoughts she immediately registered that she has done the same thing for the second time already so she hung her head in shame.

"Mm, no need to apologize, just tell me if there is really something wrong, you can rely on me." I replied with a slightly caring tone to make her relax a bit.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong, it's just...Your hair." My strategy worked and she relaxed a bit and told me what caused her to space out like that.

"My hair?" I asked with a puzzled expression and instinctively looked up with my eyes and saw only a few strands of hair instead of my usual bangs.

"It's the first time I see you with a different hairstyle...and this one also makes your eyes more visible." She said with a smile when she noticed my confusion.

"Oh, I see..." I replied in understanding. A bit silly reason but I don't blame her...

"Anyway, you were really fast and agile during your last race, it was amazing! I heard a lot of people speculating if you perhaps wanted to join any club. You can expect a lot of people coming your way with offers to join their club, hihi." When she started talking about people coming my way with offers, she immediately noticed my slightly annoyed expression and started to giggle.

"Eh, thanks... Are you ready for the next Three-legged race?" I was feeling slightly awkward so I decided to change the subject of our conversation.

"I've never been more ready!" She said with a determined voice.

"Nice, but we need to be careful of Class C even during this race." I said with furrowed brows.

"...What should we do if they try something?" She asked with a serious expression, she was aware that avoiding Class C in this event will be much harder since we all will be running right next to each other and trying to run away from them would take some time.

"Do you trust me?" I asked her a simple yet hard question to answer.

"...Yes!" She looked into my eyes and after a while of staring, she resolutely nodded her head.

"Then just focus on running, I will take care of everything else." I told her with a confident smile and she returned the smile.

...

I had to run another obstacle race because of Koenji's absence but I once again crushed everyone with a big lead and the time for the Three-legged race arrived extremely quickly. I had almost no time to rest before I had to go compete once again, this time it was the Three-legged race.

"Yahoo! Walker-kun and Mii-chan, it seems that we are in the same group!" Ichinose immediately called out to us, she was together with Shibata who also greeted us.

"Hello"

"Hi" We both returned the greeting, unfortunately, there wasn't much time to talk and we had to get ready so we didn't bother to start any long conversation.

"Let's get ready. Do you want me to tie up our legs like before during the practice? My right leg with your left leg." I asked Mii-chan while crouching, ready to tie up our legs together.

"Sure!" She nodded with a confident smile, fully ready for the race.

"You idiot! Don't tie it up so tightly, it hurts!" The girl from Class C complained aloud to her partner. She sounded quite annoyed and they didn't look too happy to be paired together.

I couldn't help but narrow my eyes when I heard them arguing and noticed that their starting position was right next to Mii-chan.

"Is something wrong?" Mii-chan noticed my expression so she worriedly asked.

"Hm? No, don't worry about anything. Just focus on the race, nothing else." I turned at her and told her with a reassuring smile.

"Okay" She nodded and looked in front of her with focused eyes. I couldn't help but nod when I saw her concentration.

When the referee told us to get ready, she even put her arm around my shoulder like during the practice which slightly surprised me.

I thought that she would be too embarrassed to do that here in front of so many people. Although I was slightly surprised, I still did the same and put my arm around her shoulder.

Spectators were slightly surprised by this act but they understood that it would grant us better balance and it was nothing too intimate but there were still pairs who couldn't bear to do that.

...

When the referee signaled the start of the race, we started slowly to get into the right rhythm and Class C's pair followed right next to us at a similar speed.

Of course, our speed was slowly increasing and we would lose them after a little while and they also noticed it.

"You idiot, can't you keep the same pace?!" The girl complained aloud and they started to lose their rhythm.

At that moment, I started to focus on them.

"Tch! Will you shut up already?! I am doin- eeh!?" The guy was already fed up with her annoying comments so he wanted to shut her up but somehow they suddenly tripped over their own legs and started falling to the left side where I was running together with Mii-chan.

She was too focused on running to even hear them, not to mention to notice them falling at us.

I slightly strengthened my grip on her shoulder and forced her to spin, switching places with me which finally woke her up from her concentration.

"Huh?" She had surprised expression when we switched places since we were now facing the starting line.

I used my left hand to stop the falling pair and let them fall on the ground in a different direction.

"When you are falling down...try to fall into your own course next time. Thanks" I coldly said and quickly switched places with a still surprised Mii-chan once again.

"The others were able to get a lead thanks to their interruption. Let's run at our fastest" I said and slowly started to run so she could quickly adapt and recover from her confusion.

"But-" She wanted to protest since we were always slowly increasing speed instead of running fast from the beginning.

"There is no way we can win if we won't increase our speed immediately by a lot. Just start running without any worries, just firmly take hold of my shoulder and keep on increasing speed as much as you can." I said and she seemed a still a bit skeptical about it, meaning that she had no trust in this. I wasn't really surprised by her disposition since there was already quite a big gap between us and the first place but if she won't believe in it, she won't be able to truly relax.

---

'I- I don't want to disappoint him but...' Mii-chan thought with a sad expression

---

"Trust me!" I shouted which slightly startled her and I firmly hold her shoulder and pressed her even closer to me.

She didn't say anything in response but she started steadily increasing her speed which was enough of a reply for me.

I smiled and started to focus to match her speed.

Our speed was increasing so fast that we started overtaking all pairs in front of us until we were finally able to overtake the first pair who was by the chance Ichinose together with Shibata.

"Huh? No way!" Shibata and Ichinose both exclaimed at the same time when they saw us run past them at high speed.

In the end, we were able to take first place.

...

"Yay! We did it!" Mii-chan exclaimed cheerfully and put her hands up for the double high five.

I quickly responded and gave her what she wanted.

*clap* *clap*

"Hihi" She started laughing in delight when I immediately knew what she wanted. She was so happy by this victory that she even started jumping around, well, at least she tried to until she lost her balance because our legs were still tied up together.

"Look out!" I quickly wrapped my arm around her waist and caught her from falling down.

*Sigh* this could have ended pretty bad...She could have hit her head and if I lost my balance because of her, I could have fallen on her too...

I sighed in relief and thought with my closed eyes.

"I-I-I" I heard her stuttering to say something so I opened my eyes to check if she is really fine but instead of seeing Mii-chan's face in front of me, I saw almost literally a tomato with tears threatening to fall anytime.

I helped her regain her balance.

Now...what should I do in this kind of situation? I thought with a helpless expression and closed eyes while massaging the bridge of my nose.