A New Masterpiece (COTE x OC)

Chapter 28 - A Leader

Chabashira-sensei left the class with 20 minutes of discussion before we were to head to the gymnasium and meet up with all the other years competing in this Sports Festival.

Immediately, students broke off into their groups, discussing the possibilities that lie within this exam.

The chances to gain marks on difficult midterms and Private Points if one placed within the top three were talked about the most.

Once that rule was mentioned, most of the students in Class D quickly forgot about trying to win this exam as a class and solely focused on trying to win for themselves.

"Obviously, I should participate in all the recommended events!" Sudo bellowed from his corner of the class. "It gives us the best chance of winning!"

It was a sound argument considering our class's chances of winning would skyrocket if Sudo could maintain his athletic prowess competing in all these events.

But his statement was met with looks of disgust and anger, not because of Sudo's cocky statement. But because that would take away the ability of other student's chance to earn marks or Private Points.

"That's not fair," Hondo was the first to respond. "That means you'll be taking all the marks and Private Points! I want a shot at those too."

Many other classmates raised their voices in agreement with Hondo's sentiment. Particularly the ones who were neither athletic nor astute. Placing in the top three would guarantee them safety on the upcoming midterms, which they typically struggled on. But, objectively speaking, the chances of those students placing in the top three were slim. Once again, the merits blinded them from this reality, though.

"They're all pathetic and blind to the truth," Horikita murmured.

"But," I responded. "That's why the school decided on these awards. They wanted to blind those students who weren't typically good when it comes to academics and see if they could still give up that chance of safety to cooperate with their class."

"What should our approach be then for this exam?" Ayanokouji asked.

"Well, from the looks of it, this exam seems purely based on one's athletic capabilities, making it different from any other exam," I replied.

Horikita looked at me with a confused expression. "What do you mean?"

"He means," Ayanokouji continued my train of thought. "Unlike past exams, where there could be obvious loopholes or methods to win the exam by a landslide, this exam is purely based on an individual's abilities in athletics. If there were strategies to completely dominate this exam, I'd assume they take a form of cheating or malpractice that could be easily caught by the school."

"I see..." Horikita thought about his sentiment for a moment.

At the core, this exam is only based on an individual's athletic abilities. Nothing more. With the past exams, coordination, tactics, underhanded methods, and cooperation were essential in them all.

"Doesn't that mean we only have one plan of attack for this Festival?" I said.

"Yes. I believe if we want the best outcome for this exam, we have the more athletically gifted students like, Sudo and I should participate in as many recommended events to give us the best chance at placing high in this Sports Festival."

I agreed with Horikita's statement. The best chance of staying away from incurring too immense of a penalty in this exam would be to make the most athletic students compete in all the recommended events to give us the best chance at gaining the most points for our class.

But considering the state of the class right now, a plan like that wouldn't go without some discrepancy.

Uncharacteristically, Horikita suddenly left her desk and stood behind the podium at the front of the class.