A New Masterpiece (COTE x OC)

Chapter 39 - Elites

"So, how'd your scavenger hunt go?" I asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Kiyotaka responded.

"Ah, c'mon. It took you such a long time to finish; I know you were forced to do it because of losing rock-paper-scissors, but it should've been a little fun."

Kiyotaka sighed before responding. "My first chit was 'Bring 10 Friends'."

"Haha, probably one of the worst worse you could have gotten."

"That's not it. When I went to re-draw my chit, the second one I got was 'The Person You Love'."

"Pffffttt~. Hey, if you took any girl with you, you could've ended up with a girlfriend. I hear that you're pretty high up on the best-looking guy chart."

"That's not something I would do," Kiyotaka replied nonchalantly.

"True, so what was your final chit?"

"To bring a table clock. And by the time I had come close to finding one, the other contestants had already completed their chits."

"Wow, you were very unlucky. But I still find that 'bring the person you love' one hilarious."

"Be quiet," Kiyotaka replied.

The recommended participant's events had finally begun with that scavenger hunt. Only the elites of each class were chosen in hopes of raising their class's chance of success.

What was more concerning for me, was the lack of two individuals.

Horikita and Sudo.

It seemed like Horikita did heed my advice and sought out Sudo in hopes of convincing him to return during the lunch break.

But she hadn't returned yet. Did she fail in making Sudo return? Or did she get caught up in something and was forced to postpone trying to get Sudo back?

Having these two not participate during the recommended-participant events was also starting to become a hefty tool for Class D.

~~~

"Well, that didn't go the way I had hoped," I said.

"Yeah."

Class D was handed another resounding defeat by Class B during the four-way tug-of-war.

We tried our best to coordinate as a class, but trying to find a substitute for Sudo was no easy task. Having our ace stripped away from us became a major handicap.

And with that loss, we had been knocked down to the bottom ranking.

The biggest hit, though, was to Hirata. He took it upon himself to pay for the substitutes, and after missing two people for these events, the amount began to rack up.

"Hirata," I called out. "Are you sure you're fine with paying these substitutions?"

"I agree," Kiyotaka said. "It's starting to get hefty the amount of points you must pay."

So far, Hirata paid three times for substitutes. Twice for Sudo and once for Horikita. If this continued for the next competition, he'd be paying 500,000 points for the participants, which was no small fee.

"I know, Horikita would definitely repay you for the expenses, considering how the last exam went. As for Sudo, I'm not so sure."

"It's fine," Hirata waved us off with a weak smile. "I'm the one who decided to give the go-ahead to use substitutes. Besides 100,000 points isn't all that much... I wouldn't want to be asking for points when I made this decision."