COTE Year 2 Reimagined

Volume 7:Part 4

Unlike everyone who's desperately trying to keep their ideas hidden before the cultural festival, Class 3-A which is Nagumo's class not only revealed their idea but also organised a trial run so everyone can check it out early.

I decided it might be worth checking out and made my way there when it opened it. The trial was taking place in the gymnasium, and there was a rather long line. It seems everyone wants to check out what Nagumo was doing.

I decided to go to the back of the line and wait, I calculated how long it took for one person to go in and then counted everyone in front of me to find out exactly how long I'll be waiting and my answer didn't please me. I would be waiting for almost 30 minutes.

I sighed and closed my eyes, but then I sensed the person in front of me look back. I opened my eyes to see Ichinose standing right there. Her eyes lit up when she saw me, but that light was quickly drowned out, probably when she remembered our last interaction. She actually ended up leaving the line and probably decided it would be better to just come back later.

After she disappeared from my line of sight, I closed my eyes back up and waited. After exactly thirty minutes, it was my turn to go in. Nagumo was hosting a haunted house that was apparently supposed to be scary. I made my way through the place while checking out the creepy decorations. There were quite a few jumpscares, but none of them managed to catch me off guard. Most of them glared at me in confusion when I showed no signs of fear.

I was now almost at the end of the tour, and it was slightly impressive. The decorations were well thought out and properly separated to give you the illusion that the whole place is decorated. The costumes also looked very real, and the timing for the jumpscares was spread out appropriately. Nagumo clearly put a lot of effort into this and wanted to show off.

Right before I reached the end, one final ghost jumped up to scare me. As soon as it saw me, the ghost shrieked and fell back.

"I didn't know my face was that scary."

I decided to make a joke while looking down at the injured ghost who fell down at the sight of me.

"No, no, it's not like that! I just didn't expect YOU to be here!!"

Asahina-senpai looked quite embarrassed and also slightly in pain. It seems that the fall hurt her ankle quite a bit.

"Can you walk?"

She nodded aggressively and jumped up to her feet before quickly stumbling down the second her ankle touched the ground. I caught her before she fell, her face immediately turned red in embarrassment but I couldn't really blame her, this was quite a humiliating situation to be in.

"I'll help you up it's fine."

She didn't protest and put her arm around my shoulder as I helped her walk.

"Do you know the way out?"

Apparenly she doubted my navigation abilities.

"I'll figure it out."

She nodded at me, and we started walking, I could somewhat tell the way towards the exit and made my way there. However, the entire time, Asahina-senpai kept pointing in the wrong directions and insisting that she knew exactly where the exit was I decided not to listen to her and that was a choice I didn't regret since all her directions were wrong.

When we made our way out, I helped Asahina-senpai sit down on the sidewalk. She was clearly still in pain but didn't say anything.

"Looks like all my directions were wrong, hehe."

She smiled at me, looking somewhat embarrassed yet again.

"It's alright. The pain was probably distracting you."

I decided to give her an excuse, and she immediately took advantage of it.

"Yeah, exactly! You know I was really hurt so I couldn't really think properly, that's it."

She nodded at me while muttering something under her breath, probably trying to convince herself of what she was saying.

I crouched down next to her and rolled her costume up slightly to see her ankle.

"Can I check it out?"

She was somewhat flustered, probably thinking I had some ulterior motive, but nodded when she saw that I was serious.

I grabbed her ankle and squeezed it with my hand while she groaned in pain, I could somewhat tell where the problem was.

"Your injury is somewhat serious. It's fine now, but if you don't get it treated, it'll get worse. You should go to the infirmary."

She looked at in confusion, probably trying to figure out how I knew all that.

"You can tell all that just from grabbing my ankle?"

I nodded at her, and she sighed.

"I was supposed to help out during the trial run. My classmates will be disappointed in me."

She was clearly upset about leaving her classmates behind even though she was injured.

"I'm sure they'll understand. It's better than leaving your ankle like this and not being able to attend the festival at all."

She nodded at me again and tried to get up on her own. She stumbled once more, and I grabbed her before she fell.

"It's okay. I'll help you walk there."

I put her arm around my shoulder and helped her walk to the infirmary. I got quite a few stares ranging from confusion to disgust for some reason.

Asahina-senpai was quite useful to me. She was one of the only connections I had to the third years, maintaining a good relationship with her will definitely be beneficial, especially if she can come to trust me or feel indebted to me in some way.

I helped her make her way to the infirmary and waited outside for her checkup to finish. When I was allowed to go back in, I decided to check on her.

"The nurse said the exact same thing you did. You've got a good eye, Ayanokoji-kun."

I shook my head slightly.

"I just got lucky, I guess."

She giggled slightly at my words.

"Anyway, are you feeling okay?"

I gave her a somewhat concerned look, and she nodded at me.

"Yeah, thank you for the help today."

She gave me a warm smile, and I nodded before turning around to take my leave.

"Ayanokoji-kun? How are things with Miyabi?"

I turned around to glance at her and decided to answer honestly.

"They're simple, I won against him in the sports festival, and now he's helping me out with something. After that, our relationship will be done."

She listened to what I said but had a concerned look on her face.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. Miyabi won't accept that. If he thinks someone can compete with him, then he'll do anything to make it happen. Just don't let your guard down Ayanokoji-kun. I have a feeling he won't leave you alone just yet."

Unfortunately, I had a feeling she might be right.

"Thank you for the warning, Senpai. I'll keep that in mind."

I bowed to her slightly to show my gratitude, and she gave me another smile. I made my way out of the infirmary and decided to head back to the dorms.

If Nagumo decided to pursue me after our business is concluded, then I'll just have to deal with him accordingly.