TODAY WAS THE third day living with other years.
By tomorrow afternoon, we'd probably be on the bus back to school.
The exchange meeting was nearing its end, and a battle with Nagumo's group was looming, but Horikita and Ibuki were still showing up early in the morning.
"You, do the match with us blindfolded today."
"You're demanding right off the bat, and it's an unreasonable request at that."
"I have to kick you at least once, or I'll be frustrated."
Such an unreasonable proposal was obviously unacceptable. If the opponent was inexperienced in martial arts, it would be a different story, but against Horikita and Ibuki, even I would struggle if I were blindfolded.
Especially since I was focusing on defense, it would just be taking on unnecessary risk.
"Blindfolding him won't help with the training, so rejected."
"Well said, Horikita."
"But if you insist, let's do it after the special training."
"That's not it, Horikita."
I corrected Horikita in less than a second.
"I can understand your feelings, Ayanokōji-kun. But first, we should prioritize defeating Amasawa-san, right?"
"...Well, yeah."
Even though I was helping quite devotedly, it was quite a thing to say.
In any case, it seemed that they were determined to succeed in their revenge against Amasawa no matter what.
"Then let's start right away—"
Just as I was about to speak, Ibuki stopped me.
"Toilet."
"Haven't you finished yet?"
"I thought I was fine. But when it gets cold, I have to go a little, so wait for me."
"Really..."
Although Horikita was exasperated, it was cruel to tell her to hold it in.
If by any chance, she moved around a lot and it were to leak, it would be a big problem.
While seeing off Ibuki who went back to the toilet, Horikita started talking.
"There's something I realized today."
"What'd you realize?"
"The reason you set the revenge match against Amasawa-san on the morning of the fourth day as a condition. It could've been to increase the amount of special training sessions as much as possible. However, if you wanted to make time, you didn't need to limit the sessions to early mornings; you could've also done them discretely at any time. The main reason you chose the last day was to manage the risk of injury, wasn't it? If I get injured in a selfish fight before the exchange meeting is settled, it would be unacceptable to those who were seriously participating."
Horikita's group was a candidate for first place, unlike Ibuki's group, which lost the chance to win on the second day. As someone who stood on top of the leaderboard, It seemed she was able to notice that.
"With your skills, you can handle these sessions without injuring me, right?"
"What if I get injured?"
"...Is that even a possibility?"
"No, it isn't."
As soon as I replied, she showed a slightly irritated expression.
"If a normal person said that, they would definitely get a frown in return, so be careful. Maybe I should have you fight blindfolded later?"
"Please don't. I don't think you'd need to hold back against me. I wouldn't say such a thing to anyone else."
"Is that something I should be happy about...?"
"You should be. It's special treatment."
"That's not a good kind of special treatment."
Recently, I was having more and more casual conversations with Horikita.
There must've been other people in the world, past and future, who were having similar exchanges as us, getting angry and laughing at each other.
"This is completely unrelated, but who comes to mind when you think of a student with a small presence?"
When I asked that, Horikita thought for a moment and then gave her answer.
"You, Ayanokōji-kun."
"...Me?"
"At least when you first entered school, you were one of the less noticeable ones in the class."
"I see. Indeed."
Among the 40 students at the time of admission, if you were to rank us in terms of visibility, it would've been overwhelmingly faster to find me if you were counting from the bottom up.
"Recently, you've been gaining more presence, so it doesn't apply now."
Indeed, compared to the beginning, I think I had changed a lot.
The surrounding environment had changed more than anything else.
"I wonder what factors determine how noticeable or inconspicuous someone is."
"Hmm, is that so? If you want to be unnoticed or don't want to stand out, I think you naturally become inconspicuous. You probably won't speak much either."
All of these characteristics fit Yamamura.
Each one may not have been a big deal, but when combined, they'd make a big impact.
"Is something wrong?"
"No, I was just wondering about something."
"Really? Oh right, about the matter you asked me to look into—"
When Horikita brought up the topic of special training, I had asked her to do something.
Horikita was now reporting the results.
"...That's about all I noticed... Will it be of any use?"
"Yes, it will be very useful. Thanks for looking into it. You can consider the request fulfilled."
Horikita, who had faithfully complied, didn't seem to understand the meaning from, but she didn't try to inquire deeply about my reasoning.
"And by the way, that Ibuki sure is slow."
"Indeed. I wonder what she's doing."
If she had just gone to the bathroom in the lobby and returned, it wouldn't have taken this long.
"Did she go back to her room and fall asleep?"
"I'd like to think not... but with Ibuki-san, you never know."
"What about her phone?"
"She said it would be a nuisance and left it in her room."
"I see. I hate to say this to you, Horikita, but if Ibuki doesn't come back, we'll have to cancel today."
"It can't be helped. The condition was that Ibuki-san would fight with us."
The special training from yesterday was just a drop in the bucket, but there was nothing we could do.
It might be best to propose to postpone it. Hopefully, there will be another opportunity to go out together to a place with lax supervision, like a training camp or a deserted island.
Horikita and I were looking in the direction of the building, waiting for Ibuki to appear.
"There's an opening!!"
With that voice from behind, a presence rapidly approached. When we moved away from the spot, Ibuki's foot was extended where we had been standing just a moment ago.
She was clearly intending to kick me by surprise.
"Damn! I missed! I even took the long way back!"
"It's fine to be frustrated, but don't announce your attack. You're doing the same thing as Ishizaki."
"Ugh...!? I don't want to hear that...! But I just instinctively shouted!"
Shouting by instinct wasn't excusable.
Unless you were certain it would defeat your opponent, announcing your attack would only serve as a disadvantage, especially against an opponent with high odds of winning.
"Ishizaki-kun? Have you had a dispute with Ishizaki-kun too?"
"I just witnessed a similar scenario. I wasn't involved."
I thought I could deceive her by saying something appropriate, but it seemed to be a rash judgment.
"You had a dispute with Ryūen-kun on the rooftop, didn't you? It was that time, right?"
I looked at Ibuki. Her frustrated expression had changed to a malicious grin.
"Hmph, I don't remember you telling me to keep my mouth shut. Even if you did, I'm free to talk about it."
"I don't mind, but this makes a lot of sense now."
This may have been the reason why she asked me to help her to take revenge on Amasawa.
"I pretended not to know in front of others, but this might be a good opportunity. Do you admit that you had a big fight with Ryūen-kun and his group?"
"I can't deny it in this situation."
"I see. But for me, it finally makes sense. I didn't doubt Ibuki-san's story, but it wouldn't be strange if there were exaggerations or mistakes mixed in."
"Huh?" She tilted her head and kicked up the dirt towards Horikita's knees.
"Don't act like a child."
While scolding her like a teacher, Horikita continued as if she had been waiting for this opportunity.
"Do you have anything else you're keeping from me? Like other people you've had disputes with?"
"None."
"Really…? I still have a few things I'm suspicious about, like the Yagami-kun incident."
"Yagami? Why is Yagami coming up now? I don't use violence against my kōhais. I'd like to exclude the Hōsen incident though."
"Who's Yagami? Was there someone like that?"
"...Fine. We don't have much time, so can we start the special training?"
Unable to explain everything to Ibuki, Horikita cut the conversation short. She began to distance herself from me.
"Basically, the rules are the same as yesterday. The important thing is to understand how the two of you will move, not my movements."
If they had faced each other many times in the past, they would've inevitably ingrained each other's patterns in their minds.
The teamwork that was honed here would undoubtedly be higher than in the previous fight with Amasawa.