COTE: A Man On A Mission || Love is War?

”You orange----yes, I am talking to you. Come here.”

”Ah... Senpai w-what’s going on?”

”How about taking 2000 points and register for girls Triple Jump competition?”

”You don’t have to do anything. We will just pay you for registering and stuff...how about it?”

”I.. Really? Is there---Okay!”

”If you give us another girl. You can get extra referral bonus.”

”Hey! I know. I know, 2 girls. I will bring them over!”

”3 in total. We are doing good, right?”

”Yes, but I am not going to stop here? Are we boys?”

”Hell no, boss! Let’s cheer for Horikita-san!~~Wosshha!”

? O O ? Sakayanagi Arisu

”What’s going on over there? I am watching them cheering, scaring people for a while now....Let’s investigate....” She started to text a bunch of spam messages in her class group.

xxxxxx

The girls’ battle soon came to an end.

Hikigaya-kun, on the other hand, was having a bit of a headache.

Because when he met 3rd-year senior Kiryuin during uninhabited island exam, he felt that girl was like a female version of Koenji.

This senior is also quite proud.

...Unruly.

But she was not wrong.

After finishing morning project, Hikigaya-kun went to the cafeteria to prepare for a normal meal, but he met Asahina-senpai, who was in a bad mood and even a little aggrieved.

He learned from other party that after five events in the morning were over, Kiryuin was judged to have violated the rules and her competition was suspended.

It was a frame-up.

Students in Kiriyama’s class reported that she had stolen his tablet, which resulted in Kiriyama being unable to continue to participate in 6th competition.

This is undoubtedly a false accusation.

However, later on, the tablet of Kiriyama was found, Kiryuin’s fingerprints were detected.

This fingerprint should have been found by Kiriyama a long time ago when she was still in his class.

According to Asahina-senpai’s account, when Kiryuin was still in the class, Kiriyama reported that his tablet was broken and he needed to get a new one.

At that time, everyone just thought it was a minor episode and no one cared.

Even Kiryuin didn’t care.

As a result, ”broken tablet” was taken out.

In other words, this was a long-planned plan against Kiryuin.

You have to know that at that time, Kiryuin was still in Kiriyama’s class and had not been bought by Asahina and the others, so she was Kiriyama’s classmate.

Can only say. This was a situation that had been set up long ago.

Kiriyama and his friends also considered letting Kiryuin, who was excellent in all aspects but not in the class, leave the stage.

So, she fought back angrily and even kicked Kiriyama and injured him.

As a result, she was disqualified from participating in this sports festival.

To sum it up, it is a frame-up and provocation.

This is indeed sad.

But what is even more sad and infuriating is that...long-planned betrayal from a classmate.

”Ding ding!”

The alarm that Hachiman set rang.

xxxxxx

Hikigaya’s alarm clock rang.

The doubles tennis event he signed up for is about to start.

Because it is a free participation project, start time of the project is inconsistent.

You will get start time only after your application is successful.

So, Hachiman set alarm to avoid missing the game. ’Although I am not a seeded player, I am acting as a partner of Ishizaki.’

According to reports from students assigned by Ryuen class, score gap between the four is now very obvious.

Among them, Class A and B are far ahead, while C only has 512 points.

But this is also time when seeded players in Class A and B are exhausted and have almost run out of ammunition for their registered projects.

So, now is the time to take action.

It seemed that Ryuen’s class went to Class D during lunch break, but passed by Class A and noticed that Katsuragi had arranged people to keep an eye on scores of each class.

So, people just took a picture of the score Katsuragi wrote on small blackboard.

Then students in Ryuen’s class saved labor.

Hachiman signed up for men’s doubles tennis, and seeded player is Daichi Ishizaki.

There weren’t many students in class who were good at tennis, and Hikigaya volunteered that he had played tennis many times in the past.

Although this statement is a bit strange, Ishizaki still chooses to team up with Hikigaya.

”Wow, there are a lot of people.” When Hachiman arrived at the tennis court, Ishizaki had already arrived, he looked around at students outside the tennis net and said.

Hachiman followed the referee’s instructions and stood in rest area waiting for system to assign players and teams.

He also looked around following Ishizaki’s gaze and noticed that there were quite a few spectators.

Moreover, it seems that some familiar faces can be seen.

From Kamuro-san, Class A with her purple hair and hairpins, to Sakayanagi who keeps a polite smile.

Then, Kanzaki from Class B of second year brought a junior student, ”Why do you still have that weird hairstyle, Ryuji? Look, I know you want to be all that quiet and mys----”

”Shut up Kyo, you are not qualified to pass a comment on my hair.”

”How rude....if you are this serious, girls will probably be scared.”

”Ha...Ha... A guy who prefers 2-D girls.”

”Kei-chan, we should move away a little. These people are so gloomy. I might get infected....”

Karuizawa changed her row.

”.....” Ishigami watched a girl being disgusted by him, and ran away as if he was something, ”That’s why I like 2D more....”

”Hahha...”

However, in Class C of Grade 2, no one came to cheer.

Because everyone is busy.

Now what Class C has left is physical strength, and although you may not get points for some of projects, you may be able to get points by participating, so you can still give it a try.

So everyone is doing their job, so naturally there is no one idle to come and cheer.

I’m afraid even Ryuen is now scoring points on basketball court.

”It seems a bit stressful.” Hachiman and others were quickly arranged.

Total number of participants was 16.

First, they are divided into 4 groups, and compete against each other in pairs.

The 4 winning teams will then compete against each other in pairs, and then winners will compete again.

In other words, if you want to get first place, you have to compete in three games.

It’s very physically demanding and doesn’t seem worth it at all.

This is not the case now.

Because if you look closely at participating members, there are 8 members from Class 2-C, accounting for half of number of participants.

In other words.

If members of Class 2-C are matched to compete, they can simply give up and let their own members win.

This way, they can maintain physical strength of both sides and determine the rankings.

Of course, price of doing this is that a total of 8 points of admission fee will be deducted first.

It seems like a lot of points will be deducted, but this arrangement is also made taking into account gains and losses.

Because it is a very physically demanding event, as long as you win the first round, you can get a reward of 1 point per person, ensuring that the entrance fee is not lost.

If you can enter the second round, even if you fail in 3rd round, you will still get a 3-point reward.

According to the probability, you will not lose, but make money.

”I almost made a mistake. We have arranged for two students to come in this time from Class A. Although we can’t shake your conspiracy, we won’t give up easily here.” At this time, a familiar voice sounded, and door of Tennis net opened, and a tall, hairless boy walked in.

This is old acquaintance, Kōhei Katsuragi.

Behind Katsuragi followed Hashimoto Masayoshi, who was holding a tennis racket and looking nonchalant.

”Are you so nervous? We are just playing games here....”

Originally, Ishizaki was the seeded player in the tennis match, but he didn’t understand the codeword Katsuragi said, so Hachiman responded.

”No, we really need to be nervous. The scores of four classes now....well how can I say, you have scored from 513 to 556 in just over half an hour, Hikigaya. In other words, during this period of time, your class began to launch a strong attack. Most of the students began to participate in project, and received points.”

Hashimoto was a bit nervous, even though he joined tennis club. He always felt something will definitely go wrong again.

”Although our class is still in the lead now, we can’t be sure if we will be surpassed by you.” Katsuragi gave him a hard stare.

”I feel violated.....”

”Your words are too vague, Ishizaki.”

”Eh...are they? I am just... don’t know. It’s Class A.”

In other words, Katsuragi identified reason why Hikigaya and his Ryuen class were behaving themselves this time - an open conspiracy.

Class B was deliberately promoted, and then A had to compete with B.

Then two classes fought hard in several events, but now there are still some vacancies.

Originally, only seeded players could win the championship, but seeded players of Class A and B were exhausted, either they had run out of physical strength, or number of events they could participate in was limited to 10, and they could not continue.

With inferior horses fighting against superior horses, and then superior horses are used up, and then you can arrange for superior horses in your own class, and then you can crush them.

At this time, even if you send out a medium-quality horse, you still have the possibility of winning.

This is a simple truth, but students in Class A can’t refuse.

So, it is an open conspiracy.

”Then you are not being cautious enough. If you want to stop our class from scoring, you can also use the human wave tactic. After all, the overall level of students in your class is better than ours.”

Hachiman threw blame on him instead. It was shameless.

”.....” Katsuragi.

That’s true, but he didn’t want to say it out loud.

Among boys currently participating in the tennis program, except for Ishizaki Daichi, whose physical fitness data is relatively excellent and he is a top-notch horse, other students in Ryuen class are basically only average horses, and there is even one who is a bottom-notch horse.

So, it is not impossible to win.

However, the entrance fee is one point per person.

If you are extremely unlucky and keep meeting students from your class, even if one party can give up, you will still lose your place.

So, thought of losing points or even having points deducted is something Katsuragi cannot accept.

At the same time, his classmates couldn’t accept it.

Because now they want to suppress C, but if own scores drop, Class B will take advantage.

So, stalemate came to an end.

Since he and Hashimoto still had some free time in their projects, Katsuragi targeted one that Hikigaya was participating in and joined in.

”I don’t want to go up against you, Hikigaya though. Cause I always feel like I am fighting against something higher than us...people you know. But, we have to fight for our class.”

At this time, the carefree classmate Hashimoto suddenly hit a ball.

His strength was steady.

Not only is he a handsome guy in Class A, also physically strong.

That’s why he was chosen by Sakayanagi to be a tool for team during uninhabited island exam, specifically to brush up her scores.

xxxxxx

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