11 Chapter 5.6: A Trap, A Home-Cooked Meal, and A Favor Part 6
Part 6
Back within the classroom, our morning homeroom had come to an end.
And, at the same time, the ten events Class A had chosen were announced.
Horikita read through all of the documents that had been left behind for us.
Mentally, I summarized everything, putting it all together based on the number of people required for each event.
『Chess』 Required Participants: 1 ・ Initial Time Allotted Per Person: 1 Hour (Running out of time will result in a loss)
Rules: Standard chess rules apply. However, your allotted time will not increase before each move, even after the 40th turn.
Commander Intervention: At any given time, the commander may give instructions to the participating player for a maximum of 30 minutes. Any time spent giving instructions will also use the corresponding participant's allotted time.
『Flash Mental Arithmetic』 Required Participants: 2 ・ Time: 30 Minutes
Rules: Victory will be decided by the student who takes first place in terms of both speed and accuracy using abacus-style mental arithmetic.
Commander Intervention: The commander can change the answer to a single question of their choice.
『Go』 Required Participants: 3 ・ Time: 1 Hour (Running out of time will result in a loss)
Rules: Three one-on-one games will be played simultaneously. Standard Go rules apply.
Commander Intervention: At any given time, the commander is allowed to advise a move.
『Modern Literature Test』 Required Participants: 4 ・ Time: 50 Minutes
Rules: The test will be within the scope of the first-year literature curriculum. Victory will be decided based on the class with the higher overall score.
Commander Intervention: The commander can answer a single question on behalf of the participant.
『Social Studies Test』 Required Participants: 5 ・ Time: 50 Minutes
Rules: The test will be within the scope of the first-year geography, history, and civics curriculum. Victory will be decided based on the class with the higher overall score.
Commander Intervention: The commander can answer a single question on behalf of the participant.
『Volleyball』 Required Participants: 6 ・ Time Restriction: First to 10 Points, Best of 3 Sets
Rules: Standard volleyball rules apply.
Commander Intervention: At any given time, the commander is allowed to perform 3 substitutions.
『Math Test』 Required Participants: 7 ・ Time: 50 Minutes
Rules: The test will be within the scope of the first-year math curriculum. Victory will be decided based on the class with the higher overall score.
Commander Intervention: The commander can answer a single question on behalf of the participant.
『English Test』 Required Participants: 8 ・ Time: 50 Minutes
Rules: The test will be within the scope of the first-year English curriculum. Victory will be decided based on the class with the higher overall score.
Commander Intervention: The commander can answer a single question on behalf of the participant.
『Long Rope Jumping』 Required Participants: 20 ・ Time: 30 Minutes
Rules: The class with the higher number of successful jumps wins.
Commander Intervention: The commander may change the order of the opposing team's lineup in any way they want one single time.
『Dodgeball』 Required Participants: 18 ・ Time Restriction: 10 Minutes Per Set Over 2 Sets
Rules: Standard dodgeball rules apply. In the event of a tie, a sudden death round will commence.
Commander Intervention: At any given time, the commander can return one disqualified player to the court.
"It's unexpected that they've chosen multiple sporting events. I thought they'd double down on events that require you to use your head like written exams. Although, there's a good chance they're just meant as distractions."
That was Horikita's first impression, and Keisei, speaking up right after her, shared similar thoughts as well.
"Chess and Go are both major, widely-known games, but it feels like they're putting us in a tough spot because only a few students have ever actually played them. Team coordination plays a large part in all of the sports they chose, too."
There shouldn't be anyone in our class who has never heard of chess or go, but most students probably hadn't actually played or even touched them before.
"Overall, I wasn't expecting them to keep commander intervention to a minimum in most of the events. Especially when it comes to academic events, where the interventions they've come up with would hardly affect the outcome."
"I guess it just goes to show how much they trust their own classmates. Class A has a significant advantage in academic events, and not only did they choose four academic tests, but the number of people required for them is pretty dang high. This is looking really difficult..."
In every test so far, Class A had always gotten the highest average score out of all of the classes.
That was probably why they had chosen to use such a large number of participants in their testing events.
These tests were essentially their way of forcing us to have a purely academic competition since the commander wouldn't be able to do very much.
The fact that they hadn't solely chosen written exams was also a good decision on their part.
If they had thrown in seven or eight written exams, we would've been able to focus our efforts on studying for them.
They were probably trying to limit the options we had available while forcing us to study subjects that wouldn't be relevant later.
"Volleyball requires 6 people, 9 if you include the substitutes, dodgeball requires 18, and long rope jumping requires the most at 20. They require such a large number of people that, if even one of them end up getting chosen, there'll be a high possibility that we'll be required to participate more than once."
Since there was no way to tell which of the ten events would be used on the day of the exam, we wouldn't be able to cut corners with any of them.
Furthermore, since many of their athletic events call for a large number of people, we'd have to spend a huge amount of time and effort on participant selection and practice. If we were bold enough to reserve a place like the school gymnasium to practice, Class A would probably end up catching wind of it. In other words, we had to conceal our activities and practice in secret.
However, there was no way for us to tell which events would be used on the day of the exam. If we spend a lot of time practicing for one event, our efforts would be short-lived if it doesn't end up getting chosen. That is, we would be wasting our time. On the other hand, if we decide that an event is just a distraction and choose not to practice for it, our lack of preparation would be painfully obvious if the event really does end up getting chosen. We had hardly any chance of winning.
It would be important for us to keep an eye on Class A's movements for the next week, but it's easier said than done. It wouldn't be easy to find them if they're practicing early in the morning or late at night. They could also split up and practice in smaller groups.
We couldn't overlook any of the events. No matter which ones end up getting picked, they were all troublesome.
Of course, we weren't lucky enough to be faced with events that we actually wanted to participate in.
"Does anyone have any particular experience with chess or go?"
Horikita prompted the class for a show of hands, to which only Miyamoto responded.
"I've played Go a few times with my family, but I'm not good enough to be familiar with the rules."
There was no doubt that, as a starting point, these two events made the situation look rather bleak.
Although it was a bit late, I also raised my hand.
"I can play chess, more or less, but I don't understand Go at all. I've never even touched it before."
Despite being the commander, I figured that I should let everyone know I could play the game. Later on, I could teach other people.
"I guess it's a relief that we have at least somebody with experience. But again, it's truly a challenging exam, so we can't make light of these events whether we like it or not."
I wonder just how much someone could increase their proficiency in chess or Go in less than a week. In the worst-case scenario, only two of our events would make it through, while the other five would be from Class A.
For at least part of the exam, we had no choice but to rely on the baseline potential of our classmates.
However, why...?
"What's wrong, Ayanokōji-kun?"
Horikita looked at me with a curious look on her face.
"...No, it's nothing."
For the chess event, the commander involvement was simply far too impactful. It was almost like a battle between the commanders.
It gave me the impression that Sakayanagi wanted to use the event to compete against me.
"Hey, Horikita. Shouldn't we also start seriously collecting intel at this point?"
Feeling a sense of urgency, Keisei prompted Horikita for an answer.
"Are you saying you want us to find out which of the ten events Class A plan on choosing in the end...?"
"Yeah. Honestly, it'll be pretty tough for us to prepare for all ten of these events in the time we have left. If we don't somehow get our hands on information, our chance of winning will be a lot smaller."
"But Class A prolly won't give out information very easily."
One of the boys responded, saying something that everyone was already well aware of.
"Even so, we still have to try."
"I understand your concerns, but I can't make a decision on that just yet. Let me get a grasp of how much experience we have with each of these events first."
Horikita pushed aside the topic of intelligence gathering and began focusing her attention on understanding the class's position with respect to all ten of Class A's events.