It's a Chastity-Reversed World, But It's Different From What I Imagined? - 86

Chapter 86: The Sports Festival: Prelude

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The sports festival was held on a massive scale, befitting the reputation of Aoba High School’s biggest annual event. It lasted for three full days:

Day 1 – Ball games

Day 2 – Track and field events

Day 3 – Athletic festival events

“What are ‘athletic festival events,’ anyway?”

Tell us, Seiya-mon!

“They’re things like cavalry battles, pole-toppling, scavenger races, ball tosses, tug-of-war, three-legged races, cheering contests, dance battles, and group gymnastics. Technically they’re still athletic events, but since they’re unique to school sports days, Aoba High calls them ‘athletic festival events.’”

Seriously, this guy knows everything.

“Anyway, we’re not participating in any of the competitions this time, but we’re scheduled to cheer for a few of them. This year, it’s us and the cheerleading club running all over to support everyone, so the cheering competition has been canceled.”

The members of the Men’s Cheer Team, who had a special role in the sports festival, gathered in the clubroom early in the morning. Seiya had messaged us, saying we’d have a final meeting before things began.

Youhei showed up just to collapse onto a bed and immediately fell asleep. Apparently, he had low blood pressure and wasn’t good in the mornings. In practice, though, Youhei was the one hauling the equipment and managing the sound system once the events started. He was working the hardest behind the scenes. He was always the most serious when it mattered, so there wasn’t really a problem.

Hayato, on the other hand, had been training hard with his bodyguard during summer break to build his stamina. He was already up and reading a book, bright-eyed since morning.

“Do the other boys join the events too?”

“Yeah. There are still events for boys, you know. There aren’t that many male participants, so girls who want to see boys in action go watch them. It seems to be pretty popular.”

I thought back to Hayato during the first semester. If that was the average athletic level of the boys, then the results might be a little underwhelming.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t really concern us, huh?”

“Right. The Men’s Cheer Team’s purpose is to cheer for the girls. So? Which group are we cheering for today?”

The ball game tournament drew participants to the most popular sports in each class. However, students in the sports department couldn’t participate in the events they were specially recruited for. That meant anyone who had entered Aoba High on a soccer scholarship, for example, couldn’t take part in the soccer matches during the festival.

Still, since those recommended students were all naturally athletic, many of them performed well in other events.

“What’s Class 1-A mostly doing?”

“Do you want to cheer for your classmates? Hmm… It looks like most of them signed up for dodgeball. The festival runs for three days, and one class from each grade is chosen as the winner. It’s a class-versus-class point competition, and the points vary depending on the event.

Most people seem to participate in at least two events, but there are a few scattered elsewhere too. Dodgeball has the most participants, followed by table tennis, I think.”

Seiya read aloud from the thick festival handbook as he explained.

“Dodgeball? That’s kind of unexpected.”

“Really? It’s popular among other classes too. Each class can have up to fifteen participants, and substitute players are allowed. You can join even if you’re competing in other events. Most importantly, it seems to offer the highest point value.”

Why a point system, though? What’s the point of making it a class rivalry?

“By the way, apparently the winning class gets a wish granted by the school.”

“A wish granted?”

“Yeah. Usually, it’s the sports department that wins, and their wishes are things like ‘increase the club budget’ or ‘upgrade our travel accommodations this year.’”

The school’s actually pretty generous with that kind of thing, huh?

“Well, it seems like this year, some people have a bit more… Unusual wishes.”

“Unusual wishes?”

“It’s us.”

Seiya pointed to the members of the Men’s Cheer Team, saying we were the prize.

“Huh?”

“I said… The right to have the Men’s Cheer Team cheer for them if they win! It’s not the usual surprise cheering like we do, but a proper pep rally like we did for the swimming club. Apparently, lots of students requested that this year.”

That made sense. The cheer for the swimming club had been our first official request, and we had given it our all. It took a lot of effort, and honestly, it was pretty embarrassing. We’d decided not to do pep rallies after that, sticking mainly to sudden performances, like singing and dancing at event venues instead.

“I guess that means our steady efforts have finally been recognized.”

“‘Steady,’ huh…? Maybe so. For Yoru, I suppose that’s… Steady.”

Seiya’s gaze drifted off toward the adjacent room with a distant look in his eyes. The “clubroom” where we were holding the meeting was practically a relaxation lounge. It was filled with comfy items like beds, sofas, reclining chairs, all that stuff.

The next room over had basically turned into Seiya and Youhei’s workspace. They also used it as a storage area for costumes and merchandise.

“Haah… I honestly didn’t expect things to grow this big.”

Seiya slumped in his chair, looking completely burnt out. With his naturally silver hair, his exhaustion made him look almost colorless.

“Every day, I feel obligated to edit our footage down to a ten-minute clip and upload it to NewTube… Then the comments start flooding in—‘Please sell merch! Please release bromides!’—so I figured this might be a good business opportunity… But when we did, the stuff sold out so fast that we couldn’t keep up with stock… Yoru, listen, all I wanted was to have fun doing club activities with just the two of us…”

Uh, then just stop selling the merch?

“It sells too well! I can’t stop now! Do you have any idea what it’s like seeing that kind of money in your account for the first time?!”

He’s totally blinded by money!! Even in a world where gender values are reversed, I guess money still rules all??

“Seiya! Stay!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Listen, we’re operating as a high school club. We’re not a business. If you want to make it a business, then incorporate, pay salaries, and hire people!”

What the hell am I even saying?

“That’s it!!! You’re right! The reason it’s hard is because I’m doing it all myself. If we put out recruitment and outsource the editing… Thank you, Yoru! I’m free now!!”

It seemed Seiya had his own struggles too. From now on, instead of leaving everything to him, I should probably pay more attention to how he was doing.

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