Tomonari wrote this month's special exam on the blackboard:
All-Grade Sports Festival.
A sports festival — essentially a sports day or athletic meet.
"Now, here are the materials I'll be handing out." Tomonari arrived with a stack of documents containing the festival rules.
The first thing that caught everyone's eye was the mandatory participation requirement. As expected, this "sports festival" was actually this month's special exam.
Rule number one: Students will be divided into two teams — Red Team and White Team — for a head-to-head competition.
From first through third year, Class A and Class D students will form the Red Team, while Classes B and C will form the White Team.
This means all A Classes and D Classes will compete together.
According to Tomonari, since Kakeru's Class C has dropped to Class D, Houtarou's Class A will now be grouped with Kakeru's class.
Class A has maintained its position and advantages through every challenge — from the entrance behavior exam to the written exam, the island exam, and the VIP exam.
The crucial consideration now is the point values and how this exam might affect our class ranking.
Houtarou quickly located the scoring details in the rules.
The sports festival consists of 13 events total.
Nine events require mandatory participation from all students:
① 100-meter dash
② Hurdle race
③ Pole toppling (men only)
④ Ball throwing (women only)
⑤ Tug of war (gender-separated)
⑥ Obstacle course
⑦ Three-legged race
⑧ Cavalry battle
⑨ 200-meter dash
Every class member must participate in these nine events. The point distribution is: first place—15 points, second place—12 points, third place—10 points, fourth place—8 points, with each subsequent place decreasing by 1 point.
Additionally, there are recommended events for strong participants:
⑩ Scavenger hunt
⑪ Four-way tug of war
⑫ Mixed gender three-legged race
⑬ All-grade combined 1200-meter relay
These optional events carry higher rewards: first place—50 points, second place—30 points, third place—15 points, fourth place—10 points, fifth place—8 points.
The finale, the all-grade combined 1200-meter relay, offers triple points: first place—150 points, second place—90 points, third place—45 points, fourth place—30 points, and fifth place—24 points. This is clearly the championship event.
After each event, points will be awarded to classes and totaled for both Red and White teams.
Then, true to school tradition, came the results system:
In the total score comparison between Red and White teams, the losing team will have 100 Class Points deducted from all classes in that team, while the winning team will gain 100 Class Points.
This competition is truly a battle between the two groups.
Each grade level will also have its own class rankings based on total scores.
The class rankings will affect Class Points as follows: first place receives 100 Class Points, second place sees no change, third place loses 50 Class Points, and fourth place loses 100 Class Points.
"Well then..." Almost immediately after reviewing the exam point values, Arisu said, "Though I hate to say this now, due to my physical condition, I'll have to forfeit everything."
Ah. That's right. Her poor health prevents her from participating in any physical activities.
Houtarou checked the consequences of forfeiting. Since participation is mandatory, a complete forfeit would count as last place.
While there are rewards for winning events, there are also penalties. Students must participate in all 9 mandatory events.
For each event's top three places, contestants can choose between Private Points or written exam points: first place gets either 5,000 Private Points or 3 written exam points (chosen points cannot be transferred), second place receives 3,000 Private Points or 2 written exam points, and third place earns 1,000 Private Points or 1 written exam point.
These written exam points apply to the next written exam.
Oh. These rewards hardly matter to Class A students — as top performers, they don't need the bonus exam points.
Even someone like Masumi, who has lower grades, wouldn't care about these few bonus points.
Then, Houtarou noticed her staring intently at the section about bonus exam points.
"..."
You're still concerned about that?
Houtarou continued reading.
For the 9 mandatory events, last place receives a penalty of 1,000 Private Points deducted.
Oh, this penalty isn't very significant.
However, after all events conclude, the school will identify the 10 lowest-scoring students school-wide for severe punishment, with specific penalties determined by each class's homeroom teacher.
After brief consideration, Houtarou stood up and asked, "Mashima-sensei, what exactly are these penalties?"
"Well, it won't affect our class much." Tomonari said, "The bottom ten students will have 10 points deducted across all subjects on their next written exam."
Oh. So winning individual events can add points to written exams, while placing last only means losing 10 points on exam scores.
And having 10 points deducted from each exam subject... That's really not an issue for Arisu. She's a super genius.
The class understood completely when she directly stated her intention to forfeit.
"Therefore." Arisu continued, "Given my forfeiture from the sports festival, I won't be giving any instructions. Oreki-kun, what do you think?"
What do I think? Is she handing over her faction again, like during the island exam and VIP exam?
"Me?" Houtarou scratched his head, "I think it would be better to entrust the sports festival arrangements to Katsuragi-kun."
"Me?" Kōhei noticed he had been nominated twice in succession.
Rising quickly after hearing his name, he said, "Since everyone's pushing this to me, I'll take it on."
Class A currently held an absolute advantage. Kōhei didn't want to create divisions, and with Arisu willingly stepping back from leadership, this was ideal — it would avoid potential conflicts between factions with differing opinions.
Looking at the exam's point values, with competitions split between Red and White Teams plus grade levels, their chances looked promising. Their Class A would be collaborating with Manabu's Class A and second-year Class A.
Miyabi, the second-year representative, had led his class from Class B to Class A last year. Being on the Student Council himself, Kōhei knew Miyabi effectively controlled the second years.
With both the Student Council President's class and the class controlling the second years on their side, success was practically guaranteed.
First-year Class A would essentially be carried to victory, earning +100 Class Points.
Looking at the grade-level competition points:
First place: +100 Class Points
Second place: +0
Third place: -50 Class Points
Fourth place: -100 Class Points
Hmm. Overall, this was a low-stakes competition. Class A students were strong across the board, with few weak athletes. They certainly wouldn't end up in last place.
Having someone steady like him in charge made perfect sense.
"Teacher, may I use the podium?" Kōhei asked.
"Go ahead." Tomonari said.
Though he was there to announce the exam rules, homeroom time belonged to the students.
"However, I should tell you that starting today, you have three weeks of preparation time. You'll be free to practice, and there will be additional PE classes to prepare for the sports festival. Then after second period this afternoon, head to the gymnasium for the sports festival rally."
With those words, he stepped away from the podium.
The Chairman's philosophy was to give students autonomy and let them develop freely, and as Class A's homeroom teacher, he followed this approach.
Kōhei stepped up to the podium. Before arranging the participation order and plans, he would make preparations first.
After returning from the gymnasium that afternoon, they would conduct physical fitness tests and other evaluations.
These were all sensible measures.
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