The Outcome of the Match (2)
“I’m sorry… I dropped the baton… It’s all my fault…”
Hasumin’s first words were an apology, paired with a deep bow.
“Hey now, Hasumin. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten—we agreed not to point fingers, didn’t we?”
I answered her with a smile.
“Yeah, Oda’s right. Besides, I saw it myself—it was right in front of me. That other class was drifting out of their lane on the inside, remember? So really, Hasumi-san wasn’t at fault. If anything, she was the victim here.”
“Exactly! We said no blame game, remember? Which means no apologies either, got it?”
“Ah…”
Hasumin blinked, startled by Nitta-san’s firm tone.
“Think about it—we were tied for first place. That’s how close it was. Even if we had lost, you could still say we were basically first. That’s incredible, don’t you think?”
“Totally. Oda’s got a point.”
“If that isn’t good enough for you, Hasumin, then your standards are way too high.”
“Ahaha… You’re right… yeah.”
Hasumin laughed softly, but her smile still looked faintly clouded.
“Hey, Hasumin. I’ll admit, I’m pretty competitive too. But more than winning or losing, what really mattered to me was getting to run with you all—and practicing those baton passes together. I mean, it’s a festival, right? A sports festival should be fun. So I wanna stay in this good mood with everyone until the very end.”
Back in the other world, the journey to defeat Demon King Kanan had been a gauntlet of battles where defeat was not an option.
As the Hero, if I lost, it meant humanity lost.
For five years, the only outcome that held any value was victory—our very survival hinged on it.
But this? This was different.
Losing didn’t mean the world was going to end.
Here, it was okay to enjoy the journey, not just the outcome.
And right now—for the first time in my life—I was actually having fun at a sports festival.
Win or lose in the relay, I wanted to finish today with this feeling still in my heart.
“Me too!”
“Same here.”
“Mm…! Thank you, everyone!”
Hearing our words, Hasumin finally broke into a truly radiant smile.
(Yeah. That’s more like it. Hasumin really does look best when she’s smiling.)
“Geez, don’t make me worry like that, okay?”
“Ehehe, sorry Mei. I’m okay now, I promise.”
Just then, another announcement echoed across the field.
[Ahem, thank you all for waiting. We will now announce the results of the first-year co-ed Swedish relay. After a thorough review… First place goes to Class 4—]
“Ah…”
Hasumin let out a small sigh, her shoulders slumping.
(Damn… So we really did lose…)
I almost tilted my head back to groan at the sky—
But then I thought Hasumin might feel worse if she saw that, so I kept my gaze straight ahead.
A Hero must always face forward, always point the way toward the future for those who follow.
But then—
[—and Class 5! It’s a tie!]
“Eh…?”
Hasumin’s head snapped up in surprise as the announcement continued.
[Let’s be real! That finish was way too close to call! This is a sports festival, not a professional track meet! We don’t have any fancy timing equipment! The video was shot on a cheap GoPro our PE teacher brought from home! And it wasn’t even straight-on—it was at an angle! No way we could judge that properlyyyy!]
The commentator practically shouted in comedic exasperation, and the entire crowd erupted into laughter.
At the same time, applause broke out from all directions, rising up to honor our efforts.
And then—
“We did it!”
Whether or not it was a tie, Hasumin threw her arms around me, unable to contain her joy.
She snapped out of it almost instantly, face flushing bright red as she pulled away.
But her warmth, the softness of her touch—they were burned into my memory.
Even a Hero with steel nerves, forged in the fires of another world, is still just a teenage boy—and when the girl he likes hugs him, of course his heart’s gonna race. That’s just how it is.
And so, the final event for the first-years—the Co-ed Swedish Relay—ended in a first-place tie between Class 4 and Class 5.
With that, Class 4 was declared the overall champion of the first-year class for this year’s sports festival.
Our Class 5 came in a close second.
Afterward, we all gathered in our gym uniforms for a commemorative photo, and with that, my first-year sports festival came to a close.