Chapter 144 - At Least I Helped Her

With the final blow of the whistle, the onset of the race took place. My participants from around me dashed their start, while me and Saki had a rather slow start as we slowly paced as planned.

Kizhashi and Gaisen could be seen running ahead of us in their lane. In my peripheral vision, I noticed Uyeno and Nishimiya running, too. Of course they would've taken part in this too.

Saki, without uttering a single word, was running while keeping her gaze in front of us, and following a synchronised movement. We were slowly gaining speed, as we overtook two 

and were now in the middle with a bunch of others.

Nishimiya was in the first position in this as well. Judging from both of their movements, it looked like Uyeno was quite athletic, too. And of course, the other fact was that Nishimiya was literally dragging her along with him.

I was actually running quite slower than I expected this to be, so I looked at Saki who was already panting, and asked, "I'm going to speed up, okay?"

In the midst of the moment, she was probably feeling tons of emotions at the same time as she gave me a blank, confused look, and I sped up slowly so that she didn't fall into the process.

"Wa...Wait! This is… I'll fall." Saki exclaimed as our speed changed greatly. Looking at Gaisen and Nishimiya as well as some other participants in front of me, I don't know why, but I felt a weird urge rushing through my body.

"Don't worry, just a little more…" I said under my breath as Saki closed her eyes for a moment and yelled, "Nooo… I'll fall… Saishi… Please!!"

Of course, I was keeping the speed in enough control that Saki wouldn't fall. We were just behind Gaisen now as he was running calmly with Kizhashi. On the other hand, Saki was losing her mind as she wasn't used to running at this speed, let alone with someone else while having one of her legs locked.

I gave in a little more and for a split moment we're ahead of Gaisen. As I passed him, I noticed a sudden jerk in his posture but seconds later; he ran past me and crossed the finish line in 3rd position.

I stopped myself from pushing further as I looked at the panting figure of Saki, whose bun became messy and loose strands were flying all around. We finished at the 4th position, which was quite good considering Saki's ordeal, but ranking in the top three would have been good.

As the remaining participants crossed the finish line, the teacher blew his whistle as a sign of the end of this event. Saki fell down on her knees while panting and sweat dripped from her head.

I bent down and opened the ribbon. I looked up and caught her hazel eyes staring into me with a blank look. Giving a slight nod, I said, "Good job."

I stood up and brushed the dirt off my knees. Taking a gasp of air, I looked down at her and she was still sitting in silence. I called her out, and it seemed like she snapped out of her thoughts as she looked at me, confused.

I looked around and waited awkwardly for her to get up so that I could walk back to Tsūmen and others. I offered my hand to her and stared at it for a few seconds before holding it. Her touch was soft, yet shaking as I pulled her up.

"Are you okay?" I asked, as her face was pale.

"Yeah… it's just… I'm tired." She replied with a slight pause.

We backed back to the place where others were and noticed Tsūmen and Kana were talking with Nee-chan. I casually walked up to them, as Kana looked at Saki excitedly, "Bestiee, you ranked fourth!"

Saki held Kana's hands and rocked them as she bursted out, "Yeah… I know!!!"

"Ora! Ora!"

"I wasn't even expecting it." Saki said, and I saw her so happy for the first time, I reckon since she was smiling to her heart's content while giggling like a kid.

Tsūmen wrapped his hands around my shoulder and said, "Well… thanks to him I guess."

"Him?" Nee-chan looked at me in confusion as I was about to answer her. Tsūmen interrupted me, "Yea… he participated in an event finally."

"Oh… I missed it. Shit!" Her face palmed herself and sighed.

She again glanced at me with a smug face as I replied, "It was a three-legged race."

Her gazes shifted towards Saki for an instant before it came back to me as she asked, "And… she was your partner."

"Yeah…" I nodded, and she asked a bit hesitantly, but she sure was excited, "You two friends, right?"

As she asked that, Saki looked at us and her cheeks flushing red, as she opened her mouth to say something but couldn't gather the appropriate set of words to answer Nee-chan. I yelled at her, "Of course Nee-chan!!! What the heck?!" 

Kana and Tsūmen were sure enjoying this since they were laughing their butt off. Nee-chan looked away with a sarcastic look and whined, "Oooof! Why are you uptight?!"

"Because you always embarrass me." I replied with a "no-shit" look and she chuckled, "But that's like my… hobby… you know?"

"Thank you, Saishi… I don't know if this would have been possible without you." Saki thanked me and it seemed like she was genuinely happy, but I thought that I slowed her down since I wasn't an ideal partner to begin with.

"I didn't do anything worth your gratitude." I just gave her a nod and said in my usual plain tone. With a sigh, I added, "And we didn't even rank third, so…"

"Well, fourth is good!" Saki said with a smile, but the look on my face was as unsatisfied as possible that Kana narrowed her eyes at me and asked, "Why are you pessimistic!?"

"Well… it's Saishi after all." Both Nee-chan and Tsūmen said in unison as they looked at each other and laughed.

Since Saki was satisfied with the result, that's all that mattered, I guess. I didn't really care about this. But running in front of a crowd with someone on your shoulders is a really weird task.

As I turned over my shoulders, I noticed Gaisen with one of his arms on Kizhashi's shoulder and the other arm holding his shoes, while wearing a cramp bandage on his right ankle, limping his way towards us.

I walked towards him and took him off her shoulders without saying anything, as Tsūmen asked, "The heck… happened?"

With an awkward laugh, he rubbed the back of his head and said, "I… actually sprained my ankle."