38 Enter The Stadium!

The clicking and clacking of students' dress shoes were heard thoroughly as they continued to follow in Ms. Itsuwa's footsteps, eagerly awaiting what was inside the gigantic stadium before them.

"I'm sure at least a few of you have been to the fourth quadrant before, but, for those who haven't, I'd like to start off by saying this: Before you enter, you might want to prepare yourself for just how large it truly is." Ms. Itsuwa stated sweetly as she and her class walked towards the entrance to the stadium.

"J-just how truly large?" Nakayama repeated aloud.

"Oh, you're a foreigner, that's right!" Kiyomi said as if he'd just recalled that fact about Nakayama. "Yeah, I've been in here a couple of times to watch games myself. Ms. Itsuwa ain't playing around, you know."

"Geez, you act like it's dangerous or something."

"Yeah, dangerously large."

"The hell is that even supposed to mean?"

As they approached the two lines, one of which was steadily moving forward, Ms. Itsuwa began to lecture once again.

"Now, as I said in the classroom, if you wish to participate in the Freshman-Sophomore event, you will need to sign up." She pointed to the left line which had a stand near it where each student stopped and did some kind of task. It was likely in order for them to participate. "Please wait in line and follow the instructions that the woman upfront will give you. As for everyone else, please go to the line on the right and enter the stadium, to which you'll want to go up the stairs and into the bleachers."

"Yes, ma'am." the class nodded their heads and did just that. Luckily, there was quite a bit of space between the two lines, so people were able to bunch up into groups and discuss things in the middle.

Nakayama, Chiaki, Koko, and Kiyomi stuck together as a group and advanced forward. Though, there was someone who stuck out to the four teenagers as Chiaki began to make his way to the left line. The rest, of course, sticking by his side in the middle for the time being.

There was a specific, short person with the physique of the female, but Nakayama had somehow developed an eye after his experiences just the day prior. He could tell that person was one of the traps, a femboy or whatever.

"Oh! Is that Yasuko!?" Kiyomi jumped forward as he saw a certain tomgirl with cool blonde hair facing away from the group of teenagers and, surprisingly, in the enlisting line. The suspected tomgirl turned his head slightly in response to his name.

"Hm…?" Nakayama hummed. "Oh, is that him?"

"Y-Yasuko…!" Koko said as he cutely jogged over to Yasuko's space with his arms spread out.

Yasuko turned his head completely, neither his eyes nor his face holding any emotion whatsoever. He held up two fingers, put a hand on his hip, pushed that hip out to the side and put the hand with two fingers up next to his temple, and winked. Something like an idol out of an anime would do.

"Yes, it is I," he said with monotony. The weirdest part of his overzealous posture was the fact that his facial expression was dead.

"Y-yeah...that's him," Nakayama mumbled to himself. Luckily, Yasuko was the last person in line, though it probably wouldn't be out of Chiaki's nature to cut in order to meet with him. At least, that's what Nakayama thought, anyway.

"So, Koko. You about to fight, or what?" Yasuko inquired, probably jokingly. It was extremely difficult to tell with his tone.

"N-n-no! I-I told you, I couldn't possibly…!" Koko responded as humbly as possible.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" giggled Kiyomi. "So, I take it you're gonna try and win the money at the end of the competition?"

"Yes." Yasuko nodded. "Though, I'm not a hundred percent in it for the money. I just thought it would be a good experience, considering I didn't participate last year. If I didn't this year, then I'd be forced to join the Junior-Senior Event. I'd probably be completely outmatched."

"So, basically, you thought it'd be better to pick off some low-level freshmen?" Nakayama inquired snarkily.

"Yes, essentially."

"Well, at least he's honest." Nakayama turned and gave a cheeky smile towards Chiaki, who was in line to enlist just behind Yasuko. "Hear that? He said he's coming for you!"

Chiaki put 4 knuckles into the back of Nakayama's skull.

"Look who the fuck's talking!" he shouted angrily. That left Nakayama giggling a bit. It was almost as if he felt a bit more comfortable around Chiaki, enough to tease him. Though, it was hard to tell whether Chiaki had gotten even the slightest bit more used to Tadashii. Kiyomi gave a laugh, to which Koko smiled shyly.

"Okay, I think that's enough talking!" Kiyomi said cheerfully as he turned in the direction of the entrance. "Koko, Nakayama. Let's go on ahead to the bleachers. Chiaki and Yasuko, you two come find us, we'll be on the right, 'kay?"

Both Yasuko and Chiaki nodded their heads as Kiyomi began to slowly skip off in the direction of the stadium, to which Nakayama and Koko followed.

"Ahh, geez...didn't think Chiaki'd hit me so hard, ha-ha…!" Nakayama chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey, what can I say? Guess he's taken a liking to you."

"Uh, where on God's green earth did you get that conclusion?"

"Well, you two are comfortable enough to tease one another right now…so you've clearly gotten closer."

"I...wouldn't say that."

Koko rubbed the tips of his pointer fingers together and spoke up.

"U-uhm...m-maybe Chiaki has more respect for you...a-after your argument yesterday…?"

"Ugh, I doubt that," Nakayama responded. "He's got a lot of pride, but I don't think he gets a kick out of being yelled at. At least, not by someone that's a lower level than him."

Though, one thing was for certain. Even if only a little, Chiaki's attitude towards him lightened up. Just yesterday, Chiaki threatened to kill him if he ever touched Koko again, yet Nakayama still picked up and ran off with the shy thing. Then, immediately after that, Chiaki didn't beat the shit out of him. Normally, human morals would tell you not to do that, but, for Chiaki, it was an improvement.

"Check it out, we're here!" said Kiyomi as he pointed forward. Nakayama hadn't noticed that the area in which they were walking was coated in shade, so walking into the light to get to the bleachers would be like a grand unveiling of the tournament area.

Finally, Nakayama took a step into the light.

It was as if he was standing at the bottom of the ocean, but Moses had parted the water, so he was left staring up at the waves that stood miles high and could come crashing down at any moment.

"Holy fucking shit!" he screamed.

What he saw before him was definitely not what he'd imagined. At first, he'd thought the space within the stadium would be something reminiscent of a football field, about that size or so. However, his presumptions proved to be incorrect.

What he saw before him was at least a total of 2 to 4 entire American football stadiums in diameter, whose walls were crowded with thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands from what it looked like, seats waiting to be taken. Of course, many of them were already filled due to the fact that many thousands of students had already arrived, plus however many random citizens of the city showed up.

There was a tournament ring made of stone that probably had the area of a football field, and it stood about 2 to 3 feet off the ground. You'd either have to walk up a couple of the stairs that existed or make a huge step.

They had the option of going either right or left when it came to finding a spot in the bleachers, though people were wrapping around the entire tournament ring going up different sets of stairs getting to wherever they wanted. It was quite busy and incredibly breathtaking for the young foreigner. Still though, it wasn't as if he was going to faint from overstimulation or something.

"I...I might faint," he said, putting a hand up to his forehead.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Come on, you big baby!" Kiyomi said, lightheartedly mocking the overwhelmed boy. "Let's get going already. Right, let's go to the right!"

In all of Nakayama's 15 years of existence, he'd never seen an area so big. At least the school had so many floors it made each of them look a bit on the smaller side compared to this gigantic behemoth of an event stadium.

"M-mhm!" Nakayama put a hand over his mouth as if he was going to vomit and proceeded to walk forward. He felt Koko put a hand on his back and rub it.

"The little thing's definitely mocking me, isn't he!?"