Koi dano Ai dano [Chapter 24]

And, today is the school’s sports festival. Kanoko thinks that senpai who is telling them to follow sports spirit, etc.., is quite enthusiastic. Tsubaki looks sleepy that Kanoko tells him to do his best in making section G win. Tsubaki asks why, and if there is an advantage to it, he’ll be serious. She tells him that the teacher would treat them to some juice. Tsubaki isn’t interested. The students in their school cannot have a HIGH from sports festival because 80% are indifferent to it and it is understandable since the students of the school aren’t good in sports. Flashback: The teacher asked for two students to volunteer for the relay race which will compose of two other students from the second and third year.  The students hate relay and do not want to be reprimanded by their senpais in the relay race if they make a mistake. Flirty [spice] girl said that their section doesn’t have anyone from the track and field club so why not just get the top two students who got high grades in the physical test. Everyone agreed to it. Kanoko teased Tsubaki if he isn’t objecting for this will make him join the relay race. To her surprise, Tsubaki said that it is alright, he’s at third place. Kanoko thinks that every year, there is also a relay race so it isn’t strange for Tsubaki to think that far ahead. She felt frustrated for she lost to Tsubaki since he thought of it as early as April when the physical test was held whereas she hasn’t made plans for October’s sports festival. End flashback. Kanoko tells puzzled Tsubaki that he isn’t pretending to be a cool boy but actually, he is one, and it’s great that he’s not the enemy. Puzzled Tsubaki says that they are in the same team. Hitomi from section A arrives and anticipates this sports festival for Kanoko will surely joined the borrower’s race. [Racing with an obstacle of borrowing something in order to finish the race] To her shock, Kanoko didn’t join. And, Hitomi is in a bigger shock that Tsubaki didn’t participate either. It turns out that Hitomi switched the order[/item to get] for G section to be ‘bring a lover’ and hoped for Tsubaki to pull Kanoko along the race as the ‘lover’. Kanoko tells her to quit talking nonsense and go back to section A. While Hitomi gloomily goes back, Kanoko mentions to Tsubaki that the cheering area of section A is the most interesting because it has most awful team spirit from sections A-G. In section A, Hijiri is mentally grumbling about hating sports festival. It isn’t like his athletic ability is bad, but rather, he hates the race itself and that would be the third year’s cheering area. In order for the different year students to have good relationship, there is no division so they can sit wherever they want. Yabuki calls out to Otabe who tells him that he’s annoying. It turns out that Otabe is lying down at their area that Yabuki is telling him to sit properly for this isn’t his domain. Otabe says that it is okay for no one is sitting anyway but Yabuki says that it is because he is lying down that no one would sit there.

As Yabuki continues to ask Otabe to sit up but Otabe stubbornly won’t, the others are all crowded at one side since they won’t want to get involved with those two. A girl urges Hijiri to go to the black domain since he’s the only one who can do it. So, Hijiri reluctantly goes even if he also doesn’t want to get burned [by those two]. Sayuri thinks that Hijiri is an idiot for trying to act like a hero because third years should be the ones dealing with other third years. She thinks that this year’s section A has no chance of winning for everyone is useless. The other third years are either like newspaper club president who is okay with it or others who don’t want to get involved so they bear with it. The borrower’s race is starting. Sayuri and Kyouko are the participants for their respective section. Kanoko is commenting how different the two girls are even if they are of the same age. Tsubaki comments over Kyouko’s professional running pose on the start off. Kanoko tells him that it is because Kyouko runs faster than Sayuri and she places first to second place among the second year girls. Tsubaki exclaims that she should just join the track and field instead of the newspaper club. When Kyouko reaches the obstacle, she was asked to borrow a ‘lover’. Kyouko wonders if this is the opportunity to confess to newspaper club president, and she always wanted to do it before graduation. She kept on thinking about this until someone tells her that the race is over. The winners are section A, E and D. Tsubaki comments that it is Kyouko’s style – inability to use opportunity along with her ability to run fast. A guy calls out that it is time for the next event, racing. Both Tsubaki and Kanoko joined that. Tsubaki thinks that Kanoko isn’t enthusiastic with the sports festival. Flashback: When deciding on which event they will join, Kanoko decided on racing, not because she likes to run but it is attractive to her because there’s no need for group practice and it ends around 10 seconds. Tsubaki asks about other events. Kanoko says that it is fine to just join one event and this is the only one she joined in. Soon, the first years raced. Yabuki and Hijiri are aghast over Otabe taking pictures of Kanoko with a huge long lens camera. Yabuki tells him not to stand and secretly take pictures but Otabe says that it is allowed today. First place is D section and the second place is G section. They will now have a noon lunch break and the competitions will resume at 1:15pm. During the break, Yabuki calls Kanoko and says that it is a pity about that 80 meter race. She asks why when luckily, she got second place. He tells her not to be modest for according to her physical test, she can be first place. Kanoko thinks that she got distracted by that ridiculous camera of Otabe. Kanoko asks how he knew of her data. To her shock, Yabuki says that he learned it from Otabe who got hold of her data. Yabuki stares at Kanoko and comments that it’s quite ‘fresh’[/different] to see them differently because usually they wear uniforms and they aren’t in the same year. Kanoko thinks that when she thinks of it in detail, Yabuki doesn’t suit wearing casual clothes. Then, he asks Kanoko if she knew..

In the classroom, Tsubaki tells Kanoko she’s so slow, let’s eat since he’s hungry. Then, he asks where’s the juice that she is supposed to buy. Kanoko takes out the list of the remaining events and starts computing points corresponding to the place attained like first place has 20 points, second place has 15 points, etc. Kanoko grabs Tsubaki’s hand and tells him to do his best at the kibasen [/cavalry battle] this afternoon wherein all first years would participate. She asks puzzled Tsubaki if they already talked about the tactics. He says no, they just ride on and.. Kanoko exclaims that he’s belittling the competition and it is a ‘battle’ so they have to prepare. While Tsubaki is confused over what has gotten into Kanoko, Kanoko starts making a passionate speech that they should be champions and it is what their school aims for. The others got brainwashed moved by it and they all look at Tsubaki. Going along with Kanoko, he says that it is a rare opportunity so why don’t they all do their best. Everyone is now eager to win. In the afternoon, even if he is embarrassed by it, Tsubaki is making a cool pose with his jacket. Kanoko tells him that this is to keep the morale of their classmates high so keep on doing it. Tsubaki asks why she is all enthusiastic all of a sudden. Kanoko says that she met up with Yabuki while buying some juice. Flashback: Yabuki asked her if she knew that the members of winning team will have an additional prize of given priority which books one proposes for the library to buy. Kanoko confirmed it with the staff. End flashback. Kanoko laughs for she wants to win at all costs in order to have the opportunity to make the library buy a certain expensive illustrated reference [encyclopedia] collection. Kanoko uses her tactics on decisively winning that kibasen – tall group would get the cap while the short group would tire out the others. No one can suppress Tsubaki’s group and for the others, they use underhanded ways like, ‘hey, look there’, enemy looks, then they steal the cap. =P So, Section G wins first place and section E gets second place. The cat brothers cry over their defeat when they always win during practice. Smiling Mizukami assures them that they’ll get back over this defeat and tells the others to do their best together. Actually, Mizukami is just pretending to be a nice guy for in reality, he is indifferent to it. Hijiri finds it strange that section G suddenly became enthusiastic and there must be a leader behind them to make them team up in such a short period of time. He assumes that it was Tsubaki so what is the goal. Sayuri is thinking of Hijiri that he doesn’t have to sit beside Yabuki since the cheering area is now spacious because Otabe didn’t come back after lunch. They just put a plush toy of Otabe as his replacement. Kanoko is glad that they win again in the bo-taoshi [bring pole down] competition thanks to [Yabuki] Kaede. Then, some senpai-s are discussing with Kanoko on how to get more points to overtake section E. Her classmates are amazed that Kanoko’s social group is quite wide since she is talking with the second and third years. Tsubaki quietly watches them.

Soon, it is the final competition. The G section senpai-s say that they must win the top two places of the relay race in order to win. The participants huddle together and exclaims, ‘gambatte’[/let’s do our best] Kanoko interrupts and asks why Tsubaki is with them. Tsubaki says that he’s a contestant and he exchanged with someone <- the one who got first place in the physical exam and he is more than willing to exchange with Tsubaki because he just got forced into this. Kanoko asks why he suddenly joined. Tsubaki mutters that it is because he hopes she’ll pay more attention to him. Kanoko is puzzled. Soon, at the race, Mizukami is surprised that Tsubaki joined and he is also at the last leg of the race. He tells Tsubaki that this is bad and do not treat him as delicate for he can run quite fast. Tsubaki asks what he meant by that. Mizukami says that he doesn’t want the star[/celebrity] of the school to be humiliated [in losing] for he would be hated by Tsubaki’s [fan]girls. Mizukami offers to help Tsubaki wins first place but Tsubaki declines for he is also very fast. While they were talking, one of their G-section runners drops the baton so they are currently at last place. Getting ready to run, Mizukami says that he’s cool but based on the current situation, it would be better not to say that. Tsubaki says that it is because of this situation that he said that. The other G-section girls are frustrated for they were first but now, the last. Nevertheless, they hope that Tsubaki can catch up. While watching, Kanoko thinks that it is like in third year junior high when the last one is catching up and even if the whole class is excited, she wasn’t, and she never had high feelings for sports festival. Soon, Tsubaki catches up to Mizukami and wins. Yabuki mutters that Tsubaki is quite cool and serious Hijiri overhears this. And so, G-section wins. Tsubaki complains to Kanoko over not cheering when people are running. Kanoko is surprised that he is watching [her] while running. Tsubaki says not really and in the end, she didn’t cheer for him and why is she so cold. Kanoko smiles and says that she isn’t [cold] for she is a bit excited today. Tsubaki says that it is simply for the illustrated book. Mizukami notices that Yabuki is looking at Kanoko’s direction. Mizukami comments that those two’s relationship is quite good. Yabuki says that it seems that those two are good friends since junior high and for the student council, it is a good thing for first years’ relationship to be good. Mizukami sweatdrops for he thought Yabuki is thinking about those two’s relationship. He agrees that it would be difficult if the first years’ relationship isn’t good. Then, Yabuki asks him if he is frightening because while Kanoko is talking with him, she doesn’t have that kind of smile. After the relay race, Kanoko’s attention was taken away by Tsubaki that she didn’t notice what’s happening around for she thinks that nothing big is going to happen. And even if nothing big happens, with so many people there, there will be a lot of stories[/events]. As the closing ceremonies are ending, Hijiri asks Sayuri if they can talk. While the girls are congratulating Tsubaki, Kanoko didn’t think too much about Sayuri not helping the student council clean up after the closing ceremonies.

Comment: And, that’s how their sports festival turned out. Hehe, motivation is really the key and with a goal in sight, anything is possible. In this case, they won thanks to the brains of Kanoko, talent-charisma of Tsubaki and easy to brainwash classmates + somewhat capable senpai-s. ^^ Otabe is really a creepy-stalker type. He seems to be the type who’ll have pictures of Kanoko pasted on the walls of his room.  I wonder if he just so happen to be talkative or Yabuki asks him about Kanoko. It seems that Yabuki is slowly having an interest with Kanoko but like her, he seems to be clueless type in regards with romantic matters. ^^; That is because of his question to Mizukami if he is scary since Kanoko doesn’t smile like that with him. Tsubaki is quite cute trying to get Kanoko’s attention and doing everything for her. Contrary to what he thought, it is already a big thing for Kanoko to be a bit excited and he did managed to get hold of her attention that she didn’t notice the other stuff that is going on after the festival and the ceremonies. I guess Sayuri and Hijiri will be reconciling thanks to Hijiri’s jealousy of Tsubaki. I’m assuming that he is thinking that Tsubaki is doing that to impress Sayuri. Will their reconciliation cause trouble later on? Anyway, this might be my last summary for this series because in the official page, this series isn’t featured for the next LalaDx issue [Oct] so the next chapter would probably be on December. By then, I’m sure the English scanlation group should have already caught up. So, thank you for reading my summaries for this series ^^ Scans by 红莲汉化组.

Quote of the day:

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity. ~ Bo Bennett