Baka to Tesuto to Syokanju:Volume12 The Eleventh Question

Please list a proverb for the following:

“1. You may fail at things you’re good at.” “2. One unlucky event after another.”

Himeji Mizuki’s answer:

“1. Even Kūkai will make mistakes when writing.” “2. When it rains, it pours.

Teacher’s Comment:

Correct. Also, for (1), there is also another proverb, ‘Kūkai can’t choose pens’. A similar expression for (1) would be ‘A kappa can get washed away’ or ‘a monkey may fall from a tree’.

Similarly, for (2), there is a proverb ‘a bee stinging on a crying face’ as well. It will be helpful to memorize these together.

Tsuchiya Kouta’s Answer:

“(1) A kappa can’t choose a pen.”

Teacher’s comment:

You mixed the proverbs up because you can’t differentiate between them?

Shimada Minami’s Answer:

“(2) A bee sting on the eye.”

Teacher’s comment:

It does seem to hurt.

“Now then, what instructions do you have for everyone, Yuuji?”

It’s now the second day of the summoning war.

Once the class representative meeting ended, Yuuji returns to our base, 3-D classroom and answers me.

“Nothing much, we have our F class members at the more intense battlefields, and then we sent D class’ guys and girls to the frontline separately. Finally, I requested for everyone to try and retreat as much as we can to lower the scale of battle.”

This strategic instruction doesn’t seem to be something too big.

Upon hearing this, Kinoshita-san beside me again asks Yuuji,

‘Is this really alright, Sakamoto-kun?”

“Ahh, it is for now.”

In this case, it seems Yuuji has prepared all these to execute the strategies later.

“…”

“What is it, Kinoshita sister? You look like you have a lot of ideas there.”

“I’m not unhappy about this…”

Kinoshita-san seems to be a little disappointed by this instruction. Maybe she’s hoping that he would come up with some great revival.

Yuuji then continues to explain to Kinoshita-san,

“The enemy’s forcing us to a point where we’ll fail if we do something. We need to bring the tide to our side if we want to reverse the situation.”

“Though you say that, aren’t the 3rd years stronger than us if we compare our situations?”

“This is fact, but right now, we’re inferior in ability, and also in a disadvantage right now. First, we have to think of a way in this situation.”

“If there’s a way, we would have—”

“And I gave this instruction so that everyone can fight at their actual ability.”

Yuuji’s instruction is simply just to create a good opportunity, and then we’ll wait for everyone to recover, I think.

“We’re not doing anything big even though it’s an instruction.”

“Anyway, just watch. You’ll know later.”

“…..If you say so. I guess I’ll just watch without saying anything…”

It seems Kinoshita-san seems to be unhappy about something, but she’s no longer asking Yuuji any more questions.

This time, Minami instead approaches Yuuji and asks him another question.

“Speaking of which, Sakamoto, didn’t Nemoto say anything to you during the strategic meeting?”

B class’ Nemoto-kun really humiliated Yuuji on the first day of the strategic meeting. It seems Minami’s worried that he might be coming up with something else this time.

“Ah, I don’t know why, but for some reason, he—”

“…Not around.”

Kirishima-san answers, following up on Yuuji’s words .

“Eh? Not around? That Nemoto?”

“(Nods)…Anyway, he did not attend the meeting.”

“Oh my? Is that really the case? It’s good for Prez and Sakamoto-kun, isn’t it?”

While Kinoshita-san nods,

“Hmm…not around, huh…?”

For some reason, Minami’s giving us a very suspicious look.

“What now, Minami? Why’re you staring at us like that.”

“We didn’t do anything, we don’t know anything.”

“…A blasphemy of the highest order.”

“I’d say I’m surprised to be so suspected.”

Minami however ignores our excuses as she looks around the classroom for a little while,

“It’s around here, right?”

She approaches the cabinet with the cleaning equipment inside.

And reaches her hand for that door.

• Creaks*…………*Thud*

Nemoto-kun, bound and gagged, rolls out from the opened cabinet.

“Then, let me hear your reason.”

“““Akihisa did it on his own!!!”””

“HOLD ON A MINUTE!”

Why’s it that those 3 would gang up and call my name at such moments?

“That’s not it. It’s just an unfortunate incident, you know. Nemoto-kun just so happened to trip over when I was walking, and I just so happened to hold him down, and by chance, Yuuji passed by and send a punch into his chest, and it’s bad luck that Muttsurini and Hideyoshi just so happened to be nearby practicing their rope skills and—”

“Aki, don’t think of passing this off with excuses like just so happened and by chance or something like that.”

I still want to say the omnipotent line that anything can be rationalized no matter what. Looks like the effect will weaken if I say it too much.

“Speaking of which, I’m a little surprised that Kinoshita took part in this.”

“Hm? Is that so?”

It’s just like Minami has said; Hideyoshi rarely takes part in such unethical behavior.

“Yuuji’s an important friend of mine, a buddy. It’s a must to give an equal amount of payback after what Yuuji has suffered through.”

Even so, Hideyoshi’s not a saint himself; he’ll naturally be angry if his friend is hurt, and will use force according to the situation. It can’t be helped that Hideyoshi would gag Nemoto-kun and tie him up after he had already done such a thing.

“What? Don’t worry about such a small thing. There’s nothing in the summoning war rules that says that we can’t knock out our ally.”

“Yes yes. That’s right. That’s just an area between the grey and black.”

“At least say that it’s between black and white…”

I know I did something bad too, but even so, there’s still something I have to take a firm stance on.

As we’re talking about this, Minami looks around the classroom, and says,

“Speaking of which, I don’t see Mizuki.”

“Aiko’s not here either.”

“So is Kubo-kun.”

Yuuji however answers their doubts.

“Yeah, those 3 are waiting behind the F class guys.”

“…For what?”

“Must be to deal with any deserters.”

“What are you saying, Yoshii-kun…how can there be such a thing?”

“That’s one of the objectives.”

“Are you serious!?”

F class has been used to fighting in the war, but even so, they often have to fight battles where they’ll die if they don’t go all out, so it’s not a weird thing to see deserters.

“Your methods are really cruel. Even though you’re classmates…”

“Let me tell you something good, Kinoshita. If you want to make use of the F class guys, don’t hold back. If they know it’s going to be a battle with 100% chance, the situation’s going to be worse. It’s for the better that I don’t say anything.”

And then, we kill off the deserters. That’s really a terrifying rule.

“I say…if you’re going to do such cruel things, I don’t care if you get attacked by them during the replenishing tests, no?”

“Don’t worry too much. The replenishing tests are held in a different place from the remedial room.”

“Ah, that’s true.”

I guess Kinoshita-san has never been beaten in a test summoning war? She just accidentally mixed up the remedial room with the test replenishment room.

“On a side note, since we have a lot more people this time, there’s a chance they might be in the same place.”

But in that case, there’ll be tighter security; they won’t be able to even whisper to us, let alone take revenge.

As we’re explaining about this, the bell chimes, indicating the start of the lessons.

“Alright, the summoning war’s about to start again. Get ready so that you can fight back anytime.”

“““Roger that.”””

And so, the second day of our war against the 3rd years begins.

☆

“Th-Things are really going our way now…”

Kinoshita-san says with disbelief as she looks down from the top floor of the old school building.

“What’s so surprising about that? Though you say it’s going our way now, the thing is that they can’t push us back now.”

Yuuji says. It seems there’s no improvement in the situation however, and the difference in strengths still remains.

“But I’m already surprised by this already…Prez and I tried our best to allocate our fighting strength, but we couldn’t salvage the collapsing frontlines…”

Upon hearing Kinoshita-san mutter this, Yuuji answers as he stares at the strength report Kirishima-san’s writing on.

“Most of the winning results in war is caused by pursuit. Do you know why?”

“I never heard of it before…but I understand what you’re trying to get at.”

“Leaving aside modern times, it seems during the era of bayonet warfare, the worst losses always arise from the moments when the losing side is being pursued.”

I can understand what Yuuji mean. Through my own experience, if it’s a comparison of fighting the enemy head on or fighting while running away, the latter’s a lot tougher to do.

“You guys made the correct decision to fight head on at the beginning, but because of this, the even strength between both sides…no, the 2nd years were overwhelmed slightly..”

“…Then, what is the problem?”

“Isn’t it because of Nemoto-kun?”

“Yoshii-kun, I think you can leave that aside for now.”

It seems Kinoshita-san really wants to find out how to solve the issue of this collapsing frontline once Nemoto-kun retreated. I guess that’s to be expected of the studious A class.

“…We sent in our main forces, hoping to regain ground?”

“No, that’s the correct decision.”

It was the correct decision to send in all the fighting strength before the situation got out of hand.

“But that bastard Takashiro had the upper hand. When you attacked with the main force, he sent an equal number of forces.”

That upperclassman’s really devious, even though he’s basically an idiot.

“I want to know the conclusion now, Sakamoto.”

“Ahh, when you sent in forces and were unable to salvage the situation, didn’t you start retreating in an attempt to limit the frontlines?”

“…Yes.”

“That response back then was the wrong choice.”

“Why do you say so? Isn’t it reasonable for those with high scores to cover those with low scores in their retreat?”

Yuuji just said “the worst losses always arise from the moments when the losing side is being pursued.” In that case, it does seem that there’s no issues with letting the strong ones retreat last.

However…

“Those guys with high scores don’t know how to retreat, since they aren’t used to defeat.”

The most important thing when fighting and running away is to defend. It is not about beating the enemy in front of them, but to retreat while buying time for their comrades to retreat. Experience, rather than high scores, is the important thing here.

“And after everyone got pursed, our formation collapsed, and we got forced back by the 3rd years. That’s why the difference in strength between both sides just got bigger.”

Basically, the scores are still the weapons used in this summoning war. In an ordinary exam, one may feel that this is merely a battle against oneself, but this is different. There are enemies, wins and losses; of course, it’s disadvantageous to be overwhelmed by the enemy.

“Is that so? So you let the F class members stand at the front because they’re used to defeat?”

“That’s how it is.”

“Then why did you separate the D class boys and girls?”

“The girls in that class dominates the guys, they’re indomitable, and can’t read the mood to save their lives. This means that they’re not going to be suppressed by the 3rd years that easily. Besides, their experience in the summoning war is only less than that of F class.”

F class and D class, normally considered scrubs, are able to fight on the frontlines, and that’s because they rely on something other than points.

“I see…so once everyone sees the lower ranked classes fighting hard, they’ll be able to calm down.”

“…I didn’t think that much.”

Kinoshita-san and Kirishima-san are giving Yuuji impressed looks. This guy’s really reliable in such moments.

“I do think I haven’t done a lot yet.”

“I do feel that you did plentiful though.”

“Or rather, I might say that the real battle begins now.”

“? What do you mean?”

“Just sit back and enjoy the show.”

Yuuji got up from his seat as he said this, and observed the state of battle from the window in the front.

“Alright, perfect timing. Akihisa, are you done with those preparations?”

“Okay.”

I grab onto the curtain dangling from the window, and open the window frames.

“Ready, 3, 2, 1…go.”

“Hah!”

As according to Yuuji’s instructions, I push the curtains out of the window. The curtain hanging on the rail floated in the air outside the window, expanding outwards.

And so, a blazing trail crosses through the battlefield immediately afterwards.

“Eh!? What did you just do, Yoshii-kun!?”

“I just gave a signal. The one attacking—I think it’s Himeji-san’s side and not Kubo-kun’s.”

I remember Kubo-kun’s power is that of wind blades, right? I do have an impression of it, so the attack just now should be from Himeji-san’s summoned beast.

“…A lot of people were caught in it.”

Kirishima-san muttered.

It’s just as she said; the trail of fire Himeji-san’s summoned beast released caught a large number of enemies in it.

“Amazing…”

“Himeji’s true ability is ranked 2nd amongst us second years after all.”

“She’s amazing too, but I’m talking about how the formation in this situation.”

Kinoshita-san continues to stare at where the blaze attacked. There probably are a lot of enemies caught in the crossfire.”

“…They were so wary of us back then.”

“How did you gather the enemies together, Sakamoto-kun?”

“Well, this is part of our F class’ characteristic—”

As Yuuji explains, voices can be heard from outside.

“SAKAMOTO YOU BASTARD! YOU INTENDED TO KILL US AS WELL, RIGHT!?”

“AND YOU EVEN SAID ‘I’ LL TRY NOT TO HIT YOU GUYS’!”

“YOU WERE FULLY AIMING TO HIT US, RIGHT!?”

““…””

“—In terms of fighting strength, the guys from F class aren’t worth weeping over, even if they’re used as baits or pawns.”

“……Sakamoto-kun, I really can’t tell the difference between your methods and Nemoto-kun’s…”

Kinoshita-san said with a shocked expression.

Yuuji however took such criticism without flinching, and honestly admits,

“This is a fact after all. Both Nemoto and I are no different in the sense that we act on the same basis.”

The similar thing here refers to ‘gaining victory no matter the means’. In this sense, there’s no real difference between Yuuji and Nemoto.

But there’s a decisive difference between them, and that’s their understanding of the meaning of the word ‘winning’. Nemoto-kun thinks of personal victory. Yuuji’s idea of a win however is that of a team win. It’s because of such a major difference that even though us F class continues to be bluffed by him, we still continue to follow his instructions. This is the idea of team victory we believe in.

“For some reason, you guys really have a weird sense of unity.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. The proof is that none of the F class guys got hit by it, right?”

“…They really believed.”

If they truly believed that they were used as bait, doesn’t that mean that both sides never trusted each other at all?

“Anyway, this is how it is in the end…Akihisa.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Call Himeji back to replenish her scores. After that, stay at the frontlines to lure the enemy’s attention.”

“I got it. I’ll come back with Himeji-san once the order’s given, okay?”

“No, don’t come back. Stay there and fight.”

“No way.”

You still want to bluff me after all that explanation I just heard?

“What? Don’t be so stubborn, Akihisa. Himeji used up a lot of points just now. There’s no way the trail of fire will appear until she finishes her replenishment.

“I do see the second arrow in Kubo-kun being on standby, you know?”

In my situation, I’ll be sent on a direct course to the detention room if I get a graze in anything other than Japanese History.

“Don’t be stubborn, Akihisa. Shimada, Hideyoshi and Muttsurini are at their positions fighting hard. Is it fine for you to be here enjoying yourself here?”

“Though you say it like it’s the truth, Yuuji, I find that there’s a lot of wrong in that.”

He’s clearly demanding that I go over to sacrifice myself.

Since I’m unwilling to go, Kinoshita-san then advises me,

“Yoshii-kun, calm down a little. Your power is needed in the ‘strategy’ Sakamoto-kun talked about, you know? In that case, how can he possibly make you bait?”

“…Yuuji has always been dishonest.”

“You’re saying too much, Shouko.”

I guess Yuuji probably feels very disgusted for giving me such special privilege…well, it’s not like I don’t understand that feeling anyway.

“In that case, I’ll get myself fooled by you on Kirishima-san’s account.”

“Tch. Stop talking too much and hurry on.”

“Yes yes. Got it.”

I glance aside at Yuuji, who’s not being cute at all, and run off to the schoolyard, where everyone’s fighting.

☆