Chapter 424: The greatest despair event in human history
"Ehem, we were… um… talking about a competition." Shirogane Miyuki began making things up.
"Competition?" Sakurai Saki walked over at that moment.
How come he didn't know?
But it sounded interesting.
"That's right, just fishing is a little boring, so we wanted to have a match, betting on the honor of men!" Shirogane Miyuki continued, even though he had never fished before, a complete rookie. But to save Ishigami Yuu, he had no choice but to lie.
He even used the honor of men as a wager!
He's too gentle… Ishigami Yuu wanted to cry.
"Yes yes yes!" Ishigami Yuu immediately acted like an unintentional repeater: "A competition makes it fun. Without some climactic moments according to the unspoken rules, fishing would be a waste."
"Can I join?" Shinomiya Kaguya suddenly asked.
"Even though I've never fished before, completely a beginner, can I participate?"
Originally, Shirogane Miyuki wanted this weird competition to only be among the men, but since Shinomiya Kaguya said that, he didn't want to look weak.
In the student council, except Chika, everyone basically had a strong desire to win.
Or rather, for geniuses capable of entering Shuchiin, it would be strange if they easily accepted losing!
'So Shinomiya is also a beginner, then there's no way she's stronger than me!' A strange confidence surged in Shirogane Miyuki's heart. He recalled the fishing techniques he had studied for half a month, and felt that he absolutely had to win this match!
"If you want to join then just come. I'll teach you later." Sakurai Saki didn't care much about this competition; he had confidence in himself.
"Shinomiya-senpai, just saying this beforehand, this is a competition betting on the honor of men..." Ishigami Yuu wasn't scared, he just thought that if by any chance he beat Kaguya and she became unhappy, what would he do?
So Ishigami Yuu wanted to persuade Shinomiya Kaguya to give up.
But unfortunately, with his position as her "younger brother," there was no way he could shake Kaguya's thoughts.
"Then I will bet the honor of a member of the Shinomiya family." Shinomiya Kaguya refused to back down.
"That's… not necessary, right?"
The moment Ishigami Yuu heard her bet the honor of the Shinomiya family, he instantly panicked.
Everyone knew that if Shinomiya Kaguya said something like that, it basically meant she was truly serious. Correspondingly, if she won it would be fine, but if she lost, the consequences would be extremely severe.
'Why did I say those things just now?'
It was over, even his escape route vanished! Dead!
'Should I… just give up later?'
Ishigami Yuu didn't dare win. He could lose ten thousand times, but if he dared win even once, Shinomiya Kaguya might "erase him from the world," this wasn't a joke!
...
Very quickly, the four of them arrived at a riverbank. The river water was very clear and not fast-flowing; they could see the fish moving at the bottom.
"I heard that in less populated places like this, fish bite more easily."
Before Sakurai Saki even finished, he already saw Shirogane Miyuki and Shinomiya Kaguya simultaneously running toward the riverbank.
"You guys aren't setting bait nests? Although there are many fish, it's probably easier to catch them after setting the bait."
"... I'm just checking the water quality and adjusting the bait."
Hearing that, Shirogane Miyuki quickly came back, pretending to be calm as he picked up a few packets of fish bait and began mixing them with clumsy movements.
Watching the way he did it, Sakurai Saki felt something was wrong.
Did Shirogane actually know how to fish? Something seemed off.
Unlike the other two, Ishigami Yuu walked skillfully to a nearby spot, grabbed his fishing gear and bait, and began working. Except his movements were very slow, as if he was intentionally trying not to win.
No one knew what he was thinking. A small competition like this shouldn't affect anyone's friendship.
Did you really think Kaguya would kill you, Ishigami?
"Can I use your bait?" Shinomiya Kaguya didn't want to touch the somewhat dirty-looking bait, but still wanted to experience fishing.
"Of course, you can use mine together with me."
Sakurai Saki always favored the person he liked more than anyone else.
"Alright, since it's still early, start quickly or we won't have dinner tonight." Sakurai Saki reminded.
Besides this fishing competition betting on the honor of men, this also directly concerned the dinner ingredients.
If they didn't try harder and ended up empty-handed, they would have to eat instant noodles tonight! Such an outcome was unacceptable to him!
…Of course, Sakurai Saki did prepare ingredients in the fridge so that he could cook late at night if someone got hungry, but that was his emergency energy reserve; it couldn't be used casually.
A few minutes later.
After finishing the bait nest, Sakurai Saki handed the rod with bait attached to Kaguya.
"This time we're only catching small fish, so it should be easy."
"If I can't catch anything, will it be embarrassing?" Shinomiya Kaguya asked.
While the two of them chatted, they placed folding chairs and sat at the riverbank.
Beside them, hearing their conversation—specifically hearing Kaguya's naive remarks—Shirogane Miyuki felt certain that victory was already in his grasp!
How could he possibly lose?
Unfortunately, Shirogane Miyuki's confidence only lasted a few short minutes before it ended!
Because—
"IT BIT THE BAIT!! I caught one!" Shinomiya Kaguya excitedly reeled in her rod.
Her first time fishing, and she succeeded instantly.
She was even faster than Sakurai Saki.
Newbie luck? So fishing also required this?
"Let me help take it out?" Sakurai Saki thought Kaguya might be scared of live fish, but perhaps he was worrying too much.
"Don't need..."
Shinomiya Kaguya said, then quickly removed the fish from the hook and put it into the fish basket beside her, except her movements were not very skillful yet. From Sakurai Saki's view, the fish seemed wronged, being pulled back and forth as if it hurt a lot?
But being handled by a beauty like that, would the fish be happy? Uh, probably not.
...
The fishing process wasn't very interesting. Kaguya quickly took out her phone to check the messages from Fujiwara Chika and the others over there.
"Earth's Cancer: Kaguya-san, I think I just saw a tsuchinoko! It crawled forward like a caterpillar."
Shinomiya Kaguya sighed inwardly.
That was most likely just a snake that had eaten its fill.
Kaguya replied:
Be careful, don't get bitten by a snake.
While she was typing, Kaguya's fishing rod bent and shook again.
"Why is it biting again?" she complained.
How is she supposed to keep chatting?
Sakurai Saki heard her Versailles-style bragging, and he silently looked toward the distance where Ishigami Yuu had abandoned his defeated attitude and begun chumming the water.
This is bad, looks like I'm about to lose something called "a man's dignity" to someone fishing for the first time! I have to give it my all!
…Was he thinking that?
Not at all!
Not far away, Ishigami Yuu watched Shinomiya Kaguya reel in fish one after another and sighed in relief.
'With Shinomiya-senpai like this, she'll definitely win…'
He could finally drop the act and start enjoying fishing; pretending to fail over and over was exhausting!
...
Unlike Ishigami Yuu, Shirogane Miyuki had already fallen into despair.
'Been fishing for an entire hour and not a single catch…'
This was absolutely the most despairingly sinful event in human history!
It's over!
...