Trip the Light Fantastic

One week remained. I was able to persuade a little under half of the class. There were still unwilling for various reasons: busy, tiresome, unwilling, dispirited, hopeless, fear, and lastly, anger.

Apart from those people who were humane——who were friendly to me——the groups that despised my existence refused to cooperate.

One of those groups was Morisaki’s clique. Since I’ve made a connection with her, I made attempts to interact with the rest of her group, but I failed.

Perhaps there was something about me they loathed, and it was something I couldn’t fix.

“I’ll only listen if you were some hot guy.”

“You look lame; where are your muscles?”

I was working on it.

“You don’t look like you belong here—actually, you don’t belong here.” she giggled.

If people hated how I acted or looked, I’ll leave them alone. It wasn’t my obligation to adjust to their tastes.

Though that mindset I should keep in moderation. There were times I should adapt; there were times I shouldn’t.

Negotiating and bargaining with the other half of the class in less than a week were near impossible, so I decided to settle for only half the class.

A dedicated half of the class was enough.

I scheduled the practice session for Saturday. These sessions would be held every day until the event. It was a long shot to try to teach everyone to dance, so I chose the simplest, most elegant dance I found——La belle danse.

The dance will be themed after Eighteenth-Century France, so our dance outfits would be custom-made, courtesy of Morisaki’s company. As for the orchestra, I asked the participants to pay their share per the set budget. Since the venue was provided along with its lighting and sound systems, the cost was relatively low for them, not for me——1,088,100 yen, 83,700 yen per person.

The cost would have been halved if we didn’t hire them on such short notice.

But most people were kind; the participants helped me pay my contributions. Though, I didn’t push my luck because I already have pushed it so far. I paid half the cost. That payment hurt my heart and soul causing me to reconsider my plan extravaganza.

But when all are aboard, one shouldn’t be an obstacle.

Unfortunately, one wanted to be an obstacle.

The Palladium Class bullies have caught wind of our plans and decided to visit us on our first practice.

“It is very kind of you to put on a show for us.” It was the leader of the Palladium ‘dictators’ who spoke. I now knew his name, Kazuya Takeuchi.

“Is this what brought you here?” I asked with the most kindness possible.

But, there was one who wouldn’t want to live on this farce. “Get the heck outta here! You’re uninvited.”

“I’m sorry, but do you have tickets?” I asked sarcastically. Takeuchi was pleased with my odd question; the opposite for Ren who was confused.

“Yeah, here’s one.” He pulled his hand from his pocket and landed a fist on my face. “That’s what the poor deserve…” He kicked me in the gut, causing me to reflex to the ground.

I was holding my stomach, writhing in pain, and no one could do anything about it—

“You piece of—” Except for brave-faced Ren.

But his tunnel vision cost him. One of Takeuchi’s friends caught his fist and quickly restrained him to the ground. Ren growled in pain.

Now, both of our faces were eating sliding dirt——that was the slimy floor that was full of sweat.

“Know your place, Gold Class. Your gold ain’t worth crap.” Takeuchi stomped on the nape of my neck, causing me to choke. “Didn’t you know that gold is malleable? It’s the weakest metal on earth!”

He got that wrong, but I got his point.

Then, he released me, but Ren was still detained. And Takeuchi devilishly smiled. Enduring the pain, I stood up acting as normal as possible. My attitude toward Takeuchi remained neutral.

But I had anger churning in my heart, but that wasn’t appropriate now. There were classmates I had to protect, especially Ren.

“Y'all practicing here, eh? Interesting, interesting.” He sniffed as he flicked his nose. I felt like he switched up his act to be more imposing.

“Yes, we are.”

“For the Ball?”

“Yes.”

Then, he burst up into mocking laughter. “You—you’re practicing!? What a joke! What a joke…” He gradually turned impatient. Then, he began a tirade. “Who do you think you are!? Who do you think you are!? Do you think you could win!? Give up! Just give up! Y’all scums deserve to be in the hellhole. You’ll forever be in a hellhole! Why even try? Just go die!”

“Kazuya, you—!” Ren’s mouth was sealed.

“You’re going to lose. You’re just going to lose. Of course, you don’t know since you’re just a mere outsider, but Class Gold has never won a competition! Do you think now that you’ve joined that you’ll win? Such a prideful fool.”

“Is that so,” I began to speak, “Kazuya?”

Takeuchi’s friends were offended because I called him by his first name.

“You don’t have the status to call him that.”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Should we beat you to make you understand again?”

“If you’re so confident that we’ll lose, then let’s make a bet,” I challenged.

“As I thought, you need another beatin’!” He punched my stomach.

I crouched back, but I was ready for the impact. I didn’t falter.

“The class who’s in last place loses.”

“Huh!? What kind of bet is that!? What makes you think that we’ll be in last place, huh!?”

“Because the rankings have always been fixed, wasn’t it? The results are dictated by the orders of classes: Rhodium, Iridium, Palladium, and Gold. And you’ve always been in third place, weren’t you?”

He flared. He was annoyed by this fact. “And so what? Gold has always been in last place—should I make you understand again, huh!?” He raised his fist again.

“If you lose, you must cease your bullying and harassment, and your class should treat us as your equals.”

“Equals? Ha!” After punching my face, he contemplated. He smirked. “Fine, I’ll take on your silly bet. When you lose, I’ll make everyone in your class my slaves. Deal?”

“De—” I hesitated. I couldn’t recklessly decide the fate of the entire class.

I looked around, finding Ren first. He nodded while still being restrained. Then Ito nodded along with his friends. I looked at Morisaki. She hesitated at first but rapidly shook her head. Her friends gave me their eyes of approval.

I looked back at Takeuchi, this time with confidence. “Deal.”

“You have just lost.” With that, they released Ren, not after kicking him again, and left.

“Ha, to think that you’ll ever win.”

“We’ll crush your optimism!”

“Y’all never win.”

“See ya when ya lose, losers!” They mocked as they laughed.

When they disappeared, the atmosphere changed positively.

I went to Ren and assisted him. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. But you were beaten up more.”

“I’m alright.” I was working out for these kinds of scenarios. I can take a beating or two——still not my proudest work.

I scanned my classmates, expecting hopeless and worried faces. But I saw vigor in their eyes. They were more motivated than ever before, but I had to confirm.

“Are you guys fine with this? This is the fate of the whole class.”

We were to carry the fate of the entire class with half an army.

Ito came forward, “We didn’t have a motivated goal until now. We’ve realized it again. We want to let them know that we are a force to be reckoned with!”

But, most of my classmates were lazy. They’d rather laze around and not participate in any events. There was a physical education class, but only three——including me——attended.

I expected but was dismayed at their shortcomings. Because they haven’t done any exercises, their body coordination was out of sync. And because they laze around, they had little stamina and motivation to continue with long practice sessions.

And it wasn’t a teacher teaching them the steps; I was their teacher, so it was burdensome upon me because I also had my practice. Since I initiated this project, I should be the one who oversees it to completion. I also had to endure. If I collapse, they would too.

That realization of a heavy responsibility caught up to me one day. That day was a Thursday. Thankfully, they showed exponential progress.

Then, I let loose of myself. I almost collapsed while training. I caught myself before anyone would notice.

Unfortunately, someone had a quick eye.

“Hey, are you okay?” the all-so concerned Ito came to my side as swift as an eagle. I didn’t notice until a second later that he came beside me.

“Yes, I’m all right. I just lost my balance.”

“You were just standing still though… Don’t push yourself, okay? Take a rest. We can practice on our own.”

“No—no, I can’t let you do that. You haven’t perfected the steps.” I glanced at a random student. Coincidentally, they messed up their steps. “Look,” I pointed, “see? I still have to teach you guys.” I went afront and gathered everyone’s attention. “Alright, from the start again. If you make no mistakes, we’ll take a break.”

Everyone groaned, but they remembered their goal. Ito stared at me with concerned eyes.

There was one special case. A certain, unexpected student who I deemed excellent in following the steps. A near-perfect, graceful, captivating execution. I’ve almost forgotten all except for them because of their elegant dance.

I’ve been observing them for a while now.

“Excellent, excellent.” I clapped. There might have been some mistakes I’ve missed; there were also some I caught. But I didn’t want to tire them any further lest I make them uninspired to dance.

“You guys did great! Because of that, that’s it for today!” I declared cheerfully.

And everyone was jubilant now that they have been released from the taxing three-hour sessions for the day. I saw in their stirred, optimistic eyes because they thought they were mastering the dances.

It was true that they were, but it wasn’t perfect. But who was I to destroy their hopes?

I must strengthen and train more. After my classmates’ rehearsals, I would practice the dances all by myself. I’ve learned and reviewed the steps in advance so that I could teach them to them.

But there was this repertoire I once proposed to the class, but all unanimously vetoed. I researched and chose this dance because it looked outstanding. Such a symphony would be guaranteed victory. After all, the purpose of this dance was for Ryuu’s victory over discrimination.

It wasn’t as if the current repertoire would be doomed to lose, but such a difficult dance would certainly impress the audience. It was a safe bet since I didn’t have information about the other classes’ previous performances.

I investigated and found out they weren’t anything special, but it was evident that their performance was inferior to theirs. But there were rare occurrences when their performance was the better one and yet placed last.

Valse Boston de deux. A thrilling, classic song echoed throughout the gymnasium. The string bass signaled the start of the song. I was ready and in position. Then, the rest of the instruments played——strings, brass, percussions, and woodwinds. All mixed in a harmonious symphony. I could instead sit and listen for it for hours, analyzing and listening for hidden details.

But I had no time for that. Unfortunately, my mind had wandered, and I twisted into an awkward position and collapsed.

It hurt. I was worried if it was sprained. Luckily, it wasn’t.

During my fall, I heard a gasp from behind one of the partitions. Or, perhaps I was imagining it because no one came to my rescue. Maybe I was depending on Ito’s compassion too much.

Though, I should be thankful no one was here. It would be embarrassing if someone saw me practicing by myself since this was a dance for two.

I stood back up again, evaluated my error, reviewed the steps, and performed mechanically again.

I did this until the sunset. I went to the mall to buy cheap dinner and went to my room.

That was my routine during that week. And the awaited day has finally arrived.