Devil's Luck[Arc 5: Worlds Apart]

"The inter-club swim meet with an increase in club funds on the line continues! The second competition event is the three-legged race!!" The announcer loudly proclaimed through the speakers for everyone to hear. "The rules for this competition is simple! 2 members from each team will tie their legs together, and swim the 50m length of the pool!!"

"The first to the goal gets 15 points! 2nd place gets 14 points, 3rd is 13 points and so on..."

Zenkichi, sat on the ground with his back against the wall, then tunes out the announcer as he leaned down and looked at the ground without any expression, lost in thought.

'I got careless. I knew that this world could be a fictional one from my past life, no one could have natural blue hair! I was cautious enough since I had no memories about this world from my previous life but I never thought of a possibility that there'd be other characters from other worlds to end here!'

'Uzaki-chan and that purple haired girl from earlier with a bombastic figure, both of them are from respectively different anime series. Just how in the hell are they here? I'm 90% sure that they didn't go to this school!'

'But they aren't important, what's more important is the potential of a character from an anime with god-like powers and world destroying enemies! Gangs, mobs, and hell even the military I could somewhat deal with but someone akin to a god?! Hell no!'

Zenkichi shut his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself down before he gets a heart attack from the sheer panic he was feeling.

It was normal to feel scared at the unknown, especially when it comes to anime, manga or whatever fictional worlds he's in because if there's one correlation they have–it's craziness and insanity.

"God, who's real probably, I hope that you don't fuck me over quickly. As long as I can get lucky, and live longer, I can get some reality warping skills then I wouldn't fear anything!" Zenkichi nodded. "I just have to continue laying low and enjoy my school life and get rid of whatever shady group this school has that threatens me and other students."

"Oi~ Hitoyoshi!" Shiranui said as she came walking up to him, looking at him with her usual cheery expression. "What are you doing here sulking like some outcast of society?"

Zenkichi opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Just thinking, Shiranui."

She sat down next to him, still smiling. "Well, you can think later, we have a competition to win!"

Zenkichi raised an eyebrow. "Three-legged race? Didn't Medaka-chan and Nabeshima-senpai participate in it?"

"Well, yeah they are. But we should at least cheer them on, it'll help motivate them even more to win it." Shiranui replied, thinking. 'Especially Kurokami. I know for sure she'll swim like her life depends on it when you go cheer for her.'

Shiranui wasn't blind or ignorant about Medaka Kurokami's feelings about Zenkichi, it's her job as her double to know and it honestly wasn't that difficult to figure it out through her complex mind.

Because despite all her intelligence and strength, Medaka was also just a simple and straightforward girl in the most unbelievable sense.

'Well she wouldn't be the abnormal of all abnormals.'

Zenkichi sighed, then stood up. "You're right, let's go cheer them on."

As they walked towards the pool, Zenkichi couldn't help but feel a small flutter in his chest when he saw Medaka and Nabeshima already standing at their starting block, their legs already tied together. They were chatting amicably with smiles on their faces.

He didn't know why, but seeing them interacting with each other as friends just made him feel...fulfilled for some reason.

For a moment his mind flickered with a past memory, his previous life. He showed facial features; no eyes, no lips, no eyebrows; just a chubby figure staring blankly at himself at the mirror wearing nothing, completely exposing himself.

....Ẃ́h͞a̷͘t̶'͞ś̡͡ ̛t̷h͜e͏͢ ̶̴͡p̢o̶̧͡in̡͡t̢҉ į̵n liv͟҉̸i̸̛ǹ̴́g͡?̵̛

'How did I end up in this situation?' Zenkichi thought, shaking his head slightly as he went to join Shiranui on the sidelines. Forcibly trying to forget the image he just saw.

The past is the past, there was no point in trying to relive it. He's been given a second chance, he's Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, and he is going to live his life to the fullest.

And so, with a smile on his face, with his hands on each side of his mouth, he let out a scream of excitement and enthusiasm as he watched Medaka and Nabeshima take off, their synchronized movements as they swam through the water with all their might.

"Hey Shiranui. Who do you think has the biggest chance to win this game?"

"Hm?" Shiranui tilted her head. "Looking at it logically, it's basically a sprint while in water right? So if you think about it logically, the track team should have the advantage right?"

"Though I say that, I still put my money on the swimming team and ours. Hahaha!" She giggled.

"Right." Zenkichi nodded. "Go! Medaka-chan! Nabeshima-senpai! Win it! Swim! Stroke, stroke, stroke!" he screamed, as if his life depended on it.

Yet, despite their efforts, they weren't the ones who managed to get first place. They lost to the swimming team by half a second.

1st Place: Swimming Team – 45 points

2nd Place: MMA Team – 44 points

"In the world of men's swimming, Tanegashima-senpai(the guy who looks like a surfer thug) is one of the fastest out there!" Shiranui explained with a serious expression. "Well, I should be praising Yakushima-senpai for being able to keep up with him. Well, if there's one good thing about their team is that they have excellent teamwork."

'No, that has nothing to do with teamwork.' Zenkichi inwardly said, grimacing. 'Teamwork is if they both worked together in synch. No, what they did was pure recklessness with the sole drive of winning that could've gotten themselves killed! There has to be a limit to how much you can risk your life!'

'Is money truly that important to them?'

"Ahh~ We got second place." Nabeshima whined as she climbed out of the pool, her legs still tied together with Medaka who had a stern expression. "If only we were just a bit faster."

Medaka didn't seem to mind their loss, and instead, her expression softened. "It's okay, Nabeshima-senpai. We gave our all, and that's what matters the most. Besides, there's two more games to play before everything is settled."

Zenkichi nodded in agreement. "She's right. So don't lose hope yet."

"Ah~ Thanks, you guys. I've really got some good juniors. Come here you two!"

And so, the next and 3rd game soon started.

The 3rd match was called "Eel catching" as the name suggests, for every eel you catch in the water you get 1 point per eel.

In a unanimous vote, the MMA Team decided to send Shiranui to participate in this game.

When asked by her for the reason why, they responded with a very simple: "You didn't participate in any of the games, you gotta at least play one."

Letting out a snort, she turned her head away from her heartless team, letting a small and fragile girl like her participate in such a game, and jump down the pool with a stern expression.

Watching the pouting Shiranui moved through the water with numerous eels swimming around, Zenkichi couldn't help but feel bad for some reason.

...It might be because Shiranui looked more like a child than a highschooler and it kinda looked like they were bullying her.

"Wooo! Yeah! You can do this Shiranui-chan!"

"Good luck, Shiranui!"

Sweatdropped, Zenkichi glanced to see both Medaka and Nabeshima loudly cheering on Shiranui with closed eyes and bright smiles. He turned towards Shiranui, and although it was hard at first, he could see the tips of her ears had turned red.

'Cute.'

He shook his head and as he was about to start cheering her on as well, like any good friend would, he froze.

Because just across the swimming opposite to him was a very familiar face.

Tall, muscular and black; wearing only a red swimming trunk with gold linings, who was it but Takachiho Shigusa? The man who's very nimble with his feet, has dodged his every attack, and had said straight to his face that he was going to capture him to experiment him.

Takachiho smiled as he noticed Zenkichi's presence, and lazily waved at him. Zenkichi's heart skipped a beat, but he quickly composed himself and forced a smile, coldly narrowing his eyes at him.

'No, don't panic, don't panic. It's just a coincidence, he's probably just watching the competition like everyone else. Just act natural.'

But deep down, Zenkichi knew that this was no coincidence. There was no way that Takachiho just happened to be there. He was here for a reason, and that reason was most likely Zenkichi.

He just hopes that there was only him. If not...

Zenkichi took a deep breath and tried to focus on Shiranui, who was still swimming around trying to catch eels. But he couldn't shake off the feeling of dread that was now settling in his chest.

'This doesn't bode well...not at all.' He clenched his fists. 'I'll probably be forced to use either 'The End' or 'Real Eater' to deal with whatever shit he or they will throw at me soon. Of all the time to show up, it had to be now.'

'Welp, nonetheless, you just saved me the time and effort to find you.' His eyes coldly flickered. 'And this time, I'm landing my fist to your face.'

[❄️❄️❄️]

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