I Was Possessed By An Unknown Manga-Chapter 246: Last One Standing

“It’s Kishimoto Rika!”

At the moment the long-awaited winner was announced, Rika involuntarily exclaimed, “Huh?”

Even when she was chosen as one of the final four, she had thought it was unlikely; she never truly believed she would take first place.

Satoru then announced the 2nd and 3rd places in succession; the strong contenders, Nao and Sasha, tied for 2nd place, while the androgynous-looking Ryuko took 3rd.

After the announcement, the transparently revealed individual scores showed razor-thin margins, leading most of the audience to accept the results, but there were some who couldn’t.

“It’s rigged!!”

One of them shouted.

From the navy blue cheer sticks in his hands, he was likely a member of Nao’s fan club.

In response to his shout, the surrounding male students all stood up in unison.

“That’s right! Nao couldn’t possibly lose if it wasn’t rigged!”

“Did the organizers take a bribe or something?!”

The male students, unable to accept the outcome, insisted that the voting results were manipulated.

As the atmosphere in the auditorium grew tense, Rika unconsciously shrank back.

‘Maybe there’s been some kind of mistake.’

Even she didn’t understand why she had taken first place.

But then, at that moment.

“If you’re unhappy with the results, come up here and say so.”

Kim Yu-seong, seated at the judges’ table, stood up and said this.

His mere presence overwhelmed the disgruntled members of Minato Nao’s fan club into silence.

They instinctively realized.

No matter how many of them there were, they couldn’t contend with the single man before them.

However, they couldn’t back down shamefully in front of their idol, Minato Nao, so the first student who had shouted “rigged” spoke up.

“If it wasn’t rigged, Nao wouldn’t have lost the popularity vote! Did Rika get any special treatment because she’s close with you?!”

That was an absurd accusation.

No one had thought the judges’ scores would impact the voting results.

Though they claimed that the rankings were determined by adding the judges’ scores to the audience votes, in most cases, the audience votes decided the outcome.

That was why Satoru, as the MC, had also remarked on how surprising the outcome was.

Kim Yu-seong felt his blood boiling and was about to retort, but the Vice President, who had been observing, stepped in first.

“Ah, microphone test.”

Suddenly, the Vice President snatched the microphone from Satoru and addressed the student below the stage.

“Excuse me, but are you Gojo Satoshi from Class 2-E?”

The student who had been shouting in anger looked startled as he replied.

“Uh? Yes.”

The Vice President looked down at the student, adjusting his glasses.

“You seem curious about how I know your name. It’s simple. As a member of the Student Council, I memorize all the names of the students enrolled here.”

As he said this, the Vice President’s gaze briefly lingered on Ryuko, who was standing in the corner of the stage, but few in the auditorium noticed this.

“Now, to the point: you expressed an opinion that illegal activities occurred during our Student Council’s organized event, correct?”

“Uh, well…”

“Can you take responsibility for that statement?”

“……”

The atmosphere grew heavy.

Just a moment ago, he had been confident about his claims, but when the topic of accountability came up, Gojo Satoshi fell silent.

He realized that with his limited rhetorical skills, he couldn’t win this argument.

“It doesn’t matter who you support, but using that to slander others is just plain selfish. And everyone in this auditorium is affected by your unfounded accusations.”

As he approached Gojo Satoshi, the Vice President lowered his glasses and issued a warning.

“So if you’re just going to blabber nonsensical accusations, you might as well leave this place, you rookie.”

“Eek! I’m sorry!”

Under the Vice President’s firm dismissal, the student fled the auditorium with a pathetic scream.

As the disgruntled students lost their focal point and began to quiet down, the Vice President finally wore a satisfied smile and brightly spoke to Satoru.

“Now that that’s over, please continue with the event.”

“Ah, yes.”

Satoru decided he would never cross the Vice President again.

After the meddling students had left, the award ceremony quickly followed.

Nao, standing next to Rika, suddenly spoke to her, who still wore a somewhat uneasy expression.

“Senior Rika.”

“…Huh?”

“Don’t take what happened earlier too personally. Sometimes overly enthusiastic fans can be a bit much, and I understand that.”

With a bittersweet smile, Nao then looked directly at Rika and said.

“My fans may have claimed the results were rigged, but your victory over me wasn’t a fluke. I told you earlier, you have talent. I’ve been around many entertainers since I was young, so you should take my words seriously. I believe your charm is what allowed you to win this competition. Just being in your presence seems to give off a vibrant energy. It’s a quality I don’t have, so it makes me a little jealous.”

Rika felt overwhelmed by the compliments, blushing as she looked around, unable to find a place to direct her gaze.

Seeing Rika’s flustered state, Nao spoke softly.

“Even though I lost this time, I won’t lose next time. I’m quite serious about pursuing Senior Yu-seong.”

“What?!”

Rika was taken aback by Nao’s declaration, her eyes widening in surprise, and Nao shrugged lightly in response.

Though it seemed Nao intended to show off her confidence, Rika felt it was misguided, knowing about Kumiko’s harem plan.

‘Should I tell her after all?’

That Yu-seong already had someone else in his life.

Thus, Rika impulsively spoke up.

“Um, Ms. Minato.”

“Since I’m your junior, please feel free to call me Nao.”

“Okay. Then Nao, would you like to exchange Line IDs with me?”

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“Line?”

“Is that… not okay?”

As Rika spoke with a slight tremble in her voice, Nao gasped and took out her smartphone, pressing the screen enthusiastically.

“I don’t usually share it with just anyone, but I’ll make an exception for you, Senior!”

“Thanks, Nao.”

Having successfully exchanged Line IDs with Nao, Rika accepted her award with an aloof expression, as if nothing had happened.

Unbeknownst to her, Nao’s encouragement had helped lift Rika’s spirits, and the initial sadness on her face had long since vanished.

After all the competitions had concluded…

“Damn it! I sold my pride as a man, and I only got 3rd place! I’m in 3rd place!”

It felt as if Ryuji had finally come to his senses, and he exclaimed while clutching his head.

Knowing that Ryuji could have aimed for 1st place with his androgynous appearance and overwhelming support from the audience but ended up in 3rd place, I patted his shoulder and spoke.

“Do you want to know why you ended up in 3rd place?”

“You! Do you know something?!”

“Of course.”

I pointed to the Vice President, who had played a huge role in ensuring the success of this event, almost like a co-winner.

“The Vice President already knew Ryuko wasn’t a student at our school.”

“…!”

Ryuji’s expression changed as he realized this.

This guy, who had participated in the competition out of a desire for the prize money, claimed to be a 2nd-year student, but the Vice President, who had memorized the names of all the students at our school, quickly saw through the lie.

“So the Vice President drastically reduced your score. That’s why you ended up in 3rd place.”

“Damn it! If I had known, I wouldn’t have participated at all!”

After throwing away his pride as a man and struggling to win the prize money, Ryuji received a reward of 20,000 yen.

Of course, for a high school student with limited finances, that was still a significant amount, but Ryuji, who had promised to split the prize money with Chiaki, who had helped him throughout the competition, was left with only 10,000 yen.

In other words, he had sold his pride as a man for 10,000 yen.

“Damn it! In the end, I’ve only accumulated more embarrassing stories!”

Having realized the cruel reality a bit too late, Ryuji cried out to the sky.

Floating behind Ryuji, Mahes gave a thumbs-up, as if he had enjoyed the show today.

…Maybe this guy was the worst of them all.

After all the competitions ended, Akagi Sojiro reflected as he made his way back to the Student Council room.

“Was it Ryuko?”

She was a girl he had never seen before at school.

She was likely an outsider who had come to the school for the cultural festival and participated for fun.

With hair as white as snow reminiscent of the eyes, a slender model-like figure, and a slightly small bust, she resembled a delicate Japanese doll, which he found appealing.

“I would like to meet her again if I have the chance.”

Blush.

Akagi Sojiro, aged 18.

For the first time, a spring breeze blew through his heart.