The chapter opens with a discussion of the upcoming national high school champion ships, which are held each year in late July. The narrator explains that the ships are meant to be a practice match before the main competition. He asks the other students about their connections to the schools in their area, and they respond that they would be okay with such a match, but that they are not strong enough to compete with the other schools. The other students discuss the midterm grades of their students, and the narrator comments that the grades are "shockingly higher" than they were in the past. He also notes that the results of the first round of the meat buns robin show that Kishida has a winning percentage of 87.5 percent. Kishida, however, has a losing percentage of 0 percent. He says that he does not have any friends in his class, and that there is an upper-class woman acting as manager of his school. He feels that he is puking too, as he has no new friends in the class. He explains that he likes the chigiriki, one of the characters in the novel, who lost his hairstyle when he fell off a horse. He tells Kishida that he would like to memorize all the cards of the ship, including the meanings, so that he will be able to remember them faster. He adds that if he were a novice, he would need such things as knee pads to help him concentrate on his game. He praises Kishida for his good build, and he tells him that it took him three years to tell him that he could get such things for free.