Shuchiin Academy gymnasium. It was supposed to be quiet in the evening, but right now it was full of the sound of balls bouncing and voices shouting over each other.
"Open your eyes when you jump! I said open them!"
"I am opening them!"
"You’re closing them!!"
Shirogane Miyuki’s volleyball practice was in full swing. The one teaching him was Fujiwara Chika, the student council secretary.
Watching him close his eyes and smack himself in the cheek for the umpteenth time, she was currently on the verge of losing her mind from frustration.
After that storm of a session passed, they finally got a short break.
"President..."
"W-what is it?"
Shirogane flinched when Fujiwara looked at him with half-lidded eyes.
"How have you managed to survive with monster-level skill like this...? Was there really nobody to teach you before?"
"Well, before..."
At her words, Shirogane, suddenly stung, began to look back on the past.
**
Miyuki was one of the few people who knew about Hotaro’s talent, so whenever there was a time he had to do something athletic, he had asked him to teach him a few times.
Hotaro complained a lot about it, but in the end he always did teach him.
Batting cage, highest difficulty course, the fastball zone that could throw pitches up to 140 km/h.
Hotaro stepped in after feeding in a coin and said to Miyuki, bat in hand,
"All right, batting is really easy."
"Oh, really?"
"Now, the ball’s coming, right?"
Fshh!
"Yeah, yeah."
Clang!
A thunderous swing exploded. With a crisp crack, the ball flew into the home run zone.
Miyuki’s expectations shot up with it.
What kind of advice would a genius give him?
"Okay, just look at the ball and hit the ball."
"...What?"
"I said look at the ball and hit it."
"Professor, I don’t understand..."
He figured maybe baseball was one thing, but soccer would be different.
After all, Hotaro’s father was a legendary player, and Hotaro himself had once made it his main sport. But...
"Beating an opponent is easy. First, just do a light flip-flap."
Hotaro dribbled the ball forward, feigned pushing it outward with his right foot, then instantly changed its direction inward like a shot.
He described it as if it were nothing, but it was one of the highest-difficulty individual techniques.
"...Light?"
Shirogane was dumbfounded.
"Use a Cruyff turn every now and then if you’re bored, and if you want to annoy your opponent, throw in a little elastico like this too."
"Do you really think a beginner can do that...?"
"Why not? You just do it."
Hotaro’s physical education lessons were always like this.
He would casually use top-tier techniques as naturally as breathing, then act like, "Why can’t you do this...?"
"Fine, let’s not ask this guy anything ever again..."
From that day on, Shirogane Miyuki stopped asking Hotaro anything related to sports.
**
Miyuki had said he’d been practicing volleyball hard for days and couldn’t walk home with me.
I’d been worried he might end up bothering me before volleyball practice, but since he was training with Fujiwara, I felt relieved.
That meant there’d be no trouble for me!
So in a light mood, I stopped by the gym to see how things were going.
"Beep! You have to open your eyes if you want to receive the ball!"
"I think they’re open...!?"
"They’re not open, I said!! Please, for the love of all things, develop some self-awareness—!"
Fujiwara and Miyuki were doing Spartan-style training, complete with a headband that said "Oni" and a whistle.
They still had a long way to go...
Just from watching, Fujiwara’s instruction itself seemed pretty good. I guess you could say she kept the level right where it needed to be.
Maybe both of them sensed someone’s presence, because they looked over at me. Then Fujiwara, with a face like she was dying, staggered toward me.
"Waaah, Suzuki-kuuun... save me... The president, the president is a monster..."
"You’ve got it rough, Fujiwara."
"...Wouldn’t Suzuki-kun know him better and explain things more easily than I can?"
So you’re trying to dump this on me and run? Not a chance.
"Ahem, I’m not exactly great at sports..."
I quickly looked away.
"You only say that at times like this...!"
"Well, I can at least help out a little."
As a temporary assistant, I helped by fetching balls Miyuki had sent flying into weird places. That was fine for today.
In the middle of all that practice, an uninvited guest showed up at the gym.
"Yo~ Working hard, huh?"
The one who came in without warning was Shidou Sousuke from Class 2-C.
He was a laid-back-looking boy with blond hair, piercings in his ears, and dark-tanned skin.
Of all people, it had to be this guy...
"...Shidou."
"What, the sports-specialist prince is here too?"
Shidou looked at me with obvious displeasure.
He’d been the type to sneer at me over every little thing ever since we were in the same class in first year.
Back then, the person who had passed the ball to me while pretending to make a mistake was Shidou. There was no helping it, since he was the only one in class who was outstanding at sports.
It was ironic, considering he’d assumed it was all his own doing and spent the whole time mocking me for it.
"President~ You really should practice a lot more. So, will you be okay when you play against our class?"
"...That’s why I’m practicing, isn’t it?"
"Hmm, the president’s at least smart enough to study, so that’s fine~ But maybe you shouldn’t hang around some guy who’s only a sports-specialist in name. You’ll end up getting dragged down to his level."
"...!"
Miyuki’s eyes sharpened. But he clenched his teeth and held back once. If he let himself be baited into a fight while holding the position of student council president, there’d be nothing good about it.
That was the right call. Fujiwara was the one who got angry first, though.
"What is your problem all of a sudden!"
Fujiwara snapped, but Shidou just shrugged it off with a shameless grin.
"What, Fujiwara-chan was here too? You must have a hard time wiping the stupid guy’s butt. You’re from the main entrance too, so don’t hang around here. It’ll bring bad luck."
He must have been the son of some construction company president rumored to be connected to the yakuza or something.
He was one of those guys with an intense pride in being an internal entrant. He hated outside admissions students with a passion.
Fujiwara flared up again at his over-the-line remarks.
"What does it matter who I spend time with! Haven’t you been rude enough already!!"
"Oh, sorry. But I can’t help it. I’m basically a bastard dog that barks whenever I see a pathetic loser. Woof woof!"
Fujiwara stared at him like, what is wrong with this guy?
Every word out of his mouth was dangerous, but he’d been talking like that without a filter for years.
He only acted like that toward people who seemed weaker than him. It was a pretty despicable habit, but as they say, if you’re exceptional at something, people will romanticize even your worst traits. Since he was top-tier at sports even by Shuchiin standards, there were apparently people who liked that side of him too.
Since I’d never bothered responding no matter what he said before, it seemed he’d shifted his target to the people around me instead.
"You guys are playing our class in the volleyball tournament in two weeks, right? Man, what a shame. At this rate, disaster is guaranteed~"
"........"
Hard to deny that. That was what most people expected.
Unless some huge variable came up, that was probably how it would go.
"Or maybe the president and the sports-specialist prince are too scared to even show up~? But your class is full of pathetic losers when it comes to sports anyway, right? Whoever you send doesn’t really matter... bahahaha!!"
Shidou laughed as he bounced a volleyball he’d picked up off the floor.
"........"
How long was I supposed to keep putting up with this? I was fine on my own. Honestly, I’d rather be mocked like this than have people look at me with fear.
But did I really have to sit there and let him insult everyone else just because of me?
If my enduring this ended up hurting the people around me, then what was the point of quitting sports in the first place?
So, to put it simply...
I couldn’t take it anymore.
"...Hey, Shidou."
"Ohoho! What’s this, our lofty sports-specialist prince! You’re finally reacting?"
"You talk too much. What are you going to do if you lose?"
"Pffft...?!"
Shidou burst out laughing. Then he spent a good thirty seconds clutching his stomach. Once he finally calmed down, he asked in a voice still trembling with laughter,
"Pff, pwahaha, krahahaha! Hey, are you seriously saying that?"
"Yeah, I am."
"Reeeally~ Confidence is great! Then should we make a bet?"
"...I don’t care."
"Ohhh, cool! Hmm, what would be good... Ah!"
"...?"
"If you lose, the sports-specialist kid becomes my bread runner until graduation! Whenever I call, you come running! Since you’re a sports specialist in name at least, maybe you’ve got talent for sprinting to the cafeteria to buy bread. Man, I’m looking forward to it~"
Fujiwara and Miyuki were both horrified by Shidou’s laughing proposal.
"What kind of ridiculous thing is that...!"
"You bastard, don’t go spouting nonsense—!"
"That’s enough, Fujiwara, Miyuki."
"Hotaro, you can’t just let him get away with that...!"
Miyuki and Fujiwara looked like they were about to stop me, but I had already made up my mind.
"If that’s your condition, I don’t mind."
"Oho~ The sports-specialist kid’s got guts!"
"Suzuki-kun!"
"Hey!"
"I’m dying to know what condition the sports-specialist prince is going to set, hmm? I can’t wait~"
Shidou stamped his feet in place like he was doing tap dance, urging me on. I opened my mouth.
"If I win, you’ll come to our class and..."
"Mm-hm, though that’ll never happen~"
"...kneel down and apologize to everyone in the class."
The two of them went wide-eyed. Shidou, on the other hand, burst out laughing again.
"Wow, is that all? That’s some beautiful team spirit~ Kneel? Hah! But kneeling’s too weak! If you’re going to do it, I’ll even let you do a dogeza in just your underwear! Dogeza!"
"...Yeah, I’ve got it recorded, so I trust you’ll keep that promise."
I turned off the recording button I’d been holding down ever since that guy started crossing the line.
Shidou’s expression changed to one of surprise.
"What, why would you bother leaving evidence that’s bad for you? You’re weirdly fair in the most pointless places!"
"Because I figured you’d try to weasel out of it. What else?"
"Haha, so you actually wanted to become my slave? You’ll only get to breathe the air of freedom for two more weeks, so enjoy your remaining time! Well then, I’m off. Bye-bye~"
As soon as the conversation was over, Shidou turned around and left the gym.
The stormy ten minutes ended like that.
**
Even after Shidou had been gone for a while, Fujiwara still seemed unable to cool off and was raging around.
"There’s being clueless, and then there’s this! Suzuki-kun, take that promise back now! That guy may be a delinquent, but when it comes to sports...!"
Fujiwara met my eyes and trailed off.
Miyuki seemed to realize what state I was in.
"...Hotaro, are you serious this time?"
"Yeah."
"I wouldn’t doubt you when you make that kind of face, but did you say it because you actually have a chance?"
"........"
Honestly, I hadn’t exactly calculated my odds before jumping in.
At Miyuki’s words, I thought about the members of Class C, our opponents.
The reason Class C was expected to be the strongest in the volleyball class match was because each of the non-volleyball-club members was individually strong.
Volleyball club members are not allowed to participate in class matches.
But they had Shidou Sousuke, who played as a mercenary for the volleyball club and acted as their ace, plus the soccer club’s starting goalkeeper, the basketball club’s ace, and other key figures from each sports club.
Meanwhile, our class was... honestly, bleak.
There were a few who were decent enough, but compared to the other side, we were hopelessly lacking.
And volleyball is not the kind of sport you can win just because one person is good at it.
After finishing my rough calculations, I spoke.
"I can’t do it alone. But..."
"But?"
"We’ll need a lot of preparation. And the most important part of that is..."
"...What is it?"
"You."
"M-me...?"
Miyuki looked bewildered at being singled out so suddenly. Well, I guess he wouldn’t have expected that.
"You don’t doubt my skill at all, you’ve got great stamina, you’re fast on your feet, you’re tall... though your sense is absolutely terrible, which is a problem."
"Ugh, you were doing so well until that part."
"Well, at least for the most important basics, we’ve got a good teacher, don’t we? Right, Fujiwara?"
"...Geh?!"
Fujiwara stared in disbelief as the arrow suddenly pointed at her.
Miyuki nodded too.
"There really isn’t a better teacher than Fujiwara, that’s for sure."
"I agree. Fujiwara is definitely..."
Miyuki and I slowly took a step toward Fujiwara.
As we drew closer and closer, she backed away.
Fujiwara’s face was full of terror.
"D-don’t come any closer! You’re planning to do something violent to me!"
"Just a little more, just teach us a little more. Fujiwara...!"
"Kyaaaah——!"
Fujiwara’s scream shook the gym.
And so, the two weeks of upheaval that would change my fate began.
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