Chapter 64: Dodgeball (2)

n

n

n

n“Don’t think about not playing seriously, you idiot.”

nSatsuki commented. Did you just read my mind?

n“Catch the special ball for us Onoda!”

nAs if it was that easy Harada. Even these guys couldn’t catch it. But yeah, someone from the other team caught it earlier.

n“Ruu. Focus.”

nAh. Nami. Is it fine to call me like that here? Or did she deliberately call me that for Tadano to hear?

n“Ruu?!”

nAh. He heard. Well, not that I care. He can be more hostile if he wanted to.

nBut Satsuki, when she heard that, she also turned her head to me like asking what was that about.

nHarada just looked on, with a mysterious smile on her lips.

nThat scary girl. One word and it turned the air around our team awkward.

nThe game soon resumed. All the balls were at them so we were to defend against it. Since they’re targeting the last two boys, we went in front while asking the girls to spread out but not far from us in case we caught one.

n“Just dodge for now and pick it up before it goes out of the zone.”

nTadano and Nami were the ones at the right zone while the rest of us were at the left.

nSatsuki positioned herself just a little to my right, while Harada kept on walking around.

nAnd then the balls flew. A normal ball was flying towards me. The strength used for throwing it was low. Well, I saw Fujii throwing it at me.

nCatching it. I immediately passed it to Satsuki. She then passed that to Sakuma who was at the enemy’s right outfield.

nHe caught it and threw it to a guy. It hit his target successfully which made him enter the zone again. He was put to the right zone to balance our numbers on both sides.

nSakuma beamed a smile at Satsuki when he passed by her on the way to the right zone. This guy. He’s now not afraid to show that he likes her but still, he doesn’t have the guts to confess.

nSatsuki almost blushed at that. But yeah, her mouth took over that she insulted him instead.

nOnce Sakuma settled on the right zone. The game resumed. Now we have 6 players while they have 8.

nThe other balls all missed their target earlier and none went out of the zone so we now have a chance to attack again. The tennis ball was given to Harada.

n“This is a chance! Now I’ll show you my super pitch! The slider!”

nWhile declaring that, she took a stance like a baseball? pitcher. This girl. She always made her throws this dramatic. And everyone loves it. That Fukuda who’s usually a scary delinquent for others was cheering like a fool at the outfield.

nEveryone watched her so-called super pitch with bated breaths. The enemy team gulped at it, preparing themselves to dodge. She’s serious about being a pitcher before. She already hit 5 of them from her throws raising her to be the top three hitter of our class.

nNami comes second and Satsuki, no doubt, is first.

nThe ball travelled the air in a straightforward manner, aiming at one of the girls of the opposite team. It’s not that fast but because she said it was a slider, the ball being a bit slow was expected because of the spin she put on it.

nBut they didn’t know. That ball wasn’t a slider. I could see how her fingers held that ball. She put on an illusion that it was a slider because of her shout while in fact it was just a slow fastball.

nThinking it would somehow slide at the last moment, the girl only moved slightly to the direction opposite of where she thought the ball would pass.

nBut as I expected, the ball continued it’s straight direction hitting the girl on her shoulder.

n“That’s just a normal fastball!”

nSomeone from the outfield shouted. It was too late for them to notice. Everyone was speechless that they believed Harada would really throw the kind of pitch she shouted.

nThat girl was this good at deception. Our remaining three girls were all attractive that even some of their boys were secretly cheering for them. Ah. Too bad for them these three will soon be mine.

n“It’s super cool right! Special ball means three of you. Move to the outfield!”

nShe even jumped at happiness of being the first to hit someone using that special ball in our team. More eyes turned to heart shape because of that.

nWhat is happening here? Heart-shaped eyes?! We’re not in an anime! Get a grip on yourselves!

nAh **. Why am I retorting inside my head?

n“Good job Harada-san.”

nNami praised her. The playing field suddenly turned to our advantage from the previous disadvantage in two hits.

nEven Satsuki tapped on her shoulder and gave a thumbs up.

nThen when Harada turned to me, she raised her hand asking for a high five.

nThis girl. The game hasn’t ended yet, you know?

nI gave her that high five she’s asking to satisfy her.

nThe additional 2 who were moved to the outfield were both boys. Now they’re down to 3 girls and 2 boys. If we didn’t count Fujii who surely don’t have enough power to throw then the power balance is leaning on us.

nThe two balls were thrown next but the enemy became alert that no one was hit.

nFujii, whose ball I caught before gets fired up but her gaze was still on me.

nSatsuki and Nami noticed that but since the game was ongoing, they didn’t ask unnecessary questions.

nThen the opponent’s turn to throw. They gathered the three balls first which was the strategy each team was using since earlier. So somehow, the rule about not having Attacker and Defender was nulled.

nTheir 3 girls threw the balls at the same time but instead of throwing it to us, they aimed it at their teammates standing on our outfield.

n“Hit them!”

nOne of the girls still in their field shouted. Then all of the others from Class 4 followed that it became too loud to concentrate.

nEh? Why are they this serious in a game? Do they want to win this badly?

nBecause of that sudden noise, Harada and Tadano were hit by normal balls.

nWell, their shouts didn’t affect me and Satsuki at all which made me catch the special ball.

n“Good job Onoda! Now instead of losing 2, we gained another 1!”

nRindou shouted from the enemies’ outfield, excitement shown on her face. Satsuki gave me a punch to the shoulder, she’s also too excited at what happened.

nHarada tapped my back before she moved to the outfield.

nNami can’t move to our zone so she just gave me a thumbs up and so is Sakuma, who’s howling like an idiot.

nTadano didn’t say anything. He quietly moved to the outfield.

nThe enemies who hit Harada and Tadano went back to their zones, one on each. Raising their numbers to 7.

nOn the other hand, the three that were picked to get back into our field were Ogawa, Rindou and Fukuda.

nErr. The game was prolonged again now that the number of players of each team rose back to 7.

nThen the game continues. There will be those who will be hit, those who will get back and those who will catch or hit using the special ball.

nIt was at the one hour mark when I was hit accidentally and were sent to the outfield.

nSurprisingly, Rindou and Fujii were both still in the field. The two who looked frail proved to be good at dodging. Just that, their throws were too weak.

n5 minutes more and somehow, Rindou passed me her ball.

nI caught it and threw it at the enemy nearest to me.

nFujii.

nI don’t know what happened then, but the ball moved up and hit her on the side of her head which made her fall down, dizzy and unconscious. Luckily her glasses didn’t suffer a damage.

n“Timeout!” ．

nSeeing that, the teacher called for a timeout herself.

nShe checked Fujii’s condition and then looked at me.

n“You! Bring her to the infirmary!”

nThe whole Class 4 followed the teacher and I was put under their pressuring gaze.

nEh? Alright. This is my fault, right?

nBut when the teacher judged her condition, it made me dumbfounded.

n“This girl exhausted herself so much that a little nudge made her collapse.”

nI was unlucky to be that nudge she needed to collapse.

nErr. Is it fine for me to bring her? Isn’t it better for one of her classmates to do that?

nBut yeah, seeing their gazes, and now even my classmates were all looking over, waiting to see what I will do.

n“Alright. I’m sorry. I’ll bring her to the infirmary now.”

nPicking her body up from the ground, I put her into a princess carry. Her body is soft to the touch and well, she’s not that heavy.

nWhistles and remarks sounded all around me when they saw that.

nThese guys. I should just ignore them and bring this weak girl to that infirmary. I’m also a bit tired, not only from playing but also from retorting.

nAh. Maybe this will be a chance for me to clear up that unexplainable grudge she has on me?

nWe’ll see. She might be this attractive, but she’s not on my target list. But these small lips of hers, it’s too kissable just from looking at it.

nEh? This girl. I might want to steal her if I got to know more about her.

nI don’t know anything about her except that she first applied to Book Club but got scared away by those members then she joined the Literature club and somehow held a grudge on me because of that piece of literature I did on my trial.

nI’m slowly becoming a regular visitor of that place. Eh? This will be the 3rd time I will go to infirmary. Looking down at the girl on my arms, I went out of the Gymnasium. To what will be the result of that game, I don’t care anymore.

n

Chapter end