Receiving, tossing, and attacking was the basic
strategy. To receive, one planted their feet on the ground, prepared their
shoulders, and received the ball. Each team of six was split into two groups of
three and victory was determined by whoever won three sets first.
It was not a simple sport that could be won
with just three people, but three powerful players could greatly increase a
team’s overall offense and defense.
The summer game tournament was the big
event just before summer break and Fujita Mutsuki’s class had placed their
three most athletic members on their volleyball team: Jiyuuni Ange who excelled
at all sports, Satowa Lucia who did the same, and Kurikara Saya who was captain
of the girls softball team.
Ibekusa Machina and Tomono Sakae had also
been placed on the team and Mutsuki himself was only there to bring the total
up to six.
Machina had been an unexpected boon for the
team. While she would not take the initiative, she was perfect at accurately placing
the ball in the perfect spot for the attacker to make their move.
However, the three most promising players had
an unexpected flaw.
“Wah, wah, wah! Knock it up a little higher
than that!”
It was afterschool on the volleyball court
at one corner of the school grounds.
Ange panicked as the ball tossed to her
stopped at about knee height. She still managed to flip around in midair and
hit it to the opposite court, but her legs got caught in the net.
“She got tangled up again!”
Her own team laughed cheerfully.
“Hey, hey. Did you see that, Mutsuki-kun?
She really is clumsy. Touching the net is a foul, isn’t it? F! O! U! L!”
“Y-yes, it is. Now, Lucia-kun, can we start
practicing?”
Even though he was laughing at Ange, Lucia
was still learning the rules himself as he clung to Mutsuki.
As the class representative, Sakae was also
leading the volleyball team, but he only smiled bitterly and shrugged.
Mutsuki felt bad that it was his roommate
and friend arguing, so he turned to the last member of the team.
Kurikara Saya sat on the edge of the bench
and showed no sign joining them as they practiced.
She was wrinkling her brow and clearly
looked unwell.
Mutsuki was worried she was sleep deprived,
and then their gazes met.
“Ah.”
She would normally smile whenever she saw
someone, but she looked away a little awkwardly.
Each team was taking turns using the practice
court, so after a set amount of time passed, they let the next team take over. The
five of them moved to the bench they had left their things on, which was in the
opposite direction from Saya.
“Sigh~ I don’t have any complaints about
our individual abilities, but we might not even be able to win the first round
like this.”
Their teamwork could not have been worse, so
Sakae gave an exaggerated sigh.
He had not been trying to match the other
boy, but Mutsuki gave a quieter sigh of his own.
Their individual athletic abilities were
ten times as amazing as Sakae had imagined.
They were hiding their identities, but
Fujita Mutsuki was surrounded by representatives of heaven, hell, and the human
world: Jiyuuni Ange, Satowa Lucia, and Ibekusa Machina respectively. Their
physical abilities far surpassed those of a normal human.
However, Lucia was mostly just having fun,
and…
“Wait, Ibekusa! Toss the ball to me a
little better than that! I can’t reach it!”
“Jumping any higher than that would seem
unnatural. You should restrict yourself to the height I provide you. Using the
powers of an angel for sports is unfair.”
“I don’t care!”
Machina did not want to show off any
athleticism that went beyond the category of a normal student, so Ange’s
abilities went to waste with her assistance.
They only had three days until the ball
game tournament. These were representatives of hostile organizations, so getting
them to work together by then was not going to be easy.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about a
bad luck. Our very first match is against the teachers team led by that Demon
God.”
Resignation filled Sakae’s voice as he
watched the next team begin practicing.
“I guess I should count myself lucky for
the rare opportunity to see Katsue-sensei dressed like this.”
They had given up the court to the teachers
team which was checking on their formation.
One of them was Katsuie Subaru, homeroom
teacher of Mutsuki’s class.
She was a beauty who looked at home in an
intelligent outfit. She usually wore a crisp suit, so seeing her go through her
warm-up exercises in a red track suit was a new experience.
Megutono Academy’s game tournament was
incredibly largescale. It included volleyball, soccer, baseball, and even more sports
and teams were formed by year, class, and club.
The teachers were no exception, so there
was even a teachers team. It was originally meant as a way for the teachers to
deepen their friendship with the students, but a lot of the teachers could be
immature.
“Let’s get started, Katsue-sensei,
Daima-sensei! …One!”
“Twoooo!”
“Threeeeeee!”
An immature sound of attack rang across the
court.
Mutsuki and the others were up against the volleyball
representatives for the teachers team in their first match, but those teachers
were intent on winning.
“Gahhh! This isn’t fair! That Demon God’s
very existence isn’t fair~”
Sakae paled as he imagined going up against
that attack. Mutsuki’s eyes were also naturally drawn to Daima-sensei who had
made the attack.
At 190 cm at least, the teacher was a head
taller than the rest.
She did not seem slender and powerful. The
face below her short-cropped chestnut hair was young enough to pass for Mutsuki’s
age, but her height was another matter entirely.
She was Daima Makoto, Megutono Academy’s PE
teacher.
She was something of a “big sister teacher”
and she was popular among the girls due to the sense of security brought by her
sociable personality and her height.
However, that friendly side had led to her
gaining the nickname Demon God as a pun on her family name.
“It won’t even be about winning or losing
against that. We have to pray we don’t get injured.”
“Maybe so.”
Mutsuki smiled bitterly.
He glanced over at the girls, but they seemed
to have stopped talking about volleyball.
“Are your injuries from Miss C better?”
Ibekusa Machina sat next to Ange while
handing her a drink bottle.
The two of them were enemies, but Machina
was from the moderate faction and she had started worrying about the other girl
a lot recently.
Ange was not exactly friendly, but she could
not stir up pointless trouble when her duty was to protect Mutsuki. She took the
bottle.
“I didn’t have any injuries to begin with.”
“I see.”
“…I am going to crush Black Cat.”
She kept her voice low so the others could not
hear.
“We know Black Cat is somewhere near
Mutsuki and has approached quite a bit. Next time, it’s my turn to strike back.”
Ange’s words were sharp enough to sense a sword-like
edge to them and Machina only lowered her head a little.
She closed her eyes as the angel tried to
read her reaction.
“Miss C is currently undergoing an inquiry.
Even if she is in danger, I am not obligated to help her. However…”
Machina stood up.
“If the two of you were to fight, your odds
of victory are below 2%. And she still has a few tricks hidden up her sleeve.”
She quietly said she did not recommend
fighting this enemy and then she walked away.
Ange was left all alone.
“Hmph.”
She crushed the plastic bottle without
taking a single sip.
“Don’t act so proud, human.”
The bottle dented in the shape of her slender
fingers until it burst from the middle and fell to the ground. The edges of the
bottle were smooth, as if it had been melted rather than split.
“I know where Black Cat is.”
She glared at Machina’s back and then
looked to the opposite bench.
A girl sat their all alone. She looked perfectly
normal, except for a dangerously crazed light deep in her eyes. It was Kurikara
Saya.
Saya was looking back their way from that
opposite bench. She was staring at Lucia, Sakae, and Mutsuki.
“What!? Wait a second, Mutsuki! What the
hell is this!?”
“Wh-what is what?”
Sakae raised his voice, which drew Ange’s
attention.
Mutsuki’s student handbook had fallen from
his uniform on the bench. Sakae had picked it up, but…
“What the hell is this!? This was our
friendship album! It was just for the two of us! So why is someone else in
here!?”
He shouted angrily at Mutsuki after seeing
the final page.
Lots of photo booth pictures had been placed
there. There were twenty of them that he had taken with his friends since
elementary school.
It was natural to place a special
photograph up at the very top, so that was where he had a picture of him and Sakae,
his best friend.
But now, the one he had taken with Ange was
right there next to it.
“Dammit! It used to only be me! This was
the special spot reserved for me, the
best friend in the world for Mutsuki!”
“S-sorry, Sakae. But it was my first one
with a girl.”
“No fair! I want a photo like that too! Let’s
take one together, Mutsuki-kun!”
Jealous Sakae and opportunistic Lucia
pressed in on Mutsuki.
However, this was still a friendly sort of
anger.
“…What’s all this about?”
As Mutsuki tried to get by with a bitter
smile, the handbook that had moved from Sakae to Lucia made another move to
someone else. When he noticed who, he paled.
Ange, on the other hand, grew beet red.
“What is this!? This is…from back then!?
You brought that back with you!?”
“S-sorry. But it came out really well.”
“This isn’t a joke! You…!”
“Ah, wait. Don’t peel it off so roughly. It’s
going to tear.”
Mutsuki was right about it having come out
well. They looked just like a couple. Ange pulled at it with her fingernail,
but it was stuck on there good and would not come off. The boy tried to stop
her, but the two jealous boys pressed in on him.
Below the clear sky of an early summer
afternoon, lively voices filled the volleyball court.
“…”
Ibekusa Machina calmly watched those four
argue.
As did the vertical pupils of a feral cat.
Thanks for a great present on New Year!!~
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to see that you updated one more time before the new year. Happy New Year and thanks for the translations
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for starting up the next volume before 2016. You truly are the best man
ReplyDeleteThanks 4 the chapter
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThxs for the chapter.
ReplyDeletesaya suspicious anyone?
ReplyDeleteI'm still half expecting the black cat to be one of the teachers or something. They are just making it too obvious that it is Saya. If I were writing this then I would be using her as a red herring, though I can't say whether or not the author bothered to think that hard about it.
ReplyDelete