Sports Day (Part 1)

Chapter 10 - Sports Day (Part 1)

The day of Sports Day finally arrived, marking another great day to be held at Niji High. Everyone lined up for the opening speech. Keisuke, Cho, Noa and Sakura all ended up being on the black team, wearing obsidian-colored headbands. 

Emi and Giichi got put in the gray team, while no one Keisuke was particularly close with was on the white team. After the opening speech, all students got a little break to prepare for the first event, which was the opening ceremony, also known as cheerleading.

Keisuke and Giichi were changing into the cheerleading uniform in the boys’ locker room, along with a few of their other classmates who decided to participate. The guys got their typical all-black cheering attire with long sleeves on both top and bottom, while girls got a mixed-colored one, yellow and orange shorts paired with a white and sapphire top. 

Finishing with dressing up, Keisuke and company went up on stage.

"Are you nervous?" asked Giichi.

"A little bit, but we practiced properly."

"I'm sure we'll do great. Just do everything as we practiced." Sakura joined the two as they lined up according to their positions. 

Giichi took his place in the drummers' section to the side; Keisuke and Sakura were in front in the middle, while Emi was in the back just behind them. The rolling of the drums started the show by giving everyone a rhythm, and then everyone started with their practiced moves. 

Keisuke’s job throughout the performance was to assist Sakura in her flashy moves until she and the other girls got onto levitating hoverboards to perform a few basic tricks. Keisue watched them in awe as he awaited his last moves. Sakura managed to do a flip in the air, successfully landing back on her hoverboard, which notified Keisuke that his turn was coming up.

Here she comes! Focus!

After that, Sakura did a backflip off of her board down towards Keisuke. They practiced this move countless times together, staying longer than anyone else in their group, repeating it until the sun went down, only so that they could do it perfectly during Sports Day. Besides, Keisuke didn’t want Sakura to get hurt because of his incompetence, so he put in extra effort than usual. 

The moment Keisuke saw Sakura’s descent, time seemed to slow. He locked his gaze on Sakura, fully focusing on the catch and the spin after. The crowd fell into silence at the shock of the moment, but as soon as Keisuke and Sakura properly did the move and continued, they erupted in a roar. Going through the hardest part, they flawlessly finished the rest of the concert and bowed at the end of their cheerleading.

We did it! Let’s go! I think we were amazing!

By the end, when Keisuke signaled, the group started to go off of the stage one by one. Whenever a member got off stage, the audience’s continuous applause got louder. The highest volume was created at the end, when Keisuke and Sakura went off together. Going down the stairs, Keisuke noticed Cho and Noa amongst the people, excitedly jumping up and down and waving at him.

And I think it’s not just me that thinks that…

He waved back with a proud smile as he walked back inside the school and the changing room.

******

Next up on the list was the scavenger hunt, which Cho and Keisuke participated in. After witnessing Keisuke’s and Sakura’s stunt, Cho was waiting at the venue for Keisuke to finish changing back.

How did they even do that? That was amazing! They have such good chemistry, and they must’ve practiced a lot as well. I’ve never seen Kei-kun absorbed in something that much. Wait! Is he and Sakura-san…?

Cho’s thoughts were interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Noa.

“Hey there, Cho-chan! Good luck with the scavenger hunt!”

“Thanks, but it’s just a lighthearted event, so I don’t really need that much luck.”

“Well, that could be true, but I think it’s still better if you have luck.”

“I’ll give my luck to you. You’ll have VR dodgeball after this, right? You’ll need it more, Noa-chan.”

She seemingly blushed at Cho’s words, which then made Cho also blush in turn.

“Thanks! The scavenger hunt will begin soon, so I’ll go to the tents.”

“All right!”

Cho waved at Noa as she ran off. 

While everyone readied the field for the scavenger hunt, the cheerleading team finished changing, and with them came Keisuke.

“Yo! Are you ready, Cho-chan?” he asked.

“Yep! We’ll begin shortly.”

The announcer was a pink niji-human girl who had a lively and cheerful voice, hence why she was chosen for the role. Her long and orange hair fluttered in the wind as she declared the scavenger hunt’s rules, counted down from ten, and as soon as her count reached zero, the game began. 

Cho and Keisuke started looking for the hidden paper slips among the props in the middle. It didn’t take long for them to find one each as they lifted up a small couch together, finding two pieces of paper below it. Cho opened hers, which read: My Best Friend.

What? Isn’t this supposed to be about searching and bringing items?

“Kei-kun, you’re my item.”

“Same here.” Keisuke muttered as his face started turning red.

“Let’s go then!” Cho grabbed his arm without thinking much and led Keisuke in their run to the announcer girl, who looked at them in surprise.

“Ooh, that was fast! We have our first finishers from the black team. Now, let me see your papers so I can confirm if you actually finished or not.”

Cho gave her paper with her prompt first.

“Let’s see! It reads: My Best Friend. Is he your best friend?”

“Yes.”

“Then we have our first official winner! Then, Best Friend-kun, what was on your paper?”

“Here.”

Keisuke gave away his paper slip a bit reluctantly. The announcer girl opened the paper and looked at it with wide eyes.

“Is it okay for me to read this aloud?”

“Please don’t…” Keisuke pleaded.

“All right. This one will be a secret, but I can confirm that we have our second finisher as well. Congratulations to these two and the black team for claiming the first two spots!”

Cho and Keisuke then went off the playing field, back to the resting tents. On their way, Cho whispered:

“What was yours, Kei-kun? Why couldn’t she read it out loud?”

“I’ll tell you later. It’s a bit embarrassing…”

Embarrassing? What could it have been?

They went back to their team's tents to meet up with Noa and Sakura. When they walked up to them, both of them were pouting and seemingly sulking at something. Cho looked at them a bit confused, while Keisuke just facepalmed.

******

The third event was the VR dodgeball, where Noa was the one who had the chance to shine brightly.

This is my opportunity to look cool in front of Cho-chan, so I won’t be missing it! I’m the greatest when it comes to any form of dodgeball!

Noa was hyping herself up when the teachers were setting up the VR headsets. The arena was set up inside the gym hall so that spectators could easily watch from the second-floor auditorium with just holographic sunglasses. Noa sat at the players’ bench with the other participants. She looked up at the audience, spotting Cho, Keisuke and Sakura in the front row.

Noa waved at them with a determined look as she stood up and walked onto the game area. Each team played two matches, and their team played the first against the gray team in a twelve versus twelve format. They played by competitive rules, which meant there were no modifiers except for digital shields, speed boosters and throw power boosters. 

Each player had one of each booster and could block throws two times with the shield before it expired. The game has begun. At first, there were only two balls, one at each team. Noa picked up her team's ball and stepped up to their area’s boundary.

She instantly used her power booster to start strong and threw the ball with a spin at a slacking opponent's feet. He didn't expect a power boost right out of the gate, so he couldn't react in time and was instantly eliminated from the game.

The spectators cheered vehemently at Noa's first blood. The black team's members, including Keisuke, Cho and Sakura, were especially hyped from Noa's quick success as she slowly made her way back to the backline, preparing to dodge with each hop.

“We get instant action thanks to the black team’s Noa-san!” As the commentator in charge of the dodgeball event, Giichi’s words echoed across the building.

The opponents tried coordinating their attacks simultaneously at Noa, since they deemed her the biggest threat instantly. The two guys with the balls both launched theirs with a power booster at Noa. Noa dodged the first one to the right with a small jump, which made her body speed up in momentum. 

The other ball, anticipating that, followed her trajectory and was about to hit her shoulder when Noa suddenly dropped herself to the ground, avoiding elimination. After that, she stood back up and looked behind her.

They still got one of us, huh? Still, avoiding two power-boosted balls without using a shield or speed boost is pretty good, if I do say so myself.

For the next few throws, Noa let her teammates do the work as she lay back.

******

During Noa’s match, Keisuke was approached by a familiar face. Turning around from the tugging on his shoulder, Keisuke saw the announcer girl from the scavenger hunt.

“Come with me for a sec!”

The pink niji-girl pulled him away from the crowd by hand. Keisuke didn’t try to resist, as he was curious about what she wanted. Besides, she saw what was on his paper slip. Reaching a back alley between the sports hall’s building and the school’s building, she jogged ahead of Keisuke, spun around and introduced herself.

“Nice to meet you! My name is Rin. May I know yours?”

“Yeah, nice to meet you too. I’m Keisuke Higashi, and thanks for earlier at the scavenger hunt.”

“No worries, it was my duty.”

“Your duty?”

“Yeah. As someone from the Pink Clan, I’m very interested in love stuff, and now I’m invested in your story.”

“I see, maybe?”

“Anyway, please tell me: are you planning on confessing to her?”

“Huh? Well, I have been thinking about it..”

“So then?” Rin leaned in excitedly, with brightness stemming from her eyes.

“..but after all this time, I’m still afraid, I guess. Besides, I think she has someone else she likes.”

“If she has someone she likes, then all the more reason to confess right now. That way, you’ll make them aware of you, and then you’ll still have a chance. How long have you guys known each other?”

“We’re childhood friends, so we’ve known each other pretty much since birth.”

“I see. That’s indeed tough.”

“I just hope that even if I confess, it won’t destroy our friendship.”

“I think that if she’s a good friend, it won’t. And if that much is enough to destroy your friendship, don’t you think that she wasn’t worth it in the first place and that it’s better that you have the chance to move on?”

“That’s kind of harsh.”

“Sometimes, you have to view things rationally. It’s better to get hurt and learn from it than to keep on living in a fantasy, being safe in your comfort zone, coping, then realizing only after the fact that you ended up completely missing your chance. And by then, the only thing you’ll have left is regret as you look back on what it could have been.”

“I think you’re right about that. Are you perhaps speaking from experience?”

Rin smiled bitterly at the question, then sighed and gave Keisuke a head pat.

“Maybe,” she replied with a wry smirk.

Huh?

Keisuke got a little flustered from the sudden affectionate contact from a fairly new acquaintance, but Rin soon stopped doing it, and with that, Keisuke also calmed down.

“What’s her name?” she asked.

“Cho-chan?”

“I see. I wish you the best with Cho-san. I’m rooting and cheering for you!”

“Thanks…”

“By the way, I think you were pretty honest there. I half expected you to dodge my questions or avoid them completely.”

“You said you liked this sort of stuff, right? Well, just consider it my way of paying back your favor at the scavenger hunt.”

“Will do! See you around, then. And remember, you gotta be brave!”

“I won’t forget. Thanks!”

Rin started galloping back the way they came. When she turned on the corner, she seemed a bit surprised, but after a brief stop, she continued on her way.

She’s an interesting person for sure. I’ll take her words into consideration, but damn… this is tiring to think of.

“Heh…”

After pondering a little by himself, he also walked out of the passageway. Turning on the corner, he almost jumped up from the jumpscare that Sakura, who was leaning against the wall with arms crossed, gave her.

“Sakura!? How much did you hear from that?”

“I heard it all. I noticed you getting dragged out, so I thought I would follow, just in case you had a hard time with her.”

“Should I say thanks?”

“Do not worry about it.”

“Sakura, are you mad?”

“Not really. I just think Busybody-san is poking her nose into other people’s business unnecessarily.”

“Well, it’s not like she had bad intentions, and she did help me out during the scavenger hunt.”

“I know, but still. Plus, you know that I’m a little jealous at times. Just what did your paper say?”

“I’m sure you can easily guess what it said.”

Sakura pouted.

“Awwh, come on! I can guess it, sure, but I want to hear it from you.”

“I’ll tell you later then.”

“...” Sakura blankly stared at Keisuke as she sighed. “Fine. Let’s go back then; Noa’s match is still going on.”

By the time Keisuke and Sakura got back, it was only Noa standing from their team, against two from the other.

“Where have you guys been? You missed a lot! It’s just Noa-chan left! Go get them, Noa-chan!” Cho enthusiastically cheered as she welcomed Keisuke and Sakura back.

“Sorry, we had something we needed to take care of. What’s the situation like?” Sakura stepped next to Cho and asked.

“The green niji-girl took out most of our members; she’s very skilled at throwing and also evading. The guy is really good at catching balls and blocking, so he can pretty much only be eliminated by a throw that’s just barely above the floor. Noa-chan has one shield, and she just used her speed boost; as for the other two, they don’t have anything left. There are four balls on the field, all on the opponents’ side.”

So there are only a few more rounds left, probably.

Noa was running around her team’s field with the speed boost, waiting for the oncoming balls.

The two opponents waited patiently for either the speed boost or for Noa’s stamina to run out, and when they saw the slightest opening, with Noa finally slowing down, they struck. Noa jumped over the first ball and focused all her energy on catching the forthcoming second ball from the girl. 

It was aimed at her legs, so she jumped into the ball in a way a goalkeeper would put their entire body into catching a strong shot. She managed to catch the ball, which meant only one opponent remained, but she fell to the ground pretty hard, and she was defenseless from the third ball the guy launched at her. 

Or at least she would’ve been in regular dodgeball. If not for her activating her last charge of the shield, she would’ve been hit in the head, and she would’ve lost. However, after the shield broke, the opponent still had one more ball at the ready. It was at his feet still, which meant Noa couldn’t miss that opportunity to strike back. 

As the guy was trying to pick up his ball with one hand, Noa threw hers with all her might and aimed at the opponent’s leg. Thanks to her perfect timing, Noa’s shot landed, and she won the game for the black team. Her teammates ran in to celebrate with her as they held her up in the air.

Keisuke clapped proudly at his friend’s victory, but he also looked to his side at Cho, who was cheering similarly and had a familiar look on her face.

Where have I seen that expression before? What is this feeling?

Noa’s team ended up winning both of their matches, though the second game against the white team was much easier than the first one. The gray team also won against the white team, but it didn’t change the ranking of the black team, with them still being on top.