Excel (2024 Summer Olympic Games Special)

'Is it just me, or does place feel kinda familiar, but not really?’

‘What? You’re making less sense than usual, Captain.’

‘Um, excuse you, Sensei.’

‘Great; we’re only three lines in and an argument has already broken out, heh.’

‘Nobody asked for the commentary, Koneko.’

‘Gotta introduce myself somehow,’ the woman with purple hair ends and a dark violet water lily in her hair replied, winking and playfully knocking her head.

‘Six lines in and we’re already thoroughly off track and witnessing Violet recreate a clichéd tee-hee face.’

She’d probably punch me if I said it out loud, but “tee-hee” sound pretty adorable coming from her, despite her relatively deep and stoic voice. ‘So, um, any of you have a clue where we are and why we’re all dressed in ultra–lightweight sports tank tops, shorts and running shoes, apart from Tsubaki? Also, I’m liking the white Greek chiton, additional bright and colourful wreath and the floral-accented sandals.’

‘Um, thanks?’ I didn’t pick out this outfit; I don’t even know what a chiton is, at least I’d never heard the word until just now, I think…

‘Before you two start getting into something that gets us even further off track, maybe we should try to figure out what’s going on.’

‘As ever, the voice of reason you are, Dear Kasumi. That said, has anybody seen any signs of an exit from this rich orchard, filled to brim with fruits and arguably the most pristine lawn I’ve ever seen?’

‘Nope.’

‘No.’

And sensei is simply shaking her head. ‘Well, this makes no sense at all.’

‘Fear not, young flower, for I have brought you all back here for a specific reason.’

‘The fuck?’ the captain murmured. Did that giant lily just speak?!?

‘Yes, it did just speak. Sometimes I come in the form of a large disembodied voice, sometimes I uses the local plant life as my channels of communication. Today I come to you via a Lilium candidum flower. You may have noticed that there is a little stream running through that little garden of yours; if you follow its course for a few minutes all will be revealed.’

‘Well, you heard the woman, flower, voice? Whatever. Follow the stream we shall,’ the bespectacled woman with orange streaks in her hair declared, pointing into the distance, along the direction of the gently–flowing waterway.

Talk about bizarre; I can only describe this setup as something out of a dream; seemingly endless gardens, forests and green spaces straddling the clearwater stream. I don’t think there’s a single colour of the spectrum I haven’t seen represented by a flower at this point, and we’ve only been walking for like three minutes. Also, whoever set the weather did a fine job as well; largely clear skies as the sun sets and increasingly paints the sky orange, soothing warmth and cool breeze, to create a pleasant early or late summer vibe.

‘So, you children are here as well?’

Flinching, Fuck! ‘Ah, um, good evening.’ That cold, dominant voice still strikes fear into every micron of me, especially when appearing out of nowhere.

‘Bowing as well? I wasn’t aware that we were still in Japan.’

‘It’s reflexive. Also… Who are the two dark-skinned beauties that you have with you?’ Also, the taller of the two has stunning physique. Like, uwah; caramel skin tone combined proportions like those almost make me want to have a taste. Thank goodness for only the audience being able to hear thoughts, otherwise Kasumi would probably kill me!

‘We met them when we arrived here, but a talking water lily advised us not to introduce them until we reach the venue,’ the peach–eyed, braided ponytail–wearing woman stood beside Satsuki shrugged.

‘Right,’ Renka responded, her voice evidently saddled with uncertainty.

‘Onward we march then, I guess, ladies,’ Satsuki ordered.

As the group of then eight women departed from the confluence of streams, ‘You like the look of the tall one, don’t you?’

‘No!’

Right, Kasumi internally remarked, fixing Hihara with a blank stare.

Ah shit; no need to read minds when my eyes can do a mighty fine job of betraying me anyway. ‘Even if I did, she’s no match for you anyway, I’m sure you already know that.’ Firmly gripping one of Kasumi’s hands and pressing it to her own chest, I’ve probably already said it before, but you are and always will be the only one for me, dear Kasumi; looks, personality and how you make me feel; nobody in this or any other world can compare to you.’

‘Yes, yes, Hihara. I do very much enjoy a heart–racing, flushed–cheek attestation of love, but could you please hurry it up and re-join the group.’

Ah; the mighty disembodied voice. Way to poop the party…

After another few minutes worth of jaunt through the seemingly endless rows of trees, bushes, flower beds, And thus we reach our destination, I guess. Hmm; an open field – a purple synthetic running track. Seems a bit of an oxymoron, given the abundance of natural features and apparently undisturbed landscape that surrounds the track. That said, the distant greenhouse(?) also looks pretty out of place as well…

‘That’s exactly right, Myoushou; reached the destination you have. Welcome indeed. As you might have guessed from your prepared sports kits and this state–of–the–art athletics track and field venue that I’ve temporarily constructed here in the land beyond the fourth wall, I’ve gathered you women here under the setting sun and increasingly firefly and starlit skies for a little Sports Day–like event, to celebrate the first Olympic Games in recorded history to (arguably, unfortunately) feature an equal number of female and male participants, which in my universe is the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.’

The mystery controller of this realm is back as well, in a summer getup no less. I almost didn’t recognise her, on account of how girly she looks with a close–fitting short–sleeve crop top, mid–length slit dress, embellished sandals and nails painted blue, yellow, black, green and red. ‘Quick questions,’ Hikari interjected, with a hand raised.

‘Yes?’

‘A. Who’s the kinda scary but also kinda hot white girl and B. Why is Tsubaki wearing an unintentionally sexy Greek outfit while the rest of us are in sportswear?’

‘Ah, right. I forgot to temporarily restore your memories from your last visit to this land. Chasing Birds of Paradise is still yet to be published in my universe and you’re still yet to cross paths in yours. Wiktoria, Yuma and Jasmine exist in parts of the world yet unexplored by yourself and your fellow sapphics, young flower. They will be representing Europe (more specifically, Great Britain and their heritage countries) in the upcoming competitions. Why is Midori dressed like a goddess from a mythology painting? Well, it’s no secret that she’s kind of hopeless where sports are concerned, so she’ll be joining me on officiating, commentary and tsukkomi duty.’

‘Come on! I’m not that bad!’

‘There, there. Sorry, but seeing you blow impotent hot air would probably be preferable to watching you embarrassingly lag behind the athletic powerhouses that make up the rest of the cast, wouldn’t you agree?’

‘Yes,’ the emerald–eyed member of the group meekly conceded, her gaze aimed toward the ground.

You kinda brought that one on yourself. Still, at least you got a pretty intimate comforting embrace from Myoushou out of it; every cloud… ‘So, to quickly run through the events on our schedule this evening for this little sporting event; we have a shot put, javelin throw, 400 metre freestyle swim and the grand finale will of course be a 100 metre sprint. Before you ask where the swimming will take place, the distant greenhouse at the far side of the track is this land’s temporary aquatic centre, complete with temperature–regulated nine–lane long course pool (we added an extra), launch pads and a few spectator seats as well.

‘Shooting doesn’t feature because the majority of you already do a lot of that during chapters of the main and side series. Football isn’t included, because we did that last year in my universe. Archery isn’t in the line-up because Sawa will embarrass you all. Table Tennis and Judo tournaments would take forever and wouldn’t fit in a chapter, so they’re out as well. Artistic Gymnastics will ta– ah, right.’

The tall woman with blue streaks in her short, black hair snapped her fingers.

‘Huh, how’d I get here?’ Oh, pretty much the whole sapphic squad is here too; nice!

Suddenly popping into existence? Of all people, this bitch… ‘Why, is she here?’ Myoushou growled.

‘Oh, good; your memories of this land have been restored. She’s here because this event is all about competition and from what I’ve heard, rivalries don’t get much more bitter than what you two have, or had rather. That said, welcome back, Koushou.’ Lowering her voice, the mystery officiator added, ‘You know the score; remind Myoushou that her status as central character doesn’t make her invincible.’

‘Heh, with pleasure.’

‘Heyy, what’s going on over there??’

‘Nothing at all. As I was saying, an All-round Artistic Gymnastics competition will take place behind closed doors and be covered at a later time, so’s not to spoil things in my home universe. With all of that out of the way all that remains is for me to open by reminding you all that despite the fact that some of you are obvious favourites for certain events, as Rebecca Andrade proved, when beating Simone Biles to the gold medal for floor routines and as Beth Shriever proved, painfully missing out on a medal after resoundingly dominating every heat; anything can happen, so you’ve got to give it everything.

‘Because we’re in the land beyond the fourth wall, you’ll all be granted a condition reset after the swimming event. In terms of rewards, there are no medals, so I guess you’ll all be competing for all–important bragging rights and the joy of friendly, spirited competition. Are we all clear?’

‘Yes!’

Funny to see the difference in attitudes, from joyful and upbeat, to steely determination and then of course, Sawa, who as ever is about as cool as it gets, to the extent where even I can’t get a read on her. ‘Then, let the games begin!’

❀

‘Would you care to give us a quick run through, Midori?’

‘Um, yes. Shot Put, which for women has featured in the modern Olympic Games since 1948. A competition where participants are tasked with launching a 4kg metal sphere out from a 2.135 metre circle with a stop board on one side. The shot has to land within a 34.92° sector marked from the starting circle. Among other things, a foul throw occurs if the shot falls below the shoulder during the putting motion at any point.

‘The furthest ever recorded legal shot put in competition came from Natalya Lisovskaya in 1987, at 22.63m and the Olympic Record of 22.41m was set in 1980 by Ilona Slupianek.’

I forgot that Midori is terrible with foreign languages, listening to her butcher Russian and German names would be absolutely hilarious were it not so painfully terrible… ‘While I expect solid efforts from Shimizu, Hihara and Sawa, I’ve been informed that Takeyari used to be something of a specialist, so she’ll be up first, to demonstrate how it’s done and lay down a marker. As you’re probably aware, you have thirty seconds to complete the put, or it’s considered a foul. If you will, Takeyari.’

Following a silent nod, the raven–haired woman entered the throwing circle, offering no signs of pressure by way of facial expression.

With little delay, she set her footing in the far end of the circle, with her toes against the white marking and her right knee bent.

As silence descended on the group, leaving only the rustling of the distant forest which surrounding the venue, she lifted the mildly shiny sphere to her neck in her right hand, before crouching slightly on her right leg but allowing her left to extend behind her and her left foot to remain a tiny distance from the floor.

Uwah; the explosive strength is remarkable and the precision of her motion as well. Rapidly gliding across the circle and rotating through 180°. The outer edge of her left foot landing perfectly against the inner edge of the stop board. The launch angle looked great as well; despite the weight of the shot, it still soared through the evening air well above our heads.

After Takeyari gracefully twirled, composed her footing and departed from the circle, with her black ponytail elegantly flowing in the breeze, the short–haired officiator raised a white flag. ‘Great start, Takeyari. A throw of 19.8m will be pretty difficult to top, I think.’

‘Um, how did you measure that?’

‘Ah, right; the little “fireflies” that are roaming overhead are in fact nanobots linked to the venue. In this instance, along with helping illuminate the grounds, they’re interlinked and able to accurately measure the throwing distance down to millimetres and then round to IAAF standards thereafter. Basically, the sort of miniature marvel that I expect you to invent in the 2030s or something.’

‘Right,’ Midori waywardly replied.

‘For the rest of the attempts, we’ll be proceeding in alphabetic order of family names, which means you’re up next, Jasmine.’

After all participants had recorded three attempts (though both Hihara and Shimizu each recorded one foul each, but launching the shot out of bounds), ‘In order to keep things interesting, I made sure that the field is self-repairing and able to clear away the impact marks of each shot crashing into the grass and earth below.

‘Now that you’ve all recorded your attempts, I’ll reveal the results. They’ll probably come as no surprise, but in third place, we have Shimizu, with a best attempt of 19.7 metres. In second place, we have…’ Yes, it’s a dramatic pause. Judging by how wide both Shimizu and Hihara’s eyes are, I’m almost certain they’re both eager to claim their partners title as their own, heh. ‘Takeyari, with a best attempt of 20.44 metres. Top spot and first place on this occasion goes to Sawa, with a best attempt of 20.65 metres.’

‘See, I told you, there was nobody to compete with you.’

I swear; she’ll use any excuse to jump of Kasumi… ‘Okay, Hihara, sorry to break up the touching celebratory moment, but we’ll now be moving onto the next event; the Javelin Throw.

‘Well done, Sawa. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised really, while your technique isn’t without flaws, there’s certainly no denying that your physical condition made your attempts splendid to behold,’ Takeyari offered.

‘Thank you.’

‘I can’t tell if they’re genuinely happy for each other or irritated.’

‘Heh, I guess that’s to be expected from the two least expressive women here, Midori.’

❀

‘No need to move on, ladies. In the time that it takes dear Midori to outline what lies ahead, the construction quadcopters will have adapted the field to suit over next event, which is…’

After pressing the bridge of her glasses, Midori continued, ‘The Javelin Throw, which for women was added to the modern games in 1932, will see you all throw the design of metal spear which was introduced in 1999 for women; roughly 2.2 metres in length and weighing 600 grams. Contestants have a 30m long and four-metre-wide runway and eight metre radius throwing arc within which they must launch their javelin using an overarm throw. In this case, the in–bounds sector for throws is 28.96°.

‘The World Record and furthest recorded legal competition attempt since the new javelins came into use came in 2008, by Barbora Špotáková, recording 72.28m. The Olympic Record is held by Osleidys Menéndez; a 71.53m attempt which was set in 2004.’

‘When you get back to your world, please get Myoushou to give you language lessons.’

‘I thought I was supposed to be the tsukkomi.’

‘Not when you’re mauling foreign names in that manner. Now that the UAVs have finished laying out the field, we can begin. Given that she quite eloquently demonstrated during the SeaBed confrontation how to throw a (substantially heavier) spear, Sawa will be giving us the demo and initial attempt on this occasion. While I expect Yuma, Momoka, Satsuki, Renka and Wiktoria to provide stiff competition, I still hold Sawa as the one to beat.’

After pausing for a short moment, a pair of the numerous quadcopters which buzzed around the field came to a halt, hovering in front of the officiator.

‘Thank you,’ she remarked, while retrieving the long metal implement from the carry rails of the two palm–sized quadcopters. Following two bright blue blinks from the UAVs, they swiftly whizzed out of view, along with the army of other quadcopters which had prepared the field. ‘While I don’t expect you to beat Kitaguchi Haruka’s gold medal performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics, I do hope that you’ll channel her spirit and provide a breath-taking performance. Before I forget; be sure to leave out the back of the run-up area, ladies, otherwise your attempt will be a foul. You’re up, Sawa.’ I dread to think what internal commentary Hihara will give us for this…

After collecting the spear and wrapping her right hand firmly around the furnished grip, the tall woman with rose–coloured streaks in the shiny short, black hair sauntered over to the back of the prescribed run-up zone.

Squee! Seeing her in a wetsuit was pretty hot, but this also pretty great, to be honest. Tight vest and tight shorts exposing those oh–so powerful arms and legs, especially those thighs. The sight of her cool and commanding presence, standing aloft with the spear makes my heart race.

Here she goes; her cold grey–blue eyes clearly focused on the distance.

Holding the spear at roughly head height, she sets off, holding to the left of the run-up area.

Not overly speedy, though I guess keeping it under control is crucial.

Approaching the front of the area, her right arm pulls back and down, as if it were a catapult thoroughly tensioning its elastic mechanism and she arcs slightly towards the middle of the runway.

Like lighting, that tensed right arm shoots forward.

The spear takes flight, tearing and arcing through the starlit night sky, twisting like a bullet fired from a rifled barrel.

Despite her slightly stumbling forward, her feet cleanly stop a few centimetres behind the arc at the front of the throwing zone.

A clean nose-first landing! And, thanks to the illuminated bounds, it’s pretty clear that it’s in bounds too!

As Kasumi calmly departed from the back of the runway, ‘A strong start; just as I expected. The drones have recorded 62.12 metres, which will probably be beaten by at least one of you, but it’s still a solid attempt, nonetheless. Similar to the previous event, we’ll be continuing in alphabetic order, which means Shimizu is up next.’

After five attempts had been completed for all of the contestants, ‘Alright, gather round, ladies and I’ll reveal the results.’

After the various pairs among the group formed, the woman beside the officiator tepidly announced, ‘In third place, Marska-Finch, with a best attempt of 63.2 metres. In second place, with a best attempt of 65.44 metres, Takeyari. In first place, with a best attempt of 65.48 metres, throwing at a trajectory of 39° and a terminal velocity of just over 89 km/h, it's Sawa.’

As Renka wasted no time in clinging to Kasumi in congratulations, the officiator resumed, ‘A close battle, but Sawa’s now two for two and we’re heading to the aquatic centre next, where we know she’s also strong. Can anybody stop her from commencing a winning streak, I wonder? Swimsuits with your various country colours have been prepared at the aquatic centre, so you needn’t worry about equipment. You’ll have the choice of the navy of Great Britain or the white and red of Poland, Wiktoria.’

Ooo; a chance to see not just the Brits in swimsuits, but everybody, including dear Kasumi. How can I honestly be expected to compete seriously when faced with such handsome and unintentionally distracting opposition?? Aahh, just thinking about it is enough to—

‘Keep it together, Hihara, this is supposed to be a family–friendly chapter.’

‘Riiight,’ the captain remarked, with a deflated tone.

❀

Uwah; a sparkly building whose outer shape essentially resembles a drop of water. With an interior which is intensely lit by more of those nano–drones congregating at the ceiling of the structure, the rich blue of the pool floor and the serene ripples of the water’s surface make for quite a calming view. There’s even a few spectator benches a s well, I wonder what they’re f–

‘It’s a shame you’re not participating, I’d have been looking forward to the sight of you in a swimsuit.’

Uweh?!? The ears! Not the ears! Also, why is your chest so firmly squished into my back?!? What are you trying to start, woman!?

‘Come on, Ref, you allow them to get all close and steamy, but I’m not allowed to even think about it? I mean look at Sensei; her face is redder than the centre of the Japanese flag and I’m pretty sure her legs are shivering a bit as well.’

‘Quiet, you. You’ve been practically glued to Sawa at every opportunity this evening. That said, break it up, you two; we have an event to conduct.’

‘You are so dead when this is all over,’ Midori quietly snarled.

‘Looking forward to it, Hon,’ Myousho remarked, with a teasing smile, before twirling and reconvening with the group of kneesuit-clad women.

‘The rules here are pretty simple, so please take us through the rules quickly, Midori.’

Me? Again? ‘Freestyle 200m race, or four lengths of the pool. As the event title suggests, any of either front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke or butterfly can be used. We’ll be following the FINA rules, so at the end of each length, each swimmer must touch the end wall. Aside from the initial fifteen metres from when you’re initially submerged and any flip turns during the event, at least some part of the swimmer’s body must remain above the water surface.’

‘Simple enough, right?’

‘Yes!’ the group of women standing opposite Midori and the officiator synchronously replied.

‘Before you get started.’ The officiator raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.

‘Oh, hey! Wait, where are we?’

‘Welcome, Haruka, Aki and Saki. Your dear friends could probably do with some spurring on, if they’re going to stop Sawa from running away with every victory.’

‘Gotcha. Bring the gold home Takeyari and Shimizu!’ Also; who is that stunning beauty that looks almost like a mirror-flipped Hikari?!?

‘Oi; no foreshadowing thoughts, Satou,’ the officiator barked, fixing Haruka with a cold glare.

‘Sorryy,’ she cheerfully replied.

‘Go get ‘em, Hikari!’ Aki shouted with little delay, raising a fist as she did so.

‘Now that we have moral supports in place, please arrange yourselves on the launchpads in alphabetic order, though Marska-Finch and Myoushou will be swapped, for entertainment purposes.’

‘What, the?’

‘Look on the bright side, sweetie; you’ll get to see my tail in 4K, as I prove that you’re not all that, after all,’ Koushou chided, with a playfully menacing smile.

Grrr

With all nine lanes of the pool occupied by the kneesuit-wearing women, the officiator announced, through a freshly–summoned megaphone, ‘On your marks.

‘Set.’

After a few seconds of delay, punctuated by a variety of cool, calm, determined, focused and excited facial expressions appearing on the faces of the women crouching atop the launchpads, a sharp tone blared from the ceiling of the venue.

‘And there they go. It’s actually a slow start from Sawa, the early leaders being a close call between Marska-Finch, Jasmine and Hihara as they swiftly return to the surface.’

‘As the surface of the waters come alive with the waves generated by the powerful arm cycling and leg kicking of the women as they speedily dart across the pool toward the wall marking the end of the first fifty metres, all of them have employed a crawl and roughly two metres or so covers the entire field.’

‘Here comes the first flip turn… Surprisingly, it’s Koushou, Myoushou and Takeyari who emerge as the leading swimmers, with the rest of the field snapping at their heels.’

And so it begins, catch me if you can, Hikari.

Still 150m left; more than enough time to put that bitch back in her place…

‘Takeyari still maintaining a crawl as the field run through the second 50m stint and she’s opening up a slight lead; roughly a metre or so over Koushou as she prepares to submerge and transition to the third.’

‘Here we go; the second flip turn and it’s Takeyari gracefully emerging from beneath the surface with about two metres of lead of Koushou, but she may not be there for long. Sawa emerges off the tail of an almighty transition, propelling her to right on Koushou’s tail and setting her up exquisitely for passing and closing to Takeyari’s heels by the end of the third length.’

‘Still, it’s less than three or four metres covering the entire field, but with Sawa advancing up to Takeyari like an other-worldly water spirit, the leading pair are starting to streak away.’

As the three women in the support stands cheered for their friends, ‘Uwah; Sawa’s going for a high–risk strategy and employing a butterfly for the fourth and final fifty metres. Look at her go; the whizzing through the water at speeds the likes of you and I can only dream of. At the same time, Takeyari continues her staunch defence of the lead slipping through the water as speedily and as naturally as an orca.’

‘As, the wall approaches, they’re almost level!’

Who’d have thought; they’re all so into it now, that the pool has fallen silent as they await the results of what can only be described as a photo finish. Thank goodness the walls are fitted with contact sensors, linked to the timing apparatus…

‘Well done, ladies. Haul yourselves out, cool down and I’ll announce the results when you’re all settled back down.’

Really?!? How can I be expected to keep it together when we’re all changed into cropped tank tops and pretty skimpy bottoms for the track events?? Not that Kasumi has rock-hard abs, but her lower chest is still nicely toned and seeing her stand tole and striking such a confident and powerful pose leaves me powerless to avoid feeling a bit hot under the metaphoric collar and wishing that she’d do–

‘Hihara, for goodness sake!’

‘Oh, shut it; the heart wants what the heart wants.’

‘Oo; now there’s a bold move.’ Lifting a ponderous finger and thumb to her chin, the officiator remarked, ‘Maybe I’ll have them actually kill you off in the next story.’ Sharply jolted into a stiff pose; hopefully now you’ve got the message, Captain. ‘The captain starts getting carried away, Midori, could you please announce the results of the 200m freestyle swim?’

‘Yes. In third place, with a time of 1m56.8s, it’s Koushou.’ Sorry, babe. ‘In second place, we had a time of 1m54.003s, and in first place, we had a time of 1m53.998s, according to the high–tech timing apparatus. In second place, we had Sawa and in first, Takeyari.’

‘Woo! Well done, Takeyari!” Haruka cheered, as Shimizu offered up a high–five and brief hug to her raven-haired partner, who visibly remained unaffected by the announcement.

‘That’s more like it; a brief adorable affectionate display, appropriate to the occasion.’

Okay, okay, I get it.

❀

‘And here we are, at the grand finale. A simple straight blast to the finish, under the bright illumination of the UAVs, fireflies and stars, this is the 100m sprint, wrapping up the event line-up in roughly eleven seconds from start to finish. For the sake of getting decent results, I’ve stilled the winds down to next to zero, for reasons that my esteemed green-themed colleague will touch on. Take it away, Midori.’

‘The 100m sprint, where the rules are simple; no launching before the start signal, otherwise you’ll be counted as having a false start and be immediately disqualified. Similarly, touching or exceeding the bounds or your lanes will similarly result in disqualification. The world record is controversially held by Florence Griffith-Joyner, who in 1988 posted a time of 10.49 seconds, with dubious conditions – a nearby anemometer reading 4.3m/s while the official record shows 0m/s. The Olympic record is held by Elaine Thompson-Herah, who in 2021 posted a time of 10.61 seconds.’

‘Woop!’ Jasmine interjected, prompting a light chuckle from the officiator.

‘Seeing as you’re evidently fired–up, I’ll now invite you all to adjust and take up your places on the starting blocks, in the same lane order as we had for the swimming race.’

‘Just like back in the school days, huh?’ Yuma quietly asked.

‘The rush of competition that makes your heartbeat go a bit wild. The nervous seemingly eternal wait for the start gun to fire. The excitement of tearing down the track as fast as your muscles will allow you while crowds cheer on like crazy? We’re sort of missing the crowds, but yeah, I get what you mean,’ Jasmine replied.

‘So, you know what we’ve gotta do, right?’

‘Of course. Don’t worry about me, babes; just make sure you do your bit.’

‘For sure,’ Yuma replied, bumping fists with her friend, before tearing away, to head for lane one.

After five minutes or so, where the women carefully adjusted their blocks and tested them with practise launches. ‘Alright ladies, setup time is complete. Alsooo, seeing as guns aren’t my thing, could you please join us, Aki?’

‘Uh, okay?’

Once the young woman with short messy hair, multiple ear piercings and a nose stud arrived, the officiator once more snapped her fingers. ‘Here you go.’

My SCAR-SC, but with its suppressor removed? How’d this get here?? ‘Umm…’

You’ll be on start gun duty. Don’t worry; it’s loaded with only one round and it’s a blank. Trust me; nothing really contributes to the rush at the start of a race more than the sharp crack of the gun. It’s a bit of a shame we won’t get the almighty roar of the crowd when the sprinters blast out of their blocks, but oh well. Be sure to point that thing harmlessly in the air, please. Ladies, on your marks.’

With little delay, the nine women crouched and set their running spike-clad feet onto the pads of their respective blocks, closely followed by pressing their fingertips down onto the synthetic surface, behind the start line.

‘On your marks!’

All nine women raised their hips in unison, tensing their lower bodies against the starting apparatus in anticipation.

Seemingly even the rustle of the distant plant life fell away, leaving only nervous silence in the near vicinity of the track.

And there they go, shooting out of the blocks like bolts of lightning. Contrary to the previous events, the furious inhaling and exhaling is actually audible this time out and no wonder; Jasmine, despite her height has emerged from the initial twenty or so metres that made up the drive phase with about a metre lead over Yuma and a bit more over the rest of the field.

As they rise, straighten their backs a bit and lengthen their strides, Yuma closes in on the electric–starting Jasmine and brings Koushou and Myoushou along with her as they pass the sixty-metre mark.

‘Here comes another photo finish, perhaps.’ Or perhaps not, her strides, long and elegant, her shape tall and composed, her face stern, with determination and focus, I highly doubt anybody here would keep her at bay with the speed that she’s picking up…

Despite the heavy panting from both Jasmine and Yuma, between shallow breaths, ‘That’s how it’s done. Just like the school days, you and me, one and two.’

‘True say,’ Yuma forced.

‘Heyy, why do they get to–’ Oh, fuck. If looks could kill then that death stare from the officiator would most definitely have been the end of me. That said, she is kinda hot now that I think about it; sort of like Kasumi, but with glasses and less messy hair.

Rolling her eyes, the officiator turned away. ‘Great work, ladies. Now bring it in, so that we can wrap this up. You too, Saki and Haruka,’ she added with a friendly smile. ‘You’re free to go now, Midori. I think your girlfriend and her hurt ego might need some attention, heh. Thank you for your help.’

‘Yes, thank you.’

As the various pairs assembled and took seats on the grassy infield, mildly lit by the track lighting, still swarming fireflies and the myriad of stars littered across the skies above, ‘Well, first off, I know we could have done with having more events in the line-up, so that you’d all get a chance to truly shine out their on the track, field or respective arenas. I’m not going to lecture you on talent, physical ability or dedication to training; I’m sure at your ages, you probably know more about it than I do if anything. That said, I do of course hope that you’ll all continue to pursue active and healthy lifestyles, not for the sake of events like this here held today or the ones held every four years (where in 2024, Japan finished third in the medals table, claiming twenty gold medals out their forty-five haul total), but for the benefits that doing so can bring to your everyday, be it the pleasure of exercise and physical activity, the thrill of competition with friends, rivals or the clock or the fun that can be had with others, regardless of nation, situation or even ability.’

‘Yes!’ The other twelve women warmly remarked, as they contently exchanged glances with each other under the twinkling backdrop above.