"Don't think about not playing seriously, you idiot."

Satsuki commented. Did you just read my mind?

"Catch the special ball for us Onoda!"

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

"Ruu. Focus."

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

"Ruu?!"

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

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

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

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

The 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.

"Just dodge for now and pick it up before it goes out of the zone."

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

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

And 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.

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

He 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.

Sakuma 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.

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

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

The 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.

"This is a chance! Now I'll show you my super pitch! The slider!"

While 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.

Everyone 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.

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

The 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.

But 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.

Thinking 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.

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

"That's just a normal fastball!"

Someone 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.

That 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.

"It's super cool right! Special ball means three of you. Move to the outfield!"

She 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.

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

Ah shit. Why am I retorting inside my head?

"Good job Harada-san."

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

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

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

This girl. The game hasn't ended yet, you know?

I gave her that high five she's asking to satisfy her.

The 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.

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

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

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

Then 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.

Their 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.

"Hit them!"

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

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

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

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

"Good job Onoda! Now instead of losing 2, we gained another 1!"

Rindou 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.

Harada tapped my back before she moved to the outfield.

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

Tadano didn't say anything. He quietly moved to the outfield.

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

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

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

Then 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.

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

Surprisingly, 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.

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

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

Fujii.

I 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.

"Timeout!"

Seeing that, the teacher called for a timeout herself.

She checked Fujii's condition and then looked at me.

"You! Bring her to the infirmary!"

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

Eh? Alright. This is my fault, right?

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

"This girl exhausted herself so much that a little nudge made her collapse."

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

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

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

"Alright. I'm sorry. I'll bring her to the infirmary now."

Picking 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.

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

These 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.

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

We'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.

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

I 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.

I'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.