*BANG*
The dull clanging of metal reverberated through the azure sky.
"All right. I've got this one."
Haru promptly caught the soaring baseball with his gloved hand.
"Nice catch, Haru."
Rias smiled and gave Haru a thumbs up. We, the Occult Research Club, were practicing baseball on the backyard of the old school building where no grass was growing. I counted myself amongst their group since I had no official club to support. Of course I got lots and lots of offers from various clubs, including the romantically enamored Kendo Club, but I never really felt interest in them. So, when Rias offered for me to join her team as an honorary member of the ORC despite the fact I never officially joined, I accepted. Isabela offered to join as well, but she didn't have… OK, I'll be blunt. She broke the first baseball we tried throwing to her. She thought it was a test of strength and used her Rook strength to hit the ball so hard with the bat that the ball broke somehow and the bat snapped in half. And Ravel couldn't be bothered with physical activities. The Fallen Angel trio would be mainly act as support and back-up players on the off-chance any of us got sick or couldn't play.
Jack was dressed in an adorable, mini-referee outfit, acting as support by retrieving some of the stray balls and fetching us liquid refreshments so we didn't dehydrate too fast. Apparently she returned Kuro to our house after I left her. Kuro adapted quickly and it was easy to keep her in my room and take her out when Mito-nee either wasn't home or was asleep.
"Next week is Kuoh Academy's Ball Tournament. It's a battle between clubs that we can't lose."
Rias-senpai took our practice very seriously. I thought this would casually be tossing the ball to one another like ol' chums, but Rias took this very, very seriously.
"Here, Asia! Here I go!" Rias said before she hit the ball towards Asia.
"Haaan! Aaau-aaau-aaau… Aah!" The ball went through Asia's legs. Needless to say, Asia's sports sense was below exceptional. At times, she'd even trip over nothing. She makes up for her lack of athletics with her healing power and
"Asia! If you fail to catch it, go fetch it!"
"Y-yes!" Asia went to obey Rias's order and left to go fetch the ball she dropped. In all honesty, it would probably be for the best to take her out of any game that relied on hand-eye coordination… So… pretty much everything except… Soccer? That technically relies on FOOT-eye coordination… which I suppose is hardly better. Hmmm…
Then Yuuki, having not been paying the least bit of attention, got hit smack-dab in the head by an incoming ball. After recovering, Yuuki picked the ball up and threw it back to Buchou who caught it with a sigh.
"Yuuki, what's wrong? You've been acting rather strange lately. It's not like you."
"I'm sorry." Yuuki apologized. She's been like this ever since she saw that picture of the Holy Sword. Ever since then, she always seemed preoccupied with something in his thoughts. During ORC activities, regular classes, and especially during sports practices, Yuuki would just zone out. I knew it had SOMETHING to do with Holy Swords, but I had no idea what about them sparked this strange way Yuuki had been acting. I was beginning to feel worried about her. We would just be talking about something casual, but then Yuuki would just space out and, even when she recovered, she would have completely forgotten what we were talking about.
I could kind of understand. I had often spaced out the same way ever since I had that recurring nightmare. The one with the blue flames. I tended to just space out the moment I started thinking about it, wondering what it all meant and whether or not I was going crazy. I mean—
"Ruto! Look out!" I had been so deep in thought that I noticed too late the baseball that smashed right into my face, knocking me backwards. I stood up, clutching my now-possibly broken nose, sighing. Rias was rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry!"
"It's fine. I'm good! I'm okay!"
And that was just about the low point of my day.
"O-Oh, Ruto! You okay?!" Yuuki ran up to me, her expression worried. I nodded.
"Yeah." I pulled my hand away from my nose. Since there was no blood, I assumed my nose was not broken. "Can we take five, Rias?"
The bosslady for the ORC placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "Fine. Everyone rest for a moment."
And so we did…
Yuuki sat next to me on a bench, but… she still seemed so out of it. I wanted so badly to know what was wrong. To help her. But she was just so quiet and had a look that spoke against disturbing her. I was just so on the fence for what to do. It was a tough choice. I wanted to know what was wrong, but I didn't want to offend her or make her sad in the process.
Just as I was about to try bringing it up—
"Ruto-sama!"
"Ruto-san, are you okay?!"
Ravel and Asia ran up to me, worry clear on their expressions.
I waved off their concern. "Don't worry about it. It's no big deal."
"It most certainly is a big deal!" Ravel disagreed. "You could have a fractured skull or a concussion or internal bleeding!" I couldn't help but feel those words were oddly arranged.
"Yes! Please let me heal you real quick, Ruto-san!" Asia said, generating her green healing aura in her hands.
"No way, nun-girl! I can heal him just fine!" Ravel snapped her fingers. "Isabela, bandages!" I was honestly surprised with the speed that Isabela suddenly appeared by Ravel's side. It was speed comparable with a Knight. That or I wasn't paying attention. To be honest, the thing that scared me more than a potential skull fracture was the look on Ravel's face when she started pulling out bandages.
"O-Oi! H-Hold on a sec, Rav—AAAAAAHHHH!"
"Hold still, Ruto-sama!" Ravel commanded as she began fumbling around with the bandages she was wrapping around me. "Isabela! Hold him down!"
"Yes, Ravel."
"Traitooooooor!"
"R-Ravel-san, m-maybe you s-should—"
"I know what I'm doing!"
"I WOULD VERY MUCH DISAGREE!" I stood up once Ravel was finished, wrapped from head to toe in bandages, the only parts not covered being a small area around my mouth and eyes. "I'm a friggin mummy! This is not how bandages work, Ravel!"
Ravel cocked her head to the side. "I wanted to maximize the healing power of your human bandages so they could restore your body!"
"Ravel, do you even know how bandages work?"
"Of course! You wrap them around people and they exude a healing aura that completely restores the user's body!"
I opened and closed my mouth several times, unable to even consider the appropriate response.
"Yuuki, talk some sense into this girl." I said, crossing my mummified arms. There was no response. "Yuuki?" I turned and saw that, yet again, my fellow blonde friend was spaced out. She just looked so troubled. "Yuuki!"
She jumped, snapping out of her trance. "Huh? Oh, what? Um… S-Sure. Y-Yeah."
Yuuki stared sadly. Clearly this problem wasn't going away on its own.
But once again, before I could say something, Rias spoke. "Okay! Continuing!"
And our sports training continued…