The match began.
Nekozaki Kyo served first, but it was quickly blocked by Sylphind.
Rokuya followed up by jumping and spiking powerfully, scoring a point.
The whistle blew.
[As expected, they're no pushovers.]
Rokuya's kill shot came again, but Shikimori blocked it. In mid-air, Kubo jumped and delivered a powerful spike.
Rokuya was out of position and couldn't receive it. No one else on their side reacted in time either, but a blue-haired figure flashed across the court, dove to the floor, and managed to dig the ball up.
"Sylphind-san."
"Hahaha, with me, Tachibana・Sylphindorf here, there's nothing to worry about."
Sylphind [Tsuchiya-san is still watching from the side. I have to do my best.]
The match continued...
By this time, Shiraishi's match had already ended, and he came to the venue along with Akihisa and the others.
[Oh, looks like your match is over. How did it go?]
Inuzuka Shu was covered head to toe in dirt, one hand covering his eyes as tears streamed out. "The match is over. Our youth is over. Our summer is over too."
[It's just one soccer match.]
Izumi Yuu, who had also returned temporarily and was equally filthy, comforted him from the side. "Our summer hasn't ended yet. Summer hasn't even started. It's still spring right now."
"We did our best," Shiraishi said as he stepped forward. His clothes weren't particularly dirty at all.
[By the way, why are only you two covered in so much dirt? What exactly happened? And why is Shiraishi completely fine?]
Shiraishi explained, "The field was way too chaotic. Those two took it way too seriously, while everyone else couldn't even see me, so during all the collisions they couldn't affect me."
[I see. That probably counts as good luck.]
"It's not exactly like that. It seems like only those two ended up this filthy."
At that moment Sakamoto Yuuji came over, choking Yoshii Akihisa by the neck, and approached Saiki. "You bastard Akihisa, how dare you do that to me."
Akihisa was also choking Sakamoto Yuuji by the neck. "You're the bastard here. You're the one who started faking it on purpose. You're the one who told me any method was fine."
"You jerk, and in the end you still won and made me suffer like this, Akihisa."
"Hmph, I don't care. Saiki, come judge this for us."
[I'm not interested in this kind of thing.]
Kinoshita Hideyoshi: "Geez, do you two really have to fight like this?"
"Come on, stop it."
Shimada Minami and Himeji Mizuki were still trying to calm the two down.
Tsuchiya Kouta poked his head out and asked Saiki, "How's the match going?"
Saiki pointed with his finger. [Like this.]
"15 to 19."
"We're behind."
Shimada Minami: "I really didn't expect Shikimori-san and Kubo-san to be behind even though they're playing."
[The opponents are pretty strong.]
Nearby, Hachimitsu Yui was cheering loudly. "Go! Shikimori, Nekozaki, Kubo, go!"
"All right, let's cheer too!"
"Go!"
"Go, Kubo-san, Shikimori-san!"
"Nekozaki, go!"
...
Yoshii Akihisa looked at Saiki. "Hey Saiki, come on and cheer too."
Hachimitsu Yui: "Yeah, Saiki, you promised you'd cheer. We haven't heard you cheer at all yet. Come on, hurry!"
[Sorry, I forgot earlier. The match was too exciting and I forgot to cheer.]
(Even though I don't think normal cheering would actually boost their combat power that much, I've been cheering the whole time. It's just telepathy sent only to those two, so you guys can't hear it.)
[Go… Kubo-san, Shikimori-san, and Nekozaki-san…]
Kubo Nagisa heard Saiki's cheering voice and felt power surging through her body. She took a deep breath, unwound the bandage from her head, tied her hair into a ponytail, and said to Shikimori, "Saiki-kun is cheering for us so seriously. Looks like we can't lose this match, Shikimori-san."
Shikimori gave a small smile, untied her own hair tie, pulled her hair into a ponytail, swept it back, took a deep breath, and struck a handsome pose that didn't lose to any boy. "Yeah, we definitely can't lose."
Everyone on the stands who saw Shikimori like this couldn't help but get excited.
"That's way too cool."
Izumi couldn't hold back his excitement either and started shaking Nekozaki Kyo. "Who's that handsome guy?"
"What? That's Shikimori."
[Calm down.]
Then Shikimori powered up and served. The ball went straight into the corner. The opponent couldn't react at all and they scored a point.
The other side countered beautifully as well, aiming for the corner with power, but Kubo blocked it.
The momentum reversed. Their side's energy became even fiercer.
"Wow, those two girls are so strong."
"So amazing!"
The score gradually caught up...
Under Rokuya's fierce spike, the ball was still blocked by Kubo. It floated up toward Shikimori. After exchanging a glance, she jumped, launched herself forward, and delivered a beautiful spike to take the final point. They were already very strong, but against these two who seemed to have eaten some kind of super performance drug, they still lost.
...
Back in the classroom, everyone started celebrating.
"So awesome. With Kubo-san in basketball and Shikimori-san and Kubo-san in volleyball, we basically can't lose. Too cool."
"Yeah, they're seriously amazing."
[Baseball won too.]
"So strong, Shiina-san."
"Even though soccer lost, whatever."
[Yare yare daze, looks like no one cares about the boys.]
Saiki sat at his desk, took a sip of water, and calmly packed his things.
Yoshii Akihisa walked over. "This is too much. Everyone's only paying attention to the girls' side. Sure, the girls were more exciting to watch, but we won at baseball too, and they're all talking like that. Sigh, Saiki, what do you think…"
[Doesn't matter to me.]
Sakamoto Yuuji explained calmly, "It's because the girls' performance was just way too dazzling. It made everyone overlook the boys."
Izumi Yuu was crying.
"Everyone did great. Unlike me, who had to leave midway."
"What a shame. If you were fine, Saiki, and had played, I'm sure we could've won easily and looked really cool doing it."
[I'm not that good.]
Kubo Nagisa leaned over the desk, looking up at Saiki. "Saiki-kun, thank you for cheering for us."
[It's nothing. I just promised I would. And it was only cheering anyway. You guys were really strong.]
Shikimori: "If you hadn't cheered for us, we wouldn't have won."
"Yeah, exactly."
Kubo and Shikimori exchanged a glance. "Right…"
[Looks like you two get along well.]
"So where should we hold the victory party?"
...
After school, Saiki walked home alone.
(A victory party or whatever really isn't my thing.)
Saiki ate coffee jelly as he walked and arrived at the familiar park, where he saw a familiar back view again.
Saiki glanced once, not entirely sure, then glanced again.
(Isn't that Shiina-san?)
At that moment Shiina Mahiru still hadn't noticed Saiki behind her. She was looking up at a tree, where a cat with a "屮"-shaped mark on its head was meowing and seemed unable to come down.
Saiki took one look and immediately recognized it as that Anpu cat again.
(Geez, if it climbs up a tree and can't get down, why does it keep climbing up every single time.)