86

Bam. The hard ball bounced, making a blunt sound resembling a metal wheel hitting the wooden floor, creating a ruckus amongst several students.

Most of them were boys, along with a few girls.

“――Daaaaaaa!! Shit, it rimmed out!”

“Hmph, nice chance, Seo. Hit it!”

“No Kaie, you know I slipped here!! ―――aarrggghh I know this would happen!”

“You two are bad at this man. Let’s settle thisー”

“……It’s really impressive how you never hit one, Raiden-san! I’m amazedー”

“Shut up Daiya! Who’s the first one to leave the basketball club in the first place!?”

“But I slipped. Not my fault!”

“Yay! It’s iiinnnn!”

“Shiden, over to you.”

“Righto! I’m going to beat you two up!”

“Shinn! Wait!”

“Always at this time, you guys,――ah shit!?”

“……What are you guys doing?”

With a thud, the metal doors were opened. Iska asked, his arms folded together as he leaned on the door. The dark blue blazer formed a huge contrast to the natural silver hair, along with the gold trimmed school crest unique to the third years.

There were two basketball courts on the vast sports hall this high school was proud of. On each side of the basketball courts, there were ladder shapes formed out of tape. There were ten or so boys and girls standing behind the shorter side, the free throw line. All of them looked over in unison.

Under the hoops hanging from the ceiling, the tall one and short one–Raiden and Seo–were standing together, sighing.

Looking at the situation, it appeared they were playing a game involving a basketball and a hoop. It seemed they were to stand behind the free throw line, and shoot in order. If they miss, they have to keep shooting until they make a shot. In the meantime, if anyone after them scores, the ones before who failed to score will be eliminated. The rules were simple. There were only three basketballs, and at most, one can eliminate two.

Shinn went to pick up the old basketball bouncing on the floor (nearly falling over), and answered,

“What’s the name called, Knockout?”

“Nobody’s asking what’s the game called. Anyway, isn’t the floor to be waxed today or something?”

For that reason, all club activities in the sports hall were suspended for the day.

Each club had to assign someone to help wax the floor, by drawing lots. As one of those involved, Shinn looked over at a corner of the sports hall. There were lots of mops used to wax the floor, just left there.

On a side note, the kendo dojo is located elsewhere, and the kendo club activities were not held in the gym, but it relied heavily on the other clubs. All the sports clubs were to handle menial tasks like cleaning the grounds, clearing the leaves around the dojo, and waxing the floor.

“We got a lot of guys with nothing to do. Didn’t spend too much time finishing up everything.”

“…………”

It seemed strange, but Shinn seemed to have a knack of making friends.

Because of that, it was pretty normal to play games on the court after the floor is waxed.

“Even if I give you a hundred steps leeway, don’t do this stupid thing after waxing the floor. There’s no point waxing now, is there?”

The floor was still slippery after all.

But despite that, Shinn remained blase about it.

Iska was a year older than Shinn, and they were of different clubs. Shinn never addressed him in formal language, not showing him any respect as a senior.

“There’s still some time……you fine with this, Alice-senpai?”

“It’s……”

“What, Iska? You got a problem?”

Looking over, the female retired captain of the kendo club appeared to be there. She had long black hair, and she was shaking her head.

He saw her lips curl into a smile, and clicked his tongue, averting his eyes. Since their freshmen year, they were in the same class the entire time, having formed a rotten bond. He had difficulties dealing with her.

“You playing? It’s slippery.”

“Sounds interesting.”

“Now that you mentioned it, I had a day like this during my first year. There was some time after the floor was waxed, so I suggested that we play dodgeball, but you didn’t let me”

“Huh? When did that happen?”

“……Captain, actually, we want to play dodgeball……”

Shinn muttered straight to the point. Either way, it seemed Alice did not hear him.

“Seriously……you want me to report you to the school if you say that again? What if someone else shows up right now……?”

Speak of the devil.

Iska felt some domineering force behind him, and immediately froze.

He did his best to compose himself, so that the juniors before he would not realize, retreating quietly to the side, and glanced towards the girl. Then, he noticed it was a short, slender girl with long silver hair.

The girl spoke up. The faint pink links showed a kind smile.

She followed with the voice of a silver bell.

“――Shinn?”

Shinn, who had maintained a stoic look the entire time, suddenly gave a tense look Iska noticed.

“I heard you are waxing the floor here, so what exactly are you doing now?”